1847 Архиепископ Филарет, Архієпископ Філарет Гумілевський, Archbishop Filaret

Description

The original letter from the Bishop of Riga Filaret (Dmitry Grigoryevich Gumilevsky) to the Priest John Mutovozov of September 24, 1847 (No. 8109).
Archbishop Filaret (Филарет Гумилевский, born Dmitry Grigorievich Gumilevsky; 1805-1866) was the Russian Orthodox Bishop of Riga (1841-48), Archbishop of Kharkov (1848-59), and Archbishop of Chernigov (1859-66).
The son of a priest from the Shatsk district, Filaret is best known as a theologian and church historian.At the precocious age of 30 he was appointed Dean of the Moscow Theological Academy based in the Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra.
During his tenure in Riga (1841-1848) the Governorate of Livonia saw a religious conversion movement, as a result of which more than one hundred thousand Estonian and Latvian peasants converted to Orthodoxy. He also established a school in Riga in February 1846, which grew four years later into a seminary (Latvian: Rīgas Garīgais seminārs).
His magnum opus is The History of the Russian Church (1847-48), the first complete and systematic outline of the evolution of the Russian Orthodox Church. It was seen as a clerical counterpart to Karamzin's great history of the Russian state and went through many reprints. This work was later revised and expanded by the likes of Macarius Bulgakov and Yevgeny Golubinsky.
Filaret Gumilevsky was a very popular prelate. He is buried in the Trinity Cathedral, Chernihiv. In 2009, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) recognized him as a saint for local veneration.
The priest of Ivan Mutovozov in 1847 served in the Estonian part of the Livonia province.
Of the available materials, the place of the death of Father John is known:
Livonia
Priest John Mutovozov
Priests of Ostrovsky County.
Information from the website of the Pskov diocese.
MURAVEYNO, Elias Church
Holy John Mutovozov. Died July 20, 1894 (PSU, 1894.17, 252)
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Archbishop Filaret (in peace Dmitry Grigoryevich Gumilevsky, at birth Konobeevsky. Dmitry Grigoryevich Konobeevsky; October 23 (November 5) 1805 village Lisne Konobeevo, Shatsky district, Tambov province - 9 (22) August 1866) Konotop) - Ukrainian Church , source researcher. Archbishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn. Also a theologian, biblical scholar, patrologist. On April 14, 2009, he was glorified by the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as a local saint.
Biography
He was born in the Erzya lands of the Tambov province, in the family of the priest Hryhoriy Konobeivsky. The surname Gumilevsky was given to him in the seminary due to his small stature and humble disposition (from the Latin humilis- low, insignificant). There are legends that in his youth Dmitry visited the Sarov desert, where Seraphim of Sarov said of him: "This young man will be a great beacon of the Church and will be famous throughout Russia as a learned man."
He graduated from the Shatsk Theological Seminary, the Tambov Theological Seminary, the Moscow Theological Academy (with a master's degree, the second in graduation), after which he was left with her to prepare for teaching. Doctor of Theology (1860).
On August 19, 1829, he was tonsured a monk. At the haircut, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Filaret (Drozdov) gave him his name - an unprecedented case in the history of the academy.
From February 3, 1830 - Hierodeacon. From June 29, 1830 - hieromonk.
From June 6, 1831, he was a bachelor at the Department of Church History of the Moscow Theological Academy, a member of the Council of Hieromonks of the Moscow Don Monastery, and a censor.
From 1832 he was a professor at the Department of Scripture.
From May 1, 1833, he was an inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy and a professor at the Department of Moral and Pastoral Theology.
From January 27, 1835 - Archimandrite.
From December 14, 1835, he was rector of the Moscow Theological Academy. He founded the academic journal "Creation of the Holy Fathers in Russian translation with additions of spiritual content."
From March 9, 1837, at the same time, the abbot of the Moscow Epiphany Monastery.
Bishop of Latvia
From December 21, 1841 - Bishop of Riga, vicar of the Pskov diocese.
During his administration, the Riga Vicariate opened 63 parishes, built 20 permanent and 43 temporary churches. He was a supporter of the spread of Orthodoxy among Latvian and Estonian peasants, which provoked active opposition from the Ossetian aristocracy and the Lutheran clergy (according to Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky), "tried to paralyze the activities of the archpastor, did not neglect the dirtiest denunciations"). In 1844, members of the Protestant community of Gernguters joined Orthodoxy at their request, and Emperor Nicholas I allowed them to worship in Latvian. In April-December 1845, 9,870 Estonians and 4,564 Latvians converted to Orthodoxy, and in the seven months of 1846, 6,285 Estonians and 6,313 Latvians converted. In all, in 1845-1848, 63,858 peasants joined Orthodoxy in the Estonian part of Livland alone. According to MA Rosberg, a professor at Dorpat University (a Lutheran by religion), without any incitement, without hope of any earthly gain, crowds of good-natured and peaceful peasants, having finished their field work, go to Russian priests to accept the Russian faith. . This spectacle not only exalts and touches, but is a triumph of Orthodox spirituality, because it is not violators, not semi-savage pagans, not Uniates who are closer to the Russian Church, but Protestants who for three centuries were influenced by the eloquence of educated Lutheran priests.
At the same time, Bishop Filaret followed the instructions of Nicholas I of 1845 on the procedure for the conversion of Estonians and Latvians to Orthodoxy, which forbade coercion in this matter and the promise of material goods in the event of a change of religion. The bishop paid much attention to the preparation of priests for the vicariate, in 1847 a seminary was opened in Riga. Two Estonians who joined Orthodoxy were ordained priests. The activities of Bishop Filaret prepared the transformation in 1850 of the vicariate into an independent diocese of Riga, which later grew into the Latvian Orthodox Church, which operates in the territory of the state of Latvia.
Activities in Ukraine
From November 6, 1848, he was bishop of Kharkiv and Okhtyrka.
On April 7, 1857, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop.
From May 2, 1859 - Archbishop of Chernihiv and Nizhyn.
As the ruling bishop of the Kharkiv and Chernihiv dioceses, Bishop Filaret took care of the clergy, organized church and parish schools, printing houses, founded monasteries, and directed church building. In 1860 he ordered the mass opening of church and parish schools in the villages of Chernihiv region. In 1861 there were more than 700 schools in the province. He founded the periodical "Chernihiv Diocesan Information". He prepared teaching programs for theological schools for the maintenance of which he directed the proceeds from the publication of his works. He spent a lot of money on charity, in connection with which he was forced to constantly reduce their expenses. He gained popularity with his sermons in the Kharkiv diocese during Lent, published under the title "Conversations on the Suffering of Our Lord Jesus Christ", and the publication "Historical and Statistical Description of the Kharkiv Diocese."
In the summer of 1866, an epidemic of cholera broke out in the south of Chernihiv province. Archbishop Filaret decided to visit the region to encourage the fallen parishioners, despite the fact that, according to eyewitnesses, he was "unhealthy, mentally and physically upset." During the trip, the bishop fell ill with cholera and died on August 9 in Konotop. According to Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky), from Konotop to Chernihiv for 180 miles the people took turns accompanying the coffin of any archpastor in the amount of 10-12 thousand people. There was no case of cholera. Everyone forgot about this terrible scourge. Cholera did not reach Chernihiv and stopped.
Filaret (Gumilevsky) was buried in the crypt under the altar of the Trinity Cathedral in Chernihiv. In 1884, at the expense of the famous historian G. Miloradovich, a bronze memorial plaque (not preserved) was installed on the wall of the church, which was to perpetuate the memory of the Chernihiv bishop
Historian and theologian
Bishop Filaret became famous for his scientific works. He was a member of the Society of Russian History and Antiquities (1847); full member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (1852); honorary member of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society (1856), the Copenhagen Society of Antiquities, the Universities of Moscow and Kharkiv, the Kyiv and Moscow Theological Academies, and the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Professor of the Kazan Theological Academy Grigory Yeliseyev believed that he was, so to speak, the only truly learned theologian in Russia, who as a theologian-dogmatist, as a theologian-historian, as a theologian-archaeologist stood if not above, then not below the famous foreign theologians. man is extremely talented, completely devoted to science.
According to Metropolitan Manuel (Lemeshevsky), a lot of critical articles and notes in Filaret's works are impressive. This was a feature of his talent - to be inquisitive about any subject, to check everything with the eyes of a critic. He read a lot. His whole life was devoted to reading and work. He gave himself to society and the public only when absolutely necessary. People who knew him closely said that he worked and rested, always ate and drank with a book in his hands and immediately made the necessary notes and deletions… He always had a desire to do everything, to appear in everything if not the initiator, then have time more than others, in all to leave a good memory.
History of the Russian Church
His major work, The History of the Russian Church (brought to 1826), which was published in five editions in Riga and Moscow in 1847-1848 and withstood many reprints, gained considerable popularity. The author proposed a fundamentally new periodization of n church history, dividing it into five periods: from the beginning of Christianity in Russia to the invasion of the Mongols (988-1237); from the Mongol invasion to the division of the Russian metropolis (1237 - 1410); from the division of the metropolis to the establishment of the patriarchate (1410–1588); the period of the Patriarchate (1589 - 1720); synodal administration (1721-1826). In abbreviated form, it was first published in 1859 and then, as a textbook, withstood many reprints.
According to Archpriest Georgy Florovsky (who considered Bishop Filaret a man of "exceptional talents, with a restless mind and an anxious heart"), in this work "for the first time all Russian church history was told and shown as a living whole, told clearly and thoughtfully." Professor Anton Kartashov believed that "we have a real scientific history of the Russian Church since the publication of the History of the Russian Church by Archbishop Filaret."
In the encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron, the historical work of Bishop Filaret was compared with the "History of the Russian State" by Nikolai Karamzin and evaluated as follows: The author is entirely on the theological point of view; he considers the phenomena of Russian church history from their, so to speak, official side: he sets forth first the exploits of holy men and hierarchs in favor of the Russian church, and then heresies and schisms are considered deviations from the correct understanding of Orthodox doctrine. He has no indication of the internal process of perception of the Russian people of the truths of Christianity, as well as the reasons for deviations from church teachings.
Theological and historical works
Bishop Filaret's significant theological work in the field of patrology is The Historical Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church, published in three volumes in 1859. According to Archpriest Alexander Menya, he sought to reveal the full diversity of the Holy Father's teaching, not to turn it into a rigid scheme. According to him, the holy fathers, following in the main church Tradition, had different opinions on many issues. They "meditated on the word of God, on the objects of faith, on the rules of life, they argued, spoke, philosophized and were philologists, and at the same time they were even wrong." Such an approach seemed too bold, and the book could be published only in the new church and social conditions (ie after the death of Nicholas I, under the reformer Tsar Alexander II).
He was also the author of a detailed review of Russian spiritual literature (1859-1861), a major work, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (1864), the lives of saints, and numerous historical monographs, articles, and sermons.