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| Saint Athanasius Sakharov (Feast Day - October 28) |
The future Bishop Athanasius (Sergei Grigoryevich Sakharov) was born on July 2, 1887 (Old Style), on the feast of the Placing of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae. Sergei’s parents, Gregory and Matrona, lived in Vladimir. His father, a native of Suzdal, was a court councillor, while his mother came from a peasant family. Their goodness and piety provided fertile ground in which the spiritual gifts of their only son could grow. Named in honor of the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, the intercessor for the Russian land, the future hierarch deeply embraced the selfless love for the Church and the Fatherland that so distinguished the Venerable Sergius.
Sergei Sakharov spent his childhood and youth in the ancient and holy city of Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma.
The difficulties and trials in Sergei’s life began when he was very young, becoming the circumstances in which he matured spiritually. He lost his father at an early age, but found in his mother everything he needed to prepare him properly for life. She wished to see him enter the monastic order, and Sergei remained grateful to her for this throughout his life. He willingly attended his parish church and was never troubled by the length of the services. Divine worship, as the highest expression of prayer, was the future hierarch’s greatest love. From childhood, he had a sense that he would serve the Church, and he even boldly told his peers that he would become a bishop.
The pious boy easily learned handicrafts and was able to sew and embroider even church vestments. This skill proved very useful later, during his exiles and imprisonment in labor camps, when he sewed vestments and coverings for icons. On one occasion, the hierarch even made a special portable antimension on which he celebrated the Divine Liturgy for prisoners.
Sergei Sakharov spent his childhood and youth in the ancient and holy city of Vladimir-on-the-Klyazma.
The difficulties and trials in Sergei’s life began when he was very young, becoming the circumstances in which he matured spiritually. He lost his father at an early age, but found in his mother everything he needed to prepare him properly for life. She wished to see him enter the monastic order, and Sergei remained grateful to her for this throughout his life. He willingly attended his parish church and was never troubled by the length of the services. Divine worship, as the highest expression of prayer, was the future hierarch’s greatest love. From childhood, he had a sense that he would serve the Church, and he even boldly told his peers that he would become a bishop.
The pious boy easily learned handicrafts and was able to sew and embroider even church vestments. This skill proved very useful later, during his exiles and imprisonment in labor camps, when he sewed vestments and coverings for icons. On one occasion, the hierarch even made a special portable antimension on which he celebrated the Divine Liturgy for prisoners.
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| Sergei Sakharov holding a bishop’s staff in his hands, 1889. |
Sergei found his elementary studies difficult, but he did not slacken in his diligence, and the Lord richly blessed His future servant and confessor. To everyone’s surprise, he completed the Vladimir Theological Seminary and then the Moscow Theological Academy with considerable success. This did not, however, change his modest and humble attitude toward others.
The future hierarch devoted himself particularly seriously to liturgics and hagiology. He found a distinctive theology in divine worship and paid close attention to the texts of the liturgical books. The margins of his personal service books contain numerous notes, corrections, and explanations of especially difficult words.
While still studying at the Shuya Theological School, Sergei Sakharov wrote his first liturgical hymn: a troparion to the venerated Shuya-Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. His academic work, The Disposition of the Believing Soul According to the Lenten Triodion, already demonstrated his extensive knowledge of ecclesiastical hymnography, which remained one of his principal interests throughout his life.
Sergei’s first teacher and spiritual mentor was Archbishop Nicholas (Nalimov) of Vladimir, who left behind a revered memory. His next teacher was Bishop Theodore (Pozdeevsky), a renowned theologian and strict ascetic who served as rector of the Moscow Theological Academy. It was Bishop Theodore who tonsured Sergei in the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, giving him the name Athanasius in honor of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Bishop Theodore ordained the monk Athanasius first as a hierodeacon and then as a hieromonk. Yet it was the monastic tonsure itself that Bishop Athanasius valued in a particularly profound way.
The future hierarch devoted himself particularly seriously to liturgics and hagiology. He found a distinctive theology in divine worship and paid close attention to the texts of the liturgical books. The margins of his personal service books contain numerous notes, corrections, and explanations of especially difficult words.
While still studying at the Shuya Theological School, Sergei Sakharov wrote his first liturgical hymn: a troparion to the venerated Shuya-Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. His academic work, The Disposition of the Believing Soul According to the Lenten Triodion, already demonstrated his extensive knowledge of ecclesiastical hymnography, which remained one of his principal interests throughout his life.
Sergei’s first teacher and spiritual mentor was Archbishop Nicholas (Nalimov) of Vladimir, who left behind a revered memory. His next teacher was Bishop Theodore (Pozdeevsky), a renowned theologian and strict ascetic who served as rector of the Moscow Theological Academy. It was Bishop Theodore who tonsured Sergei in the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, giving him the name Athanasius in honor of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Bishop Theodore ordained the monk Athanasius first as a hierodeacon and then as a hieromonk. Yet it was the monastic tonsure itself that Bishop Athanasius valued in a particularly profound way.
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| Sergei Sakharov, his mother Matrona Andreyevna Sakharova, and his nephew, 1913. |
Bishop Athanasius’s ecclesiastical service began at the Poltava Theological Seminary, where he was immediately recognized as a gifted teacher. He fully developed as a scholar and theologian at his native Vladimir Theological Seminary, where he distinguished himself as a committed and inspired preacher of the word of God. He was appointed to the Diocesan Council and entrusted with responsibility for preaching in the parishes of the diocese. He also supervised discussions and readings at the Dormition Cathedral, addressing many of the pressing issues of the time.
Hieromonk Athanasius was thirty years old when the Revolution took place in Russia. At that time, so-called diocesan assemblies began to be held frequently. People hostile to the longstanding Orthodox foundations of Russian life began to make their presence felt at these gatherings. All this required a firm ecclesiastical assessment and an appropriate response.
In 1917, representatives of all the male monasteries of Russia gathered at the Lavra of the Venerable Sergius. At this assembly, Hieromonk Athanasius (Sakharov) was elected a member of the historic Local Council of the Russian Church of 1917–1918, where he served on the department concerned with liturgical matters.
At the same time, he began work on his celebrated Service to All the Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land, which became a remarkable liturgical monument to his love for our Holy Church. It was Hieromonk Athanasius’s idea to select one sticheron from the General Menaion for each category of saints for the stichera at “O Lord, I have cried,” and to arrange the saints by region in the canon. He also proposed that each ode of the canon conclude with a troparion to the Icon of the Mother of God most venerated in that region. Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), a member of the Synod who reviewed the new service, contributed a troparion of his own composition, “As a fair fruit…” The first prepared version of the service was subsequently reviewed by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon.
Hieromonk Athanasius was thirty years old when the Revolution took place in Russia. At that time, so-called diocesan assemblies began to be held frequently. People hostile to the longstanding Orthodox foundations of Russian life began to make their presence felt at these gatherings. All this required a firm ecclesiastical assessment and an appropriate response.
In 1917, representatives of all the male monasteries of Russia gathered at the Lavra of the Venerable Sergius. At this assembly, Hieromonk Athanasius (Sakharov) was elected a member of the historic Local Council of the Russian Church of 1917–1918, where he served on the department concerned with liturgical matters.
At the same time, he began work on his celebrated Service to All the Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land, which became a remarkable liturgical monument to his love for our Holy Church. It was Hieromonk Athanasius’s idea to select one sticheron from the General Menaion for each category of saints for the stichera at “O Lord, I have cried,” and to arrange the saints by region in the canon. He also proposed that each ode of the canon conclude with a troparion to the Icon of the Mother of God most venerated in that region. Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), a member of the Synod who reviewed the new service, contributed a troparion of his own composition, “As a fair fruit…” The first prepared version of the service was subsequently reviewed by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon.
The Revolution swept through Russia like a whirlwind, spilling a sea of Christian blood. The new authorities began to desecrate the relics of God’s holy servants, exterminate the clergy, and destroy Orthodox churches. The faithful saw the unceasing calamities in our Fatherland and the persecution of the Church of Christ as the fulfillment of dire prophecies concerning the destruction of the Russian Kingdom and its transformation into “a rabble of people of other faiths, seeking to destroy one another” (Saint John of Kronstadt, sermon of May 14, 1907).
In 1919, during the antireligious campaign, the desecration began of what Orthodoxy held especially dear: the incorrupt remains of the holy servants of God. In Vladimir, as in other Russian cities, a so-called public demonstration of the opened relics was organized for propaganda purposes. The relics were exposed to public view, uncovered. To prevent their desecration, the clergy of Vladimir, under the leadership of Hieromonk Athanasius, a member of the Diocesan Council, established a watch in the Dormition Cathedral. Tables were placed in the church, with the holy relics resting upon them. The first to keep watch were Hieromonk Athanasius and the psalm-reader Alexander Potapov. They awaited the people crowding at the church doors. When the doors opened, Hieromonk Athanasius proclaimed, “Blessed is our God…” The people answered, “Amen,” and a service of supplication to the Saints of Vladimir began. Those entering the church reverently crossed themselves, bowed, and placed candles beside the relics. Thus, what had been intended as the desecration of holy things became a solemn glorification of them.
Soon the Church authorities entrusted the zealous pastor with an important responsibility. By then an archimandrite, he was appointed abbot of two ancient monasteries in the diocese: Bogolyubsky Monastery and the Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Vladimir.
The most important turning point in Bishop Athanasius’s life was his elevation from archimandrite to Bishop of Kovrov, vicar of the Diocese of Vladimir. This took place in Nizhny Novgorod on July 10, 1921, the commemoration of the Venerable Sampson the Hospitable. The consecration was presided over by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Vladimir, the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The principal concern and sorrow of Bishop Athanasius’s episcopal ministry was not opposition from the authorities, the devastation, or even the closure of churches and monasteries, but the emergence within the Church of a new schism known as Renovationism.
The seeds of Renovationism, a schismatic movement intended to reform the Russian Orthodox Church, had been sown long before the October Revolution. Before the Revolution, pseudo-Orthodox innovations had penetrated theological schools and religious-philosophical societies and had become the preserve of a certain portion of the clergy inclined toward intellectualism. The revolutionary authorities used reformist ideas to divide the Church, but they relied not on the intellectual minority, but on the vast number of conformists and people of little faith within the Church who had previously adopted the habit of venerating every form of Caesar’s authority, whether autocratic or Bolshevik.
Bishop Athanasius’s opposition to the Renovationist schism was not so much a struggle against heretical beliefs as a denunciation of the sin of Judas: apostasy from the Church of Christ and the betrayal of its hierarchs, pastors, and laypeople into the hands of executioners.
Bishop Athanasius explained to his flock that the schismatics who had risen against the canonical episcopate headed by Patriarch Tikhon had no right to celebrate the Mysteries. Consequently, the churches in which they served were deprived of grace. He reconsecrated churches that the schismatics had defiled and urged those who had fallen away to repent together with their parish communities, rebuking those who refused to repent. While forbidding communion with the Renovationists in order to bring them to shame, he also asked the faithful not to harbor malice toward them for seizing Orthodox holy places. As the hierarch explained, the saints are always spiritually with the Orthodox.
In 1919, during the antireligious campaign, the desecration began of what Orthodoxy held especially dear: the incorrupt remains of the holy servants of God. In Vladimir, as in other Russian cities, a so-called public demonstration of the opened relics was organized for propaganda purposes. The relics were exposed to public view, uncovered. To prevent their desecration, the clergy of Vladimir, under the leadership of Hieromonk Athanasius, a member of the Diocesan Council, established a watch in the Dormition Cathedral. Tables were placed in the church, with the holy relics resting upon them. The first to keep watch were Hieromonk Athanasius and the psalm-reader Alexander Potapov. They awaited the people crowding at the church doors. When the doors opened, Hieromonk Athanasius proclaimed, “Blessed is our God…” The people answered, “Amen,” and a service of supplication to the Saints of Vladimir began. Those entering the church reverently crossed themselves, bowed, and placed candles beside the relics. Thus, what had been intended as the desecration of holy things became a solemn glorification of them.
Soon the Church authorities entrusted the zealous pastor with an important responsibility. By then an archimandrite, he was appointed abbot of two ancient monasteries in the diocese: Bogolyubsky Monastery and the Monastery of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Vladimir.
The most important turning point in Bishop Athanasius’s life was his elevation from archimandrite to Bishop of Kovrov, vicar of the Diocese of Vladimir. This took place in Nizhny Novgorod on July 10, 1921, the commemoration of the Venerable Sampson the Hospitable. The consecration was presided over by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Vladimir, the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The principal concern and sorrow of Bishop Athanasius’s episcopal ministry was not opposition from the authorities, the devastation, or even the closure of churches and monasteries, but the emergence within the Church of a new schism known as Renovationism.
The seeds of Renovationism, a schismatic movement intended to reform the Russian Orthodox Church, had been sown long before the October Revolution. Before the Revolution, pseudo-Orthodox innovations had penetrated theological schools and religious-philosophical societies and had become the preserve of a certain portion of the clergy inclined toward intellectualism. The revolutionary authorities used reformist ideas to divide the Church, but they relied not on the intellectual minority, but on the vast number of conformists and people of little faith within the Church who had previously adopted the habit of venerating every form of Caesar’s authority, whether autocratic or Bolshevik.
Bishop Athanasius’s opposition to the Renovationist schism was not so much a struggle against heretical beliefs as a denunciation of the sin of Judas: apostasy from the Church of Christ and the betrayal of its hierarchs, pastors, and laypeople into the hands of executioners.
Bishop Athanasius explained to his flock that the schismatics who had risen against the canonical episcopate headed by Patriarch Tikhon had no right to celebrate the Mysteries. Consequently, the churches in which they served were deprived of grace. He reconsecrated churches that the schismatics had defiled and urged those who had fallen away to repent together with their parish communities, rebuking those who refused to repent. While forbidding communion with the Renovationists in order to bring them to shame, he also asked the faithful not to harbor malice toward them for seizing Orthodox holy places. As the hierarch explained, the saints are always spiritually with the Orthodox.
The hierarch’s first arrest took place on March 30, 1922. It marked the beginning of Bishop Athanasius’s many years of imprisonment and suffering. Strange as it may seem, however, he considered the condition of a prisoner easier than that of those who remained at liberty but endured countless abuses from the Renovationists. He even called prison an “isolation ward against the Renovationist epidemic.” His journey through prisons and places of exile was endless and exhausting. His places of imprisonment included the Vladimir prison, Taganka Prison in Moscow, and the Zyryan and Turukhansk prisons. He was also held in the Solovki, White Sea–Baltic, Onega, Mariinsk, and Temnikov labor camps, among others.
On November 9, 1951, the sixty-four-year-old hierarch completed his final term in the labor camps. Even then, he was kept in complete uncertainty about his future. He was subsequently placed by force in a home for disabled people at Potma station in Mordovia, where the regime scarcely differed from that of a labor camp.
The archpastor could be arrested while traveling, as happened once when he was making a pastoral visit through Yuryev-Polsky District. In 1937–1938, he was repeatedly arrested and prepared for immediate execution.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the hierarch was sent on foot to the Onega camps in Arkhangelsk Region. The prisoners had to carry their own belongings. As a result of the arduous journey and hunger, the hierarch became so weak that he seriously prepared himself for death.
The Onega camps were followed by indefinite exile in Omsk Region. At one of the state farms near the town of Golyshmanovo, the hierarch worked as a night watchman in the vegetable gardens. He was later transferred to the town of Ishim, where he lived on money sent by friends and spiritual children.
In the winter of 1942, Bishop Athanasius was unexpectedly transferred to Moscow. The investigation lasted six months. He was interrogated about thirty times, usually at night. An interrogation generally lasted about four hours, although one continued for a full nine hours. Sometimes, after four hours of questioning, only a single page of the interrogation record had been written; at other times, more than ten pages were produced. At no point during the interrogations did the hierarch betray anyone or make a false confession against himself.
Then the sentence was announced: eight years of imprisonment in the Mariinsk camps of Kemerovo Region, notorious for their cruelty. Those classified as “ideological enemies of Soviet power” were assigned the heaviest and dirtiest work.
In the summer of 1946, the hierarch was transferred to Moscow once again for a new investigation based on a false denunciation. Soon afterward, however, the informant withdrew his testimony, and the hierarch was sent to the Temnikov camps in Mordovia to complete his sentence. By then, he was physically weak and could do nothing more than weave bast shoes. Two years later, he was sent to Dubrovlag, also in Mordovia, where he was no longer required to work because of his age and poor health.
Yet under no circumstances did the hierarch lose his faith in God or his profound gratitude to Him. Though barely alive after torture, and suppressing his groans, he would often say to those close to him, “Let us pray and praise God!” He would then be the first to begin singing, “Praise the name of the Lord.” This singing revived him. He encouraged newly arrived prisoners, saying, “Do not lose heart. In His great mercy, the Lord has granted you the privilege of suffering a little for His sake. Give thanks to God for this!”
The work in the camps was always exhausting and often dangerous. On one occasion, Bishop Athanasius was appointed to work as a cashier responsible for transporting money, a duty that caused him great distress. Soon, a thousand rubles were stolen from him, and he had to report the loss to the authorities as a shortage for which he was responsible. Without investigating the matter, the authorities immediately imposed severe penalties on the prisoner.
At Solovki, Bishop Athanasius contracted typhus. His life was in danger, but the Lord clearly preserved His suffering servant, and the hierarch survived, literally by a miracle.
Despite his constant exhaustion, the hierarch saw spiritual benefit in his circumstances: they gave him the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of his faith. He adhered unfailingly to the rule of the Holy Church and never interrupted his prayer rule, praying both in his cell and together with his fellow prisoners. Even in the camps, he strictly observed the fasts, finding ways to prepare fasting food.
The hierarch behaved simply and warmly toward those around him. He found opportunities to offer spiritual consolation to people who sought his support from outside. He was never seen idle: at one moment he was working on liturgical notes, at another decorating paper icons of saints with beads, and at another caring for the sick.
On March 7, 1955, Bishop Athanasius was released from the Potma home for disabled people, whose camp-like regime had finally undermined his health. At first, he settled in the town of Tutayev, formerly Romanov-Borisoglebsk, in Yaroslavl Region. He later chose the settlement of Petushki in Vladimir Region as his place of residence.
Although the hierarch was now formally free, the authorities continued to restrict his activities in every way. In Petushki, for example, he was permitted to celebrate services only with the church doors closed and without his episcopal insignia.
In 1957, the prosecutor’s office of Vladimir Region reviewed once again the case from 1936 in which Bishop Athanasius had been implicated. The hierarch was questioned at home, but the arguments he presented in his defense were not accepted as convincing. He was not rehabilitated.
The divine services at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra were a consolation to the hierarch. Remembering his monastic tonsure within its walls, he had always considered himself one of its brotherhood. On several occasions, he concelebrated with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky). On March 12, 1959, he also participated in the consecration of Archimandrite Nikon (Lysenko) as Bishop of Ufa.
On November 9, 1951, the sixty-four-year-old hierarch completed his final term in the labor camps. Even then, he was kept in complete uncertainty about his future. He was subsequently placed by force in a home for disabled people at Potma station in Mordovia, where the regime scarcely differed from that of a labor camp.
The archpastor could be arrested while traveling, as happened once when he was making a pastoral visit through Yuryev-Polsky District. In 1937–1938, he was repeatedly arrested and prepared for immediate execution.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the hierarch was sent on foot to the Onega camps in Arkhangelsk Region. The prisoners had to carry their own belongings. As a result of the arduous journey and hunger, the hierarch became so weak that he seriously prepared himself for death.
The Onega camps were followed by indefinite exile in Omsk Region. At one of the state farms near the town of Golyshmanovo, the hierarch worked as a night watchman in the vegetable gardens. He was later transferred to the town of Ishim, where he lived on money sent by friends and spiritual children.
In the winter of 1942, Bishop Athanasius was unexpectedly transferred to Moscow. The investigation lasted six months. He was interrogated about thirty times, usually at night. An interrogation generally lasted about four hours, although one continued for a full nine hours. Sometimes, after four hours of questioning, only a single page of the interrogation record had been written; at other times, more than ten pages were produced. At no point during the interrogations did the hierarch betray anyone or make a false confession against himself.
Then the sentence was announced: eight years of imprisonment in the Mariinsk camps of Kemerovo Region, notorious for their cruelty. Those classified as “ideological enemies of Soviet power” were assigned the heaviest and dirtiest work.
In the summer of 1946, the hierarch was transferred to Moscow once again for a new investigation based on a false denunciation. Soon afterward, however, the informant withdrew his testimony, and the hierarch was sent to the Temnikov camps in Mordovia to complete his sentence. By then, he was physically weak and could do nothing more than weave bast shoes. Two years later, he was sent to Dubrovlag, also in Mordovia, where he was no longer required to work because of his age and poor health.
Yet under no circumstances did the hierarch lose his faith in God or his profound gratitude to Him. Though barely alive after torture, and suppressing his groans, he would often say to those close to him, “Let us pray and praise God!” He would then be the first to begin singing, “Praise the name of the Lord.” This singing revived him. He encouraged newly arrived prisoners, saying, “Do not lose heart. In His great mercy, the Lord has granted you the privilege of suffering a little for His sake. Give thanks to God for this!”
The work in the camps was always exhausting and often dangerous. On one occasion, Bishop Athanasius was appointed to work as a cashier responsible for transporting money, a duty that caused him great distress. Soon, a thousand rubles were stolen from him, and he had to report the loss to the authorities as a shortage for which he was responsible. Without investigating the matter, the authorities immediately imposed severe penalties on the prisoner.
At Solovki, Bishop Athanasius contracted typhus. His life was in danger, but the Lord clearly preserved His suffering servant, and the hierarch survived, literally by a miracle.
Despite his constant exhaustion, the hierarch saw spiritual benefit in his circumstances: they gave him the opportunity to demonstrate the strength of his faith. He adhered unfailingly to the rule of the Holy Church and never interrupted his prayer rule, praying both in his cell and together with his fellow prisoners. Even in the camps, he strictly observed the fasts, finding ways to prepare fasting food.
The hierarch behaved simply and warmly toward those around him. He found opportunities to offer spiritual consolation to people who sought his support from outside. He was never seen idle: at one moment he was working on liturgical notes, at another decorating paper icons of saints with beads, and at another caring for the sick.
On March 7, 1955, Bishop Athanasius was released from the Potma home for disabled people, whose camp-like regime had finally undermined his health. At first, he settled in the town of Tutayev, formerly Romanov-Borisoglebsk, in Yaroslavl Region. He later chose the settlement of Petushki in Vladimir Region as his place of residence.
Although the hierarch was now formally free, the authorities continued to restrict his activities in every way. In Petushki, for example, he was permitted to celebrate services only with the church doors closed and without his episcopal insignia.
In 1957, the prosecutor’s office of Vladimir Region reviewed once again the case from 1936 in which Bishop Athanasius had been implicated. The hierarch was questioned at home, but the arguments he presented in his defense were not accepted as convincing. He was not rehabilitated.
The divine services at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra were a consolation to the hierarch. Remembering his monastic tonsure within its walls, he had always considered himself one of its brotherhood. On several occasions, he concelebrated with His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky). On March 12, 1959, he also participated in the consecration of Archimandrite Nikon (Lysenko) as Bishop of Ufa.
During one of Bishop Athanasius’s services, those praying noticed that, during the Eucharistic Canon, he was walking above the floor of the church, as though some wave were gently carrying him out of the altar.
Bishop Athanasius was deeply distressed by the new phase of liberal persecution of the Church during the Thaw. He intensified his prayers to the Russian saints and to the Mother of God, the Protectress of Russia. He even began to regard his retirement from active ministry as a withdrawal from the struggle against the evil that was advancing. He wished to ask for an appointment as a vicar bishop, but his deteriorating health prevented him from continuing his public ministry.
However difficult Bishop Athanasius’s life became, he never lost heart. On the contrary, in prisons, labor camps, and places of exile, he was filled with extraordinary energy, finding activities that benefited his soul. It was there, behind prison walls, that the remarkable liturgical service to All the Russian Saints took shape. It was brought to completion after discussions with hierarchs who were imprisoned alongside Bishop Athanasius.
One of these hierarchs was Archbishop Thaddeus of Tver, who was glorified by the Church as a hieromartyr. On November 10, 1922, the celebration of All the Russian Saints according to the revised service was held for the first time in Cell 172 of the Vladimir prison.
The death of his mother moved the hierarch not only to pray fervently for her, as a devoted son, but also to write the fundamental work On the Commemoration of the Departed According to the Typikon of the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Cyril (Smirnov) highly praised this work.
In August 1941, Bishop Athanasius composed A Service of Supplication for the Fatherland, a work filled with profound repentance and extraordinary spiritual power that embraced every aspect of the life of our Fatherland. During his periods of imprisonment, he also composed services of supplication “For Those in Sorrows and Various Afflictions,” “For Enemies Who Hate and Wrong Us,” “For Those in Prisons and Captivity,” “Thanksgiving for Receiving Alms,” and “For the Cessation of Wars and the Peace of the Whole World.”
Saint Athanasius truly sang to God “while I have my being” (Psalm 45:1, LXX). He sang even at the gates of death, and the Lord preserved His servant for the Church and Fatherland he loved.
The years in which he confessed the Christian faith in labor camps and prisons, however terrible and difficult they were, became not a loss but a gain in Bishop Athanasius’s life. They bestowed upon his humble soul that grace-filled spiritual light so lacking in the world. People from every direction were drawn to this inner light, each bringing the painful questions of their own lives. They encountered a man whose soul was pure and filled with unceasing prayer.
No one ever heard the hierarch utter a word of complaint about his years in prison. He received everyone who came to him with gentleness, kindness, sympathy, and love. He shared his rich life experience with each person, explained the meaning of the Gospel and the lives of God’s holy servants, and helped pastors lead their flocks to true repentance.
The hierarch loved everything beautiful in life, seeing in it a reflection of eternity, and knew how to find beauty everywhere. While living in Petushki, he received as many as 800 letters a year and corresponded with many of his former fellow prisoners, whose sorrows he experienced as his own. At Christmas and Pascha, he sent thirty to forty parcels to people in need of help and consolation.
Bishop Athanasius’s spiritual children remember how simple and attentive he was in his dealings with others and how much he valued even the smallest service, for which he always tried to express his gratitude.
He lived modestly and paid little attention to people’s outward appearance. He disliked fame and human honor, teaching that good works should be done solely for the glory of God, lest one lose the reward to come. He taught that talents are gifts from God and that no one should take pride in them.
Once, when asked, “How can one be saved?” he answered: “The most important thing is faith. Without faith, no matter how good one’s works may be, they cannot save, because faith is the foundation of everything. The second is repentance. The third is prayer, and the fourth is good works. And despair is worse than any sin.” The hierarch taught people to repent as often as possible, immediately upon becoming aware of a sin, cleansing the soul with tears of repentance.
Prayer filled the Saint’s entire life. It was so living and powerful that those who prayed with him became detached from everything earthly. Many received prompt help through his prayers. The hierarch often said that, in difficult circumstances, one should turn in prayer to the saint whose name one bears. He attached particular importance to praying to our intercessors, the saints of the Orthodox Church. He concealed his gift of clairvoyance, revealing it only in exceptional circumstances and for the benefit of others. He was never indifferent to their needs and bore their weaknesses with great patience.
As early as August 1962, Bishop Athanasius began saying that his time to die had come. When someone once told him that his spiritual children would be unable to bear separation from him, he replied sternly: “How can one become so attached to a person? In doing so, we violate our love for the Lord. You will not be left alone; you will remain with the Lord.”
A few days before Bishop Athanasius’s blessed repose, Archimandrite Pimen, the abbot of the Lavra; Archimandrite Theodoret, the dean; and Abbot Cyril, his spiritual father, came from the Lavra. Their arrival greatly delighted the hierarch. It was the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of his monastic tonsure. On the day itself, a Thursday, the hierarch was especially gracious, blessing everyone present.
Then death drew near. Immersed in prayer, the hierarch could no longer speak. On Friday evening, however, he quietly said for the last time, “Prayer will save you all!” He then wrote with his hand on the blanket: “Save us, O Lord!”
On Sunday, October 28, 1962, the commemoration of Saint John of Suzdal, the hierarch quietly surrendered his spirit to God. He had foretold the day and hour of his death in advance.
Appointed to the episcopal see by Patriarch Tikhon, Bishop Athanasius spent, during his thirty-three years as a bishop, thirty-three months in diocesan ministry, seventy-six months in exile, and 254 months in labor camps.
The Saint’s relics are kept at the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God, of which he had been abbot in 1920.
Bishop Athanasius was deeply distressed by the new phase of liberal persecution of the Church during the Thaw. He intensified his prayers to the Russian saints and to the Mother of God, the Protectress of Russia. He even began to regard his retirement from active ministry as a withdrawal from the struggle against the evil that was advancing. He wished to ask for an appointment as a vicar bishop, but his deteriorating health prevented him from continuing his public ministry.
However difficult Bishop Athanasius’s life became, he never lost heart. On the contrary, in prisons, labor camps, and places of exile, he was filled with extraordinary energy, finding activities that benefited his soul. It was there, behind prison walls, that the remarkable liturgical service to All the Russian Saints took shape. It was brought to completion after discussions with hierarchs who were imprisoned alongside Bishop Athanasius.
One of these hierarchs was Archbishop Thaddeus of Tver, who was glorified by the Church as a hieromartyr. On November 10, 1922, the celebration of All the Russian Saints according to the revised service was held for the first time in Cell 172 of the Vladimir prison.
The death of his mother moved the hierarch not only to pray fervently for her, as a devoted son, but also to write the fundamental work On the Commemoration of the Departed According to the Typikon of the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Cyril (Smirnov) highly praised this work.
In August 1941, Bishop Athanasius composed A Service of Supplication for the Fatherland, a work filled with profound repentance and extraordinary spiritual power that embraced every aspect of the life of our Fatherland. During his periods of imprisonment, he also composed services of supplication “For Those in Sorrows and Various Afflictions,” “For Enemies Who Hate and Wrong Us,” “For Those in Prisons and Captivity,” “Thanksgiving for Receiving Alms,” and “For the Cessation of Wars and the Peace of the Whole World.”
Saint Athanasius truly sang to God “while I have my being” (Psalm 45:1, LXX). He sang even at the gates of death, and the Lord preserved His servant for the Church and Fatherland he loved.
The years in which he confessed the Christian faith in labor camps and prisons, however terrible and difficult they were, became not a loss but a gain in Bishop Athanasius’s life. They bestowed upon his humble soul that grace-filled spiritual light so lacking in the world. People from every direction were drawn to this inner light, each bringing the painful questions of their own lives. They encountered a man whose soul was pure and filled with unceasing prayer.
No one ever heard the hierarch utter a word of complaint about his years in prison. He received everyone who came to him with gentleness, kindness, sympathy, and love. He shared his rich life experience with each person, explained the meaning of the Gospel and the lives of God’s holy servants, and helped pastors lead their flocks to true repentance.
The hierarch loved everything beautiful in life, seeing in it a reflection of eternity, and knew how to find beauty everywhere. While living in Petushki, he received as many as 800 letters a year and corresponded with many of his former fellow prisoners, whose sorrows he experienced as his own. At Christmas and Pascha, he sent thirty to forty parcels to people in need of help and consolation.
Bishop Athanasius’s spiritual children remember how simple and attentive he was in his dealings with others and how much he valued even the smallest service, for which he always tried to express his gratitude.
He lived modestly and paid little attention to people’s outward appearance. He disliked fame and human honor, teaching that good works should be done solely for the glory of God, lest one lose the reward to come. He taught that talents are gifts from God and that no one should take pride in them.
Once, when asked, “How can one be saved?” he answered: “The most important thing is faith. Without faith, no matter how good one’s works may be, they cannot save, because faith is the foundation of everything. The second is repentance. The third is prayer, and the fourth is good works. And despair is worse than any sin.” The hierarch taught people to repent as often as possible, immediately upon becoming aware of a sin, cleansing the soul with tears of repentance.
Prayer filled the Saint’s entire life. It was so living and powerful that those who prayed with him became detached from everything earthly. Many received prompt help through his prayers. The hierarch often said that, in difficult circumstances, one should turn in prayer to the saint whose name one bears. He attached particular importance to praying to our intercessors, the saints of the Orthodox Church. He concealed his gift of clairvoyance, revealing it only in exceptional circumstances and for the benefit of others. He was never indifferent to their needs and bore their weaknesses with great patience.
As early as August 1962, Bishop Athanasius began saying that his time to die had come. When someone once told him that his spiritual children would be unable to bear separation from him, he replied sternly: “How can one become so attached to a person? In doing so, we violate our love for the Lord. You will not be left alone; you will remain with the Lord.”
A few days before Bishop Athanasius’s blessed repose, Archimandrite Pimen, the abbot of the Lavra; Archimandrite Theodoret, the dean; and Abbot Cyril, his spiritual father, came from the Lavra. Their arrival greatly delighted the hierarch. It was the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of his monastic tonsure. On the day itself, a Thursday, the hierarch was especially gracious, blessing everyone present.
Then death drew near. Immersed in prayer, the hierarch could no longer speak. On Friday evening, however, he quietly said for the last time, “Prayer will save you all!” He then wrote with his hand on the blanket: “Save us, O Lord!”
On Sunday, October 28, 1962, the commemoration of Saint John of Suzdal, the hierarch quietly surrendered his spirit to God. He had foretold the day and hour of his death in advance.
Appointed to the episcopal see by Patriarch Tikhon, Bishop Athanasius spent, during his thirty-three years as a bishop, thirty-three months in diocesan ministry, seventy-six months in exile, and 254 months in labor camps.
The Saint’s relics are kept at the Monastery of the Nativity of the Mother of God, of which he had been abbot in 1920.
Troparion in Tone 4
Let us earnestly praise Saint Athanasius, the Russian confessor, a zealot for the glory of God and a guardian of the beauty of the Church, who through his austere life and many struggles became like the great hierarch of Alexandria. For he continually prays for the salvation of his earthly Fatherland and for all who dwell in it, crying out in a loud voice and with love: Holy Rus’, preserve the Orthodox Faith, for in it is your strength.
Kontakion in Tone 3
Today, Saint Athanasius, the confessor of Christ and righteous hierarch, rejoices radiantly in the Kingdom of glory that has no evening. In the assembly of all the Russian saints, he sings the victorious hymn with one united voice and earnestly prays to the eternal Triune God on our behalf.
Megalynarion
We magnify you, O holy hierarch Father Athanasius, and honor your sufferings, through which you established Orthodoxy in your Fatherland by your confession.
Alternative Megalynarion (sung in place of the preceding)
We magnify you, O holy hierarch and confessor of Christ, Athanasius, who adorned the Russian Church with divinely inspired hymns and lovingly sang the praises of our holy kin.
Let us earnestly praise Saint Athanasius, the Russian confessor, a zealot for the glory of God and a guardian of the beauty of the Church, who through his austere life and many struggles became like the great hierarch of Alexandria. For he continually prays for the salvation of his earthly Fatherland and for all who dwell in it, crying out in a loud voice and with love: Holy Rus’, preserve the Orthodox Faith, for in it is your strength.
Kontakion in Tone 3
Today, Saint Athanasius, the confessor of Christ and righteous hierarch, rejoices radiantly in the Kingdom of glory that has no evening. In the assembly of all the Russian saints, he sings the victorious hymn with one united voice and earnestly prays to the eternal Triune God on our behalf.
Megalynarion
We magnify you, O holy hierarch Father Athanasius, and honor your sufferings, through which you established Orthodoxy in your Fatherland by your confession.
Alternative Megalynarion (sung in place of the preceding)
We magnify you, O holy hierarch and confessor of Christ, Athanasius, who adorned the Russian Church with divinely inspired hymns and lovingly sang the praises of our holy kin.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
