November 22, 2014
Jordanville, NY: Metropolitan Hilarion to rebury Bishop Constantine (Essensky) at Holy Trinity Monastery

With the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, the brethren of Holy Trinity Monastery have transported the remains of the ever-memorable Bishop Constantine (Essensky; +1996) from a former monastery in Blanco, TX to Jordanville, NY. On Monday, December 1st, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad will rebury Bishop Constantine in a dignified resting place behind the main cathedral, where many other archpastors of the Russian Diaspora are interred.

Approximately $10,000 is needed to cover the costs associated with Bishop Constantine’s relocation. Therefore, with the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion, the brethren of Holy Trinity Monastery appeal to all those who love God, to all who hold dear the memory of Bishop Constantine, who served the Russian Church on three continents – Europe, America, and Australia – to please help in this God-pleasing endeavor.

Please send your donations to:

Holy Trinity Monastery
PO Box 36
Jordanville, NY, 13361
Note: "Bishop Constantine"

Brief Biography of Bishop Constantine (Essensky)

Emmanuel Essensky, the future Bishop Constantine, was born in 1907 in St. Petersburg, where his father worked in the Imperial Chancery. In the first year of the Revolution, the family moved to Riga, Latvia. Bishop Constantine’s father was taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks and executed. His mother, on receiving this news, died of a heart attack, leaving eleven-year-old Emmanuel an orphan. He finished school and worked in a pharmacy. At the same time, he studied iconography under the masterful Old Rite iconographer, Pimen Sofronov. In 1928, New Martyr Archbishop John of Riga blessed him to enter seminary. He graduated in 1930 and went to Paris, where he continued his studies and obtained his doctorate at the St. Sergius Theological Academy. In 1932, Metropolitan Eulogius of Paris ordained him to the priesthood.

In 1938, Fr. Emmanuel and his parish left the Paris jurisdiction and joined the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. In 1949, Fr. Emmanuel emigrated to the United States. He served briefly in Washington, DC and Trenton, NJ before being assigned to Glen Cove, NY, as rector of the Church of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. Fr. Emmanuel had a particular love for the beauty of God’s house and, with his talent for iconography and his refined artistic sensibilities, he transformed the garage in which the church was located into a lovely jewel, worthy of being God’s temple. He had a great love for the divine services, and his manner of serving was always dignified, never hurried, and deeply prayerful.

It was evident to the church hierarchs that here was a suitable candidate for the episcopacy. In October 1967, Fr. Emmanuel was tonsured a monk by Archbishop Averky at Holy Trinity Monastery and given the name Constantine. Two months later, on the feast of the Kursk Icon of the Sign, he was consecrated Bishop of Brisbane.

In 1978, he was made Bishop of Boston, vicar of the Eastern American Diocese. Three years later, he was sent to shepherd the flock of Great Britain. His ascetic practices and the raw climate undermined his already poor health -- he suffered from pernicious anemia, a heart condition, and bad arthritis – and in 1985, he returned to the United States to live in retirement. He spent summers at the New Kursk Hermitage in Mahopac, NY, but the winters there were hard on his health, and in 1991, he moved to Christ of the Hills Monastery in Texas.

Bishop Constantine was a true ascetic; he ate and slept very little. The monks noticed that the light in His Grace’s cell would go on about 12:30 AM, when he would get up to perform his rule of prayer. At about 2:00 AM, they regularly saw his bobbing flashlight as His Grace made the rounds of the monks’ cells, praying and spreading God’s blessing upon the sleeping occupants. In his last years, Bishop Constantine acquired the gift of compunction. He would often weep unaffectedly in receiving the Holy Mysteries.

After a brief struggle with pneumonia, Bishop Constantine peacefully reposed as the monks around him read, at his request, the Prayers for the Departure of the Soul. His un-embalmed body lay in the church surrounded by flowers for two days, without any sign of decomposition or rigor mortis. Bishop Constantine was buried in Blanco, TX on the Feast of the Holy Spirit, which coincided with the feast of Saints Constantine & Helen.

Compiled by the Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese
based on materials from “Pravoslavnaya Rus’”, Jordanville: No. 14, 1996.