Foreword
Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky)
We hope that, in the
future, when Holy Russia is resurrected, the history of the Russian
Church Abroad as the guardian of Holy Russian Orthodoxy in the years of
tribulations will be written. May this book serve as a modest
reference for our Church. Herein are placed the remaining records of
what I spoke or wrote in church or in various instances of Church
life.
My
work in the Church in America began on November 17/30, 1946, when I,
along with 12 monks of the Brotherhood of St. Job of Pochaev, came to
the United States from Ladomirová in the Prešov region of
Sub-Carpathian Rus’, having joined the brethren in Europe. The
monastery’s abbot, the Right Reverend Seraphim, came here some time
earlier, toward the end of the Cleveland Council (Sobor). This
council, which took place in Cleveland [earlier that same year, in
1946 – trans.], destroyed the unity of Russian church life in
America, which had been established only ten years prior. Archbishop
Vitaly received us in a fatherly manner, leaving me in New York at the
Diocesan headquarters in the role of secretary, along with Hierodeacon
Pimen for service in the cathedral in the Bronx, while the remainder
of the monks were sent to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, which
badly needed to have its own brotherhood replenished. On June 14/27,
1948, by Archbishop Vitaly’s recommendation, I was elevated to the
rank of Bishop of Florida, with an appointment to serve as vicar
bishop of the North American and Canadian Diocese, reconstituted after
the Cleveland Council and now receiving clergy and refugees
("DPs") from Europe and creating new parishes and then
dioceses. Archbishop Vitaly focused his attention primarily on the
further establishment and direction of Holy Trinity Monastery, tasking
me with operating the diocese under his leadership. Upon Archbishop
Vitaly’s repose on March 8/21, 1960, I was given the same tasks, but
now with the elevated title of Archbishop of Washington and Florida,
by both the reposed Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) and the
prospering Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky), as both First
Hierarchs and diocesan bishops.
Over
these 25 years, we have worked amicably with our selfless clergy,
which, preserving church truth, preferred to attend to our poorly-off
and poorly established parishes, rather than enter into a doubtful
jurisdiction. Many of these clergymen work up until this day, some of
them have passed away, living to 90 or even over 100 years of age
(Archpriest D. Dumsky), while some departed for the Lord in their
prime, their strength having been undermined by the revolutionary
conditions of life. They were zealous and selfless servants of God,
and may the Lord reward them for their labors and sorrows, which they
bore and bear in conditions of refugee life in a foreign land.
Here
are the names preserved in my records, of my reposed collaborators,
who in one way or another came to help me in my work in the Church:
Protopresbyters: Vladimir Vostokov, Vasily Shaposhnikov, Michael
Polsky, Pavel Kalinovich, Vasily Boschanovsky, Julian Olhovsky,
Avksenty Rudikov, Peter Triodin; Archimandrites: Vasily (Kondratovich),
Polikarp, Joseph, Amvrosy (Konovalov), Afanasy (Strukov), Afanasy (Scepura);
Archpriests: Vasily Demidov, Dimitri Kutenko, Leonid Znamensky,
Nikolai Gorbatsevich, Fyodor Tonkoshkur, Stefan Malashkevich, Kosma
Misuna, Vasily Koliubaev, Vasily Musin-Pushkin, Alexander Krasnoumov,
Konstantin Makovelsky, Sergiy Selivanovsky, Mikhail Minaev, Boris
Molchanov, Boris Chabovsky, Mikhail Danilchuk, Antony Yunak, Mikhail
Nakonechny, Evgeny Chervinsky, Vladimir Grigorovich, Sergiy Panteleev,
Mitrofan Bogomolets, Nikolai Stepanov, Daniil Dumsky, Georgy Pavliusik,
Alexander Kachinsky, Mikhail Gordienko, Evgeny Kayko, Ioann Anosov,
Grigory Shutak, Gerasim Shorets, Vladimir Travleev, Arkady Svitich,
Leonid Upshinsky, Ioann Sobolevsky, Boris Vinogradov, Ioann Volkov,
Afanasy Donetskov, Pavel Shamilsky, Serafim Slobodskoy, Joseph
Grinkevich, Fyodor Penzenik, Nikolay Polsky, Ilya Kachevsky, Fyodor
Chepelev; Igumens: Filimon, Ilya (Gavriliak), Mikhail (Bushmakin),
Vasily (Faktorovich), Serafim (Popov); Hieromonks: Pavel, Nikodim,
Nikolay, Varnava; Priests: Alexander Kolesnikov, Peter Nikolaev,
Mikhail Kalmykov, Georgy Gorsky, Peter Pankratov, Alexander Pashkov,
Alexander Makarenkov, Mikhail Aksenenkov, Valentin Livay, Nikita
Komarnitsky; Archdeacon Pimen; Protodeacons: Spiridon Dovgalevich,
Cornily Chigrin, Dimitri Sukhanov, Nikolay Patoev; Hierodeacons:
Varlaam, Gelasy; Deacons: Georgy Afanasiev, Pavel Yasarevsky, Sergiy
Liagin, Timofey Filatiev; church servers, subdeacons: Zakhary
Sitarchuk, Evdokim Bogdarenko, Lev Schedrin, and Reader Georgy
Mordvinov. The majority of the clergymen listed served in our Eastern
American Diocese, some in the Western American, and others in our
other American or Canadian dioceses, and in our monasteries.
In
summary, I offer my prayerful gratitude to my ever-memorable superiors
and leaders, Archbishop Vitaly and Metropolitan Anastassy, for all of
the good things that I received from them.
May
1974
