Vitaly (Vvedensky)

Born on July 8, 1870 in the village of Peskovaty, Belevo uyezd, Tula province, in the family of the psalm reader ^[1] .

In 1884 he graduated from the Tula spiritual school . In 1890 he graduated from the Tula Theological Seminary ^[1] .

In 1890-1891 he was a teacher in the folk school of the mining department at the Mosolov iron foundry ^[1] .

On September 8, 1891, he was ordained to the priesthood and appointed to the Holy Cross Church of Belevsky Holy Cross Convent. Simultaneously, from April 3, 1893, he was the head and teacher of a second-class women's monastic school. At the same time, from 1897, he was a clerk and then chairman of the board of the clergy of the clergy of the Tula eparchy. On June 28, 1897, he was awarded with a nabedrennik . In January 1900 he was awarded velvet purple skufye ^[1] .

On January 15, 1900, he was appointed inspector of the classes of the Belevsky Diocesan Women's College. April 24, 1902 awarded Kamilavka. On August 1, 1902, he was dismissed from the post of inspector of the school and became a teacher in it ^[1] .

On August 1, 1903, he was appointed the lawmaker of the Belevsky Real School, with over-staffing the Nativity of the Mother of God Cathedral in the city of Belev. Simultaneously, from 1905, he was a law instructor at the Belevsk Women's Gymnasium. March 29, 1908 awarded a pectoral cross, issued by the Holy Synod. April 1, 1913 awarded the rank of archpriest ^[1] .

On February 23, 1915, he was appointed to the dean of the Belevsky churches ^[1] .

Widowed. In 1915 he was appointed Bishop of Alaska , but declined the appointment ^[1] .

In 1917 he was elected delegate from the clergy of the Tula diocese to the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church 1917-1918 ^[2] .

May 27, 1918 became a member of the Tula Diocesan Council, in the same year he became its chairman ^[2] .

On August 18, 1919, he accepted monasticism and was elevated to the rank of archimandrite ^[1] . He served in the Belevsky Transfiguration Monastery ^[2] .

On August 15, 1920, he was consecrated Bishop of Epiphanis, Vicar of the Tula Diocese. The department was located in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in the city of Epifan ^[1] .

In early June 1922, he became the chairman of the diocesan council established by the governor of the Tula eparchy, Bishop Ignatius (Sadkovsky) of Belayevo ^[2] .

On June 18, 1922, Vladimir Krasnitsky, a member of the renovation ECU, arrived in Tula. .

In August 1922, he was a member of the All-Russian Congress of the Living Church, at which he was appointed Bishop of Tula and Epiphanis on August 16, with the elevation of the archbishop . The department was located in the Assumption Cathedral of the Tula Kremlin ^[1] .

In April-May 1923, he participated in the 2nd All-Russian Local Council ^[3] . He was a member of the delegation of the cathedral, who visited Patriarch Tikhon to hand him a "cathedral definition of deprivation of dignity and monasticism" ^[2] .

On August 8, 1923, he became a member of the All-Russian Renovation Synod, head of the auditing part ^[4] .

In the book “Essays on the history of the Russian ecclesiastical distemper” it says: “A man is neat, scrupulously punctual in official matters, respectful of the authorities, Metropolitan Vitaly <…> looked like a provincial accountant of an average hand. “So it was Belyovsky’s archpriest,” Alexander Ivanovich often used to say about him. In his outlook and education, Vladyka never went farther than Belev in his whole life: the Diocesan Gazette of the Tula Diocese was the main source of his knowledge. He usually referred to them as the highest authority, whenever it came to philosophical and social problems ... It was hard to imagine greater antipodes than Metropolitan Vitaly and his famous colleague and namesake ” ^[5] .

In 1924 he was awarded the right to wear the cross on the hood ^[4] .

In June 1924 he was a member of the All-Russian pre-council meeting ^[4] .

April 10, 1925 ^[4] "in reward of his outstanding exceptional services for the good of the Orthodox Church" was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan ^[6] .

In October 1925, he was a member of the “Third All-Russian Local Council” (the second renovation commission), where he was elected a member of the All-Russian Renovation Synod ^[4] .

In February 1927 he was a member of the First All-Union Missionary Conference ^[4] .

In 1929, during the illness of Metropolitan Veniamin (Muratovsky), he served as chairman of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Churches in the USSR ^[4] .

On September 5, 1929 ^[4], by the decision of the educational committee under the renovation synod, he received the degree of the candidate of theology for the printed works submitted ^[2] .

On May 10, 1930, he was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow and Tula, Managing Director of the Moscow Metropolitan Renovationist, and Chairman of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Churches in the USSR. At the same time awarded the right predosleniya cross for worship. The department was located in the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior ^[4] . In the book “Essays on the history of the Russian ecclesiastical distemper,” it is said about him: “Alexander Ivanovich, with his characteristic humor, said about this election:“ Metropolitan Veniamin died, and we do not know whom to elect in his place. And now, I remember - in Tula there is a bishop, a monk, a long, long, gray beard, a picture beard ... They thought and decided to be before him at the Synod ... "" ^[5] .

On September 16, 1930, he was released from the administration of the Tula renovation diocese, and on September 17, 1930 he was appointed chairman of the renovation Moscow Metropolitan Church Administration ^[4] .

In June 1931, in connection with the closure of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, he transferred the department to the Church of St. Nicholas in New Sloboda , which received the status of the St. Nicholas Synodal Cathedral ^[7] .

On August 29, 1931 he was awarded the right to wear two panagias ^[4] .

On May 5, 1933, he was released from the administration of the Moscow Metropolitan Renovationist; Mikhail Knyazevsky was appointed Metropolitan of Moscow ^[2] . However, since Vitaly (Vvedensky) remained in the post of chairman of the renovation synod, he was endowed with the title of “ First Hierarch of Orthodox Churches in the USSR ” ^[4] .

In 1934, in connection with the closure of St. Nicholas Synodal Cathedral, he transferred the department to the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki , which received the status of the Resurrection Synodal Cathedral ^[7] .

On April 29, 1935, due to the “self-dissolution” of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Churches in the USSR, he was dismissed from the post of the Chairman of the Synod and declared the sole head of the Renovationist Church ^[4] . As Anatoly Krasnov-Levitin wrote: “On the initiative of prof. Zarin (his secretary), Metropolitan Vitaly takes on the magnificent title of “First Hierarch of Moscow and All Orthodox Churches in the USSR”. An unprecedented title is assigned to him: “Your High Priesthood,” and the epithet: “Most High” is attached to his name. However, this entire external pump cannot hide the paradoxical situation in which Renovationism found itself. Ardent opponents of the sole authority and supporters of the “conciliar principle” are now compelled to transfer themselves to sole management ” ^[8] .

In April 1941, due to the lack of diocesan structures, he organized the Higher Church Administration to coordinate the activities of the parishes. The new VTsU consisted of two people: Vitaly (Vvedensky himself), who took the post of chairman, and his deputy, who became Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky ^[9] .

On October 6, at a meeting of the Supreme Commander’s Office, he expressed a desire to go on indefinite leave for health reasons, and on October 10 he transferred all powers to his deputy, Metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky ^[2] .

October 14, 1941 by a decision of the USSR government was evacuated to the city of Ulyanovsk ^[4] .

January 23, 1944 he returned to Moscow, served in the Church of Pimenov ^[4] . “Metropolitan Vitaly, who in fact turned into a junior priest, also performed the duties of a psalm-reader and carefully divided the circle” ^[10] .

On March 2, 1944, in the meeting room of the Holy Synod, he brought repentance to Patriarch Sergius and was accepted into ecclesiastical communion as a bishop, which he had before leaving for Renovationism ^[11] , leaving the rest as honorary abbot of the Church of the Resurrection in Sokolniki ^[2] .

May 5, 1944, elevated to the rank of archbishop ^[2] .

On July 13, 1944, he was appointed Archbishop of Tula and Belevsky ^[2] .

During the war, Bishop Vitaly wrote patriotic poems that were published in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate (1944, No. 5, No. 6): “Let's defend the Motherland,” “Prayer in the Days of Battle,” “At the Grave of His Holiness Patriarch Sergius,” “ Prayer of the Mother of God in the days of the Great Patriotic War ".

Member of the Local Council in 1945 ^[12] .

In May-June 1945, accompanied Patriarch Alexy I during his trip to the Holy Land and to Egypt ^[2] .

On July 19, 1946, at his own request, he was released from the management of the Tula Department and appointed Chairman of the Missionary Council at the Holy Synod with the appointment of Archbishop Dmitrovsky , Vicar of the Moscow Diocese and with the maintenance of the honorary Rector of the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki ^[2] .

On February 21, 1949, upon request, he was relieved of the post of chairman of the missionary council.

He died on March 25, 1950. On March 27, 1950, his funeral was led by Patriarch Alexy I at the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki. He was buried near the Trinity Church at the Pyatnitsky cemetery in Moscow ^[2] .

• At the grave of the student [N. P. Novikova]. - Belev, 1912
• Farewell speech to pupils of the Belevsk female gymnasium who completed the course in 1912 - Belev, 1912
• Life trials and attitudes towards them on op. about. John of Kronstadt "My life in Christ." - Belev, 1913
• Orthodox churches. brotherhoods (1864-1914). - SPb., 1914
• Let's defend the Motherland: [Verses] // ZhMP. 1944. № 5. P. 27
• Prayer in the days of battle: [Verses] // Ibid. Pp. 28
• At the tomb of His Holiness Patriarch Sergius: [Verses] // Ibid. № 6. P. 37-38
• The Prayer of the Mother of God in the days of the Great Patriotic War: [Verses] // Ibid. № 10. P. 30

• Jeremiah, Archimandrite. Death and burial of the hierarch // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 1950. № 4. p. 6-7.
• Krasnov-Levitin A.E. , Shavrov V.M. Essays on the history of the Russian church distemper . - M .: Krutitsy Patriarchal Compound, 1996. - 672 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 9). - ISBN is missing.
• A. A. B. VITALY // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Research Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2004. - T. VIII. - p. 559-560. - 752 s. - 39 000 copies - ISBN 5-89572-014-5 .
• Lavrinov Valery, archpriest. Renovation schism in the portraits of his personalities. - M .: Society of Church History Fans, 2016. - 736 p. - (Materials on the history of the Church. Book 54). - ISBN 978-5-9906510-7-4 .

• Vitaly (Vvedensky) on the Russian Orthodoxy site
• Archbishop VITALY (Vvedensky) (1870-1950)