John (Smirnov, Ivan Ksenofontovich)

John's father, Archpriest Smirnov Ksenofont Prokhorovich (1822-1904), rector of the Trinity Church in the village of Krasno- Murom Uyezd, Vladimir Province , received hereditary nobility for his service in 1893 ^{[ specify ]} , was awarded the Order of St. Anne, 3rd art. and St. Vladimir . Mother of John - Tatyana Ivanovna (1820-1904). Grandfather - Smirnov Prokhor Afanasevich, priest of the Ascension Church of the village of Borisoglebsky, Murom district, Vladimir province . Brothers: Nikolay (1848–1907) - state adviser, theologian and editor of the Penza Diocesan Vedomosti, Smirnov Fedor Ksenofontovich (1852–1930) - current state adviser, managing the Ryazan Control Chamber.

Ivan Ksenofontovich and his wife Claudia Ivanovna, who died before his tonsure, had two sons (Ivan and Eugene) and three daughters (Elizabeth, Julia and Tatiana) ^[2] .

Born on August 24, 1844 in the village of Krasno- Murom district of Vladimir province .

In 1858 he graduated from the Murom Theological College . In 1863 he graduated from Vladimir Theological Seminary . In 1867 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy with a degree of candidate of theology .

Since March 6, 1868 - teacher of scripture in the Ryazan Theological Seminary .

Since September 3, 1875 - Inspector of the Ryazan Theological Seminary .

April 25, 1883 was appointed rector of the Ryazan Theological Seminary.

On May 2, 1883, he was ordained a priest , and on May 6 he was elevated to the rank of archpriest .

On July 28, 1901 , according to the petition, he was dismissed from the post of rector of the seminary.

On September 13, 1901, he was tonsured a monk .

September 14, 1901 was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite of the Ryazan Trinity Monastery .

April 28, 1902 in St. Isaac's Cathedral of St. Petersburg was ordained bishop of Cheboksary.

Since February 4, 1904 - Bishop of Poltava and Pereyaslav.

Since 1910 - an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy .

Archbishop of Riga and Mitava

Pre-war period

Since August 13, 1910 - Bishop of Riga and Mitava.

The bishopric of Riga and Mitau for John, of course, was significantly different from all other periods of his life. Until the First World War, the upper layers of the population of this diocese - the aristocracy (nobility) and most of the middle class - free urban citizens ("burghers") were Baltic Germans , who had no sympathy for Orthodoxy. It is also important that the German aristocracy enjoyed considerable influence among the last Russian emperors. The main parishioners of the Orthodox parishes were the poorest sections of the population, mainly the Latvian and Estonian peasantry, which was completely dependent on the German landowners. In the diocese ( 1914 ) there were 210 parishes, of which 49 were Latvian, 99 were Estonian, 29 were Russian parishes, 1 was Swedish, and the rest were of mixed ethnic composition; 457 Orthodox folk schools, of which 355 in Livonia , 40 in Courland , and 62 in Estonia ; In total, 18,227 pupils studied in these schools, including 13346 Orthodox, Lutheran - 4296, Catholics - 395, Old Believers - 146, Co - religionists - 6 ^[3] .

John, like his predecessors at the Riga department, maintained a smooth, benevolent attitude towards Latvians and Estonians, tried to nominate priests, teachers of parish schools from among them, and in important cases he took on the role of defender of the rights of the indigenous Latvian and Estonian population, if these rights were violated by local Germans. Before the war, he often had to give feedback on the allegations against the Latvian intelligentsia. In his reviews, he always tried to help the Latvians. Carrying out the affairs of the parishes, despite his age, he traveled around the diocese a lot. History has preserved that, for example, on June 17 , in 1912, he consecrated the lower church in honor of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Riga Trinity-Sergius Convent ^[4] , in early July he participated in anniversary celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the arrival in Paide ( Estonia ) , and on July 9 he arrived in Türi (Estonia), where he consecrated the new iconostasis of the school-prayer house ^{[5] [6]} . In 1913 he visited a chapel in the Estonian village of Agusalu ^[7] . According to the tradition that was common among bishops at that time, he was part-time rector of the Riga Alekseevsky non-communicative monastery ^[8] .

Actively engaged in the fight against alcoholism of parishioners, John brought to this not only anti-alcohol societies, but also all the organizations of the church. On certain days, all the leaders of church organizations and institutions mobilized to combat drunkenness ^[3] .

In the book “Orthodox in Latvia” (compiled by A. Pommer), John is given the following characteristics:

May 6, 1912 was elevated to the rank of archbishop .

World War I

After the outbreak of the war, John directed the activities of the Orthodox Church in the diocese entrusted to him for mercy: caring for the wounded, caring for the widows and orphans of soldiers. The events on the fronts of the war in the summer of 1915 , as a result of which Riga became a front-line city, forced John in July 1915 to evacuate to Yuryev in the Livonia province (now Tartu ), from where he later led the diocese. Diocesan institutions, theological seminaries and schools with teachers and pupils, part of the clergy, as well as church property, the most valuable utensils and the best sacristies were evacuated. At the request of the high military command, the evacuation took place hastily, inflicting many losses on the church, which, taking into account the subsequent German occupation and the short Bolshevik period, were never replenished. John, too, was never able to return to Riga ^{[3] [9]} . On September 24–25, 1916, he visited Novgorod to perform services at the Savva-Vishersky Monastery , where the sisters of the Riga Holy Trinity Monastery were evacuated ^[10] .

February Revolution

On March 2 (15), 1917 , Nicholas II abdicated in favor of Mikhail , who, in turn, transferred all power to the Provisional Government until the convening of the Constituent Assembly , which was to decide on the form of government. When postponing the question of the form of government until the Constituent Assembly, the return of the monarchy was not excluded ^[11] . The reaction of the bishops to these events was the most controversial. From congratulatory telegrams to the Provisional Government from individual hierarchs to monarchist speeches. However, both were more likely the exception. Extreme monarchical views were not supported in society at that time, and, for example, Demetrius (Sperovsky) , the predecessor of John at the Ryazan pulpit, was worth the bishopric (dismissed alone June 17, 1917) ^[12] .

The most important in this regard was the mention (and the form of mention) during the services of the king and the royal family. In the early days of March, John, considering the “inconclusive” abdication of Michael, considered the possibility of prayer for royal authority. But, nevertheless, he, like most bishops, in order not to compromise himself by his connection with either reaction or revolution, took a defiantly neutral, expectant position on the political coup. In addition, this position was motivated by the fact that the clergy should protect the interests of the whole society, be above all political preferences, since "heaven is above all earthly things" ^[13] .

The telegram of John to the Holy Governing Synod of March 4 (17), 1917, sent from Yuriev is known: “I ask for instructions on how to make a royal proclamation at a service” ^{[14] [15]} . The Holy Synod formulated its position only on March 7 (20) : “Instead of commemorating the reigning house, offer prayer for the God-Preserving Russian Stainless and the Righteous Provisional Government of it” ^[16] .

John's position on the division of the diocese into Latvian and Estonian

In August 1917, John left for Moscow to participate in the Local Council ^[9] . At the Council, he supported the appeal of the Latvian and Estonian delegates so that the administration of the Latvian and Estonian parishes would be transferred to the bishops of Latvian and Estonian origin. John, in a report to the Synod of July 10, 1917 No. 408, proposed the creation of two vicars in the diocese, the management of the Latvian parishes being handed over to the vicar of the Latvian, and the leadership of Estonian parishes to the vicar of the Estonian. On October 6, 1917, No. 745, John submitted to the Synod a draft instruction, which detailed the rights and obligations of vicar bishops. In the process of discussing the project, one of the alleged applicants for Riga Vicarism, Bishop John (Pommer) convinced John that the diocese of Riga should be divided into two dioceses with the abandonment of all Latvian parishes in the Riga diocese and the assignment of all Estonian parishes to the new, Revel diocese. John submitted a corresponding submission to Patriarch Tikhon and at the same time a petition for his transfer to the vacant pulpit in Ryazan ^[3] .

Archbishop of Ryazan and Zaraysk

John’s petition was granted and on November 20, 1917 he was translated by the archbishop of Ryazan and Zaraisk .

John died on October 14, 1919. In the Act on the death of the bishop, in the column "place of residence" it is indicated: "Bishop's house." There are two different points of view regarding the place of his burial: either in the Archangel Cathedral of the Ryazan Kremlin ^[17] , or in the cathedral of the Ryazan Trinity Monastery ^[2] .

There is a well-known recall of the elder Zosimov desert Rev. Alexy ^[18] about John ^[19] : "The great ascetic and worthy saint".

Most of John’s writings are the exegetics of the books of the small prophets of the Old Testament : Amos , Obadiah , Joel , Jonah , Hosea , Micah , Naum , Zephaniah , Habakkuk , Haggai , Zechariah and Malachi , as well as the books of the prophet Daniel . Almost all of them were reprinted in 2006 by the Department of Biblical Studies of the Moscow Orthodox Theological Academy in reprint editions, translated into digital format and are available on the Internet.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the transformed theological academies introduced the requirement to teach Holy Scripture “according to the modern level in the West of biblical science and in line with the latest discoveries of science” ^[20] . This was the impetus for the writing of many theological works, most of which, based on the utilitarian needs of the curriculum, very fragmentary explained some biblical texts, without delving into the general meaning of the scriptures. Despite the fact that from the appearance of this requirement to the time when John became a teacher at the Ryazan Theological Seminary, several decades passed, the material of the required quality was not enough. Perhaps all of this prompted John to write theological works. Professor Junger P.A. ( 1856 - 1921 ) in his review of the exegetics of the Old Testament singles out the works of John as distinguished by a greater consistency in explaining the books of his chosen prophets ^[20] .

In his writings, John attached great importance to the circumstances of the era when the prophets lived and preached and his comments are mainly of a historical nature. In matters of isagogy, John was guided in many respects by moderate Protestants, in particular, by the Lutheran theologian Karl-Friedrich Cale ^[19] .

After being tonsured a monk ( 1901 ) and the consecration the following year, John ceased to engage in spiritual writing. However, John's interest in history manifested itself during the bishopric. In 1906 , thanks to his active work, the Poltava Archaeological Committee and the unique museum of rare church antiquity, the Poltava Ancient Storehouse, where, among other values, the Peresopnytsia Gospel was preserved, were created under the Poltava Diocesan Administration ^[21] .

• A critical review of Besuet's work on universal history (master's thesis), 1896.
• Prophets: Haggai , Zechariah , Malachi . Ryazan, 1872.
• Amos and Obadiah. Ryazan, 1874.
• Hosea and Joel. Ryazan, 1874.
• Prophet Jonah. M., 1877.
• Prophet Micah. M., 1877.
• Prophet Nahum. M., 1877.
• Prophet Habakkuk. M., 1877.
• Prophet Sophonius. M., 1877.
• St. Prophet Daniel. Ryazan, 1879.

• Русское православие .
• Кафедра библеистики Московской православной духовной академии .
• Дрибинс Л. Немцы в Латвии .