Gregory (Nero)

Born in 1591. His father was a peasant named Miron, and simply Nero. At baptism he received the name of Gabriel. The parents of the baptized Gabriel gave him a different name - John. In adolescence, John left his family, went to Vologda and further to Ustyug . Here he learned to read.

Traveling further, John came to the town of Yuryevets in the village of Nikolskoye, where he settled with the priest and began to study the church charter. He married the daughter of the priest Evdokia. Having quarreled with sinful priests, John fled from the village to the Trinity-Sergius Monastery . Here he took the rank of deacon , and a year later (approximately in 1625) he was appointed priest and returned to the village of Nikolskoye.

Taking his wife, he moved to the village of Lyskovo as a vicar and then to Nizhny Novgorod . Here he settled at the desolate church and began to serve in it, became famous for preaching and fighting buffoon . Voevoda Fyodor Sheremetyev brought Neronov to trial, as the culprit of confusion, and put him in jail. Wanting to get fame in the eyes of the tsar and the patriarch, Neronov tried to preach his opinion on Moscow, for which he was exiled to Korelsky monastery . Here he again began to denounce the abbot and the monks. Creating miracles and avoiding death from insidious enemies, received forgiveness and returned to Nizhny Novgorod.

At this time, the royal confessor Stefan Vonifatyev and the bedmaker Fyodor Mikhailovich Rtishchev asked Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to approve unanimous singing in churches instead of multi-edited. To implement the reform, Neronov was summoned to the capital in 1640 and made the proto- priest at the Kazan Church of the Virgin Mary on Red Square . For five years, John Neronov preached here, received pilgrims and the sick.

In 1653, reforms of Patriarch Nikon began in Moscow. Neronov had disagreements with Nikon, for which, by decision of the cathedral, he was exiled to the Novospassky monastery , then to Simonov and to Spaso-Kamenny . Here he was accepted as a sufferer and given a comfortable life. However, here, too, John found fault with the monks, why he was soon tired of the whole brethren. He continues to write the petitions to the king. According to the complaint of the monks of the monastery, Nero was exiled to the Kandalaksha monastery under a strong gate.

According to the Archpriest Avvakum , Gregory Neron at that time was the head of the defenders and followers of the old rites.

• July 1654 - Neron transferred to Kandalaksha Monastery .
• 1655, August 10 - Neronov decided to escape and sailed to the Solovetsky Monastery .

Archimandrite Elijah, who knew Neronov and himself was holding a split, gave him a rest and provided him with supplies for the way to Moscow. The road lay through Arkhangelsk and Pereslavl. Here Nero stayed at the Danilov Monastery near Archimandrite Tikhon and lived in secret.

• 1656, October 25 - Neronov was secretly tonsured in the Danilov Monastery with the name of Gregory.

In the monastic rank, Neronov arrived in Moscow, where he lived in secret, sent letters and preached not to accept the innovations of reform.

• 1656, May 18 - the church council in Moscow decided to excommunicate Neronov from the church: “Ivan Neronov, now St. Gregory’s ilk in Chernitsy, and with his like-minded persons, who do not obey the Holy Trinity, from the Holy Trinity of the One-Trinity and from St. The Eastern Church, may they be damned ” ^[1] .
• 1657, January 4 - Nero was opened to Patriarch Nikon, and then returned to prayer communion with Nikon.

After the expulsion of Patriarch Nikon, the monk Gregory decided to return to the Old Believers. Indignant against the Nikonian order, Neronov again reproaches the tsar and informs the bishops, for which he receives a link to Vologda. Along the way, he looks for reasons to rebel, sends his complaints to the king.

July 1, 1666 - the cathedral refers Neronov to the Iosifo-Volotsky Monastery .

August 31, 1666 - the cathedral excommunicated Neronov from the priesthood and put him under strict supervision.

Now it became clear that even without Patriarch Nikon, other bishops would not allow Neronov’s insolence. At that time, the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch arrived for the trial of Nikon. At the trial, where the patriarchs examined the case of Nero, he repented and returned to prayerful communion with the participants in the council.

• 1668, September - Neronov was identified for testing at the Danilov Monastery .

At this time there was no abbot at the Danilov Monastery. After begging the brethren to let him go to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Nero came there the day after the king arrived. In conversation, Neroov complained of unjust punishment and asked to forgive him. The king ordered him to go to Moscow and wait for a decision.

On October 2, 1669, Neron was made Archimandrite of the Danilov Monastery.

The management of his monastery was exemplary, he served and preached every day. After the liturgy, everyone who was in the monastery gave lunch. Archimandrite continued to meticulously follow the church service. On the sixth Sunday after Easter, he was in the Church of the Presentation of the Most Holy Mother of God in Rybnoye Sloboda , began to make his comments, but the parishioners, remembering his exile, simply kicked Nero from the church.

Archimandrite Gregory Neronov died on January 2, 1670, with 79 years of age, and was buried in the porch of the cathedral church of the Danilov Monastery. Over his grave in the wall of the cathedral there is a white-stone plate.

• Korsakov V. Neronov, John (in monasticism Gregory) // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• Svirelin, A.I. Information about the life of Archimandrite Pereslavsky Danilov Monastery of Gregory Neronov / A.I. Svirelin // Proceedings of the Vladimir Archives Scientific Commission. - Vladimir, 1904. - Vol. 6.

• Lavrov A. S. Letter and petition of Ivan Neronov // Ancient Rus. Questions of medieval studies . 2009. № 1 (35). Pp. 101-106