Lodyzhensky, Mitrofan Vasilievich

Father - Vasily Vasilievich ( 1816 - 187? ), Mother - Olga Alekseevna (born Chulkova, at the Olympics, 1818 - 1895 ), sisters Barbara , Catherine, Olga and Evdokia. Father, mother and three sisters (except for Barbara) took monastic tonsure ^[3] .

In 1873 he graduated from the Agricultural Institute in St. Petersburg . He served as a senior forester, a service for the forest department in the beginning of the Vologda province . In the Tula province, he held the post of Zemsky chief in the Chernsky district . In 1884 - 1886 Head of Forestry Department. From May 1, 1896 to August 8, 1898 - Semipalatinsk vice-governor ^[3] ; also was vice-governor of Vitebsk ( August 8, 1898 - May 18, 1902 ), Stavropol and Mogilev ^[4] .

He was awarded the orders of St. Vladimir of the 3rd and 4th degree, St. Stanislav of the 2nd and 3rd degree, St. Anna of the 3rd degree. Included in the 6th part of the noble genealogy of the Tula province in 1898 ^[5] .

After retiring, he took up literary work, developing ideas of esoteric philosophy in relation to Christianity .

In the summer of 1910 with his wife Olga Pavlovna (in other sources: Olga Alexandrovna ^[6] ) lived ten miles from Yasnaya Polyana in an estate in the village of Basovo ^[7] . Communicated with L. N. Tolstoy . In the second book of the Mystical Trilogy ^[8], Lodyzhensky describes his visit to Tolstoy. Their conversation was about Hindu philosophy , about yogis , about Theosophy , about hypnotism and about science ; it was recorded in detail by A. B. Goldenweiser in his book “Near Tolstoy” ^[9] . His wife and their friend S.V. Chirkin, the former manager of the Russian consulate in Bombay, came with M.V. Lodyzhensky; he told Tolstoy about India. Tolstoy visited the Lodyzhenskys in Basovo ( on August 4, 1910 , accompanied by D.P. Makovitsky), where they talked about Christian ascetics ^[10] , and at the end of July 1910, Tolstoy specially came to Lodyzhensky to get acquainted with the " Philanthropy " ^[11] , subsequently very regretting that he did not know these books before ^[12] .

He was a friend of A. L. Volynsky and the occultist P. D. Uspensky (a seeker of the “fourth dimension”). ^[13] .

He was a member and secretary of the Russian Theosophical Society ^[14] . Developed, like E.P. Blavatsky , V. Shmakov , L.A. Tikhomirov and others, the synthesis of philosophy , religion and mysticism . He knew the Hindu yogic tradition of thought, drew analogies between the Orthodox and Indus. thought ^[15] , believing that they are essentially one ^[14] . So at a meeting of the Religious and Philosophical Society on November 24, 1909 , dedicated to Theosophy, Lodyzhensky declared: "It is possible to be a true Christian and a true Theosophist." However, he later became convinced that this was impossible, and returned from Orthodoxy to the Theosophical Society. ^[sixteen]

Lodyzhensky visited India and Japan ^[9]

He died on December 27, 1917 “from a brain hemorrhage” and was buried in the cemetery of the Tula Uspensky convent ^[17] .

In his review ^{[18] of} the second part of the “Mystical Trilogy”, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy in the Department of Apologetics Sergey Sergeyevich Glagolev noted that “Lodyzhensky in his book simply, clearly and convincingly from the Orthodox point of view establishes the apologetic significance of mystical phenomena” (p. 384 ) and referred the book to “experimental apologetics” (p. 385). Although the professor generally described the book as “useful and instructive” (p. 385), expressing approval that “the mystical aspirations ... in Mr. Lodyzhensky’s book ... take the Orthodox direction” (p. 352), he also pointed out a number of small (flaws in proofreading, typos, factual inaccuracies) and serious flaws, as well as dubious statements.

As S. S. Glagolev pointed out, “Lodyzhensky is not one of the professional scientists. He does not know the techniques of scientific technology ”(pp. 382–383), he“ does not criticize the messages he cites ”(p. 357), therefore,“ in relation to sources and manuals in the name of the interests of the very truth that is so dear to “Lodyzhensky, a more critical attitude and a more careful choice are desirable” (p. 357). So, in particular, Lodyzhensky attracts for his purposes fiction writers - Emil Zola and L.N. Tolstoy , which seems "risky and dangerous" (p. 359), trustingly guided by the work of Farrar, who calls it capital and even the primary source, gives a strange characterization of Arianism ( p. 381-382), trusts the theosophist Anna Besant, conducting a comparative description of Ignatius Loyola 's Spiritual Exercises and the Raja Yoga Method (p. 372). In general, Glagolev notes that “the author’s trusting attitude to benefits, uncriticality and use of benefits, so to speak, of the third and fourth categories made it possible that in his pages of the instructive book there are many statements, although for the most part they are not relevant cases of doubt or even directly in need of correction ”(p. 361).

For this reason, and also, apparently, due to the influence of the anti-Christian teachings professed by Lodyzhensky, in his book you can find inaccurate and even very doubtful statements from the point of view of the Orthodox Christian. So prof. Glagolev notes that Lodyzhensky “claims that Hindu asceticism has been most glorified in recent times as compared with Christian asceticism, and the author himself admits the latter’s unconditional superiority” (p. 362) and agrees with publicist M.O. Menshikov that “Christianity has now agreed to cursing Christ of Nietzscheanism , to Freemasonry hostile to Christ, to positivism denying Christ, to the complete unbelief of agnostics and nihilists , to the complete atheism of the anarchists ”(p. 363). Also, “Lodyzhensky completely eliminates the participation of personal will in grace prayer” (p. 374), uses the expression “the whole Divine Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity” (p. 374), which disagrees with the Orthodox dogma of the tripartism of the Divine, and does not notice that the essence of Christian martyrdom is not so much in unwavering firmness, how much in accepting death with humility and love as opposed to the hatred and pride that supported other tormented people (p. 381).

In addition, in his review prof. Glagolev noted that in the work of Lodyzhensky there are hypotheses and theories that are doubtful from a scientific point of view. So, “on page 39, the author puts forward a completely paradoxical thesis that the development of aviation and the invention of a wireless telegraph now give us more opportunity to present mystical contemplations than in the era of ancient ascetics” (pp. 363-364), and also accepts a strange theory of the evolution of mystical feelings of the Canadian psychiatrist Dr. Richard Beck, author of the book "Cosmic Consciousness", according to which "higher psychic abilities ... appear first in individual exceptional personalities, then become more frequent, then become accessible who are tenuous for development or acquisition in all, and finally begin to belong to all people from birth ”(pp. 379-380).

A separate topic in the book “Unseen Light” is criticism of Catholicism . Here Lodyzhensky also did not avoid mistakes and inaccuracies. In his review ^[18] prof. Glagolev notes (p. 358):

"G. Lodyzhensky contrasts Orthodoxy with Catholicism, as truth complete, incomplete truth, complicated by a sensual, secular element. The superiority of Orthodoxy in his book appears with striking brightness, but under the condition that Catholicism is correctly portrayed in him. But Mr. Lodyzhensky gives us Catholicism as expounded by Protestants. Of the Catholic writings, he attracts only the “imitation of Christ,” which he confidently considers the work of Thomas the Kempian and The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola . This is not enough. He uses the books of V.I. Guerrier and P. Sabatier to portray Francis of Assisi . But both are Protestants . Our author speaks French . In French, he can find Catholic books expounding on the essence of his work. I will call: Ioly - the psychology of saints, Chollet - the psychology of the elect, Poulin - the blessed gifts of prayer (the experience of mystical theology), Meric - Another life. These books are not large, not expensive, and can easily be found. Of these, the author could see that what seems to him universal in Catholicism is in fact local. He will find in the mystical theology the reasoning that illnesses were usually sent along to the blessed joys of the ascetics (This was from the days of Apostle Paul and ours to the days of Seraphim of Sarov and Ambrose Optinsky ). Diseases were given so that they would not be extolled, so that they would remain in humility. Thus, we find a call for humility in the West. The point of view on Catholicism established by Mr. Lodyzhensky is fundamentally correct, but it must be changed in detail and better substantiated. If the author characterized Catholicism with the help of Catholic writings, he would have been much more convincing. ”

Also prof. Glagolev points out (p. 371) ^[18] to Lodyzhensky’s misunderstanding of the dogma of the pope’s infallibility and the gross inaccuracies he made in the presentation of historical facts related to this dogma:

“On page 87, Lodyzhensky reports that the pope among the Catholics is an infallible ruler. On 104 pages, he writes that the Franciscans were required to "completely submit to their viceroy Christ on earth, the sinless pope." Where, from which writer Mr. Lodyzhensky could find the name of the pope sinless? Not in the XIII century. under Francis , nor in XV under Loyola there was still no dogma about the infallibility of the pope. The dogma was proclaimed in 1870 , but this dogma only teaches that the pope is infallible in presenting Christian doctrine when he teaches “ex cathedra” on behalf of the whole church. This expression "ex cathedra" imparts elasticity to the dogma and mitigates its dangerous effects. The dogma of the personal sinlessness of the pope or even of his infallibility in the affairs of government in the Catholic Church does not exist. According to Mr. Lodyzhensky, vows of unconditional submission to the pope were fraught with fatal consequences. But is it? Theory and practice are two different things. Theoretically, the popes were the absolute masters of the Jesuits ; in fact, the Jesuits often ruled the popes. And if so, then the relationship established by Mr. Lodyzhensky between the subordination of the Catholic Church to the pope and the lack of humility among Catholics is problematic. ”

In the book “Unseen Light”, Lodyzhensky gives a popular comparison among mystic polemists of the mysticism of Seraphim of Sarov and Francis of Assisi ^[19] . Prof. Glagolev notes (p. 385) ^[18] :

“As an apologist for religion, Mr. Lodyzhensky points out in his book the religious truth in Christianity in its Orthodox form. He again proves his thesis “Orthodoxy is truth” not by abstract considerations, but by practical ones. He can be said to be guided by the words of Christ about teachers: “by their fruits you will know them” ( Matthew 7:16 ). He indicates the best fruit of Catholicism in Francis of Assisi and contrasts him with the humble Seraphim of Sarov. And in the presentation of Mr. Lodyzhensky - a truthful and unsophisticated clean image of Seraphim and the ascetics of the first centuries standing behind him are really convincing proofs of the truth of Orthodoxy. ”

• Superconsciousness and ways to achieve it. M., 1906
• Hindu Raja Yoga and Christian Asceticism. SPb., 1911
• Unseen Light. From the realm of higher mysticism. SPb., 1912
• Dark force. Pg., 1914
• The mystical trilogy. T.1. Superconsciousness. Petrograd, 1915
• Enemies of Christianity. Petrograd, 1916
• Invisible waves. The story in five parts. Petrograd, 1917