Alexander Chagrinsky

The early years

Born in 1821 in the village of Ablyazov, Penza province (now Radishchevo , Penza region ) in the family of the clerk Stefan Ignatievich Yungerov and his wife Praskovya Kuzminichna ^[1] . The exact date of birth has not been preserved, but researchers suggest that the day of the angel Alexander was September 28 ( October 10 ) ^[2] . He was one of five children. Stefan Ignatievich soon took priesthood and was sent to the village of Yungerovka , by which he received the surname ^[1] .

In 1831, Stefan Junger died. In September of that year, Alexander entered the Saratov Theological College. The school was located in a cold and damp room, classes were conducted in unheated classes, because of which Alexander, already poor in health, acquired a foot disease for life. After 5 years, he moved to the Saratov Theological Seminary ^[3] . Learning was given to Alexander rather hard, he did not have special abilities and was rather timid, memorization of material helped out. Mother Praskovya Kuzminichna even advised her son to leave the seminary, become a deacon , and already thus rise to the priest, to which Alexander replied that when they expelled, then he would leave. Nevertheless, in 1842, Alexander Yungerov completed a full seminar course and on October 20 ( November 1 ), 1842 was ordained a priest. Shortly before that, he married a poor orphan Elizabeth Ivanovna, who was 5 years younger than her husband ^[4] .

Priesthood Start

The first appointment of the young priest was the St. Nicholas Church of the village of Tretyaki, Serdobsk Uyezd ^[4] . The appointment was temporary, his task was to obtain a decision by the rural community and local landowners to build a new church instead of the burned one. Father Alexander quickly won the sympathy of the locals, and the question of building a new church took him only a month, despite the fact that the parish was very poor: for this month the income of the clergy of four people amounted to only 30 kopecks. Upon returning to Saratov, Alexander Yungerov received a new appointment, this time planned as a permanent, in the village of Neverkino, Kuznetsk district . However, the local harsh climate did not fit the sick Elizaveta Ivanovna, and the service here lasted a little over six months ^[5] .

Ministry in Balakovo

The next was the appointment to the Trinity Church of the village of Balakovo , which father Alexander received on July 10 (22), 1843 ^[5] . The parish was very poor, and most of the inhabitants were Old Believers ^[6] . Strict observance of the entire church charter, with thorough and reverent worship services, Father Alexander gradually began to attract people to the church. His sermons began to attract attention; on big church holidays, he visited the homes of his parishioners, parting of the flock to the Orthodox life. Gradually, the parish began to join Orthodoxy, the reports of Father Alexander about conversations with the Old Believers were preserved, after which some passed from the persecuted schismaticism to the permitted single- faith ^[6] .

One of the priest's main concerns was the condition of the old temple. Built over a century ago, the cold church was very dilapidated, drafts walked in it, and even the bells had to be removed from the bell tower due to the fact that they themselves rang when it swayed from the wind. Father Alexander took many years to resolve the issue of building a new church. For two years, only he persuaded the parishioners to build a warm temple, since they were afraid that the church would burn out with the firebox. Only 18 years later, in 1861, a new church was built in the name of the Holy Trinity on Balakova Khlebnaya Square. It was a Byzantine-style brick church, with six tent-sized domes of various sizes. But this was not the end of the works of Yungerov. In 1875, at the expense of the benefactors attracted by him, the temple was doubled, and in 1881 a chapel consecrated in honor of Alexander Nevsky was added to the temple ^[7] .

At that time, father Alexander, his wife Elizaveta Ivanovna, his three sons, and the priest’s mother, Praskovya Kuzminichna ^[8] , lived in the new house of the priest, which was set next to the church instead of burned down in 1861 ^{[7 ]} .

In addition to the direct duties of the priest, Alexander Yungerov had many other concerns. From 1846 to 1867 he was a teacher at the Balakovo Women's School, teaching girls prayers and reading from church books, with classes held in his house. Father Alexander was also a confessor in his deanery (1859–1865), a missionary in the villages of Balakovo and Natalino (1859–1876), a district missionary of the deanery, deanery (1866). For his labors, he was awarded a velvet violet skufyu on April 6 (18), 1865 and a velvet violet mantelpiece on March 30 ( April 11 ), 1874 ^[8] .

Chagrinsky Monastery

On October 1, 1880, the sixty-year-old Alexander Yungerov announced to the parish that he had asked the diocesan leadership to dismiss him for the state, and to give a place in the Trinity Church to his son, the priest Vasily Yungerov. Bishop Seraphim granted the request for his son, but did not dismiss Father Alexander himself, but sent him to the Chagrinsky Women's Community ^[9] . Serving in the monastery was easier than in the parish: worship was not performed every day, and no services were required at home.

“Taking advantage of leisure,” as Father Alexander himself said, he taught the Law of God at a monastery school. Junger accompanied the services with sermons, and continued the Balak practice of conversations at home with peasants. Gradually, the monastery became famous and popular ^[10] .

The increased popularity of the monastery led to the fact that its temple became cramped for those who wanted to attend the service. Through the efforts of Abbess Seraphim and father Alexander, with the involvement of philanthropists, the construction of a new warm temple began ^[11] . In 1890, the construction of the temple was completed ^[12] . In 1890, the wife of his father, Alexander Elizabeth Ivanovna, and the abbess Seraphim, died. Concerns associated with the construction and the loss of loved ones undermined the health of Father Alexander, and in April 1893 he was dismissed for staff ^[12] .

From this time began his broader ministry, glorifying both him and the monastery far beyond the county and province. Father Alexander became widely known as the owner of the gift of insight , the gift of reasoning and the gift of miracles . In the " Samara diocesan sheets " in 1896, they wrote about him this way ^[9] :

In the apostolic age for Christians the primitive Church of Christ there were special, extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps in modern times, to excite a sleeping conscience among people of little faith or seeking the Lord, persons with special spiritual gifts, with the spirit and jealousy of Iliina, like Father John of Kronstadt , like the learned bishop Feofan Vyshensky , Ambrose Optinsky, were also needed. Among these, without a doubt, is our father, Alexander Yungerov!

The description of the reception of the people by Father Alexander, left by the new priest of the monastery Grigory Razumovsky ^{[13], is} preserved. The reception begins with the usual prayers and goes into improvisation, "in which the coming are exposed as great sinners, unworthy of embarking on the greatness, holiness and truth of God, but still boldly embarking on faith and hope in the mercy of God." The first part ends, according to an eyewitness account, with a common cry, with many crying soberly ^[13] .

After that, Father Alexander focuses on various aspects of the everyday life of those present, their insufficient, careless and inept prayer, heartlessness, appeal to healers and healers, family relationships, the dangers of drunkenness and smoking, “about forgetting God and ingratitude to Him.” Often this speech begins with the following words: “Brothers are Christians! You recognize yourself sinful, then you came here to bring the Lord God sincere repentance of your sins? Repent before Him! For repentance, you will receive forgiveness and great mercy from Him. The Lord does not reject any of the penitents. And how can you not repent and lament before Him when you spend your life completely not according to the law of God? ” ^[13] .

In the next part, Father Alexander asks the questions: “How long will you, brothers and sisters, with such a life and such nasty deeds, anger the merciful, but at the same time strict and just judge of God? Isn’t it time to reason and pity yourself, your souls? Isn’t it time to cry about our previous sinful life, and having hated sins, begin with the help of God a new, spiritual, Christian holy life? ” This part is interrupted by the tears of the audience, after which the preacher, and after him the whole people, turns to a short prayer ^[13] .

At the end, Father Alexander asks about sincere repentance of sins and, having received an answer, with the words “May the Lord help you ,” invites everyone to bow down the chapters and reads a permissive prayer ^[13] .

Among the people, father Alexander was known as a miracle worker, in the memoirs published in 1913 in Kazan of the peasant A.N.N., who lived near the monastery in the village of Aleksandrovka, repeated cases of healing the sick by the old man’s prayers were described ^[14] .

Many pilgrims came to the monastery in the hope of finding deliverance from spiritual doubts and embarrassments, to find bodily and spiritual healing. The number of visitors, according to some reports, reached thousands of people per day ^[12] . At the expense of pilgrims in 1895, a strange house was opened for numerous pilgrims in a two-story wooden building ^[15] .

By the beginning of 1900, Father Alexander was weakened, and could no longer accept pilgrims. In February 1900, he learned about the death of his son Vasily, after which his health condition markedly worsened. By Easter, he was unified , but then somewhat strengthened, although he suffered from severe headaches and unconsciousness. In December, he laid down completely and never got up. Communicated several times, was unchained, and died on December 22, 1900 ( January 4, 1901 ). Two hours before the old man’s death, his son Pavel came to him from Kazan. The funeral took place on the fifth day, December 26 ^[16] , Father Alexander was buried in the monastery cemetery near the graves of his wife, Elizabeth Ivanovna, and Mother Superior Seraphim. Above his grave was a wooden chapel with an unextinguishable lamp ^[17] .

Father Alexander and his wife Elizaveta Ivanovna had three sons: Dmitry (born in 1849), Vasily (born in 1852), and Pavel (born in 1856). All that is known about Dmitry is that he was married and served as a teacher in the Sulaksky rural school ^[18] . According to the family traditions of the Yungerovs, there were fourteen generations of priests in the family ^[1] . And the sons of Father Alexander, Paul and Basil ^[19] also followed in his footsteps.

Vasily married Alexandra Vasilievna Zlatorunskaya, was a teacher of Russian and Church Slavonic languages ^[18] , as well as geography at the Nikolaev Theological School, later became a priest first in the church of the village of Udelnaya Mayanga , and in 1880 took his father's place in the Trinity Church of the village of Balakovo. He died in 1900 ^[20] . The youngest son, Paul , graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy , taught in it. He wrote several scientific works, translated Orthodox literature into the Tatar language . He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land , and died in 1921 ^[21] .

At present, the descendants of Vasily Yungerov, including the great-grandson of Alexander's father, live in Moscow ^[22] .

After his death, the flow of pilgrims to the monastery did not stop. If before people came to the old man , now they came to his grave. With the blessing of the Samara bishop Guria , short lithiums were performed daily in the chapel daily in the summer, and in the winter in the temple ^[17] . The life of Alexander Chagrinsky says that a hole was made in the floor of the chapel through which pilgrims could take land from the grave. Every spring several carts of earth were poured onto the grave, but by autumn it was completely dismantled by pilgrims, so a pit formed under the chapel ^[12] . Until the monastery was closed, the house of Father Alexander was preserved, in which pilgrims came to pray in front of the icons in front of which the elder prayed, to touch his cross ^[12] .

Under Soviet rule, in the late 1920s, the Chagrinsky Monastery was closed, its buildings were destroyed, including the house of Father Alexander, and the chapel installed above his grave. According to some reports, in the early 1930s, to check rumors of monastery wealth buried in the old man’s grave, the grave was opened, and after no wealth was found, the body was again interred, even without a coffin ^[23] . For a long time, the pilgrimage to the old man’s grave continued, including a hidden one, as the authorities fought with “religious vagrancy” ^[24] . In 1952, a cross was erected by believers on a grave ^[25] .

But gradually the name of the buried priest began to be forgotten. In the early 1990s, the journalist of the Orthodox newspaper Blagovest Igor Makarov searched for the burial place of Father Alexander, and when asked what kind of priest was buried under the cross, he received the answer “elder healer” from the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, but no one could remember the name of the elder . However, later Makarov met the spiritual daughter of one of the last Chagrinsk nuns, who had died several years earlier. The woman was able to accurately say that it was Alexander Yungerov who was buried under the cross ^[26] .

In the spring of 2000, at the suggestion of Hieromonk Sofroniy (Balandin) , the confessor of the Iversky Convent in the Krasnoarmeysky district, work began on the search for the remains of Archpriest Alexander Yungerov ^[27] . June 22, 2000 to the acquisition of the relics of father Alexander. After the requiem, the grave was opened, the remains of a priest were discovered, as well as female remains, which were considered to belong to the abbess Seraphim. They were left in the same place, and the remains of Father Alexander were taken to the Samara Iversky Monastery, where they were placed in a special cancer ^[28] . According to Hieromonk Sofroniy: “The head of Father Alexander, his bones, a pectoral cross, a decayed salary of the Gospel, and fragments of vestments were discovered. The skull was yellowish in color, which is one of the signs of holiness. When we brought the relics of the ascetic to the Iversky Monastery, the first to be met was Archbishop Sergius, who had come to the monastery at that time. He joyfully and reverently attached himself to honest relics ” ^[27] .

Numerous statements reappeared, on behalf of the nuns and pilgrims of the monastery that after prayers at the crayfish with the relics of Father Alexander, healings of various kinds of diseases occur ^[29] .

In October 2001, it was decided to canonize Alexander Yungerov ^[30] :

... for repeated cases of healing people through prayers to the ascetic of the Samara land Archpriest Alexander Yungerov (1821-1900) both during his lifetime and in our time, and also taking into account the fact that popular veneration of the righteous, despite the hundred years that have passed since his death, does not stop even today, we determine to canonize in the face of the righteous this saint of God as the locally revered saint of the Samara diocese

The triumph of canonization in the face of the locally revered saints of the Samara diocese took place in Samara. The glorification ceremony, conducted by Archbishop of Samara and Syzran Sergius, Archbishop of Ural and Guryevsky Anthony and Bishop of Penza and Kuznetsk Filaret , was attended by the great-grandson of father Alexander Nikolayevich Yungerov and great-great-granddaughter Natalia and Elena with their children ^[30] . The deed of canonization of the venerable saints of the Samara diocese of the holy righteous Alexander Yungerov, Chagrinsky miracle worker, was read at the All-Night Vigil by the confessor of the Iversky monastery, Father Superior Sofrony, and the governor of the abbess abbot, John, announced the Life of the newly-glorified ascetic. Priest Mikhail Maltsev delivered a sermon in which he likened the "bloodless feat" of St. Alexander to martyrdom ^[31] .

The celebration of the memory of the saint was established on January 4 - on the day of his death, and June 22 - on the day of finding relics ^[32] .

• Chagrinsky Father: The life and ministry of Archpriest Alexander Yungerov, as well as the history of the Chagrinsky Intercession and Samara Iversky Convents / Compiled by N. Ogudin. - Samara : Iversky Convent , 2002. - 96 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-85234-180-0 .
• Monasteries of the Samara Territory (XVI — XX centuries): Reference book / Comp. BC Block, K.A. Katrenko. - Samara: Samara. House of the Press, 2002. - S. 59–62. - 216 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-7350-0350-X .

• Saint Alexander Chagrinsky (neopr.) . The gospel. Date of treatment August 14, 2009.
• Holy righteous Alexander Chagrinsky (neopr.) . Saratov and Volsky diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church . Date of treatment August 14, 2009. Archived on April 5, 2012.
• The Life of Alexander Chagrinsky (Neopr.) . Samara and Syzran diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church . Date of treatment August 14, 2009. Archived on April 5, 2012.