Onuphrius (Sails)

Andrei Fedorovich Parusov was born into a peasant family of the Yaroslavl province . His parents were Orthodox and in childhood baptized their son in the Orthodox Church with the name Andrei.

Activities in the Old Believers split

In 1835 he joined the Old Believers. Soon, striving for monasticism, he took the veil in the Pokrovsky Old Believer monastery in Starodub'e , later moving to the Laurentian monastery on Starodub'e. Here he met Peter the Great (later a monk Pavel Belokrinitsky), Abbot Arkady and other significant Old Believers. Acquaintance with the monk Pavel and with the monk Gerontius (Kolpakov), who shared with him the plan for the creation of a bishop's department for Old Believers, carried Onufriy to White Krinitsa . After the closure of the Lavrentiev Monastery, he moved to the Belokrinitsky Monastery , where he lived as a sacristan .

In 1847, after joining the Old Believer Church of Metropolitan Ambrose of Bosno-Sarajevo (Pappa-Georgopoli) , the monk Onuphrius was put by him into a hierodeacon .

August 29, 1848 ordained bishop of the city of Braila ( Austria ).

The Bishop of Brailovsky Onufriy, the governor of Belokrinitsky metropolitan became the closest assistant of Pavel Belokrinitsky in the arrangement of Belokrinitsky (Austrian) Old Believer hierarchy , and after the death of Pavel Belokrinitsky in 1854, he even became the head of this responsible work.

In early 1860 in Moscow, Archbishop Anthony (Shutov) became known as the Archbishop of Moscow and All Russia. This desire of Anthony to dominate other Old Believer bishops caused great displeasure among the Old Believers. At the end of 1861, Onufry (Sails), the governor of Belokrinitsky, Metropolitan Kiril (Timofeyev) arrived from Austria in Austria, having the assignment to nourish the Russian Old Believers who accepted the priesthood of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. In particular, the governor of Belokrinitsky metropolis arrived to find ways to resolve the misunderstandings that arose between the bishops of Kazan Pafnutia (Shikin) and Kolomna Pafnuti (Ovchinnikov) , on the one hand, and Archbishop Anthony (Shutov) on the other.

For more than a year, Bishop Onufry (Sails) managed hierarchical affairs in Russia. Here, with his close participation, the well-known " District Message " was published, of which he was one of the main initiators and supporters. With the author of the “Circular Message,” Hilarion Kabanov, he was also linked by personal friendship. But he was unable to restore the reputation of the Belokrinitsk bishops in the eyes of the backward society of the Old Believers. Anthony (Shutov), ​​although he was considered the head of the district party, he did not at all share the opinions expressed in the "Circuit Message", and was always ready to abandon the "Circuit Message", making repeated attempts to acquire peace with the anti- riots at this price. This was the cause of the long struggle of Archbishop Anthony with the Bishop of Kazan Paphnutius, the representative of the party of the circle, who in the long notes in detail calculated the errors and misdeeds of Anthony (Shutov).

The discontent caused by the disagreements in the Belokrinitsky Old Believer hierarchy, still intensified in disputes with the Besopov Old Believers, gave rise to doubts about the truth of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, which became stronger when like-minded people were found, the main one of whom became Kolomna Pafnuti (Ovchinnikov) the bishop. A brotherhood of 7 like-minded persons gradually formed, which entered into negotiations with the Metropolitan of Moscow, Philaret (Drozdov) , which ended with joining the Synodal Russian Orthodox Church .

Activities after joining the ROC

June 23, 1865. Onuphrius (Saints) Dioceses were attached to the Orthodox Church on the rights of single-faith .

And on July 21, 1865, non-cooperative Bishop Sergius of Tula and Protodeacon Kirill Zagadayev joined the Orthodox Church on the basis of common faith . In 1867, they were joined by Bishop Justin (Ignatiev) of Tulchyn and Theodosius, the Hierodecion.

At first, all the newly joined brotherhood lived in a separate outhouse of the Chudov (Cathedral) monastery , where they settled with the blessing of Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret before joining the Orthodox Church.

This transition from the Old Believers to the Orthodox Church was one of the main reasons for the creation of the Nikolsky monastery in Moscow in Moscow.

And on May 16, 1866, at the Preobrazhensky cemetery , the Nikolsky single-ranked hostile monastery was solemnly opened. The first rector and organizer of which was Archimandrite Tarasiy , the former founder and abbot of the Blagoveshchensk Kerzhensky monastery of the same faith (Nizhny Novgorod province). And the newly-established brotherhood of the former Old Believers hierarchs, including the monk Onufrii (Parusov), became the first inhabitants of the monastery of the same faith.

In July 1866, due to the circumstances of his monastery, Archimandrite Tarasius asked for a dismissal from Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret and returned to his Annunciation skete. After the departure of Tarasia's father, the monastery's brotherhood chose the monk Onuphrius (Parusov) to be the priest ^[1] . And Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, blessed the monk Onufry (Parusov) to manage the monastery in the position of the prior, relying on the help and advice of Archimandrite Veniamin (Petukhov) - the governor of the Chudovo (cathedral) monastery . But this post, Father Onuphrius, and over time begged the lord to dismiss him from the post of head, wanting to remain a simple monk in this monastery.

In the middle of 1867, the brotherhood chose the priest, already ordained to the priesthood, hieromonk Paphnutius (Ovchinnikov), who agreed to manage the St. Nicholas monastic church, with the condition to remain the prior, until the work of joining Pavel Prussky , which had already begun, was completed.

On February 25, 1868, the monk Pavel of Prussia, well-known in Old Believers, the founder and prior of Besopovsky Old Believer Voinovsky monastery in East Prussia , joined the Orthodox Church on the basis of common faith. He joined with his fraternity of 15 students. And some time later, on June 10, 1868, hieromonk Pafnuti (Ovchinnikov) resigned from the post of abbot of the monastery, and with the blessing of Metropolitan of Moscow Innokenty (Veniaminov) returned to the Miracles monastery for missionary work. And in his place as the prior, the monk Pavel of Prussia was elected.

The monk Onuphrius (Sails) never took holy orders, and he spent the last 30 years as a simple monk at St. Nicholas Convent in Moscow. At the same time, he was very helpful to Nikolai Subbotin , Professor of the Protivoskraskolnicheskaya Department of the Moscow Theological Academy , telling him the most valuable data on the history of the emergence of the Old Believers Belokrinitsky (Austrian) hierarchy.

The monk Onufry died on August 22, 1894 in the Moscow Nikolsky monastery of the same faith, where he was buried.

1. Subbotin N. I. Accession to Orthodoxy of the schismatic bishops and other members of the so-called Belokrinitskaya hierarchy . -M .: Univ. type of. (Katkov and K °), 1866. −60 p.
2. Subbotin N. I. Twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession to the Church of schismatic bishops and other members of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy . -M: type. E. Lissner and Y. Roman, 1890. −109 p.
3. Filaret (Zakharovich) , igum. On the opening of the monastery of St. Nicholas in Moscow : East. note / Comp. igum. Filaret. -M .: type. E.Lissner and J.Roman, 1897. −30 p.

• Onufriy, Bishop of Brailovsky // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Russian Biographical Dictionary: Onufry (in the world of Andrei Parusov) .
• Wurgaft S. G., Ushakov I. A. Old Believers. Persons, objects, events and characters. Experience encyclopedic dictionary .
• Site "Orthodox Encyclopedia": the article "Belokrinitskaya hierarchy . "