John (Kistrusky)

John was born on August 22, 1878 in the Zarechensky suburb of Ranenburg in the family of priest John Eliseevich Kistrusky and his wife Maria Ivanovna. In the family grew six children, John was the eldest of them. His father was a teacher in the city’s women’s school, in a local school, he was elected a deputy to the city’s clergy at school congresses, was a member of the board of the Ranenburg school from the clergy, and was awarded for special zeal in teaching the Law of God .

In 1893 he graduated from the Ranenburg Theological School. 1900 graduated from the Ryazan Theological Seminary ^[1] .

On September 9, 1900, he was appointed overseer for students of the Vladikavkaz Theological College ^[1] .

On August 15, 1901, he was dismissed for staff in connection with his admission to the Kazan Theological Academy, which he graduated in May 1905 with the degree of Candidate of Theology ^[2] and with the right to teach in the seminary ^[3] .

On May 27, 1905, Archimandrite Gabriel (Zyryanov) was tonsured a monk with the same name preserved ^[2] .

September 11, 1905 ordained deacon . September 19, 1905 was appointed teacher of the Voronezh Theological School. September 25, 1905 ordained as hieromonk ^[1] .

September 30, 1906 transferred to the missionary Alexander Missionary Seminary of the Vladikavkaz Diocese in Ardon . On February 8, 1907, he was awarded a nabed ^[1] .

April 12, 1907 he was appointed assistant to the superintendent of the Cheboksary Theological School ^[1] .

On September 1, 1910, he was appointed inspector at the Alexander Ardon Theological Seminary. March 14, 1912 awarded a pectoral cross, issued by the Holy Synod. For some time he served as the rector of the seminary ^[1] .

After the incident with the violation of the order by the students, when the apartment of the assistant inspector ^[2] was destroyed, on October 6, 1912, when transferred to a teacher at the Novgorod Theological Seminary ^[1] .

August 21, 1914 - superintendent of the Tikhvin religious school . He was respected by teachers and students for a calm disposition, prudence and a friendly attitude towards all others ^[2] .

In 1915 he was appointed priest of the Nicholas Church of the Zarechenskaya settlement of the city of Ranenburg. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite ^[1] . Already at the end of 1917, mass repressions of the clergy began, in 1919 the Soviet government closed monasteries and many churches, and church values ​​were removed from the active ones.

On August 10, 1923, in Moscow, he was consecrated bishop of Mikhailovsky , vicar of the Ryazan diocese, with the assignment of the temporary administration of the Ryazan diocese, due to the fact that the archbishop of Ryazan and Zaraisk Boris (Sokolov) was under arrest at that time ^[2] . The consecration was performed by: Patriarch Tikhon, Archbishops Seraphim (Alexandrov) and Tikhon (Obolensky) ^[1] .

November 30, 1923, was elected Bishop of Ranenburg, Vicar of the Ryazan Diocese ^[1] .

According to the report of Bishop John to Patriarch Tikhon: “On August 12, Solomin forbade him to go to Ryazan and to his district, and was authorized to serve only in 4 city churches <>> on February 4, 1924 . I was summoned to the institution by the police chief Mazberg and announced to me that he forbids me to serve the ministry, because, according to him, without registration I do not have the right to hold services, and added that your Holy Hierarch also banned the bond service - registration I, as a bishop, according to the police chief, cannot be accomplished without the visa of the renovation of the Holy Synod, and according to the decrees of the Soviet power, in my opinion, there should be no visa of the Holy Synod, since the renovation synod is in the Soviet Republic is an institution of a completely private nature, not enjoying any privileges and privileges from the government ... ” He informed about the arrest of the active opponent of the renovationists of the dean of Ranenburg, archpriest of the Nikolskaya church Dmitry Kaverin, and about his call to the GPU on the question of the commemoration of His Holiness the Patriarch ^[4] .

In the summer of 1924, Bishop John had a conflict with the Archbishop of Ryazan, Boris (Sokolov), who was expelled from the Ryazan Governorate and lived in the village of Perlovka near Moscow, administering the diocese through Vicar Bishop of Mikhailovsky Gleb (Pokrovsky) . Archbishop Boris sent a report to Patriarch Tikhon, who on July 9, 1924 appointed Bishop John to the Lukoyanovsk Vicariate of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese ^[1] . On July 27, 1924, Metodius (Abramkin) was consecrated Bishop of Ranenburg ^[2] .

He did not accept the appointment, and on October 18 of the same year he applied for retirement due to illness. On November 10, 1924, he was retired to rest with the right to reside in Ranenburg and perform divine services in the Nikolaev (Zarechenskaya) Church ^[1] .

January 29, 1925 banned the priesthood of Patriarch Tikhon . He did not obey the decree and continued to serve ^[5] .

In October 1926, he moved to the Gregorian schism and was appointed by the ruling bishop of Rannenburg ^[5] . In Gregorianism, he retained the title of Bishop of Rannenburg. Subsequently elevated by the Gregorians to the rank of Metropolitan .

In 1936, he was arrested and on March 9 he was charged with organizing and leading a "counter-revolutionary monarchist organization." He was detained in a Voronezh prison. On October 3, 1936, with a special meeting under the NKVD of the USSR, he was sentenced to a forced labor camp for a term of 3 years. The following health certificate was attached to the case file: “Arrested Kistrusky Iv. Ive with bilateral inguinal hernia and age-related changes of the internal organs to physical labor is not suitable. "

John of Kistrusky is sent to the correctional labor colony number 2 of the city of Tomsk . The archbishop of Ryazan and Shatsk, Iuvenaly (Maslovsky), who was serving a sentence in the same colony, persuaded John to repent for evading the Gregorian schism.

In early October 1937, they were arrested by the Tomsk city department of the NKVD in the Novosibirsk region , as members of the "counter-revolutionary Cadet-monarchist organization" and sentenced to the death penalty - execution. Shot on October 26, 1937. Data on the place of execution and burial is missing.

• Firsova N. A. Bishop Ioann of Renenburg (Kistrusky)
• John (Kistrusky) on the site "Russian Orthodoxy"