Preservation of the head of St. Sergius of Radonezh

In the journal “ Science and Religion ” (No. 6, June 1998), O. Gazizova published an interview with Pavel Vasilievich Florensky, a famous scientist and grandson of the priest Pavel Florensky . P.V. Florensky told a family legend about how, on Lazarev’s Saturday, 1919 (according to the official Soviet publication “ Revolution and the Church ”, the relics of St. Sergius were unveiled late on the night before, on Friday, April 11, 1919 ^{[1] to} Father Pavel Florensky it became known that the authorities were preparing an autopsy of the relics of St. Sergius , which was to take place before Easter . Further preservation of the relics was under great threat.

According to P.V. Florensky, a secret meeting soon took place in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra , in which Father Pavel Florensky, Viceroy of the Lavra Father Kronid (Lyubimov) , Yu. A. Olsufiev , member of the Commission for the Protection of Monuments of History and Antiquities of the Sergius Lavra; and probably members of the Commission, Count V. A. Komarovsky, as well as S. P. Mansurov and M. V. Shik, who later became priests.

The meeting participants secretly entered the Trinity Cathedral , where, after reading a prayer at the crayfish with the relics of the Monk, they separated with a copy the head of the saint, which was replaced with the head of Prince Trubetskoy buried in the monastery. The head of St. Sergius of Radonezh was temporarily placed in the sacristy . ^[2] Soon Count Olsufiev moved the Head to the oak ark and moved to his home ( Sergiev Posad , Valovaya Street). In 1928, Olsufiev, fearing arrest, buried the ark in his garden.

In 1933, after the arrest of Father Pavel Florensky, Count Yu. A. Olsufiev fled to Nizhny Novgorod , where he dedicated Pavel Alexandrovich Golubtsov (future Bishop Sergius - Bishop of Novgorod and Starorussky ) to this story. P. A. Golubtsov managed to move the ark with the head of St. Sergius from the garden of Count Olsufiev in the vicinity of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery near Moscow, where the ark was located until the end of World War II .

Returning from the front, P. A. Golubtsov handed over the ark to Ekaterina Pavlovna Vasilchikova (the adopted daughter of Count Olsufiev), who became the last guardian of the shrine. ^[2]

In 1946 , when the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was reopened, and the relics of St. Sergius were returned to the monastery, E.P. Vasilchikova secretly returned the head of Sergius to Patriarch Alexy I , who blessed to return it to its place in cancer. In the memoirs of the Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov Mikhey (Kharkharov) it is indicated that the head of the Monk Sergius of Radonezh was returned to his relics by Archimandrite Hilarion ^[3] .

According to the family tradition of Florensky, Father Paul made notes in Greek about his participation in this whole story. However, no written evidence was found in its archives. ^[2]

There is also other evidence of the events of those years, which differs in substantial details from the above.

So, there is evidence of another grandson of Fr. Pavel Florensky, Abbot Andronik Trubachev , that, from the beginning to the end of the war, Golubtsov transferred the head of the Monk from Lyubertsy , where S.V. lived Olsufyeva, to his elder schiarchimandrite Hilarion (Udodov) , who served in the church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Vinogradov, Moscow Region ^[4] (now included in the line of Moscow).

Information not confirmed by documents about the presence of the head of St. Sergius from 1941 to 1946 in the church of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in Vinogradov is given on the website of this church ^[5] :

There is an indication of a different time of separation of the head of St. Sergius from his relics - the beginning of 1920 (supposedly March 26-30), when the authorities planned to transfer the relics of the reverend from the closed Trinity-Sergius Lavra to one of the Moscow museums ^[6] .