Arkady (Shaposhnikov)

He was born at the very beginning of the XIX century in the village of Klintsy, Chernihiv province. Upon the death of their parents, the entire Shaposhnikov family moved to Kremenchug , where Andrei earned his livelihood by painting icons at the request of the Old Believers.

As a very young man, in 1821 Andrei married the daughter of the Kremenchug merchant Dudarev - the widow of Khioniya Yakovlevna, who had two sons from her first marriage. From her he had a son who died in infancy; shortly after his birth, disagreements began between the spouses and in 1824, after a three-year life together, Andrei Shaposhnikov secretly left his family, left Kremenchug to save his soul. He chose the Old Believer Lavrentievsky monastery of the Gomel district of the Mogilev province as such a place for salvation. Here he was tonsured a monk with the name Arkady.

Thanks to his outstanding abilities and rare energy, he quickly gained a great influence on monastery affairs and earned the respect of the entire Lavrentiev brothers. In 1832, Arkady was unanimously elected hegumen by the brotherhood.

At the end of 1834, Arkady, together with one monk, went to Warsaw to the new owner of the Gomel estate, to which the monastery belonged - to Prince Paskevich with a request to confirm some special rights granted by the previous owners of gr. The Rumyantsevs , who took a very active part in monastery affairs. The prince graciously accepted Arkady, confirmed the rights given by the Rumyantsevs, but eliminated not only himself, but also the management of his Gomel economy from any interference in monastery affairs and from custody of the morality of the monks.

All the time of his abbess passed in a relentless struggle on the one hand with most of the monks of "weak lives", and on the other with a smaller part, who sought to achieve his ambitious goals through the transition to conscientiousness. So the case lasted until 1844, when, by order of the government, the monastery was closed, and Abbot Arkady was sent under police surveillance to his native village of Klintsy, as a place of revision registry.

But Arkady did not sit there long. In July 1845, we see him already in Moldova in the Manuilsky monastery, in which he was passing on the road to Dobrudja in the Slavsky monastery; in the last in October of the same year, he settled and, as a result of his outstanding mind, acquired great significance here too.

He participated in the discussion of the possibility of adopting a non-Old Believer bishop in the "Old Orthodoxy" for the organization of the Old Believer hierarchy; initially did not support this idea, however, together with other Old Believers he met Metropolitan Ambrose (Pappa Georgopoli) , who had not yet joined the Old Believers, in the city of Sulin in April 1846. After reading the “Considerations of Faith” compiled by Paul (Velikodvorsky) , Father Superior Arkady became a supporter of the accession of Metropolitan Ambrose to the Old Believers. At the Cathedral in the Slavsky Monastery in October 1846, where the form of the reception of Metropolitan Ambrose was discussed, Arkady spoke out for the "third rank", without repeating the sacrament of anointing over the metropolitan, but the cathedral decided to accept the metropolitan "second rank", through the curse of heresies and anointing.

On July 20, 1847, at a meeting of Old Believers Nekrasovites who recognized the newly established Belokrinitsky hierarchy in Slavsky Skete, 3 candidates were elected to be appointed bishop, priest and deacon, respectively. Arkady was nominated as a candidate for the bishop, but, referring to the 18th rule of the holy apostles prohibiting the ordination of a married widow, he declared his unworthiness to take the priesthood. After the insistent requests of the participants in the cathedral, Arkady agreed to be elected bishop. However, Metropolitan Ambrose refused the petition for the bishop's consecration, Ambrose did not change the decision and after a second consideration of the candidacy of Arkady at the Cathedral in Belaya Krinitsa , whose participants, largely influenced by monk Paul, repeated the petition of the Slavsky Cathedral. The monk Arkady (Dorofeev) , who was originally supposed to be elevated to the rank of priest, was ordained bishop. Arkady from White Krinitsa returned to the Slavsky monastery.

Possessing great authority among the Nekrasovites, he actively helped Archbishop Arkady (Dorofeev) in the management of the Slavic diocese.

On January 1, 1854, Arkady (Shaposhnikov) was appointed by Arkady, Archbishop of Slavsky, to the "Bishops of Wandering Christians" for those Nekrasovites who, taking advantage of the offer of the Turkish government, decided to move out of Dobrudzh during the then open hostilities between Russia and Turkey. In March of the same year, these settlers, along with Bishop Arkady (Shaposhnikov), set out on a journey and settled on a pasha farm 12 versts from Istanbul , where they lived until October 1855. Since both Nekrasov bishops Arkady (Dorofeev) and Alimpiy were arrested during the war as fleeing from Russia, Arkady (Shaposhnikov), returning from his wanderings, accepted the title of “Bishop of Slavsky and Exarch of All Nekrasovites”. Having become a Slavic bishop, Arkady zealously set about organizing his bishopric. His letters for 1857-1862 are filled with requests for the delivery of books, reports about the priests put up, about newly built churches, etc. He even intends to start his own printing house to reprint books necessary for the Old Believers. In 1862, Bishop Arkady took an active part in the disputes arising in his bishopric about the rejection of metrics .

In the same year, the Moscow District Epistle was published, which entailed much controversy. Most of the Belokrinitsky consent accepted this message, but another categorically rejected it. Arkady from the very beginning took the side of the former: “I pray to all Orthodox Christians, he wrote in one letter, no doubt to read and believe everything written in the“ District Epistle “”. Arkady took an active part in the disputes arising over the message. So in 1866, he, along with other bishops, signed the decision of the Botashansko-Iasi Cathedral, in which the Metropolitan. Cyril was forbidden to sacrifice from now on to the great cathedral for the adoption of the heretical dogmas of the party of the quarrels . Arkady also participated in the Belokrinitsky Cathedral of 1868, but here, wanting to pacify the Old Believers, which has been struggling for several years at any cost and keep it from disintegrating, made great concessions in favor of the protestants and even renounced the "District Message" by signing a letter shameful for Old Believers and constituents and having concluded, in his own words, a “dirty world” with quarrels. But this "dirty world" did not bring the desired reconciliation; on the contrary, he aroused new displeasure. Arkady, who was still a strong defender of the “Message”, was strewed with a hail of offensive reproaches, convictions and even threats from everywhere. All these letters had a strong effect on Arkady and had a decisive influence on the development of his ailment.

On November 11, 1868, in the Old Believer Assumption Monastery in the village of Slava in Dobrudja (now the village of Slava-Ruse , Romania), three months after Belokrinitsky Cathedral, Arkady died.

Nikolai Subbotin named Arkady, Bishop of Slavsky, one of the most remarkable personalities of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy. With a great mind, Arkady possessed extensive information gleaned, as can be seen from his letters, not only from Old Believer books; he was quite familiar with Old Believer literature. In addition, he freely owned a pen and was able to express his thoughts in a very original way, in a language not alien to power and eloquence. Rare energy, extraordinary memory, quick thinking, the ever-present ability to find oneself in difficult circumstances in the course of a lifetime lifted him to the forefront. As a great zealot of the Old Believers and a strict guardian of all established ritual living conditions, strict not only to others, but also to himself, Arkady enjoyed great respect among the Old Believers. But with its undoubted merits, Arkady also had significant shortcomings. His proud, vengeful character, his passion for covetousness, although they were carefully hidden by him, nevertheless, sometimes surfaced and restored public opinion against him, which was sometimes expressed in rather harsh reviews about him.

• Shaposhnikov, Arkady // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Shaposhnikov, Arkady // Russian Biographical Dictionary : in 25 volumes. - SPb. - M. , 1896-1918.
• ARKADIUS // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2001. - T. III. - S. 268-269. - 752 s. - 40,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-008-0 .