Innokentyevtsy

The founder and chief curator of the sect (and later the self-proclaimed representative of the "Holy Spirit" on Earth) was Hieromonk Innocent, in the world Ivan Levizor (1875-1917) - hence the name of the sect ^[1] . A native of the village of Kosoucy, Bessarabian province. In adolescence, he entered as a novice in the Dobrza Monastery, but two years later he was expelled from the monastery for "misbehaving with respect to women." After that, he lived in peace for some time. However, he soon returned to the ministry. The second time - at the Mitrofanievsky monastery in St. Petersburg. During the obedience, Ivan Levizor (Innocent) became close to the sect of the Johannites, and a little later the future “prophet” received a blessing from Grigory Rasputin , a very authoritative figure among Russian sectarianism and the court of the Russian Imperial Court of that time.

At the beginning of 1908, he returned to his homeland and entered the Baltic Theodosievsky Pokrovsky monastery, founded in 1907, in Balta, where he was tonsured a hierodeacon. There he was named with a new name - Innocent, and shortly after this he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk.

The beginning of the sect is considered to be May 1908. Then, at the confluence of many pilgrims, the relics of the locally revered holy righteous Fr. Theodosius of Balta (Levitsky) (1791-1845) in the Holy Trinity Church of the monastery. During the ceremony, Innocent staged miracles of healing, after which he began organizational work to attract the flock and promote his teachings, acting as the intercessor to the deceased about. Theodosius.

Beginning

Soon after gaining the first listeners, Innocent in his sermons changes his strategy and begins to talk about his visions, in which he talks with Jesus Christ himself. One of the locals, who visited the monastery in 1909, paints a scene that accompanied Innocent’s sermon: “... Wild cries ran from all directions, people, like madmen, barked like a dog, lay on the floor, scourged themselves with ropes to blood whole body. "

Distribution

Gradually around Innokenty, his followers and admirers began to group, who served as the carriers of rumors in the surrounding villages about the new prophet: some claimed that Jesus Christ appeared to Innokenty many times; others said that he was born of a virgin and that, even as a child, he praised the Lord God.

As the parishioners grew and rumors spread about the alleged miracles of healing, people began to believe the inventions of the Baltic hieromonk, considering him the messenger of God.

Adherents of the sect focused on the imminent Last Judgment and on the figure of Hieromonk Innocent as his forerunner and human savior. They called in the name of salvation and atonement from sins to abandon homes, property, children, family, to follow the prophet and prepare for a meeting with God. Most of the “flock” and some people from neighboring villages sold their property, and the proceeds were donated entirely to the monastery of the “Holy Spirit”.

Innokentyevtsi their leaders are forbidden to seek medical help for the reason that believers supposedly atone for their sins by physical suffering. “He who suffers should not seek comfort,” the preachers teach.

Innokentievtsy oppose marriage. For them, marriage is an obstacle to a holy life. Sect education is declared a “sinful deed”. Believers are forbidden to attend theaters, cinema, listen to the radio, and children are not allowed to go to school.

According to some authors, innocent people, according to some authors, consider self-mortification to be the greatest feat ^[1] . In many caches of this sect were specially equipped "death rooms" where doomed victims perished in terrible torment. Some of them were buried alive.

Gradually, the true thoughts of the founder of the sect began to take on a clear color and openly hypocritical orientation. Depraved lifestyle, drunken orgies, scandals among parishioners, fights among his cohabitants, were publicized far beyond the monastery. In 1909, a special commission of the Synod arrived in Balta. Shortly after the departure of the commission, an order was issued by the Synod, which ordered the monk Innokenty from the Balti Monastery to be transferred “under the strict control of Serafim Podolsky, tested in the faith,” to stop the spread of rumors about Innocent's sanctity. In 1912, the Levizor was sent to the Murom monastery in the Olonets province. In February 1913, he was released from the monastery by supporters, but then was arrested and transferred to a prison in Petrozavodsk , and then sent to Solovki ^[2] .

"New Jerusalem" is a gigantic underground monastery, designed for a couple of thousand people, near the village of Lipetsk-Ananyevsky district of the Kherson province, built on a plot of land bought by the supporters of Innocent. In May 1913 the construction of the monastery was completed. Upon completion, the monastery was filled with novices of the hieromonk. A huge number of people in the dark, water-filled basements, unsanitary conditions, neglect of the hygiene of the renounced world and constant malnutrition contributed to mass diseases. Hundreds of people died from colds, flu, typhoid, consumption ... It was closed in 1919.

Modern followers of the teachings managed to clear the entrance to the dungeon, having got through it into the southern corridor of the monastery several tens of meters long. Now used by the remaining followers of Innocent for ritual needs.

In 1919, at a congregation meeting, Innocent was killed in a drunken brawl by one of the self-proclaimed apostles of his sect and was secretly buried. Among the devotees, new sect leaders spread the rumor that Innocent ascended to heaven

Currently, the sect continues to exist in the amount of several thousand people, more actively in the territory of the village of Kuybyshevo, in Ukraine - 20 km from the city of Kotovsk. Adherents of the teachings are still found in Romania and Moldova. They gather in the “New Paradise”, the former monastery of “New Jerusalem” twice a year - on January 19, at Epiphany, and on August 2, at St. Ilya.

• Makarova N.I. Secret societies and sects. (1998). ISBN 985-6274-60-5
• Silantiev R.A. Innokentyevtsy // Peoples and religions of the world: Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. V.A. Tishkov . - M .: Great Russian Encyclopedia , 1999. - S. 734. - 928 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-85270-155-6 .

• Mythologic.Ru Innokentyevtsy. Sects of Russian origin
• Mythologic.Ru History | Mythology | Religious Doctrines | Sects
• Newspaper "Religion in Ukraine"