Veniamin (Glebov)

From the family of priest Alexy Stepanovich Glebov, secretary of the Smolensk bishop.

In 1900 he graduated from the Smolensk Theological College ^[1] . In 1906 he graduated from the Smolensk Theological Seminary , in 1911 - from the Faculty of Law of the Imperial Kharkov University .

In 1913 he entered as a novice at the Pafnutievo-Borovsky Monastery . He took monasticism with the name Benjamin. In October 1913 he was ordained a hieromonk . From March 1917 - hieromonk of the Smolensk Trinity Monastery ^[1] .

In 1918 he was mobilized in the Red Army, served in the rear militia in Smolensk .

September 26, 1920 in the Moscow church in the name of St. Sergius in the Rogozhskaya Sloboda was ordained bishop of Roslavl , vicar of the Smolensk diocese . The consecration was headed by Patriarch Tikhon .

During the campaign to seize church property, trying to prevent clashes, on March 29, 1922, addressed the parishes of Roslavl Uyezd with an appeal in which he called "to fulfill all the requirements of the seizure commission; upon seizure, ask only to leave the sacred vessels, but if they were required, give them with a calm heart, ask for only the most necessary things for worship. ”

During the acute crisis of the supreme church authority, when Patriarch Tikhon was under arrest (May 9, 1922 - June 25, 1923) and the power usurped by the renewed Higher Church Administration , Bishop Vasily was inclined to recognize the authority of the latter and, as evidenced by the letter from Bishop Vasily to Archbishop Antonin (Granovsky) of April 23, 1923, did not deny the possibility of church reforms, which were to be carried out under the program of the Union of Church Revival, headed by Archbishop Antonin, and not under the Living Church program, led by V. D. Krasnitsky (Antonin opposed the demands of the Living Church for the introduction of a second clergy of the clergy, the closure of all monasteries, the abolition of the episcopate, etc.). By the end of 1922, a small group of supporters of the Living Church existed in Roslavl, a significant number of communities led by the rector of the Preobrazhensky monastery archimandrite Rafail (Bautin) shared the program of the Union of Church Revival. Bishop Benjamin tried to reconcile the Vicariate communities, but all his efforts ended with the fact that on October 31 the VTsU fired Benjamin “to retire ... with the appointment of his place of residence in Zadonsk, Voronezh Province.” (Sept. 20 “Archimandrite Rafail was dismissed to rest”).

In the fall of 1922, Bishop Benjamin apparently intended to leave Roslavl. On November 13-24, 1922, the council of the Orthodox community, which adopted the Roslavl Preobrazhensky Monastery, decided: “There should be no V. Ts. U. as a spiritual leader over himself and not enter into prayer communion with him. Remaining strictly Orthodox, recognize as your spiritual leader and head of the bishop. Benjamin Roslavlsky, asking him to stay in Roslavl. " On February 5, 1923, the council of the Polotsk Sofia Orthodox Brotherhood sent Bishop Benjamin a letter asking if rumors about his intention to leave Roslavl (“because of his strictly Orthodox views on the renovation movement”) and retire are truthful, to lead the Orthodox in Polotsk in their opposition to the Renovationists.

The decree on "retirement" of Bishop Benjamin and Archimandrite Raphael and the message that they did not obey this decision and remained in Roslavl was sent to the Smolensk Provincial Political Department (received December 23, 1922). On February 27, the GPU governor suggested that the Commissioner for Roslavl Uyezd arrest Bishop Benjamin and Archimandrite Rafail. On March 8, 1923, Bishop Benjamin was arrested, imprisoned in Smolensk correctional court, and on March 27 he was transferred to the house of pre-trial detention No. 2. To the investigator's question about the attitude to the problem of church governance in the new historical conditions, Bishop Benjamin said: “The highest church authority in the Orthodox Church should belong and to the convening of the Council, the right to convene a council belongs to the Highest Church Administration ... the reforms in the Church are necessary, and I sympathize with them ". Soon the GPU received a petition from believers (with numerous signatures) to release Bishop Benjamin and Archimandrite Raphael. The petition, in particular, said that Bishop Benjamin and Archimandrite Raphael “were never opposed to the Soviet power ... both of them are true Christians, taught us both with a word and an example of love and morality in the spirit of Christ. faith, which contributed to the reduction of hooliganism and misconduct and vices of all kinds (drunkenness, etc.) ... Both were never self-serving, they were always content with the very few that we could give them (Bishop Benjamin stated that he only needed to have 1 f. bread a day), which taught us to be content with the same thing, at the present difficult time and not to seek wealth and other blessings of the world. ”

On April 10, 1923, an indictment was drawn up in the Smolensk governor’s department of the GPU, which stated that the main fault of Bishop Vasily and Archimandrite Rafail was in opposition to the Living Church: “Glebov ... was the head of the reactionary clergy and threw out the slogan in order to actively resist the renovation movement of the church autocephalous church ... Ep. Benjamin achieved the fact that priests subordinate to him in the church relation began to file applications, one after another, that they were not involved in the so-called The living church, and in general Mr. Glebov as bishop with his authority, dissociating himself under pressure from the archim. Rafaila from all the renovation groups ... wanted to create a strong autocephalous church in Tchaikovsky in Roslavl ... With this fact, they declared a merciless and successful struggle against the renovationists and thereby created the impossibility of the renovation movement to have the desired development. " It was proposed to send Bishop Benjamin and Archimandrite Raphael "to places remote from Siberia and the North."

On May 22, 1923, Bishop Benjamin sent a petition to the GPU stating that “he had never dealt with the fabrication and dissemination of false rumors or unverified information that could ... arouse distrust of the government or discredit it,” and requested that the matter be examined as soon as possible and released from prison due to poor health. June 7, 1923 he was transferred to Moscow in Butyrskaya prison . Here the accusation was reformulated into the standard - “anti-Soviet activity and counter-revolutionary agitation”. According to the decision of the OGPU Board of August 8, 1923, the bishop was released, the investigation was dismissed. After his release, he lived in Moscow, served in the churches of St. Mitrofan and St. Nicholas the Appeared on the Arbat .

On April 12, 1925, he signed the Act on the assumption of office of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) .

On April 28, Bishop Benjamin was again arrested on charges of “counter-revolutionary agitation and the spread of malicious, unverified rumors to discredit the Sov. authorities ”, imprisoned in Butyrka prison. The accusation was not confirmed, on May 22 the bishop was released, the investigation was dismissed.

Since 1926 he lived in the Krutyaki farm of the Bologovsky district , dependent on his sisters.

In 1928 he settled in the Rygodishchinsky agricultural monastic artel in the Leningrad region. Subsequently, he was expelled from the Smolensk diocese.

Since 1930 he lived in the city of Valdai .

In 1932 he traveled to Moscow for treatment.

He led a secluded life, he was extremely careful, only a few nuns and priests visited his apartment. However, caution did not help the bishop: a woman was recruited in his entourage, who received the pseudonym “Svoya” and for about a year was collecting discrediting material for the lord.

Arrested on February 17, 1938, imprisoned in the city of Staraya Russa . He was accused that, "being an implacable enemy of owls. authorities, among the population systematically carried out counter-revolutionary agitation, spreading provocative counter-revolutionary rumors about the imminent death of Soviet power. He held counter-revolutionary gatherings, arranging them under the guise of religious rites. ” During interrogations, Bishop Vasily admitted that he was "hostile to the policies of the CPSU (b) and the Soviet government."

By a resolution of the special trio of the UNKVD in the Leningrad Region of March 4, 1938, he was sentenced to death. Shot March 6, 1938 in Leningrad . He was buried in Leningrad.

Rehabilitated by the conclusion of the prosecutor's office of the Leningrad region on April 26, 1989.

• Veniamin // Orthodox Encyclopedia . - M .: Church Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia" , 2004. - T. VII. - S. 633-634. - 752 s. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-010-2 .
• Veniamin (Glebov) on the site "Russian Orthodoxy"