Trubachev, Zosima Vasilievich

Born December 24, 1893 in the village of Puchuga, Solvychegodsky Uyezd, Vologda Province . His parents came from the clergy. Father - Deacon Vasily Petrovich Trubachev throughout his life managed to serve in several Severo-Dvinsk parishes: Novovystavochny Voznesensky, Puchuzhsky Petro-Pavlovsky, Erogodsky Pokrovsky, Volchyruchevsky Znamensky and Rakulsky Uspensky, in which he ended his earthly journey in 1917 at the age of 49. . His services to the Church and the Fatherland were marked by many awards: a bronze medal “For the census of 1897”, silver medals “In memory of the reign of Emperor Alexander III” and “25 years of parish schools”, as well as commemorative cross and medal "In honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty." Mother - Vera Petrovna, nee Popova, died in 1942 in Arkhangelsk, at the age of 73 years. Mother’s brothers Nikolai, Vladimir and Simeon were priests. In Permogorye, next to the church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ, the grave of Priest Simeon was preserved. Archpriest Nikolai Popov served in Krasnoborsk. His eldest son, also Nikolai, was a priest of the Evd Ascension Church, died in a camp before the war. The second son of Archpriest Nikolai Popov - Peter, after graduating from Yuryev Medical Imperial University worked as a doctor. He was married to Anna Komissarova, daughter of Ivan Komissarov, who in 1866 pushed the hand of a terrorist and thereby saved Emperor Alexander II from death. The son of Peter Nikolayevich and Anna Ivanovna - Oleg Petrovich Popov, who was born in 1916, was the godson of Tsar Nicholas II , lived in the city of Kirillov, Vologda Region.

The children of Deacon Vasily Petrovich Trubachev - Nikolai, Zosima, Peter, Panteleimon received their primary education at the Theological School of Nikolsk, but only Zosima then entered the Vologda Theological Seminary , and in 1914 - at the Moscow Theological Academy , which he graduated in 1918 with a degree candidate of theology .

The beneficial effect of the liturgical life of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the undoubted influence of Archimandrite Hilarion (Trinity) and Fr. Paul Florensky became decisive in his desire for the priesthood. He deeply revered about. John of Kronstadt and kept as a blessing the image of St. John Rylsky , painted with a portrait of Fr. John and transferred to him by Vera Verkhovtseva - the spiritual daughter of Fr. John.

Endowed with perfect hearing and singing data, he studied singing at the seminary and successfully replaced the regent. In his student years, Zosima Vasilievich managed the second academic choir and the house church choir in the name of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene in the Sergiev Posad refuge of the Red Cross sisters of mercy, where Fr. Pavel Florensky. Under the leadership of Fr. He wrote the candidate’s essay "The Cosmic Element in the Service of the Liturgical Books." Years of study at the academy brought up loyalty and devotion to the Orthodox Church. He often visited the elders of the Zosima desert , receiving from them answers to the vital questions of spiritual life.

A year before graduating from the academy, he married Claudia Sankova, whose father, George Prokhorovich, a railway foreman by profession, was a great admirer of the Monk Barnabas of Gethsemane, whom he often turned to for advice. The wedding was done by father Pavel Florensky. The participation of Father Paul in the fate of Father Zosima had a further continuation: the son of Father Zosima - Trubachev, Sergei Zosimovich in 1946 married the daughter of the priest Pavel Florensky - Olga (1918-1998). In this marriage, children were born: Maria (1951), an art critic, researcher at the I.E. Grabar All-Russian Art Scientific and Restoration Center , and Alexander (andronik in monasticism, 1952), hegumen , inhabitant of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, associate professor of the Moscow Theological Academy - successor to the priesthood of both genera.

In March 1918, Zosima Trubachev was ordained deacon , and on April 25, Patriarch Tikhon ordained him priest in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra . The first place of his ministry was the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin at the Moscow Theological Academy.

Since the end of 1918 he began to serve in the Mother of God Church of the Nativity of the village of Podosinovets in the Vologda diocese. A few months before the arrival of Father Zosima, the rector of the church, Archpriest Nikolai Podyakov, suffered a martyr's death at the hands of the atheists.

A native of the Vologda province, he knew well the life of local peasants who were engaged in tilling and cultivating flax, from which they woven linen and sewed clothes; all local residents wore it. Having settled in Podosinovets, the father of Zosim devoted himself entirely to pastoral activity. The celebration of services, the preaching of the word of God, the fatherly care of parishioners entrusted to him, the Christian upbringing of children, became the meaning and content of his life. He visited patients in remote villages of the parish , held Sunday talks, denounced the sectarians, simply and easily explained the truths of the Orthodox faith, came to the aid of all those in need. Father Zosima was very fond of children. On Christmas Day, a priest’s tree was always arranged in the priest’s house, Christmas songs and children's play songs were sung. He brought up a thirteen-year-old orphan, Natasha Gruzdev, the daughter of a drowned Pomor; she subsequently became a member of the priest's family.

In Podosinovets, three children were born to the father of Zosima and his wife, Claudia Georgievna: Sergey (1919), Anastasia (1922) and Alexey (1924). An event took place with the youngest son of the priest in infancy, which the whole family clearly perceived as a miracle. On one of the holidays, relatives and guests gathered; Zosim's father held the boy in his arms, but someone called him. He laid the child on the windowsill and hurried out. After a few moments, the boy fell from the second floor of the house onto the street. When they brought him, he immediately fell into oblivion and seemed to fall asleep. Father Zosima went into another room and began to pray fervently. The boy woke up quite healthy.

Father Zosima served internally assembled, concentrated, earnestly, all going into prayer. Exclamations uttered chantingly, sonically, prayers read ardently and with conviction. On the feast of the Epiphany, water blessing in Podosinovets took place on the South River. In summer, water sanctuaries were performed in front of the temple on a huge boulder.

In 1922, the priest was first arrested during a campaign to seize church property and imprisoned in Veliky Ustyug . Soon, however, he was released and returned to serve in Podosinovets.

In 1924, Zosim's father moved to serve in the Ivanovo diocese, which was then headed by Bishop Augustine (Belyaev) . For about two years, father Zosima headed the Tikhonov Exaltation of the Cross Exaltation community at the nearby Holy Exaltation and Kazan churches in the city of Kokhma .

In the mid-1920s, the Orthodox of Ivanovo-Voznesenskaa experienced one of the most difficult periods of their church history. Renovationists with the support of the authorities seized almost all the churches in the city. Bishop Augustine was forbidden to live in the cathedral city, and he came to Ivanovo only for worship, at the request of believers before the authorities. Vladyka found a firm and courageous defender of Orthodoxy in Father Zosima, and in 1925 sent him to serve in the Vvedensky church in Ivanovo , since the abbot of this church fell into renovationism , and many of the clergy of the church were inclined to do the same. Father Zosima was appointed rector and elevated to the rank of archpriest. The Vvedensky temple was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Inside, it was decorated with a carved wooden iconostasis with icons executed in the style of ancient writing. Through the efforts of Archpriest Zosima, a small bell tower was laid and built separately from the temple; he consecrated the bells and established the daily ringing order. On Sundays after the evening service, Father Zosima held discussions on religious topics, attracting all the priests who served in the church. Every week, an akathist was read on Tuesdays in front of the venerated icon of the Mother of God, “ Unexpected Joy .” He spent a lot of energy to establish the statutory performance of divine services, to overcome the habit of clergy to carelessly conduct order, in particular the sacrament of confession , persistently defended the everyday traditions of church singing, trying to convey his prayer mood to the choir.

To attract the Orthodox to the Renovationists, the authorities allowed them to make religious processions around the city, while the Orthodox did not have the right to do so, and in case of disobedience they threatened them with various punishments. Archpriest Zosima, despite the threats, did not agree to cancel the processions. During the night Easter service, when with the singing “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the Angels sing in heaven ...” the priesthood and believers left the church, they began to be crowded by atheists, shouting curses and threats. Father Zosima, like all the clergy, was guarded by the parishioners of the church, Ivanovo workers. Holding hands, they cordoned off the procession and did not allow the beating of believers.

The sermons of Father Zosima were persuaded by the power of faith; the listeners felt that before them was a man who had completely betrayed himself to the will of God. Explaining the Gospel , he called for the steady confession of Christ, not to deny Him, to strengthen faith in the audience he gave examples from the life of the holy martyrs . Of the Russian ascetics, he especially revered the venerable Seraphim of Sarov .

In July 1926, he and his parishioners made a trip to Sarov . From Arzamas, the pilgrims moved on a cart. Most of the way, father Zosima went on foot. They came to the all-night service ; the next day they visited the wasteland, on the stone where the reverend prayed, and at the source. On the way back we stopped in Diveevo and walked with prayer along the Mother of God groove. Father Zosima visited the blessed Maria Ivanovna , who, departing from her habit with the visitors to rage and curse, received him very affectionately.

Zosim’s father was sociable in nature, easily approached with people both churchly and secular; people both simple and educated were drawn to him. But at the same time, he always remained a priest, a person dressed in priestly rank, and interest in various aspects of life did not drown in him the inner prayer mood.

In 1926, authorities arrested Bishop Augustine and sent to Central Asia. His daughters remained in Ivanovo, who had lost their mother in infancy. Archpriest Zosima turned to the parishioners of the Vvedensky church with a request to help orphans. As soon as the authorities became aware, they arrested the priest. On September 7, 1928, a special meeting of the OGPU Board sentenced Archpriest Zosima to three years of exile in the city of Velsk in the Vologda Oblast with a ban on serving. In 1929, the punishment was tightened, and he was imprisoned in a forced labor camp and sent to logging operations near the station of Nyandoma in the Arkhangelsk Region, there about. Zosima met with the deportee Pavel Alexandrovich Golubtsov (later Archbishop Sergius ).

In 1932, the priest was allowed to move to Yuryev-Polsky. He got a job as an accountant, and in his free days he managed the choir in the only church in the city in the name of the holy disinterested Cosmas and Damian . After reference and conclusion about. Zosima became focused and restrained, but did not change either his convictions or his firm intention to continue the church service.

In the summer of 1934, when the term of exile expired, Zosim's father hastened to visit his mother, who was then living in Arkhangelsk, and then, having arrived in Moscow to arrange his church service, he was sent to serve in a church in the village of Ramenye, Shakhovsky District, Moscow Region (Aug. 1934).

In 1934, Bishop Augustine returned to Moscow from prison and Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) , Deputy Locum Tenens, sent him to the Kaluga Department. Archpriest Zosima met with the bishop, and he invited him to serve in the Kaluga diocese. Long and well knowing Bishop Augustine, Fr. Zosima gladly agreed and was appointed rector of the Kazan Church in the city of Maloyaroslavets and dean of the parishes in the Maloyaroslavets district (1934). He spiritually nourished his flock, many exiled nuns and the clergy, among whom was the priest Roman Medved , who returned from a concentration camp, whom Fr. Zosima visited every day until his death.

On January 26, 1938, authorities again arrested Archpriest Zosima, and he was imprisoned in Taganskaya Prison in Moscow. On January 29, the investigator interrogated the priest, asking if he pleaded guilty to conducting active counter-revolutionary work against the Soviet government. O. Zosima categorically refused to plead guilty to the charges brought against him. The three NKVD sentenced him to death. Archpriest Zosima Trubachev was shot on February 26, 1938 at the Butovo training ground near Moscow and was buried in a common unknown grave.

• Biography based on the materials of the magazine “Now and Prisno” - N 3-4. - 2006