Innocent (Pustynsky)

Born on October 6, 1868 in a family of a sexton of the Holy Trinity Church of the Alexandro-Korovin desert of the Vologda province (now Gryazovets district , Vologda region ). Baptized September 26, 1868 (old style) in the same church. Sang on the choir in this church ^[1] .

He lost his parents early, was a shepherd, learned to read and write from a local priest Vasily Avduevsky, who procured a boy a place in the Vologda Theological School , collecting money for the road among the villagers.

He graduated from the Vologda Theological Seminary (1883-1889). In 1893, he graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy with a degree of candidate of theology and was appointed psalmist of the Cathedral in San Francisco in America .

In mid-September 1894 he was tonsured a monk and elevated to the rank of hierodeacon , and at the end of September - at the hieromonk .

Since 1895 - assistant inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary .

Since 1897 - assistant inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy .

Since 1898 - Acting Inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy.

Since 1899 - a member of the St. Petersburg Theological Censorship Committee in the dignity of archimandrite .

In 1900, for his work “Pastoral Theology in Russia for the 19th Century”, he received a master's degree in theology.

In the same year he was appointed rector of the Tver Theological Seminary .

At the beginning of 1903 - deputy governor of the Chudov Monastery in Moscow.

December 14, 1903 in St. Petersburg ordained bishop of Alaska , the first vicar of the North American Diocese . The consecration was performed by Metropolitan of Moscow Vladimir (Epiphany) , Metropolitan of Kiev Flavian (Gorodetsky), Archbishop of Kazan Dimitry, Bishop of North America Tikhon (Bellavin) , Bishop of Tula Pitirim (Windows) , Bishop of Volyn Anthony (Khrapepoditsky) ) , Bishop of Gdovskiy Konstantin (Bulychev) , Bishop of Narva Antonin (Granovsky) and Bishop of Alaverdi Euphemius (Eliev) .

May 1, 1909 was appointed bishop of Yakutsk and Vilyui . February 23, 1912 dismissed from the administration of the diocese.

Since June 25, 1912 - Bishop of Turkestan and Tashkent (the department is in Verny ).

In December 1916, he moved the center of the department from Verny (now Alma-Ata) to Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan ). From that time until June 1923 - bishop of Tashkent and Turkestan.

In 1917 - a member of the All-Russian Local Council .

In 1918, on the occasion of Holy Easter, he was elevated to the rank of archbishop .

In the early 1920s, he opposed Renovationism together with Archpriest Andrei Malov and layman Professor Valentin Voino-Yasenetsky . He offered the latter to become a priest and in 1921 ordained him. In 1922, as ordered by the GPU, he hastily left Tashkent.

In 1923, the Renovationists sent the Archbishop Innocent to the state, and in its place, the Renovated bishop was supposed to come. Without waiting for the arrival of the schismatic, he, together with Bishop Sergiy (Lavrov), makes the designation of Bishop of Tashkent Archimandrite Vissarion (Zorin) . But the next day, his protege is arrested, Archbishop Innocent himself secretly fled to Moscow at night, hoping to get to the Valaam Monastery from there . He did not succeed and "after a lot of time", as archbishop Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky) writes, "he was able to get into his Vologda village Pustyanka."

In 1923, he recognized the jurisdiction of the renovationist “Synod of the Orthodox Russian Church”, having canceled his speeches of the Tashkent period with a special message, he was appointed renovationists by the archbishop of Kursk and Oboyansk.

Since 1924 - renovationist Metropolitan of Kiev and Galitsky, chairman of the Council and rector of the Theological School in Kiev.

On November 15, 1924, he participated in the “All-Ukrainian Conference” in front of the Second Renaissance Council in Kharkov (UAOC-UPATS), where he defended autocephaly and Ukrainianization of worship. Condemned the religious fanaticism in the Church, the political provocations of the state against religion, the aggressive conflict of the Tikhonov’s, although he himself belonged to the Moscow Patriarchate earlier. Under his personal influence, the meeting decided to translate liturgical books into modern Ukrainian and send priests to the Orthodox Ukrainians of Kuban, Don, Turkestan and Eastern Siberia with these books.

November 16, 1925 appointed rector of the renovationist Kiev Higher Theological School. He was rector until its closure in 1929 ^[2] .

At the beginning of 1932, he was appointed by the Renovationist Synod to govern the Archangel Metropolis. In the spring of the same year - elected to be chairman of the Church Administration of the Northern Territory of Russia.

On March 14, 1933, the NKVD of the USSR was arrested in the Vologda village of Desert on charges of “disagreeing with the policy of the Soviet government towards the church”, “anti-Soviet agitation and conducting activities to create a counter-revolutionary church-monarchist underground” (clause 10 of article 58 “anti-Soviet propaganda” ) According to the records of the investigators, he was not cunning during interrogations, he behaved with dignity and honesty. By sentence, he was sent to exile for 3 years in Kazakhstan .

December 3, 1937 - the NKVD arrested him there again and executed in Alma-Ata.

• Pastoral theology in Russia for the 19th century. (Sergiev Posad, 1899 , master's thesis)
• Pastoral theology. (Thoughts on the published book: “Pastoral Theology in Russia”) // “ Orthodox Interlocutor ”, 1900 , I
• "Much and one." (Luke 10, 41, 42) // Theological Bulletin , 1898, October, p. 8.
• "Gifts of the earth to the heavenly inhabitant." The Theological Bulletin 1897, November, p. 169.
• "Two ways". The Theological Bulletin 1897, October.
• Three temptations. Speech. (Tver, 1901 )

• "Church Gazette" 1900, No. 48, p. 368, 1901, No. 1, p. 12, 1903, No. 49, p. 388, 1909, No. 20, p. 193, 1912, No. 9, p. 55, 1918, No. 17-18, p. 104.
• “Arr. to “CV” ”1903, No. 49, p. 1938, No. 51-52, p. 2023-2028.
• “Russian. Palomn. ”1909, No. 21, p. 339, 1912, No. 36, p. 555, 560.
• “Church. Updated. ”1924, No. 2-3, p. 6, 1925, No. 5, 6, 7, p. 54, 55.
• "Proceedings of the Kazan Diocese" 1912, No. 4, p. 120, No. 16, p. 516.
• “Journal of the meeting. St. Sin. ”No. 18 of October 30, 1950
• "Ukr. Right The Annunciation. ”1925, No. 16, p. 12.
• “Right. Sobes. ”1901, January, p. 91, 92, 1902, January, p. 33, September, p. adj. 3, 1905, March, p. 542.
• "ZhMP" 1955, No. 3, p. 70.
• “Miss. Calend. ”1907, p. 133.
• Popov Lavrentiy, prot. Bishop Innocent (Pustynsky): His ministry at the Yakut Department of 1909-1911. SPb., 1913. 31 s (Reprint. From the "Yakut Diocesan Sheets" for 1909, 1911)
• "Vestn. All R. Union. The communities of Drev-Ap. Churches". 1923, No. 1, p. 16.
• “Composition of the Holy Rights. All R. Syn. and grew up. Church. Hierarchy for 1917 ”, p. 212-213.
• Lists of bishops of 1897-1944 Patr. Alexia, p. fifteen.
• Bulgakov, p. 1394, 1417.
• FPS I, No. 11, p. 1, III, p. 3.
• FAM II, No. 23, p. 2.
• NES t. XIX, p. 480.
• Cat-EU No. 1, p. 5, paragraph 24.
• Cat-Am No. 145.
• BEL t. V, stb. 973, 974.
• BES t. I, stb. 945, 946, t. II, stb. 2196, 2401.
• Grigorij (Afonsky) , A History of the Orthodox Church in Alaska (1794-1917), Kodiak 1977, S. 88.
• Bibliographic index of Russian spiritual writers from monks over the 18th, 19th centuries and half of the 20th century. / Compiled by V. Volkov ... Zagorsk, 1961. Part 1.
• Review of the master's thesis. Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy . December 1899 "Orthodox Interlocutor" 1902, attached. 3.
• Review of the Holy Synod for a master's thesis. "Approx." CV "1902, No. 23, p. 762.

• Innocent (Pustynsky) On the site Russian Orthodoxy
• A. Khairetdinova. In the millstones of Russian unrest
• Innocent (Pustynsky) // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Memory page on the site of victims of repression