Joseph (Petrov)

He was the 4th child (there were 9 children in the family) in the family of the tradesman of the county town of Ustyuzhny - Semyon Kirillovich Petrov, who owned a bakery and a bakery. The house was in Kazan Lane (now Valentina Tereshkova). He was baptized, like all his brothers and sisters, in the parish church of the Ascension of the Lord in Vspolye (destroyed in 1939 ).

He graduated from the Ustyuzhensk Theological College (1889), the Novgorod Theological Seminary (1895), the Moscow Theological Academy in 1899 with a candidate of theology degree. He successfully completed the assignment of the Academy of Sciences , recording the northern popular reprimand according to the developed program. In the years 1899-1900. - professor scholarship holder. Master of Theology ( 1903 ); Thesis: “The History of the Jewish People in Archeology of Joseph Flavius . Critical Parsing and Processing Experience. ”

Since September 9, 1900 - Acting Associate Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy in the Department of Biblical History.

On August 26, 1901 he was tonsured a monk, on September 30 he was ordained a hierodeacon , and on October 14, a hieromonk .

Since 1903 - Associate Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy.

Since December 9, 1903 - an extraordinary professor and inspector of the Academy.

On January 18, 1904 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite .

Then, due to a conflict with radical students, he was fired from the academy by request and was appointed, in June 1906, rector of the Yablochinsky Holy Onufrievsky first-class monastery of the Kholm eparchy .

Since 1907 - rector of the first-class St. George Monastery of the Novgorod Diocese .

March 15, 1909 consecrated in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the Bishop of Uglich , the second Vicar of the Yaroslavl diocese (ruling diocesan bishop until December 1913 - Archbishop (later Patriarch ) Tikhon (Bellavin) ).

From February 27 of the same year he was rector of the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery in Rostov - until the final closure of the monastery in 1923.

March 20, 1910 renamed the First Vicar. In 1911 he visited Athos to study the ancient church chants.

Awarded the Order of St. Anne 1st Class (1915) .

Member of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church of 1917-1918 .

From December 1, 1917 to January 20, 1918 he was temporary administrator of the Diocese of Riga.

In July 1919 he was arrested on charges of disrupting the campaign to uncover the relics through bell ringing and procession. He was sent to Moscow in Butyrka prison . In August of that year he was released. In 1920 sentenced to probation for a year.

Since 1920 - Archbishop of Rostov , vicar of the Yaroslavl diocese. He took a very decisive position against the seizure of church property and on June 19, 1922, the Yaroslavl Revolutionary Tribunal was sentenced to four years in prison, but with a special order of January 5, 1923, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee was prematurely released.

In 1920 - 1925 he ruled the Novgorod diocese during the arrest of Archbishop Arseny (Stadnitsky) .

In 1923 - 1926 he ruled the Yaroslavl diocese during the arrest of Metropolitan Agafangel (Preobrazhensky) .

In December 1925, Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) in his will before his arrest made him the third candidate for deputy of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens.

Metropolitan of Leningrad

On August 26, 1926, by decree of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), Archbishop Joseph was appointed Metropolitan of Leningrad and on September 11 (August 29 according to the Julian calendar ) arrived in Leningrad . On the evening of this day (the eve of the memory of St. Alexander Nevsky) and on the morning of the holiday, he performed a solemn service in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra . September 13, went to Novgorod for things, from where he was called to Moscow at the OGPU. He was forbidden to return to Leningrad; the place of stay was indicated Rostov the Great. Metropolitan appointed Archbishop of Kingisepp Gabriel (Voevodin) , who was arrested 7 months later, on April 19, 1927, as provisional manager of the Leningrad Diocese.

The Leader of "Josephism"

In 1927, Metropolitan Joseph was critical of the “ Declaration ” of the deputy patriarchal locum tenens Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) .

In the autumn of 1927, he refused to accept the appointment of September 17 to Odessa (instead of Leningrad, where the authorities did not allow him); living in Rostov, continued to be called the Metropolitan of Leningrad. His position enjoyed considerable support among the "old church" clergy and people in Leningrad, where on his behalf the diocese was governed by one of the vicars - Bishop Dimitri (Lyubimov) .

On February 6, 1928, he signed an act on moving away from Metropolitan Sergius, becoming the head of a special movement in the Patriarchal Church, referred to in his literature as “ Josephism ”. He was banned from serving by Metropolitan Sergius and the Provisional Synod under him by a decision of March 27, 1928 . Prohibitions are not recognized.

In September 1929, he was arrested and deported to Kazakhstan in Auliye-Ata . He was arrested in exile and brought to the cause of the All-Union Organization of the CPI on September 9, 1930 . Initially, Metropolitan Joseph was interrogated in Leningrad, then he was taken to Moscow. On September 27, 1930, in his own testimony, he characterized the difference between the "Josephs" and the supporters of Metropolitan Sergius: "Sergius wants to be a lackey of the Soviet Government, we want to be honest, loyal citizens of the Soviet Republic with human rights, and not a lackey, and that's all." In other testimonies he wrote: “The Tsarist regime once beat me - I put up with it ... I’m ready to endure anything from the present Soviet as well, firmly believing that even without the will of God, it is not strong for me to do any harm. (Eve (angel from) John 19 Ch. 10-11).

According to the decision of the Special Meeting at the OGPU Board of September 3, 1931, he was sentenced to five years in prison in the camp with a replacement for deportation to Kazakhstan for the same term. He lived in Mirzoyan, on the outskirts of Chimkent . In a small Kazakh adobe house, he occupied a room with an overhead light, furnished very modestly: in it stood a roughly knocked together table, a trestle bed and a pair of chairs. Each morning, one served for a lectern , on which he placed a small carved fold .

Arrest and Martyrdom

In July 1937, he was again arrested during mass repressions against the clergy.

November 19, 1937 was sentenced to be shot by the Troika of the UNKVD in the South Kazakhstan region ; November 20 , at midnight he was shot along with Metropolitan Kirill (Smirnov) ; presumably buried in the Fox Gully near Chimkent .

He was glorified in the face of saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in 1981, along with a host of new martyrs and confessors of Russia .

The Russian Orthodox Church , however, does not glorify him, although some supporters of Metropolitan Joseph were canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church . Apparently, the obstacle to canonization is not the leadership of the "schism" (the modern Russian Orthodox Church admits that the "Josephites" were largely right), but their recognition of their guilt in 1937 in " counter-revolutionary activities "; although in the ROCA, many believe that counter-revolutionary activity and hostility to the Soviet regime cannot be an obstacle to church glorification, but, on the contrary, testify to the life achievement of Metropolitan Joseph. However, there is a point of view that this protocol was fabricated by security officers - the official style of the text and the standard form of evidence for such confessions speak in favor of this version. If the Church accepts this point of view as official, the question of canonization can be resolved positively.

On September 15, 2012, in the homeland of Metropolitan Joseph, in the city of Ustyuzhna, Vologda Oblast, a black marble memorial plaque was installed with the inscription “Entry number 14 on this lane (formerly Kazan) in 1872, the first martyr Joseph was born and lived the first 17 years of his life, Metropolitan of Petrogradsk (Ivan Semenovich Petrov). Rastrilyan in 1937 ” ^[1] .

The main work of Bishop Joseph: “The History of the Jewish People in Archeology of Josephus Flavius” (Sergiev Posad, 1903, master's thesis). He saw the task of his work in “having rejected the unfit, to establish the important” in the text of Flavius. He emphasized two extremes in Flavius' assessment - hypercriticism and complete trust: “It took humiliatingly servile admiration of the authority of Joseph for far remarkable talents (like some fathers and teachers of the Church) before equilibrium was established.” The conclusion of the researcher himself was that Flavius, speaking of the period preceding the Maccabean wars , did not have any serious documents except the Old Testament , but his information about the last two centuries BC. e. are of great value, especially since this period is not fully covered in the Bible.

He is also the author of the book “Samuel and Saul in Their Mutual Relations” (ib., 1900), articles in the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia.

In 1905-1910 he published his diary under the title: “In the arms of the Fathers. Diary of a monk ”, consisting of twelve volumes. The text shows how carefully the author of the diary went deep into himself and wrote down his every spiritual movement. The diary says a lot about the ups of his spirit, and about the temptations to which he was subjected.

• The Holy Martyr Joseph, Metropolitan of Petrograd: Biography and Works / Comp.: M. S. Sakharov and L. E. Sikorska - M .: Bratonezh, 2011. - (Series “New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia in the Face of God-fighting”). 1st ed .: SPb .: 2006.
• John , Met. St. Petersburg and Ladoga . Church schisms in the Russian Church of the 20s and 30s of the XX century - Gregorian, Yaroslavl, Joseph, Victorian and others, their features and history. 2nd ed. Sortavala, 1993.
• Shkarovsky, M.V. Josephine. Current in the Russian Orthodox Church St. Petersburg: 1999 (Historical collection of "Memorial", 4).
• Shkarovsky, M.V. Fates of the Joseph Shepherds. The Josephite movement of the Russian Orthodox Church in the fates of its participants. Archival materials. SPb, 2006.
• Polyakov, A. G. Victorian current in the Russian Orthodox Church. Kirov, 2009.
• Polyakov, A. G. Management of the Victorian current in the Russian Orthodox Church (April 1928 - May 1931) // Bulletin of the A. Pushkin Leningrad State University. Scientific journal. 2011. No. 2. Volume 4. Story. S.106-112.

• Biography
• Biography
• Interrogation protocols 1929-1930
• Holy Martyr Metropolitan Joseph in Petrograd
• Smch. Joseph (Petrov) - Met. Petrogradsky. Biography.
• METROPOLITUS JOSEPH (PETROV) AND JOSEPHLYAN MOVEMENT
• Holy Martyr Joseph Metropolitan of Petrograd