Plato (Levshin)

He was born on June 29 (July 10, according to a new style) in 1737 in the village of Chashnikovo in the Moscow province in a large family of a village clerk (later a priest) George Danilov ^[4] . He studied at the Kolomenskaya Seminary , then at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy ^[2] , during training in which he received the name Levshinov or Levshin ^[4] . Even before the end of the 4-year academic course, by decree of the Holy Synod in 1757 he was appointed to teach Latin and Russian poetry at the academy, while he was also given the responsibility of a “public catechist”. In 1758, at the request of the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra of Gideon, he was transferred by a rhetorical teacher to the Lavra Seminary and in August of that year was tonsured a monk; from July 1759 - hieromonk and prefect of the Trinity Seminary.

Since 1761 - rector of the Trinity Lavra Seminary , taught theology in it. In this position, he eliminated the "dead scholasticism " that "strangled" the educational process in theological schools, replaced Alvar's study guide with a new Latin grammar, published in St. Petersburg in 1746 and corrected by Lebedev in 1762.

In 1763, Catherine II was identified as a court preacher and law teacher of the heir to the Russian throne, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich ; at the same time the governor of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius . He became especially close to the heir to the throne ^[5] .

C July 16, 1766 - Sacred Archimandrite (Rector) of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra; since January 1768 - member of the Holy Synod .

On October 10, 1770, he was consecrated Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Gabriel as bishop of Tver and Kashinsky with the elevation to the rank of archbishop and the archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and lawmaker of the heir to the Russian throne, in connection with which he continued to live in Petersburg, where in 1773 he was assigned to teach the Law of God to the bride of the heir, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt Wilhelmina (Natalya Alekseevna) .

C January 21, 1775 - Archbishop of Moscow and Kaluga. Since November 15 of the same year - Director of the Slavic-Latin Academy, which under him became Slavic-Greek-Latin.

In 1783, he took up the construction, “on his own cost,” of the Spaso-Vifanskogo monastery near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Archbishop Plato was interested in the works of the French encyclopedists and was tolerant even of the spiritual searches of Masons . It was said that, at the request of Catherine II about whether Freemasonry is not contrary to the spirit of Christianity, he replied that "he prays to God that Christians around the world are like Novikov " ^[6] . The Brothers Karamazov also provides a well-known joke about the meeting of Plato with Didro , which sounds (as interpreted by Alexandra Smirnova ) as follows:

On June 29, 1787 he was elevated to the rank of Metropolitan (from October 16, 1799 he bore the title "Moscow and Kolomensky").

February 2, 1792 , feeling hostile to itself from the synodal leadership, filed a letter of resignation from the diocesan administration; the request was denied.

Upon accession to the throne of Emperor Pavel Petrovich on November 6, 1796, he protested against the introduction of the practice of salary to the clergy of state orders, becoming one of the first two hierarchs assigned to the order of St. Andrew the First-Called ; made his coronation ; at the request of some nobles, he sent a pastoral message to the emperor, in which he condemned him for harsh treatment of the nobles, and received in response a decree not to leave Moscow at all ^[7] .

He was the first hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church to enter into direct relations with the Church of England . As one of his biographers reported, “English inquisitive theologians through the plenipotentiary minister at the British court S.M. Vorontsov reacted with questions to the Metropolitan of Moscow about the separation and difference of the Eastern Church from the Western Church , about Holy Baptism and worship of holy icons ... The Metropolitan, informing English theologians his comments about this important and curious subject, he sent them his essay on Christian Theology in the Latin translation with the intention, as he expressed in his message, “so that he could better understand in the doctrine, to whom should the Greco-Russian Church, and would have made sure that the people, through the measure would be wise, always encroach mix old with the new and the unknown to the known. " The remarks and book of Metropolitan Plato were accepted in England with understanding and interest and translated into English, his theological views were expressed in lectures at the universities of Oxford and Glasgow ” ^[8] .

In 1800, he played a key role in the establishment of single-faith : in 1801, the first single-faith church was opened in Moscow at the Vvedensky cemetery .

September 15, 1801 coronated Alexander I and his wife Elizabeth Alekseevna .

On June 13, 1811, due to a serious illness, he was dismissed from diocesan affairs until recovery. During the Patriotic War in 1812 , being seriously ill, he was taken away from Moscow, where he arrived to be with his flock.

He died on November 11, 1812 in Bethany . A funeral service for him was performed in the Lavra on November 16 by his vicar Bishop Augustine (Vinogradsky) ; He was buried in the cave of the lower church of the Lazarev Resurrection of Bethany Monastery. Above the grave was a monument made of wild stone, on which an epitaph composed by Plato himself was inscribed: “Here is His Grace Plato, Metropolitan of Moscow, Archimandrite of the Trinity Lavra and the seedling of Bethany monastery and the founder of the Seminary with it ” ^[9] .

When the temple was destroyed in the 1950s, the remains of the ever-memorable Metropolitan were able to be reburied in the Holy Spirit Church of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In September 1997, with the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II, a commission led by archaeologist S. A. Belyaev uncovered the burial places of Metropolitan Plato. Under the floor of the Dukhovskoy church, a crypt was discovered, and in the crypt there was a coffin with an inscription confirming the ownership of the remains. Bishop Evgeny Vereisky (Reshetnikov) exposed the remains of Metropolitan Plato, and on October 7 of the same year, after the memorial service performed by Patriarch Alexy, the ashes of the hierarch were buried in the newly constructed crypt, inside the Church of the Dukhov, near the northern wall.

The first biographical essay on Metropolitan Plato was written ten years after his death, I. M. Snegiryov , later the essay was supplemented and reprinted several times. It was on this work that other authors relied on the biography of Metropolitan Plato - the main of them are the works of A. N. Nadezhdin and M. L. Lysogorsky. In 1912, the three most significant research articles by V.V. Platonik, V.V. Vinogradov, and B.V. Titlinov were timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the death of Metropolitan Plato. In the XX century, issues related to the Moscow bishop were touched upon in the writings of emigrant scholars - G. V. Florovsky , I. K. Smolich , V. P. Zubov and others ^[10] .

The monument to Metropolitan Plato by sculptor A. A. Bichukov was erected in 2008 in the Moscow Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery . The inscription on the pedestal reads: "Metropolitan Plato from the grateful Interruption."

• "Brief Russian Church History" by Metropolitan Plato was the first scientific and critical study of the history of the Russian church.
• Akathist Prince To Daniel . - M., 1795.
• Akathist Rev. Sergius to the Radonezh miracle worker. - M., 1795.
• Instructions to dean priests. - M., 1775.
• The catechism, or the original instruction in Christian law, interpreted popularly, 1757 and 1758, Part 2. - M., 1781.
• A brief catechism for teaching young children Christian law. - M., 1775 and Vienna, 1773, Vol. 8.
• An abbreviated catechism for teaching youth with the addition of prayers and Christian moralizing.
• Abbreviated catechism for clergy with app. places from the word of God, the rules of st. apostle. and st. father and spiritual regulation and oath. - M., 1775.
• Orthodox teaching, or abbreviated Christian Theology, with the addition of prayers and reasoning about Melchizedek. - St. Petersburg, 1765.
• Exhortation to the schismatics with the ordination of how to receive those who convert from them to the Orthodox faith. - St. Petersburg, 1766.
• Christian moralizing to the first Russian alphabet.
• Instruction for the baptized by him from the Turks Magmet in St. the baptism of Moses Petrovich Platonov.
• Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
• Short story. descript. Holy Trinity-Serg. Laurels, 1790
• Notes on a trip to Kiev, 1804, ed. Snegirev in Arr. to the life of Met. Plato. - M., 1856.
• Travel notes on a trip to Rostov, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, 1792 (ibid.).
• Notes on his life metr. Plato (from 1808 to 1812, the viceroy Lavra was carried out by Samuel Zapolsky).
• Answers to 16 questions of Voltaire.
• The collected works of Metropolitan Plato were published in Moscow in 1779-1807 in twenty volumes, most of them recorded during sermons, of which there are about 500.

• Barsov N.I. Platon (Levshin) // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Belyaev A. A. Economic activity of Metropolitan Plato. - M., 1899.
• Belyaev A.A. Metropolitan Plato as a builder of a national theological school. - Sergiev Pasad, 1913.
• Volkov V.A., Kulikova M.V., Loginov V.S. Moscow professors of the 18th - early 20th centuries. Humanities and social sciences. - M .: Janus-K, 2006 .-- S. 185-186. - 300 s. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 5-8037-0318-4.
• Glazeva A. S. Attitude of the Moscow Metropolitan Plato (Levshin) towards Catholicism and the Catholic Church // Vestnik PSTGU, II: History. History of the Russian Orthodox Church. - 2010. - Issue. II: 3 (36). - S. 7-20
• Gromoglasov I. A new study of the Moscow Metropolitan Plato. - M .: 1907.
• Lysogorsky N.V. Moscow Metropolitan Platon Levshin, as an anti-splinter activist. - 1905.
• Lyutko E.I., deacon. The role of Metropolitan Plato (Levshin) in the formation of church corporatism (the turn of the XVIII — XIX centuries) // Bulletin of the Yekaterinburg Theological Seminary. - 2019 .-- No. 1 (25). - S. 116-133.
• Magnitsky V., prot. Plato II (Levshin), Metropolitan of Moscow. A brief outline of his life and work on the occasion of the centenary of his death. - Kazan, 1912.
• Magnitsky V. Hieromonk Plato (Levshin), later Metropolitan of Moscow, as the law teacher of the Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich. - 1913.
• Nadezhina A. Metropolitan of Moscow Plato Levshin as a preacher. - Kazan, 1891.
• THE PUB. Life of Plato, Metropolitan of Moscow. - Sergiev Posad, 1900.
• Rozanov N.P. Moscow Metropolitan Plato. (1737-1812). - SPb .: The island of zealots Rus. East. enlightenment ..., 1913. - 99 p.
• Runkevich S. Plato (Levshin) // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• The project of the scientific theological portal “Theologian. Ru ”and the Savior-Bethany monastery, dedicated to the life and work of Metropolitan Plato (Levshin)
• Plato (Levshin) on the website Russian Orthodoxy
• From the “Bibliological Dictionary” of Priest Alexander Me
• Zubov V.P. Russian Preachers: Essays on the History of Russian Sermon . - Editorial URSS, 2001 .-- 232 p. - ISBN 5-8360-0292-4 . Archived March 5, 2016 on the Wayback Machine .
• Plato, Met. (Levshin P.G.). Notes of Metropolitan Plato on the laying sheets of the month of the word 1775 / Communication. A.P. Sobolev // Russian Archive , 1877. - Book. 3. - Issue. 11. - S. 329.
• Plato, Met. (Levshin P.G.). Travel notes of His Grace Metropolitan Plato of Moscow and Kaluga to Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vladimir // Russky Vestnik , 1841. - V. 3. - P. 502-522.
• Letters from Metropolitan Plato to the highest persons . - M.: University type., 1895. - 20 p.