Cyril (Pavlov)

Born on September 8, 1919 in the village of Makovsky Vyselki ^[1] in a pious peasant family. From the age of 12 he lived with an unbelieving brother, and under the influence of the environment, he withdrew from religion ^[6] . After graduating from the Kasimov industrial technical school, he worked as a technologist at a metallurgical plant in the city of Katav-Ivanovsk . After the war, after taking monastic vows, Father Kirill visited the native village and the village of Makovo, 12 km from Mikhailov, during the Easter period, where his parents, brother and sisters were buried. In the village, he helped to restore the bell tower and the temple, which has not been closed throughout Soviet history ^[9] .

He was drafted into the Red Army in 1939, served in the Far East . The participant of the Great Patriotic War in the rank of lieutenant , participated in the defense of Stalingrad (commanded a platoon), in battles near Lake Balaton in Hungary in a self-propelled regiment, ended the war in Austria . He was demobilized in 1946 .

During the war, Ivan Pavlov turned to faith. He recalled that, while carrying guard duty in the destroyed Stalingrad in April 1943, he found the Gospel among the ruins of the house ^[10] .

Sometimes Archimandrite Cyril is identified with the famous sergeant Yakov Pavlov , who also participated in the Battle of Stalingrad and defended the famous “ Pavlov House ”. However, we are talking about a namesake - Guard Sergeant Yakov Pavlov was at the party work after the war and did not take the veil as a monk. Unusual parallels in their fates are traced by the writer Nikolai Konyaev in the essay "Russia rests on the sergeants of Pavlov." In this essay, published in 2004 in the newspaper “ Rus' Reigning ”, it was first noted in the press that Elder Cyril is the spiritual father of the three Russian patriarchs - Alexy I , Pimen, and Alexius II ^{[7] [11]} .

Immediately after the army I entered the seminary: “In 1946, I was demobilized from Hungary. I came to Moscow, in the Yelokhovsky Cathedral I ask: do we have any spiritual institution? “There is,” they say, “a theological seminary was opened in the Novodevichy Convent .” Went there right in military uniforms. I remember that the vice rector, Father Sergiy Savinsky, warmly welcomed me and gave me a test program. ” ^[12] After graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary, he entered the Moscow Theological Academy , from which he graduated in 1954 .

On August 25, 1954, he was tonsured as a monk at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Initially, he was a ponomare . In 1970 he became treasurer, and since 1965 - the spiritual father of the monastic brethren. He was elevated to the rank of archimandrite ^[13] .

He was appointed confessor of Patriarch Alexy II , in connection with this he moved to Peredelkino ^[6] (where the Patriarch's residence is located), continuing to spiritually nourish the monks of the monastery ^[14] . Awarded church orders of St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Prince Vladimir . Author of numerous sermons and teachings. Mentor young monks who took the veil in the monastery ^[6] . He wrote a lot in the epistolary genre; Each year, Archimandrite Cyril sent up to 5,000 letters of congratulations, admonitions, and edifications to bishops, priests, lay people, spiritual children, and even unfamiliar people ^[15] .

On December 4, 2003, he suffered a stroke ^[16] , which deprived the elder of the opportunity to move and communicate with the outside world. According to the testimony of Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov) , the vicar of the Holy Danilov Monastery in Moscow, who communicated with his confessor, the elder Cyril “is very weak and feeble, but he prays for us. It is very difficult for him to speak now, he almost cannot speak, but once he said: “Everyone should do his own thing ...” ” ^{[6] [17]} .

He died on the evening of February 20, 2017 in the Patriarchal residence in Peredelkino ^[19]

He was buried in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra ^[20] .

Archimandrite Kirill is one of the most revered Russian elders of the late XX - early XXI centuries ^[7] .

Archimandrite Cyril believed that:

the most important thing is to keep love. No hostility is needed, no splits are committed. The enemy is afraid of the world. Enmity is the most tried means of it. Therefore, I wish you that the brotherhood was unanimous. Would have condescending to each other, forgiving each other. As the Apostle Paul said: "Beloved and chosen of God, put on mercy, goodness, humble wisdom, meekness, long-suffering, condescending to each other and forgiving mutual insults and complaints."

Negatively related to the introduction of the TIN, which concerned a large part of the Orthodox community, as an integral part of the globalization processes dangerous for the Orthodox faith ^[6] . He called for vigilance, believing that the renunciation of Christ may begin inconspicuously in the routine of everyday and habitual sins, which the person himself is inclined to consider as minor and insignificant. INN and everything connected with it, according to Fr. Cyril is the "beginning of the end." At the same time, he refrained from sharp speeches against the introduction of the TIN, not wanting to stimulate the church schism. In the statement of the people who visited the Archimandrite, his position was as follows:

If there is no peace, then do nothing, only harm will be. It is necessary to resist the introduction of a TIN in such a way that no divisive moods arise among the flock, and the shepherds should not condemn each other, and especially the archpastors, so that the unity of the Church does not suffer. Those who can, need to seek from the Government, from the Duma, that a law be passed to exempt the Orthodox from the assignment of numbers ^[21] .

Kirill wrote an introductory word to the book by Maria Zhukova about his father - “Marshal Zhukov is my father”. Moscow, Publishing House of the Sretensky Monastery, 2006, 192 p. ^[22] . In his opening remarks, characterizing the marshal of the Victory, Cyril, in particular, noted: "His soul is Christian, the seal of God's chosenness is felt in his whole life " ^[11] .

In 2012, under the editorship of the priest Viktor Kuznetsov, the book “The Elder Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)” was published (M., 2012. - 432 pp .: ill. - ISBN 978-5-9903278-7-5 (err.) ) - the stories of those who had meetings and conversations with the esteemed elder Cyril.

• Compilations of sermons:
• Time of repentance
• Seek first the kingdom of heaven
• Praise of the Mother of God
• Sermons

• Archimandrite Alexy (Polikarpov) . All-Russian clergyman - the ministry of Archimandrite Cyril (Pavlov) // Monastyrskiy Vestnik. - 13.3.2018.
• Priest Victor Kuznetsov . The clerk. - Yaroslavl, 2013. - 432 p. - 10 000 copies

• Biography
• I walked with the Gospel and was not afraid ...
• Curriculum Vitae
• On participation in the war
• Curriculum Vitae
• Curriculum Vitae
• Opinion of Archimandrite Cyril on INN
• Quiet light of authenticity. Article kelenitsy, nun Natalia (Aksamentovoy)