Father Dmitry Smirnov
Dimitry Smirnov was born on March 7, 1951 in Moscow. You could say he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors. His great-grandfather was a priest, but his grandfather served as a White Guard officer.
As a child, Dmitry Nikolaevich studied at a school with a physics and mathematics focus. Then he entered the Pedagogical Institute in Moscow, choosing the art and graphic department of the correspondence department.
The way of my great-grandfather
In 1978, Dmitry decides to follow the path of his great-grandfather and enters the Moscow Theological Seminary, which is located in Sergiev Posad. He graduated from the seminary in 2 years as an external student. Then, in 1.5 years, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy, after which he was appointed a priest in one of the Moscow churches.
In 1991 he moved to serve as rector of the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh. He currently serves there. The parishioners immediately fell in love with the priest, and their number kept growing. As the number of parishioners grew, he became rector of six more churches in Moscow.
Since 2001, he has been combining his main work in the church with work in the Synodal Department, which deals with the interaction of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
In 2009, Archpriest Demetrius was awarded the right to wear a miter. He received many awards and orders. Of these, the most important can be called the Order of St. Nestor the Chronicler. It was received in 2004.
In 2013, he left his position in the Synodal Department and received a new one - first deputy chairman and head of the apparatus of the Patriarchal Commission, where the main issues on family affairs and the protection of motherhood are resolved.
By the way, Dimitry Smirnov supported and in every possible way promoted and defended traditional family values.
He spoke out for family integrity and against abortion, all manifestations of unhealthy forms, such as pedophilia and homosexuality. He also has an ambiguous opinion about atheists. As he once said, their lives have no meaning.
He was straightforward and unwavering in his faith. But sometimes his sarcasm is not always clear to people, but those who understand what he was talking about enjoy these statements even more.
Sometimes he can speak out somewhat harshly and emotionally. This may hurt the ears of some, but his statements are always fair and came from the heart.
His main goal is to save the souls of his parishioners and set them up for righteous worldly deeds. For example, his statement about cohabitation between a man and a woman: “A woman in a civil marriage is a free prostitute, not a wife.”
Dimitry Smirnov: “Let no one hope that he will disappear after death”
On Wednesday, October 21, at the age of 69, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov died as a result of an exacerbation of a chronic disease. The funeral service of the famous priest will take place on Friday, October 23, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where the funeral service is performed only with the blessing of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.
Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov died, according to official statements, not from the consequences of the coronavirus, but from a chronic illness.
Most likely, this is true. Father Dimitri was ill at the very beginning of May. Although it was difficult, he quickly came to his senses. I know this for sure, since he was in the same department as my father (Archpriest Vladislav Sveshnikov). One day my dad called me and asked for Father Dimitri’s phone number: since visiting from ward to ward was prohibited, they arranged telephone sessions. And they agreed to compete to see who could go home the fastest.
Archpriest Dimitri was discharged faster than my father. It seemed that he was on the mend (and 15 years younger), but in August news came: the Holy Synod relieved him of his post as head of the Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood. He was released at his request due to health reasons.
We met after his ordination. And I didn’t know the bright “boy Mitya” at all, who studied at a physics and mathematics school, worked in a circus, acted in films and graduated from college with a sculptor’s diploma.
And - unexpectedly for many friends - the seminary, which he graduated ahead of schedule, in two years. Then the academy - for one and a half. Which is not surprising given his intelligence and already existing education. In the 1980s, the newly minted priest Dimitri went to his first place of service - Altufyevo. This coincided with relative freedom to preach Christianity and faith: priests began to be invited to cultural centers. They came with pleasure. The halls were packed to capacity - thousands of people wanting to hear the living word of God, in need of spiritual support, looking for answers to questions.
A variety of questions were asked. Most often they are far from the main ones. Complete strangers asked directly from the stage to bless them to go on vacation, asked if they could go and cut their overgrown hair, and where it was better to go - to get married or to a monastery. Some priests answered seriously, others, like Father Dimitri, laughed it off. But his attitude to the questions in these jokes was obvious: “If in doubt, then only get married.”
I remember another question that was repeatedly asked, important at that time, since newly converted Orthodox Christians suddenly decided that pilgrimage trips to holy places were an excellent vacation option. Having no right to prohibit these “travels,” when answering, he always offered to choose for himself what was best: “Do you live in Moscow? Have you already visited all the holy places here? Have you venerated all the relics, what do you need to go to the monastery?”
Unfortunately, not everyone understood his humorous, sometimes buffoonish answers.
Then he began to speak harsher and more directly. For example, it was easy for him to call unmarried women “free prostitutes.” “Hello! No, you just provide services for free, that’s all, and no one considers you a wife,” is his famous quote, in which there is not a word about the same “husbands.” Or Father Dimitri could easily joke at a sermon: “One to another: “You are a brute” - “I am not a brute, because you are a brute!” And they will never agree that both are brutes.”
This happened at the same time that Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov was “gaining strength”: in 1991 he became rector of the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh on Khutorskaya. When a small church can no longer accommodate all the parishioners, he opens one after another seven more churches in Moscow and the Moscow region. And in each he is appointed rector. Ten years later, a new appointment - chairman of the Synodal Department for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies.
Being a priest is one of the most difficult challenges for a priest. Moreover, for a priest who was in no way prepared by his previous life for this service, who does not know how to cope with the burden of power over hundreds of people who sincerely believe in you and (what is even more difficult) in you, who are ready to fulfill any desire of their beloved priest and obey all your orders. Even intentions.
The further he went, the more often his “camouflaged” statements became more and more frank, odious, and unacceptable. It is no coincidence that in the Orthodox world there was a joke made by someone that in his youth Father Dimitri was a boxer, so now he hits the spot with his words: “The life of an atheist is meaningless. A consistent atheist should commit suicide. Because there is no point in “living, learning and fighting” if after death only a burdock grows.”
Unable to withstand this harshness and outright provocations, people who for many years considered Smirnov their spiritual father quietly left for other churches. Father Dimitri seemed not to notice anything. In fact, he was very worried, but he did not change the situation and, first of all, himself. It is possible and correct: changing at age is extremely difficult. It’s also unclear who you’ll turn into. Therefore, he continued to fight the enemy of the human race to the last drop of blood.
Two years ago on November 15, the unfathomable happened. At the age of 62, the greatest guitarist of our time, Ivan Smirnov, suddenly died. He was called "Russian Jim Hendrix." Ivan was the younger brother of Archpriest Dimitri. The family took his passing very hard.
By this time, the priest himself had already been freed from “military” duty for five years at his own request and was engaged in the protection of motherhood and childhood. In his characteristic manner: ardently, sincerely and... irreconcilably. For example, he openly opposed the adoption of the Domestic Violence Law.
In 2012, journalist and TV presenter Vladimir Pozner invited Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov to his show. At the end, according to tradition, Vladimir Vladimirovich conducted a quick survey. One of the questions was: “When you find yourself before God, what will you tell him?” The priest reacted in his usual manner:
- I’ll say: “And how is our Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner?”
Both laughed, and neither remembered the famous saying: “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”
And now you won’t know what Archpriest Demetrius asked God first. Perhaps about your soul? In a 2005 article, “On Sin and Repentance,” he wrote, “Have we ever thought seriously that if we died on Wednesday, what would we do on Thursday? It turns out not. We think about what we will do here tomorrow or tonight, but we don’t think about what awaits us in the next world. And let no one hope that after he dies, he will disappear - the grass will grow, and that’s all. No, not everything, the soul is immortal.”
Archpriest Dimitri died on Wednesday...
Cause of death of Dmitry Smirnov
In the 1990s, Smirnov suffered from diabetes. There were problems with the heart and legs.
In the spring of 2021, I became infected with the coronavirus infection COVID-19. Before becoming infected, he had undergone heart surgery. A few weeks later, Dmitry Nikolaevich recovered and planned to undergo rehabilitation until the fall.
At the end of September he was again hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the Research Institute. Sklifosovsky. He was diagnosed with a brain disease. Lately he has been using a wheelchair.
On October 21, 2021, Dmitry Nikolaevich died at the age of 69 as a result of an exacerbation of a chronic disease. The funeral service took place on October 23 at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. He was buried behind the altar of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Petrovsky Park in Moscow.
About abortion
Federal News Agency /
The priest was an active opponent of abortion. Smirnov has repeatedly stated that Russia needs to fight abortion. The archpriest called on Russian women to “stop killing their own children.” He noted that after infanticide, a woman should not expect a good life and desire a happy marriage. He boldly declared that “cannibals like our people need to be wiped off the face of the earth.” The priest recalled that “a hundred years ago, a Russian family on average had eight children; having 15-20 children was a common story.”
“Our people have an aborted consciousness. This is a killer people,” the archpriest said during the program “Conversations with Father” on the Soyuz TV channel.
About power
Federal News Agency /
Archpriest Dimitry said this phrase in an interview with the social media outlet Pravmir. Smirnov noted that there are different authorities. He complained that most officials are indifferent to people’s problems, do not help those in need, but instead “send all sorts of commissions.”
“Our officials cannot understand that they should be like priests - serve the people,” the clergyman noted.
Earlier, politician and minister of the Russian Orthodox Church Vitaly Milonov spoke about the main merit of Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov . The State Duma deputy noted that the priest was able to speak vividly, using memorable images, about important things.
About the Russian faith
Federal News Agency /
In one of the interviews, Father Dimitri was asked a question about faith in Russia, asking him whether Russians are richer spiritually than Europeans. The priest admitted that he did not think so and said that there are no worse Russian people on earth now. Smirnov said that a hundred years ago “we were the best people, but thanks to the Bolsheviks we became the worst.” It. The archpriest called it a miracle that “we are still alive,” explaining that “the Lord has mercy on the prayers of our martyrs” and “gives time to correct themselves.”
“There is nothing worse than us on earth right now,” Smirnov responded critically.
About Pokemon
Federal News Agency /
In September 2021, the archpriest made a sparkling joke about video blogger Ruslan Sokolovsky , who received a suspended sentence of two years and three months for catching Pokemon in the temple. He stated that the culprit should be punished not radically, but exemplary, and jokingly suggested that Sokolovsky should be “impaled.” Smirnov expressed the opinion that the blogger would not be seriously punished, and suggested that he catch Pokemon in “his nightstand or in a public bathhouse.”
“A temple is a special place only for prayer and the performance of church sacraments. In the temple you can’t play football, drink coffee, have extraneous conversations, or catch Pokemon,” the priest explained.
About rock music
Federal News Agency /
The clergyman did not hide his enormous dislike for rock music. He believed that this musical direction “arouses base feelings in a person.” Smirnov admitted that he considers rock to be unhealthy music: in his opinion, the performance of rock musicians is similar to demonic possession. He was also sure that rock performers infect young people with “the spirit of protest, which is the spirit of the Antichrist.”
“An ordinary performance of rock music is like a madness: smoke, screams, screams... And if you look at it like that, it’s like you’re in hell,” the archpriest explained his position.
Multiblog of Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov
Dmitry Smirnov leads a life that may seem unusual to some for clergy. But priests must also keep up with the times, using the benefits of civilization to benefit people.
So, this priest from Russia has his own video blog, where you can get a lot of useful information.
Useful information and answers to questions from people interested in Christianity can be found by following the link: https://www.dimitrysmirnov.ru/blog/otvet/. By clicking on the link, in the upper right corner there is a photo of the priest and a section called “Ask a question.”
Here you can leave your question to the priest after registering. It is important to read the rules that will appear when you click on the “Ask a Question” link and follow these recommendations.
It is important to know that the answer will be heard live! They are read out in the Radio Radonezh program, and Fr. Dmitry answers them. By the way, by clicking on any of the programs, you can see what questions were answered and even find out the answer by starting to watch the video from the indicated place.
The blog discusses the following issues:
- sermon about patience, suffering. The archpriest gives advice on how to make the soul find peace;
- preaching about true love;
- O. Dmitry provides information about prophets, Russian saints and even writers;
- Saints and Kings;
- Christian life of holy people and much more.
These are just a few of the topics that the archpriest discusses with his guests. The blog contains useful information that will help the believer understand what is needed in this life. New entries, programs and programs are constantly being added, the blog does not stand still, but lives an active life.
Without a doubt, you should also read the article about the biography of Father Herman and his reprimand.
Views
The preacher, whose comments and answers to questions in church and secular media often became the subject of lively discussion, became famous for his volunteer missionary work, criticism of liberals, speeches against abortion and the promotion of homosexuality, as well as controversial statements (for example, the expression of “deep satisfaction” in about the death of the scientist I.S. Kon) and controversial calls (“smashing the windows of sex shops with bricks”). Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov: “Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” In order to counteract cases of juvenile justice and defend the foundations of the traditional family, he became the founder movement "Separate Division". The compatibility of the tasks of the “newly-minted soldiers of Christ” with the concepts of Christian patience and humility was questioned by some members of the public.
Program “Dialogue under the clock” with Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov
The public television channel “Spas” (Orthodox channel) broadcasts a program hosted by the archpriest himself. He invites a large number of guests to his studio.
Current issues are raised in conversations. Among the guests are not only clergy, but also political figures.
Please note: the new program is broadcast on Saturdays at 22:00.
