Brothers in spirit and flesh. Twin monks write doctorates and save orphans

Hieromonks Cyril and Methodius (Zinkovskys)

Hieromonks Cyril and Methodius (Zinkovsky) are twin brothers who took monasticism on the same day and hour. Both are graduates of the Polytechnic Institute, candidates of technical sciences. At one time, the brothers unanimously abandoned a scientific career, including abroad, choosing to serve God and people in Russia. For more than 10 years, Fathers Methodius and Kirill carried out various obediences at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. In 2011, we moved to the village of Vyritsa near St. Petersburg. For many years the brothers served together in the Vyritsky Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. Since July 2021, he has remained a priest in Vyritsa. Methodius, and Hierom. Kirill, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, was appointed rector of the Nikolo-Ugreshskaya Orthodox Theological Seminary.

Having become monks, they chose the most difficult and sure path for this - to oppose Love to evil. Several years ago, they organized a shelter for orphans with complex illnesses in Vyritsa. Since 2010, a complex for caring families of the Children's Mission named after St. Seraphim Vyritsky has been operating and developing here. And on the site of the concentration camp, where the Nazis exploited and tortured children from the occupied territories of the Leningrad region, hieromonks Cyril and Methodius plan to create a memorial chapel and museum in memory of the dead children, as well as to found a monastery nearby. And they believe that they will succeed, because the Monk Seraphim Vyritsky predicted that there would not even be one, but two monasteries. Today, with the blessing of His Eminence Mitrofan, Bishop of Gatchina and Luga, the design and construction of the convent and museum of St. Seraphim has begun in the village of Vyritsa, Leningrad Region. A monastic community gradually gathered in Vyritsa with sisters wishing to take monastic vows. In April 2021, the community received a blessing to establish a nunnery.

The brothers' parents, father (Professor Anatoly Viktorovich Zinkovsky) and mother (Lyudmila Ivanovna, now nun Seraphima), initially reacted with hostility to the children's decision to become monks. However, it was the moment of tonsure that became the moment of truth for the parents... “The fact is that when I was pregnant, the doctors did not determine that I was expecting twins,” says Lyudmila Ivanovna. — When my first child was born, I began to say that I was having contractions again. The nurse waved him off. But still, the doctor came and realized that the second child was coming. And when the second son was born, he did not breathe for several minutes. I was terribly worried. Finally, the manager brought the swaddled twins: “Don’t worry, mommy, everything is fine with your Cyril and Methodius!” For more than twenty years I forgot this phrase, and during the tonsure of my sons I realized that this was the will of God.”

As students, future fathers Cyril and Methodius visited abroad more than once. And after brilliantly defending their dissertations, they were offered a choice of year-long internships in the USA or Holland. They refused - they preferred education at the theological seminary and the Academy. Here they accepted monasticism.

The brothers were greatly influenced by their meeting with Archpriest Ioann Mironov, who in 1991 baptized 21-year-old Stas and Zhenya. Since then he has been their confessor.

The brothers developed a spiritual relationship with the Monk Seraphim of Vyritsky primarily through their confessor. Vanya Mironov was an artilleryman during the Great Patriotic War and reached Konigsberg. And after the Victory, he came to Vyritsa for advice from the Monk Seraphim and became his spiritual child. And now he has blessed his spiritual children to serve in Vyritsa at the relics of the miracle worker.

Justifying the names of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the brothers continue the traditions of learned monasticism and in 2015 defended their doctoral dissertations in theology. By the way, the brothers wrote their theological dissertations at Oxford. However, the main task for which their confessor, Father John, blessed them was to take care of orphans.

Seventy years ago, during the war, the Nazis set up a concentration camp for children in Vyritsa, where hundreds of children died from hunger, cold and disease. “Then our children died from the invasion of an external enemy. And now in Russia thousands of children are dying due to the fault of parents who are alcoholics or drug addicts, orphanages are overcrowded with children whose parents are alive,” the brothers shake their heads. In their youth, Stas and Zhenya wanted to fight evil by more external means. But having become monks, they chose the most difficult and surest path for this - to oppose Love to evil. After all, St. The Apostle Paul taught the first Christians: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21).

They even ate candy in sync

As children, Stasik and Zhenya were pioneers, they read “The Last of the Mohicans” and wrote in their diary: “The pale-faced are the Americans, the red-skins are the Soviet people. The leader of the Redskins is Brezhnev.” With sinking hearts we watched films about the Great Patriotic War and prepared to serve our Motherland. They brought straight A's from school, practiced wrestling, and surprised those around them with their rare unanimity in everything. “They even ate candy at the same time: they unwrapped it at the same time, put it in their mouth and chewed it at the same time. I don’t remember them quarreling, much less fighting,” the brothers’ mother Lyudmila Ivanovna .

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“We read the notes one notebook at a time,” the brothers themselves say. - This has nothing to do with the fact that we are twins. For example, twin boys also lived on the floor above us, but they went to school on different streets. But my brother and I did not part. The fact that we live soul to soul is not our merit. This is a gift from God."

Both the father, Professor Anatoly Zinkovsky , and the brothers’ mother reacted with hostility to their decision to become monks. However, it was the moment of tonsure that became the moment of truth for the parents... “The fact is that when I was pregnant, the doctors did not determine that I was expecting twins,” says Lyudmila Ivanovna. — When my first child was born, I began to say that I was having contractions again. The nurse waved him off. But still, the doctor came and realized that the second child was coming. The birth of the twins lasted for 24 hours. And when the second son was born, he did not breathe for several minutes. I was terribly worried. Finally, the manager brought the swaddled twins: “Don’t worry, mommy, everything is fine with your Cyril and Methodius!” For more than twenty years I forgot this phrase, and during the tonsure of my sons I realized that this was the will of God.”

The brothers serve in Vyritsa, near St. Petersburg. Here, among the majestic centuries-old pines, stands the Kazan Church, and nearby in the chapel rest the relics of a 20th century ascetic. - Holy Venerable Seraphim of Vyritsky the Wonderworker (1866-1949). When these places were occupied by the Nazis, one of the German officers, hearing that a perspicacious old man lived in Vyritsa, came and asked St. Seraphim: “How soon will our troops take Moscow?” "Never. You will lose the war,” replied the saint. The elder spoke to the officer in German - before becoming a monk, the monk was one of the richest merchants of the Russian Empire, his company had more than 10 foreign branches, he often visited abroad and wrote: “Brothers, I have not found a better country than ours. I have never seen a better faith than ours.”

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“I can compare life outside the Church and life in the Church, and there is a huge difference between them”

— Father Methodius, your doctoral dissertation was about the Christian view of the human personality. What, in your opinion, are the most acute differences between the Christian and modern secular understanding of personality?

Father Methodius:

— The biggest problem and contradiction in the generally accepted understanding of a person as an individual is that the emphasis is on our individuality, uniqueness, and mainly external - originality, exclusivity of external features, behavioral models. A person works on himself, tries to become “outstanding,” but, understanding himself as a certain “unit,” he loses the deep meaning of his existence.

From a theological, spiritual point of view, a person is, first of all, someone who does not live for himself, who realizes and realizes in his uniqueness his unity with other people, and not only with relatives in the flesh. And uniqueness is important not so much externally as internally, in the structure of the unique human heart and mind.

It is impossible for a person to enter into a spiritual understanding of himself. It turns out that outside of God, outside of religion, a person cannot realize himself as a person in the full sense of the word. Acting autonomously, he creates some surrogates of personal existence that never make anyone truly happy. Many from a worldly point of view, outstanding people who had thousands of fans and followers turned out to be unhappy and suffering people deep down.

My commander said: “Don’t even think about removing the cross from Mironov.”

The future priest was born in the Pskov region, but by the beginning of the war the family lived in the village of Mednoye, Sinyavinsky district, Leningrad region - their father was exiled there during collectivization: “There was a church there in honor of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, I went there as a boy.

While working peat, my mother caught a cold, got pulmonary tuberculosis and was sick for seventeen years... All my brothers and sisters died there, in the Sinyavinsky swamps.”

When it became unbearable to live in the front line, we went back to the Pskov region. For the time being, life was good there: “There were no partisans around our village, so there were no German punitive forces either,” recalls Father John. “The Lord had mercy on us: I didn’t see any executions or gallows, although I heard about it.

However, when ours began to advance in 1944, the Germans began to drive people away to Germany. They also took my relatives and put them in a camp. But I managed to escape and cross the front line. There our people mobilized me, trained me and sent me to the artillery. Fortunately, not in the anti-tank, not in the “forty-fives,” as we called them: “Farewell, Motherland,” but in the howitzer.

During the transitions, he sometimes slept on the move, but did not sit on the gun frame: if you fall asleep, you will fall, and you will be crushed. I had to work a lot. Every time it was parked, it was necessary to dig a full-profile trench for a 152-mm howitzer and even camouflage it. And all around there were German shelling and bombings. And when our Katyushas fired from behind us, we had to open our mouths so that our membranes would not burst.

But with God I was not afraid of anything, I always wore a cross. My commander knew about this and said: “Don’t try to remove the cross from Mironov. Will not give. I know him". I fought in the Baltic states, we liberated Tukums and Liepaja, blocked the Kurland group. I fought until the Victory, the joy was great. But he was demobilized only in 1947.”

Father John has many military decorations, but he never wears them, believing that the best decoration is not on the chest, but in the heart.

“After our baptism, relations in our family became very complicated”

— How did you decide to be baptized?

Father Kirill:

— We were baptized in 1991, although it can hardly be said that this was already a fully thought-out decision. We thought we were unprepared, and that was probably true. That year we flew to America for the second time to a boy scout camp, and our mother said: since you are flying so far, you need to be baptized. We didn’t argue and were baptized in the Church of St. Catherine in Murin. That’s when we met Father John.

In America, we, sinfully, have never reached an Orthodox church. And when they returned, they remembered that after baptism they had not received communion. They came to Father John, and he said: “Where are you going? I’m praying for you, but you’re still not here..."

- How is it that your family didn’t even talk about God, but it turns out that your mother insisted on your baptism?

Father Kirill:

“Mom was still a believer, but it was such an unchurch faith. Although her grandmother was a church person, she took her to St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The Sacrament of Baptism in the Kazan Cathedral is performed by Hieromonk Kirill. Photo by Stanislav Marchenko

— Was it difficult to get used to church life?

Father Methodius:

— It was difficult to learn to pray in church. We are used to praying prayer at home, one on one with God. It was difficult even for the two of us. It’s one thing to talk to someone about God, and another thing to stand together and pray...

Father Kirill:

- Yes, there was some kind of internal barrier that had to be overcome, maybe even a feeling of some awkwardness in front of each other.

Father Methodius:

- Especially in the temple. To understand what provoked this awkwardness, just imagine, for example: you are standing in a temple, praying, and next to you your grandmother is repeating out loud everything that the priest says, and this annoys you. What is the problem? Apparently, in me - not in her. It’s easier to get away from your grandmother, but it’s more correct to honestly deal with yourself: what kind of irritation is this.

Father Kirill:

— The second difficult moment is the realization of what the sacrament of Confession, the sacrament of Communion is, how to participate in them correctly, what they mean to you. What is the point of regular communion anyway? How much you need to pray, how much you need to fast. It’s written in the lives of the saints that they fasted a lot - maybe that’s what you need too?

Father Methodius:

— The important issue here is the question of moderation, building the right accents, structuring spiritual life. Thank God, there was Father John, who suggested.

— How did your family react to your churching?

Father Methodius:

— Relations in our family became very complicated after our baptism. Dad didn’t like something, mom didn’t like something. But we always had a very good, friendly family, and the atmosphere at home was simple and warm. Their rejection of our church life was especially difficult.

Father Kirill:

“Dad—he was a scientist—drew diagrams for us: how much percent was needed for science, how much for sports, how much for art... He allocated a maximum of ten percent for faith.” He felt that we were passionate people, and said: “Now you will go completely into this, and you have a ready-made profession - certified specialists, physicists, researchers. So what, are you going to let everything go to zero now? Everything is good in moderation".

Father Methodius:

“We talked and explained that we have a spiritual hunger, that we must satisfy it - after all, we never had this food.

Father Kirill:

— I remember, I have to write a candidate’s technical dissertation, and I’m sitting, reading something from the instructions of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Dad comes up: “Again!?” “Dad, this is more interesting,” I answer. And he told me: “Not an argument.” And I'm taking up my textbooks again...

The most critical moment was when dad suggested we move out. For our parents it was simply nonsense; they loved us very much. But we were already 21 years old, in principle we were ready for independence, we just didn’t want to spoil our relationship with them. We tried to communicate very politely, without aggravating things, but we could no longer move away from our main positions.

—What is the happiest memory of your first years in the Church?

Father Methodius:

— When Father John agreed to become our spiritual father. Although, when we asked, he replied: “I’m probably a little too old for you.” He was already in his seventh decade... It was 1992.

Father Kirill:

“There were joyful moments when you walked out of church after communion and felt some kind of renewal—both for you and for the world around you. Like new breath. And so joyful, easy...