By the bookshelf. Archbishop John of San Francisco (Shakhovskoy). White monasticism

John (Shakhovskoy)
(1902 - 1989), Archbishop b. San Francisco (Orthodox Church in America). In the world, Prince Dmitry Alekseevich Shakhovskoy, was born in Moscow on August 23, 1902. The prince came from the old noble family of the Shakhovskys, which originated from Rurik and the holy prince Vladimir, through the holy noble princes Theodore of Smolensk and his sons, David and Konstantin of Yaroslavl. His grandfather, General Ivan Leontievich Shakhovskoy, took part in the Battle of Borodino. “The feeling of Russianness,” by his own admission, he owed most of all to his father, Alexei Nikolaevich, leader of the nobility in the city of Venev, Tula province and chamberlain of the Court [1].

He received his first education at the St. Petersburg Alexander Lyceum [2].

In 1919, Dmitry took part in battles as part of the White Guard.

In the summer of 1920 he left Russia from Crimea.

He began studying in 1921 in Paris at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques.

He received his next education in Belgium, at the famous ancient Catholic University of Louvain, for 3 years he completed a course in the history department of the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature [3].

He collaborated with Russian magazines and published poetry. As a student he published the magazine “Blagomarnenny” (1926).

It was in Belgium, in 1926, in the early spring that he “was called to monasticism” [4].

On August 23, 1926, “on the day of my 24th birthday, at dawn, I was tonsured in one of the church sanctuaries of the Panteleimon Monastery and I was given the name John, in honor of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. I left Athos for a new life in new clothes.”

[5].

Then he studied at the Theological Institute of St. Sergius of Radonezh (Paris). With his acceptance of holy orders from Metropolitan Veniamin (Fedchenkov), he received the blessing of a rector in the Russian community of the city of Belaya Tserkov (Serbia), where he was a teacher of the Crimean Corps, a teacher at the Pastoral School and the founder of the Orthodox Missionary Book Publishing House “For the Church!”

After that, he stayed in Paris for about a year, where he helped establish the Spassky parish in Asnieres. In 1932 he was appointed rector of St. Vladimir's Church in Berlin.

Archbishop John later recalled:
“My Berlin parish of St.
book Vladimir was not only the place of my parish work, but... became the center of printing, missionary and evangelistic work. Over the years, I had to publish many books and visit all European countries except Albania with the word of the gospel to the people of the Russian diaspora. My lecture trips to Latvia, Estonia and Finland, where the indigenous Russian population remained, were especially comforting and fruitful” [6].

Published the magazine “For the Church!” (Berlin, 1932-1936). During the war he conducted missionary work among Russian prisoners of war. His publishing business is liquidated by the Gestapo, even the Orthodox edition of the Bible is confiscated [7].

At the end of the war, the then Archimandrite John moved to Paris, and at the beginning of 1946 - to the United States of America through the petition of his spiritual son, the famous aircraft designer I. I. Sikorsky. A year later, the Council of Bishops of the American Metropolis elected him bishop.

Having become part of the “American Metropolis” of Metropolitan Theophilus, on May 11, 1947 in New York he was ordained Bishop of Brooklyn with the appointment of dean of the St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Academy in New York.

At www.ancestry.com

We managed to find an interesting document: it turns out that back in October 1949, Vladyka was listed as STATELESS, that is, “stateless.” And at the same time, the nationality column is marked as American. We learn this from the document: Passanger Manifest; Pan American Airways, Inc. Aircraft N-1031 V USA Flight no. 101/2 London, England to New York, USA October 2nd 1949. Out of 55 passengers, the 45th seat is for the Vladyka: “SHAHOVSKOY, JOHN”. And his home address is written as follows: “59.E. 2nd St., NYC."

In December 1947, he was put on trial by the Council of Bishops of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Holy Synod imposed a ban on him for stubborn opposition to reunification with the Moscow Patriarchate and for illegally anathematizing Archbishop Macarius, who had reunited with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Since 1948, periodically, since 1951, regularly, and since 1953, he conducted his “Conversations on Faith” weekly on the Voice of America radio station. The Lord said this:

“Every Sunday since the beginning of the fifties, I have had the joy of entering with my word many houses and ships of the world, where the Russian word is understood, and the ear of a person is opened to the great truth about God, the Father of people, and about the living, immortal human soul

.

For this, he fell into the category of anti-Soviet in the USSR, and the archpastor was persecuted by Soviet journalists and party functionaries (see magazines: Yunost, Kommunist for the 1960s).

On December 5-8, 1950, he participated in the VIII All-American Metropolitan Council in New York as Bishop of Brooklyn [8], but in the same year he was appointed San Francisco and Western American.

In 1961 he was elevated to the rank of archbishop.

He took part, as a delegate of the American Metropolis, in the main ecumenical conferences. He was in charge of the South American diocese and the foreign affairs of the Metropolis. He cared for Orthodox Americans during the Korean War, which was fought with the participation of the USA and the USSR.

Archbishop John was one of the main warriors for the Autocephalous American Church. On this matter, he had his own point of view: America deserves to have its own Orthodox Church, which can unite diverse peoples. And in 1970, the Russian Orthodox Mother Church granted autocephaly to the Americans. However, a number of Local Churches still do not agree with the decision of the Russians; the Patriarchate of Constantinople is at the head of this rejection.

Since 1978 he has been retired and lived in Santa Barbara.

He died on May 30, 1989, and was buried in Santa Barbara, in the Serbian cemetery.

Faith. God and man:

Faith is entry into the highest reality.

Job says an amazing word... “There is no mediator between us (between God and him, man) who would lay his hand on both of us” (Job.9:33)... the fallen world is hungry for a mediator who, like a link, would connect heaven and earth... all those religious world teachers who appeared in human history, like Buddha, Mohammed, and others, laid their hand only on man. They were, perhaps, filled with good intentions, but they were people and therefore could not truly connect man with God. Only the true, perfect God-man, the Alpha and Omega of the universe, the Word of God, the Logos, the image of the Hypostasis of the Father, the Incarnate Radiance of God’s Face, the Lord. The One could unite Divinity with humanity once and for all. And in Him alone now every union of God with man is accomplished, with those sons of men who, like Job, thirst for the sonship of God, recognize and hear the voice of the Heavenly Father.

The first dark fear of a person is the fear of seeing God... The second dark fear of a person is the fear of seeing a person... Just as a person is afraid of not finding God, so he is afraid of finding God, of seeing his Savior inside himself and inside another person. Sometimes a person is afraid to find higher humanity in himself and in his brother... Running away from a person is only the second stage of leaving God. Those who have left God, but have not yet left man, are close to returning to God...

Man is afraid to meet himself, because by finding himself, man can find God.

The horror of one’s inadequacy to God, which sometimes lives very deeply, explains man’s unbelief, this dark human fear of discovering God in himself or somewhere in the world. “There is no God!”... “There cannot be God in a world where there is so much evil and suffering!” After all, this is already knowledge about God, and already awe at one’s own and the world’s inadequacy to Him. In unbelief there is the horror of the possibility of meeting God. Fear is pushed aside, the soul is calmed by disbelief...

...it’s scary to upset your Beloved! This is the fear of Christ's disciples. Man then no longer fears the torment of his unfaithfulness to God, but the loss of this torment...

pathological speech

criticism of the Synodal period

• The old synodal regime poisoned the subconscious and consciousness of our humble clergy with false humility before the powers that be [2].

Theologumen

• The theological creativity of Metropolitan Anthony was expressed, unfortunately, in a treatise on the dogma of atonement, which caused confusion in the Church (as was later theologumene
  , the theological opinion of Father Sergius Bulgakov about Sophia)[3].

parable of the prodigal son

Those who have moved away from the spirit of Orthodoxy (specifically, this refers to the Russian Church Abroad and its anti-ecumenism - Ed.) perceive their “Orthodoxy” exactly as the Elder Brother understood his sonship in the Gospel Parable of the Prodigal Son. Feeling their “seniority,” they first despise non-Christians, then “not like them” Christians, and finally end up condemning all Orthodox Christians who do not belong to their small group...[4]

Mercy, love, trust, selfishness, fear:

A true miracle is pity.

True mercy is always simple and active. It is a will that is ready for any work, a heart that agrees to endure any sorrow for the sake of love.

The lover ceases to be afraid. “Love conquers fear” (1 John 4:18)… But this only applies to true love. Unfaithful love, driven by passion or lust, does not know fearlessness; it does not conquer fear, but strengthens it, because it strengthens a person’s self.

He who has achieved love possesses every thing without stealing it. This is the Kingdom of God. “We have nothing, and... we possess everything” (2 Cor. 6:10).

If there is no unifying love, what is alien always remains alien...

Abduction... is a sin leading to death - for it is against Love, Life.

The secret of Prometheus's lawlessness is not that he steals fire, but that he steals.

Anyone who steals someone else’s property is lawless because he cannot make this someone else’s property his own...

The offender offends, first of all, himself.

The “active egoist” offends, the “passive” one gets offended.

Love loves the person himself; not his sins, not his madness, not his blindness...

Yes, you can love, but not trust. But isn’t trust a sign of an open soul, and isn’t openness a property of love? No, love is broader than openness. And without the openness of the soul, there can be love in this world...

Evil must be hidden so as not to dirty anyone. Good things must be hidden so as not to spill. It is necessary to conceal for the benefit of everyone. Hiding the soul of its evil is sometimes a spiritual necessity; hiding one's goodness is almost always wisdom...

Not all “indirectness” is untruth; and not every “distrust” is a betrayal of the last trust.

The last trust can only be in God...

Of course, one should not have distrust of the person himself, but of his given state.

The main suffering of a person who has left God is self-love.

Fear is the agony of a soul being excommunicated or separating itself from God. Fear is the agony of loneliness.

This is the law of the spirit: forgetting God, a person forgets his own face, depersonalizes himself. Losing the truth, a person loses his life with it. And all the difficulties and all human failures (especially in marriage and family life) are connected with this.

He who leaves God also leaves himself.

Notes

1. Berezov R.
   In memory of Anna Leonidovna Shakhovskaya // New Russian. word. - New York, 1963. - September 7 (No. 18443). - P. 4; Funeral announcement: New Rus. word. - New York, 1963. - August 27 (No. 18432). - P. 1.
2. ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 K. V. Biryukova.
   JOHN // Orthodox Encyclopedia. - M.: Church-Scientific, 2010. - T. XXIII: “Innocent - John Vlah.” — P. 463-465. — 752 p. — 39,000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-89572-042-4.
3. ↑ 12345678910
   Nivier A. Orthodox. clergy, theologians and church. Russian figures emigration to the West. and Center. Europe, 1920—1995: Biogr. reference M.; P., 2007. pp. 231-233.
4. The path of my life. Memoirs of Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky), based on his stories by T. Manukhina Orthodox Electronic Library
5. Shepherds and flocks under the yoke of communism :: Kievan Rus
6. ↑ 1 2 Book.
   Maria Vasilchikova. July 24, 1944. // Berlin diary 1940 - 1945 / ed. A. Mankovsky. - M.: Our Heritage, 1994. - P. 216. - 320 p. — 35,000 copies.
7. Continent. No. 61. - 1989. - P. 245-246.
8. Kolupaev V.
   Russian Center at Fordham University in New York // CATHOLIC COMMUNITIES OF THE BYZANTINE RITE AND THE RUSSIAN DIASPORA: NORTH AMERICA
9. Archived copy (unspecified)
   (inaccessible link). Date accessed: January 13, 2021. Archived January 14, 2021.

Person's character. Pride and vanity. Sobriety and humility:

...character is formed and developed from free human reactions to the world around us... So the person himself sculpts from his spiritual qualities and abilities either a human or an animal image.

Vanity is a sign of not only moral, but also mental stagnation.

And in the life of societies and peoples, “pride comes before destruction.” The level of culture is directly proportional to social and international modesty.

...our soul must know... its spiritual limits.

We are not free to avoid what is given to us regardless of our will; but we are always free to transform every life event and word into light, to make it necessary for ourselves and others. This is the point of our freedom. Through all events, all sorrows and joys, a person has both the power and happiness to move towards God's truth, which has no end... There is no “fate”, no “blind fate”. There is the Unsleeping Eye of God’s love and our freedom to be in it.

essays

• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Poems (1923)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Songs Without Words (1924)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Items (1926)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  On the Talk (1926)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Post (1928)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Freedom from the World (1929)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Church and World: Essays (1929)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Glory of the Resurrection (1930)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  About the purpose of man and the paths of the philosopher. (N. A. Berdyaev. “On the purpose of man.” Experience of paradoxical ethics) (1931)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Why I left the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Anthony (1931)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  White monasticism (1932)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Parable of Unjust Riches (1932)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  * On Reincarnation: Dialogue (1932)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor. An Experience in Religious Commentary (1933)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Baptism of Knowledge (1933)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Is the brotherhood of religions possible? (1934)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Judaism and the Church according to the teaching of the Gospel (1934)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  On Spiritual Life (1935)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Life (1935)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Holy
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Conversation between seven Orthodox Christians about Sophia (1936)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Divine-Human Ways (1936)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  The Will of God and the Will of Man (1937)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Words (On prayer - On charity - Light - Two people - Daughter of the Kingdom)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Way North (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  On the glorification of Father John of Kronstadt (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Philosophy of Orthodox Shepherding (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Prophetic spirit in Russian poetry: Lyrics of Alexei Tolstoy: Anniversary year: 950th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus' (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Rule of the Spirit (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Reflections on Pushkin's religiosity (1938)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Spanish Letters (1939)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Seven words about the country of the Gadarenes: Lk. VIII 26-39 (1939) or 1938
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Tolstoy and the Church (1939)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Sirens (1940)
• John (Shakhovskoy), Fr.
  Mystery of the Church
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Address at the naming of Bishop of Brooklyn (1947)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Being Determines Consciousness (1948)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Man and Fear (1948)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Bishops, Priests, Laity (1948)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Paths of the American Metropolis: To the 3rd Anniversary of the 7th Council. Results, conclusions, prospects (1949)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Ten Words on Faith (1950)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Time of Faith (1954)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Faith and Responsibility (1954)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Some More Touching the Wounds (1956)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Russian Church in the USSR (1956)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Network (1957)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Notes on the Love of God and Man (1959)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Letters on the Eternal and the Temporary (1960)
• John (Shakhovskoy), bishop
  . Wanderings: A Lyrical Diary (1960)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Letters to Believers (1962)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Orthodoxy in America (1963)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Leaves of the Tree (1964) or 1963
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Book of Testimonies (1965)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . The Orthodox Pastor: Outline of Pastoral Theology. Crestwood, 1966
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Book of Lyrics (1966)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . The Abolition of the Month: A Lyric Poem (1968)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Neskuchny Garden (1970)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . From a letter to a layman (1970) about American “autocephaly”
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Contemplations (1971)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Establishment of the Local Church (1971)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . The Choice of Silence (1971)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Moscow conversation about immortality (1972)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Selected Lyrics (1974)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Ironic Letters (1975)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . To the history of the Russian intelligentsia. Tolstoy's Revolution (1975)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Biography of Youth: Establishing Unity (1977)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Correspondence with Klenovsky (1981)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Faith and Credibility (1981)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Wonderland (1983)
• John (Shakhovskoy), archbishop
  . Time of Faith (1988)

author of the preface, compiler

• Isaac the Syrian St. The flame of things. Peace in Christ (1928)
• Levitin-Krasnov A.E. Defense of faith in the USSR: Manuscript brought from Soviet Russia. Paris, 1966
• Dialogue with Church Russia. Paris, 1967
• Bulgakov M. A. The Master and Margarita. Paris, 1967
• Men Alexander O. Sacrament, word and image. Divine service of the Eastern Church. Brussels: Life with God, 1980

Good and evil:

...darkness does not exist as something opposite to light, but lies only in the will of resistance to God, in the dislike of free creation. For a free creature cannot be forced to love. There is no evil as something opposite to God. Evil lies in the free will of both the embodied and disembodied spirit.

The moral state of a person becomes especially difficult when his soul, as if infected with an apocalyptic “trichina,” is included in some collective evil of the world... In collective evil, moral perversity has more reasons for self-justification, although self-justification, psychologically, usually does not require any reasons.

The will of demons turns on pigs...

The demons of the Gadarenes, having lost a person, want to vampirically enjoy at least some creature... Just so as not to remain in this terrible loneliness of their own malice and not finding an object of lust for themselves - a selfhood tormented in itself by the torments of hell... Truly terrible is this abyss that has no nowhere out of herself and not wanting to open up to God.

Like the Gadarene spirits, we, blind people living on earth, do not turn our faces to the Lord - the Sun of Truth and Life, but we are looking for “pigs” for ourselves, so that our emptiness does not appear before us... “Pig” is any filling of emptiness his own - not the Lord.

Why doesn’t a person accept the Lord?.. The Gadarenes were saddened by the death of their pigs.

Intolerance:

Rigorism and puritanism are alien to the evangelical spirit. Pharisee righteousness without love is darker in the eyes of God than any sin. But the lukewarmness of Christians in fulfilling the commandments is just as dark. Both those who practice Pharisees and those who trade and smoke in the temple of God are equally expelled from the temple.

The human narrow, proud, sick mind, not transformed by the Spirit of God, equally strives for division and seeks a reason for it, no matter who this mind belongs to - Orthodox or sectarian.

Orthodoxy does not shine in an Orthodox society, in one that is proud of its Orthodoxy.

You cannot defend Orthodoxy in a pagan way.

Orthodoxy... is spirit and life and has as its fruit only life.

... the spirit of sectarianism ... is the spirit of mental (not spiritual) jealousy. This is the rationalization of faith, maintaining the purity of faith and the loss of depth. This is the damage to love.

creation of the Orthodox Church in America

At the Third General Assembly of the WCC in New Delhi, together with other figures of the future “American autocephaly”, he entered into first contacts with Metropolitan. Nikodim (Rotov). Since 1963 together with oo. Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff participates in secret negotiations with Metropolitan. Nikodim (Rotov) and others about the granting of autocephaly to the American Metropolis.

In 1970, Archbishop. John (Shakhovskoy) becomes one of the founders of the Orthodox Church in America, a modernist corporation unrecognized by any Local Church except the Moscow Patriarchate.

Life, time and eternity, the vanity of the world, social upheavals and conflicts:

Only a moment of the present is the point of contact of a person with the reality of the Eternal. Only the present, in fact, is what a person has, his free will... The concept of “future” is least of all similar to “eternal,” says Lewis. The “future” is the most “temporary”, the most unreal part of a person’s time.

Noise is the only self-defense of evil from the voice of a quiet human conscience, from the quiet Word of God... Noisy slogans weave the legend of the “future”... Only man has forgotten about his death... no amount of noise can shield you from evil and death. There is only one salvation: the Risen Christ.

Gospel sinfulness is a “shepherd’s pipe” compared to the annoying, deafening and shameless music of sin of our days. Not only individually, but also collectively, the people of our age rebel against the Spirit of God. White is so persistently called black in the world, and black is called white. “The mountains fall on us and the hills cover us” (Luke 23:30)!

The purpose of the revolution is for the benefit of all, and justifies great grievances against people. Soulless planners who do not see a living person operate with humane phrases.

... it is impossible to justify a means as an end.

...a person, first of all, needs to become a real person in order to begin to change the world for the better. And when morally blind people “change the world,” they change it for the worse. They want to “change” the world without knowing this world, without believing in the moral essence of either it or man. How can you improve the world without improving the human heart? An ocean of blood has been shed and continues to be shed for the sake of abstract projects of the future.

...the idea of ​​materialism, as alien to the moral understanding of the world and man, cannot create a real community between people; the idea of ​​materialism is opposite to the very essence of the spiritual true community of people and deepens human division.

An “incident” for a person is something as necessary in life as bread. Perverted human nature contemplates the world not as a reflection of heavenly harmony, where every little thing is precious for its direct relationship to the great whole of God's world; The fallen nature of man contemplates the world as a boring meaninglessness, where one can only look for various pleasures and where events of various curiosity constantly occur. People rush to “news”... “News” blocks the entrance to the Divine Mysteries in the world.

A civilization that is unbalanced and not held together by the highest meaning of life leads to the destruction of humanity, increasingly complicates, complicates and ruins its own world.

Biography of the Archbishop

Prince Dmitry Alekseevich Shakhovskoy (in monasticism John) was born in the city of Moscow at the beginning of the last century, or more precisely on August 26, 1902. His family was noble, on his father’s side, belonging to an ancient noble family, dating back to the Rurikovichs.

Archbishop John Shakhovskoy

Mother was the great-great-granddaughter of the famous Italian architect Carlo Rossi, who remained to live and work in Russia in the 19th century, who built many wonderful architectural ensembles both in St. Petersburg itself and its environs. Sister Zinaida later became a very famous journalist and writer.

Dmitry's father was a noble man, but religious enough to translate his faith into deeds. He did not miss church services and enjoyed enormous authority and respect among the peasants. He plowed the land with everyone else, dressed in a shirt with a belt.

Dimitri's mother was also a wonderful person. From her famous great-grandfather she inherited a lively temperament, a very cheerful and sociable character, and extraordinary abilities for science. She passed all this on to her children.

Important! John Shakhovskoy lived a long life, which was spent mainly abroad, far from his homeland and the Russian people. We know him better as a talented Orthodox writer, poet, and preacher. His works have also been translated into many languages, including Italian, German, English, Serbian, and Japanese.

Childhood and the period of the civil war

Dimitri spent the early years of his life in the village. It was here that such character traits as simplicity, love for the Russian people, openness and accessibility were instilled in him. Since childhood, Dmitry had extraordinary abilities. He first studied at the St. Petersburg Karl May Gymnasium, then entered the Levitskaya school in Tsarskoe Selo (1912).

Upon completion, he was admitted to the Imperial Alexander Lyceum (1915-1917). It was in this educational institution that A.S. Pushkin, Saltykov-Shchedrin and other famous people once studied. The best teachers in the country worked here. The lyceum graduated diplomats and many of its students later became prominent scientists or statesmen. But the revolution interrupted and turned everything upside down in the well-established life of the young prince.

In 1917, after the revolutionary uprising, Dimitri returned to his village, located in the Tula province. But even here there was chaos all around - riots, riots, murders. Dmitry and his mother are taken to prison as representatives of a class hostile to the new government. Eleven-year-old sister Zinaida remains at large.

Mother and son are periodically imprisoned and then released again. It was a difficult period in their lives. But here the strength of spirit and extraordinary mind, the personality of the future ascetic, manifested themselves. Despite such a young age, and Dmitry was not yet 17 years old, he managed to escape from prison unharmed. Thanks to his petitions, the mother, who was already awaiting imminent execution, was also released.

Ioann Shakhovskoy (in the world Dmitry)

Of course, after everything that happened, they could no longer stay in their small homeland. Wandering around the country, the Shakhovsky family ends up south with the white troops of A.I. Denikin, on whose side Dmitry also fights for some time (1918). He did this consciously, because he believed that protecting imperial power was the duty of every honest nobleman. In the battles near Tsaritsyn he received a shell shock.

In 1919 he entered the naval telegraph school in Sevastopol. Upon completion, he is enlisted in the Black Sea Fleet as a radio operator on the cruiser Almaz. But already in the summer of the next year, due to his minority, and Dimitri at that time was not yet 18 years old, he was transferred to serve in the Russian Society of Trade and Shipping, also as a radio operator. All the events that took place during the turbulent revolutionary period only strengthened in the prince the religious spirit that his parents had invested in him since childhood.

Emigration

Finally, through Crimea, the Shakhovsky family moved abroad, to Constantinople. Thus began a new period in their lives. After Constantinople came France, where Dimitri graduated from the Free School of Political Science in Paris. Then, in 1922, they moved to Belgium. Here he took a course at the University of Leuven at the Faculty of History and Philology.

After graduating in 1926 in Brussels, he worked as editor of the magazine “Blagomarnennyi”, published his own poems, and collaborated with many Russian publications. Enters into correspondence with Bunin, Tsvetaeva, Zaitsev and other literary figures.

Interesting! Brilliant abilities, both literary and administrative, combined with a noble title, give him the opportunity to become one of the brightest and most influential figures among Russian emigrants.

But unexpectedly for everyone, Prince Dimitri decides to visit Athos. This news will shock his entire family, including his sister Zinaida, as well as numerous acquaintances and friends. Soon he announces his intention to take monastic vows, and a year later he returns from Athos as the monk John.

The beginning of the spiritual path

Demetrius's ordination as a monk took place on the Holy Mountain in the Panteleimon Monastery on the day of his 24th birthday (August 26, 1926). Bishop Veniamin (Fedchenkov) blessed him for this step, naming the former prince in honor of the holy Apostle John the Theologian.

Returning to France, in November of the same year he entered the St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris. And already in December he was ordained by Metropolitan Eulogius to the rank of hierodeacon. This happens at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris (12/8/1926).

Ministry in Serbia and France

At the beginning of 1927, he left France and moved to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the invitation of Bishop Veniamin (Fedchenkov). The latter, with the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), received the post of head of the ROCOR and he needed a person for the post of rector of the Russian parish in the Serbian city of Bila Tserkva, as well as the head of pastoral and theological courses.

Hierodeacon John, accepting the offer, transferred to the ROCOR. For some time he lived in the Serbian monastery of Petkovica. Soon he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk (03/6/1927) by Bishop Veniamin. After this, he was appointed assistant rector of the church in the city of Belaya Tserkov at the Crimean Cadet Corps.

John Shakhovskoy, Archbishop of San Francisco

When Bishop Veniamin resigned from his post, retiring to the monastery of Petkovitsa, Hieromonk John became the teacher of the cadet corps and the rector of the Church of St. George the Victorious (09/1/1927). The bishop also built a temple to the apostle in the White Church. John the Theologian and became its first rector, taught at the Pastoral School, and headed the Orthodox Missionary Publishing House.

In 1930 he returned to Paris and came under the jurisdiction of the Western European Exarchate, the head of which at that time was Bishop Eulogius (Georgievsky). For the first two years he was a traveling priest and rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in the city of Asnieres-sur-Seine.

In Germany

On April 1, 1932, Father John assumed the position of rector of St. Vladimir's Church, located in the city of Berlin. He was not only involved in his parish, but also took up educational and missionary activities. Organized an Orthodox printing house at the church. He published the magazine “For the Church,” edited it, and wrote articles. He was a fiery preacher and a talented author.

He traveled to all the countries of Europe, preaching the gospel to the Russian people who were in exile and had lost their homeland. His trips to countries where there was a large Russian indigenous population, such as Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, were especially fruitful. In May 1935 he received the rank of abbot. Exactly a year later he became dean of the parishes of the exarchate in Germany. A year later he received the rank of archimandrite.

One of the most controversial moments in the activities of Fr. John in Germany was his attitude towards the outbreak of war with the USSR. As an emigrant, he looked at this event with the hope that there would be an end to the expulsion and dispersion of the Russian people, who would finally be able to return home to their homeland. In 1941, an article came out from his pen in which he compared the German army to the sword of God, designed to knock down the red stars from the Kremlin.

Book by John Shakhovsky “Moments of Holy Silence”

Subsequently, the bishop no longer made such rash statements. On the contrary, he was more than once noticed in opposition to Nazi power. He always encouraged and helped everyone, including Russian prisoners of war. One day, freedmen came to his church. These were Russian people who were captured and released from the camp to work in some factory or enterprise. They were required to wear stars sewn on their clothes.

Vladyka John delivered a special sermon that day, because of which he risked incurring the wrath of the Nazi authorities. He compared the sewn stars on the clothes of these outcast people with the Star of Bethlehem, saying that “... they wanted to humiliate you, but thereby elevated you...”.

And when the July 20 conspiracy occurred, which pursued the goal of killing Hitler and overthrowing the fascist government, he secretly served a prayer service for the people who died that day: Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants. Thus, he violated church rules that only private prayer should be offered for non-Orthodox people, but in no case church prayer.

In America

In 1945 he returned to France and then a year later moved to America. For this reason, he was dismissed from the Western European Exarchate and came under the jurisdiction of the North American Metropolis.

• 1946-47 — Served as rector of a church in Los Angeles.
• May, 1947 - became Bishop of Brooklyn, as well as rector of St. Vladimir's Theological Seminary.
• 1948 - began broadcasting on Radio Liberty under the title “Conversations with the Russian People.” I have been doing this for almost forty years.
• 1950 - Appointed Bishop of San Francisco and Western America.
• 1961 - consecrated to the rank of archbishop.

He led the South American diocese and also managed the foreign activities of the Metropolis. He actively participated in the ecumenical movement and was a member of the World Council of Churches. In May 1975 he retired for health reasons and lived in Santa Barbara (California, USA). But he still performed on the radio and wrote a lot. Died in May 1989. He was buried near San Francisco in a Serbian cemetery.

Knowledge and ignorance:

Let it not seem strange that a person needs to learn some kind of ignorance. This ignorance will not be ignorance. Still less, it will be ignorance. In an effort to get away from false knowledge, a person sometimes ends up praising ignorance and rejecting the blessed culture of knowledge. This is the path of a false philosophy of ignorance, the path of the Pharisees, adopted by some tax collectors who stand apart from the life of the world and exalt themselves above the Pharisees of science. This is not the path the Lord gives to overcome the temptation and emptiness of false knowledge.

In the present state of humanity, no knowledge should be felt as knowledge. All knowledge must be experienced as ignorance.

Literature

• Appointment of Archimandrite John Shakhovsky to Los Angeles // “New Dawn”. - 1946. - April 16
• Chinnov I.
  In memory of the archpastor and poet (about Archbishop John Shakhovsky) // “New Journal” (The New Review). - NY - 1989. - No. 176. - 286-293
• John of San Francisco, Archbishop. Favorites / Comp. Yu. Linnik. — Petrozavodsk: Holy Island. - 1992. - 575 S.
• Linnik Yu. V.
  Philosopher of the future. Archbishop John of San Francisco (Shakhovskoy) // John of San Francisco, archbishop. Favorites. — Petrozavodsk: Holy Island. - 1992. - P. 5-11
• Sapov V.V.
  Shakhovskoy Dmitry Alekseevich // Literary encyclopedia of Russian Abroad 1918-1940. Writers of the Russian Abroad. - M.: ROSSPEN. - 1997. - pp. 447-449
• Sapov V.V.
  Ioann // Russian literature of the twentieth century. Prose writers, poets, playwrights. Biobibliographical dictionary: in 3 volumes. - M.: OLMA-PRESS Invest, 2005.
• Archbishop John (Shakhovskoy) and his correspondents (Materials for the biography of Archbishop John) // “Church Historical Bulletin”. - 1998 - No. 1. - P. 64-92
• Alexandrov E. A.
  Ioann (Shakhovskoy), Archbishop // “Russian American”. Review issue. - Nyack, NY - 2000. - No. 22. - P. 77-78
• Kharchenko N.P.
  Archbishop John of San Francisco (Shakhovskoy) on eternal spiritual values ​​and anti-values ​​reflected in concepts, images and definitions // Russian compatriots in the Asia-Pacific region. Prospects for cooperation: materials of the third international scientific and practical conference. — Vladivostok: Information and advertising agency “Komsomolskaya Pravda DV”. - 2003. - pp. 267-274
• Nivier, Antoine
  Orthodox clergy, theologians and church leaders of the Russian emigration in Western and Central Europe. 1920—1995: Biographical reference book. - M.-Paris, 2007. - pp. 231-233.
• Biryukova K.V.
  John // Orthodox Encyclopedia. - M.: Church-Scientific, 2010. - T. XXIII: “Innocent - John Vlah.” — P. 463-465. — 752 p. — 39,000 copies. — ISBN 978-5-89572-042-4.
• von Scheliha, Wolfram.
  Šachovskoj Dmitrij Alekseevič (geistlicher Name Ioann, auch John Shakhovskoy). // Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. 30. Nordhausen, Bautz-Verlag, 2009, stb. 1197—2006.
• Varakina E. R.
  Picture of the world in the lyrics of G. Ivanov and Archbishop John (Shakhovsky). - M.: MAKS Press, 2010. - 199 p.
• Ermilov P.V.
  “That the Russian Church will be able to do a lot in the world - I believe in it.” Correspondence between Archbishop John (Shakhovsky) and S.V. Troitsky. 1954-1965 // Historical archive. 2021. - No. 1. - P. 54-100.