Among the elders of recent times, the figure of Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) stands out. For half a century, the priest spiritually cared for the brethren of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He was the spiritual mentor of three successive Russian patriarchs. He opened up the whole universe of the spiritual world to people who came to him for advice and help.
Father Kirill has come a long way in life. He fought starting from Stalingrad. In the post-war years, he went to the theological seminary, then to the academy, and then to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He became the confessor not only of the latter, but also of a huge number of clergy, episcopates, including three Russian patriarchs.
Kirill Pavlov: biography
Kirill (Ivan) Pavlov – archimandrite, confessor of Patriarch Alexy II and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The elder is revered by the Russian Orthodox Church and society.
Kirill Pavlov in 2017
In the fall of 1919, Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov was born. The man is now known as Archimandrite Kirill. The clergyman's parents came from peasants. The Pavlovs lived in the small village of Makovskie Vyselki, located on the territory of the Ryazan province. From childhood, the young man was instilled with a love of faith and of God.
At the age of 12, his parents decided to send the boy to the city of Kasimov to complete his education. The thing is that in the village where the Pavlovs lived there was no seven-year school. His brother, who spoke negatively about religion, also went with Ivan Dmitrievich. Atheism in those years spread among residents of large cities.
Portrait of Kirill Pavlov
In 1934, Ivan Pavlov entered the Kasimovsky Industrial College. After receiving his diploma, in 1938 the young man was hired to work at a metallurgical plant located in the city of Katav-Ivanovsk. But I didn’t manage to work at the company for long. Ivan Dmitrievich was drafted into the army.
The village boy was sent to the Far East. Army service turned out to be difficult for Pavlov. The young man went through the Great Patriotic War, defended Stalingrad as a platoon commander, and fought near the Hungarian Lake Balaton. I celebrated victory in Austria. Documents confirming the lieutenant's demobilization arrived in 1946.
Kirill Pavlov
The biography of Ivan (Kirill) Pavlov should be divided into two stages: before and after the war. During hostilities, the young man returned to faith again. Upon returning home, the guy took monastic vows. Pavlov did not forget about the family. Every year he came to his relatives in the village, and later to the village of Makovo, where his parents, sisters and brother were buried.
Prophecies
The elder's predictions are mainly related to the future of Russia. He foresaw that there would be very little time left before the coming of the Antichrist. His spiritual children and other believers often asked him about the nature of the INN, what is it and should we be afraid of it?
Interesting! The elder believed that such a phenomenon of modern life, technological progress as tax identification number, electronic passports are not yet the seal of the Antichrist. But these are already the first harbingers of future trials for all believers.
They will be followed by a new system of accounting and control over people - chips implanted inside the body, under the skin. Such devices will already have access to a person’s physical system and will be able to influence his soul (psyche), subordinating it to his control.
Archimandrite Pavlov believed that now, at this stage, it is necessary to refuse to accept new documents, while maintaining the opportunity to use old-style documents. Such a right for believers must be achieved at the state level. If you don't do this, it will be much more difficult to remain faithful to God in the future.
Monasticism and service
Father Kirill went to the seminary immediately after the army. Arriving in Moscow, the man asked the servants of the Elokhovsky Cathedral where the religious institution was located. It turned out that the nearest object was in the Novodevichy Convent.
Kirill Pavlov in his youth
In military uniform, Kirill Pavlov went to the seminary. Father Sergei Savinskikh received the new minister with open arms and offered to study the test program. Having completed his studies at the Moscow Theological Seminary, he began his studies at the Moscow Theological Academy. According to official data, the archimandrite graduated in 1954.
In August of the same year, he took monastic vows at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. He served as a sexton. After 16 years, he was appointed to the position of treasurer. And in 1965 he became the confessor of the monastic brethren. At the same time, Kirill Pavlov was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
The granddaughter of Academician Pavlov died: she was the last person who remembered Ivan Petrovich alive
Maria Vladimirovna (center) in the Ryazan Pavlov Museum.
Photo: Personal archive
Academician Ivan Pavlov’s own granddaughter has passed away. Maria Vladimirovna Sokolova was the last person in the world who saw Ivan Pavlov alive.
Maria Vladimirovna Sokolova worked all her life as a child psychiatrist. She preferred not to talk about whose granddaughter she was: “Before, it was not customary to brag about relatives.” She lived like everyone else and worked until the end. Several years ago I broke my hip and after that I never got out of bed. It was then that daughter Katya, a wonderful artist, called us to talk to her mother.
She was only five years old when her grandfather left. But despite this, she remembered many details from her childhood in detail. And she herself, despite her advanced age and illness, surprised me with her liveliness of mind. She admitted: “This is a family thing for us.”
One of the first childhood memories is of him and his grandfather in the car, going to Koltushi, a scientific town. Little Masha sits on his lap, strokes the heavy knob of her grandfather’s cane and names all the streets along the way from memory. Satisfied grandfather laughs. He admired the memory of his youngest granddaughter.
Maria Vladimirovna in her youth.
Photo: Personal archive
“I worked as a navigator for my grandfather,” Maria Vladimirovna joked.
Her memories were childish and therefore touching.
For example, she said that Pavlov loved cats more than dogs and simply adored barberry candies. After dinner, he lay down on the sofa, and his grandmother placed a plate of barberries in front of him. The academician sucked candy and made paper cockerels from candy wrappers. Having formed a flock, he lined them up one after another along the back of the sofa and called his grandchildren to admire the “chicken coop”. She also remembered that grandfather loved everything English, that before grandfather’s death they often traveled by train to Finland, and in the hallway of the house there was always a packed suitcase in case of a sudden departure.
Another childhood memory is about how my grandmother’s cousin Natalya bred a chicken, Maurice, at the dacha. She held a chicken egg under her arm, and a chick hatched from it.
Very smart, completely tame cockerel. Morinka lived in Natalya’s attic for a long time. But the woman herself did not survive the blockade.
During one of the meetings, Maria Vladimirovna admitted the main fear of her life. As a child, she was almost killed by her grandfather's chimpanzee Raphael.
Two chimpanzees lived in the Koltush laboratory: Raphael and Rosa. They were very smart: they knew how to extinguish fire with water and rowed rafts with oars. Rosa, like a child, nursed the doll given by Masha. And when she died from something, Rafael became sad and began to fly into a rage.
Maria Vladimirovna in her youth.
Photo: Personal archive
“When he broke out, they announced throughout the town: “Rafael is free,” and people hid in their homes,” said Maria Vladimirovna.
The village feared him more than Godzilla.
At one of these moments, the girl and her teacher did not have time to hide and the angry monkey attacked them. The teacher shielded the child with herself and, in front of little Masha, Rafael knocked the woman down and hit her so hard that she knocked out her teeth...
Perhaps this incident and the fear she experienced predetermined Maria Vladimirovna’s choice of future profession. She worked with child survivors of violence.
When the war began, Raphael was evacuated along Lake Ladoga to Kazan. He was very valuable for science. In Kazan, Masha lived in the physics classroom, along with her father, mother and sister.
Ivan Pavlov with his family. The two girls in the photo are the academician’s granddaughters. The eldest Mila, Ivan Petrovich’s favorite and the younger Maria, the favorite of grandmother Seraphima
Photo: Personal archive
Ivan Pavlov was 86 years old when he died. The granddaughter was 91 years old. She understood that she was leaving, but even before the end she did not lose her brilliant memory, hospitality and sense of humor. She loved it when people came to her for tea and brought her sweets. I loved my dacha. “Building” the cheerful poodle Richika. And she even asked her daughter to collect a good memorial and distribute it to friends in advance, before Maria Vladimirovna passed away.
Like her grandfather, she did not believe in life after death:
- There is nothing. Therefore, if you do it, then here and now. There will be no second chance, she said.
Bright memory.
Confessor of the Patriarch
Soon Kirill Pavlov was forced to move to Peredelkino. Such changes in the life of the archimandrite occurred due to the appointment of Patriarch Alexy II to the position of confessor. Despite this, the elder visited the monastery for spiritual instructions to the monks.
Kirill Pavlov in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
The confessor was awarded the orders of St. Prince Vladimir and St. Sergius of Radonezh. Pavlov preferred to write sermons and teachings in his free time. The young monks who took monastic vows at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra learned from the archimandrite the love of God.
Childhood and youth
The little boy’s family lived in the Ryazan province, in a small village called Makovskie Vyselki. Ivan's parents were deeply religious people. From a young age they instilled in their son the love of God.
When the boy turned 12 years old, he and his brother were sent to study in the city of Kasimov. It was impossible to get a seven-year education in my native village. There was no such school, but education had to be continued. Ivan Dmitrievich was accompanied by his own brother, who had a very negative attitude towards religion. In big cities at that time, godlessness was in fashion.
When the boy was 15 years old, Ivan Pavlov passed the entrance exams and was enrolled in the Kasimov Industrial College.
In 1938, the young man graduated from the educational institution and received a diploma. Then he went to work at a metallurgical plant in Katav-Ivanovsk. He got a job as a technologist. Soon Ivan Dmitrievich was called up for military service.
A simple peasant boy was sent to serve in the Far East. It was not very easy for a young guy to serve in the army. Subsequently, Ivan went through the entire Great Patriotic War, defending Stalingrad in the person of the platoon commander. Participated in fierce battles near the Hungarian Lake Balaton.
Ivan celebrated a big holiday, Victory Day, in Austria. Dismissal from the army was formalized in 1946.
Death
In December 2003, the old man was diagnosed with a stroke. The elderly man was paralyzed, which is why the archimandrite was deprived of the ability to move or talk. The abbot of the St. Danilov Monastery, Alexy, said that Kirill Pavlov’s health has deteriorated significantly, but the man continues to pray.
Funeral of Kirill Pavlov
For 14 years the elder struggled with the disease, but old age took over. On February 20, 2021, an official statement was made, which stated that Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov died after a long illness. This happened at the Patriarchal residence, which is located in Peredelkino. The funeral of the confessor took place in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
For the day of the Angel Fr. Kirill: With God it’s not scary to die. The war years of Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)
Even when the motionless priest was in his special cell otherworldliness, into which a protracted illness and war plunged him, thoughts about it did not leave him. Either it was necessary to remember the name of the town where he lay in the hospital with a second wound, or the terrible picture of the death of fellow soldiers who were blown up by a mine, resurrected in his memory, deprived him of sleep and peace for a long time.
Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)
War does not disappear from the life of the generation whose lot it fell to taste in full its hardships and trials. It accompanies them not only with a series of past events of personal and national fate, the tragic legacy of memory - it has become the existential nerve of their whole life. War erases cities from the face of the earth, destroys monuments of world culture, leads to a demographic crisis of entire nations, sacrificing millions of human lives. It changes the depths of self-awareness in those who have endured everything and, fortunately, survived.
Father Kirill (Pavlov) also remained alive, and his life acquired new fullness. In a sense, the war became the starting point of his internal renewal, practically the first experience of his deep religious experiences. After graduating from the Kasimov Industrial Polytechnic in 1939, only two of them - the priest and another of his fellow students - were assigned to the Urals, to a plant in the city of Katav-Ivanovsk, from where he was soon called up for active service in the army and sent even further - to Vladivostok. And when World War II began, almost all the guys of the same year of graduation and conscription as him, finding themselves on the line of fire (Brest, Smolensk region, Ukraine...), died in the first days of the war.
And Father Kirill remembered the very first – the fateful day of June 22 – in detail. Some of them were then transferred from Barabash to the seaside town of Shkotovo. Somewhere nearby is Peter the Great Bay with amazing, as they say, ebbs and flows, many seagulls, herons and other flying creatures. Together with a boy from their battalion, they took leave and went to see the local beauty. We didn’t have time to reach the bay. What caught my attention was the somewhat unusual fussiness of the Shkotovites for a Sunday afternoon, the running around, and the crowds of people in the town. We met someone from our unit: “Well, brothers, Germany declared war on us! War, brothers! Let's run to the unit. And there it’s the same thing – bustle, commotion, everyone is building. On the radio - an appeal from Molotov... From Shkotov - redeployment to the Manchurian border. The army dug in, stocked up on fuel, food, and from June 22 to October 18 lived in dugouts, awaiting a Japanese attack.
Father often writes to his relatives - mother, father, sisters and brother. By his own admission, Father Kirill loved his family very much, but demobilization, expected in September, was now no longer feasible, and four long years of separation lay ahead. Separation and worries - the German will reach Mikhailov.
In October, their 4th Army is finally sent along the green signal to the Volkhov Front. Soldiers' breakfast, lunch, dinner - three short stops - and the train rushes on. We arrived in ten days... There was, however, one downtime on this high-speed route, the priest recalled - the first sign of war, the first ominous news from it - a bombed bridge near Shuya, where the train had to stand for several hours. In the Tikhvin area (Khvoinaya station) - an order to urgently leave the train and hide in the forest... And at 3-4 o'clock in the morning, as soon as we had time to move away from the carriages, German bombers flew in and smashed the empty train to pieces. We walked through the forest for a long time through damp, swampy places...
Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)
Father Kirill started the war in an engineering battalion. Then - the first wound in the left leg, at the Malaya Vishera station (on the Nikolaev railway), when their company was sent to dig a dugout for the division commander. During the shootout, the bullet passed below the kneecap, as if from the side. Father was sent to the battalion hospital. And on the same night, their battalion receives an order to clear the minefield. Of the four hundred people, only fifteen will return alive.
In the same year of 1942, in April, he was wounded in the left arm. The cross-shaped mark on the palm under the little and ring fingers is still visible. But I had to stay in the hospital in the city of Kai for almost two months. There was another incident before this injury. The shell fell next to the crater, in which he and several other people found themselves, who did not have time to take cover in the trench. The shell destroyed all the inhabitants of the trench, and they, who did not have time, were only covered with earth. How many such “ordinary” miracles does the history of the Great War know? Cases that turned many souls upside down and forced them to turn to God.
Father Kirill's memories of the war contained absolutely no heroic bravado, no pathos of a winner. It was always either a restrained story about the harsh everyday life of the army with exhausting multi-day campaigns, when the soldiers collapsed from fatigue and slept by the fires so tightly that their overcoats burned through them; or a half-joking, but no less dramatic story about the visits of a “vosheka” and given only one ladle of warm water per person for washing. There was no escape from lice, and some of them saw the “louse-breaker” only twice during the entire war. There was no talk of any baths. We dreamed of relaxing and getting some sleep.
Ivan Pavlov is an MDA student. 1952-1953
The priest did not talk much about his religious life. He only said that whenever he had time, standing and facing east, he read the “Our Father” in a half-whisper in the trench. “Didn’t they laugh at you, father? After all, this was not welcomed...” I asked. “Somehow they didn’t laugh, on the contrary, they treated me with respect.” For the same reasons of modesty or, if you like, internal ethics, he always avoided answering questions about his military rank and awards. However, we know for sure about the Order of the Patriotic War. And we guess about the officer's rank.
Father Kirill willingly shared his main experience at that time: “Why this terrible war and such sacrifices? Why did this happen to us? These thoughts persistently disturbed him, forcing him to seek answers and explanations. Snowy trenches near Stalingrad... Cold and icy silence, when it was impossible to light a fire or move, so as not to attract the attention of the enemy... A slightly warm stew was brought in, already when it was completely dark, and it cooled completely while the soldier ran to carry it to the trench in his pot.
- Did they give you alcohol, father, to warm you up? – I asked briskly.
“They gave it... Only I didn’t drink, I gave it to others... And shag too,” Father Kirill answered modestly.
Here from those Stalingrad trenches - his cold, scarred lungs and this annoying debilitating cough that we heard every day for five years, that the priest was paralyzed. These war-weakened lungs continually threatened with pleurisy, bilateral pneumonia, and a fatal rise in temperature. They were like enemy shells of the Second World War - they were ready to take life at once... But God had mercy, preserved, and the miracle of All-Conquering Life continued.
The story of the found Gospel of Fr. Kirill spoke more willingly than any other, and many people know her. Night guard in liberated Stalingrad... An eerie picture of a completely extinct city turned into ruins. There are piles of corpses on the streets. “Even if a bird flew by, even if a cat meowed - not a sound, not a soul!” - the father recalled. And here, in the midst of this stunning spectacle - the apotheosis of death, in front of which Vereshchagin’s paintings seem like an innocent trifle, the Gospel of Christ comes into his life... Found among the rubble, charred, damp, with torn leaves. Precious!
We, apparently, will never be able to comprehend the spiritual and spiritual experiences of people who experienced the nightmare of collectivization, the total fear of the arrests of loved ones, and the grief of war. This experience is exceptional, and is it conceivable to comprehend it? Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), as far as I know, used to say that he had never prayed again like in exile... And what was going on in the soul of 23-year-old Father Kirill when he leafed through the thin pages of the Gospel, tattered among the fires and bombings? The priest himself admitted that he received a life-giving balm: “Everything became clear to me then... The war was a consequence of our apostasy.”
Now he was completely happy. With God, it’s not scary to die... He enjoyed reading while some of them were resting in Pavlograd, but very soon he had to meekly but firmly defend his new position in life... Along with others who distinguished themselves in the Battle of Stalingrad, the priest had to join the ranks of the CPSU... Such was the time. Nobody asked about their desire. Father Kirill himself had to talk about the fact that membership in the party was unacceptable for him for religious reasons.
- What?! We're stuffed! They invented God! You will go to the front line with me! A machine gunner! - shouted the enraged political instructor. Someone from the authorities “worked” the priest insinuatingly, they even asked to show what kind of book he had found, but the simple-hearted young man did not give his friend away - he did not show the book: “They would have immediately taken it away from me!” Someone simply got scared, scared, and started screaming. He did end up in the tank corps, however, they gave up - they were full of their own “religious people”.
There was also a Tambov Sermon in a crowded parish church, which made a huge impression on the priest. The priest (Fr. John, the future Bishop Innocent) spoke about repentance, about the need to get closer to God. People cried, all as one, many loudly. Then Father Kirill felt the desire to become a priest.
When they passed through Romania, Hungary, Austria, and it became obvious that the war was ending, even the thought of Mount Athos arose; apparently, people had the opportunity, in the general confusion of that time, to radically change their lives and cross over to another country. But this would certainly be regarded as desertion, and it was scary to think about the fate of my relatives. And they would have to pay.
And the first thing Father Kirill did after the Victory was to go in his front-line overcoat to Moscow, to the Yelokhovsky Cathedral, to ask where they were studying to become a priest.
Nun Natalia (Aksamentova)
Source:
Grapes: Orthodox.
education magazine No. 3(23), May-June. M., 2008. June 22, 2021 Share
Memory
The elder did not ignore the epistolary genre. The list of Father Kirill’s works includes several books, including “On the Meaning of Life.” The work reflected the thoughts and instructions of the archimandrite, answers to eternal questions. In the book “Sermons,” the elder spoke about his life’s path, aspirations, and the Great Patriotic War.
The confessor wrote constantly. Pavlov sent letters containing edifications, instructions and congratulations to familiar bishops, laity, priests and unfamiliar citizens. Often the elder made prophecies and predictions. Kirill believed that the Antichrist would come to power in Russia and bring unimaginable trials to the country.
In the photo, the archimandrite appears as a man of wisdom and experience. Among the permanent attributes, the old man had a long gray beard. Kirill Pavlov was a sociable person. He was friends with monks, politicians, and military personnel. Films were made about the life of the confessor. Among them are “Elders. Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)", broadcast on the Kultura TV channel.
Writings and sermons
It is impossible to count all those who turned to Father Kirill. He filled their hearts with joy and optimism. Their number is the whole of holy Rus'. Father was the confessor of many bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, abbots of monasteries, monks and nuns, as well as many lay people.
People came to him not only from Russia, but also from many other countries. Today, every day, memories of meetings with the priest, his parting words and advice become more and more valuable.
Father’s instructions were always very simple and intelligible, because they did not come from books, but were dictated by rich life and spiritual experience. The elder called the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, that is, the grace of God, the goal of Christian life. Most of his teachings are written in the epistolary genre.
Book by Kirill Pavlov “The Priceless Gift of God”
He wrote many letters to his spiritual children: bishops, ordinary clergy, monks, and laity. His sermons are collected in several printed collections published under his name:
- “Seek first the kingdom of heaven”;
- "Time of repentance";
- "Praise to the Mother of God";
- "Sermons"
The elder wrote the introduction to the book about Marshal Zhukov, written by his daughter Maria Zhukova, “Marshal Zhukov is my father.” In 2012, a book about Elder Kirill himself was published, edited by Archpriest V. Kuznetsov, “Elder Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov).” It contains eyewitness accounts of the famous elder and memories of him.
The Elder's Prophecies
The conversations of the believing parishioners with the elder boiled down to him being asked about the future. And they perceived the answers of Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov as prophecies. The elder took such dialogues very seriously. The nuns kept notes and passed on some things from one to another.
The nun Theophylact was very worried about the fate of the Urals. That the Chinese will be able to take possession of it. She shared her experiences with Elder Kirill. To this he replied that the Chinese would get a boot, just like the Germans did in Russia. The Ural land will never belong to another state.
They asked Father Kirill many questions about the new war and difficult times. To which they received the answer that military action could break out at any time. Famine is possible and there should be supplies, they won’t hurt.
The elder gave his blessing to have a house and land during difficult times.
The Elder strongly advised one parishioner to be sober. This means realistically assessing the situation. Perhaps sorrows are coming, and you need to accept them without complaint. These were the answers that people considered prophetic.
