Dimitry Smirnov: “Let no one hope that he will disappear after death”

Dimitry Nikolaevich Smirnov
(1951 - 2020), mitred archpriest, rector of the churches of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh on Khutorskaya, St. Nicholas of Mirlikiy in Zayaitsky, Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Petrovsky Park Born on March 7, 1951 in Moscow. Great-grandson of Hieromartyr Vasily Smirnov.

In 1968 he graduated from physics and mathematics school No. 42. Graduated from the art and graphic department of the pedagogical institute. He defended his diploma in sculpture.

In August 1978, he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary, which he graduated as an external student in two years, and a year later he entered the academy, which he also graduated as an external student in a year and a half.

On August 2, 1979, he was ordained a priest [1].

In 1980, he was appointed a priest to the staff of the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross in the village of Altufiev, Moscow.

On January 1, 1991, he was appointed rector of the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh on Khutorskaya.
At the same time, as the number of new parishioners grew, he became the rector of eight churches, two of which were in the Moscow region. He served as rector of the Church of St. Elijah of Murom in Vlasikha; on April 8, 2004, he was relieved of his duties as rector of the temple with an announcement of gratitude for his labors.

On July 17, 2001, he was appointed acting chairman of the Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, and on May 7, 2003, he was approved as chairman.

Since July 27, 2009 - member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
By the beginning of the 2010s, he was also the vice-rector of the Orthodox St. Tikhon Humanitarian University, the dean of the Faculty of Orthodox Culture of the Academy of Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great, and co-chairman of the Church-Public Council on Biomedical Ethics of the Moscow Patriarchate.

On March 22, 2011, he became a member of the newly formed Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church [2] ex officio.

On March 12, 2013, he was relieved of his post as Chairman of the Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Institutions, and appointed First Deputy Chairman and Chief of Staff of the Patriarchal Commission for Family Issues and Motherhood Protection [3]. On May 29, 2013, he was blessed to continue working as part of Supreme Church Council [4].

On October 2, 2013, by decision of the Synod, he headed the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood [5]. On August 25, 2021, in response to a report about the difficulty for him to continue to hold this position due to health reasons, he was appointed its honorary chairman [6].

He died on October 21, 2021, at the age of 70.

Prot. Dimitry maintained his own multimedia blog:

He was married and had a daughter.

Childhood and youth

The biography of Dimitry Nikolaevich Smirnov began in Moscow. The future ascetic of Christianity was born on March 7, 1951. The priest’s great-grandfather also devoted his life to the church, and his grandfather in his youth was an officer of the White Guard, which was famous for its strong faith in God.

Smirnov graduated from school with in-depth study of mathematics and physics, then entered the correspondence department of the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, the art and graphic department. However, soon the young man decided to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather and went to study at the theological seminary in Sergiev Posad.

The interest in gaining knowledge about religion was such that Dimitry Smirnov completed the seminar course as an external student, spending 2 years on it. Without doubting the correctness of his chosen lifestyle, Smirnov graduated from the theological academy, after which he received the rank of priest in one of the capital’s churches.

Personal life

The personal life of Dmitry Smirnov was happy. The archpriest is married. Dmitry Nikolaevich's daughter, Maria Smirnova, followed in her father's footsteps and devoted her life to Christianity. A believing girl works as a teacher in one of the orphanages. It is interesting that Dmitry Smirnov’s brother, Ivan, is also a bright personality. However, the man chose a different path of service: service to art. Ivan Smirnov is a popular jazzman, composer and guitarist.

Service

Since 1991, Dimitry Smirnov was transferred to the Church of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh. There the priest was appointed father superior. The parishioners immediately liked the new priest, sincere and with a soul. Soon, Father Dimitri was appointed rector of six more capital churches. However, the priest’s interests were not limited to the church: he began to combine services and work in the Synodal Department, becoming responsible for the interaction of the church with the armed forces and law enforcement.

The year 2009 was marked for Dimitry Smirnov by receiving the honorary right to wear a miter. A few years later, in 2013, Smirnov left his job at the Synodal Department and was appointed to a new position. He became the first deputy head of the patriarchal commission, replacing Patriarch Kirill in this post. The work of the unit was aimed at helping in the field of maternity and family.

Blog

Despite the presence of awards and an impressive period of time dedicated to the church and faith, Dimitry Smirnov managed to become famous for scandalous statements and judgments. Many controversial quotes from the priest immediately became the subject of discussion on Twitter and other social networks, as well as on Smirnov’s blog. He also expressed his views in the program “Russian Hour”. Lectures, sermons and dialogues published on Dimitry Smirnov’s microblog concerned mainly attitudes towards the institution of family, relationships, and raising children.

The media nicknamed him “the main Orthodox troll”: in the media space he took the place of the deceased Vsevolod Chaplin, who also liked to shock the public with accusatory speeches. He did not avoid comparisons with the “non-traditional theologian” Vladimir Golovin.

Thus, Smirnov advocated the inviolability of the family hearth and zealously insisted on the prohibition of abortion. Also, Father Dimitri has repeatedly spoken out in favor of prohibiting homosexual relations. Dimitry Nikolaevich’s statement about non-believers left no one indifferent either. According to the archpriest, the life of those who do not adhere to the Orthodox faith is meaningless, so they should commit suicide. An excerpt from the priest’s sermon “You’re already in hell, son!” was popular on video hosting sites, in which he reproached modern youth for unbelief and argued that they were deeply unhappy precisely for this reason.

Watch the special episode of the “Direct Line” program right now.
The Priest's Answer." For 2 hours live... Published by SPAS TV Channel Wednesday, May 9, 2021

Dimitry Smirnov and Andrei Tkachev
In general, the priest repeatedly allowed himself to make harsher and more emotional statements. Just look at the “feeling of deep satisfaction” expressed by Smirnov in response to the news of the death of the scientist, sociologist and psychologist Igor Semenovich Kon. The statement calling on believers to smash store windows with sex paraphernalia also turned out to be ambiguous.

Smirnov’s opinion on juvenile justice generated a lot of comments. The priest believed that representatives of juvenile services should be confronted with weapons in their hands. Dimitry Nikolaevich admitted that this was illegal, but believed that such an action was justified to protect his own family.

Another statement discussed on the blog and on other platforms was Dimitry Smirnov’s statement that it is necessary to deny access to network resources to all people under 21 years of age. This is justified by the fact that the Internet, as the priest believed, is capable of corrupting the fragile minds of boys and girls and pushing young people to unrighteous acts.

In 2015, Dimitry Smirnov voiced his opinion on Soviet power. According to the priest, “Hitler is resting” compared to the crimes the communists committed against the inhabitants of the country. While visiting Vladimir Pozner, he also criticized the modern political system, calling the elections “pure fraud.” Smirnov also said that Russia should be officially called the Russian state, and Vladimir Putin should initiate a corresponding amendment to the constitution.

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A post shared by TATYANA NIKONOVA (@nikonova.online) on Jul 23, 2019 at 8:01am PDT

Dimitry Smirnov and Tatyana Nikonova
Five years earlier, in 2010, Smirnov expressed support for unknown criminals who tried to blow up the monument to Vladimir Lenin in the city of Pushkin. Such an act by the priest even became a reason for contacting the prosecutor’s office, but there was no reaction from the official authorities.

In the same 2015, Smirnov proved that he can not only reason and condemn, but also defend the interests of the church by force. On July 4, the priest gathered a group of believers who literally burst into a concert on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Radio Silver Rain and turned off the equipment, thereby disrupting the solemn event. Such decisive actions by Christians, as it turned out later, were a response to music that allegedly interfered with prayers.

Such an action caused a flurry of condemnation both from church representatives and from secular journalists. In particular, this hooligan action was compared with the actions of the scandalous group Pussy Riot. In addition, the management of the radio station expressed doubts that music from a closed room could be heard in a temple located a kilometer away, and even through a forest.

Smirnov is known for his discussions about Muslims. In his opinion, it is they who will receive power in the future, because they are firm in the faith and are ready to die for it, and modern Christians are weak and helpless. Father Dimitri called the terrorists desperate people who do not want to shake their foundations, are not ready to “let in the obscene stage,” weak power, tolerance and other attributes of European society. Such words gave rise to accusing the priest of justifying radicalism.

In addition to working on television and writing a blog, Dimitry Smirnov published books. The priest's name and photo adorn several printed publications containing selected sermons and talks.

He expressed his views in programs on the Spas channel and on the Radonezh radio. Dimitry Smirnov was a regular guest of the programs “Dialogue under the clock” and “Conversations with the priest” on the Soyuz TV channel. The clergyman also ran his own website, dimitrysmirnov.ru, on which he posted his articles about Orthodoxy and answered questions from users about life and death, Christian values, the rules of fasting and other troubling issues.

Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov answers questions from journalist Vladimir Pozner Vladimir Pozner: Hello, we have...
Published by Ksenia Radost Wednesday, August 30, 2021

Dimitry Smirnov and Vladimir Pozner
In 2019, Smirnov became a speaker at the Hippocratic Medical Forum, where he spoke about issues of reproductive ethics. He believed that abortion was comparable to fascism, and that Vladimir Lenin, who at one time promoted abortion not only as an acceptable, but also a desirable phenomenon, was to blame for the current attitude towards this medical procedure.

At the beginning of 2020, another statement by Smirnov about common-law wives caused a stir in the press. In his opinion, women who agree to unregistered relationships can be equated to “free prostitutes”; men do not take civil marriages seriously, considering them “temporary pleasure.” A recording of a scandalous conversation with a priest appeared on the Rossiya 24 YouTube channel.

The quote from the interview deeply outraged the public, especially the female part. The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church responded to this that one should not take what Smirnov said literally, because the thought was formulated in “his characteristic figurative manner.” Archpriest Andrei Tkachev and actor Ivan Okhlobystin said they agreed with Smirnov. Vladimir Solovyov also stood up for Dimitry Nikolaevich, noting that he does not share the priest’s position, but believes that he has the right to express his opinion within the framework of the existing freedom of speech.

Most famous people, however, took Smirnov’s words with hostility. Oksana Pushkina called the statement a provocation and “throwing incense at the fan,” and Sergei Shnurov dedicated a poem full of obscene words to the topic.

Smirnov himself later stated through Komsomolskaya Pravda that journalists distorted his words, and criticism was directed primarily against men, their “shameless” attitude towards the opposite sex and reluctance to marry. Trying to rectify the situation, Smirnov said even more harsh things, saying that modern men are “mama’s boys”, unable to become the head of the family and a support for a woman, and their immaturity has already resulted in a national catastrophe.

Death

In the summer of 2021, it became known that Dimitry Smirnov had heart problems: the middle-aged clergyman was hospitalized in the cardiac intensive care unit. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church hastened to reassure admirers, assuring them that there was no longer any danger and the priest’s current state of health was assessed as satisfactory.

In May 2020, Smirnov fell ill with coronavirus, from which he could not recover for a long time. In August of the same year, Dmitry was relieved of his post due to deteriorating health. A month later, the clergyman was hospitalized.

On October 21, 2021, it became known that Dimitry Smirnov died. He died at the age of 70. According to preliminary information, the cause of death was complications caused by a previous coronavirus infection.

Beliefs

Smirnov is an ardent defender of traditional family values ​​and a fighter against the propaganda of homosexuality and manifestations of pedophilia. He expressed himself very interestingly about atheists, of whom, in his opinion, there are few. Dmitry Smirnov believes that for such people there is no point in living, fighting and studying, therefore, in theory, they should commit suicide, because anyway, a burdock will grow at the place of their death. But this is not the case, and most likely, these atheists are not real and are still afraid of something. People don't always understand his sarcasm. However, for many, this makes Father Dmitry even more pleasant. And those who take everything at face value, well, let them suffer, since they don’t want to think deeper and read between the lines.