150 years of the Yakut diocese - a landmark date for the republic

No. 29 (686) / July 30 '12

Diocese

Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk Roman

Date of birth: October 11, 1968 Date of consecration: June 19, 2011 Date of tonsure: March 20, 1992

• From his youth he devoted himself to church service.
• While studying at the Stavropol Theological Seminary, he was tonsured a monk (March 20, 1992) and ordained to the priesthood (August 9, 1992).
• After graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy in 1999, he returned to Stavropol, where he served as inspector and then vice-rector of the theological seminary.
• He became the initiator of a lot of social and educational work carried out by seminary students in the city of Stavropol and nearby settlements. In particular, with his participation, an original program for a course on the fundamentals of Orthodox culture was developed.
• In 2005, he was appointed rector of the Cathedral of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle. He repeatedly made pastoral trips to the Chechen Republic and the Republic of Ingushetia. On the initiative of Father Roman, the first university house church in the Stavropol Territory in the name of the Holy Martyr Tatiana was created at the Institute of Friendship of the Peoples of the Caucasus.
• On April 7, 2006, during the Divine Liturgy in St. Andrew's Cathedral, Bishop of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz Feofan (Ashurkov) elevated him to the rank of archimandrite.
• On October 6, 2008, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to ordain Archimandrite Roman as Bishop of Mikhailovsky, vicar of the Stavropol diocese (magazine No. 82).
• On December 25, 2009, the Holy Synod, in agreement with the Primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church, decided to send Archimandrite Roman, a cleric of the Moscow diocese, to Tbilisi for pastoral service among Russian-speaking believers with the instruction, in necessary cases, to also represent the position of the Russian Orthodox Church (magazine No. 106).
• By the definition of the Holy Synod of May 30, 2011 (magazine No. 42), he was elected Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk.
• On June 17, 2011 he was named Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk.
• On June 19, 2011, on the 1st Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints, at the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral Cathedral of Christ the Savior, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill led the consecration of Archimandrite Roman (Lukin) as Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk.

Education:

• 1993 - Stavropol Theological Seminary;
• 1999 - Moscow Theological Academy.

Brief information

• Date of creation: February 23, 1993

The diocese was formed by the decision of the Holy Synod on February 23, 1993 (magazine No. 19). Unites 67 parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

• Address of the Diocesan Administration: 677018, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, st. Kirova, 8.
• Telephone:.
• Fax machine:.
• Email:

Monasteries

• Holy Intercession Convent: 67700, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, st. Ushakova, 14; tel. .

Social institutions

• Social refectory at the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Pokrovsk, st. Shavkunova, 13.

Educational establishments

• Yakut Theological Seminary: 677000, Yakutsk, st. Chernyshevsky, 52; tel. (4112) 40-39-94; e-mail:
• Classical gymnasium named after. St. Innokenty of Moscow: 677000, Yakutsk, st. Chernyshevsky, 52; tel. ;
• Orthodox gymnasium in the name of St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow: 678170, Mirny, Leningradsky Ave., 17; tel. .

Diocesan media

• official website of the Yakut and Lena diocese “Orthodox Yakutia”;
• Orthodox youth newspaper “Logos”;
• “Conversations about the Eternal”, TV show (weekly, on Tuesdays on the Vesti 24 channel of the Sakha State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company).

From the history of the diocese

The first detachments of the industrialist Pantelei Pyanda, Cossacks Vasily Bugor, Anton Dobrynsky, Martyn Vasilyev, Ivan Galkin and others visited the Lena already in the 20s of the 17th century. However, the date of Yakutia’s entry into Russia is generally considered to be 1632, when the Yenisei Cossack centurion Pyotr Beketov founded a fort on the right bank of the Lena River.

Of course, everything happened in our joint history - bloody skirmishes, deception, and treachery. But precisely because the Cossack pioneers were Orthodox and could not imagine their life without God, precisely because the monks and priests reminded their children of mercy and love, the annexation of the territories and peoples inhabiting them took place for the most part peacefully, and most importantly, a long life together took place in the world.

The first bishop of the Yakut diocese, revived today, Archbishop German (Moralin) wrote: “I think it is completely wrong to evaluate Orthodoxy as part of the colonial policy of tsarism. It is important to understand that Christian enlightenment was the natural desire of the Orthodox Tsar, Church leaders, many (of course, by no means all) officials, industrialists, merchants, who believed in God with all their souls - the desire that the peoples who were part of the Russian state would not perish in the darkness of idolatry, so that they would join the Christian faith... The development of the Yakut lands and the spiritual enlightenment of the peoples inhabiting them proceeded inseparably. It was like two parallels.”

The tsarist government in the 17th - early 18th centuries did not set the task of spreading Christianity among the population of Yakutia - the Russian people simply could not live without God and His servants. That is why, when in 1638 the tsarist government established an independent voivodeship in the Yakutsk fort, it was decided to send priests there. In church and administrative terms, the voivodeship was assigned to the Tobolsk diocese established in 1620, which included all of Siberia.

In 1641, together with the first Yakut governors - steward P.P. Golovin and M.B. Glebov, two hieromonks, two married priests and a cathedral deacon arrived in the Lensky fort.

In the summer of 1643, governor P.P. Golovin built a new Yakut fort, which immediately acquired the significance of an administrative and church center in the district. The first churches were also erected here - in honor of the Holy Trinity and in the name of St. Michael Malein.

An important church event was the construction in 1663 (1664) in Yakutsk of the Spassky Monastery - the first in the northeast Asian territory of the Russian state (today in its place is the Yakut State Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of the North named after E. Yaroslavsky). For many years the monastery became the main center of spiritual, cultural and economic life in Eastern Siberia. The revival of missionary activity in Siberia begins with the appointment of Metropolitan Philotheus (Leshchinsky, 1702–1711; 1715–1721) to the metropolitan see in Tobolsk. However, the significant remoteness of the Yakutsk district from Tobolsk, and most importantly, the harsh climate, made missionary work very difficult. Therefore, in 1725, the Holy Synod decided to open the Irkutsk Vicariate under the Tobolsk Diocese, which since 1731 has included Yakut churches.

Now the process of Christianization of local peoples has gone faster, especially since the Irkutsk saints began to visit the Yakut flock.

Orthodox priests not only create schools, promote literacy, and engage in education, but also make attempts to create the Yakut alphabet and translate spiritual literature into a language that did not have a written language. In 1812, the first religious book in the Yakut language, “Prayers. The symbol of faith and commandments of God: the beginnings of the doctrine of faith."

On August 27, 1852, according to the definition of the Holy Synod, the Yakut region was transferred to the Kamchatka diocese, headed by the famous educator of the peoples of Alaska, America and Kamchatka - Archbishop Innocent (Veniaminov). His name is associated with a qualitatively new approach to the Christianization of the peoples of Yakutia. The Bishop moved his Bishop's See to the city of Yakutsk. In September 1853, he settled in the Spassky Monastery and became its abbot.

In the new place, the saint builds new churches, opens and improves parishes, takes care of orphans, and creates parochial schools.

Saint Innocent created and headed a committee for the translation of sacred and liturgical books into the languages ​​of the peoples of Yakutia.

On July 19, 1859, the Divine Liturgy in the Yakut language took place for the first time in the Trinity Cathedral. Saint Innocent himself read the Gospel in the Yakut language.

The saint understood that for the convenience of missionary work, Yakutia should be an independent diocese. In response to his repeated requests, at the end of 1869, a royal decree was issued on the establishment of the Yakut-Vilyui diocese. On March 29, 1870, its grand opening took place in Yakutsk. The first bishop was Vladyka Dionysius (Khitrov).

His Grace Dionysius served God and people on Yakut land for 43 years, from 1841 to 1883. He walked the length and breadth of it with his feet, rode around on dogs, deer, and horses; in fragile boats he set sail along rivers and the Arctic Ocean, traveling up to 10 thousand miles every year.

The role of the Orthodox clergy in the development of culture, education, and enlightenment of the peoples of Yakutia is simply invaluable. For many years, priests remained the most educated people in the uluses. Some of them were doctors, scientists, engaged in linguistics, ethnography, conducted natural science observations, and participated in scientific expeditions.

The activities of the Orthodox Church were of decisive importance in the creation of a public education system in the region. By the end of the 19th century. The future elite of the Yakut people received their education in parochial schools.

It is difficult to overestimate the role of the Orthodox priesthood in the creation of the Yakut literary language. Essentially, Yakut literature (like Russian) became a by-product of Christian preaching. Just like the Slavs, the peoples of Yakutia did not have a grammar; as in Russia, in Yakutia writing was created in order to convey the word of God to people in their native language. Thanks to the emergence of the Yakut script and its dissemination through the system of parochial schools, the ancient Yakut epic “Olonkho”, folklore, historical, and ethnographic information were preserved. The foundation was laid for the emergence of national literature.

Orthodoxy became the spiritual foundation on which the common life of the different peoples inhabiting Yakutia was built.

After the October Revolution, as a result of widespread atheistic work in the republic, almost everything that Orthodox missionaries and priests had planted with such difficulty was destroyed. All churches and religious educational institutions were liquidated. In 1939, the last Orthodox church in northeastern Russia, the St. Nicholas Church, was closed in Yakutsk.

But never in Yakutia have there been such a large number of priests and bishops as during the years of repression. Confessors of Christ were exiled here for their faith, neither the number nor the names of whom we know in full today. The Republic became a calvary for hundreds of clergy and lay confessors. As Bishop Zosima of Yakutsk and Lensk said, “Kolyma is the antimension of Russia: here the whole earth is soaked in the blood of the new martyrs.”

The beginning of the revival of Orthodoxy in the republic should be considered 1983, when, thanks to the efforts of believers in the city of Yakutsk, the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to register a parish in the city of Yakutsk. It became the first house of prayer in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Then houses of worship appeared in the cities of Olekminsk and Neryungri.

By the decision of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 23, 1993, the Yakut-Vilyui diocese was restored, and His Grace Herman (Moralin) became its first bishop.

City-Yakut St. Nicholas Church

St. Nicholas Church, the wooden building of which was built back in 1718, is considered one of the oldest in the city. The place where it was located can only be approximately indicated. Over time, the wooden building of the temple probably fell into disrepair or burned down. One and a half miles west of the city, behind the lake, which was once a channel of the Lena, an Orthodox church was designated, which approximately corresponds to the modern location of St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The proposal to build a new temple on that site, intended exclusively for performing funeral rites, was raised by the merchant of the 2nd guild Ivan Yakovlevich Shilov and supported by the townspeople, who collected the necessary amount through donations.

In the 30s of the twentieth century. The bells were thrown from the church bell tower. By luck, all the premises of the church survived and their original appearance was preserved almost unchanged. After the republican library collector, who was located in the temple, moved in the early 1990s, the temple was transferred to the jurisdiction of the newly established Yakut diocese.

Thanks to the persistence and efforts of the then Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk Herman, on October 8, 1995, the opening and equipping of the restored city-Yakut St. Nicholas Cathedral took place.

Temple from the bank of Indigirka

The famous researcher of wooden architecture of Rus', Academician A.V. Opolovnikov wrote about this church: “The beautiful, pure and unclouded architecture of the Zashiverskaya church is the very personification of the aesthetic ideals of ancient Russian wooden architecture. Even the losses - the absence of a gallery and porch - do not reduce the artistic image of the church and its qualities as a classic work of great and high art.”

The fate of this church is interesting. It was built in 1700 by master Andrei Khabarov in Zashiversk, a town located on the banks of the Indigirka River in northeastern Yakutia. The town itself, founded by the first Russian explorers in 1639, was the administrative, commercial and spiritual-cultural center of the entire Kolyma-Indigirsky region, until the “black smallpox” epidemic in the 20s of the 19th century killed almost the entire population of the town. Almost all the buildings of the deserted town disappeared over time, but the Church of the Savior, built of larch, continued to stand. In the 20s of the 20th century, geologists came across a church standing alone in the tundra. Their records attracted the attention of scientists in the 70s, when a special expedition was formed to examine the safety of the temple. It was decided to transport it to an open-air museum in the area of ​​Novosibirsk Akademgorodok and restore it as a museum exhibit. In restored form, the church from Zashiversk and the gates with the belfry are located in the museum-reserve of wooden architecture of the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok.

Website of the Yakut and Lena diocese: https://eparhia.ya1.ru/

In other rooms:

Missionary activities

A missionary department has been operating in the diocese since August 19, 2001[8].

Through trial and error in the early years, it was found that mass baptisms of people in remote areas of Yakutia were ineffective, and the department’s activities shifted the emphasis to the formation of communities of lay people with periodic visits from a priest from the missionary department. The department is headed by Archpriest Sergiy Klintsov, rector of the Gradoyakutsk Transfiguration Cathedral[16].

The main problems in the report of the conference “Christianity in the Far East” “Modern conditions of life and activity of the Yakut diocese” are named:

In general, regarding the religious situation in the republic, serious concern is caused by the growth in the number of new and non-traditional religious associations, which, in the presence of serious centralized funding and focus on missionary activities, are already significantly ahead of traditional religions in the number of religious organizations.

Another problem at this stage, to which I would like to draw attention, is the poor awareness and sometimes incompetence of state representatives in matters related to the religious sphere, and the resulting desire of local authorities to distance themselves from solving the problems of associations of believers. As a result, the ideas about the religious situation are extremely vague and outdated. As a rule, those that come into view are registered organizations that are more or less willing to make contact with government representatives and do not pose a threat. Potentially more dangerous in this sense, religious groups of nonconformist and even destructive orientation find themselves beyond any control.

However, it is also necessary to note a certain opposition to missionary activity on the part of followers of neo-paganism (“A number of signs present in the “Information about the fundamentals of the religion of Aar Aiyy and the corresponding practice” indicate the similarity of this religion with neo-paganism, that is, new or reconstructed ancient pagan teachings and spiritual practices"[17]) teachings of Aiyy.

At the beginning of perestroika, the main task set by the leadership of the Republic was the desire to revive, on the one hand, the national tradition, culture, folklore and raise the self-awareness of the Yakut people, on the other, to continue the process of churching and introducing the northern peoples to Orthodoxy, interrupted by the revolution.

In accordance with this, on the initiative of the first President of the Republic M.E. Nikolaev, the Yakut diocese was restored in 1993, which has received great support to this day. However, in parallel with this, the official authorities contributed to the process of reviving traditional Yakut shamanism, which, however, was given an exclusively secular, non-cult character.

In 1996, for the convenience of implementing the course taken, the Academy of Spirituality was organized [18], which united the leading representatives of the Yakut intelligentsia - writers, artists, humanities scientists, the first composition of which, however, included a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in the person of Archbishop Herman (Moralin ).

Within the walls of the Academy itself, at the very first meetings, two clear factions emerged: on the one hand, Archbishop. Herman and the late national writer Dmitry Kononovich Sivtsev (Suorun Omolloon), on the other hand, the remaining 19 members of the Academy, who were inspired by the idea of ​​reviving national culture and religion. Using their public authority, and with an indifferent attitude towards the Orthodox Church, they contributed to the restoration of the public celebration of national pagan holidays in the Republic - primarily Ysyakh (summer meeting of the sun), the popularization of the pagan deity Chyskhaan (the bull of winter) as the national image of Father Frost; introduction in schools and universities of programs for the study of the Yakut pagan calendar and Olonkho - a folk epic containing national traditions and mythology.

Since 2005, there has been no Orthodox faction in the Academy of Spirituality, and the leaders of local municipalities, using the distance from the center and the economic independence of their districts, decide locally what to support: Orthodoxy or shamanism, or both at the same time.

Bishops

Yakut Vicariate of the Kamchatka Diocese

• Pavel (Popov) (March 6, 1860 - November 9, 1866)
• Peter (Ekaterinovsky) (November 9, 1866 - July 3, 1867)
• Dionysius (Khitrov) (February 9, 1868 - November 12, 1870)

140 years of the Yakut diocese.
Gradoyakutsky Transfiguration Cathedral. Postal card with special cancellation, Russia, 2010. Yakut diocese

• Dionysius (Khitrov) (January 12, 1870 - December 12, 1883)
• Jacob (Domsky) (January 8, 1884 - May 27, 1889)
• Meletiy (Yakimov) (July 5, 1889 - October 14, 1896)
• Nikodim (Preobrazhensky) (October 14, 1896 - September 27, 1898)
• Nikanor (Nadezhdin) (September 27, 1898 - January 17, 1905)
• Macarius (Pavlov) (January 17, 1905 - May 1, 1909)
• Innokenty (Pustynsky) (May 1, 1909 - February 23, 1912)
• Meletiy (Zaborowski) (February 23, 1912 - January 26, 1916)
• Evfimy (Lapin) (January 26, 1916 - June 1920)
• Sofroniy (Arefyev) (1920 - early 1922)
• Irinarch (Sineokov-Andreevsky) (1923-1925)
• Synesius (Zarubin) (December 1926 - December 12, 1928), until 1927 - high, Bishop of Kolyma
• Irinarch (Sineokov-Andreevsky) (1928-1931) 1937-1993 - as part of the Irkutsk diocese

Literature

• Yakut diocese: history and modernity (to the 375th anniversary of Yakutia’s entry into the Russian state) // Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate. M., 2007. - No. 12. - P. 22-45.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Bishops of Yakutia. - Omsk: Printing Center KAN, 2010. - 124 p. — ISBN 978-5-9931-0118-7.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Churches of Yakutia. Brief history: monograph. Yakutsk, Sergiev Posad: Patr. publishing and printing center, 2010. - 400 p.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Orthodox Christianity in the Yakut region (brief historical sketch) // Mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in Siberia and America (to the 125th anniversary of the birth of St. Innocent (Veniaminov): materials of the All-Russian scientific and practical conference with international participation, Holy -Troitskaya Sergius Lavra (Sergiev Posad, Moscow region), November 24, 2012 / [compiled by: A. A. Kurchatova]. - Yakutsk: Ofset, 2014. - P. 12-22.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Missionary activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Yakutia (XVII - early XX centuries) // Bulletin of the Russian Peoples' Friendship University. Ser. Russian history. - 2014. - No. 3. - P. 117-128.
• Dmitrieva I. A.
  To the North through the centuries. History of Orthodoxy in Yakutia. Part I. Mid-17th - first half of the 19th centuries. Yakutsk: Publishing department of the Yakut diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, 2013. - 166 p.
• Dmitrieva I. A., Yurganova I. I.
  God's people. History of Orthodoxy in Yakutia. Part II. (1852 − 1917). - Yakutsk: Publishing house. Department of the Yakut diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2015. - 208 p.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Unknown pages of the history of renovationism in Yakutia // News of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political science. Religious Studies. - 2015. - pp. 218-219.
• Yurganova I.I.
  Orthodoxy in the Yakut region: collection of articles. - Irkutsk: ISU Publishing House, 2021. - 299 p. — ISBN 978-5-9624-1334-1.
• Yurganova I. I.
  “Tobolsk period” of the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Yakutia: the beginning of intercivilizational dialogue // Bulletin of Kemerovo State University. — 2021. — No. 2 (40). — P. 5-13.
• Yurganova I. I.
  Yakutia as part of the Kamchatka diocese (1856-1869): features of church administration // Bulletin of Kemerovo State University. — 2021. — No. 2 (66). — P. 62-67.

Notes

1. Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk Roman: “Reach to the outskirts” / Interview / Patriarchy.ru
2. Dioceses (unspecified)
   (inaccessible link). Access date: December 2, 2013. Archived October 15, 2013.
3. Yurganova I. I. Unknown pages of the history of renovationism in Yakutia // News of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political science. Religious Studies. - 2015. - T. 14. - P. 214-215
4. Yurganova I. I. Unknown pages of the history of renovationism in Yakutia // News of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political science. Religious Studies. - 2015. - T. 14. - P. 217-218
5. Yurganova I. I. Unknown pages of the history of renovationism in Yakutia // News of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political science. Religious Studies. - 2015. - T. 14. - P. 219-220
6. Yurganova I. I. Unknown pages of the history of renovationism in Yakutia // News of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political science. Religious Studies. — 2015. — T. 14. — P. 220
7. The Holy Synod sent Juvenal to rest (unspecified)
   .
   Kommersant
   (August 19, 2004).
8. ↑ 1 2 3 4
   History of the Yakut diocese on the official website of the diocese, section “REVIVAL”
   (unspecified)
   (inaccessible link). Access date: August 26, 2013. Archived April 6, 2011.
9. Journals of the meeting of the Holy Synod of July 26, 2010
10. Archpriest Nikolai Bykov, elected Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk, took monastic vows
11. Link to the text, this text is repeated many times in various blogs, the primary source has not been established.
12. Yakut hope: Orthodoxy and peace (undefined)
    (inaccessible link). Access date: February 4, 2013. Archived January 19, 2013.
13. Journals of the meeting of the Holy Synod of May 30, 2011, Journal No. 42
14. Archimandrite Roman (Lukin) elected Bishop of Yakutsk and Lensk
15. Journal No. 119 of the meeting of the Holy Synod of October 5-6, 2011
16. Official website of the diocese, Diocesan departments
17. https://to14.minjust.ru/node/2578 Expert opinion regarding the Local religious organization p. Suntar Aar Ayyy ite5ele (Religion Aar Ayyy) of the Expert Council for the State Religious Studies Examination under the Office of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
18. https://sakhalit.com/node/58 Archived copy from November 26, 2013 on the Wayback Machine Academy of Spirituality of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)