Brief biography of Father Herman
Father German (in the world - Alexander Chesnokov) was born on August 30, 1941. He devoted almost his entire life to worship and the fight against evil spirits. Father German always wanted to convert as many people as possible to the Orthodox faith, to cleanse their souls from the bad influence of demons.
He served in the army, studied at the capital's highway university, and during this time he gradually moved toward spiritual unity with God. Having entered the theological academy and graduated from it, Father German became a novice at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and then took monastic vows.
As you can see, the biography of Father German (Chesnokov) is a constant path to the Lord. Almost throughout this entire journey, he was engaged in exorcism, purifying human souls. But in the spring of 2021, Father Herman became infected with Covid-19. Doctors fought for his life for a long time, but the archimandrite died on August 8 at the age of 79.
This is interesting! Memorial Day of Matrona of Moscow in 2021
PORTAL CONTACTS
There is a lot of controversy these days about telling off. On the one hand, you can often hear (especially among ordinary people) a recommendation to undergo a lecture in connection with a variety of problems: a person drinks, studies poorly, does not want to go to church, has a serious illness, experiences failures in his personal life, etc.— The machinations of demons are seen in everything, and they offer to get rid of them by attending the lecture. On the other hand, one can hear an extremely critical and skeptical attitude towards this rite, which is perceived as absolutely unnecessary and alien in the Church. What is a report? How to treat her? And who should attend?
A reprimand is a church rite in which special incantatory prayers are said with the aim of expelling evil spirits from a possessed person. This rank should be used in those exceptional cases when a person finds himself under the total influence of a dark spirit that has moved into him and no longer controls his movements and actions. In the Gospel we read about the Gadarene demoniac, who beat himself against stones day and night, and when he was chained, he broke the bonds and rushed unconscious through deserted places. Christ, by His grace-filled power, in an instant freed the unfortunate man from the grave bonds of obsession (see: Mark 5 , 1-13; Luke 8 , 26-33).
The Lord gave this power to cast out dark spirits to His Church. With the coming of the Son of God into the world, demons lost their former power over people. From the Gospel we learn that not only the Savior cast out unclean spirits from people possessed by them, but also His disciples. God! and the demons obey us in Thy name (Luke 10:17 ), the apostles exclaimed in surprise when they returned from the sermon. And after His Resurrection, Christ promised those who believe in Him as one of the signs: in My name they will cast out demons (Mark 16:17 ). According to St. Neil of Sinai, “pronouncing the name of God puts demons to flight.” Moreover, the Cross of Christ became an unbearable torment for demons. Therefore, the spell and expulsion of dark power in the name of Jesus Christ and the sign of the cross is an original phenomenon in the Church.
In the middle of the 2nd century, Saint Justin the Philosopher addressed the pagans with the following testimony: the Savior “was born according to the will of God and the Father for the sake of people who believe in Him and for the crushing of demons. This you can now learn from what is happening before your eyes. For many of our Christians have healed and are now still healing many people possessed by demons throughout the world and in your city, conjuring in the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, while they were not healed by all other exorcists, conspirators and sorcerers, - and thus they defeat and drive out the demons that have taken possession of people.”
As can be seen from the above words, even the pagans knew about the existence among Christians of special persons who conjured those possessed by the name of Jesus Christ and thereby cast out evil spirits from them. In the first centuries of Christianity, this was one of the ministries of the Church. Exorcists, that is, conjurers of evil spirits, received a special blessing from the bishop. It is not allowed to take on this matter on your own, since the 26th canon of the Council of Laodicea says: “Those who have not been elevated to the throne of bishops must not exorcise either in churches or in houses.”
Over time, a special rite was formed, which contains prayers for the expulsion of demons by the power of the name of Jesus Christ. In the Trebnik it is called “The prayer service for the weak, overwhelmed by unclean spirits,” and in the common people it is called a reprimand. This rite brings real results. <…> At the same time, it is worth saying a few words about the incorrect, almost magical attitude towards reprimanding. One elderly woman kept asking how she could get her son, who was over twenty, to be reprimanded. And when asked about the reason, she explained that he does not want to study, drinks beer, ignores the temple and gets irritated when his mother offers him to drink holy water. But all these symptoms can express the personal lack of spirituality of a person who was not instilled with faith at one time, and he himself has no interest in it. The irritation of an unbeliever when holy water is forced upon him or forced to go to church is understandable, but this cannot always be identified with demonic possession.
Some, on the advice of others, report “just in case”, according to the principle: “who knows, maybe someone has put a spell on me, and reporting will help right away.” Both old and young are in a hurry to remove all the slander and evil eye from themselves in a simple and simple way - by attending the lecture. Here we encounter an amazing situation: a person seems to want to avoid occult influence on himself, but he himself acts according to magical principles - he hopes for the ritual itself, regardless of personal spiritual and moral correction. Sometimes it happens that some puny sorcerer directs a patient who has approached him to a priest who is engaged in reprimanding: “He is stronger than me.” <…>
Yes, the mentioned order, in necessary cases, bears fruit. But to improve the state of one’s own soul, it is important not just to uphold some ancient church rite, but to engage in significant correction of one’s personal spiritual life. Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria wrote: “Those freed from demons become even worse later if they do not correct themselves.” <…>
It is clear that it is impossible to solve the issue of churching a relative or acquaintance with one lecture, thereby instilling in him the ability to study or force him to take life more seriously, since it is impossible to change a person’s personality in any way without his voluntary consent and effort. If this is a real obsession, then according to the faith of family and friends, an effect is possible. But if this is a person’s freely chosen, personal position, then rank itself will not help. They read prayers over such a person, sprinkled him with holy water, covered him with a cross, but inside he remains the same, because he doesn’t want to change.
Moreover, in many situations, even with obvious obsession, something other than a reprimand is required. Every demonic obsession has its own cause, which must be eliminated. To the apostles, who were unable to drive out the demon from the possessed young man, the Savior said: this race can only be driven out by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:21 ). This means that victory over evil spirits is possible only through an ascetic life, thanks to which a Christian is freed from passions and receives gracious help from God. This victory is achieved only with decisive correction of one’s life. Let us remember that the Lord admonished the man He healed with the commandment: you are healed; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you (John 5:14 ).
Holy people, for example, the righteous John of Kronstadt, drove out the dark force with the shortest prayer phrases, without a special rite. This means that it is not so much the formally fulfilled rule, but life according to the commandments of God, in the sharing of His grace, that is terrible for dark spirits. And therefore, the reprimand itself for those who really suffer from unclean spirits is only an auxiliary means, a kind of additional condition that helps, with full inner determination, to live in harmony with God.
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) wrote to one nun who asked a question about counteracting demonic obsessions: “No incantatory prayers are needed: they were read over each of you at Holy Baptism. You need to surrender to the will of God and recognize yourself as worthy of all human and demonic guidance: then the insurance will go away by itself. It is not destroyed by anything so much as by deep heartfelt contrition.” It is not rites themselves that protect against demons, but the acquisition of virtues. The highest virtue is humility. If pride is pleasing to demons—it is because of pride that misfortunes and mental distress are allowed to a person—then humility, like fire, burns and drives away the devil.
As for possession itself, the direct possession of an evil spirit in a person is possible only with the special permission of God and when the person himself has disposed himself to this through a vicious and frivolous life. The Monk John Cassian the Roman said: “Unclean spirits penetrate the bodies of those possessed by them in no other way than by first taking possession of their minds and thoughts. Having stripped their minds of the clothing of the fear of God, the memory of God, evil spirits attack them as if they were disarmed and deprived of God’s help and God’s protection, and therefore conveniently defeated, and finally set up dwellings in them, as if in the possession presented to them.”
People are frightened by demonic possession, the visible helplessness of a person who finds himself in the power of evil spirits. However, few people pay attention to the internal subordination to the devil, to which we usually slide, accepting the enemy’s thoughts and fulfilling his evil will.
Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) pointed out the possibility of Satan’s dual presence in man: sensual and moral. Sensual presence is the well-known demonic possession, when a demon enters a person and torments his soul and body. Moral abiding is when a person is a doer of the will of the devil, that is, he constantly and uncontrollably sins; the demon, without possessing a person sensually, takes possession of his mind and will, unites with him in his spiritual sphere. The reader will probably be surprised to learn that the second type of stay is the most dangerous, because it leads a person to eternal torment of the soul, while the first type can be allowed by God as a special sorrow for the salvation of a person’s soul. Saint Ignatius wrote: “Spiritually, such a punishment from God (sensual obsession - V.D.) does not at all serve as a bad testimony about a person... Possession is much less important than the acceptance of any enemy thought that can destroy the soul forever.” <…>
Every sinful passion is essentially submission to evil spirits. Uncontrollable outbursts of anger, conceit with contempt for others, foul language reaching the point of an internal need for swear words, addiction to seductive images - this and much more is the submission of the soul to dark forces.
Actually, the soul of every person is a container that does not tolerate emptiness. If you do not create the temple of God within yourself, then you will become the abode of dark forces. We have no other choice: either build an altar to God in our hearts, or it will turn into an abomination of desolation. And therefore, both the stability of his soul in the earthly world and his well-being in the eternal world directly depend on a person’s spiritual activity.
The text is published with some abbreviations
Valery Dukhanin
Pravoslavie.Ru
Why they were called the main exorcist of the country
Father Herman gained fame not only for his rituals of exorcism, but also for his wise sayings. The entire Orthodox world knows how he exorcised evil spirits from parishioners.
Exorcism is also called reprimand. Father Herman was called the main exorcist of the country. But as far as we know, he was the only monk in Russia who was allowed by the Russian Orthodox Church to conduct such sessions.
With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, the exorcism ceremony was recorded on video. At the same time, members of the special commission testified that the procedure had a positive effect on the possessed.
The reporting process itself was carried out free of charge. However, there were voluntary donations, and they were used for temple needs. The archimandrite gave all his strength to help those suffering who were possessed. The biography of Father German from Sergiev Posad claims that he lived his entire spiritual life struggling with someone else's obsession.
The essence of the report
If we talk about the positive effect of the rite of expelling demons from a person, then it is needed in order to return control and the will to the sufferer to go to the Lord. Demons can take over the soul so much that the patient on his own is no longer capable of anything. In such cases, reprimanding helps a lot - it allows people to return to the path of spiritual life and begin to wage their own struggle against evil.
In other words, reprimand allows you to restore strength enough so that you can go to God again. It is completely pointless to come for a lecture and then forget the way to the temple for many years. On the contrary, after the rite, a person must begin to pray with special zeal, be sure to confess and receive communion, and lead a deepened spiritual life.
Those possessed by demons cannot do all this, since the evil in them prevents them from even approaching the temple. After reprimanding, it becomes easier, but we must remember that we can completely eradicate evil only through repentance, so we must do it. This is why we go to church, pray, and receive the Sacraments. If you approach the rite of exorcism in this way and use it strictly when necessary, then the spiritual benefits will be invaluable.
The reprimand of Father Herman in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra
It was necessary to obtain an official blessing in order to be able to attend the ceremony. It was given by the confessor or parish priest. Once in the monastery, it was important to confess. It should also be taken into account that exorcism of demons is never carried out in absentia. It is important to bring the possessed person if he is unable to get to the temple on his own.
Most often, the possessed were brought to Sergiev Posad tied with tight ropes or chained. Prayers and blessed water made people scream furiously, breaking limbs in the process.
Before the exorcism began, a sermon was always preached, which spoke about this illness and how to protect yourself with the help of faith.
Exorcism is not a figment of other people's imagination. The expulsion of devils is also described in biblical texts. Thus, the “Acts of the Apostles” contains evidence of the failure of ancient spellcasters. They began to use the name of the Lord to combat obsession, saying: “We conjure by God in whom the Apostle Paul believes.”
The sons of Sceva performed exorcism. But one day the evil spirit had such power over them that they were thrown out of their home naked and beaten. However, there is evidence of the salvation of the possessed. During his life, Jesus Christ himself more than once cast out demons from people who were afraid of His power.
This is interesting! The rite of reprimanding Father Herman: schedule
Who really needs a lecture?
How can you figure out whether a person needs to go to a lecture, or whether he is simply hiding from his own troubles behind an imaginary obsession? Experienced confessors advise paying attention to how a person reacts to sacred objects. Indeed, people possessed by evil spirits (of which, in fact, there are not so many) absolutely cannot stand holy water, the smell of incense, the sign of the cross and any other sacred objects and actions.
Very often people think that performing a ritual is enough to remove evil from their lives. In fact, this is completely not true, even if demonic possession actually occurs. Evil spirits simply cannot settle in a person’s soul, but only if the person himself allows them to penetrate there.
We, through our sins and apostasy from the Lord, free the soul for evil. If Christ does not reign in the soul, there is room for his enemies. But we can get rid of evil spirits in the only effective way - personal repentance. Therefore, reprimand cannot in any way be considered as the only and sufficient tool for healing the soul.
The rite of reprimand is used only for people possessed by evil spirits
A person who is truly possessed by the forces of evil is incapable of repentance, he cannot endure communion, being in the Church, venerating icons or holy relics. Anyone who has ever seen the behavior of a possessed person will remember it for the rest of their lives - such people howl, growl, bark, roll on the floor, scratch and bite. Often, in order to bring a demoniac into the temple, the strength of several strong, healthy men is needed - the demons resist so much. Those possessed by demons have to be tied up and dragged by force into the temple, with difficulty holding them in front of the priest. Of course, this spectacle is not for the faint of heart, so reprimands are always held separately from the main church services.
An important aspect is to be able to determine the difference between demonic possession and insanity, mental illness. People suffering from schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders can behave similarly and very aggressively. But this is not always the influence of evil forces. Therefore, it is very important to seek medical help in a timely manner, visit a psychiatrist, and follow all doctor’s orders if strange manifestations of the mental spectrum are observed.
You should never go to extremes. Yes, evil forces can and do influence a person, but it never happens just like that. On the other hand, there is now a clear unhealthy interest in exorcizing demons, when everyone is willing to undergo this procedure, even those who simply want to “clean up the energy system,” improve their quality of life, and the like. Such an attitude towards rank is unacceptable and must be strictly suppressed by clergy.
Important! The decision to travel and participate in the lecture should never be made independently. Here you definitely need to consult with an experienced confessor who will help you understand the spiritual state of a person.
Death of Archimandrite Herman from coronavirus
Official representatives of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra testified that Abbot German passed away on August 8, 2020. He was 79 years old and the official cause of death was complications caused by coronavirus infection. Since the spring, the clergyman had been fighting this disease, but lost.
An outbreak of the epidemic occurred in the monastery in mid-spring, shortly before Easter. However, clergy and parishioners defended Easter services, despite the ban on holding mass events.
Father Herman fell ill, presumably in April. But by May his condition worsened. He was even connected to a ventilator. Doctors fought for his life, but they could not cure him.
The brothers in the monastery greatly mourn the death of Father Herman and ask parishioners to offer prayers for the repose of this holy man.
When the priest fell ill
Father Herman was in serious condition already in May 2021. It is known that he was connected to a ventilator, and doctors desperately fought for the patient’s life. Unfortunately, the archimandrite died on August 8th from complications.
During the coronavirus pandemic, five archimandrites, three abbots, a hieromonk and two hierodeacons died from the virus at the Lavra.
