“Help, I’m terribly rich!” / Orthodoxy.Ru

Inessa Yushkovskaya Culture December 19, 2016

Throughout his adult life, the merchant son and gold miner Innokenty Sibiryakov desperately struggled with his enormous fortune. He built schools and hospitals in Siberia, free canteens for workers, in St. Petersburg he donated to educational and scientific enterprises and unfailingly distributed banknotes, receiving up to 400 applicants a day at his home on Gorokhovaya Street. He won this personal war with wealth only by leaving the world and becoming a monk on Mount Athos.

Illustration by simone mescolini shut.jpg/shutterstock.com

Sibiryakov is recognized as a locally revered saint and loved in Greece, but is practically forgotten in his homeland. Cinema tried to fill the gap in public memory.

The film was released in the year of the millennium of the presence of Russians on Mount Athos. The creators of the film wanted to tell about this extraordinary, very hidden and mystical place, but not in the form of a tourist video “look to the right, look to the left,” but through the image of the man who created the “Russian heel” on Athos (the largest Orthodox building here is St. Andrew’s the monastery was built with the money of Innocent Sibiryakov in the last three years of the life of the Athonite monk).

The authors define the film genre as “docudrama”. They tried to make it in the traditions of feature films, staying as close as possible to the “text” of real life, reconstructing the past. The main sources of information about the “poor millionaire” Sibiryakov were the Institute of Physical Culture named after. Lesgafta and the St. Petersburg Educational Society named after Schemamonk Innokenty (Sibiryakov).

As historians admit, without Sibiryakov’s help, not a single public library or local history museum would have been opened in the cities of the vast Yenisei province at the end of the 19th century. He spent huge amounts of money “to support non-income-generating publications that are of great scientific or social importance,” financed ethnographic expeditions, and supported about 70 personal fellows who received education in Russia and Europe. In St. Petersburg, he even had to organize a special bureau, through which he distributed millions of rubles to those in need. In addition to the capital, the benefactor should be remembered and honored in Tomsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Uglich... In 1910, the magazine “Parish Reading” wrote: “He did so much good that a million Siberians will have his memory.”

The names of other patrons (Solodovnikov, Stieglitz, the Tretyakov brothers, Soldatenkov, Morozov, Mamontov) were pronounced with respect and remained in history. During his lifetime, Sibiryakov had to go through slander and humiliating psychiatric examinations in order to defend the right to spend his capital on charity, but people began to forget about him long before the revolution.

- Maybe because he was a special person? — reflects the general producer of the film, Yulia Ivanova. “Unfortunately, a lot of bad things happen to the extraordinary.”

“Help me, I’m terribly rich,” Sibiryakov wrote to Leo Tolstoy, whose publications he also sponsored. “The more I give out, the more comes to me.” Wealth did not make him happy; on the contrary, it alienated him from the people with whom he wanted to get close. But Sibiryakov tried to make others happy. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Innokenty Mikhailovich reasoned like this: “If they ask, then it is necessary, if it is possible to give, then it is necessary to give, without making a search.” The money arrived like meltwater, he transferred it to the needs of society, which in response began to destroy it. Even a nun, having received a donation in favor of the Uglich Epiphany Monastery (Sibiryakov gave all his free cash - 147 thousand rubles), reported the incredible amount to the police, after which the mayor Victor von Wahl ordered the millionaire’s property to be sealed and his legal capacity to be sorted out...

As the filmmakers admit, collecting authentic details about Sibiryakov’s life was not easy; little information about him has been preserved.

“We spent six months looking for a love line that would show Sibiryakov as a person, we knocked on all doors,” recalls the film’s producer. “And suddenly the door we needed opened: in the letters we found a mention of Maria, his common-law wife.

The hero's failed love, a woman who refused marriage, and later testified against him in court for the sake of money. Why is she needed in an Orthodox movie about a man whose documents were submitted to the Holy Synod in 2009 by the canonization commission of the St. Petersburg diocese?

“It was important for me to recreate on the screen the image of a living person, and not a polished Orthodox righteous man,” says actor Sergei Zotov, who plays Sibiryakov. “He wasn’t born a saint with a halo over his head.” This is how he became after going through his difficult path. I saw monks on Mount Athos - these are not some unearthly creatures spending their days in prayer. These are people with their own experience, who have gone through a certain path, who work a lot and can do a lot.

Sergei admits that this work has become a professional challenge for him. After all, playing a person who was canonized on Mount Athos is not at all like, say, a hero-lover or a detective. And to do it in such a place...

By the way, the creative team of Rustelefilm was the only one in the history of the Holy Mountain who was allowed to shoot a feature film here. The abbot even allowed us to remove the relic - the head of St. Innocent, kept in the monastery in a silver case. According to Athonite custom, three years after the death of a monk, the relics are removed from the grave, and if they flow myrrh and have a honey color, for the Athonites this is a sign of the deceased’s closeness to God. There are only three such chapters in St. Andrew’s Skete, one of them is Sibiryakova.

“On Athos, Father Innocent lived not on the territory of the monastery, but in a cell on Karula, the most ascetic place on the Holy Mountain, at an altitude of 340 meters,” says Zotov. “I was exhausted when I got there.” The monks said: all day long he carried water from his well for the two thousand workers whom he hired to build St. Andrew’s Cathedral...

According to the chroniclers of the Russian Orthodox Church, the appearance of Innocent Sibiryakov on Mount Athos was predicted when the future benefactor and schema-monk was only 8 years old. In 1868, Bishop Alexander of Poltava and Pereyaslavl visited St. Andrew’s monastery. The brethren turned to him with a request to build a church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, but the bishop advised to build this church in another place, and here to build a temple in the name of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. Bishop Alexander then said: “God will send from Siberia a benefactor named after this saint, who will build a temple and a hospital with this pledge.” This happened in 1896, when Sibiryakov took monastic vows and became a monk, entering the St. Andrew's monastery, which was completed at his expense.

“Help, I’m terribly rich!”

Life, as we know, is a struggle. Some struggle with bad habits, others with harmful neighbors. A gold miner at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries and a locally revered Athonite saint (in the days when the issue was being typed, a decision on the issue of his canonization in the Russian Orthodox Church was expected) Innokenty Sibiryakov struggled all his life... with wealth. Having started the struggle as a 14-year-old boy, having gone through slander (often from people who had benefited from him) and psychiatric examinations, he ended it only shortly before his early death - as a schema monk. He won.

Enlightened benefactor

Innokenty was born in 1860 into the family of Irkutsk merchant and gold miner Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov. Born at a good time and in a good place. “In Irkutsk, both elements happily united: the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie. The authorities here are disciplined by public opinion... There is a wonderful bourgeoisie here. They don't recognize pennies; they give in hundreds of thousands...” - contemporaries wrote. Innocent's father did good, and his older brothers did good; It is not surprising that he also treated patronage and charity as something completely natural. And then personal scores with wealth appeared.

At the age of seven, he lost his mother, and at fourteen, his father; together with five brothers and sisters, he found himself the heir to a huge fortune (he, in particular, owned four mines, which, for example, yielded more than 184 pounds of gold in 1894 - more than three tons ). In the mid-70s, a wealthy young man arrived in St. Petersburg and entered a private gymnasium (there he was taught literature and ancient languages by the poet Innokenty Annensky), and already in 1875 he bought the house where the gymnasium was located and made serious reconstruction and improvement of it. . He joined many charitable and trustee societies and donated large sums to educational and scientific enterprises. Innocent lived in the family of his brother Konstantin, who was close to the creative community, thanks to which he met Turgenev and corresponded with Tolstoy. And again he gave money - for the education of children of writers, for the publication of the magazines “Slovo” and “Russian Wealth”, for the publication of books at an affordable price for the people, for the opening of libraries throughout the country. “If you happen to find out that some rural school needs textbooks and books for reading outside of school, then keep in mind that I can send the books you want... I will send books at half price, subscribe to all newspapers and magazines to the people’s teachers, equipped with your recommendation,” wrote Innokenty Mikhailovich in 1884 to N. M. Martyanov, a public figure in Siberia, the founder of the Minusinsk Museum and Library. Without the financial assistance of Innokenty Sibiryakov, not a single public library or local history museum would have been opened in the cities of the Yenisei province at that time. Sibiryakov spent more than 600 thousand rubles “to support those non-income-generating publications that are of great scientific or social importance, but cannot count on wide distribution to the public,” financed and even organized scientific and research projects, ethnographic expeditions. At the age of 26, he supported more than 70 personal scholarship students who were educated both in Russia and in Europe, especially from among the Siberians.

It would seem that all this should have attracted people to him, but... “All meetings, all relations with people and even with science were poisoned for him by money; money put a line between him and all people, from university comrades to professors inclusive,” Selima Posner, a classmate of the teacher and physiologist Lesgaft, wrote about him.

Unlucky millionaire

The first bell rang while still at university. “Feeling ill-prepared, I. M. Sibiryakov wanted to work seriously and turned to some university professors with a request to privately help him. But the fee assigned by the professors reached colossal sizes, which... immediately repulsed Sibiryakov; It was not difficult for him to fulfill their demands, but the self-interest that flared up in the representatives of science, which was so disgusting to his... soul, pushed him away from both professors and science,” Posner recalled.

Disappointment grew, and by the age of 30, Sibiryakov was already able to formulate it: “How greedy is all of humanity in its quest for wealth. But what does it bring us? Here I am - a millionaire, my happiness should be completely complete. But am I happy? No. All my wealth in comparison with what my soul thirsts for is nothing, dust, dust... And yet all of humanity strives precisely to achieve wealth.

With the help of my money I saw the world of God - but what did all this add to my own happiness in life?
Absolutely nothing. The same emptiness in the heart, the same consciousness of dissatisfaction, the same languor of spirit... How did it happen, I thought, that such funds had accumulated in my hands that could feed thousands of people? Isn't this the property of other people, artificially transferred into my hands? And I found that this is exactly the case, that my millions are the result of the labor of others, and I feel wrong in taking possession of their labors.” “Help, I’m terribly rich,” he writes to Leo Tolstoy, whose publications he also sponsored at the suggestion of his brother Konstantin. “The more I give out, the more comes to me!” - after all, gold was mined in its own way. From that time on, Sibiryakov began to prefer pilgrimages to voyages, to give more money to churches, and the flow of petitioners in his apartment (very ascetic: address books of St. Petersburg indicate that he rented apartments intended for people of average income) became a flood: there were days when Innokenty Mikhailovich received up to four hundred people, he had almost no personal time left, and had to organize a special bureau, through which he distributed millions of rubles to those in need.

An eyewitness recalls: “Who among the capital’s poor was not in his house on Gorokhovaya Street, who did not benefit from his generous alms, monetary assistance that exceeded all expectations! His house became a place where the hungry and thirsty went. There was not a person whom he would release without a generous alms. There were people who before my eyes received hundreds of rubles in one-time assistance from Sibiryakov... How many students, for example, thanks to Sibiryakov, completed their higher education in St. Petersburg! How many poor girls who got married received a dowry here! How many people, thanks to Sibiryakov’s support, took up honest work!” “Innokenty Mikhailovich had a period,” writes another contemporary of his, “when he reasoned like this: “If they ask, then it is necessary: if you can give, that is, if you have the means, then you need to give without making a search.” “A man of extraordinary kindness, he refused to support anyone, and due to his exceptional modesty, many of those who benefited from him did not know who came to their aid,” those who worked next to him testify about the benefactor. And again - what they didn’t say about him behind his back! The revolutionary intelligentsia believed that he fell into mysticism because he understood the “inadequacy” of his sacrifices for the people’s good, and the St. Petersburg mayor Val reported to the top that by distributing money uncontrollably, he could support the revolutionaries; he was accused of stinginess, extravagance, and religious exaltation; The ethnographer Yadrintsev, whose publications and expeditions Sibiryakov had financed several years earlier, did not skimp on caustic epithets - and everyone agreed that Sibiryakov could not act independently, he was constantly under the influence of others.

The situation finally escalated when in 1894 Sibiryakov donated all his available cash - 147 thousand rubles - to a nun who was collecting funds for the benefit of the Uglich Epiphany Monastery. The frightened mother reported the incredible amount to the police, and mayor Victor von Wahl gave the order to seal the millionaire’s property and begin proceedings about his legal capacity.

From “crazy people” to monks

The nun let Sibiryakov down, but the monk helped him out. Hieromonk Alexy (Oskolkov), who decided to build a monastery in the Primorsky Territory, went to ask for money from a famous capital benefactor. Arriving at the address and ringing the doorbell, he was let in by a man whom he mistook for a servant. Imagine his surprise when he realized that it was Sibiryakov himself! However, he could not help: the safe was sealed, and for every expense it was necessary to obtain a receipt from relatives. “Having started the story of doctors, experts and the police visiting him,” recalls Hieromonk Alexy, “and how they were trying to embarrass him, upset him, provoke him into an unpleasant argument, prove in everything that he was wrong, erroneous, unsound, he said with tears: “What have I done?” them? Isn't this my property? After all, I’m not giving to robbers, but I’m sacrificing for the glory of God!”

Father Alexy took an active part in the fate of Sibiryakov, through the clergy he reached the chief prosecutor; in parallel, Sibiryakov was examined (and found healthy) by the provincial assembly; there is unconfirmed information about a personal meeting between the benefactor and Emperor Alexander III. As a result, the case was dropped. Von Wahl aroused him again, appealing, in addition to the already known fears that revolutionaries could take advantage of Sibiryakov’s generosity, and to the episode of “the breaking of the bust of Mephistopheles depicting the triumphant devil” (we are talking about a copy of Antokolsky’s sculpture “Mephistopheles.” Researchers differ on the details: some say , that the statue belonged to Sibiryakov, others - that the episode happened in Moscow at an exhibition) - but Innokenty Mikhailovich was again declared legally competent.

Apparently, at this time Sibiryakov’s desire to become a monk finally matured - he admitted this to Fr. Alexy even at the first meeting. Having found himself a confessor - the rector of the St. Petersburg metochion of the Old Athos St. Andrew's monastery, Hieromonk David (Mukhranov), later a prominent figure in the name-glorious events - Sibiryakov began, under his guidance, to undergo the required two-year probation before the final decision to become a monk. At the same time, he is engaged in the final liquidation of property: he transfers two and a half million rubles to Father David at different times (he distributed them to churches and charities); the rights to the works of Gleb Uspensky and Fyodor Reshetnikov, who had died by that time, which belonged to him as a publisher, transfers them to their relatives, sells the rights to Turgenev’s poems to the publishing house of A. Marx; gives away two dachas: one to a charitable society for an orphanage, and the other to a women’s community for a monastery, creates a number of other charitable institutions (for example, a capital named after his father for issuing pensions and benefits to gold mine workers), donates 200 thousand to his teacher Pyotr Lesgaft. and a house (the building of the same private gymnasium that he acquired when he arrived in the capital as a 14-year-old youth) - in it Pyotr Frantsevich created a biological laboratory, now the Lesgaft Academy of Physical Culture is located there. Finally, with Sibiryakov’s funds, a grandiose temple was built, the largest in the Balkans - St. Andrew’s Cathedral on Athos, founded 33 years earlier by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. When Innocent took monastic vows, for himself and his spiritual father he built a two-story monastery with a house church in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara, St. Michael of Clops and St. David of Thessalonica - the heavenly patrons of his parents and Archimandrite David, then he was tonsured into the mantle with the name John and, finally, into the schema again with the name Innocent. According to his first biographer, he showed “an example of complete non-covetousness and ascetic life” (he did not eat hot food five days a week, and consumed butter and wine only on Saturdays and Sundays), lived “mentally mourning that he spent a lot of time on vanity and the study of the wisdom of this age,” for three years and on November 6, 1901, died at the age of forty-one, apparently from consumption, which he suffered from his youth.

Axios!

In 1910, the Russian magazine “Parish Reading” wrote about him: “...He did so much good that the memory of him... will remain with a million Siberians” - and was deeply mistaken in the forecast: this name was firmly forgotten in Russia. Apparently, not only the censorship of the Soviet period, which did not need an “example for capitalists” (as the confessor called him), had an effect, but also the ability of the human psyche to displace from consciousness the incomprehensible, which does not fit into the usual patterns. At least, this name began to be “forgotten” long before the revolution: for example, brochures and even books were published about the consecration of St. Andrew’s Cathedral... but Sibiryakov was not mentioned in them. As a result, in Greece they know and love him more than in Russia, and on Athos they have long been revered as a saint - the ascetic’s bones, dug up according to Athos custom, turned out to be amber-honey in color, which Athosites consider a sign of holiness. God willing, memory will return to us too: with the help of the Foundation named after St. Petersburg. Innokenty Sibiryakova in May 2009, the Commission for Canonization of the St. Petersburg Diocese transferred documents for canonization to the Holy Synod.

In preparing the article, I used the book “The Enlightened Philanthropist” by T. S. Shorokhova (St. Petersburg, 2005) and materials from the site “Mercy. ru »

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Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov was born in the city of Irkutsk into the family of a large gold miner and capitalist. His whole life, it would seem, should have been determined by this fact. His youth in bliss and luxury did not spoil him; from childhood he was accustomed with his sensitive heart to experience the grief and need of others, and with a firm hand to support the disadvantaged and desperate. We can firmly say that the wealth in this case found a worthy owner. While studying at St. Petersburg University, he, more than others, succeeded in the science of mercy, helping poor students complete their course and get a worthy place. And who knows how many Raskolnikovs his hand held back and how many it reminded of eternal values.

It should be noted that the Sibiryakovs have a special place in the history of Russia. The Sibiryakov merchant family was known in Irkutsk from the beginning of the 18th century. Innokenty's father, Mikhail Alexandrovich, was a merchant of the first guild, co-owner of gold mines, distilleries, the Bodaibo railway, and a shipping company. The elder brother Alexander inherited a capital of 5 million rubles. In addition, he acquired a glass factory, a paper factory, and created new enterprises: a towing shipping company on the Angara and the Amur Shipping and Trade Society. Alexander Mikhailovich was a philanthropist, and the number of his benefits will form a solid list: 100,000 rubles for the construction of Tomsk University, 50,000 rubles for the establishment of a Higher Technical School in Irkutsk, 500,000 rubles for educational causes, 3,500 for the construction of the Irkutsk Drama Theater. The opening of public schools, the development of Tomsk University... But the main attention is to the study of the waterways of Siberia. For twenty years (1870-1890), Sibiryakov equipped a number of expeditions to explore the mouths of the Pechora, Yenisei, Ob, Amur rivers, the coast of the Kara and Okhotsk seas. The most famous expedition, financed by Sibiryakov together with entrepreneur O. Dixon and King Oscar II of Sweden, was led by the famous polar explorer Nordenskiöld. The expedition was supposed to take the North-Eastern route. But this path was completed in only two navigations. "Vega" did not reach only about 100 miles from the Bering Strait. Sibiryakov had to send a rescue team to the expedition’s forced wintering site. For this he was awarded the Swedish Order of the Polar Star. Alexander Mikhailovich wrote several books about the future of Siberia. It should be said that he received an excellent education, graduating from the Zurich Polytechnic Institute. Alexander Mikhailovich wrote 30 articles on the communication routes of Siberia alone. Sibiryakov himself twice undertook expeditions, the purpose of which was to travel by water from Norway to the Yenisei. But both expeditions failed to complete their task. This was the elder brother of the future Athonite monk, who went down in the history of the development of the north. And the younger brother tried to imitate him, helping Tomsk University, the East Siberian branch of the Russian Geographical Society. Higher women's courses received about 200,000 rubles as a gift from him. Innokenty Mikhailovich contributed to the publication of works by many Russian classical and contemporary authors. With his funds, the “Siberian Bibliography”, “Russian Historical Bibliography”, etc. were published, a public library was opened in Achinsk in 1887, and an expedition to Yakutia was organized. In the early 80s, Pyotr Frantsevich Lesgaft developed a vigorous lecture activity in St. Petersburg. He gave lectures on anatomy, hygiene, physiology, and hundreds of listeners flocked to these lectures. A pale, silent, black-bearded man attended the lectures. On August 24, 1883, he approached Pyotr Frantsevich and offered him 200,000 rubles in gold for the construction of the institute that later became famous. It was Innokenty Mikhailovich. Before leaving the world, Innokenty Mikhailovich gave 420 thousand rubles to provide benefits to mine workers in case of injuries and other misfortunes. Oddly enough, a trip to Europe does not bring him closer to the Western way of life, but makes him move even more confidently along the intended path. “What a striking contrast! Hundreds of rich people go abroad for pleasure; bring home a lot of luggage; having picked up fashionable thoughts, they begin to sow unrest, atheism, anarchism in their homeland, or they try to increase the already large amount of capital by exploiting the labor of others; - Sibiryakov, traveling around the world, studies Christian philosophy, discovers the vanity of life, sees the suffering of honest people who love God, decides to go towards those who are destitute by fate and, both in this matter and in communication with God, in prayer, thinks to find comfort to the grieving spirit,” writes his biography.

“How empty is man in his life, how insignificant are all his needs, conditioned by profit alone: how greedy is all of humanity in its quest for wealth?! But what does it bring us... One sad disappointment. Here I am, a millionaire, my “happiness” should be completely complete. But am I happy? No. All my wealth in comparison with what my soul thirsts for is nothing, dust, ashes...”, said Innokenty Mikhailovich after his return from Europe. - Meanwhile, all of humanity strives precisely to achieve wealth. With the help of my money, I saw the world of God - but what of all this added to my own happiness in life? Absolutely nothing. The same emptiness in the heart, the same consciousness of dissatisfaction, the same languor of spirit... How did it happen, I thought, that such funds had accumulated in my hands that could feed thousands of people? Isn't this the property of other people, artificially transferred into my hands? And I found that this is exactly the case, that my millions are the result of the labor of others, and I feel wrong in taking possession of their labors.” “Help, I’m terribly rich,” he writes to Leo Tolstoy, whose publications he also sponsored at the suggestion of his brother Konstantin. “The more I give out, the more comes to me!” - after all, gold was mined in its own way. From that time on, Sibiryakov began to prefer pilgrimages to voyages, to give more money to churches, and the flow of petitioners in his apartment (very ascetic: address books of St. Petersburg indicate that he rented apartments intended for people of average income) became a flood: there were days when Innokenty Mikhailovich received up to four hundred people, he had almost no personal time left, and had to organize a special bureau, through which he distributed millions of rubles to those in need. An eyewitness recalls: “Who among the capital’s poor was not in his house on Gorokhovaya Street, who did not benefit from his generous alms, monetary assistance that exceeded all expectations! His house became a place where the hungry and thirsty went. There was not a person whom he would release without a generous alms. There were people who before my eyes received hundreds of rubles in one-time assistance from Sibiryakov... How many students, for example, thanks to Sibiryakov, completed their higher education in St. Petersburg! How many poor girls who got married received a dowry here! How many people, thanks to Sibiryakov’s support, took up honest work!” “Innokenty Mikhailovich had a period,” writes another contemporary of his, “when he reasoned like this: “If they ask, then it is necessary: if you can give, that is, if you have the means, then you need to give without making a search.” “A man of extraordinary kindness, he refused to support anyone, and due to his exceptional modesty, many of those who benefited from him did not know who came to their aid,” those who worked next to him testify about the benefactor. And again - what they didn’t say about him behind his back! The revolutionary intelligentsia believed that he fell into mysticism because he understood the “inadequacy” of his sacrifices for the people’s good, and the St. Petersburg mayor Val reported to the top that by distributing money uncontrollably, he could support the revolutionaries; he was accused of stinginess, extravagance, and religious exaltation; The ethnographer Yadrintsev, whose publications and expeditions Sibiryakov had financed several years earlier, did not skimp on caustic epithets - and everyone agreed that Sibiryakov could not act independently, he was constantly under the influence of others.

St. Andrew's Cathedral is the largest on Mount Athos, accommodating 5 thousand people, built at the expense of Sibiryakov. Now it is being restored. At the beginning of the twentieth century, for its grandiose size, it was called the “Kremlin of the East.”
Innokenty Mikhailovich was not created for family happiness: even in his youth, he Alexander's elder brother Alexander was so struck by the betrayal of his fiancee that he rejected the possibility of a happy marriage. And with every step he moves closer and closer to the Athos goal. Apparently, it was during this period of his life that he ended up at the St. Petersburg metochion of the St. Andrew's monastery. In those years, the rector of the metochion was Archimandrite David - an unusual and very remarkable person. He will play a huge role in Sibiryakov’s life. We do not know all the details of this acquaintance, but Fr. David finally confirms Fr. Innokenty with the intention of becoming an Athonite monk. Moreover, he does this indirectly, not with words, but with example. Father David did not immediately decide to become the confessor of a millionaire, and, moreover, he had no desire to push Sibiryakov to this choice. On the contrary, Fr. David tries to show Innokenty Mikhailovich all the complexities of monastic life, for which they take a joint trip to Athos. During this trip, a significant event occurred. The cathedral was built in St. Andrew's Skete for 25 years, but construction moved extremely slowly due to lack of funds. The construction of the hospital building with the Church of St. Innocent of Irkutsk was in the same condition. The history associated with this temple is not without interest. In 1868, Bishop Alexander of Poltava visited St. Andrew’s monastery. The brethren, taking advantage of this opportunity, asked him to found a church in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. This was not at all surprising, since it was on the day of the celebration of this icon that St. Andrew’s Skete was opened in 1849. But what was the surprise of the abbot and the brethren when the bishop, wise with great life experience, whom contemporaries call “the glorious defender of the Solovetsky monastery during the Crimean campaign,” suddenly refused to build a temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God on this site, and laid the foundation of a temple in honor of the Irkutsk Saint When the elders began to object to him, the bishop said that God would send from Siberia a benefactor named after this saint, which came true, although much later. It is easy to guess that the hospital building with this church was soon erected by the benefactor of the same name to the saint. But this is preceded by very unpleasant events in the life of the Siberian philanthropist. Innokenty Mikhailovich warmly accepts the call of the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by the Evangelical youth (Matthew 19:21), and begins to get rid of his rich estate with excessive haste. Of course, we do not know all of Sibiryakov’s good deeds. It is known, for example, that he donated 150,000 rubles to one of the Nizhny Novgorod monasteries. It seemed that money had become disgusting to him and he began a titanic struggle with it, but his capital was so great that he could not defeat his opponent. This haste almost leads him to disaster. One day, entering the Znamenskaya Church, on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and Znamenskaya Street, he handed a silver ruble to the nun standing on the porch. She, accustomed to giving alms in a few small moments, was moved and, in front of the donor’s eyes, knelt down and began to pray in front of the image of the Mother of God “of the Sign.” This scene touched Innokenty Mikhailovich, he immediately asked the nun what monastery she was from and where she lived in St. Petersburg. The next day, Sibiryakov appeared at the specified address and handed over to the collector all his cash, of which he had about 190 thousand rubles at that time. She was horrified by this amount and could not accept it impartially for the needs of the monastery. Some suspicions arose and she reported the case to the police. The case was made public, an investigation began, and, alas, Innokenty Mikhailovich’s relatives inflicted a serious wound on him, declaring his insanity. The case went to court. The court found the millionaire “of sound mind and sound memory,” and the specified amount rightfully went to the Uglich Convent. After this, Innokenty Mikhailovich chose the only correct path for his charity: he donated a colossal sum to his confessor David to complete the work on the courtyard and for the construction of the Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called on Athos - 2,400,000 rubles! . At the same time, after such an unpleasant reaction from some of his relatives, Innokenty Mikhailovich firmly realized that monasticism was the only acceptable path for him, and in 1894 he entered the St. Andrew's Metochion in St. Petersburg. Relatives begin to oppose him with renewed vigor. They are trying to distract him from monasticism or at least keep him in one of the Russian monasteries. But all their attempts were in vain, and on October 1, 1896, at the age of 35, Sibiryakov took monastic vows as a ryassophore and on the same day went to Athos. Having thrown off his secular suit, trying on a monastic cassock, he uttered significant words: “How good it is in these clothes! No pressure anywhere! God bless! How glad I am that I dressed in it!” Particularly attractive is Fr. Innocent the silent life of monks. He is looking for solitude. Perhaps he was influenced by the example of the famous ascetic of the St. Andrew’s monastery, the silent Andrei, who labored not far from the monastery. Innocent takes a blessing from the abbot of the monastery and builds a small cell with a temple near the monastery in honor of the Great Martyr Barbara and St. Michael of Klopsky, the heavenly patrons of his parents. There he settles with his spiritual father, Archimandrite David, with whom he is now inextricably linked. Therefore, he has to return to St. Petersburg for a short time, since Fr. David is again appointed rector of the metochion. It was difficult to leave the solitude of Athos, but soon his spiritual mentor returned to Athos again and with him Fr. Innocent. This time it's forever. There he soon takes vows into the mantle with the name John, and then into the great schema again with the name Innocent. In the forty-first year of his life, Fr. Innocent, having been ill for a short time, moved to the eternal monasteries. This happened on November 6, 1901. The Russian millionaire had to go through an amazingly short and direct path. The brethren of the monastery noted that on Mount Athos Fr. Innocent led a strictly fasting and ascetic life. One cannot help but be surprised how a person, accustomed from childhood to exquisite dishes, ate coarse monastic food on the same basis as all the monks, most of whom came from a peasant environment. A person, surrounded since childhood by a noisy secular society, who has hardly ever known loneliness, spends a reclusive life in a cell, devoting all his time to prayers and reading soul-helping books. This was not a game of monasticism, but real monasticism in its highest expression. This was not an imitation of the ancients, but an ancient patericon read in our time. The builder of one of the largest cathedrals in the Orthodox world, which accommodated 5,000 people, never allowed himself to stand out from the rest of the brethren. In 1900, the cathedral was consecrated, and many speeches of thanks were heard. But we don’t hear a single piece of praise addressed to the chief ktitor-schemamonk Innocent. This man is dead to the world, and praise is foreign to his ears. Even his death was reported in sparse telegraph lines. And only in the decade of his death was he sung by an Athonite monk who happened to know this man. It is important to note that Athonite monastic life of that time knew other examples. They are characteristic of Greek regular (idiorhythmic) monasteries. In them, each contributor received an honor corresponding to his contribution. This created inequality in the monastic environment. Rich investors had several rooms, and even a kind of servant from among the poor monks. Innokenty Mikhailovich's whole life was a rejection of such inequality. But after his death, the brethren gave their benefactor a worthy honor by burying him next to the founder of the monastery, Hieroschemamonk Vissarion. In the message about the death of the former millionaire in the magazine of the Panteleimon Monastery, “Soulful Interlocutor,” it is beautifully said in the words of Holy Scripture: “About him, one can briefly and clearly say this: “... having died in a small way, fulfill your duty” (Wisdom 4:13)” In 1910 The Russian magazine “Parish Reading” wrote about him: “...He did so much good that the memory of him... will remain with a million Siberians” - and was deeply mistaken in his forecast: this name was firmly forgotten in Russia. Apparently, not only the censorship of the Soviet period, which did not need an “example for capitalists” (as the confessor called him), had an effect, but also the ability of the human psyche to displace from consciousness the incomprehensible, which does not fit into the usual patterns. At least, this name began to be “forgotten” long before the revolution: for example, brochures and even books were published about the consecration of St. Andrew’s Cathedral... but Sibiryakov was not mentioned in them. As a result, in Greece they know and love him more than in Russia, and on Athos they have long been revered as a saint - the bones of the ascetic, dug up according to Athos custom, turned out to be amber-honey in color, which the Athosites consider a sign of holiness. God willing, memory will return to us too: with the help of the Foundation named after St. Petersburg. Innokenty Sibiryakova in May 2009, the Commission for Canonization of the St. Petersburg Diocese transferred documents for canonization to the Holy Synod. Source: https://www.pravoslavie.ru/smi/37869.htm https://sibiriakov.sobspb.ru/ros_i_afon/russk_afon/18troizk_insib.htm https://www.aif.ru/society/article/52925

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Original title : Innokenty Sibiryakov. Help me... I'm terribly rich Year of release : 2016 Genre : Fiction, drama Studio, country : Russia Duration : 59:58 Director : Alexander Karpov Cast : Sergey Zotov, Anna Julia Skrufari, Vladimir Laptev, Vladimir Ipatov, Andrey Bazhin, Arthur Ivanov , Andrey Panov Description : The film is dedicated to the memory of our wonderful compatriot, Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov (1860-1901), philanthropist, philanthropist, future inhabitant of Holy Mount Athos. Raised by his parents in the traditions of Orthodox piety and mercy, by God’s grace he possessed a breadth of soul that was exceptional even for Russian people, helping the poor, financing scientific and educational centers in Siberia and the capital, but especially generously donating to Orthodox churches and monasteries. Having started life as a successful hereditary millionaire merchant, I.M. Sibiryakov ended his earthly journey as a humble schema-monk on Holy Mount Athos in the St. Andrew's skete, built with his secret donations.

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The Russian Orthodox Church plans to consider the issue of canonization of Russian Svyatogorsk ascetics

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Premiere of the new feature-documentary film “Innokenty Sibiryakov. Help me... I'm terribly rich! took place in St. Petersburg, reports the portal’s correspondent.

The film, created in the genre of documentary drama, is dedicated to the 1000th anniversary of Russian monasticism on Holy Mount Athos and is part of the educational project “Road to Athos”, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

The film is dedicated to the memory of one of the richest gold miners of the Russian Empire, Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov (1860-1901), a generous benefactor and philanthropist who became an ascetic on Holy Mount Athos. Raised by his parents in the traditions of Orthodox piety and mercy, by God's grace he had an exceptional breadth of soul, trying to put into practice the Gospel Commandments of Christ in his own life, helping the poor, financing scientific and educational projects, building hospitals and schools, but especially generously donating to Orthodox churches and monasteries. Having started life as a successful millionaire merchant, I.M. Sibiryakov completed his earthly journey as a humble monk on Holy Mount Athos in the St. Andrew's Skete, built with his secret donations.

According to general film producer Yulia Ivanova, the project is called “The Road to Athos” because we are all on the path to God, we have not arrived yet, we make mistakes, fall, rise and go again. “The image of Innokenty Sibiryakov makes you think about the meaning of life. Sooner or later, every major businessman is faced with the dilemma of helping or not helping those who ask. The film contains the phrase: “You are not asking, you are testing me.” Rich people personally called me and said that she shocked them,” noted Yulia Ivanova.

The leading actor, actor Sergei Zotov, emphasized that the personality of Innokenty Sibiryakov left a deep mark on him and it would be wonderful for as many people as possible to know about his life’s journey.

The film was shot in 2021. Duration: 59:58 min. Director: Alexander Karpov. Cast: Sergey Zotov, Anna Julia Skrufari, Vladimir Laptev, Vladimir Ipatov, Andrey Bazhin, Arthur Ivanov, Andrey Panov.

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Innokenty Sibiryakov

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