A person of special responsiveness
Metropolitan Feofan (Ashurkov; † 11/20/2020):
– Vladyka Alexy is an absolutely amazing person. I remember him as a boy. He is younger than me and studied with me at the seminary. After that, he was a deacon for a long time, then a protodeacon, that is, the chief deacon at the Moscow Theological Academy. Multi-talented, had a wonderful voice. Art connoisseur. A wonderful guide, a researcher at our academic museum - the TsAK (Church and Archaeological Cabinet). But this is not the most important thing. This is a person of special responsiveness. When you communicate with him, I remember you feel some kind of inner light in him, he glowed. He was always cheerful, as long as I remember him, smiling.
Anatoly Frolov with the Venerable Metropolitan Zinovy (Mazhuga) I have the feeling that all of us, people, have affection for some, and not a very kind attitude towards others, but it seems to me that Vladyka Alexy treated everyone very gently. With great love. This is the trait that he adopted, I would even say a little boldly, while in his Great Cell - from the Monk Sergius himself. From there he brought out this inner peace and warmth. Then, when, by the will of the hierarchy, he was, as it were, removed from the monastery of St. Sergius, he followed the path that St. Sergius had paved. When there was a vision of many birds, the monks went all over Rus' during the time of St. Sergius to bring the light of faith to its most diverse corners. In exactly the same way, the Lord placed Father Alexy in the reviving monastery of the Novospassky Monastery. In the capital. This was very important. What was needed here was Father Alexy (Frolov), who had, as I said above, amazing tact and rich talents. This is the capital after all. The people here are difficult. The worldview of the entire country is largely formed here, although some will be offended to hear this. It is the capitals that generate and disseminate worldviews throughout the country. His spiritual experience - both that he learned from the great elders and his own - was in great demand when caring for the Novospassky Monastery. Here he revealed many spiritual children, here very active, subtle, painstaking - sometimes piecemeal - missionary work was carried out with the Orthodox and non-Orthodox world. And when they sent him to care for the Kostroma See, he again remained the same Archpastor Alexy (Frolov). We know that there were no complaints against him. He already ruled the diocese with gentleness, but very wisely. I love him very much as a brother. And God give him what he strived for - eternal life with God.
In memory of Vladyka Alexy (Frolov), Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich
Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich Alexy (Frolov)
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
Today at night Vladyka Alexy (Frolov) went to the Lord.
We all remember him. More than once he celebrated the Divine Liturgy here in the Sretensky Monastery, performed ordinations, monastic tonsures, and tonsured our students as readers.
Today is an important and great day for Vladyka Alexy. And, we believe, he adequately prepared for it.
Bishop Alexy (Frolov)
In the last period of his life, the Lord gave him a special time and test - a long and severe cancer disease associated with suffering and pain. Granted... It sounds, of course, spiritually textbook and correct. But how can we not admit that we are all afraid of the violence of illness, suffering, afraid of pain, which mercilessly separates us from our usual life.
This is the prayer the Church calls us, Orthodox Christians, to: “Deliver me, Lord, from vain death.” “Vain” in Slavic means sudden. But don’t we dream of the opposite: instant, unexpected death, so that we don’t have time to understand anything. Without suffering - and you are no longer there...
But from a spiritual point of view, and the Holy Fathers unanimously tell us about this, the great good for our soul lies in something completely different. The death of a person who is in no way prepared for the transition to eternity, who remains passionate, striving with all his soul that has left the body for earthly blessings, which he will never find beyond the grave - is this a desired death and future for a Christian? This is the eternal hell of unfulfilled desires. Death without time to, before the Heavenly court, with utmost responsibility and depth, comprehend the good and evil that we brought into this world, which is what saving repentance consists of - is this what we want for ourselves and our loved ones? However, let’s not call any sudden death a punishment from God: it’s not our mind’s business! Each death is a special accomplishment of God’s Providence.
What is this terrible and great good for us - preparation for death by illness and suffering, as the Fathers of the Church unanimously testify? Months and days, and even years of incurable illnesses before imminent death, suffering, which we all so sincerely fear - it is they, and nothing else, that separates a Christian from the world and mortally intrusive earthly worries, leads to the memory of committed sins, to true, saving repentance, to an awareness of the frailty of the many-sided vanity and at the same time to gratitude for the greatest value of life, which a person lived by the gift of the Lord.
Vladyka Alexy walked the wonderful, zealous path of an Orthodox Christian, focused on faith in Christ the Savior.
He, like many of those standing here, was born in the Soviet Union. Received a spiritual and humanitarian education. I know his friends: Viktor Burdyuk, Nikolai Blokhin and the future Vladyka Anatoly Frolov were friends. I don’t think that as teenagers they exhibited exemplary behavior. But they studied brilliantly, received an excellent education, and most importantly, they lived according to their conscience, they lived in such a way that they sincerely and fervently came to faith. In the seventies, the future Vladyka entered the seminary, then graduated from the academy and became a monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and an employee of the Publishing Department of Metropolitan Pitirim.
Archbishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky and students of the first graduating class of Sretensky Theological Seminary. June 3, 2004
Vladyka Alexy loved history and studied it professionally. I think, with the blessing, including from Bishop Pitirim, he continued the work that had once been started by the then Archimandrite Pitirim (Nechaev) and Archpriest Alexei Ostapov: they created the first church museum in the Soviet years - the famous Church-Archaeological Cabinet of the Moscow Theological Academy. Today we cannot even imagine the significance of this collection of shrines and church memory in that atheistic period, and first of all, for the affirmation of the faith of the pupils of the then theological schools, thousands of future shepherds of the Russian Church.
For many years, Vladyka served as a deacon and was not even a priest. But in the early 1990s, Patriarch Alexy appointed him vicar of the devastated Novospassky Monastery. And all Orthodox Muscovites know with what love, with what heart Vladyka Alexy revived this ancient monastery.
For many years, Vladyka was the chairman of the Synodal Commission for Monastery Affairs. It would seem like a bureaucratic position. But no: here too he wholeheartedly participated in the life of the reviving monasteries, including our Sretensky Monastery. You could always come to him for advice, he was always available, and this advice was always truly wise and spiritual.
He was an unusually, harshly demanding person. To yourself. He treated others more than condescendingly, with endless mercy. The brethren of the Novospassky Monastery, it seems, especially understand this.
We remember how Vladyka Alexy stood before the Throne of God at the Divine Liturgy. Praying with him was always a great spiritual happiness.
Archbishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky at the altar. Sretensky Monastery, July 6, 2007
The Lord gives His faithful servants the right and honor to ascend to Golgotha at the end of their lives. This happens in different ways. We recall the life of the Venerable Optina Elder Barsanuphius. Shortly before his death, by decision of the Holy Synod, Father Barsanuphius was torn away from his endlessly beloved Optina Monastery monastery, elevated to the rank of archimandrite and made abbot of the Novo-Golutvinsky Monastery. It would seem: insist, work, obey! But Elder Barsanuphius perceived what happened to him as a real Golgotha. Sometimes we don’t understand this, but if a person has given his whole soul to one thing, and suddenly, even for obedience, even out of necessity, he is torn away somewhere, this really feels like a very difficult test.
Probably, such a Calvary - gracious, necessary and saving - was the transfer of Vladyka Alexy from the Novospassky Monastery with the blessing of the Hierarchy to the post of archpastor of the ancient Kostroma diocese. Vladyka took this appointment very hard, but never grumbled, knowing full well that this was God’s Providence, a debt that he must repay through labor and obedience.
In Kostroma, Vladyka Alexy, as elsewhere before, worked to organize the spiritual life of the diocese.
Archbishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky at the altar. Sretensky Monastery, July 6, 2007
And then the disease came. The same, by the way, as the dying illness of Lord Pitirim. And Vladyka Alexy perceived this illness in the same spiritual way as Metropolitan Pitirim, who once, amid long suffering, said that he was grateful to God for this illness: it brought him to the state to which he had strived for many years of monastic life. Bishop Pitirim also added as his discovery, as something very important for himself: “Oncology is a serious illness, but also a special path of the soul to God.” Vladyka Alexy also perceived his test in the same way.
And also about the Providence of God. Vladyka Alexy was dying in Moscow. A few days before his last hour, the Mother of God, more than any hope, especially and clearly showed both Vladyka and everyone who prayed for him that all the trials and all his service - both in Moscow and in Kostroma - are God's blessing, and there is nothing vain and accidental.
We remember how quite recently - not even ten days had passed - the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, brought from Kostroma, was in the capital at the exhibition “Orthodox Rus'”. Vladyka had been in a hospital room for many months; only a few people could see him. And the priceless miraculous icon did not leave the Manezh for days on end, being under vigilant guard. But the Lord arranged it so that, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, Vladyka Alexy was able in the last days of his earthly life to pray and fall before this miraculous icon that came to him from his diocese.
Let's pray for him.
Let's not forget him in our prayers! Let us thank the Lord that such a wonderful person was on our path. And let us rejoice for Vladyka Alexy: we believe that he walked the path of life destined for him by the Lord God with dignity and righteousness. Amen!
The Royal Room and the Parable about the Development of Memory
Metropolitan of Vyatka and Slobodskoy Mark (Tuzhikov):
– Vladyka Alexy is truly a good shepherd. We remembered him this way from the Moscow theological schools. When he taught us general church history. You could always approach him. He will tell you everything in detail. If he or one of his friends managed to go somewhere on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, Greece, or Europe, he always showed us slides and introduced us to the church tradition of those countries. He himself was very well versed in worship, church singing, icon painting, and church applied art. Everywhere he was a man in his place: when he served as a senior deacon at the Intercession Academic Church, and when he conducted excursions at the Central Academy of Arts, and even more so later, when, having already been ordained, he was appointed to care for an enterprise in Sofrino. He always cared with all his heart for the work that was entrusted to him. Despite the fact that the products there are mass-produced, I tried to bring them closer to the level of highly artistic samples, so that at least these would be the basis for reproduction. I wanted everything to be done in the good traditions of our Russian Orthodox Church. No matter how the atheistic authorities tried to destroy this continuity in the 20th century, Father Alexy found still bearers of the tradition. For example, he studied icon painting from Maria Nikolaevna Sokolova, a nun named Juliana, born before the revolution. I myself entered Moscow theological schools after studying at a technical school and institute - at that time, they still had a Soviet feel - so I could appreciate the difference in attitude towards students in secular universities and here. At the seminary and academy we had a warm, family-like atmosphere. Of course, a certain rigor was necessary: we had to acquire knowledge, pass reports, and exams. But at the same time, most of our teachers were in the ranks. They treated us like fathers. And we approached each of them, first of all, as a priest: with awe, reverence and love. We had a hierarchy in our relationship, but there was no division. Our senior mentors treated us primarily from the perspective of counseling: they assessed not so much how you learned the material, but observed how you yourself were spiritually formed, using the knowledge that you absorbed for internal creation. Are you burying your talent in the ground?
Deacon Anatoly Frolov Father Alexy, who was not even a hieromonk at that time, urged us to take a very responsible approach to receiving church education. It seemed completely unacceptable to graduate from seminary and go get some kind of secular job. But even more so if you have already embarked on the path of serving God, Father Alexy was demanding of the awareness of faith. You had to understand dogma and be able to speak on theological topics. We trained in the cell of Father Alexy. Even if we used to gather in the cell of then Archimandrite Jonah (Karpukhin; † 05/04/2020), as soon as the conversation reached a dogmatic climax: “Okay, go talk to Lesha about the Trinity,” Father Jonah sent us out. And in a friendly crowd we stomped along the corridor through several cells to Father Alexy. He immediately put the kettle on, gathered us all at the table, and the conversation continued. This is a very passionate person! He could talk for hours about God the Trinity, about Paradise, about the saints, about spiritual life, about the elders, and so on...
Hierodeacon Alexy (Frolov) in the TsAK With all this height beyond our reach, he communicated with us very directly.
Let’s say when Alexy’s father had a back pain, I gave him a massage. And again, with all this simplicity and accessibility, he was a very strict monk. Forgiving towards others and extremely strict towards themselves. Then I visited him at the Novospassky Monastery. It was providential that Vladyka Alexy led and raised this royal monastery from desolation. Even before the glorification, he loved and especially revered the murdered Royal Family. In his chambers there was a small museum dedicated to the Royal Passion-Bearers. Among the exhibits were personal belongings of the August Ones. – Why do you keep all this behind closed doors? – I asked. “Few people need it,” he answered. Vladyka Alexy (Frolov) There is such a parable (Vladyka Alexy was very fond of parables): one man went to the North, ended up on some holy island and asked a local resident: “Can I take something from the island as a souvenir?” “We must not take it from memory, but develop it...” he answered. Better yet: live in accordance. Vladyka Alexy lived as if all this failure into godlessness in the 20th century in the history of our country, the destruction of foundations and traditions, had not happened. When someone began to justify their unbelief in the presence of Vladyka Alexy: “We lived in such a time, we were taught this way...” “I lived at the same time,” he restrained these rantings. Maybe that’s why he kept the royal room behind closed doors for the time being...
He did not bring alien fire into the sanctuary of God
On December 3, 2013, on the eve, and according to church time, on the day of the feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos (the church day begins in the evening), after a long illness, in the 67th year of his life, Archbishop Alexy (Frolov) of Kostroma and Galich reposed in the Lord.
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The venerable Bishop has traveled a long and spiritually rich path. Vladyka was born in Moscow in 1947. Already from his early youth, by the grace of God, he found his first spiritual mentor - the wonderful elder Schema-Archimandrite Gregory (Davydov). Under the guidance of Father Gregory, as well as Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin), whom the future bishop visited with his elder, the young man was preparing to enter the Moscow Theological Seminary, and then the Moscow Theological Academy, from which he graduated in 1979 with a candidate’s degree theology.
In 1975, the future Archbishop Alexy was ordained to the rank of deacon and left at the Moscow Theological School, fulfilling obediences as an employee of the Church Archaeological Cabinet. The Bishop was a deep expert and subtle connoisseur of church art, and therefore it was he who was entrusted with protecting the relics and shrines of our Fatherland and storing the personal belongings of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Under the protection of St. Sergius, the aspirations for the monastic path of the future archpastor matured and grew stronger. In 1979, Father Alexy finally took monastic tonsure, for which, according to him, obedient to his elders, he had been waiting for several years, for it was not his will that had to be accomplished in tonsure, the elders insisted, but God’s. And it came true: Father Alexy was tonsured a monk, remaining a teacher at the Moscow Theological School. Bishop taught at the Moscow Theological Seminary for about 14 years.
The years of study at Moscow theological schools were unusually fruitful for the spiritual maturity of the future archpastor. Archimandrite Innokenty (Prosvirnin), a famous scientist, bibliographer, and compiler of the “Russian Bible,” was appointed his tonsure father. The spiritual rapprochement of Father Alexy with his “father of the Gospel” was not easy: for many months the young ascetic prayed tirelessly for the gift of love for his new spiritual leader. And the Lord heeded these holy prayers, uniting the destinies of Father Innocent and Vladyka Alexy not only in this life, but also forever: the reverent concerns of Father Alexy (then archimandrite) surrounded the last years of the life of Schema-Archimandrite Innocent. He also found his resting place in the Novospassky Monastery, which was headed by Vladyka. And the works of Fr. Innokenia and his memory, his grave were surrounded in the monastery with reverent veneration by all parishioners and brethren of the monastery. Using his example, the Lord taught the true fulfillment of the fifth commandment. But now the hour has come for the archpastor himself to rest next to his mentor...
Through Father Innocent, true luminaries of Orthodoxy entered the life of the young monk: Saint Zinovy (Mazhuga), Schema-archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko), Venerable Elder Andronik (Lukash) and together with them the entire Glinsky tradition, which had a huge influence on the spiritual formation of the future bishop, laying the foundations for the strictest in spirit adherence to the patristic ascetic tradition, not damaged or blurred by any new trends. He remained the way he was raised in his youth by the great elders, who passed the future bishop “from hand to hand,” as Archbishop Alexy himself put it.
The spirit of the ascetic fathers hung over the Novospassky Monastery: all parishioners, and not just those who aspired to monastic service, were invited to immerse themselves in the works of the holy fathers. The bookstore of the monastery was full of works by the famous ascetics of Athos, other Orthodox monasteries in Greece, Serbia... The Bishop’s blessing to read and learn from such ascetics extended to everyone. It was the patristic view of life, the deep knowledge of man and his fallen nature, the ways of his healing - all the wealth of the ascetic culture of human upbringing that became the spiritual face of the Novospassky men's stauropegic monastery in Moscow. Bishop Alexy was strict in his attitude towards the daily life of his children and parishioners and asked highly of them, without making much difference in the requirements for the inner life of a layman and a monk. Those who decided to follow this narrow path were convinced that behind this holy severity of the Lord, ardent fatherly love lived in his heart. This love for Christ and for the flock entrusted to him forced him to sacredly keep intact the spirit of patristic asceticism, for the Lord knew that only such a spirit, and only such a path could effectively serve to transform and improve the human soul, lead it to Christ, so that a person would find Christ in your heart.
Vladyka Alexy carried in himself the broadest education, and deep inner culture, and openness to the world and man, and, most importantly, true Christian freedom: he knew how to find and take - and so he raised his children - and use spiritual goodness fruitfully in wide spheres of traditional classical culture, and in modern theology, and this was a consequence of his genuine Christian freedom. But he never brought alien fire into the sanctuary of God. Only those who tirelessly and vigilantly upheld the Tradition of the Mother Church could afford latitude.
From the first days of his arrival at the Novospassky Monastery in 1991, when he, together with the small brethren, began to restore the monstrously disfigured once majestic ancient monastery of Moscow, people were drawn to him... The Bishop not only collected the desecrated stones of the monastery, he, according to the word of the Apostle Peter, Sparing no effort, he collected and restored scolded souls - living stones, building from them a “spiritual house” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). Here he did not spare his belly: he pulled lost souls out of the abyss of sin, like a mother strengthening the weak, to the point that he could sing a lullaby to a despondent and weak young soul over the phone.
He was open to people and often repeated that he himself learned everything from people. And this is not a paradox: after all, between him and the parishioners, his brethren, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love and Truth, hovered, and therefore everything went for the benefit of those who love God. Including the wise shepherd himself.
But it all began for a newcomer to the monastery - with a divine service: Vladyka was a great man of prayer. He served incredibly strictly, collectedly, with great prayerful intensity, which was transmitted to everyone around him: to the incomparable choir, at which the world later marveled, for it was truly monastic, monastic singing of enormous spiritual power, and to the deacons who served with him, and to the parishioners: be it an old-timer monastery, or a novice - a person cannot help but hear the true Spirit of God! At the Vladyka’s services (and he served tirelessly, not sparing his strength), everything in the temple was united together: it became one heart and lips glorifying God.
Special mention must be made of the Vladyka’s sermons, which he was in no hurry to record, much less publish, out of his humility. He carried a truly crusader word: he taught veneration and comprehension of the greatest meaning of the Cross of the Lord. The Bishop often reminded his children, disciples, and parishioners that everyone must follow the path that was paved by the Heroic Christ and that only in this unconditional following of Christ can a person find his salvation.
“He showed us the path that we need to follow: “Not as I want, but as You want,” the Vladyka said in one of his amazing sermons. - And so, when we say this, dear brothers and sisters, and when you hear the voice of God, do not harden your hearts. The Lord, with His love, begins to save a person through trials and small sorrows. And this is where you, Christian, give thanks to God, for you are like a son and are accepted only when you are punished. But do not accept punishment as God’s desire to offend, insult and cause you pain, but rather accept punishment as teaching. Remember, man, that you are the son of God, and You were born for Eternity. And, if God loved you so much that He shed His Most Pure Blood and gave His Body as food for you, so that you would be involved in His life, so you, a Christian, you are called to this, strive even to the point of blood! Force yourself to love God! And don’t betray Him even in the smallest things!”
The Bishop’s sermons imperceptibly created an integral Orthodox worldview in the souls of the parishioners. They purified and restored Christian concepts of reason. And people understood: everything in the Church must now be reconsidered and revealed in the light of Christ. Here, for example, is what the Bishop said about holiness...
According to him, holiness is not an ethical concept, not a moral or even metaphysical one (in isolation from the source of holiness - God), but something that is essentially the likeness of God, unity with God, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. A saint, the Bishop always emphasized, is incomparably greater than a righteous person and even than a dispassionate person. A saint is one who acquired God, became deified, and became a god by grace. It was in this vein that the true meaning of the ancient ascetic teaching was restored - as the only path to human holiness.
Among his parishioners and disciples there were also those to whom the Vladyka’s strict ascetic fidelity to the spirit of the Gospel, the Word of God seemed too harsh and they left, thereby repeating what was prophesied in the Gospel: “This word is cruel: [and] who can listen to it?” (John 6:60).
On August 19, 1995, Archimandrite Alexy was consecrated Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky, vicar of the Moscow diocese, and appointed chairman of the Synodal Commission for Monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church, and from December 1995, Archbishop Alexy headed the Synodal Liturgical Commission.
For many years, Vladyka Alexy was the unofficial spiritual leader of the anti-reform movement of the priesthood and laity of Moscow.
With his blessing and under his direct spiritual leadership and chairmanship, in the spring of 2008 in Moscow, within the walls of the Novospassky Monastery, a pastoral meeting of the Moscow diocese was held, dedicated to the problem of the growth of modernist, neo-renovationist tendencies in the Russian Orthodox Church (https://blagogon.ru/biblio/157/ ).
The meeting participants expressed serious concern that in a situation where His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II clearly and unequivocally spoke out against any fundamental reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church, including liturgical reforms (a position shared by the overwhelming majority of members of the Church), there were individual laymen and the clergy, who spoke about their systematic preparation of such reforms, under the pretext of “missionary” accessibility, imposed all sorts of distortions of our shrine - the apostolic and patristic Tradition, tried to shorten the service, translate it into modern Russian, liberalized pastoral and spiritual practice, called for a reduction and the weakening of fasts, the reduction and weakening of the prayer rule, the abolition of confession, especially before communion, which is the path to the profanation of the sacraments, especially the central sacrament - the Eucharist. During that significant meeting, different points of view were expressed on the issue of the productivity or unproductivity of discussions with neo-renovationists.
Most of the participants then agreed that it is necessary to distinguish between people who are sincerely mistaken and those who have gone too far in their desire to replace the divinely established order in the Church with their subjective understanding “from the wind of their heads.” Any discussion with such people does not seem useful or productive.
Concluding the pastoral meeting, Bishop Alexy called the delusions of the neo-renovationists delusions not of the mind, but of the heart. It is not simple thoughtlessness, but lack of faith and lack of correct spiritual dispensation that are the main reasons for modernist deviations.
The result of this pastoral meeting was the Appeal of a group of clergy to the Council of Bishops in 2008, which was signed by 124 clergy of Moscow (https://blagogon.ru/biblio/10/). The Address, in particular, said: “The ideology of the reformers is expressed in conformity with the outside world, demanding liberal reforms of worship in the spirit of political correctness and adaptation to the needs of fallen human nature. It is difficult for us to grasp the scale of the creeping liturgical reformation in the Russian Orthodox Church, but we clearly understand that this phenomenon is historically a dead end and purely marginal in all respects - both in form and in essence. We dare to turn to the Council of Bishops with a request: to assess the unannounced liturgical reformation in the Russian Orthodox Church, to indicate the scale of this modernist phenomenon and its danger to the foundations of Orthodoxy. This is urgently necessary, first of all, for the development and success of a genuine Orthodox mission in Russia and beyond its borders.”
By the decision of the Holy Synod of March 5, 2010, Bishop Alexey was appointed administrator of the Kostroma diocese, where with great enthusiasm he took up the affairs of managing the vast diocese. He was happy, and often repeated the psalm word: “It is from the Lord that man’s feet are made straight” (Ps. 37:23). The Lord Himself sanctifies and appoints for man the place of birth, the day, the path, the service, and the terms of earthly existence. ...
Vladyka was born on the day of the celebration of the Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God, the patroness of the House of Romanov. The Lord brought him in 1991 to the “Romanov” monastery: with the tomb of the Romanovs in the basement, with the memory of the great events of our history. The Lord and the Mother of God led him to Kostroma, the homeland of the first sovereign of the Romanov family, to the city, the shrine of which was and is the Feodorovskaya icon of the Mother of God, to the Ipatiev Monastery, of which the Archbishop of Kostroma and Galich was installed as the sacred archimandrite.
His Eminence Vladyka humbly and courageously bore the cross of a serious illness, and in extreme trials, setting a high example for his students and children.
The bearer of the true monastic tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, a true ascetic and prayer book, Vladyka Alexy was strict in his attitude to everyday life and asked highly of his children, without making much difference in the requirements for the inner life of a layman and a monk. He sacredly kept intact the spirit of patristic asceticism, for he believed that only such a spirit could effectively serve the transformation of the human soul and lead to Christ.
Bishop Alexy stood for fidelity to liturgical tradition (for many years Archbishop Alexy headed the Synodal Liturgical Commission), for the preservation of the Church Slavonic language without any Russification or compromise.
The Kingdom of Heaven is yours, our venerable and unforgettable father and Lord!
Bow to you and eternal prayerful gratitude for everything you have done for us.
Eternal rest to you, newly departed zealous Hierarch of the Russian Church.
2013
Bishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky with his novice Ekaterina Dombrovskaya. Moscow, 2000
“First love never changes”
Alexey Yuryevich Zarov, chief physician of the Central Clinical Hospital of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow:
“My wife Ekaterina, even before our wedding, as well as after it, told me: “Vladyka Alexy is the most important person in my life.” At the beginning of our marital relationship, this even bothered me a little. Then I came to terms with her super-reverent attitude towards the Bishop. When we made the decision about the wedding, the bishop invited me to a conversation. But in the first years I didn’t understand anything at all what he was telling me, I just sat and listened... Katya and I came to that first conversation together. I think he understood that I didn’t understand anything, but he basically didn’t look at my then-future wife during the conversation, but said everything only to me. Although he said something to the two of us, and something to her... Then we came with our newborn son straight from the maternity hospital to Vladyka. The services in the Novospassky Monastery are memorable. The way we waited for him to take his blessing. We did not just wait - the grace of his blessing was always palpable. Noticing us, he blessed us with the words: “Here is a pious family!” He probably told everyone that. For me, it always sounded almost like an accusation: something needs to be tightened up, something needs to be improved... On the contrary, it seemed to me: they didn’t pray enough, they were again in vanity... And then these words of his were heard again! A knock on the heart! I immediately wanted to concentrate somehow. I remember at the Oncoinstitute. P.A. Herzen, where my friend Kolya Vorobyov works (having met whom, I began to go to the Church of St. Nicholas in Vishnyaki), they opened a new department - onco-orthopedics. And so they invite me there. Father Vladimir Vorobyov, Kolya’s dad, even called me specifically, although usually, if you don’t ask him, he won’t say, and if he does, it’s somehow streamlined, but here I hear it insistently on the phone: “Don’t refuse!” [ 1]. Yes, I was practically transferred there already. And apparently he inspired Katya: “Lesha needs to go there.” Everything had already been decided. But for some reason I was tormented. I still couldn’t make up my mind. My suffering then was almost physical. I couldn’t renounce myself; something was holding me back. And then I already went to Vladyka Alexy alone. I asked Katya to arrange a meeting with the bishop. I came to him - this was the first time I was alone with him - and chaotically explained this whole story to him. And then he told me: “First love is never betrayed.” I then understood it this way: stay. He left the lord inspired. He immediately called the Alekseevskaya hospital: “I’m staying!” In my opinion, they were even upset - they probably had already found someone... But I felt relieved - everything that had bothered me so much. The following phrase was said to me then... This Alekseevskaya hospital was indeed the first hospital in which I worked, and Bishop Alexy blessed me to work there. He kept pushing me: “Let’s go to graduate school!” I somehow shrugged my shoulders... - What, there’s no money for graduate school? Let me give it to you! I didn’t know then that rulers have money...
Vladyka Alexy (Frolov) Then I myself was already worried: if I ended up at the Oncology Institute. P.A. Herzen, I would have been closer to the topic of cancer, maybe I would have been able to recognize my wife’s illness earlier. Katya herself did not go to the doctor. But as soon as I told her: “Go to the doctor,” she immediately got up and went. She trusted me completely. Usually, cancer still occurs in nulliparous people. And Katya gave birth one after another, breastfeeding. Although she herself was against my going to work at the Institute. P.A. Herzen... And then, while placing me in the Alekseevskaya hospital, Bishop Alexy himself called Father Arkady (Shatov; now Bishop Panteleimon). That is, again, somehow Katya went to Vladyka Alexy and agreed on everything, as often happens with women - she was, unlike me, extremely decisive. She could not do something for a year, and then go and deal a crushing blow. I didn’t even know that there was some kind of conversation... And Vladyka Alexy called in front of me and asked Father Arkady: “Do you know this Alexey?” - Well, yes, I know. “We need to hire him,” and immediately announces: almost the manager. While still studying at medical school, I worked in the intensive care unit of the 1st City Hospital, where Father Arkady created the School of Sisters of Mercy in honor of Tsarevich Dimitri. One of the first city hospital churches was opened. There I began to go to church. I was lucky then to work in an Orthodox intensive care unit, where I met my wife Ekaterina, she was a sister of mercy... This was my first love. On this Wednesday, thanks to the assistance of Bishop Alexy, I returned. The St. Alexis Hospital is located across the avenue from 1st Gradskaya, we have very close ties. Although they called me, of course, not immediately, but some time after Bishop Alexy’s call. I heard the voice of the chief physician of the secretariat of the hospital of St. Alexis, Ekaterina Yakovlevna Bogdanova - all together they had already made a decision. In general, everyone in this crowd already knew me. So I showed up at the Alekseevskaya hospital - this was the blessing of Bishop Alexy. Once again, I remember, he called me, asking for some patient. And then he called when he himself was sick. Then it was already a call from the other world - everyone knew that Vladyka was already bedridden. Although this was not the end yet, the lord was already taken ill. He suddenly asked me for a woman—he needed to see something—and suddenly announced: “But don’t take money from her!” It was some kind of amazing phrase - I didn’t understand it. Why did the bishop say this? This conversation somehow influenced me. And after that I no longer communicated with him. I tried, of course, to somehow participate in the care, to resolve some other issues, but this was all in absentia. And before that, our whole family went to Vladyka in Kostroma - there he simply greeted us all like a grandfather. Each time, to our surprise, he had personalized gifts for all of us. There was a feeling that he especially loved us, although I’m sure everyone is talking about it.
Father Kirill (Pavlov) and Bishop Alexy (Frolov) We had such an episode.
We once came to Vladyka with Tatyana Vladimirovna Tolly († 01/26/2018), she was one of the Russian emigrants, born in 1925 in Paris. Her parents returned to Russia in 1949, when it was announced that everyone was supposedly being “forgiven,” but here, in their homeland, they had to go through camps. They were not allowed into Moscow, they were able to settle in Kuibyshev (present-day Samara), but there Tatyana Vladimirovna, with her pure French, could not get a job as a French teacher even at school... She knew all the emigration: St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, and Metropolitan Anthony Surozhsky. Arriving in Moscow, she became the child of Father Vsevolod Shpiller. She was already very old, over 85 years old. But she was interested in everything. We took her with us. Let's go introduce her to Bishop Alexy. They immediately began to discuss who knew whom from the emigration. Then the bishop asked her some naively provocative question about faith. She answered honestly. They just laughed together. The Bishop parodied her French intonations. I completely fell on her wavelength and forgot about us. By the way, I even have a wonderful photograph. It was Epiphany, the Bishop baptized Jordan on the Volga at Epiphany - the frost was 25 degrees - everything was simply crackling from the frost! The Lord is all white, and for some reason his vestments are silver. And their meeting with Tatyana Vladimirovna ended with the bishop admitting: “You are the most charming woman I have seen in my life.” And Tatyana Vladimirovna herself, being a spiritually experienced person, later remembered him all her life; May the Kingdom of Heaven rest with her - she too has already passed away. Internally, despite such a seemingly unnecessary playful conversation, they immediately became close. Vladyka Alexy is a man of holy life. And now you address Vladyka as a saint whom you personally know. Recorded by Olga Orlova
Archbishop Alexy (Frolov) reposed in the Lord
Archbishop Alexy (Frolov) reposed in the Lord On December 3, after a long illness, at the 67th year of his life, one of the most zealous archpastors of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Alexy (Frolov) of Kostroma and Galich, reposed in the Lord. Vladyka Alexy was a bearer of the true monastic tradition of Russian Orthodoxy, a true ascetic and man of prayer, writes the Holy Fire website.
The Lord called him exactly to Himself five years after Patriarch Alexy II (+ December 5, 2008).
Archbishop Alexy (Frolov)
From March 1991 to March 2011, Archimandrite and subsequently Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuevsky Alexy was the abbot of the Novospassky Stavropegic Monastery in Moscow, and in this field he gained great love among Orthodox Muscovites.
From December 27, 1995 until his death, Archbishop Alexy was chairman of the Synodal Liturgical Commission.
Vladyka Alexy was the unofficial spiritual leader of the anti-reform movement of the priesthood and laity of Moscow. With his blessing and under his direct spiritual leadership and chairmanship, in the spring of 2008 in Moscow, within the walls of the Novospassky Monastery, a pastoral meeting of the Moscow diocese was held, dedicated to the problem of the growth of modernist, neo-renovationist tendencies in the Russian Orthodox Church.
The most authoritative Moscow pastors and laity made reports and messages at that memorable meeting. The meeting participants expressed serious concern that in a situation where His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II spoke out quite clearly and unequivocally against any fundamental reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church, including liturgical reforms, there were individual laymen and clergy who spoke about their systematic preparation of such reforms, under the pretext of “missionary” accessibility, they imposed all sorts of distortions of our shrine - the apostolic and patristic Tradition, tried to shorten the divine service, translate it into modern Russian, carried out the liberalization of pastoral and spiritual practice, called for a reduction and weakening of fasts, a reduction and weakening of the prayer rule , abolition of confession, especially before communion, which is a path to profanation of the sacraments, especially the central sacrament - the Eucharist. Concluding the meeting, Bishop Alexy called the delusions of the neo-renovationists delusions not of the mind, but of the heart. It is not simple thoughtlessness, but lack of faith and lack of correct spiritual dispensation that are the main reasons for modernist deviations.
The result of this pastoral meeting was the Appeal of a group of clergy to the Council of Bishops in 2008, which was signed by 124 clergy of Moscow. The Address, in particular, said: “The ideology of the reformers is expressed in conformity with the outside world, demanding liberal reforms of worship in the spirit of political correctness and adaptation to the needs of fallen human nature. It is difficult for us to grasp the scale of the creeping liturgical reformation in the Russian Orthodox Church, but we clearly understand that this phenomenon is historically a dead end and purely marginal in all respects - both in form and in essence. We dare to turn to the Council of Bishops with a request: to assess the unannounced liturgical reformation in the Russian Orthodox Church, to indicate the scale of this modernist phenomenon and its danger to the foundations of Orthodoxy. This is urgently necessary, first of all, for the development and success of a genuine Orthodox mission in Russia and beyond its borders.”
In the parachurch liberal media, this Appeal of the 124 caused real gnashing of teeth among representatives of the liberal-renovationist clergy and laity.
Bishop Alexy stood for fidelity to liturgical tradition (for many years Archbishop Alexy headed the Synodal Liturgical Commission), for the preservation of the Church Slavonic language without any Russification or compromise. He was strict in his attitude to everyday life and asked highly of his children, without making much difference in the requirements for the inner life of a layman and a monk. He sacredly kept intact the spirit of patristic asceticism, for he believed that only such a spirit could effectively serve the transformation of the human soul and lead to Christ.
The Kingdom of Heaven and eternal rest to the newly deceased zealous Hierarch of the Russian Church - His Eminence Bishop Alexy!
Pastoral Conference 2008
On April 16, 2008, in the Catherine Church of the Novospassky Stavropegic Monastery, under the chairmanship of the vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus', the chairman of the Liturgical Commission of the Russian Orthodox Church, the vicar of the monastery, Archbishop Alexy of Orekhovo-Zuevsky, a pastoral meeting of the Moscow diocese was held, dedicated to the problem of the growth of modernist, neo-renovationist tendencies in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Reports and messages were given by: the abbot of the Sretensky Monastery for Men, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), the rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, Archpriest Alexander Shargunov, the rector of the Church of St. John the Warrior on Yakimanka Archpriest Nikolai Smirnov, member of the Diocesan Council of Moscow Archpriest Leonid Roldugin, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Trinity-Golenishchevo Archpriest Sergius Pravdolyubov, Archpriest Vladimir Pereslegin, cleric of the Valaam Monastery Metochion in Moscow Priest Igor Belov, Archpriest Andrey Pravdolyubov (Ryazan diocese), Chairman of the Divine Service Commission at the Diocesan Council of Moscow Hegumen Feofilakt (Bezukladnikov), rector of the Patriarchal Metochion at the Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery Archpriest Vladimir Chuvikin, rector of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Sokolniki, member of the Divine Service Commission at the Diocesan Council of Moscow Archpriest Alexander Dasaev, cleric of the Church of the Forty Martyrs Sebastius skikh, chief editor of the magazine "Heir", confessor of the Orthodox youth association "Young Rus'" priest Maxim Pervozvansky, editor-in-chief of the magazine "Blessed Fire" Sergei Nosenko, teacher at the Nikolo-Ugresh Seminary, candidate of theology Valery Dukhanin, scientific secretary of the Scientific Council for Religious and Social Research of the Department of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences, executive editor of the journal “Problems of Development” Vladimir Semenko and others.
The meeting participants expressed serious concern that in a situation where His Holiness the Patriarch clearly and unequivocally speaks out against any fundamental reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church, including liturgical reforms (a position shared by the overwhelming majority of members of the Church), there are individual laymen and clergy , who talk about their systematic preparation of such reforms, under the pretext of “missionary” accessibility, impose all sorts of distortions of our shrine - the apostolic and patristic Tradition, try to shorten the divine service, translate it into modern Russian, carry out the liberalization of pastoral and spiritual practice, call for a reduction and weakening fasts, reduction and weakening of the prayer rule, especially before communion, which is a path to the profanation of the sacraments, especially the central sacrament - the Eucharist.
A number of clergy who spoke at the meeting drew the attention of those gathered to the fact that the renewal of worship under the pretext of missionary work is not a new phenomenon in the history of the Church. Yes, Rev. Alexander Shargunov drew a direct analogy with the Second Vatican Council, which proclaimed the so-called “anthropological postulate”, according to which the main criterion for the applicability of a particular practice in the Church is not its compliance with Tradition, but its acceptability or unacceptability for a person.
During the meeting, different points of view were expressed on the issue of the productivity or unproductivity of discussions with neo-renovationists. Most participants agreed that it is necessary to distinguish between people who are sincerely mistaken and those who have gone too far in their desire to replace the divinely established order in the Church with their subjective understanding “from the wind of their heads.” Any discussion with such people does not seem useful or productive. Concluding the meeting, Bishop Alexy called the delusions of the neo-renovationists delusions not of the mind, but of the heart. It is not simple thoughtlessness, but lack of faith and lack of correct spiritual dispensation that are the main reasons for modernist deviations. At the same time, according to the participants, any discussion, including with neo-renovationists, should take place in the spirit of brotherly love, no matter how difficult it may be in the conditions of the dishonest and unclean technologies they use.
According to the participants, such meetings should be made regular, including at the church-wide level.
The participants approved a preliminary draft of the final document, which, after finalization by the editorial committee, will be published.
04/17/2008
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