Bishop of Kamensk and Alapaevsk Methodius: In working with people we must give place to God

Methodius (Kondratiev)
(born 1957), Bishop of Kamensky and Kamyshlovsky, temporary administrator of the Alapaevsk diocese. In the world Kondratiev Mikhail Alexandrovich, born on November 10, 1957 in the city of Ufa. Baptized in infancy.

In 1975 he graduated from secondary school No. 35 in Ufa. In 1975-1982 he studied at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology at the Faculty of Molecular and Chemical Physics. Upon graduation, he got a job as a physics teacher at the Bashkir State Medical Institute in Ufa.

In May 1984, he retired from Bashkortostan State Medical Institute. With the blessing of the Bishop of Ivanovo and Kineshma Ambrose (Shchurov), he served as an altar boy in the Trinity Church in the village of Petrovskoye, Lezhnevsky district, Ivanovo region.

On December 6, 1984, he was tonsured into the mantle by Bishop Ambrose of Ivanovo, with the name given in honor of the Monk Methodius of Peshnosha. After accepting monasticism, he continued his ministry at the same parish.

On August 11, 1985, he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon by Bishop Ambrose, and on August 19 - to the rank of hieromonk and appointed rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Grigoryevo, Teikovsky district, Ivanovo region.

On February 9, 1988, he was appointed rector of the St. George Church in the village of Georgievskoye, Kineshma district, Ivanovo region.

By the day of Holy Easter 1992, he was elevated to the rank of abbot.

Since 1998, he has been involved in the rehabilitation of drug-addicted youth in the parish. He took part in many conferences dedicated to the problem of helping drug addicts and HIV-infected people, including international ones.

In 1999-2004 he studied at the correspondence sector of the Moscow Theological Seminary.

In the Ivanovo-Voznesensk diocese, in addition to the rectorship, he performed the following obediences: from May 10, 2007 to July 16, 2012 - secretary of the diocesan disciplinary commission;
from December 1, 2008 to June 10, 2011 - secretary of the diocesan court; from March 12, 2009 to October 20, 2010 - member of the expert council at the educational committee of the Ivanovo-Voznesensk Theological Seminary; from June 10, 2011 to July 16, 2012 - Chairman of the Diocesan Court. In 2010-2011, he headed a group of experts involved in writing, as part of the work of the Inter-Council Presence, the document “On the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in the rehabilitation of drug addicts.”

Since September 2010 - postgraduate student at the All-Church Postgraduate and Doctoral Studies (Department of Church-Practical Sciences).

Since October 1, 2010 - freelance employee of the Synodal Department for Church Charity and Social Service, head of the Coordination Center for Combating Drug Addiction.

In 2010, he participated in the preparation of the Agreement on interaction between the Russian Orthodox Church and the State Anti-Drug Committee (signed on December 21, 2010).

Since March 14, 2011 - Chairman of the Board of the Charitable Foundation of Saint Righteous John of Kronstadt, established by the Synodal Department for Church Charity.

Since June 2011 - Deputy Co-Chairman of the joint working group of the State Anti-Drug Committee and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Since November 2011 - member of the Board of the Synodal Department for Church Charity.

Since July 2012, he has been a clergyman of the newly formed Kineshma diocese.

Since February 2013 - member of the Public Council of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia.

In February 2013, he was appointed representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Interdepartmental Anti-Drug Working Group of the Collegium under the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of December 25-26, 2013, he was elected Bishop of Kamensk and Alapaevsk.

On January 5, 2014, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite in the Assumption Cathedral of the city of Kineshma by Bishop Hilarion (Kaygorodtsev) of Kineshma and Palekh.

On January 24, 2014, the naming of the Patriarchal residence in the Danilov Monastery in Moscow took place in the Church of All Saints, in the Land of Russia, the Patriarchal Residence in the city of Moscow, and on January 25 of the same year - the episcopal consecration of the Bishop of Kamensky and Alapaevsky. Ordination in the Moscow home church of the holy martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. headed by Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill (Gundyaev). Concelebrating with him were: Metropolitans of Saransk and Mordovia Barsanuphius (Sudakov), Akhalkalaki and Kumurdoi Nikolai (Pachuashvili) (Georgian Orthodox Church), Kirill (Nakonechny) of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye; Archbishop of Vereisky Evgeniy (Reshetnikov); bishops of Solnechnogorsk Sergius (Chashin), Orekhovo-Zuevsky Panteleimon (Shatov), ​​Nizhny Tagil and Serovsky Innokenty (Yakovlev) [1].

From December 28, 2021 it is called Kamensky and Kamyshlovsky [2].

On December 8, 2021, he was appointed temporary manager of the Alapaevsk diocese [3].

No. 18 (771) / May 7 '14

Presenter Svetlana Ladina Archpastor
Bishop Methodius of Kamensk and Alapaevsk answers questions.

On January 25, 2014, an episcopal consecration took place in the Church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana at Moscow State University, and Vladyka headed the Kamensk and Alapaevsk diocese. Over the past several years, Bishop Methodius has been leading church-wide work on the rehabilitation of drug addicts.

— Vladyka, how did it happen that, having received a higher technical education at one of the most prestigious universities in our country, MIPT, and having the opportunity to make a good secular career, you left everything and went to serve in the Church?

— When I entered MIPT, I didn’t think about a career, I thought about science, so the loss of my career didn’t worry me at all. When I met God, was called by God, I understood quite clearly that there is no higher ministry than the priesthood on earth at all. For me, there was no choice since I realized that God is a reality, that there is spiritual life, there is eternal life.

- Vladyka, but you chose not just the priesthood, you chose, so to speak, an even more serious degree - monasticism.

- This is again a gift. Not a cross, but a gift from above - the opportunity to devote oneself to God. I am a fairly integral person, passionate, that is, I am completely involved in the work that I am busy with. This activity did not leave me with any additional interests, so monasticism comes naturally to me. The beginning of my service in the Church was not easy, it was Soviet times... 1984. I worked for a year as a university teacher, then by the providence of God I came to the Ivanovo diocese, and I was immediately offered to write a petition for consecration. To be honest, I was scared. I went to my confessor and said that I wanted to refuse. The confessor asked why? I said that I didn’t feel unprepared. The confessor told me not to refuse, I came, said: “Bless me!”, wrote a petition. But then it was necessary to coordinate the ordination with the Commissioner for Religious Affairs. There they checked everything that was registered with me, my biography, and did not allow me to be ordained. The bishop was upset, and to be honest, I was also very upset. The bishop said that he could not give me the priesthood, but he could give me monasticism. I wanted to be a monk, and the question was resolved. And a year later, the bishop, without informing me, again submitted a petition for my consecration, and then they let me through.

I believe that the Lord really saved me from premature priesthood. During this year I worked at the church, served at the altar, studied the service, gained experience, and then became a priest. Later I realized that if I had become a priest right away, maybe I could have broken down. This is not such a simple service, one must be prepared for it, and the Lord corrected both the confessor and the bishop. And everything ended well.

“Vladyka, during your episcopal consecration you said: It is not theoretical knowledge, but living personal experience, albeit small and modest, that gives rise to spiritual hopes that will not be put to shame.” It was this experience in your life that you spoke about, or are there any other facts in which this was justified?

- Yes. I think I already said that I was ordained at the Georgievsky parish; the rector there was ill. But while I was doing my internship at the cathedral, he recovered and returned to service. They found another church, and I served there for two and a half years. You could say it was a city temple, but my temple was a rural one. It so happened that two and a half years later, this priest finally retired, and the bishop was looking for a priest who could go to this poor, remote parish. And just like a monk, I was looking for where to hide next. It turned out that I was eventually sent to the parish in which I was ordained. Of course, the bishop forgot about it, but I remember. Again, looking back, I can say that if I had been sent right away, perhaps I would not have suffered the temptations that awaited me there at first. But everything ended well again. As the bishop said: “If you go, you will thank God.” I am grateful to God that I was the rector of this rural parish for 26 years.

(To be continued)

Full version of the conversation

In other rooms:

Methodius (Smirnov), archbishop, primate of the Voronezh diocese in 1795-1799.

February 3, 2013

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Archbishop Methodius (Smirnov)

Bishop Methodius (Smirnov), in the world Mikhail Alekseevich Smirnov, was born on November 7, 1761 in the village of Gzhatskaya Pristan, Vereisky district, Smolensk province, into the family of a priest. Russian. There is a version that the bishop was born in the village of Aleksino, Vladimir province, not far from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Father is a priest of the Church of the Great Martyr. St. George the Victorious in the village of Gzhatskaya Pristan, Vereisky district, Smolensk province Alexy Sergeevich Smirnov.

• The bishop received his initial religious and moral education at home.
• 1774–1782 - studied at the Trinity-Lavra Seminary, after which he was appointed a teacher of Greek and Hebrew at the same seminary.
• 1782 - Metropolitan of Moscow Platon (Levshin) tonsured a monk with the name Methodius.
• February 10, 1783 - appointed prefect and librarian of the Trinity Lavra Seminary. His knowledge and commitment to seminary affairs were quickly appreciated by Bishop Plato, and on December 25, 1783, Hieromonk Methodius was appointed rector of the seminary and professor of theology.
• At the beginning of 1790, by decree of the Holy Synod, he was promoted to archimandrite of the Moscow stauropegial second-class Zaikonospassky Monastery and appointed rector and professor of theology of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. By order of Empress Catherine II in 1792, Archimandrite Methodius participated in the commission to examine dubious and suspicious printed and written books.
• On February 14, 1794, Methodius was appointed archimandrite of the first-class Novospassky Monastery and a week later, a member of the Holy Synod.
• On May 4, 1795, by the Highest Decree, he was appointed Bishop of Voronezh and Cherkassy. The ordination took place on May 21 at the St. Petersburg Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He arrived in Voronezh on July 15, 1795, and on July 20 “had a public entrance into the city”: a solemn meeting with the townspeople took place in the Annunciation Cathedral. This is how the local chroniclers, the Eliseev merchants, described the solemn entry of Bishop Methodius into Voronezh: “On the 15th day of July 1795, the Right Reverend Bishop Methodius arrived in Nikolsky, and on the 20th he came to the city directly to the cathedral with ringing bells in all parishes and served the liturgy, and at the end he deigned preach a sermon; there was no room for spectators in the entire bishop's house; and on the 8th day of May 1799 he left for Kolomna, from Trinity he came to the cathedral and served the liturgy, and after the liturgy, going out to the pulpit, he gave his farewell speech to his flock, with which he made many cry, and when he deigned to leave the church, he could with great difficulty to get to the carriage from the thirsty people, because everyone demanded a blessing, and got into the carriage, drove very quietly to Trinity and constantly blessed the spectators with both hands, and there were so many people, both in the monastery and the alleys were full, and had lunch at Trinity, I left at 3 o’clock, and as soon as I left, all the churches were ringing.”
• On September 23, 1795, after “distribution,” he consecrated the Tikhvin-Onufriev Church in Voronezh. In 1795, by order of the Bishop, the suburban Trinity House was rebuilt. On February 11, 1796, Methodius consecrated the Znamensky chapel of the Intercession Church in Voronezh. Bishop Methodius abolished the previously existing Sophia Cross Church; instead, he built a church in the name of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul, which he consecrated on October 14, 1797. On June 27, 1799, he consecrated the stone Peter and Paul Church in the suburban village of Tavrovo.
• Under Bishop Methodius, the construction of the cathedral bell tower continued. Although on January 24, 1797, he abolished the construction commission for violating the established procedure for spending sums of money, he ordered the steward abbot Timofey, the keymaster Ivan Sakharov and the cathedral deacon Grigory Bolkhovitinov to supervise the work as before. Unrest in diocesan affairs was inevitable at that moment: a year and three months passed from the death of His Grace Innocent to the arrival of Bishop Methodius. All affairs were managed by a spiritual consistory of archimandrites and priests.
• In 1798, by order of Bishop Methodius, the Ascension Church, located not far from the bishop’s compound, was “sealed” due to dilapidation. Believers began to disperse to other churches. The clergyman, having lost his income, obtained permission from his Eminence to continue the service, and the issue of repairs was postponed. In the same year, the city clergy “seemed to have a noticeable shortage of seminary quarters” and Bishop Methodius turned to the Holy Synod with a request to allocate 13,895 rubles 75 kopecks “to build a stone building again for the residence of government-paid students,” but was refused. At the same time, Eminence Methodius reported that the previous buildings “for the premises of the consistory, seminary, kitchen and bishop’s servants” were not finished yet and were abandoned for now; “The entire construction of the fence has been completed; and the bell tower is now being built at the expense of donors, which, during my administration of the local diocese, was built 24 arshins from the foundation to the height.”
• According to E.A. Bolkhovitinov: “he ruled the Voronezh flock for 3 years and about 10 months, and according to a personal decree of April 10, 1799, depicted in the decree from the Holy Synod of the same April 13, he was transferred to the Kolomna and Tula Diocese, where he went on May 8.”
• Bishop Methodius was distinguished by his learning, was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and became famous as a teacher of theology.
• Professor P.V. Znamensky writes: “Lectures by Methodius, who, although he very closely imitated Feofan Prokopovich, was able to develop the historical element much more than all his predecessors...”
• In his person, the Voronezh Theological Seminary found an enlightened leader. The seminary under him achieved an exemplary structure in comparison with others. He patronized the prefect Bolkhovitinov, who pushed the rector Archimandrite Ambrose (Kelembet) into the background. In 1795, Bishop Methodius established a verbal, music and statutory class, and in 1796 - a drawing and civil architecture class. An indicator of Bishop Methodius’s respectful attitude towards the theological school was that under him, the seminary teachers practically did not leave it and did not move to other places. Under him, an educational circle of local intelligentsia arose, called the Bolkhovitinovsky Circle. In May 1798, a provincial printing house was opened, and seminary teachers were directly involved in its creation. According to P.V. Nikolsky, “St. Methodius’s care for the Voronezh Seminary made him an experienced leader of spiritual education in other dioceses, and subsequently gave him the opportunity to become one of the most prominent figures in the spiritual and educational reform of 1808.”
• With the accession of Emperor Paul, there was a turn in the government's attitude towards the monasteries, their material life improved, poor monasteries were allocated plots of land and small fishing grounds. The Holy Synod cared about the ordering and elevation of monastic life. In February 1798, on the recommendation of Bishop Methodius, archimandrites were confirmed as abbots of the Zadonsky and Lebedyansky monasteries.
• In 1797, Bishop Methodius had to intervene in a conflict in the Pokrovsky nunnery that arose between the daughter of Major General Bekhteeva, who lived in her house in the fence, and Abbess Seraphima. He ordered that Bekhteeva’s servants be expelled from the monastery, “for it is indecent for a monastery to live with such a retinue, and, moreover, one must work ourselves.” He also ordered “to send others who do not belong to the monastery.”
• In 1799, Bishop Methodius was transferred to the Kolomna and Tula diocese. In 1799, the center of the diocese was moved to Tula, where there had previously been no bishop's house.
• On December 31, 1803, he was transferred as a bishop to the Tver See, and on May 1 of the following year he was conferred an archbishop.

Archbishop Methodius (Smirnov)

• After a ten-year stay in Tver, in September 1814 he was transferred to Pskov.
• Died on February 2, 1815, buried under the altar of the Pskov Trinity Cathedral

State awards:

• Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky (March 23, 1806)
• Order of St. Anne, 1st degree (September 15, 1801) - in connection with the coronation of Alexander I

Essays:

• Brief Rules and Dictionary of Simple Greek. M., 1783; M., 1795
• Reader or selected passages from St. martyr and philosopher Justin. M., 1783
• Interpretation of the Epistle of St. Apostle Paul to the Romans. M., 1794; M., 1799; M., 1815
• Easter circle rule. M., 1793; M., 1800
• A word to the Voronezh flock, which the Right Reverend Methodius, former bishop of Voronezh, which is now Kolomna and Tula, preached in the Voronezh Annunciation Cathedral upon his departure from Voronezh for the Kolomna bishopric in May 1799. M., 1799. 8 p.
• Guardian Angel: Children's book on the Law of God / Holy. M. Smirnov. M.: Blago, 1995. 62 p.

Primates of the Voronezh diocese

—
Voronezh-krai.rf/wiki/v/4814

Serving in the Russian Orthodox Church as a priest

In the first years after his consecration, Metropolitan Methodius served in Moscow, in the Novodevichy Convent. At the same time, he began his church career in the Department of External Church Relations, literally in a few months going from an ordinary assistant to the deputy chairman of the department. This is a rather dark page in the biography of Bishop Methodius. After the collapse of the USSR, many facts of collaboration between clergy and the KGB were revealed. Among other things, it turned out that the DECR was an intelligence center of the special services inside the Russian Orthodox Church, and Metropolitan Methodius made a dizzyingly fast career there only at the instigation of the state security leadership. Subsequently, these same forces influenced his election as bishop. Of course, after perestroika, the fact that Metropolitan Methodius was recruited into the KGB and had an officer rank in this structure was hushed up. The same policy of silence was carried out in relation to all other recruited clergy, of which there were a lot. Hierarchs often decided to take such a step because it was the only opportunity to receive holy orders or retain them. Subsequently, Metropolitan Methodius (Nemtsov) served with the rank of archimandrite in various churches in Moscow, until in 1980 he was elevated to the rank of bishop.

Essays

• "Life of St. Cyprian with analysis and evaluation of his works." (PhD essay).
• Speech at his naming as Bishop of Novgorod-Seversky on June 9, 1893. "Arr. to "CV" 1893, No. 25, p. 934-936.
• Word on the day of celebration of the 900th anniversary of the establishment of the episcopal see in Chernigov. "Chernigov. Ep. Ved." 1893, no. 19.
• Word on the Day of Pentecost. Chernigov, 1894.
• Homily on the first day of Holy Pascha at Vespers. Chernigov, 1894.

In manuscripts:

• Introduction to Orthodox Theology.
• Catechetical teachings about the truths of the Orthodox faith.
• Moral theology.

Used materials

• A.F. Tarasenko. Saint Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov

[1] At the Kyiv department at that time there was Metropolitan. Dionysius (Balaban), approved by Constantinople, who showed himself to be a supporter of Poland in Little Russian affairs and thus aroused Moscow's dissatisfaction. However, the confirmation of Methodius in the actual rank of Metropolitan of Kyiv never took place, and the Kiev Metropolis, politically controlled by the Moscow authorities, remained (from the point of view of Moscow) vacant until 1685

[2] See Petrushko V.I., “ Kiev Metropolis in the 2nd half of the 17th century. and its reunification with the Moscow Patriarchate

", History of the Russian Church. Lecture notes. M., PSTBI, 1999:

[3] Probably this anathema was lifted at the request of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. See A. Malevich, “ Mefodiy Filimonovich, fifth bishop of Mogilev and locum tenens of the Kiev metropolis (1661-1668)

"in the book Mogilev Diocese. Historical and statistical description. Mogilev, 1908, vol. 1, issue 2, part 1, pp. 103-104:

Literature

• Tolstoy M.V. Stories from I.R.Ts., p. 570, 571.
• Solovyov S. M. History of Russia, book. III, p. 80, 100, 102, 114, 125-127, 134, 148, 149, 154-158, 254, 262, 354-357, 359, 370, 371.
• Snegirev I.M. Novospassky stauropegial monastery in Moscow. M., 1863, p. 44.
• Bulgakov, p. 1404.
• Stroev P., p. 493.
• N.D., p. 55.
• M. Nkr., vol. II, p. 259.
• Chronicle of E. A., p. 659-663.
• Right review., 1875, V-VIII, p. 231-267; November, p. 475; December, p. 629.
• Rus. archive, 1901, book. I-ya, No. 2, p. 226, 236-240.

Meaning of the word methodius

Examples of the use of the word methodius in literature.

It was in the center of the Great Moravian state of Velehrad that Byzantine missionaries invited by Prince Rostislav appeared - the brothers Cyril and Methodius.
Constantine the Philosopher and Methodius were associated with the Great Moravian mission.

In search of Jewish and Arab evidence of the baptism of the Khazars, his people beat him in the monasteries of Wallachia and in the basements of Constantinople, and he himself arrived here, in Constantinople, so that here, from where missionaries Cyril and Methodius were once sent to the Khazar capital to baptize the Khazars, find manuscripts and people who do this.

In Glagolitic texts, more often than in Cyrillic texts, archaic expressions are found, as well as words characteristic of the language of the Western Slavs who once inhabited Moravia, for whom Cyril and Methodius created their own alphabet.

Timofey Mikoyan Terenty Prikup Kuzma Matyukhin Taras Kozyulya Trofim Zakharov Methody Zarubin Jack Yakov Pakhom Dubinin Mitrofan Kravets Panteley Tyutunya Semyon Rain Zakhar Opletkin Polikarp Glotov Mikhey Tatishchev Anton Yanson Danila Yakushev Chaim Yakobson Kondrat Neprukha Yakov Freundlikh Andryushka Khvostov You think I know them all by heart remember?

Ivanka looked after him, remembered his grandfather Lapotka and stepped towards Methodius Kuzmich.

His wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Demille, nee Menshova, the grandmother of our hero, outlived her husband by fifty years, but did not marry again - she raised and raised three sons - the eldest son Victor, born in 1912, and his two twin brothers - Kirill and Methodius, so named by the will of the historian-father.

Then everyone gasped, looked at each other and raised their heads, as if lightning had lit up in the clear sky, and Methodius, moving his militant eyes, whispered: “After this they will sing to us for many years!”

Cyril and Methodius, Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets are holy names for them.

You know,” after a pause, Valeria Methodyevna continued without mockery, “if a she-wolf makes a typo in a bad year, she will give birth to an extra wolf cub,” she begins to drive the weakest one away from her breasts, turns her face away from him, the family drives the unwanted child into the corner of the rookery, the wolf cub wags its tail, licks his brothers' muzzles, fawns over his mother, who meets his teeth and...

The Tatars were sent from God because of our sins,” added the voice of godfather Yakov, “it was written about them before, and Methodius, Bishop of Patara, testifies that these essence came from the Etrievsky desert, which is between the east and the north.

But since the original sources of the biblical texts have long been lost, and they themselves have been altered several times, it is likely that the true author of the Tale of Munta, which Methodius of Patara later included in his Revelation, relied on the original source that has not reached us.

Revelation of Methodius of Patara and apocryphal visions of Daniel in Byzantine and Slavic-Russian literature.

On Forstadt Square, Archbishop Methodius performed a solemn prayer service, after which a review of the troops and a parade took place.

Let Lesha, Heinrich and Mark get to work cleaning up, and you, my pure gold, pick up Methodius and take him to my car.

Source: Maxim Moshkov library