Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk Filaret. Biography
On April 3, 1959, in the second year of the academy, the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Archimandrite Pimen (Khmelevsky), was tonsured a monk with the name Philaret in honor of the holy righteous Philaret the Merciful.
On April 26, 1959, during the Divine Liturgy in the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow, Patriarch Alexy I ordained him as a hierodeacon.
In November 1961, he was appointed teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy, and on December 14, at the Divine Liturgy in the Church of the Cross of St. Philaret the Merciful in the Patriarchal Chambers of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Patriarch Alexy ordained him to the rank of hieromonk.
In 1961-1965 - Secretary of the Holy Synod Commission on Christian Unity.
In September 1962, Hieromonk Filaret was appointed senior assistant inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy, and from June 1963 he held the position of inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy. Since September 1963, he headed the graduate school opened at the Moscow Theological Academy.
On August 4, 1963, in the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Bishop Pitirim (Nechaev) of Volokolamsk elevated him to the rank of abbot with the laying of a cross with decorations and a club. In the same year, on October 8, Patriarch Alexy I elevated him to the rank of archimandrite.
On October 8, 1965, by decision of the Holy Synod, Filaret was elected Bishop of Tikhvin, vicar of the Leningrad diocese.
On October 23, 1965, he was named bishop in the home church of the Leningrad Theological Academy. Consecrated on October 24 at the Divine Liturgy in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
On May 14, 1966, by decision of the Holy Synod, Filaret was appointed Bishop of Dmitrov, vicar of the Moscow diocese, and rector of the Moscow Theological Academy.
From 1968 to 1971 - second deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Moscow Patriarchate.
From September 1971 to August 1972, he was the temporary manager of the Kalinin diocese.
On September 9, 1971, Patriarch Pimen elevated him to the rank of archbishop.
On April 18, 1973, by resolution of the Holy Synod, he was appointed Archbishop of Berlin and Central Europe, Patriarchal Exarch of Central Europe.
On April 15, 1975 he was elevated to the rank of metropolitan.
In March 1976, he was elected to the Holy Synod commission on issues of Christian unity and inter-church relations.
On October 10, 1978, by decision of the Holy Synod, Filaret was appointed Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus. In 1978-1984 - Patriarchal Exarch of Western Europe.
On November 16, 1979, the metropolitan was entrusted with temporary management of the Korsun diocese.
On April 14, 1981, by decision of the Holy Synod, he was appointed chairman of the DECR and a permanent member of the Holy Synod.
On April 19, 1985, the Metropolitan was entrusted with the care of Orthodox parishes in Finland.
On October 16, 1989, Filaret was appointed Exarch of Belarus with the title “Metropolitan of Minsk and Grodno, Patriarchal Exarch of Belarus.”
On November 13, 1989, by determination of the Holy Synod, according to the submitted petition, he was relieved of his duties as chairman of the DECR while maintaining permanent membership in the Holy Synod until this issue is resolved at the Council of Bishops.
By the definition of the Council of Bishops on January 30-31, 1990 - Metropolitan of Minsk and Grodno, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.
In 1990-1995 - deputy of the Supreme Council of Belarus, member of the Commission on Education, Culture and Preservation of Historical Heritage.
In 1990, he was elected a member of the Council of the Belarusian branch of the International Foundation of Slavic Literature and Slavic Cultures, chairman of the Commission of the Supreme Council of the BSSR on issues of parliamentary ethics.
From January to December 1991 - People's Deputy of the USSR.
Since February 18, 1992 - Metropolitan of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Hieroarchimandrite of the Dormition Zhirovitsky Monastery.
Since February 3, 1994 - Holy Archimandrite of the Annunciation Lyadensky Monastery.
From December 1996 to July 1997, he was the temporary manager of the Polotsk diocese, and from February to July 2002, he was the temporary manager of the Mogilev diocese.
Since July 27, 2009 - member of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In 1993-2011 he was chairman of the Synodal Biblical and Theological Commission.
On December 25, 2013, the Holy Synod granted the request of Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk to retire him due to reaching the age of 75.
Metropolitan Philaret was awarded numerous awards. He was awarded the orders of the Russian Orthodox Church: Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, II degree (1969); Equal to the Apostles Prince Vladimir, 1st degree (1971), St. Sergius of Radonezh, 1st degree (1982); Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow, 1st degree (1990); Venerable Andrei Rublev, 1st degree (2003); St. Seraphim of Sarov, 1st degree (2005); Saint Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna, 1st degree (2009). Has received awards from local churches.
Awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples (1985), the Russian Order of Merit for the Fatherland, IV degree (2003), and the Order of Alexander Nevsky (2013).
Metropolitan Filaret was awarded the highest state award of Belarus - the title of Hero of Belarus (2006), as well as the Order of the Fatherland, III degree (1998), Francis Skaryna (2003), Friendship of Peoples (2005), and Honor (2008). Has awards from foreign countries.
Honorary member of the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Theological Academy (1970), Moscow Theological Academy (1974).
Honorary Doctor of Divinity from several universities and academies.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
Vladimir Lossky - theologian from God
To the 100th anniversary of his birth (1903–1958)
Every time we celebrate the centenary of the birth of an outstanding person, and even more so when it coincides, as in this case, with the 45th anniversary of his death, this involuntarily turns us to the past - to something that, although recent, is already history. Modern life rapidly carries us forward, taking us from era to era and plunging us into situations unimaginable just yesterday, which pose new challenges for us and force us to look for answers to questions that have not arisen before. The speed of historical change is an undoubted sign of our times.
However, turning our mind's eye today to the life and works of Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky, we can assume that similar experiences were not alien to him. Born in Russia on the eve of the first revolution, he became a witness and participant in the dramatic events and historical transformations of the first half of the last, 20th century, including all the trials that befell post-revolutionary Russian emigrants.
This circumstance, namely the well-known parallelism of life situations in the first half of the last century and the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, already sets a special perspective for the perception and assessment of the theological heritage of Vladimir Lossky. We can say about him that he was a “theologian of the era of crisis” (if an allusion to the Western so-called theology of crisis is permissible here). This “crisis” was associated primarily with the collapse of old Russia and the severe persecution of the Church that followed. But its indirect consequence was also the formation of pockets of Orthodoxy in the West, which became sources of ever expanding and strengthening Orthodox testimony.
A crisis is a judgment, but not the Last Judgment, which means it is potentially a time for creative breakthroughs and accomplishments. We call such a situation “the time of God’s visitation,” a time when God calls us to deep self-examination and repentance. Being a shock to the foundations, a crisis situation encourages us to turn to foundations deeper than those that have developed as a result of historical evolution, that is, to undoubted, essential foundations. This is the only way to overcome the crisis, since it judges what is transitory, or rather, what is to some extent cut off from the enduring spiritual foundation.
For Christians, the spiritual foundation is the “stone of faith,” an unshakable foundation laid by the Savior and the holy Apostles, and then confirmed by the confession and knowledge of God of the holy fathers. It is to the biblical Revelation and patristic Tradition that we must turn whenever the image of this world changes and its temporary foundations collapse. I think this is the first and main lesson that Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky gives to us, Orthodox Christians and theologians. And not so much a lesson as an example of a way of acting and thinking.
And in another way, Vladimir Lossky sets an example: with his life he showed that the contribution of every faithful member of the Church to its treasury lies in building his spiritual life in accordance with Tradition, in turn making his personal experience church-wide and generously sharing it for the good of the conciliar church body. We often talk about the catholicity of the Church, but we do not always fully experience and realize this catholicity in our life and ministry. This was done by Vladimir Lossky, who was a true witness of faith, which became for him the source of that holistic, spiritually and intellectually rich theological vision, which was clearly embodied in his works.
Lossky defines catholicity as “a way of knowing the truth given to the Church, a way through which this truth becomes reliable for the entire Church - both for the Church as a whole and for each of its smallest particles.” And he continues: “That is why the responsibility to defend the truth lies with every member of the Church, both bishop and layman... For conciliarity is not an abstract universalism of doctrine put forward by the hierarchs, but a living Tradition, preserved always, everywhere and by everyone.”1
With this understanding of the catholicity of the Church, the theologian is the same witness of the faith as the confessor of the faith - a witness who draws strength and opportunity from the Church Tradition in order to correctly express in words and clearly interpret the content of the revealed truth. And of course, the special gift that V.N. Lossky was endowed with is the ability to transform personal experience of comprehending Church Tradition and Communion with God into consistent, logically coherent theological speech, through which the most sublime secrets of the knowledge of God are communicated to the faithful.
For all his obvious erudition, Vladimir Lossky did not fit the type of “theologian-professor”, and his “patristic studies” gave a different result compared to what is usually expected from an armchair scientist. Is this why he paid such attention to the apophatic approach, which occupies such an important place in Eastern Christian theological thought? Lossky was able to grasp the spiritual significance of this theological position, which allows one to see and intellectually realize the unity of experimental and “theoretical” knowledge of God. Hence his special theological interest not only in the works of the Cappadocian fathers, but especially in the texts of the Areopagite and Gregory Palamas.
At the same time, Vladimir Lossky also represents a non-Levitical type of Christian thinker, which is also a sign of the times. But it would be unfair and inaccurate to call V.N.’s theology “lay” in the popular understanding of the word. This theology is ecclesiastical in the full sense, feeding from a single source of grace, equally accessible to all members of the Church of Christ. One might even say that this is a theology that is born out of amazement in the face of that Divine Fullness that is experienced in the event of church communion with the One Essential Trinity. “Conciliarity,” writes Lossky, “is the connecting principle that unites the Church with God, who reveals Himself to her as the Trinity and communicates the mode of existence characteristic of Divine unity, gives life “in the image of the Trinity””2.
As a theologian, Vladimir Lossky was a taxonomist, or more precisely, a synthetic thinker. During the crisis period, he managed to offer the experience of neopatristic synthesis, which was timely and extremely important. He was not alone in this - his contemporaries also worked in a similar perspective (suffice it to recall another outstanding Russian patrolologist and theologian - Archpriest Georgy Florovsky). As a result, the Eastern Orthodox theological tradition has received a distinct and compelling expression in the context of modern Christian thought and scholarship.
Being an opponent of the so-called religious philosophy, as it developed in the Russian tradition, Vladimir Lossky in his work relied primarily and primarily on patristic tradition. Some may have the impression that he was entirely turned to the past. This is definitely not true. In fact, he was a very modern theologian, and his call for a creative reading of the Fathers is a modern call. Turning to the heritage of the Ancient Church, which is enduring in its significance, does not mean refusing to be included in the historical present, just as being in history does not imply refusing to turn to the eternal. Recreating in modern conditions an internally coherent and strictly ecclesiastical system of theological ideas, Lossky sought and found answers to pressing questions of Christian thought.
The best evidence of the depth and relevance of his thought is that he not only had a formative influence on Orthodox theologians of the subsequent generation, but also provoked a creative critical reaction on their part (in particular, in the works of Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon). This means that Vladimir Lossky’s thought remains provocative in a good sense, and therefore significant to this day.
At the same time, we must also admit that his theological heritage has not yet been sufficiently studied and comprehended. Many problematic and very modern topics that he touched on sometimes end up “under the radar” of his undoubted authority. But in no case should one “canonize” in all details the vision that he offers. Within a coherent theological system, it is sometimes difficult to discern and feel the true “nerve” of his thought. But it is precisely this “nerve,” perhaps, that is most important for us today when we turn to the texts of Vladimir Lossky: we must see “problem areas,” enter into a creative dialogue with the author, continue and develop those directions of thought that he worked hard, trying to find a satisfactory solution to theological problems.
Among the theological themes that attracted the primary attention of V.N. Lossky (except for apophatism, as already mentioned above), the main ones are certainly the theme of personality and the theme of the Church.
The question of the theological understanding of personality is the “meeting point” of European thought of the New Age and ancient church speculation. This is a very complex problem, which modern theologians still have to seriously work on. This difficulty lies primarily in the fact that the very concept of personality arises precisely in Christian theology, but it is applied in two different “sections” of it: in theology in the narrow sense (that is, in triadology, as well as in Christology) and in Christian anthropology ( that is, in the doctrine of man as the image of God). The theological question in this case can be formulated as follows: how legitimate and in what sense is it possible to compare and even identify the idea of personality, as it develops on the basis of the experience of human existence, and the idea of hypostasis, which is an integral element of the patristic teaching about the Triune God? Vladimir Lossky offered his answer to this question, which today requires new thinking and understanding.
One of the tasks of theology today is to answer the challenges of various anthropological concepts, scientific and philosophical, based on church knowledge about man and on the image of Man, which is revealed in the person of the God-man Jesus Christ. It is necessary to look for new ways and linguistic means to develop the results that have been achieved. This is especially important in the current historical situation, in the face of very dangerous processes of dehumanization of culture. Trying to fulfill this task, we will again and again turn to the thoughts of Vladimir Lossky, who so keenly felt the spiritual and intellectual significance of Christian personalism for modern culture.
Lossky’s attention to the doctrine of the Church as a community of God-like personalities who acquire a new quality of being in the unity of the Body of Christ is also connected with theological personalism. He rightly believed that the ecclesiological theme is the most important theological theme of our time.
In fact, it is becoming more and more obvious that modern culture as a whole - the culture of the so-called Christian world - has practically lost its understanding of that special reality called the Church. The church is increasingly understood as an organization, an association of citizens, or a kind of “club of interests.” Therefore, today the gospel, to which we are all called, must be not only the gospel about God and the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, but also about the Church of Christ - about the true miracle of the Church, which, like the God-like personality, is difficult to comprehend in its mysterious God-manhood being.
Vladimir Lossky preached with particular power in theological language about the Catholic Church of God, whose faithful son he was, whose joys and sorrows he experienced with his whole being. His pages devoted to Orthodox ecclesiology are highly relevant for us today.
And here we need to pay attention to a very important psychological circumstance. The books and articles by Vladimir Lossky, which we read and studied in Russian translations, did not leave the impression that their author was an emigrant, that is, a person cut off, albeit by the will of fate and even if not completely, from his homeland, from Russia. The principled position of maintaining canonical loyalty to the Moscow Patriarchate was for V.N. Lossky not the result of a more or less random choice or preference, not just a manifestation of spiritual solidarity, but a conscious theological attitude. And this is all the more important because at the same time he was an active supporter and participant in the formation and strengthening of “French Orthodoxy.”
This position should not be perceived as a kind of duality or contradiction. On the contrary, it must be seen as a recognition of the ecclesiological significance of the local and cultural “incarnation” of the Church, wherever its historical wanderings may lead. The source of such a position is in a deep, truly theological vision of the nature and vocation of the Church, in the experience of its catholic omnipresence and at the same time diversity.
This is how true theology differs from its various surrogates, that it is always addressed to the primal reality of Divine Revelation. Like faith, theology is maximalist - it embraces the whole person. But it is precisely this preoccupation with the ultimate that allows the theologian to see the legitimacy and necessity of specific cultural-historical and local manifestations and embodiments of church life, the diversity of spiritual paths within a single Tradition. And it does not allow us to make the very understanding of the nature of the Church of Christ dependent on other aspects of social existence - national, linguistic, cultural and others.
Lossky was in the full sense a member of the Orthodox Church, devoting himself to theological service to it. Through his church affiliation, he was one with the persecuted Church in Russia, but also with every other church community that was in unity and communion with world Orthodoxy.
The importance of Vladimir Lossky for Orthodox, as well as for heterodox theology of the 20th century, can hardly be overestimated. Hardly anyone will argue with this. I would, however, like to draw attention to the fact that his influence was diverse, so to speak, multi-vector.
Vladimir Lossky was among those who, at the first stage of the ecumenical movement, represented the Eastern Christian tradition (and essentially the theological confession of the ancient, undivided Church) in the West at a high intellectual level. It is known how fruitful and inspiring Lossky's participation was in inter-Christian conversations of the post-war period: his participation in patristic congresses, in the work of the Anglo-Orthodox Commonwealth, his involvement in the intellectual life of Christian France. We will give only two pieces of evidence.
N. M. Zernov, in his essay on the history of the Commonwealth of the Holy Martyr Albanius and St. Sergius, notes: “V. N. Lossky... introduced Palamite theology into the discussion between East and West. He regularly participated in the post-war Commonwealth conferences, and his debates with Dr Eric Mascal, who represented the neo-Thomist point of view, for several years gave these meetings the character of a brilliant intellectual duel.
Rowan Williams (now Archbishop of Canterbury) writes: “Lossky remains perhaps the best known and most influential of all modern Orthodox authors... his original and creative interpretation of the Eastern Fathers gives him a strong place among twentieth-century theologians, and virtually all Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology of the last decades uses his approach as a starting point."4
Indeed, the influence of the works of Vladimir Lossky (and not only in the field of ecclesiology) was largely decisive for the revival of theological thought in the Greek and other Orthodox Churches, which took place in the 1960s and later. The general direction and pathos of the “return to the fathers,” which becomes a source of theological inspiration and creativity, for the creation of a neopatristic synthesis, is the main direction of Orthodox theological thought in the past century, inextricably linked with the name of Vladimir Lossky. Not only his works published during his lifetime, but also posthumous publications (here we must express special gratitude to Lossky’s French friend and student Olivier Clément) have truly become reference books for every Orthodox theologian.
But special and no less important - in fact, extremely important - was the role played by the works of Vladimir Lossky in the matter of theological education and church revival in Russia.
It can be said without exaggeration that the publication of the famous eighth collection of “Theological Works” in 1972, in which the main texts of Vladimir Lossky were published in Russian translation, became a theological event for the Russian Church. This publication, already inaccessible at that time, immediately became a bibliographic rarity: it was read thoroughly, copied in various ways, or noted in detail. “Essay on the Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church” and a course of lectures on dogmatic theology became for years one of the main sources for teachers and students of our Theological schools. And the fact that all the difficulties associated with the publication of these texts in the conditions of that time were successfully overcome, without a doubt, is evidence of the Providence of God.
Why was this active inclusion of Lossky the theologian into the spiritual fabric of Russian church life in the 1970s and 1980s possible?
First of all, here it is necessary to note the translation feat of Vera Aleksandrovna Reshchikova, who recently left us, a close friend and student of Vladimir Nikolaevich. Essentially, it is to her that we owe the formation of the corpus of Russian texts by Vladimir Lossky. Without her theological erudition and intuition, as well as tireless energy, it is unlikely that we would be able to read and perceive theological texts written in French and in another cultural context as our own, that is, as works that organically continue the Russian theological tradition that was forcibly interrupted in the 20th century .
In terms of content, the main reason is what has already been mentioned: Lossky’s theological position itself, which is characterized, on the one hand, by fidelity to Tradition, dogmatic rigor and close attention to the heritage of the fathers, and on the other, by the boldness of thought, its focus on creative solutions to complex problems posed by “crisis” times.
The theological works of Vladimir Lossky were regularly published in the church press in Russia in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and were later collected into books that went through several editions. But not everything from his legacy has been translated and published. This also applies to the fundamental book about Meister Eckhardt, the work on which took many years. The appearance of this work in Russian today would have important ecumenical significance, and would also reveal to the Russian reader in a new way the breadth and depth of the author’s searching theological thought. It is no secret that in the current difficult conditions of restoring the traditions of serious academic theology, we sometimes encounter manifestations of a simplified approach to the great Western Christian tradition, to the denial of the need for in-depth dialogue between the Christian East and West. And in this case, the legacy of Vladimir Lossky, the experience of his research work is also an inspiring example for us.
Theology is the work of the Church, but also the special calling of its individual members. Theological work requires spiritual efforts comparable to the efforts of devotees of faith and piety, since it is not a purely intellectual activity, but a matter inextricably linked with the life of the Church. The great fathers of the era of classical patristics, whom Vladimir Lossky was inspired by and whose theology so skillfully conveyed to us, were not “intellectuals” in the modern sense, but holy Seers of God. They also lived in “crisis” eras. They also recreated and creatively expressed the apostolic tradition of faith. They were original thinkers who worked “inside” the Church and the original Tradition.
The symbol of church life is the cross. The cross means a hopeful, but nevertheless difficult and painful path to balance, proportionality and, accordingly, to spiritual fullness, as far as this is possible in a world that lies in evil
. The cross for thought is the fundamental dogma of faith - the Holy Trinity. Only the way of the cross can be the path of a Christian who seeks the “honors of the high calling” in Christ Jesus. The Cross is the agony of death, but it is followed by the Resurrection. The cross is a universal Christian symbol - both spiritual and theological.
We should not avoid difficulties on the path of theological service to the Church and be afraid of the pressing questions that the world asks us. We must be open to historical changes, to cultural transformations, to changing stereotypes of public consciousness regarding the role of the Church in the life of human societies. But our openness must be based on the “stone of faith,” on the unity of spiritual experience and theological thinking that the ever-remembered Vladimir Nikolaevich Lossky showed us with such conviction in his works.
His earthly life was not long, and many sincerely regretted that God did not give him time to more fully develop his talents, generally recognized in the Christian world. But we would betray our faith if we undertook to judge the Providence of God. However, from the depths of the general Church consciousness, we can rightfully say that the theologian Vladimir Lossky is still an active member of the Church today. And our duty is to serve the good of the Universal Church of Christ with no less spiritual energy and theological rigor, without neglecting the fruits that he, a theologian from God, brought a hundredfold.
Eternal memory to him!
