Early years
Sibiryakov was born in Irkutsk into a wealthy family of a capitalist and gold miner. This origin was to determine the entire future fate of the child. Innocent spent all his childhood years in luxury, but, oddly enough, this did not spoil his character at all. From a young age, the young man had sincere compassion for everyone around him. He had a sensitive heart and wanted to help everyone in need. We can safely say that in the person of Innokenty Sibiryakov, wealth has found a worthy owner.
The young man studied at St. Petersburg University. He was very successful in many subjects. But at the same time, he managed to support and help his poor fellow students.
Crazy?
In Soviet times, they preferred to keep quiet about Sibiryakov (1860-1901), because he was a “wrong” capitalist. Distributed 10 million rubles. people—translated from Tsarist gold rubles to current ones, that’s at least 10 billion! Having the opportunity to live in a luxurious mansion, he rented a small apartment. Didn't start the carriage using a cab.
Every day, several hundred applicants crowded into his reception room: beggars, fire victims, widows, dowries, poor students... He refused no one. Once they reproached him: “A bankrupt landowner comes to you and asks for money for lunch in a restaurant. And you give, although you yourself live modestly!”
This story, like others associated with the name of Sibiryakov, is recorded in the police records of that time. The fact is that the rich circles of St. Petersburg received Sibiryakov with hostility: few people were going to follow his example, handing out handfuls of money to the poor, but they also didn’t want to look like stingy people. A solution was found: to declare the millionaire crazy. The party of persecutors of Sibiryakov was led by the mayor of St. Petersburg von Wahl. In 1894, during the trial, Innokenty Mikhailovich was placed under house arrest, and his property was sealed. Historian Tatyana SHOROKHOVA, who wrote a book about Sibiryakov, says: “If Sibiryakov, who was 33 years old, had given pearls and diamonds to dubious singers, built palaces for himself, or been rowdy in restaurants, society would have accepted this with understanding. But Sibiryakov put into practice the gospel rule - “to the one who asks, give!” And, alas, many did not understand this.”
“At the age of 15, Innocent inherited 800 thousand rubles and became the owner of shares in gold mining and shipping companies. However, 18 years later, when they decided to declare Sibiryakov crazy, his arrested fortune was already estimated at 10 million rubles, continues Shorokhova. “This increase in capital looks surprising given the fact that over the same years Sibiryakov gave millions of rubles to charity. Through his example, the spiritual law came true: let the hand of the giver never fail. He opened free canteens and libraries at his mines. He gave almost half a million rubles to the fund he created for pensions and benefits for thousands of workers who worked in gold mining. By the way, the current “golden capital” of Russia, where most of Russian gold is still mined, is the city of Bodaibo in the Irkutsk region. - founded by the father of our hero, merchant Mikhail Sibiryakov. It was his search party that discovered famous gold deposits in the tributaries of the Lena River. The family of a gold miner lived in Irkutsk, and Innokenty was born here in 1860. At the age of 15, left an orphan after the death of his parents, he moved to St. Petersburg, where he graduated from the Bychkov private gymnasium, famous throughout the capital. Then I studied at the university. During this time, he helps scientists, sponsors expeditions, and opens free libraries and museums. Sibiryakov donated huge funds to the famous physiologist and teacher Lesgaft, thanks to which the modern Academy of Physical Culture was founded. Lesgafta. At the age of 26, Sibiryakov had 70 personal scholarship recipients, whom he trained in Russia and abroad, and then helped to get on their feet. With the money of the millionaire and his sister Anna, the Bestuzhev Courses functioned (the first higher educational institution for women in Russia. - Ed.). With his participation, the first women's medical institute was founded in St. Petersburg. At that time, Sibiryakov relied on science and education, believing that this was the way to change the world for the better.
An internal spiritual change occurs in a gold miner after a long trip to Europe. He returned home disappointed, complaining that the spirit of profit and the worship of the golden calf reigned in Europe. Then he is confirmed in the thought: in order to change the world, you must first of all change yourself. The Gospel becomes a millionaire's reference book. He turns to Orthodoxy, travels to monasteries. According to others, he performs eccentricities. For example, he gives a lackey 25 thousand rubles, passing by a nun collecting donations for the monastery, puts a silver ruble on the collection mug, and seeing her joy, asks for the address where she is staying, and the next day brings her all his free cash - 147 thousand rubles. Sibiryakov often recalled the gospel rich man to whom the Lord Jesus Christ said: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your property and give it to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). He attributed this call entirely to himself; the desire to go to a monastery was already ripening in his soul. He said: “I often ask myself: how did I accumulate funds in my hands that could feed thousands of people? My millions are the result of the work of others, and I feel wrong.” Sibiryakov perceived the humiliating trial, where he was examined twice, as a spiritual test. Only once did he exclaim: “I’m giving away my own money, not other people’s!” Fortunately, he was acquitted, thereby justifying his name - Innokenty, which means “innocent”.
The glorious family of Sibiryakovs
It is worth saying that the Sibiryakov family occupies a special place in the history of the country. The merchant family has been known in Irkutsk since the beginning of the eighteenth century. Innocent's father was a merchant of the first guild. He had distilleries and gold mines. In addition, the merchant was a co-owner of the Bodaibo Shipping Company and the railway. Innocent's older brother was no less successful than his father. His name went down in the history of the region as a philanthropist and polar explorer.
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Unmercenary millionaire
Innokenty Sibiryakov was born on November 11 (new style) 1860 in the family of a major gold miner, Irkutsk merchant Mikhail Sibiryakov. Having settled on Irkutsk soil from the beginning of the 18th century, the Sibiryakov family by the middle of the 19th century already numbered five generations and was part of the business elite of Eastern Siberia. Over the course of a century and a half, the Sibiryakovs managed to confidently define themselves not only in the economic sphere, but also in the field of social activities, charity and church building. The cultural and spiritual traditions accumulated by the family will clearly manifest themselves in the representatives of the sixth generation of the dynasty. Innokenty Mikhailovich will occupy a special place among them.
In 1874, after the death of his father, he received, in equal shares with his brothers, considerable capital and participation in gold mines, the Pribrezhno-Vitim Company, and the Lena-Vitim Shipping Company. “Having become a millionaire and the owner of a colossal gold mining business... I.M. Sibiryakov did not find happiness and inner satisfaction in this wealth,” a contemporary wrote about him. Innokenty Mikhailovich himself in his diary Fr. The search for the meaning of life leads to the idea of serving public interests, understood as the enlightenment and education of the people within the framework of broad charity.
The late 1870s and early 1880s were marked by large donations. Innokenty Sibiryakov finances the construction and maintenance of libraries, museums, folk houses in Tomsk, Barnaul, Minusinsk, Ishim, Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Nerchinsk, and other Siberian cities, allocates funds for the construction of theaters in Minusinsk and Irkutsk.
He donates more than 600 thousand rubles for the publication of scientific works and literary works of Slovtsov, Omulevsky, Gleb Uspensky, Reshetnikov, Umansky, Naumov, Khudyakov, Golovachev, Dorzhi Banzarov, Yadrintsev, Mezhov, Pekarsky, Potanin and others. The name of Sibiryakov is associated with the construction of the Higher Women's (Bestuzhev) Courses in St. Petersburg, the creation of a women's medical institute, the opening of a biological laboratory with a museum and a printed organ. Significant capital was allocated to establish scholarships for students, in favor of displaced people and the hungry.
According to the scientist and public figure Grigory Potanin, “more willing than for any other purposes, I.M. Sibiryakov donated money to causes that had something to do with the working class in the Lena gold mines.” In 1885, he suggested that Professor Semevsky turn to the study of the situation of workers in gold mines, financed the collection of material and the scientist’s trip to Siberia. The work “Workers in the Siberian Gold Mines” became the first major study of this kind in Russia. And in 1894, Innokenty Mikhailovich donated 420 thousand rubles to create a capital named after his father Mikhail Sibiryakov to provide benefits to workers who were injured in the mines of the Yakut region, and to families who lost their breadwinners in the gold fields.
Sibiryakov donates considerable sums to the Russian Geographical Society. He allocated 10 thousand rubles for Potanin’s expedition to Si Chuan and the eastern outskirts of Tibet (1892-1893). Semyonov-Tien-Shansky noted this charitable contribution as the largest in the last decade of IRGO activity.
Innokenty Mikhailovich financed expeditions to survey the Achinsk and Minusinsk districts, the mines of the South Yenisei taiga and the Kuznetsk district of the Tomsk province (1886), to study the foreign population of Yakutia in ethnographic and economic terms (Yakut (Sibiryakov) expedition 1894–1896). It is important to note that one of the conditions for its implementation was that Sibiryakov set “a study of the reasons for the extinction or progress of foreigners and a study of the economic situation of the Yakuts, whose life is influenced by the development of gold mining.” The expedition became an outstanding phenomenon in the study of Yakutia: the results it achieved were highly appreciated by specialists.
Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called in St. Andrew's Skete on Mount Athos. Modern look
And yet, a feeling of dissatisfaction with his existence weighed heavily on Sibiryakov. In the early 1890s, Innokenty Mikhailovich became disillusioned with the possibilities of enlightenment and external reconstruction of life. The problem of the meaning of life, the righteousness of owning wealth begins to be considered from a religious perspective. The main focus of charity is donations to the church. Sibiryakov donates 25 thousand rubles for the foundation of the Holy Trinity St. Nicholas-Ussuri Monastery, 147 thousand - for the Uglich Epiphany Monastery, 30 thousand - for the brotherhood in the name of Innocent of Irkutsk, 10 thousand - for the creation of the Resurrection Skete of the Valaam Monastery, and so on. Innokenty Mikhailovich donates 2.4 million rubles for the construction of the St. Andrew's skete in Athos, in the St. Petersburg courtyard of the St. Andrew's monastery, to help poor monasteries in Russia. With Sibiryakov’s funds, the Cathedral of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle was completed on Mount Athos (founded in 1867), several churches and a hospital were built.
Gradually the decision comes about a radical change in life. At the age of 36, the millionaire philanthropist broke with the world forever and went to Mount Athos, where he labored in the St. Andrew’s Skete, accepting the great schema.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, the memory of the Sibiryakovs has been revived. In fact, the name of Innokenty Mikhailovich is coming out of complete oblivion. On Athos and in Russia, Schemamonk Innokenty (Sibiryakov) of Athos is revered as an ascetic of piety.
On November 15, in the Harlampie Church of Irkutsk, which for many years was the parish church of the Sibiryakovs, an exhibition prepared by the Museum of the History of the City of Irkutsk was opened, telling the history of this family. A worthy place at the exhibition was occupied by a section dedicated to the life path of Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov - millionaire, philanthropist, schema-monger.
Activities of Innokenty Sibiryakov
The younger brother tried to keep up with the older one. He helped Tomsk University, as well as the Russian Geographical Society (East Siberian Branch). The higher women's courses received a gift of 200 thousand rubles from Innokenty Mikhailovich. Sibiryakov actively contributed to the publication of works by his contemporaries and classics. At the expense of the patron, “Russian Historical Bibliography” and “Siberian Bibliography” were published, a scientific expedition to Yakutia was organized, and a library was opened in Achinsk.
In the early eighties, Peter Lesgaft was active in lecturing in St. Petersburg. He lectured on physiology, anatomy, and hygiene. Innokenty Mikhailovich was also present at the classes, who gave Lesgaft 200 thousand rubles for the construction of an institute, which in the future would become very famous. In addition, Sibiryakov allocated 420 thousand rubles for the formation of a fund from which funds were given to workers in the mines if they were injured.
The outstanding Russian Bezserenik Athonite schemamonk Innokenty (Sibiryakov) was born in Irkutsk on October 30, 1860, on the day of remembrance of the Holy Martyr Anastasia of Thessalonica and the Holy Blessed Tsar of Serbia Stefan Milyutin. In the family of the pious Siberian gold miner Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov (1815 - +1874), the founder of the city of Bodaibo, a philanthropist with all-Russian fame and Varvara Konstantinovna, née Trapeznikova (1826? - +1863), there were three sons - Alexander (1849 - +1933), Konstantin ( 1854 - + after 1908), Innocent (future Athos) and three daughters Olga (1846 - +?), Antonina (1857 - +1879) and the youngest in the family Anna (1863 - + after 1911). Their mother was the sister of M.A. Sibiryakov’s companion, industrialist Sergei Konstantinovich Trapeznikov. Raised by their father and mother in the traditions of Orthodox piety and mercy, the children of Mikhail Alexandrovich, by God’s grace, possessed a breadth of souls that was exceptional even for Russian people. The merchant of the First Guild, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov, was a representative of an ancient and rich Siberian family, the founder of which was the Ustyug peasant Afanasy (1676 - +1754), who went to explore Siberia and settled on Lake Baikal, where he acquired several boats and vessels, took up fishing, transporting people and cargo through the Siberian Sea. Having become rich, Afanasy Sibiryakov moved to Irkutsk, where his descendants lived and worked. One of his sons, Mikhail Afanasyevich Sibiryakov (about 1726 - +1799), was even granted nobility for the discovery of silver mines in the Nerchinsky district. Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov, who came from the merchant branch of the family, received a significant part of the inheritance of his ancestors and, like a prudent, hardworking five-talented servant of Christ, multiplied the inheritance many times over (Matthew 25: 14–21). By the end of his life, he owned dozens of gold mines, many factories of various profiles, the Bodaibo railway and shipping companies on the Lena and Vitim, numerous households and lands, and his capital was estimated at 5 million silver rubles. Being the headman of the Irkutsk Ascension Church, M.A. Sibiryakov donated significant sums from the annually earned funds to the churches of God, to the needs of the Irkutsk Ascension Monastery, the construction of a chapel in honor of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, for the construction of an almshouse in Irkutsk with the chapel of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, and was involved in the care of wounded and sick soldiers, about victims of natural disasters, about prisoners, about the improvement of cities and towns in Siberia. That is why the Lord invested in his mind and will the providential abilities to increase his own wealth, because he used them not only for his own needs and the prosperity of his children, but with more than a tenth of his income he also took care of his neighbors in the Gospel, his compatriots, tried to please in everything and God. The eldest children Olga, Alexander, Konstantin and Antonina still received their mother's affection, but the youngest Innokenty and Anna lost their mother in infancy, and eleven years later they, not yet reaching maturity, lost their caring father. Their upbringing was apparently carried out by their elder sister Olga Mikhailovna, who was married to Prince V.V. Vyazemsky and lived in St. Petersburg. The elder brother Alexander Mikhailovich Sibiryakov, who managed enormous capital, multiplied his economic heritage, and his father’s charitable deeds exceeded his father’s deeds many times over, was occupied with material care. Konstantin and the minor Innocent, as well as his younger sister Anna, transferred their inherited shares of capital to Alexander Mikhailovich for management. Immediately after the death of his father, A.M. Sibiryakov acquired the Alexander Nevsky Glass Factory, a stationery factory, and the building of F.F. Bychkov’s private gymnasium in St. Petersburg. These acquisitions were apparently related to the material provision of his younger brothers and sister, whom he sent to St. Petersburg in 1875 to create their daily financial independence from Siberian enterprises. He registers the ownership of the building of the F.F. Bychkov gymnasium in the name of his younger brother Innokenty, where he completed his secondary education after studying at the Irkutsk real school. The middle sister Antonina Mikhailovna soon married the Irkutsk businessman Kladishchev, but in 1879, at the age of less than 22 years, she suddenly died. In addition to already existing enterprises, A.M. Sibiryakov continued to increase family property and created new enterprises, “Angarsk Shipping Company”, “Amur Shipping and Trade Society”. He understood that without the development of new transport routes - river, sea, railway - the development of Siberia and the Far East, the growth of the well-being of the Russian population would be extremely hampered. He provided enormous assistance to the development of the Northern Sea Route. Konstantin Mikhailovich, soon after the death of his father, took most of his inherited capital and in the mid-1870s bought “a large amount of land from the impoverished Samara landowners with the aim of organizing a large, technically rational economy” in the village of Skolkovo and the village of Alekayevka, Samara province, 50 versts from Samara , and a little later - an estate in Transcaucasia near Sochi. K.M. Sibiryakov married the daughter of the collegiate secretary Elizaveta Apollonovna Semenova, who served in the 1870s in the private library-reading room opened by K.M. Sibiryakov in St. Petersburg, they had a daughter Varvara (+ in the 1890s) and a son Igor. During his years of study at the Imperial Academy of Arts (class of artist N.A. Laveretsky), Konstantin became interested in the revolutionary populist movement; among his acquaintances there were even Narodnaya Volya members who were preparing an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II the Liberator on April 2, 1879. Of course, Konstantin did not sympathize with the terrorist ideas of his Narodnaya Volya friends, apparently did not even know about their secret goals, but because of these connections, from 1879 he was subjected to secret police surveillance, and he was temporarily banned from entering the capitals in the early 1880s. x years. But the populist idea of “going to the people” was initially warmly received by him, and it was for these purposes that he acquired land in order to organize people’s agricultural schools there for economic education and raising the professional level of peasants. However, he turned out to be an inept business executive; the very expensive equipment purchased abroad was soon rendered completely unusable by workers accustomed to traditional forms of farming. The brutal murder of Emperor Alexander II by the Narodnaya Volya in March 1881 shocked all of Russia. Konstantin reconsiders his views and becomes interested in the ideas of Count Leo Tolstoy, whom he meets personally and enters into correspondence with him. By the end of the 1980s, he was selling his Samara estates. In particular, one of the plots (83 acres and a mill) near the village of Alakaevka was purchased by the Ulyanov family of revolutionaries (with the assistance of M.T. Elizarov) at the beginning of 1889 for 7.5 thousand rubles. He decides to donate part of the land holdings to the Tolstoyan community. However, the temporary closeness of K.M. Sibiryakov with the Narodniks and Narodnaya Volya was reflected in history: there is even a separate article about him in the Soviet reference book “Figures of the Revolutionary Movement in Russia. From the predecessors of the Decembrists to the fall of tsarism" (Vol. II. Issue 4. M., 1932). Konstantin Sibiryakov, following the example of his father and older brother, did a lot of charity work, but it never touched the church sphere: he established scholarships for poor students, supported the resettlement movement to Siberia and the Far East, financed the publication of books, including books by L.N. Tolstoy abroad, from those that were prohibited from publication in Russia (for example, Tolstoy’s false gospel), he built public schools at his own expense, helped poor artists, writers, and public figures. During the second half of the 1870s - early 1890s, he had a great ideological influence on his younger brother Innocent and younger sister Anna, especially in the field of charity. Anna also became interested in the ideas of Tolstoyism and women's equality; her charitable mission in Irkutsk, where she returned after studying in St. Petersburg, was generous. But Innocent was still more spiritually inclined than the middle brother and younger sister, and, for example, in 1878 he donated a large sum required for the complete restoration after the fire of the Irkutsk almshouse, which his father had once created. In August 1880, Innokenty entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the St. Petersburg Imperial University, but due to illness he interrupted his studies in the early spring of 1881 and went south to one of the estates of his brother Konstantin. Perhaps one of the reasons for the illness was the shock of the assassination of Sovereign Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich on March 1, 1881. In the fall of 1881, Innocent again began his studies at the university, but at the beginning of 1882 he was again interrupted due to illness. In October 1884, I.M. Sibiryakov once again entered St. Petersburg University, now at the Faculty of Law and studied there for the entire 1884/1885 academic year. On October 31, 1885, Innokenty Mikhailovich decides to become a volunteer. Thus, Sibiryakov studied for 9 months at the natural science department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics and graduated from the first year of the Faculty of Law at St. Petersburg University. In addition to attending lectures at the university, Innokenty became a student of the home courses of the outstanding Russian biologist, anatomist, anthropologist, doctor, teacher, creator of the scientific system of physical education, Pyotr Frantsevich Lesgaft (1837 - + 1909). Unlike the populists, who theoretically “cared” about the Russian People, but dreamed of “enlightening” them according to the patterns of Western civilization, P.F. Lesgaft was an ardent Russian patriot; in the circle of his pedagogical ideas, Russian patriotism was a necessary element. He considered it obligatory to “teach a child to respect the fact that he is Russian. Historically, under the influence of German and French teachers, the Russian educated person was ashamed of his Russian origin... The German school is narrowly patriotic, its goal is to eradicate everything that is not German, the French school aims at external gloss and superficial education, in England the idea of the school is to prepare a “gentleman” ”, complete self-respect for the same “gentlemen” - the English...”. Later, after several years of acquaintance with P.F. Lesgaft, Innokenty Mikhailovich decides in the early 1890s to donate the sum of 200 thousand rubles to the scientist to purchase his own house and building for the Biological Laboratory, opened by P.F. Lesgaft in 1893. This scientific institution became the basis for the modern National State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Health named after P.F. Lesgaft. Innokenty Mikhailovich began charitable activities while still studying at the gymnasium, helping his poor classmates. Then he allocated funds for the education of young people in Russia and abroad, helping them not only complete their studies, but also get on their feet. At 26, he had 70 personal fellows. He actively participated in the work of the Society for Assistance to Siberian Students in St. Petersburg. He allocated about 30 thousand rubles for the opening of museums, schools and libraries in Siberian cities, including Irkutsk, Minusinsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Ishim, Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk. In particular, in Tomsk in 1882 he created the Society for the Care of Primary Education, in 1884 he opened the first free public city library in Russia, and in 1892 - the Museum of Applied Knowledge. In addition, Sibiryakov contributed to the creation of Tomsk University and allocated 10 thousand rubles to expand the East Siberian department of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1894–1896, he financed the Yakut geographical and ethnographic expedition, which went down in the history of Russian science as the “Sibiryakovskaya”. The St. Petersburg Bestuzhev courses worked on his donations, which, under the tutelage of Sibiryakov, were able to acquire an academic building and two dormitories (now part of St. Petersburg State University). I.M. Sibiryakov donated 50 thousand rubles for the creation of the First Women's Medical Institute in Russia (the current St. Petersburg State Medical University named after Academician I.P. Pavlov). He had a special relationship with children's charities. He was elected an honorary member of the Society for the Care of Poor and Sick Children, and donated funds for the creation of libraries in parochial schools and in poor provincial schools. He spent more than 600 thousand rubles on publishing scientific and fiction literature. Thanks to Sibiryakov, such books as: Mezhov V.I. Siberian bibliography: in 3 volumes (1891-1892); Mezhov V.I. Russian historical bibliography for 1800-1854: in 3 volumes (1892-1893); Yadrintsev N.M. Siberia as a colony (St. Petersburg, 1882); Yadrintsev N.M. Siberian foreigners, their life and current situation (1891); Semevsky V.I. Workers in the Siberian gold mines (1898); Golovachev D.M. Bibliographic index on the issue of gold mining in Siberia (St. Petersburg, 1890); Khudyakov I.A. Verkhoyansk collection. Yakut tales, songs, riddles (Irkutsk, 1890); Pekarsky E.K. Dictionary of the Yakut language (Yakutsk, 1899); Fedorov-Omulevsky I.V. Siberian motives (St. Petersburg, 1886). In 1894, he organized a fund to pay pensions to the workers of his enterprises, into which he invested 420 thousand rubles. Innocent Mikhailovich's donations to the Russian Orthodox Greek-Catholic Church were very significant. In 1885, he donated several thousand rubles for the construction of the Kazan Church in Irkutsk and the temple in the name of St. Innocent of Irkutsk in the village of Omoloi on the Lena River. He donated 147 thousand rubles to the Epiphany Convent in Uglich. He allocated 25 thousand rubles for the needs of the Holy Trinity Nicholas Monastery in the village of Shmakovka in the Far East and 10 thousand rubles for the creation of the Resurrection Skete of the Valaam Monastery. Apparently, at the very beginning of the 1890s, Innokenty Mikhailovich became a parishioner of the Athos Metochion in St. Petersburg at the corner of 5th Rozhdestvenskaya Street and Degtyarny Lane. Back in 1875, the pious merchant A.U. Dzhamusova donated a plot of land with a stone house here on the Sands for the needs of Mount Athos. From the end of 1888, the rector of the St. Petersburg metochion of the Athos St. Andrew's monastery became hieromonk, and then abbot David, in the world - Dmitry Ivanovich Mukhranov from the Simbirsk peasants (1847 - + 06/2/1930). It was under him that in May 1889, in memory of the rescue of the Royal Family during the crash of the Tsar's train on October 19 in Borki, large-scale construction of churches and courtyard buildings began. On September 8, 1889, Metropolitan Isidore of St. Petersburg performed the ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Podvorsky Cathedral. The spiritually gifted, theologically minded Father David obviously fell in love with Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov, and he asked Abbot David to be his spiritual father. Seeing the construction needs of the farmstead, Innokenty Mikhailovich soon transferred 2 million 400 thousand rubles to Father David. Probably, part of this amount included donations from his older brother, Alexander Mikhailovich Sibiryakov. Father David sent a share of this amount to needy monasteries in Russia, and divided the rest in half - for the construction of buildings of the Athos St. Andrew's Metochion in St. Petersburg and for the completion of the Cathedral of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, the construction of a hospital, fraternity and grain buildings in the St. Andrew's Skete on Holy Mount Athos . At the same time, at the request of the donor, Father David kept his name secret. On December 22, 1892, St. Petersburg Metropolitan Palladius consecrated the three-altar Cathedral of the Athos St. Andrew's Metochion. In 1894, Innokenty Mikhailovich, at thirty-three years old, decided to become a monk and moved to live as a novice in the Athonite metochion. In 1896, in Moscow, Metropolitan Philotheus of the Church of Constantinople, with the blessing of Metropolitan Sergius (Lyapidevsky) of Moscow and Kolomna, elevated Father David to the rank of archimandrite. On the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on October 1, 1896, Archimandrite David tonsured the already former millionaire Innokenty Mikhailovich Sibiryakov to the monastic rank - the first step to monasticism. The spiritual father sends the monk Innokenty (Sibiryakov) to Athos to the St. Andrew's monastery for prayerful service to the Church and the good of the Fatherland. But he stayed on Mount Athos for less than a year and in 1897 returned to his spiritual father. From that time until the end of his life, he never parted with his spiritual leader. In 1897, brother Innokenty was also engaged in charitable deeds: he donated his dacha in Raivolo (now Roshchino) to the Foundry-Tavrichesky Circle of the Society to benefit poor women for the establishment of an orphanage for girls from four to ten years old. The shelter is also allocated capital in the amount of 50 thousand rubles. This shelter, after the death of Schemamonk Innocent, began to bear the name of I.M. Sibiryakov. At his expense, a church was built in the name of St. Nicholas in the 7th gymnasium of St. Petersburg. At his proposal, the church in the 7th gymnasium was created in memory of the coronation of Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Typically, such actions are characteristic of convinced tsarists. There was a radical change in the worldview of Innocent Sibiryakov, he returned not only to domestic Orthodoxy, but also to the original sovereign foundations of Russia - autocracy. In 1898, Brother Innokenty, together with Father David, went to Saint Athos. There, on November 28, 1898, Abbot David tonsures him into the mantle with the new name John in honor of the Prophet and the Baptist of John - the Baptist of the Lord. And less than a year later, on August 14, 1899, the monk John (Sibiryakov) took tonsure in the great angelic rank - the Holy Schima - with the name of Innocent in honor of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. The cells of Archimandrite David and his spiritual novice Schimonakh Innokenty (Sibiryakov) were next to the Athos Andreevsky Sleep. Many pilgrims from Russia and other Orthodox countries who wanted to personally look at a monk from former millionaires created a certain obstacle for secluded prayer work. Schimonon Innokenty for eternal use acquires a plot on the slope of Caruli, belonging to the Great Lavra. In Karul, Russian hermits began to settle since the 1870s (?), And there a whole community of the ascetics of the spirit from Russia was formed there. With the blessing of Father David, Schimona Innokenty (Sibiryakov) creates an icigastirion with a two -sex temple on Carul. The main throne was dedicated to St. Innocent of Irkutsk, and the challenge was consecrated in the name of the Monk David Solunsky (heavenly patron of Archimandrite David). The history of the construction of the Apostle Andrei of the First -Called and Hospital Corps with the Church in the name of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, leaving the roots in 1868 is especially amazing. Then the Andreevsky monastery was visited by the Bishop Alexander Poltava, who persuaded the Brotherhood of the Skith, to lay the temple in the name of St. Innocent of Irkutsk and predicted that “God will send here from Siberia a benefactor that is a saint of the saint, and that this benefactor would build a church and a hospital on this bookmark and hospital " By the time of the appearance of I.M. Sibiryakov, the cathedral of the Apostle Andrei the First -Called and the hospital corps were only at the initial stage of the building, and only thanks to the secret donations of the former capitalist, and now the monk of Innocent for 1894-1900, they were completed. In 1897, two churches were completed: St. Innocent of Irkutsk and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The temples of Mikhail Klopsky, the Great Martyr Barbara at the skin cell of Schimonakh Innokenty (Sibiryakov) and in the name of Ilya of the Prophet at the Skitskaya mill, were also built. On the western side of the monastery, a four -story building was arranged, where a bread, a library, a dining room for guests were located, a cotator church was built there in honor of the Monk Vissarion and Barsanuphius and the Holy Martyr Theodorite in memory of the founders of the monastery. On June 16, 1900, the Patriarch Joachim III, in a service with Bishop Arseny Volokolamsk (Stadnitsky), at that time the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, was consecrated by the famous Athos of Andreevsky, designed for 5,000 people. This is the largest cathedral not only on Holy Athos, but throughout Greece, thanks to it, the Andreevsky monastery is called the "Kremlin of the East." Many newspapers and magazines wrote about this event, books were even published, but about whom the cathedral was built, it became known only a few months after the death of Schimonach Innokenty (Sibiryakov) thanks to the abbot of the monastery - the abbot Joseph. Schimona Innocent saw his own spiritual fruit from the wealth of seven generations of the Sibiryakov clan. By this time, the majority of the heritage of father Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov and the means earned by his eldest son Alexander Mikhailovich was already invested in the affairs of Christ's charity for the sake, and all the children of M.A. Sibiryakov lived very modestly on the remnants of their wealth. On November 6, 1901, Skimon Innokenty (Siberians) at the age of forty -one years rested about our Lord Jesus Christ. He was buried in the cemetery of the Andreevsky monastery, and three years later, according to Athos custom, the remains were removed from the ground. The flesh was completely expired, and the bones had a yellow amber-honey color, which, according to the Athos Church Tradition, testifies to the special righteousness of the person who has pleased God, of holiness. The bones of the skeleton, according to tradition, were put in the general brotherly revener of the Andreevsky monastery, and the honest chapter was placed there in the same wooden kyota in the honorary place where it is now. Now Skimon Innokenty (Sibiryakov) on Holy Athos and in Russia, especially in Siberia, is revered as a ascetic of piety, zealots on it serve the memorial services and, through its intercession at the throne of God, receive spiritual support. Zealnators of veneration of the memory of Schimonakh Innokenty propose to solve the issue of his official church glorification in the faces of the Monk and Silverniki. Unfortunately, the Karulsky Isicharion of St. Innocent of Irkutsk, erected by the works and victims of Schimonakh Innokenty (Sibiryakov) and his spiritual father Archimandrite David (Mukhranov) in the early 2000s suffered from a large fire, who left behind only the ruins. The restoration of this Athos shrine is the sacred duty of Russian Orthodox people who read the memory of the shutter Schimonakh Innokenty (Sibiryakova).
Compiled by the servant of God Leonid
Works used: Troitsky Pavel. Russians on Athos. Mid-19th - early 20th centuries. M., 2001. Troitsky Pavel. “...And you will have treasure in heaven” // Moscow magazine. 2001. No. 12. Troitsky Pavel. St. Andrew's Skete. (Publication in RuNet). Hegumen Andronik (Trubachev). Archimandrite David (Mukhranov) // Orthodox Encyclopedia. Shorokhova T.S. Philanthropist Innokenty Sibiryakov. St. Petersburg, 2005. Shorokhova T.S. Millionaire, philanthropist, schema-monger. Simferopol, 2010. Gavrilova N.I. Konstantin Mikhailovich Sibiryakov: materials for the biography // News of Irkutsk State University. Series "History". 2012. No. 2(1). pp. 244–253. And other Runet materials.
Travel the world
Sibiryakov traveled around Europe, but his travels were not aimed at understanding Western life. Innokenty Mikhailovich was busy studying Christian philosophy, which revealed the essence of being. The knowledge he gained further strengthened his thoughts that he was moving in the right direction by helping the disadvantaged.
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Sibiryakov understood that people are driven by the thirst for profit and wealth. But what does money give a person? Are we happy when we are rich? And yet, humanity is driven by the desire to become rich. These thoughts increasingly overwhelmed the patron. Gradually, Sibiryakov began to prefer pilgrimages instead of travel. Innokenty Mikhailovich donated more and more funds to churches, and a large number of petitioners accumulated in his modest rented apartments. On some days, the patron received up to 400 people, which is why he had absolutely no time for his own needs. Therefore, he had to organize a bureau that distributed money to people in need. Contemporaries wrote that in Sibiryakov’s house everyone who asked for help received help. The patron even gave dowries to girls from poor families who were getting married. But not everyone liked Sibiryakov’s kindness.
Detractors
No matter how kind and generous a person is, there will always be those who don’t like something. The most incredible things were told about Sibiryakov behind his back. The revolutionary movement believed that the merchant had fallen into mysticism because his funds were insufficient to help all those in need. And the St. Petersburg military leader wrote in his reports that a philanthropist, by distributing money to the poor, could well help the revolutionaries. Sibiryakov was accused of stinginess, extravagance, and religious exaltation...
The path to Athos
One day, fate brought Innocent Mikhailovich to St. Andrew's Skete. At that time, its rector was Archimandrite David, who played a big role in Sibiryakov’s life. Innokenty Mikhailovich realized in his youth that he was not created for family life. The betrayal of his older brother's fiancée led him to this conclusion. This event struck him so much that he did not even think about starting a family.
After meeting David, Sibiryakov decides to become an Athonite monk. However, the archimandrite did not immediately become Innokenty Mikhailovich’s confessor and in every possible way dissuaded him from hasty steps. It was for this reason that he accompanied him on his first trip to Athos. Sibiryakov donated huge sums at that time for the construction and maintenance of churches, which caused discontent not only from strangers, but also from relatives who declared him crazy. After this incident, Innokenty Mikhailovich makes the final decision to become a monk.
In 1896, Sibiryakov took monastic vows and went to Mount Athos. Here he builds a small cell and a temple in honor of the Great Martyr Barbara. Since then, the philanthropist lived in a monastery on Mount Athos. It is difficult to imagine how a person who grew up in wealth could lead such an ascetic lifestyle. Sibiryakov died at the age of 41 after a short illness. Many believed that his good deeds would never be forgotten by Siberians. But it happened differently... His name was completely erased from the history of the region after many years. Now in Greece Saint Innocent is known and revered much more than in Russia.
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Schemamonk Innokenty (Sibiryakov): “Help, I’m terribly rich!”
July 5th is the day of all the reverend fathers of the Holy Mountain. Now documents have been submitted for the canonization of Schemamonk Innokenty (Sibiryakov), a former millionaire merchant who donated his fortune to good causes and went to Mount Athos. Our story is about him. Life, as we know, is a struggle. Some struggle with bad habits, others with harmful neighbors. A gold miner at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries and a locally revered Athonite saint (the issue of his canonization in the Russian Orthodox Church is now being considered), Innokenty Sibiryakov spent his whole life struggling... with wealth. Having started the struggle as a 14-year-old boy, having gone through slander (often from people who had benefited from him) and psychiatric examinations, he ended it only shortly before his early death - as a schema monk. He won. An enlightened philanthropist , Innocent was born in 1860 into the family of an Irkutsk merchant and gold miner, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sibiryakov. Born at a good time and in a good place. “In Irkutsk, both elements happily united: the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie. The authorities here are disciplined by public opinion... There is a wonderful bourgeoisie here. They don't recognize pennies; they give in hundreds of thousands...” - contemporaries wrote. Innocent's father did good, and his older brothers did good; It is not surprising that he also treated patronage and charity as something completely natural. And then personal scores with wealth appeared. At the age of seven, he lost his mother, and at fourteen, his father; together with five brothers and sisters, he found himself the heir to a huge fortune (he, in particular, owned four mines, which, for example, yielded more than 184 pounds of gold in 1894 - more than three tons ). In the mid-70s, a wealthy young man arrived in St. Petersburg and entered a private gymnasium (there he was taught literature and ancient languages by the poet Innokenty Annensky), and already in 1875 he bought the house where the gymnasium was located and made serious reconstruction and improvement of it. . He joined many charitable and trustee societies and donated large sums to educational and scientific enterprises. Innocent lived in the family of his brother Konstantin, who was close to the creative community, thanks to which he met Turgenev and corresponded with Tolstoy. And again he gave money - for the education of children of writers, for the publication of the magazines “Slovo” and “Russian Wealth”, for the publication of books at an affordable price for the people, for the opening of libraries throughout the country. “If you happen to find out that some rural school needs textbooks and books for reading outside of school, then keep in mind that I can send the books you want... I will send books at half price, subscribe to all newspapers and magazines to the people’s teachers, equipped with your recommendation,” wrote Innokenty Mikhailovich in 1884 to N. M. Martyanov, a public figure in Siberia, the founder of the Minusinsk Museum and Library. Without the financial assistance of Innokenty Sibiryakov, not a single public library or local history museum would have been opened in the cities of the Yenisei province at that time. Sibiryakov spent more than 600 thousand rubles “to support those non-income-generating publications that are of great scientific or social importance, but cannot count on wide distribution to the public,” financed and even organized scientific and research projects, ethnographic expeditions. At the age of 26, he supported more than 70 personal scholarship students who were educated both in Russia and in Europe, especially from among the Siberians. It would seem that all this should have attracted people to him, but... “All meetings, all relations with people and even with science were poisoned for him by money; money put a line between him and all people, from university comrades to professors inclusive,” Selima Posner, a classmate of the teacher and physiologist Lesgaft, wrote about him. Unhappy millionaire The first bell rang while still at university. “Feeling ill-prepared, I. M. Sibiryakov wanted to work seriously and turned to some university professors with a request to privately help him. But the fee assigned by the professors reached colossal sizes, which... immediately repulsed Sibiryakov; It was not difficult for him to fulfill their demands, but the self-interest that flared up in the representatives of science, which was so disgusting to his... soul, pushed him away from both professors and science,” Posner recalled. Disappointment grew, and by the age of 30, Sibiryakov was already able to formulate it: “How greedy is all of humanity in its quest for wealth. But what does it bring us? Here I am - a millionaire, my happiness should be completely complete. But am I happy? No. All my wealth in comparison with what my soul thirsts for is nothing, dust, dust... And yet all of humanity strives precisely to achieve wealth.
With the help of my money I saw the world of God - but what did all this add to my own happiness in life? Absolutely nothing. The same emptiness in the heart, the same consciousness of dissatisfaction, the same languor of spirit... How did it happen, I thought, that such funds had accumulated in my hands that could feed thousands of people? Isn't this the property of other people, artificially transferred into my hands? And I found that this is exactly the case, that my millions are the result of the labor of others, and I feel wrong in taking possession of their labors.” “Help, I’m terribly rich,” he writes to Leo Tolstoy, whose publications he also sponsored at the suggestion of his brother Konstantin. “The more I give out, the more comes to me!” - after all, gold was mined in its own way. From that time on, Sibiryakov began to prefer pilgrimages to voyages, to give more money to churches, and the flow of petitioners in his apartment (very ascetic: address books of St. Petersburg indicate that he rented apartments intended for people of average income) became a flood: there were days when Innokenty Mikhailovich received up to four hundred people, he had almost no personal time left, and had to organize a special bureau, through which he distributed millions of rubles to those in need. An eyewitness recalls: “Who among the capital’s poor was not in his house on Gorokhovaya Street, who did not benefit from his generous alms, monetary assistance that exceeded all expectations! His house became a place where the hungry and thirsty went. There was not a person whom he would release without a generous alms. There were people who before my eyes received hundreds of rubles in one-time assistance from Sibiryakov... How many students, for example, thanks to Sibiryakov, completed their higher education in St. Petersburg! How many poor girls who got married received a dowry here! How many people, thanks to Sibiryakov’s support, took up honest work!” “Innokenty Mikhailovich had a period,” writes another contemporary of his, “when he reasoned like this: “If they ask, then it is necessary: if you can give, that is, if you have the means, then you need to give without making a search.” “A man of extraordinary kindness, he refused to support anyone, and due to his exceptional modesty, many of those who benefited from him did not know who came to their aid,” those who worked next to him testify about the benefactor. And again - what they didn’t say about him behind his back! The revolutionary intelligentsia believed that he fell into mysticism because he understood the “inadequacy” of his sacrifices for the people’s good, and the St. Petersburg mayor Val reported to the top that by distributing money uncontrollably, he could support the revolutionaries; he was accused of stinginess, extravagance, and religious exaltation; The ethnographer Yadrintsev, whose publications and expeditions Sibiryakov had financed several years earlier, did not skimp on caustic epithets - and everyone agreed that Sibiryakov could not act independently, he was constantly under the influence of others. The situation finally escalated when in 1894 Sibiryakov donated all his available cash - 147 thousand rubles - to a nun who was collecting funds for the benefit of the Uglich Epiphany Monastery. The frightened mother reported the incredible amount to the police, and mayor Victor von Wahl gave the order to seal the millionaire’s property and begin proceedings about his legal capacity. From “crazy people” to monks It was a nun who let Sibiryakov down, and a monk who helped him out. Hieromonk Alexy (Oskolkov), who decided to build a monastery in the Primorsky Territory, went to ask for money from a famous capital benefactor. Arriving at the address and ringing the doorbell, he was let in by a man whom he mistook for a servant. Imagine his surprise when he realized that it was Sibiryakov himself! However, he could not help: the safe was sealed, and for every expense it was necessary to obtain a receipt from relatives. “Having started the story of doctors, experts and the police visiting him,” recalls Hieromonk Alexy, “and how they were trying to embarrass him, upset him, provoke him into an unpleasant argument, prove in everything that he was wrong, erroneous, unsound, he said with tears: “What have I done?” them? Isn't this my property? After all, I’m not giving to robbers and I’m sacrificing for the glory of God!” Father Alexy took an active part in the fate of Sibiryakov, through the clergy he reached the chief prosecutor; in parallel, Sibiryakov was examined (and found healthy) by the provincial assembly; there is unconfirmed information about a personal meeting between the benefactor and Emperor Alexander III. As a result, the case was dropped. Von Wahl aroused him again, appealing, in addition to the already known fears that revolutionaries could take advantage of Sibiryakov’s generosity, and to the episode of “the breaking of the bust of Mephistopheles depicting the triumphant devil” (we are talking about a copy of Antokolsky’s sculpture “Mephistopheles.” Researchers differ on the details: some say , that the statue belonged to Sibiryakov, others - that the episode happened in Moscow at an exhibition) - but Innokenty Mikhailovich was again declared legally competent. Apparently, at this time Sibiryakov’s desire to become a monk finally matured - he admitted this to Fr. Alexy even at the first meeting. Having found himself a confessor - the rector of the St. Petersburg metochion of the Old Athos St. Andrew's monastery, Hieromonk David (Mukhranov), later a prominent figure in the name-glorious events - Sibiryakov began, under his guidance, to undergo the required two-year probation before the final decision to become a monk. At the same time, he is engaged in the final liquidation of property: he transfers two and a half million rubles to Father David at different times (he distributed them to churches and charities); the rights to the works of Gleb Uspensky and Fyodor Reshetnikov, who had died by that time, which belonged to him as a publisher, transfers them to their relatives, sells the rights to Turgenev’s poems to the publishing house of A. Marx; gives away two dachas: one to a charitable society for an orphanage, and the other to a women’s community for a monastery, creates a number of other charitable institutions (for example, a capital named after his father for issuing pensions and benefits to gold mine workers), donates 200 thousand to his teacher Pyotr Lesgaft. and a house (the building of the same private gymnasium that he acquired when he arrived in the capital as a 14-year-old youth) - in it Pyotr Frantsevich created a biological laboratory, now the Lesgaft Academy of Physical Culture is located there. Finally, with Sibiryakov’s funds, a grandiose temple was built, the largest in the Balkans - St. Andrew’s Cathedral on Athos, founded 33 years earlier by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. When Innocent took monastic vows, for himself and his spiritual father he built a two-story monastery with a house church in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara, St. Michael of Clops and St. David of Thessalonica - the heavenly patrons of his parents and Archimandrite David, then he was tonsured into the mantle with the name John and, finally, into the schema again with the name Innocent. According to his first biographer, he showed “an example of complete non-covetousness and ascetic life” (he did not eat hot food five days a week, and consumed butter and wine only on Saturdays and Sundays), lived “mentally mourning that he spent a lot of time on vanity and the study of the wisdom of this age,” for three years and on November 6, 1901, died at the age of forty-one, apparently from consumption, which he suffered from his youth. Axios! In 1910, the Russian magazine “Parish Reading” wrote about him: “...He did so much good that the memory of him... will remain with a million Siberians” - and was deeply mistaken in the forecast: this name was firmly forgotten in Russia. Apparently, not only the censorship of the Soviet period, which did not need an “example for capitalists” (as the confessor called him), had an effect, but also the ability of the human psyche to displace from consciousness the incomprehensible, which does not fit into the usual patterns. At least, this name began to be “forgotten” long before the revolution: for example, brochures and even books were published about the consecration of St. Andrew’s Cathedral... but Sibiryakov was not mentioned in them. As a result, in Greece they know and love him more than in Russia, and on Athos they have long been revered as a saint - the bones of the ascetic, dug up according to Athos custom, turned out to be amber-honey in color, which the Athosites consider a sign of holiness. God willing, memory will return to us too: with the help of the Foundation named after St. Petersburg. Innokenty Sibiryakova in May 2009, the Commission for Canonization of the St. Petersburg Diocese transferred documents for canonization to the Holy Synod. At the beginning of June 2013, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill visited St. Andrew's Skete during his visit to the Holy Mountain. Speaking about the history of this holy place, the Primate of the Russian Church especially recalled the role of Schemamonk Innocent in it, who donated his fortune to the creation of the majestic cathedral. In preparing the article, we used the study by T. S. Shorokhova “Philanthropist Innokenty Sibiryakov” (St. Petersburg, 2005) and materials from the site “Mercy. ru »
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