After the release of the film “Tsar” on Russian screens in 2009, a small scandal broke out in the Orthodox world. The fact is that His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' banned the famous actor and priest Ivan Okhlobystin from serving.
He played the role of a holy fool in the film, which violated church canons, according to which the priesthood and acting are incompatible. Currently, Ivan is focused on his work in cinema, but dreams of returning to the Church, since he is not deprived of holy orders.
Ivan Okhlobystin - actor, film director, journalist, writer, priest of the Russian Orthodox Church
Ivan Ivanovich Okhlobystin was born on July 22, 1966 in the Polenovo rest home in the Tula region. He is a Soviet and Russian film and television actor, film director, screenwriter, producer, playwright, journalist and writer.
Creative director . Priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, cleric of the city of Moscow. He was removed from the staff and banned from ministry, as he claims, at his own request.
Father John Okhlobystin. Ivan Okhlobystin is the first priest-artist in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. In addition, he is a writer, journalist, screenwriter, radio and television presenter
Ivan Okhlobystin is known for his controversial and sometimes hooligan antics. He participated in the bike movement, which caused criticism from the Orthodox community. Ivan is the father of a large family, a loving husband. Adheres to conservative beliefs. Sometimes he expresses them in quite an extravagant form, shocking the audience.
When Ivan Okhlobystin’s father left the family, his mother and grandmother began to raise him
Ivan Okhlobystin was named after his grandfather, while his father's name was Ivan Ivanovich. He worked as the chief physician at the Polenovo rest home in the Zakoksky district of the Tula region. At the time of his son’s birth, his father was 62 years old, while his mother Albina Ivanovna was only 19 years old. She studied at the institute.
Ivan Okhlobystin as a child with his mother, Albina Ivanovna. When Ivan was one year old, his parents divorced and he was raised by his mother and grandmother
Okhlobystin Sr. served as a military doctor, participated in the Great Patriotic War, and rose to the rank of colonel of the medical service. In addition, he fought in Spain, participated in the Soviet-Finnish and Korean wars. Awarded 4 orders and medals. Ivan Okhlobystin’s father devoted his entire life to medicine and therefore dreamed all his life that his son would become a doctor.
Ivan’s mother Albina Ivanovna Stavitskaya (after her first husband Okhlobystin, nee Belyaeva) is an engineer-economist by profession. Okhlobystin had a brother, Stanislav Stavitsky, and his nephew, Ivan, left behind him.
A year after the birth of the future famous actor and clergyman, his parents divorced. for some time the family lived near Maloyarolavets, and then moved to Moscow. Little Vanya remained in the Kaluga region in the care of his grandmothers, whom he adored. In high school, he studied in Moscow, where his mother was a graduate student.
Evgeniy Mironov
Evgeny Mironov as Prince Myshkin
Yevgeny Mironov saw those times when an icon could hang in one corner of the house, and a portrait of the leader of the revolution in another. The honored artist came to faith in God, driven by need and unresolved life issues. At that time, he was a student at the Moscow Art Theater School and was tormented by longing for his native land, did not have enough money to live and was “burned” by the desire to become a real professional in his field. So at the age of nineteen, Vladimir first visited the temple. At the age of thirty-three, Mironov went to the Optina Monastery - the monastery in which Schema-Archimandrite Elijah lived (in the Orthodox community he is considered one of the most authoritative and famous confessors). The conversation with the priest, which lasted only thirty minutes, completely changed the actor’s thinking. Many of us remember Mironov for his superbly played role of Prince Myshkin from “The Idiot.” But at that time he was offered the role of Jesus Christ, which the actor flatly refused to play, as he considered it wrong.
After graduating from school, Ivan Okhlobystin entered VGIK
After graduating from school, Ivan entered VGIK in the directing department. Here he studied with such future figures of Russian cinema as: Tigran Keosayan, Bakhtiyor Khudoynazarov, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Alexander Bashirov, Rashid Nugmanov. In addition, Renata Litvinova and Roman Kachanov studied at the screenwriting department at the same time. The actor is still friends with his classmates.
Ivan Okhlobystin during his military service. Having entered VGIK, the future priest was forced to temporarily leave him for military service
Ivan was unable to complete his studies because he was drafted into the army. He served in the missile forces in Rostov-on-Don. After demobilization, he was reinstated at the university. There he completely immersed himself in public work and was elected secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR. In 1992, Okhlobystin graduated from the directing department of VGIKA (workshop of Igor Talankin).
In the 1990s, Ivan Okhlobystin was successful
The beginning of Ivan Okhlobystin’s acting career was the film “Leg”. It was filmed in 1991 by director Nikita Tyagunov. As a result, he received a prize for best role at the Molodist-1991 festival, while filming for superstitious reasons under the pseudonym Ivan Alien.
This was followed by his first experience as a screenwriter - the script for the film “Freak”. He was nominated for the prestigious Green Apple, Golden Leaf award. Okhlobystin's first full-length work received the Kinotavr award in the Films for the Elite category. It was called “Arbir” and the soundtrack to it was recorded by the groups “Picnic” and “Obermanken”.
Ivan Okhlobystin in the film "Arbiter", 1991. This is Ivan's first full-length film. She received an award at the Kinotavr Film Festival
The future priest continued his acting career in 1997, starring in the cameo role of a bandit and starring in the film “Mom, Don’t Cry.” At the same time, Okhlobystin participated in theatrical productions.
So on February 16, 1996, the premiere of the play based on his play “The Villainess, or the Cry of a Dolphin”, directed by Mikhail Efremov, took place at the Moscow Art Theater. Ivan’s second performance, “Maximilian the Stylite,” was staged in the same theater. In 1999, a film adaptation of this production about the newly-minted soothsayer, directed by Roman Kachanov, was released.
Okhlobystin also worked as a journalist. In the late 1990s, he was a reporter for Stolitsa magazine. However, he did not collaborate with the publication for long and left due to disagreement with the editorial policy, after which he worked on the staff of the weekly Vesti.
Still from the film "DMB". In it, Ivan Okhlobystin plays the role of a special officer. This film brought the actor nationwide fame
Ivan Okhlobystin’s film career continued in 2000 with the cult film “DMB”. He, in collaboration with the film’s director Kachanov, wrote the script for it. The plot of the film was shaped to some extent by Okhlobystin’s own memories of serving in the army.
In 2001, another comedy based on his script, Down House, was released. In addition, he authored the script for the philosophical drama “Garbage Man” directed by Georgy Shengelia.
Nikita Mikhalkov
Nikita Mikhalkov
The talented actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov has been among believers since childhood. As they say, faith came to him with his mother’s milk. Mikhalkov constantly expresses his attitude towards Orthodoxy in his films and considers it an integral part of Russia. Everyone in the family of the famous director is Orthodox and sincerely religious people. In the rooms of his house, like real Christians, there are icons everywhere. Nikita Mikhalkov constantly shares his thoughts about religion and Russia in the Besogon TV program. He believes that without the Orthodox faith the unification of the Russian people is impossible.
Ivan Okhlobystin became an Orthodox priest in early 2001
The fact that Ivan Ivanovich Okhlobystin is an adherent of Orthodoxy became known back in 1997. It was then that he began hosting the religious television program “Canon.” Later, a film with Ivan’s participation called “Down House” was released on the country’s screens.
After this, it became known that John Okhlobystin was ordained a priest by Archbishop Vladimir (Ikim) of Tashkent and Central Asia in the Tashkent diocese and, starting in 2001, he must be called Father Okhlobystin.
Ivan Okhlobystin in the service of the Russian Orthodox Church. The fact that Ivan Okhlabystin became a priest became known in 1997, when he broadcast on Kanon radio.
Ivan left cinema and left with his family for Tashkent. He served there for seven months, but since his wife did not tolerate the heat well, they had to return to Moscow. A presentation of a short film about Prince Daniel took place here.
At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the actor and priest with a personalized gold watch “For Services to the Fatherland.” Ivan Okhlobystin’s photo with them went around the whole world. At the same time, Father John himself stated that he did not understand why exactly the President decided to honor him - either for the series of television films “Lives of the Saints”, or for the reports from warring Serbia made for the “Canon” program.
Reasons for the request
In one of his interviews, Okhlobystin called his removal from service a kind of “penalty,” but considered this measure reasonable. “To cut off unmotivated criticism while I’m filming a movie,” the artist concluded.
However, the authors of the book “Man and the Church: The Path of Freedom and Love,” Alexey Uminsky and Eteri Chalandzia, suggest that Okhlobystin did not submit a petition to the patriarch because he chose acting. Uminsky and Chalandzia are confident that it’s all about a decline in enthusiasm. “Time passes, and the delight of the priesthood, like any first recognition, like love, disappears. Everyday life begins…” the authors write.
After being banned from ministry, Ivan Okhlobystin continued his creative career and began political
After priest John Okhlobystin was banned from ministry, he continued his creative career. So, since 2010, he has been running a blog on Facebook on behalf of his character Bykov in Interns.
Until the beginning of January 2014, he held the position of creative director. In 2011, he starred in an advertisement for the Euroset cellular communication salon. From January 15, 2014 to the present - creative director of the clothing manufacturer and supplier Baon.
Since April 2021, he has been voicing Pechkin in the cartoon “Return to Prostokvashino.”
Ivan Okhlobystin on the Euroset advertising banner. After Father John Okhlobystin was banned from ministry, he continued his creative career, taking part in advertising
In addition to continuing his creative career, Ioann Okhlobystin began a political career. So he does not hide his monarchist views. He ran for deputy of the State Duma of Russia from the environmental green party “Kedr”. Later he called his participation in the election campaign a mistake.
In 2011, Okhlobystin expressed a desire to nominate his candidacy for the post of President of Russia in 2012. In preparation for the presidential elections, he announced “Doctrine 77”, but later refused the nomination without giving reasons.
On April 18, 2012, Ivan Okhlobystin announced the creation of the Coalition of Heaven party, the official presentation of which took place on April 25.
Ioann Okhlobystin in Donetsk, DPR. For supporting the annexation of Crimea to Russia, as well as the independence of the DPR and LPR, a criminal case has been opened in Ukraine against Ioann Okhlobystin
The supernumerary priest Okhlobystin is an ardent homophobe. He advocates the return of the article for sodomy to the Russian Criminal Code. He is a member of the All-Russian public organization “Right to Arms”, an active supporter of the legalization of short-barreled rifled weapons.
In addition, for his active position on the issue of the annexation of Crimea to Russia and the independence of the DPR and LPR, Ivan Okhlobystin was included in the sanctions lists of Ukraine, he was prohibited from entering this country, and the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine opened a criminal case against him.
Family couple - Ekaterina Vilkova and Ilya Lyubimov
Wedding of Ekaterina Vilkova and Ilya Lyubimov
Ilya Lyubimov has played many roles of characters with not the most “smooth” behavior. Therefore, it is difficult to draw a parallel between an actor and churchgoing. When starting his acting career, Lyubimov could not resist the temptation of a bohemian lifestyle. Until he was almost thirty, he drank a lot and went out with different women. But at one point the actor realized that he was wasting his life. In search of truth, Ilya went to church. He made his first visit out of interest, which turned into true faith for his beloved for the rest of his life. Then Ilya met Ekaterina Vilkova and invited her to become his legal wife. They had a real wedding night - until that moment, Lyubimov had already lived in abstinence for several years. Today the actor admits that only after believing in God did he reveal the secret of a happy relationship. Ekaterina Vilkova and Ilya Lyubimov have two beautiful children.
In addition to creativity and politics, freelance priest Ivan Okhlobystin is currently busy with his family
Since 1995, Ivan Okhlobystin has been married to actress Oksana Okhlobystina, who before her marriage bore the surname Arbuzova. Him:
- two sons: Vasily (March 5, 2001) and Savva (March 22, 2006);
- four daughters: Anfisa (August 8, 1996), Evdokia (November 2, 1997), Varvara (March 9, 1999) and Ioanna (August 17, 2002).
Ioann Okhlobystin with his family.
Currently, the supernumerary priest Ivan Okhlobystin, in addition to creativity and politics, devotes his time to communicating with the Okhlobystin family - he is the godfather of more than 50 people, including actor Arthur Smolyaninov, Orpheus Epifantsev, the son of actor Vladimir Epifantsev, singer and actress Evdokia Malevskaya.
In addition, he is a member of the Union of Hunters and Fishermen, has a rank in chess, and is interested in jewelry making. He studied applied karate, Kyokushin Budokai and knife fighting.
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Ekaterina Vasilyeva
Ekaterina Vasilievna with her son, a priest
The talented actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva is remembered from many films - “Bumbarash”, “Straw Hat”, “Sorcerers”, “Crew”. It would seem that she was at the peak of her popularity... But in 1993, Vasilyeva decided to leave not only her creative work, but also her worldly life, and retire to a monastery. But at the insistence and blessing of her priest Vladimir, the actress returns to the stage. Father explained to Vasilyeva that people need her talent. Ekaterina Vasilyeva raised a son who became a priest and now she is primarily the mother of a priest. The actress regrets that she spent many years in ignorance, and if she had known about God earlier, she most likely would not have been an actress, but would have spent her life completely differently.
