In the Orthodox faith, the tradition of eldership has never been interrupted. A popular path was trodden towards the seers; they were revered as saints, which was fair - none of the visitors left offended by the attention, even if the advice or prophecy did not promise happiness in the near future. There have always been elders in Rus' - sometimes there were many of them, but more often there were not enough for the entire vast country. Today one of the elders lives in Belarus, his place of service is the Holy Trinity Cathedral (Zhlobin). Father Vasily is the rector of the largest city church and an assistant, comforter, and miracle worker for many parishioners.
Father Vasily from Zhlobin: biography, contact information and reviews
In the Orthodox faith, the tradition of eldership has never been interrupted. A popular path was trodden towards the seers; they were revered as saints, which was fair - none of the visitors left offended by the attention, even if the advice or prophecy did not promise happiness in the near future. There have always been elders in Rus' - sometimes there were many of them, but more often there were not enough for the entire vast country. Today one of the elders lives in Belarus, his place of service is the Holy Trinity Cathedral (Zhlobin). Father Vasily is the rector of the largest city church and an assistant, comforter, and miracle worker for many parishioners.
New stage
The consecration of the new temple took place in the ninety-fifth year of the last century. This event brought together the heads of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the rector was awarded several awards.
Father Vasily did not stop there and continues to improve the church territory. In a few years, he erected a bell tower, installed new gates, opened a Sunday school and a special educational institution for icon painters. People are drawn to the Church of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, which has literally become a symbol of the new era. But most of all, believers are attracted here by the rector of the temple himself. This will be discussed in the following sections of the article.
Ancient cathedral and war
A new stone church in the city was built at the end of the 19th century. Before this, an ancient wooden Church of the Exaltation of the Cross stood on the banks of the Dnieper; it burned down during a big fire, along with half of the city buildings. There were many parishioners in the church; people from surrounding towns and villages came here for Sunday services.
After the revolution, the church was active for a long time, despite all the oppression. In 1932, the rector was arrested, a new priest could not be found, and the premises were transferred to the city authorities. An archive was set up in the former cathedral; the building was strong. At the beginning of the war, in 1941, the Germans used the church bell towers as a landmark, thanks to which they covered the city and the troops based in it with targeted artillery fire. By order of the Soviet command, it was decided to collapse the domes; this required three explosives, after which the domes collapsed, but the walls remained in place.
A short excursion into history
Trinity Cathedral in Zhlobin is very popular among the Orthodox population of Belarus and other countries. People from different parts of the world come to a small town, located eighty kilometers from Gomel, primarily to ask for help from its abbot, Elder Vasily, as he is often called not for his age, but for his wisdom and piety.
However, the temple has a very ancient history, because it was built back in the eighties of the nineteenth century. The place for the construction of the cathedral was not chosen by chance; the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross stood here for a long time. It was located at the highest point of the Dnieper, but after a horrific fire it burned down along with most of the city.
The new stone temple took about six years to build and became the most visited in the area. Believers from nearby villages often came and came to the service. It was always crowded here on holidays, and the parish was considered one of the largest in the region.
Renaissance
In the post-war years, residents of the city and surrounding area gradually dismantled the walls of the temple to build and repair their homes or for household needs. By the 90s of the last century, all that was left of the majestic cathedral was a solid foundation, and the memory of old-timers about how pious the city of Zhlobin was. Father Vasily made every effort to revive the church, becoming the archpriest of the church that had not yet been built. He managed to build the building almost from scratch in three years.
The church was placed next to the surviving foundation of the Holy Cross Church, the foundation stone was consecrated in 1992, and in October 1995 the Holy Trinity Cathedral was consecrated. Today, the church hosts daily services, a Sunday school for children, an icon painting school and a public library. A gate bell tower has been built, the space around the temple is being developed, and the interior decoration is being improved.
Soviet years
The thirties of the last century opened a new page in the history of the temple. It is filled with tragic events and desolation, which, however, is typical of many cathedrals during the period of struggle with faith in God.
The last rector of the temple of the secular era, Adam Zhinovich, was arrested in the thirty-second year of the twentieth century. He was sent into exile, and a new priest was never found to lead the service. The church building gradually began to fall into disrepair. The old people lamented that the place where Orthodox Christians had gathered since the eleventh century had now turned into a Soviet archive.
The Patriotic War became a series of sad events for the cathedral. Its domes were visible for many kilometers, and the Nazis learned to use them as a guide to fire at the city and the positions of the Red Army soldiers. To confuse the enemy, it was decided to blow up the ancient temple. However, this was not easy to do; Russian craftsmen always built churches using a special technology, so it was extremely difficult to destroy the walls even with a directed explosion. The soldiers needed three bombs to bring down the domes. At the same time, the walls remained in place almost untouched.
But after the end of the war, people began to gradually dismantle the dilapidated cathedral brick by brick. They were in dire need of building materials to restore their homes, destroyed by bombs, and no one hesitated to take stones from the walls of the former temple for these purposes.
By the nineties, only pitiful remains remained of the once beautiful ancient structure, little reminiscent of a temple complex.
The beginning of the way
The Holy Trinity Cathedral (Zhlobin) became a place of pilgrimage for many parishioners from Belarus and neighboring countries. Father Vasily attracts people to him in times of adversity, disappointment or misfortune. Thanks to his prayers and conversations, pilgrims manage to cope with their problems. Popular rumor calls him a perspicacious old man.
Father Vasily Pilipenko from Zhlobino did not immediately come to faith. In his youth and youth, according to him, he did not think about the church, and there was simply no talk about the priesthood, although the family was Orthodox, many attended church not only on holidays. Upon reaching adulthood, Vasily was drafted into the army, he had to serve in Afghanistan and the first miracle happened there - he took part in battles, but he was never wounded, which he now sees as God’s providence.
Priesthood
Having been demobilized, the young man began working in one of the forestry enterprises, where fate gave him a meeting with Archimandrite Pavel. Spending time in conversations and reasoning, Vasily gradually began to realize the possibility of a different life and path. It took several fruitful years to awaken to new activities. In 1988, Father Vasily became a priest and at first devoted all his ardor to the restoration of churches.
By the time of his ordination, the anti-God campaign had ended, and a huge field of activity had opened up for the mission. He took part in the restoration and construction of many churches in Belarus, but the church in Zhlobin became his true love. Father Vasily sincerely fell in love with the temple on the high bank of the Dnieper. The Holy Trinity Cathedral was rebuilt with money from philanthropists, money was given to organizations, and parishioners made donations. The abbot took a very active part in the work, alternating the duties of foreman, builder, comforter and priest.
Path to God
Returning from the army, Vasily went to work as a forester and met Archimandrite Pavel Voitovich. They often had intimate conversations about God and life's purpose. Young Vasily did not even notice how his soul perked up and reached out to the light. A few years later, in the eighty-eighth year of the last century, he was ordained a priest.
Literally immediately after this, he became interested in restoring temples. As part of his mission, Pilipenko visited many abandoned and destroyed churches, in the restoration of which he took an active part. But Father Vasily’s real calling in Zhlobin was the Trinity Cathedral, which he and like-minded people restored brick by brick.
People's pilgrimage
Currently, there is an inexhaustible flow of parishioners to the Holy Trinity Cathedral (Zhlobin). Father Vasily gained fame as a priest who helps all those who suffer. Orthodox Christians who visited him claim that the priest is able to cope with any misfortunes. People turn to him in those moments when the number of troubles and grief has no limits, and misfortunes constantly rain down on the family and nothing helps. The abbot receives all visitors, but two days a week are reserved for this - Saturday and Sunday.
In the city, near the cathedral, you can often see a long line from early morning, all these people are waiting to be received by Father Vasily (Zhlobin). How does the rector receive parishioners? Everyone who was waiting for his word will definitely come to him. Sometimes he himself selects from a long line those who, in his opinion, urgently need prayer and consolation; families with small children also go ahead of the queue.
The priest's son
Father Vasily was born in 1975 in the city of Khust, in Transcarpathia. Two more of his brothers also grew up in the family. This city is notable for the fact that its residents speak several languages from birth, since Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Poland are nearby. The border was so close that the future archpriest and his friends went to a bakery in another country to buy bread.
In 1983, Gelevan’s father became a priest and soon he was appointed to serve in the Oryol and Bryansk diocese. About a year later, he received an appointment to parish ministry in the church, which was located in the village of Golubeya, Bryansk region. Vasily and his brothers spent their entire childhood there; they came there with their father every Sunday, which forced them to wake up at six in the morning.
All according to faith
During his twenty years as rector, Father Vasily (Zhlobin) helped many. Reviews from those who were lucky enough to receive his prayer blessing say that after a visit to him, almost everyone stopped being nervous and understood the essence of their problems, a solution was quickly found to overcome misfortunes, and so gradually everything returned to normal.
No less influential is the prayer and conversation of a priest in curing patients with alcoholism; many relatives go to Zhlobin for this miracle. Father Vasily helps as best he can, and often effectively. He himself believes that he does not have any gift, but that everything is the will of God and the sincere prayer of the person asking. As the priest himself reports, he is engaged in his direct responsibilities - he turns human hearts to the Almighty and shows which path to follow. Stories about its capabilities are transmitted by word of mouth, and interviews occasionally appear in the Belarusian press.
Conjugal union
Gelevan is happily married and has six children. He dated his future wife Ekaterina for about eight years. All this time the girl waited while he studied and gained experience. Of course, Katya received offers from other guys, but she endured everything and waited for her betrothed. This happened in 2003 after Vasily and Katyusha visited Optina Pustyn. At that time, the young man could not decide whether to become a monk or start a family.
The priest listened to him in confession and advised him to propose to the girl. When the lovers arrived home, Gelevan told his family that they had decided to get married. Soon after the long-awaited wedding, he was offered to become a rector in Rio de Janeiro. By that time, he had already begun serving in the Church of the Kazan Mother of God in the village of Novoselki near Bryansk, and besides, his wife was expecting their first child.
The couple decided to go to distant lands, because they were still young then. Living in Brazil, Father Vasily introduced himself to the local population as Padre Basilio. When a son, Lavrik, was born into the family, he was recorded as Lorenzo, and the daughter Ulyana, who was born later, became Juliana. The third child, a girl, was given the Russian name Seraphim.
Family. photo https://www.facebook.com/padrebasilio
Now there is harmony, love and respect in this family. The spouses rely on the will of God in everything, they pray for their children and show them a personal example. In their upbringing, they do not put pressure on children and give them freedom of choice. The archpriest sees his task only as not to seduce his sons and daughters with anything either in his personal life or in his priestly path.
Hoping for motherhood
Many childless couples go to Zhlobin for their last hope. Father Vasily, with his prayers, helps to find parental happiness. Women warn that the priest only accepts married spouses; it is also important to go through the procedures of communion, repentance and then seek help. A few months after a visit to the rector of the cathedral, married couples often call with words of gratitude and stories that they are expecting a new addition to their family.
Many women go through all the clinics in the desire to find out the cause of childlessness in themselves and their husbands. If a disease is diagnosed, the Orthodox Church calls for doing everything to gain health in order to conceive healthy children. But increasingly, a situation arises where both spouses are healthy, but they do not have children. Then expectant mothers search and find the treasured addresses and telephone numbers. To get an idea of the opinion of church visitors, you can read 8-9 reviews on the forum about the church in Zhlobin and Father Vasily. The phone is passed around with recommendations on when to call, how to prepare, and what time is best to arrive.
About the Selitsky family from Zhlobin (Chapter 1)
Great-grandfather Efim Selitsky. 1910.
My great-grandfather's name was Efim Maksimovich. It is possible that the patronymic sounded more pompous like Maximilianovich. But I'm not exactly sure about this. I remember all the stories about the Selitsky family in Zhlobin from the words of my grandfather’s sister Varvara Efimovna Selitskaya, told to me a long time ago, in the seventies and early 80s. There is a certain secret here, but other relatives from the older generation flatly refused to remember pre-revolutionary Zhlobin and their life there. Only Grandma Varya, the youngest of the girls of our family, indulged in memories.
Top row - Olga, Ivan Nechaev, Neonila, in the center - Ekaterina, the housekeeper, Efim, Khristya, Anastasia, below the younger children - Varvara, Evgeniy, Vasily. 1915.
My great-grandfather Efim (1863-1934), married Christina (Kristina) Mikhailovna Lavetskaya (1873-1943), somewhere in 1891. My great-grandmother was most likely of Polish origin. My great-grandfather was Belarusian, but also quite possibly had Polish roots. They had 10 children:
Neonila (Nila) (1893-1982) Olga (1896-1968) Ekaterina (1899-1941/42) Anastasia (1901-2001) Vladimir (1902/03-1941) Vasily (1905-1960) Varvara (1908-1994) Evgeniy (1912-1941) Arkady (1914-1915) Nikolai (1915-1915)
The surname itself is popular not only in Belarus, but also in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and Lithuania. Oddly enough, it also applies to Russian surnames, and is found in all directories of Russian surnames. This is what they write about my last name:
The surname Selitsky comes from the nickname Selyak, which is based on the verb “to settle” - “to acquire a house, farm, or to settle, to settle in a new place of one’s own free will.” In the old days, a village was a place built up and inhabited by peasants, in which there was a church. In the Novgorod land, the village consisted of many scattered villages assigned to one parish. The church with the estates of the clergy and clergy usually stood separately and was called a village or graveyard. It is said about this priest’s village: “The village stands on a hill, but there is not a crust of bread in it,” that is, there is almost no arable farming. People said: “I would buy a village, but there’s no money,” “What you don’t have in yourself, you won’t find in the village (the truth in people).” Thus, a resident of the village received the nickname Selyak. Later, in 1888, the Senate published a special decree in which it was written: “To be called by a certain surname is not only the right, but also the duty of every full-fledged person, and the designation of the surname on some documents is required by law itself.” Seljak, over time received the surname Selitsky.
Rarely, but still found, the surname Selitsky among Jews. But there are Jews, both Ivanovs and Sidorovs...
All the information collected about my family and the study of the fates of its carriers suggests that something bad happened to our family. It is quite possible that at the beginning of the 20th century, events occurred in Zhlobin that influenced the entire Selitsky family, and especially its branch that runs through the male line.
Having scant information about the life of my great-grandfather, it is difficult to draw any conclusions about his life and his personality. My great-grandfather’s appearance was very juicy, not much reminiscent of Slavic. Black thick beard, curly hair, piercing eyes. When I showed his photo to other people, they were more likely to recognize him as a Caucasian than as a Slav. These same traits were strongly visible in some of his children. There is a belief that my great-grandfather was called a Gypsy in the city behind his back. According to another version, Gypsy was the name of my grandfather, his son. It’s interesting that I look very similar to him in my facial features, and I was also often confused with a Caucasian, and our law enforcement agencies still like to check my documents to this day. Apart from the fact that my great-grandfather served on the railroad all his life and was often absent, almost nothing is known. It seems that he also did some engineering work for the railroad. It is known that the grandfather was a very wealthy man and gave his children a good education. Servants lived in the house. And he had several houses. And there was a lot of land.
No one was able to convey to me stories about his character and his disposition.
Actually, a very strange thing is happening here. All my relatives with whom I had to communicate, and who remembered something about Zhlobin and my great-grandfather, fell into a strange state and avoided direct questions, limiting themselves to the words: “I don’t remember, I don’t know, I don’t want to talk.” It’s as if someone has blocked their memory or as if the memories of the Zhlobin house are giving them great burden.
Only grandmother Varya, who often came to Moscow and who looked after the graves of our relatives, spoke about our family. But she also tried not to talk about her father to me. Nila's grandmother avoided talking about Zhlobin. And grandmother Nastya, who lived 100 years, and was in excellent memory until the end of her days, also did not want to say anything at all about the family nest, where she lived for more than twenty years.
Several years ago, not being in the best mood, at my dacha I started talking to my neighbor Larisa about the topic of my family. And she suddenly, knowing absolutely nothing about my ancestors, pointed out to me my great-grandfather and my paternal grandfather, talking about the family curse. She asked me to go to church and serve a prayer service for the souls of Efim and Vasily. Larisa has psychic abilities, but we, as good neighbors, never abused long conversations on these topics, maintaining the parity so necessary for harmonious living nearby. Then I was very surprised by her words, because I did not feel any threat along this line. Although I went to church and ordered a prayer service for their souls.
By the way, when I asked Larisa if the roots of this curse lay deeper, she replied that it was not deeper, and that it all started with my great-grandfather.
Subsequent events related to the illness and difficult mental state of my brother again led us to this trail. Having conducted a biographical analysis of my brother’s life, we could not help but delve deeper into the study of our family on our father’s and mother’s sides. And here, again, everything that came from our father’s side aroused in us awe and an inexplicable feeling of some secret of the family and a possible family curse.
It seems that the curse is especially strong in the male line.
It is very interesting that my great-grandfather could not give birth to boys for a long time. The first were four girls, and only the fifth child was a boy. They named him Vladimir. According to the stories of my relatives, it is believed that I was named after him. Very little is known about Vladimir. Grandmother Varya said that he was an unsociable and reserved person. It is interesting that in the two photographs presented of the family, where all the characters are there, and even the nanny-maid, Vladimir is not there. Although he was then a little over 10 years old, and where he should be seemed like no home. He's nowhere to be found in the pictures. My aunt Tamara, daughter of grandmother Nastya, who was brought to Zhlobin from Engels in 1933 for a short time, remembers him. He remembers how he rode her on a horse, and did not allow her to approach the horse, threatening her with the reins. It looks like he was soon put in jail. For what - it is unknown. But it is known that when he was released from prison and was returning home, in 1941, he was hit by an air raid and was mortally wounded. But he made it to his father’s house and died right on the threshold.
It is also known that Zhenya, the youngest son of my great-grandfather, also died on the same day. But he was killed immediately. They say that a bomb exploded near the house, right in the garden.
Little is known about Zhenya. He was ill. My father says that he had problems with the musculoskeletal system, but my grandmother Varya told me that he was slightly blissful and surprisingly kind. He played the balalaika and other musical instruments and sang beautifully. However, everyone in our family was very musical. And she told me that they organized such concerts that many neighbors came to listen to them.
Neither Zhenya nor Volodya had children, and they died unmarried. Zhenya was not the last child in the family. After him, two more boys were born: Arkady and Nikolai, but both died in infancy from a typhus epidemic. And both were buried in Zhlobin, like their older brothers.
It turns out that the only surviving heir and bearer of the surname out of ten children was only my grandfather Vasily.
My grandfather was an interesting and extraordinary person. He left Zhlobin in the early 20s for Moscow and entered the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. There he met my grandmother Antoshevskaya Fyokla Fedorovna and they got married back in the 20s. But my father was born only in 1931. My grandfather worked a lot and moved up the career ladder very well. Both before the war and after. He was a nomenclature worker and chief engineer at the VNIRO Fisheries Institute. After the war, he left the family and was sent for promotion to Astrakhan, where he worked as director of Kaspraba. There he died in 1960, still not at all old, from stomach cancer.
I never saw my grandfather. He only knew that my brother Sergei was born. My father broke off relations with him back in the late 40s, and only before his death did he come to him in Astrakhan to say goodbye.
My grandfather had only one child, my father Selitsky Vadim Vasilievich. It turned out that out of ten children, my grandfather was the only one who continued the family name. True, then another successor to the family name appeared, the son of Grandma Varya, Uncle Edik. Grandmother Varya returned after the war to her maiden name (Selitskaya) and gave it to her only son. This was due to the fact that her husband, Timofey Rublev, a writer and employee of the Belarusian radio, ended up in Poland after the war, and she considered him a defector. I remember that my grandmother Varya told me that my father had a conversation so that he would not change his last name to Antoshevsky after his divorce from my grandmother, because my father remains the only Selitsky from his entire large family. True, my father did not confirm this.
My father had two sons. My older brother Sergei was born in 1957 and I, Selitsky Vladimir, was born in 1963. My brother had a son, Evgeniy, from his first marriage in 1980, and a second son, Timofey, from his second marriage in 1985. Afterwards, my brother’s daughter, Avital, was born in Israel, where he moved to live with his Jewish wife. And in Moscow I had two girls, Yana in 1999 and Maria in 2002. In addition, I raised my wife’s son, Kirill, from the age of two, and many considered him my own, blood son. This is what our family tree looks like from my great-grandfather Efim to this day.
It would seem that everything is the same as everyone else’s, and nothing outstanding. And the dramatic destinies of many members of our family can be explained by idle reflections that we all lived in generally similar conditions of the Soviet era, we all survived revolutions, war, camps, etc. But it is still very obvious that the Selitsky family, in addition to all this, was also subject to a certain force, which manifested itself in a special way through the male line.
***
Why was the male line of my great-grandfather virtually exterminated? Of the five men, two died young, and Volodya and Zhenya died young, without marrying and leaving no heirs. Interestingly, pairs of boys died at the same time. Most likely in one day. Two from illness, and two from a bomb explosion. Only my grandfather stood as if by himself. And his fate was more or less clear and prosperous to the outside eye. Although dying at 55 years old, almost in the prime of life, after a serious and long illness, this also does not mean well.
The fates of all women of the clan were much more certain and protected. Everyone got married and everyone had children. Only Catherine did not give birth to children, and her fate was cut short during the war. She was with her husband, a career military officer and Soviet army officer, Alexander Sevastyanov, all the time. According to one version, it is believed that they died together, somewhere near Kharkov, at the beginning of the war.
Although the drama of women's destinies is also impressive. Grandmother Nastya, having married the German Herbert Brandt, moved with him to the republic of the Volga Germans, and then they were exiled to Siberia for many years. She and her children and husband lived unreunited until the 60s. Although she lived to be 100 years old, her life was quite difficult.
Neonila and Olga with their friend. Zhlobin 1911
Nila's grandmother married an officer of the tsarist army, Ivan Ulyanovich Nechaev, back in 1913 (he is depicted in almost all group photographs), and was married to him for 64 years. True, Ivan Ulyanovich was sent to prison several times for long periods. First as a white officer, and then in 1945, for complicity with the Germans. Since they lived in Crimea, in Feodosia, and fascists lived in their house. But nevertheless, they remained faithful to each other, and both lived to a ripe old age.
Grandmother Varya was married twice. And both marriages were unsuccessful. From her first marriage, at the age of 16, she gave birth to a sick girl named Gertrude. It was a short marriage and little is known about it. And her second marriage lasted longer and ended with her husband’s flight to Poland. In addition, during the war she ended up in a concentration camp, where she turned completely gray. She fled from there with a group of people. And for a long time afterwards she hid in the cellar a Jewish girl who escaped with them. Her life after the war was calmer. She worked as a doctor in Baranovichi, and then moved to Minsk. Grandmother Varya was the archivist of the Selitsky family, and she was some kind of important link between all relatives. Often visiting them and caring for their graves.
Grandma Olya probably had the most prosperous family life. In the early 20s, she married the scientist Avksentiy Ivanovich Akhromeyko and soon moved with him to Moscow. Avksentiy Ivanovich, was a Doctor of Science, and was the founder of the Pushkin Forestry Technical Institute near Moscow. There was some story about why he didn’t become an academician. Although he fully deserved this title. They lived in the alleys of Arbat, and they had a luxurious dacha in Pushkino, where they often took me as a child, until 1968. Grandmother Olya was very intelligent, and compared to the rest of her sisters she looked simply aristocratic. They lived a long, happy life together. The only big, gaping wound for them was the loss of their only son Valery, who volunteered for the front and died in the first months of the war.
***
Almost nothing is known about what the atmosphere was like in the Zhlobin house. It is known that during the revolution and in the early 20s, the house was empty. Nila's grandmother and her husband were the first to leave. Grandma Olya, having gotten married, went to live with her husband. Soon, my grandfather also left his father’s house in 1922, leaving for Moscow. In 1923, one day two sisters, Nastya and Varvara, ran away from home without receiving their parents' blessing. Both fell in love with policemen, for whom, as is clear, their father did not have much love. They stole pillows from the chest, locked the chest, and threw the key to the chest from the bridge into the Dnieper when they passed it on a cart. After that, only great-grandfather Efim and my great-grandmother Khristey, Zhenya and Volodya remained in the house.
Aunt Tamara, Anastasia’s daughter, told me that when she came to Zhlobin in 1933, she still found her great-grandfather alive. He was gray-haired, with a thick beard, and no longer entirely healthy. But she doesn’t remember her feelings about him. She remembers how she went to church with her grandmother Khristya. And she remembers how Volodya rode her on a horse. She was never there again. And I never heard my mother’s stories about Zhlobin.
From left to right: Ekaterina with her husband, career officer Alexander Sevastyanov, Varvara, my father Vadim, great-grandmother Khristya, Olga, Neonila with Ivan Ulyanovich and daughter Galina. Interestingly, there are two officers in the picture, one red and one white. 1938.
My father came to Zhlobin in 1938, with my father and grandmother Olya. Grandfather Vasily soon went back, and he and grandmother Olya stayed for a while. At the same time, there were other relatives there: the entire Nechaev family, who came from Feodosia, grandmother Varya, and grandmother Katya and her husband. My great-grandfather had died for several years, and my father had not seen him. An interesting story from my father is that he went swimming on the Dnieper and almost drowned. In fact, he had already drowned, but one local man pulled him out of the bottom and gave him first aid. It took several days for my father to come to his senses after this incident.
These are probably all the biographical memories of my relatives. The children of my great-grandfather, everyone seemed to have agreed and did not want to remember anything. Neither about Zhlobin, nor about his father.
How to get to the priest?
Anyone who needs spiritual help is interested in what days Father Vasily (Zhlobin) receives him. How to get to the conversation and get support: you need to call in advance and find out when you can come. Visits should be scheduled for Saturday or Sunday, with appointments beginning immediately after the morning service. On Orthodox holidays, the rector is busy with pressing issues of the church and parishioners, so the trip must be coordinated.
According to visitor reviews, the best time to plan a trip and make preliminary approval is from Tuesday to Thursday; you need to contact the Holy Trinity Cathedral (Zhlobin). Father Vasily rarely answers the phone; all questions of interest are more often answered by mother or a church servant. There are times when all problems are resolved over a telephone conversation and there is no need to travel.
The reception starts around 12 noon, but the queue starts already at 10 am. Visitors with small children go to the priest out of turn; sometimes the abbot himself chooses with whom he will talk right away, and who should wait, think and pray.
Through the eyes of Father Vasily
Journalists, in search of the truth and the desire to talk about good deeds, often come to Zhlobin. Father Vasily sometimes gives interviews. Often he is asked whether everyone should be helped, how he understands what kind of person is in front of him and what he thinks about his gift. Father talks about his activities openly, without hiding anything or being disingenuous. He believes that every person is worthy of help and that there are no “bad” or “good” visitors in the world. In his opinion, people are like a book and when opening it, one should understand what the parishioner came with and try not to harm either by word or deed.
Many questions arise about how he selects those who need to be helped immediately, without languishing a person in a queue. The answer to this question is very prosaic, says Father Vasily (Zhlobin). How does he make a decision? Only from a practical point of view. It is easier for young, healthy people to wait; waiting will tire them less and will not undermine their health. But small children or people with illnesses, elderly parishioners - these are the categories of visitors whom he tries to listen to as quickly as possible.
What does Vasily Pilipenko himself say about his gift?
The rector of the temple in Zhlobin does not like it when his help to people is associated with a gift. He himself always notes that he is just a conductor of God’s will. If the Lord does not want, then the priest will not be able to solve the person’s problem. Therefore, the most important thing is to understand God’s plan and not resist it.
Father Vasily often says that sometimes the hardest thing in communicating with people is explaining to them the need for humility in the face of a particular situation. After all, only the Creator knows what he is protecting us from, allowing this or that misfortune. But if a person can be helped, then be sure that Abbot Vasily will do everything that depends on him so that his prayer is heard by the Lord.
How to get there?
There is a regular bus from Gomel to the city of Zhlobin. There is one inconvenience - there are no bus trips on weekends, so this option is suitable for those who can come to Zhlobin on the eve of the meeting (on Friday) and spend the night in a hotel. The cost of the trip is about 200 rubles, duration is up to 1.5 hours.
On Saturdays and Sundays you can get from Gomel to Zhlobin by commuter train, which will take no more than 1 hour. Holy Trinity Cathedral is located on the street. K. Marx, local residents will be happy to tell you how to find it.
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