Every Russian person knows the great poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The name of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow and Kolomna is known mainly among Orthodox people.
The question is - what do these people have in common, how did they find out about each other? What does Pushkin’s correspondence with Metropolitan Philaret tell and report? Let's present the text and try to carry out an analysis to determine the sources that were used for writing.
But first we need to talk about the lives of these people.
Pushkin’s life is filled with interesting conversations, which later served as inspiration for his work.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was born on May 26, 1799 in Moscow on the day of the Ascension Day. His origin is from the untitled noble family of the Pushkins. His father was a secular wit and poet. Besides Alexander, his sister Olga and brother Lev also survived. The rest, unfortunately, were not destined to survive.
In the 18th century, women gave birth to 8-10 children per family, but few of them survived.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin turned out to be one of these strong people.
Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was personally acquainted with Metropolitan Philaret when he attended his public examination at the Lyceum. But then Pushkin did not know when he would have to face this man
On June 8, 1799, Alexander Sergeevich was baptized in Elokhov in the Church of the Epiphany. The boy was so silent and clumsy that he very often brought his mother into great despair.
Pushkin’s first mentor was his grandmother Marya Alekseevna Hannibal. She taught him everything, including the Russian language. Pushkin retained very pleasant memories of his childhood, living with his grandmother, he saw round dances and heard songs, and attended many Russian folk events.
Another woman who influenced the boy was his nanny Arina Rodionovna.
She knew many songs, fairy tales and sayings, which she taught the boy.
In the house where A.S. Pushkin lived with his parents, poets, musicians, and artists always gathered. The formation of the mind was also influenced by French education with French tutors. The fact that the boy had access to his father’s large library also played a role.
At the age of 12, the boy was taken to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Here the poet experienced the events of the Patriotic War of 1812. At this time, his poetic gift was discovered and appreciated. Memories of the years spent at the Lyceum were the kindest. During the years spent at the Lyceum, he wrote many poems.
His inspirations were French poets of the 17th and 18th centuries, with whose work he became acquainted as a child. Voltaire and Guys were Pushkin's favorite authors.
Batyushkov and Zhukovsky became the poet’s teachers.
In those years, his lyrics were permeated with motifs of transience.
Afterwards, Pushkin moved to St. Petersburg and entered the College of Foreign Affairs with the rank of collegiate secretary.
After graduating from the Lyceum, he came to his mother’s estate in the village of Mikhailovskoye. During these years, a lot of poems were written, such as the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “To the Brownie”, “Liberty”.
Notes:
Links to texts by A.S. Pushkin are given according to: Pushkin A.S. Full collection cit.: In 10 volumes. L.: Science, 1977-1979.
[1] Litter in the first publication in the Literary Gazette, 1830, No. 12 [III, 453].[2] About fictitious dates under the works of A.S. Pushkin, see article by N.N. of this issue and pp. 68-73 of issue V of this series.[3] Compare: “The fool says in his heart: there is no God” (Ps. 13:1).[4] Gratitude was not alien to his heart - see in the same 1830 in “Response to Anonymous”: “Oh, whoever you are... I thank you with my tender soul... Hitherto I am not accustomed to kindness - and his friendly language is strange to me...” [III, 170].
The artist Repin painted the painting “Pushkin at the Public Exam”, where Metropolitan Philaret is also present
There is also the famous painting “Pushkin at a public examination at the Lyceum on January 8, 1815,” which was painted by Repin himself in 1911.
In the picture it is noted that Pushkin stands proudly in the center, Metropolitan Filaret sits at the table. It was here that the first meeting of the Metropolitan with the poet took place
Of course, the plot of this picture will largely be collective. In the picture, next to Derzhavin, the great poet, it is Metropolitan Filaret who sits, but the surprising thing is that in fact, Filaret was not there. Apparently it is no coincidence that it was Saint Philaret who appeared in the picture, the man whom the Providence of the Lord himself would bring together with Pushkin, who had already matured at that time, at a difficult moment in his life.
The Metropolitan was then 45 years old when he saw a strange and at the same time incomprehensibly sad and sorrowful poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
The Metropolitan decided to give his poetic response.
Metropolitan Philaret's answer to Pushkin's poem:
It was not in vain, not by chance that Life was given to me from God, Not without the secret will of God And condemned to execution. I myself, with my capricious power, called out Evil from the dark abysses, I myself filled my soul with passion, I excited my mind with doubt. Remember me, Forgotten by me! Shine through the darkness of thoughts - And by You a pure heart will be created, a bright mind! This answer was not a lesson at all, but it seemed to come from the person of Alexander Sergeevich himself. Saint Philaret chose the same form, poetic, as Pushkin. Still the same poetic size, the same stanzas of 4 lines.
Filaret contrasts Pushkin’s thesis with his own antithesis, especially in the following words: “...evil has called out from the dark abysses...”. Filaret, in his response, seems to lead the poet to that inevitable conclusion, that only situation that should direct the hero into the depths of his own soul.
Lovers of Russian poetry know the poetic response of the ever-memorable Moscow saint, Metropolitan Philaret A.S. Pushkin to his, in the words of Pushkin himself, “skeptical couplets.” Let us present the texts and try to identify the sources used to write them. This is what the poet wrote:
26 May 1828
A vain gift, a random gift, Life, why were you given to me? Why are you condemned to death by a secret fate?
Who called me out of insignificance with a hostile power, filled my soul with passion, excited my mind with doubt?..
There is no goal in front of me: My heart is empty, my mind is idle, And the monotonous noise of life torments me with melancholy.
Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna. And here is the answer of Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Philaret (Drozdov):
It is not in vain, not by chance that Life was given to us from God, Not without the secret will of God And condemned to execution.
I myself, with my capricious power, called out Evil from the dark abysses, I myself filled my soul with passion, I excited my mind with doubt.
Remember me, forgotten by me! Shine through the darkness of thoughts, - And by You a pure heart will be created, a bright mind.
Pushkin, continuing the theme, writes a kind of confession:
In hours of fun or idle boredom, It happened that I entrusted the pampered sounds of Madness, laziness and passions to my lyre.
But even then I involuntarily interrupted the wicked strings, When your majestic voice suddenly amazed me.
I shed streams of unexpected tears, And the wounds of my conscience received pure oil from Your fragrant speeches.
And now, from a spiritual height, you extend your hand to Me, And with the strength of meek and loving power, You subdue wild dreams.
The soul is warmed by your fire, rejected the darkness of earthly vanities, and the poet listens to Philaret's harp in sacred horror.
(In another edition:
With your fire the soul is scorched, Rejected the darkness of earthly vanities, And the poet listens to the harp of the Seraphim In sacred horror.)
January 19, 1830
The first poem that prompted Bishop Philaret to take up his pen was written in 1828 and marked the poet’s birthday. This date aggravates the heaviness of the mood expressed in the poem... It seems that it was precisely this heaviness that prompted the extremely busy metropolitan, a permanent member of the Holy Synod, to extend the “hand of fellowship” (Gal. 2: 9) to the talented poet in difficult moments of his life.
The year 1828 was for A. S. Pushkin the year of solving one of the most difficult issues of his moral and creative life and largely determined Pushkin’s social position in the 30s. It is known that around June 1828, that is, almost immediately after the poet’s birthday, a commission began work on the “Gavriliad” case. Pushkin was outwardly ironic, but internally he was having a hard time experiencing the events of these days. He himself was now affected by it. what he wrote two years earlier in the “Note on Public Education”: “We must pay strict attention to the manuscripts circulating between students. For an obscene manuscript found, impose the heaviest punishment, for an outrageous one - expulsion from the school, but without further persecution in the service: punishing a young man or an adult for the guilt of a youth is a terrible thing and, unfortunately, too common among us.”
It is possible that the poem “A Vain Gift...” was born precisely in troubled days for him, and the date, emphasizing the futility of his birth and purpose, was set in despair. (Pushkin sometimes put fictitious dates, but significant for him, under his works.) It is known that the work of the commission ended with the closure of the topic and the poet’s forgiveness, timed - by chance or not - on October 19 of the same year (the day of the Lyceum anniversary). Under this number we read from Pushkin:
Having fervently prayed to God, shouted hurray at the Lyceum, Farewell, brothers: I’m on my way, And it’s time for you to go to bed.
In fact, the road date dates back to October 19: the poet was traveling to the Tver village of Malinniki.
Metropolitan Philaret, answering the question why man was given life and why he was “condemned to execution,” writes: “Not without the secret will of God,” that is, the mysterious, this is accomplished. In other words, our Lord, desiring “all to be saved and to come to the knowledge (reason - in the Slavic text) of the truth” (1 Tim. 2: 4), in His mercy punishes man, that is, he limits his opportunities, which man uses to satisfy his lusts (see: James 4: 1–5). That is why the Lord punishes a person, raising him with fatherly severity (see: Rom. 11: 22; Heb. 12: 1-29) and caring for him as a son, so that the person does not perish and fall into judgment along with the one who is perishing in corruption, by the world that does not believe in its Creator (1 Cor. 11:32). The Holy Apostle Paul, explaining our temporary suffering here on earth, writes: “If you endure punishment, then God deals with you as with sons. For is there such a son whom his father would not punish? But if you remain without the punishment which is common to all, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Heb. 12:7-11). Elsewhere we read: “If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. Being judged, we are punished by the Lord, so as not to be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11: 31-32), for God sends punishment “so that we may have a share in His holiness” (Heb. 12: 10). And God’s will for us, according to the Apostle Paul, is our sanctification, “that we should abstain from fornication; so that each of us knows how to keep his vessel in holiness and honor, and not in the passion of lust, like the pagans who do not know God” (1 Thess. 4: 3-5). Answering Pushkin, Metropolitan Philaret had in mind, of course, these lines of Holy Scripture, speaking about the mysterious power of God, stopping the sinful path of the sinner and drawing him to participate in the holiness of God.
That A. S. Pushkin correctly understood and felt communion with God in his youth, the Metropolitan, as a subtle psychologist and teacher, could notice during visits to the Lyceum. In Pushkin’s own poem “Unbelief” (1817) we read that to a person who does not believe in God “a powerful hand does not reach out from beyond the world... with the gifts of the world,” moreover, the spiritual world (according to the old spelling, this word - world - and written through and-octal). As an enlightened person and poet, Bishop Filaret, of course, knew this poem by a lyceum student, especially since it was published by V. L. Pushkin in the “Proceedings of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature at Moscow University” (1818, part XII). This poem also contains the following lines addressed to the righteous who consider “dark unbelief a vice”:
Humble your cruel frenzy of pride: He has the right to our condescension, To tears of pity; Hear your brother's groan, He is an unfortunate villain, he suffers from himself.
Is this why Bishop Philaret took up his pen, fulfilling his duty as an archpastor and teacher? He, wisely guiding the poet in the search for the culprit of his spiritual and mental torment, points out to him: after all, you yourself once wrote that he who does not have communication with God and his Creator “suffers from himself”:
I myself, with my capricious power, called out Evil from the dark abysses, I myself filled my soul with passion, I excited my mind with doubt.
Knowing that young Pushkin could see the “powerful hand” of God extending “from beyond the world with the gifts of the spiritual world,” Bishop Philaret reminds him of God:
Remember me, forgotten by me! Shine through the darkness of thoughts...
The participation of such a famous church and statesman did not leave the poet indifferent. Having learned about the bishop’s poem from E.M. Khitrovo and not yet read it, Pushkin writes to her that this is “great luck.” Here he calls his poem “A Vain Gift...” “skeptical couplets”: the state of the poet’s soul at that moment is understandable - the severity of the sensations that caused the “skeptical couplets” has passed. A year and a half has passed since they were written, and now we must admit that the poems were born not from disappointment in life, but from a skeptical mood. The existing opinion about the “serious” tone of the phrase in the letter to E.M. Khitrovo is hardly acceptable. The poet’s words: “poems of a Christian, a Russian bishop in response to skeptical couplets” (translated from French) - testify only to his terminological accuracy. Even if Pushkin had not written his beautiful poem in response to the bishop, he knew when he wrote to Khitrovo that his words would become known to the metropolitan.
Having read the poetic instruction of Bishop Philaret, the poet writes with gratitude: “Your fragrant speeches were refreshed by pure oil.” He confesses and admits that sometimes “it happened,” whether out of fun or idleness, he “entrusted to his lyre the effeminate sounds of madness (cf.: “A fool says in his heart: there is no God.” - Ps. 13: 1), laziness and passions "
It seems that in response to the instructions of the archpastor, Pushkin himself recalled his youthful “Unbelief”:
Whether he silently enters the temple of the Most High with a crowd, There he only multiplies the melancholy of his soul, With the magnificent triumph of ancient altars, With the voice of the shepherd, with the sweet choir foam, The torment of his unbelief is alarmed.
Wed. in response to Metropolitan Philaret:
...your majestic voice suddenly amazed me.
I shed streams of unexpected tears, And the wounds of my conscience received pure oil from Your fragrant speeches.
A person who does not believe in God, even if he cries, then
...not those streams of tears are flowing, which are sweet for suffering eyes and dear to the heart with their freedom...
And as if remembering the One who holds the whole world in His hand and extends a helping hand to those who believe in Him, their Creator and Lord, Pushkin addresses the Metropolitan, as he put it, “the Russian bishop,” with the words:
And now, from a spiritual height, you extend your hand to Me, And with the strength of meek and loving power, You subdue wild dreams.
This stanza is very deep and voluminous in its content. If Pushkin actually used the poem “Unbelief,” then perhaps these words are addressed to God Almighty, stretching out His mighty hand with “gifts of peace.” Is it because the answer to Filaret was left without an inscription, without a title, because the context of this poem is much broader? If these words - “and now from on high” - refer to Bishop Philaret, then Pushkin, turning to the archpastor, raises his episcopal rank to its proper height, for, according to the teaching of the Church, the bishop personifies the image of Christ (see the messages of St. Ignatius God-Bearer to the Ephesians, chapters 3, 6 and to the Trallians, chapter 3: “one should look at the bishop as at the Lord Himself”; “everyone, honor ... the bishop as Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father, and the elders as the assembly of God, like a host of apostles. Without them there is no Church"). And according to the teachings of the holy Apostle Paul, “ruling elders should be given special honor, especially to those who labor in word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17).
Metropolitan Philaret’s answer is a reminder of God and admonition to a person falling into the sin of despair.
We find another parallel to the theme of Pushkin’s answer in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians: “Brothers! If a person falls into any sin, you who are spiritual, correct him in a spirit of meekness... Bear each other’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6: 1-2). Wed. from Pushkin:
And now, from a spiritual height, you extend your hand to Me, And with the strength of meek and loving power, You subdue wild dreams.
It is this fragment from the letter of the Apostle Paul that is always read at the liturgy on the days of memory of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky. Therefore, Pushkin heard these words both on his name day and while attending solemn liturgies and prayer services on the day of the angel of Emperor Alexander I. He, as a spiritualized person, could not help but be interested in the question: how can one “fulfill the law of Christ”?
And one moment. A person familiar with Orthodox hymnography will pay attention to the familiar phrase: “from above... by force.” May 26 - the poet's birthday - sometimes falls during the celebration and after-feast of Pentecost - the day of the Holy Trinity. In one of the hymns for this twelfth holiday there are the words: “From on high, as a disciple, O Christ, you are clothed with power ...” (irmos of the 3rd song of the canon). Pushkin honored the “customs of his native antiquity,” which included visiting the temple on great holidays. In addition, it is known that he independently studied the Holy Scriptures. Thus, responding to Metropolitan Philaret and using the words of a common vocabulary for them, Pushkin not only expresses gratitude for the attention to his spiritual and mental torment, but also shows that he is not an alien child for the Church of Christ.
Gogol and Saint Macarius of Optina
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a believer and impressionable man. With age, he began to regret that in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” he wrote about pagan evil spirits. The writer had a presentiment that in the future stories would seduce young people with their pseudo-romance and distract them from God.
He found consolation in trips to Optina Pustyn, where he lived for a long time and communicated with monks. It is known that one day he was granted an audience with Elder Macarius of Optina. The conversation took place face to face, and its content remained secret. The writer Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy recalled that Gogol was impressed by the meeting for a long time and characterized the saint as the only person he knew who could lead to the salvation of the soul.
The Monk Macarius was born in 1788 into a noble family and was supposed to pursue a secular career, but at the age of 22 he went on a pilgrimage to the Bogoroditsk Hermitage near Bryansk, and remained there. In 1834 he moved to the Optina Monastery, where, under his leadership, a school of publishers and translators of spiritual literature arose. Not only Gogol and Tolstoy communicated with him, the critic Ivan Vasilyevich Kirievsky and the poet Alexei Stepanovich Khomyakov received spiritual nourishment from him.
Literary scholars believe that Father Macarius and Gogol were talking about “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends”: the book was kept in the monastery library, and, by the way, it included a piece of paper with a handwritten review of the work by Father Macarius, which belonged to another Russian Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov.
Optina Elder St. Barsanuphius, in his “Spiritual Heritage,” also wrote about the great turning point that occurred in Gogol’s soul after a conversation with Fr. Makariy. According to the elder, Gogol “turned to Christ without looking back and rushed to the Heavenly Jerusalem.”
Dostoevsky and Ambrose Optinsky
The writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky also resorted to consolation from the Optina elders after his three-year-old son Alexei died in 1878. Dostoevsky grieved greatly for his son and was literally crushed by his death. A visit to the monastery gave him the strength to live on.
In the Optina Desert, he met with the Monk Ambrose of Optina and told about his grief. As the writer’s wife Anna Grigorievna recalled, in response the elder asked to bow to her and say that her son, Alyoshenka, now resides in the rank of angel before the throne of the Creator God, sees her and rejoices at her tears and sorrow. He told me not to hold back my tears and pray for my son. The writer reproduced the words of the saint almost exactly in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” in the chapter “Believing Women,” in which Elder Zosima consoled a saddened woman who had lost her son. It is known that Dostoevsky left the elder in complete repentance. In total, he talked with the saint three times.
The critic and publicist Evgeniy Nikolaevich Poselyanin (Pogozhev) and the philosopher and writer Vasily Vasilyevich Rozanov met with the Monk Ambrose.
