A LUMINARY OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH
HIS BEATITUDE METROPOLITAN ANTHONY
Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky
Metropolitan Anthony, in the world Alexei Khrapovitsky, was born on March 17, 1863, in the village of Vatagino, Novgorod district. His father, belonging to an old aristocratic family, was active in local and governmental institutions. His mother, the daughter of a Kharkov landowner, was distinguished by her profound piety and maintained a religious way of life in the home. At age seven Alexei, the future bishop, moved from the village to Novgorod because of his father's work, and a year later on to St. Petersburg. Here he entered the St. Petersburg gymnasium No. 5, which he completed with honors. Guided by his heart he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. Four days after completing the academy in 1885 he was tonsured a monk. Soon after, as a hieromonk he was appointed a teacher at the Kholm Theological Seminary. A year later he returned as a lecturer to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy where, in 1889, he was appointed, as an archimandrite, to be rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. Four months later he became rector of the Moscow Theological Academy. The latter appointment came when he was twenty-seven years old. His five-year tenure at this post was the height of his activities as an educator in a higher theological school. He captured the hearts of the students by his love of youth, by a charming character, by the strength of personal conviction, and by direct, open speech. He guided not by authority of the law, but by moral influence.
By this same disposition he distinguished his activities as rector of the Kazan Theological Academy where he was raised to the rank of bishop. Thus ended his fifteen year period as an educator. Bishop Anthony was appointed to the diocese of Ufa and two years later he was transferred to Volhynia. His archepiscopal ministry in the Volhynia diocese, from 1902 to 1914, manifested itself in tireless and diverse activity. In his pastoral letters, in lively interaction with the clergy, and in his personal example Vladyka instilled in the clergy an image of "a good shepherd, father of his people, and a reverent minister of Christ's Mysteries." He inspired a view of the priesthood as the highest calling on earth. He entered into direct contact with the people of Volhynia, especially through the Pochaev Lavra. He brought the intelligentsia into the Church, established charities, built great churches - Holy Trinity Cathedral of Pochaev, the Ovruch Cathedral. He wrote services to saints. Simultaneously he wielded more and more influence on the overall direction of Russian ecclesiastical life, especially after his being raised to the rank of archbishop and becoming a permanent member of the Holy Synod in 1912. In 1913 the Kazan Theological Academy conferred upon him an honorary doctorate of theology. Vladyka Anthony spent the years of the war, 1914-1917, as head of the Kharkov diocese. When, by demand of the revolutionary authorities, he left Kharkov and withdrew to the faraway Valaam Monastery, the Kharkov diocesan council almost unanimously again chose him to lead their diocese and succeeded in arranging his return. In that same year (1917) he attended the Moscow Ail-Russian Church Sobor and was one of the three candidates for patriarch. He was raised to the rank of metropolitan and appointed to the Kiev diocese which he headed for only six months. The development of revolutionary activities left him without a permanent residence. He was exiled for eight months to a Uniate Basilian monastery in Buchach. Following this came a short return to Kiev, departure to the south of Russia, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Ekaterinograd, Novorossisk, later, Mount Athos, return to the Crimea, evacuation to Constantinople, finally in 1920, Serbia. Metropolitan Anthony spent the last period of his life in Sremsky-Karlovtsy, Yugoslavia, uniting, by virtue of his personality and as President of the Council of Bishops, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. From Sremsky-Karlovtsy the Metropolitan travelled to the Holy Land and to different cities and areas in Western Europe.
Metropolitan Anthony died on August 10, 1936 (new style), in the 73rd year of his life. This is a short summary of the biographical facts of this former Hierarch of the Russian Church. It is difficult to describe the spiritual qualities of the reposed archpastor and capture his activity in one article. Love for God, with the strength of feeling of the first Christians, and a living, active love toward people defined his whole life.
The direction of Metropolitan Anthony's deep piety was defined by himself in Dostoyevski's hero, the Elder Zosima, "bright and joyful asceticism." Religious compunction which manifested itself so brightly in his youth unceasingly accompanied him all his life. This compunction was expressed as tears during the Great Vespers on Pentecost when he read the kneeling prayers which were especially dear to him. Compunction is seen in his thoughts and work on "The Dogma of the Holy Trinity," and became his Graceful gift in old age when "tears of compunction flowed from his eyes in torrents."
Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged; ye are not straitened in us (II Cor.6:ll-12) wrote Bishop Anthony to the students of the Kazan Theological Academy, using the words of the Apostle in answer to their farewell address. These words express his attitude not only toward his students, but toward all people. "I cannot but answer when people write me." Everybody wrote to him , people who met him only once, even those to whom he had spoken a few words wrote to him, and he answered in such a way that his words became a guideline for the rest of their lives.
When it came to charity his right hand did not know what his left hand did. Nobody knows how many countless college students, gymnasium students, and youth overall were recipients of his material support in the form of scholarships, tuition, or extraordinary help, not only among Russians, but also Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, when he occupied the "wealthy" Volhynia diocese. He did not give up charity even when he found himself in exile and poverty.
Our late Archpastor made an enormous contribution to Orthodox theological thought. His theological works reflect the same aspect of his personality, in which the "feeling of love" has become the "idea of love." The series of his published theological writings begins with his master's degree dissertation, "Psychological Data in Favor of Free Will and Moral Responsibility." After explaining this fundamental problem [free will and responsibility] of human personality, he speaks in his next work, "The Moral Idea of the Dogma of the Holy Trinity," of "love as the essence of Divine Life." In the work, "The Dogma of Redemption," he presents the meaning of redemption as the effect of "the co-suffering love of Christ." The number of Metropolitan Anthony's theological works is great. In his collected works there are twenty-one treatises on various theological subjects and twenty-four articles which make up the section, "Pastoral Theology," - the fruit of his academic lectures. His pastoral epistles, especially to the clergy of Volhynia, are famous.
A large section of his literary works is taken up by ecclesiastical commentary, in particular his criticism of the influential thinkers of pre-revolutionary Russian society - Leo Tolstoy, Renan, and others. On these subjects he wrote speeches and gave lectures; he also touched on them in his lively and energetic sermons.
The late Metropolitan knew the history of his native land and people. He valued Russian classical literature and was up-to-date on current literature. He particularly admired, as is well known, the genius of F. M. Dostoyevski. While yet a youth he listened "with bated breath" to Dostoyevski as he gave lectures at literary gatherings. After reading The Brothers Karamazov he "could not sleep for several nights." He maintained this attitude all his life, leaving a text concerning this in, " A Dictionary on the Works of Dostoyevski."
In foreign writings his attention was directed towards French literature. He singled out members of the "new school," such as Paul Burje, in whose writings he saw a turnabout towards the moral foundations of art.
All his life the late Metropolitan lived for the idea of restoring the patriarchate in the Russian Church and consciously worked toward its realization. This idea came to his consciousness when, as a little boy, he asked his father, "Why do we not have our own patriarch?" In connection with this idea he convincingly expressed a new view on the historical personality of Patriarch Nikon, considering him a selfless defender of the great idea of the independence of the Church. The latest objective historical scholarship has justified the correctness of this view.
Metropolitan Anthony took part in many glorifications of saints and was particularly influential in the canonizations of Saint John of Tobolsk, Saint Joasaph of Belgorod, and Saint Anna of Kashin. He wrote many services, among them, to the saints of Volhynia: St. Macarius of Ovruch, the Nun-martyr Anastasia, the service and akathist hymn to St. Job of Pochaev, and St. Theodore of Ostrog. He also wrote the services and akathist hymns to the Pochaev icon of the Mother of God and the Ozeriansk icon of the Mother of God. The services to Sts. Cyril and Methodius, St. Joasaph, and others, also came from his pen. To understand what guided the late Metropolitan in his political aspirations, one must understand that all his views, both political and nationalistic, were determined by his religious world-view.
He looked upon Russia as an undiscovered treasury of the great Christian idea. He loved his native land because in her he saw "the Gospel embodied in the way of life and character of the people."
In general, he looked upon government from the point of view that it could create conditions "most favorable for the development of moral principles." In the people he sought to find the "precious characteristics of a churchly way of life." Above all, he suffered deeply for his native land.
Being by nature a public person, Metropolitan Anthony established communications with representatives of the civilized world and religious life in the West. After the Revolution he appealed to them many times with a call to defend the persecuted Russian Church, to fight against the atheists, and with warnings concerning the dangers of militant Communism - and he received an immediate response. He united around his personality a galaxy of devotees deeply devoted to the Church, devotees who, until the end of their days, remained the spiritual leaders of the Russian Church Abroad and an authority for the whole Orthodox Church. His works constitute a rich legacy, and his personality and life a lofty example for imitation and edification.
Metropolitan Anthony