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History of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville
(Part III)
The newly-consecrated Bishop Vitaly, departing
for America in 1934, appointed Archimandrite Seraphim (Ivanov, +1987)
as his successor. Archimandrite Seraphim, who later became Archbishop
of Chicago and Detroit, was born August 1, 1897. His parents, Georgii
and Vera, ensured that their son received a good education, and
he finished Kursk Classic Gymnasium [high school] and then studied
for a year at Moscow University. In 1916, he volunteered for the
front and joined the 1st Siberian Corps. Later he took part in the
Volunteer Army, first in Kornilov's Regiment, then in Markov's Artillery
Brigade. After the evacuation, the future Vladyka Seraphim found
himself in Belgrade, where he became interested in theology. He
graduated with degrees in philosophy, and thereupon theology. In
1926, while visiting St Panteleimon's Skete in Mouth Athos, on the
feast day of St Seraphim of Sarov, he was tonsured to the monkhood.
That same year, the future Patriarch Varnava of Serbia (+1937),
ordained him hierodeacon and soon hieromonk. In 1927, Hieromonk
Seraphim was received into the Ladomirovo Brotherhood.
Under the direction of Fr Seraphim, the brotherhood
performed a great deal of missionary work, printing service books,
religious literature, ecclesiastical calendars and other books,
as well as Pravoslavnaya Rus [Orthodox Russia], edited by Archimandrite
Seraphim. During World War II, Archimandrite Seraphim printed an
enormous number of books. While collecting funds for this work,
he traveled to Bulgaria. He hoped that with time he would be able
to send service books and other religious literature to Russia.
The brotherhood's work helped the development of church life under
the difficult conditions of refugee life, for the newly-opened churches
in refugee camps were all supplied by Ladomirovo's books. Evacuating
the brotherhood of St Job of Pochaev from Ladomirovo in the Carpathians
was a great task too; they first stopped in Germany, and after the
war, they went to Switzerland. Here in early 1946, Fr Seraphim,
on the basis of the ukase of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, was consecrated bishop by His
Eminence Metropolitan Anastassy and Archbishop Ieronim.
That year, the monks, led by Bishop Seraphim,
went to the USA, to Holy Trinity Monastery. By the unanimous decision
of the unified brotherhood and by confirmation of Archbishop Vitaly,
Bishop Seraphim was elected the abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery.
He resumed the publication of Pravoslavnaya Rus and headed the monastery's
print shop. Soon, Hieromonk Konstantin (Zaitsev, +1975) arrived
as well and became the editor of Pravoslavnaya Rus, proving himself
in this obedience as an "uncompromising zealot of ecclesiastical
truth" (Pravoslavnaya Rus, No. 22, 1954).
In 1948, Archbishop Vitaly headed the monastery
and Bishop Seraphim began preparing the headquarters for the Synod
of Bishops in the US. Vladyka Seraphim persuaded Prince Belosselsky
to grant the Russian Church Abroad a country estate in Mahopac and
moved there, founding the Kursk-Root Hermitage, gathering a small
monastic brotherhood there. By the time Metropolitan Anastassy arrived
in the US, he already had a base to work from.
That same year, in 1948, they consecrated the
underground church of St Job of Pochaev, located under the cathedral,
which was then still under construction. The public celebrated of
the great consecration of the cathedral, performed on November 13/26,
1950, which was led by His Eminence Metropolitan Anastassy along
with a host of bishops and clergymen with a huge gathering of worshipers
from all over North America. During the minor entrance, the founder
of the monastery, Hegumen Panteleimon, was elevated to rank of archimandrite.
"Still," said Archbishop Vitaly, "that
was not the last of God's mercies towards us. Having already seen
the approach of the sunset of our lives here, we thought: what will
happen to what we have built, this project we had devoted our lives
to? Where will our successors come from in the harvest-fields of
Christ?... And here a truly unbelievable thing happened: by Divine
Providence, through the intercession of kind people, we now have
operating the Holy Trinity Seminary for the preparation of candidates
for monastic and parish clergymen... Upon us still lies the obligation
to devote all our remaining powers to prepare the workers for the
harvest of the Orthodox Church" (Pravoslavnaya Rus, No 22,
1948). The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside
of Russia blessed the establishment of Holy Trinity Seminary, recognized
by the State of New York as a higher educational institution. The
Seminary Rector was Archbishop Vitaly himself, the Dean was NN Alexandrov.
In 1952, His Eminence Archbishop Vitaly handed over his Rectorshop
to Archimandrite Averky (Taushev, +1976), who had received the highest
level of theological training in Bulgaria and adhering to a strictly
Orthodox theological path.
ARCHBISHOP AVERKY (TAUSHEV, +1976)
His Eminence Archbishop Averky was born Alexander
Pavlovich Taushev on October 19, 1906, in the city of Kazan to a
noble family of Simbirsk guberniya, Pavel Sergeevich Taushev and
his wife Maria Vladimirovna. "The nature of my father's work,"
recalled Vladyka about his childhood, "forced us to constantly
travel throughout Russia, and I thank God that although I was forced
to leave my dearly beloved Homeland at an early age (in 1920), I
was still able to see it and impressed it deeply into my young heart…
My recollections of these travels in Russia seem to be like a dream
now, but these memories will not leave me until my dying days… Unforgettable
for me was the visit to holy Kremlin 'in the heart of Russia—the
throne city of Moscow, with its holy sites, beginning with Uspensky
Cathedral, where our Tsars were crowned and where the First-Hierarchs
of the Russian Church were enthroned; Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra
with the great relics of 'the griever of the Russian Land,' St Sergius;
Kievo-Pechersky Lavra; St Alexander Nevsky Lavra; Petropavlovsky
Cathedral; St Isaac's and Kazan Cathedrals and the church 'Savior-on-the-Blood,'
in St Petersburg. I cannot believe that these are only 'museum'
treasures now, that the former well-springs of the people's faith
will not once again be reestablished there!"
The favorite pastime of the young Alexander was
reading spiritually-beneficial books kept in an enormous bookshelf
in his father's den. From his early days he already had the subconscious
desire to lead a monastic life, rejecting the temporal life, in
which he saw nothing he wanted. In 1914, the First World War exploded,
giving birth to a great burst of patriotism. The late Vladyka of
blessed memory never forgot his impressions of the arrival in Lvov
of Tsar-Martyr Nikolai Alexandrovich and the Tsarevich. "This
was the only time in my life when I saw our Pious Emperor and His
son, and actually, at a fairly close distance. What overall joy
did the visit of the Tsar and his Son cause! What an unabating 'hurrah'
thundered in the square where the soldiers stood at attention!"
After many tribulations in Russia during the Revolution,
the Taushev family fled Russia in 1920 and ended up in the large
Bulgarian port city of Varna. A year before he graduated the Russian
high school built here, Alexander met Archbishop Feofan of Poltava
and Pereyaslavl, who came to Varna, which, remembers Vladyka Averky,
led "finally to my decision for my future: firmly, without
the slightest doubt or hesitation, I chose the monastic path."
Finishing school with a gold medal, Alexander enrolled in the Department
of Theology of the Sovereign University of Sofia. Successfully completing
the courses, he received a Bachelors Degree with the highest honors.
"What was I to do then? I could have taken
some position in the Bulgarian Church, but I wished to become a
monk and in particular to serve our Russian Church, to labor in
her spiritual fields for our own Russian people. I regularly received
issues of Pravoslavnaya Karpatskaya Rus [Orthodox Carpathian Russia],
which gave me the urge to go to Sub-Carpathian Russia—at the time
it was Czecho-Slovakia—where there was a mass movement to return
to Orthodoxy among the Russian people enslaved and persecuted there
at over hundreds of years, separated from Mother Russia and forced
by their enemies into the Unia with Papal Rome. Vladyka Archbishop
Feofan approved and blessed my intentions and gave me a sum of money
for travel, since neither I nor my family had money to buy a train
ticket. I received a document in response to my letter, signed by
Ruling Bishop Iosif from Carpathian Russia, that I was accepted
into the service of the Orthodox Diocese of Mukachevsko-Prjashev
as assistant secretary of the Diocesan Administration in the city
of Hust."
On May 19, 1931, Bishop Iosif of Bitol tonsured
Alexander to the monkhood at St Nicholas Monastery in the town of
Iza with the name Averky, in honor of St Averky of Jerapol, Equal-to-the-Apostles,
and the following day, he was ordained a hierodeacon. In 1932, on
the feast of the Transfiguration in Devichy Monastery in Dombok,
near Cherlenev, in the Mukavich district, Bishop Damascene of Mukachev-Prjash
ordained him hieromonk. In June of that year, Fr Averky was transferred
to St Nicholas Monastery to minister to the parishes of Nankov and
Boronjav, and in September, he was appointed Assistant Rector of
a parish in Uzhgorod. Soon the rector of this parish departed for
a better world, and Hieromonk Averky became Deputy Rector. By ukase
of Bishop Damascene of August 7, 1935, Fr Averky was appointed Chief
Editor of Pravoslavny Karpatorusskij Vestnik [Orthodox Carpatho-Russian
Bulletin] and a year later, teacher of the Law of God in the Sovereign
Real Gymanasium in the Russian and Czech Sovereign Civil and People's
Schools of Uzhgorod. On Pascha of 1937, he was elevated to the rank
of hegumen. In December 1938, he was appointed rector of a parish
in Mukachev, the Administrator of a part of the Mukachevsko-Prjashev
Diocese in Hungary and Head of the Bishop's Residence and Diocesan
properties in Mukachev. In 1939, he was appointed Chief Editor of
the Diocesan Administration.
In 1940, Fr Averky was forced to leave Carpathian
Russia and move to Belgrade, where he taught Pastoral Theology and
Homiletics at the Missionary-Pastoral Department, reading a series
of lectures on spiritual life at the Russian House, organizing religious
education meetings with such topics as "Day of Russian Glory"
in honor of St Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, anniversary gatherings
for the 1600th year of the repose of St Nicholas, the 50th anniversary
of the death of St Feofan the Recluse, etc. Here the future bishop
participated in the services of Metropolitan Anastassy of blessed
memory, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of
Russia, and was the guardian of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother
of God, Protectress of the Russian Diaspora, which performed numerous
miracles and consoled Russian refugees in the difficult years of
the Second World War.
In 1945, Fr Averky arrived in Munich together
with the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside
of Russia. Here he continued his missionary educational work, for
six years teaching the seniors in two high schools: Merciful Samaritan
in Munich and School of the Stateless in one of the refugee camps,
and also taught in nursing classes at the Samaritan school. Fr Averky
also conducted a lecture series at the Synodal House in Munich on
the study of patristic writings and often spoke on theological,
ecclesio-historical and theological-moral topics.
In 1951, in connection with his appointment as
President of the Missionary Education Committee of the Synod of
Bishops, Fr Averky went to the USA and was assigned by Archbishop
Vitaly to teaching at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville. "Then,
during our first years in America," remembered Vladyka, "overall
enthusiasm ran high: church life was our key then, new parishes
were springing up, churches were being built, religious and church
charity organizations were being formed, for example, the St Vladimir
Youth Circles, the Fund of Fr John of Kronstadt (before his canonization);
often, here and there, we had conferences and church celebrations,
attended by great multitudes, and one sensed a religious renewal
in the masses of believers, finding a calm, peaceful and more or
less secure existence here, and churches were very zealously attended."
Fr Averky, as an archimandrite and then a bishop,
expended a great deal of energy as the spiritual leader of the St
Vladimir Youth movement, created with the aim of "helping our
Russian youth develop a correct Orthodox and Russian-nationalist
worldview, so that it would become the guiding principle in their
lives."
On the day of the Holy Spirit in 1953, he was
consecrated bishop at Holy Trinity Monastery Cathedral. On May 12,
1960, after the fortieth day of the repose of their Abbot, Archbishop
Vitaly, at a general monastery assembly, held with the blessing
of Metropolitan Anastassy, Bishop Averky was elected and confirmed
as the Abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery. This heavy burden was borne
by Vladyka until his very death in April 1976.
In 1974, Vladyka Averky and the monastic brethren
hosted the III All-Diaspora Council at their monastery.
Over the 24 years of Vladyka Averky's service
as the Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary, some one hundred clergymen
were produced for the Russian Church Abroad, who replaced the older
pastors who had gone to the better world. In addition to his primary
duties as Abbot of the Monastery, Vladyka Averky led the curriculum
in the Seminary and actively participated in the publication of
Pravoslavnaya Rus, publishing his archpastoral sermons and articles
in each issue. Holy Trinity Monastery published the following written
works of the late Vladyka [in Russian]:
1) Guidance in the Study of Holy Scripture of
the New Testament (in two volumes);
2) Guidance on Homiletics;
3) True Orthodoxy and the Modern World (a compendium of articles
and sermons);
4) Archbishop Feofan of Poltava and Pereyaslavl';
5) Modernity in the Lige of the Word of God. Sermons and Lectures
(in four volumes);
As well as many brochures on theological, ecclesio-historical
and religious-moral topics.
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