TULA, RUSSIA: February 28, 2018
Archimandrite Anastassy (Shvetsov-Zagarsky), one of the eldest clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church, reposes in the Lord

On Saturday, February 24, 2018, at the age of 102, the eldest clergyman of the Belevsky Diocese and resident of the Nativity of the Mother of God-Anastasov Monastery in Odoevsky region in Russia, Archimandrite Averky (Shvetsov-Zagarsky), reposed in the Lord.

The funeral of Fr Averky took place on Monday, February 26, with the blessing of His Grace Bishop Serafim of Belevsk and Aleksinsk, and his named entered into the commemoration books of all the churches and monasteries of Belevsky Diocese, as its official website reports.

Schema-Archimandrite Averky was born Boris Vladimirovich Shvetsov in 1915 in the city of Vyatka, Russia, to a family of priests. His father was arrested and shot in 1937. Fr Anastassy (his monastic name) survived the Finnish War and World War II, and during the latter was taken captive, where he was held for 2 ½ years. Upon his release at the end of the war, he and other prisoners-of-war was interned in the West. He was then sent to Argentina, where was tonsured and where he lived for 10 years.

Fr Anastassy then moved to the USA, where he graduated seminary and over the course of 50 years, served at 35 parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Since 2011, Fr Anastassy lived some sixty kilometers from the city of Tula, Russia, in the ancient Nativity of the Mother of God-Anastasov Monastery. Upon being tonsured to the Great Schema, he was given the name Averky.