Bishop Vasily Rodzianko: life, sermons, books, biography and interesting facts

Rodzianko Vasily, Bishop of the Orthodox Church in America, who was once known in the world as Vladimir Mikhailovich Rodzianko, was an extremely remarkable person. He was born on May 22, 1915 in a family estate bearing the beautiful name "Otrada", which was located in the Novomoskovsk district, in the Ekaterinoslav province.

His father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Rodzianko, was an educated person who graduated from Moscow University, but his grandfather, Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko, in the then Russian Empire was the chairman of the III-th and IV-th State Duma. Then he became one of the leaders of the February Revolution of 1917 and headed the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. This fact played a very important role in the fate of his grandson, but more on this later.

The mother of the future bishop was the nee Baroness Meyendorff, her family already had one protopresbyter - John Meyendorff (1926-1992), who served in the Orthodox Church in America (New York, the Church of Christ the Savior).

Facts from biography

In the post-revolutionary period, in 1920, the entire family Rodzianko because of his grandfather was sentenced to death, so soon they were forced to leave Russia and settle in the future Yugoslavia (1929).

For Vladimir, these were terrible years, but in childhood memory captured one very important event for him - a visit to the temple in Anapa. He also recalled that at the age of six he was assigned a tutor, a former white officer, who believed that his grandfather betrayed Tsar Nicholas II. This bitter and vindictive tutor turned into a strict overseer. He mocked the child as best he could, as a result, the boy lost all interest in life.

Study

Having grown up a little, Vladimir graduated from the Russian-Serbian grammar school in Belgrade (1933), and in the same year he went to study at the Theological Faculty at the University of Belgrade. By the will of fate, his patron became Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). Acquaintance in 1926 with hieromonk John (Maksimovich) had a great spiritual impact on him.

Then he graduated from Belgrade University with a degree of candidate of theology (1937). After he married Maria Vasilievna Kolyubaeva, the daughter of a priest who also fled the USSR.

He continued his studies at the University of London, where he started writing a dissertation. Upon graduation, in 1939, he was invited to Oxford to give lectures on Russian theology. But the war began, and Vladimir was forced to return to Yugoslavia, where he began teaching the Law of God at the Novi Sad school.

San

In the first priesthood rank, the deacon Rodzianko was consecrated in 1940 by Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky) - First Hierarch of the ROCA. A year later in Belgrade the priest was ordained by the Patriarch of Serbia of Gabriel, and then he began to serve in the Serbian parish at the school in Novi Sad. Then he was a priest in the village Voevodino (Serbia), served as secretary of the Red Cross.

But with the beginning of the Second World War, Orthodox Christians were subjected to terrible repression. Vladyka Vasily Rodzianko participated in the Serbian resistance and helped liberate the Serbs from the concentration camps. He even adopted a Ukrainian orphan.

When communists came to power in Yugoslavia after the war, Russian emigrants again rushed to wherever, but the bulk wanted to return to their homeland, to Russia.

Arrest

In 1945, Father Vasily Rodzianko wrote a letter to Patriarch Alexy I, in which he announced his desire to serve in Russia. But his return did not take place. Because it was at this time that relations between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union deteriorated very much, and Russian emigrants were repressed. In 1949 Rodzyanko Vasily was sentenced to 8 years in prison for "illegal religious agitation" (he was accused of witnessing the miraculous updates of icons in the temple).

In 1951, he was released ahead of schedule, and together with his family he moved to Paris, where his parents lived, who left Yugoslavia in 1946.

Vasily Rodzianko: talks and sermons

By 1953, he moved to London and became the second priest in the cathedral of Sawa Serbian, which was under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Then Rodzianko was waiting for work in the BBC broadcasting corporation. Since 1955, at his suggestion, religious radio broadcasting was opened in the USSR and in Eastern Europe.

Rodzianko Vasily spoke at various radio stations with sermons and conversations, taught at the University of Oxford and in Paris - at the St. Sergius Theological Institute.

In the very beginning of spring of 1978 his wife died, his grandson Igor died in a car accident. A year later he left the BBC radio station and took monastic vows with the name of Vasily (in honor of Basil the Great), it happened under the leadership of Metropolitan Surozhsky in London. He wanted to carry the monastic feat in secret and was already going to go to Athos, but he was offered to become a vicar of the head of the Orthodox Church in America.

America

In January 1980, in Washington in St. Nicholas Cathedral, where Rodzianko Vasily began to serve, he was ordained a bishop.

In 1984, he was fired for his old age. He lived in Washington, became an honorary abbot of St. Nicholas Cathedral. He worked as a director of the Arkhangelsk Broadcasting Center, who was in his small apartment, and also taught in the theological seminaries and conducted programs on the waves of radio stations "Radio Vatican", "Voice of America" and others.

In Washington, until the very last day, Rodzianko was a true confessor of a large number of Orthodox emigrants, even conducted seminars with Protestants who studied the history of the Eastern Christian churches, resulting in many of his listeners, he led to Orthodoxy.

Vasily Rodzianko: books

Only in 1981, when he was a bishop, Rodzianko finally came to the USSR, where he personally met his brother-in-law with radio-sermons. Then a few times came home Father Vasily Rodzianko. Conversations he led deep and lively, very interested in what was happening in Russian society and the Church.

It was a very kind and sympathetic person, a bit eccentric and humble, people loved him, because he felt special dignity and holiness.

Since 1992, he became an honorary rector of the Moscow church of the Small Ascension, located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya street.

About six months, lived in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Father Vasily Rodzianko. "Disintegration of the universe," or rather, "Theory of the Decay of the Universe and Faith in the Fathers" - a famous work written by him in 1996.

In 1998 Rodzianko suddenly pronounces the main preaching for himself (the service was held in Feodorovsky Cathedral of Tsarskoe Selo). He went out to his flock and said that his grandfather, Mikhail Vladimirovich, always wanted only good for Russia, but he, like every infirm person, was also prone to make mistakes. His fatal mistake was that he sent his parliamentarians with a request to abdicate to Tsar Nicholas II. And he unexpectedly for all denied, signing the document for himself and for his son. Grandfather Rodzianko, upon learning of this, then wept bitterly and realized that Russia was now over. In the Yekaterinburg tragedy, he was just an involuntary culprit. However, involuntary sin is still a sin. At the end of the sermon, Bishop Basil Rodzianko asked for forgiveness for himself and his grandfather in front of the whole of Russia and the royal family. And by the power given him from God, he forgave and allowed his grandfather from involuntary sin.

Death

It was very difficult and difficult for Rodzyanko to bombard Yugoslavia with NATO forces. When asked how he felt about this, he replied that as if they were bombing Russia. After these events, Vasily strongly surrendered and got down.

Two weeks before his death, during one of the conversations, he said that it was hard for him, he did not hold his feet at all, he had to serve the liturgy, and when he could not sit, the deacons supported him, and by the grace of God he even communicated.

The cause of death of the lord was heart failure. He rested on September 17, 1999 in Washington. On September 23 a funeral took place. The three bishops sang in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington. To say goodbye to this amazing man came a large number of people from the clergy and prayers. He was buried in Washington in the cemetery of Rock Creek, on a site for Orthodox believers. Thus ended his long and righteous path, Father Vasily Rodzianko.

Heritage

Today a great gift for believers was the film "My Destiny", based on the book of Vladyka, in which Bishop Vasily told a lot about his fate and life.

He is also the head of the remarkable book "The Unholy Saints," written by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, whom he knew personally. There he describes one unique case when, somewhere in the late 80's, they traveled to the summer camp organized by the Kostroma diocese of the Soviet-American youth camp. At the crossroads of country roads, they saw a terrible accident and stopped. In the middle of the road near the inverted motorcycle lay the dead driver, and on the roadside stood a truck. Near the dead was his son. Vladyka approached him and asked if his father was a baptized or a believer, he replied that his father did not go to church, but he often listened to programs with sermons from London, and said that the only person to whom he had always believed was Rodzianko . Father Vasily said that Rodzianko is him. The son was just shocked, like all the other witnesses to the accident. Meanwhile, Father Basil began to read the departed prayer and performed a requiem for the deceased.

In his legacy, he left a lot of sermons useful for saving the soul, and the life memories and spiritual experience Bishop Basil concluded in the collections of "Salvation with Love" and "My Destiny."