Pimen, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (Izvekov Sergey Mikhailovich)

Patriarch Pimen Izvekov was the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church for a long nineteen years: from June 3, 1971 to May 3, 1990. Despite the fact that since the death of this famous hierarch the ROC has passed a quarter of a century, and to this day, some pages of his biography remain unknown to the public and cause increased interest among Orthodox believers.

Family of the future patriarch

The parents of the future patriarch were Mikhail Karpovich Izvekov and Pelageya Afanasyevna Izvekova, in the girlhood of Ivanov. His father was born in the village of Kobylino, located near Kaluga, in 1867, and spent most of his life as a mechanic at the A. Morozov factory in the village of Glukhovo. As for the mother of Sergei Izvekov, this name was borne by the future patriarch Pimen, she, being a deeply religious woman, often made pilgrimages to Russian Orthodox monasteries. The boy Seryozha was the last of 6 children in the family, and at the time of his birth only his elder sister Maria remained alive, and her parents were about 40 years old.

Childhood

Sergei Mikhailovich Izvekov was born in 1910 in Kobylino. The child was baptized in the church of the neighboring village of Glukhovo, which is sometimes mistakenly considered the patriarch's small birthplace, and his sister became his godmother. As a child, children together with their mother often made pilgrimages to holy places, during which they met with famous elders of that time. After becoming a teenager, Sergei began to travel alone or with his comrades. As indicated in his official biography, when the future Patriarch of All Russia Pimen came to the famous Holy Diveevo women's monastery on a pilgrimage, the blessed Maria lived there called the young man a lord and demanded that his shoes be put to dry separately.

Education

Sergei Izvekov received a secondary education in the Belgorod school named after. Korolenko. At the same time, he was considered one of the most diligent students, and at the age of 13 he was invited to sing in the choir of the Bogoliivensky Cathedral in Belgorod, where Alexander Vorontsov was engaged with him. His success in the singing and regency of art led to the fact that very soon the young man began to lead the choir and perform sub-diaconal duties. At the same time, he beautifully painted and wrote poetry on religious and secular topics.

Patriarch Pimen: biography after taking tonsure

At the time of graduation Sergei Izvekov had a firm intention to become a monk. To this end, in 1925 he arrived in the capital, took tonsure in the riasofore, received the name of Plato. At the same time the young man settled in the Sretensky Monastery, where, however, remained very short. Two years later, in the Desert of the Holy Spirit Paraklita, owned by the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, he was tonsured as a monk under the name Pimen, and in 1930 ordained a hierodeacon.

Participation in the Second World War

In the Soviet period, the monks were summoned for service on a general basis. Pimen did not become an exception. The patriarch served in the Red Army from 1932 to 1934. Thus, when he was called into the ranks of the active army in 1941, he already had some military training. Senior lieutenant Izvekov participated in the fighting and was repeatedly injured. When in 1943 he was sent to the hospital after a concussion, the command of the unit mistakenly considered him missing. After the termination of treatment Izvekov did not return to the front, as he learned about the decree releasing the clergy from the draft. However, he was arrested as a supposedly concealed priest, and in January 1945 he was sentenced to imprisonment in a forced labor camp for 10 years.

The condemned priest was taken to the Vorkuto-Pechora camp, located beyond the Arctic Circle. It was very useful specialty, which had Pimen. The Patriarch during the years of military service received the qualification of a medical officer, and the authorities appointed him a medical orderly. Fortunately, the imprisonment did not last long, and Sergei Izvekov was released under an amnesty for veterans of the war in September 1945. By this time, his health was thoroughly undermined, and upon his return to the capital, he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis. Thus, until the end of the winter of 1946, Hieromonk Pimen was on inpatient treatment.

Biography after 1946

After recovery, in March 1946, Patriarch Pimen, whose biography has not yet been fully investigated, was appointed to the clergy of the Murom Blagoveshchensky Cathedral, and a year later he was elevated to the rank of hegumen. The memories of people from his closest circle have been preserved, which testify to the anguish he experienced when he was performing services, because he was forced to wear a corset because of a sick spine.

In 1954, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to proclaim Pimen as Bishop of Baltia. Later, he also held important posts, including in the Moscow Patriarchate.

Biography after the election as the head of the ROC

At the time of the death of Patriarch Alexis the First Metropolitan Pimen was the oldest consecration of the permanent members of the Synod. Therefore, according to the acting canons, it was he who took office as Locum Tenens of the Patriarch's Throne. Since in 1970 the 100th anniversary of the "Leader of the World Proletariat" was celebrated, the Soviet authorities banned the holding of a local council in Moscow. In this regard, Pimen Patriarch of Moscow took this post only on May 30, 1971.

His ministry as the primate of the RIC coincided with a difficult period in the life of the Church, as the Soviet state sought to strictly control the activities of religious organizations. In this regard, the priests were required to exercise great caution, as did Pimen. The Patriarch understood that this is the only way to avoid persecution. In particular, he left the "Great Letter" of A. Solzhenitsyn unanswered, as he believed that the church should not interfere in the issues of the country's public life. However, in cases directly concerned with the RIC, he firmly expressed his position.

Over time, he managed to strengthen the authority of the church. For example, the first of the Moscow Patriarchs to deliver a speech to the United Nations in 1982 was Pimen. The Patriarch managed to take part in the most important event in the life of the RIC - celebrations on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus.

Such, rather difficult, was the mundane life of the leader.

Patriarch Pimen: funeral

In the last years of his life Sergei Mikhailovich Izvekov was seriously ill. His death overtook him on May 3, 1990 in the Moscow residence. Pimen Patriarch of Moscow was buried three days later next to the grave of his predecessor Alexy the First, in the crypt of the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, beloved by him. The farewell ceremony was not so solemn as in the case of the wires in the last path of Alexy II in 2008, but also differed from the burial of the ROC's priests who left this world before him during the years of Soviet power.

In 2010, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, a monument to Patriarch Pimen in Noginsk was erected. Sculptor sculpture is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia Innokenty Valeryevich Komochkin. For the production of the monument whole granite slabs and bronze are used.