Sermons of Archimandrite Alipiy (Voronov). Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov) - warrior, monk, shepherd

(1914-1975)
Abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery (1959-1975)

On March 15, 1975, thousands of people from Pskov, Leningrad, Tallinn, Moscow and other cities of Russia came to the Pskov-Caves Monastery to say goodbye to Archimandrite Alipy (Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov). Earth life ended, eternity began.

Many years ago, in 1927, 13-year-old Vanya Voronov came to Moscow from Torchikha near Moscow. He came to conquer this city in a terrible hard times, "a time of great accomplishments". His father and elder brother lived in Moscow. Here Ivan completed a nine-year plan, worked as a drifter on the construction of the first stage of the Moscow metro, graduated from an art studio, and served in the army. In 1934, he received an apartment on the outskirts of old Moscow, on Malaya Maryinskaya Street (now Godovikov Street). The house where Ivan Voronov lived in Moscow has not been preserved. New buildings of the seventies forever changed the appearance of one of the streets near Maryina Roshcha. In the surviving old photographs, you can see how Ivan Voronov in a hat and muffler plays the heroes of "Eugene Onegin" on the Moscow amateur stage. Changed a lot for last years and Torchikha. Now it can only be reached on foot. The house where the Voronovs lived has not been preserved. Now in its place is a transformer box. But then everything was different.

Vladimir Gerodnik relates the story of Father Alipiy: “After graduating from high school, I moved to Moscow, where I worked on the construction of the metro and at the same time studied at an art studio. My mother, Alexandra, was often sick and I often came to Torchikha. One day, something bad happened on the train. I squeezed my way into the crowded carriage with difficulty and helped the old woman to free the sack jammed in the door. But right next to him, the fingers of his right hand were caught in the door, went limp and bled. Home had to go along the banks of the river Severka. I crossed myself with my left hand, lowered my right hand into clear water and said: “Most Holy Theotokos, suffering for the sake of Your Son, heal me!” My heart felt lighter. Imagine my surprise when at home the fingers were able to move freely. Indeed, God kept Ivan Mikhailovich all his life, and even in the most terrible years.

Before the Great Patriotic War, Voronov worked at the Moscow plant No. 58 named after. K. Voroshilov (now OAO "Impulse" on Prospekt Mira). In 1941, when the plant management wanted to use cars for personal evacuation to the Urals, he did not allow this as a dispatcher, exposing the need to use cars to send bombs to the front.

In 1942, Ivan Mikhailovich went to the active army. "The whole long journey from Moscow to Berlin - in one hand a rifle, in the other - a sketchbook." Being already an archimandrite, he said: “In the war, some were afraid of starvation, they took bags of crackers with them on their backs in order to prolong their lives, and not fight the enemy; and these people perished with their biscuits and did not see for many days. And those who took off their tunics and fought the enemy, they remained alive. Then he added: “The war was so terrible that I gave my word to God that if I survive this terrible battle, then I will definitely go to the monastery.”

God kept Ivan Voronov, despite the fact that death was always nearby. What is the terrible episode when, in front of Ivan Mikhailovich, who was riding in a "jeep" with General Lelyushenko, a car with General of the Army Vatutin blew up?! He went through the entire war as part of the 4th Guards Tank Army as an ordinary shooter, received shell shock. But even in the terrible years of the war, his education came in handy. They created an artistic history tank army. Front-line works already in 1943 were exhibited in several museums of the USSR. The description says that Ivan Voronov received many awards and thanks from the command, including the Order of the Red Star and the medal "For Courage". I met the victory in Berlin. In 1946, in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions, a personal exhibition of his front-line works was organized. After the war, Ivan Mikhailovich worked in Moscow as "an artist working under an agreement with organizations." Unfortunately, more detailed information about this stage in the life of Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov could not be found.

In 1950, Ivan Mikhailovich went to study in Zagorsk and "subdued and fascinated by these places, he decided to devote himself forever to serving the Trinity-Sergius Lavra." He immediately applied all his skills and knowledge to the restoration of ancient shrines - the wall painting of the Trinity and Assumption Cathedrals, the Refectory Church, the Patriarchal Residence in the village of Lukino (near Peredelkino station). During his monastic vows, Ivan Mikhailovich was named Alipiy (Careless) in honor of the venerable icon painter of the Kiev Caves. Fate has fully confirmed this historical parallel. Higher art education was again in demand.

In 1959, thanks to the skillful "diplomatic game" of Patriarch Alexy (Simansky), hegumen Alipy was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, and in 1960 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. On the shoulders of Archimandrite Alipiy fell the hardest task - not only to restore the shrines and antiquities of the Pskov-Caves monastery, but also to protect the monastery from closure, from the unleashed slanderous campaign in the press. If you look only at the headlines of the central and local publications of that time, it becomes uncomfortable: “The Pskov-Caves Monastery is a hotbed of religious obscurantism”, “Hallelujah” crouching”, “Freeloaders in cassocks”, “Hypocrites in cassocks”, “Devonian outcrops ". It was very difficult to resist this slanderous wave, it was even more difficult to survive, to save the monastery. In his reports addressed to Vladyka John, Archimandrite Alipiy emphasized: good people, insults to the mothers and widows of fallen soldiers - this is their "ideological struggle" - the expulsion of hundreds and thousands of priests and clerics, and the best ones. How many of them come to us with tears that they cannot get at least a worldly job anywhere, their wives and children do not have anything to live on.

They suffer because they were born Russian Christians.

It is impossible to describe all the vile methods of the "ideologists" who are fighting against the Russian Church. One thing can only be said: "Every earthly being is rushing about in vain."

Speaking about the methods of dealing with the monastery, Archimandrite Alipiy gives a very revealing example:

"On Tuesday May 14 this<196З>In 1995, the steward hegumen Irenaeus organized, as in all previous years of monastic life, watering and spraying the monastery garden with water, which we collect thanks to the dam we made near the gazebo behind the fortress wall in a moat from melting snow and spring rains. When our people were working, six men approached them, then two more; one of them was holding a measure with which they divided the former monastery garden soil, one of them began to swear at the workers and forbid pumping water. He said that this water is not yours, and therefore ordered to stop pumping. Our people tried to continue working, but he ran up to them, grabbed a hose and began to pull it out, another with a camera began to photograph our people. The pump stopped working, probably sand got in there, because the puddle is very shallow and dirty. Moreover, the most active of them swore at the monks and people who help us, and called the worker Kunus a corrupt monastic henchman.

When I arrived there, the steward told these unknown people that the Viceroy had come, go and explain to him. One of them approached, it turns out, the same, as our people say, the instigator. I asked what they want? The rest stood at a distance, photographing us; there are three of them left.

"Who you are?" - I asked again, and on whose behalf you are acting. They began to babble, naming District Committees, Regional Committees, and so on.

"Are you a communist?" I asked. He replied: "Yes." I objected to him that it could not be that a person who thinks and argues in such a way and acts in such a way is in the Soviet Party. Illogical, rude, and so not soundly reasoning people cannot be in the party. If you consider yourself an employee of the City Committee, an honest and decent communist, as well as your comrades in hats, then you should, having seen the disorder on our part, immediately give me a written decree not to do this and that, and I would immediately accepted for execution, and you let's roll the car into the mud and scold the monks and working people who came to rest, showing your lack of sound reasoning and your unbridledness, threatening to bring to justice because we breathed out your air and drank your dirty water.

Leaving sideways from us, the man in the hat began to tease me: “Oh ... father!!” I replied that I am a father for those people over there, and for you I am Russian Ivan, who still has the power to crush bedbugs, fleas, fascists and all kinds of evil spirits in general.

Father Alipiy was always tough, but fair. And when they told him: “Father, they can put you in jail,” he answered: “They won’t put me in jail, I will put them in jail myself. There is no fault on me."

In a letter to the Kirov People's Court in Ufa, Archimandrite Alipiy wrote: “We are Christians, we are deprived of civil rights, and the enemies of the church use this and abuse it to their own death. We believe that Truth will win, because God is with us.”

The truth has won... Let years have to pass for this. The Pskov-Pechersk monastery is a remarkable monument to Archimandrite Alipiy. A lot of effort and money was invested in the revival of the fortress walls and towers, which were practically built anew; on the gilding of the large dome of St. Michael's Cathedral, which for a long time was simply covered with roofing iron; to organize an icon-painting workshop in the tower above the Holy Gates. In 1968, thanks to the efforts of Father Alipiya, an all-Union readers' search for the treasures of the sacristy of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, taken out by the Nazi invaders in 1944, was announced. Five years later, the treasures were found. In 1973, representatives of the Consulate of Germany in Leningrad handed over the stolen priceless treasures of the sacristy to their rightful owner. Icons painted or restored by Archimandrite Alipiy adorn the churches of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the Pskov-Caves Monastery, the Trinity Cathedral in Pskov.

Over the years, Father Alipiy has collected a wonderful collection of works of Russian and Western European painting. Now the masterpieces of this collection adorn the Russian Museum, the Pskov Museum-Reserve, the Museum of Local Lore in Pechory. "Leave everything to the people!" - this is the testament of a true collector and connoisseur of antiquity. Archimandrite Alipiy could rightly be called the "Pskov Tretyakov". Unfortunately, he was not able to attend the opening of the exhibition “Russian Painting and Graphics of the 18th-20th Centuries from the Collection of I.M. Voronov”, which opened in the Russian Museum a few months after his death in 1975.

The ascetic life of Father Alipiy was awarded a blessed end. Abbot Agafangel (who, unfortunately, is also deceased) said about this in his tombstone: “2 hours and 30 minutes before his death, Father Alypiy exclaimed that the Mother of God had come to him: “Oh, what a wonderful face She has! Hurry to draw this Divine image!” “And no one else heard a single word from his lips.”

Andrey Ponomarev

A. Ponomarev. Archimandrite Alipiy / Andrey Ponomarev // Pskov land. History in faces. "These people are winged ...". - M., 2007. - S.399 - 403.

Archimandrite Alipy. Human. Artist. Warrior. Hegumen. / Compiled by Savva Yamshchikov with the participation of Vladimir Studenikin. - M., 2004. - 486 p.

In the book of memoirs about Archimandrite Alipiy there are pages of memory of those whom he helped to embark on the bright path of serving God and people. Priests, artists, writers, and most importantly, people who are in love with the hegumen of the Pskov-Caves monastery talk about the priest.

The publication contains many photographs taken in different years by Mikhail Semenov, Boris Skobeltsyn, as well as photos from the archives of Vladimir Studenikin and Savva Yamshchikov.

On March 12, 1975, Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov), the abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, reposed in the Lord, through whose labors and courage the monastery was not only saved from closure, but also adorned with the color of eldership, not to mention the remarkable external splendor.

Father Alipiy was distinguished by special determination and fortitude. Once he burned a paper about the closure of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in front of the envoys, turned to them and said: " I'd rather be martyred, but I won't close the monastery ". When they came to take away the keys to the caves, he commanded his layman: " Father Cornelius, bring the ax here, we'll chop heads! "Those who came turned to flee.

For such determination and courage, as well as for the great work on the improvement of the monastery in those difficult years for the entire Church, Archimandrite Alipiy received the nickname Great Viceroy...

The famous restorer Savva Yamshchikov says:

"Father Alipiy and I are standing on the balcony, talking about icons. A car drives up: "We are from the financial inspection, with a check." The pastor elaborates:
- Who sent you?
- Like who? Regional Executive Committee.
- The fact is that I do not obey the regional executive committee. Metropolitan only.
- Okay, we'll call.
- No, you can't sew a call to the case. Bring me paper. It's not far, fifty kilometers there, and the same amount back. It's still early, you'll have time.
The financial inspectors left. After a while, the metropolitan calls:
- Alipiy, why don't you let me in?
I can't without your permission.
- Well, let me go, I order you.
- Lord, phone conversation you won't get to the point. You give me a telegram, please, telegram. Your secretary will beat off, and in three minutes she will be here. My postman is fast.
Indeed, in half an hour the secretary brings a telegram. Here the financial inspection drives up, they quickly turned around. Archimandrite Alipy comes out to them with a telegram.
- Oh, they've arrived. So how is it?
- Well, how! Here is your telegram.
- I am now sending my contact on our car to the first secretary of the regional committee, Ivan Stepanovich Gustov. What are you? You represent the regional executive committee, and you have a document from the one you are fighting with, from the lord. You are atheists! How can I let you inspect the monastery with such a document? Go, and I'll call Ivan Stepanovich.
When the checkers left with nothing, I asked if Ivan Stepanovich was really going to call. Shrugged. Why say distract. They won't come again...
And so every day. Once he told me: “Sava, if they later paint my hagiographic icon, then it should consist of 25 hallmarks. According to the number of lawsuits that I won from the Soviet authorities. They drag me for one thing, then for another. But I am all the courts brilliantly won. "

***

Archimandrite Alipiy (in the world Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov) was born in 1914 into a poor peasant family in the village of Tarchikha near Moscow. In 1927 he moved to Moscow, where he graduated in 1931 high school, but often returned to the village, helping his sick mother. Since 1933, he worked as a worker on the construction of the metro and at the same time studied at the art studio at the Moscow Union of Artists.

Then, after serving since 1935 in the army, in 1941 he graduated from the art studio at the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.

From 1942 to 1945 he was in the active army, had a number of awards.

After the war he was accepted into the Union of Moscow Artists.

These dry facts of life help to fully understand characteristics the personality of the future Archimandrite Alipy the builder and restorer of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, a worthy successor to those builders whom we know from the history of the monastery.

Most recently, one of the Pskov-Pechersky sheets spoke about preparations for closing during the Khrushchev persecution of the Church of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Confessingly openly opposed this at the suggestion to sign the decree, the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Alipiy. In front of the taken aback representative of the atheistic authorities, he took the decree in his hands and threw it into a blazing fireplace... And the monastery was not closed!

Truly a man of strength and reason, an integral, self-sacrificing personality was Archimandrite Alipiy in all manifestations of his Christian ministry. A vivid assessment of his character are his own words: " The one who goes on the offensive wins. Defending is not enough, you need to go on the offensive ".

Exactly one week separates the day of memory of the death of Archimandrite Alipiy - February 27 (dates according to church calendar) - from the day of memory of the most prominent steward of the Pskov-Caves Monastery - Abbot Kornily. Archimandrite Alipy was a worthy follower of the Monk Cornelius, he was also a builder, icon painter, an energetic, active, versatile person. Archimandrite Alipiy managed to restore the walls enclosing the monastery almost from ruins, carried out many other restoration and restoration works, paid attention to maintaining the icon-painting tradition of the monastery, he painted icons himself.

Let us dwell on some facts of the life of Archimandrite Alipiy. WITH young years Ivan Voronov had a deep faith and wanted to express it in the service of the Church. On February 27, 1950, he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice. On August 15 of the same year, he was tonsured a monk by the Lavra's abbot, Archimandrite John (later Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov), with the name Alipiy, in honor of the Monk Alipiy, the icon painter of the Caves. On September 12, 1950, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Patriarch Alexy, and on October 1, on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, he was ordained a hieromonk with the appointment of a sacristan of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1952 Father Alipiy was awarded a pectoral cross, and by the Easter holiday of 1953 he was elevated to the rank of hegumen. Along with the obedience of the sacristan, he was instructed to lead the artists and craftsmen who carried out restoration work in the Lavra. Then, until 1959, he took part in the restoration and decoration of a number of Moscow churches.

By decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy dated July 15 (July 28), 1959, hegumen Alipy was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery.

In 1961 hegumen Alipiy was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. In 1963 he was awarded the Patriarchal Letter for his diligent work on the restoration of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery. In 1965, on the patronal day of the monastery - the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God, he was awarded a second cross with decorations, later he was awarded the orders of the Holy Prince Vladimir III and II degree, and also awarded the Order of Christ the Savior and a cross II degree by His Beatitude Patriarch Theodosius VI of Antioch and All the East .

Father Alipy often preached, especially about Christian love, saying: " Christ who suffered on the Cross commanded us: "Love one another!" And therefore, in order to get rid of evil, only one thing is needed: to fulfill this last commandment of the Lord ".

Archimandrite Alipiy died on February 27 (March 12), 1975, having served the Lord in the monastic rank, exactly 25 years from the day he entered the Lavra as a novice. Early in the morning on Wednesday of Cheese Week, having asked forgiveness from everyone and forgiving everyone, he peacefully and quietly departed to the Lord.

From the Word spoken by Archimandrite Nathanael (Pospelov) on the 20th anniversary of the death of Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov):

In 1959, Father Alipy was appointed to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, who arrived in Pechory for the patronal feast in honor of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos. His pastoral zeal for the good of our Holy Monastery, his zeal for service, his talents immediately aroused for him a special love of the brethren of the monastery, the faithful of Pechersk, Pskov and pilgrims. Their zealous prayers and intercessions helped to overcome all difficulties in order to establish Fr. Alypiy as the abbot of our monastery.

The confessor of the monastery, Hieroschemamonk Simeon (Zhelnin), inspired him to the feat ahead: " Go ahead, nothing will happen to you! "

Father Alipiy had the gift of words: more than once one had to hear from pilgrims: " Let's wait another week, maybe we'll hear Father Alipiy's sermon ". In his teachings, he supported the discouraged, consoled the faint-hearted:

"Brothers and sisters, you have heard calls to intensify anti-religious propaganda, do not hang your head, do not lose heart, this means that they have become tight."
- "It's a terrible thing to join the crowd. Today she shouts: "Hosanna!" After 4 days:" Take, take, crucify Him! they will ask: “Why?” - Answer: “Because yours is not true.” - “Why?” - “Because my conscience tells me.” - “How to recognize Judas?” - “He who dips his hand in salt, he will betray me” ", - said the Savior at the Last Supper. A daring student who wants to catch up with the teacher, with the boss, take first place, be the first to take up the decanter. The elders have not had breakfast yet, but the baby is already licking his lips, he has already eaten. The future Judas is growing. At 12 - one Judas If the elders did not sit down at the table, and you do not sit down. The elders sat down, sit down in prayer, and you. The elders did not take a spoon, do not take it either. The elders took a spoon, then take it. The elders began to eat, then you begin too. ".

This is how Fr. Alipy. If at a prayer in the church at Fr. Alipius sighs and tears appeared, then sighs and tears were immediately heard among those praying with him. Such was his strength of mind.

Father Alipiy always helped the needy, distributed alms, many who asked received help from him. For this, Father Alipiy had to endure a lot. He defended himself with the words of the Holy Scriptures about the need to render works of mercy and argued that works of mercy cannot be forbidden, this is an integral part of the life of the Holy Orthodox Church. Whoever forbids works of mercy infringes on the Church of Christ, does not allow her to live her own life.

As an icon painter and restorer, he took care to restore the bronzed dark iconostasis of the Assumption Church, the interior painting of the Mikhailovsky Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church (restored the iconostasis of the table iconostasis, restored the icon of the Saint, expanded the temple at the expense of the tower, strengthened the walls, restored the stylish dome (stylish - from the word "style" - a set of features characteristic of the art of a certain time and direction (in this case, the Pskov school of architecture of the 15th-16th centuries).

The fortress wall-fence with combat towers and passages was restored, their coverings were restored. Six icons of the Mother of God in the Nikolskaya chapel were painted with his participation and guidance. On the feast of the Mother of God on July 8 and October 22, we put the icon of Kazan on the lectern, the cell icon of Father Alipy, painted by him.

He used his talents as a builder of the Moscow Metro in building a bridge across the Kamenets stream, opposite the Assumption Church.

Father Alipy has repeatedly criticized the lies about the Pskov-Caves Monastery and wrote an article about St. Cornelius in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate (1970, Nos. 2 and 3), so as not to distort history.

Father Alipiy defended believers before the mighty of the world of this, took care of their employment. He wrote that the only fault of these people is that they believe in God.

Father Alipy was affable and sociable, he received visitors with love, shared his talents, and gave wise answers.

When civilian visitors asked him how the monks lived, he drew their attention to the Divine Liturgy, which was performed in the Dormition Church. " Do you hear?" he asked. The visitors replied: " We hear". - "What do you hear?" - "The monks sing". - "Well, if the monks lived poorly, they would not sing ".

When the believers were carving flowerbeds in the monastery, the authorities asked: Who works for you and on what basis? "Father Alipiy replied:" It's the host nation toiling on their own land ". And there were no more questions.

He instructed the pastors of the church arriving at the monastery to diligently serve in his church.

"So, you, father, have left your church, and the demon will serve in your church ". - "How so?"- they objected to him. Father Alipiy answered in the gospel:" The devil will find an empty temple... "

During the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease, he explained that the service in the temples should not stop, since cows do not go to temples, and not a single institution stops its work on the occasion of foot-and-mouth disease.

When they were not allowed to visit the caves, father Alipiy blessed every morning, at 7 o'clock, to serve a memorial service in the caves, so that believers would have the opportunity to visit the caves and commemorate their relatives and friends, especially those who died in the Great Patriotic War. A decree was sent to stop serving memorial services in the caves. With the blessing of Father Alipiy, panikhidas continued to serve. Asking Father Alypiy whether he had received the decree, Father Alipiy replied that he had received it. " Why don't you do it? "- the question followed. Father Alipiy answered that this decree was written under pressure due to weakness of spirit," I don't listen to the weak in spirit, I only listen to the strong in spirit ". And the service of funeral services in the caves was not interrupted.

Father Alipiy never went on vacation. And even, as he himself wrote, he did not leave the monastery gates of his own free will, diligently diligently applied himself to the fulfillment of monastic vows. And he answered the accusers that if worldly evil spirits flow from the world into the monastery on a clean monastery courtyard, then this is no longer our fault.

At the beginning of 1975, Alipiy's father had a third heart attack. He had the memory of death in advance. In advance, a coffin was made for him with his blessing and stood in his corridor. And when asked: Where is your cell?"- he pointed to the coffin and said:" Here is my cell". IN last days of his life, hieromonk father Theodorit was with him, he daily communed father Alipy and, like a paramedic, provided medical care. On March 12, 1975, at 2 o'clock in the morning Father Alipiy said: " The Mother of God came, how beautiful She is, let's paint, we will draw "The paints were applied, but his hands could no longer act, how many heavy shells he dragged with these hands to the front line in the Great Patriotic War. At 4 o'clock in the morning, Archimandrite Alipiy died quietly and peacefully.

Metropolitan John served the funeral service with a congregation of monastic and visiting clergy. The loss was deeply felt even by civilian leaders. People did not rejoice at the merriment of the Shrovetide week, which was followed by the death of Father Alipiy.

Until his death, he taught the blessing for every monastic service and work and did not leave his obedience.

Give rest, O Lord, to the soul of Your ever-remembered servant, Archimandrite Alipiy, in Your Heavenly Villages, and have mercy on us, the unworthy ones, according to Your great mercy!

Awards

Church

Pectoral Cross (October 25, 1951)
pectoral cross with decorations (October 8, 1953)
patriarchal charter (February 21, 1954, for work in Lukino)
gratitude (February 11, 1955, for a valuable gift to the church and archaeological office - the icon of St. Nicholas of the end of the 16th century).
patriarchal charter (March 23, 1963)
Order of Christ the Savior and Cross II degree (July 11, 1963, awarded by Patriarch Theodosius of Antioch)
Order of Saint Prince Vladimir III degree(November 26, 1963)
the right to serve the Liturgy with the Holy Doors open until the sacramental verse (1966).
Order of the Holy Prince Vladimir II degree (August 27, 1973)
pectoral cross with decorations (September 9, 1973)

Secular

Awarded for good performance in the amount of 100 rubles (November 4, 1940, Plant 58).
medal "For Military Merit" (October 15, 1944)
badge "Guard" (April 15, 1945)
Order of the Red Star (July 8, 1945)
medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War" (July 10, 1946)
medal "For the capture of Berlin" (January 8, 1947)
Medal "For the Liberation of Prague" (February 10, 1947)
medal "In memory of the 850th anniversary of Moscow" (September 17, 1948)
Jubilee Medal "20 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War" (December 1, 1966)
Jubilee medal "50 years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (November 28, 1969)
anniversary medal "25 years of victory in the Great Patriotic War" (1970)
memorial sign "People's militia of Leningrad" (November 30, 1971)
badge "Veteran of the 4th Guards Tank Army" (1972)

In the book of Sergei Vladimirovich Alekseev "Icon Painters of Holy Rus'" there is a chapter dedicated to the first Russian icon painter. In particular, it says the following: “In the Near Caves of the ancient Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the relics of the Monk Alypiy, who is rightfully considered the founder of all Russian icon painters, are buried. And although not a single icon has come down to the present, about which it can be said with complete certainty that it belongs to the brush of the saint, the life and ministry of the saint are a model for all subsequent generations of iconographers. In the 20th century, Rev. Alipiy became the heavenly patron of the artist Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov, who on August 28, 1950 took the tonsure with the name of the famous icon painter of the Kiev Caves. After 9 years, Father Alipy will become the abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, and until 1975 he will protect the monastery from closing. This is what the book we bring to your attention today is about. It is called - "Defender of the holy monastery."

The abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, Archimandrite Alipiy, is known as a great ascetic, icon painter, artist, builder of the monastery and restorer who restored the monastery from the ruins. He was called the Great Viceroy, and he himself called himself a "Soviet archimandrite." From 1959 to 1975, he headed the holy Pskov-Caves monastery and defended it from the authorities. Stories about how this happened, and made up this book. In addition, the author-compiler of the book tells briefly and amazing biography fathers. And in the preface, the editor cites his own short story related to the monastery and Archimandrite Alipiy. Here is what he writes:

“Part of my life was intimately connected with the Pskov-Caves Monastery. I came here as a child Soviet time on an excursion, when he did not have a grain of knowledge either about the Savior or about the Holy Church. All my knowledge revolved around my grandmother's fussy worries about painting eggs and baking Easter cake on a certain day of the year and the stories of adults during the celebration of the New Year about some kind of Christmas, which, in general, as it seemed to me then, was one and the same. Perhaps that's all. But over time, more and more involuntarily, I acquired invisible connections with this holy abode of ascetics and spiritual elders. As if climbing up the stairs from the dark basement to the bright exit, I gradually began to get to know this place step by step.

Meetings with "exotic" monks at that time, heated discussions with them, the first conclusions. And here I am, a second-year student, not yet baptized and terribly proud, I am going here for the first time to “live”. And these three days of life in a common room for all workers will open to me new world. And the soul desires to be baptized. Here, for the first time, I heard this strange and somewhat flowery name - Alipiy. Over time, my knowledge of this mysterious man expanded. Small articles, memoirs of contemporaries more and more revealed this person for me. Perhaps there was something in it from my grandfather, an old front-line soldier, who himself once liberated these places from the Nazis. This direct, cunning and courageous mind of the priest, great loving heart, responsibility for people and the task assigned to me very much reminded me and my old man.

And although my grandfather was a simple communist, but, you know, it was a person's honest faith in something bright. Having gone through six years of the war and three years of post-war service, having suffered from the repressions of the Stalinist regime, he still remained an honest communist. How can one not remember Father Alipiy, who called himself a "Soviet" archimandrite. And one more small detail: they were both born in 1914. And what a pity that my grandfather did not have time to discover God in himself, did not have time to enter the bosom of the Church. But there is a deep confidence in me that the soldier Archimandrite Alipiy is praying now in the world of the Horn for all such simple and honest warriors who have gone through the hardest trials of the twentieth century and the hardships of war, but who have remained people.

Why the author calls Father Alipiy a soldier can be found in the biography. As the book says, “Ivan Voronov was called to the front on February 21, 1942. With him in a thing-bag, he put a sketchbook with paints. IN free time between battles did not interrupt his painting. There are memories where the archimandrite told me that moving along the front line, he managed to restore icons from local residents and fed a whole sub-division with the products that he was given for Good work. During the year, Ivan Voronov created several sketches and paintings, several albums of “combat episodes”. And already in 1943, the first front-line works of the master were exhibited in several museums of the USSR.

Ivan Voronov traveled from Moscow to Berlin as part of the Fourth Tank Army. He took part in many military operations on the Central, Western, Bryansk and First Ukrainian fronts. God kept the future archimandrite, he did not receive a single wound or concussion. For participation in the battles, Voronov was awarded the medals "For Courage", "For Military Merit", "For the Victory over Germany", "For the Capture of Berlin", "For the Liberation of Prague", the Order of the Red Star and the badge "Guard". In total, the artist-soldier received 76 combat awards and promotions. The war left an indelible mark on the soul of Ivan Voronov: “The war was so terrible that I gave my word to God that if I survive this terrible battle, I will definitely go to the monastery.” Having become a monk Alipiy, archimandrite of the Pskov-Caves monastery, in his sermons he repeatedly turned to military topics, often recalled the war.

Ivan Mikhailovich returned from the war as a famous artist. But the career of a secular painter did not attract him. Here are his memoirs: “In 1948, while working in the open air at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, I was captivated by the beauty and originality of this place, first as an artist, and then as a resident of the Lavra, and decided to devote myself to serving the Lavra forever.” For admission to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra own mother blessed with the icon of the Mother of God "Assuage my sorrows", saying: "Mother of God, let him be carefree." And he saw the blessing of his own mother as effective. Named at the time of tonsure by the name of the famous icon painter, Father Alipiy looked at the Calendar and read the translation of his new name: "sorrowless." Therefore, when representatives of the authorities tried to frighten him on the phone, he answered: “Please note, I am Alipiy, carefree.” And as his heavenly patron, Father Alipiy was also an icon painter.

Thanks to Father Alipiy, his bold and strong word, the Pskov-Caves monastery became the only Russian monastery that has never been closed. Many memories remain of that confrontation between the godless state apparatus and the true defender of the holy monastery, the native Pskov-Caves Monastery. Thanks to the records of parishioners, the stories of monks and people close to the father, we can today plunge into that gloomy atmosphere of persecution and show how Father Alipiy repelled the attacks of the authorities. Here, for example, is what Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) recalls: “The Lord does not love the fearful. This spiritual law was somehow revealed to me by Father Raphael. And he, in turn, was told about him by Father Alipiy. In one of his sermons, he said: “I had to be an eyewitness to how, in the war, some, fearing starvation, took sacks of crackers on their backs in order to prolong their lives, and not fight the enemy; and these people perished with their biscuits and did not see for many days. And those who took off their tunics and fought the enemy remained alive.

Once, when they once again came to demand the closure of the monastery, Father Alipiy announced bluntly: “Half of my brethren are front-line soldiers. We are armed, we will fight to the last bullet. Look at the monastery - what is the location here. The tanks won't pass. You can take us only from the sky, aviation. But as soon as the first plane appears over the monastery, in a few minutes it will be told to the whole world on Voice of America. So think for yourself!” I cannot say, - says Vladyka Tikhon, - what arsenals were kept in the monastery. Most likely, it was a military trick of the Great Viceroy, his next formidable joke. But, as they say, in every joke there is a share of a joke. In those years, the brethren of the monastery undoubtedly represented a special sight - more than half of the monks were order bearers and veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The other part - and also a considerable one - went through the Stalinist camps. Still others have experienced both." Read about how this courageous brethren, led by their governor, defended the monastery on the pages of this short book.

At the end of the program, I would like to note that after all, the main thing in the life of Father Alipiy, in his own words, was love. It was she who was his invincible and incomprehensible weapon for the world. “Love,” said the Great Viceroy, “is the highest prayer. If prayer is the queen of virtues, then Christian love is God, for God is Love... Look at the world only through the prism of love, and all your problems will go away: you will see the Kingdom of God within yourself, an icon in a person, in earthly beauty — shadow of heavenly life. You will object that it is impossible to love enemies. Remember what Jesus Christ said to us: "All that you have done to men, you have done to me." Write these words in golden letters on the tablets of your hearts, write them down and hang them next to the icon and read them every day.” With these words of Archimandrite Alipiy (Voronov) we will complete our program.

A Rhimandrite Alipiy (in the world Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov) was born in 1914 into the family of a poor peasant in the village of Tarchikha near Moscow. In 1927 he moved to Moscow, where he graduated from high school in 1931, but often returned to the village, helping his sick mother. Since 1933, he worked as a worker on the construction of the metro and at the same time studied at the art studio at the Moscow Union of Artists.

Then, after serving since 1935 in the army, in 1941 he graduated from the art studio at the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions.

From 1942 to 1945 he was in the active army, had a number of awards.

After the war he was accepted into the Union of Moscow Artists.

These dry facts of life help to better understand the characteristic features of the personality of the future Archimandrite Alipy the builder and restorer of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, a worthy successor to those builders whom we know from the history of the monastery.

Truly a man of strength and reason, an integral, self-sacrificing personality was Archimandrite Alipiy in all manifestations of his Christian ministry. His own words serve as a vivid assessment of his character: "The one who goes on the offensive wins. It is not enough to defend, it is necessary to go on the offensive."

Exactly a week separates the day of memory of the death of Archimandrite Alipy - February 27 (dates according to the church calendar) - from the day of memory of the most prominent steward of the Pskov-Caves Monastery - Abbot Kornily. Archimandrite Alipy was a worthy follower of the Monk Cornelius, he was also a builder, icon painter, an energetic, active, versatile person. Archimandrite Alipiy managed to restore the walls enclosing the monastery almost from ruins, carried out many other restoration and restoration works, paid attention to maintaining the icon-painting tradition of the monastery, he painted icons himself.

Let us dwell on some facts of the life of Archimandrite Alipiy. From a young age, Ivan Voronov had a deep faith and wanted to express it in the service of the Church. On February 27, 1950, he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice. On August 15 of the same year, he was tonsured a monk by the Lavra's abbot, Archimandrite John (later Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov), with the name Alipiy, in honor of the Monk Alipiy, the icon painter of the Caves. On September 12, 1950, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Patriarch Alexy, and on October 1, on the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, he was ordained a hieromonk with the appointment of a sacristan of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1952 Father Alipiy was awarded a pectoral cross, and by the Easter holiday of 1953 he was elevated to the rank of hegumen. Along with the obedience of the sacristan, he was instructed to lead the artists and craftsmen who carried out restoration work in the Lavra. Then, until 1959, he took part in the restoration and decoration of a number of Moscow churches.

By decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy dated July 15 (July 28), 1959, hegumen Alipy was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery.

Father Alypy often preached, especially about Christian love, saying: "Christ who suffered on the Cross commanded us: 'Love one another!'

From the Word spoken by Archimandrite Nathanael (Pospelov) on the 20th anniversary of the death of Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov):

The confessor of the monastery, Hieroschemamonk Simeon (Zhelnin), inspired him to the feat ahead: "Go ahead, nothing will happen to you!"

Father Alipiy had the gift of words: more than once one had to hear from pilgrims: "Let's wait another week, maybe we will hear Father Alipiy's sermon." In his teachings, he supported the discouraged, consoled the faint-hearted: "Brothers and sisters, you have heard calls to intensify anti-religious propaganda, do not hang your head, do not lose heart, this means that they have become tight." - "It's a terrible thing to join the crowd. Today she shouts: "Hosanna!" After 4 days:" Take, take, crucify Him! they will ask: “Why?” - Answer: “Because yours is not true.” - “Why?” - “Because my conscience tells me.” - “How to recognize Judas?” - “He who dips his hand in salt, he will betray me” ", - said the Savior at the Last Supper. A daring student who wants to catch up with the teacher, with the boss, take first place, be the first to take up the decanter. The elders have not had breakfast yet, but the baby is already licking his lips, he has already eaten. The future Judas is growing. At 12 - one Judas If the elders did not sit down at the table, and you do not sit down. The elders sat down, sit down in prayer, and you. The elders did not take a spoon, do not take it either. The elders took a spoon, then take it. The elders began to eat, then you begin too. ".

This is how Fr. Alipy. If at a prayer in the church at Fr. Alipius sighs and tears appeared, then sighs and tears were immediately heard among those praying with him. Such was his strength of mind.

He used his talents as a builder of the Moscow Metro in building a bridge across the Kamenets stream, opposite the Assumption Church.

Father Alipiy was distinguished by special determination and fortitude. When he burned the paper about the closure of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in front of the envoys, he turned to them and said: "I'd rather be martyred, but I won't close the monastery." When they came to take away the keys to the caves, he commanded his cell attendant: "Father Cornelius, bring an ax here, we will chop heads!" Those who came turned to flee.

Father Alipiy defended believers before the mighty of this world, took care of their employment. He wrote that the only fault of these people is that they believe in God.

Father Alipy was affable and sociable, he received visitors with love, shared his talents, and gave wise answers.

When civilian visitors asked him how the monks lived, he drew their attention to the Divine Liturgy, which was performed in the Dormition Church. "Do you hear?" - he asked. The visitors answered: "We hear." - "What do you hear?" - "The monks sing." - "Well, if the monks lived poorly, they would not sing."

When believers were carving flowerbeds in the monastery, the authorities asked: "Who works for you and on what basis?" Father Alipiy replied: "These are the host people working on their own land." And there were no more questions.

He instructed the pastors of the church arriving at the monastery to diligently serve in his church.

"Here, you, father, have left your church, and a demon will serve in your church." - "How so?" - they objected to him. Father Alipiy answered in the gospel: "The devil will find an empty temple..."

When they were not allowed to visit the caves, father Alipiy blessed every morning, at 7 o'clock, to serve a memorial service in the caves, so that believers would have the opportunity to visit the caves and commemorate their relatives and friends, especially those who died in the Great Patriotic War. A decree was sent to stop serving memorial services in the caves. With the blessing of Father Alipiy, panikhidas continued to serve. Asking Father Alypiy whether he had received the decree, Father Alipiy replied that he had received it. "Why don't you do it?" - the question followed. Father Alipiy replied that this decree was written under pressure due to weakness of spirit, "I do not listen to the weak in spirit, I listen only to the strong in spirit." And the funeral service in the caves was not interrupted.

At the beginning of 1975, Alipiy's father had a third heart attack. He had the memory of death in advance. In advance, a coffin was made for him with his blessing and stood in his corridor. And when they asked him: "Where is your cell?" - he pointed to the coffin and said: "Here is my cell." In the last days of his life, hieromonk Father Theodorit was with him, he daily communed Father Alipiy and, as a paramedic, provided him with medical assistance. On March 12, 1975, at 2 o'clock in the morning, Father Alipiy said: "The Mother of God has come, how beautiful She is, let's paint, let's draw." Paints were given, but his hands could no longer act, how many heavy shells he dragged with these hands to the front line in the Great Patriotic War. At 4 o'clock in the morning, Archimandrite Alipy died quietly and peacefully.

Until his death, he taught the blessing for every monastic service and work and did not leave his obedience.

And today, expressing our love for Father Alipiy, we commemorate the day of his memory, the day when he completed his voluntary bloodless martyrdom, and again we remind you, dear brothers and sisters, the apostolic words: Remember the good shepherd, the deceased mentor of Father Archimandrite Alipiy, and, looking at the end of his life, imitate his faith. Amen.

Savva Vasilyevich, you are one of the authors of the wonderful book “Archimandrite Alipiy. Man, artist, warrior, hegumen. It is known that you happened to be near him for quite a long time. Please tell us how you met this wonderful shepherd and man?

In general, in my life I was lucky to meet a lot of amazing people. Basically, these people, of course, are of the older generation - they were my teachers, with whom I studied directly, with whom I communicated for years, decades. With some, these meetings were shorter. First of all, these are my university teachers, professors of the pre-revolutionary school. Many of them returned to teach at the university, after serving decent terms in the dungeons of the Gulag.

I will never forget our wonderful professor Viktor Mikhailovich Vasilenko, to whom in 1956 I came to study at the art history department at the university. I came to study, and he had just been released after a ten-year sentence.

They were people of amazing purity of soul, decency. They never complained about the terrible hardships and misfortunes that befell them, accepted it as God's punishment and tried to have time for the rest of their lives to tell us young people about the art that they themselves knew very well.

Then I was lucky not at the university, but at home to study for six years with the outstanding Russian art historian Nikolai Petrovich Sychev, who began his work in the pre-revolutionary years. He himself studied with the largest specialist in Byzantine and Old Russian painting, Professor Ainalov. Sychev, together with our most famous scientist, Academician Mikhail Pavlovich Kondakov, traveled for two years to holy places in Italy and Greece and copied many classical examples of painting. He wrote excellent books on the history of ancient Russian, Macedonian art, and he was also an excellent restorer. When Nikolai Petrovich left the camps in 1944, he was the first to head our department of the All-Russian Restoration Center, which was located in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent on Bolshaya Ordynka. Moreover, he was not allowed to come to Moscow for the whole week, so he lived in Vladimir and came only on Saturday and Sunday to inspect the work of our department. These were brilliant lessons.

None of our teachers for a moment succumbed to the atheistic moloch that dominated our country. They continued to believe in God and serve God.

In Pskov, where I began to go on business trips as a restorer, I met Sychev's student Leonid Alekseevich Tvorogov, who studied under him in the post-revolutionary years, and also spent my twenty years in the camps. Worked in the Pskov Museum. He was a brilliant connoisseur of Pskov, ancient Russian Pskov literature and icon painting. He was a true patriot of Pskov and always told us: “Stay in Pskov and you will make a lot of world discoveries. Here is an inexhaustible storehouse of materials, documents, monuments. And these years of life and work together with Leonid Alekseevich Tvorogov are also unforgettable for me.

In Pskov, I met our outstanding scientist, researcher, poet Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, the son of Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov and Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. For many years I became friends with him and was among his students. Lev Nikolaevich is a man who created his theory and wrote brilliant books, which are now desktop books for us. He also spent a huge part of his life in the dungeons and, again, never complained about it. Lev Nikolaevich taught us not only by passing on his scientific methods to us, introducing us to his theory, he taught us to live without complaining about fate.

And among all my teachers, perhaps, the main place belongs to Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov) - the rector of the Pskov-Caves Monastery. It is not surprising that all this is connected with Pskov, since this is my favorite city. I spent more than one year there, being on business trips, and now, with God's help, I often go there. And that's where I met him. Batiushka invited me to come through one of my acquaintances, a restorer, because he knew about the icon exhibitions that I was doing at that time. He had my albums on ancient Russian painting, a catalog of exhibitions, my articles, and he just wanted to get to know me. And it was, perhaps, one of the most unforgettable meetings in my life.

They always meet, as they say, by clothes. Only then, over time, do they begin to get to know the person better. During the first meeting with Father Alipiy, what did you remember about his appearance, what struck you and has not been forgotten to this day?

Right from the first day, as soon as we met, I saw him amazing eyes, full of kindness: not sugary kindness, but the kindness of a person who went through the war, who knew what the horrors of war are.

Then he told us a lot about his military life. And once I asked him why he, such a handsome, young, very capable artist, immediately after the war, went to the monastery. But he told me: “Savva, it was so scary there! I saw so many deaths, so much blood, that I gave my word - if I survive, I will serve God for the rest of my life and go to the monastery. When the war ended, he arranged an exhibition of his military works in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. She was popular. Arranged an exhibition, and immediately left as a monk in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It should be noted a special detail - Father Alipiy did not finish either the theological seminary or the Academy, he went there with obedience in his main profession - the profession of an artist, and became a restorer. He was very warmly received by the Holy Archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and instructed him to carry out restoration work in the Lavra.

Prior to this, restoration work in churches and with monuments of painting was carried out by a team led by Academician Igor Grabar, from whom, by the way, Archimandrite Alipy studied in the pre-war years. But, as the father later said, this brigade did not work very honestly: they took a lot of money, and the result was not very good. Looking closely, he turned to his teacher: “Dear teacher! Unfortunately, the results of your work do not meet our requests and our requirements.” And he himself led a team of restorers, and for several years brought many monuments of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in order.

- You said that between Patriarch Alexy I and Father Alipiy always maintained a warm relationship. What do you think connected them? What did the priest tell you about His Holiness Alexy?

Archimandrite Alipiy was very close to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I. In Novgorod he was the cell-attendant of Archbishop Arseny (Stadnitsky), later Metropolitan, who did much to preserve the monuments of ancient icon painting and fresco painting in Novgorod. My teacher Nikolai Sychev, when still young, before the revolution, with the help of Bishop Arseny, created a church and archaeological museum in Novgorod, which became the basis of the brilliant Historical, Artistic and Architectural Museum-Reserve of Novgorod.

Patriarch Alexy I treated Fr. Alipiy very warmly. There was another reason - Archimandrite Alipiy had an amazing voice and hearing, musical abilities. The patriarch was very fond of serving with him, especially in his farmstead in Peredelkino, in Lukin, where the priest also did a lot to restore the decoration of a small church.

At the end of the fifties, His Holiness the Patriarch instructed Archimandrite Alipiy, then still a young monk, to restore the destroyed, but fortunately never closed, Pskov-Caves Monastery.

As you know, the monastery was badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War. The devastation, according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses, was terrible. Have you ever seen the monastery in that deplorable state?

Yes. Certainly. I was there for the first time back when Father Alypiy had not yet received this monastery under his patronage. I saw these dilapidated walls, the cows freely entered the territory of the monastery through gaps in the wall. But three or four years have passed since the moment when Archimandrite Alipiy was there, and I heard that restoration work was going on there. The work was carried out by my Pskov friends architects - restorers under the guidance of the famous master Vsevolod Petrovich Smirnov. Father Alipiy took part in the restoration himself - as a designer, he did not hesitate to take a trowel and work on laying out these walls. And when I got there with Vsevolod Petrovich Smirnov, I saw the monastery as some kind of restoration miracle. He was transformed as if a caring hand walked along the fortress walls, put the temples in order - they were surprisingly fine and harmoniously painted, the domes were gilded or painted with appropriate colors. I just admired. But at that time I did not manage to get acquainted with Archimandrite Alipiy, and only a year later did our meeting take place.

I will tell an episode from our acquaintance with him. When we talked, he says "Where are you from?". I say: "I'm from Paveletskaya embankment." “Ah, at the Paveletsky railway station. And I, - he says, - grew up in the village of Kishkino, Mikhnevsky district. And I tell him: "Father, I spent eight years there - my mother and grandmother rented a summer house, lived with the peasants." He says to me: “Yes, you and I picked mushrooms in the same forest. Do you remember the big oak there? How many mushrooms did you pick there? I say: “There were such visits when once I sat down, crawled, and picked five hundred mushrooms.” Father Alypiy: “Here I am as much. There is an oak tree, very amazing. Only whites grow under it.”

That's the kind of person he was - simple, sincere, immediately disposed to himself with his openness. Almost ten years of living together with the priest became for me one of the main chapters, if I may say so, in my life. Everything that my friends and colleagues did, we measured everything with what Father Alypiy would say, as prompted.

Did he often insist on his opinion or wish? I mean the conversations about faith, about Orthodoxy, that you had with Batiushka?

No you! He was not intrusive. He didn't say: "Let's go to church in the morning...". His sermon came from within, and he often read these sermons to us on Holy Hill, or at the table, at tea, or during walks in the vicinity of the monastery. Of course, we hosted and went to services, but on big holidays, when tens of thousands of people gathered there, he was not up to us, because he was very busy. But we saw him on these holidays, especially on the Dormition of the Theotokos, on the patronal feast of the monastery - and that was already enough. You should have seen his enlightened face!

In general, he was a servant of the Mother of God. The Mother of God - it was everything in his life. Not without reason, when he was dying, Archimandrite Agafangel, one of his most interesting associates, wrote in his farewell speech that when Father Alipy was dying, his last words were the following: “Here she is, here she is. I see Her, Mother of God. Give me a pencil and paper!”. And he began to make a sketch and died with a pencil in his hand, trying to capture the moment of the appearance of the Virgin to him.

You said that Father Alipiy had the gift of a restorer, an artist. Is this a profession of a kind of high aesthetics, is it far from those economic problems that Father Alipiy had to solve as a governor? Did he get this combination?

Still would! He did everything, delved into everything, and everything worked out perfectly for him. This I saw myself. Archimandrite Alipiy was generally a universal person, he could do anything. He was an artist, he was a builder, he was a poet, he was, above all, a preacher, he was the caregiver of an entire monastic brethren. He was a business executive - every tree, bush, planted there, from the rose garden to centuries-old trees - all this was under his supervision.

I will never forget one incident. He and I walked around the monastery, and there, on a slope from St. Michael's Cathedral, a monk was mowing the grass, and suddenly (and the priest was a very temperamental person), Father Alypiy abruptly ran up to this monk, raised his fists to the sky and began shouting furiously at him: " What are you doing! What are you doing! Who let you do this?!" The monk dropped his scythe out of fright. I then asked him: “Father, what did he do, why would you do it like that…?” “Yes, there are oak trees that I brought from the Mikhailovsky, from the Pushkin estate and landed, they have been growing for the second year, and he mows them! After all, for me it’s the same as killing a child!”

Or let's say those famous pyramids from sawn and chopped firewood. How carefully they laid out, and this process was personally monitored by father Alypiy. You know, when logs are stacked on top of each other, the whole structure gradually rises up, and one log is placed at the very top. There is a good drying and airing of firewood at the same time. After all, it was so beautiful! Father himself made amazing pickles of cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms - he also did this himself. Cucumbers were generally famous not only in the monastery. Cucumbers were salted in the following way: in autumn they lowered them on a rope in a barrel into a river that flowed through the monastery, and until spring the cucumbers were freshly salted, lightly salted. The then Pskov party leadership sent cucumbers to the monastery for a barrel of cucumbers by May 1 or Victory Day in order to hold ceremonial receptions. And he also salted the tomatoes. When it was mushroom time locals they collected mushrooms and brought them to the monastery, and Father Alypiy himself bought from them and took them away. I will never forget these porcini mushrooms, literally amber in color. Never tried anything like this in my life. He did all this himself.

Once we were sitting with him in the evening, having tea, it was already quite late - we sat up for a long time: firstly, he talked a lot, and secondly, it was interesting to listen. There was no sleep. And suddenly Father Theodorit comes - he was a paramedic and a beekeeper in the monastery - and says: "Father, there is your beloved cow, something incomprehensible is happening to her - some kind of writhing, pain." Father Alipiy says: "Well, Savva, let's go and see." We came to the barn, he began to feel her, and then he said: “Sava, you go away, you were not in the war, now we will do an operation with Father Theodorit - she swallowed something.” And literally an hour later he came satisfied, said: “It's all right, we gave her anesthesia, cut her belly, she swallowed a can of canned food in the pasture. We pulled it out of her, the day after tomorrow she will be on the mend.

One cannot help marveling at the talents of this shepherd! Father Alipiy, indeed, as you said, can be called a universal man. But still, the restoration activity remained his favorite thing - isn't it?

Yes this is true. Father Alipiy, using in full his skills as a restorer, simply resurrected the monastery from the ruins. A complete restoration of the monastery took place before my eyes. He used me and my friends, colleagues for the restoration of monuments and icons. And we gladly responded to his requests. I remember one sad story connected with this. Why she is sad, you will understand later. Case Once on a summer day, he says: “Sava, let's go to the Assumption Cave Cathedral, there behind the iconostasis (the iconostasis of huge icons was late - the beginning of the 20th century), it seems to me that there should be frescoes of the 16th century. When the temple was being built, perhaps they were even painted by the Martyr Cornelius himself.” The Monk Martyr Cornelius is one of the founders of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, to whom Ivan the Terrible cut off his head in anger, and then, repenting, he himself carried the lifeless body along the road to St. Nicholas Church, and this road is still called Bloody. Rev. Cornelius himself painted icons and copied books, and there, in the temple, according to the priest, there should be frescoes. And it was a sunny Sunday, I didn’t feel like working especially. I say: “Father, if these icons are taken out there, they weigh a hundred kilograms.” And he says: "Everything has already been taken out - it's up to you to take the solvents and go." I took an elementary flushing agent, they came there - and there was already a ladder-ladder. “Here, let’s wash at a height slightly higher than human height,” says the priest. He had already planned everything. And there, behind the icons, there is such a layer of dirt and soot that nothing, no frescoes can be seen. When I washed the first window, a magnificent frescoed face of the 16th century, Savva the Sanctified, was revealed. Father Alipy says: “Although he is not your namesake (my namesake is Savva Vishersky), but still Savva. There will be eight huge figures - taller than human growth. “Okay,” I say, “father, I’ll go to Moscow, take my colleague to help, and we will restore.” And he says: “No, no Moscow - you are under arrest. Call Kirill in Moscow, so that he would urgently come. And so he did not let us go here for ten days, until we washed all the frescoes, and until the amazing ancient Russian beauty was revealed. Batiushka was already setting everything up: they put up the doors to the diaconate, Kirill painted icons in the style of the 19th century, surrounded this place with a metal fence. It was joy. Archimandrite Alipiy immediately published his discovery in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy, he instructed me to publish it in a journal of decorative art, then in an album about Pskov. And then he once said to me: “Sava, look at the frescoes for now, if I die, they will beat me again.” I say: “Father, what are you talking about, this is unique, this is what Saint Cornelius wrote, this is like relics, like myrrh-streaming.” A month after his death, in 1975, the icons were put back in place, and for thirty years now we have been fighting to have it reopened. And I cared a lot about this, and I tell the clergy about it.

Some time after this incident, Cyril, my friend, became interested in Byzantine-style enamels: he restored the technique of their manufacture, since we had an oven in our workshop. Everything was done according to Byzantine patterns - moreover, it was not some kind of hack work. Cyril's processing principle was completely restored. When we showed the first samples to the priest, he said: “It is necessary that these enamel icons be built into the wall of the monastery.” We first made a small icon for the St. Nicholas Church: it was placed and solemnly consecrated. Then they made a large icon in front of the entrance, above the holy gates of the Dormition. We made these icons for a long time - a whole year was spent on it. Then they made the Mother of God Hodegetria to where the St. Nicholas Church and the Bloody Road are. Father Alypiy took great pleasure in our work - we saw and felt it. And then one day Cyril and I came to the monastery, we look, but not a single one of our icons is there. The father had a decisive character. We think: “So I looked, didn’t like it and removed it.” We come to his chambers. We were met by a cell attendant, while the priest was changing his clothes. We look - Nikola is hanging in a red corner with a lamp - he did not reject it. He comes out and says: “Well, they didn’t count their enamels? .. The story is completely paradoxical. A delegation of Orthodox priests arrived, I think from America, looked at these enamels, then went to Moscow. And at a reception with His Holiness Patriarch Pimen, they said: “You have Archimandrite Alipiy, a billionaire, he has Byzantine enamels, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at world auctions, just built into the wall.” The priests mistook them for real Byzantine enamels. Pimen immediately called His Holiness and said to clean it up. Alipy began to explain to him, but he didn’t care: “No, this is not necessary.”

These enamels were removed, after the death of Father Alipiy they were lost. Archimandrite Zinon only kept Nikola.

It is known that Father Alipiy led took a tough stance in relations with the authorities. Some government officials were even afraid of him. Have you witnessed such a relationship?

In general, he was perfectly able to find a common language with the authorities. He found a common language, first of all, in that he did not allow the closing of the only monastery in the Soviet Union when the wholesale destruction of churches by the robber Khrushchev was going on. When representatives of the authorities came to the priest, he told them: “Look at the monastery - what kind of deployment is here, tanks will not pass here, half of my brethren are front-line soldiers, we are armed, we will fight to the last bullet, you can only take us from the sky with aircraft. And as soon as the first plane appears over the monastery, in a few minutes it will be told to the whole world through Voice of America, through the BBC.

He had a good relationship with the first secretary of the Pskov regional party committee, Ivan Stepanovich Gustov, by the way, a very decent person.

Father Alipiy always did everything for the benefit of the monastery. Of course, they found fault with him, and the courts were frequent. Where did you buy the wood? He's stolen." And the priest answered: “Do we have shops? I would buy it in a store with pleasure. Where do you get incense? - with such claims they constantly pestered him. He said: “Sava, if you paint my hagiographic icon, be sure to write the hallmarks: twenty-five courts that I won.” So he joked.

The whole of Russia went to him. Ivan Semenovich Kozlovsky constantly visited all the holidays - our wonderful singer, and artists went to him, and writers, and bosses - I saw him there and the chairman of the Council of Ministers, and our cosmonauts. They came to him, and he knew how to talk to everyone. But the main thing for him was serving God, he never forgot about it, and it did not become a wall for those who came, and thus he, as a fisher of human souls, succeeded more than anyone else, turning people who were far from God to our great Orthodox faith.

The book about Father Alipia, which you published, tells about his most important ministry - the ministry of a shepherd, leading people to God. Can you please tell us about it?

I know, I saw that Archimandrite Alipiy opened the eyes of many people to the world anew. All of this can be found in our book. He gave many people the joy of communion with God. How many underground artists came to Father Alipiy and gave up their demonic occupations, turned to real realistic painting. Such an example is given in the book in the memoirs of Father Sergiy Simakov. Father Sergiy was also an underground artist, he came with his father, saw Archimandrite Alipiy, talked with him and began to paint pictures on a religious theme, and not just began to paint pictures, but became a priest, rector of a church near Uglich. Last year, his mother, who shared his obedience with him, died, and he has now become a monk - he has become Hieromonk Raphael and paints magnificent pictures connected with Russian history, with the history of the Russian Church. And there are many such examples.

The task of those who participated in the creation of this book is to glorify the name of Archimandrite Alipy. Vladimir Alexandrovich Studenikin - one of the creators of the book, a church man, graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy, practice during summer holidays took place in the Pskov-Caves Monastery. Father Alipiy loved him very much, trusted him to lead excursions. Volodya also learned antiques - Father Alipiy instilled in him this taste of a good collector. Vladimir is now one of the real, good collectors, he has an antique shop on Prechistenka "Orthodox-Antik". Two years ago, Volodya came to me and said: “Savva, I will give money, we must publish a book in memory of the priest.” At first we conceived it as a memoir, and then, when the book was already ready and was in the printing house, I was given the manuscript of Andrei Ponomarev, a talented young historian who wrote a magnificent chronicle of the life of Archimandrite Alipy, and at the same time Volodya caught it on the Internet. I called him from Pskov, offered to publish excerpts from the manuscript in the book, and he told me: "We will not count the money, we will publish it in full." And this edition, I think, from the church side is superbly sustained, and most importantly, it is a wonderful tribute to the memory of Archimandrite Alipiy. We hope that after the publication of the book there will be other people who will remember something about Father Alipia, and we will continue to perpetuate the memory of our father, who helps us live even now. In our prayers, we always turn to his bright image, we always remember him and always re-read his sermons, which are not spoken in official language, but in the language of an enlightened, intelligent, and at the same time, simple origin, from a peasant family.

There are less and less people like Father Alipiy in our life. There are few lamps that illuminate and sanctify our lives. More and more of the evil spirits that rushed towards us, about which you spoke. What is left for us to do?

This evil, this grief that has befallen our Motherland - everyone knows about it and everyone sees it. And this must be fought. Everyone has to fight in their place. Do not give in, because these are demons. And the Lord was tempted by the devil, and we are mere mortals, they knock on us all the time and knock with their hooves. What to do? Pray, work and believe.

You know, I believe that all this evil that has rushed towards us, into our lives, is a phenomenon of troubled times, all this will pass. And what our people did by defeating fascism, preventing our Motherland from being conquered - the exploits of people like Archimandrite Alipiy and millions of our soldiers and officers - their exploits will never be forgotten.

Hitler's worst mistake, our emigrants also said this, and our wonderful thinker Ivan Ilyin wrote magnificently about this, that if he had fought, as he himself said, with the Bolsheviks, perhaps the war had turned out differently. But he fought with the Russian people, with our people and with their unshakable faith. Therefore, this war of his was doomed to defeat in advance thanks to such people as Archimandrite Alipiy.

Sergey Arkhipov talked to Savva Yamshchikov

Those wishing to receive a free book "Archimandrite Alipiy. Man, artist, warrior, abbot" can contact the antique salon "Orthodox Antique" at the address: Moscow, st. Prechistenka, 24/1 (metro Kropotkinskaya) daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (except Sundays).

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Sermons of Archimandrite Alipiy (Voronov). Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov) - warrior, monk, shepherd

(1914-1975)Abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery (1959-1975)

(1914-1975)
Abbot of the Pskov-Caves Monastery (1959-1975)