Born on July 31, 1961 in the city of Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR. In 1982 he graduated from the philological faculty of the Abkhaz State University. In 1985 he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary and was accepted into the brethren of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
After graduating from the Moscow Theological Seminary, he was sent to study at the theological faculty of Sofia State University. While studying in Bulgaria, he served as a priest in the Russian church in the name of St. Nicholas in Sofia. After completing his studies, he returned to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. In 1992 he was appointed rector of the Moscow Compound of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
On August 19, 2003, in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, he was ordained Bishop of Saratov and Volsky. The consecration was performed by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.
During the seven years of Vladyka Longin's tenure at the Saratov cathedra, the number of active parishes in the Saratov diocese doubled. Ancient churches are being restored, destroyed shrines are being restored, and new parishes are being opened.
Bishop Longin is the rector of the Saratov Orthodox Theological Seminary, a higher religious educational institution, which is the oldest educational institution in Saratov. In 2010 the Saratov Seminary celebrates its 180th anniversary.
The seminary is not the only theological educational institution in Saratov - in 2005, the Diocese established a Training Center in the name of the Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth, where girls are trained in the specialties "Church Choir Director" and "Sister of Mercy".
In 2007, the Holy Intercession Orthodox Classical Gymnasium was opened in Saratov. In 2010, admission to the first class took place at the Orthodox gymnasium in the name of St. Alexander Medem in Khvalynsk. Preparations are being made to open general education Orthodox schools in Petrovsk, Pokrovsk (Engels) and Balakovo.
Sunday schools operate at the churches of the diocese. Sunday school students spend their summer holidays at the diocesan Orthodox children's health camp "Solnechny". The St. Romanovskaya Children's Orthodox Choir School operates.
The ruling Bishop of the Saratov diocese gives priority to the educational, missionary activities of the Church and the development of its social ministry. The diocese has a missionary department, a department for interaction between the Church and society, a department for religious education and catechesis, a department for interaction with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies, a department for social service and church charity. There are an association of Orthodox teachers, a charity society and a society of Orthodox doctors, and an Orthodox youth society.
Many events taking place in the Saratov diocese have not only internal church, but also social significance. The Pimenov Readings, first held in 2003, have become traditional. Now it is a large-scale interregional church and public forum that annually gathers many participants from different cities of the country.
Thanks to the work of the diocesan information and publishing department, the main events of church life are reflected in the Saratov mass media. The diocese publishes the newspaper "Orthodox Faith", a quarterly full-color magazine "Orthodoxy and Modernity". Saratov television broadcasts the programs "Symbol of Faith" and "Heaven on Earth", prepared by the diocesan television studio. The publishing house of the Saratov diocese is actively working. The information and analytical portal "Orthodoxy and Modernity" is one of the most visited sites of the Orthodox Runet.
Bishop Longin is a member of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, is the chairman of the editorial board of the journal "Orthodoxy and Modernity", a member of the editorial board of the journal "Alfa and Omega". Since 2005 he has been a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation.
And from all life situations a person learns lessons. This is natural and necessary. If we talk about what happened in my life, then the most important lessons in it were connected with the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and with the period from which the revival of church life in Russia began.
"Another Planet"
When, shortly after graduating from the philological faculty of the Abkhaz State University, I firmly decided to become a priest, I deliberately went to serve in the army, although under the then legislation I had the right to deferment. I even had to write an application to be called into the ranks of the Armed Forces (those who did not serve in the army were not admitted to the seminary). By the way, military service became a very good school of life for me, and I am grateful to God that I passed it. I did not regret it for a single minute, and since then I recommend that all young people who ask my advice go to the army. All the time of the service, I knew that I would be a priest, and internally I was preparing for this. Immediately after demobilization, I went to enter the Moscow Theological Seminary, which is located in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Today, it is probably very difficult to imagine, but then, in the Soviet Union, the seminary was not even another state, but another planet. And when a person got into the atmosphere of a spiritual educational institution, it was so different from all his previous experience, whatever it was, that it simply turned his whole consciousness upside down.
What first of all struck me then in the seminary was the library and books, which were not found anywhere else in the Soviet Union, except for some special stores where ordinary people did not have access. If somewhere out of the corner of our ear we heard about the existence of certain books, then we did not see them and did not hold them in our hands. And here they are in front of us!.. By the way, this feeling, similar to shock, was experienced to varying degrees by all my fellow students, and I remember my comrades who, with a feverish gleam in their eyes, sat in the library all their free time and made notes from patristic writings for his future ministry. They copied, of course, by hand, there were no computers then. The first person who came to the seminary with his typewriter was my classmate Andrei Kuraev, the future famous Father Protodeacon. He had a huge, heavy mechanical typewriter, and he carried it everywhere with him, bending over on one side. We all performed some kind of obedience. He most often sat on watch with his typewriter and typed something, this surprised everyone, because it was unusual.
I also took notes of the holy fathers and other literature that interested me. I remember my first serious abstract - a book by S. L. Frank about the heresy of social utopianism. Then Saints Basil the Great, John Chrysostom - I practically rewrote his Six Words on the Priesthood. In 1985, when we came to the seminary, no one could have imagined that several years would pass and these books would be published. We had no special hopes that the position of the Church in Russia would change radically.
Today you can hear such reproaches: how could we live under Soviet rule and not resist, why didn’t we become dissidents, didn’t fight, didn’t take to the streets? But the fact is that the conditions in which we found ourselves were, in a sense, natural for us - we were born and raised in volume state, in those conditions, in toy country. It cannot be said that we “accepted the rules of the game”. It was not for us the "rules of the game", which could be accepted or not accepted. It was just our life - at that time and in the country in which the Lord led us to live. Yes, there were people who fought, who took to the streets. But for most of them, spiritually, this ended very badly (as, for example, for the former priest Gleb Yakunin and some others).
We had bright teachers and very interesting lectures. I entered the seminary in 1985. It was the time of the rectorship of Archbishop Alexander (Timofeev) - the time of the true heyday of the Moscow theological schools. Vladyka Alexander did a lot, and above all, he ensured that people with higher education were admitted to the seminary. This fact alone testifies to how difficult the life of the Church in the Soviet Union was. The year 1985 was the first year when, not as a single exception, but en masse, people with higher education were allowed to enter the seminary, and we got a whole stream - course A.
The second of the most important deeds of Vladyka Alexander was that he was able to get permission to accept people for teaching at the Moscow Theological Seminary and the Academy, who there, perhaps, were called a little unlovingly “Varangians”. These were secular scientists - from the Academy of Sciences, various academic institutions, people with academic degrees and at the same time believers, churchmen. At the same time, starting to work in theological schools, they did not abandon their teaching and research activities in secular institutions. Many of them later became clergymen... These “Varangian” scientists were able not only to raise the level of teaching at the seminary and the Academy, but also to bring church life out of the underground in which it was located - and this was a revolution in relations between the Church and the state, which began in individual Moscow theological schools. There were still no trends of the future perestroika, we did not expect any special changes, but all the same, some special feeling - joy, enthusiasm - was felt by everyone who taught and studied at that time in the seminary.
In the heart of Russia
Most of all, of course, I was shocked by the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, as, probably, by any person who sees its wondrous beauty. It has been said many times that the Lavra is the heart of Russia, a place where the sky is somehow especially close to the earth. It may sound pompous, but that's how it is.
When I was studying, we had a tradition: between breakfast and the first lesson, we ran (just ran, especially in winter, because in a tunic, in order not to freeze, you have to run) to St. Sergius. This tradition has developed somehow quite naturally; no one forced anyone, no one taught anyone, but every morning everyone went to be blessed by the Monk, and there was a deep and sincere feeling of the closeness of St. Sergius to us. The words that the theological schools are the great cell of the Reverend were neither a formality nor an exaggeration.
The main treasure of the Lavra for me was its service. I love the service, and in general, largely thanks to this love, I came to the Church, but the services in the Lavra were something extraordinary. Then Father Matthew was in the prime of his work, his choir was in the best shape. He had wonderful singers who would have done honor to any professional group. Moreover, Father Matthew never took professional musicians to him, especially those who were engaged in vocals, it was a complete taboo for him. Everyone who sang in his choir, he taught to sing from scratch. That unique manner of singing, the special sound of his choir was built on the fact that he personally taught and educated each singer. This titanic work accompanied his creative activity for almost fifty years.
The viceroy of the Lavra at that time was the current Metropolitan of Tula and Belevsky Alexy. He served magnificently, unforgettably, as the heir to the classical Moscow liturgical tradition. In his youth, he was a subdeacon of Vladyka Serapion (the whole Russian Church knows him), who, in turn, was a subdeacon of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I and borrowed much of his manner of service from him, and Patriarch Alexy I is, one might say, the liturgical standard of the Russian Church. All this together - the service of the father of the vicar, Archimandrite Alexy, the singing of the choir of Father Matthew, in general, the whole charter, order, order of the Lavra service - won me over for life.
I am often asked: “Why did you become a monk? How did you come up with this idea? And no matter how much I try to answer this question, I can’t, I don’t know how. In the spring, when the first year of study had not yet ended, I had already filed a petition to be admitted to the brethren of the Lavra. There were no external "shocks", insights, mental upheavals. Just a few months of staying in the Lavra completely convinced me that it was necessary to do so, and I came to the governor with a petition.
Then a lot of seminarians went to the monastery - this is another sign of the times. It was not yet spring in the full sense of the word, but the thaw had already begun - it became possible to take as many people to the Lavra as there were applications. Admission to the Lavra was always limited, always very carefully monitored by the relevant authorities - and suddenly the governor of the Lavra achieved such a “relaxation”. The Father Superior was a man of extraordinary charm, before whom no one could resist, including representatives of the relevant authorities, who very strictly observed the life of the monastery. None of them ever left the Lavra, as they say, “skinny and inconsolable”, but this was done solely for the benefit of the monastery, in order to influence the authorities, whose task was to “drag and not let go”, but which gradually became more favorable to the monastery and spiritual schools. This is the kind of work - joint, invisible to the world, incomprehensible to our time, and often slandered, carried out for the benefit of the Church by the people who then headed both the Moscow theological schools and the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Difficult happiness
Another lesson is those obediences that had to be carried out in the Lavra. For some time I was a subdeacon with the father of the governor, then I was appointed to lead excursions for some groups that visited the Lavra. All the "ordinary" guides were secular people, employees of the museum-reserve. But some excursions were led by monks - for especially "honored guests", mostly foreigners or Soviet party members. This contingent was given a similar privilege, apparently for a variety of impressions.
I remember there was absolutely no time. In the morning I sang at the early Liturgy. In the summer, the service was in the Assumption Cathedral, and I got up at four o'clock, at half past five I went to open the temple, and it is huge, and even just opening all the doors is a rather long process. Then it was necessary to walk with a portable ladder, light all the lamps, and prepare everything for the service. It took 30-40 minutes. At this time, the fraternal prayer service was just ending, and the clergy serving the early Liturgy came. After the early Liturgy - breakfast and classes. After classes - excursions, after excursions - evening worship, which I went to almost every day. That was such an intense life - an absolutely happy life, I still remember it. I remember not in detail, but as one dark-light spot: dark because I slept, as in the army, where I could lay my head, and light - thanks to a feeling of joy and fullness. By the way, this is another lesson that I learned at the Lavra: the more busy a person is, the more happy he is for some reason.
The main thing, of course, was the Lavra service - now not only solemn, festive, but ordinary, everyday. I spent the entire annual circle (and more than once) on the fraternal kliros and in the altar - I read, sang, and sang. It was then, it seems to me, that I understood the service, recognized it, and was struck not only by its beauty, but also by the grandeur of its conception. After all, what is worship? This is not just a testament to the past or an attempt to adequately and beautifully celebrate certain important events that took place in ancient times. The annual liturgical cycle is a special world, a special life with God and with the saints, of which you become a participant. And in the Lavra, I forever fell in love with worship, no longer as a kind of, in the words of the priest Pavel Florensky, a “synthesis of the arts,” but precisely as a special life. Although from the point of view of that very “synthesis” it is impossible to imagine anything better than the Lavra: ancient prayer cathedrals, icons by Andrey Rublev and other ancient masters, a festive divine service as a real, incomparable celebration, thanks to the service of the vicegerent father with the brethren and the magnificent choir Father Matthew...
The whole stay in the Lavra was the main life lesson for me. For me, the Lavra has always remained my home. She is close to me, and I dare to hope that I can consider myself a part of the brethren of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, I think that I am connected with her for life.
Orthodoxy is not limited to Russia
In 1988, after graduating from the seminary, I was admitted to the Theological Academy and, along with my other ten fellow students, first-year students, was sent to study abroad. This is also the initiative of Bishop Alexander: he really wanted our students to have as many opportunities as possible to broaden their horizons, and he managed to send Academy students to five then still socialist countries: Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. With the current Bishop Kirill, Bishop of Stavropol, then still a layman, we went to Bulgaria. We were admitted to the first year of the Sofia Theological Academy, and I began to serve as a priest in the Russian Orthodox Church, in the church in the name of St. Nicholas in Sofia.
I must say right away: after the Lavra, the life of the Bulgarian Church seemed to us very unusual and ... not up to what we would like. Most likely, it was simply too unusual for us. Although they joked then: “A chicken is not a bird, Bulgaria is not a foreign country,” but nevertheless it was a foreign country, whose life was different from ours both in a simple everyday sense, and, most importantly, in the sense of churchness.
The biggest impression in the first days of their stay in Bulgaria was the clergy, who walked the streets without fail in a cassock. I remember that we literally walked around the city on one of the first days, got to know Sofia and saw this scene: a father is walking, holding a child by the hand, next to him, arm in arm, his mother is walking, very well, fashionably dressed, they are having fun talking to each other - and no one pays much attention to them! For others, seeing a priest in a spiritual dress is absolutely customary. In the Balkans, to this day, a priest in civilian clothes is something unthinkable. In our country, in the Soviet Union, everything was the opposite: outside the temple or monastery, the clergy were forced to wear civilian clothes. This always evoked a heavy feeling in me, because it was another evidence of the humiliated state in which the Church was in those years. No one probably remembers how in the 1980s, even in the 1990s, in the same Moscow, they looked at a man in a cassock. Somewhere in 1988 or 1989, I once rode the subway in monastic clothes, in which I tried to walk since my tonsure. And so I remember now that I was going down the escalator, and the people who were riding the next escalator up, in the direction of travel all turn their heads in my direction, because a man in a cassock was then just an unprecedented sight.
What else at first sight surprised in Bulgaria: a lot of ancient, sometimes huge temples - not blown up and not closed. At home, when we saw a temple, we used to ask: “Is this a functioning temple or not?” In Bulgaria, such a question was meaningless - if there is a temple, then it is active, with a few exceptions: it happened that the temples were closed somewhere in the mountains, far away, where no one has lived for a long time. I was also surprised by the huge number of monasteries, however, in our opinion, they were practically empty - one, two, well, a maximum of five monks could live there.
I was struck, of course, by the majestic temple of Alexander Nevsky in Sofia - then the largest cathedral in the Balkans, with marvelous murals. Almost for the first time, I saw a temple that retained its interior decoration in stylistic unity. After all, what were the temples in the Soviet Union? You will even enter some Moscow church that was not closed in Soviet times - the decoration there is completely eclectic: ancient icons and then some small home icons on the walls. You look: one crucifix, a second, a third... When churches were closed, people tried to save what they could, and some shrines were transferred from one church to another. And here, in Bulgaria - as this temple was created, it remained so after decades or centuries. But, at the same time, the impressions were contradictory, imagine: the memorial church of St. Alexander Nevsky, beautiful decoration, a magnificent mixed choir - and the almost complete absence of people, somewhere from 100 to 200 people at the altar. And the service itself, for example, the all-night service, most of all resembled a costume concert, because it lasted from 50 minutes to an hour and a quarter ...
At first there were many negative impressions. Although, most likely, it was in our perception: we were maximalists, we came from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and seemed to ourselves so highly spiritual that now it’s ridiculous to remember. I will not hide that in the first year of my stay in Bulgaria I really wanted to go back to Russia, I was so uneasy. With God's help, I managed to overcome this desire, I stayed, and, probably, therefore, the Lord, as it were, opened for me a kind of door into the inner life of the country and its people. I happened to see a lot of good things, to meet wonderful people - amazingly open and sincere lay people, clergymen, monks, representatives of a very deep, almost uninterrupted church tradition. This includes the recently deceased Archimandrite Nazarius, a wonderful confessor who lived in a small monastery in the mountains not far from Sofia, and Vladyka Nathanael, Metropolitan of Nevrokop, and a number of other people with whom even today, almost twenty years later, I maintain the most kind relations.
Of course, I still have a feeling of gratitude and reverence for the shrines of Bulgaria. During my studies, I tried to come to the Rila Monastery every time I had such an opportunity: I got on a bus and rode to stay at the monastery for at least thirty or forty minutes, pray to St. John of Rila and return back to Sofia on the next bus. In general, there are kind, pious, believing people in Bulgaria, and Bulgaria lives in my heart to this day.
In those years, I got the opportunity to get acquainted with the church life of other Local Churches, because we, these ten students, began to visit each other. Now, few people can be surprised by this; today, thank God, people freely travel to other countries. But then, in the late 1980s, it was quite an “exclusive” experience, which, by the grace of God, I had the opportunity to acquire.
For example, with those of our friends who studied at the theological faculty in Belgrade, we visited the center of the Serbian church revival - the convent of the Introduction, where Father Athanasius (Jevtich) then served. We went “on a bed” to the famous convent of Chelie, where the Monk Justin (Popovich) was buried: they were at his grave, served the Liturgy in the church where he also served. In general, Serbian female monasticism is one of the most vivid impressions from Serbia. Few people know that it is actually a copy of Russian female monasticism in its pre-revolutionary tradition. The fact is that in the Serbian Church, female monasticism had practically disappeared by the 20th century, and the inhabitants of Russian monasteries, refugees who settled in Serbia, revived female monasticism as an institution here.
We traveled a lot in Serbia, traveled almost all of Romania, whose church life is almost unknown to us, although it can rightfully be considered the most Orthodox country in the world. And, finally, the most valuable thing for me is trips to Greece and Mount Athos. The first time I went there was in 1989 and then I went to the Holy Mountain every year all the time while I was studying. Then from Russia, except for official delegations on the day of St. Panteleimon, no one went to Athos, and I lived there for weeks. Athos monasticism is a unique phenomenon, it differs in many ways from our monasticism for the better. This is understandable: the thousand-year tradition of monastic work was preserved on Athos practically intact, in contrast to our country. And today the Holy Mountain is a kind of tuning fork for the whole church life in Greece and throughout the Orthodox world.
The main lesson of that time was that I realized that Orthodoxy is not limited to Russia. Russian church life, Russian church tradition is a special phenomenon in the Orthodox world, but not the only one.
I think that this experience gave a lot for my future ministry, and it was largely thanks to it that later on in the Moscow compound of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where I was rector, both monastic life and the parish community developed over time.
And one more, probably the most important life lesson for today. I read a lot about humility, but I really understood what it is only after about a year of my hierarchal life. Now it is customary to scold bishops: they are supposedly "princes of the church", far from the people, cruel and excessively demanding, etc., but I, "from the inside", have a different point of view. It sometimes seems to me that bishops are the most humble people in the world, because they live all the time in a state of insoluble internal contradiction: most of them understand what needs to be done, and works tirelessly, at the same time realizing that it will not be possible to do even a tenth of what is necessary. For objective reasons - the lack of conditions, human and material resources, finally, unanimity, understanding among others, including the clergy. And to live constantly in such a state is probably the greatest school of humility. If, of course, you manage to reconcile ...
Alexander (Timofeev; 1941-2003), Archbishop of Saratov and Volsky. From July 1982 to August 1992 - Rector of the Moscow Theological Academy and Seminary. From February 1994 - Archbishop of Maikop and Armavir. Since July 1995 - Archbishop of Saratov and Volsky. He died suddenly on January 7, 2003 on the feast of the Nativity of Christ from acute heart failure.
Matthew (Mormyl; 1938-2009), archimandrite. He took monastic vows in the TSL in 1962. From 1961 until his death, he performed the obedience of the regent of the combined choir of the TSL and the Moscow theological schools. Honored Professor of MDA. See about him: Orthodoxy and Modernity. No. 19 (35). pp. 30-31.
Alexy (Kutepov; born in 1953), Metropolitan of Tula and Belevsky. See about him: Orthodoxy and Modernity. No. 17 (33). pp. 28-34.
Serapion (Fadeev; 1933-1999), Metropolitan of Tula and Belevsky. See about him: Orthodoxy and Modernity. No. 17 (33). pp. 29-30.
Nathanael (Kalaidzhiev; b. 1952), Metropolitan of Nevrokop. See about him: Orthodoxy and Modernity. No. 12 (28). pp. 30-33.
Athanasius (Yevtich; b. 1938), Bishop. A well-known archpastor of the Serbian Orthodox Church, a profound theologian. In July 1991, he was consecrated Bishop of Banat (Serbia, Vojvodina), in May 1992 he was appointed to the Zakholmsko-Herzegovina see (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Since 1996 he has been retired for health reasons, but continues his scientific work, participates in scientific conferences on the history of the Church, philosophy, theology and Christian culture.
Justin (Popovich; † 1978), Rev. Serbian ascetic and spiritual writer. Born in 1894 in the family of a priest. Studied at the Seminary of St. Savva in Belgrade, where the future Saint Nicholas (Velimirovich) taught at that time, then at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, at the theological faculty in Oxford. From the end of 1930, in the rank of hieromonk, he was a missionary in the Carpathian cities (Uzhgorod, Khust, Mukachevo, etc.). He was nominated for the revived Mukachevo episcopal see, but in his humility he refused it. Since 1932 he was a teacher at the Bitola Seminary, since 1934 he was an assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Belgrade. From May 1948 until his death, he labored at the Chelie Monastery near Valevo, where he was a confessor. He reposed to God, as he was born, on the feast of the Annunciation. In 2010, he was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church. Author of numerous spiritual works, including "The Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church" in 3 volumes and "Lives of the Saints" in 12 volumes.
On the evening of December 1, 2017, we met with the hierarch-confessor, the scale of whose feat puts him on a par with the Great Athanasius or the Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes: Archbishop Longin of Banchensky is the hierarch on whom alone rests the very canonicity of the Russian Orthodox Church as such in its current apostasy state.
With time, memory will more and more vividly fill in the missing details and strokes of the events and impressions of this holy meeting, which literally, like a sharp ray of God’s Truth, cut life into “before” and “after” it…
Vladyka Longin was not supposed to be present at the cynically staged performance called "The Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church." The decision to include him in the delegation from Ukraine came at the last moment. Metropolitan Onuphry obviously understood that if the Banchen Archbishop did not go, then SOMEONE would raise his voice for the Church of God, desecrated by heretics. But this is how it happened: Vladyka Longin was alone at the cathedral - he alone directly and courageously denounced Kirill Gundyaev and his accomplices, who, along with heresy, lost both the patriarchate, and the rank, and the dignity of a Christian.
And this fact is either deliberately hushed up, or transmitted to the media with deliberate distortions. In fact, on November 30, at a closed meeting of the "sobor", Archbishop Longin personally from the tribune aloud to the entire assembled episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church, read out his Address, which, I am sure, will go down in the history of the Russian Church along with the immortal Appeals to the Russian people of Patriarch Hermogenes, saturated with great tears and the martyr's blood of the confessor .
Vladyka Longin acted strictly within the framework of Church law, remaining to the end a faithful child and archpastor of the Russian Orthodox Church. The very form, the very style of his Conversion testifies to him, first of all, as a Christian. He, fully understanding his position as a “voice crying in the wilderness” (cf. John 1:23), is aware of the colossal responsibility before God for each of his hierarchal words. Vladyka remains, according to ancient church tradition, a “sorrower” for the entire Church, for the people entrusted to him by God: he severely denounces the patriarch who has fallen into heresy, gives him the LAST CHANCE to correct what he has done - he tries to exhort him to the end, to reach out to the perishing soul, to appeal to the burned conscience...
From the Appeal of Archbishop Longinus:
Pictures on request Vladyka Longin“...We have repeatedly asked you to hear us and understand our pain, since we sincerely wish to remain in the bosom of our Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. We firmly know that only in Orthodoxy is there truth and there is no other way to salvation except the Church…
There are no other "churches" and there is no other way of salvation!!!
… We want to observe the canons, dogmas and teachings commanded to us by the Holy Fathers, so as not to turn out to be apostates, traitors to Christ and the Orthodox faith.
We ask... to hear the cry of our souls about the difficult situation in which our Orthodox Church finds itself... Let us forever remain in our saving faith, but we will never recognize any heresy that is being preached today.
... The brothers of the Holy Ascension Banchen Monastery humbly ask to hear the unquenchable and disturbing pain of the soul - to defend the truth and purity of our Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church ... ".
And the faithful Orthodox heart, which loves the Lord and His Church, cannot fail to shudder at these words of the archpastor of Christ, heavy and bitter, “like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
The Vladyka's Address itself, as we know, contains four key requirements - the most important, painful and acute for our Mother Church - he has repeatedly voiced them before:
First. Withdraw from the World Council of Churches and cease participation in the ecumenical movement.
Second. Cancel the Havana Declaration of 12/02/2016.
Third. Do not recognize the false Council of Crete as Orthodox as not containing the fullness of truth and having an ecumenical heresy as its basis.
Fourth. It is conciliar to refute the slanderous film "Matilda", recognizing it as another attempt to publicly dishonor the memory and Name of the Saints - the Tsar and His Family.
The verb of the saint sounded like thunder. The whole hall of the Church Councils applauded him, and there were tears in the eyes of the bishops. During a break after the meeting, they approached Vladyka, bowing gratefully for his fiery speech, which literally lifted a heavy stone from the hearts of everyone present.
Archbishop Longin blocked the mouth of presiding Cyril with his Address, forcing him to abruptly change his tone and begin to flatter and flirt with the "rebellious" archpastor, giving oath assurances ( violated, however, the very next day).
It should be clarified here that immediately before this, Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi directly asked Gundyaev a question on what basis he, having violated the canons of the Church, without the advice and permission of the bishops, went to meet with the Jesuit Francis. But, apparently, the metropolitan felt fear and excitement at the same time, since his voice trembled. And the “patriarch”, like a predator who sensed the weakness of the victim, rushed to humiliate and trample the venerable lord into the mud with selective abuse, threatening to deprive him of his chair. After this "fatherly" patriarchal teaching, the Metropolitan was provided with medical assistance...
Vladyka Longin is a special archpastor. Having been crucified with the Lord on the cross of love and compassion, he shone with abundant fruits of active mercy. Therefore, he appeared before the cathedral as an experienced spiritual warrior, clothed in a strong armor of personal righteousness, having in his hand a double-edged sword of the Word of God - the Holy Tradition of the Church (see Eph. 6:14-17). And the Spirit of the lord - the Spirit of Christ - is inflexible and unbreakable. And the Lord provided for him, the only one who remained faithful to Him, a bishop - like once a child of David for victory over the giant Goliath - in order to shame both the "patriarch" with all the heretical clique, and all the cowardly rabble, called to be called the "consecrated cathedral", abolishing the power of outwardly huge and invincible majority.
Saint Longinus, who acquired the gospel life by his own, or rather, by constant dying for Christ, the great conciliar virtue of Christian Courage, has every right to echo the apostle with the words inscribed on the monastic paraman: “I bear the wounds of the Lord Jesus on my body” (Gal. 6, 17). And the Courage of the pure in heart is always clothed with Humility and Meekness. Moved precisely by these holy virtues, Vladyka Longin bowed before the self-proclaimed Patriarch of Moscow, asking him, as a simple person, for forgiveness for personal sins. He made this bow in order to then stand up to his full height, straightening his heroic shoulders, and pronounce on behalf of the Lord God, like the once holy prophets, moved by the Holy Spirit, a formidable denunciation of all the heinous heretical deeds of the presumptuous high priest. Like “me, mene, tekel, uparsin” (see the book of the prophet Daniel 5:25), the word of the confessor of Christ actually performed a specific act of God, from which the blasphemers can no longer escape.
And THEY have done this more than once: there have already been four (!) attempts to poison the holy confessor. The most famous one was last spring: a poison containing mercury and arsenic was mixed into the lord's meal. He, Archimandrite Lavrenty and Hieromonk Cleopas, against all odds, survived. Two other poisoned people reposed… The saint, having barely regained consciousness after resuscitation, tried not to miss a single hierarchal church service, despite the fact that the kidneys failed because of arsenic, and mercury hit the central nervous system so that for some time it became it was difficult to navigate in space and the lord was helped, led by the arm.
Archbishop Longin was “congratulated” with the latest poisoning on his namesake day, October 29 of this year - a little over a month ago. Drinking water in bottles sent both to the monastery itself and to the orphanage was poisoned. Since the care of the bishop in the orphanage is constantly curing sick orphans, and the first symptoms of poisoning appeared in the kids almost immediately, fortunately, everyone managed to provide medical assistance in time.
During our conversation, the archpastor bitterly stated that the “patriarch” and his satraps allowed him to come, speak, and even “swallowed” the denunciations against them only because they knew about the serious state of health of Vladyka Longin - for them he was “not a tenant” , therefore, they suggest sooner or later to “silence” the “rebellious” archbishop ...
It should be noted that on that day - December 1 - we "hunted" for Vladyka for eight hours. Each time he appointed a new meeting place. He was stubbornly followed and escorted before and after our conversation by several cars with a characteristic specific contingent - Vladyka hoped not to "set us up." All the following time, we fervently prayed for the safe return of Vladyka Longin home, safe and sound.
The colossal pressure on the archpastor also has another side: the entire “consecrated assembly” clearly demonstrates how “like death” it is to go “against the current” - against the general line of the “Moscow Pope”. Fear, a general inexplicable mystical fear paralyzed the common sense of several hundred intelligent and impeccably educated men. Fear of a monster, an octopus, which uses the so-called figure as its “face”. patriarch - an exceptionally vindictive person who never forgives anyone. The behavior of the members of the "council" was only one more evidence that the departure from the Truth deprives a person of all spiritual strength and will, and not just reason. It is enough to be hypocritical once and remain silent in the face of untruth in order to lose all boldness before the Lord, and the conscience will fall asleep deathly - as a rule, there is no second time ...
According to Vladyka, by no means could this gathering be called a "Bishops' Council" - there was no catholicity there at all. The topics for consideration were given to the members of the “cathedral” in ready-made thick folders: there was no time to leaf through them, let alone read them. And no one was given a word. Voting proceeded automatically, as at party congresses.
After the Address of Archbishop Longin, at the end of the stormy applause of the entire hierarchical assembly and tears of gratitude, at the next closed meeting, the same bishops "automatically" voted for the adoption of a monstrous decision that actually destroys the institution of the Family - the Little Church - "On the canonical aspects of church marriage", in in particular, blessing free marriages with the heterodox.
It is very important that five Ukrainian bishops voted against this decision and abstained from voting. "Against" were: Archbishop Longin, Metropolitans Meletius and Fedor. Following the Charter, in this case, the presiding officer was obliged to put the decision on the conciliar discussion and revision. However, this did not follow: one vote was specially “missed” - “aspects of the further collapse of the church marriage” were adopted “unanimously” by the bishops trembling with fear ...
... The so-called "Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church" of the end of 2017 is moving further and further in time. The official chronicles only contain the documents of this forum, and numerous analysts, observers and critics only talk about the consequences of the decisions made. After a week, no one remembers the conversion of Archbishop Longin, fateful for the entire Church of Christ, at the closed meeting of the council on November 30th. And this is done consciously - after all, it is the individual who creates history. The Divine Person of Jesus of Nazareth created the New History of Humanity through the Church, created by the Blood of the Cross. And no matter how much money the Jewish high priests gave to the soldiers, so that they kept silent about the Resurrection of the Lord, His glory soon subdued the entire universe.
And the glory of the valiant warrior of Christ, Archbishop Longinus, is all still ahead, until the time it will be concealed. Some of his earthly deeds are already known to people, at least from the film "Outpost" (but they also require amendments: now more than 450 children, of which more than 150 are terminally ill, have been adopted by the shepherd of God), but most of them are kept by God until the time appointed by Him …
Only the Lord, for example, knows how much Vladyka had to endure endless torment, torture, bullying and humiliation in the dungeons of the SBU. And they threw him there because, by the power of God given to him, he did not let ANY MAN of the Chernivtsi diocese into the fratricidal slaughter in the ATO zone: “I ask you only one thing: to unite and not give children to death. Our Orthodox faith does not allow us to kill each other. For the sake of political interests, for the sake of those who defend their business, who defend their leadership positions, they want to kill our people who live in peace with faith in God,” the courageous bishop called. And with the archpastoral blessing, the women - wives and mothers - blocked the roads, blocked the recruiting stations and, in the end, defended the truth of God without becoming accomplices in Cain's sin.
“Let the flattering ones be dumb, speaking iniquity against the righteous, with pride and humiliation” (Ps. 30:18)! Those who now blaspheme or try in every way to humiliate the feat of Vladyka Longinus do this either out of paid engagement or out of envy of the saint. For their proud "mouse" natures do not reach his Christ-imitating holiness, and therefore they are seduced to the path of Judas.
The evening of December 1, 2017 divided my life into two parts. We were present at the real Last Supper, and the face of Lord Longinus shone with the glory of the Heavenly Sovereign. He spoke simple words, and Heaven shone in his tear-stained eyes: “I am a simple priest, like everyone else, but I just can’t live without Christ! I love the Lord and His Church and fear nothing but sin.” And this is the whole saint ...
… Having blessed each of us, Vladyka quickly left. They said goodbye again near the exit, at the moment when he was getting into the car. Smiling broadly - like a child, the archpastor pointed with a glance at the "black shadows" relentlessly following him: "DO NOT FEAR ANYTHING!" - he said, once again crossing us: "NOTHING!"
Date of Birth: July 31, 1961 The country: Russia Biography:In 1977-1982. studied at the evening department of the philological faculty of the Abkhaz State University. At the same time in 1979-1981. worked as a tour guide, in 1981-1983. - teacher of Russian language and literature in high school.
In 1983-1985. served in the ranks of the Soviet army. After demobilization, he entered.
In May 1986 he was admitted to the brethren.
On July 21, 1986, he was tonsured a monk; on August 29, he was ordained a hierodeacon; on June 7, 1988, a hieromonk.
In 1988 he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary and was admitted to the Moscow Theological Academy. In October of the same year, he was sent to study at the Sofia Theological Academy. St. Kliment Ohridsky, at the same time studied at the theological faculty of Sofia State University. While studying in Bulgaria, he served as a freelance priest in the Russian church of St. Nicholas in Sofia.
In 1992, having completed his studies, he returned to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, performed the obedience of an assistant housekeeper.
In May 1994, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen.
By the decision of the Holy Synod of June 7, 2012 () he was approved as rector (priest archimandrite) of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery in Saratov.
Education:1988 - Moscow Theological Seminary.
1992 - Sofia Theological Academy, Faculty of Theology, Sofia State University.
Place of work: Saratov Metropolis (Head of the Metropolis) Diocese: Saratov Diocese (Ruling Bishop) Awards: