Peter Zverev, Archbishop of Voronezh, short life. To the biography of Sschmch. Peter (Zverev) (commentary in line with history). "In support of Tikhon's counter-revolutionary policy"
![Peter Zverev, Archbishop of Voronezh, short life. To the biography of Sschmch. Peter (Zverev) (commentary in line with history).](https://i0.wp.com/solovki.ca/new_saints_12/images/st_Peter_Zverev02.jpg)
The future Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev Vasily Konstantinovich), Archbishop of Voronezh, was born on 18/02/1878 in the family of an archpriest who served in the village of Veshnyaki (near Moscow), who served first in the village of Veshnyaki near Moscow. Later, his father was appointed rector of the Alexander Nevsky Church at the house Moscow governor, served in the Sergius Church at the Chudov Monastery in Moscow. He was the confessor of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna. Hieromartyr Peter had a sister, Varvara, and two brothers: Arseny, who became an official, and Cassian, who became an officer and died at the front in 1914.
Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev). Archbishop of Voronezh on Solovki
Childhood
As a child, Vasily was a fighter. Archbishop Peter said later: “As a child, I was very fat and plump, and adults loved to squeeze me, but I really didn’t like it. And then I see a dream. The Savior is sitting at the table in blue and red clothes and holds me in his arms. And under table - a scary dog. The Savior takes my hand and extends it under the table to the dog with the words: “Eat it, it’s fighting!” I woke up and since then I’ve never fought, but I tried to restrain myself in everything, not to get angry and not to do anything bad"
Education. Ordination. Service.Education
Moscow classical gymnasium (1895), two courses at Moscow University (faculty of history and philology, 1895-97), Kazan Theological Academy (1899-1902). Candidate of Theology. The dissertation was written on the topic “An exegetical analysis of the first two chapters of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews.”
Ordination
Monk Peter (1900), hieromonk (1902), archimandrite (1910, Tula province, Belev, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, Cross Church. Ordained by Bishop Parfeniy (Levitsky). Bishop (1919, Moscow, ordained by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, consecrated on the feast of the Presentation) Archbishop (1926, ordained by Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), thereby confirming the popular election).
St. Peter started teaching the Law of God to children. He taught them himself, and the children became so attached to the bishop that they often gathered in crowds and waited for him. Vladyka often told them about his life. Devout service, sincerity in faith, humility, and openness to everyone attracted many people to Bishop Peter.
Oryol, Oryol Theological Seminary, teacher (1902-1903)
Moscow, diocesan house in Karetny Ryad, Church of St. equal to book Vladimir, diocesan missionary (1903-1907)
Novgorod, Novgorod Theological Seminary, inspector (1907-1909)
Tula province, Belev, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, abbot, abbot (1909-1910)
archimandrite, rector (1910-1916)
1916-1917 preacher at the front
Moscow, Church of the Vladimir Diocesan House, rector (1917)
Tver, Zheltikov Assumption Monastery, rector (1917-1919).
Nizhny Novgorod, Pechersky Monastery, Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese (1919-1920). Immediately after his consecration he came to Nizhny Novgorod and settled in the Pechersky Monastery on the banks of the Volga. Before this, Bishop Lavrenty (Knyazev), who was shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918, lived here.
Nizhny Novgorod province, Sormovo village, Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese (1920-1920)
Nizhny Novgorod province, Kanavino village, courtyard of the Gorodetsky monastery, Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese (1920-1921)
Tver, Zheltikov Assumption Monastery. Bishop Staritsky, vicar of the Tver diocese (1922-1922)
Moscow. Temporary administrator of the Moscow diocese (1924-1925)
After the death of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, he signed an act dated April 12, 1925, transferring the highest church power to Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) of Krutitsky. Soon he was sent to the Voronezh see to help the 84-year-old Metropolitan Vladimir (Shimkovich).
Voronezh, the Church of the Intercession and Transfiguration of the former Maiden Monastery and the temple in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Bishop (1925-1926)
Voronezh, temple in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk (1925-1926)
1918 - Tver, prison. Imprisoned as a hostage but was released
1921 May - Nizhny Novgorod province, village of Kanavino. Charged with “inciting religious fanaticism for political purposes.” The arrest triggered a three-day strike by workers at Sormovo factories. The authorities promised to release him, but deceived the workers and sent the bishop to Moscow
1921 - Moscow, Lubyanka prison. Bishop Peter did not stop preaching even in his cell. While he was in various places of detention, they did not have time to send crosses to him: he gave them to people he converted
1921 - Moscow, Butyrskaya prison, Taganskaya prison. In the Tagansk prison, Bishop Peter fell ill from exhaustion, boils formed on his head, and he was admitted to the hospital. At the end of July 1921, Vladyka was assigned to a convoy to Petrograd
1921-1922 - Petrograd, prison. Released. Immediately left for Moscow
1922 - Tver, Zheltikov Assumption Monastery. Archpriests Vasily Kupriyanov and Alexy Benemansky, the treasurer of the Novotorzhsky Boriso-Gleb Monastery, hieromonk (future bishop) Veniamin (Troitsky), Bishop Peter's secretary Alexander Preobrazhensky and Alexey Ivanovich Sokolov were also arrested. At the end of November 1922 they were sent to Moscow. Bishop Theophilus (Epiphany) of Novotorzh was sent with them
1923 - NKVD Commission on Administrative Exiles. Sentence: 2 years of exile in Turkestan.
From the memories of his spiritual daughter: “Having made her way onto the platform, one spiritual daughter of the bishop was the first to see the Bishop behind two bars and showed us with her eyes. When I saw the thin face of the Bishop, covered with a special prison pallor, I sobbed loudly. The Bishop smiled, and his words reached me, although he spoke almost whispering from behind the convoy: “I’m so glad to see you. But why are you crying? You don’t need to feel sorry for me, you need to be happy for me.” At this time, he developed vitamin deficiency from malnutrition, and his whole head was bandaged.”
1923 - Uzbekistan, Tashkent
1923-1924 - Central Asia, the village of Perovsk (now the city of Kyzyl-Orda). In 1923, Patriarch Tikhon was released, and he submitted to the authorities a list of bishops, without whom he could not govern the Church. Bishop Peter was among them. At the end of 1924 he was released and returned to Moscow
1927 - Moscow, internal OGPU prison on Lubyanka, Butyrka prison
1927-1928 - Solovetsky special purpose camp
1928-1929 - Anzer Island. Anzerskaya Trinity business trip, VI department.
Famine of 1921
Following Patriarch Tikhon, Vladyka addressed the Tver flock with a message in which he called on “to donate from church property to the holy cause everything that is not essential for the performance of divine services. As for the items necessary for the celebration of the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, in case of demand about the seizure, we bless the believers to express their written protests, enter into negotiations with government officials and petition for the replacement of sacred objects." The Bishop donated all the valuables of the temple to the starving people. Some reproached him for this, but he said: “We have them like this. They are superfluous. They are not needed. So, here they will stand, but there people are dying of hunger?”
Renovationist schism
When the schism began in 1922, Bishop Peter immediately banned from serving those priests of the Tver diocese who had joined the schism, making the fact of the ban widely public in order to warn the laity about the danger of renovationism. Vladyka Peter wrote an appeal to his flock: “These Living Church Renovationists have nothing religious; they only hide behind religion, they are political figures, although many do not understand this. We should not engage in politics, this is not our business. We must recognize Soviet power ", obey it according to the Christian conscience and adhere strictly to the decree on the separation of the Church from the state. It is not the Church that needs renewal, but ourselves. We do not know how, we have forgotten how to assimilate and understand the gracious spirit of church institutions, which is why much seems to us superfluous, unnecessary, outdated. No matter how sad the phenomenon of discord and unrest in the Church is, we must thank God for it, for at this time the wheat will be separated from the chaff and everyone will look at himself and reveal how Orthodox Christian he is. I pray to God that He will preserve more people in the true Church, although I know from Scripture, and from observing those around me, I see that there will be few true believers left.”
The GPU prohibited the publication of the appeal, in view of the fact that “...that conversion pits one part of the clergy and believers against another, which is prohibited by the decree on the separation of Church and state, which grants the right to every citizen and society to believe what he wants, and to pray to whom and how he wants, in The printing of this appeal will be refused, and Bishop Peter will be held accountable for disobeying the Soviet government and for using pre-revolutionary spelling when writing.”
From the interrogation report: “What is your view and attitude towards Patriarch Tikhon?” - “I recognize him as the head of the Russian Church in church affairs.”
Conclusion of the OGPU: “Dissemination of the appeal of Bishop Peter of Tver, clearly directed against any renovationist movement in the Church and in support of Tikhon’s counter-revolutionary policy”
The head of the secret department of the OGPU, Yevgeny Tuchkov, demanded evidence that Bishop Peter distributed this appeal. They tried unsuccessfully to extort testimony from Archpriest Vasily Kupriyanov, who was close to the bishop, for the arrest of the bishop. Arrest the bishop and conduct business in Tver with the local OGPU. “Bishop Peter has been convicted by preliminary investigation of distributing an appeal not permitted by censorship and will be arrested one of these days along with the entire group of Tikhonovites. We ask for your permission to convey Bishop Peter with his company and all the material immediately after the arrest to you in order to avoid inciting fanatics.” The secret department agreed, and in November the bishop was arrested.
Imprisonment in the Solovetsky camp
A special meeting at the OGPU Collegium on March 26, 1927, under Article 58, sentenced Vladyka to 10 years in concentration camps. "The case of Archbishop Peter (Zverev) and others. Voronezh, 1927."
They say that Blessed Pasha of Sarov (according to the memoirs of nun Seraphima - Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna) predicted to the Bishop that he would be imprisoned three times. Shortly before his last arrest, Blessed Mary of Diveyevo sent him to say: “Let the Bishop sit quietly.” The stage to Solovki was sent from the Yaroslavsky station, and the authorities allowed the spiritual children to escort the archbishop. The Bishop, seeing them, shouted: “Are there any Diveyevo people here?” Among the mourners were two Diveyevo sisters. “Give my regards to blessed Maria Ivanovna,” he asked.
Arrived in Solovki in the late spring of 1927. In the camp, Vladyka worked first as a watchman, then as an accountant in a food warehouse, where only the clergy worked. He lived in a small room with Bishop Gregory (Kozlov). Vladyka Peter observed the rule of prayer and lived according to church rules. He received everyone who wanted to see him and talk with him.
The Solovetsky Monastery was dispersed, but 60 monks remained in the camp as civilians. They were left with a cemetery church in the name of St. Onuphrius, which was located outside the monastery walls. Until 1928, the Chekists allowed clergy prisoners to visit her. Services were performed daily - all-night vigil and liturgy. Archbishop Peter tried to attend all services. On January 6, 1928, Archimandrite Innocent (Beda), who was imprisoned on Solovki, died. The archbishop solemnly buried his cell attendant in the Onufrievskaya Church with the participation of 30 clergy and a crowd of sympathizers from the prisoners.
After Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) left Solovki, the exiled episcopate, as a sign of special respect, elected Archbishop Peter as archpastor, head of the Solovetsky Orthodox clergy. Nun Seraphima says: "In Solovki, Vladyka became especially friendly with Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky). He even bequeathed to him his mother-of-pearl panagia with the Last Supper, but Bishop Hilarion died before him in the Leningrad prison, while being transferred to Tashkent. I remember they said that in Solovki they commemorated the senior bishop “Solovetsky”. Hilarion was the eldest, and as soon as he was put on the ship (to be sent to the stage), in the church during the service they sang: “...The Most Reverend Peter, Archbishop of Solovetsky.”
The moral height of the archbishop was such that even in the role of a janitor with a broom, he inspired reverent respect. When they met, the security officers not only made way for him, but also greeted him, to which he responded by raising his hand and making the sign of the cross. The superiors, seeing him, turned away - the dignified calm of the archpastor humiliated them, caused irritation and annoyance - the archbishop walked past them, leaning on his staff and without bowing his head.
In October 1928, Bishop Peter was sent to the island of Anzer, to the VI department of the camp for baptizing an Estonian prisoner in the Holy Lake. During the Anzer Trinity business trip, the archbishop worked as an accountant. From his letter: “Thank God for everything... Don’t live as you want, but as God commands. I haven’t received letters from anyone for a long time, probably due to the closure of navigation. Probably, people have come from me less often, although there may be other reasons beyond our control... Apparently, a real winter has arrived here, with winds and snowstorms, so that the wind almost knocks you off your feet... I live in a secluded and deserted place on the shore of a deep sea bay, there is no one I see, except those living together, and I can imagine myself as a desert dweller."
On Anzer, the bishop composed an akathist to St. Herman of Solovetsky. He sent postcards with parts of the text to his spiritual children, and subsequently they were able to collect and restore the entire text.
Death of the Hieromartyr
On February 7, 1929, Peter died of typhus in custody in the Solovetsky special purpose camp on the island. Anzer in the former Golgotha-Crucifixion monastery. He was buried on Anzer Island, at the foot of Mount Golgotha.
![](https://i0.wp.com/solovki.ca/new_saints_12/images/st_Peter_Zverev02.jpg)
Anzer. Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Cross on the grave of Archbishop Peter (lower right); Archimandrite Peter - rector of the Belevsky Transfiguration Monastery (center right and bottom left);
In the fall of 1928, a typhus epidemic began in Anzer. About 500 people died - half of those imprisoned. At the beginning of 1929, Archbishop Peter fell ill and was taken to Calvary to the so-called “hospital”. Archbishop Peter was placed in a chamber that was located at the altar of the Church of the Crucifixion. The “medical institution” where, in the exact words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, “they are treated with death,” was located in the former Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete, in the premises of the temple in honor of the Crucifixion of the Lord, on Mount Golgotha.
Eyewitnesses testify: “The picture that I found upon my arrival at Golgotha was terrible; the name of Golgotha was fully justified. In the cramped rooms, crowded with people, there was such a stale spirit that just staying in it for a longer time seemed fatal. Most of the people, despite frost, was completely undressed, naked in the full sense of the word, the rest were wearing miserable rags. Emaciated faces, skeletons covered in skin, naked, staggered out of the chapel (Church of the Resurrection of Christ) to the ice hole to scoop up water into a canned food jar. There were cases when, bending over, they died."
According to the prediction of the Mother of God, who appeared on June 18, 1712 to the Anzer Venerable Job: “On this place, let a monastery be built in the name of the suffering of My Son. Let 12 monks live and fast all the time, except Saturday and Sunday. The time will come, believers on this grief will fall like flies from suffering." The prediction of the Mother of God came true.
Next to the Vladyka lay a veterinarian, his spiritual son. On February 7 at 4 o'clock in the morning he heard a noise from a flock of birds flying in. Opening his eyes, he saw the Great Martyr Barbara with many virgins, among whom he recognized the holy martyrs Anisia and Irina. The Great Martyr Varvara approached the bishop’s bedside and communed him with the Holy Mysteries of Christ. On the same day at 7 pm he died. Before his death, he wrote several times on the wall with a pencil: “I don’t want to live anymore, the Lord is calling me to Himself.”
Burial
Even during the illness, the bishop sent a mantle and a small omophorion from the Solovetsky Kremlin. A coffin and a cross were ordered from one of the workshops. Three priests and two laymen received permission to participate in the funeral, but the authorities did not allow the archbishop to be buried in vestments. However, it soon became known that the bishop’s body was thrown into a common grave filled to the brim with the dead. The authorities ordered the grave to be filled with earth and snow, but this order was not carried out. A memorial service was held in the office of the economic department, and then the coffin and cross were taken to Golgotha. The common grave was cleared of fir branches. Vladyka was lying in a long shirt with his hands folded on his chest, his face was covered with spruce needles. On February 10, he was raised on a sheet from a common grave. Despite the prohibition of the authorities, right in the snow the deceased was dressed in a new purple robe, hood, omophorion, placed in a coffin, given a cross, rosary and Gospel in his hands. Before placing the prayer of permission into his hand, all three priests signed it. Nun Arsenia asked: “Why are you signing? They don’t sign during prayer!” “If time changes, the relics of the ruler will be found, it will be known who buried him,” they answered. The manuscript was signed by: Archimandrite Konstantin (Almazov) from St. Petersburg, Barnaul Father Vasily and Father Dimitry from Tver. The priests performed the funeral service loudly and solemnly. About 20 people gathered for the funeral service. After farewell words, the remains were lowered into a grave dug opposite the altar of the Church of the Resurrection and a cross with an inscription was placed. One of the priests who buried the archbishop later said that when the grave was buried, a pillar of light shone over it and the bishop appeared in it and blessed everyone.
Life of Sschmch. Peter (Zverev), Archbishop of Voronezh
Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Voronezh was born on February 18, 1878 in Moscow in the family of Archpriest Konstantin Zverev. At baptism he was named Vasily. After studying at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Moscow Imperial University, Vasily entered the Kazan Theological Academy, where in 1900, two years before graduation, he took monastic vows with the name Peter. Soon he was ordained first as a hierodeacon, and then as a hieromonk.
After graduating from the Academy, Hieromonk Peter was appointed a teacher at the Oryol Theological Seminary, and then a diocesan missionary at the Moscow Diocesan House.
In 1907, he was appointed to the post of inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary, and from 1909 to 1917 he was the rector of the Transfiguration Monastery in the city of Belev, Tula diocese, with the rank of archimandrite. At this time, the future martyr often visited the nearby Optina Hermitage, spending many hours in conversations with the Optina elders. Archimandrite Peter was very loved by the parishioners, since he was distinguished by his affectionate and attentive treatment of them. Father Peter visited both Sarov and Diveevo, never missing the opportunity to visit blessed Praskovya Ioannovna. She gave him a canvas of her work, from which he later sewed a bishop’s vestment for himself and which he kept for his own burial.
During the First World War, an infirmary for the wounded was established in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. Father Peter served as a priest in the active army in 1916.
After the February coup, the pious warrior of Christ was appointed to the position of rector of the Tver Holy Dormition Zheltikov Monastery. And already in 1918, in Tver, he was briefly arrested.
On February 15, 1919, in Moscow, Archimandrite Peter was consecrated Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. Immediately after his consecration, Vladyka Peter came to Nizhny Novgorod and settled in the Pechersky Monastery on the banks of the Volga. The monastery was in decline, the brethren were few in number, the ancient Assumption Cathedral fell into disrepair. The Bishop himself took part in cleaning the temple and introduced a strict statutory service. It happened that the all-night vigil lasted all night, and then Bishop Peter attracted zealous parishioners to the service, since no singers could stand on the choir for so long.
At the Pechersk Monastery he started teaching the Law of God to children and taught them himself. The people of Nizhny Novgorod fell in love with Vladyka, seeing in him a real spiritual mentor. However, Vladyka was soon transferred to Kanavino, beyond the Oka, where he was arrested in May 1921. Believers working in local factories staged a three-day strike over the arrest of their beloved archpastor, and local authorities promised to release him, but instead secretly sent him to Moscow.
Since December he has been imprisoned in Moscow prisons. At first he was placed in the Lubyanka, but even there the Bishop did not stop preaching: they did not have time to send crosses to him: when converting people to the faith, the Saint took off his cross and put it on the convert. “I would like to open up to them and show my heart how suffering purifies the soul.”
From Lubyanka Vladyka was transferred to Butyrskaya prison, and from there to Taganskaya. The prisoners said goodbye to him with tears, and even the guards saw him off when he was transferred from Butyrki.
There were twelve bishops in Taganskaya prison at that time. Their spiritual children handed over prosphora and vestments, and the saints performed a cathedral service right in the cell. Here Vladyka Peter fell ill from exhaustion and was admitted to the hospital. At the end of July 1921, he was sent by convoy to Petrograd, where he remained in custody until the winter. In December, Vladyka was released and returned to Moscow, where he soon received an appointment as Bishop of Staritsky, vicar of the Tver diocese. Soon he was arrested again for his appeal to the Tver flock, in which he explained the essence of renovationism.
In November 1922 he was taken to Moscow. During interrogations, he showed that he recognizes Patriarch Tikhon as the only legitimate head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and does not obey the decisions of the self-proclaimed renovationist council of the Supreme Church Administration. In March 1923, the Saint was sent along a convoy to Tashkent, and from there into exile in the village of Kyzyl-Orda. He lived in difficult conditions, suffered from scurvy, as a result of which he lost his teeth.
In the summer of 1923, Patriarch Tikhon was released from prison. He submitted to the authorities lists of bishops, without whom he could not govern the Church. Bishop Peter was among them. In the summer of 1924 he returned from exile to Moscow. On March 30, 1925, he signed the Act on the acceptance by the Hieromartyr Metropolitan of Krutitsky and Kolomna Peter (Polyansky) of the authority of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens.
In July 1925, the bishop was sent to Voronezh to help the elderly and sick Metropolitan Vladimir (Shimkevich). After his death, Father Peter in 1926 was appointed to the Voronezh see and elevated to the rank of archbishop. Vladyka enjoyed great respect from the residents of Voronezh, who revered him as the guardian of the purity of Orthodoxy. The churches where Vladyka served according to the Athos Rule were always overcrowded. He did not like partes singing: the whole church sang with him. The people walked to their archpastor continuously: those who entered him with a sad look came out radiant and comforted.
Under Bishop Peter, a massive return from renovationism began. He accepted returning clergy into Orthodoxy through popular repentance. Believers, fearing that their beloved Bishop would be arrested, organized round-the-clock vigils near his apartment and repeatedly expressed mass protests. When Vladyka went to the next call to the police or the GPU, 300 lay people accompanied him, demanding the release of the Saint. In defense of the archpastor, a telegram was even sent on behalf of the workers to the XVth Party Conference.
They told what impression Vladyka made on the GPU employees. Entering the investigator's room, he looked around, as if looking for an icon. But not finding one, he crossed himself to the right corner, making a bow from the waist, and then began a conversation with the investigator. The employees involuntarily uncovered their heads when he appeared.
However, the authorities managed to arrest the Saint in November 1926. He was immediately taken from Voronezh, tried and sentenced to 10 years in the camps “for counter-revolutionary activities against Soviet power.”
In late autumn, the holy martyr found himself in Solovki. There he worked as an accountant in a grocery warehouse. Even in these conditions, Vladyka strictly observed the prayer rule and lived according to the church rules. After the departure of the Hieromartyr Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) from Solovki, Bishop Peter was elected by the exiled bishops as the head of the Solovetsky Orthodox clergy and enjoyed high authority among them. There he led secret services.
The moral height of the saint was such that even with a broom in his hands as a janitor or watchman, he inspired reverent respect. The rude and arrogant Vokhrovites, accustomed to mocking prisoners, not only made way for him when they met, but also greeted him, to which he responded by making the sign of the cross over them. The bosses turned away: the dignified calm of the archpastor humiliated them, caused irritation and annoyance. Saint Peter walked slowly past the embarrassed authorities, leaning lightly on his staff and not bowing his head. Soon the camp authorities took revenge on the man who had not been broken by them. In the winter of 1928, the holy martyr was sent to the island of Anzer “to a secluded and deserted residence.” Here, living in the former Golgotha monastery, in prayerful burning of spirit he wrote an Akathist to St. Herman of Solovetsky.
At the end of 1928, Saint Peter fell ill with typhus, and in the January cold he was placed in a typhoid barracks, which was opened in the Golgotha-Crucifixion monastery on (Anzer Island). The saint was ill for two weeks, and it even seemed that the crisis had passed, but Vladyka was very weak and did not take food. His spiritual son, on the day of the Saint’s death, had a vision: at four o’clock in the morning he heard a noise, as if a flock of birds had flown in, he opened his eyes and saw the Holy Great Martyr Barbara with many virgins. She went to the Vladyka’s bed and communed him with the Holy Mysteries. In the evening, the holy martyr wrote several times on the wall with a pencil: “I don’t want to live anymore, the Lord is calling me to Himself.”
On February 7, 1929, Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Voronezh died. Initially, Vladyka was buried in a common grave, where all those who died from typhus were buried. However, on the fifth day, the prisoners secretly opened a common grave and, according to the story of the nun Arsenia who was present there: “All the dead lay black, and Vladyka lay ... in a shirt, with his hands folded on his chest, white as boiling water.”
After dressing in bishop's robes, the camp clergy performed a funeral service, and a cross was placed over the grave. Vladyka was buried in a separate grave at the foot of Anzerskaya Mount Golgotha, opposite the altar of the temple in honor of the Resurrection of Christ. When the grave was already filled up, a pillar of light appeared above it, in which they saw the Lord, who blessed everyone.
On June 17, 1999, the holy relics of the Hieromartyr Peter were found and now reside in the Solovetsky Monastery.
Canonized as a locally venerated saint of the Voronezh diocese in 1999.
February 7 (January 25, Old Style) The Russian Orthodox Church honors the memory of the Holy Martyr Peter (Zverev), Archbishop of Voronezh. The famous orator and preacher, Hieromartyr Peter was the closest assistant of the Holy Patriarch Tikhon. Each successive arrest of the ruler caused popular uprisings against the Bolsheviks. The result was an exile to Solovki, where in 1929, during a typhus epidemic, Hieromartyr Peter died.
"Eat her, she fights"
The Moscow priest Archpriest Konstantin Zverev and his wife Anna had four children in the 1880s: three sons and a daughter. The characters of the sons from childhood were very different. Arseny loved to write various papers and became an official. Cassian played war - and became an officer. He was killed at the front in 1914. Vasily loved to go to church and played church services at home.
When Father Konstantin served near Moscow, in Vishnyaki, he always took Vasily with him. The bell ringer, seeing the priest walking, struck the bell three times. The boy believed that they were calling his father twice, and the third time - to him.
Little Vasya was a “donut”. “As a child, I was very fat and plump, and adults loved to squeeze me, but I really didn’t like that,” he later recalled. - And now I see a dream. The Savior in blue and red clothes sits at the table and holds me in his arms. And under the table there is a scary dog. The Savior takes my hand and stretches it under the table to the dog with the words: “Eat it, it fights.” I woke up and from then on I never fought, but tried to restrain myself in everything, not to get angry and not to do anything bad.”
Vasily, unlike most of the priests who decided to follow in their father’s footsteps, did not go to the seminary right away. Before entering theological schools, he received a thorough secular education - he graduated from high school, then from the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University.
His excellent humanitarian training helped him in the future - the sermons of the Holy Martyr Peter were always intellectually rich. turned to him as a consultant on historical and theological issues.
He graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy and became a candidate of theology. While still in his second year in 1900, the legendary “abba” - Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) - was tonsured into monasticism with the name Peter and ordained to the rank of hieromonk.
After completing the academic course, he remained to work in the Russian theological education system. He taught at the Oryol Seminary, and later at the Novgorod Seminary. As inspector of the latter, in 1907–1909, long before the revolution, Father Peter began to be harassed for the first time by ill-wishers from among the revolutionaries.
“Let’s give him the happiness of a ride to Solovki”
A charming, charismatic, intellectually gifted priest, in the future, at every place of his ministry, he faced both the love of the people and the hatred of the enemies of the Church. His service was never serene and “smooth.” When Hieromonk Peter served in Novgorod, almost every month the Synod received anonymous denunciations against him.
The slanderers wrote, among other things, that Hieromonk Peter is a “false monk”, instills debauchery, hides a vile essence under the guise of holiness, and that they will never allow him to move up the hierarchical ladder: “we will remove his mitre, knock it off in the church... because he... wanted... to put on a golden hat, but we won’t allow this, we won’t allow it - we will give him the happiness of a ride to Solovki..." (later this plan was successfully implemented by the enemies of Father Peter)...
To give their slander a character of authenticity, the slanderers wrote a forged letter on behalf of a certain woman familiar to Father Peter. The Chief Prosecutor sent anonymous denunciations to Archbishop Gury (Okhotin) of Novgorod with a request to investigate.
After a conversation with Hieromonk Peter, the archbishop sent his conclusion on this case to the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, as well as to Moscow Metropolitan Vladimir, asking him “whether everything reported in the statements is not just slander, invented on the basis of hostile relations ... of certain persons or under the influence of the so-called liberation movement, as a result of which lies are often invented against the clergy in general and monastics in particular.”
The bishop also forwarded a letter from a woman who, having learned that forged letters were being sent on her behalf, wrote to Father Peter:
“Good Father Peter! I am extremely surprised by your news; neither to the Holy Synod, nor to the Chief Prosecutor, nor to anyone else, have I resolutely written any statements, especially those of vile content, and I have no reason to do so. Apparently, your enemies are trying in every possible way to harm you, since they decided to commit a forgery - this is what the anger of people leads to. I hope you are confident in my good feelings towards you and will never believe the slander..."
“As for the life of Hieromonk Peter in Novgorod from the time of his arrival to the post of inspector of the Novgorod seminary,” Archbishop Gury wrote to the Chief Prosecutor of the Synod, “I can testify that his life is completely ... consistent with his monastic rank.”
Despite the fact that the Synod decided the case in favor of Father Peter, denunciations continued for two years. The exhausted hieromonk Peter wrote a petition for his dismissal from the post of inspector of the Novgorod seminary. Soon, on December 5, 1907, Hieromonk Peter received a letter from an informer: “If you want to finish this matter off, then send three hundred rubles of money... Don’t contact the police...”
“And no, and there won’t be”
In 1909–16, Father Peter was the rector of the Belevsky Transfiguration Monastery of the Tula diocese. In 1910 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1916, a well-known preacher and missionary by that time, he received an offer to go for missionary service to the North American diocese. But the trip did not take place - instead of America, in 1916, Father Peter decided to go to the front as a preacher. He stayed at the front until the February Revolution of 1917.
After the end of hostilities, he returned to Central Russia. In 1917–18 he served as rector of the Tver Zheltikov Monastery. He was held hostage by the local Cheka and miraculously survived. He was noticed by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, ordained Bishop of Balakhninsky and sent as a vicar to the Nizhny Novgorod diocese at the disposal of the local bishop Evdokim (Meshchersky).
As a suffragan bishop, Vladyka Peter began to serve in the Pechersk Monastery. Upon arrival at the monastery, he discovered that the ancient Pechersk Cathedral in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God was badly neglected. The walls and ceiling were black with soot. The bishop turned to the people, asking them to help restore order; he himself was the first to climb the stairs and began to wash the ceiling... During Holy Week, the bishop went out to clear the snow from the monastery courtyard. Someone asked him:
Bishop of Balakhna Peter (Zverev). Photo: novoeblago.ru- Why are you working so hard, holy lord?
How can that be? It will be necessary to go with a religious procession on Holy Saturday, but there is snow all around, there is nowhere to go.
Such behavior of Bishop Peter quickly earned him the love of his flock. More people began to flock to his services than to the services of the ruling bishop. For all this, Archbishop Evdokim disliked the Hieromartyr Peter. He became jealous of his vicar and eventually hated him. People did not know about this and still invited them to serve together, which was a difficult test for both.
Vladyka Peter looked for a way out of this situation and, in the end, decided to do as Christ commanded. Before the beginning of Great Lent in 1920, on Forgiveness Sunday, His Eminence Evdokim served in the city, sending Bishop Peter to serve in Sormovo. Returning after the service on foot (he could not afford a cab in those years) to the Pechersky Monastery, Bishop Peter went to the Diveyevo courtyard, where the archbishop lived, to ask for forgiveness before the start of Lent.
Entering the chambers of Archbishop Evdokim, he turned to the icons, prayed, then bowed at the archbishop’s feet and, rising, said:
Christ is in our midst.
Instead of the usual: “And it is, and it will be,” the archbishop answered:
And no, and there won’t be.
Silently Bishop Peter turned and left. Subsequently, the paths of the rulers diverged completely - Archbishop Evdokim joined the renovationist schism.
"In support of Tikhon's counter-revolutionary policy"
Vladyka Peter was popular among the workers. He often served in Sormovo, his services and sermons always attracted a large number of people. When the authorities arrested the bishop in May 1921, the workers went on strike and stayed on strike for three days. The authorities promised the workers that they would release the bishop, but instead sent him to Moscow to the Cheka at the Lubyanka. The bishop was accused of inciting religious fanaticism for political purposes.
From Lubyanka the bishop was transferred to Butyrskaya prison, then to Taganskaya, then to Petrogradskaya... However, in 1922, due to popular unrest and persistent demands from the workers to return the bishop, the security officers released him. Upon his release from prison in January 1922, Bishop Peter was appointed Bishop of Staritsky, vicar of the Tver diocese.
There, in the summer of 1922, the bishop was actively involved in raising funds for the starving people of the Volga region. Despite protests from the “parish regulars,” he donated church utensils to the needs of the hungry - he tried to give everything except those items that were necessary for the performance of worship.
In the autumn of the same year, the renovationist schism came to the Tver diocese. On September 19, 1922, Bishop Peter addressed the Tver flock with an appeal, in which he explained the essence of the renovation movement and the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards it.
The text of the appeal was submitted to the censor of the Tver department of the GPU to obtain permission for publication. The GPU censorship refused to allow the bishop to publish the appeal “due to the fact that the appeal sets one part of the clergy and believers against another,” as the censor wrote.
The censor also ordered that Bishop Peter be held accountable for insubordination to Soviet power and for using pre-revolutionary spelling when writing.”
The accusation of writing a letter in pre-revolutionary spelling was insufficient, and the deputy head of the 6th department of the secret department of the GPU, Tuchkov, who was in charge of supervising the Church, demanded that the Tver GPU prove that Bishop Peter had distributed the appeal. GPU officers began interrogating priests close to the bishop.
On November 24, 1922, Bishop Peter was arrested. Arrested along with him were Archpriests Vasily Kupriyanov and Alexey Benemansky, the treasurer of the Novotorzhsky Boriso-Gleb Monastery, Hieromonk Veniamin (Troitsky), the bishop's secretary Alexander Preobrazhensky and Orthodox layman Alexey Sokolov.
On November 30, all those arrested were sent to Moscow and imprisoned in Butyrka prison. In December, they were charged with distributing an appeal from Bishop Peter of Tver under the title “To the faithful children of the Tver Church, beloved in the Lord,” directed “clearly against any renovationist movement in the church and in support of Tikhon’s counter-revolutionary policies.”
On February 26, 1923, the NKVD Commission on Administrative Expulsions sentenced Bishop Peter, priests Vasily Kupriyanov and Alexei Benemansky, layman Alexander Preobrazhensky to exile to Turkestan for two years, and layman Alexei Sokolov to exile for the same term in the Narym region.
After the verdict was announced, all prisoners were transferred to Taganskaya prison. In mid-March, Bishop Peter and other convicts were sent to Tashkent as part of a large convoy. The bishop spent two years in Turkestan, in the city of Perovsk. He suffered from scurvy and was left without teeth...
"Petrosveriada"
In 1924, Vladyka was released, returned to Moscow and was sent by Patriarch Tikhon to Voronezh to help the elderly Voronezh bishop Vladimir (Shinkovich). Vladyka Peter became the Voronezh vicar, and in 1926, after the death of Metropolitan Vladimir, he became the Archbishop of Voronezh and Zadonsk.
Under Archbishop Peter, the influence of the Renovationists in the Voronezh diocese fell sharply. A massive return of renovationist parishes to Orthodoxy began. In all the churches returning to Orthodoxy, masses of people greeted Archbishop Peter with a procession of the cross. All this aroused the anger of the renovationists. At their diocesan congress, the renovationists called the activities of Archbishop Peter in Voronezh “Petrosveriad.”
The hatred of the Renovationists for the ruler began to take dangerous forms. Several times Archbishop Peter received threatening letters, and there were cases when stones were thrown at him from the roof. In the end, the workers proposed establishing a guard for the bishop, who would accompany him on the street and stay overnight in his house in case of provocation.
On November 28, the newspaper Voronezh Commune, controlled by the Renovationists, published a libel against Bishop Peter. “Hold a show trial! Bring Peter Zverev to trial! And finally, immediately arrest Archbishop Peter Zverev,” demanded the lively correspondent. Upon learning of the publication, Archbishop Peter began to prepare for arrest.
That same night, OGPU officers came to him to conduct a search and arrest. When they started knocking on the door of the apartment, the bishop’s cell attendant, Archimandrite Innokenty, closed the door tightly, pushed the latch and did not let them in until the bishop burned all the letters and documents that could harm people. After the search, Archbishop Peter was taken to the OGPU.
At the end of March the investigation was completed. In the indictment, the investigator wrote: “The rise of church activism coincided with the arrival in the city of Voronezh of Pyotr Zverev, who arrived as the manager of the reactionary church of the province... Zverev’s name served as a flag during the performances of the Voronezh Black Hundreds...”
On April 4, 1927, the OGPU Board sentenced Archbishop Peter to ten years in the Solovetsky concentration camp. The bishop's cell attendant, Archimandrite Innokenty, who was arrested along with him, was sentenced to three years in prison on Solovki.
“The Lord calls to Himself”
In the spring of 1927, Archbishop Peter arrived at the Solovetsky concentration camp. He worked as a watchman - in shifts with Metropolitan Nazarius (Kirillov) of Kursk. Then, after the release of Archbishop Procopius (Titov), who worked as an accountant in a food warehouse where only the clergy worked (the reason was simple - the priests did not steal, which suited the camp authorities), Archbishop Peter was appointed in his place. He lived right there, in a room next to the warehouse, in a small room, together with the Bishop of Pechersk Gregory (Kozlov).
At that time, the Church of St. Onuphrius the Great was still operating on Solovki, reserved for civilian Solovetsky monks, and prayer during services in the temple became a great consolation for the bishop.
In 1928, a typhus epidemic began in Anzer; of the thousand prisoners on the island at that time, five hundred died during the winter of 1928–1929. In the fall, large mass graves were dug near the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, right behind the monastery cemetery, and the dead were placed there all winter, and the pits were covered with spruce branches on top.
In January 1929, Archbishop Peter also fell ill with typhus. He was taken to a hospital located in the former Golgotha-Crucifixion monastery.
In the same room as the archbishop lay a veterinarian, his spiritual son. On the day of the death of Archbishop Peter, February 7, at four o'clock in the morning he heard a noise, as if from a flock of birds flying in. He opened his eyes and saw the holy great martyr Barbara with many virgins, from whom he recognized the holy martyrs Anisia and Irina. The Great Martyr Varvara approached the bishop’s bedside and communed him with the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
On the same day at seven o'clock in the evening, Vladyka died. Before his death, he wrote several times on the wall with a pencil: “I don’t want to live anymore, the Lord is calling me to Himself.”
The funeral was scheduled for Sunday, February 10. One of the imprisoned priests went to the head of the 6th department to ask permission to hold a solemn funeral for the deceased and put a cross on the grave.
From the Kremlin, even when the bishop was ill, they sent a mantle and a small omophorion. In the workshop of the economic department they ordered to make a coffin and a cross. Three priests and two laymen received permission to participate in the funeral, but the solemn funeral service and burial in vestments were not allowed.
After some time, it became known that the head of the department ordered to throw the bishop’s body into a common grave, which by that time was already filled to the brim with the dead. In the evening, the priests went to the chief and demanded that the promise he had made earlier be fulfilled. He replied that, by his order, the common grave was already filled with earth and snow and he would not give permission to remove the body of Archbishop Peter from the common grave.
However, on the fifth day it became known that this order of the camp authorities had not been carried out. The grave was not buried - it was simply covered with spruce branches. The prisoners secretly went to the grave. Three priests went down into the pit and raised the body of Vladika Peter to the surface of the earth on a sheet. According to the story of the nun Arsenia who was present there, “all the dead were lying black, and Vladyka was lying... in a shirt, with his hands folded on his chest, white as boiling water.”
At that time, four people were digging a separate grave opposite the altar of the Church of the Resurrection.
The priests combed the bishop's hair, wiped his face from snow and pine needles, and began to dress him right in the snow. They put on a new purple robe, hood, omophorion, gave a cross, a rosary and the Gospel in their hands and served a requiem mass. Before placing the prayer of permission into the bishop’s hand, all three priests signed it.
Nun Arsenia asked:
Why are you signing? They don’t sign their names at prayer, do they?
They have replyed:
If time changes, the relics of the ruler will be found, and it will be known who buried him.
About twenty people gathered around the grave. After the requiem, whoever wanted to said a word, then they lowered the body of the hieromartyr into the grave, put a cross on it and made an inscription.
One of the priests who buried the archbishop later said that when they buried the grave, a pillar of light became visible above it, and Vladyka Peter appeared in it and blessed everyone.
In the spring of 1929, by order of the camp authorities, all crosses in the Solovetsky cemeteries were removed and used as firewood.
The relics of the Holy Martyr Peter were found June 17 1999 during archaeological excavations. For ten years they were in the church of the Holy Martyr Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky stauropegial monastery.
On August 9, 2009, the relics of St. Peter were moved to the place of his last episcopal ministry - to Voronezh and placed in the Voronezh Alexievo-Akatov Monastery.
The ark with the relics for the veneration of believers was placed in the chapel, consecrated in 2007 in honor of the new martyrs of Voronezh. It is assumed that after the consecration of the Cathedral of the Annunciation they will be transferred to the new cathedral in the city of Voronezh.
In 1999, Archbishop Peter (Zverev) was glorified as a locally revered saint of the Voronezh diocese.
In 2000, the Council of Bishops canonized Saint Peter New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
Through the years, the lines of a letter written by St. Peter on the distant island of Anzer are heard: “Thank God for everything that I had to endure and worry about during this time... But all of this absolutely must be endured... Don’t live as you want, but as God commands.”
Prayer to Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev)
Mosaic of the chapel of the new martyrs of Voronezh (Alexievo-Akatov Monastery, Voronezh). In the center is St. Peter (Zverev). In this chapel are the relics of the Holy Martyr Peter.
O venerable Peter, glorious hieromartyr, one from the host of the new martyrs of Solovetsky and the whole Russian land, praise to the city of Voronezh, wondrous shepherd of the flock of Christ, faithful servant of God, zealous protector of the Orthodox Church! Your entire life is filled with love for the Lord and suffering for Christ: having endured much torment, illness and sorrow, exile and imprisonment for His sake, the confessor fearlessly appeared, you crowned the Russian Church with the crown of your incorruptible glory. Having betrayed everything into the hand of God, you have performed your valiant service on earth, and at Golgotha Anzerstei you were honored to receive martyrdom, O blessed one.
Now counted among the Heavenly Face, you abide in the Kingdom of Divine love, with many inhabitants of mountainous Jerusalem, waiting for the fulfillment of the sacrifice of martyrdom for Christ: when all that is to be will be accomplished within the bounds of the earth. O Most Holy Father Peter, help us to keep the temple of our hearts undeserted, teach us to find joy in suffering for Christ, illuminate our path on the cross with the radiance of your shrine.
Let us now be strengthened in faith, so that when the Lord comes he will find it unquenched. Beg the Creator of all things to grant us strength and strength, unafraid of the fear of the evil one, to firmly confess Christ, so that by His mercy we may be delivered from some of the evil on the terrible day of retribution and dwell in eternal joy, glorifying the Almighty God in everything and your gracious intercession forever and ever. Amen.
Troparion to the Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev), tone 4
By fiery faith like the Apostle Peter,
also by hearing the proclamation of Christ three times,
Thou hast laid down thy soul for Him, O holy Father Peter,
to the hard stone of the Orthodox Church: shining with virtues in the darkness of iniquity,
You deigned to endure the joy of suffering for Christ, together with the Russian confessors and passion-bearers.
Pray with them for us, Hieromartyr Solovetsky, Bishop of God.
Kontakion, tone 8
In thy holiness, thou hast striven for good, wisely, /
and you were brightly adorned with the crown of martyrdom, /
not being afraid of the rebuke of Christ’s enemies, /
with your blood you sanctified the land of your father anzerstem; /
For this reason, for the sake of the power of heaven, I was amazed at your patience, /
We flow with faith and love to your holy relics, most wonderful. /
Now, together with all the Solovetsky saints, pray to Christ God for us,
All-blessed Peter, let us call you: //
Rejoice, Father of everlasting memory.
Life of the Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev), Archbishop of Voronezh
Hieromartyr Peter (in the world Vasily Konstantinovich Zverev) was born on February 18, 1878 in the family of a priest who served first in the church in the village of Vishnyaki near Moscow, and then was appointed rector of the Alexander Nevsky Church at the house of the Moscow governor. After the assassination of the Governor General of Moscow, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, Father Konstantin went to serve in the Sergius Church at the Chudov Monastery in the Kremlin.
Father Konstantin Zverev and his wife Anna had four children: three sons - Arseny, Cassian, Vasily, and daughter Varvara. The brothers' characters were determined in childhood and were very different. Arseny loved to write various papers and became an official. Cassian played in the war - and became an officer, he was killed at the front in 1414. Vasily loved to play church service.
In early childhood, he was in a hurry to get to the parish church in Vishnyaki before the beginning of the service and always went to the service with his father. The bell ringer, seeing the priest walking, struck the bell three times, and the boy believed that they were ringing his father twice, and the third time for him.
Subsequently, he sometimes told children about himself for edification. “As a child, I was very fat and plump, and adults loved to squeeze me, but I really didn’t like it. And then I saw a dream. The Savior in blue and red clothes was sitting at the table and holding me in his arms. And under the table was a scary dog. The Savior takes my hand and extends it under the table to the dog with the words: “Eat it, it fights.” I woke up and from then on I never fought, but tried to restrain myself in everything, not to get angry and not to do anything bad. To you boys, I always want to try smoking. And our father was strict, he once told us: “If anyone smokes, I’ll tear my lips off!” But I still wanted to try. I smoked a cigarette and went to church. It was Forgiveness Sunday. They sang: “Don’t turn Your face away from Your servant, for I grieve, hear me soon..." This was my favorite song. But then I became unbearably dizzy, and I had to leave the temple. Since then I have not tried smoking."
In 1895, Vasily graduated from high school and entered the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University. In 1899, Vasily Konstantinovich submitted a petition with a request to enroll him in the first year of the Kazan Theological Academy, and after testing tests, the council of the Kazan Theological Academy decided to admit him to the number of students. A year later he was tonsured a monk with the name Peter and ordained to the rank of hieromonk. In 1902, Hieromonk Peter was awarded the degree of candidate of theology with the right to teach at the seminary for his dissertation “An Exegetical Analysis of the First Two Chapters of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews.” After graduating from the academy, Hieromonk Peter was appointed as a teacher at the Oryol Theological Seminary. In 1903, he was transferred to the Prince Vladimir Church at the Moscow Diocesan House with assignment to the post of diocesan missionary. In 1907, Hieromonk Peter became an inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary. In June 1909, the Holy Synod decided to appoint Hieromonk Peter to the position of rector of the Belevsky Transfiguration Monastery of the Tula diocese.
The monastery was located not far from the Optina Hermitage, and the abbot had a constant opportunity to communicate with the Optina elders. The elders, in turn, highly appreciated the spiritual disposition of Hieromonk Peter and often sent people to him for spiritual guidance. He repeatedly visited the Sarov and Diveevsky monasteries, having special trust in Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna Diveevskaya, and she repaid him with reciprocal affection. The blessed one gave him a canvas made by her, from which a bishop's vestment was subsequently sewn for him, and he carefully kept it, intending to be buried in it.
On Sunday, August 8, 1910, Bishop Parthenius (Levitsky) elevated Hegumen Peter to the rank of archimandrite in the Church of the Cross.
On October 19, 1910, in Belev, on the initiative of the chairman of the school council in favor of the city’s church schools, Archimandrite Peter gave a lecture on the topic “Eldership and Elder Ambrose of Optina as its main representative.” The lecture was a huge success, and Bishop Parthenius, who was present at it, addressed the audience with a word in which he expressed his joy at such a crowded meeting, testifying that people in Belev do not live only with earthly concerns, but are also interested in religious issues.
On the day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the solemn consecration of the Transfiguration Cathedral took place in the monastery, which by this time, through the efforts of the rector, had been carefully repaired and decorated.
Archimandrite Peter did not limit his ministry to the walls of the monastery entrusted to his care, but often visited the rural churches of Belevsky district. One of the witnesses describes his service in the village of Peskovatoye as follows: “May 18 and 19, 1913 will forever remain in the memory of the parish. The fame of the service of Archimandrite Peter, his affectionate, attentive treatment of the common people created for him enormous popularity not only in Belevsky district. Peasants, like the last class, need help, and especially spiritual. They come to Father Peter with requests to pray for them, sometimes to talk and tell about their truly bitter life. And no one leaves Father Peter unconsoled. Archimandrite Peter arrived in the village at six o'clock evening, and the all-night vigil immediately began. A choir of ten girls came with him.
The temple in the village of Peskovaty stands on a mountain above the Oka. Nearby is a pine forest. All the doors of the temple are wide open. The sun's rays glide through the countless rows of people who could not fit into the church. There is no usual whispering and indifference to the service. Familiar prayers are sung by all the people. While singing “Glory to God in the highest...” everyone kneels down. Great words, a mass of kneeling people praying with all their hearts, with all their thoughts, are so touching and pacifying that you involuntarily pray.
It was getting dark. Archimandrite Peter came out onto the porch and headed towards the priest’s house, followed by all the people singing “Christ is Risen.” And this joyful singing could be heard far around the area.
The next day the liturgy was celebrated. There were even more people than the day before. After the dismissal, Archimandrite Peter came out to the pulpit and began to speak. Simple words, clear eyes. He spoke about Christ the Savior, about the squalor of the church in the parish and, finally, moved on to denouncing heresies. Most of all he talked about the local sectarians - the Skoptsy and the Khlysty. Vividly and convincingly, Archimandrite Peter refuted the fact that the sectarians took credit and justification for themselves; he painted a picture of falsehood, selfishness, parasitism, fanaticism, harm to the body and soul, which, due to their ignorance and fanatical blindness, these sects cause to their supporters. During the sermon, one of the eunuchs squeezed his way to the exit and dejectedly trudged home. The impression from the sermon was enormous."
During one of the epidemics that occurred at that time, Archimandrite Peter addressed the population with a special word: “We are still receiving reports from different places that contagious diseases are spreading throughout our country, taking entire thousands of people to their graves. It is not surprising that With such a terrible phenomenon, people become worried and try to come up with all sorts of means to ward off the approaching thunderstorm... But our grief is that we keep inventing the wrong remedy that would really save us from a terrible disease that has no mercy on anyone. we try to use different serums and vaccinations... All commissions and the overwhelming majority of private people completely leave aside only the spiritual principle in a person - his soul, they just don’t want to think about it, and by the way, they cannot want to think about it, since , it seems, they do not even suspect that they have it and need care much more than the body... They have become so far from everything spiritual that they cannot believe that the main and only evil of all illnesses, misfortunes and suffering on earth there is sin, which must be destroyed, which must be fought at all costs, with all our might, no matter how difficult it may be. And all these vibrios, microbes and bacilli are only a tool and means in the hands of God’s Providence, seeking the salvation of the human soul. God knows that earthly life is dear to us, that the body is dear to us, and this is where He directs His blows, so that we come to our senses and repent. By sending pestilence to people, the Lord thereby reminds us to always have death before our eyes, and after it the Last Judgment, which will be followed by the eternal punishment of unrepentant sinners... It is to Him that we must first of all turn with a prayer for mercy and aversion His righteous wrath. But when praying, we must try to be worthy of God’s mercy. It is necessary to acknowledge your sins, repent of them, and decide to lead your life according to the commandments of the Gospel. Repentance must be combined with fasting and abstinence, and one must renounce, at least for a while, various pleasures, games, shows and idle pastimes. But somehow it becomes scary from what you see around: on the one hand, they seem to be afraid of contagious, destructive diseases, afraid of death and at the same time indulge in unbridled fun, amusements, spectacles, completely forgetting their sacred duties according to their rank Orthodox Christians... Although it has been said and discussed an infinite number of times that our intelligentsia is far from the people and does not know or understand them, but once again I want to shout so that those who should hear will finally hear: “But wait, For God's sake, be conscientious and impartial, come down from the height of your greatness and listen to what the people say! ..
Have mercy, have mercy on the people's soul! You talk about enlightenment, you grieve that our people are dark, you build schools, and at the same time you introduce darkness into their midst, corrupt them, replace the truth of Christ with the lies of paganism, contribute to the return of the people to pagan morals!.. And how could you not? be deadly plagues in our country when we retreat from God and incur His righteous wrath?! We must also be amazed at the immeasurable patience of God, that He mercifully punishes us, we must warmly thank Him that it does not completely destroy us, and tearfully beg Him not to allow the evil deed to come true and to open the heartfelt eyes of those who are entrusted with the care of the people’s soul. Let us all repent and correct ourselves, and turn to God, from whom we have departed!”
Like any ascetic, a man of deep faith, Archimandrite Peter was interested in the feat of others. About one of the humble ministers of the Tula diocese, Archpriest Alexy, he considered it necessary to write a note and publish it for the edification of others in the diocesan bulletins. “The other day a village archpriest, Father Alexy, came to see me,” wrote Archimandrite Peter. Tall, slender, thin, all gray, with kind, soulful eyes, humble, affable, good-natured - he made the best impression on me. For a long time he is a priest, but he is a priest in a poor parish: “My income is equal to the income of psalm-readers in the surrounding villages,” he said, “but I have never looked for a better parish for myself; I believe that the Lord blessed me to work here. Oh, how many graces of God I have seen upon myself! I remember you for a long time, and I remember your parent. (I must say that we only met for the first time, and until now I had never even heard of Father Archpriest.) I have this rule - I remember everyone. I remember more than seven hundred living ones, and I don’t know how many who died. It's not difficult. You know, they're all written down. At the proskomedia, during the Cherubic song and “It is worthy,” I read, and then I sigh (here the archpriest’s father put his hand to his chest, turned his eyes to the sky, and his whole gaze somehow brightened - as if he saw the Lord and asked Him for the living and the departed), then I read again and sigh again; I always do. I was recently made an archpriest. This was done by my Eminence, who drew attention to the fact that I never celebrate a single wedding without the bride and groom knowing the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer by heart and with explanations. It’s difficult to teach them, but still they learn... All the clothes I’m wearing are someone else’s, I can’t make them for myself - I have no money, but thank God for everything.” Indeed, Father Archpriest is dressed very poorly. When we began to part, Father Archpriest came up to the icons, venerated, prayed and began to sincerely wish me heavenly gifts from God.
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All the greatness and beauty of the old man’s soul clearly emerged before me. I imagined the following: a poor rural parish, one hundred and fifty miles away from the provincial town, rude village people, more and more corrupted in recent years, constant work, troubles, services, demands, housekeeping, classes with parishioners, shortcomings, so that by the end of his life, not only had he not saved up for a rainy day, but he didn’t even have the funds to make clothes for himself: meager funds were needed by the orphans who still had to be raised, and also by his poor children in the Lord. In addition to poverty, in old age there is still pain in the legs, which the archpriest speaks about somehow good-naturedly, as if it is not his, as if it is not his legs that are being taken away. These, so to speak, are all external sorrows, but how many invisible, internal sorrows, which there is no strength to talk about, because there are so many of them and they are so well understood by everyone! Think now, what kind of strength of soul should there be, what kind of greatness of spirit, what kind of steadfastness in achieving the set goal, what kind of devotion to the will of God, what kind of humility, faith, patience, compassion, love for God-given parishioners, if, despite all the hardships and labors, deprivation, sorrow and adversity, Father Archpriest did not succumb to the evil spirit that so often seduces many of us, was not seduced by wealth, glory, or vestment decoration, but remained until the end of his days at his post, in the wilderness, in the unknown, in labor , among his beloved flock, remained to share with them until the grave all their needs, sorrows and joys!
And what is his selflessness! He prays for the living and the dead, known and unknown, he prays selflessly, without hope not only of receiving gratitude for his good deed, but even without the hope that those living for whom he offers prayers will know about it. He prays simply because prayer is his breath, because, as a shepherd, he considers it necessary to pray, because he knows that everything is from God, he knows what great significance prayer has for the living and especially for the dead, who are themselves They can no longer help. He prays not only for relatives or acquaintances, no, he even prays for those whom he has never seen or known. He knows only one thing, that they need prayer, and he modestly, quietly, imperceptibly does a good deed, gives alms.
And it is with these prayer books that the world still stands; it is with them that our faith and life are supported...
Such ascetics and prayer books can be raised and developed only by Orthodoxy. And God grant that there be as many of them as possible."
From the very beginning of hostilities in 1914, an infirmary with twelve beds was built in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, of which five were fully maintained by the monastery.
In October 1916, the Holy Synod decided to send Archimandrite Peter to the disposal of Bishop Evdokim (Meshchersky) of the Aleutians for missionary service in the North American diocese. But the trip did not take place, and instead of America in 1916, Father Peter went to the front as a preacher, where he stayed until the February Revolution of 1917.
In 1917, Archimandrite Peter was appointed rector of the Assumption Monastery in Tver. Here he first had to experience the hardship of captivity: he was imprisoned as a hostage.
On February 14, 1919, in Moscow, in the patriarchal chambers at the Trinity Compound, Archimandrite Peter was named bishop. The next day, on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, he was consecrated by the holy Patriarch Tikhon as Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, where at that time the ruling bishop was Archbishop Evdokim (Meshchersky), whom the Bishop knew well from his service in Belev, when he was Bishop of Kashira , vicar of the Tula diocese.
Bishop Peter was tall, thin, with long hair that he never cut, a reddish beard, and clear blue eyes. He had a very strong voice and good diction; when he had to serve in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and he preached a sermon, every word could be heard throughout the temple.
In Nizhny Novgorod, the bishop settled in the Pechersky Monastery on the banks of the Volga. The place is memorable for recent events: Bishop Lavrenty (Knyazev), who was shot by the Bolsheviks on November 6, 1918, lived here.
In ancient times, the Pechersky Monastery was located two miles from Nizhny Novgorod, but about three hundred years ago a collapse occurred, the monastery buildings collapsed into the Volga, only one temple remained, and the monks settled closer to the city, in the so-called Near Pechery. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the monastery fell into decay. The brethren were small in number, and several monks came with Bishop Peter. Immediately upon his arrival, the bishop started a statutory service in the monastery. He served on all major and minor holidays, during the all-night vigil he always stood in the church in the abbot’s place opposite the revered icon of the Pechersk Mother of God, and often read the Six Psalms himself.
It was difficult for professional singers to withstand long services, and the bishop attracted the people to participate in the services. Behind the right choir they placed a lectern, and here the guide was located; all those who were diligent in singing and reading came here. On minor holidays the service lasted about five hours, on Sundays - six hours, and on the twelfth holidays - seven, that is, from five o'clock in the evening to twelve at night.
The bishop served slowly, pronouncing each word separately and loudly. During the censing he walked slowly, so that they had time to sing the entire polyeleos psalm. “Praise the name of the Lord,” the whole people sang in two choirs in Athonite chant, both psalms in full. During the first hour and after the liturgy, the bishop blessed the people. Attaching great importance to the participation of parishioners in divine services, the bishop tried to establish the same popular singing in other churches of the diocese. With the blessing of Archbishop Evdokim of Nizhny Novgorod, he addressed a message to the deans of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, urging them to introduce nationwide singing in their deaneries, and explained to them its benefits.
On weekdays, the bishop served liturgy in the house church. Every holiday after the service he preached a sermon. In the monastery he started teaching children the law of God, and he taught it himself. The children became so attached to him that they often gathered in crowds at his porch, waiting to see if the bishop would go somewhere to accompany him. On the way, he told them something, often from his life.
Sometimes Bishop Peter served all-night vigils all night. On the Nativity of Christ, the all-night vigil began at ten o'clock in the evening, and immediately after it the liturgy was served. Despite such long services and the simplest singing, the temple was always full of people. The bishop never read akathists for the all-night vigil, but he demanded that the kathismas be read out in full; Akathists were read only at prayer services. Bishop Peter especially loved the Psalter, which reflects all the diversity of emotional experiences and circumstances in which a person has to find himself; a divinely inspired book, it teaches us how and what to ask God for. Once a bishop was invited to serve in one of the churches and at the all-night vigil they almost completely skipped the kathisma. Bishop Peter called the abbot and said to him: “Why don’t you love King David? Love King David.”
The bishop always served funeral services in full, according to the rules, with the seventeenth kathisma, without any abbreviations. “Who will serve such a memorial service for me?” - he said. When he had to perform a funeral service for someone, he served without the slightest haste. He loved to pray with the Church in the words of church hymnographers and holy ascetics; in these words, as in the church statutes, there was an immense life; in them, even on earth, the heavenly was felt. While in Voronezh, Vladyka told his cell attendant, Father Innocent: “Your Peter is sinful in everything, but he never violated the rules.”
In the Pechersky Monastery, the ancient cathedral in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God was greatly neglected at that time. The walls and ceiling were black with soot. The bishop turned to the people, asking them to help restore order, and he was the first to climb the ladder and wash part of the ceiling. Shortly before Easter, the bishop himself went out to clear the snow from the monastery courtyard. Someone asked him:
Why are you working so hard, holy master?
How can that be? It will be necessary to go with a religious procession on Holy Saturday, but there is snow all around, there is nowhere to go.
Shortly before the Feast of the Dormition, daily prayer services with an akathist to the Mother of God began to be served in the church, following the example of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra - this is how the bishop, together with the people, prepared for the celebration of the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
Sincere, unslothful service, sincerity in faith, humility, openness to everyone - all this the people immediately felt, appreciated and loved in the bishop. They began to invite him to all patronal feasts in city churches. They invited him, and the diocesan bishop was also invited, but Archbishop Evdokim did not like the increasing popularity of Bishop Peter among the believers; he became jealous of his vicar and eventually hated him. People did not know about this and still invited them to serve together. It was an ordeal for both of them when they had to stand together in the pulpit.
Vladyka Peter looked for a way out of this situation and decided to do as Christ commanded. Before the beginning of Great Lent in 1920, on Forgiveness Sunday, His Eminence Evdokim served in the city, sending Bishop Peter to serve in Sormovo, which was then located quite far from Nizhny Novgorod. There were no cab drivers at that time, and the bishop went to church on foot for services. Returning after service to the Pechersky Monastery, he went to the Diveyevo courtyard, where the archbishop lived, to ask for forgiveness before Lent. He entered the chambers of Archbishop Evdokim, turned to the icons, prayed, then bowed at the archbishop’s feet and, rising, said:
Christ is in our midst.
Instead of the usual: “And it is, and it will be,” the archbishop answered:
And no, and there won’t be.
Silently Bishop Peter turned and left.
Subsequently, as is known, Archbishop Evdokim fell away from the Orthodox Church, deviating into the Renovationist schism.
The first week of Lent has begun. Bishop Peter served every day, services lasted thirteen to fourteen hours a day.
He often served in Sormovo, and many workers, having gotten to know him better, fell in love with him. When the authorities arrested the bishop in May 1921, the workers went on strike and stayed on strike for three days. The authorities promised the workers that they would release the bishop, but instead sent him to Moscow to the Cheka at the Lubyanka. He was accused of inciting religious fanaticism for political purposes.
At Lubyanka, Bishop Peter was sitting in a cell with a certain sailor. For fun, they made themselves spillikins from broken glass and took them away with straws. While they were together, they talked. These conversations ended with the Bishop taking off his pectoral cross and putting it on the sailor.
From Lubyanka the bishop was transferred to Butyrka prison, then to Taganskaya. When he was taken away from Butyrka prison, all the prisoners in the cell said goodbye to him, many cried, even the guards came to say goodbye. “I remembered then the farewell of the Apostle Peter,” the bishop said, talking about his time in prison.
At that time, up to twelve bishops and many clergy gathered in the Tagansk prison. Believers handed over prosphora and vestments to the prison, and the clergy performed a cathedral service in the cell. There were so many bishops standing around the small table that there was nowhere to put the service books. There was not a single deacon. Then the metropolitan began the great litany, and then all the bishops, according to their seniority, said the litany in turn.
In the Tagansk prison, the bishop became seriously ill from exhaustion, boils formed on his head, and he was admitted to the hospital. At the end of July, Bishop Peter was assigned to a convoy to Petrograd. Before departure, a meeting was allowed, and the bishop’s spiritual children came. When he was taken out of the Taganskaya prison, they approached the bishop and walked with him through the entire city to the Nikolaevsky station, accompanied by a convoy. The soldiers guarding the bishop did not interfere with this and did not prevent them from talking. There were still a few hours left before the train departed, and they were allowed to spend them together. The bishop talked a lot about his time in prison and at the end of the conversation he said: “How I would like to open my heart and show you how suffering cleanses the heart.”
The bishop remained in Petrograd prison until January 4, 1922, and on the day of remembrance of the Great Martyr Anastasia the Pattern Maker he was released and went to Moscow. He served the all-night vigil and liturgy for the Nativity of Christ in the Church of the Martha and Mary Convent, and on the second day of the holiday - in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In Moscow, he received from the Patriarch an appointment to be Bishop of Staritsky, vicar of the Tver diocese.
Having left for Tver, Vladyka again settled in the Assumption Zheltikov Monastery, where in 1918 he was rector. Here he immediately set about improving the services of worship, introducing the same rules that he had in Nizhny Novgorod. The people remembered him and greeted him with joy. In Tver, Bishop Peter introduced statutory worship and the pious custom of pilgrimage to local shrines.
He himself sometimes went with his spiritual children to Torzhok, sixty kilometers away. They walked, the dear Bishop read an akathist to St. Euthymius, and the Orthodox Christians accompanying him sang the chorus. In Maryino they stopped for the night and the next day came to Torzhok.
In the spring of 1922, the extent of a new disaster became obvious to everyone - the famine that befell the Lower Volga region, and Bishop Peter decided, without waiting for either the permission of the secular authorities or any orders from the church authorities, to provide all possible assistance to the starving population. The ruling bishop, Archbishop Seraphim (Alexandrov), was not in the city at that time, and Bishop Peter actually ruled the diocese. In March, he convened a meeting of members of the chancellery that existed under the Tver Archbishop; it was decided to immediately begin collecting donations. It was decided to organize a series of general education lectures so that all proceeds would go to help the starving. They decided to send out an appeal from Archbishop Seraphim to the abbess of the monasteries with an appeal to accept the children of the starving Volga region into the monastery.
On March 31, 1922, Bishop Peter addressed the Tver flock with a message, which was sent to all parishes and monasteries of the diocese. During this difficult time, he announced that he would serve every day all week as a priest, morning and evening. It happened that one of the parishioners, seeing that the bishop was in need, cut off half of the bread from his meager ration of one hundred grams and, wrapped in clean paper, gave it to the bishop. Bishop Peter did not refuse: he would thank, smile and take a piece of fifty grams of bread - often this was his food for the whole day. He began to serve at nine o'clock in the morning and ended at four o'clock in the afternoon. Every day he addressed people with a sermon asking them to help the hungry. It happened that parishioners, listening to the bishop, cried and gave their last.
He himself donated all the valuables from the temple to the starving people. Some reproached him for this. He then said: “We have them like this. They are superfluous. They are not needed. With us, that means they will stand, but there people are dying of hunger.” In one of his sermons, he said: “One boy’s dad died. Then his mother died. The neighbors carried his mother to the cemetery, and the boy followed the coffin. And when everyone left, he stayed. He sat on the grave and cried. And he sent a letter to the Lord, where wrote: "Lord! God! Why don’t you come, because mom said that you would come, but you don’t come. I’m waiting and waiting for You, but You don’t come.” And so he sat on his mother’s grave, cried and said: “Mom, do you hear, I sent the Lord a letter, but He doesn’t come.” So he sat and cried and finally fell asleep .
Soon a man came, woke up the boy and asked him why he was sleeping there. And the boy told him everything.
“So,” said the man, “the Lord sent me to you.” And he took the boy to himself and raised him.
You see how you need to ask the Lord and how a child’s prayer reaches the Lord.”
In the middle of summer, the employees of the diocesan administration, all those who did not participate in the divine services, found themselves without a livelihood, and the bishop turned to the dean of the diocese with a request for help.
In the summer of 1922, the renovationist split began; schismatics, with the support of the Soviet authorities, began to destroy the Church. In June 1922, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), Archbishop Seraphim (Meshcheryakov) and Archbishop Evdokim (Meshchersky) issued an appeal in which they recognized the legitimacy of the renovationist VCU as the highest church authority.
Some priests - some under the influence of seductive arguments, some under the threat of physical harm - joined renovationism. Bishop Peter immediately banned such people from the priesthood, making the fact of the ban widely public in order to warn the Orthodox laity about the danger of their falling away from the Church.
On September 19, 1922, Bishop Peter addressed the Tver flock with an appeal, in which he explained the essence of the renovation movement and the attitude of the Orthodox Church towards it. The text of the appeal was submitted to the censor of the Tver department of the GPU to obtain permission for publication. The GPU censorship refused to allow the bishop to publish the appeal: “In view of the fact that the appeal pits one part of the clergy and believers against another,” the censor wrote, “which is prohibited by the decree on the separation of church and state, which grants the right to every citizen and society to believe what he wants.” , and pray to whom and how he wants, to refuse to print this appeal, and to hold Bishop Peter accountable for disobedience to the government, for using pre-revolutionary spelling when writing.”
The accusation of writing a letter in pre-revolutionary spelling was insufficient, and the deputy head of the 6th department of the secret department of the GPU, Tuchkov, who was in charge of supervising the Church, demanded that the Tver GPU prove that Bishop Peter had distributed the appeal. The GPU began to interrogate priests close to the bishop. The first to be interrogated was the rector of the Vladimir Church, Archpriest Vasily Kupriyanov. The investigator asked what his attitude was towards the Soviet regime.
“I obey according to my Christian conscience,” answered the priest.
How do you look at the renovation movement and the VCU?
I do not recognize VCU as a self-proclaimed organization.
What can you say about the unauthorized appeal of Bishop Peter... and do you consider it criminal, since it sets both the clergy and the laity against each other?
On my part, I don’t find any crime.
How is the appeal distributed among the clergy?
I don’t know the distributors, and I also don’t know if it was distributed.
Again the investigator asked about the renovation VCU. Finally, the priest got tired of this, and he wrote: “If the VCU is the administration of the State Church, then this should be announced, and then all those who obey the Soviet government will naturally obey the VCU. And since the Church is currently considered by law to be separated from the state, then the VCU for me is an unknown organization; it is unknown by what laws and rules it was organized; according to church canons, as having no beginning in the church Council power, it is for me a painful, self-inflicted organization, to the detriment of the correct relationship between the Soviet government and the Orthodox Church ".
During the interrogation, it was enough to show the slightest sympathy for the process of renewal and reform, as the investigators immediately asked:
How do you propose to carry out the renovation movement?
“The convening of the Council, and until the convening of such a council, I do not recognize the VCU and consider it self-proclaimed,” answered priest Alexei Benemansky, summoned for questioning by the GPU in the case of Bishop Peter.
The local GPU was afraid to arrest the bishop and conduct business in Tver and on November 15 informed Tuchkov: “Bishop Peter has been convicted by the preliminary investigation of distributing an appeal not permitted by censorship and one of these days will be arrested with the whole bunch of Tikhonovites. We ask for your permission to convey Bishop Peter with his company and everything material immediately after the arrest to you in order to avoid inciting fanatics."
On the same day, the secret department of the GPU responded that it proposed “to expel Bishop Peter and other persons involved in this case” to Moscow. On November 24, 1922, the bishop was arrested. Arrested along with him were Archpriests Vasily Kupriyanov and Alexey Benemansky, the treasurer of the Novotorzhsky Boriso-Gleb Monastery, Hieromonk Veniamin (Troitsky), the bishop's secretary Alexander Preobrazhensky and Alexey Sokolov. The next day, investigators questioned the bishop.
What is your view and attitude towards Soviet power?
Like the workers' and peasants' government, which I fully recognize and submit to.
Your personal financial assistance to the hungry?
There was one case in Vyshny Volochyok, where a lot was donated for the benefit of the hungry - five million rubles, officially recorded by the collectors. Subsequently, my help to the starving was expressed in giving approximately a million rubles each time on a plate during divine services, and there were even cases when starving people turned to me directly in my chambers for help and received it. Sometimes in the form of clothes or bread and money. But my main merit is not personal help, but the call of the clergy and laity to help the hungry.
What is your livelihood?
I receive my livelihood in the form of money allocated in parishes for the maintenance of the diocese, and I received this for the entire period of 22, in the amount of about thirty million rubles, and secondly, the help of individual believers (but not the clergy). The help of believers consists of giving me bread, potatoes and other products... I have no other sources. All the furnishings in the chambers, such as furniture, tables, carpets, etc., belong to the monastery...
What is your attitude to the renewal movement of the clergy in general and, in particular, to the organization of the Higher Church Administration?
I consider the renewal movement necessary in the Church, but within the framework of the inviolability of dogmas. I consider the VCU to be a canonically illegal and self-proclaimed institution until it is recognized by the Local Council of the Russian Church.
What did you do to counteract the activities of the VCU and what was the reason for organizing the Council under the bishop?
He did not obey the orders of the VCU, but did not undertake any counteraction to its activities. The bishop's council was elected by the clergy and laity on August 17 of this year at my request, due to my ill condition. The election of the Council did not occur on my initiative, since I did not ask to elect a Council, but only people to help me. The said Council has never met, as far as I know, due to non-registration by the authorities.
The reason for the active struggle, that is, in word and deed, with supporters of the VCU?
Their heretical teaching, that is, the denial of heaven and hell and the like; In addition, they are, in my opinion, political figures, which I deduce from a number of articles and notes both in the Living Church magazine and in periodicals.
What is your view and attitude towards Patriarch Tikhon?
I recognize him as the head of the Russian Church in church affairs.
When did you become aware of the censorship of your latest appeal?
Who and where copied the appeal from your draft on a typewriter, in what number of copies and how were they distributed?
One of the pilgrims asked me to copy it for submission to the military censor and present it to me in print.
How many times and where did you personally read the above appeal?
Only once in the Church of St. Nicholas on the Platz.
Which member of the Bishop's Council currently keeps diocesan correspondence and those letters that were not found in the envelopes during the search?
There is no Episcopal Council in the diocese, and therefore all correspondence, including messages in envelopes that were found during the search, I transferred to the office with resolutions.
Where did you receive information about the results of the dissemination or influence of your appeal?
I don't know anything at all.
On November 30, those arrested were sent to Moscow and imprisoned in Butyrka prison. In December, they were charged with distributing an appeal from Bishop Peter of Tver under the title “To the faithful children of the Tver Church, beloved in the Lord,” directed “clearly against any renovationist movement in the church and in support of Tikhon’s counter-revolutionary policy.”
On February 26, 1923, the NKVD Commission on Administrative Expulsions sentenced Bishop Peter, priests Vasily Kupriyanov and Alexei Benemansky, layman Alexander Preobrazhensky to exile to Turkestan for two years, and layman Alexei Sokolov to exile to the Narym region for the same period.
After the verdict was announced, all prisoners were transferred to Taganskaya prison. In mid-March, during the fifth week of Lent, during the “Stay of Mary of Egypt,” Bishop Peter was sent to Tashkent as part of a large convoy. Before departure, we were given a personal meeting with spiritual children. The bishop had vitamin deficiency due to malnutrition, and his entire head was bandaged. The stage was accompanied by a reinforced convoy, and during the entire journey from the Taganskaya prison to the Kazansky station, from where the train departed, none of those accompanying them were allowed to approach the convicts.
In April the convoy arrived at the Tashkent prison. On Easter Thursday, everyone was summoned from prison to the GPU commandant's office. Here the convicts were told where to go next. Moreover, they took a subscription, according to which they had to leave Tashkent on the same day. At the commandant’s office it turned out that they were being sent into exile to different places. Bishop Peter was assigned to go to Perovsk, Archpriest Alexey Benemansky went to Samarkand. But be that as it may, after five months of imprisonment they left the prison walls for the first time. Coming out of the GPU commandant's office, we crossed ourselves - thank God for everything - and went to look for our friends. They would probably have searched for a long time if the Lord had not sent a woman they knew to meet them at the very beginning of their search.
She led them to the house at the cathedral, where a room had been prepared for them. Members of the cathedral clergy and pious parishioners were already waiting for them in the house. Lunch was prepared for the arrival of the exiles, and the parishioners brought a lot of Easter cakes, tea, sugar, and gave all the exiles a shirt made from local fabric.
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The manifestation of love for the visiting confessors was so obvious and so great that it became clearer than ever that only Christians could treat each other with such selfless love. Some stayed with those who arrived, others, taking their documents, went to the station to buy tickets. The train to Samarkand, which Archpriest Alexey Benemansky was supposed to take, departed at eleven o'clock at night. There were no tickets for the train that the bishop was supposed to take, and he was forced to stay. At seven o'clock in the evening they began to say goodbye. Bishop Peter said a word to those departing, and Archpriest Alexey said a response. The bishop began to cry, and everyone present began to cry. They separated for two years, and under such circumstances when no one could accurately predict the future. The bishop’s excitement was so great that he hurried to go to the room prepared for him.
The events of the past year - the Renovationist schism, the arrest of Patriarch Tikhon, the attempt of the Renovationists to seize church power - posed the same question: how to act without sacrificing the truth of Christ and the interests of the Church, and at the same time avoid a direct clash with the authorities. The desire to avoid a split led to a policy of compromise, but this did not calm the conscience; I wanted to find solid canonical and legal ground. Time raised pressing questions of a church-canonical nature, and many were not ready to give substantive answers to them. In one of the letters, Bishop Peter wrote to Father Alexei Benemansky: “During the week during the liturgy, I suddenly clearly understood what point of view I should have had on the issue of commemorating His Holiness [*]. I had to firmly remember that His Holiness did not have the right to unilaterally cancel those canonical rules that were accepted and approved by the Church... Therefore, if he canceled them, it would be illegal and those who disagreed would be right..."
In 1923, Holy Patriarch Tikhon was released from prison; he submitted to the authorities a list of bishops, without whom he could not govern the Church. Bishop Peter was among them. At the end of 1924, Vladyka arrived in Moscow, and on July 16, 1925, after the death of Patriarch Tikhon, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Holy Metropolitan Peter, sent him to Voronezh to help Metropolitan Vladimir (Shimkovich), who was then eighty-four years old.
Bishop Peter served in the huge five-altar church in the name of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Ternovaya Polyana, but more often he served in the Intercession-Preobrazhensky Church of the former Maiden Monastery, where he lived. During his services, the temple was always full of worshipers; it was so crowded that it was not always possible to raise your hand to cross yourself. The bishop was friendly, attentive and affectionate with everyone, he loved everyone, everyone was family and friends to him, and the people soon loved him in return.
The bishop stayed in Voronezh until the fall of 1925, when he was summoned to Moscow to see Tuchkov. On November 23, having said goodbye to the Voronezh flock, he left for Moscow.
On January 6, 1926, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, Metropolitan Vladimir of Voronezh died. The body of the deceased was carried into the church amid bitter weeping of the people. There were so many people at the funeral services that the candles went out from the stuffiness. The Voronezh flock felt orphaned. Many asked: when will Bishop Peter arrive? The Voronezh Blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna, who lived at the Maiden Monastery at that time, said: “He will come as a meat eater.” Bishop Peter arrived on January 10 and, together with Metropolitan Nathanael (Troitsky) of Kursk and Oboyan, who had arrived for the funeral, performed the funeral service for the deceased metropolitan. The burial of Metropolitan Vladimir, which brought together many believers, grew into a people's meeting, which unanimously wished for His Eminence Peter to ascend to the Voronezh see.
In order to protect the archpastor in advance from possible oppression by the Soviet regime, the Orthodox parishioners set conditions for him - non-participation in political groups opposing the Soviet regime, and loyalty to the latter.
In turn, the Orthodox gave guarantees to the authorities regarding the political reliability of the archpastor. At the same time, they pledged to provide two delegates in the event of a summons to the archpastor to the Soviet authorities, in order to be fully aware of the political activities of their bishop. On January 12, the authorized representatives of the Orthodox parishes of the Voronezh diocese sent a statement to Bishop Peter, to which he gave his response: “With all my heart I thank the Orthodox believers of the Voronezh diocese for the great honor they have shown me - inviting me to their glorious archiepiscopal see, and for the trust they have expressed in me. Seeing in unanimous election of me by the working people, the voice of God, I do not dare to refuse and express my full consent to occupy the Voronezh see; as for the conditions offered to me, I find them completely consistent with my convictions and my mood, for, on the one hand, I firmly believe that that true Christianity is contained only in the Holy Orthodox Church that we profess, and not at all in any newly emerging lawless, from a canonical point of view, religious organizations, and on the other hand, I have always recognized and recognize with all working people the sovereignty, which I did not oppose and I do not act either in word or in deed, and therefore I voluntarily and willingly accept the conditions offered to me and undertake to fulfill them inviolably, to which I sign.”
After the people's election to the Voronezh see, the bishop went to Moscow to receive confirmation of the people's choice from the hierarchy. The Deputy Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius, recognized this election and appointed Bishop Peter to the Voronezh see with his elevation to the rank of archbishop, saying at the same time that he was sending the best preacher of the Moscow Patriarchate to Voronezh.
The believers who met Archbishop Peter at the station reported that many Orthodox Christians were already waiting for him at the Alekseevsky Monastery and wanted him to serve a memorial service for the late Metropolitan Vladimir.
In the monastery, the bishop was presented with icons of Saints Mitrofan and Tikhon, and one of the workers, a parishioner of the church, said a welcoming speech, wishing Archbishop Peter, as the Voronezh archpastor, that through the prayers of these saints the Lord would preserve him at the Voronezh see.
The church situation in Voronezh was such that many churches by this time had been captured by renovationists; the renovationists were then led by the false metropolitan Tikhon Popov. Metropolitan Vladimir, although he was a staunch opponent of renovationism, could not offer any significant resistance to it, since he was old and weak, and the believers of Voronezh tried to fight the renovationists on their own. During the visit of Bishop Peter to Voronezh in 1925, during the lifetime of Metropolitan Vladimir, the renovationists tried to seize the Church of the Intercession and Transfiguration of the former Maiden Monastery; Believers sent the chairman of the church council, Semyon Tsikov, to Moscow to the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council Kalinin with a request to the authorities to put a limit to lawlessness. Before leaving, Semyon came to Bishop Peter to get his blessing for the trip. Vladyka blessed and asked to go to the Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter in Moscow, tell in detail about the church events taking place in Voronezh and take vestments from him for the Voronezh archpastor. The envoy did all this safely, which caused discontent among the authorities when they found out about it.
The archbishop's presence at the Voronezh see, his devout performance of divine services, his love for believers - all this had a destructive effect on the renovationists. The grace of God, through its chosen one, apparently burned down the lies, hypocrisy and deceit of the renovation movement, and the renovationists made many efforts to remove the archbishop from Voronezh, acting through the secular authorities.
Archbishop Peter did not have close relations with part of the Voronezh clergy, and primarily because many of them were opponents of long services; some, without waiting for the end of the all-night vigil, left the church while serving with the archbishop. In Voronezh, the bishop was especially friendly with the people, who gathered in great numbers for his services. The bishop spent all his days with him - in church and at home, where people constantly came to him with their needs. And one could often see with what dejected faces the visitors came to him with some kind of sorrow, and left comforted, with radiant faces.
The archbishop served according to the Athos rite: canons, kathismas, stichera - everything was read and sung slowly, without skipping, so the services lasted several hours, but the people did not leave the church until the end of the service.
Archbishop Peter did not like partes singing and organized people’s singing in the church so that the whole church could sing. Often, standing at the pulpit, he himself began to sing “Praise the name of the Lord,” and then everyone sang both psalms in full in Athonite chant. The center of folk singing in the temple was a small choir, which was jokingly called the “chapel”; It was managed by the talented and tireless regent Archimandrite Ignatius (Biryukov). He devoted many years of his life to choir obedience, collecting ancient chants from many places and then introducing them into church use. After the service, people approached the archbishop for a blessing, and at this time the entire church sang stichera and troparia. In view of the huge crowd of people at the archbishop's services, the religious workers took upon themselves the duties of voluntary guardians of order.
Under His Eminence Peter, the return of churches from Renovationism to Orthodoxy began. The archbishop performed the ceremony of receiving the clergy with great solemnity. The Bishop stood at the pulpit, and the penitent priests from the pulpit brought their repentance to the bishop and all the people. Then the penitents bowed to the ground, and the song of praise of Saint Ambrose of Milan, “We praise God to you,” was sung. Priests who repented were not immediately allowed to serve; the archbishop blessed them to remain in the choir for the first time. Before the start of the service, renovationist churches were re-consecrated. In all the churches returning to Orthodoxy, Archbishop Peter was greeted with a procession of the cross, with banners, and a huge crowd of people. All this aroused the anger of the Renovationists, who had fewer and fewer churches left. At their diocesan congress, the renovationists called the activities of Archbishop Peter in Voronezh a “petrosberiada.”
Archimandrite Innocent (Bede) was Archbishop Peter's constant companion and co-celebrant. A quiet and meek man, he was the bishop's closest assistant. His archbishop sent to the Sarov Monastery for a musical akathist to St. Seraphim, which was then served every Wednesday.
Immediately upon his arrival in Voronezh, Vladyka came to the administrative department. He explained to the officials that he had been appointed ruling bishop in Voronezh and had come to take over the management of the diocese. Then he asked the administrative department to register him as the official head of the Voronezh diocese. In response, he was told that the authorities did not know him, did not recognize him, had no business with him and did not want to have any business with him. They, as representatives of the workers' and peasants' power, take into account only the will of the workers and representatives of believers.
After such a response from the authorities, the religious workers themselves began to work on legalizing the diocesan administration under the leadership of Archbishop Peter. Several times the workers went to the chairman of the executive committee, Sharov, and urgently asked to register the diocesan administration. The administrative department eventually authorized a citywide meeting of the faithful, which was to hear the archbishop's declaration and elect members of the diocesan administration. The OGPU demanded that the archbishop influence the workers so that they would not gather delegations and not go to the chairman of the executive committee. As far as possible, he fulfilled this request. In return, the OGPU promised to reach an agreement with the authorities on the issue of registering the archbishop.
The situation in the city became increasingly tense: several times the archbishop received threatening letters, and there were cases when stones were thrown at him from the roof. In the end, the workers proposed establishing a bodyguard for the bishop, who would accompany him on the street and also stay overnight in his house in case of provocation. Most often, Pyotr Atamanov, Semyon Tsikov, Vasily Siroshtan and Ivan Nemakhov spent the night in the archbishop's house. The archbishop had little faith in the effectiveness of security, except against minor provocations, but could not deny believers the right to defend the head of the diocese. The authorities, fearing the people, could, of course, postpone the arrest of the archbishop, but did not intend to cancel it completely. Elder Nektary of Optina, to whom Archbishop Peter turned for advice, conveyed to him: if things continue like this, the archbishop cannot avoid arrest. Vladyka was grateful to the people for their care and always in the evening, before going to bed, he went down to the hallway to find out if they were fed and to bless them for the night.
The recognition by the Orthodox as the head of the diocese of Archbishop Peter did not ease the burden of his service at the Voronezh See, because legally the authorities recognized only the Renovationists as the Church, and although the Orthodox Church existed, it was, as it were, illegal. This situation made it difficult for the archbishop to travel to the rural parishes of the diocese; these trips were considered as counter-revolutionary activities; permission from the authorities was required each time, but they did not give it. The chairman of the church council, Semyon Tsikov, petitioned the authorities to allow the archbishop to travel to the parishes of the diocese, but to no avail. The representative of the authorities responded to all requests: “Why are you, city people, worried about the village? You have an archbishop serving in the city - and that’s fine, but you don’t bother about the village.” After such an answer, Semyon Tsikov sent envoys to the village parishes to tell them to send their walkers in order to work together to allow the archbishop to travel around the diocese. Rural parishes drew up their guarantee on the political reliability of the bishop, but these efforts also led to nothing. The more people worked for Archbishop Peter, the more hatred he aroused among the authorities. The situation in the city at that time was such that the archbishop considered it necessary to address the message to the Voronezh flock, at the same time sending its text to the Voronezh Commune newspaper with a request to publish it, thus suggesting to soften the tension between the Church and the authorities in Voronezh.
Archbishop Peter began to be summoned for interrogation by the OGPU. He behaved calmly during these visits. Entering the investigator's office, he looked around, as if looking for an icon, but, naturally, it was not there, and he crossed himself to the right corner, bowed to the waist, and only then began a conversation with the investigator. They said that OGPU employees unwittingly uncovered their heads when he appeared.
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During the Dormition Fast, the archbishop served every day an akathist to the Dormition of the Mother of God, after which there was a procession around the church of the Alekseevsky Monastery.
In the fall of 1926, a congress of renovationists was to take place under the leadership of Tuchkov, and in connection with this, the OGPU conducted searches of Orthodox bishops. One day, returning from church, Archbishop Peter saw policemen at the door of his apartment, who entered after him and, presenting a warrant, began a search. While the search was going on, a huge crowd gathered at the door of the apartment. After the search, the deputy head of the police department invited the bishop to accompany him for questioning. The archbishop, pointing to the crowd gathered in front of the house, warned of possible troubles. The deputy chief replied that, be that as it may, he has an order to deliver the bishop to the police station, and he will carry out this order. And so that there would be no trouble as a result of a clash between the people and the police, he suggested that the archbishop leave after a certain period of time after the police left the house. So the bishop did.
When Archbishop Peter left the house, he was met by a crowd of about three hundred people, who followed him and stopped at the entrance to the police station. Only a few people entered the building itself, who resolutely went to the office of the head of the police department, where the interrogation was taking place, and demanded an answer on what basis the archbishop was detained. They also demanded that the interrogation take place in their presence. The head of the department responded with a categorical refusal and firmly stated that they should immediately leave the premises. The workers went out into the street and, turning to the people, said that they wanted to arrest the bishop, while the police did not have the right to call the archbishop for questioning, but must interrogate him at his home. People on the street became agitated. The policemen who came out of the building tried to disperse the crowd by force, but to no avail. Screams, groans, and crying were heard from everywhere, but people did not disperse. The head of the department, seeing that nothing was helping, threatened the archbishop that if the disorder did not stop, he would call the mounted police and disperse the believers.
Yes, you go out to the people and tell them that nothing will happen to me, and people will calm down and disperse,” the archbishop advised.
No, you go and say it yourself,” the boss answered.
The archbishop came out to the people and tried to calm them down, but the people shouted for the boss to come out to them and give his word that the archbishop would not be detained. He came out and promised them this, but the people did not leave, demanding the release of the bishop. The head of the police department gave the order to detain the people closest to the archbishop - all those who entered his office. The police rushed into the crowd, but the people resisted, surrounding in a tight ring each of those whom the police tried to grab. With great difficulty they managed to arrest several people, including Nemakhov, Ogarkov, and Sukhovtsev. The arrest left a depressing impression on people, and some began to disperse. To top it off, a mounted police squad was called in and dispersed those who remained. When the bishop went home after the interrogation, only a few people were waiting for him on the street.
On October 29, 1926, the archbishop was summoned to the Voronezh OGPU. Before leaving home, he deliberately spoke in detail about this challenge to his cell attendant. At the OGPU, the bishop was shown a telegram stating that he was being summoned to Tuchkov in Moscow for a conference on church issues with Metropolitans Sergius (Stragorodsky) and Agafangel (Preobrazhensky). When the archbishop returned from there, many people were already waiting for him in front of the house and in the apartment itself. Among the relatives were Tsikov, Atamanov, Polovnikov, Moskalev, Gorozhankin and some others. The archbishop said that the authorities offered him to go to Moscow. One of those present advised sending delegates to Tuchkov in Moscow to ask for a postponement of the archbishop’s summons and generally find out why he was being summoned and what his business was. In the meantime, we decided to ask the head of the local OGPU to postpone the trip so that the workers could take leave during this time to travel to Moscow. The next day, the bishop was again summoned to the OGPU, and this time he told his employees: “You yourself are going against the people, you yourself are irritating them and worrying them; I won’t talk to you, the security officers, anymore, talk to the people yourself and get out like want to".
On the same day, representatives of the workers came to the saint and reported that they were going to Moscow for negotiations with Tuchkov, and were also sending a delegation to a non-party workers’ conference, which would be held in Moscow on November 27. They will find the chairman of the Voronezh executive committee, Sharov, and ask him to, in turn, talk to Tuchkov.
Vladyka blessed them for the trip and told them Tuchkov’s home address. On the same day, the archbishop was brought a draft of two telegrams: one to Tuchkov, the other addressed to the XV All-Union Party Conference. The Bishop blessed the sending, having first consulted with Dmitry Moskalev, who was a former lawyer.
Arriving in Moscow, Semyon Tsikov and Alexei Gorozhankin came to Tuchkov’s home to explain about the summoning of the Voronezh bishop to Moscow. Tuchkov, seeing workers on the threshold of his apartment who had come to lobby for the bishop, was extremely angry and angrily advised them to come to him at the OGPU. A visit to the OGPU could have been followed by an arrest, and the workers, instead of going to the Lubyanka, went to the House of Soviets, where they found Voronezh delegates, and in particular the chairman of the Voronezh executive committee, Sharov, who was asked to intercede for Archbishop Peter. Sharov listened to them in silence, but at one of the subsequent meetings of the city workers' conference he attacked the archbishop; he said: “Peter Zverev is a clergyman who, under the flag of religion, can and does lead workers to the wrong place.” Then he read out a telegram from the believers: “Moscow. To the Presidium of the XV All-Union Conference. Through the local Voronezh OGPU, Tuchkov demands the departure to Moscow of the only Orthodox Archbishop Peter Zverev elected by the people. There are 99% Orthodox in the Voronezh province, exclusively workers and peasants. The Archbishop’s call worries the believing workers, especially due to rumors spread by renovationists about the expulsion of our Archbishop. To stop the unrest of the faithful workers and people, ask Tuchkov about the reasons for summoning the Archbishop. Having concluded an agreement with the Archbishop upon his election and having pledged to vigilantly monitor his work, we consider it our duty to know the reasons and purpose of his summons. To clarify the issue to stop the unrest, request a delegation of religious railway workers to go to Moscow. Answer. Voronezh. Church of Thorns - to the workers" (and further signatures. - I.D.).
After reading the telegram, some of the delegates jumped up from their seats and began shouting: “Such people should be branded!..”
On the same day, a resolution was adopted: “The conference demands a thorough investigation into the activities of Pyotr Zverev, which are corrupting the unity of the working class and hostile to the workers’ cause... Demands the immediate isolation and removal from the Voronezh province...” And also: “Exclude the nine people who signed the telegram, from the trade unions and remove them from production. Discuss the issue of their activities and bring them to trial. Conduct a show trial! Put Peter Zverev on trial! And finally, immediately arrest Archbishop Peter Zverev."
A message about all this was published on November 28 in the Voronezh Commune newspaper. It was the first day of the Nativity Fast, and Archbishop Peter served the liturgy. Probably sensing his impending arrest, he was sad. That same night, OGPU officers came to him to conduct a search and arrest. When they began knocking on the door of the house, the Vladyka’s cell attendant, Archimandrite Innokenty, closed the door tightly and pushed the latch and did not let them in until the Vladyka burned all the letters and documents relating to other people whom they could harm. After the search, Archbishop Peter was immediately taken to the OGPU. In the morning, news of the arrest of the bishop spread throughout the city, and many went to the prison building to find out about the fate of their archpastor. They saw him only in the evening, when the guards took the archbishop out of the building and put him in a car to take him to the station. Believers rushed to the station, but OGPU officers cordoned it off and did not allow anyone onto the platform until the train with the arrested archbishop departed. Upon arrival in Moscow, he was imprisoned in the internal OGPU prison on Lubyanka.
Together with Archbishop Peter, Archimandrite Innocent and other people close to him, mostly workers, were arrested: Vasily Siroshtan, Ivan Nemakhov, Semyon Tsikov, Pyotr Timofeev, Dmitry Moskalev, Georgy Pushkin, Maria Marchenko, Agrippina Budanova. All of them were imprisoned in Butyrka prison. The investigation was led by the commissioner of the 6th branch of the SO OGPU Kazansky. He asked Archbishop Peter:
What kind of conversations did you have with clergymen who sometimes came from the diocese regarding the position of the Church in the state? Why did you put forward a position there about the need for martyrdom?
“My point of view on this issue is clear at least from the documents and appeals of a declarative nature that I submitted,” answered the archbishop. - I myself never raised this question in conversations, no matter who I talked to, but if they asked me, I answered. I may have had to express an opinion on this issue regarding a group existing in the Orthodox Church that is irreconcilably related to the state, preferring martyrdom, that is, as I understand it, restriction of rights and so on, to the settlement of relations. Perhaps, while getting acquainted with this point of view, I ever neglected to tell my listeners that this point of view is not mine, since, I repeat, I do not at all believe that martyrdom is currently beneficial for the Church. In any case, I think that my point of view was known to the listeners, at least from the appeals sent out. There was certainly no element of malice in the conversations about martyrdom.
At the end of March the investigation was completed. In the indictment, investigator Kazansky wrote: “The rise of church activism coincided with the arrival in the city of Voronezh of Peter Zverev, who arrived as the manager of the reactionary church of the province... Zverev’s name served as a flag during the speeches of the Voronezh Black Hundreds. Those who spoke sought for him all kinds of guarantees and exceptional legal provisions, using these demands as slogans during speeches. The speeches, which began with visits to various institutions and government representatives of individual walkers, soon gave way to numerous deputations to the chairman of the executive committee and others; these deputations were not limited to visits to institutions, but were very often sent to the apartments of responsible employees and to raised certain demands. After some time, the processions of these deputations began to take on the character of peculiar demonstrations, and not only clergy, but also other citizens of the city of Voronezh took part in the latter..."
On March 26, 1927, a Special Meeting of the OGPU Collegium sentenced Archimandrite Innocent, Ivan Nemakhov, Semyon Tsikov to three years in a concentration camp; Maria Marchenko, Agrippina Budanov - to three years of exile in Central Asia; Georgy Pushkin - to three years of exile in Kazakhstan. The rest were supposed to be given longer sentences, but not wanting the case to go through the courts, they obtained permission from the Presidium of the Central Election Commission to pass the sentence themselves; On April 4, the OGPU Collegium sentenced Archbishop Peter and Dmitry Moskalev to ten years in a concentration camp, and Vasily Siroshtan to five years in prison.
At one time, Blessed Pasha of Sarov told the bishop that he would be imprisoned three times. Three prisons were already behind him, and he began to think that there would be no fourth. Shortly before his arrest, Blessed Maria Ivanovna of Diveyevo sent him to say: “Let the Bishop sit quietly...”
The convoy to the Solovetsky concentration camp was sent from the Yaroslavl station. The authorities allowed spiritual children to accompany the archbishop. The Lord, seeing them, shouted:
Are there any Diveyevo ones here?
Among the mourners were two Diveyevo sisters.
He told them:
Give my regards to blessed Maria Ivanovna.
In the spring of 1927, Archbishop Peter arrived at the Solovetsky concentration camp. He was assigned to the 6th working company of the 4th department, located within the walls of the Solovetsky Kremlin, and then transferred to the 4th company of the 1st department, located there. Here he worked as a watchman together with Archbishop Nazarius (Kirillov) of Kursk. After the release of Archbishop Procopius (Titov), who worked as an accountant in a food warehouse where only the clergy worked, Archbishop Peter was appointed in his place. He lived right there, in a room next to the warehouse, in a small room, together with the Bishop of Pechersk Gregory (Kozlov). At that time, the Church of St. Onuphrius the Great was still operating in Solovki, reserved for civilian Solovetsky monks, and prayer during services in the temple was a great consolation for him.
From Solovki, Vladyka tried to write as often as possible, as far as the conditions of imprisonment allowed, in almost every letter he remembered the Voronezh blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna, whom he revered very much, asking for her holy prayers.
The archbishop wrote to his Voronezh flock from the Solovetsky camp:
"August 7, 1927. May the Lord keep you all in peace, health and prosperity. I remember everyone with love, I pray for everyone. I bow to everyone and bless everyone. By the grace of God, we are still alive, healthy and prosperous. I am in the position of guard together with the Kursk Archbishop. Glory, glory to God! I thank the Lord for everything! You can write to anyone and as many times as you like, to the city of Solovki. Don’t forget to pray for the sinful Archbishop Peter...
August 24, 1927. I often write to you, my dear child in the Lord, hoping that perhaps some letter will reach you. I have not yet received letters from you or anyone else, and therefore I do not know how you live and are saved. I wrote to someone for the holidays, but I don’t know if they received it. By the grace of God, I am still alive and well, I am always with you all in spirit and I pray for you unceasingly. I would like to think that they have not forgotten me and that they are praying for me, although they secretly remember my thinness. I know that the Right Reverend Alexy was and served with you, and that Metropolitan Nathanael has now been temporarily appointed to you. Did he arrive, and how was he received, and what was the attitude towards him? May God grant him the right to rule the word of the truth of Christ... May the Lord bless you and everyone. Bow to everyone...
September 19, 1927... I live in memories and keep in my heart the flock God gave me, for which I pray and bless. Thank God for everything sent down! For your prayers, we are healthy and cheerful in spirit. May the Lord bless you and prosper you all. Your pilgrim and well-wisher, sinful Archbishop Peter
October 6, 1927. My beloved child in the Lord, Father Mitrofan! On the holiday in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, I congratulate you and everyone who remembers. I remember everyone constantly and pray for everyone with my weak and sinful prayers. May the Lady Herself, in Her mercy, reward you all for all the mercies that you show to me, the unworthy. Do not send me images and books without my request, as they may get lost, and they will become an extra burden when moving. I received my last parcel yesterday; this time it arrived with a flaw, because the jar of honey was leaky and the honey came out, sweetening all the other items. God bless you for your diligence, care and attention...
Congratulations to you, dear A.L. in the Lord, on the upcoming holidays of the Nativity of Christ, Circumcision and Epiphany. I prayerfully wish you from the Lord all kinds of mercies and spiritual salvation - the last thing is the most important: it will be, everything else will be, just know how to love Christ, know how to breathe through Him alone, live, only think about Him, strive for Him, talk about Him, His words in the Gospel to read, memorize and put into practice. Manage to love Christ, and everyone around you will feel warm, calm and not crowded. Pray that the Lord will teach me this only necessary science. I thank you and everyone, especially those who prayed and sighed for me on the anniversary of my separation from you. This year and the distance have not only not cooled my heart, but I love you all even more in the Lord and wish you well. Be healthy, peaceful and prosperous, and may the Mother of God and our holy saints protect you all. Peace to all and God's blessing. Sinful Archbishop Peter.
Father Innocent is bad, if he dies, I will send a telegram, and then you will all pray for the repose of his soul, everyone read the Psalter about him, although one kathisma a day for six weeks, and diligent ones for up to a year.
December 27, 1927. I am writing to you, dear V.A., not only at my own request, but also at the request of the dying father Innocent, whom I just visited. He has become emaciated beyond recognition and speaks barely audibly; his situation is hopeless... He is cheerful in spirit, reconciled with everyone, surrendered to the will of God, awaits death in a Christian way, and when I left, he, not being able to bow, made a gesture with his hands, saying: “I ask you to convey from me bow to everyone,” which I hasten to do. May the Lord strengthen him! I also felt a little sick from a cold. My throat hurt, but it's better now. Let no one be angry for the rare receipt of letters from us - now mail will arrive less often both to us and to you: we have had no letters for more than a month. My heart hurts for all of you. To your entire family...to all the faithful, God's blessing and bow. Archbishop Peter.
January 13, 1928. As we enter the new year, I greet you and everyone, sending you blessings and sincere wishes for all the best in this sorrowful earthly life. I thank you for your concerns in the confidence that the Lord himself will reward you with His rich mercies. I received the Kamilavki in due time, I thank those who built them so well, and I immediately sent thanks with a notification. We are still alive and well, but we have had no news for almost two months, since mail delivery has not yet been established, and, apparently, they have not yet decided on an airplane. Father Innocent was buried, bitterly mourning his loss. But everything is God’s will. He died reconciled with everything and everyone, without uttering a single word of grumbling or anger. Peace and blessings to you...
January 20, 1928. Only now I have the opportunity to send you the postcard you want with a view of the Varvara Chapel. I cannot express in words my deepest gratitude for everything and can only pray for you as long as the Lord gives life. May God protect you from all the snares of the devil for the sake of your pure and selfless zeal! Thanks to the prayers of many, I am still alive and well. I especially liked your wish for the holiday not to feel acute pain and melancholy. God bless... I am connected by blood with my flock and cannot help but pray for them and worry about their well-being, peace, health, and salvation. Peace and God's blessing to you, your family and everyone. Gratitude. Nobody writes Sana at addresses...
February 13, 1928. It's sad that none of you receive letters from me, but this is only because it's winter now and the mail can't move neatly. But I am surprised that you still do not know about the death of Father Innocent, who died on Christmas Eve, December 24 at three o’clock in the morning, and I notified his relatives by telegram. Tomorrow we will celebrate the fortieth day in prayer. For your prayers, by the grace of God, I am alive and well, like others, I write to everyone at every opportunity. Thank you very much for the 20 rubles you sent on January 1/14. My worldly name day will be February 28, and my birthday will be February 18. I also hear little from you, although I know that you write, remember, and pray. If you do not receive letters from me, then let no one think that I have extracted anyone from my heart or memory: I love everyone in the Lord, I remember and thank and bless. May God bless you all with all the best. Always a pilgrim...
March 2, 1928. So the first week of Great Lent is coming to an end, and now we must congratulate you on the Feast of the Annunciation, and I congratulate you and everyone decisively, prayerfully wishing everyone to be imbued with heavenly joy and even greater love for the Author of our salvation, our Intercessor and Patroness. By the grace of God, I am alive and well and cheerful in spirit, and I place all my trust in the Lord. How does the Lord have mercy on you? Are you healthy? Are you prosperous? It’s been a long time since we received your December letters from you, but during this time there has been nothing. Apparently, you have not yet received a telegraph notice of the death of Father Innocent on December 24, whose fortieth day was already celebrated on February 1. I will now write only once a week, and therefore do not wait more often and do not think that I do not write if you do not receive. Thank you all for your memories and prayers and support. All this encourages and consoles us in the long distance. But love cannot be tied down, and it acts at a distance and prayerfully unites people together, and before God we are always together. When the navigation opens, every week you send five dikiri and trikiri candles: no stearin is needed, and no soap is needed, but the first parcel came with a hood, just lay it out better so as not to wrinkle it. I ask for prayers. I bless you and everyone. May the Lord keep everyone in health and prosperity. With love, Archbishop Peter
March 4, 1928. You will probably be surprised to receive this card - the first in a series of others from me to you and others. But don’t be surprised, just accept it as a necessity. I received both your postcard and your letter. I deeply thank you for everything. I cannot express in words how much I appreciate your concerns and how deeply grateful I am to you. Your participation and your care brighten up our lives and encourage our spirit. If I have become dear and close to you because you have suffered a lot for me, then what can I say about how dear and close you all are to me, when I have suffered and am suffering for you all, may you be saved, but I do not lose heart and I thank the Lord for everything, although I don’t know whether I will see you or whether I will have to lay my bones near our deceased [*2]. May the will of the Lord be done! I am very comforted by the news of how you pray for the deceased, that you give alms and read the Psalter. All this is the most necessary thing for the deceased, all this is the daily nourishment of their souls. The Lord will reward you for everything. Thank God, alive and well. Our winter is orphan, there are no great colds due to the proximity of the sea; It's colder here. But the dampness and humidity of the air have an unfavorable effect on the body - my bones ache, I often catch colds, my legs swell a little from weakened cardiac activity. I am healing as much as possible and, of course, taking care... Now postcards with views have been canceled, and I can only write to someone once a week. I ask you to convey my greetings, greetings, etc. to everyone. I pray for everyone without ceasing, I sincerely wish to see everyone. Let us not weaken in spirit in sorrow, let us live in hope of God’s mercy. Ask Feoktista Mikhailovna for prayers...
March 9, 1928. I sincerely thank you all for remembering my consecration and birth, and most importantly, for your prayers and for not being separated from me in your heart. But I could not fulfill your instructions and convey your greetings to Father Innocent, since Father Innocent, unforgettable for me, is already standing before the Throne of God and, freed from all illness, sadness and sighing, prays for all those who remember and love him. Before arriving here, I had no idea that his illness would progress so quickly, but here it became clear to me what he was sick with and that his days were numbered. From that moment on, I began to prepare him for the outcome, without hiding it from him. At first the thought of death was difficult for him, but then he completely reconciled with it and submitted to the will of God... By the grace of God, I am still alive and well. I work as an accountant in a food warehouse, where only priests work. I live here in a small room with His Grace Gregory, Bishop of Pechersk from Nizhny. But I am here only in body, but in spirit I am always with you and among you, I always bless you and wish you well. Of course, I remember everyone and ask you to convey my bows and good wishes to everyone. May the Lord help you in everything... I hope that you will continue to write to me about yourself and yours...
March 24, 1928. Our deeply respected and kindhearted sadness and benefactor. If from my youth I taught myself to treat with love even those who harbored hostile and hostile feelings towards me, then from this you can conclude with what gratitude and goodwill my heart is filled with those who love me and do good to me, although not deserved on my part. But even if this did not exist, then my heart would still be full of love, as it is, since the spiritual connection is stronger than any other relationship, for my feelings are dictated to me by my duty and my responsibilities. And both you and I will not have to prove my feelings, for you all know very well what I have experienced and am experiencing for the sake of your true and eternal well-being. Out of love for you, I went to you, knowing exactly what was ahead of me, but love for you all separated us, giving you the opportunity with your worries and concerns to participate in my present situation. But knowing the disposition towards me and the love of many, I did not delude myself with the thought of the love of at least the majority. But I love everyone and grieve for everyone, and I wish everyone complete well-being, spiritual, emotional, and simply physical. Although I am interested in your life, I know nothing and am worried about a lot, although now I am not responsible for anything. But you are inexperienced, and much is unknown to you, as a result of which your mistakes may not be so criminal. Those who should show you the right path are keeping something silent for personal reasons. I greet you and everyone with Easter greetings, keeping everyone in my sincerely loving heart."
Archbishop Peter in his small room received everyone who wanted to see him and talk with him, gave him tea and fed him. The idea was hatched to organize assistance for the imprisoned clergy. Soon the camp administration was informed that the clergy were gathering in Archbishop Peter’s room, and, although the conversations were conducted exclusively on religious topics, the camp authorities decided to punish the archbishop - he was sent to the Trinity penal assignment of the 6th department, located on the island of Anzer. At the beginning of October 1928, two priests escorted His Eminence Peter from the Solovetsky Kremlin to Filimonov, where Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) was at that time.
On December 25, 1928, the archbishop wrote: “With all my heart I greet you, most reverend, and through you, without exception, all my spiritual children in the Lord, on the feasts of the Nativity of Christ and Epiphany. I continually pray to our Lord, may He keep you all in the right faith, in peace , in health and prosperity and may He bless you with His heavenly blessing. I sincerely thank you and everyone for your prayers, memory and support. Our thoughts are always with you and among you, especially on the days of our holidays, when you gather in the temple, where I once visited you and was comforted in mutual communication about the Lord. Despite the fact that I have long since left you, your life and your interests are still near and dear to my heart, as if not more so, because of my service to yours. salvation, I am in the present position and place. I always want to write to each of you, but I can only write two letters a week, and therefore I have to have abstinence in this too, asking you all not to be upset with me for not writing to everyone, although I keep everyone in in my prayerful memory and in my heart... I am for your holy prayers while I am alive and well and in my new, secluded and deserted residence. I am cheerful in spirit, I submit to the will of the Lord, which does not leave me with sorrows and trials. Now the navigation is closed, and mail will be even less frequent. If you write, please send postcards in response, since it is difficult for us to get postcards... I received everything sent with gratitude. Do not weaken in prayers and good deeds, so that in due time we will all be worthy of the mercy of the Lord. Bow and requests for prayers to Feoktista Mikhailovna. I commend you all to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother. With love in the Lord, sinful Archbishop Peter.
January 15, 1929. Thank God for everything that I had to go through and worry about during this time. This time I met and spent the holidays in a particularly sad and mournful way as never before - after all, I spend the sixth holidays away from home, not with those with whom I would like. But all this must be endured. What should I do. Live not as you want, but as God commands. I haven’t received letters from anyone for a long time, probably due to the closure of navigation and communications on boats that cannot sail frequently. Probably, they began to come from me less often, although there may be other reasons beyond our control. For now, thanks to your prayers, I am alive and well... Apparently, a real winter has arrived here, with winds and snowstorms, so that the wind almost knocks you off your feet... I live in a secluded and deserted place on the shore of a deep sea bay, I don’t see anyone except those living together, and I can imagine myself as a desert dweller..."
Shortly before his death, in his last letter, Archbishop Peter wrote: “I congratulate you, Father Mitrofan, and everyone on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and prayerfully wish everyone health, salvation and all the mercies of God. On this day it will be ten years since my consecration, and therefore on this day, I especially ask you to pray for me, may the Lord show His mercy to me, may He grant me to serve the Holy Church with patience, uncomplainingly enduring all sorrows and misfortunes, submission to the will of God, humility, love for others, especially for my flock, and prayers for her. And if God sends for my soul, then by death far from those close to my heart. Many thoughts are crowded in my soul, but a postcard is cramped and small for them, and therefore I do not share them with you, even if I would like to. By the grace of God for the prayers of many, I am still alive and relatively healthy, except for rheumatic pain in the bones. But it is hard and sad to be away from the grave of Father Innocent. I prayerfully remembered him, thanking the Lord for delivering him from this life and giving him there, where there is illness, sadness and sighing... Due to the winter, the post office has not yet improved, and I have not received letters from anyone for a long time. Probably you too, although I write a letter to someone every week. We started to experience some serious frosts, and winter came into its own. How does the Lord have mercy on you? To all, without exception, who are faithful to the Lord, I ask you to convey peace, blessings and bows. May everyone be protected by the prayers of the Mother of God and Saints Mitrofan, Tikhon and Anthony, the great saints of Voronezh. I still live in a solitary and deserted place, thanking the Lord for everything and humbly submitting to His will in everything. I ask you to be humble, not to think highly of yourself, to pray to the Lord and not to fall into the seduction and deception of the evil one, who is trying to deceive, if possible, even the elect, according to the word of the Lord. Peace be with you and everyone."
In the fall of 1928, a typhus epidemic began in Anzer; of the thousand prisoners on the island at that time, five hundred died during the winter of 1928–1929. Large mass graves were dug near the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord immediately behind the monastery cemetery, and the dead were placed there all winter, and the pits were covered with spruce branches on top. When the epidemic began, a hospital was located in the Golgotha-Crucifixion Skete. Many years before, on June 18, 1712, the Mother of God, appearing to the monk Jesus, said: “Let a monastery be built on this place in the name of the suffering of My Son. Let twelve monks live and fast all the time, except Saturday and Sunday. He will come.” time, the believers on this mountain will fall from suffering like flies." Subsequently, two churches were erected on this site: a stone one in honor of the Crucifixion of the Lord with a chapel in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where during the typhus epidemic in the era of persecution of the Church, when the monastery was turned into a concentration camp, a hospital was located, and a wooden one, of the Resurrection of the Lord, under mountain, where the morgue was located for some time.
In January 1929, Archbishop Peter fell ill with typhus and was taken to the hospital, to the former Golgotha-Crucifixion monastery.
In the same room as the archbishop lay a veterinarian, his spiritual son. On the day of Archbishop Peter's death, February 7, at four o'clock in the morning, he heard a noise, as if from a flock of birds flying in. He opened his eyes and saw the holy great martyr Barbara with many virgins, from whom he recognized the holy martyrs Anisia and Irina. The Great Martyr Varvara approached the bishop’s bedside and communed him with the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
The nun Arsenia, who was imprisoned on Anzer, kept the belongings of the Eminence Peter at that time. She repeatedly sent the monastery a tonsure scroll, but each time he sent it back. On February 7, she was informed that the crisis had passed and a turning point had come in her illness.
Nun Arsenia asked:
What is it in?
In a government-issued short shirt,” they answered her.
Then she sent the lord a scroll, which he kept for death. When they handed it to him, he said:
As to the point, she sent her. Now sponge me down.
On the same day at seven o'clock in the evening, Vladyka died. Before his death, he wrote several times on the wall with a pencil: “I don’t want to live anymore, the Lord is calling me to Himself.”
The funeral was scheduled for Sunday, February 10. One of the priests went to the head of the 6th department to ask permission to hold a solemn funeral for the deceased and put a cross on the grave. From the Kremlin, even when the bishop was ill, they sent a mantle and a small omophorion. In the workshop of the economic department they ordered to make a coffin and a cross. Three priests and two laymen received permission to participate in the funeral, but the solemn funeral service and burial in vestments were not allowed. After some time, it became known that the head of the department ordered to throw the bishop’s body into a common grave, which by that time was already filled to the brim with the dead. In the evening, the priests went to the chief and demanded that the promise he had made earlier be fulfilled.
He replied that, by his order, the common grave was already filled with earth and snow, and he would not give permission to remove the body of Archbishop Peter from the common grave.
At night it became known that this order of the camp authorities was not carried out and the grave was not buried. The funeral service for the bishop was held in the office of the economic department, and then the coffin and cross were taken to Golgotha. At that time, four people were digging a separate grave opposite the altar of the Church of the Resurrection. We cleared the common grave from spruce branches. Vladyka was lying in a long shirt with his hands folded on his chest, his face was showered with spruce needles. Three priests on a sheet lifted him from the grave, combed his hair, wiped his face and began to dress him right in the snow. He was all white and soft, as if he had just died yesterday. They dressed the bishop in a new purple robe, hood, omophorion, gave him a cross, a rosary and the Gospel and performed the funeral service. Before placing the prayer of permission into the bishop’s hand, all three priests signed it.
Nun Arsenia asked:
Why are you signing? They don’t sign their names at prayer, do they?
They have replyed:
If time changes, the relics of the ruler will be found, and it will be known who buried him.
About twenty people gathered for the funeral service. After the funeral service, whoever wanted to said a word, then they lowered the remains of the holy martyr into the grave, put a cross on it and made an inscription. One of the priests who buried the archbishop later said that when they buried the grave, a pillar of light became visible above it and the bishop appeared in it and blessed them.
In the spring of 1929, by order of the camp authorities, all crosses in the Solovetsky cemeteries were removed and turned into firewood.
On June 9, 1999, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' blessed the work to determine the burial place and find the relics of the Hieromartyr Peter. After work that lasted for three days, on June 17, 1999, the relics of the Holy Martyr Peter were discovered and are now located in Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky. Stavropegial Monastery.
On August 13-20, 2000, the Consecrated Council of Bishops canonized the Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev) as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The memory of the Hieromartyr Archbishop Peter (Zverev) is celebrated on the day of his death on January 25/February 7, on the day of the discovery of his relics on June 4/17, as well as on the day of the celebration of the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
Notes
1. This refers to the obligatory commemoration of the name of Patriarch Tikhon during divine services, despite his temporary transfer of church power to Metropolitan Agafangel.
2. Archimandrite Innocent
Sources used to compile the life:
Report on the state of the Kazan Theological Academy for the 1901–1902 academic year. Kazan, 1902. P. 22, 53, 143.
Novgorod Diocesan Gazette. 1908. No. 7. P. 196.
Church Gazette. St. Petersburg, 1909. No. 28. P. 284; 1916. No. 45. P. 401.
Tula Diocesan Gazette. 1910. No. 32. P. 378, 570; No. 43–44. pp. 775–776; 1913. No. 22. pp. 416–417.
Gas. "Voronezh commune". 1926. No. 274.
Protopresbyter M. Polsky. New Russian martyrs. Т. 2. Jordanville, 1957, pp. 56–66.
Trinity word. TSL, 1990. No. 6. pp. 20–27.
Levitin-Krasnov A., Shavrov V. Essays on the history of Russian church unrest. M., 1996. P. 122.
Theodosius (Almazov), archimandrite. My memories (notes of a Solovetsky prisoner). M., 1997. pp. 93–94, 101–102.
Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Tver region. Arch. No. 7564-S.
Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Voronezh region. Arch. No. P-19568. T. 2.
Hegumen Damascene (Orlovsky)
Hieromartyr Peter, Archbishop of Voronezh (in the world Zverev Vasily Konstantinovich) was born on February 18, 1878 in Moscow in the family of an archpriest. After studying at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Moscow Imperial University, Vasily entered the Kazan Theological Academy, where two years before the end of the course (in 1900) he took monastic vows with the name Peter.
After graduating from the Academy, Hieromonk Peter taught at the Oryol Theological Seminary, and then served as a diocesan missionary at the Moscow Diocesan House.
Since 1907, he was appointed to the post of inspector of the Novgorod Theological Seminary, and from 1909 to 1917 he was the rector of the Transfiguration Monastery in the city of Belev, Tula diocese, with the rank of archimandrite. At this time, he often visits the nearby Optina Hermitage, spending many hours in conversations with the Optina elders. The services of Father Peter were greatly loved by the local peasants, since Father Peter, often serving in their villages, was distinguished by his affectionate and attentive treatment of them. Father Peter visited both Sarov and Diveevo, never missing an opportunity to visit blessed Praskovya Ivanovna. She gave him a canvas of her work, from which he later sewed a bishop’s vestment for himself and which he kept for his own burial. During the First World War, an infirmary for the wounded was established in the Transfiguration Monastery. The rector himself served as a priest in the active Army in 1916.
After the February coup, Father Peter was appointed to the position of rector of the Tver Holy Dormition Zheltikov Monastery. And already in 1918, in Tver, he was briefly arrested.
On February 2 (15), 1919 in Moscow, Archimandrite Peter was consecrated Bishop of Balakhninsky, vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon. Immediately after his consecration, Vladyka Peter came to Nizhny Novgorod and settled in the Pechersky Monastery on the banks of the Volga. The monastery was in decline, the brethren were few in number, the ancient Assumption Cathedral fell into disrepair. The Bishop himself took part in cleaning the temple and introduced strict statutory service. It happened that the all-night vigil lasted all night, and then the Bishop attracted zealous parishioners to the service, since no singers could stand on the choir for so long. He never read akathists at the all-night vigil, but demanded that all kathismas be read out. He did not allow reductions either during the service of memorial services or during funeral services. At times, Vladyka said sadly: “Who will serve such a memorial service for me?” And he said to the cell attendant: “Your Peter is a sinner in everything, but he never violated the rules.”
At the Pechersk Monastery, he started teaching the Law of God to children and taught them himself. The people of Nizhny Novgorod fell in love with Vladyka, seeing in him a real spiritual mentor. This glory did not please the ruling Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod Evdokim (who later fell into the Renovationist schism). And soon Vladyka was transferred to Kanavino, beyond the Oka. There, in May 1921, he was arrested for the second time. Workers at local factories staged a three-day strike over the arrest of their beloved archpastor, and local authorities promised to release him, but instead secretly sent him to Moscow.
Since December he has been imprisoned in Moscow prisons. At first he was placed in the Lubyanka, but even there the Bishop did not stop preaching: they did not have time to send crosses to him: when converting people to the faith, the Saint took off his cross and put it on the convert. “I would like to open up to them and show my heart how suffering cleanses the soul.”
From Lubyanka Vladyka was transferred to Butyrskaya prison, and from there to Taganskaya. The prisoners said goodbye to him with tears, and even the guards saw him off when he was transferred from Butyrki.
There were twelve bishops in Taganskaya prison at that time. Their spiritual children handed over prosphora and vestments, and the Saints performed a cathedral service right in the cell. There, Vladyka Peter fell ill from exhaustion and was admitted to the hospital. At the end of July 1921, he was sent by convoy to Petrograd, where he remained in custody until the winter. In December, Vladyka was released and returned to Moscow, where he soon received an appointment as Bishop of Staritsky, vicar of the Tver diocese. Soon the saint was again arrested for his appeal to the Tver flock, in which he explained the essence of renovationism. In November 1922 he was taken to Moscow. During interrogations, he showed that he recognizes Patriarch Tikhon as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and does not obey the decisions of the self-proclaimed renovationist council of the VCU. In March 1923, the Saint was sent along a convoy to Tashkent, and from there to the village of Kyzyl-Orda. He lived in difficult conditions, suffered from scurvy, as a result of which he lost his teeth.
In the summer of 1923, Patriarch Tikhon was released from prison. He submitted to the authorities lists of bishops, without whom he could not govern the Church. Bishop Peter was among them. In the summer of 1924 he returned from exile to Moscow.
On March 30, 1925, he signed the Act on the acceptance by the Hieromartyr Metropolitan Peter (Polyansky) of the authority of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens.
In July 1925, Vladyka was sent to Voronezh to help the elderly Metropolitan Vladimir (Shimkevich). After his death, Vladyka Peter in 1926 was appointed to the Voronezh see and elevated to the rank of archbishop.
Vladyka enjoyed great respect from the residents of Voronezh, who revered him as the guardian of the purity of Orthodoxy. The churches where Vladyka served according to the Athos Rule were always overcrowded. He did not like partes singing: the whole church sang with him. The people walked to their archpastor continuously: those who entered him with a sad look came out radiant and comforted.
Under the Vladyka, a massive return from renovationism began. He accepted returning clergy into Orthodoxy through popular repentance. Believers, fearing that their beloved Bishop would be arrested, organized round-the-clock vigils near his apartment and repeatedly expressed mass protests. When Vladyka went to the next call to the police or G.P.U. then 300 lay people accompanied him, demanding the release of the Saint. In defense of the archpastor, a telegram was even sent on behalf of the workers to the XVth Party Conference.
They told what impression the Lord made on the employees of the G.P.U. Entering the investigator's room, he looked around, as if looking for an icon. But not finding one, he crossed himself to the right corner, making a bow from the waist, and then began a conversation with the investigator. The employees involuntarily uncovered their heads when he appeared.
However, the authorities managed to arrest the Saint in November 1926. He was immediately taken out of Voronezh and by decree of the O.G.P.U. on March 27, 1927, they were sentenced to 10 years in the camps “for counter-revolutionary activities against Soviet power.”
In late autumn, the holy martyr, after prison, stages and the Kem transit camp, found himself in Solovki. There he worked as an accountant in a grocery warehouse. Even in these conditions, Vladyka strictly observed the prayer rule and lived according to the church rules. After the departure of the Hieromartyr Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) from Solovki, Vladyka Peter was elected by the exiled bishops as the head of the Solovetsky Orthodox clergy and enjoyed high authority among them. There he leads secret services, and after the antimension was selected, services were performed on the chest of the Lord. The moral height of the Saint was such that even with a broom in his hands in the role of a janitor or watchman, he inspired reverent respect. The rude and arrogant Vokhrovites, accustomed to mocking prisoners, not only gave way to him when they met, but also greeted him, to which he responded by making the sign of the cross over them. The bosses turned away: the dignified calm of the archpastor humiliated them, caused irritation and annoyance. Saint Peter slowly walked past the embarrassed authorities, leaning lightly on his staff and not bowing his head. Soon the camp authorities took revenge on the man who had not been broken by them. After the authorities learned that he performed the funeral service for the “white” cleaning lady of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Valentina Karlovna, who died on Solovki (according to other sources, this happened after he baptized an Estonian prisoner in the Holy Lake), the saint was sent to prison in the winter of 1928. Anzer Island “to a secluded and deserted abode.” Here, living in the former Golgotha monastery, in prayerful burning of spirit he wrote an Akathist to St. Herman of Solovetsky.
At the end of 1928, Saint Peter fell ill with typhus, and in the January cold he was placed in a typhus barracks, which was opened in the Golgotha-Crucifixion monastery on (Anzer Island). The saint was ill for two weeks, and it even seemed that the crisis had passed, but Vladyka was very weak and did not take food. His spiritual son, on the day of the Saint’s death, had a vision: at four o’clock in the morning he heard a noise, as if a flock of birds had flown in, he opened his eyes and saw the Holy Great Martyr Barbara with many virgins. She went to the Vladyka’s bed and communed him with the Holy Mysteries. In the evening, the holy martyr wrote several times on the wall with a pencil: “I don’t want to live anymore, the Lord is calling me to Himself.”
On January 25 (February 7, New Art.), 1929, Hieromartyr Peter died. Initially, Vladyka was buried in a common grave, where all those who died from typhus were buried. However, on the fifth day, the prisoners secretly opened a common grave and, according to the story of the nun Arsenia who was present there: “All the dead lay black, and the Lord lies... in a shirt, with his hands folded on his chest, white as boiling water.”
After dressing in bishop's robes, the camp clergy performed a funeral service, and a cross was placed over the grave. Vladyka was buried in a separate grave at the foot of Anzerskaya Mount Golgotha, opposite the altar of the church in honor of the Resurrection of Christ. When the grave was already filled up, a pillar of light appeared above it, in which they saw the Lord, who blessed everyone.
On June 17, 1999, the holy relics of the Hieromartyr Peter were found and now reside in the cathedral of the Solovetsky Monastery.
Canonized as a locally venerated saint of the Voronezh diocese in 1999.
Canonized as the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for church-wide veneration.