Patriarch Pimen Izvekov was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for a long nineteen years: from June 3, 1971 to May 3, 1990. Despite the fact that a quarter of a century has passed since the death of this famous hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, to this day some pages of his biography remain unknown to the public and cause increased interest among Orthodox believers.
Family of the future patriarch
The parents of the future patriarch were Mikhail Karpovich Izvekov and Pelageya Afanasyevna Izvekova, nee Ivanova. His father was born in the village of Kobylino, located near Kaluga, in 1867, and spent most of his life working as a mechanic in the factory of A. Morozov, operating in the village of Glukhovo. As for the mother of Sergei Izvekov, namely the future patriarch Pimen had the name in the world, she, being a deeply religious woman, often made pilgrimages to Russian Orthodox monasteries. Boy Seryozha was the last of 6 children in the family, and at the time of his birth only his elder sister Maria was still alive, and his parents were about 40 years old.
Childhood
Sergei Mikhailovich Izvekov was born in 1910 in Kobylino. The child was baptized in the church of the neighboring village of Glukhovo, which is sometimes mistakenly considered the patriarch’s small homeland, and his sister became his godmother. In childhood, children, along with their mother, often made pilgrimages to holy places, during which they met with famous elders of that time. As a teenager, Sergei began to travel around the monastery alone or with his comrades. As indicated in his official biography, when the future Patriarch of All Russia Pimen arrived at the famous Holy Diveyevo women's monastery on a pilgrimage, blessed Mary living there called the young man the lord and demanded that his shoes be set to dry separately.
Education
Sergei Izvekov received secondary education at the Belgorod school. Korolenko. Moreover, he was considered one of the most diligent students, and already at the age of 13 he was invited to sing in the choir of the Belgorod Epiphany Cathedral, where Professor Alexander Vorontsov was engaged in vocals. His successes in singing and regency art led to the fact that very soon the young man began to lead the choir and perform subdeaconial duties. At the same time, he perfectly painted and wrote poetry on religious and secular topics.
Patriarch Pimen: biography after taking tonsure
At the time of graduation, Sergei Izvekov had a firm intention to become a monk. To this end, in 1925 he arrived in the capital, took tonsure at the Riasophor, received the name Plato. Then the young man settled in the Sretensky monastery, where, however, he remained very briefly. After 2 years in the Desert of the Holy Spirit of Paraklit, belonging to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, he was tonsured a monk under the name Pimen, and in 1930 ordained to the rank of hierodeacon.
Participation in the Second World War
In the Soviet period, monks were called up for service on a common basis. Pimen was no exception. The patriarch served in the Red Army from 1932 to 1934. Thus, when he was drafted into the ranks of the army in 1941, he already had some military training. Senior Lieutenant Izvekov participated in the hostilities and was repeatedly injured. When in 1943 he was sent to a hospital after a concussion, the command of the unit mistakenly considered him missing. After the end of treatment, Izvekov did not return to the front, as he found out about the decree that exempted the clergy from the draft. However, he was arrested as a purportedly priest, and in January 1945, he was sentenced to 10 years in a forced labor camp .
The convicted priest was taken on a stage to the Vorkuto-Pechora camp, located beyond the Arctic Circle. The specialty that Pimen had was very useful there. During the years of military service in the army, the patriarch received the qualification of a medical worker, and his superiors appointed him a nurse. Fortunately, the conclusion did not last long, and Sergei Izvekov was released under an amnesty for war veterans in September 1945. By this time, his health was thoroughly undermined, and on his return to the capital he was diagnosed with spinal tuberculosis. Thus, until the end of the winter of 1946, Hieromonk Pimen was hospitalized.
Biography after 1946
After recovery, in March 1946, Patriarch Pimen, whose biography has not yet been fully explored, was appointed to the clergy of the Murom Annunciation Cathedral, and a year later he was elevated to the rank of hegumen. The memories of people from his inner circle have survived, testifying to the torment that he experienced while conducting services, as he was forced to wear a corset because of a sick spine.
In 1954, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to proclaim Pimen as bishop of Baltia. In the future, he also held important posts, including in the Moscow Patriarchate.
Biography after being elected Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church
At the time of the death of Patriarch Alexei the First, Metropolitan Pimen was the oldest of the consecrated members of the Synod. Therefore, according to the current canons, it was he who assumed the position of Locum Tenens of the Throne of the Patriarch. Since in 1970 the 100th anniversary of the “Leader of the World Proletariat” was celebrated, the Soviet authorities banned the holding of a local cathedral in Moscow . In this regard, Pimen the Patriarch of Moscow took this post only on May 30, 1971.
His ministry as the head of the RCP coincided with a difficult period in the life of the Church, as the Soviet state sought to tightly control the activities of religious organizations. In this regard, the priests were required to exercise great caution, which Pimen did. The patriarch understood that the only way to avoid persecution. In particular, he left the “Lenten letter” of A. Solzhenitsyn unanswered, as he believed that the church should not interfere in the public life of the country. However, in cases directly related to the RIC, he firmly expressed his position.
Over time, he managed to strengthen the authority of the church. For example, the first of the Moscow Patriarchs to give a speech to the UN in 1982 was precisely Pimen. The patriarch also managed to take part in the most important event in the life of the RCP - the celebrations on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Russia.
Here such, rather difficult, was the worldly life of the Primate.
Patriarch Pimen: funeral
In the last years of his life, Sergei Mikhailovich Izvekov was seriously ill. Death overtook him on May 3, 1990 in a Moscow residence. Pimen the Patriarch of Moscow was buried 3 days later next to the grave of his predecessor Alexy the First, in the crypt of the Assumption Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra so beloved by him. The farewell ceremony was not as solemn as in the case of seeing off Alexy the Second in the last trip in 2008, but it also differed from the funeral of the ROC primates who had left this world before him during the years of Soviet rule.
In 2010, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, a monument was erected to Patriarch Pimen in the city of Noginsk. The sculptor of the sculpture is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia Innokenty Valerievich Komochkin. For the manufacture of the monument used solid granite slabs and bronze.