The Zhevakhovs clan has its roots no less than the ancestor of all Georgians and the first ruler of the Caucasus, Kartlos, grandson of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah. Their distant descendant, King Javakh I, was the ancestor of the family of the princes Javakhishvili, or the Javakhs.
In 1738, Shio Javakhov accepts Russian citizenship and becomes Prince Semyon Javakhov, even later, the Russified surname turned into "Zhevakhov." Semyon Zhevakhov received the princely allotment in the Kobelyansky district. Then it was Novorossiysk, later - Poltava province.
Nikolay Zhevakhov
Many glorious and famous loyal subjects were given by this dynasty of Russia. Zhevakhov Mountain in Odessa is named after the hero of the wars with Napoleon, Major General Ivan Zhevakhov. The fate of the twin brothers of this kind, Nicholas and Vladimir, is interesting. The first was a prominent statesman, a member of the Russian Assembly, a monarchist. After emigrating, after the revolution, he became an ardent anti-Soviet who collaborated with the fascists of Italy and Germany.
Kinship with the Wonderworker
The second is known as Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov, or Holy Martyr Joasaph, Bishop of Mogilev. The Zhevakhovs crossed twice with the Gorlenko clan, which gave the world the saint of Belgorod and All Russia the miracle worker Joasaph (in the world of Joachim Andreevich Gorlenko). Nikolai Davidovich Zhevakhov did a great job of collecting and publishing materials on the biography of the miracle worker. They became the prologue to his canonization.
Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov (Prince Vladimir Davidovich Zhevakhov in the world), when he was tonsured a monk, took the name of St. Belgorod and All Russia, with whom he was related by maternal line. The son of the aforementioned Semyon Zhevakhov, Spiridon, married the niece of Maria Danilovna Gorlenko, the mother of the future Saint Belgorod.
Secular education
The twin brothers were born in 1979 on November 24, in the estate of parents - the village of Linovitsa, Piryatinsky district (Poltava province). According to other sources, in Priluki. Their mother Ekaterina Konstantinovna (before the marriage of Wulfert) owned a house in Kiev. There the childhood of the future bishop of Mogilev passed.
Education Vladimir Davidovich Zhevakhov received quite secular - in 1899 he graduated with a second degree from the University of Kiev (law faculty).
The close interweaving of worldly and spiritual
At first he served in the court of justice, then for three terms (from 1902 to 1914) he was elected magistrate in the Piryatinsky district, and then in the Kiev district. Since 1911, he is a senior adviser to the Kiev provincial government, who, on occasion, acts as vice-governor. The First World War begins, and the future Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov is on the Southwestern Front at the disposal of the authorized Red Cross. And all this time, along with the main work of V. D. Zhevakhov, he has been actively engaged in missionary and spiritual enlightenment activities. So, in 1908, he was a full member of the PIP (Orthodox Missionary Society) and co-founder of the Orthodox Kamchatka Society founded by hieromonk Nestor. And in 1909 - a full member of the same organization in Kiev.
Missionary and philanthropist
By a decree of the Holy Synod in 1910, V. D. Zhevakhov was appointed to the commission engaged in the construction of crayfish for the relics of St. Joasaph of Belgorod. In 1912, he was elected an honorary member of the Kursk missionary and educational brotherhood.
Along the way, in 1911, he accepts the proposal of Mother Superior Valentine, whom he met when visiting the Kiev Trinity Ioninsky Monastery (founded by archimandrite Vydubitsky Monastery Iona) to take part in the revival of the ancient monastery in the tract Zverinets near Kiev.
Excavations on the outskirts of Kiev and the base of the monastery
With his inherent energy and sincere desire to spend his own money for a good cause, the future Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov from July 1, 1912, with the blessing of Metropolitan Flavian, takes a six-year lease for the plot, which was located in the ancient Zverinetsky Michael-Archangel Monastery. Excavations were carried out at his personal expense. Vladimir Davidovich was very lucky - the caves and burials of the XII century were cleared, the image of the Blessed Virgin was found. The prince petitioned the Holy Synod to assign the found name to the official name of the Zverinetsk Icon of the Mother of God. In April 1915, permission was obtained.
Through his efforts at the caves, a monastery was founded, called the "Zverinetsky". Who could become an honorary trustee in him? Of course, Prince Vladimir Davidovich becomes him. And immediately begins the construction of the cave church, which was consecrated in December 1913 in 1913. V. D. Zhevakhov really wanted to buy the land and give it ownership of the Zverinetsky monastery, but 1917 changed all plans.
The first post-revolutionary years
In 1918, under the Bolsheviks, brothers as novices secretly were in the monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Under the Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky Vladimir Davidovich was appointed an official on special assignments at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When Kiev was occupied by the Denikin Volunteer Army, Nikolai Zhevakhov emigrated, and Vladimir left for the family estate with a friend, spiritual writer Nilus S. A., and his family. After the revolution, for some time, the future bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church taught foreign languages and was a researcher at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
First arrest and tonsure
After his arrest in 1924 and six months of imprisonment, V. D. Zhevakhov settled in the Ioninsky Monastery and asked Patriarch Tikhon for blessing for monasticism. In the same year he takes tonsure with the name Joasaph in honor of St. Belgorod. He received tonsure in the Zverinetsky cave church. Very quickly he was ordained first to be a hierodeacon, then hieromonk, and later to be consecrated (ordained) to the bishop of Dmitrov, vicar of the Kursk diocese.
Camp and link
However, for the commemoration of the emperor and his family in prayer and for allegedly storing anti-state literature, V. D. Zhevakhov was arrested in 1926 and sent to the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp for three years. After serving his term, Zhevakhov was sent into exile for three years in the Naryn district. In 1932 he occupied the Pyatigorsk Department, and since 1934 V.D. Zhevakhov - Bishop of Mogilev. Two years later, he was sent to rest, and he settled in Belgorod.
Rehabilitation and canonization
The year 1937 is approaching, and the bishop is being arrested for participating in the "fascist organization of churchmen." His words about the killing of Kirov, which he called the “well-deserved punishment”, played a decisive role.
The sentence of execution was carried out on the day of its adoption - December 4, 1938 in the city of Kursk. On May 20, 1990, Joasaph, Bishop of Mogilev, was rehabilitated. And in 2002 he was canonized as a holy martyr. The archimandrites Jonah and Cassian, the governors of the Holy Trinity
Vydubytsky Monastery and the Grieving
Zverinetsky Sket, petitioned for this
.