Metropolitan Arseny of Istrinsky is a famous bishop at the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1997, he received the priesthood of the archbishop, and since 2014 he became metropolitan. Currently holds the post of vicar in the Moscow Patriarchate.
Priest Biography
Metropolitan Arseniy Istrinsky was born in 1955 in the Moscow region. He was born in the small village of Vostryakovo, which is now one of the neighborhoods in the Western administrative district of the capital.
The hero of our article graduated from an ordinary Soviet school. And immediately went to work. He got a job at the post office, located at the Kazan station in Moscow. Having earned the first money in his life, Yuri Alexandrovich Epifanov (that was his name then) went to serve in the army.
Way to church
From the age of 15, the hero of our article has already professed Orthodoxy. Purposefully, he chose the future Metropolitan Arseniy Istrinsky’s career right after serving in the USSR Armed Forces. In 1975, at the age of 20, he became an altar boy at the St. Nicholas Church in Biryulyovo. Ordinary lay men were recruited for this church position. No separate training and education was required to become an altar boy.
The temple in Biryulyovo, in which Arseny altarized, was named after Nikolai the Miracle Worker. It was built shortly after the Civil War, in 1924. The Soviet government then so frankly did not interfere with the work of the church. At first it was wooden. And burned to the ground in 1956. In the coming year he was able to restore and consecrate. Almost secretly. This temple is unique because it was built during the years of Soviet power, when clergymen were in every way oppressed.
Studying at the seminary
Having become an altar boy, the future Metropolitan Arseny of Istra became convinced of his desire to give himself to the church forever. To do this, in 1976 he entered the theological seminary in Moscow. And then to the Moscow Theological Academy. He graduated in 1983.
After that, for six years he serves as a referent and personal secretary for the future Patriarch Alexy II. True, in those days, Alexy was only a metropolitan. First Estonian and Tallinn, later Leningrad and Novgorod. He received the patriarchal dignity only in 1990.
By that time, Arseny had parted with him. In 1988, he received the post of cleric of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg. This is an ancient Orthodox church, built during the time of Peter I.
Meanwhile, in those years he already received the rank of archpriest.
Bishop of Ladoga
In 1989, the hero of our article received a new appointment. He became the bishop of Ladoga and the vicar of the Leningrad diocese. That is, an assistant to the diocesan bishop who does not have his own diocese.
In September, he received monastic tonsure, having received the name Arseny in honor of Arseny Konevsky, an Orthodox Novgorod monk who lived in the XIV-XV centuries. (It was Arseny Konevsky who brought to Russia from Athos the icon of the Mother of God, later known as Konevskaya. Together with this icon, he settled on the island of Konevets, located on Lake Ladoga. Over time, he founded the hostel monastery, which dedicated the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
At this time, it turned out that the new Patriarch Alexy II had not forgotten his former secretary. At the very first meeting of the Holy Synod, after taking office, the hero of our article became Metropolitan Arseny of Istra. The biography of the priest in the future was very successful. He received the rank of vicar at the Moscow diocese.
In 1997 he was elected to the secretariat of the Cathedral.
San Archbishop
At the same Bishops' Council, where Arseniy entered the secretariat, he was assigned the rank of archbishop. So went up the church career ladder, Metropolitan Arseny of Istra. Where the archbishop serves, many parishioners knew.
In his Istra Vicariate, located in the suburbs (in the city of Istra), came from different parts of the country for advice and absolution. By the way, Metropolitan Arseny still leads him. For the past 27 years.
In 2009, Arseny became Vicar of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, who succeeded Alexy II in his post. The area of his responsibility included the capital's parishes.
Duties of the Metropolitan
San Metropolitan Arseny received in 2014. His immediate responsibilities include overseeing the capital’s temples in the southern and central parishes of the capital. Since 2015, Metropolitan Arseniy has been a member of the Supreme Church Council. In fact, it is an executive authority that operates under the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Vicar of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia is not only involved in monitoring the activities of the parishes. He is also obliged to be responsible for the work and fulfillment of his duties by the clergy and parish councils at churches that are subordinate to him.
He is one of the permanent members of the commission, which is engaged in the examination of holy relics returned to the church or rediscovered.
In recent years, the commission has confirmed the authenticity of the relics of many saints: in 1988, Alexander Nevsky, and in 1990, the Monks Savvaty, German and Zosima Solovetsky (the founders of the world-famous Solovetsky monastery back in the 15th century), Seraphim of Sarovsky (he founded the Diveevsky female monastery), Patriarch Tikhon, who led the Russian Orthodox Church during the October Revolution and the Civil War.
In 1998, the relics of Matrona of Moscow (Matrena Dmitrievna Nikonova), the holy Russian Orthodox Church, which, according to rumors, advised Joseph Stalin himself, were attested.