From time immemorial, God-fearing simple peasant peasants, prosperous merchants, high-moral virtuous women, and illustrious rulers became saints in Russia. The Russian Orthodox people sacredly venerate their patrons of God, trust in the protection of the heavenly righteous, seek and find support in them on their own path of spiritual development.
Brief biography of His Grace
Christianity in Russia has many great holy defenders. Patriarch Germogen is undoubtedly one of the most significant personalities in the history of Russian Christianity. Much of this person’s biography has not been fully clarified. Until now, historians are engaged in intense debate about significant milestones in his life and fate.
The biography of Patriarch Germogen is full of guesses. It is known for certain that he was born in Kazan, was named after Yermolai. The exact date of his birth is unknown, historians attribute it to 1530. There is also no unequivocal information on the social origin of the patriarch. According to one version, Germogen belongs to the genus Rurikovich-Shuisky, according to another - he comes from the Don Cossacks. Historians are more inclined to believe that the future St. Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow was still of noble origin, most likely he is a simple native of the "people".
The first steps of Germogen in Orthodoxy
Ermolai began his service in the Kazan Transfiguration Monastery as an ordinary cleric. He became a parish priest in the church of St. Nicholas of Kazan in 1579, takes part in the ceremony of finding the face of the Mother of God of God and writes "The Legend of the Appearance and Workable Miracles of the Image of Our Lady of Kazan", sent later to Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself.
A few years later, Hermogenes accepts monasticism and soon becomes hegumen, and then archimandrite of the Kazan Transfiguration Monastery. The elevation of Hermogenes to the rank of bishop and his appointment as Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan took place in May 1589.
In this form for a long time, and this is almost 18 years old, Germogen works hard. With his assistance, a tomb is created for local clergy, and Christianity is actively popularized (often with violence) among the peoples of the Volga region. Entire families converted to special settlements under the supervision of Russian Orthodox.
Christianity in Russia was implanted, to put it mildly, with not very loyal and humane means, the rebellious "pagans" were allowed to use physical punishments, blocks and imprisonment. In a letter dated January 1592, the Metropolitan sets forth to Patriarch Job the insistence that all Orthodox churches establish the commemoration of Christian martyrs and soldiers who laid down their heads to defend Kazan in 1552.
Father Germogen took part in the ceremony of transferring the holy relics of Herman of Kazan from the capital to the city of Sviyazhsk, which took place in 1592. The Story of Patriarch Germogen It would not be complete without mentioning his enormous contribution to the erection of Orthodox churches and monasteries on Kazan land, his participation in the coronation of Boris Godunov and public, with the participation of a huge number of people, at the walls of the Novodevichy Convent.
Becoming a patriarch
In 1605, the Russian throne was briefly occupied by False Dmitry I - a rogue who pretended to be Tsarevich Dmitry, but in fact was deacon Grishka Otrepiev who escaped from the Chudov Monastery. Metropolitan Hermogenes was called to the court by the newly sovereign “sir” to work as a senator, but was disgraced because he demanded the baptism of the Polish mistress of False Dmitry Marina Mnishek before the “sovereign” marries her.
May 17, 1606, after a short reign, False Dmitry was overthrown from the Russian throne and his place was taken by the last of the Rurikovich family - Vasily Shuisky. One of his first decisions was the deposition of Patriarch Ignatius (by the way, a former Polish protege) and the elevation of Metropolitan of Kazan and Astrakhan to the rank of Patriarch of All Russia. The patriarchs of Moscow and All Russia did not begin to repair this decision. In this position, Patriarch Germogen led an active church-political activity aimed at strengthening Orthodoxy in the Russian state.
The great protege of the Christian faith, alone opposing the host of enemies of Russia, Patriarch Germogen, whose brief biography is not able to contain a description of his whole life, great deeds, undertakings, his great unshakable faith in God, his unapproachable firmness in his convictions, is rightly called historians "hard diamond" and "new prophet" of the Russian land.
The political situation in Russia
Patriarch Germogen, photo of the Most Serene Icon:
The political situation in the Russian state at that time was very unstable. The royal throne passed from one hand to another, with catastrophic speed. Until one of the May nights of 1606, the highest boyar nobility led by Vasily Shuisky (a representative of one of the noble princely families, a descendant of the princes of Suzdal, the last representative of the Rurikovich clan) organized a secret conspiracy.
His goal was the deposition from the Russian throne of False Dmitry I and the erection of Vasily Shuisky to the throne. To accomplish this task, prisoners were secretly released from all the capital’s casemates, handed out weapons to them, and in the early morning an alarm bell rang over Moscow, convening the people on Red Square.
Russian people, tired of Polish oppression, poured into the streets of the city to the boyars awaiting them with weapons. At that time, while a huge, blood-thirsty crowd rushed to reprisal with the Poles, the main backbone of the conspirators, led by Shuisky, broke into sovereign chambers and brutally killed False Dmitry I. On June 1, 1606, Shuisky officially occupied the Russian throne with the unconditional support of the Russian Orthodox Church. In order to finally convince the people of the correctness of this decision, the Patriarchs of Moscow and All Russia gave permission to export from Uglich to the capital the relics of the real Tsarevich Dmitry, which were put on public display on June 3 of the same year.
Troubled times
However, this measure did not bring the proper result. Less than three months after the events described, a rumor began circulating throughout Russia about the miraculous salvation of Dmitry, that he allegedly managed to escape from the hands of the conspirators. Once again the Russian land hummed with displeasure. The troops gathered in the north of the state refused to obey the king. Only Patriarch Hermogenes in troubled times for the Russian land remained next to the anointed of God, Tsar Basil.
The situation around the new Russian sovereign was becoming more and more unstable, many previously supportive Shuisky boyars and clergy turned their backs on him, and only Germogen, the Patriarch of Moscow, who himself was often attacked and humiliated, continued to stoically defend the tsar. An example of this is the incident that happened in the winter of 1609, when, during an attempt to depose Shuisky, a crowd rushed into the Kremlin to persuade the boyars to remove Emperor Vasily, Patriarch Germogen was captured and taken to Lobnoye Mesto.
And even now, in the midst of a raging crowd, this old man tried to calm the people with the word of God righteous, to persuade him "not to succumb to devilish seduction." This time the coup was not successful, in large part thanks to the wisdom and firmness of the word spoken by the patriarch. But still, about three hundred people treacherously managed to escape to the camp of a new impostor in Tushino.
Fracture in Russian Troubles
Meanwhile, events that contributed to a change in the course of the Time of Troubles began to occur in the state. On one of the cold winter days of February 1609, Vasily Shuisky concludes an agreement with the Swedish ruler Charles IX. A detachment of Swedish soldiers was sent to Novgorod and given under the command of the nephew of the king voivode Skopin-Shuisky.
The Russian and Swedish military forces so united successfully attacked the army of the Tushino impostor and expelled them from the north-west of Russia. The signing of the treaty by Shuisky and Charles IX and the entry of Swedish armed forces onto Russian soil gave impetus to the beginning of open military offensives of the Polish king Sigismund against Russia. In the autumn of the same year, the Polish army approached Smolensk, counting on an easy capture of the city. But it was not there!
Smolensk courageously and valiantly, for almost two long years, resisted the onslaught of the Poles. In the end, most of the Polish army was relocated from Tushin to the besieged Smolensk, and at the end of the year the impostor also fled from Tushin to Kaluga. In the early spring of 1610, the rebel camp was finally defeated, and already on March 12 the metropolitan people enthusiastically greeted Skopin-Shuisky’s army. A threat
the capture by troublemakers of Moscow passed, which however did not at all signify the end of the war with two aggressors at once - the impostor lurking in Kaluga and Sigismund, densely settled down near Smolensk.
The situation of Shuisky at that time was somewhat strengthened, when suddenly his nephew, the hero Skopin-Shuisky, suddenly died. His death leads to truly catastrophic events. The Russian army, advanced to Smolensk against the Poles, under the command of the brother of the sovereign, was completely defeated near the village of Klushino. Getman Zholkevsky led the Polish troops marched on Moscow and occupied Mozhaisk. The impostor, collecting the remnants of the army, quickly moved towards the capital from the south.
Deposition of Tsar Basil. Opal Patriarch
All these fatal events finally decided the fate of Vasily Shuisky. In mid-summer 1610, rioters entered the Kremlin, captured the boyars, Patriarch Germogen, shouting about the deposition of the king, was forcibly removed from the Kremlin. Unsuccessfully, the Lord of the Church again to calm down the raging crowd, this time she did not hear him. The last tsar, who belonged to the most ancient family of the Rurikovich, was thrown from the throne of Russia, tonsured a monk by force, and “exiled” to the Miracles Monastery, located (before its destruction) in the eastern part of the Moscow Kremlin on Tsarskaya Square.
Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow, has not yet denied service to God and Tsar Vasily, whom, in spite of everything, he considered to be a true anointed on the Russian throne. He did not recognize the tonsure as a monk of Shuisky because the prerequisite for the tonsure is to pronounce the words of the vow aloud directly to those who become a monk.
In the case of Vasily’s tonsure, Prince Tyufyakin, one of the rebels who forcibly overthrew the tsar from the throne, uttered the words of abdication from all worldly things. By the way, Patriarch Germogen subsequently called it Tyufyakina a monk. According to historians, on the deposition of Shuisky, the state-political activity of Vladyka ends and his sincere service to Orthodoxy begins.
Power in the capital was completely captured by the boyars. The patriarch falls into disgrace, the government received the nickname "Semiboyarschina" is deaf to all the requirements, initiatives, advice and recommendations of Hermogenes. And yet, despite the suddenly deafened boyars, it was at this time that his calls sounded most loudly and firmly, which gives a strong impetus to the awakening of Russia from the “diabolical dream”.
The fight for the Russian throne
After the deposition of Vasily, the most important question arose for the boyars - who should be made the new king of Russia. To solve this issue, a Zemsky Sobor was convened, the points of view on which were divided among the rulers. Hermogenes persisted in the opinion of returning to the throne Vasily Shuisky, or, if this was impossible, on the anointing of one of the princes Golitsins or the son of the Metropolitan of Rostov, the youngest Mikhail Romanov.
According to the instructions of the patriarch, prayers for God are being held in all Orthodox churches about the election of the Russian Tsar. The boyars, in turn, advocated the election of the son of the Polish ruler Sigismund, Tsarevich Vladislav, on the Russian throne. The Poles seemed to them the least evil in comparison with the self-proclaimed False Dmitry II and his Tushino “army”. Only the Patriarch realized how disastrous the path chosen by the boyars would be for Russia.
The boyars who did not listen to Hermogenes began to negotiate with the Polish government. The result of these negotiations was the agreement of the Semiboyarschina to the anointing of Prince Vladislav to the reign. And here the patriarch showed all the firmness of his character. He put forward several stringent conditions - Vladislav could not become a Russian tsar without the adoption of the Orthodox faith, the baptism of the prince should occur before he arrived in Moscow, Vladislav would only be married to a Russian girl, stop all relations with the Catholic Pope and Catholicism in all its manifestations. The ambassadors sent to the Poles with these demands returned without a clear answer, to which the patriarch said that if the prince refused to be baptized, there would be no further negotiations on his anointing to the royal throne.
Betrayal of the Seven Boyars
Again, an embassy is sent to Sigismund, led by Metropolitan Filaret and Prince Golitsin, with a clear order from the Patriarch to urge Vladislav to accept Orthodoxy. Hermogenes blessed the ambassadors, instructing them to stand firmly on this demand and not succumb to any tricks of the Polish king.
And then the Patriarch suffered a new blow. On September 21, at night, the boyars treacherously opened the gates of the capital to the Polish army, led by the hetman Zholkevsky. Vladyka tried to resent this action. But the boyars answered all the indignation to the patriarch that there was nothing for the church to interfere in worldly affairs. Sigismund himself decided to occupy the Russian throne, in fact, simply by joining Russia to the Commonwealth. A considerable number of boyars wished to swear allegiance to the Polish king. In turn, the Russian ambassadors firmly carried out the patriarch’s order, unshakably upholding the state interests of the state of Russian and Orthodox Christianity.
One day, Vladyka Hermagen addressed the Russian people, exhorting the laity to oppose the election of the Polish ruler as king of Russia. The patriarch’s warm, filled with righteousness reached its goal, found a response in the soul of Russian people.
The boyars sent another letter of consent with the accession to the throne of King Sigismund, but due to the absence of the signature of His Serene Patriarch on it, Russian ambassadors spoke out that from time immemorial on the Russian land any business, whether state or secular, began with the advice of the Orthodox clergy. And since in the present difficult times the Russian state has remained without a king, then there can be no one to resolve any case, except for the patriarch, and without his command. The enraged Sigismund stopped all negotiations, the ambassadors returned to Moscow.
On a winter evening in 1610, False Dmitry II was brutally murdered, which caused real glee among the Russian people. Increasingly, calls began to be heard to expel the Poles from Russian land. Some evidence of the Poles themselves about this time has survived. They say that the Patriarch of Moscow secretly distributed orders to the cities in which he urged people to rally and rather move to the capital to defend the Christian Orthodox faith and expel foreign invaders.
Monument to Patriarch Germogen on Red Square in Moscow:
Firmness of Faith and Feat of the Patriarch
And again, a threat crept up to Patriarch Germogen. The traitors and Polish henchmen decided to separate the patriarch from the whole world in order to stop the message of the appeals of the patriarch to the people.
On January 16, 1611, troops were brought into the patriarchal courtyard, the compound was looted, and Vladyka himself was humiliated and ridiculed. But despite almost complete isolation, the calls of the Prelate of the Russian Orthodox Church spread among the people. The cities of Russia, which have once again risen to defend the state. The people's militia surged to the walls of the capital to liberate it from the Polish invaders. In February 1611, the traitors deposed the Patriarch and imprisoned him in the dark casemate of the Chudov Monastery, where they starved and humiliated his dignity in every way.
Vladyka Hermogenes was martyred on January 17, 1612. Although historians in this matter do not have a single opinion. According to some accounts, the Patriarch died of starvation, according to others - he was intentionally poisoned with carbon monoxide or brutally strangled.
Some time after the death of the elder, Moscow was spared the presence of Poles in it, and on February 21, 1613, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov occupied the Russian throne, for which Germogen undoubtedly prayed to the Lord God.
Initially, the patriarch was buried in the Miracle Monastery. Subsequently, the body of the Lord was decided to be transferred to the Assumption Cathedral - a pantheon for the higher clergy of Moscow. It turned out that the relics of the saint remained imperishable, because the remains did not begin to be lowered into the ground. The canonization of the patriarch occurred in 1913.