The Zhevakhov family goes back to the ancestor of all Georgians and the first ruler of the Caucasus, Kartlos, the grandson of Japheth, one of the three sons of Noah. Their distant descendant King Javakh I was the ancestor of the Javakhishvili or Javakh family.
In 1738, Shio Javakhov takes Russian citizenship and becomes Prince Semyon Javakhov, even later the Russified surname turned into Zhevakhov. Semyon Zhevakhov received a princely allotment in the Kobelyansky district Then it was Novorossiysk, later - Poltava province.
Nikolai Zhevakhov
Many glorious and famous loyal subjects gave this dynasty to Russia. Zhevakhova Mountain in Odessa is named after the hero of the wars with Napoleon, Major General Ivan Zhevakhov. The fate of the twin brothers from this family, Nikolai and Vladimir, is interesting. The first was a prominent statesman, a member of the Russian Assembly, a monarchist. emigrated, afterrevolution, he became an ardent anti-Soviet, collaborating with the Nazis in Italy and Germany.
Kinship with the miracle worker
The second is known as Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov, or Hieromartyr Joasaph, Bishop of Mogilev. The Zhevakhovs twice crossed paths with the Gorlenko family, who gave the world St. Belgorod and All Russia, the miracle worker Joasaph (in the world Joachim Andreevich Gorlenko). Nikolai Davidovich Zhevakhov did a great job of collecting and publishing materials from the biography of the miracle worker. They became the prologue to his canonization.
Bishop Joasaph Zhevakhov (in the world, Prince Vladimir Davidovich Zhevakhov), when he was tonsured a monk, took the name of St. Belgorod and All Russia, with whom he was related on the maternal side. The son of the above-mentioned Semyon Zhevakhov, Spiridon, married the niece of Maria Danilovna Gorlenko, the mother of the future Saint of Belgorod.
Secular education
The twin brothers were born in 1979 on November 24, in the estate of their parents - the village of Linovitsa, Piryatinsky district (Poltava province). According to other sources - in Priluki. Their mother Ekaterina Konstantinovna (before her marriage, Wulfert) owned a house in Kyiv. There the future Bishop of Mogilev spent his childhood.
Vladimir Davidovich Zhevakhov received a completely secular education - in 1899 he graduated with a second-degree diploma from Kiev University (law faculty).
The close interweaving of the mundane and the spiritual
First he served in the Court of Justice, then for three terms (from 1902 to 1914years) was elected a justice of the peace in Piryatinsky, and then in the Kyiv district. Since 1911, he has been a senior adviser to the Kyiv provincial government, who, on occasion, acts as vice-governor. The First World War begins, and the future Bishop Ioasaf Zhevakhov is on the Southwestern Front at the disposal of the authorized Red Cross. And all this time, along with the main work, V. D. Zhevakhov was actively engaged in missionary and spiritual and educational activities. So, in 1908 he was a full member of the PMO (Orthodox Missionary Society) and co-founder of the Kamchatka Orthodox Society founded by Hieromonk Nestor. And in 1909 - a full member of the same organization in Kyiv.
Missionary and benefactor
By the Decree of the Holy Synod in 1910, VD Zhevakhov was appointed to the commission engaged in the arrangement of a shrine for the relics of St. Joasaph of Belgorod. In 1912 he was elected an honorary member of the Kursk missionary and educational brotherhood.
In passing, in 1911, he accepts the offer of Abbot Valentine, whom he met when visiting the Kyiv Trinity Ioninsky Monastery (founded by Archimandrite of the Vydubitsky Monastery Jonah) to take part in the revival of the ancient monastery in the tract Zverinets near Kyiv.
Excavations on the outskirts of Kyiv and foundation of the skete
With his inherent energy and sincere desire to spend his own money for a good cause, the future Bishop Ioasaf Zhevakhov from July 1, 1912, with the blessing of Metropolitan Flavian, takes a six-year lease on the site, butwhich was the ancient Zverinets Michael-Arkhangelsk monastery. The excavations were carried out at his own expense. Vladimir Davidovich was very lucky - the caves and burials of the XII century were cleared, the image of the Most Holy Theotokos was found. The prince petitioned the Holy Synod to assign the found image the official name of the Zverinetskaya Icon of the Mother of God. In April 1915, permission was granted.
It was through his efforts that a skete was founded near the caves, which received the name "Zverinets". Who could become an honorary trustee in it? Of course, it becomes Prince Vladimir Davidovich. And immediately begins the construction of the cave church, which was consecrated in 1913 on December 1. V. D. Zhevakhov really wanted to buy the land and give it to the Zverinetsky Skete, but 1917 changed all plans.
The first post-revolutionary years
In 1918, under the Bolsheviks, the brothers, as novices, were secretly in the skete of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos. Under Hetman P. P. Skoropadsky, Vladimir Davidovich was appointed an official for special assignments under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. When Kyiv was occupied by the Volunteer Army of Denikin, Nikolai Zhevakhov emigrated, and Vladimir left for a family estate with his friend, spiritual writer Nilus SA, 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 a six-month imprisonment, V. D. Zhevakhov settled in the Ioninsky Monastery and asked Patriarch Tikhon for blessingto accept monasticism. In the same year he takes the tonsure with the name Joasaph in honor of St. Belgorod. He took the tonsure at the Zverinetsky Cave Temple. Very quickly he was ordained first a hierodeacon, then a hieromonk, a little later a consecration (ordained) bishop of Dmitrovsky, vicar of the Kursk diocese.
Camp and link
However, for commemorating the emperor and his family in prayer and for allegedly keeping anti-state literature, VD 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 cathedra, and since 1934 V. D. Zhevakhov was Bishop of Mogilev. Two years later he is sent to rest, and he settles in Belgorod.
Rehabilitation and canonization
The year 1937 approaches, and the bishop is arrested for his involvement in a "fascist organization of churchmen." His words about the murder of Kirov, which he called "a well-deserved punishment," played a decisive role.
The death sentence was carried out on the day it was passed - 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. Archimandrites Jonah and Cassian, the abbots of the Holy Trinity Vydubitsky Monastery and the Sorrowful Zverinets Skete, petitioned for this.
