Patriarch Pimen Izvekov was the primate 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 are of great interest to Orthodox believers.
Family of the future patriarch
The parents of the future patriarch were Mikhail Karpovich Izvekov and Pelageya Afanasievna Izvekova, nee Ivanova. His father was born in the village of Kobylino, located near Kaluga, in 1867, and most of his life he worked as a mechanic at the factory of A. Morozov, operating in the village of Glukhovo. As for the mother of Sergei Izvekov, and it was this name that the future Patriarch Pimen bore in the world, she, being a deeply religious woman, often made pilgrimages to Russian Orthodox monasteries. The boy Seryozha was the last of 6 children in the family, and at the time of hisonly his older sister Maria survived from birth, 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 small homeland of the patriarch, and his own sister became his godmother. In childhood, children, together with their mother, often made pilgrimages to holy places, during which they met famous elders of that time. As a teenager, Sergei began to travel around the cloisters alone or with friends. As stated in his official biography, when the future Patriarch of All Russia Pimen arrived at the famous Svyato-Diveevo convent on a pilgrimage, Blessed Mary, who lives there, called the young man Vladyka and demanded that his shoes be left to dry separately.
Education
Sergey Izvekov received his secondary education at the Belgorod school. Korolenko. At the same time, 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 studied vocals with him. His success in singing and regency art led to the fact that very soon the young man began to lead the choir and perform subdeacon duties. At the same time, he drew beautifully and wrote poetry on religious and secular themes.
Patriarch Pimen: biography after taking tonsure
At the time of graduation from school, Sergei Izvekov had a firm intention to become a monk. For this purpose, in 1925, he came to the capital, took the tonsureinto a cassock, receiving the name Plato. Then the young man settled in the Sretensky Monastery, where, however, he remained for a very short time. Two years later, in the Desert of the Holy Spirit of the Paraclete, which belongs to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, he was tonsured a monk under the name Pimen, and in 1930 he was ordained a 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 fighting and was repeatedly wounded. When in 1943 he was sent to the hospital after a shell shock, the command of the unit mistakenly considered him missing. After the end of treatment, Izvekov did not return to the front, as he learned about the decree that exempted the clergy from conscription. However, he was arrested as allegedly hiding behind the rank of a priest, and in January 1945 he was sentenced to imprisonment in a forced labor camp for a period of 10 years.
The convicted priest was taken by stage to the Vorkuta-Pechora camp, located beyond the Arctic Circle. There, the speci alty that Pimen had was very useful. The patriarch, during the years of his military service, received the qualification of a medical worker, and the authorities appointed him as an orderly. 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 he alth was seriously undermined, andReturning 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 his 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 abbot. 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 due to a sick spine.
In 1954, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to proclaim Pimen Bishop of the B altic. 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 I, Metropolitan Pimen was the oldest by consecration of the permanent members of the Synod. Therefore, according to the current canons, it was he who assumed the position of Locum Tenens of the Patriarch's Throne. Since the 100th anniversary of the “Leader of the world proletariat” was celebrated in 1970, the Soviet authorities forbade holding a local council in Moscow. In this regard, Pimen, Patriarch of Moscow, took up this post only on May 30, 1971.
His service as primate of the ROC coincided with a difficult period in the life of the Church, as the Soviet state sought to tightly control the activities of religious organizations. Duewith this, the priests were required to exercise great care, which Pimen did. The patriarch understood that this was the only way to avoid persecution. In particular, he left A. Solzhenitsyn's "Lenten letter" unanswered, as he believed that the church should not interfere in the social 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, it was Pimen who was the first of the Moscow Patriarchs to deliver a speech at the UN in 1982. The Patriarch managed to take part in the most important event in the life of the ROC - the celebrations on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Russia.
Here is such a rather complicated 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 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 the last journey of Alexy II in 2008, but it also differed from the funeral of the primates of the Russian Orthodox Church, who left this world before him during the years of Soviet power.
In 2010, in honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, a monument to Patriarch Pimen was erected in Noginsk. The sculptor of the statue is a member of the Union of Artists of Russia Innokenty Valeryevich Komochkin. For the manufacture of the monument, solid granite slabs andbronze.
