Vasily Rodzianko, Bishop of the Orthodox Church in America, who was once called Vladimir Mikhailovich Rodzianko in the world, was a very outstanding person. He was born on May 22, 1915 in the family estate, which bore the beautiful name "Otrada", which was located in the Novomoskovsk district, in the Yekaterinoslav province.
His father, Mikhail Mikhailovich Rodzianko, was an educated man who graduated from Moscow University, but his grandfather, Mikhail Vladimirovich Rodzianko, in the then Russian Empire was the chairman of the III and IV State Dumas. Then he became one of the leaders of the February Revolution of 1917 and headed the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. This fact played a very important role in the fate of his grandson, but more on that later.
The mother of the future bishop was nee Baroness Meyendorf, in her family there was already one protopresbyter - John Meyendorff (1926 - 1992), who served in the Orthodox Church in America (New York, Church of Christ the Savior).
Facts frombiographies
In the post-revolutionary period, in 1920, the entire Rodzianko family was sentenced to death because of their grandfather, so they were soon forced to leave Russia and settle in the future Yugoslavia (1929).
For Vladimir, these were terrible years, but one very important event for him was imprinted in his childhood memory - a visit to the temple in Anapa. He also recalled that at the age of six he was assigned a tutor, a former white officer, who believed that his grandfather had betrayed Tsar Nicholas II. This embittered and vindictive tutor turned into a strict overseer. He mocked the child as best he could, as a result, the boy lost all interest in life.
Study
Having matured a little, Vladimir graduated from the Russian-Serbian gymnasium in Belgrade (1933), and in the same year he went to study at the Belgrade University at the Faculty of Theology. By the will of fate, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) became his patron. Acquaintance in 1926 with Hieromonk John (Maximovich) had a great spiritual influence on him.
He then graduated from the University of Belgrade with a PhD in Theology (1937). After that, he married Maria Vasilievna Kolyubaeva, the daughter of a priest who also fled the USSR.
Continued his studies at the University of London, where he started writing his dissertation. Upon graduation, in 1939, he was invited to Oxford to lecture on Russian theology. But the war began, and Vladimir was forced to return to Yugoslavia, where he began to teach Law at the Novi Sad school. God's.
Sun
Deacon Rodzianko was consecrated to the first rank of the priesthood in 1940 by Metropolitan Anastassy (Gribanovsky), the First Hierarch of ROCOR. A year later, Patriarch Gabriel of Serbia ordained him to the priesthood in Belgrade, and that's when he began to serve in the Serbian parish at the school in Novi Sad. Then he was a priest in the village of Vojvodino (Serbia), served as secretary of the Red Cross.
But with the outbreak of World War II, Orthodox Christians were subjected to terrible repression. Bishop Vasily Rodzianko participated in the Serbian resistance and helped liberate Serbs from concentration camps. He even adopted a Ukrainian orphan girl.
When the Communists came to power in Yugoslavia after the war, Russian emigrants again rushed in all directions, but the bulk wanted to return to their homeland, to Russia.
Arrest
Father Vasily Rodzianko in 1945 wrote a letter to Patriarch Alexy I, in which he announced his desire to serve in Russia. But his return never took place. Because it was at this time that relations between Yugoslavia and the USSR deteriorated very much, and Russian emigrants were repressed. In 1949, Rodzianko Vasily was sentenced to 8 years in prison for "illegal religious agitation" (he was charged with testifying to the miraculous renewal of icons in the temple).
In 1951, he was released early and moved with his family to Paris, where his parents, who had left Yugoslavia back in 1946, lived then.
Vasily Rodzianko:talks and sermons
By 1953 he moved to London and became the second priest in the Cathedral of Sava Serbsky, which was under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Then Rodzianko was waiting for a job at the BBC Broadcasting Corporation. Since 1955, at his own suggestion, religious radio broadcasting has been opened in the USSR and Eastern Europe.
Vasily Rodzianko spoke a lot on various radio stations with sermons and talks, taught at Oxford University and in Paris - at St. Sergius Theological Institute.
In the very beginning of spring 1978 his wife died, his grandson Igor died in a car accident. A year later, he left the BBC radio station and took the vows as a monk with the name Vasily (in honor of Basil the Great), this happened under the leadership of Metropolitan Surozh in London. He wanted to carry out the monastic feat secretly and was about to go to Athos, but he was offered to become a vicar of the primate of the Orthodox Church in America.
America
In January 1980, in St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, where Vasily Rodzianko began to serve, he was consecrated a bishop.
In 1984, he was fired due to old age. He lived in Washington, became the honorary rector of St. Nicholas Cathedral. He worked as director of the Holy Archangel Broadcasting Center, located in his own small apartment, and also taught at theological seminaries and broadcast on the waves of Radio Vatican, Voice of America and others.
In Washington, until the very last day, Rodzianko was a realconfessor of a large number of Orthodox emigrants, even conducted seminars with Protestants who studied the history of Eastern Christian churches, as a result of which he led many of his listeners to Orthodoxy.
Vasily Rodzianko: books
Only in 1981, as a bishop, Rodzianko finally arrived in the USSR, where he personally met with his brethren fed by radio sermons. Then Father Vasily Rodzianko came to his homeland several times. He had deep and lively conversations, was very interested in what was happening in Russian society and the Church.
He was a very kind and sympathetic person, a little eccentric and humble, people loved him, because he felt a special dignity and holiness.
Since 1992, he became the honorary rector of the Moscow Church of the Small Ascension, located on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street.
Father Vasily Rodzianko lived in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for about six months. "The Decay of the Universe", or rather, "The Theory of the Decay of the Universe and Belief in the Fathers" is a famous work written by him in 1996.
In 1998, Rodzianko suddenly delivered his main sermon (the service was held in the Feodorovsky Cathedral of Tsarskoye Selo). He went out to his flock and said that his grandfather, Mikhail Vladimirovich, always wanted only the good for Russia, but he, like every weak person, was also prone to make mistakes. His fatal mistake was that he sent his parliamentarians with a request for abdication to Tsar Nicholas II. And that unexpectedlyrenounced for all, signing the document for himself and for his son. Grandfather Rodzianko, having learned about this, then wept bitterly and realized that now Russia is over. In the Yekaterinburg tragedy, he was just an unwitting culprit. However, involuntary sin is still a sin. At the end of the sermon, Bishop Vasily Rodzianko asked for forgiveness for himself and his grandfather before all of Russia and the Royal Family. And by the power given to him by God, he forgave and freed his grandfather from involuntary sin.
Death
Rodzianko experienced the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO forces very hard and difficult. When asked how he felt about this, he replied that it was as if Russia had been bombed. After these events, Vasily fell seriously and took to his bed.
Two weeks before his death, during one of his conversations, he said that it was hard for him, his legs could not hold at all, he had to serve the Liturgy while sitting, and when it was impossible to sit, the deacons supported him, and by the grace of God he even took communion.
Vladyka died due to cardiac arrest. He died on September 17, 1999 in Washington. The funeral took place on September 23. He was buried by three bishops at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington. A large number of people from the clergy and worshipers came to say goodbye to this amazing man. He was buried in Washington DC at Rock Creek Cemetery, a site for Orthodox believers. Thus Father Vasily Rodzianko ended his long and righteous journey.
Legacy
Today a great gift for believers was the film "My Destiny", based on the book of Vladyka, in whichBishop Vasily spoke a lot about his fate and life.
He is also dedicated to the chapter of the wonderful book "Unholy Saints", written by Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, with whom he was personally acquainted. There he describes one unique case when, somewhere in the late 80s, they went to the summer Soviet-American youth camp organized by the Kostroma diocese. At the crossroads of country roads, they saw a terrible accident and stopped. In the middle of the road near the overturned motorcycle lay the dead driver, and on the side of the road was a truck. Next to the deceased was his son. Vladyka approached him and asked if his father was baptized or a believer, he replied that his father did not go to church, but often listened to programs with sermons from London, and said that the only person he always believed was Rodzianko. Father Vasily said that Rodzianko is he. The son was simply shocked, like all the other witnesses of the accident who had gathered. In the meantime, Father Vasily began to read the prayer for the departed and served a memorial service for the deceased.
In his legacy, he left a lot of sermons useful for the salvation of the soul, and Bishop Vasily included life memories and spiritual experience in the collections “Salvation by Love” and “My Destiny.”
