The Lives and Afterlives of St. John of Kronstadt

Cross procession at Sura, Archangelsk, 2015.

CLOUD OF WITNESSES The Lives and Afterlives of St. John of Kronstadt

Nadiеszda Kizenko

That saints are products of not only of difficulty. One result of that histor- the societies that they lived in but also ical impulse came much later, in 1969, the ones they continue to engage, is by when ninety-three saints—including now a truism. It is not only a matter of St. Christopher—were removed from making it into the menaia and once in, the universal calendar. always in. Servicebooks can be altered. To use the metaphor of a modern mu- The issue that St. John of Kronstadt seum, just as it is possible to enter the (1829–1908) raises is of a different na- collection, so it is possible to be deac- ture. He was extraordinarily tied to the cessioned or put in storage, rarely to imperial Russian society in which he see the light of day. lived. Born into a poor sacristan’s family in the remote village of Sura in the It is not simply a matter of pursuing northern province of Arkhangelsk, he historical accuracy, although that can managed to enter the elite Theological play a role. In the early seventeenth Academy in St. Petersburg. His 1855 century, the Bollandists worked to ordination happened to coincide with identify the most reliable sources on Alexander II’s Great Reforms, which Roman Catholic saints in the process sought to modernize Russia and en- of compiling the Acta Sanctorum. In gage more of society. Father John was the process, they began noting points part of this turning outward, which

The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 9 John of Kronstadt’s ment, however, St. John allied himself portrait in his St. with the politics of the far right. He Petersburg apart- called for the killing of revolution- ment. aries (“as Moses did with the rebels at Mount Sinai”) and blessed the banners of the Union of the Russian People.1 Po- litical neutrality about Father John was no longer possible: liberals squirmed, rightists hailed him as a prophet, and radicals branded him as representing everything they hated about the Ortho- dox Church. How one felt about him 1 The Union of Rus- became a simple way to gauge where sian People (URP) (Russian: Союз one stood on relations between church Русского Народа, and state, Tsar and revolution, priests translit. Soyuz Russ- and people, men and women. kogo Naroda (СРН/ SRN) was a loyalist This “barometric” quality only contin- extreme right nation- alist political party, ued to grow after Father John’s death the most important at the end of 1908. The revolutions of among Black-Hun- included creating shelters, developing 1917, the Soviet policy of official athe- dredist monarchist employment programs, and encour- ism, the émigré experience and Father political organiza- aging the temperance movement. Yet John’s 1964 canonization by the Rus- tions in the Russian Empire between he went beyond these practical mea- sian Orthodox Church Outside of 1905 and 1917. - Ed. sures. He served ecstatically, exhorting Russia, perestroika, the 1988 millennial the faithful to partake of the Eucharist anniversary of Christianity in Rus’, his 2 I explore St. John in more often. So many people sought canonization in Russia in 1990—all of historical context at to take communion from him that the these forces created new versions of St. greater length in A Church hierarchy allowed him to hold John that corresponded to new social Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and mass public confessions. His reputation and political conditions. Although the the Russian People for healing brought him national fame practice of altering vitae to suit histori- (University Park, and established Kronstadt as one of cal circumstances is nearly as old as ha- Penn.: Pennsylvania the leading pilgrimage sites in the Rus- giography itself, the pace of change in State University sian empire. He became the first mod- Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth Press, 2000). ern Russian religious celebrity, with centuries makes his case unique.2 3 Sergei Chapnin, his image on souvenir scarves, mugs, “They Never Met: placards, and postcards. In 1894, when It is therefore instructive to reflect on Church and Civil he was asked to minister to the dying how St. John of Kronstadt’s veneration Society in Present- emperor Alexander III, his fame became has evolved in Russia since his canon- Day Russia,” The international, attracting correspondents ization in 1990. Russia has changed sig- Wheel 1 (Spring 2015): 13–21; Церковь from Europe and the United States. nificantly in the past twenty-five years. в постсоветской So has the Russian Orthodox Church. России: возрождение, To this point, Father John’s successful Sergei Chapnin has described that pro- качество веры, диалог combination of social service, liturgical cess, in this journal and elsewhere.3 с обществом (Mos- revival, charismatic prayer, and heal- What, if anything, have these changes cow: Arefa, 2009). ing, seemed to embody the answer of meant for the posthumous career of a the Russian Orthodox Church to the supremely Russian saint? challenges of secularism, urbanism, and sectarianism. With the rise of ter- Some of these developments were pre- rorism and the revolutionary move- dictable. Since St. John’s 1990 canon-

10 ization more than sixty new churches The Family has its origins in St. John’s or altars have been dedicated to him own House of Industry. The parish in Russia alone. In 1999, the Kronstadt formed around the St. Petersburg con- flat in which St. John lived from 1855 vent where St. John is buried, and the to 1908, and which had been turned group that organized the anniversary into a communal apartment in the So- jubilee follows its founder’s tradition viet period, was partially restored and of social work. With over thirty sepa- officially registered as a memorial mu- rate charitable groups, its activity spans seum.4 St. John has joined the roster of everything from coordinating prayer the biographical book series Lives of Re- to elder care, medical assistance, legal markable People.5 support, childcare, Sunday school, find- ing work, car service, computer consul- 4 www.leushino/ Two things are particularly telling, tation, and home repair. This kind of kvartira (this and all however. First is the extensive activity large-scale grassroots activity and ini- other links cited here of the so-called “John Family” headed tiative, impossible under communism, last accessed August by Archpriest Nikolai Beliaev, priest of is something new for Russian parishes. 10, 2016). the parish linked to the Karpovka Con- 5 vent in St. Petersburg founded by St. In the reach of its activity and in its Mikhail Od- 6 intsov, Иоанн John in 1900. Second is the elaborate success, the Family would seem to be Кронштадтскии 2015 commemoration of the twenty- a socially active, vibrant parish, a con- (Moscow: Molodaia fith anniversary of the saint’s canon- temporary version of St. John’s own gvardiia, 2014). ization, which included a pilgrimage House of Industry. It would seem to by rail from the Karpovka convent to offer a promising model to other par- 6 The Family website St. John’s birthplace in the village of ishes in Russia seeking to revive the is pravprihod.ru Sura. Taken together, the “Family” and tradition of Christian mutual aid. But the commemorative pilgrimage em- Father Nikolai’s situation is unique. He body the mixed legacy of the saint in is able to operate as freely as he does present-day Russia. because, unlike most parish priests, he

Confession at Sura pilgrimage.

The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 11 does not have go to through the usual a major grant given annually to proj- hierarchy of dean, archbishop, synod. ects boosting Russian patriotism. They He answers directly to the Patriarch, made a movie about their hero. They who fully supports his initiatives. It printed icons, brochures, bookmarks, is thus perhaps fitting that the body and briefcases. They got the support most closely reflecting the community of the mayor of St. Petersburg, the outreach and spiritual sustenance of mayor of Kronstadt, the governor St. John himself is as unique, and as of Arkhangelsk, and Patriarch Kirill uniquely privileged, as was the saint himself. for whom it is named. Priests as far afield as Pakistan, Indo- The 2015 pilgrimage organized by nesia,and Nebraska, teachers raised as the “Big John Family” to commemo- orphans in Chile, archimandrites and rate the canonization of their hero, by abbesses from war-torn Ukraine—all contrast, makes clear the differences rode in the chartered train like Chau- between Orthodox piety and com- cer’s pilgrims, praying together and memoration in imperial Russia and the sharing their stories. As on all good Russia of the present. During St. John’s pilgrimages, we had plenty of time for lifetime, Kronstadt was a leading pil- both. We woke to a loudspeaker read- grimage site. Pilgrimages to Kronstadt ing morning prayers and either went to were mass occasions, especially during sleep or to the café car after hearing eve- Great Lent. ning prayers. In between, each wagon took turns going to akathist services in The pilgrimage of June 2015 was dif- the church car, which, with its altar and ferent. For two years, the parish raised icon-stands and swinging oil lamps, over twelve million rubles to fund a could hold only fifty people. Every few pilgrimage by rail for anyone con- hours the train made a whistle-stop to be nected to St. John parishes or causes greeted by Russian locals bringing the to Sura, the village where St. John was traditional gift of bread and salt. Pretty born. They successfully competed for girls in kerchiefs held placards and banners with images of their saintly hero, Mini kliros in chapel brass bands played patriotic tunes, lo- car on John of Kron- cal notables made speeches of welcome, stadt’s pilgrimage and more pretty young women in na- train. tional costume danced as older women sang. Then the 250 clerics and hierarchs led the faithful in a short prayer before hopping back on the train.

Besides the prayers, in between cups of tea and vegan meals, there were conversations lasting till two or three in the morning. The white nights were in full swing, and the sky over Arkhangelsk never went dark. In the daytime people talked in all the languages they knew about turning points in their lives, and what had brought them to the saint they had come to honor. At night the more daring monastic millennials crept out

12 Restored Dormition Cathedral, Sura, 2015.

7 Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millen- nium (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997). See also God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald (San Francisco: Igna- tius Press, 2002). of their sleeping cars, shed their black ticing faithful is now minuscule. The robes and stiff hats, brought out their pilgrimage organizers acknowledged Jameson’s Irish whiskey, Soviet cham- as much, calling their pilgrimage a pagne and smoked fish, sang songs, missionary effort seeking to remind and remembered riotous days before Russia that St. John existed. tonsure at age twenty-three. (“So I make my decision to become monk, and then In this way, the commemorative pil- this girl I barely know posts on social grimage expressed the position Pope networks that I’m ‘looking for a rela- Benedict articulated in interviews with tionship.’”) the German journalist Peter Seewald. In those conversations, then-Cardinal The pilgrims then drove over dirt roads Joseph Ratzinger mused that, “Per- and pontoons to the village of Sura, haps we are facing a new and different St. John’s birthplace, where Patriarch kind of epoch in the Church’s history, Kirill, who flew in by helicopter, joined where Christianity will again be char- them Sunday morning for Liturgy fol- acterized more by the mustard seed, lowed by fairs and folk-singing. The where it will exist in small, seemingly dirt roads, the absence of running wa- insignificant groups that nonetheless ter, and the tent city of individual pil- live an intensive struggle against evil grims evoked both the conditions of St. and bring the good into the world.”7 John’s early life and the timeless aspect of every pilgrimage. The discrepancy between the scale of the veneration Father John received at But there were some differences. The the height of his fame in his lifetime first was numbers. If in St. John’s life- and the sort he receives now is a Rus- time both he and Orthodox Christian- sian version of such “remnant” theol- ity drew millions of Russians, and if at ogy. With a few exceptions, like papal his 1990 canonization it seemed as if visits, the era of mass appeal, of large they might again, the number of prac- numbers, whether Roman Catholic or

The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 13 then find, sometimes to their own sur- prise, that saints and sites offer more than they thought possible. They want to experience again, or experience in more depth, what Stella Rock calls the “unexpected pull of the holy.”8

What role does the Eucharist play in these pilgrimages? Perhaps the most telling difference between the pilgrimages to Kronstadt in Father John’s lifetime and the one from St. Petersburg to Sura in 2015 is the ap- proach to Eucharistic theology and to confession and communion. In Father John’s lifetime, despite his desire for Confession. Russian Orthodox, is gone. In its place, more frequent communion on the part people create different pilgrimage prac- of his flock, pilgrimages to Kronstadt 8 Stella Rock, “Seek- tices. remained clustered during the Lenten ing out the Sacred: periods when Russians traditionally Grace and Place On the one hand, the commemorative went to communion, and in Great Lent in Contemporary in particular. The mass confessions he Russian Pilgrim- 2015 pilgrimage to St. John seemed a age,” Modern Greek well-funded, well-crafted, socially-net- introduced were the one of the few Studies Yearbook 28/9 worked opportunity for small num- solutions he could devise in response (2012/13): 193–218. bers of dedicated faithful to celebrate to the conundrum of having govienie— Compare this their devotion to the saint and to reach the combination of a minimum of three perspective to that days of fasting, church attendance, and of Jeanne Korm- out to Russian society. But, as in other ina, “Abtobusniki: variants of contemporary Russian pil- confession—be a necessary prelude to Russian Orthodox grimage, it had some less well-crafted the Eucharist. (Written confessions and Pilgrims’ Longing results. First-time pilgrims might be blessing his spiritual children to go to for Authenticity,” motivated by imagined heritage tour- communion without confession were in Eastern Christians among the other, more unusual ones.) in Anthropological ism or help during personal crisis—and Perspective, ed. Chris Harris and Hermann Goltz (Berkeley: Uni- versity of California Press, 2010), 287–86, and Christine D. Worobec, “Commen- tary: The Coming of Age of Eastern Orthodox Pilgrimage Studies,” Modern Greek Studies Year- book 28/9 (2012/13): 219–236.

Post-communion at Sura pilgrimage. 14 The 2015 pilgrimage found a different women and both men and women he solution. When the pilgrims reached knew with little formal preparation. their final destination in Sura and A more frequent participation in com- almost all wished to partake of the munion was perhaps St. John’s most Eucharist, priests heard individual important contribution to Russian pi- confessions not only in church dur- ety. Both the change in standards of ing services, but also in the open air “proper” reception, which had previ- throughout the streets of the village, ously discouraged frequent commu- between the convent church and the nion as potentially leading to dimin- cathedral. There were special confes- ished reverence for the sacrament, and sion tents, confession booths, confes- the revival of Eucharistic theology in sions in front of wooden huts, confes- the Russian tradition, may be traced 9 www.pravmir. sional conversations. But there was no to this quiet revolution. Indeed, with ru/proekt-doku- communion without confession, and respect to both their intimate personal menta-o-podgotov- all of the confessions were individual, journals and their emphasis on more ke-ko-svyatomu-pri- “auricular.” frequent communion, one might even chashheniyu/. argue that St. John of Kronstadt was 10 For, in contemporary Russian prac- the forefather of the late Father Alex- K. Glizhinskii, Из 11 объятий умирающей tice, as in the days of St. John, one can- ander Schmemann. бурсы в горнило not partake of the Eucharist without жизни (Ekaterinburg, having first gone to confession, read But St. John left another legacy, one 1912), 68. lengthy prayer rules, fasted for several that has come to the forefront more days, and abstained from food and in the last few years than it did when 11 Alexander Schme- drink from midnight. Although there he was canonized in Russia twenty-six mann, The Eucharist: Sacrament of the years ago. This is the political aspect may be exceptions—for devout, truly Kingdom (Crestwood: “enchurched” parishioners at the dis- of Orthodoxy in Russia. In this sense, St. Vladimir Press, cretion of their father-confessor, or for the 2015 pilgrimage had more in com- 2003). For the tradi- others during the week after Pascha— mon with the revolutionary last years tion of priests’ diaries still, “confession is an inextricable part of St. John’s life than it did with the in imperial Russia, see Laurie Manches- of preparation for communion.”9 By early years of perestroika when he was ter, “The Diary of a providing all these conditions as well canonized. If in 1990 the hymns to St. Priest,” in Heather J. as providing access to a shrine, Rus- John emphasized his social service and Coleman, ed., Ortho- sian pilgrimages offer a unique tempo- his local roots, some of messages in the dox Christianity in Im- ral space to take part in the sacraments. film produced by the “Big John Fam- perial Russia: A Source But they are also an occasion to pon- ily” for the commemoration of his can- Book on Lived Religion (Bloomington: Indi- der on Eucharistic theology inside and onization were as political as any the ana University Press, outside Russia, and on St. John’s own saint preached in his last years.12 Of the 2014), 85–94. Eucharistic legacy. four refrigerator magnets for sale in St. John’s former apartment, one features 12 “Именем Иоанна St. John found his own sustenance in the a quotation that mentions Jesus; three Кронштадтского,” Eucharist, and sought to have his flock mention Russia. In his sermon at the www.youtube.com/ do the same. When he—daringly— canonization commemoration, Patri- watch?v=Vo9477JYA_A. turned to face the flock saying, “Come, arch Kirill told the thousands in atten- drink ye all of it,” this reminded those dance that St. John saw “the decline of present that they, too, were expected to morals, the dissolution of the elites, the take part in the eucharistic celebration.10 departure from the faith of those who In his sermons, he linked spiritual should protect it, including those in the health to the reception of the Eucharist. entourage of the autocrat. . . . We must He broke with contemporary practice, pray to him to avert the dangers facing occasionally permitting menstruating our Fatherland.”

The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 15 Shrine at Sura. The tension in St. John’s legacy for Russia emerges with particular clarity in the film produced by the Big John Family. The film begins by emphasiz- ing St. John’s universality: the voice- over informs the viewer that “St. John is known everywhere, celebrated in every language. . . . He is known on every continent. . . . He showed us that life in Christ is open to everyone.” But the last scenes of the film take place in Crimea after its annexation by Russia. Priest Sergii Khaliuta in Sevastopol and Chersones is shown declaring that Crimea, where Prince Vladimir was baptized into Orthodox Christianity, is “our common font: there are not three rator declares that the new St. John of fonts, one in Moscow, one in Kiev, and Kronstadt Church in Crimea is a sym- one in Minsk: our one people cannot bol of unity. St. John is likened to Ad- be separated into three parts.” The nar- miral Makarov as “endlessly dedicated to the task of serving Russia.” As cruis- Priest walking home ers from the Russian Black Sea fleet sail from a service in a midsummer village across the screen, a voice reads: “I fore- in Russia. see the restoration of a mighty Russia, ever more mighty and powerful.”

This message is not inconsistent with some of St. John’s own sermons in his last years. It is certainly consistent with many Russian political decisions in the past three years. Still, those seeking a more universal celebration of St. John’s legacy may be glad that the film made © 2016 The Wheel. to celebrate his commemoration ends May be distributed for with a series of icons of the saint, show- noncommercial use. ing him holding a chalice with one hand www.wheeljournal.com and pointing to it with the other.

Nadieszda Kizenko is Chair of the History Department at the University at Albany. Her first book, A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People, won the Heldt Prize and was published in Russian as Sviatoi nashego vremeni. Otets Ioann Kronshtadtskii i Russkii Narod (NLO, 2006). She is currently com- pleting a history of confession in the Russian empire from the 17th century to the present.