Nadieszda Kizenko. A Prodigal : Father John of and the Russian People. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2000. xiii + 384 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-271-01976-5.

Reviewed by Argyrios K. Pisiotis

Published on H- (January, 2002)

Modern Holiness in the Grips of Unholy Such was the life of a Christian Orthodox saint, Modernity Ioann Kronshtadtskii (1829-1908). It is sometimes nice to imagine what it might Nadieszda Kizenko, Associate Professor of be like to be an object of public adoration: your History at SUNY-Albany, has written an excellent image is mass-produced on mugs, postcards, and biography of this compelling historical fgure, key rings; you dread leaving your home without a known in English as Father John of Kronstadt. small army of bouncers to shield you from your Kizenko goes far beyond a simple narrative of his delirious admirers, some of whom have travelled life, a static description of his character traits and great distances in order to see you, to kiss you, to schematic overview of his ideas, well worn mate‐ tear bits of your clothes--some even bite you--so rial already covered by hagiographers and by bi‐ they can have a piece of you as a trophy; the na‐ ographers, both friendly and hostile, of the most tional press reports the smallest detail of your life celebrated Russian saint of the twentieth century. as news, sometimes relying on dubious sources; Although A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kron‐ foreign press correspondents spread your fame to stadt and the Russian People does not neglect the faraway places; publishers compete for the privi‐ saintly priest^Òs background, beliefs, innova‐ lege of releasing your literary eforts; the intellec‐ tions, and inner struggles, it also examines the de‐ tual elite obsessively discusses the roots and ef‐ gree to which the diferent versions of his life cor‐ fects of your celebrity while the highest ranks of responded to changing social and political condi‐ society invite you into their homes; the head of tions. Kizenko unveils a multidimensional portrait state himself invites you to share a most private of Father John which allows her to delve into the family moment with him. If you thought that such role of the Orthodox Church in Late Imperial Rus‐ mass hysteria was ushered in with the Beatles, sia, popular piety and lived religion, the impor‐ MTV, or ^ÓEntertainment Tonight,^Ô think again. tance of gender in religiosity, the interrelation be‐ tween and their cults, and the involvement H-Net Reviews of religious fgures in politics. The author endeav‐ and lively liturgy that included inspirational ors to explore what is specifc to modern sanctity choral singing and sermons on burning social is‐ in general. Along the way, she uncovers modern sues (Father John did not shirk from bemoaning trends in religiosity that go beyond Russia, such poverty and castigating the rich). By re-establish‐ as the increasing importance of priests, as op‐ ing the as the center of parish life and posed to monks or bishops, in defning piety and introducing unprecedented mass confessions, Fa‐ the dialectical relation between modern sanctity ther John made the most important individual on the one hand, and the media, publicity, and contribution to a new piety grounded in the sacra‐ politics on the other. ments. The frst chapter traces the life of Father John Without ever lapsing into hagiography, (born Ioann Sergiev) from his humble beginnings Kizenko ofers in Chapter Three a rare glimpse as the son of a barely literate sacristan from into what might be called an "objective" core of Arkhangel^Òsk province to his scholarship-fund‐ saintliness, before historical circumstances and ed studies at the St. Petersburg Theological Acade‐ exigencies construct idealized hagiographic fg‐ my and through his frst fundamental and conse‐ ures, as happened after Father John^Òs death. quential career decisions. Following a typical cler‐ Though burdened with the same human faws ical pattern, Ioann "inherited" his post by marry‐ and passions as the next person, Father John ing the daughter of an archpriest at St. An‐ waged a sincere, persistent, methodical, and ulti‐ drew^Òs Cathedral on Kronstadt, the small garri‐ mately successful battle against his modest ap‐ son island guarding the way to the capital of the petite, his sensual desires, his pride, his miserli‐ Romanov empire in the Gulf of Finland. Breaking ness, and his disinterest in human company. Hav‐ radically with tradition, and without much regard ing attained the virtues antithetical to these faws, for his wife^Òs opinion, he opts for a "spiritual Father John united in his person two models of (i.e. celibate) marriage." His diaries reveal to clerical service normally thought to be distinct: Kizenko a fundamentally religious nature that at‐ the power of prayer and spiritual guidance of‐ tributed a symbolic signifcance and moral value fered to the laity by ascetics, and the practical ad‐ to every event, no matter how commonplace. His vice and material assistance for everyday-life models are drawn primarily from the ascetic problems that the most active of parish clergy Church Fathers. Despite his deeply pessimistic committed to their focks. Intuited by the poverty perception of human nature, he does not retire of his childhood, legitimated by patristic readings, from the secular world, as monks do, and he suf‐ and inspired by the impoverished countryside fers the consequences of this decision, not the and the destitute worker neighborhoods of an in‐ least of which are constant reminders of his social dustrializing, urbanized Russia, Father John^Òs inferiority amidst the glitter and power of the im‐ stern calls for social justice parallel those of his perial capital. Breaking with the common tradi‐ radical socialist contemporaries, such as Dobroli‐ tion of the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic ubov and Chernyshevsky. Like them, he saw the Churches, he does not see women as more prone solution in the re-structuring of society. Unlike to sin than men and his relative gender equality radicals, Father John saw Christianity-^Önot so‐ makes him particularly popular with women. cialist theories--as the basis of this restructuring. Chapter Two investigates the liturgical inno‐ Like them, he also endorsed work as an additional vations that frst made Father John a celebrity, at escape from poverty. Unlike most of them, he ap‐ least within in his parish, from the 1850s through plied his ideas in founding the House of Industry the 1870s. He fashioned a more emotionally direct as a shelter/trade-learning school/workshop for

2 H-Net Reviews the poor. He complemented his beliefs with his doxy. Radical publicists contributed what became boundless personal charity. the longest lasting image of Father John as a reac‐ All this brought Father John the broad recog‐ tionary obscurantist. From 1881 through his nition and respect of his fellow Russians, whose death, they vilifed Father John who, shocked by thousands of letters to him Kizenko painstakingly the violence, atheism, and anticlericalism of the classifes and analyzes in chapter Four. Strict di‐ revolutionary movement, began identifying Rus‐ chotomies between high and low culture, between sian Orthodoxy with the autocracy and endorsed elite and popular piety, collapse under this inspec‐ the extreme Right as the most steadfast opponents tion. Barely literate peasants, politically astute of revolution. workers, clerical colleagues, and leading aristo‐ After 1904-1905, those disillusioned by Rus‐ crats all addressed petitions to the saintly priest, sia^Òs increasing secularization and political re‐ requesting that Father John pray for their healing, forms used the saintly priest^Òs prestige to pro‐ render emergency fnancial assistance, or inter‐ mote their anti-modernist agendas. Most interest‐ cede on their behalf before the authorities for spe‐ ing is the Orthodox hierarchy^Òs attitude toward cial favors. Counter to exaggerated views of the Father John: despite initial suspicions over his strict division of post-Petrine society into two cul‐ liturgical innovations, Father John^Òs undimin‐ tures, Kizenko exposes a commonality in the sup‐ ished loyalty to the Church, the theological recti‐ plicants^Ò understandings of Orthodoxy. In con‐ tude of his innovations, and his centuries-long trast to the scholarly stereotype of the Russian clerical background made them trust him and use masses as totally ignorant of church doctrine, the him for their own purpose. The majority of the author brilliantly demonstrates a less fractured Russian episcopate was perspicacious enough to continuum of social morality in which even hum‐ realize that John of Kronstadt was the Church^Òs ble supplicants understood and accepted personal ideal answer to the perceived erosion of religiosi‐ responsibility for the "rules" through which the ty and the Church^Òs position in society pro‐ Divine grace could grant them healing or other duced by economic upheaval, urbanization, new help. Moreover, the majority of petitioners exem‐ social theories, and political reforms. plify a view of society as a moral universe and of The politically turbulent frst decade of the themselves as active players in the economy of century, the last of Ioann Sergiev^Òs life, demon‐ salvation that is surprisingly congruent with Or‐ strated that celebrities, saintly or not, often do not thodox theology. enjoy the simple right of neutrality in political In chapters fve through seven, Kizenko ex‐ struggles. Father John^Òs posthumous treatment plores the distinct uses that competing groups by hagiographers, biographers, and Soviet atheist made of Father John^Òs unofcial but widely ac‐ writers, the subject of the last chapter, shows that cepted sanctity. Conservative publicists held him even saints cannot escape the distortions that his‐ up as an ideal of Orthodox clerical leadership in torical circumstances impose, especially those of lieu of an intellectually modish bureaucratic hier‐ the extreme political polarization which divided archy. The "Ioannites," lay religious rigorists who Russians from the latter quarter of the nineteenth rejected modernity and broke with hierarchical century until the Yeltsin years. For example, the discipline to pose as the only "true Orthodox" and importance of Father John^Òs popularity with to pursue their own Protestant-like communities, women was consistently overlooked or presented venerated him as a saint or even as Christ. The as proof of his obscurantism, i.e., he could only writer attacked Father John for his appeal to the more sentimental and less educated rejection of Tolstoyan opposition to ofcial Ortho‐ sex. His political activity was played up both by

3 H-Net Reviews the emigrant monarchist fock of the Russian Or‐ al, Orthodox liturgical traditions, and the modern thodox Church Abroad, which canonized him in social history of Russia. For instance, most foreign 1964, and by the Soviet regime, which made the travelers and observers, as well as subsequent term "Ioannite" a byword for the counterrevolu‐ historians, who wrote about the clergy in tsarist tionary activity of religious fanatics. When the Russia attributed the low esteem accorded priests Patriarchate fnally canonized him in to their low education or drunkenness. This view, 1990, Father John was used once again, this time however, does not explain why, after two cen‐ as weapon in inter-Church rivalries. The hierar‐ turies of seminary education had produced highly chy of the Patriarchate overlooked his politics al‐ qualifed priests, many of whom were involved in together and emphasized his Russian-ness in a bid various intellectual endeavors, from history to ar‐ to establish its territorial connection to the saint chaeology and ethnography, the image of the es‐ and therefore its superiority over the emigration tate had scarcely improved and not a single priest Church. had been canonized by the end of imperial Russia. A Prodigal Saint is an example of how to Kizenko, in contrast, argues that the traditionally write a highly scholarly monograph that can still high valuation of virginity, which placed recluses, engage the average reader. Kizenko ably employs wanderers, and monks closer to heaven, is a more a highly "interactive" style: at every turn she an‐ compelling explanation for the relatively low ticipates the reader^Òs new questions, articulates opinion of the parish clergy. Similarly, the infre‐ them clearly, shows why they are legitimate, and quency of receiving communion in Russia had discusses various explanations. Where her been traditionally seen-^Öespecially by foreign sources are silent, she lays out all the possible or travelers of non-Orthodox faith^×-as proof of the already proposed answers and comes down with superfcial hold of Christianity among a nation a fnal judgment based on educated speculation, that remained pagan at heart, or as a result of as she does about Father John^Òs motivations to growing secularization towards the end of the remain a virgin and his wife^Òs feelings about empire. Kizenko explains that many of the faith‐ this (pp. 32-35). Kizenko also uses her deep famil‐ ful were dissuaded from partaking in the sacra‐ iarity with social conditions in the era to explain ment by Orthodox injunctions against receiving contradictory information in diferent sources, as, communion "unworthily." Relics, holy water, for instance, in the discrepancy of opinions about blessed bread, holy oil, and crosses were more ac‐ the living conditions in Ioannite shelters (p. 222). cessible to the populace. The author foresees possible objections in her The book is the frst major contribution com‐ convincingly argued conclusions. For example, ing out of a recent wave of research into society, when she points out the variety of ways in which Church and clergy in late imperial Russia. Father John^Òs petitioners expressed the belief Kizenko also integrates brilliantly the insights of‐ that their illnesses were linked to sin to argue fered by other studies of junior scholars--many against the objection that petitioners might have still unpublished.[1] The author^Òs conclusions written that to win his sympathy (p. 103). are ambitious yet clearly articulated. At the Euro‐ Most refreshing is Kizenko^Òs ability to ofer pean level, she compares John of Kronstadt to insights into Orthodox devotional piety that do similar phenomena of popular sanctity in twenti‐ justice to the lived experience as opposed to being eth-century France (Jean Marie Vianney) and Italy based on broad deductions or sociological theory. (Padre Pio). The broadest of all is that towards the The author owes this to her profound familiarity end of the nineteenth century, both the Russian with the history of the Christian Church in gener‐ Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches be‐ gan "to accept emotional, personal, and supernat‐

4 H-Net Reviews ural forms of piety that they discouraged in the ing or even repugnant"(p. 257)? One simply ig‐ eighteenth century"(p. 285) Both embraced popu‐ nores them. lar piety in the face of the challenges of modernity This reviewer wonders whether some of that threatened established Churches. In the case Kizenko^Òs conclusions could not be more broad‐ of Russia, one man, according to Kizenko, proved ly applied. She writes that Father John "had more singularly important for afecting this change. in common with radical socialist thinkers as Do‐ John of Kronstadt brought ofcial Orthodoxy clos‐ broliubov and Chenyshevsky than with most con‐ er to the devout by addressing their everyday ma‐ temporary Orthodox clerics" in that he believed terial and emotional needs. At the same time, he that "the priest must be militant in seeking to brought the people closer to ofcial Orthodoxy by change the world around him" (p. 90). New re‐ attracting them to a more sacrament-centered search by Jennifer Hedda--as well as by this re‐ piety. The Church paid a price, however, for this viewer--indicates that, while the author^Òs as‐ concession to modernity, for it lost its monopoly sessment is in a sense correct, there were far on sanctity^Òs prestige. In the age of mass pro‐ more socially engaged clergymen with a militant duction and improved transportation, sanctity be‐ activism for change than historiography has ac‐ came, and has remained, a commodity in the knowledged so far. Kizenko and junior scholars in hands of all those seeking to proft from it, from the feld have also brought out the late imperial hawkers of trinkets to political parties, municipal clergy^Òs antipathy for the atheist and anticleri‐ authorities, and state institutions. cal educated classes. Also, growing numbers of One fnds it hard to disagree with Kizenko^Òs clerical activists in the late Empire, whether in‐ judicious conclusions. Still under the menace of volved in liberal or radical-Rightist politics, secularization, the Church has taken further steps shared Father John^Òs belief that the clergy toward meeting popular feeling. John Paul II has should guide the people politically, especially canonized as martyrs an impressive number of since the majority of people were well-inten‐ victims of political persecution in former socialist tioned but could be led "astray" (p. 245). Father countries, while, after 1982, the Vatican requires John^Òs "vision of total Orthodox culture and a only one miracle in lieu of three for . totally Orthodox society" was also dear to the Combining the ascetic ideal of the startsy with the hearts of most clergymen (p. 83). social activism of the post-Great Reforms genera‐ All this indicates that Orthodox clergy in the tion of parish priests, John of Kronstadt indeed late empire were not simply involved in partisan became a modern clerical super-hybrid of irre‐ politics out of individual motives, but that they sistible appeal. This and other traits make him ex‐ may have also been making a bid-^Öas a ceptionally pertinent to our day. His sponsoring of soslovie--for the moral-social leadership of future socially engaged female monasticism endears him Russia, ofering themselves as an alternative to a to modern sensibilities of gender-equality. His secular intelligentsia with dubious national cre‐ support of recovering alcoholics and their fami‐ dentials that did not really understand the people lies strikes a chord in many a home in a post-Sovi‐ (narod). Certainly, letters sent by workers and et society devastated by drinking. Time, and the peasants to Father John admitting that "there is consciousness of ofcial Church and faithful, have nothing left to do except to seek help from our also answered the nagging question about the one clergy" (p. 247) could lead Orthodox priests to be‐ un-modern trait of the saint which preoccupied lieve that their ambitions might not be so far- his liberal minded contemporaries: "what is one fetched. That thousands of rural and urban to do, if a man of God, a man of undisputed holi‐ parishioners asked their priests what party to ness, expresses political views one found disturb‐

5 H-Net Reviews vote for in the Duma elections, and that so many colloquium and the students responded to it very clergymen were elected to all four Dumas seems well. to suggest that the Orthodox clergy were a much Note more politicized and politically popular element [1]. See Laurie Manchester, "Secular Ascetics: in the late empire than previously recognized. The Mentality of Orthodox Clergymen^Òs Sons in That Father John^Òs backing of the radical Right Late Imperial Russia," Ph.D. diss., Columbia Uni‐ eclipsed all other aspects of his life, including his versity, 1995; and "The Secularization of the bold advocacy of social justice, also seems to par‐ Search for Salvation: The Self-Fashioning of Or‐ allel rather than contradict the fate of many fel‐ thodox Clergymen^Òs Sons in Late Imperial Rus‐ low priests, whose liberal or populist political in‐ sia," Slavic Review 57, no.1 (spring 1998):50-76; volvement was obscured by the Rightist member‐ Vera Shevzov, "Popular Orthodoxy in Late Imperi‐ ship-^Öoften superfcial--of other clergymen. al Rural Russia," Ph.D. diss, Yale University, 1994; Another of Kizenko^Òs conclusions that is Page Herrlinger, "The Religious Identity of Work‐ more broadly applicable is her insight that "the ers and Peasant Migrants in St. Petersburg, cleavage lines that split public opinion on the 1880-1917," Ph.D. Dissertation, UC Berkeley, 1996; Ioannites" or on Father John^Òs particular popu‐ Jennifer E. Hedda, "Good Shepherds: The St. Pe‐ larity with women "did not correspond to the clas‐ tersburg Pastorate and the Emergence of Social sical lines of early twentieth-century political con‐ Activism in the , ficts" (p. 198). Indeed, one could be at the same 1855-1917," Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1998; time a member of the Union of Russian People Robert P. Geraci, Window on the East. National and a castigator of the rich, like John of Kronstadt, and Imperial Identities in Late Tsarist Russia or a monarchist and a caustic critic of anti-Semitic (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, pogroms, like Archbishop Antonii (Khrapovitskii), 2001; A.K.Pisiotis, "Orthodoxy Versus Autocracy: or a Rightist Duma deputy and a pro-peasant ad‐ The Orthodox Church and Clerical Political Dis‐ vocate like bishop Evlogii, or a radical socialist sent in Late Imperial Russia, 1905-1914," Ph.D. publicist and a misogynist and anti-Semite like diss., Georgetown U., 2000. Scott Kentworthy and some of the critics of Father John. George Kosar at Brandeis U. are currently fnish‐ Kizenko manages to intertwine biography, so‐ ing dissertations on "Monastic Revival in Modern cio-political analysis, theological discussion and Russia: The Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, Church history to produce a clear and captivating 1764-1920" and "Russian Orthodoxy in Crisis and book on a subject that has sufered from a dearth Revolution: The Church Council of 1917-18" re‐ of academic attention. The only broad criticism spectively. Mark McCarthy (U. of Notre Dame) is one might make of this fne work is orthographic. currently researching the British lay mission‐ Although Kizenko makes an earnest efort to in‐ ary^Òs Lord Granville Radstock III^Òs efects on terject explanation of technical or Russian terms, ofcial and popular Orthodox piety from readers unfamiliar with Church history, Russian 1874-1884. Orthodoxy or the might have found a glossary useful for terms such as kasha, hieromonk, hiero-schemamonk, Saint >Feodosii, cenobitic, Kapitolina, omophorions, kolbuks, chil‐ iastic and panikhida. This reviewer has already used this superb monograph in an upper-division

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Citation: Argyrios K. Pisiotis. Review of Kizenko, Nadieszda. A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People. H-Russia, H-Net Reviews. January, 2002.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5827

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