Ресей қасиеттісі Иван Кронштадтский

Russian saint

John of Kronstadt or John Iliytch Sergieff (pre reform Russian: Іоаннъ Кронштадтскій; post reform Иоа́нн Кроншта́дтский; 31 October [O. S. 19 October ] 1829 – 2 January 1909 [O. S. 20 December 1908 ]) was a Russian Orthodox archpriest and a member of the Most Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was known for his mass confessions, numerous miracles, and charitable work, as well as his monarchistic, chauvinistic and anti communist views. John is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church and is known with the epithet "Righteous".

The future Saint was born as Ivan Ilyich Sergiyev (pre reform Russian: Иванъ Ильичъ Сергіевъ; post reform Иван Ильич Сергиев) on 31 October 1829 [O. S. 19 October 1829] in the northern village of Sura, near the White Sea, in the Russian Empire. He came from a hereditary corporation of village clergymen, and his father was a poor dyachok in the local church. The little that is known about his early life is mainly from late memories. In his autobiography, he claims that his parents gave him to a parish school but that the study was too difficult for him. However, he prayed earnestly and received inspiration. He became the top student in the school and then in the seminary, which enabled him to enter the Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, the Russian capital. He became the 35th out of 39 students who graduated from the academy in 1855.

John at first condemned the participants in the Kishinev pogrom but changed his mind. He apologized to its organisers and accused the Jews themselves of the pogroms. After the Russian Revolution of 1905, he became an ally of Russian far right radicals, also known as the Black Hundreds, who fought against left wing activists, liberals and Jews. When Dubrovin invited the hierarchs of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kiev as well as John to a mass meeting in November 1906, only John attended. Moreover, Metropolitan Anthonii of St. Petersburg sent Dubrovin a sharp rebuke and called his organization terrorist. John publicly consecrated the banners of the Union, thus inspiring its leaders. John was the only priest of St. Andrew's Cathedral to flee from Kronstadt during the uprising in 1905. The rest of the priests of St. Andrew's Cathedral held a procession to the rebels and urged them to stop the uprising. The press accused John of cowardice after that act, and journals published caricatures of him. Nikolai Leskov and Maxim Gorky were very critical of John. Gorky called him an "actor of the Imperial Churches". His support of far right movements and such aggressive attacks on Tolstoy led to the fact that the attitude of the "progressives" in society towards John became negative, and his figure became the personification of "Reactionary" forces.