Archimandrite Vladimir (Sukhobok) of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville passed away on this day in 1988. I never met Fr. Vladimir. When I came to Jordanville in 1990, he had already passed away. However, he was still there in people’s memories. Vasilii Sukhobok was displaced to Germany from the Soviet Union during the Second World War. He studied at a Russian high school in Munich and joined the St. Job of Pochaev Brotherhood there. He came to Jordanville in 1949 with a group of monks from this monastery. Holy Trinity Cathedral was being constructed then, and Brother Vasilii helped with the plastering. He also carried out monastery obediences and studied at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, which had opened the year before. Once the church was built, Fr. Vladimir kept his kitchen obedience for a while, but was eventually transferred to the office, where he labored all the way up until his repose. Fr. Vladimir was gifted with a particular feeling of kindness, love, and empathy, which made him a magnet for Russian exiles, from Australia to Canada. Father Vladimir corresponded extensively with his spiritual children, often staying up well into the night writing letters and sending people prosphora with particles taken out for their health. For many years, he compiled and submitted lists of names for the living and the dead, watched over the commemoration books in the altar, served molebens and panikhidas for his correspondents, and read names at the proskomedia. It is an essential sign of quality if Orthodox people have a sense of humor. Fr. Vladimir loved the American humorist author with the pen-name O. Henry, whose stories he often read during the classes that he taught at the seminary. He reposed in a Florida hospital, where he was seeing his friend Dr. Selavri, the father of Mark Selavri, the current President of the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Church Abroad. Earlier that year, Fr. Vladimir had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and was operated on in March. Archbishop Laurus conducted the funeral with Bishop Hilarion, fifteen priests, and six deacons. Father Vladimir was buried at the brotherhood cemetery behind the altar of the Holy Trinity Monastery cathedral. To this day, his grave is visited by numerous spiritual children who have preserved the brightest memory of their dear father. Source: Dmitry P. Anashkin (+2018), Deacon A. Psarev. “Two Branches of the Pochaev Root: Portraits of the Inhabitants of the Munich Monastery of St. Job in Jordanville” [Unpublished manuscript] |
