The Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne of the Russian Church, St. Metropolitan Peter of Krutitsy, sent a letter to his Deputy on this day in 1930. The canonical situation both in Russia and the diaspora throughout the 1920s was unprecedented. The Bolsheviks did allow the convocation of a church council, and the Supreme Church Authority was embodied in the person of Locum Tenens, whose job under regular circumstances would have been to deliver the vessel of the Church to the next council. When Metropolitan Peter was arrested at the end of 1925, Metropolitan Sergii (Stragorodskii) represented the center of the Supreme Church Authority. Metropolitan Peter was under various forms of captivity until his death in 1937. Although he could correspond, Metropolitan Sergii did not consult him after his own release from arrest in the spring of 1927, apparently due to Metropolitan Peter’s “criminal status.” During his first tenure, from the end of 1925 and until his arrest in December 1926, Metropolitan Sergii led the church in the spirit of Patriarch Tikhon and Metropolitan Peter, while consulting other bishops. Upon his release in the spring of 1927, he embarked on a new independent course of his own. The minutes of Metropolitan Sergii’s interrogation during this period are available only in part. Letters to Metropolitan Peter from his superior were left unanswered and we don’t know if Metropolitan Sergii even received them. This is the second letter sent to Metropolitan Sergii from Metropolitan Peter: Your Eminence, Vladyka! I have an opportunity to write to you in addition to the letter sent by registered mail to your Moscow address. I wrote that letter while feeling very unwell, and afterwards I felt completely unwell. There were some small insertions that needed to be made. When the mail arrived – our rare visitor – the fuss began, and I did just that, completely forgetting about the insertions. In one place, a phrase is missing: “for our common consolation.” This is where it talks about maintaining goodwill toward you. In another place, between the words “among the clergy”, you ought to insert “representatives of the Orthodox episcopate and clergy.” This is in the paragraph about the attitude towards the Soviet government. In the same paragraph, I remember, something is wrong with the negation “not.” But these shortcomings, of course, do not change the essence. I constantly think about you being a refuge for all true believers. I confess that, of all the upsetting news that I have ever received, most upsetting of all were the reports that many believers remain outside the walls of the church in which your name is commemorated. I am filled with mental pain about the discord that has arisen around your administration and other lamentable phenomena. Perhaps these messages are biased, perhaps I am not sufficiently familiar with the character and aspirations of the persons writing to me. But news of spiritual turmoil has been reaching me from different places, and mainly from clergy and laity, who are putting strong pressure on me. In my opinion, in view of the extraordinary conditions in the life of the Church, when the normal rules of governance are subject to all sorts of fluctuations, it is necessary to put church life on the path on which it stood during your first deputyship. Thus you shall deign to return to your activities that are respected by all. I am, of course, far from thinking that you would decide to refuse completely to fulfill what was entrusted to you – this would not serve the good of the Church. I repeat that I am very sorry that you did not write to me and did not let me know of your intentions. Since letters are coming from others, then, undoubtedly, yours would also have arrived. I am writing to you frankly, as the Archpastor closest to me, to whom I owe much in the past and from whose holy hand I received tonsure and the grace of the priesthood. Do not think, Vladyka, that the focus of my attention is based on the judgments of my neighbors, the [exiled] Archpastors. I will not conceal the fact that, as soon as they arrived in Obdorsk, they honored me with a general letter; but the latter consisted exclusively of greetings. Then, for about a year now, I haven’t heard anything about them. My health has been greatly weakened by the struggle with the harsh climatic conditions. I have repeatedly applied for resettlement to another location, with a more or less tolerable climate and medical care, which is too weak here, but there has been no success. I bear all the burdens at home myself: there is no person constantly around me [to help]. In old age, I must bear the burden of asceticism like a desert father. This is the inner order as arranged by the Lord. I ask you to pray to the Lord God to give me strength and help me live in uncomplaining obedience to His Holy Will. Your Eminence, your humble servant, Metropolitan Peter. In 1934, the Synod of Metropolitan Sergii elevated Metropolitan Sergii to the rank of Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomenskoe, with the right of wearing two panagias. This was a higher title than the one which Metropolitan Peter had. In 1936, Metropolitan Sergii became Locum Tenens. On October 10, 1937 Metropolitan Peter was martyred. Source: Monk Benjamin, Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii nachinaia s 1917 goda. [Timeline of Church Events Beginning with 1917] Part II: 1928-1938. |
