March 16

Newsletter Archive

This Day in the Life of the Church

March 16, 2024


A Hierarch With a Big Heart

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Vladyka Lavr taught Canon Law (in the photo) before he passed it down to me in 2003.

Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, passed away on this day in 2008. I write here about significance of Vladyka Lavr in my life. This reflection was already posted here on August 31.

I knew Metropolitan Laurus (Vladyka Lavr) since 1990 when I came to the Seminary in Jordanville. In March of 1991, Priestmonk Ignatii (Trepachko), the editor of the Monastery’s bi-weekly journal Pravoslavanaia Rusʹ, passed away, and Vladyka Lavr appointed me to help him prepare materials for the Monastery’s periodicals.

While I was still in the USSR, I began sending my pilgrimage reports to Pravoslavnaia Rusʹ. Now, the “obedience” of an editor was a Godsend. Toward the end of my studies at the seminary, probably in the summer of 1994, Vladyka Lavr offered me to stay and continue my work. I was relieved because I could not figure out what to do next. Understandably, this “stability” came with a price tag. Having worked for ten years as an editor of the Monastery's Russian language periodicals, I realized that I was neither a monk nor a family man, and with the blessing of Vladyka Lavr, I enrolled in St. Vladimir's Seminary. In the fall of 2001, I voluntarily resigned as the editor of Pravoslavnaia Rusʹ.

While the 1990s were a time of polemics, this century has become one of scholarship, and I hope this continues to remain the case. Vladyka Lavr was a crucial part of this journey into academia, as well. When I graduated from the seminary in the summer of 1995, he announced that I would be teaching the following fall. While I had never wanted to teach, it has now become part of my identity.

In 2003, I got married. It was moving to receive a letter from Vladyka. I remember visiting his office only a short time afterward. He looked at me and said, "I see you want to be independent." He did not say this disapprovingly but in a matter-of-fact manner. Vladyka Lavr had noticed a lot but would tell little. This quality speaks volumes about his personality. I hope we will meet again. May his memory be eternal!


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This project has been supported by the Fund for Assistance to the Russian Church Abroad


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Copyright 2023 Andrei Psarev.

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