Archpriest Fr. John Ilyich Sergiev

The most venerable pastor of the church, Archpriest Father John Sergiev, rector of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt, is the son of a church reader of Arkhangelsk province, Pinega district, the village of Sura, born in 1829. In his tenth year of life, barely able to read by spelling out syllables, he was placed in the Arkhangelsk parish school. Since he was not at all prepared for school, and there was no one to help him, and he had to work everything out for himself, his letters came to him with great difficulty, which caused him no small grief. But, having from childhood been trained by the example of his father and mother in prayer, he was a pious boy and attended the churches of God with great zeal, praying fervently that God would give him sense and understanding. And the Lord heeded his entreaties. Suddenly, as it were, a veil fell from his mind, and he began to understand his lessons well. Succeeding more and more in his studies, he finished the seminary as first pupil and was sent at government expense to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, on completing whose course he entered the priesthood (in 1855) in the city of Kronstadt, where he serves to this day, in the rank of mitred archpriest.

This worthy servant of God draws every heart to himself by his boundless love for God, by his self-sacrificing service to his neighbor, and by that faith in the help of God of which the Lord Himself spoke: «If you have faith and say to this mountain, Move, it will move». Father John is now in his seventy-fourth year; but who could give him so many years—so fresh and vigorous is he! He sleeps no more than three hours a day, and sometimes barely manages to doze while sitting, or while riding somewhere in a carriage. He is always on his feet, constantly in church, hearing confession and communing hundreds of people in the Holy Mysteries. After the day’s service he hastens every day to visit the sick and all who call on him for prayer. Almost every day he travels from Kronstadt to Petersburg and back. Neither foul weather nor weariness, nothing can stop him. Seeing the pastor’s face, always kindly, cheerful, and content, it is hard to imagine that in his unceasing service to his neighbor he does not even have enough time to fortify himself with sleep and food. And who does not now have recourse, in sorrows and in joys, to Father John’s prayers! Our beloved Sovereign Emperor Alexander III, now fallen asleep in God, feeling the approach of his own end, wished to see Father John, and received him joyfully. Father John prayed together with the Tsar, and the Tsar felt the power of his prayer. On the 7th of October, in accordance with the Sovereign’s wish, Father John gave him Holy Communion. Summoned again by the Most Sovereign sufferer on the very day of his death, Father John, at the Tsar’s wish, read a prayer for the healing of the Sufferer and anointed him with oil from a wonderworking icon. Then, at the Tsar’s wish, Father John laid his hands upon the Tsar’s head and did not take them away for a long while. The Sovereign, being fully conscious, asked Father John to rest, but Father John said he felt no weariness, and asked him: «Is it not burdensome for Your Majesty, that I hold my hands so long upon your head?» But the Tsar said to him: «On the contrary, it is very easy for me, when you hold them there». Then the Tsar went on: «You are a righteous man: the Russian people love you». — «Yes, answered Father John,—your people love me». «They love you, said the Sovereign,—because they know who you are and what you are». These were almost the Sufferer’s last words. Soon after, he fell quietly asleep in God. Father John took his hands from the Tsar’s head, on which a cold sweat had broken out. It is hard to describe the impression made by Father John’s celebration of the services. The Orthodox willingly give money for Father John’s works of charity, and he accepts with gratitude both the poor man’s coppers and the rich man’s hundreds, but gives it all over to works of charity. Much good is accomplished by this great ascetic of God. Those confessing to Father John are so numerous that, unable to hear each one separately, he hears the confession of all together, aloud. This universal confession makes a shattering impression. Whoever has been present at such a confession will, of course, never forget these great minutes of communion with God through the mediation of our great man of prayer.