Metropolitan Vadim of Yaroslavl and Rostov: “Monasticism Is an Indicator of the Spiritual State of Society”

Metropolitan Vadim (Lazebny) of Yaroslavl and Rostov talks about the distinctive features of monastic life in Yaroslavl and Rostov Veliky, the restoration of ancient monasteries, the thirty-year Irkutsk chapter of his life, unique Siberian churches and the Orthodox mission on Lake Baikal, about following Christ, inspiration on the monastic path and much more in his interview with the Monastic Bulletin.

Metropolitan Vadim of Yaroslavl and Rostov (Lazebny). Photo: Olga Dolbnya —Vladyka, what are the main tasks and goals that you have today as the ruling hierarch of the Yaroslavl Metropolia? What are your efforts primarily focused on?

—The most important task of Christians is to preach Christ the Savior and work for the salvation of our neighbors. After all, Christ came into the world to save people, as He Himself repeatedly said. Of course, talking about salvation brings us to understand the need for spiritual and moral improvement. Let us recall the words of our Lord Jesus Christ about the salt of the earth: Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid (Mt. 5:13–14). Just as salt should not lose its savor, so a Christian should not lose Christ, not become lukewarm and indifferent to faith. And this should never be forgotten.

Another important task is the formation of a strong parish community and a monastic family in the monastery. And we can only work on this together: to rebuild destroyed churches together, build new ones together, teach children, help others and strengthen communities. As the Lord said, If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them (Mt. 18:19-20). A church is a house of the special presence of God, as we can say figuratively. But it is a home for us as well. We do not just bring our sorrows and worries here, but also learn a lot here. We learn love, prayer and Christian virtues.

—How many monasteries, monks and nuns are there under your jurisdiction? What are the main needs of the monasteries? What difficulties do your monks and nuns face?

—There are eight monastic communities in the Diocese of Yaroslavl. Our convents are larger than men’s monasteries in terms of numbers. The largest is Tolga Convent, where 120 sisters currently perform there monastic labors.

The major problem of each monastery and convent is its monks and nuns and their spiritual development, their path to perfection, indicated by the Lord. It is also manifested in how their personal growth takes place, how they overcome the difficulties of their own characters, how they endure their own weaknesses and bear the infirmities of others. This problem has always been and remains the main one.

One of the pressing issues for ancient monasteries is the restoration of their churches and monastic buildings. Of course, there are better organized monasteries. To date, only three of them have been restored in the diocese: the Monastery of the Savior, St. Yakov and Holy Hierarch St. Dimitry of RostovSoon Dimitry was called to perform a different labor. There was a need to assemble a collection of the Lives of the Saints. Metropolitan Makary had long since begun the task of collecting the Lives of Saints from various sources and assembling them in his great volumes of the Menaion.

“>St. Dimitry in Rostov Veliky, Tolga Convent near Yaroslavl and the Convent of the Kazan Icon in Yaroslavl. The other monasteries are still under restoration. I want this process to go faster, to have permanent financial assistance so that we won’t have to depend on individual investments or federal programs. Even if it is already well-organized, like Tolga Convent, there will still be practical problems that will have to be solved from year to year, especially since a large architectural complex should always be kept in good condition.

Theophany Cathedral of Irkutsk. Photo: Baikalgo.ru     

Unfortunately, not every monastery can be restored quickly. But I want the life of monks and nuns in our monasteries and convents to be well-organized so that their struggle there can be for their good and salvation, and that solving everyday issues would not distract them from the main goal—acquiring the Heavenly Kingdom within themselves.

Of course, I want to see more monks in our monasteries. After all, monasticism is an indicator of the spiritual state of society. If we can send a spiritual “recruit” out of our midst into the monastic “army”, then we are more or less spiritually healthy. If a monastery becomes a center that attracts those seeking spiritual life, then many problems of people in the world will disappear too.

Photo: Vadim Tarasov —In August, the Tolga Convent of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple celebrates its 710th anniversary. What is the significance of this ancient convent for the country, the land of Yaroslavl and for you personally? How will the feast of the Tolga Icon (August 8/21) be celebrated this year?

—The celebration of the feast of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God is always solemn. On the eve of the feast-day, the famous copy of the Tolga Icon returns from Yaroslavl, and then the Vigil is served on the square between the convent’s churches. Pilgrims from different regions of the country and abroad gather for the festival. Guests often come from Stavropol where St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

“>St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), whose relics are kept at Tolga Convent, served. We also receive pilgrims from Greece, Belarus, the Baltic States and Moldova. On the feast-day, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated and a cross procession is held to the cedar grove where the Tolga Icon was originally discovered. The icon appeared in difficult times for our Fatherland. In 1314, our people were experiencing the Mongol-Tatar invasion. And in that hopeless time the Lord revealed the wonderworking Tolga Icon. If we refer to history, we will see that then Prince David Feodorovich, Prince Theodore Rostislavich the Black’s son (who was canonized together with his father and brother), reigned in Yaroslavl. The relics of the princes were uncovered and now rest at the Dormition Cathedral of Yaroslavl. Just as then the icon was an “intercessor” for people who flocked to it, so in subsequent times people prayed and still pray before it for help and consolation.

Photo: Kristina Kormilitsyna     

Tolga Monastery itself and its monks¹ shared in all the sorrows throughout the history of our long-suffering motherland. Take the Time of Troubles in the early seventeenth century, when the monks were slain by Poles; or the period of the persecution of the Church under the Bolsheviks, when the monastery was closed and a juvenile detention center was set up within its walls. Photographs of the destroyed monastery buildings have survived—the churches and living quarters were in ruins, which were later transferred to the diocese. This sorry sight was in many ways an image of the human soul that had forgotten God and lost its way to its Father’s house. Nowadays, the convent no longer resembles the ruins that were given to the faithful. The convent was restored only with God’s help and the great labors of the mother-superior, the nuns; and thanks to benefactors, who are making a very significant contribution to the life of the convent to this day.

—God rules the world, His Providence works in us. But how can we Christians not have fear in our difficult times?

—No times are easy! And not only does our personal future depends on us, but also the well-being of our loved ones and our native land. In many ways, our attitude to the inner spiritual life, our desire to follow Christ and walk this path determine life around us. Illustrative examples are the Lives of Sts. St. Sergius of RadonezhUndoubtedly, the most outstanding establisher of the truly selfless “life equal to the angels” in fourteenth century Russia is St. Sergius of Radonezh, the founder of the famous Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery, which embodies in its historical legacy his blessed precepts, and gradually became a kind of spiritual heart for all of Orthodox Russia.

“>Sergius of Radonezh and St. Seraphim of Sarov“>Seraphim of Sarov, as well as the Life of every saint who commended himself to God.

—Last autumn, at the Convent of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Rostov Veliky, you consecrated the Church of the Tikhvin Icon (the nineteenth century), the restoration of which had taken six years. Why is it so important to revive such churches, despite all the challenges? What were your feelings as you consecrated this church?

—An Autumn Walk Through the Rostov KremlinFew patrons in the entire history of ancient Russian art could compare with Metropolitan Jonah III in the scope and consistency of the implementation of his plan, according to which an image of Paradise on Earth was to appear not far from Lake Nero in the center of the ancient city of Rostov.

“>Rostov Veliky is very dear to me. It was the first town where I visited monasteries when I arrived in the diocese in 2020. And the restoration of the Convent of the Nativity of the Theotokos for the town, which was one of the few places where people were baptized with the direct participation of Prince Vladimir, the Baptizer of Russia, is very symbolic. It is also symbolic that it was founded in the fourteenth century by St. Theodore, St. Sergius of Radonezh’s nephew. It was a very hard time for the Russian land, but at the same time it was very fruitful. After the Tatar-Mongol invasion, many churches and monasteries were destroyed, and handicraft skills were lost. Back in the mid-thirteenth century the Yaroslavl army, led by the Right-Believing Prince Constantine, who was later canonized, was wiped out in the battle on Tugova Gora Mountain as they defended the town. But in 1314, St. Sergius was born near Rostov—his name is associated with the flourishing of monasticism—and in the same year in Tolga not far from Yaroslavl the Tolga Icon appeared and Tolga Monastery was founded. St. Sergius is very dear to residents of Rostov Veliky. He lived and prayed on this land. His disciples labored here as well. So, through prayers to the saints, through memory and reverent preservation, not so much history and culture as the spirit, the continuity (which has been talked about a lot lately) is preserved.

Before the Convent of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the sisters gathered together for many years, with many labors and prayers. The revival of a church or a monastery is like the creation of a human soul, of the inner world. This work is very hard, but also very gratifying. The result of such a spiritual revival is the restoration of the walls of churches and monasteries. And there are many examples of how not only full-fledged parishes were formed near restored monasteries, but whole villages were reborn. And the revival of Rostov Veliky seems is in no small way connected with the restoration of its monasteries and churches.

—Vladyka, you headed the Irkutsk Diocese for as many as thirty years. Did you encounter examples of true monasticism on the land of Irkutsk, on Lake Baikal, where, amidst a large number of Buddhist datsans (university monasteries), there are only four Orthodox monasteries?

—“Every good Christian has dreamed of being a monastic”Bishop Kirill has talked about what it means to be a monastic in the twenty-first century, why you can be a scholarly monk as an obedience, and how to determine whether a seminarian will grow to be a true pastor.

“>Monastic life began to revive, despite the closure of monasteries, persecutions and repressions. Just as it is impossible to remove the desire from someone’s soul to return to God, so it is impossible to destroy the thirst to be with Christ here and now, overcoming all the temptations of this vain world—even though monasteries were closed in the Soviet era, and the Bolsheviks thought that the very idea of monasticism could no longer appear in the minds and hearts of Soviet people.

However, the first priority for us in those years was to open Orthodox parishes. They became the foundation of Orthodox life in the land of Irkutsk. Parish life had to be built from scratch—gathering parishioners together, organizing services, ordaining new priests from among the locals, training and educating them. It used to be that candidates would often to Irkutsk, get ordained, and then return to their homes. There was still no one to serve. After Orthodox communities had been strengthened, it became possible to think about organizing a monastery. Strong Orthodox parishes became the criterion for the possibility of the revival of monasticism. Thus, the service of the Orthodox mission, aimed specifically at the non-church-going and unbaptized, those who know about Christianity only by hearsay and often have distorted and biased ideas of faith, is just as relevant today as it was before the Revolution.

The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Irkutsk, a striking example of the Siberian Baroque style. Photo: Alexander Shudykin Well, the role of Buddhist monasteries, especially in the Irkutsk region, shouldn’t be exaggerated. There were not many of them, and they had hardly any influence on the local population at that time. It is hard to speak about examples of true monasticism in modern life. The Lord knows about it. We can speak about true monasticism when we consider the Lives of the saints and testimonies of their spiritual feats. We do not have such examples nowadays. Today monks are striving for this and walking the path to attaining genuine monasticism.

—What memories do you have of the initial stage of the Irkutsk Cathedral’s amazing transformation and of the flock in Irkutsk?

—The Diocese of Irkutsk was my first cathedra, and it became so close to me. There I served in parishes as a hieromonk. My archpastoral ministry began there, which lasted exactly thirty years. Newly built and restored churches, ordaining young priests—all this went through my heart. And it’s impossible to forget it.

Unforgettable are the services at the Cathedral of the Icon of the “Sign” by the relics of St. Innocent, which were uncovered in the land of Yaroslavl and translated to Irkutsk, which we regard as a blessing and the protection of the holy hierarch and his help in our labors. The efforts to fresco the Theophany Cathedral are memorable. Together with experts, in particular, with the wonderful artist Mikhail Lutaenko, an honored Artist of Russia, a very religious man who is well versed in the canons, we decided on the subjects and their locations.

Photo: Kristina Kormilitsyna     

I must say that churches of Irkutsk were not painted much before the Revolution. For example, only the upper dome was frescoed in the cathedral and four evangelists were depicted, while the rest of the beautiful edifice was not painted. At that time it was expensive, and a journey from the central regions, famous for their schools and traditions of iconography, took a very long time. Therefore, initially, when only some element of the painting was preserved, and everything else had been lost and no images or evidence remained, we tried to restore what had already been done earlier and supplemented it with modern painting in an ancient style. There were such churches in Irkutsk. There we finalized the sketches, but we always did it in coordination with artists.

In Irkutsk, I had good long-term relations with the writer Valentin Grigoryevich Rasputin. Wonderful ideas were born during our meetings with him. The Days of Russian Spirituality and Culture and the opening of an Orthodox Women’s School, the publication of the Irkutsk Literary Magazine and the work of the diocesan theater were discussed. Here, next to the Cathedral of the Icon of the “Sign”, where prominent citizens of Irkutsk are buried, we bade farewell to Valentin Grigoryevich on March 19, 2015, as he began his eternal journey.

—How long were you the rector of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross, that striking example of the Siberian Baroque style, which is a UNESCO world heritage site? During the Proskomedia did you use the liturgical spear of New Hieromartyr Mikhail Okolovich, which is kept in the church?

—The Church of the Exaltation of the Cross was originally conceived as one of the largest in the city. And the place of its construction was not chosen randomly—a cross was set up there, to which Irkutsk residents often came to pray. In the late nineteenth century, the Imperial Archaeological Commission included the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross in the Collection of monuments of Russian antiquity. In the Soviet era, until 1991, the church was used as a cathedral.

At the turn of the eras, the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross as an architectural monument required great attention, since the destruction in those years was terrible. So, we even had to restore the decorated bricks. We did all we could and were allowed to do at that time according to the legal limits, even though we did not have enough funds and meager possibilities. No money was provided for the restoration of churches. Only once did funds arrive, thanks to which we were able to reroof one of the side-chapels.

The church had plenty of cracks, as earthquakes are frequent in Irkutsk, and many buildings are destroyed in them. Surprisingly, churches are an exception. On the one hand, it’s a miracle. On the other hand, it is the result of development in engineering during the pre–revolutionary period. Churches were built in such a way that they did not collapse during earthquakes, and have been standing for centuries.

—If we compare Irkutsk and Yaroslavl, what is special about these two so different regions? What did Siberia teach you, and what is Yaroslavl teaching you today?

—First and foremost, I would like to note that even after so many years of persecutions against the faith, the memory of the Holy Hierarch Innocent is still alive in the land of Irkutsk. This can be seen by how often infant boys are given the name Innocent. However, the link between Irkutsk and Yaroslavl exists not only through St. Innocent. Let’s not forget that Vladyka Nil (Isakovich), who is buried in the enclosure of the Yaroslavl museum-Reserve, formerly the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, served as bishop at both the Dioceses of Irkutsk and Yaroslavl. The Holy Hierarch Agafangel, whose relics rest at the Convent of the Kazan Icon in Yaroslavl, also served in Irkutsk.

The two regions are different, but they have a lot in common. Both here and there the preaching of the Word of God is required, but not outwardly, as a mere vibration in the air, but in a way that will be accepted by people’s souls and hearts. Both there and here, Christian morality must be given much attention. It is vital to gather people together and ensure their integrity.

Photo: Nun Ekaterina (Parunyan)     

—Vladyka, what or who inspires you most on your monastic path?

—The ministry of Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin) has always been a model for me. Father Seraphim was a martyr and a confessor. Although he died a natural death, his life was full of suffering. For many years he languished alone in exile for his faith. The example of his monastic service is priceless. He loved church services. His services were long and lasted up to six hours. On weekdays, he served at home. But Father Seraphim’s spiritual labors were not limited to worship. He was a confessor and confessed Christ all his life. Outwardly closed, but deeply loving, he saw through everyone who came to him and had the gift of clairvoyance.

Father Seraphim was God’s chosen one. He was an elder, a man not only of vision, but also of knowledge. He knew the hearts of his visitors who would stand before him as under an x-ray. At the same time, he was a very gifted and educated man, who also had a talent for teaching. And the cross that he bore, unthinkable for an ordinary person, could not be borne without God’s gifts.

—Today, a monk is no longer one in a thousand, but one in five to ten thousand. How can “soldiers” of Christ be saved in our days? What words do you use to comfort and encourage your Yaroslavl flock, your monks and nuns? And what supports you personally?

—The Lord left words of consolation for us, saying that He is with us always, even unto the end of the world (Mt. 28:20). I want the memory of this to be with us always, as well as the knowledge that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn. 14:6).