'Skipping Services is Sinful, Avoiding Sermons is Prideful and Stupid' (St. Neophytus)

"People who flee from church and do not want to listen to the sermon are proud, falsely learned, half-educated people, who consider themselves higher and better than the preacher in understanding the life and word of God." — St. Neophytus

Originally appeared at: foma.ru

Archpriest Neophytus sent a letter to the initiator of the Russian revolution, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V.I. Lenin, whose father he knew from his teaching activities in Simbirsk.

“There were adversities in the family of your dear parent, they affected you too, and you were dear to your parents,” Father Neophytus wrote to him. “It’s hard for me to bear the misfortune of my daughter and my son-in-law. I humbly ask you to take part in my grief: be kind enough to release my son-in-law from all persecution and from prison, or give me bail. He is a well-intentioned person, he recognizes the Soviet government and obeys it, he has never performed any counter-revolutionary actions anywhere, and he is a preacher of the Word of God — a missionary, and nothing more. I ask you... for the sake of the memory of your parent, my merits in relation to your sister Maria Ilyinichna in the matter of education and upbringing, help me in my grief: release Varzhansky from prison and return him to his family...” Father Neophytus did not receive a response to this letter.

* * *

“...In the Simbirsk province I served with Lenin’s father, and Lenin’s sisters studied with me. On July 20, a meeting was held in the church... At the meeting, Samarin proposed to serve a memorial service for [Tsar] Nicholas, who was God’s anointed, and we should ask God for the remission of his sins... In view of the fact that we pray for every Orthodox Christian.”
In the photo: Archpriest Neophytus Lyubimov

St. Neophytus the Hieromartyr was born in 1846 in the village of Mordovskie Lipyagi, Samara province, into the family of Deacon Porfiry Lyubimov of the church of St. Nicholas. After graduating from the Samara Theological Seminary, he was sent to continue his education at the Kiev Theological Academy. In 1874, Neophytus Porfirievich was appointed teacher of homiletics, liturgics, and practical guidance for pastors at the Simbirsk Theological Seminary. For a quarter of a century he served as a teacher in educational institutions in Simbirsk, at the diocesan women's school and the Mariinsk women's gymnasium. At that time, the Provincial School Council included the director of the public schools of the Simbirsk province and the father of the future “leader of the revolution”, Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov (Vladimir Lenin), whom Neophytus Porfirievich met then.

While living in Simbirsk, Neophytus Porfiryevich married Maria, the daughter of a merchant of the city of Ardatov, Lev Murashkintsev, the former headman of the Ardatov Trinity Cathedral. Subsequently, the couple had three children. The youngest daughter, Zinaida, married a missionary of the Moscow diocese, Nikolai Yuryevich Varzhansky.

On September 7, 1885, Bishop Varsonofy (Okhotin) of Simbirsk ordained Neophytus Porfiryevich as a deacon at the Church of the Presentation at the diocesan women’s school, and the next day as a priest at the same church. Subsequently characterizing him, the bishop wrote about him as a highly moral and reliable person.

On February 4, 1903, Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky), Metropolitan of Moscow, appointed Father Neophytus as rector of the Resurrection Church at the Vagankovskoye cemetery in Moscow. On May 6, 1905, he was elevated to the rank of archpriest. In 1914, Father Neophytus was appointed rector of the Church of St. Spyridon outside the Nikitsky Gate.

Moscow Church of St. Spyridon the Wonderworker, whose rector has been Father Neophytus since 1914

Zealously performing divine services, Father Neophytus was saddened by the change for the worse among modern people who were indifferent to divine services, indifferent to church attendance. And this is despite the fact that during the services, Father Neophytus exhorted his flock:

Everything [in the service] contributes to the elevation of our mind and heart to God and His saints, everything is aimed at establishing peace in our soul, silence and tranquility.... Here all worldly worries are abandoned, here we see and hear only what relates to the salvation of the soul — and a sacred act is performed for the soul, and prayers are read for the soul, and the word of God is preached for the soul.

He objected to those who believed that it was more "freeing" to pray at home. This saint convincingly argued that by ceasing to pray in church, a Christian, if he still remains one, would eventually stop praying at home and could reach such a state that he would completely forget about God. 

St. Neophytus was struck by the almost universal phenomenon of some parishioners leaving the church before the end of the service, without any valid reason. He wrote:

We mean a constant phenomenon, manifesting itself every feast day and every Sunday. — Such violators of church order are predominantly the same persons for whom this outrage has become a custom, a bad habit. Educated and uneducated are fleeing from the church, dragging children, teenagers, boys and girls with them. And why do these people leave the church meeting? It’s a shame to say: they would rather drink tea, eat to the fullest, be filled with the stench of tobacco, engage in empty affairs, and gossip, gossip, gossip... 

But people especially leave the church when the spiritual father [the priest] comes out to preach.... Instead of getting closer to the pulpit and better listening to the teaching of their leader in spiritual life, many at this time will rush to all the unlocked doors of the church in order to get out of it, and some will begin to talk during the sermon, make noise, coughing, reading prayers loudly, groaning, sighing, stretching, kissing icons, in a word — they will begin an outrage that is not allowed in sacred church meetings.... And if the shepherd decides to expose vices and make suggestions [about repentance from sin], many will remain dissatisfied with him, and his enemies will appear.... Don’t these fugitives from the church, these rioters in the church, know that your shepherds are not doing their own work, but the work of Him who said to them: "Go, teach all nations to observe everything that I have commanded you." ?

People who flee from church and do not want to listen to the sermon are proud, falsely learned, half-educated people, who consider themselves higher and better than the preacher in understanding the life and word of God. Our youth, who study or have studied anywhere, are imbued with this pride... This is a pitiful and terrible truth! But it is true that this youth is currently rude and wild, alienated from everything truly lofty, beautiful, and pure, which strengthens the human soul, giving it strength to fight the evil that exists in modern society. [This evil] will not see the blessing of God. One will not find happiness on earth and eternal blessings in heaven, if one does not continue to listen to the voice of conscience and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

A cruel time of persecution of Christianity had come, unexpected for some, long-awaited for others, and it became scary just from the premonition of the horrors it threatened, and the carelessness with which people continued to live. It seemed that the ancient pagan world was beginning to come to life, but in even greater cruelty — as if it had apostatized from Christ.

On May 31, 1918, in his apartment on Pyatnitskaya Street in Moscow, the rector of St. Basil's Cathedral, Archpriest John Vostorgov, was arrested along with those who were visiting him at that time. Among the guests was missionary Nikolai Yuryevich Varzhansky, son-in-law of Archpriest Neophyt Lyubimov. It was after these events that St. Neophytus wrote the previously mentioned letter to Lenin, which remained unanswered.

On July 20, 1918, Patriarch Tikhon informed the members of the Local Council about the execution of Tsar Nicholas II and added that he blessed the archpastors and pastors to pray locally in the churches of the Russian Church for the repose of the soul of the former sovereign, and he himself immediately served a memorial service for the murdered man. On the same day when the Patriarch reported what had happened, members of the parish council gathered in the Church of St. Spyridon before the all-night vigil, and Council member Alexander Dmitrievich Samarin told them what happened at the meeting of the Council in connection with the news of the death of Nicholas II.

Archpriest Neophytus was asked to serve the requiem, and the next day, July 21, at five o’clock in the evening he celebrated it. That same evening, Father Neophytus was arrested.

Answering the investigator’s questions, the priest said:

I have been an archpriest for about twelve years; I previously served in Simbirsk as a teacher at the Theological Seminary and the Mariinsky Gymnasium, where I served for twenty-six years. In the Simbirsk province I served with Lenin’s father, and Lenin’s sisters studied with me. On July 20, a meeting was held in the temple.... At the meeting, Samarin proposed to serve a memorial service for [Tsar] Nicholas, who was God’s anointed, and for whom one should ask God for the remission of his sins.... In view of the fact that we pray for every Orthodox Christian, upon request, I agreed to serve the memorial service. I heard that memorial services for Nicholas were also celebrated in other churches. By conviction, I am a non-party member; I was not a member of the Union of the Russian People or other monarchist organizations. I do not attend meetings of the Council. I met with Vostorgov only on official business. Samarin was at a meeting of the Council the day before, but I don’t know what they discussed there.

It seemed to the investigator that these answers were not enough to accuse the priest, and he began to study the materials that were seized during the search, in particular sermons; some of them seemed counter-revolutionary to him. What seemed especially counter-revolutionary was the part from the sermon where Archpriest Neophytus says:

Is this the freedom of Christianity, when they do not allow anyone to freely do good, when they constrain and persecute for every good aspiration, when they want to wipe out from the face of the earth all the guardians of faith, honor, and truth? Is this love, when they love only murderers and robbers like themselves, stand for them, applaud them as heroes, and give them freedom to commit crimes, while preachers of freedom and Christian love, evangelical according to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, are hated and persecuted?

In the indictment, the investigator included this fragment of the sermon, which fully reflected the reality of that time, allegedly proving the priest’s counter-revolutionism.

On August 2, the investigator again interrogated St. Neophytus, but did not hear anything that would compromise him in the eyes of the authorities. On October 26, the investigator drew up a conclusion, writing that, in his opinion, Lyubimov was an obvious monarchist and an opponent of Soviet power. He cannot be objectively condemned for serving a memorial service for the murdered Tsar Nicholas, since such a memorial service was served in all churches; it only serves as a fact of his counter-revolutionary activities as a participant in the conspiracy of the priests. But, taking into account all the documents of a counter-revolutionary nature found on Archpriest Neophytus, the investigator suggested that he be “immediately shot.”

On October 30, 1918, a meeting of the Presidium of the Collegium of the Department for Combating Counter-Revolution, consisting of three persons, took place. Two voted for execution, one suggested imprisoning the arrested person in a concentration camp. The priest's fate was decided by a majority vote, and he was sentenced to death.

Extract from the protocol of the verdict of the Hieromartyr Neophytus

St. Neophytus Lyubimov was shot in prison and then buried in the part of the Kalitnikovsky cemetery that was then free from graves, where his son-in-law, Nikolai Yuryevich Varzhansky, was buried, and where those executed under extrajudicial sentences were buried at that time.

The security officers were in such a hurry to shoot St. Neophytus that they forgot to write on what day the sentence was carried out, and only when in 1927 the OGPU began to put its archives in order, they decided to consider October 30 as the date of death.

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