MAY GOD GIVE YOU WISDOM!

THE
LETTERS OF FR. JOHN KRESTIANKIN.
INTRODUCTION. RECOLLECTIONS OF A
SPIRITUAL SON

A year has passed since the repose of Russias righteous elder,

Archimandrite John Krestiankin of the Pskov-Caves Monastery. But
his memory has far from faded; to the contrary, it is spreading far
beyond the Russian borders, his writings being translated into other
languages. Pravoslavie.ru (English edition) is therefore pleased to
present each week day excerpts from the forthcoming book May God
Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin (published by
Sretensky Monastery and St. Xenia Skete). May our readers find in
them answers to perplexities, sober instruction, and deep Christian
wisdom, coming from a true elder and confessor of the Faith.

ARCHIMANDRITE JOHN KRESTIANKIN: A BRIEF

BIOGRAPHY

For I am ready to be offered, and the time

of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith
(2 Tim. 4:67)

May God Give You Wisdom! The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin
(published by Sretensky Monastery and St. Xenia Skete)

he memory of Fr. John Krestiankin will long be lovingly preserved

and revered not only by the Orthodox faithful in Russia, but by Russian
secular history as well. Always deeply true to his calling as a pastor, he
never sought such fame, but rather was sought out by thousands of
souls seeking the love of God and the sober truth about Christian life
and salvation. The vast majority of those who remember him perhaps
received only a few words and his blessing, but for many this blessing
was enough to initiate a grace-filled change in their lives. The
assurance of Gods Providence for them often came to them only years
after their fortunate contact with this extraordinary man.
Fr. John was born on March 29/April 11, 1910 in the Russian town of
Orel, to the family of Mikhail Dimitrievich and Elizabeth Hilarionovna
Krestiankin. He was the eighth child in this pious pre-revolutionary
family, who named him after St. John the Desert Dweller of Egypt,
commemorated on that day. Notably, on that day are also
commemorated Sts. Mark and Jonah, desert-dwellers of the Pskov-
Caves Monastery, where Fr. John would finish his earthly days, and be
born into eternity.

Even as a child the young Vanya served in the altar of his church,
under the direction of the austere archbishop of Orel, Seraphim
(Ostroumov), who was canonized by the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000
with a host of Russian New Martyrs. Fr. John was being prepared for
monasticism from his early years by Archbishop Seraphim and his
friend, Bishop Nicholas (Nikolsky), and by the Orlov eldress, Vera
Alexandrovna Loginova, who blessed him to live in Moscow, and
foresaw his service in Pskov. Athanasius Andreevich Saiko, the fool-
for-Christ of Orlov, also left a lasting impression on the future pastor.
The youth John was also able to visit the famous priest George Kosov
of Spas-Chekrak, a spiritual son of Elder Ambrose of Optina.

After high school, John studied to be accountant, and then moved to

Moscow to work in his field. There he was ordained a deacon on
January 14, 1945, and on October 25 of the same year, he was ordained
a priest in the church of the Nativity of Christ in the Ismailovo district,
where he continued to serve. Fr. John graduated from seminary as an
external student, and wrote his dissertation for the Moscow
Theological Academy in 1950; however, he was not able to submit it.
His studies were cut short on the night of April 29, 1950, when he was
arrested in his apartment by the NKVD. He was sentenced to seven
years of imprisonment for anti-soviet agitation, which meant in the
language of those times that his sermons and counsels drew very many
to the Faith.

Fr. John was first held in the Liubyanka prison, then transferred to
solitary confinement in Lefortovo prison, and finally to Butyrsky prison
until his departure by convoy on October 9, 1950. From 1950 to 1953
he labored in the lumber works of the Russian far north. In 1955 he was
transferred to Kuibishev (now Samara) Province to the sector for
invalids. On February 2/15, 1955, the day when the Orthodox Church
celebrates the Meeting of the Lord, Fr. John was released before the
end of his term, without the right to live in or near Moscow.

After his release Fr. John was assigned to serve as the second priest of
the Holy Trinity Pskov Cathedral. In May of 1956 he was re-assigned to
Riazan Province, where he served for nearly eleven years.

Fr. Johns years in Riazan Province were characterized by continual re-

assignments from one parish to another. He served in six different
parishes of the Riazan diocese. As Archpriest Vladimir
Pravdoliubov[1] of the Kasimov church of St. Nicholas, where Fr. John
served from February 1966 to February 1967, recalls, Fr. John was
transferred to a new parish almost every other year. The authorities
thought by this to prevent him from developing a following, but it
actually had the opposite effect. Every parish became his following, and
when he finally moved to the Pskov-Caves Monastery, this enormous
following from six parishes thronged the monastery as pilgrims. [2]

Only God rules the world, Fr. John would repeat over and over again,
not humans. His firm conviction that all things happen according to
Gods Providence preserved his spirit throughout those difficult years.

The Riazan period of Fr. Johns life was also a time of spiritual growth,
under the guidance of elders from the Glinsk Hermitage, famous for its
tradition of eldership. One of these elders was Schema-Archimandrite
Seraphim (Romanstov), who became Fr. Johns spiritual father. Fr.
Seraphim lived as a desert-dweller in Abhazia after the closure of
Glinsk Hermitage. It was from this elder that Fr. John received the
monastic tonsure in the town of Sukhumi, on June 10, 1966. Also living
in Kasimov during those years was Hieroschemamonk Macary
(Eremenko), who had shared a cell with Elder Seraphim in the
mountains of Abhazia until his arrest and exile to Central Asia. Fr.
Macary moved to Kasimov at the completion of his term. He was a
clairvoyant elder, and great doer of the Jesus Prayer.

On March 5, 1967, after long years of prison, exile, and continual

hounding by communist authorities, Hieromonk John entered the
ancient Pskov-Caves Monastery of the Dormition. This monastery is
one of the very few which by remarkable fate had never been closed
under the communist regime. It was also the final earthly home to a
small but spiritually strong remnant of Valaam Monastery elders:
Hieroschemamonk Michael (Pitkevich), Schema-Abbot Luke
(Zemskov), and Schemamonk Nicholas (Monakhov). Fr. John also
knew the well-known elder and miracle-worker of the Pskov-Caves
Monastery, Hieroschemamonk Simeon (Zhelnin).
Fr. John was raised to the rank of Archimandrite on the Feast of the
Annunciation in 1973. He lived for nearly forty years in this monastic
community, in ascetic labors of fasting and vigil. He had an ardent love
for the Divine Services, and until physical infirmities prevented him, he
could always be found in attendance. Those moments before and
especially after Services were moments of consolation for the faithful
who waited for Fr. John, to receive his blessing, or a quick word of
instruction.

Although during his later years in the monastery, access to Fr. John
became more and more restricted, first by the monastery authorities
and later by the infirmities of old age, all ranks of people came to him
for counsel: the Patriarchs of Russia, Pimen and later Alexei II, many
clergymen, writers, film-makers, foreigners, and a multitude of
Orthodox Christians. Even President Vladimir Putin visited Fr. John.
When Fr. John was no longer physically able to receive people, his
correspondence and publications served as instruction and consolation
to his many spiritual children.

One spiritual son of Fr. John, Alexander Ogorodnikov, who spent nine
years in a concentration camp for organizing a Christian seminar,
described Fr. John: He immersed those who conversed with him in a
sea of love, never forbidding, but rather softly leading one towards
integrity and resolve.

The scholar and iconographic art historian Savva Yamschikov recalls

his first visit with Fr. John in Riazan Province, at a time when his
profession met mostly hindrances and difficulties: at one point a
radiant, joyful batiushka with a beneficent smile came through the
church gate to meet us with a wonderfully light step, as if he were not
walking, but floating upon air. At first glance, he was an airy, unreal,
angelic person, but actually everything he taught and lived by was
dedicated to the preservation of the holy shrines of our [Russian
Orthodox] Faith, and the strength of our Church. He taught the
Orthodox to, pray, work, and preserve honor and dignity, and then
Russia will not die out Then Russia will be resurrected. [3]

Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria recalls his meetings with Fr.
John Krestiankin over the course of many years, from the time he was
thirteen years old. Fr. Johns counsels were simple and healthy. I do
not recall any time when he insisted on any decision. He always
emphasized that God has given every human being freedom, and no
spiritual counselor, no elder may transgress it. A person must make all
of his responsible, important decisions himself, and come for a blessing
only after this decision has already ripened within, when there is no
wavering or doubt about it. As he wrote in his letters, No one can
decide our important life decisions for us; even in former times, elders
did not command Gods inheritance. There can be no commanding in
spiritual life.

Fr. John was a man of fiery prayer and a zealous celebrant of the
Divine Services. His serving was inspired, prayer passed through him,
filling his entire being, his eyes gazed towards the heavens, and nothing
earthly distracted him. He pronounced the words loudly and distinctly.
Sometimes he was as if raised upon tip-toes, ready to fly up to the
heavens.He involuntarily reminded one of St. John of Kronstadt,
for whom Fr. John had a great veneration. Spiritual freedom, in Fr.
Johns words, is bought at the great price of suffering. [4]

Archimandrite John Krestiankin reposed in the Lord at the age of

ninety-five, on February 5, 2006. On this day the Russian Orthodox
Church celebrated the memory of the Holy New Martyrs and
Confessors of Russia, who suffered persecutions for their faith in
prisons and exile, just as Fr. John did. It was as if these saints, some of
whom he personally knew, hereby revealed their kinship with this long-
suffering soul, who gave his whole life unstintingly to Gods service and
confession of the true Faith. His body was interred in the God-given
caves of the Dormition Monastery, together with his like-minded
elders. The church in which the brotherhood served his funeral was
filled to overflowing by people from all over Russia, and even from
abroad. May the memory of Fr. Johns labors, patience and love live
eternally in the hearts of the faithful.

PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION

Although one of Fr. John Krestiankins other works, Experience in

Formulating a Confession has been translated into English (and even
into Chinese), his letters, published by the Pskov-Caves Monastery, are
appearing for the first time in English. They are produced here in their
entirety, since the translators, who also knew Fr. John personally,
could not bring themselves to edit anything out of this precious
perpetuation of Fr. Johns love for Christs flock. The fact that Fr. John
was in partial reclusion during his final years is also the fortunate cause
for this written pastoral inheritance, which is undoubtedly no less
valuable to Christians in the West. We feel, however, that perhaps
some explanations of certain topics are due to the English language
reader who may not be familiar with church life in Russia.

The revival of Russian Church life

Fr. John lived to see the cessation of communist persecutions against

the Church, and the massive re-opening of monasteries and parishes.
As he often repeats in his letters, this is a no less difficult time for the
Russian Church. The spiritual succession of Russian monasticism was
nearly severed during Russias seventy years of captivity, and the
masses of newly-converted members of a godless society need great
care from lamentably small cadres of experienced pastors. Entering the
ranks of these pastors were people with no more experience than their
flocks. Misunderstandings and harmful tendencies abound, which Fr.
John addresses patiently, lovingly, but firmly. He distinctly expresses
his views on the modern condition in the first chapter entitled, On the
Work of a Pastor.

Confusion about family life and monasticism

One theme which might cause perplexity to the reader appears in his
letters to laypeople about the mixing of family life and monasticism,
and the marriage sacrament in general. During the communist
repressions, many monasteries were closed, and the practice of
tonsuring people (most often nuns) in the world was common. This
lent people the idea of receiving the tonsure outside of a monastic
enclosure, even while still lawfully married, and with dependent
children. With the re-opening of monasteries, Fr. John began to
discourage this practice, which was also officially spoken against by His
Holiness Patriarch Alexei II. In letters to married couples, we also read
how Fr. John encourages them to be wed sacramentally. [5] This means
that, although they were legally married by civil law, as Christians they
should receive the sacrament of marriage in church as a blessing upon
their marital life. This confusing situation was caused by the
communist repression of all aspects of church life, and many of those
rediscovering their Orthodox roots were either unaware of this
sacrament, or afraid to have it in their time.

The seal of antichrist and the last days

In the section entitled Letters about the Seal of Antichrist and the Last
Days, we see clearly how the faithful in Russia looked to Fr. John as
the spiritual authority who could resolve their perplexities and calm
their distress over the various modern means of census-taking, and the
tax and personal identification numbers only recently introduced in
Russia. Although Westerners have long been used to social security
numbers and computerization, this new system, which looks all too
apocalyptic, caused great havoc among believers in Russia, even to the
point of schism, departures from monasteries and parishes that had
received tax identification numbers, and in rare but exceedingly
alarming cases, suicide by those who had taken new passports or
numbers and then been told by some zealous priest that they were
now inescapably doomed to eternal perdition. It is fair to say that Fr.
Johns pastoral letters on this subject played probably the greatest role
in resolving the schisms occurring in the Church. This collection of
pastoral letters could also be applied to any existing tendency to over-
sensationalize the Last Days in ignorance of patristic teachings on
them, and lack of concern for each individuals personal last daythe
day of his death.

We hope also that the reader would bear in mind how people wrote to
Fr. John at crucial moments in their lives, when they needed that final
word about serious situations. The content of Fr. Johns replies
reflects this. Though we may not precisely identify with each situation,
we can nevertheless benefit greatly from Fr. Johns voice of sobriety,
self-crucifixion, and life according to the Gospel commandments, as it
speaks to our own lives.

Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov).

Recollections of a spiritual son.

The Elder John Krestiankin turns 95

Not long before his death Fr. John called me and said, "Im going to die
soon. Please do me a favor and write what you remember and want to
say about me. Otherwise, people will write about me anyway, and they
will come up with such things as they did about poor Fr. Nicholas, who
supposedly resurrected cats. That way Ill look everything over and be
at peace [6]
Thus, fulfilling my spiritual fathers obedience, I began this task in the
hope that Batiushka himself would separate the wheat from the chaff,
perhaps suggest some things that I might have forgotten, and, as
always, correct any mistakes I might have made.
I will not write very much about what Fr. John meant to me. My whole
monastic life was inseparably connected with him. He has been and
remains for me the ideal of an Orthodox Christian, a monk, and a
loving and demanding priest and father.

It would be impossible, of course, to re-tell everything that happened

over the course of our relationship. His spiritual counsels can be read
in his published letters. In my opinion, they are the best that have been
written in the area of spiritual and moral literature in Russia for the
last fifty years. I would like to relate something else, known to me
personally.

For me, Fr. Johns main spiritual quality was not only his gift of
discernment, but also his unshakeable faith in the all-good and perfect
Providence of God, which leads a Christian to salvation. An epigraph to
one of Fr. Johns books is something he often repeated: "The main
things in spiritual life are faith in Gods Providence and discernment
with guidance." Once, in answer to my perplexity, Batiushka wrote: "At
the moment I am reading a passage from the Old Testament, and what
depth [I find in it]: A mans heart deviseth his way, but the Lord
directeth his steps (Prov. 16:9). The wise Solomon bore this out. You,
also, in your own life must be convinced that it can be no other way."

I dont want to force my opinion on anyone, but I am deeply convinced

that Fr. John was one of the very few people living in our times to
whom the Lord revealed His Divine will-about specific people and
about events taking place in the Church and the world. This is probably
due to the highest manifestation of love for God and devotion to His
holy will, in response to which the Lord reveals the destiny of people to
the Christian ascetic, making such a man a sharer in His mysteries. I
repeat that I dont want to force my opinion on anyone, but I have been
led to this feeling by many real-life stories connected with Fr. John.
And it is not only my opinion. My closest spiritual friends, the now
deceased Fr. Raphael and Abbot Nikita, who introduced me to Fr.
John, thanked God first of all for the fact that their spiritual father was
a man to whom Gods will was revealed, and each of us experienced
this personally. Unfortunately, though, as often happens in life, even
when we know Gods will we cannot find the strength and
determination to fulfill it. But I will speak about this later.

I met Fr. John in the autumn of 1982, when immediately after my

Baptism I arrived at the Pskov-Caves Monastery. Back then he did not
particularly impress me: a very kind old man, quite robust (he was only
seventy-two then), always in a hurry, always surrounded by a crowd of
pilgrims. Other residents of the monastery looked much more severely
ascetic and monastic. But not much time at all passed before I began to
understand that this old man was what in old Russia had been called
an elder since ancient times. This is the rarest and most precious
phenomenon in the Church.

Trust and obedience are the main rule of the relationship between a
Christian and his spiritual father. Of course, one cannot manifest
absolute obedience to every spiritual father. Such spiritual directors are
a rarity. This is quite a delicate matter. Very serious spiritual and life
tragedies often happen when unreasoning priests imagine themselves
to be elders, and their unfortunate spiritual children take upon
themselves a form of absolute obedience which is beyond their strength
and entirely inappropriate in our times. Fr. John never ordered or
forced anyone to listen to his spiritual advice. People would come to
free, unfeigned obedience to him through experience and time. He
never called himself an elder. When he was told he was, he would smile
and say that there are no elders nowadays, only experienced old men.
He remained convinced of that. However, I am convinced that in his
person the Lord sent me a true elder, who knew Gods will for me and
all that is needed for my salvation.

I recall, when I was still a young novice in the monastery, a Moscow

pilgrim came up to me and told me what he had just witnessed: Fr.
John, surrounded by pilgrims, was hurrying through the monastery
courtyard towards the church. Suddenly a tear-stained woman with a
three-year-old child in her arms rushed up to him: "Batiushka, bless
me to go ahead with his surgery-the doctors say it must be done
immediately, in Moscow." And then something happened which
stunned both me and the pilgrim who told me the story. Fr. John
stopped and firmly told her: "Under no circumstances. Hell die on the
operating table. Pray and give him medical treatment, but by no means
have the surgery. Hell recover." And he made the sign of the Cross over
the child.

The pilgrim and I sat down and were terrified by our own speculations:
What if Fr. John is mistaken? What if the baby dies? What would the
mother do to Fr. John if that happens? Of course, we couldnt believe
that Fr. John had displayed a crude denial of medicine, something
which, however rare, still is not unheard of in some Church circles. We
knew of many cases when Fr. John would bless surgery and even insist
on it. There were many well-known doctors among his spiritual
children. With dread we awaited what would happen. Would the
broken-hearted mother show up in the monastery and raise a
monstrous scandal? Or would nothing of the kind happen, as Fr. John
had predicted?
Apparently nothing happened, because Fr. John went on as before with
his daily walk between the church and his cell, surrounded by pilgrims
filled with hope and gratitude. It remained for us to assume that Fr.
John foresaw Gods Providence for that infant, and took upon himself
the great responsibility for his life. And the Lord did not put the faith
and hope of his faithful servant to shame.

I remembered that incident ten years later, in 1993. A very similar

story ended, on the one hand, tragically from a human perspective, but
on the other, due to Fr. Johns prayers, it served for the eternal
salvation of a Christian soul and as a profound lesson for those who
witnessed it.

Usually, when he was firmly convinced of the correctness and necessity

of his counsels for someone who had turned to him, Batiushka tried to
persuade, convince, or even beg and plead with the person to carry out
what was necessary. If that person stubbornly insisted on his own will,
Batiushka usually sighed and said, Well, then, try it. Do what you think
is right. And always, as far as I know about such cases, those who did
not follow Fr. Johns wise spiritual advice would bitterly repent of it in
the end. As a rule, the next time they came to him it would be with the
firm intention of doing as he said. Fr. John always received such people
with true love and compassion, and never begrudged them his time,
trying with all his might to correct their mistake.

There lived in Moscow a very interesting and unique woman, Valentina

Pavlovna Konovalova. She was a kind of real Moscow kupchikha (of the
merchant class), and looked as though she had walked out of a canvas
by Kustodiev. At the beginning of the 1990s she was sixty years old. She
was the director of a large grocery depot on Prospect Mira. Plump and
stocky, she would sit regally at the desk in her office, where behind her,
even in the most difficult Soviet times, large icons hung on the walls.
On the floor by her desk there lay a huge plastic sack of money. She
herself, at her own discretion, would decide how to spend that money-
whether to send her subordinates to buy a consignment of fresh
vegetables, or to give it away to the poor and vagrants who flocked to
her store in large numbers. Her employees feared her, but loved her.
During Lent she would arrange for an Unction service right in her
office, which even the Tartars who worked at the depot would
reverently attend. During the years of deficiency, Moscow priests and
sometimes even bishops would drop in on her. With some she would be
respectful, while with others, whose "ecumenism" she did not approve
of, she would be curt and even rather rude.

Many times, as part of my obedience, I would drive from [the Pskov-

Caves Monastery in] Pechory to Moscow in a large truck to purchase
provisions for the monastery for Pascha and Nativity. Valentina
Pavlovna would receive us novices in a very warm and motherly way,
and we became friends with her, especially since we had a favorite topic
for our conversations: our common confessor, Fr. John. Batiushka was
perhaps the only man in the world whom Valentina Pavlovna feared,
infinitely respected, and loved. Twice a year, with her closest colleagues
she would go to the monastery in Pechory, and would fast and confess
there. It would be impossible to recognize her then. She would be so
meek, quiet and shy-in no way reminiscent of the "Moscow queen."

At the end of 1993 several changes took place in my life. I was

appointed as Superior of the metochion of the Pskov-Caves Monastery
in Moscow, the present-day Sretensky Monastery, and I often made
trips to Pechory. Valentina Pavlovna, who had a cataract in her eye,
once requested that I ask Fr. Johns blessing for her to have the
cataract removed at the Feodorov Ophthalmic Institute. Fr. Johns
reply surprised me a little: No, no, by no means. Not now, let some
time go by. The next day I passed his exact words on to her, and
Valentina Pavlovna was very distressed-everything had been already
arranged at the Feodorov Institute. So she wrote Fr. John a detailed
letter, explaining to him that it was a very simple operation, not worth
any attention, and asking for his blessing again.

Fr. John, of course, knew as well as she did what kind of surgery it was,
and that it didnt pose any serious threat. But, having read her letter, he
became terribly anxious. We sat together for a long time, and he kept
persuading me that it was essential to talk Valentina Pavlovna out of
having the surgery at that time. He wrote to her again. He asked,
begged, and even ordered her, as her spiritual father, to put off the
surgery. I had two free weeks coming up. I hadnt had a vacation for
over ten years, so Fr. John blessed me to go to a sanatorium in the
Crimea for two weeks, and to take Valentina Pavlovna with me. He told
her about that in the letter as well, adding that she was to have her
surgery a month after the vacation. "If she has her surgery now, shell
die," he sadly told me when we were saying goodbye to each other.

However, in Moscow I realized that we had run into a brick wall. All of
a sudden, Valentina Pavlovna, probably for the first time in her life,
rose up against the will of her spiritual father. She at first firmly
refused to go to the Crimea, but then it seemed as though she was
humbling herself. But she was quite indignant that Fr. John was
making so much fuss about such a trifle. I told her that no matter what,
I was going to work on making our arrangements, and we would soon
be going to the Crimea.
A few days later I received the Patriarchs blessing for the trip, after
which I ordered two reservations, which were not difficult to obtain at
that time of year. Then I called the store to tell Valentina Pavlovna
about our departure. "Shes in the hospital, in surgery," her assistant
told me.

"What?!" I cried. "But Fr. John strictly forbade her!"

It turned out that a couple of days earlier some nun, formerly a doctor,
had called on her, and having found out about her cataract problem,
didnt agree with Fr. Johns decision, either. So she took it upon herself
to get a blessing from one of the spiritual fathers of the Holy Trinity-St.
Sergius Lavra. A blessing was received, and Valentina Pavlovna went
straight to the Feodorov Institute, hoping that after a short and simple
operation she would go with me to the Crimea. However, during the
surgery, right on the operating table, she had a serious stroke and was
totally paralyzed. As soon as I learned about it I rushed to call Fr.
Philaret, Fr. Johns long-time cell-attendant. In exceptional cases Fr.
John would go down to Fr. Philarets cell and use his phone.

"How could you! Why didnt you listen to me?" cried Fr. John, almost
in tears. "If I insist on something, that means I know what Im doing!"

What could I tell him? I asked Fr. John what I was to do. Valentina
Pavlovna was still unconscious. Fr. John said I should take the
Reserved Gifts from the church to my cell, and as soon as Valentina
Pavlovna regained consciousness I was to immediately go and confess
her and give her Holy Communion.

By Fr. Johns prayers, Valentina Pavlovna became conscious the next

day. Her relatives immediately informed me, and I was at the hospital
in half an hour. She was wheeled out to me in one of the intensive care
wards. She was lying, so tiny, under a white sheet. She could not speak,
and upon seeing me started crying. Her confession, that she had given
in to the enemys temptation in her disobedience to and distrust of her
spiritual father, was clear without any words. I read the prayer of
absolution over her and gave her Communion. We bade farewell to
each other. The next day Fr. Vladimir Chuvikin communed her again,
and soon afterwards she died. According to an ancient Church
tradition, the soul of a person who has been vouchsafed to receive
Communion on the day of his death goes to the Lords throne, escaping
the tollhouses. This happens either to great ascetics, or people with
exceptionally pure hearts. Or to those who have very powerful
intercessors.
The history of the restoration of Sretensky Monastery has also been
continually connected with Archimandrite John. In that year, 1993, I
came to Fr. John with a whole mass of problems. After a long
conversation in Fr. Johns cell, he did not give me any direct answers,
and we were in a hurry to attend the Vigil service to Archangel Michael.
I prayed in the cliros, and Fr. John prayed in the altar. I was preparing
to vest in order to pray the Akathist, when Fr. John literally ran out of
the altar, and taking me by the hand, said joyfully, "You will found a
metochion of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in Moscow."

"Batiushka," I said, "His Holiness the Patriarch does not bless the
founding of metochions in Moscow, unless they be of stavropegic
monasteries. Another monastery made such a request to the Patriarch
not long ago, and His Holiness answered that if we were to give
churches to all the monasteries desiring metochions, there would be no
parishes left in Moscow.

[He said,] "Have no fear! Go straight to His Holiness and ask to open a
metochion of the Pskov-Caves Monastery."

He gave me a heartfelt blessing, according to his custom, and there was

nothing left for me to do but to kiss his hand and place all hope in
Gods hands, and in his prayers.

Everything turned out just as Fr. John said. I made my request, albeit
not without fear, to His Holiness the Patriarch about the opening of a
metochion of the Pskov-Caves Monastery. But the Patriarch replied
very mercifully to this request, blessed this resolution, and immediately
delegated the matter to [Vicar Bishop] Arseny and [Dean] Fr. Vladimir
Divakov. Thus was the first and only diocesan metochion opened in
Moscow, which, as Fr. John also had foretold, would later become an
independent monastery, never losing its spiritual connection with
either Pechory or Fr. John. It is superfluous to say that Fr. Johns
blessing and counsel in the monasterys life was most precious and
desirable for us. I must confess, though, that not all the letters I
received were affectionate. Sometimes his letters were so stern that I
could not regain my composure for several days.

Usually when someone begins to reminisce about Fr. John, they write
about how good, kind, and loving he was. Yes, this is undoubtedly true;
I never knew a man more able to express fatherly, Christian love.
However, it must be added that Fr. John could be truly tough when
necessary. He could at times find such words of reproach that one
would not envy the recipient afterwards. I recall when I was a novice in
Pechory, I happened to hear what Fr. John said to two young
hieromonks: "What kind of monks are you? You are only jolly fellows."
Fr. John was never afraid to speak the truth without respect of persons,
and he did so first of all in order to correct and save the soul of the one
with whom he spoke, be he a hierarch or a simple novice. This firmness
and spiritual integrity was of course placed in Fr. Johns soul from
early childhood, when he knew those great ascetics and New Martyrs.
This was all an expression of true Christian love for God and people. It
was also, of course, an expression of a true Christian consciousness.
Here is one reply to a letter from me in 1997: "Here is another example
of an analogous situation from my memorys archives. I was twelve
years old at the time, but the impression was so earth-shakingly strong,
that to this day I can still see everything that happened, and remember
each participant by name.

"A remarkable Vladyka served in Orel-Archbishop Seraphim

Ostroymov-an exceedingly intelligent, kind and loving man, about
whom there could be no end of eulogy. He prepared himself by his life
for a crown of martyrdom, which did in fact come to pass. So, on
Forgiveness Sunday this godly hierarch banished two monks from the
monastery, Igumen Callistos and Hierodeacon Tikhon, for some
transgression. He banished them authoritatively, in front of other
people, thereby preserving others from temptation, and then
immediately preached a homily about Forgiveness Sunday and asked
forgiveness of all.

"My childish consciousness was quite shaken by what had taken place,
precisely because the one thing occurred right after the other: first
banishment, that is, the absence of forgiveness, and then the humble
asking of forgiveness for himself, and his own forgiveness of everyone.
I only understood one thing: that punishment can serve as the
beginning of forgiveness, and without it, there can be no forgiveness.

"Now I bow down before Vladykas courage and wisdom, for the lesson
he taught remained as a living example for all present then, as you see-
for a whole lifetime."

What else can I write of essential importance, so that Fr. John himself
could read these lines and confirm the veracity of this testimony?

During the years of our relationship I noticed that Fr. John had
particular principles regarding spiritual counsel. Of course, he did not
apply them automatically. Interesting to me was his advice about
marriage. He blessed marriage only after the bride and bridegroom had
known each other for at least three years. This seems a very long term
to todays impetuous youth. However, many cases have shown how Fr.
Johns experience and insistence on this time of testing could save the
souls of the husband and wife, and of their family. I know many
instances when priests out of pity shortened this term before marriage
given by Fr. John, with woeful consequences for the young families.

With regard to monastic tonsure, Fr. John as a rule also demanded a

significant time of testing. He likewise placed great emphasis upon
parental blessing. For example, I waited ten years for Fr. Johns
decision about my tonsure, until my mother blessed me to be a monk.
In response to all of my impatient requests for the tonsure, Fr. John
always persuaded me to wait for my mothers blessing. He assured me
that the Lord would not forget this patience and obedience. I
remembered these words when they tonsured me in Donskoy
Monastery. It turned out that I was tonsured on my very birthday,
when I turned thirty-three, and was named after my favorite saint-Holy
Hierarch Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow.

Fr. John related to hierarchs and archpastors of the Church with

enormous reverence, love, and obedience. He was truly a man of the
Church. Many times did he bless people to do exactly as His Holiness
[the Patriarch] would decide, or as the bishop or the abbot would bless.
This was based upon faith that on earth truth abides only in the
Church, is deeply felt there, and is brought to Her spiritual children. Fr.
John did not countenance any schisms or revolts; he always fearlessly
and fearsomely spoke out against them, although he knew what
slanders and even hatred he would have to drink for this. But he
endured it all, lest he himself or his spiritual flock stray from the royal
path of the Church.

This applies also to the trials our Church has experienced over the
recent decades: reformist tendencies on the one hand, and on the
other, morbid eschatological moods. In both cases, Fr. John exercised
discernment, showing love for those who were confused spiritually due
to faulty reasoning and the enemys snares, yet warning of the harm
which they were actively and even viciously ready to bring to the
Church. Nearly a century of Church life gave Fr. John a serious
advantage in the discernment of spirits, in determining what one or
another distraction, renovation, or "zeal not according to knowledge"
(cf. Rom. 10:2) might bring. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.
"I will not participate in your campaign," he wrote to one young and
very sincere hieromonk, who was proposing that Fr. John participate in
the movement "Life without the Social Security Number." He wrote,
"The very spirit of such activity, with its abundant selfishness, noise,
and hope in man rather than in God, yes, and especially with its
criticism of the Church hierarchy, which springs out like a fountain in
your words, forbids me to do so. I have already seen such things in the
activities of the renovationists, who rose up against the most gentle
Patriarch Tikon, in fact, against the Lord Himself and His Church."
Fr. John many times expressed his sober and deeply considered
reaction to the problems of the global computer accounting system and
other similar tendencies of the modern world. This has all been
published in many places and has served for many as a cause of
spiritual peace, calming of the spirit of revolt, and trust in the Russian
Orthodox Church. For others it unfortunately served as a reason to
attack Fr. John, and even to slander him outright.

I think that this experience of slander and hatred coming during the
last years of his life was sent by the Lord providentially. St.
Barsanuphius of Optina, it seems, wrote somewhere that the Lord
sends such trials to his servants precisely at the end of their lives, as an
image of the Saviors Golgotha.

Several years before these events, Fr. John also stood firm under fire in
order to preserve the people of the Church from the temptation of a
new renovationism. He often met and conversed with currently
popular supporters of modernization and renovation in the Church.
Only after exhausting every means of convincing them of the extreme
danger of this path, did he pronounce clearly, precisely, for all to hear,
and with full responsibility for his words: "If we do not destroy this
movement, it will destroy the Church."

I was a witness to how Fr. John endured the hatred and false
accusations poured out upon him for standing in the Truth of Christ. I
saw all his pain, but also his good nature, when he endured
misunderstanding and betrayal. Batiushka never lost his infinite love
for his offenders, or his Christian forgiveness. I will always remember
the words of his sermon in the St. Michael Cathedral of the Pskov-
Caves Monastery in 1985. "The Lord has given us a commandment to
love our neighbors. But we mustnt worry about whether or not they
love us. We must only take care that we love them."

One Moscow priest, a spiritual son of Fr. John, came to me with a

terrible request: to return the epitrachelion with which Fr. John had
blessed him for the priesthood. This priest, as he said, was
disappointed with Fr. John for not supporting his dissident political
views. This was in the late eighties. What didnt this priest say? But he
was deaf to my arguments: that Fr. John had himself spent many years
in prison camps; that he was tortured but not broken; that he was the
last person who could be suspected of conformism. With a heavy heart
I gave this epitrachelion to Batiushka. His reaction stunned me. He
crossed himself, kissed the priestly vestment reverently, and said, "I
gave it to him with love, and I accept it again with love." Later, this
priest joined another jurisdiction. He did not like it there either, and
joined another.
Neither can I hide the following fact, which might evoke varying
responses, but for the sake of truth I cannot keep silent about it. Yes,
Fr. John certainly did revere and submit to the Church hierarchy, but
this did not mean automatic, unthinking submission. I witnessed an
occasion when one of the monasterys abbots and the ruling hierarch
tried to persuade Batiushka to give his blessing on their decision, with
which Fr. John did not agree. They needed the elders authority to
support their decision. They approached Batiushka seriously, as they
say, "with a knife to the throat." Monks and priests can imagine what it
means to stand up to pressure from their ruling hierarch or abbot. But
Fr. John withstood this prolonged pressure quite calmly. He
respectfully, patiently, and meekly explained that he could not say "I
bless" to something that did not agree with his soul, but should his
superiors consider it necessary to take this action, then he would
unmurmuringly accept their decision-they would answer for it before
God and the brothers. He said, however, that he considered that this
decision was being taken out of passion, and he could not give his
"good word" on it.

Much more could be written, chiefly about how the souls of people who
met Fr. John were transformed and resurrected, how people obtained
faith and salvation. But this is bound up with people who are still alive,
and therefore I cannot relate these stories without their permission.

Ar
chimandrite John (Krestiankin) and the monks of Pskov Pecherski (Cave) monastery at the 95th
anniversary of Dear Elder (2005).
In conclusion I would like to say just one thing: I thank the Lord that
by His great mercy He gave me, a sinner, the chance to meet such a
Christian in my life and to get to know him. I think there has never
been anything more astounding in my life so far, nor is there ever likely
to be in its remainder.

Fr. Vladimir Pravdoliubov is also the descendent of a family of New

[1]

Martyrs [trans.].
[2]
Interview for the Strentensky Monastery website, pravoslavie.ru.

Savva Yamschikov, Pamyaty Ioanna Krestiankina, Zavtra, No. 06

[3]

(038), Feb. 8, 2006.

Tserkovny Vestnik No. 3 (328), February 2006, Obituaries and

[4]

Condolences.

There is a specific Russian verb for the wedding sacrament:

[5]

venchatsa, or translated, to be crowned, for during the ceremony

the couple is literally crowned with crowns as a symbol of the
martyrdom of matrimonial life [trans.].

Archpriest Nicholas (Gurianov, +2002), from Zalit Island, Pskov

[6]

Province.

The book,
May God Give You Wisdom!
The Letters of Fr. John Krestiankin
is available from:

St. Xenia Skete Press

P. O. Box 260
Wildwood, CA 96076
U. S. A.
Fax: (1) 530-628-1034

E-mail: stxenia@earthlink.net