Bishop Longin (Zhar) stopped commemorating the Patriarch (repost)
Several years ago I watched a film about the Holy Ascension Monastery (in Ukraine on the border with Romania) and its rector, Fr. Mikhail Zhara. And about the kids. Here is the movie:
"The Outpost" is a revelation film. The film is a test of mental lice. If you managed to watch to the end, it means your heart has not yet become overgrown with moss, and you have not yet completely separated yourself from the world with the armor of keratinized skin. A film about a miracle. Real and absolutely not fabulous. A film about the healing of completely sick children and the healing of adults. For a long time, especially in cinema, the concept of a “hero” is a ruthless and determined bundle of muscles. It turns out there is another way. Don’t whine, don’t complain about your health, but, gritting your teeth, do good. Moreover, there is so little of it now. After all, we still don’t know what life is. A temporary business trip before diving into eternity or a walk from point “A” to point “B”. The film is dynamic, with good text and not at all boring. Take it and see.
Released: 2007
Genre: Auteur cinema / Documentary
Director: Mikhail Shadrin
Released by: Orthodox channel "Glas"
In 2009, the documentary film “Outpost” was shown at the Orthodox film festival “Meeting”. The film was watched in one breath. For the high professional level of the director, a thoughtful script, excellent cinematography and superbly selected music - the film Outpost was unanimously recognized as the best film of the festival, both by ordinary viewers and members of the jury.
The film was shot over the course of a year in the Holy Ascension Monastery on the border with Romania. The scriptwriter and director of the film, Mikhail Shadrin, gave a different look at the values in a person’s life and showed an example of how one of the most important commandments is translated into real life: treat others the way you would like to be treated.
The main characters of the film: the rector of the Holy Ascension Monastery, Father Michael (Archimandrite Longin (Zhar)), who became the father of twenty-nine adopted children (in addition, he has three of his own: two sons and a daughter), the brethren of the monastery and the children from the monastery cared for shelter (150 orphans), many of whom are seriously ill and incurable by medicine.
The film Outpost can be called a “spiritual event” of 2009. This is a Film about heavenly Love, which can be seen here on earth. The synopsis for the film speaks very clearly for the film itself:
“Clenching your teeth until they creak, clasping your fingers until they crunch, rejoice, for you live.
Rejoice in the turquoise of the sky and the ruby rays of the dawn. Rejoice at the pearls of raindrops, because there is no other way. Rejoice in the desperate joy of the wounded warrior. The battle may be lost, but the flag is not lowered, and the weapons are not thrown into the mud, and you do not run away in shame, because there is nothing to run with. And all that remains is to fight to the death. And when there is nothing left, rejoice with supreme joy for your neighbors. Rejoice in the love of others and the ringing laughter of children who are not yours. Even when the clouds are leaden, rejoice. Rejoice in the rain and slush. Rejoice and rejoice, despising pain, for your name is man!”
Here's another video. Bishop Longin (Zhar) stopped commemorating Patriarch Kirill at the Liturgy:
The video is great. Those who don’t have time can only watch what the bishop says. Longinus.
Start: 0:05:40
About meeting with dad: from 0:32:20
About non-remembering: from 0:53:40
About the Council of Bishops (February 2-3): from 1:27:45 and from 1:50:40.
End: 1:59:05.
There is a lot there (both in the words of Bishop Longin and in the words of others) that will allow both our intellectuals and apparatchiks to smile skeptically. But it's real pain. You can laugh at them. You can try to break their back. You can be accused of canonical violations and condemned. These are not heretics, who need such reverent treatment that they should not be called heretics, but only brothers in Christ...
Anna Petrosova
27.09.2013 - 05:07
On the Ukrainian-Romanian border in the village of Bancheny (western Ukraine) there is an extraordinary monastery - the Holy Ascension Monastery. A well-known adoptive monk throughout Ukraine lives here. The 48-year-old Archimandrite Longin (in the world Mikhail Zhar) has 332 children. Many of them are HIV-infected, have hepatitis C and cerebral palsy. Father Longin takes the most hopeless children with the most severe diagnoses from orphanages and boarding schools, and even if he does not save them from death, he prolongs their lives with care and love.
gingerbread town
The priest built a magnificent shelter for his children in the village of Molnitsa, a real children's gingerbread town with flowers and fairy-tale figures. Three multi-colored buildings were erected for boys, girls and HIV-infected children. The marble stairs are equipped with lifts for those children who find it difficult to move independently.
It's very cozy here and smells like home. The rooms have beautiful furniture, carpets, and lots of toys. Everywhere there are aquariums with fish and flowers. The pupils are cared for by 104 people, of which 65 are nuns, the rest are paid employees: nurses, cooks, teachers. Children (whose health allows) run freely around the buildings and play noisy games. They often pick up kittens or puppies on the street and bring them into the house. They are not prohibited from caring for animals; their good intentions are only welcomed.
For his children, the priest also built a swimming pool, a sauna, a greenhouse, and a stadium with a special coating.
One day, the younger children asked their dad - Father Longin - for roller skates. He bought roller skates - more than 200 pairs, but it turned out that there was nowhere to skate on them in the village. Then monks from Banchen came to the rescue (monks love to visit children and give them gifts on their birthdays) and paved asphalt in the backyard of the orphanage.
Archimandrite Longin has many awards - church and state, including the title of Hero of Ukraine. The monk truly became a literal national hero for Ukrainians, but for his several hundred children he was just a dad who surrounded them with care and love. He also plays football with them...
Until now, despite his crazy busy schedule, Father Longin often cooks soup for his children in the morning! When he appears in the children's town, the children run to him as fast as they can: “Daddy, daddy has come!” Unable to reach everyone to hug and kiss, the priest lies down on the floor, and the kids pile on top of him with squeals and laughter: “Kiss me too, daddy!” And me!"
Father Longinus himself had a difficult childhood. He lived very poorly with his mother, and at the age of 11 he went to work on a farm as a milkmaid. One day he studied at school, the second he worked on the farm. I missed a lot of classes and had to switch to night work as a cattleman. “I only had one pair of pants, my mother’s,- recalls the archimandrite. - At night I cleaned up after the cattle, and in the morning I washed my pants, wrapped myself in a sheet, put on my wet pants over it and went to school. The children shied away from me - even after washing, the clothes stank of the farm. I had no friends - no one wanted to play with me.".
And soon he was left an orphan. After his mother's death, he spent six months in the hospital. One winter I stood on the street, looked at the smoke curling over the neighbors’ roofs, and asked God:“Lord, why don’t I have firewood? Come on with them, with the firewood... If only mom were alive!.. But there is no mother, no warmth, no family. Why?!"
Therefore, when in the hungry 90s, as a young priest in the temple of the village of Boyany, the father of three children, Mikhail Zhar brought milk to the orphanage, he did not hesitate for a long time. The conditions in which the children were were so shocked by the 27-year-old priest that he immediately took the two kids with him.
A little later, Father Mikhail saw three-year-old Vanya with cerebral palsy in a Chernivtsi orphanage. He felt so sorry for this child that he convinced his wife Lydia to take the boy. The baby was taken to holy places and placed in a manger where Jesus Christ was born. And he started walking! Now he is 24 years old, his dad appointed him director of the store. With all the money raised, Vanya buys sweets and distributes them to other children. After Ivan, Father Mikhail officially adopted children until the space in the passport was full. He already took the rest under his wing.
Abode
In 1996, Father Mikhail took monastic vows and became the monk Longinus, but this did not mean at all that the priest abandoned his children. They moved with him to a new place. With the blessing, he began to build a monastery and settle the wasteland with the first four monks. The local residents knew the priest well and loved him; after all, before he was tonsured, he served in the neighborhood. Therefore, when the construction of the monastery began, many helpers gathered: they worked at the construction site, transporting bricks, logs, food and money.
Over time, seven temples, a refectory, fraternal buildings, a bell tower, a fountain, an enclosure with peacocks, and a stable for ponies for children to ride grew on the territory of the monastery. Along with the buildings, the number of children cared for by Father Longinus also grew.
“Once I performed the funeral service for a young woman“- recalls the archimandrite. - It was winter. I saw that after the funeral service, four boys remained at the grave. Everyone has left, and they stand completely frozen, wearing rubber boots on their bare feet and not going anywhere. It's frosty outside - 20 degrees. And the smallest of them was still tiny. I ask: “Why aren’t you going home?” And they tell me: “We won’t go without mom. We have nowhere to go." Their father left them, and their mother died. “Your mother is now in heaven,” I say. “Will you come and live with me?” They nod. Well, I brought them to the monastery".
When there were more children than monks, they began to think about building a separate building for them. A convenient place was found four kilometers from the monastery, in the village of Molnitsa. And in Boyany at that time, a women’s monastic community was formed on the basis of the parish. The sisters began to take care of the children.
And so it happened that now there is a monastery in Bancheny (there are now 86 monks in it), in Boyany there is a women’s monastery (in it there are 120 nuns), and in Molnitsa there is an orphanage. Father Longin is the confessor of both monasteries.
With such a busy life, Father Longinus is not in good health. He suffered three heart attacks, two heart surgeries, removal of a cancerous tumor and chemotherapy. In 2004, during an operation, Father Longin's heart stopped. Doctors could not start him up for five hours.
“I remember I regained consciousness for a minute and thought: “Lord, if you let me live a little longer, I will build the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.”, - recalled the archimandrite. - God gave me life and I kept my promise. He asked people to come and lay one brick at a time in the temple walls that were under construction. The cathedral took five years to build. Now it is one of the most beautiful and largest Orthodox churches in Europe.
Shelter for outcasts
In 2002, Father Mikhail saw two-month-old Larisa in the baby's home. Her mother abandoned her because her daughter was HIV-positive. The teachers kept her locked in a separate room. They did not pick up the girl at all, and approached the crib wearing a mask and gloves. Doctors warned the priest that all members of his family could become infected with AIDS. It was scary, but even more sorry for the doomed baby. In one night, the monks brought water into a separate room and placed the most beautiful crib in it. Then Father Longinus went to the convent and said to the nuns: “I took a girl with HIV. Who wants to take care of her, realizing that he himself can become infected with an incurable disease?” Several people volunteered at once. The girl was christened Filafthea; she hardly walked because she was carried in her arms all the time. Then Philafthea got a little stronger, she came to church and, when the monks sang, stood in front of them and conducted. And recently, doctors were very surprised when they saw her tests: there were no traces of HIV infection in her blood. Now Philafthea is in fifth grade and her terrible diagnosis has been removed.
And in 2009, when Father Longin took custody of 36 children aged from one to seven years from Kyiv, Nikolaev, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk regions, a building for HIV-infected children was occupied. Currently, there are already 80 children living here with this diagnosis: Father Longin collected them from orphanages throughout Ukraine. They are not isolated from other students: the children go to school together, play, and swim in the pool. The only thing is that the sisters make sure that the kids brush their teeth with individual brushes. These children need constant medical supervision, so the children's department of the regional AIDS center was created in the shelter, where they are on antiretroviral therapy and are fed very high-calorie food, because everyone is prescribed strong medications.
“Kids change before our eyes: they immediately get better, become cheerful, and blossom, says the center’s head nurse, assistant epidemiologist Raisa Kilaru. - Six children have already been diagnosed with HIV infection... The children stayed in our center for only a year and a half and were cured. We took tests three times from Filafthea, Misha, Lavrentiy, Anton, Alina and Valentin. Tests confirmed that there is no immunodeficiency virus in the children’s blood.”.
The most important event for the monastery was the opening of a home for the disabled at the end of 2011. There are 125 disabled children under the care of the archimandrite, the oldest is twenty years old, and the youngest is one year old.
...Gleb has been living in the shelter for 18 years. A mother with cancer gave birth to a crippled son and before her death she herself brought the baby to Father Longinus. Deaf, blind, with severe damage to the nervous system, he recognizes people only by touch. 11-year-old Nektary has been suffering from hydrocephalus and arthrogripposis since birth. The boy has a huge head, a small body and underdeveloped limbs. Lying on the floor, he smiles at the guests and nods his head.
Father met Styopa at a boarding school for disabled children. The armless boy jumped forward and read his own poems. Then he followed on the heels of the priest, and when he was about to leave, Styopa pressed his face to his cassock and asked: “Please take me away from here!” Father began to cry, hugged Styopa and took her with him. Now, on major church holidays, Father Longin takes him to the belfry. Styopa rings the bells, holding the rope in his teeth. In the new house, he made friends with Roma, who plays the synthesizer; he was placed - on purpose - next to his bed. This boy has difficulty moving. He has cerebral palsy.
In addition to three hundred children and two hundred monks, under the care of Father Longin there are also 60 elderly people living at the monastery.
Archimandrite Longin never ceases to be amazed at where the funds to support so many people come from. Every day he goes to the post office: money transfers from all over the country constantly arrive there. Sponsors help. For example, one woman gave the children a cow, another two hectares of land. On these hectares, the nuns grow potatoes for the children's town. In addition, on the grounds of the monasteries there are fields, orchards, vegetable gardens, a farm, and flower greenhouses. Children work on monastery farms along with adults. As a result, both the monastery and the shelter have enough of their own products, and the surplus is donated free of charge to surrounding social institutions.
One evening, Archimandrite Longin was working in the field with the monks: they were collecting corn. At that moment, someone came running to him from the kitchen and told him that they had run out of sunflower oil and had nothing to cook dinner with. In the evening, local shops are closed, but to cheer everyone up, the priest said: “If necessary, the Lord will send us sunflower oil”. Half an hour passed, and suddenly an unfamiliar man arrived at the monastery: “Father, I brought you... 200 liters of sunflower oil”. To celebrate, the monk grabbed the man by the hands and began to spin around with him: “The Lord himself sent you. Today the monastery ran out of sunflower oil!” He broke out and ran away, and an hour later the man returned: he brought another 40 liters of oil!
Now Father Longin is building a village for his grown-up offspring. Twenty children have already had weddings. All of them received higher education. “But is it possible in our time to build a house on the salary of a teacher or doctor?- Archimandrite Longin laments. - I help as much as I can: leaving children halfway on the road is a great sin. We are currently building 10 houses. But there will be new weddings soon. To provide everyone with housing, I rented land in Chernivtsi. If the Lord grants, we will soon pour the foundation for apartment buildings.”.
—...A priest in some monastery in western Ukraine adopted 253 children.
-How many? — I ask my interlocutor again.
“Two hundred and fifty-three,” he repeats separately. “He also built houses for them, founded two monasteries and is building a shelter for the disabled. And yet he never asks anyone for anything.
At this point my brain completely stopped working. Either this is not true, or everyone should know about it. Or this: too beautiful to be true. And it's a shame if it's not true. There is only one way - to find out and see everything for yourself.
Banchens - where is this?
The Patriarch preceded me. Back on October 2 of this year, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, during his visit to the Chernivtsi region, visited the house at the Holy Ascension Monastery in the village of Bancheny.
“This is a completely unique part of our country and the Church,” says the vicar of the Chernivtsi diocese, Bishop Meletiy of Khotyn. — The locals live in their own way, in the Romanian tradition. There are still people in the villages who do not understand the Ukrainian language, although the region has been in Ukraine for 70 years. In churches, services are officially celebrated in the new style and in Romanian. There is a special blessing for this from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I. The fact is that the Romanian Church is new-calendar, therefore, when the Hertsaevsky district became the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate, in order to prevent possible schisms, the parishes retained the right to serve as they were accustomed to. But in the Banchen Monastery, probably the largest non-Slavic monastery in the Russian Church, they also serve in Romanian, but still according to the old style.”
The monastery is headed by Archimandrite Longin. The same one whom two and a half hundred children call dad. This is a truth that is stranger than fiction.
Monastery on a vacant lot
“Our story began only 17 years ago,” says Father Amphilochius, a resident of the monastery. He speaks in a Russian-Ukrainian-Romanian mixture of languages. Almost all locals talk to visitors this way. Between each other - how it is convenient for someone to speak and understand. This is your kind of little Babylon. “When Father Longinus came here with the first four monks, there was a wasteland here. But the locals knew and loved the priest well - before he was tonsured, he served in the neighborhood, in the church in the village of Boyany. Therefore, when construction of the monastery began, many helpers gathered. Those who lived in the surrounding villages came to the construction site and worked. Those further away helped in any way they could: bricks, logs, food, and money.
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“Well, we have children, that’s why we have ponies,” Father Amphilochius, like an experienced guide, anticipates my question. — At first the shelter was in the monastery. Father Longin took his first children back in Boyany, and they moved with him, one might say, to a construction site. When there were more children than monks, they began to think about building a separate building for them. A convenient place was found four kilometers from the monastery, in the village of Molnitsa. And in Boyany at that time, a women’s monastic community was formed on the basis of the parish. The sisters began to take care of the children. And so it happened that now there is a monastery in Bancheny (it now has 86 monks), in Boyany there is a women’s monastery (it has 120 nuns), and in Molnitsa there is an orphanage. Father Longin is the confessor of both monasteries and the adoptive father of all the children in the orphanage.
“We need to love our children!”
Longinus is a monastic name. In fact, his name is Mikhail. Mikhail Vasilievich Zhar. He is only 46 years old, 20 of which he has been raising orphans.
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“God’s,” he says so that you believe. Faith, in principle, does not require any evidence. And what difference does it make who was the first to decide to gather children that no one wants, feed them, nurse them, treat them, teach them literacy and faith?
The story of the appearance of the first children in the monastery has already become a local legend. Longinus's father (then still Mikhail's father) had cows in Boyany. In the early 90s there was a time of famine. And he began donating milk to a local orphanage. In gratitude, the nurses decided to show the priest who this milk was going to. The conditions the children were in shocked Father Mikhail. He grabbed two kids in his arms and took them with him. This was the beginning of a “family-type orphanage,” as the monastery orphanage is now officially called, and the father of three children born in marriage became the father of five. Then Father Mikhail adopted 27 more. And then his passport ran out of pages where children were registered. He took custody of the next 224 children. I collected them throughout the region. If he goes somewhere on business, he will definitely bring it.
“Once I performed the funeral service for a young woman,” recalls Father Longin. - It was winter. I saw that after the funeral service, four boys remained at the grave. Everyone has left, and they stand completely frozen, wearing rubber boots on their bare feet and not going anywhere. It's frosty outside - 20 degrees. And the smallest of them was still tiny. I ask: “Why aren’t you going home?” And they tell me: “We won’t go without mom. We have nowhere to go." Their father left them, and their mother died. “Your mother is now in heaven,” I say. “Will you come and live with me?” They nod. Well, I brought them to the monastery.
Once a newborn girl was thrown to the gate in a banana box.
“Mom gave birth to her on New Year’s Eve, threw her into a box and brought her to us. I don’t know how long she lay there in the cold,” says Father Longin with a soft, melodious Romanian accent. “I took her in my hands, she was as cold as a stone.” Completely frozen. We quickly took her to the hospital. All the doctors said there was no chance. But with God's help the girl was saved. The doctors themselves gave her the surname Happy. And we named her Katenka.
Father met Styopka in a boarding school for disabled children. The armless boy jumped forward and read his own poems to Father Longin. Then he followed on the heels of the priest and the mothers, and when he was about to leave, Styopa pressed his face to his cassock and asked: “Please take me away from here!” Father began to cry, hugged Styopa and took her with him. Here, in the orphanage, the boy began to read books. A lot of books. Now he likes to argue. Mother Elizabeth affectionately calls him “a philosopher.”
And his friend Romka is called a “musician” because he plays the synthesizer, which was placed - on purpose - next to his bed. This boy has difficulty moving. He has cerebral palsy.
But here the atmosphere is like this: no one feels unhappy or unnecessary.
What else do children need? Only to love you for who you are.
- At first we thought: well, we’ll take 50. Then - 100. Then we decided - we’ll be able to see through 150 children, but... They, poor people, have suffered so much in their still short life that I don’t have the strength to know how much they hurt, and don't take it to yourself! And when there were already 200 of them, I thought - well, that’s all! But what about “everyone”?.. Now I say, probably there will be 300.
This is Father Longinus making plans for the future. Yours and your children’s, future ones too.
“Yakbi could hug all the orphans on earth, I wouldn’t give a damn,” when he gets very excited, his words in Russian and Ukrainian come out mixed up. - They are weak. You have to love them. All children need to be loved. And let’s help them, so they can see. I can't live without them! Stinks are my medicine. If they weren’t with me, I would have lived on earth in vain then.
For some reason, he is not afraid to adopt children with cerebral palsy. Strange, isn't it? Then he began to collect those whom even the doctors gave up on: they say, they are not residents. Yes, yes, I'm talking about AIDS.
When AIDS recedes
There are 49 such people in the shelter today (six of them have now been diagnosed). Father collected them from orphanages from all over Ukraine. “Due to” the special contingent of priests, the statistics of “childhood AIDS” in many regions of Ukraine decreased, and in Chernivtsi region they increased. These are statistics, numbers, commas. What does he or we all care about her, right?
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How did children with a terrible diagnosis end up in the shelter?
Very simple. In the baby's house, Father Longin saw a beautiful girl. Her mother abandoned her because her daughter was HIV-infected. The nurses also shied away from her. In the patriarchal Western Ukrainian society, the words “AIDS” and “death” are somewhere nearby.
“When I saw her, I felt very painful,” recalls the priest. “She looked at me so sadly, and I was afraid to touch her so as not to bring an infection to my children.”
I think that Father Longinus did not sleep that night, remembering this two-month-old girl. And in the morning I asked the brothers in the monastery to furnish the room as best as possible, to put an elegant crib there, because a child, a girl, would live here.
Little Larisa - that was her name - was baptized, now she is Philatea. Here, at the shelter, the girl underwent a course of retroviral therapy. Doctors were very surprised when they recently saw her tests: there were no traces of HIV infection in her blood. Now Philatea lives with the rest of the children, she has entered the fifth grade.
How it's done?
Father Longinus is idolized in Bancheny. He gives people hope. Live like people. And not only by raising children.
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The gas line to the shelter was thrown across the Prut River. At the same time, the village also benefited.
-I know that you are not asking for help. Fundamentally,” I say to Father Mikhail. - But how is it that you and your children have everything?
“I think the Lord himself places this on our hearts, who want to earn good. There are so many kind people in Ukraine... who are next to us.
He remembers how one day the kitchen ran out of oil. And there is no money to buy, but you have to cook for so many souls! At one time, only salads (about 15-20 kilograms of vegetables) are used up.
And suddenly one of the local businessmen appears: “I want,” he says, “to help your children, I have my own tank, I promise I’ll bring it for you, take it.” It's from the heart."
Father blessed him and kissed him. To celebrate, he then brought almost a tank of oil.
Father does not say that the first brick in the foundation of one of the bell towers of the monastery was laid in 2004 by the then Prime Minister of Ukraine Yanukovych. Then he came again, brought gifts for the children and a home theater. And President Yushchenko awarded him the order. It is easier for an order-bearing priest to resolve issues. Gas was supplied to the shelter with the help of Yuri Boyko and Igor Bakai. You also need to be able to reach that high.
The nuns say that “another woman, who wanted to help the children, brought a cow, and gave a friend a whole share, two hectares.”
On these hectares, the nuns grow potatoes for the children's town.
By the way, on the grounds of the monastery there is everything: fields, orchards, vegetable gardens, a farm, flower greenhouses. The monastery and shelter have enough of their own products. The surplus is distributed to nearby social institutions free of charge. Children work on monastery farms along with adults.
What happens?
Three-story buildings, bright windows, marble stairs, and equipped lifts for those children who find it difficult to move independently. This is a family-type orphanage. Each house is a different color. Pink, yellow, blue...
Inside the parquet is covered with carpets. Not carpet, but real soft carpets.
The walls are covered with paintings: nature, religious subjects. There are aquariums with fish everywhere. Birds are singing. Lots of greenery. And around the buildings there is an incredible amount of flowers.
Children live four to six people in a room. There is a sister assigned to each room. In total, 104 people care for children in the shelter, of which 65 are nuns, the rest are paid employees: nurses, cooks, teachers. The shelter itself looks like a gingerbread town. The facades of buildings, windows, entrances - everything is decorated with flowers. There are figurines of fairy-tale characters on the lawns. In the backyard there is a playground and a stadium. One day, the younger children asked their dad - Father Longin - for roller skates. Father bought skates for the children. Everyone. More than 200 pairs. But it turned out that there was no place to roller skate in the village. Then the monks from Banchen came to the rescue and laid asphalt in the backyard of the orphanage. Now you can ride a bicycle, roller skate, or walk with a stroller.
-Is it a monk’s job to entertain children?
“The monastic path and the family path are very different,” agrees Father Longin. “And our shelter is separate from the monastery. But I look at my monks and see a lot of goodness in their souls. They know when the children’s birthdays are, they buy them gifts, and even ask them to come and congratulate them. And I don't think that's a bad thing. Heaven rejoices if someone brings joy to an orphan. A monk will not depart from his monastic life, but he must also give goodness to others. It's not a sin. Do you know, when the children lived in the monastery, it used to happen that people would come to services and ask where Father Longinus was? And I play football with the children. Can you imagine what a temptation this must be for people! The rector - and play football instead of service. So what to do? “Dad, let's play football!” - How can you refuse? I think the Lord will forgive me this sin, if it is a sin. Without mercy no one will be saved. Nobody.
What will happen?
The eldest pupil, “Donya”, was the first to marry about four years ago to a good guy, by the way, from a neighboring village. The tables were set, guests were invited - probably about a thousand came. Or more. The whole area was walking.
A year later - another wedding: he gave away another daughter. Then again...
And how many more weddings are to come, where “that Mikhailo” will sit in a place of honor, as befits a father, and be proud of “his children”!
“Then I will be calm, as soon as they all become family.” And look at the saint before me!.. Oh happiness! - the priest says dreamily.
Of course, a skeptic will say that the doctors could have made a mistake with the diagnosis of little Larisa. As in five other cases. Of course, children who have recovered from cerebral palsy by swimming in a real pool on the territory of the family home do not prove anything. And it goes without saying that faith in the Lord and the prayers of Father Longinus, the monks and nuns of his monastery, whom the children call “mothers,” and the help of everyone who has been helping them for almost 20 years have nothing to do with it. I won't argue. Then don’t argue that Father Longinus, who indiscriminately takes in feeding and raising children with “bouquets” of diseases - from cerebral palsy to AIDS with congenital hepatitis - and even if he does not save them from death, then prolongs their life in care and love, - Holy man. Agreed?
By the age of 46, Father Longin had suffered three heart attacks and two heart surgeries. Someone is holding it on our sinful earth... Do you happen to know who?
On the evening of December 1, 2017, we met with the saint-confessor, the scale of whose feat puts him on a par with the Great Athanasius or the Hieromartyr Patriarch Hermogenes: Archbishop Longinus of Banchensky is the hierarch on whom alone rests the very canonicity of the Russian Orthodox Church as such in its current apostasy state.
Over time, memory will more and more vividly fill in the missing details and strokes of the events and impressions of this holy meeting, which literally, as if with a sharp ray of God’s Truth, cut life into “before” and “after” it...
Bishop Longin should not have been present at the cynically staged performance in advance called “The Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church.” The decision to include him in the Ukrainian delegation came at the last minute. Metropolitan Onuphry obviously understood that if the Archbishop of Banchen did not go, then there would be NO ONE at all to raise his voice for the Church of God, which was desecrated by heretics. But this is how it happened: Bishop Longin was alone at the council - he alone directly and courageously denounced Kirill Gundyaev and his accomplices, who, along with heresy, lost both the patriarchate, the rank, and Christian dignity.
And this fact is either deliberately kept silent or conveyed to the media with deliberate distortions. In fact, on November 30, at a closed meeting of the “council”, Archbishop Longin personally from the podium read out loud to the entire assembled episcopate of the Russian Orthodox Church his Appeal, which, I am sure, will go down in the history of the Russian Church on a par with the immortal Appeals to the Russian people of Patriarch Hermogenes, soaked in the great tears and martyrdom of the confessor .
Bishop Longin acted strictly within the framework of Church law, remaining to the end a faithful child and archpastor of the Russian Orthodox Church. The very form, the very style of his Address testifies to him, first of all, as a Christian. He, fully understanding his position as a “voice crying in the wilderness” (see John 1:23), is aware of the colossal responsibility before God for each of his holy words. The Bishop remains, according to ancient church tradition, “sorrowful” for the entire Church, for the people entrusted to him by God: he strictly denounces the patriarch who has fallen into heresy, gives him the LAST CHANCE to correct what he has done - he tries to the end to exhort him, to reach out to the perishing soul, to appeal to the burning soul conscience...
From the Address of Archbishop Longin:
Pictures requested by Bishop Longin “...We have repeatedly asked you to hear us and understand our pain, since we sincerely wish to remain in the bosom of our Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. We firmly know that only in Orthodoxy there is truth and there is no other path to salvation except the Church...
There are no other “churches” and there is no other way of salvation!!!
...We want to observe the canons, dogmas and teachings commanded to us by the Holy Fathers, so as not to turn out to be apostates, traitors to Christ and the Orthodox faith.
We ask... to hear the cry of our soul about the difficult situation in which our Orthodox Church finds itself... Let us forever remain in our saving faith, but we will never recognize any heresy that is preached today.
...The brothers of the Holy Ascension Banchensky Monastery humbly ask to hear the undying and anxious pain of the soul - to defend the truth and purity of our Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church...”
And the faithful Orthodox heart, loving the Lord and His Church, cannot help but tremble at these words of the Archpastor of Christ, heavy and bitter, “like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
The Bishop’s Address itself, as we know, contains four key demands - the most important, painful and acute for our Mother Church - he has repeatedly voiced them before:
First. Withdraw from the World Council of Churches and cease participation in the ecumenical movement.
Second. Cancel the Havana Declaration of February 12, 2016.
Third. Do not recognize the Cretan false council as Orthodox as not containing the fullness of truth and having an ecumenical heresy at its basis.
Fourth. It is conciliar to refute the slanderous film “Matilda”, recognizing it as another attempt to publicly dishonor the memory and Name of the Saints - the Tsar and His Family.
The saint's verb sounded like thunder. The entire hall of the Church Councils applauded him, and there were tears in the eyes of the bishops. During the break after the meeting, they approached the Bishop, bowing gratefully for his fiery speech, which literally lifted a heavy stone from the heart of everyone present.
Archbishop Longinus, with his Address, blocked the lips of presiding Kirill, forcing him to sharply change his tone and begin to flatter and flirt with the “rebellious” archpastor, giving oath assurances ( violated, however, the very next day).
Here it is necessary to clarify that immediately before this, Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernovtsy directly asked Gundyaev on what basis he, having violated the canons of the Church, went to a meeting with the Jesuit Francis without the advice and permission of the bishops. But, apparently, the Metropolitan experienced fear and excitement at the same time, since his voice trembled. And the “patriarch,” like a predator, sensing the weakness of the victim, rushed to humiliate and trample the venerable ruler into the dirt with selective abuse, threatening to deprive him of his chair. After this “fatherly” patriarchal teaching, the Metropolitan was provided with medical assistance...
Vladyka Longin is a special archpastor. Having crucified with the Lord on the cross of love and compassion, he shone with the abundant fruits of active mercy. Therefore, he appeared before the council as an experienced spiritual warrior, clothed in the strong armor of personal righteousness, holding in his hand the two-edged sword of the Word of God - the Holy Tradition of the Church (see Eph. 6:14-17). And the Spirit of the ruler - the Spirit of Christ - is unbending and unbreakable. And the Lord saw him, the only one remaining faithful to Him, the bishop - like once the youth David for the victory over the giant Goliath - in order to shame both the “patriarch” with the entire heretical clique, and all the cowardly rabble, called to be called the “sanctified cathedral”, abolishing the power of the outwardly huge and invincible majority.
Saint Longinus, who through his evangelical life, or rather through his constant dying for Christ, acquired the great conciliar virtue of Christian Courage, has every right to echo the Apostle with the words inscribed on the monastic paraman: “For I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus on my body” (Gal. 6, 17). And the Courage of the pure in heart is always clothed with Humility and Meekness. Moved precisely by these holy virtues, Bishop Longin bowed before the self-styled Patriarch of Moscow, asking him, as a common man, for forgiveness for personal sins. He made this bow so that he could then stand up to his full height, straightening his heroic shoulders, and pronounce in the name of the Lord God, like the once holy prophets, moved by the Holy Spirit, a formidable denunciation of all the vile heretical acts of the presumptuous high priest. Like “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin” (see the book of the prophet Daniel 5:25), with the word of the confessor of Christ, a concrete act of God was actually accomplished, from which the blasphemers can no longer escape.
And THEY have done this more than once: there have already been four (!) attempts to poison the holy confessor. The most famous one was last spring: a poison containing mercury and arsenic was mixed into the bishop’s meal. He, Archimandrite Lawrence and Hieromonk Cleopas, despite everything, survived. The other two poisoned died... The saint, having barely come to his senses after resuscitation, tried not to miss a single bishop's church service, despite the fact that his kidneys had failed due to arsenic, and mercury had affected the central nervous system so that for some time it became It was difficult to navigate in space and they helped Vladyka, leading him by the arm.
The last poisoning was “congratulated” on Archbishop Longin on his name day on October 29 of this year - a little more than a month ago. Bottled drinking water sent both to the monastery itself and to the orphanage was poisoned. Since sick orphans are constantly being cured under the care of the bishop in the orphanage, and the first symptoms of poisoning appeared in the children almost immediately, fortunately everyone was able to receive medical assistance in a timely manner.
During our conversation, the archpastor bitterly stated that the “patriarch” and his satraps allowed him to come, speak, and even “swallowed” accusations against them only because they knew about the serious state of health of Bishop Longinus - for them he was “not a survivor” , therefore, they assume that sooner or later they will “silence” the “rebellious” archbishop...
It should be noted that on that day - December 1 - we “hunted” for the bishop for eight hours. Each time he appointed a new meeting place. He was stubbornly followed and accompanied before and after our conversation by several vehicles with a characteristic specific contingent - the ruler hoped not to “set us up.” All the subsequent time, we fervently prayed for the safe return of Bishop Longinus home, safe and sound.
The colossal pressure on the archpastor also has another side: it is clearly demonstrated to the entire “sanctified assembly” how “like death” it is to go “against the flow” - against the general line of the “Moscow Pope”. Fear, a general inexplicable mystical fear, paralyzed the common sense of several hundred intelligent and impeccably educated men. Fear of a monster, an octopus, which uses the so-called figure as its “face”. the patriarch is an exceptionally vindictive person who never forgives anyone. The behavior of the members of the “council” was only further evidence that departure from the Truth deprives a person of all spiritual strength and will, and not just reason. It is enough to show dissimulation and remain silent in the face of untruth once in order to lose all boldness before the Lord, and your conscience will fall asleep like a dead man - as a rule, there is no second time...
According to the bishop, this gathering could not be called a “Bishops’ Council” by any criteria—there was no conciliarity observed there at all. Topics for consideration were given to the members of the “cathedral” in ready-made thick folders: there was no time to leaf through them, let alone read them. And they didn’t give anyone a word. Voting took place automatically, as at party congresses.
After the Address of Archbishop Longin, at the end of the stormy ovation of the entire bishops' meeting and tears of gratitude, at the next closed meeting the same bishops “automatically” voted for the adoption of a monstrous decision that actually destroyed the institution of the Family - the Small Church - “On the canonical aspects of church marriage”, in in particular, blessing free marriages with non-Orthodox people.
It is very important that five Ukrainian bishops voted against this decision and abstained from voting. “Against” were: Archbishop Longin, Metropolitans Meletius and Fedor. Following the Charter, in this case the presiding officer was obliged to submit the decision for conciliar discussion and revision. However, this did not follow: one vote was deliberately “undercounted” - “aspects of the further collapse of the church marriage” were accepted “unanimously” by the hierarchical masses shaking with fear...
... The so-called “Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church” at the end of 2017 is moving further and further away in time. Official chronicles only contain documents from this forum, and numerous analysts, observers and critics talk only about the consequences of the decisions made. After a week, no one remembers the fateful Address of Archbishop Longinus at the closed meeting of the council on November 30 for the entire Church of Christ. And this is done consciously - after all, it is the individual who creates history. The Divine Person of Jesus of Nazareth created a New history of humanity through the Church created by the Blood of the Cross. And no matter how much money the Jewish high priests gave to the soldiers to keep silent about the Resurrection of the Lord, His glory soon conquered the entire universe.
And the glory of the valiant warrior of Christ, Archbishop Longinus, is all still ahead; for the time being it will be hidden. Some of his earthly affairs are already known to people, at least from the film “Outpost” (but they also require amendments: now more than 450 children, of whom more than 150 are terminally ill, have been adopted by the shepherd of God), but most of them are preserved by God until the time appointed by Him ...
Only the Lord, for example, knows how much the ruler had to endure endless torment, torture, bullying and humiliation in the dungeons of the SBU. And they threw him there because he did not allow a SINGLE MAN of the Chernivtsi diocese into the fratricidal massacre in the ATO zone by the power of God given to him: “I ask you only one thing: to unite and not give your children to death. Our Orthodox faith does not allow us to kill each other. For the sake of political interests, for the sake of those who defend their business, who defend their leadership positions, they want to kill our people who live in peace with faith in God,” the courageous bishop urged. And with the archpastor’s blessing, women - wives and mothers - blocked roads, blocked recruiting stations and ultimately defended the truth of God, without becoming accomplices in Cain’s sin.
“Let flattering lips be dumb, speaking against the righteous iniquity, pride and humiliation” (Ps. 30:18)! Those who now blaspheme or try in every way to humiliate the feat of Bishop Longinus do this either out of paid engagement or out of envy of the saint. For their proud “mouse” natures do not reach his Christ-like holiness, and therefore they are seduced into the path of Judas.
The evening of December 1, 2017 divided my life into two parts. We were present at the real Last Supper, and the face of Bishop Longinus shone with the glory of the Heavenly Lord. He spoke simple words, and Heaven shone in his tear-stained eyes: “I’m a simple priest, like everyone else, but I just can’t live without Christ! I love the Lord and His Church and fear nothing but sin.” And this is the whole saint...
... Having blessed each of us, the bishop quickly left. They said goodbye again near the exit, at the moment when he was getting into the car. With a wide, childish smile, the archpastor pointed with his gaze at the “black shadows” who were relentlessly watching him: “FEAR NOTHING!” - he said, crossing us again: “NOTHING!”
Note Ed. “It is very unfortunate that those who have taken the path of confession sometimes cannot bear this cross and abandon it. After all, M. Onuphry is an active assistant to the heretic - the false patriarch Kirill. He never spoke out against the Gundyaev heresy implanted in the Russian Orthodox Church MP. In addition, he signed the apostate approval of the draft heretical final documents of the Cretan Council at the Council of Bishops in February 2016.
So how is M. Onufriy so different from the heretic Gundyaev? Nothing. Being the head of the Ukrainian church, he also leads it into the clutches of the Antichrist. Therefore, Bishop Longin’s ardent rejection of St. Kirill and his concelebration and fraternization with St. Onuphry looks strange. Lord have mercy and strengthen Bishop Longinus in defending the Truth!
The head of the UOC MP, Met. Onuphry, performed the liturgy on the third day of Christmas at the Banchensky monastery, whose abbot accuses Patriarch Kirill of heresy, and the head of the DECR MP of serving the Antichrist.
Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine of the UOC-MP Onufriy (Berezovsky) celebrated the liturgy at the Ascension Banchensky Monastery in the Hertsaevsky district of the Chernivtsi region on January 9, the third day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ. As Patriarchia.Ru reports, the primate was co-served by Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi and Bukovina, abbot of the monastery, Bishop Longin of Banchen, Bishop Benjamin of Khotyn, as well as the clergy of the monastery and clergy of the diocese.
At the end of the service, Onufriy addressed the brethren and parishioners, first in Romanian, since the vast majority of them are Romanians by nationality, and then in Ukrainian. He congratulated everyone present on the feast of the Nativity of Christ and the day of remembrance of the holy archdeacon and first martyr Stephen, wished peace, good prayer, health and God's help in all pious deeds and endeavors.
M. Onufriy also visited the pupils of the home for disabled children “Faith, Hope and Love” and the orphanage in the village. Molnitsa, which is looked after by the Banchen Monastery. He was accompanied by Metropolitan Meletius, the abbot of the monastery, Bishop Longin, and Bishop Benjamin. The children sang Christmas carols, chants and recited poems.
Bishop Longin is known for his irreconcilable position towards Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev), whom he considers a heretic, and, more recently, towards the chairman of the DECR MP, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), whom Longin calls “a servant of the Antichrist.”
Thus, in his sermon on October 14 last year, Bishop Longin declared from the pulpit: “The heretical words of our patriarch, when he says that God is like the sun, and the rays that go to the sun are all heresies, all religions on earth and all lead to the One God. The Holy Fathers didn’t tell us this, it’s not written anywhere! He says this because his teacher, Met. Nikodim Rotov died like a dog at the feet of the Pope. And they told him not to go there, otherwise you will die. When he kissed the sandal of the Pope, then he died at his feet... And you see, this servant of the Antichrist, Metropolitan Hilarion, says that the Bible must be changed.”
OTHER “NOT REMEMBERED” MONASTERIES NEED TO THINK ABOUT WHAT TO DO IF THE “MANAGEMENT” COME TO THEM...
These tactics are as follows: I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered.”
One blow to the priesthood and to the community.
And here there is nothing to think about, the tactics are simple, boycott, lock the gates of the monastery and not let in...
