Rafail Berestov is a priest of the Orthodox Church. A well-known anti-globalist, an opponent of ecumenism and the INN, a convinced monarchist, an Orthodox writer and artist. His revolutionary views are not liked by everyone, even within the Church itself, but they do not leave anyone indifferent. Some call him a heretic, while others call him nothing less than the holy elder, Father Raphael from Athos.
Raphael's childhood
The future monk was born in the village of Syrkino on November 20, 1932. To give birth to him, his mother went from Moscow specifically to the homeland of her ancestors, to the Tver province, where there were still relatives.
Origin and birth
The boy's father and mother were simple people, non-believers. On November 20, 1932, two twin brothers, Mikhail and Nikolai, were born.
The birth was difficult, Misha suffocated - he was born dead. The newborn was saved by his grandmother, who played a big role in his childhood. She simply spanked the baby and he came to life. Everyone was very afraid that Misha might die, and decided to baptize him - the very next day (November 8, old style) was the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. In Holy Baptism he received the name Michael, and his brother was named Nicholas.
Family
Both parents of Mikhail and Nikolai were Muscovites, father Ivan Nikolaevich and mother Anna Dmitrievna Berestov, mother’s maiden name was Shirina.
Like many Soviet citizens, they were atheists and did not engage in religious education of their children. But the grandmother sometimes took her grandchildren to church, where the first seeds of faith were planted.
Soon, in 1936, a third brother, Anatoly, was born. Later, he will become a professor of neuropathology and organize an Orthodox church, which provides assistance to victims of drugs, alcohol and destructive religious sects. At the same time, the professor has the spiritual rank of abbot.
Mikhail grew up as a sickly boy, was short in stature, and was often ill, which is why he subsequently developed beardlessness. He was always drawn to creativity, and after seven years of school he tried to enter art school. However, he could not pass the watercolor exam. Some of the applicants changed their minds about studying, and the boy was taken to the vacant place.
The church's opinion about monk Rafail Berestov
For the most part, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church consider Father Raphael to be a self-proclaimed elder, and some suggest that his mind became clouded after numerous illnesses. Many call his works apostate. The church also accuses the monk of schismatic activities that undermine the unity and authority of the Orthodox Church.
Many priests are confident that the false elder Raphael cannot evoke feelings other than regret and sympathy; blamed for his activities driving people away from the church. But there are also those who consider the monk to be a holy elder and believe in the gift of clairvoyance. The majority recognize him as a schismatic and an apostate from the traditional teachings of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Teenage years and early life
While studying at art school, Mikhail combined classes with work. But after finishing school, the illnesses worsened again. This time the heart. After a severe attack, his family and friends awaited his imminent death with horror. God has been merciful. And Mikhail made a vow that he would become a monk.
Attempt to enter the Lavra
People were not accepted into the monastery without parental blessing. Therefore, Michael’s attempt to enter the famous Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra in 1958 was unsuccessful.
But the young man got a job in a church workshop and regularly visited the monastery, fulfilling his obedience.
Only three years later, Mikhail’s parents gave their consent.
Having become a legal novice, he lived in the Lavra hotel, continuing to paint and restore Orthodox icons. While serving in the choir, Misha was busy reading memorial notes. At the same time, he had a working profession - “artist’s assistant.” Its curator was Archimandrite Nikolai (Samsonov), and its spiritual mentor and teacher was Fr. Kirill (Pavlov).
Monastic tonsure
Mikhail's biography is complex and mysterious. There is an episode in it when, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a young novice allegedly met a certain nun who spent 25 years in Stalin’s camps and had the gift of foresight.
A conversation took place between them.
- Well, hello, Rafailchik.
- My name is not Rafail, but Mikhail.
- Yes, I know, I know. I can make you happy that at the end of your life your father will become a believer, just like your mother. And you will soon rejoice for brother Anatoly. But you should pray earnestly for Nikolai’s soul.
Indeed, when Michael took monastic vows in 1966, he was named Raphael, in honor of St. Archangel Raphael. This name means healer, healer of lost and apostate souls.
Seven years later he receives the holy rank of hierodeacon. The hierodeacon will serve in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra for 23 years.
In the pig pen
The life of the Optina elder Leo with a dedicatory inscription from novice Rodion Sheichenko.
1925 Image from the site optina.ru Rodion became a monk in 1928 with the name Raphael in honor of the Archangel of God Raphael, who is considered a healer of various ailments. In 1930, he was sentenced to ten years in the camps (for “religious agitation and calling peasants to revolt”). They were sent to the Vishera forced labor camp in the Urals.
After 4 years Fr. Rafail was transferred to Dmitrov near Moscow. He worked as a veterinary assistant at a livestock farm that raised pigs. The paramedic-monk was offered to live at his workplace - in a free enclosure. Since the prisoners were hardly fed, feeding the pigs helped Father Raphael survive during the famine.
Mature age
In those years, the journal of the Moscow Patriarchate openly published articles in defense of ecumenism and the merger of Christian churches. Mikhail considered this a heresy and drew incriminating illustrations in underground samizdat. Because of this, he was under KGB surveillance and was subject to penalties from the leadership of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra.
Life in Abkhazia
Orthodox hermits lived in the Caucasus, and the clergy of the Lavra often visited them. In the end, with the blessing of his confessors, in the fall of 1984, the hierodeacon of the Trinity St. Sergius Lavra moved to Abasia. Here, 30 kilometers from Sukhumi, he organized a mountain monastery with men's and women's deserts. Just on the eve of his arrival, at the instigation of the authorities, the monastery was destroyed by local policemen. Then it took a long time to restore it.
In the Caucasus mountains about. Raphael decided on a harsh hermit's life in the modest cell of a monk. He kept a strict fast all year round and only on rare visits to his native Lavra did he allow himself to break his fast.
Revival of the Valaam Monastery
In 1993, the Georgian-Abkhaz war broke out. Confessor Fr. Raphaila O. Kirill (Pavlov) called him from the desert and sent him to Valaam.
The “Abkhazian hermit” took an active part in the revival of the Valaam monastery. That same year, on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk. After which he left the main monastery, retiring to the Skete of All Saints, where he was often visited by the spiritual brothers of Valaam. A year later, he was tonsured into the great schema, retaining his former name in honor of St. Archangel Raphael.
Father here continues his struggle against anti-Christ globalization, signing an open letter to Patriarch Alexy II condemning ecumenism.
In 1997, he created another skete from the Valaam Monastery near Dogamys, in Solokh-Aul.
Moving to Athos
Due to active protests against globalism in church politics, the Valaam brethren are beginning to experience pressure. No matter who their excited word reached, be it a woman or a man, they found warm sympathy and understanding in everyone. But the authorities had a different attitude.
Part of the brethren, led by the hieromonk, moved to Athos in 1998. First to the St. Panteleimon Monastery and the monastery of St. Panteleimon, and after a year the monks are placed in the cell of St. John the Theologian.
The three years of his stay on Mount Athos were remembered for many sufferings and persecutions. 17 people, together with their spiritual leader, were forced to leave Saint Athos for Russia.
Modern activities
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of a “new world order,” Father Rafail Berestov saw the imminent onset of the kingdom of the Antichrist. The Orthodox missionary could not accept the “era of computers” either with his soul or heart. All his sermons and prayers, books and publications warn about the insidious temptations of the time of total television PR and an insane consumer society.
Since 2010, the brethren have been conducting media activities on the Internet, posting anti-God articles and videos.
Let us briefly list their main ideas:
- bimarried priesthood is a violation of Christian commandments;
- ecumenism is the heresy of heresies;
- a computer is evil for a monk and turns him away from prayer;
- cities are breeding grounds for sin, you need to run away from them into forests and mountains;
- TIN (identification number) is an invention of the devil;
- Russia's salvation lies in the monarchy.
One of my favorite topics. Rafaila: the harmfulness of introducing a tax identification number, which can lead to unpredictable consequences.
“We decided not immediately, but gradually to introduce first an identification number (TIN), and then a barcode with three sixes, the last step will be a microcomputer chip on the forehead or right hand, as the Apostle John warned us about the seal of the Antichrist in the Apocalypse.”
Father Raphael
“The Patriarch of Constantinople, the false elder Bartholomew and the Moscow false patriarch Kirill”—that’s who the critical arrows were aimed at in 2016, when the brethren learned that the first commemorated the “Pope of Rome,” and the second signed “heretical documents in Chambesy.” A year later, a video was released condemning the creators of the film “Matilda,” in which Tsar Nicholas II was exposed as an immoral person.
Rafail Berestov can be called one of the informal leaders of the Orthodox Church. In spirit and views he is close to the late Fr. Nikolai (Guryanov), to his confessor Fr. Kirill (Pavlov) and Schema-Archimandrite Vlasius (Peregontsev).
Activities of the hieromonk today
Initially opposing the use of computers and gadgets, since 2010 the brethren, led by Father Rafail, regularly upload videos on the Internet and publish articles promoting their dogmas.
The main ideas of the brotherhood are as follows:
- denial of ecumenism and recognition of its heresy;
- TIN, passport, policy – everything is from Satan, like any numbered documents;
- propaganda of the monarchical system;
- cities are evil places for monks;
- the computer is an evil that distracts from prayer.
Rafail considers numbered documents to be an invention of the Freemasons, the minions of Satan. In his opinion, by receiving a TIN, a person goes astray. The monk considers Grigory Rasputin a saint, glorifies monarchical foundations, and opposes the unity of Christian churches.
Elder Natalya repented
Hieromonk Rafail (Sheichenko).
Image from the site optina.ru The former head of the church, Natalya, wrote a letter of repentance to Father Raphael, in which she asked for forgiveness for her betrayal. Father wrote to her:
“Peace and salvation from the Lord to your grieving soul, my child Natalia!..
To blame... you entirely for betrayal - I could not and cannot allow this in my thoughts, but because of women’s weakness I should chatter anywhere and to anyone. You won’t deny this either.
And you know very well that for his own selfish purposes, with a subtle approach, Father Sergius wound everything up for himself. But God is with him and with everyone! I see in this only the will of God and His holy Providence, leading me along this path of Calvary, not with a miter on my head and a golden cross on my chest, but with thorns on my head, with a cross on my shoulders...”
“Don’t look too hard, man!”
Archdeacon Raphael (Sheichenko).
Image from optina.ru After the release of Fr. Rafail returned to Kozelsk. At the age of 53, Archdeacon Raphael was ordained a priest and appointed rector of the Annunciation Church in Kozelsk. Optina and Shamordino were desolate, but the monks were returning from the camps and needed help. Raphael helped the Shamordin nuns a lot.
“My dear Tatiana Fedorovna, peace and salvation from the Lord to you!? - from a letter from Fr. Raphael spiritual daughter.
“The Lord, whomever He wants to bring to Himself, constantly sends sorrow to him, and especially when in this soul there is the leaven of Christian virtue, but this soul is drawn to the earth and becomes infected with a love of peace.”
“Dear daughter Valya! Fatherly wish you peace, health and salvation! You probably know that after Easter I was mortally ill for two months, but after Holy Unction I began to recover. Sorrows and illnesses strengthen faith, the consciousness of one’s insignificance, powerlessness, and short stay on earth. The Lord tells us and reminds us: come to your senses, man! – don’t get too carried away, don’t get carried away like a little child with toys. You are the crown of creation on earth. You are a reflection of the Divine. Live wisely, humanely. Your destination is Heaven - Paradise. Your community there is angels and all the saints!
I’m glad that you promise to follow my advice - they are sincere, like a father to his beloved child. You will worry less about little things. Your nervous system and body will become stronger. And there will be peace and joy in the family..."
“Love suffering, do you hear!”
Hieromonk Rafail (Sheichenko).
Image from the site optina.ru On November 10, 1951, Father Raphael wrote to his spiritual daughter: “On the night of the 10th of the new style, in a dream he sweetly and sweetly sang: “Glorify, magnify, my soul, the Most Honest and Most Glorious of the hosts of the mountains, the Most Pure Virgin Mary!” And I hear the voice of a certain spiritual man: “If you want to be saved, love suffering!”
Child Love, do you hear! Not only endure, but love suffering.”
After Stalin's death, believers turned to the Supreme Council with a request for the release of Father Raphael. Former elder Natalya petitioned for him in a special way: “I ask the Supreme Council to respond to the statement of the Orthodox believers of the city of Kozelsk, Kaluga region... We ask for your petition to release our priest Rodion Ivanovich Sheichenko due to old age, he is sixty-three years old, disabled.
On the part of the regional commissioner... lies and slander were inflicted on him, I confirm with my signature, and if necessary, I can explain everything.”
However, the parishioners' requests were ignored.
