Vladimir Golovin: reviews of sermons, biography, date and place of birth, family and spiritual ministry

Biography

In 1961 he was baptized. He received a standard high school education. Then he went to work at the Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant as a mechanic. As soon as he turned 18, he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary. From 1982 to 1986, he served as an altar boy in the church in honor of the Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God in Ulyanovsk. In 1984 he got married. A year later, his first son Stanislav was born - Anastasy in baptism.

Sermons by Archpriest Vladimir Golovin

Vladimir Valentinovich Golovin was born on September 6, 1961 in Ulyanovsk, Ulyanovsk region. In the same year he was baptized. Received a regular school – secondary education. After school, he worked at the Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant as a mechanic. Upon reaching adulthood and being released from service in the Soviet Army, in 1979 he entered the Moscow Theological Seminary. From 1982 to 1986 served as an altar boy in the church in honor of the Burning Bush Icon of the Mother of God, Ulyanovsk. In 1984, he married through the sacrament of Wedding with Irina Vitalievna Cherkasova. In 1985, the first child was born - son Stanislav (baptized Anastasy).

In September 1986, on the week of the Exaltation of the Lord, in the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Kazan he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Panteleimon of Kazan and Mari. He served as a deacon in the Trinity Cathedral in Izhevsk (Udmurtia). In 1987 he was transferred to the Church of the Yaroslavl Wonderworkers, which is at the Arskoe cemetery in Kazan. In May 1987, at Mid-Pentecost, he was ordained a priest by His Grace Panteleimon. Served as rector of the Sretenskaya Church in the village. Bolshaya Kuchka, Orsha region, Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1988, Bishop Anastasy of Kazan and Mari was appointed rector of the St. Abraham parish in the city of Kuibyshev TASSR (now the city of Bolgar RT).

Since 2003, Father Vladimir, with the blessing of Archbishop (now Metropolitan) of Kazan and Tatarstan Anastasius, has been communicating with pilgrims from various cities in Russia and abroad. Conducting many hours of sermons, giving spiritual instructions, he completely devotes himself to serving people and enjoys well-deserved authority among the townspeople and government officials, is sensitive to any person, and wisely organizes the activities of all structures of the parish. For his continuous twenty-eight years of experience in priestly service, he was awarded many church awards. The fame of the Bulgarian temple has spread far beyond the borders of Tatarstan in recent years. And from all the cities and villages, pilgrim buses hurried to this town, where immediately around the corner they were warmly greeted by the wooden St. Abraham's Church. Pilgrims enter an ancient prayer church, where a radiantly painted vault with an iconostasis, candlesticks, flowers, and a shrine with the relics of the holy martyr Abraham, famous for his many miracles, are in radiant painting. The spiritual conversation of the rector of the church, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, begins, or rather, the sermon of the priest, for which the Orthodox people were drawn here. In a simple and accessible form, the priest, affectionately addressing his spiritual children, “my dear ones,” speaks about the problems of today’s life, which have fallen like a heavy burden on our shoulders. He does not make great discoveries in his preaching, but only returns people to the origins of the Orthodox faith, filling their hearts with faith in the Divine power of prayers. And while, after the sermon, pilgrims prepare for a personal conversation with the priest in order to receive his wise advice in response to their everyday questions, I had the opportunity to talk with Father Vladimir about his priestly path. And this is what he told me: - On May 22, 1956, my father Valentin, who was fifteen years old at that time, went with his mother and my grandmother Pelageya Ivanovna to her homeland in the Sursky district of the Ulyanovsk region. Here in the village of Surskoye (formerly Promzino) there was an apparition of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and now his miraculous well is located, to which people constantly come and visit. Grandmother spent her childhood here, and she more than once witnessed miracles and healings performed in this holy place. The next flight was still a long way off, and Pelageya Ivanovna and my father decided to take a shortcut on foot past the holy well. It was just the spring holiday of St. Nicholas. However, this was already the time of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church. And therefore, when they approached the holy place, they saw the following picture: the gathered people, among whom were nuns, were praying in the holy place, and the vigilantes and police were dispersing them. The grandmother approached one of the wells with the desire to at least drink holy water and wash herself. After that, she handed my father a mug of water. He took a sip and immediately smelled rot. The well was already old, the lid did not close, and leaves from the trees fell straight into the water and rotted. The authorities did not allow the well to be repaired or cleaned, which is why everything was in disrepair. And the young man, in order to overcome this putrid taste, took a breath of fresh air, throwing his head back. Next to the well, he saw a forked tree, and along it, as if there were sawn branches, and on these saw cuts were images of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The images were made with such skill that it was impossible to immediately notice them in these cracks. The father realized that some believer did this on purpose so that the persecutors would not see them, otherwise they would immediately destroy these holy images. Shocked by what he saw, he said: “Mom, mom, look how great it’s done!” She asks: “What’s great?” - “Well, look, Nikolai the Pleasant, and here is the Most Holy Theotokos.” - “Where, son, did you see it? Where, dear?” - my grandmother asks again. And he showed her the saw cuts: “Here, here.” The people standing next to the grandmother began to peer with her, but they also saw nothing and again began to ask him to show them the images. And he began to move his finger in irritation: “Yes, there you go. This is the head, this is the hand. But you don’t see anything.” And he hears someone’s voice behind him: “This is necessary! The boy saw such a worthy thing, but we sinners cannot see anything. Glory to You, Lord, for creating such a holy place here! Often in our times Nikolushka works such miracles to strengthen us in faith. Son, cut off these twigs for us as a souvenir!” The father realized that something was wrong here and got scared. After all, there are vigilantes and police all around. And in those days, any sermon was called obscurantism and people were sent to prison for it. The father pulled the grandmother’s hand: “Mom, let’s quickly get out of here.” Both frightened, they quickly walked away from the well, afraid to even talk to each other. But before they had time to move away a little, someone called out to him from behind: “Son, son!” They turn around, and an unfamiliar woman, all in black, comes up to them and asks: “Son, did you have a wonderful vision of the Most Holy Theotokos and Nicholas, the Pleasant of God, at the well?” The father, frightened, replies: “No, not for me.” But the woman, not paying attention to his objections, continues: “Remember, years will pass, and you will have a son who will stand at the throne of God, and then you will stand at the throne, and then your whole family will serve God.” Having crossed my father, the woman turned and left. She and her grandmother didn’t know what to think. They stood there, confused, and moved on, each thinking in their own way about what had happened. This is how that distant spring day, the holiday of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, became the day of my spiritual birth. It was predicted that I would be born and serve God. But my father lived an ordinary life. After graduating from school, he got married, and on September 6, 1961, his son was born - this is my unworthiness - who was named Vladimir. And looking ahead, I will say that when I developed an interest in serving the Church and a desire to go to study at a seminary, my father was categorically against it and began to actively fight against this desire of mine. But one day he came home looking unusual, moreover, in the festive clothes he wore to church: a black suit, a white shirt, buttoned up with all the buttons, but without a tie. My father sat down on the sofa, called me over and said that he was in church. I was afraid that he had a fight with the priests, thinking that they were encouraging me to go to study at the seminary. And the father says: “I had to go up to Father Gennady Feoktistov and tell him about the incident that happened to me when I was fifteen years old. Now I’ll tell you about it.” (Archpriest Gennady Feoktistov now serves in Samara, in the church in the name of the Three Saints. He is such an amazingly good and pious priest, who is still remembered in Ulyanovsk and is still loved. Of all the priests in the church, he was then the only preacher, carrying the word of God with such love that people cried while listening to his sermons.) My father told me about that wondrous vision at the holy well, about an unfamiliar woman in black who predicted the path of our family. This came as a surprise to me. Having finished his story, the father, in some kind of mental shock from rethinking that incident, continued: “Father Gennady, after my confession, told me this: “If the Lord chooses someone, it will be difficult to fight against His will. Accept the will of God and bless your son. Let him study at the Theological Seminary. That day of St. Nicholas of Spring was not accidental for you and your family.” Father stood up, took the icon of St. Nicholas and blessed me. This is how God’s Wonderworker Nicholas showed his participation in my destiny. And again, looking ahead, I’ll tell you about my father’s future path. When I was sent as a priest to Bolgar, there was no altar boy in the church. After all, there were no young people in the church then. All were old people, and even then one of them was in poor health, the other had poor hearing... What should I do? That’s when I asked my father: “Dad, help me out. Serve as an altar boy for me." He agreed and began to serve at the altar. Later, Archbishop Anastasy of Kazan and Tatarstan ordained him and sent him as a priest to the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, to the church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas. Imagine, both the Mother of God and Nicholas the Pleasant! Here it is, the fulfillment of that prediction at the holy well, when both the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to him! True, he served in this church only once, because due to my mother’s illness he had to return to Ulyanovsk. Now my father serves in the village of Karlinskoye near Ulyanovsk in the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If the Lord chooses someone, then he puts him on God’s path and leads him along this path. In my life I had to communicate a lot with priests: both pious and ordinary, those of high righteous life, and those without any special spiritual achievements. But I don’t remember a single one of them who would become a priest by choice. Everyone had one or another calling from God. I was raised with my grandmother, and they didn’t take me to kindergarten. Although she was a believer, she did not teach me to be baptized or to read prayers. Apparently, that was the time then. Grandmother herself always strived to live in the Orthodox way: she kept fasts, went to church, and took communion. There wasn't a day that she didn't say a prayer. She was always covered with a scarf and even slept in it, girdled with a belt. - Baba, why are you doing this? — I once asked her. “We must always be ready for God’s Judgment, whenever the Lord calls to Himself.” And always remember him. Grandma's lamp never went out. She loved to talk, and I loved to listen to her. But she wasn’t talking about God’s things, but about something personal. I often remembered my youth and childhood. She was born in 1905, when they still lived on a private farm and went to church. But with the advent of Soviet power in the villages, the entire peasant way of life began to be disrupted. Then my great-grandmother Marfa Nikolaevna said: “The times of God’s persecution have come, and now destruction will begin in the villages. If you want to stay alive, run away from the villages.” And so it happened. With the onset of famine, the destruction of villages began, and the family, abandoning everything, left for Central Asia. Grandmother often recalled how they bought new clothes for their patronal holidays. -What is a throne? — I asked curiously. - Well, such a holiday is the throne. The throne and that's it. She couldn't explain some of the church words. And everything aroused my interest. And whenever she told me, there was no end to my curiosity: “What is the Gospel?”, “What is Christmas Eve?”... Sometimes she would say: “Oh, what weddings there used to be!” Is it like right now? And they got married! So they always led with crowns and ringing bells. - Bab, what’s it like with crowns? She tried to explain: “Well, wearing crowns is when the priest walks forward, and the young people are wearing crowns behind.” With glory, that is. - What about fame? - Yes, that's it. With glory and that's it. I wanted to know the details. After all, from her stories it turned out that life before was somehow different, somehow extraordinary, more joyful than now. That life had meaning that is now lost. And most importantly, the grandmother lives only in the past, without the present and the future. What is this - her past? And what makes her live it? But the most important thing is that all this past is true. And I should know this. But there was no one to find out. There were no church-going relatives or peers around me. So, with age, the time for spiritual search came. I signed up for one library, another, a third. I surrounded myself with books, reading them, but I couldn’t find the answer. Historical books were closer to my spirit, but I also read atheistic ones with a kind of search. I skipped everything that related to ideology, and read only specific facts concerning the Church. For example, the prophet Moses. Who is he, what did he do? Yes, clearly. What is the Bible? My knowledge about the Church began to expand. This is how the Lord led me with the help of books. In high school, the history teacher began to ask us: “Guys, what do you think you will become? After all, you need to live not just to exist, but to make life bring joy. And for this, each of you must have a goal.” These words simply upset me. There was even some nervousness. My school years are coming to an end, and I still don’t know what I want to become. And then the following happens. When my grandmother took me to church, I always went with great desire. My sister Lyuba and I got up early and didn’t eat or drink, even though we had to travel far and have transfers. Grandma was never late for services, so we arrived at church an hour, an hour and a half before. That is, the grandmother came to the temple first and left last, although she was already seventy years old. I have an indelible impression of how the priest went to confession before the service. And the Lord arranged it so that it was always Father Gennady Feoktistov, who gave a short sermon, mainly about sins. The image of the priest I loved now stood before my eyes: a man of extraordinary kindness, with an extraordinary voice. And he spoke heartfelt words, filled with deep truth, which everyone knew, but for some reason they were silent about it. And the priest called everything by its proper name: that drunkenness is a sin, theft is a sin... And that these are sins not only before people, but also before God. But people, knowing all this, teaching this to their children, for some reason themselves lived differently. But life should only go according to God. I even once told my parents: you are teaching me to live in such a way as to make me unhappy. The mother exclaimed in fright: “What are you saying, Volodya? Where did you get this from? - “You teach me to tell the truth and only the truth. But you know that in life you have to lie without blushing. And if I tell the truth, I will become a laughing stock among people, which means I will be unhappy in life. So you teach me not to steal, and I don’t steal, sincerely believing that this should not be done. But everyone who prospers achieved their wealth only through theft. How then should I live?” These thoughts weighed heavily on me, and I was drawn to church. And although five priests served in our church, the Lord again ruled so that my beloved father Gennady served again that day. He spoke the same words, which made me feel excited again. I stood through the entire service, although I didn’t understand anything about it, then I came again. So I started going to church, and soon I made friends there: three grandmothers and two grandfathers. They began to give me spiritual books, reading which, I began to understand a lot. I was inspired by the idea of ​​becoming a priest, although I was not yet sure of many things. But I didn’t tell anyone about my doubts, and gradually I became even more convinced that someone must stand firmly for the faith and tell the truth. And if it’s not a priest, not the Church, then there’s no one else to talk to. In addition, I saw many people in tears, in sorrow and sorrow, but there was little joy. After all, someone has to console these grieving people. I firmly decided that I would speak the truth that the Church speaks about, I would console as the Church consoles. This is the meaning of my life. I began to pray differently: now prayer came through my heart. One day my grandmother asked me: “I heard that you started going to church? I’ll go with you today.” We came with her to the service. My shirt was already wet from her close attention. And when they came home, my grandmother said: “Since you pray so fervently, you need to read the Gospel.” Did you see a book in the altar with a copper frame that was being taken out? - Yes. But who will give it to me? - And you come to me sometime. - When? - Well, in a week or two. - No, no, I'll come tomorrow. - Okay, I'll take the Gospel from my neighbor. The next day I ran away from classes and, out of breath from fast walking, came to my grandmother. - Come on, ladies, the Gospel. - Go wash your hands first. This is a holy book. After washing my hands, I sat down. Grandma hands me a book and I put it on my lap. But the grandmother objected: “You’d better put it on the table.” She brought a new towel and spread it under the book. Her reverence rubbed off on me. I started reading with excitement. But since the book was borrowed, I had to read it at a fast pace in order to have time to read as much as possible. And my grandmother, when I stopped reading, continued the story, quoting the Gospel in whole sentences. I ask in surprise: “How do you know this?” “When we were children, they read the Gospel to us on winter evenings.” And the fact that all this was imprinted in her memory for the rest of her life shocked me. When I reached the Commandments of God, I no longer felt with my mind, but with my heart, all their depth. And I thought: when and who else said that? When have I heard of such the power of love? Never... And tears flowed from my eyes. The grandmother looked at me in amazement: her sixteen-year-old grandson began to cry over the book like a small child. But I could not restrain this impulse of penetration into the meaning of what I read. From that moment on, the Gospel became everything to me. — Continued in comments

About the service

In the fall of 1986, in Kazan, Vladimir was ordained a deacon by Bishop Panteleimon of Kazan and Mari. He began serving as a deacon at the Trinity Cathedral of Izhevsk, in Udmurtia. In 1987, he was transferred to the Church of the Yaroslavl Wonderworkers in Kazan. In 1987 he was ordained a priest by the same person.

Since 2003, according to reviews, Father Vladimir Golovin begins to communicate with pilgrims from many Russian and foreign cities. He conducts many hours of conversations, gives spiritual instructions, completely devotes himself to serving people, and enjoys authority among townspeople and government officials.

Additional activities

Under his leadership, 9 Orthodox parishes were founded in the Spassky region. He organized 4 Sunday schools and developed the temple grounds. In addition, he completed the reconstruction of the holy well, near which the martyr Abraham of Bulgaria suffered. Many reviews about Vladimir Golovin are left thanks to the publication of the newspaper “Orthodox Bolgar”. Father cooperates with military-patriotic and public organizations.

About the prohibition in ministry

According to the latest news and reviews, Vladimir Golovin has been banned from ministry since September 2022 for a period of 3 months. Throughout this period, he does not have the right to wear a cassock, a pectoral cross, teach a blessing, or perform sacred rites.

The reasons for this ban lie in the fact that he did not comply with the order of the ruling bishop in August 2022, continuing to conduct activities that introduce temptation into church life.

This was Order No. 120, according to which Vladimir Golovin was prohibited from holding sermons, meeting with pilgrims and practicing “spiritual treatment”. In addition, he should not have spoken on Internet resources or published in the media. Before September 1, 2022, he was required to close his personal website, as well as all sites dedicated to prayer, in agreement with Bolgar. But the sites continued to operate. According to reviews from priests, Father Vladimir Golovin is prohibited legally, in accordance with church canons.

Casus Golovini: How to stop the false prophet from Bolgar?

The statement of the Chistopol diocesan administration about the blasphemous activities of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin is a very important, but half-hearted step

"Beware of false prophets,

who come to you in sheep's clothing,

but within they are ravenous wolves...” (Matthew 7:15)

A gray-haired old man with sad eyes and a deliberately folksy speech, extremely “intelligible” and... does not tolerate objections. A provincial priest from distant Bolgar, an ethnically Russian town in the south of Tatarstan. You’ll hear it for the first time and be amazed: this is a national genius, a provincial Chrysostom, a preacher, whose word will be heard “from Moscow to the very outskirts”! But, “meeting by clothes,” it’s worth listening more closely to what the online sermons of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, so popular in social networks and the blogosphere, convey to “millions of people around the world.”

But, alas, only a few listened. Although the Center for Religious Studies named after the Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons, which directly deals with the problems of new religious movements, sects and cults, has received alarming signals since 2014. They say that the priest is not as simple as it seems: he blesses divorces, takes people away from other church communities, receives considerable donations from his virtual “spiritual children,” who sometimes give their last to the detriment of their families. In fact, he behaves like a real totalitarian “guru”. And this is not counting, to put it mildly, “theological liberties,” but in fact, serious discrepancies between the Bulgarian priest and Orthodox theology, sometimes expressed in openly blasphemous forms.

Two sounds of the alarm

The first to ring the alarm bell was the famous Novosibirsk cleric, Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, who at the beginning of 2022 spoke at the International Educational Christmas Readings with a report on “The Commercial and Religious Project of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin.” Father Alexander analyzed the speeches of this cleric, making a disappointing conclusion: “What the famous “preacher” says in his sermons is in fact elementary stupidity, savored by obscenity and terrible dirt in the mouth of an already middle-aged man in a cassock.”

Moreover, the Novosibirsk pastor examined in detail the commercial component of the so-called prayer by agreement, to which the Bulgarian preacher attracts believers not at all disinterestedly (adherents of Father Vladimir pray together at the same time according to the Bulgarian time zone, paying a very specific bribe for these joint prayers) .

V. Golovin. Photo: fragment of the program on YouTube

Soon, the main Russian expert on “non-traditional spirituality,” professor at the Orthodox St. Tikhon’s Humanitarian University, Alexander Dvorkin, also joined Father Alexander Novopashin. In his series of articles “Non-traditional theology, Rev. Vladimir Golovin”, a professor of sects, focused on analyzing not only the commercial nature of the new parachurch cult and the blasphemous sayings of its creator. Alexander Dvorkin also examined in detail the fact that the “theology” of the clergyman from Bolgar has nothing to do with Orthodoxy, but professes “a whole bunch of heresies condemned at most Ecumenical Councils of our Church,” and many of his theories and the style of his speeches themselves are based on the “creations” neo-Pentecostal sectarians. Perhaps due to banal theological illiteracy. However, for an Orthodox priest, this simplicity is truly “worse than theft.”

It would seem that after such authoritative materials, the church leadership should have responded immediately. At a minimum, banning the heretical blasphemer from serving until the church trial. However, this has not happened yet. For six months, the author of these lines, in conversations with authoritative priests and even bishops of our Church, asked the elementary question “why?”, to which he received approximately the same answer: “It is not yet time to wash dirty linen in public.” It's hard to say what we were expecting. Perhaps the reaction of His Holiness the Patriarch, who, due to his extreme busyness, can hardly quickly respond to the eccentricities of this or that provincial cleric. However, in this particular case, these “eccentricities” obviously discredited the entire Russian Church.

Application without decision?

And only a few days ago, the “Statement of the Chistopol Diocesan Administration regarding the activities of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, a full-time clergyman of the Chistopol Diocese,” appeared. The statement, on the one hand, is very harsh in content, and on the other hand, it is frankly half-hearted regarding the conclusions drawn. Let us briefly list the main theses of this official church document:

Sermons posted publicly on the Internet by Rev. Vladimir Golovin contains statements that clearly contradict Orthodox teachings. For example, that Christ “has two natures in one essence.” Or that Christ “could have fallen,” but “conquered sin within himself.” Also Rev. Vladimir calls calling Christ God a lie, saying that “He is not God. He is a God-man,” and at the same time accuses all Orthodox Christians who pray to Christ as God of monophysitism.

It would seem that this alone is enough to use the harshest, “surgical” methods to protect Orthodox Christians from the activities of such a heretical “shepherd.” But further - more!

In public speeches, Rev. Vladimir Golovin has statements that border on blasphemy and mockery of Christ. In a conversation with young people, he encouraged listeners to imagine physiological functions. Even in itself, addressing the topic of managing natural needs in a “spiritual” conversation is highly inappropriate for an Orthodox priest, and if you also take into account that Rev. Vladimir persistently invited his listeners, including the girls present at the conversation, to imagine in detail how a man performs physiological functions; this is also immoral.

But this is downright scary! After all, if the heretics of antiquity were often very pious people in personal terms, sometimes ready to give their lives for their errors, then here we are faced with an openly boorish, blasphemous mockery of Christ Himself: “For the sake of a beautiful word, he did not spare the Creator.” The statement also addresses many other Golovin obscenities, including the non-canonical rite of “spiritual treatment”, the already mentioned commercial practice of “prayers by agreement” and even “an insult to the memory of the Hero of Russia, the guard of Major R. N. Filipov and the heroes of the Great Patriotic War who gave their life, like the feat of military pilot N.F. Gastello.”

In a word, there is already enough said “for the article.” And not just one. Another thing is that in the Church at all times, any sinner and even a heretic was given the opportunity to repent. Therefore, despite the fact that Archpriest Vladimir Golovin has persisted in his blasphemies and errors for many years, even in his regard a final disciplinary decision has not yet been made. But only a call to his possible adherents (and, in fact, to himself):

We appeal first of all to all the clergy and flock of the Chistopol and Nizhnekamsk diocese, as well as to all the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church with a request to try with attention and love to exhort their brothers and sisters involved in the movement of “conciliar prayer in agreement with the Bolgar” to the knowledge of the true patristic understanding of the Gospel of Christ and the holy apostolic faith.

***

Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Professor Alexander Dvorkin: “Archpriest Vladimir Golovin must bring public repentance”

For a comment on the adopted Statement, as well as with the question of how Orthodox Christians can be protected from such false prophets in pastoral robes, the Tsargrad TV channel turned to Professor Alexander Dvorkin, already mentioned in this material.

“Tsargrad”: How important is the appearance of the “Statement of the Chistopol Diocesan Administration regarding the activities of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, a full-time clergyman of the Chistopol Diocese”? And why did it appear so late?

Professor Alexander Dvorkin : The statement is very important, because finally the diocese has expressed its attitude towards the activities of this priest, who went beyond the canons and moral standards, and also, apparently, allowed himself monstrous financial violations. Let me emphasize: the main problem is not that they collect money (as the same Orthodox monasteries do, collecting donations for their monastery), but that this collection of money “for the Church” had nothing to do with the Church. All this went to electronic wallets, to certain funds, and even openly to the private accounts of the secretaries and assistants of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, that is, on behalf of the Church he collected funds for his own needs, and no one knows how this money was spent. Let me emphasize: apparently, we are talking about hundreds of millions of rubles.

A. Dvorkin. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

"Ts." : But where do these numbers come from?

Professor Dvorkin : Everything is at the level of elementary arithmetic. The minimum amount of donations that Archpriest Vladimir Golovin took for remembering one name at the “prayer by agreement” was 700 rubles, and the maximum was 32 thousand (!!!). Each person submits several names for commemoration. According to Golovin himself, hundreds of thousands of people joined this prayer. Perhaps he is exaggerating, but judging by the traffic to his video blog (the most popular entries have received over a million views - ed.), the scale of the problem is indeed very serious.

"Ts." : But what can and should be done to stop such false prophets? Why was the “Golovin incident” not given a proper church assessment for many years?

Professor Dvorkin : The case of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin was dealt with for quite a long time, which is not surprising; in the Church such issues are always dealt with slowly (it is very important not to make a mistake here, and for the decision to be balanced). This is partly my fault, because after the first signals, the first letters about Golovin’s activities, I did not pay due attention to it. And when there were a lot of requests, he first asked his friend Archpriest Alexander Novopashin to read a report about this at the Christmas readings, which he did truly magnificently, revealing the full scale of the problem. And only after this analysis I took up this matter in earnest, realizing that this was not just an eccentric priest.

On the other hand, the guilt of the diocesan bishops is obvious. At first glance, you can understand that the parish is successful: people come, diocesan dues are regularly paid. And a situation arose when, on the one hand, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin was reprimanded for “careless statements,” and on the other hand, he was awarded church awards. And practically no one paid attention to the fact that, according to Golovin himself, he left the Moscow Theological Seminary in his 3rd year because it was “impossible to pray” there (is it “impossible to pray” in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra?!). And his son has no education at all - neither secular nor spiritual - but at the same time he is the rector of the church, the personal secretary of the bishop, the head of two diocesan departments, and also the dean of the Spassky district.

Of course, if the local diocesan leadership had paid more attention to the level of education of clergy (and His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly raised this issue), as well as to their public statements, such a situation as in Bolgar would not have developed. Today, as far as I know, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin has been given fairly strict deadlines to curtail all his activities and become what he, in his words, strives for: a modest and inconspicuous rural priest, and not a hereditary feudal lord with his palaces, colorful robes, tailcoats, specially built pompous tombs, and so on.

Everything should be decided literally one of these days, and then we will see what is more valuable to him: the Church or his own commercial structure, parallel to the Church, and the veneration and worship with which he is surrounded. And then he either, with all his funds, lands and servile admirers, goes into schism, or brings public repentance, realizing that it is not he who saves the Church, but the Church who saves him. I think one of these days we will learn about the decision of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin.

Feedback from priests

First of all, Golovin conducts prayers by agreement. According to reviews from priests, Vladimir Golovin took this practice from a prayer book. This is a kind of act when specific people ask God to fulfill their request. But in the reviews of priests about Vladimir Golovin, fears appear: more and more pilgrims began to flock to the priest for “spiritual treatment”, rumors spread about a bright preacher who gives out recipes for making wishes come true.

It was not known exactly what kind of people flocked to Golovin, how churchgoers they were, what they asked of God. According to priests' comments about Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, his community began to increasingly resemble a sect. They also raised questions about the fact that at the celebration of their marriage anniversary, the elderly preacher appeared in a very extravagant suit.

Supporter activities

Of course, the pilgrims spoke out in defense of the priest. They pointed to the fact that when they gather together, “the power of prayer increases,” and that in such cases miraculous healings occur. But according to reviews from priests, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin distorted the Christian canons. After all, miraculous healings are possible even after one single prayer. The Holy Fathers wrote a lot about all these cases.

In addition, the church believes that no prayers by agreement can be a substitute for worship in churches. The most powerful thing is conciliar prayer - divine liturgies, services in Orthodox churches around the world, in which thousands of priests and millions of parishioners pray.

Feedback from pilgrims

According to reviews of prayer in agreement with Vladimir Golovin, this ritual is an ambulance for people in difficult situations. This is a way to resolve various life difficulties when you can no longer do anything with your capabilities.

In reviews of Father Vladimir Golovin from the city of Bolgar, people write that this is the oldest practice of prayerful appeals to God. It is based on the words of the Savior himself. Many pilgrims from the city of Bolgar, in reviews of Vladimir Golovin, write that thanks to prayer, by agreement, they were able to get rid of debts, buy their own home, give up addiction, meet their soulmate and get married, and be healed of illnesses. Many people note the fact that they felt God in their lives.

According to reviews of Vladimir Golovin, his prayers have been held in the St. Abraham Church of Bolgar since 2004. Prayers are held according to a strict schedule. Reviews about Vladimir Golovin indicate that thanks to united prayers, great things happen. Pilgrims from all over the world often visit the priest - they come from the USA and Switzerland. Everyone wants to talk to the priest.

Reviews about Vladimir Golovin are full of wonderful stories about healing from HIV and the absence of exacerbations in people with disabilities.

However, for the most part, society is split down the middle. Some call the priest a seer, and others call him a rogue. In this regard, there are also negative reviews about Vladimir Golovin. Many write with horror that Father Vladimir gave negative predictions and told people that their children would die anyway, and promised girls that they would never get married. For Orthodox insight this is very strange. Some churchgoers stopped going to church altogether after meeting Golovin, they were so disappointed. They talk about the priest’s extraordinary behavior; his cries, for example, “Don’t look me in the eye!”, leave a great impression on the laity. Also, cases of “predictions” did not come true, and people’s destinies were broken.

There are still more positive reviews. Women who really wanted a family and lived abroad, among people of a different mentality, turned to Vladimir Golovin for prayer by agreement. Many times they have heard that it is impossible to start a family in the place where they live. But they did not despair. Having begun to pray, they got married that same year. They believe that husbands were sent to them through prayers.

Women who could not arrange their personal lives prayed for a miracle. After this, they managed to find their soulmate or start relationships with those young people whom they did not consider as spouses, but after prayer they realized that this was their destiny. They all got married in a very short time and found happiness in their family life.

Men's reviews also feature similar stories. So, the cases of some of the pilgrims grateful to Vladimir were as follows. They met the girls soon after they obeyed the priest. And they were never released again.

There are many reviews from pilgrims about how prayer by agreement helped give birth to a child. So, many of them were unable to have children for a long time due to health problems. However, after months of prayer, the women found themselves pregnant.

There are cases where believers waited for children for several years, experiencing unsuccessful IVF attempts, but after prayer, by agreement, an independent pregnancy occurred.

In reviews, believers describe cases when, for medical reasons, they were advised to do IVF, but they preferred prayer by agreement, and pregnancy occurred without this procedure, so the doctors themselves could not believe what was happening.

In their reviews, pilgrims also describe cases where they had children with congenital pathologies and birth injuries, lagging behind their peers in development. However, after the prayers, after a few days, they began to crawl, although before that they had not crawled for a long time. A few months later, the diagnoses for these children were removed. Believers attribute this to divine intervention after prayer.

Father helps to get rid of both alcohol and nicotine addiction. He says that a person suffering from addiction has no willpower. And he gives them a kind of “insulin”: just as those suffering from diabetes need this hormone to survive, those suffering from addiction need to read prayers at strictly allotted times. If they fail, they will disappear and willpower will never be restored.

Pilgrims in their reviews describe how they quit smoking after suffering from this addiction for many years. They prayed and during communion they thought that they should not smoke under any circumstances. After thinking about it, they quit smoking that same day and never smoked again.

Those who have problems with work also turn to Vladimir. The reviews include cases where desperate people, going through protracted legal battles, prayed, found work for themselves, and gained some kind of inner support.

Cases of finding work abroad are also described. Pilgrims, having begun to pray by agreement, suddenly received work in a foreign land. Before the prayer, there were years of unsuccessfully sending resumes to thousands of organizations, and not even a negative response came from anywhere. And immediately after the prayer, job invitations came.

Many calls to Vladimir Golovin are made on ordinary everyday issues, for example, people ask for housing. And on the priest’s official website there are many reviews about the work on this issue during prayers for the agreement. Thus, some of the pilgrims waited for many years for a subsidy to purchase housing due to disability, and after a year of prayer they received it. And agreements for the subsidy were received on the day when St. Nicholas Day is celebrated, and miracles were performed on other significant dates.

There are stories about how married couples wandered around rented apartments for several years. Leaving a deposit, they had no idea where to find even a tenth to purchase their own real estate. But after prayers they were given money on loan, and the amount was exactly enough for the house they dreamed of.

According to pilgrims, prayers help to reach an agreement and sell real estate that has not been sold for a long time. The official website of Vladimir Golovin received reviews that just a couple of months after joining the prayer, houses and apartments were sold by agreement, which had previously not been sold for several years.

Pilgrims also get rid of significant debts with the help of prayers by agreement. Thus, believers describe their stories of how they woke up for a long time with thoughts about when and how much money should be given. Such people began to pray for winning a lawsuit that seemed hopeless. However, they soon won it, received a reward, and closed their debt. And soon, miraculously, those who owed money also repaid their debts.

Business owners also turn to Vladimir Golovin. Thus, there are known cases where businessmen had debts to the tax authorities in the amount of up to a million rubles due to the fact that customers did not pay for the work performed on time. Taxes are charged immediately after placing an order, and it does not matter whether the customer paid for the work or not. The customers themselves sometimes flatly refuse to pay. Starting to pray, business owners soon made contact with the debtors’ lawyer, and soon the required amounts appeared in their account. Tax representatives were cooperative and agreed to wait for the bankruptcy procedure that threatened the enterprises.

There are also devotees who have been performing prayers by agreement for many years. Their reviews describe entire lists of miracles that, in their opinion, are associated with praying. For example, sometimes pilgrims beg for child drug addicts who raise their hands against their mother. As a result, they ask for forgiveness, get a job, begin to help their mother, and will not say anything bad to her. They also beg for drinking sons-in-law who, after prayers by agreement, do not go on a drinking binge for a long time. Prayers by agreement were read, and when the children of the pilgrims were about to take revenge on the former partners of their lovers out of jealousy, they grabbed a knife. Through the efforts of believers, such people are stopped from sin.

Those who turned to Vladimir for help found peace of mind and calm in difficult life situations. As a result, this served as a support for them in solving life issues. And such cases are actively described on Golovin’s website.

Unconventional theology Rev. Vladimir Golovin

Archpriest Vladimir Golovin

Why am I writing this material

About four years ago, the first victims of the activities of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin came to me from Bolgar, a small town in Tatarstan. They said that he destroyed their son's family by blessing his wife to divorce him. I usually don’t react to such single statements: who knows what kind of conflict a priest has with his parishioners? Not a single parish priest is immune from this. Therefore, I advised these people to contact the diocesan bishop, Rev. Vladimir and resolve the issue with him.

But the statements from victims did not stop there. In four years (until December 2022), I received at least ten of them. People said that their relatives behave like sectarians, constantly travel to Bolgar, transfer money there, get up at night to read the akathist at the same time as the “prayer book and miracle worker” Father Vladimir, stop taking care of their family and children, and lose respect for their parish priest etc. Moreover, many of those who approached me strongly advised me to listen to the numerous sermons of Rev. Vladimir and make their theological analysis.

For a number of reasons (not the least of which is my constant employment), I did not start this work for a long time, although my assistants showed me some excerpts from the sermons of the Tatarstan archpriest. Many of them sounded, to put it mildly, ambiguous, but, I thought, who doesn’t? A person gets carried away, and sometimes he blurts out something that he himself may later regret. Don't we have enough priests talking complete nonsense on their blogs and YouTube channels? Well, to denounce each of them, there won’t be enough time for anything else.

However, in December 2022, I received four new requests asking to pay attention to Fr. Golovin. I realized that the matter was still quite serious, and it would not be possible to postpone this problem any longer. Since preparation for the Christmas readings and the student session took up all my time, I asked my friend and comrade-in-arms, Rev. Alexandra Novopashina from Novosibirsk will give a report on this topic. Fortunately, Father Alexander agreed and at our section of the Christmas readings presented to the attention of those gathered the report “Commercial and religious project of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin” (https://iriney.ru/iskazhenie-pravoslaviya-i-okolopravoslavnyie-sektyi/obshhee/kommerchesko-religioznyij-proekt -svyashhennika-vladimira-golovina.html).

This thorough and impeccably documented message caused a storm. It was reprinted by several popular sites, and Father Alexander was hit by a whole wave of indignant letters from adherents (there is no other way to put it) of the archpriest he criticized. “Bastard, freak, bastard, scum” - these are only the mildest (and most censored) of all the epithets with which the Golovinites awarded the honored archpriest, one of the most famous and effective missionaries of our Church. Some even went so far as to call Father Alexander an agent of Tatar separatists and radical Islamists, i.e., they elevated outright slander to the rank of political denunciation.

All this requires an answer. Moreover, in his review speech, Father Alexander only briefly touched on many of the speeches of Rev. Golovin and the ideas he expressed, while almost each of them requires a more careful analysis. I’m not even talking about the financial side of the activities of the Bulgarian group, through which, as one might suspect even at a quick glance, such crazy money passes through that the notorious “god Kuzya” is resting (see, for example, here: https://iriney.ru/ iskazhenie-pravoslaviya-i-okolopravoslavnyie-sektyi/obshhee/kommentarij-k-pismam-“golovinczev”.html, or here: https://www.facebook.com/archpriestAndrey/posts/1682922501767161 ). However, this area should be addressed by people more competent than me in this area.

Thus, I still had to take on this matter. To begin with, I tried to analyze for compliance with Orthodox theology just one of the public speeches mentioned by Father Alexander, Archpriest. Vladimir Golovin.

Below is a verbatim printout of the central part of the approximately two-hour sermon of the charismatic Bulgarian archpriest before a youth (even partly children) audience (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=1TnJZCXTOFo - beginning 1:37:50 and 1 each: 46:16) with my comments. We tried in the printout (given in italics) to fully preserve the features of the preacher’s style and vocabulary, making it as literal as possible. We apologize in advance to the reader for the fact that we will have to quote the shockingly blasphemous and blasphemous sayings of the archpriest from Bolgar.

Theology of the latrine

The past twentieth century has produced many theological innovations. For example, after the Second World War, a certain “Theology after Auschwitz” appeared in liberal circles. They say that we cannot treat God the same way as before after the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis. The Apostle Paul wrote that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), but the founders of this movement decided that after the tragedy of Auschwitz the Savior must definitely become different. In the 60s, revolutionary Latin American Jesuits, trying to combine atheistic Marxism with Roman Catholicism, created a “Theology of Liberation” that justified class violence and terror. In the late seventies, the founders of neo-Pentecostalism constructed their occult-consumer and anti-Christian “prosperity theology.” Then came various “theologies”: feminism, homosexuality, etc.

In full accordance with this reverse progression: each new “theology” is more vulgar and nastier than the previous one – at the turn of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, a new type of “theology” appeared, which can be called “latrine theology.” The pioneer of this original line of thought was Sun Myung Moon, the leader and founder of the largest totalitarian sect of the twentieth century, however, now deceased.

Speaking on October 15, 1996 to his high-ranking guests in Seoul (at the same time his assistants read out this speech in the capitals of the leading countries of the world), Moon, among many “interesting things,” said the following:

You may be confused by what I'm about to say, but I want to give you one example. Every morning you go to the toilet. Do you put on a gas mask before performing certain physiological functions? This is not a joke, but a serious question. If you find yourself close to another person sending the same need, you will quickly move away. But you don't notice the smell when it comes from you. This is because he is yours. And he doesn't seem disgusting to you.

Have you tried nasal boogers as a child? How do they taste, sweet or salty? Salty, right? If you answer, it means you tried it! Why didn't they seem dirty to you? Because they were part of your body.

Reverend Moon came up with something that had never occurred to anyone.

(“In search of the original source of the universe.” Address by Rev. Sun Myung Moon at the grand opening on October 15, 1996 of the Moscow Conference of the Federation of Families for World Peace. M., 1996).

But these ideas were truly developed by another person - Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church Vladimir Golovin. Only if the false messiah Moon reflected on the topic of taste, color and smell of his own physiological secretions, then the preacher from Tatarstan, who has numerous followers, turned his daring thought to the physiological functions of Christ Himself. And, by his own admission, these imaginary glances into the latrine made Archpriest Vladimir a different person. Now he invited the youth and children who had gathered to listen to him to do the same. Like “Reverend” Moon, the Reverend Golovin came up with something that had never occurred to anyone.

- .... I think this is very important. At one time, when I found the answer to this question, I could not be what I was before. Maybe some of you, if you seriously think about what I’m going to say now, maybe some of you… can already be different. I'm not saying worse/better, this is a different conversation. To others. But the question is this: do you think that Christ the Savior, when he met a great need, how did he restore hygiene? Why are you silent?

- Like all people... Just like [inaudible]

- Like all people, good. It's clear. So, I took toilet paper, soft... Well, it simply wasn’t there then. But she wasn’t there then! How, well, how are all the people?... But I don’t know how it was then, how did you get nettles? No... Or maybe someone has something like this, he also deserves attention... Nettle...

- … There was a time…

- How, how was it with them? So I... I ask how...

- We washed ourselves...

- We washed ourselves, right? Okay... It's great for the desert. I know there are some people who wipe themselves with sand. So... Well, and nevertheless, how do you think?

- Maybe with cloth?

- Fabric! Very interesting moment! Where did He get it? I bought it specially and tore it into pieces and wiped it off.

- Well... Maybe he used old things...

- No, well, I... well, this, no, well, then, okay, then another question... Close to this topic. When He had a small need... But rather... or did He not have a small need? Actually, He urinated, no, what do you think?

- Well, yes, I peed... [inaudible]

- And now there’s another question. He goes with the apostles. That is, everyone is of the same gender – men. His need... Did he turn away from others or did he not turn away?

- No…

- I didn’t turn away...

- [laughter]

- Wonderful! So, you think that He suffered, wanting to be seen, so to speak... Well, if there is something [inaudible] of course, well, in general, in principle... Who said this - a man? Here? Male? The male said... Yeah... Yeah, yeah...

- ...In a male company... [Laughter]... Look...

- No, no, well, I remember my childhood, I’ll say it in paraphrase, so... with p-p-p... as we said, so... paraphrase. It is necessary in one sea, so that there is no grief.

- Ahh... Yes, yes, yes...

- Well, we are not women, but it’s easy and simple for us to be... united, at least in one seemingly important matter. And yet, and yet... But I’m serious: do you think he turned away, no? They said no.

- [Inaudible]

- How? How much...? I was shy!…

- It’s not that he was shy...

- No, you weren’t embarrassed?

- Why put it on display... That is... At such a moment... In some way intimate... [laughter]

- Well, after all, well, well, is it humane, is there a sin in coping with minor needs? Shame is a natural reaction to sin. There is no sin - then there is nothing to be ashamed of?!...

- No. There’s no shame here... It’s not like shame, but there are certain rules of decency... Well, after all, we’re not animals who do all this in front of each other... [inaudible]

- Well, what are “rules of decency”? Here, the words of my grandmother, I speak out loud. He says life after the war was hard. They were hungry and worked until they dropped. It used to be, she says, on a permanent basis... For those who don’t know what it is, she had a permanent one – it’s a chicken coop. Which is constantly... Chickens need to eat and clean every day... She walks every day... There were no days off, no walk-ins, there was nothing. It happened, he says, on a permanent basis, there, a minute is free, there will be time, he says, we used to, he says, look for and sing... We are looking for... The term “we are looking for” - do you know what it is? Well, they take turns crushing each other’s lice. This is how we lived, this was the reality of life! We live poorly now, but then we lived well – there were more lice! So, he says, let’s look and eat! Feel free to crush each other's lice.

- Well, apparently, everything depends on the circumstances...

- From the circumstances... So, just about there, exactly, I apologize, I’m interrupting! Depending on the circumstances. So, here, the norms of decency are the norms of human conventions. Should Christ fulfill human conventions? Shouldn't he be above all this?

- Well, probably... [inaudible, reasoning]... But he went to preach at thirty, and not earlier... Because those were the rules... Until thirty, no one would listen to you...

- Close, close... Ah... But still, I would like us to think about how Christ relieved himself, how He picked, loved to pick more in the left or right nostril... Well, you and I love... When not everything they see... Well, it can be so fun! Deep thoughts come at this time... Well, you know, well, you remember, you should know.

Trying to justify the blasphemous, vile calls of Rev., which go beyond all bounds of decency and at least minimal reverence. Golovin imagine the Savior defecating or Him picking his nose (all this to the laughter of the youth gathered around him), his followers claim that he only used the necessary pedagogical device to emphasize the humanity of Christ. But was it not enough for the priest to tell that the Savior was hungry and thirsty, that he was so mortally tired that he could even fall asleep on a boat, overwhelmed by waves and overcome by a storm? Couldn't Rev. Golovin tell young people how Jesus Christ shed tears over the tomb of His friend Lazarus? How did He rejoice in simple things, how did He eat food with the disciples, how did He yearn and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, how did He experience the feeling of being abandoned by God on the cross?

No, he needed, like the ancient Ham, to reveal the nakedness of the Father to the world and mock it. Worse than Ham! After all, he laughed at his earthly father, but Golovin exposes his God and Savior to mockery.

We know that the Savior of the world hung on the cross completely naked, but the icon painters depicting the Crucifixion chastely cover His loins with a loincloth. Prot. Golovin acts like the Roman soldiers who tore off this bandage and exposed the nakedness of their Victim to the ridicule of the crowd. But, unlike them, who did not know what they were doing, Orthodox priest Vladimir Golovin knows perfectly well what he is doing. And, judging by his appearance, he remains quite pleased with himself.

So, why am I telling you, of course? Because I have the next question after this. And it seems to me that for Orthodox Russia, for those who are members of the Russian Orthodox Church, that part of it, it seems to me, this is not an idle question - which nostril did Christ like to throw. This is a very important question. Because the answer I most often hear to this question is heresy. The bulk of our churches are Monophysite heretics. Now, we sometimes say... Here, Armenians and Monophysites... They, by the way, are not Monophysites. They are not monophysites. And the majority of us are Monophysites. Now, when you ask a person who Christ is, he says: “Well, like who? God!" Well, that's a lie! It's a lie! A?…

No, Your Reverence, this is not a lie. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true God. Or is there a lie in our Creed? “I believe... in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light from the light of God, true from God, true, begotten, uncreated, consubstantial with the Father...” A lie? No, that's the point, it's not a lie. He is true God and true man. It would be a lie if someone said that He is only God and not a man. Or, if someone (for example, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin) accused believers who call Christ God of lying.

- [inaudible]... God and Man...

- A? God and Man are two essences of nature in one Person, in one essence there are two natures.

But this, Your Reverence, is a lie. And heresy. In what one essence are there two natures of Jesus Christ? In human terms, you need to understand? Is humanity defined for you only, so to speak, through a system of excretion? It turns out that for you there is no human thought, no creativity, no freedom, no sense of humor, no consciousness, no reflection, no spiritual life, no science, no art, no self-sacrifice, no love - in a word, nothing that distinguishes us from animals . Some physiological functions. Think about it - and you will become a different person! And this one physiological essence is in Christ? From your point of view, is this what makes Him a true man?

It seems like you studied at the seminary for some time? There is a basic principle that children in Sunday school confirm: In the Most Holy Trinity there is one essence, one nature and three Persons (Hypostases). In Christ there is one Hypostasis and two natures, two essences - divine and human. If you don’t know this, then why put yourself in the position of a teacher broadcasting hundreds (if not thousands) of hours of urbi et orbi on the Internet?

Unfortunately, the further reasoning of Rev. Vladimir Golovin develops from bad to worse.

He is an incomprehensible God, that's true. Unthinkable, inexpressible, above all, and He is a man like you. A man like you! Just like you! Except sin. That's the whole difference. Moreover, in addition to sin, He did not do it because He... more... committed [inaudible], but because He overcame sin in Himself. We remember that Satan approached, tempting us in the desert after baptism. What was it suitable for? He had a purpose - he tempted. Now we are talking about theory. Which didn't happen. But: could Christ have fallen? Certainly! Because he tempted Him. Could. But He did not fall, he overcame sin within himself. Moreover, not by His Divinity. The demon himself was not afraid of the Deity. He conquered His human nature.

I am afraid that here again the complete theological illiteracy of a preacher reveling in his own eloquence is evident. They say that simplicity is worse than theft. So we see that denseness and ignorance lead to the grossest heresy and blasphemy. Prot. Golovin does not understand that nature, nature cannot sin. Only an individual can sin. The personality, hypostasis of Jesus is the eternal Hypostasis of the Son of God, which took on human nature. She is united with the divine nature “unfused, unchangeable, inseparable, inseparable.” These are the basics of our theology, expressed in the oros of the Fourth and Fifth Ecumenical Councils.

How could the Lord Jesus Christ fall? Even theoretically, how? How can Orthodox Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, even purely speculatively, imagine the sinning Hypostasis of the Eternal Son of God? God and sin are incompatible. It is easier for me to imagine vaporous ice or liquid stone, radiant darkness or freezing heat.

But, apparently, with Rev. Vladimir developed his own, purely personal, special idea of ​​​​Jesus Christ, apparently refracted through toilet topics, which he loved to indulge in reflection on. He came up with something that had never occurred to anyone (not even Moon before him) before! The crazy Satan, who tempted the Savior, also thought that He might sin. But the prince of this world, at least, did not know that he was dealing with the Eternal Son of God. I tried to understand everything, one way or another. The Lord did not give him an answer. And Archpriest Vladimir, it seems, should know who Jesus Christ is. But, nevertheless, following Satan, he believes that He could still sin.

Rev. Maximus the Confessor, whose teaching formed the basis of the decision of the Sixth Ecumenical Council, taught that in Christ there are two natural wills - divine and human, and the second acts in complete harmony with the first. The eternal Hypostasis of the Son of God took into Himself the entire fullness of fallen humanity, except for sin. This is the incomprehensible miracle of the Incarnation. The Lord bore all the consequences of Adam’s fall: corruption, mortality, illness, hunger, thirst. He was tired, needed sleep, He was hungry and thirsty, He experienced pain, suffered and His Body was subject to all the laws of this world. But he did not have the gnomic (elective) will inherent in us, which limits our freedom, making us susceptible to sin. That is why, no matter what Satan tempted Him hoped for, He could not sin.

He did not accept my sin and did not become it, but for my sake He became sin, that is, He became the corruption of nature that arose through a change in my will, taking Him upon Himself. For our sake, He became by nature a passionate man... In Christ, the inclination of His personal will for good deprived all human nature of the general shame of corruption, when, during the Resurrection, nature was transformed through the immutability of will into incorruptibility <... > The Lord, having taken upon Himself... condemnation for my voluntary sin, I mean - having taken the passion, corruption and mortality of human nature, for my sake it became sin according to passion, corruption and mortality, voluntarily putting on my condemnation by nature, although He Himself was uncondemned by choice. (Reverend Maximus the Confessor. Questions and answers to Thalassia).

The central definition of the Sixth Ecumenical Council clearly and clearly speaks about this:

... We preach, according to the teaching of the holy fathers, that in Him there are two natural desires or wills inseparably, immutably, inseparably, unfused, and the two natural wills are not opposite, as the wicked heretics said, let it not be, but His human will follows and does not contradict, or opposes, or rather submits to His divine and omnipotent will. For, according to the teachings of the wise Athanasius, it was necessary for the will of the flesh to be in action, but to submit to the will of the divine. Just as His flesh is called and is the flesh of God the Word, so the natural will of His flesh is called and is the own will of God the Word, as He Himself says: for He came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 6:38 ), calling His will the will of the flesh, since the flesh became His own flesh. Just as His all-holy and immaculate animate flesh, being deified, was not destroyed, but remained in its own limit and logos, so His human will, being deified, was not destroyed, but was preserved, in accordance with Gregory the Theologian, who says: the will of that which is conceivable in the Savior, being completely deified, she will not contradict God. We affirm that in one and the same Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, there are two natural actions inseparably, unchangeably, inseparably, unfused, that is, divine action and human action, in accordance with the preacher Leo, who says most clearly: every nature produces what what is proper to him, in communication with another, when, that is, the Word does what is proper to the Word, and the body brings into execution what is proper to the body (Ep. 28.4). Let us not present the natural action of God and creation as one, so as not to elevate the created into the divine essence and not to reduce the superiority of the divine nature to a place suitable for creatures. We attribute to the same One both miracles and suffering, according to the one and the other nature of which He consists and in which He has existence, as the God-speaking Cyril said. So, having protected on all sides the indivisible and unmerged, let us proclaim everything that has been said in short words. Believing that our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, is one from the Holy Trinity and after the Incarnation, we say that His two natures were manifested in His one hypostasis, in which He truly, and not illusively, declared Himself through miracles and suffering throughout His entire life. economic life, with the discovery of a natural difference in the same one hypostasis in that both natures want and produce what is characteristic of themselves in communication with the other. That is why we recognize two natural wills and actions that mutually converged for the salvation of the human race. So, after we have established all this with all possible care and attention, we determine that no one is allowed to preach another faith.

Reflecting on the possibility of Christ to sin, Rev. Golovin is likened to the scandalous Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, who wrote the blasphemous novel “The Last Temptation of Christ” precisely on this topic, in which the entire plot is built on the assumption: what would have happened if He had taken and not fulfilled the will of the Father... When the film based on this book was assembled demonstrated on Russian television, the entire Russian Orthodox Church came out to protest. But time has passed and an archpriest belonging to our Church expresses the same blasphemous assumptions on YouTube, and his numerous adherents (who consider themselves Orthodox) laugh joyfully, obsequiously looking into his mouth.

Showing that a person has the strength to overcome sin within himself. Man has these powers. He showed.

And this, Your Reverence, is called the heresy of Pelagianism, the condemnation of which, by the way, was confirmed by the Third Ecumenical Council. If a person can overcome sin in himself by his own strength, then we do not need Christ. Then the incarnation of the Son of God was unnecessary, and His sacrifice was in vain. We can do everything ourselves, why do we need Him? Only, maybe for an inspiring example? But isn’t the result of His crucifixion, His passion, His descent into hell too insignificant? After all, according to Prot. Vladimir Golovin, we ourselves can and must cope.

But, nevertheless, He is in every way like a man, just like us.

In other words, to say that Jesus Christ is God, according to Prop. Golovin lies. But to say that He is a man without mentioning the Divine is the norm. This separation of two natures is called the heresy of Nestorianism, condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council.

What is the conclusion from this, I would like to say.

But I saw a picture in one Protestant community that shocked me and somehow jarred me, and then I remembered it more than once, and it no longer shocked me. Do you know what picture? A young preacher enters the pulpit. And he says: “So, first of all, Dad, hello, guys, hello!”

- [Laughter]

- It shocked me! What else is this? Well, I was brought up differently in the past. Like this? And, God, reverently... Heels together, toes apart, hands at the seams. Well, how is it? And here Dad - firstly, “hello to you,” - then “brothers, sisters, guys, hello.” Today we will talk about this... It shocked me. And then I began to remember this more and more often. There was something about it... I remember him too... He didn’t do it brazenly. And he did it, not to shock anyone. He lives for it.

In this case, the question is not theological. This is a matter of ethics and taste. Although, for a person who publicly announces that he likes (at least in the imagination) to peek through the keyhole of the toilet and invites his listeners to do this, it’s probably normal to address God this way. But still. Prot. Vladimir Golovin approves of such a familiar appeal to God, but I wonder if he would approve of the same appeal to himself? How would he (and his immediate circle) react if those who came to see “dear father” simply addressed him, ignoring his rank, gray hair and status in society: “Hello, Vovchik, how are you, dude?” Something tells me that such an insolent person would have been fairly harshly pushed away from the cult priest. Perhaps someone would have used their fists out of offended feelings. But this is how you can approach God, He will endure...

When we turn to our Savior Jesus Christ, we sometimes turn to him only as God. And He is not God. He is the God-man.

Again, it’s not true, and it’s blatant! No matter what Rev. says. Vladimir Golovin, Jesus Christ is God. True God and True Man. This is the basis of our faith. But priest Golovin claims something else - “not God, but a God-man.” There are two options for interpreting this idea that he constantly exaggerates.

1. In the God-man Jesus Christ, divinity is dissolved to the point of complete indistinction.

2. Jesus Christ is neither God nor Man, but something third, something like a centaur - not a horse and not a man, but a man-horse. So is Jesus Christ, according to the version of Archpriest. Golovin, a god-man, not God. But, since this is so, then He is not a man, but half man, half God - a special being.

I don’t know whether the popular preacher had this in mind, whether he thought about the elementary conclusions from his words, or whether he simply turned off his brain, fascinated by his own eloquence and intoxicated by the power that he gained over his adoring audience, but the “outhouse” he developed theology" does not provide us with other options for understanding his "revelations."

We see that during the ten minutes of our speech to young people and children, the popular Internet preacher not only repeated the boorish sin in relation to Jesus Christ (on which he, in fact, based his speech), but also imposed a whole bunch of heresies condemned at most Ecumenical Councils of our Church. What useful and good things did he teach them?

Anticipating the reaction of fans of the cult Internet archpriest, I can imagine their objections. All of them, as one, will tell me that the priest, they say, got carried away, misspoke, accidentally said the wrong thing, and so made an unfortunate expression. Otherwise, he didn’t mean anything like that, but his enemies and envious people find fault with him and take him at his word...

Well, I don’t know and have no opportunity to know what prot. Vladimir Golovin could have meant it, but I see and hear only what he actually said. And, in my opinion, the density of these “reservations” and “unfortunate expressions” is too great for every square centimeter of text. You could say she's just going through the roof. No one would keep any professional with so many “accidental” mistakes in the field of his specialty.

If prot. Vladimir Golovin does not see this, does not hear and does not understand, then he is simply unsuitable as a preacher, he must immediately stop his many kilometers of words and do something else. But it seems that he has already become too deeply involved in the role of leader of the masses, teacher and guru, so that he does not even imagine himself in any other capacity. He stated directly in one of his speeches: “I have nothing to lose!” It’s a pity, since this path is extremely dangerous both for him and for everyone around him and for the thousands of people seduced by him and his “outhouse theology” who, unlike him, still have a lot to lose.

To be continued

The story of becoming a priest

Golovin also has his own story about how he became a priest. One day a tragedy happened to him, which turned his whole life upside down. He was 11 years old when his uncle died - he was very handsome. Little Vladimir began to cry because he realized death very clearly. One day, in an outburst, he told his parents that they were teaching him to live in such a way that he would be unhappy - to say one thing and do another. And then an incident flashed through his head - his grandmother took him to church to receive communion before the start of the school year. There was a priest there who differed from other adults in that he called things by their proper names, and there was no lie in his words.

And Vladimir remains faithful to the principle of remaining honest to this day. He directly says that the majority of those who come to church are worried about everyday problems. Men play games all their lives, wanting to get everything without doing anything. As soon as difficulty arises, a person runs to God, relies on him, and not on himself.

Women think about their personal lives until they get old. And by the age of 30 they feel like life is passing by. They don’t realize that they have been “zombified” - they have become men. And they forgot about their needs.

Civil marriages are in fashion today. But they have no responsibility. Vladimir himself, as he says, was married out of debt. And the marriage started out difficult, but he himself realized that he was responsible for his wife, that he had to make her happy and love her. And after 8 months he confessed his love to her, and they began to live in happiness.

How to treat Vladimir Golovin?

Hello! Absolutely not! Why? Many people suffer from his preaching. Some people behave like sectarians after his sermons. Notice how the false priest preaches unconventionally. Some of his sermons are delusion, heresy, and even blasphemy. For example, why, in his opinion, can nature, nature, sin, although according to Orthodox teaching only a person can commit vices? By the way, this is false preaching. Vladimir: “-…. I think this is very important. At one time, when I found the answer to this question, I could not be what I was before. Maybe some of you, if you seriously think about what I’m going to say now, maybe some of you… can already be different. I'm not saying worse/better, this is a different conversation. To others. But the question is this: do you think that Christ the Savior, when he met a great need, how did he restore hygiene? Why are you silent?

- Like all people... Just like [inaudible] - Like all people, good. It's clear. So, I took toilet paper, soft... Well, it simply wasn’t there then. But she wasn’t there then! How, well, how are all the people?... But I don’t know how it was then, how did you get nettles? No... Or maybe someone has something like this, he also deserves attention... Nettle... -... There was a time... - And how, how did they have it? So I... I ask how... - We washed ourselves... - We washed ourselves, right? Okay... It's great for the desert. I know there are some people who wipe themselves with sand. So... Well, and nevertheless, how do you think? - Maybe with cloth? - Fabric! Very interesting moment! Where did He get it? I bought it specially and tore it into pieces and wiped it off. - Well... Maybe he used old things... - No, well, I... well, that, no, well, then, okay, then another question... Close to this topic. When He had a small need... But rather... or did He not have a small need? Actually, He urinated, no, what do you think? - Well, yes, I urinated... [inaudible] - And now there’s another question. He goes with the apostles. That is, everyone is of the same gender – men. His need... Did he turn away from others or did he not turn away? - No... - Didn’t turn away... - [laughter] - Wonderful! So, you think that He suffered, wanting to be seen, so to speak... Well, if there is something [inaudible] of course, well, in general, in principle... Who said this - a man? Here? Male? The male said... Yeah... Yeah, yeah... - ... In a male company... [Laughter]... Look... - No, no, well, I remember my childhood, I’ll paraphrase, so... with p-p-p... as we said, so... paraphrase. It is necessary in one sea, so that there is no grief. - Ahh... Yes, yes, yes... - Well, we are not women, but it’s easy and simple for us to be... united, at least in one seemingly important matter. And yet, and yet... But I’m serious: do you think he turned away, no? They said no. - [Inaudible] - How? How much...? He was shy!... - Not that he was shy... - No, he wasn’t shy? - Why put it on display... That is... At such a moment... In some way intimate... [laughter] - Well, after all, well, well, is it human, is there a sin in coping with a small need? Shame is a natural reaction to sin. There is no sin - then there is nothing to be ashamed of?!... - No. There’s no shame here... It’s not like shame, but there are certain rules of decency... Well, after all, we’re not animals who do all this in front of each other... [inaudible] - Well, what are “rules of decency”? Here, the words of my grandmother, I speak out loud. He says life after the war was hard. They were hungry and worked until they dropped. It used to be, she says, on a permanent basis... For those who don’t know what it is, she had a permanent one – it’s a chicken coop. Which is constantly... Chickens need to eat and clean every day... She walks every day... There were no days off, no walk-ins, there was nothing. It happened, he says, on a permanent basis, there, a minute is free, there will be time, he says, we used to, he says, look for and sing... We are looking for... The term “we are looking for” - do you know what it is? Well, they take turns crushing each other’s lice. This is how we lived, this was the reality of life! We live poorly now, but then we lived well – there were more lice! So, he says, let’s look and eat! Feel free to crush each other's lice. - Well, here, apparently, everything depends on the circumstances... - On the circumstances... So, that’s it, exactly, I’m sorry, I’m interrupting! Depending on the circumstances. So, here, the norms of decency are the norms of human conventions. Should Christ fulfill human conventions? Shouldn't he be above all this?

-Well, probably... [inaudible, reasoning]... But he went out to preach at thirty, and not earlier... Because those were the rules... Until thirty, no one would listen to you...-

Close, close... Ah... But still, I would like us to think about how Christ relieved himself, how He picked, loved to pick more in the left or right nostril... Well, you and I love... When not everyone sees ... Well, it can be so much fun! Deep thoughts come at this time... Well, you know, well, you remember, you should know.” Notice how blasphemous this sounds!!! Why describe how the Almighty Son of God defecates??? Or how God picks his nose in both nostrils??? Suffice it to say that he was hungry and thirsty, crying, etc. A detailed description of the defecation and urination of Christ, in addition to the wild horse’s blasphemous laughter, can lead to salvation??? I certainly don’t want to go further into details, including that from the sermons of the false priest Vladimir in the God-man Jesus Christ, the deity is dissolved to the point of complete indistinction and that Jesus Christ is neither God nor Man, but something third, something like a centaur - not a horse and not a man, but a man-horse. So is Jesus Christ, according to the version of Archpriest. Golovin, a god-man, not God. But, since this is so, then He is not a man, but half man, half God - a special being. I hope you don't want to listen to these sermons anymore! Merry Christmas!

Among the Tatars among the Russians

Many years ago, Vladimir was predicted that he would become a priest in a church “near the Volga, neither in the city nor in the village, among the Tatars, but among the Russians.” And so it happened. From the 4th to the 6th centuries, before the Bulgars settled in Bolgar, Slavic tribes lived here. The ancestors of the Russians appeared here earlier than the ancestors of the Tatars. Among the Bulgars, among the Suvars (ancestors of the current Chuvash) there were many Christians. Christian Armenians lived in Bolgar. For this reason, its architecture represents a unique combination of Transcaucasian culture and Islamic traditions.

Some time after Vladimir opened a temple here, Muslims began to think about a mosque. But the place for the church was also allocated on the outskirts of the city, and the mosque was not going to be built in the center in order to avoid the creation of religious conflicts on this basis. However, when Muslims came to Vladimir to ask for assistance in building a mosque in the city center, he agreed. Together with him, 200 Orthodox Christians signed the corresponding document. They decided that they did not need the elderly and sick to suffer, like the Orthodox, going to the outskirts to the mosque.

Father from Bulgaria

The fame of the Bulgarian temple has spread far beyond the borders of Tatarstan in recent years. And from all the cities and villages, pilgrim buses hurried to this town, where immediately around the corner they were warmly greeted by the wooden St. Abraham's Church. Pilgrims enter an ancient prayer church, where a radiantly painted vault with an iconostasis, candlesticks, flowers, and a shrine with the relics of the holy martyr Abraham, famous for his many miracles, are in radiant painting. The spiritual conversation of the rector of the church, Archpriest Vladimir Golovin, begins, or rather, the sermon of the priest, for which the Orthodox people were drawn here. In a simple and accessible form, the priest, affectionately addressing his spiritual children, “my dear ones,” speaks about the problems of today’s life, which have fallen like a heavy burden on our shoulders. He does not make great discoveries in his preaching, but only returns people to the origins of the Orthodox faith, filling their hearts with faith in the Divine power of prayers. And while, after the sermon, pilgrims prepare for a personal conversation with the priest in order to receive his wise advice in response to their everyday questions, I had the opportunity to talk with Father Vladimir about his priestly path. And this is what he told me: - On May 22, 1956, my father Valentin, who was fifteen years old at that time, went with his mother and my grandmother Pelageya Ivanovna to her homeland in the Sursky district of the Ulyanovsk region. Here in the village of Surskoye (formerly Promzino) there was an apparition of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and now his miraculous well is located, to which people constantly come and visit. Grandmother spent her childhood here, and she more than once witnessed miracles and healings performed in this holy place. The next flight was still a long way off, and Pelageya Ivanovna and my father decided to take a shortcut on foot past the holy well. It was just the spring holiday of St. Nicholas. However, this was already the time of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church. And therefore, when they approached the holy place, they saw the following picture: the gathered people, among whom were nuns, were praying in the holy place, and the vigilantes and police were dispersing them. The grandmother approached one of the wells with the desire to at least drink holy water and wash herself. After that, she handed my father a mug of water. He took a sip and immediately smelled rot. The well was already old, the lid did not close, and leaves from the trees fell straight into the water and rotted. The authorities did not allow the well to be repaired or cleaned, which is why everything was in disrepair. And the young man, in order to overcome this putrid taste, took a breath of fresh air, throwing his head back. Next to the well, he saw a forked tree, and along it, as if there were sawn branches, and on these saw cuts were images of the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The images were made with such skill that it was impossible to immediately notice them in these cracks. The father realized that some believer did this on purpose so that the persecutors would not see them, otherwise they would immediately destroy these holy images. Shocked by what he saw, he said: “Mom, mom, look how great it’s done!” She asks: “What’s great?” - “Well, look, Nikolai the Pleasant, and here is the Most Holy Theotokos.” - “Where, son, did you see it? Where, dear?” - my grandmother asks again. And he showed her the saw cuts: “Here, here.” The people standing next to the grandmother began to peer with her, but they also saw nothing and again began to ask him to show them the images. And he began to move his finger in irritation: “Yes, there you go. This is the head, this is the hand. But you don’t see anything.” And he hears someone’s voice behind him: “This is necessary! The boy saw such a worthy thing, but we sinners cannot see anything. Glory to You, Lord, for creating such a holy place here! Often in our times Nikolushka works such miracles to strengthen us in faith. Son, cut off these twigs for us as a souvenir!”

The father realized that something was wrong here and got scared. After all, there are vigilantes and police all around. And in those days, any sermon was called obscurantism and people were sent to prison for it. The father pulled the grandmother’s hand: “Mom, let’s quickly get out of here.” Both frightened, they quickly walked away from the well, afraid to even talk to each other. But before they had time to move away a little, someone called out to him from behind: “Son, son!” They turn around, and an unfamiliar woman, all in black, comes up to them and asks: “Son, did you have a wonderful vision of the Most Holy Theotokos and Nicholas, the Pleasant of God, at the well?” The father, frightened, replies: “No, not for me.” But the woman, not paying attention to his objections, continues: “Remember, years will pass, and you will have a son who will stand at the throne of God, and then you will stand at the throne, and then your whole family will serve God.” Having crossed my father, the woman turned and left. She and her grandmother didn’t know what to think. They stood there, confused, and moved on, each thinking in their own way about what had happened. This is how that distant spring day, the holiday of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, became the day of my spiritual birth. It was predicted that I would be born and serve God. But my father lived an ordinary life. After graduating from school, he got married, and on September 6, 1961, his son was born - this is my unworthiness - who was named Vladimir. And looking ahead, I will say that when I developed an interest in serving the Church and a desire to go to study at a seminary, my father was categorically against it and began to actively fight against this desire of mine. But one day he came home looking unusual, moreover, in the festive clothes he wore to church: a black suit, a white shirt, buttoned up with all the buttons, but without a tie. My father sat down on the sofa, called me over and said that he was in church. I was afraid that he had a fight with the priests, thinking that they were encouraging me to go to study at the seminary. And the father says: “I had to go up to Father Gennady Feoktistov and tell him about the incident that happened to me when I was fifteen years old. Now I’ll tell you about it.” (Archpriest Gennady Feoktistov now serves in Samara, in the church in the name of the Three Saints. He is such an amazingly good and pious priest, who is still remembered in Ulyanovsk and is still loved. Of all the priests in the church, he was then the only preacher, carrying the word of God with such love that people cried while listening to his sermons.) My father told me about that wondrous vision at the holy well, about an unfamiliar woman in black who predicted the path of our family. This came as a surprise to me. Having finished his story, the father, in some kind of mental shock from rethinking that incident, continued: “Father Gennady, after my confession, told me this: “If the Lord chooses someone, it will be difficult to fight against His will. Accept the will of God and bless your son. Let him study at the Theological Seminary. That day of St. Nicholas of Spring was not accidental for you and your family.” Father stood up, took the icon of St. Nicholas and blessed me. This is how God’s Wonderworker Nicholas showed his participation in my destiny. And again, looking ahead, I’ll tell you about my father’s future path. When I was sent as a priest to Bolgar, there was no altar boy in the church. After all, there were no young people in the church then. All were old people, and even then one of them was in poor health, the other had poor hearing... What should I do? That’s when I asked my father: “Dad, help me out. Serve as an altar boy for me." He agreed and began to serve at the altar. Later, Archbishop Anastasy of Kazan and Tatarstan ordained him and sent him as a priest to the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, to the church in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with a chapel in the name of St. Nicholas. Imagine, both the Mother of God and Nicholas the Pleasant! Here it is, the fulfillment of that prediction at the holy well, when both the Mother of God and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to him! True, he served in this church only once, because due to my mother’s illness he had to return to Ulyanovsk. Now my father serves in the village of Karlinskoye near Ulyanovsk in the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. If the Lord chooses someone, then he puts him on God’s path and leads him along this path. In my life I had to communicate a lot with priests: both pious and ordinary, those of high righteous life, and those without any special spiritual achievements. But I don’t remember a single one of them who would become a priest by choice. Everyone had one or another calling from God. I was raised with my grandmother, and they didn’t take me to kindergarten. Although she was a believer, she did not teach me to be baptized or to read prayers. Apparently, that was the time then. Grandmother herself always strived to live in the Orthodox way: she kept fasts, went to church, and took communion. There wasn't a day that she didn't say a prayer. She was always covered with a scarf and even slept in it, girdled with a belt. - Baba, why are you doing this? — I once asked her. “We must always be ready for God’s Judgment, whenever the Lord calls to Himself.” And always remember him. Grandma's lamp never went out. She loved to talk, and I loved to listen to her. But she wasn’t talking about God’s things, but about something personal. I often remembered my youth and childhood. She was born in 1905, when they still lived on a private farm and went to church. But with the advent of Soviet power in the villages, the entire peasant way of life began to be disrupted. Then my great-grandmother Marfa Nikolaevna said: “The times of God’s persecution have come, and now destruction will begin in the villages. If you want to stay alive, run away from the villages.” And so it happened. With the onset of famine, the destruction of villages began, and the family, abandoning everything, left for Central Asia. Grandmother often recalled how they bought new clothes for their patronal holidays. -What is a throne? — I asked curiously. - Well, such a holiday is the throne. The throne and that's it. She couldn't explain some of the church words. And everything aroused my interest. And whenever she told me, there was no end to my curiosity: “What is the Gospel?”, “What is Christmas Eve?”... Sometimes she would say: “Oh, what weddings there used to be!” Is it like right now? And they got married! So they always led with crowns and ringing bells. - Bab, what’s it like with crowns? She tried to explain: “Well, wearing crowns is when the priest walks forward, and the young people are wearing crowns behind.” With glory, that is. - What about fame? - Yes, that's it. With glory and that's it. I wanted to know the details. After all, from her stories it turned out that life before was somehow different, somehow extraordinary, more joyful than now. That life had meaning that is now lost. And most importantly, the grandmother lives only in the past, without the present and the future. What is this - her past? And what makes her live it? But the most important thing is that all this past is true. And I should know this. But there was no one to find out. There were no church-going relatives or peers around me. So, with age, the time for spiritual search came. I signed up for one library, another, a third. I surrounded myself with books, reading them, but I couldn’t find the answer. Historical books were closer to my spirit, but I also read atheistic ones with a kind of search. I skipped everything that related to ideology, and read only specific facts concerning the Church. For example, the prophet Moses. Who is he, what did he do? Yes, clearly. What is the Bible? My knowledge about the Church began to expand. This is how the Lord led me with the help of books. In high school, the history teacher began to ask us: “Guys, what do you think you will become? After all, you need to live not just to exist, but to make life bring joy. And for this, each of you must have a goal.” These words simply upset me. There was even some nervousness. My school years are coming to an end, and I still don’t know what I want to become. And then the following happens. When my grandmother took me to church, I always went with great desire. My sister Lyuba and I got up early and didn’t eat or drink, even though we had to travel far and have transfers. Grandma was never late for services, so we arrived at church an hour, an hour and a half before. That is, the grandmother came to the temple first and left last, although she was already seventy years old. I have an indelible impression of how the priest went to confession before the service. And the Lord arranged it so that it was always Father Gennady Feoktistov, who gave a short sermon, mainly about sins. The image of the priest I loved now stood before my eyes: a man of extraordinary kindness, with an extraordinary voice. And he spoke heartfelt words, filled with deep truth, which everyone knew, but for some reason they were silent about it. And the priest called everything by its proper name: that drunkenness is a sin, theft is a sin... And that these are sins not only before people, but also before God. But people, knowing all this, teaching this to their children, for some reason themselves lived differently. But life should only go according to God. I even once told my parents: you are teaching me to live in such a way as to make me unhappy. The mother exclaimed in fright: “What are you saying, Volodya? Where did you get this from? - “You teach me to tell the truth and only the truth. But you know that in life you have to lie without blushing. And if I tell the truth, I will become a laughing stock among people, which means I will be unhappy in life. So you teach me not to steal, and I don’t steal, sincerely believing that this should not be done. But everyone who prospers achieved their wealth only through theft. How then should I live?” These thoughts weighed heavily on me, and I was drawn to church. And although five priests served in our church, the Lord again ruled so that my beloved father Gennady served again that day. He spoke the same words, which made me feel excited again. I stood through the entire service, although I didn’t understand anything about it, then I came again.

So I started going to church, and soon I made friends there: three grandmothers and two grandfathers. They began to give me spiritual books, reading which, I began to understand a lot. I was inspired by the idea of ​​becoming a priest, although I was not yet sure of many things. But I didn’t tell anyone about my doubts, and gradually I became even more convinced that someone must stand firmly for the faith and tell the truth. And if it’s not a priest, not the Church, then there’s no one else to talk to. In addition, I saw many people in tears, in sorrow and sorrow, but there was little joy. After all, someone has to console these grieving people. I firmly decided that I would speak the truth that the Church speaks about, I would console as the Church consoles. This is the meaning of my life. I began to pray differently: now prayer came through my heart. One day my grandmother asked me: “I heard that you started going to church? I’ll go with you today.” We came with her to the service. My shirt was already wet from her close attention. And when they came home, my grandmother said: “Since you pray so fervently, you need to read the Gospel.” Did you see a book in the altar with a copper frame that was being taken out? - Yes. But who will give it to me? - And you come to me sometime. - When? - Well, in a week or two. - No, no, I'll come tomorrow. - Okay, I'll take the Gospel from my neighbor. The next day I ran away from classes and, out of breath from fast walking, came to my grandmother. - Come on, ladies, the Gospel. - Go wash your hands first. This is a holy book. After washing my hands, I sat down. Grandma hands me a book and I put it on my lap. But the grandmother objected: “You’d better put it on the table.” She brought a new towel and spread it under the book. Her reverence rubbed off on me. I started reading with excitement. But since the book was borrowed for a while, I had to read it at a fast pace in order to have time to read as much as possible. And my grandmother, when I stopped reading, continued the story, quoting the Gospel in whole sentences. I ask in surprise: “How do you know this?” “When we were children, they read the Gospel to us on winter evenings.” And the fact that all this was imprinted in her memory for the rest of her life shocked me. When I reached the Commandments of God, I no longer felt with my mind, but with my heart, all their depth. And I thought: when and who else said that? When have I heard of such the power of love? Never... And tears flowed from my eyes. The grandmother looked at me in amazement: her sixteen-year-old grandson began to cry over the book like a small child. But I could not restrain this impulse of penetration into the meaning of what I read. From that moment on, the Gospel became everything to me. One day in church one of the old men said to me: “We want to give you the Gospel, but on the condition that you read it.” I exclaimed passionately: “Yes, yes, I promise!” I opened the gifted Gospel and was immediately confused: it is written in Old Church Slavonic, but I don’t know how to read, no one taught me this. But if I say this, they will take my treasured book back. I could not refuse the Gospel. - Why are you silent? - they asked me. All red with shame and fear, I opened the Gospel of Luke, and there were the words of the Angel to the Virgin Mary: “Rejoice, full of grace! The Lord is with You; Blessed are You among women." Why, I heard these words in the temple! And I continued to read on a hunch. I made a mistake only in one place, my friends corrected me and asked in surprise: “Who taught you to read Old Church Slavonic?” But I firmly decided that I would not lie, and answered: “I don’t know.” - But you can already read, there are no special difficulties for you. Will you continue reading? “Of course, I will continue to read,” I exclaimed joyfully, holding my first holy Book in my hands. At home I read the Gospel in one gulp. This is how I became acquainted with this holy Book, which became my spiritual guide. And when I graduated from school, where to go and who to be was a decided question for me. But life was preparing severe trials for me. The following problem arose: back in school they forced me to join the Komsomol, but I said that I couldn’t because I believe in God. It was an emergency for the entire school. No matter how much they worked on me at the meetings, I firmly said: the charter says that, having become a Komsomol member, I must fight religious prejudices, and for me faith has already become a part of my life. He never became a Komsomol member. The time had come to join the army, and the military registration and enlistment office already knew that I was a believer. For them it was also an emergency. There they decided to knock the Orthodox spirit out of me. They began to put me in a psychiatric hospital, take me under escort, they called my mother and in front of her they began to threaten that they would send me to the front line in Afghanistan or shoot me here. How much my parents had to worry about me then, how many tears they shed. I felt sorry for my parents, but I couldn’t give up on God. These tests continued from spring to spring. And only thanks to the conclusion of a drunken doctor, they discharged me, breathing a sigh of relief that they had finally gotten rid of me. After my release from the army, Father Gennady blessed me to enter the seminary and gave me a recommendation, advising me to discharge and urgently go to Moscow. And indeed, the police came for me again, but my parents replied that I had gone to study, and they didn’t know where. So they never found me, and I successfully entered the Moscow Theological Seminary. It was a blessed time. Now I had the opportunity to plunge headlong into the world of books, into the world of knowledge of Orthodoxy. I wanted to know and embrace everything. After seminary, I became an altar server in Ulyanovsk. I dreamed of being a monk, but the elders did not bless me on this path, predicting that I would be in the world. So I returned home in despair. And when Vladyka John (Snychev) told me that only a married person or a monk can become a priest - and I was not blessed on the monastic path - I asked my father to marry me, even if it was an eighty-year-old old woman - she would die after some time , and I will become a monk. But my father married me to an eighteen-year-old girl, Irina, with whom we live to this day. But then it was as if I was doing her a favor by marrying her out of necessity. And eight months after the wedding, I explained my feelings to her, and all these years we have lived in love and mutual happiness. Soon we will celebrate our silver wedding with my beloved mother. After my marriage, I was ordained a priest, but since there were few churches at that time, naturally there were no vacancies. I was very worried then and decided to look for a place for myself. But where should I go and who is waiting for me there? In despair, I thought: “Oh, if only Mother Maria were in Ulyanovsk...” She was such a wandering nun, a disabled woman, who had the gift of clairvoyance from God. As soon as I thought so, soon, returning from church, I see Mother Maria coming towards me. I ask her: “Mother, how are you here?” She looked at me and smiled: “So you called me!” I said that four years have already passed, I am still an altar boy, and I have a wife and a child. I wanted to serve as a priest, but there were no vacancies. I ask her in despair: “Maybe the Lord won’t let me in?” Is there a place for me as a priest on this earth? “Yes,” she answers. — This place is on the banks of the Volga, between Ulyanovsk and Kazan, neither in the city nor in the village, among the Tatars, but among the Russians. She said this with such a saying and, adding: “And I’m going to Kazan,” she left me. Since then I have never met her. The next day I come to Bishop Panteleimon (now deceased) and ask: “Vladyka, did Mother Maria tell you about me?” - Who is she? - he answers in surprise. - I don’t know this one. Here I think in horror: he has appeared as an impostor! I say: - Forgive me. Can I leave? But Vladyka stopped me, asked me in detail about everything and appointed me to Izhevsk, where I served for five months, then three months in Kazan, and then a year and a half in the Mari Republic. In 1988, the Kazan diocese opened, and I was sent to Bolgar. We had to live in an apartment; there was no church here then, only a prayer house. And then one evening I looked out the window at the road illuminated by the light of a lantern. Just like in the city, I think. What kind of city is there when there is a swamp behind the lamppost? Neither a city, nor a village, on the banks of the Volga, between Ulyanovsk and Kazan, in Tataria, but the population is Russian - I remembered the prophecy of Mother Mary. I wake up my wife and shout joyfully: “Irina, get up, we’ve come home with you!” - What kind of dream did you see? What is our home like? - she asks in surprise. - We’ve finally arrived home. To your place. Do you remember what Mother Maria predicted for me in Ulyanovsk? Look, the Lord led, led us and brought us to our place. So we have to live here. Let's build our house here now. The Lord ordered us to serve here, and we will remain here forever. In 1988, the Holy Abraham Church appeared here, which was transported by the whole world from the neighboring village of Porfilovka and which we are still building. Then I had to learn construction myself. And of course, people supported us. The people here are incredibly kind and sympathetic, people are a treasure, a storehouse of wisdom. Our second son was born here, then a daughter, with whose birth we entered our new home. They settled in, built a garden and a vegetable garden on their 57 acres, and raised various animals. The children have grown up. The eldest son, Anastasy, already serves as a priest in our church, the second son, Kirill, is an altar boy and is preparing to be ordained as a deacon. Both daughters-in-law, Yulia and Alina, also work in the church: one sings in the choir, the other works in the library. Everyone serves in the church with desire. Granddaughter Sofia is already growing up, and daughter Mashenka still helps around the house, but already dreams of becoming a regent, like her mother. And of course, all these years my wife Irina has been tolling me. There was no one to sing in the church choir, and she had to teach herself to sing. And she developed such a wonderful voice that at Orthodox concerts where she performs, the audience does not let her go for a long time. My cousin from Ulyanovsk, after his Muslim wife converted to Orthodoxy and they got married, was ordained and now serves in the village of Three Lakes. The son of my second cousin, Father Sergius Karpukhin, serves as a priest in our church, and she herself is preparing to become a monk. Another cousin, my godson, and my sister’s son, Daniel, are preparing to take the priesthood. The eldest son's matchmaker is preparing for monasticism, and her son also works in the church. This is how the prediction came true when, at the age of fifteen, the Mother of God and Nicholas the Pleasant revealed to my father that the entire Golovin family would serve at the throne of God. Recorded by Lyudmila Zhaleika. Photo from the family archive of Archpriest Vladimir Golovin.

...Over the past year I have had to endure two very difficult losses: my grandson died in an accident and soon, unable to bear this loss, my son died. It was as if the ground had disappeared from under my feet, I had lost the meaning of life, and was tormented by depression. She stood in front of the icon of the Savior and prayed with tears: “Lord, strengthen me! I don’t know how to live further...” And suddenly one day a friend, Margarita, called me, but for some reason she called me not Lyudmila, but Lydia. It turned out she had the wrong number! And she called not me at all, but another friend of hers - she wanted to invite her to go to Bolgar, to see Father Vladimir. And then suddenly I picked up the phone. She had my phone number, but it was written down in a completely different notebook! Neither she nor I knew how this could happen. I happily agreed to go to Bolgar, sensing the will of God in this. Margarita told me that she herself could not walk due to illness, but Father Vladimir literally put her on her feet with his prayer! And here I am near the temple in Bolgars. Priest Vladimir Golovin should arrive soon. And a lot of people are already waiting for him. They came in cars from everywhere. I sat down separately from my group (I didn’t want to talk to anyone - it was so hard for me), and suddenly people who had come to see the priest began to approach me. And they talked about the amazing things that the Lord did through the prayer of Father Vladimir. And then priest Vladimir Golovin arrives. There is a sermon in the church, everyone listens to him with unflagging attention. His simple words reach the heart, and people feel calm from his voice, from his words. And then a personal conversation between the priest and each pilgrim. When it was my turn, I said that I no longer knew how to live, and I wanted to leave journalism. “No, you must stay at your job,” Father Vladimir answered me. “You write with your heart.” I didn’t agree with him in my heart, I decided to do it my own way anyway, but... I never left journalism. They brought me home half-dead. Then I lay flat for two days. And on the third day I felt that my body was filled with strength. I have my life back again! This means that Father Vladimir helped me too. I visited Bolgars three times. I learned many cases of priest Vladimir’s miraculous help to the suffering. The young family had no children. They came to the priest in despair. He advised them to pray to the Mother of God in front of the “Unexpected Joy” and Tikhvin icons, and to read akathists. Then they came to thank the priest - they had a child. One woman’s son returned from the army; he served in Chechnya. And because of stress, I could not integrate into peaceful life, I started drinking heavily. She asked Father Vladimir for advice. He advised her to read the akathist to the Mother of God “The Inexhaustible Chalice” every day. After some time, the son suddenly stopped drinking alcohol. Soon he met a good woman and married her. And having learned about this miraculous healing, other women from that village began to come to the mother’s house and together began to beg for their drinking relatives... A husband and wife arrived and brought their four-year-old son. He is lethargic and painful, and the doctors cannot make a diagnosis. Father Vladimir gave them the following advice: give the baby unction and then immediately get tested by doctors. That’s what they did - doctors immediately determined the cause of the illness, a staphylococcal infection. Father Vladimir told them that from his practice he had noticed: when a child or an adult is unctioned, the illness either goes away completely, or a dormant illness opens up and becomes visible to doctors. Father Vladimir helped many people. It’s not for nothing that the suffering go to him in distant Bolgar!

Lyudmila Zhaleika, Tolyatti

In the story of priest Vladimir Golovin about his spiritual path, Archpriest Gennady Feoktistov, a beloved priest of many Samara residents, is mentioned more than once. That is why we decided, to complete the portrait, to contact Father Gennady, whose voice is very authoritative for us. We asked the cleric of the Church of the Three Saints in Samara, Archpriest Gennady Feoktistov

tell about your meetings with Father Vladimir:
- It was many years ago, in Ulyanovsk. Then Vladimir Golovin was still a school graduate, my spiritual child. Indeed, I sent him to study at the seminary, which I do not regret. He was calm, a believer, and always tried to follow my pastoral advice. I also know his father, now priest Valentin, well. This is a deeply religious person. Now our connection with them has been interrupted, but several years ago Father Valentin came to see me, and we talked with pleasure. I have not heard anything about the fact that today people from all over Russia come to my former spiritual child, Father Vladimir, for spiritual advice and healing. This is a complete surprise for me. But time changes people. I knew him as a young man, and now he is a mature husband, a shepherd. He is a man of good roots. I can only say one thing: their entire family at that time was distinguished by deep faith and devotion to the Church.11/16/2007