Gubkin pilgrims visited the famous Rila Monastery

Giant of the Spirit

Archimandrite Hippolytus (Halin)

April 18, 2022 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of Archimandrite Hippolytus (Khalina; (1928-2002) - the Athonite elder, abbot of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery, “the kindest priest,” according to Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov). The elder’s grave in Rylsky The monastery of the Kursk Metropolis has become a place of pilgrimage for thousands of people from different regions of the country and from abroad.

On the day of the priest’s anniversary - April 18 - in Moscow, in the conference hall of the Danilovskaya Hotel (Bolshoi Starodanilovsky Lane, 5), a presentation of a new book about him - “When Eternity Opens” - will be held. Starts at 17:00.

The evening will include performances by people who knew Father Ippolit and a screening of the film “The Elder” (author - Abbess Nonna (Bagaeva)). The concert program includes a performance by the Moscow Conservatory choir (artistic director - Professor S.S. Kalinin); The special guest of the evening is singer, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Evgenia Smolyaninova.

Father Ippolit belongs to the generation of “former Athonite” monks who participated in the revival of spiritual life in Russia. , monk Grigory (Penknovich), shares his memories of the elder with the readers of the Pravoslavie.ru portal .

“Father showed us a new world”

Archimandrite Hippolytus (Halin)

— Father Gregory, how did Father Hippolyte come into your life?

— I first came to Rylsk as a student at the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University in 1995. I come from North Ossetia (Alania), from the city of Vladikavkaz. I was brought to Rylsk by the wonderful Christian ascetic Aza Georgievna Osipova (now 88 years old), the spiritual daughter of an elder who has the gift of prayer. Father loved and appreciated her. She paved the way from Alanya to Rylsk. There were five of us in one of the first pilgrimage groups from Ossetia, and then thousands went.

The first meeting, of course, was especially memorable. We went up to the priest’s cell, to the unforgettable second floor. The old man’s charm and simplicity struck us immediately, and our hearts melted. From the first minute I accepted and loved him. Father sent us to the refectory with the words: “You will eat love here, not potatoes.” And then there were obediences. For a week we dug up and cleaned a cave near the monastery, in which schema-monks lived in ancient times.

I remember another important meeting. At the monastery, I met a woman from St. Petersburg who addressed her problem to the famous old woman, Blessed Lyubushka Susaninskaya (Lyubov Ivanovna Lazareva, † 1997). Lyubushka told this woman in 1994: “There is a city called Rylsk, where the second Seraphim of Sarov, Hippolytus, lives in the St. Nicholas Monastery. Go there, he will help you." And the father helped her. So the Lord, through the lips of the blessed one, revealed that before me was a bearer of great spiritual gifts. We returned to Ossetia as if on wings - this often happened after communicating with the Rylsk Abba. It was as if they had returned from the heavenly abodes to the sinful earth.

— How did this meeting change your life?

— Before this trip, I visited churches in my homeland in Ossetia and Moscow. I considered myself a believer, but I did not imagine that our Orthodox faith had such depth. I realized this only in the Rila Monastery, when I felt there the spirit of the first centuries of Christianity - love and freedom. Father revealed a new world - this became the main discovery of my life.

Father Hippolytus predicted my monasticism. I can't say that I was happy about this news. After graduating from Moscow State University, I worked as a correspondent for the North Caucasus region of the Moscow news agency. He was involved in covering political events in hot spots. And then he entered the Rila Monastery as a novice and received monastic tonsure from the elder. He also advised me to learn English: “You will need it.” The elder foresaw my life path. Now I lead pilgrims from Russia to the Holy Land, and I need English.

Law of love

Father's simplicity, good nature, openness - the naturalness of a Christian soul

— What main features of the spiritual appearance of Father Hippolytus could you highlight?

- First of all, the simplicity of Christ. This is not only in imitation of the ancient ascetics “the thinness of the vestment.” The simplicity of the priest is the naturalness of a Christian soul, her good nature, openness, lightness. Father was a man of few words and silent. These were the ancient hermit monks who lived in caves far from people. And the priest lived in the midst of the people, but maintained peace and prayer, and could shut himself up in the cell of his heart. His silence is a secret, intimate prayer, Divine contemplation. This is the “language of the future century,” a manifestation of a high level of spiritual perfection.

Possessing genuine humility, Father never showed that he was in any way superior to us. One day he told me in a quiet voice with genuine sadness: “I have been a monk for forty years and have not lived a single day as a monk.” He did not demonstrate his power, neither spiritual nor administrative. As an archimandrite, he rarely wore a cross with decorations or a miter. In a greasy padded jacket and an old cassock, he was sometimes mistaken for a novice.

Father had the love of Christ - the greatest gift that the Lord gives to man. Fulfilling the promise of Christ the Savior - “him who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37) - he accepted everyone, even the most fallen person. People who were simply driven out everywhere: homeless people, drug addicts, harlots, drunkards - he took him in and prayed for everyone. Often he devoted much more personal time to such people than to apparently prosperous people. This was unclear to many. During His earthly life they also said about the Savior: “What is it that He eats and drinks with harlots and tax collectors?”

In addition to the gift of love, he had the patience of Christ. It is no coincidence that the apostolic words are inscribed on his grave cross: “Love is merciful and patient.” To endure for months and even years next to oneself people who are degraded, ungrateful, forever seemingly lost to society, not to denounce them, but to beg them - this is within the power of ascetics who have a special charisma, a special will of the Holy Spirit.

I once said: “Father, how good it is that I met you, not some lawyer.” The elder recognized the main thing - the law of love. About some shepherds he said: “Father, you know, he is not of my spirit, he is a lawyer.” After the death of Father Ippolit, I had to sort through bags of letters sent to him from all over the country and from abroad. These were endless thanks to our beloved priest. Thanks also for financial assistance. And, of course, requests for prayers. Many letters began with the words: “All-merciful father,” “Much-merciful father Hippolytus.”

I remember such a case. One hermitage leader of the Rila Monastery had a turkey with turkey poults. They climbed into the neighboring vegetable garden and trampled onions and carrots. The owner demanded compensation. Having learned about this, Father Hippolyte ordered the turkey and poults to be given to her. The hermitage leader was upset: “I almost hatched them myself, fed them, watered them.” This is a vivid example of the attitude of an elder to his neighbor.

Father often bought sick cows from the local population, and paid for them as if they were healthy. And some would-be sellers believed that they had managed to deceive the “grandfather.” Nun Agafia (Bogatkina) recalled how she was indignant: “Father, what are you doing? This cow is not worth that kind of money, she is a “liter cow”, has no udder at all, and will produce very little milk.” And the elder takes me aside and whispers: “Mother, you don’t understand. I’ll buy a sick cow from her for more than what they’ll accept at the meat processing plant, I’ll help her out, and the owner’s heart will soften.” The words of the Rylsk ascetic are amazing. This is the living gospel. Thus, one who on earth had already become a resident of Heavenly Jerusalem could take care of strangers, sometimes crafty and far from the Church, at the expense of his own monastery.

The period of the elder’s leadership—the 1990s—was very difficult for the country. The first thing the priest did when receiving pilgrims was to send everyone to the refectory, which was open from morning to evening. I have never seen such love as our brothers had anywhere. This is not an achievement of the inhabitants of the monastery - this is the merit of Father Hippolytus, who created an incredibly fertile atmosphere. I remember the pilgrim’s response: “I’ve visited all the monasteries in Europe, but I’ve never seen such a monastery.”

There were no golden domes, but 300-400 people who came to the monastery were fed per day

We didn't have golden domes. Only one cathedral two-story church of St. Nicholas was restored. And the monastery was a millionaire, money flowed like a river. Moreover, Father Ippolit did not look for sponsors. He prayed, and the Lord helped the monastery through people. The father gave to the suffering people; without waiting for a request for help, he was the first to provide it. They asked me: “Where does Father Hippolyte spend his money?” I knew where: they fed 300-400 people a day, restored 5 monasteries, and there were great works of mercy. Father Hippolytus helped all those in need - believers and non-believers. People of different religions came to him, he did not divide them into his own and those of others. This is truly Christian love, which extends to everyone. I don’t know of similar examples in the modern world; this is comparable only to the feat of the righteous John of Kronstadt. The effective love of Christ, combined with incredible meekness and humility, brought great fruits: miracles and healings.

Father had a great gift of consolation. He did not have the gift of speech and was not a preacher in the classical sense. He preached by the example of his own life - this is the most living and effective sermon that can be in the world. Just two words: “Well, father, be patient”, “Lord help you”, “Good health to you”, “Save, Lord” - and a few more phrases were spoken by Father Hippolyte to the man and those who came to him with the greatest burden of sin , with the weight of everyday problems and sorrows, they left refreshed, with radiant faces and an enlightened soul. Sometimes they did not hear anything special from the priest, but the grace of God that rested on him had a transformative effect, sometimes radically changing life. I was amazed by the feeling of extraordinary joy and lightness from communicating with him. I saw how thousands of people approached Father Hippolytus with tears in their eyes, and left him with a smile.

“Who sleeps after Easter? How can you sleep?! Go around the monastery, praise God"

He devoted all his time to people and prayer. It is unknown when he slept. I remember after the Easter service, we, young, tired after the night Liturgy, were getting ready to go to our cells to sleep. And the priest met us and said: “Who sleeps after Easter? How can you sleep?! Go around the monastery and praise God.” And we walked with Easter stichera along the monastery wall with joy, and the fatigue was gone! And we see that the priest has already undressed, leaves his cell in a singlet, with a staff, and goes into the forest. This is the prayer of the righteous! He went into the forest to continue to prayerfully stand before God for all of us.

I knew more than a hundred representatives of organized criminal groups in the North Caucasus, Rostov, who came to Father Ippolit. And many of them left their criminal occupation. Thousands of people were saved in the monastery. Muslims became Christians. I testify to this as an eyewitness. The bandits became meek as lambs. For example, a man who was the right hand of the leader of a criminal group became a teacher at the Faculty of Law. This is what happened in our monastery with its shabby walls and ungilded domes. The “recovery of the lost” took place in our monastery. Those who perished were resurrected to life - earthly and eternal.

His instructions and advice were effective because he proclaimed the will of God - and the Christian soul awakened. One monk recalled his period of becoming a church member: “He took me by the hand - and the world turned upside down.” His simple word was salted by the grace of the Holy Spirit, penetrated deep into the heart and, over time, months and sometimes years later, it sprouted and bore fruit. Therefore, the priest can rightly be called a “schoolmaster to Christ.”

Elder Hippolytus, representative of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery, in the Holy Cinema of Athos. Father Hippolyte sits third from the right

It is surprising that with all his high spiritual gifts, Father Ippolit was an excellent business executive. For many years he restored the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos and was its housekeeper. At home, he raised 15 churches in the Kursk region from the ruins. He founded four monasteries and took part in their construction. These are two monasteries - Holy Dormition male and Epiphany female - in North Ossetia-Alania; Kazan Women's in the Kursk Metropolis and Voskresensky Women's in the Belgorod Metropolis. Father restored the Rila Monastery from ruins and founded five monasteries around it.

His spiritual gaze lovingly embraced all of Russia, the priest understood the importance of its integrity

It is important to note that the priest had large-scale, state-oriented thinking, which is sometimes lacking in modern politicians. His spiritual gaze lovingly embraced all of Russia; he understood the importance of its integrity. He said about Alania that it needs to be in unity with Russia.

These are the main strokes for the portrait of Father Hippolytus. Without them, we will not understand who was next to us. And this is the true disciple and messenger of Christ. The scale of his personality is revealed over the years, we still have not realized it. Many call Father Hippolytus Seraphim of Sarov of the 20th century. And not only because they are fellow countrymen: the priest was born 20 km from the saint’s homeland. They were close in spirit and deeds. Father was also an ascetic of the Mother of God. He spent 17 years on Athos in the inheritance of the Mother of God. The Mother of God appeared to him both on Athos and in Russia.

— How would you characterize the ministry of Father Hippolytus?

“His ministry was multifaceted. First of all, prophetic ministry: the ability of an elder to look into the recesses of the human soul, to see hidden thoughts, but not to expose, but to heal and heal. To fulfill his prophetic ministry, the Lord gave the priest the gift of unique foresight.

Father was also a healer - this is the rarest gift of the Holy Spirit. Every day there were lectures in the monastery, and on Saturdays there were large “readings,” as the elder called them. They were committed not only for the sake of possessed people. Father said: “We are deducted from all infirmities.” All of us who lived in the monastery were present at these lectures.

Imitating St. Nicholas, whom he especially revered, the priest himself was an ambulance. The elder said: “Pray to St. Nicholas. I prayed to him all my life. He won’t leave you either.” He heard mental requests for help. Surprised, they asked him: “How do you hear our calls to you from different places?” The elder answered: “How do I hear? How are you now? That's what I said in simplicity.

“Alanya will be saved by monasteries”

— Father Gregory, you come from Ossetia. What was the influence of Father Hippolyte on the Orthodox life of your small homeland?

— In 1998 (I was a novice then), my father and I walked through the forest to the spring of Seraphim of Sarov. And for the first time he told me the will of the Mother of God that there should be monasteries in Alanya: it is necessary to open the first Alanya monastery on the border with the Muslim world. Father said: “How beautiful it is in your mountains, what good people. All Alanya will be in monasteries.” It seemed incredible; at that time there was not a single monastery in our area. He said that Alanya would be saved only through monasteries.

On the instructions of the elder, I came to Metropolitan Gideon of Stavropol and Vladikavkaz († 2003) to convey the blessing of Archimandrite Hippolyte for the opening of a monastery in Ossetia. Father dedicated it to the Dormition of the Mother of God. Vladyka Gideon joyfully accepted this blessing; he revered the elder and called him a holy man.

Alansky Holy Dormition Monastery is located 50 kilometers from Vladikavkaz in the picturesque Kurtatinsky gorge. This is the highest mountain monastery in Russia. Later, a second one was founded - the Alan Epiphany Convent. The elder accurately determined the location of the founding of the monasteries, without ever having been there. Also, with the blessing of Father Hippolytus, the Assumption Charitable Foundation was created in Ossetia, which provided assistance to spiritual construction - the creation of these two monasteries. It was headed by the elder’s spiritual daughter Natalya Fedorovna Nosova.

Alansky Holy Dormition Monastery

The Alans are the ancestors of the Ossetians; they adopted Christianity from Byzantium at the beginning of the 10th century. Elder Hippolytus cared for his Ossetian flock at a distance of one and a half thousand kilometers. This is a feat of apostolic ministry, created by spirit and prayer. Even the apostles did not have such a thing, that they enlightened the earth without having visited it. This is the greatest miracle.

Since the mid-1990s, the whole of Ossetia has been traveling in an incessant huge stream to the unknown city of Rylsk to receive the blessing and help of Father Ippolit. From bandits to ministers, everyone has been there. Ossetians began to gradually return to the original faith of their ancestors - Orthodoxy. The Mother of God herself and Nicholas the Wonderworker brought our people to the Rila Monastery. Through Father Hippolytus, people discovered the Heavenly Father.

Alania is a small country, Ossetians are the only ancient Christian people in the North Caucasus. It is an outpost in southern Russia; The reliability of its southern borders depends on the situation in Alanya. Alanya must turn into a spiritual stronghold, and the foundation of this fortress was laid by Archimandrite Hippolyte.

He died and came to life, he disappeared and was found

— Please tell us about the cases of insight and miracles of Father Hippolytus.

— A sea of ​​miracles was performed by Father Hippolytus, which I witnessed. These are healings from many terrible diseases, cancer, AIDS, drug addiction. But the greatest miracle that Father Hippolytus performed was the transformation of human souls, the change in an already formed character when a person entered into maturity. He was a drug addict and became a family man and father. He died and came to life, he disappeared and was found. These prodigal children of Christ flocked from all over the country to the Rila Monastery. The elder met them, hugged them with his tired arms and love. He offered a well-fed calf for food and brought it to the Church.

View of the temple of the Alansky Epiphany Convent

One day an Ossetian novice approached the priest and asked: “Father Hippolyte, please pray for my mother Uardi.” She said it and forgot. A few months later a telegram arrives saying that her mother is in serious condition. She approaches the elder, and he, not seeing the telegram, says: “Go home, Wardi, with repentance.” When this novice arrived home, her mother, with tears in her eyes, asked her for forgiveness for all the years of humiliation and insults that her daughter had to endure from her. On her deathbed, Ouardi told her relatives: “Don’t judge anyone and pray to the Lord God.”

There was a similar case in my life. In Vladikavkaz, I had a relative who did not trust the clergy. She considered herself a believer, but did not agree to confess or receive communion, arguing: “What bad have I done in my life? I am sinless because I did only good to people.” I once approached Father Ippolit and said: “I want to complain about Tamara: she is already 94 years old, and she does not want to take communion. How will she go to the Lord? The elder replied: “Well, we must pray, father, we must pray.” Six months later I arrive in Ossetia and find out that Tamara is dying. I come to her house, the left side of her body is paralyzed, and with her right hand she constantly makes the sign of the cross, which she has not done since her youth. She wanted to invite a priest. He asked her: “Tamara, do you feel like a sinner?” She nodded her head, confessed and took communion. In my opinion, Father Hippolytus has the boldness to pray before God so that people do not die without repentance and reconciliation with the Church.

He sent them to the meadow to work, saying: “Angels fly there.” And the sick recovered after this obedience.

There was such a case. Two Germans, residents of the Federal Republic of Germany, came to the monastery for a month. Both had AIDS. Father blessed them to attend church every day, give lectures, and go to the meadow. What is a meadow? Behind the Rila Monastery there is an area of ​​2000 square meters. m, where marshy areas alternate with wooded ones. And Father Hippolytus sent all the pilgrims to the meadow to work: cutting down vines, clearing bushes. He said: “There are angels flying there.” Seraphim of Sarov passed through these places to worship the Kyiv shrines and stayed in our monastery. Father Hippolyte constantly prayed in the meadow and at the healing springs. Even before the revolution, appearances of St. Nicholas at the source consecrated in his honor were repeatedly recorded. The German pilgrims fulfilled the priest’s blessing, and nothing else - that’s all the therapy. Having returned to Germany, we underwent repeated tests: AIDS was not detected. And then a letter came to us from Germany asking us to establish regular bus services to our monastery.

Elder Hippolytus with pilgrims from Ossetia

My relatives live in Moscow. One day they sent a friend to the monastery, the administrator of the Cosmos Hotel; she had cancer. Father said: “You have nothing, go, just pray to God and read the akathist to St. Nicholas.” That's the whole conversation. Upon returning to the capital, she underwent a repeat histology test. The attending physician, holding the latest test results in his hands, asked her: “Where have you been for two days? Congratulations, you have nothing.”

Or such a case. The young man Igor P. was sick with AIDS and hepatitis C. He was thin, with ulcers on his body. With the elder’s blessing, I went to the meadow and received lectures. He couldn't work. Six months later, the tests turned out to be clear for two diseases. Another example: Kirill, he had AIDS, recovered after a year and a half.

Similar miracles are happening now. Today the Rylsk brethren are collecting mountains of notes at the elder’s grave. People know that these notes do not remain in the ground. The elder accepts them and comes before Christ in prayer. Even during the priest’s lifetime, there were cases when people did not even have time to complete their request or send a letter to Rylsk, but they already received help and their problems were resolved.

“A man has as much love as he has wings”

—What teachings of the elder do you especially remember?

The elder’s constant instructions: do not judge, do not be arrogant and endure

— The elder’s constant instructions: not to judge, not to be arrogant, and to endure. Father Hippolyte did not like it when people complained and condemned each other. I recall the words of St. Anthony the Great that there is no greater wickedness under heaven than if someone condemns his neighbor and exalts himself over him. He himself never condemned anyone. People repented of terrible sins to him. Here one pilgrim comes, speaks loudly, without being embarrassed by anyone: “Father, I am a murderer, I killed people,” and he did not say a word of condemnation to him.

Father Hippolyte once said: “How many sins, how many infirmities people have, but the Lord covers everything with His grace.” No matter how serious our sins are, they are a drop in the ocean of God’s Forgiveness. And from the lips of such a person these words were especially convincing.

One day the priest asked a pilgrim: “How many wings does an Angel have?” - "Two wings". - “What about Seraphim?” - "Six". - “How much does a person have?” - “Father, I don’t know.” - “And a person has as much love as he has wings.”

Ambulance

— Please tell us about the elder’s posthumous miracles.

“When the priest passed away, he did not have rigor mortis, and everyone who touched his hand felt its softness. On the ninth day after the repose of the priest, the wooden cross on his grave flowed abundantly with myrrh. The fragrant myrrh was collected in bottles. And on the fortieth day, the sisters of the Kazan monastery founded by Father Ippolit from the village of Bolshegneushevo felt the fragrance, the aroma emanating from the priest’s grave. They took the land with them, and it was still fragrant in their monastery for several days.

Miracles happen at the priest’s grave all the time. A pilgrim from Rostov-on-Don lived in the Pokrovsky skete of the monastery. Outwardly normal, but suddenly he began to go into a frenzy, he destroyed everything around him, attacked the monastery leader, novices, and broke dishes. They tied him up to take him to the monastery. In winter, they laid the priest at the grave wearing only a sweater. He lay there for half an hour, and since then there have been no attacks.

Monument to Archimandrite Hippolytus on the territory of the Maryino sanatorium (palace and park complex of the former Baryatinsky estate).

Sculptor - V.M. Klykov

Not far from the monastery there is a sanatorium of the Administration of the President of Russia - Maryino. The first monument to Father Hippolytus by the famous Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov was erected on its territory. Vyacheslav Mikhailovich deeply revered Elder Hippolytus and called him a great man. He created a tombstone crucifix on the grave of the elder and his last work - a warm monument to Father Hippolytus. We know of several cases of healing from incurable illnesses after praying in front of this monument.

Nowadays, even through the priest’s photograph, people receive first aid. Here's a recent example. For many years now I have been accompanying pilgrimage groups to the Holy Land. Among them are pilgrims from the Russian St. Nicholas Church in Florence. Having learned about the miracles of Elder Hippolytus, they asked to give him a photograph. And I, on their next visit to Jerusalem, presented a photograph that I had once taken myself in the Rila Monastery on the day of the priest’s 70th birthday.

Miracles are associated with this photo, taken on the day of the priest’s 70th birthday. Soon after returning to Italy, in November 2016, one of the pilgrims, Maria Milyukova, was taken to a hospital in Borgo San Lorenzo in serious condition. Leaving the apartment in an ambulance and losing consciousness on the way, she only took a photo of the priest. Even when she was taken on a gurney for an MRI, she held in her hands a photo of a man whom she did not know during her lifetime, but sincerely loved. In a matter of days, to the amazement of the doctors, she began to recover.

These days, 78-year-old Italian Gianpaolo from the city of Vicchio was placed in her ward. The hospital was overcrowded and there were no free beds left. His condition was extremely serious: purulent pneumonia, high fever. There was no hope for recovery. One late evening the old man began to choke, and Maria asked: “Can I attach a photo of a holy man to you?” He agreed, and Maria prayerfully turned to the elder’s help, applying his photograph in a cross shape to the head and chest of the dying man. Soon the patient's breathing was restored and his temperature returned to normal. The head of the hospital department, having learned about what had happened, said: “E successo miracolo” (“A miracle happened here”). At the request of the rector of the Russian St. Nicholas Church in Florence, Archpriest George Blatinsky, Maria handed over a photograph of the elder to the altar.

“It is important to remember that it was in our unmerciful times that such a merciful priest lived.”

— How do the children and admirers of Father Hippolytus strive to tell about the elder, to perpetuate his memory?

— In recent years, a new stage in the veneration of Father Hippolytus has begun. In 2017, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of his repose. Thousands of people came to the monastery to honor his memory. Several programs about the elder were broadcast on federal television channels. Six books are dedicated to him. A collection of memories and testimonies about the priest is being prepared for publication - the Book of Memory. In February of this year, we, children and admirers of the elder, created the Society of zealots of the memory of Archimandrite Hippolytus (Khalin). Thus, we are reviving the old tradition of venerating holy ascetics. On April 18 this year we will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the birth of our dear father.

Speech by the brethren of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery at the annual days of memory of Archimandrite Hippolytus in Moscow. From right to left: monk Gregory, hieromonk Hippolytus, hierodeacon Dosifei

The Lord came into the world to show the way to Heaven and return us to paradise. This path of Christ was shown to us in the 20th century by the faithful disciple and follower of the Savior, Father Hippolytus. It is important that it was in our unmerciful times that such a person lived - a much-merciful priest. By example of his own life, through a silent sermon, he showed how to live in order to be saved. It can be called “one from the ancients,” a spiritual block. A giant of spirit lived on Kursk land. The Lord vouchsafed us to be close to him.

Nadezhda Shelepova talked with monk Grigory (Penknovich)

Pravoslavie.Ru

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Love one another, for the Lord is in all, and have the Father's faith in you. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself. I still have a lot to tell you; but now you cannot contain it. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not speak from Himself, but He will speak whatever He hears, and He will tell you the future. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take from Mine and tell it to you. True; everything you do in secret is obvious to the Lord.

So what if the cross has lost myrrh? What does this have to do with Jesus Christ? All this is nonsense - crosses, peace, churches, fasts... You need to believe and live as Christ lived. That's all.

Biography

Born in 1928 in the village of Subbotino (now Solntsevsky district, Kursk region) into a peasant family.

In his youth, Sergei Khalin entered the Glinsk Hermitage, where his confessor became the Glinsk elder Schema-Archimandrite Andronik (Lukash), a confessor who went through torture and camps, now glorified in the Cathedral of the Glinsk Saints. “Father, you will die, who will be the elder after you?” - a young novice once asked him simply. “Yes, you will be an old man,” answered Father Andronik.

After the closure of the Glinsk Hermitage in the early 1960s, novice Sergius continued his monastic path in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and there he became a cell attendant of the Valaam elder Hieroschemamonk Mikhail (Pitkevich). Here he took monastic vows with the name Hippolytus.

At the end of the 1960s, when there was a threat of the complete disappearance of Russian monasticism on Mount Athos, Ippolit, together with other elders now famous in Russia - Iliy (Nozdrin), Abel (Makedonov) - went to the Holy Mountain.

There he labored for 17 years at the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon, including four years representing Russian monasticism at the Holy Kinot, which governs the Holy Mountain.

In 1991, he returned to Russia and took over the management of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery of the Kursk Diocese, to the revival of which he devoted the last 11 years of his life from ruins.

In the Rylsky Nicholas Monastery, Archimandrite Ippolit became known as the All-Russian Elder; many pilgrims from all over Russia, people of different nationalities, came to him for advice and blessing. Hippolytus blessed and instructed to found monasteries in different parts of Russia.

Hippolytus's foresight amazed many.

Monument on the territory of the Baryatinsky estate

He died on December 17, 2002 in the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery. He was buried on the territory of the monastery.