By the bookshelf. Defender of the holy monastery. The abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, Archimandrite Alypiy. Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov Ivan Mikhailovich)

100th birthday

governor Pskov-Pechersky Monastery Archimandrite Alypius

Archimandrite Alipius (in the world Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov; July 28, 1914, born in the village of Tarchikha, Lobanovskaya volost, Bronnitsky district, Moscow province, Russian Empire- reposed on March 12, 1975 in the Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersk monastery) - clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, archimandrite, icon painter, artist, collector.

From July 28, 1959 to 1975, abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

Savva Yamshchikov and Archimandrite Alipiy. Restorer and abbot.

Hitler's worst mistake was that if he had fought, as he himself said, with the Bolsheviks, perhaps the war would have turned out differently. But he fought with the Russian people, with our people and with their unshakable faith.

Savva Vasilievich Yamshchikov

Savva Vasilievich, you are one of the authors of the wonderful book “Archimandrite Alipiy. Man, artist, warrior, abbot.” It is known that you had quite a time for a long time be near him. Please tell us how you met this wonderful shepherd and man?

In general, in my life I have been lucky enough to meet a lot of amazing people. Mostly these people, of course, are of the older generation - they were my teachers, from whom I studied directly, with whom I communicated for years, decades. With some these meetings were shorter. First of all, these are my university teachers, professors of the pre-revolutionary school. Many of them returned to teach at the university after serving significant sentences in the dungeons of the Gulag.

I will never forget our wonderful professor Viktor Mikhailovich Vasilenko, to whom in 1956 I came to study at the art history department at the university. I came to study, and he had just been released after a ten-year sentence.

These were people of amazing purity of soul and decency. They never complained about the terrible hardships and troubles that befell them, they accepted it as God’s punishment and tried to spend the rest of their lives telling us, the young, about the art that they themselves knew very well.

Then I was lucky enough not at the university, but at home to study for six years with the outstanding Russian art critic Nikolai Petrovich Sychev, who began his work in the pre-revolutionary years. He himself studied with the greatest specialist in Byzantine and Old Russian painting, Professor Ainalov. Sychev, together with our most famous scientist, academician Mikhail Pavlovich Kondakov, traveled for two years to holy places in Italy and Greece and copied many classical examples of painting. He wrote wonderful books on the history of ancient Russian and Macedonian art, and he was also an excellent restorer. When Nikolai Petrovich left the camps in 1944, he was the first to head our department of the All-Russian Restoration Center, which was located in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent on Bolshaya Ordynka. Moreover, he was not allowed to come to Moscow for the whole week, so he lived in Vladimir and came only on Saturday and Sunday to inspect the work of our department. These were brilliant lessons.

None of our teachers succumbed for a minute to the atheistic Moloch who dominated our country. They continued to believe in God and serve God.

In Pskov, where I began to go on business trips as a restorer, I met Sychev’s student Leonid Alekseevich Tvorogov, who studied with him in the post-revolutionary years, and also spent his twenty years in the camps. Worked in the Pskov museum. He was a brilliant expert on Pskov, ancient Russian Pskov literature and icon painting. He was a true patriot of Pskov and always told us: “Stay in Pskov, and you will make a lot of world discoveries. There is an inexhaustible storehouse of materials, documents, and monuments here.” And these years of life and work together with Leonid Alekseevich Tvorogov are also unforgettable for me.

In Pskov, I met our outstanding scientist, researcher, poet Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov, the son of Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilyov and Anna Andreevna Akhmatova. I became friends with him for many years and was one of his students. Lev Nikolaevich is a man who created his own theory and wrote brilliant books that are now reference books for us. He also spent a huge part of his life in dungeons and, again, never complained about it. Lev Nikolaevich taught us not only by passing on his scientific methods, introducing us to his theory, he taught us to live without complaining about fate.

Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov)

And among all my teachers, perhaps the main place belongs to Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov), the abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. It is not surprising that all this is connected with Pskov, since it is my favorite city. I spent more than one year there while on business trips, and now, with God’s help, I go there often. And that’s where I met him. Father invited me to come through one of my acquaintances, a restorer, because he knew about the icon exhibitions that I was doing at that time. He had my albums on ancient Russian painting, a catalog of exhibitions, my articles, and he just wanted to get to know me. And it was, perhaps, one of the most unforgettable meetings in my life.

They always greet you, as they say, by their clothes. Only then, over time, do they begin to get to know the person better. During your first meeting with Father Alypiy, what do you remember about him? appearance What struck you and hasn’t been forgotten to this day?

Right from the first day we met, I saw him amazing eyes, full of kindness: not sugary kindness, but the kindness of a person who went through the war, who knew what the horrors of war are.

Then he told us a lot about his military life. And one day I asked him why he, such a handsome, young, very capable artist, immediately after the war went to a monastery. But he told me: “Savva, it was so scary there! I saw so much death, so much blood that I gave my word - if I survive, I will serve God for the rest of my life and go to a monastery.” When the war ended, he organized an exhibition of his military works in Moscow, in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions. She was popular. He organized an exhibition and immediately left as a monk at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It is necessary to note a special detail - Father Alypiy did not graduate from either theological seminary or the Academy, he went there with obedience in his main profession - the profession of an artist, and became a restorer. He was very warmly received by the Holy Archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and instructed him to lead restoration work in Lavra.

Before that, restoration work there in churches and with painting monuments was carried out by a team led by Academician Igor Grabar, with whom, by the way, Archimandrite Alypiy studied in the pre-war years. But, as the priest later said, this brigade did not work very honestly: they took a lot of money, but the result was not very good. Having looked closely, he turned to his teacher: “Dear teacher! Unfortunately, the results of your work do not meet our requests and our requirements.” And he himself led a team of restorers, and for several years he brought many monuments of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra into order.

You said that between Patriarch Alexy I and Father Alypius there were always warm relations. What do you think connected them? What did Father tell you about His Holiness Alexy?

Archimandrite Alypiy was very close to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I. In Novgorod, he was the cell attendant of Archbishop Arseny (Stadnitsky), later a metropolitan, who did a lot to preserve monuments of ancient icon painting and fresco painting in Novgorod. My teacher Nikolai Sychev, while still young, before the revolution, with the help of Bishop Arseny, created an ecclesiastical and archaeological museum in Novgorod, which became the basis of the brilliant Historical, Artistic and Architectural Novgorod Museum-Reserve.

Patriarch Alexy I treated Father Alypius very warmly. There was another reason - Archimandrite Alypius had an amazing voice and hearing, and musical abilities. The Patriarch loved to concelebrate with him, especially in his courtyard in Peredelkino, in Lukin, where the priest also did a lot to restore the decoration of a small church.

At the end of the fifties, His Holiness the Patriarch instructed Archimandrite Alipius, then still a young monk, to restore the destroyed, but fortunately never closed, Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

As you know, the monastery was badly damaged during the Great Patriotic War. The devastation, as described by eyewitnesses, was terrible. Did you happen to see the monastery in that deplorable state?

Yes. Certainly. I was there for the first time even when Father Alypius had not yet received this monastery under his protection. I saw these dilapidated walls; cows freely passed into the monastery territory through gaps in the wall. But three or four years passed from the moment when Archimandrite Alypiy was there, and I heard that restoration work was going on there. The work was carried out by my Pskov friends, architects and restorers under the guidance of the most famous master Vsevolod Petrovich Smirnov. Father Alypiy took part in the restoration himself - as a designer, he did not hesitate to take a trowel and work on laying out these walls. And when I got there with Vsevolod Petrovich Smirnov, I saw the monastery as some kind of restoration miracle. It was transformed, as if a caring hand had walked along the fortress walls, put the temples in order - they were surprisingly delicately and harmoniously painted, the domes were gilded or painted with appropriate paints. I was simply amazed. But that time I was not able to meet Archimandrite Alypius, and only a year later our meeting took place.

I will tell you an episode from our acquaintance with him. When we were talking, he said, “Where are you from?” I say: “I’m from Paveletskaya Embankment.” "Oh, uh Paveletsky station. “And I,” he says, “grew up in the village of Kishkino, Mikhnevsky district.” And I tell him: “Father, I spent eight years there - my mother and grandmother rented a dacha and lived with the peasants.” He says to me: “Yes, you and I were picking mushrooms in the same forest. Do you remember the big oak there? How many mushrooms did you pick there?” I say: “There were such visits when one day I sat down, crawled, and collected five hundred mushrooms.” Father Alypiy: “Here I am for the same amount. There is such an amazing oak there. Only white ones grow under it.”

This is the kind of person he was - simple, sincere, and immediately endeared you with his openness. Almost ten years life together next to my father became for me one of the main chapters, so to speak, in my life. Everything that I and my fellow colleagues did, we all measured against what Father Alypiy would say, as he would suggest.

Did he often insist on his opinion or wishes? I mean the conversations you had with your priest about faith, about Orthodoxy?

No, what are you! He wasn't intrusive. He didn’t say: “Let’s go to church in the morning...”. His preaching came from within, and he often read these sermons to us on the Holy Hill, or at the table, while drinking tea, or during walks in the vicinity of the monastery. Of course, we accepted and went to services, but on major holidays, when tens of thousands of people gathered there, he had no time for us, because he was very busy. But we saw him on these holidays, especially on the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, on the patronal feast of the monastery - and that was already enough. You should have seen his enlightened face!

In general, he was a servant of the Mother of God. Our Lady was everything in his life. It was not for nothing that when he was dying, Archimandrite Agafangel, one of his most interesting companions, wrote in his farewell speech that when Father Alypius was dying, last words his were the following: “Here She is, here She is. I see Her, the Mother of God. Give me a pencil and paper! And he began to make a sketch and died with a pencil in his hand, trying to capture the moment the Virgin Mary appeared to him.

You said that Father Alypiy had the gift of a restorer and an artist. Is this a profession, after all, of the kind of high aesthetics, is it far from those economic problems that Father Alypius had to solve as a governor? Did he succeed in this combination?

Still would! He did everything, delved into everything, and everything worked out great for him. I saw this myself. Archimandrite Alypius was generally a universal person; he could do everything. He was an artist, he was a builder, he was a poet, he was, first of all, a preacher, he was the caretaker of an entire monastic brethren. He was a business manager - every tree and bush planted there, from the rose garden to the centuries-old trees - all of this was under his supervision.

I will never forget one incident. He and I were walking through the monastery, and there, on the slope from St. Michael’s Cathedral, a monk was mowing the grass, and suddenly (and the priest was a very temperamental person), Father Alypiy ran up sharply to this monk, raised his fists to the sky and began to frantically shout at him: “ What are you doing! What are you doing! Who allowed you to do this?!” The monk actually dropped his scythe out of fright. I then asked him: “Father, what did he do, why would you do this to him...?” “Yes, there are oak trees that I brought from Mikhailovsky, from the Pushkin estate and planted, they have been growing for the second year, and he mows them down! For me, this is the same thing as killing a child!”

Or, say, those famous pyramids made of sawn and split firewood. How carefully they laid out their efforts, and this process was personally monitored by Father Alypiy. You know, when logs are stacked on top of each other, the entire structure gradually rises up, and one log is placed at the very top. The wood is being properly dried and ventilated at the same time. It was so beautiful! Father himself made amazing pickles of cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms - he also did this himself. Cucumbers in general were famous not only in the monastery. Cucumbers were salted in the following way: in the fall they were lowered on a rope in a barrel into the river that flowed through the monastery, and the cucumbers were freshly salted and lightly salted until spring. The then Pskov party leadership sent to the monastery for a barrel of cucumbers on May 1 or Victory Day to hold ceremonial receptions. He also salted the tomatoes. When was mushroom time, local residents picked mushrooms and brought them to the monastery, and Father Alypius himself bought and took them from them. I will never forget these porcini mushrooms that were literally amber in color. I've never tried anything like this again in my life. He did all this himself.

One day we were sitting with him in the evening, having tea, it was already quite late - we sat for a long time: firstly, he talked a lot, and secondly, it was interesting to listen. There was no time for sleep. And suddenly Father Theodorit comes - he was a paramedic and beekeeper in the monastery - and says: “Father, your favorite cow is there, something incomprehensible is happening to her - some kind of writhing, pain.” Father Alypiy says: “Well, Savva, let’s go and have a look.” We came to the barn, he began to feel her, and then he said: “Savva, you go away, you weren’t in the war, now Father Theodorit and I will perform an operation on her - she swallowed something.” And literally an hour later he came back happy and said: “Everything is fine, we gave her anesthesia, cut her belly, she ends up in the pasture swallowing a can of canned food. We got it out of her, and the day after tomorrow she will be on the mend.”

You can’t help but be amazed at the talents of this shepherd! Father Alypius, indeed, as you said, can be called a universal man. But still, restoration work remained his favorite activity - right?

Yes this is true. Father Alypius, using his skills as a restorer to the fullest, simply resurrected the monastery from the ruins. Before my eyes, a complete restoration of the monastery took place. He used me and my friends and colleagues to restore monuments and icons. And we gladly responded to his requests. I remember one sad story related to this. You will understand later why she is sad. Case One summer day he says: “Savva, let’s go to the Assumption Cave Cathedral, there behind the iconostasis (the iconostasis of huge icons was late - the beginning of the 20th century), it seems to me - there should be frescoes there from the 16th century. When the temple was being built, perhaps the Venerable Martyr Cornelius himself even wrote them.”

The Venerable Martyr Cornelius is one of the founders of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, whose head Ivan the Terrible cut off in anger, and then, repenting, he himself carried the lifeless body along the road to the St. Nicholas Church, and this road is still called the Bloody Road. St. Cornelius himself wrote icons and copied books, and there, in the temple, according to the priest, there should be frescoes. It was a sunny Sunday and I didn’t really want to work. I say: “Father, if you take out these icons there, they weigh a hundred kilograms.” And he says: “Everything has already been taken out - your job is to take the solvents and go.” I took a basic cleaning agent, came there - and there was already a stepladder there. “Here, let’s rinse at a height slightly higher than human height,” says the priest. He had already calculated everything in advance. And there, behind the icons, there is such a layer of dirt and soot that nothing, no frescoes, are visible.

When I washed the first window, a magnificent 16th-century fresco face of St. Savva the Sanctified was revealed. Father Alypiy says: “Although he is not your namesake (my namesake is Savva Vishersky), but still Savva. There will be eight huge figures here - taller than human height." “Okay,” I say, “father, I’ll go to Moscow, take my colleague to help, and we’ll restore it.” And he says: “No, no Moscow - you’re under arrest. Call Kirill in Moscow so that he can come urgently.” And so he didn’t let us go here for ten days, until we washed all the frescoes, and until the amazing ancient Russian beauty was revealed. And the priest had already arranged everything: they installed doors to the deacon, Kirill painted icons in the style of the 19th century, and surrounded the place with a metal fence. It was joy. Archimandrite Alypiy immediately published his discovery in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate; he instructed me to publish it in the magazine of decorative arts, then in an album about Pskov. And then he once told me: “Savva, look at the frescoes for now, if I die, they will kill me again.” I say: “Father, what are you saying, this is unique, this is what Saint Cornelius wrote, this is like relics, like the flow of myrrh.” A month after his death, in 1975, the icons were put in place, and for thirty years now we have been fighting to get it open again. And I cared a lot about this, and I tell the clergy about this.

Some time after this incident, Kirill, my friend, became interested in enamels in the Byzantine style: he restored the technique of their production, since we had a kiln in our workshop. Everything was done according to Byzantine models - and it was not some kind of hack work. Kirill's processing principle was completely restored. When we showed the first samples to the priest, he said: “We need these enamel icons to be embedded in the wall of the monastery.” We first made a small icon for the St. Nicholas Church: it was placed and solemnly consecrated. Then they made a large icon in front of the entrance, above the holy gates of the Assumption. It took us a long time to make these icons—it took us a whole year. Then they made the Mother of God Hodegetria where St. Nicholas Church and the Bloody Road are.

Father Alypiy received great pleasure from our work - we saw and felt this. And then one day Kirill and I arrived at the monastery, we looked, and not a single icon of ours was there. The priest had a decisive character. We think: “So I looked at it, didn’t like it and removed it.” We come to his chambers. The cell attendant met us. At this time the priest was changing his clothes. We look - Nikola is hanging in the red corner with a lamp - he didn’t reject it. He comes out and says: “Well, did you miss your enamels?.. The story is completely paradoxical. The delegation arrived Orthodox priests, I think from America, we looked at these enamels, then we went to Moscow. And at the reception His Holiness Patriarch Pimen, they said: “You have Archimandrite Alypius, a billionaire, he has Byzantine enamels, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at world auctions, just embedded in the wall.” The priests took them for real Byzantine enamels. Pimen immediately called His Holiness and told them to remove it. Alypiy began to explain to him, but he didn’t care: “No, that’s not necessary.”

These enamels were removed, and after the death of Father Alypius they were lost. Archimandrite Zinon only preserved Nikola.

It is known that Father Alypiy took a tough position in relations with the authorities. Some government officials were even afraid of him. Have you witnessed such relationships?

He was generally very good at finding a common language with the authorities. He found a common language, first of all, in the fact that he did not allow the only monastery in the Soviet Union to be closed when the wholesale destruction of churches by the robber Khrushchev was underway. When representatives of the authorities came to the priest, he told them: “Look at the monastery - what a deployment here, tanks will not get through here, half of my brothers are front-line soldiers, we are armed, we will fight to the last bullet, you can only take us out of the sky with aviation. And as soon as the first plane appears over the monastery, in a few minutes the whole world will be told about it on the Voice of America and the BBC.

He had a good relationship with the first secretary of the Pskov regional party committee, Ivan Stepanovich Gustov, by the way, a very decent person.

Father Alypius always did everything for the good of the monastery. Of course, they found fault with him, and there were frequent trials. “Where did you buy the timber? It's stolen." And the priest answered: “Do we have shops? I would buy it in a store with pleasure.” “Where do you get incense?” — he was constantly pestered with such claims. He said: “Savva, if you write my hagiographic icon, be sure to write the brands: twenty-five ships that I won.” So he was joking.

All of Russia came to see him. Ivan Semenovich Kozlovsky constantly visited all the holidays - our wonderful singer, and artists, and writers, and bosses went to see him - I saw the chairman of the Council of Ministers and our cosmonauts there. People came to see him, and he knew how to talk to everyone. But the main thing for him was service to God, he never forgot about it, and this did not become a wall for those who came, and thus he, like a catcher human souls, has succeeded more than anyone else in converting people far from God to our great Orthodox faith.

The book you published about Father Alipia talks about his most important ministry - the ministry of a shepherd who leads people to God. Please tell us about this?

I know, I saw that Archimandrite Alypius opened the eyes of many people to the world again. You can read all this in our book. He gave many the joy of communicating with God. How many underground artists came to Father Alypius and abandoned their demonic activities and turned to real realistic painting. Such an example is given in the book in the memoirs of Father Sergius Simakov. Father Sergius was also an underground artist, he came with his father, saw Archimandrite Alypiy, talked with him and began to paint pictures on a religious theme, and not only began to paint pictures, but became a priest, rector of a church near Uglich. Last year, his mother, who shared his obedience with him, died, and he now accepted monasticism - he became Hieromonk Raphael and paints magnificent paintings related to Russian history, to the history of the Russian Church. And there are many such examples.

The task of those who participated in the creation of this book is to glorify the name of Archimandrite Alypius. Vladimir Aleksandrovich Studenikin is one of the creators of the book, a churchgoer, he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy, and practiced during the summer holidays at the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. Father Alypiy loved him very much and trusted him to lead excursions. Volodya also learned antiques - Father Alypiy instilled in him this taste of a good collector. Vladimir is now one of the real, good collectors, he has an antique store on Prechistenka “Orthodox-Antik”. Two years ago Volodya came to me and said: “Savva, I’ll give you money, we must definitely publish a book in memory of the priest.” We first conceived it as a memoir, and then, when the book was already ready and was in the printing house, they gave me the manuscript of Andrei Ponomarev, a talented young historian who wrote a magnificent chronicle of the life of Archimandrite Alypius, and at the same time Volodya caught it on the Internet. I called him from Pskov, offered to publish excerpts from the manuscript in a book, and he told me: “We won’t count the money, we’ll publish it in full.” And this publication, I believe, is superbly maintained from the ecclesiastical side, and most importantly, it is a wonderful tribute to the memory of Archimandrite Alypius. We hope that after the book is published, there will be other people who will remember something about Father Alipia, and we will continue to perpetuate the memory of our father, who helps us live now. In our prayers we always turn to his bright image, we always remember him and always re-read his sermons, which are spoken not in official language, but in the language of an enlightened, intelligent man, and at the same time, of simple origin, from a peasant family.

People like Father Alypiy are gradually becoming less and less in our lives. There are few lamps that illuminate and sanctify our lives. More and more of the evil spirits rushing towards us that you spoke about. What can we do?

This evil spirit, this grief that has befallen our Motherland - everyone knows about it and everyone sees it. And we must fight this. Everyone must fight in their place. Don't give in, because they are demons. And the Lord was tempted by the devil, and we are mere mortals, they knock on us all the time and knock with their hooves. What to do? Pray, work and believe.

You know, I believe that all this evil spirits that rushed towards us, into our lives, is a phenomenon of troubled times, it will all pass. And what our people did, defeating fascism, not allowing us to conquer our Motherland - the exploits of people like Archimandrite Alypiy and millions of our soldiers and officers - their exploits will never be forgotten.

Hitler’s worst mistake, our emigrants also said this, and our wonderful thinker Ivan Ilyin wrote about this superbly, that if he had fought, as he himself said, with the Bolsheviks, perhaps the war would have turned out differently. But he fought with the Russian people, with our people and with their unshakable faith. Therefore, this war of his was doomed to defeat in advance thanks to people like Archimandrite Alypius.

Having gone through the entire war from 1942 to Berlin, he became a monk. Already as abbot of one of the last unclosed Russian monasteries, he gave battle to a many times superior enemy. He gave battle and won. The heroes of Die Hard are funny boys compared to the Russian knight in black clothes.
Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov, the future archimandrite and icon painter, was born in 1914 to a poor peasant family in the village of Torchikha, Moscow province. At the end rural school in 1926 he moved to live and study in Moscow with his father and older brother. After finishing his nine-year school, he lived in the village for two years, caring for his sick mother. In 1932 he began working at Metrostroy and studied at the evening studio at the Moscow Union of Artists. And in 1936, Voronov entered the art studio organized by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, which in those years was equivalent to the Academy of Arts. That same year, Voronov was drafted into the Red Army, where he served for two years. During this time, Ivan carried out big job on organizing art circles and art studios during military units Moscow Military District.
After being demobilized in 1938, Ivan Voronov got a job as a dispatcher and forwarder at the secret military plant No. 58 named after. K. Voroshilov (now JSC Impulse, on Mira Avenue). Here he met the Great Patriotic War. The plant produced bombs needed by the front. But when the front line approached the capital, the factory management tried to evacuate in panic using official vehicles. The flight of leaders beyond the Urals, away from the war, was a common occurrence in the fall of 1941. But Voronov had the courage not to succumb to the general panic. The young dispatcher did not allow the factory vehicles to be used for the escape of his superiors, but used them to send bombs to the front.
Worried about the fate of his sick mother, Voronov went to his native village for several days, and when he returned to the capital, he found the plant abandoned. The bosses ran away after all! But there were workers on the ground, with whom Voronov decided to resume bomb production. Production was carried out at risk to life. The Germans were bombing Moscow, and any hit on the plant could turn it into a mass grave. But the production of bombs did not stop for a minute; malnourished and sleep-deprived workers exceeded the daily production quota by 300%. As Archimandrite Alypiy himself recalled, “our military plant was like a front, and we never left the factory.”
Ivan Voronov was called to the front on February 21, 1942. He went to war not only with a machine gun, but also with a sketchbook of paints.
Moving along the front line, he managed to restore the icons to local residents and fed the entire unit with the products that local residents gave him for restoring the icons.
At the front, Ivan Voronov created several sketches and paintings, several albums of “combat episodes.” Already in 1943, the master’s front-line works were exhibited in several museums of the USSR.
The command encouraged “cultural and educational work among the personnel of the unit”, which was carried out by the artist, and noted the skillful execution of tasks “to generalize combat experience and party political work." “All the work performed by Comrade Voronov is of the nature of creativity and novelty. In a combat situation he behaved boldly and courageously.”
Ivan Voronov traveled from Moscow to Berlin as part of the Fourth tank army. He took part in many military operations on the Central, Western, Bryansk and First Ukrainian fronts. God protected the future archimandrite; he did not receive a single injury or concussion. For his participation in battles, Voronov was awarded medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For Victory over Germany”, “For the Capture of Berlin”, “For the Liberation of Prague”, and the Order of the Red Star. In total, the artist-soldier received 76 military awards and encouragements.
The war left an indelible mark on the soul of Ivan Voronov: “The war was so terrible that I gave my word to God that if I survive this terrible battle, I will definitely go to a monastery.” Having become monk Alipius, archimandrite of the Pskov-Pechora monastery, in his sermons he repeatedly turned to military topics, often recalling the war: “I often went on night watches and prayed to God that we would not meet enemy scouts, so that no one would be slaughtered.”
Ivan Mikhailovich returned from the war famous artist. But the career of a secular painter did not attract him. “In 1948, while working plein air in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, I was captivated by the beauty and originality of this place, first as an artist, and then as a resident of the Lavra, and decided to devote myself to serving the Lavra forever.”
For admission to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra birth mother blessed the icon of the Mother of God “Quench my sorrows,” saying: “Mother of God, let him be carefree.” And he saw his mother’s blessing as effective. During tonsure, when it was necessary to determine his monastic name, the governor of the Lavra looked at the Calendar; the closest name for him to be the birthday boy turned out to be “Alipy”, the name of the Monk Alypy, the famous icon painter, who was educated by the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. After his tonsure, Father Alypius himself looked at the Calendar and read the translation of his new name: “carefree.” Therefore, when representatives of the authorities tried to intimidate him over the phone, he replied: “Please note that I, Alypiy, am carefree.” And as his heavenly patron, Father Alypius was also an icon painter.
He did not have a separate cell. The governor of the Lavra showed him a place in the corridor with the condition that if Father Alypius made himself a cell in this corridor by morning in one night, then the cell would be his. Father Alypiy replied: “Bless me.” And in one night he made partitions, lined the fenced-off cell inside with splinters, plastered it, whitewashed it, installed the floor, and painted it. And in the morning, the governor of the Lavra was extremely surprised when he came to Father Alypiy and saw him in his new cell at the table with a hot samovar.
Soon he was awarded the priesthood, and in 1959 he was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Alypiy held this responsible post from 1959 to 1975.
A very difficult task fell on his shoulders: not only to restore the shrines and antiquities of the famous Pskov-Pechersk monastery. But another task was even more difficult - to protect the monastery from being closed by the authorities.
Soviet times in general were a time of severe restrictions on all freedoms, including freedom of religion. Hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of priests, monks and bishops, were executed by the authorities only for faith and loyalty to God. Thousands of temples were destroyed, the rest were closed: even in major cities The authorities tried to leave only one Orthodox church open.
The war forced the authorities to ease pressure on the Church and open some churches. But Khrushchev began new round fight against the Church. He promised to show the last priest on TV. That is, I was anticipating modern times, when television will replace God for people, and hoped to live to see them.
Here are the headlines of central and local publications of that time: “Pskov-Pechersky Monastery - a hotbed of religious obscurantism”, “Hallelujah squatting”, “Freeloaders in cassocks”, “Hypocrites in cassocks”. It was very difficult to resist the slander; it was even more difficult to preserve the monastery. In reports addressed to Metropolitan John of Pskov and Velikoluksky, Archimandrite Alypiy emphasized: “Newspaper articles filled with undeserved insults and slander against honest, kind and good people, insults to the mothers and widows of dead soldiers - this is their “ideological struggle” - the expulsion of hundreds and thousands of priests and clergy, and the best ones at that. How many of them come to us with tears that they cannot get even a secular job anywhere, their wives and children have nothing to live on.”
What could one monk oppose to the apparatus of suppression of omnipotent power? He only had one weapon. But the most strong weapon- word!
The courage of his words is striking even when viewed from our liberal times. How amazing this bold and firm word sounded then! When they said to him: “Father, you can be imprisoned...”, he answered: “They will not imprison me, I will imprison them myself. There is no guilt on me." Even during the war, he learned that the best defense is an offensive.
Here are just a few examples showing how Alypiy repelled the attacks of the authorities. Some of the stories were told by monks, some became the property of popular rumor and were told by the Pecheryans.

State beggars

Archimandrite Alypius, being the governor, could answer anyone with a sharp word. The city authorities once called him:
- Why can’t you put things in order? After all, you have beggars in the monastery!
“Forgive me,” Father Alypiy answers, “but the beggars are not with me, but with you.”
- How is it with us?
- It’s very simple. The land, if you remember, was taken from the monastery at the Holy Gate. The beggars stand on which side of the gate, on the outside or on the inside?
- From the outside.
- So I say that you have them. And in my monastery all the brethren are watered, fed, clothed and shod. And if you really don’t like beggars so much, then you pay them a pension of 500 rubles. And if after that someone asks for alms, I think that person can be punished according to the law. But I have no beggars.

Interview for Science and Religion

In the late sixties, two journalists from Science and Religion tried to conduct a revealing interview with Alypiy.
-Who feeds you? - they asked.
He pointed to the old women. They didn't understand. Alypiy explained:
— One of them had two sons who did not return from the war, the other had four. And they came to us to dispel their grief.
“Aren’t you ashamed to look into the eyes of the people?” - another question.
- So we are the people. Sixteen monks were participants in the war, including me. And if necessary, put your feet in boots, cap on your head: “I appeared on your orders”...

Prayer for rain

In summer, drought came to the Pskov region. Alypiy asked the district committee for permission to procession to Pskov to pray for rain.
- What if it doesn’t rain? - asked the official.
“Then my head will fly,” answered Alypiy.
- What if it happens?
- Then it’s yours.
The religious procession to Pskov was not allowed. The monks prayed for rain in the monastery, and the district committee workers sneered:
“You’re praying, but it’s not raining!”
“If you had prayed, it would definitely rain,” Alypius thundered.
After the monks held a religious procession inside the monastery, the rains began to fall. Although according to forecasts, the clouds were heading in the other direction.

Protection with horns

The Pechersk authorities caused harm in small ways. One summer the chairman of the city executive committee sent a letter saying that the monastery's cattle were prohibited from leaving the monastery gates. In a response letter, the abbot warned that then “the monastic herd will force out tourists, and the bull will gore the guides who photograph the monks and bring a company of soldiers in caps into the temple at the most crucial moments of the service.”
No sooner said than done. Several dozen cows filled the monastery square, displacing tourists. And when a representative of the authorities tried to disperse the cows, the bull - the monks themselves were surprised - drove him into a tree and kept him there until seven in the evening.
The cows celebrated their victory in the pasture.

Elections in Pechersky style

IN Soviet time everyone had to take part in the elections. Not excluding the monks of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Usually the box was brought directly to the monastery, where the voting ceremony took place. But the new secretary of the regional committee, outraged by the honor inappropriate for the Chernets, ordered to “stop the disgrace.” “Let them come and vote themselves.”
“Wonderful,” said Archimandrite Alypiy, the abbot of the monastery, upon learning about this. And then Sunday came, the long-awaited election day. After the liturgy and fraternal meal, the monks lined up in twos and, with spiritual chants, went through the entire city to the polling station. One can imagine the state of peaceful Soviet citizens who observed such a spectacle. When, to top it all off, the monks began to serve a prayer service right at the polling station, officials tried to protest. “It’s how it’s supposed to be with us,” answered Father Alypiy. Having voted, the monks just as decorously returned through the whole city to the monastery. Later, the ballot box began to be brought back to its place.

Blessing for communists

One day, two regional financial officials arrived at the monastery to check the income. Alypius asked them:
-Who authorized you?
They didn't have the order on paper.
- We have been empowered by the people!
“Then at tomorrow’s service we will ask you to go to the pulpit and ask the people whether they authorized you,” suggested Alypius.
- We have been authorized by the party! — the inspectors clarified.
— How many people are in your party?
- 20 million.
— And in our Church there are 50 million. The minority cannot dictate to the majority.
The next time, financial workers came with an order. Alypius answered them that, despite the order, he could authorize an inspection only with the blessing of the bishop of the diocese. Then they contacted the bishop of the diocese and received a “blessing.”
-Are you communists? - Alypius asked them.
- How could you, communists, take a blessing from a clergyman? I’ll call the regional party committee now, they’ll kick you out of the party tomorrow.
These “comrades” never came again.

Russian Ivan

Axe

Sometimes the enemy forced Alypius to resort to truly “black” humor. They say that when representatives of the authorities came to him for the keys to the caves in which the relics of the holy founders and brothers of the monastery lie, he met blasphemers with military orders and medals and shouted menacingly to the cell attendant:
- Father Cornelius, bring the ax, now we will chop off their heads!
It must have been very scary - they ran away so quickly and irrevocably.

Monastic plague

Before the arrival of the next state commission to close the monastery, Archimandrite Alypius posted a notice on the Holy Gates that there was a plague in the monastery and because of this he could not allow the commission into the territory of the monastery. The commission was headed by the chairman of the Culture Committee A.I. Medvedeva. It was to her that Father Alypiy addressed:
— I don’t feel sorry for my monks, fools, because they are still registered in the Kingdom of Heaven. But I can’t let you, Anna Ivanovna, and your bosses in. I can’t even find the words to answer for you and your bosses at the Last Judgment. So forgive me, I won’t open the gates for you.
And he himself is in Once again on the plane and to Moscow. And again to work hard, beat the thresholds, and once again win.

Attempt to close the monastery

But probably the most difficult moment for Father Alypius came when they came with a signed order to close the monastery. It was no longer possible to laugh it off here. Alypius threw the document into the fireplace and said that he was ready to accept martyrdom, but would not close the monastery.
— Was it really that easy to defend the monastery? - we asked oldest resident monastery, Archimandrite Nathanael, who remembered these events well.
- "Just"? “In everything you need to see the help of the Mother of God,” the elder answered sternly, with unshakable faith. - How could we have defended without her...
Thanks to Alipiy Voronov, the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery is the only Russian monastery that has never been closed. He invested a lot of effort and money into reviving the fortress walls and towers, gilding the large dome of St. Michael's Cathedral, and organizing an icon-painting workshop. In 1968, through the efforts of Fr. Alypiy announced an all-Union search for the valuables of the sacristy of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, taken away by the fascist occupiers in 1944. Five years later, monastery utensils were found. In 1973, representatives of the German consulate in Leningrad transferred their monastery.
Fr. is gone. Alypia March 12, 1975. Sixty-one years of earthly life, of which 25 years were monastic life.

Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov, the future archimandrite and icon painter, was born in 1914 to a poor peasant family in the village of Torchikha, Moscow province. After graduating from rural school in 1926, he moved to live and study in Moscow with his father and older brother. After finishing his nine-year school, he lived in the village for two years, caring for his sick mother. In 1932 he began working at Metrostroy and studied at the evening studio at the Moscow Union of Artists. And in 1936, Voronov entered the art studio organized by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, which in those years was equivalent to the Academy of Arts. That same year, Voronov was drafted into the Red Army, where he served for two years. During this time, Ivan did a lot of work on organizing art circles and art studios at military units of the Moscow Military District.

After being demobilized in 1938, Ivan Voronov got a job as a dispatcher and forwarder at the secret military plant No. 58 named after. K.Voroshilov (now JSC Impulse, on Mira Avenue). Here he met the Great Patriotic War. The plant produced bombs needed by the front. But when the front line approached the capital, the factory management tried to evacuate in panic using official vehicles. The flight of leaders beyond the Urals, away from the war, was a common occurrence in the fall of 1941. But Voronov had the courage not to succumb to the general panic. The young dispatcher did not allow the factory vehicles to be used for the escape of his superiors, but used them to send bombs to the front.

Worried about the fate of his sick mother, Voronov went to his native village for several days, and when he returned to the capital, he found the plant abandoned. The bosses ran away after all! But there were workers on the ground, with whom Voronov decided to resume bomb production. Production was carried out at risk to life. The Germans were bombing Moscow, and any hit on the plant could turn it into a mass grave. But the production of bombs did not stop for a minute; malnourished and sleep-deprived workers exceeded the daily production quota by 300%. As Archimandrite Alypiy himself recalled, “our military plant was like a front, and we never left the factory.”

Ivan Voronov was called to the front on February 21, 1942. He went to war not only with a machine gun, but also with a sketchbook of paints.

Moving along the front line, he managed to restore the icons to local residents and fed the entire unit with the products that local residents gave him for restoring the icons.

At the front, Ivan Voronov created several sketches and paintings, several albums of “combat episodes.” Already in 1943, the master’s front-line works were exhibited in several museums of the USSR.

The command encouraged “cultural and educational work among the unit’s personnel,” which was carried out by the artist, and noted the skillful execution of tasks “to summarize combat experience and party-political work.” “All the work performed by Comrade Voronov is of the nature of creativity and novelty. In a combat situation he behaved boldly and courageously.”

The war left an indelible mark on the soul of Ivan Voronov: “The war was so terrible that I gave my word to God that if I survive this terrible battle, I will definitely go to a monastery.” Having become monk Alipius, archimandrite of the Pskov-Pechora monastery, in his sermons he repeatedly turned to military topics, often recalling the war: “I often went on night watches and prayed to God that we would not meet enemy scouts, so that no one would be slaughtered.”

Ivan Mikhailovich returned from the war as a famous artist. But the career of a secular painter did not attract him. “In 1948, while working plein air in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, I was captivated by the beauty and originality of this place, first as an artist, and then as a resident of the Lavra, and decided to devote myself to serving the Lavra forever.”

Upon entering the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, his mother blessed him with the icon of the Mother of God “Quench my sorrows,” saying: “Mother of God, let him be carefree.” And he saw his mother’s blessing as effective. During tonsure, when it was necessary to determine his monastic name, the governor of the Lavra looked at the Calendar; the closest name for him to be the birthday boy turned out to be “Alipy”, the name of the Monk Alypy, the famous icon painter, who was educated by the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. After his tonsure, Father Alypius himself looked at the Calendar and read the translation of his new name: “carefree.” Therefore, when representatives of the authorities tried to scare him over the phone, he answered: “Please note, I, Alypiy, am carefree.” And as his heavenly patron, Father Alypius was also an icon painter.

He did not have a separate cell. The governor of the Lavra showed him a place in the corridor with the condition that if Father Alypius made himself a cell in this corridor by morning in one night, then the cell would be his. Father Alypiy replied: “Bless me.” And in one night he made partitions, lined the fenced-off cell inside with splinters, plastered it, whitewashed it, installed the floor, and painted it. And in the morning, the governor of the Lavra was extremely surprised when he came to Father Alypiy and saw him in his new cell at the table with a hot samovar.

Soon he was awarded the priesthood, and in 1959 he was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Alypiy held this responsible post from 1959 to 1975.

A very difficult task fell on his shoulders: not only to restore the shrines and antiquities of the famous Pskov-Pechersk monastery. But another task was even more difficult - to protect the monastery from being closed by the authorities.

Soviet times in general were a time of severe restrictions on all freedoms, including freedom of religion. Hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of priests, monks and bishops, were executed by the authorities only for faith and loyalty to God. Thousands of churches were destroyed, the rest were closed: even in large cities, the authorities tried to leave only one Orthodox church open.

The war forced the authorities to ease pressure on the Church and open some churches. But Khrushchev began a new round of struggle against the Church. He promised to show the last priest on TV. That is, he anticipated the present times, when television would replace God for people, and hoped to live to see them.

Here are the headlines of central and local publications of that time: “Pskov-Pechersky Monastery - a hotbed of religious obscurantism”, “Hallelujah squatting”, “Freeloaders in cassocks”, “Hypocrites in cassocks”. It was very difficult to resist the slander; it was even more difficult to preserve the monastery. In reports addressed to Metropolitan John of Pskov and Velikoluksky, Archimandrite Alypiy emphasized: “Newspaper articles filled with undeserved insults and slander against honest, kind and good people, insults to the mothers and widows of dead soldiers - this is their “ideological struggle” - the expulsion of hundreds and thousands priests and clerics, and the best ones at that. How many of them come to us with tears that they cannot get even a secular job anywhere, their wives and children have nothing to live on.”

What could one monk oppose to the apparatus of suppression of omnipotent power? He only had one weapon. But the most powerful weapon is the word!

The courage of his words is striking even when viewed from our liberal times. How amazing this bold and firm word sounded then! When they told him: “Father, they might put you in prison...”, he answered: “They won’t put me in prison, I’ll put them in prison myself. There is no guilt on me." Even during the war, he learned that the best defense is an offensive.

Here are just a few examples showing how Alypiy repelled the attacks of the authorities. Some of the stories were told by monks, some became the property of popular rumor and were told by the Pecheryans.

State beggars

Archimandrite Alypius, being the governor, could answer anyone with a sharp word. The city authorities once called him:

– Why can’t you put things in order? After all, you have beggars in the monastery!

“Forgive me,” Father Alipy answers, “but the beggars are not with me, but with you.”

- How is it with us?

- It’s very simple. The land, if you remember, was taken from the monastery at the Holy Gate. The beggars stand on which side of the gate, on the outside or on the inside?

- From the outside.

- So I say that you have them. And in my monastery all the brethren are watered, fed, clothed and shod. And if you really don’t like beggars so much, then you pay them a pension of 500 rubles. And if after that someone asks for alms, I think they can be punished according to the law. But I have no beggars.

Interview for Science and Religion

In the late sixties, two journalists from Science and Religion tried to conduct a revealing interview with Alypiy.

-Who feeds you? - they asked.

He pointed to the old women. They didn't understand. Alypiy explained:

– One of them had two sons who did not return from the war, the other had four. And they came to us to dispel their grief.

– Aren’t you ashamed to look into the eyes of the people? - another question.

- So we are the people. Sixteen monks were participants in the war, including me. And if necessary, put your feet in boots, cap on your head: “I have appeared on your orders”...

Prayer for rain

In summer, drought came to the Pskov region. Alypiy asked the district committee for permission to hold a religious procession to Pskov to pray for rain.

– What if it doesn’t rain? – asked the official.

“Then my head will fly,” answered Alypiy.

- What if it happens?

- Then it’s yours.

The religious procession to Pskov was not allowed. The monks prayed for rain in the monastery, and the district committee workers sneered:

- You pray, but there is no rain!

“If you had prayed, it would definitely rain,” Alypius thundered.

After the monks held a religious procession inside the monastery, the rains began to fall. Although according to forecasts, the clouds were heading in the other direction.

Protection with horns

No sooner said than done. Several dozen cows filled the monastery square, displacing tourists. And when a representative of the authorities tried to disperse the cows, the bull - the monks themselves were surprised - drove him into a tree and kept him there until seven in the evening.

The cows celebrated their victory in the pasture.

Elections in Pechersky style

In Soviet times, everyone had to take part in elections. Not excluding the monks of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Usually the box was brought directly to the monastery, where the voting ceremony took place. But the new secretary of the regional committee, outraged by the honor inappropriate for the Chernets, ordered to “stop the disgrace.” “Let them come and vote themselves.”

“Wonderful,” said Archimandrite Alypiy, the abbot of the monastery, upon learning about this. And then Sunday came, the long-awaited election day. After the liturgy and fraternal meal, the monks lined up in twos and, with spiritual chants, went through the entire city to the polling station. One can imagine the state of peaceful Soviet citizens who observed such a spectacle. When, to top it all off, the monks began to serve a prayer service right at the polling station, officials tried to protest. “That’s how it’s supposed to be,” answered Father Alypiy. Having voted, the monks just as decorously returned through the whole city to the monastery. Later, the ballot box began to be brought back to its place.

Blessing for communists

One day, two regional financial officials arrived at the monastery to check the income. Alypius asked them:

-Who authorized you?

They didn't have the order on paper.

– We have been empowered by the people!

“Then at tomorrow’s service we will ask you to go to the pulpit and ask the people whether they authorized you,” Alypiy suggested.

– We have been authorized by the party! – the inspectors clarified.

– How many people are in your party?

– 20 million.

– And in our Church there are 50 million. The minority cannot dictate to the majority.

The next time, financial workers came with an order. Alypius answered them that, despite the order, he could authorize an inspection only with the blessing of the bishop of the diocese. Then they contacted the bishop of the diocese and received a “blessing.”

-Are you communists? - Alypius asked them.

- How could you, communists, take a blessing from a clergyman? I’ll call the regional party committee now, they’ll kick you out of the party tomorrow.

These “comrades” never came again.

Russian Ivan

Archimandrite Alypiy himself said:

“On Tuesday, May 14 of this year (1963), the steward, Abbot Irenei, organized, as in all previous years of monastic life, the watering and spraying of the monastery garden with rain and snow water, which we collect thanks to the dam we made near the gazebo, behind the fortress wall. While our men were working, six men approached them, then two more; one of them had in his hands a measure with which they divided the former monastery garden land. He began to swear at the workers and forbid them to pump water, saying that the water was not yours, and ordered them to stop pumping. Our people tried to continue working, but he ran up to them, grabbed the hose and began to pull it out, another - with a camera - began to photograph our people...

The housekeeper told these unknown people that the governor had come, go and explain everything to him. One of them came up. The others stood at a distance, taking photographs of us; there are three of them left.

Walking away from us sideways, the man in the hat said: “Eh... father!” I replied that Father I am for those people over there, but for you I am the Russian Ivan, who still has the power to crush bedbugs, fleas, fascists and all kinds of evil spirits in general.”

Axe

- Father Cornelius, bring the ax, now we will chop off their heads!

It must have been very scary - they ran away so quickly and irrevocably.

Monastic plague

“Sorry, I don’t feel sorry for my monks, fools, because they are still registered in the Kingdom of Heaven.” But I can’t let you, Anna Ivanovna, and your bosses in. I can’t even find the words to answer for you and your bosses at the Last Judgment. So forgive me, I won’t open the gates for you.

And he himself once again boarded the plane and went to Moscow. And again to work hard, beat the thresholds, and once again win.

Attempt to close the monastery

– Was it really that easy to defend the monastery? - we asked the oldest resident of the monastery, Archimandrite Nathanael, who remembered these events well.

- "Just"? “In everything you need to see the help of the Mother of God,” the elder answered sternly, with unshakable faith. - How could we have survived without her...

Thanks to Alipiy Voronov, the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery is the only Russian monastery that has never been closed. He invested a lot of effort and money into reviving the fortress walls and towers, gilding the large dome of St. Michael's Cathedral, and organizing an icon-painting workshop. In 1968, through the efforts of Fr. Alypiy announced an all-Union search for the valuables of the sacristy of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, taken away by the fascist occupiers in 1944. Five years later, monastery utensils were found. In 1973, representatives of the German consulate in Leningrad transferred their monastery.

Fr. is gone. Alypia March 12, 1975. Sixty-one years of earthly life, of which 25 years were monastic life.

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In the book of Sergei Vladimirovich Alekseev “Icon Painters of Holy Rus'” there is a chapter dedicated to the first Russian icon painter. In particular, it says the following: “In the Near Caves of the ancient Kiev-Pechersk Lavra lie the relics of St. Alypius, who is rightfully considered the ancestor of all Russian icon painters. And although not a single icon has survived to this day, about which it can be said with complete certainty that it belongs to the brush of the saint, the life and service of the saint are a model for all subsequent generations of isographers.” In the 20th century, Rev. Alypiy became the heavenly patron of the artist Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov, who took monastic vows on August 28, 1950, in the name of the famous icon painter of Kiev-Pechersk. After 9 years, Father Alypiy will become the abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, and until 1975 he will protect the monastery from closure. The book we bring to your attention today talks about this. It is called “Defender of the Holy Monastery.”

The abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, Archimandrite Alypiy, is known as a great ascetic, icon painter, artist, monastery builder and restorer, who restored the monastery from ruins. He was called the Great Viceroy, and he called himself a “Soviet archimandrite.” From 1959 to 1975, he headed the holy Pskov-Pechersk monastery and defended it from the authorities. The stories about how this happened made up this book. In addition, the author-compiler of the book briefly and amazing biography priests. And in the preface, the editor gives his short story connected with the monastery and Archimandrite Alypius. Here's what he writes:

“Part of my life was intimately connected with the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. I came here as a child in Soviet times on excursions, when I didn’t have a grain of knowledge either about the Savior or about the Holy Church. All my knowledge revolved around my grandmother’s fussy worries about painting eggs and baking Easter cake on a certain day of the year and the stories adults told me during the New Year celebration about some kind of Christmas, which in general, as it seemed to me then, was the same thing. Perhaps that's all. But over time, more and more involuntarily, I acquired invisible connections with this holy abode of ascetics and spiritual elders. As if climbing from a dark basement along the stairs to a bright exit, step by step I began to gradually get to know this place.

Meetings with “exotic” monks at that time, heated discussions with them, first conclusions. And here I am, a second-year student, not yet baptized and terribly proud, coming here for the first time to “live.” And these three days of living in a room common to all workers will reveal to me new world. And the soul will desire to be baptized. Here for the first time I heard this strange and somehow flowery name - Alypiy. Over time, my knowledge about this mysterious man expanded. Small articles and memoirs of contemporaries revealed this personality to me more and more. Perhaps there was something in it from my grandfather, an old front-line soldier, who himself once liberated these places from the Nazis. This direct, uncunning and courageous mind of the priest, great loving heart, responsibility for people and the assigned work very much reminded me of my old man.

And although my grandfather was a simple communist, you know, it was a man’s honest faith in something bright. Having gone through six years of war and three years of post-war service, having suffered from the repressions of the Stalinist regime, he still remained an honest communist. How can one not remember Father Alypiy, who called himself a “Soviet” archimandrite. And one more small detail: they were both born in 1914. And what a pity that my grandfather did not have time to discover God within himself, did not have time to enter the bosom of the Church. But I have deep confidence that the soldier Archimandrite Alypiy is now praying in the world of the Mountain for all such simple and honest warriors who went through the most difficult trials of the twentieth century and the hardships of war, but remained human.”

Why the author calls Father Alypius a soldier can be found out from the biography. As the book says, “Ivan Voronov was called to the front on February 21, 1942. He put a sketchbook with paints in his bag. IN free time between battles he did not interrupt his painting. There are memories where the archimandrite told that while advancing with the front line, he managed to restore icons local residents and fed the whole subdivision with the products that were given to him for Good work. Over the course of a year, Ivan Voronov created several sketches and paintings, several albums of “combat episodes.” And already in 1943, the master’s first front-line works were exhibited in several museums of the USSR.

Ivan Voronov traveled from Moscow to Berlin as part of the Fourth Tank Army. He took part in many military operations on the Central, Western, Bryansk and First Ukrainian fronts. God protected the future archimandrite; he did not receive a single injury or concussion. For his participation in battles, Voronov was awarded medals “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”, “For Victory over Germany”, “For the Capture of Berlin”, “For the Liberation of Prague”, the Order of the Red Star and the “Guard” badge. In total, the artist-soldier received 76 military awards and encouragements. The war left an indelible mark on the soul of Ivan Voronov: “The war was so terrible that I gave my word to God that if I survive this terrible battle, I will definitely go to a monastery.” Having become monk Alypius, archimandrite of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, in his sermons he repeatedly addressed military topics and often recalled the war.

Ivan Mikhailovich returned from the war as a famous artist. But the career of a secular painter did not attract him. Here are his memories: “In 1948, working in the open air in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra near Moscow, I was captivated by the beauty and originality of this place, first as an artist, and then as a resident of the Lavra, and decided to devote myself to serving the Lavra forever.” Upon entering the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, his mother blessed him with the icon of the Mother of God “Quench my sorrows,” saying: “Mother of God, let him be carefree.” And he saw his mother’s blessing as effective. Having been tonsured after the famous icon painter, Father Alypiy looked at the Calendar and read the translation of his new name: “carefree.” Therefore, when representatives of the authorities tried to intimidate him over the phone, he replied: “Please note that I, Alypiy, am carefree.” And as his heavenly patron, Father Alypius was also an icon painter.

Thanks to Father Alypiy, his brave and strong word, the Pskov-Pechersk monastery became the only Russian monastery that never closed. Many memories remain of that confrontation between the godless state apparatus and the true defender of the holy monastery, the native Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Thanks to the records of parishioners, the stories of monks and people close to the priest, today we can plunge into that gloomy atmosphere of persecution and show how Father Alypiy repelled the attacks of the authorities. Here, for example, is what Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) recalls: “The Lord does not love the fearful. This spiritual law was once revealed to me by Father Raphael. And he, in turn, was told about him by Father Alypius. In one of his sermons, he said: “I had to witness how in war some, fearing starvation, took sacks of breadcrumbs with them on their backs in order to prolong their lives rather than fight the enemy; and these people died with their breadcrumbs and were not seen for many days. And those who took off their tunics and fought the enemy remained alive.”

One day, when they once again came to demand the closure of the monastery, Father Alypius bluntly announced: “Half of my brethren are front-line soldiers. We are armed, we will fight to the last bullet. Look at the monastery - what a dislocation there is. Tanks won't get through. You can only take us from the sky, by air. But as soon as the first plane appears over the monastery, in a few minutes it will be told to the whole world via the Voice of America. So think for yourself!” “I can’t say,” says Bishop Tikhon, “what arsenals were kept in the monastery. Most likely, this was a military trick of the Great Viceroy, his next formidable joke. But, as they say, there is a grain of humor in every joke. In those years, the brethren of the monastery undoubtedly presented a special spectacle - more than half of the monks were order bearers and veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Another part - and also a considerable one - went through Stalin’s camps. Still others have experienced both.” Read about how this courageous brethren, led by their governor, defended the monastery in the pages of this small book.

At the end of the program, I would like to note that, after all, the main thing in the life of Father Alipy, in his own words, was love. She was his invincible and incomprehensible weapon for the world. “Love,” said the Great Viceroy, “is the highest prayer. If prayer is the queen of virtues, then Christian love is God, for God is Love... Look at the world only through the prism of love, and all your problems will go away: within yourself you will see the Kingdom of God, in man - an icon, in earthly beauty - shadow of heavenly life. You will object that it is impossible to love your enemies. Remember what Jesus Christ told us: “Whatever you did to men, you did to Me.” Write these words in golden letters on the tablets of your hearts, write them down and hang them next to the icon and read them every day.” With these words of Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov) we will conclude our program.

Father Alypiy

PSKOVO-PECHERSKY SYATO-USPENSKY MONASTERY

The Pskov-Pechersky Monastery was built in the 15th century. The monks located it in a very original way, on the Kamenets stream. But the stream itself flows in a deep ravine, something like a canyon. The very word “pechery” is nothing more than caves. It was in the form of caves that the monks built their monastery in those ancient times.
The monastery was also a fortress that stood at the defense of the borders of the Russian state.
The outside of the caves was reinforced with stone, and this created the front side of each building, each church. The temples themselves are located in caves.
How did it happen that the Holy Monastery was built so unusually?
This is what the legend says about this.
At the end of the 14th century, Izborsk hunters were attracted by the beautiful singing of birds, emanating as if from underground, in the area of the ravine where the Kamenets stream flowed. Later, peasants settled in this area, and this land with a ravine went to Ivan Dementyev. Once, while cutting down trees, one of them, falling, caught another and under the roots of the fallen one, a cave was discovered. Above the entrance it was clearly read: “Caves created by God.” (God given). This legend dates back to 1392.
The monastery was founded in 1473 and its founder is considered to be its first abbot, Reverend Jonah, who began the construction of the first cave Assumption Church.
Jonah arrived in these places with his wife Mary and children. However, before finishing the temple, his wife became seriously ill and took monastic vows before her death. Thus, Mary became the first tonsure of the monastery.
Then miracles begin again. A believer perceives them unambiguously, an atheist, as always, doubts. But this is what has survived in the chronicles to this day. Jonah performed a funeral service and buried his wife, but the next morning she found herself on the surface of the earth. Jonah thought that he had messed up something in his prayer - he sang Mary again and buried her. But the next morning everything happened again, and the abbot realized that this was a sign from above. Jonah buried his Mary in a cave, placing her in a niche. After this incident, all monks, priests and fallen soldiers began to be buried in the same way. And here is another miracle that we, today’s people, can observe - no decay occurs in the caves, all the deceased are mummified after a few years.
Nice, and modern history has developed at the monastery even today. Our country is grateful to the monastery, or rather its monks, for the victory in Kursk Bulge, to which the novices also contributed.
This retreat will lead somewhat away from main topic, but the story is interesting. History showing that the Russian people in difficult years can combine its forces with seemingly incompatible associations during the Soviet period.
Before the war, Bishop Vasily Ratmirov lived in Moscow. The church treated him differently. He was a renovationist and this was not welcomed. It was believed that the bishop had become friendly with the authorities and was almost leading the church to a schism. They even considered him an agent of the OGPU. In fact, the bishop sought to preserve the church and therefore agreed to such cooperation.
And then the hard times came, June 22, 1941 came and the bishop, not yet an old man came to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to send him to the front. Our special agencies were interested in this and they understood what could be learned from such a proposal. The legend of our intelligence service, General Pavel Sudoplatov, became interested. They invited the bishop to the appropriate office on Lubyanka, to the office of P. Sudoplatov, and they also summoned two of their employees, Lieutenant Colonel V.M. Ivanov and Sergeant I.I. Mikheeva.
All three were given, frankly speaking, an unusual task. They taught the bishop some professional intelligence skills, and their own employees, dressed as monks, taught them church canons and services, right in P. Sudoplatov’s office, having previously brought icons, banners and other church property to the office. The task was simple - all three go to Kalinin (now Tver), gain the trust of the German command and engage in reconnaissance. What was done beautifully by Bishop Vasily.
When retreating German troops Vasily was offered to go with the Germans, but he, citing health, asked to leave him with his flock. By this he cast a shadow over himself - was he recruited by the Abwehr?
So, the bishop stayed, and our two monastic scouts, preparing to take monastic orders, having perfectly mastered all the church canons, went with the Germans and ended up in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Radio operator Vera was also in the monastery with them. In Moscow, this operation was called “Operation Novices.”
The rector of the monastery at that time was Metropolitan Sergius Voznesensky, who knew everything that was happening in the monastery and was actively involved in such an invisible struggle against the fascists for his Orthodox Motherland.
There are disagreements about Voznesensky even today. Why? Yes, because he had to meet and shake hands with the traitor Vlasov, and proclaim greetings to the German soldiers. How could it be otherwise if you are a scout? They said that Stalin himself allowed him to speak out in sermons against the Soviet regime. It is also not clear from whom Sergius died. There is an assumption that he was shot right in the car by German special services.
What kind of help our “monks” provided to our army. Both Ivanov and Mikheev, and Voznesensky himself, managed to convince the Germans that in the city of Kuibyshev there was an underground working against the authorities. The Germans threw trained Russian traitors there, who were immediately caught and even recruited. Next came a radio game with German intelligence. “Valuable” messages were made to the Germans that Stalin had concentrated all his forces near Moscow and was awaiting a second German strike in this direction. And the Germans believed it, preparing to strike near Kursk. But the game was not to draw attention to the preparation of our forces in the Kursk area. There is no need to describe further how things happened. Next comes the Battle of Kursk-Oryol and the final turning point in the war. This is where the Germans became suspicious of Voznesensky.
And our scouts and partisans also looked into the monastery, who were hidden in caves and even in church domes.
It must be recalled that monks throughout our history have been glorious warriors. Remember Black Hundred on the Kulikovo field, which turned the entire tide of the battle.
The tradition of the monastery preserves the memory of the “guardian angel” Soviet intelligence officers- Elder Simeon Zhelnin, now glorified as a saint. Exactly Reverend Simeon helped the Soviet radio operator hide in the deep caves of the monastery, keeping the true goals of the arriving “novices” in deep secrecy. Unfortunately, nothing is known about the fate of radio operator Vera. As for Ivanov and Mikheev, they lived to see victory. After the war, Mikheev, who became a colonel, became a monk. Hegumen Pavel Gorshkov also served in the monastery during the war. During the difficult years of occupation, he saved dozens of prisoners of war from hunger and death and instilled faith in desperate and exhausted people. However, after the expulsion of the Nazis, Pavel was arrested in 1944 as an accomplice of the Germans. But Paul knew perfectly well what was happening and who was hiding in the monastery and helped them. It must be said that until now the personal file of Metropolitan Sergius Voznesensky is kept in the archives of the FSB and is strictly classified. For what? Was it not after such events that Stalin realized that it was possible to win by uniting all the forces of the people, the party, and the church, allowing the opening of the Patrarchate in the country of the Soviets?
But it’s time to return to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery of our days. When visiting the monastery, you see an unusual and beautiful picture of churches harmoniously integrated into the ravine. At the top of the ravine-monastery, there is an orchard with a hint of Eden. Mere mortals are not allowed into the garden. Only monks and priests work in the garden and visit it. This slope with the garden began to be called the Holy Mountain.
There is access to the monastery. Excursions come there. They are also allowed into the caves, but strictly at certain times and on certain days. The monks strictly observe this regime. However, as before, according to the ancient procedure, no one is allowed into the garden.
Once upon a time, in post-war years, the abbot of the monastery was Father Alypius. During the war, Alypiy fought against the Nazis, like all our people, and had the rank of officer.
One day, near Kursk, his battalion was surrounded, the Germans were pressing from all sides. The battle ensued fiercely. The battalion was caught in the crossfire. Few survived.
It was then that the warrior remembered the soul and God, although he had been drawn to it since childhood.
The officer swore: if he remained alive, after the war he would go to a monastery and devote his life to serving the Almighty.
And he remained alive and went to the Alypius monastery. And from a simple monk he grew to become the abbot of the monastery, this very Pskov-Pechersk monastery.
I must say that Father Alypius was an excellent artist. He painted many icons in the monastery. Many of the paintings were restored by his hand.
Archimandrite Alypiy was born in 1914 into the family of a poor peasant in the village of Tarchikha near Moscow.
In 1927 he moved to Moscow, where he graduated in 1931 high school, but often returned to the village to help his sick mother.
Since 1933, he worked as a worker on the construction of the metro and at the same time studied at art studio at the Moscow Union of Artists.
Even then, with youth he had deep faith and wanted to express it, sometime in the service of the Church.
The war helped him make his choice and realize his dream.
On February 27, 1950, he entered the Trinity-Sergius Lavra as a novice.
On August 15 of the same year, he was tonsured a monk by the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite John, with the name Alipius, in honor of the Monk Alipius, the icon painter of Pechersk.
On September 12, 1950, Patriarch Alexy I ordained him a hierodeacon, and on October 1, on the Feast of the Intercession Holy Mother of God, – to hieromonk with the appointment of sacristan of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
In 1952, Father Alypiy was awarded the pectoral cross, and by Easter 1953 he was elevated to the rank of abbot. Along with carrying out the obedience of the sacristan, he is entrusted with leading the artists and craftsmen who carried out restoration work in the Sergius Lavra.
Then, until 1959, he took part in the restoration and decoration of a number of Moscow churches.
By decree of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I of July 15, 1959, Abbot Alypiy was appointed abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery.
In 1961, Abbot Alypius was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.
In 1963, he was awarded the Patriarchal Certificate for his diligent work in restoring the Pskov-Pechersk monastery.
In 1965, on the patronal day of the monastery - the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, he was awarded a second cross with decorations.
Subsequently, he was awarded the Order of Saint Prince Vladimir - III and II degrees, and was awarded by His Beatitude the Patriarch of Antioch and the whole East - Theodosius VI - the Order of Christ the Savior and the cross of the II degree.

On March 12, 1975 at 2 a.m. Father Alypiy said:
– The Mother of God has come, how beautiful She is, let’s paint, let’s draw.
The paints were applied, but his hands could no longer function.
How many heavy shells did he drag with these hands to the gun during the Great Patriotic War?
At 4 o'clock in the morning, Archimandrite Alypiy died quietly and peacefully.
This is how the abbot of the monastery, Father Alypius, was. This is how he ended his life.

Next I would like to tell another story, also similar to the legend. One day, a friend of mine, a very talented Lenfilm documentarian, Eduard, came to the monastery. I forgot his last name.
They instructed him to make a film about the monastery. As always, little time was allocated for this; we had to hurry. Eduard received permission to film. But when it came to the garden, the monks stood up like a wall - they wouldn’t let me in. Go, they say, and ask for special permission from Father Alypius.
Edward went to the abbot's house.
Alypius was informed about the alien. Father Alypiy looked out the window to find out what the visitor needed. Edward stated his request. Alypy thought for a long time. After deliberation, he gave his consent to filming. It must be said that the monks took this without enthusiasm. Alypius said: go, but not for long, and remember that you will be second after Peter I in this garden.
Edward was interested in this. He asked the monk about this and heard a most interesting story.
Peter waged a fierce war with the Swedes. There was not enough copper for the cannons. The ships were intensively built, they had to be armed. So Peter ordered to take bells from churches for the duration of the war. Well, it looks like Peter, the king was cool and decisive. Peter arrived at the monastery and demanded a bell. The abbot of the monastery said that this was not supposed to be done. This requires permission from the Almighty.
– Where do they ask permission from the Almighty? – asked Peter.
– To do this, you need to spend the night in the garden and have a dream; the Almighty will come in a dream and tell you his decision.
This is what Peter did. In the morning he descends from the garden and goes to the abbot.
“Well, what did you dream about, what did the Almighty say?” the abbot asked Peter.
What could Peter answer? It would not be Peter if he said something else:
- Yes, yes, the Almighty came to me in a dream and gave permission to remove the bells.
What can you do, the Almighty himself gave the go-ahead. Do not doubt the veracity of the words of the Tsar of All Rus'.
They gave the bells to Peter. But Peter kept his word. After the victory, new bells were cast for the monastery, which still ring over the monastery to this day.
As for the film, it turned out well. Thanks to Father Alypius.
All of the above was told to me by Eduard and the books, but...
Ten years have passed and the author of this story finally got ready to visit the Holy Monastery.
By this time, the worldly name of Father Alypius became clear - this is Ivan Mikhailovich Voronov.
The monastery amazed me with its indescribable beauty. Going down, where the monastery is unusually located, you completely forget that this is a ravine where a stream once flowed. The grandeur of the buildings elevates the monastery so much that it gives the impression of sublimity.
They are still not allowed into the garden, but exceptions are made and there are many more of them than before. It is necessary to seek permission from the abbot in advance. And permission for excursions is given, but this still does not happen often.
I stood at the house of the abbot of the monastery. I looked at the window from where Alipy was talking with my friend Eduard.
Alipius is no longer there and he is buried in one of the niches of the cave, where many monks, warriors and saints of the Russian land are buried.
I also bowed to Alypius and Jonah.
Finally the dream has come true.

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