Theophan (Bystrow)

Theophan as Hieromonach

Theophan von Poltava ( Russian Феофан , also Teofan or Feofan ; * December 31, 1874 ^July / January 12,  1875 ^greg. As Wassili Dmitrijewitsch Bystrov in Podmoschie, Saint Petersburg Governorate , Russian Empire ; † February 19, 1940 in Limeray , Indre department -et-Loire , France ) was a Russian Orthodox clergyman. He was bishop and archbishop and officiated among other things as confessor of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra .

Life

In the Russian Empire

He was born in a Russian village as the son of the local priest Dmitri Nikolajewitsch Bystrov and his wife Maria and baptized Vasily , the Russian equivalent of St. Basil , whose name day coincided with his birthday. In 1896 he finished his studies at the Spiritual Academy of Saint Petersburg , where he was accepted as one of the youngest students. The following year he became an assistant professor of Old Testament history . With the Archpriest Johannes von Kronstadt he conducted services together. In 1898 he became a monk and received the religious name Theophanes . In 1901 he became archimandrite and inspector of the spiritual academy. In 1905 he was awarded the master's degree for his work on the Tetragrammaton . After his appointment as rector of the academy on February 4, 1909, he received shortly thereafter in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, the episcopal ordination for the eparchy of St. Petersburg . On November 19, 1910 he became bishop of the Simferopol eparchy and at the same time honorary member of the Petersburg Spiritual Academy.

The religious writer and civil servant Nikolai Shevakhov described Theophan as "a monk of extraordinary disposition and enormous authority". Even the poet Zinaida Hippius who faced quite critical of the Russian clergy, Theophan called "a monk of rare humility, who led a righteous life." He was with Grigori Rasputin first friend and told the new arrivals at the Academy with enthusiasm about the holy miracle worker from Siberia. He introduced Rasputin to Grand Duchess Militza , who in turn introduced him to the Tsar and his wife on November 1, 1905. Shortly afterwards he was appointed confessor of the tsarist couple. After the October Revolution , however, he denied having been involved in the admission of the meanwhile murdered Rasputin to the Tsar's court.

Theophan was a devoted monarchist . After a visit to Rasputin's hometown Pokrovskoye, where Rasputin's alleged membership of the Chlysten secret society was clarified, he came to the conclusion that Rasputin was a false star and could pose a threat to the throne of the Tsar. After a dispute with Rasputin over the appointment of a candidate for bishopric, he was banished by the tsarina in 1911 along with the monks Hermogen and Iliodor . On July 25, 1912 he became Bishop of Astrakhan , on March 8, 1913, Bishop of Poltava and Pereslavl . In 1918 he was raised to the rank of Archbishop by the Bishops' Assembly of the Russian Orthodox Church .

Archbishop Theophan's tomb in Limeray

Revolution and exile

After the October Revolution of 1917, Theophan had to give up his functions at court. He initially lived in Moscow and gave testimony at the trial of Rasputin and the Tsarina. In Poltava, Ukraine , after Symon Petlyura had taken power in Kiev , there was a confrontation with his supporters. When Theophan resisted her request to hold a large funeral service for the hetman Iwan Masepa , he was imprisoned for a while.

The arrival of the Red Army on the Crimea in 1919 he was sent to Sevastopol evacuated. In March 1920, together with Bishop Veniamin (Fedtschenko), he supported the election of Peter von Wrangel as commander in chief of the armed forces in southern Russia and emigrated to Constantinople . From there he went to the Petkovica monastery in the Serbian Vojvodina , to Sofia and Varna in Bulgaria, and in 1931 to France, where he settled in Limeray near Amboise and lived the life of a hermit in a cave . Cared for by two Russian women who cared for him, he died there on February 19, 1940 and was buried in the local cemetery.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of the Russian Orthodox Church (English)
2. ^ Douglas Smith: Rasputin , The Burning Torch. P. 54.
3. ↑ Russian: Поме́стный собо́р Правосла́вной росси́йской це́ркви

literature

• Douglas Smith: Rasputin . Macmillan, London 2016. ISBN 978-1-4472-4584-1 .

Web links

Commons : Theophanes (Bystrov)  - collection of images, videos and audio files