“Prophecies” of Elder Jonah of Odessa (Ignatenko). III part.
[article from a series on the history of prophecies].
On September 14, 2018, a message appeared on the news agency website:
"Moscow. INTERFAX.RU – In accordance with the decision of the Synod, adopted at an emergency meeting on Friday, prayerful commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during the Divine Liturgy is being stopped in churches of the Moscow Patriarchate.
“In a critical situation, when the Constantinople side has practically refused to resolve the issue through dialogue, the Moscow Patriarchate is forced to suspend the prayerful commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople during the divine service and, with deep regret, suspend the concelebration with the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” says the statement of the Synod, which took place on Friday in Moscow .
“In addition, the Russian Church interrupts participation in episcopal assemblies, as well as in theological dialogues, multilateral commissions and all other structures in which representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople preside or co-chair,” said the head of the synodal Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk at a briefing after meeting of the Synod in Moscow.
However, according to the hierarch, this does not mean the cessation of Eucharistic communion, that is, believers of both patriarchates will still be able to receive communion from the same chalice.
If the anti-canonical activities of Constantinople continue on the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Moscow Patriarchate, according to the Metropolitan, will be forced to “completely break off Eucharistic communion with Constantinople,” and full responsibility for the tragic consequences of this division will fall “personally on Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and the bishops who support him.” .
Members of the Moscow Synod believe that the current situation around Ukraine poses a “danger for the entire world Orthodoxy” and therefore appeal to all local Orthodox churches for support, calling for “initiating a fraternal pan-Orthodox discussion of the church situation in Ukraine.”
A week ago, the Patriarchate of Constantinople appointed two exarchs (its representatives) to Kyiv “in preparation for the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.” This was Constantinople’s response to the request of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to issue a “Tomos” on the creation of a single local church in this country.
The Moscow Patriarchate regarded this step of the Church of Constantinople as an invasion of its canonical territory and threatened to sever relations with Constantinople.”
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On the same day, an “anonymous” article appeared on the “Blessing” website: “The prophecy of Fr. Jonah about the consequences of the church schism provoked by Bartholomew in Ukraine, about the seizure of churches and the persecution of the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate,” which quickly began to spread on the Internet.
Here's the text in full:
“In the last years of the life of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko), we had the opportunity to meet with him several times in Odessa at the Holy Dormition Monastery, where he labored. Father answered our questions about spiritual life and salvation, questions from the history of the past and about events of the future. Sometimes, even without our asking, he himself began to tell us about what interested and worried us. One day, in 2009 or 2010, he began to tell the following.
The time will come when one day the parishioners will come to the monastery for the all-night service in the evening, and everything will be as usual: the same chants, the same monks and confessors, the same service as always. And when they come to the liturgy in the morning, they suddenly begin to peer into their surroundings and become perplexed: there are no familiar faces of the monastery inhabitants, instead of the monastery priests, some strangers begin the service...
The parishioners will ask each other, and no one will be able to understand anything.
What will happen is that at night buses will be driven to the monastery, all the monks will be kicked out of their cells, loaded onto buses and taken to an unknown direction. And they will bring others to the monastery, strangers, not our Church. This will be the capture of the monastery. And this will be the case everywhere in Ukraine.
After such a story about. A painful feeling hung over Jonah’s soul: will they really kill everyone?
And there will be no more well-known, sweet faces of humble monks, wise confessors and perspicacious elders?
How then can we all be nourished, how can we confess and receive communion, how can we generally live and be saved?
Then, dumbfounded by such information from the elder, we did not ask questions about how this would happen, who would arrange it, where the monks would be taken, would they be shot or what else would they do with them?
And only a year later, at the next meeting with Fr. With Jonah we were able to find out the answers to some of these questions.
And now, on September 10, 2018, when Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople made an arbitrary non-canonical decision to legitimize the schismatics of the so-called Kyiv Patriarchate, giving them official church status, the mechanism for seizing churches and monasteries became visible.
If in recent years church schismatics, not recognized by anyone and having no status, have seized 50 churches of the official Church in Ukraine with the connivance of the police or with their direct participation, then by giving them the status of an independent autocephalous Church, the civil authorities of Ukraine will be able to commit the most daring lawlessness in regarding the UOC MP. Even if this status is not recognized by any of the local Orthodox Churches.
What did we learn a year later from Fr. Iona about the coming sad events of the distant future, which is already coming now?
The inhabitants will not be shot. They will all be taken far from the city and released into an open field. And he even told where they would come.
What about the invaders?
They will try to serve in the captured temples and deceive people with their supposed legitimacy. But people won't believe them. Almost no one will go to such captured churches and monasteries. They will stand empty. The schismatics will be left with nothing. And in about six months they will leave in disgrace.”
* * *
At the same time, the “sovereign people”, who have only personal enrichment at the state (people’s) expense in their heads, constantly let it slip, unable or simply not caring to better disguise their “real intentions”, which still shine through from all the cracks in the fabrications they are fabricating. “fakes” according to the Russian history of prophecies.
Why is this happening?
Because there is Divine Providence, there is a Russian history of prophecies, there is a sequence of prophecies!!!
Unfortunately, this must be admitted, among today’s Russian people, even those who sincerely believe in the existence of God and in Orthodoxy, due to the extreme insanity and “spiritual impoverishment” of the nation, almost no one understands that these “impudent” dreams of “global leadership” “- this is the very “temptation of the Antichrist” about which the Holy Scripture warned all Christians 2000 years ago.
No wonder one of the clergy representatives stated not so long ago:
“The state of the Russian people and especially the authorities is permeated with a neurotic, deeply painful complex of catastrophic inferiority, which is incompatible not only with Orthodox Christianity, but also with elementary ethics...”
However, a question arises for the unknown author of this “fake”:
“What will happen is that at night buses will be driven to the monastery, all the monks will be kicked out of their cells, loaded onto buses and taken to an unknown direction. And they will bring others to the monastery, strangers, not our Church. This will be the capture of the monastery. And this will be the case everywhere in Ukraine...”
What can I say!!!
One can only ask a rhetorical question:
“When will you, Kremlin “Internet patriots” who work for “people’s” money by writing such stories, stop lying to your own people”???
The question is purely rhetorical, because, of course, never, or at least as long as the Kremlin pays and pays well for such “fakes”!!!
As for the prophecies on the “grievance of the day”:
“They will try to serve in the captured churches and deceive people with their supposed legitimacy. But people won't believe them. Almost no one will go to such captured churches and monasteries. They will stand empty. The schismatics will be left with nothing. And in about six months they will leave in disgrace.”
Just from the fact that the “patriotic idea”, sucked out of thin air by “anonymous fighters” for so many years (if not worse), is still supplemented with such similar “pathetic propaganda”, one can draw the inevitable conclusion that the Kremlin, in essence, has something else and have nothing to say to my people.
Only lies, lies, lies!!!
* * *
DTN.
“Prophecies” of Elder Jonah of Odessa (Ignatenko). Part II.
[article from a series on the history of prophecies].
When articles today mention the “prophecy” of Elder Jonah of Odessa (in the world Vladimir Afanasyevich Ignatenko, 1925-2012), most often there is a reference to the elder’s spiritual son, Archpriest Georgy Gorodentsev. Therefore, I invite readers to familiarize themselves with the “Reflections” of Archpriest Georgy Gorodentsev himself on the “prophecy” of Elder Jonah of Odessa for 2016:
“In our troubled times, many people are wondering: what will happen next?
Politicians and political scientists, scientists and ignoramuses, astrologers and other fortune-tellers are now trying to talk about the future, but... more often than not, they make mistakes, “putting their finger in the sky.”
Meanwhile, in the Church of God, since Old Testament times, there has been a whole host of true prophets who have always correctly predicted the future. There are such prophets in our time. One of them, Fr. Jonah began asceticism in St. Odessa. Assumption Monastery at the end of the Soviet era. I remember those times well – the second half of the 70s of the last century. We, young Odessa Orthodox who had just come to the faith, in our attempts, so to speak, to “get in” with the Church, were like kittens thrown under the church threshold. Which were initially “picked up” by Fr. Jonah, then still a simple monk.
I remember a small house on the territory of the monastery, which he was in charge of. There was a kind of monastic power plant, consisting of several diesel engines decommissioned from submarines that generated electricity. The Soviet government sold the latter to the monks at such an unimaginable price that it was more profitable to produce it themselves; especially given the constant power outages in the area.
And so, I remember, we were sitting in this house and, under the steady hum of diesel engines, with our mouths open, we listened to stories from monastic life and the lives of saints that the future elder told us. And which for us, people raised and educated in atheism, were real spiritual manna! Even then Fr. Jonah was distinguished by the deepest humility and love for God and his neighbors. For which, apparently, the Lord gave him His gracious gifts of healing and prophecy (cf. James 4:6). I personally had the opportunity to verify the latter much later. When the prophetic words of the elder about one clergyman, due to the latter’s disobedience to his advice, were fulfilled, unfortunately, in the most terrible way.
But I will go directly to the famous prophecy of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah.
The first time I heard it was in this form:
“They say that before his blessed death in 2012, he predicted the following:
“The first Easter after my death will be full; the second is bloody; the third is hungry, and the fourth is victorious (victorious)."
And indeed, at least until now, events in our Ukraine, where Fr. lived. Jonah, developed precisely according to this prediction. The first Easter after the death of the elder, Easter 2013, was indeed relatively well-fed; the second in 2014 was bloody, because the massacre in Odessa and the war in Donbass were brewing; The third Easter in 2015 was indeed a famine, because by this time the cost of everything (except for salaries and pensions) had tripled. Now it remains to fulfill the end of this prophecy about the victorious (victorious) Easter of 2016, which is coming soon.
But here a natural question arises about the reliability of this prophecy!!!
Of course, if it was really said by the elder, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah, then it is completely reliable. But personally, I did not hear this from his lips; and then, perhaps, this is the fruit of someone’s imagination?!!!
But the first glance at this prophecy indicates that this is not so. I first heard it in the fall of 2014. And, of course, by this time a whole series of events predicted by him had already happened. Therefore, under the guise of “prophecy” it would be possible to talk about the already former “well-fed” Easter in the 13th; and about the “bloody” in 14th; It was even possible even then, by deduction, to guess that on Easter 15 there would be a famine.
But who in the fall of the 14th, at the very height of the ATO, could have guessed that the next Easter would no longer be bloody, but only hungry?!
But the Minsk agreements (Minsk-2), which significantly reduced the level of bloodshed in Donbass, were concluded only in the winter of 15th!
Here's something else you should pay special attention to. Many reduce this prophecy only to the events in Ukraine and the war in Donbass. But in my opinion this is incorrect. In fact, the disasters that befell the people of Ukraine and, especially the residents of Donbass, are only part of the disasters that our country and our people have experienced over the past almost 100 years. During this relatively short time in historical perspective, we had: direct participation in two world wars, and the second was especially bloody for our people; there were three revolutions; there was a long civil war and other wars; there were monstrous repressions of the Bolsheviks; there was the greatest persecution of the Church in the history of Christianity; there were periodic famines and total robberies, accompanied by complete impoverishment of the population, etc. So the current Ukrainian events are not the disease itself, but only one of its symptoms or stages.
A natural question arises, or rather three at once: why did this happen; when will it end; and will it ever end?!
In answer to the first of these questions, I will say the following. In my opinion, these disasters are the result of our people’s betrayal of the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, which led to the overthrow of the autocracy and the villainous ritual murder of the Tsar and members of his Family.
Why this seemingly ancient and private crime led to such unprecedented catastrophic consequences - I have already written more than once. Because, as the apostle prophesied. Paul, the Antichrist will not come until “he who now restrains him is taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7).
By “Holder,” the holy fathers understood the Roman power and the Roman emperor, deriving the word “Holder” from the word “power” - the Roman Power. But since Russia is the Third Rome, then the holy Tsar and Passion-Bearer Nicholas II is the last Roman Emperor. The overthrow of which was supposed to lead to the coming of the Antichrist, monstrous disasters and the rapid end of the world, which, according to the prophecies of the Apocalypse, should have come soon (3.5 years) after the worldwide reign of the Antichrist.
However, in the 17th year of the last century, and throughout that entire century, by the grace of God and the Mother of God, this did not happen. It did not happen because the Queen of Heaven became the Queen of the Russian Land, which was clearly shown by the appearance of the “Sovereign” icon of the Mother of God - March 2 (according to the present day) 1917 on the day of the so-called abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. With this appearance of the “Sovereign” icon, the Mother of God showed that She became the one who restrains or Holds (note the same connection of words: Sovereign - Holder), who does not allow the Antichrist to come. But at the same time, our people, as repentance, had to suffer severe punishment for their especially grave sin of renouncing the King of the earth and the King of Heaven. This is reflected in the above-mentioned disasters, the last of which are precisely the Ukrainian events.
Yes, all this is very, very difficult, terrible and regrettable!!!
However, the fact that God did not punish us completely, but through the prayers of the Mother of God and Her merciful intercession did not allow us to finally perish through the action of the Antichrist, inspires hope in God’s mercy. He also sets a temporary limit to the action of satanic forces hostile to our people and country, for our sin of betraying the Tsar, they have been acting against us so successfully for almost a hundred years with God’s permission, which is the direct cause of our disasters. This term is in the words: “He is at enmity for ever” (Ps. 103:9). After all, a century is literally a hundred years; one hundred years of punishment for our people, which have almost expired!!! Moreover, God “below for an age (that is, less than a century, somewhat less than a hundred years) is at enmity.”
And Father Jonah’s prophecy about the victorious (victorious) Easter of 2016 fits surprisingly accurately into this period! And indeed, the most likely moment for the start of the countdown of these hundred years is March 2 (according to modern times) 1917. For on this day the betrayal of the Passion-Bearer Tsar by our people occurred, when the army and people did not rebel against the insane conspirators who were lawlessly abdicating the Tsar from the Kingdom. And it is from this moment that the misfortunes of our people and country begin: the lost, almost won war with Germany under the Tsar; Bolshevik revolution; forced introduction of communism (war communism); Civil War; famine and pestilence - famines in places, etc.
But, if this is so, then these hundred years should end on March 2, 2017, i.e. a little less than a year later. Considering that the Lord “has been at enmity for centuries” (i.e., for a little less than a hundred years), Easter 2016, which will be May 1 (according to the present day), is all the more suitable for this period. Therefore, it is quite possible that it is from her that the Lord will stop these executions on our people, much more serious than the Egyptian ones! Moreover, this prophecy is not even that of an elder, especially since it was transmitted to us through many intermediaries. No, this prophecy is contained in the Holy Scriptures - Ps. 103:9, and therefore is completely reliable! And the words of Elder Jonah about this period associated with this Easter are fully consistent with this biblical prophecy!
But I'm only human, so I could make mistakes. After all, as you know, man only suggests, but God disposes. Perhaps the Lord is counting these hundred years not from the moment of our people’s renunciation of the Tsar (i.e., not from March 2, 1917), but from the day of the villainous murder of the Tsar, i.e. from July 17 or 18, 1918?
Perhaps, but then all of the above still applies. You just need to slightly shift the time frame of future events relative to the last date.
Perhaps, finally, I'm wrong, i.e. Did you understand the words of Holy Scripture too literally: “He is at enmity for ever” (Ps. 103:9)?
Maybe here a century is understood not as a hundred years, but as another, indefinite period of time?
It's possible, but it's easy to check; just wait until mid-July 2018. If the serious disasters affecting our people and country do not stop a little earlier than this, then I was wrong.
What should we do then?
If we have preserved the Orthodox faith, then we should endure (for only “he who endures... will be saved to the end” (Matthew 24:13) and thank God like this: “Glory to God for everything”!
If, nevertheless, I am right in my expectations, and, so to speak, a century-long turning point will occur, the centuries-old severe disasters affecting our people will stop, then we have HOPE!!!” (Archpriest Georgy Gorodentsev, Odessa).
* * *
As we see, from the “Reflections” of Archpriest Georgy Gorodentsev himself, he himself did not hear this “prophecy” from the lips of Elder Jonah of Odessa, and first heard this “prophecy” only in the fall of 2014, that is, he cannot be a witness and references to it are incorrect .
* * *
DTN.
On December 18, 2012, at the 88th year of his life, after a serious long-term illness, the confessor of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko), reposed in the Lord.
On December 22, 2012, His Eminence Agafangel, Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail celebrated the funeral Divine Liturgy for the late spiritual father of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko), in the co-servance of His Eminence Alexy, Archbishop of Balta and Ananyevsk, His Eminence Eulogius, Bishop of Sumy sky and Akhtyrsky, rector of the Odessa Theological the seminary of Archimandrite Seraphim, the abbots of the St. Constantine-Eleninsky Izmail and St. Iveron Odessa monasteries, Archimandrites Sergius and Diodorus, as well as numerous clergy who arrived from various dioceses of the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches.
After the completion of the liturgy, Metropolitan Agafangel addressed the tens of thousands of believers who had gathered that day to say goodbye to the priest with an archpastoral speech, in which he spoke about the difficult life and righteous service of the deceased elder.
Then Metropolitan Agafangel performed the burial ceremony of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah, at which the mayor of Odessa A.A. Kostusev, the First Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights Nina Karpacheva, people's deputies of Ukraine, heads of state authorities, law enforcement agencies, famous political figures, and representatives of the public prayed.
After the end of the funeral service, the coffin with the body of the elder was surrounded by a religious procession around the cathedral, and then at the fraternal cemetery of the Holy Dormition Monastery, His Eminence Agafangel performed a litany for the deceased confessor of the monastery. After the last archpastoral prayers, the body of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah was interred.
.
“And then suddenly the moment came when I realized that that’s it, I can’t live like this, it’s time to save my soul...”
“...life becomes valuable when you live it honestly before people and God, when your advisor is your conscience!”
“It's good to be a monk! Now that you're getting married, how many children can you have? And I’m not married, but do you know how many children I have? I have so many children!”
Man himself cannot be saved in any way; only the Lord saves us. And since the Lord saves, then what is the main thing we need to do?.. We need to pray and work - “Lord, help, but don’t lie down.”
We have become orphans—a great old man, a righteous man, an ascetic of piety, a keeper of the Word of God, a worker of God’s field, has passed away. For three days, tens of thousands of admirers of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah poured into the Holy Dormition Odessa Patriarchal Monastery in an endless stream from all over Ukraine, Russia, and Moldova. Father Jonah will forever remain in the memory of all who knew him as a wise, joyful and perspicacious priest, a strict monk, a zealous faster and prayer worker, a sincere novice, as a man who generously shared his rich life experience, who warmed with his love everyone who turned to him for advice.
The name of the confessor of the monastery, a student of St. Kukshi of Odessa was well known to Orthodox Russian people. Elder Jonah usually took confession not far from the holy relics of St. Kuksha in the Assumption Church of the monastery. In recent years, the elder’s cell, which was located at the gates of the monastery, was always crowded with people. Some have been queuing since 4-5 o'clock in the morning.
Schema-Archimandrite Jonah not only instructed and consoled many people, strengthened them in the faith, but I heard a lot from Orthodox Odessa residents about healings through the prayers of the elder. Father Jonah himself has been seriously ill in recent years
- oncological disease of the spine. Doctors say it can only be called a miracle that Father Jonah lived in recent years. It happens
— the elders, who healed many, themselves humbly bear the cross of serious illnesses.
It always seemed to me that Schema-Archimandrite Jonah was somewhat reminiscent of the Athonite and Glinsk elders. Extraordinary humility and a spirit of love always distinguished the monk Jonah.
While still a simple monk, Jonah cared for many people. Muscovite V. tells the story of his spiritual child Fr. Jonah: “they once told me: if you’re in Odessa, try to meet monk Jonah.” I remember the first time I was taken to the Assumption Monastery to see Father Jonah. He went to obedience, walked with a scythe on his shoulder in a worn cassock with patches, and a large group of Orthodox people gathered around the simple monk who wanted to get answers to their spiritual questions.
At that time, I heard an amazing story that happened in the Assumption Monastery. The late Metropolitan Sergius began to reprimand the brethren that many walk around in old, worn cassocks. Everyone stood and listened to the bishop’s reproaches. But when they approached for the blessing, monk Jonah suddenly appeared, fulfilling the obedience of a diesel engine operator.
Approaching the blessing, Father Jonah bent down and, in front of everyone, wiped his hands, stained with machine oil and diesel fuel, on Metropolitan Sergius’s silk cassock, and then, humbly taking the bishop’s blessing, left. It must be said that Metropolitan Sergius also showed humility and wisdom worthy of an elder. Without saying a word about the monk’s act, the bishop sent new cassocks to the monks of the monastery, who had the thinnest and most patched clothes. Including Father Jonah.
In Schema-Archimandrite Jonah’s cell, among the icons, there was always a portrait of Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov. The elder called Suvorov the Russian Archangel and considered him a saint. The elder said that the commander was a great man of prayer and won with the help of God; the grace of the Holy Spirit strengthened the Russian Archangel.
Even before the glorification of the holy Royal Martyrs, Father Jonah reverently revered them. According to his worldview, Jonah’s father was a monarchist. The elder believed that if there was sincere repentance, then the Merciful Lord, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Heavenly Queen, would restore Holy Rus', headed by the Orthodox Tsar - the Anointed of God.
Some of the priest’s spiritual children said that the elder had a vision of the Mother of God, in which it was revealed that he should be saved in the Assumption Monastery in Odessa. There is testimony from one of the elder’s cell attendants: “The elder did not talk in detail about his youth. But I remember one story. One night he was plowing and accidentally fell asleep at the wheel of a tractor. Suddenly he woke up and saw a woman standing in the headlights in front of the tractor. He turned off the engine, jumped out - no one was there. And in the place where the woman stood there was a cliff. Father Jonah said that it was the Mother of God who saved him from death.”
But it was not easy to get into the monastery for obedience in those Soviet times. The Assumption Monastery is a special monastery. Its history is closely connected with the names and activities of such outstanding people and saints as the martyr. Parthenius of Kiziltash, prmch. Vladimir, Rev. Kuksha of Odessa, Bishop Porfiry Uspensky, Metropolitan Gabriel Banulesco-Bodoni, Archbishop Nikon Petin, Metropolitan Sergius, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy I, His Holiness Patriarch Pimen and many other outstanding personalities...
According to legend, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia Gabriel (Banulesko-Bodoni), Exarch of Moldovalachia, back in 1804, while in Odessa, expressed his admiration for the wonderful view and location of the dacha of Alexander Teutul.
Having learned about Alexander Teutul’s desire to build a church and a lighthouse here, he soon blessed the construction of a monastery for men on this site.
In 1814, a bishop's courtyard was founded on the donated land, and in 1820, Metropolitan Gavri-il petitioned for the establishment of a monastery. In 1824, the petition was finally approved.
Thus, in the first quarter of the 19th century, the Odessa Holy Dormition Monastery appeared in the south of Russia, which for two centuries was the center of spirituality and piety. Here they tirelessly pray that God would grant peace and prosperity to the troubled world, that the Lord would bring the lost into the bosom of the Orthodox Church, for the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, for teaching everyone the truth of God, for awakening those slumbering in sinfulness to repentance.
Among the brethren of the monastery there are many spirit-bearing elders, to whom hundreds, thousands of people from all over Holy Rus' turn. The Holy Dormition Monastery became a great school of spiritual life.
Today, when good morals are being revived in Holy Rus', the traditions of monastic life are being revived, our society is increasingly experiencing an urgent need to strengthen spiritual and moral principles. Particularly important is the life experience of the best of the best elder monks, such as: Archimandrite John Krestyankin, Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), Schema-Archimandrite Zosima (Sokur), Archpriest Nikolai (Guryanov) and, of course, our Odessa elder - Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko).
Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (in the world Ignatenko Vladimir Afanasyevich) was born in the Kirovograd region on October 10, 1925, and was named in baptism in honor of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. He was the ninth child in the family. It was a hard, godless time. His mother was 45 years old when she gave birth to little Vladimir. The parents were believers - father Afanasy, mother Pelagia. They lived very poorly, but joyfully - with God, under the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. The family had one horse and two cows. As Father Jonah recalled: “The new government came to dismantle us. A family of eleven people! What kind of kulaks are we?.. One of the reasons for dispossession was that we did not hide our faith in God and attended church.”
Father Jonah was instilled with love for God and people from childhood. He often told his spiritual children about hard peasant labor and peasant piety, about his childhood.
In the 30s of the twentieth century, the fight against the church reached its climax, churches and monasteries were destroyed. Priests and monks were exiled to Siberia. There were only 3 churches left in Odessa at that time. During these years, little Vladimir went to school. Father often said:
“When I come home from school, I’ll go up to my mother and say... At school they say there is no God, but my mother answers me - don’t believe Volodya, there is a God. Without God there is no way to reach the threshold; prayer and work will grind everything down. These mother’s words still help me now.”
“Prayer and work are two wings,” Father Jonah often said to his spiritual children.
In 1937, Father Jonah graduated from four-year school and soon moved to Georgia. From 1941, at the age of sixteen, he worked in the oil fields until 1948. After the war, he moved to Moldova, where he lived until 1970.
The priest first came to the Holy Dormition Patriarchal Monastery in 1964, when he lived in Moldova.
This year was special for the monastery - on December 24, 1964, the Monk Kuksha of Odessa reposed. The elder’s readers see God’s providence in this - one elder was replaced by another.
In 1971, Father Jonah was accepted into the brethren of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery.
“The struggle against selfishness is difficult, but everything is accomplished in this world by the grace of God.”
On March 25, 1973, novice Vladimir was ordained into monasticism by His Eminence Sergius (Petrov), Metropolitan of Odessa and Kherson.
Love, meekness, humility, forgiveness, kindness, non-malice, non-judgment, non-offense - all this, with God’s help, the elder acquired during his years in the monastery, and passed on to his spiritual children.
On April 8, 1979, Father Jonah was tonsured a monk by the abbot of the Holy Dormition Monastery, Archimandrite Polycarp, in honor of St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus', miracle worker (March 31/April 13).
On February 22, 1990, he was ordained to the priesthood by vicar bishop Ioannikiy (soon to become Metropolitan of Lugansk and Alchevsk), in the Holy Dormition Church of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery.
In 1993, dear Father Jonah became abbot, and on April 22, 1998 he received the rank of archimandrite. While still an abbot, the priest becomes one of the confessors of the Holy Dormition Monastery.
And until recently, in this monastery, the priest, having passed the path from a novice to a schema-archimandrite and confessor of the monastery - everyone who turned to him, instructed, accepted, admonished, begged, taught to live always with God, to thank God - and for sorrow, and for joy.
“Schiema-Archimandrite Jonah has three heavenly patrons,” said Bishop Agathangel, “St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, St. Jonah, Metropolitan of Moscow, in whose honor he took his first monastic vows, and in the schema the prophet Jonah. The gracious qualities of these three great saints of the Orthodox Church, by the grace of God, are inherent in Elder Jonah and his ascetic life.”
For the last decades, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah has been the confessor of the Holy Dormition Monastery in the city of Odessa. People came to the elder not only from all over Ukraine, but also from Siberia, the Urals, and Moscow. Among the spiritual children of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah there are many governors of monasteries, abbots of churches, monastics and ordinary lay people. The elder received everyone with equal attention - high-ranking government officials, and ordinary villagers and workers. I think that everyone who, by the grace of God, had the opportunity to talk with the elder, forever remembered the meeting with Schema-Archimandrite Jonah.
Being seriously ill, Elder Jonah continued to receive people. They say that even a week before his death, being already on his deathbed, lying in bed, he continued the reception. Metropolitan Agathangel himself told him: “Take care of yourself, father. You’ve only just recovered, and people tire you out a lot.” To which Father Jonah replied: “Why did I undergo treatment? That’s why I was sent here, to help people with my prayers!” How can such love for people disappear with the transition of the old man’s soul to Christ the Savior - the Source of Love? We know that in Eternity Father Jonah will not stop praying for us sinners.
Schema-Archimandrite Jonah loved people. His sensitive heart accepted everyone who wanted to serve God, people, and the Fatherland. His mere presence inspired Love, Faith and Hope with genuine sincerity.
Schema-Archimandrite Jonah firmly believed that the Lord and the Mother of God would not abandon Holy Rus'. Schema-Archimandrite Jonah mourned that politicians were tearing Ukraine away from Russia. Father said: “There is no separate Ukraine and Russia, but there is a single Holy Rus'. And the enemies decided to divide us in order to destroy Orthodoxy in Little Rus'. But the Lord will not allow that.”
Anyone who felt the need or need for spiritual nourishment, consolation or help from the priest always came to him! Often the elder himself approached those in need. The servant of God Lydia says: “We live in Tulchin. I have long wanted to see the elder and ask him to pray for my family. Finally we managed to get ready and we went to Odessa with pilgrims to the Holy Dormition Monastery to venerate the relics of St. Kuksha of Odessa. When we arrived at the monastery, we learned that Father Jonah had returned from Athos. But everyone said that we were unlikely to see him. But I hoped and the incredible happened: I not only saw him, but also received a blessing from him, when I was putting a candle, he himself came up to me and... straightened my candle! ...and anointed him with oil!”
Father Jonah taught that we should not chase after worldly things, but first of all we should value life and spiritual things. “We must ask the Lord for the salvation of our souls.” The servant of God Vyacheslav says: “we visited Father Jonah several times, due to family circumstances - we have a large family - we did not visit him for more than six months, what a joy it was when we were able to visit him and suddenly heard how Is Vitalik there?.. (this is our eldest son). Father called our names and talked to us, although we saw him only once at that time and after that he had many visitors. We clearly felt his prayerful support and help. Soon I was able to get a good job, and my son's (then a very naughty teenager) behavior improved in many ways. Another time we came to the monastery with a friend of my son: he really wanted to see Father (then Archimandrite) Jonah. They waited for a very long time, but then a monk came out and asked for help in moving a lot of heavy things and unloading the car, we went to help, and he stayed, but he didn’t wait and left sadly - and we were lucky, when we returned, he came out It was the cell attendant who led us to the elder!
In addition to the blessing, we also received a gift, wonderful are Your works, Lord!”
When the priest was very ill, he was very worried about the people who were waiting for him and came specially to him - very often he sent his cell attendant to them with some kind of message or gift. It was a great consolation when the cell attendant came out and handed out fruits or cookies... various things... all this from the blessed hand of Father Jonah. You could give the cell attendant a note with a request.”
Father Jonah says: “Complain to God alone, ask him, expect help from him... “May the Lord heal you!
Father Jonah, an amazing old man, both ordinary laymen and the “powerful of this world” came to him for spiritual advice. Many who saw him said: “God speaks through him!”
Servant of God Andrei, editor of one of the Orthodox newspapers, warmly recalls his meetings with Father Jonah: “He taught me a lot and, above all, to be forgiving of people’s shortcomings and weaknesses.” Fourteen years ago I was lucky enough to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Father Jonah. “The reliquary cross that he gave me then is always with me.”
The elder once said: “...life becomes valuable when you live it honestly before people and God, when your advisor is conscience!”
Father was easy to use, he had no theological education, but the Lord revealed many secrets to him.
One day the priest came out of the altar and said to one woman: “Decide for yourself whether you need my help or not...” indirectly convicting her of doubt.
Many were surprised by his insight. “Once upon a time, when you could approach your priest freely, I had a conflict with management at work. And they pressed me so hard that I decided to complain to my superiors. On the way to work I stopped at a monastery. Father met me on the threshold of the temple with the words: “Where do you want the reward?” Here on earth or in the Kingdom of Heaven? I was taken aback. And o. Jonah told me to go to work immediately, not to complain to anyone, and as a boss, the higher management would give me a head-scratcher and he would blame me for everything, without making excuses, to ask for forgiveness. I did just that. It was hard. I got sick. And during the illness, the boss was removed” (Servant of God Elena).
An unusual case was described by Vladimir Artemevich Kutsiv, who was shocked by the elder’s foresight. Two years ago he unwittingly witnessed the following. One of his friends, the father of four sons, had constant conflicts with his mother-in-law. When the mother-in-law found out that her daughter was pregnant for the fifth time, she created a scandal and either jokingly or seriously told her son-in-law - if a boy is born again, you will move out of the apartment. Frightened and confused, he told me this story. I don’t know why I told him - let’s go to Elder Jonah. I want to give him my book “The Truth,” and you turn to him with your request. We took his wife and went to the monastery. We were lucky when we arrived, Father Jonah met us and the first thing he said to me after I handed him the book was “I’ve been waiting for it for a long time,” although I saw him in person a long time ago, back in 2001. After that, he called my friend’s wife and prayed for an hour. Soon she gave birth to a daughter.”
Father Jonah was very attentive to those around him - here is an excerpt from the memoirs of the teacher of the Poltava Theological Seminary Anton Pavlovich Kopach, who, when he was a novice of the Holy Dormition Monastery, served as cell attendant for Father Jonah for several years: “like many , I dreamed of such a spiritual mentor, I prayed about it. But I couldn’t even imagine under what circumstances I would get to see Father Jonah. He didn’t need cell attendants at all then. He was very independent and could easily take care of himself. Jonah's father suffered from a leg disease. Every evening he steamed them. It was necessary to bring a bucket of hot water, and after the procedure, lubricate the legs with medicinal ointment. This obedience was carried out by a novice named Yakov. With the blessing of Father Jonah, he went to Athos; after Yakov left, from 1998 to 2001 I was his cell attendant, if you can call it that. I remember the first time I came to him with a bucket of hot water. He knocked and said why he came. Come in, he says. While I was doing the procedure, Father Jonah prayed silently. Then he said: “Everything will be fine with you. God will give everything." I have lived and live with these words of his in my memory and soul all these years. One day his brother came to visit Hieromonk Jonah. I’m carrying water and hear my brother talking about me: “Why do you need him, why is he walking around here?” And Father Jonah responds to this: “It’s not he who needs me, but him who needs me.”
While Father Jonah was soaring his feet, I read aloud a prayer rule or a book - whatever he asked. His favorite book was the teachings of St. Silouan of Athos.
Athos occupied a special place in the heart of the elder. He visited there several times and always spoke with his soul about the Holy Mountain. He really wanted to go there. In Great
The Lavra treated him very respectfully. But Father Jonah always said that the Mother of God showed him a place in the Holy Dormition Monastery, and that it was Her will that he be here.”
He was a man of great humility. This absolute humility manifested itself in literally everything. How many people the priest wiped away the tears of, how many he led to faith, only the Lord knows. For me personally, Father was a support, a joy and a comforter, a man of prayer for many years. How much love he had for people! Even on his deathbed, two days before his death, he received people. How can we not feel sorry for him! I will never forget how, in late autumn, people already in warm jackets and hats, on the way from the temple to the cell, surrounded him and for a long, long time did not let him go, dressed in a light cassock. Father was already blue from the cold, but he patiently blessed and handed out something. And it didn’t occur to anyone that the priest was very cold and it was time to let him go. Father, forgive us. How many times have I rushed headlong to the monastery to receive a blessing, to give a note asking for prayer. Or at least to see him from afar and your soul immediately became calm. Father had an amazing ability, when communicating with him or simply seeing how he says something for the benefit of the soul, somehow immediately all the problems and sorrows with which you came went into the background, and immediately became in the foreground. thoughts about the future life, about eternity, about God, a kind of calm appeared, strength to continue living, to endure sorrows, a kind of “second wind” opened up and you always left comforted (from the memories of God’s servant Lydia).
“11 years ago I had a moment when I wanted to commit suicide (at 21). It was at that moment that they stopped me and told me about Fr. Jonah. I went to church, asked the priest for his blessing on the way to the elder, and went to the monastery. Before the trip, I fasted for several days so that upon arrival I could confess and receive communion, and I read prayers all the way.
It was a weekend and there were a lot of people. Some had already arrived in the evening, but I arrived at 6 am. I joined the queue (I was about 15th) and went to the temple. After the service, the monks brought the elder to his cell. People immediately entered, as many as they could fit, and I was already not the 15th, but about the thirtieth in line. All I could do was stand on the street and pray. There were, of course, thoughts that condemned others, but I pushed them further and thought even more about prayer.
I didn’t get to the cell for the conversation that day and was very upset, but I resigned myself to it. When Father Jonah was already leaving, I thought: “Probably God thinks that I’m not ready.” And at that moment he came up to me himself. He didn’t say what, but gave his blessing. And only many years later I understand that he blessed my thoughts, because from that day I began to think differently. I felt some kind of balance and confidence in the future inside me.
And then, for five months, every week I came to the monastery and every time I ended up with Fr. Jonah either in his cell, or to confession, or he simply came up to me after everyone else, silently anointed me with oil and moved on.
From all the meetings and conversations with him, I not only understood, but felt that one must be able to come to terms with any life situation within. But only with soul and spirit, and continue the work. Humility is the balance of soul and spirit. God rejoices in a humble spirit, just as parents rejoice in an obedient child.” Unfortunately, I don’t know the author of these words, but I took the liberty of citing them in this short article, because the conclusions that this wise girl made after meeting her father are very consistent with the story of another friend of mine who received spiritual balance and confidence in the future through the prayers of the dear elder.
“...This is the first person who showed me that in order to be in this life “BE” with a capital B, to be happy, to have peace of mind - for this you do not need to have perfect health, a career, a lot of money, success , etc. As a teenager, I thought that life is valuable when there is health, success, money. Now, that's not true. Thanks to Father Jonah, and people like him, for understanding that life becomes valuable when you live it honestly before people and God, when you follow the path of your heart, your true conscience. and then it doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor!” (b. B. Alexander).
He suffered a difficult fate, he accepted all the pain and tears that pilgrims brought to the monastery. He himself was for many the last hope and protector.
Igor Zhdankin, an artist and icon painter, says: “At one time I was often able to confess to Father Jonah. Sometimes during Vespers in the Assumption Church I was allowed into the sexton, where the priest came out of the altar and accepted confession, as always with great participation, warmth and sincere empathy. What heart will not melt from such love, and who can measure how many tons of cargo we have left under His Epistle and Rachel! That’s why the healthy and the sick, the rich and the poor, fathers, bishops, monks, believers and atheists strove to Him from everywhere. He accepted everyone, prayed for everyone, and the love of Christ was enough for everyone.
One summer, a priest we knew and his family from near Kyiv, Fr. Vladimir. And of course he wanted to meet the Elder. We arrived at the monastery, venerated the relics of St. Kuksha, lit candles, and after spending a little time in the temple, having learned that Father Jonah was in the sexton, we hurried to him. It must be said that this was at a time when he broke his hip and had difficulty moving with the help of crutches. Therefore, he was not in the altar, but sat on a chair at the entrance to the altar and listened to the kathismas. Father, bless... God bless... Father Vladimir knelt down and began to confess. I walked away, stood at a distance, two or three meters closer to the door of the sexton, and no longer heard them at all. Some time passed, maybe 10-15 minutes, when suddenly an elderly monk angrily came out of the altar and shouted very rudely and somehow angrily through his teeth - don’t you hear, Jonah? “Prayers are going on in the temple, and here you are busy chatting, well, stop!” That’s when everything flared up inside me. Yes, who are you, they say, to point out, and even to whom - Father Jonah himself, but confession is not chatter, and all this is boiling inside me with curses and indignation... And Father Jonah takes a crutch, gets up with difficulty chair, bows to the old man to the ground, heaves with pain, looks into his eyes and in a tearful voice - FORGIVE ME, BROTHER... The monk looked, silently nodded his head and disappeared into the depths of the altar. I don’t know about him, but I hid my tears, tears of shame and bitterness from my insignificance and pride, which manifested itself so clearly against the background of holy humility...”
And here is an excerpt from another memoir: “Father Jonah confessed in the chapel of the Assumption Church. The aisle is cramped, people will surround it with a tight wall, there is no air. And he sits there with his sore legs before the service, and throughout the service, and after the service. He confesses everything. The other priests have already finished and gone to the altar, and the crowd of confessors stands around Father Jonah. Enormous popularity among the people was a heavy cross for Father Jonah, which he bore without complaint. He was constantly surrounded by people and their respect. And not just reading, but almost adoration. Outwardly weak, sick, he endured everything, did not reproach anyone. This was his martyrdom, his Golgotha. There were a lot of people around him who weren’t quite adequate.”
Many people came to the elder for advice. They say, Father Jonah, bless me to do this and that. Father Jonah sighs and prays: “God help you!” And he never argued with people, even if he disagreed with something. Humility was the main thing for him. The servant of God A. says: “I was in the elder’s cell several times. His cell in the corner turret on the second floor was cold in winter and terribly hot in summer, as it faced the sunny side. In addition, it was constantly smoky - there was a stove-heated shower downstairs. When this broken stove was lit twice a week, the smoke seeped upward, where the old monks lived, including Father Jonah. Elderly and sick, he never complained about it. He slept on the floor. There was a bed in the cell, but, as a rule, it was all filled with books and other things, gifts that people brought to Father Jonah. He often gave his guests something from this bed.”
On December 18, 2012, at the 88th year of his life, after a serious long-term illness, the elder quietly passed on to the Lord.
On December 22, His Eminence Agafangel, Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail, performed a funeral service for the late spiritual father of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko), in the co-servance of His Eminence Alexy, Archbishop of Balta and Ananyevsk, His Eminence Eulogius, Bishop of Sumy and Akhtyrka, who is the Odessa Du- the theological seminary of Archimandrite Seraphim, the abbots of the St. Constantine-Eleninsky Izmail and St. Iveron Odessa monasteries, Archimandrites Sergius and Diodorus, as well as numerous clergy who arrived from various dioceses of the Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox Churches.
After the completion of the liturgy, Metropolitan Agafangel addressed the tens of thousands of believers who had gathered that day to say goodbye to the priest with an archpastoral speech, in which he spoke about the difficult life and righteous service of the deceased elder. With tears in his eyes and sorrow in his voice, the Bishop emphasized that the future confessor of the monastery was born into a large peasant family of 11 children, and from childhood he worked hard to survive in those difficult and hungry times.
In 1971, already a mature man, he arrived at the monastery and humbly worked in many obediences: he did chores, mowed grass, and looked after animals.
Father Jonah, without a higher secular education, here in the monastery, through fasting and prayer, went through a difficult monastic school, spiritually ascending through all levels - from novice to confessor of the monastery. Tens of thousands of people came to his cell and will come to his grave to ask for his prayers for the suffering and burdened, the sick and the grieving. And the elder did not refuse anyone, taking upon himself this pain and spiritual weakness. An example for him was the Monk Kuksha, who also devoted his life to serving God and people, and within the walls of this monastery bore his difficult cross of clergy. Father Jonah had a lot in common with the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, who joyfully greeted everyone who came to him for advice and help. Already seriously ill and on his deathbed, Father Jonah radiated that indescribable light of love that warmed everyone, filling people’s hearts with the warmth of faith and hope. Ardent faith, constant prayerful attitude, sacrificial love for the Church and flock, zeal for the glory of God earned Father Jonah pan-Orthodox fame and deep veneration. Ordinary people, ministers, deputies, famous politicians, and heads of state came to his cell for wise advice. Everything he did was dedicated to one single need - the living preaching of Christ Crucified and Risen. His pastoral words, addressed both to those who came to him and to people living far from the monastery, were filled with warmth and concern for salvation.
Today we have come here to honor the memory of this ascetic of piety. During his life, he was content with little, was a strict ascetic and faster. And now he no longer needs anything at all except our prayers, so that the all-merciful Lord will rest his soul in the villages of the righteous. As it is said in the rite of the funeral service in a petition on behalf of the deceased: “my spiritual brothers and sisters, do not forget me, when you pray, but when you see my grave, remember my love and pray to Christ that my spirit may make peace with the righteous.”
Then Metropolitan Agathangel performed the burial ceremony for Schema-Archimandrite Jonah.
After the end of the funeral service, the coffin with the body of the elder was surrounded by a religious procession around the cathedral, and then at the brotherly cemetery of the Holy Dormition Monastery, His Eminence Agathangel performed a litany for the deceased confessor of the monastery. After the last archpastoral prayers, the body of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah was interred. This luminous memorial service will now remain in our memory forever. The seminary and monastic choir sang angelically, and together with the incense smoke our prayers ascended to the Throne of God. What a blessing that we are Orthodox. The bitterness of the loss of the holy elder among all who attended the funeral service was replaced by quiet joy for his soul. We are all going to the last earthly line. But this trait does not mean the end of life, but this is a birthday to eternal life.
Odessa residents will always remember the old man. His stay was a gift from God for the people of Odessa.
The Kingdom of Heaven to the newly departed servant of God Schema-Archimandrite Jonah, the great Russian elder, the perspicacious monk, the good priest. May the land of Odessa not be depleted of such spiritual talents. We will pray for you before the Lord God, dear Schema-Archimandrite Jonah! Pray for us sinners when you come to the Kingdom of Heaven!
“Rest, O Lord, the soul of Your newly departed servant Schema-Archimandrite Jonah, forgive him his voluntary and involuntary sins and grant him eternal memory!”
“Conscience is more valuable than millions and trillions, and whoever has lost his conscience is easy to steal, slander, kill, rob, they follow the broad path and we, Orthodox Christians, do not envy them...”
The words I put in the title are taken from one of the interviews given by the resident of the Odessa Patriarchal Holy Dormition Monastery, Schema-Archimandrite Jonah (Ignatenko), during one of his visits to Holy Mount Athos and, in particular, to the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. The conversation between the elder and Sergei Seryubin is important for all of us Orthodox, because it concerns the very foundations of our lives, reminds us of what we all seem to have forgotten - about conscience and work. And, of course, about prayer.
But first we need to talk about Father Jonah himself. After all, he is an amazing old man, known to many as one of the monks and confessor of the Odessa Patriarchal Holy Dormition Monastery. Many people came and still come to Odessa from all over the world to meet him, receive his blessing, ask for advice and ask for prayer. Even his spiritual children know little about the life of Elder Jonah. Father was born in 1925 into a large family, the ninth child. Father Jonah always spoke of his parents with deep respect, saying that “mother and father never cheated on mother because they were with God, we were raised in work and prayer.” In the 30s they were dispossessed. And since the family was doomed to starvation, the priest, while still a teenager, instead of going to school, was forced to earn his living.
During the Great Patriotic War, in the rear, he worked for days at a defense enterprise and received a very small bread ration for this. All his life he worked very hard: as a tractor driver, a miner, and in the oil fields. Closer to the age of 40, he fell ill with tuberculosis. “...And then suddenly the moment came when I realized that everything... it’s impossible to live like this... it’s time to save my soul...” - this is what Father Jonah himself said. While in the hospital, and seeing people around him dying from this disease, he swore to God that if the Lord healed, he would go to a monastery. And the future elder had a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos, who pointed him to the Odessa Holy Dormition Monastery. Since then, Father Jonah has been a monk for more than 40 years.
We have few true elders today. Let's listen to the voice of one of them.
Father Jonah says this: “Man himself cannot be saved - only by the grace of God. A person must pray and work - these are two wings. “Lord, help me, but don’t lie down yourself.” There will be no heaven on earth, only in Heaven. Repentance is necessary. The grace of God alone keeps us on earth. One smallest demon can turn over the earth with one claw, - this is what St. Seraphim of Sarov said in a conversation with Motovilov.”
And very relevant topics were raised in that conversation, for example, the recent Euro 2012 football championship: “Today few people go to church, but many go to games, the stadium is full, especially for football. Small children play, but adults should not play, but work and pray. The game is from the devil, so that people do not pray. Here’s a ball (ball) rolling around, just don’t pray, people, just play.”
This, the elder believes, is where family problems arise: “Children should not be idle, they should help their parents, and not play on the computer endlessly. Previously, especially in the villages, all children worked - they helped their parents, and there was no self-indulgence, because... They were always busy with work, prayer and teaching. If children are naughty, then they should be taken to the corners and each person should be read 3 times “Our Father...” and 12 “Theotokos”, and the Lord will admonish them, or they should bow down and not play around. And parents should at least cross their children when they go somewhere, or better yet bless them so that the eternal enemy of the human race cannot approach them.”
We all know that prayer is higher than work. And why? The answer is given by Father Jonah: “The Holy Prophet of God Elijah was a man like us, but with prayer he buried the sky for 3.5 years, and there was no rain in Israel. And the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, through prayer the Lord opened the Red Sea, and then, in the desert, they walked for 40 years and God fed them with manna - heavenly bread, and their clothes and shoes did not wear out, but those that was a child, grew with the body and remained incorruptible. The Venerable Mary of Egypt spent 48 years in the desert in repentance and prayer, nourished by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel tells how our Lord Jesus Christ fed 5 thousand people with five loaves and two fish, not counting wives and children, and then another 12 baskets remained - according to the number of apostles - of heavenly bread for prayer. And the Jesus Prayer is like air, just like breathing, you need to pray. And also - control your thoughts, as they say - think carefully, your thoughts are recorded in Heaven.”
Probably many have noticed that good people often suffer, while wicked people prosper. Why is that? Elder Jonah says that on earth we are undergoing a test. “It's all about conscience. Conscience is more valuable than millions and trillions, and whoever has lost his conscience is easy to steal, slander, kill, rob, they follow the broad path and we, Orthodox Christians, do not envy them.” The Lord punishes whomever he loves - we all read this in the Holy Scriptures.
But the Orthodox are the new Israel, God’s chosen people, says Father Jonah. And the goal of our life is to unite with God forever, acquire the Holy Spirit and correctly glorify God.
“Our language is not Russian, not Belarusian and not Ukrainian, but Slavic. In Kyiv, the relics of 130 saints and all of them spoke and served in Slavic. God gave the Slavic language to the saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius. Gog and Magog are a prototype of the Slavic tribes that will merge with each other and conquer the whole world. But this will happen only if they take up the faith, and if they have a king or an Orthodox ruler. So, the Westerners divided Rus', but it is one: Great Russia, because it is big, Little Russia is smaller, Kyiv is smaller than Moscow, and Ukraine is Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk - they live on the outskirts. Russia will receive great help from God. We need to pray for Russia so that there will be an Orthodox ruler.” How can one not recall the sad and therefore especially instructive example of fraternal Yugoslavia - after the translation of the Divine Service from Church Slavonic into the Serbian language (for greater understanding, apparently), the striking power of NATO fell on the country, and such a country no longer exists.
The problems of world politics, including energy, are also not alien to the elder: “Today the Russians have great power - God loves them and gave them fuel for the whole world, without gas and oil no one can do anything. If the Russians don’t provide gas and oil, there will be no harvest - here in Cyprus they harvest two harvests thanks to Russia, and there will be no heat in the winter if the Russians don’t provide gas.”
And so, can we say that it unexpectedly sounds: “Near us, in the Black Sea, there is hydrogen sulfide, it is he who descended on Sodom and Gomorrah. Hydrogen sulfide is still held by water, and it cannot combine with air, and if this happens, a fiery rain will fall and we will all die, it will burn us.” And how can one not remember that the Black Sea was previously called Russian because Russians live behind it, and the hydrogen sulfide in its bottom depths is of biological, and not geological, as in many other places, origin. This phenomenon, unique to planet Earth, turns out to also have an eschatological explanation. Especially if we remember Ukraine’s persistent attempts to extract gas and oil from the Black Sea shelf and the uncontrollable desire to sell these areas at a higher price and, preferably, to foreigners.
“Today it is necessary for all Orthodox Christians in Rus' to unite and demand from the government to be guided by the Orthodox Faith and God’s help, and to unite with God forever - this is the goal of our life” - this, we can probably say, is the spiritual testament of Schema-Archimandrite Jonah.
Until recently, numerous crowds of pilgrims waited at the porch of St. Nicholas Church at the end of the Divine Liturgy to see if Father Jonah would come out, what he would say, and what if the Lord would deign to receive a blessing. And the elder, despite his illness and fatigue, always talked with people, distributed prosphora and icons. Then all this multitude of people moved to his cell and the conversations continued there until people understood that the hundred elder was also a man, and not entirely healthy, to put it mildly, and he was already 85 years old. And even earlier - a long line of sufferers, believers and not so much, whose last hope was the prayer of Father Jonah - this line stretched from the elder’s cell to the monastery gates and beyond...
Today Father Jonah is back in the monastery after long-term treatment in hospitals in Odessa and Kyiv, because he is seriously ill. We all really hope that the pious reader will pray for the health of the ill Schema-Archimandrite Jonah and think not only about how he prays, but also remember about work, and most importantly, about conscience. After all, she is the voice of God in man.
A year ago - on December 18, 2012 in Odessa, in the Holy Dormition Patriarchal Monastery, the confessor of the monastery, one of the most revered elders of our Church, whose words: “There is no separate Ukraine and Russia, but there is one Holy Rus',” passed away into eternity. many hearts...
He was born on October 10, 1925 into a large peasant family in the center of Soviet Ukraine; now these are the lands of the Kirovograd region; at baptism he was named Vladimir, in honor of the Baptist of Rus'... What time was it? That year, having suffered, Patriarch Tikhon died and the persecution of the Church intensified; that year the monstrous “Union of Atheists” was created, later renamed the “Union of Militant Atheists.” “Through godlessness - to communism!” - was the slogan of this organization. Remarkable state forces were involved in the process of godlessness, as a result of which Volodya Ignatenko had to grow up as a man who did not know God. Simultaneously with the state “storming of heaven,” a renovationist schism was implanted within the Church...
The story is old, but in connection with the preparation of another schism in Ukraine (the “orange” group is moving to prominent positions in the UOC), it is worth remembering that fighters against the church tradition of the twenties came up with the so-called. “living church”, which Patriarch Tikhon and the believing people did not recognize...
Before Easter 2013, a priest appeared to one woman (her husband is the spiritual child of Father Jonah) in a subtle dream at dawn and clearly said: “Tell them: I am alive!” He appeared at full height, wearing his schematic robe, with a priestly cross... She didn’t know who “them” was.
“To them,” perhaps not only his spiritual children, but also new fighters against the Church, new renovationists, “Westerners”...
In the 1920-1930s, all institutions created to fight the Church, as well as the curators of these organizations from the NKVD, faced an obstacle of insurmountable force. This obstacle turned out to be family. Orthodox family.
According to the plan of the Anti-Religious Commission, drawn up by militant atheists, by 1936-1937 religion was supposed to be expelled from its most secluded corners. The most secluded corner is the family, where the conversation between mother and child takes place.
Elder Jonah more than once recalled his mother: “I was 11 years old in 1936, I was the youngest, ninth in the family. At school they tell us: why pray, we will make cars, we will make the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station and there will be communism, everyone will be equal, everyone will be in abundance... I come home and say: “Mom, at school they say: you don’t need to pray, they will make heaven.” She: “Children, don’t listen to the atheists, you need to pray! There will be no heaven on earth... Labor and prayer save a person...” In other homes, mothers and grandmothers answered the “enlightened” children: “They don’t have God. And we have it!”
The 1937 census, after a decade and a half of rabid anti-religious propaganda, showed that 55 million (that’s 56% of the population who took part in the census, aged 16 and older) were believers.
Now, in the 21st century, when attacking the family, including the institution of motherhood, the dashing pseudo-Europeans clearly took into account the experience of their predecessors.
During the years of collectivization, the Ignatenko family was dispossessed. The elder recalled, without judging, with humility: “Everyone took... the last cow. Why were they dispossessed?! Because my father worked very hard all his life?!” He saw in his parents a model of marriage: “Mother and father never cheated on mother, because they were with God...”
Strange as it may seem, not much is known about his life. Some information is contradictory. He graduated from four classes and had no opportunity to study further. By worldly standards he was an uneducated man. But the elder knew more about people than he could say. This was realized later.
In his youth, he worked on a collective farm as a tractor driver, and one day he fell asleep at the wheel from exhaustion. The tractor drove by itself. Vladimir opened his eyes and saw a person in front of him - a woman! He braked sharply and jumped out of the cab. There was no one. But under the wheels of the tractor there was a ravine. The elder knew that the Mother of God saved him.
In search of income, he went to the coal region and worked as a miner. Then he moved to the Caucasus, worked long and hard in the oil fields. Having learned about hermit monks living in Abkhazia, he went to them and lived among them, as they say, for several years. He dreamed of his mother. The monks said: he is praying for you, he is grieving. He returned to Ukraine. Lived in Moldova. Was married. In 1964, he first came to the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery. That year, in the monastery, the famous elder, Fr. Kuksha (Velichko). Vladimir wanted to become a novice, but he was not accepted. Near the monastery, in a clay mountain above the sea, he built himself a dugout cave and lived in it; they say he even spent the winter there. He understood technology. The monastery was without electricity. Vladimir adjusted the operation of the diesel unit. Five years later, in 1971, he was accepted into the brethren.
How they came and came to Fr. Kuksha, so over time they began to come from all over the world to Fr. Jonah. There were always a lot of people around him. People lined up to see him for confession, sometimes from three to four o’clock in the morning. But when he was not very ill (he suffered from a leg disease), he often spoke with groups of people - both in his cell and in the open air - on the monastery paths.
It’s interesting that he told people the same thing for years - about his difficult childhood, about his mother’s words, he talked about Seraphim of Sarov, and never tired of repeating that conscience is more valuable than millions and that it is easy for someone who has lost his conscience to steal, slander, kill , rob, rape... They follow the broad path, but we, Orthodox Christians, do not envy them. By conviction, he was a monarchist, a statesman, he loved and respected the Tsar and his family.
Despite all the repetitions, his conversations, as it turned out, had an enduring, universal character. In his words, each person could find something personally addressed to him. Watching some of the videos posted on YouTube now, you are surprised that the elder’s speeches, delivered, say, five years ago, are relevant, as if born in the molten magma of today. Here he speaks about faith and suddenly, innocently, about the West: “We must adhere to our Orthodox faith, this is the correct faith. Fulfill God's Law. The law of God is not violated (does not change), but the law of the state is violated. There was an All-Russian law, and now it’s a Ukrainian law. It was the Westerners who seduced us. And in the West - fiery Gehenna.
When we read Semyon Divnogorets, the book of life was opened to him: in the East there is Paradise of sweets, and in the West there is fiery Gehenna. Therefore, we cannot submit to the West. Believe them.
But people believed and defeated such a large country...”
The name Jonah means "dove". He was humble and heavenly, like a dove. He never got angry or argued with anyone. He just nods his head: “Well, yes, well, yes...”. And he will continue. It happened that he was severely offended. He treated this with humility: the fate of an old man.
Meet the spiritual children of Fr. Ions can be found everywhere, he had so many of them. Everyone has their own story.
An incident brought me together with Vladimir, a retired police colonel. He held very important positions, including heading the internal security service of the Odessa police, which in fact is a counterintelligence service. But his career began in the small town of Smela. In the early 1990s, he worked as the head of the linear department of the transport police at the station named after. T. Shevchenko. It is customary in law enforcement agencies to “shuffle leadership cadres.” Vladimir was offered to move to Odessa and take the same position. Under normal circumstances this would be a promotion. But in those years, entire gangs operated in the police, and in Odessa they stole by the trainload, selling goods through the market. Vladimir did not want to move, the work was smooth, his unit took first place. He was already a churchgoer, he knew Fr. Jonah. In church during the service, he mentally addressed him, unable to make a decision: bring some sense, Father Jonah! Suddenly an unfamiliar woman approached him and asked: “Are you Volodya, do you work in the police?” Father Jonah gave you two prosphoras and a blessing to go to Odessa. Everything turned out well. You can write memoirs about your service in Odessa. Over time, Vladimir took the position of chief of police of the Odessa Railway, which runs through six regions. Then I was invited to work in the internal security service. He began to visit Fr. often. Ions. I brought some of my colleagues to him. He recalls a difficult incident when a colleague was planning to celebrate his daughter’s wedding in Lent. Father Jonah did not bless. But the colleague’s family ridiculed him, saying that he had found someone to listen to, some monk... The misfortunes began with the fact that the colleague was transporting a truck with champagne and vodka to the wedding, got into an accident, everything was broken into pieces. Then the groom was attacked by punks and his cheek was cut. And when the wedding was being played, during the dance a colleague fell out of the blue so that he tore his ligaments, broke bones, and ended up in a cast. But that’s not the end of the matter...
But it is known that if a person went to the elder and received advice, he must follow it.
Father Jonah was sometimes very laconic, but every word he said was so significant that it changed destinies.
Novice N., very young, asked the priest for his blessing to become a nun. And he blessed. This girl's father had an important rank. He rushed to the monastery, was furious, swore and threatened, even said: I will kill, I will stab! Father Jonah looked at him calmly, even as if cheerfully: “Well, kill; If you kill me, you will take all my sins upon yourself.” This had an amazing effect. It ended with the official becoming a church member himself and becoming a spiritual child of Fr. Ions.
About the weight of the words of Fr. Another “casual” friend of mine, Georgiy from Uzhgorod, also spoke about Jonah. He says: “A group of us arrived in Odessa on New Year’s Eve, December 30, 2011. In the temple to Fr. Jonah had a short line, as they said. In other times, people waited a week to confess. There were 5-6 people. I wanted to tell him a long list of sins. He started like this: “I rely on the material world, I depend too much on it...” And I wanted to continue. And he gently but sternly stopped me:
Georgy went to church sporadically. Now he is a student at the Theological Academy.
Servant of God Lyudmila ordered according to Fr. on all 18 days of the past year. Requiem service for Jonah. She was his spiritual child and for many years she traveled 500 km to see him. She was in the monastery on the day of his death. It was frosty, unusual for Odessa. A prayer service was served at the image of the Mother of God “Healer” for the health of the sick Fr. Ions. Suddenly the bell rang twice. A monk came in and said that the priest had died. The temple was filled with loud sobs. Amid general crying, Father Pavel excitedly began to serve the requiem service... Lyudmila says: “All these days and nights from December 18 to 22, 2012, there was cold frosty weather, and the windows and doors of the cathedral, where our Father lay, were shaken by a fierce ferocious wind... Never before In my life I have never seen so many fresh flowers in the middle of winter. The entire cathedral was decorated with huge bouquets of roses, mostly white and red. I thought: like Easter. And it came. 12/22/12 on the day of the burial, the wind died down, the sun came out and smiled so brightly and tenderly at us all, as if warming our orphaned souls. And when everyone sang “Christ is risen from the dead” in unison, sorrow was replaced by Easter joy in the soul...”
