If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also (Jn. 15:20).
Archimandrite Photius (Spassky). Portrait by an unknown artist, 1822-1824. Archimandrite Photius (Spassky) has gone down in the history of the Russian Church as an outstanding Church and public figure, theologian, ascetic, fighter for the rights of the Russian Orthodox Church and the purity of its teachings, an irreconcilable opponent of Freemasons, and a fearless denouncer of the vices that were prevailing in society. The name of Archimandrite Photius (Spassky) is becoming more and more well-known today. The feat accomplished by this Christian is great indeed, and his contribution to the history of Russia in the era of Emperor Alexander I (1801–1825) is significant.
Archimandrite Photius (secular name: Pyotr Nikitich Spassky) was born on June 4, 1792 in the village of Tesovo near Veliky Novgorod into the poor family of Nikita Fedorovich, a reader of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord at the Spassky (“of the Savior”) Cemetery, and his wife Euphemia. The family earned its living mainly by peasant labor. When the child was only four years old, Euphemia went to a better world, entrusting her son to the Most Holy Theotokos. Pyotr Spassky's childhood with his stepmother and stern father was unhappy; the child was birched for the slightest disobedience. His only joy was the church of God, where he forgot all troubles.
After obtaining his primary education at home, Pyotr became a reader in the church, and then a singer at the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of St. Petersburg. In 1803, he entered the Novgorod Seminary, where he was given the surname Spassky after his place of birth. He soon became its best student, and in 1814 was sent to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. However, a year later he had to leave the Academy due to poor health. He was appointed as teacher at the St. Alexander Nevsky Theological School and began to study the books of Freemasons in order to be able to refute the anti-Orthodox ideas contained in them. Spassky turned out to be on the same wavelength with the rector of the St. Petersburg Seminary and the chief of the Censorship Committee, Archimandrite (later bishop) Innocent (Smirnov; 1784–1819), later canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church, who led an ascetic life and was staunchly against all mysticism. Vladyka Innocent was sick at heart observing the indifferent attitude towards the Church of God on the part of the ruling aristocrats and many wealthy people. This pillar of Orthodoxy became Pyotr Spassky’s spiritual mentor. Pyotr observed “all of Innocent’s words, deeds and actions, and his spirit of faith,” and in the depths of his heart he pondered on “the image of his pious life”. He collected information about the activities of Masonic lodges for his mentor, and compiled lists of anti-Christian books. Seeing Pyotr Spassky’s deep faith, Vladyka Innocent provided him with lodging and food in his house, and before leaving for exile in Penza in 1819, he recommended his student Pyotr to his followers in St. Petersburg as an ardent opponent of the Masons. Vladyka Innocent died as Bishop of Penza in the same year 1819, having lived in his diocese for only three months. He had passed on the banner of resistance to Pyotr Spassky.
In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, due to the spread of Freemasonry in Russia, Freemasons were threatening to seize power in the country. Russia had never been so close to the brink of destruction as in 1817–1822. At that time, in the long-suffering lands from Warsaw to Irkutsk there were over 100 masonic lodges, which had over 5,500 members, almost the entire cream of Russian aristocracy. Up to twenty Masonic lodges were active in St. Petersburg, whose activities, according to Spassky, were aimed against “the faith of Christ, against Christian piety, against any Government and civil order.” All this was encouraged by Emperor Alexander I, who at that time was inclined towards mysticism. Freemasons influenced the State machinery and took over the media. These were people devoid of national consciousness, and were often openly anti-Russian. It is no wonder that this period is called the “golden age of Freemasonry.”
On February 16, 1817, Spassky took monastic vows with the name Photius, and one day later he was ordained a hieromonk. Monk Photius was distinguished by his extremely austere life. He practiced abstinence and fasting continuously, wore a hairshirt and chains. In 1818, he began to serve as a hieromonk at the cathedral of the St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra and was appointed as teacher of the Law of God in the Second Cadet Corps, where 4,000 young men studied. The young hieromonk put all his eloquence into soul-saving conversations with the cadets, telling them about demonic conspiracies spreading from secret Masonic lodges. From the very first year of his monastic life, Fr. Photius strongly opposed the mystical trends prevailing in society at that time; or as he put it in his Autobiography, “Freemasons, Illuminati, Methodists, the freemason Alexander Labzin, the Sionsky Vestnik (Zionist Messenger) magazine and others.” He was strongly opposed to the spread of anti-Orthodox ideas under the guise of Christian universalism, in spiritual books that had begun being published under Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn (1773–1844). Prince Golitsyn held the important post of Minister of Internal Affairs and Public Education, and was at the same time chairman of the Bible Society.
Prince Alexander Nikolaevich Golitsyn. Portrait by K. P. Bryullov Monk Photius had the Catechism of the Masons copied and wrote on it: “The catechism of the Freemasons who believe in the antichrist, the devil, and satan.” He gave this work for reading and copying to the cadets, his students, through whom he collected information about the activities of Masonic lodges, as well as other mystical books. After the Catechism had been handed out to the cadets, General I.V. Berber, a prominent Mason and inspector of the Cadet Corps, spread a rumor that Fr. Photius had allegedly gone mad.
Monk Photius fearlessly set about struggling against Freemasonry, whose representatives were the most influential figures of the Empire. Physically weak, in chains and a hairshirt, with festering wounds on his body, Fr. Photius had a “willing spirit” (cf. Mt. 26:41), ardent faith, and an iron will. His Guardian Angel strengthened him in his service to the Church and the Fatherland. The valiant soldier of Christ dedicated his life to the struggle for the purity of Orthodoxy. The monk himself testified that he had received “knowledge from above in a dream, and various revelations that he must labor ascetically against all the secret societies.” Fr. Photius saw Freemasons as servants of satan who were undermining the monarchy and the Church in Russia. The Emperor’s friend Prince A.N. Golitsyn, who promoted the ideas of Christian universalism, was surrounded by Freemasons. He saw nothing bad in spiritualistic seances and participated in them for most of his life. He was also engaged in the demonic business of animal magnetism.1
Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress A.A. Orlova-Chesmenskaya It was extremely hard for Fr. Photius to fight his ideologically powerful opponent Prince Golitsyn, but soon he found that he had allies in the fight against secret societies and their patron, the prince. The core of this “Orthodox Opposition”, or the “Russian Party”, consisted of the following influential figures: Metropolitan Seraphim (Glagolevsky) of St. Petersburg; the all-powerful Count Alexei Arakcheyev; President of the Russian Academy Alexander Shishkov; Lady-in-Waiting to the Empress Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya (1785–1848); trustee of the Kazan Educational District in St. Petersburg Mikhail Magnitsky, and others. The Russian Orthodox opposition movement were convinced that Masonic lodges participated in a “general conspiracy against the altars and thrones.”2 Fr. Photius soon became one of the most prominent representatives of the Orthodox opposition.
The Russian Party strove to oppose the ecumenical views of Prince Golitsyn. Fr. Photius harshly denounced the anti-Orthodox activities of the Russian Bible Society, headed by the prince. Under the pretext of introducing a “universal religion”, the Bible Society disseminated Protestant and Masonic literature. It sought to replace the Church hierarchy with independent Christian education based on the Bible with the help of stacks of mystical books that they distributed all over Russia. The Society translated the Holy Scriptures into Russian, but the first translation of 1821 was unsuccessful—there were errors in it. It was not carried out by the Holy Synod, but by the Bible Society, many members of which were Catholics and Lutherans.
“There was clearly warfare against Orthodoxy in words, deeds, writings, and all possible means, and the enemies were preparing to introduce a new, ‘Biblical’ religion—to concoct a mixture of faiths and eradicate the Orthodox faith of Christ,” Monk Photius wrote about his time.
Having embarked on the path of fighting Freemasonry and sectarianism, Fr. Photius made numerous influential enemies. On April 27, 1820, he delivered a famous sermon at the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon, known as “Fear God and honor the Tsar,” in which he denounced the vices of high society and called on the Orthodox to fight against Freemasonry. For that sermon he was removed from the capital city and appointed abbot of the very neglected Derevyanitsy Monastery near Novgorod [now in a district of Veliky Novgorod.—Trans.]. When he arrived there he was met with terrible desolation; the monks lived in cells with damaged windows and doors and slept in haystacks.
At that time he met Countess Anna Orlova-Chesmenskaya, one of the richest landowners in Russia, who was sent to Fr. Photius by Bishop Innocent of Penza. When Fr. Photius was removed from St. Petersburg, she relayed to him news from the capital, sent him generous donations, encouraging and supporting him in every possible way, and trying to ensure his return to St. Petersburg.
To be continued…
