Metropolitan Joseph (, secular name Ivan Semyonovich Petrovykh, ; 15 December 1872 – 20 November 1937) was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, metropolitan of Petrograd (1926–1927). Master of Theology (1903) and spiritual writer. He refused to accept the Declaration of 1927 on full loyalty to the soviet authorities and his transfer to the Diocese of Odessa, he became the leader of Josephite movement. In 1937, he was murdered during the Great Purge.
He was glorified in the face of saints by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia as the Holy Martyr Joseph of Petrograd.
Biography Early life
He was born on December 15, 1872, in town of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod Governorate (now Vologda Oblast, Russia), in family of Semyon Kirillovich Petrovykh, who owned a bakery, and Evdokia Ivanovna, née Gankovskaya, who was involved in housework and raising children. Since there was a lot of housework, a she-cook was engaged. The Petrovykh's house was located in Kazansky Lane (now Valentina Tereshkova Lane). Ivan Petrovykh was the 4th child (in total there were 9 children in the family). His baptism took place on December 17, 2 days after his birth. Like all his brothers and sisters, in the parish church of the Ascension of the Lord on Vspolye (destroyed in 1939). The Petrovykh family was distinguished by piety. They celebrated church holidays, on the angel days they gathered at the common table.
On the recommendation of the priest of the Ascension Church, Ivan was accepted into the Ustyuzhna Theological College, which he brilliantly graduated from in 1889 and entered the Novgorod Theological Seminary, located in the Antoniev Monastery. Little is known about Ivan Petrovykh seminary years. But known, that his study was successful. Only in one subject, logic, he had a score of 4 ("very good"), in the rest subject his score was 5 ("excellent"). In 1895, Ivan Petrovykh, as the best student of the Novgorod Theological Seminary, was sent to study at the state expense to the Moscow Theological Academy (located in Sergiyev Posad, Moscow Governorate). During the holidays, Ivan worked at monasteries and churches, sorting and putting in order various church documents. In the summer, he also tried to make pilgrimages to the holy places of Russia. He successfully completed the task of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, writing down the Northern Russian people's dialect according to the developed program. On December 4, 1896, in the presence of a crowded meeting of teachers and students, Ivan Petrovykh delivered a farewell speech at the burial of the deceased Professor Andrey Smirnov, which probably became his first public speech.
He was also one of the best students at the Moscow Theological Academy; only in general church history, the history of the Russian Church and the history of philosophy did he receive marks "very good". All other marks were "excellent". The Academy Council awarded him the degree of Candidate of theology for his essay on the history of the Jewish people by Josephus Flavius. On July 11, 1899, Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) of Moscow and Kolomna approved it "with granting him the right to teach at the seminary and not to hold a new oral test when seeking a master degree." In June 1899 he visited the Holy Land. Ivan recorded his impressions of visiting the places of earthly life and the exploits of Jesus Christ in the form of essays, which were later published in the journal . While studying at the academy, he began to keep a spiritual diary, in which he recorded his spiritual observations and emotions.
Teaching and monasticism In order to continue his scientific studies after graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy, he was left with her as a professorial scholarship "to prepare for the replacement of vacant teaching chairs". In October 1899, the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy approved the program of classes for the study of the last period of Biblical history and the intention to rework his candidate thesis into master one. A year later, Ivan Petrovykh's scholarship report was highly appreciated by the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Arsenius (Stadnitsky) of Volokolamsk, who proposed to elect Ivan Petrovykh to the position of a teacher of Biblical history. On September 4, 1900, at the meeting of the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy, Ivan Petrovykh gave two trial lectures on the topics: "Rome and Jerusalem (on the characteristics and history of the period of Roman rule)" and "Samuel and Saul in their mutual relations". The last lecture was published in , а journal of the Moscow Theological Academy for December 1900. After giving lectures, he was elected correcting the duties of an associate professor in the Department of Biblical History of the Moscow Theological Academy. At the same department, the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Arsenius, gave a course of lectures on the initial period of Biblical history from the patriarchs to the first kings, and Ivan Petrovykh gave the subsequent period.
At this time, he makes the final decision about monastic tonsure, which he has been thinking about since childhood. As he wrote in his diary: "Several highly moral, noble, beautiful and immaculate girls had the desire and hope of life to share with me the happiness of marriage. I myself was almost tempted to arrange this happiness, those who expected it with me were deeply saddened by my choice of monasticism". On July 10, 1901, he wrote a petition for admission to the community of monastics, as well as a letter to Bishop Arsenius (Stadnitsky) with a similar request. On August 26, 1901, in the Gethsemane Skete at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Ivan was tonsured by Bishop Arsenius (Stadnitsky) into a mantle with the naming of the name Joseph in honor of the Old Testament Patriarch Joseph. On September 30, 1901, in the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Monk Joseph was ordained a hierodeacon, and on October 14, in the Intercession Church of the Moscow Theological Academy, he was ordained a hieromonk. For his zealous service in the Intercession Academic Church, a few months after his ordination, Hieromonk Joseph, at the request of the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, Bishop Arsenius, was awarded a nabedrennik.
In April 1903, Hieromonk Joseph, who was acting the position of docent of the academy at the Department of Biblical History, submitted a petition to the Academy Council to consider his work "The History of the Jewish People on the Archaeology of Josephus. (Experience of critical analysis and processing)" as a master thesis. The dissertation was defended on June 6, 1903, in the assembly hall of the Moscow Theological Academy, the report on the master's dispute was published in the "Theological Bulletin". At the end of the debate, the Council of the Moscow Theological Academy unanimously recognized the defense as sufficient and decided to apply for the approval of the applicant in the academic degree of Master of Theology. In the same year, the dissertation was published as a separate book in the printing house of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. It provoked responses from theologians and was generally highly appreciated. On June 19, 1903, by decree of the Most Holy Synod, Hieromonk Joseph was confirmed in the Master of Theology degree. In December of the same year, he was appointed extraordinary professor at the Department of Biblical History and inspector of the Moscow Theological Academy. On January 18, 1904, he was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite.
Since January 1905, excerpts from the diary of Archimandrite Joseph began to be published by the magazine , indicating only the initials of the author. With the blessing of Bishop Arsenius (Stadnitsky), the diary was also published in the printing house of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, also without the full name of the author. As a specialist in Biblical topics, he later wrote several articles for the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia, as well as detailed comments and explanatory articles in the "Explanatory Bible" on the books "Judith", "Esther" and the "Books of Maccabees".
In 1905, after Bloody Sunday, he stopped commemorating the imperial family at divine services and was temporarily banned from serving. On January 3, 1906, he filed a petition for a month's leave for this time, the certificate of the Lavra's doctor was attached to the petition, which indicated that Archimandrite Joseph "needs a temporary termination of his official duties and full rest to restore the nervous system that has been very tired lately".
Abbot of the Jabłeczna and Yuriev monasteries
The "Provisional Rules" issued by the Most Holy Synod on February 21, 1906, as an addition to the Statute, gave broad autonomy to the Moscow Theological Academy, but they were not accepted by Archimandrite Joseph, because, in his opinion, they created an impossible situation for monastics in the theological school. At this time, Archimandrite Joseph decided to leave the academy. Bishop Eulogius (Georgievsky) of Chełm informed the Most Holy Synod of the need, in view of the extreme intensification of Catholic propaganda, to organize an Eastern Orthodox missionary center in the only male St. Onuphrius Monastery in Jabłeczna in the diocese with an urgent request to put a theologically educated pastor at the head of the monastery for this purpose. As such, Bishop Eulogius petitioned for the appointment of Archimandrite Joseph, in accordance with desire expressed by Archimandrite Joseph to devote himself to missionary activity. By the decree of the Most Holy Synod of June 30, 1906, Archimandrite Joseph was appointed rector of the St. Onuphrius Monastery in Jabłeczna, Siedlce Governorate at Kingdom of Poland, with his dismissal from the educational service.
At the beginning of August of the same year, Archimandrite Joseph arrived at his new destination. It was a far western outskirts of the Russian Empire, where a small Eastern Orthodox population was surrounded by hostile Catholics and constantly experienced strong pressure and harassment from them. Archimandrite Joseph found the monastery in a pitiful state: "Unexpectedly, I was forced to condemn myself to live in a poor, upset, neglected, provincial, deserted monastery. After the splendor of the Lavra — oh, what a severe deprivation, ordeal, chagrin!". Most of all, Archimandrite Joseph was struck by the carelessness and slovenliness in relation to the worships and to the church. In letters to friends and admirers in Sergiyev Posad, he asked for the most necessary things, answering their questions about the needs of the monastery: simple vestments for everyday service, which were not found for him in the monastery; about circles for a chalice to cover from flies; about tissues to cover the throne and the altar, in the monastery they were covered with white sheets (always dirty), and for vessels that were not covered there at all and always stood in dust and dirt. He asked his benefactors for a new rug laid from the throne to the ambon, because "the old one was covered in holes and stains from the nice habit of the local brethren to spit! It's unpleasant even to look at. And there is absolutely nothing to replace it with. It's terrible, and on great holidays you will have to admire this outrage." He also complained about the unpainted wooden floors, with many holes, from which whole herds of mice ran out, their tracks covered the altar and even the altar, all the coverings on which were soaked to the point of nausea with a disgusting mouse smell. Archimandrite Joseph was distressed by the lack of education and the lack of church manners of the local population.