FORMER
METROPOLITAN
OF ASTRAKHAN IONA DIES FROM CORONAVIRUS IN MOSCOW
Metropolitan
Iona
(Karpukhin), rector emeritus of the church of the Elevation of
the Cross of the
Lord in Altufievo, died in the night of Monday [3-4 May 2020] at
age 79 years in Moscow hospital
No. 50, from pneumonia, according to preliminary information,
against a
backdrop of coronavirus, the working group under the patriarch
reports.
Metropolitan
Iona
served for a long time in the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra.
In 1991 he was
appointed rector of the Moscow church of the Elevation of the
Cross in Altufievo,
and he became its rector emeritus in 1992.
He was
retired in
2016 on the basis of the condition of his health in connection
with his
reaching 75 years of age. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 May 2020)
METROPOLITAN
IONA
REPOSED IN THE LORD
Website
of the
Russian Orthodox Church, 4 May 2020
In the
night of 4 May
2020, in the 79th year of life, in Moscow hospital No. 50,
Metropolitan Iona,
rector emeritus of the church of the Elevation of the Cross of
the Lord in
Altufievo in the capital, fell asleep in the Lord, according to
preliminary
information, due to COVID pneumonia.
Metropolitan
Iona was
born 13 June 1941 in Moscow, in a worker's family. He graduated
from secondary
school in 1959.
He
studied in the
Moscow Ecclesiastical Seminary from 1959-1963. In 1963-1967 he
studied in the
Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy and upon graduation he remained in
the academy as
a professorial fellow.
From 1
September 1965
he was a novice in the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra. On 21
September 1965
he was tonsured a monk; on 6 February 1966 he was ordained a
monastic deacon;
and on 5 May he was ordained a hieromonk.
From
1967 he was a
member of the department of Church Archaeology in the Moscow
Ecclesiastical
Academy and an assistant inspector. From 1970 he was a teacher
in church
schools of Moscow. From 1970 to 1991 he was dean of the church
of the
Protection in the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy.
In 1971
he was
elevated to the rank of hegumen, and on 14 October 1981, to the
rank of
archimandrite.
From 1
March 1991 he
was rector of the church of the Elevation of the Cross in
Altufievo of the city
of Moscow (from 1992, rector emeritus).
On 20
October 1992,
at a session of the Holy Synod, he was elected bishop of
Astrakhan and
Enotaevka. His consecration was held on 25 October 1992.
On 25
February 2002
he was promoted to the rank of archbishop.
By a
decision of the
Holy Synod of 12 March 2013 he was appointed the head of the
Astrakhan
metropolia, assuming the title of "Astrakhan and Kamyzyak."
On 24
March 2013 he
was advanced to the rank of metropolitan.
By
decision of the
Holy Synod of 15 July 2016, he was retired on the basis of the
condition of his
health, in connection with his attaining the age of 75. The
synod determined
his place of residence as the city of Moscow. (tr. by PDS,
posted 4 May 2020)
WHY HAVE
PRIESTS
TURNED OUT TO BE VERY VULNERABLE TO CORONAVIRUS?
Moskovskii
Komsomolets,
27 April 2020
Clergy
have already
been often called the most vulnerable category in the time of
the coronavirus
epidemic: in the Elokhovo cathedral in Moscow alone, two priests
have already
died and novices of many monasteries have been infected.
Meanwhile in the
social networks there still regularly appear reports that the
standards of
sanitary safety, the respect for distance, and the use of means
of protection
in churches are far from ideal. Moskovskii Komsomolets posed the
question: why
during services are priest still not wearing medical masks and
why are they not
abandoning their beards, which are likely sources of infection?
The
cycle of clergy deaths
from COVID-19 was opened a week ago by the rector of the
Elokhovo cathedral,
Father Alexander Ageikin; he died on Tuesday, 21 April, due to
complications of
a coronavirus infection. Three days later it was Archpriest
Vladimir Beriga,
who served in the Protection Convent in the city of Khotykovo.
On Saturday, 25
April, Archdeacon Evgeny Trofimov of the Elokhovo cathedral
died; he served
along with Ageikin. On Sunday evening, Bishop of Zheleznogorsk
and Lgov
Veniamin died.
The
chancellor of the
Moscow patriarchate, Metropolitan of Voskresensk Dionisy, on the
advice of
doctors, decided to undertake a course of treatment in a clinic
because of the
confirmation of his diagnosis of a coronavirus infection in its
early stage.
In
addition, reports
have appeared regularly about mass infections in monasteries and
seminaries:
numerous infections in the Saint Sergius Holy Trinity lavra, in
Novospassky
monastery in Moscow, and in the Moscow Ecclesiastical Academy.
Earlier
in an
interview with Moskovskii Komsomolets, the late Father Alexander
Ageikin said
that during confession, priests wear masks, but during the
service they remain
without them. Consequently they are subjected to the risk of
infection from
parishioners. Now, let's recall, all churches in Moscow are
closed and services
are being conducted without the presence of believers, although
the question
remains: why should masks not be worn continually?
"The
example of
Alexander Ageikina, who died from the coronavirus infection, is
very
significant. We can now understand what happened in his case:
someone of the
parishioners thought that it was possible for himself to come to
the church
sick and to try to communicate directly with the priest. That is
unacceptable,
but now it is forbidden," Father Filipp Iliashenko told an MK
correspondent. "We are very upset by his death, but this grief
has
permitted us to formulate what has long been necessary: we serve
separately. We
do not gather in large groups. We do not stand face-to-face any
more. We
constantly disinfect the whole church and we air it out before
and after a
service. As regards wearing masks, the answer is quite simple: a
mask is
necessary where there are many people together. Now we have
switched to another
practice in services: quite few people remain around the altar.
Altars are
large spaces and it is not necessary to reduce social distance.
We have stopped
hugging and kissing. Everything can be done at arm's length."
Father
Filipp
Iliashenko also added that new rules pertain also to confession.
With the start
of the spread of the coronavirus infection, priests switched to
a different
practice. They asked parishioners to write a note and send their
confession by
email, and then the priest reads a prayer personally. This can
be done in the
church, at a safe distance. And as regards trips to homes of
sick people for
confession, communion, and last rites--as MK has already
written, the RPTs has
already composed a whole instruction for such a case—priests use
a respirator,
which has a high degree of protection, and also wear protective
clothing.
However,
there are
exceptions. At the Easter service in one of the Astrakhan
churches, priests
took the trouble to make themselves special masks colored red,
to match the
vestments.
The next
question is
the broad and thick beards that the majority of representatives
of the clergy
wear. It is no secret that during an epidemic, beards can serve
as
"hotbeds" of infection and an impediment to a snug fit of a mask
or
respirator, if a priest dons them before visiting a sick person.
So is it
necessary to keep the beards? As representatives of the clergy
explain, this
question is not regulated in any way in the modern church. The
last mention of
beards was recorded in the Stoglav council of 1551, adopted
during the time of Ivan the Terrible. There
it is said: "If someone shaves his
beard and dies shaven, then do not expend over him singing the
forty days after
death, nor bring the holy host or candles for him in the
churches, for he is
considered an infidel since he learned this from heretics. Do not shave your beard,
for this
is an abomination before God.
The same pertains to
cutting hair. According to traditions from the time of Ivan the
Terribly, a
priest should wear not only a beard but also long hair.
However,
in the
modern world this is being governed more by traditions, rooted
in deep
antiquity, and not by any documents. Therefore one may say that
shaving beards
because of the risk of spreading infection in the time of
pandemic will not be
considered a grievous sin, and one may very well take this step.
Incidentally,
in
Russian history there was an episode when priests tried to shave
their beards—not
everybody, but the so-called "renovationists" in the 1920s. This
subject was mentioned by Ilf and Petrov in the first pages of
the novel Twelve
Chairs, when Father Fedor, after coming home, began to shave his
beard, and his
wife asked him in horror: "Fedenka, are you really intending to
go over to
the renovationists." However, the renovationists are remembered
not merely
for shaved beards but also for exceptional loyalty to the soviet
regime. (tr.
by PDS, posted 4 May 2020)
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