Sergiy Yurshev (, secular name Simon Petrovich Yurshev, ) (1745Volsky branch of the State Archive of the Saratov Region (VFGA SO). ODF-1. Op. 1. D. 1. L. 401 — circa 1799) was a Russian religious figure of the 18th century.
He was the founder of the Old Believer Irgiz monasteries and contributed significantly to their all-Russian fame, but later joined the Edinoverie movement and was expelled from the Irgiz, despite the patronage of the authorities. Subsequently, he became the abbot of an Edinoverie monastery, leaving behind a number of religious writings directed against the Schism of the Russian Church and in support of Edinoverie. In the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, he is described as an outstanding figure for the benefit of Edinoverie.
Historiography Despite his enormous role in the Old Believer community's life, the personality of Sergiy is poorly covered in historical literature. Only a few main sources of his biography are known.
The longest period of Sergiy's life is covered by Moscow Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov) in his work The history of the Russian schism known as Old Belief, which went through at least three editions. However, his work contains numerous outright errors, including indications of historically inaccurate events, confusion of surnames, dates, and facts, which allows the reliability of his sources —which Macarius does not cite— to be assessed as very low.
A number of details about Sergiy's biography are found in the work of historian Ivan Dobrotvorsky Historical information about the Irgiz pseudo-Old Believer monasteries before their conversion to the Orthodox faith. Rich in details and facts is the manuscript of an unknown author titled The History of Sergius of Irgiz signed with the initials A. Ya., which was kept in the Imperial Public Library.Manuscripts of the Imperial Public Library, Q, I, No. 742, in 4°, 72 f. It was written in Volsk in 1797 and mainly covers the situation with the attempt to introduce Edinoverie on the Irgiz. It is written with noticeable sympathy for Sergiy, but without descending into bias. According to historians, it is distinguished by a high degree of reliability, simplicity, and naturalness of writing, most likely by an eyewitness to the events.
Another important manuscript relating to the same historical period is The story of the false monk Sergiy by a certain monk of the Upper Dormition Monastery named Theoph.((ilaktos?))—assumption by Nikolai Sokolov in October 1797 by the blessing of the monastery. According to the assessment of 19th-century historian Nikolai Sokolov, it is characterized by the author's strong personal dislike for Sergiy and an apologia for his rivals, but despite the negative-emotional component, the facts are presented quite reliably. It was previously kept in the library of A. I. Khudov.Library of A. I. Khudov, No. 293, in 4°, 122 f.
Some details of Sergiy's biography are revealed in his own work Mirror for Old Believers who do not submit to the Orthodox Church.
Significant work on generalizing sources was done by Saratov historian Nikolai Sokolov in his master's thesis The split in the Saratov region. Research based on unpublished materials. Considering that more sources were available to him than have survived to the present day, a significant part of the information on materials whose current location is difficult or impossible to determine is cited in this article with references precisely to his fundamental work. Historians of the 20th and 21st centuries have not added much to the scientific data on Sergiy, but they have nevertheless managed to clarify some details of his biography, including the date of birth.
Biography
Early years
There is little information about Sergiy's early years, and the existing versions and details are quite contradictory. According to Macarius, he was the eldest son of Moscow merchant Peter Yurshev. Peter Yurshev was a well-known Old Believer and was one of the main culprits in the murder of Archimandrite Ambrose during the Plague Riot in Moscow in 1771, for which he paid the price. Fearing a repetition of his father's fate, Semyon hid in the forests of the Moscow Governorate, where he lived among Old Believers and various kinds of fugitives. It was there, in one of the sketes, that he took tonsure under the name Sergiy.
During one of the searches, Sergiy was detained and ended up in a Moscow prison, from which, however, he escaped to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the Vetka sloboda, which at that time was one of the Old Believer centers, and where many Russian Old Believers who had fled from persecution found refuge.
In 1776, Sergiy took advantage of the decree of Catherine II permitting schismatics to return to Russia. When crossing the border, he identified himself as a Russian native, allegedly not remembering where he was born or who brought him to Poland.
According to the generally accepted view, he managed to bring a portable folding church from Poland to Russia, prudently recording it in his passport. Later, this gave him the opportunity to set up the church in the monastery. However, Macarius believed that instead of a church, Sergiy brought an empty canvas wound on sticks through the border. In his opinion, Sergiy initially set himself the goal of becoming the head of the entire Irgiz community. Another researcher of the history of Saratov Old Believers, Ivan Dobrotvorsky, also believed that Sergiy planned to gain power over all the Irgiz monasteries even before arriving on the Irgiz. He supported this assertion with the fact of Sergiy's illegal construction of a church to strengthen his power, as the church brought new parishioners to the monasteries, and thus growth in income and influence.
In the same 1776, according to Macarius, fearing to return to Moscow after his recent escape, Sergiy went to the Bolshoy Irgiz, where several fairly well-known Old Believer sketes operated. He chose the Isaakiev skete as his place of residence and soon gained respect among the monastery's inhabitants, clearly standing out from them not only as a native of Moscow and the son of a famous schismatic, but also as a well-read and educated person. Following him to the Irgiz came his mother Marina with his younger son and daughter, who took tonsure with the name Macrina.
However, Nikolai Sokolov, describing in his work Schism in the Saratov region the version of Metropolitan Macarius, notes that the latter provides no evidence that Sergiy was personally involved in the events of the Plague Riot or that he had any reasons to fear for his life and freedom before going into the forests. Moreover, Sokolov believed that such far-sighted plans for seizing power on the Irgiz, which Macarius attributes to Sergiy, are completely inconsistent with the further course of his biography, when he showed neither foresight nor the ability to analyze people in the events surrounding his joining Edinoverie. Modern researcher Anton Naumlyuk also believes that Sergiy's subsequent actions, in particular his long confrontation with other abbots regarding peremazovshchina, allow one to assume that Sergiy did indeed bring a folding church to the Irgiz, but he had no special plan.
Life on the Irgiz The Irgiz period of Sergiy's life is better known: Sergiy quickly gained authority in the monastery, where there was a great shortage of literate people. Thus, during the Pugachev's Rebellion, one of the elders spoke about literate people in the monastery: "there are no such in the monastery; about twenty gathered, but they all ran away from the detective's command". Just a year after his appearance, Sergiy played a very important role in the management of the monastery. The founder and abbot of the monastery, Isaakiy, even sent him to Moscow to establish connections between the Irgiz and Moscow Old Believers. In Moscow, Sergiy witnessed the famous attempt by the Old Believer community of the Rogozhskoye Cemetery to boil chrism for the chrismation of Orthodox priests who wished to join the Old Believers. In his work The Mirror for the Old Believers, he left a number of recollections of this trip, including about the chrism-boiling procedure itself, during which he entered into a dispute with the performing priest, Vasily Cheboksarsky, regarding the fact that the latter did not read all the prayers prescribed by the canons. However, no matter how Sergiy felt in the depths of his soul about the legality of the procedure and the exact observance of the canon, in practice he recognized the legality of the chrism-boiling, not forgetting to stock up on the boiled chrism for his monastery, where it was absent.
He did not forget about another vital necessity for the monastery: for two years there had been no Old Believer priests on the Irgiz. Sergiy obtained from Mikhail Kalmyk, who was considered at that time the supreme father of the popovtsy, the hieromonk Jerome for performing church services.
Peremazansky Council The attempt by the Rogozhskoye Cemetery community to boil chrism caused a major conflict in the Old Believer world.
The fact is that after the church reform of Nikon, not a single bishop joined the Old Believers, which led to a constant decrease in the number of priests adhering to the old rites. Some schismatics even formed a special trend—the Bespopovtsy, while the popovtsy accepted priests from the Nikonians into their ranks. However, the procedure for accepting fugitive priests varied for different Old Believer communities: in the Polish Vetka, the priest was immersed in the baptismal font in full vestments, and then anointed with chrism personally boiled by the priest Theodosius. The Kerzhene Old Believers anointed priests with chrism allegedly boiled before the schism by Patriarch Joseph, some communities accepted priests after a simple renunciation of heresies. And now other communities did not want to agree to the unification of the rite and the recognition of the primacy of the Moscow community. To resolve the conflict, a council was convened, later called the "Council on Re-anointing".
The council took place from November 1779 to January 1780, during which 10 sessions were held, attended by from 100 to 300 people. Sergiy participated in the council as one of the representatives of the Irgiz monasteries — a large Old Believer community. According to his recollections, he participated in the council as a simple observer. In the works of Nicodemus of Starodub, who left detailed notes on the council, Sergiy is mentioned only twice.
However, a well-known manuscript by one of the witnesses to this council allows the conclusion that Sergiy was a fairly prominent participant in the process, actively speaking at the sessions and skillfully playing on the contradictions between various communities, and Nicodemus in his work wrote that he asked to send Sergiy specifically as his opponent for discussion after Nicodemus himself was not allowed into one of the sessions.