In What Lies the Spiritual Strength of Blessed Metropolitan Anthony?

St. JOHN (Maximovitch)

The grace of the Spirit taught him well that the head of the Church must concern himself not only with that Church which is entrusted to him by the Spirit, but with the entire, universal Church. He learned this through the holy prayers. “If we must,” said St. Eustace, “pray for the ecumenical Church, from one end of the universe to the other, then so the more must we show our care for all of it, concerning ourselves equally with all (churches) and caring for everyone.”

These words of St. John the Damascene to St. Eustace of Antioch are wholly applicable to Blessed Metropolitan Anthony of Kiev as well. He was truly an ecumenical hierarch, probing all questions of church life everywhere, carrying within him all its ills, literally lifting their weight onto his frame.

While still the young Bishop of Ufa, he was heartsick over the divisions in the near East and proposed to Patriarch Joachim measures for their cessation.

Shortly thereafter he directed his activity toward southwestern Rus’, reaching beyond the borders of his own diocese of Volynia, and in every way possible furthered the restoration of Orthodoxy in Galician and Carpathian Rus’.

At the same time he was occupied with the question of ending the schism, to this end communicating with the archbishop of the Old Believers, as well as corresponding with representatives of the Anglican faith to clarify the possibility of their being joined to Orthodoxy.

The intellectual gaze of the hierarch took in all aspects of church life, but he approached them not only with his intellect but also with his entire being.

While believing deeply in the ultimate victory of Truth, he suffered greatly from all the adversities within the church.

His personality did not exist outside the Church and seemed to reflect the Church.

Each Orthodox person was dear to him, whatever his nationality and country of origin. For everyone who had need of him, he was a good father and a wise instructor. Everyone who came to him for spiritual counsel was treated as a spiritual relative – physical kinships had ended for him after becoming a monastic. He considered himself obligated to help anyone who sought his support and help, as if he were a close friend, frequently giving away the last of what he had, sometimes experiencing deprivation himself.

His treatment of people in such a way was neither artificial nor under compulsion. It came from the depths of his being and was rooted in a deep faith and devotion to God. He came to love Christ in his childhood and, having wished to follow Him from infancy, he prospered spiritually as he grew, attaining a high degree of spiritual maturity at a young age.

Possessing a formidable intellect and being greatly gifted by his nature, after receiving an excellent worldly education he studied theology with such devotion that it was as if he was completely satiating himself with theology. Coupling this with an irreproachable moral life, he became a fount of spiritual wisdom, and it was as if he poured out streams of theology, giving his spiritual children to drink of the grace of God.

His dealings with people were always simple, natural, never with any false sweetness.

Believing that what was most important for man was spiritual success, this was his concern even when people turned to him with worldly questions. He would consider all matters and actions from the point of view of their spiritual worth and strove to ensure that they would not only benefit their worldly lives but also have a moral value.

Because of this he often seemed abrupt with people, and those who were seeing him for the first time were puzzled by his apparent rudeness at times.

But on drawing nearer to him, or rather drawing nearer to him with their souls, each person would find that hidden there was Vladika Anthony’s fervent fatherly love toward people, a love such as parents are often compelled to hide with seeming strictness.

Metropolitan Anthony was able to profoundly influence people’s souls because of the purity of his own heart. Having given it to God from his youth, he preserved it incorrupt until the end of his life, and while still in the body he united himself wholly to the heavenly world. Aspiring more and more to the higher world, he attracted thereto each person with whom he had relations, invisibly influencing him by his pure and towering spirit.

Gradually renouncing all earthly things, giving himself completely to God and dwelling in God, he became a firm diamond of the Faith and, keeping each and everyone in his loving heart, he attracts as a magnet those who seek salvation, raising them up to the knowledge of Divine Truth.

Translated from the Russian by Reader George Skok