St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

(1807–1867)

KONSTANTIN GAVRILKIN

Born to an aristocratic family, in 1822 Dmitrii A. Brianchaninov was sent by his father to St. Petersburg to enroll in the Imperial School of Military Engineers, despite his expressed desire to become a monk. While at school, Brianchaninov enjoyed the patronage of Tsar Nicholas I, as a student with exceptional intellectual and artistic gifts. During this time he also took part in the capital’s literary circles, and this exposure to what became known as the Golden Age of Russian poetry played an important role in shaping the style of his religious writings, which have been praised for their literary quality and poetic eloquence. Although he graduated first in his class, Dmitrii immediately attempted to leave the military service for a monastic vocation, but Nicholas I refused his initial resignation in 1826. Only the next year, when Brianchaninov fell gravely ill and then repeated his request, did the emperor grant him release from military service.

In 1831 he was tonsured a monk with the name Ignatius, was ordained deacon, then priest, and for a short time he served as superior of a monastery in the Vologda diocese, only to resign a year later because of poor health. In 1833 Nicholas I made an imperial order to discover what had hap­pened to his former protege. Brianchaninov was then brought back to the capital and appointed higumen of the Troitse-Sergiev Monastery near Moscow. In the twenty- four years he spent there, the monastery was rebuilt, its liturgical life became exem­plary, and Ignatius its superior became one of the prominent spiritual guides and writers of all Russia. In 1857 he was consecrated bishop of the Caucasus and Black Sea, although his tenure there lasted only four years: he had to resign in 1861 after falling seriously ill; and he spent the last years of his life at Nikolo-Babaevskii Monastery in the Kostroma diocese, where he died in 1867. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. His life and spiritual heritage can be pro­perly understood in the context of the monastic revival associated with St. Paisy Velichkovsky, hesychasm, and the tradition of spiritual direction, of which the monas­tery Optina Pustyn’ is the best-known example. He left a substantial body of writ­ings, and it could be argued that many ofhis works are the finest prose ever written by a Russian ecclesiastic. The eight-volume Russian edition of his Complete Works, published in 2007 to celebrate the bicenten­nial of his birth, contains reflections on scripture and various theological subjects, writings on prayer and ascetic life, a Paterikon, poetic meditations, sermons, materials related to his episcopal adminis­tration, his reactions on contemporary political, ecclesiastical, and cultural life, and an extensive correspondence with state officials, clergy, monastics, and others. For a full bibliography of publications by and on Ignatii Brianchaninov (valid up to 2001), see Brianchaninov (2001–7, vol. 4: 644–776).

SEE ALSO: Hesychasm; Philokalia; Russia, Patriarchal Orthodox Church of; St. Paisy Velichovsky (1722–1794)

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Brianchaninov, I. (1997) The Arena: An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism, trans. Fr. Lazarus. Joardanville: Holy Trinity Monastery. Brianchaninov, I. (2001–7) Polnoe sobranie tvorenii, 8 vols., ed. A. N. Strizhev. Moscow: Palomnik.

Brianchaninov, I. (2006) On the Prayer of Jesus, trans. Fr. Lazarus. Boston: The New Seeds. Sokolov, L. A. (1915) Episkop Ignatii Brianchaninov: Ego zhizn’, lichnost’ I moral’no-asketicheskie vozzreniia, 2 vols. Kiev: I-yi Kievskoi arteli pechatnago dela.