A FAMOUS RUSSIAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9507, 2 April 1909, Page 2

A FAMOUS RUSSIAN.

. ■+ FATHER JOHN OF CRONSTADT. (By ARNOLD WHITE, in the " Daily Chronicle.") Travelling by the little steamer that plies over the smooth stretch of water between Cronstadt and the Neva, I was puzzled by a mob of clamorous and fanatical peasants, some fighting and some kneeling on the deck making obeisances and seeking to approach a priest seated by the starboard bulwark. Watching the extraordinary scene for a few minutes, I was reminded of the plains of Judea 1900 yearn before. Unseen voices whispered such sayings as these: "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace." "Go your way and tell how that the blind see, and the deaf hear, and to the poor the gpspel is preached." " And in that selfSame hour He cured many of their infirmities and plagues." "Give to every man that asketh of thee,' and of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again." " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The westering sun. lit uf> the face of the priest. His countenance bore the •most extraordinary likeness to the orthodox traits of Christ. The physical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth must ever remain a matter of speculation, except that, being of Semite race, he must have possessed its characteristic traits. Here was a Slav. It was Father John of Cronetadt— a pure Slav, an Archangel peaisant, a religious instructor in an. obscure seminary in the little island town of Cronstadt. It was the last year of the reign of the ' Emperor Alexander, and he was already more famous than Pobiedonostseff, Ignatieff, or even' Tolstoy. His face revealed the source of his power. Lambent with the glow of goodness, an atmosphere of calm- benevolence eur■rounded him. „ Whether spiritual fervour or avarice animated the peasantry on the deck of the little Cronstadt steamer, no onlooker could tell, but of their wish to touch the hem of his garment there was no donbt. I could not " come unto him for the press," but fortunately there was with me a Russian personage who knew and loved Father 'John, and a conversation shortly ensued. When I touched his hand an indefinable thrill passed, up my arm. One felt that one was, in the presence of the rarest of rarities — a man endowed, with that personal magnetism which is the richest gift that heaven can grant to a leader of men. Father John gave me his blessing unasked. As he blessed me, I remembered the words of the Holy Father Pius IX., who, years before, had received me at the Vatican, arid on hearing that I was a Protestant, gave me his benison, with the words, " The blessing of an old man will do you no harm." RUSSIAN SAVONAROLA. Father John exercised in Russia the same sort of power that Savonarola in his earlier years exercised in Florence four hundred years ago, or St Francis of Ass Lsi in the thirteenth century. When we landed from the steamer at the quay on the Finnish side of the Neva a crowd was assembled, and the moujiks laid down their loads to hustle and crowd upon the man whose blessing would bring them forgiveness. The scene I had witnessed naturally I led to inquiry into the source of Father John's extraordinary vogue. He was even then an old man. His life was uneventf uL His youth was passed at Archangel. As a young man he was in the theological academy at Petersburg, and in. the second year of the Crimean war he was ordained and attached to the Cathedral of St Andrew, j Cronstadt, where he had remained ever since. Several years passed before he attracted any attention outside his own parish. Then his fame spread rapidly, and it was fanned into a flame by the same means that brought. General Gordon into the J hearts and memories of his country- j men. The distinctive note of Father John's character was that of Charles George he was selfless. The money brought to him was immediately given away for the relief of distress. Instead of grinding the faces of the poor worshippers or using the ghostly machinery of his Church for material aims., he denied himself everything to feed the hungry and succour those who were in need. This period of his life was similar to Oravesend passage in Gordon's career, when the ragged boys he had collected and i taught— his "Kings" he called them — wrote in chalk upon the shutter of his house, " God bless the KurneL" The illiterate peasantry of the neighbourhood heard' of Father John's goodness to their relations in the town of ! the island fortress, and to Cronetadt pilgrimages were begun. These pilgrimages spread until the richer classes, more especially thoee who were in trpuble from the illness of those they loved, sought the strong aid of the man who was" denounced as a thaumaturgist by the culiEured sceptic, and who was worshipped as a god by the common people. As these rich people received, or thought they received, spiritual or temporal advantage from the pfayers or touch of Father John, they left great offerings in his jcharge. One of his intimates told me that he made it a rule never to keep money in his possession for a day. When a lady of the great noblesse bestowed notes for 10,000 roubles upon the poor priest the monoy was soon gone, given to the poor, or spent in supporting the industrial home which he had formed in connection with the Cathedral of St Andrew. It was the first in Russia. INFLUENCE AT COURT. In Catholic countries the life- of devotion and the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience are better understood than in the highly materialised life of English or American cities. The influence of Father John was wafted from Eidkuhnen to Vladivostok, and from Archangel to Odessa. As he became famous he gradually lost the independence and simplicity of mind | which made him great in the days when I met him first! on the little steamer that plied between Peterhof, Cronstadt and St Petersburg from the Quay Vasili Ostrof. When , tKe Emperor Alexander 111. doomed., himself to death by indiscretions in diet, more especially by the consumption of quass, Father John was sent for post, haste to Yalta, the Imperial Palace on the Crimean Riviera, where the Emperor was dying. His spirit passed away as he reclined in the arms of^John of Cronstadt, whose prayers and invocations were unavailing to check the mortal disease of his Imperial master. But the influence of Father John at the Imperial Court reached farther than he knew. He was from that time onwards a powerful ally of the obsciirantlst and reactionary policy^ of Constantino Pobiedonostseff. One cannot understand the force Avielded by Father John in Russia without knowing soniething of the views of Pobiedonostseff This extraordinary • statesman viewed the Protestant nations with the same loathing that fighting bulls bred on the plains of Las Cabezas regard the red cloths with which they are taught to charge. Pobiedonostseff' s dominant characteristic was hostility to everything Protestant and Western. He derided, the English bishops and clergy. He called them "the journeymen of the Church, with extraordinary whining voices, infinite affectation, repeating in varying tones conventional phrases." " Sometimes the preacher," he continued,, " pronouncing a few words, cries out and strikes the pulpit to eive emphasis to his thoughts. We feel here how faitbiiTJly . our Chinch, has, ■ hoou

I adapted to human nature in excluding ! sermons from its services." The presence of Pobiedonostseff in the Ministry was a guarantee of blind aud dogged resistance to reform and of pernicious medi»valism. He owed his power partly to Father John of Cronstadt... The ordinary priesthood in Russia is ridiculed and disliked by the peasantry. Most of the peasants' songs are descriptions of the avarice and sensuality of the village popes. When Father John of Cronstadt created a revival of faith by his austere life, sincerity and boundiess passion for the^poor/ he gave to Pobiedonostseff a new lease of lite. But for Father John of Cronstadt it is doubtful whether the Procurator of the Holy Synod could have retained office after the disaster of the Khodinsky Plain. The excesses and corruption of the Grand Ducal relations of the Czar have brought all the fundamental institutions of Russia into contempt — the Orthodox Church the rest. Father John and Pooiedonostseff were as different qs light from darkness, but both were pure living, austere men with ideals — the one a statesman, intellectual, cruel as Nero ; the other a priest, taught to believe what he was told to believe, and he became towards the end of his life an instrument of the. Civil Power. The passing of. Father John marks the entry of a new era.