Archimandrite Cyril (, secular name Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov, ; 8 September 1919 – 20 February 2017) was a

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

Christian monk, elder and

Archimandrite The title archimandrite (; ), used in Eastern Christianity, originally referred to a superior abbot ('' hegumenos'', , present participle of the verb meaning "to lead") whom a bishop appointed to supervise several "ordinary" abbots and monaste ...

, who was

confessor In a number of Christian traditions, including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, a confessor is a priest who hears the confessions of penitents and pronounces absolution. History During the Diocletianic Persecut ...

to Patriarch

Alexy II Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, ; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger ; 23 February 1929 – 5 December 2008) was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Elected Patriarch of Moscow ...

. He was also confessor to the previous patriarchs

Alexy I Patriarch Alexy I (Alexius I, , secular name Sergey Vladimirovich Simansky, ; – 17 April 1970) was the 13th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) between 1945 and 1970. Life Born in Moscow to a noble ...

and Pimen.

Biography

Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov was born September 8, 1919, in Makovskiye Vyselki,

Ryazan Oblast Ryazan Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Ryazan, which is also the oblast's largest city. Geography Ryazan Oblast ...

, to a peasant family. After finishing at a polytechnical college, he worked as a technician at a metallurgic plant. Pavlov served in the military during World War II, active for six years, starting in the

Soviet-Finnish War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

; he also took part in the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad ; see . rus, links=on, Сталинградская битва, r=Stalingradskaya bitva, p=stəlʲɪnˈɡratskəjə ˈbʲitvə. (17 July 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, ...

. He was awarded the medal and title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" for his part in the defense of Stalingrad. As a soldier, Pavlov reached

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and participated in the battles at

Lake Balaton Lake Balaton () is a freshwater rift lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary. It is the List of largest lakes of Europe, largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations. The Zala River provides the larges ...

. In 1946 he was demobilised in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

and came to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Conversion

In one of the most bloody days lieutenant Pavlov found among the ruins the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

, opened, started reading and took it as a sign from above. He collected all the pages of the Gospel and never abandoned them. In one of the interviews he recollected, "When I started reading the Gospel – my eyes got opened upon everything surrounding me, upon all the events... I walked with the Gospel and was not afraid. Never. Such was the inspiration! Simply God was next to me and I was not afraid of anything...". In 1946 Pavlov went to

Yelokhovo Cathedral The Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo (), Moscow, is the vicarial church (building), church of the Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', Moscow Patriarchs. The surviving building was designed and built by Yevgraph Tyurin in 1837–1845. The original ...

and, after asking for any theological institute, he was sent to the newly opened

theological seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological college, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called seminarians) in scripture and Christian theology, theology, generally to prepare them for ordinatio ...

at Novodevichy monastery. He arrived there in the military outfit and was gladly met by pro-rector Father Sergius. Thus the sergeant became the seminarian. Having finished the seminary, he studied at the

Moscow Theological Academy Moscow Theological Academy () is a higher educational institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, training clergy, teachers, scholars, and officials. The Academy traces its origin to the Slavic Greek Latin Academy, which was founded in 1685 by th ...

and in 1953 took postrig becoming a monk, refusing the glory and awards. He completed the academy in 1954, by now not Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov but

hieromonk A hieromonk,; Church Slavonic, Slavonic: ''Иеромонахъ''; ; ; ; ; Albanian language, Albanian: ''Hieromurg'' also called a priestmonk, is a person who is both monk and Priest#Roman Catholic and Orthodox, priest in the Eastern Christianity ...

Cyril. Father Cyril lived at Trinity-Sergius lavra and became brotherly spiritual guide to the monks.

Later life and death

Until his death father Cyril lived in Peredelkino, in the residence of the Holy

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...

of all

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Aleksy II Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, ; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger ; 23 February 1929 – 5 December 2008) was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. Elected Patriarch of Moscow ...

. Archimandrite Cyril died on 20 February 2017 at the age of 97.

References

External links

Komsomolskaya Pravda about elder Cyril (in Russian)

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080619034952/http://lib.eparhia-saratov.ru/books/10k/kirill/homilies/13.html Elder Cyril's Easter Homily (in Russian)
Audio recordings of Cyril's homilies (in Russian)

Elder Cyril's photo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlov, Cyril 1919 births 2017 deaths People from Mikhaylovsky District, Ryazan Oblast Eastern Orthodox mystics Russian Eastern Orthodox priests Russian Orthodox monks 20th-century Eastern Orthodox priests 20th-century Christian mystics Soviet military personnel of World War II 20th-century Christian monks 21st-century Christian monks Archimandrites Moscow Theological Academy alumni