THE DAY TRUE ORTHODOXY SAVED
THE WORLD
One of the great confessors of the Catacomb Church was Bishop Michael (Yershov) of Kazan. Stories about him began to seep out to the West towards the end of his life and after his death in 1974. But it was not until a full (739-page) biography of him appeared recently that his full stature and importance became apparent.
Michael Vasilyevich Yershov was born in 1911 into a poor family. His father
became a Bolshevik and persecuted and beat his son, but was later converted by
him and repented. In 1931, at the age of twenty, Michael was imprisoned for the
first time for his rejection of the Sovietized Moscow Patriarchate. Apart from
a short period in the early 1940s, he remained in the camps for the rest of his
life, being transported from one end of the GULAG to the other and dying, still
in prison, on June 4, 1974. He presented an astounding image of patience and
suffering that converted many to the Faith. He was a wonderworker and had the
gifts of healing and prophecy. But perhaps his most astounding miracle was
worked in the Mordovian camps in 1962, together with his fellow inmate and
secret bishop, Basil Vasilyevich Kalinin (+1995).
“It was August, 1962. The Cuban crisis! The attention of the world was glued
to it, and it affected even the special section hidden in the Mordovian
forests. ‘It has to be…! Khruschev has penetrated into the bosom of the
Americans!’ That was how the zeks [criminal inmates] interpreted it. People
living beyond the barbed wire admitted the possibility that in time of war the
local authorities would annihilate them, as the most dangerous politicals,
first of all.” “At the special section the zeks insisted that Moscow had issued
an order that in time of war the politicals and recidivists would be
annihilated first of all. The Cuban crisis was soon resolved, and our camp
calmed down. Many years later I heard that the fears of the zeks in 1962 had
not been without foundation. They had really been threatened with annihilation
at that time.” “In 1964, soon after the fall of Khruschev, a colonel from the
Georgian KGB cam e to our camp. And he said, among other things: ‘Khruschev
adopted the policy of the complete physical annihilation of the politicals, and
first of all the recidivists. During the Cuban crisis everything was prepared
for your shooting – even a pit was dug’.” [Bishop] Basil Vasilyevich Kalinin
remembered that the holy hierarch [Michael] once unexpectedly aroused him from
sleep with the words: “Six minutes are remaining. Get up, Basil, and pray! The
world is in danger!” And then he learned that this was the critical moment in
the Cuban crisis…
Truly, “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”
(James 5.16). For “when Moses prayed to the Lord, the fire was quenched”
(Numbers 11.2), and when Elijah prayed to the Lord the heavens were closed and
again opened (James 5.17). And when the two True Orthodox bishops Michael and
Basil prayed to the Lord, the world was saved from nuclear holocaust…
“Let the world mock us,” wrote Bishop Michael, “but we, poor people, must
give all our strength and desire in prayer to God”. “We must strictly watch
over ourselves, that we do not fall under the condemnation and wrath of God. We
must pour out the balsam of our strength and purity of heart whatever happens,
our simple, true and holy prayer to God, which is bound by nothing except
simplicity and belief in our eternal inheritance. For the Lord looks on the
righteous and on their holy appeals, so that the prayer offered may be the
earnest of our strength and the balsam of purification, by which the world
might be preserved and the catastrophe which cannot even be expressed in words
– God forbid! – might be averted.”
“You yourselves know that a city is preserved if a righteous man is praying in
it. Once the righteous man has left the city, the elements rule in the city.
And so, dear ones, remember this one thing, that now is not that day on which
the universe was created, and everything was brought into being, but now is the
day on which danger menaces the creation…”
Besides this pure, simple, burning prayer of a righteous man, Bishop
Michael insisted on the pure confession of the True Orthodox Faith.
“Between the Church of the Tikhonite orientation [the True Orthodox Church]
and the legal church [the Moscow Patriarchate] there is the following
difference. The Church of the Tikhonite orientation zealously fulfils all the
laws and rules that are prescribed by the Holy Fathers, while the legal church
tolerates atheism, does not struggle against iniquity, but is reconciled with
it. I recognize the One Apostolic Church. The legal church recognizes Lenin and
Stalin, and serves Soviet power and carries out the orders of the atheist
antichrists.”
“Do not believe any sects: this is a cunning contemporary politics that has
come out from the West. There are even some that are like the Orthodox faith.
But you, my brothers and dear ones, must not go anywhere – may the Lord keep
you! There are also many enemies of our Orthodox Christian faith, we have many
enemies. The first is Catholicism, our most cunning and evil enemy, and the
Lutherans, and all the sects, which came out of America and now, like dirt,
have spread through the whole earth. It is difficult for us poor people now, we
have no defence from men, everyone wants to offend us. But we are faithful. We
are the most true patriots of our Mother, the Holy Orthodox Christian Eastern
Apostolic Church. We are patriots of Holy Rus’ and we know the tricks of all
kinds of people, and we will not deviate in any direction: for Holy Rus’ is
sanctified by the sufferings of her own people. Every foot is creeping into
Russi a and wanting to defile her. No, Russia will preserve all the holy
mysteries, even if through small, simple people, but she will show the whole
world light, and strength, and greatness. Dear ones, the Orthodox Church will
conquer the whole universe. Fear not, my dear ones, the Lord will conquer evil.
Amen.”
Bishop Michael was a simple, uneducated man. But he attained the spiritual
heights. “In my lifetime I have not studied the sciences, but I have come to
know the keys of the universe and have reached the depths of the abyss. It is
hard and difficult without the Supreme Creator. With the Creator and His
Life-giving Spirit and the righteousness of Christ I have passed through the
arena of an indescribable life…”
Vladimir Moss.
July 20 / August 2, 2012.
Holy Prophet Elijah.
