Jeremiah (born Irodion Solovyov; c. 1799 – no earlier than 1887) was a bishop of The Diocese of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, holding the see from 1851 to 1857. The son of a rural church reader, he rose from monastery herdsman to bishop and left a notable mark on the church-building life of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese in the mid-nineteenth century.[1]
Life Before the Episcopate
In the theology class at Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary became close friends with Ivan Borisov — the future celebrated preacher Innokenty of Kherson. Upon completing the seminary course in 1819, the twenty-year-old Solovyov was assigned as a teacher of Greek and inspector at the Kyiv Theological School, while Borisov enrolled at the Kyiv Theological Academy.[1]
Solovyov taught in Kyiv for about four years, but the idea of monasticism never left him. The Oryol bishop Gavriil (later Archbishop of Ryazan) offered him a priest's position in Bolkhov, and Solovyov initially agreed: he liked both the position and his intended bride. However, during a visit to a monastery, he prayed alone in a grove, asking God to show him his path in life — and after this prayer he returned the marriage certificate to the bishop and submitted a petition to be enrolled as a novice at the Bryansk Pechersky Monastery.[1]
Solovyov made the journey to the monastery on foot — some 200 versts — through the spring thaw. The monastery authorities, receiving the former teacher and inspector with suspicion, assigned him as a stoker and herdsman. He carried out these duties for four months, then was transferred to the position of sexton. Then, unexpectedly, in 1824, by order of the Commission of Theological Schools, Solovyov was summoned at government expense to the Saint Petersburg Theological Academy — this "surprise" had been arranged by his childhood friend Ivan Borisov, who by that time had become a bachelor of the academy and taken monastic vows under the name Innokenty.[1]
Solovyov studied at the academy for three years and, before the completion of the course, petitioned the authorities not to award him any academic degree — hoping that without a degree he would remain forever in the modest rank of hieromonk.[1]
Activity at the Nizhny Novgorod See
Jeremiah served as Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas from 1851 to 1857. During his governance of the diocese, residents of the area around what is now Lyadov Square (formerly known as Krestovozdvizhanskaya) petitioned the ecclesiastical authorities to establish a parish church: the nearest Pokrovskaya church was difficult to reach because of ravines and spring floodwaters.[1]
The bishop supported this petition and approached Fyodor Vasilyevich Annenkov with a request to allocate a site for construction. A plot was designated at the intersection of Kanatnaya and Nemetskaya streets; the land was purchased from a townswoman, A. A. Nazarushkina, and a soldier's wife, A. S. Pozdeeva. In 1860, Church of the Moscow Saints was erected on this site.[1]
Links
- Wikidata (Q158825 — entry in the open knowledge base)
- VIAF (69721584 — virtual international authority file)
- ISNI (0000000097224246)
- GND (118557394 — German National Library catalogue)
Sources
- azbyka.ru — Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Jeremiah — Andrey Aleksandrovich Titov — read, download