Archpriest Cyril Fotiev

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Achpriest Cyril Fotiev (1928-1990)

Cyril may be spelt Cyrille, Kyril, Kirill.

Fotiev may be spelt Fotiyev Fotieff, Photiev.

Early life of Cyril Vasilievich Fotiev

On 11 November, 1928, Cyril Vasilievich Fotiev was born in Moscow, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). This was approximately 11 years after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. He was born to Vasiliy Vasilievich and Ekaterina Sergeievna (born Yudin) Fotiev.

Both parents were of the old Moscow Fotiev and Yudin families. Vasily Vasilyevich Fotiyev was a theatre critic, actor and director of the Vodnikov Theater. A street in Moscow bears the family name. Ekaterina Sergeevna Yudin's ancestors were of the Yudin family of merchants. This name remains known in Moscow.

At the time of the birth of Cyril Vasilievich, the family lived in the basement of a house in Denisovsk Lane in Moscow. Both parents became ill, and they were found to be suffering with tuberculosis. Because she feared for the life of her youngest son, in 1934, Ekaterina Sergeevna arranged to send him to her sister Natalia Sergeevna Rar in Latvia. The 5-year-old child of Natalia Sergeievna had recently died. At that time, it was extremely difficult for anyone to leave the Soviet Union.

It was the elder brother of both sisters, the famous surgeon Sergei Sergeevich Yudin who helped to arrange the child's move. Major figures of that time and their wives turned to him, some of them owed their lives to him. It was thanks to these connections that Sergei Sergeievich managed to get permission to transfer Cyril in the spring of 1934.

In 1939, after his mother fell asleep in the Lord, Kirill was adopted by Alexander Alexandrovich and Natalya Sergeevna Rar.

World War II, 1939-1945, exile

After the beginning of World War II, Latvia was being invaded by the forces of the Soviet Union in 1941. In that year, as did many others, the Rar family fled to Germany for safety. The settled first at Lübeck in Northern Germany, where Cyril enrolled in the gymnasium. Then they moved to Breslavl (now Wrocław) in Silesia. Then, when the fronts were moving westward at the end of the war, the family was again displaced, and they came to live in the Menhehof (Mönchehof) refugee camp near Kassel, in Northern Germany. There, Cyril Vasilievich continued his studies in the Russian Gymnasium, and it was from there that he graduated.

Higher education

In 1946, Cyril Vasilievich entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Hamburg. During his studies, in 1947, he followed the examples of his cousins Lev and Gleb Rar, and he joined the National Labor Union (now known as the People's Labour Union of Russian Solidarists (NTS)). He remained a member of this organisation until the end of his life.

In 1949, the family moved to Morocco, where Cyril Vasilievich took part in land surveying for a time.

In November, 1949, Cyril Vasilieivich moved to Paris, France, since he had received a scholarship to study at the Saint Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute. There, he studied with A V Kartashev, Archpriest Vasily Zenkovsky, Bishop Cassian (Bezobrazov), Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern), art critic V V Veidle, and others. He graduated from the Institute with a degree in Theology in 1954.

His thesis, “Attempts of Ukrainian Autocephaly in the 20th Century”, was published in 1955.

Further activities

After having graduated, Cyril Vasilievich worked in the NTS union's offices in Rome, Italy, where he organised meetings with tourists from the USSR.

Then he worked in the editorial office of the NTS radio station "Free Russia" in Germany ; he participated in the development of educational materials for the NTS ; he participated in relations with foreigners, and he wrote articles in the NTS magazine “Posev” (partially under the pseudonym Sergei Sokolnikov).

Diaconal ordination

At a date at present unavailable, Subdeacon Cyril Fotiev was ordained to the Holy Diaconate in Paris, France.

He was ordained as a celibate deacon.

Presbyteral ordination, 1961

In 1961, in the Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Paris, France, Deacon Cyril Fotiev was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Archbishop George (Tarassov).

Pastoral service

Priest Cyril Fotiev was a celibate priest.

In 1961, Priest Cyril Fotiev was assigned to serve as a military chaplain at the American Occupation Corps in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.

Transfer to North America, 1963

Service in Montréal, Québec, Canada, 1963

In late 1963, the Priest Cyril Fotiev was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America (later, The Orthodox Church in America). He was assigned to serve at Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Because this transfer took place when it did, it is likely that the transfer was in association with the transfer in 1963 of Bishop Sylvester (Haruns) from France to become the Bishop of Montréal and Canada of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America. Archbishop Sylvester himself had been born in Latvia, whence he emigrated to France as a student.

Father Cyril served as pastor in this parish next to Archbishop Sylvester for 4 years.

Transfer to New York, 1968

In 1968, Priest Cyril Fotiev was transferred to New York City.

There, he was assigned to serve as Dean of the Holy Protection Cathedral. He also served in the administration of the North American “Metropolia” (later “The Orthodox Church in America”).

Later, he was assigned to serve as rector of Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York.

During all this time, Father Cyril was a contributor along with others to the religious broadcasts on the “Voice of America” short-wave radio transmissions. These broadcasts were being sent towards the USSR in order to nurture the Orthodox Christian Faithful there who were deprived of teaching. This deprivation was because the Soviet Union was an aggressively atheist state. He collaborated with Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, Priest Michael Meerson-Aksenov and others in these efforts.

Until the end of his life, Archpriest Cyril Fotiyev was on the editorial boards of the journals RHD “Vestnik RSHD (“Russian Student Christian Movement Messenger”), and “Sowing”.

In 1977, so as to work with new emigrants, he created a special working group of the NTS, which later turned into the Russian Research Foundation.

Return to Europe, 1984

In 1984, Archpriest Cyril Fotiev returned to Europe. He was received back into the clergy of the Western European Russian Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. He settled in Munich, Germany, and he was assigned to serve as a travelling priest. From then until the end of his life, he conducted religious programmes on “Radio Liberty” (“Radio Free Europe”) along with his cousin, G A Rahr.

Father Cyril loved Italy and France, where he often travelled in his parish rounds. He was a specialist in Italian Renaissance art and French literature. In addition to a stylistically subtle knowledge of the Russian language, he was fluent also in French, Italian, German, and English.

Eventually, Father Cyril's pastoral service became focussed primarily on the the Parish of the Holy Nativity in Florence, Italy.

Repose, 1990

On 28 August, 1990 (the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, Old Calendar), in Munich, Germany, Archpriest Cyril Fotiev fell asleep in the Lord. He had suffered from cancer.

After the Funeral Services for the Burial of a Priest, his body was interred at the Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois Cemetery near Paris, France.

After his repose in Christ, the rich library of Father Cyril was transferred by his god-daughter to the Minsk Theological Seminary in the Zhirovichi Monastery in Byelorus (Belarus), where it is kept as “the Fonds of Archpriest Kirill Fotiyev”.

Reflections

Once he joined the National Labour Union (NTS) in 1946, Father Cyril remained a member until end of his life, and he played a prominent role in this organisation. He published articles in the NTS Journal “Our Days”.

Until his death, he was an active member of the editorial board of the “Posev” magazine, of which he was a member of the editorial board.

Father Cyril sought consistently to establish contact with representatives of the clergy where he served, as his personal contribution towards overcoming the barriers of “jurisdictions” in the Orthodox Christian Church in North America and in Europe.

He did not see any contradiction in combining his pastoral service with his service to Russia in the ranks of the NTS political organisation, and he often stated that about 30 Orthodox priests had gone through the school of the NTS.

Writings

• “Attempts of Ukrainian Church Autocephaly in the 20th Century” (Munich, 1955)

• “Conversations about Religion” (Frankfurt, 1956)

• “A Brief Introduction to Philosophy” (Frankfurt, 1956)

• ‘About Personalism’ in “Our Days”, no. 4 (Frankfurt, 1958)

• “Everyone needs Freedom” (Frankfurt, 1959)

• ‘Living Root’ in “Sowing”, no. 1 (712) (Frankfurt, 1960)

• ‘High Humanity : On the Centenary of the Birth of A P Chekhov’ in “Sowing”, no. 5 (716) (Frankfurt, 1960)

• ‘Road to Bethlehem’ in “Sowing”, no. 1-2 (764-765) (Frankfurt, 1961)

• ‘Predawn Cry’ in “Sowing”, no. 17 (780) (Frankfurt, 1961)

• ‘The Moscow Patriarchate is in the World Council of Churches’ in “Sowing”, no. 51 (814) (Frankfurt, 1961)

• ‘Eternal Source of Light, Joy and Reason’ in “Sowing”, no. 1 (816) (Frankfurt, 1962)

• ‘About the Unity of Christian Churches’ in “Sowing”, no. 35 (902) (Frankfurt, 1963)

• ‘Judge responsibly and carefully’, in “Sowing”, no. 12 (Frankfurt, 1979)

• ‘Russian Church Today : Clergy and Laity’ in “Sowing”, no. 9, (Frankfurt, 1981)

• ‘To overcome the evil Disunity of this World’ in “Sowing”, no. 6 (Frankfurt, 1986)

• ‘Baptism and Christianisation in the historical Fate of Russia' in “Sowing”, no. 5 (Frankfurt, 1988)

Writings by other authors about Archpriest Cyril Fotiyev

• ‘In Memory of Fr K Fotiev' in “Vestnik RHD”, no. 160 (Paris, 1990)

• ‘In Memory of Friends : K V Fotiyev' in “Sowing”, no. 6 (Frankfurt, 1990)

‘In Memory of Fr. K Fotiev' in “Russian Thought”, no. 3843 (Paris 1990)

• Flam, L S, “The Fates of the 1920s-1930s Generation in Emigration” (Moscow : Russian Way, 2006). ISBN : 5-85887-253-0.

• Nivier, A, “Orthodox Clergy, Theologians and Church Leaders of the Russian Emigration in Western and Central Europe 1920-1995 : Biographical Guide” (Moscow-Paris : Russian Way/YMCA-Press, 2007). ISBN : 978-5-85887-206-1.

• Stolypin, A P, “In the Service of Russia : Essays on the History of the NTS” (Frankfurt : Sowing, 1986). ISBN : 3-7912-2010-1.

• Romanov, E R : “In the Struggle for Russia : Memories” (Moscow : Voice, 1999). ISBN : 5-7117-0402-8.

• Polchaninov, R V, “Youth of the Russian Diaspora” (Moscow : Posev, 2009). ISBN : 978-5-85824-189-8.

• Rahr, G A, “And our Generation will give an Account to History : Memories” (Moscow : Publishing House "Russian Way", 2011). ISBN : 978-5-85887-382-2.