Bishop Damascene, who in the world was Dimitry Dimitrievich Tsedrik, was born in Cherson, into the family of a poor postal official. The whole family was penetrated by an elevated Christian spirit. This is shown by the fact that the brother of Bishop Damascene, Nicholas, became a priest, and at the very beginning of the October Revolution in 1917 was executed by shooting for his fearless confession of the faith and his accusations against the Bolsheviks.
Bishop Damascene received his higher education in an agricultural institute, which he finished with the title of agronomist. Later, during his exile in the region of Turukhan, this education came in very handy for him. After his graduation, Bishop Damascene entered the Institute of Eastern Languages in Kazan. After completing this schooling he accepted monasticism and worked as a missionary in the Peking mission. He was arrested on several occasions, however after his final arrest in 1935 (in Kazakhstan) he was sent to Siberia, and was never heard from again.
The following is an archived letter (dated 1929) written by St. Damascene Tsedrik to his flock:
“From different places news is being received about the closure or seizures of Orthodox churches, of which there are only a few left (for the most part, in Ukraine). The reasons for this are usually not immediately announced, and only after a while, insignificant reasons are sometimes invented. However, the true reason for this is now known to everyone.
This seizure of Orthodox churches is a brilliant illustration of religious freedom in the land of the Soviets. The frequent cases of church seizures (in the eleventh year of the soviet government) too often continue to be repeated, even when there is so much talk about the “legalization” of the Orthodox Church. This imperatively requires serious reflection, for the fact is that we are facing a prudent and imperiously carried out broad plan aimed at denying the rights of the Orthodox Church. It thus becomes clear that no compromises, or “legalization”, given the existence of such a plan, can serve as a guarantee for us. These rather can be classified as empty sounds aimed to torment the souls of the faithful.
It is time that we clearly realize that if the attention given to us by the Soviet power continues, then in the not too distant future all of our shrines will either be in the hands of apostates from the Church, or they will be violated by pagans, atheists, and all those who for the sake of preserving these relics, will make various concessions in matters of the Church’s structure – matters which have been approved by the Apostles and Ecumenical Councils! Such shameful compromises which act to the detriment of the dignity and freedom of the Church lead all such Christians who support them to become invisible to themselves. For it causes such to be found outside the walls of the Holy Church, with a belittled conscience, in stained vestments.
Therefore, it is time for us to think about how to preserve the essence of the Rights of the Orthodox Church – the unity of faith and confession of Christ’s Name, and to secure for ourselves the source of saving grace through the true priesthood and the Sacraments, even if for this we have to abandon all other churches – the usual external structure of the church. In our position how dangerous it is to deceive ourselves and lull the vigilance commanded by Christ by the possibility of accepting compromises with the enemies of Christ’s faith and the Church. All such compromises will only cause greater division among the believers, belittle the dignity of the Church yet more, and finally they will suppress the authority of Her representatives. This has now become apparent to all of us.
However, in their press organs, the Soviets do not hide their plans for the Church, declaring that by the fifteenth year of its existence, the Church would be completely liquidated. We all turned out to be so short-sighted, so naively gullible that we did not immediately recognize this formidable enemy (Apoc. 13:1). We did not understand this frenzied anger and their hatred for everything bearing the seal of Christ our God, which is the Orthodox Church. Now reality castigates the consciences of believers with scorpions for their past gullibility. It would be better for us to burn our holy churches with our own hands in due time, than to see them now turned into obscene places, into workshops and warehouses. It would have been better for us to return the holy relics to the earth, than to see them now disgraced by the godless in their museums. It would be better for us to throw our precious Church vestments into the oven than to see them now mocked in the theaters…
An enormous number of our churches were forcibly taken away from us by the soviets and transferred to the Church of Judas – the renovationists and self-sanctifying comedians. This was done with the obvious intention of moving the believers in the direction of these renegades. There is no doubt that our last churches will also be taken away under all sorts of pretexts. You should be quite prepared for this.
The commandment of our Lord – “Be gentle as doves and wise as serpents” – should be accepted by us as a guide in our present position. With meekness and patience we will accept the sorrows and trials of our days, but let us wisely preserve our head, that is, that which is the essence of Christ’s Church, the basis of our salvation. It is necessary for us to begin this last step in advance, with a clear awareness of the inevitability of a fierce attack by the enemy which will be aimed precisely towards the internal organization of the Holy Church.
We must admit, and not close our eyes to the fact, that the enemy has achieved significant success in destroying the external structure of our Church and is intensifying its efforts to destroy it completely. The head of the Church, the Holy Patriarch Tikhon, after long sufferings and torments – under mysterious circumstances – reposed into the eternal rest. The lawful locum tenens [St. Peter of Krutitsa] has been deliberately driven into exile to one of the northernmost shores of the Arctic Ocean and, apparently, is also living out the last days of his life. All of the most authoritative archpastors are either in prison or in perpetual harsh exile. The supreme body of the church government does not have the ability to organize itself, as the bodies of local diocesan government. It can be said that in the entire Russian Orthodox Church there is not a single deanery or even a parish body that would be able to function freely and correctly.
The stopgap that was artificially and uncanonically organized in Moscow during the reign of the Metropolitan Sergius, and puts itself in the place of the Patriarchal Synod, has inexplicably departed far from the hierarchical principle of being the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and in no way can be revered as reflecting the true Hierarchical Conscience of the Church Synod.
The life of ordinary believers has become increasingly unbearable of late. Their children are deprived of the opportunity to receive at least secondary education; for the slightest manifestation of religiosity, employees are expelled not only from state institutions, but even from such free public institutions as cooperatives; teachers who do not want to actively work in “circles of atheists” are expelled from their service unconditionally.
What can we do in the face of such a terrible reality? “In what ways can we show the serpents wisdom”? First of all, for us believers, it is important to preserve in all integrity and purity our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Savior, the Redeemer of the world. Then to preserve the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, which we ourselves compose with the unity of our faith, spirit and the Sacraments. It is precisely this inner essence of the Church of Christ that we must now bring closer to our consciousness. We must clearly realize it, feel it. It is not the church buildings that are the Church, but we, the people, are the Church! We are spiritually united together by love in Christ, the unity of faith in Him, the unity of confessing His Holy Name. There was a time when Christians did not have temples at all, they recognized each other only by conventional signs. They gathered to perform the most Holy Sacrament at homes, in underground cemeteries, in catacombs, in the wilderness. There was a time when thousands of Christians went to the most severe torment and death for confessing the Name of Christ, but it was then that the believers constituted that Church – the Church which not only refused to yield to the pagans who warred against her, not only refused to diminish in its dignity and quantity, but, on the contrary, became stronger in the confession of her faith. In the blood of her martyrs, she drowned all of the charm of paganism, and shone the gracious light of the Gospel over all the world.
Judging by all of the evidence, in our contemporary experience we are approaching a similar time (Matthew 24:9; Apoc. 13: 7-16:17). In our situation, it is necessary to diligently avoid making a big mistake, namely, allowing strife to exist among believers as a result of the seizure of their churches. On the contrary, the believers need to be ever closer to each other. It is necessary for us to join into the closest of alliances on the basis of our single faith, common prayer, and mutual support for each other in the sorrows that have befallen us. It is necessary to unite around the priests known to us in order to recognize through them the grace of Christ in the Holy Sacraments, which, perhaps, will be performed in secret places. Of course, ceremonial services, pretentious choral singing, and loud protodeacons will have to be abandoned, to be replaced by the quiet, concentrated prayer of small groups at home in the most simple of atmospheres, in the most modest of vestments. In such conditions, it is necessary for the faithful to know their priests well, for they may have to abandon the external proof of their rank in order to freely communicate with their flock. Bishops of theirs, perhaps, will have to be known only from afar with their identity being kept in absolute secrecy. This situation has already existed in the Church, and it’s becoming very likely in our contemporary living conditions. Prudence suggests that it is time to prepare for such a situation.
It is especially timely for our priests to reflect on this matter. In time, as they continue in their podvig, they will die in prisons and exile, they will boldly speak out with a word of reproof and admonition before the atheists and the God fighters, striving even to blood for the glory of the Name of Christ. Others, for the sake of preserving and nurturing the flock of Christ, must prepare their own exodus to the “catacombs.” Wisdom and zeal for the salvation of our souls should tell us the forms in which this “exodus” should take place. As for the civil order, let it choose whichever road for itself, let it proclaim any principles of life, let it in its insane pride declare war on the Creator of the universe, – we will go our way “with Christ and to Christ.” We will use from the “outside” only those few things that are necessary for a modest life and which are not contrary to our Christian conscience and spirit. Let us be patient, displaying brotherly love, towards the perishing, let us obey their civil laws which are not contrary to the spirit of Christ; – but we will not sacrifice before the “outside”, before the power of man, a single one of the church regulations, not one iota of the dogmas of the Christian faith; we will not allow the godless to shamefully prevent our participation in the Holy Sacraments, we will not allow their corrupting influence in the area of our spiritual relations, in the world of our mutual love for Christ, our faith, the Sacraments, or in our Church – the Holy of Holies of our soul and life.
Let us, by the purity and holiness of our lives, try to resemble the life of the first Christians so that even the enemies of Christ would see our superiority over their gloomy life. Then they too, seeing us actively fulfilling the commandment of love according to the Gospel, will lose confidence in their mode of life, which is based upon their crude, animal principles and convert their hearts to Christ God. It’s time, Beloved Ones! The time has come for us – the believers – to clearly define our future path. It is time to take measures in order to protect ourselves and our holy inheritance (which has been entrusted to us) from the enemies who have rebelled against Christ and His Church. The time has come … Perhaps, the judgment “is near at the doors”(Matthew 24:33). “Don’t be afraid, little flock! For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”(Luke 12:32).
“You have little strength, and you have kept My word, and have not denied My name. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee”(Rev. 3: 8-9).
“Come, come, Lord Jesus!”
Amen.
