In memory of hegumenia Seraphima (Chernaya)  

IN MEMORY OF HEGUMENIA SERAPHIMA (CHERNAYA)

Blessed is the way which you are following, O Soul, today,
for a place of rest has been prepared for you.

Hegumenia Seraphima (Chernaya), mother superior of the Novodevichy convent of Our Lady of Smolensk in Moscow, died on December 16, 1999, at the age of 86. It is with her name that the resumption of monastic life in this ancient convent five years ago has been associated.

Mother Seraphima (her secular name is Varvara Vasilyevna Chernaya) was born on August 12, 1914, in Petrograd.

Her father, Vasily Avgustovich Rezon, served on Finland’s State Secretariat. He disappeared in 1914 during World War I.

Her mother, Leonida Leonidovna Chichagova, a physician by profession, joined the monastic community of the Pukhtitsy convent of the Dormition in 1953, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexis I. She took monastic vows there. She died in 1969 and was buried in the Pukhtitsy convent.

Her grandfather, Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, an artillery officer and participant in the Russian-Turkish War, became Metropolitan Seraphim, the hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who prepared the canonization of Starets Seraphim of Sarov and one of those who suffered martyrdom in 1937. In 1997 he was canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Her husband, Nikolay Valentinovich Cherny, an art critic,died in 1983.

After graduation from school at the Moscow region in 1929, Varvara Vasilyevna entered the Moscow Oil Chemistry Technical School. From 1931, she worked at the Military Technical Academy under the USSR Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Organic Chemistry. In 1939, she graduated from the Moscow Institute of Fine Chemical Technology and was assigned to work at the Rubber plant in Moscow. From 1942, she was deputy chief engineer of the plant. In 1946 she was transferred to the Rubber Industry Institute for research work. She worked there till 1986 when she retired at the age of 72.

She held the academic status of Candidate of Chemistry from 1951 and Doctor of Technical Sciences from 1970. She was made professor in 1973, and in 1975 she was conferred the rank of the USSR’s Honoured Researcher. In 1979 she won the USSR State Prize.

She was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of the October Revolution and eight medals for various services.

In recognition of her efforts for resuming monastic life in the Novodevichy convent, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna put her forward for a decoration. Accordingly, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia awarded her a Decorated Cross in 1997 and the Order of St. Princess Olga Equal-to-the-Apostles in 1999, on the occasion of the 85th birthday.

Since 1986, Varvara Vasilyevna worked at the candle box in the church of the Prophet Elijah in Moscow to acquire Christian humility.

Concurrently, she held Orthodox seminars at her place, through which many intellectuals in Moscow were inchurched.

A descendant from the Chichagovs nobility, she was brought up in Orthodoxy and faithfulness to the Holy Church. By her whole life in science she showed that true knowledge and serious scientific work did not ran contrary to the faith in God, but rather helped to make the true faith even more convincing. Already in a venerable age, when a person seeks a well-deserved rest from lifetime work, she devoted herself to what can be described as the hardest possible exploit – the active service of the Church.

Guided by her spiritual father, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, Mother Seraphima was actively involved in collecting archive materials which were to become the foundation for the canonization of her grandfather, Metropolitan Seraphim.

Her name has been associated with the resumption of monastic life at the ancient Novodevichy convent in Moscow. On October 13, 1994, Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna tonsured her at its church of the Dormition, with the name of Seraphima, after St. Seraphim of Sarov. On November 27, 1994, he elevated her to the rank of hegumenia with the right to carry the hegumenia’s staff.

Watching the life of Mother Seraphima in the convent, one was endlessly struck by the power of the spirit, tirelessness and the inexaustable faith in God’s help that this little elderly moman commanded. It is impossible to ennumerate all that the Mother Hegumenia did for the five years of the convent. She had the convent’s facilities accomplished and created excellent conditions for the everyday life of the sisters. She always worked to adorn the churches and to order worship services in the convent and in its two metochions.

She made a great contribution to the construction of the memorial church of the Russian New Martyrs and Confessors at Butovo in Moscow, where many of those who stayed faithful to the Mother Church suffered for Christ under the godless regime.

It is through her intercession and thanks to her tireless research in the historical and church archives that His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II gave his blessing in summer 1999 on the resumption of veneration of the Schema Hegumenia Helen Devochkina, the first mother superior of the Novodevichy convent.

According to human measures, Mother Seraphima lived an amazingly long life filled with continuous work for the good of our Fatherland and the Russian Orthodox Church. But even this long life was not enough for her to accomplish all that she intended to do for the glory of her dear convent. In her work she enjoyed the assistance of a tremendous number of people with diverse backgrounds.

Mother Seraphima was always very sincere in her love of the Holy Church. She could inspire people to work for the good of the Church so much that help always came in the right time and sometimes quite unexpectedly. One could not help loving her – so wonderful was her soul.

Her death saddened many. On the day of her funeral the spacious church of the Dormition at the Novodevichy convent could not accommodate all who came to see her off on “the way of all the earth”. On that day, December 18, 1999, the Divine Liturgy for the rest of her soul was celebrated and the rite of the monastic funeral was performed by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna, who was assisted by Archbishop Gregory of Mozhaisk and Bishop Tikhon of Vidnoye, as well as clergy in Moscow and the Moscow diocese. Before the fneral, His Eminence Metropolitan Juvenaly said a lengthy and emotional oration after a message of consolation from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia was read. Messages of condolence were received from the Moscow Government, the Central Prefecture and the Khamovniki District Council. Among those who attended the funeral were Mr. Muzykantsky, prefect of the Central Administrative District, Mr. Kramkov, head of the Naro-Fominsk District of the Moscow region, A.I. Shkurko, director of the State Museum of History, and the staff of the Novodevichy Convent museum.

To the consolation of the sisters and parishioners of the convent, Mother Seraphima was buried in the yeard of the church of the Dormition.

Eternal memory to our blessed Mother, all-honorable hegumenia Seraphima.

Archbishop GREGORY of Mozhaisk
Vicar of the Moscow diocese