Father Vasilyeva biography

Archpriest Mikhail Vladimirovich Vasiliev did not immediately connect his life with the service. Contrary to the desire of his father, he received a philosophical education at Moscow State University. After that, on March 7, he was ordained Bishop Tikhon Emelyanov in a deacon, and on April 27, Patriarch Alexy II - to the presbyter. Since the year, he worked in the department of the Moscow Patriarchate to interact with the armed forces and law enforcement agencies, where he served as an adviser.

Here with the officers and work! In the “hot spots”, Father Michael, according to him, was more than 30 times: “Where is my landing flock - there I am. How else? It’s easier for me with my experience than the rest of the priests who go there for the first time.

But just there I need it. Once, Father Michael fell under the shelling of the reactive system of the Grad volley fire. We understand: everything is the end. It is not clear when death comes, but we feel that it is close. I begin to confess my sins to these guys. And suddenly they pick up and also begin to repent. It was very scary, so it was easy to confess, ”Vasiliev recalled.

With gg. Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev tried to be along with the military. As he said, priests in the Airborne Forces undergo parachute training, learn to provide first aid, and can also have a combat vehicle of the landing to take the wounded from the battlefield or leave the danger zone. Including father Michael jumped with a parachute during the exercises, on his account 11 jumps.

One of them-in the year-ended unsuccessfully: parachute slings torn due to which he received a compression fracture of the spine. The Lord helped! Otherwise, I would not talk to you now, ”commented on the incident Father Mikhail. Subsequently, Father Mikhail was appointed rector of the Church of the Great Martyr Barbara and Rev. Elijah Muromets of the Patriarchal Compound at the headquarters of the strategic missile forces in the village of Vlasikh, the Moscow Region.

He spoke about his specialty as “the humanization of relations between people in the war”: in particular, during the Second Chechen war he baptized the soldier. Father Mikhail Vasiliev was killed on the morning of November 6 in the year of his life during the counter -offense of the Armed Forces in the Kherson region, according to the Russian media, having received a mortal wound, when a reactive projectile released from the Ukrainian side from the American rejection system “Himars” exploded in three meters from it.

On that day, he was surrounded by numerous flowers and wreaths from relatives, loved ones, friends and colleagues, as well as from the President of the Russian Federation. His Holiness Patriarch expressed his condolences in connection with the death of his father Mikhail Vasiliev and called him “a courageous, decisive and selfless shepherd”, as “many soldiers and officers, whom Father Mikhail nourished spiritually and who often called him“ landing father ”for many years.

He was buried on the territory of the temple in Vlasikha, where he was the abbot. During his life, Father Mikhail was awarded many awards, for example, such as the church medal for the missionary work of the “Holy Innocent of the Irkutsk”, the Order of Sergius of Radonezh III degree, the Order “For Merits to the Fatherland” of the II degree, the Order of Courage Holy Patriarch Kirill awarded Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev by the Order of Slava and the honor of the 1st degree posthumously, "for the sacrificial ministry of the Church and the Fatherland." Vlasikha, Moscow Region - the Patriarchal Compound at the headquarters of the strategic missile forces, the monument to Archpriest Mikhail Vasiliev, who died in the performance of pastoral duty, was opened.

The Synodal Department for Interaction with the Armed Forces and Law enforcement agencies.