The voice of Hieromonk Photius (Mochalov), a participant in the show, evokes the most conflicting feelings among fans of the project.
On the one hand, the audience is pleased with the singer’s soulful voice, on the other hand, the ward of Grigory Leps was initially placed in more comfortable conditions and this causes criticism.
Father Photius is not allowed to sing rock, jazz or just songs at a fast tempo. He always speaks beautifully, but in general, always one-sidedly in the Channel One project. However, this did not prevent the performer from collecting the largest number of audience votes.
Who is Father Photius, where does he come from, what is his personal life how he came to church and how he got on the Voice show - we will answer these questions in today’s publication.
Hieromonk Photius, in Mira Vitaly Mochalov was born in Nizhny Novgorod January 1, 1987.
The boy became involved in music and faith from childhood. He visited the local music school, learned to sing and play the piano. When Vitaly was seven years old, he began to ask his mother to take him to church and baptize him.
At school, the boy felt like a black sheep because he was bullied by students. He did not want to take part in games, but devoted all his time to music. Vitaly received his first connection to the church at the Blagovest children's Orthodox camp.
The true churching of the future monk occurred already in his adult years. The Mochalov family was in exile in Germany at that time. There Vitaly went to the local parish, learned to play the organ, made pilgrimages and gradually came to the idea of monasticism.
Three years later, Vitaly returned to Russia, entered the service of the St. Paphnutievsky Monastery in the Kaluga region and took monastic vows, becoming Hieromonk Photius.
Monastic life did not become an obstacle to Photius’s pursuit of music. The hieromonk was sent to the choir, and to train his voice he took vocal lessons in Moscow.
After twenty lessons, Photius returned to the monastery, but did not lose contact with his teacher. Viktor Tvardovsky visited his student in the monastery, learning more complex things with him, including arias from operas.
Gradually, Hieromonk Photius mastered romances and songs. He was given good musical equipment, thanks to which he was able to record and post two discs on the Internet.
With the advent of the Voice project on the first TV channel, the hieromonk’s friends invited him to try his hand, but Photius only decided to season four. Initially, he expected to get into the team of Alexander Gradsky, but he had to go to Grigory Leps.
The mentor met the new mentee a little with hostility, asking him the question “What will you do if you win the project?”
Photius was confused and honestly answered that he had not thought about it, and coming to the project was a feat for him.
However, despite some inconsistencies, the contestant successfully passes from one round to another. The next time we will see Father Photius will be in the semi-finals, and it is possible that he will also make it to the finals of the show The Voice.
Hieromonk Photius, blind auditions, Lensky's Aria
Hieromonk Photius, “On the Road to Zagorsk”
Father Photius successfully made it to the finals, performing “Monologue” by Marina Tsvetaeva. The contestant received 60% from the mentor and 79.25 from TV viewers. Thus, Hieromonk Photius gained a total number of votes of 139.2% Listen to the song “Monologue” performed by Father Photius
Your site was with you, see you soon
Participant name: Vitaly Mochalov
Age (birthday): 1.01.1987
Job: priest, monk (inhabitant) of St. Paphnutyev Borovsky Monastery, hieromonk
Family: not married, no children
Mentor: Grigory Leps
Found an inaccuracy? Let's correct the profile
Read with this article:
Vitaly Mochalov plays music with school years. He attended school for vocal and piano lessons, sang in the school choir, and was a soloist.
WITH early years I dreamed that I would become a composer, write music and songs. At that moment when adolescence his voice “broke”, he began to attend church school, and there he immediately joined the church choir.
Having completed 9 classes high school, went to study at the music school in the department music theory . But he studied there for only a year, because he and his family had to move to permanent residence in the city of Kaiserslautern (Germany). But even in a foreign country, he continued to study music, learning to play the organ.
Three years later he returned to Russia, where he entered service in a monastery. He took monastic vows and became Hieromonk Photius. But he still remained partial to music.
Photius studied with Viktor Tvardovsky, he took his original course and was able to tune his voice.
As for his personal life, Photius serves in church every day. His associates claim that he has a very complex character.
While in the monastery, he had to make a decision about serving in the army. Photius decided to go into service, but this did not happen, as he has vision problems.
Speaks excellent English and German language. Performs songs in Italian, Serbian, Georgian, Japanese.
He noted that he came to the show to undergo a special test for himself, however, the mentors did not quite understand how to deal with the hieromonk if he wins.
Grigory Leps turned out to be right when he turned to Photius, he chose him for his team and led him to victory. Photius admitted that he initially wanted to go to Gradsky, since he was closer to academic performance.
Hieromonk Photius did not sing jazz, rock, or fast compositions on the project. Despite this, he managed to gain big number audience votes.
Photos of Photius
Photius constantly posts photographs from tours and travels. Takes pictures with fans and their gifts. He often takes selfies.
Thanks to participation and reaching the finals of the show “The Voice”, Hieromonk Photius (Mochalov) last days became one of the most discussed persons in the domestic media space. But most of those discussing it know almost nothing about the singing monk as a person. The regular author of Pravmir, Denis Akhalashvili, decided to talk about his friend from this side.
Hieromonk Photius (Mochalov) and I are friends, and there was a time when we saw each other every day. We went to services together, prayed, made a book about the monastery, for which Father Photius took wonderful photographs, recorded a video against abortion for the All-Russian festival in defense of morality, fried potatoes and talked about what we thought were important and interesting things.
Although I visited his cell, where he has a recording studio, and he gave me all the discs with his songs, I love Father Photius not for his beautiful voice. Who knows what talents, and who does what? For me, he is a monk, the one who loves Christ more than anything in the world.
And when a person is with Christ, it is visible to the naked eye, whether he sings or digs holes.
Love and complacency ooze from him, like nectar from an overripe watermelon. It seems like you are communicating - nothing special, but your soul is light and the birds are singing.
When I started working at the publishing house of the Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, where Father Photius was involved in design and layout, photography and television filming, we saw each other almost every day, but the first time we talked was about three months after we met. At first, Father Photius was silent with me all the time. I was keeping an eye on it so that I didn’t throw something away. A secular person in a monastery can be more dangerous than a cadet driving a car without brakes.
It used to be that he would come, politely say hello, and go to the computer. He checks his mail, does some work, and then quietly leaves. The first time he spoke to me was from behind a lamp, which I liked to light before work. “Dionysius, forgive me! But you can’t light a lamp like that! You’ve set the wick too high, it’s smoking and will quickly go out!” And he showed me how to do it. I looked at the small, even flame of the lamp and thought: “What a bore!”
Or this: “Father Photius, the apples are ripe in the monastery garden, let’s go pick them!” He looks in surprise and shakes his head: “Dionysius! We have a tradition - before Apple Savior Don't eat apples! Sorry, but I can’t go with you.” And rest assured, even if you cut him, he will not take an apple into his mouth until the Transfiguration.
One day I happened to be cleaning out the editorial closets. I see a beautiful Hugo Boss branded package, which contains a brand new pullover. I ask whose? – no one admits. Father Photius arrives. He looks at the bag doubtfully, then laughs: “This is my pullover! As a gift, I put it in the closet and forgot.” Looks at me with joyful eyes and says: “Dionysius, come on, I’ll give it to you!” And don’t you dare refuse! You go to different press conferences, communicate with people, you need to look beautiful!”
But I really got to know Father Photius when I had a conflict with an important and influential person in the monastery, about which I was very worried.
The soft and meek Father Photius, unexpectedly for everyone, rushed to my defense like a lion, which moved me to tears.
The matter reached the abbot, but Father Photius did not change his opinion, but wrote a letter to this man, where he expressed his arguments on this matter in detail and directly. I said: “Father, back off, why do you need unnecessary problems?” He shook his head and repeated: “You can’t treat people like God, you can’t!”
He is also pathologically polite to the point of impossibility. In his vocabulary, the address “you” simply does not exist. After Cherkizon’s usual rudeness outside the walls of the monastery, this attitude is alarming and embarrassing, but then you get used to it. At first I thought that this was only happening to me, but then I saw how he communicated with his monk friends, and I calmed down.
One old experienced monk once told me that a person with a bare conscience physically cannot tolerate untruth and injustice and is like a pebble in a shoe for those around him: God loves him, but people persecute him. More more peace hates the meek. By the very fact of their existence, they serve as a silent reproach to the bestial morals that reign in the world. In a wolf pack, if a wolf does not want to fight for a place in the sun, he is expelled from the pack, and at school he is simply beaten.
Among his classmates, the future hieromonk, then a boy Vitalik, was an outcast, constantly bullied and beaten. How can you not beat him if he doesn’t give back? Is it possible to calmly pass by a boy who is not interested in football or war games, but in nature and music, and even classical music? Oh, you are so right with us!? But I’ll give you a black eye, and you won’t be so correct!
Not accepted by his peers, he found peace in nature, and still remembers with trepidation the small village of Vasilsursk, on the Volga in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he spent every summer with his parents. Looking at the Volga expanses, the boy forgot about all the troubles and was left alone with a piercing feeling of freedom and endless happiness...
He began asking questions about God very early, and at the age of seven he dragged his mother to Church to be baptized.
He was sure that this was the only way to become an angel and make friends with Christ, and when he was baptized, he walked around like a birthday boy for a week. But his churching stopped there: although his relatives were baptized people, like the majority around him, they did not go to Church. This is now his mother - regent Orthodox church in Germany, and then the parents were surprised at their son’s religious quest and just shook their heads.
Five years later, his vocal teacher from a music school took him to a children's Orthodox camp. The camp was at the Sunday school of one church, where for the first time he began to attend liturgy and sing in the choir. He liked church singing and church services so much that upon returning home he began to learn prayers and bought his first small icons. Mom immediately noticed strong changes in her son: he became somehow festive and inspired. Every morning and evening he diligently reads the prayer rule, and also burns incense on a spoon...
A child’s pure faith is as tender as a flower and defenseless against the winds of life: after some time, the boy’s prayerful fervor faded away. In addition, Vitaly entered a music school, there was almost no free time left, and the road to the temple began to be slowly forgotten. But his wise mother, who took her son’s spiritual hobbies seriously, began to join the church, read spiritual literature and go to church. And once a month she took communion and convinced him to do the same. Otherwise, what kind of Christians are we if we live without Christ?
During a period of market turmoil, the family decided to leave for permanent residence in Germany. Together with his parents and brother, Vitaly ended up in small Kaiserslautern, next to which there was a parish (still active) of the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon. They went with their mother to services, and when an Orthodox parish opened in their town, they began to go there. The parish did not have permanent place, prayers and services were performed in premises for which they did not take money, for example, in the hall of a Catholic community house, where they set up an improvised altar and served according to the Orthodox rite. In a makeshift church, Vitaly read “The Apostle,” sang in the choir and became a sexton.
When he began to help at an Orthodox parish in the neighboring city of Saarbrücken, forgotten childhood experiences of his first prayer and communication with God suddenly came to life in his heart. It was so joyful and strong feeling, that with a group of pilgrims he went to Russia to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. And there are St. Job and our contemporary, St. Amphilochius and real monastic obediences!
He really liked being around the great saints, but he did not like obedience. I thought then: the monastery is not for me, it’s too hard.
But upon returning home, I carefully and thoughtfully re-read the entire Gospel, as well as the lives of Ambrose of Optina and Joseph of Optina. The Optina elders revealed to him a new life of Orthodox asceticism and asceticism, hidden from the world. This life was so real and attractive that he decided to return to his homeland and become a monk.
In addition to his work at the Orthodox parish, Vitaly learned to play the organ in a Catholic church, where he showed great promise. The Catholic teacher was a sincere person and understood everything. I just said goodbye: Make sure it doesn’t turn out that you abandoned the organ, but didn’t go anywhere and didn’t start anything else... How often beautiful impulses of the soul become the cause of severe disappointments and life disasters.
He listened to the teacher and thought that the time had come to choose: the grace of the Holy Spirit or worldly riches: fame, money, flowers and universal honor. Not relying on himself, the young man decided to talk about choice life path with a man of high spiritual life and he was advised to go to the Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, to a confessor known throughout Russia, Schema-Archimandrite Vlasiy (Peregontsev). When Vitaly arrived, the priest was away, and for several months he went to services, worked, prayed and thought about his future. While I was waiting for the priest, I decided for myself: whatever he says, I will do so. When the long-awaited meeting with the elder came, he listened to him carefully, and then said: “Stay!” He accepted his words as the will of God and stayed.
Upon learning of his decision to become a monk, his father was upset, but his mother gave her blessing. Seeing his son’s inflexibility, reluctantly, the head of the family still let him go, but admonished him with the words: “Don’t remember it badly!” In general, I said goodbye forever. Now Father Photius prays for his parents before the Throne of God and in the silence of the monastic cell.
Wonderful are Your deeds, O Lord! How can I hide from Your face, You are everywhere! He lived among temples and monasteries, and then left forever to return to his homeland and become a monk.
Many go to the monastery out of unsettled life or personal problems, and very rarely out of love for God and the desire to devote their lives to Christ. He left a well-fed Germany and a completely prosperous life, in which he planned to enter the Higher School of Music to study organ in order to give himself to God and be with Him. Relatives, favorite music - he buried all this in his heart, leaving it for the only joy that overwhelmed him - communication with God.
The young novice prepared in the monastery for the most severe tests and heavy, overwhelming labor, and was shocked that monastic life did not in the least interfere with his favorite pastime, music, to which he thought he had said goodbye forever! But by the providence of God, the abbot blessed him to sing in the choir, and then sent him to classes with a famous teacher in Moscow. Thus, the Lord turned the talent given to him from birth to serve and benefit the Church.
The teacher taught him to sing correctly and trained his voice. Years later, he himself comes to the Borovsky Monastery and studies with his student. Today, Father Photius’s repertoire includes not only church works, but also complex operatic arias, Russian folk songs and romances. He performs with his brethren in cultural centers and schools, the Philharmonic, hospitals and in front of veterans. And he also takes wonderful pictures. documentaries who get first place at various competitions and cute incredibly funny videos for friends.
Only he could come up with the idea of making a video from the footage of the monastery chronicle for the anniversary of the famous hieromonk, where the birthday boy is herding calves, working in the garden and dragging a refrigerator along the street to the song of the Lyube group “Such Work”, performed by prayer fathers and teachers Sunday schools, drivers, workers, children and many others (about forty people in total). At the premiere, fathers were crying with laughter...
Or make a video about “Doshirak” and, with the most serious look, ask the old-timers of the monastery and eminent priests how they eat it.
You won't get bored with him at all. When His Holiness came to Kaluga to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Hieromartyr Kuksha, the enlightener of the Vyatichi, Father Photius was supposed to perform before the Patriarch with a solo program, for which he went to Kaluga for rehearsals. One day he missed the train and decided to go by car. All the drivers were busy, and he decided to drive himself - fortunately he passed his license a week ago. I understand that he is the only one federal highway it’s dangerous to let go, and I say: “Father Photius! I’ll go with you, but I don’t have a license right now, so don’t think about crashing!” Without blinking an eye, he replies: “What are you talking about! You still need to publish a newspaper, and I still need to speak before His Holiness. We can’t crash!”
Let's go, get blessed at the shrine of St. Paphnutius and go. All the way I asked my friend about life in Germany and his journey to the monastery, he told stories, and from time to time he lamented why I was distracting him? “And while you are busy with pleasant memories, Father Photius, you forget about the excitement and drive the car like a real driver.” He says: “But it’s true!” And laughs like a child. We arrived at the rehearsal on time and, to the surprise of the monastery drivers, did not crash anywhere...
When I learned about his participation in the show “The Voice,” knowing Father Photius, I was not at all surprised. We have repeatedly discussed with him various missionary projects that might be interesting modern people. Moreover, all his concerts for the general public, at which he performed church works, classical opera or folk songs, were always a great success. I turned on the TV and carefully watched his performance in the semi-finals.
It was best sermon for 140 million of the Great Beautiful Country, which was heard and understood by everyone who saw it.
Even those who did not want to hear anything about the Church were shocked. And not only in Russia. A recording of his performance has already been released in France (with commentary in French), Germany and other countries.
We were having fun, dancing and thoughtlessly wasting our lives, suddenly some monk came and told us about something else, Higher world, about love and death, about the transience of life, God and faith. Among the hundreds of comments that I read, one particularly stood out to me: “After watching Father Photius’s performance, for the first time in many years I cried and couldn’t stop. I haven’t been to Church for a long time, but I’ll go tomorrow! How the ringing of a bell woke me up..."
But there were other comments... To all those who consider it unacceptable for an Orthodox monk to appear on Channel One, and even on the show “The Voice”, which is probably broadcast to the Moon, where neither their grandmothers, nor their wives and children watch it, I I would like to remind you that Father Photius does nothing without the blessing of the abbot of the monastery, Bishop Seraphim (Savostyanov) of Tarusa, his spiritual father, known throughout Russia and far beyond its borders, the confessor of the Pafnutyev Borovsky Monastery and the Kaluga Metropolis, Schema-Archimandrite Blasius (Peregontsev) and the head Kaluga Metropolis, one of the most conservative and authoritative people of our Church, Metropolitan Clement (Kapalin), to whose name the management of Channel One sent official letter, which he approved and gave the blessing to Father Photius to participate in the project. If someone believes that he is spiritually superior to these people, God will be his judge...
Assessing his performance, Alexander Gradsky said that he saw why he needed to go on stage. Basta and his mentor Grigory Leps were courageous and stingy with words. Speaking about the second participant, he noted that he performed his song with the greatest professionalism, which Leps himself had never been given, but voted for Father Photius. Polina Gagarina could not speak because she was ready to cry. And even Dmitry Nagiyev forgot about the prepared jokes, because the jokes were over.
Love me, man, because I will die. What kind of jokes can there be after this? Marina Tsvetaeva. Requiem. I make a demand for faith and a request for love...
...I remember one evening during Lent. After the evening meal, Father Photius and I sit alone in the editorial office, drink tea with black bread and remain silent. He looks thoughtfully at the gathering evening twilight outside the window and quietly says: “How wonderful it is to serve during Lent! At this time, even those whom you rarely meet in the temple pray together. You will never see such unanimity! All for each other, all together, and Christ is with us. How wonderful it is!”
In contact with
Hieromonk Photius (Mochalov) and I are friends, and there was a time when we saw each other every day. We went to services together, prayed, made a book about the monastery, for which Father Photius took wonderful photographs, recorded a video against abortion for the All-Russian festival in defense of morality, fried potatoes and talked about what we thought were important and interesting things.
Although I visited his cell, where he has a recording studio, and he gave me all the discs with his songs, I love Father Photius not for his beautiful voice. Who knows what talents, and who does what? For me, he is a monk, the one who loves Christ more than anything in the world.
And when a person is with Christ, it is visible to the naked eye, whether he sings or digs holes.
Love and complacency ooze from him, like nectar from an overripe watermelon. It seems like you are communicating - nothing special, but your soul is light and the birds are singing.
When I started working at the publishing house of the Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, where Father Photius was involved in design and layout, photography and television filming, we saw each other almost every day, but the first time we talked was about three months after we met. At first, Father Photius was silent with me all the time. I was keeping an eye on it so that I didn’t throw something away. A secular person in a monastery can be more dangerous than a cadet driving a car without brakes.
It used to be that he would come, politely say hello, and go to the computer. He checks his mail, does some work, and then quietly leaves. The first time he spoke to me was from behind a lamp, which I liked to light before work. “Dionysius, forgive me! But you can’t light a lamp like that! You’ve set the wick too high, it’s smoking and will quickly go out!” And he showed me how to do it. I looked at the small, even flame of the lamp and thought: “What a bore!”
Or this: “Father Photius, the apples are ripe in the monastery garden, let’s go pick them!” He looks in surprise and shakes his head: “Dionysius! We have a tradition - we don’t eat apples before the Apple Day! Sorry, but I can’t go with you.” And rest assured, even if you cut him, he will not take an apple into his mouth until the Transfiguration.
One day I happened to be cleaning out the editorial closets. I see a beautiful Hugo Boss branded package, which contains a brand new pullover. I ask whose? – no one admits. Father Photius arrives. He looks at the bag doubtfully, then laughs: “This is my pullover! As a gift, I put it in the closet and forgot.” He looks at me with joyful eyes and says: “Dionysius, come on, I’ll give it to you!” And don’t you dare refuse! You go to different press conferences, communicate with people, you need to look beautiful!”
But I really got to know Father Photius when I had a conflict with an important and influential person in the monastery, about which I was very worried.
The soft and meek Father Photius, unexpectedly for everyone, rushed to my defense like a lion, which moved me to tears.
The matter reached the abbot, but Father Photius did not change his opinion, but wrote a letter to this man, where he expressed his arguments on this matter in detail and directly. I said: “Father, back off, why do you need unnecessary problems?” He shook his head and repeated: “You can’t treat people like God, you can’t!”
He is also pathologically polite to the point of impossibility. In his vocabulary, the address “you” simply does not exist. After Cherkizon’s usual rudeness outside the walls of the monastery, this attitude is alarming and embarrassing, but then you get used to it. At first I thought that this was only happening to me, but then I saw how he communicated with his monk friends, and I calmed down.
One old experienced monk once told me that a person with a bare conscience physically cannot tolerate untruth and injustice and is like a pebble in a shoe for those around him: God loves him, but people persecute him. The world hates the meek even more. By the very fact of their existence, they serve as a silent reproach to the bestial morals that reign in the world. In a wolf pack, if a wolf does not want to fight for a place in the sun, he is expelled from the pack, and at school he is simply beaten.
Among his classmates, the future hieromonk, then a boy Vitalik, was an outcast, constantly bullied and beaten. How can you not beat him if he doesn’t give back? Is it possible to calmly pass by a boy who is not interested in football or war games, but in nature and music, and even classical music? Oh, you are so right with us!? But I’ll give you a black eye, and you won’t be so correct!
Not accepted by his peers, he found peace in nature, and still remembers with trepidation the small village of Vasilsursk, on the Volga in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where he spent every summer with his parents. Looking at the Volga expanses, the boy forgot about all the troubles and was left alone with a piercing feeling of freedom and endless happiness...
He began asking questions about God very early, and at the age of seven he dragged his mother to Church to be baptized.
He was sure that this was the only way to become an angel and make friends with Christ, and when he was baptized, he walked around like a birthday boy for a week. But his churching stopped there: although his relatives were baptized people, like the majority around him, they did not go to Church. Now it is his mother who is the regent of an Orthodox church in Germany, but then the parents were surprised at their son’s religious quest and just shook their heads.
Five years later, his vocal teacher from a music school took him to a children's Orthodox camp. The camp was at the Sunday school of one church, where for the first time he began to attend liturgy and sing in the choir. He liked church singing and church services so much that upon returning home he began to learn prayers and bought his first small icons. Mom immediately noticed strong changes in her son: he became somehow festive and inspired. Every morning and evening he diligently reads the prayer rule, and also burns incense on a spoon...
A child’s pure faith is as tender as a flower and defenseless against the winds of life: after some time, the boy’s prayerful fervor faded away. In addition, Vitaly entered a music school, there was almost no free time left, and the road to the temple began to be slowly forgotten. But his wise mother, who took her son’s spiritual hobbies seriously, began to join the church, read spiritual literature and go to church. And once a month she took communion and convinced him to do the same. Otherwise, what kind of Christians are we if we live without Christ?
During a period of market turmoil, the family decided to leave for permanent residence in Germany. Together with his parents and brother, Vitaly ended up in small Kaiserslautern, next to which there was a parish (still active) of the holy great martyr and healer Panteleimon. They went with their mother to services, and when an Orthodox parish opened in their town, they began to go there. The parish did not have a permanent place; prayers and services were held in premises for which they did not take money, for example, in the hall of a Catholic community house, where they set up an improvised altar and served according to the Orthodox rite. In a makeshift church, Vitaly read “The Apostle,” sang in the choir and became a sexton.
When he began to help at an Orthodox parish in the neighboring city of Saarbrücken, forgotten childhood experiences of his first prayer and communication with God suddenly came to life in his heart. It was such a joyful and strong feeling that with a group of pilgrims he went to Russia to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. And there are St. Job and our contemporary, St. Amphilochius and real monastic obediences!
He really liked being around the great saints, but he did not like obedience. I thought then: the monastery is not for me, it’s too hard.
But upon returning home, I carefully and thoughtfully re-read the entire Gospel, as well as the lives of Ambrose of Optina and Joseph of Optina. The Optina elders revealed to him a new life of Orthodox asceticism and asceticism, hidden from the world. This life was so real and attractive that he decided to return to his homeland and become a monk.
In addition to his work at the Orthodox parish, Vitaly learned to play the organ in a Catholic church, where he showed great promise. The Catholic teacher was a sincere person and understood everything. I just said goodbye: Make sure it doesn’t turn out that you abandoned the organ, but didn’t go anywhere and didn’t start anything else... How often beautiful impulses of the soul become the cause of severe disappointments and life disasters.
He listened to the teacher and thought that the time had come to choose: the grace of the Holy Spirit or worldly riches: fame, money, flowers and universal honor. Not relying on himself, the young man decided to talk about choosing a path in life with a man of high spiritual life and he was advised to go to the Pafnutiev Borovsky Monastery, to a confessor known throughout Russia, Schema-Archimandrite Vlasiy (Peregontsev). When Vitaly arrived, the priest was away, and for several months he went to services, worked, prayed and thought about his future. While I was waiting for the priest, I decided for myself: whatever he says, I will do so. When the long-awaited meeting with the elder came, he listened to him carefully, and then said: “Stay!” He accepted his words as the will of God and stayed.
Upon learning of his decision to become a monk, his father was upset, but his mother gave her blessing. Seeing his son’s inflexibility, reluctantly, the head of the family still let him go, but admonished him with the words: “Don’t remember it badly!” In general, I said goodbye forever. Now Father Photius prays for his parents before the Throne of God and in the silence of the monastic cell.
Wonderful are Your deeds, O Lord! How can I hide from Your face, You are everywhere! He lived among temples and monasteries, and then left forever to return to his homeland and become a monk.
Many people go to the monastery out of unsettled life or personal problems, and very rarely out of love for God and a desire to devote their lives to Christ. He left a well-fed Germany and a completely prosperous life, in which he planned to enter the Higher School of Music to study organ in order to give himself to God and be with Him. Relatives, favorite music - he buried all this in his heart, leaving it for the only joy that overwhelmed him - communication with God.
The young novice prepared in the monastery for the most severe tests and heavy, overwhelming labor, and was shocked that monastic life did not in the least interfere with his favorite pastime, music, to which he thought he had said goodbye forever! But by the providence of God, the abbot blessed him to sing in the choir, and then sent him to classes with a famous teacher in Moscow. Thus, the Lord turned the talent given to him from birth to serve and benefit the Church.
The teacher taught him to sing correctly and trained his voice. Years later, he himself comes to the Borovsky Monastery and studies with his student. Today, Father Photius’s repertoire includes not only church works, but also complex opera arias, Russian folk songs and romances. He performs with his brethren in cultural centers and schools, the Philharmonic, hospitals and in front of veterans. He also makes wonderful documentaries that win first places in various competitions and cute, incredibly funny videos for friends.
Only he could come up with the idea of making a video from footage of the monastery chronicle for the anniversary of a famous hieromonk, where the birthday boy is herding calves, working in the garden and dragging a refrigerator along the street to the song of the Lyube group “Such Work”, performed by prayer fathers and Sunday teachers schools, drivers, workers, children and many others (about forty people in total). At the premiere, fathers were crying with laughter...
Or make a video about “Doshirak” and, with the most serious look, ask the old-timers of the monastery and eminent priests how they eat it.
You won't get bored with him at all. When His Holiness came to Kaluga to celebrate the 650th anniversary of the Hieromartyr Kuksha, the enlightener of the Vyatichi, Father Photius was supposed to perform before the Patriarch with a solo program, for which he went to Kaluga for rehearsals. One day he missed the train and decided to go by car. All the drivers were busy, and he decided to drive himself - fortunately he passed his license a week ago. I understand that it is dangerous to let him go alone to the federal highway, and I say: “Father Photius! I’ll go with you, but I don’t have a license right now, so don’t think about crashing!” Without blinking an eye, he replies: “What are you talking about! You still need to publish a newspaper, and I still need to speak before His Holiness. We can’t crash!”
Let's go, get blessed at the shrine of St. Paphnutius and go. All the way I asked my friend about life in Germany and his journey to the monastery, he told stories, and from time to time he lamented why I was distracting him? “And while you are busy with pleasant memories, Father Photius, you forget about the excitement and drive the car like a real driver.” He says: “But it’s true!” And laughs like a child. We arrived at the rehearsal on time and, to the surprise of the monastery drivers, did not crash anywhere...
When I learned about his participation in the show “The Voice,” knowing Father Photius, I was not at all surprised. We discussed with him more than once various missionary projects that might be of interest to modern people. Moreover, all his concerts for the general public, at which he performed church works, classical opera or folk songs, were always a great success. I turned on the TV and carefully watched his performance in the semi-finals.
This was the best sermon for 140 million of the Great Beautiful Country, which was heard and understood by everyone who saw it.
Even those who did not want to hear anything about the Church were shocked. And not only in Russia. A recording of his performance has already been released in France (with commentary in French), Germany and other countries.
We were having fun, dancing and thoughtlessly wasting our lives, suddenly some monk came and talked about another, Higher world, about love and death, about the transience of life, God and faith. Among the hundreds of comments that I read, one particularly stood out to me: “After watching Father Photius’s performance, for the first time in many years I cried and couldn’t stop. I haven’t been to Church for a long time, but I’ll go tomorrow! How the ringing of a bell woke me up..."
But there were other comments... To all those who consider it unacceptable for an Orthodox monk to appear on Channel One, and even on the show “The Voice”, which is probably broadcast to the Moon, where neither their grandmothers, nor their wives and children watch it, I I would like to remind you that aboutFather Photius does nothing without the blessing of the rector of the monastery, Bishop Seraphim (Savostyanov) of Tarusa, his spiritual father, known throughout Russia and far beyond its borders, the confessor of the Pafnutyev Borovsky Monastery and the Kaluga Metropolis, Schema-Archimandrite Blasius (Peregontsev) and the head of the Kaluga Metropolis, one of the most conservative and authoritative people of our Church, Metropolitan Clement (Kapalin), to whose name the management of Channel One sent an official letter, which he approved and gave his blessing to Father Photius to participate in the project. If someone believes that he is spiritually superior to these people, God will be his judge...
Assessing his performance, Alexander Gradsky said that he saw why he needed to go on stage. Basta and his mentor Grigory Leps were courageous and stingy with words. Speaking about the second participant, he noted that he performed his song with the greatest professionalism, which Leps himself had never been given, but voted for Father Photius. Polina Gagarina could not speak because she was ready to cry. And even Dmitry Nagiyev forgot about the prepared jokes, because the jokes were over.
Love me, man, because I will die. What kind of jokes can there be after this? Marina Tsvetaeva. Requiem. I make a demand for faith and a request for love...
...I remember one evening during Lent. After the evening meal, Father Photius and I sit alone in the editorial office, drink tea with black bread and remain silent. He looks thoughtfully at the gathering evening twilight outside the window and quietly says: “How wonderful it is to serve during Lent! At this time, even those whom you rarely meet in the temple pray together. You will never see such unanimity! All for each other, all together, and Christ is with us. How wonderful it is!”
"on Channel One.Hieromonk Photius born in Gorky. Since childhood, he loved singing, but they didn’t want to take him to music school because of his crooked fingers. As a result, he graduated from school in piano, and in music school I didn’t finish my studies due to moving to Germany. At the age of 20, he decided to join a monastery, for which he moved to Borovsk. Sings in the church choir. Hobbies include learning languages and photography.
Hieromonk Photius on the show The Voice season 4
Hieromonk Photius to participate in vocal competition Channel One was blessed by the archimandrite. According to Photius, it was possible to obtain this from the hierarchy with the help of the organizers of the show, who made an official request to the head of the Kaluga Metropolis, on whose territory the Borovsky Monastery is located.
Grigory Leps turned to Photius, whose team included an unusual contestant. Photius admitted that he did not count on Leps’s location at all, but assumed that he would turn to him Gradsky. However, Gradsky did not deprive Father Photius of his attention during the project and even performed Lensky’s aria from the opera “Eugene Onegin” with him.
Hieromonk Photius together with Era Kann (Basta's team), Mikhail Ozerov (Alexander Gradsky's team) and Olga Zadonskaya (Polina Gagarina's team) made it to the finals of the show " The Voice Season 4", which viewers saw on air on December 25, 2015. In the finale, Hieromonk Photius once again performed the composition Per te("For you").
76% of TV viewers voted for Hieromonk Photius, and the singer became the winner of the show “ The Voice Season 4" As a gift to Photius received a car. Hieromonk Photius heartily thanked all the spectators, and noted in his final speech that his victory was perhaps not very deserved, because real professionals performed next to him on the project.
“I came to “The Voice” first of all as a simple person, to really realize myself somehow, to show the gift that the Lord gave me. This desire was not entirely mine - big role friends played; I wanted to get into the second season of the project, but then I couldn’t get a blessing,” said the hieromonk.
