Macarius (Glukharyov)

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Blessed Archimandrite Makarii Glukharev (1792-1847) was Russian hieromonk who founded the Altai mission in 1830. In the year 2000, the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him as a saint (prepodobnyi).

Early life

Fr. Makarii--nee Mikhail--was born 30 October 1792 in Viaz'ma (Smolensk Province), to Iakov and Agafiia Glukharev. He also had a younger brother, Aleksei.

His father being a priest, Mikhail studied at theological schools in Smolensk, then enrolled in the St. Petersburg academy, where he studied from 1813 to 1817.

The following year Makarii (as he was now called) was tonsured as a monk, ordained as a priest, and enrolled at the Lavra of the Caves in Kiev. In 1821 he transferred to Kostroma Seminary, where he received the rank of archimandrite. He left this position in 1824, eventually settling in a rural hermitage in Kursk.

Altai mission

In 1829 Fr. Makarii's application to become a missionary priest to Siberia was accepted, and he left for Tobolsk. The following year he moved to Biisk as superior of a new Altai mission.


Last years

Between 1839 and 1840, Fr. Makarii departed the Altai for a fund-raising tour of several Russian cities. Funds thus raised were sufficient to finance boys' and girls' schools in the Altaian villages of Ulala and Maima.

In 1842 he asked to be relieved of his post in Siberia, citing his health. Rather than the hoped-for permission to make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, however, Fr. Makarii instead received appointment as abbot of Bolkov Monastery (Orlov diocese).

In 1844, Fr. Makarii finally departed the Altai, leaving newly-ordained Fr. Stefan Vasil'evich Landyshev as his successor. He died in Bolkhov on 18 May 1847.

Writings

Sources

Kharlampovich, Konstantin Vasil'evich, and James Lawton Haney (translator and editor). Archimandrite Makarii Glukharev--Founder of the Altai Mission. Edwin Mellon Press, 2001. (Volume 6 in the series Studies in Russian History.)