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Blessed [[Archimandrite]] The '''Venerable Makarii Glukharev, Missionary to the Altai''' (1792-1847) was a Russian [[hieromonkarchimandrite]] who founded the Altai mission in 1830. In the year 2000, the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] glorified him as a [[saint]] (''prepodobnyi''), commemorated on [[May 18]]. [[Image:P1016zresise.jpg|right|thumb|250px]]
Category
==Early life==
Fr. Makarii--née Mikhail--was born [[October 30]], 1792 in Viaz'ma (Smolensk Province), to parents Fr Iakov and AgafiiaGlukharev. He also had a younger brother, Aleksei.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 72-73. </ref>
His father being a [[priest]], Mikhail studied at ecclesiastical schools in Smolensk, then enrolled in the [[St. Petersburg Theological Academy|St. Petersburg Academy]], where he studied from 1813 to 1817. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 73-76. </ref> At this time he met his future spiritual father, [[Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow|Filaret]], later Metropolitan of Moscow. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 76-77. </ref> He also developed an interest in the [[Philokalia]];<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 39-47; 78-79. </ref> the writings of Protestant mystics such as Jung-Stilling and Johann Arndt;<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 35-39; 77-79. </ref> Quakerism;<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 29,79. </ref> and the [[Russian Bible Society]].<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 12-21. </ref>
In 1818 Makarii (as he was now called) was [[tonsure]]d as a [[monk]], [[ordination|ordained]] as a priest, and enrolled at the [[Monastery of the Kiev Caves|Lavra of the Caves]] in Kiev. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 81-86. </ref> In 1821, he transferred to Kostroma Seminary, where he received the rank of archimandrite. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 86-90. </ref> At this time his confessor, Fr. Liverii, introduced him to the practice of [[hesychasm]]. He also met St. [[Seraphim of Sarov]], who had just emerged from forty years of seclusion. <ref> AMG:FAM ppp.41. </ref>
Fr. Makarii left Kostroma in 1824, apparently out of a desire for the [[cenobitic]] life, coupled with frustration over his administrative role. He eventually settled in the Glinsk Hermitage in Putivl village, near Kursk. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 40-42; 90-93. </ref> There he conceived of the idea of becoming a missionary to Siberia.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 43-45; 96. </ref>
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.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 97-101.</ref> His work there fell under the authority of Tobolsk Archbishop Evgenii Kazantsev (who served in that capacity from 1825 to 1831),<ref> AMG:FAM p. 97 n. 59. </ref> and then Archbishop Afanasia Protopov. <ref> AMG:FAM p. 107. </ref>
At first Fr. Makarii and his several companions made Biisk their central mission station. In 1831 they relocated to Maima, a village to the south whose location offered various advantages. In 1835 the central station was moved to nearby Ulala (present-day NgornoGorno-Altaisk).<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 105-106. </ref>
Fr. Makarii's first convert was one Elesk, an Ulala native who received the [[baptism|baptismal]] name of Ioann. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 106-107. </ref> According to his records, Fr. Makarii made a total of 675 converts, and baptized 1,047 children (of which 764 were native Altaian and 283 Russian). <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 141-142. </ref>
In 1844, Fr. Makarii finally departed the Altai, leaving newly-ordained Fr. Stefan Vasil'evich Landyshev as his successor. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 140-141. </ref> He died in Bolkhov on [[May 18]], 1847.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 179-182. </ref>
==Legacy==
By World War I, the Altai mission established by Fr. Makarii had succeeded in converting over half of the region's native population, and organizing native followers into a network of Christian villages (whereas before most had been nomadic pastoralists). Some eighty-two schools of various types were established, along with rudimentary medical care. James Lawton Haney writes,
:"The most progressive among the Church's eight Siberian missions, these schools were operated primarily for the benefit of the native Altai people, although they also served Russians. Through instruction in the Orthodox faith they served to integrate the students into the Church, but they also offered them their only hope for entrance into the modern world through basic education. [...] It is undeniable that these schools served the state's colonial interests in the Russification of the native population. Due to the fact that classes were held in the Altai language and the fact that many teachers were of Altaian or part-Altaian heritage, however, the mission schools also provided the Altai people with a vision of a new social identity beyond the village or tribe. Even Soviet researchers have acknowledged that the schools played a significant role in cultural development of the Altai people."<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 64-65.</ref>
Josef Glasik calls the Altai mission
:"...the first really exemplary Orthodox mission organization."."<ref> Quoted in AMG:FAM p. 2.</ref>
The 1917 Russian Revolution essentially destroyed this network of communities. Also of note was the 1904 Burkhanist movement, a native Altaian religious movement which arose in opposition to Christianity and Russian rule.
==Quotes==
:''Translations into English by James Lawton Haney.'' On women teachers's education:
:"Is it not true that the first teachers of humans from birth have been essentially women? Were they not the first to teach us to think and speak? Were they not the first to sow the seeds of good and evil in the hearts of children in family activities? What has the Russian Church done for the Christian education of women among ordinary people? For the benefit of boys Russians were the last in the world to plan schools in villages: but you poor girls, you future mothers of generations, are you not human, are you not Russians? Have you not been atoned for and received jewels from the crown of Jesus Christ? Do you not need to know and love that One in whom you believe?" .<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 51-52. </ref>
On poverty:
:"A monk doesn't need any property. He doesn't need any safe deposit boxes or purses. The poor and wretched, they are our safe deposit boxes. Thieves will not steal what has been placed in them. They will be unlocked only in the next world." ><ref> AMG:FAM p. 178. </ref>
On hope in God:
A prayer:
:"My God, be the essence of my feelings, my searchings, my meditations, and all my actions. Act in me, that all I begin to do, I would perform for the glory of Your name, that I would serve my fellow creatures filled with Your love. Send down your Holy Spirit into my heart. Let your Holy Spirit lead me from the beginning intil until the end and let Him be in me as will, deed, and achievement."<ref> AMG:FAM p. 186. </ref>
==Writings==
* ''Elementary Doctrine for People Studying the Books of the Holy Bible.'' Unpublished, composed c. 1842. In two parts: Part One introduced the Cyrillic alphabet, Part Two introduced key prayers and scriptural verses. The work was rejected for publication on similar grounds as the above.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 155. </ref>
* Miscellaneous translations into the Altaian language, including most much of the New Testament, various prayers, a catechism, etc. These were revised by native collaborators. Fr. Makarii also compiled a comparative dictionary of Altaian dialects.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 118-121.</ref>
* Unpublished translations of [[Gregory the Theologian]], [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine]], [[John Climacus|John of the Ladder]], and other Church Fathers from Greek into Russian. <ref> AMG:FAM pp. 92. </ref>
* Various letters. The most complete collection is said to be that of Konstantin Vasil'evich Kharlampovich, who edited a volume containing 305 letters, arranged by recipient: ''Letters of Archimandrite Makarii Glukharev, Founder of the Altai Mission, with a Biographical Sketch, Portraits, Views, and Two Facimiles.'' [Pis'ma Arkhimandrita Makariia Glukhareva, osnovatelia altaiskoi missii, s biograficheskim ocherkom, portretami, vidom, i dvumia faksimile.] Kazan, 1905.<ref> AMG:FAM pp. 5, 72. </ref>
==Links==
[http://www.stmakarii.org St. Makarii of Altai Foundation] (in Russian)
==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''.) Here cited as AMG:FAM.
== References ==
<references/>
[[Category:Saints]]
[[Category:Russian Saints]]
[[Category:19th-century saints]]
