Metropolitan Alexander’s Article on the Relationship Between St. Innocent of Kherson and Archbishop Sophonias (Sokolsky) Published in the Moscow Theological Academy’s Academic Journal

September 26, 2026. Sergiev Posad. An article by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan has been published in the academic theological journal of the Moscow Theological Academy, Theological Herald (2026, No. 2 (61)).

The article examines the relationship between St. Innocent (Borisov), Archbishop of Kherson and Taurida, and his student, the future first hierarch of Turkestan, St. Sophonias (Sokolsky), between 1825 and 1850. The subject has not previously been the focus of a separate study. Works devoted to St. Innocent do not mention Archbishop Sophonias, while biographies of Archbishop Sophonias refer to their relationship only in passing.

The author traces three stages in their relationship. The first is connected with the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, where Archimandrite Innocent taught theology and served as inspector while Stefan Sokolsky was a student. The article suggests that it was Archimandrite Innocent who tonsured the academy graduate as a monk with the name Sophonias in September 1827. The second stage covers the years when Archimandrite Sophonias served as rector of theological seminaries.

The study shows that in his 1837 outline of theological studies, compiled at the Oryol Theological Seminary, he followed St. Innocent’s system of theology, with its division into “religionistics” and “ecclesiastics.” The third stage concerns Archimandrite Sophonias’s service from 1848 as rector of the church of the Russian Diplomatic Mission in Constantinople, while St. Innocent occupied the see of Kherson in Odessa.

During these years, both belonged to a circle of trusted figures who served as intermediaries between the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and the Holy Synod until the outbreak of the Crimean War.

The study draws on documents from the Russian State Historical Archive, the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire and the State Archive of the Tver Region, as well as letters from Archimandrite Sophonias to St. Innocent. Some of these letters are preserved in the Manuscript Department of the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House) and are being introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time.

The author concludes that the relationship of mentorship and spiritual friendship established at the academy laid the foundation for the two hierarchs’ subsequent cooperation in the Church and influenced the theological views of the future Archbishop of Turkestan.

The article is entitled “St. Innocent of Kherson and Archbishop Sophonias (Sokolsky): Intersecting Paths and the Experience of a Personal Relationship (1825–1850).”

Theological Herald is included in the official list of peer-reviewed academic journals in which the principal research findings of dissertations for the degrees of Candidate of Sciences and Doctor of Sciences are required to be published.