Pimen (Belolikov)

In the world, Pyotr Zakharovich Belolikov was born on November 5, 1879, in the village of Vasilyevskoye, Cherepovets Uyezd, Novgorod Governorate, the sixth of seven sons in the family of the rector of the Vasilyevskoye Church, priest Zakariya Belolikov, and his wife, Maria Ivanovna, the daughter of priest Ioann Ornatsky. The well-known St. Petersburg priests Filosof and Ioann Ornatsky were his cousins. Through Father Ioann, Pyotr Belolikov was also related to the great pastor of Kronstadt, Saint Righteous Ioann of Kronstadt.

In 1894, he graduated from the Kirillov Theological School, and in 1900, from the Novgorod Theological Seminary with first-class honors.

 In 1900, he entered the Kiev Theological Academy, which he completed among the top students. His thesis, "The Attitude of the Ecumenical Councils towards the Works of Church Writers," explored the dogmatic contributions of patristic literature to the activities of the Seven Ecumenical Councils.

On August 6, 1903, he took monastic vows with the name Pimen, in honor of the Kiev-Pechersk Venerable Pimen the Much-Ailing.

On August 24, 1903, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Metropolitan Flavian (Gorodetsky) of Kiev and Galicia.

On July 3, 1904, he was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Platon, rector of the Kiev Theological Academy.

In 1904, he graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy with the degree of Candidate of Theology and was appointed a missionary in the Urmia Mission.

On August 12, 1904, he received an order appointing him as a missionary in the Urmia Mission. While in Persia, Hieromonk Pimen soon mastered ancient and modern Syriac, as well as local Turkic dialects, which allowed him to preach to Orthodox Syrians in their native language. He engaged in translating ancient Syriac patristic texts and also translated liturgical services into Syriac. He taught and then served as the rector of the mission school, defending the interests of the Orthodox population before the Persian authorities. His years of service coincided with the Persian upheavals (1906-1911). During this period, he published a small book titled "Orthodox Urmia During the Persian Upheavals." He was elevated to the rank of abbot.

From 1906, he served as the assistant head of the same mission. Over time, his fervent desire to return to Russia prompted him to leave the Mission. In one letter, he wrote: "Not only in Ardon, but even in other worse places, I will always find much good, as long as I am not deprived of the ability and opportunity to glorify God and pray for myself and for people..."

On March 3, 1911, he was appointed rector of the Alexandrovsky Ardon Theological Seminary with elevation to the rank of archimandrite. In this new role, he devoted much time to the seminarians, taught the New Testament course, and restored the seminary's disrupted budget. He was also involved in preaching activities in Vladikavkaz, published in the "Vladikavkaz Diocesan Gazette," and served as the dean of monasteries. However, he soon began to regret his decision and his resolve to return to the Urmia Mission strengthened, especially since disturbances and unrest had begun in Persia. Despite the prospect of rapid advancement in Ardon, he petitioned to be sent back to Urmia.

On July 19, 1912, he was reappointed to the Urmia Mission to his former position. He was appointed rector of the seven-year school at the mission and overseer of rural church schools. He served as the editor of the magazine "Orthodox Urmia." Besides his missionary work, he also provided pastoral care to the Cossack troops stationed in Persia. He corresponded with the Archbishop of Japan, St. Nicholas (Kasatkin).

By the end of 1913, the Mission had clear prospects for the widespread conversion of the entire Syrian people to Orthodoxy. The Nestorian national center of Patriarch Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin in Qudshanis was close to aligning with Russia and converting to Orthodoxy. This conversion was expected to bring along the Syrians from the Turkish regions of Gyavar, Jilu, Tyari, Baz, and Thuma. However, the outbreak of World War I in the summer of 1914 and the declaration of war between Russia and Turkey on October 29, 1914, halted the wide-scale conversion of the Syrians to Orthodoxy.

In the autumn of 1914, Archimandrite Pimen was appointed rector of the Perm Theological Seminary. In Perm, he led the diocesan temperance society and, together with Bishop Andronik of Perm, conducted public readings at the chapel of the Perm Stefan Brotherhood.

On August 6, 1916, he was consecrated as Bishop of Salmas and appointed head of the Urmia Mission, where he arrived on September 30, 1916. However, the complex political situation and the long-standing attachment of the flock to his predecessor, Bishop Sergius (Lavrov), led Bishop Pimen to petition for his transfer back to Russia. "It is better to be a psalm reader in Russia than a bishop in Urmia," he wrote in one of his telegrams.

After numerous petitions, by the decision of the Holy Synod on July 3, 1917, it was decided to release him from the position of head of the Urmia Mission and appoint him to the see of Bishop of Semirechensk and Verny, Vicar of the Turkestan Diocese.

On October 11, 1917, he arrived in Verny (now Almaty), where he was warmly welcomed by the clergy and townspeople. From the first days, Bishop Pimen tirelessly worked in the field entrusted to him by Christ. "During each Liturgy, the Bishop instructs his flock, illuminating contemporary events based on the word of God, and after the Liturgy, he performs a brief prayer service for the cessation of the war. On Sundays, he reads akathists and converses with the faithful during evening services at the Cross Church." He reinstates the Sunday daytime readings for the people at the People's House, where, depicting the calamities of Russia, he convincingly demonstrates that following the spirit and word of the Gospel is incompatible with revolutionary principles.

On December 3, 1917, a congress of the city of Verny clergy was opened in the Archiereus' quarters. It was dedicated to an extraordinary event in the life of the Russian Church - the election of a patriarch. Among its urgent issues was aid for starving children.

Soon after the October Revolution, civil war began in the city. Under these conditions, one of Bishop Pimen's main areas of activity became peacemaking efforts, reminding people of Christ's brotherly love and good deeds. He organized a church procession with icons and bell ringing and personally led it, heading with the people to pay homage to the Cossacks, where he served a prayer service and called for an end to the fratricidal war. During Bright Week of 1918 and Mid-Pentecost, he conducted two grand processions from the Cathedral to the churches of the Cossack villages to establish class peace. Despite all the twists and turns, Bishop Pimen intended to stay with his flock. Amidst bloodshed and suffering, he saw his primary task as bringing comfort to the people in their misfortunes.

The Bishop of Semirechensk could not accept the decrees aimed at destroying Christian piety in Russia. This was an inevitable counter-revolution. On June 9, 1918, the Revolutionary Tribunal initiated the first case against Bishop Pimen.

Bishop Pimen's position was a justified continuation of the struggle of the Local Council against the decrees of the Soviet government concerning the Church, which unfolded in Moscow in the summer of 1918. He sent directives to the parishes of Semirechye on the Sacrament of Marriage, in accordance with the Council's decisions. Once again, the authorities responded with actions—an additional directive to the Revolutionary Tribunal to start an investigation based on the accusations against Bishop Pimen for opposing the decrees of the Soviet government.

Despite the clear danger that threatened him, Bishop Pimen continued to fulfill the duties of his archpastoral office. Following Patriarch Tikhon and his spiritual mentor, Bishop Andronik of Perm, Bishop Pimen exposed the demagoguery and casuistry of Bolshevik proclamations, calling for resistance against the godless authorities. His sermons were later characterized as "counter-revolutionary speeches from the pulpit."

On June 26, 1918, he opened the next congress of the Semirechensk clergy, where, in accordance with the decisions of the Local Council, the archpastor called on the people to unite and consolidate in the parishes and to radically renew parish life.

Bishop Pimen's outspoken stance, the people's love, and their trust in the archbishop provoked the revolutionary authorities' determination to deal with him.

On September 16, 1918, Bishop Pimen was arrested by soldiers of Mamontov's detachment, specially summoned from the Sarkand area, and on the same day, he was shot in the Bauma grove, 8 versts from Verny (now Almaty). His body was found in a white cassock, covered with leaves. The new authorities feared to admit this. The next day, the "Bulletin of the Semirechensk Laboring People" published a decree from the regional executive committee with false information about the exile of the rebellious bishop and a threat to all sympathizers: "For counter-revolutionary actions against Soviet power and as an enemy of the working people and the poor peasantry, Bishop Pimen is to be expelled from the Semirechensk region, which was carried out on September 16. All supporters, defenders, and accomplices of the expelled counter-revolutionary bishop Pimen are declared counter-revolutionaries and will be punished with wartime measures."

The details of the brutal murder were described by the writer D. Furmanov in his documentary novel "Rebellion." At the place where the bishop's body lay after the execution, a rectangular patch of red moss, the size of a human body, was visible for many years, unlike anything else in the entire ancient grove. Later, a granite obelisk was erected at that spot.

Bishop Pimen was canonized as a locally venerated saint of the Almaty diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church on October 12, 1997, in the cathedral of Almaty. He was glorified among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for universal veneration.