Archpriest Serhii Afonskyi (1889–1963)

Abstract

The article examines the life of Kyiv Archpriest Serhii Afonskyi based on the integrated use of archival and published materials, including memories of his family members and contemporaries. It reveals Serhii Afonskyi’s family connections with well-known representatives of the Kyiv clergy and gives the main milestones of his formation and service as a priest. The study pays special attention to his academic activity at the Kyiv Theological Seminary during 1947–1960s. As a rector (December 23, 1946 — December 30, 1949), Archpriest Serhii Afonskyi solved all economicadministrative and educational-methodological issues, and recruited students for the seminary. Twice during his rectorship, he had to remake unsuitable premises for the seminary’s auditoriums and dormitories: first time in the monastic cells of St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in 1946–1947 and the second time in the stylobate of St Andrew’s Church in 1949. As chief of the library (December 1949 — December 20, 1952), he worked to increase its collection and to get it registered with government agencies. However, during all the years the Kyiv Theological Seminary existed in the Soviet Union, teaching was the most important task of Archpriest Serhii Afonskyi. In different years he taught catechism, dogmatic theology, and the Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments. As a pastor and pedagogue, he spiritually and intellectually shaped the personalities of future priests in the difficult conditions of a totalitarian atheistic regime. Alongside the performing academic duties, Serhii Afonskyi carried out no less important ministry: he served as the first priest in Kyiv Protection convent since 1948.