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Fedor AndreevClergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church
Date of Birth: 01.04.1887
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Content:
Early Life and Education
Feodor Konstantinovich Andreyev was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1887. His father, Konstantin Иванович Андреев, was a merchant of the Second Guild of Novaya Ladoga. His mother, Tatiana Alexandrovna, came from a modest family. He had a brother, Ivan (who died in 1918), and a sister, Vera.
Andreyev attended the Third Real School in St. Petersburg and then studied at the Institute of Civil Engineers. However, he left the latter to pursue his religious education. In 1909, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Seminary as an external student and in 1913, he earned his Candidate of Theology degree from the Moscow Theological Academy. His dissertation on "Yuri Fyodorovich Samarin as a Theologian and Philosopher" was highly regarded.
Clerical Career
In 1913, Andreyev became a docent in systematic philosophy and logic at the Moscow Theological Academy. He prepared a master's dissertation on "The Religious and Philosophical Inquiries of the Slavophiles," but it was lost after his widow's arrest in 1930.
After the academy was forced to move to Moscow, Andreyev returned to Petrograd. He taught literature at the Mikhailovsky School, liturgy, dogmatics, and the Old Testament at the Theological and Pastoral School, and served as assistant to its director, I. P. Shcherbov.
In 1922, Andreyev entered the priesthood as a deacon on December 17 and a priest on December 19. He served at the Kazan Cathedral, leaving in 1923 after it was taken over by Renovationists. He then became a junior priest at the St. Sergius Cathedral and established a study group on the Bible and the philosophy of liturgy.
Involvement in the "Iosiflian" Movement
Andreyev opposed the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), which made significant concessions to the Soviet authorities. He became a leader and ideologue of the "Iosiflian" movement in Leningrad, which rejected Sergius's declaration. From December 1927, he served at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the cathedral of the "Iosiflian" Leningrad diocese.
Andreyev authored a message to Metropolitan Sergius, which was delivered by representatives of the Leningrad clergy and laity. He also drafted a formula of "detachment" from Sergius for the "Iosiflian" movement.
Arrests and Death
Andreyev was arrested in 1927 and 1928. He refused the investigator's offer to support Metropolitan Sergius, stating, "We do not need your Soviet rights; leave us our sacred helplessness." Released due to tuberculosis and pleurisy, he continued to serve at the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.
Feodor Andreyev died in 1929 and was buried at the Nikolsky Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. His funeral procession from the church to the monastery was a demonstration of respect for the deceased priest.
