Archimandrite Modest of the Mount of Olives monastery in Israel passed away on this day in 1984. Fr. Modest was born Minas Shust in modern Ukraine. In 1911, when he was 19, he became a novice at the so-called New Athos monastery in the Caucasus. Minas was called up to fight against the Ottomans during the First World War. After the Revolution, Minas received the monastic tonsure at this monastery and remained there until it was closed in 1929. He went into hiding in the mountains with other brethren, but was arrested and interrogated, and even subjected to a mock execution. Finally, Fr. Modest, as a skillful fisherman, was sent to work on fishing grounds in the Russian Far East. In the 1930s, it was still possible to flee Soviet Russia. At that time, Fr. Modest, along with four other prisoners, took over a fishing vessel and travelled to Japan. He thus joined the group of other future ROCOR clergymen who were former fugitives from the pre-WWII USSR: Fr. Michael Polsky, who crossed into Iran, and Fr. Theodosii (Almazov), who escaped to Romania. From Japan, Fr. Modest went to Shanghai and became a close associate of St. John. He followed St. John from China to France. When St. John received an assignment to America, Fr. Modest joined St. Panteleimon Monastery and remained there until the arrival of the first group of monks sent from the Soviet Union to revive the depopulating monastery. At this point, Fr. Modest moved to the Holy Land, where he lived in obedience to the father-confessor of the Mount of Olives convent. Source:
“Pamiati dorogogo nashego batiushki,” [“In the Memory of Dear Father”] Pravoslavanaia Rusʹ, 18, 1984. |
