Archimandrite Sergius (Schevitch)

Cyril Georgievitch Schevitch (the future Father Sergius) was the son of George Ivanovich Schevitch (1871-1966) who was a senior officer in the Russian army. He came from a noble family of the Republic of Venice who owned a fief in Herzegovina. His great-grandfather, Ivan Georgievitch Schevitch, was one of the Serbs who, in 1752, had followed Ivan Samoilovitch Horvath to colonize “New Serbia”, in the current region of Odessa; he entered the Russian service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and retired in 1764 as Major General. His great-grandfather, George Ivanovich Schevitch (1735-1794), also acquired, in 1793, the rank of Major-General. His great-grandfather, Ivan Georgievitch (Egorievitch) Schévitch, born in 1754, acquired the same rank in 1807, was entrusted with the command of the Hussars of the Tsar's Guard, distinguished himself at the Battle of Borodino (1812) and, after being appointed Lieutenant-General at the head of a cavalry regiment, was killed on October 4, 1813 at the Battle of Leipzig. His grandfather, Egor Ivanovich Schévitch (1808-1849) had been appointed, in 1842, commander of the Hussars of the Imperial Guard, before dying prematurely. His father, Ivan Egorovich Schévitch (1838-1912), had been governor of several regions before becoming a member of the Imperial Council, then a member of the Privy Council, and finally a member of the State Council of the empire. His mother, Maria Cyrillovna von Struve (1878–1969), was the daughter of Cyril Vasilyevich von Struve [also known as Karl von Struve] (1835–1907), who was serving as Russian ambassador to the Netherlands when Cyril was born, and had also served as Russian ambassador to Japan and the United States (1882–1892); and grandchild of the famous astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (1793–1864), who was the founder and director, from 1839 to 1862, of the St. Petersburg Observatory (located in Pulkovo), and is today considered "the father of modern astronomy"; he was the husband of Maria Nicolaevna Annekova, daughter of General Nikolai Annenkov. Marie Cyrillovna, had a brother – Boris Cyrillovitch, military attaché in Washington – and three sisters: Vera Cyrillovna (1876-1949), wife of Prince Pierre N. Mestchersky, founder of the Russian retirement home of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois; Elena Cyrillovna, married first to Baron Hendrik Steengracht von Moyland, a descendant of Charlemagne, and secondly to General Orlov; Olga Cyrillovna, wife of Baron Peter Arnold Hermann Gottlieb Mumm von Schwarzenstein, founder of Mumm champagnes.

From 1911 to 1913, Cyril stayed in Willmanstrand, Finland where his father, then a colonel, had been placed at the head of the Dragoon regiment. His father having been appointed, in 1913, General of the Hussars of the Imperial Guard and, in 1915, "member of His Majesty's suite", Cyril came to live with his family in Tsarskoye Selo where the imperial palace was located. In 1915-1916, during the war, the family made several stays in Kislovodsk, a spa town in the Caucasus, then, at the end of 1916, went to live for a time in Tiflis, where General Shevich was garrisoned. When the Revolution broke out in 1917, the Shevich family saw all its property confiscated. They took refuge, like many noble families of Petrograd, in Kislovodsk, where they had already made many stays. Despite the alternating presence of the "Whites" and the "Reds" in the city, she was able to stay there until 1920.

Still a teenager, Cyril joined, in 1918, alongside young people of his age in the group of the All-Russian Union of Monarchist Youth founded by Count Michael Grabbe. His father, Georges Schévitch, fought in the White Army led by General Denikin and then by General Wrangel, but in October 1920, the family was forced, like many others, to take the path of exile outside Russia, via Odessa and Constantinople. After a short stay in Switzerland (where Cyril had time to pass a baccalaureate exam), the family lived in Berlin for two years, then in 1923 they moved to Paris, where Cyril found work at the Morgan bank on Place Vendôme, where he was in charge of the accounts of the crowned heads. At the end of 1924, Cyril became involved in the Young Russians (Mladoross) movement, which campaigned for the restoration of a democratic monarchy in Russia. From 1933, Cyril was the movement's treasurer and, until its extinction in 1939, was a member of its governing council, but in recent years he distanced himself from its founder, Alexander Kasem-Beg, because of the latter's rapprochement with the fascist movement. In his 1944 report to the United States War Department (where he emigrated), Kasem-Beg noted: "Shevitch represented monarchist thought and, at the same time, the most anti-fascist branch." The movement founded two journals (Mladoross and Opovestchenie) in which Cyril wrote a number of articles, most of which concerned the situation of the Church in Russia, and in particular asserted the need for the Church, as a condition of its survival, to be completely politically disengaged.

On the religious level, in the late 1920s, he actively participated in the meetings of the Saint Alban and Saint Sergius Brotherhood, which brought together Anglicans and Orthodox in Great Britain for theological exchanges. During this same period, he took courses in Church history, patrology and theology at Oxford University. At this time, he also wrote a number of articles on the situation of the Church in Russia for the ACER journal Vestnik (The Messenger). He also collaborated in a group for the Study of Religion in Russia, which included Paul B. Anderson, Ivan A. Lagovsky, Father Mayeux of the Roman Russicum and Michel de Enden.

When, at the end of 1930, Metropolitan Eulogius left the Moscow Patriarchate and joined that of Constantinople, Cyril was among the minority of priests and faithful who decided to remain faithful to the Mother Church. Together with Bishop Benjamin (Fedchenkov), hieromonks Athanasius (Nechaev), Stephen (Svetosarov), Seraphim (Rodionov), Theodore (Tekuchev), priests Stephen (Stefanovsky), Michael (Belsky), Dmitry (Sobolev), Vsevolod (Palachkovsky) and a number of laymen including Nicholas Berdyaev, Vladimir Lossky, Andrew Bloom (the future Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh), Vladimir Ilzhin, Michael Zimin, Alexis Stavrovsky, Nicholas Poltoratsky, Leonid Uspensky, Peter, Evgraph (the future Bishop John) and Maxim Kovalevsky, George (the future Father Gregory) Kroug and Theodore Pianov, he participated in the founding, in March 1931, of the parish and the new seat of the Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate, on Rue Petel, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. He also continued to collaborate with the ACER magazine "Le Messager".

During the 1930s, Cyril regularly attended the group of young intellectuals that the philosopher Nicolas Berdiaev brought together every week in his house in Clamart, among whom were the theologians Vladimir Lossky and Evgraph Kovalevsky, the philosophers Gabriel Marcel, Emmanuel Mounier, Maurice de Gandillac and Jacques Maritain, the orientalist Oliver Lacombe, the Islamologist Louis Massignon, the literary critic Charles du Bos, etc. Each meeting began with a presentation on a theological or philosophical subject and continued with a discussion. He also attended similar meetings organized by Jacques Maritain, with whom he was linked, until the latter's death, by a deep friendship. In these circles of intellectuals, he was particularly appreciated as a specialist in the work of Dostoyevsky.

At the same time, Cyril was increasingly drawn to the spiritual life. His spiritual father at this time was Father Athanasius Nechaev, who was the first rector of the parish of the Three Holy Hierarchs on Petel Street; he was a monk from the Valaam Monastery, whom Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) – of whom he was also the spiritual father at the same time – described as “a remarkable man, of absolute simplicity, who lived on nothing” and shared with the poorer ones the little he had. Leading more and more a life of prayer and seeking to apply the teachings of the Fathers on which he nourished himself daily, Cyril felt drawn to the monastic life. Being the sole provider for his family, he could not, however, commit himself to it immediately. However, he led as much as possible the life of a monk “in the city”. In 1938, he confided his plan to become a monk to Starets (now Saint) Silouan. The latter gave him his blessing in the last letter he wrote.

As a former leading member of the Young Russian movement and with many of his compatriots considered suspect by the French government following the German-Soviet Pact and in an atmosphere of “general xenophobia”, Cyril was arrested at the end of May 1940 and interned on the 31st in the Vernet concentration camp. Released some time later, he was arrested again, on June 22, 1941, by the German authorities this time, the very day of the invasion of Soviet territory by the Wehrmacht and the very day that Patriarch Sergius had given a speech calling on Russian Orthodox throughout the world to contribute to the defense of their homeland. Cyril was then, with several hundred other émigrés of Russian origin, interned in the camp of Compiègne. Throughout his stay in Vernet, Cyril devoted himself to reading the Bible and reflecting on the content of the scriptures; However, he immersed himself more and more in the practice of the Jesus Prayer, following the example and advice of one of his fellow prisoners, Father Seraphim, whose heart burned with incessant prayer. The months of his incarceration in Compiègne were also spent in prayer. He was able to leave and then decided to carry out his plan of becoming a monk without further delay. He took his vows on 18 November 1941 under the patronage of Saint Sergius of Valaam. He then lived with Archimandrite Stéphane (Svetosarov), rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vanves (Hauts-de-Seine) since its foundation in 1933, who initiated him into monastic life according to the spiritual traditions of the Valaam monastery where he had lived. Father Sergius was heavily involved in the life of the parish, particularly helping the faithful in difficulty.

Ordained deacon on September 11 and priest on September 12, 1945 in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, rue Daru, by Bishop Vladimir (Tikhonitsky), with the blessing of Bishop Nicolas de Kroutitsky, Father Sergius was appointed rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vanves to succeed Father Stéphane (who had just been appointed rector of the Church of the Three Holy Hierarchs, rue Pétel). To this responsibility was added very soon after that of head of the skit of the Holy Spirit in Mesnil-Saint-Denis near Trappes (Yvelines) whose founder, Father André Sergueienko, had just returned to Russia. When, in 1946, the Russian jurisdictions in Western Europe, which had been reunited for a time, separated again, Father Sergius, like his friends Nikolai Berdiaev, Vladimir Lossky, Leonid Uspensky and Gregory Krug, remained in the Moscow Patriarchate, independently of any political consideration but out of pure loyalty to the Mother Church and out of respect for those who had, at the risk of their lives, remained in Russia to maintain, at all costs, the existence of the Church. In 1949, he was elevated to the dignity of hegumen, and on January 20, 1954, by decree of Patriarch Alexis I, to that of archimandrite.

Very attached to Russia, Father Sergius nevertheless had a universal vision of the Orthodox Church, and knew how to welcome without reserve the monks of other nationalities who came to place themselves under his spiritual direction and the faithful of French origin who, at the end of the sixties, came in increasing numbers to swell the ranks of the parishioners of Vanves. Through his love, his humility and his tact, Father Sergius always knew how to maintain in his parish an atmosphere of unity and fraternity despite the great diversity of its members. He also welcomed without reserve the faithful of other jurisdictions who came to confess to him or ask him for spiritual advice.

From the beginning of Great Lent in 1985, Father Sergius fell seriously ill. It was only a few months later that he was able to officiate again while being supported. At the beginning of October 1986, the illness struck him again, more seriously than the previous time. He was hospitalized at the Courbevoie hospital. He was diagnosed with severe pleurisy that required several months of treatment. Father Sergius was able to return to Vanves, but on June 3, 1987, he was struck with hemiplegia and had to be hospitalized again. An X-ray then revealed that cancer had affected several organs in his body. He died peacefully on July 25.

A charismatic personality – characterized by his humility, gentleness, love and luminosity – Father Sergius had an international influence during his lifetime as a confessor and spiritual father. The book dedicated to him by Jean-Claude Larchet, "Le starets Serge", translated into several languages, helped to extend his fame, and articles are regularly devoted to him in France and in Orthodox countries, containing in particular extracts from his spiritual teachings. He is considered in several reference works as one of the main spiritual fathers of the Russian emigration in the 20th century.