Fyodor Konyukhov is an Orthodox priest elevated to the rank of archpriest. Fedor Konyukhov - biography, information, personal life
In Svyato-Pokrovsky cathedral Zaporozhye, the famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov was ordained a sandiacon. It happened on May 23, on the Holy Day Life-Giving Trinity. And in June, Father Fedor and I met in his workshop on Sadovnicheskaya Street in Moscow.
- Father Fedor, have you been preparing for this decision for a long time?
- 37 years ago I wanted to be a priest. It’s good, of course, to travel, climb mountains, sail a yacht around the world... But I wouldn’t want to end my life in vanity. In my family there were priests and five saints. One of them - my grandfather Nikolai Konyukhov - was an archpriest, he was shot in December 1918. The body was found in
February 1919. He lay in the snow with his arms crossed... I want, like them, to serve our Orthodox Church. But first you need to serve as a deacon, and then as a priest.
- But what about your travels?
- I negotiated with Patriarch Kirill about being a missionary. We have already erected an Orthodox cross at Cape Horn (Chile). The cape is washed by the Drake Passage, named after the pirate. Since his adventures, approximately 2,400 ships have perished there, including Russian ones. Now I am flying to Khabarovsk to the Shantar Islands (in the Sea of Okhotsk), and from there we will go to Jonah Island. The island is named after the prophet Jonah. Essentially, it is a rock in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk. There is a seal rookery there, there is no cove or beach to land on. Let's go there for the big one rubber boat and we will erect a cross there. In the 30s of the 20th century, a barge with prisoners was sunk not far from the island, among whom were prisoners and political ones... The cross will remind people of this incident. And on August 6 I will fly to Ethiopia. I will meet with the President and Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church, Paulos. I want to build a small one there Orthodox church. Now approximately 5 thousand Russians live in Ethiopia. These are mostly those old girls who left the USSR in the 60s and 70s. Of the 85 million inhabitants of the country, 60 million are Christians, there are Catholics, Copts, Adventists, and Baptists. But there is no Russian Orthodox Church. We have already received a blessing for the construction of the temple, and the Ethiopian authorities are not against it. The journey will be extreme. We will ride camels for 40 days along the lower part of Ethiopia on the border with Somalia. There is savannah, desert and Muslims live there. Then we will drive cars through the mountains for 20 days... And after Ethiopia I will go to India.
- What do you always take with you when traveling?
- My son says: “Dad, you have a whole iconostasis on your yacht.” I have a large library there, the lives of saints. I have read the Bible from cover to cover seven times in my life. I'm lucky, I've been around the world six times. There is no time to read at home.
- How many chapels have you built?
- Six. After every trip around the world I built one. I always think that if I erect a chapel, then this place will belong to Orthodoxy. Let there be more golden domes in Russia. And then the chapels are the memory of mine dead friends. In the chapel on Sadovnicheskaya, next to my workshop, Father Alexey baptized my youngest son Nikolai. There is a chapel on Far East, there is in Sergiev Posad... I call the chapel in Ukraine “The Tooth of Orthodoxy.” The domes were bought from the Lavra. She's standing right on the shore Sea of Azov, near our house, where mom and dad lived. Mom recently died, but dad is still holding on. He is 94 years old. We specifically bought it from a neighbor nearby an old house for 800 dollars. We were afraid that someone would buy this house and make noise there and barbecue... All my chapels are stone, only one is wooden - five by five meters. This is before reaching 20 kilometers to Pereslavl-Zalessky. There, not far from the Svyatoalekseevskaya Hermitage, there is a children's gymnasium, where my son Semyon studied for two years.
- Which church will you serve in?
- In Sergiev Posad. We want to build a temple there in honor of the holy military leader Fyodor Ushakov - in the form of a ship (when viewed from above). It's a 15-minute walk from the monastery, behind the old cemetery. There will also be a sports camp for children “Peresvet”. Small hotel, parking lot.
- Why do you want to build a temple in Sergiev Posad in honor of Fyodor Ushakov?
- Fyodor Ushakov was canonized in 2001. Last year I visited the Sanaksar monastery in Mordovia and confessed to the priest. I said that my very first sin was that I was a sailor, and I came to the relics of Fyodor Ushakov for the first time. And I told him that I wanted to build a temple in his honor. In the evening the Father Superior says
to me: “We will now transfer his relics to you.” And I sit and think: “You see, what a trust, and therefore a burden, on me. When I build it, it will be easier.” We go into the church: there are no people there, the monks have all left. The crayfish of Fyodor Ushakov and confessor Alexander open before me. They say: “Pray.” I knelt before the holy admiral, kissed his head and, in my excitement, forgot all my prayers. It touched me very much, very much.
Fedor Konyukhov known as a traveler and almost unknown as a chapel builder. But after each of his six trips around the world, he built a chapel, and in the most different places- from the Azov coast to the Far East. One of them was erected in small courtyard in his Moscow workshop. Fyodor Filippovich has new travels and new construction plans ahead: the construction of a lighthouse temple and a ship temple. Appeal to marine theme In temple construction, Konyukhov explains his “professional interest.”
Fedor Konyukhov: Several years ago, the Orthodox Church canonized Fyodor Ushakov, a great admiral, naval commander and at the same time a man of a unique righteous life. But there is no temple in his honor in Moscow yet. The project is already ready, and we are still choosing a location. We really hope that it will be possible to build it in Moscow, because such a temple is especially needed in the capital: look how many sailors there are, retired and active, there is even a club of admirals!
And the sailors love and respect Ushakov very much, he is an example for them - although, unfortunately, they value him only as a great commander who did not lose a single battle. I would like the temple to help tell about other facets of the admiral’s life: about his deep faith, about his family, which includes holy ascetic monks, about the fact that after his resignation, Ushakov settled near the Sanaksar monastery and spent the rest of his life there...
Through the story of this, I would like to provide a bridge to Orthodoxy for modern sailors. After all, they admire Ushakov, many consider him a role model. It seems to me that a story about a man’s path to his faith for sailors will be missionary effective. I have seen this from my own experience. I remember how I came to the Sanaksar Monastery for the first time, the abbot revealed the relics of Fyodor Ushakov to me, invited me to pray, and then left. I knelt before the shrine with the relics and found myself face to face with the saint. I get goosebumps: there is no one nearby, and I, a senior sergeant major, a naval sailor myself, am standing in front of an admiral, and what an admiral at that! Of course, all my prayers flew out of my head... All this made an incredible impression on me: holiness penetrates our lives, becomes close and understandable...
This is how the idea of building our temple was born, for which we developed unique project: the architecture will be classical Byzantine, but all temple complex in general it will have to resemble a ship in its shape. Everything is in strict accordance with the canons, and at the same time new ones arise, special meanings. The temple of memory of the admiral is like a ship in the sea of everyday passions! If you look at it from above, the temple complex is contoured like a fish - another marine and at the same time an ancient Christian symbol.
— Your plans also include another church in memory of Fyodor Ushakov, this time in the shape of a lighthouse...
— There is nothing strange here either: for example, in Crimea there is a temple in the shape of a lighthouse, built in the 19th century. But there, it is true, it had practical significance, and our project will not be used as a lighthouse, although we plan to build it on the Ukrainian shore of the Sea of Azov. It’s just that the form itself, the symbolism of this building seems very important to me.
I understood this when I first saw a lighthouse far from the sea... in the Sahara. You know, there has been a lighthouse there since the time when Exupery flew across the desert, indicating directions to pilots. Its location in the middle of the desert, outside the usual seascape, is so unexpected that you inevitably look closely at the structure and think about the depth of its symbolism.After all, any temple in our life is also a kind of beacon...
Not just stone
— You not only build churches and chapels, but also pay serious attention to people. Please tell us about your travel schools. What are they, what is their purpose?
— First, I’ll tell you the reason why I took up this project. The idea of the connection between the spiritual and physical development, I thought about this especially often in Southeast Asia, where such an order is considered natural. But from the Orthodox point of view it should be the same! If you don’t train your spirit, everything is useless; if you only want to pile your body on Everest, there’s no point in it. Any physical effort should serve the development of the soul. When traveling, I always rejoiced at the opportunity to see the beauty of the world created by God, to be alone with myself, to feel the presence of God nearby. This is the only way to achieve harmony, and this is what I wanted to teach others.
I began making attempts to bring this theory to life back in the late 1980s. Then I was a yachting coach, working with children's sports schools, and I didn’t like that everything in them came down to physical training, that sports were put above all else. Therefore, I immediately decided to come up with a new name for our endeavor to show that we do not just have a youth sports school. This is how the School of Travelers appeared.
We immediately tell everyone who comes to us about our focus and the special charter of our school. Children not only study and go on hikes, but also participate in prayer services. In the library, along with books about Amundsen, Scott, Nansen, Sedov, Papanin, there are always spiritual books: the Bible, stories about saints and apostles.Now we have three such schools: two in the central part of the country, in Sergiev Posad and the Vologda region, and one in the Far East - where I lived before. Unfortunately, the latter, since I left there, has been drifting more and more towards the usual sports school... I will make every effort to ensure that the remaining two schools maintain a balance between physical and spiritual education.
— What are the selection criteria? What kind of children come to your school?
— We carry out a strict selection. We have long hikes, which means the kids have to study so well that they can keep up after missing classes for a week. Sometimes officials and colleagues tell me: take care of difficult teenagers, take drug addicts. But I don’t want to, because this is a completely different matter!
When you take drug addicts, all the best kids leave - their parents take them, and many children themselves don’t want to stay. I myself, to be honest, would take my son from there. And most importantly, then it will still turn out that the drug addict hid something somewhere, then lost his temper, disappeared somewhere... Working with them is a special matter, and it has nothing to do with our undertaking.
I'm not saying that difficult teenagers shouldn't be dealt with, but why do we pay all our attention only to them? But what about spiritually and physically healthy guys? What about romantic children who dream of distant travels? If we don't raise them, then who should everyone else look up to?
A certain ideal, a standard is needed, and I would like the children from our schools to become such an ideal.
Like love
— You have already said more than once that you go on your travels, among other things, in order to feel God closer, that travel for you is an integral part of spiritual life. But this is not the case for everyone...
— Yes, not everyone understands that the senseless risk of extreme sports is a sin. You can’t put your life in danger just like that, out of pleasure - it’s empty. But thousands of people do this, and they cannot be stopped! There are four thousand registered climbers in Moscow alone. For them, this is an important part of life, they cannot be stopped by simply walking up to them and saying: “Everything you do is pointless and sinful.” They won’t even understand the word “sin” in its original meaning, but will only be offended once again, deciding that they are accused of violating a “church law” that is alien to them.
- What do you propose?
“It seems to me that you definitely need to be close to them, because these people need special prayer, special intercession. The Church is obliged to remember them and pray. Why do we have many priests who care for military units, schools, hospitals, but almost no ones who work with the same climbers and fans of extreme sports? After all, this is part of our society with a special way of thinking.
You need to find a common language with people who are passionate about extreme sports. And this is another dream of mine - at least in Moscow to create a parish for such people. I am sure that the small community will definitely grow. And she will become an example for others, will help a person think about why he goes to the mountains. Just for fun? But is this interest worth the risk, effort and emotions? After all, in order to take the first step towards faith, you must first think about these problems.
— Tell us how you yourself came to faith?
“I have always been a believer, our family is like that: my grandfather is a priest and his brother too - he was even canonized as a new martyr. I remember at school (and I studied in our fishing village) I argued all the time with the literature teacher. He asked her: “Tell me, Tatyana Semyonovna, how can you say that there is no God, but Pushkin believed in him!”
However, in my life I have become convinced that faith in God is somewhat similar to love for a woman. Some were lucky to fall in love in their youth, some spent their whole lives pursuing their love, and some lived their entire lives and never fell in love with anyone. It seems to the latter that there are no sublime feelings and other things; he laughs at those who say the opposite.I have a scientist acquaintance, a man of completely Soviet upbringing. All his life he told me, coming to me and seeing icons: why do you need this, you’d better support science! But he recently returned after surgery and told how he was then shown a video taken during bypass surgery. So he lies on the table without moving for four whole hours, the doctor takes out his heart, washes it, does something with it, and then returns it back. This person told me: “You know, Fedya, I watched that video and got out of my chair completely different.” I recently came to his office and saw that icons had appeared there.
— You are probably often asked the question: where do you, a traveler, feel at home? Do you even have a home?
“There is a place in the world where I own land and feel at home.” I have four hundred square meters in Sergiev Posad, next to the Lavra. And it seems to me that better place I can't think of it.
I remember in 1990 I was in Australia. Soviet Union By then it was already bursting at the seams, everyone looked to the future with horror. Among the Russian Australians with whom I communicated at that time was the priest Father Alexy. He told me these words: while the relics St. Sergius remain in Russia, it will not fall apart.
When the common state was divided, my small homeland ended up on the territory of Ukraine, and the places where I lived for a significant part of my childhood were in Russia, in the Far East. But I still feel that spiritually we remain united, we continue to live the same life, but its center is not in Moscow or Kyiv. The center is at the relics of St. Sergius, who for many centuries has united us more than anything else.
Fedor Filippovich Konyukhov
Born on December 12, 1951 on the shores of the Azov Sea. He carried out his first expedition at the age of 15: he crossed the Sea of Azov on a fishing rowing boat. By the age of 50, he had made more than 40 unique expeditions and ascents. The first person in the world to reach the five poles of our planet: the northern geographic pole (three times), the southern geographic pole, the pole of relative inaccessibility in the northern Arctic Ocean, Everest (height pole), Cape Horn (yachtsman pole). The first Russian to complete the Grand Slam program (North Pole, South Pole, Everest). Sea captain, yacht captain. He circumnavigated the world six times, crossed the Atlantic fifteen times, once in a rowing boat. Honored Master of Sports. Included in the encyclopedia "Chronicle of Humanity". Full member of the Russian Geographical Society.
Member of the Union of Artists. Gold medal winner Russian Academy arts, honorary academician of the Russian Academy of Arts, author of more than 3 thousand paintings. Participant of Russian and international exhibitions. Member of the Writers' Union of the Russian Federation, author of nine books.Awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the UNEP “GLOBAL 500” award for his contribution to the protection environment. Winner of the UNESCO Fair Play Prize. Honorary resident of the city of Nakhodka (Primorsky Territory, Russia), the city of Terni (Italy) and the village of Bergin (Kalmykia, Russia). Awarded the Order of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, 1st degree, for exemplary and diligent work for the benefit of the Holy Orthodox Church of God.
Married. Wife Irina. Son Oscar, daughter Tatyana, son Nikolai. Grandson Philip, granddaughter Polina, granddaughter Kate, grandson Ethan, grandson Arkady, grandson Blake, granddaughter Catherine.
There is probably not a single person in our country who has not heard of Fyodor Konyukhov, a world-famous traveler and navigator. He made more than fifty expeditions and ascents. The first person in the world to reach the 5 poles of our planet, the peak of Everest in the Himalayas, Cape Horn South America, the first to fly around the world on hot-air balloon in 11 days. Each time, faced with new and new challenges, he realized that he could not remain only a traveler. And in 2010, Fyodor Konyukhov was ordained a priest.
— You know, I just recently read with pleasure your book “My Path to the Truth.” And I would call it a prayer book. You so generously share your experiences, your difficulties, your doubts. And I would like to build our further conversation with you precisely on the basis of this book.
— It was written in the ocean. You know, I want people to leave the thoughts that I had in the ocean.
— You write in your book: “Loneliness is a gift. Not everyone can accept it.” Having traveled so much around the world, were you still able to accept this gift? After all, many people begin to get sick from loneliness. suffer from despondency.
- This is the most difficult thing. When I was young and went sailing, and I have been traveling since my youth, the most difficult thing for me was to survive loneliness (Fyodor Konyukhov made his first trip at only 15 years old, crossing the Sea of Azov on a rowing boat - editor's note).
When I walked alone to the North Pole for 72 days, or to the South Pole for 67 days, as well as on the first trip around the world on a yacht for 222 days and the second on the yacht “Formosa” for 508 days, the most difficult thing for me was not physical difficulties, not danger, and loneliness. But over the years, I felt that I began to suffer less from this feeling. Other difficulties began to appear. For example, when I was flying in a hot air balloon for 11 days, I didn’t eat or sleep. What is 11 days? You may not sleep and not eat. I threw all my food into the ocean, but I had two boxes because I was flying with an oxygen mask. Therefore, two or three lumps of sugar, under an oxygen mask to thin the blood, and two or three sips of water, slightly heated on the burner due to the danger of explosion from propane, were my food for 11 days. Atlantic Ocean I flew over in 1.5 days, Chile in 40 minutes, Argentina in 9 hours. It's so fast. And here I no longer felt loneliness, but fatigue.
— All your life you have been preparing for trips around the world or expeditions. Why are you overcoming yourself?
— Usually my expeditions take 10-20 years to prepare. For example, to conquer Everest for the first time, I prepared for 19 years. When in 1992, Zhenya Vinogradsky, my friend, and I climbed from the southern side of Everest, from the Himalayas and at the top of Everest we looked towards Tibet, Zhenya said: “Well, we should climb from there.” And after about 5 years he got up. And it took me 20 years again. And in 2012, Sasha Abramov and I, with a team from Moscow, climbed from the north side. Thus, it took me 39 years to conquer Everest. Now I'm preparing to fly into the stratosphere. I have dreamed about this since childhood. Recently I called my fellow countrywoman from the Yaroslavl region, Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova, and asked: “Valentina Vladimirovna...Will I see how the Earth bends? I will climb 25 kilometers." She says: "You will see the curvature of the Earth after 18."
— Fyodor Filippovich, you have so many talents: a traveler, a priest, and an artist.
— My grandfather, Mikhail Petrovich Konyukhov, took part in the first expedition of Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov to Novaya Zemlya in 1901. And he wanted me to become, like Georgy Yakovlevich Sedov, a researcher. My grandfather died in 1958, when I was 7 years old (on the eve of the expedition, which ended tragically, Sedov left Fedor to my grandfather pectoral cross with the order to hand it over to the strongest of his children, who will be able to fulfill the explorer’s dream - to take him to the North Pole. And it was Fyodor Konyukhov who was able to accomplish this - ed.). So I decided to become a traveler.
— You write, Fyodor Filippovich: “By my own free will, I submitted myself to these tests. Why, Lord, didn’t You show me the winding, dark paths of my trials as a child? Perhaps I would have walked away from this vice and would not have been so punished for my unbridled, daring desire to be the first in testing human capabilities. I have been preparing myself for challenge and success since childhood, but now everything has changed.” But the desire to be the first in you still remains.
- No no. I'm a dreamer, I'm a romantic. But if I say that I want to fly after my childhood dream and see how space bends, it is clear that no one will support me, and they will not finance the construction of a balloon for my dream. When I say that I will fly for a record and want to rise 25 kilometers from the Earth, and now the record is 21 kilometers, then, of course, support and construction begin. It seems that romance is beautiful. But you must be mentally prepared to contemplate this beauty. As the Holy Scripture says, if you are with the body and not with the spirit, then everything is useless, you see. First you must spiritually climb Everest, and then drag your body up. I remember when I approached Everest, with hooks, with a hammer and began to hammer the hook, I thought: “Am I mature, do I have the right to hammer a hook into Everest, you know?” You need to be prepared spiritually, mentally and physically. I recently flew around the world in a hot air balloon and broke Steve Fossett's record. When Steve Fossett and Richard Branson began preparing for the flight in 1993, I was already following them. And in 2016 I flew around. Why? It was impossible to break Steve Fossett's record right away; time had to be waited, technology had to improve. Now it is almost impossible to build a balloon with exactly the same material and beat Fedor Konyukhov’s record (Steve Fossett flew around in 13 days, and I in 11).
— When you are left alone with yourself and with God, what thoughts, what feelings come to you? In general, do you ever have a feeling of fear?
— The feeling of fear is always present. If a person lives and has no fear, no love, no pain, he is not a person. A person must experience fear, love, pain. I am not afraid of death, but I am afraid to stand before the Lord God and account for my sins. And the more you live, the more you travel, the more you are with people, the more sins you accumulate, of course.
- Fyodor Filippovich, I’m looking at you, you are, on the one hand, a very soft, very kind and gentle person, open, and on the other hand, I can’t understand where you get such strength from?
— I repeat, I prepare myself spiritually, then physically, then morally and economically. If I’m in Moscow, during the day I prepare for an expedition; in the evening, climbers, yachtsmen, and travelers come to my temple to pray and receive my blessing. Those who go to Everest, those to the Himalayas, around the world, or across the Pacific, Atlantic oceans, or rafting on difficult routes - they all come to me. And I usually receive people, and today I will. Since my church is small, the church is always full of people. I recommend to everyone: come to the temple. You sit in the temple and think, maybe you even fall asleep on a chair, but from this only goodness will come to you. The temple is prayed for, the grace in the temple is different, the mood is different. Of course, the Lord is present everywhere, He is present everywhere – in the ocean, in space, and underground. But the temple - it invigorates, you understand, it invigorates towards faith, towards closeness to the Lord God or to those saints to whom you pray.
— Fyodor Filippovich, how did you raise your children?
“I raise children in love by my example, and they love me.” If a mother or father smokes herself and says to her son or daughter: “Don’t smoke,” this will not be convincing. I always tell my kids, “You have to love everyone.” If you pray, fast, and love people, then difficulties are easier to bear. Fasting is the easiest thing, praying is the hardest thing, and loving people is even harder. A beggar came to my temple, I hug, bless and kiss him, just like a wealthy businessman or politician. There should be no differences in the temple. And on the street I behave the same way and tell the children. But it turns out I haven’t learned to love yet. At least a little bit closer to how the Lord Jesus Christ loves us. Work ennobles a person and, among other things, will provide for you. We have to work. The Lord loves those who work.
— You write: “I often tell my sons and grandsons that in life they must take upon themselves the responsibility of building a temple or chapel, then in old age they will have somewhere to come and rest from work and pray in silence. When people ask me why I build chapels, I answer so that there are more golden domes in Russia.” How many chapels have you built?
13 chapels and 2 temples. He built chapels with his own money, and churches with God’s help and people. Everything that my mother (my wife and I) and I earn, we spend on the construction of chapels. My mother is now building a chapel. The chapel of the Great Martyr Irina, her heavenly patroness, was recently built. The construction of chapels inspires me because they are for people.
— You write: “We need to simplify things and live more ascetically, gain time in order to lose it instead. Strive to accumulate and improve your spiritual life, dedicate your days and nights to improving your soul.” Still, how can we know the Lord?
— When they tell me: “In the 21st century everything is already globe explored, explored, why travel?” I always answer that we have only explored 3% of the ocean. As long as a person lives, he will travel and explore, make discoveries and records. As long as a person lives, he will know the Lord and will not know, but will approach only through the saints.
— Fyodor Filippovich, what is the most important thing in life for you?
— The most important thing in life is not to offend a person. You know, building a temple and climbing Everest is difficult, but it is possible, but not offending a person is the most difficult thing. When I lie on my deathbed, and my soul meets God, it will not be credited to me that I erected domes, stood on the peaks. I do not accept awards for myself, because when the Apostle Peter opens the doors, and I stand covered in awards, he will immediately slam them, because behind me there is only emptiness and those people who are offended.
On June 13, 2014, at the Golden Beach recreation center of Lake Turgoyak, a meeting was held with the legendary traveler priest Fyodor Konyukhov.
The other day he completed his extreme journey through Pacific Ocean and immediately flew to Southern Urals, to welcome young participants in the children's sailing regatta that bears his name. “My journey is over, I arrived on Chelyabinsk soil and felt that I was finally home,” Fyodor Filippovich said at the meeting.
The famous traveler spoke about his long journey, sea adventures, prayer at the most difficult moment of the journey and much more in an interview with South Ural journalists. First of all, he said about those who inspire him to new records:
– I would like my records to be good example for the younger generation. And I am very glad that for the third year in a row a children’s sailing regatta for the Konyukhov Cup is being held here on Lake Turgoyak. Today I saw children’s eyes and realized that it’s not in vain that we do all this. It's worth it. For the sake of these eyes, in which romance shines and the beautiful Lake Turgoyak is reflected.
Just a week ago, the rowing boat of Priest Fyodor Konyukhov, called Turgoyak, landed on the shores of Australia. 160 days of travel from the coast of Chile across the Pacific Ocean without stopping to rest. Only 2 hours of sleep a day - one at night and half an hour in the morning and evening. To get on schedule, Fedor Filippovich had to cover 50 nautical miles a day - that’s 24 thousand strokes. But he was ahead of the curve:
– I had a very strict regime,- says the traveler, – I had to meet the deadlines because I depended on the weather and seasonal wind. If I had been ten days late, I would have been sailing against the wind and would still be in the Pacific Ocean. When people ask me where I trained for this sea voyage, I always answer: Everest and the North Pole, Cape Horn. Physically, this expedition is no more difficult than climbing Everest; it is more difficult mentally. After all, the dynamics there are different, but here there is monotony. You are constantly rowing, there is only the horizon in front of you and no vertical lines.
As you know, in 2010 the famous traveler was ordained to the priesthood and became Father Fedor. And we, as the information service of the Chelyabinsk diocese, were primarily interested in issues of a spiritual nature. Fyodor Fillipovich said that the entire long journey across the waters of the Pacific Ocean was accompanied by prayer:
– It took me 35 minutes to complete the morning rule, the same amount for evening rule. This was my main prayer when I wasn't rowing. I stopped, dropped the oars and prayed. And at other times, when he was at the oars, he repeated the Jesus Prayer in time with the strokes.
Twice during the trip, Father Fedor performed the rite of blessing the water in the Pacific Ocean. The first is on the twelfth feast of the Epiphany. And the second, when he felt that the sea was “playing naughty”:
– I came to Polynesia, there are thousands of islands. I felt that the ocean was a little naughty and might throw me out onto the reefs, so I decided to perform the rite of consecration once again. “I don’t rely on my own strength,” Fyodor Filippovich smiles. “After all, my boat didn’t get hit by a single hurricane; they walked ahead of me, along the stern, on the side.” If I had walked faster or, conversely, been three days late, I would have been caught in a strong storm. Imagine, lightning shoots so hard that even the water hisses from the tension. If they had passed through the boat, it would have shattered into pieces, or I would have been shell-shocked, best case scenario. But everything worked out. And there are also big tornadoes spinning, sucking water from the ocean. I call them “hoses” or “trunks”. But during this trip they never approached me.
Fyodor Filippovich talks with professional calm about all the trials. More than once whales approached the boat, and if they wanted, they could turn the boat over, but they did not touch it:
“One whale accompanied me for a long time. It's obvious that he's old. And here we are, two old men, swimming in the sea, he is puffing next to us, but he has never dived under the boat. It wasn't easy at night. I even had to turn off the flashlight, because giant squids and nine-meter-long octopuses rose into the light from the depths.
The traveler was again helped out by prayer, in which he most often turned to the Lord, the Mother of God, St. Nicholas of Myra and St. Theodore Ushakov:
– The closest saint to me is Nicholas the Wonderworker. He is like a close friend to me. When it’s hard for me, I want to snuggle up to his gray beard. When I pray to the Mother of God, I am ashamed of her for my sins. And before Our Lord Jesus Christ I want to stand at attention, as before the chief admiral. It’s very scary, I fear Him for my sins. On the way, I prayed to Nicholas the Wonderworker most of all, to the holy righteous Theodore Ushakov and always asked him to help me with the weather, because he is also a sailor, an admiral and knows what the sea is.
On land, his wife and children prayed for him throughout the days of his journey. Fedor Konyukhov’s wife Irina always supports her legendary husband in everything:
- An unbeliever cannot stand this,– says the traveler’s wife Irina Konyukhova. – When you love a person, you first accept him as he is, and only then want him to be as he is. I am very happy that my husband lives by his calling. I would wish this for all families. Because for any wife it is a tragedy when she close person, her husband, children cannot find themselves in this world. I’m glad that people need him, that he’s in such demand, it’s especially precious to him. Although he says that he is a loner, he himself would have stopped traveling long ago if his example had not inspired other people.
Fedor Filippovich came to Lake Turgoyak to support young yachtsmen, participants in the sailing regatta, who came from all over the country to compete for the “Fedor Konyukhov Traveler’s Cup”. Here, on the shores of the lake, the Konyukhov children's sailing school is based. In general, Fyodor’s father has a long-standing and warm friendship with the Southern Urals. The crossing across the Atlantic ten years ago and now across the Pacific Ocean became possible thanks to the support of South Ural entrepreneurs: “Russia has two strong records - sailing a rowboat across the Atlantic and now across the Pacific Ocean. And all this is thanks, among other things, to the Urals,”- Fyodor Filippovich says with a smile.
By the way, upon arrival in the Southern Urals the traveler was in for a pleasant surprise. Boris Dubrovsky signed a decree awarding Father Fedor with a high award - the insignia “For Services to the Chelyabinsk Region.” The document says that it was awarded to Fedor Konyukhov “for activities promoting the prosperity of Chelyabinsk region, increasing its authority in Russian Federation and abroad."
Father Fyodor has new journeys ahead. Having rested a little, he will begin to prepare for the next expedition. This time the famous traveler and priest is going to rise under the clouds and make a non-stop flight around the Earth in a hot air balloon.
Biography
Konyukhov Fedor Filippovich - Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate.
Born on December 12, 1951 on the shores of the Azov Sea, in the village of Chkalovo (Troitskoye), Priazovsky district, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine. Father - Philip Mikhailovich, a descendant of Pomor fishermen from the Arkhangelsk province, mother - Maria Efremovna, a native of Bessarabia.
A graduate of the Odessa Nautical School with a degree in navigator, as well as the Bobruisk Art School (Belarus) and the Leningrad Arctic School with a degree in ship mechanics.
From 1974 to 1995 he lived in the city of Nakhodka, Primorsky Territory. Honorary resident of the city of Nakhodka. From 1995 to the present day he has lived in Moscow.
In 1983 he was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR. Since 1996, a member of the Moscow Union of Artists (USA), section “Graphics”, since 2001 also a member of the section of the Ministry of Agriculture “Sculpture”. Awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Academy of Arts, Academician of the Russian Academy of Arts. Author of more than 3,000 paintings. Participant of Russian and international exhibitions.
Member of the Writers' Union of the Russian Federation. Author of seventeen books.
Free balloon pilot. Sea captain. Yacht captain. He made four circumnavigations of the world, crossed the Atlantic fifteen times on sailing yachts, and once on the Uralaz rowing boat. Honored Master of Sports.
Awarded the Order of Friendship of the Peoples of the USSR for the trans-Arctic ski expedition “USSR - North Pole - Canada” (1988).
Awarded the UNEP GLOBAL 500 Award for his contribution to environmental protection. Included in the encyclopedia "Chronicle of Humanity".
Full member of the Russian Geographical Society.
Awarded the Order of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Great Martyr George the Victorious, 1st degree, for exemplary and diligent work for the benefit of the Holy Orthodox Church of God.
The first person in the world to reach the five poles of our planet: the Northern Geographic (three times), the Southern Geographic, the pole of relative inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean, Everest (the pole of heights), Cape Horn (the pole of yachtsmen).
The first Russian to complete the Grand Slam program (North Pole, South Pole, Everest). The first Russian who managed to complete the “7 Summits of the World” program - to climb the highest peak of each continent.
From 1998 to the present day, head of the laboratory distance learning in extreme conditions (LDEU) at the Modern Humanitarian Academy, Moscow.
On May 23, 2010, on the day of the Holy Trinity, he was ordained a deacon. On December 19, 2010, on the day of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, he was ordained to the priesthood in his small homeland in the St. Nicholas Church of Zaporozhye. He was ordained by Bishop Joseph (Maslennikov) of Zaporozhye and Melitopol.
2014 (June) - awarded “for activities promoting the prosperity of the Chelyabinsk region, increasing its authority in the Russian Federation and abroad” highest award- insignia “For services to the Chelyabinsk region.”
2014 - awarded the Gold Medal of the Russian Geographical Society named after Miklouho-Maclay for crossing the Pacific Ocean on a rowing boat.
2015 - Global Ambassadors for Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors.
Married. Wife Irina Anatolyevna Konyukhova. Son Oscar, daughter Tatyana, son Nikolai. Grandson Philip, granddaughter Polina, grandson Arkady, granddaughter Kate, grandson Ethan, grandson Blake.
The text of this biography is borrowed from the official website of Fedor Konyukhov - http://konyukhov.ru/
In the heap of everyday office affairs and worries, do we often think that there are other worlds next to us?! Mysteriously unknown and mysteriously beautiful, frightening with the abyss of the unknown and stunning with unearthly beauty. As a wise man once noted, the worlds are not just more amazing than we imagine, they are more amazing than we can imagine.
And there are also people living next to us who, having abandoned the bustle of everyday life, explore and conquer these worlds. There are few of them, but they exist. Their name is travelers and pioneers. One of them is Fedor Konyukhov.
Fyodor Konyukhov lives far from the bustle of Moscow - not far from the city of Pereslavl-Zalessky. He doesn’t often go to his metropolitan workshop. On one of these days, I arranged an interview with him. But here’s the problem: I’ve been in the workshop for four hours, but all my questions hang in the air due to the continuous flow of visitors. I met everyone here: builders and architects, businessmen and athletes, pilgrims and writers... Konyukhov’s close friends explained: sometimes there are up to 50 walkers in the workshop per day.
I don’t know how Fyodor Konyukhov sensed my sad mood, but in parting he said: “Here are my notes about a solo voyage around Antarctica - there you will find answers to all your questions.” This is how this in-person interview with the great Russian traveler, priest of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Fyodor Konyukhov was born.
There is no poetry in poetry for the sake of money. There is no inspiration in painting for the sake of money. There is no spirituality in traveling for money. The Holy Spirit does not descend on a temple built without faith. Whatever you undertake, you must have faith, inspiration and selflessness.
I go to the ocean time after time not to surprise the world with something else or to set another sailing record. I’m simply afraid of the human world and everything bad that accompanies life on the shore, and I envy people who were so afraid of the filth of the world that they hid from it in forests and deserts, in monastery cells, and there they spent their whole lives in prayerful communion with God . Here in the ocean, I always remember this.
Life teaches me that you should never give up and give in to despair.
Oddly enough, here, in the ocean, being alone, I get to know people more and more fully. It turns out that the meaning of life for most of them is to achieve material well-being. But whoever lives only by this reaps fruits that are not worth living for.
Today people for the most part are driven to stupor by difficulties. Having lost their direction in life, they little by little reach the point where they cannot control themselves. Because they do not have the fear of God, but “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 110:10).
In all states you see a storm, great confusion! Unhappy world! This is what pushes me to go solo. Only in the ocean can one achieve carelessness and detachment.
And I realized: first of all, we need to build a church, erect domes - they are more durable than our life. I don't want to be a person who works for his daily bread, such a person leaves and leaves behind an emptiness.
Today's youth are like a bucking bull, grazing on a leash in a meadow. He constantly pulls on the rope, then pulls out the stake to which he is tied, starts to run, but clings to something, gets entangled, and in the end he is devoured by wild animals.
I often hear: “How much time you lost swimming!” The logic of ordinary people is familiar to me. They want life to consist only of holidays. But what will be their joy then?
By the way, I don’t like holidays - in my opinion, this is the property of idlers. While my heart yearns for fresh wind, I live.
The ocean is so large and powerful that man could not create anything to defeat it. I explain to those who do not understand the meaning of my travels. You think you are free, but there is no freedom in the ocean. You are completely subordinate to him, you must always feel the danger threatening you. I look and study the ocean, and he looks and studies me. It raises its waves against me. He looks at me from his depths. He may smile at me, or he may bring down his anger on me.
I miss people, cities, the noise of trees, the singing of birds. There is none of that here. But in return I received silence of prayer, wisdom and reverence for the Lord.
My every voyage around the world is painful, rebirth is painful. Without being exhausted, I cannot close the circle around the Earth. Suffering will help you see the Lord.
Love is also an ascent. When you have ascended the mountain, then you live in heaven. As soon as you stop, boredom overcomes you. And then I go sailing again and again and leave the woman I love. But stopping is not in my power. Tension and sweat are how miles traveled in the ocean are measured. I look closely at starry sky and I draw strength from it.
For me everything is full of significance. I am waiting for the hour when I will step on solid ground and it will not sway like the deck of my yacht. I can wait, but time is hostile to me. I have already enjoyed eternity in the ocean; only the miles traveled make me happy. They bring me closer to the firmament of the earth. And I float and float and float. I am the very ordinariness of the ocean.
When sailing solo there is never enough time to sleep. Sleep is a great luxury for a sailor. From my youth I prepared myself for the life of a traveler, so I taught myself to sleep little by little. I knew I needed to train if I wanted to become a traveler, let alone a good one. If you set a goal to go around the world on a yacht alone without calling at ports, then the main task is to learn to sleep for a very short time.
There are many ways to train for short naps. I used the secret of the monks - “sleep with a key in your hand”, they have long practiced it in order to pray unceasingly.
If you have followed in the footsteps of a traveler, then you need to know one thing: it is not you who choose expeditions, but expeditions who choose you.
Every time I approach Cape Horn, I realize how fleeting human existence is, so we should never waste the time we have. It's like I'm living my life again. How I want to say these words to my sons: Oscar and Nikolai. Live a busy life and hurry to do the most important thing in life, for which you came into this world.
I love our Earth, I love the beauty of the earth, I love the sky and the sun, I love the sea, rivers and ocean, I love beautiful gardens, forests and meadows. But my soul misses God and tearfully seeks Him. Lord, give me Adam’s repentance and Your holy humility.
When people ask me why I am building a chapel, I answer: so that there are more domes in Russia. I understand well the significance of a church for a believer; I myself have experienced its beneficial influence and therefore with hot soul I devote myself to the construction of temples. So I build chapels so that people have a place to pray and a place to learn prayer. And I also want friends to come to the temple built by me and there will be no number of them.
People often ask me: “Why do you constantly go on expeditions?” I answer: “I live for the sake of searching. I always set the goal of the expedition approximately, since anything can happen along the way, and the reward for achieving the goal interests me the least. After all, if a person goes on a journey for pay and climbs to the top of a mountain for pay, as if hired under a contract, he is a shopkeeper and not a traveler. The traveler knows only the direction of the journey. It is important for him to go, and not to arrive somewhere, because we only come to death.”
The main thing is to go. The road does not end, and the goal is always a deception of the traveler's vision. You have reached the top, but you can already see another peak; the achieved goal ceases to feel like a goal. Many people like to sleep and do not see rising sun. Where is the greatness of love if a lazy barn dweller snorts next to his wife? The more courageous you are, the sweeter you love. Life in separation is harsh, it weans you from affection. Of course, the expeditions took away many wonderful moments of love from me. But I am sure that only separation taught me to truly love.
It's good that I'm in the ocean. Here you commit fewer sins, especially verbal ones. I can imagine how much I would have sinned with my words, thoughts and actions in Moscow, when people come to my workshop every day, and there are up to 40-60 of them a day.
Some people have an ironclad logic: they go on expeditions only for money and fame. You can’t explain to them why I love the wind so much, inflating the sails of my yacht in the light of the stars. They are focused on the ordinary, on the material. But to serve things is to sow death. This is not my element.
I am returning to Russia because there are domes here, and my friends go to the chapel that I built.
I never regret my life. Only a madman can rush around and go to another country for money and honors. The point is not to accumulate reserves, and then settle down and slowly wait for old age. It is better to walk on the ground, knocking your feet against the stones.
Prepared by Nikolay TARASENKO