My Memories

The author of the memoirs is Doctor of Church History Archpriest Ioann Arsenyev, the last rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior before it was seized by the Renovationists in 1922. According to the testimonies of his contemporaries, he was the “most learned and holy Orthodox priest” and shared the fate of many servants of the Russian Orthodox Church at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. In 1922 and 1923, he was subjected to repressions and spent two years in the Taganka and Butyrka prisons, where he wrote his memoirs.