Hilarion Prikhodko

Archimandrite Ilarion (Hilarion) Prikhodko (in the world Ivan Fomich, 1924-2008) was a priest in the village of Bronnitsy, in the Novgorod region, and the confessor of the clergy of the Novgorod diocese. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization; he has been proposed for canonization.

He was born on 7 July (24 June) 1924 in the village of Alenovka, Unecha district, Bryansk region, the son of Foma and Iuliana Prikhodko, who gave him a devout upbringing. The family was stripped of its land during collectivisation, and the Germans took what remained. He was called up in 1943 and kept his faith in secret. Grave war wounds and meeting, in hospital, two nuns of the Catacomb Church decided him to become a monk. His mother blessed him; his father was grieved, but did not stop him.

In 1950 he entered the Glinsk Hermitage, then the only functioning monastery in Russia, where the Athonite rule was kept. He read the Holy Fathers and received the counsel of the elders. He was tonsured a monk in 1957 with the name Ilarion, and made hierodeacon two years later; even as a young deacon people came to him for advice. When persecution renewed under Khrushchev, Glinsk was closed and he left the monastery. He served for a few years in parishes of the Belgorod region and was ordained priest in 1961. He tried in vain to enter the Moscow Academy and Pskov, because of official restrictions, then studied at the Leningrad Theological Academy between 1963 and 1967, where he earned a doctorate in theology. In those years he sought the counsel of Archimandrite John Krestiankin of Pskov, whom he regarded as his confessor for forty years, until the latter's death. He remained some years as a lecturer at the Academy, then wished to enter the Trinity Lavra but had to leave because he had refused to register with the authorities.

In 1973, already a hegumen, he began to serve in the Novgorod region. He served briefly in the city, then was transferred to the Transfiguration church in the village of Bronnitsy, where he remained for over thirty years. He revived the spiritual life of the village and its surroundings, had many spiritual children and became the confessor of all the priests of the Novgorod diocese. The faithful ascribed to him powerful prayer, clairvoyance and the gift of healing. In 1999 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and wrote about it in the book "In the Promised Land." In his last years his health declined; he passed to the Lord on 29 May 2008. All the clergy of the Novgorod diocese served at his funeral and thousands came; he was buried at Khutyn Monastery.