The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1917-08-24
.RUSSIA'S WOULD
Be new HOLY man
ONCE a PRINCE, NOW A MONK,
LIVES AS HERMIT IN SOL
ITUDE.

Petrograd, Aug. 2.-tCorrespond-
ence of The Herald) Bish.
op of Ula, is Russia's latest holy man
An exception in the reactionary
Greek Orthodox Church, he is a
prominent democrat and a daring &C.
clestical reformer. He is a candidate
for the exalted post OF Metropolitan
of Petrograd; and were it not for his
reforming zeal he would be Metropo-
Titan already. Since the revolution,
Bishop Andrew has resided at the
Athos Monastry in South Petrograd.
where he works for the regeneration
of his church.
Andrews career is a chapter from
Tolstoy or Turgenieff romance. He
was born Prince Andrew Uchtomsky,
member of a princely and once mill
ionaire family famous in Russian
history. His best known living kins-
man is Prince Hesper Uchtomsky, who
accompanied the late Emperor Mich
olas, then heir apparent, on his jour
ney around the world, published a
history on the journey founded the
o-Chinese Bank, gave Emperor
Wilhelm the idea of the Yellow Per-
il; and for twenty years edited the
Petrograd Viedomosti.
Bishop Andrew began his career
as a wealthy guard officer. After
four years of worldly living, he gave
away his riches, and underwent the
process of "simplifcation" described
by Turgineff in the novel, virgin
Soil" prince Uchtomsky" died, and
1.-The Monk Andrew" was born.
Mortified Flesh And Prayed.
Unlike many Russian monks, An
drew lived in genuine asceticism, in
estrangement from the world, in
midnight vigils and prayer. He te-
mated a six-foot square cabin in re-
motto forest, ate bread and drank
spring water, and added good works
to modification and prayer.
Andrews charity made him IA
nous. Peasants flocked to his CELL
and he was begged to join the richest,
most aristocratic monastic communi-
ties. He refused. He preferred to
wander along the Volga. preaching to
Moslem Tartars, Kalmuks, Bashhirs
and Tcheremises, and to heather Sha-
man tribes, descendants of the Asiat-
ic hordes which devastated East Eu-
rope in the early Middle Ages.
Even the Petrograd reactionaries
dared not ignore Andrews fame. In
the hope that he would go over to
their camp, they made him Bishop.
Disappointed in this, they treated him
as a foe and seditionary. They sus-
pected his democratic ways, his
straight talking to soldiers and peas
ants, and the simplicity of life which
was a mute rebuke to his ostenta-
tious colleagues. The reactionary
plehve and the reactionary procurer
of the Holy Synod, Sabler, surround
ed him with spies, gendarmes and
agents provocations. In 1910 he
practically was imprisoned in his
house. He kept his courage and in
dependence.
Alone of the higher prelates he re-
fused to bow the knee to the infa-
nous monk, Rasputin. Thereby he
earned the enmity OF Emperor Nicho-
las and Empress Alexandria, and just
before the revolution he was in dan
ger of being unfrocked or informed as
hereto in Souzdal Monastery.
After the revolution the monks OF
the Petrograd Athos Monastery offer
ed Andrew their finest rooms for
residence, and when he arrived doz-
en- lackeys and lay monks met him
at the railroad depot. He refused
to occupy the rooms. Tho in bad
health-he is a little, frail, almost
transparent mamie sleeps in a tiny
cell, lying on the iron laths of bed
sleeps three hours a night, and spends
the other twenty-one in prayer, char
liable works and projects of church
reform.
He Is a Free Man Today.
Today a free man, Andrew is pro,
mitigating plans for the democratiza'
tion and publication of orthodoxy
He demands the convocation Of an
Ecumenical Council of the whole Rus
so-Greek Church; the delivery to the
Russian State and people of the
churchs wasted treasures, and the
universal application of the elector'
al principle to church appointments
To the provisional governments
invitation to accept the metropolis
fancy, he answered that only the
priests and the people had a right to
choose or reject him.
He stands for the immediate and
complete equalization of the secular