Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov). Spiritual transformation and the feat of witnessing faith under the influence of wartime trials

Kamardina Anastasiya Dmitrievna Graduate student; Faculty of History; Lomonosov Moscow State University 119234, Russia, Moscow, Ramenki district, Lomonosovsky prospekt, 27 K. 4 mediafond@bk.ru

Kameneva Ol'ga Leonidovna PhD in Pedagogy Chairman; Foundation for Cultural Heritage and Educational Technologies 'Media Enlightenment' Senior Editor; Pokrov Magazine 125445, Russia, Moscow, Levoberezhny district, Smolnaya str., 61 room 1 olkameneva@bk.ru

Introduction

80 years ago, in April 1946, the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra was opened in Zagorsk (modern Sergiev Posad), whose activities were stopped by the atheist authorities for more than a quarter of a century.

The service at the monastery was started by recent veterans who retained their faith in the era of persecution, who now had to work to restore the monastery. Among them are the future Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Pimen (Izvekov), Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov), Archimandrite Mikhail (Balaev), Archbishop Mikhei (Kharkharov), the future vicar of the Pskov Caves Monastery Alipiy (Voronov) and many others. Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov), and then senior sergeant Ivan Pavlov, who had passed Stalingrad, also entered theological schools in 1946, after which he became a monk and devoted more than 50 years to the service of the monastery of St. Sergius.

What events led to such a radical transformation of the worldview of a young man with little religion, who until recently was listed as a candidate for membership in the CPSU (b)?

Answering this question, we studied the books of memoirs about Father Kirill, published by the spiritual children and admirers of the elder – Bishop Alexy (Polikarpov), nun Euphemia (Aksamentova), Archimandrite Makariy (Veretennikov), Hieromonk Simon (Bezkrovny), monk Paphnutiy (Fokin), priest Viktor Kuznetsov, and others; a collection of sermons by Father Kirill, including his words "On purity of soul and heart", "On meekness", "On the commandment of love", "On love for enemies", "On gratitude to God", "On attitude to sorrows" ^[1]; interview of the elder about the trials of wartime newspaper "Rus Derzhavnaya" ^[2], essays in the Orthodox magazines "Pokrov" ^[3] and "Thomas"^[4].

The authors of the article have made a fundamentally new attempt to study the elder's biography based on a wide source base of archival documents from 1941-1945, the works of modern military historians, methods of military historical anthropology and psychology, interviews with Father Kirill and the elder's spiritual children, recorded by one of the authors of the article for the book "The Stalingrad Gospel of Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov)"^[5].

The research based on a set of scientific methods allowed us to create a more complete and reliable picture of the elder's life, to comprehend his feat of confessing faith during the Great Patriotic War, which, in our opinion, predetermined his entire post-war ministry, perseverance and special firmness in defending fundamental issues.

Malaya rodina

The future elder and lavra confessor Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) was born on October 8, 1919, on the day when the Church celebrates the memory of St. Sergius, in the Ryazan village of Makovskiye Vyselki. The father's parents, faithful peasants Dmitry Afanasievich (1880-1963) and Praskovya Vasilyevna (1882-1954), named their son Ivan in honor of the apostle of love John the Theologian.

The baby was baptized in the Church of the NativityHoly Mother of God in the Ryazan village of Makovo, preserved to this day, including the works of Father Kirill himself. Dmitry Afanasievich Pavlov, the head of the family, once sang in the church choir here. He taught his children, two sons (Adrian and Ivan) and three daughters (Anna, Maria and Alexandra), to read and write from the Bible in Russian and Church Slavonic (the grown–up girls could read the Psalter for the deceased). Ivan Pavlov's mother, Praskovya Vasilyevna, was a believer. Praskovya Vasilyevna was famous for her extraordinary kindness and, according to the testimony of her fellow villagers, even in difficult hungry years she did not let beggars go without alms.

Ivan Pavlov's childhood was marked by difficult times of political repression, when a special "exile" suitcase was collected in many families. His father Dmitry Afanasyevich Pavlov also had it ready ^[6]. Many believers experienced exile and imprisonment during this time, including the Ryazan sisters Anisiya, Matrona and Agafia Petrina, whom Father Kirill visited in the village of Yaltunino after the war ^{[7, p. 59]}. The religious way of life familiar to the older generation was collapsing before our eyes, and ancient monasteries were closing: John the Theologian, Holy Dormition, Vyshensky, Holy Trinity, Ryazan.

There was no secondary school in Makov, and 12-year-old Ivan was sent to his older brother Adrian, who already worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in the village of Pustotino in the Ryazan region. His brother's family was non-ecclesiastical, and Adrian joined the party. By that time, the school was also called the center of communist education. In the family of his older brother, Ivan Pavlov moved away first from the usual religious way of life, and then from faith itself.

In 1933, after graduating from high school, he entered the Kasimov Industrial College (its building has been preserved to this day), from where he went to the Urals, to the Chelyabinsk region, to the Katav–Ivanovsk weighing plant, as a technologist for cold metal cutting. Father Kirill also recalled this time as painful and disturbing. Those with whom he had sat at the same desk and worked at the same machine yesterday kept disappearing, being carried away by "black funnels" ^[6].

According to the Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression, in 1937 alone, 136,900 Orthodox priests and clergymen were arrested in the USSR, of whom 85,300 were shot ^{[8, p. 186]}. By the beginning of the war, about one hundred out of 28,560 pre-revolutionary churches were operating ^{[9, pp. 794-795]}. On June 22, 1941, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the Yelokhovsky Epiphany Cathedral was to be closed. But on June 22, no one remembered this decision: the war would cause a spiritual transformation of society, and would bring extreme clarity to Ivan Pavlov's worldview.

The Battle Path of Ivan Pavlov

Archival documents show that the future Archimandrite Kirill met the outbreak of war on the border with Manchuria, in the village of Barabash in the Khasansky district, as a conscript soldier in the 96th sapper battalion of the 92nd Infantry Division of the 1st Red Banner Army ^[10].

He was drafted into the army on September 14, 1939 by the Katav-Ivanovsky Military Industrial Complex of the Chelyabinsk region. Fearing an attack from Japan, which captured Chinese Manchuria in 1931, the Soviet command strengthened the Far Eastern borders at the beginning of the war. "They took us to the very Japanese border and ordered us to dig trenches, dugouts, and prepare fuel and food" ^{[11, p. 99]}, Father Kirill said.

In September 1941, Soviet intelligence received information about the decision of the Japanese emperor to postpone entry into the war until at least early 1942. Dozens of divisions of the Far Eastern Front are urgently being transferred to Moscow and Leningrad, where a critical situation is developing.

Father Kirill recalled: on October 18, 1941, a redeployment order was issued, and on November 1, part of them was already at the Khvoynaya station, near Tikhvin ^{[11, p. 99]}. "And the area there is swamps and forests,– said the priest. – And I must say, it was a very fierce winter, snow had already fallen, and there were severe frosts. Since everyone arrived in summer uniforms, there were a lot of frostbites" ^{[11, p. 100]}.

The Volkhov Front, where Ivan Pavlov ended up, was formed to break the siege of Leningrad. The impenetrable, damp forests were filled with German pillboxes and bunkers, and filled with deadly minefield traps ^{[11, p. 100]}. The advance of our troops towards Leningrad from Volkhov was choked, a large group of Soviet troops was cut off from the main forces and surrounded.

On April 24, 1942, during the fighting near Volkhov, Ivan Pavlov received a shrapnel wound in his leg and spent two and a half months in a military hospital in the village of Kai, Kirov region ^[12] on the banks of the Kama River. This hospitalization apparently saved the soldier's life. The elder recalled many years later: after his injury, the battalion was sent to mine certain fields, and most of his fellow soldiers did not return from the mission.

After the hospital, Ivan Pavlov makes his way south: first to Nizhny Novgorod (then Gorky), and then to Kamyshin ^{[11, p. 101]}, where units are being formed for the defense of Stalingrad. As follows from archival documents, at the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, he served in the 9th Motorized Rifle brigade ^[10].

Half a century later, in 1993, Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) will come to Volgograd to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad as part of a delegation accompanying His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II. In the studio of Volgograd television, my father will remember the first days of the battle on the Volga ^[13]: "We stood in the defense of Stalingrad, about 20-25 kilometers from the city. One Sunday in August 1942, when about a thousand German bombers raided the city, the picture was very, very scary. The whole city was engulfed in flames, flames, clouds of black smoke rising to the clouds. We were taken off the defensive. I was injured at that time..."

The advanced units of the 6th German army of Paulus, having crossed the Don, advanced to the Volga and to the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. On August 23, 1942, they broke through to the river near the villages of Erzovka-Rynok. Gotha's 4th Army was advancing on the city from the south, planning to link up with Paulus' northern group and capture the bombed-out city.

The 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade, in which Ivan Pavlov served, was ordered to counterattack the enemy and block the road on the northern approaches to Stalingrad near the village of Orlovka in the Gorodishchensky district ^{[14, p. 216]}. However, when the order came, Orlovka was already occupied by the Germans, and the brigade was entrenched in neighboring Erzovka, where the very first German breakthrough to the Volga took place. Military historian Alexei Isaev writes that "the 9th Motorized Rifle Brigade was in the right place at the right time. On the night of August 24-25, Erzovka was captured by the brigade's motorized rifle battalion" ^{[15, p. 159]}. Lucky, according to Isaev, the battalion held her for several days – until reinforcements arrived.

My father himself, in one of his post–war interviews, recalled the details of the battle on the banks of the Volga: "They raised their heads, and already seventy meters away from us, German tanks and machine gunners were firing. Such a state is indescribable, it's just relying on the will of God. You lie there, and the ground is sandy, and I see bullets falling into the sand and dust rising. Any bullet will hit, and that's it. And those who ran with me fell like sheaves. We ran along this ravine right along the shore" ^{[11, pp. 101-102]}.

In September 1942, the defenders of Stalingrad were ordered to withdraw to the city. After that, names such as Mamaev Kurgan, the Krasny Oktyabr factory, the elevator, Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the railway station, which changed hands 13 times, January 9th Square and Pavlov's house appear in news reports around the world.

In mid-September, the 9th Motorized Rifle brigade, after fighting in the city itself – in the area of the Krasny Oktyabr factory and on Mamayev Kurgan – due to heavy losses, would be withdrawn from the front line for rest and re-formation ^{[14, p. 216]}. But according to archival documents, Red Army soldier Ivan Pavlov did not participate in these deadly battles in the center of Stalingrad.

On September 7, 1942, he received a through wound to his left hand and was evacuated to the Kaisatsky district of Stalingrad. Ivan Pavlov returned to the front from the hospital only on October 11, 1942.

In December 2019, at our request, Ivan Pavlov's medical history was found in the archive of military medical documents in St. Petersburg at Evacuation Hospital (EG) No. 2904 at Kaisatskaya station in the Stalingrad region ^[16]. In particular, it says that Pavlov, a Red Army soldier, was admitted with a hand wound from evacuation point (EP) No. 105 in Leninsk, Stalingrad region. At that time, Leninsk became an important frontline area for the concentration of our reserves near Stalingrad, and a hub for transporting the wounded. There were 24 evacuation hospitals here, and Ivan Pavlov was admitted to one of them after being wounded. On September 8, he was sent further: first to the Kapustin Yar EP, and then to the Kaisatskaya station, where he stayed for about a month.

Ivan Pavlov's new duty station was the 254th tank Brigade, where, according to his medical history, he left on October 11, 1942. Pay handouts signed by Private Ivan Pavlov were found in the archives of the 254th Tank Brigade from November 1942 to December 1943 ^[17].

These archival documents refute the tradition, which is still widespread among some believers, that Father Kirill (and not the officially recognized Hero of the Soviet Union, Yakov Pavlov) He was a defender of Pavlov's house in the center of Stalingrad in September -November 1942 ^[18]. Father Kirill himself denied any involvement in the defense of this house.

The 254th Tank Brigade, where Ivan Pavlov was wounded, is advancing towards Stalingrad from the south, marching 60 km away and forming part of the 57th Army of the Stalingrad Front in the area of the collective farm named after March 8. By this time, there was a huge group of German troops in the Stalingrad pocket, totaling more than 330,000 people. Manstein's tank units are coming to the aid of Paulus' army in distress. The final part of the Battle of Stalingrad begins, aimed at destroying the German group surrounded in the Stalingrad area.

Father Kirill recalled how they encircled Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-1943, freezing in the snow-covered trenches: "Two meters of snow. They dug in only a meter, and they froze, wrapped in overcoats, and even in captured German ones. The food was delivered only at night, cold and frozen. How did you survive?.. By a miracle of God!" ^[18]. Father Kirill told how even then he prayed in the cold trenches under the starry sky: he went a little to the side and read "Our Father." And this caused neither laughter nor surprise – there are no non-believers on the front line.

The found combat description of Red Army soldier Ivan Pavlov speaks of his feat on the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad, near the village of Tsybenko (he was a mine carrier and "promptly provided a crew that destroyed up to 90 enemy soldiers and officers, 3 German mortars, 4 machine gunners") ^[19].

And immediately after the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, on February 6, 1943, Ivan Pavlov was accepted as a candidate member of the CPSU (b) for his military services. "They identified us as five people, they say, they won at Stalingrad, young, disciplined – the political commissar vouched, wrote a petition..." Father Kirill told about this episode of his military biography ^{[5, p. 32]}.

In the summer of 2019, at our request, the personal file of the candidate for membership of the CPSU(b), Red Army soldier Ivan Dmitrievich Pavlov, was found in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, and it contained the following documents: 1. Application for admission to the party in the party Bureau of the motorized rifle battalion of the 254th Tank Brigade, dated February 4, 1942; 2. Candidate's questionnaire with a list of his places of service during the war; 3. An autobiography with a personal signature; 4. Recommendations from three members of the CPSU (b); 5. Combat characteristics of Ivan Pavlov from the deputy commander of the company on the political side.

The liberated Stalingrad met the Soviet soldiers with skeletons of destroyed buildings and streets littered with the bodies of the dead. In the ruins of one of the houses in April 1943, Ivan Pavlov found the Gospel, familiar from childhood, but forgotten in recent years. Meeting with the Gospel in the destroyed Stalingrad became one of the key moments of the elder's biography, Father Kirill told about him after the war in a number of interviews, noting that "when he began to read the Gospel, his eyes saw everything around him, all the events" ^[2].Kirill's cell attendant Lyubov Vladimirovna Pyankova testified from his words that at that moment Ivan Pavlov vowed to become a priest after the war if he remained alive ^{[5, p. 32]}. The story of the promise to serve the Church, given in Stalingrad, is also found in the biography of the elder, compiled in the STANZA to the collection of sermons ^{[1, p. 8]}.

After Stalingrad, part of Ivan Pavlov was relocated first to Tambov, and then to Ukraine. In Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region, in response to a reminder from a political instructor that it was time for candidates to become party members, 24-year-old Ivan called himself a believer and refused to become a communist. It was impossible to combine a party career with serving God as a priest.

"They started to torture me: there was a staff meeting, then a company meeting, a battalion meeting. And I was treated everywhere. That's how I got hurt" ^{[7, 104]}, Father Kirill shared in a number of post–war interviews. Verdict: an uncooperative fighter will go to the front line, as a submachine gunner on a tank – such people rarely lived to see a second battle ^{[5, 32]}.

Lyubov Vladimirovna Pyankova told from the words of the elder: "The priest was saved by one of the commanders, who attached him as a clerk to another unit" ^{[5, p. 67]}. The words of the cell attendant about the transfer of Ivan Pavlov to another unit for the post of clerk are confirmed by handouts found in the archives of the Ministry of Defense with his signatures: at the end of the war, Ivan Pavlov was a senior clerk at the headquarters of the 1513 self–propelled artillery regiment formed in the Ukrainian Military District in Rivne ^[20]. On March 30, 1945, Ivan Pavlov was even awarded the medal "For Bravery" ^[21]. In order No. 3/n for the 1513th Artillery Regiment, it is noted that during the intense fighting from March 16 to March 25, 1945, he issued staff documents on time and sent them to higher headquarters.

The 1513 regiment was disbanded on May 11, 1945, and was reorganized into the 576th separate self-propelled artillery battalion, where Ivan Pavlov is also listed as a clerk. Handouts for the payment of salaries to private and non–commissioned personnel with signatures of Ivan Pavlov were found here for August - December 1945 ^[22]. In September 1945, he helped his family with the allowance he received: he sent 100 rubles by mail to his father D.A. Pavlov in the Ryazan region ^[23]. In the orders and reports of military operations recorded by his hand, there are settlements in Ukraine, Hungary (where father Kirill, according to his post–war memoirs, was wounded), Austria, Czechoslovakia.

Ivan Pavlov will complete his service in the fall of 1945 with the rank of senior sergeant. In Moscow, after leaving his soldier's duffel bag with his sister in a communal apartment, he will go to the Elokhovsky Cathedral with the main question – are there theological schools in the Soviet Union where they teach to be priests?

A disciple of St. Sergius

The Institute and pastoral courses at the Moscow Novodevichy Monastery (since August 31, 1946 – the Theological Academy and Seminary) were opened during the war – on June 14, 1944. Father Kirill recalled how in 1946 he prepared and passed the entrance exams with great enthusiasm: he recited the 50th Psalm by heart, read in Church Slavonic and wrote an essay on the Gospel theme. 79 out of 200 people enrolled in the first year, including Ivan Pavlov.

In 1948, theological schools from Moscow will be transferred to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. Former front-line soldiers who became seminarians will be greeted by ruins that require tremendous effort. Ivan Pavlov graduated from the theological seminary in 1950, and from the Academy in 1954. On August 25, 1954, he took monastic vows with the name Cyril in honor of St. Cyril Belozersky (whose memory falls on June 22, the day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War). On November 30 of the same year, he was ordained a hieromonk. Father Cyril's more than half a century of service to the monastery of St. Sergius begins.

In 1954-1955, he served as a sexton at the shrine of St. Sergius of Radonezh in the Trinity Cathedral of the Lavra, and later worked as a lavra cashier, assistant treasurer, and treasurer. In the late 1960s, when the Lavra's confessor, ArchimandritePeter (Semenov) begins to get sick more and more often, the brethren are being cared for by Father Kirill. Pilgrims from all over the country come to the Lavra, many of them women. In the local newspaper "Forward" In 1964-1965, a number of slanderous articles were published in which the confessor was accused of immoral behavior ^[24].

At that time, another confessor of the Lavra, Father Tikhon (Agrikov), was forced to leave the monastery after a series of organized provocations. He hides in the mountains of Abkhazia, spends many years in seclusion ^{[5, p. 128]}.

Since 1970, Father Kirill has been officially entrusted with the obedience of the monastery's confessor. The Lavra remains one of the few operating monasteries, and its confessor carries a tremendous burden, sometimes confessing believers until the early hours of the morning ^{[25, p. 68]}. In addition to the pilgrims and the brethren of the monastery, Father Kirill spiritually nourishes seminarians, as well as church hierarchs. Before the death of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy (Simansky, 1945-1970), Father Kirill is invited to confess him in Peredelkino. The next Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov, 1971-1990), who was a front–line soldier and knew Father Kirill from the Lavra, invited him both to Peredelkino and to the residence in Chisty Lane. Then Patriarch Alexy II (Ridiger, 1990-2008) also chose the priest as his confessor ^{[5, p. 129]}.

Through his spiritual children, Archbishop Kirill participates in public life, believing that the Church, separated from the state, cannot be separated from society. At the turn of the century, he was one of the first in the Russian Orthodox Church to declare the danger of globalization and digitalization of modern society, the 21st century, in his opinion, will become the century of totalitarianism. On January 10, 2001, he gave an interview to the Radonezh radio station, in which he said that replacing names with numbers and personal numbers was a blasphemous act ^{[5, p. 136]}. Father Kirill warns believers against ecumenical flirtations, but asks them to keep peace and friendliness. In his opinion, church schisms are unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra is becoming the main forge of personnel for thousands of churches and monasteries returned to the church. Many of today's archpastors are pupils of Father Kirill: Metropolitan Theognost of Kashira, Metropolitan Daniel of Kurgan and Belozersky, Metropolitan Daniel of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas, Metropolitan Vikenty of Tashkent and Uzbekistan, Bishop Alexy of Solnechnogorsk, Bishop Pavel of Troitsk and Yuzhnouralsky, and others.

At the turn of the century, scientists turned to faith, and some of them, after becoming monks and priests, led major educational and enlightenment projects. Abbot Cyprian (Yashchenko), Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, recalls how the elder blessed large-scale church and state initiatives with his participation: the holding of International Christmas Educational Readings (Abbot Cyprian was their first director), the International Charity Film Festival of Good Cinema "Radiant Angel", the organizing committee of which was headed by S.V. Medvedeva, the organization of Higher Theological Courses at the Moscow Theological Academy (now the Department of Additional Education of the MD).

Kirill's father was never known for his good health. After the war, the wounds and lungs that were frozen at Stalingrad made themselves felt – Kirill's father developed tuberculosis. The drugs and drugs caused a stomach ulcer, and my heart was constantly aching. When the confessor of the monastery fell ill, he was taken from the Lavra either to the hospital or to Peredelkino, on the territory of the residence of Patriarch Alexy II. Gradually, the time spent on treatment increased. His unusual illness lasted for 13 years after a stroke on December 4, 2003. And even at that time, believers came to him. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill recalled this as follows: "He was needed even when he could no longer speak to people, and many came to Father Kirill just to stand by his bedside and touch his hand. He continued to serve people with his silence, his illness, and his detachment from this world" ^{[26, p. 5]}.

98-year-old elder Kirill (Pavlov) died on February 20, 2017. He was buried at the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra on Defender of the Fatherland Day, February 23, 2017.

Conclusion

"The sorrowing souls who patiently bear their cross are God's beloved children, so the Lord is always with them," Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) said in one of his sermons. The common people express this truth with the wise words "the visitation of God." The Great Patriotic War became such a visit both for Father Kirill and for the entire Soviet people: death was constantly before their eyes, severe trials turned yesterday's atheists to faith.

In April 1943, having already suffered two serious wounds and the death of many comrades, Red Army soldier Ivan Pavlov found the Gospel in the ruins of Stalingrad, which, according to his own memoirs, answered many philosophical questions. He comes to the conclusion that it was as a result of the apostasy of the people from God, from the Gospel commandments, that the war was allowed. In military Stalingrad, Ivan Pavlov vows to serve God and people if he lives.

Such decisions and vows during military trials are not uncommon, which is considered, among other things, by military-historical anthropology and psychology, which studies a person in extreme conditions of military operations. This relatively new field of scientific knowledge allows us to see not an "official war", but to reflect the human experiences of a serviceman, identify psychological mechanisms for finding meaning in life, fighting fear, and systematically study a person in the context of military history using various humanities and social sciences ^{[27; 28]}.

"One should live only by what one can die for," wrote the philosopher Ivan Ilyin. And 24-year-old Ivan Pavlov, who found the Gospel in Stalingrad, decided to live or die as a Christian. He refuses to join the party after the Battle of Stalingrad for religious reasons. In wartime, in an atheistic environment, this is regarded as treason. The political commissar's proposal to send a fighter to the front line as a machine gunner on a tank was, in fact, an attempt to get rid of a man who showed disrespect for the ruling Communist Party. In the Christian tradition, such an open recognition of oneself as a believer in an atheistic environment under threat of death is called a feat of confessing faith and is equated with holiness ^[29].

In our opinion, it was this act of unparalleled courage that predetermined the future fate of Ivan Pavlov, his steadfastness during the years of Khrushchev's persecution of the Church, consistency in defending his views, and an impartial, even attitude towards church hierarchs and ordinary believers after the war.

It is no coincidence that there is an inscription above the gates of St. Paul's Monastery on Mount Athos: "If you die before you die, you will not die when you die." Monasticism is death to the world. And Father Kirill experienced this mental death back at the front, at the moment when he chose the Christian faith between faith and life.

The article is published in its final version as approved following the last positive peer review recommending acceptance for publication. It incorporates revisions made by the author in response to prior negative peer review reports that did not recommend publication. All peer review reports, including initial negative reviews, are published in open access alongside the article. All versions of the author’s revisions are archived in the publisher’s repository and may be made available upon reasonable request in accordance with Elsevier’s editorial policies and applicable data availability requirements.
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