Schiarchimandrite Agafangel

Schiarchimandrite Agafangel (secular name Georgy Savchenko; 25th of March 1927, Sumi province, Ukrainian SSR – 15th of August 2019, Jekabpils, Republic of Latvia) – a confessor of the Jekabpils Holy Spirit Monastery.

Father Agafangel – secular name Georgy Savchenko – was born in the village of Hlinsk, Sumy Region. His father, Tikhon, worked at a factory as a woodworking specialist, and his mother, Anastasia, was a homemaker and did occasional hired work. The family was devout and religious; despite the godless era, the infant was baptized. He had two sisters.

As a teenager during World War II, he worked as a metalworker at the Voloshnevskaya Machine and Tractor Station. During the German occupation, he assisted partisans by gathering intelligence about enemy positions. Beginning in 1944, he took part in combat as a member of the First Ukrainian Front.

After the war, he graduated from the Hlinsk Industrial Technical School and later from the All-Union Engineering and Construction Institute in Moscow. He worked in Voronezh. In 1973, he was transferred to Riga. There, he first worked in the chemical industry and later in the administration of the Baltic Railway. He retired in 1988.

Although raised in faith by his mother, his conscious journey to God began in adulthood. In the 1980s, he became a subdeacon to Metropolitan Leonid (Polyakov, 1913–1990) of Riga and All Latvia. In 1989, he was tonsured a monk (the second degree of monasticism) with the name Ambrose (Amvrosiy), and in the same year was ordained as a hierodeacon, and soon after as a hieromonk. From 1989 to 1991, he had been serving at the Annunciation Church in Riga. In January 1992, he was appointed dean of the Nativity of Christ Cathedral in Riga. From November 1989 to July 1998, he also had been serving as dean of the Church of St. Nicholas in Tukums. In 1993, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen, and in 1997 was granted the right to wear a pectoral cross with adornments.

In 2000, Father Ambrose was appointed dean of the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in Ilūkste, where he began the revival of a former women’s monastery.

As a war veteran, he received many state honors. He was also awarded a number of church distinctions, including the Orders of St. Sergius of Radonezh (2nd and 3rd class) and the medal of the Holy Hieromartyr John, Archbishop of Riga and Latvia (1st class).

In 2013, he was tonsured into the Great Schema (the third and highest level of monasticism) with the name Agafangel, becoming the first schema monk of the revived Holy Spirit Monastery in Jēkabpils. From then on, he served as spiritual father of the Jēkabpils Monastery and of the clergy of the Daugavpils-Rezekne Diocese of the Latvian Orthodox Church. In 2017, he was elevated to the rank of Schema Archimandrite.

He possessed the gift of prayer and a selfless love for people. Despite many illnesses in his old age, he served the Church and people until the end, never complaining or falling into despair.

On August 15, 2019, in his small monastic cell, Father peacefully passed away in prayer. On August 17, the funeral service took place at the Holy Spirit Monastery in Jēkabpils. Before the rite, His Eminence Alexander (Kudryashov), Metropolitan of Riga and All Latvia, held a litia. The funeral service according to the monastic rite was performed by His Grace Alexander (Matryonin), Bishop of Daugavpils and Rezekne. Schema Archimandrite Agafangel was laid to rest in the monastic section of the cemetery in Ilūkste.

Text prepared by Sergey Tsoia

Sources of information:

1) Лебедева Н. Памяти отца Агафангела // Сегодня, 2019, 19 августа, № 158(5645), с. 7;  

2) Использованы также некоторые дополнительные материалы из интернет-ресурсов.