Vera Strochilina
Fr Stephan (1849 – 1930)

Father Stephan (Stepan Petrovich Tverdin) was born in 1849 in the village of Novopolyanye, Rannenburg uezd, Ryazan province. His father, Peter Tverdin was a psalm reader of the village church. There were for more children in the family: three daughters and one son.

In 1873 Stepan was graduated from the Ryazan Theological Seminary. He started his career as a tutor of The Moscow orphanage but still wanted to be a priest. It was not easy. The possibility to get a parish might result in the marriage of a clergyman’s daughter whose father’s position was a kind of dowry. Such a bride, Elizaveta Drozdova, was found in the village of Vorontsovo near Egorievsk (Stephan’s cousin was a deacon there). She was 17, her father, a psalm reader of the Assumption White Cathedral of Egorievsk, had died at the age of 36. His position might be inherited just after marring his daughter. That was the beginning of the long Stephans’ life in Egorievsk that lasted for 53 years.

The wedding was held in the White Cathedral. The beginning of his carrier was not easy. Some of local clergy treated him as a competitor. However the local folk were happy with the young and just priest. N. Bargygin, a city major, was asking a Bishop’s permission for Fr Stephan to serve in the Kazan church in wintertime because it had a heating system. His St Nikita church in the city graveyard (where Fr Stephan served) had no heating and was very poor. The problem was solved when the New Trinity church was built near the old one in 1883. Fr Stephan became its priest for six years.

That time the new Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was being under construction. The works faced serious problems. Four of its foundation arches cracked. The church was supposed to be demolished but A. Kaminsky, found a technical solution and the problem was solved.

Besides being a priest Fr Stephan was a parish schoolteacher and a tutor of the Khloudov Bros factory schools. When he was appointed a priest of St A. Nevsky cathedral he was 48. His eldest daughter Alexandra was 19 and Nadezhda, the youngest was a baby. He also had four sons. Father managed to educate all his children, all became professionals but none chouse a career within the Church.

The priest’s house was often full of people. All children played piano and Father played a violin. He also liked helping people and they visit him with their problems and complaints. We know little about his life after 1917. He died in Egorievsk in 1930 at the age of 81. His wife outlived him for 4 years. They were buried in the old city graveyard. Later a dance pavilion was organized upon their graves. We, the youth dancing there, had no idea of it.