Russian Priest Becomes Blogger to Defend Church
Father Dionisy is the rector of St. Nicholas Church in a village near Ryazhsk, a blogger and farmer.
The large and famous Solyakov family lives in the village of Novoye Yegoldayevo near Ryazhsk. Denis Solyakov in the world, or Father Dionisy in the church, is known for running a successful farming blog and participating in musical programs on central TV channels with his family choir. But he himself is most proud of restoring the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Novoye Yegoldayevo near Ryazhsk from ruins and working to unite the Christian community in both the real and virtual worlds. A YA62.RU correspondent attended a service at St. Nicholas Church and visited the famous priest«s farm, learning how they perceive their media presence and what they use it for.
The church sees more young people and children every year.
The St. Nicholas Church in Novoye Yegoldayevo is large and ancient, but like many churches, it stood abandoned for a long time, and when it fell into Father Dionisy«s hands, it was completely destroyed — no domes, no bell tower, not even heating. Now the church looks majestic, the sun plays on the golden domes, and the sky-blue walls please the eye. But there is still work to be done — the church needs restoration, including the ancient frescoes that have survived since its construction.
Father Dionisy and Mother Nadezhda view blogging as a form of preaching.
I attended Father Dionisy«s service last Sunday. Usually such an atmosphere in most churches I have visited is felt on major holidays — Easter, Christmas, Trinity. But in this church, apparently, they put effort into every service, creating a sense of joy and grandeur. The choir of singers would captivate anyone, even a person far from the church. During the prayer for soldiers currently on the front, everyone present, including Father Dionisy, knelt.
This is how St. Nicholas Church in Novoye Yegoldayevo was restored.
The interior decoration of the church is not elaborate but beautiful. Much was done by Father Dionisy and Mother Nadezhda with their own hands; for example, the couple mastered complex woodcarving techniques. Ordering similar work from craftsmen was simply unaffordable for them.
Nadezhda also faced criticism from haters over her motherhood.
The Solyakov family is deeply religious and lives as a true Christian family should — they are raising ten children, the youngest will soon be two, they work hard and help their neighbors. All residents of Novoye Yegoldayevo I spoke with talk about their responsiveness and readiness to help in difficult times. At the same time, they are calm about modern technologies, perceiving them as a new way to preach. They even broadcast the Sunday service live on their blogging platforms, and there are many of them. Father Dionisy«s blog is even present on a dating site.
Father Dionisy and Mother Nadezhda built their dream church from ruins with their own hands.
A year later the platform exploded with subscribers
Dionisy Solyakov«s goal is to show that many priests live by honest labor and work like everyone else.
Father Dionisy has been blogging since 2018. “My first channel was YouTube. We decided to start it when people began telling us that priests drive luxury cars, that they lead some unusual lifestyle — in luxury, in big money. So I said to my wife: «Let»s show how priests survive in the countryside, how they work.« Honestly, I didn»t think our blogging would find such a response, but a year later the platform exploded with subscribers. I realized that people really need this. And that everyone needs it for preaching. Therefore, the main goal of my blogging is preaching,” says Father Dionisy.
He does not understand the extremely conservative position when clergy refuse modern technologies and ways of conveying information.
“Obviously, they wait for parishioners in church. But how will they come to church if today everyone sits in social networks? So one must ask oneself: where to catch Christian souls, right? Exactly where they mostly sit,” says the priest.
This approach has indeed borne fruit. Now their church has more parishioners, and more donations are coming in for its restoration. But preaching is not the only reason; the goal was also educational. Father Dionisy wanted to show his children that faith and honest work are interesting to people, that a successful blogger and person is not only a city dweller talking about tanks, travel, or cosmetics.
“We had a very interesting argument with my son. I had already bought an action camera for the blog, but it gathered dust for a long time because I didn«t dare, as I didn»t even know how to edit video. And then my eldest son, who then loved playing World of Tanks, said: «Well, how many subscribers will you get? Three old ladies at most.» And I say: «Listen, this should take off because it»s human life.« He said, »No, tanks are the thing.«”
Then they argued with their son about whose blog would be more interesting to people — Father Dionisy«s about church life and farming or his son»s about tanks. The first year Father Dionisy«s blog went very poorly — two subscribers would come, one would unsubscribe. His son laughed at him, though he himself didn»t get far with his tanks.
“And then I accidentally released a video, I don«t even remember what it was about, and I immediately got my first thousand subscribers. That»s when my son started thinking. And when I reached 60,000 subscribers, he said: «That»s it, I give up, I was wrong.« He didn»t even reach a hundred subscribers with his tanks. Such is life,” says Father Dionisy.
At first, blogging was not easy; in his first video, where the priest showed how he was building a cow barn, he spoke slowly, with pauses — he was stalling. And he thought he would never be able to work on camera as briskly as other bloggers. But everything came with experience; now he understands how to turn the camera and how to present information so it lands with the audience. He says that sometimes unexpected topics resonate with people:
“Once I was cleaning manure from cows. Covered in dirt, stinking, no strength left. Then my manure removal system breaks down, the chain comes off, and all that mass floats. And the cows are all standing in manure. I think, let me take a chance and show how my manure removal stopped working, how I«m floundering here. And to my surprise, it just exploded. People still write to me: »Show us about your manure removal, is it working now or still breaking?«”
“I«ll either kill myself or join the assault troops”
But the main goal of Father Dionisy«s blog is not to entertain but to help people, as an Orthodox priest can help them. He says there have been cases when his blog, no less, helped save people»s lives. After YouTube was blocked, Father Dionisy, at the request of subscribers, moved his streams to the platform “Drug Vokrug” (Friend Around).
“At first I didn«t fully understand what kind of platform it was, but it turned out to be a dating site, and with such a twist of debauchery, perhaps. And when I started recording my first stream, people openly wrote to me: »Priest, what are you doing here? What do you care about us? You shouldn«t be sitting here at all. This is where we sit.» Well, I endured it then, took it calmly,” he recalls.
But from the second stream, interesting things began to happen and completely different assessments appeared. “I understood one thing — confused people sit on these sites, seeking last consolation in meeting someone, but they don«t get it there. And then one person wrote to me. He told me he had lost his beloved — she died, and with her he lost the meaning of life, and on this site he met one woman — it didn»t work out, met another — it didn«t work out. In a moment of despair he writes to me: »I«ll either go and do something to myself, or I»ll sign up for the assault troops.« I had to talk with him, converse, communicate. He was comforted, calmed down,” recalls the priest.
With the blocking of YouTube, it became harder to convey his thoughts, but Father Dionisy does not lose heart.
“YouTube was our main platform. It was a monolith, a big machine, we had 62,000 subscribers there. The blocking hit foreign subscribers the hardest, because we were watched from Africa, Argentina, America, Germany, and Ukraine. Ukraine was second after Russia. There were ordinary collective farmers, and we discussed everyday topics: who sowed earlier, who planted what seeds, who fills what diesel, who uses what equipment. It was very pleasant, it was very good. But when the SMO began, all sorts of reproaches poured in immediately, and because of that it was even morally hard to stay there,” he explains.
One of the questions when Dionisy Solyakov came to the “Drug Vokrug” platform was: “What are you doing here, came for another Maybach?” But he says he tries to convey to people that there are different people everywhere. There are unscrupulous doctors, just as there are unscrupulous priests. But this should not cast a shadow on the entire medical profession or the entire Russian Orthodox Church. After all, many priests live in villages, earn their bread with their own hands, work like everyone else:
“Unfortunately, in our Church, well, why hide it, there are moments when priests cross the line between pastoral duty and human pleasure. And we were clearly taught to draw that line at the Moscow Theological Seminary, where I studied. Unfortunately, there are not pastors but hirelings. But I explain to everyone that they will have to answer for this, and I feel sorry for those priests who today justify their expensive cars by saying they were supposedly gifted. But even if gifted. How can I drive around the village in some Land Cruiser? Can you imagine how that would look when people live on a salary or pension of 15,000–40,000 rubles ($160–$430), right? A priest is an open book for every parishioner. And by him, by his life, people draw information about faith. Therefore, this is wrong, and I do not support it in any way.”
“You give birth to them so they work for you”
Another task of the Solyakovs is to support the traditional family, and for them, it is primarily a large family. The secret to the well-being of such a family is simple — people must do everything together, and everyone must have their own responsibilities. Then there will be enough time for work, rest, and hobbies.
“If this mechanism works correctly, you will all rejoice together. But it happens that you show on YouTube the children working, carrying hay for the cows. And immediately all sorts of curses pour in the comments: «You gave birth to them so they could slave for you. You gave birth to them so they could provide for you.» But one must understand that we all provide for ourselves from the fruits of our labor. This is the traditional family. When we ask no one for anything, but can exist well ourselves and even help others,” explains the priest.
Blogging also helps a lot with the restoration of the church — the Solyakov family has been restoring it for almost 20 years. During this time, much has been done, but not all work is finished. They manage to restore the church thanks to donations from parishioners, and there are few parishioners in a rural church.
“We, rural priests, at some point would be glad to hear long confessions and read many notes, but there is no human resource. The population of our village is 300 people. Of that population, well, God willing, 7% go to church on major holidays. And if we were content with that today, we would just go begging. And there would be absolutely nothing to restore the church with, and no one would even know about our church. But we took another path, started blogging, started promoting with the choir of the church Sunday school, with our family choir. That is, we promote everywhere we are welcome. We go. And that is preaching,” he explains.
Many come to Novoye Yegoldayevo from neighboring villages, settlements, and towns, but due to the gasoline crisis, there are fewer such people now. Dionisy Solyakov«s dream is to attract new residents, new families to the village. They are working in this direction together with the local farm, which has begun to recover. Many, after his streams, ask whether they can move to live in Novoye Yegoldayevo.
“This moment gives hope that people will come, buy old houses here, and fix them up. And we will somehow unite as Orthodox families around this holy place. And thanks to people, thanks to parishioners, this place will live, will be filled with people.”
“And there will be a church here — beautiful as an Easter egg”
Father Dionisy says that when he was given the church 20 years ago (he is the rector of St. Nicholas Church), he and his wife arrived but saw essentially unheated ruins:
“The day before, we were worried about what kind of church they would give us. We remained in blissful ignorance, prayed, thought. And on the eve of going to get the decree, my wife had a dream that there was a church by the road — large, with a dome, with a bell tower, of extraordinary beauty. And many people were going in and out, many young people, small children, everyone laughing, everyone rejoicing. In her dream, this church was as beautiful as an Easter egg.”
They accepted reality with stoicism and began to restore it with their own hands, but at some point the young family almost lost heart. Twenty years have passed since then, and the church from Nadezhda«s dream began to become reality. At the moment of greatest despair, Father Dionisy went to Moscow to his spiritual father from the Orthodox seminary. He encouraged him with prayer and a kind word, and also gave him 300,000 rubles — money he had received as a fee for publishing a book. That was a considerable sum at the time:
“We lived in the church house with infants, and rats walked around freely. To take a child to the toilet, you had to get up at night, take a stick, and go. We were fighting for our lives, and the rats for theirs. And at some point I also had a breakdown, despair. I thought, that«s it, this is simply impossible. And we went to our spiritual father. We confessed to him, he blessed us for marriage. I fell to my knees, crying, and said: »Father Ilya, I can«t take it anymore, I don»t even have the means to feed my family.« He patted me on the shoulder and said: »You will still build a bell tower.« At that moment I said — what bell tower, I just need to be there, my first and main problem now is the roof, which leaks so much that water pours down the walls,” says Father Dionisy.
They arrived in Novoye Yegoldayevo on September 1, and the heating season was just around the corner, but the heating had been cut off:
“All because before me there was one such «blessed» priest who said: «I don»t need heating, I don«t need light here, I can pray anyway.» I said: «Well, you can pray anyway, but how will people keep warm without electricity?» So there were such oddities. And Father Ilya blessed us and said: «Everything will work out if you keep one commandment.» I asked: «Which one?» He invited me to his place and said: «Wait.» I see he«s rustling something. He takes out money for me, I remember it was 300,000 rubles. At that time a Renault Logan cost exactly 299,000 rubles. We had just been to a car dealership, looking. And he takes out this money and says: »Take it, I just published my book, I got the profit. Look, I«m giving you money; if you use this money for the cause, for the church, for the roof, know that you will always have an abundance of funds, everything will be fine.» And I stand there, with trembling hands taking this money, which I had never held before.”
Then immediately there were people ready to re-roof the church for exactly that amount. The roof was replaced, and after that people saw that something was changing, that the church was rising from ruins, they were inspired and joined in the work of restoring it.
Then they managed to install the central dome. A young entrepreneur who founded the company “Vozrozhdenie” (Revival) approached Father Dionisy — he was only 18 and had just started restoring domes, and he offered to install the dome at cost as an advertising sample:
“In 2010 we installed the dome. It was such an extraordinary victory for us.”
Then everything started to fall into place one after another; together with his wife, they learned woodcarving and created the church«s interior decoration.
“Today we make the interior decoration ourselves, the playground is being updated. Subscribers from «Drug Vokrug» helped a lot with the playground. There you can set a goal. And today we are already realizing this dream,” says the priest.
Another important task was to reconcile the flock. In Novoye Yegoldayevo, people were feuding by families; truly Shakespearean passions were boiling there when the Solyakov family first arrived. During the service, everyone stood on different sides of the church, and they tried to turn the priest against their opponents. Parishioners also spread negativity about them — saying: “You will leave here like everyone else, especially since you are young.”
He and his wife had to make colossal efforts to unite people and stop the enmity that had lasted for years. Well, over time, many young people and children really began to appear in the church, and many families, following their example, stopped being afraid to have many children.
In general, the Solyakov family often faces hate, like any other people who declare themselves in the virtual space. For example, Nadezhda got criticized for having many children.
She does not take offense at haters, believing that these people simply have not yet matured to understand what joy motherhood and raising children can bring.
“Motherhood and having many children is a natural way of life for us. All our friends and relatives have many children. We ourselves come from large families. And of course, when we got married, we didn«t think we would have so many children. Although our spiritual father blessed us: »You will have three times three.« So nine. We now have ten children. And you know, we already have three children studying at universities, so three of the ten have left, and when we come home, someone is already missing, the family is not all together.
Raising children and generally managing a household and implementing big family projects is not difficult if there is unity in the family, believes Nadezhda. She advises always doing everything together — this applies not only to household chores but also to entertainment.
“I tell all the young people who get married here: «Don»t divide men«s and women»s work; come home from work together, cook dinner together, clean up together, then no one will be offended by anyone. Everything will be together, there will be unity in the family. And if there is unity in the family, you will never feel that it is hard with children,«” she says.
And they have many projects — a family farm and many charitable initiatives. Nadezhda organized a mission of sisters of mercy who work for free in palliative centers, doing work that often even relatives of patients cannot do. This is help for SMO fighters, weaving camouflage nets, collecting clothes and food for the poor, for which a whole warehouse was allocated in Ryazhsk. There is a family and church choir, a woodcarving club at the church.
“We go to the palliative department, the children«s one, the surgical one, we go to the hospital. All our sisters of mercy are mothers with many children, many have serious jobs. But everyone finds time to help strangers for free. After visiting hospitals, we are all filled with joy. Father Dionisy also goes to the hospital with us. The first time he came, we were washing patients. And there are women there, he cannot participate in that. So he took a mop and started washing the floors,” says Nadezhda.
In all interviews, Father Dionisy thanks his wife for not giving up when it was very hard — at the moment when they lived in a cold house and the church where Father Dionisy was appointed rector was far from the image of a beautiful Easter egg. But now they have their own large farm — they grow grain, prepare feed for livestock for sale, keep bulls. They have their own family choir, with which they go to concerts and even won a popular talk show on Channel One. However, Father Dionisy complains that they have to travel everywhere with 10 children in a seven-seat car.
A large family cannot afford other transport, although the state verbally tries to support large families today. He does not understand why there are restrictions on child benefits when working families effectively cannot claim these payments:
“Of course, it«s very good to see large families, but there is one caveat. After all, support must come from the state. Otherwise it turns out that with one voice they say: »Go ahead, give birth, as many as possible.« But with the same child benefits there are problems. My wife Nadezhda has said many times that one cannot attach an income limit to such families. This money goes to the children. What difference does it make what a person»s income is? And it turns out that those who do not want to work, do not want to do anything, are the ones who live on these benefits, they get approved and paid regularly. And those people who try to work more to provide some benefit to their children end up in a vulnerable position, with child benefits removed, and the state does not support their efforts.”
The priest is sure that many would be ready to have more children if state support measures were more accessible and understandable. But for their part, their family does everything to support the traditional family, to show that even in the countryside one can fulfill oneself, become a successful and happy person, and most importantly, preserve people«s trust in Orthodoxy and in the people who represent it — “priests not in Geländewagens.”
