Father Joann Envere (Entson) (1874-1969)

From Estonia to Russia and Back AGAIN

Father Joann Envere (Entson) was born on 6 March 1874 in Kavarnu village, Livland province. His parents Jaan and Anna Entson were lessees of Ennu farm with three daughters and three sons in their family. Joann was the youngest.

Father Joann studied in the county’s best elementary school (the Nikolai parish school in Pärnu), graduating in 1886. Provided with recommendations by the schoolteachers, he was sent to study at Riga ecclesiastical seminary.  At that time, it was hard for a peasant to obtain secondary learning: the seminary was one of the few possibilities for a professional education. Joann graduated from the seminary in 1896: after graduation, a future priest had to work as a sacristan and a teacher for at least three years. This provided Father Joann with an opportunity to get acquainted both with the congregation and school life, gaining experiences in leadership and as a religious teacher. On 7 September 1896, he was appointed as a sacristan of the Mustvee church of St Nicholas and a teacher in the parish school.

In Mustvee Joann married the local peasant girl Anna Tisso on 20 August 1897, with the ceremony taking place in the Mustvee Nikolai church. Anna was born on 8 November 1880 in Mustvee and died on 29 November 1961 in Tartu. The couple had nine children: four daughters and five sons. The marriage opened Joann the possibility to be ordained a priest: he was ordained as a deacon and a priest in Alekseevskii cathedral in Riga by Archbishop Agafangeli (Preobrazhenski) in December 1898.

The first appointment for the young Father Joann was Kõrgessaare-Puski parish in Hiiumaa. Three years later, he was transferred to Suislepa parish in Viljandi.

Archpriest Joann Ümarik recalls, “I first met Father Joann and his young matushka Anna on 6 December 1905 on the name day of Father N. Küppar, priest in Tuhalaane at that time. Our life paths have often crossed since: we have met in the General Assembly of the Estonian Orthodox Church, as well as in the General Assembly of the deanery and council meetings. Then, when I was working in Tartu, he was my good neighbour and friend, a shoulder to lean on in difficult moments and provide helpful pieces of advice.”

Ministry in a small parish provided Father Joann an opportunity to follow his long-time dream of beginning studies in the St Petersburg Ecclesiastical Academy. He was admitted there on 17 November 1906. In addition to his studies, he served as a priest in for the Kostroma Brotherhood of St Alexander (1908–1911). He graduated the academy in 1910 with a first-class degree. In 1911 he was appointed a priest to Vilnius cemetery church, where he served until 1915. In the same year he was mobilized as a field priest to the army, where he served until 29 January 1918. In December the same year, he was promoted to archpriest, serving in Peterhof.

In 1920, Father Joann and his family opted for Estonia. His career as a priest in the Republic of Estonia took him to Pärnu (1921), the Aleksandr Nevskii Orthodox Church in Tartu (1921–1928), the Kilingi-Nõmme and Mõisaküla parishes in Pärnu county, and Kaarepere in Tartu county (1935–1938). On 17 October 1936, Father Joann exchanged his German surname Entson for the Estonian Envere.

During the years of Father Joann’s service in Tartu, the congregation was hit by several crises and splits. For example, in 1924 members of congregation expressed their dissatisfaction with the archpriest and founded an independent parish called the congregation of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. There were also obstacles in the official registration of the Russian-speaking congregation in the same year.

Serving as a clergyman was not enough to provide a living for Father Joann’s large family. Therefore, he often replaced absent priests in other parishes or taught in schools.. In Tartu, he worked as a teacher at the second commercial secondary school until his retirement in 1934.

Father Joann continued full-time work as a clergyman even after retirement. Between 1935 and 1940, Father Joann was a teacher-educator at the Orthodox seminary in Petseri while serving as a priest in Tailova. He continued to serve as a reserve clergyman after World War II. From 1945 until his death on 11 October 1969, Father Joann served in several Estonian-speaking and Russian-speaking congregations in Tartu county.

Father Joann’s service as a priest lasted for 70 years. His long-term, diligent, and exemplary service was not left unnoticed by the Church. We should also say a few words about Father Joann’s literary activities. In his old age, during the Soviet era, Father Joann enriched the Orthodox religious literature available in Estonian, translating church prayers, orders of services, and akathistos. According to Archpriest Joann Ümarik, Father Joann’s greatest work was Comparative Theology, a work of 475 typewritten pages completed in 1952. During the tenure of Bishop Roman Tang (1950–55), this book was suggested as a manual for clergy candidates.

AUTHOR

Father Andrei Sõtšov