Father Joann Ümarik (1888-1984)

Uniting the ages

Joann Ümarik was born on 25 March 1888 in Pärnu сounty into the family of a farmer. His parents, Johan (Ivan) and Tiina (Tatiana, maiden name Sarv) Ümarik, had six children, two of whom died of diphtheria in early childhood. Joann was the eldest, but unlike his brother Jaagus (Jakov), who was three years younger, he was unable to receive a church education. He graduated from the Tuhalaane parish school in 1902, passed the parish school teacher’s exam in 1908, completed primary school teacher’s courses in 1909, and attended the Riga seminary as an extern in 1915. In the same year, he passed the deacon’s professional examination held by the Riga consistory.

Ümarik worked as a sacristan and schoolteacher in the Aruküla Holy Trinity parish in 1908-1911, in the Laiksaare parish of St John the Baptist in 1911-14, in the Tuhalaane parish of Our Lady of the Assumption in 1914-15, and for a short time in the parish of Sts Peter and Paul in Riga in 1915. He then served as a sacristan in the Tallinn parish of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

In 1916, Ümarik was mobilised into the Russian army, serving in 1917-1918 in the 1st Estonian Regiment. Before his ordination, he wished to marry and proposed to Maria Küti, a church choir singer, who accepted. The couple lived together for over 30 years. They had five children, the two youngest of whom were buried one after the other in 1926. During the repression of the first Soviet occupation, their son Johannes was shot on 4 July 1941. Maria died at the end of 1954.

On 23 June 1918, Bishop Platon (Kulbush) ordained Ümarik as a deacon of the church of the Transfiguration in Tallinn, where he served until March 1919; then he was a deacon in the congregation of St Simeon and Hannah the Prophetess in Tallinn from 1919 to 1920. At the same time, he worked as a teacher in a primary school.

During this period, Father Joann was also active in the formation of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church, mainly in an administrative capacity. Bishop Platon lacked help, and most things had to be done by the leader of the newly established church alone or with few assistants. Ümarik fulfilled the duties of clerical administrator, secretary, and housekeeper in the bishop’s entourage, moving as his first major assignment Platon’s things from St Petersburg to the episcopal summer house of Stockmar (now Järvi, on the Suur-Pärnu road). In his memoirs, of which a typewritten copy survives, Father Joann mentions as his most important collaborators Archpriest Karp Tiisik and the priests Anton Laar and Konstantin Kokla, whose acrimonious relationship was reflected in the columns of the magazine Uus Elu.

After the Plenary Assembly of the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church on 25 March 1919, Father Joann continued his work as an administrator in the diocesan council. In his memoirs, he mentions that the members of the council lacked the necessary experience to manage church life. The war had left its mark on rural congregations: many had been left without a pastor and needed both spiritual and financial help. There were also difficulties in resolving misunderstandings between congregations, as well as disagreements between members of the church administration and parish councils.

In 1920, Ümarik moved with his family to Juuru. Archbishop Aleksander (Paulus) ordained him priest on 1 October 1920, appointing him to serve the Juuru parish from 1 January 1921. Father Joann served here until 1933: he was also a teacher in the Juuru elementary school from 1921 to 1934 and the dean of Harjumaa from 1921 to 1933. He was very active in local life: he was the chairman of the Education Society and the Teachers’ Association, a member of the parish council, a member of the board of the Children’s Welfare Society, and a director of the People’s University.

From 1934 to 1950, he served as a priest in the Pärnu Transfiguration parish, one of the largest in the Estonian Orthodox Church. The congregation had a women’s circle, a youth circle called Põhjala, a Sunday school, and a welfare department. Several church events were organised in Pärnu during his ministry as dean of Pärnumaa from 1934 to 1950, such as the EAOC youth festival (7-8 August 1938), the first courses for clergymen and choirmasters (6-12 March 1939), and the celebration of the 35th anniversary of the Transfiguration church (28-29 October 1939). In 1935, Ümarik was appointed as the pastor of Orthodox prisoners, vice-chairman of the prisoners’ welfare society, and a member of the Pärnu prison council.  He also gave religious lessons at the Pärnu secondary school, gymnasium, and trade school.

In the turmoil of World War II, Father Joann did not emigrate, but remained in Pärnu: he continued as the dean of Pärnumaa, to which was added work as a member of the Synod from 14 September 1940 until March 1944. Bishop Pavel (Dmitrovskii) also appointed him as a member of the council for the newly-formed Tallinn diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate. In this position, Father Joann approved the liquidation of the EAOC and the Moscow Patriarchate’s campaign of repentance for the schism in the Estonian Church. For example, his name appears in an appeal to the Orthodox congregations of the Estonian SSR from 19 July 1945, in which Archbishop Pavel declared the re-establishment of the Estonian Church to be complete: “With grateful joy, the Army of the Liberator is received. Estonia breathes freely. Church life is on a peaceful course. The ecclesiastical conflict has been resolved without pain.” Out of respect for his loyalty to the new order, on 14 January 1947, Nefet Karsakov, commissar of the Council of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, awarded Joann with the medal “For brave work in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”.

Despite his loyalty, Ümarik did not remain a passive bystander and reacted strongly to the tightening of Soviet religious policy. In 1948, for example, he protested to the Estonian diocesan administration against the unfair conclusion of property contracts: the taxation of nationalised church property (churches, houses, and land) that had initially been given to parishes for free use for an unlimited period of time was, in his opinion, contrary to the law and merely a means of nationalising church property. Such a nationalisation was indeed carried out in 1950.

After the March deportations of 1949, police repression intensified against those clergymen of Tallinn diocese who openly expressed their hatred of deportation and collectivisation. Continuing his church work, including cooperation with the security agencies, did not save Father Joann from a new wave of repression, as evidenced by reports from 1949: the reason was perhaps that his “bourgeois” past and social activities before World War II were a thorn in the side of the NKVD.

Father Joann was arrested on 25 April 1950 and sent to Siberia for ten years, where he travelled from one prison camp to another and met many Russian clergymen and bishops. Even in prison, he remained a devout Orthodox believer, paying particular attention to prayer and service. Of course, it was not possible to serve the liturgy in the labour camps, but in his memoirs he recalls one Maundy Thursday when he gathered with Archbishop Simon (Ivanovskii) and Archpriest Leonid (Father Joann could not remember his surname) to read the 12 gospels. Father Joann went to Archbishop Simon at night and received the holy gifts from him, which he then secretly consumed in his barracks. In this way, he partook of the sacrament of Holy Communion in the camps, which gave him new spiritual strength and was not forgotten until his death.

Instead of ten years in the labour camp, Ümarik spent three and a half due to the amnesty after Stalin’s death. Returning to Estonia in September 1954, Bishop Joann (Alexeyev) appointed Ümarik as the priest of the Tartu parish of St Alexander and vicar of the Nõo Orthodox parish. Later, Aleksei (Ridiger), the new bishop of Tallinn, appointed him as priest of the smaller parish of Elva on 18 October 1961. He then served as the third priest of the Aleksandr Nevskii cathedral in Tallinn from July 1962 until the end of his life. On 1 July 1962, Bishop Aleksei elevated Ümarik to the position of archpriest of the Tartu parish, where he served until 1984.

In his memoirs, Father Joann openly criticises Soviet religious policy. He describes the income tax, which was unfairly applied to church servants, as follows: ‘We do not talk about it, but remain silent […] that the state allows them (i.e., church servants) to serve in the Church, but to give up to 80% of their wages as income tax to support the state! The higher the salary, the higher the income tax. […] We like to be reminded at every turn that in the Soviet Union, everyone is equal before the law, that there are no privileged or disfavoured positions. But what about religious workers?’ On the liquidation of the Elva parish in 1961, he states: ‘It was even more painful and sad for the leadership of the congregation to hear this and to carry it out - to become the gravediggers of their beloved house of worship. And all this in the Soviet Union, where freedom of religion and great love and concern for believers prevail! […] The unbelievers of Elva rejoiced, while the believers wept.’

Father Joann Ümarik died on 1 July 1984 in Tallinn at the age of 97. The funeral service was held in the Cathedral of St Alexander in Tallinn with the participation of 16 priests on 5 July 1984: he was buried on the same day in the Aleksandri cemetery.

AuthorS

Father Andrei Sõtšov and Kristjan Otsman

Sources

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