For the first time to think about the meaning of life, Vladimir Golovin was forced by the death of his uncle, who died of a serious illness at the age of forty. The nephew was very sad for the untimely departed relative. It was then that the future priest began to think about what life and death are, about what awaits people after the end of the earthly journey.
From the biography of Vladimir Golovin
Vladimir Valentinovich Golovin was born in Ulyanovsk on September 6, 1961. In the same year, the boy was baptized. Vladimir received the most ordinary school education. After leaving school, he worked as a mechanic at a local mechanical plant.
In 1979, Vladimir entered the Moscow Theological Seminary. Since 1982 he served as an altar boy in one of the temples of Ulyanovsk.
In 1984, Golovin married Irina Vitalievna Cherkasova. A year later, he and his wife had a son, who was named Stanislav.
In the fall of 1986, Vladimir was ordained a deacon by Bishop Panteleimon of Kazan and Mari. Subsequently, he served in Udmurtia, in the Trinity Cathedral of Izhevsk. After a while, Vladimir Golovin was transferred to the temple of the Yaroslavl miracle workers, which is located at the Arsk cemetery in Kazan.
In the spring of 1987 he was ordained a priest. He served in this capacity as the rector of the Sretensky Church (Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Orsha District, the village of Bolshaya Kuchka).
In the fall of 1988, Bishop Anastasy of Kazan and Mari appointed Golovin as rector of the parish in Kuibyshev.
Since 2003, with the blessing of the Archbishop of Kazan and Tatarstan, Father Vladimir made communication with pilgrims who arrived from various cities of the country and foreign countries.
Father Vladimir preaches many hours of sermons, gives spiritual instructions to parishioners. He completely devotes himself and his days to serving people. Golovin enjoys indisputable authority among ordinary people and government officials. He is very sensitive to any person. Father Vladimir devotes a lot of time to organizing the work of all structures of his parish.
His twenty-eight-plus years of ministry as a priest have received many Church awards. Golovin has many letters of gratitude. He was awarded medals from government officials and public organizations.
Golovin served as chairman of the parish council, was a dean in his district, and headed the department of church charity and social service of the metropolis. Father Vladimir was a member of the Council of the Chistopol diocese, was the confessor of the community at the church of the holy Martyr Abraham.
A lot has been done under the strict guidance of Vladimir Golovin:
- nine new parishes were opened;
- organized four Sunday schools;
- a large-scale reconstruction of the place of suffering of Abraham the Bulgarian was carried out;
- the parish territory was equipped and ennobled.
The abbot ordered that a fence be erected around the temple. There is electricity and gas, telephone and internet. The parish library works. Father Vladimir supervises the publication of the parish newspaper and himself selects many publications for the website. With the participation of Golovin, prayer rooms have been opened in the Central District Hospital and in the boarding school for the disabled and the elderly.
Led by Father Vladimir, the parish conducts numerous actions of spiritual and moral content in many organizations. Among them:
- city libraries;
- orphanage;
- district hospital;
- boarding house;
- district military commissariat;
- department of internal affairs.
Golovin always believed that cooperation with public and military-patriotic organizations should be an important aspect of service.
Vladimir Golovin about himself
Being invited to the program "Slovo" on the TV channel "Spas", Vladimir Golovin told the audience about his life, telling how he came to the decision to devote himself to the church. Much was said to them about the family.
Archpriest Golovin believes that his birth and the path of service were given from above. It so happened that Golovin's grandmother decided to show her son Valentin, who at that time was not yet Vladimir's father, the places where she was born. They traveled to the village on foot. On the way, we passed a well, erected in the place where Nicholas the Wonderworker appeared to people many centuries ago.
Just on that day, a holiday was celebrated in the name of this saint. There were many people at the well, who were dispersed by the police. But the people did not want to disperse. Vladimir's grandmother took water from the well and treated her son to it. Then Valentine raised his head and saw the faces of the saints on the tree among the cracks. The people standing nearby predicted to Valentine that his son would later serve in the church.
His grandmother was mainly involved in the spiritual education of Vladimir. It was she who brought him into the temple. Then she took him with her to church services more than once. When the boy confessed to Pelageya Ivanovna that he wanted to attend church regularly, she handed him the Gospel and asked him to read this book aloud as often as possible. She herself was not taught to read and write. Grandmother brought up Vladimir in the spirit of a careful attitude to church relics. Before taking up the Bible, he had to wash his hands thoroughly.
After the death of his beloved uncle, Vladimir decided that at all costs he would try to comprehend the meaning of life. He began to study spiritual literature. However, the books that went through the Soviet censorship did not provide an answer to his questions. But from the manuals on scientific atheism, the future priest, oddly enough, learned a lot of interesting and useful things: there were many quotes from the Old and New Testaments. The boy skipped criticism while reading.
In subsequent years, Vladimir had to face misunderstanding on the part of schoolmates and teachers. But he withstood moral tests and ridicule. Since then, his main goal has been church ministry.
Vladimir Golovin today
In 2014, the state of health of father Vladimir has deteriorated markedly. He appealed to the church leadership with a request to release him from any administrative positions. The petition was granted, Golovin was left at the church as a cleric.
A year later, Vladimir Golovin was awarded the right to wear the cross "For zealous service to the Church." Then he became the head of the Board of Trustees of the Charitable Foundation, designed to contribute to the education of society. Father Vladimir, by personal decree of the Bishop of Chistopol and Nizhnekamsk, was approved in a significant position: he is the confessor of the henchmen to the priesthood in the church diocese entrusted to him.
