Father Akaki
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Andrei Kuznetsov (27 October 1873 – 30 January 1984, Heinävesi, North Karelia, Finland), commonly known as Father Akaki, was a Russian Orthodox monk who died as the oldest person of Nordic countries and Finland's oldest man ever before Aarne Arvonen.[1]
Biography
[edit]As a teenager, Kuznetsov went to a monastery because he wanted to avoid the Russian Army.
Kuznetsov went to Solovetsky Monastery on the island in the White Sea.[specify] He began work as a stable hand, at which he continued until he was 90. In 1898, he went to Petsamo's Pechenga Monastery[2] where he became a monk in 1913 after 15 years of being in the monastery. He took the name Akaki after Akathist the Bishop of Malta.
Monastery life was disrupted during the Winter and Continuation War and the monks moved in 1942 to New Valamo monastery in Heinävesi, where the Valaam Monastery monks were transferred because of the war. Father Akaki still worked as a stable hand until the age of 90 when the monastery stopped keeping horses.
Akaki lived a very ascetic life with a very meager diet. Reading the Bible and praying was his daily ritual even until the age of 100.
At the age of 100 he could still walk to the church. When Akaki reached the age of 107 he got a letter from the Heinävesi municipality where he was invited to the primary school's first grade because the computer program could not recognize the centuries from each other. The mistake was very funny to Akaki.[1]
Akaki died at the age of 110 and 106 days on 30 January 1984 in the last night of his last eucharist.
Unconfirmed birthdate
[edit]Because of the lack of birth records for Father Akaki, his birth date lacks a reliable source.[3][4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Valamon luostari – Munkki Akaki". www.valamo.fi (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- ^ "Father Akaki, a 110-year-old monk who was the Nordic..." UPI. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- ^ Skytthe, Axel; Hervonen, Antti; Ruisdael, Celvin; Jeune, Bernard (9 April 2010). "Supercentenarians in the Nordic Countries" (PDF). Demographic Research Monographs. Springer Berlin Heidelberg: 203–216. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-11520-2_12. ISBN 978-3-642-11519-6. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- ^ "Table A – Verified Supercentenarians (Listed Chronologically By Birth Date)". grg.org. Gerontology Research Group. 1 January 2015. Archived from the original on 12 July 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
Further reading
[edit]- "110th birthday". Cedar Rapids Gazette. 18 October 1983. p. 4A. Retrieved 19 February 2017.