Mitrofan Lodyzhensky

Mitrofan Vasilyevich Lodyzhensky (, in some sources Лады́женский ; – ) was a Russian religious philosopher, playwright, and statesman, best known for his Mystical Trilogy comprising Super-consciousness and the Ways to Achieve It, Light Invisible, and Dark Force.

Biography Lodyzhensky was born on 27 February 1852 near Tula in the Russian Empire. He was the son of Vasily Vasilyevich and Olga Alekseyevna Lodyzhensky. Descended from a long line of Russian nobility, he was the distant relative of composer Nikolai Lodyzhensky. He had a religious upbringing and most of his immediate family—his father, mother, and three of his four sisters—all became monastics.

In 1873, Lodyzhensky graduated from the St. Petersburg Agricultural Institute. He served as a senior forester with the new Forestry Department of Vologda Governorate. In Tula, he was a land captain (overseer) of the Chernsky District. In 1881, he married his wife Olga Pavlovna (or Aleksandrovna according to some sources), which resulted in a happy marriage of over thirty years. (Lodyzhensky rose through the ranks of the Forestry Department, becoming its head from 1884 to 1886. He then consecutively served as lieutenant governor of several regions: Semipalatinsk (1896–1898), Through his years of public service, Lodyzhensky eventually reached the rank of state counsellor and was awarded with the Order of St. Vladimir (3rd and 4th class), the Order of St. Stanislaus (2nd and 3rd class), and the Order of St. Anna (3rd class). Nevertheless, he always had financial difficulties and was forced to apply for a pension from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. and Japan. He also took up literary work, writing several plays—Iz novenkikh (Brand New) and Lozhny vzglyad (False View)—which performed well at the Russian Dramatic Theatre in Moscow. His magnum opus, the Mystical Trilogy, which examines the differences between Eastern Orthodoxy and other mystical traditions, reflects this shift in views.

In the summer of 1910, Lodyzhensky and his wife Olga stayed in the village of Basovo, which was located only a few miles from Yasnaya Polyana, the estate of the writer Leo Tolstoy. The Lodyzhenskys called upon Tolstoy in late July. The composer Alexander Goldenweiser, one of Tolstoy's close friends, refers to Lodyzhensky as “very loud and talkative,”

In his later years, Lodyzhensky continued to write, collaborating with the St. Petersburg journal Veshnie vody (Spring Waters) and publishing his last work, Nevidimye volny (Invisible Waves), in 1917.

Published works (1906) ( (Super-consciousness and the Ways to Achieve It)) (1911) ( (Hindu Rāja Yoga and Christian Asceticism)) (1912) English translation: Light Invisible: Satisfying the Thirst for Happiness (2011, Holy Trinity Publications; ) (1914) ( (Dark Force)) (1916) ( (The Enemies of Christianity)) (1917) ( (Invisible Waves: A Story in Five Parts)) In English:

Light Invisible: Satisfying the Thirst for Happiness. Lodyzhenskii, M. V. translated by Mother Magdelena of Novo Divievo Monastery. Holy Trinity Publications, 2011.