Внешняя обстановка деятельности о. Иоанна

In Kronstadt, on the corner of Andreevskaya and Posadskaya streets, there is a two-story stone house of ancient architecture that belongs to St. Andrew’s Cathedral: on the second floor of this house there is a modest apartment for a respected pastor; This apartment amazes with the extraordinary simplicity of its furnishings, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of rubles passed through the hands of its owner. Its furnishings have changed little since Father John settled in it 50 years ago: everything in it is unpretentious and devoid of any comfort; Only the special abundance of books in the office gives the idea that its occupant pays tribute to mental activity. From early morning, when Kronstadt is still immersed in deep sleep and its streets are empty, a mass of people are already crowding in front of this house, waiting for Father John to come out. And from four o’clock in the morning, no matter what the weather, he walks around the yard and garden, secretly saying the usual morning prayers for those preparing to perform the liturgy. Finally, the gates of the house, usually closed, open, and the impatient crowd finally calms down. There is excitement among those waiting. This is Father John coming out. Everyone rushes towards him, vying to come under his blessing, and almost knocks down the venerable shepherd, who, blessing right and left, with his gentle smile, heads towards the cathedral. And the crowd accompanying him grows and grows; Along the way, more and more groups of people join it. Approaching the cathedral, we already meet a new picture. Along the bars of the cathedral garden, on both sides of the entrance to the cathedral, in orderly rows stand ragamuffins of both sexes and all ages, usually numbering from five hundred to seven hundred people. “This is the army of Fr. John,” as the Kronstadt residents jokingly call these ragamuffins. These are the same poor people - “posadsky”, among whom the respected shepherd began his charitable activities from the first days of his priesthood. The distribution of alms begins. Father John divides those gathered into dozens, and gives each ten a certain amount to divide among his dozen; and usually the share of each ragamuffin falls from 5 to 10 kopecks. Sometimes the distribution is not carried out by Father John himself, but entrusts it to one of the church guards. At this time they begin to ring for matins. Having finished distributing alms, Father John, accompanied by a crowd, enters the cathedral. Matins begins. Whether Father John himself or another regular priest performs the morning divine service, he invariably performs the singing and reading of the prescribed stichera and canon on the choir himself, and not a single stichera or canon is skipped, as is often done in other churches, but everything is read out. The clear, sharp voice of Father John, sincerity and confidence in what he reads, and enthusiasm - make a strong impression, especially when reading the canon. “What high theology in our Sunday and holiday services! What a deep psychology in our liturgical canons for the days of the week, for every day of the year, for the feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, and for the days of saints! Read, listen, learn,” he says in his diary. And indeed it must be said that the canons of the Orthodox Church were compiled by the holy fathers with such artistry, with such depth of theological wisdom, that an expressive reading of them is truly capable of causing spiritual delight, and such reading as that of Father John, to be fair, is difficult to hear anywhere. During Matins, the cathedral begins to receive letters and telegrams from St. Petersburg with an invitation to come and pray for the sick or suffering. Father John goes to the altar several times and immediately reads them; He puts some letters aside for reference during the trip, and after reading others, he immediately prays fervently before the Holy Altar. Matins usually ends around 7 and a half o'clock in the morning. The liturgy begins. Whether Father John is the next one or not, he performs the early liturgy himself. Sometimes, however, he performs divine services either in the Duma church attached to the cathedral or in the Church of the “House of Diligence.” Father John performs the Liturgy with special reverence, withdrawing entirely within himself, as if, unaware of anything around him, he prays for the sick and mourning... They sing “Cherubic.” A great exit takes place: at the usual entrance of the clergy into the altar, Father John, realizing the importance of the coming moment, usually leaning over the throne, sheds heartfelt tears of repentance. According to the application of the Gifts and personal communion, Fr. John immediately changes in the eyes of those present: his face, illuminated by some extraordinary light, becomes animated, and his whole figure takes on a particularly cheerful appearance, full of life in spirit and strength. By the grace of Christ the power of God is made perfect in his weaknesses. During the liturgy, up to several hundred prosphoras are usually taken out. At the end of the liturgy, a prayer service is constantly performed, during which hundreds of notes about the sick are again submitted. As is known, Christians of the first centuries partook of the Holy Mysteries, if not daily, then certainly on every Sunday. With this in mind, Father John, from the first days of his priesthood, began to invite adults to more frequent repentance and communion than is usually customary. Therefore, almost every day, after the liturgy, he has to confess and commune the Holy Mysteries to adults, especially those who come from St. Petersburg and other cities to pray. In previous years, when there were still relatively few visitors, Father John always confessed several dozen people individually after the liturgy and then communed the Holy Mysteries. Lately there have been such a large number of visitors that, given his varied activities, there is no possibility of confessing individually; and therefore, the respected pastor is forced to resort, after reading the rules of confession and edifying teachings, to general confession and communion. There were usually from 200 to 500 people or more of confessors and communicants. After the confessors received communion, Father John read the newly received telegrams and a mass of petitionary letters, which set out various needs, starting with a statement about the lack of funds for travel to the village, etc.; then he goes out to the pulpit and begins to give alms to the petitioners, in accordance with their needs. Sometimes quite large sums were awarded. Finally, everything was over in the church... Once again surrounded by a crowd waiting for Father John to come out, he goes out into the street, gets into the prepared carriage and, without stopping home, goes to prayer services, visits the sick and visitors. Tired of the long church service (matins began at 4 o'clock, followed by mass, and Father John gave communion until 12 noon), the priest again hurried to the service, but for another one: to serve his neighbor. He had no time to rest; the sick, the destitute, and the wanderers were waiting for him. He traveled to private houses, to hotels, to hospitals, to all corners where visitors who wanted to see him stayed. He brought words of consolation to some, and material assistance to others. “If Fr. is not taken away from St. Petersburg somewhere. John to the end of the world, then he will return home again only at the first hour of the night. This is how the day goes by. John. From early morning until late at night, he is always in public and on his feet. Life o. John is not divided into public and private, like all people in general. He has no private life of his own; He belongs entirely to the people. A general, engineer, scientist, orator, minister, returning home, ceases to be a general, scientist, orator, minister. Each of them at this time devotes himself to family, acquaintances, innocent entertainment, and hours of relaxation. U o. John, this never happened, they say, not once for 35 years. Returning home after long and tiring work, he found a lot of people wanting to see him, dozens of new urgent invitations, thousands of letters and requests. Each of us, who has our own corner and home, has a certain hour to refresh ourselves with food. Does such time exist? John? – I asked some in Kronstadt. They say he only gets to have breakfast or lunch a few times a year. Where does he have lunch? Everywhere and nowhere, always and one might say never. Due to the multitude of visitors, he can never set an hour for visiting and almost never gets to attend any supper. Therefore, he has to patiently be content with little. There he will eat some fruit, here he will drink a glass of tea, here he will eat a piece of bread or a few cookies. It often happens that during the whole day he does not have to eat properly. But he does not seek this, being completely content with the little that God sends him here or there during the day. Surprisingly little sleeps about. John. It is not even always the case that 3–4 hours of deep night a day belong entirely to Fr. John. Quite often he spends them in a railway carriage, in a carriage, and sometimes he does not sleep at all. What a gigantic work! And he has to endure this labor not for just one day or several days, but for whole months, years, decades. Involuntarily I remembered at that moment our constant complaints about nerves, lack of sleep, malnutrition, and the notorious overwork. If each of us worked as hard as Fr. John, I don’t know what would have happened to us, and what stories we would not have invented in our justification and apology. Maybe some people could not stand it just by imagining such work and would get sick. They talk a lot about the miracles of Fr. John. In my deep conviction, this difficult life alone of Fr. John herself is the greatest miracle. Only a person with grace can endure for so many years such a mass of continuous labor, stress, so many different kinds of hardships.” We often heard reproaches addressed to the venerable shepherd even for the fact that he travels in a carriage, but as soon as those who said this came to Kronstadt and looked at the situation surrounding Father John, the impression would have been different: they would have seen that if he had walked, he would never have had the opportunity to satisfy the mass of demands that each new day brings with him. Since there are too many visitors to Kronstadt, especially during Lent, and staying in the few hotels is not always convenient, several enterprising people keep apartments for visitors. There are up to 20 such apartments in the city, and they are all crowded with visitors not only from St. Petersburg, but even from distant parts of Russia. Not everyone has the time to live in Kronstadt, and some do not even have the means, and therefore Father John tries to satisfy everyone every day by visiting all these apartments. Upon arrival at each of them, a general prayer service is usually served first, and then sometimes a separate one. Again, the tireless shepherd prays for everyone with spiritual zeal and heartfelt passion, forgetting that he has not eaten anything since yesterday and has not had time to replenish his strength. Again, requests for assistance, for help, for advice, for prayer are pouring in... Again, a generous, with the help of God, an inexhaustible hand, on the one hand, accepts, and on the other hand, distributes, and a loving heart again instills peace in troubled souls. -Where is Father John? - a visitor asks on the street. - But look, see if there are any “posadskys” somewhere. Where they are, there he is, follows the answer of a native Kronstadt resident. It turns out that the best sign of Father John’s presence somewhere is the presence of the “posad” beggars who relentlessly follow him on his heels. The detours are over. It's time to think about rest. But Father John forgets about him. Having stopped home for a minute to change his cassock, he is already in a hurry: in the summer - on a ship leaving for St. Petersburg, and in the winter - across the ice to Oranienbaum on the railway to get to the capital. Both at the steamship pier and at the station, the inevitable crowds of petitioners and those who want to just “take a look” at the “father” await him again... The crowd of his Kronstadt admirers cordially bid farewell to the good priest, sending wishes for a safe journey. The steamer is setting sail. And here he has no peace. Someone, without having time to talk and consult with Father John in Kronstadt, does it here, and again the tireless worker squanders material and moral benefits. Finally, he goes to the “wheelhouse” of the steamer, runs through the newspaper, then, folding his hands on his chest, walks around, intently praying or thinking about something, then sits down on a bench and with a smile, peacefully falls asleep in a quiet, calm sleep. The journey from Kronstadt to St. Petersburg is not long: only an hour and a half; Meanwhile, not yet reaching St. Petersburg a few miles, Father John, cheerful and cheerful, as if renewed, again walks around the ship, greeting his acquaintances... On the St. Petersburg pier, long before the arrival of the steamer, a new crowd of admirers awaits Father John, eagerly fixing their gaze on the approaching ship. Here and there, alarming cries are heard every minute: - Will Father be in St. Petersburg today? – No, it won’t!.. and so on, in the same spirit. But then the ship began to dock. A gangplank is thrown onto the pier. Father John heads ashore, accompanied by the passengers who came with him. Meanwhile, there is movement among those standing on the shore, and a stampede begins. Usually in these cases, if the arrival of Father John is known in advance, a police detachment is assigned in order to protect the venerable shepherd from the crush and give him the opportunity to get to one of the waiting carriages, which are mostly sent by different persons. Interesting scenes take place here: everyone is vying to get the “father” into their carriage. - “Into our carriage, father!” “Come to us, you promised!” sounds from all sides... After a short bickering between those around him, Father John gets into the carriage intended for him and begins traveling around St. Petersburg. He travels around the city without a psalm-reader, without any church paraphernalia, having only with him the epitrachelion, obligatory for the priest when performing services, the Holy Gospel and the holy cross. He goes to predetermined addresses, and gives preference to difficult patients, especially those in need of holy communion, having with him spare holy gifts for this purpose; but, due to his kindness, he does not refuse to attend various family and social celebrations, such as the opening of factories, etc. Many families are expecting Father John at home. Usually on this day there is revival and cleaning in the morning, just like before the holidays. And as soon as someone utters the magic word “Father John,” the news of his arrival spreads with incredible speed throughout the entire street, and in a few minutes a crowd grows in front of the house, and the same crush occurs as at the steamship pier. A carriage is approaching. The desired guest quickly jumps out of the carriage, trying to slip past the crowd as quickly as possible and get to the appointed apartment; with the same amazing ease and speed he runs up the stairs. When entering an apartment, he usually addresses its inhabitants with the words: peace to this house; if he is invited to the patient, then his first question is: -Where is the patient? Take me to him. After resting a little and asking his family about their marital status, he immediately goes into the room prepared for prayer. Kneeling and secretly praying, he addresses those present with an invitation to pray. “Let us pray,” he says: The Lord said to his disciples: where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them, and there are many of us gathered here, and if we have gathered with faith and love, then He is undoubtedly present among us. And so, friends, be it according to your faith. And setting an example for others, he begins to pray fervently, kneeling, sometimes with tears. “Lord Jesus Christ our God,” the words of the prayer are heard in the mute silence, “Whoever for the sake of our salvation deigned to bear the flesh, so glorifying the wonderfully verbal nature of Your ineffable compassion and goodness, and who in true repentance turns from the depths of sin, promise to forgive... - Good Lover of mankind, who made creation with one word and created man from it, take care of this fallen one and the slave of sin who was accepted and sanctified by Your ineffable love for mankind, so that the work of Your hand would not perish to the end, giving to this Your saving commandments in memory of Your coming and Your commandments, and the Divine incarnation... Having read the Gospel and performed the blessing of water, he ends the prayer service by inviting those present to venerate the cross and sprinkling them with holy water, Moreover, in the absence of sprinkler, he sprinkles it with a branch taken from some indoor plant. After sitting for a while, talking with the patient, comforting, reassuring, never refusing any meal, tasting a little, he hurries to another place, making his way with even greater difficulty through the doubled crowd to the carriage. Similar trips with similar meetings and prayers continue until late in the evening, until the last train or ship leaving St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, Father John almost never spends the night, not wanting to change once and for all the established rule of serving the Liturgy every day. It is difficult to describe the joy that occurs after his visit in every family, because in the presence of a good shepherd, those around him are imparted the same firm faith in the goodness of the Creator that Father John carries within himself, and this faith as a result produces good fruits. The prayer of Fr. is artless and simple. John, but his faith in the Redeemer is strong. We had to see that non-believers, skeptics, who condemned him before his arrival, at the sight of his prayer, involuntarily bowed their knees and prayed fervently. At the end of his travels around St. Petersburg, he goes to the Baltic Station, where again a crowd of people is waiting for him. Pressed from all sides, he barely makes his way into the carriage, not forgetting to give money to those in need. A mass of letters is thrown at the open window; the train starts moving; Father John stands at the window and, encouraged by expressions of gratitude and good wishes, blesses the crowd with a friendly smile, sending the words: – Farewell, brothers, farewell, my dears, farewell, friends!.. God bless you!.. Before the first, until the second station, he reads letters, and then, right up to Oranienbaum, he usually sleeps. In Oranienbaum there is an ordinary meeting and ordinary scenes. In the summer, Father John, crossing the Gulf of Finland on a ship, stands at the stern with his arms crossed on his chest and, asking not to disturb him, says the evening prayers. In winter, sitting in a wagon, with his hands folded in a cross shape, he prays all the way. Dark night. At the St. Petersburg Gate (that’s the name of the entrance to Kronstadt), an “army” is waiting for him any minute, and as soon as Father John manages to set foot on the ground, he is surrounded by “posad men” and again distributes alms for the night. If he accidentally finds out that in the city there is an urgent need for the services of some difficult patient, he, despite the late hour, calls for a psalm-reader and goes wherever such an urgent need arises. After everyone is satisfied, late at night, around one o’clock, he finally gets home, and at four or five o’clock, with morning prayer, he begins a new day, full of work and hardships. Thus we see that not a single minute of the venerable shepherd is wasted in vain. Always ready to help, to pray, always active, joyful, affectionate, he made a charming impression with his youthful figure, his kind, expressive face, his bright eyes, like pure crystal, in which endless meekness, spiritual joy and love shone. Full of life, always tireless, content with the shortest sleep, thin in appearance and not particularly physically strong, he fully justified the words of Holy Scripture: The power of God is made perfect in weakness. From the previous sketch, readers formed an idea of ​​how Father John spent his day in general. We see something completely different during the days of Lent, especially on Friday and Saturday. These days, as you know, Orthodox Christians begin the sacraments: repentance and communion. At this time, the ordinary life and activities of Father John changed in many ways. During Lent, Kronstadt is especially crowded with pilgrims arriving not only from St. Petersburg and Moscow, but also from the most remote outskirts of Mother Rus': from the borders of Siberia, from the far south, all believers strive here to open their souls, to sincerely repent before the good shepherd. All shelters for visitors and hotels are overcrowded at this time, so it is sometimes difficult for a late pilgrim to find shelter. These days, Father John, of course, does not go anywhere, except for the usual rounds of visitors. After reading the prescribed rule before confession, he usually begins to receive confessors from one or two o'clock in the afternoon. Can you imagine how long it takes to confess such a mass of people? Not a single day goes by when Father John does not confess until two o’clock in the morning, and sometimes immediately after confession he does not begin Matins. Father John confesses without screens at the lectern placed at the royal doors of one of the boundaries of the cathedral. Despite the fact that confession continues for more than half a day, despite the stale air in the cathedral, the toiling shepherd never has the habit of sitting down. Standing all the time, leaning on the lectern, he, with his characteristic patience, listens to everyone, encouraging him to look into the most remote recesses of the heart, and often sheds tears along with the repentant. Having heard someone confess to some special sin, he leaves the confessor, turns to the icon of the Savior and reads aloud a series of prayers of repentance to the Lord and the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven. Sometimes he retires to the altar and there, falling on his knees before the throne of the Most High, he prays secretly with tears. Throughout the day he eats almost nothing, except for the smallest amount of food (two or three salted mushrooms and a glass of almond milk). At about eleven o'clock in the evening, very tired, he usually turns to the confessors with the words: - Friends, I’ll leave you for half an hour, I’ll go get some air. And indeed, after driving around the city, half an hour later he returns again. Eyewitnesses can judge Father John's fatigue because he sometimes, upon entering the altar, straightens his tired limbs with effort, whispering to himself the words of prayer. Confession begins again. St. Andrew's Cathedral presents a breathtaking picture. Dark night. Complete darkness reigns all around, in some places only dispersed by the faint flickering of candles and lamps burning near local icons; condensed steam from the breath of hundreds of those present rises into the dome like a gloomy cloud. All around, in different corners, pilgrims were located: some sitting, some standing, and some straight stretched out along the walls on the floor. Next to some metropolitan dandy, as if by the whim of chance, stands some homely old woman, dressed in beggar's rags, who came 300-400 miles on foot to talk to the good priest. Some of the confessors conduct an abrupt conversation among themselves in a timid whisper, some, immersed in deep thought, are silent in concentration; and others, tired of the long wait in line, doze off. The silence is silent. Occasionally, one can only hear the sharp exclamations of Father John, praying for the repentant, or the words of a prayer of permissiveness: “Our Lord and God Jesus Christ, by the grace and generosity of His love for mankind, forgive you, child, all your sins: and I am an unworthy priest, by the authority given to me, I forgive and absolve all your sins... In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” His light, inclined figure appears in vague outline on the pulpit, surrounded by foggy twilight. In general, at this time, the internal appearance of the cathedral is reminiscent of those distant times of the first Christians, when the latter, in the same twilight, in the same mute silence, performed divine services in their catacombs, hiding from their pursuers. Of course, the confessors put money on the plate, which, as usual, stands near Father John, but most of it is immediately distributed to the poor, to whom he asks questions. - Don't you need money? And if the answer is affirmative, Father John, with a good-natured smile, immediately gives the needy a certain amount. In recent years, when, as is known, not only from the capital, but also from the distant outskirts of Russia to the island. A lot of people come to John to pray, talk and receive Holy Communion. He has secrets, oh. John, busy after the liturgy traveling until late at night, does not have the time and opportunity to confess thousands of people in just two hours (the interval between the early and late liturgy), so he resorts to general confession. Before proceeding to general confession, Fr. John reads all the prayers required by the rite of confession, and offers an explanation of the great significance of the sacraments of repentance and St. communion. And only at the sight of the sincere heartfelt repentance of the thousand-thousand crowd does he read the prayer of permission and, with great discernment, commune St. Tain.Noticing at the same time to almost everyone that if someone has something special, then let him tell him separately 7. We owe the above information to the excellent work of Mr. Zybin.