Детство о. Иоанна

A GREAT righteous man, a miracle worker and a man of prayer for the Russian land and for the entire Orthodox world, was born in the far north of Russia, in the town of Sura, on the banks of the Pinega River. A wonderful, picturesque region! The Pinega River rolls its waves among huge mountains of iron ore of a completely red color; there are mountains of alabaster and gypsum of a dazzling white color. My God, what mountains are these! Either they go for a whole mile with impregnable fortresses and suddenly end in deep gorges covered with dense greenery, or huge cliffs, which, at any moment, seem ready to collapse over the viewer’s head; at their base there are bizarre caves made by nature; Then colossal castles of the most fantastic shapes and outlines rise straight into the sky, and above all this magical world, high above there is a dense forest, and even higher - the light, blue northern sky. No artist in the world is able to draw this wondrous picture, which the Lord created with His single word: Let there be mountains! The huge rivers of the North are especially picturesque - the Northern Dvina and the beautiful Sukhona. On both sides of the Sukhona, there are almost continuously high mountains of the most diverse types and shapes, covered with luxurious and dense vegetation; every now and then you can see high on the mountains, all in greenery, picturesquely huddled villages, with beautiful white stone churches. In some places, the mountains are so high and closely packed above the river that it seems like you are driving along a colossal corridor with living walls made of earth, and above your head there is a blue sky instead of a ceiling. In this wild, harsh and sparsely populated region, our monasticism flourished in ancient times. Here in the North of Russia the venerables Tryphon and Theodoret, Zosima and Savvaty, Herman and Cyril and many others shone with their exploits. And to this day, a monument to the abundant grace of God that shone in this wild and deserted region is the many relics of the saints of God, who shone here with their exploits, holiness of life and miracles. The famous Russian pious traveler Andrei Muravyov at one time traveled throughout this region solely in order to venerate the relics of the holy saints, in abundance, like stars in the firmament of heaven, scattered throughout the North of Russia. The Christ-loving pilgrim described his pious journey in a wonderful essay: 2 “Russian Thebaid in the North.” From whom exactly did the “Russian Thebaid in the North” get its start? – Its spiritual founder was the famous All-Russian prayer book, Ven. Sergius of Radonezh. The Trinity-Sergius Lavra founded by him was a nursery from which “disciples of St. Sergius", future builders of the Northern Russian monasteries and miraculous prayer books for the Russian land. From these “students” Rev. Sergius of Radonezh subsequently new disciples appeared, who, like their spiritual “abbas,” retreated into the desert, building dugouts or cells there for prayer, which later sometimes turned into monasteries. Thus, Rev. Sergius of Radonezh is, as it were, a mighty fruitful tree from which the branches of the asceticism of the “Russian Thebaid in the North” grew. Over time, especially under the influence of foreign Western European trends, the desire for asceticism began to weaken in Rus', and at the same time the zeal of Russian people for holy monasteries began to cool, so that many, especially small, monasteries in the North of Russia ceased to exist and turned into parish churches. In the North of Russia there are many parish churches with the incorruptible relics of St. saints of God. These are the remnants of ancient Russian piety, these are monuments of hoary antiquity, when in the North of Russia the grace of God shone abundantly through His chosen vessels... This good old time has passed into eternity; Only the mighty waters of the Northern rivers, these silent witnesses of the past blessed greatness of our native North, silently keep memories of him... But if ancient Russian everyday forms have faded away in the North, many churches and monasteries have faded away, then what never dies and cannot die has not faded away - the souls of the ascetics of the ancient Russian North who have passed into eternity, the spirit of their ancestor, the All-Russian prayer book, Ven. Sergius of Radonezh. All the holy people of God, upon death, are honored with special closeness to the Risen Christ, like the rays of the sun, borrowing their power from the union with the sun and constantly illuminating the whole earth, with the cover of their grace-filled prayers they enlighten and shade the entire Russian land. The Risen Christ, through the prayers of St. Sergius and the ancient Russian northern ascetics, these gracious patrons of the North, chose a humble married couple, the rural poor reader Elijah and his wife the servant of God Theodora, so that from them the great prayer book of the Russian land would shine - Archpriest John Ilyich Sergiev, similar to another Great Russian prayer book, Ven. Sergius of Radonezh. It is significant that the surname of the “dear father” Fr. John "Sergiev" namesake with the name of Rev. Sergius of Radonezh. Dear Father himself. John found something significant in his surname “Sergiev”. In 1891, on June 29, during the consecration of the beautiful stone church he built in his native Sura (precisely the main chapel in honor of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker), Fr. John said: “Who is destined by God to create this majestic church?! Not a man distinguished by a noble family, or rank, or wealth, but an unborn man, the son of a poor village clerk, who served in the same village, in which, for at least three and a half centuries, priests from the “Sergius” family held the priesthood in succession at different times. Remember, reader, the picture of the church on the night before Easter Matins. Twilight. The icons of saints and other saints of God placed in the iconostasis are barely visible in the twilight. But then one candle is lit, then another, and the golden icons begin to shine with a bright brilliance, and it seems that the saints of God themselves rejoice with people about the Risen Christ... O. John, abundantly illuminated by the grace of the Risen Christ, was the lamp that illuminated and, as it were, resurrected before our spiritual gaze all the greatness and wondrous beauty of the Russian saints of God, from whom the darkness of sinfulness and unbelief removes us, like clouds. Looking at his gracious greatness, asceticism and miraculous power of prayer, everyone looked with reverence at the lives of other holy saints of God, becoming convinced of their truth and immutable reliability. And so, amid this spiritual beauty and external poverty, the Kronstadt lamp had to grow. Sura is located on one of the most beautiful turns of the Pinega River, at the confluence of the Sura and Pinega. She reigns high above the entire surrounding area. Far, far to the north you can see the blue of the mountains. “Here they are, the Letov Hills, which were five or six thousand years ago along the banks of the great Sura River.” (O. John. Diary for 1902). “On the southwestern side, where the Sura River flows, there is a long strip of land, closed by a hill on which a forest is spread. From the south, on the very edge of the horizon, covered with a haze of fog, stretches another forest, lost in the distance. In the distance, the Sura River snakes through this space, sparkling with its streams in the brightly shining sun. Peasants are working here and there, a cart is trundling, children are running.” (Zhivotov). A beautiful corner, but at the same time it is one of the most seedy corners, as we have already said, of the dark and poor Pinega region. And, of course, the hut of the psalm-reader Ilya Sergiev in the wretched village was far from rich. This hut has survived to this day. From it you can see in the midst of what deep poverty the childhood of the great righteous man, miracle worker and prayer book of the Russian land and the entire Orthodox world passed - dear Father Fr. John. On a dead autumn night, on October 19, 1829, in the far north on the banks of the Pinega River, in the village of Sura, Arkhangelsk province, Pinega district, 500 versts from the White Sea, in the poor family of the clerk Ilya Sergiev, in the most meager, sad circumstances, a boy was born - frail and, at first glance, sickly to such an extent that his parents, not hoping to save his life even for a few days, they decided to baptize him that same night, and gave him the name of St. John of Rila, whose memory is celebrated the next day. It could not have occurred to either the parents or anyone else at that time that this frail child was destined to grow stronger both in body and spirit, to grow stronger and subsequently thunder not only throughout the vast expanse of the Russian land, but also far, far beyond its borders. One cannot help but be amazed at how significant the birth of Father John was! Just as Christ was born in a poor environment, from simple parents, so as to put to shame the rich, powerful and wise of this world, so the great servant of the Risen Christ was born in the north in a wretched hut. Just as the life of the infant Christ was in danger from the bloodthirsty Herod, so the life of the newborn baby, the famous preacher of the Risen Christ, was in danger from his painful and weak bodily condition. After the christening, day by day, the health of the newborn began to noticeably improve, and the parents, attributing such a change to nothing other than the infinite goodness of Providence, manifested through the Holy Sacrament, with zealous piety began to raise the growing child. When Vanya began to grow up, his father diligently took him with him to church for Divine services, and his mother, being a worthy collaborator with her husband in raising her son, constantly guided his young, sensitive soul, directing her to bear the easy and good yoke of Christ, cultivating in Vanya a reverent attitude towards the rules and regulations of St. churches. And already here, in these years, the future Fr. John began to understand and feel what he calls the “soul” of worship. It was here in Van that the future inspired interpreter of Orthodox worship, Fr. John. “In the church,” he later wrote in his diary, all our sweet hopes and aspirations, our peace, our joy, along with purification and sanctification. Here the truth of the future resurrection, the victory of death, is so often proclaimed. Who who loves life will not love the church with all his heart?!” (“My Life in Christ,” Vol. II, 88 pp.). “In the church,” says Fr. John in another place in his diary, good, simple believing souls are like in the house of the Heavenly Father: so it is free for them here and easy, easy. Here true Christians anticipate the future kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world (Matthew 5:44), future freedom from all sin and death, future peace and bliss” (ibid., 292 pp.). And the father lay in wait for every manifestation of the child’s religiosity and gave him real good direction. Dear Father himself, Fr. John recalls this spiritual help from his father, uneducated, but strong in faith in God. This help was given, of course, most of all in the form of a book, a story... What did Vanya read about: about the saint, the divine, about Christ, His work and life, about the Mother of God, the saints, about how the saints lived in the deserts, how they were saved, endured hunger, poverty, they were not afraid of kings, they confessed Christ, how the birds of heaven brought them food, and the animals obeyed them, how in the place where their blood fell, flowers grew. And the image of Christ, the omniscient, omnipresent God, was pressed into his soul with sweet power, filling it with pure, reverent fear, and Christ becomes something close, dear... What his mother was like - we know enough from the stories about her. We will not repeat these stories, which are now difficult to verify, but of all of them, one thing is certain: she was a simple and strong woman with a believing simplicity. Religiosity without concessions or hesitation, faith in God without doubt, the authority of a mother - these are the features of a huge, majestic image, before which one cannot help but stop with reverent respect. This mother could guide her son. And she wanted not only to be stern, but also to love. The sick Vanya could often see, especially during smallpox, which almost brought him to the grave, his mother in tears in front of the icon of the Mother of God. He saw how she prayed for him, and he learned to merge with her in deep, soulful prayer. It is not surprising that under such conditions Vanya lived all the time in an atmosphere of prayer. His thoughts - already at this time were always grief - about God and the Heavenly Powers. For another 6 years, Vanya saw angels in reality. “One night,” says someone close to Fr. Ioannou Abbess Taisiya - 6-year-old Vanya saw an unusual light in the room... Looking, he saw an Angel in his heavenly glory among the light. Baby John, of course, was embarrassed by such a vision. The angel reassured him, calling himself his Guardian Angel, always standing around him for protection, protection and salvation from any danger. Often we can notice that parents forget to put moral foundations into the souls of their children, as a result of which the children show open disrespect and rude attitude towards their parents. This is not what we see in our deeply respected shepherd: from early childhood he represented the ideal of obedience, humility and tender filial love. During his life, on important occasions, despite the fact that he himself was a priest, a teacher of morality, he constantly turned to his mother for advice, although she was an illiterate woman, therefore, according to the concepts of many modern children, she could not give any advice. Here it would be quite edifying to cite the following fact, which eloquently testifies to how deeply rooted in the heart of dear priest Fr. John inherited from his mother respect for the rules of the church. One day, at the beginning of Lent, from strenuous exercise, from a cold, or perhaps from poor and improper nutrition, Fr. John became seriously ill. The doctors announced that the patient would certainly die if he did not immediately stop eating lean food: nutrition was the first condition, and yet the patient did not even want to take fish. “You will definitely die if you don’t eat meat,” they tell him. - Okay, I agree, but I’ll just ask my mother’s permission first. - In the Arkhangelsk province. – Write as soon as possible. At the request of the great Righteous Father John, on the same day they sent a letter to his mother with a request to send her blessing to her son as soon as possible for permission to eat fasting food during Lent. A week passed, then another. The patient is getting worse. Finally, I get a letter from my mother: “I send a blessing, but I do not allow you to eat fast food during Great Lent under any circumstances.” Father John met the answer with complete indifference and was even apparently pleased with the refusal. - So, won’t you eat meat? – the doctors asked him. “Of course I won’t,” Father John calmly answered. - The will of God. Do you really think that I would exchange my life for the blessing of my mother, for the commandments of the Lord: “Honor your father and your mother”... Despite, however, the doctors’ prophecy, the health of Fr. John's condition did not worsen, and he soon completely recovered. Father John's mother visited him several times and died on July 8, 1871. She is buried in Mt. Kronstadt cemetery. The townspeople treat her grave with great respect. In 1880, admirers of Father John built a beautiful chapel over the grave of his mother. Thanks to the moral influence of those around him, John grew up as a silent, self-centered boy, and only church services with chants and prayers delighted the soul of the meek youth. Living close to nature, he admired it: every blade of grass, every insect aroused in him humility and reverence for the greatness of the Creator of all things... This inner concentration was retained in him subsequently and in a different environment. And this love for nature, and humility, and reverence for the omnipotence of God was reflected in all his teachings. So in one place he says: “Wonderful is Your omnipotence, O Lord! As You said at the beginning, so to this day every grain, every sapling and tree obeys You! With the onset of spring, as soon as there is a sufficient amount of warmth for the development of plants, Your soulless creature begins marvelous work in the modest unknown of the bowels of the earth, also on the stems and branches of trees, without noise, without knocking, correctly, gradually. Here they come into the light of God: not a single piece of grass, not a single leaf, not a single tree will go astray, will not forget the image (shape) given to it, and look where it comes from: the grass on the ground or the leaf on the tree unfolds, becomes wider and wider, larger and larger, and, finally, the bare earth is covered with a beautiful multi-colored carpet that attracts both the eye and the sense of smell; and the trees dress up in thick leafy clothing and cover their members. So everything is done picturesquely, elegantly on our land from these plants! And all this comes as if from nothing, according to one word of the Lord, spoken once and forever! And we, brethren, do not we arise into being from the same non-existence? What are we at the beginning - in the loins of our fathers? (Heb.7:10). Isn’t it obvious through this that the Creator lets us know that in the beginning He brought everything from non-existence into being? Brothers, let us look at the plants and learn. How obvious and tangible is our Lord, our Almighty Father, in these plants! Every grass, every leaf, every flower seems to whisper to us: “The Lord is here!” Consider, brothers, the wise structure of plants and recognize God in them." From the age of 6, Vanya began to be taught to read and write. She didn't give it to him. Wanting to teach his chosen one to trust more in the enlightening grace of God than in weak human powers, the Lord tested him first with weak successes in his studies. “My father bought (O. John writes in his diary) an ABC book for me, but reading and writing was difficult for me, and I grieved a lot over my backwardness and lack of understanding. I could not in any way grasp the identity between our speech and writing, between sound and letter. Yes, this was not taught at that time with such clarity as it is now; we were all taught: “Az, Buki, Lead”, as if “A” by itself, “Az” by itself; For a long time I could not understand this wisdom, and when, in my tenth year, I was taken to the Arkhangelsk parish school, I had difficulty sorting through the warehouses, and then only from the printed ones. My father received, of course, the most insignificant allowance; life was terribly difficult. I already understood the difficult situation of my parents, and therefore my darkness in my teaching was a particularly heavy burden for me. I thought little about the significance of teaching for my future, and only grieved that my father was paying his last crumbs in vain.” Anxiously fearing for their son, the Sergievs sent their Vanya to school; they were afraid that he would not cope with his studies. And for the first time, their fear was justified. Life was not fun for Vanya in a strange city in extreme poverty. He grew up and studied alone, without friends, without support, immersed in himself, in his childhood thoughts and plans. Life was not sweet. Of course, the food was meager, but Vanya was used to it. The bad thing was that there were no books or paper... “I walked together with other poor people who were just as poor,” says Fr. John, - “collect” paper from public places. I remember how rich I felt when the executor of the consistory gave me, it seems, almost two hundred.” The thought of his home, of poverty there, painfully tormented him, and it seems that at that time he learned to feel with particular pain the need of others, to ache about other people's poverty, misery, at that time he most of all dreamed that when he grew up, he would bring both his father and mother out of need and help everyone. Van developed a painful sensitivity to suffering. In particular, in his life, this poverty of his parents tormented him, especially because he was not given a letter. School wisdom turned out to be even more difficult for him than initial studies. His mother’s affectionate help was not there, the teachers cared little about helping the students - and Vanya was at a loss... The school business was going badly. He worked all day long and still did not have time. What's left to do?.. For the religiously minded Fr. Sergiev had one outcome - prayer. And on Sunday 3 to console parents. And so, as I remember now, one day it was already evening, everyone went to bed. I was the only one who couldn’t sleep; I still couldn’t understand anything from what had been said, I still didn’t read well, didn’t understand or remember anything that was said. Such melancholy attacked me; I fell to my knees and began to pray fervently. I don’t know how long I stayed in this position, but suddenly it shook me all over... It was as if a veil had fallen from my eyes, as if the mind had opened up in my head, and the teacher of that day and his lesson clearly appeared to me; I even remembered what he was talking about. And my soul felt light and joyful. I have never slept so peacefully as I did that night. It got a little light, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my books and - oh happiness! – I read much easier, I understand everything, and what I read, I not only understood everything, but even now I can tell it. I felt differently in class than before: I understood everything, everything remained in my memory. The teacher gave me an arithmetic problem, I solved it, and they even praised me. In a word, in a short time I advanced so much that I was no longer the last student. The further I went, the better and better I did in the sciences, and by the end of the course I was one of the first to be transferred to the seminary.” Needless to say, Vanya’s religious mood did not weaken at all during these school years: the impressions he received from his family were too strong. “Do you know,” he said in a conversation with Abbess Taisia, “what, first of all, marked the beginning of my conversion to God and, even in childhood, warmed my heart with love for him? This is the holy Gospel. My parent had the Gospel in Slavic-Russian; I loved reading this wonderful book when I came home on vacation, and its style and simplicity of speech were accessible to my childish understanding; I read and enjoyed it and found in this reading a high and imperceptible consolation. This Gospel was with me in theological school. I can say that the Gospel was my childhood companion, my mentor, leader, comforter, with whom I became close from an early age.” Loneliness at school, on the contrary, raised and strengthened Vanya’s religious and prayerful mood: God was his only comforter. We know little about how his further student life went. There are only a few characteristic but random indications. School did not kill his love for nature. Nature still spoke to him, “as a friend and as a teacher, about God, eternity and truth.” His memoirs poetically describe his vacation trip home. You walk hundreds of miles, dragging your boots on your hands: that’s why the thing is expensive. I had to go through mountains and forests; harsh pines raise their slender peaks high. Creepy. – God is felt in nature. The pine trees seem like a long colonnade of a huge church. The sky turns a little blue, like a huge dome. The consciousness of reality is lost. I want to pray. “And all earthly impressions are alien - and it is so light in the depths of your soul and, it seems, the whole world is talking to you in solitude in silence and in its own incomprehensible language, and for years and centuries it freely echoes the solemn hymn to the omnipresent God.” “You walk and see dreams,” that is, you walk, but your thoughts are far, far away with God, with God... If parents want to make their children believers, pious Christians, then we strongly advise them to exercise them in carefully reading the works of our pious pilgrim Andrei Nikolaevich Muravyov: “Journey to Russian Holy Places” and “Russian Thebaid in the North.” There is no text in the scanned version of the book - note from the electronic edition.