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Holy Apostles from 70: Evoda and Onesiphora Ebod was a Jew from Antioch. He was the first successor of the Apostle Peter, who founded the Church in Antioch. His successor, Ignatius the God-Bearer, spoke about him in his letter to the Antiochians: “Remember the blessed Evod your father, who was appointed your first shepherd by the Apostles.” He died a martyr. It is known about the Apostle Onesiphorus from the 2nd letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy that “when all the Asians left him, then (his disciple) Onesiphorus laid him to rest many times and was not ashamed of his bonds, but being in Rome, he sought him with great diligence and found him”; “May the Lord give mercy to his house,” continues the Apostle Paul, speaking of Onesiphorus, “may the Lord grant him mercy from the Lord on that day; and how long he served me in Ephesus, you (Timothy) know better” (2 Tim. 1:15–18). According to some information, the Apostle Onesiphorus was the bishop of Colophon, near Ephesus. There is news about his death that he suffered in the city of Paria (not far from Ephesus), on the banks of the Hellespont, with his slave Porphyry, being tied to wild horses and dragging 14 miles. 36 Judith, daughter of Meraria and wife of Manasseh, from the same tribe and tribe, “beautiful in appearance and attractive in appearance,” lost her husband in her youth. Having remained after him a rich widow, she lived in her city of Bethulia and, without taking off the clothes of widowhood, she spent a God-pleasing life in strict fasting and prayer, and no one reproached her with an evil word, because she was very God-fearing (Book of Judith, Chapter VIII, 8). Such spiritual purity, which wised Judith’s mind, put her on the path on which she turned out to be capable of the feat of self-sacrifice and became the savior of her fatherland. At that time, “a command followed in the house of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Assyria, to take, as he said, vengeance on the whole earth,” to go to war against all the states of Asia Minor and neighboring kingdoms because they refused him the help that he demanded from them during the war with the Median king Arphaxad. At the end of the conference with all his dignitaries, Nebuchadnezzar, calling on the chief leader of his army, Holofernes, who was second in line, who did not obey the word of his mouth, and announced to them that they should prepare earth and water, because he would come out against them in anger, cover the whole face of the earth with their feet of his army and give them over to be plundered, and that the valleys and streams would be filled with their wounded, and the river would be filled with corpses. they will overflow, and he will scatter their captives to the ends of the whole earth... Holofernes commanded the disobedient not to spare, but to put them to death and plunder”... “And Holofernes set out on a campaign with all his army to precede King Nebuchadnezzar and cover the entire face of the earth in the west with chariots, cavalry and his chosen infantry. And his allies came out with him in such a multitude as locusts and as the sand of the earth, because their multitude was beyond counting...” “And a strong enemy came, laying waste everything in his path, burning out dwellings, plundering herds, laying waste the fields and beating the young men with the edge of the sword.” “Fear and horror fell on the inhabitants of the coastal country, who lived in Tire and Sidon, on the inhabitants of Sur and Okina, and on all the inhabitants of Iemnaan, and all the inhabitants of Azoth and Ascalon were greatly afraid of him... And those who were afraid expressed their submission to him.” The sons of Israel, who lived in Judea, were also frightened when they heard about everything that Holofernes had done to the surrounding nations, and “trembled for Jerusalem, for the temple of the Lord their God; because they recently returned from captivity” and did not yet have time to recover from the disasters caused to them by the Babylonian captivity; and with great zeal all the men of Israel cried out to God and humbled their souls with great zeal, and diligently and with one accord cried out to the God of Israel, so that He, to the joy of the pagans, would not give up their children to be plundered, their wives to be spoils, the cities of their inheritance to be destroyed, their holy things to be desecrated and desecrated. “And Joachim the great priest, and all the priests and His servants who stood before the Lord, having girded their loins with sackcloth, continually offered burnt offerings, vows, and willing gifts of the people.” Thus, having resorted to God and relying on His help, the Jews decided to resist the terrible enemy and began to prepare for war. Having learned about this, Holofernes became angry and, calling to himself the leaders of various nations who went with him to fight against the Jews, asked them what kind of people were they who dared to resist him? Then Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, told Holofernes all the wonderful history known to him of the God-protected people, sometimes punished by God when they deviated from the path bequeathed to them by their God, sometimes showered with blessings when they turned to their God, “for God is with them, who hates iniquity,” and concluded his story with the following advice: “Now, master lord, if there is error in this people, and they sin before their God, and we notice that there is this stumbling block in them, then we will go and overcome them; and if there is no lawlessness in this people, then let my lord leave, so that the Lord does not protect them and their God is not for them - and then we will be a subject of reproach for the whole earth” (Book of Judith, Chapter V). Hearing this, Holofernes and all those who were attached to his insolent advice of Achior were indignant... - “Who are you, Achior, with the mercenaries of Ephraim,” Holofernes exclaimed with anger, “that you prophesied to us today and told us not to fight with the race of Israel, because God protects them? Who is God if not Nebuchadnezzar? He will send his power and wipe them out from the face of the earth, and their God will not deliver them... “We, the servants of Nebuchadnezzar, will defeat them as one man, and they will not be able to withstand the strength of our horses. We will trample them; their mountains will be drunk with their blood, their plains will be filled with their corpses, and they will perish in death... “And you, Achior, who spoke these words in the day of your iniquity, from this day you will no longer see my face until I take revenge on this people who came from Egypt... When I return, the sword of my army and the crowd of my servants will pass through your sides, and you will fall among their wounded...” “And Holofernes ordered to take Achior to the city of Bethulia in Judea, so that he would be a messenger and a witness to the fulfillment of his words. The Jews received him with joy when they heard his story about what happened between him and Holofernes. All the people then fell and worshiped their God and cried out: “Lord, God of Heaven! Look at their pride (the enemy) and have mercy on the humility of our race, and look on the face of those sanctified by You on this day!” and they consoled Achior and praised him for his righteousness.” Meanwhile, Holofernes “brought out all his cavalry before the children of Israel who were in Bethulia, and, settling down in the valley, his regiments took possession of the waters and springs of water of the children of Israel,” in order to exhaust them with thirst and force them to surrender... Soon, seeing themselves surrounded by countless enemy troops, reaching the point of exhaustion from thirst, the inhabitants of Bethulia were indeed ready to surrender, which they expressed to the ruler of the city, Uzziah, and the elders. “Do not be discouraged, brothers,” Uzziah tried to encourage them then, “we will wait five more days, in which the Lord our God will turn His mercy on us, but if help does not come to us, then I will do according to your words...” At this disastrous time, when imminent death threatened the Jewish people, their salvation arose in the person of a valiant woman - a pure and high soul and a God-fearing Judea. Having learned about the people’s appeal to Uzziah with a proposal to surrender the city to the enemy and about Uzziah’s response, she called Uzziah and the two elders of the city to her and said to them: “Your word that you spoke today before the people is not right, and you made the oath that you swore between God and you, and said that you will surrender the city to our enemies if these days the Lord does not help us... Who are you who have tempted God today and stood instead of God among the sons of men? Behold, you are now testing the Lord Almighty, but you will never learn anything; because you cannot comprehend the depths of a person’s heart and cannot understand the words of his thoughts, how can you experience God, who created all this, and know His mind, and understand His thoughts? No, brothers, do not anger the Lord our God; for if He does not want to help us in these five days, then He has the power to protect us on whatever days He pleases, or to defeat us in the face of our enemies. “Do not pledge the advice of the Lord our God: God cannot be threatened as a man, nor can he be pointed out to Him as a son of man. “Therefore, expecting salvation from Him, let us call upon Him to help us, and He will hear our voice, if it pleases Him.” Remembering at the same time how the Lord tested their forefathers. Judith added: “just as God tempted them not to torment their hearts, so we should not take revenge, but only for admonition the Lord punishes those who approach Him (Jude. Chapter VIII), and He will not abandon His mercy to those who serve Him alone.” Finally, Judith, with the holy boldness of true faith, announced to Uzziah and the elders that she would accomplish a work that would be carried by the sons of the family of Judah throughout the generations of generations... and that in the course of the days after which they decided to give the city to the enemies, “The Lord will visit Israel by her hand...” “Tonight I will leave the city with my maid,” said Judith, “just do not ask me about my enterprise until it is completed.” “Go in peace,” Uzziah and the elder told her in response to her words, “and the Lord God is before you to take vengeance on our enemies!” - and they left Judith’s tent and went to their regiments. Judith, having dismissed the leaders, “fell on her face and cried out to the Lord her God with a loud voice: “The Lord is Your name!” Crush the strength of the enemies with Thy power and destroy their strength with Thy wrath: for they have plotted to defile Thy sanctuary, to mock the peaceful village of the name of Thy glory, and to break with iron the horn of Thy altar. “Look at their exaltation, send Your wrath on their heads, give my widow’s hand strength for what I have planned. With the lips of my cunning, defeat the slave before the leader and the leader before his servant, and crush their pride with a woman’s hand... For Your strength is not in the multitude, and Your might is not in the mighty; but You are the God of the humble, You are the helper of the humble, the protector of the weak, the patron of the discouraged, the Savior of the hopeless. Thus, thus, God of my father and God of the inheritance of Israel, Lord of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all Your creation! Hear my prayer, make my word and my cunning a wound and a wound for those who have planned cruel things against Your covenant, Your holy house, the height of Zion and the house of the inheritance of Your sons. Give understanding to all Your people and every nation, so that they may see that You are God, the God of all strength and power, and there is no other protector of the family of Israel besides You!” Having strengthened her soul with prayer, Judith dressed in her best clothes and at night, together with her maid, left the city towards the enemy camp. - Whose are you? Where are you coming from and where are you going? - the soldiers who were in the advanced guard of the Assyrians asked Judith when she approached them. “I am the daughter of the Jews and I am fleeing from them, because they will be handed over for destruction...” Judith answered them, “I am going to Holofernes, the leader of your army, to proclaim the words of truth and show him the path that he will go and take possession of the entire mountainous country, so that not a single man and not a single living soul of his husbands will perish.” When these people listened to her words and peered into her face, she seemed to them a miracle of beauty, and they said to her: “You saved your soul by hastening to come to our lord; Go to his tent, and our men will escort you until they hand you over to his arms. When you stand before him, do not be afraid in your heart, but express your words, and he will benefit you.” And Judith, accompanied by guards, went to the tent of Holofernes, who was resting on a luxurious bed at that time, but, hearing about the appearance of a woman from Bethulia, he went out to her and, struck by the beauty of Judith, like all his soldiers, began to ask her about the reasons for her coming to him. Then she told him that she was “a pious servant, serving the God of Heaven day and night,” and had received notification from her God that the Jews would be delivered into the hands of Holofernes, and therefore came to him to avoid death. At the same time, she warned Holofernes that, if he did not want to be repulsed and was unsuccessful, he should not attack Bethulia until the Jews angered God by deciding to eat food prohibited by the Law of Moses, for “the sword has no power over them unless they sin before God...” “But since they are already ready to break the law, forced by the shortage of water and food as a result of the siege, then as soon as they commit this sin, they will be handed over to destruction,” continued Judith, “that is why I, your servant, fled from them, and God sent me to do things with you that will amaze the whole earth, wherever they hear about them...” “Now, my lord, I will stay with you; just let your servant go out into the valley at night to pray to God, and He will reveal to me when they commit their crime. I will come and announce it to you, and then you go out with all your army, and none of them will oppose you. I will lead you through Judea until we reach Jerusalem; I will place your seat in the midst of it, and you will drive them (the Jews) like sheep that have no shepherd..." “Holofernes and all his servants liked her words. They marveled at her wisdom and said: from one end of the earth to the other there is no woman so beautiful in face and wise in speech.” Holofernes, captured by Judith, believed her and left her to do as she pleased. And she stayed in the enemy camp in a separate tent for three days. And at night she went out into the valley of Bethulia and, “as she went out, she prayed to the Lord God of Israel that he would guide her to the deliverance of the sons of His people.” On the fourth day, Holofernes held a feast, to which he invited a Jewish woman, to whom “his heart moved,” and said to her: drink and have fun with us... And Judith answered him: “I will drink, my lord, because today my life has been magnified in me more than in all the days since I was born.” But, being present at the feast, Judith did not touch the luxurious treat prepared, but ate and drank what was prepared by her maidservant. Holofernes “admired her and drank a lot of wine, more than he had ever drunk, not even on the day of his birth,” so that when the feast ended and everyone left, they laid him unconscious on his bed in a tent. Only Judith remained with him. At that moment, an opportunity presented itself for her to fulfill her intention... - "God! - she cried out to God at this decisive moment: “Lord, God of all power!” - Look at this hour on the works of my hands to the exaltation of Jerusalem, for now is the time to defend Your inheritance and fulfill my intention - to defeat the enemies who have risen against us! - Then, going up to the bedpost that stood at the head of Holofernes, she took his sword from him and, approaching the bed, grabbed the hair of his head and said: Lord, God of Israel! Strengthen me this day! - And with all her strength she hit Holofernes twice on the neck and took his head off, and, throwing his body off the bed, took the curtain from the pillars and, after a little time, left the tent and, giving Holofernes’s head to her maid, hurried with it to Bethulia, taking advantage of the permission given to her to go outside the camp to pray. Approaching the gates of her hometown, Judith shouted to those guarding them: open, open the gates! God, our God, is with us to give more strength to Israel and victory over their enemies, as He has granted today.” - And when, having heard her voice, they opened the gates and all the inhabitants of the city and the elders came running, Judith said to them in a loud voice: Praise the Lord, that He did not remove His mercy from the house of Israel, but that night crushed our enemies with my hand! - And, taking her head out of the bag, she showed it and said to them: “Here is the head of Holofernes, the leader of the Assyrian army, and here is his curtain, behind which he lay intoxicated, and the Lord struck him with the hand of a woman... The Lord lives, who preserved me on the path that I walked; for my face deceived Holofernes to his destruction, but he did not commit a shameful and shameful sin with me ... " The astonished people bowed down and unanimously cried out to the Lord: Blessed are You, our God, who today humiliated the enemies of Your people! “And Uzziah said to Judith: Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God more than all the women on earth, and blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth and who guided you to defeat the head of the chief of our enemies, for your hope will not depart from the hearts of people who remember the power of God forever.” May God credit this to you with eternal glory and reward you with blessings for the fact that you did not spare your life during the humiliation of our race, but stepped forward when we fell, you who walked right before our God! - And all the people said: let it be, let it be! “And Achior, called from the house of Uzziah, seeing the head of Holofernes and learning what Judith had done, fell at her feet, bowed to her and said: Blessed are you in every village of Judah, and in every people who, having heard of your name, will be amazed! “And seeing all that the God of Israel had done, he truly believed in God and joined himself to the house of Israel.” Meanwhile, Judith, having ordered the head of Holofernes to be hung on the city wall, proposed the next day, when morning came, that the Jews, taking weapons, go out in detachments to the sunrises of the mountain - with the goal that the enemies would sooner and more unexpectedly learn about the death of their leader and be embarrassed. - So it was. Seeing the Jews, the Assyrian leaders hastened to go for orders to the tent of Holofernes and learned with horror what the Jewish woman had done... “and their souls were greatly troubled, and fear and trembling fell on those in the tents, who, abandoning all of them, fled along all the roads of the plain and the mountainous country, and those camped in the mountainous country near Bethulia also fled.” Then the Jews chased the enemies and began to defeat them from all sides until they passed beyond Damascus and beyond its borders. Other residents of Bethulia attacked the Assyrian camp, plundered it and became very rich: for 30 days they collected the booty left after the flight of the Assyrian army. Judith was ordered to give up the tent of Holofernes with all the precious things that were in it. Then all the people and their elders who lived in Jerusalem, and the great priest Joachim himself came to greet the deliverer of the people of Israel. “And all the women of Israel came running to see Judith, and blessed her, and formed a choir for her; She took into her hands the wands entwined with vine leaves and gave them to the women who went out with her; and they all put olive wreaths on themselves. Judith walked ahead of all the people in the choir and led all the wives with her, and began a song of thanksgiving in front of all Israel, and all the people sang along with this song: “I will sing a new song to my Lord! - she sang, “You are great, Lord, and glorious, marvelous in strength and invincible!” Let every Thy creature work for Thee: for Thou hast spoken, and it was done; You sent Your Spirit and - everything was settled - and there is no one who could resist Your voice! Mountains with waters will be removed from their foundations, and stones like wax will melt at Your presence; but You are merciful to those who fear You! “Every sacrifice is small for the stench of aroma, and all the fat is of little importance for a burnt offering to You; but he who fears the Lord is always great!” Arriving in Jerusalem, where the Jews celebrated their deliverance from the enemy in front of the sanctuary for three months, Judith gave all the jewelry of Holofernes that she had received as a sacrifice to the Lord. - Upon her return to Vetiluya, she lived on her estate and was at one time famous throughout the whole earth. And she grew old in her husband’s house, living to be one hundred and five years old, and after her death she was buried in the cave of her husband Manasseh. “The house of Israel mourned her for seven days. And no one again terrified the children of Israel in the days of Judith, and for many days after her death...” When the ruler of Cilicia arrived in the city of Pompeopolis and on this occasion celebrations were held and many sacrifices were made in the churches, then a certain young man Sozont, a shepherd of sheep, arrived in the city and, entering the church at night, took the hand from the golden idol, crushed it and distributed it to the poor. An investigation into the disappearance began and many were brought in for questioning; Sozont, not wanting the innocent to suffer, came to the ruler himself. When asked why he did this, Sozont replied that he did so to clearly prove that idols are not gods. The ruler urged him to renounce Christ, and as Sozont remained unshakable in his faith, he was subjected to torture, in which the saint died (in 304). †Saint John, Archbishop of Novgorod In 1439, through the zeal of St. Euthymius, repairs were made to the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. In the vestibule of the cathedral, in the side church of St. Forerunners, a stone suddenly came off the wall and hit the roof of the tomb standing there so hard that the roof collapsed. The priest, who happened to be in the church at that time, hastened to tell the archbishop about this. The saint ordered the broken stone tablet to be raised in his presence, and the church was filled with a fragrance; The archbishop, with candles in his hand, leaned towards the coffin and saw the incorruptible relics of the saint. But who is this saint? No one could tell either from legend or from references with records 37. The saint ordered the tomb to be closed and, returning to his cell, he began to fervently pray to the Lord to reveal, if it pleases Him, who is this saint? And then one night the saint clearly appeared before him, clothed in the robes of the saint. “Who are you, my lord, who came here secretly?” Euthymy asked him. “I am the one,” answered the one who appeared, whom you saw lying in the tomb and for whom you prayed: “I am Archbishop John, honored to serve the miracle of the Most Holy Theotokos, Her honorable sign. “I proclaim to you the will of God,” the one who appeared continued, “to commemorate the archbishops and princes lying here on October 4; I will pray to Christ for all Christians.” In confirmation of the same will of God, there was then another vision: the previously departed archbishops came out of the altar one after another in order as if on a great exit, stood in front of the Korsun Icon of the Mother of God and began to sing and sang for a long time. 38 Let us ask first of all, at what time does the heavenly messenger appear with the will of God for the Russian Church? In 1437, Metropolitan Isidore went to the west to seek the will of God about the Orthodox Church. Two or three years later, he announced in the Russian Church a new ruler of the Universal Church - the pope with his strange statutes, which the Russian Church had not wanted to know until then. It is at such a time that they declare to the Russian Church that it must value its saints and its rulers! This means that there is no need for her to look for light in the dark west - she has light. Just let her be attentive to her past, so rich in various gifts of grace, and that’s enough for her. Let us add to this that at the same time another saint of God, Rev. Sergius declared the same will of God about the West to Simeon of Suzdal, who was in Florence with Isidore. 39 Novgorod, too busy with the present, began to forget about its past: it forgot the greatest of its saints, through whom wonderful help was provided to it. If Novgorod itself admits that it no longer has people who remember its great past, then it would be imprudence to accept without caution everything that only from now on it will talk about the great Saint John; Given this situation, it is natural that the two Novgorod legends about St. John finds himself with 40 errors; Naturally, especially since the most ancient chronicles, so accessible to us, were not easily accessible to St.’s contemporaries. Euphemia. Blessed John, before he was elevated to the degree of archpastor, served as a priest under the Hieromartyr Blasius on Volosovaya Street, on the Sophia side, where the idol of Volos once stood 41. Then he accepted monasticism with the name Elijah 42. His life was an example of piety and brought him fame. 1163 Bishop Arkady died. In his place, “by the prince, the council of monks and priests and all the people,” Elijah was elevated to the bishop’s court 43. He was ordained to the rank of archpastor in Kyiv by Metropolitan John on March 28, 1165 and returned to Novgorod on May 11. In the same year, the Novgorodians sent abbot Dionysius to Kyiv to petition Metropolitan John so that their archpastor would be honored with the rank of archbishop, and their request was fulfilled 44. So St. Elijah became the 10th bishop of the great Novgorod and its first archbishop 45. One of the initial actions of his archpastoral service was that, having performed a procession of the cross near the wooden city on Trinity Week and served the liturgy in the monastery of White Nicholas, which is at the Nerevsky end, he ordered the abbot to set up a hostel in that monastery 46 . Probably at the same time the women's Forerunner Monastery 47 was founded at the Nerevsky end. Soon a difficult time came for Novgorod and its archpastor. Having rejected Prince Svyatoslav, sent by the Prince of Suzdal, and accepted Prince Roman, the son of the Kyiv Prince Mstislav, the Novgorodians alienated Prince Andrei of Suzdal. He was especially irritated by the fact that the Novgorodians sent to collect tribute from the Dvina region, which deviated from them to Andrei, and defeated the army there. In the winter of 1169, Andrei sent a huge army against Novgorod - 72 princes under his control. On the road to Novgorod, the troops gave no mercy to anyone or anything in the Novgorod region - they robbed and burned settlements, people were put to death; The Novgorodians hurried to strengthen the walls of the city, but everyone was in fear; their archpastor fervently prayed to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother. The siege of Novgorod had been going on for two days. The Novgorodians began to weaken, and the arrogant enemies were already dividing the streets of the rich city among themselves in their dreams. On the third night, when the blessed archbishop was praying before the image of the Savior, he heard a voice: “go to the Church of the Savior, which is on Elijah Street, take the icon of the Mother of God from there, take it to the city wall and you will see salvation.” With the onset of day, the archbishop sent his archdeacon with the choir residents for the icon; but the icon did not move from its place. He himself went with the council of clergy, and after the prayer service the icon was freely transferred to the city wall. The people prayed with screams and tears. The besiegers fired a whole cloud of arrows at the city and at the worshipers. The icon miraculously turned away from the enemies and turned to the city. The saint saw tears flowing from the eyes of the Mother of God; drops fell on his veil. The people of Suzdal suddenly fell into fear; in the general confusion they amazed each other. And the Novgorodians, coming out of the city, quickly attacked them; some were beaten, others were put to flight, others were taken prisoner. The people of Suzdal suffered a terrible defeat. So much was taken in the plan that they willingly took two legs for a ransom from Suzdal. This was February 25, 1170 48. The saint established a holiday in honor of the miraculous icon. It is remarkable that on it the blessing hand of the Savior is folded in a name, and on the sides of His head there is an inscription: Isa. Chr. 49. In the same year, the grateful archpastor founded the Annunciation Monastery at Lake Myachine, 3 versts from Novgorod and 2 versts from the Yuriev Monastery 50. The Suzdal War, despite the fact that it ended in the defeat of the Suzdalians, left behind sad devastation in the Novgorod region; the archpastor had to take care of bloodless poverty, of poor families devastated by war and suffering hunger in a devastated region - and he generously gave help to the unfortunate. He convinced the Novgorodians to ask for peace from the strong prince. Andrei and remove the prince, who is unpleasant for him, from himself. Romana. The Novgorodians did both, but Andrei still showed displeasure against Novgorod. The saint (1172) himself went to Vladimir to reconcile Andrei Yuryevich with the Novgorodians and, giving him some right over the mayor of the free city, calmed the offended prince 51. Novgorodians cannot be given the honorable name of quiet people; the most unfounded rumors created excitement in these free people and led them beyond the boundaries of truth and love. The archpastor's charitable love for poverty, to whom people of every rank and gender turned for help, was turned into food for slander. Rumors arose about the unchastity of the archpastor. The people became agitated, gathered at the archpastor’s house and made a decision to drive the archpastor out of the city with dishonor. Said and done. They dragged the saint to the great bridge, lowered him onto the Volkhov - onto a joyless raft, and left the speed of the waves to carry, wherever they wanted, an unworthy shepherd, in their opinion. - But the truth of God stood up for St. shepherd The raft, instead of being carried away down the river, went to the Yuryev Monastery. The peaceful monastery met the archpastor who came ashore. - But the truth of God stood up for St. shepherd The raft, instead of being carried away down the river, went to the Yuryev Monastery. The peaceful monastery met the archpastor who came ashore. The Novgorod residents came to their senses, saw both their insolence and frivolity, and with humility asked the saint to forgive them. The kindly saint asked the Lord to forgive them their sins. In memory of this event, a stone pillar was erected at the Yuryev Monastery. And the chronicle noted in 1176: “Volkhov walked against the current for up to 5 days.” 52 In 1179, the saint and his brother Gabriel built a magnificent stone Church of the Annunciation in their monastery; The church was founded on May 21 and completed on August 25, within 70 days. 53 In the same year, the stone Church of the Epiphany was laid over the gates of the same monastery, but it was completed in 1182. 54 In 1184 he built a stone church of St. Forerunners 55; this was the second church in honor of St. John, built under St. John the Archbishop; before that, on the Sofia side, a stone church was built in honor of the beheading of the head of the Predtecheva by Mikhail Domanezhich; and brother St. John Gabriel, who served as priest in his place at St. Blasius, built a new wooden church of St. Vlasia 56. The blessed archpastor loved to talk with the abbots about spiritual salvation, told them the lives of the great saints and on every occasion taught the people of his flock not to forget eternity 57 . Domestik Kirik, a contemporary of St. John, preserved up to 30 rules taught by the saint for his clergy. Let us repeat here the most remarkable of them: 1) about baptism: “if it is not known whether someone is baptized or not baptized, should one be baptized? If there is no witness (to baptism), baptize 58. 2) About confession: a) “if a person wants to go from his spiritual father to you, tell him: ask him for leave. If you do not want to anger that father and decide to secretly accept a new spiritual son, inspire him: you take a prayer from the former father and give him a gift, as before, and with me, keep your confession secretly and listen to me: but know that if you are like the other, as you were with the former father, it will not benefit you.”59 b) “If a person repents and has many sins, he should not immediately impose a large penance, but first assign something small and, when he learns to do it, add it little by little, and not burden him too much. c) If someone under penance goes on a long journey, allow him to do so and read him a prayer of permission; just let him keep the commandment given to him by his confessor; if anyone goes to war or gets sick, give him communion” 60. d) “If a person wants to repent and says that he cannot give up sin: accept his confession, so that after hearing your reproof, he will fall behind” 61. 3) Oh holy. Eucharist: a) “if during the service it happens that the priest or deacon forgets to pour wine or water into the chalice and notices this after the words are pronounced: holy of holies, the body itself will be crushed and even part of it put into the chalice: then the clergyman, taking the chalice, let him take it to the small altar (on the altar), pour wine and water into it, pronouncing the words proskomedia: “one of the warriors with a spear,” then let him put the cup in its place (on the throne) and bless only that one, saying: “and in this cup, the precious blood of Thy Christ,” to which the deacon will answer: Amen. Then let them receive communion according to custom, with an infusion of warmth, and finish the service without adding anything else or taking out the new Lamb. And after that, the deacon or priest, whoever is guilty of them, must undergo penance.” b) “If it happens that a mouse begins to gnaw the Lamb during the service, and the priest sees this before or after the transfer of St. gifts: then, having cleansed what he started with a knife, let him continue the service, and not take out a new Lamb, let him put the crumbs on the liton and then put them on the water.” c) “If a priest allows another priest to give communion to his spiritual son, and meanwhile his guilt is known, for which it would be impossible for him to receive communion: should he be given communion? When you do not recognize the guilt, give; and when you find out, don’t give it, and tell that priest: why, brother, are you allowing him to receive communion, and he’s doubtful about you” 62 . The rule of St. John “to the monks” breathes spiritual anointing. The saint teaches: “Once they have followed Christ, monks, workers of the spiritual life on the cross, must live in solitary places, remote from worldly people. Let them not rob themselves of anything, nor of everything dedicated to God. They should not enter into worldly affairs, nor into feasts and meat treats; Let them not celebrate the Lord’s spiritual holiday in a carnal and worldly manner, but let them celebrate spiritually with the spiritual. There should be no lay people visiting the monastery, especially women. Those who have renounced the world and worldly things should not make friends with the laity, and should not worry about their relatives. Let them not hide gold and silver, and let them not collect property. Let them be monks in everything, and at a place of residence separate from others, as they say according to the interpretation of 3 and 4 rules of the Council of Chalcedon. They must honor the elders of spiritual monasticism, i.e. Abbots. For the love of God, leaving behind everything worldly, holding firmly to the Lord, a monk must be a monk at every time and in every place - both in sleep and in wakefulness, preserve the memory of death and be incorporeal in the flesh. – Not for everyone the monastery serves as a rebuke to voluptuousness, as silence is to anger, death is to greed for money, and the coffin is to burrowing. Therefore, we must be careful lest through recklessness and fearlessness we perish and destroy those under our control, without beingware of dangerous places and times, worldly beauties that console us to the point of carnality, addiction to perishable things, and friendship with the laity. Conversations with worldly people make the mind go blind, and when they are removed, darkness appears. Worldly conversations are a snare, they aggravate you with worldly purchases (2. Timothy II, 4), with iron sorrows, they weaken you in the Lenten struggle, they deviate from spiritual work, they alienate you from the high life of contemplation and lead you into fornication. – It is necessary, for fear of harm to the soul, to avoid conversations with them. - Monastic and worldly life are incompatible, just as a camel and a horse are not harnessed together. The monk bowed his neck under the yoke of the Creator and must carry the plow in the valley of humility in order to multiply the beautiful wheat under the warmth of the life-giving Spirit and shine with drops of the mind of God. The devil does not control himself: if you are led by the Spirit of God, you are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14). And he gave them, he said, the power to become children of God (John 1:12). And one more thing: you will be gods and you will all be called sons of the Most High (Ps. 81:6). Being gods, beware lest you decay like people and fall from heights like the Light-Bearing Prince, the Great Faster. If the daughters of humanity love, i.e. human glory, from them are born fools (Gen. 6:4), - from human glory arrogance is heard. God said: My Spirit shall not abide in these men, since they are filled with the lusts of the flesh (Gen. 6:3) in their spirit” 63. Shortly before the death of St. Elijah refused the throne, appointed his brother Gabriel as his successor and, having accepted the schema with the name John, died on September 7, 1185. 64 After the death of St. 670 years have already passed since the archpastor, and his holy mantle is still intact; it is cornflower blue in color and of material similar to dug velvet, with satin sources of white and red color, with red tablets. It is kept in the Sofia sacristy 65. † The Suffering of the Venerable Martyr Macarius of Kanevsky Blessed Macarius lived in a difficult time - the time of union and finally died as a martyr. He was born in the city of Ovruch, in Volyn, in the 110th century. from Kyiv 66. His pious Tokarevsky parents raised him in the fear of God according to the rules of Orthodoxy. From a young age, Macarius loved prayer and the church of God; from household chores he went to church from his parents' house and was assigned to serve clergy in order to learn from them spiritual life; the bustle of the world only bored him. The terrible time of union involuntarily turned everyone to piety, especially those who heeded their eternal salvation. Blessed Macarius entered the Ovruch monastery. Here prayer and studying the works of his fathers were his favorite pastimes. To this day, a book of works by St. is kept in the Pereyaslav Cathedral. John Chrysostom with the handwritten signature of Rev. Macaria. In Ovruch he received the rank of hierodeacon and hieromonk, and then the title of abbot of the Ovruch monastery. He remained the rector of the Ovruch monastery for 16 years, in 1557, and suffered many troubles and troubles from the fanatics of papism. These people more than once attacked his monastery, plundered church property and betrayed its monks with ridicule and dishonor. The brothers languished and at times became despondent; The monk consoled them with hopes for God's providence and for a blessed eternity. He especially loved the psalms of David and with them he healed the sorrows of his brethren. Repeat, he told them, repeat often the words of David: The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior: whom will I fear? If battle arises against me, I will trust in Him (Psalm XXVI, 3). Once the predatory Tatars surrounded the monastery, with the intention of predatory robbers; Having carried out looting in the surrounding area, they kept the closed monastery under siege, so that the monks could not go out for water or bread. The monk prayed and finally, in council with his brothers, decided to go out against the Tatars with spiritual weapons; Having performed a prayer service in the church, the cathedral of monks with icons and banners left the gates of the monastery. “The Tatars were so frightened that they rushed to run and scattered, leaving even all the sick under the walls of the monastery. This miraculous deliverance of the monastery from the devastation that threatened it filled the hearts of the monks with grateful joy and inspired them with firmness. After that, the Latins, together with the Uniates, came in a crowd to the monastery and challenged the reverend abbot to unite with them in the spirit of love, or to argue with them about faith. The monk answered: “What kind of communication is possible for you and me? You abandoned the rules of the Ecumenical Councils, accepted the traditions of lies, and instead of being under the head - Christ the Lord, you bowed down to the ruler of the earth.” When opponents said that they too had a Christian faith, he replied: “Show me your faith in deeds. Are your deeds Christian when you kill people and destroy institutions that foster Christian piety? ABOUT! The Lord will reward you with His judgment for your deeds!” Soon after, the Poles, instructed by the Jesuits, destroyed the monastery of Macarius along with the city of Ovruch and devastated the entire surrounding area. The monks of Macarius scattered wherever they could. Chernigov Archpastor Lazar Baranovich, who was informed of his disaster by Blessed Macarius, wrote to Fr. to Archimandrite Ovruchsky on May 16, 1671: “I’m very sorry about that adventure, which you could not refuse. In this sorrow, seek consolation in God alone, Who loves whom He also punishes. You are like a rose between thorns: it grows between them, but they do not harm it at all; You will flourish in the Church of God for a long time, as in a helicopter city, until you reach heaven. And Christ did not easily acquire the crown with which He is now adorned: first on earth He endured thorns on His head and then received an unfading crown in heaven. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly from adversity (2 Peter 2:9). The righteous man has many evils, but the Lord will deliver him from them all (Ps. 33:20). I really wanted to live on friendly terms with you at the All-Merciful Savior (in the Novgorod-Seversky Monastery), or wherever you liked; but now these basts are not torn; Before it was much more convenient to find a place than now. At present, we ourselves are eating bread in exhaustion (Ps. 136:2), but we are ready to share the same with you, because there is nothing else anywhere, except where there is no sickness, no sorrow, no sighing. After many years, I wish you many abodes in heaven and with my prayers I send a blessing.” The guardian archpastor cared a lot about the sufferer. He wrote to the hetman: “his grace Fr. Archimandrite Ovruch, being unable to live peacefully in his archimandry, robbed by hordes and Poles, deprived of servants who were killed, while the estates were taken away, went to worship the holy places of Kyiv; being my tonsure, he visited me as a father’s son and told me about his misfortunes. Deign, your nobleness, to graciously accept him as a worthy and deserved person in the Church of God; listen to him with confidence, as being completely worthy of faith.” 67 According to the notes about Blessed Macarius, he lived after that in the Kyiv Lavra and was then appointed abbot of the Kanevsky monastery. 68 When the untalented son of the great father, Yuri Khmelnitsky, did not know where to lay his head, the blessed abbot Kanevsky gave him shelter at home. 69 Tradition has preserved several wondrous deeds of St. abbot of Kanevsky. One day a resident of Kanev came to him, having lost his sight from an illness that covered his body with scabs. The disease was partially alleviated with the help of medicine; but his sight did not return, and no advice from doctors was of any use to the blind man. On the advice of his family, he turned to Rev. for advice. Macarius. The monk answered that he had no medicine, but offered gospel advice: believe and pray to the One who gave sight to the blind; Go, added the monk, to the evening of the Epiphany of the Lord and pray. The monk himself celebrated the vigil, praying for the blind man. When he said in the prayer of the church: “Great are You, O Lord, and wonderful are Your works,” the blind man felt that a sharp ray of light passed past his eyes, and he began to see everything. In gratitude, he built a church in honor of the Epiphany of the Lord. Another experience: the son of one mother was a young man who led an absent-minded life. The grieving mother revealed her grief to the monk and asked for his help. The monk undertook to heal his soul-sick son and either called him to himself or visited his mother’s house, persuading the son to come to his senses. The absent-minded son, who had not listened to anything for a long time, once said: why are they forcing him to pray for a long time? The monk answered: “Long prayers are performed by monks under a vow, and this does not apply to you; but here’s what applies to you: remaining without prayer is the same as condemning your soul to death by starvation; read one prayer “Our Father”, and in it you will find everything - the light of knowledge of God, and lessons for life, and consolation and strength for the spirit; I think it’s not difficult to read this prayer with attention.” The absent-minded son obeyed. So what happened? Having read the prayer once, he wanted to read it another time and a third time. He liked the prayer so much that he began to read it often and while reading it he learned to do good - he began to work, began to live attentively to himself, changed in everything and was his mother’s joy until the grave. The third case concerned a covetous judge who, despite poverty and tears, sold his court for money. Every Saturday the monk sent money on behalf of one person with a note where one thing was repeated: “I’m giving away my last, I have no more; spare yourself and me.” The judge, amazed by such a sermon, not only abandoned the covetousness, but also distributed what he had acquired through untruth among the churches. Once, at the request, he visited Pereyaslavl. At this time, one father of the family was seriously ill. The grieving family asked the monk to perform the blessing of oil on the sick person. He fulfilled their request, and the sick man returned to health. Two years in advance, the monk predicted his painful death; he convinced the Kanevites to firmly adhere to St. Orthodox faith and said: “It is impossible to receive an incorruptible crown except by performing your feat legally.” In 1678, the Sultan sent a large army of Turks and Tatars to take Ukraine for Yuri Khmelnichenko. After the siege of Chigirin, “the Busurmans, so says the chronicler, on August 25 went from near Buzhin up the Dnieper. Having given themselves a rest after the military worries, they approached the glorious Cossack city of Kanev and on September 4, taking it, devastated and killed many people. Especially in the ancient and beautiful Kanevsky monastery, the Kanevites gathered in large numbers and locked themselves in a large stone church, hoping to escape here; but the Turks surrounded the church with straw and firewood, set fire and strangled everyone in the church” 70. The history of St. Macarius conveys the following details of this terrible event: enemies surrounded the monastery, where the monk fed the Kanevites with prayer and fasting; they tried to lure the Kanevites out of the monastery; but it failed. Having destroyed the gates of the monastery, they burst into the monastery. The Monk Macarius stood at the gate with a cross in his hands. They grabbed him, and then, as the others scattered into storerooms and cellars, the barbarians began to beat the monk with whatever they could and cursed at the saint. cross. The monk prayed to them for one thing - to spare those imprisoned in the church. They dragged him outside the monastery and continued to beat him without mercy. – The sufferer, with his gaze turned to heaven, prayed: “Lord! Add faith to me, so that I may appear faithful before You.” The barbarians, tormenting the saint, forced him to say where the gold and property of the monastery were? He answered: “My treasures are in heaven; I did not collect or hide anything.” The barbarians listened to these words with mockery and, having released those whom they had managed to capture in the monastery, they sent to tell those imprisoned in the church: let them surrender and give up everything, otherwise death awaits them. The monk sent with the same messengers to say: let them keep St. faith and remember the words of the Savior: if we endure, we will reign with Him, if we reject, He will reject us. The barbarians placed the monk between two pillars and began to twist his legs with iron weapons. He prayed and endured. They began to beat him in the chest and face and wanted to tear off his skin, but ended up cutting off his head; The saint's body was secretly taken to the church. The barbarians set fire to the church and killed everyone in it with smoke. After leaving Kanev, the Orthodox found in the church the body of the venerable martyr in a hair shirt, with a cross on his chest and with a cross in his hand - and it seemed to be alive 71 . They buried him with love in the same church, under the altar. In 1688, during the restoration of the church, the monks opened the coffin and found the saint’s body completely intact. Healings immediately followed from the relics of the saint. But since the enemies of Orthodoxy did not cease from time to time to attack the Kanevsky monastery, in the same year the monks moved St. the body of the martyr to the Pereyavlava Regimental Church of St. Resurrection; when the Pereyaslav Bishop Zakhary Kornilovich, with the permission of Peter the Great, built the cathedral St. Michael's Monastery with a church, then in 1713 the relics of St. Macarius was transferred to the monastery church; upon its closure, they were placed (August 4, 1786) in the cathedral church of the Ascension Monastery, where they rest to this day. “Monthly. East." archim. Sergius, vol. 2, p. 277. Collection years. 3, 183. “After many years and oh, many pestilences, the ancient memorials have worn out and the relics of him (Archbishop John) are unknown where they lie.” 3, 112–113. “The same summer (1439), Archbishop Euthymius smeared the entire Saint Sophia with lime. The same summer the body of the archbishop was found. John, and there were Suzdalds near the New Town.” The same in Russian. times 1, 297. In 4 Novgor. years. collection years. IV, 122. And river. legends about the appearance of saints. John. Forgetting about St. John, discovered in 1439, is all the more strange because in 1355 a special stone church was built for the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, wherever it was moved from the Church of the Transfiguration. Collection years. IP, 84. 228. 215. IV, 62. See September. 25. Simeon, on his way back from the west, was in Novgorod: “stay all summer (1439) with Bishop Euthymius.” Review Russian. literature § 89. Description. Blush. music., p. 38. The story of the discovery of the relics of St. John written under St. Euphemia; another legend, about a journey to Jerusalem, is the work of the famous Basil, who wrote the service of St. Ioannou, Rumyants. music No. 397. Sl. review Russian. literature § 90. First Novgor. letop. (collection l. III, 14–18) calls him in the rank of S hierarch not more than Elijah. Later chronicles: “And Elijah was in the world, and Ivan was called a foreigner” (collection of years. 3, 215. 180). In the RKP. charter of the 12th century modern postscript: “in the summer of 6694 (1186) Elijah, Archbishop of Novgorod, reposed, and his schema name was John.” If the schema is a great angelic image, then the name John was also the name of baptism, and the name Elijah was a monastic name. Collection l. III, 13. “In l. 6671 (1163) John was installed (elected) bishop of the great Novgrad and served as bishop for three years.” 3, 2. 15. Collection years. III, 13. 215. 125. Collection years. III, 215, 182, no. 233. Novg. 1 years under 1179 he speaks of the death of the first abbess of this monastery, Elizabeth (Collected years. III, 17). Sl. ist. Hier. 4.310. Collection years. III, 15. 215. IV, 11. VII, 87. IX, 241. 242. Separate story, ed. in time total ist., book. XVI, and in known. acad. No. 1, 291–293, somewhat decorated in the collection. years. V, 8–10. IX, 241. 242. In step. book 1, 302–305. Celebration of the sign of the Most Holy. Our Lady of Nov. 27 we see in everyday life in the 13th century, in Rumyantsev’s museum, p. 404. About the Icon of the Sign Russian. ven., part 2, p. 302. M. 1843. Ancient. Ross. state dept. 1, 15–20. The holy icon was corrected in 1527 by Archbishop Macarius and it was probably then that the Novgorod miracle was depicted with a plan of Novgorod. Collection years. VI, 284 cm. Krasova about the place. ancient Novgorod 138 and 139. Tikhomirov's tale of miracles. icon of the Sign. Novgor. 1861 Macarius of Antiquity 1, 232. 233. 301. 302. Collection years. III, 15. 125. IV, 13. On the parchment charter of the Synod. bib. Q XII century No. 320. Modern postscripts: “in years. 6678 (1170) Elijah and his brother Gabriel installed the monastery of St. Theotokos Annunciation and in the years. 87 (7179) stone church of the postavista.” Then the years of death of Archbishops Elijah and Gabriel are written and then the prayer: “Lord, through the prayers of the Birth of You and our venerable father John and Gregory and Your Archangel Gabriel, preserve us, visiting this house until the end of time, and grant us salvation.” The charter apparently belonged to the Annunciation Monastery and, according to the letter, dates back to the end of the 12th century. Collection years. 1, 180. III, 1. IV, 12. 13. Father. sq. 1, 304. Collection years. III, 16. IV, 14. The story of the discovery of the relics. Collection years. III, 17, 216. IV, 15. Sl. approx. 50. The Tale of the Construction of Benefits. mon. printed in memory old liter. 1, 258. Already Karamzin (2, pr. 414) noticed the injustice of the story - that “as if John, even before entering the department, built the stone Annunciation Church with the help of miraculously obtained gold.” God does not lavish miracles unnecessarily; and the Novgorod department had the means to build churches and monasteries (Novgorod department 37–40. St. Petersburg, 1851. Belyaev’s stories from R. history 2, 126. 127). The chronicle indicates the year of the church. Equally take into account the story of the journey of St. John on demon to Jerusalem means passing off folk rumors as history, based on nothing. - Chronicle: “they (the Novgorodians) took away his (Archbishop Sergius) mind with magic and said: John the Wonderworker, who rode on a demon, do it to him.” Collection years. VI, 236. Collection years. III, 18. 126. 216. 10, 15. Collection years. III, 18. 216. IV, 16. Macarius of antiquity 1, 283. 286. Collection years. III, 16. 126. 18. 216. IV, 16. The Gospel written by “the priest of St. John the Baptist by Maxim Teshinich", remarkable also because in it in many places the name of the Savior is written: Jesus (Reader general history 1861). - According to the legend, St. John built at his own expense the churches of three of Daniel's friends, St. Elijah is right. Lazarus, St. Nicholas and Theodore the Studite. - But the Church of the Three Youths was built after his death by his brother Gregory in 1189 (Collected years. III, 20). Church of St. Nicholas, stone, on the Settlement, built in 1165 by Prince. Svyatoslav (Collected years. III. 13. 215). Monuments of words. XII century, p. 203. Ibid., pp. 200, 202, 203. Monuments to the words of St. XII century, p. 223. Into the spirit. Vestn. 1863 edition by Nevostruev. Collection l. 3, 19. 126. 18. 216. Makaria Novg. ancient 1, 71. 72. – About how St. was depicted. John icon painters, see Sakharov’s “original”, p. 38. St. Petersburg. 1849 Description of the life of St. Venerable Martyr Macarius of Ovruch. It contains a lot of information about the Kanevskaya life of the teacher. Macarius, but the chronological testimony is incorrect. – Errors were repeated even in the 2nd edition. Dictionary of Saints. St. Petersburg 1862 Letters from Rev. Lazarus in Worms. diocesan known 1863 Rev. Lazar called Macarius his “ tonsure ” in the sense that in 1657, after the death of M. Sylvester, he ruled the metropolis and installed Macarius as abbot of Ovruch. - RKP. the life says that Dr. Macarius was ordained as a hieromonk as an archimandrite by M. Joseph; the new edition of the dictionary repeats this news. But here is an obvious mistake. In the RKP. in the printed life of Macarius it is said that he was assigned to Kanev 10 years before his death, M. Kivriavoy. But the first is inaccurate, if in the same year 1671, as he was expelled from Ovruch, he was assigned to Kanev; and the life also says that he lived in Kyiv for 2 years, which is already incredible, due to the care of the Reverend. Lazarus. Metropolitan of Kyiv Cyprian was not there at all at that time; on the right bank of the Dnieper, M. Joseph Nelyubovich Tukalsky ruled the churches and monasteries, and he, of course, as a result of the intercession of the Reverend. Lazar before Hetman Doroshenko, assigned Macarius to Kanev. And Cyprian was not some foreign archpastor who was in Ukraine and took part in the fate of the Venerable. Macaria? At that time, quite a number of foreign archpastors lived in Ukraine. Konissky: “Yuri became a monk in Korsun in October 1662 (Velichko 2, 36, chronicle Belozer. 29).” In 1664, he was imprisoned in Marienburg together with Joseph Tukalsky and in 1668, going from Uman to Kyiv with the abbot of Uman, he was captured by the Tatars and sent to Constantinople (Letop. Belozer. 76. 78. 79. Velichko 2, 334). According to the time of determination of the yar. Macarius in Kanev (pr. 68) he received Yuri in Kanev in 1672. Sl. Maksimovich Geographer. Dictionary M. 1861 1, 949. According to the RCP. life of the death of St. Macaria and the ruin of Kanev date back to 1653. But this year the ruin of Kanev is not visible from any monuments. And what is said about the ruin in his life is in accordance with the chronicle description of the ruin of 1678 (Stories about Kanev in the Kiev Provincial Gazette, 1846, No. 2–5 and 46). Letters from the archbishop. Lazarus is left in no doubt that St. Macarius suffered after 1657. The day of his death is shown as 7 a.m. Sept. in Dictionary of Saints, page 175. 1671