15-го числа

Venerable Paul of Thebes St. Rev. Pavel Fiveysky For 90 years, the ascetic of God, Paul, hid in the desert. Far from people, in the face of God alone, he made his life’s journey in the inevitable and most difficult struggle with himself for every person. But the treasure hidden by the desert for so long did not disappear without a trace for the world. The Lord revealed him in a dream vision to His other ascetic, Anthony the Great. Informed by God's revelation that in the most remote part of the same Thebaid desert, east of the Red Sea, where he spent 70 years of his life, lives another hermit, more perfect than him, St. Anthony wanted to find him, and after a two-day difficult journey through the sultry, barren desert, he followed the tracks of a running hyena to the cave of the blessed old man. The great mysteries of God's grace, revealed to each other by God, greeted each other... For the first time after his centuries-long solitude, having met a man, a desert dweller who had renounced the world lovingly asked him about people: “Tell me, how does the human race live? What's going on in the world? Are there still idolaters? Are Christians still being persecuted? and so on. The Monk Anthony answered his questions, and then he himself began to ask the elder about his life. Paul told him that 113 years ago he was born in Egypt, in Lower Thebaid, that his parents were Christians and provided him with the highest scientific education; but that by nature he was more disposed to be distant from the world than to communicate with the world and to be addicted to worldly advantages. This kind of mood was finally determined in him under the influence of external motivating reasons. Having lost his parents, he inherited rich property from them and divided it in half with his sister. His sister’s husband, a cruel and selfish man, was not satisfied with this and, counting on the persecution of Christians that had opened at that time from the emperors Decius and Valerian (249), he planned to betray Paul into the hands of the persecutors in order to take advantage of his estate. Having learned about the intentions of his son-in-law, Paul voluntarily renounced everything and left the world, which then presented a terrifying spectacle of torture for the truth and cruel cruelties on the part of the pagans - executioners against their victims - Christians. Moving from place to place and looking for the most convenient shelter in the desert, Paul approached a stone mountain and not far from its base he found a cave, obscured by a stone. Having pulled out the stone, he saw inside a vast passage, the open top of which was overshadowed by the long and dense branches of a date tree, and a spring with very clear water flowed nearby. The young man fell in love with this secluded and hidden place so much that he decided to settle here forever. Having settled in the desert, the ascetic lived in it for about ninety-one years... He spent days and nights in prayer; He ate the fruits of his palm tree and dressed himself in its leaves. Having finished his story, blessed Paul said to St. Anthony: “Now the time has come for my dormition, and therefore you were sent from God to cover my body with earth... You still need to live for the benefit of your brethren. Go now to the monastery and bring me clothes to clothe my body” 186. Anthony, sadly falling at Paul’s feet, said goodbye to him and went to fulfill his order, but, coming to his cave for the second time, he did not find the old man alive. The blessed one was on his knees with his hands raised to the sky. His body was still in a position of prayer, but his soul ascended to its Creator... With great sadness, St. Anthony dressed the body of the deceased in funeral clothes and performed burial over him with fervent prayer. After that, he took Paul’s palm robe with him and returned to his monastery. On the most solemn holidays, he dressed himself in this precious garment, about which the writer of the life of St. Paul - Blessed Jerome expressed himself in these words: “If I had to choose, I would rather choose the rags of Paul with his merits than the purple of kings with their kingdoms”... When the disciples of St. Anthony was asked about his visit to the wondrous hermit, and he answered them with tears: “Woe is me a sinner!” I am a monk in name only... I saw Elijah, I saw John in the desert, truly I saw Paul in paradise... Burial place of St. Paul was not consigned to oblivion, and by the will of the Greek Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143–1180), his relics were transferred to Constantinople and placed in the monastery of the Virgin Mary Perivelept. In 1240 they were moved to Venice and, finally, to Hungary, to the city of Ofen. Part of the head of St. Paul's is in Rome. John Kushchnik, the son of rich and noble parents, Eutropius and Theodora, who lived in Constantinople, during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Younger († 450). From a young age, an extraordinary love for God was hidden in John’s soul. John’s most enjoyable pastime was reading the word of God and going to Divine services. In general, he was meek, kind and humble: he received an excellent education. One day a certain monk came into the house where John was studying; When John saw him, he asked him where he was from and where he was going. Having heard that the monk was from the monastery of the Never Sleeping and was going to Jerusalem to worship St. In some places, the youth became inflamed in spirit and curiously asked the wanderer about monastic life, about prayer and fasting, about incessant singing and about other exploits. John begged the monk to come to him on the way back and take him with him. Meanwhile, John begged his parents to give him the Gospel. They presented him with a Gospel decorated with gold and precious stones. The former monk came in, and John, taking the Gospel, secretly left with the monk from his parents and sailed on a ship to the monastery of the Unsleeping. The holy abbot of the monastery, seeing in him a perfect readiness for monastic life, despite his youth, did not subject him to the usual test and clothed him in the clothes of a monk. Soon, John succeeded in his monastic exploits so much that he surpassed others with unceasing prayer to God, uncomplaining obedience and extreme fasting. The abbot, seeing his exploits, advised him to take care of himself and not expose his health to danger. But the young man’s health was consumed not so much by external feats as by internal ones. He could not forget the necessary love for himself from his parents. The Gospel itself, their gift, although it taught him perfect love for God, also reminded him of his parents - and love for them awoke with renewed vigor in the young man’s heart. The thought that they were grieving for their son became the strongest temptation for him and tormented him incessantly; nothing could calm him down. He spent six years in the monastery, and during all this time the struggle of love for God and for his parents did not subside in his soul. John revealed the state of his soul to his saint. Markell, abbot of the monastery: the elder with tears blessed the young man on his way back to his parents' house. But it was not love for his parents, but love for God that appeared triumphant in John’s heart, and upon his return to his parents’ home, John decided not to reveal himself to his parents. In the rags of a beggar, he returned to Constantinople and lived for three years in a wretched tent or bush, lying before the gates of his father’s house, like poor Lazarus or Job in a dungeon, receiving food from the table of his parents, who, out of compassion for the homeless beggar enduring cold, heat and rain, sent him alms, for Christ’s sake. Three days before his death, the Monk John, who was suffering on his deathbed, asked permission to see his lady at home and was brought to her on her bed. Covering his face, the sick man says to his mother: “Your loving service to me, a beggar, has already been completed, and for your alms a reward from the Lord is ready for you, who says in the Gospel that you alone have created these least of these brothers of mine, you have created for Me (Matthew 25:46). But even I, a beggar, want to leave you some blessing; I only ask you and conjure the Lord to fulfill my last wish: I ask you to order me to be buried in the same place where my tent is now, and to cover me with the same rags in which you now see me.” At the end of his words, he handed the Gospel to his mother and said: “Let this be a consolation for you in this life, and a good path to the future life for you and your husband.” This was the same Gospel that was given to John by his parents in his youth; and now it served to open the son to his parents. But as soon as the father and mother recognized their Gospel, and then - in the sick beggar the son they mourned, Saint John departed from them to the Heavenly Father. On the site of John’s tabernacle, after his death, his parents built a church, and they themselves bequeathed to bury themselves in it. Memory of Rev. Gabriel Lesnovsky and Prokhor Pshinsky St. Rev. Gabriel Lesnovsky and Prokhor Pshinsky (Pchinsky) According to the Bulgarian Synaxarium of 1340, Rev. Our father Gabriel, the son of noble and wealthy parents, was devoted to book learning and, with the help of God, did well in it. When he came of age, they betrothed him to a bride of good birth; but he, without touching her, went to the monastery and became a monk. Having received great wealth, he retired to Lesnovskaya Mountain and created the church of St. Archangel Michael, appointed abbot, gathered many monks and left all his property here, while he himself went up the mountain and remained day and night in prayer, vigil and silence. So he spent 30 years, enduring a lot of languor from unclean spirits, and when he came to the monastery, he died here. His body remained in the ground for 30 years; Then it appeared to one Russian mountain. Sredtsa. He, having arrived at the place, built an ark and placed the relics in it. Many miracles were performed under them: the blind received their sight, the lame were healed, the demoniac were healed by touching the saint. relics. After a long time, the saint’s relics were transferred to the mountains. Ternov of Bulgaria and were placed in the meal of St. Apostles 187. In the life of Rev. Joachim of Osogovsky reads: “wonderful and truly newly enlightened our fathers and desert dwellers, heavenly men and earthly angels, Christ’s friends, John and Prochorus together with Gabriel, and with them our father Joachim, the honest quartet, God’s chosen friendship, the hardworking workers of Christ, who went out to cultivate the spiritual field with the help of faith and sowing spiritual seed in order to bear fruit a hundredfold... Rev. Our father John, according to David, soared through the mountains like a bird and deigned to ascend a high mountain called Knisheva, and having settled there, he clung to the Lord God alone... The Holy Venerable. our father Prokhor is similar to John in his exploits; Wanting to appear as an imitator of him, he prayed to the Lord: guide me, O Lord, on Thy path, so that I may go down to the altar of God and to God, who makes my youth joyful. He goes on his way and sings other psalms. According to God's providence, the monk came to the Bryansk desert on the river. Pshin began to live a life of fasting and equal angels here; having labored skilfully and pleasing to God, he moved in peace to Christ in the heavenly abode. After the repose of this blessed St. His relics perform wondrous miracles” 188. Since according to this news, John, Prochorus and Gabriel are placed close to each other in time, and John, presented here as a model of life for the saint. Prokhora, there is none other than Rev. John of Rylsky, who died in 946, then the earthly exploits of St. Prokhor must be attributed to the end of the 10th century, and the exploits of St. Gabriel by the beginning of the 11th century. According to the Serbian Chronicle, the pious King Milutin (1276–1320) built a beautiful church in honor of St. Prokhor Pshinsky 189. About the place of the exploits of St. Gabriel knows the following: the Lesnovsky monastery is separated from the city of Kratov by Zletovskaya Mountain, which is why it is called otherwise Kratovsky. Here a magnificent church was built in 1341 by the viceroy of the Serbian Tsar Oliver. The Lenten triodion of 1342 is known, written “in Mount Zletovskaya, in the borough of Leskov, in the monastery of the great governor, Arch. Michael, at the tomb of St. Father Gabriel, - whom the great governor Oliver created from the crown (from the base), decorating with all sorts of goodness - vessels in gold and silver, forging great icons in silver and gold. Mohammedan fanaticism led the monastery to desolation, but since 1805 it has been gradually restored 190. Recently the synodik of the Pshinsky Monastery of St. Prokhora, near Vrana; the city is located on the eastern Morava, in the Pristina district, and the monastery has disappeared 191. Histor. Orthodox monk in the East, - Peter of Kazan, pp. 89–90. Slavic text in Western acad. VI, 120. 121. Zap. acad. VI article by Lamansky, p. 125. According to the synaxarion of Norov, the memory of St. Prokhor was placed on October 19, as was Venerable. John of Rylsky (Zap. Academician VI, 108). This means that the relics of St. Prokhor was transferred to Ternov on the same day as the relics of St. John. Izv. acad. VI, 390–395. Grigorovich Travel. 141, 165, 182, 191, 204, 212. Izv. acad. VI, 392. 393. Momirovich History of Serbia, p. 126. St. Petersburg. 1899.