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Holy Martyr Pelagia of Tarsus The feat of St. Martyr Pelagia serves as one of the countless proofs that nobility, wealth, beauty, all this essence of earthly blessings are nothing in comparison with the unearthly satisfaction that the soul thirsts for, which has not lost its Divine image and likeness... The owner of everything that in human language is called happiness, Pelagia, the daughter of a pagan, barely reached the age when consciousness awakens in the soul, as soon as the spirit of Christ breathed on her - in the form of some rumors that reached her about the faith of some Christians close to the house of her noble mother - she felt a desire to know the truth, to taste the real food of the soul, and began to look for that person who could teach and enlighten her. It was Bishop Klinon, who actively spread the teachings of Christ in the city of Tarsus, Cilician region, where Pelagia lived with her mother. But he was not in the city at that time. He was hiding in the outskirts of the city from the persecution of the pagans, who were diligently seeking to destroy this successful disseminator of the hated teaching. Having learned from rumors about Bishop Klinon, Pelagia’s only thought was to receive holy baptism from him. She knew from the Christians where he was hiding, and one day, having asked permission from her mother to visit her nurse, she went out of town in a magnificent chariot, accompanied by numerous servants - with the goal, first of all, of finding the bishop. She met an old man descending from a mountain covered with a dense forest, and from the conversation of the servants she learned that this was Elder Klinon, a man of God, whom the pagans were looking for in order to put him to death." – Rejoice, servant of Christ! - Pelagia greeted him, kneeling in front of him as she approached him. “May the peace of my Christ be with you, young lady,” responded the saint. - Blessed be God, who showed you to me! - Pelagia continued; - Will you save me if you tell me what you, the shepherd, teach your sheep so that they can receive eternal life? – I teach them the knowledge of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and instruct them in a God-pleasing life in the fear of God and in the love of Jesus Christ. – Teach me, my father, what is most necessary for one who wants to unite with God “The most important thing, my child, is holy baptism for the remission of sins and eternal life.” Then Pelagius asked the bishop to baptize her. As soon as the bishop raised his hands to the sky, he immediately saw a source of water. Having prayed to God, he baptized Pelagia and communed her with the Holy Gifts, which he had with him. Having been baptized, Pelagia did not put on any more precious jewelry; she gave them to the bishop and asked him to sell them so that the money received for them could be given to the poor. Returning to the people who had been waiting for her for a long time, she ordered them not to tell anyone about what they had seen. Having entered the chariot, Pelagia now went to her nurse, who, seeing her, was very surprised that she was not wearing any precious jewelry. Pelagia's teacher began to be even more surprised when she soon noticed that the noble maiden she had raised was not at all the same in soul as she had known her until now. Holy baptism seemed to transform her... - “And why are you surprised? - speaks about the baptism of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, - water washes the external, but the spirit incomprehensibly washes the soul itself. Take an example from the body, an unimportant and easy one, understandable to the simple, he continues, when fire, entering iron, makes it fire, then the cold becomes hot and the dark becomes light. If fire, which is also a body, penetrating the body of iron, acts so unhindered, then why are you surprised that the Holy Spirit enters the inner soul? – Regarding the immeasurable and incomprehensible power of the sacrament of baptism, St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (who was a famous orator before his baptism), that “when he was in the deep darkness of blindness and wandering along the paths of error, he considered it difficult, even impossible, that anyone could be reborn in the water of saving baptism and put aside everything that he was before, but when the action of the life-giving waters of baptism washed away the stains of his former life and the light of heaven poured into a purified heart, from then on miraculously he suddenly became hard; what I doubted, what seemed difficult, became easy, the impossible became possible”... (letter to Donat). So, after baptism, a great change took place in Pelagia: before she was proud, now she is humble and simple; before she loved sweet food and fun entertainment, now she became abstinent and spent most of her time in prayer; even her appearance changed, her appearance became more majestic and her beauty acquired a new charm, which consisted in the expression of wonderful feelings that filled her soul. Returning home, the new Christian surprised her mother with the change that had taken place in her and did not hide her conversion to Christianity from her mother... This turned out to be in complete contradiction with all the assumptions and intentions of the mother regarding the arrangement of the future fate of her daughter... and therefore the anger of the inveterate pagan exceeded all measure. It ended with her handing over her daughter to the authorities and not preventing her from being subjected to cruel torture and burning... Pelagia was sentenced to a terrible execution. She was to die inside a red-hot copper bull. Having crossed herself, she fearlessly approached this instrument of execution, she herself entered the ignited container and with the words: “Glory to you, Lord, Only Begotten Son of the Most High God, who strengthened me, weak, for exploits for the sake of Your name!” gave up her immaculate soul to God. Her body quickly disappeared, as if melted by fire, like wax; the bones were thrown outside the city, on Mount Litaton. For some time this place remained impregnable, as if guarded by wild beasts of prey roaming here. But, by revelation from above, Bishop Klinon found the bones of the martyr and placed them here, in a stone on the highest hill, marking with an inscription the receptacle of her holy remains. St. Pelagia suffered during the persecution of Diocletian, in the year 287. In the 8th century, her remains were already transferred to Constantinople under Constantine Copronymus (741–775). There was a church here where her memory was solemnly celebrated; This church was in Pera, near the church of the martyr Konon. In church songs, countless miracles are attributed to her relics. Memory of the venerable Alfanov brothers: Nikita, Kirill, Nikifor, Clement and Isaac They were posadniks and died in the 15th century. Previously, their relics rested in the Sokolnitsky Monastery, which they founded, but after the fire of 1775 they were transferred to the monastery of St. Anthony the Roman. For information about them, see June 17th. Feast of the Old Russian Icon of the Mother of God The Old Russian icon of the Mother of God appeared in 1570 in the Novgorod region, “when the Tsar and Grand Duke John Vasilyevich went to Novgorod for peace.” The Old Russian icon is located in the Tikhvin Monastery in the Novgorod province. The icon depicts the Mother of God, as well as the Tikhvin icon; The main difference between them is size. According to eyewitnesses, the Old Russian icon is more than a fathom in size and more than two arshins in width. The Old Russian icon is called because, having always been the property of the Tikhvin monastery, by order of the Queen of Heaven it was carried from time to time from Tikhvin to Staraya Rusa and there once remained for a long time in the Old Russian Resurrection Cathedral of the Spasopreobrazhensky Monastery, so that the inhabitants of Staraya Rusa already considered the icon to be theirs. The reason for transferring it from Staraya Rusa to the Tikhvin Monastery was to one pious resident of Tikhvin, during the pestilence that raged there in 1655, the revelation that the pestilence would stop in Staraya Rusa if the image of the Tikhvin Mother of God was brought there, and in Tikhvin, if the image of the Old Russian Mother of God was brought here. After the icons were transferred, the pestilence immediately stopped, and the Old Russian icon remained in Tikhvin. And the exact copy of the Tikhvin icon is kept in the Starorussky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, where it remained for a long time.