48. Заслуги Троице-Сергиевой Лавры во время самозванцев

The entire Russian clergy, imitating their high priests, zealously stood up for the defense of faith and fatherland. In particular, the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra rendered great services to the Church and the state. During troubled times, she donated up to 65 thousand rubles (a huge amount at that time). She sent part of this money to Moscow at a time when she herself was under siege from the Poles, who besieged her under the command of Hetman Sapieha and Lisovsky. This memorable siege lasted 16 months (from September 1608). The besiegers had up to 30,000 well-trained troops, and there were no more than 2,500 people in the monastery, both monks and villagers. The walls were dilapidated, and the enemies often made tunnels; To top off the troubles, scurvy appeared inside the monastery due to lack of food and fresh water. The power of God, through the prayers of St. Sergius, miraculously destroyed the actions of the enemies, and Sapieha, to his shame, could not drive out the gray-haired rooks, as he called the defenders of the Lavra, the elder monks, from the monastery. Soon after the siege of the Lavra, its valiant defender, Abbot Joasaph, died. In his place, Archimandrite Dionysius became rector of the Lavra. He gave shelter to crowds of robbed and mutilated peasants who fled under her shelter from an evil enemy, and the monastery turned from a fortress into an almshouse. At the same time, he, together with cellarer Abraham Palitsyn, sent letters to different cities, begging for the salvation of the fatherland from enemies. One of these appeals was read by the archpriest in September 1611 in the Nizhny Novgorod cathedral and inspired Minin to his glorious feat. Having learned about the movement of the Nizhny Novgorod militia towards Moscow, cellarer Abraham personally went there and inspired the militia with his fiery speeches. His presence in the army especially helped during the last battle with the Poles near Moscow; at the most decisive moment, he managed to influence the Cossacks so that they rushed to the aid of the Nizhny Novgorod residents and tilted victory to their side. The Cossacks, complaining about their poverty, began to demand money for themselves, otherwise they did not want to help the Russians. Then expensive vestments, studded with pearls, were sent from the Trinity Lavra to their camp. The Cossacks were ashamed to accept this sacrifice and promised to serve the Church and the Fatherland for nothing. After the suffering death of Patriarch Hermogen, the Church was temporarily ruled by metropolitans - Ephraim of Kazan and Jonah of Krutitsky. Neither one nor the other had the patriarchal rank, which was intended for the parent of the newly elected sovereign Mikhail Feodorovich, the famous Filaret Nikitich. You might be interested in: