Монахиня Серафима (Булгакова)

Structure and life of the monastery A plan drawn by Father Seraphim was kept in Diveyevo. According to his prediction, at the end of time the monastery was supposed to spread to the highest bank of the Vichkenza River (now there is a pond), the Kazan Church and the houses of the parish clergy should be included in the fence. Therefore, the stone fence surrounding the monastery was erected only from the north, east and south, and only a wooden fence stood from the west. After the coup of 1917, this fence was broken and a market was held on the territory of the monastery on Mondays, which interfered with the life of the monastery. During these years, some buildings located in this part of the monastery were selected and occupied. The monastery was always divided into an old and a new monastery. The old monastery begins with the building of Mother Alexandra and occupies the entire northwestern wedge of the monastery; there was a monastery garden and, in addition to the new buildings, there was an old building where blessed Pelageya Ivanovna labored. Her cell was preserved in the same form as it was with the blessed one. The incessant Psalter was read in the building: 12 old women took turns reading it all day long. This little building was called the hermitage of blessed Pelageya Ivanovna. A cover was built over Mother Alexandra's cell, forming the second floor. Here lived the sisters who served the initial hermitage, as well as the Nativity churches, who kept the candle in the upper and the lamp in the lower Nativity churches unquenchable. In the lower Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, before the dispersal, the incessant Psalter was read. The reading was interrupted only on Wednesday of Holy Week and began after the Little Supper on Saturday of Holy Week. The hermitage of Blessed Natalia Ivanovna was located in the center of the monastery, at the end of the ditch. The hermitage was preserved in the same form as under the blessed one, and the Psalter was also read there. In addition, the Psalter was read in the Near Hermitage of St. Seraphim, transported from the Sarov Forest (from the source). A cover was built over it, in which the log house was placed. The building where Blessed Praskovia Ivanovna lived was also preserved, and there the sisters designated for this purpose also read the Psalter day and night. In Mother Alexandra’s cell, the Psalter was read by 12 sisters. All these preserved buildings were called deserts. Visiting pilgrims were led along them, and the sisters themselves often visited them, especially on holidays. On Forgiveness Sunday, after Vespers, as well as on Easter and Christmas, on major holidays, they always visited all the hermitages and graves of the blessed (near the cathedral) and Mother Alexandra, Schema-nun Martha, Elena Vasilievna Manturova and the servant of the saint of God Motovilov (near the Kazan Church). An altar was made from the log frame of the Far Hermitage in the cemetery Church of the Transfiguration. There, in a special display case, the reverend’s things were kept. There were nine churches in the monastery. 1. A warm cathedral in the name of the Holy Trinity with chapels in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” and in memory of St. Seraphim. In the choir there are two more chapels in the name of the “Vladimir” Icon of the Mother of God and in memory of the finding of the head of St. John the Baptist. 2. Tikhvin wooden church (built by Ivan Tikhonov) with the chapels of All Saints and Archangel Michael. 3. Near Tikhvinskaya there was a church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Quench My Sorrows”. After the monastery was dispersed, a mill was built there, and in the fall of 1928 the entire church burned down. 4. There was a Church of the Transfiguration at the cemetery. 5. In the almshouse (the so-called old hospital) there was a House Church in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” The main entrance to it was from the side of the ditch, and from the north and south there were doors to residential corridors. There were even windows opening into two cells adjacent to the altar, so that sick old women could pray right in their cells. It was in this church that the last all-night vigil was held in 1927, on Exaltation, when the farewell of the sisters took place. 6. In the abbot's building there was a house church of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. In it, Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich asked to serve him a mass. Moreover, he asked to give him a priest who would perform the service slowly and reverently, but in one hour. Mother Abbess appointed Fr. Peter Sokolov, who was a junior priest at that time. He had a good voice, clear diction and a lively, quick character. Service o. The Tsar really liked Petra. At the end, he called this priest to him and awarded him a gold cross with precious stones. According to stories, when Fr. Peter entered the Tsar, was confused, fell at his feet, but the Anointed of God raised him, sat him next to him and, turning to the comrade chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod, V.K. Sabler, said: “Here is a wonderful, reverent servant of Christ’s Church,” and with these words he laid a cross on him. 7. In addition, in the refectory there was a church in memory of the Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky. They served there mostly in the winter, since the Church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God was cramped and stuffy. Previously, there was a rural cemetery on this site. The cemetery was moved behind the monastery buildings closer to Sarov. The monastery cemetery occupied the south-eastern corner of the ditch and was located around the Church of the Transfiguration. There were also two Nativity churches in the name of the Savior and the Mother of God. Attached to the Kazan Church under Father Seraphim. Therefore, there were nine churches, and fifteen thrones. On all patronal feasts, a paraklis of the Mother of God was served at Little Vespers and in the morning there was a blessing of water. On the patronal feasts of the image of the Mother of God “Tenderness”, July 28, and on the day of remembrance of the Venerable Seraphim, July 19 and January 2, as well as on the day of the founding of the monastery, December 9, the day of the Conception of Righteous Anna, after the late Liturgy, processions of the cross along the groove were necessarily performed with the singing of the paraclesis of the Mother of God “Contain the misfortunes of many.” On the eve of December 9, there was a solemn all-night vigil for the feast of the Tenderness Icon of the Mother of God and St. Seraphim. During the all-night vigil, the akathist was read in half: to the Queen of Heaven - the Annunciation from 1 to 6 kontakion and ikos and from 7 to 12 - to St. Seraphim. There is a special service for the Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”, compiled by Metropolitan Seraphim Chichagov. In addition, on the Feast of the Life-Giving Spring there was a procession of the cross inside the monastery behind the ditch, and at midsummer - around the monastery behind the fence. Almost all of the clergy of the monastery were from the family of Father Vasily Sadovsky. During the dispersal, the eldest was Archpriest Fr. John Smirnov, nephew of Fr. Vasily (died at a ripe old age in Diveyevo). Besides him there were: Fr. Mikhail Gusev, the son of his own granddaughter, who was raised by Fr. Vasily (died in prison); O. John of Polidor, husband of Fr. Mikhail (died on Solovki). Every day the service in the morning (except for Lent) began: early mass at 5 o'clock and late at 6 o'clock (in different churches). On Sundays there was always a paraklis for chant before the late one, both canons in turn. In the evening at half past six - Vespers and Matins. Then Small Compline with canon (daily according to the rules). Before early mass from 4 am and before late mass from 5 am, the rule for the communicants, morning prayers and a collective akathist were read. The Midnight Office was sometimes read in the evening or in cells. In the evening at half past four, always, except for Easter week, the rule given to the monk was read: 12 selected psalms, a commemoration and 100 bows each to the Savior, the Mother of God and the venerable one, then a small rule and, of course, the benefactors were remembered. During Great Lent, the service began at 4 a.m.: morning prayers, midnight office, matins, hours and presanctified Liturgy. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon in the 1st week and at 4 o'clock in the rest, Great Compline with canons was read, then a combined akathist and the usual rule. After Compline, a sermon was read. Evening prayers were always performed by gathering in the buildings. After dinners, prayer services and full memorial services were served, and the priests went every day to serve memorial services in all hermitages, and in the Near Hermitage of the monk there was a prayer service. On Sunday evening there was always an akathist to St. Seraphim for chanting instead of the 2nd kathisma at Matins. Some saw how, during the singing of the akathist, the monk covered the singers with his mantle. There were two separate choirs of singing sisters: right and left. Each choir occupied a special building. The right choir always sang the late mass, and the left sang the early mass. Vespers and Matins were sung by both choirs (also the All-Night Vigil) in two choirs. Both choirs joined together at the gathering. On weekdays, each choir was divided into two more turns. One half started the week, the other ended, three days at a time. The service was always with the canonarch. Violas read and canoned. The bass read only the Apostle and the Six Psalms. They didn’t read the discount at all. During the all-night vigil they gathered to sing the catavasia on the pulpit. Both choirs read in turns, for weeks at a time. After morning and evening prayers, the saint’s little rule was obligatory to be observed. In the evenings, everyone walked along the canal (and those in obedience - when they can) and read “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” one hundred and fifty times. For every ten, they read the “Our Father” and commemorated the living and the dead. On October 1, Intercession, in the evening after Matins the whole monastery prayed one and a half hundred times in the church. They also prayed constantly throughout the buildings for the living and for the dead and in every need. This was the most common permanent rule. On the occasion of the twelve feasts, those who were zealous gathered to pray all night in church. At Epiphany, they placed a bowl of water in the church and, when they prayed in front of it at 12 o’clock at night, they always saw how the water seemed to all boil for one moment. They also always planned to pray after mass until Little Vespers on Saturday of Bright Week, before the closing of the Royal Doors. Only girls were assigned to choir and church obedience. There were a lot of buildings in the monastery, it seems, more than 66, several half-stone, and most wooden. Until the 60s, one building was preserved, erected during the life of the monk - the first refectory. The sisters lived according to obedience. The buildings usually housed workshops and residential cells. Who worked where, lived there. The monastery had a large painting workshop. In it, the sisters not only painted icons, but also prepared boards, gilded and minted them. Each had their own specialty. Recently, a separate icon-painting room has been created. More than 80 sisters lived and worked in lithography. They worked on the stones themselves (they carved them), each stone took a year to prepare. They printed pictures on a motor. Dried. In addition, they transferred the paintings onto white primed boards and then painted them. Figures of the monk with a bear were cast from alabaster and painted. They made all sorts of baskets and toys. All this was distributed and sold in the monastery shop. The boards were made in their workshop by clean woodworkers - they were placed in the horse yard, and in the dyeing building the blanks were primed, just like canvases. In handicraft obedience they sewed with satin stitch on a hoop and generally embroidered. The tailor made clothes for the sisters. There were several tailors. In the vestry, they sewed and repaired vestments, made flowers, removed icons and wove Russian bobbin lace. In the knitting department they knitted on machines. In manatein, they spun Russian sheep wool and wove manatea, from which duckweeds and robes were sewn. Specially designated sisters sewed apostolniks and kamilavkas. The sisters baked bread in the bread building. At the mill they ground the flour themselves. Near the mill there were two granaries. In the prosphora room they baked prosphora. The refectory was located in the church of St. Prince Alexander Nevsky; under the refectory there was a cooking room where food was cooked. Candles were made in a candle building in the monastery, and the wax was prepared, washed, heated and bleached in the forest on Lomovka, where there was a special candle building. The congregants lived in a separate building. They had to take turns guarding the cathedral at night, and the rest of the churchwomen lived right next to their churches. The cellar workers lived in the burial building. Under the building there was a large cellar where cabbage, cucumbers, and mushrooms were stored. Separately there was kvass. The monastery kvass was prepared there and stored in the cellar under the building. At the end of winter, in March, all the cellars were filled with ice and snow. The monastery had its own large hospital and pharmacy. The doctors were their own sisters, and they also received and treated visiting peasants. There was also a dental office. The sisters also treated my teeth. There were four dentists. They not only treated teeth, but also made dentures. Gardeners lived in the garden. The garden was located in the north-eastern corner of the monastery, and in the south-eastern corner there was a cowshed and greenhouses. There was a special water pump there. The main water pump was located at the beginning of the ditch. Everyone took water from there, and in some obediences there was also a water supply. Their own sisters worked at the water pumping station. In the threshing building, the sisters threshed in winter and collected bread and straw. They threshed with flails. In the summer we worked in the fields. The monastic land extended to the south, to the village of Ruzanovo. The gardeners lived in the garden building. In these obediences, unlike the craftswomen and choir members, labor sisters lived. Household work was in charge of the dean and the dean's assistant, who dressed the sisters for work in the monastery, and in the summer, of all obediences, for mowing, watering gardens, harvesting bread, digging potatoes, picking mushrooms in the forest, and in general for all work outside and inside the monastery. Mostly young people were assigned to heavy work. Before the war of 1414, hired men mowed down, and since the war it was the sisters themselves. The hired workers lived in the horse yard. There were all sorts of workshops: saddlery, metalworking, carpentry, tinsmithing. In the equestrian yard there were monastery horses. The coachmen and workers lived there. There was a brick factory behind the monastery. The monastery had two of its own shops: grocery and manufacturing. The sisters could purchase everything without leaving the fence. There was a special shop building where shopkeepers (saleswomen) lived. Thus, the monastery was entirely maintained by itself. Everything was inside the monastery. There was a large, complex and well-organized economy. The monastery had no capital; they lived by their own labor. Farms and farmsteads did their bit to help, because in addition to the young working sisters, there were many old, disabled ones. Some of them could read the Psalter in the deserts, but some could no longer do even that. At the monastery gates there lived gatekeepers who watched those coming and going and locked the monastery at night. The monastery also had its own bathhouse. Mother Abbess lived in the abbot's building. There was an office there. Records were kept of the entire monastery economy. There were also storekeepers who were in charge of clothing and food pantries, and postmen who went to the post office, brought and delivered letters, money and parcels to the buildings. Near the gate, outside the monastery, along the Sarov road there were hotels for pilgrims, and then houses of priests. The hotels also served their sisters. In addition, the monastery had a shelter for girls. It was under the Highest patronage of the Empress and was called Alexandria, since the Imperial Court allocated funds for its maintenance. Up to 60 girls lived in the orphanage. They accepted more orphans there, from 2-3 years old and older, up to 14 years old. The girls lived there until they were 14 years old, and then, if they wished, they either returned to their families or were taken to obedience. A 4-grade school was created in the shelter. The sisters themselves and the monastery clergy taught there. The children of the clergy also studied at the same school. All maintenance, food, clothing came from the monastery. In their free time from classes, the girls learned all kinds of needlework: knitting, embroidering, sewing. There they were taught to sing, and those who were capable were taught to play the harmonium. From the age of seven they were dressed in monastic clothes: duckweed and bandage (velvet peg), and those who were capable were immediately placed on the choir. In winter, the all-night vigil was often celebrated at home. The priest came, and the girls themselves sang, read, and canoned. And in normal times they were all taken to church on holidays, where they all stood in rows separately. Every day, in turn (4 at a time), the girls went to the monastery rule, where, during the commemoration of benefactors, they stood on the pulpit on their knees, with their hands raised. They also went out and made 300 bows on the rule. In the morning and evening they had a common prayer, and in the evening, in addition, they alternated some akathist or 50 times “To the Virgin Mary.” Sisters-teachers, nannies for the little ones, and the eldest lived with them in the building. On weekdays they ate at home, and on holidays they went to the refectory together with their sisters in parade. The orphanage had its own garden where children walked and played in their free time. At Christmas they had a Christmas tree with gifts. The old women lived in an almshouse, the so-called old hospital. There were two buildings connected by a passage (on the 2nd floor) to make it more convenient to go to the Church of “All Sorrowful Joys” without going outside. In addition, many old women lived in the bread building and small buildings scattered throughout the monastery. Those who were able, carried out obedience in the readings - they read the Psalter for 2 hours a day in certain hermitages. Hermitages and reading rooms were under the charge of Mother Treasurer. She kept records and accepted entries for eternal and temporary commemoration of the living and the dead. Synodics with names were written in the charter. Each sister had the right to enroll five of her relatives for eternal remembrance (on the Psalter). In addition, each had a cardboard with the names of deceased relatives, for whom a separate prosphora was taken out every day at mass. The sisters' cards and, in general, all the commemorations (synodics) were read by special sexton nuns. They both read and sextoned. The Psalter in the Nativity Church and hermitages was read without fail day and night all year round. The reading closed only on Great Wednesday after the presanctified Liturgy and began again with the beginning of the all-night vigil on Saturday of Bright Week. Those who were zealous for the monastery donated houses in different cities, and thus metochions arose. There was a large courtyard in Peterhof. In addition to him, there was also a small courtyard in St. Petersburg and a large one in Moscow, on 1st Meshchanskaya. There was a chapel in which all-night vigils were served on holidays, and on weekdays in the morning and evening they served a prayer service to St. Seraphim, and in the evening with an akathist intoned. The rest of the time the Psalter was read. There was also a large courtyard in Nizhny Novgorod on Kavalikha, where there was its own church in the name of St. Seraphim and a large prosphora. Many sisters lived there. A small courtyard in the same Nizhny Novgorod was located in Kanavin, near the Moscow station, and in the station building itself there was a chapel in the name of St. Seraphim. There was also a courtyard in Kharkov. Five or six sisters lived there. There was also a courtyard in Arzamas. In addition, the monastery owned the following farms: 1. Sivukha, not far from the Oran Monastery; 2. Satis, on the Satis River, there was a dairy farm there, there was mowing and a beekeeper. 3. Regiments, in the forest, 12 miles away, on the road to Lomasovo. The churches had their own priests in the courtyards, and services were performed daily by their singing sisters. They also went to read the Psalter for the dead. In their free time from service, the sisters sewed blankets and knitted scarves in their workshops. There was also an icon painting workshop in Peterhof. Prosphora services were held in almost all farmsteads. At a certain time, the monastic rule was read out in the church courtyards. On the farmsteads there were farms, in particular dairy farms, beekeepers, and mushrooms and berries were collected nearby for the monastery. Two miles from the monastery, in the forest, on Lomovka, there was a candle shop, where wax was bleached in the sun. There was a laundry in Lomovka; people from the monastery went there to wash their clothes. From Sivukha, due to the proximity of the distance, the sisters went on holidays to services at the Oran Monastery, and from Satis - to Sarov. On Saturday they did not go out for obedience, “their day” came when the sisters could earn something for themselves, since the monastery provided only premises and a meager meal. Each sister had her own clothes and shoes, and those who did not receive help from their relatives had to earn it themselves. They knitted scarves or painted them, made rosaries, whatever they knew how to do. They also worked in the evenings in cells. After the burial of the deceased, their belongings were distributed, but apparently the elderly sisters had little hope for the new ones, because not everyone got along in the monastery. In recent years, when the monastery hosted a Monday market, “its day” fell on Monday. In addition, in the summer the sisters were allowed to reap for a month, since there was no longer any food. It is noteworthy that many lived in the monastery during childbirth. So, until the very dispersal, the Melyukovs, Putkovs and others from the families of the first Diveyevo oxbows lived. Obedience was considered the main thing in the monastery; it was placed above fasting and prayer. In the old days, there was a certain staff of nuns, so many who wished to be tonsured in excess of the staff, by secret tonsure. They also secretly tonsured the sick when they were dying. Those who were secretly tonsured bore a new name in secret and did not have the right to a mantle; they were tonsured into a half-robe. Several years before the dispersal, there was a great tonsure in the monastery; many elderly sisters were tonsured (it seems up to 200 souls, if not more). The nuns were required to attend all monastery services daily and, in addition, read three kathismas from the Psalter at home. Younger people were not exempt from obedience. People were tonsured into the mantle no earlier than 40 years of age. Upon entering the monastery, everyone wore their secular clothes for some time. A few months later, usually for some holiday, Mother Abbess herself dressed the new arrivals in her corps in a duckweed, an apostolic coat and a velvet, so-called “naked” kamilavka, and gave them a rosary with the order to continually say the Jesus Prayer. And they came to Mother Abbess in a black monastic-cut sundress and monastic shirt. After some time, they tonsured him into the ryassophore. The hieromonk tonsured him in the church. The sisters walked to the cassock tonsure in pairs in black cassocks and leather belts with their hair flowing. Here they again dressed in a cassock with wide sleeves, an apostle, and put on a kamilavka covered with a black tulle basting. A rosary and a lit candle were given into the hands. This candle was kept, and it was given into the hands of the dying person, and after death it was placed in a coffin. In recent years, Mother Abbess dressed her in a kamilavka with basting. The Manatean nuns, like the Sarov monks, wore duckweeds with narrow sleeves. There were both schema-monasteries and hermits in the monastery, but few people decided to take the schema, since they took tonsure very seriously. In addition, it was difficult to perform the mantle as it should in the monastery. The schema was clearly not worn, but was hidden under clothes. According to the behest of the monk, only girls were appointed to all church obediences (also in prosphora bowls). Church linen was washed by the churchwomen in special troughs, and the slops were poured into separate wells specially built for this purpose. The funds in the monastery, as I already said, were limited, so the sisters had to be sent out into the world to collect money. It was a very difficult obedience. In each building, a line was established: the young sisters took turns staying at home, heating the stoves, cleaning the building, carrying water, carrying slops and sewage outside the monastery, washing dishes, going to the refectory for bread and food, because they dined in the refectory only on holidays. They also brought kvass, cucumbers, cabbage and ate them in the buildings. On Sundays and holidays, as well as in the first and Holy weeks of Great Lent, young people, everyone who could, went to church, and on weekdays they went at will and whoever had time for this, free from obedience. The service in the monastery was wonderful. The singing was especially well done. There are too many rehearsals to count; the more capable were also taught to play the violin and harmonium. The Diveyevo regents were famous. And there were many of them, because both in the monastery and in the farmsteads many singers were needed. In the summer, with a large crowd of pilgrims, masses and all-night vigils were served in several churches, and they always sang in two choirs. The singers read for the departed sisters, sang prayers and memorial services in the hermitages, so they had little to do in the workshops. The service was carried out completely according to the regulations. During Great Lent and on Sundays, all Old Testament prayers were chanted. On the day of the Nativity of Christ, the whole monastery went to congratulate Mother Abbess and glorified the birth of the Savior. They walked separately in groups, it was very solemn and festive. Before the holidays, all buildings were cleaned. The unpainted floors were washed white and everything was covered with homemade new rugs, the beds were decorated with clean bedspreads. For three days of Christmas and the entire Bright Week, we did not work, but only went to church, along the canal, in the hermitages, and at home we read spiritual books. Poor singers used to lose their voices from constant singing by the end of Easter week. After all, on Easter the entire service was replaced by singing, and instead of the monastic rule, after Vespers the entire Easter canon was sung. When I entered the monastery, I was most struck by how the monastery spent Lent and how especially joyfully the holidays were celebrated. The meal in the monastery was very meager. On ordinary days, sour cabbage soup, mostly with black mushrooms, kvass, cabbage, cucumbers, and black bread were distributed among the buildings. On holidays they went to the refectory and ate; if there are three dishes, then kvass with fish, cabbage soup and soup; at 4 changes more porridge was added. In those obediences where they had their own income, povarok was added to the meal. This was customary, for example, in such serious obedience as painting. In the workshop, all the strength of the sisters went into work, and if not for the supplement, the sisters would not be able to survive on the monastery food. And so they all looked pale, exhausted, because they sat through winter and summer without air, and even under such stress. The labor nurses always looked stronger and healthier from constant exposure to the open air and from physical work. Work in obedience workshops began at 9 o'clock. At 8 a.m. after mass, everyone in the buildings had breakfast and drank tea. The potatoes were boiling. We had lunch from 11 to 12. At 3 o'clock they went to drink tea, and at 5 the work was already over, at half past five they began to rule in the church. We had dinner, some before and some after the all-night vigil. In the evening there was a general evening prayer in the buildings. Those who did not make it to church prayed at home: Psalms, rules, bows, akathists. Every day all the sisters walked along the ditch in the evening. It was both a prayer and an evening walk. We went to bed at 10, because we got up early in the morning. Manatean nuns were given to their spiritual mothers when they were tonsured. Rassophores were usually not given to anyone. Lately, many sisters have turned to the schema nuns, Mother Anatolia and Mother Seraphim, for spiritual guidance. The schema-nice taught them humility, patience, obedience and the unceasing Jesus Prayer. The young people in the church stood in rows in the middle, the old ones and the nuns stood in the benches or had their own small benches. They always stood decorously, reverently, without any conversation. Mother Abbess’s place was behind the right choir, and before the start of the Liturgy, all the singers came out in pairs and bowed to her. Also all the readers who came out. After mass they came up for a blessing. Mother Abbess baptized everyone. Everyone bowed down in the church at the same time, according to the rules. Sister books were kept in the monastery. All the sisters who died since the founding of the monastery were recorded in them. Each of the sisters tried to purchase such a book and remember the deceased every day, especially on memorial days. The deceased sisters were remembered at proskomedia in churches and at all the Psalms, so there was no fear in dying in the monastery - they would pray for it. The deceased sisters were immediately washed, dressed and placed in a coffin. There was a supply of coffins. The deceased was immediately taken to church for the night, where they read over her all night, and the next day after mass they held a funeral service and buried her. Everyone, both nuns and robes, had the same full monastic funeral service. More people died in the monastery hospital, where before death they were always tonsured into a mantle. The weak priests gave communion to the weak every day and came early with the Holy Gifts. They said that consumptives died especially well. Many of them had visions before their death. For a blessing to die, they sent to Mother Abbess, and she blessed those doomed to death. Not a single service began without the blessing of Mother Abbess. The clergymen took the blessing to call. They were washed in the hospital by assigned nurses in special clothes. This was the law: when a nun died, they rang the large bell 12 times; if the ryasophore, then the small one. And at this time the entire monastery must bow 12 times with the prayer “To the Virgin Mary.” Then, for several days after evening prayers, everyone prayed - they read 12 “Theotokos” for the newly deceased. In the monastery they transferred from building to building like this. The dean or her assistant came, took the icon of the transferred sister, and she had to bow to the ground and ask everyone in the building for forgiveness. Then she was taken to another building, and there she again had to bow to everyone with the words: “Do not forsake the Lord for the sake of.” After that, I moved my things there. They were taken to another building for some offense. They went to their homeland only with the blessing of Mother Abbess, for the exact period specified by her. Punishment was also given for delay in the homeland. For large wines they bowed to the ground in the refectory during a communal dinner. At the same time, large rosaries with wooden beads were given into the hands, so that their knocking could be heard from each bow throughout the entire refectory. In general, little translation was done in the monastery. It happened that, just as they were assigned to obedience in their youth, they lived in one place until old age, getting used to both their work and their sisters. The hardest thing was when they took the singers out of the choir or transferred them from right to left. This was the biggest sorrow; it was difficult for them to get used to their new situation. All life, all interests, sorrows and joys were concentrated in the monastery. It was as if life outside the monastery did not exist. There were many nuns who were brought, and sometimes even brought, to the monastery as infants, and they lived there until they were very old. My Matryosha came to the monastery at the age of 4 and loved the monastery so much that she was forcibly sent to Vertyanovo for several hours to visit her relatives. She immediately rushed back. She was afraid to even walk alone in the world and always asked her brother to take her home. What I heard from my sisters and saw and heard myself Prophets. Mother Agnia told the story. In the Tikhvin Church, in the back corner opposite the entrance to the choir, hung a picture of the Old Testament prophets. The painting measures 2 by 3 arshins. The prophets were written in full length. Over time, the image darkened and became almost black. A lamp was burning in front of the picture. And then they stopped lighting the lamp: “Why light it - the picture is black - you can see almost nothing.” And then one day the old women who had always stood there came, and the prophets left. There is no image on the canvas. The old women began to deliberately gather there to pray, light a lamp, and then one day they came in the morning and saw that the prophets had arrived. The morning was dewy, and the prophets had drops of dew on their feet. This was a long time ago, even before the discovery of the saint’s holy relics. About the new cathedral. Construction of the new cathedral began soon after the discovery of the relics, but was not completed. Funds for the construction were donated by Muscovite Fyodor Vasilyevich Dolgintsev. He allegedly took part in some kind of draw and promised that if he won, he would give the money to build the cathedral. And so it happened. There was a legend in Diveevo: Father Seraphim gave his blessing to build the cathedral near the ditch, on the same line as the Trinity Cathedral. But there later Ivan Tikhonov, the persecutor of the Diveyevo sisters, managed to erect a wooden church of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. Moreover, he built it from material prepared for the construction of the Trinity Cathedral. The lower floor of the Tikhvin Church was low, made of stone; in its eastern part there was a small chapel in memory of the icon of the Mother of God “Assuage my sorrows.” Sister-clergymen lived in special cells near the church. On the second floor there is a three-altar wooden church in the name of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, with chapels of the Archangel Michael and All Saints. The choir was located above the porch. The church was cramped and stuffy; people usually served there in the winter. And when they moved to the summer cathedral, there was only the early Liturgy. After the crackdown, a steam mill was built in the Tikhvin Church; the building burned down in the fall of 1928. Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov) insisted on building a new cathedral on the site of the Tikhvin Church. But Mother Abbess Alexandra did not want to destroy the winter church. And it was decided to build the cathedral outside the ditch. This was the reason for the gap between the abbess and the Right Reverend Seraphim. A ceremonial laying was scheduled. The late Mother Abbess Maria did nothing, did not go anywhere without the blessing of Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna. Abbess Alexandra did not follow her example. A solemn prayer service was already underway at the laying site when the abbess’s aunt, Elizaveta Ivanovna, came to Praskovya Ivanovna. She was old and deaf. So he says to the novice Duna: “I’ll ask the blessed one, and you tell me what she will answer, otherwise I won’t hear.” “Mama, they’re donating the cathedral to us.” Praskovya Ivanovna replied: “The cathedral is a cathedral, but I saw: bird cherry trees had grown in the corners of the cathedral. As if the cathedral wouldn’t be destroyed too.” Dunya decided: “They are already laying the foundation stone for the cathedral, so there is no point in talking now.” And she answered: The cathedral remained unfinished. In recent years, they were going to blow it up several times, but they didn’t allow it - they could have damaged the surrounding buildings. The cathedral's construction technician was Alexander Alexandrovich Rumyantsev. In the 1920s he moved to England. The cathedral was painted by the sisters of the monastery icon-painting workshop under the direction of the artist Parilov. It was already ready, but the iconostasis had not been installed. And at this time they suddenly realized that they had forgotten to install heating. This delayed the consecration for a year, and when it was finished, it was already too late to consecrate, the war had begun. They wanted to consecrate the cathedral in the name of the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” and St. Seraphim. They said that blessed Ksenia Stepanovna came to the burial site at night and was disrespectful. Now the cathedral stands open, without doors. The abomination of desolation reigns in it. About the depiction of the saint on icons. Many people ask: why was St. Seraphim painted in Diveevo differently from the way it was preserved in ancient images of his time? The fact is that in Sarov, in the chambers of the father-abbot, a portrait of the monk at an earlier age was preserved. The saint is depicted on a gray background, in an oval. A photograph from it was placed in Chichagov’s “Chronicles...”. The artist Serebryakov painted the elder. The monk is depicted young and unbowed. On the next day of the removal of the relics, novice Boris brought this portrait early in the morning to Diveevo and placed it first in our cell, and then gave it to Blessed Maria Ivanovna. It is not known exactly where he is now. Apparently, icons were painted from this portrait after the discovery of the relics. In the last days before the crackdown, I suddenly and unexpectedly saw a large notebook on my bed. It was Motovilov’s stitched manuscript, followed by a transcript in beautiful, clear handwriting. The manuscript was written in a terribly illegible handwriting, all wavy lines, like shorthand. From the attached transcript, I understood that already in Motovilov’s time many began to incorrectly depict the death of the saint. He was depicted standing, and sometimes even lying, at the lectern in an empty cell. In addition, the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” is placed incorrectly in the corner. In reality, this was not the case. The monk was kneeling at the lectern, rather than lying down. The icons were located in the following order: in the corner is the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands, next to the right is a large image of the Queen of Heaven, and even further to the right, on the edge, is the image of the Mother of God “Tenderness”, in front of it is a round candlestick-tray with many burning candles. In the notebook there was even a drawing of Motovilov with the inscription: “Even though I’m a bad artist, I’ll still try to depict it.” It was also said that the cell was always littered with bags of crackers, canvases, and bundles of candles, so that only a narrow passage remained to the icons. The fire started when all these things caught fire. I then gave the notebook to Mother Abbess. Dunya Bulatova, who lived in the cell with Agasha Kuptsova, told me. Agasha was from the Melyukov family, that is, a relative of Elena Ivanovna Motovilova. Once Dunya begged her for one of Motovilov’s notebooks. Everything was sewn there: business accounts, business papers, etc. But still she managed to find the spiritual there. Motovilov writes that the monk told him a lot about the future of Russia. And he sat down and wanted to write it down, but the Angel stopped his hand, saying: “Do not write, but convey it orally.” It was also written there that the monk said that his death would be similar to the death of the seven youths of Ephesus. This manuscript was begged from Agasha by a man who called himself a royal photographer. He promised to print it. The manuscript also read: “It’s not that it’s a wonder that they didn’t reach my hut 100 fathoms, but it’s a wonder that my death will be similar to the death of the youths of Ephesus, who slept in a cave for 300 years. Just as they rose up in assurance of the general resurrection, so I will rise up before the final end and lie down in Diveyevo. Diveevo will be called not after the village of Diveevo, but after the global Diva.” How blessed Natalia Ivanovna saw off the Truth. I heard many times back in the monastery that Blessed Natasha, before her death in 1900, carried the Truth to heaven with a ringing bell. But how it was, I couldn’t find out anything more precisely. In the 50s I had to meet a woman from the village of Knyaz-Ivanovo. She told me that this happened in front of her on some big summer holiday, it seems, on Trinity. At that time there was no bell tower in the monastery, and the bells were placed at the end of the groove on a wooden platform. Natalia Ivanovna's hermitage was located next to the bread building, and she always rang the midnight office. And then she unexpectedly started ringing during mass. Everyone rushed out of the church to find out what had happened. The late Mother Abbess Maria also came out. Everyone headed to the belfry. Mother Abbess turned to the blessed one and asked why she was calling like that. She answered: - I see off the truth to heaven, There is no more truth on earth! “Well, don’t do that again,” said the abbess. “I won’t do it again,” the blessed one answered and spread her hands. She died that same year. Watch. In the last winter before the dispersal, our clocks began to ring twice for no apparent reason: once during the day, and once at night. So long that we all even went out to listen. In peacetime, the clock chimed: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us,” then it was damaged and remained silent. That same winter in Sarov, Hieromonk Gideon had an incident with an alarm clock. It showed everything was fine, and suddenly the needle turned back, moved back an hour and again went as expected. When I visited Maria Ivanovna on New Year’s Eve, 1927, I asked the blessed one about this: “What does this mean?” She replied: “The watch is prophetic. They are looking for the truth, but there is no truth on earth anymore.” About Peterhof. Soon after the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim, the Diveyevo metochion arose in Peterhof. It was located halfway between the Peterhof Palace and the Imperial Family's own dacha. 80 sisters lived in the compound. The eldest was first nun Agnia, and then Mother Abbess’s sister, nun Feofania Trakovskaya. In the courtyard there were two churches, an icon-painting workshop, and a prosphora. There was an excellent choir. The Empress and her daughters often visited our courtyard. Matresha told me: she was brought there in 1913. The following summer, the Empress came to the courtyard 11 times. She came alone or with one of her daughters, but never brought the Heir, although her sisters even asked her about it once, but she replied that she could not dispose of him. Sometimes she ordered mass in advance without ringing. Sometimes she brought someone from her retinue. The sisters always saw her off, surrounding her in a crowd. When Matryosha and another sister were brought to Peterhof, the Empress said: “You have new ones.” At Easter she sent all her sisters a beautiful porcelain egg. There was a direct telephone wire from the courtyard to the Palace, and from the church there was a wire to the residential building. The war of 1914 began on the morning of July 19, the day of remembrance of St. Seraphim. The empress and the princesses were at the all-night vigil and mass the day before. Mass had just finished, the guests were just being seen off, when suddenly they called from the church: “The Emperor is in the church.” He arrived in the protective uniform of a common soldier, and the sister on duty in the church recognized him only because he entered ahead of the Empress. All the sisters jumped up, putting on duckweeds and kamilavkas as they went. And run to church. The Emperor stood at the icon of St. Seraphim. Father also came running. They sang: “Save, O Lord, Thy people...” Out of nowhere, the church was filled with a crowd of people. So when they started to leave, there was a crush. The Empress kept saying: “Hush, hush, don’t crush the children.” The fact is that in connection with the outbreak of war, the evacuation of the entire coast was announced, and the excited people wanted to see the Emperor. When the priest took the Emperor from the porch, the Emperor said: - Forgive me, I wanted to come to mass today, but, you see, there is war. The evacuation of the coast was canceled. The sisters lived in the courtyard until the summer of 1917. They sewed silk shirts for officers. As a sample, the Emperor's red silk shirt was sent from the palace. They also said that the sisters saw when they ran to the church that the Emperor was crying a lot in front of the image of St. Seraphim. The sisters lived in Peterhof under the special patronage of the Royal Family. With the onset of the 1917 revolution, drunken soldiers began to enter the courtyard. Others tried to hide there. It became extremely restless, and it was decided to give up everything and move to the monastery. The sisters of the community of Archimandrite Guriy Egorov, later metropolitan and renewer of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, subsequently lived in the courtyard in Peterhof. About the discovery of relics. 70 years passed from the death of Father Seraphim of Sarov to the discovery of his relics. His memory was never forgotten; they patiently waited for the promised discovery of the holy relics. The old nuns told me that until the opening of the relics on January 2 (the day of the death of Father Seraphim) they always baked pancakes in Sarov, and for this our sisters traveled from Diveevo to Sarov. Ambrosia's mother told me that when she was young she went to Sarov to coat pancakes. All pilgrims were fed pancakes. At the end of the 19th century, the future Metropolitan Seraphim, then still a brilliant guards colonel Leonid Chichagov, began to travel to Sarov. Dunya, a novice of blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, told me that when Chichagov arrived for the first time, Praskovya Ivanovna met him, looked from under his sleeve and said: - But the sleeves are like a priest’s. He soon accepted the priesthood. Praskovya Ivanovna persistently told him: - Submit a petition to the Emperor so that the relics are revealed to us. Chichagov began collecting materials, wrote the Chronicle and presented it to the Emperor. When the Emperor read it, he was inflamed with the desire to open the relics. Chichagov described all this in the second part of the Chronicle. There the details of all the events before the discovery of the relics were outlined and the discovery itself was described. Everything that could not be printed in the old days. This manuscript disappeared during the arrest in 1937. Those to whom the Metropolitan personally read this manuscript told me that before the glorification of the saint there was great turmoil in the Synod. The Emperor insisted, but almost the entire Synod was against it. He was supported only by Metropolitan (later) Kirill and the comrade chief prosecutor of the Synod, Vladimir Karlovich Sabler. Excuse: “Where and why to go to the forest, only bones were found.” Evdokia Ivanovna, novice Dunya, told me that at that time blessed Praskovya Ivanovna fasted for 15 days, did not eat anything, so that she could not even walk, but crawled on all fours. And then one evening Chichagov, then still the archimandrite of the Spaso-Evfimievsky Monastery in Suzdal, came. “Mother, they refuse to reveal the relics to us.” Praskovya Ivanovna answered: - Take my hand, let's go to freedom. On one side, the blessed one was picked up by her cell attendant, Mother Seraphim, and on the other, Archimandrite Seraphim. – Dig to the right, here they are, the relics. The examination of the remains of St. Seraphim took place on the night of January 12, 1903. At this time, in the village of Lamasovo, 12 versts from Sarov, they saw a glow over Sarov. And the peasants ran to the fire. They come and ask: – Where did you have the fire? We saw the glow. “There was no fire anywhere,” they are answered. Later one monk said quietly: “Tonight the commission opened the remains of Father Seraphim. Only the bones of Father Seraphim remained, and so the Synod was embarrassed: - Go to the forest, there are no incorruptible relics, but only bones. To this, one of the elders of the monk who was still alive said: “We bow not to bones, but to miracles.” The sisters said that the monk himself appeared to the Emperor, after which he, with his own authority, insisted on the opening of the relics. Indeed, there were many miracles both before and after the discovery of the relics. The opening of the relics of the Venerable Father Seraphim took place on July 19, 1903. At that time there was no Kazan railway; we traveled through Nizhny Novgorod. The Tsar's train was led by the head of the route, Boris Nikolaevich Vedenisov. A temporary station was set up opposite the village of Vyezdnoye in the meadows, at the crossing near the mill. It was urgent to build a dirt road to Sarov. No one undertook to do this in such a short time. B.N. volunteered. Vedenisov, and the monk, according to Boris Nikolaevich, helped him himself. We made everything very simple. It was a hot time. The road was plowed with plows, then watered with water from barrels and rolled with rollers, which are used to roll a field. The road turned out to be smooth and hard, like asphalt. I note, by the way, that before his death in 1950 B.N. Vedenisov, before my eyes, received healing from a piece of the mantle of St. Seraphim. When the Tsar entered the Sarov Cathedral, the people stood on both sides like a wall and one pregnant woman was so squeezed that she immediately gave birth to a boy right on the carpet, almost under the feet of the Tsar. We barely had time to clean it up. The Emperor learned about this incident and ordered to register himself as godfather to the newborn. Almost the entire Royal Family went to Sarov to unveil the relics. Peasants, festively dressed, met them in villages and along roads, standing in dense rows. In the village of Puza, the Tsar ordered to stop and called little girls festively dressed to him. All of them were dressed in red sundresses (kumacniks), multi-colored aprons and silk, “spill” scarves. One of them, Dunya, is still alive. She was six years old then. We arrived in Sarov on July 17 or 18 (I don’t know exactly). The Grand Dukes immediately went to Diveevo to visit Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna. They brought her a silk dress and a bonnet, which they immediately dressed her in. At that time, there were already four daughters in the Royal Family, but there was no boy heir. We went to the monk to pray for the gifts of the Heir. Praskovya Ivanovna had the custom of showing everything on dolls, and here she prepared a boy doll in advance, covered him softly and high with scarves and laid him down: “Hush, hush, he’s sleeping...” She led them to show them: “This is yours.” The great princes, in delight, lifted the blessed one into their arms and began to rock her, but she just laughed. Everything she said was conveyed to the Emperor by telephone, but the Emperor himself arrived from Sarov only on July 19. Evdokia Ivanovna said that Praskovya Ivanovna’s cell attendant, Mother Seraphima, was going to Sarov for the opening, but suddenly broke her leg. Praskovya Ivanovna healed her. It was announced to them that when they met the Tsar in the abbot's building, they would sing a spiritual concert. He will sit down his retinue for breakfast, and he will come to them. Mother Seraphima and Dunya returned from the meeting, but Praskovya Ivanovna did not allow anything to be removed. There is a frying pan of potatoes and a cold samovar on the table. While they were fighting with her, they heard at the door: - Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us. The Emperor, and with him the Empress. Already in their presence they laid out the carpet, cleared the table, and immediately brought a hot samovar. Everyone went out and left them alone, but they could not understand what the blessed one was saying, and soon the Emperor came out and said: - The eldest is with her, come in. When they began to say goodbye, Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov) and the cell sisters entered. Praskovya Ivanovna opened the chest of drawers. She took out a new tablecloth, spread it on the table, and began to put gifts: a linen canvas of her own making (she spun the threads herself), a whole loaf of sugar, painted eggs, and more pieces of sugar. She tied all this into a knot very tightly, with several knots, and when she tied it, she even squatted from the effort and gave it into the hands of the Emperor: “Sir, carry it yourself,” and she extended her hand, “and give us some money, we need to build a hut (a new cathedral). The Tsar did not have any money with him, so they sent it right away. They brought it, and the Emperor gave her a purse of gold. This wallet was immediately handed over to Mother Abbess. They said goodbye and kissed hand in hand. The Tsar and Empress promised to come again soon to discover the relics of Mother Alexandra, because she appeared in the palace and worked miracles there. When the Emperor was leaving, he said that Praskovya Ivanovna is the only true servant of God. Everyone and everywhere accepted him as a king, and she alone accepted him as a simple person. From Praskovya Ivanovna we went to Elena Ivanovna Motovilova. The Emperor knew that she kept what N.A. had given her. Motovilov, a letter written by the Monk Seraphim and addressed to the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II. The Monk Seraphim wrote this letter, sealed it with soft bread, and handed it to Nikolai Alexandrovich Motovilov with the words: “You won’t live long enough, but your wife will live long enough, when the entire Royal Family comes to Diveevo, and the Tsar comes to her.” Let her give it to him. Natalia Leonidovna Chichagova (the bishop’s daughter) told me that when the Emperor accepted the letter, he reverently put it in his chest pocket, saying that he would read the letter later. And Elena Ivanovna became in spirit and for a long time, one and a half or two hours, she told them, but she herself did not remember what after. Elena Ivanovna died on December 27, 1910. She was secretly tonsured. When the Emperor read the letter, having already returned to the abbot’s building, he wept bitterly. The courtiers consoled him, saying that although Father Seraphim was a saint, he could be wrong, but the Emperor cried inconsolably. The contents of the letter remained unknown to anyone. On the same day, July 20, in the evening everyone left Diveevo. After this, the Emperor turned to Praskovya Ivanovna with all serious questions and sent the Grand Dukes to her. Evdokia Ivanovna said that before one had time to leave, the other arrived. After the death of the cell attendant Praskovya Ivanovna, Mother Seraphima, everyone asked through Evdokia Ivanovna. She reported that Praskovya Ivanovna said: - Sovereign, come down from the throne yourself! The blessed one died on September 22, 1915 (the old woman lived for 120 years. Comp.). Before her death, she kept bowing to the ground in front of the portrait of the Emperor. When she was no longer able to do so, the cell attendants lowered her and raised her. - Why are you praying to the Emperor like that, mummy? - Fools, he will be taller than all the kings. There were two portraits of the king: together with the Empress and he alone. But she bowed to the portrait where he was alone. She also spoke about the Emperor: - Don’t know, reverend, don’t know, martyr! During these years, many came to Sarov and Diveevo. Rasputin arrived with his retinue - young ladies-in-waiting. He himself did not dare to enter Praskovya Ivanovna’s house and stood on the porch, and when the ladies-in-waiting entered, Praskovya Ivanovna rushed after them with a stick, cursing: “You deserve a stallion.” They just clicked their heels. Vyrubova also came. But then, fearing that Praskovya Ivanovna would do something again, they sent to find out what she was doing. Praskovya Ivanovna sat and tied three sticks with her belt - she had three sticks, one was called a “cane”, the other a “bulanka”, the third I don’t remember how - with the words: “Ivanovna, Ivanovna (that’s what she called herself), and how will you beat? - Yes, on the snout, on the snout! She turned the whole palace upside down! The important maid of honor was not allowed in, saying that Praskovya Ivanovna was in a bad mood. Shortly before her death, Praskovya Ivanovna took down the portrait of the Emperor and kissed his feet with the words: - Darling is already at the end. Dispersal of the monastery. On December 31, 1926, on New Year's Eve, before the all-night vigil, I visited Blessed Maria Ivanovna. She sent me: - Look, what new month has appeared, steep or flat? I went and came back and said what month. “The old women will die,” said the blessed one. Indeed, from January 1st, for two weeks there were always dead women, not even one per day. And then the blessed one began to say: – What a year is coming, what a difficult year! Elijah and Enoch are already walking the earth... She talked about this a lot, so much so that she even kept me until halfway through the all-night vigil. On Sunday of the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee, monsters came to disperse Sarov. This lasted until the 4th week of Lent. Hieromonk Markellin stood at the tomb relics for many years. The administrator of the Tambov diocese, Archbishop Zinovy, was at that time in Diveyevo. He called Fr. Markellin and ordered him to take the relics and hide with them in the Caucasus. But he refused, saying that he, having stood at the holy relics for so many years, had seen so many miracles from them that he was sure that the monk himself would not give in even now. For this Fr. Markellin was dismissed, and Hieromonk Cyprian was installed in his place. It was difficult to drive out the monks. Almost all of them had separate cells with separate exits, and had several keys. Today they will kick out the monk, and tomorrow he will come again and ban himself. Church services were still going on. Finally, on Monday of the Week of the Cross, many authorities arrived. They raked up all the shrines: the miraculous icon of the Life-Giving Source; coffin-deck in which Father Seraphim lay in the ground for 70 years; a cypress coffin containing the relics, and more. They put all this between the royal chambers and the northern entrance of the Assumption Cathedral, made a fire, and lit it. Novice Boris managed to take a photograph; he brought it to show us a photograph of this fire. The relics of Father Seraphim, that is, his bones, as they were dressed in a mantle and clothes, were all rolled up together and placed in a blue prosphora box. They sealed the box, and they themselves divided into four parties, sat on several sleighs and drove in different directions, wanting to hide where they were taking the relics. The box with holy relics was taken to Arzamas through the village of Onuchino, where they stopped to spend the night and feed the horses. However, no matter how much they wanted to hide the ends, when the troika with the holy relics entered the village of Kremenki, the alarm bell sounded in the bell tower there. The relics were taken directly to Moscow. There they were received by a scientific commission. Priest Vladimir Bogdanov managed to join this commission. When they opened the box, then, according to the testimony of Fr. Vladimir, there were no relics in it. I heard this from his spiritual children. The same was said by the late Bishop Athanasius, who was later in exile along with Fr. Vladimir in Kotlas. They said that, having arrived for the night, the blasphemers locked the box with the holy relics in the barn, and took the keys for themselves. But they themselves drank heavily. After this, the service in Sarov stopped, and the monks dispersed in all directions. In those days Fr. Markellin came to our building. He could not forgive himself for disobeying the bishop, and reached the point of nervous breakdown. In 31–32 he was arrested and exiled to Alma-Ata. He spent the Great Lent there at a transit point in 1932, and on Holy Saturday he was sent further, where he soon died. On the 4th week of Lent, Sarov was dispersed, and after Easter they came to us. Searches began throughout the monastery, in all buildings. They described government belongings and checked all our things. It was spring, everything was blooming, but we saw nothing. During these difficult days I went to Blessed Maria Ivanovna. She sat calm and serene: – Maria Ivanovna, can we still live in peace? The management has left. Everything seemed to go back to normal. We lived for exactly three months and on the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, September 7/20, 1927, we were offered to leave the monastery. All this summer, monastic life during the day passed as if in its usual order, but as soon as night began, owls flew in from somewhere, sat on the roofs of the buildings and filled the entire monastery with their ominous cry. And this happened every night. As soon as the dispersal was announced, the owls immediately disappeared somewhere. At that time, two bishops lived in exile with us: Archbishop Zinovy ​​of Tambov and Bishop Seraphim of Dmitrov. On the very feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Bishop Zinovy ​​served mass in the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God. The singers sang the stichera “Today, even on reasonable thrones may God rest...” and were unable to sing any further. Everyone started crying, and the whole church was crying. Bishop Seraphim celebrated mass in the cathedral. After mass, he preached a sermon, and in it were the following words: now each of us has been offered a cup, but who will accept it? Some will just bring it to their lips, some will drink a quarter, some will drink half, and some will drink it all to the bottom. He also said that in the monastery we all burned with one large candle, and now we are each separated by our own separate candle. The next night, both bishops, mother abbess, deans and some older sisters were arrested and sent to Nizhny Novgorod, and from there to Moscow, where they were released and asked to choose a place of residence. After this, until the Exaltation, services in churches continued. The last service was at the Exaltation, all-night vigil and mass, in the Church of “Joy of All Who Sorrow.” After mass, the singers sang, as usual on Forgiveness Sunday, “Adam’s Lament.” All the sisters said goodbye. The whole church was crying. In Sarov, the monks left on Monday of the 4th week of Lent, and we left on the next day of the Exaltation. Both had to bear a heavy cross. After acceleration. The sisters did not immediately leave Vozdvizhenye, but settled in Diveevo, Vertyanov and surrounding villages. In the Kazan Church, built by Mother Alexandra, there were two priests, and there was always a daily service: matins and then mass. It’s the same on weekdays and on holidays. There was always a very long commemoration at mass. The deacon commemorated the dead for an hour on the pulpit. The rector at that time was Fr. Pavel of Peru. He died on Easter 1938 in the Arzamas prison as a mitred archpriest. They said that he was called shortly before his arrest and asked: -Are you a shepherd or a mercenary? The second priest was Fr. Simeon. He came from a background of artisans and in the 30s, due to human weakness, he removed his rank and began working at a military plant in Vyatka. During the war he died at the machine. The men said that he once came to Diveevo. In Arzamas he asked to take a passing car, they recognized him and offered to ride in the cab. But he refused, and lay down in the back and cried all the way. The deacon was Fr. Mikhail Lilov. He had many children and lived in poverty. So he decided to remove his rank, but he had a vision - the founder of the Diveyevo monastery, Mother Alexandra, appeared. I remember how he read the Gospel at the Liturgy on Great Wednesday and was interrupted by tears. He died at the same time as Fr. Pavel in Arzamas prison. After the dispersal of the monastery, the nuns who still lived within the monastery went to the Kazan Church every day. The singers sang and read in the choir. The church had its own large well-coordinated choir. At the request of the parishioners and with the blessing of the abbess, in the last years before the dispersal and subsequently, until the closure of the church in 1937, the choir was directed by our nun, the former Peterhof regent Agafya Romanovna Uvarova. She had a strong character, so even the men were afraid of her. All-night vigils were served on monastic holidays. The funeral service for the dead sisters was held in the Kazan Church. This is how we lived through the winter, and by spring many sisters began to leave for their families. Some had everything taken away from them along the way, and they came to their relatives in what only they had. Sensing the imminent dispersal of the monastery, most of the sisters stocked up on apartments in advance, but we, a few new people, lived for one day and during the dispersal we had nowhere to go. We rented some kind of skinny hut in Vertyanov, with a collapsed floor, full of fleas. It was impossible to live like that. In the village of Elizaryevo, seven miles in the direction of Arzamas, Fr. settled with his brother. Jacob our monastery priest Fr. Michael. They found us an apartment in Elizariev, and we moved there for the winter. Blessed Maria Ivanovna. Blessed Maria Ivanovna was from Tambov. During her lifetime, Elder Praskovya Ivanovna walked around in tatters, dirty, and spent the night under the Osinovsky Bridge. Her real patronymic was Zakharovna, not Ivanovna. We asked why she is called Ivanovna? Answered: - This is all of us, blessed ones, Ivanovnas according to John the Baptist. Blessed Natalia Dimitrievna was also called Natalia Ivanovna. When, before the death of Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, Maria Ivanovna came to her to ask to stay in the monastery, she answered her: - Just don’t sit on my chair. But she was still first placed in Praskovya Ivanovna’s cell. Blessed Mary spoke a lot, quickly, and fluently, even in poetry. But she cursed a lot, especially after 1917. This cell was at the very entrance gate, and the blessed one had to be transferred deep into the monastery, to an almshouse, where she lived until the dispersal of the monastery. The sister of the former cell attendant Praskovya Ivanovna Dunya, who lived with her at that time, told the story. - Maria Ivanovna cursed so much, cursed so much, she had no strength. We even ran outside. Since I ask her: - Maria Ivanovna, why are you swearing so much? Mama Praskovya Ivanovna didn’t swear like that. “It was good for her to indulge under Nikolai, but let her indulge under Soviet rule!” At first she walked around the monastery, loved the blessed fool Onesimus. She called him her fiancé, walked with him arm in arm, and then her legs became paralyzed, and she either sat or lay on the bed. She was a visionary of high life. People came and came to her from everywhere. She opened her life to many people. Bishop Varnava (Belyaev), vicar of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, visited her and greatly revered her. With his blessing, a cell was built for her to disperse the monastery in the village of Puza, 18 versts towards Arzamas. They took her there immediately after the dispersal of the monastery and locked her away from everyone. I had to be with her during the acceleration. I started asking her how and what. She told me a lot. Described the religious procession. – So they go with lanterns, with icons, through the mud (during the dispersal there was terrible mud) to Ardatov and return back, as if with a religious procession (that’s how many decades we have been walking with a religious procession!). She described a thin hut on the edge of Vertyanov, jam-packed. I ask: - “Is it good there?” - “No, it’s bad” (maybe prison?). I don't remember anything else. Maria Ivanovna stayed in Puza for 2–3 months. When the abbess settled in Murom, all the elders came to her with reports. Dorofey’s mother, the cell attendant of Blessed Maria Ivanovna, also appeared: - Why did you give Maria Ivanovna into the world? Take it back. She went to see her in Puza: “Maria Ivanovna, will you come with me?” - “I’ll go.” They immediately put her on a cart, covered her with a cotton red blanket and brought her to Elizaryevo. Where should I put it? We went to Fr. for advice. Mikhail with Fr. Jacob, and they say: “Take her to the girls” (to Tonya and me). They brought her to us unexpectedly. She stayed with us for several days until they found an apartment and heated it - it was winter. There she spent the winter. In the spring they were transported to Diveevo, first to the mutes (there lived a deaf-mute brother and sister), from there to the Shatagins. And in the spring of 1930, they transported the blessed one to a farm near Pochinki and finally to Cherevatovo, where she died in 1931, on August 26, on the night of the feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God. That night there was a terrible thunderstorm. She is buried at the Cherevatovsky cemetery. We lived with Tonya (she died as a nun Seraphima in the Intercession Monastery in Kyiv) and often went to see her. When she cursed, and when she suddenly said affectionately: “Here are my kittens.” She spoke a lot in front of me, and told me all her life, and to others in front of me. Once Tonya says: - You keep saying, Maria Ivanovna, a monastery! - There will be no monastery! - Will! Will! Will! – And so she banged her hand on the table with all her might. She would have broken her hand if we hadn’t put a pillow on the table so it wouldn’t hurt so much. She assigned obedience to all the sisters (not a single one is alive now) in the monastery: who should rake the hay, who should clean the ditch, who should do what, but she never told me anything. I'm somehow upset and tell her: - Maria Ivanovna, will I live to reach the monastery? “You’ll live,” she answered quietly and squeezed my hand tightly, even pressing it painfully against the table. Before her death, Maria Ivanovna told all the sisters close to her how many kathismas they would read for her before the 40th day. All this happened exactly. And she told me when I was with her for the last time in October 1930: - And you won’t read a single kathisma about me. And really, I didn’t read anything. I remembered her words already on the 40th day, when it was too late. Fighters. Husband and wife Boytsov lived near Diveevo with the blessing of the elder of the Optina Hermitage, Fr. Joseph (or Fr. Anatoly). Vasily Mikhailovich Boytsov was an Old Believer, a reader, and lived in Petrograd. Once he was walking through St. Petersburg and saw Fr. John of Kronstadt is all radiant. This vision brought Vasily Mikhailovich into the fold of the Orthodox Church. He was a great man of prayer. His wife, Alexandra Konstantinovna, died on January 27, 1929 and was buried in the Diveyevo cemetery, and in 1931 he was taken to Diveyevo along with our sisters. He was glad that he went to prison with the Diveyevo family. He spent a year in Gorky prison, from where he was sent into exile in Arkhangelsk. While crossing the ice across the White Sea, he slipped and broke his leg. He died in a hospital in Arkhangelsk. One sister told me that Boytsov told: one person had a vision, perhaps to himself. He hears them asking: “How many people will return to Diveevo? Three hundred?" - "No". "Thirty?" - "No". "Three people." The miraculous cross. After the dispersal of the monastery, many icons were placed in the upper Nativity Church. The crucifix was very large and obviously did not fit through the door of the small church. So they decided to saw off one of the Savior’s handles with part of the Cross in order to make it easier to carry into the room. At that time, a club had already been set up in the refectory church of Alexander Nevsky. Several people went from there on Thursday or Friday morning during Holy Week to follow the cross. They went up the stairs to the porch and saw: there was a crucifix there, and traces of dried blood flowing from the sawed area were visible. There were traces of blood on the floor where it flowed. It immediately became known to everyone. I remember we were leaving Vespers on Good Friday, and the men were standing on each other’s shoulders to look through the window of the upper porch. They said that this cross was considered miraculous in the monastery. It should have been placed in a high place in the cathedral, but it turned out to be small and stood in a picturesque place for a long time. And recently it was placed on the right side of the cathedral. In prison. In the winter of 1937, there were a lot of us in the Arzamas prison. The fact is that after the dispersal of the monastery, according to the chief of police Andreev, 2000 nuns lived in Arzamas: from two Arzamas monasteries, Nikolaevsky and Alekseevsky; almost all of the Ponetaevskys, led by the abbess. Many settled from Diveyevo and other surrounding monasteries. Some got jobs, some got married. Several hundred souls were imprisoned. There were people there not only from the city monasteries, but also from Diveevo, from all the surrounding areas. And then one nun who was sitting in prison has a dream: the Monk Seraphim leads two nuns around the yard with the words: “I am taking my favorites to prison.” He wakes up, looks out the window, and our sisters Pasha and Masha are walking through the prison yard. In exactly the same way, Vera Leonidovna Chichagova had a dream at about the same time: nuns were sitting at a table, and the Queen of Heaven was indicating which of them should be taken to prison. Agasha's sister. In 1946, on November 9, on the feast of the icon of the Queen of Heaven “Quick to Hear,” our ryassophore sister Agasha Kuptsova died in her homeland in the village of Khripunovo. As I already said, she was from the Melyukovs (a relative of Elena Ivanovna Motovilova). Agasha came to the monastery as a bride. She had a beautiful, strong voice, but she was illiterate and did not have subtle hearing. She stood on the right choir, sang with an alto, read and played canon, but she achieved all this with great difficulty. After the dissolution of the monastery, she first lived in Diveevo, sang and read in the Kazan Church, and when it became impossible, she moved to her homeland in the village of Khripunovo. There she continued to read and sing in her church, and after the church closed, she celebrated everything at home. They lived together with their fellow countrywoman Ksenyushka. They had a large icon of the Queen of Heaven “Quick to Hear”, in front of which the almost inexhaustible Psalter was read. They always prayed. In the fall of 1945, sister Agasha was paralyzed; she remained in this state for 40 days. But she prayed and sang all the time. Ksenyushka said that she had an extraordinary voice from somewhere, and she sang all the time. One day they were singing together, and she said: - Well, now let's pray some more. - No, we sang, but we still need to pray. Here he says to Ksenyushka: Ksenyushka, do you see angels? Ksenyushka didn’t see anything, but said: - And I see many angels, and here are also babies... Why did they come here? Shortly before her death, in the evening, she asked Ksenyushka to bring her a black apostle. It was dark, the apostle was in the closet, and she was too lazy to follow him. And the next morning Agasha says: - Ksenyushka, I was tonsured, I am a nun. She never said her new name. After the death of Father Seraphim, all his things, even the hermitages - Near and Far, and both stones on which he prayed, through the efforts of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Motovilov, were transferred to Diveevo. At the time of the discovery of the relics, there were no belongings of the saint in Sarov; we had to ask the Diveyevo people to place something in his monastery cell, which had been turned into a chapel. It was part of a stone building, already broken, and a church was erected above the cell in the name of St. Seraphim. It was there that they placed part of the stone on which he prayed, a mantle and a copy of the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”. No fences were erected in Sarov. It was replaced by buildings arranged in a quadrangle and with windows facing either outside or inside the monastery. The windows of the monk's cell face the Sarovka River. They say that some bishop came to Sarov and asked: -Where is the saint’s hermitage? - How come the nuns didn’t take away your relics?! I read somewhere that the monk appeared in a dream to Motovilov and ordered someone sick to drink water from the stone on which he himself had prayed. But how to do this? Large blocks of stone protruded from the ground. We tried to break off a piece, but it didn’t work. Then the monk again appeared in a dream to Motovilov and ordered him to light a fire on the stone. They did as ordered, and the stone itself fell into pieces. They were all taken to Diveevo, from there they dispersed throughout Russia. For the discovery of the relics, one piece of this stone was brought from Diveevo and placed in the cell-chapel in the Sarov monastery. During the opening of the holy relics of the Monk Sarov, Abbot Hierotheos, an ascetic of monastic life, ruled. He was short, lean, bent, he usually wore a greasy cassock, and those who did not know him took him for a simple novice. And what is typical, Abbot Hierotheus was against the discovery of the holy relics, suggesting that the huge crowd of people following the discovery would disrupt the strict desert life of the Sarov monks. They said that when homeless children were settled here after the dispersal of the monastery, they opened the coffins of the elders - they turned out to be incorrupt. After the death of Abbot Ierotheos, already during the revolutionary years, Rufin, from the Mordvins, was appointed Abbot to Sarov. He favored the Diveyevo people, but did not stay long: he suddenly died when a religious procession from Diveyevo came to Sarov. This happened on June 24, 1925. After Hierotheus, Methodius was appointed abbot, but he was soon exiled to Siberia, so during the dispersal in Sarov there was no abbot. There was a clock on the Sarov Bell Tower; it counted not only quarters, but even minutes. A magnificent ringing was heard throughout the forest. After the revolution, Father Seraphim’s bones lay open in a shrine without vestments, so they were kissed then. And then one day an incident happened. One nun in Diveyevo dreamed of the monk with the following words: do not go to Sarov, whoever looks at the bones will not see him in the next century. This continued for six months, then the relics were clothed again. Before the dispersal, the daily routine in the monastery was strictly observed. At two o'clock in the morning in the cathedral, in the summer in the Assumption, in the winter - in the Life-Giving Source, the morning prayer began, midnight, then matins. Thus the service continued until 5 o'clock in the morning. At the end, everyone went to the Church of Zosima and Savvaty, where there was always an early mass. Late mass was served in the cathedrals where the relics of the saint rested: for the winter they were transferred from the Assumption Cathedral to the warm one - the Life-Giving Spring. After late mass, all the monks went to the refectory. There, a successive monk, standing at the lectern, read the “Altar” - the Lives of the Saints or some kind of teaching. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Vespers began in the cathedral with the reading of the akathist, the singing of the canons to the Sweetest Jesus, the Annunciation and the Guardian Angel. At the end of the service, everyone went to the refectory, and at seven in the evening in the church of Zosima and Savvaty they began the monastic rule, with many bows and bows to the ground, like the Pentecostal. More than 100 prostrations alone were performed. After evening prayers, the monks dispersed to their cells. In the refectory, all the utensils were turned from wood - cups, spoons, plates. Black bread lay in front of each monk on a wooden plate, and the edge was placed uncut. Kvass was brewed once a year, in March. They poured them into barrels, sealed them, then rolled them into the cellar and covered them with snow and ice. Before the dispersal, there was no longer a common meal, and the monks cooked for themselves in their cells. They cooked it in mittens made of canvas so as not to burn their hands. Previously, on Intercession, the monastery distributed warm clothes to everyone in need. And poor people flocked to Sarov to get dressed and relieve their needs. There was a grinding workshop on the Germogenovsky farm. I myself saw two huge wooden flywheels there; the drive to the grinding machines ran from them. Previously, the wheels were turned using a horse drive, and later they were turned by hand. Cypress crosses and spoons were cut by hand; plates, dishes, cups, salt shakers, mugs, legs for chairs, spindles, as well as spinning wheels and children's toys were turned on the machine. According to legend, when the relics of the saint were glorified, he himself sometimes showed up in the monastery. We saw him more than once. And Father Markellin, the grave monk, said that the bones of Father Seraphim, his relics, dressed in sandal shoes, were sometimes covered in sand, and they had to be wiped off. I went, that is. In the years after the discovery of the relics, the recluse Anatoly lived in Sarov, on one of the farms, in the schema of Vasily. He lived strictly in the desert, did not receive anyone, and if he gave answers, it was through his cell attendant, Father Isaac, who died shortly after the dispersal of the monastery. Father Anatoly was of high spiritual life and also perspicacious. In the desert, people besieged him and prevented him from remaining silent. And so Father Isaac went to Diveevo, to Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, for advice. But she locked herself in her cell from him and wouldn’t let him in. The desert dweller prayed with her cell attendant, Mother Seraphim, at the Crucifixion, and then left. Yes, apparently, he stayed late in the monastery, and on the way back he happened to meet the blessed one. Praskovya Ivanovna came out onto the porch and waved her hand to him: “Grandfather, grandfather!” He just waved his hand, saying, I understood everything. And back to my own prison. The desert dweller died in 1919. And what’s interesting is that when street children in the monastery opened his remains, and this was after 1927, they turned out to be incorrupt. He lay there as if he had just been buried. The homeless children put a cigarette in his mouth, turned it upside down and closed it again. Then the homeless children opened the grave of the schema-monk, the silent Mark, but fire came out from there, and the blasphemers were afraid. These graves were placed opposite the altar of the Assumption Cathedral, now there is a park there. From time immemorial, it was customary that during the first week of Lent the monastery was closed and women were not allowed into it from Monday until Friday evening. At this time, in the cathedral, the vigilant singing of the Psalter was performed in two choirs alternately. During Great Lent, the monks made special prostrations, reverently throwing their whole bodies on the ground, without bending their knees; support was only on the hands. The singing in Sarov was completely special, pillar-like. They didn’t recognize notes, they used hooks. The voter began, and the others joined him. Lately, Hieromonk Joasaph has been the voice speaker. They sang loudly and directly shouted. The tunes were ancient, drawn-out, reminiscent of the voice of the wind walking through the vast Sarov forest. In the summer, before the holidays, at 3 o'clock they served Little Vespers and Compline with the reading of a combined akathist. There were at least a hundred singers. The all-night vigil usually began at 6 pm; on these days the monastic rule was that the five hundred was set aside. The all-night vigil lasted until 11 pm. After the Exaltation and during the winter period, festive vespers were served early, at 3 o'clock, and matins began at night. Prayer services before the relics of the monk were performed after late mass and after vespers. A special hieromonk was appointed for this. Almost until the very crackdown, Fr. was such a hieromonk. Markellin. They applied to the relics whenever the cathedral was open and during services. Wide staircases led to the shrine; there were approaches from both sides. The Sarov Monastery is located on a mountain; numerous hotels adjoined to the west, as well as a dining room for pilgrims. Not far away one could see a cemetery with a church in the name of All Saints. To the east, on the road to the spring, there was a horse yard and a bathhouse. From the north, under the mountain, is the Church of John the Baptist, and above it is the entrance to the caves with the Church of the Wonderworkers of the Pechersk. The caves stretched across the entire mountain and stretched two miles to the very source, just to the Near Hermitage of St. Seraphim. There was an exit visible in the sand, in a sandy slope. But they didn’t take us to those distant caves; we only visited the nearby ones, those under the monastery. A monk accompanied us and walked with candles. Under the Church of John the Baptist there was a water pump that supplied the monastery with water. The dairy farm was located about two miles away, on the Maslikha farmstead, along the Satis River. The farm was visible from the monastery. And in the forest there were other farmsteads, they were called deserts. A monk was appointed to each one - the “master”. Usually widowers were subjected to such obedience. And how vast the Sarov forest was, stretching for many miles around! The hermitages located in it served monks and businessmen who worked in logging, firewood, mowing, and picking mushrooms and berries. There were enough supplies for the whole year. The forest “master” at the time of the dispersal of the monastery was Hieromonk Gideon, originally from the Kherson region. He died in exile in Alma-Ata on March 26, 1933. It was on Palm Saturday at 8 o'clock in the morning. U o. Gideon had a special cross with a piece of the Lord's robe, with the relics of the righteous Lazarus of the Four Days and the righteous Job the Long-Suffering. I had the opportunity to bury this monk in the Alma-Ata cemetery, not far from the city. And this happened on the same day, Palm Sunday, at 5 pm. I told his sister and gave a telegram to the Diveyevo nun Anyuta. And isn't it wonderful? It turns out that on this day she received the Holy Mysteries. And the night before, she dreamed of Hieromonk Gideon twice with an urgent request: “Don’t forget to remember me at the Liturgy, this is especially important to me today.” By the hour it turned out that his request turned out to be a dying request. The monk died of pulmonary edema. I had to sit next to him until late. He was already bad, but I was still sure that he would not die that night. I needed to leave urgently in order to get to work (I got a job as an accountant). And at 8 o'clock in the morning he died. I handed over his things to the mortuary orderly - let him give rites to the newly deceased. It was already around 5 pm. During the day, so many dead bodies were placed on the deceased that the orderly and I had to get him out from below: the corpses, laid out in a woodpile, were removed by the shoulders and legs. They clothed Fr. Gideon was dressed in a scroll and a black cassock, then they put on an epitrachelion and armlets, and pulled a scarf over his head. So they put him in the coffin. I wrote a detailed letter to the deceased’s sister. And what is surprising: when this monk was buried, the archimandrite performed his funeral service in absentia in Ardatov. My sister dreamed of the deceased in the vestments in which I laid him in the coffin. But she received a letter describing all this only a few days later. At that time, the dissector in the Almaty hospital was Doctor Frunze, the brother of that same military man. This doctor turned out to be quite a nice person, I had to work for some time in an Almaty hospital under his leadership, and we developed a good relationship. It was he who allowed me to bury Fr. Gideon, otherwise they wouldn’t have given it. The doctors in the hospital were either visitors or exiles. I worked there for one summer as a clerk, but later, until the end of my exile, I could come to the hospital at any time to call a doctor to examine a sick or dying person at home. None of the staff refused such requests, but simply and willingly complied. It felt like it was accepted. There was no transport in Almaty; goods were transported on horses. I begged a horse to take the coffin to the cemetery. The townspeople mostly walked, unless a Kazakh rode on a donkey. But at night a car was driving through the city, picking up corpses. I only saw camels once... The Sarov courtyard in Arzamas was located below, on the embankment, where there is now a hardware store. In 1946, having returned from my second imprisonment, I lived in Vertyanov in the tiny hut of Mother Ambrosia. There were no churches nearby, and all Lent services were celebrated at home. Sister Fr. came from Arzamas to celebrate the Forty Martyrs. Gideona Anyuta. At the end of the hours and vespers they began to sing the requiem. There are two tear-stained windows in the cell, a table between them, and two wooden beds on the right wall. There are many icons in the corner; a lamp was always burning in front of them. And then Anyuta sees that in the front corner behind the bed in front of the icons of Fr. Gideon in robes. He looked as if he was standing under glass. Anyuta thinks: “Today is the Forty Martyrs, the day of his tonsure.” They sang: “Rest with the saints,” she bowed to the ground. Rising, and oh. Gideon is already standing in his robe. The funeral service ended and he became invisible. At the same time as I was in exile in Kazakhstan, Sarov hieromonk Markellin was in exile, whom I have mentioned several times before. During Lent 1932, he was in Alma-Ata at a transit point. The last time he was seen in this city was on Holy Saturday, and on Easter night he was sent further along, where he soon died. The Sarov Monastery was completely communal: all the maintenance of the brethren - food, clothing - was supplied by the monastery. Clothes were kept in tatters and given to all monks as needed. After the death of the monk, his clothes again went into waste. Cassocks and cassocks were sewn from mukhoyar - coarse woolen fabric, hand-woven. Linen was made from canvas, and round tin buttons were sewn onto cassocks and cassocks. Under the openings of the bastings, multi-colored pieces of material were sewn at the corners - red, blue, green - “in honor of the ranks of Arkhangelsk.” Rosary beads were mostly worn in leather - laestovki. The laundry stood on the Sarovka River, under the monastery. Elderly women lived and did laundry there. There were no other residential buildings, except hotels, near the monastery. At the time of the dispersal, however, two old women lived near the Settlement: Varvara Alekseevna Kaygorodova - she treated monks, knew medicine, and with her was Princess Kugusheva - her ancestors donated lands to Sarov. In conclusion, I will tell you an old legend. I heard that during the preliminary examination of the relics of Father Seraphim, the enamel image of the Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Sergius was not found on it. The image was sent by Archbishop Anthony of Voronezh and was placed in the elder’s coffin. This caused confusion for some: was it the wrong grave that was opened? Maybe it was the grave of Schemamonk Mark, is it nearby? Then the doubts dissipated.