Блаженный Онисим

In my memory, the fool Onisim lived in the monastery. They said: in the village of Osinovka, two miles from Diveevo towards Sarov, there was a fool named Evfemia. She was once offended, and she gave birth to a boy named Onesimus. While growing up, I kept going with my mother around the village, into the forest to pick mushrooms, and even to the monastery to worship. Fools were pitied everywhere. And they sit on the road, “measure” whose legs are longer, and if some convoy is coming, they won’t get off; so he swerves twenty sleighs, or even more, into the snow - it’s easier not to bother the fools, it’s easier to go around. When Onesimus was ten years old, his mother died. Before her death, she came to Abbess Maria and asked her not to leave Onesimus unattended, and Mother Abbess placed him in the horse yard. So he lived in the monastery until the destruction of the monastery. This same Onesimus was truly blessed: he was in church, but did not stand in the church, but kept walking around, showing what bright shirts he had. In the old days he called himself “stanovoy”, then he became a “cathedral builder” - “I am a technician.” And recently he even declared himself a deacon. God forbid the priest hesitates, he is already saying the litany. And when the singers mistakenly sang “Lord, have mercy,” he was delighted. He was always 10 years old, no matter what. The young nuns loved to tease him: “I’m going to get married.” Then he would become terribly excited, put his beard in his mouth, and make a terrible face: “You’ll burn, ahrist!” Antichrist, therefore. In general, he foresaw a lot, spoke his special language, to which we were accustomed and understood. Before entering the monastery, my sister told me to ask Onesimus if he would take me to the monastery. And he said: “I’ll take it.” Bishop Seraphim Zvezdinsky, who lived with us for a short time before the dispersal, loved him especially touchingly. Once in a quiet moment, standing in front of the icons, Vladyka was able, through Onesimus, to understand the vision that he had received. And the vision was this: the bishop was sleeping and suddenly woke up; sees a light in the corner, and there is the Lord. The founder of the monastery, Mother Alexandra, stands near the Lord, and the voice of the Savior is heard: “Tell the nuns not to get married, otherwise they will burn.” The Eminence always repeated this to everyone before the beginning of Lent, at the beginning of the fast. Onesimus was constantly honored with visions in church. On Forgiveness Sunday, it happened that during farewell he always shed tears and asked everyone for forgiveness. I also cried and said goodbye in the last week of Lent, on Great Wednesday. “The post is going away, the post is going away!” - his words. On Holy Saturday, during the procession with the shroud, they led him by the arms, and he cried. And during the Liturgy, while singing “Rise Up, O God,” he looked up, caught it with his hands and rejoiced. For Easter, I dressed in a red shirt with large printed roses and, to the priest’s exclamation “Christ is Risen!” shouted in delight “Truly Christ!” He called everyone “Darling”, that’s why they called him “Darling”. Before big troubles for the monastery, he began to scold the mother abbess. Also the sisters, whom he caressed, and whom he approached from behind in church and beat. He loved to wake up dozing old ladies: he would bend over and sneeze in her face. “Oh, you’re so and so,” and he’s no longer there. For everyone he was joy and entertainment. When we opened a horse yard, he settled there with the nuns. I went to the apartment with them after the breakup. Then they were taken to prison, and he went to wander. Once one sister took him with her to the village of Kanerga. There, near the altar, Mother Militsa, the spiritual mother of the Manatean nuns, was buried. Onesimus still stood near her grave with the words: “If only I could lie down at the Spiritual.” This is what Onisim called his mother Militsa during his lifetime; he gave his name to almost everyone. But he was forcibly taken to the village of Kramoleyka. After mass there was a wake there, he took a piece of meat into his mouth and seemed to choke. He left the table, went to the barn, lay down on the straw and died. He was buried in that village. They used to say: “The light stands on fools.” How to understand this? Apparently, it was not without reason that people said it. I will return again to Onesimus. Every day he went to the candle box, where they gave him prosphora. He went to the altar and handed the prosphora to the priest with the words: “Remember Akhimya,” his mother. And since Onesimus decided to ask the deacon to remember her from the pulpit. The sexton remembered Euphemia and heard a voice: “Remember Akhimya!” The deacon again remembers Euphemia. Again: “Remember Ahimya!” They fought and fought, but Onesimus did not retreat. Then the deacon finally loudly mentioned “Achimya.” Onesimus was delighted and ran away from the pulpit. A year before the dispersal, one nun committed suicide: she was very sad before that. It was on the feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. For Alexander Nevsky, the service was in the refectory. Onesimus was restless, walked up to all the windows and hit someone unknown with his fists. When this sister was buried, no one cried behind the coffin. But in the monastery they clearly heard someone crying behind the coffin. This cry was also heard by the nuns outside the monastery.