Михаил Меньшиков. Памяти святого пастыря

Today St. Petersburg is burying Father John of Kronstadt. On the day of death, as they told me, there were such scenes. The priest came out after the all-night vigil to the people and said: “Now we will serve a memorial service according to the prayer book of the Russian land, for Father John of Kronstadt!” As he said this, the people froze for a minute. A quiet horror moved like the wind, and sobs were heard. The women began to roar, the ladies in hats began to cry... “Father Father John” was gone! A truly exceptional person has died, one might say the only one close to the people’s heart. No matter how great our people die - Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tchaikovsky, Mendeleev - their death makes an impression only on a small cultural layer, without penetrating at all into the depths of the people. The death of remarkable commanders, Suvorov or Skobelev, bearers of national heroism, is felt much more widely, but their names are almost alien to the female half of the population. Only the “saint” embraces all the people’s imagination, all love, and especially the enthusiastic love of the most loving half of the nation – women. Over these thirty years, not a single person in Russia has focused such universal worship on himself as the “Kronstadt priest.” No matter how enormous the fame of Count L.N. Tolstoy is, he is not known at all to the overwhelming majority of the common people. His name is not associated with the mysterious, cherished feelings that associate every village woman, every shepherd, every convict in the mines of Siberia with “Father Ivan.” Yes, even convicts - except for a few who have erased the name of God from their souls - know about Father John, and the idea of ​​him shines in them like a candle before the goddess of conscience. Deservedly or not, Father John occupied, more than anyone else, the psychological center of Russian folk life. He died at an advanced age. The advantage of great people is not to die in soul. Isn’t this a miracle, the last miracle of the holy priest, that although he died, but now he came to life in front of everyone, was established forever and his image alone, continuously renewed, begins endless work? Did Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker die? Doesn’t he continue to influence, more significantly than during his lifetime, the actions, that is, the fate of hundreds of millions of people? I remember Father John thirty-five years ago, before his noisy fame as a miracle worker arose. I was struck first of all by the manner of his service, the only one I had ever heard. All the priests and deacons chant at the litanies, with a magnificent melodiousness established over the centuries. Father John spoke simply, as if he were talking to someone loudly, now lowering, now raising his voice commandingly in the most unexpected places. At first it seemed to me a sign of epilepsy. Then I realized that this was from sincerity, from self-forgetfulness during prayer. Subsequently, I met with Father John more than once. His second memorable feature is his bright gaze and his face always seemed to be illuminated from within. His eyes - light blue - were feminine in their bright tenderness; the voice was simple, like that of the northerners, somewhat harsh, without any unctuousness. Before my eyes, Father John acted as a saint of God. I saw one of the miracles (if they can be called miracles) - how, like Christ, Father John stopped a nervous attack with a simple laying on of hands. I watched the priest’s general confession, which was unusually touching. It has been described a hundred times. I saw how, while blessing thousands of people and letting them kiss the cross, Father John prayed in a low voice in restrained, high pathos. I heard the sermons of Father John, which, however, did not make an impression on me. Unfortunately, he once graduated from a theological academy, and it exerted as much of its deadening influence even on this huge spirit as it could. Father John preached not so much with words, but with “good deeds,” an example of life. His motto was: “Your priests will be clothed with righteousness.” I read some of the learned works of Father John, for example, a wonderful study on the cross, looked through his famous diary “My Life in Christ” and found there, like in Thomas a à Kempis, not only a passionate, unquenchable faith in God, but sometimes an amazing power of thought, poetic, as in the psalms of David. Living in Kronstadt, I could observe Father John closer than visitors. This righteous man was remarkable in that he did not take on the theatrical image of a “saint,” and did not fall into asceticism, which among us (in the form of holy fools) reaches the point of cynicism, nor into holiness, nor into hypocrisy. I knew that Father John is an ascetic, that he hardly sleeps and prays, gets up early - and in his garden in a poor apartment, while walking, he prays all the time. His modesty reached the point that, for example, he did not allow himself to be washed in the bathhouse and would quickly wash himself when no one was there and leave. And this was at a time when one former provincial leader of the nobility considered it a great happiness to sit in the bathtub from which he emerged. I myself saw how women rushed to the half-drunk glass of tea by the priest and, crossing themselves, reverently finished it. And, already knowing how he became famous on earth, he not only remained humble, but was actually modest to the point of naivety. I remember, sitting at breakfast after a trip to Berlin, where he was invited to pray for our ambassador who was ill, Father John described in a completely childish way the honor with which he was greeted. Apparently, together with the people, he maintained respect for the ranks of power, for the boyars and nobles, although those of little faith among the nobility endured his wrath - downright prophetic. It is known with what bitterness Father John condemned Count L.N. Tolstoy. He didn’t even want to talk to one of Tolstoy’s students, Prince X., immediately sensing his lack of faith. I had to turn to Father John twice on behalf of my dying friends. One was a revolutionary, sentenced to death and exiled to hard labor - he had to bless the cross sent by his parents. Another was the poet Nadson, who was dying of consumption. M. V. V., who was close to him, asked me to arrange for Father John to pray for him. In both cases - especially in the first - Father John was gentle and perspicacious in his sympathetic silence. He definitely saw and heard something secret - not a fact, but the essence of a fact. The last time I met Father John was when he visited the teahouse of the temperance society, where I once worked with Senator Barykov. He was always extremely simple and devoid of anything ostentatious. Father John's detractors claimed that his activities were aimed at making money, that all his prayers and blessings were allegedly paid for. Gross slander! As far as I know, he never asked for anything. Whatever was offered, I took, but to give to the poor. It is very possible that they deceived him and made money around him. After all, more than a million a year passed through his hands. In recent decades, he himself walked around in luxurious fur coats and robes given to him, posed in orders and mitres, but I think he did this not for his own pleasure, but so as not to offend those who were pleased. The luxury of clothes hurt the eyes of others: what kind of saint is this - not in rags? But perhaps there was more humility here than arrogance. Remember the words of Socrates to the cynic Antisthenes: “Your pride looks out from the holes of your cloak”? Like Christ, Father John ate and drank with sinners, perhaps with harlots, and sometimes ate delicate dishes. He, the son of a sexton, who grew up in extreme poverty, drank fine wines, but before my eyes, for example, he barely touched all this. A sprig of grapes, a sip of wine, nothing more. He almost never had to be at home, and in my time the furnishings of his apartment were very modest. Finally, is there really a person in these trifles? In clothes, in food, in furniture? “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me!” - this is what the late elder felt with Isaiah with indescribable happiness. They believed in him as a miracle worker. Imagine the immense joy of knowing that you are God’s chosen one, that the Lord really listens to you and condescends to the prayer of your heart! The diary of Father John records cases of miracles he performed. These recordings are sometimes distinguished by their childish sincerity. "I prayed for him (a certain Vasily), - he writes, - to the Lord, so that He would heal him. Lord! - I said, - heal Your servant from his illnesses. He is worthy, give this to him, for he loves Your priests and sends His gifts to them." He also prayed in church at the Throne of the Lord during the Liturgy, during the prayer: “He who has given us prayers in common and agreement...” and before the Mysteries themselves. I prayed, among other things, like this: "Lord! Our Life! Just as it is easy for me to think about healing, so it is easy for You to heal every disease; just as it is easy for me to think about the resurrection from the dead, so it is easy for You to resurrect every dead person. Heal Your servant Vasily from his cruel illness and do not allow him to die, so that his wife and children do not give in to weeping," - and the benevolent Master pardoned. And then he was on the verge of death. Glory to Thy omnipotence, goodness and good obedience, Lord!” This is how the righteous priest innocently prayed. This naivety of faith and intimacy of relationship with God is delightful. You feel that the throne in the altar for Father John was truly the Throne of the Lord and the Holy Mysteries were truly mysteries - in all the formidable greatness of the miracle invested in them by faith. Think about the transformation of wine and bread into the Blood and Flesh of God! Think about the rebirth of human nature into Divine nature! The Greek sages, the founders of our cult, may have been content with symbols, but here is a pure child of the North, like all our northern people: symbols are not enough for them, they believe in God realistically, as in their life. The representative for his people before God is just like a conscientious servant begging his master, acts with purely practical arguments and finally convinces the “benevolent” Creator. This, perhaps, is real faith, and there probably cannot be another. Woe to you, said Christ, when all people speak well of you! for this is what their fathers did to the false prophets (Luke 6:26). Only Pharisees and hypocrites manage to have no enemies and be respected by everyone. Christ and the apostles had many enemies and died from their fierce malice. The righteous man of Kronstadt could not help but have enemies. He enjoyed mocking contempt from nihilists and intelligent atheists, whom he himself mockingly despised. A significant part of the clergy, mainly the higher ones, treated him with insulted envy. The miter bearers with sparkling diamonds on their hoods, decorated with omophorions and panagias, could not help but feel that with all their academic liberalism, with all the Tübingen secularism of their views, with all the art of courtship, they were infinitely lower than the Kronstadt priest, lower in the eyes of God and in the eyes of the people. Without much debate, the people established that he was real, but they seemed to be not real. Given the modern art of counterfeiting, Teta diamonds are amazing: they are difficult to distinguish from natural ones, but they still cost one and a half rubles. They could not forgive the great priest of the Russian land for this, and he was erased for as long as they could. Only shortly before his death, when he became completely infirm, he was awarded an appointment to the Synod - he, whom some of the enthusiastic fans proclaimed as the living Christ who came down from Heaven! Father John severely condemned the worship of the Johannites, anathematized them, but, of course, the hidden hatred of him and the anti-Johnnites was even more painful for him. As I wrote three years ago, a more decisive government than ours would have taken advantage of the precious opportunity to, in the person of Father John - recognized as a living saint - begin a new line of All-Russian patriarchs, but do the officials of the Holy Synod care about the greatness of the Russian Church? The third, dirtiest and most base enemy of the great priest was the Jewish press. For three years, taking advantage of the oversight of the Octobrist ministers, she daily mocked the pious old man, mocked his miracles, his alms, and the reverence of his fans. Slanderous legends were composed, women's devotion to him was desecrated, and the people's impulse was spat upon. As you know, Father John courageously opposed our revolution and in church sermons reminded the authorities of their duty to suppress unrest. Father John proposed the famous 13th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans not only to the people, but also to the authorities. “The ruler does not bear the sword in vain: he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil.” The Russian authorities learned with amazement that the apostle himself obliges them to use the sword. The Jews did not forgive Father John for this. Having taken under their protection Leo Tolstoy, who denied the Church and the state, they unleashed a whole eruption of dirt on Father John, who stood up for the defense of the Church and the defense of the state. Both great peers, the Kronstadt and Yasnaya Polyana elders, polar opposites in spirit, constitute the pride of Russia, for both express our national genius with exceptional force. Tolstoy embodied the power of an aristocracy cut off from the people: noble, rich, artistically gifted Tolstoy contained within himself all the affirmations and all the negations of the world. Growing up under the enormous influence of Rousseau and Schopenhauer, Tolstoy developed further in the inspiration of Buddha and Laozi. Not so Father John: like Lomonosov, he came from the people, from remote northern traditions, from that pious antiquity that remained in a half-forgotten nickname: “Holy Rus'.” Not far from the tombs of the saints of Solovetsky, illuminating the north like the aurora, Father John perceived his illumination of faith, his deep commitment to the incomprehensible God, his passion for Christ and for communication with him through touching rituals, ancient as the people themselves, sacred as the native past. The violently restless and angry Tolstoy is the greatest thing our intelligentsia has created. Motionless and ardent in his faith, Father John is the greatest thing that the common people have created over the past eighty years. Father John is the bearer of folk culture, from Anthony and Theodosius of Pechersk, from Sergius of Radonezh to Tikhon of Zadonsk and Seraphim of Sarov. Flesh from the noblest flesh of the people, bone from his bone, the Kronstadt elder did not dream only of Holy Rus', like Tolstoy, but he himself was Holy Russia, he himself carried it in his heart! That is why the people immediately recognized him as theirs, just as everyone immediately sees a lamp on the top of a mountain. Not only Russian Orthodoxy, it seems to me, in the person of the holy priest, all of Christianity has lost its greatest representative. In fact, look in today's fallen Christianity for the same burning of faith and the same tangible grace of the Holy Spirit for the people with the prerogatives of the apostles - to heal bodies and cast out demons! Look for these evangelical gifts of Christ from the Eastern Patriarchs, from the Western Superintendents General, from the Cardinals and the Pope himself! It was in Russia that the last Christian the world knows was born and died. May there be peace to his holy soul! Let him, remembering the people's father, his father John, let everything powerful and prophetic that remains in Russia say in the words of Elisha to the departing Elijah: Let the Spirit that is in you be doubly upon me (2 Kings 2:9).