Глава четвертая Бог в исторических судьбах христианской Церкви

A. The Deity of Jesus Christ Supernatural Evidence of the Deity of Jesus Christ The most important and most prominent image in the lives of the saints of proof of the truth of faith in Jesus Christ as the true God, the Son of God, is the miracles performed by them by the power of Christ. Faith of St. saints is manifested here not in words, but precisely in the power and glory of God. Miracles performed by St. saints before the pagans, multitudes. The suffering of St. martyrs were usually accompanied by miracles, which so clearly and solemnly demonstrated the omnipotence of the true God in the denunciation of the false gods professed by the pagans. 1. Through prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, the poison lost its deadly power. One sorcerer was ordered by a pagan torturer to kill St. with poison. Victor. The sorcerer cooked the meat with deadly poison and served it to the saint. St. Victor prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ and ate the meat without harm. The sorcerer prepared the meat with the strongest poison and, serving it to the saint, said: “If you eat this and remain alive, then I will leave my magic and believe in your God.” St. Victor ate it and it's harmless. Then the sorcerer openly confessed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in front of everyone, went to his house, burned all the magic books and became a perfect Christian (Ch.-Min., and November). 2. And the boiling pitch was turned into cold water, and the red-hot iron was cooled. The holy martyrs Paul and Juliana, being plunged into boiling tar, cried out to the Lord Jesus Christ for deliverance from painful torment - the bubbling tar turned into cold water. This miracle, however, did not bring the tormentor to his senses. He ordered them to be laid on two hot iron beds and oil to be poured over their bodies. The holy martyrs remained unharmed here too. Then the executors of torment exclaimed: “There is no other God but the heavenly God, who helps Paul and Juliana (Ch.-Min., March 4). 3. Even just calling on the name of Jesus Christ heals diseases. “What kind are you,” asked the tormentor of St. Papilu, where is your fatherland and what is your occupation? “My family and fatherland,” answered the saint, “you already know; My occupation is healing; but not that which comes from the herbs growing on the earth, but that which is given from God.” - “But is it possible to treat without knowledge of the medical rules that were taught by Galen and Hippocrates and given to them from our gods?” “Galen and Hippocrates and their disciples can heal only when my Christ wants to give them medicine. Try this for real: here is a blind man sitting with you in one eye - may your gods give him his sight, and after that I will not say anything to refute them.” - “Can anyone do this?” “Not only this, but everything, even incurable diseases, will be healed by the one who calls on Christ.” - “Do it if you are strong.” - “Let your doctors first call on their gods for help, and then I will show the power of Christ my God.” Doctors were called. All day they prayed to their gods for the healing of the blind man, made sacrifices to them, but did not receive what they asked for. Then St. The martyr prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ, touched his blinded eye with his hand, made the sign of the cross on it, and the blind man received his sight (Ch.-Min., October 13). “What power is in Christ?” – asked the pagan commander St. Apollinaria. The saint answered: “Call all the soldiers and you will see His power.” The pagan, having called the soldiers, suggested to the saint: “Behold, my wife has been sick for many years, and no medicine helps her; show medical power over the patient.” The saint, approaching the sick woman, took her hand and said: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise and believe in Him!” The sick woman got up and became healthy (Thu.-Min., July 23). 4. The name of Jesus Christ raised the dead. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” cried St. Martyr Julian over the dead man, now look down from the heights of heaven, raise up this dead man, so that Your enemies will be ashamed, and may those who believe in You be strengthened!” After this he turned to the dead man with these words: “The land is dry! In the name of Him who raised four-day-old Lazarus, I say to you: arise and stand on your feet,” and the dead man was resurrected (Ch.-Min., January 8). 5. At St. Gregory of Omirite (IV century) there was a strong debate between Christians and Jews about the dignity of the person of Jesus Christ and Moses. Their sage Ervan spoke on behalf of the Jews, and St. Grigory. After many unsuccessful objections to the Divinity in Jesus Christ and His law, Ervan saw a wonderful vision one night, which he told to his fellow Jews. “I saw Moses our prophet and Jesus: they stood at a certain sanctuary and talked. Moses, with his hands bent to his chest, stood before Jesus with fear and trembling and worshiped Him as his Lord and God. I was surprised at this phenomenon and said: “Moses! Are you good at it?” Then he turned to me and said: “Be quiet! I do not sin by worshiping my Master, for I recognize Him as my Creator and Lord. Why are you bothering the righteous bishop by opposing the truth?” This vision, however, did not enlighten Yervan. The next day he again began to argue with the saint. Struck by St. Gregory in all his objections, Ervan at the end of the dispute invited him to show Christ in a visible way. The saint of Christ, undoubtedly believing in the power of Christ, turned to prayer. After the prayer, there was a great earthquake, terrible thunder roared from the east, the sky opened, and a bright cloud with a fiery flame and the sun’s rays descended from heaven to earth. In the middle of the cloud was visible a Man, a man most beautiful in kindness above all others, our Lord Jesus Christ. He stood in the air against St. Gregory. The Jews, overcome with horror, fell to the ground. Then the saint said to Yervan: “This is the One about whom you have heard so much from me; look at Him and be convinced that there is only one holy, one Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen". “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,” Yervan cried with tears, “forgive my sins, which I sinned against You in my ignorance.” After this Divine appearance, all the Jews who were here, starting with Yervan, believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and were baptized (Ch.-Min., December 19). At St. Theodore of Edessa also had a dispute between Christians and Jews about the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of their teachers of the law argued on behalf of the Jews. He spoke many blasphemous things against Christ our God. The Christians were silent, and the Jews loudly expressed their victory over them. Then Saint Theodore gave a sign with his hand for everyone to be silent; then, turning to the Jew, he said to him: “If you had offered us anything from the books of Moses for discussion, we would then have answered you; but as you spoke blasphemous things on your own, you spoke not what the prophets announced, but what your father Satan instills in you, therefore, against all your blasphemous verbiage, I will tell you one broadcast from St. Prophet David: “Let flattering lips be dumb, speaking against the righteous iniquity through pride and humiliation” (Ps. 30:19). And immediately the eloquent teacher of the law became mute; His blasphemous tongue stopped speaking and became mute. After three days he wrote to St. A letter to Theodore in which he asked for his grace to make him a Christian. The saint, according to the announcement, led him into the font of St. baptism and baptized him in the name of the Holy Trinity; and the tongue of the mute was resolved: he glorified the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit and confessed Christ as the Son of the living God (Ch.-Min., July 9). 6. Since the 4th century, Orthodox pastors and teachers had to wage a stubborn struggle against Arianism. This heresy originated from the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, who blasphemously taught about the Son of God Jesus Christ, that He is God only in name, and not in essence, and was created by the Father out of nothing, as a creation, and therefore is not consubstantial and not co-essential with God the Father. In the lives of the saints there are no such studies and deep theology as can be found in refutation of this heresy in the works of St. fathers; but one can find examples of how the Lord gave to the simple, unlearned such wisdom that even learned opponents of the Divine truth could not resist, and especially confirmed it with miraculous signs to the shame of the Arians. At the First Ecumenical Council, which was held against Arius, among the saints gathered at the council was Spyridon, the shepherd of the Trimifunt church. Arius was supported by one philosopher, very skillful and cunning in words. With this philosopher St. Spiridon wanted to enter into an argument. The fathers who were here rejected him from this, fearing that the philosopher would get the better of him, because the saint was not one of the scientists. Despite this, St. Spyridon boldly stepped into the middle of the cathedral and began to say to the Arian sage: “In the name of Jesus Christ, O philosopher, listen carefully to what I intend to tell you.” “Speak,” was the philosopher’s answer. The saint taught: there is one God, who created heaven and earth, created man from the earth and created everything visible and invisible with His Word and Spirit. We believe that this Word is the Son of God and God, Who, taking pity on our error, was born of a Virgin, lived with men... We believe that He is of one nature with the Father and is equal to Him. This is how we believe, and do not dare to experience how it is. Because these truths surpass your understanding and surpass all knowledge. Then the saint, after a short silence, asked him: “Isn’t that what you think?” “The sage could not say anything against this and only answered: “Exactly so!” - “Come after me and receive the sign of faith.” The philosopher, turning to his friends, told them: “When the argument was with me in words, I answered all the questions and could conveniently use cunning words. Now, when instead of words a certain power came out of the mouth of this old man, my words turned out to be powerless against it. Man cannot stand against God. If any of you wants to follow me, let him believe in Christ and follow the teachings of this elder” (Thurs.-Min., December 12). 7. Emperor Valens, infected with the heresy of Arius, had a son mortally ill. His mother came to the tsar-father and reprimanded that he believed incorrectly and was in vain insulting the Orthodox bishop (St. Basil the Great). Valens, calling St. Vasily, said to him: “If the tenets of your faith are pleasing to God, then pray to God for the health of my son.” “If you, king,” said the saint, “you yourself turn to the Orthodox faith and give peace to the (Orthodox) churches, then your son will be alive and well.” The king promised. St. Basil prayed for the king's son, and he recovered. The Arians, hearing about this, were greatly indignant and embittered. Having come to the king, they told him that they would have done the same thing, and they so dissuaded the king with flattering speeches that he even allowed them to baptize his son; but as soon as the Arians took him, he died in their arms (Chet.-Min., January 1). The empire of King Valens was attacked by barbarians. Valens got ready to go on a hike. Three times St. Isaac of Dalmatia met the king on the way and each time convinced him, saying: “Tsar! Open the churches to the Orthodox, and the coming war will be prosperous; you will defeat the enemy and return in peace.” Valens not only did not understand the saint’s prediction, but each time he drove him away from himself with dishonor and beatings, and finally ordered him to be thrown into one deep swampy place. Having miraculously freed himself from here, the saint again repeated his request to the king. When Valens, with pride and arrogance, threatened to execute him upon his return from the campaign, then the monk firmly told him: “If you return in peace, then know that the Lord did not speak through me. Truly I tell you: you will go to war, but you will not defeat your enemies, you will flee, you will be caught and you will burn alive in the fire.” The prediction came true exactly. The barbarians defeated the king's army; He himself, wounded, took flight and hid in a barn. The enemies found out about this and burned the barn along with the king (Chet.-Min., May 30). 8. The execution of God overtakes Arius himself. Arius was condemned for his heresy at the First Ecumenical Council and excommunicated by the fathers of the council. Seeking to occupy the chair of the Archbishop of Alexandria and not wanting to part with his heretical teaching, in order to reenter communion with the Church, he used the following blatant trick: putting the heretical confession he had written for his clothes, he came to the king with a request to be accepted into communion with the Church. The king asked him if he believed as the fathers decided at the council? Then Arius, beating himself on the chest, said: I believe as I wrote with my own hand and as I put in my heart (showing the appearance that he believes in accordance with the conciliar confession of faith, but in fact meaning a heretical confession hidden under clothes). After this, the king ordered Alexander, Archbishop of Constantinople, to accept Arius into church communion. Sunday was appointed for this purpose. St. Alexander prayed to God all night that Sunday with tears to avert such desecration of the church. The Lord heard the saint’s prayer. The appointed day has arrived. Arius, accompanied by royal dignitaries and squires, walked in triumph from the royal chambers to the Orthodox church. Halfway along the way, fear suddenly attacked him; His burnt conscience woke up and began to bite him for his deception and lies. In mental anxiety and confusion, he retreated from the people to one secret place... and was struck by a severe stomach illness: his insides fell out, and in terrible torment he spewed out his blasphemous soul. When the news of his death spread throughout the city, the Orthodox solemnly glorified the holy truth of the faith that Jesus Christ is the true God and the avenger of His enemy and blasphemer (Ch.-Min., August 30). (See in detail in the book: A. Svirelin, Archpriest of the Orthodox Confession of Christian Faith in the Hours and Minsters of St. Demetrius of Rostov.) Appendix A: Are there miracles now? A true Christian, a true believer, would not dare to propose such a question; if it is heard, it is only from the lips of a person of little faith or an unbeliever. A miracle is an event that cannot be accomplished by any human power, but only by the power of God, which means that until this power of God becomes impoverished - and when can it become impoverished? – until then there must be miracles. Miracles serve as a means to spread and strengthen the faith of Christ; but is the faith of Christ spread everywhere, is the faith of Christ established everywhere? No, whole millions still do not know the true God; although whole millions know the true God, they do not know His true Church. This means that miracles should now be used as a means to spread and strengthen the faith of Christ. But this is not the only purpose of miracles. Why, for example, did Jesus Christ resurrect the son of the widow of Nain? Because He took pity on the poor widow (Luke 7:13). Why did he heal the boy mentioned in the gospel story (Matthew 17:14–18)? For the same reasons. Why, according to the word of Gregory, the Neocaesarea wonderworker, did the mountain move from its place? Because she prevented him from setting up a church for believers here (Thur.-Min., November 17). Why did the mountain open up for righteous Elizabeth through her prayer? Then, in order to hide in their bowels the mother and baby John from the persecution of the bloodthirsty Herod (Chet.-Min., June 24). This means that miracles happen not only to spread and confirm the faith of Christ, but are performed in general for the good and salvation of people, performed by the goodness of Almighty God in order to deliver people from various troubles and sorrows according to their faith and prayer. This means that while the goodness of God exists, when will it cease to exist? - until people's misfortunes stop - and when will they stop? - while faith and prayer will still remain on earth, - and when will they be gone? – until then there must be miracles on earth. But why are miracles not so visible among us now? – The sun shines equally for everyone; but the blind do not see its light only because they are blind. Now miracles are not visible... But look at our revealed and miraculous icons. Isn't this a miracle? Why do whole thousands flock there, why do hundreds of sick and crippled people crowd around those places that are marked by miraculous icons? Is it not because currents of healing for faith and prayer flow from there? Look at St. the incorruptible relics of our saints of God... Is this really not a miracle? And all our St. sacraments - for example, baptism, in which a person, immersing his body in water, is washed from sins; the sacrament of communion, in which bread and wine are transformed into the true Body and true Blood of Christ; the sacrament of the consecration of oil, in which a person is healed not only from spiritual ailments, but often also from physical illnesses?.. Is this really not a miracle? But you would like, in addition to these constant miracles, to see all the miracles that antiquity tells us about; For example, you would like your sick to be healed from one word of some miracle worker; We would like the mountains to move before your eyes, as the Savior said and as, according to the word of St. Mark, the mountain really moved from its place and moved until he stopped it... And what would you not want from miracles? But to seek miracles unnecessarily means to tempt the Lord, to tempt Him in the same way as, for example, the devil tempted Him, offering Him to turn stones into bread. And if we really had faith, like the grain of a pea, as the Lord said, the Lord, without a doubt, would work miracles for us when we needed them, would work for our good, and not for curiosity, as He never ceased to work for true believers. True believers both see miracles and enjoy miracles; but for unbelievers there are either no miracles, because they are not worthy of them, or if there are, they do not see them. How is it, you say, that there are miracles, but they are not visible? - Very simple. Reconsider the history of the earthly life of Jesus Christ: were there no miracles? Did everyone see miracles then? If everyone had seen, then, of course, the Lord of glory would not have been crucified. And the history of Christian martyrs?.. What miracles were not performed here! Has everyone seen these miracles? Ah, if everyone could see, then the blood of martyrdom would not be shed for so long! Remember, for example, Julian the Apostate. Deciding to ridicule the Savior’s prophecy about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, he orders the restoration of the destroyed church, and thousands of Abraham’s children joyfully rush to fulfill his order, but storms, thunder, and earthquakes scatter materials, and fire from heaven and from under the earth scorches the workers themselves, and scorches them so that they make crosses on their bodies, which could not be washed off. Isn’t this a miracle here?.. But Julian and others like him don’t see a miracle here. There are, of course, many people like this even now, and where believers see a miracle, they only mock them. Another, for example, with faith anoints a sick person with oil from St. icons, and faith brings down the grace of God upon him; the patient recovers and pours out his soul before God in tears of gratitude, and the unbeliever laughs at his simplicity, considering healing to be a natural thing. In general, there are very, very many cases in life where the wondrous, omnipotent power of God is manifested, and now the believer, imagining all such cases, will involuntarily be amazed at the greatness of God, and will involuntarily say with St. David: “Who is the great God like our God? You are God, do miracles” (Ps. 76:14–15). (See book: Herman, bishop. Minutes of pastoral leisure. T. 1, pp. 69–75.) B. The Beneficial Influence of Christianity on Humanity Our Lord Jesus Christ said - “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit” (Matthew 7:17). Applying this sign to the Bible, we notice that it, as the true word of God, has brought countless beneficial fruits to the human world. Let us not talk about the fact that the Old Testament revelation was light and life for the Jewish people and placed them at an unattainable height in religious and moral terms among paganism, mired in the darkness of gross idolatry and immorality. Let's just say a few words about the beneficial influence of Christianity on public, family and personal life. As soon as the Gospel began to spread in the world, it brought untold benefits to this world, which did not understand it and at first persecuted it with all the bitterness. The influence of Christianity on public life. When, under Constantine the Great, Christianity established itself in the Roman Empire, state laws prohibited gladiatorial battles, these murders committed for the pleasure of the public who had lost their human dignity, as well as the performance of immoral performances in theaters; Marriage divorces, which were previously committed on the most insignificant reasons, were limited to a certain extent; The previously unlimited power of fathers over their children (by which they could subject them to death and sell them into slavery) was also reduced; they began to treat prisoners humanely; the terrible death penalty was abolished; horrors known to everyone, until then openly tolerated, such as human sacrifice, bloody revenge, murder, public immorality and shamelessness - were now everywhere prohibited by law under pain of execution; Education is the highest need of the human spirit, this noblest desire for spiritual light in the ancient Greco-Roman world was an advantage of the upper, rich classes. Only on rare and fortunate occasions was it received by a few individuals from the lower classes. Christianity, which meant the whole person without distinction of his origin and position, preached and preaches the possibility and necessity of endless improvement of the human spirit in all areas accessible to it, especially in the spiritual and moral area, opened a wide door to mental light and true enlightenment for everyone. The influence of the gospel teaching on family life. The teaching of the Gospel laid a true foundation for our home and family life and spread the most beneficial light onto it. Christianity sanctified marriage: the union between husband and wife received its true meaning only when it became an image of the union between Christ and His Church. While polygamy reigned among the pagans, just as it still exists among the Mohammedans, Christianity condemned it forever. By this measure it sanctified the indissolubility of marriage, because the union between Christ and His Church is indissoluble. Husband and wife constitute one flesh, and “what God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). An attack on the indissolubility of marriage is at the same time, as everyone knows in our time, an attack on the Christian Church. Woman owes to Christianity the position she now rightfully occupies. The wives of even the most educated pagans lived in a state of slavery and oppression; sitting locked up in the middle of their prison house, they dragged out a miserable life of savagery and dullness. Only Jesus Christ broke the shackles that weighed heavily on women and lifted the curse that lay on them. Not ashamed to call one of them His mother, He exalted their entire race. He proclaimed salvation and deliverance from sins to both men and women. He allowed them into His fellowship and equally provided them with His loving and miraculous help. Women accompanied His body as His disciples fled. The women stood at His cross until the very end and then were the first to hear the news of His resurrection at the tomb. With Christianity, a woman became the joy and adornment of her husband, the faithful mother of his children, the pearl and treasure of the whole house. With Christianity, girls became servants of society, sisters of mercy in all misfortunes, so that a pagan, even in surprise, had to exclaim: “What kind of wives do these Christians have!” (Words of Libanius, mentor of St. John Chrysostom.) What kind of relationship has Christianity placed husband and wife in relation to each other? The husband is the head of his wife, her master, but not in the sense of a tyrant, but in the sense of patient, meek love, just as Christ loved His Church and gave Himself up for her. The wife is subject to her husband, not with fear and trembling, but with willing and joyful love, just as the Church of Jesus Christ seeks honor and joy in being able to serve and obey her beloved Bridegroom. What kind of relationship does Christianity place parents and children in relation to each other? The ancient pagans raised their children as future citizens and statesmen; Christians raise them as people of God and as citizens of heaven. The basis of all Christian education is and remains forever the word of the great Friend of children: “Let the children go and do not hinder them from coming to Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:14), and all Christian pedagogy consists precisely in obedience to this word, in order to raise children in word and deed, by example and exhortation in the discipline and teaching of the Lord. The servants of the house also belong to the family: paganism knew only slaves. Slaves were treated not as people, but as some kind of thing that could be disposed of at will. The pagan master had unlimited power over the life and death of his slave. One wasteful Roman, Lucullus, ordered them to be fattened in order to feed them to sea fish. There was no cruelty that was not allowed against them; in old age or in serious illness they were either expelled or even killed. Christianity has the honor of abolishing the slavery of millions of our brothers without war or rebellion. And if he has not yet managed to complete this work, then the time will come when the God-Man, who makes us truly free, breaks all the chains of sin, and in His Church will finally break all the shackles of slavery. Thus, Christianity placed state and family life on a true basis. The influence of evangelical preaching on a person’s personal life. The Gospel is a source of mental and moral light for every Christian; it is the secret of contentment with the present life despite all its disasters, pointing everyone to eternal bliss. The cross is followed everywhere by the plow, trade and crafts, arts and sciences. If you pick up a map and look around all the countries of the world, you cannot help but admit that the most educated peoples are Christian peoples. Was it not the Christian faith that proclaimed and realized the doctrine of the noblest love of man for man? Christianity reminds the rich of all their poverty before God and exhorts them to humble love and mercy. All pagan antiquity is distinguished by grossly animal egoism and heartless coldness in relation to the poor and weak. Even the great Greek philosopher Plato advises against feeding the sick, since they can no longer be useful for anything. The Jews limited the law of love for one's neighbor, as the parable of the Good Samaritan shows, only to their compatriots and fellow believers. Under the cross, Christians fraternally extended their hands to each other. Under the cross of Christ they forgot the difference in titles, status and education. Works of mercy and selfless love are the best and most precious adornment of the Christian faith. Almshouses and hospitals, orphans, widows and hospices were founded by Christians. After all, it was none other than Jesus Christ Himself, whom they fed when hungry, gave water when thirsty, clothed when naked, and visited when poor and imprisoned. The pagans remarked with surprise: “Look how Christians love each other!” - and even the most hated enemy of Christians, the apostate Emperor Julian, had to admit that “these Galileans feed not only their sick, but also ours.” And this merciful love leaves its good fruits throughout the history of the Christian Church. This love illuminates with its light the lives of many saints of God. This love is encountered by us even now in homes and shelters, looking after the poor and sick, helpless and lost, abandoned and homeless, this love even now encourages the messengers of the gospel world to leave their fatherland and parental shelter and wander across lands and seas, despising all labors and dangers, so that the poorest of the poor, the unfortunate pagans perishing in the darkness of ignorance and sin, bring a ray of gospel light. But all the counted benefits given to man as a result of the incarnation of the Son of God are nothing in comparison with the greatest, immeasurably great good, which consists in the remission of sins and eternal blessed life beyond the grave under the condition of faith, good deeds and obedience to the Church. All earthly blessings fade before this immeasurable treasure, just as candles in a room during the day fade before the bright sun. Yes, in Christ Jesus we have forgiveness of sins, salvation, life and eternal happiness. At the same time, we must not forget that the leaven that permeates the whole world is still fresh and remains active for only a few centuries in the life and history of peoples. We must not forget also that the gracious power of Christianity is delayed by the sins of its friends and enemies, ignorance and malice, stubbornness and stupidity. All these are clouds hugging the sun and blocking its light. Let this sun be darkened at times by clouds and storms; let its rays be hidden at times by thick eclipses and winter nights: but whether it is obscured by darkness or night, its light will not go out forever and, breaking through again, reaches from the most distant edge of heaven to the other, so that no one will be hidden from its warmth. (Compiled from op. Quote. The Truth and Greatness of Christianity; Ebrard. Apologetics.) C. The Essence of the Gospel Doctrine (Content of the Testimony of Christ) Attempts by scientists to explain the origin of the teachings of Christ from Greek or Eastern philosophy, as well as from secret traditions, encounter great difficulties, since in this case it would be necessary to make the Nazareth Carpenter a scientist or a member of some mystical society, which is completely impossible. However, no matter what opinion we adopt on this subject, it will not change the nature of Christ’s preaching. His authority remains the same, whether we think that He preached a doctrine created by Himself, in the absolute sense of the word, or that He, as a person having reliable direct knowledge, only confirmed thoughts that were to some extent the result of the previous activity of the human mind. What is the content of Christ's testimony? To answer this question, we need to summarize His teaching, highlighting its main data. But this raises another question: what right do we have to judge what is essential and what is secondary in religion? There is one misunderstanding in this regard that should first be cleared up. It consists in the fact that whoever wants to distinguish essential from secondary truths is credited with a claim to an authority similar to that which all Christians of the Catholic Confession attribute to the Ecumenical Councils, and Roman Catholics to the Pope. That's not the point here. No historian of philosophy will find it difficult to distinguish between doctrines of greater and lesser importance in the teachings of Plato, Aristotle, Descartes or Kant. Why is work like this not applicable to the teachings of Jesus Christ? It may be feared that the influence of the personal ideas of the one who would undertake such a task, i.e. the subjective element will reduce the price of such work; but there are means of giving this work a strictly objective meaning. I can point out two such means. The first is that you need to pay attention to those ideas in the teachings of Jesus Christ that are repeated most often by Him; we usually return most often to those thoughts to which we attach the greatest importance. It is easy to be convinced, for example, that Jesus Christ assigns religious significance only to such actions that come from the heart and conscience and eliminate everything that owes its origin to personal interest or vanity; this is one of those points of His teaching on which He especially insists. The second remedy is to take into account the circumstances under which certain words were spoken. When Jesus preaches to the crowd gathered on the mountain, or when He gives His final word of instruction to His disciples, it is natural to think that His words were of special importance to Him at that time. With the help of these two means, which, if necessary, can correct our judgments about the teaching of Christ, if they had taken on an excessively subjective character, we can, without claiming any special authority, take upon ourselves the work of summarizing the teaching of Christ, setting out in essential terms the content of His testimony. I want to try to do this and indicate those great religious thoughts that the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament put into His mouth. When our Lord Jesus Christ was preparing to leave His disciples, He told them: “In My Father’s house are many mansions” (John 14:2). These words, in His opinion, were of particular importance, because with them He wanted to comfort His disciples in the upcoming separation from their Teacher. They affirm the actual existence of what Christ calls the house of His Father, which He says He knows. The meaning of these words is also explained in connection with other statements of the Savior; they contain the foundations of a universal religion. Universal religion, from the point of view of faith, is the recognition that there is something above earthly life and beyond earthly life. These two concepts of what is above this world and what is beyond this world are found wherever there is religion; but very often they are incompletely and unclearly expressed or greatly distorted. Christ, in contrast to idolatry, teaches that that which is above the world is one God, whom He calls His Father. He points to goodness as one of His essential properties. To the crude and even unclean ideas that people have formed about what exists outside of real life, He contrasts the idea of ​​a holy society, into which nothing unclean or nasty will enter. In this society, the supreme law is mutual love, which encourages each of its members to desire the good of others and abandon selfishness; this is the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father, Who desires the good of all His children. This spiritual society must begin on earth in order to reach its full flowering in heaven. The purpose of religion is to prepare souls for their future destination by developing, in the conditions of earthly life, the rudiments of divine life. The elements of the Christian faith are reduced to unity through the following all-encompassing thought: under the conditions of time, man must prepare for eternal life 69 . God is love - this is the basis of all teaching. The creation of the world is not the result of the necessary development of its beginning, but an act of the free will of the Creator, calling free beings to participate in His blissful life by fulfilling His will. The creation of the world aims at the bliss of the spiritual community of people. It reveals the glory of God; but this glory is a revelation and reflection of supreme goodness. Love, i.e. The dedication of each individual to serve the common good, in which lies the personal happiness of each, is good in its very essence, is the highest law of the Kingdom of God, because it is the fulfillment of the plans of eternal Love. If this is so, then it is easy to understand that humanity is still not at the proper height of moral state. In the state of nature, the will of people is not directed towards the common good. The selfishness of some individuals assumes terrible proportions, and although there are hearts that are compassionate and kind by nature, from the point of view of absolute law, we can say that selfishness is inherent in the human heart. Since selfishness is in conflict with the law of the Kingdom of Heaven, preparation for eternal life requires a change in the direction of the human will, requires conversion, which Jesus Christ in His conversation with Nicodemus calls a new birth (John 3). In view of this condition for entering the Kingdom of God, a person may fall into despondency, on the one hand, from the consciousness of his sins, on the other, from a feeling of his weakness; he feels guilty, powerless, morally sick. Jesus Christ preaches about Himself as a doctor sent from God to heal the disease of sin (Matthew 9:12–13). He contrasts the despondency born from the consciousness of sins with the promise of forgiveness that is given through Him. He gave His life “for His friends” (John 15:13); His blood was shed “for the remission of sins”; and He wanted that during that solemn sacred rite, which should be performed in His memory by the disciples, it was His voluntary death for the salvation of the world that was remembered as an essential part of His work (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26). Jesus heals the despondency that comes from a feeling of weakness with the promise of His gracious help - the promise of the Holy Spirit, a source of consolation and strength (Matthew 7:7-11; John 7:38-39; John 15:26). Having gone through the path of repentance, the symbol of which is water baptism, a sinful person must accept spiritual baptism, the fruit of which is sanctification. The natural egoistic life is replaced by the life of Christ, the life of love. This is how the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven are opened, which, apparently, were closed for us by the evil that exists in nature. Creation, redemption, sanctification - these are the three great ideas to which the teaching of the Gospel boils down. This understanding of it is not arbitrary. Jesus Himself gave us the formula of baptism: the name of the Father awakens the idea of ​​an act of creation guided by love; the name of the Son turns our thoughts to redemption; the name of the Holy Spirit recalls sanctification, which is the goal of the work of redemption. These three doctrines are in obvious connection with the following thought: man, under the conditions of time, must prepare for eternal life. This life is the life of that spiritual abode which, figuratively speaking, Jesus calls the house of His Father. The actual existence of this holy monastery is the main point of His teaching, and He speaks of such existence of this monastery due to that internal unity with God, through which He has direct knowledge of the divine world. Let us compare the position of people who accept this evidence with the position - I will not say of materialists and atheists (the contrast is so sharp that it is enough to just point out it), but with the position of the most enlightened representatives of the ancient world. Let's go to Socrates' prison. The Athenian sage is awaiting imminent death. He reveals to his friends evidence of the existence of an afterlife and the future bliss of the righteous, many of which retain all their power to this day. Respecting, although not without criticism, the religious tradition of his country, he borrows from it some ideas and concludes his speech by speaking of “the hope with which we need, as it were, to charm ourselves.” In the last conclusion, he obviously comes to what in philosophical language should be called the probability of a future life. This possibility leaves wide room for doubt, so that in his apology Socrates, having told his judges that he “dies with full hope,” ends, however, with the following words: “It is time for us to part: I will die, and you will live. Whose lot is better, no one knows except God.” Although Socrates cannot be completely excused for the sin of proud complacency, he is, as far as we can judge about him, without a doubt, one of the best representatives of human nature. His hopes for a future life are supported by the data of experience. The human soul has such aspirations that show that it was created for a fate different and better than what it finds here on earth: this is the general source of arguments in favor of the actual existence of an afterlife. But the soul is very closely connected with the body, and science is increasingly proving the closeness and strength of this connection. When the body disintegrates, is not the spirit destroyed, just as the flame of a lamp disappears when the oil burns out? Isn’t death a universal law of nature, and is it not under the influence of secret pride that man considers himself an exception to this law? These are the main reasons for doubt. This doubt showed up strongly in Greek thought. The light that enlightened Socrates and some of his first students not only did not intensify in the subsequent development of philosophy, but rather faded. Modern historical research, introducing us to the thoughts of the ancient East, reveals to us doctrines that present non-existence, or at least the destruction of personality, as the most desirable state. In our time, skepticism spreads darkness, and materialism covers hopes about the future with its darkness. For many of our contemporaries this darkness is deeper than it was for Socrates and Plato. The existence of a future life and a future judgment, in more or less pure or crude forms, is clearly recognized by most religious traditions, but where conscious reflection occurs, we very often encounter either denial or hope mixed with doubt. Whoever accepts the testimony of Christ is in a different position. In this regard, a significant comparison can be made. The Apostle Paul writes to the Filipinos that he does not know what to desire: life or death, and this thought of his may seem identical with the thought of Socrates, with which he ends his apology. But this similarity is only apparent. Despite the similarity of expressions, the thoughts and feelings of these two people are deeply different. Paul has complete confidence in the existence of a heavenly dwelling, access to which can be opened by death. He writes: “...we look not at what is visible, but at what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal... We know that when our earthly house... is destroyed, we have... a dwelling in heaven, a house not made with hands, eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18 and 2 Cor. 5:1). He knows that if he has only himself and his personal happiness in mind, then it is better for him to die; but he also knows that he has some duties to fulfill in relation to the present world; hence his hesitation. This hesitation ceases when he realizes that the time of his departure has come and the duty that kept him on earth has been fulfilled, then he completely surrenders to eternal hopes and sings a song of victory (Tim. 4:6-8), for with faith he accepted the words of the One who said: “In My Father’s house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). Such, in relation to the future life, is the difference between the confidence that comes from accepting the testimony of Christ, and the timid hopes to which the wisdom of the ancients reached. It would be easy to note a still sharper difference between faith in the forgiveness of sins, based only on the thought of divine goodness, and confidence based on faith in Christ as Redeemer. The chief elements of the testimony of Christ are contained in traditions which are open to the attacks of criticism and present difficulties which mere prejudice can overlook. But for the sake of the particulars of a famous building we must not forget its main lines. Critics for whom difficulties concerning minor points shake the foundations of faith, in my opinion, are like a person who, looking at some beautiful church, would approach every stone and, everywhere finding some defects, would come to deny the beauty of the building as a whole. There is a good way to avoid this danger: we need to discern which doctrines serve as spiritual food for Christians. It is impossible to think that pious souls feed equally on all the particulars of the dogma and cult of their Church - on all equally departments of the Holy Scriptures. It is not difficult to discern the fundamental beliefs on which their hopes are based—doctrines which, in school parlance, may be called the postulates of religious life. Minds tormented by doubt, hearts crushed by grief due to the death of dear persons or looking with anxiety at the infidelity of the future, know that the word of eternal life is for the soul what the sun is for the eyes of the body. The conscience, which is troubled by the consciousness of sins, knows that the word of forgiveness is a source of hope and peace. The salvific nature of the cross of Calvary is a matter of simple, immediate faith, which is very different from theological definitions regarding the method of atonement for sins. People who, due to their weakness, were ready to fall into despair, are not unaware of what an encouraging and uplifting remedy is the promise of divine help and the experience of the benefits of prayer. Therefore, by studying the spiritual life of individuals, it is possible to recognize the most important features of the testimony of Christ and remove them from the sphere of those difficult questions that are associated with particulars and can cast a shadow over them. The love of God, destining its creations for eternal life; forgiveness proclaimed by God, purchased by Jesus Christ and promised to all who have feelings of true repentance; The Spirit of God, the source of strength in the midst of weakness, given to those who sincerely seek Him, is what we must always return to. Beyond time is eternity; above the chaos of human passions and misfortunes is the Kingdom of God, from which sin separates us and into which God’s mercy leads us; The kingdom of holiness, joy and peace, which must begin on earth in order to achieve full development in heaven, is the object of Christian faith and hope. This Kingdom exists, Christ testifies to it. We must, to the best of our ability, try to implement it; this is our main duty, which unites all our other duties. Under present circumstances it is especially useful to hold fast to the simple elements of the witness of Christ, distinguishing them from the secondary elements surrounding them. In this regard, the efforts of negative criticism can be seen as a relative benefit. The development of modern sciences has shaken the confidence of many people in religious tradition taken as a whole. Many doubts arise regarding theological and dogmatic definitions and regarding the meaning and meaning of all sections of Holy Scripture. The sad fate of those people who do not know how to distinguish the foundations of faith from the constructions made on these foundations. Doubt concerning the circumference of faith can easily shake its center and even sometimes (we can cite wonderful and sad examples in this case) overthrow the foundations of the entire moral order. That is why it is very important to note that, in its essential elements, the Christian faith existed before not only theological studies, but also the edition of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. The New Testament had not yet been edited when St. Stephen, dying, betrayed his soul to the Savior and offered up for his executioners the prayer of his soul, revived by the power of the Gospel. Before the councils, before the formation of the canon, the Church worshiped the Heavenly Father, revered Christ the Redeemer and cried out for the assistance of the Holy Spirit. When pangs of doubt are felt regarding certain secondary issues, it is beneficial to resort to that simple and strong faith, which from the very beginning has been the source of the hopes of believers. (Extracted in abbreviation from the book: E. Naville. The Testimony of Christ and the Unity of the Christian World. M., 1898.) D. Evidence of the divinity of the teachings of Christ The Savior once presented all the evidence of the truth of His teachings in their mutual connection. This was after the healing of the paralytic at the font of the Sheep, when the Jews rebelled against Him and even sought to kill Him because He violated the Sabbath and called God His Father. Striking their unbelief, He pointed out to them His works: “the works that the Father gave Me to do, these very works that I have done, testify of Me that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36); - pointed them to the Scriptures: “search the Scriptures, for through them you think you have eternal life: and they testify of Me” (John 5:39); - pointed out to them the inner testimony of each conscience: “how can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God” (John 5:44)? Let us delve deeper into the meaning and mutual relationship of these three pieces of evidence. 1) The Lord Jesus Christ proved the divine origin of His teachings by the testimony of Holy Scripture. Naturally, this proof cannot be applied equally to Jews and pagans. Some thought through the Scriptures to have eternal life, and it was enough for them to point to the fulfillment of God’s promises for them to believe. Others did not believe in the divine origin of these Scriptures, and they had to prove the authenticity of the testimony. Let us first consider how Jesus Christ offered this testimony to the Jews. The Scriptures testify of Me, He said. “If you think through them you can have eternal life, then their testimony should put an end to all disputes.” If this testimony favors Me, then it most clearly, irrefutably proves My Divine messenger. Examine the scriptures from the first to the last line, and you will see that they constantly talk about Me. You will not find a promise that does not apply to Me; You will not find a revelation that does not concern Me. Scripture says: “By the Lord all the tribe of Israel will be justified and glorified” (Isaiah 45:25). Who before Me realized this universal hope of justification? “He rose up before Him like an offspring and like a sprout from dry ground; in Him there is no form or greatness” (Is. 53:2). Do you really not recognize Me, whom you despise, in this prophecy? The disgrace with which you cover Me, the disgrace proclaimed by the prophets, is not this the seal of My Divine messenger? “Behold My Servant, Whom I hold by the hand, My chosen one, in Whom My soul delights... He will not cry, nor lift up His voice, nor let him be heard in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench; will carry out judgment according to the truth” (Is. 42:1-3). In whom else, besides Me, can you discern this combination of mercy and truth, humility and judgment? “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, for the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach release to the captives and the opening of prison to the prisoners” (Isa. 61:1). Around whom do the poor, the unfortunate, the mourning crowd? From whom do they expect instruction and consolation? “Search the scriptures;... they testify of Me” (John 5:39). And yet, despite the evidence of the evidence, the Jews did not believe Christ. Where is the reason for this? The testimony of Holy Scripture could only be convincing if researchers penetrated into its inner meaning and reached the spiritual depth of revelation. Otherwise, you could make anything out of it - reinterpret it in the sense of your preconceived ideas. This is what happened to the Jews. Reading and re-reading the letters of the law, they forgot its spirit and therefore, reading the revealed Bible, they found in it their prejudices, their passions, they saw there the temporary Messiah and earthly glory, they read in revelation what is completely contrary to revelation. True, the letter of Holy Scripture is precious, because it expresses a divine thought, but whoever does not grasp this thought, for him it will remain an empty sound, sometimes even harmful. And Satan knows how to use it to his advantage; he also quotes Scripture when necessary. If the proof from St. Scripture can have power only when the truth contained in it is understood, and truth can only be understood when there is a desire for truth in the heart: it is clear that the power of this proof rests on a certain relationship between the human soul and revelation - on the sincerity and rightness of the soul. Without the latter, this proof will be powerless. The Savior also pointed out this when he said: “You seek to kill Me, because My word cannot fit into you” (John 8:37). For people who do not believe in the divine origin of Holy Scripture, it is nothing more than a simple human testimony, and therefore the same signs of reliability should be attached to it by which the reliability of other human testimonies is judged. Were the witnesses to the truth of the Gospel eyewitnesses to the events they described? Historical criticism has undeniably proven this truth, and a person, although slightly familiar with its conclusions, will agree that it is incomparably more difficult to reject the authenticity of the Gospel from this side than is thought. Are these witnesses reliable? Were they not deceivers? But every deceiver has a selfish motive to deceive us. Where will you find such a motivation among the apostles? Did they speak flattery to people? Has human pride been blessed? Strange flatterers - speaking about their contemporaries: “all have gone astray, every one of them is worthless; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:12). Or were they flattering themselves—wanting to present themselves as religious heroes? Remember with what sincerity they talk about their timidity, inertia in faith and understanding, repeated renunciations and falls. Finally, the credibility of these witnesses is guaranteed by the fact that they sealed the truth of their testimony by death. After this, let whoever is able or who wants to look at them as deceivers! As for us, it seems absurd to us not to believe them. – Or were the witnesses to the word of God not in their right mind? Did you preach something you didn't understand? It is our conviction that to be understanding in the matter of revelation means the same thing as to be inspired, to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit. For only “the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). And therefore, the question is: did the witnesses of the revelation understand what they preached? - can be expressed this way: were they divinely inspired? To be sure of this, do not get lost in long discussions. Remember that these witnesses had the gift of prophecy, which clearly reveals the presence of the Spirit of God in them. Pay attention to their complete agreement with each other, despite the fact that they lived in different times. Finally, open this or that book of divine revelation, read a few pages, read from the heart, with a full desire to know the truth, and if you do not feel the breath of God in them, then this will be a clear sign that you do not want to see or hear, that you are voluntarily refusing the light. Thus, in relation to people who do not believe in the divine origin of Holy Scripture, its meaning as a witness to the truth depends on the internal disposition. 2) The Lord Jesus Christ, as proof of His Divine messengership, pointed to His works: “the works that the Father gave Me to do, these very works that I have done, testify to Me that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36). There is no need to prove the possibility and reality of Christ's miracles. Anyone who believes in a free and omnipotent God cannot help but believe in their possibility. Those who have verified the credibility of witnesses through scientific research cannot reject their reality. Our job is to determine the significance of the miracle among other evidence of the truth of the Gospel. A miracle is an extraordinary action that cannot be explained by any natural cause and therefore must be attributed to a supernatural cause. This is the action of the supreme will of God, who changes the natural law. Since God rules the world through the laws He once established, and uses special means only to save man, then, naturally, a miracle exists only in the field of redemption. Pardoning a person is the first revelation of this miracle. According to the natural order of things, the Fall entailed complete, universal condemnation; the pardon interrupted this natural order. The love of God appeared, and an unheard-of event occurred, impossible from a human point of view; Instead of punishing the guilty, God shows him mercy. From this first miracle flow all other miracles, which serve as its rays. Thus, every miracle is closely connected with the work of redemption. The greatest of miracles, as the clearest manifestation of Divine love, is the very face of Christ the Savior. This face, wonderful in itself, was supposed to appear in wonderful deeds, in miracles of power and Divine love. From this we can deduce the meaning of miracles in the earthly life of Christ the Savior. As manifestations of the great work of redemption, miracles were to lead to the Redeemer; they proved that He was clothed with Divine power; they revealed the perfections of His nature and were their brilliant reflection. Consequently, miracles led to faith in Christ not only because they amazed with their extraordinary nature, but because they revealed the perfections of Christ’s nature. Any miracle, considered simply as a miraculous event, without reference to the person of the Savior, would have no significance in relation to faith in Christ, because a miracle, as an inexplicable phenomenon, could be the action of hell, and therefore, if one believes on the basis of such a miracle, then one can just as much believe in the messenger of Satan as in the messenger of God. So a miracle in itself does not produce faith. It can even delay faith because it speaks only with its eyes; and belief based only on sight is contrary to faith, which is “certainty of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1), just as belief based solely on reasoning is contrary to it. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ always refused to perform a miracle when they demanded of Him a miraculous “an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matthew 12:39). So, the miracles of Jesus Christ are not only wondrous deeds, but a reflection of His nature. His faces; this is a manifestation of His mercy, His compassion, wonderful manifestations, just as His mercy itself is wonderful. In what relation does a miracle stand to other signs of the Divine messenger of the Lord Jesus? Does it indisputably prove this messenger or does it assume anything else necessary for its full persuasiveness? As reflections of the glorious nature of Christ, miracles could lead to Christ, point to Him, but could not arouse complete faith in Him; otherwise Christ would not have refused to do them, otherwise there would not have been those who did not believe in Christ. Under what conditions were they valid? Jesus Christ connects their reality with faith. Do you believe? - this was His almost always question when He was preparing to perform a miraculous healing. And where there was more faith, more miracles were performed; where there was no faith, no miracle was performed there: “and he did not perform miracles there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). Once He directly stated that a miracle does not happen before unbelievers, not because unbelievers are unworthy of a miracle, but because a miracle will not bring them any benefit: “Even if someone were raised from the dead, they would not believe” (Luke 16:31). Why? Because a miracle produces only surprise, and from surprise to conviction there is a whole abyss. The proof is in Christ's contemporaries. They were eyewitnesses of the most amazing of His miracles. They saw the resurrected Lazarus, were amazed by this, but did not delve into the meaning of the miracle and remained unbelievers. They knew that Christ came out of the tomb on the third day, and they continued not to believe. So, for a miracle to be real, you need to have eyes to see, ears to hear; you need to have a certain religious sensitivity, a certain moral disposition, you need to have faith. Consequently, a miracle, like the testimony of Holy Scripture, is strong only with internal testimony. 3) What is the internal testimony as the basis of all external evidence of the Divine messenger of Christ, as the basis of faith in Christ? “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God” (John 5:44)? Thus, according to the teachings of the Lord, the strongest obstacle to the faith of the Jews, who had Moses and the prophets who saw great signs, lay in their hearts, in their pride and selfishness. Abandoning selfish aspirations and seeking glory from the one God would lead them to the knowledge of the truth. “Whoever wants to do the will of God will know about this teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from Myself” (John 7:17). Thus, the surest path to accepting the truth of God is in seeking God, in the desire to do His will. It is clear that this method of proving the truth is based on the existence of an affinity between the human soul and God, on the existence of the image of God in the soul. If it were otherwise, what importance would obedience or disobedience to the dictates of conscience have in relation to religious belief? If the distortion of conscience, revealed in the selfish search for human glory, delays our faith in the Savior, then it is clear that there is a close connection between conscience and Christ. So, if you want to believe the Gospel, turn to the testimony of your conscience, and it will point to Christ, Who alone can satisfy all the aspirations of the soul. Other evidence can only clarify and confirm this evidence. It is not by external evidence, not by logical arguments and historical research that faith in Christ is spread, but by the living representation of the very person of the Savior, which strikes the soul and arouses in it a complete desire for the most perfect example. But if the conscience is silent, if the living representation of the holiness of Christ does not find an echo in the heart, then it is clear that our inner eye is darkened and cannot see the light. Then you need to cleanse it, enlighten it. Through this path of internal purification, faith in Christ spread during His earthly life. The Forerunner John, who was supposed to prepare people to accept the Savior, was a preacher of repentance. The Savior Himself began His sermon with a call to repentance. By inciting repentance He Himself acted on the hearts of people. Having spoken a few words with the Samaritan woman, He suddenly forces her to pay attention to her moral state: “Go, call your husband and come here... I don’t have a husband,” the woman answered and heard in response words that made her come to her senses, recognize her sinfulness: “You said the truth that you don’t have a husband; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband” (John 4:16-18). So what? As soon as he aroused repentance in her, she already became a believer. And so, repentant sinners and tax collectors came to Christ, and the Pharisees, proud of their righteousness, with the knowledge of the law-persistent in Christ, moved further and further away from Him. Thus, it is not the insufficiency of evidence of the truth of the Gospel, not the difficulty of understanding the truth itself, but the corruption of the heart that is the cause of unbelief. “You do not want to come to Me to have life; you do not have love for God in yourself. And therefore, how can you believe when you receive glory from one another, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God” (John 5:40, 42, 44)? (Abridged from the book: Sokolov D., Archpriest of the Redemption of the human race by the Lord Jesus Christ. Ed. 2. St. Petersburg, 1896) D. Refutation of false views about the Christian religion: a) as if it was guilty of fanatical fratricidal war in the Middle Ages and b) as if it has outlived its usefulness and must give way to science By its nature, modern European civilization is officially recognized as Christian: the teachings of Jesus Christ are proclaimed the highest moral truth, the basic law of human spiritual development; The evangelical religion is attributed primary importance in the organization of personal, family and social life. In a word, the external, ostentatious side of the matter makes us assume that we are controlled mainly by the clearly understood and vividly perceived gospel commandments of love and truth, that in our activities we are guided primarily by religious and moral motives; but reality falls far short of this expectation. A cold, indifferent, sometimes even dismissive attitude towards everything that reminds of religion is a common and widespread phenomenon in modern society; the formulation and solution of questions of a higher order, questions of morality, often reveal a vague, confused understanding of the most elementary aspects of the Christian worldview: the basic commandments of the Gospel are distorted and roughly interpreted; the highest demands of Christian morality are rejected as a utopia, as an unrealizable dream that is not applicable to life; A whole series of concepts, which by their content should awaken moral energy in people and decorate their spiritual appearance, are assigned an inappropriate, more or less base meaning. Take for example the word "greatness"; say it in any meeting; Ask those present what meaning they associate with this concept, to whom, in their opinion, it can be most applicable. They will tell you a lot about the loud glory of the conqueror of nations, about the brilliance of the genius of the poet, about the laurels of a virtuoso, about the pomp and power of the monarch, and they will hardly remember the moral strength and beauty of the heroes of the spirit, the martyrs of holy ideas: the apostles of love, the brothers and sisters of mercy, the selfless heralds of truth. They will name you Caesar, Napoleon; maybe they will remember Shakespeare, Bismarck, Salvini and, probably, they will forget Epictetus, Socrates, Simon Peter, the Apostle Paul. And the names of Haas, Damian Wester, Dunant, or our relatives Euphrosyne of Polotsk, St. Sergius of Radonezh, Theodosius of Pechersk, Nil Sorsky and many others, great in the charm of selfless activity, and many others - who knows them? Along with this, a wide range of phenomena of paramount social importance is being put forward, a whole new system of life is being developed, which is alien to any direct influence of religion and which is nevertheless recognized as natural and reasonable. Its supporters even categorically assert that the religion of Jesus Christ has already outlived its time, said its last word, that the gospel morality was suitable only for the simple-minded fishermen of Galilee, and that the modern enlightened European needs other guiding principles. Science alone can and does give him these principles. Science, they say, has lit a beacon, before the bright brilliance of which the light of religion dims and must completely fade. Religious light was often darkened by a cloud of superstition, flared up with the ominous flame of fanaticism, and was the cause of a fierce fratricidal war. It is enough to remember the Nights of Bartholomew, the Dragonades, torture and the fires of the Inquisition to bless the science that freed humanity from such horrors. 1. Let us examine, first of all, the accusation against the Christian religion, which is allegedly to blame for the Nights of Bartholomew, torture and the bonfires of the Inquisition. How to answer this? Firstly, when critically assessing any religion in general, and especially Christian religion, in terms of their height and significance, one should always distinguish the basic religious idea from existing reality, and not confuse what is with what should be. People, in their narrow-mindedness and fanaticism, can distort and humiliate the highest idea, clothe it in an ugly form; but this does not mean that the idea is base and ugly in itself. The idea of ​​pure freedom is, of course, innocent of the insane crimes of anarchism; so Christianity cannot be blamed for the dark deeds of Loyola and Torquemada. Rowe, in his interesting book, “Evident Truths of Christianity,” says: “Great superstition often reigned among the believers who belonged to the church; The Church sanctified matters expressly forbidden to her by her Founder; she is - scary to say! – even unsheathed the sword, which He clearly commanded her to sheath. All this is certain, but this certainty makes it even more surprising that the Church found in the person of its Founder the eternal principle for its rebirth. There is some deep meaning in the personality and teaching of Jesus Christ, which was, so to speak, higher than the actual (present) Christianity of all centuries. A simple depiction of the personality of the Founder of the Christian Church in the exact form in which He was depicted by the evangelists, without the admixture of false outlines that were added to His image by human stupidity or evil will, has always been and will always be the reason for the renewal of church life. This is the characteristic and exclusive feature of Christianity.” Religious wars, massacres of heretics and the fires of the Inquisition are not a natural product of the religion of the Savior; this is a gross, criminal perversion of it, a grave insult, a reproach of the all-forgiving love of the Son of God crucified for peace. Christianity, as a religion imbued with the spirit of evangelical meekness, love and mercy, organically hates all violence, especially violence in the name of God, Who, according to the Evangelist John, is Love Itself (1 John 4:16). When James and John, ardent and zealous beyond their understanding, were offended by the Samaritans’ disrespect for their Teacher 70 and said: “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” Jesus Christ, turning to them, forbade them and said: “You do not know what kind of spirit you are, for the Son of man came not to destroy souls... but to save. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:54–56). In the parable of the tares we read: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. While the people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away; When the greenery sprang up and the fruit appeared, then the tares also appeared. The servants of the householder came and said to him: Master! Did you not sow good seed in your field? Where does the tares come from? He said to them, “The enemy man has done this.” And the slaves said...: Do you want us to go and choose them? But he said: No, lest when you choose the tares you pull up the wheat along with them; let both grow together until the harvest” (Matthew 13:24–30). After the above passages of the Gospel, I believe it is unnecessary to explain that the Christian religion, as such, should not be condemned for those crimes and follies that have been and are being committed by its false, self-proclaimed friends, bitter fanatics. Dull thoughtlessness and gloomy malice can throw a dark veil of fanaticism and superstition over the bright face of the Savior, but from this His Divine beauty will not lose any of its brilliance; one must carefully remove the inappropriate cover, clean the face from alluvial soot and dust, but in no way etch the image itself, which enchants the hearts of the best people with heavenly goodness, meekness and purity. 2. Let us now see whether the statement is true that it is not the Gospel, but science that should guide the moral life of people. Weigh impartially the role of the evangelical religion in the history of the past nineteen centuries, and you will be amazed at how much it has done for humanity. What an indelible mark it left on our entire civilization, on our morals, customs, legislation, sciences, art. How much she changed morally for the better, ennobled humanity; how much warmth she brought into life! Millions of people drew strength from her to live in the name of goodness and truth, they brought their best feelings and thoughts to her altar and found the highest joy in serving her. Has its life-giving power really dried up now: suddenly the spring that quenched the spiritual thirst of hundreds of successive generations has dried up, and the place of the Gospel will be taken by the encyclopedia of sciences? Is science able to replace religion as the guide of man into the bright future? This is a serious question; To solve it with a light heart is criminal: a mistake can lead to a sad catastrophe. The attention of antiquity was focused primarily on the external world, the high importance of the individual was not yet recognized, and the supreme ideals of ancient cultural peoples in relation to man were external in nature. The most striking exponents of the culture of antiquity were Greece and Rome, the so-called ancient world, and we see that the vast area of ​​​​various spiritual interests for this world almost does not exist: questions about human dignity, about individual rights, about the brotherhood of peoples and much more, if by chance they are ever touched upon, they are always in passing and are never brought to the fore. The ultimate goal of the aspirations of the ancient world was the cult of physical beauty and brute muscular strength. The esthetician Greek gave his strength to the first, the proud ruler of the world the Roman served the second. The Greek was in awe of the beauty of the body, honored and worshiped it alone. The Greek genius, amazing in its versatile brilliance, expressed itself most clearly in sculpture. The chisel of Phidias, Praxiteles, Polykleitos and others reaches the culminating point of beauty, remaining an eternal, inaccessible example for posterity. You can't go any further. The Roman was not an artist; he looked at art as an embellishment to everyday life. Strong, powerful, he valued strength above beauty. The most distant peoples bowed before his power, and Rome grew, became richer, and became embellished at the expense of the conquered countries. Rome is the capital of the world; his greatness, strength - this is the ideal by which the ancient Roman lived and sacrificed everything. But both of these ideals: the perfection of bodily beauty and the triumph of brute, muscular strength - were finally achieved. The Acropolis shone with unprecedented, wonderful beauty; the word of Rome was law for the remote outskirts of the earth. What was the ancient world supposed to live for now? There was no new idea that would powerfully take over society, and the old one had outlived its usefulness. Without an inspiring ideal, even if it is of a low standard, a person cannot live, the people's valor perishes, and society decays. The ancient Greco-Roman world could not continue to exist. The time came when the shaky foundations of Rome collapsed, and the Roman Empire ceased to exist. She fell, had to fall, because the ideals that inspired her were temporary and, when their power was exhausted, she had nothing to live by. To revive the decrepit organism, it was necessary to breathe new strength into it. It was necessary to find new beginnings for the spiritual life of humanity. A new civilization could arise and flourish from the ruins of the ancient world, but this required a new idea, and we see that the basis of the emerging civilization is based on new ideals. The ancient world sought physical beauty and worshiped physical strength; people of the new era seek spiritual beauty and bow before moral power. Now the center of gravity from the outside is transferred inside the person. The human spirit is recognized as the source of social, political and all historical life. The elevation of the human heart, moral improvement, and spiritual growth of the individual become the main task of society, everything else is of secondary importance. “Seek first of all the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be added to you, will come to you by itself,” says the Gospel. By the “kingdom of God” we mean a perfect life on earth - a life based not on the rule of violence, crude selfishness, but on the principles of universal love, complete justice, recognition of all legal rights of the individual. The advent of this “kingdom” is due to the moral rebirth of man, the renewal of his entire inner being. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, “unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In another place, Jesus Christ said: “The Kingdom of God will not come visibly and they will not say: behold, it is here, or behold, there. For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20–21). This is a new ideal; the ideal is not temporary, but eternal. The ideals of Ancient Greece and Rome could be outgrown, which is why the ancient world fell. The new ideal indicated by Christianity has no boundaries; it cannot be achieved. “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) - this is the Savior’s commandment to people. This covenant is the guarantee of the endless future of our civilization. A new culture in the very spirit of a Christian, in his inexhaustible ability to improve, will always find the source of its further renewal and development. Almost two thousand years of Christian history is now unfolding before our eyes; our gaze is now able to embrace and measure the internal, consistent process of its development, the degree of its powerful influence on the conscience and life of mankind, and we see that Christianity has not yet expressed the entire content of its thought, has not said its last word. To realize the Kingdom of God on earth, humanity still has a long, hard work to do on itself, on improvement, on the moral education of the heart. The Gospel awakened many good feelings; touched strings in a person’s heart unknown to him, extracted from them sounds of enchanting beauty and irresistible power, but these sounds have not yet merged into a powerful chord, into a hymn of triumphant love and truth. If science wants to replace religion, it must take on its obligations and, demanding preference for itself, is forced to give humanity more powerful means, to indicate the fastest path to the realization of the ultimate goals in life, than religion does. And science self-confidently admits itself to be capable of this. She solemnly proclaims that only knowledge can lead humanity to a better future. “If we want to make known the conditions on which the successes of modern civilization depend,” says Buckle, “we must look for them in the history of the accumulation and diffusion of mental knowledge. Physical phenomena and moral principles produce, of course, at times a significant disorder in the general course of affairs, but over time they come into order and balance and thus leave mental laws free to act independently of these lower, secondary figures.” Such a decisive statement is based on the opinion that the enormous development taking place in our civilization represents mainly mental movement and that the moral progress of society is directly dependent on the growth of knowledge. But to reason like this means not to know the human heart, not to understand what science is called for, what it can give. The field of science is vast, if you like, infinite; its tasks are great; she has done so much and will do even more for humanity that her very name should be sacred to thinking people; but the driving force of cultural progress is still not intelligence, and education alone does not improve morals. Science expands the mental horizon of man, develops his intellectual powers, increases our power over nature, but it cannot revive man spiritually or elevate him morally without the assistance of religion. Leaving the path of long reasoning, remember at least the French Panamists: senators, members of parliament, editors of influential newspapers - all people of extensive knowledge, great abilities, and in general a bunch of swindlers. It's unfortunate, but natural. The heart of a person is agitated by the same passions, whether it be the heart of an advanced thinker or the last day laborer. A simple Galilean illiterate fisherman can be morally higher than a dozen philosophers, luminaries of science: education can change the forms of evil, make them more refined, but destroy evil, ennoble morals - this is not given to education. It is not science to lead people to the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth by renewing the heart. However, perhaps science is strong enough to create a bright future for humanity by other means? By clarifying the laws by which the universe exists, by discovering means of influencing the forces inherent in matter, science gives us enormous power over nature. There was a time when man trembled before every formidable phenomenon of nature; now he is her master. Science turned the sun into a printing press, rode the wave, twisted the wild wind, harnessed steam to work, zipped the postman's bag; diamond drills pass through the depths of rocks and extract water in the sultry desert; giant hammers, jokingly, flatten blocks of metal; the telegraph, telephone, telescope destroyed space; spectral analysis determined the composition of the planets; thousands of factories with a comparatively insignificant expenditure of muscle power perform work that the mythological titans could not even dream of. If the people of the ancient world, contemplating the future, could imagine what science is doing now, they would have decided that the golden age that their poets had always dreamed of had arrived. But with all these conquests of the mind, the promised land still runs before us, like a mirage. The profound ignorance of the masses, excessive toil, and blatant poverty alongside idleness and wastefulness are felt no less painfully in the age of electricity and steam than in the centuries of gross barbarism. “Almshouses and prisons are as common companions of scientific progress,” says Henry George, “as are luxurious palaces and magnificent shops. In noisy capitals, on streets filled with asphalt and illuminated by electric suns, we, as everywhere else, encounter exhausted, gloomy, angry faces. In the midst of the greatest accumulation of wealth, people die of hunger and sickly children suckle at the withered breasts of their mothers. Everywhere the thirst for gain and the worship of wealth indicate the power of the fear of want. The tragedy of the Gospel parable about the rich man and Lazarus has not lost its burning intensity to this day.” “This union of poverty with progress,” notes Henry George, “is the great mystery of our time. This is the central fact from which flow those industrial, social and political difficulties which beset the world and with which statesmen, philanthropists and educators struggle in vain. From it rise those clouds that obscure the future of the most progressive and independent nations. This is the riddle that the sphinx of fate set for our civilization, and not solving it means perishing. As long as the entire increase in wealth, which is called material progress, is spent only on the formation of huge fortunes, on increasing luxury and on increasing the contrast between the house of Plenty and the house of Need, progress cannot be considered valid and lasting.” The reaction must come. It is necessary to renew the driving forces of civilization, to introduce new factors in addition to knowledge. Science, which promised to independently recreate on earth the kingdom of supreme truth and equality, from this side must be declared bankrupt. Instead of uniting under the command of heaven to fight against a common enemy - the kingdom of darkness and untruth, people with the banner of science in their hands are fighting over booty. The main motto of life has become: “whoever can, gnaws at him.” As the Bible says about Ishmael: “the hands of one are against all and all against one” (Gen. 16:12). Everyone for himself and for himself, i.e. general enmity, mutual distrust, irritation, bitterness and nowhere peace, justice, pity, love. The enemy falls, so much the better: in the struggle the human race improves. Mercy is a crime because it sacrifices the strong to the weak, and the rich in spirit and body to the lazy and frail. The world is driven, says science, and the world is dominated by the harsh, inexorable law of the struggle for existence. The logical consequence of such a view of life and the factors of civilization is Nietzscheanism. Nietzsche is an original, brilliant German thinker, a man of great, versatile talents. He is a critic, poet, philologist and, finally, philosopher. The main theme of his literary and philosophical activity is a fierce, open struggle against Christianity. Nietzsche thinks that the evil of modern life, all the disasters of our civilization, stem from the fact that we have submitted to the gospel demands of love, meekness, and mercy. In his opinion, humanity will only have a brilliant future when it frees itself from the moral shackles imposed on it by Jesus Christ. “Give man complete freedom,” says Nietzsche, “free him from the empty ghosts of conscience, honor, shame; recognize the legitimacy of all his passions, and you will be amazed at the power of the forces he manifests. Tens, hundreds, maybe thousands of weak people will die, will be crushed in the struggle, but the winner, drunk on their sweat and blood, will rise up the corpses, as if on steps, and lay the foundation for a new breed of beings. It will no longer be just “man”, but “Webermensh”, “superman”. Nietzsche's philosophy is the completion of Darwin's theory. According to Darwin, the entire long ladder of living beings, starting from the lower organism and ending with the highest - man, is a continuous chain of transition from one species to another. Through the struggle for existence, since there are always more mouths than food, organisms tirelessly improve: only the stronger specimens, those best adapted to struggle, survive, while the rest are exterminated or die out themselves due to lack of food. Any accidental advantage is assigned to the organism by the law of heredity. Over the centuries, so many distinctive characteristics accumulate in one or another animal species that a new, more perfect type is formed. The same story is repeated with him. Natural selection of those more adapted to the struggle for life and the law of heredity do not interrupt their work for a minute. Improving in this way, the organic world finally developed a type of man. Such a theory (even if we leave aside the question of the justice or fallacy of its main provisions) is unsaid. Nietzsche took the trouble to finish it, to dot the i's. If man, through a long chain of extinct species, is connected directly with the monkey, descended from it, and the monkey, in turn, from other lower organisms, then why do we stop at man? Not now, not tomorrow, not in a hundred years, but someday a being even more adapted to life, even more perfect than man, must appear. To lead humanity along this path, where titans and demigods are seen at the end, is such a great task, Nietzsche thinks, for the sake of which one should not be embarrassed by the demands of religion, morality, conscience, and duty. The more evil is committed, the more strength and energy will be manifested, the sooner the “superman” will appear... “Be strong,” Nietzsche bequeaths to his students, “do not succumb to pity, compassion, love: crush the weak, rise higher over their corpses: you are children of the highest breed; your ideal is “superman”. Terrible theory! It is not the best who triumph, but the most powerful and predatory. Goodness, love and truth must give way and give way to violence, shamelessness and vice. Dionysius - the tyrant of Syracuse, Herod the Great, Nero, Caesar Borgia - these are the exponents of the ideas of Nietzscheanism. Where is the happiness promised by science for all members of the human family, where is the triumph of the highest principles of love and truth? Why does science and material progress not bring an improvement in morals; why not uproot evil? Alas, this is none of her business. The causes of evil are of a moral nature, and science is powerless against moral evil. She can crush a rock, flatten a block of metal, but she cannot soften a cruel, callous heart. Scientific enlightenment alone provides only training of the mind, and if a person is by nature a predatory person, then education only sharpens his teeth and sharpens his claws. Reason serves to prepare and cultivate the soil conquered by other forces. The mind is the executive power, and the legislative power, the guiding power, belongs to the heart. The Gospel of 19 centuries ago declared: “from the heart come evil and good thoughts.” The divine heart-reader Christ the Savior was the first to show the world that the only source of social, political and all historical life is the spirit of man and that the more perfect it is, the more perfect will be everything created by it. “If you want the life around you to change,” says Christianity, “change yourself, educate your heart.” Brotherly, love life, the kingdom of God on earth are possible; only you need to look for them not somewhere around, not in something external, but inside yourself, in your heart. The heart is not the area of ​​influence of science, but the kingdom of religion. It is impossible to breathe strength into the moral nature of man by external mechanical means. Science cannot force a person to change his will. Fear or coercion can force him to renounce an evil action, but not from bad will, which is an internal movement, not subject to external force. The moral renewal of a person is conditioned by voluntary submission to a force that has such an attractiveness that it obliges the conscience, deeply excites feelings and inclinations, calls into action everything that is good in them, and makes it possible for the higher aspects of human nature to triumph over the lower ones. Only the evangelical religion can be such a force for humanity. The Gospel, telling us about God as perfect Love and absolute Truth, about His relationship to the world and about our duties to Him, fills our soul with reverent worship of the Supreme Being, awakens in us the desire to become worthy of His love, causes obedience to His commandments as an immutable moral law. Christianity, and it alone, in the name of the Supreme Holiness, which is God Himself, tirelessly encourages a person to go forward and forward in moral growth. Hence the conclusion is this: the highest, universal ideal of all humanity is the ideal indicated by the Gospel: the kingdom of God. The path to its implementation is the moral renewal of man’s entire spiritual nature, his development of a Christian worldview, and the education of the will in the spirit of evangelical love and truth. Religion is the driving force on this path. Such a conclusion cannot in any way be considered derogatory to science, and there is no reason for it to challenge it. Science has its own special field of activity, also very respectable, every success in which is in its own way also a major benefit for humanity. These two areas: both the area of ​​influence of religion and the area of ​​influence of science, with a proper understanding of the matter, are by no means in conflict with each other: they complement one another. And if there are clashes between representatives of religions and representatives of science, this is explained by a sad misunderstanding: the inability to understand the boundaries of one’s competence, the desire to invade someone else’s boundaries. Science determines the eternal, unshakable laws by which the life of the universe follows; opens and subordinates to the human mind more and more new forces of nature, establishes the degree of external, physical dependence of man on his environment; in short, science sets out to give the most complete answer to the question: how does the world live? Religion has a different task; it answers the question: how can a person live in the world? In what relationship should he become to the world and to the One who is above the world? The lawyer asks Jesus Christ: “Teacher! What must I do to inherit eternal life?” With the same question, every Christian turns to the religion established by the Savior, firmly believing that he will not only find the answer he needs in the Gospel teaching, but will also acquire in close, fraternal communication with members of the Church, in living prayerful unity with God, the moral forces necessary so that in every individual act, feeling and word there is hidden an eternal meaning that gives the right to live. With such an understanding of the tasks of religion and science and the delimitation of the spheres of their activity, can there be any talk of contradictions between religion and science and the need to replace one with the other? The very path to life, which has an eternal meaning, has not yet been traveled by humanity, and therefore it is all the more strange to say that religion has outlived its time and that science should be the guiding star and driving force of further civilization. To this, it may be objected that there are a significant number of people with the highest motives of behavior and a life pure as crystal, who nevertheless quite openly express their disbelief in religious teachings and fundamentally deny their influence on their lives and behavior. A typical representative of these can be the famous French scientist Littre, “this saint who does not believe in God,” as another French writer, Caro, described him. How, it may be asked, can these facts be reconciled with our idea of ​​religion as the center of all the vital forces that move and restructure the modern social world? The explanation is quite simple. Over the 19 centuries of its existence, the Christian religion has left a strong and indelible mark on a long series of generations, on their laws and institutions, on their mental and moral education, and on their way of thinking in general. We all, whatever our religious views, we are all unconsciously under its influence at every step, at every minute of our lives. A significant part of the ideas first proclaimed to the world by Christianity have now become common property, and the opponents of Christianity owe everything that they are justly proud of entirely to the Gospel, although they do not admit it. But even if the clouds cover the sun, the daylight that surrounds us is still not original, but only the result of a luminary hidden from us. When the clouds clear, then the sky will brighten, shine in all its beauty, the sun will pour out streams of warmth and light, and a clear, jubilant day will come. But when will all this happen? Nobody can give an answer. Jesus Christ says that we cannot know this; but precisely because we cannot know the time of this hour, we must not only always be ready to meet it, just as the owner guarding the house should always be ready, as the virgins with lamps should be ready to greet the groom, but we must also work with all the strength given to us for the coming of this hour, just as workers were supposed to work for the talents given to them. When asked when this hour will come, the Great Teacher exhorts people to work with all their might for its speedy arrival. And there can be no other answer. No one can tell people when the day and hour of the Kingdom of God will come, because the coming of this hour does not depend on anyone else but themselves. All we can know is what we, who constitute humanity, must do and what we must not do in order for this kingdom of God to come, and we all know this: the Gospel speaks clearly about this. And it's worth stopping doing what we shouldn't do; everyone should start doing only what we should do; Each of us only has to live with all the light that is in us in order for that promised kingdom of God to which the heart of every person is drawn to immediately come. It is not in our power to save humanity and regenerate the nature of the world; but it is in our power to correct our own spiritual nature, improve our character, and cultivate our will in a Christian manner. This is in our power and this is our responsibility, the personal responsibility of each of us. (Extracted in abbreviation from the brochure: Petrov O., priest. The Gospel as the basis of life. Ed. 4. pp. 1–30.) B. The significance of the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in proving the divinity of the Christian religion The Christian Church was founded through the preaching of the resurrection of its Head. Although there is not and cannot be any serious objection to this idea, nevertheless, in view of the importance of the fact, it is useful to present it in its full light. On the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter delivered the first of the apostolic sermons. What was he talking about? “God raised Jesus, breaking the bonds of death... God raised Jesus, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:24–32). A crowd gathers around Peter and John in the Jerusalem Temple. Peter repeats his statement. “God raised up the Author of life, of which we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). A church is formed. In its meetings, “the apostles testified with great power to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33). They consider bearing witness to this resurrection the main task of their mission. The leaders of the people forbade them to teach about the name of their Teacher; they answered: “God must be obeyed more than men,” and then, to explain the reason for their disobedience to human orders, they added: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging on a tree” (Acts 5:30). Peter - in Caesarea with the centurion Cornelius; he preaches to him about the resurrection of the One who was hanged on the tree (Acts 10:40). He writes a conciliar letter to some churches and begins it with the glorification of God, for what? “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). And further the same apostle points to this resurrection as the basis of the faith and hope of Christians: “God raised Jesus from the dead... so that you might have faith and hope in God” (Pet. 1:21). The leaders of the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia invite the apostle. Paul speak to the people: he preaches that his Teacher was crucified, taken down from the tree and laid in a tomb, but that “God raised Him from the dead” (Acts 13:30). How did the same Paul provoke the ridicule of the Athenians, who listened to him calmly as long as he spoke only about the existence of God? The sermon about the resurrection of Christ (Acts 17:31–32). How did he give the Roman ruler Festus a reason to consider himself crazy? By what he told King Agrippa about the resurrection of Christ (Acts 26:23–24). And when he writes to churches, there is hardly a letter in which he does not mention this fact. In his letter to the Romans, he states that Jesus was revealed to be the Son of God precisely through His resurrection. Three circumstances are especially worthy of attention in the letter to the Corinthians: firstly, that the death and resurrection of Christ are indicated as an essential part of the preaching of the gospel; secondly, that the apostle does not teach about the resurrection, but reminds his readers that this resurrection is the main point of faith, which was preached to them and which they accepted before the composition of his epistle; thirdly, that St. Paul recognizes the special importance of this point, so that he directly declares that if Christ has not been resurrected, then his preaching is in vain and the faith of the disciples is in vain. Christians felt this importance so vividly that they not only dedicated the most solemn of their holidays to the memory of the resurrection, but also wished that the day of the week's rest would awaken this great remembrance every week. Resurrection replaced the Sabbath, and every Sunday was supposed to excite the same feelings as the Easter holiday. So, an impressive body of texts and facts has established that the preaching of the resurrection of Christ was one of the essential elements of the apostolic preaching. For a Christian, the Resurrection of Christ is the most important object of faith, one of the main foundations of his religious life. People who pay attention exclusively to the internal state of the soul, that is, to the subjective side of religion, ask how faith, in the fullness of the deep meaning of this word, can have as its subject a fact of a purely external nature? They must make the following concession: the belief that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the tomb, in itself, as a simple acceptance of a known story, does not yet have religious significance. But to dwell on such an understanding of the matter would mean to take too superficial a view of the subject. On what did the power of the apostolic preaching depend? Not because they proclaimed a simple historical fact, but because they preached the victory over death won by the Author of life (Acts 3:15). For those who listened to their speeches, the clouds of doubt and unbelief dissipated, heavenly horizons opened up for them, and they, despite their mortality, which is the property of all earthly things, anticipated the promises of the afterlife. For a Christian, the resurrection of Christ is not the resurrection of one famous person, but the resurrection of man in general - the resurrection of humanity in the person of its Head, who wanted to endure the cross in order to open the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to those who enter into communion with Him. For the believer, the Resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of his own resurrection. He knows that “God, who raised the Lord, will also raise him by His power” (Cor. 6:14. See also: Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:14; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:14). He finds forgiveness of his sins in the cross of Calvary, eternal life in the tomb of the Crucified One, and can exclaim with the Apostle: “Death! Where is your sting? Hell! Where is your victory" (1 Cor. 15:55)? So, the resurrection of Christ, undoubtedly, is the primary object of faith, one of the essential factors of religious life. However, as everyone can notice, the indisputable and undeniable fact is that the Christian Church is based on faith in the resurrection of its Head, and not on the reality of this resurrection. What arguments can be presented to prove this reality? To support his teaching regarding the resurrection of the Lord, St. Paul refers to the testimonies of those who saw the Crucified One alive after He left the tomb. He particularly insists on this testimony and points to more than five hundred brethren who saw it, most of whom were still alive at the time he wrote his epistle (1 Cor. 15:4-8). This proof cannot be considered unimportant, although it cannot have absolute significance, because it is based on such monuments, the reliability of which negative criticism can challenge; but we have evidence of a different nature - the results that the work of Jesus Christ had in world history. His influence on humanity is not just a past fact, the recognition of which depends on the research of criticism and is subject to doubts that may arise as a consequence of these research; it is a reality that continues to exist in the present. We are dealing not only with facts that happened 19 centuries ago, but with facts that happened over 19 centuries and are still happening today. To give a fair assessment of the influence that Christianity has had on the world, it is necessary, in the light of history, to be transported to the circumstances among which the first preachers of the Gospel acted. How, from the point of view of the world, that seed was small, insignificant, from which grew a huge tree, the branches of which continue to expand before our eyes! Jesus Christ gave His apostles the command to teach all nations (Matthew 28:19). Ap. Paul writes that the name of Jesus is above every name, and that it will go throughout the whole world (Phil. 2:9-11). Whose name should have achieved such fame? The name of a young man who, in an obscure and despised region of the Roman Empire, was recently put to shameful execution. The command of Christ continues to be fulfilled: His teachings are preached in all countries of the globe. The prophecy of St. is also being fulfilled. Paul: the name of Jesus, more and more, becomes the greatest of the names uttered by human lips. In the history of the influence of Christianity on the development of civilization, it is necessary to pay particular attention to its moral influence, because the moral development of people is the goal of any true religion. There is one misconception on this subject which should be refuted or prevented. Some apologists unfairly ignore and sometimes even malign the sages of the pagan world. Meanwhile, in the writings of the sages of the ancient East, Greece and Rome one can find sublime moral and religious views. It is sometimes concluded from this fact that the Gospel was only a natural development of feelings and thoughts that previously existed in humanity. Vinet expressed sound and thorough considerations on this issue. – “The Gospel did not invent morality; some of his excellent rules have long been in circulation among people; The Gospel did not so much reveal them as give them a new foundation and revive them with a new spirit. The superiority of the Gospel is not so much that it proclaimed a new morality, but that it gives strength to fulfill the old one. Knowledge of morality is not morality, and knowledge of duty is not fulfillment of duty.” Moral strength is the special characteristic of the work of Christ. There seems to be much reason to dispute the extent and effectiveness of this force. How many millions of people, despite the extensive activities of missions, have not yet heard the gospel preaching! And even where the Gospel is proclaimed, how many people are openly hostile or alien to its influence! And among those who, according to them, accept this influence, very often there is what difference there is between professed faith and actual life. How much space is occupied in the lives of those who call themselves disciples of Christ by sensuality, greed, vanity, and addiction to the world! If we look at the social life of peoples who call themselves Christian, it turns out that this name often has the character of cruel irony. Do we not see how these peoples sacrifice to political interests the faith to which they swear in solemn treatises? Do we not see how the most sacred rights of mankind are being violated in the interests of trade and industry? Is it not Christian nations that impose the poison of opium on the Chinese and the poison of strong drink on the unfortunate islanders of Oceania? Is it not military budgets that absorb a huge part of the income of European states? How often has religion been the cause of cruel persecution and bloody conflicts? So, how does the moral power of Christ manifest itself? Everything said, unfortunately, is true, but here is only half the truth. It is impossible not to see that, although the Gospel was the reason and pretext for bad deeds, it was never their cause. Abuse in this case is not only different from legitimate use, but it is directly opposite to it. In the sphere of inert matter, the action of a force is proportional to its energy. This is not so in the world where freedom takes place in events. The Gospel is leaven, and humanity is the dough, which this leaven must penetrate little by little, and this dough is not just a passive mass: it represents active resistance. Despite this resistance, God's work is accomplished. From the very beginning of the existence of the Church there were many shortcomings in it; but the primitive Church was a collection of souls imbued with a holy love of duty; she maintained this character throughout the persecution. When the Christian faith was accepted by the civil authorities and became the official religion, unclean streams deeply troubled its waters. However, one can trace its beneficial influence on the gradual transformation of social institutions, on the structure of the family, on the mutual relations of social classes. The history of modern civilization must, no doubt, record the many different influences it has received; but of all of them the influence of the spirit of Christ is undoubtedly the strongest. Nowadays, despite all the shortcomings and shameful vices of the nations called Christian, it is easy to notice that the influence of the Gospel sharply distinguishes them from nations alien to this influence. Caring for the poor and sick, caring for the deprived classes of society are developed here to such an extent that is unknown among the pagans, who still occupy a huge part of the globe. Examine all the works of mercy, alleviation of calamities, public charity, love of mankind: wherever we find energetic, persistent and successful efforts, the most selfless employees of all good enterprises have been men animated by the spirit of Christ. We will be told that in our day charity is taking on a secular character, that the official activities of governments and the activities of purely philanthropic societies are beginning to replace the directly religious activities of the past. This is true to some extent; but what conclusion can be drawn from this fact? From what source does this movement come? Why is philanthropy not developed in China, Persia or India as much as in Europe? The Red Cross Society, for example, which conceived such a bold enterprise - to ennoble the war, counts among its members Jews, Mohammedans, and pagans; but the religious neutrality that characterizes the activities of this society at the present time did not exist at first. Non-Christian governments, who agreed to somewhat soften the customs of that barbarity, the highest expression of which remains war, yielded to the trends of Christian civilization. These trends could not have been born from them themselves and under the influence of their own religious ideas. Why does the moral culture of the Mohammedans, along with noble traits, present such dark spots that we do not have? What even more or less attentive person will not notice that the altruism of the followers of Opost Comte is nothing more than a counterfeit of Christian love? Modern consciousness (countries that still remain in paganism are a continuation of the ancient world) was formed under the influence of the Gospel of Christ and retains some features of this creative influence even among many of those people who are alien to faith in the proper sense of the word. Let us briefly repeat the above considerations in order to draw conclusions from them. Faith in the resurrection of Christ was the basis of the gospel preaching; this truth stands beyond the blows of criticism. Christianity has had the most significant and most salutary spiritual influence on humanity that history knows of, a fact recognized by serious historians, even those who personally do not have faith. To oppose this truth to the evil for which religion was the cause or pretext is an argument that has no force. In fact, the good produced by Christianity is the fruit of the Christian spirit, and evil, such as persecution, religious wars, etc., is a product of human passions, which is in direct contradiction to this spirit. Thomas Aquinas asks what evidence we have of the reality of those supernatural facts that are assimilated by Christ, and answers: “The amazing conversion of the world to the Christian faith is the surest proof of these past signs, and there is no need to reproduce them, because they are clearly visible in their actions. It would be more amazing than all miracles if the world, without any special signs, were led by unlearned people of low birth to such lofty beliefs, to such difficult deeds and to such sublime hopes.” Dante reproduced this thought of his teacher in the XXIV canto of his Paradise. “If the world were converted to Christianity without miracles, then this alone would be such a miracle that all the others would not constitute even a hundredth part of it.” The same idea was recently expressed by one modern scientist who has acquired a reputation as a very liberal person, and also possessing enormous erudition, the Strasbourg professor Race. “If in the deeds of Jesus Christ,” he says, “there was nothing that exceeds daily experience, then His life would only become even more incomprehensible.” This was Professor Race's thought. Having noted the difficult questions raised by criticism of the resurrection narratives, he wrote the following lines, which, due to the author's position in the field of theology, are of particular importance. “It remains,” he says, “the indisputable fact that on this foundation (the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ) the Church, which has existed for 18 centuries, was built, for which He is, so to speak, a clear witness, and truly it should be said that together with Christ, the Church was resurrected from His tomb, which otherwise, in all likelihood, would have remained buried forever.” If Christ has risen, then we have supernatural proof of the supernatural nature of His mission. The testimony of people informs us of knowledge about earthly objects; The testimony of Christ reveals to us the realities of the invisible world. In this case, religious life is established on a solid foundation. People may doubt the messengership of Christ, as they do about any thought, but what affirms faith in this messenger affirms at the same time the entire body of beliefs, whereas without this faith (in the messenger of Christ) a special proof would have to be presented for each individual truth. Trust in the divine testimony is the foundation of a spiritual building, and to strengthen the foundation of a building means to strengthen all its parts. This is the beneficent meaning of the authority of Christ. (Extracted in abbreviation from the book: E. Naville. Testimony of Christ and the unity of the Christian world. M., 1898) Appendix Analysis of objections to the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, borrowing their pseudo-scientific support from telepathy Neither the rationalists, with their theory of the imaginary death of Christ, nor the visionaries (Strauss, Renan, etc.) with their hypothesis of ghostly visions explain to us sufficiently the origin of faith in the resurrection of our Lord without the very fact of the resurrection. At present, the hypothesis of objective visions is increasingly replacing others. According to this theory, the appearances of the Risen One were not entirely real, since His bodily resurrection itself is not allowed; nor were they subjective phenomena or hallucinations. Here the appearances of the Risen One are identified with ghosts from beyond the grave or the appearances of the souls of dead people alive; they are the fruit of the supernatural invisible influence of the glorified Christ on the souls of the disciples, embodied in visual hallucinations or visions. Thus, at their basis lies something objective, namely the gracious contact of the spirit of Christ with the souls of the disciples, a message from heaven to the disciples, necessary for their encouragement and consolation, that Christ, although he died in body, is alive in spirit; they are, as Keim puts it, “the telegram from heaven that humanity needs”... The subjective in these visions refers to their image, i.e. the very projection outward of this inner, supersensible, heavenly influence of Christ on the souls of the disciples. Apparently, it would be easiest to get rid of the hypothesis of objective visions by denying the facts it admits and classifying them as creations of superstitious fantasy: but at present, the hypothesis finds support in science, which at the London Society for Psychical Research introduced facts of this kind under the name of telepathy into the circle of scientific research and for the first time gave firm certification of facts of this kind relating to the phenomena of intravital ghosts of one person in danger or at the moment of death, to another on significant distances 72 . Thus, according to the hypothesis, the phenomena of the Risen One relate to the so far unexplored, but homogeneous facts of posthumous telepathy, and therefore the hypothesis has to be taken into account not only on a) theological grounds, but also b) scientific and psychological. a) The hypothesis of objective visions cannot find any basis in the Gospel texts; on the contrary, it is refuted by them. The news of the resurrection and the very appearances of the Risen One are met by the disciples with doubt and unbelief, which would have been impossible given their undoubted faith in the manifestations of spirits from the supersensible world (Luke 24:37; Acts 12:25–16), which was generally widespread at that time and among them; Consequently, their doubts related to the possibility of the resurrection of the Crucified One. The manifestations of the spirit of the deceased Jesus cannot explain the change that took place in the disciples, their joy, encouragement, even faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Redeemer; They do not eliminate the impression made on the disciples by the shameful death on the cross, which destroyed their faith in the power of Jesus, His power over the enemies of the Kingdom of God, over death, evil, but the spiritual immortality of Jesus would not have elevated Him in the eyes of the disciples above people with their faith in the immortality of the soul. If we recognize the manifestations of the spirit of Christ as a consolation for the disciples, then this consolation will have to be recognized as somewhat belated, and the phenomena from the third day after death are inappropriate: this delay gave time for the formation in the souls of the disciples of a mood that was not immediately defeated even by the appearances of the Risen One and which made it difficult to recognize the latter as valid. The theory also does not explain the undoubted confidence of the disciples and the first Christian society in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ: this confidence could not have arisen from His spiritual appearances. This main drawback of its theory is therefore forced to eliminate by an arbitrary assumption about the later origin of the belief in the bodily rise of Christ from the tomb after the opening of the empty tomb of Christ or even later, after the conversion of Saul to Christianity and the appearance of the Risen One to him. The first opinion allows the assumption, which is unacceptable from a religious point of view, that, by God’s permission, the world with its faith in the resurrection of Christ is deceived by the spiritual manifestations of Christ and that God’s providence in this case did not achieve its goal (to provide evidence of the posthumous glorious life of Jesus in the spirit). The second opinion encroaches on the historical authenticity of the Gospels, considering in them the stories about the sensory-material nature of the phenomena as a later tendentious alteration of the Judeo-Christian party in Christian society in order to elevate the authority of the twelve apostles in it before the newly-minted Apostle Paul, whom Christ, who appeared to him, chose only in a spiritual way. This assumption is connected with an incorrect statement about the spiritual nature of the appearance to Saul and is generally possible only on the shaky and now failed soil of the New Woolbingen school. Faith in the bodily resurrection of Christ must undoubtedly be recognized from the beginning, as evidenced by the epistles of St. Paul, recognized also in negative criticism: the bodily resurrection of the dead by ap. Paul puts it in a causal connection with the resurrection of Christ and indicates its prototype in the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 11; Rom. 8:11); in the last Phil. 3:21 he directly says that in the resurrection our bodies will be like the glorified body of Christ. The general drawback of the hypothesis of objective visions, in view of what has been said, is a gross violation of the historical method, which requires an accurate reproduction of the true thoughts of the authors of historical documents, and not a distortion of their meaning, and, moreover, the obvious meaning: the Gospels speak not of spiritual, but of the bodily appearances of Christ in a new glorious (and not the previous earthly) body. b) Since the hypothesis of objective visions identifies the phenomena of the Risen One with telepathic posthumous ghosts, a full assessment of it can be given on the basis of the doctrine of telepathy - by comparing the phenomena to students with telepathic facts. True, the scientific study of the facts of telepathy, or the supersensible influence at a distance of one soul (agent) on another (percipient), is far from complete and has only just begun, however, the extensive material already collected (in the work of the London Society for Psychical Research) allows us to make some generalizations regarding the conditions and laws of the group of phenomena under consideration, at least, perhaps, of conditional significance. In this regard, it is necessary to note two sides in the facts of telepathy, one of which gives, apparently, a satisfactory explanation of the appearances of the Risen One to the disciples and justification of the hypothesis of objective visions, and the other side of the phenomena to the disciples, due to the significant difference in many respects from telepathic ghosts, are placed in the category of facts that have nothing in common with the latter. Telepathy, apparently, explains more easily and better than subjective hallucinations the collective nature of phenomena arising from the external influence of A on subjects B, C, D..., regardless of the latter, and the sudden simultaneous cessation of phenomena to students - for the same reason. By identifying the appearances of the Risen One to the disciples, another (third) major drawback of the hypothesis of subjective visions is eliminated - the unfounded assumption about the nervous temperament of the disciples, their tendency to hallucinations, ecstasies, etc. neuroses: telepathic hallucinations are experienced, for the most part, by subjects who have never been subjected to hallucinations, and not at all from the category of nervous, hysterical persons. The fourth drawback, inevitable in the theory of subjective visions, is also eliminated: the unfounded denial of the historical reliability of the Gospel messages about the sensory-physical form of the appearance of the Risen One, with the recognition of reliability only for messages about the spiritual nature of phenomena in an immaterial, subtle, spirit-like body, quickly appearing and disappearing, rising into the air, passing through impenetrable bodies, etc., which, apparently, allows students to see in the phenomena hallucinations. And not only is this shortcoming eliminated, but a generally difficult problem in theological science is resolved - explaining the dual nature of phenomena to students, either sensual-material in a tangible body that retains wounds, taking food, or spiritual visions, contemplated in the spirit, in the image of an immaterial spirit-like body. Telepathic ghosts are characterized by precisely this dual nature of sensory-material and spiritual phenomena (the latter more than the former). The figures of appearing ghosts (acquaintances, relatives, friends) penetrate through the doors, are transparent, so that other objects are visible through them, which gives the impression that you are dealing with spirits here, and are themselves permeable, so that the recipients pass through them, like through a cloud or fog. Quite often the figures appear in a foggy or cloud-like form, in the vague outlines of phosphoric fog, sometimes gradually turning into a definite human image. Finally, the hypothesis of telepathic visions as applied to the phenomena of the Risen One well explains another feature of them, so poorly explained in the hypothesis of subjective visions - that the Risen One appeared exclusively as His own, and not as a stranger or to those who had not seen Him. The learned authors of the book on telepathy, generally very cautious in their conclusions and stingy with generalizations, find, however, that it is possible, on the basis of experience, to put forward the proposition that “phantasms are perceived by their friends and relatives so often that this cannot be explained by mere chance,” and that a necessary condition for telepathic influence should be recognized as proximity between the perceiver (percipient) and the influencing subject (agent). It would, however, be very hasty, on the basis of everything that has been said about the similarity of telepathic phenomena with phenomena to students in some very important features, to recognize the hypothesis of objective visions as satisfactory: identification of phenomena to students with telepathic phenomena is impossible due to the deep difference between them, observed even in similar features, not to mention the other. In both groups of phenomena, the participation of tactile sensations is observed: ghosts who appear to relatives and friends kiss them, stroke their heads, touch their shoulders; the disciples with Thomas touch the wounds of the Risen One with their hands to verify the reality (physicality) of His appearance (John 20:25-28; Luke 24:30-40), the myrrh-bearing wives in reverent joy fall at the feet of the Lord who has appeared to them and grab His feet (Matt. 28:9; John 20:17)... But a deep difference is also hidden: in In the manifestations of the Risen One, the “perceivers” (disciples) are felt, and in telepathic phenomena it is always the appearing ones who feel. In the appearances of the Risen One, tactile sensations, whether active or voluntary, serve to certify the reality of His appearances and clearly prove the latter; in telepathic phenomena, tactile sensations, as involuntary and passive, do not have such a meaning and do not speak at all about the reality (physicality) of phantasms; on the contrary, ghosts disappear or are eliminated each time by the touch of the perceiving subjects, that is, more precisely, by attempts to touch them. A clear sign that in telepathic images we are dealing with hallucinations, and not with real objects. In the same way, upon closer examination, the conveniences provided by the telepathic theory for explaining the collective nature of phenomena to students, which the hypothesis of subjective visions completely failed, turn out to be imaginary. The telepathic theory, just like the latter, is powerless to explain to us in collective phenomena to students a feature that is not found either in subjective or telepathic collective hallucinations, which are usually simple and uncomplicated: the phenomena of the Risen One are perceived by the three senses of students (vision, hearing and touch); therefore, according to the theory, they belong to collective, complex telepathic hallucinations, not usually encountered. The likelihood of such complex, collective hallucinations (telepathic) is so small that it is zero. It is true that complex hallucinations are more often observed among telepathic than subjective ones; however, for every 800 telepathic facts there are only 4 cases of complete hallucination involving three senses at once, 8 - two senses (hearing and touch). This is explained by the extreme rarity of tactile telepathic hallucinations; only 68 cases out of more than 800 are indicated. If complex hallucinations in individual phenomena are so rare, then collective hallucinations of this kind are even more incredible and impossible for 11 or even 500 perceiving subjects at once. In general, it is incredible in this case that the same telepathic ghost appears in one form to many people. This improbability was recognized by the scientific researchers of telepathy themselves: “We should not forget,” they write, “that a telepathic impression is only a stimulus for the mind of the perceiving subject; in essence, the hallucination is created by himself, and no one else. Finally, hallucinations of this kind often occur over too long a period of time. In view of all this, it is highly improbable that two or more persons should express their telepathic impressions at the same moment in the same form of hallucination. It will probably happen that one of these faces will hear a sound, another person, half an hour or an hour later, will see the image of his acquaintance, the third, finally, will experience a painful impression, not at all expressed in any external, sensory form. Such cases are extremely rare, but not unprecedented.” A new remarkable feature compared to the manifestations of the Risen One in telepathic phenomena is their unusually short duration, their short duration and the rapid disappearance of ghosts. The vision lasts only a few seconds, and its duration of a minute or even half a minute is considered significant. And Christ, after his resurrection, appeared to his disciples and talked with them for hours. In general, according to one successful expression, the ghost disappears here, just as a cloud of smoke evaporates when cold air touches. In connection, perhaps, with the indicated feature, the short duration of telepathic visions, there is another common feature that distinguishes them from the phenomena to students: the lack of confidence in the reality of the phenomena. If the perceiving subjects have confidence in the reality of telepathic visions, it is not for long, not firmly, only under the first impression. The very appearance of this sense of the reality of vision, which usually does not accompany telepathic visions, is largely determined by random circumstances. Thus, a case of confidence of one recipient arose from the disappearance of a ghost not in the presence, but in the absence of the recipient, who thought that the one who had appeared to him had left. Usually, the sense of reality of the vision is quickly evaporated by its rapid disappearance, as can be seen, for example, from direct statements like the following: “I thought I really saw my brother, and only when he disappeared did I realize that I had seen only a ghost.” Usually, the lasting impression from telepathic visions that remains in the soul of the recipient is the conviction that something important happened to the person who appeared, some misfortune, mostly death: “the vision struck me greatly, and I was convinced that my sister died at that time” - this is a typical formula expressing the usual impression from telepathic visions. It is clear from what has been said that the telepathic hypothesis is just as little capable of explaining to us the firm confidence of the apostles in the reality of the appearances of the Risen One as the hypothesis of subjective visions. Let us point out one more difficulty in accepting the telepathic hypothesis. Scientific researchers of telepathy explain the rarity of telepathic hallucinations by the existence of special individual predispositions to telepathy or the existence of telepathic ability as a necessary condition for telepathic phenomena, creating the impossibility of recognizing the phenomena to students as telepathic: this would mean asserting that all of Christ’s disciples and even 500 of His followers necessarily possessed this rare ability... The appearances of the Risen One to the disciples were not telepathic posthumous visions, and the hypothesis of objective visions, just like the hypothesis of subjective visions, turns out to be insufficient. In addition to the special shortcomings discussed separately here, both of these hypotheses have common shortcomings, of which we note the two most important: 1) both hypotheses do not explain the empty tomb to us, 2) both hypotheses, from their point of view and with their own means, are unable to explain the appearance of Christ to Saul with the subsequent conversion: here the hypotheses deal with the appearance of the Risen One not to his own, even to the bitter enemy of Christianity, who, of course, did not want or expect the resurrection Crucified, which eliminates the psychological possibility of hallucination (subjective); here the possibility of objective telepathic hallucination is also eliminated by the lack of proximity of the recipient to the agent or persons close to the latter, in this case to the disciples of Christ. Skepticism is powerless to shake Christian faith in the resurrection of Christ and the resulting hope in our general resurrection before the glorious coming of the Lord. We believe that Christ has risen, therefore, according to the Apostle, we will rise again (see the magazine “The Wanderer” for 1899; the work of Archpriest I. Petropavlovsky “In Defense of the Faith”, as well as the study of Prof. Chistovich “The Ancient Greek World and Christianity on the Question of Immortality.”) B. Miraculous signs of the truth of the church of Christ 1. Church historical examples proving that the Orthodox Church is the one true Church 1. One day St. Ephraim, Patriarch of Antioch, learned that one stylite who was in the country of Hierapolis had fallen into heresy. This incident was of great importance. The Stylite, as a man who was respected for his exploits, could seduce many people into heresy. And so, realizing this, the saint himself went to him and tried with all his might to convince him to renounce the heresy and convert to Orthodoxy. The Stylite, seeing the patriarch’s determination to convert him to Orthodoxy at all costs, wanted to intimidate him. He invited Ephraim to light a fire and walk through the fire. “Whoever comes out of the fire unharmed,” said the stylite, “is the right faith.” The saint, deeply convinced of the truth of Orthodoxy, ordered firewood to be brought, and at his command a huge fire was built. But the stylite did not agree to go through the fire with the saint. Ephraim. Then the saint took off his omophorion, prayed to the Lord and threw it into the fire. The fire burned for three hours, all the wood turned to ashes - but the omophorion remained intact and unharmed. In view of such a miracle, the stylite publicly abandoned his heresy, joined the holy, conciliar, apostolic Church and received St. from the hands of the patriarch himself. Communion. St. performed many other miracles. Ephraim, working for the benefit of the Church in the rank of patriarch for eighteen years, died in 545 (Ch.-Min. June 8). 2. Once upon a time to St. The monk Theophan, who adhered to the Nestorian heresy, came to Kyriakos, who was fleeing in a cramped cell near the Jordan. Having learned about this, Rev. Cyriacus convinced and begged him to abandon his delusions and turn to the holy, catholic and apostolic church. “The only way to our salvation,” said the monk, “is to think and believe as the holy fathers thought and believed.” Theophan answered: “All heresies also say that if you do not have communication with them, you will not be saved. What should I do? My mind is so weak that it cannot comprehend the truth and distinguish it from error. Pray to God for me, so that He will enlighten me with some revelation from above!” St. Kiriak rejoiced at his brother’s readiness to accept admonition and said to him: “Stay in my cell, and I hope in God that His goodness will reveal the truth.” Then he retired into solitude and began to pray to God for his brother. And so, around nine o’clock the next day, the Nestorian sees someone threateningly telling him: “Go and learn the truth.” Then the unknown person took him to a dark and stinking place and showed him Nestorius, Arius, Eutyches, Dioscorus and other heretics in the fire, groaning and gnashing their teeth from unbearable torment. “This is the abode of those who think wickedly, and of those who follow them. So,” said the unknown man, “if you like this place, remain with your false teaching; if you do not want to be subjected to a similar punishment, turn to the holy catholic and apostolic Church, to which St. Cyriac. I tell you that if a person has done all the virtues, but does not believe Orthodoxy, he will come to this place of torment.” After this, the messenger of the divine will that appeared became invisible, and the Nestorian, recognizing his error, so disastrous, joined the Orthodox Church (“Ven. Tale, about the ancient holy fathers”). 3. In the fifteenth century, the Greek Empire was in great danger from the Turks. The Greek emperor Manuel Palaiologos, thinking of receiving help from Western nations through the pope, took all measures to enter into union (i.e., unity) with the pope. The elected Greek bishops, sent to the Council of Florence in Italy, constrained by circumstances, signed in 1438 the definitions of this council on union, recognizing the pope as their head. Isidore, a Bulgarian by birth, installed in Constantinople as Metropolitan of Russia, was also at this council and agreed to the union; but of the Greek bishops, the most learned man, Mark, Metropolitan of Ephesus, who victoriously denounced the errors of the Latins in the disputes at the council, did not subscribe to the definitions of the council. When Pope Eugene was informed that Mark had not signed the council’s definitions, the pope said: “In that case, we did nothing.” And indeed, Mark, having returned, was triumphantly received by the Greek people, who did not even want to hear about union. With Isidore from the Russians were at the council Thomas, Bishop of Tver, and Presbyter Simeon. Since they did not agree to a union in Florence, Isidore began to pursue them, and they decided to flee to Russia. They pestered traveling merchants, but the merchants did not accept them, fearing to tolerate them for unknown people. On one mountain, not knowing what to do with themselves, Simeon and Thomas lay down and dozed off. The presbyter, in a drowsiness, sees the elder, who took him by the right hand and said: “Have you been blessed by the one who followed in the footsteps of the Apostle Mark, Bishop of Ephesus?” Simeon answered: He was blessed. The one who appeared says: “Blessed by God is this man: none of the vain Latins bowed him down either with wealth, or with affection, or with the fear of torment. Preach the teaching commanded to you by Saint Mark to all Orthodox Christians, wherever you go. Do not mourn your journey: I am with you and will lead you through the city; after walking a little, you will see two chambers and next to them his wife Evgenia; she will welcome you into her home and calm you down; then you will pass through the city freely.” The presbyter asked the elder who he was. “I am Sergius of Makovsky,” he answered (that is, Radonezhsky, for his abode is on the top of the mountain). You promised to come to my monastery, but you didn’t come, and now you won’t fulfill your promise, but you will inevitably be there.” Having awakened, the presbyter told his vision to Thomas, and they went with joy. Everything happened as predicted. Eugenia invited them to calm down; They passed through the city among armed people and were not detained. Having reached Russia, for some reason the presbyter did not rush to the monastery of St. Sergius. Isidore, who arrived in Russia, put the fugitives in chains; then the freed Simeon was given to the abbot of the Sergius Monastery 73. Isidore himself began to remember the name of the pope during his service, and was expelled from Russia, and in his place was installed as Metropolitan St. Jonah, later glorified for his incorruption of relics and miracles. (From the book: Sergius, Archbishop of Vladimir. Conversations about the basic truths of the Holy Orthodox Faith. M., 1893, pp. 242–245.) Let us give several more wonderful examples to prove the above truth, borrowing them from the historical life of our Russian Orthodox Church and the Moldovan-Vlachian Church, recorded by Saint Peter Mogila of Kyiv. 4. A resident of the village of Zarubinets, Vilna province, named Ivan, was often subjected to fits of demonic possession. Wanting to get rid of this terrible disease, he visited many places and shrines that were in the hands of the Latins and Uniates (for example, Sokal, Lezhansk, Kalwaria, Czestochowa, Zhirovichi, etc.), and, leaning towards their faith, often confessed and received communion from their priests; however, he did not receive healing, but, on the contrary, his illness intensified even more. Finally, in 1627, on the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he visited the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and listened to the liturgy with reverence. When the clergyman exclaimed the well-known words - “pretty much about the Most Holy, Most Pure and Most Blessed...”, suddenly the demon tormenting the sick man cried out loudly through his lips: “Mary! Don’t torment me, for I am already coming out of it,” and he immediately left. Everyone present was amazed at what had happened, and the patient fell to the ground as if dead. But at the end of the Mother of God song, he stood up completely healthy and from that time on he was forever healed of his terrible illness. (Borrowed from P. Mogila’s handwritten notes, printed. In the "Archive of the South-West" Russia"; n. Sunday reading 1888, no. 21.) 5. When the apostate from Orthodoxy, the Uniate Bishop (Brest) Ipatiy Potsey celebrated the liturgy together with other Uniate bishops in the monastery of St. Nicholas, the wine poured into the chalice turned into water. Apostates from the Orthodox faith tried to explain this phenomenon as an oversight of the priest who performed the proskomedia, and hastened to pour wine into the chalice again; but God this time exposed the wicked traitors to St. faith: after the second pouring of wine, the chalice disintegrated and the wine spilled onto the ground, to the great horror of all those present at the service, who clearly saw that their bishops (i.e. Uniate and Roman Catholic) were heretics, and as a result of this miracle they returned again to the bosom of the Orthodox Church (from there). 6. But a particularly striking case, clearly proving the superiority of the Orthodox faith over the Latin, took place in Moldo-Vlahia. When Voivode Michael, after the expulsion of his brother, took power in Moldo-Vlahia, he first went to the capital of the Moldo-Vlahia land, Belgrade, and decided to build an Orthodox church there. But the Latin priests, as well as citizens and boyars of the Latin faith, opposed this desire of the governor, saying that their faith was the most right and that they did not want to have churches of an alien faith in their city; at the same time, they proposed to open a debate to prove the superiority of their faith over the Orthodox. But the governor told them: “Warfare can be endless; but, if God pleases, we will be convinced in another way whose faith is more right; Let's go in the middle of the city, and let them bring clean water; my bishop and his priests will consecrate it, and let yours do the same; then you keep the vessels with blessed water, sealed with mine and your seals, in your great church for 40 days, sealing the church doors. And whose water, after the specified period, turns out to be unspoiled and fresh, as if it were immediately taken from a source, this will serve as a sign that their faith is more right.” The Latins readily agreed to the governor’s proposal, and the next day both disputing parties solemnly blessed the water and treated it as the governor suggested. After this, both Orthodox and Latins prayed fervently in churches every day and observed strict fasting. After 25 days, the Orthodox bishop, at the inspiration of God, came to the governor and said to him: “Call the Latins and their priests and do not wait for the appointed forty days; Let’s go to church, and you will see the grace of God and will be a witness that the faithful servants of God who trust in Him will not be put to shame.” The advice was accepted, and many of the Orthodox and Catholics followed to the church, from the doors of which the seals were removed, and everyone entered it. Here the Orthodox bishop, first of all, reverently knelt down and loudly said the following prayer: “God, one, glorified and worshiped in the Trinity of Saints! As of old, Thy righteous Elijah, in the announcement of Thy truth, Thou didst hear with fire and put to shame the wicked, so now hear me, Thy unworthy servant, and all Thy faithful servants who are to come, not for the sake of our dignity, which is not the imams, but for glory for the sake of Thy holy name and confirmation for the sake of our true faith, even in Thee; Reveal the inalienable grace of the Holy Spirit from this water through its incorruptibility, so that all who stand before them will see that in the one point of the Eastern Greek Catholic Church of Yours, the true faith and real grace of the Holy Spirit are true: for You alone are the one who blesses and sanctifies all things, our God, and to You we send up glory, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and ever forever and ever, Amen." After this prayer, the bishop, while singing - “The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior, whom I will fear” - opened a vessel with consecrated water and, looking at the water, found it even purer and brighter than it was on the first day when it was brought from the source: in addition, a very pleasant and fragrant smell emanated from it. Having thanked God, who glorified the holy Orthodox Church, the bishop addressed all those present with the following words: “Come and see how, after so many days, this water, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, has remained completely unspoiled, and be convinced that our Orthodox faith is holy and true.” The Latins also opened their vessel; but it turned out that the water in it had become so bad that the stench from it spread throughout the entire church. The Latins said with horror and surprise: “The Orthodox faith, which the governor professes, is true; let him build a church of his faith in our city, since for our resistance to this desire of his, God was angry with us and miraculously showed us that we were wrong.” “So the Latins and their priests were put to shame, many of whom converted to Orthodoxy after this miracle. The governor with his bishop, priests, boyars and army, filled with great joy and joy, returned to the governor’s palace, glorifying and thanking God for the former miracle for the confirmation of the true Orthodox faith, and then it was decided to immediately begin building the proposed church (from there). 7. Let us tell here the story of how the bees persuaded one sectarian to join St. Churches. Christians gathered in the Orthodox Church for prayer and communion of the Holy Mysteries; A sectarian from the Molokans, whom the celebrant of the Mysteries of Christ honored to receive them, also came up to take communion with them. It should be noted that the sectarian was an extraordinary beekeeper who heard about the miracles of the holy gifts for everyone and in everything. Therefore, he wanted to come to the Orthodox Church and partake of the Holy Mysteries, which he did without any preparation for them, setting himself a completely different goal. Having communed with St. secrets, the sectarian beekeeper did not use them, but hid a particle of the Holy Gifts from his mouth in a scarf and, when he came home, put it in the bees’ hive. As soon as the bees noticed a particle of the Holy Gifts in the church of their hive, they immediately abandoned their usual work, stopped building honeycombs and began hastily preparing a decent room for the holy body of the Lord. They built a throne, then a paten, and they placed the holy particle on it and surrounded it with a vault - they built, as it were, a church and an altar; then they gathered around and buzzed, as if they were praising God and praying. The owner, noticing that the bees had stopped flying out of the hive, approached it, opened it and was amazed to see that the bees were rendering reverent honor to the body of the Lord, which the beekeeper, one might say, despised. Having come to his senses, the sectarian repented of his sin, appeared to the clergyman of the church in which he had unworthily received the Holy Gifts, informed him of the evil deed and asked him to be accepted into the Church. The beekeeper's wish was granted; he abandoned his delusion - sectarianism and, with his entire family, became a reverent follower and performer of the sacraments and rituals of the Orthodox Church. (From the letters “On Repentance” by Rev. Theophan; book “Resurrection Readings” for 1884, pp. 413–414.) 2. Heavenly executions of the persecutors of the Church of God 1. The first persecutor of Christians, the Roman Emperor Nero, was dethroned and disappeared into obscurity. 2. Domitian, similar in cruelty to Nero, was captured by the enemies and was killed by them. 3. Decius was killed in the war, and his body was eaten by wild beasts and pecked by birds. 4. Valerian was captured by the Persians, and there he was assigned to perform the most humiliating position: he was obliged to bend his back and present it as a step to the Persian king every time he mounted a horse. And when Valerian died, he was flayed and hanged to shame the Romans. 5. Diocletian fell into a severe illness, which intensified even more from the grief and self-will of the people who had overthrown his statues; finally, he lost his mind and starved himself to death. 6. Maximinus Herculius, having renounced the throne, was poisoned. 7. The main culprit of the tenth and last persecution, Galerius, was struck by an incurable disease, which, despite all the efforts and all the skill of the doctors, intensified more and more, so that, finally, the doctors could not come close to him - due to the unbearable stench coming out of his wounds. In the midst of such terrible torment, he came to know the power of the Christian God, remembered all his cruelties against Christians and issued a decree to end the persecution. But since the persecutor’s conversion was not deep, death ended his torment. 8. The accomplice and successor of Galerius’s cruelties, Maximian, had a death no less painful. Abandoned by all his associates, he decided to commit suicide - he took poison and endured the most terrible torment for four days, not only in the body, but also in the soul: for the Heavenly Judge Himself appeared to him in illness and threatened him with His justice: finally, with the most severe torment, as if in the midst of torture, the wicked Maximian cast out his soul. Thus, almost all the fierce persecutors of Christians experienced the well-deserved wrath of a just, impartial God, while Constantius Chlorus, who patronized Christians, ruled his country peacefully and safely and died peacefully. In the person of his son, Constantine the Great, the Lord was preparing His chosen one, who was to give peace to the Church of Christ. 3. Punishments for blasphemy against St. Orthodox Church 1. About twenty years ago, near the village of Mishneva (Kaluga district), in broad daylight, in front of a crowd of people, an event occurred that filled the local residents with horror, and especially those who were unwitting spectators of what happened. And now many remember this terrible event: they can confirm the truth of this story. This was in July, during the hottest time of field work. The peasant women of the village of Mishneva went early in the morning to reap ripened rye in the nearest field. The men were out in the haymaking; then, having come home and had breakfast, some went to visit the reapers, look at the work and see if dinner was good. Among others, Martin Stepanov Deev went to the field. Arriving at the compressed area, Deev saw frequently lying sheaves, was delighted at the good dinner and began to lay out rumps from the sheaves. Having finished work on one strip, he moved to another, etc. On one strip, Deev saw a lot of green grass and, not wanting it to go to waste, went to the village, took his young gray horse, brought it to this strip and tied it to a long rope, and he himself went to continue working on other strips. It was almost noon; the sun was unbearably hot; the work was already becoming unbearable for the reapers; They began, one after another, to gather around the folded sheaves, trying to cover themselves with something from the scorching rays in order to have lunch and rest a little. Deev, having finished his work, went to the horse and, seeing that it had already had enough to eat, was standing in one place, shaking its head and waving its tail to drive away the annoying flies, untied the rope from the stake and wanted to untie the lasso on the horse’s neck: but the knot was tied so tightly that there was no way to untie it. Without hesitation, Deev rolled the rope into a ring and, to make it easier to control the reins, put it on himself, then got on his horse and calmly rode in stripes towards the village. On one strip at that very time, some kind of reaper, wrapped in a zipun, unexpectedly rose from behind the sheaves: the horse got scared, shied away to the side, and Deev, like a sheaf, flew to the ground, getting tangled in the rope. Baba gasped and screamed in a voice that was not her own. The horse got even more frightened and took off at a gallop, and Deev, like a log of wood, dragged behind it across the compressed, thorny fields. At the woman’s frantic cry, all the people who were in the fields jumped up; many chased the horse, shouting at the top of their lungs: “catch, catch, hold, hold!” The horse rushed across the field like mad, leaving a bloody trail behind it... Finally, exhausted, it stopped dead in its tracks in one place, staggering in all directions. When they took her by the bridle and looked at the unfortunate Deev, everyone shuddered with horror: he was all tormented and did not look like a person, but like some kind of bloody and dirty mass: the rings of the rope cut into his body to the very bones... He was still breathing, but did not move a single member. They put him on a caftan and carried him home, where a few minutes later he died, in the prime of his life - he was only 30 years old. Everyone felt sorry for the young man who died so horribly, and his relatives cried inconsolably. But most of all, Deeva’s own aunt, an elderly girl, was heartbroken. The neighbors knew that the deceased did not like this aunt, often insulted her with abusive words, and they were quite surprised why she was killed more than anyone else. Deev's unfortunate death gave rise to many rumors among local residents: some blamed the woman who, having stood up, scared the horse; others said: “The deceased himself is to blame - why did he put the rope on himself! I confused myself with my own hands!” And everyone generally attributed Deev’s death to an accident. But there was one person who did not attribute this misfortune to blind chance, but saw in it a clear punishment from God for blasphemy and curses against the Orthodox Church and for threats recklessly uttered shortly before death. This is how Deeva’s dear aunt, the elderly girl who cried about him the most, looked at the event. “This is what she said: “When Austrian priests, Gorokh and Dryman, appeared in the village of Frolov (now a village) among the schismatics, many Orthodox Christians fell away from St. The churches joined in the schism; Among others, our late nephew, Martin, also fell away. He began to pull us there too. My brother, daughter-in-law (i.e. Deev’s father and mother) and his wife agreed and were “smeared” in Frolov. But my sister and I (Deeva’s other aunt is a girl) did not want to leave St. Church, no matter how hard my nephew tried to persuade us to go into schism. Sometimes he would say: “Look: all the good people are coming to us, but what kind of upstarts are you!” “What do we care about others,” I answered, “let them convert to your faith; and we, as we were church (Orthodox), will remain so. Why should we, in our old age, change our holy faith? We feel good in the Church too! - “Is your faith really holy? - he continued. - After all, Patriarch Nikon ruined your faith as it is, he didn’t leave a single drop of holiness in it, he infected everything with heresies! After all, Nikon blasphemed the real cross (two-fingered) and cursed it and ordered it to be salted with a pinch (three-fingered), which means - the seal of the Antichrist! Now you are all sealed with this seal! Where do you think your souls will go after death? Straight to Satan, to the very bottom of hell, to the abyss of the underworld!” “Where the Lord determines, we will go there,” I answered, “His holy will be done!” And we will not part with St. Church; We were born in it, and we want to die in it! Once, when Martin was already pestering me a lot, demanding that we go to their priest, I told him: which priest are you sending us to? To Ivashka Dryman? But two years ago he was a shepherd, tending the village pigs! My nephew got angry with me and began to blaspheme and blame St. The Church and our shepherds, it was even scary to listen to. Only, it happened, when he went elsewhere to earn money, my sister and I lived calmly, without hearing blasphemy and curses against the Church. And as soon as he returns, he takes up his own work again. More than once he threatened not to give us bread, and to kick us out of the house - to beg around the world. We endured everything, trusting in God. So this time, as bad luck would have it, Martin came to the hayfield and started attacking my sister and me. And two days before the misfortune, for some reason he became especially attached to me and began to demand that I definitely convert to the old faith. “You’re the only one who disagrees! - he said. The aunt (the other sister is a girl) would have moved on long ago. You’re the one holding her back!” “Neither I nor my sister will convert to your faith,” I said, “we will not deviate from St. Churches! If you like your faith, stay in it; and we will remain Orthodox. Then the late nephew became so angry with me that he began to scold me in the most inappropriate words. Then he says: “Remember, you damned heretic! When you die, I will not bury you, but, like a dog, I will tie you to the tail of my gray horse, drag you out of the village, whip you with all my might - let the gray one scatter your old bones across the open field! I’ll definitely do that!” I cried and told my nephew: it’s in vain, Martinushka, to swear at me and say such words! Don’t anger God, my friend! Why are you threatening me - to spread my old bones across an open field? Anything can be done to a dead person, as long as the soul does not die... That’s what I’m afraid of! And I heard the following words from old people: don’t dig holes for people: you’ll end up in it yourself! Don’t you, Martinushka, bring trouble on your head... And so, what happened, some two or three days after that? Didn't the Lord clearly punish the blasphemer of His holy Church? My nephew threatened to tie me dead to the tail of his horse as a desecration of the Holy Church, in which I wish to end my life, and he tied himself alive to the same horse and died such a terrible death!..” May the terrible event described here serve as an edifying lesson for those foolish zealots of imaginary antiquity, who often lead their zeal to unforgivable insolence, “blaspheming them without understanding” (2 Pet. 2:12), and by all means try to seduce the Orthodox into their soul-destroying schism. (From “Bratsk, words”, 1886, No. 16.) 2. High strength Filaret, Metropolitan Kyiv, when he was Archbishop of Kazan, during one of his trips to survey the diocese, just before returning to Kazan, stopped in Uslon - a village located just opposite Kazan itself, on the other side (to the right along the Volga). The stop lasted for a very considerable time, because, due to the strong wind, it was impossible to cross the Volga. During this stop, when a large crowd of Orthodox people gathered to receive the blessing from the Bishop, many of the schismatics were also there, who came out of curiosity. “Vladyka wanted to take this opportunity to have a personal conversation with them. They stood in their crowd at a distance, but the Bishop, teaching each of the Orthodox Christians a blessing, gradually approached the schismatics and finally loudly addressed them with the words: “Why are you people standing there blindly, having retreated from your fellow villagers?! After all, they are all Russians, and not Tatars and Cheremis, like you yourself, which is evident from everything...” There was no answer - but only talking among themselves in the entire crowd... The Bishop, having taken a few steps, spoke to them again: “What can you really say, as if you are shy of your own people... or, perhaps, you are shyer than me most of all?.. But in vain; you see, I’m coming up to you and I’m not being shy in your way...” - “What do we care about you,” was the answer, “and what do you need us for... Go wherever you’re going..., and we’re on our own...” - “But why are you so unaffectionate that you don’t even want to say a word - am I some kind of enemy to you?..” - “There’s no point in talking to you and me, so there’s no point in starting a conversation...” The bishop did not speak to them with words of Christian love, the schismatics remained disrespectful and insolent towards the archpastor. Finally, one of those standing in front, in a particularly rude and impudent tone, spoke directly to the bishop: “That’s it... father, get off to the other side, and we’ll see if somehow you can cross safely... If you stay here even longer, we probably won’t give you the ferry; - look, what bad weather is playing out!..” The priest of the village of Uslon, who was near the bishop, told him in a low voice that it was better to leave, because he knows from experience to what extent the insolence of some horse guides known to him personally can extend among local schismatics, one of whom uttered the daring words spoken... The bishop, as if thinking for a minute and noticeably uttering with a deep sigh some prayerful words and Having expressed his regret about the unsociability of those present, he prayed to the church, which stood in plain sight on the mountainside, and went to the carriage. The wind noticeably began to subside, and the crossing of the Volga was calm. But well, what was the result of this sad to the depths of the soul scene, which represented such extreme hardness of hearts in the crowd of erring ones, about which it is fair to say in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “he blinded their eyes and petrified... their hearts..” (John 12:40) The result was the following. Vladyka left the ferry for his country house. It began to get dark; he went out onto the balcony and, seeing that the wind had again begun to blow vigorously, and from the western side a black cloud was already approaching from behind the Volga, he said to the cell man standing with him, Fr. Nazarius: “You see how merciful the Lord is to us; the wind, as you can see, is now strong, and there is a terrible thundercloud, and it is just approaching Uslon; the men guessed when they frightened us that we would not cross the Volga; but now whoever gets captured on the ferry, God save him from misfortune; especially at a time when it’s almost completely dark.” After standing for a while, the bishop went to spend the night in his half. The wind, meanwhile, immediately turned into a pure storm..., thunder was immediately heard, and lightning flashed every minute... “In order not to be disturbed by its shine, I began to lower the curtain on the window in my room,” said Fr. Nazarius, - and then I saw that Uslon was almost in a glow... so I gasped... At that same moment, the novice who was traveling with us around the diocese ran up to me and almost screamed... - Father, father, look what happened to Uslon?.. - The bishop heard our conversation, called and asked: what is it? At that very moment he went out to the balcony, and as soon as he saw a terrible glow, he immediately fell to his knees and prayed to himself... I only heard the words: “Lord, do not rebuke us with rage, but punish us with Your wrath... O Lord! Do not put them in sin..., but have mercy and mercy...” Having risen, he again bowed to the ground directly at the city with the prayerful words: “Zealous Intercessor, intercede for us all! Saints of Christ, pray to God for us!..” Then he silently went to his half... This fire became known the very next day, although the very incident of Vladika’s visit to Uslon was not yet known... But soon this became the subject of general conversation, when it turned out that almost exclusively schismatic houses burned down and the blow itself was directly on the house of that daring one who said the last threatening words to the bishop... When this fire became known to the Kazan schismatics, it was the merchants, to whom the fire victims themselves, as their patrons-benefactors, turned with a request for help, and when the latter, willy-nilly, had to convey what they had with Bishop shortly before the fire, then everyone understood what should be... and from that time on, as far as was known, they began to treat the Bishop less contemptuously, and others, not too hardened or partly, secretly only holding on to the schism, began, if possible, to draw closer to him, and some gradually left the schism and joined either the same faith or even the Orthodox Church. (Life of Philaret, Metropolitan of Kyiv. Compiled by Archim. Sergius. T. II. pp. 140–144.) 3. Prophetic dream of a baby. “Your will, and this piety that people boast of today is nothing more than a prejudice. These people are funny to me, and so are the objects for which they have such unconditional reverence.” So spoke the young, stately, handsome officer, caressing his five-year-old child, pretty Lidochka, in his arms. His speech was addressed to a girl raised under the guidance of kind and pious parents. Not shunning the world, not dooming herself in advance to eternal loneliness in a monastery cell, this girl was far from those thoughts that the wise men of that time flaunted in the first twenty years of this century. It was a wonderful time! Not having properly understood the lofty rules of the Christian religion, having turned the great-grandfather’s customs of the good old days into ridicule, the youth tried to distinguish themselves from each other by the freedom of their thoughts about the most sacred subjects. It would be in vain for you to look for some kind of solidity in these apostate arguments: the wise men of that time, having outlived their days in crippled France, dragged themselves to us in Russia with Voltaire, Diderot and d'Alembert; and it is known how thorough these oracles of the 18th century were. Poisonous sarcasms, murderous irony, searing epigrams, eternal, irreconcilable hostility to everything that is beyond their understanding, ridicule and abuse, often common, but always harsh - these are the terrible weapons with which they destroyed kingdoms, overthrew thrones, sought to destroy religion and the Church, which, according to the Savior’s promise, the gates of hell will not prevail. No one competed with them, because it was in vain: the general flow of opinions in their favor drove aside the righteous voice of the few champions of truth; standing on the other bank, they teased the defenders of the shrine with their tongues and, like titans, threw stones of slander into the long-suffering sky. Having read the senseless nonsense of the philosophers of the 18th century, P-v (the surname of that officer) passionately rebelled against everything in the matter of religion that was inconsistent with his way of thinking. By the way and inappropriately, he preached his godless rules everywhere. The favorite subject of his vulgar witticisms and ridicule was his own patron, St. Nikolai Ugodnik. Calling him “the Russian peasant god,” P-v sharpened his tongue about his countless miracles and blessings - and this was especially when he became friends with A. V-na M-oh, a girl, as I said, full of the fear of God and deep respect for the traditions of the Orthodox Church. God knows what his goal was here and what he wanted to do with it, but all his efforts to shake the pious beliefs of his acquaintance remained in vain. One day, while playing with the wavy curls of little Lidochka, who was blithely amusing herself with the adjutant aiguettes of her favorite, P-v saw a cypress cross hanging on a silk cord on her neck. -What is this? - he asked A. W-well. – Don’t you see the cross! - Why did you think of tying a piece of wood around the child’s neck? - Monsieur P-ov! - Lidochka suddenly said, fixing her sparkling little eyes on him. – Should I tell you what I saw in my dream today? “I dreamed,” the little one spoke, blushing like a poppy, “as if I were sitting on your lap just like this.” You kiss and hug me, and meanwhile you show me the opposite with your fingers. Suddenly, I saw, some old man in a gold hat came up and began to look at you so angrily that I became scared. I snuggled up to you. The old man quickly came up and, tearing me out of your hands, said, shaking his finger at you: “You won’t be here long!” You turned as pale as a handkerchief; and I felt so sorry for you, so sorry... And the little one, lowering her eyes, began again to play with her pet’s aiguillettes. P-ov was noticeably embarrassed, he tried to look carefree, although his face and all his movements betrayed him in this. After sitting a little longer, he bowed and left. A day or two passes; Finally, a week passes; no P-ov. What would this mean? - the M-ovs, who were already accustomed to his daily visits, asked each other. Eight days later P-ov appears, upset, pale, as if after a serious illness. Reproaches and questions rained down; P-ov responded to all this with gloomy silence. It was noticeable that some painful thought was weighing on his soul. The delighted Lidochka wanted, as usual, to jump onto the lap of her favorite, but P-ov with a forced smile turned her away from him and began to tell the story like this: – Do you remember that day, A. V-na, when, while talking to you, I was suddenly stopped by the naive story of my favorite? I don’t know why, but I felt so sad that I could hardly hide my inner struggle from you. Returning to the apartment, I lit a pipe and, waiting for the good Morpheus, took some book to fall asleep quickly. The receiver went out, the book fell from my hands, and I fell into some kind of heavy sleep. Remembering, however, that the candle had not been extinguished, I rose from the bed, extinguished the candle and, wrapped in a blanket, turned to the wall. After two or three minutes I accidentally opened my eyes - what is this? There is light in my room. I turn around and see: there is a lit candle on the floor, and next to it a coffin. You know, I’m not a coward, but here I was so frightened that I felt the hairs rising on my head. Trying, however, to attribute all this to the disorderly play of a frustrated imagination, I turned away and closed my eyes again. But impatience tormented me; a cold of horror froze all my limbs. “Let me,” I thought, “take another look!” He looked, there was a candle on the floor, and next to it a coffin. Mad with horror, I grabbed a bell from the table and rang it as loud as I could. My little one rushed towards me headlong. I want to show him the objects that presented themselves, but they are no longer there. Having muttered something to the man amazed at my embarrassment, I let him go - and again the same coffin was in front of me. There was nothing to do, I ordered my servant to spend the night with me - and for three whole nights I kept seeing a coffin and a candle near it. I don’t think it was a delirium of the imagination; I have seen all this more than once, and moreover, as clearly as I see all of you now.” P-ov fell silent. No one dared to start a conversation after such a mysterious story; only Lidochka caressed and curled around her favorite. He bent down, kissed her on the head and said: “Sorry, Lidochka!” - He left the house he had known for a long time. The next day an order was received to immediately go to the active army. This was in 1828. A month later we read in the newspapers: “The lieutenant of such and such a regiment of P-ov was killed by a fragment of a cannonball.” (“Home Conversation”, 1862) 4. Miracles from St. icons as evidence of the truth of icon veneration The most important and compelling evidence in defense of St. icons are miracles performed by God Himself through St. icons. If icons were ungodly idols, as the iconoclasts say, then the Lord would not have performed signs and wonders through them; on the contrary, He has shown through miracles many times and in many ways that the veneration of St. icons He is pleased. 1. Often the saints of God appeared to those living on earth in the form in which they were depicted on St. icons From this it is clearly seen that their veneration through St. icons are pleasing not only to them, but also to God Himself, even if the images of the faces are distinguished from each other, as we see in many different miraculous icons of the Mother of God. Yes, St. Ambrose of Milan himself testifies in his letter (55) that before the discovery of the relics of the martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, in 396, St. ap. Paul as depicted on St. icons In the 5th century, an educated monk from Sinai, a former prefect (mayor) of Constantinople, described the following miracle of St. martyr Plato, whose memory is celebrated on November 18. The Saracens attacked the Sinai ascetics and, together with other monks, took into captivity the son of a monk, originally from Galatia. “The elder, having hidden himself at that time in a secret cave, shed tears, unable to bear the loss of his God-loving son, and begged Christ to bow to mercy at the intercession of the Russian martyr Plato. At the same time, the son, bound in captivity, asked God through the prayer of the same saint. martyr to have mercy on him and perform a miracle. The prayers of both - both the father in the mountain cave and the son in captivity - were heard, and so Plato (the martyr), suddenly appearing sitting on a horse and leading another horse, appears to the awake youth, who recognizes him because he has often seen the image of the saint on icons, immediately orders him, rising from the midst of everyone, to take the horse and mount it. And when, like a cobweb, the bonds on the youth were resolved, he, freed by prayer and standing up at the behest of God, rides boldly on a horse and, rejoicing, follows the guiding saint. martyr. Soon both - and St. Plato and the young monk, as if inspired, reach the dwelling in which the old man prays and cries, and the victorious martyr, who saved his beloved son to the grieving father, becomes invisible.” (Works by St. Nile, Russian translation, Part III. Page 436. Acts of the Ecumenical Assembly. VII, 257.) This passage was read from the works of St. Nile at the VII Ecumenical Council. The miraculous event itself took place in the 4th or early 5th century. 2. At the end of the 5th century, the Christian maiden Mary, who spent 17 years living a sinful life in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, arrived in Jerusalem for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord; on the holiday itself, wanting to enter the church among the crowd of people, she was denied for a long time by an invisible force that did not allow her into the church. Seeing the icon of the Mother of God in the vestibule of the church and turning to Her, she began to tearfully beg the Most Holy Lady to allow her to venerate the cross of the Lord Jesus. Her prayer was heard - and she entered the church without hindrance and kissed the life-giving wood of the Cross of the Lord. Returning to the porch, she again began to pray before the icon of the Mother of God and heard a voice from her: “Beyond the Jordan you will find peace for yourself.” Having crossed the Jordan, she spent 47 years in the desert amid difficult feats of repentance and was awarded the gift of signs and wonders from God. After reading about the above-mentioned miracle from the icon of the Mother of God at the VII Ecumenical Council, John, presbyter and representative of the eastern bishops, said: “We saw this icon in the holy city of Christ our God and often kissed it.” (Acts of the Ecumenical Council. VII. 312.) 3. From the life of St. The following was read by Theodore Sikeot at the VII Ecumenical Council: “When he was 12 years old, a deadly ulcer appeared in his homeland, so that he also fell ill and was close to death. He was sent to the prayer house of St. John the Baptist, who was located not far from the village, and was placed at the entrance to the altar, at the top of which, above the place where the cross was placed, stood the icon of our Savior Jesus Christ. When he was suffering from illness, suddenly drops of dew began to fall on him from the icon, and he immediately, by the grace of God, received relief from his illness, became healthy and went to his home.” This was in the second half of the 6th century after the birth of Christ. (Acts of the Universe, Council VII. 316.) 4. In Egypt, in the city of Tennessee, there was a layman, Theodore, who belonged to a heretical sect. In his youth he suffered from a terrible disease - gout; his torment was great; his fingers looked like stones, and his shins looked like blocks of earth. Having received no help from doctors, he prayed to the martyrs Cyrus and John, whose relics were in Abukir (Abba Cyrus), 18 versts from Alexandria. The martyrs first converted him to the Orthodox faith through miracles. “Finally, they appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to follow them. Having come, he says, to one church that constitutes the height of perfection, in appearance terrible and majestic, and in height reaching to the very heavens, and entering inside it, we saw the greatest and amazing icon, on which Christ was depicted in colors in the middle, and the Mother of Christ, our Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, on His left, on His right, John the Baptist and the Forerunner of the same Savior were immediately there. Some of the glorious face of the apostles and prophets and from the host of martyrs are also depicted: these included these martyrs - Cyrus and John. They prayed to God, kneeling and bowing their heads on the platform, interceding for the healing of the young man. But Jesus Christ did not answer them, they began to pray again and again did not receive an answer, finally the third time they prayed for a long time and, lying prostrate, exclaimed only: “Lord, command!” The Lord Jesus Christ, as truly merciful, made a wave and proclaimed from the icon: “Give it to him!” Then the martyrs rose from the earth, first brought thanks to Christ our God for hearing their prayer, and then with joy and delight they said: “Behold, for our sake the Lord has granted you grace. So, go to Alexandria, stay there fasting in the great tetrapyl, then take a little oil in a bottle from the lamp burning before the image of the Savior, and again, without eating food, come here, anoint your feet with it, and you will receive healing.” After this vision in a dream, he went to Alexandria, took oil from the lamp, and returned to the church of St. martyrs, here he anointed their hands and feet - and the disease disappeared, and he was awarded healing and the gifts promised to him and, thanks for all this, he diligently serves the martyrs. Upon recovery, he was made a subdeacon. This miracle is described among the other 70 miracles of the martyrs by Sophronius, who was in Egypt at the beginning of the 7th century with John Moschus, took monasticism here and was later made Patriarch of Jerusalem. The description of the miracle that happened to Theodore was read at VII Ecumenical. cathedral, and Thomas, the most venerable monk and presbyter and representative of the bishops of the East, said: “This icon, venerable fathers, still stands in Alexandria in a tetrapyl and heals all sorts of diseases” (Acts of the Ecumenical Council. VII, 285-286). The healing of Theodore took place at the end of the 6th or at the beginning of the 7th century, and the Ecumenical Council was in 787, therefore, this icon of the Savior was more than 180 years old. 5. In the life of St. Great Martyr George conveys the following story about the miraculous punishment for insulting St. icons: “When the Saracens captured the Syrian city of Ramellia, several of these barbarians, out of curiosity, entered the church of the Holy Great Martyr George. One of them, seeing a priest on his knees praying before the image of St. George, mockingly said to his comrades: “What a madman, worshiping the board!” and, taking an arrow from the quiver, he shot it at the icon, but the arrow, contrary to the direction given to it, rushed upward and, quickly falling from there, pierced the barbarian’s hand. Feeling unbearable pain, he hurriedly went home; the illness intensified every minute, and soon the whole hand was swollen. Fortunately, he had a Christian woman living in his employ. Having learned what happened in the church, she told him: “I am a simple person, I don’t know how to talk about the holiness and miracles of faith, but I know that your act deserves death; if you want to be healthy, then call the priest and ask him what you should do.” No matter how fierce the Saracen was against Christians, seeing the danger, he happily agreed to the maid’s proposal - and invited the priest. “What power does the image have that you so diligently worshiped when we were in the church?” - the Saracen asked him. “God alone has all the power,” answered the priest, “I worshiped Him; and the Holy Great Martyr George, depicted here, prayed that he would be an intercessor for me to God.” - “So, George is not your God; Who is he? – the barbarian asked again. “He is a beloved servant of God,” said the priest, “he was a man subservient to us, but, for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, having endured torture and death, he received from Him the grace to perform miracles; loving the saint of God, we venerate his icon and, looking as if at him himself, we worship, embrace and kiss the saint. his image. Your insolence, so obviously punished, testifies that Christians do not fall with emotion at an ordinary tree.” - “What do you advise me to do? – asked the barbarian, wavering in disbelief. - Look at my hand; I am tormented and, without a doubt, I will die.” “If you want to be alive,” answered the priest, “then have the image of St. George brought into your house, place it over your bed and light a lamp of oil, let it burn all night long; and tomorrow anoint your hand with oil and believe that you will be healed.” Immediately St. the icon was brought. The Saracen did as the priest said, and saw that the swelling had subsided and the wound had closed. In surprise and admiration, he wanted to listen to the story of St. great martyr, and while the priest read his life and suffering, the Saracen, hugging the icon, said through tears: “Oh, Saint George, you were young, but wise - and I am old, but crazy; You are young, but dear to God - and I am long-lived, but vile before God: pray to the Lord God for me, that He may make me His servant!” Then he fell at the feet of the clergyman and begged to grant him St. baptism. That same evening the barbarian became a Christian, and the next day, fearlessly preaching the name of Christ, he died the death of a martyr at the hands of his former co-religionists.” (Compiled from “Taught, good.” T. I. Page 329.) 6. St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, tells that in the city of Virite, where there were many Jews, one Christian lived in a poor hut; in his front corner hung an icon of the Savior. After some time, this Christian bought himself a new house and left the hut, forgetting in it, at the discretion of God, the icon of the Savior. A Jew settled in this hut; he didn’t notice the icon. One day a friend of his, a Jew, comes to visit him. This one, sitting at the table, noticed the icon and asked the owner how he, being a Jew, kept a Christian icon in his house. Although the owner assured that he had not noticed the icon before, the guest was not appeased by this and went to his bishop and elders and announced this to them. In the morning, all the Jews of the city gathered in the hut where the icon of the Savior was, took it down from the wall, began to curse at it, and then, like their fathers, they nailed it to a tree, and one of the Jews hit the rib of the image of the Lord with a spear; but, lo and behold! Immediately blood and water flowed from the icon and filled the whole vessel. Great fear gripped all the Jews who were here. They drew up a council and decided on it that if they saw any miracle from this blood, then everyone would believe in the Crucified One. First, the one who was lame from birth was brought; They anointed his feet with blood - and he immediately became healthy. The rumor of this miracle spread throughout the city; They brought the blind, the demon-possessed, the paralytic and the lepers - and everyone received healing. All the Jews of that city believed in Christ, told the local bishop about it, and received baptism from him with all their families, and built a church in this city in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every Christian must worship holy icons with faith and love, honor them honestly and with reverence. (From the works of St. Athanasius of Alexandria.) 7. One lover of Christ commissioned Blessed Alipius, an icon painter of Kiev-Pechersk, to paint an icon that was to be ready for the church feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Alypius fell ill, and the icon had not yet been painted; the lover of God began to bother him, and the Monk Alypius said: “My son, do not come to me, but cast your sorrow on the Lord, and He will do as He pleases: your icon will be in its place on this holiday.” Believing the word of the blessed one, that man joyfully went to his home. On the eve of the Feast of the Dormition, he came again to take the icon. Seeing that it was not written, and the blessed one was very ill, he began to annoy him, saying: “Why didn’t you let me know about your weakness? I would have given someone else to paint the icon so that the holiday would be bright and honest, but now, by holding back the icon, you have put me to shame.” The blessed one meekly answered him: “My son, did I do this out of laziness? Is it really impossible for God to paint an icon of His Mother with a word? I, as the Lord revealed to me, am leaving this world, and God will comfort you.” But the lover of Christ left him with sadness. After he left, a bright young man appeared and, taking paints, began to paint the icon. Alypius thought that the owner was angry with him and sent another scribe; At first the one who came was like a man, but the speed of the matter showed him to be ethereal. Either he laid out the icon in gold, then he ground the paints and wrote with them. At three o’clock he finished the icon and said: “Father, is there anything else that needs to be done? Am I wrong? The monk said: “You did well: God helped you skillfully paint this icon; He Himself made it through you.” Evening came, and the young man became invisible along with the icon. The owner of the icon spent the whole night awake from sadness that there was no icon for the holiday; called himself a sinner and unworthy of such grace. He got up and went to church to mourn his sins there. And, opening the doors of the church, he suddenly saw the icon shining in its place, and fell with fear, thinking that this was some kind of vision that had appeared to him. But, having recovered from his fright, he realized that it was really the icon that he had ordered painted by St. Alypius. In great horror and anxiety, he remembered the words of the monk and went to wake up his family. They joyfully went to the church with candles and censers and, seeing the icon shining brighter than the sun, they fell on their faces to the ground, bowed to the icon, and kissed it in spiritual joy. The lover of Christ came to the abbot and told about the miracle that had happened to the icon. And they all went together to the Monk Alypius and saw that he was already moving away from this world. And the abbot asked him: “Father, how and by whom was the icon painted?” He told them everything that happened and added: “An angel wrote it. And so, he stands next to me and wants to take me.” And having said this, he betrayed the spirit. They prepared his body for burial, took it to the church, performed the usual singing over it, and laid it in a cave with the reverend fathers about Christ our Lord. (Kievo-Pech. Pat.) 8. The following is known about the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God. In 1559, the Greek Metropolitan Neophytos, who was traveling in Russia, blessed her with an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, in gratitude for the hospitality shown to him in the house of Anna Goiskaya. God was pleased to glorify this icon. The radiant light from her attracted the attention of many; Little by little, they began to flock to her with prayer, and healing was given to many sick people; finally, when Goyskaya’s brother, blind from birth, received his sight, his sister, by agreement with the local authorities, transferred this miraculous icon to the Pochaev Monastery. Not only Russians, but also Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews came to worship this icon, received healing from it and converted to the Christian faith. (Mater, for statistics. Russian Empire - Volyn province.) 9. During the occupation of Moscow by the French in 1812, according to Napoleon’s plan, the entire Kremlin was to be blown up. From five terrible explosions, the walls of buildings trembled, glass cracked, doors fell; iron, stones, logs of the Nikolskaya Tower, the arsenal and the Kremlin walls, like feathers, flew into the air. But on the wall of the same St. Nicholas Tower, the image of St. Nicholas remained unharmed - the rope on which the lantern with a candle hung did not even break. The fragile glass of the icon case bent, BUT did not break. (Snegirev. “Memories of Moscow antiquity”, 1, 100–102. 2, 339–340; Book of Historical Russian Church. F. Gumilevsky, period 5, p. 200.) 10. We present the following very interesting story, borrowed from the book “Inexplicable or Unexplained” by V. Zhelikhovskaya. “In my household there was one young, lively girl, Olga. I considered her a very kind and honest girl, never suggesting that she was the culprit in my frequent disappearances of small things. Finally, something quite valuable disappeared, which could not be ignored, and it turned out, according to all the evidence, that the thing was stolen by Olga. I called her and persuaded her for a long time, first face to face, to confess to me, to obey... Seeing that no requests or broadcasts had any effect on her, I called on those who accused her. There were three of them: the governess, the housekeeper and another maid, Masha. Their sister came in with them. Everyone proved with confidence that the thing was taken and hidden by Olga. She swore and swore that no... This happened on a bright, quiet spring morning, in my spacious corner office, on the second floor of a house built 50 years ago almost from mast timber. The window to the garden was open, streams of light and the cheerful chirping of birds poured in. Near the window, in the corner, an image of St. hung high. St. Nicholas of Veshny, in frame, but without an icon case. In the heat of her assurances, the girl suddenly looked at the image and, like a frenzy, began to cross herself and swear. “Yes, if I took this,” she screamed furiously, “let St. punish me.” Nicholas the Wonderworker!.. May I never leave this place! Yes, destroy me Nikola the Pleasant! Burst my eyes! I'll die now... In the corner, in the icon itself or under it, a blow resembling a shot was heard. Olga's hand, raised to make the sign of the cross, fell. She jumped back and, turning green, looked askance at the image with fear. We all shuddered and got scared. A minute of heavy silence passed... Everyone looked at the icon, expecting something, but nothing happened except that Olga fell at my feet, whispering: - I took it! I stole!.. Me! I! Me!.. – I knew it! – I said, “your chests were searched this morning, like the chests of all the girls.” They themselves asked for this... Only you alone did not know that the loss had already been found in your things. Do not bow to me, but to the Lord God! Pray that Nicholas the Wonderworker will not punish you for such a lie and great sin! Olga almost had to be carried out in her arms: her legs were shaking so much that she could barely make it to the girl’s. But the matter did not end with this amazing knock. In the evening Olga did not come to the rooms for the usual preparations in my bedroom. I asked what was wrong with her. “I’m sick,” they answered me. - The heat is intense. I thought it was due to fear and excitement, but it turned out not to be the case. One can imagine how deeply everyone was amazed when the next morning Olga had two solid red bubbles instead of eyes... Moreover, she was unconscious. They sent to Novorzhev for a doctor. He announced that the patient had erysipelas in front of her eyes, a very rare disease and dangerous in that it easily spreads to the brain. For six weeks the unfortunate girl was between life and death, and for several months she lived under the fear of going blind. We were all tormented for her!.. It was a pity for the stupid girl!.. Finally, she recovered. The danger had passed, but her vision was unlikely to be completely strengthened. At least for a few more years I heard that her eyes were very weak. One must think that all her life she had not given false testimony, or at least did not shout at the same time: burst my eyes! 11. Miraculous healing from the icon of the Iveron Mother of God, located in Moscow, in the Iveron Chapel. “Submitting to the strict demands of conscience,” writes a random correspondent for the newspaper “Sovrem. Izvestia,” I would like to make public a very remarkable incident that happened to me on June 23, 1880 at 11 o’clock in the morning, an incident that turned me from a denier of God into a believer. Any doubt that the reader may have about the veracity of everything that happened to me, I am able to destroy with the testimony of reliable witnesses. (My address is enclosed with the letter.) The matter that I consider it my duty to inform everyone about is the following: 5 years ago I was discharged from military service, into which I ended up by the mistake of my youth. Since even before entering the service I was a music teacher, even in retirement for 3 years I continued to teach, which is how I earned my livelihood. My work was paid very well, and I lived without need. At that time, I, belonging to the Lutheran faith, was a Christian only on paper, but in my soul I did not believe in anything. Having lived in the above-mentioned manner for 3 years, I suddenly, for a reason completely incomprehensible to me, lost my hearing, and to such a strong degree that I had to stop my studies, and at the same time lose all my means of subsistence. Thus, without using any income, I lived off everything little by little and became a beggar in the full sense. Recently, my situation has become so painful that in some kind of frenzy I decided to get rid of all my adversity by committing suicide... With this conviction, I left the house on the day when I decided to do the thing I had planned for myself: I decided to drown myself. It was July 23rd. Passing by the Iveron Gate, I saw a crowd of people gathered around the carriage in which the icon of the Mother of God was brought to the chapel. Everyone prayed and venerated the image. Then something happened to me that had never happened since I began to live consciously. I had an uncontrollable desire to pray with the people and venerate the icon. And so, having lived to the age of 37, I sincerely crossed myself for the first time and fell on my knees in front of the image - and what happened? An undoubted, amazing miracle happened: I, having heard almost nothing until that moment for a year and 3 months - I, who was considered by doctors to be incurably deaf, venerated the icon, at the same moment again received the ability to hear, received it to such an extent that I began to hear not only sharp sounds, but also quiet speech quite clearly. And all this happened suddenly, instantly, painlessly, without any shock to the body. And yet, just an hour ago, all my relatives and people who knew me considered me, like myself, to be incurably deaf! Deprived of hearing, I was still a pitiful creature, but now I have again become a full-fledged person. In addition, along with my hearing, the opportunity returned to me to earn my own living by labor of which I am capable. In a word, I was returned to the life from which I was ready to leave without permission, and returned in such an unexpected, significant and miraculous way! Needless to say, I believed that my soul was illuminated by that light that from now on would be the guide of my life. Right there, in front of the image of the Mother of God, I swore an oath to sincerely confess to everyone and everyone what had happened to me. (“Let’s keep it up,” Izv., No. 213, 1880) 12. Instructive fact. “Southern Region” reports the following case, which took place on one of the Kharkov outskirts - Lysaya Gora. A certain K-ov, a very wealthy man, came to the apartment of a certain O-sky to take an inventory of property according to a writ of execution. The latter did not protest against this. Thus, almost all of the debtor’s property was described, and, despite this, its value still did not reach the amount of the debt listed in the writ of execution. The collector was about to leave the debtor’s apartment when he saw an icon hanging in one of the corners of the room, in front of which, despite all the wretchedness of O-sky’s apartment, a lamp was glowing. The icon's robe was apparently silver. The claimant turned to the bailiff with a request to include this icon in the inventory. The answer to this was that according to the law, icons are not subject to inventory for monetary penalties, with the exception, of course, only of those decorations that are on them. “But now we will see how valuable the robe of this icon is,” the claimant said calmly and, standing on a chair, began to remove the icon. Seeing this, the debtor turned white as a sheet, rushed to the debtor and began to beg him not to touch the icon, saying that his dying mother had blessed him with this icon. “What do I care about all this,” the inexorable debtor said mockingly, “pay me my money, and I won’t touch anything from you.” With these words, he extended his hand and already took hold of the icon to remove it. But suddenly his face became deathly pale, and his hand fell lifelessly down. If it weren’t for those around him, K-ov would have fallen to the floor: he had a seizure. He was immediately taken home dead, where he remained ill for more than a week. During all this time, K-ov ate almost nothing and constantly repeated: “Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” When he finally came to his senses, his first order of business was to send for O-sky. The latter appeared and was amazed at the change that had occurred in the appearance of his creditor: he was thin and pale, like a dead man, the hair on his head, instead of the previous black, had become almost white. K-ov told O-sky that he would never collect his debt from him. At the same time, he begged his debtor to agree to accept from him a certain amount of money every month to buy wooden oil for an unquenchable lamp in front of his icon. K-ov did not tell anyone what exactly he saw or felt at that moment when he wanted to remove the icon. He repeats only one thing: “You must always be human and have a heart; The Lord almost punished me for this.” (“Southern Region”, sn. “Rebus”, 1898, No. 36.) 5. Stories about the miraculous help of the Mother of God and the saints 1. The miracle of the healing of the severed hand of St. by the Mother of God. John of Damascus St. John of Damascus, who strongly attacked - both in writing and orally - the iconoclastic heresy, was slandered for his zeal in this holy cause by the Greek emperor Leo the Isaurian (in the 8th century) before the emir of Damascus, where St. John held an important position. The emir, without examining the matter and believing the slander, ordered his hand to be cut off, allegedly writing treasonous letters to Leo. The severed hand, to the fear of everyone, was hung in the marketplace. In the evening, when the anger of the Prince of Damascus subsided, St. John interceded with him through his friends so that he would be allowed to take the hand of his truncated hand, which was hung in shame. The prince bowed to the petition of his courtiers, the friends of John, and the hand was returned to the sufferer. When night fell, St. John shut himself up in the upper room designated for prayer, and, placing his dead hand on its composition, fell before the icon of the Mother of God, wept bitterly and with all the strength of his heart’s faith and love asked Her to heal his hand, in defense of Orthodoxy and to defeat the growing iconoclastic heresy. After a long prayer, St. John dozed off and in a subtle dream he saw the Mother of God looking at him with bright and merciful eyes. “Behold, your hand is now healthy,” the Mother of God said to John, “grief no more!” John woke up, felt his hand and could hardly believe his own feelings: the hand, as before, was intact; there was no trace of illness, and only, as if in evidence of the event, where it had been cut off, like a thread, a red scar remained. Touched by a feeling of inexpressible gratitude to the Mother of God for Her mercy, in memory of the wondrous event, St. John minted a hand from silver and attached it to the icon, which is why it later received the name “Three-Handed”. Soon after this, John entered the monastery of St. Savva, near Jerusalem. The strict elder, to whom he was given for spiritual guidance, forbade him to compose spiritual songs. And the Mother of God soon appeared to the elder in a dream and inspired him not to forbid John from writing church songs, and at the same time called John Her source: do not block My source. (From the book “The Tale of the Earthly Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Ed. 5. Page 229.) 2. Salvation from imminent death through the intercession of the Mother of God The Monk Palladius of Alexandria once told his visitors the following story. One pious man known to him had a wife, a meek and pious woman, and a six-year-old daughter, whom he raised in piety and the fear of God. Once, on trade matters, he had to go to Tsar-grad. His wife, accompanying him to the ship, among other things, asked: “Who are you leaving me and your daughter in the arms of?” “To our Lady Theotokos,” answered the father of the family and, saying goodbye, he sailed away. Shortly after that, an attempt was made by a villain on the lives of his wife and daughter. It happened like this: the devil inspired the servant of that pious house to raise his hand on his mistress’s head and, having killed her, steal the best things and run away. The villain took a knife from the kitchen and went to the upper room; but as soon as he touched the threshold, he was suddenly struck by blindness and could not move either back or forward. For a long time he tried to enter, but an invisible force held him back. The madman here did not recognize the hand of Providence, which cares for the whole world and especially for man. He wanted, at all costs, to carry out the idea instilled in him by the devil. And so, he begins to call to his mistress, inviting her to come to him. The lady was surprised by the servant’s action and did not respond to his call, but ordered him to come up himself. The servant asked her to come closer to him or at least send her daughter; but she, although she did not suspect any malicious intent on her and her daughter’s lives, for some reason decided not to go and refused his request. And then the villain did not come to his senses, but in despair because he could not carry out his villainous deed, he struck himself with a knife... Hearing the lady’s cry, the neighbors immediately gathered and, finding the villain still alive, they found out what had happened and how. On this occasion, everyone learned the inscrutable ways of Providence and glorified God and the Intercessor of the faithful, the Mother of God and the Ever-Virgin Mary. (Lavsaik.) 3. Our Lady as guardian of the true teachings of the Church In the 3rd century, when Christianity, being in the fight against paganism, had to fight together with various false teachings, St. Gregory the Wonderworker, Bishop of Neocaesarea, wanting to more accurately understand the mystery of faith, prayed to God for the revelation of Divine truth to him; and one night, when he was awake, reflecting on faith, an old man appeared to him, in majestic attire, revealing great virtue in himself. Recognizing in him a divine man, sent to him from God to resolve his perplexities, St. Gregory looked at him with admiration and joy; but the elder gave him a sign to turn his gaze to the other side, and St. Gregory, at his direction, saw a wondrous appearance in the form of a magnificent Woman, surpassing any human image, which, with the extraordinary light spreading, out of amazement and fear, he could not look at. Those who appeared were the Mother of God and St. Evangelist John. The Mother of God asked John to open St. Gregory the secret of piety, and St. John, having given him the necessary instruction in brief and specific words, disappeared from his sight. Saint Gregory, immediately writing down what he heard, began to preach in church in agreement with him, and left the Divine Instruction, like a great legacy, to his successors in manuscript. Biography of St. Gregory the Wonderworker, St. Gregory of Nyssa testifies that the people living in that country constantly learned in accordance with this instruction and were not infected with any heresy or error. This instruction is the same one that the Orthodox Church constantly professes and which lies at the basis of all Christian teaching. This is the teaching about the sacrament of the Holy Trinity. (See the story about this at the end of the rights, confession. Ts.V. Translated from Greek. Ed. 4, 1831) 4. Evidence from Russian history about the power of prayer to the Mother of God In 1395, Tamerlane entered Russia, threw everything into confusion and spread terror everywhere. Directing his way to Moscow, he entered the principality of Ryazan and approached the banks of the Don. With the general despondency of the Russians, who were awaiting the return of the times of Batu, Grand Duke Vasily Dimitrievich led his troops to repel a strong enemy and stopped behind Kolomna, on the banks of the Oka. Meanwhile, the Muscovites, frightened by hearing about the countless forces and ferocity of Tamerlane, prayed earnestly for deliverance from the invasion of foreigners, shed tears before the altars and fasted. Prayers for the prince and the army were constantly performed in the churches; The Metropolitan almost never left the church: he either taught those who remained in Moscow, or prayed for those going to shed their blood for the faith and the fatherland. And the Grand Duke, not relying on his own strength, resorted to the all-powerful help of the Most Holy Theotokos and wrote from Kolomna to Metropolitan Cyprian, asking him to send to Vladimir for the icon of the Mother of God, brought there from Kyiv by Andrei Bogolyubsky. The clergy sent by the Metropolitan to Vladimir on August 15 took into their hands the precious shrine. The transfer of this miraculous icon from Vladimir to Moscow was a touching spectacle. Countless people on both sides of the road, bending their knees, cried out with screams and tears: “Mother of God! Save the Russian land!” In this countless multitude of people it was impossible to see a person, says the chronicler, who would not cry and send out prayers with hope to the Most Holy Lady. The Metropolitan, bishops and all the clergy in vestments, with crosses and censers, accompanied by the grand ducal family and boyars, solemnly greeted the shrine outside the city and, placing the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the cathedral church, in joyful anticipation they thanked God, who had given them in the holy icon a guarantee of peace and affirmation. And the Mother of God saved the Russian land: contemporaries say that on that very day and hour when the inhabitants of Moscow met the icon of the Mother of God, Tamerlane abandoned his intention to go to Moscow: he saw in a dream, the chroniclers write, a great mountain, and from the top of it many saints with golden staffs coming, and above them in the air a majestic and magnificent Woman, with tens of lightning-like warriors, who all rushed towards Tamerlane. The conqueror trembled, woke up and, calling the nobles, asked them about the meaning of his dream. “The Majestic Wife,” answered the wisest of them, “is the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Intercessor of Christians.” “So, we will not defeat them,” said the Mongol Khan and ordered his regiments to leave Russia. The news of Tamerlane's removal was received with inexpressible joy in Moscow. Confessing the mercy of God, everyone exclaimed: “It was not our commanders who drove him away, it was not our armies that frightened him; but an invisible force sent fear and trembling upon him. Driven by the wrath of God, he withdrew from the Russian land.” In memory of the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, a stone church was built in her honor and the Sretensky Monastery, and a festival was established on August 26, with a procession of the cross from the Assumption Cathedral, through the Spassky Gate, to the Sretensky Monastery. No. 46 of the Church Gazette for 1892 contains the following remarkable extract from the letter of His Grace Isidore, Exarch of Georgia, later Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, dated December 24, 1853, to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow: “Major General, Prince Bagration of Mukhrani, who distinguished himself in the last battle against the Turks, told me very interesting information, which I am happy to report to your Eminence. The captured Turks openly told us that when the battle near Alexandropol heated up and the entire Russian detachment was brought into action, the Turks saw a bright Woman descending from the sky, holding a banner in her hand and accompanied by two warriors. The light from Her was so bright that it was like the radiance of the sun, and no eye could withstand it. This phenomenon brought terror to the ranks of the combatants and was the reason that the Turks, seeing God’s obvious intercession for Russia, all fled and lost the battle. The Russians have not seen this phenomenon. By God's Providence our foreign enemies testified to this. The Turks claim that in the army they saw all this with horror and everyone knows about it, but their superiors, under fear of the death penalty, forbade talking about it and tried to overshadow this event. The Russian military leaders, congratulating the main commander on such a brilliant victory, gave glory to God, who alone could give us victory over the enemy, fierce Muslim fanaticism, with forces much superior to ours, so that, for human reasons, it was difficult to expect such a brilliant success. From some private letters from the army, we learned a joyful event for Christians, that many Turks thereafter loudly confessed Christ, asked for baptism and sealed with martyr’s blood the recognition of the all-enlightening light - Christ. It would be regrettable if we, the Orthodox, kept silent about such a wondrous event of fear for the sake of European fear. We must wish that all the leaflets, all the news in Russia would spread the joyful news to the Orthodox people about the great intercession of the Queen of Heaven at the beginning of the war, which was waged for the Christian faith. Let everyone see that even if God is for us, no one is against us! But whoever is ashamed to confess before men, God will put him to shame before His angels.” (Church Vedic edition under the Holy Synod, 1892, No. 46.) 6. Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos for a wife offended by her husband 74 Among the many miracles performed by the Most Holy Virgin Mary, ancient books also tell how the Mother of God once provided miraculous help to a woman neglected and hated by her husband. There once lived two spouses, still quite young. They were from the noble class and had considerable wealth. At first their married life was very happy, but then it became unhappy. At first the husband loved his wife. She was worthy of love, since she was not only beautiful in appearance, but also meek, obedient and extremely pious. Every day, morning and evening, she fervently prayed to God both for her own salvation and for the salvation of her husband, and tried in every possible way to ensure that their lives followed God’s holy commandments. But the enemy of the human race, the devil, hated such a pious direction in their lives, and he managed to produce cooling in the husband and dislike for the pious wife. He began to miss the company of his meek and quiet wife; he began to like other women who were not like her and were distinguished by their lively, rebellious character and wild disposition. More and more often, he left his wife alone in the house, while he looked for entertainment and pleasure on the side; when he came home, he was capricious, tried to find disorder and omissions in the household in his wife, showered her with reproaches and abusive words. Unfortunately, it happened that the wealth of the spouses, at first very large, began to decrease; failure in various monetary transactions, crop failure on the estates and other misfortunes caused these people, who were previously very rich, to become completely ruined. But this grief did not bring the husband and wife closer, but served as a reason for him to hate her even more. He now began to say that his wife, when she married him, did not bring him a sufficient dowry with which he could now recover, that she brought with her one misfortune and with her disorderliness helped his ruin. They did not endure their misfortune equally; the husband walked around the city, hung around rich people he knew, expecting help from them, begged for a loan of money from people who did not have time to find out about his ruin; the wife, in the absence of her husband, spent all her time in prayer. She prayed for the return to them not of their former wealth, but of their former harmony and their former love. Thousands of times she fell before the icon of the Mother of God, begging Her to return her husband’s heart to her and arrange their family life as before. But for some time the evil of the devil seemed to prevail over the prayers of the pious woman. One day the husband was sitting in some tavern and aimlessly watched people come in, drink, eat and leave. He should go home, but he is disgusted even to think about home: he is sick of his wife and family. Then a man with a sly look approached him and began to insinuately tell him: “You used to be rich, but now you’re broke. But do not complain about the lost wealth: you have the means to become rich again. If you do for me what I want from you, then in a short time you will be richer than before.” These words had such an effect that the ruined rich man put aside all distrust of the stranger and promised to do everything possible for him, if only he would show him a way to get rich. “Sacrifice your wife to me,” answered the stranger, “it’s worth nothing to you, because you don’t love her. Meanwhile, I want to purchase it as my own.” “Why do you need it and what will you do with it?” - asked the husband. “What do you care about that,” answered the stranger. “Even if I killed her, would it still matter to you?” How many times a day do you, scolding, send her to the devil himself or to absolute hell? So, do you care what I will do with her when she is my slave! When the husband expressed doubt as to whether he could enrich himself by selling his wife, the stranger suggested that he immediately write a condition according to which the husband would first receive the promised treasures from the stranger, and then present his wife at his disposal. The husband did not suddenly decide; the matter was too unusual, and it seemed as if he felt sorry for his wife. But then he thought that perhaps the stranger would not be able to fulfill his promise; He also thought that he could refuse the money later, but it would still be nice to even touch it with his hands, or even admire it with his eyes. After thinking all this, the husband signed the condition. The stranger said that his money was buried in a country place, that the husband should go there with him no further than tomorrow, that, having received the money there, the husband was obliged to hand over his wife in the same place, but not suddenly, not closer than two months later. The next day, the stranger and her husband went out of town, walked for a long time, and entered a forest thicket; here the stranger pointed out the place, ordered the husband to dig the ground and helped him himself. They soon dug to a well, in which there was a great amount of gold and expensive stones. All this was immediately handed over to the husband, so that two months later he would hand over his wife to the stranger in this very place at night. Two months passed, during which the husband paid his debts from the treasures he had inherited, bought back his former houses and estates, and again lived in wealth and honor. But then the day came when the husband had to hand over his wife to the stranger from whom he received wealth. As dusk fell, he ordered her to get dressed and go with him. She, not expecting anything good, began to beg him to leave her at home. But he deliberately made his voice cruel and commanding, and she submitted. They walked silently along the city streets, heading towards the exit from the city. On the way they had to pass by a church. Its doors were still open: the wife turned to her husband with a request to go into the church to pray there before the icon of the Mother of God. My husband really didn’t like this request: he was ashamed to go into church to do such a thing; however, he did not have the courage to completely refuse his wife, since he thought that for the last time he could do what pleased her. “Go to church, and I’ll wait for you outside; “But look, come back quickly, don’t make me wait long for you: we must hurry,” the husband said to his wife. The wife, entering the church, fell before the icon of the Mother of God and began to ask the Intercessor of the Christian race to protect her from the evils rising against her. She prayed so earnestly that she forgot that her husband was waiting outside. Prayer brought her peace and joy; the body, exhausted by spiritual sorrow, demanded rest and - according to God's dispensation - the poor woman, in front of the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, on the church floor, fell asleep in a calm and joyful sleep. Meanwhile, her husband was waiting for her on the street with impatience and annoyance. He was going to make a severe and offensive reproach to her as soon as she came out. And so, he sees his wife coming down the steps of the church towards him, covering her face with a veil, as if from the cold of the night or from immodest glances. “I will not scold her for her delay; She won't be with me for long; soon we will be separated forever." So the husband thought and silently walked forward, and his wife followed him. When leaving the city, he thought that his companion would become alarmed and ask where he was taking her. But she walked with a calm step, as if she knew everything that would happen. Again the husband felt sorry for his wife, who had never contradicted him in anything and whom he was preparing to hand over to a man who had no good intentions. Finally, they arrived at the place. It was midnight. The stranger was not there yet, but soon his steps were heard through the forest - and he appeared in the moonlight. The husband went to meet him and said that his wife was here and that now it was necessary to destroy their condition, since it had been fulfilled on both sides. The stranger willingly conveyed the condition to the husband, and he himself went to his wife, whom he considered his property. “Ah, zealous prayer book! - he said, angry and happy. “Now you are in my power.” As he spoke, he approached and boldly grabbed her hand. But at the same moment, as if touching fire and being scorched, he darted to the side and screamed terribly. Then the veil that was on the Wife’s head opened, and She looked at the stranger with a gaze full of royal majesty and anger. The stranger, trying to protect himself from this gaze with his hands, spoke in horror: “Mother of Jesus! Who called Her, why is She here? Can She be under my power? I bargained for the wife of this scoundrel, who annoys me with her piety and whom I still have hope of destroying. Could I have thought that the Mother of Christ would come here instead? Damned deceiver, you promised me your wife, but who did you bring instead of her? At these words, he rushed at the trembling husband and would have torn him into pieces, but the glance of the Mother of God deprived him of his strength: he fell to the ground and disappeared on the spot. At the same time, the Blessed Virgin also became invisible. The husband was left alone and for a long time could not come to his senses from fear, for a long time he could not get ready for the return journey. Finally, his fear began to pass, and instead he was attacked by unbearable shame and bitter remorse. So this is who he wanted to sell his wife to, and in whom she found help and intercession! He found himself in partnership with the devil, and his wife was under the protection of the Queen of Heaven. Such is the fruit of his malice and such is the fruit of her meekness and piety. Oh, how unworthy and low he is before his wife, whom the Mother of God Herself appeared to save from him! With such thoughts and feelings, he returned to the city and approached the church where his wife remained. Meanwhile, it was time for the morning service. When the church watchman unlocked the designated church and entered it, he soon noticed a young woman on the church floor in front of the icon of the Mother of God. There were traces of copious tears on her face and at the same time a quiet, joyful smile. She had obviously been here all night. When the churchman woke her up, she, as if remembering something, without saying anything, rushed to run out of the church. And so, when the criminal husband passed by, his wife ran out of the church to him; she now trembled with timidity before her husband; she did not dare to look him in the face, she did not know with what words to beg His forgiveness. “Forgive me, forgive me, my dear! I don't know how it all happened. I prayed, and some kind of oblivion came over me, I fell asleep... I was locked in the church, and I stayed here the whole night.” This is what she said, not hoping for her husband’s forgiveness, expecting swear words and blows from him. But her husband was already a different person, not the same as yesterday and the day before. “No, it’s not you who are guilty before me, but I who are endlessly guilty before you.” And having said this, the husband, with bitter tears, told his wife all his crimes, his vile intention to sell her and, finally, the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God the previous night, which frightened the devil and brought her husband to his senses. A few minutes later, the spouses, reconciled and happy with mutual love, offered in the same church a grateful prayer to the Mother of God, who delivered them from satanic sedition and now established the previous agreement between them. Soon after this, not wanting to own the wealth that they had received from the devil, they divided their property to the poor. And they began to live by the labor of their hands, pleasing God with prayer and good deeds. (“The helmsman,” 1897, No. 39.) 7. On the validity of intercession before God by St. We have positive confirmations of the angels of God in the word of God and in the writings of St. Fathers of the Church. Thus, in the book of St. We even see the Prophet Zechariah praying to St. angels about people before God. “Vedge,” says St. Neil, disciple of St. John Chrysostom, like St. angels exhort us to prayer and stand with us, rejoicing together and praying for us” (Philokalia. Part IV. Chapter 81). 8. God Himself once spoke to St. to the prophet Jeremiah: “If Moses and Samuel stand before me, my soul will not be with this people: ... who will have mercy on you, Jerusalem; and who will grieve for you, or who will go to pray for peace for you!” (Jer. 15:1-5.) With these words the Lord clearly showed that Moses and Samuel, who had long since died, could intercede with Him for the Jews. 9. St. John the Theologian was even honored to see in a revelation in heaven, “how twenty and four elders fell before the Lamb, each having harps and vials of gold full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” (Apoc. 5:8). 10. In the life of St. Peter of Athos, it is narrated that he, being in the secular rank of governor, was captured by the Saracens and kept in prison. While imprisoned, he fervently prayed to Saint Nicholas, whom he revered as his special patron. The saint appeared to the prisoner in a dream vision and said that God did not want to quickly release him from his bonds, because he had sinned gravely by not fulfilling his vow to God. Peter remembered that he had once promised to take monasticism, but, carried away by the vanity of the world and the honors of military rank, he forgot about his vow. Having made a decisive promise to fulfill this vow as soon as he was freed from captivity, Peter began to pray even more fervently to the saint of God for help. St. Nicholas appeared to Peter another time and told him to especially pray to St. Simeon the God-Receiver, who, together with the Most Holy Theotokos and St. John the Baptist, is closest to the throne of God and has great boldness before God. The fiery prayer of the prisoner, indeed, attracted God's favor to him through the intercession of these heavenly representatives. Peter is no longer in a dream vision, but in reality sees how the saints appeared before him. Simeon the God-Receiver and Saint Nicholas freed him from his bonds and took him out not only from prison, but also from the enemy’s land. Having thanked God and His great saints, Peter immediately fulfilled the vow he had previously given to renounce the world. By the special instructions of God, he settled on Athos and did not see a human face for so long, hiding in secluded caves, that, like Mary of Egypt, he achieved equal angelic perfection in his ascetic life - all his clothes had decayed, and he could only cover his nakedness with his hair - and the grace of God, given to him for his extraordinary patience, protected him from the hostile action of the elements - cold and heat. During his arduous ascetic life, St. Peter repeatedly experienced the special miraculous help of heavenly representatives in his fight against enemy temptations (see: Athonite Patericon). 11. Around the 60s of the present century, a special amazement at the greatness of the power of God aroused even in the Sergius Lavra, abundant in miracles, the healing of the withered-armed man - one of the Lavra watchmen, after the night appearance of the monk, with his relics, on the day of his holy memory (see brochure: P. Smirnov, Archpriest Miracles in former and modern times). 12. At the same time in Moscow, with the relics of St. Alexy, having almost completely lost his sight, a home or folk teacher, recognized by doctors as incurable (from the same place), regained his sight. 13. Then all the edges of Russia to the very borders of China were filled with the glory of Panteleimon’s miracles. The Lord God led many to be quite close witnesses to the miraculous healing of Darius Ivanovna Kolokolova, who had been crumpled for eleven years and could only crawl with the help of specially constructed rollers, who, in gratitude for God’s wondrous help, then received monastic vows, with the name in honor of the saint of God Panteleimon (from there). 14. It is impossible, further, not to talk about the miraculous help of three saints: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom for a boy in dire danger to his life. It was like this. In the village of Sablukovo, Arzamas district, Nizhny Novgorod province. lives the family of a kind, humble and truthful miller, peasant Kochetkov. Kochetkov, an old man, due to his honesty and prudence, was by choice a foreman, and his son Kodrat holds the position of village headman. The Kochetkov family is a large one, consisting of 13 people: an old father aged 57, his wife, two sons married with children and a 15-year-old son Peter. The meek and truthful Kochetkovs are distinguished by their love of poverty and devotion to St. Churches. They have a Christian custom, inherited from their ancestors, of making three prostrations every day before the icon of St. three saints: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, calling on them for help and asking them for mercy and success in business. Going to the mill, they pray at home in front of the revered icon and there, within the walls of the mill, they pay veneration to the same three saints and then put the mill into operation. On January 28, 1889, at midday, a terrible storm raged. Peter's older brothers were busy collecting straw and bread from the threshing floor, and the father, due to the lack of time for his older sons, sent his youngest son Peter to thresh. Peter, not realizing that there was a storm, set the mill into motion and, following the example of his brothers, went under the floor to inspect the heel of the shaft: whether it needed greasing; but when he came close to the shaft and looked around it, somehow an accidental movement of a gear turned up the tails of his sheepskin coat and took away his shirt; one more moment, and Peter could have died. In a moment of impending danger, he prayed to the saints with all his childish believing heart: “Pleasers of God, St. three saints! Save me, help me: I am perishing. Saints of God! Protect me, don’t let me die without repentance. I believe that you can do anything, you can save me!” Suddenly the mill stops by itself and stands motionless, despite the fact that the storm continues. Half an hour later or a little less, one peasant comes to the mill to find out if his rye has been ground, and sees: the mill is standing, and the boy is twisted and screwed with a gear. The peasant immediately took the ax that was there, cut the tails of his sheepskin coat, shirt and other clothes and freed the sufferer. An hour later he was brought home, but was still unconscious. Upon examination of his body, they found that one leg was severely wounded, but the bone was not damaged. When the victim came to his senses, he crossed himself and began to tell those around him about his misfortune at the mill and at the end of his story he added that he owed his salvation solely to the intercession of the saints of God. three saints called to their aid. (From the “Church Gazette”, published by the Holy Synod, 1889, No. 27, pp. 805–806.) 15. We cannot fail to mention the following miracle. 4 days before the feast of the Nativity of Christ in 1887, a peasant from the Kostroma province, Buisky district, retired private Filimon Vasilyev Otvagin, came to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, suffering from relaxation of the entire right side of his body, and could not control his right hand at all and dragged his right leg, without any ability to move freely and making the journey with the help of an outsider. The certificate issued to him from the Vologda Zemstvo Hospital dated May 31, 1887, No. 145, signed by resident Snyatkov, certified by the senior doctor Ulrich, states that he, Otvagin, “since February 1. Until June 1, 1887, he was being treated in the said hospital for incomplete semi-paralysis of the right half of the body (paresis), which occurred from embolism of the cerebral vessels (embolia cerebri), a completely incurable disease and preventing him from engaging in personal physical labor.” On the night of December 25-26, Otvagin reports, in a sleepy vision he saw St. standing at his head. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and to the right the Queen of Heaven, the Most Holy Theotokos. The saint told him: “Work hard and pray with me, the Lord will grant you healing.” “The Queen of Heaven, standing right there at the patient’s bedside, told him the same thing. When he, Otvagin, woke up, he began to feel the strength in his motionless limbs, and he brought his right hand to his head, which he had completely been unable to do before and made the sign of the cross with his left hand. Arriving at the early liturgy on the 26th, he could freely make the sign of the cross with his right hand. Now he already feels completely healed and wishes to end the days of his life in the Babaevsky Monastery. (“Church Veda.”, ed. under the Holy Synod, 1889, No. 11.) 16. The Russian Pilgrim tells the following case of the extraordinary help of St. Nicholas. Colonel Rantsova had a permanent residence on the Volga, ten miles from the Rubovka settlement. She was engaged in agriculture and used everything that she received from her estate for the benefit of her neighbors, in which she found the only pleasure in life; All the surrounding residents knew her and revered her as a pious and virtuous woman. “In one of the difficult winters,” she said, “I received a letter by express from my mother, who, informing me of my father’s illness, asked me to hurry up and come to them. Without thinking twice, I set off on the same day. The journey from the Volga to the Ilovla River, where my parents lived, extended over sixty miles of steppe, but halfway there was the village of Ivanovo, in which I intended to spend the night in order to arrive early the next day to my family. When I left the yard for the journey, the weather was unfavorable - there was a wet snowstorm, and when we got out into the steppe, in the evening of that day a cold western wind blew, and, to my horror, a terrible snow blizzard began that night, so that nothing was visible two or three steps away. A strong cold wind prevented the horses from moving. Although I myself was protected from the weather, my unfortunate coachman fought against it openly and was already exhausted. We were caught up in the night in the steppe, and the village was nowhere in sight. - What, isn’t Ivanovka in sight? - I asked the coachman through the small window of the cart, wanting to entertain him as much as possible. - No, lady, nothing is visible; My eyes are covered with a blizzard, and I myself am freezing!.. - What are we going to do, Ivan? – I asked the coachman again, “I don’t know,” he answered hesitantly. – Shouldn’t we go look for a way? – he said after a short silence. - Have we lost our way? With this word, the coachman jumped off the box and went to look for the road. Left alone, I entrusted myself to the great saint of God, Saint Nicholas, whose image I had on my chest, and began to pray to him internally. After a little time, my coachman returned with difficulty to the cart and joyfully announced to me that he had seen a fire in the distance. - Hold it and don’t lose it - this is probably Ivanovka. “There’s fire on our right side, and we’ve huddled far to the left; you see, now we are leaving for the red bush, and from it the village is just a stone’s throw away. The coachman, encouraged by the sudden appearance of fire, cheerfully drove the tired horses. I constantly warned him that, if possible, he should not take his eyes off the guiding light. Finally, he told me that he heard dogs barking, clearly indicating that we were approaching the village. A few minutes later the coachman positively said that we were approaching Ivanovka. “Mistress,” my Ivan cried in delight, “we’ve arrived.” Glory to Thee, Lord! Yes, they were probably waiting for us here,” he added, making a sharp turn. Indeed, the gates were open before us, and two lit lanterns hung on high poles. We safely entered a fairly spacious courtyard, and a burly guy, the eldest son of the mistress of the house, closed the gate behind us. He approached the cart with a low bow and said loudly: “Hello, lady,” they probably got cold; Go to the hut quickly, because your mother has been waiting for you.” And the guy helped me get out of the cart. The mistress of the house, an old woman of about sixty, met me on the threshold, greeting me affectionately. - Great, Fominishna, were you expecting guests at this time? “And when I wasn’t waiting for you, my nurse, I wouldn’t have hung out the lanterns,” the old woman said cordially, bowing to me almost to the ground. “How the Lord God has mercy on you,” she continued, busily examining me from head to toe, “have you got frostbite, my sick woman, let me undress you.” Women, quickly the samovar, the lady, our nurse, is cold... - There would have been no end to the old woman’s delight if I had not interrupted her with my question. - Why, Fominishna, you said that you were waiting for me; Why did you, my dear, know about my arrival? “Oh, my nurse, go ahead, your deliberate one, more than an hour has passed before he galloped under the window, woke us up and said under the window on the street: “Order, Fominishna, to quickly light two large lanterns for Sergei and hang them higher so that it can be seen more clearly - the lady will be here soon,” and so he was, gave the order and galloped away. I tell Sergei: go ahead, quickly do as they demand, and find out how far away the lady is. We’ve been waiting for you, our dear, for a long time; I wanted to send Sergei to meet you - and lo and behold, you drove up to the gate. - No, my dear old lady, no special message was sent from me. - Who was it that woke us up and spoke outside the window? I opened my chest and showed her the icon of St. Nicholas, saying, it is true that he, the great saint of God, was guiding me, because, seeing the inevitable death in the steppe, I prayed to him fervently. The old woman looked at me intently; an involuntary sigh escaped from her chest, and her eyes sparkled with tears. I offered a prayer of gratitude to God for miraculously delivering me from the threatening danger in the steppe through the intercession of St. Nicholas, a quick helper and protector from all troubles and misfortunes.” (Russian pilgrimage; sn. “The Helmsman”, 1894, No. 49.) 6. Stories about miracles from the relics and other remains of saints 1. The body of one dead man barely touched the bones of St. the prophet Elisha in his tomb, immediately came to life - and the dead rose (2 Kings 13:21; Sir. 48:14-15). St. talks about this wonderful event like this. Cyril of Jerusalem: “He (Elisha), while alive, performed the miracle of resurrection with his soul. However, so that not only the souls of the righteous would be revered, but they would believe that the bodies of the righteous also have such power: the dead man who fell into the tomb of Elisha, touching the dead body of the prophet, came to life. The dead body of the prophet did the work in place of the soul. While it was dead and lying in the coffin, it gave life to the dead; and having given life, it itself remained dead as before. For what? So that this work would not be attributed to one soul, when Elisha was resurrected, but to show that even then, even if the soul is not in the body, some miraculous power resides in the body of the saints, since for many years a righteous soul dwelt in it, to which it was obedient” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Catechetical Instruction, XVIII). 2. The very mantle of the prophet Elijah, which he left for Elisha when he ascended to heaven, divided the waters of the Jordan with its touch, so that Elisha could cross through it (2 Kings 11:14). 3. Even scarves and towels are St. The Apostle Paul, who were entrusted with the sick and demon-possessed, in his absence, healed illnesses and drove away unclean spirits (Acts 19:12). From church-historical stories about miracles that happened at the relics of St. saints, many give solid reasons for the veneration of holy relics. The most remarkable of these stories are the following. 4. St. Basil the Great, in his sermon on the martyr Mamanta, says: “The miracles by which St. the martyr gave health to some, life to others”; and in the word about St. Martyr Julitta tells that when her holy relics were brought to one waterless place, a source of sweet water immediately came out of the ground, so that all the inhabitants of that place called Saint Julitta their nurse. 5. About the transfer of the relics of St. Martyr Vavila tells the following: “The male and female sexes, young and old, young men and maidens, and elders with young men, came together and with triumph, singing and rejoicing carried the relics of St. Martyr Babyla from a place called Daphne, and brought to Antioch. In Antioch there was an idol of the god Apollo, in which a demon lived and gave different answers to the people who asked him. When the relics of the saint were brought in, the demon and the idol were now silent, and the lie was exposed by the truth” (Ch.-Min., September 4). 6. “Near Alexandria there was a place called Manufina, on which there was an ancient church and a demonic dwelling. This place was scary because many unclean spirits lived there. When did St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, brought St. relics of the martyrs Cyrus and John, then all the demonic power immediately left from there” (Ch.-Min., June 28). 7. When the relics of the first martyr Stephen were transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople, the voice of angels was heard in the air above his relics, singing praises to God, and a great fragrance emanated from the shrine. Demonic voices were also heard crying from afar: “Woe to us! Stefan comes and beats us!” At night, a light appeared over the relics of the saint (Chet.-Min., August 2). 8. At the tomb of St. Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow, a candle was lit by itself in full view of everyone praying at the tomb. 9. Upon finding St. of the relics of Theodosius of Pechersk at midnight, the dawn was visible over the cave and many burning candles. (Thu.-Min., Feb. 12, Pater. Pech.) (Stefan Yavorsky. Stone of Faith. Sn. “Sunday Thursday” for 1884, No. 24). 10. The holy martyr Agathia, after torture and suffering for the name of Christ, was taken to prison in the city of Catania, where she died (III century). The Catanian citizens buried her body and placed the poor clothes that she usually wore on her coffin in memory of her humility. On the anniversary of the death of St. Martyr, when the eruption of the fire-breathing Mount Etna followed, near the city of Catania, the frightened inhabitants of the city, believers and pagans, took the clothes of St. Agathia from her tomb and held her against the fiery stream... and the disaster passed the city (see: Filaret Gumilevsky, Archbishop. Lives of the Saints, February 5, pp. 42–43). 11. When transferring the relics of St. Philip, Metropolitan of Moscow, from the Solovetsky monastery to the city of Moscow, the great sovereign Alexy Mikhailovich with Nikon, Metropolitan of Novgorod, with the entire sacred cathedral, with the boyars and with all the Orthodox, met him at Naprudny in Moscow, and as soon as they accepted him as their head, he gave healing to the demon-possessed mute: she began to speak and recovered. When they brought her to the fire at the Place of Execution, he also healed the girl in the presence of the Lithuanian envoys who were standing at the Place of Execution. When they installed St. His relics on the Place of Execution, everyone shed tears of tenderness... On the square near the Faceted Chamber a blind man was healed. No less than two or three people a day, or even five, six and seven people received healing. The wife of Stefan Velyaminov was healed. She had already told her to read the funeral service, but she forgot, and the miracle worker appeared to her and said: “Have yourself carried to my tomb.” She was blind and deaf for eight years and lay sick. When they brought her, she received her sight, began to hear, and went away healthy. (A. E. 4, 491. Collection of writers of Tsar Alexy Mikhailovich. Moscow, 1856; book of Lives of the Saints, Filaret Gumilevsky, archbishop. January 9, pp. 113–114.) 12. St. Nikita, Bishop of Novgorod, died January 30, 1108; St. His relics were discovered in 1553. The face of the saint, as they saw then, retained the imprint of heavenly peace with which he fell asleep forever. His vestment, which had been in the ground for 450 years, remained intact, in all its ancient beauty; it consisted of: a phelonion, an epitrachelion, damask armbands and a club, coffee-colored, a woven garus belt, an omophorion of white lustrine with damask crosses, a grodetour miter (cap) with ermine trim... According to an eyewitness, on the day of the grand opening of the relics, up to ten sick people received healing. A remarkable feature in the miracles of the saint: mainly those with eyes, the blind, and those with impaired vision receive healing from him. (From the book: Filaret Gumilevsky, Archbishop. Lives of the Saints, Jan. 30, p. 313.) 13. In 1630, one day a certain Alexander Muzel, a Greek by origin, and a doctor by profession, known at that time throughout the Kiev and Volyn voivodeships, visited Kiev-Pechersk Archimandrite Peter Mogila 75. In the conversation, by the way, he remarked to the archimandrite that he very often heard from many that the Kiev-Pechersk monks deceive the pilgrims, passing off simple, ordinary skulls as holy myrrh-streaming heads, while in fact they in some cunning way pour ordinary oil into these skulls and anoint the pilgrims with it, calling it the world flowing from the Holy Spirit. chapters At the same time, Muzelya frankly admitted to the archimandrite that, having heard a lot of such stories, he completely believed them; but, however, wanting to verify the truth with his own eyes, he visited the Lavra in 1621 during Lent and, with the blessing of Elisha Pletenetsky, who was then the Pechersk archimandrite, he entered the cave of St. Anthony of Pechersk, where in the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary he listened to the divine liturgy. At the end of the liturgy, Muselya, tormented by doubt, turned to the cave master, Hieromonk Isaiah (later the archbishop of Smolensk) with a request to show the myrrh-streaming heads. Isaiah pointed to two dry chapters placed on glass dishes. And so, when the doubting doctor picked up one of the dishes with the head in order to take a better look at it, he suddenly saw how St. the myrrh filled the entire vessel with extraordinary speed, so that not only Muzel, but all those present were greatly amazed and surprised. After this, the myrrh began to flow out in small drops, like dew. Now Muzelya no longer doubted and, having thanked God, who had vouchsafed him to be a witness of the great miracle, he filled the St. three vessels in peace and set off on the return journey, saying goodbye to the cave master and the brethren: “Forgive me, holy fathers, that until I saw this miracle myself, I did not believe in its truth and even possibility; I thought that all this was being done by your cunning, as your opponents accuse you of; but now I see and confess that this is not human cunning, but a supernatural gift of God, who glorifies His saints, and I glorify Him, who assured me and exposed those who unjustly insult His saints.” Taking the vessels with the ointment, Muzelya returned home. That same year he happened to be in the city of Khoishchi with a wealthy landowner, Khoisky. After several days in Khoishchi, Muzel became seriously ill and, feeling the approach of death, invited neighboring priests to anoint him with oil; but instead of oil he put it in the vessel of St. myrrh brought from Kyiv, and when anointing with this world was performed on him, to the surprise of everyone present, Muzelya rose from his bed completely healthy. 14. The Lord Himself sometimes directed those in need of help to seek it from St. relics of the saints of God and gave what they asked to those who honored them. St. John the Long-Suffering prayed to the Lord to deliver him from the rebellion of bodily lust. Then a voice from heaven commanded him to pray to the dead man opposite him: “This one can help those who are struggling with this passion.” This dead man was St. Moses Ugrin. John prayed before his relics - and his passion was tamed. Another time, St. John, taking a bone from the relics of St. Moses, applied it to the body of one brother suffering from fornication, and the kindling died down, and the passion in his flesh died. (Thu-Min., July 18.) During the suffering of St. Epimach's wife, who had a blind eye, wept as she looked at his suffering. At this time, from the planing of St. blood poured out like iron from the body, a drop of which fell on the blind eye, and it received its sight. (Thu-Min., October 31.) 15. Not only the saints themselves. the relics served as a source of healing, but other things that came into contact with them and taken from them also produced beneficial healing effects on believers. One brother, struggling with prodigal passion, came to St. Daniil of Skitsky to ask him for gracious help in the fight against it. The monk sent him to the monastery, where the body of St. Martyr Thomaida, who suffered for her chastity from her father-in-law, and commanded him there to ask God for help with the prayers of the martyr. The brother, following the advice of the monk, prayed at her coffin, anointed himself with oil from the lamp that burned over the coffin, laid his head on her coffin - and was completely freed from the passion that was bothering him. (Thu-Min., April 13.) Finger taken from the tomb of St. ap. Thomas and placed it on the neck of the Tsarev's son, cast out the demon from him, and the sick man became completely healthy. (Thu-Min., October 6.) St. Ambrose testifies that a certain blind man, named Sevier, only touched the edge of the vestments that were on the relics of Sts. Gervasia and Protasia, and received his sight (Ch.-Min., October 14.) So celibate are the relics of the holy saints of God! 16. Miraculous healings at the shrine of St. Theodosius (Uglitsky) on the solemn days of the opening of his relics. In the God-protected city of Chernigov, on September 6-9, 1896, by the grace of God, a great celebration took place of the discovery of the honest, incorruptible relics of St. Theodosius, Archbishop of Chernigov, who died 200 years ago - on February 5, 1696. The days of this wonderful celebration were truly bright days of God’s gracious visit. The Almighty Lord, glorifying His saint, abundantly poured out the currents of His life-giving, saving grace onto the multitude of those who suffered, who with faith flowed from all sides to the shrine of St. relics of the Chernigov miracle worker, asking him for holy help and prayerful intercession before the throne of the Almighty. The Chernigov cathedral cave, where the relics of St. Theodosius rested incorruptible for 200 years, truly became like Bethesda in Jerusalem in these days, and the fence and porches of the local churches are like those five porches, where “there are many sick, blind, lame, dry, waiting for the movement of water” (John 5:3)... Day and night, the air was filled with the frantic cries of raging cliques, the insane verbs of those who had lost their minds, the prayerful cries of the deaf, the pitiful groans of the paralytic, the strong cries of inconsolable children, fathers, wives, and mothers of those hundreds of sufferers who were now here hoping for the grace-filled power of healing from the multi-healing relics of the newly glorified saint of God. “To the Saint of Christ Theodosius, heal, heal! Father Theodosius, enlighten, enlighten! Oh, Theodosius, Theodosius, raise me (or him) from my sickbed, Theodosius, return to me my son or daughter, or father or mother!” This is how the suffering and their relatives screamed, shedding bitter tears, wringing their hands, beating themselves... Oh, what a heart-breaking picture of human evils and diseases, loudly crying and silent! The word of the Master and Lord is true: “Be of good cheer..., your faith has saved you” (Matthew 9:22); “according to your faith be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29), “ask and it will be given” (Matthew 7:7). Through the prayers of the newly glorified saint of God, during the days of celebration at the shrine of his venerable relics, astonishing cases of sudden miraculous healing of many sick people took place, whom we “we could see with our eyes, with our hands with our touch, about whom we heard from faithful witnesses and self-witnesses.” This is the officially established information about miraculous healings, certified by the healed themselves, their relatives or closest witnesses and the voice of the people. Oryol province, Sevsky district, village. Princess cross. Dionisy Ivanov Ivanin, 32 years old, about 15 years old. was relaxed and lay motionless on his sick bed, he was brought to Chernigov with great difficulty by his relatives, and was carried into the church on a stretcher with the help of four people. “During the prayer singing at the tomb of the incorruptible relics of St. Theodosius,” says the healed Dionysius, “I prayerfully called out to the monk with all my soul for my healing and suddenly felt as if someone had poured warm water over the dead extremities of my body, or this warmth seemed to come from my womb and revived me all; I felt an influx of strength and for the first time I could move my immovable limbs for many years. Joy and love for the saint kindled in my heart. With the help of my relatives, I was able to venerate the relics while not in a supine position, but in an upright position.” On the same day, Dionysius confessed and received the Holy Mysteries. His restoration of strength and health was visible to everyone: in the following days he could stand near the wall, there was warmth in his withered legs, life in his pale, deathly face, and the sacred fire of faith and hope in his eyes. The healed man did not leave the canopy of the church, fearing to lose the grace of healing and expecting the complete restoration of his health, and therefore this healed man could be seen by everyone on all days of the celebration. The schismatics interrogated and tempted Ivanin, asking him to stand up, sit down, touched his legs, etc., and he, like the man born blind healed by Christ, glorified the Lord, wondrous in His saints. Another no less amazing case of healing took place on the eve of the opening of the relics. A native of Bryansk, Oryol province. Ivan Pavlov Fedorov was paralyzed and could not walk at all. On September 5, he was carried in his arms into the cave where the relics of the saint rested, a prayer service was served there, and Fedorov venerated the relics, after which he felt significant relief. On the second day, Fedorov, accompanied by his sister, himself came to the entrance to the cave, into which he was again carried in his arms. Here he could sing a prayer service to the saint in a cave, standing on his feet and shedding tears of joy. Coming out of the cave, the healed Fedorov himself, without outside help, climbed three steps of the stairs, and then was carried out in the arms of those accompanying him. The next day, the healed man himself entered the cave to venerate the relics of the holy healer and left the cave himself without outside help. On other days of celebrations, Fedorov was here in the church fence as a living testimony to the glory of the newly-minted miracle worker. Thousands of triumphant pilgrims saw the healed man walking along the church fence with his sister. A merchant from Tambov, Alexandra Rybushina, was possessed for 15 years; On September 6, she was brought with difficulty to the saint’s shrine; Here she suffered a strong shock, after which she crossed herself, began to cry and ask the saint for healing and received it. On the second day she herself came to the cave. Having met the man who brought her to cancer the first time, she thanked him and declared that she now felt healthy. Region of the Don Army, Rostov district, village of Krugloy, the peasant woman Paraskeva Petrova Ostapenkova, 17 years old, raged for more than 4 months and scolded her relatives, who were forced to keep her chained in the house, as the unfortunate woman threw herself at people, tore her clothes and tore out her mother’s hair. Having been brought to Chernigov to the relics of St. Theodosius, the sick woman became quiet and then received healing from a terrible illness; and as a keepsake and as evidence of healing, she left an iron chain in the cathedral, with which she was also shackled on the way. Many witnesses witnessed the miraculous healing of a blind boy 8–9 years old, who was brought into a cave, did not see anything, and took a candle from the hands of his relatives by touch. The youth prayed earnestly at the shrine of St. relics; Childish tears were dripping down his cheeks, and oh, miracle! The boy here, after kissing the incorruptible relics, received his sight. It was necessary to see the joy of the parents, who filled the gloomy vaults of the cave with screams and watered the floor with tears. Having lit the candles, the overjoyed parents took their son, who had regained his sight, in their arms and with cheerful feet rushed out of the cave, praising and singing the wondrous deeds of God’s mercy. As if afraid not to be scorched near this terrible bush - not to anger God again, the parents of the healed man left Chernigov so quickly that they could not find them for formal certification and taking testimony to record this miracle, and therefore the name of the healed man remained unknown. But this miracle, as well as another case of the healing of a deaf-mute youth, is testified by many eyewitnesses and the entire people. They talk about the healing of a certain Chernigov Jew from epilepsy, which was also reported in the newspaper “Son of the Fatherland.” There is no doubt that many cases remained undeclared and not recorded in the official cathedral book of miracles of the newly glorified great wonderworker. Truly, the Lord Almighty lives, sometimes he works miracles! Holy, true is our Orthodox faith! Happy St. Rus', having a whole cloud of powerful intercessors, intercessors and prayer books. The wondrous event of the discovery of the relics - the church and heavenly glorification of the Chernigov miracle worker stirred up feelings of faith not only in the Orthodox people, but also in the world of schism and sectarianism. The Chernigov celebration attracted the inquisitive eyes and yearning hearts of schismatic Old Believers: many of them came to Chernigov to spy on whether the relics of St. Theodosius were truly incorruptible or whether it was just an invention of the Orthodox clergy and a deception of the people. It must be remembered that Saint Theodosius lived and served as a priest much later than Patriarch Nikon and was the latter’s protege in the Russian Church, Patriarch Adrian, i.e. when, according to schismatics, the Orthodox Church had already lost its saving grace and fallen into heresy. How could the bishop of the heretical Church, where the Antichrist reigns, please God and receive the great grace of incorruptibility and the gift of miracles? This question deeply confused and agitated the schismatics in many places. One of two things: either the Orthodox Church is true, gracious, saving, and schism is error and destruction, or St. Theodosius is not a saint and his relics are perishable. How much the Chernigov event struck the schismatic world is indicated by the departure to Chernigov on the day of the celebration at the public expense, with officially certified credentials of several deputations from the schismatic communities, from which the schismatic teachers announced themselves - the peasants of the village of Borkova, Melenkovsky district. and village of Pesochnaya, Vladimir province, mentors and charterers of the Pomor and Beglopopov sects, Cossacks Art. Prochnookopskaya Kuban region, tellers of the Austrian consent led by a false priest (Garshenin), who fell ill on the way and could not arrive in Chernigov, and two tellers - Cossacks from the land of the Don Army. All of them are the salt of the schismatic world, unique types. Here is a black, gloomy, silent, with downcast gaze, the mentor of a fanatical Pomeranian sect: he stands towards you during a conversation, and listens, and speaks - all somehow sideways - full of doubt and mistrust, and at the same time deep inquisitiveness. Here is another - a fugitive priest, a tall, burly man: he is more talkative and sociable, he objects more readily, he wants to see, touch and experience everything, not only with the touch of a believer’s heart, but with his hands and eyes. He examined the condition of the healed Dionysius more diligently than anyone else, and managed to spy various knots in the eye of the fellow Orthodox clergy regarding the fulfillment of the charter. The Kuban Cossacks are people of a softer character and sincere feelings, more than all other spies, they hunger and thirst for the truth of faith and salvation. For a long time these and other representatives and spies of schismatic communities wandered, like sheep, having neither shepherds nor church pasture, among the numerous thousands of Orthodox people. Childlike, ardent faith, indescribable religious enthusiasm (excitement), the grandeur of divine services, and finally, folk stories and obvious assurances of miracles gradually converted their doubts into faith. Through Orthodox missionaries, the schismatic deputations turned to His Eminence Anthony, Bishop of Chernigov, and His Eminence Metropolitan Ioannikis of Kyiv with a request to reveal to them the relics of St. Feodosia to certify the authenticity of their incorruption. If the Lord did not disdain to show His nail wounds to Thomas the infidel and allowed him to put the fingers of a doubter into them, then, for the sake of the spiritual infirmities of the petitioners and so that the thousands of their brothers standing behind them would know the truth, the Bishop blessed to satisfy the request on the next day of the opening of the relics of the saint of God. This longed-for, but terrible hour had come for the schismatic spies, who were tormented by their unbelief and doubt. On September 10, after the liturgy and prayer singing, on the platform at the foot of the shrine of St. The mentioned schismatic deputies along with the missionaries became the relics. The crowd of Orthodox pilgrims was temporarily kept aside and could barely be contained. In full vestments, Bishop Pitirim entered the dais where St. cancer, and began to remove the covers and expose the hands of the great saint of God. Dead silence reigned: fear and trembling fell on those present and on the schismatics. One by one, one and two at a time, these people, suffering from a serious illness of unbelief and doubt, approached: carefully, for a long time, each peered at the incorruptible body of the saint, resting in a new tomb, as if alive - at his naked holy hands. Oh, miracle! Not only the hands, but also the fingers and nails - everything was intact and unharmed, as if the saint had passed away not 200 years ago, but 2-3 days, the unbelievers also felt the feet of the saint of God; The archpastor’s explanation was astounding that, with the entire body and clothing incorruptible, only the heel on one of the saint’s feet turned to dust and ashes in fulfillment of the divine commandment: “you are from earth and you will return to earth.” And the simple-minded schismatics understood what the greatest confirmation of the truth is in this manifestation of the miracle of incorruption of the remains of the deceased saint: in one tomb, in one air and at one time, under the same conditions, the whole body is preserved incorruptible by the grace of God, and a certain part serves as the fulfillment of the general law of corruption provided for all mankind. The hearts of the schismatics were touched by inviting grace. Not one of them could resist emotion and tears of repentance and joy: everyone reverently venerated the saint. relics, which had not been done before. Particularly touching was the conversion from unbelief and doubt to complete, ardent faith in the holiness and incorruption of the newly glorified saint by the schismatics of the Kuban region: with tears and prayerful groans: “Now I believe, servant of God, forgive my unbelief,” they kissed St. relics and for a long time could not tear themselves away from St. tombs, fixing their gaze. After this, they immediately sent a telegram to their people and called their false priest here to Chernigov. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the same 10th day, all schismatic deputies were invited by missionaries to the Trinity Bishop's Compound for a conversation (with the exception, however, of the Don ones, due to the lack of addresses of their apartments) with them about the great mercy of God, which granted them to see with their bodily eyes St. the glorified relics of the great saint of God and wonderworker. And here, in the presence of Orthodox missionaries and many outsiders, the hardened hearts of the schismatic representatives, softened by the power of miracles, were touched; their previously blasphemous lips opened to glorify the name of God and His saints: in the presence of many witnesses, the schismatics unanimously and easily confessed and testified to their faith in the truth of incorruptibility, holiness and the miracles of St. Theodosius. (Extracted in abbreviated form from the brochure: New miracles of St. Theodosius of Uglitsky. Publishing house "Mis. Review.") 7. Miracles that happened during the performance of St. sacraments 1. The uniqueness of baptism The church historian Socrates tells of one extraordinary case in which the Providence of God miraculously testified to the uniqueness of the sacrament of holy baptism. One of the Jews, having converted in appearance to the Christian faith, was granted the grace of St. baptism. Having later moved to another city, he completely abandoned Christianity and lived according to Jewish custom. But, whether wanting to laugh at the faith of Christ or, perhaps, seduced by the benefits that the Christian emperors acquired for the Jews who turned to Christ, he a second time dared to ask for baptism from one bishop. The bishop, not knowing anything about the wickedness of the Jew, after instructing him in the dogmas of the Christian faith, began to teach him the sacrament of St. baptism and ordered the baptismal basin to be filled with water. But just as he, having performed preliminary prayers over the font, was ready to immerse the Jew in it, the water in the baptismal sanctuary instantly disappeared... Then the Jew, convicted by heaven itself of his sacrilegious intentions, prostrated himself in fear before the bishop and recognized before him and the whole church his wickedness and his guilt. (From “Sunday Thursday”, 1851) 2. Stories about the wonderful change produced in people by the regenerating power of St. baptism a) A striking example of the regenerative power of faith is the ap. Paul. “Before he was hot-tempered and quick-tempered - now he is only courageous and decisive; Previously he was prone to violence - now he is powerful and enterprising; he once fought unrestrainedly against everything that blocked his path - now he is only steadfast; was once wild and gloomy - now only serious; once hard-hearted - now only strict; the once cruel zealot is now only God-fearing; was once withdrawn, inaccessible to sympathy and compassion, but is now familiar with tears; before he knew no friends - now he is a fellow man, benevolent, obliging, compassionate, but not weak - he always represents greatness, among sadness and sorrow, courageous and noble. Thus, not only did his spirit receive a different direction and its ever-pretentiousness a new goal, but all inclinations and passions were brought into a state of uniformity, so that the great forces were harmoniously combined into a new mood of the spirit, and in their unity form an exalted character. (See: Gettinger. Apology of Christianity. 1875. Part I. Page. 29–30.) b) The regenerating power of faith is depicted by St. from his own experience. Cyprian in a letter to Donatus reads as follows: “When I was in darkness and in the middle of a gloomy night, when I was floating on the sea of ​​real life, to and fro, without hope and support, not knowing the way, deprived of all truth and all light, then I considered it extremely difficult and impossible to realize the promise of divine mercy, that one can be born again and, having received a new soul and life in the holy font, leave everything that was before and, while still living in this body, become a new man in spirit and in heart. “How is it possible,” I said, “for a person to so quickly and completely abandon what he was born with and what has become his second nature through long-term habit? How can someone who is accustomed to noisy feasts and delicious dishes learn to abstain? How can one who shines with luxurious clothes, sparkling with gold and purple, reconcile with a modest and simple dress? He who has consoled himself with ranks and honors cannot live without them in obscurity; for someone who was surrounded by a crowd of admirers, accompanied by numerous admirers always ready to serve, it would be painful to be alone.” I thought so to myself, because at that time I myself was captivated by the delusions of my former life, from which I did not see the possibility of freeing myself - I was given over to vices and, despairing of a better thing, imagined death as natural and necessary for myself. But, after I washed myself in the bath of rebirth from the unclean past and a new pure light poured into my purified soul, after I received the Spirit from above and became a new person, in an incomprehensible way the doubtful became true for me, the closed open, the dark clear; I received strength for what I previously considered difficult and impossible.” c) When St. Pelageya was honored with baptism, she completely changed. Enlightened St. faith and baptism, the new daughter of the Church of Christ did not want to put on jewelry and jewelry and handed them over to the bishop who baptized her, so that he would sell them and distribute the proceeds to the poor, while she herself remained in simple, wretched clothes. Before Pelageya was proud, but now she is humble and meek; Before she liked to talk a lot, now she was silent; Previously she loved sweet foods, idleness and fun, but now she was abstinent, spending most of the day and even the night in prayer (Chet.-Min., May 4). d) The same wonderful effect of the sacrament of baptism was experienced by our Russian Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, who, leaving the font, exclaimed: “Now I have seen the true God!” - and from a pagan cruel, vengeful and devoted to the sensual, he became meek, merciful, self-controlled, filled with holy, pure love for God and his neighbors, for which he was canonized. These examples of holy action in the sacrament of baptism speak more convincingly than any words about the gracious power of baptism. 3. Miraculous signs performed during the sacrament of baptism a) In Rome, during the reign of Diocletian, in 324 AD, the following miracle occurred on the theater stage during a blasphemous depiction of the Christian sacrament of baptism. It was like this. Diocletian arrived in Rome to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Maximian's reign. Among the pleasures provided for the occasion were theatrical performances. Comedian Genez played on stage. Playing in the theater in front of the emperors and all the people, he pretended to be sick and cried out: “Ah, my friends! It's hard for me; I would like relief." Others responded: “How can we help you? Should I trim you to make you lighter?” “You fools,” said Genez, “I want to die a Christian.” "For what?" - they asked. - “So that on this great day God would accept me as a fugitive.” After that, he called to him the priest and the exorcist, that is, the comedians who represented them. Approaching his bed, the priest said: “Son, why did you call us?” Then Genez, as if by inspiration from above, answered them firmly: “I want to accept the grace of Jesus Christ and be reborn in order to receive remission of sins.” They performed the rite of baptism on him, and when he was dressed in white robes, the soldiers (comedians) seized him and presented him to the emperor for interrogation as a confessor. Then he, without waiting for questions, exclaimed: “Listen, emperor and all the court, wise men and inhabitants of this city! Every time they called me a Christian, I felt disgust and offended those who were firm in the profession of this faith. I renounced my very parents and kinship simply because they were Christians; I despised this faith to the point that I copied their sacraments for your pleasure. But when the water touched me, naked, and to the question: do you believe, I answered that I believe, I saw a hand descending from heaven, and luminous angels above me, reading in a book all the sins I had committed from my youth; They then washed the book in the water of baptism and showed it to me clean and white as snow. Therefore, you, emperor and people, who laughed at the sacrament, believe with me that Jesus Christ is the true Lord, Light and Truth, that He is the One through whom you too can receive deliverance.” The irritated Emperor Diocletian ordered him to be brutally beaten with sticks and instructed the prefect to force him to abdicate. Genesis, having endured the most terrible torment, did not renounce and was finally beheaded on August 25 of that year. (See: Archimandrite Arseny. Chronicle of church events and civil affairs explaining the church. Issue 1. Page 89.) b) A different kind of miraculous sign occurred during the sacrament of baptism over Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir. After a conference on faith, Vladimir, as is known from reliable chronicles, in 987, went with an army to Korsun and, taking it, demanded the hand of the princess at the court of Constantinople. They answered him: “Let St. receive him.” faith." “I experienced and fell in love with her a long time ago,” said Vladimir. Meanwhile, in reality, he was not so much ready for a great change as it seemed to himself: a special visitation from God was still needed for him. Before Anna, the sister of the emperors, arrived in Korsun with the clergy and priests. things, the same thing happened to the pagan prince that happened to Saul, later the Apostle Paul: he became blind. The arriving princess suggested that he should not delay baptism as a means to health. He agreed. The Bishop of Korsun laid his hand on the prince emerging from the font. And suddenly Vladimir, at the baptism of Vasily, received his sight both mentally and physically and exclaimed in delight: “Now I have seen the true God!” Some of Vladimir's squad, amazed by the miracle, were baptized at the same time, following the prince. Vladimir returned to Kyiv new, with monuments to his military and Christian glory. (See book: Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov. Russian saints, revered by the whole Church or locally. 1882. Part II. Page 385.) c) The appearance of extraordinary light during the baptism of a pagan family - the story of an old Altai man. An 89-year-old elder, one of the newly baptized Altai residents, spoke about an extraordinary phenomenon that he was privileged to see during the sacrament of holy baptism over his family. He himself was baptized before his wife and children, 76 instructed in the faith by a missionary catechist, and his family was baptized a year ago, in his presence. While performing the sacrament of baptism, this elder’s attention was drawn to the appearance of an extraordinary light at the top of the church. The day was cloudy. The light was like the flame of many burning candles. Having descended onto the font, it seemed to crumble here, illuminating its entire interior. The elder came closer to examine the extraordinary phenomenon, and saw that the light, having gathered in one place, in the form of an egg or a ball, descended to the bottom of the font and disappeared. The newly baptized man then told his vision first to his godmother, asking for her explanation, and then to the missionary catechist. This appearance of light to the baby of faith, who had just emerged from the darkness of paganism, in obvious correspondence with what was said in one church song: where shall Thy light shine upon them, only on those who sit in darkness? Was it not a visible sign of that gracious light that is bestowed upon the baptized? It is not for nothing that the sacrament of baptism is called enlightenment, and the newly baptized are called newly enlightened by holy baptism. (“Church Veda.”, 1892, No. 50.) 4. Stories from the lives of saints, proving that in the sacrament of communion (Eucharist) 77 the true Body of Christ is taught under the guise of bread and the true Blood of the Lord under the guise of wine a) The life of St. Gregory the Dvoeslov, Pope of Rome, tells about a significant miracle that took place in the Most Pure Mysteries through the prayer of this saint. “One noble Roman woman brought prosphora for the sacrament of communion; The liturgy on this day was celebrated by Saint Gregory himself. When it was time to serve people St. communion, then that woman also began to partake of the Holy Mysteries. At the words of the saint: “the life-giving Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is taught,” the mentioned woman grinned. Seeing her laugh, the saint held back his hand and asked the woman: “Why did you laugh?” - “It’s amazing to me, Vladyka, that you call that bread the Body of Christ, which I baked with my own hands.” Saint Gregory, seeing her unbelief, prayed to God, and immediately the appearance of the bread was transformed into the appearance of the truest human body. Not only that woman saw this miracle, but also all the others who were in the church glorified Christ God and were confirmed in the faith regarding the Most Pure Mysteries, that under the guise of bread the true Body of Christ is taught and under the guise of wine the true Blood of the Lord. The saint prayed again - and the appearance of a human body was transformed into the appearance of bread. With fear and faith, the woman undoubtedly accepted the bread as the Body of Christ, and also the wine as the Blood of Christ” (Ch.-Min., March 12). b) One elder who lived in a monastery was a great ascetic, but he was simple in his faith and because of his simplicity he sinned. He said: the bread that we receive is not essentially the Body of Christ, but only a substitute. Despite all his convictions, the elder answered: “If I am not convinced by the very act, I cannot be completely convinced.” The holy ascetics told him: “Let us pray to God this week about this sacrament, and God will reveal it to us.” The elder happily agreed to this proposal and prayed to God like this: “Lord! You know that I do not believe not out of malice, but so as not to be mistaken through ignorance; open to me, Lord Jesus!” Other elders and ascetics also prayed this way. God heard them. After a week, they came to church on Sunday - and their eyes were opened. When the bread was placed on the holy throne, it was represented in the form of a baby; when the priest stretched out his hand to break bread, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven with a knife, killed the baby, and poured his blood into a cup; when the priest crushed the bread into small pieces, then the angel cut off small pieces from the baby; when they began to receive the sacrament, the elder alone was given flesh and blood. Seeing this, he was horrified and exclaimed: “I believe, Lord, that this bread is Your Body and this cup is Your Blood!” And immediately the flesh in his hand became bread, as happens in the sacrament, and he partook, thanking God. After this, the elders tell him: “God knows that man by nature cannot eat raw flesh, and therefore he gives His Body under the guise of bread and His Blood under the guise of wine to those who receive it with faith.” The holy ascetics thanked God for not allowing the perplexed elder to ruin his labors, and everyone joyfully returned to their cells. (Venerable tale, about the sub-saint and dear father. pp. 65, 57.) c) St. Petersburg came one day. Nifont and his disciple went to the church (in Constantinople) for the usual prayer, where the bishop had already begun the divine service. And so, they opened the door to St. Niphon's spiritual eyes, and he saw fire descending from heaven and covering the altar and the bishop; During the singing of the Trisagion, four angels appeared and sang with the singers. And while reading the “Apostle” I saw St. ap. Paul, who stood behind the reader and watched him. During the Gospel, the words, like lamps, ascended to heaven, and during the transfer of the Holy Gifts, the church vault opened, the heavens opened up, and with an extraordinary fragrance, angels descended singing: “Glory to Christ God!” - and they carried the beautiful Youth and, placing him on the paten, they themselves surrounded the throne. When the time came for the consecration of the Gifts and the performance of the sacrament, one of the brightest angels came and, taking a knife, slain the Youth and poured out the holy. blood into the cup; then, having laid the Youth on the paten, he himself stood again with the others in reverence. Then, during communion, the blessed one saw that some of those communing had faces as bright as the sun, while others were dark and gloomy, like those of the Ethiopians. The upcoming angels watched: how someone approached, and they crowned those receiving communion worthily, but they turned away from the unworthy and abhorred them. At the end of this service, he saw the Youth again whole in the hands of angels and ascended to heaven. The monk himself told this to his disciple, who committed it to writing for the benefit of others (Chet.-Min., December 23). d) One Mohammedan, a resident of Arabia, being in a Christian church, saw that the priest had stabbed a baby during the liturgy, poured his blood into a cup, and crushed his body on a platter. Then the Christians present here ate the baby’s body and drank the blood. The unfaithful Saracen thought this deed was cruel, so he began to revile the priest greatly. But when the priest humbly explained the mystery to the unbeliever, the Mohammedan, struck by the greatness of this mystery, became a follower of the Gospel and a martyr for Christ. (Prologue, November 26.) You, reader, may ask: why does God hide from us the sight of the body and blood in the secret of St. communion? The God-bearing Fathers of the Church answer this as follows (as we already know from the above legend): “Human nature turns away from eating raw meat and cannot drink blood without disgust. Therefore, in the mystery of communion, God covers the body with the appearance of bread, and the blood with the appearance of wine.” (Prol., December 25, “Instruction on the Great Mysteries.”) Suppose you say, this is true; But is it not possible for us now, for confirmation, to see in the mystery of communion, instead of bread, the Body of the Lord, and instead of wine, the Blood of Christ? Oh, without a doubt it is possible! But we must judge what we want. God allows such a vision mostly for non-believers, but for us, who believe in the undoubted holiness of the mystery of communion, the desire for such a vision is unnecessary and sinful. The rules of the Church command that “if one of the priests celebrating the liturgy were presented with bread in the form of a body, and wine in the form of blood, then such a priest should not partake, but should bow down in humility of spirit before the omnipresent God, blame himself for lack of faith and ask the Lord to show him the sacrament of communion in the ordinary form in which it is taught to true believing Christians.” (See book: Gr. Dyachenko, Archpriest. Lessons and examples of the Christian faith. Published by the School Council under the Holy Synod, 1900) 5. Miracles that occurred during the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ a) The historian Sozomen narrates: “When St. Chrysostom performed the liturgy and distributed the Holy Mysteries to the believers; a certain woman, infected with the Macedonian heresy, began to do this. And as soon as she accepted divine communion with unbelief, instantly a part (of Christ’s body) turned into stone in her mouth. The woman, horrified by this wonderful miracle, told what happened to her in front of all the people, showing the stone itself, and from unbelief turned to true faith.” (Historical Sozom. Book 8, Chapter 5.) b) In Limonar it is written: “In Seleucia, a certain heretic merchant had an Orthodox slave, who, having taken St. communion, kept it in a reliquary. After some time, his master found out about this and wanted to burn the Holy Mysteries; but suddenly all the particles of the most pure body of Christ, kept in the reliquary under the guise of bread, sprouted ears of corn” (Limonar, ch. 79). c) During the time of Mina, Patriarch of Constantinople, one of the Jewish youths joined the Christian youths and received St. with them. communion; but, returning to the house, he told his father everything that had happened. His father was inflamed with anger and immediately grabbed his son and threw him into the furnace in which glass was melted (for his father was a master of glass casting). The mother, not knowing anything about what happened to her son, searched for him for a long time and could not find him. On the third day, crying and sobbing, she came to her husband, a glassmaker, and suddenly from the midst of a red-hot furnace she heard the voice of her son. Frightened and delighted at the same time, the mother hastily approached the smelting furnace and saw her son among the burning coals. Taking it out of the fire, she asked how it didn’t burn in the oven. He answered: “Some Woman in light clothes often came to him, giving him water to extinguish the burning coal; and when he wanted to eat, She gave him food.” This miraculous incident spread throughout the city. Emperor Justin himself (who at that time reigned in the Greek Empire) found out about this and ordered his son and mother to be baptized, and ordered his father, who did not want to be baptized, to be thrown into a hot furnace. This miracle was known to the whole world. Church historians write about him: Evagrius in the book. 4, ch. 24; Eusebius Prince 4, in ch. 36; Nikifor in the book. 17, ch. 25. d) Combining with sincere repentance for sins and unashamed faith in the Savior, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ delivers us from eternal death and, even here on earth, reconciles the sinner with the offended justice of God. One Palestinian leader, named Givimer, having taken office, wanted first of all to venerate the Holy Sepulcher. Approaching the church, he saw a ram coming at him and trying to hit him with its horns. The commander was frightened by the vision and wanted to go back, but the guardian of St. A cross named Azarius, noticing his indecision, asked him: “Why don’t you go, sir?” He replied: “Why did you let this terrible ram come here?” Azarius calmed him down and said: “Go, there is nothing here.” But when the military leader wanted to go to church, the same vision presented itself to him again, while others did not notice anything and entered freely. Then the guardian of St. The cross said to Givimer: “Sir! You have something in your soul for which you are not allowed to bow to St. to the tomb of our Savior. Bring repentance to the Lord: He is philanthropic and abundant in mercy.” The boss answered with tears: “Exactly, I am guilty before God of many and important sins.” With these words, falling to the ground, he cried for a long time and confessed his sins to the Lord. Then, when he got up, he wanted to enter the church again, but the terrible ram blocked his entrance again. Then the guardian of St. The cross told him: “Apparently there is some other obstacle.” The boss answered thoughtfully: “Is it because I’m not Orthodox.” And after that he joined the Orthodox Church, and then, when the guardian of St. When the Holy Mystery communed with him of the cross, the chief freely entered the cave of the Holy Sepulcher, and the previous vision disappeared before him. (John Moschus. Spiritual meadow. Ch. 48.) e) It happened that from the communion of the Holy Mysteries, sick people recovered, whom no medicine could improve. Gregory the Theologian says that his sister, being sick and not receiving any benefit from the medicine, accepted the holy mysteries with special faith - and became healthy.” (See: Stefan Yavorsky, Metropolitan of Ryazan. Stone of Faith.) f) Whoever partakes of the body and blood of Christ, evil spirits cannot cause any harm to him. One of the church books mentions that one saint asked evil spirits what they fear most about Christians. - “What you eat, that is, holy communion. Oh, if Christians honestly observed what they eat in the sacrament, they would be impregnable to our wiles.” This is the power of the Holy Mysteries! (Helmsman. Part II. Chapter 68.) g) Here is a wonderful incident from the life of St. Sergius, abbot of Radonezh, wonderworker. Once St. Sergius performed the liturgy. The silent Isaac stood in the church and saw some concelebrant Sergius in light robes at the altar. At the entrance with the Gospel, the wonderful visitor followed Sergius, and his face shone with such a strong light that Isaac could not look at him. The miracle opened his mouth, and he asked the reverent Macarius: who is this? “I don’t know,” answered Macarius, “and I am filled with horror; I thought at first that this was the presbyter who came with Prince Vladimir, but the boyars said no; without a doubt, this is an angel serving Sergius.” At the end of the liturgy, both students begged the teacher to tell them who served with him. And Sergius discovered that this was definitely an angel who always served with him. (See the book: Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov. Russian saints, revered by the whole church, or locally. St. Petersburg, 1882, Part II. Page 150.) A) One priest told the following miraculous incident. He was invited to a neighboring village, due to the absence of the parish priest, to give farewell to the patient. While teaching the Holy Mysteries to the patient, the spare particle somehow fell from his spoon, and no matter how much the priest and the owners looked for it, they could not find it. The patient was a blind old man, and the entire time they continued to look for the particle, he lay on his bed, anxiously asking from time to time if they had found it. Finally, with force, he got up from bed and, bowing his head under the bench, said: “Is that what, father, is it glowing under the bench?” – and at the same time pointed his finger. No one except the blind old man could see the blessed light; but on his instructions the priest found St. particle and gave it to the wonderful blind man. (Shower Thursday, 1877) 6. Examples of God’s punishment for unworthy communion of the Holy Mysteries or blasphemous treatment of them St. ap. Paul narrates that in the Corinthian church many of the unworthy communicants were subjected to serious illnesses and death itself for their guilt (1 Cor. 2:30). In the Carthaginian church, according to St. Cyprian, one unworthy communicant suddenly became mute after communion, and another’s tongue was torn in two (from the book on the fallen). During the time of St. Chrysostom, according to him, unworthy communicants were sometimes apparently subjected to torment from evil spirits (“First week of Great Lent”, Kiev, p. 259). St. Cyprian says that when one woman, who had fallen from the faith for fear of torment during persecution, wanted, as usual, to open the ark in which the Gifts were kept in order to partake of them, fire came out of the ark, so that the apostate did not even dare to touch them (from the book of the fallen). When the venerable martyr Evdokia was captured by the soldiers and brought to trial, then, taking off her clothes, the soldiers noticed that a particle of the most pure and life-giving body of Christ had fallen to the ground, which the martyr Evdokia took with her when leaving her monastery. The servants, having picked up the fallen part of the Divine body of Christ and not knowing what it was, brought it to the ruler. As soon as he extended his hand and wanted to take the shrine brought to him, immediately a particle of Christ’s body turned into fire, and a great flame was formed from it, which burned the hegemon’s servants and his left shoulder was damaged by the flame (Chet.-Min., March 1). “Although eat, O man, the Master’s Body, approach with fear, lest you be scorched: for there is fire.” (Prayer before communion.) On about. Cyprus has a marina called Tade. Not far from it there is a monastery called Philoxenova. In this monastery lived one monk, originally from Miletus, named Isidore, who was constantly crying bitterly about something. When everyone began to convince him that he should be consoled to some extent, he did not agree and told everyone: “I am a great sinner, such as has not been seen since Adam until this day.” When they said to him: “Holy Father, who is without sin except God?” - he answered: “Believe me, brothers, I have not found either in Scripture or in Tradition such a sinner as I am, and such a sin as mine. If you think I am only blaming myself, listen to my crime and pray for me. “I,” he continued, “when I was in the world, had a wife, we both adhered to the teachings of the North. So, when I came home one day, I did not find my wife, but I heard that she had gone to a neighbor to commune. The neighbor belonged to St. cathedral Church. I immediately ran to stop her. Arriving at a neighbor's house, I found that my wife had already received St. part and joined. Grabbing her by the throat, I forced her - oh the crime! - spew from the mouth of St. part and, taking this last one, furiously threw it here and there, and finally it fell into the mud. But immediately lightning caught the saint. communion from that place. Two days later, an Ethiopian dressed in rags appears to me and says: “You and I are condemned to the same punishment.” - “Who are you?” – I asked him. The Ethiopian answered: “I am the one who struck the Lord Jesus Christ on the cheek of the Lord who suffered for everyone.” That’s why,” the monk concluded, “I can’t stop crying.” The follower of the North committed a terrible crime, plunging the shrine into the mud; but those who accept it with a heart not cleansed of sinful defilements sin just as terribly (I. Mosch. The Spiritual Meadow. Chapter 29). St. Macarius of Alexandria, for his ascetic labors, received from God the gift of recognizing worthy communicants of the Holy Mysteries from unworthy ones. This is what he tells us regarding this. “When the brethren approached the altar to receive the Body of Christ from the hands of the priests, one could see,” says St. ascetic, - how the Ethiopians put coals of fire into the hands of some of them, and the Body of Christ, given by the hand of the priest, returned again to the altar. Meanwhile, the demons ran away from the worthy communicants. The Divine Mysteries themselves were distributed by the angel of the Lord, standing with the priest in the altar” (Thurs.-Min., January 19). 7. Stories about the healing power of the Holy Mysteries of Christ Mother of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, being in serious illness, as soon as she received divine communion from the hands of her son, she was immediately healed. (See the words of St. Gregory at the burial of his father.) One noble nobleman brought his daughter, a fifteen-year-old girl who had been in paralysis for three years, to the Venerable Martyr Epictetus, a presbyter, and asked him to heal the sick woman. St. Epictetus prayed to God, anointed the paralytic young woman with consecrated oil - and she immediately stood up healthy. At this, the monk said to the dignitary: “If you want there to be no illness in your home, then on every Sunday, share with your household the divine Mysteries of the body and blood of Christ with a pure heart.” (Thu-Min July 7.) Through the Holy Mysteries the Lord gives speech to the dumb. St. Andrew, Archbishop of Crete, was mute in infancy until he was seven years old, but after sharing the Holy Mysteries with his parents, he began to say: such is the power in the Holy Mysteries! (Thu-Min 4 July.) Through the Holy Mysteries the Lord gave sight to the blind. St. John the Faster, Archbishop of Constantinograd, placed part of the body of Christ on the eyes of one blind man and said: “He who healed a blind man from birth, let him also heal you,” and he received his sight. Such is the wonderful power of the Holy Mysteries of Christ! (Thu-Min September 2.) “I marvel at the greatness and life-giving nature of the divine mysteries,” writes the Kronstadt shepherd Fr. John Sergiev. “The old woman, who was coughing up blood and completely exhausted, eating nothing, began to recover from the Holy Communion on the same day.” (See the book: “Lessons of a life of grace” according to the leadership of the Kronstadt archpriest Father I. Sergiev, p. 33.) “The girl, who was completely dying, after the Holy Mysteries on the same day began to recover, eat, drink and speak, while she was almost unconscious, tossed about violently and did not eat or drink anything. Glory to Your life-giving and terrible Mysteries, Lord!” (From there.) “Someone, being mortally ill with inflammation of the stomach for nine days and not receiving the slightest relief from medical benefits, as soon as he received communion of the life-giving Mysteries on the ninth day in the morning, by the evening he became healthy and rose from his sick bed. He took communion with firm faith. Glory to Thy omnipotence, goodness and good obedience, Lord!” (From there.) One of the most famous writers in Russian society suffered from a serious illness. “The doctor came,” he writes, “quite early, felt the pulse, looked at the tongue and didn’t say a word. I asked him why the red spots that first appeared all over my skin turned purple, and then turned black. “Yes, your tongue has already turned completely black,” he answered. It seems that this sentence would be enough; On his way out, he stopped at the door and said out loud to my servant and to one of the engineering officers who happened to be there: “Don’t torture him in vain, don’t give him any more medicine; I don’t think he’ll live even a day.” A prayer service was served for the health of the patient. Then he was awarded St. communion on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross. “After this was accomplished, strength suddenly began to come to me so quickly, without the help of drugs, even supportive drugs, which I had not wanted to hear about for a long time, that my brother, no longer finding his presence necessary for me, went two days later, on the 16th (September) ...” “A miracle happened over me, like a miracle! How many have managed to be separated from eternity by one narrow line and turn sharply back from it?.. I can say that I have tasted death...” (Russian archive, 1892, November. Notes of Philip Philipovich Vigel. 192–195.) Finally, let us cite a wonderful story from the autobiography of I.V. Lopukhina. “The unexpected turning point of an illness to perfect recovery is worth describing. – Everyone who knows how the action of the power of God’s mercy through faith and the dissolution of the heart with love spills over into physical nature will, of course, read this description with pleasure. Because of the cold, with an almost incessant cough, I had pain in my chest and side, and for several weeks a debilitating fever continued for several weeks, a sure harbinger of consumption, which the doctors, and one of my sincere friends among them, decisively announced to me, reassuring me only with the fact that considering my years, which are no longer the youngest, I can cough for several more years. I fell ill during Lent. During Holy Week, our family always had the custom of fasting. My father, in his weakened state, could not go to church and received communion at home. Due to my illness, I also had to take communion at home after mass. On the day of communion, I spent a long time in the morning lying in bed due to illness and had to force myself to get up. Meanwhile, they hurried me to go to my father’s bedroom and listen to the rule. All this was alarming with impatience, which was even more characteristic of the patient. After listening to the rule, I went to my room to get dressed. I’m in a hurry, and my valet hasn’t even prepared a wash for me yet. I got angry to the point of frenzy, scolded him, but did not beat him, only because he still conveyed in me a feeling of long-term love for him and attention due to his excellent behavior. But my scolding was such stinging words that the beatings would have been easier for him, of course. He trembled, turned pale, blue spots appeared on his face. Seeing this, I suddenly felt the entire vileness of my act and, bursting into tears, threw myself at the feet of my valet. You can imagine what a scene it was! Then they told me that the priest had come with the Gifts. I went, in tears and sobbing, I took communion and received communion truly. After seeing the priest off, I lay down to rest. I fell asleep for an hour and, when I woke up, I felt in my body such a warmth of health that the doctors had never expected for me in nature. In a word, I woke up healthy. Soon after that, the resident doctor at our house arrived. He looked at my pulse and was surprised: “You are completely healthy,” he told me, “not only is there no fever in your pulse anymore, but it is so clean and fresh, like that of the healthiest person. Well, I’m glad,” he added, “that my powders helped you so much; however, the speed of change is extraordinary.” It should be noted that he prescribed me medications, but I did not take them and left everything long ago. A few days before, I had taken one of those, in his opinion, the most healing powders of his, but my throat started bleeding, and one physician, who, out of kindness, visited me every day, advised me not to take them, as they could accelerate the destructive consequences of my illness. Thus, I completely recovered from the fatal illness; only some weakness lasted almost the entire summer. They sing: God is marvelous in His saints; but if one may dare to say, then He is even more marvelous in sinners.” (This story is published in the “Readings of the Society of History and Antiquities”, book 2 for 1860) 8. Stories about the power and meaning of the sacrament of repentance 1. One monk was silent in a certain monastery, and his prayer constantly consisted of the following: “Lord! There is no fear of Thy in me: send me either a serious illness or an attack, so that at least in this way my damned soul may come into Thy fear; I know that my sins in themselves are unforgivable; I have sinned a lot before You, Master, I have sinned a lot and gravely, but for the sake of Your mercy, according to Your holy will, forgive me my sin. If this cannot happen, then torture me here, so that future torment may be somewhat weakened by the torment here. Begin to execute me from here, Master, to execute me not in Your anger, but in your love for mankind.” The brother spent a whole year praying in this way, in contrition and humility of heart, in strict fasting. Meanwhile, the thought was constantly present to him: what is the meaning of the words of the Lord: “Blessed are he who mourns, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)? One day, when the brother, overwhelmed with sadness, sat on the ground as usual and cried, a subtle dream fell on him. Christ the Savior appeared to him, looked at him mercifully and said in a quiet voice: “What is the matter with you? What are you crying about? The brother answered the Lord: “Lord! I have fallen." The one who appeared said to this: “Rise up!” The brother answered, sitting on the ground: “I cannot get up unless You stretch out Your hand and raise me up.” The Lord stretched out his hand and raised him up. The one who appeared again said quietly: “Why are you crying, what are you grieving about?” The brother answered: “Lord! How can I not cry and grieve when I have angered You so much?” Then the One who appeared stretched out His hand, put his palm on his brother’s heart and, stroking his heart, said to him: “Do not grieve: God will help you, I will no longer punish you, because you punished yourself. For your sake I have shed My blood: I will also shed My love for mankind on every soul that brings repentance.” The brother, having come to his senses at the end of the vision, felt his heart filled with joy and received the news that God had shown mercy to him. He spent the rest of his life in great humility, praising God, and went to God in this mood of confession. (Ignatius, Bishop Fatherland. P. 436.) 2. “There lived a certain Victorinus,” writes St. Gregory Dvoeslov - who was also called by another name, Emilian, a sufficient man; but since, with the wealth of things, the sinfulness of the flesh prevails, he fell into some kind of crime. Imbued with reflection on his guilt, he rebelled against himself, left everything in this world and entered a monastery. In this monastery he showed such humility and such feats of repentance that all the brothers who grew there in love for God were forced to despise their lives when they saw his repentance, for with all the zeal of his soul he tried to crucify the flesh, break his own will, pray in secret, wash himself with daily tears, desire contempt for himself and fear respect from the brethren. He was accustomed to getting up earlier than all the brothers for night vigils, and since the mountain on which the monastery stood jutted out on one side, he used to go out there before the vigils in order to exhaust himself daily with cries of repentance, the more hidden the place. But one night the awake abbot of the monastery, seeing him secretly leaving, quietly followed him from afar. Seeing him prostrate in prayer in a mountain cave, he wanted to wait for him to get up in order to find out the very patience of his prayer, when suddenly a light poured from the sky onto the one who was lying prostrate in prayer, and such clarity spread in that place that the entire part of that side turned white from that light. Seeing this, the abbot got scared and left. And when, after a long time, that brother returned to the monastery, his abbot (i.e., the abbot of the monastery), in order to find out whether he was aware of the shedding of such light over himself, tried to find out from him, saying: “Where have you been, brother?” But he, thinking that he could hide, replied that he was in the monastery. Ava was forced to say what he saw. But he, seeing that it was open, said what was a secret to the Abba, adding: “When you saw the light descending on me from heaven, then a voice came along, saying: your sin is forgiven.” And although Almighty God could silently cleanse his sin, yet, uttering a voice, shining with light, He wanted to shake our hearts to repentance with the example of His mercy.” (From the story of St. Gregory Dvoeslov.) 3. Under the emperor of Mauritius, on the borders of Thrace, a terrible robber appeared, who with his robberies and murders brought terror to all neighboring places, so that no one dared to pass where he committed robberies. The government more than once sent detachments of soldiers to capture him; They took all precautions and tricks to accidentally catch him, but nothing succeeded. Finally, the emperor decided to send his orders to him personally with one young man, who undertook to deliver them to the robber and carried out the order with precision. As soon as the robber saw the royal decree, he changed completely, as if struck by some divine power, he immediately abandoned his vile occupation and hastened to throw himself at the feet of the emperor, told him all his crimes and surrendered himself to his mercy. The emperor forgave the robber. But remorse tormented the former criminal so much that he soon fell ill and was sent to a general hospital, where his illness intensified to the last degree. Feeling close to death and remembering the sins of his life, he greatly lamented them, and only hope in God’s mercy kept him from despair. His lips involuntarily, following his heart, uttered the following prayer to Jesus Christ: “Oh, most gracious Savior, be merciful to me, as You were merciful to the thief crucified at Your right hand, accept my tears, which I shed at the doors of death! You mercifully accepted those who came to work even at the eleventh hour, although they could no longer do anything worthy of mercy: for the sake of this goodness of Yours, look graciously at my tears and make them for me the second font of baptism, so that I may be cleansed and receive forgiveness of all my sins.” This prayer was heard by many surrounding the dying man’s bed. At the same time, tears flowed from the eyes of the repentant in such abundance that his entire handkerchief was soaked with them. Finally, he died with the same feelings of heartbreak. All this time, the doctor visiting the hospital, a very talented man and known for his knowledge and experience, had a dream, or, better, a vision, in which he imagined that near the bed of the sick robber there were many Ethiopians, each of whom had in his hands a sheet covered with the crimes of the dying man; there were also two faces, shining with light, who were investigating whether the dying man had done any good deeds. Scales were brought, and when the Ethiopians placed all their sheets on one side of them, this side quickly descended, and the other rose high; two angels who were present said: “Do we really have nothing to put on the other side of the scales to tip them here?.. So was it time to do him some kind of good deed when he recently abandoned his atrocities?..” They, however, approached his bed and, finding the handkerchief with which he wiped away his tears, said: “Let us put him on the scales, and if God applies the weight of His mercy, then our wishes will come true.” They barely had time to do this when the scales tilted towards them, and the sheets that were on the other side disappeared. “The mercy of God,” exclaimed the angels, “has overcome the unrighteousness of this sinner.” They immediately took his soul to themselves, and the Ethiopians fled in shame. The doctor woke up after this vision and immediately went to the hospital, wanting to check the truth of his vision. The patient had just died, and the handkerchief, soaked with tears, still lay over his eyes. Those present at his death testified to his repentance, and the doctor, taking the handkerchief, went with it straight to the emperor, told him his vision and what he learned from others, then added the following: “You know, most pious emperor, what the Gospel says about the thief who received forgiveness of sins from Jesus Christ at his death; here is the man to whom the Savior now grants the same grace under your power.” (“Sunday Thursday” XVII, 459.) 4. The Monk Paul the Simple, one day looking at those entering the church like a seer, saw, together with others, a man who had come, his face completely darkened, surrounded by demons, and in the distance a guardian angel walking behind him - sad and lamenting. What then? This same man, who was in captivity of demons and who resembled them as the sons of darkness by his very appearance, when returning from church, appeared to the monk as completely changed. Instead of blackness, a luminous whiteness was visible on his face; the guardian angel walked next to him and shone with heavenly joy, and the demons were already walking far away from their former servant and did not dare to approach him. How did this change happen? The sinner, having entered the church, was amazed by the voice of God in the prophecy of Isaiah: “wash yourself and you will be clean, take away wickedness from your souls,... cease from your wickedness, learn to do good,” and so on. (Isa. 1:16–17), suddenly felt the danger of his sinful state, turned with tearful repentance to the merciful Savior and immediately made a decisive intention to correct his life. This is what he himself told the Monk Paul, who revealed this miracle of God’s grace to the brothers. “Here,” says St. Elder, what love God has for sinners who repent! Thus He teaches us not to give in to despair, no matter how sinful we may be, but to resort with repentance to His philanthropy and mercy.” (Thu-Min., March 7.) 5. Once upon a time St. Niphon saw two angels who carried the soul of a man to heaven, not allowing it to be tortured in aerial ordeals. The demons - the air tax collectors - began to cry out: “Why don’t you give this soul to us? After all, she is ours." The angels said: “How will you prove that she is yours?” “Yes,” the demons answered, “before her death she did only one evil, and there is no sin that she did not commit; she was enslaved to passions and was separated from her body without repentance; and whoever died a slave to sin is ours.” One of the angels answered them: “Since you always lie, we don’t believe you, let the guardian angel of this soul be called, and we will give him faith, for he will not tell a lie.” The Guardian Angel appeared, and the angels asked him: “Has this soul repented or has it left the body in its sins?” “Truly, this man was a sinner,” answered the angel, “but when he began to get sick, then with tears he confessed his sins to God and, with his hands raised to heaven, earnestly asked God for mercy.” Then the angels retained the soul, and the demons were put to shame. But they did not calm down and cried out again: “If this man could be pardoned, then that means he will be saved, and the whole world and we labor in vain?” “Yes,” answered the angels, “all sinners who confess their sins humbly and with tears will receive forgiveness from God, and those who die without repentance will be judged by God.” And with these words, “I went away,” it is said, “to the gates of heaven, and that soul was saved.” (Prologue, December.) 9. Examples of miraculous election and calling to the episcopacy 1. A bishop died in the city of Koman, Neocaesarea region. The citizens begged Gregory the Wonderworker to come to them, elect and ordain a bishop in their orphaned church. Many pointed out to Gregory the learned, educated and enlightened people, but Gregory did not recognize any of them as worthy of this great rank. One of those present mockingly said: “Shouldn’t we elect Alexander as bishop?” Everyone laughed at this joke. “Who is Alexander?” – asked Grigory. They answered that Alexander burns coals and sells them on the market. “Bring him here,” said St. Grigory. When Alexander was brought to the cathedral, some of those present, looking at him, laughed loudly: he was black from the coals and, moreover, in rags. When Alexander approached Gregory, he was immediately informed by the Spirit of God that this Alexander would be a bishop. Gregory ordered Alexander to go wash, dress in decent clothes and appear at the council. When Alexander returned, Gregory the Wonderworker, in the presence of everyone, began to test him in his knowledge of the Holy Spirit. Scriptures; Alexander amazed everyone with his intelligence and eloquence. He was a highly enlightened man, but out of love for God he chose such a humble life. And Saint Gregory ordained Alexander bishop of Comana. His first teaching to the people touched the hearts of everyone. Everyone thanked God for giving them such a shepherd. The grace of the Holy Spirit emanated from his lips, and St. The Church canonized him. (Thu-Min,) 2. St. Epiphanius, visiting the saint who was fleeing on the island of Cyprus. Hilarion the Great, wanted to sail from there to the city of Ascalon. But the ship on which Epiphanius sailed to Ascalon was brought by a storm again to the shores of Cyprus and landed near the Cypriot city of Salamis, or otherwise - Constantia of Cyprus. At this time, a council of bishops was held in Salamis to elect a new archbishop to replace the deceased. For several days the bishops offered up prayers to God, so that He Himself would show them a husband worthy of this rank. Among them was one eldest bishop, who had already served in the rank of bishop for fifty years, named Pappius - a holy and perspicacious man, who was honored to suffer for Christ: having been captured by the wicked along with the Archbishop of Salamis Gelasius, after many torments he was released alive. All the bishops of Cyprus had him instead of a father and revered him as a confessor and martyr of Christ. It was revealed to this elder bishop from God about the monk Epiphanius who came to the city of Salamis and was commanded to take him and consecrate him as archbishop of that city. At that time it was autumn time and the harvest of grapes was taking place. And so, Epiphanius said to his disciples (John and Polubius, with whom he was traveling): “Let’s go, children, to the city and buy ourselves some grapes for the road” (for he intended to sail from there soon). And they went to the marketplace. Approaching the grape seller and picking up two large bunches of grapes, Epiphanius asked: “What is this worth?” Suddenly they said that the bishops were coming. Looking around, Epiphanius saw the old Bishop Pappius walking, supported by two deacons, and with him three other bishops. Epiphanius, having forgotten himself, held grapes in his hands and, looking at the bishops, was surprised that they were so easily coming to him. Blessed Pappius, seeing the Monk Epiphanius, recognized him with the Holy Spirit and said: “Abba (Father) Epiphanius, leave the grapes and come with us to the holy church.” Epiphanius remembered the words of David: “We rejoiced at those who said to me: let us go to the house of the Lord” (Ps. 121:1), leaving the grapes and went with the bishops. Entering the church, he saw a council of bishops who told him: “God sent you to us, Abba, so that you would be the archbishop of this city and the entire island of Cyprus.” But Epiphanius refused, calling himself a sinner and unworthy of such a high rank. The bishops, not listening to his apologies, began to ordain him to the priesthood. And the monk wept, considering that dedication heavy for himself, and the burden of priesthood unbearable. Then the holy Bishop Pappius said to him: “We should have been silent, child, about the revelation that came to us about you, but since I see you grieving and crying, it is now necessary for me to tell you what God has deigned to reveal to us. These holy father-bishops gathered here blamed my unworthiness for the election of an archbishop, saying to me, a sinner: “Pray diligently to God, and we believe that He will show you a husband worthy of the archbishopric!” Shut up in my cell, I prayed to the Lord Savior for this, and suddenly, like lightning, light flashed over me, and I heard a voice speaking to me, a sinner: “Pappius, Pappius, listen!” And I, frightened, asked: “What do you command, my Lord?” Then the voice answered me: “Get up and go to the market, there you will see a monk buying grape bunches, with face and head similar to the prophet Elisha and having two disciples with him. Having taken him, consecrate him to the rank of archbishop, and the name of that monk is Epiphanius.” And I, getting up, did what I was commanded; therefore, child, do not resist the will of God, but listen to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit makes you a bishop.” After this, Epiphanius, having fallen, bowed to the holy Bishop Pappius, obeyed the will of the Lord and accepted the consecration to the rank of Archbishop of Salamis. (Thu-Min.) 3. In the 12th year, the youth Eleutherius (later St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow) already had his high appointment revealed. Once he spread his nets over the birds and, after guarding them for a long time, dozed off from fatigue. Suddenly he hears a voice: “Alexy! Why is this your work? You need to be a fisher of men.” Awakened by this, the youth was amazed at the extraordinary voice and name of Alexy. This vision sank deeply into his soul; he became silent, abandoned games and began to think a lot about life and its purpose. His parents were amazed at the change in his life and asked the servants about the reasons for the change, but they could only say that Eleutherius often went to secluded places. They asked the boy himself why he avoids people and studies only books. Why does he exhaust himself with fasting? “Don’t be sad about me, good parents,” the boy answered, “I don’t do bad things, but I want to succeed in good things; May the will of the Lord be done to me.” At the age of 15, Eleutherius had already decided to devote himself to the monastic life. In the 20th year (in 1320) he entered the Moscow Epiphany Monastery and at the same time was tonsured with the name Alexy, with the same name that he heard in a dream vision, seven years before. Although the Epiphany Monastery was on a noisy shopping street, Alexy found peace here, indulging in exploits. He spent time either in church or in cell prayers; read books and diligently studied the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; By vigil at night he dried up his flesh and cleansed his heart. (From: Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov. Russian saints revered by the entire Church or place. St. Petersburg. 1882. Part I. pp. 225–226.) 10. Stories about God’s punishment for insulting the servants of the Lord’s altar 1. By the end of the second year of ruling the Voronezh flock of St. Tikhon refers to the case described by his cell attendant. In the autumn, Saint Tikhon, traveling along the Moscow highway for the burial of a landowner, stopped in the village of Khlevnoye to change horses. The peasants did not give him horses and boldly said: “You are not our governor, so that we can gather horses soon.” When the archpastor said that the archpastor should also be honored, they insulted him with new rudeness: “You, they said, are a shepherd over the priests and over the sextons.” In these words, obviously, the voice of the century sounded, the response of the representatives of the time. The shepherd said: “Fear God, don’t torture me.” And they barely listened to him. Subsequently, already in Zadonsk, the perpetrators came to ask for the saint’s petition. “He, they said, cursed us, and all our good horses fall.” The saint was ill then and through the cell attendant answered that he was not cursing, but God Himself was punishing them for insulting the shepherd, so that they would come to their senses; He lovingly allowed them to repent. (From: Filaret Gumilevsky, Archbishop. Lives of the Saints. Aug. 13. Page 96.) 2. In the parish of one priest (from the Little Russian Cossacks) there was a certain Cossack Maxim, a man of obstinate character, and especially when he was drunk, which, unfortunately, happened to him quite often. The priest, as a shepherd, exhorted him at every opportunity to reform and stop drinking. At one time, seeing this Maxim again rampaging in a drunken state, he made a remark to him: “What a bad thing you are doing, Maxim, how you are sinning!” But Maxim, instead of obeying the instructions, uttered a lot of rude and abusive words to the priest, and in response to his remark: “But I’m your confessor,” he said: “If I don’t teach you, I’ll die 78.” That was the end of the matter then. Several years passed from that time, and it happened that this Maxim fell ill. His family asked the priest to give instructions to the sick man, and he went to him with the Holy Gifts; but as soon as he entered the hut, sick, conscious and talking, suddenly in the presence of his confessor he became speechless, unconscious and looked in a frenzy, seeing nothing. No matter how much the priest and his household spoke to him, he remained numb. There was nothing to do, the priest left the hut and wanted to go home, when suddenly the family said that the sick man had regained consciousness and asked his spiritual father to come back. He returned, but as soon as he entered the hut, the patient again lost consciousness and became unable to accept parting words. The next day, the patient’s relatives again ask the priest to confess and give him communion, reporting that he is already “in his senses.” The priest, believing that the patient, perhaps, could not even receive guidance from him, did not go to him himself, but invited another priest; but what? And the same thing happens with this: before his arrival, the patient spoke and was conscious, but as soon as the priest entered his hut, he became unconscious and numb; the priest left the hut - and the sick man came to his senses again; The priest is again asked to return, but when he entered the hut, the patient again lost consciousness. So this poor man died without being instructed by the Holy Mysteries. May the Lord God forgive and have mercy on him! (“The Wanderer” for 1861) 3. The following incident happened to one priest of the Tobolsk diocese. He was assigned to a village where there was no church yet. It was necessary to build it again. But before the church, the community had a desire to quickly build a prayer house and buy church supplies for the service of God - a cross, a Gospel, vestments, a censer, bells and other things. A peasant meeting gathered to discuss this. At the meeting, a forest was set aside for a prayer house, and at the priest’s suggestion, each peasant began to donate as much as he could to buy church items. Everyone donated according to their income, only one of the richest peasants did not want to give anything, no matter how much the priest and neighbors tried to persuade him. Finally, after much discussion, he agreed to donate 20 rubles. He did not give this money willingly, and even then on the condition that it be used for a bell weighing at least five pounds. Soon, with the collected money, the patron went to the nearest county town to buy church items. He bought everything as he should, only the five-pound bell was not found in the city. He had to buy the largest bell, 2 pounds. The rich man was greatly offended by this and in front of others called the priest a liar and a deceiver. The next day after this, the priest went to see how the work on the construction of the chapel was proceeding, and there he met the rich man. The rich man began to rudely scold the priest. He tried to explain to him that no one was to blame in this matter, but the rich man did not let up at all. On the third day, the priest once again had to meet with the scolder, and for the third time he heard abuse from him. The offended priest went home and was greatly alarmed in his soul. But before he had time to calm down properly, the son of a rich man enters his house and asks him to go with him to confess his sick father. At first the priest did not believe the words of the newcomer and thought that they wanted to lure him into the house by deception in order to scold him even more there. Therefore, I refused to go. The rich man's son went home, but soon returned again and, bowing at his feet, convincingly asked for a priest to come to him. At the same time, he said that his father was suffering greatly. The priest no longer refused and hurried to the sick man. He had just entered the house when the sick man fell at his feet and said: “Father! I have sinned, forgive me. My mouth turned to one side and my body cut like knives. I feel death is coming. Forgive me, don’t let me completely perish.” The kindly shepherd forgave him and, having confessed, gave him Holy Communion. He had not yet left, but the patient’s suffering had subsided a little. After three months, the patient recovered without any treatment. This is how the Lord punishes for insulting His servants. (“Soul-filled size,” 1887) 11. Stories of hearing prayers, drawn from church history and the lives of saints 1. Residents of one village came to St. Theodore, called Sikeot, and with tears they begged him to come to them and drive away the locusts, which, like a cloud, descended on their fields and vineyards and caused terrible devastation. The monk heeded the request of these unfortunate farmers, came to their village and spent the whole night in their church, praying to God for them. The next day, in the morning, he went out to the fields and here, taking several insects in his hand, he also made a prayer for the salvation of the unfortunate farmers. And since during prayer the locust in his hand died, he thanked the Lord and confidently said to the people around him: “Let us return to church, children, the Lord will not hesitate to show us His mercy!” And indeed, the next day the farmers saw that all the locusts had died in their fields. (From Metaphrast. The memorial of St. Theodore takes place on April 22.) 2. One day the ascetic Ammon went to visit Abba Anthony and lost his way. Sitting down, he slept a little; then, getting up from sleep, he prayed to God like this: “I pray to You, Lord my God, do not destroy Your creation!” And a human hand appeared to him, hanging from heaven, which showed him the way until he came and stood at the cave of Abba Anthony. (From the Skete Patericon.) 3. The Monk Luke, a native of Hellas, having loved monastic exploits from a young age, left secretly from his mother and took monastic vows in one of the Athos monasteries. Euphrosyne (the name of his mother), knowing the piety of her son, although she guessed about his holy feat, but, being a widow, could not bear separation and constantly prayed to God: “Lord! You are a witness of my widowhood and all the sorrows associated with it, do not forget me completely; do not take away from me the only joy of life, my dear son! I did not forbid him to live according to Your law; I was his mother not only in the flesh, but also in the soul, I wanted to see him perfect in virtues. God! Do not despise my tears, return my son to me, so that I may glorify Your holy name!” - This is how the orphaned mother prayed - and the Lord heard her prayer: at one time the abbot of the monastery in which St. Luke saw a crying mother in a dream. - “Why do you offend me, a poor widow, so cruelly? – she screamed to the abbot. “Why did you take away my only son, the joy of my old age?” Give me back my son, or I won’t stop complaining to God about you.” - The frightened abbot woke up, thought about the dream for a long time and finally considered it an empty dream. But the next night I saw the same thing; on the third night I heard the cry of a lamenting mother. Then, finally, he realized that this was not the action of a tempting spirit, but a phenomenon arranged by God. He thought for a long time about each monk separately, and since St. Luka always hid his family and fatherland from him and all his brethren, and came to the conclusion that the dream referred to him. The next day he calls Luka to him and says with anger: “How dare you deceive us by assuring us that you have no parents? How dare you live with us, having a lie in your heart? Do you know who is the boss of lies? Get away from us; leave even the borders of Athos and return to your mother: for the third night she has reproached and embarrassed me. Woe to you if you disobey me!” The amazed Luke stood motionless and, with his eyes downcast, did not dare utter a single word: he cried, not wanting to leave the holy squad. Then the abbot took pity on him and said with meekness: “My son! Now, be sure to return to your mother, and then the Lord Himself will help you with good intentions. Listen: I see that her prayer has great power with God and can destroy all your prayers; Go in peace and remember that you should not undertake anything without your parent’s blessing.” Having heard this, St. Luke bowed to the abbot in silence, said goodbye to the brethren and went on his way. Who can describe Euphrosyne’s surprise and joy at the sight of her son! She rushed to hug him, but suddenly stopped, raised her eyes and hands to heaven and gave thanks to God. “I bless You, Lord,” she said, “that you did not abandon my prayer.” Then she kissed her son. Saint Luke stayed with his mother for four months, but, striving with his heart and soul for God and for a silent life, he began to ask her permission to retire into the desert. God-fearing Euphrosyne blessed him, for she knew that God should be revered and loved more than parents, and her prayers were the second leader on the path to saving her son. (Thu.-Min., February.) 4. St. Theodore, who was the bishop of the Edessa Church, in his adolescence often suffered ridicule from his comrades and severe reprimands from teachers for his poor literacy skills. But for the boy, the saddest thing was the sadness of his father and mother, who, it seemed, did not expect anything good from him. But it was not laziness and negligence that were the reason for his failure, but the lack of natural talents. When neither his parents nor his mentors could contribute to the success of his education, he himself found the power that alone was able, so to speak, to recreate his soul. This power was prayer. He came to church early and hid under St. throne. Here, unnoticed by anyone, praying to God for the enlightenment of his mind, Theodore fell asleep. Meanwhile, the clergy gathered, the bishop came, and the divine service began. During the service, the sleeping Theodore saw an angelic youth who fed him honey. Delighted and at the same time frightened, Theodore woke up and, without having time to come to his senses, suddenly left from under the throne. The bishop and everyone who was there were surprised by the sudden appearance of the boy and began to ask who he was and what prompted him to hide here. Theodore told everything in detail and revealed his dream. From that time St. Theodore began to excel in his studies, and soon surpassed all his peers in his successes. (Thu-Min.) 5. Tatar Khan Amurat, hearing about the miracles of St. Alexy, performed by his prayer, sent to Moscow a demand that the saint of God come to the Horde and heal his blind wife Taidula. In his humility, considering this beyond his strength, St. Alexy refused to go - however, at the strong request of the prince, for the good of the fatherland, he decided to fulfill the khan’s demand. What does the saint do? Before leaving, he performs in the Assumption Cathedral before the relics of St. Peter's prayer service, during which the candle lights itself and serves as a sign of God's favor. Having arrived in the Tatar capital with this candle, the saint again performs a prayer service with the blessing of water, and lights the candle, prays earnestly and sprinkles the sick person with water. Miraculous help was not slow to appear. The queen suddenly received her sight, and the saint, gifted by the khan, brings his favor to our entire fatherland by asking him for relief from a difficult lot. (From the life of St. Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow.) 6. Among the stories about people’s prayers heard by God, we will convey a highly edifying and at the same time touching story about one Athonite monk who tearfully and for a long time prayed to God that He would punish him better here, but would have mercy on him after death. “Here, my Savior, punish me as a child-loving and compassionate Father, and there forgive me as the only sinless and abundantly merciful God, for if here you do not enlighten the unfortunate one and do not give him heartfelt insight, so that he would repent of his sins daily without shame: what should he do there, who has no justification? So, here, my Savior, here, where I enjoyed the charm of sin, admonish me, as a merciful and child-loving Father, and there, forgive me, as a merciful God, the only sinless one!” (Words by St. Ephraim the Syrian.) The elder’s incessant cry of prayer finally penetrated the heavens and reached the Lord God. One day, following the usual prayer, the elder lay down to rest and fell into a quiet sleep. In the first moments of sleep, he was struck by the dazzling radiance that spread throughout the cell. The elder fearfully looked around, and his gaze stopped at the cross to which the Divine Sufferer, our Lord Jesus Christ, was nailed; a crown of thorns lay on His wounded head; from His arms, from His legs and from His rib blood flowed in a stream; an amazing radiance emanated from the face of the Redeemer, from His meek gaze. The elder trembled with joy, fell to his knees before the Lord and burst into tears... “Why are you crying so bitterly and incessantly? What do you want from me?" – the Savior asked the weeping old man meekly from the cross. - "God! – The elder exclaimed, crossing his arms touchingly on his chest. – You know how much I upset You; You see how many sins I have: punish me for them in this life, as You please, and have mercy on me after death. I want nothing more, I ask nothing more from You.” “Okay,” answered the Lord, “it will be according to your desire.” - The vision is over. The elder, greatly shocked by the feelings of inexplicable joy from the sight and sweet conversation of the Lord, without waking up yet, felt that his entire insides seemed to be undermined; he woke up and actually saw that he had a huge hernia; she remained so forever. If only we knew, if it were given to us to see prematurely what awaits us beyond the grave and in the last minutes of life, of course, as one saint used to say. Father, we would gladly sit for a whole century in a cell overflowing with caustic worms, rather than spend a few years in hell. (Extracted from No. 135 “Tr. Sheet.”) 7. St. Julian the Hermit, according to the blessed one. Theodoret, living in the Parthian country near the Euphrates River in desert caves with a host of monks who chose him as a leader on the path of salvation, had the psalmody of St. psalmody constantly in his mouth. the prophet David, continuous mental reflection and prayerful conversation with God. Not content with this, he often withdrew for a while from his cave cell into the further depths of the desert, about 50 miles away, for solitary prayer and took with him one of the brethren, at their request, to participate in prayer. At one time he was accompanied by the young man Asterius, who, after three days of travel, began to succumb to the unbearable heat in the desert; Tormented by thirst, he was nevertheless ashamed to tell the elder about his suffering, which he warned about. Finally, completely exhausted, Asterius begged the elder to take pity on him. Since there was still a long way to go, Julianius suggested that the young man return back. But Asterius did not know the way to the cave, and besides, he could not go, because his strength was exhausted from the thirst that tormented him. Then the man of God, touched by the suffering of his companion, condescending to his weakness, knelt down and earnestly cried out to God, watering the earth with hot tears, for the salvation of the young man. And God heard the prayer of the righteous man: he turned the drops of tears that fell to the ground into a water source. “This source,” says Theodoret, “has been preserved to this day as a monument to the prayer of a pious elder, similar to the prayer of Moses. For just as Moses, striking a dry stone with a rod, brought out streams of water to give drink to many thousands of people who were exhausted from thirst, so this godly old man, watering the dry sand with his tears, produced water to quench the thirst of one young man.” This young man, the later famous ascetic Asterius, was the founder of a monastery in the vicinity of Tindar (a village near Antioch) and raised many students famous for virtues. (From: Philaret of Chernigov, Archbishop. Lives of the Saints. Oct. 18. pp. 184–186; 360.) 8. During one sea voyage, St. Gregory the Theologian almost died. Only his fervent prayer, combined with the prayers of his parents, saved him from the threatened drowning. Gregory himself talks about this dangerous voyage as follows: “It was the most inconvenient time for swimming; but I was attracted by a passion for science, and I was especially encouraged by the fact that the shipbuilders were like one of our own. But as soon as we had made a few journeys, a terrible storm arose, which, according to those sailing with me, had never happened before in their memory. For twenty days and nights I lay on the stern of the ship, calling in prayers to the God reigning in the heavens; a foamy wave, like mountains and cliffs, hit the ship from one side or the other and often fell into it; the gusty wind whistling in the ropes shook all the sails; the clouds descended, the air darkened, illuminated for a moment by the blinding light of lightning; The deafening peals of thunder, shaking the air, set all living things in awe. Everyone fell into fear at the sight of common death; but I, poor man, feared more than anyone else for my soul, for I was in danger of dying unbaptized, and among the destructive waters I longed for spiritual water. Therefore, he screamed, begged and begged for at least a small reprieve. So I suffered; but my parents suffered with me, sharing my misfortune in a night vision. They gave help from the land, the waves seemed to speak with their prayer, which I learned about when later, upon returning home, I calculated the time... And one of those sailing with me, who showed special favor and love towards me and was very worried about me, saw that during the danger my mother entered the sea and, taking the ship, without much difficulty brought it to land. And the vision came true: for the sea began to calm down, and we soon, after a short period of distress at sea, landed at Rhodes. During this danger, I offered myself as a gift, making a vow, if I was saved, to devote myself to God, and, having dedicated it, I was saved.” (From: Agapit, archimandrite, “The Life of St. Gregory the Theologian.” Page 14.) 9. Once in one place St. Parthenius (commemorated on February 7) found a beautiful stone suitable for the throne. He ordered it to be trimmed and cooked. The stone was placed on an ox-drawn chariot to be transported to the church. But suddenly, on the way, the oxen went berserk, so that no one could restrain them, and they overturned the man who ruled them, Eutychion, under the wheels. A chariot with a heavy stone drove over him and crushed him. Eutychion died. Having learned about the misfortune that had occurred, St. Parthenius took pious men with him, went to that place and, seeing the body of the dead, bowed his knees to the ground and prayed to the Lord with tears. Suddenly, in front of all the people, the dead Eutychion came to life and said: “Glory to Thee, Christ God, who raises up the dead!” He got up from the ground and, driving oxen, brought the stone to the church. Everyone who saw the miracle of the resurrection glorified the Lord. (Thu-Min, February 7.) 10. One woman with blinded eyes came from Nicomedia to St. Auxentius (his memorial is February 14), asking him to heal her. The reverend husband fervently prayed to God for her, touched her eyes and said: “Jesus Christ, the True Light, heals you,” and the woman received her sight. (Thu.-Min., February 14.) 11. One day a certain old man came to Mount Sinai. When he was leaving there, his brother met him on the way and, sighing, complained to him: “We are in sorrow because of the drought: we have no rain.” The elder said to him: “Why didn’t you pray and ask God for rain?” The brother replied: “And we prayed and diligently asked God, but there was no rain.” The elder said: “I guess they didn’t pray diligently. Do you want to know that this is so? Let’s stand together in prayer.” With these words, he stretched out his hands to heaven and prayed. The rain started immediately. The brother, seeing this, was frightened and bowed at the feet of the elder, and the elder immediately fled from there. (Ignatius, Bishop Fatherland. P. 507.) 12. A case of healing from sycosis through prayer. In the spring of 1894, one of the private assistant professors of the Moscow University, Faculty of Law, D., after finishing his studies at the university, for the purpose of rest, which his overworked body badly needed, decided to make a trip to the Caucasus and then to the Crimea. In the Caucasus, he noticed some pimples on his face. In Simferopol D. sought medical help; The doctor identified the disease: sycosis, that is, inflammation of the hair follicles, which appears mainly on the beard and mustache. This disease appears as a result of the development of specific microorganisms, lasts an extremely long time, sometimes 30–40 years, and is very difficult to treat. D. immediately began systematic treatment. Abroad, he has visited almost all celebrities for skin diseases. At the same time, he began to be treated with everything he was advised to do. However, nothing helped. The patient was treated for 9 months. The disease either weakened, then developed with renewed vigor, and finally reached the point that the patient was forced to leave his studies, sit at home, and if he went anywhere, it was for a short time, with his cheek bandaged. Despite the thick layer of the bandage, pus and blood released in abundance quickly penetrated through the bandage. The patient's situation became dire. G.D. in Moscow was treated by Professor Pospelov and others, and they all agreed on the definition of the disease. The patient was also treated in Kyiv. Last Easter D. returned to Moscow completely morally killed. By chance, when he was at home and without a bandage, he was seen by a washerwoman doing the family’s laundry, who advised him to turn to some Russian healer, and added that one of her friends had the same disease, and she was cured by one “grandmother” in a few days. G.D. immediately asked to find him some Russian healer. Soon a woman of about 50 years old was brought to him, serving at the baths and treating someone with folk remedies. She examined the patient and stated that only one prayer would help with his illness. In view of this, she ordered him to come to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior at 5 am. D. listened to this advice and found this woman there at the appointed time. The woman placed it next to her and prayed for several minutes. On the second and third day the same thing was repeated. The illness began to pass extremely quickly: on the second day, Mr. D.’s face no longer had that terrible appearance in which he could not appear except with a bandage, and he could appear at the church without it. A few days later Mr. D. could already shave, and there were almost no signs of illness. Now Mr. D. is completely healthy. This incident, which happened before the eyes of many, is amazing and at the same time undeniable. Professor A.Ya. Kozhevnikov, as a representative of science, explained this healing by a strong mental effect on the patient, provided that the root of the development of the disease in the patient lay in a disorder of the nervous system; such a disorder often causes inflammation of the skin, and specific microorganisms that have found favorable soil for their development could enter the hair vessels. In this case, the usual remedies against sycosis could not have an effect, since it was necessary to destroy the conditions favorable to the disease: to calm the nervous system. Some doctors have already made attempts in this regard: the patient was given bromine, etc. But obviously something stronger was needed. A simple woman came, looked at the patient, simply said that she would cure him, before that another assured him of the same thing, finally - he was in a church, in a secluded place; singing can be heard from afar, a woman stands next to the patient, reverently praying for him - this whole situation had a strong effect on the mental side of the soloist, calmed the nervous system, destroyed the main cause of the disease; favorable conditions for the life of microorganisms disappeared, and the disease began to quickly pass. “Be that as it may,” said the professor, “this case is amazing, and doctors need to recognize it as a fact of a strong impact on the mental side of a person.” – Studying the patient’s past, the professor found Mr. D. to be generally nervous and impressionable and noted cases of painful phenomena on his skin solely due to a nervous disorder. In "Mosk. Ved." On this occasion, the following “letter to the publisher” from the healed man himself was published: “In some newspaper articles there appeared an extract from a message made by Professor Kozhevnikov at a closed meeting of the Moscow Society of Neuropathologists regarding the case of my healing from sycosis, and a description of the very fact of the incident. Without touching on the explanations made by the doctors, I consider myself obliged to restore the fact itself in the form in which it actually occurred. The doctors who treated me in Russia, and the authorities of medical science in Western Europe, to whom I turned with my illness, which lasted almost a year, found that my illness could last 18 years, that in no case could it go away suddenly, even with the most persistent treatment. The last time I heard such a verdict was from Professor Kaposi in Vienna, on Saturday of Holy Week of the current year (1895). Returning to Moscow on Wednesday evening, Holy Week, I, at the direction of my servant, met one simple woman, on whose advice I went the next morning, with her, to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. She read a short prayer near me, the first words of which were an appeal to the Most Holy Theotokos. I can say one thing: at that moment I was completely alien to any ecstasy and was not under any influence from this woman on me. That same day, all my wounds healed, all the tumors disappeared, and I left the house without the bandage that I had worn without taking it off for nine months. They saw me in the form in which I was before my illness, and they congratulated me; I never ceased to thank God for His mercy.” Private Associate Professor of the Imperial Moscow University Nikolai Konstantinovich Dorobets. Moscow, October 11, 1895. Wonders and Nature app How, one might ask, does a miracle differ from events that occur in the ordinary course of things? Nature is equally wonderful; and if the constant return of phenomena may cool personal wonder at them, nevertheless nature remains wonderful. To this question, some answered that if everything is miraculous, if a growing grain, a vegetating seed, a sunrise are the actions of forces that we cannot explain or comprehend, like the transformation of water into wine, like the healing of a paralytic with one word and the restoration of sight to a blind man with one touch, then, consequently, there is nothing that deserves the name of a miracle. We, it may be said, have no right, in the great and all-encompassing miracle of nature that surrounds us everywhere, to delimit certain facts arbitrarily and assert that this or that is miraculous, and everything else is subject to the natural order; we must, on the contrary, agree on a certain meaning of words and consider everything or nothing a miracle. But this position, which at first glance seems profound and true, is in fact superficial and false. In each phenomenon and its purposes there are signs by which one can distinguish what we actually call a miracle from other phenomena with which they try to confuse and destroy it. The distinction according to which in miracles God appears to be directly active, and in other phenomena everything happens according to the laws presented by Him, cannot be allowed, for it is based on a dead, mechanical view of the universe that does not agree with the truth. The watchmaker makes a watch and leaves it, the ship passes from the hands of its builder to the disposal of the sailors; but the world is not a curious product of a mechanism, the great Architect of the world is its Almighty and not only reviews and repairs it from time to time, but, according to the saying of the Lord, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17); He holds everything together by the word of His power. The expressions “laws of God” and “laws of nature” seem deceptive to us and hide a deeper reality from our eyes. Divine laws exist only for us; this is the will of God Himself. In fact, this will, the will of the highest wisdom and love, excludes all arbitrariness; This will fully provides for us: from its past manifestations we can infer future ones, and thus we rightly call it law. But at all times it is will; Every so-called law of nature that we call is the same thing that we have studied regarding His will in a special sphere of activity. So, we would express ourselves inaccurately when we say that in one miracle God’s will acts more strongly than in another. But, denying the conclusion that if everything is miraculous, then a miracle, usually so-called, only in the same sense as the ordinary processes of nature, is a manifestation of the presence of the power and might of God, we must not deny the truth contained in this position. Everything is wonderful: creating a person is at least as wonderful as raising a dead person. The seed that multiplies in the earth is as wonderful as the bread that multiplies in the hands of the Lord. A miracle does not demonstrate the power of God any more than other ordinary and constant processes; but it differs in the manner of manifestation. Those are the verb of God of all times, His great, continuous revelations to the whole world. “For his invisible things, his eternal power and Godhead, have been visible from the creation of the world through the consideration of creation” (Rom. 1:20). But from the very circumstance that nature speaks at all times to people of all ages, all countries, it follows that this same community, this constant repetition of it ceases to be intelligible to our ears. It cannot be said that her voice related closer to one person than to another, confirmed the word of one more than others, aroused consciousness in some more than in any other person; but despite all this, being intelligible to some, it loses its power and meaning to others. A miracle, on the contrary, performed in front of certain persons, calling them to increased attention, is a verb addressed to them in particular. Therefore, then a voice is heard in nature speaking directly to some among the many. It is obvious that God thus admonishes them with a special word and embassy. Special mysterious causes, and not those that we recognize as operating everywhere and always, belong to the essential properties of a miracle: miracles are the essence of God’s powers other than those that are constantly acting, powers that have rarely or never appeared before. The continuous divine activity, at times hidden under the veil of so-called divine laws, is revealed in miracles, appears before us, and the active hand is exposed. In addition to ordinary natural phenomena, we see higher forces (higher not in their origin from any higher source, but in their desire for higher goals), which attract our attention and become perceptible when directly emanating from their source. If, by its very essence, a miracle must be a “new thing,” then this does not deny that natural objects become miraculous for us in their timeliness and expediency. True, everything that is completely explainable by natural and historical reasons is, of course, not a miracle in the proper sense of the word; but at the same time, the finger of God can be seen so clearly in them, so clearly the heterogeneous reasons for a single goal coincide in them, such crises occur in the lives of people and in the economy of the Kingdom of God, such a striking relationship with the great work of redemption, that even with a perfect explanation of the action by natural causes, we have every right to recognize it as miraculous and attribute it to a special Providence, without, however, considering it an absolute miracle; we say: absolute, since causes were known that were perfectly capable of producing it, and under such conditions it would be superstitious to resort to other causes or to seek a disconnect between causes and facts. The natural, thus, can rise to the miraculous in terms of the time in which it occurs and in terms of the goals it contributes to. This is a subjective miracle, a miracle for us, and not an objective one, not miraculous in itself. Many Egyptian plagues were natural disasters of the country - these disasters only arose more quickly and were more destructive than usual. In itself, it was not miraculous that the houses of the Egyptians were filled with swarms of flies, that locusts devastated their fields, that an epizootic destroyed their herds. None of these visits were unknown to the inhabitants of the country. But the strength of all these disasters together, the terrible succession of one after another, their coincidence with the preliminary threats of Moses, with the temptation that befell Pharaoh, with the deliverance of Israel, which they accelerated, the order of their approach and departure - all this gives us the right to call them Egyptian miracles and signs, in accordance with the language of the Scriptures (Deut. 4:34; Ps. 77:43; Acts 7, 36). There is no absolute miracle in the fact that a statir was found in the mouth of a fish (Matthew 17:27), or that a lion tore to pieces a man he encountered (1 Kings 13:24), or that a thunderstorm occurred at an unusual time of year (1 Kings 12:16-19). With all this, these circumstances were so adapted to the confirmation of faith, to the punishment of disobedience, to the awakening of repentance; so could they serve the highest goals of moral government that we decisively include them in the list of miracles, without trying to resort to the distinction between absolute and providential miracles. This right especially belongs to them when, in each of the above examples, the final outcome imprints the preceding divine verbs; for, therefore, as prophecies, as miracles of foreknowledge, they are worthy of being called so, without being miracles of his omnipotence. It can truly be said about them more than about others that they exist only for the religious mood of a person who believes in the government of God, combined not only with omnipotence, but also with wise providence, righteousness and love; for such a person these are high signs of the work and presence of God. In the case of a more absolute miracle, it is sometimes possible to force an involuntary confession from a wicked person, as once upon a time from the Egyptian Magi: “this is the finger of God” (Ex. 8:19); but this is almost impossible in signs, since it is easy to resort to a natural explanation, beyond which, despite any arguments, his reasoning does not extend. But if, therefore, a miracle is not in the nature of things, then at the same time it is not unnatural. It is impossible to accept the generally accepted way of expressing that miracles violate the laws of nature. They are outside nature, they are above its laws, but they do not contradict it. It cannot be argued that this distinction is vain; all of Spinoza’s attacks on miracles are based on the benefits that he was able to take advantage of when the truth is stated incorrectly: when it is stated correctly, they have no meaning. A miracle is not and cannot be something unnatural, for unnatural, contrary to order, in itself is anti-religious and in no way applicable to the work of God, which is the subject of this discussion. The true idea of ​​the world, as evidenced by not only the name given to it, is the idea of ​​order, and that which serves to realize this idea, which it has lost, can hardly be disorder. On the contrary, a true miracle is the highest and purest nature; it descends from the world of undisturbed, most perfect harmony into our lower world, separated and outraged by so many contradictions, and returns it, at least for one prophetic mysterious moment, to the harmony of the higher world. The healing of a paralytic cannot in any way be considered contrary to nature, in view of the fact that the disease from which he was cured was contrary to the true nature of man, in view of the fact that it is not disease that is normal, but health. Healing is the restoration of the original order. A miracle shows us not a violation of the law, but the neutralization of a lower law, the termination of its power, albeit temporary, by a stronger law. Hence, abundant analogous examples open before our eyes at all times. In the world around us, we constantly see the limitation of lower laws by higher ones: mechanical by dynamic; chemical - vital; physical - moral; but where the lower law is inferior to the higher, there we have no right to say that a violation of the law has occurred or that something contrary to nature has happened; rather, we recognize that the law of greater freedom absorbs the law of lesser freedom. When Spinoza claims that nothing can happen in nature that would contradict its universal laws, he clearly saw that even with this he did not exclude a miracle, and in order to strengthen the exception, he added: “or what would not follow from these laws.” But experience teaches us that these world forces that we observe cannot produce such actions. How can we dare to conclude that since everything we know does not produce them, then nothing exists that produces them? They go beyond the limits of our nature, but it does not follow from this that they are outside the laws of all nature. If animals had reflection, then man would seem to them a miracle, just as angels seem to us, and the animals themselves would be the same supernatural phenomenon for the lower beings of organic life. The comet seems to be a miracle in our solar system, i.e. it does not obey the laws of our system and is inexplicable on the basis of them, but is the highest and most extensive law of the heavens, fully or not completely open, according to which the movement of comets is as precisely determined as the movement of the planets that are in direct relation to our Sun. When I raise my hand, then the law of gravitation relative to my hand is not negated or destroyed; he is still strong, but he is held back by the highest law of my will. The chemical law, which acts on animal parts due to death, is not destroyed when decomposition is delayed with the help of other substances, for example, salt. The law of sin in regenerated man is continually limited by the law of the spirit; meanwhile, although it does not constantly act in its members, since the strongest law has penetrated it and limited it, it is inherent in them, and is ready to show its influence as soon as that high law stops in its action. What happens in each of these cases may contradict a particular, so to speak, isolated law, detached from the totality of laws, of which it is only one part. But no law acts alone, does not consist in struggle, but rather in perfect harmony with the system of laws; for there is a law for these laws - that where two forces collide, there the weaker gives way to the stronger, the lower to the higher. In miracles our world is brought into a system of a higher order of things; then it is not the laws of his fallen state that operate in him, but the laws of the strongest order and highest perfection; and they make themselves felt, demonstrate their dominance, which rightfully belongs to them. A simple explanation, borrowed from the church charter, can serve to make it more obvious. According to church rules, fasting is canceled on some holidays; This not only cannot be considered a violation of the established order, but rather a reasonable prudence with which the Church Fathers gave preference to the day of public celebration over the day of contrition. In the same relation to the physical laws of the world are both former miracles and those that are about to happen to our mortal body and the material world. We should not talk about possible changes in both of these as a violation of laws. In the resurrection of the dead one cannot see anything contrary to nature, nothing unnatural, although none of the forces now acting on our bodies is capable of producing such an effect in us; this is possible only for a force that has not yet manifested itself, for a force that is in the power of God. Thus, the future great transformation of the visible world, from which a new heaven and a new earth (rebirth) will come, will far surpass all world forces currently operating (although even now one can admit some predisposition and extraordinary signs for this), but this is so connected with the true idea of ​​the world, now so imperfectly realized, that when this happens, then only the truest order of things will come, then only the most perfect nature will triumph in its birth. As Jean Paul put it, the wonders of earth are the laws of heaven. So, miracles do not contradict nature, although they do not lie within its limits; these are not the essence of a violation of her ordinary and daily activities, but rather, from a more correct point of view, they inspire respect for her, they testify to the same source of her initial origin. Christ, who heals a sick person with His word, is in fact the master of the healing powers that have ever extended their beneficial influence on human bodies, as if saying: “I point out to you the fact that you always lose sight of, that in Me is the source of power, pouring out in a thousand gradual healings. Now My one word restores a person to perfect health.” With these words He does not exclude other more gradual healings from Himself, but connects these latter with the former. So, multiplying the loaves of bread, turning water into wine, doesn’t He say: “It is none other than I, in the sunshine and the rain, in the sowing and the harvest, who give food to man; and you will learn what you ungratefully consign to oblivion, you must learn by being witnesses once or twice; if not by direct witnesses, then by constantly listening with your hearing that the essence of things is in My power: bread grows in My hands; the water absorbed by the vine, gradually transforming into the juice of the grape fruit, is not extracted from it by pressure, but directly, according to My word, turns into wine. I, who instantly give you a catch of fish for which you have labored in vain for a long time, remind you of the One who shows the way in the ocean, who allows you to labor long and in vain or crowns your labors with a rich and unexpected sea harvest.” Even the only miracle that bears the imprint of severity, the miracle over the withered fig tree, has the same meaning, for in it the merciful Lord says: “The scourge with which I punish your sins and call you to repentance either does not achieve its goal at all, or must be repeated many times, mainly because you see in them only accidents of a blind nature; but I will show you that only I send curses and blows to the earth, punishing the sins of men.” And we clearly understand how necessary all this is. For, on the one hand, the ordinary order of things will tell the glory of God (Ps. 18:1-6), on the other hand, it can hide this glory from our eyes; if he must constantly remind us of Him, then there is a danger that he will lead us to forget Him, and then the world around us will not be like a transparent medium through which we contemplate Him, but like a thick, impenetrable curtain hiding Him from our eyes. “In every miracle,” says Donne, “one hears a dull reproach of nature, a silent reproach to those who seek or demand miracles.” If they had only one purpose - to testify to the freedom of God and to manifest His will, although visible in nature, but extending beyond its limits, if through this one link of the chain connecting cause and effect was broken, which we would otherwise take for God Himself, for the iron chain of inexorable necessity, equally fettering the sky as well as the earth, then they would serve a great purpose and would not have happened in vain. But they serve for other purposes, even closer to human salvation. (See: Trench, Archbishop of Dublin. “The Miracles of Our Lord I. Christ.” Publ. 1883) On this subject one can refer to the work of Pastor François Naville: Unite des doctrines du cliristianisme, posthumous edition included in the book Etrennes religieuses, Geneva, 1888. Jesus wanted to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before Him, and they went and entered the Samaritan village to prepare for Him, but they did not receive Him there (Luke 9:51-53). Nietzsche, as far as we know, ended his life in a lunatic asylum. Prot. G. D-ko. In the book "Lifetime Ghosts" by E. Gurney, F. Myers and Podmore. St. Petersburg, 1893, published by the London Society for Psychical Research, more than 800 cases of intravital telepathy were collected and examined. Filaret Chernigovsky. Russian saints. Part 3. Page 153. From brochures "Irrigated fleece." Ed. 1882 From P. Mogila’s handwritten notes, printed in the southwestern dialect in “Arch. southwest Russia." Sn. "IN. Thu." for 1888 The event took place in 1890 in Ulala. Note Holy Communion is called “Thanksgiving”, in Greek Eucharist (εὐχᾰριστία), as a sacrifice not only of propitiation for the sins of the world, but also of gratitude to God for His untold mercies to the human race. So that I won’t see you when I die. You might be interested in: