Октябрь

Repose of St. Cassian of Uglich The Monk Cassian, in the world Constantine, was from a foreign princely family and arrived in Moscow together with Sophia, the bride of the Grand Duke John, the daughter of the Morean owner 595. How long he stayed at the court of the Grand Duchess is unknown. The biography writer only says that court life was not to his liking and that he loved a quiet life and strictly watched his conscience 596. According to the early handwritten life of the Venerable Paisius of Uglich, Blessed Constantine, before his arrival to the Rostov Archbishop, lived with the Venerable Paisius of Uglich 597. In 1481, he chose for himself a modest position as a boyar under the Rostov Archbishop Joasaph, the former Prince Isaac Mikhailovich Obolensky, although they offered him a place at the court of the Grand Duke himself. So he no longer sought happiness on earth, after his homeland began to suffer from the wicked Turks. His choice was quite reasonable! This is what his intelligent contemporary wrote: “In the winter (1482) Grand Duchess Sophia returned from flight; she ran from the Tatars to Beloozero, but no one chased her away. Those places where they went got it worse than from the Tatars, from the boyar slaves and from the Christian bloodsuckers. Reward them, Lord, according to their deeds! Their wives lived there; and they loved their wives more than the holy faith; they were ready to betray the holy churches in which they had been enlightened by Holy Baptism. The merciful God did not despise Christian tears. Brave Russian warriors! try to protect your fatherland, the Russian land, from the wicked, so that your eyes do not see the plunder of holy churches and your houses, the murder of children and the disgrace of wives and daughters, as the Bulgarians, Greeks, Trapezonians, Moreans, Albanians, Croats, Bosniaks, Mankups and residents of Kafa suffered from the Turks. They wander miserably in foreign lands, deservedly reproached for their cowardice. Others fled with great property, with wives and children, but along with the gold they lost their earthly happiness. God is my witness, with my own eyes I saw sovereigns who ran away from the Turks with their property, wandering as wanderers and asking for death as mercy” 598. This description allows us to see with what disposition of soul the poor and noble stranger Constantine was in Russia: he could not reproach himself for the past, because he was still young when he arrived in Russia, and was almost a child when the Turks captured the Christian southeast. But he also felt the wrath of God above him and considered it a sin to seek a cheerful life; he wanted to work and pray. In 1489, blessed Joasaph, aggravated by the unjust anger of the Grand Duke, abandoned the see and retired to the Ferapontov Monastery, to the place of his monastic exploits 599. Prince Konstantin also moved here with him. Here, in prayer and reading books, he found peace for his soul. “Cassian, a former prince, very virtuous, was tonsured by the Reverend Father Martinian,” says the ancient news 600. This was not during the life of the Monk Martinian (1483) and not by the will of Prince Constantine. The latter did not want to take on monasticism, although blessed Joasaph and others persuaded him; Martinian, who appeared to him in a dream, threatened to subject him to severe punishment for resisting good advice. “I saw in a dream,” he told Joasaph and Elder Philaret, “a magnificent church with monks; in the middle of it there is, as it were, a pulpit and on it the Venerable Abbot Martinian, with a staff in his hand. “Take your hair,” the abbot tells me. “I won’t cut my hair,” I answered. “If you don’t listen,” he continued, “I will beat you with a rod,” and he wanted to hit me. I woke up out of fear and shouted: Filaret, Filaret.” Constantine then, at his request, was tonsured with the name of Cassian 601. He did not live long in the Ferapontova monastery. With several brothers, he retired from Beloozero to the inheritance of the good Uglich prince Andrei, with whom he had been friends in peace 602. 15 versts from Uglich, on the banks of the Volga and the Uchma River, he erected a cross, set up cells and, with the blessing of the Rostov archbishop, built a church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God. But the church was damaged by the Volga flood. The good Prince Andrei provided him with funds to build a church and cells in a new place and also assigned him benefits for the maintenance of the monastery. All this happened no later than 1491, since in September of that year Prince Andrei was imprisoned by the Grand Duke, from which he never left until his grave. In Uglich, Cassian's spiritual friend and interlocutor was the Monk Paisius. Before his death, the blessed abbot of Pokrovsk entrusted the supervision of his monastery to “Reverend Cassian, the head of the desert on Uchma” 603. Paisius respected Cassian so much! The blessed founder of the Uchem monastery “is content to live in his monastery for the summer,” representing in himself an example of monastic virtues. Having foreseen his departure to the Lord, he gave instructions to the brethren 604 and, having received the Holy Mysteries, reposed on October 2, 1504 605. The Uglitz Chronicle, speaking about the events of 1609–1611, writes: “The pitiful Poles, having burst into the monastery of the wonderworker Cassian, met a few citizens here; some of them rushed to the cathedral church, with the intention of breaking down the doors, but at the intercession of the Monk Cassian, they were struck by blindness and in horror, not knowing where to go, they were barely led away by their own people and everyone went back” 606. In the first of the 25 miracles described, a year before the invasion of the Poles, the Monk Cassian was seen in white robes and with candles lit in his hands, walking around his monastery. Seventh miracle: Hegumen Herman suffered for a long time with his legs and was healed by sprinkling earth from the saint’s tomb onto the wounds. To the priest-painter, who wanted to paint the image of the monk as accurately as possible (9th miracle), the monk said: “paint my hair longer than that of Prince Roman, but the gray hair should be barely visible.” The priest wrote, but felt that it was not accurate. The monk appeared to him in monastic vestments, with a brad reaching to his chest, which was not black and did not bifurcate in two, but seemed to be lined with silver. At the end of the 17th century, the Monk Cassian was called the great among miracle workers 607. Now his relics rest hidden in the church of his monastery, closed since 1764 608. Memory of Blessed Cyprian of Suzdal According to the handwritten calendar, “the holy blessed Cyprian, the fool for Christ’s sake, was in the Resurrection village on the Uvoti River, the Suzdal wonderworker, reposed in the summer of October 7130 on the 2nd day,” therefore in 1622 609. Blessed Cyprian lived on a small island at the mouth of the Uvodi River (in Kovrovsky district), and on Sundays and holidays he came to pray at the church in the village of Voskresensky. The place where he stayed, 7 versts from Voskresensky, is now known as the Cyprian desert, and the pits of the area are called Cyprian caves. Otherwise, these are monuments to his asceticism, while to the majority he seemed weak-minded or a simpleton. “Simplicity is a faithful leader for the righteous, but the wickedness of lawbreakers destroys them,” says the wise one (see: Proverbs 11:3). Blessed Cyprian experienced this himself. His coffin is still seen under the floor of the Church of the Resurrection 610. In 1751, a church was built in his memory in Voskresensky 611. The Monk Nikon of the Black Mountain wrote about foolishness in his 38th epistle, and the Monk Kirill of Beloezersky wrote this down in his collection: “The previous fathers also said about foolishness that this is an optional path, but a matter of prudence - it can even serve as a temptation and to harm. In the life of Saint Simeon the Fool for Christ, it is written that he prayed for those who were tempted, so that sin would not be imputed to them. Therefore, the holy council forbade that this should not happen now” 612. We will not be mistaken if we add to this that the most harmful thing for us is the passion for a spacious life. Let them fear this passion most of all on every path. Holy Hieromartyrs Dionysius, Bishop of Paris, Rusticus the Presbyter and Eleutherius the Deacon Dionysius - the first bishop of Lutetia in the country of the Parisians, present-day Paris; suffered with the presbyter Rusticus and the deacon Eleutherius during the persecution of Valerian (253–259); all three are beheaded. Their bodies were buried by the faithful on the mountain, which from them received the name Mountain of the Martyrs (Mons martyrum, present-day Montmartre). Venerable John the Chozebite, Bishop of Caesarea An Egyptian by birth, he labored in the desert of Huziv (between Jerusalem and Jericho); in 518 he was made bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, famous for his teaching and virtues, but seven years later he abandoned the throne and returned to his desert monastery, where he died around 532. Holy Hieromartyr Dionysius the Areopagite. Member of the Areopagus (court in Athens), converted to faith in the preaching of the Apostle Paul in Athens (see: Acts 17:34) and was the first bishop there; died a martyr during the reign of Domitian. Saint Hesychius the Silent He labored on Mount Athos. Having recovered from a serious illness, he secluded himself in his cell and remained silent for 12 years, without leaving it. His wondrous silence formed on Athos a monastery of the silent ones - hesychasts, who with their God-loving brotherhood once represented a whole school of mental prayer, or sacred work. Died in the 6th century. St. Paul the Simple Saint Reverend Paul, who lived in the 4th century, was called simple for his extreme kindness and simple-heartedness. Before becoming a monk, he was a farmer. Having married a good-looking but disgraceful wife, and having learned, after a long time, about her adultery, he decided to leave her, his children and his home forever and secretly retired into the desert with the firm intention of devoting himself to serving God in the monastic rank. Having come to the Monk Anthony the Great, he quietly knocked on the door of his cell, and when asked “what do you need,” he answered: “I want to be a monk.” Anthony, seeing that the stranger was already old, said to him: “You cannot be a monk, because you do not have enough strength to endure desert labors and misfortunes; Better go to the village and work.” When Paul promised him to do everything he commanded him, the abba replied: “I tell you that you are old and cannot be a monk; if you want monasticism, then go to a monastery, where there are many brothers who can bear your weakness, but I live here alone and for five days I do not eat anything; that’s why you can’t live with me.” Having said these words, Anthony locked himself in his cell and did not leave it for three days. On the fourth day, opening the doors and seeing that Paul did not leave his cell, he wanted to drive him away from him and repeated the words that had been spoken to him before. But he remained in the same place and said: “I will die here, and not leave.” The holy hermit, knowing that the elder had brought neither bread nor water with him, and had been left without food for four days, feared that he would die of hunger, not being accustomed to fasting for so long. Therefore, having received him to himself, he allowed him to strengthen his strength with a small amount of food and said: “You can be saved if you are obedient and do everything that I command you.” Paul answered him: “Whatever you say, Father, I am ready to do.” The Monk Paul, having lived for many years in his holy and godly simplicity, at a very old age reposed into Eternal Life around the year 338. “Whoever was simple and ignorant on earth is now the wisest in heaven, more than all the wise men of this world, and with the wise Cherubim he beholds Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God: for that is right wisdom, to fear God, and to work to please Him in simplicity of spirit and gentleness of heart. Through the prayers, O Lord, of Your saint, the simple Paul, make us wise in doing Your commandments: give us the beginning of wisdom, to have Your fear, so that by Your fear, having turned away from evil, we will do good before You, and we will find Your mercy forever.” Memory of Saint Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod, and his mother, Saint Anna Vladimir Yaroslavich, the eldest son of Prince Yaroslav the Great, was born in 1020. In 1034, Grand Duke Yaroslav put him in Novgorod and gave the Novgorodians a letter with the command: “According to this letter, give tribute” 613. At this time, Vladimir was still only 14 years old and, without a doubt, was under the leadership of an experienced commander, such as Vyshata, and the pious Bishop Luke. The matured prince was distinguished in military affairs by the courage and courage characteristic of his family. In 1042, he went with the Novgorod squads against the Yam, the current Finns, and defeated them 614. The next year, Yaroslav sent Vladimir with a strong army to punish the treacherous Greeks for insulting Russian merchants and for killing one of them. The ambassadors of Emperor Monomakh came to meet Vladimir with a promise to punish the perpetrators. But those who have deceived many times are not believed, and the prince moved forward. The emperor ordered to take into custody all the Russians who were in Constantinople, and sent ships against the ships of Vladimir. Three galleys with Greek fire crashed into the middle of the Russian ships and set them on fire; the rising storm scattered and sank the small Russian ships, including Vladimir’s ship. Ivan Tvorimich, from the princely squad, saved his prince and governor Yaroslav, taking them to his boat. Those who escaped on the shore, numbering 6,000, decided to return with Vyshataya to their homeland by land, and the prince with the rest of the ships set off on the return journey by sea. The Emperor sent for the Russians by land and sea; 24 galleys overtook Vladimir and stood in the bay; the prince defeated them completely and came to Kyiv with many prisoners. Vyshata bravely fought with the Danube Greek army, but the remaining 800 people were taken prisoner and only three years later were released to Russia 615. The son of the pious builder of the Kyiv St. Sophia Cathedral left behind a lasting monument of piety in Novgorod - the St. Sophia Cathedral, which is still intact. The church, magnificent for that time, was founded in 1045 and consecrated on September 14, 1049 616, and before that a stone fortress was built in Novgorod 617. The pious prince diligently studied the law of the Lord; at his request, prophetic books with interpretations of the fathers were written down (1047); the priest wrote it for 7 months; it meant a lot that a useful book had been copied; and even more important is that the books of the Word of God were written down, and not the words of man 618. The Lord took the good prince to Himself while he was still young; the prince died at the age of 32, on October 4, 1051, and was laid in the St. Sophia Church, created by his pious zeal 619. According to the chronicle, already in 1180, the sincerely Christian Prince Mstislav 620 was laid in the marble tomb of the blessed Prince Vladimir, and therefore, the incorruptible relics of the blessed Prince Vladimir were already known, and a special shrine was arranged for them. “In 1439, Archbishop Euthymius platted the coffin of Prince Vladimir, the grandson of the great Vladimir, and signed: likewise put a signature and cover on his coffin, and set out to commemorate them for 4 days every October” 621. The holy mother of holy Prince Vladimir, wife of Grand Duke Yaroslav, reposed on February 10, 1051 622. Blessed Hilarion Metropolitan in his animated speech says to Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir: “Look at your faithful daughter-in-law Irina; look at your grandchildren and great-grandchildren, how they maintain the faith you have devoted to them; how often they visit holy churches, how they glorify Christ, how they worship His name” 623. From this praise we see that the blessed princess was pious not only for herself, but cultivated piety in her children and grandchildren. From the life of St. Theodosius we see that when Mother Theodosius announced her desire to enter the monastery (and this was in 1036), St. Anthony “told the princess about her, and she accepted her into the convent of St. Nicholas” 624. This shows how glad the Grand Duchess was to do good deeds and how she respected people like Anthony. The convent of St. Irene, built by Yaroslav in Kyiv, was, of course, built through the zeal of his pious wife Irina. The tender mother and her firstborn moved from Kyiv to Novgorod and spent the last time of her life here. The daughter of Olaf, the king of Sweden, who was called Ingigerda in her land, in Greek Irina, before her death she accepted monasticism with the name Anna and was the first to show an example to the Russian princes and princesses of how pleasant it is for the soul to exchange magnificent princely clothes for monastic rags. On ancient Novgorod icons she is called Saint Anna. Her relics still rest openly in the St. Sophia Cathedral, where she is commemorated on October 4 and February 10, 625. Holy Hieromartyr Hierotheos, Bishop of Athens A friend of Dionysius the Areopagite, like him, although somewhat later, was converted to faith by the Apostle Paul; after Dionysius, he became a bishop in Athens and died a martyr. Memory of Righteous Stefan Shchilyanovich Righteous Stefan Shchilyanovich was born from pious parents in Župa, now called Pastrovitje, on the southern side of Zaholmie. Even in his youth he turned out to be a lover of God; when he reached mature age, he tried to do the will of God with all zeal. He was smart, brave, and well acquainted with military affairs. Having entered service under the Serbian despot, he carried out all orders faithfully and successfully. At the same time, he remained a faithful servant before the Lord, with the fear of God he drove away the very thoughts of sin from himself, all the more so he did not allow his soul to be overcome by any sin. The Church of the Archangel Michael in Prizren, built by the pious commander Shchilyanovich, is still intact today 626. For his faithful service, the despot gave him lands near Srem. Stephen lived here as a righteous man, sharing his surplus with the poor and maintaining honesty and truth in his dealings with his neighbors. There was a severe famine in the region, not due to a poor grain harvest, but because the wicked Turks, having fought for many years with the Serbs, stole all the livestock from the Christians and deprived them of the means to cultivate the land. Righteous Stephen opened his granaries for the unfortunate and fed the poor in times of famine. since the violence and robberies of the Turks did not stop even after the hungry year, and there was no strength to defend against them, Stefan was forced to surrender to the protection of the Hungarian king. The king gladly accepted an honest and brave warrior into his service; he gave him beautiful lands along the banks of the Drava 627. The righteous man continued to live for his neighbors and in the fear of God. In 1515 he died blissfully. His wife Elena, having buried his body with honor, retired to her relatives in Germany. A week after that, the Turks took possession of the region. At one time they saw a light over the grave. Thinking of finding buried silver, they dug up the grave and saw the incorruptible body. Based on the Pasha’s report, they began to ask: who was buried? Those who knew announced that this was the righteous Stephen, a benefactor of the poor. It turned out that the Pasha, a former Christian, was a relative of Blessed Stefan Shchilyanovich. The reverent monks begged the pasha for a generous gift of the relics of the righteous man and transferred them to the monastery of the Frusht Mountain, Sishatovets. His wife Elena, having heard about the incorruptible body of the righteous husband, although she was restrained by her relatives, hastened to arrive in Shishatovets and kissed the relics of the righteous man. Having accepted monasticism, she began to live in solitude not far from the monastery, in prayer and fasting. Three years later she died and was buried in the monastery. The relics of Righteous Stephen rest in the church of the monastery 628. “Glory in battle, warrior Stefan Shchilyanovich, great healer who comes to you with faith,” - this is what the Serbian Church says in its prayer 629. The Repose of the Venerable Princess Charitina According to the monuments, the Monk Kharitina was born a Lithuanian princess and asceticised in the Novgorod nunnery of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul on Sinichya Mountain 630. The time of her exploits is vaguely shown in the monuments 631, so it remains to be determined by consideration; and yet this time can show a peculiarity in the life of the spiritual princess. It is known that the stone church of the monastery, where the relics of the saint rest, was built in 1192 632. If the Church of Peter and Paul already existed when Blessed Charitina began to live in Novgorod, then the time of her life in Novgorod must be attributed to the 13th century; on the other hand, it is known that the second half of the 13th century was a stormy, bloody time for Lithuania. In 1265, many members of the princely Lithuanian house hastily left Lithuania for Russia, Prince Dovmont went to Pskov, and the son of Prince Tovtivil with his court fled from Polotsk to Novgorod 633. According to the chronicle, the Novgorodians then wanted to kill the Lithuanians who had come running to them for Lithuania’s previous grievances against Novgorod, but Prince Yaroslav did not allow them to do so 634. Thus, it is revealed that the Lithuanian princess Kharitina was one of the people driven by the storm of time, in addition to her personal affairs. Pushed away by the world, she no longer sought anything in the world and devoted her entire life to serving the Lord. Having accepted monasticism, she was made the head of the monastery for her virtuous life and until her death she was a model of humility, purity and strict abstinence for those subordinate to her. Thus Christian virtue has no need of happiness for its success; even from misfortune it grows stronger and stronger and transfers its worshiper from earth to Heaven. According to the monuments, Princess Kharitina died on October 5, 6000 years old. or 7000 l. Turning this uncertain time into a specific one, after what has been said in the chronicles, we believe that the holy princess abbess completed her exploits on the 5th day of October 6790-1281. Since 1764, the Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, where her relics rest in secret, has been a cemetery on the Sofia side. Her memory is locally honored on October 5, 635. Memory of St. Sergius the Obedient The name of the obedient one, with whom the Monk Sergius rests in Anthony's Cave 636, is worth a story. It shows us that obedience is a great thing in the Christian life, a feat glorified by the Lord. Recently, we have also begun to say, as the unfortunate Reformation said, that “in our time, submission to someone else’s will is unnecessary, now everyone is able to choose the best for themselves.” Completely, is this what God’s revelation teaches us? Doesn't it say that self-will is the most dangerous thing, a thing that has destroyed not only people, but also spirits stronger than people? ABOUT! May the Lord deliver every Christian soul from the thoughts and deeds of Satan! How is a saving transformation accomplished in the soul through blessed obedience? Self-love is the most terrible evil in our soul: all sins are branches of it. Obedience is the scourge of pride. As one rejects one’s will and devotes oneself to the will of God, self-love is constrained, weakened, and suppressed in the soul. This constraint of pride by obedience is painful: pride rebels against the will of others and wants to defend its own will. But the less the obedient one spares himself, the more victories he gains over the dominant evil of the soul. In the obedient, instead of self-love, love for the Lord develops and grows stronger: for whom, if not for the Lord, does he renounce his will? So Sergius of Pechersk scourged self-love with obedience throughout his life and rested as a holy servant of God and rests incorruptible! Venerable Tryphon of Vyatka How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good things! (Rom. 10:15). We can repeat this exclamation of the prophet, repeated by the apostle, when we think about blessed Tryphon of Vyatka, a preacher of faith and goodness from his youth to his grave 637. The son of pious farmers of Mezen (Arkhangelsk region), the village of Malaya Nemigozhka 638, Tryphon from a young age felt the desire to live for the Lord alone. They wanted to marry him, and once the brothers laid the girl in the cage where he slept, but as if from a demonic obsession the chaste young man fled from her. Secretly leaving his parents' house, he, dressed as a beggar, came to Ustyug and lived here for some time under the guidance of the pious parish priest John. Then, with his blessing, he lived in the neighboring volost of Shemokse, earning bread through labor and secretly laboring in prayer. The owners, having fallen in love with him for his love of work and meekness, wanted to tie the knot with him and had already betrothed him to his bride, but, remembering the promise of his conscience to live in chastity, he secretly fled to Orlets, the town of the Stroganovs. Here he settled near the parish church and for a whole year endured either heat or cold, in torn clothes. Once, in a severe frost, Stroganov’s people met him on the street and, in a malicious joke, pushed him down a steep mountain to the river; the snow covered him with its blocks, and he barely escaped from near death. Without complaining to anyone, the humble young man disappeared from Orlets to the village of Nikolskoye, which belonged to the bishop's department. After spending some time here in labors of prayer at the parish church, he went to the Kama River. At the Pyskor monastery he studied monastic life and took monastic vows from Abbot Varlaam. He was then 22 years old. And this was not before 1565 639. Without missing a single church service and laboring from the heart in the bakery, he went out into the swamp at night and, half naked, allowed insects to torment his body. From exhaustion from his exploits, he became seriously ill and lay sick for 40 days. Saint Nicholas appeared and healed him and said that he had come to help him so that he would be even more established on the good path. Blessed Tryphon decided to seek deeper silence. He went down the Kama to the mouth of the Mulyanka River, to the site of the present city of Perm. Out of a secret desire, having walked 5 versts along Mulyanka, he went ashore, climbed the mountain and saw a wonderful area: surrounded by a dense forest, it was fragrant with flowers. It was impossible not to fall in love with such a place for a lover of silence. He soon learned that this was a prayer place for the Ostyaks, where they were going to make sacrifices. For the ardent ascetic of the faith, this was a new reason to choose this place for his stay. When the Ostyaks heard that some strange man had settled in their treasured place, foreman Zevenduk with 70 Ostyaks came to see who this brave man was? They found him digging the earth, and the farming tools seemed terrible to them. Zevenduk began to ask who he was? and why did you come? "I am a slave My Lord Jesus Christ,” answered Tryphon. “Who is your God and why are you His servant?” - asked the pagan. Tryphon in his answer explained the vanity of idols, showed the Provider and Creator of the world, told the story of the creation and fall of man, the coming of the Savior of the human race, pointed to the future World Judgment and the bitter eternity of sinners. The simple children of nature listened in amazement to the teachings of the hermit and told Prince Ambal about him. “Neither we nor our fathers heard anything like this,” they said about what they heard from Tryphon. Ambal said that in due time he would look at the strange alien. Theodore Sukhoyatin, who had long been familiar with this side through his trade affairs, presented Tryphon with an ax of Takiyan iron, better in comparison with the Russian one; He also told how much respect the Ostyaks and Voguls hold for the treasure trove, near which he lives, and how afraid everyone is to touch the revered but formidable tree with an axe. Tryphon fasted and prayed for up to six weeks, and then, taking the Deesis icon (an image of the Savior with the Mother of God and the Forerunner praying), he went to the idolized fir tree. She differed from the others in both height and thickness; it was two fathoms in volume, and its branches extended four fathoms from the trunk. Kneeling before the icon, he fervently prayed to the Lord for the destruction of the demonic flattery that kept poor people in destructive darkness. Then, loudly repeating the name of the Lord Jesus, he began to cut down the tree and finally felled it. The offerings, hanging on spruce branches and consisting of silk flies, furs, gold and silver, were put on fire, like the tree. Prince Ambal, having heard about this, came with many Ostyaks and marveled at how a formidable tree could be incinerated by a hermit! “For one intention to insult the spruce,” he told Tryphon, “others were punished with death; Are you stronger than our gods? The monk answered: “You have already heard what kind of God I preach to you; By His power, I, His least servant, accomplished this deed, which you marvel at, so that this tree would not destroy you and your children.” “Great is the Christian God, He is stronger than our gods,” exclaimed the Ostyaks. Nevertheless, they went to the town of Sylva to the head of the town. “A Christian monk,” they said, “in thin clothes, settled in the forest, cut down and burned our prayer tree and, preaching Christ, commands us to be baptized; What should we do with this person? The Stroganovs’ clerk Tretyak Moiseevich, who had already heard about the Monk Tryphon, said to Prince Ambal: “I know the man you are talking about; he is a good man: if he taught you to believe in Christ the Lord, do what he commands you; By obeying a holy man, you will receive eternal life.” The Ostyaks expressed indignation at the destruction of their god, but after admonitions they calmed down somewhat. Meanwhile, a new circumstance caused displeasure among the Ostyaks against Tryphon. It became known that the Cheremis were robbing ships along the Kama and going to war with the Ostyaks. They learned this from the Russians who fled to the Ostyaks from the Cheremis. The Ostyaks came to the idea that Tryphon would open Ostyak housing to the Cheremis out of displeasure for their dislike towards him. Zevenduk and others decided to kill Tryphon. They came to his place of residence, but by the grace of God they did not find Tryphon, although he stood in his cell in prayer. After that, little by little, the Ostyaks began to respect the man of God, then to the doctrine he preached. Before others, the daughters of the Ostyak prince Ambal and the Vogul Bezyak accepted Christianity. Following them, many others were baptized. Those who were baptized began to bring honey, wax and some other things to Tryphon. Rejoicing at his conversion to the holy faith, Tryphon lovingly accepted the offerings and turned them either to glorify the name of God or to help the poor. Monuments to the conversion of the Mul Ostyaks to the holy faith are the St. Nicholas Church in Upper Muls and two chapels of the Lower Muls, known from a scribe book of 1624 640. The brothers of the Pyskor monastery, having heard about the glorious exploits of Tryphon, wished to see him in their monastery; they asked the clerk of the Stroganovs to bring Father Trifon to them. The monk, having arrived at their monastery against his will, spent little time here, but in a short time managed to convert the Ostyaks who lived near Solikamsk to Christ, including the wealthy landowner Irteg, whose descendants of the Irtegs still live today 641. According to his desire to live in solitude, the Stroganovs, Jacob and Gregory, suggested that he could live in their homeland on the Chusovaya River. Trifon moved to Chusovaya. Here, having dispersed the fear of superstitions about the place where he decided to live, he erected a chapel with holy icons, and then built a monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God 642. But here a temptation was encountered that removed Tryphon from Perm. To prepare the land for sowing grain, he lit stumps and roots of felled trees near his cell. The fire, intensified by the wind, spread through the forest and destroyed huge reserves of firewood prepared for the Stroganov salt trades. Local settlers, embittered by the loss of firewood, chased Tryphon to kill him. Stroganov Grigory put him in chains; then advised him to leave his possessions. Father Tryphon entrusted the monastery to his disciple John, and he himself decided to move to Khlynov. On January 18, 1580, he came to the first Vyatka city and went to Khlynov. The wanderer visited the churches of God in Khlynovo and most often visited the church of St. Nicholas, where the miraculous Velikoretsk icon of the saint stood. The deacon of this church, Maxim Maltsov, fell in love with the servant of God and hosted him. Then other Khlynovites began to invite him to their homes. Having become familiar with the surrounding area of ​​Khlynov, he chose a place for a monastery and, appearing at a meeting of Vyatka people, asked permission to build a monastery outside the city near two churches, of which one, dilapidated, was in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Everyone was delighted with this proposal. With the request of the Vyatchans for a monastery, the monk went to Moscow. The saint ordained Tryphon as a hieromonk - the builder of the new monastery, and Tsar John Vasilyevich gave a charter for the land for the monastery 643. Upon returning to Khlynov, the monk began to build a stone church on the site of the dilapidated church. Soon the brethren gathered at the new monastery. The new Vyatka governor, Vasily Ovtsyn, a faithful servant of the king and a God-fearing ruler, especially helped the monk in protecting the monastery from extreme needs; he often talked with the monk about the salvation of the soul. At his suggestion, the Vyatchans willingly delivered donations for the new extensive Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, and the church was built. The number of brethren increased to 40, but the means of subsistence were insufficient. The monk again went to Moscow; he asked Tsar Theodore to give land to the monastery. The good king mercifully accepted the request, “ordered to give land, villages and lakes with fishing for the brethren for food.” This is what the monk himself writes in his will. Probably at this time the patriarch honored him with the rank of archimandrite and gave many icons, books and utensils for the monastery. In Moscow, he was received by Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Vorotynsky, who grieved with the princess over his childlessness. The monk said to the boyar: “Prince, you have looked upon me, a poor old man, for God’s sake; but you did not honor me, but the Lord, fulfilling His commandments; know that you will have a son, Alexy.” The prince and princess were embarrassed by the pleasant news for them; They asked the saint’s prayers, gave him a lot of alms for the monastery, and a year later the elder’s word came true. After that, Vorotynsky was the most zealous benefactor of the Tryphon monastery. The monk, having become the archimandrite of a crowded monastery, did not change his ascetic life: he did not allow himself either tasty food or soft clothing; On his body he wore heavy chains and a stiff hair shirt. He gave everything that was sent to him to the monastery treasury, and in his cell there were only books and icons. The strict life of the monk was not liked by some. Little by little the displeasure against him increased. The elder decided to evade evil, especially since he could, he thought, serve the edge on a different path. He handed over the management of the monastery to his disciple Jonah Mamin. The latter, being one of the Moscow nobles, easily achieved in Moscow that he was appointed rector of the Vyatka monastery. The elder went on a journey. Nikita Stroganov built a cell for the exiled elder in the Solvychegodsk Vvedensky monastery and supported him at his own expense. The elder wished to pray at the Solovetsky monastery. Stroganov gave him a ship with supplies and people to deliver to the island; but the elder, as Stroganov later complained, released the people, sold the supplies and the ship, and, having visited Solovki, used Stroganov’s gifts for the Vyatka monasteries. Stroganov did not quite understand the elder. The soul of the elder burned with the desire to promote the Christian enlightenment of the remote region, while the Vyatka side had a need for monasteries, churches, and even chapels. At this time, a monastery was established in Slobodskoye in honor of the Epiphany of the Lord 644. And the elder gave part of Stroganov’s gifts to the construction of this monastery. The blessed one understood what he would get from Stroganov for inaccurately fulfilling his will. But love is patient. To this day, the chapels along the banks of the Kama and Vyatka, which Trifon built on the way from the Stroganov Varnitsa to Khlynov, are still intact. On the road from Slobodskoye to Kai in the village of Verkhosvyatsky there is an “ordinary” church, now very dilapidated, built by the blessed elder during his illness 645. This is what the blessed elder used Stroganov’s gifts for! In the new Slobodskaya monastery they joyfully laid to rest the elder who cared for her. He didn't want to be a burden to anyone; on the contrary, he was eager to make things easier for others. With his disciple Dositheus, he went to Solvychegodsk for alms for the new monastery. With the simplicity of a loving soul, he appeared to his benefactor Nikita Stroganov, but he drove him away with anger. The monk calmly went to other houses, and in the evening he said to his disciple: patience is necessary for good; Tomorrow you will appear alone to Stroganov in the church, after Matins. Stroganov, having learned that Dositheus was a student of Tryphon, received him with humble love beyond his expectations. “I suffered a lot that night for insulting the servant of God,” he said. Then he said that he had known Tryphon for a long time and had helped him a lot, and that Tryphon’s act with the ship assigned to Solovki aroused from his soul the anger with which he had received it yesterday; “I feel and confess my sin,” added the good Christian, “ask Father Tryphon to visit my house with a blessing.” Received with love by Stroganov, the Elder of God received generous alms for the monastery. In the last years of his life, Tryphon once again traveled to the Solovetsky monastery to worship the wonderworkers. The Solovetsky elders advised him to stay in their monastery, pointing out his decrepitude. His soul yearned for his beloved Assumption monastery. The patient was taken to Khlynov. But when he sent a novice to ask Abbot Jonah to accept him into the monastery, the cruel disciple refused. Deacon Maxim took the patient into his home. He stayed here for two months, and since he felt that he would not live long, he asked the archpriest and priests to beg the abbot to accept him into the monastery. Jonah's heart softened, and when they met, he asked his mentor for forgiveness. “May God forgive you, my son,” answered the elder. “What happened is the work of our old enemy; he has been fighting for a long time against those who fear the Lord.” Jonah, expecting reproaches, was amazed at the meekness of the teacher; The monk was glad that he was again in his monastery 646. For his beloved monastery, founded by him, he wrote a spiritual will. Having spoken about the labors it took him to found and protect the monastery of the Mother of God, he says this to the brethren: “The flock gathered in Christ, fathers and brothers! listen to me, a sinner. Although I am rude and worse than everyone else, God and His Most Pure Mother allowed me, the bad one, to manage my house. I pray you, for God and His Most Pure Mother, have spiritual love among each other. Without it, no virtue is complete before God. The mouth of Christ spoke to the disciples: love one another. Everyone understands this, because you are My disciples, if you have love among yourself (John 13:34-35). According to the Apostle Paul, bear each other's burdens (Gal. 6:2). Do not judge one another before God, whether in church, or in a cell, alone, or in fellowship with the brethren. Perform cell prayers with fear. And don’t skip church singing at all; no matter what happens, run to the Church of God for spiritual singing. First of all, give the things of God to God, and then do other things. Do yourselves more honor to one another (Phil. 2:3). I bless the sinful Archimandrite Tryphon that my disciple, cell elder Jonah Mamin, will be in my place in the house of the Most Pure Mother of God. And you, fathers and brothers, obey him in everything, listen to him. When he calls you to serve, for God’s sake, perform the service without grumbling. Take care of the monastery; Do not give for the monastery without the blessing of the abbot, and do not be friends with anyone with monastic goods, and do not give anything monastic to your relatives without the blessing of the abbot. And do not take your property either from money, or from buildings, or from anything else. You, brother and master, Elder Jonah! For God's sake, both for the Most Pure Mother of God and for your parent, be diligent in obedience to our prayer. Take care of the house of the Most Pure One and the flock - the brotherhood gathered in Christ, about the estates and lands... For God's sake, be jealous of the holy fathers, as they legitimized living in monasteries and laurels, that is, Saints Euthymius the Great, Saint Savva the Sanctified, Theodosius Kinoviarch, also the holy fathers who shone in Russia, Sergius, Varlaam, Kirill, Zosima and Savvaty. I pray you, for God’s sake, have love for your brethren and bear the burden. It is written: you bear the strong infirmities of the weak (Rom. 15:1). Let there be no chaos. According to the Apostle, insist, reprove, rebuke in time and in time (2 Tim. 4:2). I ask you, for God’s sake, do not introduce intoxicating drink into the house of the Most Pure One. Just as during my lifetime there was no intoxicating drink and no tables in cells, so let there not be such things after me. First of all, let you not have bread drinks or tables for yourself or for your guests. For the brethren at the meal, let there be enough food and good kvass. Comfort the brethren so that there is no scarcity in the meal. The house of the Most Pure One will not become scarce because of this... If you have love among each other, then the house of the Most Pure One will never become scarce. For God's sake, do not forget me, a sinner; remember me at litias and memorial services, large and small. Always remember, and God will remember you. May the peace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother and my blessing be with you, forever and ever, amen" 647. The monk died on October 8, 1612. His relics rest in secret. Local memory of him is celebrated on the day of his death. Every year on Saturday of the fourth week of Lent people from the surrounding villages gather for pilgrimage to the well, which he dug himself. The Monk Ignatius, baptized John 648, was born in the village of Eski-Zagora, diocese of Ternovskaya. His parents, George and Maria, having moved to Philippopolis, sent their son here to learn to read and write. Having good abilities, he soon learned what he was taught. From a young age, he felt a desire for a desert life and retired to the monastery of St. John of Rila. The elder came across a cruel man; For six years he lived with this elder, fulfilling the position of a reader in the church and with the joy of gentleness enduring abuse and beatings from the elder. Finally, when the angry elder endangered the life of obedient John in a storm of anger, he was forced to run away from him. At that time there was a war between the Serbs and Turks. The Mohammedans forced Father Ioannov to go to war with the rank of commander of a thousand, as a strong and brave man, but he replied that he could not fight against his fellow believers and fellow tribesmen. The savages pierced his side and then decapitated him. Dissatisfied with this, in a frenzy of fanaticism, they captured the wife and two daughters of the sufferer and, through fear, forced them to hang out. John, having changed clothes, disappeared into the house of a kind old woman; They looked for him here, but they didn’t recognize him in disguise. A kind old woman escorted him to Wallachia. Moving from one place to another, he ended up in Bucharest and here he became friends with Blessed Euthymius 649. There was debauchery in Bucharest even then. John, fearing temptations, decided to make his way to Athos. On the way he was in Shumla and here in grief he learned about the fall of his friend Euthymius. Meanwhile, a bandit gang of Turks, carrying out a robbery, captured John and forced him to turn Turk. John made a promise to convert to Islam and, left free, fled from Shumla to Eski Zagora. From here, with one Athos resident from the monastery of Gregory, he came to Athos and settled in Grigoriat. Having stayed here and in other places for some time, he came to Anna’s monastery to visit Blessed Basil. When necessary, he went with him to Thessaloniki; here, with them, the Monk David suffered for Christ; The firmness of the sufferer inspired John with the desire to shed his blood for the faith of Christ. Upon returning to the monastery, the elder soon fell ill and died. John moved to the same strict monastery of Kavsokalivsky. The monastery of St. Anne on the eastern slope of Mount Athos; “nearby there is the monastery of Kavsokalivsky and the third hermitage - Karulya. All these higher schools of achievement are located in wild, difficult places and barely accessible to the traveler. The eastern tip of Athos is still faithful to the first example of Athonite asceticism, left on the Mount by Saint Peter.” So says a recent visitor to Athos 650. In the Kavsokalivsky monastery, John learned that his friend Euthymius had committed a martyrdom. Rejoicing at his friend’s blessed lot, John began to desire martyrdom even more. Appearing to the venerable confessor Nicephorus, he earnestly asked to be accepted into spiritual leadership. The elder entrusted it to elder Akakios. His food was bread and water, and even then in small quantities; Day and night he prayed on his knees and read the Holy Scriptures. Despite such exploits, he was cheerful. Ancient anger raised a strong battle of the flesh against him; he fell to the ground and lay for a long time, fighting hellish fire; then he ran to his guardian Akaki and asked for help. The elder consoled the grieving person. The ascetic came to church, picked up the icon Mother of God and, kissing and with tears, prayed to the Most Pure One to deliver him from the battle. The Most Pure One did not leave her without help. The blessed one suddenly felt a wonderful fragrance, and the abuse did not return. When confessor Nicephorus saw in John a firm determination to be a faithful confessor of the name of Christ, he tonsured him into monasticism with the name Ignatius and then sent him to Constantinople with the experienced elder Gregory. Arriving in Constantinople on September 29, the travelers found the necessary dress and decided to begin the feat on Friday. On the appointed day, Blessed Ignatius appeared in court, but learned that the hearing would not take place until Tuesday. The confessor prepared himself with tearful prayer before the icon of the Mother of God in the house of one Christ-lover, Gregory. On Tuesday, appearing in court, he told the judge: “Bad people pass off a counterfeit coin as a real one and even force them to take it.” “Yes, this is not a good thing,” said the qadi. “Who are these wicked people?” “You are Mohammedans,” answered the confessor. “When I was young, your Turks forced me by force to promise to renounce Christ and accept Mohammedanism. I see the wickedness of my promise - and I freely say that Mohammedanism is a lie and the destruction of the soul.” With these words, he threw off the green bandage from his head. "Who brought you here?" – the judge shouted with anger. “My own desire is to clear my conscience,” and, taking out the icon of the Savior, he added: “You see the Judge of the universe.” “Stop nonsense,” said the impudent qadi. - It will be better if you keep your promise - you will be held in high esteem and with money. Otherwise, a terrible execution is ready. Think carefully." The confessor answered with a smile: “I willingly surrender to you all earthly happiness; a poor Mohammedan cannot have any other share than earthly, bestial life. And there it will be much worse for both him and his deceiver!” The judge's face changed with anger, and the servants locked Ignatius in the gatehouse, putting iron chains on him. Dissatisfied with this, they either brazenly mocked him or beat him, forcing him to accept Mohammedanism. Kadiy, having completed other matters, again demanded a confessor. "Who brought you here?" – the qadi asked again. “Lord Jesus Christ,” answered the confessor. “Listen, my friend,” the qadi said affectionately, “you are hot and arrogant, come to your senses; you will have to experience such torments as you cannot even imagine.” “Eternal fate, judge, is worth working hard about. Indifference in such a matter is not smart and criminal. If we no longer value heavenly truth and calmly love the lies of human arbitrariness (and how immoral and low that is!), then it is already too foolish to be carefree about our eternal fate. Isn't it? Meanwhile, it is not difficult to understand that no matter how dirty and stinking the Mohammedan paradise is, the paradise opened by Christ the Lord is the true paradise. So, whether you order my head to be cut off or hanged, I am ready to do anything with joy,” said the confessor. The judge ordered him to be taken to prison. Companion Gregory happily listened to what happened to the sufferer. And other Christians also praised the Lord and prayed for the confessor. It is not known for certain what they did with Ignatius in prison, but Constantinople Christians said that the sufferer was cruelly tortured there. When the qadi again called Ignatius to him and saw that neither caresses nor torture changed the firm confessor: he decided to strangle him. So the saint, hanged on Parma-cani, was strangled on October 8, 1814 on Thursday at 6 o’clock. Elder Gregory, three days later, bought the relics of the martyr at a high price and on October 20 arrived with them on Athos 651. Antioch - at the beginning of Christianity - the capital of the East, with 500,000 inhabitants. Nowhere did paganism appear in such completeness of its ugliness as in Antioch. Here was a rabble of magicians, mimes, priests, a city of dancing, bacchanalia, frenzied orgies, arrogant debauchery, and mad luxury. When Christianity appeared here, a wonderful change took place in the luxurious capital of the east. Under Saint Chrysostom, in Antioch and its environs there were already whole hosts of pure virgins. This is what he says in one conversation to the Antiochians: “Virgins who have not yet reached the age of twenty, who spent all their time in their chambers, brought up in bliss, resting on a soft bed, soaked in incense and expensive ointments, gentle by nature and even more pampered from diligent courtship, who throughout the whole day knew no other occupation than to decorate their appearance, wear gold jewelry and indulge in voluptuousness, who did nothing even for themselves, but had many maidservants, wore clothes more delicate than their very bodies, used thin and soft bedspreads, constantly enjoyed the smell of roses and similar incense - these virgins, being suddenly enveloped in the fire of Christ, abandoned all this luxury and pomp; Forgetting about their tenderness, about their age, they parted with all pleasures, like brave fighters, and entered the field of exploits. Apparently, I am saying something incredible, but still true. I heard that these so tender virgins achieved such austerity in life that they put the coarsest hair shirts on their naked bodies; Their feet remained bare, and their bed was made of reeds; they spent most of the night without sleep. They have a meal only in the evening, a meal where there are no herbs or bread, but only beans, peas, oil and figs. They are constantly busy spinning wool and other more difficult handicrafts than their maids did. They took upon themselves the labor of treating the sick, carrying their beds, and washing their feet. Many of them also do cooking. Such is the power of the fire of Christ!” 652 Under Chrysostom, even detractors of virginity appeared in Antioch, exactly the same as they are today. New smart people haven’t come up with something new, but they are repeating the old, worn-out stuff. For them, Saint Chrysostom wrote an extensive work on virginity in Antioch. Having given the concept of true virgins, showing that there cannot be true virgins among heretics, just as there were none among pagans, he writes: “Someone will say: if it is better not to touch a wife, then why was marriage introduced into the world? What will prevent the human race from being exterminated if there are no newborns to take the place of the dead? Our race is held together not by the power of marriage, but by the power of the Lord, who said: grow and multiply (Genesis 1:28)... Without the will of God, marriage will not multiply people and virginity will not reduce... It is not virginity that threatens the death of the human race, but lawless cohabitation. This is shown in the rapid destruction of all animals under Noah. If the sons of God had resisted vile lust and had not looked with criminal eyes at the daughters of men, destruction would not have come. When the world is filled with people, there remains one reason for marriage - to prevent unholy lust." Having exposed the inconveniences that a second marriage entails, and showing that every marriage is inevitable slavery, he picturesquely depicts how it is easier for a virgin than for a married woman to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, and solves some perplexities 653. The soul of the noble Antiochian woman, Saint Publia, burned with the fire of Christ that Chrysostom spoke of. The daughter of noble parents, at their request, was married to a noble Antiochian; but she did not live with her husband for long - he soon died. The blessed fruit of an honest marriage was the son John. His mother raised him as a sincere Christian. That is why it turned out that John ruled over the elders of Antioch for a long time and, having been elected to the apostolic see many times, always avoided being in charge 654. From the time of her widowhood, Blessed Publiya led a strict life of fasting and prayer. During such a life, honored with the sacred rank of deaconess 655, she gathered for herself virgins and widows who decided, like her, to live for the Lord; She spent her life with them exactly as St. Chrysostom wrote, who took his picture of the virgins from the community of the noble Publius; with them she constantly glorified the Creator and Savior God 656. So she lived as an ascetic for several years. Julian ascended the throne of the empire and openly took the side of paganism; proud of his intellect, he tried to give pagan worship splendor and perhaps the best meaning, in words he presented himself as a defender of all truth and humanity, but in reality he brazenly ridiculed the holy faith, allowed to persecute and himself persecuted Christians. He arrived in Antioch and here acted like a fanatic of paganism; ordered the relics of Saint Babyla to be thrown out of the temple, “he promised to wipe out the entire race of Galileans from the face of the earth,” - that’s what he called Christians and ordered them to be called no other way 657. Once he had to pass by the prayer house of Publius. The ascetics sang morning praises to God. When the apostate walked past the monastery of virgins, the ascetics sang together louder than usual, considering the persecutor worthy of contempt and ridicule. They exclaimed with David and, depicting their insensibility with his words, sang with his indignation: let those who create, I and all who trust in her, be like them (Ps. 113:16). Hearing this, the wicked man flared up and angrily forbade the singing of psalms when he passed by. He who is angry at the truth only shows his weakness and provokes the new courage of the truth against himself. When Julian again passed by the monastery, Saint Publia ordered to sing: may God rise again and his enemies be scattered (Ps. 67:1). Julian, furious, ordered the director of the choir to be brought to him. An old woman appeared before him, worthy of all respect even in her years, and enjoying general respect in Antioch for her high virtues. And yet he ordered one of the servants to hit the preacher of truth on the cheeks, and he stained his hands with her blood. The fearless deaconess told Julian that she regretted his sick soul, but considered the truth of God above all. With praise to God on her lips, she returned to her monastery. Considering Julian to be possessed by an evil spirit, as Saul was possessed, she continued to sing sacred songs for him, with the thought that perhaps the apostate would come to his senses 658. Her life did not last long after that: she gave up her spirit to the Lord in peace, and Julian died in the war 659. The suffering of the Bulgarian martyrs - the monks of the Zograf monastery Emperor Michael Paleologus thought to strengthen his weak empire by an alliance with the pope - union. He declared the union in 1274, and the following year he executed those who condemned the union in the capital. In 1278, he issued a decree to introduce a union by all means of violence 660. The Athonite monks sent a message to Michael. Here they thoroughly proved that neither the primacy of the pope, nor his commemoration in churches, nor the celebration of the Eucharist on unleavened bread, nor the addition to the Creed: and from the Son, should be tolerated. “We clearly see,” they continued, “that you are a heretic, but we beg you: leave all this and abide in the teaching that you accepted... Reject the unholy new teachings of false knowledge, which adds guesswork to faith” 661. Particularly strong protests were made by the Slavic communities: the Serbian king Milutin protested with a sword, taking away several cities where the Slavs lived from the empire. Proud Mikhail was very annoyed. The wandering crusaders, expelled from Palestine and sheltered in Romagna, declared to Michael their zeal to expand the power of the pope with fire and sword. Mikhail also hired Turks and Tatars. So, in 1283 he moved against Serbia. On the way was now the hated Athos. In order not to irritate the Greeks, he decided to vent his anger on Athos for the union, especially on the Slavs. Even under the act of 1162, “Simeon the monk and abbot Zografo” 662 signed. A century later, of course, only Bulgarians lived in Zograf, who considered Zograf their monastery, like the Serbs Hilandar. By the will of Michael, the pope's servants fell with all their anger on the Zografs. When the Zographians were presented with an insistent demand to accept the union, no one wanted to hear about papism. Most of the Zografs scattered wherever they could. The hardest ones, 26 in number, locked themselves in a military tower. These were Abbot Thomas, monks: Barsanuphius, Cyril, Micah, Simon, Hilarion, Jacob, Job, Cyprian, Savva, Jacob, Martinian, Cosmas, Sergius, Mina, Joasaph, Ioannikios, Paul, Anthony, Euthymius, Dometian, Parthenius and 4 laymen. When, despite any convictions and any threats, the Zographians did not want to hear about the union, considering it an impiety of the evangelical faith, the firm confessors, all 26, were burned in the tower 663. On the outer wall of Zograf there is presented “the torture of 26 Zograf monks, burned by the pope in the monastery tower on October 10, 1284 for Orthodoxy” 664. According to the January count of years, this was October 10, 1283. Emperor Michael, before reaching Serbia, died suddenly in 1283. The “confession” of Michael’s widow is now known, where she pledged to the Church not to remember the soul of her deceased husband Michael. “My royalty,” she wrote, “hates and considers vile the thing (union) that recently happened in the Church and confused it all... since the Church of God condemned Vekkos (patriarch) for his blasphemous dogmas and Melitiniot and Metochites with him and excommunicated them from communion with itself, then my royalty, as a result of such a decision, worthily considers them alienated and rejected. And since the same holy Church of God has determined not to honor the statutory commemoration of my deceased husband, lord and king, for the aforementioned deed and confusion, then my royalty, which prefers the fear of God and obedience to the Holy Church to everything, approves and accepts this determination and will never force a commemoration of the soul of my lord and husband” 665. Repose of Blessed Andrei Totemsky Blessed Andrey 666, a native of the village of Ust-Tolshchemskoye, after the death of his parents, lived in the Galich monastery with a monk. The ascetic Stefan, who lived here, advised him to accept the yoke of foolishness for Christ, and Andrei became a fool. In winter, he walked without shoes and in torn clothes; His food was bread and water. Every year he walked around the surrounding monasteries to worship the shrine and again returned to the Resurrection Monastery. After the death of his mentor Stefan, he moved to Totma and settled near the Church of the Resurrection of Christ on the banks of the Sukhona River. Here he continued his feats of foolishness: during the day he walked here and there, and spent the night in prayer; What good people gave him, he secretly distributed to the poor. Finally, during his lifetime, he discovered in himself the grace of God, healing ailments. Once in winter he walked, as usual, barefoot, to a church festival, 50 versts from Totma. The foreman of the savages, Azhbakai, who suffered from eyes, met him on the road; knowing Andrei by rumor, he begged him to heal his eyes and gave him a significant amount of money. Andrey ran away without taking anything; Azhbakai washed himself with the snow on which the holy fool stood and received healing. Feeling the proximity of his death, the blessed one called to him the Resurrection sexton John, whom he loved, and asked to invite the priest Athanasius for confession and communion with the Holy Mysteries. Having received the Holy Mysteries, he asked the cleric to leave him alone; then, calling him, he said: “brother, the time has come for the separation of the soul from the body.” John, in tears, lit a candle in front of the icon and smoked incense. Following this, the blessed one quietly died with his hands folded crosswise on his chest; he was buried, according to his wishes, under the bell tower. Andrei played the fool for ten years. His death followed on October 10, 1673, when he was 35 years old. After his death, blessed Andrew became famous for his miracles. On the shrine of St. Theodosius of Totem from 1800, the hallmarks depict: St. Vassian of Thiksen, Andrew, the holy fool of Totem, Procopius, the holy fool of Usyansk, and blessed Maxim of Totem 667. Holy Martyrs Eulampios and Eulampia Diocletanovo and Maximianovo suffered during the persecution. Eulampius, a young man hiding with other Christians in a secret place, was sent by them to Nicomedia to buy bread. Seeing the royal decree against Christians nailed over the gate, he began to reproach it, for which he was captured by the pagans and brought to trial. The judge urged Eulampius to give honor to the gods and, finding him adamant, he was tortured: after scourging and tormenting his body with iron, he was tortured with fire. Hearing about this, his sister Evlampia came to the place of torture and, confessing herself to be a Christian, said to the tormentor: “And I am ready to endure for Christ, like my brother Evlampius.” The torturer ordered to beat her in the face, and the beat was enough to disfigure her. Evlampius strengthened his sister, saying: “Do not be afraid, sister, of those who kill the body, but cannot destroy the soul.” (see: Matthew 10:28). After this, the tormentor ordered Evlampius’ eyes to be gouged out, and his sister to be hanged by the hair and beaten. Finally they were sentenced to death. The soldiers led them to the place of execution; but Saint Eulampia died during the beheading of her brother, and therefore the executioners did not touch her body. Memory of St. Theophan of Pechersk The relics of St. Theophan the Faster rest openly in the Anthony Cave. The circumstances of his life are not described in the monuments of the Lavra. The name of the faster with whom he is known makes it clear that strict fasting was the way by which he approached the Lord 668. The Suffering of Saints Maximilian and Cyrinus, Bishops of Norich The place of preaching ministry of Saints Maximilian and Cyrinus was Norica 669. This was the country of the Slavs - the Noriches, who got their name from staying in mountain holes, caves and gorges. “The Norse are Slovenian,” says the Monk Nestor. Norici are part of the Vends, who occupied, under various private names, a vast country between the Adriatic and the Danube and from the top of the Danube far to the west 670. Emperor Augustus, having conquered the Noriches, built several fortresses in the country of the Noriches, including Lerch (Lavreacum). Nowadays the homeland of Saint Maximilian is called Krainaya, as the extreme country of the Slavs, pushed back to the south by the Germans. Nowadays in Carinthia there are up to 400,000 Wends or Slovenes and up to one and a half million Croato-Serbs 671. Blessed Maximilian was born in the city of Zelje (Celeius), at the top of the Sava River. The son of wealthy parents, in the 7th year he was mentored by the priest Orani (plowman), an educated and sincere Christian. In the 19th year, having lost his mother (his father died as a martyr under Decius 6 years earlier), Maximilian remained the heir to a rich estate; but he distributed it to the poor and, having given freedom to the slaves, devoted himself entirely to serving the Lord. Around the year 260, Saint Maximilian was elected and consecrated Bishop of Norich, for whom the see was assigned in the city of Lerche. In this title, he worked with complete zeal to spread the holy faith among the Slavs. He not only enlightened his native land with the gospel teaching, but also traveled west to what is now Bavaria, then inhabited by the Slavs. The fruits of his labors were enjoyed here for centuries and after him. A parchment collection from the 10th century was found here: in it there are two confessions and a teaching in the Slavic language, with differences in the Serbian dialect, written in Latin letters. The teaching is the same as that read in the prologue on April 25th. Confessions and teaching in content are assigned for newly baptized Slavs 672. The blessed saint cared with love for the possible reassurance of the sick and poor, especially those who suffered persecution for the holy faith from the pagans. When Emperor Numerian declared a persecution of Christians, Prefect Noriki terrified the Christians with his cruelty, and a considerable number of them made sacrifices out of fear. The saint hurried to his native land in order to encourage his dear relatives with his presence and living words. Appearing before the prefect, he said in the presence of others: “Aren’t you sent here to defend the country from enemies? And you turn out to be the most cruel enemy." The prefect was embarrassed; then he said with importance: “Lead the venerable one to the church of Mars to make a sacrifice.” No threats from the prefect forced the saint to act as an insult to the name of Christ. And the prefect ordered Maximilian's head to be cut off. The determination was made on October 12, 282 673. The martyrdom of the saint contributed to the spread of Christianity among the Slavs on the Sava River and on the banks of the Adriatic. Soon after the saint (in 297), in coastal Norica, some of the warriors suffered the most cruel tortures for the holy faith 674. Blessed Jerome in his chronicle speaks respectfully of the Pannonian saint and martyr Cyrinus; Prudentius sang it in verse; the third ancient teacher classifies him as one of the most famous witnesses of Christ. An ancient record of 675 has also been preserved about his martyrdom. The See of St. Cyrinus was on the Sava River in Siscia, now a trading town, while the See of St. Maximilian was in Zagreb. When the prefect of lower Pannonia, Maximus, launched a cruel persecution against Christians, Saint Kirin withdrew from his city. By order of the prefect, they searched for him for a long time and, seizing him, brought him to the chief. “Why were you running?” – Maxim asked. “They think in vain,” answered the bishop, “that fear drove me; I did the will of my Lord, who said: when they persecute you in one city, go to another.” “Who ordered this?” – asked the prefect. “Christ, the true God,” answered Kirin. “Don’t you know,” said Maxim, “that the decrees of emperors will find you everywhere? He whom you call God will not deliver you; Now you’re caught.” Kirin answered: “He is always with us, wherever we are, and He can help whenever He wants. He was with me, and now He strengthens me.” “You are avoiding fulfilling the will of our sovereigns,” said Maxim. “Disobedience is criminal.” The bishop answered: “I don’t do it because that will is contrary to the will of God; your gods are emptiness; and God, Whom I serve, is in heaven and on earth, He is above everything and holds everything, everything was created by Him and is preserved by Him.” Maxim said: “You are out of your mind and delirious; obey, otherwise there will be torment and death.” The bishop answered: “I consider the misfortunes that you threaten to be glory, and the promised death will give me eternal life; I worship my God and offer a worthy sacrifice to Him, but not to earthly kings.” The prefect ordered him to be brutally beaten. Then he said that if Kirin obeys, recognizes the power of the gods to whom the Roman Empire is subordinate, he will be given the position of priest in the church of Jupiter; otherwise he will be sent to the prefect of upper Pannonia. The bishop answered: “I am already a true priest, I offer myself to my God.” Maxim ordered to keep him in prison and in heavy chains. In prison, the saint praised the Lord for his fate and prayed. At midnight the dungeon was illuminated with a strong light. The warden of the prison, Markell, seeing this, fell at the feet of the bishop and said with tears: “Pray to the Lord for me; I believe that there is no other God except the one you honor.” The blessed bishop instructed him and sealed him with the name of Jesus Christ. Three days later, Maxim ordered Kirin to be sent to the prefect of the first Pannonia 676. The bishop was led in chains through all the cities of the Danube. The prefect of Pannonia was returning from Ceprega (de civ. Scarabetensi), and Cyrinus was presented to him; but he ordered Kirin to send word to Sabaria, where he himself would be. Pious women brought food and drink to the bishop here; he blessed the offering for their faith, and they kissed his fetters. When he had eaten, the guards took him to Sabaria (now Sarwar, under Rab). The prefect was in the theater when Kirin was introduced to him. After reading the notice, he asked: “Is all this true?” The bishop answered: “In Sisk I confessed the true God; I always worshiped Him and carry Him in my heart; He is the only true God, and no one will separate me from Him.” The prefect used everything to shake the saint’s firmness; He said that he regretted his old age and that it was not smart to neglect life. It was all in vain. “I don’t look like crazy,” said the confessor; - they, by the desire of life, renounce God, truly die; and I, confessing, pass on to Eternal life; your laws do not satisfy me, and I fulfill the commandments of Christ my God, proclaimed to the faithful.” The prefect decided to throw Kirin into the river with a stone around his neck. When he was thrown, he remained on the surface of the water for a long time, convincing the audience to be firm in the faith and not be afraid of either torment or death; finally, only through his prayer, the waves hid him. The saint was crowned with a martyr's crown in 309 677. The martyrdom of Saint Cyrinus, as well as the suffering of Saint Maximilian, not only gave rise to imitators of the holy example among believers 678, but also contributed to the spread of faith among the Slavs on the Sava River and on the banks of the Adriatic: the Bishop of Mursa, on the Sava River, defended Orthodoxy at the Council of Serdica in 347; Bishop Jadra from the Adriatic was at the Council of Aquileia in 381 679. Memory of Saints Amphilochius, Macarius, Tarasius and Theodosius of Glushitsky already as a monk he came from Ustyug to the Monk Dionysius of Glushitsky when a monastery was founded with him Glushitskaya and Sosnowiec. “Father! save me,” Amphilochius said to Dionysius at their first meeting. “Why did you take such trouble to come here?” - answered Dionysius. “I came,” said Amphilochius, “to bow to the Most Pure Mother of God and ask for your prayers.” Dionysius called his disciple Macarius and said: “The monk Amphilochius, mentored by God, came to our monastery and wants to offer prayers to God with us.” Macarius answered: “Forgive me for being ignorant, father, I don’t understand what to say.” “Say, novice, what God puts on your heart,” said Dionysius, and Macarius said: “Blessed is God, who wants all men to be saved.” “May God grant you to speak usefully,” added the abbot. Seeing such simplicity of mentor and student, Amphilochius fell at the feet of Dionysius and said: “Now I understand your ways, father, and how, without seeking human glory, you seek only the glory of God.” Dionysius, picking him up, said: “Why are you, my brother, aggravating a sinful man? Glory to God. He alone can save both me and you.” Amphilochius announced with tears that he had decided to become a novice of Dionysius. The abbot did not hide the fact that life in his monastery was harsh and difficult. “If you want to stay here,” Dionysius added, “let’s make a covenant not to be separated from each other while we remain on earth.” Amphilochius decided to do everything and fulfilled the rules of the hostel with all precision. He was Dionysius' assistant in the construction of a new, larger church. His meekness and humility were exemplary, and his concern concerned only the soul. Before his death, the Monk Dionysius, calling Amphilochius, said to him: “I see that death is close to me, but the Lord commands you to live, commit my body to the earth; do not leave this place, strive every day. Which of us can pay something to the Lord Christ? When Amphilochius began to cry about the separation from his teacher, he said: “You have not yet labored hard enough to receive the reward assigned to you,” and entrusted him with the management of the monastery 681. According to the handwritten description of the saints, the Monk Amphilochius died 15 years after the Monk Dionysius and, therefore, in 1452. The day of his death, October 12, was noted in the monastery. The monk was of average height, with a small and silver beard 682 . His relics rest in secret, next to the relics of his teacher, in a church dedicated to their name. The shrine over the relics was built in 1645 through the diligence of the guest Bakhteyar Bulgakov 683. According to the life of the Monk Dionysius, blessed Macarius, born in Rostov, was taken from his parents' house to the monastery of Dionysius by Matthew, still twelve years old, and was tonsured into monasticism; he lived in the abbot's cell and, under his supervision, studied monastic life. Abba fell in love with him for the purity of his soul, and at his request, Macarius was ordained a hieromonk by the Rostov Archbishop Dionysius (1396–1416). Blessed Macarius lived in his cell until the death of his venerable mentor. After Amphilochius, he was abbot of the Glushitsa monastery. His relics rest hidden, overshadowed by a shrine. Services are held for him in common with other Glushitsky monks, according to an ancient handwritten monastic book 684. Blessed Tarasius was the abbot of the Perm monastery, but voluntarily left his superiors in order to be in obedience to another. When Dionysius was told about his arrival at the Glushitsa Lavra, he went out to meet Tarasius. “I have long wanted to see your face, honest father, and I prayed a lot to the Lord for this,” said Tarasius when meeting Dionysius. “Blessed is God, who sent to us unworthy an experienced and reverent man,” answered Dionysius. “The Lord has glorified you according to your deeds,” said Tarasius. - Let my humility imitate you and fulfill your will; Here is a small property that I brought with me; count me among your flock." “Weren’t you, as an imitator of the true Shepherd Christ,” said Dionysius, “you yourself were the shepherd and healer of people wandering in the darkness of paganism in the land of Perm”? Tarasy said that he felt the need to be a student of another, more experienced one. From that time on, Abbot Tarasius led a harsh desert life along with others, maintained a strict fast and acquired blessed tears of tenderness, which often flowed from his eyes. He lived under the Monk Dionysius for 10 years and reposed under Abbot Amphilochia, shortly after his mentor, in 1440. His service is common with the Monk Macarius. His relics are overshadowed by a shrine. All that is known about blessed Theodosius is that he was a disciple of the Monk Dionysius and his relics rest near the relics of Tarasius 685. Memory of our venerable mother Petka-Paraskeva of Bulgaria “The law of love is such,” says the describer of the life of Saint Paraskeva, “that it encourages us to renew the memory of those dear to our hearts, so that we can contemplate their image in our minds and paint their speeches. All the more gratifying for the heart is the memory of God’s saints, which is so useful for everyone. Just as on summer days, under the beneficial rays of the sun, everything comes to life and grows, so a spiritual story, driving away the cloud of sadness, cheers and enlivens the soul and, giving strength to our zeal, leads us to the best. Already throughout Mysia, Thrace Dalmatia, the name of the Venerable Paraskeva is glorified” 686. The parents of Blessed Petka were Slavs and not poor people who enjoyed fame; they lived in the town of Epivatos (Pivat, Turkish Bayados), on the seaside, between Silimvria and Constantinople. In addition to their daughter Petka, they had a son. They sent him to school, and his daughter was raised in her parents' house, under the supervision of her mother. A fiery desire to live for the Lord was revealed early in Petka. If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself (Matthew 16:24): these words, heard by her in the church, pierced her heart like an arrow, and she, upon leaving the church, gave her rich dress to the poor man she met, exchanging it for his rags. Her parents scolded her for her changed outfit; but her heart burned with love for the Lord. After some time, she again gave her clothes to the beggar and then repeated the same thing more than once. They scolded her sharply, but she felt that she could not live otherwise. Brother Petka, when he was sufficiently taught the Holy Scriptures, wished to become a monk and, with the consent of his parents, took monastic vows under the name of Euthymius. Ascending gradually in spiritual life, he became a firm man. Due to the fame of his high life, he was elevated to the episcopal see of the diocese of Madita; here he became famous for his virtues and his fight against heretics. He died at a very old age, and his body was laid in the cathedral church, where miracles exuded. Michael Psellos, in his eulogy to Patriarch Michael Cerularius (1043–1058), speaks with praise of Saint Euthymius as a contemporary or somewhat earlier who flourished in the see of Madita, on the seashore 687. After the death of her parents, blessed Petka decided to part with the world completely. According to information collected by the holy mountain dweller Nicodemus, before she retired to the Palestinian desert, she visited Constantinople and walked around its holy places; here she listened to the instructions of zealous ascetics. On their advice, she settled in the suburbs of Irakli at the secluded Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God; she spent five years here in prayer, fasting and tears. Fulfilling her long-standing desire, she went to Palestine and, having venerated the places sanctified by the life of the Savior, remained to live in the Jordan Desert. The Lord alone knows all the exploits of the angelic desert life of the venerable virgin. Melting now from the heat, now from the cold, she ate only grass, and then only after sunset. The evil spirit tempted her with dreams and ghosts, but “the good Petka of the Most High took refuge for herself.” So she spent her life until old age, giving herself no rest, waiting for the Heavenly Bridegroom. One day, when she was standing in prayer, an Angel appeared to her and said: “Leave the desert and return to your fatherland, where you must leave your body on earth and go to the Lord with your soul.” The monk rejoiced that the time for her release from the body was near, but she was sorry to part with the deserted solitude. Obeying the will of Heaven, she went to the Fatherland, and at sea she experienced a storm. Arriving in Constantinople, she visited Saint Sophia and in the Blachernae Church she prayed before the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. Returning to her native town of Pivat, she did not find any of her acquaintances alive, and at the Church of the Holy Apostles she remained in prayer. Two years have passed since her return from the desert. The blessed one prayed in her solitude and during prayer she gave up her spirit to God. Her body was buried by Christ-loving people, like the body of a wanderer who did not tell anyone where she was from. This was in the first half of the 11th century. Near the place where the saint was buried, a stylite labored. A sailor happened to die, and his body was thrown not far from that place. The stench from the body was so strong that the pillar was forced to descend from the pillar and ask close residents to bury the body of the unfortunate man. Pious people began to dig a grave and found a body that was not touched by decay. At first they were frightened and perplexed: what to do? As strangers to spiritual things, out of simplicity, they left the incorruptible body in the grave and immediately buried the stinking corpse. Then, when one of them, the pious George, lay down to rest after evening prayer, a maiden dressed in a royal robe, surrounded by soldiers, appeared in a dream; the light that surrounded her was so strong that he could not look; one of the soldiers came up and, taking him by the hand, said: “George! Why did you so despise the body of the Venerable Paraskeva? Immediately take him out of the stinking grave and place him in a shrine; The king wants to glorify her on earth.” Then the wondrous maiden said to the embarrassed George: “Hurry to take out my relics, I can’t stand the stench; my homeland Pivat, where you live.” That same night, the reverent wife Euphemia had a similar vision. When both apparitions were announced, they hurried to the grave and took out the incorruptible body of the holy virgin; it was placed with triumph in the cathedral church of the apostles, and streams of healing flowed from it: the blind received their sight, the lame began to walk, those sick with serious illnesses received health. Almost two centuries have passed since the death of St. Paraskeva. Constantinople and the places close to it were in the hands of the papists - the crusaders. The Bulgarian Tsar John Yasen, the son of the eldest Yasen, decided to free the holy relics of Paraskeva from the unclean power of the papists 688. The Franks trembled Ash. Therefore, when he announced that he wanted to transfer the relics of the saint to his capital city, they immediately agreed to let them go. Thus, the Tsar and Patriarch Vasily greeted them with triumph in Ternov, and they were laid (1238) in the church of St. Paraskeva built for them 689. When Sultan Bayazet took Ternov, all the shrines were plundered; The Wallachian ruler managed to take the relics of the saint, dressed in only rags, and transferred them to his capital. In 1396, Wallachia also fell under the rule of the Mohammedans and its ruler was exiled to Brussa. The pious Serbian princess Militsa, visiting the Sultan, asked for the relics of the Venerable Paraskeva, and they were transferred to Serbia 690. Under the ruler Vasily Lupul, in 1641 they were reverently transferred to Iasi, and they rest to this day in the Iasi Cathedral Church of the Three Saints. With the glory of their miracles, they everywhere glorified, as they glorify, the faith of Christ, to strengthen the weak in the faith 691. Repose of Saint Dionysius, Archbishop of Suzdal From a young age, devoting himself to the service of God, blessed Dionysius, in the world of David, following the example of the Kyiv Pechersk ascetics, dug for himself a cave on the banks of the Volga, 5 versts from Nizhny Novgorod. In his Pechersk monastery, the Pechersk Icon of the Mother of God with the presence of Anthony and Theodosius, brought by Dionysius from Kyiv 692, is preserved. This makes it clear that blessed David was tonsured as a monk in the Kyiv cave monastery and from here he brought his love for cave life to the banks of the Volga. In his cave, blessed Dionysius first lived alone as a hermit. When those who wanted to strive monastically with him appeared, he founded (around 1335) a monastery in honor of the Ascension of the Lord 693. Through a strict ascetic life and extensive knowledge of the rules of faith and piety, he acquired fame and respect for himself. He was seen as “a meek, prudent man, knowledgeable of the Holy Scriptures, a teacher, glorious in fasting and filled with love for everyone” 694. Under his leadership, the Venerables Euthymius of Suzdal and Macarius of Unzhensk received their initial monastic education. He taught instructions to the blessed princess Theodora. In the Pechersk monastery, under his leadership, teaching elders were formed, such as Pavel the Tall. With his blessing, 12 of his disciples, including the Monk Euthymius, planted monastic monasteries in different places in the country of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod 695. Saint Alexy, personally knowing the virtues and education of Dionysius, in 1374 ordained him Bishop of Suzdal 696. The following year, the blessed archpastor had to put his own life in danger to save others. The people, irritated by the willfulness of the Mamaev ambassadors, killed several of them; By order of the prince, the chief ambassador, Murza Saraiko, was imprisoned with his retinue in the fortress, for his own safety. But since it was discovered that the wild squad was plotting murder, they wanted to take the Tatars to different places. Having learned about this, Saraiko rushed with his servants to the ruler’s house, set fire to the courtyard and began shooting at the people. Dionysius tried to calm both strangers and his own, but he almost lost his life - one Tatar arrow pierced his robe. The irritated people killed the angry steppe inhabitants 697. In 1377, the saint mourned the death of the Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow troops on the Piana River and the subsequent devastation of Nizhny by the Tatars 698. After the death of Saint Alexy (t 1378), the Monk Sergius, who first recognized Dionysius in the Pechersk Monastery (in 1365), suggested that Grand Duke Demetrius elect Dionysius as metropolitan. But the Grand Duke and the boyars certainly wanted to see Mityai, the court priest, as Metropolitan. Unfortunately, secular people like Mityai - people who are dexterous and easy, for whom piety is an unimportant matter. Mityai was elected metropolitan. The Grand Duke's favorite did not even observe decency in his new happiness. He behaved so proudly and arrogantly that, not being ordained a saint, he put on the metropolitan mantle, wore a white hood, treated the clergy imperiously and took the income of the high priest for himself 699. He asked the Grand Duke that his dedication take place in Moscow. The Grand Duke invited bishops to consecrate Mityai. Blessed Dionysius, appearing before the Grand Duke, boldly said: “Who is it that teaches you, sir, to change the law at your own discretion? What is desired from you and from us should not be.” The Grand Duke refused his wish. Mityai was greatly offended by the destruction of his dream and seethed with annoyance at Dionysius. “Why,” he said to Dionysius, “haven’t you been with me until now and accepted my blessing?” Dionysius answered: “Because I am a bishop and you are a priest, you have no right to bless me.” Mityai trembled with anger and threatened with a cry that he would deprive Dionysius of the priesthood and with his own hands would tear off the tablets from his mantle. After that, Mityai hurried to Constantinople. Dionysius went there because the patriarch had called him to him, and he needed to seek protection for himself. This was in 1380 700. Dionysius stayed in Constantinople for more than a year. He used this time for the benefit of not only his flock, but also the entire Russian Church. For his flock, he sent from Constantinople two exact copies of the icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria, then acquired part of the life-giving tree and the relics of some saints 701. The most important thing was that he explained to the patriarch the danger that the Russian Church was in from the Strigolniki heresy, which had intensified in Pskov and Novgorod. The Patriarch, having personally recognized the high merits of Dionysius, honored him with the rank of archbishop, gave him a phelonion with crosses and a surplice with sources. If Dionysius had desired the highest honor, with the patriarch’s disposition towards him, after the unfortunate death of Mityai, he could have asked for the rank of metropolitan. But he did not seek earthly honor, but desired the glory of God. “We found him,” the patriarch wrote in the letter, “worthy of all praise: we saw his fasting and tears, prayer and alms, everything that signifies a spiritual man of God; He was also present at the holy council, spiritually talked with the bishops about the Holy Scriptures, and showed zeal for the faith and a deep understanding of the sacred rules. That is why he was awarded an honorary rank, with the elevation of his department to the level of archbishopric, second after Novgorod; He was given a surplice with sources and a phelonion with four crosses and the faces of the evangelists” 702. The Patriarch instructed the enlightened and zealous archpastor to personally be in the Novgorod flock and make efforts to exterminate heresy there. “Our humility and the great council,” the patriarch wrote to the Pskovites, “sent to you the God-loving Archbishop of Suzdal Dionysius, an honest, pious, virtuous man, a famous keeper of the sacred canons; on our behalf he will visit and bless you, teach and instruct you, arrange what is necessary and unite you with the Catholic Apostolic Church of God; you must learn that those who are excommunicated from the Church are excommunicated from Christ God Himself; whatever you hear from his lips, accept as our own word” 703. Provided with patriarchal letters, Blessed Dionysius returned to Russia at the end of 1381. He was in Novgorod and Pskov and managed to greatly shake up the pernicious heresy of the Strigolniks 704 there. At the same time, he established a hostel in the Pskov Snetogorsk monastery. “With God’s help,” he wrote in a letter to the monastery, “as the Most Holy Ecumenical Patriarch, caring for the salvation of souls and the conversion of the lost, commanded me, I return those who have deviated from it to the right path, to the monastic community.” Having resolved those guilty of self-will, he decrees: “Neither the abbot nor the brothers should have anything of their own; They must neither eat nor drink in their cells; the necessary clothes must be taken from the abbot, moreover, simple clothes, made from ordinary, and not from German cloth, lamb fur coats without edges; shoes should be taken from the abbot; don’t have an extra dress.” He then justifies such an establishment with the words of Basil the Great, Ephraim, Climacus and others 705. On the feast of the Epiphany (1382) he arrived in Suzdal and then was in Nizhny. In his beloved Pechersk monastery, he mourned the death of the great elder Paul, the ascetic teacher 706. The Grand Duke now saw the merits of Blessed Dionysius and in June 1383 sent him to Constantinople to be appointed metropolitan, in place of Pimen, who had acquired a high rank in addition to the Grand Duke. The virtues of Dionysius were known in Constantinople, and therefore they agreed to fulfill the Grand Duke’s request for him if the plenipotentiaries of the council found Pimen’s case wrong. Blessed Dionysius, returning to Russia through Kyiv, was detained here by the Lithuanian prince Vladimir Olgerdovich. The Prince of Lithuania announced that if the Prince of Moscow, of his own free will, expelled Cyprian, Metropolitan of all Russia, from Moscow, then the Prince of Kiev, following him, detained Dionysius. In relation to the Holy Church, this meant that human arbitrariness brings into the Holy Church only suffering and disorder. In relation to blessed Dionysius, this meant that the Lord was once again, and for the last time, subjecting him to purifying sorrows. “The Lord loves whomever,” the Holy Scripture teaches, “he punishes: he beats every son whom he receives (Heb. 12:6). It is good for me that I suffered in order to learn Your statutes (Ps. 119:71), confesses the sacred singer. Blessed Dionysius spent time in his cave cell in prayer and contrition of heart 707. The ascetic shepherd died in the Kiev cave on October 15, 1384 708. “His body,” the chronicles say, “is intact and incorruptible to this day” 709. According to ancient monuments he is called a miracle worker 710. In the Pechersk canon they pray to St. Dionysius 711. Memory of Saint Eupraxia, Princess of Pskov Blessed Eupraxia, in the world Euphrosyne, was the daughter of the Polotsk prince Rogvold Borisovich 712 and the wife of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich. Yaroslav's father, Prince Vladimir Mstislavich, who reigned in Pskov, despite the fact that he was married to the daughter of the Riga bishop, suffered a lot of insults and troubles from the Germans and was forced, together with the Pskovites, to fight more than once against the insidious order 713. Yaroslav, not taught by his father’s experience, thought to live happily among the Germans: the unkind husband abandoned his good wife, left Pskov to join the knights and there married a German woman, receiving possession of the town of Odenpe (Bear’s Head), together with the Germans he more than once attacked Russian settlements; in 1231 he captured Izborsk, but the Pskovites captured him here and imprisoned him in Northern Pereyaslavl 714. His pious wife, abandoned by her frivolous husband, turned to deeds of piety. She founded the convent of St. John the Baptist in Pskov. The stone temple of the Forerunner, built by her, is still intact and speaks of itself both about its antiquity and about the piety of the builder. It is made of a strong, hewn slab, interspersed with quadrangular bricks of such clay, firing and color, which are not seen in Pskov; the bricks are very similar to Dutch and English. So the righteous woman did not spare expenses for the house of God and ordered bricks from foreign places at a high price. Not finding consolation in the world, she sought them in the Lord; Having accepted monasticism, she was the abbess of the women's monastery she founded. Her abbot's black staff still stands at her tomb. The righteous woman suffered martyrdom at the hands of her stepson in the city of Odenpe. The chronicles do not explain why the stepson did this with good material. But taking into account that the stepson was the son of a German woman, Pope Gregory tried to persuade Yaroslav to accept papism, about which he wrote a letter to him, and according to the instructions of the disinterested Germans, Yaroslav refused to the Dorpat Church “half of his legal inheritance,” which he did not have 715; adding to the fact that the death of the righteous woman followed the next year after Nevsky’s famous victory over the Germans, we consider it quite probable that the martyrdom of Eupraxia was the work of German papism, greedy for self-interest, pouring out its revenge on her for the failures of Yaroslav and for its own disgrace. The relics of the righteous woman were brought to Pskov and, buried here, were soon marked by a miracle; she was killed on May 8, and on May 18 a sign was revealed. A contemporary writes: “On the 18th day of May, 1243, in the Pskov monastery of the Holy Forerunner, a sign appeared from the icon of the Savior standing over the tomb of the princess, the wife of Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich, who was killed by her stepson in the Bear’s Head: for 12 days the myrrh flowed from the icon and filled 4 wax bottles like flasks. Two waxworts were brought to Novgorod for blessing, and two were left in Pskov. Glory to Thee, Lord! who gave us sinful and unworthy slaves such a blessing! We trust in You, Almighty! You, the philanthropist, look upon us poor people with great mercy” 716. The relics of the holy princess-nun rest in secret in the Church of the Forerunner; Her cell attendant, the nun Snandulia, is buried at her feet. The face of the righteous princess is depicted in ancient writing on two icons: on one she prays before John the Baptist and the Apostle Andrew; another icon is next to the miraculous icon of the Savior. The memory of the righteous woman is locally honored on October 16, 717. Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion, Equal to the Apostles Longinus the centurion, who was at the Cross of the Lord and confessed the Crucified Son of God (see: Matt. 27:54), received baptism from the apostles and preached Christ in Cappadocia, where he was from. For his testimony about Christ, the Jews tortured him and asked the Roman authorities for an order to behead him. Repose of St. Anthony of Leochnovsky The son of the Tver boyar children of the Veniaminovs, Anthony 718, out of love for desert life, lived as a hermit 12 versts from Novgorod on the Perekhod River, in the Rublevaya Wasteland. Then, wanting to put on the monastic image, he came to the desert monk Tarasius, who lived 3 versts from Rubleva, on Leokhnov, and was tonsured by him. The hermits built a church here in honor of the Transfiguration of the Savior. This was no later than 1556. Tsar John, at the request of Anthony, gave the new Leokhnovskaya desert land and fishing in Lake Ilmen 719. Those who were zealous for spiritual salvation, including noble ones, gathered in the Anthony Hermitage. Anthony served for them as a model of strict asceticism and was honored with the rank of abbot 720. In total, he lived in monastic life for 56 years and achieved so much in spiritual life that in recent years he was known for his experiments in spiritual insight. When the Swedes began to devastate the outskirts of Novgorod in 1611, Metropolitan Isidore summoned the respected elder and his disciples to Novgorod. Anthony was then already 85 years old. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, he received Holy Communion; Then he said aloud to others that his body would rest in his deserted monastery. On October 17, he peacefully surrendered his spirit to the Lord 721. His body, due to the dangers of the military, was interred in Novgorod near the church of St. Evangelist Luke 722. When the Swedes left Russia and the devastated inhabitants began to return to their places: Anthony’s beloved student Gregory came to the ashes of the Anthony monastery; Having buried the bodies of the beaten brothers, he erected a cell for himself and a chapel near it in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord. A few years later, Anthony, who appeared to him in a dream, said: “Brother Gregory! go to Novgorod, tell Metropolitan Cyprian and the elders of the city to put me in the place of my monastery.” The vision was repeated three times, and on the third time the one who appeared threatened with punishment for disobedience. The Metropolitan made a religious procession to the church of the evangelist and, when they dug up the grave, the relics of the saint turned out to be incorrupt. Then the blind man Joseph received his sight; and when they carried the relics, another man saw on the road. By order of the Metropolitan, the Archimandrite of Yuryev with honor conveyed the relics of the saint to the Leokhnovsky monastery; Several more miracles took place here. The transfer of the relics took place on July 13, 1620. Nowadays the relics of the saint rest in secret, in the stone Church of the Transfiguration, where one chapel was consecrated in 1788 in the name of St. Anthony 723. From the tribe of Issachar, a contemporary of Jeroboam 2nd, king of Israel, and Hezekiah of Judah, preceded the Nativity of Christ 820 years. He denounced the vices of the Israeli people, predicted the spread of the knowledge of God on earth and the end of the Old Testament sacrifices, in particular the return of the Infant God from Egypt (Hosea 11:1). Holy Martyr Andrew of Crete It is called Cretan after its homeland; being a presbyter in Constantinople, he publicly denounced Emperor Constantine Copronymus for his wickedness in the church of St. Mamantus, was beaten and dragged through the city in dishonor. When they brought him to the place of execution of the villains, a certain zealot of iconoclasm rushed at him with an ax and killed him (in 767). His body was thrown into an unclean place; but pious people removed him from there and buried him in the monastery. Holy Golden Martyr The holy virgin and bride of Christ Zlata was born and suffered in the Mglin Bulgarian diocese, in the village of Zlatin. The daughter of a poor simple villager, she shone with both spiritual and physical high qualities: spiritual - with firm faith in the Lord Jesus, humility and purity of heart, physical - with rare beauty, which was the reason that her life was adorned by the sufferings of the great martyr. The local Turk, seduced by the rare beauty of Zlata, decided to find time and at all costs satisfy his vile passion. One day Zlata and others went into the forest to get firewood. The voluptuous Turk, having persuaded scoundrels like himself, with their help, seizes her and takes her to his house. He first tries to seduce her into Islam with various promises and gives her his word to marry her; If she refuses, he threatens her with torture. Zlata was amazed at the insolence, but refused with firmness. Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus for help, she answered: “I believe and worship only the Lord Jesus and I will not renounce Him, even if they cut me down; and I also took a vow of virginity, which I also will not change for anything.” The Turks realized that this girl could not be won over to their side by ordinary means, but that they needed to come up with something special. They entrust it to women who, in such matters, are more capable of luring the girl into deception. And what didn’t they do with the poor woman? What tricks were not used to seduce Zlata into the bestial, sensual life of Mohammedanism! And the delights of a luxurious life, and the benefits of wealth, and the passions of sensuality were presented to her in the most tempting pictures. It was all in vain. Zlata’s pure soul felt the stench of the preachers and turned away from them with trepidation. Their singing was for her satanic singing. The Turkish women were irritated by the firmness of the bride of Christ; they call on the parents and three sisters of the sufferer to use their influence on the girl - to persuade her to Mohammedanism; otherwise, they said, they would be subjected to severe torture. Struck by fear, her parents and sisters persuaded Zlata to accept Mohammedanism, but their words did not change her intentions. “Our daughter, our dear! - the father and mother said, sobbing, - have pity on us and our sisters; We will all perish if you do not agree to the wishes of the Turks, God is merciful and will forgive your sin, forced by necessity.” One can imagine the struggle that Zlata had to endure. Love for parents, love for sisters pulled in one direction, but the duty of a Christian demanded its own. The tears of her parents and sisters tore and tormented her heart. Finally she said: “If you are already forcing me to renounce Christ the Lord, then you are not my parents or sisters! My father remains only the Lord Jesus and my mother is His Most Pure Mother, and my brothers and sisters are martyrs and martyrs.” When the infidels, and especially the kidnapper of the girl, saw that all their tricks had led them nowhere, they turned to torture. At first, for three months, they beat the sufferer every day with sticks. Then they cut the straps from her back and hung them in front of her eyes; blood flowed from her and covered the entire floor. That wasn't enough for them. Animals, not people, heated an iron rod and pierced her head from one ear to the other. The patience of the sufferer was obviously beyond human strength. It was a work of the strong grace of Christ, always close to humble hearts. Despite her high patience, the sufferer did not expect anything special from herself. She expressed this in experience. A rumor reached her that the abbot of the Stavronikita Athos Monastery, her father’s confessor, Father Timofey, was in the village. She sends one Christian to him with her earnest request to pray for her, so that the Lord will grant her the ability to complete her feat in a manner pleasing to God. Her humble prayer was fulfilled: the Lord gave her strength to complete the feat of the great martyr. The bloodthirsty Mohammedans finally hanged the sufferer in a vacant lot and chopped her whole body into pieces. So Saint Zlata, purified by the fire of suffering into pure gold, gave up her soul to the Lord, whom she loved with a love as strong as death. The great martyr moved to heaven in October 1795 724. Repose of the Venerable David of Serpukhov Blessed David began the monastic life under the supervision of the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky, in his monastery 725. Then he labored in silent solitude. In 1515, on the Lopasna River, 23 versts from Serpukhov, he built the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and thereby laid the foundation for a desert monastery, known as David’s Ascension Hermitage. The relics of the venerable elder, who died on October 18, 1520, rest in the cathedral stone church of the monastery, where the tomb of the venerable Moses Ugrin, the ascetic of Pechersk 726, is kept. Memory of Saints Theophilus and Jacob of Omuch The Monks Theophilus and Jacob first asceticised on the island of Konevets together with the Monk Arseny. Then in 1396 they founded a hermitage in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God on the Omucha River, in the vicinity of the Demyansky churchyard, 65 versts from Porkhov. Theophilus was the founder of the desert, and Jacob was the organizer of the monastery. Their blessed death followed around 1412 October 21 days. Their relics rest hidden in the Assumption Church, which has been a parish church since 1764 727 . Repose of the recluse John In the chronicle we read: “On October 24 (1616) Ivan, who lived in the wall for 22 years, reposed; but he ate fish, but did not eat bread, but lived in the city, as in the desert, in great silence” 728. It was in Pskov. It was a difficult time for Pskov when Blessed John, by his good will, performed his amazing feats within the city wall. In 1592, Pskov was besieged by the Swedes; Since 1608, for seven years in a row, Poles Lisovsky had been prowling around Pskov with his bandits of robbers. Gustav Adolf besieged Pskov with his Swedes, that Gustav who preached imaginary evangelical Christianity with fire and sword. Blessed John all this time only prayed and endured an amazing fast; amid the noise of military battles, amid the excitement of a proud mind and cowardly lack of faith, he lived as in the desert, talking with the Lord and crucifying his flesh for Him every day. What a high state of mind! Has the faith of the supposed evangelists produced even one such ascetic as John? No, she didn’t, and she never can. This is the trouble with Lutheranism, that its faith weakens and extinguishes the high asceticism of the Gospel: deceiving themselves with hopes of faith, they calmly follow the broad path. The hopes of Blessed John, the hopes of Orthodox, sincere Christian piety did not remain in shame. On October 17, 1616, Gustav Adolf retreated from Pskov. “Then,” says a contemporary, “the God-loving governor and the citizens of Pskov gave thanks to the Life-Giving Trinity, held an all-night vigil in all churches and offered praises before the miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos, which was brought from the Pechersk monastery to Pskov for the defense of the city. Thus, the Pskovites glorified God and His Most Pure Mother, who delivered Pskov from the godless Germans” 729. Righteous John died 7 days after 730. Saint Kalia of Constantinople and the Patient Widow Blessed are the merciful: they will receive mercy, said the Lord (Matthew 5:7). He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and whoever sows generously, to him the harvest is also bountiful; ...God loves a cheerful giver, teaches the apostle (2 Cor. 9, 6, 7). We see all this fulfilled over Saint Callia. She is glorified on earth and in heaven for her deeds of sincere mercy. Her husband was a rich merchant. From her youth, Callia loved to do good to the poor; her husband’s wealth provided her with the means to help the poor. But her husband was as rich as he was greedy for money. Once he sailed on the sea for three whole years, engaged in trade transactions. His merciful wife generously distributed alms without him. She firmly followed the Lord’s instructions: sell your property and give alms; prepare for yourselves sheaths that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and where no moth destroys (Luke 12:33). What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? (Matthew 16:26). The returning husband, seeing that his wife had wasted a lot of money for the needy, so much of what he loved, became so furious with his wife that he tortured her to death. God glorified the generous wife by the incorruption of her body 731. Blessed Patriarch Anthony (893–895) built a women's monastery for the relics of Saint Callia 732. “The lame and sick bow to her tomb and are healed,” says a Russian admirer who worshiped the squirrel Callia in 1420 733 . This is what wealth is squandered on the poor. But patient and godly poverty is also close to the Kingdom of Heaven. About the time Callia lived, a certain poor widow complacently endured bitter poverty and zealously kept the commandments of the Most High. The priest was called to her, who was dying, to commune the Holy Mysteries; at the same time they called him to the rich prince for the same thing. He neglected the poor widow and went to the rich man. Returning from the prince, he found a new messenger to call to the dying widow. Proud and selfish, he did not go to poverty. His deacon, God-fearing and pious, asked him for permission to go and give communion to the dying woman. Coming to her, to amazement, she sees the Most Holy Virgin here, and the pure virgins dress the poor sick woman in clean clothes. To the new, amazed, the Heavenly Queen reverently bowed to the Most Holy Body of Christ. The pure virgins fell to the ground before him. Standing up, the virgins let the deacon know so that he could perform his service. When the sick woman received the Holy Mysteries, the virgins accepted her holy soul and ascended to heaven. The deacon then went to the rich man's house. Here he sees terrible dark spirits at the bedside of a dying man, and one of them forcibly pulled the soul out of the sinful body. In horror, the deacon fell to the ground. The Most Holy One appears and says: “Do not be afraid, beloved servant! keep the commandments of My Son, and the spirits of evil will have no power over you; The Kingdom of Heaven is ready for you.” The deacon fell before the Queen of Heaven, and she left. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, because, having been perfected by temptation, he has received the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him (James 1:12). We also boast in our tribulations, knowing that from tribulation comes patience, from patience comes experience, from experience hope, and hope does not put you to shame (Rom. 5:3-5). If you remain without punishment, which is common to all, then you are illegitimate children and not sons (Heb. 12:8). This is the teaching of the word of God. Holy Martyrs Marcian and Martyrios Notaries Notaries were officials at the court of the patriarch who were under the command of the chief notary, who was in charge of correspondence on matters that were subject to both ecclesiastical and civil courts, for example, regarding wills, manumission of slaves, hiring of church estates, etc. Reader Marcian and Martyry the subdeacon were the confidants of Patriarch Paul the Confessor (November 6), wrote his epistles in defense of the Orthodox faith and were themselves great preachers of the faith. After the expulsion and death of Paul, the Arians tried to win them over to their side and, when they did not have time to do so, they accused the Emperor Constantine (whom these heretics ruled) of a state crime and brought them to death; both were beheaded in 355. Commemoration of soldiers killed in battle On Saturday before the 26th of October, the so-called Dimitrievskaya, the Church in the 14th century established the commemoration of Orthodox soldiers. Dimitry Ioannovich Donskoy, born On October 26, after winning a glorious victory over Mamai on the Kulikovo field in 1380, on September 8, he traveled to the Moscow monastery of the Life-Giving Trinity to the Monk Sergius, abbot of this monastery, from which two monks, Alexander Peresvet and Oslyabya, were born and fell in battle, and, having commemorated the slain soldiers there, he proposed to the Church to perform this commemoration annually on Saturday Dimitrievskaya. Since that time, this Saturday has been classified by the Church as a parental Saturday. However, on this Saturday, Orthodox Christians, visiting the cemeteries of the dead, remember not only the Orthodox soldiers who laid down their lives in battle for their faith and the Fatherland, but also with them all their deceased in general. Discovery of the relics of St. Andrew, Prince of Smolensk In 1540, the Venerable Daniel of Pereyaslavl, 734, being in Moscow, suggested to Grand Duke Ivan the Terrible that the Pereyaslavl churches of the Holy Forerunner and St. Nicholas, standing at the city gates, were very dilapidated, so it was necessary to build new ones; At the same time, the monk informed that near the dilapidated church of St. Nicholas in the ground lie the relics of the holy prince Andrei of Smolensk, for whom in former times, as he firmly remembers and knows, there was a service with stichera and a canon and his face was painted on icons, but why now singing is not performed is unknown. The monk reported the same to Saint Joasaph. The Grand Duke and Metropolitan ordered the construction of new churches and together allowed the monk, together with the local clergy, to examine the tomb of Saint Prince Andrew. In Pereyaslavl they were very happy about Daniel’s news about the prince’s tomb and wanted to call to gather the people. “Let us wait,” remarked one of the priests, “until it pleases God to reveal the relics of His servant; Let’s perform prayer singing without ringing.” The prudent advice was carried out. After the prayer service, the tombstone was dismantled and the grave began to be dug. The people gathered in large numbers - and some of the spiritual ones came with lights; everyone prayed to the Lord for the revelation of His good will. Finally, they opened the coffin and in it were the relics, wrapped in birch bark, the relics were imperishable and emitted a fragrance: the hair was brown and long, the clothes were intact with copper buttons, laid on the side. The grains of birch bark that fell off when raking the earth were taken by the sick with faith and healed. The monk sent priest Constantine to notify the metropolitan and grand duke about this. Archimandrite Jonah of Chudov, later Bishop of Suzdal, and Archpriest Gury of Bogorodsk were sent from Moscow to verify the report and transfer the relics to the church. After the prayer service in the cathedral, the archimandrite asked Daniel: “For what reason and with whose permission did he begin to look for the relics?” The elder replied that he had previously notified the metropolitan and the sovereign about this and, with their permission, opened the relics of the holy prince; Moreover, he presented the archimandrite with an ancient icon of the prince and his service from previous times. “This was not written by me,” added the monk, “the book is old, as you can see; ask the people what they know and how the sick were healed.” Those who were healed were called. Bailiff Ivan Oklyacha stated that for many years he suffered from headaches so bad that he could not bow, and as soon as he touched the relics, the pain stopped. A woman from Pereyaslavl said that her throat hurt for three years, so she could not speak; but when, after finding the relics, she swallowed a few grains of the birch bark with which the holy body was wrapped, the pain suddenly stopped, and she said what the neighbors could confirm. Another woman announced that they had led her blind woman to the holy relics, and she began to see. Archimandrite Jonah even after that told Daniel that “the Metropolitan knew nothing about this and did not order anything.” The elder began to cry and said: “Let us not tempt the Holy Spirit who works in His wonderful servants. Also, do not say that our great father and saint know nothing. God is my witness that I informed him myself and not only him, but the pious autocrat, and by their will I dared to open the holy relics.” The monk later said that those who are overly inquisitive, or for other, worse reasons, who oppose the holy cause will be punished; the metropolitan will lose his throne, the archimandrite and archpriest will suffer cruelly. The word of the holy elder was subsequently fulfilled. This word at first confused the investigators, but then they declared it to be the fruit of decrepit old age. However, the obviousness of the case forced the criminal dispute to end. The relics of the blessed prince were placed in a new coffin, they were wrapped in a shroud and a service was performed. From that time on, the Church of St. Nicholas began to be called the Church of St. Prince Andrew, the Pereyaslavl miracle worker; The convent that existed under him was closed in 1764 735. Who was this righteous prince and when did he live? According to the story about him, after his death they found a note: “I am Andrei, one from the Smolensk princes”; They also found a gold chain and a ring, which Grand Duke John Vasilyevich later took for himself and for this he gave a salary for the church of St. Nicholas. According to legend, the prince left his native land due to sedition; in Pereyaslavl he lived as a poor man unknown to anyone and filled the position of sexton at the Church of St. Nicholas; Due to poverty, he endured every need, but he was a zealous prayer worker in the church, and led a pure and strict life. He spent 30 years like this! 736 These are the data about the life of one who did not want to be known during his earthly life! From these data it is clear that the blessed Prince Andrei of Smolensk lived before the Grand Duke John III (1464–1506). According to the genealogical lists of the Smolensk princes, two princes Andrei are known who lived before Grand Duke John - Prince Andrei Vladimirovich and Prince Andrei Fedorovich Fominsky. But the first was killed in 1224 on the Kalka River and, therefore, did not end his days as an ascetic in Pereyaslavl. The father of Prince Andrei Fominsky, Prince Theodore the Blind Fominsky, was a contemporary of the Grand Duke Simeon the Proud (1353), while the Smolensk principality, with the multiplication of the Smolensk princes (there were up to 17 of them at the same time), was fragmented into small parts. It is not surprising that during the division of property, quarrels arose between relatives, as happened then. According to an ancient monument, the son of Prince Andrei, Theodore, retired to Tver 737. Of course, at the same time, blessed Prince Andrei, bored with the anxieties of life and their moral burden, disappeared from Smolensk to perform feats of piety in the unknown. The time of Prince Andrei Feodorovich Fominsky is not far from the time of Grand Duke John III, so the ring and chain of the former could easily have been preserved until the latter. For these reasons, the death of Saint Prince Andrew did not occur until 1390. The death of the blessed prince is supposed to be around the same time in the handwritten calendar 738. Repose of St. Job of Pochaev The Monk Job, baptized John, the son of Orthodox parents from Pokuttya, nicknamed Iron 739, began his ascetic life in the Ugornitsky Spassky Monastery, one of the Carpathian ones. He entered here for 10 years and two years later he was tonsured a monk. Growing in obedience, purity and meekness in spiritual life, he consoled his friends of piety with his life. Here he was awarded, against his will and at the will of the abbot, the rank of priesthood, which was, of course, not before the 30th year of his life. In the priesthood, Job redoubled his zeal for asceticism. The fame of his virtues spread throughout Ukraine. Out of love for piety and pure faith, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky, having learned about his spiritual strength, begged him from the Ugornitsa abbot for the post of abbot of his Dubno monastery 740. The Dubno Cross Monastery was located on an island, washed on three sides by a river, near the city of Dubno. The pious prince therefore summoned blessed Job to his monastery in order to support sincere piety in the monks of the monastery amid the spreading corruption of morals corrupted by papism. Prince Constantine, despite the fact that he owned enormous wealth, tried to live according to the rules of the Orthodox Church, during Lent he ate bread and water and was engaged only in prayer. To maintain Orthodoxy, he maintained schools, published books, such as the Bible, the works of Basil the Great and others. But papism invisibly corrupted people. So the union appeared - the conductor of corrupting papism. While the prince was alive, he protected Orthodoxy as much as he could, even outside his domains. But in 1608 he died. Uniate Potsey, first the Bishop of Vladimir, then the Metropolitan, treated the Orthodox like an executioner; the Jesuits, his mentors, acted even more cruelly. According to their instructions, the unworthy, half-crazed son of the great father, Prince Janusz Ostrogsky became a fanatic of papism; in 1615, through the Jesuits, he disinherited his nephews, princes Constantine and Ivan, because they did not agree to be papists. So the city of Dubno fell into the clutches of the Jesuits 741. One can imagine what it was like for the blessed abbot of Dubensky in this state of affairs in Orthodoxy! He gathered a large brotherhood to his monastery, which, according to his instructions, diligently studied the writings of the holy fathers. Many came to him to listen to his instructions in piety. The strict ascetic firmly fought the sorrows of time and consoled others in their sorrows. The cruel sufferings endured by Orthodoxy from the Jesuits and the gentry seduced by them, not only did not weaken piety, on the contrary, they elevated it. Here is what contemporary Kopystensky writes about Galician Rus': “In our Russia, in 1621, a desert dweller reposed in the Galician Forest, in a monastery above the river, called Bartemov, there was a reverend man, named Job in the Great Schema, Ezekiel in the Little Schema, John in baptism, who spent many years in the Holy Mountain of Athos in labors and exploits the monks who honestly passed through to their fatherland by the will of God, founded a monastery in the predicted place and many amorous children in it, the heirs of these saints made the first desert dwellers hermits” 742. The blessed abbot of the Dubno monastery ruled the monastic Dubno monastery for more than 20 years, but when he saw that he could no longer remain in that region without harming himself and others, he retired to the Pochaev monastery 743. The Carpathian Assumption Monastery of Orthodoxy was already famous then for the miracles of the Mother of God 744. And blessed Job had to see them together with the affairs of papism and Protestantism. The latter loves to call itself the name of the Gospel teaching. And this self-gratification is a sure sign of sad delusion. Protestant practice is too far from the spirit of the Gospel, no matter how you look at it. The heir to the estates of Anna Goyskaya, the pious benefactor of the Pochaev Monastery, was the same in Protestant clothes as Potsey was in a Uniate cassock. He took away from the monastery the estates donated to it by Goyskaya, and in every possible way oppressed the monks, dispersed its pilgrims and wanted to completely ruin it. In 1623, on June 19, he sent a crowd of servants to the monastery to plunder it. In fulfillment of the master's will, all the precious utensils of the monastery were robbed and the miraculous image of the Mother of God was taken away. For Firlei this was not enough. He dressed his wife in sacred clothes, gave her the holy chalice, and she began to utter blasphemies against the Holy Eucharist of Orthodoxy and the Mother of God. But at the same time, an evil spirit took possession of the blasphemous wife. Her terrible torment ceased only when the miraculous icon was reverently returned to the monastery. This was when blessed Job was abbot of the Pochaev monastery 745. He performed the position of rector here with the zeal of an ascetic. During the day he worked for the monastery: either he planted trees in the monastery gardens, or he strengthened the dams near the monastery fence; He worked from the heart, like a day laborer, but for the Lord. He treated his brothers meekly and kindly: no one heard a harsh word from him. The words most often heard from his lips were: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Once, while passing through the monastery threshing floor, he found someone stealing wheat. The thief fell in fear at the feet of the abbot and begged him not to announce his act. The monk not only did not reproach him with a single word, but he himself lifted his bag onto his shoulder and sent him away in peace, reminding him only of the answer that we must give for our deeds before the Court of God. The Firlei, the persecutors of Orthodoxy, finally ended their quarrels “with monks not in a union” by an act of reconciliation; this was in 1642, under the Venerable Job 746. Blessed Job, having finished his business with the Firleys, accepted the great schema with the name of John. He now spent most of his time in the cave, in strict feats of fasting and prayer. “If the stone cave in which the monk labored secretly had a mouth,” says his disciple Dosifei, “it would tell a lot.” However, he did not abandon his concerns about the monks of the monastery in 1649. Under his supervision, the magnificent Church of the Holy Trinity was built 747! He sometimes secluded himself in the cave for three days, sometimes for a whole week, to shed tearful prayers for himself and for the poor Orthodoxy of the region. One day, during a fiery prayer, his heavenly light illuminated his cave and was reflected from the depths of the cave on the church of the monastery. The witness of this miracle, Dosifei, fell in horror. From the feats of standing in prayer, the saint’s legs became swollen and covered with wounds. This can be seen to this day on his incorruptible relics. The rotting of the suffering legs was so severe that the body fell off the bones in pieces, but the monk endured everything with patience, following the example of ancient Job. While he led such an ascetic life, he lived to be 100 years old and, having set the day of his death, quietly, without any suffering, rested on October 28, 1651. A light appeared over the relics of the saint. The monk himself appeared to Dionysius Boloban, Metropolitan of Kyiv, and said that the Lord was pleased to reveal his relics. The vision happened a second time and a third time. The last time the holy elder appeared with the threat of God's wrath for failure to fulfill God's will for him. Finally, Metropolitan Dionysius with Archimandrite Theophan and the brethren of the Pochaev monastery (August 8, 1659) opened the coffin of the saint and his relics were found incorrupt. At the same time, healings followed. The most remarkable healing took place over the sick Pochaev abbot Dosifei. On the eve of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, the noble Panna Domashevskaya, who arrived at the monastery, heard extraordinary singing coming from the church with her servants, while fire was shining in the windows. At first they thought that the monks were performing an all-night service. The sent servant Anna found the church doors open, heard singing in the church, and when she entered the church, she saw the Monk Job among the bright men performing prayer. She stood motionless in fear, but the monk, turning to her, said: “Don’t be afraid, girl, go and call the abbot of the monastery Dositheus to me.” “He is on his deathbed,” Anna answered. The monk handed her a silk cloth dipped in myrrh and ordered her to take it to the sick person. Anna went and at the door of the cell began to call the abbot to the church on behalf of the Monk Job. The patient at first mistook this call for a dream; then, having protected himself with the sign of the cross, he took the cloth, put it on himself and, feeling stronger, got out of bed and went to the church. The Ecclesiarch, who arrived at the beginning of Matins, was amazed to see the one who was lying on his deathbed yesterday. “How did you come here, father?” - he asked the abbot. “Our father Job prays for us and sent me healing,” the abbot answered with delight and told what happened. The church built by Panna Domashevskaya is still intact and her will of 1655 is intact, with which she asks to bury her in the church she built, “according to the rite of the Eastern Orthodox confession.” Leaving behind the ancient miracles of St. Job, let us recall the miracle of our times. In 1832, the maiden Matrona, of the Orenburg province, who had suffered from a headache and aversion to everything holy for three years, in Kyiv saw in a dream an old man, adorned with gray hair, and near him a certain Woman in a white robe. According to rumors about the miracles of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, she went to the Pochaev Monastery and here, over the relics of St. Job, she received relief, and before the miraculous icon, complete healing 748. Repose of Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov In the same year as the wondrous ascetic of the south, the Venerable Job of Pochaev, Daniel 749 was born in the southern town of Makarov to the pious centurion Savva Grigorievich Tuptala, who in due time, while still in earthly life, will become a great lamp not only for the south, but for all of Russia. God's wonderful providence for the Russian Church! Young Daniil Savvich, after being educated at home, was sent to the Kyiv college and here he studied in order, zealously and with excellent success. When the college was upset during the war and for two years (1666–1667) they did not teach any teaching in it, Daniil Savvich, parting with it in the rhetoric class, took monastic vows on July 9, 1668 and the name of Demetrius in the Kiev Cyril Monastery; this was when he was 18 years old and where his father was a ktitor of the monastery. Savva Grigorievich was distinguished by his living love for piety. Dedicating his dear son to the service of the Lord, he built a refectory church in the monastery in honor of the Great Martyr Demetrius - the angel of his monk son. His three daughters, the sisters of Daniil Savvich, were one after another abbess of the Jordan convent, and this monastery itself was built through the care of the God-loving Savva Grigorievich. Praskovya Tuptalova, the youngest of the abbess, died in 1710. Mother (1693) and father (1703) were buried in the church of the Kirillov Monastery 750. The young monk Demetrius was ordained a hierodeacon in Kanev in 1669 by Metropolitan Joseph of Tukalsky. Cell prayer, strict fasting, constant visiting of the church of God, reading books were his activities, which purified and enlightened his soul. The abbot of the monastery, Father Meletius Dzik, its former rector at the college, loved him like a son and completed his scientific education at the monastery. In 1675, Lazar Baranovich, Archbishop of Chernigov and guardian of the metropolis, at the request of the good abbot, ordained Demetrius as a hieromonk and, recognizing his talents, left him at his pulpit as a preacher. At this time, “hieromonk Dimitry Savvich” in the book “Irrigated Fleece” described the miracles of the Chernigov Ilyin Icon of the Mother of God 751. Two years of preaching service at the Chernigov department glorified Father Dimitri so much that his name became famous in Ukraine and Lithuania, and different places wanted to have him as a preacher. He himself sought only food for piety. Compelled by pious zeal, he went to the Novodvorsky Monastery to venerate the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and was in the Vilna Monastery of the Holy Spirit. The Belarusian bishop Feodosius Vasilyevich invited him to Slutsk; here in the fraternal Transfiguration Monastery, taking advantage of the love of the ktitor John Skochkevich, he preached the word of God for more than a year. He left Slutsk more than once to worship various shrines of Orthodoxy. Having honored Skochkevich with a funeral oration, Saint Demetrius returned to Ukraine in 1679, where the hetman “received him very graciously and beneficently,” as he himself says. In the Krupitsky Nikolaevsky Monastery he spent time in prayer, and on holidays he preached in Baturin, at the request of the pious Samoilovich. The following year, they invited him to become abbess at the Kirillov Monastery, but he refused, of course, because he himself was afraid of the monastery, where his relatives might disturb him, and the hetman who loved him did not want to part with him. In 1681, he was offered the abbess of the Maksakov monastery, and he came to Lazar Baranovich with a letter from the hetman. “Without reading the letter, I say: may the Lord God bless you not only with the abbess, but by the name of Demetrius I wish you a miter; Let Demetrius receive a miter,” said the clever archpastor when meeting Demetrius, rejoicing for his flock, which will have such a rare abbot. He also blessed him with his staff. On March 1, 1682, Dimitri was transferred to the abbess of the Krupitsky monastery, but after a year and a half he abandoned his leadership in order to lead a hermit’s life. Archimandrite Innocent Gisel, fulfilling the idea of ​​Metropolitan Peter Mogila, asked Patriarch Joachim for the chetier-menaion of Metropolitan Macarius, so that with their help he could compile the lives of the saints. His successor, Archimandrite Varlaam, begged Demetrius, as he was known both for his life and for his gift of speech, to take upon himself the work of compiling lives. Demetrius did not refuse pious work, although difficult. In June 1684, he moved to the Lavra and began to write the Chetii-Minea. In 1685, he had two visions that showed that the celestials favored his new occupation. In one, it seemed to him that a cave with the relics of saints was entrusted to his supervision and he transferred the relics of the Great Martyr Barbara to the best shrine; At the same time, Saint Barbara, appearing as if alive, responded to his words, “My benefactress! beg God for my sins,” she answered: “I don’t know whether I will beg; you pray in Roman style,” that is, as the humble Demetrius understood, briefly and rarely. When he was embarrassed by this, she added with a cheerful face: “Don’t be afraid.” It was August 10, 1685. There was another vision in November 1685. The holy martyr Orestes, appearing with a cheerful face, said to him: “I suffered more torment for Christ than you wrote.” Showing a great wound on his left side running through the inside, he said: “This was burned through me with iron.” Pointing to the wound on the elbow of his right hand, he added: “They cut it for me.” He said the same thing, showing the wound on the elbow of his left hand. Having then opened the wounds on the bend of both knees, he said: “And they cut this for me with a scythe.” “You see,” added the martyr, “didn’t I endure more suffering for Christ than you wrote?” Demetrius, listening to this, thought: “Which Orestes is this? Isn’t it the one that is celebrated on December 13th? To this thought the martyr replied: “I am not one of the five, but that Orestes, whose life you have now written.” For two years, Demetrius studied the lives of the saints, free from office. In January 1686, the hetman convinced him to take over the abbess at the Baturinsky monastery. Although his studies at the monastery, and especially in the then noisy Baturyn, took him a lot of time from studying the lives, in a letter dated March 15, 1688, he wrote that he had already “written the lives of the saints for six months.” The following year, Lavra began publishing the first part of the work. Meanwhile, alarms arose from Moscow against the Little Russian Church regarding the dispute about the Holy Eucharist raised by the Likhuds. Patriarch Joachim first asked Metropolitan Gideon and Archbishop Lazar: what does Little Russia think about union? and how does he think about the time of the Transubstantiation of the Eucharist? Saint Demetrius, on behalf of the sick metropolitan, then wrote to the hetman: “We do not consider ourselves obligated to follow those few Russians who are drawn by flattery into a union with the Roman Church and, from the autocracy of the pope, are infected with many heresies and are of the same mind with the pope... We have heard that Greek or Greco-Latin teachers in Moscow are discussing the form of the consecration of the Eucharist, but this dispute has not reached us; We confess as we learned from our fathers; God willing, under the direction of your nobleness, reviews will be submitted about this from knowledgeable and pious people.” These worries did not pass without trouble for St. Demetrius’s studies of the lives of the saints. Patriarch Joachim, not trusting the Orthodoxy of the Little Russian scholars, as being under the influence of the West, demanded the Chetya-Menaion of Macarius to Moscow and in a letter expressed strong displeasure for printing the first part of the Menaion without his consideration, while pointing out several errors in its printed edition. In the middle of 1689, Saint Demetrius himself was in Moscow with the new hetman. “We visited him – the patriarch – often,” he notes in his diary. Personal explanations easily resolved misunderstandings, and “the Holy One,” says Demetrius, “blessed me, a sinner, to continue writing the lives of the saints.” Upon returning from Moscow, Dimitri diligently continued to engage in his pious work, and the oversights noticed in the first part only forced him to redouble his caution. In order to have more freedom for his work, he began to live in a monastery near the church of St. Nicholas Krupitsky. The new Patriarch Adrian sent a letter of commendation to Demetrius on October 3, 1690. “May God Himself,” wrote the patriarch, “reward you, brother, with every blessing for your godly labors in writing, correcting and quietly publishing the book of soul-helping lives of saints in the first three months. May the same bless, strengthen and hasten to work for you even for the whole year.” In response to this message, Demetrius poured out his deepest gratitude to the good shepherd of the Church for his attention to the work for the saints and asked to send the Menaion of Macarius, taken from him. Having received the Menaion for the whole year, Saint Demetrius locked himself in the new cell of the monastery and renounced the management of the Baturinsky monastery, which he had been in charge of for six years. A year before, the wonderful Adam of Chernigov, who was finishing his precious work on the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father, died under the shelter of Dimitrieva’s love in the Baturin monastery. In May 1693, Demetrius sent the second part of his work to the printing house; but, having received “Bolland’s books” in the same year, he still corrected this part according to a new source, and it was published already in 1695. In the preface to the second part, he corrected the errors of the first part. The Patriarch again sent a letter of approval. After that, St. Demetrius’ studies in the lives of the saints continued calmly, and in 1700 the third part was published, and in 1705 – the last. Meanwhile, the worker of God was called to various ministries of the Church. In 1694, he was entrusted with the Glukhov Peter and Paul Monastery, and in July 1697 he was ordained archimandrite of the Chernigov Yelets Monastery. But the higher his position became in the sight of people, the more humble his soul became before the Lord. “I am not,” he wrote to his friend Theologist, “as your love considers me. I am not well-behaved, but ill-natured, full of bad habits, and in meaning far from smart people; I am stupid and ignorant, and my light is darkness and dust. I beg your brotherly love to pray to the Lord for me, so that I may enlighten my darkness and bring out the honorable from the unworthy... I consider it a matter of your love that you thank God for elevating me to the archimandry of Yeletskaya. But I, unfortunate one, am unworthy of either your love or the archimandry. I know that the Lord God allows the unworthy, among whom I am the first, to receive honorary titles; He does this according to unknown destinies. That is why I am in fear, bearing honor not according to my dignity.” During the administration of the Yelets monastery, there was a severe famine in the Chernigov region. The Yeletsky abbot fed all the subjects of the monastery from the reserves of the monastery, and for other poor people he bought bread at his own expense. This is how he fed the needy during all the hungry times. When in 1700 it was necessary to present an educated and strict archimandrite to occupy the hierarchical see of Siberia, Saint Demetrius was presented. In February 1701, he greeted the Tsar with a speech in Moscow and on March 21 he was ordained Metropolitan of Tobolsk. But his health was too weak to cope with the harshness of the Siberian climate, and he became ill. Peter the Great visited him and allowed him to remain in Moscow until a new appointment. On January 4, 1702, he was appointed Metropolitan of Rostov. During his year-long stay in Moscow, he became acquainted with the new order of affairs that Peter the Great was introducing, formed a bond of friendship with Metropolitan Stefan Yavorsky, the guardian of the patriarchate, and delivered several sermons. On March 1, 1702, he arrived in Rostov and, stopping at the Yakovlevsky Monastery, pointed out the place for his burial in the right corner of the monastery cathedral. The saint turned his pastoral attention first of all to the ministers of the Church and, to his deep sorrow, he saw that his ignorance was extreme and his neglect of his rank was amazing. He addressed them with two “district messages.” In the first, he exposed their ignorance and negligence regarding the secret of confession. In the second, he examined negligence and rude opinions about the sacrament of the Eucharist. In order to prepare some worthy servants of the altar of God, he started a school of three classes at the bishop's house; often visited classes himself, monitored the progress of students, suggested questions and aroused love for holy truths; sometimes he himself corrected the position of the teacher, at other times he explained the Holy Scriptures to those who were able. The saint of God served as a model of zeal for the high duty of a shepherd. On all Sundays and holidays he served, and rarely without preaching the word of God. In June 1706, while in Yaroslavl, he was alarmed by the childish thoughts of some of the old men of his flock. Shaving the beard and mustache, which the king demanded, seemed to them the same as distorting the image of God. When leaving the cathedral after the Liturgy, they stopped him with the question: “What should they do? They are ready to put their heads on the block, but not to shave their beards.” “What will grow: a head or a beard?” - asked the saint. “Beard,” they answered. “Well, it’s better for you not to take care of your beard, which can grow more than once,” said the saint. The guardian archpastor later wrote for his flock a discourse “on the image of God,” which was subsequently published many times throughout Russia. He also sent out other instructions to his flock, such as: questions and answers about faith, where he spoke about laying the finger on the cross, “the mirror of the Orthodox confession,” instructions for the Eucharist. At the end of 1705 and in 1706 he was in Moscow to alternately attend to church affairs; there he often preached the word of God. Knowing that the Russian Church lacks a history of the existence of people, and confident in the usefulness of this history especially for the people’s shepherds, the saint decided to start compiling a chronicle of people, and before that he wrote a set of various calculations of time. He sent his work piece by piece for consideration to the guardian of the patriarchal department, Metropolitan Stefan. There were many sorrows in management, sorrows that at times made one think about peace. The Rostov saint, both in the fate of people of past times and in his own, saw how inevitable sorrows are on earth, and he consoled the high priest and himself with Christian thoughts, the surest medicine against earthly sorrows. He wrote to Blessed Stephen: “As much as I can, I pray to the Lord, mighty and strong, that He will strengthen your bishopric in bearing the heavy cross. Do not weaken, O saint of God, under heavy burdens. The branch bears fruit under its weight. Do not think that your labors are in vain. Come to Me, says the Lord, all you who labor and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). Great is the reward for those who endured the toil and heat of the day. Those who cleverly steer the ship of Christ’s Church amidst storms are not in vanity. Your Eminence considers solitude blissful. And I will please him. But is it bad for Saint Macarius of Egypt to talk about hermits and those who work for the benefit of others? He writes: "Some (hermits) with the help of grace care only about themselves; others (teachers) try to benefit the souls of their neighbors. The latter are much higher than those." Strive, O ascetic of Christ, for the strengthening Jesus. The burden was placed on your priesthood not by chance, but by God’s will. The crown of righteous reward is also ready for you. It is good to bear the yoke of Christ; may His burden be light!” The chronicle work was stopped by the sowers of lies. The teachers of the schism, penetrating from the Bryn forests into Demetrius's flock, demanded denunciations from the shepherd. In 1708, he began an extensive “search” about the Bryn faith. Then, recognizing in one priest an arrogant defender of superstitious beliefs, the saint dismissed him from his place so that he would go to a monastery. The sneaky priest found protection for himself with the good Tsarina Praskovya Feodorovna, who greatly respected Saint Demetrius and was respected by him. To the queen’s request for the nosy priest, the saint answered: “He caused me a lot of annoyance, in front of many people he reviled my humility, called me a heretic, a Roman, an infidel. And I forgive him all this for my Christ, Who, being reproached, did not reproach and endured suffering patiently. Looking at the kindness of My Savior, I forgave the priest, did not forbid him the priesthood, but allowed him to choose a place for himself in the monastery. But I fear the wrath of God if I let a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing into Christ’s flock - to destroy human souls with schismatic teachings. So, I beg your royal honor not to be angry with me because I cannot accomplish the impossible.” Saint Demetrius depicted on his seal the coat of arms of his noble family and the signs of holiness 752. This meant that he allowed humble people to see, for their understanding, his advantages given to him from above - he also remembered in his soul about his weaknesses. Above all else were matters of rank for him. He sent his “search” about the Bryn faith in parts to his learned friends - the monk Feolog and the inquiry officer Polikarpovich for preliminary revision and, having completed it on Trinity Day 1709, sent it out throughout his diocese. Finishing the search, he wanted to return to the continuation of the chronicle. But the Lord judged differently. The illnesses of the body, exhausted by scientific labors and exploits, became more frequent and severe, and the end of his earthly life was approaching. Yes, and the man of God is ripe for Blessed Eternity. The ascetic of God observed strict abstinence throughout his life and ate little food. In the first week of Lent, he ate food only once; During Holy Week I ate only on Thursday. Himself sincerely pious, he nurtured and supported piety in those who served in his house. He advised them to remember death at every strike of the bell and, protecting themselves with the sign of the cross, read “Our Father” and “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary.” Visitors were presented with icons and advice of love. He turned his love for the Lord Crucified for us into the main principle of his life, and this love expanded his heart to embrace everyone with love. He predicted his death three days in advance, and death found him kneeling in prayer, in the 58th year of his life, on October 28, 1709. 42 years after his death, the saint’s body was found incorrupt, although it lay in a damp place and without a stone vault. The omophorion and sakkos, miter and silk rosary were unharmed, but the oak coffin had rotted. From the time of the opening of the relics, healings began to flow from the saint, who was alive before God: those sick with fever, others with mental insanity, received health, people who had not been able to use their legs or arms for several years were restored to the use of their affected members; those possessed by demons, as they saw, were overshadowed by the saint and became healthy. After that, by decree of 1757, it was established to celebrate throughout the Russian Church on October 28, the day of the repose of the saint, and on September 21, the day of the opening of his relics 753. Saint Demetrius is the holy teacher of the Church of all times. Is it possible not to enjoy his teaching? 754 Of the dogmatic works of St. Demetrius, his most important work is “the search for the Bryn faith,” written with a clear and deep understanding of Christianity. The writer exposes the schism in its complete inconsistency with the spirit of the Gospel. He paid little attention to the private opinions of schismatics and presents them only as oddities or as evidence of the main sin of the schism; He does not deal with them either because, as he wrote, “it is enough for me to be too thin to write about this, which is not written in those books (the veil and the rod); what is written to be repeated is not a real need” 755. The faith of the schismatics is wrong, their teaching is harmful to the soul, their deeds are repugnant to God: these are the three thoughts that he reveals in three parts of the search. Nowadays it has become fashionable to praise the schism for its morality, and they even say that hitherto they looked only at the theoretical thoughts of the schism and did not value its life. Let them listen to the saint, what price he gives to the life of a schismatic. The search for enemies of the Holy Church is accurate and powerful. That's why they are angry with the author of the search. In 1766, a gang of schismatics decided to steal and burn the relics of the saint, but did not succeed in the attempt because the saint himself informed the archimandrite about the plan of the villains 756. After the search, the “mirror of the Orthodox confession” and “answers about faith” are worthy of attention - both are a kind of short catechism applied to the needs of the time; the latter is distinguished by systematic rigor, and the former by imitation of the well-known “confession of faith.” The essay “On the Transubstantiation of the Eucharist” brings the holy mystery closer to the general understanding by comparisons with natural phenomena, borrowing expressions from school scholarship. Saint Demetrius's "Cheti-Minea" is an exemplary work in the art of presentation, in critical caution in the selection of news and in the spirit of piety. “Let me not lie against the saint,” said the writer and fulfilled his word, offering the most edifying reading. All the saint's sermons have been published up to 94 and two more speeches. Sincerity of conviction and deep piety constituted their best property. With liveliness of speech and strong expressions, the preacher maintains the attention of the listeners to him and does not allow them to get bored even with the dryness of contemplative truths. The subtle taste of the pious preacher is especially visible in the fact that he rarely, unlike Yavorsky, uses strange speech techniques borrowed from the school, for example, witticisms of Polish scientists or allusions to the gods. “The inner man, studying and praying in the cage of his heart” is an excellent instruction for practicing inner prayer. “The prayer of confession to God” is the cry of a sinner who repents with living sorrow for sin and quiet hope for the Good. “Confession of sins before the priest” recounts sins against God, neighbors and ourselves, which the sinner himself would not dare or would not be able to express. In reflecting “on the sufferings of the Savior,” one hears the voice of a soul breathing that love for Him crucified for us, which said in the apostle: Let me not boast except about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 6:14). One of them is written in poetry. The spiritual songs (kants) of Saint Demetrius were sung, by his order, in the last hours of his life. This alone shows their significance for spiritual edification. Songs: “You are my God, Jesus; My most beloved Jesus, I cry to God in my trouble” - such songs that can always bring food to both the heart and mind. Finally, the “spiritual testament” of the saint is a lesson for monastic and pastoral life. Let's repeat it here. “I, humble Bishop Dimitri, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, listen to the voice of my Lord, who says in the Holy Gospel: Be prepared, for at that very hour, do not forget, the Son of Man will come (Matthew 24:44). You don’t know when the Lord will come to your home, evening, or midnight, or at the cry of the loop, or morning, lest he come suddenly and find you sleeping (Mark 13:35-36). Hearing this voice and fearing it, especially because I am often exposed to illnesses, day by day I become weak in body, I wait every hour for that terrible hour indicated by the Lord, and with my strength I prepare for the departure from this life. In this disposition, I considered it necessary to notify with my spiritual letter anyone who would want to look for my cell property after my death: let him not work in vain and not disturb those who served me for God. Let him know that I have not collected treasures and wealth since my youth (I am not saying this out of vanity, but I am informing those who seek my property). From the time I took on the holy monastic image, took monastic vows in the Kiev Cyril Monastery, in the eighteenth year of my age, and made a promise to God to love arbitrary poverty - from that time until I approached the tomb, I did not acquire property except holy books, I did not want to have extra clothes, or things other than the most necessary. Both in soul and in deed I tried, as much as I could, to observe poverty and non-covetousness. I didn’t care about myself, but relied on God’s Providence, which never left me. I used the alms that came to my hands from benefactors or from income from my positions for my own and for the monastic needs where I was abbot or archimandrite. In the same way, when I was a bishop, I did not collect cell income, which, moreover, was not large, but I used some for my needs, others for the needs of those in need, as God led. So let no one bother after my death to find any cell treasure. I don’t even leave anything for my burial. Let monastic poverty appear before God especially at death. I am convinced that it will be more pleasant for Him if not a single penny remains after me than if the multitude of what I collected were distributed. If no one wants to give me, such a poor man, an ordinary burial, I ask those who remember their death to drag my sinful body to a wretched house and throw it there among the corpses. If the will of the authorities orders me to be buried according to custom, I pray to the Christ-loving burials to bury me in the monastery of St. James, Bishop of Rostov, in the corner of the church where I indicated the place; I humbly pray for this. Whoever wants to remember my sinful soul free of charge, for God’s sake, may he be remembered in the Kingdom of Heaven. He who demands a bribe for commemoration, I ask, let him not bother to remember me, a beggar who left nothing for commemoration. May God be merciful to everyone and to me, a sinner, forever. Amen". Holy Martyrs Terentius and Neonilla with their seven children About these martyrs, only brief information has been preserved: for their confession of Christ and unwillingness to sacrifice to idols, they were tortured during the persecution of Decius (250–252) and killed in Syria. Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva Friday The Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, named Pyatnitsa, is remarkable both by this name and by her life and suffering in accordance with this name. Her parents, Iconian Christians, especially respected the day of the Lord's suffering - Friday, and therefore, when God, on the same day, gave them a daughter, they also named her Friday (Paraskeva in Greek). Subsequently, it turned out that Paraskeva, preserving the memory of Christ’s suffering in her name, preserved it in her heart, and finally she herself joined the passions of Christ through her suffering. Left with a significant estate after the death of her parents, the holy virgin distributed her wealth to the lesser brethren of Christ, dedicated her virginity to the Lord and, constantly remembering the Lord, glorified Him among the pagans in Iconium. For bold confession The crucified saint was thrown into prison, and then handed over to the hegemon for torture, during the reign of Diocletian (257–304). The torment that the tormentor inflicted on her was terrible; but great grace was also revealed, preserving that for which Christ lived and died, gain (Phil. 1:21). The reverend maiden was torn to the bones; but in prison an Angel visited her, presented to her eyes the objects dear to her - the instruments of the Passion of Christ, and - suddenly all the wounds of the martyr closed, she became healthy. A new miracle appeared when they brought the saint into the idol’s church; at her command, all the idols in the church fell and turned to dust. Then new torments followed for the confessor - she was burned with candles; but the fire of the torches suddenly ignited so strongly that it burned many of the wicked who stood near the martyr. Finally Saint Paraskeva was beheaded by the sword. By pronouncing - Paraskeva - this is the Greek name of the great martyr, the Church connects with it its translation in our church-patriotic language. This translation is adopted by the name of the great martyr, in accordance with the interpretation that she herself gave in Greek to her name before her tormentors, who asked her about its meaning. In honor of the Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, a women's community was founded in 1865 in the Insarsky district of the Penza province on the site of the appearance of the icon around 1780. This is how the legend says about it. The icon appeared to a former soldier, originally from the village of Ruzaevka, Insarsky district, Penza province. This soldier was so seriously ill with his legs that he could not possibly remain in the service, and therefore he lay in the infirmary. The doctors' funds did not help him at all. At one time, in a dream, a beautiful-looking woman with a cross in her hands appeared to him and said: “Do you want to be healthy and do you want to go home?” The soldier, waking up from sleep, considered this vision to be an ordinary dream and did not say anything to anyone; on the second and third nights he had the same vision, and on the third night it was added: “In three days you will be completely healthy, and in three days you will be released to your homeland; when you come home, don’t forget to go to the village of Paigarmu, go into the forest, keeping the left hand from the village towards the ravine, towards the bushes; there, halfway along the road, you will find a large ant heap, from which you go straight down the mountain, and you will see a small hole of water and my image in it; clean out this pit, lower the frame, make a chapel and put my icon in it, then you will never hurt your feet.” After this vision, the soldier actually became healthy in three days, and his legs did not hurt like never before, which made both himself and the doctors happy and surprised. The soldier told them his triple dream vision and declared that he completely believed the phenomenon. The doctors considered his healing to be a matter of the healing power of God, and on the third day they discharged him from the hospital and arranged for him to leave. The soldier, having earnestly prayed to the Lord that He would grant him health through His saint, the holy martyr Paraskeva, went to his homeland. Upon arrival in the village of Paigarma, the soldier goes into the forest in the direction he was told in the dream, he actually finds a heap of ants and, going down the mountain, he saw a hole with water and in it the image of his healer - the holy martyr Paraskeva. He prayed for a long time with tears, took the icon, kissed it and placed it on a bush. Over time, he dug a deep and wide hole, lowered the frame, and water flowed in a fast stream from the spring; then he built a chapel and transferred the icon of the martyr Paraskeva into it. From that time on, as the old-timers say, the Orthodox people began to go to this place on pilgrimage, and everyone, according to their faith, received various healings. People still flock here mainly on the 9th Friday after Easter. Since from the day the chapel was erected, ordinary people from year to year came in increasing numbers to the spring and the icon that appeared, the owners of the land, having suffered great losses from the fact that the people crushed the mowing and young shoots of the forest, ordered the chapel to be dismantled and the icon taken to the parish Ruzaevskaya church. The next day the icon appeared again in the same spring, at which the Orthodox people rejoiced and began to have even more faith in the revealed image. But the owners of the land, not believing the appearance of the icon, first ordered the spring to be destroyed; then they decided to build a water mill a little lower and drain all the water into the mill pond. They hired a craftsman, ordered to convene the people as needed for the ponds, dams, ditches, and fill up the spring in which the image appeared. The people, on the orders of the master, filled bags with sand and clay and filled up the spring; They worked on this place all summer, but could not fill up the spring. During the day, during work, the spring is completely blocked, so that there is no water anywhere; at night, water again begins to flow out in a strong stream. The mill master, seeing that human power could not stand against the power of God, quit his job and left the landowner without any consideration, who after this completely abandoned the idea of ​​​​building a mill. Further, the legend says that one of the Tatars living in the nearest villages decided to scold the source, clog it and take an iron hoop from part of the frame. But the Lord punished him: the Tatar lost his sight and became blind. Being a God-fearing man, the Tatar began to cleanse and correct the source and asked the One God to forgive him his guilt and restore his sight. Sincere repentance was accepted by the Lord: the Tatar regained his sight. The local clergy reports that from that time on, annual religious processions from nearby villages to the site of the source and the revealed icon were established - processions of the cross continue to the present day. The liberation of the peasants (1861) forced landowners to sell their land; Mordovian peasants bought it and, having cut down the forest, wanted to open a nunnery. Having been sent in their desire to the neighboring landowner, Maria Mikhailovna Kiseleva, the peasants, with the help and assistance of the latter, sought the highest permission to open the Paraskeva-Voznesensk community, which was opened on July 20, 1865. The land donated to the community was from Maria Mikhailovna Kiseleva 20 dessiatines, the peasant of the village of Boldova Vasily Gubkov - 16 dessiatines, the peasant of the village of Mordovskaya Pishli Nikolai Rolankin - 5 dessiatines, Dmitry and Pyotr Kostin, Semyon and Stepan Zakharovs too - 5 dessiatines, and a total of 46 dessiatines. The daughter of Emperor Heraclius, blessed Fevronia, from a young age wished to serve the One Lord. Her two sisters, Augustine and Martina, were adorned with the title of Augusta, and Fevronia labored in solitude, caring only about how not to lose the eternal glory prepared for everyone by the suffering of the Son of God 757. The holy apostle teaches: an unmarried woman cares about the Lord, how to please the Lord, in order to be holy in body and spirit (1 Cor. 7:34). Here are two lofty thoughts about the virgin: a virgin who devotes herself to God cares about the glory of God, then she also cares about the sanctification of soul and body. Who is so sincerely and completely devoted to the glory of the Lord as that soul that is not amused by anything earthly? A married woman worries about worldly things, how to please her husband (1 Cor. 7:34). Intelligently pleasing your husband is a proper thing; this is not like serving passions and sinful will. But earth and sky are not the same thing. Serving your husband and serving the Lord are different things in subject matter, in dignity, and in consequences. Direct and complete service to the Lord is the highest occupation and the most worthy of human desires. The sanctification of soul and body is another subject of concern for the virgin. Purity and innocence are properties of God-created human nature. With nature upset by sin, the innocence of heaven is inaccessible on earth; but it returns gradually, in parts, with the help of God’s grace. And it is the return of this innocence that the maiden sighs for, and this is what she tries to assimilate through her exploits. With power over the desire for the other sex, man places himself above the animal. The beast is irresistibly attracted, follows the attraction of the bodily nature. Man is given reasonable freedom to dominate matter. Honor to him, glory to him, if he triumphs over matter. Paganism itself respected virginal purity: and it appointed pure virgins and young men to serve famous deities, although with poor success. The body of a Christian is the property of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit (see: 1 Cor. 6, 15, 19; 3, 16, 17); it is terrible to abuse its members (see: 1 Cor. 4:18); Marriage is indicated only to curb the sinful flesh (see: 1 Cor. 7, 3, 2). The pure are promised high happiness (see: 2 Cor. 7:1; 1 Cor. 7:35). “Nothing brings us closer to God than good, chaste and godlike purity, which gives honor and makes us able to stand before the Lord without entertainment.” It is more than likely that Saint John the Patriarch (595) wrote his “Epistle to a Virgin Devoted to God” for the holy princess. Let's read some passages from this extensive, beautiful message. “Although you succeed in virtue, do not be proud of your kindness, lest God turn away from you for vanity... If you are ever caught by the eyes, like David, who opened the windows badly; If your eyes trouble your soul, close your eye that looks evil with sighs. Otherwise, the sinful habit leads the one who stumbles to the worse. If you have clean clothes, don’t wear them everywhere, so as not to somehow get dirty... Practice yourself continually in the Holy Scriptures. Just as wine, when one drinks it, stops sadness and produces joy in the heart, so spiritual wine, when one drinks it, produces joy in the soul... Everything real is weaker than a cobweb, more deceptive than dreams. The Savior pleases those who mourn, so that the pleasure of the pleasant does not hold in its power those addicted to it. Just as Abraham, having heard the words: get out of your land (Gen. 12:1), went out, we too will leave our usual inclinations, so that, practicing mortification, we will move to a mountain city; Let us always carry the deadness of Jesus in our body and remember the words: be sober, be vigilant (1 Pet. 5:8)... There are many merchants who, having become poor, became rich again and, after a shipwreck, continuing to trade, improved their condition. Has God really prepared fire for us? No, for the devil and his angels; just let us not light that fire ourselves... If you cannot be the sun, at least be a star, rising from the earth to the sky; begin to be jealous of the bright stars... The ascetic does not anoint himself with myrrh, for this is the concern only of the deposed. What is the benefit of a bed framed with ivory or silver? Concern about this is unnecessary and brings down anger from heaven... Have you desired virginity? Keep the commandments, and the Lord will keep you. If, while praying, you say: I will keep, O Lord, like the apple of my eye (Ps. 16:8): He will also say to you: Keep My commandments and live, but My words are like the apple of my eye (Proverbs 7:2). If you are so disposed, the Lord, having taken charge of you, will say: touch you as you touch the apple of My eye (Zechariah 2:8)... Many virgins suffered martyrdom. If others have suffered death, can you really not overcome your lusts? We must control not only lust, but also anger. Your tongue should speak a little... Be careful that your tongue does not destroy you: the tongue, says James, infects the whole body (James 3:6); when the whole body becomes infected, the mind must also be damaged... The tongue is enclosed by two barriers: teeth and lips, so that, like a chaste maiden, it does not utter anything reckless... A night's sleep is sweet, but be sure that there is nothing sweeter than the singing of psalms. Is it hard for you to sleep on the ground? But remember that the martyrs were cast onto burning coals. Do you have a very bitter taste in your mouth from fasting? But Christ tasted gall for you. Are you crying for yourself? But you never cried, like Paul, for the salvation of others. Make your work easier with hope: joy follows sorrow” 758. According to such rules, with such thoughts, the holy princess Fevronia labored. Pure in soul and body, she rested in 632, when her father, the emperor, fought with the Persians 759. Her memory is honored by the Greek Church on October 28, 760. Repose of Saint Arsenios, Archbishop of Serbia Just as according to Serbian monuments it is shown to honor on the 28th day of October the memory of St. Arseny, Archbishop of Serbia 761, so in the Russian facial original it is depicted “Saint Arseny, Archbishop of Serbia, gray” 762. The son of Orthodox Slavic parents who lived in Srem, Blessed Arseny, feeling an attraction to a solitary life, retired to a monastery and became a monk. After some time, having heard about the exploits of Savva the Serbian, he comes to the Zhichsky monastery. The spiritual saint assigns him simple obediences for the first time; then, recognizing his abilities and zeal for exploits, he appointed him ecclesiarch; This appointment inspired Arseny to perform feats of the most sincere service to the Lord. When they expected that the Hungarians, at the inspiration of the offended pope, would invade Serbia with devastation, as they had invaded before, Savva instructed Arseny to look for a resting place in Serbia for the archbishop's chair, and Arseny found Pech; the place, he told Savva, is fenced on the east by two high ridges - it seems very convenient for the archbishopric. The saint approved the choice. Arseny was appointed abbot of Zhichsky. Going to the east for the first time, Saint Savva entrusted to the abbot of Zhich not only the monastery, but also some of the affairs of the department 763. Upon returning from the east, to his consolation, he found in the Zhich monastery such order as he could wish for. Having decided to make a second trip to Jerusalem and together to renounce the see, the saint appointed Arseny, whom he had tested, as his successor and ordained him archbishop. Saint Sava never returned alive to Serbia; On the way back he died in Ternov. “And we are bitter and ashamed,” says Arseny to King Vladislav, “that the enlightener of Serbia lies in a foreign country,” and finally, a year later, the relics of St. Sava were transferred to the Mileshev Monastery 764. The most diligent activity of the Serbian Archbishop was now directed towards the establishment of an archdiocese in Pec and the construction of a church there in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul 765. The attack of the Mongols, who burst into Serbia from Hungary in 1242, stopped the success of the bishop's concerns for the cathedral monastery, 766, but the long-term administration of the Serbian Church allowed the zealous archpastor to fulfill his intentions regarding the archbishopric. In 1263 he was still alive 767 ; for the last three years of his life he was very ill, being cleansed by sorrows for eternity, and died on October 28, 1266 768. On the altar wall of the Pech church you can still read the beautiful inscription: “Lord our God, come, visit and bless this church... change me too, sinner Arseny.” On the left side of the royal doors near the iconostasis there is a shrine with the heads of the holy “five-fold” martyrs, which Blessed Arseny received from the Bulgarian Ternov. Near the pillar on the right side of the church is a white marble tomb in which rests the relics of the founder of the Pech monastery, St. Arseny 769. Enlightened Daniel conveys the wonderful experience of the afterlife activities of Saint Arseny. The Bulgarian prince Shishman, calling on the predatory Tatars for help, moved with troops to rob the then rich Pech monastery. “That night, to those sleeping near that place, God showed them a great sign of fear, through the prayers of His saints and the bishop of Christ Arseny, who was lying there in the house of the holy apostles. The sign I say is this, as if they saw a great pillar of fire descending from heaven, from which fiery rays emanated, scorching their faces, and the men, having images of fire, also having weapons in their hands, cut off their regiments with great need in persecution.” Shishman fled in horror and lost most of the army. This was under King Milutin 770. Memory of the Hieromartyr Neophytos, Bishop of Urbnis, in Georgia It suffered in 643 from the Mohammedans, who at that time made their first invasion of the Georgian lands. The neophyte was captured, forced to renounce Christ and, as adamant in his faith, beheaded. Holy Martyr Anastasia of Rome Anastasia 771, left an orphan for three years, was raised in a community of virgins near Rome and during the Valerian persecution (256-260) was captured by order of the prefect, who drew attention to her on the occasion that many pagan citizens who wanted to have her as a wife were refused and began to complain about her contempt for the gods and faith in the Crucified One. The judge told her: “Spare your beauty, bow to the gods, get married, and you will live in glory and honor!” But the saint rejected his proposal, was beaten on the lips and naked. “Do you find pleasure in standing naked in front of everyone?” – asked the judge. Anastasia answered: “It’s not a shame and disgrace for me, but for you!” After this, she was subjected to torture, after which her nipples and tongue were cut off; finally beheaded. The faithful buried her body. Memory of Saint Milutin, King of Serbia, his brother King Dragutin and their mother Helen “Come with me,” said Saint George to the Mohammedan, “I will show you the king Milyutin, who lies in this city - Sofia; he rests as if asleep, and like a flower gives off a fragrance" 772. Blessed Milutin was the youngest son of King Stefan Urosh I and grandson of the First Crowned 773. His elder brother Dragutin ruled all of Serbia for a short time (1270–1275). Having broken his leg, he was burdened in his soul by the fact that for him his father was removed from the throne and voluntarily gave the throne of Serbia to his brother Milutin, and he himself settled in Srem 774. Dragutin, little to blame for the sad fate of his father, acted this way not only according to the voice of his tender conscience, but also according to the convictions of the Serbian people, a very strict honorer of the commandment of God: honor your father and your mother (Ex. 20:12). This is what the Serb, biographer of Blessed Stephen the Despot, writes: “The respect of the Serbs for their parents is so great that not a single son, even in his own home, dares to eat food with his father, but stands at the table as a servant. This can be seen in both the rich and the poor, including extreme poverty. And it is not heard that anyone insulted his father or mother" 775. After this, it is clear that it was not easy for Dragutin to reconcile his mother with himself, but he finally reconciled her with himself. The younger brother, although the king of all Serbia, respected the elder, giving him the title of King of Srem, and they joined forces when it was necessary to act against external enemies. Dragutin worked hard to convert the Bosan heretics of the Bogomils to Orthodoxy and was a wonderful ascetic of God, hidden from the gaze of people. According to his confessor, after a few years of marriage, he did not touch his wife’s body, but lived with her like brother and sister; He distributed alms to the poor, monastic monasteries and churches with a generous hand; among other things, he sent gifts to the churches of Russia, which suffered so much from the Tatars; he was in a friendly relationship with Grand Duke Vasily Yaroslavich (1276). His grave was dug for secret exploits; there were stones and skulls scattered in it; It was here that he shed tears for his sins and spent his nights in prayer; when he fell asleep from exhaustion, sharp stones soon woke him up. Before his death (March 22, 1316), he became a monk with the name Theoktistus. When they were preparing him for the tomb: “having found him, he was girded with a sharp reed over his nakedness and was clothed in hair sackcloth, and the reed was clinging to the inner bone; wanting to take him away from his body, he was unable to do so, and with a lot of washing water, he barely separated him from the body of this blessed one” 776. The Dubrovnik commercial republic hastened to ask the new king for a letter of freedom of trade in Serbia. Kral Milutin wrote in 1276: “a) what kindness my brother Stefan (Dragutin) showed them, my kingdom also shows the same; b) their merchants can trade freely in my land as long as the truth is not offended; c) they give the kingdom 2000 perpers every year on Demetrius's day; d) if they are found guilty before my kingdom, then the court will hear the case according to the law; If the court does not decide the case, then a deadline is announced three months in advance by which their merchants must leave Serbia with their property” 777. Not long after that, Milyutin had to start wars with his neighbors. This was required by the affairs of the Fatherland and faith. Wars went on one after another for 20 years and everyone was amazingly happy. Grateful before the beneficent Lord, the pious king himself describes these matters in one letter, and we can only add explanations to his news. “Being a servant of my Lord and Savior Christ,” he writes, “I, Stefan Urosh, by the grace of God, king and autocrat of all the Serbian and Pomeranian lands, understood your sweet words for me, Jesus, teaching us in the Holy Gospel: let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify the Heavenly Father. Having learned that there is nothing better for kings and bishops than to explain with reverence the law of God at councils, I came to the cathedral church of Peć and, having bowed to the icons, kissed the venerable hand of the Forerunner John, having accepted the blessing of my spiritual father Nicodemus, Archbishop of Serbia, and the Council existing with him, I believe at the Council, so that the wonderful works of God will not remain in oblivion: to perform renewal of Hilandar, resume writing in the Zhich monastery, give the Uliar settlement for the Pech monastery.” The works of God were like this. “The Greek empire extended to Lipljana, and the Greeks did violence.” The king talks so much about the reasons for the war with the Greeks. Obviously, he didn't quite speak out. On the one hand, behind the Serbian mountains, on the Macedonian plain, there were Slavic settlements; they were once part of the Bulgarian kingdom, but were now under the control of the Greeks. This was abnormal and offensive for the Slavic soul. On the other hand, Michael Paleologus in 1274 drew up a council in Constantinople on the adoption of a union with the pope. With the exception of the court party, all others were against papism. Mikhail turned to measures of violence against those who disagreed with his thoughts. The cruelties in places and at times were inhuman; The Athonites suffered especially greatly, sending a bold denunciation to Michael; in 1279 the cruelties intensified 778. And so the pious king declares a protest against papism with his sword. He decided to save at least the dear Slavs from papism. “Being blessed,” he says, “I went into the borders of the Greek kingdom and, when no one resisted, I occupied both Canopies with cities and districts, the glorious city of Skopje, then Ovchepol, Zlatova, Pianets; conquered all places and expelled the Greek authorities from those regions. The angry, crafty Greek leaders brought me before King Palaiologos. He recruited Tatars, Turks, Franks and went to war against the king; but having reached Ilangyf, where the church of St. George is, he suddenly died and was buried in Silivria. His military leaders rushed with an army to Serbia; They reached Lipljana and Prizren and, having caused a lot of trouble, returned. One part of the Tatar militia reached the Drima River, but, crossing it, it was partly beaten, partly drowned; the head of their elder Chernoglava was brought to the king. Having accepted courage and blessing, with the help of my brother Stefan, the king of Srem, I went again to the Greek borders, reached the place on the ship and, having celebrated the Nativity of Christ there, reached the Holy Mount Athos. Having occupied all the borders of Strum and Ser, Chrysopolis and other nearby places and taking wealth and property, returned to their homeland. Having sent King Stefan back to Greece, we took the land of Debra, the power of the land of Kichava, the land of Porec and annexed all this to our kingdom. Then we fought the land of Vlahiota (Epirus) and took incalculable wealth there.” All these military actions in the regions of the empire, which resulted in the annexation of Slavic settlements to the Serbian kingdom, took place in 1382–1385 779. The price of these acquisitions of the Slavs was also increased by their relationship to papism. Palaiologos wandering crowds of crusaders did some damage to Serbia, but what were they doing on Athos? They tortured and killed various confessors of Orthodoxy. Milyutin protected the Slavs from the ferocious arbitrariness of Romanism 780. “In Branichev, two noble brothers Kudelin and Dreman with their forces attack King Stefan’s brother, joining many Tatar troops. Then Stefan comes to my kingdom and, having camped on the Morava near Mackovca, asks for help. My kingdom immediately marches with troops against those godless ones and achieves what it wants; These bad people took flight, crossed the Danube and died. Then Prince Shishman of Bulgaria, who lived in the city of Bdyn (Viddine) and owned many neighboring Bulgarian cities, arose. He, having annexed the damned Tatar people, reached the place of Khvostno and wanted to take the place of Zhdrelo. Then a great miracle happened: a pillar of fire and fiery-looking men appeared and drove the Bulgarians away. Then we went to the city of Bdyna. He crosses the Danube River in the trees. Having occupied all his possessions, my kingdom was ready to destroy all the dwellings and the city where his palace was. But he humbly begs, like the lowest of servants, promising to be in complete obedience to my kingship. It was proposed from me that he take as his wife the daughter of my nobleman, the great župan Dragosi, and he did so. Then I gave my daughter to his son Mikhail.” The war with western Bulgaria took place in 1292. Shishman decided to profit at the expense of Serbia, just as Milyutin was gaining strength at the expense of the empire; but Stratimir did not calculate that his means were far from those of Milyutin 781 . “The strong, wicked Tatar king Nogai rises against me with all his might. My kingdom sends him gifts. The lawless king, who hastened against me, is returning back. I sent my son Stefan with his famous commanders to serve him. When they were already despairing of his return, he returned unharmed; civil strife has begun to boil among the wicked.” Tatar Nogai, so well known to Russia, in 1294 overthrew Terter from the Bulgarian throne and imprisoned Smiltsa; the proud khan threatened Milyutin with the same thing. Not long after that, civil strife began to boil between the sons of Nogai; the eldest son Tshuke (Tsoka) completely defeated the younger one; he addressed a complaint to Khan Tokhtaga; the war ended with the capture and death of Nogai in 1299 782. “The godless Persians and Arabs armed themselves against the Christian race. They settled in the great Romagna and took root here in complete freedom, living for 20 years. My kingship calls on some of them to serve, to the envy of the kings' neighbors. When they plotted the destruction of my kingdom, then I completely humbled them not only in my kingdom, but also in Romania; their cities were destroyed; there was no one left from this wicked family in all of Romania, with the exception of those who became slaves of the Serbian commanders.” The crusaders expelled from Palestine, who mixed there with the Arabs, appeared in Thrace with the name of the Arabs; At first they tolerated them and gave them lands in Romagna. But, having settled down, they began to manage in the manner of robbers: they seized other people's property, kidnapped their wives and girls. The Mohammedans who persecuted them increased the suffering of the Orthodox. The powerless empire could not cope with the violent vagabonds - the backgrounds. When those who pledged to serve Milyutin formed a conspiracy against his life: Milyutin decided to settle accounts with the uninvited guests in his own way. He drove them all beyond the Danube, with the exception of the best, who remained among the servants 783. “Cyrus Andronicus Palaiologos, the universal king, begged the sincere son of the sovereign kingdom to send an army against the Persians in Anatolia. Convinced by his father-in-law’s prayer, he detached a squad with the great commander Novak Grebestrek. Having reached the city of Iraklia, she was joyfully greeted by Andronik and, entering the ships, moved to Anatolia. After many battles, she won and Andronika returned with gratitude” 784. The weakness of the empire was so great that the Serbian king had to defend it from eastern enemies. Milyutin does not mention in his letter about his war with Andronikos 785, which began in 1298. The best Greek commander then locked himself in Thessaloniki and was afraid to leave the fortress. The Serbs freely occupied all the places from Vardar to Athos; commander Andronikov finally wrote to the capital that there was no hope of defeating the king by force and the only way to save the empire was peace with Serbia, especially since the empire was still in danger from the Mohammedans. Then began the struggle between Greek cunning and the open Slavic mind. After long negotiations, the emperor offered the king the hand of his daughter Simonida. Milyutin, a widower after his first marriage, agreed 786. The war with the Mohammedans, mentioned in the charter, took place in 1303 and after it Milyutin married Simonides 787. There is no doubt that the Greek empire would have ended its existence even under Milutin, if Milutin had wanted it. His generosity was favored by the fact that the exhausted empire continued to eke out its existence. But it would almost be better for everyone if the intelligent and full of life Serbian king took control of the empire. The Turks would not have gained strength, to the misfortune of the Christian world. And the immediate consequences of reconciliation with the empire were bitter for Serbia. The spoiled Greek Simonida caused a lot of trouble for Serbia and Milyutin. With her intrigues, she brought her husband to the point that his eldest son, Stefan, heir to the throne, was blinded and sent to Constantinople under guard 788. Milyutin's last military affairs dated back to 1318. The pope was very indignant at the pious and intelligent king. Yes, and there was a reason for it! The pope was just about to count Milutin and his kingdom among his subjects, wrote a letter to Milutin with a confession of faith, which he should accept, appointed his plenipotentiary ambassadors to complete the union with the Roman Church, and in one day signed as many as six letters about Milutin. And Milyutin not only rejected the pope’s proposal for union, but tamed papism wherever he could. Having subdued the Ragusians, who were seizing Orthodox cities for themselves and papism, by force of arms, he “imposed double tribute to the Ragusians for the sake of the Roman confession,” and took away several border places from Hungary 789. The pope's plans to add Milyutin and his subjects to the number of the pope's servants, if they were not just a comedy in which everything was false, meant a foolish step of arrogance, which did not think of meeting resistance to its desires. In any case, the failure of the Roman manifestation was bitter, especially when Milutin added to the bitterness with orders in Ragusa and Macva. Such a blow to the pride of the proud could not be forgiven in Rome. From 1314, the pope began to preach a crusade against Milutin; he raised almost half of Europe against him - the German emperor, the kings of Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and Neapolitan. In 1318, Robert of Hungary allied himself with Charles of Sicily and the counts of Brebir. Robert occupied Bosna and Machva. The Sicilians entered Epirus. But the riot that arose in Hungary forced Robert to rush to Hungary. The Sicilians were expelled from Epirus. The pope's dreams of a union of Epirus dissipated, although he thanked the three Epirus nobles for opposing the “schismatic Serbian king.” Thus passed the storm raised by the Pope 790! King Milyutin's feats of piety were amazing. Having said in his letter about his determination to make sacrifices for the three churches of God, he spoke only about the beginning of the matter. Since 1304, his activities were devoted mainly to organizing the internal life of the kingdom. He built more than 40 stone churches, and many of them had monastic monasteries, and others also had pulpits. Its most prominent and richest churches: the Church of the Mother of God in Treskavica with a monastic monastery 791, the cathedral church of Archdeacon Stephen in Bansk, appointed by the builder for his burial, amazing with masses of gold 792 cathedral monastery with hospitals in Prizren, its capital 793, cathedral church of Our Lady of the Gracanica River 794, church of St. George in the Kichavi district 795. The churches of King Milutin are Byzantine in style, with four or 8 columns supporting a dome or domes, with frescoes of the Panselin school, with a baptismal sanctuary in the west; the southern column is still hung with hair cut at baptism and reminiscent of the baptismal vow - a wonderful distinction 796! Milyutin also built churches of prayer and houses of charity in foreign places. In Constantinople he built a church and with it an extensive hospitable house, and lands were assigned for their maintenance. The churches of St. Nicholas and the Holy Trinity were built in Solun 797. Hilandar was especially provided with it, although other monasteries of Athos were not forgotten 798. “How often,” says a new Western writer and a Protestant at that, “Western writers laughed at the many Serbian monasteries! But the state of the Serbian kings fell, and the monasteries they founded, connecting the nationality with religion, contributed most to the preservation of both; rightly explain the transition of the Bosniaks to Islam by the fact that in Bosnia there were fewer monasteries than in Serbia... The monasteries of the ancient kings were revered by all Serbian tribes” 799. This lesson of history should especially be confirmed by Luther’s dull disciples, who unconsciously repeat words of dissatisfaction with his monasticism, while history exposes their disagreement with the Gospel. The historian of the blessed king and his confessor writes: “The poor and beggars came to him not only from his fatherland, but from overseas countries and from the islands and from the city of Jerusalem. Strangers came to him from Asia, the lame, the blind, the sick, and no one ever left without help. It's hard to know how much money he gave away. When night fell, the wonderful sovereign took off his royal clothes and, putting on simple and holey ones, and covering his face, went with two or three faithful servants to look for poverty, giving money to some, clothes and food to others. He firmly remembered the divinely inspired words: blessed is he who looks upon the poor and wretched: on the day of cruelty the Lord will deliver him... We also need to know the exploits of Milyutin, known to us, the confessor continues, exhaustion of the body, night vigils, warm tears, a gentle and friendly disposition. His wealth in silver, gold, cattle, horses, fields is innumerable. And yet all this did not change his good soul, and pride was not accessible to him until death” 800. Blessed Milyutin, with all his happiness, maintained the simple life that his father loved. The following case is remarkable. Mikhail Paleologus, who learned from the pope to use all sorts of means to achieve a goal, wanted to deceive King Urosh into his alliance. He sent a magnificent embassy to Serbia and with him his daughter, offering her as a wife to the king’s son Milutin. “What is this? What is this for? - the king said to the magnificent embassy. “We are not used to this kind of life.” And pointing his hand at a girl dressed very simply and sitting at a spinning wheel, he continued: “This is the outfit we dress our daughters-in-law in.” The clever ambassadors trampled, trampled, and turned their shafts back to give Mikhail the unenviable name of a fool 801. The pious king came close to death due to a serious illness that befell him in the palace at birth, and, having died on October 29, 1320, 802, he was buried in the Bath monastery, in accordance with his long-standing desire 803. Two and a half years later, after several signs, the coffin was dug up, and the king’s body turned out to be incorrupt to the point that not a hair of his head had fallen 804. His relics were placed in a rich shrine and transferred to the magnificent Church of Sophia, built by himself in 805. The blessed king's mother, Elena, by all accounts, was also an exemplary Christian. She was smart and kind, led a temperate and pure life. In Scutar, where she lived after her husband, she built houses for poor villagers, monasteries for virgins, and instilled in the local residents the fear of God. So, near Spic, she built the Rech Monastery and endowed it with land 806. Before her death, in old age, she accepted monasticism and died on February 8, 1306. Her body was buried in the Gradece monastery by Archbishop Savva II in the presence of the king's son. Three years later, the body was found incorrupt, and Bishop Pavel of Russia placed the shrine with the relics in the church in front of the iconostasis 807. On the 31st. Hieromartyr Archpriest John Hieromartyr John Kochurov was born on July 13, 1871 in the village of Bigildino-Surki, Dankovsky district, Ryazan province, into a pious and large family of rural priest Alexander Kochurov and his wife Anna. Priest Alexander Kochurov, who from the moment of his ordination on March 2, 1857, served almost his entire life in the Epiphany Church in the village of Bigildino-Surki, Ryazan diocese, and all these years successfully combined his parish ministry with fulfilling the duties of a teacher of the law at the Bigildinsky public school, vividly imprinted in the minds of his sons, and especially the most spiritually sensitive of them, John, the image of a person filled with deep humility and at the same time high inspiration of the parish pastor. Based on the remarkable traditions of the families of the hereditary Russian clergy and associated with the natural adherence to popular Orthodox piety, the upbringing of Father John predetermined his entry into the path of preparation for pastoral service. Father John's stay, first at the Dankovsky Theological School, and then at the Ryazan Theological Seminary, was accompanied not only by outstanding successes in the study of theological and general educational disciplines, but also by remarkable examples of church piety, which he showed in the rather harsh and not always morally impeccable life of a provincial theological school. Having graduated from the Ryazan Theological Seminary in 1891 and having excellently passed the entrance tests to the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Father John became a student at one of the best theological educational institutions in Russia. During the period of Father John's studies at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, his inclination was determined to consider theological education as preparation, first of all, for his future pastoral ministry. Moreover, already in his student years, Father John connected the possibility of his pastoral service with missionary activity, in which for him the ideal of an Orthodox pastor was embodied. Upon graduating from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy on June 10, 1895 with the title of full student, Father John, in accordance with his long-standing desire, was sent to missionary service in the Aleutian and Alaskan diocese. The arrival of Father John and Mother Alexandra in Protestant America brought him into contact with a life that in many respects was not similar to the life of Orthodox Russia that was familiar to him. Finding himself in New York during the first time of his stay in the United States, which was strikingly different in its everyday and spiritual way of life from Russian cities, and not yet having time to master the English language, Father John, thanks to the fraternal support of representatives of the small Orthodox community of New York, was able to get involved in the life of an unfamiliar country without any special psychological and everyday complications. It should be emphasized that the church life of the Aleutian and Alaskan diocese, vast in its territory, but very small in terms of the number of clergy, in various regions of the country had very significant features. If in Northern California, the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, where Russian Orthodox parishes had existed by this time for about 100 years, church life was carried out on the basis of fairly numerous parish communities that had significant material resources and for more than one generation of their members were associated with the traditional way of life of America, then in most other areas of the country Orthodox church life was just emerging and to a large extent assumed on the part of the Orthodox clergy the need for missionary service called create full-fledged Orthodox parishes among a diverse and multi-confessional local population. It was to one of these areas of the diocese that Father John was to go, ordained to the priesthood on August 27, 1895 by His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Aleutian and Alaska. The beginning of Father John's parish ministry turned out to be connected with the Orthodox parish of Chicago opened in 1892 by His Grace Bishop Nicholas. Appointed in 1895 by Decree of the Holy Synod as rector of the Chicago Church of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir, Father John came into contact with parish life, which was strikingly different from the orderly life of Orthodox parishes in Russia, rooted in centuries-old traditions. Finding himself in the small and multinational parishioners of the Chicago parish of the Church of St. Vladimir and the Church of the Three Saints in the city of Streator assigned to it, Father John cared for representatives of the poor strata of emigrants of the Orthodox faith and did not have the opportunity to rely on a strong parish community in carrying out his activities, which would have had any significant material resources. The Orthodox parish of the Vladimir Chicago Church consisted of a few native Russian immigrants, from Galician and Ugric Slavs, Arabs, Bulgarians and Arabians. The Orthodox parish of the city of Streator consisted of Slovaks working in the mines, converts from the Uniates. Such a composition of the parishioners of the Chicago Street parish required Father John to skillfully combine pastoral-liturgical and missionary-educational elements in his activities. Already in the first three years of his parish ministry, Father John added 86 Uniates and 5 Catholics to the Orthodox Church, and the number of permanent parishioners in the churches of the Chicago-Streator parish increased to 215 in Chicago and 88 in Streator. At both parish churches, children's church schools operated successfully, in which more than 20 students studied and the course of study in which included weekly Saturday classes during the school year and daily classes during the holiday periods. Continuing in his activities the best traditions of the Russian Orthodox diocese in North America, Father John organized the St. Nicholas and Tri-Hierarch brotherhoods in Chicago and Streator, which aimed to intensify social and material mutual assistance among the parishioners of the Chicago Streator parish and the “Orthodox Mutual Aid Society.” Of particular importance in solving the problems of the liturgical life of the parish, entrusted to the pastoral care of Father John, was the accession to the Aleutian and Alaskan See on November 30, 1898 of St. Tikhon, the future Patriarch of Moscow. Having first arrived in Chicago on April 28, 1899, Saint Tikhon gave his archpastoral blessing to Father John and his flock and the very next day he inspected the territory that was supposed to be the site for the construction of a new church, so necessary for the Chicago parish. Father John turned to Saint Tikhon with a request to grant him leave to travel to his homeland to raise funds that would allow the Chicago parish community to begin construction of a new church and create the first Orthodox cemetery in Chicago. Having successfully combined a trip to his homeland with raising funds for the needs of the parish, Father John, soon after his return from vacation, began the construction of a new church building, the foundation stone of which Saint Tikhon arrived on March 31, 1902. The construction of the new church was completed in 1903. Its consecration in honor of the Holy Trinity, performed by Saint Tikhon, became a real holiday for the entire Russian Orthodox diocese in North America. In February 1904, Father John was appointed chairman of the Censorship Committee of the Aleutian and North American Diocese, of which he had already been a member for 7 years. In June 1905, Father John took an active part in the meetings of the preparatory congress of the diocesan clergy in Oldforge, at which, under the leadership of St. Tikhon, issues related to the preparation of the first Council in the history of the Aleutian and North American diocese were discussed. A qualitatively new period began in Father John’s priestly ministry in North America, when, thanks to his outstanding pastoral-parish and diocesan-administrative activities, he became one of the most authoritative archpriests of the diocese, Father John was increasingly involved in solving the most important issues of diocesan administration by Saint Tikhon, who highly valued him. In May 1906, Father John was appointed dean of the New York District of the Eastern States, and in February 1907 he was destined to become one of the most active participants in the first The Council of the North American Orthodox Church in Mayfield, which marked the transformation of the rapidly expanding Aleutian and North American diocese into the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America, from which the Orthodox Church in America eventually arose. In July 1907, leaving the Chicago Street parish dear to his heart, with which 12 years of his missionary and pastoral service were associated, Archpriest John went into the unknown that awaited him in his homeland, with which his priestly ministry was now and forever connected. Father John’s return to Russia in the summer of 1907 not only marked for him the beginning of ministry in the St. Petersburg diocese, familiar to him from his years of student life, but also confronted him with the need to apply his pastoral talents in the field of spiritual enlightenment, which he had already partially mastered in America. On the basis of the Decree of the St. Petersburg Theological Consistory, Father John in August 1907 was assigned to the clergy of the Transfiguration Cathedral in the city of Narva and from August 15, 1907 began to fulfill the duties of a teacher of the law at the Narva men's and women's gymnasiums. The general way of life of the small district of Narva, in which Russian Orthodox residents did not make up even half of the population, partly reproduced for Father John the atmosphere familiar to him in America of carrying out pastoral service in a spiritual and social environment permeated with heterodox influences. However, his teaching activities in two secondary educational institutions, in which the Russian cultural element and Orthodox religious orientation undoubtedly dominated, allowed Father John to feel himself in the atmosphere of Russian Orthodox life, familiar from childhood. The obvious successes of Father John in his teaching activities were complemented all these years by the joy that his four eldest sons, who studied at the Narva gymnasium, had the opportunity to receive gymnasium spiritual education under his direct supervision. In November 1916, when, by decree of the St. Petersburg Ecclesiastical Consistory, Father John was appointed to fill the second vacancy in the Catherine Cathedral of Tsarskoye Selo as a parish priest, his dream of resuming his service as a parish pastor in one of the churches in his homeland was destined to come true. Warmly and with great respect received by the flock of the Catherine Cathedral, Father John from the first months of his parish ministry established himself not only as a zealous and reverent performer of God's service, but also as an eloquent and erudite preacher who gathered Orthodox Christians from all over Tsarskoye Selo under the arches of the Catherine Cathedral. However, the events of the February Revolution, which broke out in Petrograd just 3 months after the appointment of Father John to Catherine’s Cathedral, began to gradually drag Tsarskoe Selo into the whirlpool of revolutionary events. Soldier unrest in military units stationed in Tsarskoe Selo, the many-month confinement of the imperial family in the Alexander Palace, which attracted the attention of representatives of the most uncompromising revolutionary circles to the city, pushing the country onto the path of internecine unrest, and finally the general internal political confrontation that began in Russia during the period of the country's participation in a bloody war with an external enemy, gradually changed the usually calm atmosphere of Tsarskoe Selo, diverting the attention of its residents from the daily conscientious fulfillment of their Christian and civic duty to the Church and the Fatherland. And all these anxious months, from the pulpit of St. Catherine’s Cathedral, the inspired word of Father John sounded, striving to bring a sense of peace into the souls of Tsarskoe Selo Orthodox Christians and calling them to a religious understanding of both their inner life and the contradictory changes taking place in Russia. A few days after the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917, the echo of the terrible events that took place in Petrograd echoed in Tsarskoe Selo. In an effort to oust the Cossack units of General P.N. Krasnov, who remained loyal to the Provisional Government, from Tsarskoe Selo, armed detachments of Red Guards, sailors and soldiers moved towards the city from Petrograd. On the morning of October 30, 1917, being on the outskirts of Tsarskoe Selo, Bolshevik detachments began to subject the city to artillery fire. In Tsarskoe Selo, whose residents, like the entire population of Russia, did not yet suspect that the country was plunged into a civil war, panic began; many townspeople rushed to Orthodox churches, including St. Catherine’s Cathedral, hoping to find prayerful peace during the service and hear a pastoral exhortation from the pulpit in connection with the events taking place. The entire clergy of the Catherine Cathedral responded vividly to the spiritual questions of their flock, and after a special prayer service for the cessation of internecine warfare, performed under the arches of the filled church, the rector of the cathedral, Archpriest N.I. Smirnov, together with two other cathedral priests, Father John and Father Stefan Fokko, decided to hold a religious procession in the city with the reading of deliberate prayers for an end to the internecine fratricidal warfare. The sermons of the priests were devoid of any political overtones. The religious procession dragged on. Dusk gave way to evening. Candles were lit in the hands of the worshipers. All the people sang. Just at these moments the Cossacks were leaving the city. The priests were warned about this. “Isn’t it time to stop praying?!” “We will fulfill our duty to the end! - they declared. - And they left us, and are coming to us - our brothers! What will they do to us!?” Wanting to prevent the possibility of fighting on the streets of Tsarskoe Selo, the command of the Cossack units on the evening of October 30 began to withdraw them from the city, and on the morning of October 31, without encountering any resistance, Bolshevik detachments entered Tsarskoe Selo. One of the nameless eyewitnesses of the tragic events that followed in Tsarskoe Selo in a letter to the outstanding St. Petersburg archpriest F.N. Ornatsky, who himself soon had the opportunity to suffer martyrdom from the atheistic authorities, in artless, but in this artlessness with deeply soulful words, spoke about the passion-suffering that befell Father John. “Yesterday (October 31),” he wrote, “when the Bolsheviks, together with the Red Guards, entered Tsarskoye, a search of apartments and arrests of officers began, and Fr. John (Alexandrovich Kochurov) was taken to the outskirts of the city, to the Fedorovsky Cathedral, and there they were killed because the priests, organizing the religious procession, supposedly prayed only for the victory of the Cossacks, which, of course, in reality was not and could not be. The rest of the priests were released in the evening, thus making one more martyr for the Faith of Christ. Although the deceased did not stay in Tsarskoe Selo for long, he gained everyone’s sympathy, and a lot of people flocked to his conversations.” The Petrograd correspondent already mentioned above reproduced the horrific picture of the martyrdom of Father John and the events that followed it with additional details. “The priests were captured and sent to the premises of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. The priest, Father John Kochurov, protested and tried to clarify the matter. He received several blows to the face. With whoops and hooting, the angry crowd led him to the Tsarskoye Selo airfield. Several rifles were raised at the unarmed shepherd. A shot, another - with a wave of his hands, the priest fell face down on the ground, blood staining his cassock. Death was not instant... They dragged him by the hair, and someone suggested to someone “to finish him off like a dog.” The next morning the priest's body was transferred to the former palace hospital. The chairman of the Duma, who visited the hospital together with one of the vowels, as reported by Delo Narodu, saw the body of the priest, but the silver cross on the chest was no longer there...” The last tragic circumstance mentioned by the correspondent, which accompanied the martyrdom of Father John, takes on a special spiritual meaning in connection with the prophetic words spoken by Father John 12 years before his death in distant America when presenting him with a golden pectoral cross during the celebration of the 10th anniversary of his priestly service. “I kiss this Holy Cross, the gift of your brotherly love for me,” Father John said soulfully then. – Let him be a support in difficult times. I will not say loud phrases that I will not part with him until the grave. This phrase is loud, but unreasonable. His place is not in the grave. Let it remain here on earth for my children and descendants, as a family shrine and as clear proof that brotherhood and friendship are the most sacred phenomena on earth...” 5 months after the death of Father John on March 31, 1918, when the number of murdered clergymen known by name to the Holy Synod had already reached 15 people, the first in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church of the 20th century was committed in the church of the Moscow Theological Seminary by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, in the co-service of 4 bishops and 10 archimandrites and archpriests. "Funeral Liturgy for the New Hieromartyrs and Martyrs." During the recitation of prayer offerings at the funeral Liturgy and memorial service “For the repose of the servants of God who were killed for the faith and the Orthodox Church,” following the first murdered bishop, Metropolitan of Kyiv and Galicia Vladimir, the first murdered Archpriest John was remembered - Father John Kochurov, who with his passion-bearing death opened the confessional service of the host of new martyrs Russian XX century. With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Rus' and on the recommendation of His Beatitude Theodosius, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, the commission for the canonization of saints studied the material related to the life and exploits of Father John Kochurov, and at the Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, held in 1994, the hieromartyr Father John Kochurov was glorified in face of saints. Hieromartyr John is commemorated on the day of his martyrdom, October 31, and on the Sunday after January 25 - the day of the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Prologue May 21: “from the Italian country, from Amoria, the family of the prince, the city of Mavnuks.” But a) the Crimean Mavnuk was owned by the Goths until 1475 (Kazansky S.P. The village of Novospasskoye, Dedenevo, also, and the genealogy of the Golovins, its owners. M., 1847); b) Morea is not part of Italy, and Mavnuk was neither in Morea nor in Italy. All that remains to be accepted as true is that Constantine was born in Morea from a noble family; but it must be considered probable that he was a Slav, since most of the Slavs lived in Morea at that time. According to the complete life of Paisius, Blessed. Constantine was in the Paisian monastery at the foundation of the stone Church of the Intercession in 1479 and at its consecration in 1482, and, moreover, was in relations with the Uglich prince Andrei. Lviv. l. 3, 174–176; Collection l. 6, 232. Gennady in a letter to Joasaph: “It came to my ears that he was leading. the prince sent for you more than once and you did not go... If God puts it in the sovereign’s heart to send for you, do not refuse, go to him; you can show firmness in your business as you please - if only the sovereign asks you” (Russian Time Book. Part 2). This is what it says in the full life of Paisius of Uglich. According to the prologue, Cassian baptized the prince. Andrew's son Dimitri; but Demetrius was born in 1477 and therefore Cassian perceived him from the font even while he was in the world. RKP. complete life of Paisius. St. Cassian died on October 2. 7072 (1553) (Amvrosy (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV), according to the RCP. Saints - October 2, 7076 (1567). But both indications are incorrect. If Constantine arrived in Moscow in 1472, being 30 years old, and then in 1520 he was 68 years old, and in 1562 he would have been 120 years old, meanwhile, neither in the Prologue nor in other monuments is there even a hint of such an extraordinary old age; on the contrary, according to the vision, he was no older than 65 years. The charter of June 1, 1552 was given to the Uchemsky Mother of God Monastery under Abbot Pachomius (Acts collected by the Archaeographic Expedition. Vol. 1. No. 171) and therefore it decides that St. Cassian died before 1520. The Dictionary of Saints gives the year of his death as 1504. Kisel F. History of the city of Uglich. Yaroslavl, 1844. So in the RKP. complete life of St. Paisia. About miracles, see: Yaroslavl Diocesan Gazette. 1861. No. 39. Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries. According to another report, “Saint Cyprian, Fool for Christ’s sake, Suzdal, white l. 7140 (1632), July at 25 days.” Hardly this year and on this date were they not verified that the relics were incorruptible. Domestic Notes. 1857, July. Vladimir Provincial Gazette. 1857. No. 8. Hands review. St. Kirill Beloezersky // Thu. OIDR. 1860. Collection l. 3, 1; 5, 130, 136. Collection l. 1, 66, 67; 5, 137; Joannis Zonarae. Annales/Ed. Weberï In 2 v. Bonnae, 1841–1844. V.I. Collection l. 1, 67; 3, 2, 121; 5, 134. Supral. l. 13. In the new chronicle, the consecration is dated to 6560. But according to others, it was September 14, 6558 (chronicle 5, 138; 7, 332). For a study of the translation of the prophecies included in the list of the priest Upir, see: Gorsky A.V., Nevostruev K.I. Description of Slavic manuscripts of the Moscow Synodal Library. M., 1855–1869. Dept. I (hereinafter – Gorsky A.V., Nevostruev K.I. Description of manuscripts of the Synodal Library. – Ed.). For an overview of interpretations, see ibid. Dept. II. Collection l. 1, 69; 3, 2, 121, 212; 5, 138. In the Novgorod Synodikon, the wife of Prince. Vladimir - book. Alexandra, and her mother is a Christ-loving prince. Anna (Description of the Rumyantsev Museum. No. 571; Solovyov P. Description of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. St. Petersburg, 1858 (hereinafter - Solovyov P. Description of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. -Ed.)). Collection l. 3, 216. Soloviev P. Description of the Novgorod St. Sophia Cathedral. Collection l. 3, 113; Thurs. OIDR. 1860. Book. 1. Collection l. 1, 63; 5, 138. February of March 1050 belongs to the year of January 1051. Therefore, the tombstone inscription rightly shows 1051 as the year of the death of St. Anna. Metropolitan Hilarion's praise to Kagan Vladimir (Addition to the Works of the Holy Fathers: In 48 hours M., 1843–1892. Part 2). Hilarion spoke his praise earlier on February 10, September 6559. Nestorov's life of St. Feodosia (Scientific Notes of the Second Branch of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. St. Petersburg, 1856. T. 2 (hereinafter referred to as Scientific Notes of the Academy. -Ed.)). Collection l. 1, 65; 2, 24, Synopsis 62 (Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. II, note 34). Recently they erroneously wrote: “Vladimir’s mother in Holy Baptism was named St. Anna." It’s a shame to tell such lies now. Notes of the Geographical Society. T. XIII. In present-day Slavonia. About the migrations of the Serbs 1481–1526. from the right to the left bank of the Danube, see: Popov N.A. Serbs in Austria // Russian Bulletin. 1865. No. 5 (hereinafter – Popov N.A. Serbs in Austria. – Ed.). Synaxarion and service in Serblyak (1861). In the picture of St. Stephen is called a despot and is depicted in a despot's robe. But the synaxar does not say that he was a despot (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 3; Popov N.A. Serbs in Austria). His suffering from the RKP. Forerunner Monastery (Athos Patericon. Part 2). RKP. calendar: “the holy princess nun Kharitina, who was in the maiden (Oten. Petrovsky) monastery, was in l. 6000 months Oct. at 5 days.” According to a later inscription on the shrine, she is “a Czech princess” and together “from the line of the kings of Lithuania” (Makariy (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Archaeological description of church antiquities in Novgorod and its environs. In 2 vols. M., 1860. T. 1 (hereinafter referred to as Makary (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Archaeological description of church antiquities in Novgorod and its environs. Novgorod. -Ed.)): obvious inconsistency. According to the RCP. The calendar shows its time of 6000 years. (pr. 61), and on the saint’s shrine “7000 l. Oct. 5 d." Oten calendar: “commemoration of October on the 5th day” (Makariy (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Archaeological description of church antiquities in Novgorod, Part 1). Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. Description of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. RKP. Saints: “St. Father Sergius the faster." In Kalnofoisky: “St. Father Sergius"; in the canon “Sergius the only equal to Nectarius the obedient.” RKP. life of St. Tryphon, written by a Vyatchan, in the library of the Moscow Theological Academy and at Tsarskoye No. 136. The first half of it, where the Vyatchan wrote from rumors and stories, sometimes gullible, requires special caution and verification. The narrator did not notice the strangeness that Tryphon, at a young age, 20 years or so, works miracles every now and then, but the elder ascetic Tryphon did almost nothing miraculous. Spiritual life doesn’t work like that. Life in full edition. See: Vyatka Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 15. Pyskorsky Monastery was founded in 1558–1560. (Amvrosy (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part II; Additions to the Historical Acts. Vol. 2; Perm Provincial Gazette. 1857. No. 23, 24). The town of Orlets or Orlov on the Kama was built in 1524. For the royal charter on its construction, see: Additions to the Historical Acts. T. 1. No. 117. Journal of the Ministry of Public Education. St. Petersburg, 1857, February. The document on the division of the estate between the children of Irteg and his relative, Shurteg, dates back to 1579. Nowadays there is the village of Chusovskoye, hitherto called a monastery. The royal charter dated June 2, 1580 (Acts collected by the Archaeographic Expedition. Vol. 1. No. 305). Certificate of Patr. Job dated January 4, 1599 on the construction of the Epiphany Monastery in Slobodskoye (Acts collected by the Archaeographic Expedition. Vol. 1. No. 11). Here Tryphon is called the archimandrite and abbot of the Vyatka monastery. From this it is clear that Jonah was abandoned by the blessed one. Tryphon in the form of treasurer of the monastery and that after 1599 he obtained for himself the title of abbot. Journal of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1843. No. 4; 1844. No. 5. Vyatka diocesan statements. 1863. No. 15. Prayer singing in memory of St. cr. Stefan Dečanski. Belgrade, 1850. See about him: Athonite Patericon. Part 2. Antonin (Kapustin), archimandrite. Notes from a fan of the Holy Mountain. On Athos, the memory of the martyr is honored on October 20, the day of the transfer of the relics to Athos, and again on May 1 (Athos Patericon. Part 2). Discourse 13 on the Epistle to the Ephesians. St. Petersburg, 1858. Johannes Chrysostomus. Opera omnia / Opera et studio Bernardi de Montfaucon. 13 v. V. 1. The content of his other work - “Apology for Monasticism” - see: Filaret, Archbishop. Chernigovsky. Historical teaching about the Fathers of the Church. So says the blessed one. Theodorit (Theodorit, Cyrrhus. Church history. St. Petersburg, 1852. Book 3 (hereinafter - Theodorit, Cyrrhus. Church history. - Ed.)). Brief menology: “gave birth to that wonderful John, called Chrysostom.” This is not true. Chrysostom's mother was called Anthusa (Socrates Scholastic. Church history: In 7 books / Transl. SPbDA. SPb., 1850. Book 6). It is likely that the son of St. Publius was the John whom St. Meletius ordained Apamean bishop (Theodoret, Cyrrhus. Church history. Book 5). In the Slavic prologue on October 9, “come closer to marriage by giving birth to Theodore, the holy presbyter.” What does it mean? Nothing more than a scribe's error that went into print. Vasily’s menologist: “for a short time, bound by marriage, she gave birth to the most holy presbyter John.” Menologist Basil: “deaconess of the Church, in Syrian Antioch.” In the prologue: “Poplii servants” (SiaKoviaanv). Theodoret, Cyrrhus. Church history. Book 3. In Western martyrologies of St. Publius - abbess. St. Chrysostom in the word about St. Vavile. Julian followed the Epicurean Lucian, who spoke (in Philopatr.) about the ap. Paul: “When that Galilean, bald, with an aquiline nose, who ascended from earth to the third heaven, meets me.” Once Julian wrote to Artabia (Er. 7): “I swear by the gods, I did not kill the Galileans and do not want them to Theodoret, Cyrus. Church history. Book 3. The same in both menologues. Martyrology of Baronia on October 3: “In Antioch (death) of the holy abbess Publius; when the apostate Julian passed by, she sang David’s song with her virgins: make the tongue of silver and gold, so that those who create will be like them; By order of the emperor, they hit her on the cheeks and cursed her cruelly.” Both menologists on October 9th. Martyrology of Usuard multiplied under June 8: “Publication of the widow and abbess, about whom the sacramental story is in ch. 36 sixth book." Roman martyrology of Baronia on October 9. Georgy Pakhimer. The story of Michael and Andronikos Palaiologos / Ed. V.N. Karpova: In 13 books. SPb. 1862 (hereinafter referred to as Pachymer. The story of Michael and Andronikos Palaiologos. -Ed.). This message was found by Fr. Porfiry: Four conversations of Photius, His Holiness Archbishop of Constantinople, and the reasoning about them by Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky. St. Petersburg, 1864. Grigorovich V. Travel essay; Antonin (Kapustin), archimandrite. Notes from a fan of the Holy Mountain. Grigorovich rightly believes that the letter of the imp. Leo, inscribed in the zographic chrisovul c. Dushan, belongs to the monastery, which was later annexed to the Bulgarian Zograf; but it still remains unknown by whom and when Zograf was arranged for the Bulgarians. For Slavic manuscripts of Zograf and testimony of acts on the most ancient monasteries of Athos, see the same place. Letter to Zograf of the Bulgarian Tsar John Yasen, 1192; another charter of the Bulgarian Tsar Alexander in 1342, see: Avramovich. Description of Serbian antiquities. Athonite Patericon. Part 1. A special legend is published in the book: Nikon. Mental paradise: A beneficial word about the creation of the monastery of the Most Holy. Mother of God of Iveron and others on the Holy Lake / Ed. Valdai Iversky Monastery. B. m., 1659. Grigorovich (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey) indicates in the Hilandar manuscript the story of the ruin of Athos: but it is not known whether this is the same as what was printed in the Iveron Monastery. The humane deeds of the Latins on Mount Athos are also shown in the message of Protus to Vel. book Vasily Vasilyevich, written in 1445 (for example, in the 9th volume of the chronicle, occupied by the archaeographic commission, p. 31). It is said here about the Zographians that for their firmness in faith they were strangled by fire in the tower “and now the relics of those are consecrated by the imams.” The Vatopedi abbot urged his people to leave the monastery; the best obeyed him and left with the abbot; the stubborn remained and gave themselves over to the Latins; since they were anathematized by the abbot, after death their bodies lie black as coal. The time of the event is stated here in such a way that it was after the end of the power of the Latins over Constantinople. The confession was found and published by Fr. Porfiry: Four conversations of Photius, His Holiness Archbishop of Constantinople, and the reasoning about them by Archimandrite Porfiry Uspensky. St. Petersburg, 1864. After that, of course, they will no longer raise doubts against the devastation of Athos by papism in 1283, as Grigorovich (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey) and the admirer of the mountain (Antonin (Kapustin), archimandrite. Notes of an admirer of the Holy Mountain) had previously doubted. RKP. life of the blessed Andrey Totemsky. Nathanael, archimandrite Description of the Totemsky Spaso-Sumorin Monastery of St. Theodosius with the application of a view of the monastery. M., 1850. About St. Vassians see September 12; St. Maxim - January 16. In the RCP. Saints: “St. righteous Procopius of Ustyansky, wonderworker, like on Vaga; His relics were found in L. 7200 (1692)." Before the note about the Vologda saints, the relics of Procopius openly rest in the Ustyanskaya church of the Velsk district and were witnessed in 1696 and 1739 by the Kholmogory bishops; local memory of him on July 8 (Vologda Diocesan Gazette. 1864). Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. Description of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In the RKP. Saints: “St. Fathers Theophan and Pimen are fasters.” In Kalnofoysky: “St. Father Feofan is a faster.” Life of St. Maximilian, described in the 13th century by a Patavian presbyter, ed. int script. rerum austr. T. 1. and with Hansen’s explanations: Germania sacra. T. 1. Extracts from Weiss: Leben d. Heiligen; Leben u. Werken d. Heiligen. News of Strabo, Ptolemy, Livy, Pliny - from Chertkov (Chertkov A.D. Pelasgo-Thracian tribes that inhabited Italy. M., 1853); Thracian tribes in Italy (Vremennik of the Society of History and Antiquities. Book 16; Savelyev-Rostislavich N.V. Slavic collection. St. Petersburg, 1845). Dionysius Periegetes: “Noriki, Pannonians and Myses, living on the southern side of the Danube, all of Thracian origin, immigrants from northern Thrace; all the banks of the Istra, along its entire course, are inhabited only by Fraks.” Pope Gregory wrote to the bishop of Salon in 600: de slavorum gente, Haufler Joseph Vincentz. Sprachenkarte der osterreichischen Monarchie sammt erklarender Uebersicht. Pest, 1846. Part of the teaching, see: Sreznevsky I.I. Ancient monuments of writing and language of the southwestern Slavs // Christian antiquities and archeology. St. Petersburg, 1864. Henricus Canisius. Antiquae Lectiones, seu antiqua monumenta ad historiam mediae aetatis illustrandam. 6 volumes. Ingolstadt, 1601–1608. V.VI; in the life of Rupert: “St. Maximilian from the potion - perfectly ruled the Lerch church... He came home and here he loses his head.” In the additions to Usuardov’s martyrology, the Grevenian martyrology: “On October 12, Maximilian of Lerch, bishop and martyr, who under the emperor. Kara and Numerians received the crown of martyrdom.... then transferred by the Bavarian count to Potavia, he is highly revered.” Molano edition: “in Zele (Celenoe), which is in Pannonia, Maximilian, Lerch bishop and confessor; his body was transferred to Lerch by Rupert, the Bavarian apostle (590), who built many churches in his honor; Finally, the emperor moved it to Potavia (on the Drava River). Henry 2" (f 1024). Patrol. 124, 569. 570. Weiss. Leben d. Heiligen. V.VI; Martyrologia Adonis; Usuardi (Lat. Patrol. T 123. 124). Acta martyrum sincera; Weiss. Leben d. Heiligen zu 4 June. In the acts of the prefect of the first Pannonia, Amantius. In Prudentius: Hicsub Galerio duce, qui tunc illyricos sinus urgebat ditionibus. Since Illyria included both upper and lower Pannonia, Galerius was also the commander of Maximus; the latter, not having the right to the life of the defendant, sends him to Galerius. The prefect of Illyricum was called both Amancius and Galerius: two names for one person is a common thing. Hieronymo. Chronicon ad an. 310: “Kirin, the bishop of Sis, dies gloriously for Christ. For when he is thrown into the river with a millstone around his neck, he floats on the surface for a very long time, talks to the spectators so that they will not be afraid of his example, and barely reaches the point of being immersed through prayer.” Prosper in the Chronicle of St. Kirina: cum sociis gloriose pro Christo interficitur. In Jerome's martyrology, on the same day as St. Kirin in sabaria civitate Rustuli cum aliis duobus. Wiltsch. Handbuch der kirchlichen. On the state of Orthodoxy and papism in the coastal cities of the Adriatic: “Orthodox diocese in Dalmatia” (Serbo-Dalmatian store. Zagreb, for the summer of 1850). RKP. life of St. Dionisy Glushitsky. RKP. life of St. Dionysius. Image of St. Amphilochia, see: Christian Antiquities and Archaeology. Book 7. Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part III. To the synod. RKP. XVII century No. 610 except for the service to one St. Dionysius, general service to Dionysius and Amphilochius (Buslaev F.I. Historical essays of Russian literature. Vol. 2). RKP. life of Dionysius; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V. According to the RCP. Macarius reposed in the Saints on May 13th. In the calendar of the charter of the 16th century. (Tolstoy 1 No. 100) under May 13 “St. Macarius Glushitsky." RKP. life of St. Dionysius; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part III; RKP. Saints. Life of St. Paraskeva, described by Patr. Euthymius around 1385, published in the Glasnik (Book 8), but according to a list in which the sheets were interrupted, and the publisher did not bother to put them in order. List in Tsarsky No. 135. Slightly modified in St. Demetrius in the Chetya-Minea of ​​October 14th day. Wiltsch. Handbuch der kirchlichen. The legend: “I was exhausted by the scepter of the Greek kingdom, by the permission of God the Romans... the reigning city was forsaken, all the holy vessels were taken without cold, and also the honorable saints’ relics, all the church utensils and all the royal property and everything, just say, the beauty of the city. Let us let go of everything sweetly... To the pious Tsar of Bulgaria John Asen, the son of the old Tsar Asen, I am terrified of those barks, but even more so in time to find it safely, jump on the wicked hordes of bravery and all the Macedonian ripples and also Ser” and Ave. Macedonia and Thrace were taken away from the Latins and Greeks by Old Ash, and not by the son of Old Ash. The son finished his father’s work: he restored the Bulgarian nation, almost without using drastic measures (Stritteri. Viˆapsa. § 267, 274, 277–281). Prologue of October. 14. Church of St. Petki is now a mosque (V. Grigorovich. Travel sketch). In Tsarsky No. 135, “the legend of how the saint was brought to the glorious Serbian land was copied by Gregory Tsamblak.” In the list of Russian cities of the 14th century: “I will visit the country of the Danube, Trynov, where St. lies. Friday". Daskalov Khr. C. Discoveries in the ancient capital of Bulgaria Ternova. Letter to O.M. Bodyansky. M., 1859; Grigorovich V. Travel essay. Patr. Nektarios (in replies to the papist Peter), listing the saints of modern times, writes: “we also know the new Paraskeva, honored with blessed celebrations throughout Bulgaria, but her body was transferred from Constantinople to Moldova and heals, as we ourselves saw, many.” Macarius (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Monuments of church antiquities of the Nizhny Novgorod province. St. Petersburg, 1857 (hereinafter referred to as Makariy (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Monuments of church antiquities of the Nizhny Novgorod province. -Ed.). Book Degree. Part 1. In 1343, St. Petersburg departed from the Pechersk Dionysian Monastery. Euthymius for the founding of a monastery in Suzdal; and before that time he lived with Dionysius, of course, for at least 8 years. Book Degree. Part 1; Collection l. 8, 20, 21. Nikon. l. 4, 38; Collection l. 8, 20. Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. V, approx. 31; Collection l. 8, 21, 22. Book Degree. Part 1; Nikon. l. 4, 52, 66–68; Collection l. 4, 73. Nikon. l. 4, 70, 71, 82, 83; Typogr. l. 140, 141; Collection l. 8, 30. Charter of the Patriarch in: Historical Acts. T. 1. No. 251. “Great Prince - release Dionysius on the word that he should not go to Constantinople, but wait until the year of the Mitya Metropolis.” If Dionysius promised only not to prevent Mityai from receiving rank in Constantinople, then he did not change this word either. Book Degree. Part 1. One copy of the horse of Hodegetria was sent by Dionysius to the Nizhny Novgorod Spassky Cathedral, where it is still preserved (Makariy (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Monuments of Church Antiquities of the Nizhny Novgorod Province). Historical acts. T. 1. No. 251. Historical acts. T. 1. No. 252. Letter to the Novgorodians in: Acta Patriarch of Constantinople / Ed. Mikbskh. Vindobon., 1860. T. 2 (hereinafter – Acta Patriarch of Constantinople. – Ed.). Collection l. 3, 93; 4, 83; Nikon. l. 4, 129–131, 299, 300; Book Degree. Part 1; Enlightener, or denunciation of the heresy of the Judaizers: The creation of our venerable father Joseph, abbot of Volotsk. Kazan, 1857 (hereinafter referred to as the Enlightener, or the denunciation of the heresy of the Judaizers. -Ed.). Historical acts. T. 1. No. 250. Nikon. l. 4, 141; Typogr. l. 18. Nikon. l. 4, 142, 144, 147, 148; Typogr. l. 184, 185; Collection l. 8, 48, 49; The conciliar act of 1389 by Kalachov (Kalachov N.V. Archive of historical and practical information relating to Russia: In 6 books. St. Petersburg, 1858–1869). By Sunday l. (Collected l. 8, 49) died on October 15, 6893 (1384). According to Lviv. l. 2, 186. “Then (6893) Metropolitan Dionysius reposed in Kyiv on October 25 and was laid in a cave.” The synodikon of the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersk Monastery says: “Reverend. Metropolitan Dionysius, who was also the Archbishop of Suzdal, and before that was the head of the Pechersk Monastery, reposed on the 15th day of October 6983, and his memory is on the 26th day of June.” Below is about him: “in memory of St. our father David (June 26) and for his repose on the 15th day of October - on both days serve as a cathedral and place a large stern on the brethren.” This was written down, of course, soon after the death of Dionysius. Typogr. l. 184, 185; Lviv. l. 2, 166: “...they say that even to this day he lies in the body”; “...they say that to this day it lies in the body” (The book is sedate. Part 1). Sunday l. (Collected l. 8, 49): “he was laid in the cave of Anthony and his body is still intact and incorruptible”; and below, under 1389, “lies in the Feodosieva cave.” In Sofia l. (5, 239) “was laid down in the cave of the Ontonians.” Now in the Theodosius Cave, St. Dionysius. Synodik of 1552 of the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersk Monastery “written in the Pechersk Monastery of the Ascension of Our Lord - and the Venerable Wonderworker Dionysius” (Makariy (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Monuments of Church Antiquities of the Nizhny Novgorod Province). Months of Lyubetsky. St. Petersburg, 1730; Vershinsky D.S. Monthsword. Memory of St. Dionysius, Archbishop. Suzdalsky, on June 26. Meletia canon, canto 9, troparion 2. Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. IV, approx. 103. For the words of the chronicles, see: Pogodin M.P. Research, remarks and lectures on Russian history. T.VI. Collection l. 3, 48. 49; 4, 177, 178; Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. III. Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. III, approx. 341. Collection l. 3, 54; 5, 182; The book is sedate. Part 1. “Wax bowls” - waxed bowls over painted wooden candles, where candles were placed. For examples of them, see: Antiquities of the Russian State. Dept. I. Tolstoy M. Shrines and antiquities of Pskov; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries. RKP. life of St. Anthony, written by the cellarer Cornelius, unfortunately, is not entirely clear: Cornelius, although he spoke about the monk in flowery and pretentious language, but not being able to master the matter, he speaks very darkly and with omissions of what is needed. Historical acts. T. V. Since his death, at the age of 85, followed in 1611, he was born in 1526, and at the time of his acceptance of the priesthood in 1556 he was 30 years old. According to the senior list of saints: “St. Anthony, abbot of the Ivetsky Monastery, also near Staraya Rusaya, on Leokhnov, was in the summer of October 6900 on the 17th day.” Otensky calendar: “St. Anthony of Leokhnovsky, beyond Lake Ilmen in the Leokhnovaya Hermitage, reposed in the summer of 7100, 50 miles from Novgorod; relics hidden; there is no service, there is a troparion and kontakion, the memory of October is on the 17th day.” Stone Church of St. Luke - on the Sofia side. Macarius (Mirolyubov), archimandrite. Archaeological description of church antiquities in Novgorod Part 1. Here is the death of St. Antonia is assigned to 1524; this is a mistake. Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V RKP. life; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V Soloviev P. Christian martyrs who suffered in the East. The description is compiled from the words of the confessor, Fr. Timofey. Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part IV. According to one list of calendars, the saint reposed on October 18, and according to another, on June 28. The first one is more trustworthy, based on other examples of proven accuracy of testimony. According to the Otensky list of saints, “St. Theophilus the Hermit in the Theophilus Hermitage, on the river. Sheloni, in the summer of 6904 (1395) of the month of October on 21 days, the relics are hidden, the troparion and kontakion are there. St. Jacob is the head of the Assumption Monastery on Shelon.” According to the senior list of saints “St. Fathers Jacob and Theophilus, Omuch, abbots of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary of the Konevsky Monastery, Bysha on Lake Ladoga in the summer of 6904 (1395) in the month of October on 21 days.” According to a note from 1580, “The Theophilus hermitage was open: 6 rubles were allocated for it. 3 altyns and 4 money” (Vremennik of the Society of History and Antiquities. Book 24). This indicates that even earlier than that time they began to honor the saint. Theophilus and Jacob. Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries. The story of the arrival of the Swedish king Gustav Adolf to the city of Pskov. St. Petersburg, 1858. The story of the siege of Pskov by Gustav was published in V volume. Collection. l. Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. History of the Principality of Pskov: In 4 hours. Kyiv, 1831. Part 3; Dictionary of Saints. Book spoken by Xenos. Du Sasche. Constantinopolis Christiana // Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrata. Venetia, 1729 (hereinafter – Du Sasche. Constantinopolis Christiana. – Ed.). It says here that the monastery was called either iovn tu KaiHga, or iovn KaXgsh^ (read: KaXXtâ), and it remains unresolved whether it was called Patr. Anthony, builder of the monastery, Anthony Cauleus after his monastery. Du Cange does not say whether the monastery of Callia was female or male. But Zosima says: “further away stands the convent of Povasilyas (read: Kavleas): there lies St. "Kalia squirrel." Book spoken by Xenos. This saint is not in Vershinsky’s “Mesyatseslov”. This is what the story about St. says. book Andrey in the RCP. Sergius Lavra (near Tsarsky No. 44; Description of the Rumyantsev Museum. No. 371). RKP. story about St. book Andrea; Book Degree. Part 2; Russian temporary book. Part 2. In the RKP. Rumyantseva No. 371 service block. to the prince. RKP. story about St. book Andrea; Book Degree. Part 2; Russian temporary book. Part 2. Dolgorukov P.V. Russian genealogy book. T. 1. According to the ancient pedigree (Vremennik of the Society of History and Antiquities. Book 10): “another son of Prince Konstantinov, Prince Theodore the Blind has a son Andrei Korobya; And Andrey’s son Theodore came to Tver.” It also says here that he led. book Simeon the Proud passed off as elder According to the Oten list, “he died in the summer of 6800,” i.e. 6898 (1390). Life of St. Job is described by his disciple, Dositheus. The “Wanderer” contains a biography of St. Job, compiled by St. Ev. Strumensky, but very poor (see: Strumensky E.S. Brief biography of the Monk Job, Abbot of Pochaev // Wanderer. 1864. Book 11). St. Job, who died in 1651, lived to be 100 years old and, therefore, entered the Ugornitsa monastery in 1561 and became a hieromonk in 1581. He took control of the Dubno monastery around 1588. In 1636, the Jesuits reached the point where 40 priests were expelled from their parishes by a tribunal verdict. Karashevich P.I. Essay on the history of the Orthodox Church in Volyn. St. Petersburg, 1855. Gorsky A.V., Nevostruev K.I. Description of manuscripts of the Synodal Library. Dept. II. Part 3. This is the same John of Vyshnevsky, who at the beginning of the union wrote letters from Athos to Little Russia to reinforce Orthodoxy (Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov. Review of Russian spiritual literature). According to Dosifei, the monk continued to manage the Dubno monastery for up to 20 years. If the administration began in 1586, then the end would have occurred in 1606. But it is incredible that the latter would have happened before the death of the prince. Constantine (1608) and it is very likely that the fanatic Janusz drove out the blessed one. Job from the Dubno monastery after the death of his father, in 1610 or 1611. The miracle of the icon of the Mother of God over the Tatars happened in 1607. Anna Goyskaya, in her entry in 1597, says: “on my estate near the village of Pochaev, for a long time there has been a stone church of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary; so that the praise of God would constantly be performed at that church, I intended to build a monastery there and give it fundush”; The monks of this monastery “should be of no other confession than that of the Greek Eastern Church.” Sigismund II, in a letter of 1554, confirmed the privilege given to the Assumption Pochaev Church in 1527 (Acts - in the Pochaev Monastery) Monks lived at the Assumption Church before Goyskaya, but from time to time they were dispersed by the Tatars. “Mount Pochaevskaya” (Pochaevsky convent, 1793): “later (after the return of the holy icon) the monks even had great care together with their abbot, the most honorable one, first in the mantle in the name of Job, and then in the schema, who is in the holy great angelic image, John Iron (his body is still in the cave, in the monastery here exists, rests incorruptibly) so that the stolen church things, especially phelons, beads, silver and gold, could be found, but it was not possible.” Hegumen of Pochaev in 1626 - John (see Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI). The act of reconciliation in the archives of the Pochaev monastery, see: Journal of the Ministry of Public Education. 1845. Book. 45. Mount Pochaevskaya. Pochaevsky convent, 1793. Christian reading. 1834. Part 1. Life of St. Dimitria is described in great detail and clearly in: Nechaev V.P. Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov. M., 1849. In 1710, Abbess Paraskeva Tuptalova bequeathed to the Kirilov Monastery “her fatherly courtyard, near St. Nicholas.” Abbot of Kirilov Innokenty of Monastyrsky in 1684 bought for the monastery a house with a garden in Podol, “near the Saltanovsky dance, where now (in 1684) Pan Savva Tuptalo, the Cossack centurion of Kiev, lingers.” At the non-parish Jordanian church, given in 1605 to the management of the Kirillov abbot Vasily Krasovsky, the nunnery was mentioned for the first time in the will of Metropolitan. Gideon in 1689 and his first abbess - Tuptalova. See: Kyiv Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 22. Author of the book “Irrigated Fleece” (Novgorod, 1678; Chernigov, 1680), which was attributed to both Lazar Baranovich and Lavrentiy Kreshchanovich (Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. Historical Dictionary of writers of the clergy of the Greek-Russian Church who were in Russia: In 2 vols. St. Petersburg, 1827. Vol. II) visible in the four verses of the preface: “hieromonk. Dimitry Savich." Tromonin K. Ya. Sights of Moscow. M., 1843–1845. Printed life of the saint with service; Description of the Rostov stauropegial first-class Spaso-Yakovlevsky Dimitriev Monastery and the Spassky Monastery assigned to it, which is on Peski. St. Petersburg, 1849. Revision of all the works of St. Demetrius, see: Filaret, Archbishop. Chernigovsky. Review of Russian spiritual literature. Book 1, § 250. For the investigative case, see: Description of the Rostov stauropegial first-class Spaso-Yakovlevsky Dimitrievsky Monastery and the Spassky Monastery assigned to it, which is on Peski. St. Petersburg, 1849. Du Sasche. Familiae Byzantinae // Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrata. Venetia, 1729. John the Faster. Message to a virgin devoted to God. About repentance, abstinence and virginity / Trans. D.S. Vershinsky // Christian reading. 1826. Part 24. Nikifor, Patr. Constantinople. A brief history since the reign of Mauritius // PG 100. Menologium ex ed. Basnagii ad 28 Octob. Minaea graeca Octob.; in Vershinsky’s “Mesyatseslov” it is omitted. Christian antiquities and archeology. Tetr. 8. “Robes of crosses,” that is, a priestly robe with crosses, polystavrion, as the inscription says; and in the picture Arseny is in a robe. The Tronoshsky late chronicler (Glasnik. Book 5) presents things as if the attack of the Hungarians, on the occasion of which Sava sent to look for a new place for the archbishopric, took place in the absence of Sava to the East and, however, during the theft of the First-Crown. This is confusion. Saint Sava went to the East after the death of the First Crowned. Meanwhile, neither under Rodoslav nor under Vladislav were any Hungarian attacks on Serbia visible; on the contrary, Vladislav took Srem from Hungary (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Nowadays the Pech Church is in honor of the Ascension of the Lord (Notes of the Geographical Society. T. XIII), but the original one was in honor of the apostles. Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. In the afterword to the six-day period. Exarch Theodore writes: “in the summer of 6771 (1263) - under the grandson of St. Simeon and under the son of the First Crowned King of Serbia, Stefan Urosh, under Archbishop Arseniy - a book was written with the command of “Dometian Hieromonk, then future confessor of his brotherhood of the Hilandar Lavra”” (Kalaidovich K.F. John, Exarch of Bulgaria. M., 1824). According to the synaxarion of Serblyak, he ruled the Church for 30 years (Glasnik. Book 6). Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. The thief Milyutin speaks about this in his letter. Prologue about her, Chetii-Minea, Greek. Minea October 29. Du Cange. Constantinopolis Christiana. The suffering of St. George, see the chronicle of the archaeographic commission. According to Glasnik (Book 11) in the Serbian RCP. “The Life of God-bearing Stephen, the lord of the scepter of the kingdom of all Serbian lands” by Milyutin. This life, with the replacement of Serbian expressions with Slavic ones, was published in Serblyak. It was written no earlier than 1360 and therefore is not without errors. The Chronicle (Glasnik. Book 5) shows Dragutin’s management in excellent form. He speaks about the relationship of the son to the father as follows: the Hungarian king Vladislav gave his daughter in marriage to Dragutin so that the father, after the marriage, would transfer control to his son Dragutin, and the condition was accepted by Urosh. When Uros did not fulfill the conditions and thought to transfer the throne to Milutin, the Hungarian king started the war, his army forced Uros to retire to the Serbian border, and the Serbian army passed to Dragutin. The time of death of Urosh in the chronicle is 1270 (Glasnik. Book 11, 5). On the coins, Dragutin appears as follows: the first-crowned Stefan gives Dragutin Stefan a banner with a star at the end; king without a crown, in a robe (Glasnik. Book 3). For Daniel’s words, see: Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. The Tronosha Chronicle (Glasnik. Book 5) also says that the king of Srem: a) built several canals; b) built the Rača monastery above the Drina, the Lovnica monastery, decorated with green marble, and a church in the Nevesinsky surroundings; c) his wife created after him the Tronoša monastery in the Jadar district; d) his sons built the Tamna monastery in the zvorniki district. Another chronicle (Safarik. Pamatky drevniho pisemnictvi) about Dragutin: “you are inflamed for the love of God and for Orthodoxy, to live a life pleasing to God, to love others, to honor the elders, to drink to the young, to fulfill all righteousness and truth, and by this fasting and prayer, depress your body.” Hilferding: “in the church (St. George’s Pillars) to the right of the door there was a tomb with the relics of King Dragutin, the monk of Theoktistus, the renovator of the monastery of St. George’s Pillars. They lay unharmed long after the monastery was abandoned, until the sacrilegious hand of some Novopazar Christians, the Znobichs, stole them for sale in parts” (Notes of the Geographical Society. Vol. XIII). “The Life of the Pious King Stephen of Srem, Monk Theoktistus” written by George the Grammar, in Serbian. RKP. It says here: “The end of this blessed month came to pass.” Martia on the 22nd day" (Glasnik. Book 11). Service of St. Milyutin in Serblyak glorifies both brothers of the kings and their mother Elena. Serbian companions No. 24. This agreement was renewed 5 years later by another charter, 1281 No. 31. According to his life, Milyutin “has been a ruler and autocrat since the year 1275.” See October 10th. The genealogy of Daniel, repeating the words of the letter, calls imp. Michael is a man of blood, a man of crafty faith (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Daniel does not add much to the news of the letter (see: Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Pachymer (Pachymer. The History of Michael and Andronikos Palaiologos. Book 2) and Nikephoros Gregoras (Nicephorus Gregoras. Roman History // Edited by Shalfeev. St. Petersburg, 1862) only in general terms point to these wars of Serbia: they were so pleasant to the Greek taste (Stritteri. Serbica. § 81, 85). The Greek notes that Michael's successor allowed the mercenary army to enter Serbia most of all out of fear that otherwise restless crowds could indulge in plunder in the empire. The life of Milutin: “rushing to the Serbian land, for the sake of captivity, - but rather scattering the Lord, I will hasten.” Daniel: “against so much multitude and strength, you have not done so much harm to the pious fatherland” (Athos Patericon. Part 1). Michael Paleologus “died suddenly at the end of 1283” (Pachymer. The story of Michael and Andronicus Palaiologos. Book 6, chapter 36). The life of Milyutin: “with his forces he went as far as Khvostno, not far from the Pech Patriarchate, which he wanted to capture” (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Zhdrelo is a vent, a narrow valley between parallel mountains through which a river flows, in the Pozheravichi district (Glasnik. Book 4). Rajic's guess about the time of the war against Kudelin and Dreman (2, 454) is incorrect; this war must be dated back to 1291; moreover, it is more than likely that these wealthy aristocrats of Dragutin acted on the suggestions of Shishman, who was jealous, as Daniil says, of Milyutin and, after their destruction, wanted to take possession of their inheritance. Hammer Purgstall J. Geschichte der Goldenen Horde in Kiptschak. Pesth, 1840. Tronosha Chronicle in Glasnik (Book 5). Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. About Novak Grebostrek from the Komnenov family, see: Glasnik. Book XII. The certificate was printed by Grigorovich (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey). She reached without end and therefore without a year. But since it talks about the war with Persia in 1303 and the king calls the emperor his father-in-law, it must be assumed that it was not written before 1304. About the time of the war with the Greeks Pachymer at Raich (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Gregoras and Pachymer (Stritteri. Serbica. § 83–91) fight with all their might to close, either with silence, or with elegant words and slander, the empire humiliated by Milutin. Their slander is too vulgar. However, Pachymer and Gregora’s anger at Milyutin is understandable. But it is strange that not only Reichel (Notes of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. Vol. I), but also Maikov (Maikov A.A. History of the Serbian language) repeats the slander of famous people about Milutin’s polygamy. Why is this so? They wander after Du Cange, while in Du Cange’s outdated work there are now errors on almost every line. Maikov even got entangled in contradictions: he either says that Milyutin married Elisabeth of Hungary, or he calls Dechansky, Elisabeth’s son, Milyutin’s illegitimate son. Maikov thinks that Milyutin, for political reasons, allowed himself to do things offensive to Christian morality. No, a sincere Christian king could not be so frivolous. The law of Christ is above all for him. And the policy that Maikov likes is the most unreliable policy, followed only by pathetic fools. Maikov is so strange that he writes: “Milyutin married the sister of Dragutin’s wife Ekaterina.” Why, not even a single priest would agree to officiate such a marriage, not just an Orthodox priest! The Serbian priest knew the law of the First Crowned, he also read the Bible. According to the ancient life of St. king, Catherine, the wife of Dragutin, was the daughter of the Hungarian king Vladislav, and Elisavsta, the wife of Milutin, was the daughter of Cor. Andrew the Venetian. (Serblyak l. 55). In addition to Tsamblak (Glasnik. Book 10), all chronicles call Dečanski the son from Milutinov’s first marriage, which took place in 1271 (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2; Glasnik. Book 10; 1; 5; 11). In the inscriptions above the wall images, Milyutin’s first wife is called Kralitsa Elena (Notes of the Geographical Society. Vol. XIII), but the wife of Tsar Dushan, sister of the Bulgarian Tsar Alexander, was also called Ragozna (see: Mavro Orbini. The book is a historiography of the beginning of the name, glory, and expansion of the Slavic people and their Kings and Rulers under many names and with many Kingdoms, Kingdoms, and Provinces. St. Petersburg, 1722), then Elena (in inscriptions and letters). The name Helen was the favorite name of the Slavic kings. Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. Betrothal Milyutin and Simonida were consummated by the Ohrid Archbishop Macarius in 1300, and the marriage was postponed until Simonida was of marriageable age (Pachymer. The Story of Michael and Andronikos Palaiologos. Book 4). Tsamblak in the life of Dečansky: “Yes, no one can praise me, this I hear, Stephen, and that worthy and shining one of our words of dishonor. Let there be no such placelessness. Such a father, as a pious and right champion of the faith with the light of the world, and as from that God, with the incorruptible relics we worship and kiss, the illumination is acceptable... We denounce the hedgehog’s agreement with the devil. And he is subject to a small penalty: having listened to that unmercifulness, he will hand over the first-born to the court” (Glasnik. Book 11). The same chronicle is in the Glasnik (Book 10). The life of Milyutin shows Milyutin to be right-wing and his son completely guilty. An awkward technique for a biographer! Lies don't make anyone look good. Milutinović (History of the Serbian people. Belgrade, 1833) writes: “if we judge impartially, it is clear that both father and son have sinned; the son because he raised his hand against his father, and the father because he did not free his son from the penalty of blinding.” Milutinovich supplements his court with the news that just as the son, not without reason, trusted the enemies of the Greek party, so the father fought against the intrigues of the same party - returning the Simonide brothers to their mother. Dečanski's opinions about Simonida's party were also justified by the events that followed Milutin's death. Blessed Milyutin, in relation to his son, was definitely carried away by the malicious slander of Simonides’ party. Such is the earthly holiness of people! Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2; Tronosha Chronicle in Glasnik (Book 5). Here, hostile relations towards Dubrovnik relate to the events that followed 1303. Venice sent ambassadors and a letter to Milutin in 1309 (Glasnik. Book 11). The pope's letters about the union were written in 1308 (Monumenta spectantia historiam slavorum meridionalium / Ed. Ljubic. Zagr., 1868; Historical Acts relating to Russia, extracted from foreign archives by A. I. Turgenev: In 2 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1841–1842. Vol. II (hereinafter referred to as Historical Acts, extracted from foreign archives. -Ed.) Who lied about Milyutin, as if he expressed a desire for union, as the pope wrote, whether the Raguzin ambassadors who delivered Milutin’s message to the pope, or along with them the papal college, which always conscientiously and humbly explained the courtesy of the sovereigns, remains unknown; him even in Ragusa - the double tax he imposed on the Ragusan papists was canceled only by Dushan (Tronosh. l. 67). Momirovich D. Brief history and geography of Serbia; Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2; Maikov A.A. History of the Serbian language. About Treskavica, Dusan’s letter: “his grandfather and parent visited with good alms” (Glasnik. Book 13). Chronicle: “The gold of Banya cannot be found anywhere” (Safarik. Pamatky drevniho pisemnictvi). Another chronicle (ibid): “St. hello. Chr. Stephen at the city of Zvečani, which is Banska, where his holy relics lie, and decorate all the walls with gold, as if they were poured or gilded in existence.” Tronosha Chronicle: “Many churches and hospitals were created in Prizren.” (Glasnik. Book 5). Life: “in its capital city of Prizren there is the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and many hospitals (erected).” Daniel: “creating the Church of the Assumption - as the bishopric of Prizren says” (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). In the deed of gift to Gračanica, King Milutin writes: “having seen the destruction and decline of the Church of the Holy Mother of God of Gračanica, the bishopric of Lipjana, I created it from the foundation, painted it, decorated it inside and out... Here I am Stefan the sinner, King Urosh the second, writing to her with chrysovul. These are the people who were called by Bishop Ignatius... In Suhogrel, who are inscribed in the chrysovule, I took and gave to St. Nicholas, the bishopric of Debra... The king gives lands according to his mercy, whether to the bishopric of Prizren or Liplyansky” (see: IORYAS. T. VII). Tronoš Chronicle: “a new six-trulled one (with six domes) on the reci Gračanica sozida” (Glasnik. Book 5). Life: “in the Kuchi region the church of St. great George with precious utensils." Daniel points out three more churches in Skopje - the Three-Handed Church, Tsar Constantine and Met. Nikita, in Serava - the Church of St. George, in Nagorichny - St. George, in Studenica - St. Joachim and Anna, in Orahovica - St. George. The Life also adds the church of God's wisdom in Sredets (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Felix Philipp Kanitz. Serbiens byzantinische Monumente. Vienna, 1862. Gelferding about the Sopočansky church, which was renewed. Milyutin: “on the outer wall of the bell tower there is a wonderful picture: some are cutting stone, others are kneading lime, others are carrying water; above one, which controls the work, it is written: “Vasta”; in another place the inscription “agonisate” - strive. Here are the costumes of the Serbian common people from the 13th century.” (Hilferding A. A trip to Herzegovina, Bosnia and Old Serbia // Notes of the Geographical Society. T. XIII (hereinafter - Hilferding A. A trip to Herzegovina, Bosnia and Old Serbia)). Safank. Pamatky drevniho pisemnictvi. In the Thessalonica monastery of St. Nicholas, the Serbs lived back in 1185, as can be seen from the words of Eustathius of Thessalonica (Tafel. De Thessalonica). Now in Thessaloniki the Church of St. Nicholas i. apxovtwv, i.e. the Serbian kings (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey). The “hospital house of the stolen” in Constantinople is also known from Greek manuscripts (Du Cange. Constantinopolis Christiana). In Var in 1319 in honor of St. Nicholas Milyutin arranged a silver icon of the saint with silver candlesticks (Glasnik. Book 7). In Kareya, the Gospel of 1316 with the postscript: “our lord Stefan the king, son of the great king Urosh, unuk of the first-crowned king Stefan Nemanja, who created many victories, commanded these books to be written under the archbishop Osmos Savva, by the hand of George the clerk Radoslav 6824 (1316)" (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey); four letters of Milyutin to Hilandar, see: Avramovich. Description of Serbian antiquities; Grigorovich V. Travel essay. Two in particular are remarkable (Avramovnch’s No. 2. 3). Here Milyutin says that he built a pier at Hilandar in Chrusia, large and strong, fenced with a wall, to protect Hilandar from sea robbers; inside the walls is the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and cells, of which one is for the king himself; the elder manager of the feast is elected from the Hilandar brethren by the general council, and is not removed from management without guilt; The village of Kutsevo with all its income is given in favor of the feast. The first charter of 1302. Life of Milyutin: “first of all, the Hilandar church, having destroyed it to its foundations, created and beautified a larger one.” The same Daniel (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Ranke L. History of Serbia according to Serbian sources / Transl. with him. Peter Bartenev. M., 1857. Raich's genealogy (History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2). Pachymer. The story of Michael and Andronikos Palaiologos; Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. The year of his death is determined by the accession of his son to the throne, which followed on January 6, 1321. Gregoras (Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2) also writes that cor. Milyutin died in 1320, having previously forced his father-in-law to send Simonida to him, who had not returned to him after the death of her mother. Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2; life of Milyutin. Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. In Gračanica there is a picture of him: an old king with a long gray beard. The same in the monastery of St. George's Pillars (Notes of the Geographical Society. T. XIII). Probably, a service to him was written at the same time, for October 30 (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey; Glasnik. Book 11; Tsarsky No. 563). The relics are still in Sofia... (Grigorovich V. Essay on the journey; Serblyak l. 57. 58). Chrysobul 1313 cor. Milyutin: “I enclose this to St. to the monastery of the Mother of God of Ritcha - Dubrovin... from Spis... which my lady Kralitsa Elena was looking for gave to my mother... she gave it and wrote it down" (Scientific Notes of the Academy. Vol. III). Raich. History of various Slavic peoples. Part 2. On the wall of the Sopochansky church is depicted “Sveta Elena the monk” (Notes of the Geographical Society. Vol. XIII). In the ancient Serbian manuscript (Glasnik. Book 11) “the life is pleasing to God and the life is immaculate, our pious and Christ-loving ladies, the blessed monks of Helena.”