Notes about Saint Tikhon from his cell attendants

Contents I. Notes of Chebotarev II. Notes of Ivan Efimov Appendix 1 Appendix 2. Memoirs of the priest. I. and D. Kirillov Although, under the title “Complete,” a description of the life in God of the late Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh, was published, and the biography writer made every possible effort, he could not write completely accurately, since he wrote from hearsay from people 2. I, poor one, began to live under that great man from the beginning of 1770, and I heard a lot from his holy lips that he spoke about his life even from the very beginning from infancy, in his free time, in his conversations, he told me about the adventures that happened to him. I was also a spectator of his lofty and adorned life with virtues. I'll show you everything below. These are precisely and truly his holy words: “When I began to remember myself, in the house with our mother (I don’t remember my father 3) there were four brothers and two sisters: the older brother held the position of sexton, the middle brother was taken into military service, and we were still small and lived in great poverty, so that we had daily food, and therefore our mother was in great sorrow about our upbringing. But in our parish there was a rich coachman, but there was no child; he often came to our house; I fell in love with him. He repeatedly asked his mother for me, and said this: give me your Timothy (for before he was tonsured a monk, he was called Timothy), I will raise him instead of a son, and all my property will be his. My mother, although she refused him - it’s a pity for her to give it to me - but the extreme lack of food forced my mother to give me to the coachman, and she, taking me by the hand, led me to him - I remember this well. The larger brother was not in the house at the time; but when he arrived, he asked his sister: “Where is mother?” She told him: “I took Tim to the coachman.” But the brother, having caught up with his mother on the road, knelt down in front of her and said: “Where are you taking your brother?!” After all, if you give it to the coachman, he will be the coachman; I’d rather go around the world with my bag, and not give my brother to the coachman. “We’ll try to teach him to read and write, then he can decide which church to become a sexton or sexton.” And so mother returned home. And since there was nothing to eat in the house, I used to harrow the rich man’s arable land all day long, so that only the rich man could feed him bread. This is the kind of need I was brought up in.” These holy words of his are accurate and true. But when a seminary was re-established in Novgorod and priestly-church-servant children were needed for it, my mother took me to Novgorod, and, having sent me to the seminary, she herself soon died there. And I began to continue my studies at the state kosht and suffered great need, due to the lack of what was necessary to support myself; and so it happened: when I receive government bread, I will keep half of it for food for myself, and sell the other half: I will buy a candle, sit on the stove with it and read a book; but the children of rich fathers, my fellow students, play, or find fireplaces, that is, scraps of bast shoes, and begin to laugh at me and wave them at me, saying: “We magnify you.” When I was ordained a suffragan bishop and arrived in Novgorod, they came to me, as usual, to receive a blessing, but I told them: “You, brothers, laughed at me when we were young children in the seminary, and, as said above, waved fires at me, now you will burn incense with censers”: at that time, some of them were priests and deacons. And they told me: “Forgive me, holy lord!” I told them: “I’m telling you jokingly, brothers.” Now I will declare how he was ordained a bishop, for this action took place by special providence, as I heard from his own holy lips. Here are his true exact words: “I never thought about this important rank, to be a bishop, but my thoughts were certainly to retire to a desert monastery somewhere, become a monk and lead a solitary life; but fate so pleases the Almighty that I am an unworthy bishop.” “When I was an archimandrite in Tver, present at the consistory and rector at the seminary, 4 on the day of Holy Easter I served liturgy with Bishop Athanasius in the cathedral. What happened? – As is the custom of the bishop’s service, during the Cherubim song, when the bishop himself took out particles of health from the altar, I approached the altar and said: remember me, holy lord! The bishop wanted to say: your sacred archimandriteship, but instead he said: may the Lord God remember your bishopric in His kingdom; he himself smiled and said to me: God grant you to be a bishop. I later learned that on that very day of Easter in St. Petersburg, the first synodal member, Metropolitan Dimitri Sechenov, cast lots together with Epiphanius, Bishop of Smolensk; seven candidate lots were written, and the Smolensk bishop said to the metropolitan: order the lot to be written for the Tver rector Tikhon. But Sechenov said: he is still young, time has not passed. However, write, he told the cell man. And my lot was the eighth. The lot was cast up to three times, but my lot was always taken out; that’s why the metropolitan said: “Well, God knows it’s so pleasing - for him to be a bishop: only I didn’t think of him in that direction.” What the Metropolitan himself later said to me: “I had the intention of transferring you to the Trinity Lavra as an archimandrite.” Just as the peasants were behind the monasteries, there was a monastery estate near the city of Tver, with a grove nearby, and the location of the place was beautiful and secluded. I had the intention of building a cell for myself in this grove for privacy. In my free time, in the spring, on Saturday, I was on this estate, and the peasants were building a bridge across a small river flowing, and I walked around and watched their work. I hear the bell ringing for Vespers in the cathedral; I ordered the carriage to be pawned for myself and went to the monastery at vespers; came to church and stood in his place. A watchman quickly came to me from the bishop and said: “Father Rector, please see His Eminence.” I told him: “When I listen to Vespers, I will immediately appear to His Eminence.” But the messenger did not have time to leave the monastery; at that same moment another watchman came and said to me: “Please go quickly.” And I, without finishing vespers, went to the bishop’s house; but, driving along the road, I felt both sadness and joy in my heart; for some were from the bishop’s house, such as the housekeeper and others, who were unkind to me, and I thought: were there any slander against me against the bishop. Upon arrival, I hurriedly entered his front cell and said to the cell man: “Please report to His Eminence that I have arrived.” But at that very moment the Eminence came out and said to me in greeting: “I humbly ask, Father Rector,” and immediately said: “I congratulate you as a bishop,” and gave me a synodal decree, and he himself began to cry: “I’m sorry,” he said, “to part with you.” “Don’t hesitate, hand over the monastery,” he tells me, “and go to St. Petersburg.” And I, having handed over the monastery, went (to St. Petersburg), where I was ordained a bishop 5; but he also soon went to Novgorod, for which a decree from the Synod was sent there, for the usual bishop’s honor, which was carried out there as it should, with a ringing sound. At this ceremony, a great crowd of city residents was present, since I was a student and student of the seminary there. What happened? Among the people, watching this ceremony, was my dear sister, who was widowed in extreme poverty and ate what she washed the floors of rich people in their mansions when she still lived in Valdai; but as I was appointed a teacher, I took her to Novgorod and kept her on my kosht. In the morning I sent a stroller for her, but when she arrived, she did not dare go up to my cell; I, opening the door, say to her: “Perhaps, sister”; and she, entering the cell, burst into tears; I tell her: “Why are you crying, sister?” “I’m crying,” he says, “out of great joy, brother; Remember in what poverty we were brought up under mother - what happened, over time, we were deprived of daily food; but now I see you in such a high rank! Yesterday I was among the people and saw how they met you!” I tell her: “Sister, you visit me more often, now you have something to come to me in, I have a service, horses and a carriage for you.” And she said: “Thank you, brother, but sometimes I get bored with your frequent visits.” “No, dear,” I told her, I will never miss your visit; I love and honor you from the bottom of my heart” (since she was a big sister to me). But upon my arrival in Novgorod, my sister lived for only one month and died; I myself buried her body. In the manner of the bishop's service, I venerated the holy icons, went to the coffin, opened the lid and overshadowed her body, and she seemed to smile at me. God alone knows that this has been imagined in my eyes (however, I am not speaking affirmatively about seven). I myself, traveling on the road to the burial, also the entire liturgy and burial, could hardly serve from the bitterest tears, and how I was beside myself with great pity; but only she (the sister) had a good life.” And what he (the saint) in his spiritual testament, by the way, wrote: “Thank God that He preserved me in times of disaster and death,” he told me about this: “When I was still a teacher, during a vacation, the archimandrite of the Alexander Monastery asked us, teachers, to visit him; so we went to him. Upon arrival at the monastery, I alone, out of curiosity, went to the bell tower to inspect the position of the place around the monastery, truly beautiful, and, without testing the railings, I leaned on them, and they suddenly fell to the ground, and as if someone pushed me back, I hit the bells on the floor with the back of my head and fell half-dead, I could barely come to my senses, and through great need I left the bell tower and was able to reach the archimandrites’ cell. But they began to tell me: “Why have you changed your face, Timofey Savelyevich? Look, brother, in the mirror, you look like a dead man.” I told them: “Give me a cup of tea, then I’ll tell you the reason for my change.” Having drunk tea, I led them to the bell tower, and looked at the railings, which lay in pieces. I told them: “In this place, I would be so broken.” “But also in Tver, when I was still an archimandrite, and in Voronezh, when I was already a diocesan bishop, I visited horses in cases of death” 6 . He told a wondrous vision about himself. “This happened before I was tonsured as a monk. When I was a teacher, I even then had the habit and loved to spend the night without sleep, and occupied myself either with reading soul-helping books or soul-saving thoughts. But I am telling you privately, and you must remain silent about this. In the month of May, the night was very pleasant, quiet and bright: I went out of the cell onto the porch, which was on the north side, and stood thinking about eternal bliss. Suddenly the heavens opened up and there was such radiance and lightness that it was impossible to say with a mortal tongue and understand with the mind; but only this was brief, and again the heavens became in their form, and from that wonderful phenomenon I had a more ardent desire in a solitary life; and for a long time after this vision I felt and admired my mind, and even now, when I remember, I feel in my heart a certain joy and joy.” Now I will announce about his saintly person, how he spent his life in his cell in the Mother of God Zadonsk Monastery 7, as well as about the godly deeds and labors he undertook; because I, poor thing, was a spectator of them. First: he always had the custom during the dinner table to listen to the reading of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, and I read it. But at the same time, it is also remarkable how great and ardent his love for God was. He rarely ate without touching tears, and even more so when they read the book of Isaiah the prophet; sometimes he will order: read this chapter again; he himself, putting down the spoon, will begin to cry. But at the same time, this is also remarkable, what sincere love he had for his neighbors: almost every day, when he sat down at the table, he usually said: “Glory to God; This is what good food I have, and my brethren—some, poor, sit in prison, and others have needy food, and others eat without salt, and will say: “But woe to me, the accursed!” In the evening, I read the New Testament, but it happened for so long that he asked: “Do you understand what you are reading?” - You will say: “No, I cannot understand this”; and he will say: “I’ll explain it to you.” Sometimes it takes an hour or more to explain. He had a habit of spending his nights without sleep, and went to bed at dawn. His exercise was prayers with bows at night, but at the same time his prayers were not cold, but the most ardent ones, coming from a contrite heart, so that sometimes he cried out loudly: Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy! and he added: Have mercy on the Breadwinner! He himself hit the floor with his head; yet this happened in him from great inner fervor and love for God. But also at midnight he went out into the front cell and sang the holy psalms quietly and tenderly. It’s remarkable that when he was in dark thoughts, then he sang a psalm: it is good for me, for you have humbled me, and so on. When in deep thoughts, I sang the psalm: Praise the Lord from heaven, and other comforting psalms, and always with tender tears and heartfelt sighing. After the dinner table he had a short rest, an hour, sometimes more; getting up, he read the lives of the saints and other books; In the summer, he walked in the monastery garden and behind the monastery; in case of extreme need for him, he ordered: “When you have an urgent need for me, cough before you reach me so that I look back.” That's what I did. But one day it happened when he was in the garden, I, not approaching him, coughed a lot, but he was in such deep thought that he did not feel anything, he himself stood on his knees facing the east, with his hands raised to the heavens. I came up and said: Your Eminence! He was so frightened, he even began to sweat, which is why he said to me: “Behold, my heart is trembling like a dove; after all, I told you a long time ago that you should cough before reaching me”; you will say that I coughed, but: “I didn’t hear,” he will say. He never went or traveled anywhere without a psalter, but he always had it with him in his bosom, for it was small, and finally he read it all by heart; He blessed me with it. On the way to where he was leaving, he always read the psalter and sometimes sang loudly, and showed me, or what text he would explain. Every day he went to the liturgy and sang in the choir, and rarely sang without tears. And so to speak, he had a special gift of God’s tears; two sources always flowed from his eyes. Rarely, rarely will he smile at something and at that very moment say: “Lord, forgive me; I have sinned before You, accursed one.” He was very wary of idle talk, but his conversations were usually always about eternal torment and eternal bliss, also generally about vices and Christian virtues. He had a naturally acute memory, so that he had all the Holy Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, in his memory, and when he began to talk about any matter, he always cited texts from the Holy Scriptures as evidence, in which book and in which chapter he spoke; also from the lives of the holy fathers he spoke decent material. He spoke little and rarely about secular affairs, except with nobles about military actions, and even then he rarely spoke, but his first conversations were about eternity. When temptation came over him, he used to say: “I don’t know what to do with myself, brother; or don’t you feel that there is a stench in the cell”? You say: “I don’t feel it.” He will say: “Take some tar and pour it on the floor,” for he loved the smell of tar. Or he will say: “Let’s go to Lipovka.” This village is 15 versts from Zadonsk, Messrs. Bekhteevs; there was also a manor house; The gentlemen themselves did not live there. From time to time he went there and lived there for two months or more, where I and the cook were with him. In this village there was only one priest, and services in the church were held only on Sundays and holidays, but on ordinary days the Right Reverend himself celebrated vespers, matins and hours in the house, and I was the only one with him and read. He went to the Tolshevsky Monastery twice, namely: in 1771 and 1776; I was the only one there with him, because I, poor thing, took care of all his cell needs. He was there to live and end his life forever; but the water there was rotten and the whole place near the monastery was swampy, which made him feel very weak. More than once he used to say to me: “Here it’s like a monastery, the most monastic and secluded life here. Oh! “- he will say, “if it weren’t for the water here being so rotten, I would never have thought of living in another monastery, I’m telling you the truth.” He always had calmer thoughts there and was always more cheerful. For the liturgy and for evening singing, he went to church every day and sang in the choir, and on Sundays, on holidays and throughout Bright Week, he went to the meal and ate with the monks (and in the Zadonsky Monastery he did not eat at the meal even once). In the Tolshevsky monastery, at midnight, one walked around the church and in front of all the doors, kneeling, prayed and shed hot tears, of which I was also a spectator. If you listen, he sometimes reads: “Glory to God in the highest,” and so on, as well as the holy psalms. In front of the western doors, he painted for half an hour or more and returned with quick steps to his cell. There he was in great labor, for at times he himself chopped wood; will order me: “Sharpen the ax well and bring me your mittens, I’ll chop wood for my stove, maybe I’ll bleed myself, maybe I’ll be healthier.” One day he was walking outside the monastery, and when he came to his cell, he told me: “I found a log lying in the forest, from which two or more cartloads of firewood will be made; take an ax, let’s go and split it up, otherwise we, brother, are buying firewood.” We went into the forest and started stabbing; he undressed and injected in only his shirt, and said to me: “I was so tired, I even wanted to drink; Perhaps go to the monastery and bring some kvass.” So he set an example for me to work hard. He was never as offended by anything as when he came to us in Zadonsk and found us idle. He often told us: “He who lives in idleness sins continually.” He himself was never idle: in the morning, before mass, he wrote soul-saving books, which now exist in the world, and are used by many who seek spiritual salvation; and I recognized some who, from reading his books, despised the vanity of this world, took up their cross and followed the footsteps of Christ. Oh, how many people thirsting for eternal salvation have been watered by this spiritual stream in this short life! But even after his repose into blissful eternity, he will give him to drink with his soul-helping compositions. His love was unfeigned in everything: he said that at times in my thoughts I felt that I would hug and kiss all people, and sometimes I felt disgusted with everyone; I often felt this temptation. He always had thoughts of solitude and a desert life, which he often said: “If it were possible, I would give up this dignity, and not only the dignity, but also the hood and cassock, and would say about myself that I am a simple peasant, and would go to the most deserted monastery and use it for work, such as: chopping wood, carrying water, sowing flour, baking bread. etc.; but the trouble is that we can’t do this in Russia.” He also often said about Mount Athos: “There, many of our brothers, bishops, having left their dioceses, live in monasteries in solitude.” When Greek archimandrites visited him from Mount Athos while passing through, he talked with them a lot about their monasteries and monastic life and listened to them with great attention; when they left him, he would bless them and say: “Farewell, beloved, here is my low bow to the holy fathers living in Mount Athos; and I ask you to earnestly ask them to remember my damnation in their holy prayers.” I will also tell you about his non-covetous cell life, for (he had only the most necessary and necessary things. He had a bed - a carpet sent, and two pillows; he did not have a blanket, but a sheepskin coat, covered with a Chinese shirt; he girded himself with a belt; he also had only one cassock, but that was a cloth one; he wore cats and stockings thick woolen ones, which he tied with belts, and for two winters he wore bast shoes, but he only walked in his cell, and he would say: “This is how easy it is for his feet to walk in bast shoes”; when he went to mass, or the guests came, he took them off and put on his boots; his rosary was the simplest, with a belt. vagina, but only a leather kitty, and it was old, and wherever he went, he took it with him, and put books and a comb in it. That’s all his outfit and decoration. True, the Right Reverend Tikhon gave him a silk damask cassock for a long time and took it only after a convincing request. What was also remarkable about him was that he was very careful so that his mind would not be attached to any temporary and perishable thing: he would come from mass, usually take off his cassock, start folding it, and he would take it from my hands and, throwing it on the floor, say: “This is nonsense, brother; Let’s get to the table quickly, I’m hungry.” In his cell there was no decoration or decoration, except for holy paintings depicting the passion of our Savior and so on, but everything corresponded to his humility and non-covetousness. He was hypochondriacal in build and had some choleric in him. Sometimes he would give me a strict and correct reprimand, but soon he would come to repentance and regret: after half an hour he would call me to his place and give me either a scarf, or a cap, or something else, and say: “Take it for yourself”: with which he gave a sign of approval and consolation. For three summers he had a horse and a one-horse, given by the Bekhteevs, on which, after dinner and rest, he rode into the field, sometimes into the forest; I always traveled with him alone. “Go,” he will say, “put down the one-wheeler, let’s go for a ride; Take a cup and a scythe with you, let’s cut the old man’s grass (for the horse was very old), and we’ll also drink some water there.” On the way, he said everything, either he would take matter from the grass, or from the Holy Scriptures he explained what texts to me, and he tilted everything into eternity. His trip was mostly along the patriarchal road, which lies up the Don River; sometimes they went to the forest, where in the clearings they cut the grass themselves, and he would order me to rake, and say: “Put it in the one-wheeler, it’s good for the old man for the night.” Sometimes he drove to the source, which was about ten miles away from Zadonsk, on the banks of the Don River; We used to drink water there too: he loved this source, for the water in it was very clean; He used to walk around him and say: “Let’s go back to the monastery.” The cassock monk Theophanes lived at his cell; he was already 70 years old. He was one of the peasants and did not know how to read and write, but he had the character of a very simple peasant. But the Reverend loved him so much that he rarely ate without him. The old man had the lowest handicrafts, tailoring and weaving bast shoes. When the Eminence was in dark thoughts, that is, in temptation, then this elder took advantage of him a lot with simple village conversations, for he treated and talked with simple villagers, the same way with his Eminence, and did not call the Eminence anything other than bachka. From such conversations, the Right Reverend felt a change in his thoughts and was calmer, and afterward he said about him: “Theophan is my joy, I am very pleased with him; for this I praise him: first, for his simple-heartedness, second, because he is never idle, but always exercises himself in blessed labors.” Truly, the elder, in his life, was worthy of praise. The Eminence spoke to him almost daily with these words: “Theophan, it’s time, it’s time to go to the fatherland; I am already truly bored with this life, I would be glad to die blissfully even now, if only not to be deprived of eternal bliss; - and he will say: - poor, damned we! Now God’s chosen ones rejoice and are glad, and will rejoice for endless ages, but we, strangers and strangers, in this short life, are in misery and worried.” “There,” Feofan will say, “how one must always mentally strive, so as not to lose being participants with them!” Theophanes, let the world love the worldly things, but we will certainly always strive to reach the heavenly things. That’s it, Feofanushka!” This is how he ends. His first thoughts and conversations were always about death, which is why he painted a picture in which he depicts an old man decorated with gray hair, lying in a coffin, in a black robe; the picture was nailed to the wall at his feet; Right next to the bed stood a wooden lectern with books on it. He often looked at this picture, and from the depths of his heart he would sigh and say: “Tell me, Lord, my death, and the number of my days is, but I understand that I am deprived.” He often sang this text both day and night, sitting and walking, always with tender tears and heartfelt sighs. I will now announce his merciful and merciful deeds. He willingly listened to the voice of those crying out to him: he nourished the orphans and the helpless, he was merciful to poverty and squalor, in a word, he gave away everything, such as: money that he received from the treasury 8 and that the elders of the Don Cossacks brought to him; also from the cities of Voronezh and Ostrogozhsk, nobles and rich merchants sent a considerable amount of money, but he gave away not only money, but also the linen itself, and all that remained was what he had on himself, and the bread that the benevolent gentlemen of the landowners sent, but even that was still not enough: he bought more and distributed. The poor and needy received both clothes and shoes from him, for which he bought fur coats, caftans, linen, and bought huts for others, cattle for others, such as horses, cows, and supplied them with them. Not only that, he even borrowed money. When he has distributed everything, he will tell me: “Perhaps go to Yelets and borrow money from such and such a merchant; I will give it to him when I receive it from the treasury, but now I have nothing; So my poor brothers and sisters come to me and leave without consolation, I feel sorry even to look at them.” Sometimes it happened that he would refuse a poor man who came, but only asked where and what kind of person he was from: the next day he would come to regret, call me and say: “Yesterday I refused such and such a poor man, take the money, perhaps, take it to him; So, perhaps, we can console him.” And all the poor people who came to him had a very convenient attack. His humility was amazing: among the villagers who came, he seated the old ones with him and talked to them kindly and a lot about their rural life, and, having provided them with what they needed, he sent them away joyful. Also, near the monastery, living economically poor peasants, and especially widows and orphans, he supported them on his kosht, and paid capitation and other government taxes for them, fed them with bread and clothed them, in a word, helped them in all their needs 9 . It was remarkable: on which day he had more poor people come to him, and when he gave out more money and other things, that evening he was more cheerful and joyful; on which day there was little or no one, on that day he was sad. I will boldly say: according to Job, he was blind in eye and lame in foot; his doors were always open to all the poor, beggars and strange people who came; They found food, drink and peace of mind ready with him. He taught the small children of economic peasants to go to mass, and with what? When he leaves church, they all follow him; He will enter the front cell, and they will follow him, make three bows to the ground, unanimously and loudly say: Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee! And he will say to them: “Children, where is our God”? They will also unanimously and loudly say: “Our God is in heaven and on earth!” “That’s good, children,” and he would pat everyone on the head with his hand, give them a kopeck and a piece of white bread, and in the summer he would give them an apple. When, due to the weakness of his health, he did not attend mass, the children will come to church, look - his Eminence is not in the church, and they will leave; when I come to him from mass, he will ask: “Were there any children at mass?” You will say that they entered the church, saw that your Eminence was not in the church, and went home. He will smile and say: “This is a problem: they, the poor, go to mass for bread and kopecks. Why didn't you bring them to me? I am very glad that they go to mass.” Also, passers-by going to work, peasants, in case one of them fell ill on the road, found a calm refuge with him. He himself calmed them down, even brought them his own pillow and cap, and ordered them to prepare tender food for them, gave them tea two or three times a day, sat next to them for an hour or more, consoled and encouraged them with pleasant and sensible conversations. Some of them died: he had Christian and compassionate care for them, in order to admonish the sick with the Holy Mysteries, in such cases he himself was present and attended the burial, and ordered me and the cook to dig the grave. And those who recovered went on their way with rewards, where they should go. In 1768, an unfortunate incident occurred in the city of Livnakh: there was a great fire. The Eminence did not leave to help the victims: he sent schemamonk Mitrofan there with money, who distributed it there. Another year, the same accident happened in the city of Yelets. The Right Reverend, moved by his usual compassion, showed mercy and went to the cities of Voronezh and Ostrogozhsk to ask money from his benefactors to build new houses for the burned people, with which he helped them a lot. Nor did he leave those in prison to visit; in the city of Yelets, he deigned to personally visit the prison twice with his own person and consoled the prisoners sitting in custody with useful instructions, supplied them with money and other things; and when the city of Zadonsk was re-established and there was a dungeon there, in which the prisoners were kept in custody, he kept them on his kosht. In the city of Yelets he had a sincere friend, the patron of the Church of the Intercession, Kozma Ignatievich Studenikin, who spent his life celibate. The Right Reverend had special favor and great confidence in him until his very blessed death; He always entrusted him with money to distribute to widows and orphans, and he also ransomed debtors in custody on bills and other claims from creditors and released them. His generous mercies extended not only to those living nearby, but also to distant countries, such as Novgorod, Valdai and his homeland, the village of Korotsk. At one time, in the month of May, he says to me: “In the Acts of the Apostles it is written that in Antioch the leading Christians collected alms and sent them to Jerusalem to the poor Christians: then I also want to send you to Korotsk to my brother Euthymius with money, for there, in our side, very poor people live; You and your brother are there together and distribute, and you will receive a reward from God for your obedience.” And so I set off with a considerable amount of money; Of these, I was ordered to give his brother Euthymius five rubles, and his other brother Peter, who lived in Novgorod, ten rubles, which I carried out on his orders. Upon returning from Korotsk to Zadonsk, I lived with him for only two weeks and again he sent me to St. Petersburg on foot, not for his own needs, but out of his good and merciful regret, for the church widow of an old woman whose two sons were innocently given into military service by Bishop Tikhon the 2nd. Moved by pity for the innocent, the Right Reverend sent me particular letters to the synodal members, and there was also a request from the old woman, which I submitted to the synod, and I also gave the letters to those who should have received them. The bishop's request was respected and the widow's sons were returned from military service and were still appointed as church clerks. Then I was again sent from him with money to Novgorod and Korotsk, where, together with my brothers, the money was distributed to the poor. In 1772, he again sent me to my brother in Korotsk with money to distribute to the poor, and in 1774 to St. Petersburg with money and again to distribute to the poor, and he ordered the brothers to give no more than five rubles each, and told me: “Let the brothers work themselves, but don’t rely on me: the more money you give them, the more they will indulge.” When he sent me on the road, he will order me to close the cell door, he will kneel, he will also order me to kneel, and he will read the psalm: God, attend to my help to the end, then it is worthy to eat and take a short leave, then he will bless you, kiss you on the mouth and on the head and say: “May your guardian angel travel with you. So I command you: you, brother, as you walk along the road, read the holy psalms, and also the prayers that you know; and that will make it more fun for you to walk along the road.” I will tell you about his marvelous and generous patience: what insults he suffered from the heads of the monastery, as well as from some monks who were upset by the lives of some monks, but he tried to overcome evil with good. The head of the monastery, going to visit noble houses and getting drunk there, said about his saintly person: “He lives in the monastery worse than a monk with me”; Sometimes such words reached the Reverend, but he would just say to me: “Take a head of sugar, take it to the boss, or a barrel of grape wine or something else,” and he would say: “He, perhaps, doesn’t have this” 10. The monks who annoyed him over time became sick: he visited them two or three times every day, consoled and encouraged them with his prudent and soul-helping conversations, and also provided them with food and drink. Even from the monastery servants he had to endure a lot. Sometimes he walks around the monastery, and the monastery servants, going about their work, laugh after the Right Reverend; he doesn’t seem to hear anything, but then he will say: “God so pleases that the ministers laugh at me; Yes, I am worthy of this for my sins, but this is not enough”; however, he will smile and say: “Well, how long will it take me to offend them? Yes, not only them, but also the boss, I would soon take revenge, but I don’t want to take revenge on anyone: forgiveness is better than revenge” 11. He did a lot of charity to these servants: he helped them with bread, money and other things; This is how he took revenge on his insults and insults, according to the apostolic word: if your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; 12 he did exactly this. He repeatedly attempted to leave the Zadonsk Monastery for the Novgorod diocese, for which he wrote a request to the appropriate place. At one time I was outside the monastery gates; Monk Aaron also went there. I told him that our Eminence had laid down an urgent intention to leave here for the Novgorod diocese; and Father Aaron said to me: “Why are you mad? The Mother of God does not order him to leave here.” The monk Aaron was highly revered by the Eminence for his strict, ascetic life. Afterwards I told the Reverend that I had spoken to Fr. Aaron, and the Eminence asked me: “Did Fr. Aaron such words? I said that's exactly what I said. “Well, then I won’t leave from here,” said the bishop; took the request and tore it up. He often said: “I would certainly leave here, but I feel sorry for leaving the city of Yelets: I really love the residents of Yelets and notice that there are many beneficent people in it, and it’s as if I was born in it.” He especially favored the house of the Yelets merchant Grigory Feodorovich Rostovtsev, who was a temperate and pious husband. The Right Reverend often spoke about his house in exact words: “We, Chernets, need to learn a virtuous life from the house of Grigory Feodorovich Rostovtsev.” Grigory Feodorovich had two sons, Dimitri and Mikhail, who lived a celibate life. The Right Reverend entrusted Demetrius with selling the silk materials given to him for robes, etc., and also what needs arose for the cell; he also bought for the Right Reverend, for the Right Reverend had a special power of attorney for him, and was very happy when he came to him, and talked a lot with him about the office of Christian life; when he came to Yelets, he sometimes stayed in the cell of Dimitri Grigorievich, who spent his cell life. In 1779, when His Eminence was in Yelets for the last time, he lodged in his own cell. The Eminence was then already extremely weakened in health and therefore could no longer talk with visiting citizens; and on previous visits, being healthy, he talked a lot with them and rejoiced that citizens flocked to him and sought soul-saving instructions from him. They, as a sign of their zeal for His Eminence, brought him fish, bread, etc.; he accepted, but sent everything to those in prison, and left nothing for himself, but would only say to me: “Take some rolls for the road, but I don’t need anything.” In the same year, 1779, in the last days of December, nobles arrived from Voronezh to re-establish the city of Zadonsk. On the day of the Nativity of Christ, the Right Reverend was in church for the last time in 1779 at the liturgy. After reading the Apostle and the Gospel, I approached him to receive a blessing. He blessed me and said to me: “Go ahead of me and clear the way for me” (for there was great crowding in the church). I went ahead of him; he went out to the porch and said to me: “Stay here”; and he himself went behind the church to the north side and was there for a quarter of an hour (he had never left the church before), then he went back to the church and told me to go ahead. At the end of the mass, the nobles came up to receive the blessing; he blessed them all, but he was then in a very sad state. Upon arriving from the church in the hallway, he says to me: “Lock the doors; if the nobles come, tell them that the Reverend is in very poor health.” They came, and I told them so, on his orders, they went away. From that time on, he did not go out to church or go anywhere and did not go anywhere until his blessed death, but only went out onto the back porch: he would stand or sit for a while; and he no longer allowed anyone in, except a very familiar and spiritual person, and then only for a short time, since he was in deep silence, unless he said the most necessary and necessary things. Before, when I read the Holy Scripture to him, he explained a lot to me, but at this time he only listened and was silent: you read ten chapters, he will say: “That’s enough, thank you, go yourself,” - that’s all you will hear from him. Repeatedly he used to say: “I hear from many: why did I leave the diocese and go to a cell. Here is the reason for my solitude: first, the weakness of my health did not allow me to govern the diocese; second, the episcopal omophorion, which bishops wear on their shoulders, is very heavy: I can neither lift nor carry it; besides, I don’t even have such strength: let the strong carry it. This is the reason for my solitude." This great man, adorned with his life and virtues, the Right Reverend Tikhon, reposed into eternal rest on the 13th day of August 1783. I wrote this not for others, but for myself, in order to remember his hardworking and godly life and to achieve eternal bliss through the same feat. Amen. II. Notes of Ivan Efimov 13 Saint Tikhon asked the Lord God to notify the end of his life, and there was a voice to him: “The end of your life will be on a weekday,” 14 which he privately, in secret, revealed to a certain person, his favorite. The body of the deceased saint, according to his special cell will, was dressed in a black dyed cassock and cassock that he himself had long ago prepared; girded with a belt made of black leather, with copper plaques, with which he always girded himself in his stomach; on top of this is a small bishop's vestment, an old epitrachelion, a mantle, a panagia, an omophorion and on the head a kamilavka with a hood. All this was his own, and he also prepared the coffin four or five years before his death; it was upholstered in black flannel, and on the top of the deck covering that coffin was a cross made of white thread braid. At this coffin, which lay in a closet near the back bedroom (about which, like those dyed clothes, no one was ignorant, except for the one closest to his cell), often looking every day, with considerable feelings he mourned the fall of the first man and the entire human race, imagining man as a rational creature, and often said to those who served with him as a moral lesson: “What has man brought himself to, like cattle is equal burrows into the ground, having been created by God blameless and immortal.” According to this imagination, with crying and sobbing and a strong cry, he went into a secluded cell and his voice was heard, like the voice of those crying for the dead; then he will delve deeper into thinking about a double eternity, happy and unhappy, sitting more on the bed; it so happened that when the cell attendant, who was not always allowed to have access to him, came up to him, then from his deepening, the bishop seemed not to see or hear the person who had entered; he sits and holds his forehead with his right hand and, as if in a dream, he feels that they have come to him - about which later, being in doubt, he called that cell attendant and asked: “Did someone come to me at such and such a time”? Some time before his death, he decided to explain his will regarding vestments to the diocesan bishop Tikhon III, who, although he observed his will, ordered the cell minister to carry out everything, and everything was done. And in this simple robe his body lay on the table in the large hall. But, out of his love and reverence for his antecessor, the same bishop sent the full bishop’s vestment, good, with a miter, in which the body of St. Tikhon was clothed by the monastery’s holy hieromonks and other clergy. Then the first small vestment and the dyed cassock were taken off, but the same cassock remained on his holy body. To the surprise of many, the clothes were removed from the five-day-old deceased as if he were alive; his arms spread out like those of a living person, and his whole body was not ossified until the burial. After he was dressed in the full bishop's robe, his body was placed in a coffin made by the zealous merchants of Yelets (at dusk, the coffin prepared by the saint himself turned out to be small); the coffin was upholstered in black corduroy and tinsel white braid. Although in his will, St. Tikhon, it was prescribed in what place his body should be buried, it was verbally ordered that he should be laid on the midday side when going to church, near the porch threshold, under a stone - and that stone was prepared by himself several years before the death of the saint - so that everyone would walk through that stone placed over his body when going to church. prayer 15. But His Eminence Tikhon III, out of his reverence and respect for such a saint, decided to place his body under the altar. Regarding his works. As I heard from his lips, and according to my remark, when I wrote something from him, his word sometimes flowed from his lips so quickly that I did not have time to write. And when the Holy Spirit was not so active in him, then because of his insufficient thoughts, or from thoughtfulness, he sent me to his cell, and he himself, kneeling, and sometimes stretched out in the shape of a cross, prayed with tears to God for the sending down of the All-Effective. Having called But again, he would begin to speak at such length that I sometimes did not have time to move my hand with my pen. He was a great lover of Holy Scripture: at the appointed hours, he always read something from the Old Testament, and especially from the prophetic books; and I read the New Testament at night, either myself or through the cell attendant. Although I wrote with him in the evenings by the light of the fire, but more in the morning hours, before the late liturgy. Even while he was eating lunch food, the cell man always read to him something from the Old Testament, and especially Isaiah the Prophet: in the evenings, sometimes he himself read from the Fourth Menaion or the Holy Fathers. Here I heard from him many times about the New Testament, that if the temptation did not relate to the rabble, and even more so to the many different schismatic sects, then it would be possible, he says, for me to take on the work of translating the New Testament from Greek into the current style, so that it would be intelligible to the common people, and so that for the useful reading of many it would be printed on one side, as it is now, in Slavic, and on the other in an intelligible translation. He intended to communicate this thought to the Eminence of Novgorod and others, but due to the weakening of his health, he abandoned this most useful intention. He bitterly mourned the errors of the many different schismatic sects and could not tolerate their bitterness. I personally happened to hear his admonitions to some of the Don Cossacks who adhered to a schismatic sect. Last year 1778 or 9, they came to him, and with them the priest of the Oksay village, Father Vasily (now deceased); Believing and obeying the admonitions of the shepherd, whom they also revered, they united with St. Churches and wanted to return back to the Don to their homes. But the Right Reverend, for better confirmation of them, advised them to go to the Holy Synod, and to Gabriel, Metropolitan of Novgorod. The priest went with them. Returning from there with complete commitment to St. Church, they expressed their gratitude to him. And as soon as he saw them in his presence, he took the leader of that schismatic sect into his holy embrace, and with tears and a joyful spirit cried out: “You are ours, Isaac!” Let the soul rejoice in the Lord: for we have found the lost sheep, and... for this dead one has come to life again; it was bent and found. Glory to God about everything, glory to God for His goodness to us and love for mankind!” Here he again gave them instructions and sent them away with God’s blessing, giving them several handwritten notebooks from his works as a guide. Divine love acted so powerfully in his soul that he used to say: “Not just those who adhere to schismatic sects, like simple sheep who have lost their way from the fence of Christ, but also the Turks themselves and other unbelievers in Christ the Son of God our Savior, and the very blasphemers of God’s name, I would like them to be saved, and for everyone to be in eternal bliss.” It is very necessary to add something about the conversion of these Don schismatics: since a certain archpriest in St. Petersburg, in his published description of schismatic sects, although he included, I don’t know why, the name of the late Right Reverend, everything is not so similar 16. During the fair gathering at the Zadonsny Monastery, he did not go to the church for the praise, but, secluded in his cells, he was in contemplation of God. When, having left the prayer cell into the hall, he saw through the windows of the gentlemen who had come to the fair, going to church to pray, and especially the female sex, dressed smartly, fast-moving turntables, smeared with white, rouge and powder - with eyes filled with tears he used to say: “Poor, blinded Christians! They clean and decorate their mortal body, but they hardly ever remember the kindness of their souls; blackened by sins, like a murin, who does not know God and does not believe in Christ the Son of God.” It happened that women came to him in such attire to receive a blessing; in such cases, he refused strangers, supposedly due to his weak health being unable to accept them, and to others sometimes (and out of his deep humility) he would say through me that it didn’t matter - they could receive a blessing from the hieromonks. When, in order to receive spiritual benefit, the landowners who lived nearby came to him with their wives, the women put aside all their attire, and especially their heads, powder and farts, and came to him dressed in humble attire. When he was able, the Right Reverend allowed everyone of every kind and rank, and especially from the spiritual rank, to approach him, and taught spiritual benefit. During his stay in Novgorod, being a Balti and a fellow student in the seminary and then a teacher with the Right Reverend Simon of Ryazan - as he retold to me, and I heard from him many times - he was once in Simon’s apartment. At night, going out onto the porch and standing on it, he (Tikhon) thought about spiritual matters; looking at the sky, decorated with stars, he suddenly sees on the eastern side, like large doors, open heavens, shining with such light that his eyes darkened from that light; and this opening lasted about a quarter of an hour, then little by little the doors seemed to close. This heavenly opening, even in the Voronezh diocese, was imagined by him every day, so that it constantly encouraged him, leaving the difficult, important and dangerous reign of the pastoral position, to go, for the best and most convenient receipt of eternal bliss, to a solitary life. At the promise, being in the Zadonsk monastery during the composition of his 6-volume book “On True Christianity,” lying on the bed and, as if in some kind of rapture, he heard angelic singing above him, the sweetness of which he was not able to express in language, and what was sung, except for the many voices of consonants, he did not understand. This continued for more than 10 minutes, then, as if struck by a small bell, that singing immediately ended, and he, feeling himself, stood up in great sorrow that that singing continued for a short time. He heard such a thing in the second year of his stay in Zadonsk, as I heard from him many times 17. And while I was in his service, in 1779, while in his solitary prayer cell, meditating, also lying on the bed and, as if in a subtle dream, he saw the Mother of God sitting in the air, and certain faces standing around her. He fell to his knees, and saw - around him 4 people, dressed in a white robe, also fell to their knees (but who these persons were and about whom the below-mentioned request was, did not deign to say in my curiosity) - he asked Her for some person, so that he would not move away from him after his death; This is what the Mother of God told him about: “It will be according to your request.” At that promise, he rose up, as if from a dream, in a joyful spirit. In 1778, in a subtle dream, he had the following vision: during his contemplation of God, he saw the Mother of God sitting on a cloud, and the apostles of St. standing near Her. Peter and Paul; and he, kneeling before Her, asked for the continuation of God’s mercy to the whole world, and heard these words of the Apostle Paul crying out in a loud voice: “When they speak peace and affirmation, then all destruction will suddenly attack them” 18. From the fear of this apostle's voice, having risen, she sees herself trembling, in tears. These visions were a considerable incentive for him to better express his works. In 1770, while he was practicing his essay “On True Christianity,” he had this vision: he was thinking about the suffering of Christ the Son of God (since he was a great lover of the Savior’s passions, and not exactly speculatively, but almost all the passions of His saints were depicted in his paintings), sitting on a bed against which on the wall was nailed a Passion picture that represented Christ crucified on the cross, removed from it and placed in the tomb. And in that deep reflection, as if being beside himself, he saw from that picture, like from Mount Golgotha, from the very cross, Christ coming towards him, all wounded, all wounded, tortured, bloodied. From such a great, wonderful vision of joy and heartfelt condolences, rushing to the Savior’s feet in order to kiss them, he publicly uttered the following words: “And are you, my Savior, coming to me?” – feeling like at the feet of the Saviors. From that hour he began to delve even more deeply into thinking about His sufferings and the redemption of the human race. In 1764, when he was still in the diocese, it happened to him in the autumn to travel about a hundred miles from Voronezh along the Moscow highway, through the village of Khlevnoye, to bury the body of a certain landowner who had died; stopping here with his retinue, he demanded from the elective of that village and other old people to change horses for his retinue; They, despite the request, and a zealous one, of their shepherd, answered him with a rude look and harsh words, and refused the horses themselves, saying “there are no horses” (although the inhabitants of that village at that time were very rich in both horses and all kinds of bread), and that “you are not our governor, so that you can quickly gather horses.” He, being upset by such a rude response from them, told them: “Yes, I am your shepherd: you must consider me no less than the governor, and serve me as your shepherd.” “Yes, you are,” the men answered, “a shepherd over priests and clerks.” Such unbridledness in their response saddened the spirit of the bishop even more, so that he was forced to say that they should no longer torment him and would fear God. And so they kept him for a long time, although he not only paid them the money for the chase, but also paid them with interest; and therefore, with considerable grief, he set out on the road ahead. - In 1780, I happened to be sent by the Bishop to Voronezh, and in the village of Khlevnoe I spent the night with an old man there; Between conversations, I hear from that peasant and from the other old people gathered to him a request for me to demand forgiveness from the Most Reverend of that village for the residents of that village. Retelling to me their past guilt and all that adventure, they said that from the time when this bishop cursed our village, no one has horses to this day, but everyone’s good horses are dying; The old men said that before they had quite a number of very good horses, but now many suffer from a shortage of horses and bread, and even more so from those who supposedly answered the bishop so rudely. I advised these peasants to come to his pastoral presence themselves. On my advice, they came to him at the Zadonsk Monastery. When I reported about those peasants and all the circumstances that happened to them, the Reverend, immediately remembering those sorrowful adventures, recounted everything to me in detail, as I had heard from those peasants. “But I didn’t curse them,” he said, “but God punishes them for disrespect and insult to the shepherd.” At that time he was in poor health, and he rarely allowed anyone to come near him. He did not allow them either, but forgave them in absentia, through me. There will be a lot to explain about the lack of reverence for shepherds that I heard from him, but I hope that you yourself can explain it better. Also don't forget about seven. When, at the request of Messrs. landowners, or Yeletsky merchants, it happened that the Right Reverend went to their houses, then, upon returning to the monastery, for two days or more, he thought over all his conversations, and even his very thoughts, and, having examined them, if he noticed that he had made a mistake as a person, and especially by tending to condemn his neighbor, he brought repentance to the Lord God. For this reason he sometimes and repeatedly refused to let those who asked him to come into his home; He often told those who lived with him that “when you leave your solitary stay for saving circumstances, you will no longer return the same as you were in solitude.” “A solitary stay,” he used to say, “gathers spiritual treasure, but absence anywhere wastes it.” When the landowners used to summon him to their place with all sorts of intense requests, sometimes the horses sent for him stood for a whole day, and he kept thinking about whether his absence would be useful. If his thoughts were not inclined towards this, he would send the horses back by writing a letter 19. The Right Reverend left the pastoral throne due to the weakness of his health, moreover, having realized through practice the burden of ruling the flock 20 . At his request, he was fired on his promise. While staying in the Zadonsk Mother of God Monastery, at first after leaving the diocese, he practiced contemplation of God, reasoning and speculatively considering the vanity and vicissitudes of this world: after a year of his solitary stay here, he began to practice in composing his works that were spiritually beneficial for the entire Christian society. When composing his books, none except St. Bible and several St. Chrysostom, he did not have any other fatherly books 21; He wrote a six-volume book called “On True Christianity” with his own hand and completed it in 1771. But between his spiritually beneficial works, he did not abandon the cell rule, befitting a solitary stay, with bows and kneeling; Moreover, he practiced the thought of God at night and in the morning, not leaving in the morning to read the psalms of the purple-bearing king-prophet, and outside his cell, and standing and walking, he loved to read the psalms, for all of them with prayers with them were studied by memory. When praying and contemplating God, he had an excellent gift for tears; from the imagination of a double eternity, we often heard his cry and sobbing in a solitary cell, with the pronunciation of a vocal prayer like this: “Lord have mercy!” God have mercy! Be patient, our goodness, with our sins! Hear, Lord, and do not destroy us with our iniquities! "and so on. And we heard crying, like the crying of a friend about the deprivation of a dead friend. “When he was in contemplation of God, especially in the morning, no one dared to approach his solitary cell, not even from the cell attendants who were with him. About those who came to him from the zealous gentlemen of the landowners, or from those passing through to receive blessings and moral instructions, under no circumstances, despite their strong request, did not proceed to the report; This did not happen from fear or imagination of any punishment on the part of the cell attendants, but from the reverence due to his person and the high reverence for his excellent life. In such cases, so that his exercise in the thought of God would not be stopped, with a humble spirit, as if one of the simple, he made his request to the cell attendants, bowing and asking that his spirit be calmed from such worries. When he was able, he went to church for prayer, especially on holidays; and on ordinary early liturgy, when few of the worldly people were present, he himself deigned to hold the right or left choir and sang in the Kyiv chant; standing with a tender look and reverent imagination, he listened with delight to the holiest and most soul-nourishing sacrament, hidden, under the cover of the Christian faith, in the most holy Eucharist. “Sing to our God, sing wisely,” he used to say. However, he did not allow himself to perform priestly duties for all his time, after dedicating himself to solitude, staying 22. When did he need to receive St. the life-giving Mysteries of Christ, approached St. at the holy altar. To the throne, wearing only a mantle with an omophorion, and placing an eagle under his feet. In the very first years of his stay, on the first day of Easter, in the vestments shown, he served matins, and on the highly solemn days of public holidays he performed a prayer service. For the deepest, silent spiritual exercise, he deigned to leave Zadonsk of the same diocese in the Tolshevsky desert monastery in summer and winter. Here he wanted to settle down for his permanent stay; but did not dare to do so because of the swamps surrounding the monastery and the damp air arising from them; especially with the former boss there, infected with schism, he could not have a good stay. During his time there, as in the aforementioned Zadonsk Monastery, due to his innate love for mankind, he did not abandon those who came to him with his benefactions, he gave alms to the poor, and in his free hours he provided soul-saving benefits to those who came of both sexes and different ranks. “But dealing with commoners was always more pleasant for him.” He would sometimes go out onto the porch or locker of the cell, sit them down next to him and talk, sometimes about the state of their lives, and with elderly men about past times. It happened that a commoner did not even know with whom he was talking, for the simple attire of an eminence hid his hierarchical rank. Having poor qualities and excellent spiritual qualities, he did not disdain to eat food from the same dishes with these commoners in his cells; for he often prepared a table suitable for their condition for receiving them 23 . When the Zadonsk Monastery was a judicial place, there was also a prison for criminals there. The Eminence loved to go there at night, both to visit sick prisoners and to give alms; and on the first day of Easter, when he came to prison, he made Christ with everyone. Just like in the city of Yelets, when he was there at the request of citizens, he deigned to visit the prison and almshouses, hiding his rank under a simple robe 24. In a word: his entire life throughout his entire stay was based on St. Gospel, on imitation in all ways of our Savior Jesus Christ and His St. disciples and apostles. Succeeding in love of poverty and humility, he endured all kinds of temptations encountered and endured generously the machinations of the enemy, who hated him for such a godly life, sorrow, and especially through slanderous lips; in reflection of various temptations, he pronounced these holy words. The Apostle's words: Christ suffered for us, leave us an image, so that we may follow His footsteps, Who did not commit the least sin, lest flattery be found in His mouth, Who does not reproach anyone against anyone, nor forbears suffering, but delivers it to him who judges righteously (1 Peter 2:21-23). His faith was so alive and active in his soul and heart that he foresaw the future as well as the present or contemplated it speculatively. And therefore, all the external and internal temptations that befell him, without the slightest doubt, he attributed to the Providence of God and His Holy Will, about which he often interpreted those living with him with the most accurate evidence and explanations from Holy Scripture and church history, so that they might be strengthened in their spiritual undertakings, hoping for the power of the co-operating grace of God, and for those who were absent from those who were with him to worship somewhere St. relics, always instilled in precaution, so that they would not fall into any temptation, but rather dangerously puke themselves from various sects of the schism-holders, and run away from such, like evil wolves, with their caresses, against our holy church, confusing simple hearts in the event of any conversation with these wolves, dressed in sheep’s skin, and the Holy Church, like their mother, disobeying and fornicating in disastrous paths, like lost sheep without shepherds, they would reflect their questions like uneducated people with a good answer: “I believe as our mother the Holy Church commands.” - “And how does your church support and command,” they ask? - “The way we believe and support.” With this declaring answer of every sect, the schismatic will, like a dog from a stick, marry you, and you will maintain your commitment in due obedience to the Holy Church, as faithful children of your mother, who cares about the salvation of your souls and the well-being of your life. He used to say: “Whoever obeys the holy church and gives it due honor and respect to its shepherds, established by the Great Bishop Jesus Christ Himself, obeys the Lord God himself. Obey God, but resist the devil and flee from you. For it is none other than the enemy of our salvation who catches a fish in such schismatic sects, like a fisherman.” Letting go and blessing in St. the path of those walking, as parting words to them he uttered the following words: “The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, may he preserve and deliver you from these enemy networks, as true sons of the Holy Church and will keep you from all soul-harming temptations,” and so on. When there were no other places in the monastery and it was not so crowded, every day almost every day he attended the early and late liturgy, and especially on Sundays and holidays, the Right Reverend, following the example of Christ the Son of God Himself, did not forbid not only the poor, the poor of age, but also the orphans themselves, especially those in infancy, who had not yet known either good or evil, from having access to himself. and come under the blessing. The children, noticing his kindness and acceptance of their affection and alms, on holidays, and then almost every day, began to come to church for mass in the plural (in order to receive something from him): he goes from the church to his cells, the poor and needy peasants follow him in a crowd, and small children, regardless of his hierarchical rank, follow him in a crowd, right behind him, with a bold face they will enter the hall, where he will give them money from his own hands and begin to teach them to pray; Those who were more intelligent recited the Jesus Prayer, and those who were three, four or five years old, they shout with all their might, praying with prostrations to the ground like this: Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy! Others: Holy Mother of God save us! All saints, pray to God for us! And often such prayer books gathered in large numbers. Entering into natural actions in infancy, he tried to instill in the children modesty, simplicity, kindness, meekness, and in order to suppress anger, rage, envy and hatred in them, he gave the children money equally. He was so perceptive that when it happened that some passing people of both sexes, strangers to him, heard about the bishop, who was in humility, and they came to him not so much to receive spiritual benefit, but for the sole sake of curiosity, although they were permissible, it was clear that he immediately penetrated their useless curiosity, so that they left without any pleasure and without benefit, for his conversation with them was very short, and his answer to their questions was silent. And after they were removed, I heard from him that it was in vain that I reported to him about such people. It happened that with such curiosity some monks and novices came to him from the desert; He, immediately noticing their curiosity, which was due to their arrogance, denounced them as spiritual people, and denouncing them taught them instructions, so that the humble would have a spirit dissolved by simplicity, and would put aside high opinions about themselves - citing to them these apostolic words: if anyone imagines himself to be something, worthless, he flatters himself with his mind 25, and so on. When gentlemen and other ranks who were zealous for the fulfillment of the Christian office of both sexes resorted to him for advice, he did not have such qualities as to persuade anyone to become a monk, but he advised against many who wanted to become a monk, pointing specifically to the general rules of Christian life. Some of the nobles, who had a wife and children, was still a young man, and, due to his youth, had a great passion for both dog hunting and card games and frequent cheerful companies; Having repeatedly visited the Eminence and heard Christian instructions from his lips, he became so zealous for the complete rejection of worldly vanities that his spirit became so inflamed that he decided to abandon his wife and children and flee into some deep desert. Having learned of his intention, I conveyed it to the Reverend. He, as he heard from me, immediately wrote and sent an admonishing letter with Christian instructions to this nobleman; this, upon receiving the letter, he himself came to the Eminence with gratitude, and according to his instructions, abandoned his useless and disgusting enterprise, abandoned his habit of dogs, cards and cheerful companies, and began to live according to his instructions and according to his firm promise, as a Christian should. But soon after the death of the Right Reverend, forgetting his firm vows, and as if despising his instructions, he began to hunt like a dog; but one day, going into the field with his dogs, he fell from his horse and crushed his leg, from which he suffered for a long time. Only then did he remember the prediction to him from the Right Reverend, and he brought great repentance to the Lord God, and now, as we hear, he is pursuing a Christian life. And another landowner, one of his benefactors, having abandoned, at his admonition, his passion for dog hunting, took up a game of cards, despising his eminence, admonitions and vows, but was soon punished: his beloved son, about 20 years old, drowned in the river, and all his, the eminence’s, predictions by experience came true on him. Then the landowner admitted his sin and failure to keep his vows, repented, rejected his gambling passion and took upon himself a proper Christian life, which he continues to this day, so that he is now loved and respected by many conscientious people. Remember this too. The Right Reverend, although he did not allow himself to serve the Liturgy, when he was healthy and was not yet secluded, he often received Holy Communion on Sundays and other holidays. The Mysteries, usually during the early liturgy, in priestly vestments; When he was in solitude, the monk brought a chalice with St. The mysteries to his cell, and when he was already lying on his bed, he approached St. even more often. The secrets, and with so much faith that he began not only with tears, but also with great sobs, but after that whole day he was cheerful and joyful. When I came to him, I sometimes heard him say the following: “Ivan! I'm drunk." Isn’t this because they were told, as it is written nowhere: drink and get drunk? 26 Here's something else that came to mind. When he had a calm spirit, for amusement he not only read, but also sang publicly some psalms of David, and at times he forced me to sing some touching psalms in front of his face, although only for a short time. In 1777 or 1778, in September or October, he walked along the back porch of his cells, being in contemplation of God; then, having come to my cell, he ordered me to take pen and paper in my hands and began to tell me, and I wrote: “on such and such a year and date there was a great flood in St. Petersburg and great destruction to many people and houses,” - which is exactly what came true; for after some time he was informed about that flood by letters. The note was written about the year and date 27. His terminal illness, I remember, began a year and three months before his death. He carried it generously and with gratitude, as if he had received a gift from God’s very right hand; when the Right Reverend Tikhon the 3rd came to visit him, the sick man, sitting on the bed (but also lying down again), delighted his friend with spiritual and soul-helping conversation for several hours; Conversing as true friends should, His Eminence Tikhon III sat the entire time next to the patient, close to his bed. Among his blessings, mercies and condolences to his neighbors, can’t this also be included: under Tikhon the 2nd (I don’t remember under which abbot of Zadonsk), two clergy brothers, due to slander, were given into military service and sent to further border places. Quite a bit of time has passed since then. One day, the bishop, since at that time there was no city or building close to the monastery, walked behind the monastery, deep in soul-saving thoughts, and suddenly saw these churchmen, small children sitting in a grove (which was near the monastery) crying and sobbing. Convinced by humanity, pity and compassion, he approached those young children and asked them about the reason for their tears and sobbing; the children answered that they were crying about the deprivation of their parents. Having investigated in more detail about the denunciation and accusations, and having found their punishment unjust, he stood up for the orphans and made every effort to recover these churchmen and return them from service: he quickly wrote a letter to Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod (at that time he was an archbishop), and with the letter a request from the family, and sent a messenger from his cells to St. Petersburg. So what? After all, thanks to his diligence, those clergy were immediately returned from the service, and were again assigned to their places 28. Archimandrite Timofey told me about this circumstance. Shouldn't we put this in there too? In 1775, one of Bekhteev’s relatives (I will not mention his name), with the rank of captain, came to him, and, under the guise of piety, leaving his wife and children, settled down to stay with him; as a reverent man, zealous to be saved (in words, as I heard from the Most Reverend himself, he seemed like an angel), the Eminence received him into his cells; For almost a year, this guest ate at the same table with him and drank tea, and although in conversations he was zealous for piety (perhaps this happened by God’s permission, as a precaution: usually such men as St. Tikhon was, sometimes in appearance, a lying and deceiver, embrace the faith), but could not realize what he was like, like a noble man. Instead of gratitude for the love for him and the good deeds of the saint, what did he do? He wrote a letter to many general benefactors of the Eminence, signed it under his hand, and telling him that he would go to his relatives for a walk, instead with that false letter that he had written, asking for help for the Eminence, allegedly due to the lack of his pension, he went to many gentlemen landowners and merchants, and collected a fair amount of money - about which the Eminence immediately, through letters from those benefactors were notified. The captain, hearing that the Right Reverend had learned about his actions, wrote to him so that he would forgive him for that and again allow him to be with him in Zadonka. The Right Reverend, being loving towards everyone, including even his enemies, according to Christ’s words, out of sheer humility forgave him and patiently endured everything from him. But how he could not tolerate lies and deceit, and although he was meek, humble in heart and generous, and placed all the blame on the enemy the devil, as if at his instigation this happened: however, he could not allow a deceiver and a deceiver to come into his sight, but wrote him off to him in a letter; I published this letter in print and is in the Sent Letters 29. From this letter you can take something to disseminate the description of the life of the Right Reverend. I had a lot of memorable notes, but I don’t know where to find them; and what is found is contained. He, the Eminence, do you believe, had such qualities of soul that when he was scolded, reviled, defamed and slandered, he only wept bitterly for such; regretting them, he blamed everything on the enemy of God and the Christian, the devil. And when one of these, having felt himself, with an admission of guilt, asked him for forgiveness, it happened that he would embrace him with joyful tears, kiss him and forgive him from a heart filled with love. Here his conversation was so morally pleasant that he would turn him from an enemy and a scolder into a friend and a friend. Read the article from the book “Spiritual Treasures”: Flowing water, and there you will learn the truth about this, how he describes friends and enemies, how they were made friends, and from friends they turned into enemies. In this article you will find much to include in the description of his life. - It happened that when he himself distributed money to the poor with his own hands, of whom sometimes a sufficient number was collected, and, having learned the needs of each, he would give more to others and less to others, then this one, complaining about the excess alms for another, began to scold the Eminence to his face and call him very obscene names; but the Eminence, not only to be offended by such scolders, but smiling, as if at small children, sometimes gave the following answer: “Well, scold, scold more!” Then he will give more to him, for the sole purpose of being satisfied with the alms and leaving him without complaint 30 . Moreover, he was merciful and generous to widows and orphans. He, due to his innate love of humanity, was so compassionate towards everyone that if a peasant passer-by, walking to his house through the city of Zadonsk, fell ill on the road, so that he was unable to walk, then, having learned about such an adventure, he accepted the sick person into his cells and fed him until he recovered; and not only for poor orphans and old people, but also for all wanderers, his cells were always a refuge; hospitality to everyone was not forbidden. He gave severe reprimands when anything tending toward condemnation was suggested about the leaders of the monastery or the brethren. He couldn’t stand this, but he taught everyone to listen to himself. He turned away slanderers, as well as malicious haters. If he heard those in his cell living with him laughing and rumbling, he would not leave them without penance, or would punish them with a reprimand, with a modest explanation of the omnipresence and omniscience of God, which was what brought them into fear and trembling. He, without abhorrence, reprimanded everyone who came and came to him, no matter who he was, even one of his very benefactors, who supplied him with the necessary things, if he heard in conversations condemnatory material regarding his neighbor, with a moral lesson, and turned away from condemnatory speeches and closed his mouth so that in the future he would never hear it. In 1755, in the Zadonsny Monastery, Archimandrite Barsanuphius was in great illness for over a month, and finally sat in his chair for three days, barely breathing out, and did not look with his eyes, but as soon as he looked, he began to ask the servants with him: “Where am I?” And he ordered the brethren to gather and began to tell his vision: “It was as if they had taken me to some wondrous places, and all my deeds showed how I had sinned before God; and then I heard a thin voice: “Prayers for the sake of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Hieromartyrs Moses and Andrew Stratilates, life is granted to you; this place will be glorified by a certain saint of Mine.” And during the life of the late Right Reverend they told him about this, but he did not order to speak about it to anyone in the future, and he himself only told those who loved him, and especially Father Mitrofan, whom he loved, as can be seen from the letters. And the Right Reverend also told me that he walked around the church at night and prayed: “Lord, tell me what has been prepared for those who love you, and what is Olivet? - and, going in front of the altar, he prayed and saw - the whole sky opened and the monastery was all in the light and the voice was: “See what has been prepared for those who love God”; and he saw unspeakable good things, and out of fear he fell to the ground, and could barely crawl to his cell. “And my friend also told the same thing: in a subtle dream I dreamed of being in a church, and in it I saw two saints in vestments, very beautiful, one in a patriarchal robe; and he stood near them. And the archdeacon came out of the altar with a crystal censer, and first incense the archbishop, then the patriarch, and then that man; and the man who saw this vision looked, who he was, and knew - that very day was the day of Herman the Patriarch and Archbishop Epiphanius, that is, this vision was on the 12th day of May. “And yet another friend saw a vision: they led him to crystal and wondrously beautiful chambers, and in them he saw decorated tables, and people feasting, and singing and faces, although he did not understand the verses. “Are they good?” - they asked him. And he answered: “Very good.” “Go and earn it,” was his answer. I just didn’t consider which gender; and the chambers are all crystal. What I heard from his (the saint’s) lips. 1) During his studies in Novgorod, being already in the philosophical class, agreeing with their comrades, they ascended the bell tower in the Antonov Monastery; it was about Easter; when all the former left the bell tower, he was left there alone; reclining on the railing at the window, he was engaged in good thoughts and did not notice that the railings were dangerous due to their disrepair: suddenly the railing collapsed and tore off the bell tower to the ground; with the fall of them, he should have fallen from the bell tower to the ground, but instead of being torn away from them by someone, he fell back with a strong blow. – 2) Another time, on some occasion, he was riding on a horse along a field road; the horse under him began to beat him, so that he was unable to tame it, the saddle rolled under the horse with him and one of his legs got caught in the stirrups. The case was ending in death, but at full gallop the horse suddenly stopped, as if it had been crucified by someone. - 3) While in the diocese of Voronezh, he once rode from the bishop’s house in winter in a cart to one of the merchants, his benefactor, to visit him in his illness; there were a couple of horses, as he often rode; on the road, for some correction near the horses, the coachman stopped: a cell attendant standing behind the cart and a servant riding on horseback approached him to help. According to that correction, the coachman did not have time to sit on the box, or on the front, when suddenly the horses galloped with one eminence (along Voskresenskaya Street, to the Intercession Church). The Right Reverend, seeing his obvious death, and the horses walking uncontrollably along that street, opened the door of the cart and, at full gallop, rushed out of the cart, and so God preserved him that he even felt as if someone had grabbed him by the arms from both sides. He stood firmly on his feet and marveled at the goodness of God. “For these reasons, thanking God, he writes in his spiritual will: “Glory to God, for he saved me in times of disaster and death!” Another noteworthy note. While listening to the Divine Liturgy, he sometimes became so deep in thought about God’s love for the human race and about its redemption through the incomprehensible sacrament of the incarnation of Christ the Son of God, about His suffering and about the sacrament of the Eucharist, that sometimes in a crowded meeting he cried, even sobbed. And when he noticed that, during the invocation of the Holy Spirit by the priest for the saving Gifts, those standing in the church did not pray together with the serving priest, while singing: “We sing to You,” without hesitation he reprimanded everyone and encouraged everyone to proper prayer and supplication. And on Sundays and other holidays, when he was listening to the liturgy, and the head of the monastery or one of the brethren neglected to read the synod's sermons, he stopped the singing in front of the whole meeting, after the prayer behind the pulpit, and encouraged them with a reprimand to do that soul-helping reading. And even more so, he gave such reprimands to Abbot Samuel, so that one day, putting on the stole, he himself began to read. He loved Archimandrite Sampson. On the occasion of the arrival of the Right Reverend Tikhon the 3rd in Zadonsk to visit his friend, the archimandrite also came with the Right Reverend, and being alone in Tikhon’s cells, between conversations, he began to praise him to his face for his godly life, so that he added that he could be glorified even after death by his incorruptible body; for which he, the archimandrite, was very offended, to the point that he considered him to be an evil spirit coming and speaking in him, and from then on he complained greatly about him because he could not tolerate such words of praise from anyone, looking at the living example of the deceased and four-day-old, already stinking Lazarus, the righteous friend of Christ. This is a living example of his deep humility! Listening to himself, he examined even his best thoughts as subtly as features and lines could be visible on the hands—he explained this to everyone who wanted to be saved. Also about giving alms, in addition: he was extremely bored on the day on which he had no one from the poor, so that he seemed to be sad about the loss of some pleasant thing. This is incorrectly printed that he allegedly languished at his death; and this is how it happened. Having foreseen the end of his life in three days, the Right Reverend ordered me not to allow anyone in those three days, and even more so during the separation of his soul from his body, which was, in fulfillment of his orders, observed. But Father Abbot Samuel, on the eve of the death of the Right Reverend, out of his modesty, came of his own accord and sat down next to the sick bed on which he lay, but lay without any languor, with his eyes closed. The abbot began to ask him: would there be any order? The Right Reverend, opening his eyes and looking at him, said in my ear not to bother him, and that there was no order. He, having kissed the right hand of the Right Reverend, went to his cells, and calling me, ordered me to make a report to him at the very time of his Right Reverend’s death. I, as a small person, remain orphaned, deprived of my father and shepherd, fearing a strict order, an hour or an hour and a half before the death of the saint, I sent a report to the abbot. But the messenger, having come to his abbot’s bedroom under the window, said numerous prayers and knocked on the window shutter, but could not wake him up as he slept, so he returned. I, fearing and imagining the subject of a strict order, went to Fr. I sent some more to the abbot, but again they could not arouse him. Here, having heard about the approaching death of the saint, all the monastics, who were at that time in the church at the morning singing, came of their own accord to the bishop, wanting to see his death; They stood in the cell for half an hour in deep silence. But the late schemamonk Father Mitrofan, being right there, said that the Right Reverend would not die soon, and everyone went back to church to listen to the morning doxology; After they left, it soon began to end. And so his saintly soul separated from his body at the 6th hour in 45 minutes. morning, August 13th, with only us, four people who served him in illness. His death was so calm that he seemed to fall asleep; Below, as usually happens, the body of the whole body stretched out, but I only noticed one thing: with his last breath, he opened his eyes and closed them again - then I recognized the complete separation of his soul from his body; since his holy head lay on my sinful right hand. And although he, the Eminence, during his illness there were rare weeks when he did not partake of the Holy Mysteries, but this week, in which he died, he partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, I remember, twice. However, on the evening of the 12th he ordered that the alternate hieromonk be asked to serve the liturgy as early as possible and come to him with the chalice of St. Tain; but they were late for the morning service. At 3 o'clock after midnight, at his request, I raised him to take, against unbearable thirst, hot tea water; having eaten half a cup, he asked about serving the liturgy, and, on his orders, I sent him to the next hieromonk; but since he, the Eminence, does not have power over them, it was always slow at his request. But this is also in my memory. Three days before his death, he deigned that all those closest to him, as well as his benefactors from the cities. landowners of both sexes were with him that day to receive blessings from him; they were, and he entrusted everyone, both them and those who lived with him and served him, especially in his illness, grieving and crying about separation from him, raising his right hand and pointing to the picture of the Crucified Christ, to Divine protection, for those persons present, crying and sobbing, exclaimed: to whom are you leaving us? And to whom will we resort and from whom will we receive instruction and benefit for our distressed souls? and so on. About two years before his death, he wrote a will 31 about the images of the passion of Christ (which were his own and written on canvas) and about his small property, such as: about shirts, sweatshirts made from a white flannel (which he often changed due to increased sweat), and about other clothing. He handed over the will to one of his cell servants, so that after the death of his Eminence, the icons of the saints would be given to his famous benefactors as a blessing, and sweatshirts (of which there were 8) would be distributed to poor orphans - to children; from among the images, I was ordered to take one painting of the Passion as a blessing, and also a complete one, signed by his holy right hand, a Bible for me, and one old sweatshirt; a simple carpet, which was stuffed with straw, and on which he rested, and two of his own pillows, stuffed with feathers, a sheepskin sheepskin coat, with which he dressed instead of a blanket, several shirts, cats and stockings of simple wool, in which he walked, and, moreover, two old duckweeds, a third silk duckweed, worn, given to him by the Reverend of Astrakhan, two cassock, one sheepskin, the other hare, covered with dark Chinese fabric, a small number of tin and wooden utensils, two copper teapots - one for boiling water, and the other for tea, two pairs of tea cups, two glass glasses, a simple wall clock with a cuckoo, several towels and white thin linen handkerchiefs, a copper basin: all this, according to the will, it was sold, and the entire amount, and at the same time the remaining 14 rubles after him. 50 k. were distributed to the poor. - From the first years of his stay in the Zadonsk monastery, he sold his former silk attire, cold and warm cassocks and cassocks with fox fur and other things suitable for the rank of bishop, a robe, a down jacket with down pillows and good blankets, solely for the purpose of distributing money to the poor for food; and he also sold the best dream cassock that was once given to him by the Eminence of Astrakhan, and used the money for poor widows and orphans. When composing and writing with his own hand the six-volume book “On True Christianity,” as I heard from him, the Right Reverend, there was, from enemy intrigues, the following interference with his thoughts: when he delved into the composition, especially when he wrote at night by fire, then suddenly on the top of the cell there would be trampling and running and jumping, in the likeness of human legs; from which horror would attack him, so that he stopped writing; why, calling those living with him, he orders them to go under the roof to see if there are any animals there. The cell officers, having examined the place, report that there is nothing. The same thing often happened during the day: sometimes in the oven of the cell in which he was writing, a riot would suddenly be heard or the turning of his draft papers, which he usually tore apart and threw into that oven; which bothered him for quite some time. Finally he examines the furnace there, locked with a shutter: there was no sign of any bastard. When he completely settled down to have a permanent stay in the Zadonsk monastery, then in the first year of his stay here - which I heard from him many times - he experienced boredom and despondency; It seemed to him that perhaps he was receiving a pension from the crown; For a whole year he struggled with his thoughts, which, presenting him with honor, glory and veneration, and especially the benefit of Christian society, attracted him back to the pastoral position; from such an imagination, every day was extremely boring, so that sometimes he did not leave his cell for a whole day, being locked up; All that was heard, according to those who lived with him, was the voice of prayers and supplications and his walking from cell to cell. After a year had passed, one day, lying on the sofa, he was pondering his life and boring stay, restless to infinity, 32 struggling with thoughts that were drawing him back to the diocese, so that he was drenched in excessive sweat, he suddenly stood up from the sofa and cried out in a loud voice: “Lord! Even if I die, I won’t go.” From that hour on, such thoughts no longer began to bother him; in peace of mind he began to carry on with his life, filling himself with spiritual joy every day. About that mental temptation, under cover, he wrote at the same time to the Novgorod Eminence Gabriel (which I heard about from the Metropolitan); The metropolitan invited him to his Novgorod diocese, promising to give him the Iversky Monastery near Valdai under his control, as a secluded place, or another one he wished. But he did not agree to this, overcame his mental temptations and described them in an article entitled: Fleeting water. He slept no more than four hours each day, and often spent the whole day without sleep at all. From the first years of his stay in the Zadonsk monastery, he was very strict in his cell, and out of natural ardor, he strictly punished those living with him for the slightest mistake, punishing them with bows and kneeling in prayer to the Lord God. It happened that, due to strict punishment for errors, he lost his servants out of zeal and they, fearing such a pastoral face, left him. Realizing his excessive ardor, he began to ask and pray to God to visit him with some kind of illness, so that he could more easily learn humility and meekness, and therefore received what he wanted. Once in a dream he sees that he supposedly enters a church; a priest comes towards him from the altar (chapel of St. Eusebius) through the royal doors, and in his arms carries a baby covered with thin muslin. He, being committed to babies with love (which Christ himself accepted those coming to Him), himself approached the baby lying in the arms of the priest and asked him what his name was? The priest answered: Vasily (meaning king in Greek). Out of love for babies, putting away that white veil from his face, he kissed the baby on the right cheek; The baby hit him with his gum and hand on his left cheek, and so hard that he woke up from the blow; standing up, he feels and sees his left hand shaking and his left leg weakening. Discussing the significance of the dream he had seen, he thanked God for such a fatherly visit. From that time on, he began to learn meekness and the deepest sense of humility, and he became so accustomed to it that even for the correct reprimand to the last cell attendant of simple and rude peasants, the cook, if he saw him offended by him, he bowed in his hand, asking for forgiveness 33 . And so, with the all-pervading grace of God, he succeeded so much in spiritual wisdom that all those spiritual fruits about which St. The Apostle Paul explains: spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace 34 and so on. Two years before his death, when he took time for better attention to himself and for peace of mind, it happened to him, walking around the hall, to enter his solitary cell; As soon as I opened the doors, the whole cell was illuminated with extraordinary light; and this was already after sunset; calling me to him, he asks: “Are there clouds with lightning?” although there were no clouds at all at that time, the sky was clear on all sides, and even more so from the west, on which side the window in the cell was. Then he told me about what he had seen. From that time on, such a radiance often appeared to him during the day, and sometimes in the evening, sometimes in the entire cell, and sometimes in some corner of it, so that he sometimes had confused thoughts, imagining whether it was an enemy charm, although his heart felt some amusement from such a vision. And it seems decent to contribute about this. The cell things needed for his house, which will remain after him (including those mentioned above): monastic clothes, two kamilavkas, hoods and furniture, are to be sold and the money, along with the remaining miscellaneous bread, is to be distributed to the poor by him, and not to anyone else. The will about the property, together with its spiritual will, was delivered by His Grace Tikhon the 3rd to the Novgorod Metropolitan; but this one, upon his arrival in St. Petersburg, said: so that I only print the spiritual will, and do not put this will into print as unnecessary. That’s why I present it (the will) to you for your consideration. From 1771 until his death, he did not go to the washhouse or the bathhouse, and occasionally, when he was still able, he washed his own head, fresh from his cell, from the increased sweat. None of the cell attendants dressed him, undressed him, put on his shoes or took off his shoes, but out of sheer humility he did all this himself; only when his strength was already exhausted, I earnestly begged him, so that I would be pleased to carry out everything with peace of mind, and even then you can hardly ask; He kept saying: “I’m still able to do it myself.” On page 51 (1st ed. Life. Quiet) it is printed incorrectly: many spent entire days and nights sitting at his bedside. “It was, but not many, but some of the noble persons who benefactored him, wanting to provide him with the last services and receive instruction about Christian life, stood for several hours at his bedside, and he gave them instructions in a languid voice, and moreover answered through my unworthy ear and tongue; They looked at him with heartfelt compassion, especially because they no longer heard his voice as they had heard before: he lay with his eyes closed, right to the end, as if sleeping. But even at that time he directed his thoughts and feelings to God. Exactly so, for his feelings and his intelligent prayers were always very noticeable to me (for this reason he deigned to tell Abbot Samuil, when he came to him on the eve of his death, that is, on Saturday evening: so that he would not interfere with him, that is, with his in-depth contemplation of God). And when some of his benefactors, standing at his bedside, weeping and sobbing and kissing his right hand, said the following words: “You are our Father, to whom are you leaving us orphaned, sad and sorrowful?” then he, loving them and pressing his right hand to himself, spoke into their ears, pointing with his hand: “I entrust you to the Lord God.” Note. Some of the Smolensk residents, a nobleman named Stefan Gavrilov, in his good disposition to move from worldly to spiritual life, undertook to wander and, wandering throughout Russia (this was in 1774) and hearing about the godly life of the Right Reverend, prompted by curiosity, came to the Right Reverend and stayed in the Zadonsk Monastery. At some time, talking with the Eminence about spiritual things, out of his sheer arrogance he began to argue, and at the same time condemn the Eminence for cutting his mustache, since Stefan had a long mustache. To which the Right Reverend humbly answered him with these apostles. Paul with the words: watch, brother, how dangerously you walk, and do not become arrogant, but be afraid, and dare to stand and watch. Stefan, as if tempted by his godly life, went back to wandering, but while wandering he fell into a drunken passion, so that he lost his certificate and brought himself to the point where he was caught in a transfer from Moscow, and they brought him back to the Zadonsk city of the past 1780; Half of his head was shaved, his beard and mustache were cut, and they put him in prison, where he was kept for a long time. But the late eminence, out of love for mankind, was taken on bail through me. Being with the bishop, he admitted his sin before him and asked for forgiveness from him in everything, saying that he was being punished solely for his saintly person. The Eminence forgave him and released him with instructions appropriate for his benefit. There was with him a certain cassocked monk named Theophan, one of the common people, an illiterate old man, whom he loved for his simplicity, so that he often invited him to the table to eat with him. Out of his simplicity or his natural simplicity, he often interfered in the spiritual conversations of the Right Reverend, so that, interrupting his archpastoral common sense, he carried on his own matter, befitting of mere commoners. But the Eminence, out of modesty and generosity, yielding to the elder, listened to his matter; for sometimes, he said, even a commoner, between simple words, will speak a very remarkable speech, so that anyone can use it. More about the brotherly love of the saint and the reconciliation of neighbors, in addition. When any quarrel or irreconcilable disagreement occurred between the monastery brethren due to the machinations of the enemy and the innate weakness of man, he, having heard about it, called those of the brethren who were quarreling to his cells, in order to reconcile them, with the destruction of hatred from their hearts. And when he himself, being either occupied with the thought of God, or due to poor health, was unable to speak much, then, having heard about the quarrel and enmity between the brethren, he sent his cell attendant to the quarrels to reconcile them, on his own behalf: in which, many times, with God’s help, he succeeded; after reconciliation, he called them to himself, talking with them about the proper Christian and monastic life. When he gets a hint, he treats them with either tea water, or for those who drank it, vodka (for although he himself did not drink any vodka, he was pleased to have it on hand for every occasion). And sometimes he invited those who had reconciled to eat small and simple food at the table with him. He sometimes (as a monastic precaution) used to say that if he had a monastery under his rule, he would better advise and bless the elderly monks, in order to raise and carry out work, to eat nutritious food 35, and drink intoxicating drinks either very little or not at all, in order to more freely avoid enemy obsession and various temptations. He was so flaming with love for his neighbors and compassion that as soon as he heard that one of the monastics or novices of the monastery was ill, he immediately went to them in his free time, both to reinforce and comfort the sick person, and to help with a painful attack with medicine; orders the cell attendant to bring tea, he will give the sick person something to drink; He did not leave food out, due to the nature of the patient, and often sent his cell attendants to visit the sick and notify him. There was at his cells, for his services, a certain person, from the common people, who was in great need of him. Due to a cold, he became so ill that he himself felt the approach of death, and received Holy Communion twice. Tain, and wished to receive the final archpastoral blessing from the Right Reverend. Through force brought to the cell of the Right Reverend, he fell, as they said, with tears at his holy feet, demanding his prayers for himself, so that the Lord God would not forsake him with His grace, and at that he said: “Holy Master! Although I am completely dying, if my small and unworthy services are needed for you, and my soul is saving, then I believe that the Lord God will hear your prayers and restore my health.” At this, the bishop said with tears: “Go, and God will have mercy on you.” And the patient, after a short time, without using any medicine, was freed from his illness. This saint had great and living faith, and the Lord God listened to him on many occasions. This is also worthy of note. When some of those who benefited him came to him on necessary occasions, or he was invited to their homes, they were always strengthened in their faith and Christian life; many of the years Landowners, as well as Yelets citizens, receiving moral instructions from his lips, pursued a life of peace-loving 36, hospitable to strangers, they were merciful and generous to the poor, they resorted to monasteries, they were zealously disposed towards the monastic rank, since in many there was one heart and soul. And since the Eminence, being depressed by his illness, could not talk with many and allow himself to be seen, those who had previously resorted to him from the towns. The landowners and merchant class began to weaken in faith and become impoverished in virtues; they led their lives as before, in luxury, in stinginess, in envy, hatred and unpeacefulness, and so on. About which he, already lying on his sick bed, having heard from reliable benefactors, was very sorry, citing these words of God: and I will send a famine upon them, not a famine of bread and a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of God; and: faith comes from hearing, hearing by the word of God 37 and so on. That is why he, already lying on his painful bed, imagining the rumor that reached him, mourned the unbelief and weaknesses of men. A certain landowner, with the rank of general, being loved by the Eminence, came to him at a time when it was not allowed to be allowed to see him; when he wanted to enter autocratically to him, who was engaged in the thought of God, and the cell attendant did not allow him to do so, then the general, offended by the cell attendant, began to offend him, and finally, brazenly, by force, not heeding the request of that cell attendant, he entered to the right reverend. Offended by his act, the Right Reverend did not allow him to receive his archpastoral blessing, so that general knelt before him for half an hour, asking for forgiveness; however, the Eminence did not allow him to touch his hand, in those thoughts, so that in the future he would not boast of his rank and would act humbly. But in his will, the Right Reverend explained that he forgave and forgives everyone who insulted him. The diocesan writings of the Right Reverend are few because, as I heard from him, he often preached sermons without putting them on paper: that’s why there are few of them. He helped the poor a lot in a secret way. For this purpose, he had a certain beloved person, whose soul he knew quite well. Through it, he distributed money not only to commoners, out of his real compassion, but also to real orphans from the noble female sex for their food, and out of respect for the necessary circumstances, and for marriage at the remoteness of their place of residence, he helped them through others. He had such a lively and great faith that when there was a shortage of something necessary both for his own person (even sugar and tea, which, although he used little by little, but which, due to his weakness, was necessary), and for those living with him (in bread and other food), he, according to my report about the lack of those things that were necessary for food, did not deign to make orders for purchase, but urged patience. It sometimes happened that, due to the lack of necessary food for himself and for those living with him, we were already inclined to grumble, but after enduring two or three days, you see, everything he needed was sent from his benefactors. Why was I often rebuked by him for my lack of faith and impatience? Describe the life of St. husbands are not bad, but not as commendable as if I myself live holy, pleasing to God and for the benefit of my neighbors. St. ap. Paul writes: Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ 38 . He wanted to know about the Right Reverend Gideon (whose sermons are read in church), and he prayed to the Lord to reveal to him where and in what places this saint resides; and saw in a dream vision: supposedly he, the Eminence, stands alone in the church, behind the left choir, and sees Gideon walking from the altar to the northern doors in the bishop’s vestments; Having reached the place where the prayer behind the pulpit was read, Gideon knelt here, raised his hands high and began to read the theological prayer written in the Lenten Triodion: One Only Begotten... and read it all to the end. Waking up, the Right Reverend realized that this shepherd was settling in a heavenly village. In Voronezh, when citizens exhorted each other to obey the advice, instructions or orders of the Right Reverend Tikhon, they usually said with conviction: he will complain to God. In unfortunate times, he also appointed extraordinary posts to citizens. Saint Tikhon ruled the Voronezh flock for only 4 years and 7 months, and then retired, first to the Tolshevsky Transfiguration Monastery, and then to the Zadonsky Mother of God Monastery, where he labored until his death, for more than 13 years. Here his best creations matured; here his pastoral and ascetic virtues reached their fullest expression. “But amazing,” notes one of the descriptors of the life of the Zadonsk miracle worker, “the activity of the Saint at the Voronezh department. He did not rule the flock for long, but how much, despite his illnesses, he managed to accomplish!” 39. Saint Tikhon paid special attention to the preparation of worthy shepherds. Notified that some of the clergy did not know how to correctly perform the service of God, the saint ordered those supervising the clergy to personally witness how the service was performed, and to send the inexperienced to him. “Many priests and deacons come to me,” he wrote on August 9, 1763, who are extremely ignorant of the Gospel and the Apostle of Honor. Without reading the New Testament it is impossible to know the will of the Heavenly Father, and without knowing it it is impossible to fulfill it, and from failure to fulfill His holy will, obvious destruction follows. For this reason, all clergy found in the diocese are ordered to each have the New Testaments and read them with reverence and diligence.” In February 1763, an instruction he compiled to clergy on their main responsibilities, instructions on marriages and confession, and samples of exhortations to the sick and defendants were distributed throughout the diocese. To arouse zeal for the fulfillment of his duty, he sent out a district message to the priests with an exhortation to live in mutual love, soberly and reverently, to edify the people through worship, life and instructions. The saint ordered the clergy not to perform illegal marriages; they were sent special “instructions” on this subject. Having learned that some of the priests went to fairs on Sundays and holidays, the saint more than once ordered them not to leave the parish without the permission of their superiors. They were ordered to certainly send the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Lent, which some did not do out of laziness. While caring for the shepherds, the saint did not forget about church splendor, and that the churches of God were kept clean and in order; he entrusted the deacons with the care of the sacristies. In order to prepare worthy servants of the altar of God, the saint took active measures to develop and properly organize spiritual education. First, it was ordered to open Slavic schools in all cities, colleges in Ostrogozhsk and Yelets. Then, when the amount for the maintenance of schools was assigned, the Seminary was opened in Voronezh. For her, mentors were called from Kyiv and Kharkov, the order of teaching science was outlined, and instructions were given to students and teachers. The Reverend often visited classes himself, recommended the best works of spiritual literature for interpretation to the youth, and gave his own instructions regarding the behavior of students. The saint carefully ensured that clergy were not oppressed in the Consistory. He strictly forbade Consistory officials from treating priests rudely and impudently. For a quicker and more accurate solution to matters, he appointed a second member to the district boards, leaving the choice to the clergy. In the judicial rulings of the Saint, they saw not so much a court punishing sin, but rather a pastoral concern for the correction of the guilty. “Although,” he wrote in November 1764, “the priest should be transferred (for a serious quarrel) (to another place), he remains in the same place so that the house does not go bankrupt... Let him go with a subscription, so that he will be extremely careful of a quarrel, in which one should not even approach the altar, according to the word of Christ.” It was then customary to subject clergy to corporal punishment in the Consistory. “Do not inflict any punishment on the body,” the Saint wrote about priests to the Consistory in September 1764. The zealous Saint tried to maintain Christian piety among the people. “According to the prayer behind the pulpit at the liturgy,” he wrote on July 14, 1763, “on every Sunday and holiday, read either the explanatory Gospel, or from another book accepted by the Holy Church, or at least a useful word from the Prologue; on other Sundays, read according to the following Psalter the very useful, stimulating word for a sleepy and careless soul of St. Cyril of Alexandria “On the outcome of the soul.” The saint sent out brief instructions throughout the diocese for reading in churches: “How it is appropriate to enter a holy church for doxology”; “What every Christian from infancy to death should always keep in mind”; “Some notes for awakening oneself from a sinful sleep”; "An Explanation of Christian Duties." The saint ordered the clergy to carefully ensure that parishioners came to the church on Sundays and holidays and stood reverently during the service; His Eminence Tikhon also took care that there were no riots in the squares, especially on holidays. Having learned that in some places the laity got drunk, made noise and sang songs during the service of God, the saint on June 16, 1765 ordered the priests to restrain parishioners from such outrages, and to report to him about disobedient ones. He zealously rebelled against the excesses of Maslenitsa. At that time, wild celebrations dedicated to the pagan deity Yarila continued to take place in the Voronezh region. The “holiday” began on Wednesday after Trinity Day and continued until Tuesday of Peter’s Lent. Residents of Voronezh and neighboring settlements gathered in the square that was outside the Moscow Gate of the city. A young man with a paper cap on his head, tied with ribbons, flowers, bells, danced in the square, and with him everything danced and went wild - drunkenness, fistfights, fights and all sorts of disgrace appeared. The holy shepherd himself appeared in the square denouncing the “stinking” holiday and spoke with such force of conviction that the huts and shops were immediately destroyed and the people dispersed. After this, Bishop Tikhon delivered a heartfelt speech in the cathedral, during which the people cried. Many, carried away by the antiquity of the pagan custom, the meaning of which they did not think through, came to the Saint and repented of contrition of heart. The shepherd’s zealous preaching was crowned with complete success: the celebration of Yarile was no longer repeated... “The activity of the saint,” writes Metropolitan Evgeniy (Bolkhovitinov), “extended to the point that he was never idle and, when any preparations were required for his pastorate, he often spent whole nights without sleep and could not calm down until he finished his work. In the morning he usually occupied himself with the consideration of diocesan affairs, and his impartiality in court was most exemplary. After lunch, after a short nap, he almost always practiced until midnight in composing teachings, instructions and admonitions to his clergy and people. Instead of rest, he occupied himself with reading the holy fathers, and especially Chrysostom... He spent the least amount of time interviewing those who came to him, and even his interviews were occupied more with pious and moralizing reasoning. But poor people have always had free access to it. His sensitive heart was not so passionately occupied with any subject as helping poverty and consoling sorrow. Not content with frequently hosting the poor in his home, he also had the habit of sending a few money to almshouses, prisons, and other prisoners on every holiday of Easter, the Nativity of Christ, and on some other days, such as Meat Week and all holy days. Sometimes he himself, dressed in a simple monastic dress, in the evenings on the mentioned days, came to the prisons to the prisoners, as if sent on his own behalf, and, giving them alms, gave them verbal instructions, admonitions and consolations for patience. The darkness of the night at first did not allow the prisoners to recognize this tall alms-giver and comforter; but when, after several visits, they began to recognize him either by his sweet-worded admonitions, or by popular hearing, then he stopped his visits to them for a while and sent his subordinate monks in his place” 40 . Appendix 2. Memoirs of the priest. I. and D. Kirillov Almost thirty years have passed since the discovery of the relics of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, and more than a hundred years have passed since the day of his blessed death (†1783), and all this time the Russian people, full of reverence for the wonderful saint of God, go in an almost uninterrupted procession from all over Orthodox Russia to venerate the incorruptible relics of St. Tikhon. And I, who lived almost to the age of seventy, did not bother to tell the Christian world about those events from the life of the saint, about which in the long hours of winter nights, sitting weaving bast shoes, my grandfather (Aristarchus Alekseevich, who lived in the world for more than seventy-five years 41) told my father and in general his entire family with such a joyful mood full of deep and reverent surprise at the holiness of the life of the saint of God. True, I was then a child of 7-8 years old when these stories took place, and due to childish absent-mindedness, and more often due to a lack of understanding of what was said, much went unnoticed. Nevertheless, the heavy reproach of my conscience prompts me to tell even the little that still remains in my memory. The family of my ancestors became known to Saint Tikhon at the time when he (the saint) retired to the Zadonsky Monastery from Tolshevsky, the air of which had a harmful effect on the health of His Eminence. One day the saint, while in the garden that currently belongs to the monastery, during the hour of his walk and solitary contemplation of God, heard a woman’s voice (loud crying) and sent his servant, named Sergeyushka (as the saint usually called him), with the order to find out who was crying and about what? The messenger, returning, reported that the voice was a widowed sexton, who had buried her husband a few days ago, and was left with a family without a means of subsistence. The saint then said: “Call her to me.” At that time there was no other church in the city of Zadonsk, and the chapel of St. Eusebius of Samosata in the Cathedral Church of the monastery. That is why the clergy of the city of Zadonsk settled near the monastery, and therefore the house of great-grandmother Ak. Ig. stood on the south-eastern corner relative to the monastery, at a distance of twenty fathoms from the fence, just above Teshevka (Teshevka is a very deep ravine, without water in the summer and remarkable for the quantity and speed of water in the spring, when the snow melts.) The old woman who came was extremely amazed by the merciful words and condescension of the saint, endowed with a hierarchical dignity inaccessible in terms of greatness and holiness. As best she could, she spoke about her bitter lot in words full of heartfelt bitterness, choking on bitter tears. Saint Tikhon encouraged and consoled her with his merciful appeal and material assistance and, releasing her, ordered her youngest orphan son to be brought to him, having learned in advance that he did not know how to read and write, and yet he was about thirteen years old. This orphan was my grandfather, named Aristarchus, who later remained in the monastery under the personal supervision of the saint. Having learned to read and write, he served in the monastery as a reader and singer in the choir. The saint of God, Saint Tikhon, who gave everything to the poor and needy, also took care of feeding the family of this poor widow Ak. Ig. One day, about two weeks before the Easter holiday, Saint Tikhon ordered to call an old woman (Ak. Ig.) and when she appeared, then he asked her: “Old woman! Do you have anything to break your fast for the holiday? - “Yes, breadwinner, bread.” - “Do you have a cow?” - "No". - “Well, go and buy yourself a cow at the fair.” A week later, the old woman came to the saint, and when they announced her arrival, the saint, going out into the hallway, asked her: “Well, old woman, why did you come, did you buy a cow?” - “I bought it, breadwinner.” - “What did you pay?” She fell at the feet of the saint and said: “Oh, breadwinner! It’s scary to say, there’s a lot of good.” - “Well, how much?” Finally she said: “One and a half rubles.” The saint gave her this money. When my grandfather Aristarchus became a mature youth, Saint Tikhon asked him the following question: “Little boy (the saint’s favorite word), what do you think? Will you stay with us in the monastery, or will you go into the world? The boy replied: “I want to go into the world, holy lord.” Then St. Tikhon petitioned him for a place of clergy in the village of Livenka, Yeletsk district, now Oryol province, then he was transferred to the village of Utkino to the Archangel Church, four miles from Zadonsk. Saint Tikhon, when he sent my grandfather away to the parish, he gave him 10 rubles. money, saying at the same time: “For this money you buy yourself a hut, and when you get hold of it, then later give 10 rubles. to the Church of the Archangel Michael; if you don’t have money and you have nothing to give, then God is with you, I forgive you.” For the money given by the saint, my grandfather bought a hut, built from split oak logs into two halves, 9 and 10 quarters in circumference. My grandfather, my father, and I lived in this hut until the time when they sent me to school; I remember well both the huge mounds and deep depressions in the walls from unevenly split trees, polished black by the firebox to the brilliant color of a black raven’s wing. The example of a holy life and the instructions of the saint instilled in the soul of Aristarchus true Christian humility and meekness, expressed in the fact that he, considering himself unworthy, did not dare to ask for a surplice, even when, by decree of Empress Catherine the Second, it was ordered that all clergy and non-sticharion clerics be taken as soldiers. When the dean sent him to the diocesan city to receive the surplice, saying that if he did not receive the surplice, he would end up under the red cap, my grandfather answered: “What will happen, will happen. I cannot bear this yoke." And what boundless reverence for the memory of St. Tikhon was nurtured by my grandfather, you can see from the fact that he, being in his old age, until his death, being away from the staff, every Sunday and holiday day went to the monastery (four miles away) for the all-night vigil and mass, without putting on either a hat or mittens at any time of the year in any weather. And when they reprimanded him about this, he replied: “How can I dare to put on a hat when my benefactor and father rests there (in the monastery)?” I heard from my grandfather a story about how St. Tikhon received those who came to him to glorify Christ on the day of the Nativity of Christ. Usually there were several separate piles of 25 kopecks on the table. old big nickels. Those who came congratulated the saint on the holiday and then each petitioner took one pile of nickels from the table - no matter who he was - an archpriest, or a priest, or a deacon, or even not ordained to the priesthood, and left. At the end of these memories of mine, may I be allowed to say that those mentioned in the biography of St. Tikhon's two clerics, sent to military service and returned at the request of the saint to their former cleric positions, were the eldest children of Ak. Ig. and therefore my grandfather's brothers. The eldest of them was called Stefan. He was the grandfather of Archpriest Mikhail Ivanovich Donetsky, known for his intelligence and meekness throughout the Voronezh diocese, who served for more than thirty years as a member of the Voronezh spiritual consistory. ...This is how I met St. in Zadonsk. Tikhon is the holiday of the Nativity of Christ, according to the stories of my grandfather. It used to be that, after Matins, the hieromonks and white clergy from the city would gather to see the Right Reverend, at his invitation, and would wait for him in the hallway. The saint will come out in a robe and tell them with his sweet speech: “Let us go and glorify together the one who was born to us for Christ’s sake.” Then he himself will begin to sing with joy on his face: “Your Nativity, Christ our God” and “Today the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled,” and others echo him. At the end of the singing, the saint will thank the visitors for helping him glorify Christ. “Give them,” he will say to the cell attendant, “what the Lord has given us.” - The cell attendant takes off the tablecloth with which the table is covered, and what happens? The entire table is strewn with stacks of old nickels, five in each. The cell attendant, by order of the saint, takes these feet and bestows on each one, without distinguishing either age or rank. City boys crowd among the visitors, and they, along with others, receive 25 kopecks from the generous hand of the saint. “We still glorified Christ,” he will say during this distribution.” Perhaps the saint of God felt or even saw displeasure on some faces that they were not given special honor and were compared with city boys in gifts. About Chebotarev, Vasily Ivanovich, all that is known is that he was from the Yelets burghers; from the very move of Saint Tikhon to Zadonsk, he became his cell attendant and died in Yelets as a layman; According to local legends, for some reason the saint did not bless him to stay in the monastery. – Chebotarev’s notes were published twice: the first time, in extracts and alterations, in “Mayak” in 1845, then in 1861, in full, in “Orthodox Review”. In the latest edition, the notes are preceded by a “preface”, in which the editors, among other things, express the following opinion: “Chebotarev’s notes, devoted mainly to the description of the private life of St. Tikhon, naturally do not have the completeness that is required in a correct biography; the author did not completely follow the chronological order in his story; but his story has other, irreplaceable advantages: it is artless simplicity and sincerity of speech, alien to any pre-occupied thoughts and giving the whole story the character of pure testimony. Many details are conveyed by the author from the words of Tikhon himself, with careful efforts to preserve the saint’s words in an exact form and with repeated remark that these were indeed the saint’s words. The overall impression of the notes speaks a lot in their favor: under their influence, the reader detaches himself from his time, feels himself on a different soil, distant from him both by time and by the whole way of life, and remains a spectator of living images and real paintings. In our opinion, the best biography of St. Tikhon, which would fully satisfy the popular needs at the present time, could be a correct presentation of the text of ancient legends, with the necessary additions to those circumstances that are omitted from the records, but the additions are brief and made in the spirit of the same legends. The biography of St. Tikhon, presented in this form, could constitute one of the best books for popular reading: it would come close to our Cheti-Minea and would reveal in its true light the personality of Tikhon, beloved by the people, who was so vividly aware of the universal human and Christian rights of the people and always served their needs with ardent love.” Fully sharing the opinion expressed by the editors of “Prav. Reviews,” we print, in the appendix to this edition of the works of St. Tikhon, notes about him by Chebotarev and another cell attendant of the saint, Ivan Efimov, in their original form, according to manuscripts that belonged to Metropolitan Eugene, who personally knew St. Tikhon and worked hard to preserve the memory of him. Both mentioned manuscripts are currently stored in the Kiev-Sophia Library, under numbers 193 and 194. When publishing them, only minor amendments were made to the presentation, as far as this was necessary for clarity or correctness of speech. Of course, “A complete description of the life of the Right Reverend Tikhon, collected from oral traditions and notes from obvious witnesses” and published in 1796 by Bolkhovitinov (later Metropolitan Eugene). Saint Tikhon was born in 1724 from the sexton of the village of Korotsk, Valdai district of the Novgorod province, Savely Kirillov. With a rare love of science and excellent natural talents, Timofey Sokolov (surname Tikhon) showed such success in the sciences that, without even completing his course of study, he was made a teacher (of the Greek language) at the same (Novgorod) seminary, and after completing the course in July 1754, he was appointed teacher of rhetoric. - On April 10, 1758, he was tonsured a monk and named Tikhon; On August 27 of the same year he was made a teacher of philosophy; On January 13, 1759 he was named prefect of the seminary; On August 26 of the same year, at the request of the Tver Bishop Afanasy, he was transferred to the Tver diocese, with the appointment of Archimandrite Zheltikov, and then Otroch Monastery, Tver Seminary as rector and teacher of theology. The cities of Kexholm and Ladoga and the vicar of the Novgorod diocese, in the Peter and Paul Cathedral, May 13, 1761, at the age of 37 from birth. – Transferred to the Voronezh department on February 3, 1763. Details. cheat below, in the west. I. Efimova. The saint ruled the Voronezh flock for only 4 years and 7 months, and then retired, first to the Tolshevsky and then to the Zadonsky monastery, where until his death, for more than 13 years, he labored: he did charity, taught and prayed. Here his best creations matured; here, most importantly, he accomplished all the mental and vital good that he was able, even with a limited circle of private activities, to pour out in such abundance not only around himself, but also to distant posterity. But “amazing,” notes one of the descriptors of the life of the saint (Philar. Archbishop of Chernig. in the life of Tikh.), “the activity of the saint in the Voronezh department; He did not rule the flock for long, but how much, despite his illnesses, he managed to accomplish! Notified that some of the clergy do not know how to perform the service of God and therefore there is no service even on holidays, the saint ordered (July 11th, 1763) those who supervised the clergy to personally witness how the service was performed, and to send those who did not know to him. “Many priests and deacons come to me,” he wrote on August 9 of the same year, who are extremely ignorant of the gospel and the apostle of honor. Without reading the New Testament it is impossible to know the will of the Heavenly Father, and without knowing it it is impossible to fulfill it, and from failure to fulfill His holy will, obvious destruction follows. For this reason, all clergy found in the diocese are ordered to each have the New Testaments and read them with reverence and diligence.” In February 1764, the instruction he compiled was sent to the clergy about their main duties, so that it was nailed to every altar. In the same year, instructions on marriages and (October 13) instructions on confession were sent out (May 31). Then they offer: instructions to priests about the seven mysteries and an addition about confession, samples of exhortation to the sick and defendants. To arouse zeal for duty, he sent out a district message to the priests, with an exhortation to live in mutual love, soberly and reverently, to edify the people through worship, life and instructions. More than once he ordered the clergy not to perform illegal marriages, and a special “instruction” on this subject was sent out (November 16, 1767). Having learned that some of the priests were leaving on Sundays and holidays for fairs, a hundred miles away, the saint more than once (Dec. 10th 1763 and Aug. 9th 1766) ordered them not to leave the parish without the permission of their superiors. It was prescribed (October 9, 1763) to certainly send the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Great Lent, which some did not do due to laziness. It was confirmed (September 6, 1763) that clergymen were prohibited from entering taverns. – The saint took great care to keep the churches of God clean; where the deacons were, he ordered (October 2, 1763) to entrust them with the sacristy and care for its cleanliness. – In order to prepare the best servants of the altar of God, the saint took active measures regarding theological schools. First, it was ordered to open Slavic schools in all cities. But they turned out to be of little use. Therefore, Latin schools were opened in Ostrogozhsk and Yelets. Then, when a sum was assigned for the maintenance of schools, a seminary was opened in Voronezh. For her, mentors were called from Kyiv and Kharkov, the order of teaching science was outlined, and instructions were given to students and teachers. – The saint watched so that clergy were not oppressed in the consistory. Once (Mar. 24, 1764) for the wrong decision of a case, he imposed a heavy fine on a member of the consistory and on the secretary, and only for St. I forgave Easter. He strictly forbade (September 10, 1765) consistory officials from treating priests rudely and impudently, for fear of being brought to trial. For a quicker and more accurate solution to matters, he appointed (Dec. 20, 1763) a second member for the district boards, leaving the choice to the clergy. – In judicial rulings, the saint was seen not so much as a judge punishing sin, but as a shepherd caring for the correction of the guilty. “Although it should be,” he wrote (November 1764), the priest (for a serious quarrel) should be transferred (to another place), but he remains in the same place so that the house does not go bankrupt... Let him go, with a signature to be extremely careful of a quarrel, in which one should not even approach the altar, according to the word of Christ.” The custom then was to subject clergy to corporal punishment in the consistory; the saint wrote (Sept. 1764) about priests: “Do not inflict any punishment on the body.” The zealous saint was vigilantly concerned to arouse, now in one way or another, Christian piety among the people. “According to the prayer behind the pulpit at the liturgy,” he wrote (July 14, 1763), “on every Sunday and holiday, read either the explanatory Gospel, or from another book accepted by St. Church, or at least the useful word of the Prologue - on other Sundays, read from the Followed Psalter, a very useful word, stimulating for a sleepy and careless soul, the word of St. Cyril of Alexandria “for the outcome of the soul.” At various times he sent out brief instructions throughout the diocese for reading in churches; a) as befits St. enter the church for praise; b) what every Christian from infancy to death should always keep in mind; c) some notes to awaken oneself from sinful sleep; d) finally (Sept. 25, 1766) - an explanation of Christian duties. When he found out that no one came to listen to the catechismal teachings offered according to his instructions, he spoke himself and ordered an accusatory admonition to be sent out to the churches. The saint prescribed (Jan. 2. 1765) the clergy closely monitored that parishioners came to the church on Sundays and holidays and when they came stood reverently, he took care not only that reverence was preserved in the churches of God, but also that there were no riots in the squares, especially on holidays. Having learned that in some places the laity got drunk, made noise and sang songs during the divine service, the saint ordered (June 16, 1765) the priests to restrain parishioners from such outrages, and to report to him about disobedient ones. He zealously rebelled against the excesses of Maslenitsa. Until his time, they continued to celebrate the pagan holiday of Yaril - carnal lust - in Voronezh. The holiday began on Wednesday after Trinity Day and continued until Tuesday of Peter's Lent. Residents of Voronezh and neighboring settlements gathered in the square that was outside the Moscow Gate of Voronezh. A young man, with a paper cap on his head, tied with ribbons, flowers, bells, danced in the square and with him everything danced and went wild - drunkenness, fistfights, fights and all sorts of disgrace appeared. St. the shepherd appeared in the square denouncing the “stinking” holiday, and spoke with such force that in his eyes the huts and shops were destroyed and the people dispersed. Then he spoke a word against Yaril in the cathedral. The shepherd’s zeal was crowned with complete success: the feast of Yaril was no longer repeated.” Voronezh flock"). “The activity of the saint,” adds Bolkhovitinov, “extended to the point that he was never idle, and when any preparations were required for his pastorate, he often spent the whole night without sleep, and could not calm down until he finished his work. In the morning he usually occupied himself with the consideration of diocesan affairs, and his impartiality in court was most exemplary. After lunch, after a short nap, he almost always practiced until midnight in composing teachings, instructions and admonitions to his clergy and people. Instead of rest, he occupied himself with reading the holy fathers, and especially Chrysostom... He spent the least amount of time interviewing those who came to him, and even his interviews were occupied more with pious and moralizing reasoning. But poor people have always had free access to it. His sensitive heart was not so passionately occupied with any subject as helping poverty and consoling sorrow. Not content with frequently receiving the poor in his home, he also had the habit of sending out a few pieces of money to almshouses, prisons, and other prisoners every holiday of Easter, the Nativity of Christ, and on some other days, such as Meat Week and all holy days. Sometimes he himself, dressed in a simple monastic dress, in the evenings on the mentioned days, came to the prisons to the prisoners, as if sent on his own behalf, and, giving them alms, gave them verbal instructions, admonitions and consolations for patience. The darkness of the night at first did not allow the prisoners to recognize this tall alms-giver and comforter; but when, after several visits, they began to recognize him, either by his sweet-worded exhortations, or by popular rumor, he stopped his visits to them for a while and sent his subordinate monks in his place” (Bolkhovit. in Description of the Life of Quiet St. Petersburg, 1796, pp. 34–35). Pension (500 rubles) assigned to the saint when he left the department. “One year,” adds Metropolitan Eugene, “when there was a crop failure near Zadonsk and, therefore, the high cost of bread, his help was the most saving thing for the poor. Every day, at the gates of the monastery and at his cell, greedy people appeared, to whom he sometimes distributed money, and sometimes bread, begged by him from good landowners, of whom he taught many to be philanthropic and almsgiving. Those who received pleased him with heartfelt thanksgiving and prayers; and this humane act glorified his name throughout all surrounding areas. But from this very fact he became more secluded, began to show himself less to the people, and was often forced to do charity not personally, but through the hands of his cell servants. In order to preserve the secret of charity, which was generally his favorite exercise in life, he would send a cell man on a trading day to the city square: the messenger entered into conversations with the peasants selling bread on carts about their needs and exhaustion, and having learned their poverty and misery, he traded bread with them, and, having given them half the money as a deposit, or the whole price, hid from them and returned with a report to the benefactor" (Description of Life Tikh., pp., according to the 1796 edition, 47, details in the 1820 edition, pp. 68, 67 and 63). There was, according to legend, even such a case. “St. Tikhon, among the copyists of his works, had one of the novices of the Zadonsk monastery. Once, when he was studying with the saint and finishing one play, at the same time the abbot of the monastery needed him, who sent Tikhon to his cell. This one replies that he will immediately let him go, as soon as he writes a few lines, the impatient monk, proud and hot-tempered, sends him another time; The scribe, having finished, ran to the abbot, to whom Tikhon went after him, so that if the abbot was angry with the scribe, he would stand up for him, relieving the blame on himself. As soon as he approaches, he hears the noise and anger of the abbot; The saint redoubles his steps and, opening the door, sees the monk, inflamed with anger, and before he had time to cross the threshold, he receives a strong slap in the face from him, with which Tikhon throws himself at his feet and asks him for forgiveness. Amazed by this act. the abbot abandons his temper, is ashamed of it and throws himself on his knees before him, asking for forgiveness, and thus Tikhon’s humility turns the lion into a meek lamb.” (Manuscript. Moscow. Publ. Music No. 116). – This fact was hitherto unknown to Tikhon’s biography writers. “Once, after lunch, he was walking around the monastery, past the fraternal meal, where the regular servants were chopping wood. He had barely passed them (they hated him because he exposed their disorder in Life), when, picking up the logs, they began to kick after him, uttering obscene words: “There’s our bigot walking around the monastery, he’s still a bigot!” The Right Reverend, returning to his cell, said to the cell man: Go, call me here about. Mitrofan. The cell attendant went and brought Schemamonk Mitrofan. Having received him, the bishop said with sorrow: “Father Mitrofan! I’ll tell you a new story about my misery: I walked around the monastery, past the brethren’s kitchen, and near it the servants were chopping wood, and, picking up logs, they chased me after me, and reproached me with annoying words: “Look, they say, our bigot is a bigot!” What is it like to endure bitterness from such people.” Schemamonk Mitrofan, with a sad gaze, answered the bishop: “This, Vladyka, It’s good for you that they make you bitter: if anyone reproaches and reviles people, God exalts and glorifies him in heaven and on earth.” The saint said: “Thank you, Fr. Mitrofan, that you drove away my sorrow; know that the Lord has enlightened you; Even though I could take revenge on them and make them unhappy, I don’t want to do this. The Lord told us: love your enemies, and bless those who curse you” (Matthew 5:44). (From the handwritten life of Tikh., Yeletsk ed.). Rom.12:20. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. Ivan Efimov, in monasticism Tikhon, another cell attendant of Saint Tikhon, during the second half of his stay in Zadonsk, a person especially close to him: in his spiritual testament, the saint instructs Ivan Efimov, and not anyone else, to dispose of his property and his writings, which were mostly written by the hand of the same cell attendant. Archpriest Bolkhovitinov (later Metropolitan Eugene) turned to him, as a “close companion” of St. Tikhon, “boasting in the name of his disciple,” for “additional news” about St. Tikhon, during the 2nd edition of the “Description” of his life. At his request, Ivan Efimov collected everything “he saw and heard from his (Tikhon’s) holy lips”, that only “he could find in his notes” about Saint Tikhon, and that “came to his memory,” and, together with his comments, what was “wrongly printed” in the 1st edition of Tikhon’s life, or what, in his opinion, “could be included” in it, passed on their notes to Bolkhovitinov (read in the paper. Iv. Efimov, two letters to him from Archpriest Bolkhovitinov, l. 1 and 17, and three, written in response to him, letters from Iv. Efimov. on the 1st l. his notes about Tikhon). We are publishing these notes in this edition. Many of these notes were included by Bolkhovitinov in the 2nd edition of Tikhon’s biography, but these notes appear in print for the first time in their entirety. The original original notes, from which they are printed here, were written on 75 pages, in large. 4-ku; on 1st liter The manuscript was traced by the hand of Metropolitan Eugene. inscription: “Notes for the biography of the Right Reverend Tikhon Sokolov, former Bishop of Voronezh, who died in Zadonsk.” The first sheets of the manuscript (1–15) contain three letters from Ivan Efimov to Archpriest Bolkhovitinov and two letters from Tikhon. The letters of Ivan Efimov provide almost no material for the biography of St. Tikhon, and the letters of the saint are already included in the present edition of his works (vol. V, 342 and 343). In view of this, the above initial pages of notes are omitted in this edition. Saint Tikhon actually died on a weekday, Sunday: August 13, 1783. This desire can be explained in more detail in the words of the saint himself. In “A Brief Exhortation on How It Befits to Enter Holy Churches for Doxology,” the saint, among other things, writes: “When you come to the church, you see the tombs of your brethren and remember that you, too, have dwelt in the bowels of the earth a thousand times, and the dust that you trample with your feet will cover your face. And therefore sigh to God for those who have passed away, that He may have mercy on them. This will be useful not only for them, but also for you: for you show love to your neighbors, and, seeing them dead, remember your own death, and thus pray more fervently to God.” (According to this edition of the creative work. Quiet volume 1, pp. 100–101). Of course, the well-known publication of Archpriest Andrei Ioannov: Complete historical information about the ancient Strigolniks and the new schismatics. In this book, the author says, among other things, that the schismatics “sent from Moscow to the Right Reverend Tikhon of Voronezh a Saratov merchant with a petition, would he agree to join them? But he responded that, having left the diocese, what should he start with? You yourself are empty.” (according to the 3rd edition, Opb. 1799 i., p. 362) In one of his letters, the saint describes this “hearing” this way. “In confirmation of your cowardice, I am writing that this week one heard something in our monastery, when he forgot himself at midnight just as he was going to bed, namely, he heard such singing above him that his heart, like wax, melted from joy and sweetness; and as soon as that singing ended, he woke up, and felt that joy and sweetness in his heart, which he had for some time, and soon left him; and then great sadness came upon him, that that joy had departed from him...” (according to this edition, vol. V, p. 338, letter 42). 1 Thessalonians 5:3. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. . Cheat. eg letter, placed, to this day ed. op. Quiet, in volume V, on page 282. “With constant exercise in his duties throughout his life, the saint has long been predisposed to nervous diseases and hypochondriacal attacks: and from pastoral labors and exploits and from philanthropic compassion, and moreover from many difficulties, from various sides of insanity and obstacles in the fulfillment of his good intentions and undertakings, constantly becoming more and more upset, he soon received a complete hypochondriacal illness. Frequent insomnia and blood anxieties began to bother him and stop his work, so that finally, despairing of being efficient in his pastoral rank, he decided it would be better not to take the place of a shepherd than to miss his responsibilities. Therefore, in the middle of 1767 he sent to St. The Synod petitioned for his dismissal from his position and for permission to choose a monastery in the same diocese for his rest. His wish was fulfilled, and at the end of the same year he received his dismissal” (Eug. in the Description of the life of Tikh., pp. according to the 1st edition. 1796, 35; details in the 1820 edition, pp. 42–43). Bolkhovitinov adds: “Besides the Bible, several works of Chrysostom, who was the favorite author of St. Tikhon and whose spirit and even style is echoed everywhere in all the writings of this shepherd, the saint, when composing his books, had few other fathers” (Description of life. Tikhon, 1796, pp. 41 and 34). In the works of the saint there are actually extracts, in some places quite extensive, from op. Basil the Great, Macarius of Egypt. Augustine and Jerome, which leads us to believe that the saint, when writing his works, had at hand the works of these writers; The saint himself mentions the writings of Macarius of Egypt in his will about the books he donated to the Voronezh Seminary. According to the inventory made by Rev. Tikhon the 3rd, these books were as follows: 1) Michaelis annotationes in psalmos ac proverbia, in 4°; 2) Liber, qui vocatur iudex veritatis, in 4°; 3) Biblia Castellionis, in 8°; 4) Theophanis Procopovicz dissertatio de Justificatione, in 8°; 5) Hunnii commentarius in novum testamentum, in 8°; 6) Antonii Friderici Bisching theologiae epitome, in 8°; 7) Sancti patris Macarii Aegyptii opera, in 8°; 8) The Russian Symphony has two books: one on the Psalms of David, and the other on the 14 Epistles of St. Apostle Paul, both in l. (Zhit. Tikh. St. Petersburg. 1862, part 1, pp. 177–178). In addition, the library of the Zadonsk Monastery contains the following donated to him by the saint: Chrysostom, Commentary on the Apostolic Epistles. Kyiv, 1623 and .; Trebnik, Kyiv press, 1736 (Memorial of Prince Voron, province for 1863–64, p. 24). - “The complete Bible, signed by St. Tikhon, the right hand,” writes Ivan Efimov, “the saint ordered me to take as a blessing”; The Psalter, which belonged to the saint, is kept by the Yeletsk merchant A.I. Myasishcheva, bought by her husband from Tikhon’s cell attendant, Chebotarev (Zhit. Tikh. 1862, part I, 163). Saint Tikhon, explains one of the descriptors of his life, “did not serve the Liturgy, probably due to his illnesses, which he wrote about in his first petition to St. Synod" (Fr. A. Lebedev in his book St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, St. Petersburg 1865, p. 109); “And maybe for another reason,” explains the author of “Life of Russia. saints,” that he considered the service of the Divine Liturgy too solemn for a bishop who had left his see; Perhaps he was also held back by the dislike of his successor, Tikhon the 2nd, who remained on cold terms with him throughout the administration of the Voronezh diocese; Apparently, he did not visit his solitary brother, and even asked St. Synod: “Can a dismissed bishop be allowed to officiate if he so desires?” St. The Synod found even the question of this inappropriate, since Tikhon was dismissed from office at his own request, and ordered that the saint be provided with the sacristy necessary for his ministry; but one such question was enough to forever keep Tikhon from serving as a priest in a diocese that was already alien to him, so as not to arouse the displeasure of its new primate (Life of St. Tikh. Zadonsky. St. Petersburg, 1864, pp. 33–34). “Love,” notes the saint, “does not look at faces, does not discern rank; she lays aside the benefits of her title there, where the need of the poor demands” (Cf. 1 Cor. 13:4–7 Edition of the ABC of Faith). How faithful the great saint was to this Gospel teaching is shown, among other things, by the following incident. Tikhon visited Yelets. One day a poor Yelets woman with 5 young children comes to the saint. “I don’t have a piece of bread, not a penny of money,” she says to the saint, “and I can’t work: I lost it with them, with the children. your snare. Help, lord, in any way you can.” The saint was moved by the situation of the family: he took the boys into his care and helped the rest with money. But it’s remarkable: despite the then prevailing exaltation of “his nobility, his names and titles,” the saint did not abandon, even later, when he came to Yelets, personally visiting the poor bourgeois woman. When he doesn’t find the mistress of the house, he will leave the money on the table and leave (Our edition of the Life of St. Tikh., ed. 2, M. 1862, 48; detailed reading in the Life of St. Tikh. St. Petersburg, 1862, part 1, 157). . Metropolitan Eugene adds: “sometimes he (Tikhon) visited Yelets so secretly that even his friends there did not know about it. In the event of a secret arrival, he stopped his cart across the river (Pine) and walked on foot to those imprisoned. At the entrance, he first greeted them as if he were his children, sat down with them, asked each one about the guilt of their imprisonment, and, examining each one’s conscience, first consoled them, then exhorted them to generous patience; finally, upon leaving, he gave alms to the criminals, and gave ransom money to the prisoners for their debts, and hastily left the prison for the almshouses with the same alms, and then from the city itself. Soon the citizens also learned about this; everyone tried to see him, looked for him, but he was already far away, and on the way he stopped only to change the carts.” (Description of the life of Tikh., 1796, p. 48. Coll. ed. 2, M. 1820, pp. 71–72). Gal.6:3. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. Song 5:1. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. We are talking, obviously, about the flood that befell St. Petersburg on the night of September 9-10, 1777. In St. Petersburg. In the Gazette for this year (No. 74) we read: “from the 9th to the 10th of this (September) month, at night, there was a strong wind from the sea in the city, and a flood occurred here. The water at its most recent height was a foot and a half higher than the flood that occurred in 1752; from the surface of an ordinary plain it was 10 feet. She stood in this position for several minutes. The lower housing in almost all houses was filled with water, including some parts of the city standing on the hills." g., pp. 31–32). To greater horror, “the flood happened during the night: why, despite its short continuation, many people and livestock disappeared” (Georgi, in the Description of St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg, 1794, p. 41). – Other examples of the saint’s foresight have been preserved in legend. “When the actual birth manifest was received. book Alexander Pavlovich, Saint Tikhon, in a conversation about his friend Nikandr Alekseevich Bekhteev, predicted many things that happened under Alexander. In 1812, when Napoleon had just entered Russia, Nikandr Alekseich, according to St. Tikhon, said that Goliath would perish, and Russia would triumph” (Filar., Archbishop of Chernigov, in Life of Tikh., pp., published in 1864, 64). “Having once visited the Rostovtsevs in Yelets, and having met a boy running around the room, the saint asked: “Whose boys are these and what is his name?” “This is my grandson Alexander,” answered Rostovtsev.” The saint stroked the boy’s head, blessed him and, looking at him with sympathy, said: “Get ready, Sasha, to the heavenly Jerusalem; get ready, my dear, to the heavenly fatherland.” Three days later, hitherto healthy, the boy died (Life of St. Quiet. St. Petersburg. 1862%. Part 1, p. 156). – One day the saint invited the aforementioned Bekhteev to his dinner table. During the meal, a thought occurred to Nikandr Alekseich: how the Lord loved the saint! He enriched him with intelligence, faith, piety, and outwardly adorned him with a handsome face, a thick and beautiful beard; The Lord deprived me of beauty and hair on my beard (he had only two tufts of hair in his beard). “Servant of God,” Tikhon suddenly says to him: “Why do you think like that? Do you want me to name you the beardless saints of God?” Nikander was amazed at the saint’s foresight; rising from the table, he fell at his feet, asking forgiveness for his sorrowful thought. Having received forgiveness, Nikander turned to the saint with the question: “How did you, holy lord, see my thoughts?” “It is necessary,” answered the saint, “to improve the inner eyes: then the outer ones will also open. For example, throw a handful of wheat into a glass of water; look - the grains are visible. So our thoughts are visible to the seer.” (Ibid pp. 150–151). There is another known case of the saint’s intercession for people who are “without intercession.” A rumor reached the saint that one of the surrounding landowners would oppress the peasants. The saint intervened in their cause and himself went to his house to admonish the landowner. The hot-tempered nobleman argued. The saint answered with meekness, but firmly. The landowner lost his temper more and more and finally forgot himself to the point that... he hit the saint on the cheek... - The saint left. But on the way, faithful to the commandment of the Gospel, he decided to ask forgiveness from the one who had offended him for “leading him into such temptation,” and when he arrived, he even fell at his feet. The legend adds that this unexpected act of the kindly shepherd so struck the daring landowner that he himself, sobbing, fell at the feet of the saint, imploring him to forgive him, and from then on he completely changed in his relations with the peasants, giving them all kinds of benefits. (Memorial book of the Voronezh province for 1863–64, p. 19. There is also a refutation that the subject of the dispute, as they wrote before, was some kind of abstract, theological truth). To this day ed. op. Saint, vol. V, p. 292, writing. 14. There were cases, the legend adds, that among the “truly beggars” there were those who, “having enough food, feigned poverty, or some imagined needs, as if they had gone bankrupt from a fire, etc., and thereby took away alms from the poor, truly beggars. Truly,” the saint notes in another place, “those are among the predators, and as thieves, they are subject to God’s judgment (According to the present edition of the Holy Book. Vol. I, 79, Col. 2, § 6). Two of the citizens of Yelets, hearing about the extraordinary good nature of St. Tikhon, conspired to trick him into asking for benefits. Appearing to the saint, they said with feigned tears that they had recently lost their houses and all their property from a fire, and had come to ask for help. After listening to them, the saint looked at them intently and gave them some money. That same day, satisfied with their success, they set off back to Yelets. They drive up to the city and see that there is a fire in the city... they rush to their houses: they are burning. – Struck by the closeness of the punishing hand of God, after tears of deception, they hastened to Saint Tikhon with sincere tears of repentance, begging him to forgive them. The saint fell to his knees in amazement before the image of the Crucifixion of Christ, quietly said a prayer, stood up and said with meekness: “Ask the Lord for forgiveness; you have already been punished for your sin; From now on you must start a new life.” Having said this, he blessed them, gave them money, without leaving them, and then with his admonitions and active participation. The one conveying this notes that after this these people, with the good participation of the saint, really changed for the better, earning the general respect of their fellow citizens with their honesty and hard work. (Our publication. Life. Pleasant of God. Tikh. M. 1862, ed. 2, p. 66; reprint from Muscovites. 1843, book 4, p. 473). – The more Tikhon loved and respected his human dignity in every person, the more he grieved when he saw the poor, humiliated to beggary...; the more often and more urgently he demands, and in his writings, attention to the situation of helpless people and their better organization, the more often he repeats his favorite thought that “everything comes from non-love”; that “if we had love, there would be no beggars and wretches, people would not walk around in rags and half naked: love would dress them up; would not have wandered without homes: love would not have allowed them to do that, but would have given them a place of rest.” Not limiting himself to one-time benefits to those in need, the saint established an almshouse for the poor in Livny, Oryol province. It is remarkable to what extent this matter occupied the saint. He was involved in the smallest details in the organization of this institution. The slightest failure robbed him of his peace. When the local priest, who was entrusted with the immediate supervision of the work, informed him that “due to the muddy roads, this matter cannot be corrected this autumn, and would it be good to postpone the transportation of materials until the journey?”, the saint answered him with a letter in which he begged him, “for the sake of Christ, try to see if it is possible to build now, so that there will be a place for the poor to rest, in a decent place” (read the writings of the 40s, vol. V, pp. 336 and notes to it). So impatiently did the saint wait for the fulfillment of his good undertaking and with such attention and respect did he show to man, taking care to settle the poor, not just somehow, but in a decent place (Our ed. Zhit. Tikh. 1862, pp. 55–57). Precisely, January 29, 1782. In his will, having given glory to God for all His good deeds, the saint makes orders about his writings. “My works,” he writes, “in which I, according to my strength and ability, being in solitude, worked, left them to myself, namely: 1) about Christianity, in six volumes; 2) Letters sent, in one volume; 3) Cell letters, in one volume; 4) 0 the truth of the Gospel teaching and about faith, in one volume; 5) Christian instructions, in one volume; 6) Spiritual treasure collected from the world, in four volumes; 7) Fraternal moralizing words, in one volume; 8) Sermons of the diocesan works, in one volume, which I instructed my cell attendant, John, who served me, to take for consideration to the Holy Synod. I couldn’t sign with my own hand for my illness, but my own seal is attached here for authenticity.” (Manuscript collection of works. Quiet., No., according to typical account, 1, l. 188–189). In another note, additional to this will, the saint writes: “The things remaining for me, namely: 1) tin and copper dishes, 2) a wall clock, 3) two old carpets, 4) firewood, sell all this and give the money to the poor; 5) give bread to poor widows; 6) four gray sweatshirts for those who lived with me: Ivan, Semyon, Sergei, Roman, one sweatshirt each; 7) distribute the rest to small, poor and half-naked children; 8) give the felts laid on the floor to the shop where they were taken, although at half the price; 9) put me in a new shirt and in a cassock and dyed cassock, made for that purpose, and put on the bishop’s mantle on top and my little omophorion on my shoulders, and put on a panagia; and put on your head a new kamilavka with a hood, prepared for that purpose; give the old kamilavka to the person you promised; 10) give Latin books and a symphony to the Voronezh library; 11) sell the sofas and armchairs, and give the other folding armchairs to Nikandr Alekseevich, who care for them; 12) sell tea cups; 13) sell tablecloths, napkins and cleaning pads; 14) give the wooden dishes to Philip and the sheepskin coat; 15) give the mattress and pillows where they were taken, and when they don’t take them, sell them and distribute the money to the poor; 16) the image of the crucifixion of Christ, and you, Ivan, should take the removal from the cross and the position in the coffin for yourself; 17) five images of saints, namely: two - the passion of Christ, Luke the Evangelist, the Apostles Peter and Paul, were ordered from me to be given to people known to me. All this and so on must be done to you, Ivan, but by my order, without fail. Tikhon Bishop. my own seal, for “The saint reproached himself: for short-term service to the church, for which he accepted the rank of pastor; in the impatient and voluntary abandonment of his title, for which he again saw himself capable; in the incomplete completion of many institutions useful to the church, which could have been completely destroyed, and even in the death, perhaps, of many souls entrusted to his care from the Providence of God who called upon him” (Metropolitan Eug. in Description of Life. Tikh.). With joy and gratitude to God the saint and others received the admonitions sent to him by Providence. “The Eminence once wrote to the virtuous husband Kosma Ignatievich, asking him to come to him. When this man appeared, the bishop asked: does he know Kamenev? Cosma replied that he knew, and knew well. The Reverend said: you know, he opened my thoughts. Just a few days before this, the saint continued, the demon struck me with the thought of arrogance, and no matter how hard I tried to drive these thoughts away from myself, I just couldn’t. The third day, after Vespers, I sat in front of my cell, on the porch. More than other days we are overwhelmed by the same thoughts. I see Kamenev running from the church, surrounded by children; passing by the porch, he suddenly hits me on the cheek and says in my ear: don’t be arrogant. “I, the saint concluded, at that very moment felt that the demon of arrogance had departed from me.” The legend adds that in gratitude for such healing, the saint assigned the holy fool Kamenev a pension of 3 k. per day, which he gave out until his death. (From Yelets stories about St. Tikhon, printed. abbreviated to Sunday. Thurs. 1838 No. 37). Gal.5:22. – Editorial of the ABC of Faith. A strict guardian of the rules of the church, the saint had a high degree of Christian kindness and condescension towards others. Such a case has been preserved in legend. One day the saint entered the cell of his friend, the Zadonsk schemamonk Mitrofan, and found him at table with Cosmos, a citizen of Yelets, whom the saint also loved very much for his good life. It was Lent, the Friday before the holiday of Vai. There was a dish of fish on the table. Knowing the strict life of the saint, the friends were greatly embarrassed, and Mitrofan even fell to his knees before him, asking for forgiveness. A strict faster, knowing the impeccable life of both, the saint not only did not reproach them, but only said: “Sit down, I know you: love is higher than fasting.” And in order to calm them down even more, he himself tasted the fish soup, while he constantly observed fasting in all severity. (Resurrection. Thu. 1838 No. 37, and our edition. Life. Pleasant of God. Quiet. M. 1862, ed. 2, pp. 61–62; detailed reading in Life. Quiet. St. Petersburg, 1862, part 1, pp. 152–156). “Wonderful,” adds the Metropolitan. Eugene, “they say about his visits: he often came to his friends uninvited, and usually on such occasions for them when his presence was very necessary for them due to circumstances, so that without that they themselves would like to call him. This happened especially during family discord, during the division of inheritances, when children were upset, and the like. When he appeared between them, we were greeted as a messenger of heaven, kissed as a benefactor and friend, and listened to as a father and mentor. All his conversations were animated by meekness and teachings of brotherly love. No one dared to express hostility in front of him... and whoever he found guilty unquestioningly admitted himself. He did not leave such a house until he tamed the obstinate, until he reconciled everyone and established harmony. Then his pleasure and joy were complete: and leaving them, he invoked God’s blessing on everyone. He considered the creation of the world more blessed than alms itself. “The merciful,” he said, “according to the promise of Christ, only they themselves will receive mercy; and the peacemakers will be called sons of God.” Therefore, every news of the reconciliation of enemies always pleased him even without it” (Description of the life of Quiet, page according to the 1796 edition, 42–43; details in the 1820 edition, pp. 74–75). Am.8:11; Rom.10:17 – Edition of the ABC of Faith. 1 Cor.4:16 – Edition of the ABC of Faith. Filaret (Gumilevsky), archbishop. Russian saints, revered by the entire Church or local ones. Experience describing their lives. Chernigov, 1863. P. 49. Evfimy Bolkhovitinov, prot. A complete description of Tikhon's life... pp. 34–35. In the position of sexton and without a surplice.