Житие преподобного отца нашего Лаврентия, затворника Печерского

After the temptation that befell the venerable hermits of the Pechersk Isaac and Nikita, Blessed Lawrence, who labored in the same holy Pechersk monastery, gained fame, and he also had the boldness, as a good warrior of Christ, to fight with his own strength alone against the soul-destroying devil, the enemy of the ascetics. He wished to devote himself to prayer in a strict seclusion, confirmed in the thought that it is about the reclusive life that the Lord speaks in the words: “But when you pray, go into your house, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6). But the reverend fathers resolutely did not advise him to do this in the holy Pechersk monastery, where the devil most plotted against the fleeing fathers. They recalled how here the enemy defeated Isaac and Nikita, who fought with him alone, in seclusion; Both of them, barely after many prayers, were brought to their senses. Then Lawrence, having said goodbye to the brethren, went to the monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius, built by Prince Izyaslav 1051, and there labored in seclusion. He began to lead the most strict life and show the greatest zeal for his salvation, undertaking more and more labor every day, killing all passionate desires with abstinence and hunger, uprooting them with the sword of the spiritual, that is, with the power of prayer, and extinguishing the kindled arrows of the enemy with the water of his tears. Thus, by the grace of God, he not only escaped the demonic arrows, but also received from the all-generous Lord the gift of miraculously healing various ulcers and ailments of people, as well as casting out demons. Once, among many others, a man was brought from Kyiv to St. Lawrence for healing, possessed by a demon so fierce and strong that he alone easily took the tree that ten people could hardly carry and threw it into the distance. The blessed recluse, desiring the glorification of his spiritual fatherland, the holy Pechersk Monastery, with grace, ordered that this man be taken there. Then the demoniac began to scream: -Who are you sending me to? I don’t even dare to approach the cave, since many saints rest in it. In the monastery itself there are thirty holy monks of whom I am afraid, and with the others I am fighting. When the demoniac told this about the grace resting in the holy Pechersk Monastery, the blessed one again ordered that he be taken there by force in order to better verify everything he had said. Those who were leading the demoniac, knowing that he had never been to the Pechersk Monastery and did not know anyone there, asked him: – Who are these ascetics whom you are afraid of? At this time, all the brothers in the Pechersk Monastery were one hundred and eighteen. The possessed man listed thirty of them by name and said: “They can all banish me with one word.” Then those who led him said to him again: “We want to imprison you in a cave.” “What good is it for me to fight the dead?” For they have much greater boldness to pray to God for their monks and for everyone who comes to them. If you want to see my ability to fight, then take me to the monastery: besides the indicated thirty men, I can fight with everyone else. Then he began to show his abilities by making speeches in Hebrew, Roman, Greek, in short - in all languages ​​\u200b\u200bwhich he had never heard. Those who accompanied him were afraid and greatly marveled at the change in his speech and his ability to speak different languages. After this, before they entered the monastery, the unclean spirit left the possessed man; the healed man began to reason meaningfully, and those who were with him began to rejoice. Then all together they entered the holy, miraculous Pechersk Church to give praise to God. Having learned about this, the abbot came with all the brethren to church. The healed man did not know either the abbot or any of the thirty men whose names he called during the demonic possession. Then they began to ask him: He, looking at the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, answered: “Thirty holy men met us with her, and I was healed. At the same time, he remembered the names of all of them, but did not know a single one by sight. Then they all together gave praise to God, His Most Pure Mother and His saints. This is how the holy place of the Pechersk monastery became famous due to the improvement of God, announced by the blessed recluse Lavrenty, who after some time left the Pechersk monastery and was elevated to the Turov See 1052. After the blessed death of Saint Lawrence in 1053, his body was transferred to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and placed with honor in the caves, in which to this day his miraculous relics remain incorruptible, in honor of the One who sees in secret, but rewards the hermits openly, glorified in the Trinity of God, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Monastery of St. Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki was located near the Pechersk Monastery. In 1128 he was assigned to the Pechersk monastery. Turov is a city in the current Minsk province. St. Lawrence has been Bishop of Turov since 1182. He died at the end of the 12th century. You might be interested in: