Житие преподобного отца нашего Никона, игумена Печерского

When the Lord was pleased to plant a prolific branch of monastic life in Russia, He, first of all, brought to the skillful and hardworking pioneer of Russian monasticism, Saint Anthony, who asceticised in a cave, the Monk Nikon, who was his good co-worker in asceticism. Zealously going through the degrees of monastic virtues, imitating his mentor and teacher in everything, the Monk Nikon showed himself to be a worthy leader of the monks and a reliable leader of them in the mental helicity of fasting life. When people came to Anthony who wanted to take on the image of an equal angel, he himself taught them virtues, and he ordered the Monk Nikon to tonsure them. In the actions of these two ascetics one could discern some kind of similarity between Moses and Aaron, for the Monk Anthony brought the law from St. Mount Athos 2092, like Moses from Sinai, the Monk Nikon acted at the command of Anthony, like Aaron, venerable with the rank of priesthood. Nikon performed all his deeds with humility, experiencing not only joys, but also endured sorrows with patience, thanking God for everything. He was granted great spiritual joy when he tonsured our venerable father Theodosius, who soon turned out to be a great mentor of monastic life in Russia. He also rejoiced in spirit when he tonsured the eminent boyar, blessed Varlaam, as well as the head of the prince’s entire household and his favorite, blessed Ephraim the eunuch. But for these tonsures he suffered considerable sorrow. For, having learned about their tonsure, Prince Izyaslav 2093 became very angry with the monks and ordered one of them, the one who had taken the tonsure, to immediately bring to himself. The servants immediately set off and brought Blessed Nikon to him. Looking at the saint with anger, the prince asked: “Did you tonsure the boyar and the eunuch without my command?” The Monk Nikon answered with courage: “I tonsured them by the grace of God at the command of the Heavenly King Jesus Christ, who called them to such a feat. The prince became even more angry and said: “Either convince them to return to your home, or I will send you and those with you into captivity, and I will order your cave to be excavated.” - Lord! Do whatever you please! It is not proper for me to turn soldiers away from the Heavenly King. After this, Saint Anthony and those with him left the cave, intending, due to the princely anger and reproaches against Blessed Nikon, to go to another region. But one of the youths told the princess about this. She, reminding the prince of the wrath of God that befell her fatherland, the land of the Lyakhs 2094, for the expulsion by her father, Boleslav the Brave 2095, of the Monkmen who tonsured Moses Ugrin, told him: - Listen to me, sir, and don’t be angry. In your country, the same monks were also expelled and we had to suffer a lot for them. Be careful, sir, that the same thing does not happen in your area. Hearing this, the prince feared the wrath of God and released the blessed one, ordering him to return to the cave; at the same time, he sent with a prayer for a return to the cave and to those who had left it. And only after three days, having heeded the prince’s request, they returned to the cave, as stated in the life of St. Anthony. After such a misfortune, our reverend father Nikon spent a harsh life in a cave; by fasting and prayer he won many victories over evil spirits, showed himself to be equal with the venerable fathers Anthony and Theodosius; they were three lights, shining in the darkness and dispersing the demonic darkness. After a significant increase in the brethren in the cave, blessed Nikon wished to go into solitude and remain silent. After consulting with the Monk Anthony, and talking with another monk, the Bulgarian Svyatogorsk 2096 from the monastery of St. Mina, he set off with the latter. Arriving at the sea, they separated. The Bulgarian, going to Constantinople, found an island in the middle of the sea, on which he settled. Having lived there for many years, enduring hunger and cold, he died in peace; That island is still called Bolgarov. The great Nikon went to the island of Tmutarakansky 2097 and, having found an uninhabited place near the city, settled there, remaining silent and serving God without laziness, applying labor to labor and surprising the people with his extraordinary life. His fame spread everywhere; Many people from the city and other places began to flock to the monk; They marveled at his life, since they were not yet confirmed in the faith and had not heard anything about monastic life. But then, instructed by God, wanting to inherit the monastic good behavior, they begged the Monk Nikon to tonsure them. The saint taught them and tonsured them and built the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos there. And so, by the grace of God, through the prayers of St. Nikon, that place grew - a glorious monastery arose, similar to the Pechersk monastery. After the death of Rostislav Vladimirovich 2098, Prince of Tmutarakan, our reverend father Nikon begged the inhabitants of that country to go to Svyatoslav Yaroslavich 2099, Prince of Chernigov, and ask him to release his son Gleb to the throne of Tmutarakan. Having reached the city of Chernigov and having successfully completed the assignment entrusted to him, the monk went to the city of Kyiv and came to the Pechersky Monastery to the blessed abbot Theodosius. Having seen each other, they both fell to the ground together and bowed to each other, and then hugged each other and cried a lot with joy, since they had not seen each other for a long time. After this, the Monk Theodosius begged Blessed Nikon not to leave him as long as they lived. Nikon promised him, saying: “I’ll go and just run my monastery and then, if God wills, I’ll come back again.” Having reached the island of Tmutarakansky with Prince Gleb Svyatoslavich 2100, who took the throne, the monk, according to his promise, ruled the monastery and returned to Feodosius. Arriving at the Pechersk Monastery, he devoted himself entirely to the Monk Theodosius and submitted to him with all joy. The Monk Theodosius loved him very much and considered him as his father; therefore, when he himself went away from the monastery, he then entrusted the brethren to blessed Nikon, as the eldest of all, to teach and guard them. Often also the Monk Theodosius, himself instructing the brethren with spiritual words, commanded Blessed Nikon, who was well-read in books, to do the same. Many times, when Blessed Nikon was sewing and making books (since he was skilled in this), the Monk Theodosius himself, sitting down next to him, prepared the books he needed for this task. But soon the blessed silent man, the Monk Nikon, wished to return to his island again. Discord arose among the Russian princes as a result of the seizure of his throne by Svyatoslav, who expelled his brother Izyaslav from Kyiv. He could not bear the excitement excited by this event, during which it was impossible to maintain the silence of the spirit. The Monk Theodosius begged him, as before, not to leave him while he was alive; but blessed Nikon, having asked for forgiveness (since he could not tolerate rebellion, but was accustomed to solitude), left with two monks and lived there for several years in his usual feat. After the repose of the Monk Theodosius and after the acceptance of the abbot by Blessed Stephen, the Monk Nikon, prompted by brotherly love, came again to visit the Monk Theodosius; he regretted that he had not found his beloved friend alive and decided to spend the rest of his life in his monastery. He often came to the tomb of the saint, shedding sorrowful and joyful tears here, partly grieving over the separation of his beloved brother, partly thanking God that such a lamp shone in Russia with the life of an equal angel, on which he, Nikon, with his own hands placed the holy Angelic monastic image. After the abbess of Saint Stephen, the brethren, considering Nikon to be the eldest of all, since the Monk Theodosius himself took monastic vows from him, by the will of God and by common consent, chose him as their abbot as the same in life as Fathers Anthony and Theodosius. They kindly obeyed him in everything and revered him as a father and mentor, seeing in him one likeness of both. Many times the enemy and hater of good, the devil, tried to create obstacles for this saint, as well as for the blessed abbot Stephen, in the matter of caring for the souls of the flock entrusted to him by God, wanting to outrage the brethren with hatred against him, but he never succeeded in this, he remained disgraced, and his darkness did not cover the light of the good deeds of the Monk Nikon. Blessed Abbot Nikon pleased God so much, being an example of virtues for his flock, that during his abbot the Holy Pechersk Church, created by God, was miraculously decorated with holy icons; for his friends, the Monks Anthony and Theodosius, added their heavenly prayers to the earthly prayers of this blessed builder, and sent icon painters from Constantinople to him, giving them gold for rent. The Rev. Abbot Nikon showed those icon painters the image of his beloved friends, the Rev. Fathers Anthony and Theodosius, who died 10 years ago, and they immediately recognized them as those who came to them, hired them and sent them to him. At the same time, they also told other wondrous miracles: for example, when they wanted to return, the holy Pechersk Church and the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to them, from which they heard a prohibition to return back, how they miraculously sailed on the mountain against the current, although they themselves tried to swim downstream. The icon painters who arrived so miraculously, with the zeal and prayers of the Monk Nikon, diligently began to decorate the holy church of Pechersk, and again there were many miracles, for the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos itself in the altar was miraculously depicted as a musiah 2101 and a dove flew out of its mouth, as is written about this in the lengthy legend about the church of Pechersk 2102. All this was through the heavenly prayers of the venerable fathers Anthony and Theodosius and the earthly prayers of the blessed abbot Nikon. Then the ever-memorable abbot himself, our reverend father Nikon, having decorated the Pechersk monastery with the various deeds of his equal-angelic life, after long labors, rested in the Lord, from the creation of the World in the year 6596, and from the Nativity of Christ - 1088, under the Grand Duke of Kiev Vsevolod Yaroslavich 2103. And his body was laid in the same Pechersk monastery, in his native cave, where to this day, with the incorruption of his relics, he testifies to his holiness, with which even after death he miraculously adorns his holy monastery; in spirit, he moved to the heavenly abodes for the indescribable, together with his like-minded friends, the Venerable Anthony and Theodosius, - the sight of God - no longer in images, but face to face (1 Cor. 13:12), and there, illuminated by the faithful glory, they, like three lamps, stand before the throne of the Tri-radiant Divinity and, like fathers, pray for us, their children, so that we became heirs of their grace and glory by living a righteous life for God, to Him be glory, honor and worship, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Mount Athos (Athos), in Greek. Agios Oros – Holy Mountain, a narrow mountainous peninsula jutting into the Archipelago (Aegean Sea), is known as the center of monastic life for the Greek east. Monastic life appeared here in ancient times, although somewhat later than in Syria and Palestine. For the Russian church, Athos had previously, until the 17th century, been of great importance: the father of Russian monasticism, the Monk Anthony, took monastic vows here; from here the Studite Charter was taken by the Monk Theodosius for his (Pechersk) monastery, then passed, according to the chronicler, to other monasteries; here, in the rich monastery libraries, our monks who went to Athos (for example, St. Nilus of Sorsky) received the most extensive religious education at that time. As one of the most revered holy places of the Orthodox East, Athos is visited annually by thousands of exclusively male pilgrims (women are prohibited from entering the peninsula) from Russia, the Balkan Peninsula and the Asian possessions of Turkey. Almost the entire mountain, with the exception of deep gorges and rocks, is covered with rich vegetation: beautiful trees grow here, some fruit trees - lemons, oranges, pears; entire fields are planted with various types of grapes, providing the Athonite brethren with a satisfactory supply of excellent wine; nuts, chestnuts and olive trees are abundantly scattered throughout the mountain. Currently, there are 20 large monasteries, several monasteries and many individual cells, numbering up to 700, Greek, Russian, Moldavian, Bulgarian and others on Mount Athos. Izyaslav Yaroslavich, son of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise and grandson of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir, reigned in Kiev from 1054 to 1068. Land of the Lyakhs, i.e. Poles. Boleslaw I, brave, Polish king; reigned from 992 to 1025 Svyatogorsky, i.e. from Mount Athos. This island is located on the eastern shore of the Kerch Strait. Rostislav Vladimirovich, son of Vladimir Yaroslavich, Prince of Tmutarakan; reigned in the second half of the 11th century. Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, son of Yaroslav Vladimirovich, Prince of Chernigov; reigned from 1054 to 1076 Gleb Svyatoslavovich, eldest son of Svyatoslav Yaroslavich, Prince of Novgorod; reigned from 1067 to 1077 Musia (Greek μουσιου) - mosaic. This is the name of a skillful work consisting of a collection of multi-colored, mainly marble, stones in patterns, so that the desired design comes out. For example, floors in churches are lined with mosaics, and walls are also decorated; even icons are made this way. See Menaia-Chetii August 16th. Vsevolod Yaroslavich, Grand Duke of Kyiv, son of Yaroslav I; reigned from 1030 to 1093; he was Grand Duke from 1077. You might be interested in: