Житие во святых отца нашего Стефана, епископа Пермского

Saint Stephen was born in 2793 in the city of Ustyug. His pious father Simeon, Russian by origin, was a reader at the Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary. His wife Maria was also an exemplary Christian, in whose veins Russian blood also flowed. Wonderful parents had a wonderful son, who brought them joy and admiration from his early childhood. Sent by them to study as a small child, he, thanks to his vivid memory, sharp mind and outstanding diligence, mastered the teaching with remarkable speed and rare firmness. Not even a year of his training had passed, and he had already duly taken the position of canonarch and reader at the same church in which his father served. Having surpassed many of his relatives and foreign peers with his knowledge of the Divine Scripture, he surpassed them even more with his virtuous life. He grew in virginity, purity, chastity and hard work and avoided communication with the corrupt and spending time in vain games and amusements. Many books of the Old and New Testaments that he read gave rise to the idea in his mind about the vanity of a real short-term life, flowing quickly like a river and soon withering like a grass flower. At the same time, the Holy Books kindled in his heart a feeling of unquenchable love for God. Under pressure from prevailing thought, he accepted monasticism from Abbot Maxim in the Rostov Monastery of St. Gregory the Theologian. The monastery had a rich collection of books. Here Stephen lived a truly monastic life, while at the same time satisfying his thirst for knowledge. Fasting, prayer, tears, repentance, humility, patience, kindness, obedience, love, studying day and night the law of the Lord - these were the virtues that adorned the newly tonsured. In addition, he himself wrote many books, which testify to this day of his God-mindedness and hard work. For his virtuous life, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Arseny of Rostov in 2794, under whom he was tonsured into monasticism. A few years later, by order of the ruler of the All-Russian Metropolis, Mikhail, nicknamed Mityai 2795, he was consecrated presbyter by Bishop Gerasim of Kolomna. The newly ordained hieromonk heard that the Perm land, which had long been under the power of the Moscow state, had not yet been enlightened by holy baptism and was completely devoted to idolatry. At the thought of so many human souls perishing in the darkness of ignorance of the true God, Saint Stephen was overcome by an unshakable desire to go to the Permians and save them from eternal destruction. But in order to adequately shed into this darkness the true light of the knowledge of God, the Creator of the world, the new Apostle needed to translate the most important sacred books into the Perm language. Stefan thoroughly studied this language and compiled the Permian alphabet 2796. Striving for a better understanding of the Holy Scriptures and its most accurate translation into the Permian language, the successor of the Apostolic Mission became well acquainted with the Greek language. Now he acquired the opportunity to quite meaningfully read sacred books in three languages: Russian-Slavic, Greek and Permian. Knowing full well that a person cannot accomplish any good deed without the gracious help of God, he long and tearfully prayed to God to bless his path. As an obedient son of the Church, who does not begin a single important undertaking without the permission of its spiritual authorities, Saint Stephen went to the then vicar of the Russian Metropolis, Bishop Gerasim of Kolomna. Appearing before him, he revealed to him his ardent desire: either to convert the Permians 2797 to Christ, or to suffer from them and lay down his life for our Savior in fulfillment of the Apostolic words: “it has been given to you for the sake of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil. 1:29). The bishop was surprised at his zeal for Christ and desire for the salvation of human souls. Understanding in him God's calling and the action of the Holy Spirit, the bishop glorified the Lord Christ and blessed Blessed Stephen for the feat ahead of him. At the same time, he gave him particles of holy relics, antimensions, holy myrrh and everything necessary for the consecration of the church. Having received permission from the spiritual authorities, Stefan, as an exemplary citizen, took care to strengthen his business with the legal assistance of the civil authorities and received letters of safe conduct from the Grand Duke. Having thoroughly prepared, Stefan set off. Upon arrival in the godless land of Perm, he offered diligent prayers to the Lord and began, like a sheep among wolves, to walk among the obstinate and corrupt generation and teach them the Christian faith. Some, listening to his sermon, were at first surprised at this new teaching. Then, little by little, they began to learn the truth, accepted the holy faith, were baptized and adhered to the instructions of the preacher. Many not only did not want to hear him, but also caused him a lot of trouble. Some scolded him in every possible way. Others attacked him with clubs, intending to kill him. Still others wanted to burn it. But the hand of the Lord protected the servant of God from murderous hands and death for the sake of the greatest glorification of His holy name. Having baptized and taught Christian truths to several souls, he created a magnificent church for the small flock of Christ’s verbal sheep near the mouth of the Vymi River, which flows into the large Vychegda River, where his monastery was subsequently built. He dedicated the newly created church to the memory of the honest and glorious Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. With this dedication, he expressed the idea that just as the Annunciation was the beginning of our salvation, so the first Perm Church appeared at the beginning of the enlightenment of the Perm land. In this church, day and night, with tears, he prayed to God for the conversion of unbelievers, saying: - Gather, Lord, Your scattered people and lost sheep, bring them into Your holy Church and number them among Your chosen flock. He himself constantly taught them apostolically, instructing them on the right path and begging them to turn away from their errors. But as he tried to do good to their souls, they became more and more angry with him. One day, Stefan, having prayed to the Lord, went to the idol they especially revered and lit it on fire. Since this time there were no idolaters with her, she burned to the ground along with all the idols. The saint sat near the burnt building, waiting for what would happen to him from the unbelievers. The latter, seeing that their dear idol was burning, hastened to her with axes and levers. Having run to her, they saw Saint Stephen sitting near her, and with rage they rushed at him, and, surrounding him on all sides, wanted to kill him. The saint did not say anything against them, but raised his hands in prayer and, preparing to die, cried out to God with tears: “Into Your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit; cover me with the wings of Your goodness.” And suddenly the rage of an extremely irritated people was replaced by the meekness of a lamb. The saint of God remained unharmed - no one wounded him or even hit him, because the people were partly defeated by the meekness of the saint, partly out of fear of the Moscow government they were afraid of destroying the man who came to them from Moscow with letters, but, mainly, the pagans were restrained by the power of God, who does not give the rod of sinners to the lot of the righteous. Then Blessed Stephen, standing in a particularly prominent place, exclaimed, addressing the unbelieving people: - How long, O people, will you not retreat from demonic seduction, in order to thereby avoid condemnation and eternal fire? Why do you worship idols and call them your gods, when they are the work of your own hands, and even if they have mouths, they still don’t speak, they have ears and don’t hear anything, they have eyes and don’t see; their nostrils do not smell, their hands do not touch, their legs do not walk, and their larynx does not speak; they do not accept the sacrifices brought to them - they do not eat or drink them; They don’t help anyone, because they couldn’t help themselves when the fire, burning them, turned them to ashes. If they are really gods, then why didn’t they put out the fire, didn’t escape the flame, didn’t turn to the one who burned them with a word of rebuke and didn’t punish him in any way? And can an insensitive tree do anything? And you bow to them - the dumb, the blind, the deaf - the work of your hands. Understand the delusion that deceives you and leave this destructive vanity. Know the One True God in Whom Christians believe. Come to Him and be enlightened. For He established the heavens, founded the earth, supports the existence of creation and rules the whole world. He knows everyone's need. He is the Provider for everyone, the Helper and Guardian, and there is no other God but Him. Therefore, Perm men, brothers, fathers and children! Listen to me, who wishes you well, and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, whom I preach; I tell you the truth, if you believe and are baptized, you will be saved and will receive the kingdom of heaven. If you do not believe and are not baptized, you will be condemned to eternal torment. When Saint Stephen taught this, adding other teachings to what was said, many were convinced and, beginning to believe, began to be baptized; and day by day the number of believers multiplied, and the Church of Christ grew in Perm. The Monk Stephen, as soon as he noticed pagans gathered somewhere, immediately approached and, standing among the crowd, preached about Christ. Sometimes they themselves, with their elders, with the Magi and with all the noblest men of Perm, having gathered, came to the monk to debate about faith and were overcome in everything by the words of piety that came from the God-speaking lips of the preacher. Unbelieving Permians especially often came to the newly created church, not for saving prayer, but out of a desire to look at the beauty of the church building and its internal splendor: having never seen anything like it, they marveled at the decoration of the holy church and, leaving, said to each other: – As we see, the Christian God is great, much greater than our gods. Sometimes, having gathered, they consulted among themselves, saying: - If we do not wound Stephen and do not drive him away from us, then he will fill our entire country with his teaching and destroy the ancient churches and churches of our gods; we cannot compete with him verbally, and all that remains is to expel him from here by force. - How to beat him and drive him away when he is from Moscow and has diplomas. “Even if he were the first to enter the fight, then it would be convenient for us to inflict wounds on him during the battle, but he adheres to a cunning custom - he himself does not start and waits for us to start the battle in order to have a reason to complain about us in Moscow; if he had dared to hit any of us, we would have immediately torn him to pieces and could have justified ourselves, for he was the first to attack us. But since he, in response to our insults, will not say an angry and reproachful word, enduring everything with patience, we do not know what to do with him. So they consulted many times, and, without coming to any agreement, they diverged; in this the word of the prophet was fulfilled: “Speak the word, but it will not take place: for God is with us” (Is. 8:10). And so the entire Perm country was divided: some of its inhabitants were newly enlightened Christians, while others were in pagan darkness, and the idolaters hated the faithful: they reviled them with abusive and reproachful words, caused offense and thereby disturbed their peace. Seeing that believers were being insulted by infidels, Saint Stephen grieved greatly and often day and night, with tears, he prayed to God, the lover of mankind, to protect the newly gathered flock with His Divine protection, and to snatch the wicked with His omnipotent right hand from the snares of the devil and bring them to the knowledge of the truth. Hearing these incessant tearful prayers of His saint and seeing his labors and patience, the humane God, who wants to save everyone and come to the mind of truth, was pleased to enlighten the Perm land with the light of the holy faith. He sent the spirit of tenderness to the Perm people, as he once did to those who listened to the sermon of the Apostle Peter; what is written about in Acts: “When they heard this, they were touched in their hearts and said to Peter and the other apostles: What should we do, men and brethren?” (Acts 2:37). So the multitude of the Perm people - old and young, big and small, gathered and spoke to each other. – Do you see, brothers, this man who came from Russia! Did you hear his words? Do you notice his patience? Did they understand his great love for us? Here he is in such straits and yet does not leave here! How much annoyance, humiliation, and insults he accepted from us, and yet he did not get angry for it and did not even say an offensive word to anyone, leaving everything without objection. Having no malice towards us, he did not strike anyone, but endures everything with strength, without great ill will, and even more: he rejoices when we cause him offense, and at the same time he does not cease to talk to us about the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal torment and about rewarding everyone according to his deeds, always teaching us how to get rid of torment and receive the Kingdom. If what he says were not true, he would not have endured and would not have worked so hard! Truly, he is a slave of the Great and Living God he preaches, who created heaven and earth and prepared the Kingdom for the good, and torment for the evil, and all his words are true! So, let us go to him and ask him to teach us his faith perfectly and make us Christians. And men, wives and children went to the holy preacher in great numbers. The Monk Stephen, seeing so many people coming to Christ God, rejoiced inexpressibly: shedding tears of joy, he sent untold thanks to the humane Lord, who does not want the death of sinners. He met them with love, like a father to children, and, opening his divinely inspired lips, taught them for a long time all the secrets of the holy faith. God opened their minds to understand the teachings of the saint: they willingly accepted his words and asked him for baptism, and he baptized them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus, by the grace of God, the labors and prayers of St. Stephen, the land of Perm was enlightened. The newly enlightened destroyed their former idols that stood in houses, villages, roads, forests and groves, and destroyed their churches. Blessed Stephen himself worked especially hard in this; he went everywhere, cutting off idols with an ax and burning them along with the gifts of the infidels. It should be noted that the Perm pagans had the custom of bringing to their gods the skins of animals caught in hunts, such as sables, martens, ermines, weasels, beavers, foxes, bears, lynxes and others, and hanging them on idols. In addition, they covered the idols with the best linens and wrapped them in shrouds. No one dared to take both of these gifts, because if anyone dared to touch any of them, he would fall into a serious illness: through the action of Satan, he would writhe and break. Saint Stephen, zealous for God and not afraid of demonic power, collected everything brought as a gift to idols in one heap along with the idols he had cut and burned, turning them into ashes; Moreover, just as he himself did not take anything from the gifts, he did not allow other of the faithful to do this, considering the gifts to be part of the demons. Only his youth 2798, the newly enlightened Permian Matthew, ordered to make onuchi 2799 from idols’ cloths and shrouds for the sake of dishonoring the pagan gods. The Permians were greatly and doubly surprised that the monk did not take anything for himself from precious things, but consigned everything to fire, and that he did not suffer any harm from demons. This further strengthened their faith in the power of Christ, the conquering power of demons, and confirmed them in piety. Saint Stephen, having destroyed many idols in various places, built two more churches, for every day and in greater numbers the believers in Christ increased, while the number of infidels became fewer every day. The Perm educator established schools at churches, gathering young people, youths and small children here, he taught them the Perm alphabet and reading from the Book of Hours, the Psalter and other books that he translated into the Perm language, in order to prepare priests, deacons and other clergy for the Permians, and teachers from their tribe and language. Thus the holy Christian faith flourished and shone in Perm. During this activity of Saint Stephen, aimed at establishing the newly enlightened in the faith, one sorcerer, or magician 2800, the chief of sorcerers and wizards, came to him; Before his baptism, the Permians respected him more than all the magicians, honoring him as a father and teacher who ruled the entire Perm land with his magical power. He began to confuse the newly baptized, saying: “Men and brothers of Perm, why are you leaving your fatherly gods and faith? Why do you stop making sacrifices to them, as your fathers did? Who are you listening to? Isn't it a man who came from Moscow? Could there be anything good for us from Moscow? Is it not from there that heavy taxes are imposed on us, violence is inflicted, and judges and rulers are appointed? Don’t listen to this - a Russian, and, moreover, a Muscovite, a stranger. But listen to me, your man who wishes you well. After all, I am of the same tribe with you, from the same country, and I speak the same language as you, and it is more fitting for you to listen to me, your old man and father, than to this young man, who by his age may be my son or grandson.” In response to this, the newly enlightened said: - Go and argue with him, not with us. This magician turned out to be the most ardent opponent of the monk, and a great struggle broke out between them; the sorcerer tried to destroy the monk with his magic: he called on demons and cast spells, but to no avail: his magic was destroyed, since the demons could not get closer to the saint of God. However, the magician, imbued with malice, did not stop, continuing to cause trouble to the saint every day: he openly blasphemed the holy Christian faith, thereby confusing those who were not established in the faith and again attracting them to their former wickedness; and he seduced some with words, others won over to his side with gifts. Often he came to argue with the monk, during which he tried in every possible way to defeat the invincible warrior of Christ with abuse and reproaches. One day he told St. Stefan: - Our gods, mocked by you, did not destroy you only out of their mercy. Otherwise, they would have crushed or crippled you long ago. But they spare you out of their kindness, so that you, having learned their mercy, will stop making trouble for them. And that our faith is better than your Christian faith, I will clearly prove to you: you have one God, and we have many gods, followers and defenders, and they give us everything that is in the waters - fish and in the air - birds, in the forests and meadows - sables, martens, lynxes and other animals that from our catching reach you. Through them, your princes, boyars and nobles get rich, dress and walk in them with proud majesty, give them to each other and trade, sending them to neighboring countries and distant lands, to the Horde, to Greece, to the Germans and to Lithuania, and all this is from our fishing, which our many gods send to us. Our faith is much better than yours and here's why. We have one or two people go to fight a bear and kill it with the help of the gods, to whom they promise the skin for this. But in your country up to a hundred or up to 2 hundred or more people go after one bear, and so many can barely defeat one animal, and sometimes they cannot, and, being themselves tormented by it, return from the hunt with nothing. And our faith is also better than yours because with us events become known on the same day, even if they happened in a distant place, but with you this is not the case, but after many days you receive some news. In all this, our faith is better than yours. Objecting to this, Saint Stephen said that the One Christian God is better than many pagans, because they are not gods, but demons cast from heaven into the abyss and seducing insane people into soulless idols. Not only do they not help people, but, on the contrary, they harm and always strive to do evil; being evil, unmerciful, angry, full of rage, envious haters, they would be ready to immediately destroy the human race if they were not bound and restrained by the power of God. Every kind of fishing is given to people not by idols, standing motionless in one place, nor by demons, who have no power over God’s creation, but from that very Giver of all good things - God, who distributes His gifts to everyone according to his labors. And the fight against animals happens not only in Perm, but in all lands and countries. The victory of man over beasts does not come from the help of your gods, but either from bodily strength or from the skill of a fighter; it is mainly based on the fact that the heavenly God subjugated all kinds of animals, cattle, birds and fish under the feet of man. There were many Christians who tamed fierce beasts in the name of Christ, stopped the mouths of lions, bound bears and pards with a word, trampled upon the asp, 2802 basilisk, 2803 and every serpent. And against the reference to the news quickly communicated by the gods to the Magi, the saint objected as follows: in the Christian Church there were many such seers who saw with their spiritual eyes, as before them, not only something happening in the distance, but they predicted and would happen many years after their death. Likewise, the Old Testament holy prophets foretold many years in advance what later came true in the New Testament Christian Church. After long and repeated debates about the faith of St. Stefan and the magician came to the conclusion that it was better to test on whose side the truth was. By the choice of the magician, they agreed on the following - to go through fire and water, and whoever does not burn in fire and does not drown in water, his faith is true, and the people should follow him. This agreement was pleasing to the entire Perm people who had gathered to listen to the debate. Saint Stephen said to the magician: “You wanted something that exceeds my humble strength, but I hope for the bounty and mercy of the Almighty God, who seeks the salvation of all.” For the sake of the glory of His holy name, He can miraculously keep me alive and whole in fire and water. May the coming people be confirmed in faith by this miracle, and may you be put to shame with your demons in whom you trust. Having said this to the sorcerer, Saint Stephen turned to the people: “Blessed be the Lord, take the fire, bring it here and light this specially standing, empty hut with an open entrance, and I, holding hands with the magician, will enter it.” And then fire was brought and the building was set on fire. The Monk Stephen, raising his hands to heaven, prayed to God in these words: - Master of great mercy, “Give us help in distress, for human defense is vanity” (Ps. 59:13), send Your mercy, show Your love for mankind, show Your power, so that those who are present will understand the true faith and know that You are the only true God, and I am Your servant: “For behold, Your enemies make noise, and those who hate You have lifted up their heads” (Ps. 82:3), “they lift up their mouth to the heavens, and their tongue walks on the earth” (Ps. 73:9). Therefore, “show me a sign for good, so that those who hate me may see and be ashamed, because You, Lord, have helped me and comforted me” (Ps. 85:17). You are God, who comforts us in all our sorrow through Your Holy Spirit, and with Him you are blessed forever, amen. At the end of his prayer, he said to the people: - Peace be with you, brothers, save yourself, ask and pray for me. For I am ready to die for the sake of the holy faith. I strive for the struggle that is set before me, trusting in Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. Turning to the magician, he told him: “Let’s go together, holding hands, as promised.” But the magician, frightened by the torment of the strong, blazing fire, did not want to go. Then the monk, grabbing him tightly by the clothes, dragged him with him into the fire by force. He resisted, backed away and, falling to the ground, shouted that he would immediately burn in fire, like hay and dry branches. Then the people, with annoyance, began to shout at him to go into the fire according to his own proposal. But he begged to be left. In response to his prayers, Saint Stephen said to him: “Didn’t you yourself choose this and want to tempt the Living God, why are you refusing now?” The magician, bowing to the ground and falling at the feet of the saint, spoke of his powerlessness and, realizing his guilt, exposed the vanity of his seduction, and revealed that, wanting to frighten the saint. Stephen, came up with such a way to resolve the dispute, being sure that the servant of the Living God would fear. But the magician’s tricks turned on his head, and his villainy fell on his crown (see: Ps. 7:17). In the same way, the elder of the Perm Magi did not go into the water, although two ice holes had already been prepared on the river: one upstream and the other downstream; Both were supposed to enter, holding hands, into one ice hole, and walking under the ice, exit into the other; when St. Stefan began to force the magician to go with him into the hole, but the latter refused. Thus, the powerlessness of all his sorceries and the lies of his teachings, which had previously deceived, were revealed. After this St. Stefan asked the magician: – Do you want to believe and be baptized, since you are already defeated? But he refused to accept the Christian faith and holy baptism. Then the saint said to the people: “You are witnesses to the fact that he, the accursed one, himself invented a way to define the right faith by fire and water and did not want to fulfill his own word, not wanting to go into either fire or water. And now he still doesn’t believe and doesn’t demand baptism. What do you think of him? Tell. - Subject to death penalty! And, having seized him, they gave him into the hands of Saint Stephen, so that he would give him whatever death penalty he wanted. At the same time they said: “If you let him go alive, he will cause you even more trouble.” - No, let our hand not be on our enemy. Christ did not send me to beat me, but to preach the gospel; He did not command me to torment, but to teach me with meekness and to exhort me with calmness. In the same way, my Master did not command me to execute, but to punish me with mercy according to what was said: “Let the righteous punish me: this is mercy; let him reprove me” (Ps. 140:5). And since he does not want to believe, being hardened and blinded by malice, then for him there will be eternal punishment. For our Lord says: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; and whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). It is enough to strictly forbid him to corrupt the people of God with his false teachings. Let him not live in the midst of Christ's flock. Let darkness not mix with the light, but let evil be cast out from among everyone. May the rotten oud be cut off with the sword of the Spirit, may this wolf be driven out from these lands. If he dares to appear here again and teach, then he will not escape the death penalty. With such a prohibition, the magician was expelled from the Perm borders. And the Church of Christ remained in peace, and churches of God were built everywhere, and idolatry churches were completely destroyed. Soon the Church multiplied in the Perm land so much that the believers found themselves in need of a special bishop - and especially since, due to the distance, it was very inconvenient to send proteges to the priesthood to the Moscow Metropolitan. Distant Perm is as far from Moscow as the latter is from Constantinople. Saint Stephen, after a preliminary conference with his flock, went to Moscow to see Grand Duke Demetrius Ioannovich and Metropolitan Pimen. He informed them about everything that had happened by the grace of God in the Perm land, and asked to give it a bishop, for “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). The Grand Duke, the Metropolitan, the bishops and the Consecrated Council discussed the request of St. Stephen, whom they decided to appoint as Bishop of Perm, as a man truly worthy of such an honor. – Who is the most worthy and most suitable in terms of his qualities for the episcopal service of the Perm land, if not the one who enlightened this land with Christ’s grace and at the same time endured such great feats and labors, translating sacred books into the Perm language, crushing idols and creating churches, thus appearing as an Apostle for Perm? And Saint Stephen was installed in 2804 as Bishop of Perm. This arrangement greatly delighted the Grand Duke, who had known St. for a long time. Stefan and loved him. Having bestowed gifts on the newly installed bishop, the Grand Duke and Metropolitan released him to Perm. Returning to his newly established diocese, he brought great joy to the believers. In the rank of bishop, Saint Stephen worked just as hard for the Perm Church as before: he strengthened those who turned to Christ in the Orthodox faith; He brought the remaining unbelievers to faith and baptized; He erected churches of God, appointed priests, and organized the entire church order in the best possible way. He also created monasteries. He gave generous alms, feeding the poor and needy, clothing the naked, comforting the sad and giving peace to wanderers 2805. For everyone, he was a merciful father, a great benefactor and a vigilant shepherd, caring not only for the souls of his flock, but also for their bodily needs: thus, during a severe famine in Perm, Saint Stephen very often brought here on boats from Vologda a lot of bread and distributed it freely to the poor people. So the saint of God, Bishop Stefan of Perm, led the entire Perm land to God. Ruling well in the holy Church, he created everything necessary for the verbal flock he led. In these many years of labor, undertaken for the salvation of so many souls and which undermined his health, Saint Stephen, who had already reached venerable old age, approached death. Saint Stephen died under Metropolitan Cyprian 2806 in the days of Grand Duke Vasily 2807, the son of Grand Duke Demetrius, who glorified himself with his victory over Mamai. At the end of his life, he had to go to Moscow again regarding some church matters. Before his departure for the capital, Stefan called his verbal flock and taught those flocked by the Divine Scripture to remain in faith and unfeigned love among themselves. Feeling the imminent approach of his death, he concluded his archpastoral teaching with the words: “The time of my death is near, as our Lord Jesus Christ revealed to me, to whom I entrust you.” Having then completed the prayer, he set off on his journey. Upon his arrival in Moscow, the saint fell ill and, after being ill for several days, reposed 2808 in the Lord, whom he had loved from a very young age. His solemn burial was attended by princes, boyars, the metropolitan with all the spiritual ranks and many people. Everyone escorted his body with honor to the Holy Spassky Monastery, where the royal palace is now. In the stone church of the monastery the relics of the saint of God were placed on the left side. 2809 The Perm flock bitterly mourned the death of their bishop, who filled the Angels of God with great joy, turning the souls of so many sinners to the Lord. Therefore, his holy soul was joyfully taken by angelic hands and carried with rejoicing to the throne of grace. Together with the face of the holy hierarchs standing before the Lord, Saint Stephen prays to Him not only for the Perm land, but also for the whole world. With a divine desire from a young age, Stephen the Wise, he was kindled, you took the yoke of Christ and people, who had been frozen in ancient times with unbelief of the heart, having sowed the Divine seed in them, you gave birth to them spiritually and evangelically. In the same way, we honor your glorious memory, we pray to you: pray, what you preached, that it may save our souls. You have found yourself a self-proclaimed saint who did not seek you, you have freed people from idolatry, you have brought them to the faith of Christ and you have put to shame the sorcerer pansotnik, and you were also the first bishop and teacher of Perm. For this reason, your spiritual children, who have been delivered from idols by you, are grateful to you and cry out: Rejoice, Stephen, wise teacher. The time of his birth was, in all likelihood, 1340. Arseny I, who occupied the Rostov See from 1374 to 1380. Mityai, beloved priest and confessor led. book Dmitry Ioannovich, and then archimandrite of the Moscow Spassky Monastery, ruled, without initiation, the All-Russian metropolis after the death of Saint Alexy in 1378 and died in 1379 on the road to Constantinople, where he went for initiation. To compile this alphabet, he used the Permian money badges, carved on thin rectangular sticks. Permians or Zyryans are the people of the Finnish or Ural class of the Turanian family. For the most part, they are of medium height, strongly and regularly built, black-haired with gray and dark brown eyes. Courage, wit, patience, cunning, curiosity and ingenuity are their inherent qualities. The latter manifested itself, among other things, in numerous and varied methods of catching birds, animals and fish. By onuchki or onuchki we should mean pieces of canvas and generally any fabric for wrapping legs instead of stockings. This magician's name was Pama. Pard is the same as a panther. Asp is a genus of very poisonous snake. The basilisk is the most poisonous snake, scorching, according to the legend of the ancients, with its breath. He also petitioned the boyar commanders to reduce taxes on the Permians, freeing them from violence and bribes of tiuns (judges) and commanders. He was metropolitan from 1375 to 1381 and from 1383 to 1390. Vasily Dmitrievich reigned from 1380 to 1425. His death followed on April 26, 1396 His relics are hidden in the Kremlin Spasskaya church on Bor. You might be interested in: