13. «Кто даст ми криле – полещу и почию в лавре» (святитель Филарет)

Already in the essays presented above, especially in the chapter “Monasticism,” one can see the great love of the great Saint for the glorious monastery of our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Sergius. But I would also like to quote his words about this, also filled with reverence and warmth. I now remember the name of Saint Gregory of Nazianzus - the “Trinitarian theologian”, whose whole life was directed to where the Holy Trinity and “Its combined radiance, the Trinity, Which and unclear shadows” delighted him (K. E. Skurat. Memoirs and works on Patrology. I-V centuries. Vol. 1. Trinity Cathedral, Yakhroma, 2006. P. 377). – Saint Philaret also directs his gaze to the monastery of the same Holy Trinity: “I want to go to the Reverend, and to you,” that is, to the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony, also a saint (7:246). “The House of the Holy Trinity calls me to itself - and I have a strong need to be there, both for the sake of the holiday, and besides this” (19-1:91). I want to go to the Lavra, “but for the next week I look at the road, I can’t move. Sometimes things are holding back, sometimes the cold is almost continuous to some extent” (4:218). He quite firmly believes that he will be in the Lavra for the holiday. “After being freed from preparations for a long journey, I especially wanted to fall before the Reverend and ask for his blessing on special occasions in the approaching months, and for admonition, and protection from unfavorable incidents. Report this to him in humility, although I hope he knows, having the mind of Christ” (7:248). Addressing the vicar of the Holy Lavra, Saint Philaret always sends a blessing: “Let the mercy of the Lord be with the monastery and with you and with the brethren” (7:362). “May the Lord bless the monastery with peace and you, the viceroy father, and the brethren” (7:246). “Peace be to you from the Lord and blessing from Saint Alexy” (7:229). “Peace be unto you and the brethren” (7:363)... Having overcome, with God's help, difficulties and arrived at the holy monastery, the Saint triumphs, experiencing the effect of prayer at the Throne of the Most Holy Trinity and experiencing the joy of communion with the ascetic brethren. “The Lord has vouchsafed me,” he writes to Prince Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn, “this day in the Church of the Most Holy Trinity with the relics of St. Sergius, your patron, adopted by you in holy Baptism, to offer a bloodless sacrifice, and to prayerfully remember you before God” (16:92). And he brings thanks to the governor of the Lavra for the “blessing from the Most Holy Trinity”, from the Venerable Sergius (7:248) and for the greeting on the day of the Angel, which he accepted “not only with gratitude, ... but also with reverence, as the blessing of our Venerable Father Sergius himself” (9:428). May God-bearing Sergius, he wrote, “remember your faith in him and the service of his monastery, and may he extend his invisibly beneficial right hand to you” (10:189). In turn, the Saint begs the governor: “From our Venerable Father Sergius, ask me for admonition and arousal from dangerous laziness to spiritual jealousy” (10:483). “Trust me before the faithful physician St. Sergius” (4:247). Being in the “house of the Most Holy Trinity,” the Saint offers up his holy prayers for everyone and “for everything” and with truly archpastoral love, with monastic humility, sends blessings: - “From the house of the Most Holy Trinity and from our Reverend Father Sergius, a blessing to you, dear Andrei Nikolaevich (Muravyev - K.S.), and may peace be given and may it increase” (4:200). “From the house of the Most Holy Trinity, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and St. Sergius, God’s blessing to Andrei Nikolaevich” (4:314). And he adds: “Here I celebrated the day of the Most Holy Trinity, and celebrated it here for about twenty years” (4:200). - “May a blessing come from the house of the Most Holy Trinity and from St. Sergius to you (Sergei Mikhailovich Golitsyn - K.S.).” “Celebrating the day of our God-given patron Saint Sergius, I did not fail to remember that he is a special patron for you (the same Sergius - K.S.), by the adoption of the name; and, at his intercession, offering my humble prayer for your health and salvation, I brought your memory before the Lord in the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord. I will forward the commemorated prosphora to you through a convenient means. And now I pray to the Lord that He will preserve you for many years in health, peace, prosperity, in the increase of good deeds and in the blessed hope of eternal blessings.” “From the monastery of St. Sergius” - “May the blessing of St. Sergius be upon you for peace and salvation...” (16:64, 61, 70, 67). – To Archbishop Plato of Riga: “I forward herewith the icon of our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Sergius, painted in his Lavra and consecrated with the relics. May the effective help of this strong and God-pleasing prayer book for the Orthodox Church and Russia come with it, and may a blessing and grace from above descend upon the hierarchy and flock of the Church of Riga for its confirmation in the true faith and God-pleasing life, for the spread of the pure light of Orthodoxy and for the multiplication of those being saved” (11:4). Saint Philaret reveres St. Sergius with the greatest reverence, rejoices at the deanery of the holy Monastery and wishes to see the same attitude in everyone. “I, an unworthy servant of St. Sergius, consider myself obligated to be indifferent to what concerns his honor and holy glory,” he states in a letter to Archbishop Philaret (Gumilevsky) of Chernigov. – Before me is a leaflet from his life, written by you, thrown with your Diocesan Gazette. You write that St. Sergius “decisively renounced the episcopal rank” because this “meant both to aggravate his conscience and to doom himself to a long series of anxieties.” I don’t understand what would aggravate the conscience in this case. Moreover, a holy man, with the help of God, can always keep his conscience unburdened even in the midst of external anxieties. But what is especially regrettable is that you attribute the renunciation of St. Sergius from the episcopacy to political calculations, or to selfish protection of himself from difficult concerns for the good of the Church, and thus obscure the pure virtue of humility, which, according to the true story, is the only reason for his renunciation of the episcopate. It is not reliable for us to penetrate with guesses into the souls of the saints, which are far beyond our contemplation” (15:51-52). St. Sergius is a saint, in the host of whom God rests, and there is “a good thought, so that, for the most convenient approach to God on our part, we should approach St. Sergius” (21:40)... In the Lavra itself, “thanks be to God, everything goes well. And sometimes patients are brought from the road to our hospitals. By the way, a peasant was brought from the village of Gorodok, but, fearing the doctor, he did not want to stay in our hospital. They didn’t argue with him, and they took him to the village. But having arrived there, he immediately learned that his comrade had already died of cholera. Then he said: it is better to die with St. Sergius. He returned to our hospital and recovered. In some villages near the Lavra, the disease has a strong effect” (16:64)... Prayers in the Lavra are performed decorously - “in the same way.” And so since 1797. “I have proposed more than once about multiplying grave hieromonks, but they don’t foresee anything better for this, and I have not yet decided to make a change. Hilary, a pious elder, stands by the relics of the Monk sometimes for up to twelve hours continuously, and when they tell him about an assistant, he answers: wouldn’t it be better to wait until the Monk leaves me, that is, when there is no strength to serve at all. In order to perform prayers more correctly, we have appointed novices who alternate in singing” (4:370). Staying in the Lavra is beneficial and salutary for physical and spiritual health - “good for health and activities. And I,” the Moscow Hierarch testifies, “don’t want to rush to return to Moscow” (16:56). “Reverend Sergius did me the favor that, having arrived at the Lavra unwell, I could nevertheless spend these days without much difficulty” (16:83). Here, at the holy relics of St. Sergius, they turn to him with a request that he “with his God-pleasing prayer” stand before God and ask for “long, good days, continuation of activity in the spirit of Christ, for the benefit of many and the Fatherland” (16:97). - The fortified ones are leaving. - “Under the protection of the Lord and the Mother of God and St. Sergius, health and peace” (14:21). And he writes to his parent: “It’s good in the Lavra,” you say. This is true. By the way, the great benefit is that everything is concentrated there around one center; and therefore the movements of the most wandering stars can be more conveniently brought into rules” (12:134). The saint rejoices that his love for the Holy Lavra, reverence for its founder, and now the patron of it and us, is shared by others. “I sincerely thank... that you share with me our common reverence for our spiritual patron and benefactor, St. Sergius” (13:86). And he prays: “May he be abundantly merciful to you, as long-suffering and merciful to my unworthiness” (13:86), may he ask you that your “inner man may be more and more renewed and matured in faith and love for God and neighbors, and prepared for Heavenly life, and so that this age will benefit from the light of your life” (16:111–112). And I would like to repeat together with the great Saint: “Who will give me krill, and fly, and rest in the Lavra?” (19:524). You might be interested in: