31. Поучительные рассказы

“I am writing... a legend that I heard” (9:182) Instructive stories are always perceived much easier than an abstract word; are absorbed more firmly than theory, and therefore turn out to be very, very effective. The saint narrates about 1) miraculous events, 2) extraordinary phenomena, 3) signs, 4) terrible but instructive incidents, 5) cites pious legends. 1. Wonderful events. – St. Tikhon of Zadonsk healed a young girl from weakened legs, and St. Mitrophan of Voronezh healed from a paralyzed condition of the eyes. “During a prayer service with St. Mitrofan, the girl suddenly turned to her mother and said something, and the mother made a movement of delight, and it turned out that this was a moment of insight. Probably the Lord will still console His Church by glorifying Tikhon” (4:39)... “I want to tell you (Parent - K.S.) what I heard from one general, a man who deserves all credit, about one person. This is a woman who has been lying in one place for more than fifteen years (and according to others, up to thirty). She's blind. She can make small movements with only one hand. Having heard many amazing things about her, I will tell you only what is confirmed by the closest evidence. The following incident happened to one lady, from whom the mentioned general personally learned about it. This lady deliberately went to the sufferer in Shklov with her sick sister after many doctors abandoned her. When asked for help, the sufferer said: “What can I do? Am I not the same as you? But give me some instruction, the begging woman continued. - “Pray to God.” – I prayed, but God did not hear me. - “It looks like there is little faith.” “Finally, upon urgent request, the sufferer advised applying a birch leaf to the wound. But now it’s winter, the lady said. She answered: “Stupid! Do you have brooms? It is not medicine that heals, but God.” This instruction was fulfilled, and the sick woman completely recovered after three days... It seems to me that I see true rays of light here - I would like to know your opinion” (12:143–144). 2. Unusual phenomena. “One hierodeacon saw in a dream death come to take him, but announced that he had not yet received this command because he was not ready. “This is the kind of tongue you have,” she said and showed a long black tongue. – The saint reflects: “The vision of the hierodeacon... is remarkable. Will he understand what the long black tongue means? Probably, he will rely on this idea. And if this does not happen, I think it is necessary to give him an idea” (7:119). – The hierodeacon uttered a lot of black, nasty words... “Perhaps it is not untimely to now bring to your (Gosudarev’s – K.S.) attention an event that I know fairly well. Recently there lived in Moscow a sick woman who was sincerely devoted to Orthodoxy, and from time to time some of the deceased saw her and prayed with her, reinforcing her patience, while others asked for prayers for themselves. One day, between them, she saw a Protestant pastor, whom she had previously known in one of the southern cities of Russia, who was very favorable towards Orthodoxy, but remained not attached to the Orthodox Church. The seer asked him: “Why are you here? You are not ours." He answered: “No, yours: in the dying hours of my life, St. Sergius appeared to me and anointed me with Holy Myrrh.” Can we say that this is true? But on the contrary, is it possible to prove that this is a dream?” (19–1:12:13). 3. Signs. “Isn’t it to awaken our love that the Lord “sends signs?” - the saint asks and says: “Yesterday at the Holy Synod they read a letter from Kyiv about the earthquake that happened there. There was noise and hum underground. People were losing their memory. The walls were cracking. The crosses on the churches wavered. They say that it happened in Moscow too... Have you noticed (Archimandrite Anthony - K.S.) that three terrible and very unprofitable fires among three nations destroyed what was more kind to them: a palace in St. Petersburg, a stock exchange in London, a theater in France? Shall I tell you what else seems to me a very bad omen? - Petersburg is going crazy in idolatry of the French dancer. They say that at the very time she was throwing herself into the fire in the theater, from which the shameless pagan god was supposed to save her, there was a fire that destroyed the palace. Let us pray to the Lord to forgive people’s ignorance and to cleanse our sins” (7:273–274). 4. Terrible but instructive incidents. - During a severe thunderstorm, a woman was sitting, holding a baby in her arms, and a cat next to her - the woman and the cat were killed, but the baby was unharmed. And the thunderstorm preaches, let us be like children if we want to be saved” (7:291)... Due to an extraordinary obstacle (the saint does not explain), the confessor was not admitted to the Holy Mysteries and died. “It seems to me,” suggests the saint, “the priest did not guess what he should have paid attention to here. It was necessary to ask whether there was anything left unconfessed in the soul: or if something grave to the conscience was confessed, whether there was a lack of awareness of the gravity of sin and heartfelt contrition” (8:459-460). “We,” he concludes, “continue to deserve the multiplication of crosses of punishment” (8:466). 5. Pious tales. “I am writing to you, Father Viceroy, a legend that I heard from a person who heard it personally from the Most Reverend Anthony, Archbishop of Voronezh, of blessed memory. On the day preceding the opening of the relics of St. Mitrofan, he wanted to go to church to place the new bishop’s vestment on it that had been prepared; and when it was time to go, he suddenly felt such relaxation within himself that he could barely walk through the cell. Concerned about this unexpected event for this and the next day, he sat down in thought and heard a quiet voice: do not break my will. He did not immediately understand this, but, thinking about his intention, gathering his strength, he opened the storage room where the vestments were, and immediately found the schema, which had been given to him in a remarkable way some time before. When, according to his custom, he received many who came to ask for blessings or spiritual advice, by the way, an unknown woman, if I remember the story correctly, in a monastic robe, presented him with a schema, asked him to accept it and tell him that she would be needed. Before the Right Reverend freed himself from talking with others, the one who brought the schema disappeared, and he could no longer speak to her. Now, having seen this schema, he understood that the word: do not violate my will, is the will of Saint Mitrofan, not to place the bishop’s vestments on his relics, but to leave them in the schema. The Right Reverend took this schema and placed it on the relics of the Saint. She was on them for several years; then, having been replaced by another, she remained in the hands of the hieromonk, and recently came into my hands” (9:182–183)... The following incident shows how truly Christian brotherly love, combined with prudence, was filled by Father Mark. In the Sarov monastery there was someone familiar to Father Mark. “This brother was tempted by thoughts that the management of the Sarov monastery was not perfect and could have been raised to greater perfection by another abbot... Behind these thoughts, like a shadow, lay the secret thought that the choice could fall on him.” Taking advantage of the attention of the ruling bishop, he suggested to him the idea of ​​​​changing the rector, “and added that Father Mark also has this idea.” The bishop, honoring this desert dweller, replied that he would gladly accept his opinion. The brother, tempted by arrogance, “extended his insolence further and added: Father Mark himself will probably come to your Eminence to reinforce this idea, which is necessary for the monastery.” After this, the tempted one went to his feet and begged him to “visit the Eminence in Tambov. He did not reveal the reasons for this request to Father Mark, but begged him in the most urgent way, saying: you will give peace to my soul if you fulfill this; and, on the contrary, you will deprive her of peace if you do not fulfill it. It is clear that the brotherly loving Father Mark remembered the word of the Lord: “If anyone is strong enough to understand you in one race, go with him two,” and this is what he did. Suddenly Father Mark passed away in the desert.” The brother guessed what had happened and hurried to anticipate the bishop - Mark was “on the way to Tambov.” The Eminence began to wait. And on a holiday, when, while performing the Liturgy, he stood on a high place, he saw a hermit “entering the altar.” The bishop blessed him, administered the Holy Mysteries and wanted to take him to his home. But the hermit remained in the church - he continued his prayer, venerated the holy icons, and then quietly left and returned to his place of exploits. They sent to look for him, but no one saw the hermit anywhere. “So he showed brotherly love to the tempted one, and with his obedience and humility, without a doubt, he shamed him and saved him from thoughts of covetousness, and yet he did not break his desert silence, and skillfully evaded the complicated circumstances” (7:268-271). The story of a mother familiar to the Saint: “There was a certain Praskovya, I don’t remember her last name, who went to my home church and often scolded the late Deacon Demetrius, on the occasion that she put her warm clothes on the pulpit, and he, passing to say the litany, pushed them away with his foot. Siya came to Crimea, ... asked for a house in Sevastopol for 20 wounded people and went after them. One day she came to one of her friends and begged for a silk dress. To the question: for what? She answered: today is my last day; Goodbye. Then she went... to one of the batteries, where they knew her and even noticed that no one was killed in her presence. Here she said: Take care of me now; if you save me, you will save Sevastopol; if I am not there, Sevastopol will not exist. A bomb arrived and tore her into 16 or 18 pieces. This was about two weeks before our troops left the southern side of Sevastopol” (9:361). “I heard another remarkable legend from Sevastopol. A military official, I remember, Temiryazev comes to his friend Pushkin and brings him his will, saying that he has been assigned to the case and thinks that he will not return. When they began to take him away from this thought, he said: my arm hurt before it was wounded, but now my leg hurts, and my arms hurt more; and therefore I think that I will be wounded in the leg and will not survive it. After this evening, in the morning, Pushkin’s wife wakes up her husband and says: go to the dressing station; I saw in a dream that he was wounded in the leg. The husband went and found his friend wounded in the leg. He soon died from this wound” (9:364–365). You might be interested in: