Constantly accompanying St. the icon in the summer, when it was carried around the surrounding villages, the monastery priest, during a prayer service in one house, involuntarily drew attention to the “mute” who stopped behind the saint with a “strong cry”. icons, lightly tugging the priest's vestments. At the same time, the “mute” pointed to the tongue and St. icon and gave the priest a coin. “I assumed,” says the priest, “that this is an ordinary mute.”
When we moved to the second, third and next house from St. icon, the mute followed St. with a loud cry. icon, prostrating himself before it during prayer services.
“On the way, I learned,” says the priest, “that this man had just gone mute.”
In the following days, this man constantly accompanied St. the icon and strangers should be brought in for sprinkling of the St. water and especially for receiving St. water from the cross onto a blue hand.
Everyone was amazed that the dumb man crossed himself with his left hand, and his right hand hung like a whip; at the same time, three fingers of the stiff right hand became numb, forming as if for the sign of the cross.
On holidays and Sundays, St. The icon was always in the church during church services.
“On November 22,” says the peasant of the village of Pereluba Pavel N-ch T. in his own written testimony, “Peter G. K-vy and I (numb for his blasphemous attitude towards the Holy Icon of the Mother of God, a peasant of the village of Alova, Alatyr district, Simbirsk province) went to the all-night vigil. Halfway through the service, Peter pulled me by the floor and we left the church. Peter burst into tears. I ask: what are you? He points to his ears. That means I’m deaf.”
On the advice of good people, he confessed and received Holy Communion. secret
“What was happening all this time in my soul, I cannot express in words,” Peter later declared to the priest, who recorded his “testimony” from Peter’s words.
“But everything that happened to me, I believed that all this happened by the action of God... I cried and with tears asked God to have mercy on me and made a promise before St. icon to serve for two years in the Rakovsky Monastery as a laborer without any remuneration. I wrote this promise on a note and asked the nun to put this note for St. icon."
Peter relentlessly walked for St. icon, having his residence with his well-wisher Pavel N-cha T-va. The whole family of this well-wisher was once struck by the fact that the “mute” Peter spoke quite clearly at night.
“Give me some water,” the whole family hears from the sleeping Peter. “Mass is coming: they are calling,” the family hears the next night from Peter, who remains mute for days.
Horror fell upon Paul when at night from sleeping Peter he heard, as it were, a judgment against his own unbelief and the unbelief of others. “Punish, Lord, the unbelievers! Mother! Master…” the sleeping Peter said clearly one night. “It was as if someone struck me in the chest with a dagger,” says Paul, “when I heard these words: I am a sinner and I am an unbeliever.” I cried all night. Petrov’s words were written down on paper, which he handed over to the priest in the morning and he said to all the people in the church: “I didn’t believe anything, but now I believe and will continue to believe”...
Soon Peter’s deafness stopped, and little by little his affected right hand began to move.
December 2nd St. icon from the village Pereluba proceeded to the village. Chernigovka, and Peter was taken on monastery horses to the monastery, where, according to his promise, he was to remain for two years, and Paul went there on foot.
The still “mute” Peter was introduced to the abbess of the monastery, who, after listening to the story of God’s punishment that befell a previously healthy man, ordered Peter to remain in the monastery, prudently entrusting the “mute” to the special supervision of a trustworthy elderly nun.
Peter was placed in the “people’s room”, built behind the wall of the monastery for the male workers of the monastery. Peter was entrusted with caring for the monastery horses. Since December 6, 1898, Peter has been living in the monastery; on weekdays, almost no one sees him, because he is busy with his business. On holidays, he comes to the church for services and always stands in the middle of the church, near the column, from where the face of the Most Pure Mother of God, whose image “Seeking the Lost” is installed on the top of the altar of the main church, is especially clearly visible, and only at the end of the service he descends down a specially constructed device.
Peter attracts the general attention of the pilgrims. But on December 13, a new misfortune befell Peter: some force tied both his hands and made them motionless. The left hand hugged the right hand near the hand and froze; there was no way to separate them. “I fainted,” Peter later reported.
At the same time, on the night of December 13-14, the tongue of the silent Peter was loosened.
The unfortunate man did not know what to do now and how to feel: should he consider himself forgiven and pardoned or condemned?!
All those present were struck with greater horror than before. “What good is this armless man? What service does he do to the monastery? “Only an extra parasite, an unfortunate one who requires care,” this is how the abbess herself reflected, as she told us this remarkable incident in order.
“I had to assign one of the older nuns to care for the sick man, and I,” says the venerable abbess, “ordered that in the church, in the presence of the sick man himself and all the nuns, the prayer singing of the Mother of God with an akathist for the mercy of the unfortunate man should immediately be performed ... “We all prayed before the miraculous icon with tears,” the elder sisters of the monastery told us, invited by the mother abbess to tell us about what happened. During prayer services, the patient consciously and calmly prayed to God, making only bows and kneeling.
The rest of the time he suffered, fainting and experiencing convulsions. The sick person was sprinkled more than once by St. water and anointed the clasped hands of St. oil taken from the lamp, which burns unquenchably before the miraculous image of the “Seeking of the Lost.”
Then, for a whole week, daily prayer singing was performed before St. image of the return of health to Peter. All this time, the sick Peter enjoyed the care of the nun Paraskeva and his former benefactor, Pavel N. T., who arrived at the monastery.
“I came to the monastery on December 16,” Pavel N-ch T-v testified. “I saw Peter and was happy: he became a speaker.” I asked him: “When did God give you permission to speak?” He told me: “From December 13 to 14.” Then Peter showed me his tied hands. I was horrified; I see that with his left hand he hugged his right hand; the hand froze. “It must be God’s will.”
The nun and Pavel N. listen carefully to the abrupt speeches given by the sleeping Peter; a drowsy state often attacked Peter.
This is what Paul heard. “I heard him (Peter) say: Kuzma Sergeevich! Now don’t force me to pray with a cross!”
Nun Paraskeva said: “After the all-night vigil, the sick Peter went to bed, and then suddenly got up, stood up and said: “Seek us who are perishing!” I was an unbeliever, a lawless person, a fornicator... Be executed on me! Father served a prayer service... I wanted to venerate the image; She was so beautiful, but I couldn’t, She scorched me”...
Another time, the nun heard Peter talking to himself in a dream: “Do you believe now? - I believe. Do you wish St. take communion? - Wish. You don’t believe that there is a miraculous icon in the monastery?.. Tomorrow you will say”... Indeed, Peter’s tongue was soon loosened.
Peter received healing in his hands on December 18 under the following circumstances, which were reported in writing by Peter’s companion,
Pavel N-ch T-v, who remained at the Rakovsky Monastery during Peter’s illness.