Блаженная Пелагея Ивановна

Tales of Christ for the sake of the holy fool of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrenikova. The feat of foolishness for Christ's sake Foolishness for Christ's sake constitutes such a rare, so difficult and at the same time such a high Christian feat, to which only special chosen ones and chosen ones, strong in body and spirit, are called by the Lord God. These chosen ones and chosen ones voluntarily renounce for the sake of Christ not only all the comforts and benefits of life, all the conditions and demands of society, the closest and blood relations, but also the very image and likeness of man. But this is not enough; for their words and deeds they are subjected to the most offensive ridicule and abuse, the most severe torture and torment; and they endure all this with incredible patience, with amazing meekness and incomprehensible joy. Meanwhile, constantly raising the eyes of their minds and hearts to God, constantly burning in their spirit before Him, they, with their words or extraordinary actions, either menacingly denounce and, like lightning, strike people who are mighty and strong, but unjust and forget the truth of God, or like the beneficial spring sun, they delight and console pious and God-fearing people. Deprived, at first glance, of human reason, they discern the secrets of human hearts, predict the future, heal bodily ailments with their word or touch, and relieve spiritual infirmities with their admonitions and instructions. Among such chosen ones of God is Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrenikova, a holy fool for Christ’s sake, an ascetic of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery of the Nizhny Novgorod province of the Arzamas district. Origin of Pelageya Ivanovna Pelageya Ivanovna was born in October 1809 in the city of Arzamas from the merchant Ivan Ivanovich Surin and his wife Praskovya Ivanovna, née Bebesheva. Her father Ivan Ivanovich lived quite richly, traded well and had his own tannery and was an intelligent, kind and pious man. In his family, in addition to his wife, he had two sons, Andrei and John, and a daughter, Pelageya. God's providence arranged it so that he soon died, leaving his wife and three young children orphans. However, Praskovya Ivanovna soon married her second husband, merchant Alexei Nikitich Korolev, also a widower, who had six children left from his first wife. The childhood of Pelageya Ivanovna, according to the stories of her mother Alexey Nikitich Korolev was a stern and strict man, and his children from his first wife did not like the children of Praskovya Ivanovna, so their life in their stepfather’s house, especially the life of the little girl Pelageya, could not be calm and joyful. It is not surprising after this that the girl very early developed a desire to leave such a stern stepfather, never enter into the environment of such family ties and do everything in defiance of people. And this desire was completely consistent with the wise plans of God’s Providence. Early on, the Lord began to call her to a difficult and extraordinary feat. According to her mother, “from a young age, something strange happened to her daughter Pelageya: it was as if the girl fell ill and, after lying in bed for a whole day, became different from herself. From a rarely smart child, she suddenly became something like a stupid one. He used to go into the garden, lift up his dress, stand and spin around on one leg, as if he were dancing. They persuaded her and shamed her, even beat her, but nothing helped. So they abandoned it.” It is impossible not to see from this mother’s story that Pelageya Ivanovna from her earliest years revealed extraordinary patience and strong will. Marriage, according to the story of Pelageya Ivanovna herself The Lord, obviously, called his chosen one to a lonely and, moreover, extraordinary life; Pelageya Ivanovna herself had a presentiment of this, but that was not what her mother wanted. Pelageya Ivanovna grew up to be a tall, slender, strong and beautiful girl, and her mother, looking at her, thought that with such physical advantages, she would find decent suitors, although not rich, and would not look at her oddities. And Pelageya Ivanovna herself really did not want to get married; some inner voice was calling her to a different path. “Palaga has grown up,” Pelageya Ivanovna later said about herself to the elder Anna Gerasimovna, who was in the monastery and looked after her, “and, as always, as soon as she was 16 years old, her mother tried to quickly settle the fool - to marry her off. According to an ancient custom, one tradesman from the city of Arzamas, Sergei Vasilyevich Serebrenikov, a young man, but poor and an orphan, who served as a clerk for the merchant Nikolai Ivanovich Popov, came to her for the bride's viewing with his godmother. As usual, they sat down to tea and brought the bride, Pelageya Ivanovna, dressed in a rich dress. Pelageya Ivanovna, as she later told the same Anna Gerasimovna, not having the slightest desire to get married in order to push the groom away from her, took her cup and began to play the fool: she would take a sip of tea from the cup and deliberately pour it with a spoon onto each patterned flower on her dress, pour it and smear it with her finger. The mother sees that things are bad, they will notice that she is a fool, and, perhaps, they will not marry her; You can’t stop it yourself, it will be even more noticeable, so she teaches the worker: “When you start serving a cup, discreetly pinch the fool so that she doesn’t act like a fool.” The worker, who was kind to the mistress, hastened to exactly carry out the order given to her, and Pelageya Ivanovna, who was only covering herself with her feigned tomfoolery, saw and understood all this well, and even betrayed her mother. “What is this,” he says, “mama?” Or do you already feel sorry for the flowers? After all, these are not flowers of paradise.” The groom’s godmother noticed all this and, leaving, said to him: “Don’t take it, Sergei Vasilyevich; It's not the case that she's rich. After all, everyone really says that she is stupid.” “No, mummy’s godmother,” the groom replies, “she’s not stupid at all, but there was no one to teach her, so that’s what she is.” Well, I’ll teach her myself.” Pelageya Ivanovna became extremely fond of him; and no matter what she did to ward off this unwanted, hated marriage, she could not get rid of it, and in 1828, on May 23, when she was barely seventeen years old, she was married to this very Sergei Vasilyevich Serebrenikov, and the marriage was performed in the Theological Church of the city of Arzamas and recorded in the registry register of this church. Trip to Elder Seraphim Already a married woman, together with her husband and mother, Pelageya Ivanovna went to the Sarov hermitage to see Father Seraphim, who was then laboring there and known to everyone for the holiness of his life and the gift of clairvoyance. The Elder of God received them well, and, having blessed the husband and mother, sent them to the hotel, and brought Pelageya Ivanovna into his cell and talked with her for a long, long time. What they talked about remained a secret between them. Meanwhile, the husband, who had been waiting for her at the hotel for a long time, seeing that it was time for them to go home and that his wife was still gone, lost patience and, angry, went with his mother to look for her. They approach Seraphim’s cell and see that the elder, leading Pelageya Ivanovna out of his cell by the hand, bowed to the ground and said to her with a request: “Go, mother, go immediately to my monastery, take care of my orphans; many will be saved by you; and you will be the light of the world. Oh, I forgot, here are some rosary for you; take it, mother, take it.” John Tambovtsev, who was then Elder Seraphim’s cell attendant, 10 and an eyewitness to this event, adds that “when Pelageya Ivanovna left, then Elder Seraphim turned to me and, putting his hands on my shoulder, said: “Believe God, Father John, this woman you see will be a great lamp for the whole world.” Sergei Vasilyevich, already angry at everything, having heard such strange speeches of the elder and, in addition, seeing the rosary in the hands of his wife, turned with mockery to his mother-in-law and said to her: “Seraphim is good! Such a holy man, nothing to say! And where is this insight? And is he sane? What does it look like? She’s such a girl that he’s sending her to Diveevo, and he even gave her a rosary.” Entering a new path of life The secret long spiritual conversation with the wondrous old man had a decisive influence on the future life of Pelageya Ivanovna. And according to her will, her life took a strange, unusual and ugly path, according to the concept of people who, like Elder Seraphim, could not discern the mysteries of God. She made friends in Arzamas with an Arzamas merchant named Paraskeva Ivanovna, who also labored in the feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake, and under her guidance she learned the unceasing Jesus Prayer, which began to act gracefully in her and which became her constant occupation for the rest of her life. At home she spent whole nights in prayer. One Arzamas old woman, who was the same age and friend of Pelageya Ivanovna in her young years, said that at night, hidden from everyone, Pelageya Ivanovna spent almost entire nights, kneeling facing east, praying in a cold glass gallery attached to their house. And this was well known to the old woman telling the story, because she lived opposite the Serebrenikovs. “Well, judge for yourself,” she added in the simplicity of her heart, alien to higher spiritual interests, “was her husband having fun? Obviously, I didn't like it. Eh, what can I say? I know her whole path well; She was a great servant of God.” With all-night prayer feats, Pelageya Ivanovna soon began to combine the feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake, and as if every day she was losing more and more reason. It happened, what does it do? She will put on the most expensive dress, a shawl on her shoulders, and wrap her head in some of the dirtiest rags and go either to church or somewhere for a walk, where larger and more fashionable people gather, so that everyone can see her, judge her and make fun of her. And the more they reasoned with her, the more they pleased her soul, which sincerely neglected physical beauty, and earthly wealth, and family happiness, and all the blessings of this world. But on the other hand, it was all the more painful and sorrowful for her husband, who did not understand her great path. Sergei Vasilyevich asked and persuaded her, but she remained indifferent to everything. When their first son Vasily was born on June 27, 1827, Pelageya Ivanovna was definitely not happy about his birth. Many relatives praised the boy and said to his mother: “What a handsome son God gave you,” and she would answer publicly and in front of her husband: “I gave him, but I ask him to take it.” Otherwise it will wobble.” On July 13, 1828, their second son, John, was born, and she looked at him in the same way. And from that time on, her husband stopped sparing her. He could not understand the full height of her self-sacrifice and complete renunciation of the most natural and dearest feeling of maternal love. However, both boys soon died, of course, through the prayer of the blessed one. And her husband began to beat her so terribly that, despite her healthy and strong nature, she apparently began to waste away and decided to completely leave him at all costs. Two years later she gave birth to a daughter, Pelageya, and as soon as she gave birth, without even looking at her daughter, she brought her to her mother in the hem of her dress and, throwing her on the sofa, said to her mother: “You gave it to me, you babysit now, I won’t come home again.” And she ran around the city from church to church; and whatever they gave her for the sake of pity or whatever fell into her hands, she took everything with her and distributed it to the poor or lit candles in the Church of God. The husband would catch her, beat her with anything, a log, a log, a stick, a stick, ban her, starve her and cold, but she wouldn’t let up and kept repeating one thing: “Leave me alone, Seraphim has spoiled me.” Not submitting to her husband, she tried in every possible way to avoid relations with him. Driven out of patience and seemingly maddened by anger, Serebrenikov, after talking with her mother, decided to resort to the following terrible measure: he dragged her to the police and asked the mayor to flog his stubborn and disobedient wife. And the mayor who was at that time, to please her husband and mother, ordered her to be tied to a bench and punished her so cruelly that her mother, who was present and also asked to punish her, as she later told all this, shuddered and became numb with horror. “Her body hung in tatters,” Praskovya Ivanovna reported, “blood flooded the whole room, and she, my dear, at least gasped. I myself was so distraught that I don’t remember how we picked her up and brought her home in blood and in tatters. We already asked her, and persuaded her, and caressed her - she kept silent and that’s all.” The next night, the mayor, who had been so zealous in punishing Pelageya Ivanovna, saw in a dream a cauldron filled with terrible fire, and heard someone’s unknown voice telling him that this cauldron had been prepared for him for such cruel torture of Christ’s chosen servant. The mayor woke up in horror from this terrible vision, spoke about it and forbade throughout the entire city entrusted to him not only to offend, but also to touch this insane, or, as they said in the city, spoiled woman. Sergei Vasilyevich himself thought that his wife, perhaps, really, as they said in the city and as she herself insisted, was spoiled, and tried to resort to spiritual healing. He went with her to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. A short-term change in the behavior of Pelageya Ivanovna During this trip, a sudden change occurred with Pelageya Ivanovna: it was as if she really got rid of her serious illness and became so meek, quiet and smart that her husband could not remember himself from joy. He listened to her good advice, fearlessly and with complete confidence handed her the money and everything else, and sent her home alone, while he himself went to another place on a very important and urgent matter. Hastening to finish this task and burning with impatience, he returned home in joyful expectation that he would finally find his long-lost, loving and beloved wife. But what was his horror and anger when he learned that Pelageya Ivanovna had given away everything down to the smallest half and every last thing to God knows who and was behaving worse than before, that she had returned to the city as some kind of beggar, and in the house she was trying to give away everything she could. Like for a fierce dog or a wild beast, Sergei Vasilyevich ordered an iron chain with the same iron ring, and with his own hands he chained Pelageya Ivanovna in it and chained her to the wall, and mocked her as he wanted. Sometimes an unfortunate woman, having broken the chain, broke out of her house and, rattling the chain, ran half-naked through the streets of the city, terrifying everyone. Everyone was afraid to shelter her or help her in any way, to warm her or feed her, or to protect her from her husband’s persecution. And so the unfortunate woman again fell into her captivity and had to endure new and more severe torments. “After all, although I became insane,” she herself said later, “I suffered a lot. Sergushka (husband) searched for the mind in me and broke my ribs; I couldn’t find my mind, but I broke all my ribs.” Indeed, the grace of God alone supported her, as God’s chosen one from above, and gave her the strength to endure everything that was done to her at that time. Once, having broken free from her chain, she, in a terrible winter cold, took refuge half-naked on the porch of an Arzamas church, called Napolnaya, in a coffin prepared on the occasion of an epidemic for a deceased soldier, and here, half-numb, she waited for her death. Seeing the church watchman, she rushed to him, begging for help, and frightened him so much that he, terrified of this ghost (as he thought), sounded a terrible flash and alarmed the whole city. After this, Serebrenikov completely renounced his wife, kicked her out of the house, dragged her to his mother and left her there. New sorrows from relatives A new long and painful life stretched out for God’s chosen one in her mother’s house. This house seemed like it should have been close and related, but it became completely alien and painful for her. We said before that her mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, married her second husband, the Arzamas merchant Alexei Nikitich Korolev, who had six children from his first wife: four daughters and two sons. This entire family, starting from the tough and angry stepfather, who beat Pelageya Ivanovna with his own hands, and to the last member of his family, everyone hated her. And especially his youngest daughter, Evdokia, took out all her domestic failures and all her anger on her, who was innocent. This unfortunate girl, whom no one wanted to marry because of her bad character, imagined that they were not taking her precisely because they were afraid that she too might go crazy, like Pelageya Ivanovna, and decided to destroy her. She once persuaded a villain, who knew how to shoot well, to kill her when she was running around the city, playing the fool. The unfortunate man agreed to shoot, fired, but missed. Then Pelageya Ivanovna, remaining safe and sound, predicted to him that he did not shoot at her, but at himself. So what? A few months later, her prediction came true exactly; he shot himself and died a suicide. Thus, God’s judgment was not slow to take place on the man who encroached on the life of the blessed ascetic. She got it from her stepfather and her mother, so that she no longer placed her trust in anyone except the one God and His holy saints. Departure to Voronezh and visit to the Reverend Anthony So, once she tried to send her daughter with the Arzamas pilgrims to Zadonsk and Voronezh to Saints Tikhon and Mitrofan, thinking that maybe she would be healed. Arriving in Voronezh, the Arzamas pilgrims went with her to the Right Reverend Anthony, so famous at that time for the holiness of his life and the gift of clairvoyance. The lord received them kindly, blessed them and released them, and addressed the fool Pelageya Ivanovna, whom they revered, with the following words: “And you, servant of God, stay.” He talked with her alone for three hours. The companions who were with her at that time, as they themselves later said, were very offended by this and explained to each other: “Why did he really mess with her? Tea, and we are no poorer than her; We can also make a donation. Not all God, who she is, is our equal.” The perspicacious ruler recognized their envious and unclean thoughts and, seeing off Pelageya Ivanovna, said to her: “Well, I can’t tell you anything more. If Seraphim started your path, then he will finish it.” Then, turning to her companions, he said: “I am not looking for earthly wealth, but spiritual wealth.” And he let everyone go in peace. Second visit by the mother of Elder Seraphim Seeing that the holy saints did not seem to help Pelageya Ivanovna, and hearing that the Right Reverend Anthony mentioned Elder Seraphim, the exhausted Praskovya Ivanovna decided to once again go to the Sarov hermitage herself. Arriving at Elder Seraphim, she told him: “Here, father, my daughter, with whom we were with you, is married, she’s gone crazy, she does this and that and doesn’t stop; where and where we didn’t take her; She completely got out of hand, so they put her on a chain. - How is this possible? - the old man exclaimed. How could you? Let her go, let her go, let her walk according to her will, otherwise you will be terribly punished by the Lord for her, leave her, don’t touch her, leave her. The frightened mother began to make excuses: “After all, our girls over there also want to get married, well, it’s a shame for them to be stupid.” After all, you can’t persuade her with anything - she doesn’t listen. But she’s too strong to hold without a chain—you can’t deal with her. He takes it and runs around the whole city with a chain; shame and that's it. And the Elder of God involuntarily laughed, hearing the mother’s outwardly just and reasonable excuses, and said: “The Lord does not call the weak on such a path, mother; chooses for such a feat those who are courageous and strong in both body and spirit. But don’t keep her on a chain and you can’t, otherwise the Lord will threateningly punish you for her. Thanks to these words of the venerable elder and fearing God’s punishment, the family improved Pelageya Ivanovna’s life at least somewhat. She was no longer kept in chains and was allowed to leave the house. Having received freedom, she was almost constantly at night in the graveyard of the Napolnaya Arzamas Church. Here they saw her praying to God for whole nights in the open air with her hands raised in grief, with many sighs and tears. And during the day she acted like a fool, ran through the streets of the city, screamed outrageously and went crazy in every possible way, spending time on the street, covered in rags, without a piece of bread, hungry and cold. She spent four years like this and never stopped visiting her teacher, the holy fool Paraskeva, the same one who from the first taught her the unceasing Jesus Prayer. Direction to Diveyevo Hermitage Everything that had happened so far with Pelageya Ivanovna was, as it were, preparing her for the place that the perspicacious Elder Seraphim had assigned her during his first meeting with her. “Go, mother, go immediately to my monastery; take care of my orphans; and you will be the light of the world; and many will be saved by you,” the blessed elder said then. Many obstacles had to be overcome, many sorrows and tortures had to be endured by the sufferer, so that finally the relatives themselves were convinced that she should be released to Diveevo, where she was destined to shine with her extraordinary exploits. The mother began to work in every possible way about how to sell her from her hands; she even offered money for it and said: “I’ve had enough of it with her, with the fool.” She offered her to various monasteries and to the Arzamas Alekseevskaya community, but unfortunately the crazy woman did not listen to her mother, did not want to go anywhere, but only repeated one thing: “I am Diveyevo, I am Seraphimova and I will not go anywhere.” And her words came true. In 1837, after the death of Blessed Elder Seraphim, there was in the Diveyevo community one old woman, very experienced in spiritual life, a student of Blessed Seraphim, Ulyana Grigorievna, a former Krasnoselsk peasant, loving and hospitable to strangers. She was assigned obedience: to go to Arzamas with two novices on some business. When they were driving through the city, suddenly, out of nowhere, Pelageya Ivanovna runs towards them, climbs into their cart and calls them to her. “Come and have tea with us. Although my father is not my own and does not love me, he is rich, he has enough of everything, let’s go.” The Diveyevo family arrived at her call and told everything to the family. Ulyana Grigorievna, who had the gift of insight, said to her mother: “You would give her to us, why should she act like a fool here?” Praskovya Ivanovna rejoiced when she heard this. “Yes, I would be glad if you took her and if she went,” she answered. After all, the Queen of Heaven sees how tired we are of her, it’s just a disaster. Take it, for Christ's sake, we'll also give you money for it. Ulyana Grigorievna turned affectionately to Pelageya Ivanovna herself: “It’s enough for you to be crazy here, let’s come to us in Diveevo, that’s what God wants.” It was as if the madwoman was listening to all this indifferently and suddenly, at Ulyana Grigorievna’s last words, she jumped up and, like a clever woman, bowed at her feet and said: “Take me, mother, under your protection.” Everyone was amazed at her speeches, only the brother-in-law grinned evilly and said: “And you believed her. Look, how smart she has become! No matter how it is! Will she live with you in Diveyevo? He’ll run away and start staggering again.” And everyone was even more surprised when, in response to these such unkind speeches of her brother-in-law, Pelageya Ivanovna humbly bowed at his feet, and answered quite sensibly and reasonably: “Forgive Christ for my sake, I will not come to you again until the grave.” Truly, apparently, the time has come, determined by God, for Pelageya Ivanovna to enter the Diveevo community, because Ulyana Grigorievna invited her to Diveevo solely for the love of Christ and taking pity on the unfortunate sufferer, and the sufferer herself, without any resistance, with complete willingness, left the shelter of her own mother and joyfully went to Diveevo 11. The first time Pelageya Ivanovna stayed in Diveevo At that time, Ksenia Mikhailovna Kochalova was in charge in Diveyevo. She was a great old woman and ascetic, according to the testimony of Elder Seraphim himself, who called her a “pillar of fire from heaven” and a “spiritual torment” for her severity and severity. It was to this boss that they brought Pelageya Ivanovna and told her everything they knew about her. And Pelageya Ivanovna, even on the way to Diveevo and at the very moment of entering this land assigned to her from above, had already managed, through her foolishness, to create many incongruities and troubles that amazed mother’s cell attendants. “They brought some kind of idiot to us,” they said. “You know, this is the daughter of the merchant Praskovya Ivanovna Koroleva,” answered Ksenia Mikhailovna, “she, poor thing, is completely out of her mind.” Meanwhile, Pelageya Ivanovna entered with her cell attendants to the abbess and, seeing a simple-hearted, still young girl from the village of Kremenok, Ardatovsky district, named Anna Gerasimovna, knelt before her, bowed to the ground and, raising her hands, exclaimed: “Benedict, Venedict! Serve me, for Christ's sake." Hearing these words, Mother Ksenia Mikhailovna became very alarmed. “It’s so good,” she said, “she didn’t even have time to show her nose, and give her a novice, look what! You should serve yourself first, and it’s not like you’ll be served again.” The young girl, to whom the blessed one had bowed so earnestly, came up to her and, feeling sorry for her, poor thing, stroked her on the head; and sees that her head is all broken, covered in blood, and insects are swarming in it. And so she felt sorry for her, but she didn’t dare say anything. The Lord commanded this compassionate and simple-hearted girl, Anna Gerasimovna, to serve subsequently throughout Pelageya Ivanovna’s stay in Diveevo - for 45 years - with zeal and devotion to the ascetic of God. And the “mad Palaga,” as many called her, began to live in Diveyevo, but not a joyful life... They first assigned her to a young, but extremely stern and lively girl, Matryona Vasilievna, later the nun Macrina, known for her severity and severity... And she beat her so much that it was impossible to watch without pity. And Pelageya Ivanovna not only did not complain about this, but also rejoiced at such a life. She herself, as it were, called everyone in the community to insults and beatings: she was still going crazy, running around the monastery, throwing stones, breaking glass in the cells, banging her head and hands against the walls of the monastery buildings. She was rarely in her cell, and spent most of the day in the monastery courtyard, sitting either in a hole dug by herself and filled with all sorts of manure, which she always carried in the bosom of her dress, or in a guardhouse in the corner, where she practiced the Jesus Prayer. Always, summer and winter, she walked barefoot, deliberately stood with her feet on nails and pierced them right through and tried in every possible way to torture her body. I never went to the monastery meal and ate only bread and water, and sometimes even that was not available. It happened that when she got hungry in the evening and deliberately went to the cells of those sisters who were not disposed towards her to ask for bread, instead of bread they gave her pushes and kicks and drove her away. She returned home, and there Matryona Vasilievna greeted her with beatings. When, after the death of Mother Ksenia Mikhailovna, her own daughter, the meek and simple-hearted old lady of God, Irina Prokofyevna Kochalova, took the place of the boss, then some of the sisters who respected Pelageya Ivanovna began to say to her: “What is this, mother, have pity, it hurts to watch how Matryona beats Pelageya Ivanovna; after all, a dog is a beast, and it’s a pity for him, but even though he’s a fool, he’s still a person.” And the kindest mother Irina Prokofyevna took Matrena Vasilievna from Pelageya Ivanovna and assigned another young girl to her - Varvara Ivanovna; but the blessed girl did not like this girl. And Pelageya Ivanovna herself began to beat her and tried in every possible way to get rid of her, drove her away and said to her eyes: “I don’t love you, girl, no matter how you serve me, it’s better to leave me.” They tried and tried, and finally, from the general council, taking pity on the madwoman, they decided that Mother Irina Prokofyevna ordered her cell attendant to bring to her for service that same peasant woman Anna Gerasimovna, who immediately upon her arrival in Diveevo fell in love with Pelageya Ivanovna so much that at the same time she sincerely wished to remain with her in the service of Christ for Christ’s sake. As soon as Anna Gerasimovna went up to Pelageya Ivanovna with her mother’s blessing, she, being very strong and courageous, jumped up, grabbed her like a small child in her arms, put her in the front corner on the bench, bowed to the ground and said: “Father Benedict, serve me for the Lord’s sake, and I will obey you in everything, just like my father.” And all three of them settled together - Ulyana Grigorievna, Pelageya Ivanovna and Anna Gerasimovna - in a cell that, with the blessing of Elder Seraphim, was built from the Sarov forest at Ulyana Grigorievna’s own expense. Anna Gerasimovna, who served Pelageya Ivanovna throughout her life in Diveevo, left for us a very detailed account of the exploits of Pelageya Ivanovna. This narrative, in all its detail, breathes such sincerity and sincerity, such simplicity and artlessness, and so beautifully depicts the bright and great personality of the ascetic that we decide to place this narrative here in almost its entirety. Anna Gerasimovna's story about the life of Pelageya Ivanovna in Diveyevo “Eh, mother! But who knew that all this would be needed about her, - this is how Anna Gerasimovna begins her story in front of Abbess Maria. She arrived as a fool, and called herself nothing other than crazy and a fool. And the last time, when they brought the “Oran” icon of the Queen of Heaven to us and offered her a kiss, she said: “Queen of Heaven, you know that I’m a fool” - and kissed her. That’s how she called herself, but there’s nothing to say about others. Many sisters respected and revered her, but others not only did not go to her, but also scolded her in every possible way: “And she is a crazy woman, and there is a shrewd demon in her,” and other shameful words. And what didn’t happen? You can’t remember everything. I will only say one thing: I lived a lot with her, experienced a lot, suffered a lot, and now that she, my darling, is no longer there, I would be glad to even look at her, let alone listen to her, but where can I get her? But she foresaw and predicted all this. Once, shortly before my death, when I, seeing that she was talking and talking and pouring out everything, I grumbled at her and said: “You really are blessed, why are you talking incessantly? How can you not get tired of this? And how can you not get tired? “Wait,” she says, “father (that’s what she always called me), wait, the time will come, and you’ll be glad to talk, but you won’t have anyone to talk to.” That time has truly come. A terrible melancholy attacks me, I would be glad to at least see her, let alone talk to her, but now she is no longer there. Yes! She was a strange and incomprehensible person, tricky, tricky, to be sure! And even though I lived with her for a long time, what am I? I am an inept, simple man; where was I supposed to understand her? What happened, I see and understand sometimes, but for the sake of fear alone, how she, my dear, is judged, I remain more and more silent. Much, much has been lived. And what I know and remember as soon as I can and I can, don’t demand it, I’ll tell you everything, and you judge as God tells you. She spent a short time in the community before me and lived with me for exactly 45 years.” Life with Ulyana Grigorievna and Pelageya Ivanovna’s respect for her Ulyana Grigorievna had, as mentioned above, her own cell, built with the blessing of Elder Seraphim from the Sarov forest. This construction took place for this reason. “Ulyana Grigorievna,” says Anna Gerasimovna, “didn’t love Ivan Tikhonovich Tambovtsev with passion; and when he managed, albeit by force, to bring about the union of our two monasteries, Mother Alexandra’s and Father Seraphim’s miller’s 12 , and when he began to arbitrarily dispose of everything 13 , she said: “What is this? I can’t and don’t want to tolerate this. I’ll buy myself a place and set up my own cell so that no one will interfere with me. I’ll take Pelageya Ivanovna with me, let her live, no one will touch us then, she will protect us.” And she built this building, and we began to live in it. The ancient Seraphim cell is now the only one left in our monastery. And Pelageya Ivanovna definitely protected us. Once, as I remember now, after the fire we had, I heard that Ivan Tikhonovich was walking around in the building next to us and taking away everyone’s samovars and breaking dishes, and I said: “Here is Ivan Tikhonovich, listen, he’s breaking everyone’s hands; that he will come to us for the same.” And Pelageya Ivanovna sits on the floor by the stove and says: “And you, father, just sit and sit, I’m not afraid of him, he doesn’t dare, I’m an old man (that’s what she always called Elder Seraphim) closer to him, I have my own land and my own building.” She got up and went to the bed. Just then, Mother and Ekaterina Vasilievna Ladyzhenskaya 14 enter, followed by Ivan Tikhonovich, and it would have been all right, but Pelageya Ivanovna, opening the closet door, says to him: “Your beard is only large, but you have no intelligence at all; You’re worse than a woman.” He wandered off like that, completely confused. “What is it, what is it you, servant of God?!” - speaks. He didn’t dare say anything more, didn’t touch anything, and so he left. And after that, not only did he never come to us, but he even always ran around Pelageya Ivanovna and was afraid. She did love Ulyana Grigorievna and always honored her memory. Once many guests gathered to see Ulyana Grigorievna: Father Vasily’s 15 children and some others. Pelageya Ivanovna sat and sat and said: “Well? And I have my own guest; I’ll go and get her.” She got up and left. We look: he is walking and carrying in his arms a very pretty black dog of some sort of gentleman. “Here,” he says, “little woman (that’s what she called Ulyana Grigorievna), you and my guest; She also wants to eat, give her a piece.” And she sat down and put the dog on her lap. I burst out laughing, and Ulyana Grigorievna is angry. Pelageya Ivanovna says to her: “Little lady, little lady, don’t be angry, because she also wants to eat; don’t be sorry, give her a piece.” So I say to Field 16: “Give the dog a piece, why not give it?” She fed the dog, and as soon as she had eaten, she immediately let her go. What that meant, God knows, and that there was some kind of parable in it, I know, because there was nowhere to get such a dog even if I looked for it. And without a parable, in vain, she never did anything for herself. Ulyana Grigorievna was always so hospitable, hospitable and loving of the poor, that sometimes she wouldn’t let anyone through, and everyone would come to her, and she would greet everyone, and feed them, and give them something to drink, so that she lived with everything she had, but when she died, she had almost nothing to bury. Once our sister died in the hospital, her name was Agafya Lavrentyevna. Father Seraphim predicted this to her during her lifetime, when she was healthy and young: “You, mother, will be led to the next world by the Apostle Peter.” She had been ill for three years; The tongue was completely paralyzed, only sometimes it would babble one word: “Summer and summer.” She was exhausted, and indeed she died at the same hour as our priest Father Peter. And Father’s prediction to her was fulfilled that the Apostle Peter would lead her into the Kingdom of Heaven. When they buried her, the sisters looked at how they carried her, and they said: “It will be good for her there, the servant of God has suffered.” And Pelageya Ivanovna, who happened to be here, made a hand like an umbrella over her head from the sun, looked up at the sky and said: “The servant of God, the servant of God, but she did not reach that place like my Ulyana.” Ulyana Grigorievna died on my name day, the day of memory of Simeon and Anna. That’s how it used to be, when my name day came, Afanasia Nazarova 17 would invite me for tea and bake a pie. I will begin to worry and grumble. “Here,” I say, “they came up with something else. Celebrating a birthday? What is this for? And Pelageya Ivanovna would threaten and say: “Look, father, you always keep my grandmother’s memory alive. Nobody except her took me, you fool.” And she always loved and honored her very, very much.” The exploits of Pelageya Ivanovna in Diveevo for mortification. “For the first ten years, if not more, she tinkered with stones. He will take a handkerchief, a napkin or a rag, cover it all with large stones to the top and carry it from place to place; he’ll train a cell full of them, litter and litter and you won’t be able to turn around. I was already arguing with her, and tried in every possible way to wean her from this - it didn’t work out that way, she drags and drags. It happened that he would beat himself bloody, it was even pathetic to look at. And a wonderful thing, I tell you; She used to do something that she never did with these stones. Next to us, after the fire, the monasteries remained, and now large holes are still visible, as always happens after construction, and burnt bricks from the stoves lay in piles here and there, uncollected. Water stood in these pits in the summer. My clever girl got to them. What is this? I see, no matter how I come home from work, it’s all mud and mud, dirty and wet. I interrogate, scold - he remains silent. Wait, I think we need to see where she’s swimming. I got up this time, getting ready for morning; she doesn’t move, as if she doesn’t even think about going anywhere, she just looks at me. I went out and went as if to church, and I hid on the sidelines. Let me think, I'll see what happens. Now, after waiting a little, I see: he’s running so quickly, in a hurry, and straight towards these pits. He will pick up an armful of this brick, whole breast, stand on the very edge of the pit, and from the hem he will throw one brick at a time with all his might into the pit, into the very water. A brick will splash and drench her all over from head to toe, but she won’t budge, she stands rooted to the spot, as if she’s really doing some important work. Having thrown away the collected bricks, he climbs into the very water, almost waist-deep, and picks them out from there. Having chosen, he climbs out and, again standing on the edge, begins the same trick. And this is what he does throughout the church service. Indeed, I think to myself, I’m a fool; Yes, once again I tell her: -What are you doing? And shame on you! First she got involved with stones, took the whole cell, and now she got involved with bricks and you’re bathing. Look at yourself, you're wet. You’re not ready to wash the hem. “I,” he says, “father, also go to work; I can’t, I have to work, I work too. “Oh,” I say, “that’s a lot of work!” You’re not doing anything, what kind of work is this?! She's staring straight at me. “Why,” he says, “I don’t work, I don’t do anything?” And the stones. No, father, because I am also doing my job. Eh! Yes, it happened, would you really come to an agreement with her? Well, that’s how it used to be, and he performs all kinds of service for himself. And she worked like this for many many years. Now, when she began to grow old, I remember, like now, I’m going to the Annunciation for vespers, I look, she gets up and says: “Lord, now there’s no urine,” she sighed, and her tears, large tears, were rolling down her cheeks. And so I felt sorry for her, my darling. “Well, that’s enough, don’t go,” I said, “I’ll go, no one is forcing you, lie down, that’s all.” “Eh,” he says, “father; because you don’t know anything; If you’ve already taken it, then bother with it. We must, we must work. And the poor thing went to tinker with the stones again, because the holes remained unfilled, and the bricks, due to lack of time for many more important things, were not tidied up. Yes, perhaps, this work of hers would have continued even more, regardless of her old age or her weakness, if, feeling sorry for her, I had not begged her to take these bricks. Well, as soon as I took it, I stopped. And, let me tell you, it’s a strange thing! It used to be that she would climb into the water to get these bricks, and she would be all wet from head to toe, and she was not at all afraid of the water; and as she got old and quit her job, she began to be so afraid of water that it would happen that if you accidentally splashed her a little, she, my dear, would get alarmed, and she would get all excited; Because, I believe in my stupid mind, she’s really tired herself out, dousing herself in water for so many years. The Lord knows. And then she also came up with the idea of ​​working with sticks. It used to be that he would pick up a huge load of sticks and beat them on the ground with all his might until he killed them all, and even bled himself all to pieces. And what did she do! And nothing happened to her, like other people. One day our fence board fell off from the spindle and was sticking up like a huge nail. “Oh, what a sin! No one would have come across it,” I say; I wanted to remove it. And Pelageya Ivanovna already ran at her and, as hard as she could, with her bare foot she hit the nail so hard that she jumped right through her legs. “What is this,” I say, “are you doing?!” Oh, you really are crazy,” and I’m already running to my cell to quickly tie my leg with something. I look, and there’s no trace of her. I stood and stood and left with nothing. Comes running in the evening. “Well,” I think, “thank God!” - Yes, to the leg, you know, I want to bandage it. I look and can’t believe my eyes: there’s some dirt here and there, but there’s not even a sign of a wound. That’s how it’s always been.” Pelageya Ivanovna's insight “It used to be that she would walk around the monastery, cells, fields and villages all day long and for a long, long time; I almost never lay at home, except at night, and then only a little. Polya will take this, run with her, wherever she needs it, in their own way, in their blissful way. We used to know that there was no one but her to come to us, we weren’t afraid, and the door was never locked at night. It used to run and run during the day; If he wants to eat, he won’t find me at home, he’ll come running to the deceased Matryona Fedotievna; she loved her very much. - Katenka, Katenka! – that’s what she called her. Give me some bread, I need to eat, otherwise I don’t have my father at home. Well, he will feed her. Fedotievna also had a wonderful life. She got into the habit of constantly running to the tavern to see the kisser. People are happy and judge her in every possible way, and “she’s a drunkard, and this and that.” And she, you know, goes on and on. Just one night, I see, my Pelageya Ivanovna brings a sheepskin coat and a whole huge bundle of gingerbread. “Eat,” he says, “father.” I was so dumbfounded, fear even attacked me. "God! - Think. Where did she get so much, and at night?” Who knows them, these blessed ones? And she is cheerful, so joyful, and so she bursts into tears, saying: “And you eat, eat.” What happened? What would you think? It ended with her going to the tavern saving two human souls. The kisser himself told me this, asking her for forgiveness. He began to think about ruining his wife, and then one night he decided to end her life, led her into the wine cellar and was about to raise his hand when Pelageya Ivanovna, hidden unnoticed behind the barrels, grabbed his hand and shouted: “What are you doing? Come to your senses, you madman! And thus she saved them both. After that, I stopped going to the tavern. How many found out about this, realizing her insight, stopped condemning her, and began to honor her. After the death of Ulyana Grigorievna, we lived with her for a long time in terrible poverty, well, in poverty. Not only was there no way to make tea, but in the absence of soap, sometimes you had to rub it with clay and wash it. Her relatives, rejoicing that they got rid of her, abandoned her completely; they were afraid to even show themselves, lest she return to them. For seven years, not only did we not have any of them, but we also didn’t hear anything about them; Finally, one day the mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, took it into her head to look at her daughter, so she came with her stepdaughter Avdotya, but not to us, but stayed with Nastasya Andreevna Prasolova, who lived opposite us; and from their yard Pelageya Ivanovna could be seen. I didn’t know anything yet; Yes, Pelageya Ivanovna is so sad, I see, even if she’s joking, she says to me: “The Arzamas people have arrived, father, and they’re afraid to come here, so that I won’t go with them. So here’s the thing: as soon as the horses are harnessed, we’ll go there with you. I’ll get into their cart and sit down; they will think that I want to go with them.” And she smiled so sadly, as if through tears, but she didn’t cry. “Well,” I say, “let’s go.” And my heart turned over with pity, looking at her. No sooner said than done. As soon as they laid the horses and gave them horses, we come. I look like they are happy. And Pelageya Ivanovna greeted them so well and started talking to them, as if she were completely smart. But all of a sudden she ran, got right into the cart, hit the horses and drove out of the gate. Where did it go? Both mother and sister were frightened, became terribly angry and began to scold her in every possible way. Having reached the dyeing shop, she stopped and got out. “Here,” he says, “God is with you, don’t be afraid, I won’t go to you until the grave.” And to her step-sister, Avdotya, who did not like her very much and always scolded her, said: “Even though you don’t love me and were angry with me, Dunya, God is with you; just remember: even though you get married, you will die with your first child.” And Avdotya scolded her for this and said to her mother: “You’re a fool, do you hear what you came up with to say?” And I didn’t believe it, but when I got married and actually died as my first child, a girl, I had to believe it.” Poverty and non-covetousness of Pelageya Ivanovna “And her mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, began to be afraid of her from that time on, so that she once sent a pound of tea and some of her worldly dresses in a chest; but she, my mother, didn’t even look, she turned away and covered herself, so I divided everything up for someone. Shortly after this I somehow became ill; Glafira Semyonovna, the daughter-in-law of Pelageya Ivanovna’s stepfather, came to us, who was very merciful and even as a girl in Arzamas, she loved Pelageya Ivanovna very much, honored and believed in her God’s path and calling, for which, upon getting married, she received many beatings from her father-in-law. Pelageya Ivanovna looks at her and so kindly says to her: “Will you ask my mother for some samovar that has been lying around? “My father is still ill.” Returning to Arzamas, Glafira Semyonovna tells Praskovya Ivanovna that Pelageya Ivanovna is asking for the samovar. “Believe God, Mama,” he says, “it will be a sin for us that we abandoned her completely. I visited her myself and saw that she was not only the poorest of all, but lived in absolute poverty.” And after that they sent us a samovar and a pound of tea, and from that time on we began to acquire something. After that, for the sake of conscience, the relatives did something. So, one day her brother, Andrei Ivanovich, came and gave me the skin. “Sew her,” he says, “at least some cats,” because it’s too embarrassing. Well, I sewed it; Yes, she put them on forcibly and left; then he comes without cats. - Where did you put the cats? And where “there” is, the Lord knows. So she gave it up, and she never wore or put on any shoes or stockings. So, it used to be that she would run barefoot.” Final renunciation of mother and husband “Our relatives began to visit us in the monastery, and it used to be that Pelageya Ivanovna always knew this in advance; she will go away and crawl into the nettles, and nothing will call her out of there. “Oh, father,” he will say to me, “they are rich people, what do we have to do with them?!” Once her husband also came here to her, and she foresaw this, and in this way: she stood up and said to me: “Father, now the Arzamas people will come, I will be at the church, then you will come for me,” and she left. It was summer. I’m sitting and see: someone is coming - two, as if towards us; one man is so good, young and brave, and well dressed too. “Who would it be?” I think. I haven’t seen anything like this at all and I don’t know.” – Is the queen here? - asks. And this is the surname of Pelageya Ivanovna’s stepfather. “Here,” I say. What do you need? “It’s necessary,” he says. Where is she? “Here,” I say, “let’s go.” Are you from Arzamas? Will you be her family? “It seems like he was considered a relative,” he says. We come, and she, as she said, sits and smiles at Tikhvinskaya. She put a thin shoe on one foot, an old felt boot on the other, and took a stick in her hands. He came up, looked, and said to her: “You’re being such a fool, let’s go to Arzamas.” I hear it and think: why is he calling her to Arzamas? Who is it? “Who are you,” I say, “will you be?” - Me? “Her husband,” he answered. - A! That's it! - I think to myself. So what? If you have a good house and clean rooms, then take her with the Lord; she will clean them for you with stones. And I will be happy; She's so tired of me with this rubbish. Pelageya Ivanovna is silent and smiles. “And you,” he says, “really think that she’s a crazy fool?” Not at all, he’s just fooling around and just being a rogue. And the clerk who came with him said to him: - Eh, Sergei Vasilyevich! What are you saying? Well, would she, even if she had a small mind, endure such beatings as you beat her? And that’s why I just endured it because I became crazy. “Well,” said the husband, “what is she doing?” Look how healthy and smooth she is! Pelageya Ivanovna bowed and said: “I didn’t go to Arzamas, and I won’t go, even if you rip all my skin off.” Hearing this, the husband bowed silently and left. And after that he never was, and nothing was heard about him. Many years later, in 1848, when they were laying the foundation stone for our cathedral in the summer, I saw once: my Pelageya Ivanovna suddenly jumped up, cowered, hunched over, walked back and forth around the room, moaning and crying. - What is the matter with you, mother? Are you really healthy? Al what happened? “Oh,” he says, “father!” After all, that's what you are! He's dying, and how he's dying! No communion! It was only then that I understood everything and fell silent. A little time later, the clerk who was with him at the fair comes to us and tells us that Pelageya Ivanovna, with her appearance and actions, showed everything that happened to Sergei Vasilyevich. He was really grabbed; he writhed just like that, ran around the room, moaned and said: “Oh, Pelageya Ivanovna, mother! Forgive me for Christ's sake. I didn’t know that you were enduring for the Lord’s sake. And how I beat you! Help me! Pray for me." Yes, he died without communion. And then there was terrible cholera. And from then on until September 25, 1883, she never mentioned her husband; and then I see this; she seemed to be sad, propped herself up with her hand, and sat so mournful and sad. “What is this, mother,” I say, “what are you?” And she sighs so heavily and says: “Oh, Sergushka, Sergushka! No one will give you even a prosphora.” I was so excited about this. After all, it was she who remembered her husband, because she always called him that. I looked at the calendar, and on September 25, “Reverend Sergius”, the birthday boy was, presumably. So her mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, said the last time she visited her: - Well, Pelageyushka, forgive me for Christ’s sake; I hit you a lot. “Yes,” he says, “mama, you beat me a lot in vain; God will forgive. But you still have to ask God about it. And now we’ll see you in the rest, mamma; I will never see you again in this life. And so it happened, she didn’t see her after that, and soon Praskovya Ivanovna died.” New foolish acts in Diveevo for the sake of mortification “From time to time, a former military man and also blessed, Fyodor Mikhailovich Solovyov, well remembered by everyone and known to everyone for his gift of foresight, came to us from Arzamas. It’s so incomprehensible to the mind what they did together; fear would take over, sometimes you don’t know where to go. Why did Pelageya Ivanovna love Ulyana Grigorievna, but she was also afraid of them. Willy-nilly I had to stay alone with them. As it happened, they started their war, I just can’t stop it. Solovyov will come and bring tea, or mint, or St. John’s wort, whatever happens, and in a military way: “Don’t bother me,” Anna will shout! Put on the samovar and drink with us,” and even worse, on the cleanest Monday. Well, we drink, sitting on a bench in the corner; I’m shaking myself, because no matter how they come together at Christmas, whether in the cemetery, or in our cell, both huge and long, they run back and forth, chasing each other; Pelageya Ivanovna with a stick, and Fyodor Mikhailovich with a log, hitting each other. “You, Arzamas fool, why did you leave your husband? - Soloviev shouts. “Why did you leave your wife, you Arzamas soldier?” - Pelageya Ivanovna objects. “Oh, you big barn, Kolomenskaya mile!” - Fyodor Mikhailovich shouts. And so their own bickering and conversation goes on without a break, they are the only ones who can understand it. I sit here barely alive from fear; sinner, I think to myself: “Oh, they’ll kill me.” I even went to see Mother Irina Prokofievna several times. “I’m afraid,” I say, “Mother, I don’t have a soul, they’ll probably kill me.” And mother would say: “Be patient, Annushka, child, you are sitting with them, God’s fools, not of your own free will, but for holy obedience. And if they kill you, you’ll go straight to the Kingdom of Heaven.” Well, I endure it and sit. Sometimes the sisters would say: “Look what they’re doing! And Anna Kremenkovskaya makes fools of them, she’s also lost her mind, she’s become a complete fool.” What? With Solovyov, it happened that they had their own, they only understood and God, a blissful war was going on. And besides this, she, Pelageya Ivanovna, is at war with everyone. Where there, of course, and who will understand them - those blessed ones. In their way, in their blessed way, that’s the way it should be, all you hear is: “Take your sin,” or: “Calm down your fool, that she’s mischievous with you, you crazy fool; At least you tied her down or something.” My Pelageya Ivanovna used to hear all this herself; silent and again for his own. What to do? I began to try, no matter how painful it was, to lock her. I locked it once, she, my dear, fell asleep, but I forgot and left. She woke up and started screaming; others hear someone screaming, but they don’t understand right away. So she climbed out the window, right onto the stacked firewood, and she screamed, which means it’s impossible to get off of them. And they saw it and somehow took it off in their hands. Another time, too, she went so wild, I couldn’t stop myself, they came running and said: “Take your fool; It’s painfully mischievous, there’s no way to cope, calm her down.” And I locked her in the closet. So she sat there for a little while: “Father, unlock it, breadwinner, unlock it.” “No,” I say, “I won’t unlock it.” She again: “Father, unlock it, falcon, unlock it, it’s necessary.” “I won’t unlock it,” I say, “everyone over there is complaining about you; Promise that you won’t, then I’ll unlock it.” She fell silent and a little later said to Polya: “Girl, at least open the door, because the dog (I mean) will never unlock it and won’t let me out.” “How can I unlock it without my mother?” – Polya answers. “Wait,” I think, “what will happen next?” I opened the door myself and said: “Don’t go there, otherwise I’ll never let you out again.” She jumped up, grabbed me by the shoulders, turned me over, and she was gone and ran away. The trouble is, what a mischief she was. And from that very time on, she began to be afraid not only of the castle, but sometimes, if you accidentally closed the door without intent, the whole thing would tremble, even jump up, so it happened that we didn’t lock any door either day or night. But there was no external door until 1883, so we lived without a door for a solid 22 years.” Intention to expel Pelageya Ivanovna from Diveevo “Her self-will also reached the authorities. The late mother Irina Prokofyevna several times intended to drive her away and repeatedly sent me about this. One day her cell attendant comes and tells me: “Mother ordered you to take your fool and send it from where you got it.” And so I felt something sad. “I didn’t take it and won’t take it, whatever you want, you do.” And why drive her away, I say. Ulyana Grigorievna didn’t accept her that way, but also 500 rubles. She gave Joasaph 19 for her.” And Pelageya Ivanovna, no matter how much she cares, sits in a corner in the closet, looks, listens and is silent. - There, do you hear? Why are you silent? - I say. “Mother wants to send you away as a fool for being such a fool.” - What is she saying about me! – she said herself, “she’s not the boss yet; After all, just like me, she’ll sit in the corner. “Do you hear,” I say to Irina Prokofievna’s cell attendant, “what is she saying?” Go and tell your mother. And she left and told everything to her mother. Knowing Pelageya Ivanovna’s perspicacity, Mother Irina Prokofyevna was frightened, she sends her cell attendant to us with something, with gifts, and does not order us to touch her. The cell attendant came up and gave her something. “Mother sent it.” But she didn’t calm down, you know, she said to herself: “No, she won’t be a boss for long.” What would you think? And indeed, two weeks later, Mother Irina Prokofyevna was quietly replaced from us, according to Joasaph’s cunning, making Ekaterina Vasilievna Ladyzhenskaya the boss. But when the sisters came to Pelageya Ivanovna and said about her: “Here we have a new mother,” “no,” she replies, “she’s not a native one yet. And what a turmoil, what turmoil we will have,” and he will fall silent. “Well,” I say, “apparently, everyone here is not real and not indigenous.” But when Mother Elizaveta Alekseevna was appointed head, I again told her: “After all, they gave us a new mother; What, in your opinion, is this one again not indigenous?” “No,” he says, “father, this is something real, like a native one.” Well, Elizaveta Alekseevna Ushakova, our current mother Maria, really came out as a real and radical one.” “What can I tell you about how Pelageya Ivanovna fought for Elizaveta Alekseevna and what she did while the unrest she predicted in advance broke out among us when Bishop Nektary came to us for the forcible replacement of Elizaveta Alekseevna with Chervyatinskaya Lukerya, who is now mother Eupraxia in the Ponetaevsky monastery? Before the arrival of the Bishop, we knew nothing and did not even suspect that the bishop would come to open the monastery, and only just before his arrival I saw: my Pelageya Ivanovna was very sad about something, she kept walking, rushing and running, saying: - Oh, what a grief! Melancholy, what melancholy! - Well, what kind of grief is this? – I say, “everyone is waiting for the Bishop, and here you are “woe.” Let me put on the samovar instead. “Oh,” he says, “mother (the first time she called me that again), what kind of “samovar” is this for you? What a grief, what a cloud is coming! Let's go to the gate. Went. I see that she doesn’t even have a face, it’s as if she’s not herself anymore. We sat at the gate all day; she is so sad and tossing about. “What thunder there will be today,” he says! After all, perhaps he will kill someone, yes, that’s right, he will kill.” - What is this? - I say. Lord, have mercy! And I was so scared that I was shaking all over. “There will be some kind of misfortune,” I think, because I see that she has changed, she is yearning, as if she was torn all over. It was dusk when she suddenly jumped up and ran straight into the ridges that we had at that time opposite the gate, and sat down in them. Well, I'm with her. A cloud came along with a lot of thunder and heavy rain, it showered us and watered us, but not only did it not go home, it sat and did not let me go, as if it were not her. “Sit,” he says. I sat and sat, got wet, and said: “What is this? Lord, have mercy! The rain just keeps pouring down. Over there everyone is waiting for the bishop with lanterns, and I’m here and sit with you.” Yes, I got up and wanted to leave. As she jumped up, grabbed me by the hem and so threateningly and angrily shouted at me: “Just sit there!” Horror came over me. "What is this? God! - Think. There will certainly be some kind of trouble!” Well, we sat and from a distance saw how the sisters gathered with lanterns at the gate - they were waiting for the bishop. We were wet down to the last bone. And when the bishop arrived, I saw: she jumped up from the beds and rushed forward to the gate. A little later after his arrival, she stood up, looked at herself and me, and saw that water seemed to be pouring from both of us in a stream. “Well,” he says, “thank God! Now nothing will happen." And we went home, as if we were wet, I see: as if she lay down for a little, and then all night long, who knows where, all the wet ones ran around. “Oh,” I think, “something is wrong, oh, trouble!” So my heart is aching. I see that it’s not for nothing that she does all this: she goes to the bishop and does everything, but I can’t even imagine what. And therefore no one in the monastery knew anything and, as they say, did not guess what kind of chaos would happen. On the very first day of my arrival, I saw the Bishop coming to us, my heart began to ache. “What is this,” I think, “we are fools, and such people have never come to us.” He went up and saw: Pelageya Ivanovna sitting huddled on a stool in the closet. He took a stool and sat down next to her, and ordered me to sit on the bench. “Ah,” he says, “the servant of God! What should I do? She looks at him so nicely and says to him: “In vain, sir, in vain you are bothering. They won’t let the old mother out.” Hearing this - as I can see now - he leaned his beard on his staff and became sad, shaking his head from side to side. “I don’t know what to do,” he says, looking at me. “I’m kind of scared,” she said. Hey-hey, that's it! I began to get the idea and, having become a little bolder, I simply said: “Most Reverend Bishop! But why change? After all, she doesn’t offend anyone.” I thought in my stupid mind I would do better, but it turned out worse. As soon as I finished speaking, Pelageya Ivanovna jumped up, anxious and so scary, come on, let’s fight! Everyone who was with Vladyka fled in fright wherever they could, and I was left alone with him; I shake and say a prayer: “Lord, just help me.” Yes, somehow, having seized a moment, she sent the bishop out, but she is fighting, no matter what she gets her hands on, beating and pounding everything. Horror fell on everyone, including us. In the evening, I hear them say, the bishop told some gentleman, Vinogradov, who had arrived with him, that “Pelageya Ivanovna scared me, I don’t know what to do!” “You want, sir,” says the master, “to listen to the crazy woman.” And the next morning the bishop went against everyone, despite the requests and tears of the sisters, completely without reason canceled Elizaveta Alekseevna and installed Lukerya. Agrafena Nikolaevna Nazarova came to tell us about this and, knowing how Pelageya Ivanovna loved cats, she brought a very pretty kitten and gave it to her. What is this, Lord! I look: my Pelageya Ivanovna jumps up and punches her right in the head as soon as a kitten is enough; he, poor fellow, didn’t make a sound; killed. This has never happened to her before. “Come on,” I say, “Pelageya Ivanovna, let’s be naughty.” “No,” he says, “I won’t stop.” “Yes, that’s it,” I say, “that’s all.” She doesn’t care, but what do I have to do with it? Just know, through you, go to the answer. “No,” he says, “what do you want?” I will choose the time besides you. My heart just tore away from me, I’m walking around and I’m definitely not myself, I can’t take my eyes off her. Night came, she sat at home, the next day the good one got up and had dinner with us. I felt better. “Well,” I think, “thank you God, I’ve calmed down.” I don’t remember why and went into the closet. I come, and she’s not there. That's how my heart sank. “Where is she? - Think. I wish I hadn’t done anything else!” I’m in a hurry, I’m about to go look for him, but they’re already running towards me. “What are you doing,” they say? What did your crazy fool do? And you don’t know? After all, she hit the bishop on the cheek.” So I died. I can’t even think of anything. “Here,” they say, “now go to her madhouse, and you will be in trouble too. And you will be held accountable." "God! - I say. What do I have to do with her? After all, she’s not five years old, I don’t have to carry her in my arms and watch over her.” A terrible grief has taken over me, I feel so heavy and sick, I have no strength. And I cried bitterly. She goes. “Afraid of God,” I say, “have you fooled me?” Well, has it been seen? After all, people really say: they will put you in a madhouse. And they won’t leave me bitter because of your nonsense. “I haven’t been in it,” he says, “and I never will.” And so it is necessary. Nothing will happen. “Yes,” I say, “speak.” This is how it all happened, the bishop was driving home from the service in a droshky, and my clever girl was sitting on the road (and when did she have time?), rolling eggs, just after Easter, soon all this happened. The Bishop, apparently, even though he listened to the master, was not at peace, because (what is the truth to hide?) he did not do the job in God’s way. He saw Pelageya Ivanovna, apparently he was delighted and thought whether she would calm his conscience, he got off the droshky, went up to her, and took out the prosphora. “Here,” he says, “servant of God, you have the prosphora of my service.” She silently turned away, he should have left, he saw that something was wrong, it was a straightforward matter. Who wrote the law for them, blessed ones? That's why they are blessed. And he, you know, came in from the other side and served again. How does she get up, straighten up, and so menacingly, and hit him on the cheek with the words: “Where are you going?” Apparently, she denounced correctly, because the Bishop not only did not become angry, but humbly turned the other cheek, saying: “Well? In the gospel way, hit the other way too.” “It will be enough for you to do it alone,” answered Pelageya Ivanovna, and as if she had done nothing, as if she had nothing to do with it, but that’s how it should be, she began rolling eggs again. The bishop left, and Pelageya Ivanovna’s mother, Praskovya Ivanovna, having heard this whole story in Arzamas, got scared, came to us and told me: “They say they’ll put me in a madhouse; but you will have trouble with her. I don't feel sorry for her. Have you heard of this? What have you done? God be with her, that’s where she belongs, but I’m so sorry for you, my dear. I followed and cared for her, the fool.” Pelageya Ivanovna listened to all this in silence, and in response to these words of hers she said: “I’ve never been there, but I never will and never will. Nothing will happen." So what? Nothing really happened, and the bishop used to respect her so much that he always inquired whether she was alive. And what else? He also sent her his blessing and asked her for her holy prayers, once he even sent her a prosphora with a stranger and something else as a gift. Apparently, he realized that he did not act in a Godly manner and that the blessed servant of Christ convicted him justly, although fearlessly and boldly.” This is how the venerable Anna Gerasimovna judges the action of blessed Pelageya Ivanovna. For a more accurate understanding of this act, we will cite here the words of the ever-memorable High Hierarch of Moscow Philaret. In his letter to His Eminence Isidore, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, he among other things wrote: “The incorrect election of Glykeria was confirmed. Joasaph revealed himself to be the most ridiculous person. In a community of sisters, simple and modest, he gradually assembled a party, the head of which is now Glyceria, and caused division and unrest... After the election of Glykeria, one holy fool living in Diveevo and respected by everyone among the people hit the Right Reverend Nektarios on the cheek” 20 . These words of the ever-memorable High Hierarch of Moscow shed clear light on the action of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna. This act was caused by extreme injustice in the election of Glyceria, not by the common desire of the sisters, but by the intrigues and machinations of Joasaph. This act testified to jealousy for the truth, which was clearly violated and trampled upon. From Anna Gerasimovna’s story, one cannot help but see that Pelageya Ivanovna struggled with herself for a long time before this act of hers, endured severe inner grief, and just before the act she turned away from the Right Reverend, and yet decided on this act. This, obviously, is not simple human insolence against the archpastor of the church, but precisely zeal for the truth, so clearly desecrated and trampled upon. Let's listen to Anna Gerasimovna's story further. “On the very day when the bishop replaced Elizaveta Alekseevna and put the Cherevatinskaya peasant woman Lukerya in her place, on that very day Pelageya Ivanovna killed the Nazarovsky kitten. And for the entire six months during which Lukerya was imprisoned, she broke everything, beat her and fought endlessly. We had our own, also very pretty, kitten - at the same time she killed him too. And it really hurt me, I felt annoyed and pitiful. “What is this,” I say, “Pelageya Ivanovna; it will be for you! You keep beating and killing, it seems like you loved cats yourself, and then, lo and behold, you’re killing another kitten. How do you not feel sorry for this? After all, what is the creature’s fault!” “That’s right, father,” he answers, “but what should you do when it’s necessary?” So talk to them, the blessed ones. I look once: she’s running from somewhere and carrying a very pretty kitten, I don’t even know where she got it. She brought him to the front corner on a bench and sat him down, stroking him and saying: “Well, I killed two, and now you can live with me.” “Well,” I say, “I killed one, and not enough, and another, and now I’ve brought my own, let this one live.” In the evening, I hear, the Tambov Archimandrite Joachim came to us (the Nektaryevsky case was incorrectly received by the Holy Synod, temporarily you see, and they transferred us to the Tambov bishop), so that Mother Elizaveta Alekseevna, who was not taken from us according to God, could be returned to us and again put in charge; It was then that I realized all her tricks. That's why she brought the kitten herself. Eh, Pelageya Ivanovna, Pelageya Ivanovna! And only she was wonderful.” “Well, since Mother Elizaveta Alekseevna was returned to us, everything has remained calm for us, and my Pelageya Ivanovna has stopped being mischievous. Instead of stones and sticks from my mother's abbess, I fell in love with flowers and began to work with flowers. Whether he sits or walks, you know, he sorts them out; and how many times they would inflict them on her! Whole farts. The whole cell will be poisoned with them. Here she almost stopped running, she used to sit more and more in her cell. Her favorite place was right on the road, between three doors, on the floor, on the felt by the stove. I hung a portrait of Father Seraphim and Mother here; It used to be that he would talk to them all night and give them flowers.” “She hardly slept, unless she sat there or lay down and dozed off a little, and at night, it happened, you’d look, she was no longer there; It happened that he would leave and stand somewhere in the monastery, regardless of the rain or the cold, turning to the east; I suppose he is praying. I have never been sick. Only once, three years before her death, she left like that at night. I was unwell; Masha went into the forest to do laundry, and a terrible snowstorm roared. I hear: the clock strikes ten, eleven, twelve, finally one o’clock, but she’s still not there. “Polenka,” I say, “you should go and see Pelageya Ivanovna, she’s been gone since four o’clock, but what’s going on in the yard?” After all, he will probably kill. She took Paul’s lantern and blew it out; So she went out in the dark. She searched, screamed, but couldn’t find her. Well, everyone got excited. But you can’t see how to eat; Pelageya Ivanovna is gone. “Go,” I say, “into the world, look for her there.” Five o'clock in the morning. "God! - I say. What is this? About six o'clock Masha went to the monastery and looked: show her that Pelageya Ivanovna's shirt was turning white in the beds opposite the cathedral. Masha came up, and she was sitting in the beds, not moving, she was almost completely frozen; and Masha was so happy, she clung to her. See, she climbed into the beds wet, and the wind knocked her down; having fallen over, she sat up, exhausted from her old weak strength; meanwhile, the sundress had frozen to the ground, and she couldn’t get out of it. Masha shouted to her sisters; They brought her in their arms, laid her down, gave her tea and wine, she began to walk away a little and laughed. “Do you really,” he says, “do you feel sorry for me?” “It’s a pity, it’s not a pity,” I say, “but whatever reprimand I would accept.” “Well, here I am, Simeon (lately she kept calling me Simeon), I got lost, I couldn’t find the road, I got knocked down, I completely lost the way.” I’m grumbling, you know, but I myself don’t know how to feel sorry for her; turned away and cried. She saw this and showed it to her sisters. “Oh, what a dog, father, he says, “It’s not a pity,” but look, he’s crying.” Then we left her with force and force. Judge for yourself: an old woman at night, nine hours straight, in a terrible snowstorm, almost worse than winter, has to sit in nothing but a sundress and a shirt; How she didn’t die is a miracle! But from then on she began to put on stockings; and until her death she never left her cell.” “Pelageya Ivanovna had a wonderful gift of tears, but before she cried more secretly, secretly. I remember that once I missed her, she was gone for a very long time; They searched and searched, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I went into the field and saw her sitting by the brick sheds and crying so bitterly, as if a river was flowing. Even my heart broke looking at her. “Oh,” I think, “that’s how she’s crying! Surely someone beat her!” This is what I think from my stupid little mind, and she, my dear, says to me: “No, father, it’s just me; I really need to cry, so I’m crying.” And about four years before her death, when she began to hear what was going on in Rus', what dirty tricks and lawlessness, then how, with her heart, she used to cry; She was no longer hiding and almost never stopped crying. Even her eyes became infected and even hurt from these tears. “What does it mean, mother,” I say, “that you keep crying so terribly?” “Eh, Simeon,” she says, “if only you knew this!” I would make the whole world cry now.” “And how submissive and obedient she was, I’ll tell you! You won’t find real novices like them; for nothing that she is blessed. When they brought her to us, even though she was running, she always had an effect. But last fall, shortly before her death, Polya began to try on a sundress on her: she became stubborn and beat her. Polya told me. “What are you doing,” I say, “being mischievous?” – and hit her on the back with a handkerchief. She began to shake and rushed towards me. “Mama,” he says, “why are you beating me? Why are you beating me? “For Polya,” I say, “you beat her up.” “But I’m down to business,” he says. So what? Forgive me for Christ's sake. And she bowed down at my feet so well. Esther, a nun at that time, was extremely surprised. “Here,” he says, “Mother Pelageya Ivanovna teaches us humility!” How obedient. “Oh,” I say, “mother, that’s for sure.” For the first ten years she, my dear, listened to me, you should have seen. - Ten years already?.. How about more... Pelageya Ivanovna said, smiling. “Who knows,” I say, “maybe more.” I don't remember. “No, you won’t have another Broadsword, you won’t find another like it,” she answered thoughtfully. In the old days, we didn’t have a novice; we lived alone. It used to be that summer would come and everyone would go to work. So, it used to be that you look after her, cook, and clean up everything, and besides, each of us is supposed to have his own lesson. Nun Alexandra will bring the scroll - it must be sewn in due time; Sometimes I see: I have no time, strength does not take me. And I’ll tell her like an intelligent person: “Mother, for the Lord’s sake, help me; I don’t have time, but they ask; You hear, “We have to meet the deadline.” And she will tie up her apron and put on her thimble, without saying a word. I look: she sews well. She was so obedient! Another time, if, having forgotten, I leave the scroll, it will deliberately make such a mess that it is impossible to unravel. One day, someone like that got it all so mixed up that it was impossible to correct it. And Alexandra’s mother runs to us and says: “This is impossible; you know what you need, but you screw it up. What is this, look, Lord have mercy. How can you sew it like that!” “Don’t blame me,” I say; there's a fool sitting there; exact on her. And it hurt me so much that, I confess to you, I sinned - I hit her on the head with this very scroll. She didn't even shake. “Well,” he says, looking at his mother Alexandra, “what will you take from me? I'm crazy." She even spun threads for me, and of her own free will. “Give me a comb,” he will say, “father, I’ll spin it.” I’ll give you a comb, and he sits and spins with a torch; There were no candles or lamps in the factory at that time... He would spin thick threads; It used to be that the Ladyzhenskys would take me apart.” Patience and humility “What can I say? She fought in her own way, in her blissful way; and she was patient and humble, you just have to be surprised. It happened that a cockroach would not touch itself in vain, nor would it give it to others, not only to offend someone; Sometimes they would step on her foot, completely crush her, and even stand on her, but she wouldn’t say a word, she would just wince. Her hair even once caught fire from her carelessness, and then she was silent. And as you wish, it happened, humiliate her, vilify her, scold her to her face, she is still happy, smiling. “I’m completely crazy,” he says, “I’m a fool.” And whoever gives her due honor for her insight and calls her, for example, a saint or a righteous woman, will be most alarmed. She did not tolerate honor, but on the contrary, she loved reproach most of all.” “Pelageya Ivanovna never sought, asked or took anything from anyone. She was completely uncovetous, which is why she had nothing of her own except two silver table spoons, and she gave those to our mother. I'll tell you how it happened. She grieved for her own good and her family’s; once he says to his mother: “After all, Palaga is crazy, where they want and collect her silver.” And her mother, hearing this and knowing her insight lately, was afraid of her and brought her these two spoons. - Why didn’t you bring my pearls? – asked Pelageya Ivanovna. “I gave it to my granddaughter Nadya,” answered Praskovya Ivanovna. “It’s in vain,” he says, “I myself would have found somewhere to put it.” After this, one day my mother’s cell attendant, Katya Orlovskaya, came. Pelageya Ivanovna, without telling anyone, took one of these spoons, put it in her lap and said: “Give it to mother.” And after a little time he says to me: “Simeon, oh Simeon! You and I are some kind of people, why do we need this? - and hands me another spoon. “Send it,” he says, “to mother.” So, of all her goods, the only ones that survived and that she got were these two silver table spoons that are now with my mother. Another time, soon after the death of her brother-in-law, her brother comes to us. As always, knowing everything in advance, just before his arrival Pelageya Ivanovna sat down to spin; sits and spins. “Oh,” he says, “that’s so good, from the pen to the spinning wheel.” I wanted to shame you. - What? - she answers. After all, we are poor people, the rich don’t even care about us; they don't want to know us; they share, and they don’t even ask us. - What does this mean? - says the brother. And it turned out, which meant, she was dissatisfied and reprimanded very much, why did they give less time to the local monastery. And this is how she often reprimanded them for their things and for their abode. And what they give, that’s what they put on, that’s what they wear, but they don’t give anything - they don’t even ask for it. She drank, ate, and wore everything that her admirers gave her for the sake of Christ’s alms. I didn’t take anything from the dress myself, sometimes they would give me: a sundress, a shirt, or a scarf. We used to put it on her, and even then it’s not always possible to put it on, but as God tells her. What kind of gifts they bring: sweets, gingerbread or prosphora - she won’t accept it from everyone. And whatever he takes, he puts it in his granary - that’s what we called her bosom. And she had this granary like a huge sack tied around her neck; It used to be like he was walking everywhere with a whole sack. And God forbid, how worried - no one touches this granary! In recent years, everything was brought to her from her mother’s rooms; She loved this mother’s food very much and called it hers and God’s. “The Queen of Heaven,” she said, “sent this to me.” And then: “Come on, give it to me - there’s my food there.” It happened that the other one didn’t eat, but waited for his own. And he will be terribly alarmed if anyone touches any of this food brought. I never took money from anyone. So, once she had one poor young lady; Pelageya Ivanovna received her so well. Believing, as the worldly always think, that something must be given to the blessed one, she gave her a ruble in copper money. “Leave it,” Pelageya Ivanovna spoke, “it’s the last thing you have.” What would you think? After all, the truth came out; The last ruble was in the young lady’s pocket, even though she was well dressed.” “She never distinguished anyone in any way, whether anyone scolded her, or caressed her - for her everyone was equal. She told everyone only that, in their blessed way, the Lord Himself would show who needed what for spiritual salvation: he caresses one, scolds another, smiles at someone, turns away from someone, cries with one and sighs with another, whom he will shelter and whom he will drive away, and even if you sit with someone all day, he won’t say half a word, as if he doesn’t even see. From early morning until late at night, it happened that we had no peace, they would completely bore us: some about soldiering, some about disappearances, some about marriage, some about grief, some about death, some about illness of both livestock and people - everyone with their grief and sorrows, with their dryness and care, came to her, sometimes not daring to do anything without her. The sisters, who have just a little something, all fly to her, by mail 21, it happened, and then they all ask her. As it is, there is no end. And everyone says: whatever she tells them, so everything will happen; It means that God Himself has already pointed out the benefits of living this way for people. How can you chase them?! And you don’t want to anger her, and you’re afraid of God. It used to be from morning until late at night that you get restless; sometimes it’s so sickening, but you endure it and remain silent - there’s nothing to do. Old women and young, simple and important, bosses and non-bosses - she had no one, and everyone was indifferent. To love especially, God knows, I didn’t notice if I loved anyone. She loved me, it seems, and then somehow in her own way. Once, for example, I let Polya go and was left alone. Pelageya Ivanovna ran away from me, and I got sick, and a lot, I completely collapsed, so I lay there the next day. She came running and said: “What are you doing, father?” - Yes! Now,” I say, “father!” Father probably goes to the guardhouse five times a day and runs after you in the field! But as the priest lies ill the next day, you won’t look in, you won’t visit him! Won’t you come up and say: Father, would you like a drink or something... She looked, listened silently, bent down, kissed me on the forehead and left. I don’t know if she asked anyone, or who gave it to her, but she soon comes: in one hand she carries white bread, in the other she scooped up water with a ladle from this old cauldron (it’s already 50 years old, which we have under the bench on purpose for this purpose) and comes up to me. - Would you like to eat something, father? Here's some water, go ahead and drink it. And I also got sick. I’m also lying there, and she’s running, she saw it. - You know, father, you are sick. - Oh, you are my breadwinner! What do you have? Does your head hurt? She grabbed me in her arms and dragged me into the yard. “What have you come up with,” I say, “crazy?” Leave it! Fields, don't give it to her! And she knows: hers. She pulled me out into the air, sat down and held me on her knees, rocking me and blowing in my face, kissing me and saying: “Oh, father! You’re so bad to me!” I’m the birthday girl, you know, for Simeon and Anna. Over the last few years she kept calling me Simeon, and always in a different way. What he used to call me, I don’t even know anymore, caresses or scolds and gets angry for what; I'm used to it, you know. When she was happy, it was all “Simeon” and “Father Simeon,” but when she was angry, she would never say that, but all “Semka” and “Semka.” And I used to get worried, I would get angry, and I would start reprimanding something to someone, she would now take me by the hand, stroke my hand, look into my eyes, and caress me. “After all, you are my Simeon the God-Receiver, father; after all, he accepted the Lord directly into his arms; Yes, he was good and so meek. And that’s what you need.” All in all, this is why I think that she loved me. She also loved the deceased Ulyana Grigorievna, she even cried when they had to bury her. She also loved our mother Maria very much and there were rare days when she did not remember her. And he talks to her portrait for hours on end, and is delighted with anyone sent from her, and everything is “Mashenka” and “Mashenka”, there was no other name. And how she knew everything: the worries and needs of the monastery, and how difficult it was for them, the bosses. Everyone used to sigh and groan about her. “I feel sorry for Mashenka! Oh, how sorry I am for Mashenka! Poor Mashenka! So, if there is any trouble at the monastery or with my mother, my Pelageya Ivanovna walks around - and don’t approach her, worried, upset, nothing will please her at that time. “It’s so hard for Mashenka, no one feels sorry for her,” she will say. Well, you know that something is wrong.” “She took great care of the monastery, calling everyone in it her daughters. And she was definitely a mother for the monastery; nothing was done here without her. Whether to send someone into obedience, whether to accept someone into the monastery or to send them away - mother did not do anything without her blessing. Whatever Pelageya Ivanovna says is sacred, so be it. And as she used to say, so everything will happen. Once one of our collectors comes to us, sits there and grumbles: “Hey, Father Seraphim predicted, they say that they will throw money at us through a sweeper - just take it. Where do they throw it?!” He will sigh and sigh. “Asking like that won’t get you anything.” Pelageya Ivanovna says to her: “God has a lot of mercy, but know that He will never leave our abode.” And now in the fall, when there was a theft in our meal and they were ordered to lock everything up and keep it strictly, they told us: “Beware of a fire, they’ll set it on fire.” I hear and say to the sisters: “You, sisters, look, don’t sleep soundly, everyone is saying that they are going to set us on fire.” Pelageya Ivanovna listens and says: “That’s enough! Lie down and sleep soundly. Our monastery will never be damaged by anything, and nothing will ever happen in it, because those who are entrusted with it are on guard.” At this very time, in response to these words, her guard, stationed at the cathedral of churchwomen, struck the board. “Indeed,” I say, “hear: our guards have gone.” - Eh, Simeon! – she interrupted me. You don't understand anything. But not these guards. What are these?! He is on guard who is entrusted with guarding the monastery. She must have meant Elder Seraphim.” “But in 1882, everyone told us that the relics would soon be there, so I once said to Pelageya Ivanovna: “Do you hear what they are saying? There will be relics." “No,” he says, “not soon yet.” “And you,” I say, “how do you know?” “Yes, I don’t know,” he says, “but not soon.” But in the spring of 1883 she sat in the closet by the open window and said to me: - Simeon, come to me, let’s talk a little. “Well,” I say, “let’s talk.” You know, I came up and sat down next to her on the bench. “Look,” says Simeon, “how well it has blossomed.” And she herself trembles all over, and so she rejoices. And, you know, I looked and saw that the lilacs had really bloomed, and I said: - Mother, look how well the lilac has blossomed. “Oh,” he says, “Simeon!” How stupid you are! You don't understand anything! And she took my hand, squeezed it tightly and said: - In six years, what will bloom in the monastery! And she herself is all trembling. It was only then that I realized that she was seeing something that we couldn’t see, and that she was predicting something good for the monastery.” “The other blessed servants of God who were in the monastery also ran to Pelageya Ivanovna - fools like her, as they called themselves. Once, for example, the so-called blessed Pasha of Sarov came in. That’s why she was called Sarovskaya because she fled for several years in the Sarov forest. She went up and silently sat down next to Pelageya Ivanovna. Pelageya Ivanovna looked at her for a long time and said: “Yes! It’s good for you, you don’t have worries like I have: there are so many children!” Pasha stood up, bowed low to her and left without saying a word in response. Many years after that, the sister of our monastery, Ksenia Kuzminichna, an elder of the former Seraphim times, one day during mass she was left alone with Pelageya Ivanovna and, sitting on a bench by the window, quietly combed her head, while Pelageya Ivanovna slept. Suddenly Pelageya Ivanovna jumped up, as if someone had woken her up, so that she scared old lady Ksenia, rushed to the window, opened it and, leaning out halfway, began to look into the distance and threaten someone. "What's happened?" - thought Elder Ksenia, she went to the window to look and saw: the monastery gate near the Kazan Church was opening, and blessed Pasha of Sarov entered with a bundle over her shoulders, went straight to Pelageya Ivanovna and muttered something to herself. Coming closer and noticing that Pelageya Ivanovna was mysteriously threatening her, Pasha stopped and asked: - What, mother, or something? “No,” says Pelageya Ivanovna. - So it’s still early? Isn't it time? “Yes,” confirmed Pelageya Ivanovna. Silently, Pasha bowed low to her and immediately, without entering the monastery, went into that very gate. And after that she didn’t visit us for a year and a half. Here they are, the blessed ones, the way they talk, go and understand them as you want... But they, fools, know everything, they just look at each other, and they understand everything. What do you think these mysterious conversations of theirs meant? Here's what: about six years before Pelageya Ivanovna's death, Pasha came to us again with some kind of children's doll, and then, a little later, with many dolls; He used to babysit them, look after them, calling them children. And Pasha began to live with us in the monastery for several weeks, and then for several months, where there was day and where there was night. A year before the death of Pelageya Ivanovna, she lived with us for almost the entire year. And when Pelageya Ivanovna died, she even remained completely in our monastery. She visited me several times, and I tried to invite her to stay. “No, you can’t, my mother doesn’t tell me to,” he answers me, pointing to the portrait of Pelageya Ivanovna. “What is this,” I say, “I don’t see.” “Why don’t you see,” he says, “but I see, he doesn’t bless.” So she left and settled with the choir members in the building. In the same way, Pelageya Ivanovna and our blessed late sister Praskovya Semyonovna, also the Elder of Seraphim, came to us and revered her, always calling her: Pelageya Ivanovna - the second Seraphim; also the late sister Praskovya Yakovlevna, who called her mama. But when, just before her death, a certain blessed Evgenia Feofanovna came to us for the last time, not from our monastery, but only who had visited us, that was it! This is how I look now and will never forget: she comes to us and drags two bundles of terry cloth 22 . “Here, Gerasimovna, dry rib,” he shouts, “I don’t trust anyone, but I’m dragging all my property to you.” “You’re being such a fool,” Pelageya Ivanovna tells her, “it’s better to talk about death.” Feofanovna, hearing these words, jumped up, ran up to her, fell at her feet and began to hug them. “You take me,” he said, and they both cried so much that it was a pity to look at them. A few days later, no more, Evgenia Feofanovna fell ill, February 4; the cold was terrible. I don’t know how and where she came from. She begged and fought under the window of Deacon Ivan Nikitich Sadovsky, who was in the parish of Father Vasily’s brother, but no one there let her in, knowing how the blessed one was raging. After all, neither calm nor law is written for them, not everyone can tolerate them. So she was completely frozen, and an old Khokhlovsky old woman and an old woman lived near the bell tower, they heard her moans, took pity on her, took her into their hut and told me. I came, I saw: he was lying down; and I felt sorry for her... What should I do? At that very time, Agafya Lavrentyevna, the sister of our monastery, said to me: “I feel sorry for you, Gerasimovna, you will be the only one, let me take her to myself.” And we took her to Agafya Lavrentyevna. The next day, Pelageya Ivanovna said to me: “Go to Evgenia, grab it while she’s alive.” I went, and she lay there, as if nothing had happened to her, and kept cursing and blissing. “They will come to see me off,” he says, “with bells.” And so it happened. They came for Father Vasily with bells to marry the wedding, but Evgenia is leaving; he rode these horses with bells and came to introduce her. This is where she died. And many of them came to us.” Last stay at the monastery “Ever since Pelageya Ivanovna settled in the monastery, she has never left it. Once I started begging her and saying: “Why should you and I go to Father Seraphim in Sarovo, Pelageya Ivanovna.” Well, I was happy, I hired a horse, we got ready and set off with it, and we got to our monastery hotel - it doesn’t even go out the gate. “Why,” he says, “I’ll go. Tea, I'm not crazy. He (that is, Father Seraphim) is always here. No, I won’t go.” That was the end of our Sarov trip. Another time I remember: our Ponetaev neighbors always loved her very much and once tried to invite her to their place. “How you will make us happy,” they said. How good it will be for you with us! We’ll send three in the carriage for you, just let’s go.” She kept silent and turned away, but they kept coming at her. “Come at least for a week, for a day.” “You don’t care, tea, I’m not completely crazy,” she answered them and left. So she lived her entire life, my dear, by her beloved stove on the floor between three doors.” “But I’ll tell you one more thing: it often happens to sinful people that they don’t see anything for themselves, but point to others. What to do, that’s why they are sinful people. That's how it was with us. They began to be tempted by the fact that Pelageya Ivanovna did not confess and did not partake of the Holy Mysteries. So they ordered our priest Father Ivan Feminin (from a neighboring parish, because there were no priests at that time) to confess her. He came, and they spent a long, long time alone together. I looked: Father So-and-So came out excited and went straight to Mother Superior; We hear, he explained to her, that Pelageya Ivanovna is a great servant of God and that it was not he who confessed her, but she who confessed him and directly told him all his hidden sins. And our busy sisters always fussed about the Holy Mysteries, calling her spoiled, and they reproached me for her. But the fact is that she partook of the Holy Mysteries, but not often. Somehow her legs started to hurt, so I said: “Shouldn’t I join you, Pelageya Ivanovna?” “Well,” he says, “father, it’s a good thing.” And Father Fr. introduced her. Vasily. In the same way, one day during Lent I invited her to take communion, and she was not only glad, but she even read everything and the rules for communion and took part. Since the sisters pestered me so much that I couldn’t stand it, I said to her: “Why won’t you join in? After all, all the sisters say that you are spoiled.” “Oh, no,” he says, “father, the old Father Seraphim gave me permission from birth to dormition.” I don’t know what these words of the holy elder meant, but I think in my stupid mind whether he showed her the path of the highest selflessness. What could be higher, more joyful and blessed than the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ? Oh, they, these blessed ones, voluntarily condemn themselves to this deprivation. But God knows them! Such wonderful events happen to them 24. I’ll tell you one more thing: since the sisters also pestered me and reproached me for not giving communion to Pelageya Ivanovna. So I went and told the priest about this, and he answered me: “There is no need to listen to them! What do they understand? When she herself wishes, but then, Gerasimovna, don’t follow me. I know Pelageya Ivanovna, what a servant of God she is. She accepts the Holy Mysteries of Christ with such reverence, with such humility, with such fear and trembling that she even becomes enlightened, and so rejoices with spiritual delight that even I myself am overcome with fear from this enlightenment of hers. That’s why she herself knows better than you and me when the Lord blesses her to join.” With that I left. But the sinner, she still hasn’t learned reason. So once in 1882 in Petrovka 25 the sisters again pestered me painfully for not introducing her. I was getting ready to join myself and that’s it, and I was telling her about the same thing, but she was still silent. I was already painfully annoyed. I did join in, but I scolded her for not joining in, but she still remained silent. I fell asleep at night and saw: a priest and a deacon came to us with the Chalice and communed it. When I woke up, and not in a dream, but in reality, I heard: the door opened and a man’s steps were leaving. “Fields, Polya! - I scream, jumping off. Who did we have? Who's out now? Polya woke up and said: “There was no one there.” And I see Pelageya Ivanovna silently sitting in her favorite place, on the floor by the stove on a felt, and so cheerful, bright and rosy, as if she had become all younger. Seeing her like this, I began to ask her for forgiveness: “Oh, mother! After all, you are a saint, you prayed, yes...” I didn’t have time to finish, and she told me: “Why are you asking me for forgiveness, because I am not what you say, I am a great sinner.” I burst into tears, insulting her, and she, seeing my tears, smiled and forgave. And from then on, no matter what they told me, no matter how much they annoyed me, I didn’t listen to anyone, but as she wished, as the Lord showed her, I did so.” “And often she had similar visits from above. Well, in 1884, shortly before my death, as usual, I lie on a bed at night and do not sleep, she, too, as is her custom, always does not sleep, sits at night in her favorite place, on the floor by the stove. Now I hear: Father Seraphim came to her, I hear his and her voices; and they talked like that for a long time. I listen and listen - I want, you know, to find out, but I can’t hear everything, I just understand that everyone is talking about the monastery. And our mother abbess was remembered, I understood this clearly. When everything had already calmed down and their voices were no longer audible, I went out to her. “Isn’t it you, Pelageya Ivanovna, who had Father Seraphim?” I heard his voice, and you and he talked all about the monastery and remembered mother: right? What does this mean? Will something happen to us? “You never know,” she answered, “we have things to do.” I never achieved anything with her. But also 12 days before her death, I was lying on a bed at night, and she was sitting on her floor on felt; suddenly - and this has never happened before - I hear: she began to sing, I don’t remember everything, but I understood these words well: “The angels surprised how the Virgin ascends from earth to heaven.” Oh, I think what's wrong with her? It has never happened before, as if something had not happened?.. And a little time passed, then two days later at night I again heard that someone was talking to her, and in such a strange voice, and she seemed to be arguing with him. “What is this? Who is this? – I think, but she couldn’t bear it and called out. Masha! Is that you?” And the novice Masha answers me: “No, mother, not me, but it must be Pelageya Gavrilovna.” And Polya is fast asleep. I couldn’t stand it, I jumped up and went in, I saw: she was sitting in her place. “What kind of strangeness is this? - I say. The day before yesterday you were singing, and I heard it very well but remained silent; Now again someone was talking to you here in a strange voice. I want to know who it was. Surely this means something...” She looked at me and spread her arms. “But you,” he says, “will never know.” “How,” I say with annoyance, “not to find out?” You never know who comes! Who knows you! Maybe he's some kind of thief. “The thief is,” she says, “the one who steals souls.” I realized there was a terrible voice that frightened me, and I fell silent.” Last conversation with Mother Dean “Not long before the death of Pelageya Ivanovna, our newly appointed mother dean, nun Elena, came to us, and Pelageya Ivanovna had a good conversation with her for a long, long time, instructing her not to offend anyone and strictly fulfill her position, and consoled her. “Really, by God, no one will do anything, don’t look at anyone. Look at this prosphora.” And she took out a good prosphora from her bosom. “You too will be as good as this prosphora: I will help, and the Lord will arrange everything.” And that’s how she was cheerful, that’s how she looks into her eyes, as if she couldn’t get enough of her, like a mother caresses her dear child, who hasn’t been seen for a long time, caresses her, but doesn’t caress her, as if she were all trembling with some kind of sublime delight.” Predictions about the beneficial activities of the dean’s mother and the place of her burial “I felt annoyed. When the dean’s mother left, and she was so happy, so trembling with delight, I said: “What is this, Pelageya Ivanovna, I look at you and am not surprised. The dean came - and that’s how you rejoice, I don’t know exactly what happened, it’s like you’re all festive. And what are you happy about? Who would have divi, otherwise the dean’s mother. And she rarely visited you, and never gave you anything. After all, you are truly blessed, there is no difference between you. Well, look at her - you can’t get enough of her, you can’t look at her enough, because I’ve already seen this myself. “Well,” says Simeon, “she’s a good person.” - Oh, Simeon! What are you like? Or maybe it will do something painfully good. “He’ll do it,” I added, “no matter what, just wait.” And what will she do to us? We don't need anything; By mother’s grace we have everything: our own cell, we don’t need anything else. If we die, they will probably bury us and not throw us out. And so I was annoyed with her. “Eh,” he says, “Simeon, I look at you, you don’t understand anything.” - What do you need to understand? Nothing. So you will die, tea, like a good person will be buried. And who knows? Perhaps they will make a coffin unlike others? - Well, perhaps. “And truly, what other coffin will they make,” said Pelageya Ivanovna, thoughtfully. And suddenly she stood up and, going up to the icons, became completely enlightened. She, my dear, pleased the dean’s mother for the improvement of the cathedral and foresaw that the dean’s mother would indicate the place of her eternal rest, and foresaw the honors that would be given to her during the burial, but I, in my stupid mind, talk about my own.” Painful condition shortly before death “Two days before she completely fell ill, she said to me: “Oh, Simeon, Simeon! How sorry I am for mother, but there’s nothing to do.” At that time, the entire Royal Family was expected here. “Well,” I say, “what kind of trouble happened?” “Yes, the trouble is not very great,” he says, “but I feel sorry for my mother.” It was then that I became ill, and they talked in our cell about how I might not die. “Who am I going to stay with,” says Pelageya Ivanovna and came up to me. No, mommy, get up, you and I will live a little longer. “Well,” I say, “when we love each other so much that you don’t want to stay without me, and I don’t want to stay without you, then let’s cast lots to see who gets to die first, you or me.” “Well,” he says, “come on.” Before I had time to say anything, our cell attendants brought us a long, very long string. Pelageya Ivanovna began to intercept very well with her hand. It turned out for me to die first. Seeing this, Pelageya Ivanovna became sad, sighed and said: “Oh, Lord! But who else should I look for? No, I’d rather die first!” On January 11, getting up from her seat, she went to the door to the yard and said: “Oh, Masha. I have a headache! I’ll go and look at the heavenly stars for the rest.” Before reaching the door, she suddenly fell and felt faint; We picked her up, sprinkled her with holy water, she woke up a little and said: “What is this, Lord, how not to die! Simeon, Simeon, I only feel sorry for you, mother.” “Come on,” I say, “maybe someone else?” “That’s right,” he answers, “but mother, more than anyone else.” “Yes,” I say, “you’ll regret it.” No, apparently it’s not too bad if you don’t listen to anyone and rush to the door. That’s how weak you are, and you force me to sit here on the floor next to you and keep watch. And she, my darling, listened and suddenly she got up and tried to go out soon, but she couldn’t, she fell again in the hallway. - Oh, Masha! “I feel so sick,” she said and sat down on the bench. We supported her head, gave her some holy water to drink and took her to her cell. And she kisses my hands, and Cars, and even here her former niece - the young choir member Pasha - kisses everything. We don’t give it to her, but she just grabs it and tenaciously catches our hands and keeps kissing and kissing; That's how we laid her down. A few days later I saw something: my Pelageya Ivanovna stood up and went straight to Masha, bowing at her feet. I grumbled something, I looked and said: “Forgive me, Mashenka, for Christ’s sake.” And at my feet too. “Are you really not going to die, Pelageya Ivanovna,” I say; I didn’t like it, what kind of humility attacked me. He bows at everyone’s feet and kisses everyone’s hands, as if he wants to thank everyone. “But who knows, mother, you’ll probably die,” he says. “The other day she came up to me and bowed at my feet too,” Pelageya Gavrilovna noticed to me. “Well,” I think, “if he’s being affectionate and humble like that, it’s clear that he’s really going to die; That means he thanks everyone. And my heart sank. On January 20, Masha served her tea, but she didn’t get up. “Put me down well, Marya, I’m painfully ill,” she said. She didn’t drink anything, didn’t eat anything, and is silent. “Mother,” Masha tells me, “Pelageya Ivanovna is very ill.” - What is the matter with you, mother? – I approached her and asked. “But, mamma, I fell ill,” she says. - Well. Send something to say. We need to join in. And her eyes are cheerful and cheerful, and she herself is all joyful and baptizes everyone, no matter who comes. On the 23rd at night there was thunder and lightning, and in the morning our priest, Ivan Dorimedontovich Smirnov, came with spare Gifts to commune her; he knelt down next to her bed and offered the Holy Chalice, but the blessed one quietly moved it away from her and did this several times. Afanasia Nazarova’s mother, who was here, forcibly crossed her hands, saying: “Common, father,” but Pelageya Ivanovna pushed her away with extraordinary force and again quietly pushed the Holy Chalice away. “Leave her, don’t rape her,” the priest said and began to persuade her. - Is it possible another time? - said the blessed one. Father ordered everyone to leave. Everyone left, only my father and I were left. The silence was dead. Suddenly Pelageya Ivanovna herself took the Holy Cup and, as she should, partook and washed it down with warmth. “Leave it,” said our father, “that means I’m not worthy to introduce her.” In the evening we asked the same Father Smirnov to administer unction to her. “I’m not worthy,” he says, “but we persuaded him.” After receiving unction, she was cheerful, so good, and the next day, Monday, she was cheerful; she met, greeted and followed with her eyes, no matter who came to her, and many came to say goodbye. On January 25, without notifying me, they came to read her leave. When I saw the priest, you know, I was so worried. “Who guessed it?” - I say. And she told me: “That’s enough,” she said, “Mama, don’t worry. After all, this is nothing, just a prayer to the Mother of God.” Father read the waste card, and my heart just broke. - What is this, Pelageya Ivanovna, apparently you really want to die? “I’ll die, mummy,” he answers. And whoever remembers me, I remember him, and if I have boldness, I will pray for everyone. “And mother,” I say, “will you leave it like that?” “No,” he says, “mama, I’ll help her even more there, I’ll ask the Lord for her.” From these very words, on Wednesday evening, she fell completely silent. Since Saturday, January 28, I haven’t even opened my eyes at all. And when her two nephews came to her that day to say goodbye to her, she just baptized one of them, Nikolai Andreevich. From Saturday to Sunday night she slept soundly and as if somehow calmly, and Mother Dean and I said that maybe, judging by such a dream, she would get better. On Sunday, January 29, in the evening the blessed one became very feverish, so that she could no longer sleep at all, and at 12 o’clock at night, on Monday, January 30, she suddenly calmed down completely; quietly, soundly and so deeply asleep. And in this last earthly dream, by the second hour, she began to breathe somehow deeper and less often, and at exactly a quarter past one on Monday, January 30 (on the feast of the Three Saints and the day of the death of her own mother), Pelageya Ivanovna passed away. Her pure, long-suffering soul flew to the Lord.” Preparation for burial They dressed the blessed one in a white shirt and sundress, put a large gray woolen scarf on her shoulders, and tied a white silk scarf around her head; in a word, they dressed her up the way she dressed up during her earthly life. And since she loved flowers, they gave her a bouquet of flowers in her right hand; They put a black silk rosary on the left one, because Father Seraphim, blessing her for the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake, himself gave her a rosary. As soon as they removed it completely, they struck the big bell, and since it was at two o’clock in the morning, the ringing of the bell scared many of the sisters, they thought it might be a fire. Blessed Pasha of Sarov, who was sheltering with us at that time, said: “What a fire?! Now the sun has come out, well, the snow has melted a little, now it will be dark in your monastery.” So Pelageya Ivanovna stood for three days in her tiny, cramped cell. The place was jam-packed with people who did not leave for a minute; here candles were lit and burning all the time, memorial services were constantly being held, and as a result the heat was unbearable, and despite all this, she lay in the coffin, my beauty, as if alive, as if all brightened up. On the third day in the evening, as she said, they would make her a coffin unlike the others, and indeed they laid her in a beautiful cypress coffin, all decorated with cherubs, with the words: Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us, on the lid and on the coffin: Rest with the saints in tempered words. And on the inside of the coffin lid was screwed a plaque with the inscription: “Blessed Pelageya, who walked the path of Christ for the sake of foolishness, the servant of God, passed away to the Lord on January 30, 1884.” They moved her to the warm winter Tikhvin Church, where she stood until the ninth day, on which she was buried. This delay occurred due to this special occasion: seven years ago, precisely in 1877, when the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was completely ready for consecration and they were just awaiting the arrival of Bishop Ioannikiy, who was then the Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod, and now the Metropolitan of Moscow, Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna once entered the cathedral, looked at everything in it and to the question of sister Elena Nikolaevna Annenkova (later to the dean’s mother, who was entrusted with the construction and decoration of the cathedral): “Tell me, mother, is everything so, and is everything in order, and have I forgotten anything?” - She answered: “Everything is fine, everything is fine, but she didn’t prepare a place for me.” This greatly worried Mother Elena. But the consecration also went well, but these words remained unfulfilled. Three years passed, in 1880, Pelageya Ivanovna, who had no longer left her cell, one day completely unexpectedly came to the abbot’s rooms, lay down on her mother’s bed, groaned and tossed about like a sick person (which predicted the almost six-month illness that soon befell her mother), and then, leaving her mother’s porch, hugged the same Elena Nikolaevna and went with her towards cathedral Walking past the nuns’ building, she said that we need to keep them stricter. Then they approached the northern side porch of the cathedral and stopped. “I’ll fall asleep with you,” Pelageya Ivanovna said to Mother Elena. Then they went further to the main porch, stopped here, and again Pelageya Ivanovna said, pointing to the cathedral: “I’ll lie down here with you, prepare a place for me.” And so, hugging each other, they walked around the cathedral and returned to the cell. Thus, for another seven years, the blessed one predicted in whose arms she would fall asleep in the sleep of death, and indicated the place of her eternal rest... And everything came true as she said. Her words that the sisters must be kept more strictly came true, because just after these words Mother Elena was appointed dean of the monastery and she really led the sisters more strictly. The words “I will fall asleep with you” also came true in the same way, because Mother Elena was quite unexpectedly sent to Pelageya Ivanovna’s deathbed and was with her all the time, so that she actually fell asleep in her arms. Therefore, now, when the question arose of where to put Pelageya Ivanovna, the dean’s mother herself remembered all the words of Pelageya Ivanovna, and reminded the mother abbess of them, and to calm her conscience, she asked her to fulfill the will of the deceased - to allow her to ask permission from the Most Reverend Macarius, Bishop of Nizhny Novgorod, to bury her in the crypt under the cathedral. Mother respected the request of her dean, and while the sister sent specifically for this purpose went to Nizhny, quite a lot of time passed, and only on the ninth day after the death of Pelageya Ivanovna they had to bury her. All these days she stood in the warm winter Church of the Tikhvin Mother of God. Here, at the end of church services, the reading of the Psalter for the deceased did not cease day and night, here memorial services were incessantly performed for her, numbering from 30 to 40 during the day, here candles were constantly burning around the coffin, here, in addition to the monastic ones, thousands of lay people flocked from all over the diocese, who revered her, who respected her, always resorted to her in everything, and also at the coffin They mourned her and cried that they had lost in her their mother, comforter and prayer book. And all this, taken together, involuntarily produced some kind of reverent awe in the soul of everyone who was here, touched everyone to the depths of their souls, touched even the hardest hearts. Not only did the crowd not decrease, but on the contrary, it grew more and more every day, so that Mother Abbess, condescending to their tearful request, as well as out of reverence for the deceased servant of Christ, was forced to give permission to spend the night with them at her tomb. As a result, the church was filled not only during the day, but also at night with ever-arriving people. The heat in the church was such that streams of water flowed from the walls, and even on the cold porches it was as warm as in the cells. And despite this, the deceased servant of Christ lay in her tomb as if she had just forgotten herself in a sweet sleep, did not show anything deathly in herself, lay as if alive, not even cold, but warm, and was constantly changing in her face, not having the slightest deathly ugliness, but on the contrary, she shone with some kind of spiritual beauty. She was covered all over from head to toe with fresh flowers, which she loved so much during her life; These flowers were constantly replaced by new ones, and were immediately snapped up by the masses of people, who took them home with reverence. On the ninth day after the death of the blessed one, that is, February 7, 1884, her funeral service was held in front of a huge crowd of people. When, after the funeral service and a long last farewell, they carried the long-suffering body of the ascetic of Christ to a deliberately prepared resting place at the Holy Trinity Cathedral opposite the main altar and when they began to close the coffin with a lid, even then those who said goodbye to her freely took her hands, which were so flexible, soft and warm, like those of a living person. Her grave was originally surrounded by a wooden lattice and planted with lilac bushes, honeysuckle and flowers. At the very place where her coffin was placed in a stone crypt, a simple oak board with a black oak cross on it was originally laid - partly due to lack of funds at that time, partly out of respect for that wretched bed of hers, which she loved so much all her earthly life. Everything we have said so far has been borrowed from the stories of Pelageya Ivanovna’s mother, and especially from the recorded stories of the Honorable Anna Gerasimovna, who lived with Pelageya Ivanovna for 45 years. The sincere narrative of this good worker, who spent such a long time with the ascetic herself, breathes simplicity and sincerity and depicts the great feat of foolishness of Pelageya Ivanovna with inimitable naivety, warmth and completeness. The great image of the ascetic of Christ rises before us in all its extraordinary simplicity and heavenly splendor. To this simple-hearted, sincere and sincere story of the Venerable Anna Gerasimovna, we will add a few more pieces of information we collected from other people close to the ascetic of Christ. The artist M.P. Petrov enjoyed the special favor of Pelageya Ivanovna and was named by her as her spiritual son. He was a living example of that amazing grace-filled action through which she turned human hearts to the path of salvation. This is what he said about his first visit to Pelageya Ivanovna: “After my stormy life, having been on Mount Athos and Jerusalem, I did not know what to decide on, go to a monastery or get married. On the way back from this pious journey, I stopped in Sarovo and Diveevo; this was in 1874. On the second day after arriving in Diveevo, I was taken to the cell of the holy fool Pelageya Ivanovna, about whom I had heard for a long time; When I entered her cell, I was so struck by its furnishings that I could not immediately understand what it was: on the floor on felt sat an old, crouched and dirty woman with huge nails on her hands and bare feet, which made an amazing impression on me. When they told me that this was Pelageya Ivanovna, I reluctantly bowed to her and regretted that I had gone to her; She did not deign to answer my bow and moved from the floor to the bench, where she lay down. I approached her and asked: “Should I go to a monastery or get married?” She didn’t answer my question and just looked at me vigilantly with her quick, sparkling eyes. I repeated the same question three times and, having not received an answer from her, left her annoyed and disappointed, deciding not to go to her anymore. Having lived for a whole month in Diveyevo in the monastery hotel and painting in the cathedral church, I often heard reproaches from the nuns and from the head of the hotel that I did not believe in the gracious gifts of Pelageya Ivanovna, and at the persistent request of the head of the hotel, I decided to go to her cell again and with great reluctance went, just so that they would not bother me with her anymore. When I entered Pelageya Ivanovna’s cell, I found her still sitting on the floor on felt, but immediately upon my arrival she stood up and straightened up in front of me to her full height. She was a tall woman, very beautifully built, with unusually lively, sparkling eyes. Standing in front of me, she began to run around the room and laugh, then ran up to me, hit me on the shoulder and said: “Well, what?” This hand had been hurting for a long time due to paralysis, but after this blow from Pelageya Ivanovna, the pain in it instantly and completely disappeared. I was attacked by some kind of panic fear, and I could not say anything to her, I was silent and was shaking all over with fear. Then she began to tell me my whole past life with such amazing details that no one knew about except me, and even told me the contents of the letter that I sent to St. Petersburg that day. This struck me so much that the hair on my head stood on end and I involuntarily fell on my knees in front of her and kissed her hand. And from that time on, I became her zealous visitor and admirer, constantly pestered her with my requests and questions, and was so favored by her that she always willingly and perspicaciously answered not only my personal questions, but also my letters, either with short notes or through good friends. I often went to see her and lived for a long time in Diveyevo precisely in order to see and hear the marvelous old woman. She pulled me out of hell." The Honorable M.P. Petrov reports several new information about the gracious gifts of Pelageya Ivanovna and her help to those who resorted to her. “Pelageya Ivanovna predicted my sister’s death two years in advance,” he says. The following circumstance happened to me: I was planning to go to Bologoye, where the famous Fr. Nicholas, a former missionary who was revered as a great man. I wanted to see him and talk to him, but I did not dare to go without Pelageya Ivanovna’s permission. I wrote a letter to her and asked her permission for this trip. The letter was ready, I got dressed and wanted to go to the post office. At this time the postman comes in and hands me a letter from Pelageya Ivanovna. To my surprise, she writes telling me not to go to Fr. Nikolai is 26, this surprised me extremely; before I sent a letter with my question, I already received an answer from her.” “In 1881, I was sick with diphtheria,” says the same Petrov, “I lay completely unconscious for five days, on the sixth day I felt better, and I, looking at the portrait of Pelageya Ivanovna, said: “Why don’t you visit me? When you were sick, I went to see you on purpose.” And a little later I fell asleep, and what? I see in a dream that Pelageya Ivanovna is standing next to me and says: “So I came to visit you; Don’t be afraid, you won’t die.” And Mikhail Petrovich recovered. “One day Pelageya Ivanovna was drinking tea,” he says, “and they poured her a cup of sweet tea. Suddenly she jumped up from the floor, grabbed a cup, ran with it into the street and poured this cup towards one village. The next day a woman from this village comes to her, rushes to her, thanks her and tells her that yesterday they had a fire in their village. “My grain barn had already begun to catch fire,” she said through tears, “I fell to my knees and shouted: “Mother Pelageya Ivanovna, save me!” And immediately the wind blew in the other direction, and the fire began to go out.” According to this woman’s story, the wind changed and the fire began to subside at the very moment when Pelageya Ivanovna poured a cup of tea in the direction where this village stood.” “I thank God,” says M.P. Petrov in emotional tenderness, “that the Lord has vouchsafed me to see such a servant of God, and I have not only been vouchsafed to see her, but have also been vouchsafed to be called her spiritual son.” Speaking further about the different circumstances of Pelageya Ivanovna’s life and about her different spiritual gifts, the Venerable M.P. Petrov tells the following incident: “Once upon her return from Sarov to Arzamas, she met a girl and said to her: “You will marry this young man” - and pointed to the man walking. These two families were at enmity, and one could not expect consent to the marriage from the parents, and yet a month later the girl married exactly this man.” “In Diveevo, people began to flock to her from all sides, people of different ranks and conditions; everyone was in a hurry to see her and hear from her a wise word of edification, consolation, spiritual advice or reproof and reproach, each depending on his own need. And she, possessing the gift of insight, told everyone what was necessary and soul-saving for him - with some kindly, and with others threateningly, she drove others away from her completely and threw stones at them, she cruelly denounced others, and her voice, like once with the blessed Christ for the sake of the holy fool Andrew, sounded like a bell, strong and gracious, so that whoever listened to her could never forget the stunning effect of her words. And she spoke almost incessantly, sometimes allegorically, sometimes directly and clearly, depending on the spiritual needs of those listening. After 20 years of asceticism in Diveyevo, Pelageya Ivanovna suddenly dramatically changed her lifestyle. One day she said to her cohabitant, Anna Gerasimovna: “Just now Father Seraphim was with me, he told me to be silent and to be more in the cell than in the yard.” And she fell silent and rarely deigned anyone with her conversation, spoke little, in abrupt phrases, sat more in her cell and, like the Monk Arsenius the Great, began to avoid people and listen more closely to herself. At this time, her spiritual exploits were very diverse.” We already know about mortification of the flesh in some detail from the stories of Anna Gerasimovna, for example, about carrying stones, about throwing bricks into the water, about sticks, etc., but besides these feats there were others, namely: that iron chain with which her husband once chained her and which she brought with her to Diveevo, now served her sometimes as chains, and sometimes as a headboard. She always slept and sat on the floor, and certainly near the entrance door to the cell, so that those passing often stepped on her or poured water on her, which apparently gave her pleasure. As soon as everyone in the cells went to bed for the night, Pelageya Ivanovna, who also pretended to go to bed, got up, stood in prayer and prayed almost always until the morning, quietly cried and sighed in prayer and sometimes loudly exclaimed in spiritual delight, which woke up the cell attendant Anna Gerasimovna who was next to her, and pretended to be asleep and exclaimed in her sleep. She took food in moderation and ate mainly black bread, which she always carried in her bosom and from which she rolled into balls. These balls served her instead of rosaries when performing the Jesus Prayer. And this was her almost constant occupation. “She loved flowers very much,” says the venerable M.P. Petrov, confirming Anna Gerasimovna’s story, “and if she had them in her hands, she would thoughtfully finger them, quietly whispering a prayer. Lately, she almost always had fresh flowers in her hands, because they were brought to her by those who wanted to please her, and these flowers apparently consoled her. Looking through them and admiring them, she herself became bright and joyful; It was as if her mind was already hovering in another world. Pelageya Ivanovna never cut her nails and never went to the bathhouse. In general, she tortured and oppressed her body. Such exploits of Pelageya Ivanovna began to attract the attention of the Diveyevo nuns to her, and the former dislike of many of them gave way to respect. Many of them began to come to her cell, either to look at the ascetic, or to listen to her, or to receive something from her, because lay people brought her various offerings, which she distributed to the nuns. But among the sisters there were also those who stubbornly continued to persecute the ascetic of God with their hatred and condemned and reproached her in every possible way. Pelageya Ivanovna especially loved such people and tried in every possible way to repay them with good for evil. The nuns, attached to the ascetic, deeply believed in the power of her prayer, sought spiritual instructions from her and found them in her short, insightful speeches. Thus, one pious nun of Diveyevo, who became very attached to her, seeing her exploits, dared to ask the Lord to reveal to her whether the path that that ascetic of God was following was correct, and whether it was leading her to salvation, because she had often heard contradictory talk from other nuns about this, and her own heart was wavering about this. The Lord heard her prayer. She saw in a dream that Pelageya Ivanovna was walking through the monastery courtyard and two angels were leading her by the arms. When, having woken up, this nun went to Pelageya Ivanovna to tell her her dream, she preceded her story with a strict prohibition not to tell anyone about what she saw in her dream.” The Venerable Mikhail Petrovich Petrov, whom Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna herself spiritually adopted and who revered her memory with all his heart, having received so many benefits from her, worked with special zeal and truly filial love in collecting reliable information about the deceased ascetic and has several handwritten letters from those persons who themselves received from her either healings, or predictions, or instructions. a) Rassophore novice of the Ponetaevsky Monastery Daria Semenovna Berezina wrote to him on March 28, 1884 the following: “In 1873, from only one reason known to me, my head, especially my left church, hurt badly, so from February 3 to June 13 I did not find any consolation in the illness. All measures were taken to cure, but not a single doctor could help 27. But I knew that my illness was sent to me by the Queen of Heaven herself and at my request, and I was afraid to announce it to anyone and was afraid to think about it. But the pain was unbearable, so I was treated, and after all I decided to go to Sarovo to swim at the spring of Fr. Seraphima felt some relief from her illness here too. The night I swam, I could fall asleep, but in the morning I felt pain again and in the despair of my soul I went to the Diveyevo Monastery and straight to Pelageya Ivanovna. At the first meeting, she looked at me vigilantly and intently, so that my heart trembled with pain and at the same time with joy, and tears choked me. Before I had time to fall at her feet, she stretched out her hand and with two fingers with long nails began to lightly hit my sore church with the following words: “I say, whore 28, don’t be treated, don’t be treated! It will heal on its own." And she began to give me tea from the saucer from which she herself drank. And she told me a lot more about my life, and everything came true for me. And I, having stayed in the Diveyevo monastery for three days, went to her repeatedly every day and felt completely healthy, and went to my monastery. And since then this disease has not recurred. The second time I was sick,” Daria Semyonovna Berezina wrote in the same letter, “in 1876, I suffered from internal pain, and I needed to be treated. I spent three and a half months in the district zemstvo hospital. With the help of God and the doctor, who carefully tried to treat me, I recovered a little, or better to say, the danger that threatened death had passed, but there was no hope for me to recover completely. True, I myself had not yet completely lost this hope, but on the part of others, and especially my relatives, my brother and older sister, who saw my suffering more than anyone, there was no hope, and everyone advised me, in order to save my life, to leave the monastic obedience that was entrusted to me - to sing in the choir. But I didn’t even want to hear, because singing for me was the best joy in life, the sweetest consolation and food for the soul. My sister especially begged me a lot, insisted, even reproached me and refuted all my reasons, and one thing she said: “Give up this obedience.” She even strongly armed herself against me and my brother, on whom I depended a lot in my life. So what? I could no longer say anything against them, I only asked for one thing: to go and ask for a decisive word from Pelageya Ivanovna, and, moreover, on the condition that whatever she says, so do it. My heart felt that she had already foreseen the sorrow of my soul, because I had repeatedly begged her in absentia for help in my illness. When my sister and I arrived at her cell, we found her lying on the counter on a made bed, with two pillows at her heads. She was surrounded by many people; everyone asked about something and expected an answer. As soon as I got up, I bowed to her at the bedside, and my sister did the same, but we gave the others freedom to finish, and she did not take her eyes off me for a whole hour. Then we began to approach her closer, and she quickly turned on her side on her bed and began to hit my sister with her fist; She gave a few blows and grumbled something to herself. Of course, both my sister and I were quite scared. I stood at her feet and waited for what else would happen. She turned around again as before and began to look at me affectionately and whispered something with her lips. And a minute later he rises somewhat from the headboard and stretches out his leg (but I don’t remember which one) and touches my stomach, even in the most painful place, and presses his foot firmly into it. Of course, both were clear to us. And from that time I never felt sick in my stomach, and to this day I sing in the choir without any difficulty.” b) A novice of the Intercession women's community, near the village of Medyan, Kurmyzh district, Simbirsk province, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Razstrigina wrote to M.P. Petrov on March 26, 1884 the following. 1) “In 1874, on May 5, the daughter of the Kurmyzh peasant Razstrigina, now an unworthy novice Nadezhda of the Intercession women's community, in the village of Medyan, Kurmyzh district of the Simbirsk province, with her mother, going to Kyiv to worship the local shrine, were in passing at the Seraphim-Diveevo monastery with the blessed old woman, the perspicacious Pelageya Ivanovna, to receive her blessing for the trip. Seeing the blessed old woman, my mother said to her: “Mother, I am going to Kyiv with my daughter, bless us on our way.” Having received her blessing, my mother again asked: “Will I go safely to Kyiv?” Then the blessed old woman opened her eyes, folded her hands on her chest and lay down on the bench in front, becoming as if dead, saying: “I will die.” My mother, hearing this, began to cry and asked: “Mother, am I sure to die dear?” The blessed old woman answered her: “The young daughter will die.” I accepted these words; at her own expense, therefore, during the journey, every day and hour she expected her death. But this prediction of the blessed one was fulfilled not over me, but over my sister Mary, who fell ill without us and died.” 2) “At the same meeting with Pelageya Ivanovna, I asked her: “Mother, how do you bless me: should I live in peace or enter a monastery? She let me kiss her hand, saying quietly: “Run to the monastery.” I asked again: “What monastery?” - “Who is settling down nearby.” So this prediction came true for me. After returning from the trip, I didn’t live long in my parents’ house, only 41 days. During this short stay in my parents’ house, an indefatigable desire was revived in my soul to leave the world and enter a holy monastery somewhere. So, with the blessing of the blessed old woman and my parents, I entered the newly established monastery - the Intercession women's community, where I remain to this day. 3) “Prediction, but I don’t remember when it was,” the same novice Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Razstrigina writes further. My twenty-year-old sister Agrippina fell ill. Our whole family wanted to know whether the sick woman would recover or die? For this, our parent went to the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery to the blessed elder Pelageya Ivanovna to ask her about the sickness. When she came to the blessed one to the old lady, she began to ask her: “Mother, my daughter is ill, and I don’t know whether she will recover or die.” My mother repeated these words several times, but the blessed old lady did not answer all her questions and silently admired the bouquet of flowers, which she was holding in her hand at that time. Finally, the novices of the blessed old lady began to ask her: “Mother, console this woman, tell her something about her illness. daughters." After their request, the blessed old woman took a lilac flower from the bouquet, admired it and repeated the words several times: “Pear, Pear!” 29 Then she brought this flower to our mother’s face and said to her: “This flower will be good for God.” After that, our sick sister Agrippina did not live long in this world.” “I witnessed all these predictions,” adds Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Razstrigina, “and their fulfillment, which I certify with my signature.” (Signature follows.) c) Handwritten certificate of the Tver diocese of the Malitsky monastery of the confessor, Hieromonk Alexy, dated May 29, 1884. “In 1877, my spiritual son M.P. Petrov, going from Tver to the Diveyevo monastery to meet with the old woman Pelageya Ivanovna of blessed memory, who guided him in life and, one might say, adopted him spiritually, came to me to say goodbye and ask for blessings on the way. When parting, I convincingly asked him to ask for advice and guidance from the venerable old lady in my extremely unfavorable circumstances, and at the same time her holy prayers for me, a sinner. Upon arrival in Diveevo, when he conveyed my request to the old woman, she said: “The persecution that he will endure will turn into joy.” And indeed, after two years I suffered the greatest persecution, which I could not have expected due to my advanced years, but this persecution was for the better and subsequently turned into joy for me. Thus, everything that was predicted two years earlier came true. Reverent before the Lord God and mentally asking for her holy help and permission for my most sincere word of truth about her prediction, I accept the boldness to publicly testify to the gift of clairvoyance of the aforementioned old woman Pelageya Ivanovna, to which I subscribe.” (Signature follows.) d) Handwritten testimony of Hieromonk Anthony of the Nile Hermitage of the Tver Diocese. “In 1881, being a hieromonk of the Tver Bishop’s House, I was worried about where best I could continue my ministry? And where should he therefore go? That’s why he turned to Elder Pelageya Ivanovna for advice. After a while I receive an answer on a piece of paper: “To the Nilova Hermitage.” This prediction came true exactly: in 1886 I entered the Nilova Hermitage, where I carry out my ministry with peace of mind. According to the priesthood, I present this as pure truth.” (Signature follows.) e) Handwritten testimony of Stepan Kudinov, a peasant in the Tver province of the Novotorzhsky district of the village of Gorok, dated April 14, 1888: “In 1883, I was in Diveyevo and visited Pelageya Ivanovna, who told me what she said, all her words came true exactly, as I testify with my conscience.” (Signature follows.) f) From the handwritten letter of the ryassophore nun Praskovya Dmitrievna Arvonataki dated August 11, 1888 to her confessor, Father Abraham, who asked her to collect information about Pelageya Ivanovna from the Diveyevo nuns: “All our nuns, both old and young, say almost in one word that she was a servant of God. And I enclose the funeral oration spoken by the priest to you as proof 30. And we all, that is, the sisters of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, unanimously affirm that she was not only perspicacious and predicted the future, but also recognized the thoughts with which they came to her, and often denounced the words spoken about her as mockery or unbelief when they came to her, and after that they had great faith and always visited her until her death.” Next, Praskovya Dmitrievna mentions the prediction of Pelageya Ivanovna to Elizaveta Nikolaevna Kudryavtseva, which we will convey here in more detail: “One worldly educated person, currently a nun of the Diveyevo monastery, even before entering the monastery, visited the Diveyevo monastery with her relative, where she really liked it, so that she herself wanted to enter there, although she had a fiancé named Sergius. When she came to Pelageya Ivanovna’s cell and asked her whether she should go to the monastery, she did not answer. And although this question was repeatedly asked by her visitor, she remained stubbornly silent. The visitor finally said that she was still completely free to control herself and ask her parents for consent and blessing to enter the monastery. Pelageya Ivanovna responded to this with silence and only looked at her vigilantly, which made the visitor feel terrified; It seemed to her that she seemed to see right through her whole soul. At this time, the thought of the groom flashed through her, and at the same time, whether it was he who was serving as an obstacle to entering the monastery, and whether this meant the silence of the seer. Pelageya Ivanovna, seeing her thoughts in her spirit, quickly stood up from the floor where she was sitting, straightened up to her full height, extended her hand to the visitor and said: “Live as you live. Sergei is mortal." The visitor was very surprised that, not knowing her before and not knowing her fiancé, she directly called him by name, and, moreover, so significantly that she seemed to predict his death. Indeed, this is what happened: her fiancé soon died, and she, completely free, entered the Diveyevo monastery and clung to Pelageya Ivanovna with the most sincere love, became her beloved student and then worked hard to collect and write down true stories about the life and exploits of the blessed ascetic.” Let's continue the story of Praskovya Dmitrievna Arvonataki. “Many in the monastery say about Pelageya Ivanovna that “she told me a lot, but now I can’t remember what exactly”; She even told the past to everyone who needed to be convinced of her insight and for the benefit of the soul. She told me herself what had happened to me in life, and added the following words: “I would be smarter if I lived with my own mind.” “I could write to you,” Praskovya Dmitrievna continues to write to her spiritual father, “about her predictions, which actually relate to me, write several sheets, as well as those related to my son, and all of them came true; but now sadness and grief overwhelm me. I collected what I could and am sending it to you... Father Agathodor, the Sarov hieromonk, always respected and honored Pelageya Ivanovna and one day came to visit her. Seeing that she was already very weak, he said to her: “Pelageya Ivanovna, how bad you have become! You will die soon." She looked at him and said to him in response: “And you will go ahead of me.” So what? He visited her in November and died on December 2, and Pelageya Ivanovna died on January 30 early in the morning.” Explaining Anna Gerasimovna’s story about how Pelageya Ivanovna, shortly before her death, visited Mother Abbess’s cell, Praskovya Dmitrievna says in a letter to her spiritual father: “Here’s another event for you. The whole monastery knows that when Mother Abbess gets sick, Pelageya Ivanovna, who has not left her cell for a long time, comes into Mother’s room during mass, goes straight to her bedroom (even though she didn’t know the location of the rooms at all), lies down on her bed, lies on it for quite a long time, groans and moans and makes a lot of indications and signs of illness, then gets out of bed and wants to leave. Mother's cell attendants offered her tea, she drank two cups and left before mother returned from mass. Mother Abbess really soon fell ill and was close to death, and did not leave her cell for six months.” “I’ll write you one more thing,” continues Praskovya Dmitrievna. Your Arzamas resident, Pelageya Ivanovna’s own nephew, Dmitry Andreevich, came to her three times and with three brides so that she would bless him to get married, but she still did not bless him, and then, when he came for the fourth time, she met him, gave him a red apple and blessed him to get married. Not only her words, but also all movements had to be noticed, and even the position in which she was found: whether she was sitting, lying, or walking. I brought one lady to her, and the lady had two sons, and we found Pelageya Ivanovna lying across the cell on the floor. This is what these children did with their mother: everything was different, both were self-willed, both spent money recklessly and did not give their mother a single moment of joy. Pelageya Ivanovna said a lot to visitors, and everything came true. Therefore, her godly life deserved the fact that people came to her from 600 miles or more so that, on her advice, they could decide their fate or find out where the truth was. Those who came with emotional tenderness and true sorrow in their hearts, she received everyone and gave advice, and as she said, that’s how everyone acted. And whoever walked with only curiosity or with nothing to do, she chased them, pushed them, even beat them and said: “Jackdaws, jackdaws!” And in my presence I intentionally hit others in the same place and several times - for their healing. This happened to one lady in front of me. Pelageya Ivanovna kept hitting her on the shoulder, and she not only did not leave her side, but seemed to be glad that she was hitting her. When we left Pelageya Ivanovna’s, this lady told me that this shoulder gave her no rest, there was such terrible pain in it, and that after Pelageya Ivanovna’s blows she felt more and more relief.” We copied all this from a letter from the venerable Praskovya Dmitrievna to her spiritual father. The mere fact that she wrote all this to such a person as her spiritual father clearly shows the whole truth of her words, and everyone must absolutely believe them. g) One of the Diveyevo sisters, worthy of full respect and trust, but wishing in her humility to remain unknown, wrote on December 20, 1890 to M.P. Petrov the following: “Mother Alevtina told me: “When I was the eldest in the black hotel, one day a middle-aged monk came, reverent in appearance, meek and humble, thin and skinny. I talked to him, he called himself a novice of one of the Solovetsky monasteries, but I don’t remember which one, and he goes on pilgrimage on foot to Kyiv. When I offered him tea, he said that he didn’t drink because he was sick, but that he drank flaxseed, and drank two cups.” “I said goodbye to him,” said Alevtina’s mother, “saying that I was going to church and fasting, then he said: “Isn’t it possible for me to fast with you?” “Why? You can if you want." And he kept talking so quietly and meekly. He received communion the way novices receive communion, without a cap, with his head open. We talked with him about Pelageya Ivanovna; he really wanted to see her. “Oh, how I would like to bow to her,” he said. - What? Let's go, I'll be happy to take you. Let's go with him. When we opened the door, she was lying down, but she immediately got up and, standing, looked at him vigilantly. I told him to sit on the bench. And Pelageya Ivanovna sat down next to him and said to him: “Death is on the road.” He replied: “I, mother, am afraid that there will be no spiritual death, but I am not far from physical death, I am waiting for it, because I am always sick, and I must die someday, but only if there is no spiritual death.” She continued to look at him keenly and said: “What do you care? You are the father, and she is the mother,” pointing at me. Well, that's how it should be said. And when the bird flies out of the cage, the chicks will scatter in all directions. Really, death on the road!” Then, answering his thought, she said: “It doesn’t hurt to be little, but you are the father, and she is the mother, well, that’s how it should be said.” When the novice Gabriel (that was his name) left Pelageya Ivanovna with me, I told him: – That’s right, you must be a hieromonk, did she call you father? “Well, when Pelageya Ivanovna told you to open up, there’s nothing to do, I’ll tell you the whole truth: I, the sinful abbot of Solovetsky, made a promise, when I set up a monastery, to go on foot to Kyiv, hiding myself - I’m traveling like a simple novice.” Meanwhile, there was another novice with him, but he always sent him ahead to go, assigning until when and where; for example, he himself came to us in Diveevo, and sent a novice to Sarovo, and when he himself comes to Sarovo, he will be sent further. This is in order to walk in silence and silence with the one Lord and without fear. “And what Pelageya Ivanovna said: it doesn’t hurt to be small,” she said to my thought. I mentally told her: I am a sinful abbot, but I communed with an open head, like a novice, have I sinned? To this secret thought she said: “It doesn’t hurt to be small. You are the father, and she is the mother, so it should be said.” This is how the abbot himself interpreted some of Pelageya Ivanovna’s words, but he did not understand all of them, he did not understand the admonition and reproach that the blessed seer made to him for leaving his monastery for the brethren: “When the bird flies out of the cage, and the chicks scatter everywhere.” Father Superior left his brethren, flew out of the cage, what could happen to his chicks, especially when death awaited him on the road? "Death on the Road" This was a clear and menacing prediction from Mother Pelageya Ivanovna. What happened? "ABOUT. The abbot stayed with us for a week,” says nun Alevtina, “I said goodbye to him with deep respect. Some time passed, we received a letter from his novice. The novice writes that Fr. On the way back from Kyiv, the abbot fell ill in Voronezh and died there in the monastery hospital. So, Pelageya Ivanovna’s prediction came true exactly, he never returned to his monastery, death visited him on the road. His death in Voronezh caused a lot of trouble. And there he presented himself as a novice, but when they examined his papers, to verify that he was an abbot, they had to go to the Bishop of Archangel, and he confirmed that he was definitely an abbot, his closest student and favorite, and all the books that were found with the deceased were signed by the hand of the Right Reverend.” “I will also say the fact of the insight of blessed Pelageya Ivanovna,” the same humble Diveyevo sister, who wishes to remain unknown, writes to M.P. Petrov. Varvara Aleksandrovna Karamzina sent her cell attendant to Pelageya Ivanovna; She told the messenger: “But the woman is dead.” A few days later, Karamzina receives news from her nephew, Mr. Eselev, that his wife died on the same day and was lying on the table.” “My relative A. M. I-na,” continues the same Diveyevo ascetic, “had very great faith and ardent love for Pelageya Ivanovna and entered the monastery with her blessing. Five years before her death, she was completely healthy and asked her to pray for her three young nuns. And Pelageya Ivanovna said to her: “You raised them, but God will stab you?” No one understood then what this word means: he will stab. So what? After some time, she took to her bed and did not leave her for five years, she suffered from tapeworm, and the transitions of the disease were striking and varied. They lifted her out of bed and sat her down, one arm was paralyzed, motionless; from time to time there were seizures from the agitated tapeworm, and for several months her whole body was as if numb, all her limbs seemed dead from head to toe. Six novices lifted her from the bed and the same six novices laid her on the bed. Now, the word was truly true: God will stab you. Then her painful condition passed, and only one arm remained motionless. A year and a half before his death, on September 21, during an early mass, when they sang the Cherubic Hymn (I was then a teacher, standing by the candle box), I was called to A.M., and what did I see? A. M. sits in the middle of the room, pale as a dead person, with her eyes closed (and she always had a light blush on her cheeks), her chest is blue, and she hiccups loudly, throughout the entire cell, surrounded by seven sisters, six novices, the head of the hospital building, Karamzina, the doctor of the monastery: Fedosya Vasilievna Epalskaya. I was sent as soon as possible to Pelageya Ivanovna. I ran mournfully, fearing that I would no longer catch her, because the tapeworm had risen to her neck and was strangling her, my heart began to beat less often and my pulse weakened more and more, so the doctor said to me: “For God’s sake, hurry to Pelageya Ivanovna, so that she can pray for A.M.; The tapeworm will completely strangle her.” And the chest and neck turned more and more blue, and the face was already covered with deathly pallor. Before I had time to run up to Pelageya Ivanovna and tell her: “Ah. M. she’s dying, pray, mother, that the Lord will accept her soul in peace,” as she quickly, looking at me, crossed herself and said: “Really, by God! And you are the same as A.M., and you will go through the same illness if it is not taken out of you. And she won’t die yet.” Amazed by these words and reassured that A.M. would not die, I went home with faith, without thinking about myself. Soon after my return, the tapeworm actually began to descend, and when, apparently, it took its place, A. M. opened her eyes and perked up. They lifted her up and laid her on the bed, where she still lay for another year and a half.” This is what the venerable Diveyevo ascetic wrote to M.P. Petrov about the fulfillment of Pelageya Ivanovna’s prediction over the sickly Anastasia Mikhailova, but the word of the great old woman was also fulfilled over her: “And you will go through the same illness if it is not taken out of you.” In the same letter, she wrote to Mr. Petrov: “The tapeworm upsets my entire insides so much that I can barely drag my legs around the room and have become so thin that it’s scary to look at. I don’t go anywhere for more than three weeks, I don’t even go to my home church.” All these personal testimonies clearly show what a beneficial influence Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna had on all those people who resorted to her for help, and what high grace-filled gifts she possessed. In addition to the information provided by the Venerable Anna Gerasimovna about the last days of the blessed elder Pelageya Ivanovna, we will present here some more information borrowed from a letter from the same Diveyevo ascetic to A.F. Kovalevsky. “Such ascetics like Pelageya Ivanovna,” she writes, “often have their own secret visions and revelations during their contemplative and exemplary life with the grace of the Holy Spirit inherent in them... I went to Pelageya Ivanovna’s cell to Anna Gerasimovna, and between conversations asked her: “What? Did Pelageya Ivanovna go to church the first time she entered the monastery?” - Well, I went; and did not receive communion often, but very often stayed to pray in the church. Then our Archpriest Vasily (he was loved by Father Seraphim) came to her cell to communicate with her. One day he came to introduce her; She communed and began to confess it herself, so that he was horrified and bowed at her feet and asked for her holy prayers, so she told him everything correctly and insightfully! Since then, the entire monastery, according to Father Vasily, began to consider her a great seer. Then she very rarely joined.” “And once,” continues the same Diveyevo ascetic, “one sister, embarrassed that she never received communion, sitting in her cell, thought about this. And Pelageya Ivanovna says to her: “Sit with me, daughter.” She stayed up quite late and fell asleep. When she woke up, she saw that Pelageya Ivanovna was standing with her arms crossed and an angel of God was giving her communion. And when that sister approached her, she threatened and said: “Keep quiet about what you saw.” Then another of her cell attendants, Pelageya Gavrilovna, recently told me: “About 30 years ago, I woke up at night and suddenly I saw: an angel of God flew in, took her and disappeared into heaven, and then brought her down again. And Pelageya Ivanovna lies on the floor by the stove, her face is bright and joyful. I go to her and say: “Mother, what did I see!” - “Be quiet, keep quiet, don’t tell anyone!” - she answered. “Five years before her death, Pelageya Ivanovna became very sick and hopeless; we thought she would die. Then, in the presence of the mother abbess, the treasurer and many sisters, two priests and a deacon performed unction on her. I, too, was crying, and everyone was crying, including the mother abbess; and she looks at everyone with an angelic smile and turns her bright, sparkling blue eyes from the priests to mother, then to the sisters. She had a huge bouquet of flowers in her hands and was sorting through them. Our depressing grief knew no bounds, but thanks to the Almighty, she remained alive, only growing weaker year by year.” Then the venerable ascetic of Diveyevo repeats almost literally the incident when Father Fr. John Dorimedontovich Smirnov came with the Holy Gifts to Pelageya Ivanovna’s cell and wanted to commune her, but she slightly rejected the Holy Chalice several times, and then communed. Depicting the very last hours of her earthly life, the Diveyevo ascetic says: “The sisters kept visiting her and until her death they besieged her cell, wanting to accept her last blessing, but relentlessly day and night they stayed with her, by appointment and blessing of the boss, in addition to her three cell attendants, four more sisters: Chernysheva, Arvonataki, Karamzina and I, the sinful Kudryavtseva. Looking at her, we sobbed and involuntarily noticed that she had mysterious visions, sometimes difficult and terrible for her, sometimes joyful and bright. Suddenly, for example, she turns her head to the wall and says in a rude voice and threatens with her finger: “No, I didn’t do that!” Apparently, the enemy of the human race approached her with his lies and slander. And then once, despite suffering and extreme weakness of strength, on the eve of her death, she suddenly stood up on the bed, extended her hands, raising them high, and exclaimed in delight: “Mother of God!” Her face shone with joy, and she trembled all over. Having said these words, she lowered her head onto the pillow in exhaustion. Apparently, the Mother of God did not leave her without Her divine help in the last minutes of her life. The funeral homily pronounced during the funeral service for Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna has a very important meaning. It points to the spiritual connection that was between her and the perspicacious elder Seraphim of Sarov, and explains what significance the deceased ascetic had for the Diveyevo monastery. It begins with these words: Blessed is the path you are walking on today, soul, for a resting place has been prepared for you. The preacher, having mentioned the death of blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, says to the Diveyevo nuns: “Once again, reverent mothers and sisters, the deep sorrow of separation from a being dear to you has befallen you. There was a time when you deeply lamented and cried about the separation from the ever-memorable elder Seraphim, your father, the founder of this holy monastery, now you are crying about your common mother - this blessed elder Pelageya Ivanovna lying in the grave. You no longer have either father or mother; and you, in the full sense, are orphans” 31. Then, to console the mourning nuns, the preacher said: “You, of course, will not seek joy and consolation in tears alone; your venerable elder Pelageya Ivanovna, like the ever-memorable elder Seraphim, left you only in body and not in spirit; in spirit they are your father and mother, in spirit they are still alive and are in the closest intercession for you before the throne of the Lord God, the Creator and Provider of all. Remember: when you mourned the separation from your father, Elder Seraphim, you thought that you had lost everything; you remained, at first glance, helpless, you were pressed from everywhere; you had nothing: no place for a monastery, no shelter for a home. Well, what else could you lose?.. But was it all for the better? Then our monastery was truly poor, unknown to anyone, somehow eking out its existence, but now what has happened? And all, of course, through the prayers of Elder Seraphim, his remembrance by pious and charitable people; our monastery became, although not rich, but vast, glorious and, one might say, flourishing. So the blessed elder Pelageya Ivanovna, who was a tenderly loving mother for you, who rejoiced in your joys, who caressed and consoled you in your sorrows, leaves you only in body, but have undoubted confidence that she will not break off the spiritual union with you. By her intercession before the throne of the merciful Lord, she will be your comforter in sorrows and all the hardships of your working monastic life... Saying goodbye to our dear Pelageya Ivanovna, pray to the Lord God that her strict monastic deeds, with which she marked her life, remain for us an example of fiery love for God and for neighbors and an example of true concern for our own salvation and the salvation of our neighbors, and her unparalleled foolishness, combined with the greatest selflessness, reminding us of the ancient great ascetics and ascetics Christianity, may it confirm in our hearts the confidence that even in our times, outwardly meager in faith and piety, the most merciful Lord raises up great ascetics and ascetics of faith and piety for our edification and consolation.” “You, unforgettable mother Pelageya Ivanovna,” said the preacher, addressing the deceased, “filled with a long and difficult life and fiery love for God, come in peace, where the Almighty has called you. May your pure soul find there the treasure that it has been looking for for itself and for its neighbors throughout its entire earthly life, may the Lord grant you to joyfully meet there the great father and mentor of yours and ours, Elder Seraphim, and together with him and with all the saints to eternally contemplate and praise the Lord God, and may He grant you the grace to be a prayer book for us sinners.” This word, pronounced at the tomb in which the deceased Pelageya Ivanovna rested, was as if alive, “all is spiritual beauty,” as the venerable Anna Gerasimovna so significantly expressed about her, “all, enlightened by some quiet and extraordinary light,” and especially this rapprochement with the great ascetic, the common father and mentor of all the Diveyevo sisters, Elder Seraphim, not It might not have made the strongest impression not only on the Diveyevo sisters, but also on everyone present at the funeral service. Everyone felt that they were saying goodbye to their own mother; everyone understood that she was moving to a better, higher world, and out of her love she would not forget them there, at the throne of the Most Merciful Lord. After the burial, commemoration of the deceased began immediately. Both in the church of God and in many cells the Psalter was read day and night, funeral Liturgies were performed daily, and memorial services were served many times a day both for the sisters and for outside pilgrims. Rumors spread in the monastery about wondrous phenomena of one or the other sister who had died. “Mother Mauritius told me,” writes the Diveyevo ascetic we have repeatedly mentioned, “that from the day of the death of our blessed old lady Pelageya Ivanovna, she was often immersed in thought about how easily and fearlessly Pelageya Ivanovna should go through ordeals. Constantly having this remembrance in her heart, on the 20th day after her death she came to the cell in which Pelageya Ivanovna lived for 45 years. Having entered the cell, she saw Pelageya Ivanovna in her adolescent form and took it for the soul of the newly departed, and said: “Mother Pelageya Ivanovna! I think how good it is for you there.” She repeated these words three times: “With Elisha, with Elisha, with Elisha.” Mother Mauritius, turning to Anna Gerasimovna, asked her: “Who is Pelageya Ivanovna talking about?” Anna Gerasimovna answered her: “Elisha was a prophet and the beloved disciple of the prophet of God Elijah.” “Our nun Feodosia Egorovna,” the same Diveyevo ascetic continues to write, “said that shortly before the 40th day, she saw our unforgettable mother Pelageya Ivanovna together with blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, the same one from whom Pelageya Ivanovna, at the beginning of her arduous feat, learned the Jesus Prayer; They talked among themselves and remained for a long time on a hillock near the source of Mother Alexandra, our first. Our minister to the sick, Maria, who cried a lot about Pelageya Ivanovna and read all 150 psalms on her daily for 40 days, saw her in the church in the coffin; went up to her and saw that she looked as if she were alive. Then Mary began to ask her to pray for her. Pelageya Ivanovna answered: “Why cry? I pray for you and will continue to pray.” The novice of Elder Platonida, Catherine, going to bed, thought, Why doesn’t she see Pelageya Ivanovna, despite the fact that she prayed about it so many times. And on the 40th day I was privileged to have a wonderful dream. In front of her was a huge field, on it was erected a magnificent cathedral with crystal windows, with many domes, surrounded by a very high white fence. Despite the height of the fence, white candles could be seen in the cathedral, burning brightly. “On the porch in front of the entrance to the cathedral doors, some blessed elder, standing next to me,” Catherine described her vision, “said to me: “You wanted to see Pelageya Ivanovna; this is her place.” And in the distance there were magnificent gardens.” “One of our patients saw,” says the same Diveyevo ascetic, “blessed Pelageya Ivanovna on the 40th day after her righteous death, that she joyfully stood before the Lord and prayed to Him not to leave her monastery, and that all who labor in it would be worthy of eternal bliss. “The appearance of Pelageya Ivanovna,” said this patient, “was so wondrous, and there was so light all around her that I will never forget this dream to the grave, which, with just one memory, brings me into indescribable joy and trembling of the heart.” These are the legends about the blessed old woman Pelageya Ivanovna, collected by us from people closest to her. We tried to preserve, if possible, the authentic words of these persons and their views on the great ascetic. With the help of their legends, this extraordinary sufferer rises before us in all her moral greatness, this fool for Christ’s sake, almost unthinkable in our time, this wonderful seer, and attracts to herself the hearts of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and His almighty grace. A wonderful connection exists between this extraordinary ascetic and the great elder Seraphim, the founder of the Diveyevo monastery, which he began by a special revelation from above and with the blessing of the Most Holy Theotokos. This wonderful connection began on earth under extraordinary circumstances, when the perspicacious old man, after a long conversation with Pelageya Ivanovna - the still young wife of Sergei Vasilyevich - blessed her for the great feat of foolishness, bowed to her to the ground and said in a pleading voice: “Go, go, mother, go to Diveevo, take care of my orphans,” it continued even after the wonderful the old man moved into eternity. Pelageya Ivanovna illuminated her path like lightning when, under different circumstances of her life, she repeated: “I am Seraphim,” “Seraphim spoiled me,” “the old man (that is, Seraphim) is closer to us...” - and until the end of her life she remained vigilantly vigilant over the Diveyevo monastery. “Look at how many children I have,” she said to another blessed one, Pasha of Sarov, expressing all her love for the Diveyevo orphans. And this compassionate concern for Mother Abbess Mary, about her labors and efforts in managing the monastery, this zeal for the truth trampled and desecrated when she decided to admonish the saint - all this clearly showed in her the faithful and exact fulfillment of the request of the great elder: “Go, go to Diveevo, take care of my orphans.” And she cherished and preserved them for eternity. He still protects us now, without a doubt, through his prayer to the Lord and his intercession before Him. Cell of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna The cell of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna was preserved in the monastery with special care in the same form in which it was during her lifetime. In the front corner of the closet are the holy icons that actually belonged to her: the Savior blessing with the opened Gospel and the words: Come, blessed of My Father, in a foil robe - the blessing of her own father, and the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God in a foil robe - also a parental blessing to her, and then other holy icons that were brought and given to her various pilgrims. In the cell, all the poor cell things, reminiscent of the great ascetic of Christ, and above these poor-looking, but nevertheless precious possessions for the monastery, the following inscriptions were made: 1) A special place - on the floor near the stove, where for the most part the servant of God, the old woman of Christ Pelageya, lived on simple hard felt, spending all her nights without sleep in contemplation and prayer. In this same place, sanctified by her prayerful deeds and various revelations she had received, she was visited in the bosom of the Lord by the blessed saints, as well as by the Elder of God Seraphim. And this place was so dear to her soul that she often said: “I will die, and not leave here.” 2) Bed: bed, mattress, pillow, on which for the last three days of her earthly ascetic life, the blessed old woman Pelageya completed her difficult, thorny feat and rested in the sleep of peace of blessed eternity, 1884, January 30, at a quarter past midnight, 75 years old. 3) Things that in the sorrowful earthly ascetic life served the servant of God, for Christ's sake, the holy fool, blessed Pelageya: a) an iron chain, which her husband and her own mother placed on her and with which she was chained to the wall, like a fierce beast, for the sake of her feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake, during the long eight years of her life in the world. b) an iron belt, which she also wore for the long eight years of her life in the world for the sake of Christ the Lord, so that it grew into her dejected body, tormented by all sorts of beatings and tortures, and she took it off with blood when she came to this holy monastery. c) scrolls and shirts, given to her by lovers of Christ for the sake of God and worn by her with love, the sundress of the blessed old woman Pelageya, stockings, put on by her only two years before her dormition and worn for the sake of senile infirmity, the wretched blanket of the blessed old woman of Christ. Soon, instead of a simple oak cross, a large elegant monument was erected on the grave of the blessed old woman; On this monument there are the following four inscriptions: 1) “Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrenikova, nee Surina, with the blessing of the Elder of God, Hieromonk Seraphim, for her holy obedience, abandoned all the happiness of earthly life, her husband and children, taking upon herself the feat of foolishness, and accepted persecution, strangulation, beatings and chains for the sake of Christ the Lord. She was born in 1809, lived in the monastery for 47 years, and on January 30, 1884, she departed to the Lord at the age of 75.” 2) “Blessed are you when people revile you, and persecute you, and say all sorts of evil things against you, who lie to Me for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is abundant in heaven. You who have endured everything here and overcome everything by the power of your love for God, for His love, endure our spiritual weakness and intercede for us with the cross of your deed.” 3) “Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveev Monastery Seraphim Seraphim, blessed Pelageya. Pelageya, having taken up her cross for the sake of God, she lived on earth entirely in God, and in heaven she lives forever with God.” 4) “The blessed ones were expelled for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. On the thorny path of your deed, you did not leave anyone, do not forget who came running to you, and there, in the bliss of God’s eternal glory, the abode you loved.” The nuns of the Diveyevo monastery and pious pilgrims visit both the grave and the cell of the blessed ascetic with a special feeling of love and reverence. Everyone wants to pray at the place where the long-suffering body of the deceased rests and where her pure soul hovers; everyone wants to offer their prayers before those holy icons in front of which the deceased old woman prayed in her closet and which were the blessing of her parents; everyone wants to breathe the air that the great ascetic breathed, to spend at least a few minutes in the place where she labored for so many years, to reverently look at this chain and this ring with which she was chained, and at all these wretched things that belonged to her, and learn from her long-suffering, simplicity and poverty, and at the same time earnestly ask her holy prayers for themselves and for their neighbors. The perspicacious elder Seraphim predicted about his Diveyevo monastery that it would become famous for the holiness of its ascetics and would prosper both spiritually and materially. The words of the godly elder came true. Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna glorified the Diveyevo monastery with her holy life, and this monastery began to flourish both spiritually and materially. And God grant that even now she may shine more and more with the holiness of the life of her ascetics and from generation to generation flourish both spiritually and materially for the glory of God. Six o'clock, as Anna Gerasimovna says. [All footnotes include author's notes. Ed.] Subsequently, Tambovtsev was a hieromonk of the Nizhny Novgorod Pechersk Monastery, then hegumen of the Pavel Obnorsky Monastery (Vologda Diocese), and died in the Vysokogorsk Arzamas Monastery as a schema monk Seraphim. The money received for Pelageya Ivanovna (500 rubles), as a contribution to the monastery, Ulyana Grigorievna immediately upon her arrival gave to the novice Ivan Tambovtsev, who was then in charge of everything. Mother Alexandra (in the world Agafya Semenovna Melgunova) was the first abbess of the Diveyevo community, appointed by Elder Seraphim himself. The miller's wife is Glykeria, appointed abbess of the Ponetaevsk community through the intrigues of Ivan Tambovtsev, unloved in Diveyevo. About Ivan Tikhonovich’s self-will and about his other bad qualities, see the letter of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow to His Eminence Isidore, Metropolitan. St. Petersburg. “Letters from Metropolitan. Philaret to the Highest Persons", p. 25. Ladyzhenskaya Ekaterina Vasilievna ruled the community for some time after Irina Prokofievna. Father Vasily Sadovsky was first a priest and then an archpriest at the Diveyevo monastery. Polya - Pelageya Gavrilovna - was a novice under Anna Gerasimovna. Afanasia Nazarova (in the world Agrafena Nikolaevna). Matryona Fedotievna - Diveyevo eldress; we will talk about it later. Former Ivan Tambovtsev. See “Letters of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Philaret to the Highest Persons and Other Important Persons,” where some details of the case are sufficiently explained. That is, through letters. The Ponetaevskaya monastery is located not far from both Sarov and Diveevo. The Ponetaev sisters separated from Diveevo and competed with each other for a long time, no doubt, due to the malice of the enemy of our salvation. Perhaps this means that Rev. Seraphim absolved Pelageya Ivanovna of her sins from birth to death. Note ed. In Petrovsky fast. Note ed. When I subsequently saw Pelageya Ivanovna, M.P. Petrov told us, and asked her why she did not allow me to go, she said: “There are many such saints.” In another letter, Berezina says: “The doctors found that the disease was completely incurable; they advised to make a puncture in the church and said that although the disease would not stop, the pain would not be felt.” A diminutive of Agrippina, often used in common parlance. This speech will be reproduced below. This is what Elder Seraphim himself liked to call the Diveyevo ascetics.