Протоиерей Стефан Ляшевский

Diveev Monastery in the years of rebellion More than half a century ago, in 1924, Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov) of St. Petersburg commanded me to continue his famous “Chronicle.” I was young then, everything seemed possible to me and I happily agreed. I already knew the Diveyevo “Chronicle” well, I had been to the Diveyevo monastery, I heard a lot from Mother Abbess Alexandra, I hoped that soon the persecution would stop and then it would be possible to write freely, but suddenly the thought flashed through my mind: “Why doesn’t the Metropolitan himself want to continue it?” But the bishop, seeing the momentary bewilderment on my face, said: “I will not live to see that time.” Indeed, the years passed, the persecution only increased, and in 1937 the great metropolitan and martyr ended his life in the terrible Lefortovo dungeon, from which no one then came out. But before his death, I often met with him for 14 years and he told me a lot so that in due time I would convey all this to everyone who loves Diveev. And when, before my arrest and concentration camp, I said goodbye to my mentor and benefactor on the feast of the Epiphany in 1936 in the chambers of His Beatitude Metropolitan Sergius, Bishop Seraphim cried many tears, hugging me and kissing me again, while reminding me of his will and blessing me to serve the Church in the future. Vladyka knew that we would never see each other again, and Metropolitan Sergius expressed the same thing, repeating several times: “Will we really never see each other again here on earth?” Two months later I was arrested with a group of clergy and bishops in the south of Russia and my way of the cross began. Vladyka Seraphim was arrested in that terrible year of 1936, and after being imprisoned for more than a year, he was tortured to death in the Lefortovo dungeon. But Elder Seraphim of Sarov himself predicted his holy martyrdom long before this, in a vision in Diveyevo in 1902. The Bishop himself told me about this in one of our conversations and I think that, in his humility, he told only me about this vision: “At the end of the Chronicle,” said the Bishop, “I sat in my room on the mezzanine, in one of the Diveyevo buildings, and was glad that the most difficult period of selecting materials for the book from the archival records of St. Seraphim’s contemporaries was finally over. At that moment the monk entered the cell, and I saw him as if alive. “You see,” Vladyka turned to me, “not for one second did the thought flash through my mind that this was a vision, everything was so simple and real, but how great was my surprise when Father Seraphim bowed to me from the waist and said: “Thank you for the Chronicle. Ask me whatever you want for her,” with these words he came close to me and put his hand on my shoulder. I pressed myself close to him and said: “Dear Father, I am so happy now that I want nothing more than to always be near you like this.” Father Seraphim smiled in agreement and became invisible. Only then did I realize that it was a vision. There was no end to my joy,” the bishop concluded. Father Seraphim promised to fulfill every request, which means that Vladyka Seraphim will always be in the Kingdom of Heaven in the same high spheres with him. No matter how great Vladyka Seraphim was, a great hierarch of God, he still had to add something to be there, in the Kingdom of Heaven, near the Venerable Seraphim - and he went to the feat of martyrdom in order to be there with the crown of martyrdom near the Venerable Seraphim. Isn’t this what St. Seraphim ordered to convey through Mother Eupraxia before his death: “Tell that Archimandrite Seraphim who will be the steward during my glorification.” In response to my question to the Bishop - what exactly, the Bishop replied: “Only I will know about this.” Bishop Seraphim found alive some old women, contemporaries of the Monk Seraphim, such as Ksenia Vasilievna, whom he appointed as a clergywoman of the Nativity churches, she was also the closest cell attendant of the great lady of Diveyevo, Elena Vasilievna Manturova. The Diveyevo archive contained many records of contemporaries: 60 handwritten and 17 printed. All this was carefully studied by the Bishop and collected together in his “Chronicle”, written a year before the glorification of St. Seraphim. Through the prayers of the Hieromartyr Seraphim, help me, Lord, to continue the Chronicle, according to his will to me. Before proceeding to the continuation of the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery, I want to say briefly about what is written in the “Chronicle”, published in 1903 [for the second time], just before the glorification. All of ecclesiastical Russia was then waiting for the glorification of St. Seraphim, many, many. Hundreds of testimonies of healings received by people from Father Seraphim, with requests for when he would be canonized, literally knocked on the door of the Holy Synod to speed up his canonization. No matter how hard the pious Sovereign’s co-pupil, from a noble family, Leonid Chichagov, fought, who on the eve of his governorship left everything and took holy orders, proving that Russia was waiting for such canonization, the decision on glorification was still postponed until Sovereign Nicholas II, having familiarized himself with the report of Archpriest Chichagov, gave the command: “Glorify immediately!” The prophecy of St. Seraphim was fulfilled: “I will glorify the King who glorifies me.” I heard about this dozens of times from the Diveyevo sisters, since the nuns, a contemporary of Father Seraphim, were still alive when the “Chronicle” was written. Priest Leonid Chichagov (later Bishop Seraphim) cited in the Chronicle many testimonies of the saint’s miracles. And people realized that Elder Seraphim was a saint, which was the case in time. The Emperor's command to glorify Elder Seraphim was not subject to any delay, and grandiose preparations for the celebrations began. First of all, it was necessary to worry about receiving and providing food for the masses of pilgrims. Bishop Seraphim told me: “I knew that a colossal number of pilgrims would arrive from all over Russia, so I built six four-story buildings, of course only for part of the pilgrims: the clergy, monastics and gentlemen, because it was impossible for everyone, because 300 thousand pilgrims came and arrived for the glorification celebrations, who settled in all the areas free from forest around the monastery.” The Emperor announced that he would arrive with the Grand Dukes. The three metropolitans hastened to announce their presence at the glorification. Countless numbers of bishops and clergy came. The Emperor, at his own expense, ordered a canopy of indescribable beauty over the tomb of the saint. Four columns, decorated with malachite, jasper, gold, and next to them are magnificent precious lamps, all different, personalized; the capitals of the columns on top were decorated with faces. In general, everything is decorated like a king. There was no event similar to the Sarov celebrations in Russia. When the procession with the relics of the saint around the church began, all the people wept with joy, seeing how all the great princes, led by the Emperor, in full ceremonial uniform, carried the coffin of the great saint of God on their shoulders, and the best church choir in Russia sang hymns in honor of the glorified saint. At the same time, there is no count of how many healings have occurred. I will describe only one of them, which our hierodeacon told me about, at the shrine itself. They brought a man bent into an arc to the steps of the tomb, so that his head was not far from his knees. Deathly silence reigned. The eyes were fixed on the sufferer. And so they brought him up and put him on the first step of the canopy, and he began to straighten up, in the deathly silence the cracking of the bones of the spine was heard, and the patient began to straighten up to his full height. Horror gripped those present, uncontrollable sobbing was heard, the miracle shocked them so much. The sick man leaned towards the head of Father Seraphim, kissed him and walked on his own. People kissed his clothes, because the man was touched by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, healing him through the prayerful intercession of St. Seraphim. And endless pilgrimages to Sarov and Diveyevo began. The monks who remembered this celebration told me that they did not sleep for three days and did not want to sleep, such was the state of spiritual joy. More than a thousand nuns were saved in Diveyevo; the abbess at that time was the unforgettable Maria Ushakova, decorated with four pectoral crosses, one from the Cabinet of His Majesty. Having waited for the glorification of Father Seraphim, she soon went to the Lord, blessing her beloved cell attendant and assistant in managing the monastery, Mother Alexandra, about whom Theophan the Recluse said that “she is an eagle,” to become abbess. Truly so! The eagle of heaven both in life and in the management of the monastery, installed by the Queen of Heaven Herself. The miraculous portrait of the first mother Alexandra Here is what Archimandrite Seraphim, being an excellent icon painter himself, wrote about this portrait: “The Diveyevo Cathedral was decorated with amazing paintings of the monastery’s own work, not found anywhere in other monasteries throughout Russia. Through the prayers of the Monk Seraphim, the Lord sent several sisters to the Diveyevo monastery, among whom Mother Seraphim was especially distinguished and is still at the head of the Painting Corps. Her brush is extremely gentle, gives real light and expression to the faces of the holy righteous and can always be distinguished from other iconographic images encountered.” “In the cell of the first mother there was a portrait of her, the resemblance to which was certified by her novice Evdokia Martynovna, and also her portrait, copied by the Diveyevo nuns, remarkable in that both the sisters of the monastery and outsiders saw him at times come to life, smile, his eyes sparkle or, on the contrary, become stern, formidable, and dim. This portrait, based on the healings that took place during his time, is considered miraculous in the monastery" (Chronicle, p. 732). So wrote Archimandrite Seraphim. I can also testify that this portrait was given the grace of a “living image” to which we were led in order to find out how to greet this or that pilgrim. Archimandrite Seraphim wrote that such “living images” are not found anywhere, and during the renewal of icons in 1922-23, as, for example, in Taganrog, when the image of the Savior in human height was renewed and was so alive that people fell to their knees when approaching it. I remember falling to my knees and I stood for a long time, and tears flowed uncontrollably - the Savior stood alive, as he was in the Holy Land, raising the dead. The impressions cannot be conveyed in any words - everything earthly does not exist and you feel that before you is the Creator of the world, the star worlds, the Lord of all that exists both on earth and in heaven. Then, when the silver robe was removed from the icon, the image remained beautiful, but far from what it was during the renovation. Here it is, the manifestation of unearthly laws. Such is the living Diveyevo image of St. Seraphim in the main cathedral, to which seven steps led. He was in a silver robe, which did not interfere with the appearance of the monk - he was the way Father Seraphim is now in the Kingdom of God - indescribable. By the way, when I saw this image in Murom (Diveev was banned), the heavenly image of the monk seemed mournful, matching the mood of the sisters who were already living in the world. On one of my visits to Diveyevo, in 1923, I had the opportunity to live, with the blessing of Mother Abbess Alexandra, in a very good house with Natalia Davidovna, next to the house of M.V. Manturov. She also prepared dinner for all the “brethren” who arrived. Every morning I went to the expensive graves near the Kazan Church and often went into the unforgettable cell of the first mother. Entering the cell and kissing my mother’s portrait as usual, once I meet the head of this building, nun Emilia, she excitedly says: “Oh, what lovely young spouses just left here, it was clear that they love each other very much, but the young lady was somehow strange, it seems, possessed by an evil spirit. We took her to the portrait of my mother, she kissed her and, screaming, began to fall. They picked her up and carried her to her mother’s bed near the stove, where she became quiet, as if she had fallen asleep. After lying there for some time, she got up and became completely healthy, cheerful, and joyful. She said: “Now it’s all over!” Yes, this was obvious, and they began to cry and sob uncontrollably with joy, thanking Mother Alexander for the healing. “I also cried with them,” Mother Emilia continued, “I tell them: “Now go, you will read the life of Mother as a sign of gratitude.” It was short, bound in blue velvet with a gold cross. They could not finish reading, although they read alternately, tears choked them. Truly this mother’s portrait was miraculous. The details of this visit to Diveev were told to me by Mother Abbess Alexandra. During the stay of Their Majesties in Diveyevo, while examining the majestic cathedral and expressing their approval of everything they saw, the sisters sang the troparion and kontakion to St. Seraphim to the most wonderful Diveyevo chant, compositions by the nun Vera Chichagova, who directed the Diveyevo choir of 40 nuns. And it was distinguished by amazing harmony; no individual voices could be heard in it. The abbess, being an expert in church compositions, admired the Diveyevo chants more than others - the Kyiv, Znamenny, etc. She approached the choir, which came out to the pulpit for some hymns, and tried to hear individual voices, but could not - they were not audible. “This is angelic singing,” said the abbess. Diveyevo singing also left its mark on my mother’s church singing creativity. Their Majesties were very pleased with Diveyevo church painting and icon painting - the cathedral was painted by the sisters, led by the head of the icon painting workshop. The Emperor, the founder of the Committee of Church Painting, valued not only academic icon painting. Diveyevo's main cathedral is the Holy Trinity, the right chapel is in honor of the icon of the Queen of Heaven Tenderness, and the left, after the glorification of St. Seraphim, was dedicated to the newly-minted saint of God. During the glorification in Diveyevo, the blessed fool Pasha of Sarov, famous throughout Russia for the sake of Christ, lived, and was greatly revered by Archimandrite Seraphim. The Emperor was aware of Pasha of Sarov. When his carriage arrived at Blessed Pasha’s cell, all the chairs were taken out and a carpet was spread on the floor. Their Majesties, princes and metropolitans were barely able to enter the cell. Paraskeva Ivanovna was sitting on the bed. Looking at the Emperor, she said: “Let only the Tsar and Queen stay.” The Emperor looked apologetically at the others and asked to leave him and the Empress alone; apparently, a serious conversation was ahead. Everyone went out and got into their carriages, waiting for Their Majesties to come out. Mother Abbess was the last to leave the cell, but the novice remained. Suddenly the abbess hears Paraskeva Ivanovna, addressing the Tsars, saying: “Sit down.” The Emperor looked around and, seeing that there was nowhere to sit, became embarrassed, and the blessed one said: “Sit on the floor.” Let us remember that the Emperor was arrested at the Dno station! In great humility, the Emperor and Empress sank onto the carpet, otherwise they would not have been able to resist the horror that Paraskeva Ivanovna presented to them. She told them everything that later came true: the death of Russia, the dynasty, the defeat of the Church and a sea of ​​blood. The conversation continued for a long time, Their Majesties were horrified, the Empress was close to fainting. Finally, she said: “I don’t believe you, this can’t be!” The meeting took place a year before the birth of the Heir, whom the Royal Couple so wanted. Paraskeva Ivanovna took a piece of red cloth from the bed and said to the Empress: “This is for your son’s pants. When he is born, you will believe what I said.” From that moment on, the Emperor began to consider himself doomed to suffer on the cross and later said more than once: “There is no sacrifice that I would not make to save Russia.” Is this not what Father John of Kronstadt warned about? He literally did not speak, but shouted: “You cannot imagine what is coming to Russia!” In Diveyevo we still found Mother Lyudmila, the treasurer, alive. She told us: “Everyone is to blame for the catastrophe that happened in Russia: from the Tsar to the last beggar!” All classes behaved recklessly, despite many warnings. Life of the monastery before the revolution No matter how majestic the years of the beginning of the 20th century were for the flourishing of Russia’s prosperity and the external structure of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, deep within the country lurked the evil forces of atheism and unbridledness, and there was a complete lack of understanding by society of the brewing revolutionary events. As they say, they ate, drank, and had fun beyond measure, until a terrible catastrophe broke out. And only the blessed Diveev stood silently in front of his large Crucifix against the background of the black cloth of the altar wall in the altar of the main cathedral, which was not found anywhere. Here, as it were, they had a presentiment of the common Golgotha ​​of all Russia. Father Seraphim told his Diveyevo orphans: “A terrible time is coming to Russia,” I prayed to the Lord to avert this terrible misfortune, but the Lord did not hear poor Seraphim.” In the notes of Prince Putyatin, a man very close to Diveev, there is a record that when N.A. Motovilov asked Father Seraphim: “When will the worst time be?” - he replied: “A little later than a hundred years after my death.” “The Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery” is enormous in its content; on its 850 pages, Archimandrite Seraphim collected everything: the life of St. Seraphim, events starting with the life of the monastery by its founder Alexandra, wonderful outlines of the lives of the future saints of Diveyevo: schema-nun Martha and nun Elena Vasilievna Manturova. The Chronicle includes countless miracles through the prayers of St. Seraphim, the blessed Diveyevo, and Christ for the sake of the holy fools - Pelageya Ivanovna, Paraskeva Ivanovna and Natalia Ivanovna. Letters from Metropolitan Philaret, who defended Diveev from the machinations of Ivan Tikhonov, and much other interesting material are presented. This is not just the history of the monastery, but the history of the Fourth Destiny of the Queen of Heaven. There is a lot of beauty in the Chronicle, but also a lot of mournful and asceticism. During the life of Father Seraphim, the sisters of the monastery suffered all sorts of oppression both from the Sarov abbots and from Serafimov’s false disciple Ivan Tikhonov, from the poverty of the monastery, from the Nizhny Novgorod diocesan bishop Nektary, and much more. Of course, monastic life is not sweet, and after the death of Father Seraphim, his Diveyevo followers became complete orphans. Only under the leadership of Abbess Maria Ushakova did the Diveyevo Monastery become full of peace and joy for its nuns. Her successor, Mother Alexandra, had a sad fate after the revolution; under her, the monastery was closed in 1927, and Diveev “went into the world” under her leadership and, largely thanks to her, continued to exist. Terrible trials and exploits of sisters during the revolution Because of the lawlessness of people, a catastrophe began. The madmen destroyed the house in which they lived, completely without foreseeing how it would all end. The Diveyevo Monastery also suffered greatly: the lands feeding the monastery were taken away, and famine began. The sisters had no way to earn their bread. Workshops stopped: art, handicrafts - no one needed it, everyone became poor. Pilgrimages and help from benefactors stopped. How to get food? They exchanged their belongings with the peasants, but they could not last long. The monastery began to melt. Mother Abbess tried to save the monastery treasures by burying them at night near the abbot's building and planting bushes in this place. But in vain, the Latvian commissar came and announced that he knew everything. Values ​​are lost. Exhausted by hunger, the sisters walked through the villages, exchanging what little they had for a piece of bread. How can monastic order be maintained under such conditions? But nothing was disrupted: neither long services, nor the reading of the Psalter in the Church of the Nativity, nor Compline, paraclises, and much more. Then the NEP, the feats were now beyond our strength, we somehow managed to reach the NEP. It seemed that a gradual revival had begun: handicraft workshops, painting workshops, and agricultural workshops began to work again. The first pilgrims appeared. We, the Taganrog Youth Brotherhood, were one of the first to arrive, as we were told. Church events of 1921–22 The Moscow Church Council, which met in 1917–18, foreseeing the terrible ruin of the Church, called for the creation of brotherhoods - zealots of church welfare, including youth brotherhoods, which were a completely new phenomenon in Russian life at that terrible time. Blood flowed everywhere continuously. Religious processions were shot; there were more than a thousand such cases. Rus' was covered with the graves of holy martyrs and confessors. Horror gripped the Russian land. People began to waver and move away from their foundations. The Church also began to shake; renovationists and schismatics appeared. The Lord supported the faith of Orthodox people with many signs: crosses on churches and icons in churches were renewed. Examples of courageous standing in the truth were revealed, based on the personal example of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon and other confessors. Living Church members, supported by the authorities, seized absolutely all churches in many cities. Tikhonovtsy were left without churches and in some places only secret services were held. His Holiness the Patriarch was arrested and was kept in custody in one of the towers of the Donskoy Monastery. The fate of many bishops who did not submit to the living church higher church administration is also sad. Trials against bishops and clergy were ongoing in the provinces. A striking example of this was the trial of Bishop Arseny of Rostov and Taganrog. He, like His Holiness Tikhon, asked that only he be considered guilty of everything and not condemn the clergy who carried out his decrees. At the trial, the prosecutor shouted: “Tikhon is in Moscow, and Arseny is on the Don” - and demanded execution. The court made a decision: Bishop Arseny should be shot. But such a terrible cry arose both in the court and in the huge crowd near the court that this was followed by: “But taking into account, etc., replace the camps in Solovki with 5 years.” They did not dare to do this with His Holiness, since at that very time an ultimatum from Lord Curzon followed: “Either stop the persecution and free the Patriarch, or there will be immediate intervention.” The animals understood this language, and the Holy One was freed. But he was not allowed to return to the Trinity Compound in Moscow, and he remained under house arrest in one of the towers of the Donskoy Monastery. Soon after his release, I had the good fortune to visit this tower. I brought the Patriarch a picturesque picture of the altar of our underground secret church and showed it to him. His Holiness kissed this image and said: “The Lord’s earth and its fulfillment.” After a rather lengthy conversation, the Patriarch asked: “How many people visit your church?” I replied that there were about 20 people. “What should all the people do? No, my dear, no matter how heroic it may be, we must think about all the people. No matter how good it is there, it’s better upstairs.” His Holiness was the father of the entire people, and not of individual groups. Upon returning from Moscow, I visited prison and our Bishop Arseny. In Rostov we were in complete confusion; no one understood anything. The former Bishop Theophylact was at the head of the diocese, and to many this seemed quite normal. But the fact that Bishop Arseny was in prison at the same time did not bother everyone. This did not bother the perspicacious elder John Domovsky, the builder and rector of the magnificent Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Vladyka Arseny told me during my visit: “Go to Fr. John and tell him on my behalf that he cannot do this. Living Church members are not Orthodox.” It was scary to go to Fr. John with such an assignment, since he was not only a seer, but also a healer of many. Entering the cell of Fr. John, I stopped and said: “Father John, I came to tell you what Bishop Arseny instructed.” When I conveyed to him literally the words of the bishop, Fr. John began to cry and sob. “Tell the Bishop that I didn’t know everything, I want to die Orthodox,” he said in response. That's what terrible times were then. Vladyka Arseny, having received 5 years, was exiled to Solovki. Not all bishops behaved so courageously. Nizhny Novgorod Bishop Evdokim was silent and did not show himself in any way or protest, but secretly agreed to cooperate. In Diveyevo they heard about this, and one of the priests of the monastery demanded that communication with Evdokim be severed. Mother Abbess understood perfectly well that this would mean the immediate closure of the monastery. Fortunately for the monastery, she found the full support of the neighboring Tambov Bishop Zinovy, a completely unyielding man. And he came to Diveyevo, did not take into account the previous canonical norms of behavior of diocesan bishops in such a terrible time, and convinced mother not to take any steps in this matter. The situation was very uncertain. Just at this time, His Holiness Tikhon was released, and I asked him to send to Mother Abbess the image of St. Seraphim that I brought with me, with his inscription that he was sending this image specifically to Diveev. Mother placed this simple icon of St. Seraphim in her holy corner, having first shown it to everyone. This dealt a crushing blow to some of the sisters who supported the schism, led by Archpriest Fr. Pavel. There was no official split, everything went on as before, but Fr. Pavel did not take any part in the life of the monastery, and some of the sisters remained in opposition. What did Fr. insist on? Paul? No more and no less than in secret monastic services, which was completely impossible in the monastery. It was here that we arrived in the summer and brought a picture of our secret church, asking to make a pictorial copy of it, which was done. This news immediately spread throughout the monastery and calmed the ardor of Fr. Paul, and the sisters who sympathize with him, since it became clear to everyone that we are completely devoted to Mother Abbess and that His Holiness the Patriarch believes that everything is normal. After the release of His Holiness the Patriarch, he appointed Metropolitan Sergius to the Nizhny Novgorod See, who came to Diveyevo and served together with Bishop Zinovy ​​in the Diveyevo Cathedral. Here I first met Metropolitan Sergius, the future His Holiness Patriarch. Just as during the turmoil of Joasaph, Diveyevo came under the authority of the Tambov Bishop Theophan the Recluse, and now the same transition has been repeated under the patronage of the Tambov Zinovy, the great bishop, the devoted son of Mother Abbess Alexandra. During times of persecution, the boundaries of dioceses may be violated, and their territories may pass to the Orthodox bishop. A similar case occurred during the Diocletian persecution: there was not a single living bishop in Taurida, and then the archbishop, who had nothing to do with Taurida, sent a bishop. Icon of the Queen of Heaven Tenderness Icon of the Queen of Heaven Tenderness, before which the Monk Seraphim died, is part of the Annunciation, that is, that highest moment when the Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You (Luke 1:35). This icon, immediately after the death of Father Seraphim, was sent to console the orphans by the Diveyevo Sarov abbot Nifont. Since then, the icon has always been in Diveyevo churches in the main place on the right. At the first opportunity, a precious robe with stones was made. An excellent copy of this icon, quite large in size, was located at the Diveyevo courtyard (Meshchanskaya street in Moscow). The exact same copy, made by the same head of the painting corps, Mother Seraphima, but in a reduced size, was in the abbot's building. When, after the revolution and all kinds of oppression, Mother Abbess had to reduce the size of her body, this icon was moved to the choir of the Trinity Cathedral. At the bottom of this icon in the frame there is an inscription in Slavic letters: “The likeness of the holy miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”, in front of which the ever-memorable elder of the Sarov Hermitage, Hieromonk Seraphim, died in a feat of prayer on January 2, 1833.” The halo was made on the robe in the form of diverging rays of radiance, consisting of precious stones and pearls. This halo was very skillfully painted on a completely black background, the same as the background on the large Crucifixion in the altar of the main cathedral. This abbot copy was, among other icons, inserted into a common icon case at the level of human eyes, if you kneel in front of it. I don’t know why that day during the Liturgy I went to the choir, where there was no one, and knelt down. I stood right next to this icon and suddenly saw it. My heart trembled, it was such a beautiful image that I had never seen before. I had a strange, unfounded thought at that time - that this was my icon, the icon of my whole life. I asked the Queen of Heaven to give me this wondrous icon, although I perfectly understood that I could not even think of asking Mother Abbess for this precious icon. After the Liturgy, I went to Mother Abbess and barely uttered my request. Mother said that this was her icon and did not say any more words. My heart sank, but there remained a small hope that maybe I would receive this icon on the day of my Angel, a few days later, on the day of St. Seraphim. I waited for this day with trepidation. I attended the Liturgy and received from my mother a large prosphora and an invitation to tea after the Liturgy. There were other pilgrims there, the mood was festive, but I did not dare repeat my request. I said goodbye and left with even less hope that perhaps I would receive the icon on the day of its celebration - July 28. After that day, I had to leave, and my wife and her friend Nina still had to stay in Diveyevo for a whole month at the invitation of Mother Abbess and at her expense (our money had run out). And on the day of the celebration of this icon, I went to say goodbye to Mother Treasurer Lyudmila. Having learned that I was leaving now, she became terribly worried, saying that I should stay in Diveevo for three more days: “Go to Mother Abbess and say that I ask you to stay for three more days,” which I did and received a blessing for three more days. The day of departure arrived, August 1 - the Feast of the Holy Cross. The day before, at the all-night vigil, Bishop Zinovy ​​tonsured 20 young novices into the ryassophore, and this was the first time I saw such tonsure. The morning after the Liturgy, I said goodbye to Mother Superior and Mother Treasurer and went to say goodbye to Blessed Maria Ivanovna. She blessed, but said: “In an hour, the Queen of Heaven will be in Diveyevo.” I looked at my watch to remember. I went to say goodbye to the handicraft building. There I was greeted very warmly, eighty sisters stood up and sang the troparion to Father Seraphim for me on the way and detained me a little with conversations. After that, I went to the dentists' building to say goodbye, where we were always especially welcomed. When I was there, I saw that a novice mother was coming from the abbot’s building and was carrying something covered with a white veil. We were all wary. Nyusha, the current abbess Maria [Barinova], opens the veil, and I finally see my beloved and requested icon, and says: “This is from Mother Abbess for you.” I fall on my face and kiss the icon. This is truly true: “Exactly an hour has passed, the Queen of Heaven is now in Diveyevo!” Beside myself, I rush to Mother Abbess, bow to the ground, thank him, and Mother says: “Wherever you are, until the very end of your life, this icon should be inseparable from you.” With reverence I promise to fulfill the order, not knowing that in this way this icon will be preserved and will return in due time to Diveyevo. I return to the dental building, where all the sisters are delighted with the icon. Dasha, the holy soul, says: “A miraculous icon.” Returning to Taganrog, I am afraid to let go of the icon, so I put it in my travel pillow and fall asleep tired. In Moscow, at the Diveyevo courtyard, I say to Mother Anfia: “This is the jewel I received.” I open it and, oh horror! - the paper icon stuck to the picturesque icon of Tenderness right on the cheek of the Mother of God and on Her hand. I tried to tear off the paper, but it didn't work. I understand that we can’t leave it like this until Taganrog, we need to do something now. My heart was breaking: small particles of paint were being torn off from the cheek and hand of the Mother of God. I cried, but I had to continue doing this, hoping that when I came home, Nina, our artist, would cover up these nicks and skillfully renew the icon. I arrived in Taganrog, all our people gathered at home, I tearfully tell everything how it happened, I take out the icon and can’t believe my eyes - there is not the slightest trace of damage, everything has healed as if it were alive. It turns out that icons can be alive! All of mine were shocked. 56 years have passed. The icon was always inseparable from me during all the difficult journeys through Europe and America. I hope that she will remain until the end of our exile, and then return to Diveevo. When it was painted by Mother Seraphima, I have no information, probably when the unrest in the last century ended and work began in the icon-painting workshop, that is, in the seventies or eighties. Most likely, it was a gift for the 25th anniversary of the abbess of Mother Maria and then left as an inheritance to her successor, Mother Alexandra Trakovskaya. When in 1927 the blessed Diveev, like other monasteries, was destroyed and the complete destruction of the Church began, it seemed to me that the end of the world was near, although Blessed Maria Ivanovna warned me several years before that I should not rush into such a state of mind (“the time has not yet run out”), but the terrible destruction of the Church, the closure of monasteries and the mockery of the relics of the saints of God - how could there have been other moods? This was a terrible period of anti-church persecution, which continues to this day. The so-called dispossession, when tens of millions of workers died, when entire villages died out - weren’t we flying into the abyss? All these horrors affected us: our brothers, including me, were arrested and, together with bishops and priests, sent to concentration camps. The Russian Church has ascended to Golgotha, inevitable, terrible. Complete darkness settled all around. After leaving the concentration camp in 1939, I returned to my engineering work. At the end of the war, in 1943, I was ordained a priest and began to commemorate at the litanies, like a monastery priest: “We also pray for the health and salvation of our mother, Abbess Alexandra, and after her death, Abbess Maria with all her sisters.” He considered himself a Diveyevo priest in exile, and commemorated them in church, sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly, and absolutely always at home vespers, performing them quite often throughout his priestly life. Diveev was in the world for half a century. In the terrible time of persecution, the candle did not go out for both the nuns and the majority of the Russian people. The miraculous icon of Tenderness, or the Joy of all joys, as the Monk Seraphim called it, was kept all the time by Mother Abbess in Murom. The fate of her viceroy, who remained in Moscow, is unknown to me; the abbot’s copy, which I kept, is awaiting its return to the renewed Diveyevo. Diveev went into the world, and this period of existence was similar to the period when Mother Alexandra, a nun in the world, lived with her sisters near the parish Kazan church. When the opportunity arose in the USA to enlarge a color photograph to large church sizes, I ordered the icons of Tenderness and St. Seraphim to be enlarged in this way and placed them in the church where I was rector, just as in the Diveyevo Cathedral: Tenderness before the Soleia on the right, and the icon of St. Seraphim also on the left, on the corresponding elevations, as they were in Diveyevo. It was like a distant Diveyevo courtyard, represented by its rector and my mother, the future nun Maria, as the regent of the choir with Diveyevo chants. Something similar happened at the Diveyevo farmsteads: in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Arzamas and, of course, mainly in Murom, led by Mother Abbess Maria. Along the way, I will also mention the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - the family mother of the original Melgunova, which was later given to the Kazan Church when Mother Alexandra rebuilt it from wood to stone. When Diveyevo was ruined in 1927, Blessed Maria Ivanovna said that the Kazan Icon should be given to Hieromonk Seraphim (Smykov), who was in Diveyevo at that time, after which he went into complete seclusion in Krasnodar until 1942. When he fled abroad in 1943, he took this icon with him and on the way stopped with us in Taganrog, where I saw it and remembered it well. She was wearing a golden robe, with 16 real Ural emeralds (smaragds), trimmed with pearls and decorated with one blue sapphire on the chest; diamonds and a large ruby ​​were visible in the crown. There were smaller rubies in six other places of the icon. There are 16 more rectangular emeralds set into the halo and many other small stones are scattered. In general, it was a most precious robe of amazing beauty, since the estates that belonged to the original mother were huge - they were located on the territory of three provinces. Having reached Yugoslavia, already in the rank of archimandrite, Fr. Seraphim was arrested there upon the arrival of the Red Army, and the icon was taken away. Then it fell into the hands of traders and was valued at half a million dollars. Orthodox people tried to buy her back and announced a collection, but nothing came of it. Many years later it was sold to the Fatima Catholic Monastery for $3 million, and is currently the main shrine of the Fatima Monastery. They mistakenly believe that this icon is from the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg only because the robe on it is precious. When a color photograph of the icon, now located in the Fatima Monastery, fell into my hands in 1976, I immediately recognized it by the precious robe I remembered well. There could be no mistake here. There was a message in the press that when Russia is resurrected, this icon will be returned to Russia by the monastery. Hardly! The stone on which St. Seraphim prayed for 1000 nights After the death of Father Seraphim, all his belongings were transferred to the Seraphim-Diveevo monastery. Both of his deserts were also transported there: near and far. The distant hermitage was turned into the altar of the Church of the Transfiguration. A large granite boulder was transported to Diveevo, on which Father Seraphim prayed for three years. In Diveyevo it was broken into pieces, and a significant part of it was sent to Moscow to the Diveyevo courtyard, mounted in the wall of the chapel, on which they depicted a life-size prayer of the priest on a stone, and the stone was not painted, but genuine. Steps led up to it, and one could see how people, clinging to the stone, asked for help from the saint of God. When this boulder was broken, many large and small fragments were obtained, on which the sisters painted the most wonderful miniatures: the prayer of St. Seraphim on the stone. I received the pebble from the hands of Mother Abbess Alexandra. There are known miraculous cases of healing from water in which such a pebble was dipped. For example, from Stavropol they wrote to Diveev that one girl suffered for a long time with her eyes, so that she could lose her sight. Seeing Father Seraphim’s pebble from a friend, the sick woman’s mother began to ask to give her the pebble for a while, so that she could pour water on it and wet the sufferer’s eyes. A week later the girl recovered and was able to work. And some time later, in the same city, a child fell ill: they washed him with water from a pebble and he recovered. His mother saw a dream in which the Monk Seraphim told her: “Your son is healed, but not from medicine, but from the water with which your relative washed him.” This water of the monk was as healing as the water from his source in Sarov. The people's love for the elder's stones testifies to many cases of healing - not everyone could go to the Sarov holy spring. Seraphim's stones were carried by pilgrims throughout Russia. Miracles of prayer healings for the most part are associated not only with prayers, but also with some kind of action. How can a person decide that his healing occurred only through prayer, and not with the help of the water of St. Seraphim? During his thousand days of prayer on the stone, Father Seraphim collected many gifts of grace, which he then generously distributed and is still distributing. Writing hagiographic icons of the great pioneers Father Seraphim told his orphans more than once that four relics would be discovered over time in Diveyevo. On one of our visits to the monastery, we brought a large hagiographic icon of the first mother Alexandra, painted by the artist Nina Nikanorovna Kazintseva. In the center of the icon the first woman was depicted, largely repeating the image that adorned her cell and was considered miraculous. Life stories, and there were six of them - at the top is the appearance of the Mother of God Agathia Melgunova in Kyiv (against the background of the Great Lavra Church, Mother kneeling receives a blessing from the Queen of Heaven for the foundation of the Fourth Domain of the Most Holy Theotokos). Above on the right is the appearance of the Queen of Heaven in Diveyevo, at the porch of the wooden Kazan Church. On the middle tier on the left - against the backdrop of the Kazan Church, near the mother's cell, she teaches peasant children faith in God. On the right - in a dark cell, mother prays at a large Crucifix. The fifth plot is that mother receives an icon of the First Martyr Stephen, in whose honor she builds a chapel in the Kazan Church. The last hagiographic picture - in the tiny bedroom of mother, lying on her deathbed, the monk Seraphim and abbot Pachomius are on their knees. Mother entrusts her orphans to St. Seraphim. On this hagiographic icon, all the great events from the life of Mother Alexandra are presented to the gaze of pilgrims. We presented this hagiographic icon to the abbess, who ordered it to be mounted on the wall in the cell of the first mother. At the same time, this image was photographed and reproduced in 100 copies, distributed to nuns and secular people. After all, the times were wild and it was not possible to publish the image using the lithographic method. My wife Kapitolina Zakharovna, the future nun Maria, also an isographer, painted two hagiographic icons - Schema nun Martha and nun Elena Vasilyevna Manturova. The life image of schemanun Martha - Maria Semyonovna Melyukova - copied her exact appearance, written by the sisters immediately after her death in the schema (angelic face). Let me remind you that the schema-nun died at the age of 19. Moments from her life are as follows: 1. Schema-nun Martha carries bricks to the top of the Nativity Church under construction. 2. Father Seraphim tonsures her into the schema. 3. Father Seraphim with her and another nun with lighted candles prays for Diveyevo. 4. The ascent of the soul of schema-nun Martha to the Throne of God. 5. The Queen of Heaven and schema-nun Martha in a vision in the church. 6. Three holy graves. The hagiographic image of the nun Elena Vasilievna Manturova depicted a scene in the center: the Queen of Heaven shows Elena Vasilievna the Heavenly Diveev, with many sisters in golden crowns. Other plots: 1. The devil in the form of a dragon attacks Elena Vasilievna on the road, rushing towards the carriage. 2. Intimidation of Elena Vasilievna by demons while reading the Psalter in the church at night. 3. Father Seraphim blesses Elena Vasilievna to die for her brother. 4. Vision of the saints before her death. 5. Elena Vasilievna smiled three times in the coffin. 6. Elena Vasilievna sees the Diveyevo benefactors in Heavenly Diveyevo. As is known, Byzantium knew almost no hagiographic icons; they were a purely Russian creation, revived in the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos and in our time returned to Novo-Diveevo, and from there transferred to Europe and to the German Brotherhood in America. Everywhere it was the work of my mother Kapitolina Zakharovna, who at the end of her life took monastic vows with the name Maria. Now in Germany you can hear an akathist to the blessed Procopius of Lubeck, written by me and published in 1948. And in America, on the day of the glorification of St. Herman (1968), a host of bishops sang an akathist to him, also written by me and published in Russian and English, and his hagiographic image, written by Mother Capitolina, was distributed in a thousand copies. So. we carry out Diveyevo obedience in exile, remaining faithful to the Mother Church. A significant encounter with a bear in the Sarov Forest This meeting with the bear of our brothers remained in the memory of the Sarov and Diveyevo monasteries; the sisters told the pilgrims who came in for a long time about this. Three of our brothers walked along the road from Sarov to the Far Hermitage and recalled stories from the Chronicle of how Father Seraphim fed a terrible bear from the hands. One of our brothers said: “It would be nice if Father Seraphim showed us a bear in the wild.” A few minutes passed, and a terrible bear came out onto the road and looked at them. So what - they got scared and started running? Yes, they started running, but not from him, but towards him, shouting: “Mishenka, you listened to Father Seraphim and came out to meet us!” And Mishenka ran away from them into the thick of the forest, they stopped and on their knees thanked Father Seraphim for fulfilling their, one might say, childish request - to show the bear. Old-timers assured that bears very rarely appeared to people in the Sarov Forest. After the pilgrimage of our brothers, the next year, others from our brotherhood came and visited Fr. Afanasy in the Far Hermitage. He told them: “After that incident with the bear, I thought: young people arrived and the priest showed them the bear, but I’ve lived here for 40 years and the priest never showed me the bear. And what happened. I went in late autumn to collect incense from cedar trees and got lost. All around is swampy swamp, and it’s already getting dark. I climbed a fallen large pine tree and was walking, staring and slipped at a twisted root and... fell straight onto a sleeping bear in the den. The bear roared terribly out of fear and rushed at me. I ran to the end of the trunk, there was swamp all around, I stopped and shouted: “Father Seraphim, save me!” And the bear ran up to me and roared right in my face, it was so scary. I stand neither alive nor dead, only praying: “Save, father!” Having walked around me several times, the bear went into the forest, and I, trembling all over with fear, reached the desert and there I remembered: this is for my offense against my father, that until that time he did not show me the bear.” Reading the Lives of the First Mothers in Mother Alexandra's Cell Starting in 1922, as I already mentioned, the great pilgrimage to Diveyevo began. This was greatly facilitated by the weakening of the Church under the NEP, and people from all over Russia flocked to the remaining shrines. Many bishops who lived in Moscow at that time on calls from the GPU hurried to visit Sarov and Diveyevo and ask for the intercession of St. Seraphim there. Some bishops, especially from nearby cities, visited Diveyevo several times. Almost every time we visited for a week or more, we were honored with wonderful bishop services, and sometimes there were two or three. One could often see Metropolitan Sergius of Nizhny Novgorod and Bishop Zinovy ​​of Tambov. We saw Philip of Zvenigorodsky there, and Seraphim (Zvezdinsky), and many others. And there was no count of the clergy. Orthodox Rus' felt that terrible times were approaching and seemed to be in a hurry to visit holy places. But the most striking phenomenon of that time was the pilgrimages of youth brotherhoods, so our brotherhood was no exception. In Diveyevo we also became acquainted with the Kyiv youth brotherhood, headed by its leader Fr. Anatoly Zhurakovsky, and with Nizhny Novgorod, and with others. Young pilgrims flocked to sing the glory of Father Seraphim, Mother Alexandra, to sing the great glory of the Fourth Destiny of the Queen of Heaven, this earthly reflection of the Heavenly Jerusalem; they came not in old age, convinced of the futility of all earthly values, but in the prime of their young strength, to bow to the ground to the God-bearers. Among the pilgrims there were many who would like to choose the monastic path, if blessed by the Queen of Heaven, some among the sisters of the monastery, and some to be monks and nuns in the world. Mostly these were all student youth, unprecedented among pilgrims, full of humility, love for the Lord and for their neighbors - brothers and sisters. “Really,” the nuns of the monastery wondered, “besides you, these young boys also came here for the love of the Lord and His monastic world?” Yes, you could answer now! One of them, Vasya Potapov, was a true monk in the world, did not marry, then became an assistant professor at the Aviation Institute in Moscow and died at the age of 30 in Turkestan, bequeathing to be buried with a priest, to the surprise of all his students. Another Vasya, Stepykin, was exiled to a concentration camp as a member of our brotherhood and died in the camp. Eternal memory to our third Taganrog brother, Afanasy, who wrote a hymn to Diveev and was shot by the Germans during the war. Our fourth brother, Nikolai Kurkumeli, died a martyr in the camp. All of them, with their death and life, testified to their loyalty to Christ the Savior. What a pity that during the persecutions of 1937 the chronicle of the Taganrog (youth) brotherhood was lost. Much of it was excitingly interesting, since it was all written in highly spiritual tones. The only consolation is that Mother Abbess and many of the Diveyevo sisters read it when we brought it to Diveyevo, and in vain later took it back - perhaps the sisters would have preserved it better. It described all our trips to blessed Diveevo, since our brotherhood is closely connected with Diveevo. How joyful we were to hear from the lips of Blessed Maria Ivanovna: “They are not our own, they are the Queen of Heaven “Tenderness.” And one more time: “Father Seraphim and Mother Alexandra went to accompany their peasants (that is, us) to the Manturovo Grove.” And when our brother Borya, 19 years old, died in Taganrog from tuberculosis, and we, being in Diveyevo, reported this to Mother Abbess, she gave orders to remember him in all places in Diveyevo where the readings of the Psalter were taking place. Blessed Maria Ivanovna then told us: “Borya is buried not in Taganrog, but in Diveevo, he earned himself a golden crown with his illness and pure heart.” Yes, Bori had a pure, golden soul. Dying, he sat up in bed and his eyes lit up with great joy. He stretched out his hands, apparently to Father Seraphim, and died. But the best lot fell to the lot of my mother Capitolina, who, two weeks before her death, was honored to be tonsured as a sister of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, with the name Maria. After all, it was she who was predicted by Mother Abbess to be the sister of the blessed Diveev. Her Angel Day became July 22, the memory of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene. All her life she was a true nun in the world. Just as the wise men once came from the East to worship the Infant Christ and brought gifts: gold, myrrh and frankincense, so these youth, once far from the Church, came to Diveyevo to worship the City of the Queen of Heaven, and brought here their gifts: love and reverence. They had nothing else. And their love was expressed in the fact that they tried to do everything that depended on them: they brought hagiographic icons of the first leaders, their love for Diveev, which our brother Afanasy expressed in a message, saying goodbye to Diveev. When I read it to a meeting of young, intelligent sisters, they burst into tears loudly. There was one more gift, which I will also mention. When we read the biographies of the great pioneers in the Chronicle, tears rolled uncontrollably from our eyes. And so we came up with something: we instructed our younger sisters to make extracts from the Chronicle, and bound them into a special little book, so that other pilgrims, reading our extracts, could cry. And so our younger sisters began to write down the places they liked on good paper, in beautiful large letters, to make it easier to read. They bound the book in velvet with a gold cross and hung it, with the blessing of the abbess, near the hagiographic images of the first women, so that the leaders of groups of pilgrims, usually priests, would immediately read them aloud, sitting some on the steps of the entrance to the mother’s cell, some just on the floor, and some standing. Mother Emilia, the head of this building, took care of the organization of such readings. During these readings, some quietly brushed away their tears, then began to cry quietly, the crying was picked up by others and the reading paused - it was impossible to hear because of the crying. We took a break to calm down a little and then continue reading. This feature of Diveevo did not disappear until the closure of the monastery. Such sweet tears were remembered for a long time. Let’s not forget Mother Alexandra’s house, where she began to build the first monastery. If this house is destroyed, I will restore it from memory with the slightest detail, because all subsequent years, that is, 55 years, I have always been mentally in this most precious place for me and remember all the exact dimensions and details, and the hagiographic image of my mother always hung above my bed. It was unforgettable for me, but also not surprising when I read about how the rector of the Kazan Church, Fr. Vasily Sadovsky, pondering the details of the repair of the church, suddenly saw: the original mother entered the altar. But a lot of time has passed since her death. Father Vasily did not think for a minute that this could not be the case, and for three hours they discussed what and how to do. Father Vasily realized that it was a vision only when it disappeared. Schema-nun Martha and nun Elena Vasilyevna later lived in Mother Alexandra’s house, although she was listed as the abbess of the Maiden’s Cenonia within the ditch. The ascetic did not want to leave this blessed place. Mother Alexandra lived in this house for a year and died in it in 1789. Mother Alexandra was a secret nun almost all her life and, on the advice of the Kyiv elders, she was called by her secular name - Agafia Semyonovna. Only a week or two before her death she was tonsured into the great angelic image - the schema during Vespers by the treasurer of the Sarov monastery, Fr. Isaiah, with the name Alexander. We need to understand that terrible time for monasteries, when under Catherine, 500 monasteries were closed and the inhabitants were completely powerless. In Diveevo, the constant presence of Mother Alexandra is as palpable as that of Father Seraphim. Almost every cell had either a painted or lithographic portrait of her. The reception of pilgrims always began with bringing them to the portrait of their mother. Visiting her grave was an incredible experience. Even when the time came to appoint a new head of her corps, after the death of the previous one, Mother Emilia herself told me: Mother Abbess had a dream the day before that all the sisters had gathered, and the first mother said: “Where is my Emilia, I need nun Emilia.” She was appointed boss, and it turned out to be very successful. Now we will give several cases when Mother Alexandra appeared to people and how she healed many. We have already cited the case of Father Vasily Sadovsky. It’s impossible to list everything. But I would like to cite the vision of Mother Alexandra to the reclusive Hieromonk Seraphim (Smykov) in Krasnodar in 1942. Father Seraphim had just come out of a 12-year retreat, and when I learned about this, I went to see him. We had a very spiritual conversation. After a while, I went to see him again, and he immediately rushed to me and said: “How happy you are!” - “What then, Father Seraphim?” “Tonight I saw Mother Alexandra in a vision and she told me about you. I exclaimed in terrible surprise: “Mother, do you know Stepan Nikolaevich?” I asked about. Seraphima: “What did mother answer?” - “Mother didn’t tell me to say that!” So it remained a mystery. Father Seraphim, already in the rank of archimandrite, was present at my ordination. I also remember such a case. When our Taganrog brothers, in spiritual delight, told Father Archimandrite Josiah about our trips to Diveyevo, Father said that next time he would go with us. Before this, Fr. Josiah so wanted to return to Athos, which he loved so much, but he could not. But Diveyevo is the same Destiny of the Mother of God as Athos, and he, taking me with him, went to Diveyevo and Sarov in the winter. It was January, the winter was snowy. We were in a hurry. In Ardatov we hired a village sleigh and set off in the evening. And in a snowstorm we got lost and froze thoroughly. We don’t know where to go, everything is covered in snow. We stopped and, oh horror! - the wolves have suffered through fear. And one wolf suddenly barked, it turned out that these were dogs, and we were happy to stop in that village. In Diveyevo we were greeted with great joy and love. Everyone vied with each other to invite Father Josiah; they accepted the resident of the Second Lot of the Mother of God as their own and close one. We stopped in the Treasury building, and Father Josiah, finding himself in his native monastic environment, was happy. In Diveevo, everyone happily listened to the priest’s stories about our secret services, since in Taganrog at that time all the churches were captured by the Living Church. The all-night vigil was held in the warm Tikhvin church of Diveyevo and the large Diveyevo choir sang “The Most Honest Cherub” so wonderfully that it was impossible to forget. Succession of the lots of the Blessed Virgin Mary When Christ the Savior ascended into heaven, He commanded the apostles to go and teach all nations beginning from Jerusalem, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The apostles cast lots: who should go to which country. The Most Holy Theotokos also took her lot, and the land of Iveron fell to Her, which She enlightened, sending there in Her place the young maiden Nina, the enlightener of Georgia. When the Mother of God chose Mount Athos by Her Second Lot, the Iveron Monastery and the Iveron Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos were the original shrines of Athos. When the Queen of Heaven founded Her Third Lot - Kyiv, she took Anthony out of Athos and sent him to Kyiv, as She Herself told the first mother about this: “I came to tell you My will: it is not here that I want you to end your life, but because I brought My servant Anthony out of My Athos lot, My Holy Mountain, so that he here, in Kyiv, would found a new one. My lot is the Kyiv Lavra, so I say to you now: get out of here and go to the land that I will show you. Go to the north of Russia and go around all the Great Russian places of My holy monasteries, and there will be a place where I will show you to end your godly life and glorify My name there, for in your place of residence I will establish such a great monastery of Mine, to which I will bring down all the blessings of God and Mine, from all three of My lots on Earth: from Iberia, Athos and Kyiv.” And stop the vision. The fourth chosen destiny of the Mother of God is the last one before the end of the world. From him, after the resurrection of Russia, light will shine in many places of the resurgent Russia. After all, Russia - the House of the Most Holy Theotokos - was, is and will be until the end of the century, only the shape of the country is changing. After the election, Russia was deeply monastic - not only the Kiev-Pechersk ascetics were unsurpassed lights for the Russian people, not only they gave holy prelates to many cathedras. The Abbot of All Rus', the Venerable Sergius of Radonezh, radiated holiness to all corners of the growing state. And in our time, faith grows stronger on the blood of the new martyrs. What will happen when Diveyevo is resumed? In the life of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, as in the life of the state and even of individual people, there are periods of great growth and periods of decline. This general law was not alien to the blessed Diveev. Even in the distant times of the first mother, the Mother of God gave her great promises about the future glory and greatness of this Fourth Destiny of the Queen of Heaven. Mother Alexandra began to build everything in poverty, patience and deepest prayer. If you enter Mother Alexandra’s cell, her wretched hut in Diveevo, near the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, then the difficult and sorrowful path of this great chosen one of the Queen of Heaven will immediately become clear. The house had two rooms and two closets. In one closet there was a small bed, made of bricks, near the stove; there was only room near the bed so that at one time the abbot Pachomius, who had come from Sarov to commune her with the Holy Mysteries, could stand with the dying mother, and Hierodeacon Seraphim, who had received her blessing to take care of the Diveyevo sisters, was kneeling before the mother. There was no more room there. There was also a door to the mother’s dark closet-prayer room, where one mother could sit in prayer in front of a large Crucifix with a lit lamp in front of it. There was no window in this chapel. Mother’s prayerful contemplation before the Crucifixion left an imprint on the entire spirit of life of the Diveyevo sisters. Prayer on the mental Golgotha, compassion for the Crucified Christ, is the deepest of prayers, glimpses of it are seen by all Orthodox Christians on Holy Thursday evening and on Friday on the Shroud. As soon as the first monastery Church of the Nativity of Christ was built, during the life of Father Seraphim, on the Royal Doors, perhaps on his instructions, a large Crucifix was embedded along the entire size of these high gates. Before the Crucifixion, a lamp burned day and night and the Psalter was vigilantly read. When the large summer cathedral was built, the entire altar wall in it was occupied by a large Crucifix against a background of black cloth. There was nothing else on the altar wall. The image of Golgotha ​​was visible from all places in the cathedral. Such a spectacle has never happened anywhere in all of Russia. This was reminiscent of the presence of the Mother of God, John the Theologian, Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary Magdalene and other myrrh-bearing women on Golgotha. This combination struck me the most. Based on these prayerful feats of Mother Alexandra before the Crucifixion, and then of all her sisters, the blessed Diveev was created. The voluntary poverty of Mother, who built the Kazan Stone Church, is also instructive; the construction of the Sarov Assumption Cathedral was completed at her expense, and churches of God were built by Mother in many places. She herself accepted the feat of voluntary poverty for Christ’s sake. During Catherine's era of the ruin of monasteries, poverty was terrible everywhere. Russia was experiencing its Golgotha ​​era, and therefore the prayer was Golgotha. On one of our visits to Diveevo, I brought about 20 very miniature Crucifixions; which he made himself: having bought many icons of Golgotha ​​at the Athos courtyard in Taganrog, he glued them onto plywood and carefully cut out the depicted figures with a jigsaw. I painted the sawed areas in the same color as was on the icon: the color of the cross, the robe of the Mother of God and John the Evangelist. I made a stand for each icon. It turned out beautifully, and most importantly, it was possible to place the Crucifix in a holy corner. Mother Abbess was very pleased with this gift, placed this small Crucifix in her holy corner, and distributed the rest to the sisters. I couldn’t understand my mother’s delight, she was so happy about the gift, and only later did I realize that this same image was in the spirit of their prayerful deeds. That was several years before the closure of the monastery and the departure of all the sisters into the world to their Golgotha. I came to Nizhny Novgorod at the invitation of a local youth brotherhood similar to ours, and did not find the leader - he was away. His empty room was given to me for the night. Imagine my surprise when on his desk I saw a beautifully executed Crucifixion by the Diveyevo sisters, standing right on the table. The same Diveyevo idea of ​​prayers at Golgotha! This spirit permeated the entire Nizhny Novgorod brotherhood, a deeply monastic brotherhood in the world. When we first came to Diveyevo in 1922, we saw an almost completed new magnificent cathedral, which had a great future ahead of it. The only thing missing was the interior decoration. This cathedral is of special beauty, more beautiful than which we have never seen anywhere else. He is directed upward, as if preparing to ascend to heaven, which Father Seraphim predicted that when the Antichrist comes and approaches the cathedral, he will ascend to heaven, and those who are unworthy in it will fall to the ground. It will be before the Last Judgment, as one of the last apocalyptic miracles. The cathedral reproduced this prediction of St. Seraphim in its appearance. Everything about him was harmoniously beautiful. All! Even its builder, Mr. Dolgintsev, who gave all his wealth for the construction of the cathedral, and his only daughter became the schema-nun Mother Seraphima, is the spiritual adornment of the monastery. When they came to arrest her, she only asked permission to take with her a small icon of St. Seraphim. Rarely did anyone see this mother, she was almost a recluse, but everyone knew about her and loved and honored her. We no longer found her in Diveyevo; no one knew whether she was already in heaven or continued her way of the cross. The cathedral stood at the groove of the Queen of Heaven. It was the same in size as the cold summer Holy Trinity Cathedral, and created a magnificent monastic ensemble of the city of the Queen of Heaven, surrounded by a white wall. All this was reminiscent of the town of ancient Holy Rus'. After all, more than a thousand nuns lived in Diveyevo at that time. The clergy lived outside the monastery fence. And there were three priests, not counting the renegade Fr. Paul, who never appeared at the monastery during the day. If it were not for the rebellious years, then, probably, there would not be a moment when a service would not be performed somewhere. After all, there were many churches: the Holy Trinity Cathedral, the Tikhvin Winter Church, the Transfiguration Cemetery Church, the original churches of the Nativity of Christ and the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built by Mother Alexandra. It would have been a monastery of the unsleeping, such as there was in Constantinople. On a quiet summer evening, one could see how the sisters, going out onto the porch of their building, read Compline, fixing their gaze directly on the sky, as Father Seraphim prayed in the forest. The new cathedral had already been completed externally, even large gilded crosses already decorated its heads, these crosses were a gift from the people of St. Petersburg, among whom donations were collected by the Artsybushev brothers: Mikhail Petrovich and Pyotr Petrovich. With trembling hearts I entered inside this cathedral, some carpentry work was going on there, the walls were still white, but what a delight the architecture of the cathedral itself, reaching into the heavens, evoked! I plunged into thought - what events will happen here during the time of the Antichrist? The thought was carried away into unreachable times. I remembered how I visited the most ancient churches: the Great Church in Kyiv, built by order of the Mother of God as Her Third Destiny. The Russian Church began there, and here it will end. I attended a service in the cave church of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, in that tiny church where the Monks Anthony and Theodosius prayed: the holy place greatly uplifted the soul and created an indescribable spirituality. Never forget! But the strongest feeling was in the church in Kerch (ancient Bosporus), which St. John Chrysostom visited, describing his impressions in a letter to Deaconess Olympias. That church is ancient, older than St. Sophia of Constantinople, built in 534. In the Bosporan church, on one of the columns there is an inscription: “A priest was buried here (according to our chronology) in the year 303.” The service here was held, as then, in Greek, and the Greek priest gave me explanations after the service. The feelings that I experienced in the new Diveyevo Cathedral were similar to those that I had when visiting these ancient churches. Canal of the Queen of Heaven in Diveyevo What was the ditch around the cinnamonium? It was created in the last years of the life of Elder Seraphim. Father was in a great hurry with the construction of this groove, that is, the path along which the Queen of Heaven walked. Father sent flower seeds to decorate the groove. Later, trees were planted inside the Kanavka on the territory of the Kinovia, and in 1922 they were already powerful and beautiful. What a blessed miracle it was: walking along the ditch with a rosary in your hands, reading the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice!” 150 times. Especially in the evening, when all the daytime concerns subsides and complete silence sets in, and the sky becomes somehow closer to the earth, when worshipers slowly move along the groove, as if this were happening not in our hectic age, but in ancient Holy Rus'. Rus' created the legend of Kitezh-grad, it was her eternal dream - to escape from the sinful world. But here was not a dream, but true reality, here was true communion with God between the inhabitants of heaven and people. On the canal there were true visions of Father Seraphim and other saints and righteous people; here everyone lived a spiritual life and spiritual joys. Here the sky meets the earth! Here “there was a battle with the spirits of evil in heaven,” who in every possible way frightened the ascetics and those who wanted to follow their path. Even pilgrims were frightened by demonic phenomena in the dark, but everyone was protected by the grace of God, through the prayers of Father Seraphim and Mother Alexandra. Our dear brother one night met a figure two stories tall on a canal and was horrified, but immediately the horror was replaced by complete peace of mind - Father Seraphim did not give offense to anyone. Pilgrims walked along the Kanavka, repeating the path of the Mother of God, nuns, priests and bishops walked, peaceful, spiritualized, having gained spiritual strength for the difficult path of life at that terrible time. We walked away with unforgettable impressions for life. Many people took a handful of earth from the ditch, and sometimes it protected them from enemy attacks. The groove was made into a quadrangle, and at the corners we made, according to ancient custom, beautiful carved turrets on the pillars with icons of the Mother of God inserted into them, walking along this groove. The turrets were removable and were removed at night by the sisters. Approaching them, the pilgrims crossed themselves and bowed. This was a visible reminder to them that the Queen of Heaven had passed here. How touching all this is! Father Seraphim said that the blessed ones will never be transferred to Diveevo. And so it happened. When Pelageya Ivanovna’s death was close, Paraskeva Ivanovna came to Diveyevo, but blessed Pelageya, looking out the window, shook her fist at her. Paraskeva asked: “Is it still early, mother?” And the answer came: “It’s too early.” When we visited Maria Ivanovna, her novice told us how the blessed succeed each other. When Paraskeva Ivanovna died, she was replaced by Maria Ivanovna. Listening to our conversation, Maria Ivanovna said: “Yes, that’s when I showed up.” This was in 1915, the year of the death of Paraskeva Ivanovna, the famous Pasha of Sarov. The sisters said that on the night of July 4-5, 1918, that is, on the night of the martyrdom of the Royal Family, Maria Ivanovna raged terribly and shouted: “The princesses with bayonets! Damned Jews! She raged terribly, and only later did it become clear what she was screaming about. This means that she knew who ordered and who was the perpetrator of this monstrous crime, for which the Russian people, who allowed it, still bear atonement! They said about Maria Ivanovna that she lived under a bridge in unceasing prayer for forty years before coming to Diveyevo. Mother Abbess Alexandra often sent Maria Ivanovna to ask her about various perplexing questions. The sisters revered her very much, not only because they had the experience of the three previous blessed ones in their monastery. I saw some party member leave her, cross himself with fear and say: “Great servant of God!” It was with fear that we entered Maria Ivanovna’s house for the first time. I walked last, and Maria Ivanovna, standing up, pointed at me: “That tall guy looks like my brother-in-law!” The novice says: “You don’t have any brother-in-law.” “You know a lot there,” she replied. Only later did it become clear what Maria Ivanovna was talking about. Hugging my wife Kapitolina Zakharovna, she said: “Mashenka, daughter!” Thus, she predicted her monastic name. If she is a daughter, then her husband is like a brother-in-law. Whether this is true or not, you can’t question the blessed ones. One day we arrived, and Maria Ivanovna was silent. The cell attendant said: “You should have said something, mummy.” Silent. “You sang to Bishop Tikhon of the Urals, sing to them too.” “He is mournful, that’s why she sang” (after Diveev, Bishop Tikhon went to Moscow and his trace disappeared). Wanting to call Maria Ivanovna for a conversation, the cell attendant responded: “They are also mournful.” The blessed one waved her hand: “What sorrows they have that their suitcase was stolen on the road.” This fact actually happened on my last visit. But I will never forget her golden words spoken about us: “Father Seraphim and Mother Alexandra went to accompany their peasants even to the Mantura Grove itself.” We didn’t pretend to be more than our father’s and mother’s “peasants.” And also the unforgettable words of Maria Ivanovna: “Borya is buried in Diveevo, he earned himself a golden crown” (about our little brother). There was another example of her great insight. This happened after our father Fr. Josiah visited Diveyevo. We don’t know what he talked about with Maria Ivanovna. But when we were in Diveyevo again, a message came that our father Fr. Josiah is arrested. We ran to Maria Ivanovna to tell about this and ask for her prayers. She flew into a terrible anger, raised her hands up and shouted: “Oh, they are damned, but what right do they have, and what is the Iveron Icon to? Such a decree has not yet been issued.” The “decree” was published only 12 years later, when the priest was arrested and exiled to the Zyryansky remote region. Maria Ivanovna noticeably calmed down and said that everything would turn out well. And so it happened, the priest was kept for only two days. The Iveron Icon (Athos) has always patronized Fr. Josiah: there was an omen that the priest would go to heaven precisely on the day of the Iveron Icon. And so it happened - on February 12, 1939, he died in exile, and on the third day his soul flew to Taganrog to say goodbye. He blessed his spiritual daughter Capitolina, interrupting her sleep. He was so rejuvenated, so radiant with joy, and he departed along the bright path straight to heaven. Thus, through the prayers of Maria Ivanovna, Father Josiah received a great reprieve from his exile. I don’t know exactly when Maria Ivanovna died. But when we visited Mother Abbess, already in the world (Murom, 1933), then in the ancient church where the sisters visited, I was shown her successor, Blessed Serafima Ivanovna. She came up to me and looked at me intently. I bowed. I didn't see her outside the church. The words of Elder Seraphim that “the blessed in Diveyevo will not die out” were also fulfilled when Diveyevo was in the world on his way of the cross. Diveev in the world with its center in the city of Murom In 1927, the last monasteries in Russia were closed, including Diveev. The atheistic authorities unleashed all their fury on the monasteries, giving some semblance of relief to the parish churches. Sarov was closed six months earlier than Diveev. Thus, the Diveyevo sisters received time to prepare for their departure into the world. The sisters took everything they could take with them. Moreover, Mother Abbess ordered that all the main shrines of the monastery should not be taken to one place, but kept among different sisters - this is the only way to preserve something. In Diveyevo they firmly remembered Father Seraphim’s prediction that the time would come when all the sisters would have to go into the world for a while. And for how long, the priest did not say - as God willing. There were also opinions that the end of the world was near. But the perspicacious elders, especially the Optina ones, said that there would still be a period of God’s grace in Rus'. In any case, the sisters left with strong faith that they were leaving only for a while, that Diveev, like the entire Russian Church, would be reborn again. We heard these hopes of the sisters from many, when the monastery still existed and there were no rumors about its dispersal. But we had to prepare for this inevitable. After 1927, Mother Abbess Alexandra ordered the sisters to go to different cities and villages. For herself and her sisters closest to her, she chose the city of Murom, where everyone settled, engaged in floriculture. Some of the sisters moved to Moscow, to the Diveyevo Compound. But they were all immediately expelled from there in 1927. The same thing happened in Nizhny Novgorod. It was difficult to adapt to new living conditions, but there was no other choice. When the NEP ended and the terror began with even greater force, some young sisters were arrested. Diveev gave not only ascetics, but also confessors and even martyrs - they died in the camps, receiving double crowns: confessor and martyr. In time, their names will be established and honoured. One of them, a young nun Anna from the hospital building, fell ill with tuberculosis in the camp, was activated and, barely reaching her people, died. I only heard her voice addressed to me when I was standing in the altar of St. Nicholas Church in Taganrog, but I did not see her after the camp. A difficult feat fell to the lot of Abbess Maria. In those terrible years, she was very young and was sent to the camps for three years; When we visited Mother Abbess Alexandra in Murom, we also saw her future successor, who had recently returned from the camp. Mother told me: “What she, poor thing, had to endure, I found out only after her return from the camp. And if I had found out when she was still in the camp, I probably would have died of grief!” I was horrified by the suffering of Nyusha (that was the name of Mother Maria in the world) and by the no less suffering of the abbess for her. After all, the abbess was preparing her to be her successor, as the viceroy of the Queen of Heaven in Diveyevo, who is not chosen, but is blessed by the Most Pure One herself. “I would die of grief!” - said by the true spiritual mother. During the Murom period of exile, many Diveyevo nuns moved to Heavenly Diveyevo, which was seen by the great lady of Diveyevo Elena Vasilievna Manturova, almost all the young sisters, my mother and I’s peers, died, as did the older sisters from those whom we knew with my mother, but only the beloved spiritual daughter of Mother Abbess remained, whom we saw in Murom in 1933, when she was already about 24 years old. I went to Murom for the second time in 1939, returning from the concentration camp, but I did not see Mother Abbess, only nun Maria Prusakova and nun Daria, who lived in the city of Kovrov, told me about her. I wanted to go to see Mother Abbess in Murom, but I didn’t know if I could go, for fear of harming her with my arrival. I hesitated, even got on the train (nun Maria saw me off), but just before the train left, I was afraid to go and got off the train. Mother Abbess lived surrounded by sisters close to her: her personal physician Elena and others. In 1941, the war began, all communication was lost. After my ordination to the priesthood, my mother and I went abroad.