Ноябрь

Memory of Saint Victorinus, Bishop and Martyr of Patava Patava, the seat of the see of St. Victorinus, was located on the Drina River, on the very border of Pannonia with Norica, among Slavic settlements. So now Pettau is in Styria, the country of the Slavs. Blessed Jerome wrote: “Victorinus, Bishop of Patavia, did not know Latin as well as Greek. Therefore, his works, important in thoughts, seem poor in the structure of words (viliora). His works are as follows: commentaries on Genesis, on Exodus, on Leviticus, on Isaiah, on Ezekiel, on Habakkuk, on Ecclesiastes, on the Song of Songs, on the Apocalypse of John, against all heresies, and much more. Finally he was crowned with martyrdom" 808. On another occasion, Blessed Jerome, placing Saint Victorinus between the “pillars of the Church,” says: “The martyr Victorinus approves of his simplicity because he does not think evil against anyone 809; he can say with the Apostle: although I am not skilled in speech, I am not skilled in knowledge” 810. The martyrdom of the holy saint followed the persecution of Diocletian and probably in 303 811. If, according to Jerome, Victorinus knew Greek better than Latin, then this means that he was not a natural Latin; and that he was not a Greek is shown by his name. In the passage from his interpretation, as in the comments on the Apocalypse, not only does the purity of the Latin language lack, but there are also grammatical irregularities. So, the very writings say that Saint Victorinus was not a Latin, but a native of a Slavic country and a natural Slav. According to his thoughts, Victorinus’s writings are important, said Jerome. Let us listen to his surviving thoughts on the structure of the world 812; it will also introduce you to some local Christian customs of that time. “Reflecting on the structure of the world where we live, I dwell on the speed of its structure, shown by Moses in his Book of Genesis. God built this entire mass in six days, decorating it with signs of His greatness, and sanctified the seventh day with the blessing of peace. Since, according to this news, earthly and heavenly things are governed by the sevenfold number of days, then by this sevenfold number I will measure the ratio of all weeks and try, as much as I can, to explain the activity of the Divine power. In the beginning God created light and divided it into twelve hours of day and night; this is so that the day, full of human labor, is replaced by the peace of the night and then there is day again; Thus, work should be eased by the peace of the night - and peace should be tempered by the activity of the day. On the fourth day he created two luminaries in the sky, large and small, so that one would serve during the day and the other at night; he placed the sun and the moon and other stars in the sky so that they would shine on the earth and separate times, years, months, days and hours by stations. The question is, why on this day, called the fourth, should we fast until the ninth hour or until the evening, or even continue fasting until the next day?.. The man Christ Jesus, He is the Author of everything, on the fourth day (Wednesday) was taken by the wicked 813. For the sake of this captivity and for the greatness of His deeds, for the time that is so saving for people, so fruitful and beneficial, we perform an intensification of fasting. On the fifth day, earth and water exhibited their offspring. On the sixth day that which was still lacking was created; God created man from the earth, the ruler of the creatures that live on earth and in water. Moreover, first he created Angels and Archangels, then man, giving priority to the spiritual over the earthly. First the light was created, then the earth. The sixth day is called paraskevi, the preparation of the earth for the kingdom. Damage was introduced by Adam, whom He created in His image and likeness. Other works were accomplished before He created the angels and formed man, so that they would not be thought to be helpers. On this day, for the sake of the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, we stand before God, or fast. On the seventh day God rested from all His works and blessed and sanctified him. On this day we are in the habit of postponing (eating food) in order to approach the bread with thanksgiving on the Lord’s Day. A deposit (of food) is appointed on the heels so that it does not seem as if we celebrate the Sabbath with the Jews 814: The Lord of the Sabbath Himself says through His prophets that His soul hates the Sabbath (see: Hos. 2:11), and He destroyed the Sabbath with His flesh, and even before that He commanded Moses that circumcision should not pass on the eighth day, when it would be on the Sabbath... And Joshua, the successor Moses also violated the Sabbath, for on the Sabbath day he commanded the children of Israel to go around the walls of Jericho with the sound of trumpets and declare war on the foreigners. Mattathias, the leader of the Jews, also violated the peace of the Sabbath, for on the Sabbath he killed the military commander Antiochus, king of Syria. And David and his companions broke the Sabbath, as we read in Matthew (12:3). This is how the true and righteous Sabbath should be in the seventh millennium. The Lord appointed for those seven days a thousand years each.” Having then presented examples of the important meaning of the septenary number, he continues: “The author of all creation is Jesus the righteous. It is called the Word... This Word, when it created light, is called Wisdom; when – Heaven, – Mind; when land and sea, - by Council; when it formed man, by Piety... Who, taught the law of God, full of the Holy Spirit, is not amazed in his soul that the Archangel Gabriel preached the gospel to the Virgin Mary on the same day on which the serpent deceived Eve - on the same Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, on which light was created; Did He live in the flesh in the same days in which earth and water were created?.. He proved His humanity to the Jews when He hungered, thirsted, took food and drink, when he walked and walked away, when he slept, when he walked with his feet on stormy water and commanded the winds, healed the sick, straightened the lame, restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.” Reverend Princess Anna Vsevolodovna The series of saints of the Russian Church begins with Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga. Princesses, before princes, take upon themselves the yoke of monasticism. Of the princely family, the first to take monastic vows was the wife of the Grand Duke Yaroslav, Irina; in monasticism, Saint Anna. The second nun, but the first virgin from the princely family, was Blessed Anna, the daughter of Grand Duke Vsevolod. She took monastic vows in 1086 815, while the first voluntary monk among the princes was Saint Nicholas Svyatosha, who entered the monastic monastery in 1106. Magdalene, before the apostles, visited the tomb of the Savior and saw Him risen. That's what wives are like! The father of the blessed Anna, Grand Duke Vsevolod Yaroslavich, according to the chronicle, “from childhood he loved God and truth, gave to the poor, honored bishops and priests, especially the monks, abstained from drunkenness and lust; That’s why he was dearly loved by his father” 816. He loved education and spoke five foreign languages. Anna's mother was a Greek princess, daughter of Emperor Constantine Monomakh; her piety brought Russia an invaluable treasure - the holy relics of the Great Martyr Barbara 817. Anna's brother Vladimir Monomakh, with his virtues, acquired such love from the people that his later descendants enjoyed its warmth. He loved monasticism and clearly understood its meaning. He bequeathed to the children: “Receive bishops and abbots with love - empower them so that they pray to God for you.” And the chronicle says: “He loved the monastic rite, he gave water and nourishment to the monks and nuns who came to him, like the mother of her children” 818. In such and such a family, blessed Anna was born and raised. Under the beneficial influence of intelligence and piety, she formed herself into a model of virgin beauty - the honor and glory of the princely house. The object of the tenderest love of her parents, she was called by the diminutive name Yanka, today's Annushka 819. The noble princess loved the Lord from a young age. Her parents, no matter how tenderly they loved her, did not consider her love for God to be an obstacle. They revered the words of the apostle: the unmarried woman cares about the Lord, how to please the Lord, in order to be holy in both body and spirit; but a married woman worries about worldly things, how to please her husband. Therefore, whoever does not give away the girl does better (1 Cor. 7:34, 38). The young princess chose virginity over all the pleasures of young social life, and not in vain. “Virginity,” says Anthony the Great, “is likeness to the angels, a spiritual and holy sacrifice, a fragrant rose that revives those close to her, a most pleasant aroma for the Lord Jesus Christ, a great gift of God, a guarantee of future inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven” 820. Prince Vsevolod built a stone church of the Apostle Andrew and a monastery with it; Princess Anna dedicated her virginity to the Lord here. This was in 1087 821. Following this, she took the monastery under her jurisdiction and took measures to improve its external and internal improvement 822. Three years later she took a trip to the then capital of Orthodoxy, Constantinople. This journey was quite pious. The princess-nun wanted to see the best monastic deanery in order to learn it for herself and for others 823. She brought with her observations useful not only for her monastery, but also for other monasteries. “Anna,” says the ancient narrator, “went there (to Constantinople) not in vain, but in order to be doubly useful to herself and other nuns of the Russian land” 824. She returned to Kyiv (in 1090) with the new metropolitan John the eunuch 825. The pious princess-nun, by her example, aroused a strong movement in the hearts of her contemporaries, to their better happiness. Her sister, Princess Eupraxia, in 1106, following her example, accepted monasticism 826. The second wife of Grand Duke Vsevolod, her stepmother, wished to be buried in her monastery 827. Blessed Anna gathered many monkworts into her monastery. This was all the more a great and virtuous feat on the part of Blessed Anna, since the Russian women's society of her time had not yet forgotten the customs of riotous paganism, at times indulged in the most unclean gaiety and did not like strict virginity 828. The self-denial of the blessed princess and her strict life inspired those who lived with her with zeal for the exploits of spiritual life. The princess, like everyone else, lived according to monastic rules, in fasting, prayer and deep humility 829. She taught young girls reading, singing, writing and some useful handicrafts 830. Blessed Anna spent 26 years in monastic exploits. In the handwritten calendar we read: “In the St. Andrew’s Monastery, the holy princess Anna Vsevolodovna reposed as a nun in the summer of 6624 (1116) May on the 18th day.” According to the chronicles, she died from her labors on November 3, 1112, 831. Therefore, the 18th day of May was probably the day of remembrance of her on the occasion of the discovery of her relics. The monastery where Blessed Anna labored was called Yanchin for a long time, preserving the reverent memory of its founder 832. It stood near the St. Michael's Monastery, but was destroyed by Batu; its ruins are indicated in the garden and under the residential buildings of one inhabitant 833. The Holy Martyr Hieron and his squad - the holy thirty-two martyrs: Hesychius, Nicander, Athanasius, Nikon, Longinus, Theodora, Valery, Theodulus, Eugene, Epiphanius, Theodotus, Anicetas, Hilarion and others Hieron, the son of a Christian woman, a native of the city of Tiana in Cappadocia, having reached adulthood, was required to serve; he was to join the additional detachment of that army, which was intended, among other things, to act against Christians, who were significantly widespread in Armenia and Cappadocia during the reign of Diocletian, and who stubbornly resisted the emperor’s command to honor the gods and observe pagan decrees. The Christian did not want to serve with the pagans, he also could not decide to leave his blind and elderly mother, and therefore, resisting the soldiers sent for him, who wanted to take him by force, Hieron and his squad hid in a cave, where he continued to successfully resist when the soldiers again approached the cave in order to capture him. He, however, yielded to the insistence of his friend Kyriakos, who was sent to him by the local ruler with instructions to convince him to join the army. Having reached the city of Melitina with the soldiers, Hieron was imprisoned along with other thirty-two Christians. Calmly accepting his fate, he aroused and maintained vigor in others for the upcoming feat. Therefore, when Hieron and his squad were called for interrogation, they confessed the name of Christ with unshakable firmness and no threats, no flattering promises could force them to renounce Christ. Then they were all sentenced to death. Before it was carried out on them, they were all subjected to torture; Hieron, as the one most guilty of resisting the soldiers, had his right hand cut off. After the torture, the martyrs languished in prison for several more days; then, again summoned to trial and again refusing to renounce Christ - they were all beheaded in 298. Their bodies were secretly taken and buried by Christians. They were found incorrupt (as Procopius testifies) when the church of St. Irene was built, by order of Justinian 834. “The martyr’s face is clear, the regiment is luminous, descending to us wisely, today the Church is illuminated with wonderful dawns. In the same way, as we celebrate their honorable memory, we ask from You, our Savior: with those prayers, deliver us from troubles, so that we may sing to You: Hallelujah!” - the Church appeals to God in the name of the holy martyrs, celebrating their memory. Memory of St. Onesiphorus of Pechersk “I heard a wonderful thing,” says Saint Simon, “I heard from reverent elders; and they, according to them, heard from self-witnesses a wondrous miracle that happened during the abbess of Pimen (1132–1141) in the Pechersky Monastery. There was a perfect man, adorned with all virtues, with the name Onesiphorus, and the rank of priest. He was granted by God the gift of clairvoyance, so that he saw his sins in others. But I will tell you one thing. This blessed Onesiphorus had a spiritual son, a monk and a friend. He tried to imitate him and seemed to be fasting, but falsely; He pretended to be chaste, but secretly ate and drank and spent his time in uncleanness. But this was hidden from the spiritual man. None of the brethren understood him. One day, being healthy, he suddenly died. And no one could get close to his body because of the stench coming out of his corpse. Everyone was terrified. Denying the need, not finding themselves able to perform the usual singing over it due to the stench, they laid it down separately and, standing from a distance, performed the singing, and some, covering their noses, carried it somehow and laid it in the cave. Many times a cry was heard, as if someone was being tortured. The Monk Anthony appeared to that presbyter and said menacingly: “Why did you put such a vile lawless person here? This has never happened here before. He has desecrated a holy place." The presbyter, getting up after that vision, fell on his face and, praying to the Lord God, said: “Why, Lord, did you hide the deeds of this man from me?” “Then,” the Angel who appeared to him said, “to show him to all who sin and unrepentant; Let them, when they see it, repent.” Having said this, he became invisible. The presbyter told Abbot Pimen about this. The next night he heard again: “Throw him out quickly, as food for the dogs; he doesn’t deserve to be here.” The presbyter, hearing this, turned to prayer, and a voice came to him: “If you want, help him.” After consulting with the abbot, they decided to have someone hook him with a rope, drag him out and throw him into the water, since due to the stench no one could get closer to where the cave was. Then the saint appears again and says: “I felt sorry for that brother. Those who are here with me are no worse than those who pleased God before the law. I prayed to the Lord God for the salvation of those living in the monastery and the Lord said to me: I heard; I said to Abraham, “For 20 righteous people I will not destroy a city, much more will I have mercy on the sinner for you and those who are with you.” Onesiphorus recounted everything he had seen and heard to his boss and to all the brethren. The brother's body stopped emitting a stench. One of the brethren, at my request, told me this event from the words of those first Montenegrins” 835. This is Simon's story! Kalnofoisky writes about the cave of St. Anthony: “Here lie incorrupt two brothers Spyridon and Onesiphorus. Of these, when one first went to the Lord, the other moved him from his place to lie down next to him.” The memory of the Monk Spyridon is October 31, and Onesiphorus is November 9. So Onesiphorus rested after Spyridon, and it was he who moved the deceased to rest next to the beloved and respected spiritual son of the Monk Spyridon 836; Thus, the blessed death of the Monk Onesiphorus, a contemporary of Abbot Pimen (1132–1141) and the Monk Spyridon, followed on November 9, 1148. Blessed Metropolitan Sylvester, having conveyed Simon’s story about the Monk Onesiphorus, says in conclusion: “With this story, monastic brothers, Saint Simon reminds us that we carefully guard our blessed calling, so that we are not fed by sheep or house wolves, so that we are not poor in the courtyard, but rich in the cell, fasting before people, like the Pharisees, and gluttonous in the cell. The righteous judge will pay for everything that was done in secret, openly, at His Judgment” 837. The Holy Scripture teaches us that whoever hides his misdeeds will not be happy; and whoever confesses and leaves will have mercy (see: Proverbs 28:13). If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. Being judged, we are punished by the Lord, so as not to be condemned with the world (1 Cor. 11, 31, 32) 838. Venerable John Kolov John, nicknamed Kolov, which means short, since he was of small stature, labored in the Skit Egyptian desert in the 5th century and was the mentor of Saint Arsenius the Great (May 8). Ardent by nature, he managed to achieve complete meekness and humility. “You have an evil heart,” one of the brothers once reproached John. “It’s true,” the convict agreed with sincerity, “and even more evil than you think”... John, zealous for his own salvation, tried with the same zeal for the salvation of others. He managed to convert many to repentance, among others, Taisiya (whose memory is on May 16th) and Paisiya, who had turned away from the good path, he managed to touch so much that he, suddenly and irrevocably renounced all his property in the world, spent the rest of his life in repentance in the wild desert. John reposed in about 430 in a desert cell near the city of Coltsum (now Suez). After his death, many of his wonderful sayings and a description of the life of the Monk Paisius (his memory on June 19), compiled by him for the benefit of everyone, remained written down. In this life, the narrator appears repeatedly in close relations with the Monk Paisius, with whom he first lived in the same desert, then, having separated, visited him and talked with him. Venerable Simeon Metaphrastus Simeon Metaphrastus, originally from Constantinople, of noble origin, received an excellent education, after which he was admitted to the court and, having managed to attract attention with his talents and merits, occupied successively important government positions. Meanwhile, piety prevailed in his soul; all the advantages that his brilliant worldly career afforded him to enjoy did not prevent him from being a secret ascetic. Having served his Fatherland as a diplomat and warrior, endowed with many awards for his services, Simeon is also known in the Church for his spiritual activities, since he worked hard on compiling the lives of saints. He received the name Metaphrastus (translator) because he gave the ancient biographies of saints a better look in terms of content and style. He compiled them into 122 and corrected many others. “You devoted your labors to the sacred scriptures,” the sweet writer of metaphrases is praised in the service compiled in his honor, “exploring and testing the lives of the saints: you magnified their torments and exploits with your metaphrases,” i.e., transcriptions in which he with consideration retained from ancient sources what did not seem incredible to him, and set aside other things, “without changing the subject, but correcting errors in words." This work of Simeon, although not strictly historical, since he had neither the means nor the time to believe the ancient sources with all rigor, was nevertheless of great importance, since, according to the testimony of Michael Psellus, not far from Metaphrastus in time, “those who before him described the deeds of the saints of God, partly wrote what was unjust, partly depicted the virtues of the saints without strength and beauty; they wrote about important matters without due attention, which is why some did not want to read what was written, while others even turned reading the stories about the servants of God into an object of ridicule or contempt.” In addition to metaphrases, Blessed Simeon wrote a few more words 839, prayers 840, songs 841, short thoughts and compiled extracts from the works of Basil the Great and Macarius the Great. In gratitude to “the holy man, who with great difficulty and then depicted martyrdom for the truth, to the praise of God and the eternal glorification of the martyrs,” the Greek fathers beatified him and set a day for celebrating his triumph - November 27th. Simeon reposed in the middle of the 10th century. Saint Nonnos, Bishop of Iliopolis Saint Nonnus, who became famous for his holy life first in the Tavenna monastery, was after that (from 448) a bishop in Edessa and then (from 451) in Iliopolis, where he converted up to 30,000 Arabs to Christianity. For the last three years of his life he again graced the See of Edessa and died peacefully in 471. He is mentioned in the life of Saint Pelagia (October 8th), whom he turned to the path of salvation. Holy Great Martyr Mina Mina, a native Egyptian of the Christian faith, served in the army, but when Diocletian’s decrees were issued against those professing Christianity, he left military service and pleased God in the desert. Once in the city of Cotuan a pagan holiday was celebrated, which, according to custom, was accompanied by drunkenness and debauchery. Mina appeared among the frantic crowd and began to denounce the idolaters. His colleagues recognized him, and the mayor, after a brief interrogation, ordered him to be taken to prison. The next morning he was brought to trial, and the mayor, who could not persuade him to wickedness with words, ordered him to be beaten with ox sinews and his body to be burned with fire. Finally he said: “Mina! choose one of two: either be ours, and we will stop torturing you, or remain Christ’s and perish.” Mina answered: “I was Christ’s, I remain and will remain Christ’s.” Then they ordered him to be dragged along the ground, strewn with hooks, tridents and iron nails, and finally beheaded and burned (304). This was in Phrygia. Some of the remains of his body were collected by the faithful and brought to Egypt, to his fatherland - to the city of Alexandria - and laid in an honest place, on which a church was later built. Memory of St. Philip of Rabang The Monk Philip laid the foundation for monastic life in the monastery of the Monk Dionysius of Glushitsky. In 1447, he founded a monastery with the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord on the Sukhona River and Rabang. This is in the current Kadnikovsky district, 32 versts from Vologda. Here he rested on November 15. His relics rest hidden in the church of the monastery, closed in 1764 842. Repose of St. Sergius of Malopinezh Blessed Sergius served as priest for 62 years at the Malopinezh parish church in Solvychegodsk district. Feeling the approach of death, he accepted monasticism and schema and rested on November 16, 1585 at the 92nd year of his life. His memory was established to be celebrated in 1655 843. Blessed Magna of Ancyra “In the city of Ancyra of Galata,” writes Palladius, a zealous visitor to the ascetics, 844, “there are many virgins, about two thousand or more; they strive in a holy, virtuous life, maintain abstinence and perform holy work with zeal. Among them, the first place in pious life is occupied by Magna, a most respectable and experienced wife. I don’t know whether to call her a maiden or a widow. Her mother forced her to get married, but she rejected her husband under various pretexts, pretended that she was sick, and thus remained inviolable and immaculate, as her relatives say. Her husband soon died, and she remained the only heir after him. Then she devoted herself entirely to God.” It is a great gain to be pious and contented (moderate in desires). We brought nothing into the world; It is clear that we cannot take anything out of it (1 Tim. 6:6-7). Pure and undefiled piety before God and the Father is to look after orphans and widows in their sorrows and to keep oneself undefiled from the world (James 1:27). Worthily ruling elders should be accorded the utmost honor, especially to those who labor in the word and in doctrine (1 Tim. 5:17). This is the apostolic teaching! This is what Blessed Magna did. “What wealth she had, she distributed to monasteries, to the homes of the poor and strange, to churches, bishops, widows, orphans and other needy people. With a willing soul, but secretly, she performed feats of charity.” Not only did she not present herself as a benefactor to people, but she tried to hide her good deeds from herself; she was afraid of the deceptive pleasantness of human glory as much as she was afraid of her pride, and guarded her heart in humility. At the same time, she “zealously attended church services and led an ascetic and abstinent life. The most famous bishops respected her. Trying to fulfill every virtue, she lived in hope of a better life—an afterlife.” What is most amazing about the life of blessed Magna is that she, given in marriage, defended her virgin purity with such firmness of will. So in the best times of Christianity they loved virginity! In one provincial town there were as many as two thousand virgins! Lycia was a region neighboring Galatia. The Ancyra virgins, of course, read the conversation: “The Feast of the Virgins” by the saint and martyr Methodius, written by him when he was the bishop of Olympus of Lycia. If nowadays, unfortunately for people, virginity is little valued, this was not the case in the best of times. This is how the great martyr teacher taught about virginity: “Great, above nature, wonderful and glorious is virginity. This is a drink that flows not from the earth, but from Heaven. It was left to the Lord to teach this teaching (about virginity) to people. He alone, having come to earth, taught man to ascend to God. It is fitting for the Bishop and the Head of the Prophets and Angels to be called the Head of the Virgins. The Old Testament could not yet accommodate virginity 845. And the law testifies that to be purified by purity to the Lord is a great vow, above all vows (Num. 6:2-3). What does it mean to devote yourself to the Lord? If I open my mouth to explain the Scriptures or to chant Orthodoxy and worthily according to the power of God, and if I close my lips, trusting them to be guarded so as not to speak vain things, then my lips are pure and dedicated to God. If I train my eyes not to be seduced by physical beauty and not to enjoy shameless spectacles, but to look at the sky, then my eyes are pure and dedicated to the Lord. If I block my ears from slander and reproach and open them to the word of God, then I have dedicated my ears to the Lord. If I am pure in heart, I devote all my thoughts to the Lord, I do not think about anything vain, pride and anger do not live in me, I meditate on the law of the Lord day and night; then truly I make a great vow: to purify myself with purity. The host of virgins, according to legend, is called the bloodless altar of God” 846. At the end of the conversation, the virgins sing “The Song of Christ God.” Virgos! A voice thunders from heaven, awakening the dead. He orders everyone together, in white robes And with lamps, rush to the east to meet the Bridegroom. Arise before the King enters the door. I dedicate myself to you, pure and luminous I light you with a lamp, Zhenisha. Retiring from sad human happiness, neglecting With the pleasures of life, the pleasures of love, I seek one thing - To be under Your saving right hand. Grant me, O Good One, to forever behold Your beauty. I dedicate myself to you as pure, etc. Having left the bed and house of perishable marriage for You, My king, I came in immaculate clothes, To enter with You into the blessed Palace. I forgot my homeland, having loved Your beauty, O God the Word; I forgot the faces of the maidens, my friends; My mother and relatives would boast about me - I forgot about that too. You, Christ, have become everything to me. Having washed the crowds in cleansing streams, Your Forerunner was brought to death for his love of purity; But, sprinkling his blood on the ground, The blessed one cried out before You. And Your Mother, the Parent of Life, the Gracious, Inaccessible, Immaculate Virgin, carrying in her seedless womb a pure Fruit, fell into doubt about infidelity; But to You, Blessed One, She cried. Blessed One, living in the pure villages of heaven, Containing everything with eternal power! Here we stand; accept us Father, with Thy Son, at the door of Eternal Life 847. This is how blessed Magna sang into her life. The death of the holy nun followed, according to the time of those who saw her, not before 425 848. Saint Isaac, Archbishop of Armenia Isaac, the son of the great Nerses, was born in Constantinople while his father was here as an envoy from his king. In 390, Isaac was elevated to the chair of archbishop and ruled the Armenian Church for 50 years, marking his reign with such merits, the main one of which: the translation of the Holy Scriptures into the native language, which earned him the title of “the second enlightener of Armenia.” He died in 440. The murder of the noble prince Yaropolk - Peter Izyaslavich “During the time of the Grand Duke Vsevolod (1078–1093), says the ancient news, there were many people pleasing to God, monks and laymen, male and female, who performed miracles” 849. Among Vsevolod’s high-spirited contemporaries was the blessed Prince Yaropolk - Peter Izyaslavich. He was the great-grandson of Equal-to-the-Apostles Vladimir. Under his father, Grand Duke Izyaslav Yaroslavich, he was an exemplary son, an assistant to him in both happiness and misfortune. In 1070 he defeated Vseslav of Polotsk, who had previously robbed Novgorod 850. From 1073, when his brothers kicked his father out of Kyiv, he shared his exile from the Fatherland for almost 5 years; was with him both at the King of Poland and at the Emperor, then, on behalf of his father, he sought help from the then powerful Pope Hildebrand. The reverent prince reverently worshiped the relics of the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, paid homage to the Roman archbishop, powerful in the West, and complained about the Polish king Boleslav, who had robbed his father. The pope, excited by dreams of power, wanted to see religious and political obedience to the pope in the politeness of the Russian prince, and in this spirit he wrote to Izyaslav about his son 851. But these were dad's dreams, nothing more. In 1087, after the death of Svyatoslav, Izyaslav, without any outside support, again became the Grand Duke of Russia, and Yaropolk received Vyshgorod. In the same year, together with his generous father, Yaropolk helped Uncle Vsevolod and lost his father in the battle. The new Grand Duke Vsevolod gave his nephew his father's fatherland of Turov and added Vladimir to it 852. Yaropolk complacently accepted what was given and did not look for the senior prince’s table, on which his father sat 853. He firmly followed the good rule of his fathers: “For old times’ sake, the younger ones should have the oldest one instead of a father” 854. He tried to do good to others according to the means that were in his hands. Princes Rurik and Volodar Rostislavich, who had no hereditary inheritance and were expelled from Tmutarakan, did not know where to lay their heads. Yaropolk gave them shelter in his inheritance. They repaid him like the pagans. In his absence, the Rostislavichs fled from Vladimir, hired wandering squads for money almost received from Yaropolk and captured Vladimir. The Grand Duke sent his son Monomakh against the Rostislavichs, and he drove them out of Vladimir. Yaropolk entered his city with honor and formed a close friendship with Monomakh 855. Unfortunately, this friendship was soon disturbed. Anxious nephews did not give rest to the Grand Duke, seeking inheritance. Bezudelny David Igorevich robbed Greek traders and harmed Russia's trade with the East; The Rostislavichs were even more willful and impudent. In order to somehow pacify the restless, the Grand Duke gave Dorogobuzh to David, and Przemysl and Terebovl to Rostislavich, while these cities were one with Vladimir 856. After Yaropolk’s father laid down his life for Vsevolod, Yaropolk could not hope that Vsevolod would take away parts of his possessions from him, because it hurt him that Vsevolod was not treating him according to his hopes; advisers told him that Vsevolod, having taken a little, would want to take everything; therefore it is necessary to prevent violence; but the good prince did not want to rebel against his uncle; he blamed the restless Rostislavichs for everything and therefore ordered an army to be gathered against them. The Grand Duke, understanding the matter in his own way, sent his troops against Yaropolk. Yaropolk was forced to flee to Poland to find help there; Yaropolk's mother, wife, estate, squad were captured in Lutsk and passed into the hands of Vsevolod; Vladimir was given to David; This means that they did everything that Yaropolk’s advisers expected from Vsevolod and that he himself did not expect. The following year, through the efforts of the good Monomakh, Vladimir was returned to Yaropolk. But soon after that, the painful death of the good prince unexpectedly followed. For some business, Yaropolk went from Vladimir to Zvenigorod Galitsky. “When the prince,” says a contemporary, “was lying on a cart on the way, a wretch, one of his retinue, riding a horse, at the instigation of evil people (probably the Rostislavichs), pierced the prince with a saber. Yaropolk jumped up, took out his saber and said loudly: oh! a treacherous enemy killed me.” The villain fled to Przemysl to Rurik Rostislavich, and Yaropolk died from his wound. It was November 22. The youths took his body and took it to Vladimir, and from there to Kyiv. “Grand Duke Vsevolod, Monomakh, Rostislav, all the boyars, blessed Metropolitan John with the monks and presbyters, all the people of Kiev wept bitterly over him; accompanied with psalms and songs to the monastery of St. Demetrius; having prepared his body, they laid it with honor in a marble coffin, in the church of St. Peter, which he himself began to build; it was December 5th.” A contemporary then says about the blessed prince: “He suffered many troubles, without guilt he was kicked out by his brothers; offended, robbed, he suffered a violent death. But he was honored with Eternal life and peace. This blessed prince was quiet, meek, humble, and brotherly; Every year he gave tithes from his entire estate to the Holy Mother of God. He always prayed to God like this: “Lord God! accept my prayer, give me death, like my two brothers, Boris and Gleb, from someone else’s hand, so that I can wash my sins with my blood and get rid of this vain, rebellious world, like an enemy’s snare.” And now his prayer was not rejected by God! He received blessings that neither the eye had seen nor the ear had heard, and that had never entered the heart of man, those blessings that God had prepared for those who loved Him.”857 This is what St. Nestor writes in his chronicle! The Kiev Chronicle, speaking about the daughter of the blessed Prince Yaropolk, the wife of Prince Gleb Vseslavich, writes: “This blessed princess, together with her prince, had great love for the Holy Mother of God and for Father Theodosius, being jealous of her father Yaropolk. For this Yaropolk gave (to the Pechersk monastery) all his property, the volosts of Nebolskaya, Derevskaya and Lutskaya and near Kyiv; and Gleb gave, together with the princess, 600 hryvnias of silver and 50 hryvnias of gold during his lifetime; upon the death of the prince, the princess gave 100 hryvnia of silver and 50 hryvnia of gold; upon her death she gave away 5 villages with servants and everything down to the canvas” 858. So, blessed Yaropolk, as pious as he himself was, instilled piety in his family as much. Other news also adds that the blessed prince did not like drunkenness and ridicule, and loved tears of tenderness, did not take revenge on anyone and was very educated 859. Thus, the monuments of the Church, starting with the Monk Nestor to the Book of Degrees and the Nikon Chronicle, show that the murdered Prince Yaropolk Izyaslavich was considered among those who pleased the Lord with his life and especially with his suffering, innocent death. In the handwritten description of the saints of the 17th century, he is also placed among the saints and his memory is shown under November 21. Repose of Saint Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk Branch of the ancient noble Volyn family of Kulchitsky, Blessed Innocent received his mental education at the Kyiv Academy 860. In the Kyiv Lavra he was tonsured a monk and received the priesthood here. In 1710, he, along with two others, was sent to the post of teacher at the Moscow Academy; in 1714 he received the title of prefect here and in the same year he was transferred to the Nevsky Lavra, with the title of cathedral hieromonk. Here he served as oberieromonk for the fleet, otherwise, he was the head of the naval hieromonks, supervised their behavior, resolved their doubts and communicated with the Synod about spiritual needs. In 1720, Archimandrite of the Lavra Theodosius Yanovsky was consecrated as Bishop of Novgorod, and Innocent was entrusted with correcting the position of governor of the Lavra 861. When Emperor Peter I, on the recommendation of the Siberian governor, ordered that under the Russian The Beijing mission, like the Roman mission, had a bishop; Blessed Innocent was appointed for such a great service. At the same time, the Holy Synod on February 14, 1721 reported to the sovereign: “Should he be consecrated to the Khin state, hieromonk Innocent Kulchitsky, by the bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk, for proximity to this state, and should he be separated from the Siberian diocese for the most convenient treatment?” The Emperor answered: “To ordain them as bishops, but it would be better without the title of cities, since these cities border on Hina, so that the Jesuits would not misinterpret and cause disaster” 862. Blessed Innocent was consecrated bishop on March 5, 1721, and so that, in accordance with the conciliar rule, he was called a bishop of a certain Church, he was named Bishop of Pereyaslavl. The Chinese government at that time was well disposed towards the Russian court and was very pleased with the first Russian mission for Beijing, of which Archimandrite Hilarion was the head. This gave hope that Blessed Innocent would be favorably received by the Beijing court. On April 19, the new saint left St. Petersburg with two hieromonks, five choristers and 3 ministers. Silver vessels and an omophorion were given to him from the patriarchal sacristy; other utensils, by order of the Synod, were taken in Suzdal from the sacristy of Metropolitan Ephraim 863. In March 1722, the saint arrived in Irkutsk and in Selenginsk, beyond Lake Baikal, he had to await orders on the way to Beijing. To support him and his retinue, 1,500 rubles were allocated from Siberian revenues. The sovereign, who knew the people well, saw and made it known that the Jesuits could harm the holy cause and therefore caution was needed in the matter. Unfortunately, in his absence (he went on the Persian campaign), the Senate wrote a letter to the Chinese Tribunal in the following form: “in the place of the deceased archimandrite, for the conduct of church services and for all other church affairs, by the will of the sovereign, a clergyman, Mr. Innocent Kulchitsky, with two hieromonks, two deacons and several ministers is sent. The Senate kindly requests that the Khinsky Majesty allow the aforementioned Mr. Kulchitsky and those with him to perform in Beijing Divine service according to Christian custom and visit their fellow believers in other places. For this, the Tsar’s Majesty promises to fulfill the wishes of the Bogdykhan within the Russian borders.” Envoy Izmailov, who was supposed to open the way for the mission in Beijing, was kindly received by the Beijing court. He did not conclude an agreement with the court of Bogdykhan, because border affairs had not yet been resolved; but they promised to give him a place in Beijing for the Russian merchants and to build a courtyard for the Russian mission. After that, one must regret that the Senate’s attitude towards the mission did not find Izmailov in Beijing. He, of course, would have been able to dispel the suspicions of the Chinese, aroused by the careless paper of the Senate, with personal explanations. Without him, the Mungal Tribunal sent an answer: “By decree of Bogdykhan, it was not ordered to allow Mr. Innokenty Kulchitsky into Beijing, because there is no letter about him from the Siberian governor and there is no seal attached, which was given to Izmailov” 864. They hastened to send the attitude of the governor and the press. But the tribunal then directly wrote: it cannot let Innocent pass, because he is called a spiritual person and a great lord. So Saint Innocent had to stay in Selenginsk and wait for a solution to his perplexities. And he stayed here for three whole years. One can imagine how painful this uncertainty of the situation was! How hard it was to wait and wait and see no end to the waiting! This time was the time of cleansing the depths of the saint’s heart. Now his soul was learning patience and complete submission to the will of God. But the saint also found in Selenginsk objects for his activities that were consistent with his purpose. The Holy Synod appointed him a preacher of the holy faith, although not within Russia. The saint tried to fulfill this assignment within the circle accessible to him. He preached the holy faith to the pagans who wandered around Selenginsk, the Buryats and Mungals. And his preaching was not fruitless: he converted a significant number of pagans to the light of Christ. In the handwritten akathist to the saint it is read: “You patiently endured bitter trials, you argued with the hordes of infidels and superstitious.” Another akathist sings: “Hearing the cunning verbs of Hinn, as if it was not fitting for you to be accepted into their kingdom, you turned with the Gospel to the language of your kingdom, Mongolian... Rejoice, for the preaching of the Gospel, which you brought to the Mongolian language, cruelly put to shame the deception of human souls.” The saint's stay in Selenginsk was also beneficial in that it strengthened the faith and piety of the native Christians, who were quite weakened by the influence of the temptations of paganism. The akathist hymn sings to him: “Thou didst enlighten the unbelieving Mongolian languages ​​with the light of the Gospel of Christ, and thou didst confirm the believers in obedience to the Orthodox Church by statute.” In March 1725, by decree of the Synod, the saint moved to the Irkutsk Ascension Monastery to await new orders about his mission. Here he met his temptations. The rector of the monastery, Archimandrite Platkovsky, sought and hoped to be the rector of the Beijing mission; and at the same time there was a man with the most unbridled passions: everyone he touched complained about him; he was already on trial, by decree of the Synod: but did not want to answer anyone about his actions. When the saint arrived at the monastery, the offended turned to him with complaints; the saint consoled the unfortunate as much as he could. Inquisitor Iovlev more than once asked the saint to protect him through trial from the attacks of Platkovsky. The saint declared that he had no right to consider the affairs of an archimandrite who was not under his jurisdiction; The archpastor's very servants received strict orders from him not to enter into intercourse with anyone from the monastery. The Metropolitan of Tobolsk, having heard about the summons of Blessed Innocent to Irkutsk, wrote to him: “Most Reverend to the Bishop of God! my benefactor! Many many Irkutsk clergy, due to lack of organization and lack of invention, are forced to investigate the affairs of their worthy workers, Your Eminence, asking that you deign to order to investigate those of their affairs, to whom Your Eminence pleases. Committing to your hope in everything your unalienable love, we clearly place them here.” Three cases are presented, including the one about the Irkutsk archpriest. Then Metropolitan Anthony and the governor Prince Dolgorukov, at a joint meeting, asked Blessed Innocent to investigate the wild deeds of Platkovsky by decree of the Synod. But the saint did not take upon himself anything in either respect, since the highest authority indicated to him other occupations 865. In June 1725, by the will of Empress Catherine, for the final resolution of affairs with China, Count Vladislavich-Raguzinsky was sent as a plenipotentiary envoy and went with him to His Eminence Innocent, if there were no obstacles from the Chinese. Raguzinsky was ordered not to announce to the Chinese about Innocent's episcopal rank, but only to call him a clergyman. In the spring of 1726, the Right Reverend Innocent went to Selenginsk to await the envoy. Chinese border officials greeted Raguzinsky with honor at the border; he was also honorably received in Beijing; after some difficulties they agreed to the contract; Raguzinsky instructed Commissioner Lang to write and conclude an agreement, but there was no mention of the mission of Blessed Innokenius 866. And Raguzinsky did not want to do anything for the saint. When he was in Selenginsk, he did not even deign to see Saint Innocent. Even in Irkutsk, he gave his word to the fellow Platkovsky that he, Platkovsky, and no one else, would be the head of the mission in Beijing. Therefore, even while Raguzinsky had not yet left China, in St. Petersburg, in the Supreme Privy Council, a matter was decided on a subject that concerned more the Church than the state. Saint Innocent, while staying in Selenginsk, received an unexpected decree on March 24, 1727. “This January 7th day,” it says, “in the decree of Her Majesty from the Supreme Privy Council to the Holy Synod it is written: the Illyrian Count Savva Vladislavich, sent to the Chinese court by Her Majesty’s Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister, reported to Her Majesty from the Chinese border from the Bura River, dated August 31 (1726), that the Chinese ministers (?) who are on the border received, your Eminence was not allowed to go there with the Count to China without Khinsky’s decree, and he does not expect the Chinese to receive your Eminence; “Only because of his efforts, when he was at the Chinese court, where he had already gone from Siberia, the archimandrite and priests would be received in Beijing, but your Eminence would never be allowed in, and he represented Count Vladislavich to send Ascension Archimandrite Anthony, who lives near Irkutsk and teaches several children the Mungal language and has been to Beijing.” The council decided to make an order in agreement with the envoy's opinion. The Holy Synod ordered His Grace Innocent to reside in the Irkutsk Ascension Monastery 867. Why is it that the holy work of the Gospel is being destroyed? There is no doubt that the intrigues of the Jesuits were at work here, fearing that the eyes of the Chinese would be opened to them. It also meant a lot that the then reigning Yong-Chiseng, on the occasion of the discord that occurred between the missionaries of the two Latin orders, declared a ban on the adoption of Christian law. But both of these reasons do not yet explain the whole matter. The plenipotentiary envoy managed to force the Beijing court to do many things that were far more important for the Beijing court than the reception of the Russian bishop 868. In the handwritten akathist to the saint we read: “You have patiently endured all sorrows and bitter trials, Father, as a good warrior of Christ, enduring slander and slander from the treacherous head of the mission and his detractors.” According to these words, Archimandrite Platkovsky strongly opposed the sending of the saint to Beijing. This is natural for him: as frantic in bad deeds as he is cowardly in the face of misfortune, he used all measures to get rid of troubles by appointing him to Beijing. The unfortunate man did not escape God's Judgment. No matter how much he hid behind Raguzinsky, in 1731 he was transported from Beijing past Irkutsk in chains 869 . But, if Platkovsky could act against the saint with slander, then there was someone who accepted the slander and spoiled the whole holy work. Who is this? Of course, Envoy Raguzinsky. Was he acting out of a passion for slander? Raguzinsky, a merchant, under the protection of Menshikov, was a robber of Little Russia 870. Platkovsky offered all the monastery granaries at the disposal of the merchant, as they would open later, and the merchant presented Platkovsky as the most capable missionary for Beijing, and unnecessary - the saint. It is pleasant for every Orthodox Christian that Platkovsky was appointed to Beijing without any participation of the church board. The Council acted at its own discretion, without even asking the Synod for information about who Platkovsky was? This is why people are pitiful because, while they dream of their wisdom, capable of knowing everything and managing everything, they do things that only bring them shame and dishonor. The Holy Synod, for its part, did not hesitate to rescue Saint Innocent from his difficult situation. He established the same definition about Blessed Innocent that he had already established under Peter the Great. By a decree of January 15, 1727, the Church of Irkutsk, which had hitherto been part of the Tobolsk diocese and since 1707 had been governed by a suffragan bishop, was placed among independent dioceses, and Saint Innocent was named Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. Thus he began the ranks of saints of the Irkutsk Church! It was not soon that the definition of the Synod reached Saint Innocent, but it did. Upon receiving the decree, the saint sent out a district letter to his flock with pastoral instructions. “By the blessing of God,” he wrote, “Her Imperial Majesty, having her gracious heart in the hand of God, according to the report of the Holy Governing Synod, by her merciful decree, deigned to appoint me to the Irkutsk diocese as a real bishop and title herself according to that diocese, for this sake I pray, first of all, to make prayers for Her Imperial Majesty and all her high family, The Holy Governing Synod also speaks of our humility, calling us Irkutsk and Nerchinsk. We pray to you and archpastorally exhort you, so that you may philosophize with one accord, do one another great honor, and have peace and love among one another, as the holy Apostle Paul teaches. Elika is most honorable, Elika is most lovable, Elika is most praiseworthy, learn from these, follow these, hold on to these, so that you will be worthy of inheriting both temporal and eternal good. We sincerely wish this and send blessings. Amen. September 1st, 1727" 871. The Tobolsk Metropolitan transferred 3 monasteries, 9 city churches and up to 33 village churches to the jurisdiction of the new Irkutsk archpastor; The Irkutsk Ascension Monastery was given by the Synod to the complete disposal of Saint Innocent in 872. There are people who, by their moral structure, are such that they cause harm to themselves, and inflict torment on anyone who in any way stands in their way. Such were Platkovsky and Raguzinsky towards the saint! Two weeks after entering the Irkutsk see, Saint Innocent received a letter from Ambassador Raguzinsky, where he, having informed that affairs with Beijing were going peacefully and that Archimandrite Platkovsky had been appointed to Beijing, wrote: “Order the archimandrite to give a good and skillful priest and a hierodeacon, only two people from the church teachers, and a third archimandrite, and three students of his archimandrite’s choice. And their salary is only 1250 rubles for the first year. And they will be given that salary immediately from the monastery’s cash and from the confiscated inquisitorial money.” Then it is written to provide the archimandrite with the utensils given for the Beijing mission. The letter was delivered from the border by messenger, Raguzinsky's adjutant. The saint immediately made possible orders. The Transbaikal widow priest Filimonov, who expressed a desire to go to Beijing, was ordered to appear at the disposal of Archimandrite Platkovsky; The ambassadorial hierodeacon Serapion was also ordered to appear there; the archimandrite was given 300 rubles from the monastery. The following response was sent to Ambassador Raguzinsky on September 13: “Most Excellent Count, Savva Vladislavich, my most gracious benefactor! Great thanksgiving to God, glorified in the Trinity, may it be that your Excellency, through tireless labor and sweat, without bloodshed, will gain victory and instead of war, the longed-for gift of peace, for which not only I am unworthy and not only the entire Russian state, but also all the surrounding states, who want peace, will rejoice and rejoice and say: blessed is the man who is the same both into one, and did such a thing that was difficult to accomplish. Your Excellency wrote in a letter that was received on the 5th day of September 1727 through Mr. Lieutenant, to our humility: 1) that Archimandrite Anthony Platkovsky is going to China, and the 550 rubles assigned to him and with him are sent to one priest, one hierodeacon and 3 disciples, 130 rubles each for the first time, to give the salary from the money available in the Ascension Monastery. And the only cash I had in the monastery was 400 rubles. Of that number, 300 rubles were given to the archimandrite with our humility and with the aforementioned lieutenant and with the brethren of that monastery. And one hundred was left for various monastic needs, which cannot be used to pay even urgent ones. But the confiscated inquisitorial money does not belong to me: as it was, I was not in Irkutsk and did not know anything, and now how many there are is not known; I don’t dare touch this money. The Irkutsk governor Izmailov, according to the decrees of Her Majesty, does as he wants with them. And the Irkutsk monastery was almost completely ruined by this sent archimandrite, for which, with this humble writing to your excellency, for the sake of testimony, I am sending an extract copied from the books of accounts of that monastery, that he was in money and goods, except for animals and others from copper, tin and glazed utensils and yuftas and other small things and grain donations and except for the school, which is in excess of what is required dependency was used, which, due to the short time after my perception of the Irkutsk diocese, has not yet followed, he took it from that monastery. Your Excellency can figure out how much the archimandrite took away from him and how much more money from that monastery is calculated on it. Maybe he can allocate a salary from that number to himself and others with him in addition to the 300 shown, and the rest of the money, if your Excellency’s mercy is shown to the poor monastery, order him to return it back to the monastery. 2) Your Excellency also wrote to give the archimandrite vestments, books and church utensils, which I took with the name of the blessed one and eternally worthy of the memory of His Imperial Majesty by decree and decree of the Holy Synod from different places, about which it was reported to the Holy Synod, where, what and from whom it was taken exactly. Now, without an obedient decree from the Holy Synod, I did not dare to give away all the things that are appropriate to my bishop’s service, except for what belongs to the archimandrite’s service, about which the register is sent with this letter, in which he signed the things with his own hand.” Everything that the saint now offered breathed with intelligence, love, humility - amazing. If the lost Platkovsky did not see his impudence from the gentle admonition of the saint, this is natural for him. What is more amazing is that Raguzinsky did not understand his lies, which the saint so cleverly pointed out as a warning to him 873. Raguzinsky, out of pride, considered himself still entitled to insult the saint again. On October 15, Platkovsky appeared in Irkutsk with a long letter from Raguzinsky. The ambassador wrote that he stopped the mission for three reasons. “I don’t think,” he said, “that the Holy Synod would consider it disgusting if your Eminence would give enough of the confiscated inquisitorial money for such a necessary parcel. Secondly, the archimandrite brought with him a worldly priest, of whom the local residents prove that he is a constant drunkard. The third great one - I learned from your Eminence's letter that the archimandrite ruined the monastery and took a lot of the monastery money by untruth - the register shows that the archimandrite owed the monastery 3,794 rubles; and the archimandrite announced that he was the monastery and did not blame anyone for a penny.” Therefore, the ambassador asks that the archimandrite settle accounts with the monastery or release him to the Synod to bring justification. All three claims are unfair and insulting, and are not to the honor of the ambassador. The first sounds like arrogance, accustomed to not respecting the law. Priest Filimonov before the saint was the Transbaikal inquisitor, and if he had a weakness, then there were no better ones, at least among those who would be willing to go to Beijing. The Eminence appointed commissions to settle the monastery’s settlements with Platkovsky. Platkovsky hastened to send a request to the Tobolsk Metropolitan - to inform Irkutsk of a decree that gave him the right to receive income from the Ascension Monastery equal to the abbot of the Chudov Monastery and at the same time allowed him to take the confiscated money of the inquisitor. The commission, after considering the entire case, with all the desire to please the terrible Raguzinsky, determined: to recover from him the 632 rubles spent by Platkovsky during his stay in Moscow, and to recover 400 rubles taken in the form of a salary commensurate with the salary of the Chudovsky Monastery, and also to recover 54 rubles taken in excess - in all these cases, the money is arbitrary; other subjects will be discussed at a later date. Platkovsky at first did not want to comply with the commission’s determination and announced that he was going to the Synod with a complaint. But this is just a trick of deceit. He understood well that the Synod would not deal with him gently. Therefore, he declared in writing that he was paying his debts to the monastery and stopping any claim against him. The Tobolsk Metropolitan delivered information that there was no decree from the Synod about equalizing the rights of Platkovsky with the rights of the Chudovsky abbot and that 200 rubles should be recovered from Platkovsky - 100 rubles he took from Archimandrite Gedeon Vishnevsky and 100 rubles owed to the Tyumen monastery. Meanwhile, Count Raguzinsky was informed by the party that according to the records of Archimandrite Platkovsky in the monastery books, the debt of the ambassador and his retinue was listed as unpaid. This deeply stung Raguzinsky and forced him to change the tone of his treatment of the saint. In a letter dated February 8, 1728, he informs the saint that he never wanted to offend the monastery; the embassy clerk took various supplies from the monastery, totaling 60 rubles, and exchanged 5 horses for monastery horses and paid for everything, for which there is a receipt; Secretary Glazunov took supplies for himself for 6 rubles and also paid Platkovsky. Therefore, in order to protect his honor, I asked him to pay attention to this subject, ending the letter like this: “Recommending myself to your archpastoral holy prayers, wishing your Eminence the blessing, kissing your holy hands, I abide with the deepest respect.” When this letter was shown to Platkovsky, he hastened to deliver the money shown in the letter to the monastery. At the request of the commission, he paid another 400 rubles to the Ambassadorial Monastery. And he hurried to Selenginsk 874. The unpleasant relationship between Raguzinsky and Platkovsky did not stop the saint’s activities in the diocese. Hegumen Pachomius conducted an investigation into the murder of the peasant Lobanov by priest Orlov and closed the culprit. Upon filing the complaint, a commission was appointed by the saint. Orlov, convicted by witnesses, confessed that he had played cards in a tavern with two clerks and Ilya Lobanov; in a quarrel, having fought with Lobanov, he pushed him away from him, and he, hitting the bench, died; He gave investigator Pachomius 6 rubles and two ends of a Chinese coin. Pachomius also confessed to his guilt. The decision followed: since priest Orlov played cards and killed a man in a tavern and in a fight, and after committing the murder he bribed the investigator and performed the service, then, in accordance with the regulations, subject him to cruel corporal punishment, depriving him of the right to serve in the priesthood; Send Pachomius to the bakery to sow flour, take a fine of 10 rubles, return the money and the Chinese coin to the owner. The saint’s instructions to priest Daniil Ivanov are very remarkable. “I will inform you of the Overseas (Trans-Baikal) order throughout the Selenga district, and in action act on these points: 1. You should go around the churches in your order and look at the entire deanery of the church and over the priests and over the entire clergy, namely: they would not riot, they would not make noise in the streets or in the church drunks; Don’t they drink wine in taverns and so on according to the addition of the regulations on priests? 2. Send out His Majesty’s decrees, and to send them out, send sextons and sextons in your order, unless there are quick and singing companions; and take carts for sextons and sextons from church to church. 3. To you the priest give coronal memorials to all the churches of his order, according to the rules of the holy apostles and holy fathers and according to the decrees of His Majesty; and if it is far away, then give orders to others; collect duties as usual without excess; also give decrees to sextons and sextons according to the decree of the Right Reverend with the collection of duties; in applications for places it would be stated whether he would be scolded or would eat from the income and that he was a kind and not suspicious person. 4. You should always collect salary money from all churches according to your order, according to the timesheet, without excess. If the chapels are resumed by decree, these salaries must be collected and given back... 5. If someone gives you a report against a priest or a clergyman, you should look at it, and if there is an important matter, send it to the Irkutsk bishop’s order for a decision, and if it’s about unimportant matters, decide them yourself according to the rules and regulations, without any pretense. 6. Report your decision on the case to the order. 7. Deliver metric notebooks and confessional records from all churches. 8. Make sure that there are no unregistered clergy in the area, and if there are any, bring them to the Right Reverend. 9 . Monitor to see if there are schismatics, and if there are any, report them. 10. Do not act beyond the right granted by the instructions, and perform the duties of the office diligently and conscientiously. 11. On paper, take ink from all churches in proportion to how much comes out; Likewise, the scribe should assign a ruble from each church, and not determine any more. 12. Distribute the carts among the priests and the clerics and collect money from them in one amount, according to the consideration of the parish, from whom more is due, from whom less, so that there is no offense to anyone; when any decrees come, then hire from the amount collected without excess and send it where it should be.” The Irkutsk priests, believing that the Right Reverend, living in the Ascension Monastery, 5 versts from the city, could not know what was going on in the city, continued, according to the established custom, to serve the Liturgy very early, to the displeasure of the citizens. The saint learned about the unrest and ordered the following decree to be sent (November 13, 1727) to the Irkutsk archpriest: “It was known to his Eminence that the good news happens very early in Irkutsk for the Liturgy of God; and many, for the sake of guilt, for failure to dispatch the cases entrusted to them, are deprived of hearing the Liturgy. For this reason, you are commanded that on small days the good news for the Liturgy should be given at one and a half hours (from sunrise), and on great days at 3 o’clock. For the sake of better order, everyone, when they can listen, sing the early Liturgy every week in the cathedrals, namely, at the end of the hour, without continuing the gospel, but just ring the bell three times.” By the decree of the Synod of August 22, 1727, it was ordered to report on the state of the diocesan school. The saint, in accordance with the regulations, ordered (dated January 4, 1728) the clergy to immediately deliver to the Irkutsk theological school, opening in the Ascension Monastery, all children from 7 to 15 years of age; A Russian school was opened in the monastery that same year, and at the same time the Mungal school continued to exist, left by Platkovsky extremely unsettled. By order of the Synod in 1727, spiritual inquisitors were abolished, and the former inquisitors were ordered to strictly believe and again strengthen the priestly elders. The priestly elder chosen for Irkutsk and the Irkutsk tithe received two instructions from the saint: one depicts his permanent duties; another was given instructions to revise the churches of her district in all respects and, among other things, to take away the book “The Truth of the Will of the Monarchs.” Since at different times there were reports of various disturbances taking place in Transbaikalian churches and parishes, in February of the year the saint gave Abbot Pachomius instructions with which he should inspect Transbaikalia and, where necessary and possible, carry out an investigation. The disturbances, according to reports, related especially to marriage matters. One of the Irkutsk priests complained that the priest of a neighboring parish, and after the recent division of parishes, was correcting the requirements in his parish, to his offense. The saint, in two instructions (dated March 19, 1728), made it an indispensable duty “that priests should not go from their own to another parish to receive services without the permission of the parish priest, except for necessary needs, and should not enter any house to pray, baptize, bury or give communion; It is not forbidden to accept those who want to go to confession from someone else’s parish, but to send them to the parish for communion, giving a letter of leave that he was at confession and is worthy to receive communion, for better discretion, according to the decrees, that his parishioner is not a schismatic. And whoever from the world, the saint added, because of a quarrel with a priest, will call a priest from someone else’s parish to pray, baptize, give communion and marry, such will declare our unblessing.” The priest of the monastery Valdai settlement, for whom, due to his ineptitude, his son signed, complained that the settlers, contrary to the agreement, had not delivered him 4 pounds of bread from the yard for three years. After investigating the case, the saint ordered that the full amount of grain be paid for 1727, and for other years, due to the poverty of the peasants who suffered from the shortage of grain, the priest would wait for payment until a better time. The settlers of the Kudinskaya Sloboda complained that their priest Theodore led a drunken life; on Easter, due to drunkenness, he left his vestments in a peasant hut, where they remained for 9 weeks, and meanwhile reported that the vestments had been stolen by a sexton. This priest, even according to the dean’s inspection, turned out to be very faulty. But there was no one to replace him - there were so few capable of priestly service! The Eminence ordered the priest to be punished with whips for his drunken life and for slandering the sexton, and to punish the sexton for proven drunkenness and return him to his place of service. The village priest, according to a note from the city priest Vasilyev, buried a hanged criminal near the church, contrary to the 23 points of the instructions of Patriarch Adrian. The saint obliged both priests by signature to dig up the buried man and carry him on their shoulders to a wretched house, and to pay Vasilyev a fine of 5 rubles. After a shortage of grain in 1727, a terrible drought began across Lake Baikal in the spring of 1728. On May 16, the saint ordered the churches of Irkutsk and the Irkutsk tithe to add a prayer for an end to the drought at each Liturgy, to sing an akathist to the Mother of God on Saturdays, and to gather in the cathedral for a general prayer service on Sunday. The prayers, the saint said, should end on Elijah’s day. On July 30th, Raguzinsky left Irkutsk and was driven by a storm to the Ascension Monastery, where he said goodbye to the saint. The rain was so heavy that the water stood knee-deep in the streets of Irkutsk. The saint had to cleanse his flock of illegal marriages, which often happened in the flock, which remained without the close supervision of the archpastor. The peasant Florov complained: his married son Matthew, due to illness, traveled to the holy places of Russia. His wife Avdotya gave birth to a son illegally without him and then got married to the peasant Avvakum. The study, having justified this report, also discovered that Florov asked for 25 rubles from Avvakum and received 8 rubles for allowing his daughter-in-law to enter into a new marriage. The saint confirmed this decision of his order: Florov for taking 8 rubles and promising “a rebuke (vacation pay), to beat him with whips mercilessly, so that it would not be common for others to sell their daughters-in-law like that”; punished with whips, sent to a monastery for repentance, and Avvakum forbidden to marry. At the end of the year, Habakkuk asked the saint: since Matthew does not want to live with Avdotya, and for him, Habakkuk, given his youth, it is difficult to protect himself from sin, then to allow Avdotya to live with him. The saint wrote: “Yes, the latter will not be bitter, and the first husband renounced Avdotya, so that he could send her out of the monastery to her second husband.” The decisions about a soldier who married while her husband was alive had the same content. Irkutsk archpriest Pyotr Grigoriev ordered the village priest to marry his relative Elezov, whose wife was sick. This was before the saint entered the Irkutsk department. It is determined: the archpriest will serve for a year in the rank of ordinary priest; send the officiating priest to a monastery and deprive him of his parish; Elezov to live with his second wife; but for the fact that he did not ask for a legal divorce, collect from him 20 rubles for the construction of the cathedral and 10 rubles for office expenses 875. Since the decree of Peter I ordered that almshouses at churches should be maintained at the cost of a candle, the saint on April 8, 1728 demanded that he be informed about the state of the church almshouses. The elders replied that all the candle money was used for church expenses. The saint turned to the other side of the matter, ordered to confirm that church candles were sold in the form shown in the decree of the sovereign, and if the strong one turns out to be a violator of the law, then inform him. What was the consequence? One impudent person, caught with unshaped candles in the market, almost strangled the clerk who caught him. In the same year, the saint drew attention to those who had not attended confession and Holy Communion. In 1727, in Irkutsk alone, there were 420 people who had not gone to confession. The violators of the debt were reported to the provincial office for the collection of a legal fine. The office replied that, according to the manifesto, the fine was forgiven, but the perpetrators were instructed to comply with the decree of the Church. It is a remarkable case how wickedness is punished from above for deviating from fulfilling the will of the archpastor. When revising the list of clergy children, the saint ordered that the son of the priest Cosmas be sent to school. The priest replied that his son was already filling the position of clerk. The saint wrote: this does not prevent him from studying at school. The crafty priest hastened to marry his son. But what happened? “Returning on horseback from the forest,” the headman reported, “Kosma’s son fell from his horse and was so hurt that he would hardly remain alive.” The Cossack son Fedor Evdokimov died suddenly on December 4, 1728. The wife asked the Eminence for permission to honor him with a Christian burial. As a result of the investigation, it turned out that Evdokimov was drinking with tribute money on December 3rd. The Right Reverend decided to bury him 2 versts from the village without a priestly burial. In the akathist they sing to the saint: “Rejoice, vigilant guardian of the souls entrusted to you, redeemed by the blood of Christ, preserving human strength through vigilant prayer and superior demeanor.” At the beginning of 1729, the saint, on his winter route, overlooked the diocese on the left side of the Angara. Settlers of the Ascension Monastery lived in those places. The merciful saint had already forgiven them for two years of arrears. Now they collected a pound of wheat from the yard for the bishop's house. Although the saint did not receive a penny of salary either for himself or for the house, due to a strange oversight of his superiors, to relieve the settlers, he ordered the delivery of wheat on monastery carts. It was reported to the guard of the Tikhvin Church that he was in a drinking house with the church key and there, drunk, he got into a fight with another. The saint convinced the watchman to confess everything and ordered: the guilty person should be kept in the monastery bread store on a chain for a day, so that he would sow flour; then let him go with a signature - in advance, do not carry the church key to the tavern and live soberly. In the Posolsky Monastery, one novice called another a runaway soldier. The investigation confirmed the complaint, and also that the offended person was not a soldier. If the name “runaway soldier” had been heard in the civil office, it would have threatened the monastery with troubles. Therefore, the Eminence ordered that the guilty person be punished corporally, in the spirit of brotherhood, as a warning to others. The task of collecting government taxes from the monastery peasants was not easy. The acquisition of wine sales especially caused a lot of anxiety and trouble. Tax farmers, through the civil office, insisted that they should not be prevented from selling wine not only in monastic villages, but even near monasteries. It was hard for the saint to see that they were corrupting the people with drunkenness and insulting the monasteries of prayer. He ordered the office to respond that the diocesan authorities had not received any decree on this subject from the Holy Synod. The office turned a deaf ear to this and in a new paper threatened with fines and court action for failure to comply with the requirements. The saint was forced to give in to violence, especially since it was a long way to go from Irkutsk to the capital to find the truth. In March 1729, a monk of the Posolsky Monastery reported to the saint that the abbot of that monastery, Job, punished the monk Ignatius for carnal sin so cruelly that he soon died, and that those who carried out the investigation in this case hid the truth. The saint demanded the abbot and the monks to Irkutsk and here he instructed two investigators to find the truth. After considering the new investigation, the order was laid down and the Eminence approved: for the fact that Job begged and taught the brethren to hide the truth, to take 10 rubles from him; for the fact that he ordered Ignatius to be beaten with whips, according to article 154 of the charter, to punish himself with whips; and because he discovered the sin of his spiritual son in the hearing of the brethren, he was tempted to deprive him of the management of the monastery and send him to the Selenga monastery with a ban on priestly service for four years. The Selenga archimandrite, a venerable elder, already in July of the same year asked the saint to allow Job to serve in the priesthood. On July 30, 1730 it was written: “By the grace of God, the Right Reverend Innocent, Bishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk, in the Holy Trinity Selenginsky Monastery to the former abbot Job. By the grace of the gift of the All-Holy and Life-Giving Spirit, given to us by the Great Archpastor of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who gave the power to knit and decide, who passed 22 days in March 1729 on the investigative case in our order, you were excommunicated from the Abbess of the Embassy Monastery and you were ordered to be in the Trinity Monastery in the brotherhood for four years. But now, by the same authority of the Lord God, for the needs of the Trinity Selenginsky Monastery, that there is not a single hieromonk for priestly service, we authorize you, commanding you to be in the Trinity Monastery, to perform in your priestly office all the needs commanded according to the rules of the saints by the apostle and father, and to the archimandrite to be in obedience without contradiction. Hieromonk Job to carry out the above-mentioned decree according to this decree of our bishop.” Hieromonk Paisius was appointed abbot of the Posolsky Monastery and left as a judge in the spiritual order. The royal charter of 1709 allowed the noble son Nikita Varlamov to build a monastery in Nerchinsk at his own expense and, according to the dispensation, to be an abbot, moreover, to choose after Nikita a capable layman to manage the monastic economy, and “abbots do not know the peasants, they only know the Church of God.” It is clear that in this state of affairs there could be no order in the monastery. Hegumen Pankratiy (formerly Nikita Varlamov), due to old age, refused the hegumenship, and the saint appointed hieromonk Nathanael as abbot of Nerchinsk. When Nathanael arrived at the monastery, at first he had to listen to abuse and rudeness: quarrels and abuse, self-will and disobedience in the monastery - incessant. The murmur, at the instigation of the old man Pankratiy, especially intensified when the churches of the Nerchinsk monastery, according to the then procedure, were subject to a duty for the maintenance of the department. Nathanael, with reports on the deanery, was forced to appear in Irkutsk himself for personal explanations about the state of affairs. The saint sent the following letter on June 17, 1729: “Decree of our bishops of the Nerchinsk Assumption Monastery to monks, investors and peasants. It is known to our bishops from reliable persons that this happened, and especially from that monastery abbot Nathanael, who last year, at your request, but by grace of the All-Holy Spirit, in excess of our measure, he has been promoted to you as abbot, so that from the monks and Beltsi he hears reproachful, idle words, and in many cases and monastic works, which happen for the general monastic benefit, disobedience is committed. For this reason, we fatherly exhort and command you, so that you obey abbot Nathanael, like your father and superior, in everything and act in no way without his command and do not quarrel among yourself like animals, under the unblessing of God and ours. If you do something contrary to what you do, and if he makes a petition against you in the future, then he will be taken to Irkutsk to answer according to the decrees of Her Imperial Majesty. The rest may the God of peace and love be with you and our unworthy blessing.” In 1729, the military church of the Yakut regiment, assigned to guard the Chinese border, came under the jurisdiction of the Irkutsk archpastor. Colonel Buchholz wrote to the saint about the regimental priest, Hieromonk Theophan of Canary: “He gets drunk and gets drunk on days other than those indicated and does not carry out his work; in Lent during Holy Week he drank and committed obscenities”; the colonel asked to send another priest. But in the Irkutsk diocese there were few priests at that time; Moreover, from the hieromonk’s surname it is clear that he was a student of the Kyiv College, where Saint Innocent was educated. Therefore, the saint hoped that his admonition would bring the guilty one to reason. He wrote to him: “Honest Father Feofan! Even if you are not worthy of such an honest name, you are worthy of dishonor, just writing for politics. How is it not a reproach for your image that you are called by the Lord God for the whole world to offer a holy sacrifice and shepherd the flock of His verbal sheep, for which you will be tortured and given an answer on the day of terrible testing, and you do not hold that title, but you constantly drink and get drunk untimely, and you do not carry out your work and do many idle indecencies, which is evident from the excellent writing to us Mr. Colonel Ivan Dmitrievich and from the words of honest people. Is it a priestly matter? We are writing this to you now, admonishing you in a fatherly manner, to improve yourselves. If you are not serviceable, know to yourself that you will be dishonestly transferred from the regiment, you will be called to us for trial and you will receive what is worthy of your deeds. But please, correct yourself. Bishop Innocent. April 1730." Kanarsky died on March 28, 1731, and John Oskolkov was appointed in his place. In May 1729, with the approval of the parishioners, Job Zyryanov from the sextons was ordained priest of Treskovsky. The following year, a local sexton complained that Zyryanov, having gotten drunk, demanded “to bring the sexton to him as a spiritual order” to announce that he was not a local sexton. The saint wrote: “A priest should not be brave when drunk and should not call his house a spiritual order; If in the future his shamelessness is revealed to Job, he will be severely punished; and the sexton will remain as before.” Notified that in some Irkutsk churches priests did not perform services on Sundays and holidays, the saint ordered that they report to him every week about faulty clergy. It was reported that the lama living with Ivan Shunkov had built a prayer house. Shunkov naively admitted to providing assistance to the construction of the shrine, for the reason that the lama, he said, would pray to his god, and his children would be kept by him. The Nerchinsk city office was informed: to publicly punish the superstitious Shunkov as a warning to others. Commissioner Zasukhin demanded a fee from priest Dmitriev for the bathhouse. The priest said that he had a church bathhouse, for which the parishioners should pay a fee. The commissar put the priest under arrest for two days, and when the priest noticed that the commissar did not have the right to dispose of the priest, but must inform his superiors about him, he replied with impudent insolence that he did not want to know the spiritual superiors. The saint ordered the provincial chancellery to be informed so that it would confirm to Zasukhin and others not to arbitrarily arrest priests and to report the guilty to the spiritual authorities, in full confidence that the guilty would not be left without trial, and to refrain from impudent words about the clergy and their superiors. By decree of 1723, the chapels were closed; but then it is allowed to renew them with the blessing of the archpastor. The priest Grigory Smagin, without the will of the saint, allowed in 1729 across the Angara River, a mile from the church, to renew the chapel and hire a convict as a sexton, and ordered another chapel to be restored in the village of Evseevoy. The saint ordered the unauthorized priest to be “flogged” and to collect 5 rubles from him, and to abolish the chapels. The saint's warmest concerns were directed to the Mongolian school, opened by decree at the Ascension Monastery. It was not arranged under Platkovsky in all respects. The saint put her room in order; ordered that they study Church Slavonic there; called in capable teachers and increased their salaries; imposed a fine of 15 rubles on those clergy who did not send children 7–15 years old to school. The school also accepted children of secular people. In 1728, the son of Lieutenant Izotov signed a statement that “until he completely learns the Mungal language, he will not leave school.” There were 32 students in the school, whereas in 1809 there were no more than 70. The saint also took great care in supplying the school with the necessary books. In 1729 he wrote to Lang: “Noble Mr. Lavrenty Lavrentievich! My forever friend! in the current February 28, 1729, the teacher of the Mungal school, the unbaptized Lama Lapsan, gave us a denunciation and announced that he teaches the children collected by decree in the school of the Mungal language, and he has a small number of Mungal books; and those who are, those other students have studied, and there is nothing left to teach; and there are books beyond Baikal from various lamas, without which it is impossible to stay in the teaching of the Mungal literacy. And which books and which have them were included in the registry when reporting. He asked that these books, by order of His Majesty, be taken from the lamas for correspondence to the Irkutsk school; and when they correspond, they will give themselves back to those lamas. Last July 1728, against the verbal announcement of the teacher Lapsan about the books, I sent a promemory to the Irkutsk provincial office about sending overseas, to whom it should be, His Majesty's decree for taking those books from the lamas for the sake of copying them. This March, the office responded to me that Commissar Chechetkin was written about the confiscation of those books last July, but there has been no response from the commissar to this day; and now a decree has been sent to Commissioner Beighton about this. For this reason, I ask your honor to try to take away the books from the lamas and send them to us in Irkutsk for copying them; and as soon as they are copied, I will send the old ones to those lamas for return to your honor. And which books and who exactly has them and which ones are most necessary, is enclosed with this letter a register. I hope this comes from your honor sooner than from Beighton. March 29th, 1729." Three months later, Lang sent the following books: 1. Sundu, it contains 237 sheets. 2. Also Sundu, 259 sheets. 3. Paima Mingata, 447 sheets. 4. Chinggis Khankitu. 5. Gus Lamain Tuku. 6. Khotola Teduseksen Khan Kabuduna Tuku. 7. Odesek Hane. All these books were immediately written off, the lists were given to Lapsan for school against receipt on July 27, 1730, and the original ones were sent by express for return to the lamas. The maintenance of the Mungal Church school cost the saint considerable worries and sorrows. According to the decree of the Synod, the monasteries of Kirensky, Posolsky and Selenginsy were to deliver bread and clothing to the school. But Metropolitan Anthony of Tobolsk, even contrary to the previous order, forbade the Kirensky abbot to deliver bread for the maintenance of the Irkutsk school and ordered the Kirensky Monastery to be under the jurisdiction of the Tobolsk Metropolis. Saint Innocent ordered the Nerchinsk monastery to deliver bread to support 7 disciples out of 35, but the monastery burned down. All that remained for the saint was to support the Mungalochurch school from the income of the Ascension Monastery, which also supported him. Due to a strange oversight, when St. Innocent was appointed to the Irkutsk diocese, no order was made regarding the salary. The boundaries of the Irkutsk diocese were also not determined by the Synod; and the Metropolitan of Tobolsk, due to the type of economy of his house, even wanted to retain some districts that were under the jurisdiction of the vicar of the Bishop of Irkutsk. This was also a great burden for churches located 1000 and 2000 versts from Tobolsk. Saint Innocent presented to the Synod about the need for a salary and about the boundaries of the Irkutsk diocese, required by the area itself. Reports about both were sent in 1728 with proxies, by order of the Synod. The Holy Synod made a decision on August 29, 1729, both on the assignment of salaries and the amount for the construction of the bishop's house, and on the boundaries of the diocese, which included, in accordance with the petition of St. Innocent, not only the Selenga district, but also the Yakut and Ilimsky districts. This definition was communicated to the Senate; but we had to wait a long time for the Senate order. Saint Innocent struggled with extreme needs. In his hands were the means given to him for the Chinese path. But only in 1730, when the exchange of goods began in Kyakhta, did the opportunity open up to sell off the Chinese salary; Yes, and here we encountered troubles. In May 1730, the saint wrote to the Irkutsk provincial chancellery: “On July 10, 1726, 10, I accepted, by decree of the blessed and eternally worthy memory of His Imperial Majesty Peter the Great, for the Chinese way from the Irkutsk provincial chancellery from the state treasury, in salary, soft junk goods, to the Chinese hand, in which in that office and signed; with the goods paid and I had a route to Selenginsk, where I lived for about a year, waiting for my reception in China. But by decree of Empress Catherine, my path to China was stopped, and I was ordered to go to Irkutsk. He took the goods with him because at that time it was not ordered to go to Ugra with soft junk for sale. And now at the Kyakhta fortress of soft junk, trade is carried out freely with Chinese merchants. That is why I want this product, given to me as part of my salary, to be sent from Irkutsk for sale to Kyakhta with the investor of the Ascension Monastery, Savva Bokov, and with the choirboy Andrei Popov. I ask that the Irkutsk provincial chancellery favor the sale of goods in the Kyakhta fortress for the knowledge of the local commanders Bokov and Popov and the decree of her imperial majesty about the pass at the Nikolskaya outpost and in the suburbs and stockades.” At the same time, a list of the goods complained about is attached: “Ten thousand Yakut ermines, three thousand Yakut squirrels, four lynxes, one corso, two hundred white foxes, one ermine fur, four hundred arctic foxes.” Voivode Izmailov recognized the goods as government salaries, not subject to customs duties, and issued tickets to Bokov and Popov. In October, a notification was received from the Kyakhta customs office that Russian goods had been exchanged for Chinese ones. All that remained was to exchange the latter for money. Meanwhile, the Tobolsk Chancellery demanded that, no matter what, they collect duty on the goods. The saint was forced to explain the matter to the Tobolsk governor Pleshcheev in a humble letter and in a formal manner. Due to these obstacles, Russian goods remained unsold until the death of the saint. 27 Almost two years passed, and the Senate did not respond to the Synod’s message about the Irkutsk bishopric. On March 31, 1731, the Synod again reported this to the Senate, but even after that the Senate was silent for six months. Finally, in October 1731, the Synod came up with a report to the Empress herself. The definition of the boundaries of the diocese was approved. Then the Senate hastened to order the payment of a salary to the Irkutsk bishop and the release of funds for the construction of the bishop's house. But these fruits of the saint’s care had to be used by the successors of Saint Innocent, and not by himself. Through the thorny path of shortcomings and sorrows, the saint approached the end of his earthly life 876. Saint Innocent was never in good health during his ministry in Irkutsk 877. During the months of October and November 1731, he lay sick and was not able to perform ministry even for those awaiting ordination as deacons and priests. During his illness, he thanked those who served him; promised, if he recovered, to reward everyone from his own hands; He was especially concerned about the construction of a stone church in the Ascension Monastery in place of the previous wooden one, which was extremely dilapidated. He regretted that the government did not assign a salary to him and his house, of which the first thousand rubles had long been promised to them for the construction of a stone church. He commanded the brethren, in the event of his death, to take care of the church, especially since he had already taken a lot of care in collecting funds for it. On November 24th, feeling the intensification of his illness, he ordered to take 300 rubles out of the storeroom and satisfy everyone with a salary, and to make the other amounts of the monastery known to all the brethren exactly, and to put seals and inscriptions on the bags about the amount of the amount; Then he ordered his favorite fox fur coat to be brought and presented it to the governor Paisius for his services. On November 25th he ordered prayers in the churches of Irkutsk for relief from his suffering, which was done. On the morning of November 27th, the saint of God rested peacefully, not in the years of advanced old age, but exhausted by the worries and sorrows of life. According to appearances from the afterlife, the saint was like this: dark brown hair, thick, oblong and partly curly, dark complexion, average height, light brown beard. In 1764, on the occasion of work being carried out under the altar of the Tikhvin Church, the saint’s coffin was seen completely intact; even the velvet with which it was upholstered was not damaged by the dampness of the place; when they opened the coffin, the holy body turned out to be completely incorrupt and emitted a very pleasant smell. Under Emperor Paul, senators Rzhevsky and Levashov, who inspected the Irkutsk province, reported to the sovereign about the incorruptible relics and miracles of the saint. In 1800, the Synod ordered clergy to believe the senators' report on the spot. A strict investigation fully justified all their news. Then it was ordered to celebrate the memory of St. Innocent throughout Russia on the 26th day of November. Here are some of the saint's miracles: In 1770, the wife of the Irkutsk registrar Pelageya Sudeikin, who had been suffering from fever for two weeks, saw a vision: she imagined that she was in the Tikhvin church, and the saint was performing Matins in the altar. She asked to bless her, and he came out of the altar, blessed, then sent her part of the artos with the angelic youth; she tasted the artos and felt healthy. Then she wanted to thank the healer, but, not knowing how to call on him, she asked: what prayer should I read to him? The saint, stopping his service, came out to her and unfolded a scroll in front of her, where Pelageya read: “My merciful mentor, treasure of compassion, orthodoxy to the teacher, praise of the bishops, helpless intercessor, our father hierarch, pray to God for us.” The awakened Pelageya felt completely healthy and immediately stood up. Yakut merchant Pavel Sergeevich Lebedev broke his leg and no longer expected to be alive. On the night (January 3, 1785), the saint entered his bedroom with a staff and said: “Ask for help from Innocent, who is in Irkutsk.” The merchant woke up, but, not giving any meaning to the vision, he fell asleep again. The saint appears again and, reproaching him for unbelief, hits the floor with his staff. The patient, upon awakening, sees a sign of a blow on the floor and begins to believe. Before the morning he sees the saint for the third time and already receives relief from the pain; the previous ache in his leg is replaced by itching. In the morning he could already walk without a crutch and hurried to go to the saint’s tomb. In 1786, Archpriest Jacob Zagoskin, who had suffered for a long time from an eye disease and, finally, almost completely lost his sight, called on the saint to help him. Sitting in an armchair, he lost himself in a light doze, and suddenly Saint Innocent appeared to him in full vestments, in which he rests in the tomb; put his hand on his head and ordered him to call on his name more often. After a little while the room became clearer for the blind man, and then he began to see everything clearly. The Irkutsk tradeswoman had wounds all over her body, and she did not move for six years. In a light doze, she sees an old man in a white robe, with light brown hair and gray beard, of average height. He told her that he had “come to heal her,” and gave her a drink that she found pleasant to the taste; After that, she was already able to make the sign of the cross, which she had not been able to do for two years, and even got out of bed and moved to another room. The one who appeared was exactly the same as the saint appeared in the icon she saw of him. One weak-minded woman, brought to Irkutsk from Yekaterinburg, being seriously ill, asked for money from her benefactors, in whose house she lived. “What do you need them for?” - they asked her. “It is necessary,” she said, “to go across the river, light candles where those dressed in black dresses live and the old man is buried.” The weak-minded woman quickly swam across the Angara and forced the beggar to show her the way to the Ascension monastery. Here she prayed fervently throughout the Liturgy before the icon of the Mother of God and often went to the window of the sub-tent where the saint’s tomb was located. Two days later, she was not only healed of her illness, but also became completely sane. She now told who she was and where she came from. Before, no one knew this; She also said that the saint appeared to her in a dream, ordered her to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries, adding that soon, on such and such a day, she would die. Indeed, on the day appointed by the saint, she died. This incident took place in 1796 878. Memory of the Venerable Diodorus of Yuriegorsk 25 versts from Olonets to the north, near Lake Yuryev and on the mountain of the same name, at the very beginning of the 17th century the hermit Diodorus settled and built a monastery with the Church of the Holy Trinity. In those days, there were many people who wanted to start new monasteries; but Diodorus was not one of the many 879 . A native of the Turchasovsky parish, Diomede, in the nineteenth year of his life, went to the Solovetsky Monastery for prayer, remained to live here and, after testing in obedience, was tonsured into monasticism by Abbot Anthony; the abbot entrusted him to the supervision of the spiritual monk, Hieromonk Joseph of Novgorod. Having buried his father, who died as a monk on Solovki, Diodorus wished to see the Solovetsky hermits about whom Joseph told him. He left for a deserted island, taking with him neither food nor drink; After walking around the island for 40 days, he became extremely exhausted; some of the brothers found him under a tree barely alive; they brought it to the monastery courtyard and called for a confessor. After confession, strengthened by food, the zealot of the hermit’s life settled on a deserted island with two hermits he had found. From here on, he went to talk with other hermits, such as: Elder Ephraim, Nicephorus of Belets, Alexey Kaluzhanin, Joasaph, Tikhon Moskvich, Theodore Ryazanets, Tryphon, Joasaph, Sebastian and others. The hermit Tikhon, at his urgent request, told about himself that he left Aleksin during the defrocking, leaving everything that was his, and, having sailed across the sea on a fragile boat, after a three-year struggle he lives peacefully. Nicephorus, met without any clothes, hastened to hide and only said: “Visit, visit, Diodorus, so that you yourself may have consolation from God.” Diodorus diligently visited the hermits, providing them with the necessities of life. Subsequently, the brothers of the monastery began to grumble about this and said: “The bread of the monastery is wasted on those who do not work for the monastery.” Especially when the hospital cellarer Kirik, better than whom no one cared for the sick, went into hermitage, the brothers were greatly indignant, and Abbot Irinarch was forced to take measures against the passion for hermitism. He sent “brothers, archers and workers” to the islands so that they would return the hermits to the monastery; Then Diodorus was imprisoned in chains in the hospital, and a guard was assigned to him. Three months later he went to the island again and lived here for six months. His brother, who also lived in the Solovetsky Monastery, found him, but in the most pitiful position, weakened from the fight against unclean spirits. Diodorus now decided to part with Solovki and retired to Onega. Not far from Kenoozero, in a deserted forest, he chose a place to stay and began to struggle. But neighboring residents forced him to leave. He liked Yuryeva Mountain, above Lake Vodlo; here he erected a cross, set up a cell and began to labor in prayer; Prokhor soon came here to him, and they spent 7 years as hermits. After that, Diodorus decided to found the monastery of the Holy Trinity here and went to Moscow; through the cellarer of the Sergius Lavra, Alexander Bogolep, having gained access to the queen, Elder Marfa Ivanovna, he received from her various utensils and 200 rubles of money; Tsar Michael gave the elder a letter; He received 300 rubles from other benefactors. This is how the church and monastery were built. The church had to be built on the site where there was once a cemetery for idolaters, which was not without ghosts. Soon a satisfied number of brethren gathered and another church of the Mother of God with a chapel was built in honor of the Solovetsky wonderworkers. The monastery did not yet have its own arable farming, and the place was far from settlements. That is why there was a need for bread. There was a murmur against the elder: they said he had spent the money on the church, but had nothing to eat. “Be patient,” answered the elder and began to pray himself. A bright old man appeared to him. "Who are you?" – asked Diodorus. “I am Alexander Oshevensky,” said the one who appeared, “do not grieve, but strengthen the brethren; But the Lord nourished the people of Israel in the wilderness, but you were few; There will be a time when many brethren will gather here; Now tell the brothers to fish in the lake.” The elder did not believe what had appeared the first time, fearing deception: the celestial being appeared to him three times, and only when the one who appeared had read his prayers did Diodorus listen to him trustingly. The brothers caught so much fish that, leaving what they needed for themselves, they sold it for 60 rubles and bought bread. Another time, they got rid of hunger by accidentally finding a black marten in the forest and selling it for 8 rubles. The monk Theodosius, a restless man, was sent to the monastery by the patriarch. Once he became so angry with the elder who taught him goodness that he wanted to kill him. He led the monk into the forest under some pretext, severely beat him to the point that he threw him under a tree, considering him dead. When the elder, having come to his senses, somehow made it to his cell, Theodosius was frightened and threw himself at the feet of the abbot, asking him to forgive him. “May God forgive you, child, this is not your business, but the business of the enemy,” answered the kindly old man and then did not tell anyone about what had happened. Theodosius did not change even then. He began to indignate the brethren against the abbot and persuaded some to leave the monastery: 17 people fled with Theodosius from the monastery, stealing what they could from the property of the monastery. Diodorus thanked God for delivering the monastery from turmoil and anxiety. Diodorus had to see many other sorrows; but he bore it patiently. Most of his time was spent in solitary prayer. The end of his life was approaching. Getting ready to go to Kargopol for the needs of the monastery, the monk gathered the brethren and convinced them to lead a monastic life and not listen to people like Theodosius, and said to Elder Prokhor: “We will no longer see you here; if God wills, see you in the next century.” And indeed, having arrived in Kargopol, he fell ill here, received the Holy Mysteries and died peacefully on November 27, 1633. He was buried here under the church; but his disciple Prokhor, two years later, transported his incorrupt body to the monastery, where it was buried on the southern side of the Church of the Holy Trinity. After him, his spiritual testament was found, where he strictly commanded the brethren not to keep anything intoxicating in the monastery. In the handwritten calendar, the Monk Diodorus is called a wonderworker. His relics rest hidden in the church of his monastery, turned into the parish Yangorsky 880. Recollection of the sign and miracle from the icon of the Mother of God in Novgorod The sign from the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos in Novgorod took place in 1170. The Suzdal prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, planning to form a northern power in the north of Rus', united with the princes of Smolensk, Ryazan, Murom, Polotsk, Pereyaslavl and Rostov and wanted to defeat the strength of the Novgorodians with one blow. “At that time,” says the chronicle, “the Dvinians did not want to give tribute to Novgorod, but surrendered to the Grand Duke Andrei Yuryevich, who was then ruling in Suzdal. The Novgorodians sent a detachment to the Dvina to demand legal tribute. Hearing this, Andrei sent his regiment against them, which the Novgorodians defeated on Bela Lake.” Then Andrei became angry with the Novgorodians and began to gather new and many regiments against them: “not all the Russian land united, there were only 72 princes at that time.” But he himself fell ill and sent his son Mstislav in his place. “I came to the Novgorod land and did a lot of evil.” On February 25, the united troops surrounded the city and bloody attacks began. The Novgorodians, seeing the strong army of the besiegers and exhausted from the battle, were in great fear and trusted only in the Lord, His Most Holy Mother and in the prayers of their archpastor John (in monasticism Elijah). Day and night the churches were open, filled with people tearfully praying for the salvation of the city. The shepherd also remained vigilantly vigilant with them in prayer, protecting them with his prayers more than strong walls. On the third night, when, according to his custom, he stood in prayer before the icon of the All-Merciful Savior and cried out with tears to the Lord for the deliverance of the city, he suddenly heard a voice from the icon: “Go to the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is on Ilyinskaya Street, and from there lift up the icon of the Lady to the city walls, and immediately you will see the salvation of your city.” Filled with great joy, he spent the whole night without sleep. In the morning he convened the entire council of clergy, announced to them about the voice of revelation that had come to him: the people glorified God and His Most Pure Mother and were encouraged, as if they had received strong help. The archbishop sent his protodeacon along with the clergy and ordered to bring the icon of the Mother of God to the cathedral, and he himself began to perform prayer singing at the cathedral; but the messengers returned with the news that, despite all their efforts, they could not move the icon from its place. Then the saint himself went with the whole cathedral and, entering the church, fell before the icon of the Lady and prayed: “Oh, Most Merciful Lady, Virgin Mary, You are the hope and intercessor of our city, protection and refuge for all Christians; pray to Thy Son and our God for our city and do not betray us to our enemies, sin for our sake; but hear the weeping and sighing of Your people and spare us, just as the Ninevites of old were spared for the sake of repentance.” Rising from the ground, he began to perform a prayer service and, when the clergy exclaimed: “The intercession of Christians is shameless,” suddenly, by itself, the icon of the Mother of God moved; The people, seeing the miracle, unanimously cried out: “Lord, have mercy!” The archbishop, taking the holy icon in his hands, kissed it and, with prayer singing, carried it, accompanied by the people, to the city wall and there placed it opposite the attackers. It was already one o'clock in the afternoon; The enemies pressed harder on the city and shot a darkness of arrows at the city walls. Suddenly the holy icon turned its sacred face away from the attackers and turned to the city, as if as a sign of the Lady’s great mercy towards the needy. The saint, looking at the Divine face, saw tears flowing from the merciful eyes of the Lady; he took these precious drops on his phelonion and exclaimed: “Oh, glorious miracle! how the Queen of Heaven sheds tears from a dry tree, showing us a sign of Her tearful prayer to Her Son and our God for the deliverance of the city!” Sudden horror fell on those who resisted, and darkness covered them, the wrath of God confused them; they mutually amazed each other. Seeing their confusion, the citizens opened the gates, rushed towards the enemies and defeated their regiments, with the help of the Most Holy Theotokos. In memory of this event, Saint Elijah established on the 27th day of November the feast of the Sign of the Mother of God in Veliky Novgorod and called it the day of deliverance of Novgorod and the day of punishment for those who fight against the same believers. All of Russia accepted this holiday. The miraculous icon was in the Transfiguration Church on Ilyinaya Street for 186 years after the appearance of the sign. In 1356, a special church was built in Novgorod for the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, which is still called the Cathedral of the Mother of God of the Sign. Pachomius Logothetes, a hieromonk, a Serbian by birth, who came to Russia from Mount Athos to Novgorod, in 1460, at the request of Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod, wrote two canons for the Feast of the Sign, one of which was printed in the service of the Mother of God. The Suffering of Saint Christ Blessed Christ 881, an Albanian Serb, settled in Constantinople for forty years and took up gardening. Once, while selling a batch of apples to a Turk, he got into an argument with the Turk; From an argument it came to a quarrel. The angry Turk decided to take revenge on Christ in his own way: he reported to Chaush-basha that Christ had given his word to turn Turk; for such cases the Turk is always ready with witnesses, and the Mohammedan judge is ready to trust them, and the Turk introduced them, like Christ, to the guardian of state secrets. To the interrogation of Chaush-bashi, Christ boldly answered that he had never thought and was not thinking of changing the Christian faith to Mohammedanism and that no one would force him to change his conscience. Chaush-basha ordered to punish him with sticks. For the fanatics of Mohammedan lies, this was not enough. They beat the bound confessor on the head until blood flowed in streams, forcing him to renounce Christianity. Finally, with a heavy block on his feet, they imprisoned him. Caesarius Dapanus was sitting in prison at the same time. Out of compassion, he secretly released Christ from the stock and offered him food to eat. “What do I need food for? - answered the sufferer. - Death is near; I’d rather come to my Christ with hunger.” Then he took a bundle of money from his belt and, handing it to Dapan, asked that several Liturgies be served for him after his death. On the same day the martyr was taken out of prison and beheaded. This was in 1748. Memory of the Venerable Nektarios of Pechersk “Reverend Elder Nektarios, distinguished by obedience,” this is how the imperishable Nektarios is shown in Kalnofoisky. According to this description, the predominant virtue of the Monk Nektarios was unquestioning obedience, and it was through this that he achieved bliss. His relics rest openly in Anthony's Cave 882. The people of the world do not want to hear about obedience: they value unlimited freedom. How can one not seem to see the need for obedience? In nature, each link is linked to another and everything is held together by the obedience of the lower to the higher. The Lord of the Worlds rules the human world through the angelic world, and the material world is placed at the disposal of man. Is order possible in a family, in a community, in a city, in a state if there is no obedience? Freedom, they say, is an inviolable shrine! But what kind of freedom? True freedom consists in obedience to the holy will of God; the other freedom is humiliation for man, thoughtlessness and wickedness. “Obedience is better than sacrifice. To be disobedient is the same as committing the sin of sorcery, and to be disobedient is the same as committing the wickedness of idolatry” (see: 1 Samuel 15, 22, 23). This is the teaching of God's revelation! “Nectarius is obedient and equal to him, Sergius! as those who have bowed their souls under the yoke of the obedience of Christ, by your prayer bend our rebellion under the yoke of the obedience of Jesus, so that we may diligently fulfill the commandments of Christ” 883. Holy Hieromartyr Aviv, Bishop of Nekres in Kakheti Aviv, one of the 13 fathers of Syria (commemorated on May 7), who lived in the 6th century, during his bishopric in the city of Nekresi, zealously opposed the Persians who conquered Kakheti, who persecuted the Christian faith, turned Christians away from worshiping the True God and spread their churches everywhere. The saint, undaunted, with a cross in his hands, walked through the cities and villages of his diocese, exterminated superstition, extinguished altars set on fire by fire worshipers, and with preaching and miracles distracted the people from fire services and returned those who had fallen away again into the bowels of the Church of Christ. For this he was captured by order of noble Persians, subjected to scourging and torture, imprisoned and from there presented to the Persian satrap in the city of Rehi, who, having heard his firm confession of the God of Christ, again subjected Aviv to torture and condemned him to stoning. And so the saint, faithful to God, joyfully accepted his martyrdom. Although his remains were thrown out of the city by the tormentors to be devoured by wild animals, neither birds nor beasts touched them, and after several days the monks of the Samtavria Monastery secretly took them away and buried them with honor. From here, under the ruler Stephen (639–663), the relics of Saint Aviv were transferred to the Mtskheta Samtavra Cathedral and placed under the holy throne, where they rest in secret to this day. Saint Frumentius, Enlightener of Ethiopia The Tyrian merchant Meropius had a nephew, Frumentius, whom he, out of curiosity and on trade matters, went to the countries adjacent to the Red Sea, and took with him, as well as his brother, Edesius. Meropius, landing on the shores of Abyssinia, was killed along with others by local residents (about 340), and Frumentius and Edesius, who were left alive, were presented to the Ethiopian king in Auxum. The king entrusted them with important positions (treasurer and clerk), and after the king’s death around 342, his widow convinced the brothers to take care of the affairs of the government until the heir came of age. The Christian faith was then known in Abyssinia only through traders from the Roman Empire, for whom Frumentius built a church in Auxum. When the Chagem king reached adulthood, both brothers were released to their fatherland. Edesius went to Tire and was a priest there, and Frumentius arrived in Alexandria to inform the bishop about the situation of the Christians there and the need for evangelists for the country there. Athanasius the Great, after due preparation, consecrated Frumentius himself as bishop around 353. With the help of priests taken from Egypt, he converted to Christianity the two kings Elazan and Sazan who reigned together after the childless Chagem (t around 351) and planted the holy faith among the natives, laying the foundation for the translation of the Holy Scriptures and liturgical books into the Abyssinian language. Therefore he is rightly called the Apostle of Ethiopia. Died around 370. 15th. Venerable Paisiy Velichkovsky The Monk Paisiy (in the world Peter Velichkovsky - Ed.) was born in the city of Poltava on December 21, 1722. Peter's paternal line was of the clergy - his brother, father, grandfather and great-grandfather were priests. At the age of four, the boy lost his father. His mother Irina became Peter’s guardian and educator. The boy was taught to read and write according to the Psalter and after that, at the request of his mother and the parish of the Assumption Church, in his thirteenth year he was sent to study at the Kyiv Theological Academy. Here, at the academy, Peter first began to be drawn to the monastic life; a wise mentor in this endeavor was the hieroschemamonk of the Fraternal Epiphany Monastery Pachomius, who discovered in the soul of his pupil a feeling of reverence for the Word of God. When Peter turned seventeen, he wished to retire to a monastery and become a monk there. With the blessing of his confessor, Peter went to the Lyubech Monastery, founded by the Monk Anthony of Pechersk. The child-loving abbot Nikifor received the young man and blessed him to serve as cellar. One of the monks of the monastery, Hieromonk Joachim, seeing Peter’s great love for the patristic creations, offered the young man the “Ladder” of John, abbot of Sinai. The monk’s obedience now became the work of rewriting “The Ladder.” Soon changes took place in the Lyubech Monastery. The former abbot was replaced by a new one, who reigned “not in the likeness of the former abbot, but in a sovereign manner.” One day Peter, out of fear, did not find out what kind of food the abbot asked him for, annoyed the latter with his lack of understanding, for which he was kicked out with anger. Soon he came to the monastery of St. Nicholas in the Medvedovsky monastery on the Tyasmin River. Here, on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord in 1741, Peter was tonsured into the ryassophore with the name Plato. The monk Plato did not have to labor here for long, for the Uniates launched a persecution against Orthodoxy and the monastery was closed. Monk Platon and a few went to the Kiev Lavra, where he found shelter. After some time, a friend from the academy, Alexy, who appeared in the Lavra, again awakened in him a thirst for desert life and wandering, reminding him of their vow of youth - not to live in the abodes of bodily contentment and prosperity. This time the monk Plato went to Wallachia. Having traveled the path of wanderings through the cells and caves of ascetics, he finally came to the Treystensky St. Nicholas monastery, cared for by the famous elder Vasily of Polyanomerulsky. Here Plato's obedience was to guard the monastery grapes. Soon Plato decided to hit the road again; this time he goes to the mountain monastery Kyrnul in the name of St. Archangel Michael. Here, with the blessing of Elder Mikhail Treystensky and the head of the Kyrnul monastery, Hieromonk Theodosius, the desert life of Father Plato began, who “sat in his cell rejoicing and praising God with tears, learning monastic silence - the mother of repentance and prayer.” Finally, the monk Plato leaves this place too, setting off on a new journey - this time to Mount Athos. This was the last journey that the monk made of his own free will; all his subsequent walks were forced abandonment of monasteries. Before Athos, Father Plato settled in deserts, and after Athos - in hostels. Plato reached the Holy Mountain with many difficulties, and four days after his arrival on Athos, Father Plato was left alone - his companion Hieromonk Tryphon fell ill and died. The monk Plato went around many places of the Holy Mountain, looking for elders strong in feat and knowledge of the patristic writings, and, not finding such, he moved alone into the desert, spending forty months in this feat. “Who can confess his deeds, when he was always one with the One God, I exist to him in the kindled Devotion of God.” In 1750, the father of the Moldavian hermits and elders, Vasily Polyanomerulsky, appeared on Athos. Having found Plato and talked with him for several days and nights, at the request of the hermit, he dressed him in a mantle and changed his name to Paisius. After some time, the monk Vissarion came to Elder Paisius, asking him to leave him to live with him in obedience. The elder, who knew from his own experience the same thirst, invited Vissarion to live together and perform all feats, physical and spiritual, equally for both. The Monk Paisius taught that a true mentor in the matter of soul salvation can only be one who forces himself to do all the commandments of the Lord, according to the word of Scripture: “Whoever does and teaches, he will be called great.” “What other person can he set on the path that he himself has not walked?” Keeping the commandments of the Lord and teaching all this to others - such is the image of holiness achieved by Elder Paisius. Elder Paisios did not consider himself worthy to teach, so he agreed to accept Vissarion only as a friend, but not as a student, so that both, instead of a father and mentor, would have the teaching of the holy and God-bearing Fathers of the Church. With this condition, Saint Paisius received the other brothers, and therefore a desire arose among his brotherhood to collect the writings of the holy fathers, a tradition of bookishness. This was unusual for the Athonite monasteries of that time: most of the monks did not have books, and had not even heard of the holy writers. That is why every discovery of an ancient book was a cause for great joy for St. Paisius. Soon the number of brethren grew to twelve, and the need for a priest and confessor became urgent, so not only the brethren, but also other Athonite ascetics began to beg Paisius to accept holy orders. In 1758, Father Paisiy was ordained hieromonk. The brethren, with the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople Seraphim, moved to the Iliinsky monastery of the Pantokrator monastery. Following the example of other national monasteries on Mount Athos, this monastery became the monastery of Little Russians. People from the Zaporozhye Sich and other places in Ukraine found rest here. In the Iliinsky monastery a hostel was established, which, following the example of the holy fathers, the Monk Paisius likened to the Passion of the Lord, or the Earthly Heaven, in the midst of which God planted the tree of life - blessed obedience. The Monk Paisius' sojourn in the Athonite desert community lasted seventeen years. At this time, oppression of Christians by Muslims began on Mount Athos, and because of this, the elder left the Holy Mountain and returned to Moldavia. There was found the empty Dragomirny Monastery of the Holy Spirit, where, with the permission of Lord Gregory and the blessing of Metropolitan Gabriel of Jassy, ​​Elder Paisius and his brethren moved in. Moldo-Vlahia of those times was a refuge for monastics from all surrounding countries - this was the time of the closure of monasteries in Russia (the introduction of states) and the Uniato-Catholic offensive against the Orthodox southwestern Slavs. In three years, the number of the Dragomirn brethren tripled. The organizer of the brotherhood, Father Paisius, wrote and introduced a charter according to the order of St. Basil the Great, St. Theodosius the Great, St. Theodore the Studite and Mount Athos. The main ideas of this charter: non-covetousness, cutting off the will and obedience, mental prayer and reading books, incessant handicraft and household decorum. With the onset of the long winter evenings until Lazarus Saturday, after Vespers, Elder Paisios gathered around him all the brethren, alternately Slavs and Moldovans, and read the teachings of the holy fathers - Basil the Great, "The Ladder", Abba Dorotheus, Simeon the New Theologian and others. In the same monastery the monk accepted the schema without changing his name. Paisiev's works on translation and correspondence flourished here in all their glory; monks who spoke various languages ​​worked to disseminate the patristic works and compiled the Slavic codex of the Philokalia. The land on which the Dragomirn Monastery was located went to Catholic Austria after the Russian-Turkish War (1774); Abba Paisius, not seeing the possibility of the spiritual world of the Eastern Church in the new state, decided to leave and take with him the entire brethren - 350 people. The Moldavian ruler Gregory Ghica and Metropolitan Gabriel provided them with the poor Sekul Monastery of the Beheading of John the Baptist, secluded in the mountains. Life in Sekule was in the image of Dragomirn, but the brethren multiplied, overflowing all the cells and buildings, so the reverend father turned to the ruler Konstantin Muruz for help in building the cells. To the amazement of the elder, Constantine ordered the brethren to move to the richest Nyametsky monastery. The elder began to ask the ruler not to transfer his peaceful brotherhood to a crowded monastery, often visited by laymen; Constantine answered all the prayers: “Be obedient, go to Neamets, reasoning about nothing.” Entering the cathedral church of the Nyametsky monastery on the eve of the Dormition in 1779, singing “It is worthy to eat,” the brethren bowed to the holy icons, and the elder, approaching the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, entrusted himself and the brethren to the protection and nourishment of the Mother of God. In Neamtsa, life was organized by Father Paisius in the image of Dragomirna and Sekul: community life, mental prayer, correspondence and reading of patristic books, daily (morning and evening) confession of thoughts to confessors. The saint's flock multiplied - in the Nyametsky monastery there were monks of more than ten nationalities, and by 1790 their number had increased to a thousand people. At that time it was the most populous monastery of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In 1790, Abba Paisius was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. Throughout the entire period of his senile labors in the Moldavian monasteries, Abba Paisius taught the brethren mental prayer, continuing the single line of the Fathers of the Philokalia, St. Gregory of Sinaite, St. Gregory Palamas and St. Nilus of Sora. Father Paisius cites numerous proofs and testimonies of patristic veneration of the mental prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” which is both prayer, confession of faith, and salvation itself. The elder finds a place and meaning for all types of Christian prayer according to their merits and fruitfulness: “Clever-heart prayer is for the successful, for the average – singing, that is, ordinary church hymns, and for beginners – obedience and work.” The old man’s difficult life was coming to its earthly end. Having been ill before his death and having taught through Sophrony, the confessor of the Slavic brethren, and Sylvester, the confessor of the Moldavian brethren, a blessing to everyone with whom he was connected by spiritual ties of asceticism, he reposed in peace in 1794 on November 15, having lived 72 years. The Monk Paisius was buried in the Nyametsky monastery in the cathedral church of the Ascension of the Lord, near the southern wall. The life and deeds of Elder Paisius affected the spiritual history of hundreds of Russian monasteries. The famous hermitages: Sofronievskaya, Glinskaya, and especially Optina, which determined the spiritual revival of the Russian people in the 19th century, were continuers of the spiritual heritage of Elder Paisius. The venerable elders of Optina: Moses, Leonid, Macarius and Ambrose - were disciples and continuers of the work that the famous archimandrite Neamtsa and Sekula - the Venerable Paisius - served so much. The Monk Paisius was canonized at the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988 for his holy, ascetic life as a man of prayer, performer and teacher of the noetic Jesus Prayer, as a restorer in Russian monasticism of the saving feat of eldership, as a spiritual writer who left in his works an edifying example for the ascent of the children of the Church along the path of spiritual perfection. The saint's memory is celebrated on November 15. 19th. Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow Saint Philaret of Moscow (in the world Vasily Mikhailovich Drozdov) was born on December 26, 1782 in the city of Kolomna. The saint's father and mother came from a hereditary clergy. On December 20, 1791, the future saint was enrolled in the Kolomna Seminary. His rare natural talents were combined with excellent zeal. Soon, in connection with the transfer of the Kolomna Seminary to Tula, the young man, fulfilling the will of his father, went to the Lavra school in the monastery of St. Sergius. Moving to the Lavra filled his soul with unspeakable joy. At the beginning of 1802, Vasily was appointed senior over the seminary hospital. While caring for the sick, he learned compassionate love for his neighbors, learned the weakness and frailty of man’s bodily nature, and his soul learned to constantly remember death. In April of the same year, he was entrusted with a new obedience - preaching in the Refectory Church of St. Sergius. The talented student was noticed by Metropolitan Platon of Moscow (Levshin, 1812), who at that time spent most of his time near the Lavra - in the Bethany monastery. Upon completion of the course in August 1806, the future saint was appointed to the vacancy of a poetry teacher. At the same time, Metropolitan Platon appointed him the Lavra preacher. Himself a famous preacher, he recognized the superiority of his favorite's homiletical gift over his own. “I write like a human being,” said the generous archpastor, “and he writes like an angel.” Preoccupation with teaching and preaching obedience did not dampen the prayerfulness of the young teacher. The world weighed on him. On November 16, 1808, the future saint took monastic vows and gave his name in honor of Saint Philaret the Merciful. Five days later, Metropolitan Platon ordained him to the rank of hierodeacon. The newly tonsured hierodeacon planned to spend his entire life in the Lavra of the Life-Giving Trinity. But in connection with the transformation of theological schools, the Commission of Theological Schools requested the most capable teachers from various educational institutions to come to the northern capital. Hierodeacon Philaret was summoned from Trinity Seminary. A new, reformed academy was opening in St. Petersburg. The old academy was converted into a seminary. Father Philaret was appointed its inspector and bachelor of philosophy class. In February 1810, Hieromonk Philaret was transferred from the seminary and school to the transformed St. Petersburg Academy with a bachelor of theological sciences, teaching at the same time church history. From 1810 to 1817, he developed almost a complete course of theological and church historical sciences, taught at the academy. Saint Philaret was the first at the St. Petersburg Academy to begin giving lectures in Russian. In St. Petersburg, Hieromonk Philaret preached a lot. His sermons attracted the attention of the capital; they started talking about him in court circles as a new bright luminary. On March 11, 1812, the Synod appointed him rector of the academy and professor of theological sciences; and soon after that he was appointed abbot of the ancient monastery - the Novgorod Yuriev Monastery. In 1812, the disasters of the Napoleonic invasion struck Russia. Together with the entire clergy, Archimandrite Filaret donated from his salary to military needs. Three years after the end of the Patriotic War, Archimandrite Philaret, on behalf of the Synod, compiled a prayer of thanks for the salvation of the Fatherland, which began to be performed annually on the day of the Nativity of Christ. The spiritual state of Russian society in the Alexander era was alarming. On the one hand, the disasters Russia experienced during the Patriotic War deepened religious sentiments. But on the other hand, in their spiritual quests, people who lagged behind the basic principles of Russian life often turned not to the faith of their ancestors, but to the books of Western theologians and mystics. Archimandrite Philaret saw the errors of his contemporaries, but did not believe in the benefit and reliability of harsh prohibitive measures, and was in no hurry to bind and condemn. He always distinguished a deluded person from error, and he treated with goodwill any sincere movement of the human soul. In the mystical dreams themselves, he felt a genuine spiritual thirst, a spiritual restlessness, which only pushed him onto illegal paths because “the legal path was not arranged well...” That is why he took an active part in translating the Bible into Russian. Responsibility for translating the Bible was assigned by the Synod to the Commission of Theological Schools, and personally to Archimandrite Philaret. The saint himself selected the translators. He took upon himself the translation of the Holy Gospel of John. He also compiled the “Rules” for translation. In 1819, the translation of the Four Gospels was completed and published. But the saint’s work in translating the Holy Scriptures did not end there. He was deeply convinced that translation was needed to satisfy “the hunger of hearing the word of God.” But he also understood well that only a full-fledged, high-quality translation, and not hasty experiments, could satisfy this hunger. On August 5, 1817, by decree of the Holy Synod, the consecration of Archimandrite Philaret as Bishop of Revel, vicar of the St. Petersburg diocese, took place in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On March 15, 1819, Bishop Filaret was transferred to the independent Tver See with his elevation to the rank of archbishop and appointment as a member of the Synod. In Tver he often performed divine services: both in the cathedral church and in parish churches; He preached tirelessly during services. He spent a lot of time traveling around the vast diocese. Once, during one of these trips, Archbishop Filaret asked the coachman the name of the village through which the road lay. “The village of Bad,” answered the coachman. “Still, there are some good people here, too?” “We know that there will be some. Otherwise God would not have tolerated the village.” “Here,” he said at the end of his conversation with me, his biographer writes, “I wanted to teach the coachman, but it turned out the other way around - the coachman taught me.” On September 26, 1820, the saint was transferred to Yaroslavl, where he stayed for about a year. In 1821, the Providence of God destined Archbishop Philaret to occupy the chair of the First Hierarchs of Moscow. In May 1823, his “Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Greek-Russian Church” was published. The book sold like hot cakes, and before the end of 1823 it was necessary to publish a second edition. The Catechism was translated into Greek, English and other languages. In 1824, the saint’s ill-wishers sought his removal from Moscow. When rumors spread throughout Moscow about his upcoming move to Tiflis (Tbilisi), he was not embarrassed. “A monk, like a soldier,” he said, “must stand guard where he is posted; go where they send you." “Really, Vladyka,” one lady exclaimed, “will you go to this exile?” “After all, I went from Tver to Moscow,” Vladyka said to her in response. The rumor, however, turned out to be false. In 1826, the Moscow saint was elevated to the rank of metropolitan. In 1836, Count N.A. was appointed chief prosecutor of the Synod. Protasov. Protasov acquired a conviction in the omnipotent possibilities of the clerical method of management, in the omnipotence of the order. And the members of the Synod soon felt his heavy hand on themselves. And only the intrepid Moscow Vladyka knew how to put the obstinate chief prosecutor in his place. One day, soon after his appointment to the post of chief prosecutor, Protasov, appearing in the presence of the Synod, sat down in the bishop's chair. Metropolitan Philaret turned to him with the question: “How long ago, Your Excellency, did you receive consecration?” Protasov did not understand anything. “How long ago have you been ordained to the priesthood?” – the saint repeated and explained that the members of the Synod were sitting at the table at which he sat down. “Where is my place?” – asked Protasov. And Metropolitan Filaret showed him his place: the chief prosecutor’s desk standing to the side. In 1832, Metropolitan Philaret, on behalf of the Synod, compiled “The Legend of the discovery of the honorable relics of our father Mitrofan, the first bishop of Voronezh, and the grace-filled signs and miraculous healings.” A serious clash between Metropolitan Philaret and Chief Prosecutor Protasov occurred in 1842, when the Moscow archpastor, together with the Kyiv metropolitan of the same name, spoke at the Synod in favor of resuming the translation of the Bible. Metropolitan Seraphim did not support his brothers; this was followed by the dismissal of both hierarchs from the presence in the Synod, leaving them with membership in the Synod. After this, remaining continuously in the Moscow diocese, Metropolitan Philaret continued, however, to participate in the activities of the Synod, from where papers were sent to him for review. Moreover, Chief Prosecutor N.A. Protasov, who was responsible for the removal of the saint from St. Petersburg, himself often came to him in Moscow for advice and constantly carried on business correspondence with him. The authority of Metropolitan Philaret grew in addition to his participation in resolving synodal affairs. Bishops from all over Russia came to him for instructions. When visiting Moscow, each hierarch considered it his duty to visit the “All-Russian Archpastor.” Metropolitan Philaret showed special concern for people who were forcibly rejected or, due to error, voluntarily separated from Orthodoxy. He took an active part in the reunification of the Uniates with the Orthodox Church. The saint was included in the committee for Uniate affairs and compiled a note that served as a guide for carrying out preparatory measures for reunification. The saint's enduring sadness was the Old Believer schism, which dissolved the spiritual and religious unity of the Russian people. In an effort to heal the sad division, in 1834 he compiled “Conversations to the Verbal Old Believer.” This book by Metropolitan Philaret, his numerous notes on the Old Believer issue, his missionary efforts did not remain without good fruits. In 1865, under the influence of his admonitions, the bishops of Belokrinitsky Consent joined the Orthodox Church on the terms of unity of faith: Brailovsky Onuphry, Kolomna Paphnuty, Tula Sergius and Tulchinsky Justin. The saint did not remain indifferent to the fate of Western Christendom. He judged the spiritual state of heterodox churches with wise caution and balance, with unshakable faith in the truth of Orthodoxy and Christian love. His biographer conveys the words he said shortly before his death: “Everyone baptized in the name of the Trinity is a Christian, no matter what confession he belongs to. There is only one true faith - Orthodox; but all Christian beliefs - through the long-suffering of the Almighty - endure. The Gospel is the same for everyone everywhere; Yes, not everyone understands and explains it the same way. The errors of those who have fallen away from the Universal Church are not a reproach from birth to those raised in one or another confession. Simple souls are in simplicity and believe according to the teachings commanded to them, without being embarrassed by religious debates, inaccessible to them. Their spiritual leaders will give an answer to God for them. Learned theologians are found in all Christian nations, and pious people have been and will be both in the Greek Catholic Orthodox Church and in the Roman Catholic Church. True religious tolerance is not embittered by the mediastinum that divides Christians, but grieves for those who are in error and prays “for the unification of all.” The great archpastor, the pillar of the Russian Church, Metropolitan Philaret was also one of the pillars of the Russian state. Emperors and grand dukes, ministers and senators, governors and generals listened to his experience and wisdom. None of the important political events left him indifferent. The name of Metropolitan Philaret is closely connected with the reform of 1861 - the liberation of landowner peasants from serfdom. It was he who was chosen when it was necessary to compose the Tsar’s appeal to the people - the “Manifesto”. The “Manifesto” written by the saint was published on February 19, serving to pacify the peasants, excited by the expectation of great changes. For all his law-abiding and readiness to obey the autocrat, the saint refused to carry out the royal commands when they contradicted his Christian conscience. In 1829, Nicholas I, in memory of the Patriotic War, ordered the erection of the Triumphal Gate in Moscow. Metropolitan Filaret performed a prayer service for the foundation of the monument. When the gates were built and the sovereign wished the Moscow archpastor to consecrate them, the fearless saint refused to do so, declaring that “it is impossible for a servant of the true God to consecrate and sprinkle with holy water statues representing pagan false deities.” The Emperor was informed of the Metropolitan’s refusal and his words were conveyed. Nicholas I remarked, not without irony: “I am not Peter the Great, he is not Mitrofan.” The people, however, saw in this act of the archpastor a repetition of the confessional feat of St. Mitrophan of Voronezh. For almost half a century, Metropolitan Philaret ruled the Moscow diocese. The bonds of mutual Christian love between the archpastor and his flock were especially strengthened after the cholera that struck Moscow in 1830. Without doubting the benefits of medical means, Metropolitan Philaret, however, more than earthly doctors, relied on the prayer and mercy of the Heavenly Physician of souls and bodies. He ordered religious processions with prayer singing. In the Kremlin, the Metropolitan himself, together with the brethren of the Chudov Monastery, prayed on their knees in the open air for an end to the pestilence. At the end of his earthly life, the saint, more than the general pestilence, was worried about another national misfortune - the widespread spread of drunkenness. A reverent altar server, Metropolitan Philaret considered the celebration of the Liturgy to be his most important bishop's duty. Even in his feeble old age, he served every Sunday, unless illness confined him to his bed. Despite his quiet voice, his ministry was filled with prayer and beauty. After the service, no matter how many parishioners there were in the church, he blessed everyone, signing each one with a leisurely sign of the cross. The consecration of churches brought great joy to the saint; During his half-century of service in Moscow, he consecrated more than a dozen newly built churches. At almost every service the saint delivered a sermon. He pronounced them in a quiet, weak voice, almost never improvised, did not speak by heart, but read from paper. The abbot of the Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony (Medvedev), once asked the saint: “Why don’t you talk to the people in the church without preparation? And in your ordinary conversation, write every word you say in a book.” “I don’t have enough courage,” answered the great preacher with humility, who was given a rare gift of speech from God. In governing the diocese, Metropolitan Philaret did not attach particularly important importance to formal resolutions. In the judicial decisions that he had to make as a diocesan bishop, the saint was always fair, and upon examination, in some cases he was lenient and merciful, and in others he was strict and unforgiving, guided not by partiality, but by concern for the good of the Church and the benefit of human souls. He especially closely monitored the state of the Moscow Theological Academy. Without his knowledge, no important business was carried out at the academy. With his blessing and under his supervision, the professors of the academy began an extremely important work - translating the works of the holy fathers into Russian. The favorite brainchild of the saint was the Gethsemane monastery, built in 1844 at the initiative of the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony. During the consecration of the skete church, Metropolitan Philaret put on the robe of St. Sergius. The saint loved Gethsemane so much that it seemed to him like an earthly paradise, the best abode in the world. The lofty monastic feats of his contemporaries and manifestations of holiness aroused deep interest and reverence in Metropolitan Philaret. He was an admirer of St. Seraphim, about whose amazing life he most often learned from conversations with Archimandrite Anthony; he highly valued the spiritual wisdom of the Sarov elder. “Father Seraphim’s advice is excellent,” he wrote, “not to scold for a vice, but only to show its shame and consequences. May the elder’s prayers help us learn how to fulfill them.” Many of the sayings of Metropolitan Philaret, spoken in conversations with visitors, amaze with the depth of wisdom and the power of words. One of the interlocutors, in a conversation about frequent falls, remarked philosophically: “What should I do? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!” “Isn’t it the other way around,” the Metropolitan objected, “the flesh is vigorous, but the spirit is weak.” The saint's day usually began long before dawn with the morning rule and the performance of divine services or prayerful participation in it. After the Liturgy, he drank tea and service activities began: reports from the secretary and employees in the consistory, receiving visitors; between the second and third o'clock a light lunch; then an hour or two of rest, which consisted of reading books, newspapers and magazines; and again business - reports, official correspondence. His home environment and in the Trinity courtyard in the Lavra chambers was simple and modest. He considered human praise that reached the ear of the saint to be harmful to the soul and reproached those who addressed him with words of praise, even those spoken sincerely. “Do me a favor,” he wrote, “do not talk to me about my humility, which I have not achieved, and do not attach to me names that I am not worthy to bear.” On September 17, 1867, Metropolitan Philaret, at the end of the early Liturgy in the Lavra Cross Church, said to his confessor, Archimandrite Anthony: “I just had a dream, and I was told: take care of the 19th.” - “Holy Lord! Is it possible to trust dreams and look for some meaning in them? – Father Anthony doubted. But the saint said with firm confidence: “I didn’t see a dream - my parent appeared to me and told me those words. I think from now on I will receive Holy Communion every 19th.” On October 19, having received communion in the house church, he again left for Gethsemane and, saying goodbye to it forever, returned to Moscow to the Trinity Compound. During these days, he did not refuse admission to anyone, but he once again told those who wanted to visit him to come before November 19th. Two days before the exodus, the saint felt more cheerful than usual and he himself figured out the reason for the sudden improvement: “Before death,” he said, “old people always feel fresher and lighter.” On Sunday, November 19, 1867, Metropolitan Philaret celebrated the Liturgy at the Trinity Metochion. After the service he received visitors. Having seen off the guests, the archpastor went into his office to do business. To the cell attendant, who invited him to dinner a few hours later, he said: “Wait a little. I'll call." But there was no call. Then the worried cell attendant entered the office. The Metropolitan was not there. From the office he hurried into a side room - and there he saw the archpastor on his knees near the washbasin. The saint was lifeless. Having washed his face, he gave up the ghost. The funeral service for the Moscow archpastor took place on November 25 in the refectory church of the Chudov Monastery. The relics of St. Philaret rest in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, along with the relics of St. Innocent of Moscow. The great man of prayer and fasting, Saint Philaret, through the feat of his entire life, acquired the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, which appeared to people through him. In one noble family, brother and sister did not agree on Metropolitan Philaret. His sister revered him as a seer, but his brother was skeptical about him. One day his brother set out to test his insight by deception. He changed into a poor dress and went to the Trinity Compound. He told the Metropolitan that a misfortune had befallen him - his estate burned down - and asked for help. The saint brought him money with the words: “Here’s for your burnt estate.” Returning home, he boastfully told his sister about the deception, which upset her. And the next day news came from his village about the fire. Struck by this event, the fire victim went to the Trinity Compound to ask for forgiveness from the saint. Even during the earthly life of Metropolitan Philaret, many of the sick and desperate doctors sought through him, through his blessing and prayer, all-powerful help from God. The daughter of a Moscow deacon was dying. The unfortunate father, going to church, where he was supposed to concelebrate with Metropolitan Philaret, said goodbye to her, no longer hoping to find her alive. Before the Liturgy, the deacon asked the saint to pray for his dying daughter. The saint said: “We will pray together with you,” and took out part of the prosphora for her. “Do not be discouraged, the Lord is merciful,” he said, blessing the deacon after the Liturgy. At home, the deacon, to great amazement and unspeakable joy, found his daughter out of danger. Soon she completely recovered. A Moscow merchant had inflammation in his hand, and the doctors decided to take it away. On the eve of the operation, a familiar Old Believer came to see the patient’s wife. Having learned about the merchant’s serious condition, she said mockingly: “Why don’t you turn to your metropolitan, because you consider him a saint.” The merchant's wife took the evil mockery as admonition and immediately went to the saint to ask him to pray for her seriously suffering husband. Metropolitan Philaret, having listened to the request, summoned their parish priest and ordered him to give communion to the sick man and to remember his health during the Liturgy for 40 days. In the evening of the same day, the patient saw in a dream the Metropolitan blessing him. The next day, after the merchant took communion, doctors came to him to perform an operation, but with considerable surprise they saw a decisive change in the patient’s condition, and the need for surgery disappeared. One peasant, on his way to Moscow, lost his way and, unable to find it due to a strong snowstorm, fell exhausted. But then he sees a shadow approaching him and, believing that some beast wants to tear him to pieces, he begins to pray to God for the forgiveness of his sins and calls on all the saints for help. As the shadow approaches, he sees a short old man in a black cassock and cap, who asks him: “Who are you and where are you from?” And when the peasant explained everything to him in detail, the elder took him by the hand and said: “Why are you so discouraged, get up, I will take you to the village.” The peasant, feeling that his strength had been renewed, stood up and, together with the metropolitan, easily reached the village. The elder arrived and said: “Stay, the Lord is with you, now you are out of danger.” The peasant, with tears of gratitude, falling to his knees, asks: for whom should he pray? The elder replied: “Pray for Philaret of Moscow,” and with these words he became invisible. For a long time then this man walked in Moscow to different monasteries, trying to find his savior and, although he found monastics of this name, he did not recognize his assistant in them. Having lived in Moscow for several days, he was already getting ready to head back. Passing by the Nikolsky Gate of the Kremlin, he meets an unknown merchant, who, seeing him sad and believing that he needed help, intended to give him alms, but he did not accept it. When asked by the stranger about the reason for his grief, he told about what had happened. After listening to his story, the stranger said: “Probably our Metropolitan saved you,” and showed him the way to the Trinity Compound, where the peasant went immediately and arrived at the very time when the Bishop, returning from the Synodal Office, was getting out of the carriage. The peasant immediately recognized him and, throwing himself on his knees, exclaimed: “Here is my savior!” The Vladyka ordered him to be silent and follow him into the rooms, where the peasant told him everything in detail. After listening to him, Vladyka said: “Do not attribute this to me, but pray to St. Sergius - it was he who saved you.” At the same time, Vladyka gave him an icon of St. Sergius. Saint Philaret, canonized in 1994, is commemorated on November 19, the day of his blessed death. 21st. Hieromartyr Protopresbyter Alexander Russian Hieromartyr Alexander Khotovitsky was born on February 11, 1872 in the city of Kremenets into the pious family of the rector of the Volyn Theological Seminary, Archpriest Alexandra. The future pastor received his education at the Volyn Seminary and the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, which he graduated in 1895. After graduating from the academy, he was sent to missionary service in New York (Aleutian and North American Diocese), where he was soon ordained as a presbyter. From 1898 to 1907, the future New Martyr Alexander performed pastoral service under the omophorion of St. Tikhon, later Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. Father Alexander’s career in the United States was very broad and fruitful: he successfully carried out missionary service, mainly among Uniate emigrants, immigrants from Galicia and Carpathian Russia; he was also one of the closest assistants to the archpastors of Orthodox America, representing the Orthodox Church in American religious institutions and meetings. The missionary work of Father Alexander was associated with many temptations and sorrows, which he suffered from supporters of the union with Rome. A serious contribution to the work of witnessing the truth of Orthodoxy to American society was made by the American Orthodox Messenger, published under the editorship of Father Alexander in English and Russian. Father Alexander took an active part in the creation of the diocesan Orthodox mutual aid society, performing at various times the duties of its treasurer, first secretary and chairman. The society provided material assistance to Austrian Rusyns, Macedonian Slavs, Russian soldiers in Manchuria and Russian prisoners of war in Japanese camps. Father Alexander also took upon himself the ascetic work of creating in New York, instead of a small parish church, the architecturally remarkable and grandiose Cathedral of St. Nicholas, which became the adornment of the city. Collecting funds for the construction of the cathedral, he toured Orthodox communities in America, and for the same purpose visited his homeland, Russia, in 1901. From 1914 to 1917, Father Alexander served as priest in Helsingfors (Helsinki) in Finland, where the majority were Protestants. Although Finland was then part of the Russian Empire, the Orthodox clergy there had to make great efforts to protect the Orthodox Karelians from proselytizing expansion by Finnish Lutherans. In Finland, the New Martyr Alexander was a faithful, active and selfless assistant to his archpastor Sergius (Stragorodsky). In August 1917, Archpriest Alexander was transferred to Moscow and appointed keymaster of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In Moscow, he again found himself under the command of Saint Tikhon, with whom he became close friends in America. Father Alexander participated in the work of the Local Council of 1917–1918. Pastoral service in those years was associated with many sorrows and dangers. In May 1920 and November 1921, Father Alexander was subjected to short-term arrests. He was accused of violating the decree on the separation of the Church from the state and the school from the Church - by teaching the Law of God to children. Dire trials befell the Church in 1922, when, under the pretext of helping the hungry, church property, including sacred vessels, icons and other shrines, was forcibly confiscated. In the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Father Alexander organized a fundraiser to help the hungry. At the same time, efforts were made to preserve the shrines of the church. Meetings of clergy and parishioners of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior were held at Father Alexander’s apartment, at which a parish meeting resolution was developed regarding the government decree on the forcible confiscation of valuables. The authorities regarded the drafting of this document as a criminal counter-revolutionary act and a reason for arrest. On November 27, 1922, a new high-profile trial opened in Moscow against the clergy and laity, who were accused of allegedly “trying to keep church wealth in their hands and, on the basis of famine, to overthrow Soviet power.” 105 clergy and laity were brought to the trial. Among the accused were Archpriest Sergius Uspensky, the rector of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Archpriest Nikolai Arsenyev, the custodian of the church, Archpriest Alexander Khotovitsky, the priest of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Ilia Gromoglasov, the caretaker of the same church, Lev Anokhin, and the rector of the Church of St. John the Warrior, Archpriest Simeon Golubev. The court hearings continued for two weeks. After the lengthy indictment was announced, the interrogation of the accused began. During the interrogation, Priest Alexander behaved calmly and calmly, trying to protect the other accused. After interrogating all the accused and witnesses at the court hearing on December 6, the later ominously famous prosecutor Vyshinsky made an indictment speech. He asked the court to sentence 13 accused to death, including archpriests Alexander Khotovitsky, Nikolai Arsenyev, Sergius Uspensky, priest Ilya Gromoglasov, abbess of the Novodevichy Convent Vera (Pobedinskaya), L. E. Anokhin. Vyshinsky asked the other defendants to be sentenced to different terms of imprisonment. On December 13, the tribunal's verdict was announced. Archpriest Alexander Khotovitsky was sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 10 years. After Saint Tikhon's return to church government and his declarations of loyalty to state power, many of the archpastors, pastors, church leaders and ordinary laymen convicted by tribunals on charges of resisting the seizure of church property were amnestied. In October 1923, Alexander’s father was also released from custody. After his release, he did not have a full-time position in any of the parishes and served by invitation in various Moscow churches. But he did not remain free for long. Already in September 1924, at a special meeting at the OGPU collegium, the New Martyr Alexander was exiled to a settlement in the Turukhansk region for a period of 3 years. His already unhealthy health was undermined by his stay in the far north. Honored with the rank of protopresbyter, Father Alexander, upon returning from exile, became one of the closest assistants to the Deputy Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky, later His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'), who knew him well from the time of his service in Finland. In the 1930s, Protopresbyter Alexander served as rector of the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street. His service during this period and his entire appearance were distinguished by inspiration and prayer. In the fall of 1937, the New Martyr Alexander was arrested again. This is where the documentary information at our disposal about him stops, but most of the oral reports speak of his martyrdom. The place of his burial is unknown. The memory of the holy martyr takes place on November 21, the day of his death. 28th. Hieromartyr Metropolitan Seraphim Saint Seraphim (in the world Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov) was born on January 9, 1856 in St. Petersburg, in the family of an artillery colonel. Among the ancestors of the future saint was the famous navigator Admiral V. Ya. Chichagov (1726–1809), explorer of the Arctic Ocean. After graduating from the Corps of Pages in 1875, Leonid Chichagov was promoted to second lieutenant and in September of the same year was sent to serve in the Guards Horse Artillery Brigade. The Russian-Turkish War, which began in 1876, brought guards second lieutenant L.M. Chichagova into the active army in the Balkans and at the same time became a serious life test for the future saint. Having participated in almost all the main events of this bloody war and received several awards, L.M. Chichagov repeatedly demonstrated high personal heroism. However, it was not the heroism of the war and not the mission of the Russian army that became the main topics of thought for the young officer during this period. The theme of the spiritual meaning of life and death, brought to him in all its acuteness by the war, the theme of the moral meaning of suffering and self-sacrifice, the theme of active love for his brothers in Christ, whom he learned to distinguish both under officer uniforms and under soldiers' greatcoats, after the war became the most important motivating principles for the deep religious reflections of the future saint. The providence of God, which saved Lieutenant L.M. Chichagov from death and wounds on the battlefields, led him, soon after returning to St. Petersburg in 1878, to a meeting with the great shepherd of the Russian Orthodox Church, Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt, who resolved many of the young officer’s spiritual questions and became the indisputable spiritual authority for the future saint for all subsequent years. Military career of L.M. Chichagova continued to develop successfully in peacetime. However, the desire to turn all the forces of the soul to serving God began to manifest itself more and more precisely during this period of time. Having assumed the duties of ktitor Sergievsky, all artillery, and the cathedral at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra on October 31, 1881, staff captain L.M. Chichagov spent great efforts both on the material arrangement of this church, and on the development of active spiritual and educational activities in this large military parish, under the care of which were thousands of Russian soldiers. At the same time in the life of L.M. Chichagov also included systematic theological studies, as a result of which the officer, who had not even received a seminary education, turned into an encyclopedically educated theologian. God's providence steadily failed L.M. Chichagov to the decision to accept holy orders. Righteous John of Kronstadt, who blessed L.M. Chichagova to accept holy orders, considered it necessary in a personal conversation with Natalia Nikolaevna Chichagova to convince her to consent to her husband taking holy orders. The words of the wise Kronstadt shepherd helped N.N. Chichagova overcome her doubts, and she agreed to share the burden of his new ministry with her husband. For L.M. Chichagov’s path to the priesthood became not only a path of ascension to God, but also a path of going to the people, in which he, as a shepherd and then archpastor, was to raise a faithful son of his Sovereign and the Church. After retirement, the family of L.M. Chichagova moved to Moscow in 1891. It was here, under the shadow of Moscow shrines, that L.M. Chichagov began to reverently prepare to accept the priesthood. On February 28, 1893, Leonid’s presbyteral consecration took place in the Moscow Synodal Church of the Twelve Apostles. In 1895, father Leonid was widowed, and four young children were left in his care. Father Leonid brought the body of his deceased wife to Diveevo and buried him in the monastery cemetery, and nearby he prepared a place for his own burial. A strong focus on prayer life inevitably drew Father Leonid to the walls of the monastery, especially since for several years Father Leonid considered the compilation of the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery” to be one of the most important obediences in his life, which revealed to him not only the history of one of the wonderful monastic monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also the monastic exploits of one of the great ascetics of Holy Rus' - St. Seraphim Sarovsky. One summer, after spending several days in the monastery, Father Leonid visited the abbess. The abbess received him very warmly and during the conversation said that two elder nuns and nun Pelagia (in the world Paraskeva, Pasha) lived in the monastery, who remembered the saint. As soon as he entered the blessed Pasha, he heard from her: “It’s good that you came, I’ve been waiting for you for a long time: St. Seraphim ordered me to tell you to report to the Emperor that the time has come for the opening of his relics for glorification.” In response to Father Leonid’s answer that, due to his social status, he could not be accepted by the Sovereign and convey her instructions to him, Pasha said: “I don’t know anything, I only conveyed what the monk commanded me.” In embarrassment, Father Leonid left the old woman’s cell and soon left the Diveyevo monastery. Returning to Moscow and pondering the words of the blessed one, Father Leonid decided to write down all the stories about the venerable elder of the nuns who remembered him, find his other contemporaries, familiarize himself with the archives of the monastery, then bring all this material into a system and print the work, presenting it to the Emperor, which will fulfill the will of the monk. In the spring of 1898, leaving his already matured daughters in the care of trusted persons, Father Leonid was enrolled in the brethren of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On August 14, 1899, Hieromonk Seraphim was appointed rector of the Suzdal Spaso-Evthymius Monastery and elevated to the rank of archimandrite. In two and a half years, the monastery, previously a prison for mentally disturbed clergy, was completely revived. In 1902, through the efforts of Archimandrite Seraphim, the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, first published in 1896, was republished. This second edition of the Chronicle was of particular importance for the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov. At this time, Archimandrite Seraphim received a miraculous vision, which he later told his spiritual child Archpriest Stefan Lyashevsky about. “After finishing the Chronicle, I sat in my room in one of the Diveyevo buildings and was glad that I had finally finished the most difficult period of collecting and writing about the saint. Seraphim. At that moment the Monk Seraphim entered the cell, and I saw him as if alive. Not for a minute did it occur to me that this was a vision - everything was so simple and real. But imagine my surprise when Father Seraphim bowed to my 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: “Father, dear, I am so happy now that I want nothing else but to always be near you.” 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." Archimandrite Seraphim decided to take what seemed to some of his brothers in the clergy an audacity to finally raise the question of canonizing St. Seraphim of Sarov in the Holy Synod. Realizing that not only the all-powerful Chief Prosecutor of the Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev, but also some bishops were categorically opposed to the canonization of the saint, Archimandrite Seraphim decided to ask to raise the issue of canonization in the Holy Synod directly to the Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II, who, in accordance with the Basic Laws of the Russian Empire, was the “supreme defender and custodian of the dogmas of the ruling faith.” In the case presented by Archimandrite Seraphim, the Emperor took an active part. Soon followed by his command about the need to immediately raise the question of organizing the opening of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov at a meeting of the Holy Synod. Archimandrite Seraphim was entrusted with most of the organizational and economic activities associated with the canonization of the saint. On January 29, 1903, the Sarov elder Reverend Seraphim was canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. And a little later, Archimandrite Seraphim composed a wonderful akathist to the monk. On February 14, 1904, Archimandrite Seraphim was appointed rector of one of the seven stauropegial monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery. In 1905, Archimandrite Seraphim was consecrated Bishop of Sukhumi, and then was alternately sent to Orlovskaya (1906), Kishinev (1908) and Tver (1912) departments in the rank of archbishop. Everywhere he showed himself to be a zealous organizer of parish communities. The Holy Synod instructed the saint to conduct an investigation into reports received by the Synod about alleged disturbances in the spiritual and economic life of the St. John the Baptist Skete of the Optina Hermitage. Having discovered the groundlessness of the accusations leveled against the monastery by his ill-wishers, and highly appreciating the spiritual experience of the Venerable Elder Barsanuphius, Saint Seraphim began to persuade the Elder to accept abbotship in one of the large monasteries, the spiritual life of which required the guidance of an experienced mentor. Despite the government changes that took place in 1917, Bishop Seraphim continued active church activities. He participated as the ruling bishop of the Tver diocese in the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917–1918, at which he headed the Council Department “Monasteries and Monasticism.” Expelled by schismatics from his see at the end of 1917, Saint Seraphim was appointed by His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon to the Warsaw see, which he was unable to take over due to the hostilities unfolding in Poland, and stayed from 1919 to 1921 in the Chernigov monastery near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On September 21, 1921, Vladyka was unexpectedly arrested and sentenced to exile in the Arkhangelsk region. Returning to Moscow a year later, Metropolitan Seraphim was soon arrested again on charges of preparing and organizing the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov in 1903. In May 1924, at the request of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the 68-year-old elder was released. But at the request of the authorities, the saint had to leave Moscow. For several years he lived away from her, in the Resurrection Feodorovsky Monastery near Shuya. These were years of deep thought by Saint Seraphim about the fate of the Church in Russia and about the ways of his own service to the Church in an era of historical timelessness. It was during these years, with the growing persecution of the Church by the communist state and the incessant attempts of renovationist schismatics to destroy church life, that dangerous contradictions first began to arise among the clergy and laity faithful to the Orthodox Church. They were associated with an understanding of the canonical powers of the Deputy Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) of Nizhny Novgorod and with various ideas about the future prospects for the existence of the Russian Orthodox Church: as one seeking official recognition from the state or as one going into the catacombs. At this fateful turn of Russian church history, having come to the conviction that the Orthodox Church should openly carry out its ministry in Russia, even having lost the patronage of the Orthodox sovereigns, Saint Seraphim decisively made his final spiritual choice and sided with that part of the church hierarchy that recognized Metropolitan Sergius as the only legitimate successor of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Peter, equal to him in his canonical powers, and supported his policy of defending the official recognition of the Orthodox Church by state power. In March 1928, Bishop Seraphim returned to the affairs of church administration and was appointed to the Leningrad See, where at that time the spirit of unrest and church division reigned, which engulfed a significant number of parishes operating in the city. In the early 1920s, the city, through the machinations of state authorities and the weakness of some of the diocesan clergy, turned into a citadel of renovationism. Only the Leningrad Diocesan Council, whose chairman was Bishop Nikolai (Yarushevich) of St. Petersburg, remained faithful to Metropolitan Sergius. Saint Seraphim tried in every possible way to support the desire of many Orthodox Christians to approach the Holy Mysteries of Christ as often as possible. “Most of all, think about the preservation, celebration and continuous service of the Liturgy,” Metropolitan Seraphim urged the clergy and flock. “If she exists, there will be both the Church and Russia.” On December 28, 1929, one of the most prominent church hierarchs of the 20th century, Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky) of Vereya, died of typhus in the Leningrad prison hospital. Having taken upon himself the organization of the funeral and burial of Saint Hilarion, Bishop Seraphim dressed the deceased in his own white bishop's vestments and placed his miter on his head. In the early 1930s, repressive government policies towards the Russian Orthodox Church sharply intensified. In the Leningrad diocese, as throughout the country, the best representatives of the Orthodox clergy were arrested at this time. The growing hatred of the state authorities towards Metropolitan Seraphim prompted Metropolitan Sergius and the temporary Patriarchal Holy Synod to issue a decree on October 14, 1933, dismissing the Bishop. After a short stay in Moscow, Saint Seraphim found his final refuge in two rooms of a country dacha, located not far from the Udelnaya station of the Kazan railway. Here, in the wilderness of the village, in spiritual reflection on theological and ascetic writings, in prayer vigils before icons, Bishop Seraphim had a happy opportunity to take stock of his life and prepare himself for a meeting with Christ the Savior. In November 1937, the bedridden 82-year-old saint was arrested and taken on a stretcher to Tagansk prison. For several weeks, the physically helpless, dying elder with the greatness of the Christian first martyr resisted the new persecutors of the Church, and never admitted any of the unthinkable accusations imposed on him. On November 7, 1937, the troika of the NKVD in the Moscow region, which had already passed several dozen death sentences that day, adopted a resolution to execute Metropolitan Seraphim. Almost 50 sufferers sentenced to death were shot over the course of several days in the village of Butovo, located near Moscow, in which an oak grove surrounded by a solid fence was to become an anonymous cemetery for many thousands of victims of communist terror. On November 28, 1937, Hieromartyr Seraphim was shot along with the last group of those sentenced. Thus ended the holy ministry of Metropolitan Seraphim, who won the crown of martyrdom at the end of his confessional journey. The memory of the hieromartyr Metropolitan Seraphim, canonized in 1997, takes place on November 28 / December 11 - the day of his martyrdom. Hieronymo. De viris illustribus urbis Romae. § 74. Rufinus Aquileiensis. Historia Monachorum Seu Liber De Vitis Patrum. Hieronymo. Proleg. comm. in Iesaia. Martyrology of Adon on November 2: “the birth of Saint Victorinus, bishop of Petavia, who was crowned with martyrdom during the persecution of Diocletian.” According to Jerome (Ep. 45 ad Pavlin.) “Victorinus was crowned with glorious (inclyto) martyrdom.” But his acts of martyrdom have not reached us. Weiss. Leben d. Heiligen. See: Religiae sacrae, vol. III. Oxonii. 1815. The Latin text is badly damaged by ignorant scribes. “You fast either for five days, or on Wednesday and Friday; because on Wednesday the condemnation of the Lord followed, when Judas promised to sell Him for money; and on Friday the Lord suffered on the cross, under Pontius Pilate” (Apostolic Decrees, Russian trans. Kazan, 1864. Book 7, 23 (hereinafter referred to as Apostolic Decrees)). “On the fourth day (Wednesday) they decided to lift Him to the cross. Judas also knew this... Judas left and said to the priests: what do you want to give me? I will deliver Him to you” (Apostolic Constitutions. Book 5, 14). This is what the Holy Gospel says about Wednesday (Matthew 26:3,15). In the thoughts of the Sanhedrin and Judas, Jesus had already been taken captive on Wednesday, but the fulfillment of the terrible thought took place on Thursday, after the mystical supper. Parasceve superpositio flat. Superponere, superpositio are technical words meaning food deposits. According to the thoughts of St. Quiz, fasting heel – fasting for the sake of the Lord’s suffering; the addition of abstinence on the Sabbath day was allowed actually as a preparation for the communion of the Holy Mysteries, which took place on Sunday. Subsequently, the West abandoned the Sabbath fast, although they no longer partook of the Holy Mysteries on Sunday. The book is sedate. Part 1; Fundukley I. Review of Kyiv in relation to antiquities. Kyiv, 1847 (hereinafter referred to as Fundukley I. Review of Kyiv). Metropolitan Nikifor about Monomakh: “bless him from the womb and anoint him, mixing him from royal and princely blood.” Vladimir himself in his spiritual: “I was named Vasily by his thin grandfather Yaroslav, the benevolent, glorious, in baptism, by the Russian name Volodymyr, by his beloved father and by his mother Monomakh.” Tatishchev V.N. Russian history from the most ancient times. In 5 vols. M., 1768–1848. T. 3, approx. 355 (hereinafter – Tatishchev V.N. Russian History). Junior princes and princesses were called by diminutive names. But since Anna was the older sister, her diminutive name could not be a consequence of this custom, but pointed to another reason - the special love for her in her own family. Collection l. 1, 88. Pereslav. l. 50. “In l. 1086 founded the church of St. Andrei under the good Metropolitan John to the monasteries, in which Vsevolod tonsured his daughter Yanka and built a nunnery.” Tatishchev V.N. Russian history. T. 2. Collection l. 1, 89; The book is sedate. Part 1. Collection l. 1, 120; 2, 287. Eupraxia died on July 10, 1109 and was laid at the southern door of the great Pechersk Church (Collected l. 1,121; 2, 228). Collection l. 2, 3. Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. II, approx. 156. St. Theodosius, in his teaching “On the Executions of God,” denounces “drunkenness, fornication, evil games, buffoons, caterpillars, sorcery, sorcery.” In another, he condemns the custom of kissing the female sex at feasts. Unknown teacher of the 12th century. about fasting and church service, between deeds hated by God, he puts “idolatry, prayer at wells and rivers, demonic songs, dancing, tambourines and sniffles, goats and demon games” (Orthodox interlocutor. 1858. No. 1). Collection l. 1, 88; Rostov. l. (Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. II, note 156); The book is sedate. Part 1. Collection l. 1, 127, 136; 2, 3, 289; Dictionary of Saints; Buslaev F.I. Historical essays on Russian literature. T. 2. Collection l. 1, 136; 2, 295; Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. III, approx. 3, 359. Fundukley I. Review of Kyiv. The ruins and things found in them are described in the Journal of the Ministry of Public Education (1833. Book 3), only here they are erroneously attributed to the Feodorovsky Monastery. Sergius, archim. Complete months of the East. T. II. Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. Description of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. In the RKP. description of the saints: “St. father priest Onesiphorus." It was in vain that F. Prokopovich did not pay enough attention to the words of the smart Metropolitan. Sylvester, who so correctly understood the meaning of Simon’s story about Dr. Oinsifor. If it had been otherwise, he would not only have had to justify himself in the blasphemies against the monks of Pechersk that he had internalized, but respect for the views of Protestants would not have carried him so far as to express such injustice: “they falsely glorified the place of Pechersk, that if anyone, even without repentance, reposed in that place, he would be buried, he would be saved” (Reader OIDR. 1862. Vol. 2). Protestant rationalism often falls into a double sin - both a sin against history and a sin against the exact meaning of Holy Scripture. Lamentation of the Mother of God over the tomb of the Savior; Word on the Dormition of the Mother of God; About Her life; Word for Holy Saturday. By the way: prayers before and after communion. Canon for Great Friday in Triodion; Canon of Mary of Egypt for April 1st, several songs in verse. RKP. Saints; Ratshin A. Complete collection of information about monasteries; Dictionary of Saints; Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part V RKP. Life // Vologda Diocesan Gazette. 1864. Palladium of Elenopolsky. Lovesaik. Ch. 119. St. Gregory of Nazianzus: “Virginity formerly appeared in rare and shrouded darkness. When Chrishos was born from the pure Virgin Mary, it appeared to people in a brilliant light, detached from the world and unleashing the weak world. It surpasses the bonds of marriage as much as the soul is higher than the body, the heavens of the earth, the old life is higher than the life that is disappearing. Marriage is indulgence to lust, and virginity is glory. Love, which strives for one thing, draws near to Christ, who loves the lover, who meets the one who comes. Loving Him, the virgin left the world and cannot look at anything else; she is bound by sweet ties” (St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Opera / ed. Migne. V. III). Homily 5. In the “Apostolic Constitutions” (book 3, chapter 5), widows who have committed themselves to God are called the altar of God. But St. Polycarp in his letter writes a greeting to “the virgins called widows.” Consequently, it is clear that votive virgins were also called widows. St. Methodius of Olympus. Opera/ed. Migne. V. XVIII. Villefort has 2, 261. Sainte Magna, 4 Siecle. Historical acts extracted from foreign archives. T. I; Karamzin N.M. History of the Russian State. T. II, approx. 128–130. Collection of state charters and agreements. Part 1. Monomakh in the spiritual: “and that spring (he went) to Yaropolk to copulate on Brody…. That winter I went to Yaropolk to copulate on Brody and created great love” (Collected l. 1, 103). Consequently, Monomakh marched twice for Yaropolk against the Rostislavichs, in spring and winter. There is a chronicle about the Rostislavichs under 6605. “And to them Vsevolod distributed cities, to David Volodymyr, to the Rostislavichs Peremyshl Volodarevi, Terebovl Vasilkovi.” Svyatopolk, driving out the Rostislavichs from the Cherven cities, said: this is the volost of my father and brother. About Vsevolod the chronicle from 1093 “as he sat in Kiev, sadness came to him from his sons, as if a cold had begun for him, although the authorities had sowed something else.” Collection l. 1, 88, 89, 103; 7, 3, 4; The book is sedate. Part 1. The book is sedate. Part 1; Nikon. l. 1, 189, 190. The life of the saint in the Irkutsk side is described according to the acts of Irkutsk (see: Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863–1864), only there is a lot here that does not relate to the life of the saint, and there is not much that was part of the life of the saint. Innocent. Smirnov S. History of the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. M., 1855. Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire, since 1649: In 45 volumes. St. Petersburg, 18301851. T. VI. No. 3734. Index to the Synodal Sacristy. Izmailov was given one hundred wax seals in Beijing to attach them to passports about the free passage of Russians to Beijing (Amvrosy (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian Hierarchy. Part II). Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 18, 19; 1864. No. 6. In paragraph 5 of the treatise, by the will of Bogdykhan, it is said: “the koen (house), which is now being acquired for the Russians in Beijing, will be for them and those who come in the future, who will live in this house, and that the Russian ambassador, Illir. gr. Savva Vladislavich presented the structure of the church, and it was built in this house through the diligence of Chinese nobles... One lama (priest), now living in Beijing, will live in this house, and three other lamas will be added who will arrive, as decided.” There are errors and inaccuracies in the Dictionary of Saints. Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 21, 24. Plushar A.A. Encyclopedic Lexicon: In 17 volumes. St. Petersburg, 1834–1841. T. 11. Decree of the Senate of May 1732 Slovtsov P.A. Historical review of Siberia. Part 1. Sudienko M. Materials for Russian history: In 2 volumes. Kyiv, 1853–1854. T. 2. Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 22. The Dictionary of Saints says that St. Innocent was only a suffragan bishop of Irkutsk. Not true! If the government assigned 1,500 rubles to a bishop with his entire retinue (2 hieromonks, 5 choristers, 3 ministers), why does Raguzinsky assign 1,250 rubles to an archimandrite with 5 persons? The saint skillfully points out the strangeness of this generosity when he says that Platkovsky demands up to 130 rubles for the hieromonk, as well as for the 3 boys. for everyone. Muscovite. 1846. No. 8; Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 28, 32. Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 35–38, 41–46. Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1864. No. 3–8, 13, 15, 19–22, 33–36. The bishop's order, instructing churches to pray for the relief of the suffering of the sick saint (dated November 26, 1731), wrote: “His episcopal visit from God has been plagued by illness for several years, from which, as in the offering of salvation for Orthodox Christians of the Divine Service, so in spiritual corrections there is a stop. But this illness sometimes diminished. And now, after three weeks, it has increased even more.” RKP. description of the miracles of St. Innocent. Irkutsk Diocesan Gazette. 1863. No. 7; 1864. No. 48. In the RKP. “The Life and Deeds of St. Diodorus": "the newly-minted wonderworker, the founder of the most honorable monastery of the Life-Giving Trinity, called Yuriev Mountains." Ambrose (Ornatsky), archimandrite. History of the Russian hierarchy. Part VI. RKP. Saints: “St. Diodorus, the head of the Yuryev Monastery, reposed in the summer of 7142 November on the 27th day.” In the RKP. there is a troparion of St. Diodoro. About him, see: Soloviev P. Christian martyrs who suffered in the East. Evgeny (Bolkhovitinov), Metropolitan. Description of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. RKP. Saints: “St. Fathers Nectarius and Helladius." Meletius Sirte. Canon of prayer for all the saints of the Pechersk Kyiv Russian wonderworkers // Followed Psalter. Kyiv, 1643.