Житие преподобного отца нашего Агапита Печерского, безмездного врача

When our reverend father Anthony of Pechersk was glorified with the gift of healing, blessed Agapit came to his cave from Kyiv, wanting to receive spiritual healing through tonsure into the monastic rank; having received what he desired, he followed with all his heart the angelic life of St. Anthony, guided by his instructions. Agapit was an eyewitness to how this great man himself ministered to the sick and healed them with his prayer, and, hiding the gift given to his prayer, he gave the sick, under the guise of medicine, herbs from his food. Seeing this, blessed Agapit began to compete with the holy elder in exploits and worked for many years; when one of the brethren was praised, the blessed one left his cell, in which there was nothing that could be stolen, came to the sick brother and served him: he lifted him, laid him down, carried him out in his arms, and incessantly prayed to God for the healing of the sick man; if the illness sometimes dragged on, then through this the Lord wanted to increase faith and strengthen the prayer of His servant Agapit. Imitating the exploits of the Monk Anthony, blessed Agapit was honored to be a participant and equal to his grace: with his prayer he healed all the sick, also giving them herbs, which he cooked for his own food, for which, in fact, he was nicknamed the doctor. Rumor spread about him in Kyiv, and many sick people came to him, leaving healthy. At that time there lived in Kyiv a certain doctor, an Armenian by origin and faith, so skilled in his work that previously there was no equal to him. It was enough for him to look at someone suffering from a mortal illness, as he immediately recognized and announced the day and hour of his death, and always unmistakably; He never wanted to treat such a patient. One of the sick of this kind, the first boyar of the Grand Duke Vsevolod 3559, whom the Armenian plunged into despair by predicting death in eight days, was brought to the Pechersky Monastery. But blessed Agapit, having made a prayer for him, gave him herbs for food, which he himself ate and healed him; and immediately his fame spread throughout the Russian land. The Armenian, wounded by the arrow of envy, began to reproach the blessed one and sent one condemned to death to the Pechersk Monastery, who was supposed to take poison before Agapit and die. The blessed one, seeing this man dying, gave him, with a prayer for him, the herb that he himself had eaten, and thereby delivered the doomed man from death. Since then, the Armenian especially armed himself against the blessed one and persuaded his fellow believers to give Agapit himself a drink laced with mortal poison; the blessed one accepted and remained unharmed. “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly from temptation” (2 Pet. 2:9) according to His word: “If they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them” (Mark 16:18). Then Prince Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh fell ill in Chernigov 3560. The Armenian, although he diligently treated him, was unsuccessful, so that the illness increased more and more. Already at the point of his death, the prince asked the then abbot of Pechersk, John, to send Blessed Agapit to him in Chernigov for healing. The abbot called him and informed him of the prince’s request, but blessed Agapit, whom no one had ever seen leaving the gate to heal outside the monastery, said with humility: “If I go to the prince for this matter, then I must go to everyone.” I ask you, father, do not encourage me to go beyond the monastery gates for the sake of human glory, which I promised to avoid before God until my last breath. If you allow, it would be better for me to retire to another country and then return here again when this need passes. The prince sent, convinced that he would not be able to call the blessed Agapit himself to his master, began to ask him to at least give herbs for healing. According to the abbot’s convictions, the blessed one gave the messenger herbs from his food; They were brought to the prince, the latter partook and immediately recovered, through the prayers of the blessed one. Then Prince Vladimir Monomakh himself came to the Pechersky Monastery, wanting to see the one through whom God restored his health; he had never met the blessed one before and now wanted to honor him by generously giving him gifts. But Agapit, not wanting earthly glory, disappeared; then the prince gave the abbot the gold he had brought for the saint of God. But after a little time, the same Vladimir again sent one of his boyars with many gifts to Blessed Agapit. The messenger found Saint Agapit in his cell and placed the prince’s gifts before him. The blessed one told him: – Child, I never took anything from anyone (for healing), because I healed not with my own power, but with Christ’s; I don’t demand this even now. - Father. He who sent me knows that you do not demand anything; but I beg you to accept this in order to comfort your son, to whom God gave health through you; give the gift, if you wish, to the poor. - If you say so, I will accept it with joy. Tell the one who sent you that everything else he has is someone else’s, and he will not take anything with him when he gives up his life; therefore let him distribute the rest to the poor. For the Lord Himself, Who is among the destitute, delivered him from death, but I on my own would not have had any success; and I ask that he not disobey these instructions of mine, so as not to suffer more severely. With these words, blessed Agapit took the gold he brought and left the cell with it, as if to hide it; carried it out and threw it away, but he himself ran and disappeared. After a little time, the boyar came out, saw the gifts thrown in front of the gate, picked them up and gave them to Abbot John. Returning to the prince, he told him everything that he had seen with the blessed one and what he had heard from him; and everyone understood that this was a true servant of God, seeking reward from God alone, and not from people. The prince, not daring to disobey the saint, began to distribute generous alms to the poor. After many godly works and deeds, the unpaid doctor himself, the blessed elder Agapit, fell into illness. Having learned about this, the aforementioned Armenian doctor came to visit him and began to argue with him about the art of medicine, asking what remedy was used to treat Agapit’s illness. – To those to whom the Lord Himself, the physician of soul and body, gives health. The Armenian considered him completely ignorant of healing and said to those accompanying him: “He doesn’t know anything about our art.” Then he took him by the hand and said: “I tell the truth: on the third day he will die; if my word changes, then I will change my life, and I myself will become the same monk. The blessed one said passionately: - So this is your method of healing: talk more about death than about help! If you are skilled, give me life; If you cannot do this, why do you humiliate me and condemn me to death on the third day? The Lord informed me that in three months I would go to Him. The Armenian said to him again: - Now you’ve already changed completely; these never survive more than three days. Saint Agapit was truly in extreme exhaustion, so that without outside help he could not even move. Meanwhile, a certain sick person from Kyiv was brought to Blessed Agapit, who was the most seriously ill. The blessed one, with God's help, immediately stood up, as if he were not sick at all, took his usual herb, which he had eaten, and showed it to the Armenian, saying: - This is the herb with which I heal: look and understand. He looked and said to the saint: “It’s not one of our herbs, but I think it’s from Alexandria.” The blessed one, condemning his ignorance, gave the sick man a taste of herbs, prayed and immediately made him healthy. Then he said to the Armenian: “My son, I ask you to taste this herb with me, if you want, for I cannot treat you with anything else.” “Father,” the Armenian answered him, “we are fasting for four days this month, and now I am fasting.” Hearing this, the blessed one asked him: – Haven’t you heard about me that I’m Armenian? Then the blessed one said to him: “How did you dare to come here and desecrate my cell, and even hold me by my sinful hand?” Get away from me, you 3561 heterodox and wicked one. And he, disgraced, left. After that, blessed Agapit lived, as he had previously predicted, for three months and, having become slightly ill, went to the Lord. Being a free doctor on earth, he accepted a great reward in heaven, where there is no disease. The brethren prepared his honorable body for burial and, with the usual singing, laid it in the cave of St. Anthony 3562. After the death of the saint, an Armenian came to the Pechersk Monastery and said to the abbot: – From now on, I leave the Armenian heresy and truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, for Whom I wish to work in the holy monastic rite. Blessed Agapit appeared to me and said: – You promised to take on a monastic image; if you lie, you will destroy both life and soul. I believe that the one who appeared to me is holy, and if he wanted to live here longer, God would have granted it to him. I believed that he would not survive three days, but God added three months to him, and if he had wished, he would have lived three years. But I think that he himself, as a saint, wanted to leave us, striving for the Kingdom of Saints, and if God removed him from his temporary life in this monastery, for that he granted him eternal life in the heavenly abodes. Therefore, I wish to quickly fulfill the command of this holy man. The abbot, having listened to the Armenian, tonsured him as a monk and for a long time instructed the doctor of the body, so that, following the blessed Agapit, he would be skilled in healing his soul. The Armenian labored in a godly manner and, having spent the rest of his life in the same Pechersk monastery, here he accepted a blessed death, betraying his soul into the hands of the physician of souls and bodies, our Lord Jesus Christ, glorified with the beginningless Father and with the Most Holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Vsevolod Yaroslavich reigned for the first time for six months (1075–1076) and for the second time from 1078 to 1093. Vladimir Vsevolodovich then reigned in Kiev from 1114 to 1125. Armenians share the Monophysite heresy, condemned by the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) and reject all subsequent Ecumenical Councils. The essence of the Monophysite heresy lies in the teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ, born of two natures or natures, is not in two - for human nature in the Person of God - the Word is so closely united with His Divine nature that only mentally it can differ from it. In ancient Rus', in general, there was a view of the Armenians as evil heretics: thus, Metropolitan Cyprian (1376–1406) in his canonical answers wrote to Abbot Athanasius: “the Armenian heresy is the most vile heresy; For this reason, it is not worthy for an Orthodox peasant (i.e., a Christian) to have any communication with them.” St. Agapit died no later than 1095, his relics rest in the cave of St. Antonia. You might be interested in: