I woke up from the experience. I used to analyze my spiritual experiences so as not to fall into temptation, so I thought that all this was a figment of my imagination under the influence of what I had just read. I was most embarrassed by his last words - “drink water from my source.” Where will I get this water, being in Moscow and knowing that access to the source is prohibited?!

But the words of the wondrous old man were fulfilled the very next day: I received a vial of water, brought that day from Sarov. This water was obtained quite "accidentally".

In a word, a miracle happened to me, I drank this water, and since then I have not experienced pain and have not ceased to thank the dear old man for the miraculous healing.

"Go to the All-Tsaritsa"

It was during a trip to Diveevo. At that time I had severe headaches. I went to the graves of N. M. Motovilov, schema-nun Martha, Elena Manturova and the first abbess - mother Alexandra. We venerated each cross in turn. And it so happened that the last thing they came to was the grave of nun Elena. I always remember her at memorial services. She sunk into my soul when I read the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery. When she kissed the cross, it was as if she hugged a loved one: she stood and cried. And when she burst into tears, it became so easy. and greets us: "Christ is risen!" It was on the week of the Adoration of the Cross during Great Lent. We were surprised: like a post - and such a greeting. The nun explained to us that Father Seraphim greeted everyone in such a way. She asked us our names. We answered. And suddenly he says to me: “Here, Elenushka, in Moscow there is a church“ All Saints ”on Krasnoselskaya. There is an icon there called "The Tsaritsa", brought from Athos. It heals from all diseases, even from cancer. Go there, buy an icon, an Akathist and, if possible, read it every day, and everything will be fine for you.”

And I prayed to Father Seraphim to heal me, I cried a lot, I complained.

For a long time I could not go to the "All-Tsaritsa". Nevertheless, after four months I went. We arrived at the Akathist. I did everything that my mother told me: I bought the Akathist, an icon. But for some reason there was no service that day. I was very upset. But mother, who works in the church, seeing that I am in tears, says: “Don’t be upset, order a prayer service for tomorrow. Now read the Akathist yourself.” We venerated the icon "The Tsaritsa", and at that moment some kind of trembling passed through me, something unusual happened to me. Then they read the Akathist. But it was not read: somehow by itself we began to sing it.

My niece Svetlana traveled with us. Before the road, she could not speak normally - her voice disappeared. While we were driving, she only "hissed". We still laughed at her. And when the Akathist was sung, she sang along with everyone, but no one paid attention to it - it was not before.

After the Akathist, mothers gave us butter and consecrated water. The Queen of Heaven made it so. And when they left the temple, my niece said to me: “Don’t you notice anything?” I answer: "No". “My voice, I speak.”

Our Intercessor helped me too. Since then, I have not had such severe pain. And before that, she was very tormented - she kept on painkillers.

"Who is this old man?"

A friend sent me a letter in French, in which an Alsatian asked him to send her something about the Russian Orthodox Church: a prayer book or something like that. In response to the letter, something was sent to her, and this was the end of the matter.

Later I was in Alsace and went to meet her, but she was not at home then - she was out of town. I met her mother-in-law, an old woman of great Christian mercy and purity of heart.

She told me the following. Their family is from an old noble family of Alsace, Protestant denomination. It must be said that in this region of Alsace there are villages of mixed religion: half are Catholics, and half are Protestants. They have a common temple, and in it they perform their services in turn. In the background is a Roman altar, with statues and everything proper. And when the Protestants serve, they pull the curtain over the Catholic altar, roll their table into the middle and pray.

Recently in Alsace a movement has begun among Protestants in favor of the veneration of saints. This happened after reading Sabbatier's book about the Catholic Saint Francis of Assisi. A Protestant himself, he was captivated by the lifestyle of this righteous man when he visited Assisi. The family of my friends was also impressed by this book. While continuing to be Protestants, they felt, however, dissatisfaction. They strove for the veneration of the saints and for the Sacraments. When the pastor taught them, they asked him not to move the Catholic altar in order to at least see the statues of the saints. Their thought was looking for the True Church.

And then one day a young woman, being sick, was sitting in the garden and reading about the life of Francis of Assisi. The garden was full of flowers. The silence of the village ... While reading a book, she forgot herself in a thin dream. “I don’t know how it was,” she said later. “Francis himself comes to me, and with him a hunched, all shining old man, like a patriarch. He was all in white. I was scared. And Francis comes very close and says : "My daughter! You are looking for the True Church - she is where he is. She supports everything, but does not ask for support from anyone.”

The white old man was silent and only smiled approvingly at the words of Francis. The vision is over. She kind of woke up. And a thought prompted her for some reason: "This is connected with the Russian Church." And the world descended into her soul.

After this vision, the letter mentioned at the beginning was written. Two months later I visited them again, and this time I also learned the following from her. They took in a Russian worker. Wanting to find out if he settled well, the hostess went to him and saw an icon on the wall in the corner and recognized on it the old man whom she had seen in a light dream with Francis. In surprise and fear, she asked: “Who is this old man?” "Reverend Seraphim, our Orthodox saint," the worker answered her. And only then did she understand the meaning of the words of St. Francis, that the truth is in the Orthodox Church.

Book

I have a biography of St. Seraphim of Sarov. I love this book very much. Not only did I often reread it myself, but I also gave it to friends and acquaintances to read. The book became so shabby that I decided not to give it to anyone else.

One day a good friend of mine came. I saw a book on the shelf - and so relentlessly began to ask for it that I could not stand it and gave it.

I give it on the condition, - I said, - that you do not give it to anyone else. You see how shabby, and only pieces of the binding remained.

His neighbor saw the book and so asked him to read about his beloved saint, that he gave it to her, severely punishing:

Do not give to any person, otherwise, if the book is lost, what will I say to the hostess?

The neighbor and her daughter read the book with great joy and were in no hurry to part with it.

A young engineer was courting the neighbor's daughter and finally proposed to her. The girl apparently liked him very much, but she refused:

I am a believer, and you are not even baptized. You won’t go to marry me, you won’t let me go to church, and when the children are born, you won’t let me raise them the way my mother raised me. I will not go for you, we have too different views.

Having received a refusal, the young man began to persuade her several more times, and then, having seized the time when the girl was at work, he came to her mother and began to ask her to influence her daughter.

The girl's mother treated the guest well, but she refused to persuade her daughter. Seeing that he was very upset, she invited him to drink tea and went to the kitchen to prepare everything necessary for this.

While she busied herself, the young man sat at the table and leafed through the biography of the reverend lying there. When the hostess sat down with him at the table, he began to ask her to let her read this book. No persuasion worked. Then, thanking for the tea and saying goodbye, he grabbed the book and ran out the door, promising to return it soon as he walked.

The poor woman was afraid to catch the eye of my friend, as the days went by and the young man did not appear. Finally, she confessed what had happened, and both of them thought longingly about what to do.

A month passed, then another. The fifth week of Lent has arrived. Suddenly, a young man appeared at the house of his girlfriend.

My dears, - he joyfully exclaimed, - I am now yours, I was baptized yesterday, and the Monk Seraphim did all this. When I started looking at this book, I was so interested in it that I could not tear myself away from it. Then I wanted to know something else about faith, about Christ. I began to read, believed, and finally got baptized. And the book is intact, here it is.

And he put it on the table. The book was put in full order and bound in an expensive and beautiful binding. In such a wonderful form, she was returned to me. I decided to give it to the bride and groom.

Bread

One elderly nun from the skete of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery told such a story.

We have no transport, and in winter no one comes to us. It happens that for months there is no ride, everything will be covered. We have eaten all the bread for a long time, we eat only crackers, we have been eating them for a long time. I tell the priest (they all call Reverend Seraphim “father” or “father Seraphim”): “Father Seraphim, at least send us bread, otherwise the girls are already bored with crackers” (and almost all of them in the skete are very young girls) A couple of hours later, a car full of bread drives in to them, a man known to them from Diveevo gets out of it - and straight to this nun:

Take, mother, bread. And he himself is worried, his hands are shaking a little, and he says:

I'm going from Diveevo, I'm taking bread to ... (and calls another skete). Suddenly a voice: "Take me to ... (calls them a skit)". I ask the driver: "Have you heard anything?" He says, "No."

A little more time passed. Father Seraphim already shouted quite sternly at him, so he immediately turned the driver around, and here they are.

"No more pain"

Not so long ago, one girl (in that skete at the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery there are also girls of ten or twelve years old) had a very sick tooth, her whole cheek was swollen. And she had the obedience to clean up the temple. She sweeps, there is no one in the temple, and the tooth hurts so much that the head breaks, the cheek is swollen. She even sat up and cried out of pain. Suddenly, some grandfather comes out of the altar, as on an icon, and his clothes are all white and he himself is all light. He came up and said: “What are you crying about?” She says: "The tooth hurts." He stroked her cheek and said: “It won’t hurt anymore.” And again he went into the altar, closing the door behind him. The pain immediately disappeared, as if it had never happened. The girl told everything.

It is interesting that the door, which the elder closed behind him, dangled very freely on its hinges all the time, opening itself from the wind, and after that they did not know how to open it, they barely moved it, although outwardly nothing held it.

cracker

I want to tell you about a miracle that happened to me recently. When I woke up, I felt severe pain in my right side. Thought it was sciatica again. I smeared it with ointment, put on a bandage, as usual. But by evening the pain intensified. Rubbed, tied - nothing helped. The pain became unbearable, it was necessary to call a doctor. I understood that they would immediately put me in the hospital, but I really did not want this. And I decided to be patient. But day by day the pain intensified, so that it was impossible to lie down, or sit, or walk. I did not want to eat or drink. I still endured, and in the morning and in the evening, as usual, I prayed. On the night of the second week, the pain became so intense that I could no longer endure it. And I prayed: "Lord! My strength is gone. Help!"

And then she remembered the cracker from Diveevo, consecrated in the cauldron of St. Seraphim of Sarov. This carefully kept cauldron is now in the altar of the church in Diveevo. Father Seraphim, during his lifetime, distributed crackers to everyone as a blessing, which had healing power. And now the Diveyevo nuns put crackers into Father's cauldron and then distribute them to the pilgrims. And one believing woman brought crackers to Klin, who gave two crackers to my neighbor, and she gave me one cracker.

And so, remembering him, I got up with difficulty, found a cracker, found a prayer to the Monk Seraphim, knelt down, read it three times and asked the priest to help me. I took a cracker and ate half. I lay down and wait - what will happen.

This is where a miracle happened to me. I felt that I was hanging about ten centimeters from the bed and I didn’t feel the weight of the blanket. And there is no pain. A black shadow fell over my eyes, and I fell asleep.

Awakened or woken up by a knock at the door. I got up, went, opened the door, went back - and only then I realized that there was almost no pain. A week later, the pain completely disappeared, as if it had never been. At the same time, the usual pain from the hip to the heel in the left leg disappeared. So, through prayer to Seraphim of Sarov, I recovered. In our Sorrowful Church there is his icon. I immediately went to her to thank Father Seraphim and the Lord.

P pilgrims arriving on a pilgrimage probably know the words of Father Seraphim about the Diveyevo nuns: "Whoever intercedes for them and helps, the great mercy of God will be poured out on that one." And of course, any Orthodox has heard: "Obedience is higher than fasting and prayer! And not only do not refuse, but - you need to run to it!"

We left at night and by morning we were already in Diveevo. They left the car in the parking lot, and they themselves hurried to the Trinity Church - to venerate the relics of St. Seraphim. There were a lot of people. The inner doors were closed, and we stood at the top of the stairs and waited. Then the voice of a nun was heard, who, addressing no one in particular, said: "Brethren, who, for the glory of God, wants to work on the Mother of God Canal?" “Of course, you can work for God,” I thought cowardly, “but we have so little time and so much to do: we need to confess, take communion, visit the springs, take pictures, draw water, consecrated oil, take the priest’s crackers, swim ...”

Then events took place that taught me to better understand that place in the life of St. Mary of Egypt, where an unknown force did not let her into the temple. Listening to the life of the desert woman during Great Lent in the temple or reading it at home, I believed that the unknown force that did not let her into the temple was a literary allegory showing the spiritual inner struggle of the sinner. Now I understand: it was not a metaphor, but a reality ...

Having venerated the relics of St. Seraphim, I went to confession to the priest. Now, it seems, my turn is coming up, but at the last minute either an infirm old woman will pass ahead of me, or a nun, or a sick child in a wheelchair will be brought up. Some force pushes me away from the priest. The line of confessors moves forward, and I - back. The early liturgy is over. No problem. I went late. The line goes on, and I'm marking time. So I could not go to the priest for confession. I waited for evening. It was not possible to confess again - the pilgrims, arriving in huge buses, act clearly and harmoniously - strangers are rubbed back with strong shoulders and sharp elbows. The day ended with a procession along the Mother of God groove with a rosary. "Here you have Jerusalem, and Athos, and Kyiv!" - Father Seraphim said.

And on the second day I also failed to confess. By the end of the day, my anxiety reached certain limits, and in a conversation with mother Zinaida, who accommodated us in a hotel, I complained that during the two days of my stay in Diveevo I had not taken communion, and tomorrow I had to leave. Matushka looked at me attentively and said: "Let's pray. Tomorrow you will take communion." But I, being of little faith, was dissatisfied with such an answer, not relying too much on the power of prayer. Now, if only by the hand let me down!

The third day of my stay in the monastery came. In the morning at the early liturgy, I stood among the pilgrims, like a Pharisee among publicans, and waited for the beginning of confession, not really counting on success. However, the result exceeded my wildest expectations: having dismissed two or three confessors, the priest carefully looked at everyone and, as if bumping his gaze into me, beckoned to him with his finger. Not believing myself, I repeatedly asked the priest with the same gesture: "Am I right?" Having covered me with epitrachelion, the priest guided me for a long time on the path of salvation, cauterizing my ulcers with fiery verbs. For the first time in my life I confessed so deeply, with tears. Finally, the priest absolved me of my sins, blessed and kissed me on the cheek with the words: "It is possible to help you. Pray." Stepping aside and finding myself almost opposite the icon of the Mother of God "Tenderness", I could not come to my senses for a long time, ashamed of my tears. It was then that I understood a lot and, as they say, I saw the light ... I understood why we pray to the Mother of God: "Give me a stream of tears, Most Pure, cleansing my soul's filth."

I left the temple a different person. I wanted to love and hug the whole world. And when the nun stopped me at the exit and asked me to move the icons and stacks of books upstairs, my joy knew no bounds - I ran, as if having gained wings, and began to carry the luggage. The nuns noticed my zeal and gave me a reward - breadcrumbs consecrated in Father Seraphim's cast-iron.

January 15 - death († 1833), the second acquisition of relics (1991) of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky

When, in the early 1990s, people began to flock here after an eighty-year break, almost daily in the evening they had to take away the crutches left as unnecessary - so many healings took place. Now they have become much less.

Diveevo met with a motley crowd of pilgrims - there are foreign tourists in shorts, and bearded pilgrims with knapsacks on their shoulders. Near the monastery fence there are numerous tents selling church utensils. I draw attention to the sign attached to the monastery wall: "Everything that is sold outside the monastery fence has nothing to do with our holy monastery."

The territory of the monastery itself these days looks like a large anthill: preparatory work is underway for the holiday. In the temple, there is a queue for the relics of the saint: here both healthy and obviously sick people are on crutches, in wheelchairs. Having kissed the reliquary, you try to tune in to the service after the road, which is hindered by terrible crowding: in the temple there is nowhere for an apple to fall. Not far from the laity there are nuns: friendly, glowing with joy and goodwill, their whole appearance exudes some kind of aristocratic refinement. How can one not remember the Monk Seraphim, who met every person who came to him with the words: "My joy!". Despite the fact that before the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov was a week away, a long line of pilgrims who arrived here from all over the country had already lined up from the doors of the Pilgrimage Center of the monastery. Here they are distributed to the private sector. While walking to the hotel, I got into a conversation with a fellow traveler, from the locals.

So many hotels have been built in recent years! And everything is not enough.

I see people coming here from all over the country. And many people stay here.

Many people buy houses here: they say, the Lord called them. But, having lived a year or two, as a rule, they leave where they came from.

Someone did not find a job here (most of the believers are "intelligents"), and someone was frightened of the environmental situation. After all, Sarov is not far from the nuclear center.

But how do people come here for healing and, they say, receive it?

In response, my companion only waves his hand in annoyance.

Follow this road, you will reach the hotel straight...

The next day I got into a conversation with one of the builders working on the restoration of the monastery. Dmitry moved here several years ago: he sold an apartment in his city and bought a house in a village nearby to Diveevo - I think Elizarievo. He fundamentally disagreed with my yesterday's companion.

Spring of St. Seraphim of Sarov

According to your faith, be it to you, he thought. - Some people have a bright look, and they see only light, others have gray eyes, and they see only gray. Those who came here by God's will stay, and those who voluntarily, of course, leave. Now the ecological situation here is approximately the same as in other industrial regions of the country, no better, but no worse. As for the pilgrims, let the locals not slander them. Thanks to them, half of Diveevo is fed and has a job.

And the pilgrims themselves, thanks to the monastery, have the opportunity to refresh their strength twice a day in the monastery pilgrimage refectory. Although modest, but tasty and completely free. You eat - to satiety! A huge mass of people pass through the monastery every day and receive here both spiritual and daily bread.

Together with everyone I sit down at the wooden tables of the refectory. Nearby is a Moscow high-browed bespectacled professor, and a beggar ragamuffin. There is a common prayer before meals - and you feel a sense of brotherhood, as in the church at the Liturgy.

I just venerated the reliquary and saw there, next to it, the hoe that the reverend worked with! - a funny girl of 10 years old, who sat down opposite me, chattered, barely taking a breath from the surging feelings.

Why so lively?

From Tobolsk.

The name of?

Where are your parents?

Mom is dead, and dad (she made a characteristic gesture) is drinking.

Where do you live?

In the Tobolsk seminary, temporarily - in the first-aid post. Soon I will live in a seminary dormitory and study at an Orthodox gymnasium.

Who are you here with?

With our pilgrimage group from the Tobolsk diocese. Today, during confession, the priest asked me if I would like to stay in Diveevo. I answered him that if they leave me, then our lord will then cut off everyone's heads! And here, in the monastery, they took the fashion to call me mother. And I answer them: "What kind of mother am I to you?! I'm not a mother, I'm - de-vo-chka!" Have you already gone for crackers? ..

In the monastery, they not only feed for free, but also for free, in the Pilgrimage Center - they distribute crackers, consecrated in the pot of St. Seraphim, in which he cooked simple food for himself during the years of hermitage. And in the afternoon, on the porch of the Trinity Cathedral, the priest lowers this cast iron on the heads of pilgrims. Here, in line for the cast-iron of St. Seraphim, there are those who suffer to acquire grace, and they are all equal before the reverend.

Near the monastery gates, people with exhausted faces pester passers-by.

There were always enough hunters to speculate on the most elevated human feelings. However, in these holy places they fall off like a husk, you soon forget about them. And at the source of the monk, which is a few kilometers from Diveevo, you seem to forget about everything in the world. It is even easier to breathe here in a special way. The source itself appeared through the prayers of St. Seraphim, who lived as a hermit not far from this place in a small log house.

Cast iron of St. Seraphim of Sarov

According to the local watchman, the spring is an inexhaustible storehouse of miracles. When, in the early 90s, people began to flock here after an eighty-year break, almost every evening they had to take away the crutches left as unnecessary - so many healings took place. Now they have become much less. Apparently, indeed, it is given "according to our faith." Previously, religious inspiration led people to the source, but now it is increasingly fashion and curiosity.

Dipped three times and I. His breath hitched, as if a billion needles had entered under his skin. And no wonder: here the water is 4 degrees both in summer and in winter. Got out of the water, and the body is on fire! And extraordinary lightness, amazing bliss spreads to all joints! In this state of tranquility, two hours before the departure of our bus flew by like an instant. And everything would have been like in Heaven if I had not witnessed one most unpleasant scene. The young mother twisted the struggling and roaring beluga baby and forcibly, as if about to drown, dipped the choking offspring into the water three times. At this time, the grandmother, standing on the shore, baptized her children with her hand. When the woman released the boy, he was shaking in hysterics. Then he ran along the shore for several minutes and shouted to his mother and grandmother: "Don't come near me! I hate you!" Mother climbed out after her and theatrically, in the consciousness of her duty, began to be baptized.

Forgive me, Lord ... In her zeal beyond reason, mother does not understand that by force one can only cripple, and not heal ... We talked about this on the way back with Father Vyacheslav, a cleric of the Samara diocese, having agreed upon arrival in Diveevo to set foot together to the Canal of the Virgin.

The legendary groove, about which Russian House wrote a lot, departs from the monastery and returns to it, skirting many buildings, including a secondary school and the police department. Buildings are now being built in the village for the school and the police, and the entire Kanavka territory will be transferred to the monastic possession.

"Whoever passes the Kanavka with a prayer, and reads one and a half hundred" Mother of God ", then everything is here: Athos, and Jerusalem, and Kyiv!" And also, according to the words of Father Seraphim, the Antichrist will not be able to pass through the Kanavka: it will rise to heaven, and the monastery itself will soar into the sky.

Needless to say, the measured monastic way of life contrasts even with the unsophisticated rural life surrounding it. Not to mention the fact that the blessings of civilization have reached these holy places. Across the road from the monastery, a computer games club hospitably opened its doors... No, it was not in vain that the monks went into the wilderness, away from human eyes. To avoid external stimuli. To unclouded, in connection with nature, to glorify the Creator.

July 30, 1754 was born Prokhor Isidorovich Moshnin, whom we know as Seraphim of Sarov. One of the most revered Russian saints, his life, ministry and veneration keep many mysteries: from the relationship of the elder to the Old Believers to the difficulties of canonization.

Canonization

The first documented idea of ​​the official canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov is contained in a letter from Gavriil Vinogradov to the chief procurator of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev. This document, dated January 27, 1883, contains a call to “mark the beginning of the reign” of Alexander III with the “discovery of the relics of the pious” Seraphim of Sarov. And only 20 years later, in January 1903, the reverent elder was canonized. Such “indecision” of the Synod is explained by some sources as “sympathy” of the monk for the Old Believers, which they could not have been unaware of.
However, everything seems much more complicated: church power depended to one degree or another on state power in the person of the emperor and his representative, chief prosecutor. And although the latter was never a member of the Synod, he controlled and influenced its activities. The church authorities decided to take a wait-and-see attitude, to “play for time”: out of the 94 documented miracles of the Sarov elder, prepared for his canonization, a small proportion was recognized. It is really not easy to separate the actual feat from the fruit of self-confidence, the style of the narrator from the actual fact of the life of the reverend. The synod "did not find the determination to glorify the saint of God", waiting for the "go-ahead" of the emperor or the providence of God, which ideally should have coincided.

Old Believer

The version about the sympathies of St. Seraphim of Sarov for the Old Believers has been exaggerated from the beginning of the last century to the present day. The falsification of the generally accepted image of the saint as a supporter of the official church was reported, for example, in "Motovilov's papers", which were presented at the Nomadic Council of 1928. Whether such a Council was actually held is unknown. A person with a dubious reputation, Ambrose (Sivers), announced its holding, although a number of researchers (B. Kutuzov, I. Yablokov) recognized the authenticity of the Nomadic Cathedral. The “papers” reported that Prokhor Moshnin (Mashnin), the name that the reverend bore in the world, came from a family of crypto-Old Believers - those who “followed” Nikon only formally, but in everyday life continued to live and pray in Old Russian, nearly a thousand years old. Allegedly, therefore, the external attributes in the appearance of Sarovsky, which later supporters of his "Old Believers" would "trump": a copper cast "Old Believer" cross and a ladder ( special kind rosary). The strict ascetic appearance of the elder was also associated with pre-Nikonian Orthodoxy. However, the conversation of the Holy Father with the Old Believers is well known, where he asks them to "leave their nonsense."

Emperor's personal motives

It is well known that the last Russian emperor, Nicholas II, who personally “pressed” Pobedonostsev, played a key role in the canonization of Seraphim of Sarov. Perhaps not the last role in the decisive actions of Nicholas II belongs to his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, who, as you know, prayed to Sarovsky "to give Russia after the four Grand Duchesses an heir." After the birth of the Tsarevich, Their Majesties strengthened their faith in the holiness of the elder, and a large portrait with the image of St. Seraphim was even placed in the emperor's office. Whether personal motives were hidden in the actions of Nicholas II, how much he was carried away by the general love of the royal family for the veneration of miracle workers, whether he sought to overcome the "mediastination" that separated him from the people is unknown. It is also unclear how significant was the influence of the rector of the Savior-Evfimiev Monastery, Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), who gave the emperor “an idea about this subject” and presented the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery”. However, it is known that the Sarov elder was revered in the imperial family for a long time: according to legend, Alexander I visited him incognito, and the 7-year-old daughter of Alexander II was cured of a serious illness with the help of the mantle of St. Seraphim.

Letter

During the Sarov celebrations on the occasion of the discovery of the relics of the elder, Nicholas II received the so-called "letter from the past." The letter was written by the Monk Seraphim and addressed to the “fourth sovereign”, who will arrive in Sarov “to pray especially for me.” What Nikolai read in the letter is unknown - neither the original nor copies have been preserved. According to the stories of the daughter of Seraphim Chichagov, the Sovereign, having accepted the message sealed with soft bread, put it in his breast pocket with a promise to read it later. When Nicholas read the message, he “wept bitterly” and was inconsolable. Presumably, the letter contained a warning about the coming bloody events and instructions in strengthening the faith, "so that in difficult moments of difficult trials the Sovereign does not lose heart and carries his heavy martyr's cross to the end."

Prayer on the stone

Quite often, Sarovsky is depicted praying on a stone. It is known that the monk prayed for a thousand nights on a stone in the forest and for a thousand days on a stone in his cell. The prayer feat of Seraphim of Sarov on the stone was not documented by the abbot of the Sarov monastery Nifont. This may be due to the fact that in the Orthodox tradition, kneeling is rather an exception than a rule (they kneel down during the transfer of shrines, during the kneeling prayer on the Day of the Holy Trinity, during the calls of the priests “Kneel down, let us pray”). Prayer on the knees is traditionally considered a custom of the Catholic Church and is completely excluded, by the way, among the Old Believers.
There is a version that the feat of Sarovsky wanted to use the renovationists, who are trying to find allies in the person of the "Catholic brothers" in the matter of reforming the "obsolete Orthodoxy." Sarovsky himself said that he did not know whether the Catholics would be saved, only he himself could not be saved without Orthodoxy. According to legend, the monk told about his deed for edification only to a few at the end of his life, and when one of the listeners doubted the possibility of such a long prayer, and even on a stone, the elder remembered Saint Simeon the Stylite, who spent on the "pillar" in prayer for 30 years. But: Simeon the Stylite stood, and was not on his knees. The plot of "praying on the rock" also refers to the prayer for the cup, which Jesus performed on the night of his arrest, standing on the rock.

Bear, "groove" and croutons

There are several testimonies of the "communication" of the Holy Elder with the bear. Sarov Monk Peter said that the priest fed the bear with crackers, and the head of the Lyskovsky community, Alexandra, about requests to the bear “not to scare the orphans” and bring honey for the guests. But the most striking story is the story of Matrona Pleshcheeva, who, despite the fact that she “fell unconscious”, retells what is happening with documentary accuracy. Isn't it the usual Russian cunning here, the desire to join the "glory" of Seraphim? There is some common sense in this, because before the death of Matrona, she admits that this episode was invented by a certain Joasaph. From his teaching, Matrona promised to voice the story at the time of the stay of members of the royal family in the monastery. The controversy is also created during the life of Seraphim of Sarov "the groove of the Queen of Heaven", along which believers today pass with a prayer to the Mother of God, and at the end of the path they receive crackers, consecrated in the priest's cast iron, exactly the same as the miracle worker treated his guests. Did the Elder have the right to “invent” such sacraments? It is known that initially the arrangement of the “groove” was of practical importance - the impressive size of the ditch protected the nuns from the “unkind people”, the Antichrist. Over time, both the "groove", and "Serafimov's crackers", and the land taken with them, and even tapping on sore spots with the same ax acquired great importance for pilgrims. Sometimes even more than traditional church service and sacraments.

gaining

It is known that on December 17, 1920, the relics of the saint, kept in the Diveevo Monastery, were opened. In 1926, in connection with the decision to liquidate the monastery, the question arose of what to do with the relics: transfer them to the Penza Union of Atheists or, in the event of religious unrest, to a group of Renovationists in Penza. When in 1927 the final decision was made to liquidate the monastery, the Bolsheviks decided not to take risks and announced the transfer of the relics of Seraphim of Sarov and other relics to Moscow "for placement in a museum." On April 5, 1927, an autopsy and removal of the relics was carried out. The relics, dressed in a mantle and clothes, were packed in a blue box and, according to eyewitnesses, “divided into two parties, sat on several sledges and drove off in different directions, wanting to hide where the relics were being taken.” It is assumed that the relics made their way from Sarov to Arzamas, from there to the Donskoy Monastery. True, they said that the relics were not brought to Moscow (if they were taken there at all). There is evidence that the holy relics were put on public display in the Strastnoy Monastery until it was blown up in 1934.
At the end of 1990, the relics of the reverend were discovered in the storerooms of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism in Leningrad. Along with the news, doubts also appeared: are the relics genuine? In the memory of the people, the memory of the Sarov monks who replaced the relics in 1920 was still alive. To debunk the myths, a special commission was convened, which confirmed the authenticity of the relics. On August 1, 1991, the holy relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov were returned to the Diveevo Monastery.

It actually has a lot of good stuff in it. And above all, she is a passionate person. True, if he is carried away, then with all the strength and energy of his soul. She is carried away in such a way that there is almost nothing left for the rest of her life and for other objects of life that she was fond of before. She changed her hobbies enough, but in recent years, it seems, she was able to stop, becoming a novice Orthodox.

In Orthodoxy, again, she found so many subjects for her passion that her new love lasts much longer than the usual fads.

Starting to go to the temple regularly, she quickly climbed up the career ladder of our community to the honorary position of the caretaker of the candlestick to the left of the altar.

She very quickly managed to figure out the sequence and the correct order of behavior in the temple during worship.

When I am next to her, I hear her whisper instructions to other parishioners:

"Now we have to get up!" The gospel!

She also likes all sorts of wonderful items that appear from time to time in the church shop. Once meeting me on a country road near our house (we are neighbors), she exclaimed:

- Crackers! You need crackers!

I was surprised:

- Croutons consecrated on the relics! They brought us! Help with all the stomach! You have a stomach.

“Yes,” I nod. - I have a stomach.

- You eat one or two before meals. Most importantly, with prayer.

“Understood,” I say, “but the crackers themselves, without prayer, will not help?”

- No! Nothing will help without prayer!

- It's clear. And prayer without crackers?

She looks at me.

“I’m telling you… crackers are consecrated on the relics…” she names the revered saint. – What is not clear here?

I nod again. All clear. And most importantly, it's logical.

She is also very feminine. At her forty-something years, she doesn’t even need much makeup. Well, she doesn't wear makeup. We have known her and her husband for a long time, we live nearby. And in recent years we have been visiting the same temple. Sometimes, out of courtesy, I take an interest in their affairs. But she, apparently, does not want to talk about her husband, but I already know everything about my daughter. She is always with her.

But he likes to tell me important spiritual discoveries:

- There is a groove in Diveevo Holy Mother of God, you have to walk along it and read “Our Lady of the Virgin, rejoice” one hundred and fifty times!

“And then what will happen?”

- Thank you! All sorts of miracles happen!

- Wow.

- We should go, but where is it. With our earnings.

- Nothing, - I say, - you try to call on the Mother of God at home in the same way. Maybe She will visit you with grace even without a groove?

- Eh! Here is happiness for someone - to live next to Diveevo!

No disputes affect our good neighborly communication with her. She thinks I'm not a zealous enough Christian, and I agree with her every time. I do not always refrain from uncomfortable questions for her. So recently, about a month ago, after the Liturgy, I hear her tell other parishioners:

- ... And then they found a grave, mother abbess Agafya Suvorova. The commander's granddaughter! And she lived a hundred and fifty years! Here is a miracle!

Grandmothers echo her:

- Oh, a miracle.

- Abbesses, they are a holy life. So the Lord has granted longevity!

I can't stand it and go to them. I always regret that I got involved.

“I also saw this miracle on the Internet,” I say, “but I didn’t understand why in the pedigree, which is quite accessible, Alexander Suvorov does not have such a granddaughter? Maybe they forgot or missed it.

She looks at me with disbelief and annoyance.

“All right,” I continue, although I understand that I shouldn’t, “well, so be it. And although the photo with the cross looks like a fake ...

- What? Grandma asks me, straightening her scarf.

“Like a fake,” I explain, “but let it be, let it be real.

- Yes. So tell me, what's the miracle? Well, a certain abbess lived for a hundred and fifty years. Well, they were in no hurry to take her to the next world. Maybe she was fulfilling an important mission, or maybe the Lord waited and endured for a long time. What is the miracle here?

– A hundred and fifty years – isn’t it a miracle?!

– The Savior's earthly life was thirty-three years. And he is our God. Saints Faith, Hope, Love were just children ... and why should I admire some abbess from a hundred and fifty years old?

- It's a miracle!

And suddenly a tall, respectable man, regent Vasily, supports me. He approached imperceptibly and, apparently, listened to our argument.

- Yes. And the real miracle just happened in the temple,” he says in a bass voice.

Grannies and my neighbor, looking caustically at me, who does not believe in miracles, turn all their attention to him.

- Which? Which?!

- Liturgy! our regent answers. - Just now, with you, wine and bread turned into the Flesh and Blood of Christ. This is the miracle that we have witnessed! And you are all about some kind of granny from the Internet! Do you need it?

And yet we are friends with my neighbor. She complains to me about her husband as we walk home from the temple. He complains that he is always angry and unchurched. That he does not understand anything, even the most elementary, in her subtle Orthodox structure.

“Maybe you can talk to him like man to man?”

I promise to talk. Other than that, it's good for me. Her husband is an excellent non-drinking plumber. That in itself is rare in our village. And on Monday, he should just come to me, look at the current sink. After fixing the sink and before starting to connect the dishwasher, he takes a smoke break, going out and sitting on the threshold of my house. I sit next to you.

How are you, how is your wife?

- Yes, everything is fine.

- This is good. It is good when the spouse is a believer. He goes to the temple, - I try to turn on the right topic. “My wife is also a believer…

- And How? Everything is fine?

“Yes,” I answer, just like him, and I feel like my attempt to provoke a conversation is failing. We are not talkers with him. - Everything is fine.

But he comes to my rescue.

- What's good about that. When only about faith? - he stumbles on this question, because he has heard that my wife and I go to the temple. “Well, I mean, okay, of course. An Orthodox wife will not walk ... but ...

He stops.

- What's the "but"?

He is clearly overcoming embarrassment.

“They can't do anything.

- In terms of?

Well, here's the post. I'll fast too. But even that is not possible...

- What is impossible?

“Well,” he chooses his words. - You can't get close. And not only in the post is impossible. On Wednesday you can’t, on Friday you can’t, on Saturday and Sunday too. You just think how to catch the right day, and so that she is not very tired that day ...

– Post – important thing, - I say, realizing that now I will have to remember everything that I know about bodily and spiritual fasting, and mumble something about it.

- Yes, I know! he suddenly says. - I'll fast myself!

- How? Why? You don’t go to church, like your spouse said that you don’t believe.

Well, I believe in my soul. But I fast out of love,” he is embarrassed. Well, they don't eat, and neither do I. Wife with mother-in-law. And I don't eat for love. Why torture them with meat.

He fasts out of love. What a great example.

“Well,” I say, “it is very good to believe and love your neighbors in your soul. But you also need to fix your life. You know, I'm sure God will help you with your problems. If you also turn to Him. Go to confession. And tell our priest about the problems at the same time.

- Like this?

- Yes, that's it. Do you have books at home on how to prepare for confession?

- That's what it's full of. There are many books about faith. I'll see.

- Well, good. Here is one thing I would like to advise you. You tell the priest, as you confess, tell that you have to abstain for a long time during fasting, and that you have fornication thoughts.

- Well, when there is nothing with your wife for a long time, and you see other women ...

“Ah, this is…” he is embarrassed again. - Well, yes. Happens. I want to jump out of my pants.

- Tell me this. But not so, but say - fornication thoughts.

“Okay,” he says silently. - You know, I'll try.

I already know that yes, he will try. And I even know approximately what will happen next. And what will our father say ...

A week later, I have him again, now he is changing a rusted pipe in the yard. Looks at me happily.

- Happened!

- What? We really need a pipe. The wife planted flowers. Watering is necessary.

- Yes, it's understandable! I'm talking about confession! Happened! Everything worked. Father told me that I need consent! And that spouses should not refuse each other.

- Don't give up!

- Me not! Never.

We both smile.

– Confession and Communion are real miracles. You come, - I say, and in his look I feel: he will come.

Indeed, next week we meet in the temple. He is alone, without a wife.

After the service I ask:

- What about your wife?

- I got a little sick. Nothing. Cold. Sending you hello. I'm very glad we became friends.

- And tell her. I am also glad.

He suddenly reaches into his pocket. He takes out a bag. It has crackers.

- I told you to give it back. Helps with all stomach.

I thank you and put the crackers in my pocket. In this woman, his wife, in fact, a lot of good things.