PASHA Three exiled Poles covered a gigantic distance from north to south in a sleigh in a relatively short period of time. “The almost three-week journey,” wrote Malevsky, “did not leave behind any pleasant memories, but, incidentally, also unpleasant ones. It's here

Emin Pasha (1840–1892) Real name Eduard Schnitzer; born in the city of Opole into a Jewish merchant family. After the death of his father, he converted to Christianity and entered the gymnasium in Nysa. He studied medicine in Wroclaw, Berlin and Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad). Linguistic abilities and

Holy Blessed Schema-Nun Paraskeva (Pasha of Sarov)

Blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna, known as Irina, was born at the end of the 18th century in the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, Tambov province. Her parents, Ivan and Daria, were serfs of the Bulygins. When Irina was seventeen years old, her gentlemen married her to the peasant Theodore. Uncomplainingly submitting to her parents' and master's will, Irina became an exemplary wife and housewife, and her husband's family fell in love with her for her meek disposition and hard work, because she loved church services, prayed fervently, avoided guests and society, and did not go out to village games. They lived with their husband in harmony for fifteen years, but the Lord did not bless them with children.

After this time, the Bulygin landowners sold Theodore and Irina to the German landowners Schmidt in the village of Surkot. Five years after the resettlement, Irina’s husband fell ill with consumption and died. Subsequently, when the blessed one was asked what kind of husband she had, she answered: “Yes, just as stupid as me.”

After the death of her husband, the Schmidts took Irina as a cook and housekeeper. Several times they wanted to marry her off again, but Irina resolutely refused: “Even if you kill me, I won’t marry again!” So they left her.

A year and a half later, disaster struck: two pieces of canvas were discovered missing from the manor’s house. The servants slandered Irina, saying that she stole them. When the police officer arrived with the soldiers, the landowners persuaded them to “punish” Irina. The soldiers, on the orders of the bailiff, brutally tortured her, pierced her head, and tore her ears. But Irina, even during the torture, continued to say that she did not take the canvases. Then the Schmidts called a local fortune teller, who said that the canvases were stolen by a woman named Irina, but not this one, and they were lying in the river. We started searching and actually found them where the fortune teller indicated.

After the torture she endured, Irina was unable to live with the non-Christian gentlemen and, leaving them, she went to Kyiv on a pilgrimage.

The Kyiv shrines and the meeting with the elders completely changed her inner state: now she knew why and how to live. She now wanted only God to live in her heart - the only merciful Christ who loves everyone, the Distributor of all blessings. Unfairly punished, Irina felt with particular depth the indescribable depth of Christ’s suffering and His mercy.

Blessed Paraskeva.
Photo beginning XX century

The landowner, meanwhile, filed an application for her unauthorized departure. A year and a half later, the police found Irina in Kyiv and sent her along to the gentlemen. The journey was long and painful, she had to fully experience hunger, cold, cruel treatment by escort soldiers, and the rudeness of male prisoners.

The Schmidts, feeling guilty towards Irina, “forgave” her for running away and made her a gardener. Irina served them for more than a year, but, having come into contact with shrines and spiritual life, she could no longer remain on the estate and fled again.

The landowners put him on the wanted list. A year later, the police found her again in Kyiv and, having arrested her, escorted her along the stage to the Schmidts, who now did not accept her and angrily kicked her out onto the street - naked and without a piece of bread.

The time has come to be filled with the blessing of the spiritual fathers of the Kyiv Lavra. The Lord called his chosen one to the path of foolishness for Christ's sake. There is no doubt that in Kyiv Irina took secret tonsure into the great schema with the name of Paraskeva and therefore began to call herself Pasha.

For five years she wandered around the village like a madwoman, and was a laughing stock not only for the children, but for all the peasants. Pasha lived in the open air all year round, enduring hunger, cold and heat, and then retired to the Sarov forests and lived in a cave that she dug herself. In the brochure “The Holy Fool Pasha of Sarov, Elder and Ascetic of the Seraphim-Diveevo Convent,” published in Moscow in 1904, there is a mention of the testimonies of monastics at that time that it was the Monk Seraphim who blessed Praskovya Ivanovna to a wandering life in the Sarov forests. There she lived in fasting and prayer for about 30 years. They said that she had several caves in different places of a vast impenetrable forest, where there were then many predatory animals. She sometimes went to Sarov and Diveevo, but more often she was seen at the Sarov mill, where she came to work.

During her life in the Sarov forest, her long, harsh asceticism and fasting, she became like the Venerable Mary of Egypt: thin, tall, blackened by the sun. Barefoot, in a man's monastic shirt-scroll, unbuttoned on the chest, with bare arms, the blessed one came to the monastery, instilling fear in everyone who did not know her.

When she was still living in the Sarov forest, one day Tatars drove past, having just robbed a church. The blessed one came out of the forest and began to scold them. For this they beat her. Upon arrival in Sarov, one Tatar said to the guest:

An old woman came out there and scolded us. We beat her.

The guest exclaimed:

You know, this is Praskovya Ivanovna! - Harnessed the horse and rode after it.

Before moving to the Diveyevo monastery, Blessed Pasha lived for some time in the same village. Seeing her ascetic life, people began to turn to her for advice and asked her to pray; then the enemy of the human race taught evil people to attack her and rob her. Paraskeva was beaten, but no money was found. The blessed one was found lying in a pool of blood with a broken head. After this incident, she was ill for about a year, but could not completely recover until the end of her life. The pain in her broken head and the swelling in her stomach tormented her constantly, but she paid almost no attention to it and only occasionally said: “Oh, mummy, how it hurts here! No matter what you do, mummy, it won’t go down in the pit of your stomach!” Pasha’s hair was overgrown haphazardly, so her head itched and she kept asking to “look.”

Praskovya Ivanovna often came to Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna of Diveyevo. One day she came in and silently sat down next to the blessed one. Pelagia Ivanovna looked at her for a long time and finally said: “Yes! It’s good for you, you don’t have worries like I have: there are so many children!”

Pasha stood up, bowed to her without saying a word and quietly left Diveevo.

Blessed Pasha of Sarov at a meal.
Photo beginning XX century

Several years have passed. One day Pelagia Ivanovna was sleeping, but suddenly she jumped up, as if someone had woken her, rushed to the window and, leaning out halfway, began to look into the distance and threaten someone.

A gate opened near the Kazan Church, and Praskovya Ivanovna entered and went straight to Pelagia Ivanovna, muttering something to herself.

Coming closer and noticing that Pelagia Ivanovna was saying something, she stopped and asked:

What, mother, or no?

So it's still early? Isn't it time?

Yes,” confirmed Pelagia Ivanovna.

Praskovya Ivanovna bowed low to her and left without entering the monastery.

Six years before the death of Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna, Pasha again appeared at the monastery, this time with some kind of doll, and then with many dolls: she nursed, looked after them, called them children. Now she lived in a monastery for several weeks, and then months. Pasha spent the last year of the life of Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna in the monastery inseparably.

In the late autumn of 1884, Pasha walked past the fence of the cemetery Church of the Transfiguration and, hitting a fence post with a stick, said: “As soon as I knock down this post, they will go to die; just hurry up and dig graves!”

These words soon came true: Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna died and so many nuns followed her, so that the magpies did not stop for a whole year, and it happened that they held funeral services for two sisters at once.

When Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna died, at two o'clock in the morning the large monastery bell was rung, and the choir members, with whom Blessed Pasha lived at that time, were alarmed and jumped out of bed, fearing that there might be a fire. Pasha stood up all radiant and began to light and place candles in front of all the icons.

Well,” she said, “what kind of fire is there?” Not at all, it’s just that your snow melted a little, and now it will be dark!

Without a doubt, blessed Pelagia Ivanovna put Praskovya Ivanovna in her place for the same purpose for which the Monk Seraphim sent her herself to Diveevo - to save the souls of monastics from the onslaughts of the enemy of the human race, from temptations and passions, led by the blessed one through the gift of clairvoyance. If the wondrous servant of God, blessed Praskovya Semyonovna Milyukova, called Pelagia Ivanovna “the second Seraphim,” then in Diveyevo Praskovya Ivanovna, whom everyone in the monastery revered as “mama,” became the “third Seraphim” in spirit and suffering.

Several times the cell attendants of Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna invited Pasha to settle in the cell of the deceased.

No you can not; “Mummy doesn’t tell me to,” answered Praskovya Ivanovna, pointing to the portrait of Pelagia Ivanovna.

What is it that I don't see?

You don’t see it, but I see it: he doesn’t bless!

Blessed Pasha settled first near the choir, and then in a separate cell at the monastery gate.

Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna with a kitten.
Photo beginning XX century

In the cell there was a bed with huge pillows, and dolls were placed on it. Praskovya Ivanovna rarely occupied the bed, as she prayed all night long before the large icons in the corners of the cell. Having dozed a little in the morning, at dawn she began to wash, brush, tidy up, or go for a walk. Pasha demanded from those living with her that they must get up to pray at midnight, and if anyone did not agree, she began to make so much noise, “fight” and swear that everyone involuntarily got up to appease her and pray.

At first, Praskovya Ivanovna rarely went to church, saying that she had “her own mass,” but she strictly made sure that the sisters went to services every day. When I was going to church, I washed myself with special care the day before and prepared for such joy. In the temple she stood at the door or on the porch. She behaved decorously, with reverence and awe; sometimes she was on her knees throughout the service. In the last ten years or so, some of the blessed one’s rules have changed: for example, she did not leave the monastery and did not even go far from her cell, she stopped visiting church and received communion at home, and even then very rarely. The Lord Himself revealed to her what rules and way of life to adhere to.

At midnight, Praskovya Ivanovna was always served a boiling samovar. She drank only when the samovar was boiling, otherwise she would say: “Dead,” and would not drink. However, even then he would pour a cup and seem to forget - the water was cooling down. After Pasha drank a cup (and when she didn’t), she would light and put out the candles all night and pray in her own way until the morning.

When they made tea for her, she tried to take the packet away and pour it all out. He will fall asleep, but will not drink. When they poured tea, she tried to push her hand so that more would wake up, and when the tea turned out to be very strong, she said: “Broom, broom,” and poured all this tea into a rinsing cup, and then took it outside. Evdokia will take one edge, the blessed one will take the other, repeating: “Lord, help, Lord, help,” and so they carry this cup. And when they brought it out onto the porch, the blessed one poured it out and said: “Bless, Lord, on the fields, on the meadows, on the dark oak groves, on the high mountains.”

If someone brought jam, they tried not to give it to the blessed one, otherwise she would immediately take the jar to the restroom and turn it upside down, saying:

By God, from the inside! By God, from the inside!

Having drunk tea after mass, the blessed one sat down to work: knitting stockings or spinning yarn. This activity was accompanied by the incessant Jesus Prayer, and therefore its yarn was highly valued in the monastery: rosaries, belts and canvas cassocks for the clergy were made from it. She called “knitting stockings” in an allegorical sense an exercise in the unceasing Jesus Prayer. So, one day a visitor approached Pasha, intending to ask if he should move closer to Diveyevo, and she said in response to his thoughts: “Well, come to us in Sarov, we’ll collect milk mushrooms and knit stockings together,” that is, bow to the ground and learn the Jesus Prayer.

Accustomed to living in nature, in the forest, the blessed one sometimes retired to fields and groves in summer and spring and spent several days there in prayer and contemplation. At first, after moving to Diveevo, she went to distant obediences or to Sarov, to her former favorite places. With the gift of insight, recognizing the spiritual needs of the sisters who lived in obediences remote from the monastery, she strove there - to fight the enemy, instruct the sisters and warn them against temptations. Of course, everywhere she was received with joy, special pleasure and begged to live longer. The nuns who lived with her had the greatest love for her, they were bored and sad in the days of her absence.

Blessed Paraskeva at the porch of her cell.
Photo beginning XX century

For a long time, the desire to constantly move from place to place was one of Pasha’s characteristics. When Mother Abbess invited her to settle in the monastery, she always answered:

No, I can’t do it, this is the way, I must always move from place to place!

On her travels, she took with her a simple stick, which she called a “cane,” a bundle with various things or a sickle on her shoulder, and several dolls in her bosom. Often Pasha, being in a cheerful mood, laughed like a child, sorting through the property stored in the bundle. What was there: wooden crosses, peels, peas, cucumbers, grass, knitted children's mittens with money in the first finger, various rags.

With a cane, the blessed one sometimes frightened people pestering her and those guilty of some misdeed.

Where's my cane? Come on, I'll take it! - she said when she was disturbed. There were times when she mercilessly beat a person with it if no words could reason with him.

One day a wanderer came to her and wished to be let into his cell. The blessed one was busy, and the cell attendant did not dare to disturb her. But the wanderer insisted:

Tell her that I'm just like her!

The cell attendant was surprised at this lack of humility and went to convey his words to the blessed one. Praskovya Ivanovna did not answer anything, but took her cane, went outside and began to hit the stranger with it with all her might, exclaiming:

Oh, you murderer, deceiver, thief, pretender...

The wanderer left and no longer insisted on meeting the blessed one.

The inner state of the blessed one could be understood by her appearance: she was sometimes overly strict, angry and menacing, sometimes affectionate and kind, sometimes bitterly sad. Her kind look made me want to rush over, hug and kiss her. Pasha’s childishly kind, deep and clear blue eyes were so amazing that all doubt about her purity, righteousness and high feat disappeared. To anyone who experienced the blessed one’s gaze on himself, it became clear that all her oddities, allegorical conversation, severe reprimands and antics were only an outer shell that deliberately hid the greatest humility, meekness, love and compassion.

Pasha liked to wear sundresses, and like a child, she loved bright colors, especially shades of red. When welcoming guests of honor or as a sign of joy and fun for the visitor, the blessed one sometimes put on several sundresses at once. She usually wore an old woman's cap or a peasant scarf on her head, and in the summer she wore only a shirt. In her old age, Praskovya Ivanovna began to gain weight.

The blessed one diligently took care of her dolls: she fed them, washed them, put them on the bed - and she herself lay down on the edge of the bed. She predicted a lot to those who came to her, using dolls and pointing at them. It was a great consolation for her when she was given a doll. Among the dolls, she distinguished between her favorite and her least favorite. She washed the entire head of one doll. When the time came for any sister in the monastery to die, Pasha took out the doll, put it away and put it to bed. When the blessed one began to rage and beat her dolls, the sisters knew that the monastery was awaiting sorrow.

View of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery from the south.
Photo 1903

One day a merchant’s wife and her married daughter arrived. To please Praskovya Ivanovna, they brought her a large doll from Moscow, all dressed up in silk and velvet. As soon as they entered and bowed, the blessed one jumped up, ran over, grabbed a new doll, and in one fell swoop tore off her hand and stuck it in her daughter’s mouth. “Here, eat! Eat!” - shouts. She was frightened, stood neither alive nor dead, her mother was also shaking, and Praskovya Ivanovna screamed even louder: “Eat! Eat!” The guests were barely taken out. It turned out that this happened for a reason. Then the mother repented that her daughter had killed her child in the womb - and all this was revealed to the blessed one.

The sickle had great spiritual significance for the blessed one. She reaped grass for them and, under the guise of this work, bowed to Christ and the Mother of God. If one of the honorable people came to her, with whom she did not consider herself worthy to be together, the blessed one, having disposed of the treat and bowing at the guest’s feet, went away to reap the grass, that is, to pray for this person. She never left the harvested grass in the field or in the courtyard of the monastery, but always collected it and took it to the horse yard. As a sign of trouble, Pasha served burdock and prickly cones to those who came...

One of her favorite activities, which she connected with the Jesus Prayer, was weeding and watering the garden. When Pasha said: “I already weeded, watered, weeded everywhere!” - this meant that she was reporting her prayers for the one they were talking about.

No one is flying, no one is watering, I’m still working alone! - Praskovya Ivanovna sometimes complained, explaining that she could not pray for everyone alone.

The blessed one was constantly busy with work and grumbled greatly at the young people if they spent their time idly:

You keep drinking and eating, but you don’t have time to go do something!

She often scolded her for her uncleanliness and uncleanliness.

What's this?! - sometimes shouts to the monastery sisters. - What's this?! You need to take a cloth or brush, wash everything and wipe it off.

Praskovya Ivanovna sometimes loved to bake buns and pies, which she certainly sent as gifts to Mother Abbess and others.

Speaking about family life, the blessed one often likened it to preparing food:

Do you know how to cook soup? First, peel the roots, boil water, then put it on the stove, watch all this, cool it in time, set the saucepan aside, or heat it up - and she quickly explained how it is necessary for married people to maintain moral purity, cool down the ardor of their character and warm up the coldness, and slowly , arrange your life with mind and heart.

Pasha prayed in her own words, but knew some prayers by heart. She called the Most Holy Theotokos “Mama behind the glass.” When she reproached people for their misdeeds, she often expressed herself like this: “Why are you offending Mama!” - that is, the Queen of Heaven. Sometimes she stood rooted to the spot in front of the image and prayed earnestly; sometimes with tears, on her knees, she prayed wherever she had to: in the field, in the upper room, on the street. It happened that she entered the church and began to extinguish the candles and lamps near the images, and sometimes she did not allow the lamps to be lit in the cell.

Raphael's mother said that when she entered the monastery, she was given the obedience of a night watchman. From a distance she could clearly see Praskovya Ivanovna’s cell. Every night at twelve o'clock candles were lit in the cell and a fast figure of the blessed one moved, either extinguishing them or lighting them. Raphaila really wanted to see how the blessed one prayed. Having been blessed by the sister who was on duty with her to walk along the alley, she headed to Praskovya Ivanovna’s house. The curtains at all of its windows were open. Having crept up to the first window, she was just about to climb onto the cornice to look into the cell, when a quick hand drew the curtain; she went to another window, to a third; the same thing happened again. Then she walked around to the window that had never been curtained, but there the same thing happened again. So she didn’t see anything.

After some time, Raphael’s mother came to the blessed one. She accepted it and said:

She began to pray on her knees.

Now lie down.

At this time the blessed one began to pray. What a prayer this was! She suddenly became completely transformed, raised her hands, and tears flowed like a river from her eyes. It seemed to Raphaila that the blessed one had risen into the air: she did not see her feet on the floor.

Asking for a blessing from the Lord for every step and action, Pasha sometimes asked loudly and immediately answered herself: “Do I need to go? Or wait?.. Go, go quickly, stupid!” - and then she walked. “Still pray? Or cum? Nicholas the Wonderworker, father, is it okay to ask? Not good, you say? Should I leave? Go away, go away, quickly, mummy! I hurt my finger, Mama! To treat, or what? No need? It will heal on its own!”

The blessed one really spoke to a world invisible to us. She showed her love for God and the saints in her own unique way: she treated the images, put her favorite things on them, and decorated them with flowers. Bringing gifts to the Mother of God, she babbled:

Mother! Queen of Heaven! What a Baby you have - Father! Here, here, here, take it, eat it, our dear!

It happened that when she was given money, she asked the icon of St. Seraphim:

To take or not to take? Take it, you say? Okay, I'll take it. Ah, Seraphim, Seraphim! Great is the Seraphim of God, the Seraphim is everywhere!

And only then did she take the money and put it under the icon of the monk.

Pasha usually spoke about herself in the third person:

Go, Praskovya! No, don't go! Run, Praskovya, run!

In the days of spiritual struggle with the enemy of the human race, she began to talk incessantly, but nothing could be understood; she broke things, dishes, was worried, screamed, cursed. One day the blessed woman got up in the morning upset and alarmed. In the afternoon, a visiting lady approached her, greeted her and wanted to talk, but Praskovya Ivanovna screamed and waved her hands:

Go away! Go away! Can't you see, there's the devil! They cut off the head with an axe, they cut off the head with an axe!

The visitor got scared and walked away, not understanding anything, but soon the bell was rung, announcing that a nun had just died in the hospital in an epileptic fit.

There were countless cases of Praskovya Ivanovna’s insight, some of them were recorded.

Cell of Blessed Paraskeva
at the southern entrance to the Diveyevo Monastery

One day, the blessed maiden Ksenia from the village of Ruzina came to ask for a blessing to go to the monastery.

What are you saying, girl! - the blessed one screamed. - We must first go to St. Petersburg and serve all the gentlemen first; Then the Tsar will give me money, I’ll build you a cell!

After some time, Ksenia’s brothers began to divide their property, and she again came to Praskovya Ivanovna.

The brothers want to share, but you don’t bless! Whatever you want, if I don’t listen to you, I’ll build a cell!

Blessed Pasha, alarmed by her words, jumped up and said:

What a stupid daughter you are! Well, is it possible! After all, you don’t know how much taller the baby is than us!

Having said this, she lay down and stretched out. And in the fall, Ksenia’s daughter-in-law died, and in her arms she was left with a girl, an orphan.

One day, while running around the village of Alamasov, Blessed Pasha went to see the priest, who at that time had a psalm-reader on business. She came up to him and said: “Sir! I ask you, take or find a good nurse or nanny, because you need it, otherwise it’s impossible, I beg you, take a nurse!” And what? The hitherto perfectly healthy wife of the psalm-reader fell ill and died, leaving behind a baby.

A peasant from a neighboring village was traveling through the Sarov forest to get monastery lime and met Praskovya Ivanovna, walking, despite the frost, barefoot and wearing only a shirt. When buying lime, he was offered to take a few extra pounds without money. He thought and took it. Returning home, he again met with Pasha, and the blessed one told him: “Although you will be richer for listening to the demon! You better live the truth you lived!..”

Praskovya Ivanovna pointed out to many who came which way to be saved: for whom she predicted family life, and for whom she blessed monasticism. One Diveyevo nun recalled how she entered the monastery: “I got ready for Sarov, prayed fervently at the tomb of the saint of God, asking for his help, and on the way back I stopped in Diveevo, and went to see blessed Pasha, and when she saw me, she screamed : “Where have you been so far, where are you staggering? They’re waiting and waiting for her here, but she’s still staggering around God knows where!” “Yes, everyone threatens me with a stick.”

Sisters Zoya and Lydia Yakubovich (the future schema-nun Anatoly and schema-nun Seraphim) were passing through Diveevo and stopped by Blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna. They were very embarrassed that they had to become the founders of the newly established community. A document had already been sent from the Synod, according to which Zoya was appointed builder of the church, but the sisters did not feel strong enough to fulfill this obedience. Praskovya Ivanovna said:

Give me the papers, I'll read them.

Zoya knew that the blessed one was illiterate, but she obeyed and handed her the synod paper. The blessed one immediately tore it into shreds and threw it into the stove. Turning to the image of St. Seraphim and pointing her hand at the sisters, she exclaimed:

Father Seraphim, your daughters-in-law, by God! Both of your daughters-in-law!

Then she told them to go to Abbess Alexandra and ask to enter the monastery.

Schema-nun Anatolia said that once she and her sister wanted to watch Praskovya Ivanovna pray at night. We were blessed by the abbess and came to the blessed one in the evening. And she immediately went to bed. At twelve o’clock she got up, demanded a samovar, drank tea and went back to bed, and in the morning, wagging her finger, she said: “Mischief girls, when there is a sukman (cloth sundress), crosses and bows, then pray.” The novices understood her words in such a way that they could take up the feat no earlier than after being tonsured into the schema. Before accepting the schema, the sisters came to Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna for a blessing. The blessed one stood up and began to pray aloud: “Grow, O Lord, wheat, oats, vetch and green flax, young, tall for many years.” At these words, she raised her hands and rose into the air herself. The words “for many years” meant the long life of Anatoly’s mother. The blessed one's linen meant prayer.

Predicting the imminent death of schema-nun Seraphima, Praskovya Ivanovna said about her: “The girl is good, but all in the country, one head out,” and indeed, Seraphim’s mother, suddenly falling ill, soon died.

Raphael's mother said that six months before her mother's death she came to Praskovya Ivanovna; the blessed one began to look towards the bell tower.

They fly and fly, here’s one, followed by another, higher, higher,” and she slammed her hands, “even higher!”

Raphael's mother immediately understood everything. Six months later, my mother died, and six months later, my grandfather died.

When Raphael's mother entered the monastery, she was constantly late for services. One day she came to the blessed one, and she said:

The girl is good, but a couch potato. Your mother is praying for you.

Schema-Archimandrite Barsanuphius of Optina was transferred from Optina Hermitage and appointed Archimandrite of the Golutvin Monastery. Having become seriously ill, he wrote a letter to blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, whom he visited and in whom he had great faith. This letter was brought by Raphael's mother. When the blessed one listened to its contents, she only said: “Three hundred and sixty-five!” Exactly 365 days later, the elder died. This incident was confirmed by the elder’s cell attendant, in whose presence the blessed woman’s answer was received.

Blessed Pasha of Sarov (center) on the porch
with Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov)
and cell attendant nun Seraphima.
Photo from the 1890s.

The famous spiritual writer S.A. Nilus, when he first arrived in Diveevo, did not dare to visit the blessed one for a long time. Before going to her, he drank tea for a long time. On the way, he decided to give her a five-ruble gold coin. He describes his meeting with the blessed one like this: “I enter the porch. In Sentsy I am met by the cell of the blessed one, nun Seraphima.

You're welcome!

To the right of the entrance is a small room, all hung with icons. Someone reads an akathist, the worshipers sing the refrain: “Rejoice, Unbrided Bride.” There is a strong smell of incense, melting from burning wax candles... Directly from the exit there is a corridor, and at the end of it there is an open door into something like a hall. Mother Seraphim took me there:

Mommy is there.

Before I had time to cross the threshold, to my left, from behind the door, from the floor, something gray, shaggy, and, it seemed to me, scary, jumped up and rushed past me like a storm towards the exit with the words:

You can't buy me for a nickel! You'd better go and wet your throat with tea.

She was blessed. I was destroyed."

Subsequently, S. A. Nilus greatly revered Praskovya Ivanovna. She predicted his marriage when he had not even thought about it. Another time the blessed one said to him: “Who has one crown, but you have eight. After all, you are a cook. Are you the cook? So shepherd people if you are a cook.”

One day a bishop came to the monastery. The blessed one expected him to come to her, but he went to the monastery clergy. She waited for him until the evening, and when he arrived, she rushed at him with a stick and tore the basting. Out of fear, he hid in the cell of his mother Seraphim. When the blessed one “fought,” she was so formidable that she put everyone in awe. And as it turned out later, the bishop was attacked by men and beaten.

Once Hieromonk Iliodor, in the world Sergius Trufanov, from Tsaritsyn came to visit Blessed Pasha. He came with a religious procession, there were a lot of people. Praskovya Ivanovna received him, sat him down, then took off his hood, the cross, all the orders and insignia - she put it all in her chest and locked it, and hung the key to her belt. Then she ordered a box to be brought, put onions in it, watered it and said: “Onions, grow tall...” - and she went to bed. He sat as if debunked. He had to start the all-night vigil, but he couldn’t get up. It’s good that she tied the keys to her belt on one side, and slept on the other side, so they untied the keys, took everything out and gave it to him. Several years passed - and he withdrew from the priesthood and renounced his monastic vows.

One day Bishop Hermogenes (Dolganov) from Saratov came to visit the blessed one. He was in big trouble - a child was thrown into his carriage with a note: “Yours from yours.” He ordered a large prosphora and came to the blessed one with the question, what should he do? She grabbed the prosphora, threw it against the wall, so that it bounced off and hit the partition, and did not answer anything. The next day the same. On the third day, she locked herself in and did not go out to the bishop at all. What to do? He himself, however, revered the blessed one so much that he did not want to leave without her blessing, despite the fact that the affairs of the diocese required his presence. Then he sent a cell attendant, whom she received and gave tea to. The Bishop asked through him: “What should I do?” She replied: “I fasted and prayed for forty days, and then they sang Easter.” The meaning of these words was, apparently, that all current sorrows must be endured with dignity, and they will be resolved safely in due time. Vladyka took her words literally, went to Sarov and lived there for forty days, fasting and praying, and during that time his matter was decided.

Evdokia Ivanovna Barskova, who did not go to the monastery and did not intend to get married, went on a pilgrimage to Kyiv. On the way back, she stopped in Vladimir with a blessed merchant who received all wanderers. The next morning he called her, blessed her with the image of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and said:

Go to Diveevo, there the blessed Pasha of Sarov will show you the way.

As if on wings, Dunya flew to Diveevo, and blessed Praskovya Ivanovna throughout her two-week journey (and she walked about three hundred miles) went out onto the porch, howled and beckoned with her hand:

Aw, my drip is coming! My servant is coming!

Dunya came to Diveevo in the evening, after the all-night vigil, and immediately to Praskovya Ivanovna. Mother Seraphima, the senior cell attendant of the blessed one, came out and said: “Go away, girl, go away, we are tired; tomorrow you will come, tomorrow you will come after early.

She sent her out the gate, and Praskovya Ivanovna “fights”:

You are driving my servant away! Are you driving my servant away? My servant has arrived! My servant has arrived!

When Dunya came to the blessed one in the morning, she greeted her warmly: she laid scarves on a stool, blew off the dust and sat her down, began to give her tea and treats; So Dunya remained with the blessed one. Praskovya Ivanovna immediately entrusted everything to her, and the head cell attendant, Mother Seraphima, fell in love with her.

Dunya said that the blessed one was very disposed towards her and fussed with her as if she were a friend. Dunya will deliberately approach the blessed one without a scarf, and she will immediately take out a new scarf and cover her. And after a while, Dunya again approaches her with her head uncovered. Mother Seraphim said:

Dusya, you’ll lure all her scarves away.

And Dunya gave it to others.

Nun Alexandra (Trakovskaya), the future abbess, asked Dunya:

Aren't you afraid of the blessed one?

Not afraid.

And as soon as Mother Alexandra left, the blessed one said:

This mother will be (that is, abbess).

When the monastery's bell tower was almost completed in 1902, the architect found that it had a dangerous slope and was in danger of falling. The work was stopped, which greatly upset the sisters. But Praskovya Ivanovna consoled them, telling everyone that the ban would be lifted, the bell tower would be completed and the bells would be raised to it. This prediction came true.

In the winter of 1902, Mother Abbess Maria was seriously ill, the sisters grieved greatly and feared for the outcome of the illness. Nun Anfia, the head of the monastery hotel, together with other sisters, repeatedly asked Praskovya Ivanovna: “Will our mother abbess recover?” And the blessed one said every time that a speedy recovery awaited her. Praskovya Ivanovna's prediction came true. Despite her advanced age, Mother Superior recovered from her serious illness and the danger had passed.

In 1904, sensing the imminent death of Abbess Maria Ushakova, Blessed Pasha kept repeating: “The wall is falling off, the wall is falling off, the mother is leaving, the mother is leaving!”

Abbess Maria (Ushakova) did nothing, did not go anywhere without the blessing of Praskovya Ivanovna. The next abbess, Alexandra (Trakovskaya), did not follow her example. When building a new cathedral in Diveyevo, Abbess Alexandra decided not to ask the blessing of the blessed one.

When a solemn prayer service was going on at the laying site, the abbess’s aunt, Elizaveta, came to Praskovya Ivanovna. She was old and deaf, and therefore she said to the blessed novice, Duna:

I will ask, and you say that she will answer, otherwise I will not hear.

She agreed.

Mom, they are donating the cathedral to us.

The cathedral is a cathedral,” answered Praskovya Ivanovna, “and I noticed: bird cherry trees had grown in the corners, as if they had not blocked the cathedral.”

What does she say? - asked Elizabeth. “What’s the use of talking,” Dunya thought, “they’re already laying foundations for the cathedral,” and she answered:

Blessing.

The cathedral remained unconsecrated until 1998. During the years of desolation, trees grew on its roof.

Praskovya Ivanovna was tonsured into the schema, but since she was busy all day with people, she had no time to read the rule, and her cell attendant, Mother Seraphim, celebrated both her monastic rule and Praskovya Ivanovna’s schematic rule. In the monastery, Mother Seraphima had a separate cell, and for the sake of appearance she had a bed with a feather bed and pillows, on which she never lay down, but rested while sitting in a chair. They lived with one spirit. And it was better to insult Praskovya Ivanovna than Mother Seraphim. If you insult her, then don’t come close to Praskovya Ivanovna.

Seraphim's mother died of cancer, the disease was so painful that she rolled on the floor in pain. When she died, Praskovya Ivanovna came to church. The sisters immediately took notice of her, since she rarely went to church. The blessed one told them: “You fools, they look at me, but don’t see that she is wearing three crowns,” - this is about Mother Seraphim.

On the fortieth day, Praskovya Ivanovna expected the priests to come and sing a requiem in her cell. She waited for them all evening, but they passed by. The blessed one became upset and said reproachfully:

Eh, priests, priests... passed by... Wave a censer - and that’s a joy to the soul.

One day, the cell attendant of Blessed Paraskeva, Evdokia, had a dream. A wonderful house, a room and such large, as they call it, Italian windows. These windows are open to the garden, where extraordinary golden apples hang, knock directly on the windows, and everything is laid out and tidied up. She sees mother Seraphim, who tells her: “I’ll take you and show you the place where Praskovya Ivanovna is.” Then Evdokia woke up, went up to Praskovya Ivanovna, wanted to tell her everything, but she closed her mouth...

Tsar Nicholas II visits Blessed Pasha of Sarov.
Wall painting of the Kazan Church
Diveevsky Monastery

At the end of the 19th century, the future Metropolitan Seraphim, then still a brilliant guards colonel Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, began to travel to Sarov. A novice of blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, Dunya, said that when Chichagov arrived for the first time, Praskovya Ivanovna met him, looked from under his hand and said:

But the sleeves are priestly ones.

He soon accepted the priesthood. Praskovya Ivanovna persistently told him:

Submit a petition to the Emperor so that the relics are revealed to us.

Chichagov began collecting materials, wrote the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery” and presented it to the Emperor. When the Emperor read it, he was inflamed with the desire to open the holy relics.

Despite the many miracles that people saw during the seventy years after the repose of Elder Seraphim, there were difficulties with the discovery of his holy relics and glorification. They said that the Emperor insisted on glorification, but almost the entire Synod was against it.

At this time, blessed Praskovya Ivanovna fasted for fourteen or fifteen days, ate nothing and became so weak that she could not even walk, but crawled on all fours.

One evening Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov) came to the blessed one and said:

Mama, they refuse to reveal the relics to us.

Praskovya Ivanovna said:

Take my hand, let's go free.

On one side she was picked up by Mother Seraphim, on the other by Archimandrite Seraphim.

Take the piece of iron. Dig to the right - here are the relics...

Father Seraphim only had his bones preserved. This confused the Synod: whether to go somewhere into the forest if there were no incorruptible relics. To this, one of the surviving elders, who personally knew the monk, then said: “We bow not to bones, but to miracles.” The sisters said that the monk himself appeared to the Emperor, after which he, with his authority, insisted on the opening of the holy relics.

When the issue of glorifying and opening the holy relics was decided, the Grand Dukes came to Sarov and Diveevo, to Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna. They brought her a silk dress and a bonnet, which they immediately dressed her in.

At that time, there were four daughters in the royal family, but there was no boy heir. The great princes went to the monk to pray for an heir. Praskovya Ivanovna had the custom of showing everything on dolls, and then she prepared a boy doll. She laid the scarves softly on him and laid him high: “Hush, hush - he’s sleeping...” She led him to show them: “This is yours.” The great princes, in delight, lifted the blessed one into their arms and began to rock her, but she just laughed. Everything she said was conveyed by telephone to the Emperor, who himself arrived later.

Evdokia Ivanovna said that Seraphim’s mother was going to Sarov for the opening of the holy relics, but suddenly broke her leg. Praskovya Ivanovna healed her.

Before the Emperor’s arrival in Diveevo, the blessed one was told that after he was met in the abbot’s building and a concert was sung, he would leave his retinue at breakfast and come to her.

When Seraphim’s mother and Dunya returned from the meeting, a frying pan of potatoes and a cold samovar were on the table, but Praskovya Ivanovna did not allow them to be removed. While they were fighting with her, they heard from the hallway: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!” The august couple entered - Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Already in their presence they laid out the carpet and cleared the table; They immediately brought a hot samovar. Everyone left, leaving the royal guests and the blessed one alone, but the Emperor and Empress could not understand what Praskovya Ivanovna was saying, and soon the Emperor came out and said:

The eldest is with her, come in.

And the conversation took place in front of the cell attendant.

Praskovya Ivanovna predicted everything for the royal couple: war, revolution, the fall of the throne, dynasties, a sea of ​​blood. The Empress was close to fainting and said that she did not believe it. The blessed one handed her a piece of red calico: “This is for your little son’s pants. When he is born, you will believe it.”

Then Praskovya Ivanovna opened the chest of drawers. She took out a new tablecloth, spread it on the table and began to put gifts on it: a linen canvas of her own making, a loaf of sugar, painted eggs, and more sugar in pieces. The blessed one tied all this into a knot: very tightly, in several knots, and when she tied it, she even squatted from the effort. Then she gave the bundle into the hands of the King with the words:

Sir, carry it yourself. Give us some money, we need to build a hut.

The Emperor did not have any money with him. They immediately sent and brought it, and he gave her a purse of gold, which was immediately handed over to the mother abbess.

When they said goodbye, they kissed hand in hand.

At the same time, Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich said that Praskovya Ivanovna is a true servant of God. Everyone and everywhere accepted him as a Tsar - she alone accepted him as a simple person.

After this, the Emperor turned to Praskovya Ivanovna with all serious questions and sent the Grand Dukes to her. Evdokia Ivanovna said that no sooner had one left than the other arrived. After the death of Praskovya Ivanovna’s cell attendant, nun Seraphima, they asked everything through Evdokia Ivanovna. She reported that Praskovya Ivanovna said:

Sovereign, come down from the throne yourself.

Before her death, she kept bowing before the portrait of the Emperor. She herself was no longer able to do them, and she was lifted and lowered.

Why are you, mummy, praying to the Emperor like that?

Stupid! He will be higher than all the Kings!

The blessed one said about the Emperor: “I don’t know - the venerable one, I don’t know - the martyr.”

Shortly before her death, the blessed one took down the portrait of the Emperor and kissed his feet with the words: “Darling is already at the end...”

Hegumen Seraphim (Putyatin) repeatedly witnessed how the blessed one placed a portrait of the royal family next to the icons and prayed to it, calling out: “Holy royal martyrs, pray to God for us!” - and cried bitterly.

After the visit of the royal family, many people close to the court visited Sarov and Diveevo, and the blessed one impartially denounced some. Grigory Rasputin arrived with his retinue - young ladies-in-waiting. He himself did not dare to enter Praskovya Ivanovna’s house and stood on the porch, and when the ladies-in-waiting came out, Praskovya Ivanovna rushed after them with a stick, cursing: “You deserve a stallion!” They just clicked their heels.

Anna Vyrubova also came. Fearing that Praskovya Ivanovna would do something again, they first sent to find out what she was doing. Praskovya Ivanovna sat and tied three sticks with a belt (she had three sticks: one was called a “cane”, the other was a “bulanka”, the third - I forgot how) with the words: “Ivanovna, Ivanovna (that’s what she called herself), and how will you beat? - Yes, in the face! She turned the whole palace upside down!” The important maid of honor was not allowed in, saying that Praskovya Ivanovna was in a bad mood.

In 1914, a global disaster broke out - world war. “When she was in full swing,” the Diveyevo sisters told S. A. Nilus, “the blessed “mama” Praskovya Ivanovna was all rejoicing, clapping her hands and saying:

God, God is so merciful! The robbers are still pouring into the Kingdom of Heaven!”

By foresight, Praskovya Ivanovna knew about the coming persecution of the Orthodox Church. Thus, she predicted “three prisons” for Archbishop Peter Zverev. After 1918, he was arrested three times, spent several years in prison and died of typhus on Solovki in 1929.

Sometimes Praskovya Ivanovna said to the nuns who came to her:

Get out of here, you scoundrels, here's the cash register!

Indeed, after the dispersal of the monastery there was a savings bank here.

The blessed one died hard and for a long time. S. A. Nilus describes his last meeting with Praskovya Ivanovna in the summer of 1915: “When we entered the blessed one’s room and I saw her, I was first of all struck by the change that had occurred in her entire appearance. This was no longer the former Paraskeva Ivanovna, it was her shadow, a person from the other world. A completely haggard, once full, but now thin face, sunken cheeks, huge, wide-open, otherworldly eyes: the spitting image of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Vasnetsov’s depiction of the Kiev-Vladimir Cathedral: his same gaze, directed as if above the world into the supermundane space, to the Throne of God, into the vision of the great mysteries of the Lord. It was terrible to look at her and at the same time joyful.”

Before her death, Blessed Paraskeva was paralyzed. She suffered a lot. Some were surprised that such a great servant of God was dying so hard. It was revealed to one of the sisters that with these dying sufferings she was redeeming the souls of her spiritual children from hell.

Praskovya Ivanovna died on September 22/October 5, 1915 at the age of about 120 years. When she was dying, in St. Petersburg one nun went out into the street and saw how the blessed soul ascended to heaven.

Praskovya Ivanovna was buried at the altar of the Trinity Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery, to the right of the graves of blessed Natalya Dmitrievna and Pelagia Ivanovna.

Blessed Pasha of Sarov.
Lithograph 1908

After the death of Praskovya Ivanovna, her successor, Blessed Maria Ivanovna, lived in her house for two years and received the people. Pasha spoke about her:

I’m still sitting behind the camp, and the other one is already scurrying around. She still walks and then sits down.

When she blessed Maria Ivanovna to stay in the monastery, she said: “Just don’t sit in my chair.”

Blessed Pasha's cell after her death became a place of veneration and pilgrimage for believers. Until the closure of the monastery in 1927, the indefatigable Psalter was read in the blessed cell. A.P. Timofievich describes his visit to the cell in 1926: “It was a small one-story wooden house with a veranda under an iron roof, standing at the very gate of the monastery fence... we found ourselves in a small upper room, from which three doors led... Cyprian’s mother led us into cell of blessed Paraskeva. Its walls were completely covered with images, and what especially attracted our attention was a beautifully crafted crucifix standing at full height in the middle of the cell.

The blessed one especially loved to pray before him,” my mother noted, “and how many nights the darling stood without sleeping, how many tears were shed, only the Lord knows.”

To the left in the corner there was a large bed covered with a colorful blanket with many pillows. On the bed lay dolls of the most varied types, some of which only had their torsos left.”

The cell of Blessed Pasha of Sarov, standing at the southern entrance to the monastery, has survived to this day. During Soviet times, it housed a savings bank and then a baby food distribution point. Now the cell of Blessed Paraskeva has been returned to the monastery.

Until the closure of the monastery in 1927, memorial services were continuously celebrated at the grave of the revered blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna. During the years of desolation, the graves of the Diveyevo blessed were destroyed. In the 60s of the 20th century, a beer stall was erected on the site of the graves of the blessed. The woman who traded there often saw three old women sitting on a bench, looking at her disapprovingly and not leaving until she left herself. She knew for sure that there were no old women on the bench, but at the same time she clearly saw them. Soon the woman refused to pour beer there. After that, no one agreed to work in this stall and it had to be removed.

Cancer with the relics of St. blzh. Paraskeva
in the Kazan Church of the Holy Trinity
Diveyevo Monastery.
Photo by V. Alekseev

Archpriest Vladimir Smirnov, who visited Diveevo in 1971, described the state of the holy graves as follows: “We passed by the place where there were chapels over the graves of the blessed, and they pointed out to us a crypt with a broken vault as the burial place of blessed Paraskeva (Sarov Pashenka), used as a dump site garbage and sewage by the people living here.”

In the fall of 1990, the location of the graves at the altar of Trinity Cathedral was determined. The graves were reconstructed and crosses were installed on them. On memorable days, and since September 1993 and on Saturdays after the early liturgy, memorial services and lithiums were served at the graves.

The Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery carefully preserves a relic given to nun Seraphima (Bulgakova) who lived to see the resumption of church life in Diveevo - the shirt and dress of Blessed Paraskeva, in which she began to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ, as well as part of the canvas of her work and a thread of yarn.

In 1910, the lithographic workshop of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery produced a color lithograph - a portrait of Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna.

In 2004, the cell in which Blessed Paraskeva lived was transferred to the monastery. During the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim, a museum of the blessed old woman and the history of the monastery was opened in this house, the exhibition of which was arranged by the sisters of the monastery.

On July 31, 2004, Blessed Paraskeva was canonized as a locally revered saint of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese; in October of the same year, church-wide veneration was recognized. Nowadays her venerable relics, discovered on September 20, 2004, rest in the Kazan Church of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery along with the relics of the holy blessed elders Pelagia and Maria of Diveevsky. All who with faith ask for prayerful help from the great servant of God will certainly receive it, thanking the Lord and His blessed chosen one for this.

Here are the reviews of eyewitnesses about the holy fool Pasha of Sarov, whom the Monk Seraphim blessed to live a wandering life, and who for so long fulfilled the behest of the holy and great Elder of Sarov:
The father, rector of the Suzdal Efimev Monastery, Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), author of the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery,” having studied this wonderful woman well, said about her: “From her kind look, every person comes into inexpressible delight. Her childish, kind, bright, deep and clear eyes amaze so much that all doubt about her purity, righteousness and high feat disappears. They testify that all her oddities - allegorical conversation, severe reprimands and antics - are only an outer shell, deliberately hiding the greatest humility, meekness, love and compassion. Sometimes wearing sundresses, she, like someone who has turned into a kindly child, loves bright red colors and sometimes puts on several sundresses at once, as, for example, when she meets guests of honor or as a sign of joy and cheerfulness for the person entering her.”
According to the testimony of the monastics, Saint Seraphim, during his lifetime, blessed Praskovya Ivanovna to live a wandering life in the dense forests of Sarov. There she remained in fasting and prayer for about thirty years. She lived in a cave she dug. It is said that she had several caves in different places of a vast impenetrable forest overflowing with wild beasts. “During her life in the Sarov forest, her long asceticism and fasting, she had the appearance of Mary of Egypt,” said Archimandrite Seraphim, “Thin, tall, completely burned by the sun and therefore black and scary, she wore short hair at that time, since previously everyone they were amazed at her long, ground-length hair, which gave her a beauty that disturbed her in the forest and did not correspond to her secret tonsure. Barefoot, in a man's monastic shirt - a scroll, unbuttoned on the chest, with bare arms, with a serious expression on her face, she came to the monastery and struck fear into everyone who did not know her.”
Praskovya Ivanovna lived in a very small house, to the left of the monastery gate. There she had one spacious and bright room, remarkably neat. The entire wall of this room opposite the doors was covered with large icons. In the center is the Crucifix, on its sides is the Mother of God on the right, and the apostle on the left. John the Theologian. In the same house, in the corner to the right of the entrance, there was a tiny cell - a closet, which served as Praskovya Ivanovna’s bedroom. The simple wooden bed of the holy fool Pasha of Sarov with huge pillows was rarely occupied by it, but mostly dolls rested on it. And there was no time for her to lie down, since she prayed all night long in front of large images. Exhausted in the morning, Praskovya Ivanovna lay down and dozed, but as soon as the light dawned, she was already washing, cleaning herself, tidying up, or going out for a walk - to pray. After mass she sat down to work, knitting stockings or making yarn. This activity was accompanied, of course, by internal prayer, and therefore Praskovya Ivanovna’s yarn was so valued in the monastery that belts and rosaries were made from it.
The people revered Praskovya Ivanovna as a prophetess. A crowd of pilgrims stood under the windows of her house for whole days, reverently waiting to see if she would give them good advice or pray for them.
The name of Praskovya Ivanovna was known not only among the people, but also in the highest circles of society. Almost all of the high-ranking officials, visiting the Diveyevo Monastery, considered it their duty to visit Praskovya Ivanovna.
They told about Praskovya Ivanovna’s foresight: “When our mother, abbess and abbess Maria,” said Mother Anfia, the head of the monastery hotel, “was seriously ill this winter, we sisters grieved greatly and feared for the end of the illness. Repeatedly we asked Praskovya Ivanovna whether our mother abbess would recover, and each time she told us that a speedy recovery awaited her. Praskovya Ivanovna's prediction came true. Mother Superior has recovered from her serious illness, and the danger has passed.”
One of the Muscovite correspondents, who visited Praskovya Ivanovna in Diveevo with her comrades, reported about her insight: “When we entered the house, we were met by Seraphim’s mother and a young novice. They told us that Praskovya Ivanovna had locked herself in her tiny cell, but maybe she would come out soon, and so they asked us to wait. We were standing at the entrance to the chamber with Mother Serafima, when the doors of the cell opened, and Praskovya Ivanovna came out to us with impetuous steps. She was as Archimandrite Seraphim described her. Not paying attention to anyone, she walked intermittently and, turning to the artist M., said, wagging her finger: “You don’t save money, you let it go to the wind!” Having said this, she, walking to the window in front of which a group of pilgrims stood, shook my hand, silently. Casting her glance at the pilgrims standing in the courtyard, she again fixed her eyes on us and peered at us for quite a long time, as if reading our thoughts. It was getting creepy. But she, in her insight, read our thoughts: we sincerely pitied her. She stood there for a while, as if half-conscious, then her face lit up, and she stopped looking at us sternly. Her face became joyful, she became cheerful. We gave her our contribution - for candles. This made her even happier. She began to frolic like a child. A little later, she knelt down in front of the crucifix and began to pray fervently, bowing to the ground all the time. At the same time, Mother Seraphim and the novice began to sing a happy verse, ending with the remembrance of our names: Jacob, Stephen and Emilia. We were amazed and delighted that this blessed woman with the pure gaze of a child prayed for us sinners. Joyful and satisfied, she sent us off in peace, blessing us on our way. She made a strong impression on us. This is an integral nature, untouched by anything external, who has given her entire life, all her thoughts to the glory of the Lord God. She is a rare person on earth, and we must rejoice that the Russian land is still rich in such people.”
On January 14, 2004, the relics of the three Diveyevo blesseds - Pelageya, Paraskeva and Maria - were first brought out and opened for worship in the Kazan Church of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery. The holy elders were glorified as locally revered saints in July 2004 during celebrations dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Russian Bishops' Council
The Orthodox Church in October 2004 blessed the church-wide glorification of Christ for the sake of the Diveyevo holy fools - blessed Pelagia (Serebrennikova; 1809-1884), schema-nun Paraskeva (Pasha of Sarov) and Maria (Fedina).
September 22/October 5 is the day of remembrance of the blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna of Diveyevo, better known as Pasha of Sarov.

Troparion, tone 1:

He heard the voice of the Apostle Paul saying: We are fools for Christ's sake, Thy servants, O Christ God, Pelagia, Paraskeva and Maria, who were holy fools on earth for Thy sake; Moreover, we honor their memory and pray to You: Lord, save our souls.

Kontakion, tone 8:

Having lusted after the highest beauty, the lower bodily pleasures were languidly left to nature, by the non-acquisitiveness of the vanity world, the angelic life passing away, having passed away, Pelagie, Paraskeva and Mary of the Blessed: Pray to Christ God unceasingly for all of us.

Magnification:

We bless you, our blessed holy mothers Pelagie, Paraskeva and Mary, and honor your holy memory, for you pray for us to Christ our God.

(www.diveevo.ru; www.st-nikolas.orthodoxy.ru; illustrations - www.4udel.nne.ru; www.st-nikolas.orthodoxy.ru; florensky.nnov.ru; diveevo.nne.ru; diveevo .biz; www.nne.ru; www.cirota.ru).

Until now, the main sources of information about Pasha of Sarov were considered to be the “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery,” written by Metropolitan Seraphim (Chichagov), and the memoirs of the nun Seraphima (Bulgakova), who had close contact with the cell attendant Blessed Evdokia (Dunya) Barskova. The letters discovered by the author of these lines, despite the fact that they are predominantly of an everyday nature, are of undoubted value as a reliable historical source that allows us to confirm many facts known from legend. They also shed light on important details, especially regarding the death of the blessed one.

Before moving directly to the letters, it is necessary to say a few words about their authors - the cell attendant who wrote on behalf of the blessed one, and her addressees. It is known from various sources that Blessed Paraskeva had several cell attendants. For many years, the eldest and most beloved of them was the nun Seraphima (in the world Anna Ivanovna Kapustina). But in 1913 she was no longer alive. From the memoirs of nun Serafima (Bulgakova), another cell attendant is known - novice Evdokia Ivanovna Barskova (1879 - after 1919). The letters below were written by novice Pelageya. There is no exact information about her. However, it can be assumed that we are talking about the novice Pelageya Fedorovna Verkhova (1871 - after 1919, from the peasants of the village of Kremenki, Ardatovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province), who is listed in the list of sisters of 1917-1919 under No. 694 at the synodical and psalter obedience before Evdokia Barskova ( No. 695). It is known that in the house of Pasha of Sarov after her death the Psalter was read continuously, and the fact that the letters below were written by the novice Pelageya may indicate her seniority after the death of the nun Seraphim. A.P. Timofievich, who visited Diveevo and Sarov in 1926, reports about the long-term cell of Blessed Pasha, nun Cyprian (Timofievich A.P. God's People. M.: Palomnik, 1995. P. 92-93). Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to reliably determine who we are talking about. Perhaps this is the same former novice Pelageya, whose letters are given here, who received the name Cypriana in monasticism.

As for its correspondents, it is difficult to say with precision who we are talking about in this case; one or two people are designated by secular and monastic names. However, some assumptions can be made. In the Elias Athos monastery there is a large icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov with the following inscription: “The gift of the court adviser Konstantin Andreevich Patin. October 27, 1913." This donor most likely was the author-compiler of collections, manuals and indexes of various kinds of legislation relating to the military department, K.A., popular in military circles. Patin. He served in the 1890s as a clerk in the Office of the Military Chief of the Krapivensky District of the Tula Province, and later in the same position in the Tambov Province. Among his works, the most famous are “A complete and detailed alphabetical index of orders for the military department, circulars, instructions and reviews of the General Staff and other main departments and orders, orders and circulars for all military districts for fifty-two years - from 1859 to 1911”, as well as “A textbook for students of clerk classes to familiarize them with writing, office work and military regulations.”

In relation to the topic under study, three circumstances are important: 1) the coincidence of the time of arrival on Athos of the addressee of the letter with the time indicated in the inscription on the icon (1913); 2) it was the icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov that was donated, and not any other saint; 3) K.A. Patin did not continue his capital reference book over the subsequent years (this was done by another person), which indirectly indicates his possible departure to the monastery. Although there is no hard evidence that K.A. Patin and Father Seraphim, and the lack of information about persons (or a person) with a similar name in the list of monks and novices of the Panteleimon Monastery for the period between 1913 and 1915 does not allow us to say this with certainty, the author of the study still seems most likely that the letters were addressed to one and to the same person. First of all, this is indicated by their very content. The first of them (dated March 29, 1913) speaks of receiving the blessing of the blessed one to go to Athos, and the second (dated May 30, 1913) reports this as an already accomplished fact. In addition, the very discovery of all the letters in the form of a complex, stored in the library of the monastery for a long time, also most likely indicates one source of their origin.

The letters (there are five in total) were written between March 29, 1913 and May 11, 1916, on 12 separate pages with reverse sides. The necessary explanations are given in the notes to each letter. They are printed preserving the author's spelling and punctuation. Published for the first time.

Dear Konstantin Andreevich!
I received your letter and the Shrine, for which I offer you my heartfelt gratitude, as well as for the books.
I gave the shrine you sent, your portrait and the letter to Staritsa Praskovya Ivanovna, she was still worried about something, from which I concluded that one of your family or acquaintances was against your desire to go to Athos, I asked Praskovya Ivanovna more than once what would bless whether she wanted to go to Mount Athos, but she didn’t say anything, and was restless all the time, so I didn’t achieve anything and didn’t understand why she was all worried 1 .
Rely on the will of God, Konstantin Andreevich, as the Lord teaches you, do so, as long as you have a sincere desire to serve the Lord God. May the Lord bless your path.
Wishing you all the best from the Lord God and good health, I remain in sincere respect for you.
unworthy novice of the Blessed Elder, sinful Pelageya
1913. March 29 days
your sacrifice 5 r. received and passed it on to the Blessed Elder, she will pray for you.

Notes

1 It must be remembered that this was the height of the Athonite unrest of the “name-slavers”. Wasn’t this what the blessed woman’s anxiety was connected with?

Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!
God's most beloved servant Konstantin Andreevich!
Save yourself in the Lord!
I received your letter, for which I express my deep gratitude to you.
The blessed old lady sends you God's Blessing and motherly greetings, may the Lady Herself, the Queen of Heaven, the Supreme Abbess of Mount Athos, protect you now under her Divine Cover! May the Lord grant you to be saved and to strive spiritually in all the virtues of Christian life.
When your letter was submitted, the blessed old lady was worried about something, but God knows why she’s worried, you’ll think about it on your own account, but it doesn’t turn out that way, we explain her words in our own way, but it turns out differently, and when it happens to you, you remember her words, and then only you understand them. So completely surrender, God-loving Konstantin Andreevich, may the Lord arrange your path to the will of God.
Wishing you health and God's mercy, I remain with respect for you, the unworthy novice of the Blessed Elder, the sinful Pelagia.
1913 May 30 days.
Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery

Reverend Father Seraphim, pray to God for us!
Most honorable Father O. Seraphim!
We received your respected letter, which we were glad to receive, otherwise we remembered where our ascetic is and how he lives, but now it is clear from your letter that you live, thank God. Good deed, strive - save yourself, time does not wait, and everything is approaching the end. May the Lord help you to succeed even more in your spiritual life. And don't forget us.
God bless you for your memory and all your good wishes. I read your letter to Mama Praskovya Ivanovna. She sends you God's blessing and her maternal blessing, she will pray for you and tells you to knit stockings, i.e. pray. May the Lady protect you all the days of your life.
Reciprocally, accept congratulations from us on the past Feast of the Nativity of Christ, the New Year, the Holy Epiphany and the upcoming Holy Fourth Day, may the All-Generous Lord help you to spend these saving days in good health, salvation and wait for the Bright Resurrection of Christ.
Save yourself!
Yes, it is indeed difficult for your poor ascetics to live without a daily piece of bread; life is similar to the ancient desert. God help them! We in Russia have not yet experienced this. This terrible and unprecedented war brought many sorrows 1 . There is not a single family without tears.
Mama tells everyone to pray more fervently for the Emperor and the Christ-loving army. May the Merciful Lord grant victory over our enemies.
With prayerful wishes for you all the best from the Lord God and health. unworthy novice Pelagia.
1915. January 4 days.

Notes

1. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, which marked the beginning of the First World War, which Russia entered on August 1.

Truly He is Risen!
Beloved in the Lord and
Our dear Father O. Seraphim!
We received your respected letter and in it a letter from O. Archimandrite 1, to whom I am sending separately.
God bless you, dear Father Seraphim, for your congratulations and all your good wishes.
Elder Praskovya Ivanovna also greets you on these days of Holy Pentecost 2, praying for you that the Risen Life-Giver will strengthen your mental and physical strength and help you work for the Holy Monastery and your salvation.
Mommy is often very... exhausted. Sometimes we ourselves are surprised, namely, that only the Grace of God reinforces her senile strength. Although with difficulty, she will still get up and spin 3; and if he hits someone with a stick 1-2 or 3 times 4, then he won’t catch his breath.
She partly talks to the portrait of the Emperor, but it is not clear anymore, she only said out loud in fasting: “Sovereign! at the end, I looked around”5 and then spoke again in a whisper.
God grant that we quickly defeat this proud enemy - he caused a lot of sorrow to all of Mother Russia and others, but of course everything is done according to the will of God for our sins.
In our Monastery, we also hold a daily prayer service for the Emperor and the soldiers, and on Saturdays there is a memorial service for the slain soldiers. Eternal memory to them! They are all St. martyrs and sufferers. We, too, must strive there from this temporary and short life, and most importantly, humble ourselves and love our neighbor. May the Lord help us!
Yes, it’s not easy for your Father Archimandrite in such difficult times, you have to take care of everyone, only hope is in God’s mercy. Oh! How expensive everything is for you. God help you! and we have rye flour for 1 rub. 40k. and more expensive per pood.
I often think about how your hermit elders gather for lunch, and probably out of humility they shed a lot of tears. Forgive me for the long-windedness.
From the bottom of my heart I wish you to receive all the best from the Risen Lord, and most importantly, health and spiritual salvation. Well-wisher Your gr. village Pelagia. I ask for your holy prayers for the old woman, myself and the sisters of our monastery.
1915 April 2 days.

Notes

1 Abbot of the St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos in 1909-1940. Archimandrite Iakinf (Kuznetsov). However, we cannot exclude the possibility that we are talking about the rector of the St. Elias monastery, Archimandrite Maxim (1901 - after May 1914). Since only the Ilyinsky monastery did not participate in the events of 1912-1913, the reason why Konstantin Andreevich could have chosen it for the settlement is clear.
2 Easter in 1915 was celebrated on April 4 according to the new style.
3 The blessed one has a well-known custom of spinning and distributing yarn as a blessing as a symbol and encouragement to prayer.
4 If the blessed one was dissatisfied with something or someone, she often beat them with her stick. “During these years, many came to Sarov and Diveevo. Rasputin also came with his retinue - young ladies-in-waiting. He himself did not dare to enter Praskovya Ivanovna and stood on the porch, and when the ladies-in-waiting entered, Praskovya Ivanovna rushed after them with a stick with the words: “You deserve a stallion,” they only clicked their heels.
Vyrubova also came. But then, fearing that Praskovya Ivanovna would do something again, they sent to find out what she was doing. Praskovya Ivanovna sat and tied three sticks with her belt (she had three sticks. One was called a “cane”, the other a “bulanka”, the third - I don’t remember) with the words:
- Ivanovna, Ivanovna (that’s what she called herself), how are you going to beat her? - Yes, on the snout, on the snout! She turned the whole palace upside down!
An important maid of honor was not allowed in, saying that Praskovya Ivanovna was in a bad mood” (Memoirs of the nun Seraphima (Bulgakova) // Venerable Seraphim of Sarov and the Diveyevo Convent. M.: Otchiy Dom, 2011. P. 396).
5 In the memoirs of the nun Serafima (Bulgakova), this fact is also reported: “Before her death, she kept bowing to the ground in front of the portrait of the Emperor. When she was no longer able to do so, the cell attendants lowered her and raised her.
- Why are you, Mama, praying to the Emperor like that?
- Fools, he will be taller than all the kings.
There were two portraits of the king: together with the Empress and he alone. But she bowed to the portrait where he was alone. She also spoke about the Emperor:
“Reverend don’t know, martyr don’t know?” (Ibid. p. 396)
“Shortly before her death, Praskovya Ivanovna took down the portrait of the Emperor and kissed his feet with the words:
“Darling is already at the end” (Ibid. P. 397).

Truly He is Risen!
Dear Father O. Seraphim!
Finally, I received news from you. God bless you for your good wishes. I wish you and I all the best, and most of all, spiritual salvation.
I sent you a letter, but apparently you didn’t receive it, I don’t know whether you will receive it safely. About our dear mother, I inform you for the second time that she, our dear, by the will of God, died quietly and painlessly in 1915. Saint. 22 days. This year it has weakened, but especially since September 14. She was given unction, received Holy Communion several times and read the funeral service, after which she clearly said: “glory to God.” She spoke little. 14 Sep. the sisters all said goodbye to her, she had never allowed anyone to kiss hands before, and if she gave it to anyone, it was rare, but here she gave it to everyone, even lifted it, and patted someone by the head or hair, as if teaching. From that day on, she only ate St. some water. She looked at the Holy Icon with her eyes and said: “Daddy! Father Seraphim! take me, I’m going home,” or “take me,” and with her hand she seemed to be beckoning someone to her. Matush. Abbess 1 was almost always here, because... Many times I had to disturb her, and despite her countless affairs at the Monastery, she left everything and came. The old lady used to say: “Mother, dear, sit down, sit down,” and would not calm down until she sat down next to her. It was impossible to listen to every word of the old woman without tears. When we asked her to pray for her benefactors, She said: “I will pray for everyone, for everyone.” We started crying and asked: Mom, who are you leaving us with? “on God” During the last minutes she breathed quietly, and so her Righteous soul went to the Lord at 2? hours of the day. It was hard to part with this spirit. treasure, but this path is inevitable and we firmly hope that She will not forget all her children and whoever remembers her in their great prayers at the Throne of God! She will not forget you, her child at the Throne of God. Funeral service performed. 25 Sep. Our Eminence Joachim 2. (It was solemn and hard to believe that mother was gone. She is always with us in spirit.) The clergy said the funeral oration - and everyone present cried inconsolably.

During the stichera at the funeral service: Come, the last kiss, everyone said goodbye to dear mother for the last time, and for all her admirers I said goodbye to Her, just as during her life I also said goodbye to all of you.
The old woman lay majestic and calm, and would never have left Her. Her body was buried at the cathedral next to the blessed Pelagia Eve. and Natasha. There is a Cross on her grave, a lamp is burning, a service. funeral services.
In her cell, for 40 days, they read the psalter about the repose of her Righteous soul, and now about all her benefactors. Candles and oil are lit and funeral services are served daily.
At the prayer meeting. in memory I am sending you the belt with which I last. days she was girded and held with her hands and a card. I believe that you are praying for her.
I kindly ask you to notify me of receipt of the letter.
I am sincerely glad for you that you live under the Protection of the Queen of Heaven. and have already gotten used to it. God bless! May the Mother of God protect you for the prayers of the old woman all the days of your life.
I ask for your Holy prayers, sinner. listen. Pelagia.
1916 May 11 days.
P.S. There are no new books about the old woman yet 3.

Notes

1 Abbess Alexandra (Trakovskaya).
2 Joachim (Levitic), Archbishop of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas in 1910-1918.
3 Separate biographies of Pasha of Sarov, in addition to those contained in the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery, were published during her lifetime:
Pasha of Sarov is a holy fool. M.: Publishing house I.D. Sytina, 1904.
Holy Fool Pasha of Sarov, elder and ascetic of the Seraphim-Diveevo convent.
M., 1904.
Sarov Pasha is a holy fool ascetic. St. Petersburg: Publishing house A.A. and N.I. Kholmushinykh, 1906.
Pasha, Holy Fool of Sarov. Complete biography of the ascetic. Odessa: Type. E.I. Fesenko, 1909. The last biography of the blessed one was especially widely known. In 1912, the second edition was published in Odessa. According to A.S. Volzhsky (Glinka): “This book is sold everywhere here (in Diveyevo). Pasha herself blesses it - from her hands they give a book to the novice caring for P[r]askovya Ivanovna” (Volzhsky A.S. In the monastery of St. Seraphim. M.: Put, 1914. P. 61).

Brief biography

Blessed Paraskeva Diveevskaya, better known as Pasha Sarovskaya (in the world Irina Ivanovna), was born in the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, Tambov province (now Torbeevsky district of the Mordovian Republic). The exact date of her birth is unknown and is estimated to have been approximately between 1795 and 1807. According to the testimony of her first biographer, Hieromartyr Seraphim (Chichagov), the author of a work entitled “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery of the Nizhny Novgorod Province. Ardatovsky district,” Blessed Paraskeva was the daughter of Ivan and Daria, serfs of the Bulygin landowners. Besides her, the family had three more sons and two daughters.

At the age of 17, Irina was married to the peasant Fedor, with whom she lived for 15 years without having children. After this period, she and her husband were sold to the neighboring Tatar village of Surgod to German landowners of the Lutheran faith. The new owners of the future blessed one were a doctor (a doctor who does not have a completed medical education), court councilor Karl Schmiede and his wife, nee von Hanewald. It is curious that some details of the biography of the Schmide spouses make it possible to more accurately determine the date of birth of the Sarov miracle worker. "Schmied" in German means "blacksmith", or Kuznetsov, which indicates a low birth, in contrast to the noble surname of his wife. However, Karl Schmide and his descendants were included in the Third Part of the Nobility Book of the Penza Province in 1832, and later of the Tambov Province. This means that around 1832 Karl Schmiede rose to the rank of collegiate assessor, which at that time gave hereditary nobility and the right to own serfs. Karl Schmide's place of service, apparently, was in the city of Penza, where he and his wife were listed among the parishioners of the local Lutheran Evangelical Church (GATO. F. 161. Op. 1. D. 7198. 1845 L. 22). Obviously, after receiving the nobility in 1832, Shmide bought land in the village of Surgod, and they began to buy serfs into it. If we accept the chronologically accurate data from the Chichagov Chronicle about the key events in the life of the saint, then it turns out that Blessed Paraskeva was born no earlier than 1800.

Five years later, Irina’s husband died of consumption and the owners hired her as a cook and housekeeper. She categorically refused to remarry and conscientiously engaged in the master's household. But a year and a half later, canvases were stolen from landowners and suspicion fell on Irina. At the request of the gentlemen, the police brutally tortured her, but she did not admit to the theft. Later, thanks to the help of local residents, the police discovered the true culprit and the place where the stolen goods were hidden.

After the incident, Irina fled to Kyiv, where she was found among pilgrims. The fugitive was returned at the stage, but a year later she again left her previous owners. She was found again and returned to the landowners, but they did not want to accept her, and she wandered in her native places for five years until she moved to the remote Sarov forest, where she lived for about 30 years. Over the years of asceticism and foolishness, she gained wide popularity both among the monastics of the Sarov and Diveyevo monasteries, and among the local population.

After the death on January 30, 1884 (Old Style) of Blessed Pelageya Diveevskaya, Paraskeva settled forever in the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery, where she acquired literally all-Russian fame thanks to the gift of clairvoyance.

During the Sarov celebrations of 1903 for the canonization of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the blessed one was visited by the emperor and empress and members of the royal family. According to the Diveyevo legend, Paraskeva predicted for them the birth of a son-heir. From that time on, the veneration of the old woman by the royal family began, so that, according to the testimony of her cell attendant Evdokia Barskova, the great princes constantly came to the blessed one with questions from the sovereign.

The blessed one died on September 22, 1915 (Old Style) at three o'clock in the afternoon. She was buried behind the altar of the Trinity Cathedral of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery in a brick crypt, over which a chapel was built. -The funeral service for the blessed one was performed by Bishop Joachim (Levitsky) of Nizhny Novgorod. During Soviet times, the burial place of the blessed one was desecrated. When the monastery was rebuilt in 1990, the grave was restored and a cross was placed on it.

During the celebrations dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov, on July 31, 2004, Blessed Paraskeva was canonized as a locally revered saint of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, and on October 6 of the same year, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church established her church-wide veneration. The holy relics were found on September 20, 2004 and now rest in the Kazan Church of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. Her memory is celebrated on September 22/October 5, as well as on the day of remembrance of the Council of Diveyevo Saints on June 14/27.
The house-cell where she lived was transferred to the monastery in 2004, now it houses the museum of Blessed Pasha and the history of the Diveyevo monastery.

Having learned from predictions that their eminent relatives abroad were contributing to their death in 1918, they ordered two beautiful medallions in the shape of a shield to be made, on which the faces of George V and William II were depicted along with the Sovereign, as a reminder of their kinship. (The medallions were “stuck” in Poland).

The Emperor also tried to change what was written by the prophets. In 1905, after the defeat, as predicted by Seraphim of Sarov, in the Russian-Japanese War, he gathered all the bishops, using his right as the Head of the Church, and asked them: “What if I accept the angelic (monastic) rank and become your patriarch ? "

Metropolitan Sergius writes: “And we remained silent.” The Emperor turned sharply and left. It was a moment of weakness. And the Sovereign was submissive to the Will of God. He knew His purpose, knew that nothing could be changed and arrived in complete humility. In your article it is written: “The question of rescue from captivity did not arise then, for we were given to know that the sovereign would not risk it” and further: “Apparently, he then considered his life safe.” What ignorance of the Emperor!

He always considered his life to be safe. And when a shell from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress flew over his head, wounding gendarme Romanov, he said only to the frightened witnesses of what had happened: “It’s not the eighteenth yet!” And when he walked 16 kilometers alone in full soldier’s new uniform, testing his comfort, and when he took his sick son to the front, sat with him in the trenches, walked under shells... “Not yet the eighteenth,” was his answer. Everyone knew it. The Grand Dukes condemned Him for this, considering him weak and superstitious. They knew nothing at all about the numerous predictions of the prophets and had no idea about the Sovereign’s unconditional submission to the will of God. There was no need to save himself - the Provisional Government offered him, and then the Tsarina and her children, to go to relatives abroad. “We will be with our people,” was the answer. Now put yourself in the place of the Tsar... I would run ahead of the locomotive: what a Christ-like sacrifice there is! I would like to offer them materials from our website, everything is explained and even predicted there.

Let it be known to you, dear admirers of the Royal Martyrs, that back on August 1, 1903, the holy prophetess Pasha of Sarov predicted a terrible fate for the Tsar and Queen: to be killed along with their children in 15 years. And so it happened.

Well, now let's count:

July 17, 1918- official, not yet refuted even by you, date of murder of the Royal Family. Add 70 years (seven times ten), we get 1988. In the fall of 1988, Gorbachev transferred the position of General Secretary to Gromyka, preparing for the first presidential elections. Exactly 70 years. Not a word about the Tsar, the country is still communist, but the Secretary General no longer rules the country. Remember the difficult two years of “perestroika” for everyone! Until 1990, there was famine in the country, cards. There is little panic, but people have hope for perestroika. Then we went to click on the decades predicted by Pasha Sarov.

Read and remember: 88 + 10 = 98. Buried the Family. The remains were not recognized, but Yeltsin apparently knew about the prophecy: he was afraid: they were buried in the Romanov Tomb. Ordinary people, who think little, agreed with the data of the examination, and what difference does it make for ordinary people. Monarchists, Freemasons and their sympathizers did and still do not agree. The hierarchy does not agree either. (This is a special conversation, not for general publication). There is no talk of repentance, although in 1998 the Patriarch loudly called the people to repentance (see materials for forum 8 “Under Curse”).

What happened next? Default! Remember how difficult the next two years were for everyone, until 2000! The next predicted decade has arrived. (1998 + 10 = 2008!) It seems like there has been progress, just like in 1998: three round dates coincided: 140th anniversary of the birth of the Tsar, tenth anniversary of his burial and 90th anniversary of his assassination. They started talking about the Tsar, as in 1998. Moreover, the Lord gave us a President similar to the Tsar as our ruler.

Not a word about repentance. Oh, how scary! It started with a trifle (for us sinners): the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. And the condemnation of our great Motherland spread throughout the world - without exception. How many angry speeches have been spilled in the press and in saliva! Let's put it bluntly: they angered God. They forgot that We are by definition God's third chosen people. Well, we got everything. For them - according to the case, for us - because they did not repent by the end of the time given to us by the Lord. For two years, as in previous times, we have been tumbling around, not yet having bloody diarrhea, as Seraphim of Sarov promised.

This will be the last decade: from 2018 to 2028. In the meantime, after the fixed 2010, there are still eight years left for peaceful “vomit”. Next - the Civil War.

MI HA IL N. ABOUT THE BLESSED PASHA OF SAROV:

Blessed Pasha of Sarov

(Story by Hegumen Seraphim Putyatin, 1920)

The modern great ascetic and seer, Sarovskaya Praskovya Ivanovna, who lived the last years of her life in Diveevo, and before that for several decades in the forest, who began her exploits during the life of the Monk Seraphim, the one who predicted the birth of a son to the Emperor and Empress a year ago, but “not for joy, and for sorrow, this royal chick will be born, whose innocent and holy blood will cry out to Heaven. In the last days of her earthly life, in her conditional but clear actions and words, she predicted the storm approaching Russia. She placed portraits of the Tsar, Queen and Family in the front corner with the icons and prayed to them along with the icons, calling out: “Holy Royal Martyrs, pray to God for us.”

In 1915, in August, I came from the front to Moscow, and then to Sarov and Diveevo, where I was personally convinced of this. I remember how I served the Liturgy on the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Diveevo, and then went straight from the church to Elder Praskovya Ivanovna, staying with her for more than an hour, listening carefully to her future menacing predictions, although expressed in parables, but her cell attendant and I all understood well and deciphered the unclear. She revealed a lot to me then, which I then did not understand as I should have in the current world events. She told me even then that our enemies started the war with the goal of overthrowing the Tsar and tearing Russia apart. For whom they fought and in whom they hoped, they will betray us and will rejoice in our grief, but their joy will not last long, for they themselves will have the same grief.

The seer kissed the portraits of the Tsar and his family several times in front of me, placed them with icons, praying to them as holy martyrs. Then she cried bitterly. These allegorical actions were understood by me then as the great sorrows of the Tsar and Family associated with the war, because although they were not torn to pieces by a grenade or wounded by a lead bullet, their loving hearts were tormented by unprecedented sorrows and bled. They were truly bloodless martyrs. How the Mother of God was not ulcerated by instruments of torture, but at the sight of the suffering of Her Divine Son, according to the word of the righteous Simeon, a weapon passed into her heart. Then the old woman took the icons of the Tenderness of the Mother of God, before whom the Monk Seraphim died, blessed the Emperor and the Family in absentia, gave them to me and asked me to forward them. She blessed the icons of the Sovereign, Empress, Tsesarevich, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna and A. A. Vyrubova.

I asked to bless the icon of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, she blessed, but not the Tenderness of the Mother of God, but St. Seraphim. She didn’t bless anyone else with icons, although I even asked for some myself, but my requests had no effect, since she acted independently. The icons were immediately sent to the destination, where they were received in a timely manner. After that, I stayed in Diveevo for several more days, at the request of the old lady, going to her every day, learning from her high spiritual wisdom and imprinting in my heart many things that were not yet clear to me.

Only now it seems clearer to me how God revealed to this righteous woman the entire coming terrible test for the Russian people who had deviated from the Truth. It was not clear to me then why everyone except Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich did not see the icon of St. Seraphim, but of the Tenderness of the Mother of God, before whom St. Seraphim died. Nowadays it is clear to me: she knew that they would all end their lives with the death of righteous martyrs. Kissing the portraits of the Tsar and Family, the seer said that these were her dear relatives, with whom she would soon live together. And this prediction came true. She died a month later, passing into eternity, and now, together with the Royal Martyrs, she lives in a heavenly, quiet haven.