Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov about Putin and Russia: “His power will be uniform... Zalit Island
TEACHINGS OF ELDER FATHER NIKOLAY (GURYANOV), 1909-2002
DEAR FRATE NICHOLAY PRAY TO GOD FOR US!
Father Nikolai said: “Our thoughts and words have great power on the world around us. Pray with tears for everyone - the sick, the weak, sinners, for those for whom there is no one to pray. Constantly cry out to the Sweetest Savior of the world: “Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” “God listens to the prayers of righteous people. What people cannot achieve with weapons in their hands, the righteous achieve through prayer.”
“The grace of God is given to us in the Sacraments. Especially in Holy Communion. Unite with Christ as often as your conscience and repentance allow you. Come to the Lord with love and faith - and He will burn away everything sinful, and your soul will be whiter than snow. Fiery white... The grace of Communion - Power, indestructible for darkness, delivers from all misfortunes. Call upon the Mother of God, ask Her for Grace, which will be poured out on the human race in all ages: “Rejoice, O Gracious One, the Lord is with Thee... Grant us, unworthy, the dew of Thy grace, and show Thy mercy.”
“Don't be too strict. Excessive strictness is dangerous. It stops the soul only at external achievement, without giving depth. Be softer, don't chase external rules. Converse mentally with the Lord and the saints. Try not to teach, but to gently suggest and correct each other. Speak if your heart is not silent. Heart to Heart. Be simple and sincere. The world is like God’s... Look around - all creation thanks the Lord. And you live like this - in peace with God.”
“Obedience...It begins in early childhood. From obedience to parents. These are our first lessons from the Lord. If a child did not obey his parents, then it is difficult to convert him to Faith in Christ.”
“Remember that all people are weak and sometimes unjust. Learn to forgive and not be offended. It’s better to move away from those who cause you harm - you won’t be loved by force... Don’t look for friends among people. Look for them in Heaven - among the saints. They will never leave or betray.”
“Seek purity. Don’t listen to bad and dirty things about anyone... Don’t dwell on an unkind thought... Flee untruths... Never be afraid to speak the truth, only with prayer and, first, ask for blessings from the Lord.”
“You are all looking only for spiritual fathers...And you forget the Gospel...We all have One Spiritual Father - the Gospel. This is the meaning of life, our Living Faith, Hope and Love... It even hurts me that they only look for a person, and forget the Lord... It’s good if there is a reasonable, believing priest to whom you can turn, this is happiness... But if the Lord did not send - Is it impossible to be saved?! Don’t judge the priests strictly, who is who... The main thing is that he is a believer, God-fearing, and preaches the Gospel.”
“You need to live not only for yourself... Try to quietly pray for everyone... Don’t push anyone away or humiliate anyone. The Lord did not offend anyone... And if you are humiliated, remember how they crucified the Savior and Tsar-Martyr Nicholas..."
“Our life is blessed... A gift from God... We have a treasure within us - a soul. If we save it in this temporary world, where we came as strangers, we will inherit Eternal Life with Christ. Joy, unspeakable joy...Angels and Saints are waiting for us. Lord the Father and Queen of Heaven...How happy we are, that we are right and glorious - Orthodox.”
Mystery and confidentiality distinguish the stay on earth of those who are exalted in spirit and heart. People close to God are silent and rarely reveal themselves, for they all keep within themselves the Divine secret, which the world not only cannot, but also does not want to contain. One day, young monks, having visited the Glinsky elder, the spiritual friend and prayer partner of Father Nicholas, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko), asked him a question: “Are there such ascetics in our 20th century that we read about in ancient patericons?” - they heard in response: “We see them, we hear them, we are with them, but we do not have the faith and obedience that we had in ancient times, so we do not know them.”
“My heart has always been with the Lord,” said the priest. - Since childhood, I tried to learn how to cry spiritually... I have been a monk since childhood. My family didn’t enter my cell without prayer - a monk... They knew that I was praying, talking with the Lord... I didn’t know or see anyone except God.”
Father Nicholas said that the origins of the suffering of the Russian people are that in 1917 the Holy Synod not only remained silent at the hour of God’s call, but blessed the perjurers who committed the coup, ordering them to submit to the traitor who had arbitrarily declared itself a “government.” “These are the sources of our suffering,” said Father Nikolai. - Until the entire Church realizes this, turns in its prayers to Tsar Nicholas as a great saint and turns to the Lord with tears to return the Tsar to us, we will suffer. And God will not give us the Anointed One to be tortured and violated again. The King will appear when we have purified ourselves and become worthy. We must pray and work...But we must not become embittered and correct what we have done with evil...The evil that exists in the world cannot be corrected by evil. God did not create evil. Lord Gracious. Only by the grace of God are we saved. Salvation is only from God... We - Orthodox Christians - live on earth to prepare for Eternity... And we must fight evil - but in such a way that we ourselves do not fall away from Divine Love.”
Father Nicholas was asked if the Tsar could have changed anything in the trials that befell us, and the priest once said:
“The Tsar hoped to save Russia from the evil that had happened. I really wanted it. But they became cowardly and betrayed.
The worst thing is that the clergy did not understand the Tsar... They did not stand up for Him.
There is no sin on the Emperor for renunciation. When the Power was in the grave, the Mother of God the Power appeared.”
Praying before the icon of the Royal Saints, the elder once said:
“Out of pity for the Tsar, I did not get up from my knees. I prayed at His Cross...They are already Home, in joyful Eternity, and we are guests. My unforgettable and beloved Tsar and Queen are merciful and merciful. There... they see God... It was a unanimous Holy Family. Angels. They tolerated everyone and forgave everyone, they did not humiliate anyone. And how inexpressibly they loved the Lord! They bore the wounds of the people and the Church. They had purity of prayer. Purity of prayer... They had such love that they prayed for everyone, did not make any difference between people. And they forgave everyone who abandoned and betrayed them. Their thoughts are lofty, and only for good, because the Lord heard Them... They had holy humility.”
“A heart that loves and believes in its people will never throw a stone at them,” said Elder Nicholas to the saintly life. - The overthrow of the Sovereign is not the fault of the Russian people, but our terrible grief. This is a great test for us... Like Job the Long-Suffering. Our people are believers and very trusting. He has a simplicity and sincerity that is often used against him. But our Rus' is protected by God!
Father often recalled the years spent in the camps. After all, there, in terrible inhuman conditions, amid suffering and death, the Church continued to live: Divine Liturgies were secretly served, secret baptisms were given to the dying, secret consecrations of priests and bishops were performed. And no “certificates” or other certificates were issued, because it was understood that during a search, the presence of such documents would threaten the owner, if not with a death sentence, then certainly with an additional term of imprisonment.
Elder Father Pavel (Gruzdev), who also went through the camps, said: “In the camps and in persecution, when all the rules, all the instructions for salvation collapsed, the one who believed in his heart preserved the Faith, and he remained with the Crucified Lord.” For the Father is looking for such - those who worship Him in Spirit and Truth. The Spirit is God: and whoever worships Him by the Spirit and by the Truth is worthy to worship (John 4:23-24).
“A believer has a loving attitude towards everything that surrounds him. He lives according to the Gospel and always tries to do everything according to the Word of the Lord,” Father Nikolai tirelessly repeated. Father Nikolai's humility was so deep that he already considered even the slightest mention of himself to be an exaltation over his neighbor, an impermissible teaching. That’s why every word he says is so valuable to us. About himself, the priest spoke only the most important things, only what is necessary for Eternal Life. - “Do you need this for God or for people?” - the priest asked when they were going to clarify the “dates and numbers.” “God doesn’t need dates, and I’ve said everything that’s necessary.”
Father often repeated: “Believe in the Lord, undoubtedly. The Lord Himself lives in our hearts and there is no need to look for Him somewhere there...far away.” Father loved the instructions of Isaac the Syrian: “Go into your heart, and you will find in it a ladder to ascend to the Kingdom of God.” Only he simplified: “Know yourself - and that’s enough for you.”
This event happened several years ago, but even today not a day goes by without me remembering it, the prophetic words of everyone’s beloved, recently deceased elder Fr. Nikolai Guryanov about the next ruler of Russia after Boris Yeltsin. And it was like that.
In September 1997, with a small group of pilgrims after the end of the patronal feast in Pskov Snetogorsk convent Christmas Holy Mother of God I went to the island of Talabsk (Zalita) to the elder Archpriest Nicholas, known throughout the Orthodox world, for spiritual help and advice. At that time, I was expecting my entire family to move from Magadan to St. Petersburg, I wrote for a long time and could not finish the book, and therefore, on the advice of people, I went to the priest to find out when I should expect my relatives. Each of us pilgrims hoped to learn from the priest about the problem, and therefore the group gathered quickly, and we, without wasting time, set off.
It was quickly getting dark, the weather was deteriorating, a piercing wind blew with rain, and waves rose on the lake. The boat we were sailing in was literally tossed about by the waves. We prayed earnestly, asking God for forgiveness for our sins, considering this weather a reproach and test for us. But then the boat moored to the shore, we entered the island and began looking for accommodation for the night. Of course, it was too late to go to the priest, and the weather did not inspire hopes of meeting him. Over the course of the night, many of us thought through our questions, abandoned some vain and absurd ones, but others became more laconic and cordial.
In the early morning of September 23 or 24, 1997, I don’t remember exactly, we were greeted by completely different weather - a clear, surprisingly clean sky, complete calm and a beautiful sunrise. We, having prayed and thanked God for everything, went to the priest to his house. Pilgrims were already standing there, some were just approaching the treasured gate. As experienced pilgrims told us, the priest has already gotten up and is praying before going out to the new arrivals. We entered the courtyard and began to wait, watching everything happening around us. Suddenly, everything seemed to come to life: pigeons flocked to the roof of the house, and a few minutes later a white horse approached the gate gate, stopped, stuck its head over the fence and seemed to be waiting for the priest to greet...
There were about ten of us, many were visiting the elder for the first time, and, of course, we got to know each other, remembering everything that happened around us down to the smallest detail.
And then the door to the house opened, and the priest came out to us for a blessing and anointing with oil. One by one we approached him with excitement and trepidation, briefly told about ourselves: who and where we came from, and asked about our own.
I also asked when I should expect my people from the North, to which the priest replied: “Soon. They'll arrive soon." Having received the blessing to write the book and the advice to “don’t rush in haste,” I stepped aside. And only one woman asked the priest not about her own personal things, but about all of us. I will never forget my father's answers.
— Father Nikolai, who will come after Yeltsin? What should we expect?
- Afterwards there will be a military man.
- Will it be soon?
-...His power will be linear. But his age is short, and so is he. There will be persecution against the monks and the church. The power will be the same as under the communists and the Politburo.
- And after that there will be an Orthodox Tsar.
- Will we survive, father?
- You are, yes.
After these words, Father Nikolai blessed the woman. Following her, each of us, standing aside with bated breath and hearing the words of the elder, once again approached him and was blessed for the return journey.
I confess to you that the main thing I remember from the elder’s words is that the new president will be a military man. Who did we think of at that time? Rutskoi, Lebed, someone else? But a year or two passed, and all of them remained unusable. Over time, the words of Father Nikolai began to be forgotten, but on December 31, 1999 at 15:00 in the afternoon, watching Yeltsin’s “renunciation” on TV, it was as if I woke up from a dream. The surprising thing is that on this day I was visiting another pilgrim, my old friend, who also witnessed the words of the priest. Together we recalled in detail these prophetic, exactly fulfilled words of Father Nikolai. Even the word “pogo(a)naya”, as if figurative and ambiguous, immediately became understandable, and now it was completely revealed.
My relatives are from the north, as Fr. said. Nikolai, we arrived soon, 2 months after the pilgrimage to our dear priest. And I still haven't finished the book. And soon the arrival of pilgrims to the priest was limited. And previously, deputies from Moscow, military men, and officials came to him in large numbers for advice and blessings.
I began to ask further about the “running” ruler. At a time when he had already become acting president, I went to one very famous and perspicacious abbot, who now lives in retirement in the oldest monastery in Rus'. What the abbot said shocked me even more because it exactly corresponded to the description of the new ruler given to him by the late elder Nicholas. I heard a lot of new things, which were told to me one on one in the cell of the monastery with great precautions that were not clear to me at that time. Now it is clear to me why the abbot was so careful and asked not to mention his name anywhere. I'll tell you about this another time.
Alexander Rozhintsev,
Member of the editorial board of the almanac "Orthodox Army"
especially for the site www.blagoslovenie.ru,
Moscow, December 31, 2002
From the Editor: in response to one of the skeptical comments on this prophecy, Alexander Rozhintsev, who wrote it down, responded additionally:
“The author of this article, Alexander Rozhintsev, is writing to you, who heard everything said from Father Nikolai. 1. The article was written in early January 2000, and was posted on the Internet later for technical reasons and not for any other reasons. 2. A military man is a KGB colonel, and also militant in spirit, which we all already know from Chechnya and so on. 3. RUNNING power, not rotten power, means that Putin will trust only the military and people in uniform and put them in power at all key positions in the state. Which is still happening. 4. But his age is small, and so is he. I want to clarify that the priest did not say “yes, and he himself,” but “like himself,” I later remembered this more literally and accurately, and did not correct it in this text. This is an ancient prophetic comparison - to compare the visible with the secret - the invisible, the obvious, with the hidden. The growth of a person is obvious, “his age is small, like himself” means not the length of time in power, but the actions of a person, and they will be small in the eyes of God, that is, all his attempts will be small (insignificant), which means they will or destroyed or changed decisively after him. 5. “There will be persecution against the monks and the church.” Persecution under Putin is the imposition of the Taxpayer Identification Number, the population census, the assignment of numbers to churches and monasteries, unrest and indignation because of this, as well as the expulsion of opponents of the Taxpayer Identification Number from such monasteries, and so on. as well as tax bondage for the Church. In a word, everything that we have experienced and are still experiencing. It was especially hard on the monastics, that is, the monks... 6. “The power will be like under the communists and the Politburo.” Here everything is completely simple - command methods, a narrow circle of decision-makers (the Politburo), the United Russia party and congresses, and, finally, Putin became the chairman of the United Russia party, by the way, quite recently. He also places his party members in all the places in the provinces, etc. So everything came true except the last phrase: “And after that there will be an Orthodox Tsar.” All that's left to do is live until it happens. Best regards, A.R.”
http://www.zaistinu.ru/articles/?aid=1131&comment=7351#c7351
Nikolai Alekseevich Guryanov(May 24, village Chudskie Zahody, St. Petersburg province - August 24, Ostrov-Zalit, Pskov region) - Soviet and Russian religious figure. Archpriest. One of the most revered elders of the Russian Orthodox Church of the late XX - early XXI centuries.
Biography
Family and childhood
Born into a peasant family. Father, Alexey Ivanovich Guryanov, was the regent of the church choir, died in. The elder brother, Mikhail Alekseevich Guryanov, taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; younger brothers, Peter and Anatoly, also had musical abilities. All three brothers died in the war. Mother, Ekaterina Stepanovna Guryanova, helped her son in his labors for many years, died on May 23, and was buried in the cemetery of Zalit Island.
Since childhood, Nikolai served at the altar in the Church of the Archangel Michael. As a child, Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan) visited the parish. Father Nikolai recalled this event like this: “I was still just a boy. Vladyka served, and I held the staff for him. Then he hugged me, kissed me and said: “How happy you are to be with the Lord...”.”
Teacher, prisoner, priest
He graduated from the Gatchina Pedagogical College, studied at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, from where he was expelled for speaking out against the closure of one of the churches [ ] . B - served as a psalm-reader in Tosno, earning money as a tutor in mathematics, physics and biology. Then he was a psalm-reader in the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Remda, Seredkinsky (now Pskov) district, Leningrad (now Pskov) region. He was arrested, was in the Leningrad prison "Kresty", served his sentence in a camp in Syktyvkar, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic [ ] . After his release, he was unable to obtain a residence permit in Leningrad and taught in rural schools in the Tosnensky district of the Leningrad region.
Ministry in Lithuania
"Talab Elder"
From 1958 he served in the Pskov diocese and was appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (Zalita) on Lake Pskov, appeared to him continuously until his death. B was awarded the miter and the right to serve with the Royal Doors open to the “Cherubim.” He was awarded the right to serve the liturgy with the Royal Doors open until the “Our Father” - the highest church distinction for an archpriest (excluding the extremely rare rank of protopresbyter). For many years, Fr. Orthodox believers from different regions of the country came to Nicholas for advice. The Zalitsky priest had a reputation as a wise old man. He was called the “Talabsky” or “Zalitsky” (after the former name of the island, which was renamed in Soviet times in memory of the Bolshevik activist Zalit) elder.
The island of Orthodoxy was the name given to the small island of Talabsk (Zalita), barely visible on a large-scale map, washed by the waters of Lake Pskov. Here, to this tiny part of the land, for many years ships and boats of carriers brought pilgrims from all over Orthodox world. The route never changed: the mainland - the island - the house of Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov... But it was here, in the cell, that the island of Orthodoxy actually began, it began with him, the Zalitsky elder Father Nikolai. He was this fertile island; an island standing unshakably in the midst of the raging sea of life; an island and at the same time a ship, taking the most convenient route to a blissful eternity.
Hieromonk Nestor (Kumysh) remembered Fr. Nicolae:
He clearly saw the past, present and future life of his children, their internal structure. But how carefully he handled the knowledge about man that the Lord entrusted to him as His faithful servant! Knowing the whole truth about a person, he did not allow a single hint that could hurt or hurt his pride. In what a soft form did he clothe his edifications! “Take it easy,” he greeted my acquaintance with this advice, who had not even had time to say two words, who had adopted a somewhat harsh manner of treating his wife. This happened often and with many: having arrived with one purpose, a person left with that revelation about himself and with that lesson that he did not expect to hear and receive.
There is a story that Fr. Nikolai was asked: “Thousands of people came to you during your life, you peered carefully into their souls. Tell me, what worries you most in the souls of modern people - what sin, what passion? What is the most dangerous for us now? To this he answered: “Unbelief,” and to the clarifying question - “Even among Christians” - he answered: “Yes, even among Orthodox Christians. To whom the Church is not a Mother, God is not a Father.” According to Fr. Nicholas, a believer must have a loving attitude towards everything that surrounds him.
His reputation as a miracle worker came when the elder was found by Igor Stolyarov, who had escaped from the Komsomolets nuclear submarine. Years later, who knows how, a sailor from Siberia who survived a terrible accident came to Zalita. And he immediately recognized Father Nikolai as the same old man who had appeared to him when the sailor who had escaped from the hold was losing consciousness in the icy waters of the Atlantic. The gray-bearded old man introduced himself as Archpriest Nikolai and said: “Swim, I pray for you, you will be saved.” And disappeared. A log appeared from somewhere, and soon the coast guard and rescuers arrived. (Note: the K-219 submarine crew did not include a single sailor named Igor Stolyarov. We are probably talking about midshipman Viktor Slyusarenko) source not specified 3417 days
13 years have passed since the death of the famous elder mitred Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov. He died at the age of 93 on August 24, 2002. Elder Nicholas was granted many gifts of the Holy Spirit, among them the gifts of clairvoyance, healing, and miracles. From all over Russia, believers in need of help came to the elder to Zalit Island. spiritual council, in prayerful assistance.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov
Nikolay Guryanov - one of the most revered elders of Russian Orthodox Church late XX - early XXI centuries. Numerous prophecies he uttered came true during his lifetime - predictions about the overthrow of communism in Russia, the canonization of Nicholas II, the destruction of the nuclear submarines Komsomolets and Kursk and many others, which he witnessed during his lifetime.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov endured oppression from the authorities, prison and camp imprisonment, and exile for his profession of faith. After he was expelled from the institute for speaking out against the closure of churches, he went to serve in the church and was arrested for this. First there was imprisonment in "Kresty", then - exile to a camp near Kiev, and then - a settlement in Syktyvkar, laying a railway in the Arctic. He spent the war years in the Baltic states. There he was ordained a priest, then moved to the fishing island of Talabsk, where he spent the rest of his life.
Thanks to the prayers of the elder, people's illnesses receded, an ear for music appeared, the mind was enlightened in the knowledge of difficult subjects during study, professional skills were improved, everyday perplexities were resolved, and often the future path of life was determined.
Family and childhood
Nikolai Guryanov was born into a merchant family. Father, Alexey Ivanovich Guryanov, was the regent of the church choir, died in 1914. The elder brother, Mikhail Alekseevich Guryanov, taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; younger brothers, Peter and Anatoly, also had musical abilities.
All three brothers died in the war. Mother, Ekaterina Stefanovna Guryanova, helped her son in his labors for many years, died on May 23, 1969, and was buried in the cemetery of Zalit Island.
Since childhood, Nikolai served at the altar in the Church of the Archangel Michael. As a child, Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan) visited the parish. Father Nikolai recalled this event like this: “I was still just a boy. Vladyka served, and I held the staff for him. Then he hugged me, kissed me and said: “How happy you are to be with the Lord...”.”
Teacher, prisoner, priest
Nikolai Guryanov graduated from the Gatchina Pedagogical College and studied at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, from where he was expelled for speaking out against the closure of one of the churches. In 1929-1931 he taught mathematics, physics and biology at school, and served as a psalm-reader in Tosno.
Then he was a psalm-reader in the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Remda, Seredkinsky district, Leningrad (now Pskov) region. He was arrested, was in the Leningrad prison “Kresty”, served his sentence in a camp in Syktyvkar, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. After his release, he was unable to obtain a residence permit in Leningrad and taught in rural schools in the Tosnensky district of the Leningrad region.
During the Great Patriotic War, he was not mobilized into the Red Army because he injured his legs during hard work in the camps. Was in occupied territory. On February 8, 1942, he was ordained (celibate, that is, in a celibate state) to the rank of deacon by Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky), who was under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate.
From February 15, 1942 - priest. In 1942 he graduated from theological courses and served as a priest at the Holy Trinity Convent in Riga (until April 28, 1942). Then, until May 16, 1943, he was a charter director at the Holy Spiritual Monastery in Vilnius.
Ministry in Lithuania
In 1943-1958 - rector of the Church of St. Nicholas in the village of Hegobrosty, Panevezys deanery of the Vilna-Lithuanian diocese. Since 1956 - archpriest.
Father Nikolai was unusually committed to the church. Not being a monk, he lived more strictly than a monk in everything - in nutrition, in attitude towards people and prayer. His lifestyle can be called truly Christian: people saw in him an example of selfless service to the Lord.
Archpriest Joseph Dziczkowski believed that “such parishes are an oasis of Orthodox piety in Catholic Lithuania.” The service description issued to Archpriest Nicholas by Archbishop Alexy (Dekhterev) of Vilnius and Lithuania in 1958 stated: “This is, without a doubt, an extraordinary priest. Although his parish was small and poor (150 parishioners), it was organized in such a way that it could be an indicative example for many. Without receiving any benefits from the Diocese, he managed to find local funds, with which he overhauled the temple and brought it into splendid condition. The parish cemetery is also kept in rare order. In personal life - impeccable behavior. This is a shepherd - an ascetic and a man of prayer. Celibacy. He gave his whole soul, all his strength, all his knowledge, all his heart to the parish, and for this he was always loved not only by his parishioners, but also by everyone who came into closer contact with this good shepherd.”
While serving at a parish in Lithuania, Father Nikolai received a theological education in absentia at the Leningrad Theological Seminary and the Leningrad Theological Academy.
"Talab Elder"
Since 1958, Father Nikolai began to serve in the Pskov diocese and was appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (Zalita) on Lake Pskov, appeared to them continuously until his death.
In the 70s, people from all over the country began to come to Father Nikolai on the island - they began to venerate him as an elder. He was called the “Talabsky” or “Zalitsky” (after the former name of the island, which was renamed in Soviet times in memory of the Bolshevik activist Zalit) elder.
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House of Nikolai Guryanov's father
Not only church people were drawn to him, but also fallen souls, feeling the warmth of his heart. Once forgotten by everyone, at times, he did not know a minute of peace from visitors, and alien to worldly glory only quietly complained: “Oh, if only you ran to church the way you run after me!” His spiritual gifts could not go unnoticed: he called strangers by name, revealed forgotten sins, warned about possible dangers, instructed, helped change life, arrange it on Christian principles, begged for the seriously ill.
There is a story that Father Nicholas was asked: “Thousands of people came to you during your life, you peered carefully into their souls. Tell me, what worries you most in the souls of modern people - what sin, what passion? What is the most dangerous for us now? To this he replied: "Unbelief", and to a clarifying question - "Even among Christians"- answered: “Yes, even among Orthodox Christians. To whom the Church is not a Mother, God is not a Father.” According to Father Nicholas, a believer should have a loving attitude towards everything that surrounds him.
There is evidence that, through the priest’s prayers, the fate of the missing people was revealed to him. In the 90s The Pechersk elder, famous throughout the country, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin), testified about Father Nicholas that he is “the only truly perspicacious elder in the territory of the former USSR.” He knew God's will for man and directed many along the shortest path leading to salvation.
In 1988, Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov was awarded a miter and the right to serve with the Royal Doors open to the “Cherubim.” In 1992 he was awarded the right to serve the liturgy with the Royal Doors open until the Lord's Prayer - the highest church honor for an archpriest (excluding the extremely rare rank of protopresbyter).
O. Nikolai was famous both in Russia and among Orthodox people beyond. Thus, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, on the shore of a forest lake, a monastery was founded with his blessing.
The elder also enjoyed fame and love among creative youth and the intelligentsia: Konstantin Kinchev, Olga Kormukhina, Alexey Belov and many others came to his island for his blessing for creativity. In addition, the elder became the prototype of the hero of the film “The Island,” where the main role was played by the rock poet and musician Pyotr Mamonov.
More than 3 thousand Orthodox believers took part in the funeral of Father Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (Zalit). Many admirers visit the elder’s grave. The Society of Devotees of the Memory of the Righteous Nicholas of Pskovezersk (Nikolai Guryanov) was established.
Instructions of Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov
Father generally spoke little, apparently he was silent by nature, because his rare statements were aphoristic - one phrase contained an entire life program. That’s why everything the elder said was so vividly remembered.
1. “Our life is blessed... A gift from God... We have a treasure within us - a soul. If we save it in this temporary world, where we came as pilgrims, we will inherit Eternal Life.”
2. " Seek purity. Don't listen to bad and dirty things about anyone... Don’t dwell on an unkind thought... Flee untruths... Never be afraid to speak the truth, only with prayer and, first, ask for blessings from the Lord.”
3. “You need to live not only for yourself... Try to quietly pray for everyone... Don’t alienate or humiliate anyone.”
4. “Our thoughts and words have great power on the world around us. Pray with tears for everyone - the sick, the weak, sinners, for those for whom there is no one to pray.”
5. " Don't be too strict. Excessive strictness is dangerous. It stops the soul only at external achievement, without giving depth. Be softer, don't chase external rules. Converse mentally with the Lord and the saints. Try not to teach, but to gently suggest and correct each other. Be simple and sincere. The world is like God’s... Look around - all creation thanks the Lord. And you live like this - in peace with God.”
6. " Obedience… It begins in early childhood. From obedience to parents. These are our first lessons from the Lord.”
7. “Remember that all people are weak and sometimes unjust. Learn to forgive and not be offended. It’s better to move away from those who cause you harm - you won’t be loved by force... Don’t look for friends among people. Look for them in Heaven - among the saints. They will never leave or betray.”
8. Believe in the Lord without doubt . The Lord Himself lives in our heart and there is no need to look for Him somewhere there... far away.”
9. “Always be joyful, even in the most difficult days of your life don't forget to thank God “A grateful heart needs nothing.”
10. " Take care of your spiritual peace , so there will be order in the world.”
eleven. " Rely on, my dears, to the will of God , and everything will be as you need."
12. " Never remove the cross . Read morning and evening prayers Necessarily".
13. “You can be saved both in the family and in the monastery, just live a holy, peaceful life.”
14. " Go to temple and believe in the Lord . To whom the Church is not a mother, God is not a father. Humility and prayer are the main ones. One black clothes - not yet humility ».
Devotees of the Faith
Elder Nikolai (Guryanov)
It may be too early to declare the role in the life of the present Church that was assigned by the Providence of God to Father Nikolai (Guryanov), who labored for more than forty years on the island of Zalit in the Pskov region. Too little time has passed to evaluate his activities. But now we can say with all certainty that it was given to our Church at one of the most crucial moments 
Her existence.
Of course, when characterizing the activities of this ascetic, one can be completely satisfied with pointing to the general tradition within the framework of which the elder’s service to the Orthodox man took place from ancient times. It includes the spiritual nourishment of the flock, strengthening their religiosity, maintaining their zeal for pleasing God, maintaining in the human soul warmth and love for God and His commandments, proclaiming the Divine will to those who seek it, healing the moral shortcomings of people, caring for moral growth the soul of a Christian, the necessary spiritual support for those who are in sorrow or illness... In a word, an elder is one who, having achieved dispassion through personal feat, spiritually nourishes the church people and shapes their faith, fulfills a high and significant mission. At the present time of greatest spiritual impoverishment and deep darkness of spirit modern society eldership in itself is an invaluable gift to a suffering person who strives in today’s world to remain faithful to the Gospel Truth. And only those rarest chosen ones of God are called to him who are capable of making their lives an unceasing martyrdom. Therefore, the elder of our time, by the very fact of his existence, by virtue of his activity, deserves deep veneration and preservation of the memory of him by the entire Church of Christ, the entire people of God. The appearance of Father Nicholas can be considered a phenomenon of Russian religious life at the end of the 20th century. What is its uniqueness ?
Father Nikolai Guryanov was born on May 26, 1910 in the Samolva churchyard, Gdov district, St. Petersburg province, into the family of a private landowner. Accepted holy baptism in the Archangel Michael Church. Mare Settlement. Since childhood he served at the altar. Love for the church and church singing was inherent in all members of their family: his father Alexei Ivanovich was the regent of the church choir; elder brother, Mikhail Alekseevich Guryanov - professor, teacher at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; the middle brothers, Peter and Anatoly, also had musical abilities, but little news remains about them. All three brothers died in the war. Father recalled it this way: “My father died in the fourteenth year. There are four of us boys left. My brothers defended the Fatherland and, apparently, did not dodge the fascist bullet... Thank the Heavenly Father, we live now, we have everything: bread and sugar, work and rest. I try to contribute that little penny to the Peace Fund that helps get rid of these hostilities... After all, war devours young lives. No sooner had a person opened the door to life than he was already leaving..."
There is a legend that Fr. Nikolay visited about. Zalita (at that time Talabsk) while still in adolescence. They say that around 1920, the rector of the Church of the Archangel Michael, in which the youth Nikolai worked as an altar boy, took the boy with him to the provincial center. We got there by water and stopped to rest on the island of Talabsk. Taking this opportunity, we decided to visit the blessed one working on the island. His name was Mikhail. He was sick, all his life he wore heavy chains on his body and was revered as a seer. They say that the blessed one gave the priest a small prosphora, and Nicholas a large one and said: “Our guest has arrived,” thus predicting his future many years of service on the island...
In 1926, the future Elder graduated from the Gatchina Pedagogical School, and in 1929 received an incomplete pedagogical education at the Leningrad Institute, from which he was expelled for speaking out at a meeting against the closure of one of the nearby churches. After this, he was repressed and spent seven years in prison in Syktyvkar. After leaving prison, Nikolai worked as a teacher in schools in the Tosnensky district, since he was denied registration in Leningrad. During the war, he was not mobilized due to illness in his legs, which he injured with sleepers while working in the camp. After the Gdovsky district was occupied by German troops, Nikolai, along with other residents, was driven away by the Germans to the Baltic states. Here he becomes a student at the Vilna Seminary, opened in 1942. After studying there for two semesters, he was ordained to the priesthood by Exarch Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) at the Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and then served in various parishes in the Baltic states. In 1949 - 1951, Father Nikolai studied at the correspondence sector of the Leningrad Seminary, and in 1951 he was enrolled in the first year of the academy, but after studying there for one year in absentia, he did not continue his studies. In 1958 he ended up on the island of Zalit, where he spent the remaining forty-four years of his life. In this list of facts from his biography, we will not find either a long stay in the monastery or long-term care from an experienced confessor. Consequently, those grace-filled gifts that he contained within himself were formed in him under the direct guidance of God. In the history of the Church there were such ascetics who achieved spiritual success without visible leaders. These include Saints Paul of Thebes, Anthony the Great, Mary of Egypt and others. These people, according to St. Paisiy Velichkovsky, “miraculously, according to the special vision of God, they were deliberately called to such a life that befits the perfect and dispassionate alone and requires angelic strength.”
However, this is not the only thing surprising about the phenomenon of the Zalitsky elder, and perhaps not even that much. He was formed and developed as an ascetic of extraordinary strength, not only without the necessary leader, “miraculously, according to the special vision of God,” but also during the most tragic period in the history of our Church, at that moment when an unprecedented campaign to liquidate it was launched in the country. By 1937, almost all Russian monasteries were destroyed, monks and nuns were shot or exiled to camps, and what survived was placed under the strictest control of the special services. By these actions of the authorities, the tradition of monastic activity was forcibly suppressed. Any secret attempts to preserve the way of monastic life under a totalitarian regime turned out to be doomed. And at this time of rampant horrors of the atheistic system, which cut down the centuries-old tree of Russian Orthodoxy at the very root, in a country where the remnants of surviving religiosity were mercilessly uprooted, God’s providence nurtured... an elder - a personality of unprecedented magnitude and exceptional fortitude. For what and for whom? All this was unknown to anyone at that time and constituted the secret of God.
It is interesting that what the Zalitsky elder possessed at the moment when everyone suddenly learned about him and started talking about him - dispassion, love, insight, edification - was achieved by him long before he went out to the people. The Pukhtitsa abbess Varvara, who has headed the famous monastery for more than thirty years, told the author of these lines in one of her conversations that when she was a nun of the Vilna Holy Spirit Monastery, Father Nikolai once said to her during a meal after a festive service: “Mother, how they will match you!” “What are you saying, father,” she answered, “after all, I have taken monastic vows and made a vow to the Lord.” But Father Nikolai repeated his words, as if he had not heard the objection: “How will they marry you, mother! Then don’t refuse.” After some time, the Vilna nun became the abbess of Pyukhtitsa and then realized what kind of matchmaking was being discussed at the festive table. But until the time set by God, the elder remained in a hidden place and in obscurity.
The time of “finding” the elder, when he opened the doors of his wretched cell to all those in need, came with the fall of the Soviet regime. This was the year not only of the proclamation of “democratic freedoms”, but also the year of the beginning of the second baptism of Rus'. From that moment on, the Russian Church began to absorb a huge number of converts. A rapid and tremendous growth began in newly opened parishes, spiritual and Sunday schools, reviving monasteries. The appearance of cities and villages was everywhere decorated with gold eight-pointed crosses. Shops with religious literature, workshops for church utensils, and periodicals not only of dioceses, but even of individual parishes appeared. Charitable institutions of the Church opened and pilgrimage services began.
All these gratifying and soul-gratifying phenomena could not, of course, cancel the laws of any development. The process of growth is always difficult in itself, contains many internal contradictions and always causes the action of an opposing force. It was not easy for the newborn flock that appeared in the Church to affirm in themselves the beginnings of a new life. People were too crippled by the previous decades of godlessness. The task of Christian growth, which in itself requires considerable internal tension, constancy and patience from a person, was immeasurably complicated by another fatal circumstance: the uncontrolled disintegration and disintegration of Russian reality that had begun. All the newly baked “bread” of the Russian Church, which found itself in very unfavorable conditions for further growth, required leaven of a very special strength to maintain its spirit. And, as we think, it was given to him by the Lord, the invisible Head of the Church, in the person of the elder Archpriest Nicholas. This is indicated by the elder’s unusual location - the island of Zalit, and the exceptional gift of insight that dwelt in him, and the extraordinary edification of his words, clothed in an extremely laconic form, reaching to the most hidden depths of the soul and causing radical changes in it. Truly, he was the “leaven” on which Russian Orthodox religiosity sprouted, is surging, and will continue to germinate, the Moses who led the “new Israel” to the “Promised Land.” He was the spiritual force that penetrated not only the souls of people who were drawn to Christ, but also yesterday’s communists and today’s liberals, and even forced them to revere God. Near him, all of newly baptized Russia, which had an idea of righteousness, at best, from books, received a clear, tangible idea of what Orthodox holiness is.
Why did people go to him? He didn't seem to say anything special. But from his wondrous and unexpected in its simplicity of instructions there was a breath of some kind of higher, heavenly wisdom, and in them a person, despite all the plainness and outward inexpressiveness of the elder’s words, unmistakably recognized the will of God, saw spiritually, freed himself from the captivity of ideas acquired by life, began to to see the path of his life in a different light, suddenly realized his untruth before God, himself, and other people. Those who survived this left the island with a feeling of deepest gratitude to the elder for the revelation they had experienced, as a result of which new strengths were discovered in them for further life in God. At the same time, it was endlessly amazing that to everyone, regardless of his age, profession, social status, disposition, character, moral level, he said something that concerned the innermost essence of his life.
His wonderful insight was obvious to everyone who turned to him. When I came to see him for the first time (it was in 1985, when I, as a student at the Pedagogical Institute, was doing an internship at school), he unexpectedly asked me from the threshold of his house: “Have you learned how to write the particles “not” and “neither”? “?”, - thereby letting me know that he knows me even without my explanation. Then, inviting me into the house, seating me at the table and placing a plate of strawberries with sugar in front of me, he continued: “So you are our philologist. Have you read Dostoevsky?”
He clearly saw the past, present and future life of his children, their internal structure. But how carefully he handled the knowledge about man that the Lord entrusted to him as His faithful servant! Knowing the whole truth about a person, he did not allow a single hint that could hurt or hurt his pride. In what a soft form did he clothe his edifications! “Take it easy,” he greeted my acquaintance with this advice, who had not even had time to say two words, who had adopted a somewhat harsh manner of treating his wife. This happened often and with many: having arrived with one purpose, a person left with that revelation about himself and with that lesson that he did not expect to hear and receive.
Love, forbearance and long-suffering towards one's neighbor were the main points of his instructions. The servant of God 3. came to the priest with her sadness: her daughter-in-law was unfaithful to her husband. Father Nikolai, seeing her in the crowd of people who had arrived, invited her to his house, sat her on a chair and then, after a pause, told her: “Don’t divorce them, otherwise you will suffer in hell.” The woman, unable to bear it, burst into tears and then for a long time kept in her soul the lesson of love taught to her on the island. Subsequently, life in her son’s family improved.
Father himself was merciful and condescending to the repentant people who came to him. One visitor, standing near the fence of the elder’s house and, from the shame that tormented him, did not dare not only turn to the elder, but even raise his eyes to him, heard the quiet voice of Father Nikolai. “Go and call him,” he said to his cell attendant. She invited the newcomer to the elder, who anointed him with oil and kept saying: “The mercy of God is with you, the mercy of God is with you...” And his oppressive state melted and disappeared in this ray of father’s love. However, the elder could meet those who did not have repentance in a different way. “Don’t come to me again,” he told one pilgrim. It was scary to hear such words from the great righteous man.
Fulfilling the blessing given by the elder required self-denial and self-sacrifice from the person asking, a willingness to go against himself and his desires. An acquaintance of mine, having received a prestigious appointment from the ruling bishop to a parish located in the center of the city, went to the island for a blessing. However, Father Nikolai ordered the priest to go to another place: to a remote village, where there was a huge church, desecrated and damaged during the years of persecution, requiring large capital investments, where there was no housing and where the entire parish consisted of five old women. But if a person found the strength to follow what the elder told him, then later, over the years, he received enormous spiritual benefit from this. Violation of this blessing always resulted in grave consequences for the questioner, which he later bitterly regretted. There were also those among those who came who, having received a specific blessing, then changed their minds and again pestered the elder with a request to bless their “new option.” “Live as you wish,” the priest once answered one of these petitioners.
Father was a great lover of simplicity. “Where it’s simple, there are a hundred angels, but where it’s sophisticated, there’s not a single one,” he repeated the St.’s favorite saying. Ambrose of Optina. One day he taught a whole crowd of people an expressive lesson in simplicity, without saying a single word. When he came out to all those who had arrived and crowded around his porch, the people trembled at the appearance of the elder. Then a slight impatience ran through the crowd. Everyone wanted to quickly talk about their own things; each, without noticing his neighbor, considered his own to be the most important and significant. But the elder was silent. At this time, a local fisherman of about fifty walked past the gate, immersed in his everyday and simple thoughts. Father suddenly called him by name. The fisherman stopped, took off his headdress and went to Father Nikolai. The elder blessed the fisherman, on whose face a good-natured smile shone. After that, the fisherman pulled his hat on his head and headed towards the gate. This silent scene lasted no more than two minutes. But many understood its meaning. The elder seemed to be saying to those gathered: “Find simplicity in your attitude towards yourself, and you will find blessings.”
Many experienced the enormous power of Father Nikolai’s accusatory words. He knew how to speak uncomplicatedly and dispassionately, but at the same time with amazing accuracy and depth, so that his word penetrated into the most hidden and secluded places of the human soul. I remember one time I was going to see him. My old seminary acquaintance S, a capricious and stubborn man who led a life that was not impeccable in all respects, found out about this. “Ask him about my future,” S. asked me. And the elder pointed out his future to him, “And S, tell me,” the priest said to me at the end of the meeting, hinting at the “darkened” side of his life, “that he must answer to God.” will". When I later reproduced these words of the elder over the phone, they caused S, an absolutely “unsentimental” person, to momentarily lose the power of speech. There was silence on the telephone receiver. Only the light crackling background of the device could be heard. It seemed that the person at the other end of the line had completely disappeared. Feeling embarrassed that I had accidentally learned someone else’s secret, I interrupted this endlessly prolonged silence by resuming the conversation. I remember something else too. One woman brought a high-ranking official from Moscow to Father Nicholas on the island in the hope that the elder’s blessing would help him move even higher. “Bless him, father,” she asked, leading her “protégé” to Father Nikolai. The elder looked not at him, but as if through him, and without long prefaces or circumlocutions he suddenly said: “But this is a thief.” The humbled and ashamed official, who had forgotten what remorse of conscience was over the years and had become accustomed to looking at life from top to bottom from his work chair, left the elder’s cell in a depressed and confused state.
The elder had a subtle sense of humor and sometimes put his denunciations in a rather peculiar form. One day a gentleman came to him, who had a passion for tasty, varied and plentiful food. “Come to me at six o’clock in the evening,” Father Nikolai told him and after a pause he unexpectedly added, “you and I... will eat.” At six o'clock the gentleman stood near the door of the elder's cell, from behind which came the smell of fried potatoes. Knocking on the door, the visitor said loudly: “Father, I have come.” After some time, the old man’s voice was heard from behind the closed door: “I’m not waiting for anyone.” After standing for a while, the discouraged gentleman went outside the fence of the house.
No one knows for certain what feats Father Nikolai performed on the island. He hid it from everyone, didn’t let anyone get close to him, and took care of himself, except for the last ten years, when he could no longer do this. Lately it has been very difficult for him to bear his weakness. Seeing how it was not only difficult for the elder to speak, but even to sit, how he was straining his last strength, I somehow sympathetically told him: “Father, you should lie down...” Father Nikolai, without raising his bowed head, answered: “Only lazy people lie down.” Another time, in response to the same sympathetic proposal to rest, coming from another person, he remarked: “Rest is a sin.” From these meager remarks one can partly predict the extent of his physical feat.
Father was a man of the deepest faith and did not doubt for a second the divine protection extended over every believer and over the entire Church as a whole. “Everything will be as you need,” he often told fearful people, as if saying that no circumstances have power over a Christian if he has genuine, undoubting faith. The elder did not have even the smallest part of that painful hysteria with which many in the Church are seized and besotted today. This hysteria, generated by our unbelief, fills us with empty fear and forces us to energetically fight any chimeras, but not the true enemies of our salvation. Alone young man to the question: “Will there be war?” the priest gave an astonishing answer. He said: “You shouldn’t only ask about this, but you shouldn’t even think about it.” Thinking about this answer, you involuntarily remember the Gospel: “When the Son of Man comes, will he bring faith to the earth?”
There were a great many such cases in his life. There is no doubt that he had a powerful influence on the consciousness of today Orthodox Christian, for a new generation of church people. The simple memory of him today supports the faith of many and strengthens the soul. The very fact of the existence of such a person for many is that invisible and, perhaps, not fully realized thread that connects them with God and the eternal tradition of Orthodoxy.
He was the same age as the century and survived all the terrible cataclysms of Russian and world history of the 20th century: the October Revolution, the civil war, collectivization, the repressions of Stalin's time, the second world war, Khrushchev's persecutions... The stormy and cruel time, which broke more than one fate and brought enormous changes to the consciousness of people, could not influence the ideals of his soul: despite the rapid whirlpool of history, which he, as a man of his time, was captured, these his ideals remained unshakable by any external force and, perhaps, as a result of his experience, grew even deeper into the recesses of his God-loving soul. Its inner "cage", built on a foundation gospel commandments Having withstood all the blows from the outside, she turned out to be stronger than all the horrors of time and rose immeasurably above this century. In this sense, his amazing life can be an example for all those who think that in the conditions of the apocalyptic end there is no way to remain faithful to God in everything and to the end.
On August 24, 2002, Elder Nikolai completed his high, exceptional mission and left us for eternal rest. God alone knows what incredible, inhuman tension this life was filled with, for which He destined for a special role - to testify the truth about Christ to people excommunicated from God and His Church, at the very end of the 20th century, terrible in its historical events. Many are afraid of a future without a righteous man. However, without fear of falling into error, we can say the following: great is the people who, even in apostasy reality, give birth to people who, in their spiritual scale, resemble the ascetics of the first centuries of Christianity. And it cannot be that a people, disfigured beyond recognition by the cruel “experiments” of the 20th century and yet not losing the ability to give birth to such people, and most importantly, to learn their spiritual lessons, does not have its own special purpose in the future.
The morning of the last earthly day of the beloved and unforgettable Father Nikolai was quiet and clear... The night passed quickly and unnoticed after countless painful days and nights of prolonged illness, when Father whispered in exhaustion: “My precious ones, I’m barely alive, every cell of me hurts. If you knew how bad I feel.” For the last three years, Father was apparently fading away: his flesh was melting away, drying up, his whole body was already incorporeal. We marveled at the greatness spiritual feat An old man exceeding human strength. Truly: before our eyes stood an Earthly Angel, flaming in unceasing prayer for our entire sinful world. The greatness of the spirit of Abba Nicholas was fragrant with the holiness of the ancient fathers of the Church, who served God with complete self-denial. What kind of spiritual deeds did he undertake out of love for the Sweetest Jesus, invariably repeating: “All my life I only knew and loved the Lord and thought about Him. I am always with the Lord!” Only an ascetic who had cleansed his soul of earthly and corruptible things could say this.
Force Life-giving Cross The Lord exalted the Lamp of the Church, Father Nicholas, during his lifetime and crowned him even more after his blessed death, like the Ecumenical Teacher John Chrysostom, who, during the transfer of the honorable relics from Comana to Constantinople, after thirty years, as soon as the Church asked forgiveness from the persecuted Saint, saying: “Take your throne, father,” he raised his right hand and blessed with the words: “Peace to all!”; like the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, who took the prayer of permission from the hands of the priest during the funeral service.
During the vesting of the all-honorable body of the spirit-bearing Elder Nicholas, an ascetic of faith and piety of our days, an all-Russian shepherd and loving spiritual father, we were privileged to behold the glory of God resting on him: when they brought the altar Cross and the Gospel to Father, with which the priest stands before the Lord to enshrine them into the hands of the deceased, he carefully and reverently lifted right hand and he himself took the Cross - just as he always held it during his earthly wanderings, thereby testifying that there is no death, but there is eternal life in Jesus Christ. The Elder opened his left hand slightly so that they could put Holy Gospel, and then quietly laid his fingers on it...
The morning of Saturday, the twenty-fourth of August 2002, was quiet and blessed. All nature froze, foreshadowing the great last hours of the celestial on earth. Batyushkin’s dream was bright and calm. Exhausted from earthly prayerful labors and bearing the sorrows and illnesses of the whole world, in the last three nights he rested like a child. Some kind of unearthly lightness appeared in Father’s whole body, his bones seemed to have lost their earthly heaviness, and it became completely easy to carry him: it seemed that he was weightless, and hope reigned in his heart that this was a dream for recovery, that Father would feel better soon he will get stronger and get better. Constantly at night the Elder, even during bodily sleep, prayed: we saw him overshadowing himself sign of the cross or those who raise their hands to grief before the Throne of the Most High - as during the Divine Liturgy at the Cherubim and the Grace of the World... Often, often, he offered a bishop’s blessing with both hands. “I sleep, but my heart watches” (Song, 5:2), - this was the gift of prayer the Elder had. The face of the Elder shone in the light blue of the cell, his holy hands, which healed and strengthened thousands of suffering and sick people, exuded light and grace. The breath of the righteous man was the life-giving Jesus Prayer, which he constantly performed with his heart and barely tangible with his lips. The priest’s radiant beard often hid inexpressible pain and bitterness. When we asked: “Father, does something hurt you?!” - he answered: “My precious ones, that I... Grief, how much grief there is on earth... How I feel sorry for you all...”. “What will happen, father?” - “Grief,” he answered, “hunger”... We prayed and cried... The elder soothingly encouraged:
“There will be some bread, I’ll pray.” He warned us about spiritual hunger.
After many years of sleepless nights of prayer for the entire suffering world, this night of sleep was a dream of complete rest for the soul of the righteous. The quiet joyful bliss of Father was felt to be guarded by Angels - such grace was felt in everything. From time to time we went up to his bed, carefully straightened the blanket, and peered into the features of his dear, beloved face. Tears flowed naturally from our eyes, we knelt down, making prostrations to the quiet, holy worker. This was a natural movement of our hearts, for our whole life, especially in the last three months, when Father melted before our eyes like a candle, was given into service, sincere and reverent, to the spirit-bearing father, who dedicated his entire life to God and his neighbor.
Still, wanting to wake up Father, quietly touching his shoulder, they asked: “Father, are you getting up?”... “I’ll sleep... I’ll lie down... some more, I’ll sleep”...
They offered him something to drink, he happily agreed, almost without opening his eyes. I drank a few spoons of holy water. Lately The old man ate little. He constantly accepted only sacred things: holy water, prosphora, cathedral oil, which stood next to him in a mug with a blue cross.
Read morning rule quietly so as not to disturb. The daily Apostle and the Gospel opened. Romans chapter 14:6-9:
“He who distinguishes the days distinguishes for the Lord; and he who does not discern the days does not discern for the Lord. Whoever eats eats for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and whoever does not eat does not eat for the Lord, and thanks God. For none of us lives for ourselves, and none of us dies for ourselves; and whether we live, we live for the Lord; whether we die, we die for the Lord: and therefore, whether we live or die, we are always the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died, and rose again, and came to life, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”
From the book: "Russian elders and ascetics of the 20th century"