A year before the death of Pelagia Ivanovna, Blessed Pasha of Sarov settled in the monastery. In the world she bore the name Irina Ivanovna. Born at the beginning of the 19th century in the village. Nikolsky, Spassky district, Tambov province, in the family of a serf. After the death of her husband, Irina was taken into the landowner's house as a cook, then as a housekeeper. Soon the servants slandered her before the masters for theft, and they handed her over to the soldiers to be tortured. Unable to bear the injustice, Irina went to Kyiv, where the perspicacious elders blessed her on the path of foolishness and secretly tonsured her into the schema with the name Paraskeva, after which she began to call herself Pasha.
A year and a half later, at the request of the landowner, the police found her and sent her along to the gentlemen. A year later she fled again, and again, after a search, she was brought back. However, the landowners no longer accepted her and angrily kicked her out onto the street. The blessed one lived in caves in the Sarov Forest for 30 years. They said that her appearance in those years was like Mary of Egypt: thin, tall, blackened by the sun, she struck fear into everyone who did not know her.
Seeing her ascetic life, people began to turn to her for advice and prayer, and noticed that she was not without the gift of foresight. Praskovya Ivanovna settled in Diveevo in 1884, first at the choir, then in a house at the monastery gates. She became very clean and loved order. She dressed like a child, in bright sundresses.
She showed her love for the Queen of Heaven and the saints in a unique way: she either began to treat the icons, or decorated them with flowers, talking affectionately to them. If she reproached people for their misdeeds, she said: “Why are you offending Mama!”, that is, the Queen of Heaven. She prayed all night until the morning. After mass, she worked: knitting stockings or reaping grass with a sickle - under the guise of these activities, she constantly said the Jesus Prayer and bowed to Christ and the Mother of God. From morning to evening, the blessed one received people who came to her, convicting some of secret sins, and accurately predicting the future for others. When Leonid Mikhailovich Chichagov, still a brilliant colonel, first came to Diveevo, Blessed Pasha predicted to him that he would soon become a priest, remarking: “The sleeves are like a priest’s.”
After his ordination, he began to visit Diveyevo often and always visited the blessed one. Praskovya Ivanovna persistently told him: “Submit a petition to the Emperor so that the relics are revealed to us.” Chichagov replied that he could not be accepted by the Emperor on such a question - he would be considered crazy. But then I decided to collect material about the holy life of Elder Seraphim, about the difficult path of formation of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery. This is how the book “Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery” arose. L. M. Chichagov presented it to Emperor Nicholas II. Subsequently, Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), the future metropolitan, now glorified as a hieromartyr, was the main organizer of the celebrations of the glorification of St. Seraphim.
In 1903, after the celebrations of the glorification of St. Seraphim, Emperor Nicholas II visited Diveevo and was with the Empress in the cell of Pasha of Sarov. Before the guests arrived, she ordered all the chairs to be taken out and seated the Royal Couple on the carpet.
Praskovya Ivanovna predicted the catastrophe that was approaching Russia: the death of the dynasty, the dispersal of the Church and a sea of blood. She also predicted the birth of the Heir, and after his birth her words had to be believed. After this, the Emperor more than once sent messengers to Diveevo to Pasha on important issues. Before the end of her life, she prayed to the portrait of the Tsar, saying: “Don’t know, reverend, don’t know, martyr...”
Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna died on September 24/October 5, 1915 at the age of about 120 years. On July 31, 2004, the blessed elder was canonized as a locally revered saint, and in October 2004, her church-wide veneration was blessed.
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. The holy relics of the blessed one rest in the Kazan Church.
B well-established Praskovya Ivanovna, known as Irina, was born in 1795 in the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, Tambov province. Her parents, Ivan and Daria, were serfs. When the girl was seventeen years old, the gentlemen gave her in marriage to the peasant Fyodor. Irina became an exemplary wife and housewife, and her husband’s family loved her for her meek disposition, her hard work, because she prayed diligently at home and in church, avoided guests and society, and did not go out to village games. So they lived with their husband for fifteen years, but the Lord did not bless them with children. Eight years later, Irina’s husband died. And soon another misfortune befell - two canvases were discovered missing from the manor's house. The servants slandered Irina, showing that it was she who stole them. The soldiers, on the orders of the police officer, brutally tortured her, pierced her head, and tore her ears. Irina fled from her masters to Kyiv on a pilgrimage. Here, apparently, she took monastic vows into the schema.
The Kyiv shrines and the meeting with the elders completely changed her inner state - she now knew why and how to live. She now wanted only God to live in her heart - the only merciful Christ who loves everyone, the dispenser of all blessings. Unfairly punished, Irina felt with particular depth the indescribable depth of Christ’s suffering and His mercy.
A year and a half later, the police found her in Kyiv and sent her along to the gentlemen. The journey was painful and long, she had to experience hunger, cold, cruel treatment by escort soldiers, and the rudeness of male prisoners.
Irina served the masters for more than a year, but having come into contact with shrines and spiritual life, she fled again. A year later, the police found her again in Kyiv and escorted her along the stage. The gentlemen kicked her out into the street, naked and without a piece of bread. 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. She developed the habit of living all year round in the open air, enduring hunger, cold and heat. And then she went into the Sarov forests and lived here for more than two decades in a cave that she dug herself.
Before, Pasha had a surprisingly pleasant appearance. During her time living in the Sarov forest, her long asceticism and fasting, she became like Mary of Egypt: thin, blackened by the sun. Seeing her ascetic life, people began to turn to her for advice and asked her to pray. The enemy of the human race taught evil people to attack her and rob her. She was beaten, but she had no money. The blessed one was found lying in a pool of blood with a broken head. Since then, a headache and a tumor in the pit of her stomach tormented her constantly.
Six years before the death of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, Pasha came to the monastery with a doll, and then with many dolls: she nursed them, looked after them, called them children. Now she lived in the monastery for several weeks, and then months. And after the death of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, Pasha completely moved to the monastery.
The holy relics of the Diveyevo blesseds in the Kazan Church of the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery.
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 that is why its yarn was so valued in the monastery; belts and rosaries were made from it. She referred to knitting stockings in an allegorical sense as an exercise in the unceasing Jesus Prayer. So, one day a visitor approached her with the idea of whether he should move closer to Diveev. 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.
She prayed her own prayers, but knew some by heart. She called the Mother of God “Mama behind the glass.” Sometimes she stopped, rooted to the spot, in front of the image and prayed or knelt down anywhere - in the field, in the upper room, in the middle of the street, and prayed earnestly with tears.
Schema-Archimandrite Barsanuphius of Optina was transferred from Optina Hermitage and appointed abbot of the Golutvin Monastery. Having become seriously ill, he wrote a letter to Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, whom he visited and had great faith in. This letter was brought by Raphael's mother. When the blessed one listened to the letter, she only said: “365.” Exactly 365 days later, the elder died. This was also confirmed by the elder’s cell attendant, in whose presence the blessed woman’s answer was received.
On the days of glorification of St. Seraphim Diveevo was visited by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. They visited Blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna, who predicted the birth of an heir and the fall of the autocracy. The king said that she was a great servant of God.
Tsar Nicholas II visits Blessed Pasha of Sarov. Wall painting of the Kazan Church of the Diveyevo Monastery
Praskovya Ivanovna died on September 22/October 5, 1915 at the age of about 120 years. The blessed one died hard and for a long time. It was revealed to one of the sisters that with these dying sufferings she was redeeming the souls of her spiritual children from hell. This is how S. A. Nilus describes his last meeting with her in the summer of 1915: “When we entered the blessed woman’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 eyes of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Vasnetsov’s depiction of the Kiev-Vladimir Cathedral.”
The Blessed One was buried at the altar of the Trinity Cathedral. On the walls and lids of Paraskeva Ivanovna’s coffin it was written: “My clergy, brothers and sisters, do not forget me when you pray, but when you see my coffin, remember my love and pray to Christ that my spirit may make peace with the righteous,” as well as the Trisagion.
PASHA SAROVSKAYA
Blessed Praskovya (Paraskeva) Ivanovna Diveevskaya
In the world - Irina Ivanovna
(b. 1795 – d. 1915)
Blessed, schema-nun of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. Among her many predictions are the imminent birth of the long-awaited heir Nicholas II, the death of Tsarist Russia and the Tsarist dynasty, the defeat of the Church and a sea of blood.
Priest Peter Polyakov writes: “Foolishness is a great thing! He needs to be understood. But it is impossible to understand it without God’s help, without illumination from above. The world understands him little, and this is because they think little about such things and pray little. They plunged into the vanity of vanities, into pride and into carnal pleasure, and their feelings grew fat: they listen and do not hear, they look and do not see.” It is difficult to disagree with him, but it is even more difficult to understand how a person, having given up even small, but still worldly goods, takes upon himself the exorbitantly difficult feat of a holy fool for the sake of Christ. Although, probably, it is only we who feel the weight of their burden, for the holy fools themselves it is life with faith and by faith.
In 2004, at the celebrations dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov, in the Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery, the canonization of blessed Pasha of Sarov and other Diveyevo blesseds who labored in this monastery in the 19th and 20th centuries took place - Pelagia and Mary .
Blessed Pasha of Sarov (in the world – Irina) was born in 1795 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 Fyodor. Submissively submitting to her parents' and master's will, she became an exemplary wife and housewife. Her husband's family loved her for her modesty, meek disposition, hard work, and the fact that she lived with prayer. The young woman avoided guests and society and did not take part in village games and gatherings. So she lived with her husband for fifteen years, but God did not send them children. It is unknown why the married couple displeased the owners, but only the landowners Bulygins sold them to their neighbors - the Germans Schmidts in the village of Surkot. Five years after the resettlement, Fedor 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.”
The new owners tried to marry Irina a second time, but when they heard the words: “Even if you kill me, I won’t marry again,” they decided to leave the hardworking widow in their house. A year and a half later, disaster struck - two canvases were discovered missing from the manor’s house. The servant slandered Irina. The police officer arrived with soldiers, and the landowners decided to roughly punish the woman. The soldiers brutally tortured her. But she continued to say that she did not take the canvases. Then the Schmidts turned to a local fortune teller, who said that the canvases had indeed been stolen by a woman named Irina, but not this one, and that they were lying in the river. We started searching and actually found them where the fortune teller indicated. Of course, no one asked for forgiveness from the innocently punished Irina, and after what she had suffered, she was no longer able to live with the infidel gentlemen.
The woman went to Klev on a pilgrimage. The Kyiv shrines and the meeting with the elders completely changed her inner state - she now knew why and how to live. Meanwhile, the landowner filed a missing person report. A year and a half later, the police discovered the fugitive in the monastery. For escaping, the serf peasant woman had to languish in prison for a long time before she was sent to her masters. The journey was painful and long, she had to experience hunger, cold, cruel treatment by escort soldiers, and the rudeness of male prisoners. Finally, Irina was returned to her owners. The Schmidts “forgave” her for running away and made her a gardener. After working as a gardener for the Schmidts for two years, Irina again decided to escape. It should be noted that during the second escape, Irina secretly took monastic vows with the name of Paraskeva, having received the blessing of the elders for foolishness for Christ's sake.
The landowners again put her on the wanted list, and a year later she was found again in Kleve and, having been arrested, was taken along the stage to the Schmidts, who, wanting to show their power over her, did not accept her and angrily kicked her out into the street - naked and without a piece of bread. For five years, Irina, half-naked, hungry, wandered around the village, but now, having taken monastic vows, Paraskeva was not sad - she knew her path. And the fact that the landowners kicked her out was only a sign that the time had come to fulfill the blessing of the elders. For five years she wandered around the surrounding villages and was a laughing stock not only for children, but also for all peasants, enduring hunger, cold and heat. And then she went into the Sarov forests, lived there in a cave, which she dug herself. According to the testimony of the monks, the Monk Seraphim of Sarov himself, during his lifetime, blessed Praskovya Ivanovna to a wandering life in the forests. There she remained in fasting and prayer for about thirty years. They say that she had several caves in different places in the impenetrable forest. She sometimes went to Sarov and Diveevo, but more often she was seen at the Sarov mill, where she earned her living.
Once upon a time, Pasha, as she began to call herself, had a surprisingly pleasant appearance, but during her long asceticism and fasting in the Sarov forest, she began to look like Mary of Egypt (only she wore men’s clothes, because it was more convenient for her). Archimandrite Seraphim (Chichagov), author of the Chronicle of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery, said: “During her life in the Sarov forest, her long asceticism and fasting, she looked like Mary of Egypt. Thin, tall, completely burned by the sun and therefore black and scary, she wore short hair at that time, since previously everyone was amazed at her long hair that reached the ground, which gave her a beauty that bothered her in the forest and did not correspond to her secret tonsure. Barefoot, in a man's monastic shirt-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.” The archimandrite, having perfectly studied this wonderful woman, 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 just an outer shell, deliberately hiding the greatest humility, meekness, love and compassion. Sometimes wearing sundresses, she, as if turning 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.”
The life of a hermit was fraught with great dangers. It was not so much the proximity to wild animals in the forest that complicated Irina’s life, but rather the meeting with “unkind people.” One day, it happened four years before she moved to the Diveyevo monastery, she, just like Seraphim of Sarov once, was attacked by robbers and demanded money that she did not have. The surrounding peasants and pilgrims who came to Sarov deeply revered Praskovya as an ascetic, brought her food, left money, but she distributed everything to the poor. The robbers beat her half to death and left her lying in a pool of blood with a broken head. For a whole year she was between life and death and never fully recovered. Pain in her head and swelling in the pit of her stomach tormented her constantly, but she paid almost no attention to it, only occasionally saying: “Oh, mummy, how it hurts here! No matter what you do, mummy, it won’t go down in the pit of your stomach!”
Before her move from the forest to Diveevo, Praskovya Ivanovna often went to the abbess of the convent of Diveevo, Blessed Pelagia (Serebrennikova), and sat next to her, as if waiting. And every time mother answered Pasha’s silent question: “Yes! It’s good for you, you don’t have worries like I have: there are so many children [nuns]!” The wanderer bowed low to her and went into the forest. Year after year, she came to the monastery more and more often, and she always had a homemade doll in her bosom (later there were many of these dolls), which she nursed like a small child. In the last year of the abbess’s life, Pasha was inseparably with her at the monastery. One day in the late autumn of 1884, walking past the fence of the cemetery Church of the Transfiguration, the old woman hit the fence post with a stick and said: “As soon as I knock down this post, they will go to die - just keep up with digging graves!” These words soon came true - blessed Pelagia Ivanovna died, followed by the monastery priest and so many nuns that the magpies did not stop for a whole year, and it happened that they held funeral services for two at once.
Pasha remained in the monastery until the end of her days. Several times she was offered to live in the cell of the deceased.
“No, you can’t,” answered Praskovya Ivanovna, “mama doesn’t order it,” she pointed to the portrait of Pelagia Ivanovna.
Praskovya settled first with the choir members, and then in a separate cell near the gate, where she lived until her death. In the cell there was a bed with huge pillows, which she rarely occupied, and numerous dolls rested on it. At first, after moving to Diveevo, she wandered from the monastery to distant obediences or to Sarov, to her former favorite places. On these trips, she took with her a simple stick, which she called a cane, a bundle of things or a sickle on her shoulder, and several dolls in her bosom. With a cane, she sometimes frightened those who pestered her and those guilty of some offense.
The old woman listened carefully to every word and tried to interpret every gesture. And there were reasons for this. So, one day Pasha, for no apparent reason, swung a stick at a visiting bishop and tore his clothes. Out of fear, he hid in the cell of Mother Seraphim. When the blessed one fought, she was so formidable that she put everyone in awe. And then it turned out that it was Praskovya Ivanovna who simply warned him that on the way back the bishop would be attacked and beaten.
And there were many such cases. For example, once Hieromonk Iliodor (Sergei Trufanov) from Tsaritsyn came to visit the blessed one. He came with a religious procession, there were a lot of people. Praskovya Ivanovna received him, sat him down, then took off his hood, cross and insignia - she put all this in her chest and locked it, and hung the key to her belt. Then she ordered a box to be brought, put onions there, watered them and said: “Onions, grow tall...” - and she went to bed. He sat as if debunked. He needs to start the all-night vigil, but he can’t get up. It’s good that she tied the keys to her belt and was sleeping on the other side, so they untied the keys, took everything out and gave it to him. And after several years, he withdrew from the priesthood and renounced his monastic vows. And there were many such predictions that were incomprehensible at first glance. Then with the words: “What a stupid girl you are! Well, is it possible! You don’t know how many babies are taller than us! - Pasha dissuades the girl from taking monastic vows from a godly deed. She does not understand why she is not given a blessing, and a few months later her daughter-in-law dies, and a girl, an orphan, is left in her arms. Another time Praskovya Ivanovna went to the priest of the village of Alamasova, approached the psalm-reader and said: “Sir! Please, take a good nurse or some kind of nanny.” And what? Soon the psalm-reader’s perfectly healthy wife fell ill and died, leaving behind a baby.
And if the blessed one did not bless some business, then it was not worth taking on it. Thus, during the construction of a new cathedral in Diveevo, Abbess Alexandra decided not to ask Praskovya Ivanovna’s blessing and even held a solemn prayer service at the foundation site. The novice Dunya told Praskovya Ivanovna about this. “The cathedral is a cathedral,” answered the blessed one, “but I saw: bird cherry trees had grown in the corners, as if they had not blocked the cathedral.” So the cathedral remained unfinished.
Non-believers also came to Praskovya Ivanovna to mock and have fun. One day two young men came and made fun of the old woman. She huddled into a ball in the corner of her cell - and not a word. They joked, laughed and left. But as soon as they walked a few yards away from the holy fool’s cell, they heard her shouting to them from the window: “Run quickly! Run quickly! Run with a bucket and flood your house! If you don’t flood your home, you’ll end up in jail.” They, of course, did not pay attention to her cry then. But a week later, a letter came to the monastery from one of those young people: “Praskovya Ivanovna prophesied to me: our house burned down, and I am in prison, arrested on suspicion of participating in workers’ riots at the factory. I was an unbeliever, but now I believe in God. Pray for me and ask Praskovya Ivanovna for forgiveness. I’ll get rid of this vain talk and come to your monastery for a different purpose.”
From those living with her, the blessed one certainly demanded that they get up to pray at midnight, and if anyone did not agree, then she made so much noise and scolded that everyone got up to appease her and pray. But sometimes Praskovya Ivanovna drove the nuns out of the house with the words: “Get out of here, scoundrels, here is the cash register.” (After the monastery was closed, a savings bank was located in her cell, and Blessed Pasha foresaw this.)
All the time she had free from prayer, the blessed one was busy with work, knitting stockings or spinning yarn. This activity was accompanied by unceasing prayer, and that is why its yarn was so valued in the monastery; belts and rosaries were made from it. The old woman loved to work with a sickle. She reaped grass for them and, while working, bowed to Christ and the Mother of God. If respected people came to her, with whom she did not consider herself worthy to sit in the same room, 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; she collected it and took it to the horse yard. As a sign of trouble, she served burdock and prickly cones to those who came...
She prayed her own prayers, but she also knew some canonical ones. She called the Mother of God “Mama behind the glass.” Sometimes she stopped rooted to the spot in front of the icon and prayed, sometimes she knelt where she stood: in the field, in the upper room, in the middle of the street - and prayed earnestly with tears. It happened that she entered the church and began to extinguish the candles, the lamps near the images, or did not allow the lamps to be lit in the cell. Contemporaries noted that Pasha Sarovskaya’s appearance changed depending on her mood: she was either overly strict, angry and menacing, or affectionate and kind.
Under the windows of the old woman’s house, pilgrims crowded all day long. 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. The blessed one answered thoughts more often than questions, and people came to her for advice and consolation in an endless line. Nun Seraphim (Bulgakova) recalls: “...The future Metropolitan Seraphim, then still a brilliant guards colonel Leonid Chichagov, began to visit us in Sarov... When Chichagov arrived for the first time, Praskovya Ivanovna met him, looked from under his sleeve and said: “And the sleeves “They’re priestly ones.” He soon accepted the priesthood. Praskovya Ivanovna persistently told him: “Submit a petition to the sovereign so that the relics of [Seraphim of Sarov] are revealed to us.” Chichagov began collecting materials, wrote “The Chronicle...” and presented it to the sovereign. When the sovereign read it, he was inflamed with the desire to open the relics”... Thus “the will of the Reverend, conveyed to me in categorical form by Pasha, was fulfilled.”
In 1903, the blessed one was visited by the most august persons - Emperor Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fedorovna. At this time, there were four daughters in the royal family, but there was no heir. We went to St. Seraphim to pray for the gift of a boy. Archpriest Stefan Lyashevsky testifies: “During the glorification in Diveyevo, the holy fool, blessed Pasha of Sarov, famous throughout Russia for Christ’s sake, lived. The Emperor was aware not only of Diveyevo, but also of Pasha of Sarov. The sovereign with all the great princes and three metropolitans proceeded from Sarov to Diveevo. In the carriage they all drove up to the cell of Blessed Pasha. Mother Superior, of course, knew about this proposed visit and ordered all the chairs to be taken out of the cell and a large carpet to be laid out. Their Majesties, all the princes and metropolitans were barely able to enter this cell. Paraskeva Ivanovna sat, as almost always, on the bed, looked at the sovereign, and then said: “Let only the tsar and queen stay.” The Emperor, as if apologizing, looked at everyone and asked to leave him and the Empress alone - apparently some very serious conversation was ahead.
Everyone went out and got into their carriages, waiting for their Majesties to come out. Mother Abbess was the last to leave the cell. And suddenly she hears Paraskeva Ivanovna, turning to the reigning persons, say: “Sit down.” The Emperor looked around and, seeing that there was nowhere to sit, became embarrassed, and the blessed one said to them: “Sit on the floor.” (Remember that the sovereign was arrested at the Dno station!) Great humility - the sovereign and empress sank onto the carpet, otherwise they would not have been able to resist, overwhelmed by horror from what Paraskeva Ivanovna was telling them.
She told them everything that later came true, that is, she predicted the death of Russia, the dynasty, the defeat of the Church and a sea of blood. The conversation continued for a very long time. The Empress was close to fainting, finally she said: “I don’t believe you, this cannot be!” Then Paraskeva Ivanovna took a piece of red cloth from the bed and said: “This is for your little son’s pants, and when he is born, then you will believe what I told you about.” Praskovya Ivanovna had the custom of showing everything on dolls, and then she prepared a boy doll. She laid the scarves softly and high on him and laid him down. “Hush, hush - he’s sleeping...”
They say that after visiting Pasha Sarovskaya, Nicholas II began to consider himself doomed to the agony of the cross and later said more than once: “There is no sacrifice that I would not make to save Russia.” And the cell attendant, the only one who was present at the conversation, later said that the blessed one told the king: “Sovereign, come down from the throne yourself.” When Nikolai Alexandrovich was leaving, he said that Praskovya Ivanovna was a true servant of God. Everyone and everywhere accepted him as a king, she alone accepted him as a simple person.
Hegumen Seraphim Putyatin talks about this same event in his memoirs: “The great ascetic and seer, Praskovya Ivanovna Sarovskaya... predicted the storm approaching Russia. She placed portraits of the king, queen and family in the front corner with the icons and prayed to them along with the icons, crying 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 Diveyevo, and then went straight from the church to Elder Praskovya Ivanovna, staying with her for more than an hour, listening carefully to her menacing predictions, although expressed in parables, but her cell attendant and I all understood and understood well deciphered the unclear. She revealed a lot to me, which at that time I did not understand as I should have about 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.”
Blessed schema-nun Paraskeva died on September 22 (October 5), 1915 at the age of 120 years. Before her death, she kept bowing to the ground in front of the portrait of the king. She was no longer able to do it herself, and they lifted her up and down.
“Why are you praying to the Emperor like that, Mama?” - they asked her.
- Fools. “He will be taller than all the kings,” answered the schema-nun.
Blessed Pasha died hard and for a long time. Before her death, she was paralyzed and suffered greatly. Some were surprised: she was so devoted to God, and how hard it was to die. The nuns said that with these dying sufferings she redeemed the souls of her spiritual children from hell.
Pasha of Sarovskaya was buried at the altar of the Trinity Cathedral of the Diveyevo Monastery next to Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna.
Her memorial day is September 22 (October 5). People still revere this blessed one to this day and often turn to her with prayers.
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From the book Right-Flank Komsomol author author unknownPasha ANGELINA ...A thunderstorm raged over the village. They roll from one end to another, deafening rumbles of thunder, blinding lightning tear the low-hanging clouds to shreds. The steppe howls, groans and groans in different voices. The village seems to have died out. The shutters are tightly closed, the lights are turned off. Who will decide
From the book You Will Live [Collection] author Nagibin Yuri MarkovichPasha the Lion Story This pale red-haired thin boy with green eyes and a waxed hump of the nose, nervous, fragile with the formidable fragility of Mandelstam, grazing as if a pea was vibrating in his throat, successfully exists in his own world, where he spends
From the book What the Ears Whisper About author Borin Konstantin AlexandrovichKLASHA AND PASHA I left for study in late autumn, and returned on the eve of the harvest, when Shkurinskaya is usually empty and the elderly and young children remain in the village. All able-bodied collective farmers are moving to field camps during this time. I wanted to rest from the road, but I was drawn to
From the book I give that I remember author Vesnik Evgeniy YakovlevichPasha, Pavel Luspekayev The guns of the Great Patriotic War died down. I parted with my friends at the front, returned to theater school and became sad without my dear comrades in arms. It was difficult to get along with young people who had not smelled gunpowder, who had not known lethal
From the book Youth of the Century author Ravich Nikolay AlexandrovichJEMAL PASHA In Kabul there was a large group of Turkish officers under the leadership of Ahmed Dzhemal Pasha, the former minister of navy who commanded the Turkish army in Syria and the Arab East during the First World War. He was inspector general of the Afghan army and
From the book Time Taught Us author Razumovsky Lev SamsonovichKAZIM KARABEKIR PASHA The situation in the eastern provinces of Turkey was quite difficult at that time. In Kars there were representative offices of the Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani Soviet republics, subordinate to the Consulate General. But each of these republics had
From the book Ingenious Scams author Khvorostukhina Svetlana AlexandrovnaANGORA. MUSTAFA KEMAL PASHA From Constantinople to Angora I had to travel in a rather crappy train, crawling slowly past villages destroyed during the war and rare railway stations. In the compartment sat elderly, gloomy officials who were traveling on a call from a new
From the book The Magnificent Century. All the secrets of the famous series author Benoit SophiaPasha...The large room is completely filled with iron beds. Stifled spirit. The seriously wounded were fed sprats for one of their breakfasts, and now the whole ward is desperately carrying them, the nurses are unable to keep up with the vessels. The stretcher is brought in and taken out. The sound of crutches. Aluminum bowls with porridge. Bandages,
From the book by Meryem Uzerli. Actresses of "The Magnificent Century" author Benoit SophiaThe history of Count de Bonneval (Ahmet Pasha) Ahmet Pasha is known as a man who, already a mature man, converted to Islam, participated in many military campaigns and, in addition, in enterprises of dubious nature. Few people now know that this name
From the book Mickiewicz author Jastrun Mieczyslaw From the book Line of Great Travelers by Miller IanIbrahim Pasha is the favorite of the ruler. The Great Pasha, who captured the captive, decided to present her as a gift to his close friend, Sultan Suleiman. To be precise and talk about all the details of such transactions, it should be noted that such gifts are not
From the book Chekists [Collection] author Diaghilev VladimirPASHA Three exiled Poles covered a gigantic distance from north to south in a sleigh in a relatively short time. “The almost three-week journey,” wrote Malevsky, “did not leave behind any pleasant memories, but, incidentally, also unpleasant ones. It's here
From the author's bookEmin 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
Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, known as Irina, was born in 1795 in the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, Tambov province. Her parents, Ivan and Daria, were serfs. When the girl was seventeen years old, the gentlemen gave her in marriage to the peasant Fyodor. Irina became an exemplary wife and housewife, and her husband’s family loved her for her meek disposition, her hard work, because she prayed diligently at home and in church, avoided guests and society, and did not go out to village games. So they lived with their husband for fifteen years, but the Lord did not bless them with children. Eight years later, Irina’s husband died. And soon another misfortune befell - two canvases were discovered missing from the manor's house. The servants slandered Irina, showing that it was she who stole them. The soldiers, on the orders of the police officer, brutally tortured her, pierced her head, and tore her ears. Irina fled from her masters to Kyiv on a pilgrimage. Here, apparently, she took monastic vows into the schema.
The Kyiv shrines and the meeting with the elders completely changed her inner state - she now knew why and how to live. She now wanted only God to live in her heart - the only merciful Christ who loves everyone, the dispenser of all blessings. Unfairly punished, Irina felt with particular depth the indescribable depth of Christ’s suffering and His mercy.
A year and a half later, the police found her in Kyiv and sent her along to the gentlemen. The journey was painful and long, she had to experience hunger, cold, cruel treatment by escort soldiers, and the rudeness of male prisoners.
Irina served the masters for more than a year, but having come into contact with shrines and spiritual life, she fled again. A year later, the police found her again in Kyiv and escorted her along the stage. The gentlemen kicked her out into the street, naked and without a piece of bread. 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. She developed the habit of living all year round in the open air, enduring hunger, cold and heat. And then she went into the Sarov forests and lived here for more than two decades in a cave that she dug herself.
Before, Pasha had a surprisingly pleasant appearance. During her time living in the Sarov forest, her long asceticism and fasting, she became like Mary of Egypt: thin, blackened by the sun. Seeing her ascetic life, people began to turn to her for advice and asked her to pray. The enemy of the human race taught evil people to attack her and rob her. She was beaten, but she had no money. The blessed one was found lying in a pool of blood with a broken head. Since then, a headache and a tumor in the pit of her stomach tormented her constantly.
Six years before the death of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, Pasha came to the monastery with a doll, and then with many dolls: she nursed them, looked after them, called them children. Now she lived in the monastery for several weeks, and then months. And after the death of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, Pasha completely moved to the monastery.
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 that is why its yarn was so valued in the monastery; belts and rosaries were made from it. She referred to knitting stockings in an allegorical sense as an exercise in the unceasing Jesus Prayer. So, one day a visitor approached her with the idea of whether he should move closer to Diveev. 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.
She prayed her own prayers, but knew some by heart. She called the Mother of God “Mama behind the glass.” Sometimes she stopped, rooted to the spot, in front of the image and prayed or knelt down anywhere - in the field, in the upper room, in the middle of the street, and prayed earnestly with tears.
Schema-Archimandrite Barsanuphius of Optina was transferred from Optina Hermitage and appointed abbot of the Golutvin Monastery. Having become seriously ill, he wrote a letter to Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna, whom he visited and had great faith in. This letter was brought by Raphael's mother. When the blessed one listened to the letter, she only said: “365.” Exactly 365 days later, the elder died. This was also confirmed by the elder’s cell attendant, in whose presence the blessed woman’s answer was received.
On the days of glorification of St. Seraphim Diveevo was visited by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. They visited Blessed Paraskeva Ivanovna, who predicted the birth of an heir and the fall of the autocracy. The king said that she was a great servant of God.
Praskovya Ivanovna died on September 22/October 5, 1915 at the age of about 120 years. The blessed one died hard and for a long time. It was revealed to one of the sisters that with these dying sufferings she was redeeming the souls of her spiritual children from hell. This is how S. A. Nilus describes his last meeting with her in the summer of 1915: “When we entered the blessed woman’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 eyes of Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir in Vasnetsov’s depiction of the Kiev-Vladimir Cathedral.”
The Blessed One was buried at the altar of the Trinity Cathedral. On the walls and lids of Paraskeva Ivanovna’s coffin it was written: “My spiritual brothers and sisters, do not forget me when you pray, but when you see my coffin, remember my love and pray to Christ that my spirit may make peace with the righteous.” And - Trisagion.
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.
Greatness
We bless you, our blessed holy mothers Pelagie, Paraskeva and Mary, and honor your holy memory, for you pray for us to Christ our GodIcon of the blessed saints of Diveyevo Pelagia, Paraskeva, Mary. Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Monastery
In the world she was a serf peasant, modest, hardworking, widowed early. Blessed Pasha of Sarov (in the world - Irina) was born in 1795 in the village of Nikolskoye, Spassky district, Tambov province, into the family of the serf peasant Ivan and his wife Daria, who had three sons and two daughters. One of the daughters was called Irina, the current Pasha. The gentlemen gave her at the age of seventeen, against her will and desire, to marry the peasant Theodore. Irina lived well with her husband, in harmony, loving each other, and her husband’s relatives loved her for her meek disposition and hard work, she loved church services, prayed fervently, avoided guests, society, and did not go to village games. Fifteen years passed, and the Lord did not bless them with children. The Bulygin landowners sold Irina and her husband to the Schmidts in the village of Surkot.
Five years after this resettlement, Irina’s husband fell ill with consumption and died. The Schmidts tried to marry Irina a second time, but when they heard the words: “Even if you kill me, I won’t marry again,” they decided to leave her at home. Irina did not have to work as a housekeeper for long; after a year and a half, trouble struck the Schmidt estate, the theft of two canvases was discovered... The servants revealed that Irina had stolen them. The policeman arrived with his soldiers, and the landowners begged him to punish the culprit. the soldiers brutally beat her, tortured her, pierced her head, tore her ears... Irina continued to say that she did not take the canvases. Then the gentlemen called a local fortune teller, who said that it was really Irina who stole the canvases, but not this one, and lowered them into the water, that is, into the river. Based on the words, fortune tellers began to look for canvases in the river and found them.
After the torture she suffered, innocent Irina was not able to live with the “non-Christ” gentlemen and one fine day she left. The landowner filed a missing person report. A year and a half later, she was found in Kyiv, where she arrived in the name of Christ on a pilgrimage. They grabbed the unfortunate Irina, put her in prison and then, of course, slowly, escorted her to the landowner. One can imagine what she experienced in prison, sitting with the prisoners, tormented by hunger and the treatment of the guard soldiers! The landowners, feeling their guilt and how cruelly they treated her, forgave Irina, wanting to use her services again. The Lord made Irina a gardener, and for more than a year she served them with faith and truth, but as a result of the suffering and injustice she experienced, and thanks to communication with the Kyiv ascetics, an internal change occurred in her. A year later she was found again in Kyiv and arrested. Again she had to endure the suffering of the prison, a return to the landowners, and finally, to top off all the trials, the gentlemen did not accept her and kicked her out, naked, without a piece of bread, onto the streets of the village. Going to Kyiv, of course, was unbearable and even useless in a spiritual sense; undoubtedly, the spiritual fathers blessed her for foolishness for the sake of Christ, and she took secret tonsure in Kyiv with the name Paraskeva, which is why she began to call herself Pasha. For five years she wandered around the village like a madwoman, serving as a laughing stock not only to the children, but to all the peasants. Here she developed the habit of living all four seasons in the air, starving, enduring the cold, and then disappeared.
She stayed in the Sarov Forest, according to the testimony of monastics in the desert, for about 30 years; lived in a cave that she dug for herself. She went from time to time to Sarov, to Diveevo, and she was more often seen at the Sarov mill, where she came to work for the monks living there.
She always had a surprisingly pleasant appearance. During her life in the Sarov Forest, her long asceticism and fasting, Pasha looked like Mary of Egypt. Thin, tall, completely sunburnt and literally black, scary, she wore short hair at that time, since everyone was amazed at her long hair that reached the ground, which gave her beauty, which now bothered her in the forest and did not correspond to her secret tonsure. Barefoot, wearing a man's monastic shirt, a scroll unbuttoned on her 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. Four years before moving to the Diveyevo monastery, she temporarily lived in one of the villages. She was already considered blessed then, and with her insight she earned universal respect and love. Peasants and wanderers gave her money, asking for her prayers, and the primordial enemy of all that is good and good in humanity inspired the robbers to attack her and rob non-existent wealth, which made her suffering like to the suffering of Father Fr. Seraphim. The villains beat her half to death, and blessed Pasha was found covered in blood. She was sick for a whole year after that and never recovered at all. The pain of a broken head and a swelling in the pit of her stomach torment her constantly, although she, apparently, does not pay any attention and only occasionally says to herself: “Oh, mummy, how it hurts here! No matter what you do, Mama, it won’t go down in the pit of your stomach.”
Already living in Diveyevo, in the fall of 1884 she walked past the fence of the cemetery Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and, hitting a fence post with a stick, said: “As soon as I knock down this post, they will go to die, just have time to dig graves.” These words soon came true: as the pillar fell - blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, the priest Felixov died after her, then so many nuns that the Magpies did not stop for a whole year, and it happened that two were buried at once.
She wandered for many years, acting like a fool, before moving to the Sarov Forest. Contemporaries noted that the appearance of Blessed Pasha of Sarov changed depending on her mood; she was either overly strict, angry and menacing, or affectionate and kind:
“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 just an outer shell that deliberately hides humility, meekness, love and compassion."
The blessed one spent all nights in prayer, and during the day after church services she reaped grass with a sickle, knitted stockings and did other work, constantly saying the Jesus Prayer. Every year the number of sufferers who turned to her for advice and requests to pray for them increased.
After the death of Diveyevo’s blessed Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrennikova in 1884, Pasha remained in the monastery until the end of her days and for 31 years continued their common purpose: to save the souls of monastics from the onslaught of the enemy of humanity, from temptations and passions known to them by insight.
It is impossible to collect and describe cases of blessed Pasha’s clairvoyance. So, one day she got up in the morning all upset, in the afternoon a visiting gentleman came up to her, said hello and wanted to talk, but Praskovya Ivanovna screamed and waved her hands: “Go away, go away!” Don't you see, devil! They chopped off the gov with an ax!” The visitor was frightened and walked away, not understanding anything, but soon the bell was rung, announcing that a nun had now died in the hospital during an attack of epilepsy; then the words of blessed Pasha became clear.
It is also known that in 1903, during the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov, she was visited by the most august persons - Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The blessed one predicted for them the imminent birth of the long-awaited Heir, as well as the death of Russia and the royal dynasty, the defeat of the Church and a sea of blood, after which the Tsar more than once turned to the predictions of Paraskeva Ivanovna, sending the Grand Dukes to her from time to time for advice. Shortly before her death, the blessed one often prayed in front of the portrait of the Emperor, foreseeing his imminent martyrdom.
Blessed schema-nun Paraskeva died at the age of 120. The grave of Paraskeva Ivanovna is located at the altar of the Trinity Cathedral.
Before her death, Blessed Paraskeva blessed her successor, Blessed Maria Ivanovna, to live in the Diveyevo monastery.
