About holy people - Fools for Christ's sake. Fool for Christ's sake - what does it mean?

THE JURODYS - ascetics Orthodox Church who took upon themselves the feat of foolishness, that is, external, apparent madness. The basis for the feat of foolishness was the words of the Apostle Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (), “For when the world in its wisdom did not know God in the wisdom of God, then it was pleasing to God to save the believers through the foolishness of preaching" (), "and we preach Christ crucified, a temptation for the Jews, and foolishness for the Greeks" (), "If any of you thinks to be wise in this age, then be foolish in order to be wise " ().

Fools for the sake of Christ refused not only all the benefits and comforts of earthly life, but also often the generally accepted norms of behavior in society. In winter and summer they walked barefoot, and many without clothes at all. Fools often violated the requirements of morality, if you look at it as the fulfillment of certain ethical standards. Many of the holy fools, possessing the gift of clairvoyance, accepted the feat of foolishness out of a sense of deeply developed humility, so that people would attribute their clairvoyance not to them, but to God. Therefore, they often spoke using seemingly incoherent forms, hints, and allegories. Others acted like fools in order to suffer humiliation and disgrace for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were also such holy fools, popularly called blessed, who did not take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, but actually gave the impression of being weak-minded due to their childishness that remained throughout their lives.

If we combine the motives that prompted the ascetics to take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, we can distinguish three main points. The trampling of vanity, which is very possible when performing a monastic ascetic feat. Emphasizing the contradiction between the truth in Christ and so-called common sense and standards of behavior. Serving Christ in a kind of preaching, not in word or deed, but in the power of the spirit, clothed in an outwardly poor form.

The feat of foolishness is specifically Orthodox. The Catholic and Protestant West does not know such a form of asceticism.

The holy fools were mostly laymen, but we can also name a few holy fools - monks. Among them is Saint Isidora, the first holy fool († 365), nun of the Tavensky monastery; Saint Simeon, Saint Thomas.

The most famous of the holy fools was Saint Andrew. The holiday of the Intercession is associated with his name Holy Mother of God. This holiday was established in memory of an event that took place in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century. The city was in danger from the Saracens, but one day the holy fool Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius, praying during an all-night vigil in the Blachernae Church, saw in the air the Most Holy Virgin Mary with a host of saints, spreading her omophorion (veil) over the Christians. Encouraged by this vision, the Byzantines repelled the Saracens.

Foolishness for Christ's sake was especially widespread and revered by the people in Rus'. Its heyday falls on the 16th century: in the 14th century there were four revered Russian Yu., in the 15th - eleven, in the 16th - fourteen, in the 17th - seven.

The feat of foolishness is one of the hardest feats that individuals took upon themselves in the name of Christ for the sake of saving their souls and serving their neighbors with the goal of their moral awakening.

IN Kievan Rus There has not yet been a feat of Christ’s foolishness for the sake of it as such. Although some saints in in a certain sense and they practiced foolishness for a certain time, but it was rather asceticism, which at times took forms very similar to foolishness.

The first holy fool in the full sense of the word in Rus' was Procopius of Ustyug († 1302). Procopius, according to his life, was a rich merchant from his youth “from Western countries, from the Latin language, from the German land." In Novgorod, he was captivated by the beauty of Orthodox worship. Having accepted Orthodoxy, he distributes his property to the poor, “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life and turns into violence.” When they began to please him in Novgorod, he left Novgorod and headed “to eastern countries", walked through cities and villages, impenetrable forests and swamps, thanks to his foolishness he accepted beatings and insults, but prayed for his offenders. Righteous Procopius, for Christ's sake, chose the city of Ustyug, “great and glorious,” for his residence. he led a life so severe that extremely ascetic monastic deeds could not be compared with it. The holy fool slept under open air“on the rot” naked, later on the porch of the cathedral church, he prayed at night for the benefit of “the city and the people.” He ate, receiving an incredibly limited amount of food from people, but never took anything from the rich.

The fact that the first Russian holy fool arrived in Ustyug from Novgorod is deeply symptomatic. Novgorod was truly the birthplace of Russian foolishness. All famous Russian holy fools of the 14th century are connected in one way or another with Novgorod.

Here the holy fool Nikolai (Kochanov) and Fyodor “raged” in the 14th century. They staged ostentatious fights among themselves, and none of the spectators had any doubt that they were parodying the bloody clashes of the Novgorod parties. Nikola lived on the Sofia side, and Fyodor lived on the Torgovaya side. They quarreled and threw themselves at each other across the Volkhov. When one of them tried to cross the river on the bridge, the other drove him back, shouting: “Don’t go to my side, live on yours.” Tradition adds that often after such clashes the blessed ones often returned not over the bridge, but over the water, as if on dry land.

In the Klopsky Trinity Monastery, the Monk Michael labored, revered by the people as a holy fool, although in his lives (three editions) we do not find typical features of foolishness. The Monk Michael was a seer; his life contains numerous prophecies, apparently recorded by the monks of the Klop Monastery.

Saint Michael's foresight was expressed, in particular, in indicating the place to dig a well, in predicting an imminent famine, and the elder asked to feed the hungry with monastic rye, in predicting illness for the mayor who infringed on the monks, and death for Prince Shemyaka. Predicting Shemyaka, reverend elder strokes his head, and, promising Bishop Euthymius consecration in Lithuania, takes the “fly” from his hands and places it on his head.

St. Michael, like many other saints, had a special connection with our “lesser brothers.” He walks behind the abbot’s coffin, accompanied by a deer, feeding it moss from his hands. At the same time, possessing the high gift of Christ's love for neighbors and even for creatures, the elder sternly denounced the powers that be.

A contemporary of St. Michael of Rostov, the holy fool Isidore († 1474) lives in a swamp, plays the holy fool during the day, and prays at night. They will choke him and laugh at him, despite the miracles and predictions that earned him the nickname “Tverdislov”. And this holy fool, like the righteous Procopius of Ustyug, “is from Western countries, of the Roman race, of the German language.” In the same way, another Rostov holy fool, John the Vlasaty († 1581), was an alien from the West. The foreign-language origin of the three Russian holy fools testifies that they were so deeply captivated by Orthodoxy that they chose a specifically Orthodox form of asceticism.

The first Moscow holy fool was Blessed Maxim († 14ЗЗ), canonized at the Council of 1547. Unfortunately, the life of Blessed Maxim has not survived,

In the 16th century, St. Basil the Blessed and John the Great Cap enjoyed universal fame in Moscow. In addition to the life of Saint Basil, the people's memory has also preserved the legend about him.

According to legend, St. Basil the Blessed was apprenticed to a shoemaker as a child and then already showed insight, laughing and shedding tears at the merchant who ordered boots for himself. It was revealed to Vasily that the merchant was expecting near death. After leaving the shoemaker, Vasily led a wandering life in Moscow, walking without clothes and spending the night with a boyar widow. Vasily's foolishness is characterized by denunciation of social injustice and the sins of various classes. One day he destroyed goods in the market, punishing unscrupulous traders. All of him that seemed to the eye ordinary person incomprehensible and even absurd, actions had a secret wise sense seeing the world with spiritual eyes. Vasily throws stones at the houses of virtuous people and kisses the walls of houses where “blasphemy” took place, since in the former there are exorcised demons hanging outside, while in the latter, Angels are crying. He gives the gold donated by the tsar not to the beggars, but to the merchant, because Vasily’s perspicacious gaze knows that the merchant has lost all his fortune, and is ashamed to ask for alms. Yu pours the drink served by the tsar out the window to put out a fire in distant Novgorod.

St. Basil was distinguished by a special gift for revealing the demon in any guise and pursuing him everywhere. So, he recognized a demon in a beggar who collected a lot of money and, as a reward for alms, gave people “temporary happiness.”

At the height of the oprichnina, he was not afraid to expose the formidable Tsar Ivan IV, for which he enjoyed enormous moral authority among the people. The description of Basil the Blessed’s denunciation of the Tsar during a mass execution in Moscow is interesting. The saint denounces the king in the presence of a huge crowd of people. The people, who were silent during the execution of the boyars, at the same time when the angry tsar was preparing to pierce the holy fool with a spear, murmured: “Don’t touch him!.. don’t touch the blessed one! You are free in our heads, but don’t touch the blessed one!” Ivan the Terrible was forced to restrain himself and retreat. Vasily was buried in the Intercession Cathedral on Red Square, which in the minds of the people was forever associated with his name.

John the Big Cap labored in Moscow under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. In Moscow he was an alien. Originally from the Vologda region, he worked as a water carrier in the northern saltworks. Having abandoned everything and moved to Rostov the Great, John built himself a cell near the church, covered his body with chains and heavy rings, and when going out into the street, he always put on a cap, which is why he received his nickname. John could look at the sun for hours - it was his favorite hobby- thinking about the “righteous sun”. The children laughed at him, but he was not angry with them. The holy fool always smiled, and with a smile he prophesied the future. Shortly before, John moved to Moscow. It is known that he died in a movnitsa (bathhouse); he was buried in the same Intercession Cathedral in which Vasily was buried. During the burial of the blessed one, a terrible thunderstorm arose, from which many suffered.

In the 16th century, denunciation of kings and boyars became an integral part of foolishness. Vivid evidence of such exposure is provided by the chronicle of the conversation between the Pskov holy fool Nikola and Ivan the Terrible. In 1570, Pskov was threatened with the fate of Novgorod, when the holy fool, together with the governor Yuri Tokmakov, suggested that the Pskovites set up tables with bread and salt on the streets and greet the Moscow Tsar with bows. When, after the prayer service, the tsar approached Saint Nicholas for a blessing, he taught him “terrible words to stop the great bloodshed.” When John, despite the admonition, ordered the bell to be removed from the Holy Trinity, then at the same hour his best horse fell, according to the prophecy of the saint. The surviving legend tells that Nikola placed raw meat in front of the king and offered to eat it, when the king refused, saying “I am a Christian, and I don’t eat meat during Lent,” Nikola answered him: “Do you drink Christian blood?”

The holy fools of foreign travelers who were in Moscow at that time were very amazed. Fletcher writes in 1588:

“In addition to monks, the Russian people especially honor the blessed (fools), and here’s why: the blessed... point out the shortcomings of the nobles, which no one else dares to talk about. But sometimes it happens that for such daring freedom that they allow themselves, they also get rid of them, as was the case with one or two in the previous reign, because they had already too boldly denounced the rule of the tsar.” Fletcher reports about St. Basil that “he decided to reproach the late king for cruelty.” Herberstein also writes about the enormous respect the Russian people have for holy fools: “They were revered as prophets: those who were clearly convicted by them said: this is because of my sins. If they took anything from the shop, the merchants also thanked them.”

According to the testimony of foreigners, holy fools. there were a lot of them in Moscow; they essentially constituted a kind of separate order. A very small part of them were canonized. There are still deeply revered, although uncanonized, local holy fools.

Thus, foolishness in Rus' for the most part is not a feat of humility, but a form of prophetic service combined with extreme asceticism. The holy fools exposed sins and injustice, and thus it was not the world that laughed at the Russian holy fools, but the holy fools who laughed at the world. In the XIV-XVI centuries, Russian holy fools were the embodiment of the conscience of the people.

The veneration of holy fools by the people led, starting from the 17th century, to the appearance of many false holy fools who pursued their own selfish goals. It also happened that simply mentally ill people were mistaken for holy fools. Therefore, I always approached the canonization of holy fools very carefully.

You probably won’t learn about modern holy fools either from a guide accompanying a tourist group or from a glossy guidebook. However, there are still holy fools in our country. Moreover, some of them not only live well, but also prosper. If previously madmen, as a rule, predicted the coming of the Antichrist and the birth of people with dog heads, now they wander through cities and villages, paint the faces of saints, give lectures on the international situation, and sometimes write songs for famous musicians.

What is known about the people from whose midst many revered saints emerged? It is known that in Rus' at least 10 holy fools were canonized in the 14th-16th centuries alone. Let us at least remember Vaska Nagogo, who, according to legend, denounced Ivan the Terrible and predicted the capture of Kazan. When the blessed one died, the metropolitan himself performed his funeral service. In his honor, popular rumor renamed the Intercession Cathedral on Red Square into St. Basil's Cathedral.

But the blessed ones are very heterogeneous social group. Among them there are “philistines” and “artists”, “politicians” and even “businessmen”.

Today, the Versiya newspaper tried to figure out who they are - these blessed ones, kaliki, eccentrics and fools who gave the cities a special “Old Russian” charm.

Sema the book lover found printed materials at the city dump

So, there was once such an old man - Pinya. He acted as a fool mainly on the streets of Samara, although he wandered as far as Kazan and Moscow. Pinya was once a talented jeweler, then he went crazy and went traveling with a homemade canvas bag. One obsessive thought lingered in his head: that he, Pinya, was a goldsmith. For more than half a century, roaming the streets of cities, the holy fool collected pebbles and put them in his bag and pockets. Sometimes the stones fell apart - then the former jeweler cried with grief. Having collected enough “goods”, Pinya laid out the “jewels” on a rag and began to trade. Bent over, with a sad nose and a bird's head, he waved his arms, caught imaginary customers by the floor and whispered something convincingly under his breath. And even now you can hear from Samara residents: “You are behaving like Pinya!”

Blessed Lipetsk Sema the book lover was no stranger to the spirit of commerce. He found printed materials at the city dump. The room that Syoma shared with his mother was littered with books and magazines. He carefully washed and dried some and prepared them for sale. He could “trade” in front of city schools for days on end, shifting his blurry books and enduring ridicule and kicks from high school students. As a child, Sam was injured by his alcoholic father - he damaged the boy's spine - so that he walked sideways, and a hump grew on his back.

It should be noted that not every holy fool businessman is pathetic and defenseless. For example, Penza taxi driver Voldemar made a very successful living. In the evenings, the holy fool would lie in wait for late-arriving citizens and force them to ride a broom with him for several blocks. Having taken him to his destination, Voldemar never forgot to demand payment from the exhausted women for travel.

The blessed Saratov wrote songs for Alena Apina

A distinctive feature of modern holy fools is a passion for dressing up. Thus, Volgograd fools Andryusha and Seryozha are a gifted generation of urban eccentric artists. The boys wear law enforcement and soldier uniforms. The benefit of this goodness is in abundance in Russian families and they are willing to share it with the poor. Mummers perform antics on the central streets of the city, either depicting battle scenes from the life of samurai, or performing homemade songs. For example, when begging for alms, they whistle on an empty beer can: “Give for us, give for you, and for the special forces, and for Hamas, and for Gorgaz, and for KamAZ, and for the frost, and for Davos!” And they are given it.

One of the most talented blessed people of our time should also be recognized as the well-known Saratov poet Yura Druzhkov, the author of all the hit songs of the “Combination” group. Thanks to his texts, Alena Apina and others like her rose to the heights of fame and prosperity. Yura wrote poems with multi-colored felt-tip pens on scraps of paper, carefully drawing out curlicues. It was with pleasure that I gave verses to those who met me and those who crossed me. He did not receive a penny for his songs, he wandered the streets of his native Saratov in disarray, for which he was beaten more than once. A month ago Yura was found stabbed to death in own apartment.

King Apricot talks about a supernova explosion

Russian foolishness has always been highly politicized. The blessed one could say to the face of the boyars and tsars something for which an ordinary person would have his head screwed off. For example, it is known from history that one of the Moscow holy fools, Ivan the Great Kolpak, incited the people against Tsar Boris Godunov. Madmen boldly pointed out the sins of the nobility and predicted political changes. The prophecies of holy fools in the old days were valued more than the current forecasts of German Gref.

In the same Penza, in one of the pubs you can hear the loud voice of a decently dressed man in a hat and tie. The “King of Political Science,” a blessed man with the strange nickname Apricot, gives beer lectures to visitors about the international situation, rogue oligarchs, the confrontation between Western and Eastern civilizations, and the explosion of a supernova in the center of the Universe. For a variety of knowledge, the lecturer is awarded a “foam”. Despite the broad theme of his speeches, the abundance of quotes, versions and counter-versions, Apricot ends his speeches equally sadly: “Stupid Russia, fucking country!”

And, of course, politically concerned crazy people can be found at any more or less significant meeting, regardless of the color of the banners that are raised there.

The foolish Natalya dreams of marrying a colonel

Among the blessed there are also their own, so to speak, “philistines” - people who do not strive for a political or artistic career, or for wealth. This includes, for example, Lida Kazanskaya. In her youth, she was a model, considered herself to be among the cultural elite, and wore a fashionable Parisian coat with a muff. What happened to her is unknown, but the lady quickly became poor and went crazy. With her hands covered with scabs, she proudly strides along the pavement - in her unchanged Parisian coat, which has long since turned into rags. And everything is muttering in French. The aristocracy does not allow her to beg. She does not take the clothes that people give her out of pity. Disdainful.

Another famous city madman is Tyumen Lesha the bathhouse attendant. He is in excellent health and returns home from the bathhouse in wet clothes in any weather. Lesha hates it when people touch him - he frantically rubs the “stained” area with a washcloth. Jokers often take advantage of this: they casually touch a madman, forcing him to scrub himself in a soap bar for hours. Lesha is most afraid of rats. The city punks are tailing him, bawling: “Lekha, a rat got into your pants!” The holy fool spins around, hits himself on the thighs and shakes his finger at the hooligans.

Other holy fools seek family happiness in their own way. So, in the area of the Volgograd factory "Aora" you can meet a girl of gigantic height, a real grenadier in a skirt, who, with joyful cries, rushes at unknown men. Red-haired Natalya squeezes passers-by in her steel embrace, which is not easy to free herself from. The fact is that Natalya dreams of marrying a colonel and is persistently looking for her betrothed. However, in all other respects she is a completely harmless girl.

The wanderer Martha wanted to go around all the famous holy places of Russia

Finally, the most numerous category of Russian blessed are the directly wretched, that is, eternal pilgrims, cliques and near-temple madmen. This is, for example, the pilgrim Marfa the photographer, whom the Versiya correspondent managed to meet in Saratov. Martha collects memorial notes from parishioners and distributes them throughout famous monasteries. In some villages she is considered almost a saint: mothers think that if this holy fool caresses a child in a cradle, he will certainly recover.

Martha gave the impression of an ordinary grandmother, but she did not look directly, but from the side, tilting her head to the side. Her feet were completely black and bare in the cold.

I go to holy monasteries. “I was in the Kyiv Lavra, in the Optina Hermitage, in Diveevo,” the wanderer intoned. - I go without food, sometimes I eat potatoes from the gardens, sunflowers by the road. And I drink water from marsh, lake and herbal dew. The cross must be lowered into the puddle and crossed three times, with prayer, then there will be no loss to health. I walk with a staff and sing the Jesus Prayer.

If in the villages they are not invited into the house, the wanderer spends the night in bathhouses or in haystacks, or even right in the field. Martha also has a goal: she hopes to go around all the famous holy places in Russia and photograph some kind of miracle in each. She found her device, a cheap soap dish, broken on the sidewalk and does not suspect that it at least needs film. Her friend, pilgrim Alexey, wanders with her. “We went to Sarov together,” the blessed one said willingly. “He bathes in anthills, but he eats like a horror! He grabs a little roll and, holding it in his teeth, plucks and marks up the whole roll, and what’s in his mouth is food for him.” ". He is a "Jerusalemite", carries with him slivers from the Holy Sepulcher and pieces from the ladder that Jacob saw in a dream. He also has vials, he shows them to everyone and assures that there is Egyptian Darkness there. Completely touched."

Once the holy fool was beaten and the homeless wanted to rob her, but they found nothing in her knapsack except funeral notes.

But last year Tver lost its most beloved holy fool - Stepanych, whom many called the symbol of this city. At night the blessed one huddled in the gatehouse of the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary, and during the day he drew with chalk on the asphalt, on the embankment of the Tmaka River. He painted colorful temples and faces of saints. People who knew him spoke of him as a touching and defenseless person; they believed that this grandfather was not a simple beggar, but a saint. At the same time, Stepanych was repeatedly attacked by aggressive teenagers who beat the old man and took away money and crayons given by people.

When people approached Stepanych and admired his drawings, he blossomed. He said: “Look, how the churches are burning, people like it! I treat everyone well, I don’t divide by faith, for me there are neither Muslims nor Jews, because God is one...” Clergymen and city officials came to talk with the blessed one.

Last summer, the artist was beaten and stabbed to death by tramps. Thus Tver lost its blessed one. The poor man was buried with money collected by the parishioners of the Intercession Church.

Most of the holy fools - all these "traffic cops", "taxi drivers" and "book lovers" - go quietly, as if to nowhere, and people don’t even notice it. After all, as popular wisdom says: Rus' has fools in reserve for the next 100 years.

One of the most famous university professors, giving his lectures on theology, noted, not without irony, that such concepts as “sin” or “demon” cause confusion among the educated public - so use them directly, without cultural reservations, in a serious conversation with intelligent people it is almost impossible. And he told the following anecdote: a certain missionary, giving a sermon at a technical university, was forced to answer the question of how a person first thinks about a crime. Trying to speak to the audience in their language, he formulated the following phrase: “The thought of a crime telepathically broadcasts to a person a transcendental-noumenal totalitarian-personalized cosmic evil.” Then the head of an astonished demon pokes out from under the pulpit: “What did you call me?”

The point is that truth is not afraid of controversy. Truth cannot be destroyed. That's why the world came up effective method her recycle- like some dangerous radioactive material that is sealed in an impenetrable lead container and buried in a remote wasteland. At first, the truths obtained by great minds in a painful struggle become familiar and commonplace. What was a long-awaited trophy for fathers becomes a toy for children, like grandfather’s medals and order bars. People get used to treating truths as something taken for granted. Then the familiar becomes banal and they try to get rid of it through cynicism, irony and quotation marks. “No, brother, this is all licentiousness, emptiness! - says Turgenev's Bazarov. - And what is this mysterious relationship between a man and a woman? We physiologists know what this relationship is. Study the anatomy of the eye: where does that mysterious look come from, as you say? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art.” Ultimately, the ridiculed and caricatured truth under the guise of folklore is generally removed from the discursive field. Good and evil begin to be associated exclusively with the “hut on chicken legs”, and such things as heroism and betrayal without quotes are preserved only in children’s everyday life - along with “woman” and “good fairy”.

"Christians believe that Jesus is from Nazareth, supposedly in one word he healed the sick and supposedly raised the dead supposedly and He Himself rose again on the third day after death.” Only in this way, in a straitjacket of quotation marks, surrounded by word-orderlies, can the Gospel Truth enter the “enlightened” assembly of secular people.

The proud mind is unable to make Truth even the subject of criticism. "What is truth?" - the Jewish procurator asks ironically and, without waiting for an answer, passes by the One Who Himself is Truth and Life.

This process is sensitively reflected in the literature. In the preface to the collection “Russian Flowers of Evil,” Viktor Erofeev traces the paths of the Russian literary tradition, noting that in the new and modern period“a well-guarded classical literature a wall... between positive and negative heroes... Any feeling not touched by evil is called into question. There is a flirtation with evil, many leading writers either look at evil, bewitched by its power and artistry, or become his hostages... Beauty is replaced by expressive pictures of ugliness. The aesthetics of outrageousness and shock are developing, and interest in the “dirty” word and swearing as a detonator of the text is intensifying. New literature oscillates between “black” despair and completely cynical indifference. Today we are observing a completely logical result: the ontological market of evil is overstocked, the glass is filled to the brim with black liquid. What's next?"

“I will not raise my hand against my brother,” said the great Russian saints Boris and Gleb. In culture feudal fragmentation"brother" is a synonym for the word "competitor". This is the one who makes you have less land and power. Killing a brother is the same as defeating a competitor - a deed worthy of a real prince, evidence of his superhuman nature and the usual image of courage. The holy words of Boris, when first heard in Russian culture, undoubtedly seemed like the mysterious delirium of a holy fool.

Foolishness is considered to be a specific form of Christian holiness. However, ancient Greek philosophers often resorted to this means of returning truths from the “cultural archive.” Antisthenes advised the Athenians to adopt a decree: “Consider donkeys as horses.” When this was considered absurd, he remarked: “After all, by simple voting you make commanders out of ignorant people. When he was once praised by bad people, he said: “I’m afraid I’ve done something bad?”

When one depraved official wrote on his door: “Let nothing evil enter here,” Diogenes asked: “But how can the owner himself enter the house?” Some time later, he noticed a sign on the same house: “For sale.” “I knew,” said the philosopher, “that after so many drinking sessions it would not be difficult for him to vomit his owner.”

Shem, treasurer of the tyrant Dionysius, was a disgusting man. One day he proudly showed Aristippus his new house. Looking around the magnificent rooms with mosaic floors, Aristippus cleared his throat and spat in the owner’s face, and in response to his rage said: “There was no more suitable place anywhere.”

Foolishness, among other things, makes a person marginal and therefore can be a very effective cure against vanity. False honor encourages us to appear better to people than we are. That is why it turns out to be more difficult to talk about your sin in confession than to commit it. In this case, we can be helped by the example of the sages and saints who fulfilled the words of Christ: “When you are invited by someone to a marriage, do not sit in the first place, lest one of those invited by him be more honorable than you, and the one who invited you and him, coming up, does not say I wish you: give him a place; and then with shame you will have to take the last place. But when you are called, when you arrive, sit in the last place, so that the one who called you will come up and say: friend! sit higher; Then you will be honored before those who sit with you, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

A holy fool is an ascetic of the Orthodox Church who took upon himself the feat of foolishness, that is, external, apparent madness. The basis for the feat of foolishness was the words of the Apostle from the first letter to the Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18), “For when the world in its wisdom did not know God in the wisdom of God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21), "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks" (1 Cor. 1:23), "If any of you thinks to be wise in this age, then be foolish in order to be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18).

For the sake of Christ, the fool for Christ refused not only all the benefits and conveniences of earthly life, but also often the generally accepted norms of behavior in society. In winter and summer, holy fools walked barefoot, and many without clothes at all. Fools often violated the requirements of morality, if you look at it as the fulfillment of certain ethical standards. Many of the holy fools, possessing the gift of clairvoyance, accepted the feat of foolishness out of a sense of deeply developed humility, so that people would attribute their clairvoyance not to them, but to God. Therefore, they often spoke using seemingly incoherent forms, hints, and allegories. Others acted like fools in order to suffer humiliation and disgrace for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were also such holy fools, popularly called blessed, who did not take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, but actually gave the impression of being weak-minded due to their childishness that remained throughout their lives.

If we combine the motives that prompted the ascetics to take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, we can distinguish three main points. Trampling on vanity, which is very possible when performing a monastic ascetic feat. Emphasizing the contradiction between the truth in Christ and so-called common sense and standards of behavior. Serving Christ in a kind of preaching, not in word or deed, but in the power of the spirit, clothed in an outwardly poor form.

The feat of foolishness is specifically Orthodox. The Catholic and Protestant West does not know such a form of asceticism.

The most famous of the holy fools was Saint Andrew for Christ's sake, the holy fool. The Feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is associated with his name. This holiday was established in memory of an event that took place in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century. The city was in danger from the Saracens, but one day the holy fool Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius, praying during an all-night vigil in the Blachernae Church, saw the Most Holy Virgin Mary in the air with a host of saints, spreading her omophorion (veil) over the Christians. Encouraged by this vision, the Byzantines repelled the Saracens.

Foolishness for Christ's sake was especially widespread and revered by the people in Rus'. Its heyday falls in the 16th century: in the 14th century there were four revered Russian Fools, in the 15th there were eleven, in the 16th there were fourteen, in the 17th there were seven.

In Kievan Rus there has not yet been a feat of foolishness for the sake of Christ as such. Although individual saints, in a certain sense, practiced foolishness for a certain time, it was rather asceticism, which at times took forms very similar to foolishness.

The first holy fool in the full sense of the word in Rus' was Procopius of Ustyug († 1302). Procopius, according to his life, from his youth was a rich merchant “from Western countries, from the Latin language, from the German land.” In Novgorod, he was captivated by the beauty of Orthodox worship. Having accepted Orthodoxy, he distributes his property to the poor, “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life and turns into violence.” When they began to please him in Novgorod, he left Novgorod, headed “to the eastern countries,” walked through cities and villages, impenetrable forests and swamps, accepted beatings and insults thanks to his foolishness, but prayed for his offenders. The righteous Procopius, a holy fool for Christ's sake, chose for his residence the city of Ustyug, “great and glorious.” He led a life so harsh that his extremely ascetic monastic deeds could not be compared with it. For the sake of Christ, the Fool for Christ slept in the open air “on a rotting spot” naked, later on the porch of the cathedral church, and prayed at night for the benefit of “the city and the people.” He ate, receiving an incredibly limited amount of food from people, but never took anything from the rich.

Here, in the 14th century, the holy fool Nikolai (Kochanov) and Fyodor “raged” for Christ’s sake. They staged ostentatious fights among themselves, and none of the spectators had any doubt that they were parodying the bloody clashes of the Novgorod parties. Nikola lived on the Sofia side, and Fyodor lived on the Torgovaya side. They quarreled and threw themselves at each other across the Volkhov. When one of them tried to cross the river on the bridge, the other drove him back, shouting: “Don’t go to my side, live on yours.” Tradition adds that often after such clashes the blessed ones often returned not over the bridge, but over the water, as if on dry land.

Saint Michael's foresight was expressed, in particular, in indicating the place to dig a well, in predicting an imminent famine, and the elder asked to feed the hungry with monastic rye, in predicting illness for the mayor who infringed on the monks, and death for Prince Shemyaka. Predicting the death of Shemyaka, the reverend elder strokes his head, and, promising Bishop Euthymius his consecration in Lithuania, he takes the “fly” from his hands and places it on his head.

The first Moscow holy fool was Blessed Maxim († 14ЗЗ), canonized at the Council of 1547. Unfortunately, the life of Blessed Maxim has not survived,

According to legend, St. Basil the Blessed was apprenticed to a shoemaker as a child and then already showed insight, laughing and shedding tears at the merchant who ordered boots for himself. It was revealed to Vasily that the merchant was facing imminent death. After leaving the shoemaker, Vasily led a wandering life in Moscow, walking without clothes and spending the night with a boyar widow. Vasily's foolishness is characterized by denunciation of social injustice and the sins of various classes. One day he destroyed goods in the market, punishing unscrupulous traders. All his actions, which seemed incomprehensible and even absurd to the eyes of an ordinary person, had a secret, wise meaning of seeing the world with spiritual eyes. Vasily throws stones at the houses of virtuous people and kisses the walls of houses where “blasphemy” took place, since in the former there are exorcised demons hanging outside, while in the latter, Angels are crying. He gives the gold donated by the tsar not to the beggars, but to the merchant, because Vasily’s perspicacious gaze knows that the merchant has lost all his fortune, and is ashamed to ask for alms. For the sake of Christ, the fool for Christ pours the drink served by the tsar out the window to put out a fire in distant Novgorod.

John the Big Cap labored in Moscow under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. In Moscow he was an alien. Originally from the Vologda region, he worked as a water carrier in the northern saltworks. Having abandoned everything and moved to Rostov the Great, John built himself a cell near the church, covered his body with chains and heavy rings, and when going out into the street, he always put on a cap, which is why he received his nickname. John could spend hours looking at the sun - this was his favorite pastime - thinking about the “righteous sun.” The children laughed at him, but he was not angry with them. The Fool for Christ's sake always smiled, and with a smile he prophesied the future. Shortly before his death, the Fool for Christ, John, moved to Moscow. It is known that he died in a movnitsa (bathhouse); he was buried in the same Intercession Cathedral in which Vasily was buried. During the burial of the blessed one, a terrible thunderstorm arose, from which many suffered.

The holy fools of foreign travelers who were in Moscow at that time were very amazed. Fletcher writes in 1588:

The veneration of holy fools by the people led, starting from the 17th century, to the appearance of many false holy fools who pursued their own selfish goals. It also happened that simply mentally ill people were mistaken for holy fools. Therefore, the Church has always approached the canonization of holy fools very carefully.

Theological-liturgical dictionary.

Foolishness- a spiritual and ascetic feat, which consists of renouncing worldly goods and generally accepted standards of life, taking on the image of a person without reason, and humbly enduring abuse, contempt and bodily deprivation.
The key to understanding this feat is a phrase from Holy Scripture: “[i]…the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God…” (1 Cor. 3:19).

A holy fool (glorified stupid, crazy) is a person who has taken upon himself the feat of depicting the external, i.e. visible madness in order to achieve inner humility. For Christ's sake the holy fools set themselves the task overcome the root of all sins - pride. To achieve this, they led an unusual way of life, sometimes appearing as if they were devoid of reason, thereby causing people to ridicule them. At the same time, they denounced evil in the world in an allegorical, symbolic form, both in words and in actions. Such a feat was undertaken by the holy fools in order to humble themselves and at the same time to have a stronger influence on people, since people are indifferent to ordinary simple preaching. The feat of foolishness for the sake of Christ was especially widespread among us on Russian soil.

THE FOOL AS PROPHET AND APOSTLE

He is no one's son, no one's brother, no one's father, he has no home (...). In fact, the holy fool does not pursue a single selfish goal. He achieves nothing.
Julia De Beausobre, “Creative Suffering”
Foolishness is a symbol of people lost to this world, whose destiny is to inherit eternal life. Foolishness is not a philosophy, but a certain perception of life, endless respect for the human person (...), not a product of intellectual achievements, but a creation of a culture of the heart.
Cecil Collins, “The Penetration of Foolishness” The holy fool has nothing to lose. He dies every day.
Mother Maria of Normanbay, "Foolishness"

Gospel of Luke

"foolishness for Christ's sake."

Anyone who exalts himself will be humiliated, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
Gospel of Luke

It is not typical for a true Christian to be hypocritical and pretend, he must be honest and open with everyone, however, there is a special kind of Christian feat, which can be outwardly described as pretense and feigned eccentricity. The name of this feat "foolishness for Christ's sake."

This and many other cases show how holy fools tried to reason with people by their example, bringing to the point of absurdity the vices that are characteristic of many of us. They, being obviously holy people, granted the gift of miracles by God, caricatured petty resentment, envy, and grumpiness, giving people the opportunity to look at themselves from the outside. Look and be ashamed.

You should not see caustic satire in the behavior of holy fools. Unlike carnival jesters, holy fools were motivated by compassion and love for erring people. So blessed Procopius of Ustyug, who is considered the first holy fool in Rus', one Sunday began to call the residents of Ustyug to repentance, warning that if they do not repent of their sins, the city will suffer God's wrath. People laughed at the blessed one, saying “he is out of his mind.” A few days after this, blessed Procopius, with tears in his eyes, begged the Ustyug people to repent, but no one listened to him. And only when the saint’s formidable prophecy soon came true, and a terrible hurricane hit the city, people ran in trepidation to the cathedral church, where the holy saint of God tearfully prayed before the icon of the Mother of God, the warm Intercessor of our family. Following his example, the residents of Ustyug also began to pray fervently. The city was saved, but most importantly, many souls were saved, having received admonition thanks to the prayers of Saint Procopius.

Being great prayer books, fasters and seers, the holy fools avoided earthly glory, pretending to be insane. Blessed Procopius, spending every night, despite the severe frosts, in prayer on the porch of the cathedral church, in the morning he could fall asleep on a heap of manure, and Saint Simeon, who lived in Antioch, could be seen dragging a dead dog tied by the leg around the city. This often resulted in the saints being ridiculed, cursed, kicked, and sometimes beaten. Their feat can be called voluntary martyrdom, and, unlike the martyrs who suffered once, the holy fools for the sake of Christ endured sorrow and humiliation all their lives.

Leading such a lifestyle, the holy fools fought not only against the sins of other people, but first of all they waged an invisible battle against sin, which could destroy their own soul - with pride. The feat of foolishness, like no other, contributes to the development in the soul of the ascetic of the virtue of humility, otherwise how could the holy fools be able to endure the sorrows that befall them.

But humility does not mean weakness of will and connivance in sin. Sometimes holy fools fearlessly raised their voices where others were afraid to open their mouths. Thus, the Pskov saint Nicholas Sallos suggested that Tsar Ivan the Terrible try raw meat during Lent. “I am a Christian and I don’t eat meat during Lent,” the king was indignant. “You drink Christian blood,” came the saint’s answer. The king was humiliated and left the city, in which he was going to inflict severe reprisals.

For Christ's sake, the holy fools fulfilled the words of the Apostle Paul: “If a person falls into any sin, you who are spiritual correct him in the spirit of meekness, watching each one of you so as not to be tempted.”

The blessed ascetics avoided vain earthly glory, but with their difficult deeds they earned incorruptible heavenly glory and were glorified by the Lord on earth with numerous miracles performed through their prayers.

We are mad for Christ's sake... we endure hunger and thirst, and nakedness, and beatings, and we wander... We are like rubbish to the world, like dust trampled underfoot by everyone.
Epistle of Saint Apostle Paul

JURODIQUES- ascetics of the Orthodox Church who took upon themselves the feat of foolishness, that is, external, apparent madness. The basis for the feat of foolishness was the words of the Apostle Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18) “For when the world through its wisdom does not knew God in the wisdom of God, then it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21), "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks" (1 Cor. 1:23), " If any of you thinks to be wise in this age, then be foolish in order to be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18).

The holy fools refused for Christ's sake not only from all the benefits and conveniences of earthly life, but also often from generally accepted norms of behavior in society. In winter and summer they walked barefoot, and many without clothes at all. Fools often violated the requirements of morality, if you look at it as the fulfillment of certain ethical standards. Many of the holy fools, possessing the gift of clairvoyance, accepted the feat of foolishness out of a sense of deeply developed humility, so that people would attribute their clairvoyance not to them, but to God. Therefore, they often spoke using seemingly incoherent forms, hints, and allegories. Others acted like fools in order to suffer humiliation and disgrace for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were also such holy fools, popularly called blessed, who did not take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, but actually gave the impression of being weak-minded due to their childishness that remained throughout their lives.

The feat of foolishness is specifically Orthodox. The Catholic and Protestant West does not know such a form of asceticism.

The most famous of the holy fools was Saint Andrew. The Feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is associated with his name. This holiday was established in memory of an event that took place in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century. The city was in danger from the Saracens, but one day the holy fool Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius, praying during an all-night vigil in the Blachernae Church, saw in the air the Most Holy Virgin Mary with a host of saints, spreading her omophorion (veil) over the Christians. Encouraged by this vision, the Byzantines repelled the Saracens.

Foolishness for Christ's sake was especially widespread and revered by the people in Rus'. Its heyday falls in the 16th century: in the 14th century there were four revered Russian Yuri, in the 15th - eleven, in the 16th - fourteen, in the 17th - seven.

The first holy fool in the full sense of the word in Rus' was Procopius of Ustyug († 1302). Procopius, according to his life, from his youth was a rich merchant “from Western countries, from the Latin language, from the German land.” In Novgorod, he was captivated by the beauty of Orthodox worship. Having accepted Orthodoxy, he distributes his property to the poor, “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life and turns into violence.” When they began to please him in Novgorod, he left Novgorod, headed “to the eastern countries,” walked through cities and villages, impenetrable forests and swamps, accepted beatings and insults thanks to his foolishness, but prayed for his offenders. Righteous Procopius, for Christ's sake, chose the city of Ustyug, “great and glorious,” for his residence. He led a life so harsh that his extremely ascetic monastic deeds could not be compared with it. The holy fool slept naked in the open air “on the rot”, later on the porch of the cathedral church, and prayed at night for the benefit of “the city and the people.” He ate, receiving an incredibly limited amount of food from people, but never took anything from the rich.

Saint Michael's foresight was expressed, in particular, in indicating the place to dig a well, in predicting an imminent famine, and the elder asked to feed the hungry with monastic rye, in predicting illness for the mayor who infringed on the monks, and death for Prince Shemyaka. Predicting the death of Shemyaka, the reverend elder strokes his head, and, promising Bishop Euthymius his consecration in Lithuania, he takes the “fly” from his hands and places it on his head.

The first Moscow holy fool was Blessed Maxim († 14ЗЗ), canonized at the Council of 1547. Unfortunately, the life of Blessed Maxim has not survived,

According to legend, St. Basil the Blessed was apprenticed to a shoemaker as a child and then already showed insight, laughing and shedding tears at the merchant who ordered boots for himself. It was revealed to Vasily that the merchant was facing imminent death. After leaving the shoemaker, Vasily led a wandering life in Moscow, walking without clothes and spending the night with a boyar widow. Vasily's foolishness is characterized by denunciation of social injustice and the sins of various classes. One day he destroyed goods in the market, punishing unscrupulous traders. All his actions, which seemed incomprehensible and even absurd to the eyes of an ordinary person, had a secret, wise meaning of seeing the world with spiritual eyes. Vasily throws stones at the houses of virtuous people and kisses the walls of houses where “blasphemy” took place, since in the former there are exorcised demons hanging outside, while in the latter, Angels are crying. He gives the gold donated by the tsar not to the beggars, but to the merchant, because Vasily’s perspicacious gaze knows that the merchant has lost all his fortune, and is ashamed to ask for alms. Yu pours the drink served by the tsar out the window to put out a fire in distant Novgorod.

John the Big Cap labored in Moscow under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. In Moscow he was an alien. Originally from the Vologda region, he worked as a water carrier in the northern saltworks. Having abandoned everything and moved to Rostov the Great, John built himself a cell near the church, covered his body with chains and heavy rings, and when going out into the street, he always put on a cap, which is why he received his nickname. John could spend hours looking at the sun - this was his favorite pastime - thinking about the “righteous sun.” The children laughed at him, but he was not angry with them. The holy fool always smiled, and with a smile he prophesied the future. Shortly before his death, John moved to Moscow. It is known that he died in a movnitsa (bathhouse); he was buried in the same Intercession Cathedral in which Vasily was buried. During the burial of the blessed one, a terrible thunderstorm arose, from which many suffered.

The holy fools of foreign travelers who were in Moscow at that time were very amazed. Fletcher writes in 1588:

The veneration of holy fools by the people led, starting from the 17th century, to the appearance of many false holy fools who pursued their own selfish goals. It also happened that simply mentally ill people were mistaken for holy fools. Therefore, the Church has always approached the canonization of holy fools very carefully.

Theological-liturgical dictionary

The point is that truth is not afraid of controversy. Truth cannot be destroyed. Therefore, the world has come up with an effective way to dispose of it - as some kind of dangerous radioactive material, which is sealed in an impenetrable lead container and buried in a remote wasteland. At first, the truths obtained by great minds in a painful struggle become familiar and commonplace. What was a long-awaited trophy for fathers becomes a toy for children, like grandfather’s medals and order bars. People get used to treating truths as something taken for granted. Then the familiar becomes banal and they try to get rid of it through cynicism, irony and quotation marks. “No, brother, this is all licentiousness, emptiness! - says Turgenev's Bazarov. – And what is this mysterious relationship between a man and a woman? We physiologists know what this relationship is. Study the anatomy of the eye: where does that mysterious look come from, as you say? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art.” Ultimately, the ridiculed and caricatured truth under the guise of folklore is generally removed from the discursive field. Good and evil begin to be associated exclusively with the “hut on chicken legs”, and such things as heroism and betrayal without quotes are preserved only in children’s everyday life - along with “woman” and “good fairy”.

“Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth, who supposedly healed the sick with one word and supposedly raised the dead, supposedly also resurrected Himself on the third day after death.” Only in this way, in a straitjacket of quotation marks, surrounded by word-orderlies, can the Gospel Truth enter the “enlightened” assembly of secular people.

This process is sensitively reflected in the literature. In the preface to the collection “Russian Flowers of Evil,” Viktor Erofeev traces the paths of the Russian literary tradition, noting that in the new and recent period “the wall, well guarded in classical literature, collapsed... between positive and negative heroes... Any feeling not touched by evil is called into question . There is a flirtation with evil, many leading writers either look at evil, fascinated by its power and artistry, or become its hostages... Beauty is replaced by expressive pictures of ugliness. The aesthetics of outrageousness and shock are developing, and interest in the “dirty” word and swearing as a detonator of the text is increasing. New literature oscillates between “black” despair and completely cynical indifference. Today we are observing a completely logical result: the ontological market of evil is overstocked, the glass is filled to the brim with black liquid. What's next?"

“I will not raise my hand against my brother,” said the great Russian saints Boris and Gleb. In the culture of feudal fragmentation, “brother” is a synonym for the word “competitor”. This is the one who makes you have less land and power. Killing a brother is the same as defeating a competitor - a deed worthy of a real prince, evidence of his superhuman nature and the usual image of courage. The holy words of Boris, when first heard in Russian culture, undoubtedly seemed like the mysterious delirium of a holy fool.

Shem, treasurer of the tyrant Dionysius, was a disgusting man. One day he proudly showed Aristippus his new home. Looking around the magnificent rooms with mosaic floors, Aristippus cleared his throat and spat in the owner’s face, and in response to his rage said: “There was no more suitable place anywhere.”

Crazy Love

The Lives of Saints is a literary genre. And like every genre, it has its own character traits. Since this is a very ancient type of literature, and the Church is a very conservative environment (which is wonderful in itself), hagiography retains many of the properties it acquired many hundreds of years ago. Modern man is a minimizer. Becoming more and more flat, he does not understand and rejects all the magnificent complexity of previous eras, and therefore of his past. Many things seem funny to him, many things seem naive. He refuses to believe in many things. The saints for him today are actors and athletes, and the lives of these saints fit into the format of gossip columns or scandals. The logical end of this process is in hell. So what should I do? We need to meet each other halfway, that is, to bring the lives closer to modern understanding, and for people who are interested, to rush towards the saints.

Meeting any of the saints is a personal meeting of two human souls. Meeting “through the years, across distances.” It is precisely the piercing depth of personal feeling that distinguishes these acquaintances. The rest of the historical surroundings - such as the era of the saint's life, clothing, morals, way of life, changes in royal dynasties - recede into the background and become secondary. We would very much like people living today to have as many friends as possible from among those already living in Heavenly Jerusalem. We would really like people to communicate with the saints, learn from them and take their example, fulfilling Paul’s words: “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” To this end, we will try to talk about the saints with a sense of personal warmth, as great, but still friends, overcoming stereotypes and schematism that interfere with personal communication.

It's like removing a robe from an ancient image. The chasuble is precious and good, but ancient colors are better. Thus, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Rublev’s “Trinity” was revealed to the world, piously hidden by previous generations behind kilograms of silver. The Trinity was so good that the vestments themselves were perceived as hidden iconoclasm. The leafy-sublime style in talking about holiness can also be harmful for a broken person of the 21st century. The path is not easy, but the one who walks will master the road.

The life and feat of Blessed Xenia of Petersburg

Of all the cities in Russia, St. Petersburg is the most non-Russian city. On political map In the world, only in Africa many countries have borders cut to fit a ruler. This is the legacy of colonialism.

Petersburg was also built for the line. Moscow grew overgrown with suburbs the way a merchant's wife grows skirts, like an onion grows flesh. Cities have been growing organically for centuries. But not St. Petersburg.

Planned according to the line, it arose in a matter of years, while other cities made meat on the bones, overgrown with settlements and suburbs over the course of centuries. Built at right angles, drowning thousands of souls under marble, giving a head start to Rome, Amsterdam and Venice combined, it grew out of the rotten swamps for no apparent reason - and immediately bristled with cannons against enemies and crosses against demons.

Half a century later, the young city confirmed its Russianness with its holiness. One of his first and unofficial saints was a woman who was not glorified by anything on the outside. The city was imperial, service, bureaucratic. Hundreds of Akakiev Akakievichs scurried back and forth with government papers. Poverty shivered in the cold and stretched out its hands for alms. There were many churches, but little feat for Christ's sake and little mercy.

Suddenly a woman appears, having given everything to everyone and praying for everyone as if they were her own children. Childless women tend to be cruel. The prisoners, seeing off their friends to freedom, congratulate them, but bury the bitterness of resentment in their souls. After all, they are already leaving, but they still remain. Selflessly begging for others what you yourself are deprived of is the highest degree of love.

Ksenia Grigorievna loved her husband very much. They did not live long in marriage and did not have children. Sudden death turned the young widow's whole life upside down. In marriage, husband and wife are united into one flesh. And if one half crosses the line of life and death before the other, then the second half is also drawn over the line, although the time has not yet come for it. Then the person dies before death.

Some die for public life and drink themselves to death. Others die to a sinful life and begin the feat for the sake of God.

Ksenia wanted her husband to be saved for eternity. Having been deprived of temporary family happiness, she wanted her and him to be together in eternity. It was worth the effort. And so the young widow begins to go crazy, in Slavic - to act like a fool. She answers only to her husband's name, dresses only in his clothes and behaves in everything like she has gone crazy. From now on, and for half a century, behind the guise of madness, she will maintain unceasing prayer for her husband.

A person who prays always moves from praying for one person to praying for many. The heart flares up, expands in love and embraces those traveling, the sick, the suffering, the captives, the dying and many other states in which restless human souls find themselves. Big things start from small things. As soon as you love one person and invisibly shed blood in prayer for this one thing, abysses will immediately open, and before your mind’s eye you will see thousands of mourners, tremblers, despondents, and those in need of prayer.

Ksenia found it, although she wasn’t looking for it. She wanted to beg for the soul of her beloved husband, Andrei Fedorovich, for blissful eternity. But this fervent prayer for one person made her a prayer book for the whole world. This is how big things grow from small ones. This is how people find something they didn’t expect.

Ksenia Grigorievna did not give birth to children from Andrei Fedorovich, whom she loved. I didn’t enjoy family happiness, I didn’t see my grandchildren. However, she begs people for a solution to various everyday problems: reconciliation with mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law, finding a job, changing living space, getting rid of infertility...

Usually, someone who hasn’t had something won’t beg for it. Those who have not fought do not understand those who have gone to war. A woman who has not given birth will not understand a woman with many children. And so on... But Ksenia, who wanted but did not have worldly happiness, without any envy begs for this same happiness to all those who turn to her.

St. Petersburg is the most non-Russian city. Planned to fit a ruler, like Africa, sliced like a pie, it was entirely born from the mind, and not from life. However, Russian people settled it, and after half a century Russian saints were born in it.

They overcame both their own sinfulness and the unnatural environment in which they lived, and showed us the triumph of Ecumenical Orthodoxy in the windswept northern latitudes of a hitherto unknown area called St. Petersburg...

How much Great feat of Love to the spouse (who died without repentance)
she dedicated her whole life Pleasing God, of all the paths, choosing the most thorny one - the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake... (about the holy blessed Xenia of Petersburg)

There is probably not a single history textbook that talks about Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, whose memory we celebrate today. But every history textbook will definitely have a story about Napoleon and his deeds. These two people lived at approximately the same time - at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Are their contributions to history completely disproportionate?

The deeds of Napoleon are known: hundreds of thousands of dead (some of them were buried here in the Sretensky Monastery); ruined, robbed churches, not only in Russia, but also, for example, in Venice, and throughout Europe; ruined destinies of many people. The spiritual influence of Napoleon was also enormous in his time, as evidenced in particular by the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Raskolnikov, tormented by doubts as to whether “I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right,” chopped up an old money-lender with an ax, one might say, with the name of Napoleon on her lips...

The life of Blessed Xenia is also well known to us: at the age of 26, a very young woman, she suddenly became a widow and took upon herself the feat of foolishness, abandoning her home, wandering around in her constant red jacket and green skirt or green jacket and red skirt, being subjected to constant ridicule and insults, being in unceasing prayer. For her long-term feat, incomprehensible to the world, Blessed Ksenia received from God the grace of quick and effective help to people - her participation in thousands of destinies was manifested brightly and triumphantly.

Her special gift was the device family life many people. So, one day, having come to the Golubev family, blessed Ksenia announced to a 17-year-old girl: “You are making coffee here, and your husband is burying his wife on Okhta. Run there quickly!” The embarrassed girl did not know how to respond to such strange words, but blessed Ksenia literally forced her with a stick to go to the Okhtinskoe cemetery in St. Petersburg. There, a doctor buried his young wife, who died in childbirth, sobbing inconsolably and finally losing consciousness. The Golubevs tried to console him as best they could. This is how they met. After some time it continued, and a year later the doctor proposed to Golubeva’s daughter, and their marriage ended up in highest degree happy. There are countless such cases of Blessed Ksenia’s help in building a family - she truly became a creator human destinies.

Napoleon is buried in the center of Paris, in the cathedral of the Invalides, and tourists eagerly come to gaze at his red porphyry sarcophagus, mounted on a green granite pedestal. No one comes to pray or ask him for anything; For modern man Napoleon is just a museum exhibit, a past preserved in alcohol. His influence today is negligible - in best case scenario hackneyed material for cinema or the pseudo-historical exercises of a beginning graphomaniac.

For more than 200 years, the grave of Blessed Xenia has been a source of healing, effective help in difficult circumstances, and a solution to insoluble problems. Thus, Blessed Ksenia appeared to one person who was suffering from wine drinking and said threateningly: “Stop drinking! The tears of your mother and wife flooded my grave.” Need I say that this man never touched the bottle again?

Every day thousands of people gathered (and continue to gather) at the grave of Blessed Xenia and asked her for help, left notes shouting for help, and with these notes, like garlands, the saint’s chapel was constantly hung. Hundreds, thousands, millions of notes called her name - was there even one such note at Napoleon’s tomb made of red porphyry on a green pedestal?

In modern historical science The term “social history” is becoming increasingly widespread. This is very promising direction, speaking about the importance of simple human destinies, about the importance of “small deeds” in the life of society, about the determining role of ordinary people in the historical process.

Don't think history is being made strongmen of the world this, on the political Olympus; history is not at all what we are shown on television. True story occurs in the human heart, and if a person purifies himself through prayer, repentance, humility, and patience with sorrows, then his participation in his own destiny, and therefore in the destiny of those around him, and therefore in all of human history, increases immeasurably.

Blessed Xenia did not lead the state, did not gather armies of thousands, did not lead them on campaigns of conquest; she simply prayed, fasted, humbled her soul and endured all insults - but her influence on human history turned out to be immeasurably greater than the influence of any Napoleon. Although the history books don’t talk about this...

However, Christ tells us about this in the Gospel: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?” Using the example of Napoleon and Blessed Xenia, these words become even more convincing.

History is made not in the Kremlin and not in the White House, not in Brussels and not in Strasbourg, but here and now - in our heart, if it opens to God and people. Amen.

Hieromonk Simeon (Tomachinsky) 02/6/2006

One of the episodes from the life of St. Basil... Performing various strange things, Basil, among other things, threw dirt and stones at some houses, and at some houses, kneeling down, kissed the walls. People took a closer look at these houses and were surprised. Dirt flew to where they lived modestly and righteously. And the walls of the houses where drunkards, villains, and debauchees lived were watered with tears and kissed. Blessed Basil saw the angelic world. He saw how demons were prowling around the houses where righteous people lived, but they could not enter inside. There, inside are bright Angels. Vasily threw stones at the demons outside. On the contrary, where sin nestled in homes, demons found shelter next to people. And the bright spirits with tears are outside. Next to them and with them, the holy fool prayed for Christ’s sake.

Archpriest ANDREY TKACHEV

About holy people - Fools for Christ's sake. Fool for Christ's sake - what does it mean?

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