Miracles of Diveevo
The Seraphim-Diveyevo Monastery became the fourth “earthly inheritance” of the Most Holy Theotokos, along with Iberia, Holy Mount Athos and the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. And, of course, parishioners of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary could not ignore this holy place on their pilgrimage trips.
We set off on the trip late in the evening and set foot on Nizhny Novgorod land early in the morning. The pilgrims were first brought to the miraculous spring of St. Seraphim of Sarov. According to legend, the source was discovered by the holy elder himself. Now there is a log chapel with baths, which the kings took advantage of: despite the early hour, many not only took water, but also bathed in the holy spring. Looking ahead, let's say that our pilgrims also visited the other three Diveyevo holy springs - the most ancient, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, the spring of the Healer Panteleimon and the Venerable Alexandra, the founder of the monastery, who deserves a separate story.
There was a time when the wealthy landowner Agafya Melgunova had a beloved husband and little daughter. But her husband died young, and in 1760 Agafya left with her daughter for the Kiev Monastery, where she became a monk under the name of Alexandra. In Kyiv, the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to her in a dream and ordered her to go to the north of Russia to found a monastic monastery. In the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod province, the Lady appeared to her again and indicated that the monastery would be here. In 1767, at this place, at her own expense, she began the construction of a stone church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which lasted ten years. Soon after arriving in Diveevo, the ascetic’s ten-year-old daughter died, after which Alexander’s mother sold the estate and donated the capital to charity. A community began to take shape around the righteous woman, and cells began to be built. The community was looked after by the Sarov Monastery. Being near death, in 1789, Alexandra’s mother entrusted the guardianship of the monastery to the thirty-year-old hierodeacon Seraphim, the future great Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov, who looked after the monastery until his death. In 1825, the Mother of God appeared to Father Seraphim, who had retired from the affairs of the Kazan monastery, naming eight sisters by name, with whom he was to go to the east of Diveevo, surround this place with a ditch and rampart and build cells there, a windmill, and then the Church of Her Nativity and Her only begotten son. The Mother of God gave the charter for the monastery to the priest Herself.
In the winter of 1826, the foundation of the mill took place, in 1829 the sisters began to dig a ditch around it, about which Saint Seraphim of Sarov said that these were “the piles of the Mother of God, here the Queen of Heaven walked around the monastery, taking it as her inheritance.” A religious procession takes place along Kanavka on holidays, and, of course, royal pilgrims visited it with reverence. But our acquaintance with the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery began with a sightseeing tour of the territory. The remaining time was called “free”, although it was busy to the limit: so many shrines needed to be worshiped! One of the main ones is the relics of Seraphim of Sarov.
The holy elder died in 1833 while praying before the icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” (now one of the most revered miraculous shrines of Diveyevo). The relics of Father Seraphim, canonized in 1903, were blasphemously opened and taken away from Sarov in 1921 by Red Army soldiers. Their further fate remained unknown, but 70 years later they were discovered in the storerooms of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism in the building of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. The relics were returned to Diveevo, where they rest in the Trinity Cathedral. Here you can also see the elder’s personal belongings.
In order to venerate the shrine of the universally revered saint, it was necessary to stand in a queue for many hours, but this did not deter our pilgrims. In addition, the royals visited the most ancient Kazan church, built by the Monk Alexandra in 1767–1779, and venerated the relics of the Blessed Wives of Diveyevo Pelagia, Paraskeva and Maria. Pelagia was from a merchant family, and Paraskeva and Maria were peasant daughters, but they were related by the holy land of Diveyevo and the difficult feat of foolishness.
Pilgrims also examined the churches of the Nativity of Christ and the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, attached to the Kazan Church. They were built at the expense of Father Seraphim’s faithful disciple, landowner Mikhail Manturov, who donated all his funds to the monastery and was buried in the Church of the Nativity. By the way, his younger sister Elena Vasilyevna, who, according to legend, gave her life for her brother with the blessing of Saint Seraphim, was canonized. You can venerate the reliquary with the relics of St. Helena in Diveevo, as well as the relics of the founder of the monastery, Mother Alexandra, as well as the Venerable Martha of Diveyevo, a young woman who entered the monastery at the age of 13 and was chosen, according to the vision of St. Seraphim, for a special service.
The royals also inspected the Transfiguration Cathedral, the construction of which was completed in 1916 (but it was consecrated only in 1998). People left the monastery full of impressions and in the hope of new significant meetings.
Svetlana Popova
Holy Canal - fence to heaven
In this holy monastery rest the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, who left many predictions. Some of them have already come true.
Every day, the Queen of Heaven Herself walks along the Kanavka, having chosen Diveevo as Her fourth earthly Destiny. © / From the archives of the monastery
The saint said about the Kazan Cathedral of the monastery that at the end of the world “this church will be taken entirely to heaven.” About another cathedral - Trinity - he predicted that “the poor Seraphim will rest here in body.” “The elder’s contemporaries were very surprised by these words of his: “Are the Sarov people going to give you up?” After all, the elder labored in a monastery in Sarov, which is 20 km from Diveevo, and the sisters went there for advice,” Abbess Sergia (Konkova), abbess of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery, tells AiF.
It happened as the great elder predicted, although immediately after his glorification as a saint in 1903, his relics were first located in Sarov. After the revolution and the closure of the monastery, they were thought to have disappeared, but were miraculously found in 1990 in Leningrad in the storerooms of the Museum of Religion and Atheism. Sarov by that time had turned into the nuclear center of the country, a closed city, which could only be reached through a military checkpoint. Therefore, the relics of the saint, having crossed half the country in procession, rested in Diveyevo, in the Trinity Cathedral.
Cancer with the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Photo: From the monastery archive
Elder's Candle
Among the sea of people who greeted the relics of Seraphim of Sarov in 1991 at the newly opened monastery was the 91-year-old schema-nun Margarita (Lakhtionova). Before the revolution, she came to the Diveyevo monastery at the age of 15, becoming a novice. In 1927, after the monastery was dispersed by the Bolsheviks, the nuns, and there were more than a thousand of them, went into the world.
Most of the nuns went through prisons and camps, but did not renounce their faith and monastic vows. Thus, Mother Margarita spent almost 10 years in the camps. Having returned, she settled in Diveevo not far from the ruined monastery. It was she who kept the candle of Elder Seraphim, which he gave to the sisters shortly before his death in 1833 with the words: “You will meet me with it in Diveyevo.” For more than 150 years, the candle was passed from one generation of nuns to another. And so in 1991, Mother Margarita, being a very old woman, came to meet the relics of Saint Seraphim with that same candle - she handed it over to the Diveyevo protodeacon, who inserted it into a candlestick and lit it.
One of the shrines of the monastery is the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”. Photo: From the monastery archive
After 1991, another prediction of the great elder began to come true: that as soon as his relics were laid to rest in Diveevo, the monastery would begin to flourish with renewed vigor and over time would turn into a monastery, that is, the largest monastery in terms of territory and number of inhabitants. “Father Seraphim predicted that the territory of the monastery would stretch to the river,” says Mother Sergia. - Maybe this will not happen in our lifetime. But we are already thinking about where we could move the organizations that are located on this territory - the prosecutor’s office, the police department building, two administration buildings and others.” However, over the previous 25 years, it was necessary to relocate a much larger number of organizations that had once occupied the premises and churches of the monastery, and also to remove sewer pipes from the moat of the Holy Kanavka*.
“In those years, this required 5 thousand dollars,” recalls Mother Abbess. - There was no money. And suddenly a stranger comes and donates exactly this amount.”
Kazan Temple, which will be ascended to heaven. Photo: From the monastery archive
Miracles on the Groove
The construction of the Holy Canal began during the life of St. Seraphim, who was ordered to do this by the Queen of Heaven Herself. The Mother of God appeared to the elder 12 times. “I did not place a single stone in the monastery of my own free will, only at the direction of the Queen of Heaven,” the priest said and ordered that the width of the Kanavka should be 3 arshins (1 arshin - 71 cm), the depth of the ditch should also be 3 arshins, and the earth, which is dug up must be thrown inside the monastery, so that the height of the ditch also becomes 3 arshins. “This land will be valued like gold,” the elder predicted, explaining this by the fact that the Mother of God passes along the Kanavka every day, who took Diveevo to Her fourth Destiny (after Athos, Iberia and Kyiv. - Ed.).
He said to his sisters: “If you knew what kind of Kanavka this is, it’s a fence to the skies! When the century ends, the Antichrist will first begin to remove crosses from churches and destroy monasteries and destroy all monasteries! But he will come up to yours, and Kanavka will stand from earth to sky, he cannot come to you, Kanavka will not allow him anywhere, so he will go away.”
Pilgrims take the earth from Kanavka with them and apply it to sore spots, receiving healing. “Whoever walks through the Kanavka and says to himself the prayer “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” 150 times, Athos, Jerusalem, and Kyiv will be here,” said St. Seraphim.
In the revived Kanavka monastery they arranged it exactly as Elder Seraphim had ordered. Photo: From the monastery archive
"We didn't ask for anything"
Many pilgrims also visit the monastery’s hermitages, of which more than twenty have been built since 1991. “We didn't ask for anything. “The Lord Himself gave everything into our hands,” says Mother Superior and gives just one example. — In the early 90s. the head of one of the rural administrations said that they have two grandmothers who are asking me to come. Two sisters, two old maids, Ekaterina and Anastasia. When we meet, they say to me: “Mother, how we waited for you, how we prayed to St. Seraphim!” And they show off their wealth - a large portrait of an old man on canvas, pre-revolutionary. They also had other treasures - 10 pairs of felt boots “farewell to youth”, 10 pairs of stockings and 5 thousand rubles saved from retirement. “We will give it all up, just take our church for restoration!” And there is a stone temple without windows, without a roof, as if after a bombing, birds fly inside. And the grandmothers keep asking: “Our village Avtodeevo is consonant with Diveevo.”
Patriarch Alexy II came to us, they took him to see this temple for its broken bricks and bird droppings... And a year later, His Holiness was already standing here on the pulpit. There was cleanliness and order all around. One of the grandmothers, Catherine, had a funeral service in this church, and the second, Anastasia, became a monk and lived out her life with us.” A special history is connected with the monastery cemetery. “Even 10 years ago it was an open field, but now a wooden church has been built there, a park has been laid out, and a pond with goldfish has been built. All this was done through the efforts of our benefactor Vyacheslav. He himself is a very religious person. And his main concern was to bring his father to faith. Through Vyacheslav’s prayers, the father repented and took communion before his death, and died reconciled with God. His grave was one of the first in the monastery cemetery. On his father’s memorable days (birth, death and angel day), Vyacheslav always comes to his grave, attends the service, reads the Psalter for the deceased - and this is 6 hours of continuous reading. He has such a charge of firmness of faith that I sometimes cite him as an example to my sisters.”
Work on the restoration and arrangement of the Holy Canal. Photo: From the monastery archive
Holy springs
Most pilgrims always visit holy springs, of which there are more than ten in Diveevo and the surrounding area. They dip with a prayer for healing. Many are recovering. “For some people, recovering quickly is beneficial, but for others it is not. The Lord Himself sees what a person needs,” says Mother Abbess. By the way, she herself worked as a doctor for more than 10 years before her tonsure, although from her youth she knew that her path was different - monastic. Mother was raised by believing parents, the family lived in Sergiev Posad, and went to services at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The family of the future abbess turned to the local elders for advice more than once.
“When I turned 20, my mother took me to Archimandrite Seraphim (Shinkarev) and said that she wanted to know now how I would be arranged,” says Mother Sergia. “The elder said: “She will be a nun.” At this time I was a medical student. My mother objected: “Father, this is boring.” And the elder: “I’m not bored, and she won’t be bored!” In her youth, my mother regretted that their family consisted of only four people (mother has a sister): “And now my family is hundreds of times larger, we have more than five hundred sisters in the monastery. The abbess of our monastery is the Queen of Heaven Herself, and our main trustee is St. Seraphim. And this is not an exaggeration. The presence of the Mother of God is felt by everyone who crosses the threshold of the monastery, everyone who walks along the Kanavka. And those who venerate the shrine with the relics of the monk never leave inconsolable. The elder’s words come true: “Come to me as if I were alive, and I will help you.”
Procession of the Cross on the Holy Kanavka. Photo: From the monastery archive
*Holy Kanavka is one of the main shrines of the monastery. In 1825, the Mother of God appeared to St. Seraphim and ordered the founding of the Mill Community, indicating how this place should be surrounded by a ditch and a rampart.
Miracle in Diveyevo
At the end of August, I had the opportunity to visit the Fourth Destiny of the Mother of God - blessed Diveevo. After the relatively quiet Sanaksar, the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery immediately surprised me with its large crowd. It was difficult to get into the church during the Sunday liturgy, and the line to the relics of Father Seraphim stretched almost to the bell tower...
“Diveevo will become a Lavra,” prophesied Saint Seraphim. And now this prophecy is coming true before our eyes. And therefore, when I saw frightened goats near the monastery, not knowing where to go from the crowd of pilgrims, for some reason I was no longer upset about the lost former secrecy of this place. Diveevo was recently called a “village” by the great old lady, Blessed Maria of Samara, who came to this monastery more than once. Now the only thing that reminds us of the “village” are frightened goats... In the year of the centennial anniversary of the canonization of Father Seraphim, the monastery was decorated and renovated. It has acquired an almost metropolitan luster, as befits the world center of Orthodoxy. And yet, even that former, hidden Diveevo preserved itself. True, for the most part it moved to the monasteries scattered throughout this holy land. It is still quiet, prayerful, intimate there. An acquaintance from Samara, and in recent years a resident of Diveevo, Marta (baptized Martha) Balabanova, told me that shortly before my arrival, somewhere in a monastery monastery near Arzamas there was an apparition of the Mother of God. Several children were honored to see the miracle. I asked Martha to find out as much as possible about what happened. Due to the nature of her work - Martha works as a driver at the monastery and takes pilgrims to holy places - she knows many of the nuns of the monastery and residents of Diveevo. And she managed to reconstruct the picture of what happened almost down to detail. Here's what she said:
“It happened in the skete of the Diveyevo Monastery, in the village of Pushkarka, Arzamas region. There is the Red House (that's what everyone calls it). Previously, in the monastery monastery in the Red House there was the Church of St. John the Theologian. The nuns of the monastery are now restoring this temple. In the meantime, the Red House houses a vegetable storehouse, a warehouse and cells. I often take various products there at the request of the monastery and know well the people who labor in the monastery. This happened on the evening of August 17, on the eve of the holiday of the Suvorov new martyrs Evdokia, Daria, Darya and Maria (they were shot by the Bolsheviks in the village of Puzo, now Suvorovo, near Diveevo). Adults, led by the head of the monastery, novice Ekaterina, read aloud the lives of these holy martyrs. And suddenly four children ran into the room - 7-year-old Elena Kartseva, 9-year-old Masha Prokopenko and Gelya and Nadya. Excited people run in and begin excitedly, interrupting each other, to talk about the miracle that happened... First, I’ll tell you about the eyewitnesses of what happened. Elena came to Diveevo from Krivoy Rog with her mother. In the summer they lived in a monastery, and now they are in Diveevo. The girl explained to me in detail everything she had seen. Masha is from Astrakhan and now lives in the Red House, in a monastery. Nadya also lives in Pushkarka, but her parents forbade her to talk about the miracle. Gelya (Angelina), the fourth witness to the incident, lives in Nizhny Novgorod. She came to the monastery in the summer and then went home. I was unable to meet her. All the children who witnessed the miracle are from believing families, raised in religious traditions. I spoke with Elena and Masha separately. Their stories coincide in many ways, but there are also significant differences. Thus, Elena was given the opportunity to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and Father Seraphim. Whereas Masha saw only “God sitting on a white chair.” But both of them unanimously say that they saw the icon of Tsar Nicholas carried by Angels. I was not bothered by this difference in their stories. Although 9-year-old Masha began to assure me that her friend, 7-year-old Elena, was deliberately embellishing what she saw, I am still sure that Elena (like Masha) was not exaggerating at all, she was simply given the opportunity to see more. Perhaps because she is two years younger than her friend (the Fatima apparitions in Portugal in 1917 were also perceived differently by all the children, although in the main their stories coincided - author
.). This is what the skete children told the adults that evening. The girls were playing near the Red House on this clear summer evening. Suddenly the heavens opened and a bright yellow light poured onto them from the gap... First, all the children in the sky saw the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on a throne - in His hands was a cane that was shining very brightly. His face sparkled. Then some children saw the Most Holy Theotokos - She looked at them kindly and affectionately. Her eyes were almost invisible from the bright light, but only Her lips were clearly visible. The glow was so strong that the children had to cover their eyes with their hands. Then they saw Father Seraphim, who looked at them very sternly (“rudely,” as Lena said). His stern gaze contrasted greatly with the gentle, merciful gaze of the Queen of Heaven. Then the children saw how two Angels carried the icon of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II over the Red House. The children ran in the direction where the Angels were carrying the Holy Icon and ran to the forest. The angels carried the Icon further, but the children did not dare to go into the forest. We returned home and told the adults everything. The vision lasted, in their opinion, about half an hour. I asked Mother Catherine what this miracle could mean. She answered: “Probably something terrible is going to happen. This is not for good, but for some kind of sorrow.” I don't know if she's right. But I think that this miracle is intended to strengthen us in faith. We have so many intercessors: the Most Holy Theotokos, Father Seraphim, and Tsar Nicholas... Mother Catherine is often sick, maybe this phenomenon happened for her too, so that she would be healed. - Why did St. Seraphim look so sternly at the children? - I ask. “How should I know... Maybe we’re doing something wrong,” Martha answered. Of course, it was no coincidence that in this apparition the children saw both Father Seraphim and the icon of the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas. These saints are not just related to each other (Tsar Nicholas took part in the canonization of St. Seraphim, and the Sarov elder prophesied: “I will glorify the Tsar who glorified me”). Perhaps these two great saints close to us in time have special grace from God to intercede for Russia. So this summer, two greatest holidays: the consecration of the Church on the Blood at the site of the death of the Royal Family in Yekaterinburg and the centenary of the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov - became the main events of church life. We need to pray to these saints, we need to ask the Mother of God to have mercy on our country and take away the impending troubles from us. This summer I had the opportunity to visit Yekaterinburg, the site of the murder of the Royal Family. During the few hours that I spent in the Monastery of the Royal Passion-Bearers on Ganina Yama, I happened to witness an unusual event. A newly painted icon was brought to the monastery for consecration, in which Father Seraphim and Tsar Nicholas pray together for Russia. The icon also depicts Tsarevich Alexei and Queen Alexandra. In this holy image one can easily recognize the temples of the famous Diveyevo monastery. On the icon is the inscription: “I will glorify the king who glorifies me.” This icon was intended for the Diveyevo Monastery. To commemorate this event, all those present were given small copies of this newly consecrated icon. And now, a month later, in the sky above the Diveyevo monastery, two great saints of God appeared together in the sparkle of the opened heavens... The Diveyevo land was and remains a place where God’s miracles happen. And I consider it my duty to include this amazing event in this endless chronicle of wondrous miracles.
In the pictures:
Red house in the village
Pushkarka; Lena Prokopenko, eyewitness of the miracle. Next to her is the cassock novice Ekaterina, the elder of the monastery; Icon with Father Seraphim and Tsar-Martyr Nicholas. Anton Zhogolev 09/26/2003
Pilgrim page. Stories about holy places.
“Oh, oh, my joy! Four pillars - four relics! What a joy we are, father! Four pillars - this means that four relics will rest here! And we will have this tomb of relics, father! What a joy we are! What a joy!” said the Venerable Father Seraphim to Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov in 1829 about the Diveyevo Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary: And indeed, the joy of greatness visited the Diveyevo sisters and all admirers of the Diveyevo monastery when on September 13/26, 2000 the relics of the Venerable Alexandra were found, Martha and Elena Diveevsky, and on December 9/22, 2000, on the day of the celebration of the icon of the Mother of God “Unexpected Joy”, they were glorified as locally revered saints of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. The Venerable Seraphim himself spoke about their future glorification and that their incorruptible relics would openly rest in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary.
Reverend Alexandra (in the world Agafia Semyonovna Melgunova) is the founder of the Diveevo community - “Wonderful Diveevo”, a monastery that is the fourth Destiny of the Queen of Heaven. The Monk Seraphim called her “a holy and great wife.” Marvelous was her humility, marvelous her exploits, marvelous her life.
The Venerable Martha (in the world Maria Semyonovna Melyukova), a 19-year-old schema-monastery, remained in the monastery for 13 years with the blessing of the Monk Seraphim, filled with amazing obedience; the Monk Seraphim confided many secrets to her.
Reverend Elena (in the world Elena Vasilyevna Manturova) is the sister of Mikhail Vasilyevich Manturov, the benefactor of the Deveyevo community. An ascetic, she died out of obedience for her brother at the age of 27.
At the graves of the saints, when prayers were addressed to them, miracles and healings were performed more than once. According to the behest of St. Seraphim, the sisters went to their graves every morning and evening with prayer: at the grave of Mother Alexandra: “Our lady and mother, forgive me and bless me! Pray that I too may be forgiven, just as you are forgiven, and remember me at the Throne of God!”, at the grave of Schema-nun Martha: “Our Lady and Mother Martha, remember us at the Throne of God in the Kingdom of Heaven,” at the grave of Mon. Helen: “Our Lady and Mother Helen, remember us at the Throne of God in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
And now - glorification.
The people have arrived! More than on the summer holiday of St. Father Seraphim, which is August 1st! And usually in the summer on this day tons of people come, it seems impossible anymore! But so many pilgrims gathered for the glorification of Saints Alexandra, Martha and Helena that the sisters were amazed.
After the discovery of the relics, which took place on September 26, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, the relics were located in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, where memorial services were constantly served. In the three days before the glorification, six (!) funeral Liturgies were performed in different churches. They even served in the Kazan Church at the Kazan Spring. The glorification itself took place on December 22 during the late Divine Liturgy in the Trinity Cathedral. During the glorification, the relics stood open.
The sisters tell how beautiful, solemn everything was, there was such grace! Many obedient sisters did not sleep for days - and noticed that they did not feel tired at all, and did not want to sleep!
All day long everyone venerated the relics. Then the relics were transferred by the clergy to the Transfiguration Cathedral. There, too, the relics were opened for veneration. And on Sunday evening, December 24, the sisters transferred the relics to the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. The Reverend’s prediction was fulfilled that the sisters themselves would carry the relics.
And now the relics rest in the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and are open for worship every day.
And on October 6, 2004, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church determined to canonize the venerable wives of Diveyevo as church saints and include them in the Months of the Russian Orthodox Church.
