The Monk Alexander of Svirsky is a saint who labored in the Russian North in the 15th-16th centuries, the successor of the first Russian hermits. He is called “The Seer of the Holy Trinity” and “Alexander the Wonderworker of All Russia.”
A prayer service to St. Alexander of Svirsky is ordered in the following cases:
- about health;
- about healing from diseases, including cancer, the consequences of a stroke, demonic possession;
- about the gift of a child to parents who do not have children, as well as about the birth of a son;
- about the child’s educational success;
- about help with everyday needs (finding a job, housing, financial problems);
- about strengthening faith and returning those who have fallen away to the Church;
- about victims of magicians, sorcerers, psychics, about protection from demonic forces;
- about protection from enemies, offenders;
- about the Fatherland;
- about strengthening on the path of monasticism.
First prayer
O sacred head, earthly angel and heavenly man, venerable and God-bearing Father Alexandra, great servant of the Most Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, show many mercies to those living in your holy monastery and to everyone who flows to you with faith and love! Ask us everything that is useful for this temporary life, and necessary for our eternal salvation. Help with your intercession, servant of God, before the Lord against enemies visible and invisible. May His faithful servants, who cry out to Him day and night in grief and sorrow, hear the much-painful cry and may our belly be delivered from destruction. May the holy Orthodox Church of Christ abide in peace, and may our fatherland be founded in prosperity, indestructible in all piety. Be to all of us, miracle-working saint, a quick helper in every sorrow and situation. Most of all, at the hour of our death, a merciful intercessor appeared to us, so that we may not betray the power of the evil ruler of the world during the ordeals of the air, but may we be honored with a stumbling-free ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven. Hey, Father, our dear prayer book! Do not disgrace our hope, do not despise our humble prayer, and intercede for us before the Throne of the Life-Giving Trinity, so that, together with you and with all the saints, we are unworthy, in the villages of paradise to glorify the greatness, grace and mercy of the One in the Trinity of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
How do prayers to a saint help?
Prayers are addressed to Saint Alexander of Svirsky for healing from illness, especially from stomach diseases. After all, in his youth he himself was miraculously healed from a similar illness by a Divine phenomenon.
A prayer to Saint Alexander of Svirsky for health will always be heard and accepted if it is offered from a pure heart. The saint helps many people in having children, especially when they pray for a son, that is, they ask for the birth of a boy.
Second prayer
O venerable and God-bearing Father Alexander! Ask us everything that is useful for this temporary life, and even more necessary for our eternal salvation. Be to us, servants of God ( names
), a miracle-working saint, a quick helper in every sorrow and situation. Most of all, at the hour of our death, a merciful intercessor appeared to us, so that we may not be betrayed in the ordeals of the air to the power of the evil world ruler, but may we be honored with a stumbling-free ascension into the Kingdom of Heaven. Hey, Father, our dear prayer book! Do not disgrace our hope, do not despise our humble prayers, but always intercede for us before the Throne of the Life-Giving Trinity, so that we may be worthy, together with you and with all the saints, even if we are unworthy, in the villages of paradise to glorify the greatness, grace and mercy of the One God in the Trinity, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.
Life
The Monk Alexander was born into a poor family of Novgorod peasants. His parents remained childless for a long time, but did not give up prayer for the gift of a son.
They gave the long-awaited child a Christian upbringing. However, science was not given to the youth and he begged for understanding with persistent prayer.
The pious young man was secretly thinking about monastic life when his parents decided to marry him. Fearing his parents' wrath, he headed to the Valaam Monastery.
When the future monk crossed the Svir River, a mysterious voice announced - this is the place of his future ministry, a monastery is to be built here.
Having taken monastic vows, the Monk Alexander surprised the brethren with his asceticism and exactingness towards himself. Soon monastic life became not strict enough for him, and the Monk Alexander went into seclusion on a remote stone island. There he spent 10 years in complete silence. The monk's cell was a narrow, damp cave. Not far away, mindful of his hour of death, he prepared a grave for himself.
In 1485, obeying God's instructions, Alexander Svirsky moved to the bank of the Svir, to the place that was indicated to him before. He lived for several more years in silence and prayer, then God revealed his saint to people.
Monks thirsty for spiritual guidance flocked to the place where the righteous man settled. Having learned about his insight, the gift of healing diseases and spiritual ailments, the laity came for help.
After 23 years of life in Svir, the Monk Alexander was awarded a vision - the Life-Giving Trinity appeared to his bodily eyes in the form of three angels. Just like the once righteous Abraham under the Mamre oak. At this place, the monks erected the Trinity Cathedral - the center of the historical part of the Trinity Monastery.
Having become abbot, the Monk Alexander showed even more humility before the brethren - he chopped wood himself, cooked food, wore old clothes, slept on the bare floor and often reproached himself for idleness.
The Lord allowed his saint 85 years of life. Saint Alexander ordered that after his death the brethren trample his body underfoot and throw it into the swamp. But the monks reverently buried the abbot near the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
More than 100 years later, the body of the first abbot of the monastery was found incorrupt, transferred to the temple and exhibited for worship.
After the revolution, the monastery was plundered, the relics of the saint were taken away accompanied by the Cheka, as stated in the directive - “for the purpose of mercilessly fighting the enemies of the communist idea.” For 80 years, their fate was unknown; in search of the slightest clue, Orthodox Christians painstakingly studied state archives and museum collections.
The relics were discovered by the nuns of the Tervenichesky Monastery. As it turned out, the reverend’s incorruptible body was kept as an unknown exhibit in the museum of the Military Medical Academy of St. Petersburg. Since the monk often opened his eyes and thereby frightened the laboratory assistant, she gouged them out and filled the eye sockets with wax.
The authenticity of the relics was confirmed by several independent examinations. Since 1999, they were exhibited in the Church of Faith, Hope, Love and their mother Sophia in St. Petersburg, then returned to the chapel of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
The relics of St. Alexander are compared to the white vestments of the Transfiguration. Hundreds of skeptical people turn to faith, having attached themselves to them - intact, like those of a person who has just fallen asleep.
Life of Saint Alexander of Svirsky
The Monk Alexander Svirsky was born in 1448 in the Olonets province of Russia into a family of deeply religious people. He was the only long-awaited child. His parents named him Amos in honor of the biblical prophet. They loved their son immensely. They took care of his upbringing and training. But at the beginning of his studies, the son did poorly, knowledge was poorly given to him. Raised in faith and humility, Amos prayed for God's help in his studies and was a patient and diligent student. And the Lord heard him, the boy quickly began to catch up with his classmates and soon became the best.
He was not a sociable child; he always strived for solitude and prayer. From his youth, the teenager exhausted himself with fasting and abstinence. The mother was worried about this. I tried to persuade him not to torture himself. But the son answered her that it was pleasant for him and reassured his mother.
When Amos grew up, his parents wanted to find him a bride, but he avoided it in every possible way. His heart attracted him to monasticism.
One day he met monks and talked a lot with them, listened to stories about the monastic monastery on Valaam. The teenager began to beg to take him with them, but the monks replied that this was possible only with the blessing of the abbot and with the permission of his parents. After the monks left, Amos prayed a lot and came to the final decision to secretly leave home and settle in a monastery. So he did.
One day, when he was wandering around a beautiful lake, he heard a voice that praised him for choosing the path, blessed him and informed him that a monastery would be founded in this place.
Having reached the monastery, Amos lived there for a long time, until at the age of 26 he took monastic vows and received his name - Alexander. But after 13 years of life in the monastery, Alexander began to seek solitude. At first the abbot did not let him go, but then he blessed him. The monk retired to Lake Roshchinskoe not far from the Svir River, where he heard the voice of God. There, in the most remote place, he built himself a cell. In it he lived a very harsh, ascetic life full of trials. He did not see people for 7 years, did not eat bread, but only grass. His main occupation was prayer.
One day a rich boyar came across his home while hunting and Alexander revealed himself to him. The boyar was amazed by the purity of his soul and the divine light emanating from the righteous man. He began to help him, delivering modest food and clothing.
Gradually, people learned about the hermit’s home, and those who wanted peace, tranquility and prayer began to settle next to him. And soon all the brethren united and together decided to build a monastery.
At this time, Alexander received the great honor of beholding the Holy Trinity. He heard a command to build a Church of the Holy Trinity in this place. Alexander himself began to be called Svirsky after the name of the river near which he founded the monastery.
Soon, by order of Bishop Serapion of Novgorod, he accepted the priesthood and became abbot. At the same time, he performed all the hardest work during the construction of the monastery, wore an old cassock and was modest and abstinent. People brought donations for the construction of churches in the monastery, and the Grand Duke also provided assistance.
Gradually the monastery grew and expanded. The abbot did not leave anyone without spiritual help and support. He showed miracles of foresight, spiritual vision, and healing. The saint lived to a ripe old age, leaving behind a thriving monastery, which he founded as a modest hermit’s cell. The monk was buried in the monastery; his incorrupt relics are kept in the same monastery to this day.
Monastery in honor of the wonderworker Alexander Svirsky
Now there is a monastery, which is located 260 kilometers from St. Petersburg.
Throughout its construction, the monastery had to see a lot: wrecks, fires, execution of saints, ruin and the long loss of the relics of Alexander Svirsky. Currently, work is actively underway to restore this temple so that the new monastery of Orthodoxy can appear worthy of any holy person. At that time, the monastery was built by those people who sent quite large sums for building materials and for the builders themselves. On the territory of the monastery there is now a Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God, where you can come at any time and pray near the icon of the saint of virtue and ask the patron saints of the whole world for human healing and blessings, and also for all your sins to depart from you. The Transfiguration Cathedral was made using beautiful stone and decorated with various interiors and ideas of its creator.
What prayers did the saint himself write?
The reverend elder himself wrote prayers to strengthen the spirit. These prayers glorify the Lord and the Most Pure Mother of God, and also help Christians turn to God every day with sincere repentance and humility.
Lord God
God, cleanse me, a sinner, and have mercy on me, and forgive me, Lord God, Gracious Savior! Grant me, Lord, a Christian end with the Most Pure Body and the Honest Blood, with tears and repentance. Deliver, O Lord, eternal torment, unquenchable fire, and never-ending worms, and boiling tar. Lord, You created me, Lord, You have mercy. Lord, I am Your creation.
Holy Mother of God
Most Pure Lady of Mercy, Queen of Heaven, pray to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, Your Son, for me, Your sinful servant (name). Grant me, Lady, a Christian end with the Most Pure Body and the Honest Blood and with tears and repentance. Deliver, O Lady, eternal torment, unquenchable fire, and never-ending worms, and boiling pitch. Most Pure Lady, Merciful Queen of Heaven, You are the Prayer Book to the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ for me, Your sinful and accursed servant (name of the rivers), You are the Helper, You are the Intercessor from all evil and co-conspirator, do not forget, Most Pure Lady, the beggar Yours until the end.
Zealous Intercessor, Compassionate Mother of the Lord, I come running to You, the accursed one and the most sinful person above all. Listen to the voice of my prayer and hear my cry and groaning. For my iniquities have exceeded my head, and I, like a ship in the abyss, am plunging into the sea of my sins. But You, All-Good and Merciful Lady, do not despise me, desperate and perishing in sins. Have mercy on me, who repent of my evil deeds, and turn my lost, accursed soul to the right path. On You, my Lady Theotokos, I place all my hope. Thou, Mother of God, preserve and keep me under Thy roof, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
All days
My soul, my soul, why do you complain about the Lord? For your laziness is an intercessor for the eternal mute. If only I knew the gift of God, I would cry with burning tears, groaning with sighs, grieving over every sin, small and great. Cry out to Your Master, so that the wrath of the possessor does not precede you with the all-powerful hand of the righteous. But I, a sinner and a lazy and flattering tongue, how shall I pray to my Master, may the Lord deliver me from the Last Judgment? I always tremble with the thought in my heart about the Last Judgment, may it save me from eternal torment, and never-ending worms, and pitch darkness, and from unwarmed thunderstorms. Have mercy on me, Thy sinful servant (name of the river), like Paul the Apostle, whom I love more than all, and do not turn Thy face away from us, the poor, on this Terrible Day, for whom my soul trembles and the parts of my body are terrified. Lord, deliver me from this terrible hour, so that I may not fall away from Your mercy. But I pray to the holy Angels and Archangels, and the prophets, and the martyrs, and all the saints, that they pray to God for my soul. For the sake of your prayer, may the Lord return His demands from me, a sinner. And you, Most Pure Lady Virgin, having boldness towards the Son for Your servants, do not forget the labors of Your servant (name of the rivers). Master Savior, from my poor soul I pray to You, deliver me from the sorrow of my sins and lead me into the joy of endless life, where Your all-holy Name, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, is glorified, always, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Troparion to Saint Alexander, Abbot of Svirsky
Troparion, tone 4
“From your youth, God-wise, you moved into the desert with spiritual desire, and you only desired to follow the steps of Christ alone; In the same way, repair the angels, seeing you, marveling at how, having labored with the flesh against invisible wiles, you, wisely, conquered the armies of passions by abstinence, and you appeared equal to the angels on earth; Reverend Alexandra, pray to Christ God to save our souls.”
Kontakion, tone 8
“Like a multi-bright star, today you have shone in the Russian countries, Father, having taken up residence in the desert. You have zealously desired to follow Christ’s footsteps, and the holy cross has lifted the holy yoke upon your side; you have put to death the labors of your bodily leaps. In the same way, we cry to you: save your flock, which you have gathered, wise, so we call to you: Rejoice, Reverend Alexandra, our father.”
The meaning of the divine image
This face depicts an old man with a wise look and outstretched hands to God for all of us. In 1918, the relics of the Saint were taken away by the Bolsheviks. But according to historical records, one museum worker hid them from destruction. It was not until 1998 that they could be seen again for worship.
Many scientists have repeatedly taken particles of the Wonderworker’s relics for research, but none of them can explain this phenomenon. The relics have been preserved in perfect condition and at the most significant moments they begin to flow myrrh. Bees often flock to this smell.
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Miracles were noted that happened to paralyzed people, cancer patients, blind people, and demoniacs.
They pray to the icon of St. Alexander of Svirsky for strengthening faith and healing from physical illnesses. Those who decided to go to a monastery also apply. People who cannot have children turn to him with a request for a child, as well as for understanding the life path of their baby.
Days of Honor
Celebrations occur twice a year:
- April 30 (April 17, old style) – the day of the discovery of the relics
- September 12 (August 30, old style) is the day in honor of the repose of the Saint.
Where can you see the face of a saint?
- The relics are located in the Holy Trinity Monastery (Leningrad Region). Here you can find a revered image.
- Other holy images can be seen in the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity (Moscow) and in the Church of St. Alexander of Svirsky (Moscow).
