“It was Thekla’s blessing to go to the monastery”
– Mother, why did it happen that Saint Thekla became not only your patroness, but also the monastery’s?
– It all started before I was born – my parents got married to Thekla, on October 7th. But they didn’t have children for a long time – 5 years. Mom could not give birth because in her youth she suffered from peritonitis and underwent a serious operation. She was told that there would be no children. My parents were about to get a divorce, but my mother became a church member, and I was born. But at first, the war was in the family - everyone said that my mother was dragged into a sect, that she had become abnormal. But she begged me before God, and I was born on Thekla to open a monastery. Do you see the parallel?
I remember that when I was baptized at the age of 21, I immediately went to St. Petersburg. And there is the Kazan Cathedral, where they sell icons. It was there that they said that my saint was Thekla the First Martyr. “And you, too, should have been called Thekla,” they told me. And I didn’t like this name so much! Some kind of Thekla... “No, you find this icon and pray to it,” they told me then in the Kazan Cathedral.
And I began to search, but I could not find this icon anywhere. How many years have I been looking for her! There were no computers or the Internet back then. “Well, where can I find you, Thekla? What kind of icon do you have? – constantly turned to her patron saint. And when I came to the monastery, only then did I see her icon. It was her blessing to go to the monastery.
There is also an interesting story connected with Thekla. We went to Father Andrian because there were problems with the official registration of the land. And when I came to see him again, he said: “So, God’s will, you go to the bishop, stamp your foot and tell him: “Either you open a monastery here, or we leave.” I come with this attitude, and they tell me: “Wait, now the diocese is being divided - pray.” And when the lawyer and I were already drawing up documents for the land, it turned out that on Thekla, October 7, the patriarch issued a decree appointing Bishop Nikita to the department. And the first monastery that Vladyka opened was our monastery in honor of Thekla.
Father Anthony (Gavrilov) from Optina said that Thekla would be the patroness of the monastery, Father Eli (Nozdrin) also spoke about Thekla even before my appearance. And the main thing is that no one knew why she. I asked Father Elijah why Thekla? Maybe differently? But he didn’t, in honor of Thekla. He respects her very much. We haven’t had him for a long time... We keep calling him, but he doesn’t come. Although he strives with all his heart, he constantly asks how we are here. He apparently remembers his last visit, when there was complete devastation here.
– It turns out that the patroness Thekla was with you even before you were born and continues to help you in monastic affairs. We know that a lot of good things happened after our first conversation. This year there were two significant events for you. Firstly, the voluntary sisterhood of the holy martyr Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, which you have long dreamed of, has been formed. Secondly, a decision was made to build a new modern building for the Center for Social Assistance for Elderly People Finding themselves in Difficult Life Situations...
– Yes, there are about 15 people in the almshouse now, but there isn’t enough room for everyone. Sick and elderly nuns live and receive care here. Here the sisters of the monastery carry out obedience in shifts. However, there are many more people in need of screening, so those who can currently do without 24/7 care are forced to live in the nursing building. I have long raised the issue that the monastery needs not only a new almshouse, but also a house church, since some of the sisters are deprived of divine services for health reasons. Today they gather unction, confess and receive communion in private.
And so, during the March visit of Bishop Nikita, a decision was made to build a new modern building where the Center for Social Assistance for Elderly People Finding themselves in Difficult Life Situations will be located. They will be served by volunteers from the monastery sisterhood of the holy martyr Queen Alexandra Feodorovna.
And our initiation into the sisterhood is scheduled for May 12th. On this day, all newcomers will be given badges and a special uniform. Our Bishop Nikita will definitely be present at the big celebration.
– Mother Vitalia, many in our area already know that you and the nuns of the monastery are, in fact, sisters of mercy. What you do is called medical and social ministry. At the same time, as far as I understand, you did not stop this activity even during the pandemic, but toured hospitals.
“Since September last year, we have been visiting seriously ill patients in the Kozel city hospital. They brought them crosses, spiritual literature, and holy water. There was even an agreement with the head physician that a priest would come to the hospital on certain days.
When the coronavirus raged in earnest, all medical institutions were closed for quarantine, we could not quit what we had started - we went to Podborki and brought gifts to the residents of the nursing home. And on Christmas, right under their windows, they organized a concert for them, singing Christmas carols. The grandmothers were not allowed to go out, so they all lined up at the windows and waved to us with their thin arms.
Today, together with Elena Grigorieva, the designated elder sister, we are making plans. All of them, of course, are related to medical and social service. This includes assistance in caring for the sick in medical institutions on the territory of the diocese, as well as spiritual care in nursing homes, disabled people and almshouses. We want to supervise the work of all almshouses in the district. For example, in Frolovsk, where Father Yaroslav finds it difficult to cope alone. We will also provide social and medical assistance at home to the infirm grandparents of Kozelsk - we have parishioners and already friends of the monastery - qualified doctors from Kaluga and Moscow, ready to take on their treatment.
– Are you strong enough for such a difficult service?
“I would really like to attract large families to participate in charity raids, so that children from a young age, looking at the example of their parents, get used to helping the elderly. For example, while adults are chopping wood, they put logs in a woodpile.
Our sisterhood has many plans. But they can be implemented only with one condition - that there be enough hands for all good deeds. So far there are few of them. Therefore, we call on kind and honest people from the world to join us to serve the cause of mercy.
Choosing a path
Meanwhile, the older brothers went to Moscow to work, and after some time, secretly from their father, they went to the Sarov Hermitage, intending to devote their lives to God in monasticism. Alexander corresponded with them, learned from them about spiritual literature - as soon as he learned to read, it became his favorite pastime - and consulted with his brothers. From his adolescence, he began to think about the advantages of monastic life. Here is an excerpt from his letter to his brothers: “I really liked one of the books you sent, and I want to follow one example from this book, that is: “to despise the world and go to the Heavenly Kingdom is the highest wisdom; in silence and stillness a reverent soul accomplishes much and understands the mysteries of Scripture. So, whoever withdraws from the world, God comes to him with His holy angels."
But the father, as already described in the life of Elder Moses, was categorically against the children going to the monastery. When the eldest son Timothy arrived from Sarov and admitted that he had been laboring in the desert for a year and wanted to become a monk, this news struck his father like a bolt from the blue. He had to come to terms with what had happened, but he was very angry. Therefore, Alexander was afraid to confess his intention to his father. When Ivan Grigorievich became seriously ill in 1809, his mother, who did not decide any family matters without consulting her husband, turned to him with the question: “Where are you blessing Alexander?” He answered briefly: “To God.” She, knowing her son’s desire, asked again: “What position do you order him to live in? With your brothers? Ivan Grigorievich answered: “So that you fear God.” He died soon after. “I was extremely pleased,” wrote Father Anthony, “that my parent entrusted me to God, and not to anyone else... I understand his last saying to me in this sense: that no matter where you live, you must always fear God. This is his last testament to me."
The notes preserve an interesting description of Alexander's time in captivity during the French invasion. In 1812, he and his brother Kirill ended up in Moscow on business. When the French entered the city, Alexander fell behind his fleeing relatives and was captured; he later recalled that he spent those days as if “in some kind of hell.” The prisoners were forced to carry the loot, beaten, and humiliated in every possible way. Finally he managed to escape and reached his relatives in Rostov, where he remained to live.
In Rostov, among everyday affairs and worries, Alexander continued to correspond with his brothers, his secret desire to leave the world became stronger and stronger. He often visited the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery and prayed at the relics of Saints Demetrius and Jacob of Rostov. But it was not easy to decide on the last step; he was overcome by doubts whether he was ready to withstand the unusual way of life. Finally, Alexander was about to carry out his intention. Secretly from his family, he first went to Moscow, where he completed the necessary documents, and then to his brother Timofey in the Roslavl forests. A break with the world is always painful: “...and it was not easy for me to part forever with my pious and much-loving parent; then to part with all my brothers and all my sisters, with all my relatives, with all my neighbors, with all my friends, with all my lures and passions, and go to a place that I have never seen, and take upon myself such a way of life that seemed unbearable to me,” Father Anthony later recalled. His brother, telling him in a letter how to get to the desert, encouraged him: “God grant that you do everything safely. Get ready, brother (I repeat again), on the praiseworthy path of Christ, do not hesitate and do not be afraid of anything. God will be with you and will correct all your needs for the organization of your life - believe this without a doubt.”
Alexander hired a guide who took him to the village closest to the desert, and then he went on alone. As the first biography of the elder tells: “Having prayed to God, he let go of the reins, the horse walked on its own and... brought him straight to a log hut hidden in the thickets. This was the cell of Elder Athanasius, with whom Timothy lived in obedience. Everything around was covered with snow...” Thus, in 1816, Alexander Ivanovich Putilov laid the foundation for monastic exploits.
“As for healing, such a miracle happened to me too...”
– People with difficult destinies and fatal diagnoses often come to your monastery...
– Yes, they come with cancer. One woman lives with us after a suicide attempt. She had a family tragedy, after which she became despondent. She is undergoing rehabilitation here - working, praying. Here we have the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Three Hands”, the grave of Schemamonk John (Davydov). A great ascetic and wanderer, he rested in our monastery in August 2022. He was 83 years old, we all called him Grandfather. Miracles now also happen at his grave.
- Yes, every step you take here is a miracle. But everyone has their own attitude towards miracles. Many people immediately begin to look for scientific explanations for such phenomena. Tell us in more detail about cases that cannot be explained by any science.
– A woman once came to us with a sore back. It turned out that she had a terrible, fast-growing fibroid, which had to be urgently removed in a special clinic. She passed all the tests and came to us a week before the operation - bought Thekla’s belt and wore it without taking it off for a week. And when the woman was prescribed a control ultrasound and MRI, there was no trace of the fibroids left. A real miracle happened, which she told us about as soon as she arrived after discharge. This is what Fekla’s belt turned out to be.
But with us, however, every step here is a miracle! To the point that one day we sit without bread. The store doesn't have it, and there's no car to go pick it up. “God,” my sisters and I turn to Him, “You see that we have no bread.” And suddenly guests come to us and bring bread. This is what happens when a person lives for Christ...
As for healing, such a miracle happened to me, in which the icon of the Mother of God “Three Hands” helped. When I was scheduled for heart surgery to install a septum, Father Andrian called me and said: “If you have faith in God, then don’t have the operation.” And although I had already agreed with the doctors, I didn’t go. And four years later, when they began to conduct a repeat study, they couldn’t believe their eyes - a septum appeared! Until now, this has never happened in medicine. What a miracle!
– Your monastery is associated with an outstanding person - a pilot, scientist, musician, poet and priest. All this is Father Nikolai Bruni. Did you somehow contact his relatives? Did you manage to find out anything new about this person, for example, where he was buried?
– Relatives were with us, they found out that Father Nikolai served here. He suffered for Christ - he was exiled and shot in Ukhta. He was buried in a common grave, so we will no longer find his relics...
And his story is truly outstanding. In September 1917, a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary was heard from Bruni's falling plane. So, the second pilot of the plane crashed to death, and Nikolai woke up in a military hospital - broken, but alive. In the hospital he had a vision, and then the future priest made a vow to God: if he survived, he would serve Him. And the Mother of God then showed him this place, telling him to serve in the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the village of Kosyn, now Senino-Pervoye.
Return to home
In the memorial book of Father Anthony it is written: “On February 9, 1853, I, the unworthy abbot Anthony, handed over his leadership in the Maloyaroslavets Nikolaevsky Chernoostrovsky monastery to the new abbot, father abbot Nikodim, and, having brought a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord God in the holy temple for all His good deeds, on me former, and about his prosperous 13-year stay in it and asking forgiveness from all the brethren, he left the monastery at one o’clock in the afternoon; and on the 12th he arrived in God-saved Optina Pustyn, where he was received fatherly. Lord, bless my entry into this holy monastery, and grant me a good ending therein, for the prayers of my holy father!” The return of the elder was facilitated by Vladyka Philaret of Moscow, who sincerely loved and revered both Putilov brothers, always lovingly receiving them if they found themselves in Moscow on business.
For Father Anthony, returning to his native monastery was a great joy; he wrote to his long-time spiritual friend, Archimandrite Gennady, abbot of the Pafnutiev-Borovsky Monastery: “Your remark, father, is fair about my present blissful life, for no previous worries about reports, neither about the brethren, nor about the pits and what we drink, do not weigh on my poor soul, and it’s as if I were reborn! My soul is in a joyful and peaceful state.” Now he lived in Optina, in retirement, next to his dear brother, and often visited the Baptist Skete, his brainchild.
In August 1856, the rector of the Sarov Hermitage, Abbot Isaiah, the brother of Fathers Moses and Anthony, came to Optina Pustyn. Fr. Anthony saw him in Moscow about fifteen years ago, and Fr. Moses had not seen his brother for thirty-eight years, with whom he had once begun monastic life in Sarov. On August 26, the day of the coronation of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander II, three brother monks served the liturgy and prayer service together.
