Life
In the history of the Orthodox Church there have always been special chosen ones of God, whom the Lord called to the great and difficult feat of the foolishness of Christ for the sake of Christ, placing them at the forefront of the struggle for the truth of Christ, for the salvation of human souls. The Apostle Paul says that in Christian deeds there is no male or female gender, that is, both men and women are equally revered for the holiness of life. But sometimes women are called by male names: this is how Blessed Ksenia called herself Andrei Fedorovich; Elder Dosifei, who blessed St. Seraphim's feat was actually an old woman; Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna, who labored in the Diveyevo Monastery, was called the second Seraphim for her holiness. The life of this wondrous old woman of Christ for the sake of the holy fool is truly amazing, since all her spiritual gifts were purchased dearly at the cost of the martyrdom of her entire life. This woman will be a great lamp! This is what the Sarov miracle worker said about the future blessed elder Pelagia Ivanovna Serebrennikova. She was born in 1809 into a wealthy merchant family in Arzamas. In her youth and until her death, Pelageya Ivanovna was distinguished by her extraordinary beauty. But at all times, beauty has not been the key to human happiness on earth, but, on the contrary, has served as a cause of temptation both for its owners and for those around them. From her youth, Pelageya Ivanovna began to struggle with a possible source of temptation and began to pretend to be crazy, crazy, repulsively sick. She also did this in order not to get married, since childhood she strove to enter a monastery. But, despite the madness deliberately played out during the bridegroom, the groom who came to woo her did not refuse her and brought her into his house. Soon after her forced marriage, Pelagia Ivanovna visited Rev. Seraphim in Sarov and had a long conversation with him, which determined her future life and put her on the path of spiritual activity. After this, she began to study the Jesus Prayer, which from a young age began to act gracefully in her. As if having lost her mind, Pelagia Ivanovna began to dress awkwardly and behave strangely in public places, causing gossip and insults, which sincerely pleased her soul, which despised all the blessings of this world. Living on the street, the blessed one ran around the city during the day and went crazy, and spent her nights in prayer on the porch of the church. The husband, like her relatives, who did not understand the great path of her wife, subjected her to beatings and torture, starved and cold, and put her on a chain. Only the grace of God supported her as a chosen one from above and gave her the strength to endure everything that was done to her at that time. These sufferings prepared Pelagia Ivanovna for the transition to the Diveevo monastery in 1837, where the Rev. sent her during a personal meeting. Seraphim, saying: Go, mother, go immediately to my monastery, take care of my orphans and you will be the light of the world, and many will be saved by you! Having settled in the monastery, at first the blessed one behaved very violently and talked a lot, but later she became much quieter and was more silent. Enduring hardships was her voluntary destiny. The ascetic was distinguished by her complete non-covetousness and had the gift of blessed tears. From her youth, Pelagia Ivanovna possessed the gifts of insight into the secrets of human souls and insight, revealing the future. These spiritual gifts began to attract many people of different ranks and status to her. Consoling and healing, instructing and reproaching, the blessed one directed many along the path of salvation. She told everyone only what the Lord Himself would show and who needed what for spiritual salvation: she caresses one, scolds another, smiles on someone, turns away from someone, cries with one, sighs with another, shelters someone, drives someone away, and For others, even if you sit there all day, you won’t say a word, as if you don’t even see them (from the cell attendant’s recollections). The sisters, starting with the abbess of the monastery Maria (Ushakova), consulted the blessed one in everything, and nothing was done in the monastery without her blessing. According to the old lady’s cell attendant, she was a mother to the monastery: nothing was done without her. Whether to send someone in obedience, whether to accept someone into the monastery or to send them away, the abbess did not do anything without her blessing. Whatever Pelageya Ivanovna says is sacred, so be it. And as it happened, she will say, so everything will happen. The day of Blessed Pelageya Ivanovna was described by her cell attendant as follows: From early morning until late at night, it used to be that we had no peace, they would completely exhaust us: some about soldiering, some about the loss, some about marriage, some about grief, some about death, some about illness. both cattle and people, everyone with their grief, with their sorrows, with their dryness and care goes to her, not daring to do anything without her. The sisters of the monastery, who have just a little something, all fly to her. By mail, it happened, and then everyone asks her. As it is, there is no end. And everyone says: as she tells us, so everything will happen. God Himself, it means, already pointed out to people the benefit of living. Old women and young women, simple and important, bosses and non-bosses, she had all of them and all titles without distinction. Pelagia Ivanovna was repeatedly awarded heavenly visions and revelations, the Venerable often appeared to her. Seraphim, instructing her in spiritual life and teaching her how to preserve the monastery of the Queen of Heaven. During the most difficult moments in the history of the Diveyevo Monastery, when after the death of St. Seraphim, divisions and quarrels began there, Pelageya Ivanovna crushed, broke everything in her path, threw stones, broke glass. To a person who does not believe in the invisible spiritual world, this might seem like a manifestation of “violent insanity,” but in fact the blessed one fought with those enemies that cannot be seen with ordinary human vision. And her battles, after which there were broken dishes, broken furniture, torn clothes, led to the fact that everyone in the monastery was pacified. They admonished those who were embarrassed by this behavior of the old woman. And those who were admonished became her faithful admirers. One of them, whom she called her spiritual son, the artist M. Petrov, left memories of how the old woman helped him in his life. At the first meeting, she healed his long-standing illness, only once lightly hitting the sore spot. Then she began to tell me my whole past life with such amazing details that no one knew about except me, and even told me the contents of the letter that I sent to St. Petersburg that day. She pulled me out of the bottom of hell. Having lived for forty-seven years in the monastery, the blessed one reposed peacefully in 1884. The farewell to the elder sister and thousands of lay people, who revered her as their mother, comforter and prayer book, continued for nine days. At the same time, the body of the deceased showed no signs of decay, and her face shone with spiritual beauty.
Orthodox Sarov
Blessed Diveyevo, holy fool for Christ's sake Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrennikova.
At the beginning of the school year, on a beautiful September day, our class visited the Seraphim-Diveevo Convent. The guide, who introduced us to the history of the monastery, recalled with warm feeling the blessed ascetics of Diveyevo.
The Lord does not call those who are weak in soul and body to the difficult feat of foolishness, when a person refuses not only material well-being, but also his mind and “smart” behavior in front of people. Many people, out of cruelty and intolerance, offend (beat, scold, laugh) the senseless and eccentric.
One of them was blessed Pelageya. Her amazing life interested me.
Once, while playing near a house in the village, my mother and I found several interesting pieces of wood. Having thoroughly washed them from the roadside soil, we saw that one of them looked like a female figure, whose dress was being blown away by a strong wind, and she herself was rushing forward. We saw in this figurine the image of Pelageya Ivanovna, her strong character.
The Venerable Seraphim of Sarov himself blessed Pelageya to continue the path of foolishness and instructed her to pray for the Diveyevo monastery, saying: “Take care of my orphans...”.
Pelageya Ivanovna was born in the city of Arzamas. Very early, even in childhood, the Lord called the girl Pelageya to this feat. Even Pelageya Ivanovna’s relatives did not understand her. Forced into marriage, Pelageya Ivanovna ran away from home. Days and nights, in any weather, she wandered around Arzamas, causing ridicule and rumors. For this, her husband put her on an iron chain and beat her severely. Her head was broken in many places, all her ribs were broken. An ordinary person would have died from such wounds long ago. She then brought this chain with her to the Diveyevo monastery and used it as a pillow.
Continuing to work hard and train herself through heroic deeds, the blessed one carried heavy stones for 10 years, broke and smashed thick sticks into pieces, despite the injuries she received. At that time, the territory of the monastery was not as splendid as it is now. There was a deep ditch with water and scattered bricks. The blessed one dialed them in
hem, threw it into a ditch, and icy water washed over her from head to toe. This “work” continued while services were going on in the temple for several years, and the nuns finally put the area in order.
The ascetic hardly slept; she had no bed. I ate almost only black bread.
The blessed one constantly practiced the Jesus Prayer in the open air, in winter and summer, in hurricane winds and heat, barefoot, in a skirt and shirt, and humbly endured ridicule and beatings. One day, while the blessed one was praying on her knees, in the beds of the monastery, her skirt froze to the ground. They found her in the morning, motionless, and barely warmed her up.
From childhood, Pelagia Ivanovna had the gift of foresight. She helped many people with her advice, saved some people’s lives and souls, and sometimes healed them from illnesses. Subsequently, in the Diveyevo monastery, no important decisions or matters were made without her advice.
She also had many different feats.
At the end of her life, when her body was weak from her exploits and age, the blessed one allowed herself to rejoice in the fresh flowers that her admirers brought her in abundance. She sorted the flowers with her hands, prayed and presented them to the coming people.
The blessed one died in the middle of winter, her coffin was strewn with fresh flowers, and people said goodbye day and night in a continuous stream. For nine days her body was warm, as if she had just fallen asleep.
References.
1. “Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrennikova” Diveevo blessed old woman, biography, Diveevo 2002
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Blessed Pelageya Diveevskaya (†1884)
There is no greater and more difficult feat in the Church of Christ than the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake. The Lord Himself blesses only His rare chosen ones on this path. It was on this path that God placed blessed Pelageya Ivanovna .
She was born in October 1809 in the city of Arzamas in the family of merchant Ivan Surin and his wife Praskovya Ivanovna, née Bebesheva. Her father lived quite richly, traded well, had his own tannery and was an intelligent, kind and pious man. He soon died, leaving behind a wife and three young orphans. Their stepfather, the widowed merchant Korolev, disliked them. The life of little Pelageya became unbearable, and a desire was born in her to leave such relatives. Even from a young age, something strange happened to her. She fell ill and, after lying in bed for a whole day, she didn’t look like herself. “From a rarely smart child, she suddenly became something quite stupid. He used to go into the garden, lift up his dress, stand and spin around on one leg, as if he were dancing. They persuaded her and shamed her, even beat her, but nothing helped, so they abandoned her.”
She grew up slender, tall, beautiful, and her mother, as soon as she was 16 years old, tried to get the “fool” married as quickly as possible. The groom, tradesman Sergei Vasilyevich Serebrennikov, according to ancient custom, came to the bride's viewing with his godmother. Pelagia, in order to push him away from her, began to play the fool. The groom, who saw her pretense, despite the advice of her godmother, still decided to get married.
Soon after the marriage, Pelageya Ivanovna went with her husband and mother to the Sarov Hermitage. Father Seraphim brought Pelageya Ivanovna into his cell and talked with her for a long, long time. Then, handing her the rosary, he escorted her with the words: “Go, mother, go immediately to my monastery, take care of my orphans, and you will be the light of the world, and many will be saved by you!” “This woman will be a great lamp!” - the priest said about her afterwards.
The conversation with the wondrous old man had a decisive influence on the future life of Pelageya Ivanovna. Soon, under the guidance of one holy fool, she learned the continuous Jesus Prayer, which began to act gracefully in her and which became her constant occupation for the rest of her life. At night, hidden from everyone, she knelt, facing east, praying in the cold glass gallery attached to their house. She soon began to combine with her feats of prayer the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake, and as if every day she was losing more and more of her mind. It happened that she would put on the most expensive dress, a shawl, and wrap her head in some of the dirtiest rags and go either to church or somewhere for a walk, where more people gathered, so that everyone would see her, judge her and make fun of her.
But it was all the more painful for her husband, who did not understand his wife’s great journey. Sergei Vasilyevich asked and persuaded her, but she remained indifferent to everything. Even when her sons were born, she was definitely not happy about their birth, saying: “God gave it, but I ask you to take it.” Soon, through the prayer of the blessed one, both boys died. From that time on, her husband stopped sparing her and began to beat her terribly, as a result of which Pelageya Ivanovna, despite her healthy and strong nature, began to waste away. She began to walk the streets of Arzamas from church to church, and whatever they gave her for the sake of pity or whatever fell into her hands, she took everything with her and distributed it to the poor or lit candles in the Church of God. The husband catches her, beats her, sometimes with a log, or with anything, a ban and starves her, but she does not let up and repeats one thing: “Leave me alone, Seraphim has spoiled me.” Mad with anger, he went to the police and asked the mayor to flog his wife. He punished her so cruelly that even her mother shuddered and became numb with horror. At night, the mayor saw a cauldron with fire in a dream and heard a voice that the cauldron had been prepared for him for torturing the chosen servant of Christ. Waking up in horror, he forbade the city entrusted to him not only to offend, but also to touch the spoiled one, as the people called her.
Believing that she was spoiled, her husband took her to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for treatment, where she immediately became meek, quiet and intelligent. On the way back, he was happy to let her go home alone, handing her all the money and things. However, she returned home as a beggar, behaving worse than before, giving away everything to the last half and trying to take everything she could out of the house. The distraught Sergei Vasilyevich ordered an iron chain with a ring for his wife, like for a wild animal, and with his own hands he chained his wife in it, chaining her to the wall, and mocking her as he wanted. Sometimes she broke loose and ran naked around the city and everyone was afraid to shelter and help her. “Sergushka (husband) searched for the mind in me and broke my ribs; I couldn’t find my senses, but I broke all my ribs,” she used to say later.
Soon her husband completely disowned her, kicked her out of the house, dragged her to her mother and handed Pelageya Ivanovna over to her parents. The mother decided to go to the Sarov Hermitage herself again. Father Seraphim said: “On this path the Lord chooses those who are courageous and strong in body and spirit. But don’t keep her on a chain and you can’t, otherwise the Lord will menacingly punish you for her.” For 4 years, blessed Pelagia acted like a fool, ran through the streets of the city, screamed outrageously and went crazy, covered in rags, hungry and cold, and at night she prayed on the porch of the church.
Finally, the relatives released the blessed one to Diveevo. Before leaving, the blessed one bowed at the feet of her family and said quite sensibly and reasonably: “Forgive Christ for my sake, I will never come to you again until the grave.”
She herself chose the simple maiden Anna Gerasimovna as her cell attendant, knelt before her, bowed to the ground and, raising her hands, exclaimed: “Benedict, Venedict! Serve me, for Christ's sake." Anna Gerasimovna came up to her, feeling sorry for her poor thing, stroked her head and saw that her head was all broken, covered in blood, and insects were swarming in it. And she felt so sorry for her, but she didn’t dare say anything. Subsequently, this kind peasant girl served her for 45 years, with the zeal and devotion of an ascetic of God.
And the “mad Palaga,” as many in Diveyevo called her, began to live her holy fool’s life, known only to God. At first, she continued to go crazy: she ran around the monastery, broke windows in cells, and challenged everyone to insult her and beat her. He’ll take a handkerchief, a napkin or a rag, cover it all with large stones to the top and carry it from place to place, he’ll carry a cell full of them, you won’t end up with a litter. Or he will pick up an armful of bricks, stand at the very edge of the pit and from the hem and throw one brick at a time with all the urine he has into the pit, into the very water. A brick will splash and drench her all over from head to toe, but she won’t budge, she stands rooted to the spot, as if she’s really doing some important work. Having left the collected bricks, he climbs into the very water, almost waist-deep, and picks them out from there. Having chosen, he climbs out and again, standing on the edge, begins the same trick. And this is what he does throughout the church service. “I,” he says, “go to work too; You can’t, you have to work, I work too.” She was rarely in her cell, and spent most of the day in the monastery courtyard, sitting either in a hole dug by herself and filled with all sorts of manure, which she always carried in the bosom of her dress, or in a guardhouse in the corner, where she practiced the Jesus Prayer . Sometimes she stood with her feet on nails, piercing them right through, and tortured her body in every possible way. She ate only bread and water. Patience and hardship were her lot: she never asked for food, but ate when it was offered, and even then very sparingly. She never sought or took anything from anyone, she was completely non-acquisitive; I walked barefoot all year round, didn’t wash, didn’t cut my nails; slept on the floor on a felt mat. She spoke allegorically, but very wisely and had the gift of insight.
Diveevo
Once her husband, Sergei Vasilyevich, came to see her: “You’re going to be a complete fool; Let’s go to Arzamas.” Pelageya Ivanovna bowed and said: “I didn’t go to Arzamas and I won’t go, even if you tear all my skin off.” Hearing this, he bowed silently and left, and after that he never returned. And only one day, many years later, Pelageya Ivanovna suddenly jumped up, cowered, crouched, walked back and forth around the room, moaned and cried. “Oh,” he says, “father! After all, that's what you are! He’s dying, but how is he dying?! No communion!” It turned out that with her appearance and actions she showed everything that happened to Sergei Vasilyevich. He was really grabbed; he writhed just like that, ran around the room, moaned and said: “Oh, Pelageya Ivanovna, mother! Forgive me for Christ's sake. I didn’t know that you were enduring for the Lord’s sake. And how I beat you! Help me. Pray for me". Yes, without communion, he died of cholera. From time to time the blessed one, Fyodor Mikhailovich Solovyov, a former military man, came from Arzamas. It’s so incomprehensible to the mind what they did together; fear will take over, it happened; you don’t know where to go. Once they started their war, there was no way to calm it down. Both are huge and long, they run back and forth, chasing each other, Pelageya Ivanovna with a stick, and Fyodor Mikhailovich with a log, hitting each other. “You, Arzamas fool, why did you leave your husband?” - Soloviev shouts. “Why did you leave your wife, you Arzamas soldier?” - Pelageya Ivanovna objects. “Oh, you big barn, Kolomenskaya mile!” - Fyodor Mikhailovich shouts. And so their own squabble and conversation go on without interruption, and they are the only ones who can understand it.
During the unrest in the monastery, the blessed one fought for the truth in her own way - she beat and pounded whatever came to hand, and even, having denounced the bishop, hit him on the cheek. Vladyka is leaving the service in a droshky, and Pelageya Ivanovna is standing on the road, rolling eggs, just after Easter. He saw Pelageya Ivanovna, apparently he was delighted, got off the droshky and went up to her, taking out the prosphora. “Here,” he says, “servant of God, you have the prosphora of my service.” She turned away silently; he should have left; sees - it’s not okay, it’s a direct matter. Who wrote the law for them, blessed ones? That's why they are blessed. And he, you know, came in from the other side and served again. How does she get up, straighten up, and so menacingly, and hit him on the cheek with the words: “Where are you going?” Apparently, she denounced correctly, because the Lord not only did not become angry, but humbly turned the other cheek, saying: “Well? In the gospel way, hit the other way too.” “You will have one,” answered Pelageya Ivanovna; and again began to roll eggs.
After the end of the turmoil, the blessed one changed, fell in love with flowers and began to work with them. Holding them in her hands, she thoughtfully fingered them, quietly whispering a prayer. Lately, she almost always had fresh flowers in her hands, because they were brought to her by those who wanted to please her, and these flowers apparently consoled her. Looking through them and admiring them, she herself became bright and joyful, as if her mind was already in another world.
And I almost stopped running; He used to sit in his cell more and more. Her favorite place was right on the road, between three doors, on the floor, on the felt by the stove. I hung a portrait of Father Seraphim and Mother (Mary) here, and he used to talk to them all night and give them flowers. Abbess Maria did nothing without her advice. Pelagia Ivanovna called everyone in the monastery her daughters and was a true spiritual mother to everyone.
Many stories have been preserved about cases of her insight.
The artist M.P. Petrov, whom she named her spiritual son, enjoyed a special favor with Pelageya Ivanovna. He described his first visit as follows. “When I entered her cell, I was so struck by its furnishings that I could not immediately understand what it was: on the floor on felt sat an old, crouched and dirty woman, with huge nails on her hands and bare feet, which made an amazing impression on me. impression. To my question “should I go to a monastery or get married?” she didn't answer. A month later, on a second visit, she immediately stood up upon my arrival and straightened up in front of me to her full height. She was a beautifully built woman with unusually lively sparkling eyes. Standing in front of me, she began to run around the room and laugh, then ran up to me, hit me on the shoulder and said: “Well, what?” This hand had been hurting for a long time due to paralysis, but after this emphasis from Pelageya Ivanovna, the pain in it instantly and completely disappeared. Some kind of panic attack attacked me, and I could not say anything to her; was silent and shaking all over with fright. Then she began to tell me my whole past life with such amazing details that no one knew about except me, and even told me the contents of the letter that I sent to St. Petersburg that day. This struck me so much that the hair on my head stood on end, and I involuntarily fell on my knees before her and kissed her hand. And from that time on I became her zealous visitor and admirer. She pulled me out of hell."
After 20 years of asceticism in Diveevo, Pelageya Ivanovna suddenly dramatically changed her lifestyle. One day she said to her roommate, Anna Gerasimovna: “Just now Father Seraphim came to see me and told me to be silent and to stay in my cell rather than in the yard.” And she fell silent, and rarely deigned anyone with her conversation, spoke little, in abrupt phrases, sat more in her cell and, like the Monk Arsenius the Great, began to avoid people and listen more closely to herself.
The iron chain that once chained her husband, and which she brought with her to Diveevo, now sometimes served as her head. She always slept and sat on the floor and always near the entrance door to her cell, so that people passing often stepped on her or poured water on her, which apparently gave her pleasure. Such exploits of Pelageya Ivanovna began to attract the attention of the Diveyevo nuns to her; and the former dislike of many of them was replaced by respect. But among the sisters there were also those who hated her and slandered her in every possible way. Pelageya Ivanovna especially loved them and tried to repay them for evil with good. The nuns, attached to the ascetic, deeply believed in the power of her prayer and sought spiritual guidance from her. One day, one pious nun dared to ask the Lord to reveal to her whether the path that the ascetic of God was following was correct, because she often heard contradictory rumors. The Lord heard her prayer. She saw in a dream that Pelageya Ivanovna was walking through the monastery courtyard and two angels were leading her by the arms. When, having woken up, this nun went to Pelageya Ivanovna to tell her her dream, she preceded her story with a strict prohibition not to tell anyone about it.
The human mind cannot accommodate the feat of God's servant Pelageya. Truly, her soul, hidden from those around her by visible madness, shone with purity and love. Only an attentive and compassionate gaze could see the heavenly beauty of her soul. Thus the prediction of Father Seraphim was fulfilled. She spent forty-six years in the monastery, year after year bearing the heavy burden of heroism, protecting the holy monastery with her prayer.
The blessed one died on January 30/February 12, 1884 . They put her in a white shirt and a sundress, put a large gray woolen scarf on her shoulders, and tied a white silk scarf around her head; dressed up the way she dressed up during her life. They gave her a bouquet of flowers in her right hand, and Father Seraphim’s black silk rosary was placed on her left. For nine days her body stood in the stuffy temple without the slightest change in front of a large crowd of people. Although it was winter, she was covered from head to toe with fresh flowers, which she loved so much during her life; these flowers were constantly replaced by new ones and were immediately snapped up by the masses of people, who took them home with reverence.
Well-kept graves of blessed Paraskeva, Pelageya, Mary
On July 31, 2004, Blessed Elder Pelagia Diveevskaya was glorified among the locally revered saints of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese. In October 2004, the Council of Bishops made a decision on her church-wide veneration. The holy relics of Blessed Pelagia, found in September 2004, were placed for veneration in the Kazan Church of the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery.
Troparion You appeared as an adornment of the Russian land, / Our blessed mother Pelageya, / who fulfilled the blessing of the Queen of Heaven, / and who gained boldness towards the Lord, / pray at the Throne of the Most Holy Trinity for the salvation of our souls.
Kontakion, tone 2 Having exhausted your body with fasts, / you begged the Creator with vigil prayers for your deeds, / so that you would receive complete abandonment: / you found it in reality, / having shown the path of repentance.
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