"Save me, God!".
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Kuksha is a revered and respected sage in Christianity; he lived a long life filled with all sorts of trials.
Brief description of the life of St. Kuksha of Odessa
The sage was born in the 19th century, or more precisely in 1874, in a village called Garbuzinka into a simple family. The mother wanted to serve the Lord, but her parents chose a different life for her and got her married. After the birth of her children, the woman constantly prayed to God so that one of them would become a priest.
From his youth, the guy adored silence, loneliness and had deep sympathy for people. His relative was possessed by demons; in order to save him, he brought his relative to the elder, who died to cast out demons. The wise man healed the guy, and Kukshe answered like this:
“Just because you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted all your life.”
At the age of twenty, the young man visited Jerusalem for the first time, with him there were also many people from his native village, and on the way home he would also visit Mount Athos. During this trip, the guy realized that he wanted to serve God and hurried home for the blessing of his parents.
Upon arrival at home, the man visited the Kyiv sage and wonderworker Ion, who had special insight. The elder blessed him, then touched his head with the cross and said:
“I bless you to the monastery! You will live on Athos!”
The father did not immediately give his consent to his son’s monasticism, but his mother immediately blessed him with the image of the Kazan Mother of God, and he did not part with her throughout his entire life’s journey. In 1896 he came to the Holy Mountain and became a novice.
A year later, the man visited the Holy Land again. Here two miracles happened to him, which served as a special sign of his future.
“...In Jerusalem there is the Pool of Siloam. There is a custom for all pilgrims, especially barren women, to immerse themselves in this source, and according to legend, the first one to be immersed in the water will have a child. Kosmas and his mother also went to immerse themselves in the Pool of Siloam.
It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him down the steps, and he unexpectedly fell first into the water, right in his clothes. The women cried out with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water.
But this was a sign from above that Father Kuksha would have many spiritual children. He always said: “I have a thousand spiritual children...”.
The second sign happened in Bethlehem.
“...Having venerated the birthplace of Christ the Infant of God, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly one lamp miraculously overturned on Kosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and collected holy oil from him with their hands. So the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha many people will receive Divine grace...”
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Greek authorities, for political reasons, asked Russian priests to leave Athos, and Kosmas too, “...So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” this is what the man’s spiritual mentor said. Thus, the priest from Athos became a minister of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
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The saint dreamed of accepting the great schema, but since he was still young, he could not do this. One day, while near the relics of Saint Silouan, the monk expressed his desire, and he seemed to hear his request.
At fifty-six years old, the man became seriously ill, everyone thought that he would not recover, and the monks tonsured their brother into the great schema, after this event he began to recover and recovered.
Life
Saint Kuksha (Kosma at birth) was of the peasant class. His family lived in the south of Russia, in the Kherson province. Year of birth: 1874.
At the age of 20, he visited Jerusalem and then Saint Athos. Kosma was impressed by the trip and decided to become a monk in order to devote himself to serving the Lord. Having asked for parental permission, Kosma returned to the center of Orthodox monasticism and became a novice of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery.
In 1897, at his request, he was sent to serve in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Jerusalem), where he remained until 1902. Upon returning to the monastery, he accepted partial monasticism under the name Constantine, and 3 years later he became a full monk, becoming Xenophon.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a split occurred among Russian monks on Mount Athos related to the dogma of faith. Taking advantage of disagreements in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Greek authorities achieved the departure of most of the Russian inhabitants, who had previously dominated the Holy Mountain.
Since 1913, Xenophon continued to serve in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. At the age of 50 he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1930, Hieromonk Xenophon accepted the great schema under the name of Kuksha of Pechersk due to a serious illness and near death. But the transformation gave the patient strength to overcome the illness.
In 1938, Rev. Kuksha was repressed as a religious figure and sent to a camp in the village of Vilva (in the north of the Perm region). Here he spent 5 years working in a logging camp.
From 1943 to 1948, he lived in a settlement in the town of Kungur (Perm region) without the right to conduct religious services. After 10 years, the monk returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where he began to conduct mentoring activities. State security agencies, fearing his influence on the minds of believers, demanded that the elder be transferred from Kyiv to a remote place.
Since 1953, Father Kuksha served at the miraculous Pochaev image of the Most Holy Mother of God, and also confessed to believers. One day, during a morning service, blood vessels in his leg were damaged and severe bleeding began, which could have been fatal.
The monks and believers prayed all night, turning to the Mother of God with a request for the healing of Father Kuksha. Fervent prayers helped create a miracle. After 7 days, the wounds on the leg healed on their own. In the last years of his life, the Monk Kuksha had to change several monasteries: in 1957 he was transferred to a monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk, Chernivtsi diocese, in 1960 - to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa. In 1964, the reverend father died of pneumonia.
The Elder's Prophecies
During his lifetime, the sage not only instructed people with his wise words, but also predicted the future, so Kuksha of Odessa made prophecies about Ukraine, and they all came true.
“...My dear brothers and sisters in Christ of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be with you from our Lord Jesus Christ with Grace. I thank you for the letter that I received not so long ago. God bless you for not forgetting me, a sinner. My dear sisters, I believe in your grief and from the bottom of my heart I thank the Lord for everything, but it’s a pity that I cannot save you from it. But be patient, my dear brothers and sisters, for this is what our Heavenly Father God ordained. Know, my dear sisters, that everything is sent from God, good and bad, and sorrowful. Accept everything with joy, as from the hand of the Most High God, the Lord, do not be afraid. God will not leave you, He will never send you sorrow and grief beyond your strength, and will never place a heavy burden on you, but according to your strength, He will give you as much as you have. you have enough strength.
Know, my sisters, if your grief is great, then know that you have a lot of strength to endure it, and if it is little, then there is little sorrow to endure. God will never put grief on you, so that you do not find yourself without strength, but endure one or another grief of a person, for time is moving towards destruction,
Now the last chapter of the third book of the prophet Ezra is beginning to be fulfilled, destruction is rapidly rolling towards us, oh, oh my sisters, what a time is coming that you will not want to live in this world.
But, behold, terrible disasters are coming to the earth, fire, famine, death, destruction and destruction. And who can avert them. If it is appointed by the Lord for the sins of people and this time is already close, behold. And do not listen to anyone who says that there will be peace, there is no peace and there will not be peace.
War and then immediately a strong, extreme famine, look where everything will immediately disappear, there will be nothing to eat, and then death, death and death, everyone will be driven to the east, men and women, but not a single soul will return from there, everyone will die there. There will be a terrible and great death from hunger. And whoever remains from hunger will die from pestilence, from pestilence, and this contagious disease will be impossible to treat. It was not in vain that the holy prophet said and wrote: “Woe, woe, woe to you, our land.” One grief will pass, a second will come, a second will pass, a third will come, and so on. Oh, our God..."
Life in the camp
The priest endured many trials during his life, since during the times of repression there was constant persecution of priests. In 1938, the monk was sentenced to five years of hard labor, so the 63-year-old monk ended up doing hard work in logging. In penal servitude they worked 14 hours a day, they worked hard and received meager food for it.
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During his imprisonment, one interesting incident happened to the priest, which can be equated to a miracle: “On Easter, Father Kuksha, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew above them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of pie too!” And suddenly I heard overhead “car-rr!” - and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was the raven who stole it from the cook's baking sheet. Father picked up the pie from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied his hunger.”
Pochaev period
The elder returned from hard labor in 1948 after the end of his prison term. Here he begins to carry out the feat of suffering, helping many people, for this he was exiled by the authorities to Pochaev. In the monastery, he continued to serve God and help people, but even here there were ill-wishers, through whose fault the persecution of the priest was renewed.
In order to protect the elder from persecution, the bishop in 1957 sent him to the village of Khreshchatyk to the St. John the Theologian Monastery.
In 1960, the elder moved to the Odessa Holy Dormition Patriarchal Monastery, which became his last home. To those who came to the priest for a blessing, he said: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! Otherwise, it’s 90 years and Kuksha is gone, they’ll take the spatulas and bury them.”
In 1964, the old man fell ill, in a fit of anger, his cell attendant Nikolai kicked the weak old man out into the street at one in the morning; it was cold outside, since it was autumn. In the dark, the man fell into a hole, could not get out of it because he injured his leg, and lay in it until the morning. In the morning his brothers found him and pulled him out of the hole, but from the cold he developed double pneumonia. No matter how hard they tried to cure him, nothing worked, and the man died.
The authorities feared that a large crowd would gather at the priest's funeral and banned telegrams from Odessa announcing the monk's death. But to this the abbot of the monastery gave a wise answer: “The monk’s homeland is a monastery.”
Miracles of the Reverend
There are 10 known miracles associated with the name of Saint Kuksha. Through his prayer and appeal to him after death, 4 children were saved, the saint’s spiritual disciple was cured of a non-healing wound, and convinced atheists found faith. Turning to the monk for leg diseases is especially helpful.
One of the stories tells about a seminarian at the Odessa Theological Seminary who fell ill with pneumonia. The unconscious patient whispered the name of Kuksha’s father. He suddenly fell silent, and then came to his senses and rose to his feet. The doctors who arrived stated that he had a normal temperature and no inflammation in his lungs. The young man explained the change in his state of health by the appearance of the monk, who put his hand on his forehead, which caused a surge of strength.
Icon Kuksha of Odessa, what helps and meaning
As a rule, icon painters depict Kuksha as an old man with a long gray beard. He is dressed in traditional monastic robes, and a halo is often depicted above his head as a symbol of holiness. In the shrine, the monk holds a scroll with the Holy Scriptures. Some icons depict scenes from his life next to the elder.
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Mostly, in front of the icon, people read a prayer to Kuksha of Odessa for healing from serious physical and psychological illnesses, gaining faith and providing assistance in various life situations.
Relics and veneration
| Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Vladimir at the relics of St. Kuksha of Odessa, 10/19/2009 |
Veneration of the Monk Kuksha began immediately after his death.
The people went to his grave in the brotherly monastery cemetery, asked the holy saint and, through his prayers, received relief from sorrows and illnesses. In 1994, his holy relics were found and Schema-Abbot Kuksha was canonized as a saint by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. In the monastery cemetery, at the burial place of the saint, there is a marble slab with the inscription “Here was buried the Monk Kuksha of Odessa,” while his holy relics are in the Assumption Church of the Odessa Monastery.
On October 19, 2009, Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Vladimir (Sabodan) consecrated the lower church in honor of the Venerable Kuksha of Odessa in the newly built cathedral in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Source,” located on the territory of the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery.
By the determination of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 2-3, 2016, the name of St. Kuksha of Odessa was included in the month book of the Russian Orthodox Church for church-wide veneration [4].
Prayer to Kuksha Odessa
O venerable and God-bearing Father Kuksho, praise to the monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, unfading color of the God-saved city of Odessa, meek shepherd of Christ and great prayer book for us. We zealously resort to you and with a contrite heart we ask: do not take away your protection from our monastery, in which you fought a good deed. Be a good helper to all who live piously and work well in it. O our good shepherd and godly mentor, Rev. Father Kuksho, look mercifully at the people ahead, tenderly praying and asking you for help and intercession. Remember all those who have faith and love for you, who prayerfully call on your name and who come to venerate the relics of your saints, and mercifully fulfill all their good requests, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every slander of the enemy our holy Church, this city, monastery and land, and do not leave us weak, burdened with sins and sorrows through your intercession. Illuminate, O most blessed one, our mind with the light of God’s face, strengthen our life with the grace of the Lord, so that, having been established in the law of Christ, we will flow without laziness along the path of the holy commandments. Bless us with your blessing, and all those who are in sorrow, possessed by mental and physical illnesses, granting healing, consolation and deliverance. For all of these, ask us from above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, for those who have departed from the Orthodox faith and are blinded by destructive heresies and schisms, for enlightenment in the darkness of unbelief with the wandering light of the true knowledge of God, for discord and discord. Pray to the Lord God and the Most Holy Theotokos to grant us a quiet and sinless life. Remember us unworthy at the throne of the Almighty, and ask for a peaceful Christian death, and grant us, with your help, eternal salvation and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, and let us glorify the great generosity and ineffable mercies of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity of the worshiped God, and your paternal intercession in forever and ever. Amen.
If a person suffers from frequent psychosis and nervous disorders, then he should come to the temple and read a prayer to Kuksha of Odessa against psychosis in front of the icon of the saint, he will definitely help you, because during his lifetime the elder bequeathed people to come with their troubles to his grave.
