Prayer to St. Lawrence of Chernigov, miracle worker

Lavrentiy of Chernigov
(1868 - 1950), Schema-Archimandrite, Venerable Memory on December 29 and in the Cathedral of Chernigov Saints

In the world, Luka Evseevich Proskura, was born in 1868 in the village of Karylsky, Krolevets district, Chernigov province. Father and mother were deeply religious people and their children were raised to believe in God. The family lived poorly.

He studied at the elementary zemstvo school and was very capable. At the age of 13 he graduated from school and was left as a teacher's assistant.

From childhood he regularly went to church, had excellent hearing, and sang in the church choir. Once in Korop, he met the former regent of the imperial choir, a native of these places, who immediately appreciated the young man’s abilities and began to teach him the art of regency. He spent about a year in Korop and mastered playing the violin. Upon returning home, he became regent of the village choir.

To help his family, he learned to sew and began to earn money with his own labor. By the age of 17 he had become an excellent tailor, so he always had many customers. At this time, his mother died, and he decided to go to the monastery, but his elder brother Bartholomew insisted that Luke not leave the family, and he resigned himself to his brother’s will.

With his friend from his youth, Simeon, Luke walked to Kyiv to see Father Jonah, so that he would bless him to receive spiritual education. But Father Jonah told them: “ Your seminary is with you.”

- and did not bless.
Then, together with the same Simeon, Luke went to Athos where, after persistent requests, he was accepted into the brethren of one of the monasteries. But one of the Athonite elders then told him: “ Go to Russia, you will be needed there
,” after which Luke returned home.

Soon the young talented regent was invited to direct the choir of the Rykhlovsky St. Nicholas Monastery. Singing in the Rykhlovsky Monastery began to attract not only worshipers; often regents from other places specially came to listen to the choir, which gained considerable fame. Bishop Anthony (Sokolov) of Chernigov also drew attention to the choir, who ordered the abbot of the Rykhlovsky monastery to send regent Luke to the Chernigov Trinity Bishop's House to manage the choir.

Around 1905, Luka moved to Chernigov to the place of his new ministry. In 1912 he was tonsured a monk with the name Lavrenty. In 1914 he was ordained a hierodeacon, and in 1916 a hieromonk.

In 1923, in Kyiv, he was secretly tonsured into the schema by the Lavra schema-abbot Gabriel.
Until the closure of the Chernigov Trinity Monastery in the first half of the 1920s, he was invariably the choir director, charter director and in charge of the monastery book depository. He was a strict follower of the Orthodox religion. Gradually his authority as a confessor of high life increased. Ordinary people, the Chernigov intelligentsia, and visitors aspired to him. His abundance of love, the gift of prudence, the gift of insight attracted not only the laity, but also many clergy. His judgment was greatly valued by the Chernigov bishops.

When the monastery was closed, Father Lavrenty settled in a small, miserable house. He performed divine services in the small Ilyininsky Church. In 1928, by definition of the Exarch of Ukraine, Metropolitan Mikhail was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

After 20 years of service in the Elias Church, this church was also closed. Deprived of the opportunity to glorify God by singing in church, Father Lavrenty never abandoned the established rule of church prayer. He carefully preserved liturgical books and an extensive library of music, and when asked: “ Will music still be needed?

?
- he invariably answered: “ Of course, we will still read and sing
.”

During the Great Patriotic War, during the German occupation of Chernigov, it was allowed to open the Trinity-Ilyinsky monastery. At the call of the elder, novices, simply believers, gathered, and the monastery was soon revived. Father Lavrenty returned to the place of regent. If they usually conduct, standing facing the choristers and with their backs to the iconostasis (if the choirs are located in the western part of the church), but Father Lavrenty always faced the altar, and the singers were located symmetrically in a semicircle on both sides of it.

He reposed on January 19, 1950.

Reverence

The burial ceremony was led by Bishop Jacob of Chernigov. By the decision of the bishop, the resting place was determined to be the tomb under the Trinity Cathedral, where seven bishops rested. Before the monastery was closed again in September 1962, memorial services for the deceased were regularly held in the church.

In July 1993, the Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church canonized him with the rank of saint. In August of the same year, the discovery of his relics followed [1].

By the determination of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 2-3, 2016, the name of St. Lawrence of Chernigov was included in the month book of the Russian Orthodox Church for church-wide veneration [2].

Prayers

Troparion, tone 4

From your youth you loved Christ,/ and having followed Him closely,/ having been chosen as a vessel of the Holy Spirit,/ received the gift of miracles and insight:/ for this reason, in the evening light of the Most Holy Trinity Rejoicing always,/ remember your children, // Reverend Lawrence, our father .

Troparion, tone 8

Today the city of Chernigov is shining brightly,/ and the monastery of the Holy Trinity is triumphant,/ in it abiding by prayer and fasting,/ a great mentor and quick helper to monastic and faithful people, / and the most wonderful chosen one of the Queen of Heaven appeared, / like a radiant star in the land of Russia, / Reverend Our Father Lawrence, // pray to God, the Lover of mankind, to save our souls.

Kontakion, tone 4

Having left the world, having acquired the purity of the angels/ and having served the love of the world,/ our Father Lawrence,/ abundantly showing gracious help to those who come with faith:/ also in the worldly village of the venerable having already taken up your abode,/ abiding with us in an incorruptible body,/ confirming us in the Orthodox faith of our fathers ,/ pray with your radiant soul to the Giver of peace // to grant us peace and great mercy.

Kontakion, tone 4

You shone like a radiant lamp,/ hearing the voice of the Queen of Heaven,/ and irrevocably following Her call./ You came to the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity,/ where the Lady Theotokos performed miracles dear icon, / having chastely gathered a flock of verbal sheep. / Do not forget us, who followed you, / and may the Lord deliver eternal hell, / those who commemorate your holy memory, / / ​​like our Father Lawrence.

Lawrence's prophecies

He deserved veneration for his deeds. He is credited with some prophecies that have become widespread in these circles. He had his own vision of situations. You can argue and disagree with some of them. But it is worth remembering that each information can be interpreted differently and cannot be perceived as a postulate.

Saint Lawrence of Chernigov had a special opinion about Ukraine. He said that Rus' existed, not Ukraine. Its separate existence without Russia is unthinkable, which will certainly lead to its destruction. Baptism was also carried out throughout Kievan Rus, and not just a separate part of it. Part of the land that the Poles conquered was leased.

They did not like the name Little Russia and therefore began to call it the outskirts. After some time they legalized it like Ukraine. The main meaning of this message is that the lands of former Rus' should always be together. Only this combination will help them achieve maximum development and prosperity.

Used materials

• Website page of the Kyiv Feodosie-Chernigov parish:
• Life in the calendar on the portal Pravoslavie.RU
  :
• Website page of the Dortmund Holy Trinity Parish of the Moscow Patriarchate:
• (prayers used)

[1] According to - the glorification took place on August 9/22. This is probably the day the relics were found.

[2] Determination of the Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on the church-wide glorification of a number of locally venerated saints

, February 3, 2016, official website of the Russian Orthodox Church, .

A wreath for the grave of Father Lawrence. To the eternal memory of Father Archimandrite Lavrenty (Postnikov)!

From the Editor: It so happened that in connection with all this plan-Covid hysteria, almost no one noticed the departure to the Lord of one of the most significant elders of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Archimandrite Lavrenty (Postnikov)! Frankly, it is also the fault of the Editors themselves that we did not publish this material earlier, immediately after the death of the Elder: the author sent it to us very on time - but we, being in the “park” due to well-known events, put it away as journalists say, “corral”. We are now correcting the error, and this publication is a tribute to our deeply respected and late Fr. Lavrentiy...

In addition, the material about this Elder would certainly have to be put on for the reason that he, as we knew, ALWAYS and PERSISTENTLY opposed people’s acceptance of documents, “numbers” and cards! And in this sense, it was, in a way, a “banner” for almost the entire older generation of inhabitants of the Lavra! Unfortunately, we’ll just keep silent about the younger one...

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BLESSED IS THAT ABUSE WHERE THERE IS AN ELDER,

THE SPECIAL GRACE OF GOD IS ATTRACTED TO IT...

Optina Elders

On May 8, 2022, one of the oldest and most authoritative inhabitants of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Father Archimandrite Lavrenty (Postnikov), reposed in the Lord. June 16 Holy Lavra and the spiritual children of Father Fr. After the passing into eternity of Fathers Kirill (Pavlov) and Naum (Baiborodin), he was the third most spiritually important Elder of the Lavra, who had behind him an enormous spiritual experience of monastic life in the Lavra and is one of the examples of domestic Russian spiritual monastic work.

I was lucky enough to see and know this holy elder for a considerable time, to hear his saving sermons and instructions, and to hear his extraordinary singing. The Orthodox people called Father Lawrence “Father the Comforter.” He never refused anyone who came to him personally for advice and requests, and never allowed anyone to become proud of the fact that he was supposedly such a venerable old man and could not, due to his busy schedule, receive questors.

On the contrary, Elder Lawrence condemned those so-called “elders,” or rather old men, who, without reason or conscience, boasting of their imaginary greatness, pushed away from themselves, or rather from God, everyone who tried to find help and advice from them.

I met Father Lawrence through another spiritual and very famous elder of Russia - Father Archimandrite Peter (Kuchminsky).

Father Peter has lived in Sergiev Posad in his own house for more than 50 years, but in the 60s of the last century he studied at the Moscow Theological Seminary and in those years was a monk of the Trinity-Sergius Church, and also from 1990 to 2003 was a member of the rank of abbot on the staff of the confessors of the Monastery of St. Sergius, who accepted confession from the people in the Church of St. John the Baptist Lavra.

Father Lavrenty (Postnikov) and Father Peter (Kuchminsky) have walked side by side since the 60s of the 20th century as the closest brothers in faith and spirit. Father Lavrenty is the personal confessor of Father Peter, although he is 5 years younger in age.

Both elders came from large, poor peasant families. The most severe hardships of hungry pre- and post-war life and persecution of the church in Soviet times have passed. Both were accustomed from childhood to hard peasant labor and to the Orthodox faith. Both served in the church from childhood and knew the whole range of church services from an early age. Both served in the army after the war. Both in their youth had locally revered Saints as their spiritual authorities - Father Peter was nourished by Blessed Valentina of Minsk, and Father Lavrenty by Blessed Mother Anna of Nizhny Novgorod.

Father Peter and Father Lavrenty amicably shared one cell in the Lavra, when Fr. Peter was a ryassophore novice, and Fr. Lawrence is already a hierodeacon. Both had the joy of communicating with the Lavra confessors - the greatest holy fathers of the Holy Monastery in Soviet times - Reverend Kirill (Pavlov) and Tikhon (Agrikov). Both were fearless, magnificent preachers of the Holy Gospel and brought many people to God. Both humbly, meekly and firmly endured all the bullying of the godless authorities, but never dared to doubt the correctness of the chosen pastoral Orthodox feat.

I had the closest contact with Father Lawrence during the mournful days of Father Peter’s departure to the Lord on March 20, 2016. 89-year-old Father Peter was dying in his home, dozens of his children came to say goodbye, and, of course, his confessor, Father Archimandrite Lavrenty, could not help but come to see off his brother. I remember well their last meeting on March 19, when the helpless and no longer speaking elder Peter, with his skull visible, was taken in a wheelchair to Father Lavrenty. The brothers hugged each other and burst into tears. Father Lavrenty kept asking the priest: “Is it easy for you to sit and listen to me, it doesn’t hurt you, do you hear everything?” And Father Peter clearly and clearly nodded his head to all the remarks of Father Lavrenty. Elder Lavrentiy calmed and edified Father Peter before entering eternity. I told him, now you go away, and then I will too. Together with you, we will lie in our bones in one of our monastery cemetery. Let us pray to the Lord that he will have mercy on us and settle us nearby, as we once did in the Lavra in the same cell. You and I are not afraid of death - you and I are afraid of God’s disfavor.

To all the remarks of his brother and confessor Lavrenty, the dying Father Peter nodded his head clearly and clearly, did not sob, did not shout, but stoically, prayerfully listened to everything that his authoritative comrade and mentor said, Father Lavrenty asked Father Peter - brother, should I sing to you one last time? And in response to the kind nod of the dying elder Peter’s head, Father Lawrence lushly and majestically began to sing his world-famous “The sea of ​​life plays with waves.” Everyone froze and shed tears.

Then, the elders were left alone for the last confession of the dying Father Peter before departing into eternity.

On March 21, Father Peter rested blissfully in his cell at house number 21 (!) on the street. Pushkarskaya - Grada Sergiev Posad, and on March 23, on the third day, Father Lavrenty led the funeral service in the concelebration of 25 priests of the newly deceased Father Archimandrite Peter (Kuchminsky) at the monastery-cemetery courtyard of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the village of Deulino.

In the photo on the left: the grave of Father Peter at the Deulinsky cemetery.

On subsequent memorial days, up to 40 days, up to 1 year, and almost all subsequent memorial days of the Angel Father Peter on July 12, and his birthday on March 21, Father Lawrence visited the grave of his brother at the Deulinskoye cemetery and in his house, at funeral meals.

We, the children of Father Peter, tried to reverently listen to every word of Father Lavrenty, when he remembered his brother, Father Peter, about his life before the war and after the war, about his spiritual fathers and about the community in Trinity-Sergius, about our time and the last times .

These were amazing speeches and sermons of a real Lavra monk-elder, one of the last living elders of our time.

Once, at such meetings, Father Lavrenty Father answered the question - how to live now in our time, lately? — we heard a very simple and correct answer: “ Live according to the Gospel.” According to Christ. And to help this life according to Christ is the Patristic Tradition. Sayings, teachings and advice of the Holy Fathers. Here is one of the simplest and most divinely embodied advice of the Reverend Father Ambrose of Optina: “To live - do not bother, do not judge anyone, do not annoy anyone, and my respect to everyone.” This is how you live, in a simple way, according to the Gospel, and according to God.”

Speaking about our life, Father Lavrenty complained very much about how our life had become dishonest, shameless and anti-God. He could not come to terms with how prodigal and immoral the anti-family life of today's youth is . “What is a civil marriage? These are obscene intercourses, where men and women are males and bitches, and not divinely crowned husband and wife. They will produce such obscene offspring without God,”

the old man was indignant.

Once, I witnessed how Father Lawrence anointed the people at the All-Night Vigil in the Lavra Dormition Cathedral in the late 2000s. One by one, after applying to the icon, a lady approaches him, so to speak, without a headscarf, with an outrageously bare neckline and in jeans that are lustfully tight on all sides. I walked ahead of her, and especially after the priest anointed me with oil, I decided to stop and watch the priest’s reaction to the approach of this half-naked and tight-fitting lady to him, in the Holy Temple, to the anointing. I saw how Father Lavrentiy defiantly and intently examined this woman from bottom to top, and very delicately, but firmly, with a wave of his hand, pointed to her side with the words: “Dress properly, because you have come to the temple.” And that’s it, he didn’t bother to anoint her.

It upset him very much, as sharply as in ours,

free time, domestic pilgrimage to the Lavra has decreased.
“Now, as a rule, only the Chinese walk around the Lavra.
And before?! All Lavra churches in Soviet times in the 60-80s were jam-packed with people! We, serving monks, could not walk freely from the porch to the altar! They couldn’t - the Orthodox people stood at the services shoulder to shoulder, as if at the front.” To our questions to the priest - it was not scary to be a monk-priest in the Lavra in Soviet times - there was immediately a firm answer: “ Never

.
In Soviet times, the Lavra was a special subject of attack from Satan through his servants, party members, Komsomol members, provocateurs and demoniacs.
We knew that all sorts of dirt could be brought against us in order to evict us and imprison us. We knew that under the guise of pilgrims, security officers, provocateurs, and conscious demoniacs with red tickets go to Lavra churches. I remember how once, already in the rank of abbot, in the 70s, I went out to the pulpit for Communion with a cup. And just as I’m starting to take communion, suddenly one man jumps up and throws something metal into the Chalice with the Blood and Flesh of Christ, and quickly runs away to the exit. And Viceroy Jerome, Patriarch Pimen, and Father Kirill always told us that if something is thrown into the Chalice, you immediately turn around, and carefully, so as not to spill the Communion, go to the Altar, carefully pull out what was thrown - as a rule, it was a nail, nut - and you drink all the Communion yourself, then serve again in a new way, collect and consecrate the Gifts, and go out again to Communion with the people. That's what we did. They were not afraid of Satan." Father Lavrentiy spoke very warmly and touchingly about his great spiritual fathers of the Lavra - Father Kirill (Pavlov) and Father Tikhon (Agrikov). “The Lord sent us his defenders to the Lavra - Father Kirill and Father Tikhon. Of course, there will be no more people like them. These are real reverend fathers, not afraid of anyone or anything except sin and God’s disfavor. And very loving. They never dared to insult or humiliate anyone. Saints seers. They endured everything literally, all misfortunes and injustices, but they threateningly drove away Satan with prayer. After all, Father Tikhon was constantly attacked by cliques - possessed by demons. Wherever he was, the enemy of the human race sent his servants to attack him! And he was not afraid of them. He laid them on the ground with a wave of his hand, holding the Holy Cross in front of Satan.”

When asked about our times, Elder Lawrence answered: “ That time was persecuted, terrible, outwardly, yes, godless, but saving, joyfully strengthening and truly spiritual. You see, the Soviet government with its atheism gave our Holy Church a whole host of new martyrs and confessors, real blessed ones, holy fools, our modern defenders, about whom, as I see it, there is no need to talk about their appearance now. Then, during the persecution, there was a real spiritual flowering of our faith and church. We were truly with Christ, with His Mother, we were not afraid of anything, we were not afraid to die for Him, for Christ. Now there is an external flourishing of the Church and, as it were, the absence of such ardent external persecution of the church and faith, but the internal state and external behavior of our people requires much, much better.”

These were the unforgettable bright moments of communication with the real holy Lavra elder Lawrence, who passed away in his native Lavra monastery, on the Bright Easter Forty Days, went to the “heavenly righteous abodes,” where “there is neither illness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life endless."

Now both Father Lawrence (Postnikov) and Father Peter (Kuchminsky), as they predicted, rest in the same monastery Lavra cemetery in Deulino, along with their other famous spirit-bearing monastic brothers.

Eternal memory to them! Eternal memory to Father Archimandrite Lavrenty (Postnikov) - a zealous and faithful son of the Holy Russian Orthodox Church!

Vladimir Nikolaev,

June 2022

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From the Editor:

Luke the Regent

However, Luke soon became regent and wanted to go as a novice to a monastery, but his older brother asked not to leave them. Together with his friend Simeon, he visited Father Jonah in Kyiv, Mount Athos and Palestine. Simeon was accepted into the brethren of the Athos monastery, and Luke was sent back to Russia, because he was more needed there.

In 1912, when Luka was 45 years old, he was tonsured a monk with the name Lavrenty. Then two years passed, and he became a hierodeacon, and after another two years, a hieromonk. In 1928, he was secretly ordained as an archimandrite.

After the revolution, he, like the Kiev-Pechersk saints Anthony and Theodosius, took upon himself the feat of cave life, digging caves in Chernigov in Boldinskaya Mountain next to the Trinity Monastery, which became known as Lavrentiev. Nearby were the Alypiy caves, which Abbot Alypy worked on. Father Lavrentiy revealed martyrdom to Abbot Alypiy; later he was actually killed by atheists in the village of Ulyanovka, Sumy region.

When the Renovationist schism occurred, Father Lawrence supported Patriarch Tikhon. His position was also irreconcilable in relation to the Russian Orthodox Church abroad.