Mother Alypia: the life of the blessed old woman, relics in the Goloseevsk Hermitage, how to get there, predictions and prophecies of the Kyiv nun, helping people, veneration

Life

Mother Alipia

Biographical information about the early years of Blessed Alipia is scanty and fragmentary: the old woman did not like to talk about herself. It is believed that she was born in 1910, although some sources give her birthday as 1905 and 1908. The parents of the future ascetic, Tikhon and Vassa Avdeev, lived in the Penza province in the village of Vysheley. In holy baptism, the girl received the name Agafya - in honor of the martyr Agafya of Palermo, whom all her life she considered her intercessor and patroness and even wore an icon of the saint on her back, never parting with it for a minute.

Useful materials

Tikhon Avdeev was known in the village as a great faster. On the fast days, he did not take anything into his mouth except dry bread, which he washed down with a decoction of straw. His character was stern, but fair. Agafya's mother, on the contrary, was distinguished by a submissive and quiet character. She loved to give alms with the hands of her daughter; She welcomed everyone, had compassion for everyone. Agafya inherited these traits from her mother, just like her love for God. It is not known exactly where exactly the girl received her education, but biographies indicate that school wisdom was easy for Agafya. She could read liturgical books in Church Slavonic. She especially loved the Psalter.

Death of father and mother

In 1917, during the October Revolution, Agafya lost her parents. For some reason I went to see a neighbor, and when I returned, I found my mom and dad covered in blood, dead. They were shot by the Red Army soldiers. All night the girl read the Psalter over them... Budyonny’s soldiers took her with them, but then for some reason they released her. From that moment on, Agafya began to wander.

Wandering

On foot, Agafya visited many monasteries that miraculously survived the devastation of the civil war. She lived on alms and prayer. Spent the night in the open air. I saw people’s grief so often that I became silent and thoughtful. It was at this time that a turning point occurred in her soul: she decided that from now on her life should be devoted to serving God.

Imprisonment and miraculous release

During the mass arrests of “church activists,” the wanderer ended up in prison, in her own words, “somewhere on the seashore, near Odessa.” This happened in 1930. She spent ten years in prison. First, she was thrown into a cell with criminals. She shouted to them: “Don’t come closer!” and, raising her hands to the top, began to pray fervently. It was as if a wall had been erected between her and those present: thieves, rapists, murderers - no one budged.

Useful materials

Clinging to the door peephole, the corridor guard was dumbfounded, the picture that opened to him was so unexpected. A thin girl stood in the middle of the cell and prayed, and above her head there was a burning halo, similar to the halo of a saint. And then the exhausting endless interrogations began, interspersed with beatings and torture by hunger. Every year during Easter Agafya refused to go to work, for which she received double pay. In memory of these days, she was left with a toothless mouth and a bent back - physical injuries that testify to mental fortitude and perseverance.

Then Agafya ended up on death row. Every night, five or six people were taken from this stone bag to be shot. Basically, these were clergymen whose fate was obviously predetermined. When only three remained in the cell: Agafya, the priest and his son, the martyr heard the priest say to his child: “Let’s serve a memorial service for ourselves, today they will take us away by dawn.” And then he turned to Agafya: “And today you will leave here alive.” His words turned out to be prophetic. It is not known exactly how mother managed to escape, but according to her, the Apostle Peter helped her.

From the memoirs of Maria Skidan, cell attendant of Mother Alipia:

 “The door in the cell opened silently, the Apostle Peter entered and through the back door led Mother out to the sea. She walked without food or water for 11 days. She climbed steep rocks, broke off, fell, rose, crawled again, tearing her elbows to the bone. But the Lord preserved her. She had deep scars on her arms, which she showed me.”

All her life, Blessed Alipia honored the memory of the Apostle Peter, standing for a long time on her knees before the icon of Peter and Paul in the Demievskaya Church.

German captivity and escape

She never parted with the Psalter. I even read it behind barbed wire in the concentration camp where I ended up during the Great Patriotic War. It was somewhere in Germany, on some, again “on some”... No exact dates, no names of places. They say that “in the presence of mother there was such a reverent silence and it was so good to be with her that they were afraid to break this silence,” which is why they did not ask the old woman for details.

To the best of her ability, the future nun tried to help people even in inhuman conditions of captivity. Sometimes her stories were filled with incredible, almost fantastic details:

“I’ll go up to the net at night, cut it and let everyone out, everyone will leave and remain alive, and no one knew where they went.”

She also began to wear a bunch of keys around her neck: large and small, brass and iron, with the green of bronze and the yellow of copper... Each of them symbolized the one for whom she prayed and saved. By the end of his life, it was already a very impressive “necklace”, weighing down the neck with a ringing weight and leaving an indelible scar on the skin. The Lord preserved the ascetic for future spiritual achievements: miraculously she managed to escape from the camp, pass through the country occupied by the Germans and reach the capital of Ukraine - Kyiv.

Tonsured as a nun and life in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Under the Germans, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, closed by the communists, “came to life” again. Of course, the Nazis revived churches not out of sympathy for the national religion of the enslaved people, but simply in opposition to socialist principles, trying to show the advantages of the new regime. It was assumed that the Germans' loyalty to the Orthodox faith would make their attitude towards the invaders more tolerant.

The Kiev monastery became Agafya's home for 15 long years. Here she took monastic vows with the name Alipius - in honor of the Monk Alipius, the icon painter of Pechersk. The spiritual mentor of the newly minted nun, the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Kronid, blessed her for the feat of stylite life.

St. Alipius. Icon. Kyiv. XIX century The icon is located at the shrine of the saint’s relics. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.

In the monastery garden, near the well, there grew an old dried linden tree with a hollow core. Alipia climbed into this hollow. You had to stand in a half-bent position or on your knees. I only left there to eat.

“When it was very cold, I went into the corridor to the monks to warm up. One will pass by, give bread, and another will drive away...”, the blessed old woman later recalled.

In winter, when a snowstorm covered the tree trunk with snow, and the hardened, frozen wood did not allow it to come out, the abbot himself brought her bread, getting stuck in the snowdrifts and sweeping away the snow with his cassock. “Aren’t you cold?” - he usually called out to her, and when the weak voice of the old woman came from the hollow, he gave her the crackers and sternly said: “Save yourself!” and left.

It was cold to stand. My legs were numb, my back was aching, and hungry stray dogs were howling under the tree. Alipia’s only protection was the Jesus Prayer, which warmed her, protected her from bad weather, and supported strength in the nun’s fragile body.

Winter gave way to spring, spring to dry summer, and summer to rainy autumn. Alipia sat in her hollow tree for three years. The unusual feat of pillar-bearing continued until 1954, until the spiritual mentor of the old woman, Father Kronid, died. Schemamonk Damian became the new confidant of her soul. I spent the night under the stairs in the fraternal building - it was a cold, drafty place. "

Why are you sitting here under the steps, you’re cold! - Father Damian once exclaimed, seeing Alypia crouched on the floor, “go, sleep under Father Andrei’s door”...

The doors to Father Andrei's cell were never closed. Warmth wafted from there. The elder accepted all the sick: the poor, the possessed, the crippled... Later, following his example, Mother Alipia would do the same. She will sit at the table with such ragamuffins as her spiritual children were ashamed to even greet.

The year 1961 was approaching. During Khrushchev's anti-religious campaigns, the monastery was closed and the inhabitants dispersed. This event was a real blow for Alipia. Eyewitnesses said that she was killed to the point of tearful hysterics: she fell to her knees, raised her hands to the sky and shouted something loudly in the Mordovian dialect... For her, a wandering life began again. Without a passport or registration, she walked the streets of Kyiv, spent the night in abandoned houses, and earned food by day labor. She was about 50 years old at that time.

Mother Alipia

Life near Goloseevsky monastery

In the vicinity of Kyiv there was a dilapidated monastery belonging to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. This place was called the Goloseevskaya Hermitage. Of the surviving buildings, there is one stone house, which once served as a summer residence for the Kyiv metropolitans. In the past, the monastery was famous for the fact that great ascetics of piety labored there; one of them, Alexy Goloseevsky, was especially revered by the elder.

Interesting fact

When people came to Blessed Alipia, the first thing she did was ask if there was a person at the saint’s grave. If not, she sent him to bow to the elder, and then talked.

Alipia's refuge in this desert was a dilapidated house on the edge of a ravine, surrounded on all sides by forest. Here began her long ascetic work associated with accepting spiritual mentorship. Following the example of Christ, for the sake of the holy fools Theophilus and Paisius of Kiev, (former inhabitants of the desert), the old woman accomplished her feat of piety in conditions of asceticism that had already become familiar to her: she fasted and prayed a lot, often left her cell to be in solitude in the forest.

All year round she wore a black cassock and a children's fur hat - a kind of monastic hood. And she had chains - a bunch of keys around her neck and a bag of sand on her back. A line of people flocked to her, as to a holy fool and godly person: some for healing, some for spiritual advice and help. She never refused anyone. It happened that, tired during the day from the labors of the righteous, he would sit on the edge of the bed and sigh: “It’s hard.” Her cell attendant, that is, her cohabitant and servant Maria Skidan, felt sorry for the nun and cautiously said that it was not necessary to accept everyone. Then Mother Alipia answered:

“Marusya, you don’t know how bad it is without people! It’s hard with people, but how hard it is without people! It’s hard, hard, hard... Different people come to me, but look how I receive them. Do the same in life.”

Interesting fact

The old woman had extraordinary insight. She predicted a quick revival of the Goloseevskaya Hermitage lying in ruins and, according to her, it came true. In 1993, the first inhabitants arrived at the monastery, and in 1996, according to the decision of the Holy Synod, Goloseevskaya Hermitage became an independent monastery. But Mother Alipia no longer saw this.

The godless government made her an orphan

Mother Alypia was born around 1905 (according to other sources - in 1910) in the Penza province into a pious family. Her name in the world was Agafia Avdeeva.

She remembered little about her parents. She inherited a love of fasting from her father - Tikhon Sergeevich fasted so strictly that he ate only crackers and a decoction of straw. Mom took care of the poor, even sending her daughter to take food to those in need before the holidays.

One day the girl left the house to visit the neighbors, and when she returned, her parents were no longer alive. The Red Guards visited the house. But even while still just a child, she spent the whole night praying over the dead and reading the Psalter. It was a turning point in 1918. From this time her journey of pilgrimage begins. Then little Agathia walked hundreds and thousands of kilometers, visited various holy places, which were especially diligently closed by the Soviet government.

Spiritual Gifts

The blessed old woman had an unusually soft and sympathetic heart. She showed kindness not only to people, but also to animals: cats, dogs, birds... In her small house and yard there were always some kind of living creatures: geese, chickens, cats - especially a lot of cats. The old woman said that she understood the language of animals and birds, and, looking at how she spoke with the birds of the sky, who sat down to rest on the slope of her roof, people believed that not only she understood them, but they also understood her.

Mother Alipia

One day my mother became very ill. She was now often sick - her frail old body, exhausted by strict fasts and hard work, began to give out. She suffered for three weeks, and then gradually began to get back on her feet. And what is surprising: if before her illness mother treated people with their own offerings, now she began to cook food herself.

Expecting a particularly large number of guests, she began to cook the signature porridge. She poured milk into a three-liter saucepan to the very brim, poured in rice and sugar - a kilogram of each, and the same amount of butter. Then I beat in 30 eggs. It’s wonderful, but nothing spilled, ran off or burned. But after this meal, the diners got rid of the internal diseases that tormented them.

People who knew mother were always surprised how much she asked God for people, and how little for herself. But the blessed old woman also had ill-wishers. The neighbor treated her with open hostility. Once he hired a tractor driver to hook a cable onto a log sticking out from under the roof and tear the roof off its place. Many visitors to the oxbow lake witnessed this action. They saw how blessed Alipia, running out of the house, loudly prayed to St. Nicholas. And suddenly...it started to rain. The tractor driver did not wait for the end of this flood and left with nothing.

Amazing spiritual strength lurked in the fragile body of the old woman: no adversity could break her, neither physical nor moral. She went through the years of the Yezhovshchina, fascist captivity, prison torture, endured many hardships during the years of her wanderings, but remained kind and sympathetic. She never took offense at anyone... She willingly shared her spiritual light, which burned inside her like an unquenchable lamp, with people who came under her wing.

Long Journey

Mother Alipia (in the world Agafia Avdeeva) was born in March 1905 in a small Mordovian village. From a very early age, she was distinguished from other children by her exceptional abilities. So, as soon as the little girl took just one look at a person passing by, she immediately became aware of where he was going and what thoughts he was holding in his head. But, apparently, for this she was destined for severe trials. At the age of ten, Agathia was left an orphan, and after the funeral of her parents, her great journey began. Subsequently, Mother Alipia recalled this period of her life: “I was everywhere (mother referred to all women and herself exclusively in the masculine gender): in Pochaev, in Pyukhtitsa, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. I've been to Siberia three times. I went to all the churches, lived for a long time, and was accepted everywhere.” Of course, a homeless wanderer traveling to monasteries and churches and not having any documents was often persecuted by the authorities. So, in the early 1930s, Agafia was even arrested in Odessa, and she managed to get out of prison literally by miracle. Many years later, Mother Maria Skidan’s cell attendant talked about it this way: “In the prison where she was kept, there were many priests. Every night, five or six people were taken away forever. Finally, only three remained in the cell: one priest, his son and mother. The priest said to his son: “Let’s serve a memorial service for ourselves, today they will take us away by dawn”... And he said to his mother: “And today you will leave here alive.” That's exactly what happened. Father and son were taken away that night, and the wanderer was saved... by Saint Peter. Agathia said that the apostle led her past the guards unnoticed, and then took her to the sea and ordered her to walk along the water’s edge. This poor woman’s journey without rest, food or drink lasted 11(!) days. Not daring to move away from the coastline, the ascetic was forced to make her way through the rocks, peeling her hands until they bled, after which deep scratches remained on them, the scars from which remained for many years. This journey ended with a meeting with Hieromonk Theodosius (Kashin). He was hiding in the mountains from representatives of the Soviet government, and he blessed Agathia on the path of foolishness.

Every day people came to mother asking for help.

The news about mother as a healer and miracle worker spread throughout the cities and villages of our entire vast homeland. Day after day, people of different classes and material wealth came to her: ordinary people, monks, archimandrites and even party leaders. She received from 50 to 60 people a day.

From the memoirs of Anna K.:

“For the first time, a terrible illness brought me to Mother’s house. I couldn’t eat anything... I was completely dry and black, and there were two other small children in my arms at the time. Having no strength, I still, with great difficulty, got to Mother’s house, knocked, she immediately opened the door for me, saying with a smile: “Oh, come in, come in, now you’ll eat”... I remember how shrewdly she looked inside me... She put a frying pan in front of Maria and me, crossed the food and made us eat... I ate with Maria. And this was the first miracle Mother performed on me. I ate everything and didn’t feel like I was full. Since then, the blackness from my face began to disappear, I began to eat and gained weight...”

Mother Alipia

From the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of the blessed old woman Alipia Nina:

“A tumor the size of a chicken egg formed on my chest. I went to the doctor, they did all the necessary tests, which showed that the tumor needed to be urgently removed... Maria and I are going to Matushka. We just went to see her, and Mother shouts: “Don’t give her up to death!” And she didn’t bless me to go to the hospital... Mother prepared an ointment for me. I applied this ointment to my tumor 2 or 3 times and the tumor completely disappeared. More than 10 years have passed since then. I still have certificates and tests confirming that the tumor was malignant.”

The old woman made her famous ointment from strawberries. No one knew what else she added to it. She treated people with porridge, compote and other food she prepared with her own hands. Of course, everyone understood that it was not a matter of food, but the holy prayers of the blessed old woman. And Alipia had one peculiarity: she never, never blessed people for operations.

The feat of foolishness and helping people

After three years in the hollow, Mother Alipia was blessed to follow the path of foolishness. Those who acted like fools were also called blessed, people of God, because they surrendered so much into the hands of God that they completely cut off their will.

Mother renounced herself so much that she even spoke about herself in the masculine gender: I was, I saw, I served, I experienced...

She spoke to many people not directly, but in some kind of allegory or even, at first glance, complete illogic. But the one to whom these words were addressed understood the meaning of the reproof.

For example, three guys came to see her. The nun said to one of them: “It is a sin to get married.” The young man shuddered. It turns out that he was tormented by the sin of Sodom.

After the monastery closed in the 1960s, she lived in a lonely house in the Goloseevsky forest and regularly visited the Ascension Church on Demeevka.

To hide her spiritual gifts, she “pretended” to be insane. In winter and summer she wore the same clothes (she always had a fur hat on her head).

But at the same time, she constantly prayed, wore chains, and helped people. In order not to attract unnecessary attention to herself, she did this either during a meal, or gave the patient a special ointment. Although in fact it was the prayer of the pious Mother Alipia that healed.

She paid special attention to almsgiving, hospitality and prayer for the dead. A lot of people gathered in the house where she lived. Whenever possible, she received everyone, fed them, and even helped with money if they needed it. She often went to the temple with bread, which she carried to the funeral service.

What the blessed one was like according to the memories of people who knew her

“In simple, modest clothes, she was always neat and clean...”

Mother Lipa’s acquaintances (as almost everyone affectionately called her, even those who were younger than the old lady) were always surprised at how she managed to look neat and clean given her lifestyle. And she smelled good, not like the homeless. Everyone who met her at the service in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra noted the special look of her light gray eyes: warm, affectionate, loving... They felt special feelings next to their mother: as if they were really next to their own mother, such care and attention was felt from the old woman.

When Alypia did not yet have her own shelter, she went to the river to wash clothes. It’s unclear how she managed while her clothes were drying, because of all the things the nun had one wretched knapsack on her shoulders, but in public Alypia always appeared well-groomed. The dress is not wrinkled, long brown hair is braided at the back in a “basket”...

Archpriest Anatoly Gorodinsky, who often turned to Alipia for advice and blessings, recalled that “on the way to church, she always went into the store and bought a lot of bread and rolls.” All this was intended for the funeral table. Very often she repeated the following words: “Always have a piece of bread with you” and “The Lord will not leave my people, let there be a piece of bread for them somewhere.”

Mother had a wonderful reprimand. She often used Mordovian speech, interspersing it with Russian words. She remembered herself exclusively in the masculine gender: “I went,” “I saw,” etc. This later gave rise to a number of discussions. Who said that mother speaks so unconsciously, because she lived for a long time in monasteries and, knowing little Russian, adopted all the verb forms in expressions that were not typical for her female gender.

Who insisted that Alipia so renounced her essence that she became, as it were, a sexless being, representing the material embodiment of the apostolic words:

 “There is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

And who was convinced that Alipia’s speech oddities stemmed from her mental trauma, which she received during the days of her wanderings?

Be that as it may, mother was loved. Every year she had more spiritual children, and for each one she put another cross around her neck...

When the saints are near

Increasingly, among believers one can hear an innocent murmur: “There are no elders now...” In the life of a modern person there is no time and energy left for spiritual achievement and growth.

Stories about saints who went into the desert or spent their lives in small caves and fervent prayer are increasingly told as beautiful true stories, far from modern life.

Elder's predictions

“This will not be a war, but the execution of peoples for their rotten state. Dead bodies will lie in mountains, no one will undertake to bury them. People will run from place to place. There will be many bloodless martyrs who will suffer for the Orthodox Faith. The war will begin against the apostles Peter and Paul. You will lie: there is an arm, there is a leg. This will happen when the body is taken out.”

The most unclear and frightening prophecy of Mother Alipia. It is believed that it concerns the beginning of the Third World War, and the corpse refers to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin lying in the mausoleum...

It is known that during her lifetime the blessed old woman had the gift of foresight and predicted many events that came to pass.

Mother Alypia knew that on April 26, 1986 there would be an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Without naming the exact date, she suddenly fell into anxiety and, frightening those around her, shouted:

Put out the fire! Don't let off the gas! God! What will happen during Holy Week!

The elder also foresaw the split of the UOC, which began “thanks to” Metropolitan Philaret (Denisenko). She burned magazines with the Metropolitan’s image in the oven, and scolded him as “the enemy” and “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

She predicted people's death, and saw her own death.

Instead of a cell there is a hollow of an old tree

During World War II, Agathia was captured, where she prayed a lot for captive women whose children or weak parents were waiting at home. Mother led them beyond the barbed wire, and one day she left, crossed the front line and went to Kyiv.

At that time, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, closed by the Bolsheviks, was opened by the Germans, and here the wanderer Agathia found a place to serve. Her confessor was Father Kronid, who soon became the abbot of the monastery. Thanks to him, Agathia became Alipia - when she took monastic vows, she was named in honor of the Pechersk icon painter, Saint Alipia.

Father Kronid also blessed her for a special spiritual feat, which modern people have never even heard of. For three years the young nun lived in a hollow tree.

Now imagine what it looked like: fragile Mother Alipia in the hollow of an old tree in the monastery courtyard. Here we are no longer talking about the fact that it is hard or uncomfortable to sleep - here it is even impossible to straighten up to your full height. What if we add weather conditions, harsh winters, wind and snow?

Surely even experienced monks were not blessed for such feats, but the young nun, whom the Apostle Peter himself led from prison, was blessed. Only when it was unbearably cold was she allowed to warm up in the corridor of the monastery building.

Instructions

People came to mother from all over Russia for advice and spiritual guidance. What did she tell people?

Never judge and you will be saved!
Be patient! Oh, how hard it will be - endure everything! Don't cry, but pray to God.

It is a sin for married people to get divorced. You can't trample on the crown.
He who feeds animals will not die of starvation. It is a sin to kill animals. The soul is not wasted.
To future priests: take only what you are entitled to. Church money is coals burning on heads.
And from the salary - God forbid.
When you feel bad or need something, come to the grave and tell me.

Demise

Two weeks before her death, Mother Alipia ordered:

“Heat the water, wash me, I’m leaving earthly life!”

October

1988

In the evening, when snow covered the ground and the first frosts hit, mother went to the Lord.

The funeral service took place at the Frolovsky Monastery, and Alypia was buried at the Forest Cemetery. According to eyewitnesses, “during the funeral service, a strong fragrance emanated from mother’s body, the hands were warm, and when they were touched, a pleasant fragrance remained on the lips for a long time.”

With the death of mother, the miracles associated with her name did not stop. Regular pilgrimages began to be made to Alipia’s grave: people firmly believed that their beloved mother now lived among the host of saints, and incidents of gracious help only strengthened them in this faith. She was the same ambulance and intercessor as Matrona of Moscow. They say that mother hears everyone who turns to her with a word of prayer, and “responds” very quickly.

Apostle Peter in the biography of Mother Alipia

In the 1930s, like many believers, she ended up in prison. The people in the cells were not waiting for liberation, but for execution. When there were only three of them left in one room - Agathia and the priest with his son, the priest decided to serve a memorial service. For myself and my son. Agafye said that she would survive.

And indeed, nothing less than a miracle happened. the Apostle Peter opened the door for the girl and led her out to the sea. No one can still say what kind of prison and what kind of sea it was, but from being in prison, Mother Alipia was left with the experience of the special presence of God, the amazing help of the supreme apostle and numerous scars on her elbows, because she had to walk 11 days and nights, without water and food, climbing rocks.

Finding and transferring the relics to the Goloseevsk Hermitage

May

2006

With the blessing of Bishop Vladimir, the autopsy, discovery and transfer of the relics of the blessed Elder Alipia took place. The remains of the nun were solemnly transferred to the Holy Protection Goloseevsky Monastery, whose revival the mother predicted six years before her death.

Temple "Life-Giving Spring" in the Goloseevskaya Hermitage

Currently, the relics rest in a tomb under the temple in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Source”.

How to get to the monastery

Goloseevskaya Hermitage is located in Kyiv. You can get to it by metro, reaching the Goloseevskaya station. Special buses go from this station to the monastery.

Address of the monastery: st. Colonel Zatevakhin, 14, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Blessed Alipia (Agapia Tikhonovna Avdeeva)

(1910–1988)

Blessed Alypia was born presumably in 1910 in the Penza region into the pious family of Tikhon and Vassa Avdeev. The blessed old woman said that her father was strict, and her mother was very kind, a great hard worker and very neat. Sometimes she would put all sorts of treats in her apron and order her to take them to the poor in their village; my mother gave out especially many treats on holidays. When it was time to study, Agapia was sent to school. Lively, fast, quick-witted, she couldn’t help but give advice to everyone. The girl was transferred to another class, and among the children a year older than her, Agapia was distinguished by her intelligence and intelligence. In 1918, Agapia’s parents were shot. All night the eight-year-old girl herself read the Psalter for the dead. For some time Agapia lived with her uncle, after studying at school for only two years, she went to “wander” to holy places...

During the years of unbelief - she spent 10 years in prison, despite the difficult conditions of detention, she tried to observe fasting and prayed incessantly.

From Maria's memoirs:

– Mother went through a lot during the period of persecution of the Orthodox: she was arrested and put in a common cell... There were many priests in the prison where she was kept. Every night 5-6 people were taken away forever. Finally, only three remained in the cell: one priest, his son and Mother. The priest said to his son: “Let’s serve a memorial service for ourselves, today they will take us away by dawn”... And he said to Matushka: “And today you will leave here alive.” They served a memorial service, father and son buried themselves, and at night they were taken away forever. Mother was left alone: the door in the cell silently opened, the Apostle Peter entered and through the back door led Mother out to the sea. She walked without food or water for 11 days. She climbed steep rocks, broke off, fell, rose, crawled again, tearing her elbows to the bone. But the Lord preserved her. She had deep scars on her arms, which she showed me. Perhaps then Mother visited the Great Elder of Jerusalem, Hieroschemamonk Theodosius, who lived near Novorossiysk in the village of Gorny (formerly the village of Krymskaya). Mother herself said about this: “I visited Theodosius, I saw Theodosius, I know Theodosius.” It is possible that the elder blessed Mother for the great feat of foolishness...

The old woman often recalled her miraculous deliverance, honored the day of remembrance of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and often prayed at the icon of the Apostles...

During the war, Agapia ended up doing forced labor in Germany...

From Martha's memoirs:

“Mother told me that when she was at work in Germany, at night she read the Psalter for women who had children or sick old people at home and led them beyond the barbed wire and they went home safely. Mother herself left even before the end of the war, crossed the front line and went on foot to Kyiv... One day several men caught up with her on the road... She began to earnestly pray to the Mother of God to protect her. Not far away I saw a stack of straw and ran to it to hide from the bandits... She ran to the stack, pressed her back to it, and the Mother of God with tears asked not to leave her.

The bandits ran around the stack, cursing: “Where did she go, she has nowhere to hide!” They stood and left, and Mother looked at herself and saw that she was all light, all her clothes were white, her hands were white... The Mother of God protected, hid from the bandits, dressed her in heavenly light, that’s why they didn’t see her.

Mother was literate, read and wrote well, and knew the entire Psalter by heart.

She once asked me: “What year were you born?”

“1916,” I answered.

- And I’m 6 years older than you.

By the providence of God, for the sake of Christ, the holy fool Agapia was accepted into the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where she lived until its closure. Archimandrite Kronid, when tonsured into monasticism, gave Agapia a new name - Alypia, and blessed her for the feat of stylite monasticism. The ascetic spent three years in the hollow of an old tree.

“When it was very cold, I went into the corridor to the monks to warm up. Some will pass by, give bread, and others will drive them away... But I was not offended by them,” the blessed old woman later recalled.

Voluntarily bearing the cross of foolishness for Christ's sake, humbly accepting humiliation and insults, courageously enduring hardships, the ascetic acquired humility and meekness, and for this she was awarded great gifts from the Lord: insight and the gift of healing through prayer.

From the memoirs of Inna Alexandrovna:

– My mother and I returned from evacuation to Kyiv. This was in 1947, and they began to go to Father Damian at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra for advice and instructions... Then my mother pointed out to me a thin, slender woman, neatly combed... Mom said that her name was Lipa, she lived in the ravine behind the Lavra fence right under the open sky, spends his nights without sleep in unceasing prayer... Lipa had an unusually deep, pure, warm, affectionate, loving look from his light gray eyes... Lipa's spiritual father was the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite Kronid. According to the recollections of Mother Alipia herself: when the service in the church ended, he approached her, gave her crackers and said: “Well, it’s warmed up, eat and go save yourself.” She, obedient to her spiritual father, obediently retreated to a large tree and climbed into the hollow, in which it was only possible to stand half-bent over. When in winter the snow was so thick that it was impossible to get out of the hollow and she did not go to church, Father Kronid himself made his way to her, brought crackers in his robes, and called out: “Aren’t you cold?” He left the offering and his invariable word “save yourself” and went to the Lavra, leaving the ascetic in the care of a long, winter night. It was eerie in the deep ravine, hungry, stray dogs came and howled right under the hollow, the frost shackled the half-bent, motionless body. And only the unceasing Jesus Prayer consoled, strengthened and warmed.

This continued until 1954, when Lipa’s spiritual father and mentor, Archimandrite Kronid, died...

She loved everyone, pitied her, and was not offended by anyone, although many offended her with their lack of understanding of the heavy cross that she took on her fragile shoulders.

In simple, modest clothes, she was always neat and clean... It still remains a mystery to me: how Lipa managed to maintain her external cleanliness, beauty and attractiveness, without having a roof over her head... For three years, spending nights in the hollow of a large tree, without having food, she never complained, did not ask for alms, eating what people themselves gave her...

Father Damian also saw her: “Well, why are you sitting here under the steps, you’re cold, go sleep under Father Andrei’s door”... Both elders lived in the same corridor and the doors of their cells were never closed from visitors... Father Andrei received everyone: he reprimanded the possessed , healed the sick, helped the poor, fed everyone from the Lavra meal... It was to this threshold that Father Damian sent the orphaned child of Father Kronid...

Many years later, I understood the meaning of this blessing: Lipa should have already approached the threshold of the miraculous old man. Everything was still ahead: the revival of a child who had died from intoxication, healing from fatal diseases, the expulsion of demons, extraordinary insight, the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit such that the forces of nature obeyed it, boundless, all-encompassing love for people, both good and evil, selfless generosity...

What else I noticed is that Father Damian treated Lipa very warmly and caringly, talked to her as an equal, as his employee, apparently, he saw in her a servant of God and his follower.

Time passed, human sins multiplied, black clouds gathered over the Lavra: rumors spread about its closure. Lipa’s behavior became strange - she raised her hands to the sky, screamed loudly in her Mordovian language, fell to her knees and cried... (Mother grieved, foreseeing the imminent closure of the shrine)

A thunderstorm broke out in March 1961: the brightly shining star of the great shrine set immediately. The bells fell silent. The wonderful choir of monks fell silent, prayers were no longer heard in the churches, the doors of the cells were closed, the corridors were empty, the lamps went out. The elders dispersed - some to eternity, others persecuted by the authorities...

After the closure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Blessed Alypia settled in a small house near the Goloseevskaya Hermitage. Local residents, who knew about the miracles of healing through the prayers of the righteous woman, came to her in an endless stream for prayerful help, advice, and healing.

From Martha's memoirs:

– Mother Alypia observed the fasts very strictly – she did not eat anything during the First and Holy Week of Great Lent, Wednesday and Friday of each week. I didn’t go to bed, I prayed all night. She wore a large bunch of keys on a cord around her neck - a kind of chains.

Their story is interesting: they said that during the war, while in a German camp, she worked at some kind. And for every person she saved, a small and a large, white and yellow key was added to his neck. Mother wore this heavy bundle around her neck until her death. A thin, strong cord dug into the body, leaving a deep blue scar.

From all sides of our great Motherland, people traveled to this fragile, blessed lamp: archimandrites and abbots of monasteries, monks and laymen, high officials and simple workers, elderly and young, young and children, the sick, the sorrowful and the persecuted. Every day, 50–60 people would come to see my mother. And Mother Alipia received everyone with love, although she saw everyone perfectly well what he brought in himself: faith, love, curiosity or evil. But everyone fit into her heart, she knew what to say and how to tell everyone, who to heal with compote or porridge, and who with ointment or wine. She did not bless her spiritual children to undergo operations, especially abdominal ones.

Mother began to tell me a parable: “Two people are going to church, and towards them a poor man is carrying firewood on a cart. After the rain, the road was washed out, the holes were filled with mud, the donkey stumbled and fell, and the cart with firewood overturned and fell into the mud. The poor man works hard, but cannot do anything himself. One says: “Let’s help him,” and the other replies: “We’ll get our clothes and shoes dirty, and we’ll come to church in dirty clothes, and we’ll be late for the service,” and walked past. And the first one went into the mud, helped the donkey get up, lifted the cart with firewood, helped pull it out of the mud, got all dirty himself, and when he had finished, he followed his friend. He arrives at the church just in time for the service to begin. A friend saw him and asked: “Did you help?”

- Yes, I helped.

- Why are your clothes clean?

The helper looked at his clothes and shoes, and they were clean.

Mother tells me: “Come tomorrow morning, we’ll prepare firewood for the winter.” It rained heavily at night, it was cold, I began to get ready to visit my mother, put on clean clothes and new suede boots. I thought that I would find something to change clothes and shoes from her for work. I arrived early, but Mother was not at home, the hut and shed were locked... And in the forest it was wet, dirty, I, in my new boots and clean clothes, was carrying branches, stacking them near the hut... And only at 5 o’clock in the evening she walked, tired, carrying on her shoulders basket and bag over your shoulders. Mother asks me: “And did you go to the forest?”

- Yes.

– Why are your boots and clothes clean?

I looked at my feet; my boots and clothes were completely clean. As if I hadn’t walked through mud all day and carried big wet tree branches on my shoulders...

From the memoirs of Anna K.:

“It was an inexhaustible source of miracles and healings that neither life, nor years, nor death could destroy. In the bent, glorious, wonderful creation of God, inexhaustible miraculous power was manifested, poured out on all who came to her with their sorrows and illnesses. No one was inconsolable, did not leave her, and also received spiritual healing. For the first time, a terrible illness brought me to Mother’s house. I couldn’t eat anything... I was completely dry and black, and there were two other small children in my arms at the time. Having no strength, I still, with great difficulty, got to Mother’s house, knocked, she immediately opened the door for me, saying with a smile: “Oh, come in, come in, now you’ll eat”... I remember how shrewdly she looked inside me... She put a frying pan in front of Maria and me, crossed the food and made us eat... I ate with Maria. And this was the first miracle Mother performed on me. I ate everything and didn’t feel like I was full. Since then, the blackness from my face began to disappear, I began to eat and gained weight... Mommy invited me to come to her more often and, thank God, I had somewhere to come. You go to the great old lady sick, broken, barely alive, and you run back like a newborn person. Both sorrows and troubles - everything passed by. Truly, God is marvelous in His saints! Many times, with her prayers, Mother prevented the misfortune that was looming over me and my family... Everyone knows that Mommy treated me with an ointment that she herself prepared. Before cooking, she fasted and prayed a lot. I cooked the ointment all night and prayed the rosary. Leaning towards me, she once said in my ear: “You know, the ointment eats up all the cancer cells.” This was said in a whisper and seriously. I thought: “So this has already been tested, you won’t be lost with the ointment.”

How great was the power of the action not of the ointment itself, but of Mother’s prayer acting through the ointment. Out of her modesty, she did not want people to elevate her actions in miraculous healings, and transferred all her power to the action of the ointment, and with a blessing from above, of course, the ointment was healing. When people complained of any pain, she said: “Apply ointment and it will go away.” And it passed... Those who often visited Mother said that she predicted Chernobyl 5 years ago. I visited her 2 weeks before the accident, she looked at the icons and said: “Look how they shine, what a fire!” But what could I see? Two weeks later there was an accident. On this day, Mother was dressed all in black and repeated several times: “We live by the pain of others!”

One day I brought Mommy two icons of the Most Holy Trinity and St. Nicholas of Japan and she said: “I know him, help me, honey, don’t, help the ELEVENTH, no, don’t.” Tears flooded Mommy's face. My premonition predicted something bad was awaiting me on the 11th. She prayed for a long time, asked him and added: “This is a great saint.” And then she added the number 8... The 11th - winter was coming to an end, a thaw had set in, and huge blocks of heavy ice lay on the roofs. My husband was going to work, suddenly, a huge block breaks off from the roof of a huge house and falls in front of my husband at a distance of one step. Just one moment separated him from terrible death.

I visited my sick father in the hospital, and it was already late when I returned home. Right next to my house, someone from the top floor dropped an empty bottle, and it shattered to pieces in front of my very nose, a few centimeters away - in just a moment it’s hard to imagine what would have happened - it happened on the 8th.

From the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of the blessed old woman Alipia Nina:

“A tumor the size of a chicken egg has formed on my chest. I went to the doctor, they did all the necessary tests, which showed that the tumor needed to be urgently removed... Maria and I are going to Matushka. We just went to see her, and Mother shouts: “Don’t give her up to death!” And she didn’t bless me to go to the hospital... Mother prepared an ointment for me. I applied this ointment to my tumor 2 or 3 times and the tumor completely disappeared. More than 10 years have passed since then. I still have certificates and tests confirming that the tumor was malignant.

When I happened to be alone with Mother, especially in the morning, my soul melted from the warmth, caring, affection, love with which she warmed us. How much tenderness and kindness there was in her is difficult to convey in words; only those who felt it themselves can understand it. Mother said: “The Lord will not abandon my people; somewhere there will be a piece of bread for them.”

One day Mother was sitting next to me. An old wise cat, Okhrim, came out into the garden and walked around the edge of the garden, stopping and sniffing the ground. Mother turned to me: “Do you understand what the cat is saying?”

- No, I don’t understand, it’s not given to me.

- And I understand the cat, and the chicken, and all kinds of birds and animals, so Okhrim came and said that the garden was planted well.

This year my mother had a good potato harvest.

Valentina S.E. - the spiritual daughter of Blessed Alipia, more than once witnessed miracles revealed by the Lord through the prayers of the old woman:

“A very pleasant-looking woman came to see Mother with me... It was a windy day, strong gusts bent the trees, the forest hummed and groaned, swaying and bowing under strong gusts of wind. The woman asked: “Mother, where are my parents?” Mother stood silently, fixing her gaze somewhere upward. The gusts of wind weakened, the trees straightened, and somehow there was complete silence in the forest. Mother continued to stand with her gaze fixed on the sky, and I thought: “What power is there in her prayers, if she begged the Creator to forbid the wind in order to calm and encourage one Christian soul.” The woman realized where her parents were, where there was peace and quiet.

Mother understood the language of birds, chickens, and cats. Several of us were sitting in the garden, and many birds gathered in the trees and on the roof. They chirped, whistled and chirped. Mother spoke to them in a Mordovian language I did not understand. It was clear from the behavior of the birds that they understood their mother’s words. Sitting nearby was the cat Okhrim. Mother addressed the birds in Russian: “Here he sits, but I don’t answer, if you fall into his clutches, fly away.” The birds rose and flew away... For 47 years Mother did not eat meat...

Mother cooked borscht. People came, I sat on the edge. Mother tells me: “Pour some borscht.” I filled 11 plates. 4 more people came, Mother again said to me: “Pour borscht,” and I thought to myself: “Is there enough borscht?” I looked into the cast iron pot, and there was half a pot of borscht. I thought that I hadn’t noticed how Mother got up and topped up the borscht. I poured 4 plates and I think that if more people come, there won’t be enough borscht. Three people came again, and again Mother addressed me: “Pour some borscht.” This time I definitely saw that Mother did not get up from her seat and did not top up the borscht. I go over to pour it, open the cauldron, and there is exactly half of the borscht, as if I hadn’t poured from it - it’s all half. Then I realized that by the grace of God, Mother’s food increased.

I once asked her: “How can I be saved?” She replied: “Lord, have mercy!”

From the memoirs of nun F.

– I met Matushka in 1981. I came to enter the Florovsky Monastery.

For 21 weeks, throughout the fall and winter, my mother was seriously ill. She did not take food, but only drank a little water. After Easter I ate some milk porridge. Before Mother’s illness, she fed people what the people themselves brought. And after her illness, until her death, she began to cook and feed people herself. While preparing food, she was not allowed to talk, so as not to defile the food. I cooked borscht and porridge every day. She always prepared food with prayer.

During my next visit, Mother looked at the icons and asked: “A finger on a hand or a toe? Is it whole or not? Then he says: “Intact.” And when my brother arrived, it turned out that he was sawing wood and touched his finger, but did not touch the bone.

Mother could hear who was calling her from a distance. I became very ill and began to call Mother for help. Mother said to those gathered: “The doctor in Podil is dying,” and she began to pray for me and prayed all night. In the morning I felt better.

She understood the language of animals and birds. A calf came to her and she fed it. One day he came and stood there, and his mother said: “Your head hurts, come on, eat some bread and the pain will stop.” The elk calf ate the bread and went into the forest.

According to eyewitnesses, in the dry summer of 1986, the righteous woman fasted and prayed for eleven days, and then told her spiritual children that she “begged for rain.” After this conversation, on the same day it began to rain heavily.

For her kindness, many loved the blessed old woman, but there were also ill-wishers whom she and her many visitors irritated. A man who lived next door more than once threatened to destroy the home of Elder Alipia. One day he persuaded a tractor driver to come and use a bucket to pick up the logs supporting the wall of a dilapidated house. The old woman prayed with her hands raised to heaven, asking for intercession from St. Nicholas and help. Here is what the spiritual daughter of Blessed Alipia told about this event:

“The tractor driver hooked the cable to a log under the roof and began to drag the tractor to destroy the roof. Matushka began to pray, everyone present began to shout at the tractor driver, exhorting him not to harm Matushka. At this time it started to rain, so hard that it became dark (the surprising thing is that there was not a cloud in the sky that day). The tractor driver was sitting in the tractor cab, waiting out the rain. But the rain did not stop. So, without destroying anything, the tractor driver drove away. But the house remained standing unharmed. Then people, together, repaired what had collapsed due to disrepair, and Mother continued to live in her cell. “As long as I’m alive, the house will not be destroyed, the monks of Pechersk will not allow it, but after death they will demolish it, and nothing will remain,” Mother said (and this is what happened).

She amazed everyone who knew Mother with her gift of healing, the effective power of prayer and obvious insight... I suffered from severe headaches. Mother gave me compote to drink and said: “It will pass after the Ascension.” And so it was. After the Ascension, I stopped suffering from headaches... My father suffered from kidney stone disease, was in the hospital, they wanted to have an operation on him, but he did not agree and left the hospital. When my father and I came to Mother, she saw him and said: “Well done for leaving, otherwise they would have killed him.” I gave him compote to drink, and his pain stopped...

Archpriest Vitaly Medved recalls:

– Before the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus' in the Demievskaya Church, Mother comes up to me and says loudly: “Christ is Risen! Now they won’t torture you.”

Then they didn’t register me in Kyiv, I went to her. She looked at me and said: “Don’t be afraid, go, they’ll register you.” And indeed, I was soon registered.

Mother helped a lot in court cases: through her prayers, the terms of imprisonment were reduced; those wrongly convicted were released. Mother helped a lot with various of the most confusing and incorrectly executed financial accounts. Through her prayers, everything was arranged, settled and resolved successfully.

She treated people with food she herself prepared and strawberries, from which she prepared an ointment. Before the explosion in Chernobyl, she predicted: “People will be gassed.”

From the memoirs of Archpriest Anatoly Gorodinsky:

– We first met Mother Alipia in 1974 in the Church of the Ascension on Demievka. It was impossible not to notice her. On the way to church, she always stopped at the store and bought a lot of bread and rolls. She put all this on the funeral table. And she taught us: “Always have a piece of bread with you.” She lived in a small house, which had one room and a small corridor where her chickens and cats, which she always kept, were placed... People came to Mother for prayer, advice, and blessings. We needed all this too. She often blessed us and gave us a lot of sweets. We objected why we needed so many candies, but she insisted: “This is for the kids.” But we didn’t have children for 10 long years. We believed Mother’s words, now we are a large family. The Lord sent us joy through Mother’s prayers and our requests. Before Chernobyl, Mother was very restless; when she sent everyone home, she said: “Close the doors and windows tightly, there will be a lot of gas.” Many asked what to do: leave or stay in Kyiv. Mother did not bless anyone to leave, and those who did not listen later regretted it, it was even worse there. When asked what to do with food, she said: “Wash it, read the Our Father and the Virgin Mary, cross yourself and eat and you will be healthy.”

From Maria's memoirs:

– The last Sunday before Easter – The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem for His suffering. Early in the morning, Chernobyl, which my mother had seen back in the winter, broke out. From that day on, she began to give Cahors to everyone who came, but warned: “So that after my death they do not take wine into their mouth.”

Two months before her death, she no longer blessed anyone to stay overnight...

On Saturday (October 29) she sent for me. She told me: “Go to our church, light the candles, but don’t light them, let them be there in the morning. Take the memorial service and run to the Lavra, don’t come to me again.”

On Sunday, October 30, after mass, I came. Mother was very weak. She blessed everyone to go together to Kitaevo: “Pray to the saints and pray for me,” predicting the canonization of 5 saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

Before her death, the old woman asked everyone who came to her for forgiveness, asked them to come to her grave and talk about their troubles and illnesses.

From the memoirs of the elder’s spiritual daughter:

“Shortly before her death, Mother had a lot of people. Suddenly she ordered everyone to kneel down and be silent. The doors opened silently and, turning to those who entered, Mother asked: “Why did you come to see me?” Everyone knelt in reverent silence while Mother had a quiet conversation with those who came. Who they were and what news they brought her remained a mystery. She did not open it, but after this visit she began to talk more often about death: “I will die when the first frost comes and the first snow falls. They will take me in a car and bury me in the forest.” On October 29, I was at Mother’s and cried a lot: “Don’t stand and cry, but go and give to all the churches.” And letters flew to all the monasteries asking them to pray for our Mother. The spiritual children even went to Elder N. far away in Russia: “... the apple is ripe, it can no longer remain on the tree and must fall,” answered the perspicacious old man, who knew his mother only in spirit.

On October 30 there was the first severe frost, and in the evening large fluffy snow began to fall. When Mother’s things were distributed, they gave me a pillow. And now, when I get a headache, I lie down on this pillow, and the pain stops.

The kingdom of heaven and eternal memory, our dear mother Alipia, for all your labors that you endured in your earthly life for all of us sinners.

From the memoirs of Ermolenko Ekaterina Ivanovna:

“During the funeral service, a strong fragrance emanated from Mother’s body, the hands were warm, and when they were touched, a pleasant fragrance remained on the lips for a long time.

Quite a few testimonies have already been collected about the healing of believers through the prayers of the old woman.

Lyudmila testifies:

“I was baking a biscuit to take to the grave and burned my hand. A large blister formed and my hand hurt badly. At the grave we prayed, had a snack, and when I arrived home, there was nothing on my hand: not a blister, not a trace of burns, and I didn’t feel any pain. I didn’t notice when the healing happened, but only saw the result.

A year later, already in the 2000s, a dense growth the size of a bean formed on the first phalanx of the index finger. This growth made it very difficult to bend my finger. Having already experienced healing from a burn, while kissing the cross on the grave, I asked: “Mother, my finger hurts!” and with this growth she touched the cross.

We prayed... Half an hour later I saw that the growth was no longer there. All that was left was a reddened mark – as a keepsake!”

“A lump the size of a hazelnut formed on the bridge of my nose. It constantly grew and hardened, making it difficult to wear glasses. When Mother Dionisia left, she gave me a flower from the grave of Mother Alipia. I began to pray to her and apply this flower. Soon the lump quietly disappeared. God bless."

Nina

Blessed Elder Alipia, pray to God for us!

Reverence

Dozens of books have been written about the blessed old woman, documentaries have been made, and songs are even composed about her. On the official website of the Goloseevsky Monastery there is a separate section dedicated to recording the posthumous miracles of Mother... Every day, near the marble tomb of Alipia, memorial services are held for the repose of the soul of the old woman, and crowds of pilgrims flock to the church.

The story of Mother Alipia is the story of all the people she helped. And this story will not be completed until at least one believer turns his searching gaze and prayers to it.

Author: Galina Bocharova