Archimandrite Germogen teals where he serves. Nativity of the virgin snetogorsk nunnery. About the monks of the last times

The viewers of our TV channel know and love both you and your voice well, as you often participate in the concerts broadcast here. Last year you celebrated the 25th anniversary of your priestly ministry, and this year on March 5th you celebrated your 50th anniversary.

- In May last year, I also celebrated the 30th anniversary of my creative activity.

I propose to talk about the creative path and how it is combined with spiritual life.

- I agree. But first, I would also like to congratulate the Soyuz TV channel on its 11th anniversary, celebrated on January 31, and thank all of its employees. Thanks to this channel, wherever in Russia I come with concerts, from the Urals to Belgorod, they know me everywhere. Of course, it's nice when you are greeted as a loved one.

I remember how the TV channel began its work, how hard it was for Father Dimitri to organize everything - all over Russia he collected some wires, sensors ... Finally, everything was ready, airtime was allocated, staff was recruited. And now we see how the channel has blossomed, there are reports from all over Russia and even the whole world, and the programs of the Union can be seen in other countries. Thank you all very much for this, especially Father Dimitri (Baybakov).

Will there be a gala concert this year?

- Complex issue. First of all, it depends on our financial condition and the rental price of the hall. Last year we gave a concert at the Yekaterinburg Youth Palace, where only for renting the hall you have to pay 300 thousand rubles plus the cost of renting equipment. Such money must be taken somewhere, but now benefactors do not respond as actively as they used to. May God grant health to those who have already helped me! But we have a small hall (for 100 seats) in the Spiritual and Educational Center we have built; concerts of symphonic music, folk music, "Russian balalaika" are regularly held in this hall. There is no need to pay for this hall, and there I will simply sing for the audience their favorite songs and, perhaps, new ones.

Nothing can be said yet. I would like to organize a concert, but there are many obstacles and difficulties. Organizing a solo concert is now very difficult precisely because of financial issues.

On the screen in our studio, we see a temple in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov and the Spiritual and Educational Center. Where can you find information about the life of your ward?

- Now I saw this temple, which I built with my friends, and I wanted to sing a small phrase from a spiritual verse: “And in our city there is a new church, // A merchant soum has erected God's house, // A commercial soum”. With the world on a string, we collected for construction, but the lion's share of the funds was allocated by Tagansky Ryad, he also took care of our temple during construction. Many took part in this construction. I gave fifteen years of my life to him! I am happy that the Lord allowed me to do such a thing as the building of the temple, vouchsafed me to work in this field.

Next to the large Seraphim-Sarov temple, the Nikolsky temple was built in just 20 days, inside the Seraphim of Sarov temple there is a temple of the Kazan-Ural icon of the Mother of God, it is also a baptismal one, and on the third floor is the actual temple of Seraphim of Sarov. The dream of my life is to live to an old age, if God permits, to serve in this temple, and so that with the singing of "Wave of the Sea ..." of the Irmos of Great Saturday, they would carry me around this temple. Not such a big dream, but I would like to end my days in this child of mine.

In the 90s, you actively participated in the revival of churches ...

- I participated in the revival of one church - the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. It was made by a cathedral from an ordinary cemetery church, and it is difficult to describe what was happening in those years. A full fence, thousands of people who could not even go to the porch ... It was incredibly difficult to get to Communion ... Gradually, we opened a church on Elizabeth, then the All Saints Church on the Mikhailovsky cemetery. Now in the city there are already many temples, but then there were only three.

Last year, Sergey Volchkov, the winner of the last season of the Voice show on Channel One, performed in Yekaterinburg.

- Yes, this is my friend!

You were at his concert. I saw a recording where you perform the song "A Month in the Sky" with him.

- I told him this: Seryozha, you are Belarusian, I am Russian, and we will sing a Ukrainian song! This is our people. Now there are political squabbles. We hope they pass. The Ukrainian people are an intelligent people, wise by nature. We are a single people, just politicians divided us geographically. Personally, I have many friends in Ukraine, unfortunately, now there is no connection with them precisely for political reasons. But I think that everything will return to normal.

- Father Photius showed in his image some incredible purity. His vocal data is very good. At first I had questions about his intonation, but he was worried, because he had not worked on stage before. A person can be understood.

I felt joy that another spiritual brother of mine also understood that this was not just a concert activity, a performance on the stage of some star, not just a show, but a continuation of the sermon. Indeed, even if a priest in his vestments behaves appropriately, bears his cross and dignity with dignity, this is already a silent sermon. And here, to a multi-million audience, the priest sings amazing songs - they sound completely different. Look how beautifully he sang the song “I turn with the demand of faith”, which sounded before the final stage of the competition! I got goosebumps. His purity, his image attracted. May God grant Father Photius health - to sing for a long time and delight us, perhaps to perform with spiritual chants or secular songs that carry love in themselves.

I always say: my concerts are a continuation of the sermon about love for the mother, for the Fatherland. These themes sound in my songs.

Many gladly accepted the news of the victory of Fr. Photius, but there were Orthodox people who were somewhat angry: they say, “this is not a monastic matter, the monk got bored in his cell, and he decided to fulfill his creative potential”. In general, he was condemned despite the blessing he received. Have you ever faced such questions?

- Once in all the time there was a question - some woman did not like the fact that I went out in a cassock, which looked like a concert dress. But I deliberately made cassocks, which are different from the service clothes. In general, I would like to recall the words of the prayer of Ephraim the Syrian: "Grant me to behold my sins and not to condemn my brother," because I absolutely know for sure: a lot of people came to church through these concerts. People who have never been to church, for whom it was a different planet, told me personally: I came to the temple after your concert, what should I do next? We talked and later even became friends.

There's a lot of dirt on the internet, right? But you can find useful information there - the lives of the saints, liturgical instructions, useful advice. It depends on how you feel about it and what to look for. If you look at the stage as something related only to show business, money, of course, will be perceived negatively. But most people look from the other side. Unfortunately, there are also people who like to find a wormhole, to catch on: why does not a monk sit in a cell, in a dungeon, he only has to sit there ... But this is their personal opinion.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy personally blessed me to sing on stage. In one of my conversations with him, I sang a spiritual verse. The patriarch asked: "Have you tried to sing this on stage?" I say: "No, but I sang before." He answers me: "We must try." This is how it all began - I left for a reason, for no reason, but with the blessing of the Patriarch himself.

Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina ... As far as I know, you have had a rather long friendship with her. Zykina was once a world star. Tell us about this communication.

- “The Kremlin singer”, “the voice of Russia” - that is how they called her. And she really was like that, because at that time the best people from all over the Soviet Union were taken to the Kremlin. Zykina was one of the best singers of her time. She sang for a very long time, about 60 years.

I then worked in the military song and dance ensemble at the GSVG (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany), in the ensemble of the 20th Army. It was 1990, the 45th anniversary of the Victory. All the generals of the Soviet Union attended a concert in Germany in honor of this day. Zykina also performed there. I had to sing the song "A birch tree grows in Volgograd." I denied, they say, Lyudmila Georgievna will be at the concert, I won't even make a sound in front of her. They answer: do not like her - sing as you see fit. I began to sing, my arms and legs were shaking, I saw Zykina in the hall. At the end of the concert, I asked where the buffet would be. I was shown. On the way there, Zykina walked along the corridor - the queen, surrounded by her retinue! And the retinue was - generals in gray jackets, with gold embroidery, stars with a fist ... She saw me from afar; I stood, clutching a piece of paper in my hands to take her autograph. She shouts to me: "Why are you stealing my songs ?!" And he smiles with all his mouth! I began to ask Lyudmila Georgievna for an autograph, and she in my ear: "Come to me in the ensemble" Russia "" - and ordered to give me her business card. So I got Zykina's phone.

But our real friendship began much later. After all, I did not dare to come to the ensemble then, because I had other plans. Immediately after Germany, in the fall of 1990, I was ordained a deacon by Archbishop Melchizedek; it is already the 26th year of my ministry. But there was always a desire to meet with Zykina. Finally, this meeting took place and it was unforgettable. Our friendship lasted a very long time, until the death of the singer. I happened to close her eyes and perform a cemetery burial. It was a real tragedy, sorrow. But there was also joy, because Zykina remained in the memory of the people with her great works.

Let's talk about your biography. You are from a small village in the Sverdlovsk region compared to Yekaterinburg ... Then you moved to Yekaterinburg, sang at the opera house. Part of my life was spent abroad ...

- Not so small, there were about four thousand inhabitants ... I arrived like Frosya Burlakova from the movie "Come tomorrow." I sang in the Kazan Cathedral. My grandmother was a singer, sang in the temple and took me there. From early childhood I was in the temple. The first thing I remember is the image of the Archangel Michael, burning candles, the sound of the choir. My grandmother took me to the church to the kliros, where at the age of 6-7 I had already learned to read Church Slavonic. I read the Six Psalms with might and main, and then learned it by heart, only occasionally peeping. As a teenager, I began to travel to the Kazan Cathedral in Nizhny Tagil.

When I entered the music school, a conflict arose: I sang in the temple, and I was given a choice - either to sing on stage, as an artist, or in the temple. I replied: there is no choice, I will sing in the temple. From the music school I went to instrumentation and automation (instrumentation and automation), but it was not at all mine, a pure formality, since I had to get at least somewhere. And Vyacheslav Dmitrievich Privoznov, who was a teacher at the music school in Nizhny Tagil, also, as they say, secretly sang in the Kazan Cathedral. He told me: “Listen, are you ruining your talent? Go to the opera house! " I answer: "Who will take me there without education?" He told me: "Go, take it."

And so it happened. I arrived with two suitcases, in a hat, a sort of dandy, and I say, they say, I came to get a job. And in the Soviet Union, and even now in Russia, it is always like this - the watchmen are in charge everywhere. “Who do you want to get a job with?” One of them asks. I answer: "I want to sing." Then she invited the choirmaster Valery Anatolyevich Kopanev, and I was not only accepted, but immediately given a hotel. Now there is nothing in this building, but there used to be the Ocean store and the Yubileinaya hotel. I had a private room with shower, bath, toilet, telephone, to the opera house - two minutes. There was no limit to my happiness.

I sang there with pleasure, there were many interesting meetings. I performed small solo parts, sang in "Pagliacci", "Boris Godunov" and many other performances. In fact, I was the soloist of the choir. And in 1988, in the year of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus, we went on tour to Penza. There I went to the temple for this holiday, and there was a conflict. I was supposed to sing at the opera, but I sang in the temple. For this I was reprimanded. Although I left my partner in the play, he sang for me, but they discovered my absence, because the theater leadership was also in the temple at that moment! And the time was like that - the turning point had not yet come, and those who sang in the church, in the theaters, were treated by many with contempt, and the leadership simply condemned it. In the conditions of atheistic propaganda, this was natural.

I got offended, wrote a statement and left for Germany. There I was accepted into the song and dance ensemble, where I was the lead soloist. But I terminated my contract - it was for four years, and I only worked for two. I wrote a statement. I wanted so much to go to Russia! He came, told everything to Vladyka Melchizedek, and he told me: "Well, then we will ordain you next week!" I've got another hit. I just wanted to, and then immediately ordain! There is no cassock, there is no fabric for it in the store. The seamstress Raisa sewed me a gray cassock, and I was ordained in our Ivanovsky Cathedral. This is how my ministry began.

The service was interesting, because the times were also interesting. Then Ganina Yama was not yet explored. Protodeacon Igor and I took part in its discovery.

In the village of Koptyaki, we went from house to house, asking if anyone had heard where the royal remains were burned. Nobody knew anything, and one grandmother answered: “What are you, no one will tell you anything about this! But there is one grandfather. When he was a boy, the Red Army men chased him through the forest. " - "Where does he live?" - “Look, obliquely. Only he doesn't hear well. " We knocked at the gate, and this grandfather, who turned out to be very smart, agreed to see us off.

Then we told Vladyka Melchizedek all this, and he was fired up with the idea of \u200b\u200bgoing there with a procession of the cross. Since then, since 1991, a tradition has developed to walk with the cross from the Seven Keys (city stop) to Ganina Yama. So the Lord vouchsafed me to be a participant in this historic event.

The media sometimes pops up news about the so-called Yekaterinburg remains, about a place called Porosenkov Log. What could you say as a witness to those events?

- I'll put it this way. Some new discoveries are possible. Why not? But the place of Ganin Yama is historical, and since the Royal Family was canonized, this place is pilgrimage and holy. Investigator Sokolov wrote that the earth there was soaked by the fat of human bodies by an inch! There was torment going on. This is undeniably a holy place. But if it happens that the fate of these remains changes, I will admit everything. At the moment, the Church has recognized Ganina Yama. I am a faithful servant of the Church of God and I recognize what she recognizes. If the Church, headed by the Patriarch, recognizes the “Yekaterinburg remains,” nothing terrible will happen. But the fact that Ganina Yama is a holy place is absolutely certain. But still, subconsciously, it seems to me that something is not quite right here. I won't talk about my assumptions, but the old man who took us then said that the Red Army men cordoned off everything there and burned fires for three or four days. What can you burn for four days? That's the question. If they decided to bury them elsewhere, two days would be enough. But three or four? So I don’t know.

You have witnessed the prayers that took place at the site of the destruction of the Royal Family - where the Temple-on-the-Blood is now built.

- Yes, what gracious prayers were! Tolya Verkhovsky built a chapel with a dome there, and in the rain we were placed there. Prayers were regularly held, and as a deacon I took part in them with pleasure - sometimes with one priest, then with another. On this occasion, I even wrote a poem:

House of special purpose,
Converted
once in the trash,
Here in place
the murder of the king,
The penitent erected a temple.
And for everyone
russian hearts
It matters a lot.
Temple of great tribulation
and memory,
A temple of special purpose.

I wrote these verses at night, and in the morning at the consecration of the lower throne I already read them.

It is worth noting that every year on the Tsar's days the Soyuz TV channel tries to broadcast, and every year viewers call and ask what kind of poem it is. You, as a resident of Yekaterinburg, fought for the return of the name of St. Catherine to the city. Previously, it was named after Yakov Sverdlov.

- Master Melchizedek inspired me to do this. I have written two articles. One was called "Forgive us, St. Catherine", and the second - "St. Catherine's Day." I have it by nature - I can collect, organize, mobilize people, distribute leaflets. On the square named after 1905, it was necessary to gather a meeting dedicated to the renaming of the city. We have gathered about ten thousand people. Prior to this, Nikolai Goncharenko, a deputy of the City Duma, used my articles at the meeting to point out the attitude of the Church towards this issue.

The city was named in honor of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, and a church in her honor was evidence of this. Of course, the name of Queen Catherine played a role, but to some extent hypothetically, because the temple was built and consecrated (and therefore the city) in honor of the great martyr. Petersburg, after all, was also built in honor of St. Peter, but the name of Peter I played a role. When Vladyka Melchizedek said: “I would not like to live in the city with this filthy name of the murderer Sverdlov, whose hands are in blood up to the elbows!”, This also inspired me, and I became one of the initiators of the struggle for a name change. There were many of us. We fought so hard to get the city back the name in honor of St. Catherine, that now, when its name is shortened to "Eburg", it is so unpleasant! I think: if you were at the origins of this complex process, you probably would not call your city that! I always call him by his full name - Yekaterinburg.

There have been many decisive events in your life, people - what do you consider the most important for yourself?

- The most important event in my opinion is that my mother turned out to be my mother. I have a wonderful mommy, and my greatest happiness is when she is with me and when I serve in my church. There is no greater happiness on earth! Concerts are a secondary matter, but the happiness of being with my mom, with my beloved sisters Lyuba and Alya, nephews, loved ones, relatives is the greatest happiness.

Decoding:
Margarita Popova

In memory of Archimandrite Hermogenes (Murtazov)

Archimandrite Germogen (Murtazov), in schema Tikhon, reposed in the Lord on the night of June 9-10.

From 1965 to 1992, Father Hermogenes served at the Pukhtitsa Holy Dormition Stavropegic Convent in Estonia; in 1978 he took monastic vows with a name in honor of Saint Hermogen, Patriarch of Moscow. After 1992 he was transferred to the Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Since 1994, he has been the confessor of the Snetogorsk Nativity of the Mother of God of the convent, where he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.

In our publication dedicated to the blessed memory of the elder, Father Hermogenes talks about himself, about clergy in women's monasteries, about the monasticism of the last times.

In my family all are Russians, and they have kept the Orthodox faith from family to family ...

Everyone in my family was deeply religious. Especially grandmother and mother were distinguished by their strong faith. Before our generation, there were no priests in the family, but the Lord had already called me and my brother, Hierodeacon Nikon, to serve Him. And our sister is a nun, the mother of Sergius. All three children are monastics. And our mother also lived in monasticism - nun Magdalene. And dad died during the Great Patriotic War. He did not join either the party or the collective farm, so he was the first in our settlement to receive a summons to the front. In the very first days of the war, when the command did not yet know how to act, the father was killed.

From childhood, my grandmother and mother raised us all children in the faith. I was baptized in infancy - in the Church of the Holy Trinity, as the elders said. Born in Tatarstan, in the Novo-Sheshminsky region. Although in fact our roots are from the Smolensk region, the primordial Russian population has simply been resettled to Tataria since the time of its conquest by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in order to somehow develop these lands. But in my family all are Russians, and they have kept the Orthodox faith from family to family. Since childhood, I knew by heart "Our Father", "Theotokos", "I Believe", some psalms 50th, 90th: Have mercy on me, God, by your great mercy ... Alive in the help of the Most High ...

When I was drafted into the army, I did not take off the cross there either. I was demobilized, and my mother sold our house and moved to the nearest town of Chistopol - the fact is that only there was only one open church for the whole district. Mom there has already managed to get to know the nuns of one of the closed monasteries - at one time they even helped with the household needs of the entourage of Patriarch Sergius (Stragorodsky), who was evacuated with colleagues during the war to Ulyanovsk. I remember that I was demobilized for the Protection of the Mother of God, and now I return, and there are old nuns and my mother is the only one with them at the church - the singing one. Together they taught me to sing, read during the service. And then I entered the Saratov Seminary: it was not difficult for me to pass the exams and even catch up with some lost time in classes, since I submitted my documents at the wrong time.

In Saratov, I got a job in the Trinity Cathedral as subdeacon of Vladyka Benjamin (Fedchenkov), he was then buried in the God-made Pskov-Pechersk caves. I studied well: grades of fours or fives, - in the summer I came home: I also served at the church, helped my mother around the house. Even at the seminary I was ordained in 1959, first to the deacon, and then to the priest. After graduating from the seminary, I returned home, served for a year at the parish of the city of Mamadysh in the same place, in Tatarstan, and then went to the Holy Trinity St. Sergius Lavra at the Moscow Theological Academy to enter. Even from the Academy, I had already traveled to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, communicated with many elders there, only I did not find the Monk Simeon (Zhelnin), he had passed away two years earlier. I ended up in Pechory in 1962, and he departed to the Lord in 1960.

Pyukhtitsa

Archimandrite Alipy (Voronov), the abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, helped us to acquire a small house in Pechory not far from the monastery. Mom and all my relatives moved there. I myself thought that after I graduated from the academy, I would serve there somewhere in Pechory in a parish. But the Educational Committee then assigned me to serve in the Estonian Diocese, from there the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, then still Vladyka of Tallinn and Estonia, asked to send two priests. My friend and I went to Estonia. He served in a parish in Tallinn, and I was sent as a confessor to the Pukhtitsa monastery. So since 1965 I have served there for almost thirty years.

There, in the convent, the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II in 1978 and tonsured me. Named in honor of Saint Hermogen, Patriarch of Moscow, - the fact is that I wrote a Ph.D. thesis on the pastoral ministry of the saint at the Moscow Theological Academy.

In my presence there, in Pyukhtitsa, they set up Abbess Varvara (Trofimova). She was more active than the previous mother Angelina (Afanasyeva). Mother Varvara restored the monastery and raised it to a new level. It used to be provincial, but then it itself became the center of attraction. In addition, they completely provided themselves with everything: their cattle yard, their pastures, their own mill, their lands. Mother Varvara was a very good administrator, among other things. We called her "Metropolitan". His Holiness Alexy II respected her very much, and he himself assigned the abbot's service to this.

A month before the death of Matushka Varvara, I came to her, confessed her, confessed very deeply then, she remembered a lot, but what she did not remember, I suggested some sins to her, she confessed, then began to repent - it was a very deep confession! I read her a prayer of permission, gave her communion. And then a month later she departed to the Lord.

I left the Pyukhtitsa monastery with the blessing of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). It's just that it was already becoming clear what kind of life would begin in Estonia under modern democracy ... Besides, I got very sick there. My workload was still enormous: apart from monastic obediences, I was also a dean of Narov, I had thirteen parishes, until you go around everything, you will settle everything everywhere, it was difficult. So then the doctors barely left me in Pechory.

Snetogorsk monastery

I thought so there, in Pechory, to stay. Relatives lived there. I even served as a second priest in the Varvara Church. His Holiness then blessed me:

- Go to any monastery: where you like, get settled there, then you will tell me where you entered.

And here it was our ruling bishop, Archbishop Eusebius (Savvin), who said to me:

- It is necessary, Father Hermogenes, to help the Snetogorsk monastery.

Again, female ... But in the old days I was familiar with mother Lyudmila (Vanina). So where the bishop sent me, I went there.

When I was admitted to the Snetogorsk Monastery in 1994, it was completely destroyed. Here there was a military unit, a rest house, a children's sanatorium, etc. And there was no living place from the shrine ...

Since under Soviet rule there were few open monasteries, people traveled to those that were open, and I knew many believers. All these acquaintances came in handy for the restoration of the Snetogorsk monastery. Then the transport was cheap, people went to the conversation at the first opportunity, and I did not refuse anyone. So they were happy to help later. This is how I directly addressed:

- Come on, help!

You are the one, you are the other, I will say something else about something else ... So little by little they began to restore, to build something; a cow, a car, and so, with God's help, everything succeeded.

Serving as a confessor in a convent, especially one as large as Pukhtitsky, and then in Snetogorsky, is certainly not easy. Our Vladyka of Tallinn and Estonian Roman (Tang) used to say: "In the nunnery there is one big abbess and a hundred little ones." Each must be understood, each must be approached. When I was in Pyukhtitsa, there were about a hundred sisters. In Russia, under Soviet rule, there was not a single nunnery. So many sisters seeking monasticism were blessed there.

By the way, I remember there was such a nun Dimitriya, she went to confess to Elder Lawrence of Chernigov, now a glorified saint. She said that after his death he appeared to her and said:

- Such and such monasteries will open, such and such ... - he listed everything.

Then it was unimaginable, so cruel then was the atheist power. But then everything really happened as he predicted. It's impossible for humans, but everything is possible for God(Matthew 19:26). This is due to the fact that we have many new martyrs, the Lord, through their prayers, began to bless monasteries and temples again for opening.

If the Liturgy is celebrated, then everything around is sanctified

And all this ruin was allowed for the lawlessness, which before the revolution had already penetrated into the very same church circles.

Then martyrdom was given to the faithful in order to glorify the Lord and purify themselves. Also, in our years, especially after 1980, when the pagan fire was brought to Russia for the Olympics and everyone worshiped it, many martyrdom were allowed to believers in purification. Now, basically, not from persecution and reprisals, but due to illness - many have suffered the cross of cancer.

And as monasteries and churches began to open, then by the very service everything was cleansed. Because if the Liturgy is celebrated, then everything around is already sanctified: this is the place, and the people, employees, praying for the service, and even just living there. Remember, in the life of Saint Peter the Athonite there is an episode when he was just the first to come to Athos, and there are everywhere idols, temples and, accordingly, hordes of demons. How the demons drove him from there! And he take and confess:

- Well, I'll leave, but only if the Mother of God tells me, - She is the Mistress here!

The demons were gone instantly! They did not tolerate the very name of the Most Holy. And as the first Liturgy was served there, the space was completely inaccessible for them. Their shrine is burning. This is what it means to serve the Liturgy! Demons tremble Sacrifices of the Bloodless. The sacraments, it is said, will be performed until the end of the age. The church will exist until the end of time, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And if so, then she will give birth to saints.

You have to be very attentive to the words ...

People come to the monastery in different ways. The blessing of the parents is very important. Such a case is known. One deacon decided to go to the monastery to be saved. Mother says:

- Mom, bless me to go to the monastery!

- Not. When I die, then you will go.

- Who will need me there then? I myself will grow old. As in the akathist to the Monk Seraphim of Sarov it is said: "From the youth of Christ you have loved, blessed, and to the One who is fiery with longing to work ..." Whether you want it or not, you do not want to bless, but I will go!

I came to a monastery and began to live there. He was ordained a deacon. He did not serve that much and died. Then, often after the All-night Vigil, he began to appear in the church for Solei. Throw back the orarion and sings:

`` Thou hast rejected me from Thy Face, O Unfailing Light, and there is a foreign darkness, accursed, over me, but turn me to the light of Thy commandments ...

And the remaining words: direct my ways, I pray, - did not finish.

This vision was repeated constantly after the first hour of service. We turned to the bishop. He arrived, served the service, saw everything with his own eyes ... He stood next to the deacon and finished the rest of this irmos. Then he asked:

- Where is he buried?

They showed him.

- Open the grave.

They opened it. And it lies there, as it is now, no smoldering has touched it.

- Where is his personal file? - asks the bishop.

Brought. Opens, looked. They began to look: maybe he has any of his relatives still alive? And his mother was already an ancient grandmother, but she still lived ...

- Is your son? Vladyka asks her.

- Yes, mine, - confirms.

- Why did such a story happen to him? - and tells what and how. - Did you bless him for monasticism?

She confessed that when he wanted to leave, she told him that after my death you would become a monk, but he did not obey her and left ...

- So instead of a blessing, I cursed him ...

This also disturbed his soul even posthumously. Therefore, one must be very attentive to the words - they cannot be scattered about.

Live by the blessing

Monasticism is bloodless martyrdom. After those many grave sins, which both under the current permissiveness and under the Soviet godless government were still introduced into the norm - the same abortions! - Others can prepare themselves for eternity only through martyrdom. Or bloodless - monasticism, or even some kind of accident the Lord can tolerate. It is said: all who take the sword will die by the sword (Matt. 26:52). We must repent, and then, as the Lord will arrange, we can rely on His mercy, we do not know His judgments: whom He will lead by what path to salvation ...

But there should be no arbitrariness. Find yourself a confessor - and listen to what he tells you, how he blesses you. The Lord makes wise the pastors.

During the time of St. John Chrysostom, when there was a period of persecution, one Christian asked his spiritual father for his blessing for a martyr's deed, but the elder did not bless him:

- Do not!

And he still went. Then, when they had already taken the relics to the church according to custom, the deacon began to proclaim the litany:

- Proclaimed, leave!

The relics rose by themselves and some invisible force wore them out of the temple. The believers thought that it was they who were unworthy of the presence of a saint ... And then, as they began to understand, the elder explained:

- I did not bless him for a martyrdom.

That's what blessing means!

With the blessing, people marry and get married, and then the Lord directs them to monastic paths. God has everything on time if we are obedient and do everything with blessing. Here Archimandrite Nikita (Chesnokov) told me in the Pskov-Pechersky monastery. He himself was still the spiritual son of Father John of Kronstadt, but what about the choice of life's path to consult, - he already had to turn to one of the Optina elders:

“I don’t want to marry,” he says from the doorway. - I will finish my studies, but I will completely devote myself to the Church, I will serve ...

- You, friend, first you need to marry, - the elder immediately tells him. - Then you will be ordained, and after that you will be a monk.

He already lived, consider, like a monk. I never met any of the girls. I turned to a familiar nun: so and so ... And she brought him to one, one might say, an old maid - the one who vomited herself when everyone around the same age got married.

“There’s a young man, he needs to be ordained, accept the priesthood, but there’s no mother ...” the nun tells her friend.

- And what is his name? - she responds.

(And Peter - that was the name of Father Nikita before the tonsure - heard all this.)

- Peter? I agree, - she suddenly replies.

- How do you agree? !! - the nun is perplexed. What if he is crooked-oblique?

And she explains that the elder told her in due time:

“Don't look for anything, mind your own business. If you become a mother, your father Peter will be called ...

So they got married with the blessing of the elders. Lived in perfect harmony. They have two children. True, the children died later in the Great Patriotic War. And they both took monastic vows: he later became Archimandrite Nikita, she - nun Varvara. God works in mysterious ways.

About the monks of the last times

It is good, of course, to devote the heat of youth to God. But what about the monks of our last times said? Macarius the Great had a vision.

- What have we done? - was asked about his generation, and the answer was given:

- We have fulfilled the Law.

- And what will they do after us? - the dialogue continued.

“They will fulfill half of the Law.

- What will the next ones do?

- Nothing. They will be saved by sickness and sorrow.

And it was shown that the monks of the first times of Christianity had eagle's wings - the sea of \u200b\u200beveryday life could easily be flown over. The next generation of monks have goose wings: they will fly a little, but you need to rest on the water. And monastics of the last times will have cock's wings. Do they really fly with them? ..

Although, you know, we had such a remarkable episode in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. At one time I lived there, seeking the prayerful protection of the fathers. At that time Archimandrite Gabriel (Steblyuchenko) was the governor of the Thunderer. Everyone called him so: "Ivan the Terrible". So one day a rooster suddenly flew out of the household yard and circled over the monastery! I flew over the cathedral square, over the churches and sat down directly on the windowsill of the governor's father ... It must have been such a miracle for strengthening from God to us. True, the governor then arranged some persecution of roosters and chickens, so that all of them were removed from the monastery. And this, apparently, for edification: without sorrow you cannot be saved (see Acts 14:22).

The church triumphs spiritually when she is persecuted. As soon as the Soviet power was replaced, what was everyone doing? They began to build, to equip life on a new basis. There is the Gospel of Martha and Mary. Martha symbolizes all those external affairs that we do. And Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to His sweet speech. So Martha even began to be indignant at her:

- Come on, get up, help me!

And the Lord reasoned with Martha:

- Martha! Martha! you care and fuss about many things, but only one thing is needed; Mary chose the good part that will not be taken away from her(Luke 10: 41-42).

Mary chose, as it is said in Church Slavonic: one-size-fits-all... Of course, thank God that we are restoring monasteries and churches, but Mari's case should take precedence. It is paramount.

Prepared by Olga Orlova

Archimandrite Ermogen (in the world Alexander IvanovichMurtazov ) was born in 1935, near the city of Chistopol in Tatarstan, into an Orthodox Russian family. The priest does not remember Tatars in his family environment. "If there was a Tatar who gave us a surname, then it was a long time ago, somewhere in the mists of time." Parents Ivan Fedorovich and Daria Matveevna, both born in 1911.

The father was the second child in the family. Elder sister Anastasia, born in 1933 (nun Sergius); younger brother Boris, born in 1936 (now Hierodeacon Nikon). Fr. Ermogen tells about himself in the following way: “We lived not far from Chistopol. We, children, were brought up in the Orthodox faith. Grandmother Marfa Vasilievna, my father’s mother, was very devout. She lived with us. She had many children, but they all died in When John was born, my dad, my grandmother went to the church, to the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Quick to Hear", ordered a prayer service for water and sprinkled the baby. And God saved him.

Our family was of average income. We had a horse, but they took it away for collectivization. Our dad worked as a tractor driver.

In 1941 he was drafted to the front. I was 6 years old then, I remember how he left, I accompanied him, holding his hand, to the outskirts. Dad didn’t come back. The last letter came from Toropets, Tver region.

We began to live alone. Mom was semi-literate, but churched, with a good voice; she sang in the choir. Then the church was closed. Mom worked as a tax collector, then a forester, then a caretaker in a hospital. I always helped her and was, thus, always "on the people". I mastered all these works - issuing timber, for example. Horse, cows - I could do all this. I got used to work since childhood. I went to school for five kilometers, finished 7 classes; then I studied for another 2 years. At that time, few graduated from 10 classes.

When my mother worked as a forester, people often gathered in our house for joint prayer. I ran and gathered people.

Then I myself began to work as a second agent at the post office. Then the army; served 2 years in Baku, in anti-aircraft artillery.

In my absence, the family moved to Chistopol. And there was a church. And before there was a monastery, and the church choir consisted of nuns. Our family bought the house on a share with the nuns. And when I returned from the army, the nuns began to talk to me about entering the Theological Seminary in Saratov. I began to prepare: I had to read fluently in Church Slavonic, to know the Law of God, the troparia by heart. And he entered.

The teachers at the Saratov Seminary in those years (late 50s) were good, "old". Many became bishops: Philaret - Exarch of Kiev; Metropolitan John (Greenland); Gorky Vladyka Nikolai, he was our inspector; Ivanovsky Vladyka Theodosius. Vladyka Theodosius was famous in our seminary as a brilliant preacher. He previously lived in Chernigov, with Elder Lawrence, now canonized. During the war he was shell-shocked near Kursk. They put him in a coffin, buried him. And in the grave he woke up and prayed: "Lord, if you leave my life, I will devote myself to you!" And the kids collected cartridges in the forest after the battle. The edge of a footcloth stuck out from under the nailed lid of the coffin, and was visible among the mound of the grave. Children also pulled this edge. Miracle! The children called the old men, and they dug him up. Like Lazarus four days. He graduated from the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg. His wife and children abandoned him.

I studied at the Saratov Seminary from 1957 to 1960. He studied, with God's help, excellent. He was a subdeacon of Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov). He was a trustee for the household: we had five hostels. He was an assistant to the housekeeper.

Then the rector ordered to be accepted. My guardians are Fr. prot. John (he lived in Chistopol, helped both financially and with advice) and the blessed Anna Mikhailovna, sagacious like Xenia the Blessed, was - both died in the same year. And the question of marriage I decided alone. The wife was a choir singer. They got married. I graduated from seminary, and I was assigned a parish. He was ordained a priest in Saratov, and Metropolitan Palladium of Saratov and Volsk ordained him. This was in 1961. For two years he served at the parish in Mamadysh (1961-62).

Family disagreements soon began. Heavy. All the elders: Pochaev elder Kuksha; about. Sampson (I have known him since 1963), Fr. Tikhon Agricov, perspicacious, were blessed to disperse. First, I went to the Academy to study at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The elders said that after graduation he must leave his wife and enter a monastery. "

In the Lavra, Fr. Hermogenes studied from 1962 to 1965. He was a classmate of Vladyka Eusebius. The professors who taught at the Moscow Theological Academy were people of high education and spiritual culture.

Despite the past 40 years since then, the father remembers all of them and tells about everyone with love:

"Fr. Archpriest Konstantin (Ruzhitsky). After the war, until his death in 1960, he was rector of the Academy. After him bishops were rectors. He was a professor, taught moral theology. He made many issues. He was an" old man ", according to According to Father Hermogenes, a native of Kiev. An amazing story happened to him during the war. Someone showed the Germans that he allegedly had a connection with the partisans. The Germans seized him, took him to the commandant's office, and from there - far into the forest and left him there He did not run anywhere, but sat down on a fallen tree and began to pray. And the Germans left an ambush and if he ran, they would have killed him. But he prayed, giving his life into the hands of God. The Germans returned, took him from this tree. , taken out of the forest and released.

Prof. Starokadomsky, Mikhail Agafangelovich. Theologian. Geologist. A person of great knowledge. He tried to teach the student. If the answer on the exam was weak, knowledge was incomplete, then he made up for them right there, during the exam. It was not important for him to give a grade, but for the student to know.

Prof. Georgievsky. He taught the Charter of the Orthodox Church; liturgy. "To know this," he said, "one must live in the Church, live the life of the Church."

Archimandrite Tikhon Agricov. Read Pastoral Theology. There was a saint, a perspicacious elder, very popular in the Lavra, an example of sacrificial love.

Dogmatic theology was taught by prof. Sarychev (as monks Vasily). He was strictly demanding. The correspondence students were in awe of the exam in this subject. Once he was walking down the corridor, and they, not noticing him, said: "When this biscuit dies, no one will remember him." Since then, he has changed his treatment of students, became much softer. Died already in 2000.

Prof. stories of Shabatin. I read the History of the Russian Church, the general History of the Church.

Prof. Talyzin read canon law. I read it from memory. And every year he repeated it word for word. We checked. So the character of a person corresponds to the subject being read. "

We present here, for history, the final page of Batushka's diploma on graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy, where the signatures of almost all the teachers he talks about are clearly visible.

He wrote his graduation essay for the title of Candidate of Theology on the topic: "The pastoral ministry of Saint Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow." His name is Fr. Archimandrite will receive at the monastic tonsure in 1978.

“After the Academy,” Father Germogen continues, “they assigned me to Estonia. During this time, my relatives moved to Pechory, and in the summertime I rested there. I got acquainted with Father Sampson and went to work for him, since I had a“ move ” "to His Holiness Alexy I (Simansky). His Holiness's cell-attendant was the father of our class teacher at the Academy, Father Alexy. His Holiness, and he blessed Father Sampson to live in Moscow and helped to establish him there. Valaam elders lived in Pechory at that time: Father Michael, O Nicholas, Archimandrite Pimen from the Caucasus Mountains, Fr. Savva Everyone gathered at the governor Alypy.

I lived in Pyukhtitsy for almost 30 years, from 1965 to 1992. They served together with Fr. Peter Seregin. The service was daily. They confessed, I - old women, and he - monastics of my age. When Fr. Peter left the staff, I served alone. He was both a confessor and a dean, had 12 parishes. There were few monasteries then, and people came to us in large numbers. There was not a single diocese that we did not know through the pilgrims. Pyukhtitsy - Pechory - Riga hermitage - Vilnius (Holy Spirit Monastery) - Kiev (Florovsky Monastery) - Odessa (Assumption Monastery) - Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Here is the circle along which the pilgrims moved.

The monastery received foreign delegations. Since 1961, the future His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II has been the Bishop of Estonia. He preserved the monastery and made it a "showcase". He also tonsured me, here, in Pyukhtitsy, on March 17, 1978 (on the day of commemoration of Venerable Joasaph Snetogorsky, but the father did not know this saint yet). And he received from the tonsure Fr. John Krestyankin, who after the death of Fr. Sampson became my spiritual father.

When the Baltic republics began to separate, I did not want to live in a foreign country and accept their citizenship. Fr. John Krestyankin and His Holiness gave their blessing to move to Pechory. I wanted to think, to rest. For a year he served in the Church of Varvara with Fr. Eugene, from 1992 to 1993. Then Vladyka Eusebius arrived. And on the winter Seraphim of Sarov, in 1994, he invited me to go to the Snetogorsk monastery. (On this day, according to the recollections of In. Arseny, in the Snetogorsk monastery there was a miracle with the icon of St. Seraphim - it "came to life").

“When Elder Kuksha was still alive, he called me a bishop. Father Sampson said the same thing. And Fr. Eugene (Trostin) also said these words, and Blessed Anna Mikhailovna, and Vladyka Zinovy \u200b\u200b(Tbilisi). But before he died, Fr. Sapmson said that “during the years of service in the monastery, the Lord has already chosen a different path for you.” My character has changed. I have lost power almost completely, I prefer “to sin in the direction of gentleness than in the direction of severity.”

Now Fr. Germogen works a lot, regardless of age and health. Daily participation in the Liturgy, prayer service, confession, conversations with sisters and an ever-increasing stream of parishioners, cell prayer. Saves, gives strength, according to him, only prayer. Well, the careful, loving attitude of the sisters. "You will come to another monastery," they say, "there mother left for the training camp, but there is no confessor at all. But here - thank God!" And in a song, on the name day of Fr. Hermogenes, the sisters sang: "We are not orphans with God, we live under protection!" Fr. Hermogenes in 2004 was held as a great holiday - parishioners and spiritual children brought so many roses that they stood not only in the church, the refectory and all service premises, but in every cell. For the hard daily pastoral work the Orthodox people pay him with ardent love.

These are, in short, the fate of the three founders of the revived, after a 200-year hiatus, Snetogorsk monastery. Archbishop Eusebius, Abbess Lyudmila, confessor Archimandrite Hermogenes - three good branches of Christ's grapes, bearing a hundredfold fruit. In the center of the triad is Vladyka Eusebius. He led, by the providence of God, as if with one hand Abbess Lyudmila, who has 30 years of experience in spiritual service, and with the other hand, his classmate at the Moscow Theological Academy, Archimandrite Hermogenes, with 30 years of experience in the spiritual care of the nunnery, and put them next to The removed mountain, where they have been standing unchanged for 10 years, holding on their shoulders the holy work of God.

There is much in common in these fates. All three are war orphans. How could one mother, in a war-torn country, raise three, four, six children? Only with the help of God. And the children saw it. In an orphan childhood - the origins of faith. From the same place and non-spoiledness and vitality. These are very happy people - they have always been with God. What love and care the Mother Church surrounded them with! The Orthodox tradition, as is clearly seen from the history of their lives, has never been interrupted. They are surrounded by monks and elders (Kuksha, Ioasaph Optinsky, Fr. Isaak (Vinogradov), Blessed Anna Mikhailovna, Fr. Sampson, Fr. Tikhon Agricov, Valaam monks - and all of them cannot be counted), and high, "ancient" training professors and teachers of the Seminary and the Academy ... All three of our first founders are now at the gracious age of "early senility", between sixty and seventy years. The experience they have accumulated is great and precious for us. Let us pray for them that the Lord would give them a lot of strength and for many years for further fruitful service to His Church, the Orthodox people, and the reviving Motherland.

Shortly before his death, in 1991, the mother of Fr. Hermogenes, then nun Bassa, took monastic tonsure with the name Magdalene. The deeds of the Lord are wonderful: usually a child who has been prayed for becomes a monk; but Father Hermogenes' father, Ivan Fyodorovich, a prayed-for child, had a family. The Lord took him to the war young, thirty years old. And his whole family - both his three children and his wife - become monks!

In the certificate received by 25-year-old priest Alexander Murtazov after graduating from the Saratov Theological Seminary in 1960, "fours" are found only in the cycle of language disciplines, and in catechism. Everything else is "excellent". Seminarians studied Scripture; five languages \u200b\u200b(Church Slavonic, Russian, Greek, Latin, English); a cycle of theological disciplines (basic, moral, dogmatic, comparative theology); the historical and church cycle (general history of the Church, history of the Russian Church, sectarian and schismatic studies); pastoral cycle (liturgy, statutes, homiletics); had temple practice. They also studied the Constitution of the USSR. The Academy adds here: Hebrew; style of the Russian language; logics. The historical and church cycle is complemented by a course on the history of the Greek-Eastern and Slavic churches, as well as a course on the history of Western confessions. The pastoral cycle - pastoral theology and canon law. The Academy also studies patrology (with hagiography) and church archeology. This is how the Church thoroughly prepares her children for pastoral work.

The Lord allowed us to live in an amazing time, which can be called the Second Cross-ing Rus-si. Mil-li-o-us people are looking for and go-to-ro-gu to the Church! Lord, welcome everyone. I wish everyone a spa session. How-to-rit-sya in the holy Gospel: “Come to Me all the toil-da-yu-schi-e-xia and re-me-n-ny, and I will give you rest ”(Matthew 11:28).

And “learn from Me, for I am small and humble in my heart, and find de-te in-ko du-sham va-shim” (Matthew 11:29). The only one in this life and in the future is our Teacher and Lord Jesus Christ.

But we are all sin-de-la-e. He is like a wall between man-ve-com and man-ve-com, between man-ve-com and God. Therefore, everyone who comes as a cha-do to the Church to his-th He-devil-no-Father, must be wives of all races - to recognize sin in yourself, to be aware of it, to discern and reconcile with God, with people, with your own with -vest.

And then, having learned the Gospel commandments, try to live not according to your own sinful will, but according to the will of God. The Holy Scripture says: "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him" \u200b\u200b(Psalm 144: 18).

The Orthodox Church is the only one in the world that keeps the apostolic truth intact until our times. “The church is the pillar and the foundation of truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). The Lord put everything into it for our salvation.

You just need to listen to yourself: how much we all need the Truth! “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14: 6), the Lord said about Himself. We all need God! “By me, if anyone enters, he will be saved, and will enter and go out, and will find pasture” (John 10: 9). Past eternal.

We, spiritual fathers, try to help everyone who comes to God - everyone who wants salvation. And the salvation of one's own soul is of paramount importance, it is especially important to think about it for those who are just beginning their path of churching.

Examples to follow

During its thousand-year history, our Russian Orthodox Church has revealed more saints to the world than any other Local Church. Among the Russian saints of God, from time immemorial, saints, saints, and holy fools abounded ... However, we had few martyrs ...

True, the very first canonized Russian saints were the innocently murdered princes-passion-bearers Boris and Gleb. But then very few supplemented their number, they can be enumerated on one hand. There were very few martyrs in Russia.

But during the period from 1917, when the Soviet yoke began, and to this day, our Church has revealed a host of new martyrs! The Council of Bishops in 2000 immediately glorified almost a thousand of those tortured for Christ in Soviet persecution, and then their number almost doubled and is still growing ... And the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian Church are glorified by a whole host: revealed and unmanifest, but known to God.

According to their holy prayers, churches and monasteries began to reopen in Russia. The life of the people is already entering its single saving channel - and this is gratifying.

All of them, the saints of God, showed us the image of piety, purity, morality. Therefore, each of them is an example for our imitation. As the apostle Paul says: “Remember your teachers who preached the word of God to you, and, looking at the end of their lives, imitate their faith” (Heb. 13: 7).

Have time to repent

The New Martyrs passed the test of loyalty to God in inhuman conditions. And those who could not stand the test in those terrible years, who succumbed to the infernal influences of the times and participated in the destruction of temples, mocked, killed, blasphemed God, brought a curse on themselves and their offspring.

True, some still managed to repent ...

There is a story: the atheist communists, closing the church, decided first of all to remove the cross from the dome ... But no one dared. Suddenly someone volunteered from the crowd. He quickly climbed onto the dome, cut down the cross and was about to throw it off - but he himself flew down, barely managing to grab a blade of grass on the roof of the temple ... Hangs and does not fall ... They called the fire tower to remove it from there. And he dangles there between heaven and earth and realizes that this is a miracle! According to the laws of physics, this stalk would not have kept him ... Below everyone is also looking and amazed:

God saved him!

This man repented, came to church and told confession:

I dared to commit such a sin ... But the Lord had mercy on me!

In every way, the All-Merciful God saves people. You just need to repent, confess. Now even the third or fourth generations of those whose grandfathers-great-grandfathers once blasphemed come to the temple. In the large missal there are special prayers to remove the curse from the whole family.

Otherwise, people suffer and do not understand why ...

Repentance Must Be Active

At one time a family came to me from Nizhny Novgorod: my mother Agnia, and she had two brothers, both possessed by demoniacs. But by themselves, by nature, they were very good people. The younger brother Alyosha suffered especially from obsession. He drank soundly, and got hit by a car, and in a fight he was somehow cut with a knife - it was the demon who instigated and threw him everywhere. And so Mother Agnia came to us at the Pukhtitsa Monastery, where I was then a confessor, and told how she worried about him.

Father, - he will ask so plaintively, - how can I help him?

And I had a friend, Father Theodosius - he lived, by the way, for 120 years. Ascended in the north. At one time he, like all believers, was sentenced to be shot. But the executioners simply did not raise their hands: when they saw him, it was already like an angel of God! And how did they talk to him: “What, they think, can he be guilty ?! There is no fault on him! " So they wrote him a ticket: the sentence was carried out.

One of the NKVD-Schnikov took him to his home, and Father Theodosius lived in his country house, worked. He lived like this to our time, and this was already the 1990s. We corresponded with him. We had such a liaison Marya Grigorievna. She went to see him. Each time will return and testify:

He's a saint! Penetrating!

With her, we passed notes to Father Theodosius, for whom to pray. And once the name of Alexei was entered there ... From him immediately, like off a duck, all impurity descended.

What did I do ?! I do not understand! - then he suddenly said, clearly returning to his mind.

But all this dirt passed on even more to another brother - Kostya. Then already he began to suffer especially from all these demonic intrigues, he was strongly twisted ...

What to do? - we passed the question to Father Theodosius.

And he opened:

Your dad is to blame for all this.

And what is he to blame? - they ask.

After World War II, he walked from Arzamas to his home. Dear, found a large amount of money. And they were lost by a man who, out of despair, sold the cow-nurse! He then searched for a very long time where he had dropped this money. There was some very acute life situation there ... And then he cursed for a long time the one through whose fault he lost this money. The father acted dishonestly, hiding the find.

Then, when the father had already repented, remembering what it really was, he tried in every possible way to atone for his sin after years. Helped temples. Because the sin of acquisition, of unrighteous appropriation, is then only forgiven when a person returns everything back in full.

And if he stole and offended someone with something, then Zacchaeus, received and praised by the Lord, did, as it is said, “rewarded four times” (see Luke 19: 8). How much was stolen where - so much there and must be returned, and by diligence and more. Only after this will the repentance at revealing everything in confession become valid. And if a person just said in confession that he stole, but did not return anything, his sin remains on him.

So in the case described, only after active repentance, when the father realized everything, confessed and corrected everything, his family began to heal, things got better.

I have heard a lot of such stories in my life.

Do not curse!

In those families where the parents are not married, the enemy fights especially strongly, destroying the commandment to honor parents (see Exodus 20:12), and they, in turn, further incites them to curse children ...

There is a known case that occurred in the Arkhangelsk region, in the north. A boy of 13 years old with his grandfather, as a rule, tended a herd of cows. He annoyed his mother with something that morning, and she cursed him:

Damn you for disobeying.

As always, he went to the pasture, the grandfather left somewhere, and the demon approached the boy and said:

Mother gave you to me today. From now on you are mine! And I will treat you as I should.

He took the cross off him and took him to his team, to the demons: what they just did not get up there ...

And the boy was found supposedly dead, for the sake of appearance, instead of him, the demons slipped a wooden tie with his portrait, and such an obsession was brought to everyone that it seemed to everyone that this boy was in a coffin.

The whole village began to bury him, but it was hard for the horses to carry this tie.

Then he appeared to his mother in a dream:

Mom, I'm alive. Since you pronounced a curse on me, I am not mine now ... But I am alive. You have to pray for me.

She turned to the priest and they began to pray. Then the son had already appeared for periods, but in unclean places: in a bathhouse, etc. A year or a year and a half passed, when she prayed for the sin, the demon threw his son to the same place from where he took:

Now I have no right to keep you with me!

The accursed one returned to his relatives and told what dirty things they were doing and how scary it was: somewhere they set fire to the house, in another place there is still such evil that I do not want to retell, perpetrated ...

You have to be very careful about rotten words, and even more so curses.

Know the Truth

After decades of state atheism, it was difficult to immediately introduce the teaching of the Law of God in schools. But still, for the sake of the children, I had to try! In Georgia, I know, in due time the Law of God was introduced in schools, and their crime rate has decreased, and things have become much better with morality. About 60% of Georgians go to churches every Sunday. And what percentage of those who even call themselves "Orthodox"?

"Strike while the iron is hot". At the end of the Soviet regime, human souls were tired of the ideology that was slipped into them instead of faith ... If you would have started teaching the Law of God in schools then, at least in the 1990s, the parents would have learned the Truth through their children and felt how they themselves that makes it good ...

Then people were still cleaner, they had already lost the fear of God under the Soviet regime, but they were corrupted by the last decades of permissiveness, then they began to live according to their own whims. All this liberal propaganda has further alienated those who have lost faith from the God-established norms of life. Now it is already very difficult to direct people to salvation.

A person is endowed with free will, but it is one thing when from childhood you are instilled with a taste for everything healthy and salvific, and another thing when childhood is poisoned and corrupted. It is very difficult for such a person to restore himself later.

Remember, under Khrushchev, a "dry law" was introduced - they banned the sale of vodka. But people are so accustomed to drinking that they could no longer live without this stinking water. And when there was a free sale, they took one bottle for themselves, and it was enough for them. And when they were banned, they began to buy boxes ... They would drag the box, and for a month, or even for a week it was enough.

Likewise, with the abolition of Soviet ideology: having not yet acquired the true faith, people went all out: psychics, horoscopes, sects ... This dominance of devilry has begun! Why didn't you hurry up with the introduction of the Law of God in schools? How many people would have been saved! And now abortions and abortions are the death of children, but what will happen to these poor women?

What to expect in a land soaked in the blood of babies? There are sins that are washed away only by blood.

All those misfortunes and disorders that are still coming can only be overcome with God's help.

What the Lord Expects of Us

Nevertheless, Russia will not lose its importance on a global scale. Because the West has long been corrupted. And Russia was a saint, and it will remain saint. All those vices that were implanted in our people from the West will be realized by our people. People will repent of them. Really repent!

Because God keeps us so that we keep the truth of Orthodoxy!

It is enough to study the teaching of the Holy Church! Just take an interest in the basics of the Orthodox doctrine - and God will immediately go to meet you! Just call - and it will come to the rescue! "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth" (Psalm 144: 18).

The Lord Himself will also call our people to repentance. We do not lose heart. Christ will restore our Holy Russia in all purity and glory. He will only arrange everything in His own way. How? This is revealed to some holy elders. And for everyone it will become obvious when you yourself have already seen everything with your own eyes ...

Now many processes are happening latently. I met with such elders who said what would happen next. And this is in full agreement with what even the glorified fathers warned about before us in the face of saints.

Archimandrite Germogen (Murtazov)
Prepared by Olga Orlova

Quick reference

Archimandrite Germogen (Murtazov) (in the world Alexander Ivanovich Murtazov) was born in 1935 in a village near the city of Chistopol (Tatarstan) in a family of believers (in the house of the Murtazov family, the surrounding residents gathered for joint prayer).

After leaving school, he served in Baku (Azerbaijan) in anti-aircraft artillery for 2 years. He returned from the army to the city of Chistopol, where his family had moved during his absence. Under the influence of the nuns of the local monastery, he entered the Theological Seminary in Saratov, where he studied from 1957 to 1960. During his studies he served as a subdeacon in one of the Saratov churches and as an assistant to the housekeeper in the seminary.

He was ordained a priest in 1959, after which he served for a year in the parish of the city of Mamadysh (Tatarstan). He studied at the Theological Academy at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra from 1962 to 1965. Upon graduation, he received a PhD in Theology. Thesis topic: "Pastoral ministry of St. Hermogenes, Patriarch of Moscow."

From 1965 to 1992 he lived in the Pukhtitsa Monastery in Estonia, where in 1978 he was tonsured a monk, taking the name in honor of St. Hermogen, Patriarch of Moscow.

After 1992 he moved to the Pskov-Pechersk Lavra, in 1994 - to the Snetogorsk monastery, where he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite.