(Icon, I half of the XYI century, Tretyakov Gallery)
Procopius of Ustyug was the first real holy fool in Rus'. Having been baptized by Saint Varlaam of Khutyn and having distributed his estate, Procopius leaves Novgorod, gets to Ustyug and chooses this city to live. Procopius' foolishness brings on him "annoyance, reproach and beating" from people, but he prays for his offenders. He leads a cruel life: he has no roof over his head, he sleeps naked “on a dunghill,” and then on the porch of the Assumption Cathedral. He prays secretly at night, asking for useful things for the people of Ustyug, and during the day he walks around the city in tattered clothes with three pokers, enduring grins and beatings. He accepts food little by little from God-fearing people, but never anything from the rich. Procopius has a prophetic gift, inalienable from foolishness. In 1290, a week before a strong storm with a thunderstorm and a tornado, Procopius called on the Ustyuzhans to repent of their sins “to avoid death from fire and water.” But no one believes him. Only when a terrible cloud came over the city and the earth began to shake, the residents ran to the cathedral church, where Procopius was already praying before the icon of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prayers turned away God's wrath, and a hail of stones fell 20 versts from Ustyug, where centuries later one could still see the fallen forest. (In 1567, the Ustyug miraculous icon was transferred to Moscow to the Assumption Cathedral). In Rus', one of the lifetime miracles of the righteous Procopius is widely known - the deliverance of the city of Ustyug from a stone cloud, which God prepared for the sins of its inhabitants and for the glorification of His saint. Previously, in many Orthodox cathedrals in Russia, stones from that cloud that fell beyond Ustyug and did not harm anyone through the prayers of the saint were kept as shrines.
Another prophecy was the prediction of the righteous Procopius to the three-year-old girl Mary that she would be the mother of the great enlightener of the Zyryans, Saint Stephen of Great Perm.
It is not known from the life what Procopius’ name was before his baptism in Novgorod. The location of his birth remains controversial. Historians and church chroniclers have come to the conclusion that Procopius’ path to Orthodoxy began from the German merchant city of Lübeck. He returned here in the guise of a saint several centuries later. On the temple icon in the chapel it is written - Prokop of Ustyug and Lubeck. In the city of Hamburg, neighboring Lübeck, the temple in honor of Blessed Prokop was built in the Pskov style. This cathedral is visited by many believers, both Russian emigrants and Germans.
The Cathedral of the Holy Righteous Procopius was erected in honor of the holy blessed Procopius, Christ for the Fool's sake, the Ustyug wonderworker, who lived in Ustyug in the second half of the 12th century.
In 1471, a temple was built at the burial site of the righteous Procopius - gratitude for the prayerful help of the blessed one, who saved the Ustyug squad from a serious illness during a military campaign in Nizhny Novgorod, where they stood as an outpost from the Kazan Tatars. In 1495, also by citizens of the city of Ustyug, after another military campaign in Nizhny Novgorod, a new temple was built, consecrated in the name of the righteous Procopius. From that time on, they began to celebrate the feast of the holy righteous Procopius. The relics of the holy righteous Procopius still rest in the cathedral church of Veliky Ustyug.
The Prokopyevsky Cathedral, small in size, fits perfectly into the ensemble of the Cathedral Courtyard. Until 1862, the cathedral was a summer cathedral; the role of a warm temple was performed by the Alekseevskaya Church, standing nearby. Services in the cathedral were discontinued in 1940, but in 1948 the cathedral was again transferred to the existing Orthodox community. In 1964, a decision was made again to close the temple for services. The Prokopyevsky Cathedral was transferred to the museum, and only in 1996 did it return to its former owners.
 |
 |
Temple of Procopius the Righteous. Veliky Ustyug. Church of the Ascension of the Lord
(Little Ascension),
what's on Bolshaya in Moscow?
Nikitskaya, 18/2.
Here is the chapel
in honor of Blessed Procopius,
For Christ's sake,
Ustyug miracle worker.
Sources:
Holy blessed Procopius, Fool for Christ's sake, Ustyug miracle worker. Life and Akathist. - M.: Temple of the Ascension of the Lord (Little Ascension), 1997.
Fedotov G.P. Saints of ancient Rus' (X-XVII centuries). - PARIS: YMCA-PRESS, 1989.
Fedorov V. Before the image of blessed Procopius // Soviet thought. - 1997. - October 29. - p.3.
Dobrynina I. Prokopiev day.// Soviet thought. - 1996. - July 20.
Saint Stephen, Bishop of Perm.
|
|
Icon of Stephen the Great Perm. XIX century. Museum,
Veliky Ustyug.
Stefan of Perm occupies a special place among the saints of ancient Rus' - a bishop of a huge region, a missionary who devoted his entire life to the education of pagans, the creator of the Perm charter and translator of sacred books into the Perm language (the language of modern Komi).
Stefan was born around 1335-1340 in Veliky Ustyug. His father Simeon served as a cleric at the Ustyug Cathedral Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The saint's mother's name was Mary. The life of the famous Ustyug holy fool Procopius tells that he predicted the birth of the future saint when Stephen’s mother was only three years old.
As a child, Stefan learned the Perm language, which he later knew perfectly. Stefan's love of learning and languages distinguished him from his peers. To continue his studies, he went to the Rostov Monastery of Gregory the Theologian, where he spent more than 10 years in scientific works, learned Greek, and translated Slavic liturgical books into the Permian (Zyryan) language. In 1379, before the start of his sermon, Stefan went for a blessing to Bishop Gerasim, who ruled the metropolis at that time. Having ordained Stephen as a hieromonk, he provided him with everything necessary for the consecration of the church and blessed him. In the same year, Stefan set off from Moscow to the place of his missionary activity. Permian settlements then began from the confluence of the Vychegda into the Northern Dvina. The first village visited by Stefan was called Pyras (now Kotlas).
Stefan did everything to Christianize Komi. He chose the only correct path: he patiently trained assistants and missionaries from the local population, categorically refusing forced Russification. That is why, first of all, he created a school for boys - Zyryans, where he began teaching the Perm and Russian languages, as well as the basics of worship, which he also translated into the local language. He sent the most capable and worthy of the priesthood to Moscow for ordination.
Stefan wandered around the Permian land for about four years. His convincing preaching, in the native language of the Zyryans, patience, fearlessness, unshakable strength of character - all this endeared him, and many of them converted to the Christian faith. The saint walked at least a thousand kilometers across the land of Perm. He destroyed sanctuaries and cut down the sacred trees of the Zyryans - increasingly with the help of yesterday's pagans themselves, who had been baptized. The old deities could not punish him - and this, in the eyes of the people, served as proof of the truth of the teaching brought by Saint Stephen.
Everyone was greatly impressed by Stephen's victory in a kind of dispute with the chief priest Pam. In the course of it, Pam challenged Stefan to go through fire and water to prove the correctness and strength of his faith. The missionary agreed, but took the priest by the hand to go into the fire with him: Pam was afraid. Stefan suggested going into the water, but the result was the same. The shamed Pam and the rest of his co-religionists were forced to leave. When a significant community of Christians had formed, Stephen began the construction of the temple. The church in Ust-Vym was built on the banks of the Vym River, at its confluence with the Vychegda, on the site of the “weedy” birch - the pagan center of the Zyryans. With the increase in the number of believers, Stephen erected two more churches. There was a need for a special bishop for the Perm land. Around 1383, he went to Moscow and, at meetings with Grand Duke Dmitry Donskoy and Metropolitan Pimen, began to convince them of the advisability of forming a diocese in the Komi region. In the winter of 1383, Stefan was elevated to the high rank of bishop with the title "Bishop of Perm".
Bishop Stefan gave another 13 years of his life to the Komi region. He erected and consecrated several small monasteries, continued missionary trips, erected the first churches and chapels in Vychegda, Sysola, Vym, and expanded the activities of the school. Stefan of Perm, who actually became the first administrator of the Komi region, had to repel the raids of the Voguls and Vyatchans, take measures to prevent famine in lean years, approve the first court, etc.
Stefan died during his third trip to Moscow in 1396 and was buried in the Kremlin. A century and a half later he was canonized. This is how the work of St. Stephen of Perm was appreciated.
His holy staff was kept near the saint’s tomb; it was later taken away by the Poles, but in the middle of the 19th century it was returned to Russia and is now in Perm. The Komi government ordered scientists to publish an academic work about Stephen of Perm. Since May 1992, the day of Stefanovskaya writing began to be widely celebrated in Komi. Books have been written about him and films have been made. May 9 is the day of remembrance of St. Stephen of Perm.
The wooden church of Stephen of Perm was erected in 1774. In 1800, in memory of his fellow countryman, the stone Stefano-Perm Church was built in Veliky Ustyug, under the order of the Ustyug merchants Yamshchikovs, located in the city cemetery and located, probably, near the place where Stefan was born. Since 1815, as the chronicle notes, “they began to celebrate Saint Stephen of Velikoperm on the day of his repose, April 26, as a native of Velikiy Ustyug.”
Stefanovo Cemetery Church.
Photo from 1915, Veliky Ustyug.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. Stefanovskaya Church of V. Ustyug was one of the “sufficiently strong ones with decorated and well-maintained churches”, with sufficient funds. According to the inventory of 1919, the summer church in the name of St. Stephen of Perm was particularly beautiful. The throne in the altar was marble, with gilding and enamel inserts. The vaults above the throne were decorated with individual picturesque marks, etc. Not far from the church, on the site of a former wooden church, at the end of the 19th century, a stone chapel-tomb was erected in the name of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the miracle worker. Inside is an octagonal chapel. The inventory indicates that in the chapel there was a table made of white stone hewn slabs with an inscription on the top board: “This table was placed on the site of the altar of the former first wooden church in the cemetery.” This chapel still exists today. The bell tower of Stephen's Church was built at the same time as the temple. It had nine bells of different sizes. The largest of them was poured in 1807, weighing 107 pounds 30 pounds. In 1940, the cemetery church was closed. The iconostases and church property were destroyed. Since 1948, Stephen's Church has been used for funeral services for the dead. In 1964, the executive committee decided “to leave one church building, the Stefanov Church, for the use of the community of believers in the city of Veliky Ustyug.” In connection with this decree, the necessary repair work was carried out in the cemetery church: installation of an iconostasis, steam heating, flooring, puttying and painting of the cold temple and altar, painting of the warm and cold temples, installation of choirs, vestibule and porch. In 1965 - 1966, painting of the roof and domes of the temple, gilding of the iconostasis in the Stefanovsky limit, restoration of icons, painting of niches of the temple, etc. were carried out. In 1970, the roofs were covered and the iconostasis in the chapel was rebuilt, the chapel was put in order, and the dome was painted. Gradually, Stephen's Church again acquired an appearance worthy of worship.
St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Syktyvkar, 2001
Sources:
Kamkin A.V. The Orthodox Church in the North of Russia: Essays on History before 1917. - Vologda, 1992.
Karpov A.Yu., Yuryev A.A. The most famous saints and wonderworkers of Russia. - M.: Veche, 2000.
Kudrin N.M. Bow to the land of my ancestors. - Veliky Ustyug, 1998.
Chebykina G. Church of St. Stephen of Perm // Sov. thought.- 1996.- July 31.- p.3.
Maltseva S.A. Volkov M. St. Stephen, Bishop of Perm: History of the Church of St. Stephen of Perm. Life. Akathist. - Vologda.
Kotlas: booklet.-Pilot LLC.
Nesterova L.V. City cemetery and cemetery church // Ustyuzhanochka.-2002.-
September 18.-pp.4-5.
Venerable John and Maria of Ustyug.
During the unhappy time of the Tatar yoke for Russia, when the ruling Russian princes slavishly bowed before the wild nomads, the situation of the people was most disastrous. The entire Russian land was subject to tribute in favor of the khan. Even to the most remote reaches of the Russian land in the far North, which had not experienced the Tatar pogrom, Batu sent a baskak to Veliky Ustyug to collect taxes for the khan’s treasury. These baskakis, or collectors, were difficult for the people: they caused a lot of injustice, insults and oppression to people, under the guise of the khan’s tribute they enriched themselves and did not know the limits of their selfishness and self-will.
Such was the Ustyug Baskak Buga, or Bagu, a Tatar by origin, a pagan by faith. One day Buga saw the daughter of a respectable resident, Maria, and the rude pagan was captivated by her virgin beauty. I don’t know any other law than my own will, the Tatar forcibly took her as his concubine. The people of Ustyug patiently endured the extortions and robberies of the Baskak, but they could not endure such violence and self-will. The people became agitated and began to say that they had already been killed in Rostov, Suzdal and Vladimir and that it was as if Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky himself wanted this and ordered them to be expelled and beaten.
Buga was horrified when he heard from Maria about the unrest of the people and the intention to kill him. To avoid the danger ahead of him, he, on the advice of Mary, decided to be baptized and enter into a Christian marriage with her. In holy baptism Bug was named John. His good wife, brought up in Christian piety, with her advice and convictions and especially the example of her highly moral life, soon touched his heart and made him fall in love with the Russian faith he had adopted. The wild son of the steppes listened with emotion to the stories of the woman he loved, and the more he became acquainted with the dogmas and requirements of the Orthodox faith, the more his heart clung to her. He soon became an exemplary Christian and, with his virtues and piety, acquired the universal love and respect of the inhabitants.
According to the custom of rich people at that time, John once went hunting with a falcon. When he climbed the so-called Falcon Hill, which lay near the city, he lay down to rest and soon fell asleep. In a dream, a wondrous, majestic husband appeared to him and said: “In this place, build a church in my name.” John did not know who was speaking to him, but he did not dare to ask the one who appeared about it. Noticing this, the wondrous man himself said to him: “Build the Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist.”
John, following the general advice of his wife, friends and acquaintances, soon built a church on the site of his vision in the name of the Nativity of John the Baptist, which is why the mountain itself began to be called Ivanovo. The pious spouses richly decorated the temple and provided it with everything necessary for worship. Leading a pure and holy life, they themselves tried to become living temples of God.
The pious spouses John and Mary, leading a temperate and pure life, each year rose in strength in spiritual life, gained universal love and respect and left behind a good memory, having received the name righteous from their contemporaries during their lifetime.
No information has reached us about their blessed death. Besides the fact that they died in old age, in advanced years, as they were depicted on icons, and were buried at the city Ascension Church. When the new Church of the Ascension was built, the place of their burial went inside the temple, a shrine was built over the tomb, and their celebration was held according to a specially composed service. The tomb was located in the cramped side chapel of the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross near the north side under the only window illuminating the church.
In ancient handwritten calendars, righteous John and Mary are called the leaders of ancient Ustyug.
Church of the Ascension. Built in 1648
Sources:
Historical tales about the lives of saints. Part I. - Gryazovets: Publication of the Holy Cross Orthodox Church of the Vologda Diocese, 1992. - p. 17.
Venerable Cyprian of Ustyug.
|
|
Cyprian Ustyugsky.
The work of icon painter N.A. Dauphin. 1898.
For a long time, almost from the very foundation of the ancient city of Gleden, there was a monastery of the Holy Trinity in it. Here, at the beginning of the 13th century, one wealthy landowner of the Dvina third, Ustyug volost, having betrayed the delights of the world, decided to devote himself to monastic life and took monastic vows with the name Cyprian.
The pious residents of Gleden are accustomed to visiting the Holy Trinity Monastery and finding solace in soulful conversations with monks. But at that time, the Yug River began to wash away Gledenskaya Mountain and the townspeople were forced to move to Cherny Yar across the Sukhona River and build the present Veliky Ustyug. A visit to the Trinity Monastery, from which they found themselves separated by a river, became inconvenient for them. Therefore, they began to ask the Monk Cyprian to build a monastery near their new city.
Having walked around the city and examined the surrounding area, he chose a place near the lakes behind the Ostrog talus, or rampart of the city, set up a small cell here and began to labor in it in unceasing labor, fasting and prayer. However, life without the temple of God and without participation in public worship was difficult for the ascetic. Therefore, in 1212, under the Rostov prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich, the Monk Cyprian began to build a temple and monastery in honor of the introduction of the Mother of God and Archangel Michael into the temple. The residents helped him in this charitable work, bringing everything necessary for the establishment and maintenance of the monastery, and others began to live with him.
Mikhailo - Archangel Monastery (1653-1656).
Cathedral of the Archangel Michael Monastery. Vladimir Gate Church.
In order to calm the brethren and give them the opportunity to devote themselves entirely to spiritual deeds, the monk gave the monastery all his property, villages, villages, arable and hay land, which he had in Ustyug and other volosts, so that from that time his monastery had no according to the need, he began to spread and increase in the number of brethren.
For such donations for the benefit of the brethren and especially for his strictly ascetic and holy life, the Monk Cyprian was unanimously recognized as the leader and shepherd of the flock of Christ he had gathered.
Having taken upon himself the management of the monastery, the Monk Cyprian devoted himself entirely to this difficult task of constantly caring for the edification and reassurance of the brethren. His head had long been covered with gray hair, his body was withered from fasting and labor, but he still worked every day with the eagerness of a new monk, as if it were the first day of his feat, he always finished his labors as if he no longer hoped to work anymore, as if this was already the last day of his life. And this lasted not a year or two, but more than 60 years. Like a lamp placed on a candlestick, it shone with virtues and shone for both the brethren and contemporaries...
What is amazing for us are such extraordinary feats, such indestructible firmness of will, such constancy and rare humility, due to which he, being the founder and head of the monastery, remained a simple monk and did not take upon himself the priesthood. But the elder himself considered all this small and insufficient. He constantly prayed and mourned his sinfulness...
“In the summer of Christ, September 1276, on the 29th day, on Saturday at 6 o’clock in the afternoon, this head of the Archangel monastery, monk Cyprian, reposed and was buried in the same monastery, near the holy gates, and in time a stone church in the name of the Transelival was built over his tomb of the Lord; his tomb is inside the church, behind the left choir by the wall and above it there is a tomb built, which is still visible to everyone."
In 1621, one of the monastery novices, returning from Verkhoturye, near the Pyskorsky monastery, carelessly gnawed the root of some plant, given to him in the form of medicine, and as a result he became so sick with his stomach that they could hardly bring him, barely alive, to the monastery . Here he lay sick for a whole year, tried various medicines and, having received no benefit from anything, turned with fervent prayer to the Monk Cyprian, promising to serve a requiem service in the chapel over his tomb and lay a covering on the tomb. As soon as the requiem service was served and the veil was laid, the sick John became healthy, as if he had never been sick.
Sources:
Priest John Veryuzhsky. Saints of the Ustyug land: righteous John and Mary of Ustyug, Saint Cyprian of Ustyug, righteous John of Ustyug, Fool for Christ's sake. - Vologda, 2001.
Historical tales about the lives of saints. Part I. - Gryazovets: Publication of the Holy Cross Orthodox Church of the Vologda Diocese, 1992. - p. 19.
Teltevskoy P.A. Veliky Ustyug: architecture and art of the 17th - 19th centuries. - M.: "Iskusstvo", 1977.
Righteous John of Ustyug, Fool for Christ's sake.
Icon "Ustyug Saints. 1903"
Saint Procopius the Righteous,
Saint Stephen of Perm,
Holy Righteous John of Ustyug.
Icon of "St. John of Ustyug". 1900
The icon is in the Church of St. Stephen of Perm
Veliky Ustyug.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Church of St. John of Ustyug. 1764. Roadside chapel of St. John of Ustyug. Beginning of the 20th century
Not far from Ustyug, on the other side of the Sukhona River, where Gleden was, or old Ustyug, where the Holy Trinity Monastery is located to this day,... there was the village of Pukhovo, in which lived the pious and prosperous farmer Savva with his wife Maria. God blessed their marriage with children: they had two sons.
The eldest, Herodion, was a living likeness of his father both in appearance and in character, and helped his father in his studies, which gave his parents the greatest pleasure.
But their second son, John, almost from infancy began to discover something unusual, incomprehensible in himself and was not at all like other children. Constantly thoughtful and silent, he never participated in the games of his peers, ate only bread and water, on Wednesdays and Fridays he absolutely did not take any food, and spent all his nights without sleep, kneeling and praying. His mother, fearing that such a lifestyle would ruin his health, remarked to him: “Why are you fasting at such a age?” “To get rid of sins,” he answered. - “What other sins do you have at your age? I don’t see anything on you except the grace of God!” The blessed youth, although he did not know how to read and write, answered her with the words of Holy Scripture, which he heard in church: “Do not say so, my mother, no one is without sin except God alone! Food and drink will not put us before Him. Let us not feed excessively flesh, so that it does not become our enemy." The pious mother was surprised to hear such wise words from the boy, and did not bother him about it anymore.
Savva, for economic reasons or for some other reason, moved from Pukhov to the Yug River to the town of Orlov, located 40 versts from Ustyug, and soon died here, and Maria took monastic vows at the Trinity Orlov Monastery under the name of Natalia, and was made abbess. She took John with her to the monastery, who became even more silent and began to shun society, so that many began to think that he was not completely sane.
The blessed youth rejoiced when he heard such an opinion about himself, and since his mother no longer tried to constrain him in anything, leaving him to the will of God, he moved from Orlov to Ustyug. and began to act like a fool, like Saint Procopius of Ustyug. John settled not far from his tomb on the cathedral square in a hut built for him by the devout Andrei Mishnev. He spent his nights in prayer, and during the day he ran through the streets like a madman, sometimes in torn and dirty rags, sometimes almost completely naked. And so he lived in winter and summer.
Young John took upon himself such a difficult feat! What was it worth to walk around the city barefoot and barely covered in winter and endure the bitter northern frosts? and he had to endure and endure many other great sorrows and hardships. foolish and spoiled children chased him like some kind of animal, throwing dirt, sticks and stones at him. Rude people, who did not understand either themselves or him, allowed themselves to abuse him in every possible way and were not even ashamed to strike and beat him without any reason on his part...
Not only did he never grumble or be angry with his persecutors and offenders, but he also regretted and prayed to God for them.
While the majority of the people considered Blessed John to be weak-minded, there were also people in Ustyug who understood him and looked at him as a voluntary sufferer and ascetic. Thus, to the priest of the Assumption Cathedral, Gregory, nicknamed the Good Beard, the life and patience of the holy fool always seemed amazing. And the priest wanted to know what John was doing and what kind of life he was leading when he was alone. For a long time the priest looked for an opportunity and finally found it.
Once in the winter, when the large stove in the church refectory was heated, and at the end of the evening service all the pilgrims came out, except for one holy fool, the priest hid behind the doors and began to look through the keyhole to see what John would do. The blessed young man, looking around and not seeing anyone at the meal, began to pray. Raising his hands to heaven, he prayed for those who speak flattery and for those who commit lies. He prayed like this for more than an hour. At the end of the prayer, he began to stir the coals in the stove and then, protecting himself with the sign of the cross with the words: “The light of Your countenance shines upon us, O Lord,” he lay down in the stove on the burning coals. Seeing this, the frightened priest quickly opened the doors and rushed to the holy fool, fearing that he would perish in the flames. but no matter how he hurried, the supposedly insane one burst out of the oven even faster, like lightning, and, looking menacingly at the inquisitive one, said: “Don’t you dare tell anyone about what you saw until I die.” The priest, trembling with fear, gave his word to fulfill the will of the blessed one exactly, and he reassured him for his silence with the mercy of God.
The blessed ascetic had such an abundance of God's grace within himself that he could heal illnesses with one word, but, hiding it from people, he did it secretly or as if his action was not from reason.
“Be faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life,” said the Lord in Revelation (Rev. II, 10). And blessed John remained faithful to the end to the feat of foolishness and squalor that he had once taken upon himself.
As extraordinary as his life was, so extraordinary was his painless and peaceful death. Judging by the youth of the holy fool and the fact that he did not complain about anything, seemed equally cheerful and still walked around the city from morning to evening, it never occurred to any of the Ustyug residents that he was already living his last days.
But the blessed one himself knew this and, rejoicing at the near completion of his feat, he constantly thanked God, pouring out his soul in the most ardent secret prayer.
On the cathedral square, near the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God and the tomb of the righteous Procopius, where John spent most of his time, the blessed one raised his hands to God for the last time and, hidden from the eyes of people by the darkness of the night, prayed for a long time for those in troubles and sorrows, for to everyone in the world and about the city that sheltered him. Then he protected himself with the sign of the cross, lay down on the bare ground and, as if falling asleep, betrayed his pure soul to God on May 29, 1494. The appearance of the deceased, according to eyewitnesses, was “like an angel of God, with a brightly shining face and a body like snow.”
The death lifted the veil that hid the life of the blessed one, and made known his insight, angelic kindness and patience. Those who had witnessed the life of the blessed one now had no reason to hide his exploits and good deeds. Therefore, as soon as the rumor of his death spread throughout the city, a great crowd of people immediately gathered in the cathedral square. Everyone was in a hurry to pay their last debt to the ascetic. Many cried and regretted that, considering him weak-minded, they mocked and insulted him. The cathedral clergy with all the city clergy, with great reverence and honor befitting a righteous man, committed his toiling body to the earth at the place of his repose.
A few years after the repose of Blessed John, the Ustyug citizen Theodore Tutygin, reverent for his memory, built a church in the name of the Origin of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross at the place of the blessed one’s burial, built a tomb and placed it over the body of Blessed John.
Those who flocked to the tomb with faith received many miraculous healings.
But since the relics of Righteous John are located in the same square with the relics of Saint Procopius, both saints are depicted on icons together and during church services they are called upon in prayer together, then pilgrims and the sick usually turn with prayers to both Ustyug miracle workers. That is why the healings received from them are recorded in one book about the life and miracles of the righteous Procopius. Thus, the last entry says that in 1613 the people of Ustyug, through the prayers of the righteous Procopius and John, the Ustyug miracle workers, not only defended their city from the Poles, but also defeated them.
There are only three miracles that took place separately at the tomb of Righteous John. The first two are without time indication, the last one happened in 1565.
In 1602, during the construction of the dilapidated wooden Church of the Holy Cross, Nikita Grigoriev Stroganov built a chapel in the name of Righteous John.
Now his relics rest hidden in a cold stone five-domed church in his name, on the left side of the temple...
Chapel of St. John of Ustyug at the Cathedral of St. John of Ustyug. 1663
Holy Gate of Michael the Archangel
monastery Beginning of the 19th century
Sources:
Priest John Veryuzhsky. Saints of the Ustyug land: righteous John and Mary of Ustyug, Saint Cyprian of Ustyug, righteous John of Ustyug, Fool for Christ's sake. - Vologda, 2001.
Righteous John, Ustyug Wonderworker. Life. Akathist. - Vologda: JSC "Vologda Commercial Company", 2002.
Reverend Simon of Volomsky.
In 1607, due to the unrest and unrest that had occurred in Russia at that time, Simeon fled to Moscow, where he approached a tailor and began to learn how to sew clothes from him.
Having learned tailoring, Simeon decided to leave the capital. Heading north, he reached Ustyug, and then went by water to the White Sea to the Solovetsky Monastery. Arriving at the monastery illiterate, he soon learned to read and write and sing in church. Little by little, the desire to completely leave the world and become a monk was kindled in the heart of the young man. After staying in the Solovetsky Monastery for three years, he left it and went along the Dvina from Solovki to look for a more secluded and silent place. Returning from Solovki, he heard that on the Pinega River, on Black Mountain, there was a monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos of Georgia. Simeon came to the monastery and was accepted into the monastery, where instead of Simeon he was named Simon. This was in 1610, when Simon was already 24 years old. Simon meekly performed all the hard monastic work. To further mortify the flesh, he wore a hard and heavy hair shirt under his clothes on his naked body. Bare earth served as his bed. After some time, Simon began to think about achieving perfect silence in order to work in solitude for the one God. Hegumen Macarius released him from the monastery in peace. The monk rushed to Novgorod. He also visited Moscow, then visited monasteries located in the vicinity of Vologda, and went to Ustyug, which was familiar to him.
Simon Volomsky.
Wall art.
The Monk Simon arrived in Ustyug on July 8 for the feast of St. Procopius and, having venerated his holy relics, a few days later set off up the Yug River to the village of Kichmenga and along the Kichmenga River to the village of Saraevskaya and from there to Volma. Here he began to cut down forest to build himself a small cell. It was July 26, 1613. The Monk Simon spent five years on the Volma in incessant labor and hardship, unknown to anyone and not even hearing a human voice in his desert.
When the surrounding residents found out about him, they began to ask the elder to build a church and start a hostel. Then he decided to go to Moscow to obtain permission and a letter from the sovereign. Returning from Moscow with the royal letter, the Monk Simon put his efforts to work to clear more space and prepare forest for the construction of the church. Soon the church was built. Finding himself again on Volma, a zealous zealot of the Way of the Cross of Christ consecrated the church he had built in honor of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord. With the assumption of the priesthood, he devoted himself to even greater exploits, serving for his desert brethren as an example of hard work, meekness and simplicity of heart, fasting and prayer. About 20 years have passed since the time when the royal charter was given to the monk and a monastic monastery was built on Volm, the fame of the exploits of the Monk Simon spread widely in the surrounding area. When the feast of the righteous Procopius of Ustyug approached, people from all sides went to worship the holy saint. Most of the brethren of the small Simonov Hermitage also went there. The villains, having learned about this, came to the desert at night, and finding a lonely monk in it, they began to beat him and torment him with various tortures, inflicting wounds on him with iron, scorching him with fire, in order to receive the royal charter. “Many torments, scolding him and knives tore his holy body and finally cut off his honorable head and threw his body near his cell. St. Simon died in the summer of 1641 on the 12th day of July, but his body lay there for many days without being harmed by anyone or from animals “, neither from birds, nor from insects, nor from the cattle living there, but the blood that flowed from his holy body settled like a stone,” says the ancient writer of his life.
The venerable martyr was buried in the church he built. The Monk Simon was 55 years and 10 months old when he accepted his martyrdom.
In the place where the saint’s head was cut off and innocent blood stained the ground, a tall curly birch soon grew, broadly overshadowing him with its branches and serving as a miraculous monument to his painful death.
Cancer (tomb) of Simon Volomsky
Soon after the saint's death, miracles began to happen at his tomb. The memory of the Monk Simon is celebrated on the day of his murder, July 12; the service to him was compiled in the second half of the 17th century, when his veneration began.
The ancient handwritten life of the saint records 26 miracles that took place at his tomb.
Sources:
Historical tales about the lives of saints in the Vologda diocese. Part IV. - Vologda, 1994.
Photos of Gromova N.V., Belozertseva I.V.
Venerable Leonid of Ustnedumsky.
|
|
Vvedenskaya Church of the Virgin Mary near the village of Ozyora.
Once upon a time, the Luza railway station and the city of Lalsk were part of the Veliky Ustyug district. The merchants even built a cobblestone road called the Lal Tract. Today, in one hour and a half by Luz bus you can get from the Kuzinsky “island” to the village of Ozyora. This village is located 3 kilometers from the city of Luza, Kirov region, towards Ustyug. The life of the Monk Leonid was long; he stepped far beyond the ordinary limit of human life. Unfortunately, about its first half, for a whole 50 years, no news has reached us except that he was born in 1551 within the Novgorod region, in the Annunciation parish of the Poshekhonsky district of the Shchekino (in the manuscript: Shchetinskaya) volost from the peasant Philip and his wife Catherine.
Pious parents, raising him in the fear of God and in the rules of the Orthodox faith, tried to teach him to read books. In 7111 (1603) he once saw in a dream the Mother of God, who commanded him to go to the Dvina River in the Morzhevskaya Nikolaev Hermitage and, taking Her icon from there, called Hodegetria, transfer it to the Ustyug region,
View of the village of Ozyora from Neduma.
Around 1605, the Monk Leonid came to the Luza River, and on July 30 (17), 1654, he moved “to the eternal abodes.” Near the Luza River on the lakes, he built a church and founded a monastic monastery. On May 23, 1652, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the newly built church and consecrated.
Today the church is located on a high bank near the Holy Lake. It is called Vvedenskaya Bogorodskaya (Introduction of the Virgin Mary into the Temple). Divine services are taking place today in the area of St. Paraskeva Friday. And in the chapel of St. Leonidas, above his relics, there is a modern tomb. Believers apply to it and akathists are read.
In 1999, the first organized pilgrimage from Kuzin took place. About 20 people from Ustyug and Kuzin arrived in cars for a pilgrimage to the “Leonid holiday”. Believers from the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Kirov regions and Komi come especially to St. Leonid for pilgrimage and for healing. For several years now, Priest Nikolai has been rector of the Ust-Nedumsky church. After the festive liturgy, a religious procession led by Fr. Nicholas, headed to Neduma. Neduma is a canal - a ditch dug by the Monk Leonidas between the lakes to drain the swampy area. When he dug it, he “didn’t think,” but prayed. The swampy lowland was drained. Even the “reptiles”—snakes—disappeared from these places.
Neduma is a channel.
There is a slightly adapted descent to the ditch in one place. This is where the water is blessed. Here they bathe and wash themselves. From the banks of the Neduma, believers take healing gray-blue clay. The canal at its mouth opens onto the Luza River. Therefore, the first site of the monastery was located at the mouth of the Neduma. Since then, both the Monk Leonid and his monastery were called Ust-Nedumsky.
On July 30, with a large crowd of pilgrims, Fr. Nicholas blessed the waters in the river (canal). He sprinkled holy water on the pilgrims present and immediately presented the “holy cross.” Earlier in the same year, our Ustyug clergy visited St. Leonid. Bishop Maximilian himself, Bishop of Vologda and Veliky Ustyug, also washed himself in Nedum.
Sources:
Historical tales about the lives of saints in the Vologda diocese. Part IV. - Vologda, 1994.
Photos by Nekipelova N.A.
In the nineties of the 19th century, for the pious residents of Veliky Ustyug, surrounding villages and even villages far from it, the hermitage of Elder Maxim, located in the thicket of a dense mighty forest, thirty kilometers from Veliky Ustyug and fifteen from the Pogorelovskaya Pyatnitskaya Church, became coveted. They went to the elder for advice, for consolation and spiritual healing. He dismissed everyone who came in peace, with the desire to live for God, to endure everything, to love everyone. The spiritual healing of the ascetic was beneficial and effective, and when the elder died, thousands of people from a variety of different, even very remote, places came to say goodbye to him.
Maxim Yugov was born in 1838 into a family of pious poor peasants. His grandfather's name was Ivan, his father's name was George, his mother's name was Evdokia. Maxim's grandfather and father were distinguished by their love for the church and piety. On all holidays and Sundays they went to the temple of God without fail. The children were not allowed to eat bread until the end of mass. Both on holidays and on weekdays, silence was strictly observed at dinner, and even the smallest children did not disturb it with laughter and conversations.
The father raised the children in strictness. George and Evdokia had seven children: four sons and three daughters. The eldest son's name was Stefan, he did not know how to read and write, but he diligently listened to the word of God, attended church on Sundays and holidays and loved to attend spiritual conversations and readings. The second son's name was Ilya, his character was similar to his father - he was distinguished by truthfulness and simplicity. The third son, Jacob, was a soldier, the fourth was Maxim. For three years he was left without a father and for thirteen - without a mother. Since childhood, he loved solitude. He used to say to his sister Vera: “Oh, how nice it would be to live in the forest, knowing nothing but prayer.” On holidays and Sundays, Maxim constantly went to church. Once, citing ill health, he did not go with his brothers to the church for Matins, but, taking two barley loaves, went into the forest about ten miles away, and found there a small boarded “ashtray” (a wooden hut in which they burned wood for coal), climbed into it and began to pray to God. He spent two nights in the forest. During this time, he realized that it was difficult for a young man like him to live in the forest, and he went home, not knowing that they had been looking for him for a long time. Three miles from home he was met by his brothers and many people who went out in search of the missing man. Seeing him, everyone rejoiced and thanked the Lord.
Six months have passed. Maxim yearned for solitude. He found an opportunity, took two loaves of bread again and went to his previous place, wanting to pray. He spent two days here, but again felt that he was not ready for the feat, and returned home.
At the age of sixteen, on the advice of his brothers, Maxim went to work at a linen factory fifty kilometers from the great Ustyug. Here he met his peers. They began to invite him to games with them; Although he sometimes agreed to attend them, afterward he became boring and sad.
One summer a temptation came over him - he did not go to church, believing that diligence in the temple would lead to vanity. I started walking into the forest. Fearing that people might find out what he was doing there, Maxim bought himself an accordion. He will take it in his hands and go into the forest, and there he will pray to God. One day a distant old man heard about the young man, came, praised the beginning of life and said: “You must throw away the accordion, lest a greater temptation befall through it, and on holidays and Sundays you should definitely go to church to pray, you should not be ashamed of praying to God, that shame comes from the devil; the Lord Himself says: whoever is ashamed of Me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, then I will be ashamed of him - I do not recognize him as Mine, I will renounce him; and for solitary prayer you can always find time.”
One day at the end of winter, Maxim went to the factory after Sunday, walked to the forest, prayed and remained wandering through the forest. And the idea came to him to cut off his hair, so that people would laugh at him, in order to humble his heart. In this form, even his brothers did not recognize him, everyone at the factory began to mock him, calling him a fool and various abusive names, the girls began to shun him; he lived apart from everyone, but did not leave his job at the factory.
After some time, Maxim made a pilgrimage to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he received great consolation and support. Returning home, he decided to learn to read and write in order to be able to read the word of God and the lives of the saints. Schoolchildren showed him the letters. Maxim worked during the day and studied to read and write at night; He sat all night reading a book and learned to read.
When Maxim was twenty-three years old, he went to wander through the holy places of Russia. The brothers did not interfere. On foot, with a small knapsack over his shoulders, he reached glorious Kyiv, prayed to the venerable Theodosius and Anthony of Pechersk; on the way back I visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and Moscow shrines. Returning to his homeland, Maxim almost did not work, he read more sacred books and the writings of the holy fathers. In the summer he lived in the forest, where he planned to settle later; this place is known only to two of his spiritual friends. When working in the forest, he took off his shirt so that mosquitoes and gadflies would pester his body; So he tested his patience.
“I didn’t think about anything then,” the elder wrote, “but about the salvation of the soul and the future life. I had such a desire to pray! I look at the sky. The blue sky, it is far from the earth, and I think: why am I praying, I want to be saved with little effort? No, it’s impossible to jump into heaven at once. And the enemy is already close - and suddenly he will come over me with such despondency that I don’t know what to do or how to save myself.
I went wandering. As I walk, I hear that in different places and monasteries there are good elders, hermits, and ascetics, but I am a low and poor person, timid. I’m timid to go in and talk to the elders. Other pilgrims and wanderers are seeking a meeting with the ascetics, but I think: they are saints, and I am a sinner, maybe they won’t let me, the accursed one, near their cells, and if they do, then what am I going to talk about? They will ask: why did you come? What will I answer?
When I was already approaching my native land and passed by one monastery, some virtuous monk, noticing my timidity and learning about my desire to see the elder abbot of that monastery, led me to him. How scared I was to go to the elder, I don’t remember myself. The elder received me, a sinner, like a heavenly angel, consoled me, a fool, with sweet speeches and taught me meekly and humbly how to live, how to save my soul. This elder was the abbot of the monastery of St. Paul of Obnor, Father Joasaph, and before he lived in the Sarov desert and knew St. Seraphim of Sarov. I talked with Father Joasaph for a short time. but how sweet were his speeches. They seemed sweeter to me than honey and honeycomb. And now, when I remember the conversation between my teacher and mentor, I feel indescribable joy in my heart.
Father Joasaph told me: “When you begin to live for God, then, my son, there will be many temptations, both from the enemy and from the world; the wiles of the devil are many different, it is difficult to recognize them. Live according to the word of God, defeat the enemy with fasting and prayer. What you yourself do not "If you are able to judge in the face of invisible warfare, come here to the monastery. Or, perhaps, not far from where you live there will be a wise old man who will teach you spiritual life. I will pray for you."
The abbot sent me to his disciple Father Theodore, who lived not far from the Seven-Gorodnaya Hermitage, in a village, and had a cell in the forest, where he retired for prayer and contemplation of God. I stayed with Father Theodore for six months. He showed me an image of a grace-filled spiritual life, he taught me not so much by word as by example and his virtuous life.
Having strengthened my intention to lead a solitary life, I went to my homeland with the blessing of the elder. Here the Lord blessed me to build a hut and subsequently gave me a precious treasure, which I enjoyed, glorifying and thanking my Savior, that He, the merciful, made me worthy to enjoy the sweetness of grace.
They were happy about my coming to my homeland, they began to come to me and ask me to read God’s Scripture, to read about how to save the soul. Old and young, men and women came. I established spiritual friendship with some zealous visitors. My first spiritual friend and brother was Theodore, in whose yard I lived, the second was Euthymius, a skilled reader of the word of God, the lives of saints and the teachings of the holy fathers, the third was Peter, an elder who lived in the desert in the chapel of the righteous Procopius of Ustyug, one and a half miles away. from the village, fourth - brother Stefan, followed by Peter, Alexy, spiritual sisters: Paraskeva, Vera and Anna, sister Daria.
Throughout the summer and during Lent, Maxim lived in his deserted cell. He suffered great temptations here from the world, from people and from the devil. The great righteous elder Ilya Filippovich, who then lived in Veliky Ustyug in the Yakovsky Monastery, consoled and strengthened him in his feat.
The notes of Elder Maximus tell of many cases of how the enemy of salvation tried to drive an ascetic out of the desert. This place is located in the northern part of the Vologda province and is quite harsh for a solitary ascetic life.
Monk Nikifor at the cell of the ascetic Maxim.
The Lord did not abandon the elder with grace-filled consolations, wonderfully showing the path of humility and repentance.
At the site of his exploits, Elder Maxim dug a ditch in the shape of a cross and lay down in it, without covering himself with anything, so that he became completely defenseless to mosquitoes. In recent years, his nieces Nikolai Yugov lived with him. He felt sorry for the old man, and one day he said:
Godfather, let me drive away the mosquitoes that are biting you?
Stickleback, don’t drive them away, don’t drive them away, they are the ones who eat up my sins.
Many years passed after the death of the old man, and the ditch was still not overgrown with grass.
Over time, the elder was tonsured a monk with the name Kirill. He performed the prayer rule according to the rosary: one hundred bows to the Savior, one hundred bows to the Mother of God, fifty to the guardian angel, fifty to the saints, then while sitting he said one hundred Jesus prayers, one hundred to the Mother of God, then three hundred bows to the Lord Jesus Christ with the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son God, have mercy on me, a sinner, and at every dozen bows he sang a song of repentance, then he remembered the health and repose of his benefactors. This was the elder’s nightly rule; during the daytime, he read the entire Psalter in two days, read canons, prayers and akathists.
The elder's cell was small, with a narrow window. When he slept, he put a wooden block under his head. His constant clothing was a robe like a cassock and leather cats.
Elder Maxim spent most of the year in the desert that was dear to his heart; He went to his native village mainly in the winter during Philippi Lent and at the end of the Great Lent to enjoy divine services in the temple, cleanse his conscience with repentance and taste the Divine Body and Blood of Christ.
For a long time, the path leading to the desert, where Elder Maxim took refuge, was hidden from people. When the people learned how to reach the place of the elder’s exploits, they flowed to him like a river.
At the threshold of his cell one could meet peasants and townsfolk, occasionally intellectuals, nuns and monks, priests who, deeply revering the elder and coming for spiritual advice, blessed their flock to use the medicine of the desert dweller.
Over the course of many years of desert life, the elder acquired great knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and the works of his fathers and ascetics. He had many books: some were constantly with him - gifts from pious people, others were brought by lovers of God at the request of the elder. After his death, many handwritten notebooks remained, containing extracts from the patristic works, which speak of his erudition and familiarity with many of the writings of the holy fathers and ascetics. Elder Maxim abundantly drew living water from them, having himself experienced what the godly fathers advise to experience and endure in order to achieve spiritual perfection. Before his death, Elder Maxim received a wondrous vision: “...First he saw a brilliance of light, and many angels and saints appeared together with the Most Pure Mother of God, and then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in great glory...”
Elder Maxim died on December 14, 1906. The funeral service was held for him in the Pyatnitskaya Church. The distance of fifty meters from the temple to the grave took two hours, because the hump was stopped every now and then by people who wanted to say goodbye to the elder.
And to this day people come to the burial place of the elder. Here they pray, serve memorial services and find consolation and reinforcement in a difficult life in prayer at the grave of the righteous.
The first real holy fool in Rus' is considered to be Christ for the sake of the holy fool, Saint Procopius of Ustyug.
His real name is forever lost through the centuries and it is unlikely that it will be possible to establish it, at least until we learn to travel in time, since the first life of Procopius was written in the 16th century. There are many inconsistencies in this life: the year of Procopius’s death is called 1302, and the events described take place either in the 12th or 15th centuries. However, the life differs from an ordinary biography in that no miracles happen in it.
According to his life, Procopius was a wealthy merchant, by origin a German of the Catholic faith, “from Western countries, from the Latin language, from German soil.” In those days, almost all foreigners were often called Germans, regardless of nationality. In his youth, he lived and traded not in Ustyug, but in Novgorod, where, since the time of the legendary Sadko, wealthy guests - foreign merchants - had settled.
In Novgorod, he was captivated by the “church decoration”: the beauty of majestic churches, bells, the solemnity of icons and Orthodox worship. Fascinated by this majestic beauty, he converts to Orthodoxy. As befits a future saint in such cases, he distributes all his property to the poor, and in the monastery of St. Varlaam of Khutyn he is baptized and becomes a monk.
Soon Procopius “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life and turns into violence.” That is, he takes upon himself the feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake, pretending to be insane.
The feat of foolishness is the hardest of the labors one undertakes in the name of the Lord; without grace-filled help from above, this feat was impossible to endure. This asceticism required not only strength of spirit, but also extraordinary physical properties of a person, strength not only spiritual, but also physical, since the holy fools spent most of their time on the street, walking half-naked in any, even the most terrible frosts.
Since Procopius was the first holy fool in Rus', the Novgorodians did not know that he was “make-believe” and considered him truly crazy. And since the imprudent Procopius fell not just into a whim, but into a “violence,” then the Novgorodians, in their understanding, for his own good several times “calmed down” the excessively violent holy fool, giving him a beating.
Where could the first holy fool in Russia appear if not in Novgorod? This city has since become the birthplace of Russian foolishness. All famous Russian holy fools of the 14th and early 15th centuries either lived in Novgorod or came from this city.
Here, in the 14th century, the holy fools Nikolai (Kochanov) and Fyodor “raged”, with frantic fights among themselves, admonishing the townspeople, mocking the Novgorod “democracy”, in which decisions were made in fist fights, wall to wall, on the bridge over the Volkhov. Whose she took is the truth. Pointing out the absurdity of this custom, the holy fools who lived on different banks of the Volkhov - Nikola on the Sofia side, Fyodor on the Torgovaya - constantly scolded across the river. When one of them tried to cross the Volkhov bridge, the other drove him back, shouting:
– Don’t go to my side, live on yours!
During these performances, the holy fools sometimes became so carried away that, rewarding each other with blows, they supposedly rushed through the water as if on dry land. But the holy fools Nikola and Fyodor lived much later than the baptized German Procopius, whom the residents did not welcome and, instead of listening to the admonitions of the holy fool, they themselves tried to “reason” with him.
Having rested after yet another “admonishment” of the quick-to-help Novgorodians, Procopius asked Varlaam for leave to go to the “eastern countries” and left Novgorod, who did not understand him. However, his path lay in the “great and glorious” Ustyug, chosen for the same “church decorations”.
Have you been to Veliky Ustyug?! If you haven’t been, it’s in vain: having seen enough of the beauty of northern ancient Russian architecture, it’s easy to understand the German who betrayed the Catholic faith and began to be called Procopius.
He walks with a skinny knapsack over his shoulders, barely covered with thin clothes, and in his hands - three staves at once. And what can you say - the holy fool, he has the right. He walks along what we call roads: through impassable mud, swamps, makes his way through forest thickets, fights off fierce beasts with his staff. Because of his wild appearance and “indecent” behavior, many suffer insults from Orthodox people, “annoyance and reproach and beating and puffing.” As we know, giving in the ear doesn’t cost a penny, you’re always welcome. But Procopius endures, does not complain: he shouldered the heavy cross of foolishness - bear it in silence.
There goes a stubborn German, baptized into Orthodoxy, given slaps in the face instead of a penny, instead of a warm place to sleep on the porch, in the forest, like a wild animal, buried in fallen leaves, or even on bare ground. He doesn’t accept alms from the rich, because he doesn’t want to touch money acquired through untruth, and he has nothing to give to the poor, if only a crust of bread. And even then I’m callous. And that’s enough for him.
I wandered further, and in the open field the wind got into all the gaps. Procopius was completely frozen, he saw a stack of hay, he thought of burying himself in it, but where was it, the hay was so frozen that you couldn’t tear off a bunch. The desperate holy fool sat down near the haystack, a tear, squeezed out by the frost, froze on his cheek, covered it with snow, there was only one thing left - he was lost.
The holy fool humbled himself, closed his eyes, fell into unconsciousness, and reads the funeral service to himself in a whisper. And at that very moment, when the cold reached like an icy needle to the very heart, an unearthly warmth suddenly wafted from somewhere, and a quiet rustle was heard above the head of the freezing man. He thought it was the drifting snow rustling, covering him with snow, he opened his eyes and saw that it was a bright angel, spreading his white wings, bending over Procopius. The angel touched his face with hot fingers, warmed up and the holy fool, having said goodbye to his mortal life, rose up. Procopius told about this miracle only to Simeon, the clergyman of the cathedral church in Ustyug, who warmed him, and from that he took an oath not to tell anyone about that miracle until Procopius’s death.
- How do you know that I won’t lay down before you? – asked the cleric.
“If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t tell,” answered the holy fool. – Now I know a lot of things in advance.
And indeed, as a reward for the ascetic feat of foolishness, he was given from above the gift of providence, inalienable from foolishness.
Received in Ustyug very inhospitably, he barely survived on meager alms, slept on a dung heap in severe cold, and often spent the night on the stone slabs of the porch of the cathedral church. One day, in a particularly severe frost, he came to ask for shelter from the same Simeon. The cleric's three-year-old daughter opened the door for him. Seeing her, the usually stern-looking Procopius beamed, entered the house and appeared before Simeon with “a bright vision and a sweet laugh.” He hugged and kissed the owner, greeting him with the words:
- Brother Simeon, from now on have fun and don’t be discouraged!
- Why should I be in constant joy? – the cleric was surprised.
Instead of answering, Procopius took his three-year-old daughter by the hand, led her to the middle of the room and bowed low to her, telling her parents:
- Here is the mother of the great saint!
Indeed, the daughter of the cleric Simeon later became the mother of St. Stephen of Perm.
For some reason, the cleric immediately believed Procopius, received him in the house, and showed him respect. But other Ustyun residents did not take the absurd figure of the holy fool seriously; they were irritated by his endless attempts to instruct them.
In vain in 1290, for a whole week, the blessed one tirelessly walked around the city and, until his voice was hoarse, called on the residents to repent and pray, proclaiming God’s wrath on the city of Ustyug: “For lawless and incomparable deeds, evil will perish by fire and water.” None of the careless townspeople listened to the holy fool; alone, day and night, he prayed for the salvation of the city from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, mired in sin. The townspeople not only did not listen to him, but even wanted to expel Procopius, who was annoying with tearful prayers, from the temple. But when a monstrous black cloud spread over the city, day turned into night, the earth shook under our feet, lightning flashed, houses began to collapse, everyone rushed to the temple in horror and fell to their knees in front of the icon of the Annunciation of the Mother of God. The prayers of the townspeople and the intercession of Blessed Procopius saved the city of Veliky Ustyug “from... fire and vain death.” And a miracle happened: myrrh appeared on the icon as a sign of the salvation of the city. The temple was filled with fragrance, myrrh filled all the church vessels. Those who were anointed with it were healed. And the sun shone over the city again, the cloud turned to the side, and twenty miles from Ustyug, in the Kotovalsky tract, an unprecedented stone hail erupted, toppling the entire forest, smashing centuries-old trees into splinters. The consequences of this disaster were visible centuries later.
This event was immortalized in the celebration of the icon of the Ustyug Mother of God, established in memory of the miraculous deliverance of the city from destruction.
Procopius himself now became revered, people listened to him, and gave him favor and love. They hung on his every word, perceiving it as an instruction and a warning. But the holy fool lived just as modestly, not recognizing any benefits.
He had a favorite place - on the high bank of the Sukhona River, not far from the cathedral. The holy fool loved to look into the distance from the steep bank and always prayed to the Lord to protect people crossing the wide, restless river. Everyone in the city knew that while Procopius was sitting over the cliff, you could safely go into the water and swim to the other side: even if you swim like an axe, an unknown force will support you on the water and help you overcome the river. In this place, which he loved, the holy fool asked to be buried when his time came to appear before the Lord.
One summer, while praying at night out of habit, Procopius felt a familiar touch on his cheek. He raised his eyes and a white angel stood in front of him and said:
He said and disappeared. The next day Procopius told everyone about the miraculous phenomenon and began to eagerly await the appointed day.
The night of July 8 was warm, Procopius went outside the city walls, knelt down and prayed for the last time, lay down on his side, curled up and died quietly.
In the morning, something unprecedented happened - it was warm, even hot, outside, and the ground was covered with snow. And another unprecedented event occurred - for the first time in many years, Procopius did not show up for church services. They began to look for him, but they never found him; they found him only three days later. Procopius lay under a snowdrift that had not melted, although the snow had already melted everywhere and it was hot outside. The snowdrift covered the holy fool like a white shroud. People marveled and buried Procopius over the river, in the very place where he loved to sit. At his request, a simple stone was placed on the grave.
150 years after his death, a terrible disaster for those times happened in Nizhny Novgorod: a plague attacked the city, taking thousands of lives mercilessly. People wanted to flee the city in horror, but they set up outposts around it so that the epidemic would not leave the city. People despaired and meekly prepared for death. But at this time Procopius began to appear to the townspeople in dreams, promising that if they built a church in the city of Veliky Ustyug in memory of Christ for the sake of the holy fool Procopius, the disease would recede from Novgorod. People began to collect money for the temple. And a great miracle happened - the plague receded, and everyone who gave money for the temple or promised to help build it remained alive.
With the money collected by the Novgorodians, they actually built a temple in Veliky Ustyug, but for some reason not in memory of Christ for the sake of the holy fool Procopius, but in the name of Saints Boris and Gleb. On August 1, 1490, this church burned down in broad daylight in calm weather from a lightning strike. The people of Ustyug immediately realized that the Lord was punishing them for disobedience and breaking their vow. Fearing that they would be punished by an epidemic, the residents of Ustyug in 1495 built a wooden church in the name of the righteous Procopius.
Since then, many healings and other miracles began to be performed at the tomb of the holy fool. His apparitions were also noticed.
It is he who is credited with the words: “Now I know a lot of things in advance!” Such an amazing recognition belongs to the first real holy fool of Russia - Saint Procopius of Ustyug. His real name was lost over the centuries, and his first life was written only in the 16th century. True, there are many discrepancies in this text, but the life differs from an ordinary biography in that it often contains miracles.
Feat for Christ's sake
According to his life, Saint Procopius was a wealthy merchant and came from Germans of the Catholic faith. However, in those days almost all foreigners were called Germans, regardless of their nationality.
In his youth, Procopius traded not in Ustyug, but in Novgorod, where he was captivated by the beauty of the majestic churches, the ringing of bells and the splendor of Orthodox services. As a result, this impressionable man converted to Orthodoxy, distributed all his property to the poor, was baptized and became a monk.
It can be assumed that the quick conversion of the “German” Procopius to Christianity occurred by special permission of God. Soon Procopius took part in the most difficult feat of foolishness for Christ's sake, pretending to be insane. Since he was the first holy fool in these parts, the Novgorodians took him for a real madman.
Miraculous deeds of the blessed one
Since then, the city of Novgorod has been considered the birthplace of Russian foolishness.
Local holy fools, as expected, spent most of their time outside and walked half naked even in the most severe frosts. In addition, they resolved everyday conflicts with fist fights - and even the wanderer got into trouble. After lying down after yet another “admonishment,” Procopius decided to leave Novgorod and move to Veliky Ustyug.
He walked from summer to winter. One day, on the way, he was caught in a severe cold - the birds froze in flight. The holy fool wanted to get into the sheep barn, so the men almost killed him, he wanted to go to the dogs huddled in some hole, so they began to tear the remnants of his clothes. Procopius, light-colored with white wings and holding a branch in his hand, came to the rescue. He touched the face of the freezing blessed one with a branch and revived him. A pleasant warmth spread throughout Procopius’s body, and he stopped feeling the freezing cold.
Gift
Another time, in the bitter cold, the blessed one knocked on the door of the cleric of the cathedral church of Ustyug, Simenon. The cleric's three-year-old daughter opened the door. The holy fool took her hand, led her to the middle of the room, bowed low to her and said to her parents: “Here is the mother of the great saint!” And indeed, the girl later became the mother of St. Stephen of Perm.
The blessed one carried three pokers in his left hand. It was noticed that when he held them upside down, there was a good harvest in Om, and when he turned them upside down, there was a shortage of everything.
On one Sunday in 1290, Blessed Procopius began to call on everyone in the temple: “Repent, brothers, of your sins, hasten to appease God with fasting and prayer, otherwise the city will perish from a hail of fire!” The residents of Ustyug, alas, did not heed the blessed one’s warning, and exactly a week after his first sermon, disaster struck.
Disaster
At noon, a black cloud appeared on the horizon, which quickly grew and completely covered the sky over Veliky Ustyug. Lightning flashed in the black sky, and thunderclaps shook the walls of houses and the ground. People rushed in horror to the Assumption Cathedral Church and saw Blessed Procopius standing there in front of the icon of the Annunciation. The people, with cries of repentance, prayed together with Procopius before the face of the Mother of God for salvation. Suddenly, from the icon of the Annunciation, “myrrh flowed and a fragrance spread throughout the temple.”
And the black cloud went to the west and, 20 versts from Veliky Ustyug, burst into an unprecedented hail of stones, crippling centuries-old trees. This event was immortalized by establishing the celebration of the icon of the Ustyug Mother of God in gratitude for saving the city. This icon was moved in 1567 to Moscow under Ivan the Terrible and inserted into the iconostasis of the Assumption Cathedral.
The Art of Healing
It manifested itself most expressively during the flow of the world from the icon of the Annunciation. The flow of the world was so abundant that people filled church vessels with it. Those anointed with myrrh received miraculous healings from various diseases. Among those healed were “the paralytic, the demon-possessed, the blind, the lame, of every age and rank.”
Death of a Saint
As a reward for his great deeds for the sake of Christ, the angel revealed to the blessed one the time of his death. On July 8, 1303, Procopius went to the Ustyug Michael-Arkhangelsk Monastery and, having prayed at the gates of the monastery, lay down on the ground and, folding his hands on his chest, “peacefully departed to the Lord.” According to the wishes of the blessed one, he was buried near the Assumption Cathedral Church on the banks of the Sukhona River, and the stone on which Procopius sat and prayed was placed at his coffin.
In 1458, the righteous erected a chapel over his grave. In 1471, the Ustyug military people, who received the gracious help of Procopius during the campaign to Novgorod, built a church in his name over his grave, created a tomb on which they placed the image of the deceased, and from that time celebrated the feast of the blessed one on July 8th. In 1547, the Moscow Council confirmed the legitimacy of this holiday.
Posthumous miracles
150 years after the death of the first holy fool in Russia, a terrible disaster for those times happened in Novgorod - the plague. People tried to flee the city in horror, but they failed because the authorities set up barrages to prevent the spread of the epidemic. And in these days of complete despair and powerlessness against a real pestilence, blessed Procopius began to appear to people in their dreams. He allegedly said that the epidemic would recede if the townspeople erected a church in Veliky Ustyug in memory of him.
People began to collect money for the church, and a great miracle happened - the plague receded, and everyone who gave money for the temple or promised to help build it survived the epidemic alive and well.
With the money collected from the townspeople, a temple was actually erected in Veliky Ustyug, but not in memory of the holy fool Procopius, but in the name of Saints Boris and Gleb. For disobeying the blessed one, the people of Ustyug were approximately punished: on August 1, 1490, this church burned down from a lightning strike, and in clear, calm weather. Fearing a new punishment, the Ustyug residents erected a wooden church in 1495, now in the name of the righteous Procopius.
Since then, many miraculous healings and phenomena began to occur at the tomb of the holy fool. The culprit of these events was also noticed...
Leonid Prozorov
wonderworker, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church
A former Lübeck Hanseatic merchant who converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy, his origin was from a Prussian noble family (no relation to the Germans).
Biography
The worldly name, surname, date and place of birth are not precisely established (according to some sources, Glande Kambila). In Western European life it is said that he comes from a noble family of Lübeck Hanseatic merchant-patricians.
Arriving around 1243 on ships with goods in Veliky Novgorod, he was involuntarily struck by the multitude and beauty of churches and monasteries, the friendly ringing of numerous bells, the piety and zeal of the people for church services - which he never thought to meet among people who did not obey the Roman high priest .
An inquisitive young man visited the Church of Hagia Sophia and other churches and monasteries, where he saw the solemnity and splendor of the rituals of the Orthodox Church, heard harmonious choral singing, and he decided to convert to Orthodoxy. Wanting to imitate the feat of the monks, he distributed all his goods and the property bequeathed to him by his father to the city's beggars and poor; donated part of it to the Varlaamo-Khutyn Monastery, founded shortly before (1192).
Here his mentor was Elder Varlaam Prokshinich, who in everything imitated the founder of the monastery Varlaam Khutynsky (†1192)
Later he retired from Novgorod, where he was glorified for his non-covetousness, to Veliky Ustyug, where he lived on the porch of the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God.
He lived on alms and was dressed in rags. The blessed one usually slept on damp ground, on a pile of garbage or on stones. The consolation for Blessed Procopius was the righteous couple - John Buga (the khan's Baskak who converted to Orthodoxy) and his wife Maria, and his friend and interlocutor was Blessed Cyprian, the founder of the Ustyug monastery in honor of the Archangel Michael.
Miracle of Saint Procopius
In 1290, Procopius foresaw a natural disaster - a strong storm with a thunderstorm, forest fires and a tornado of great destructive power, which were the result of a meteorite falling 20 versts from Veliky Ustyug. A week before the meteorite fell, Blessed Procopius began walking around the city, calling with tears to the residents of Veliky Ustyug to repent and pray that the Lord would save the city from the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. For a week, the righteous man warned about the imminent judgment of God, but no one believed him. When the storm broke out, the residents rushed to the most fortified and safe building of the city - the cathedral church, where they found Procopius praying for them and for the salvation of the city.
Church tradition holds that Procopius prayed before the ancient icon of the Annunciation, which was later transferred to Moscow. In honor of this icon, called the “Ustyug Annunciation,” the Russian Church established a celebration on July 8 (according to the Julian calendar) - “The Sign from the Icon of the Mother of God of the Annunciation in the city of Ustyug.” However, historical data does not confirm the presence of this icon in Ustyug.
Memory of the Saint
Procopius lived as a fool for 60 years. After his death, he was canonized as an Orthodox saint. The church glorification of Blessed Procopius took place at the Moscow Council in 1547; his memory was established on July 8 (according to the Julian calendar).
Procopius of Ustyug became historically the first saint glorified by the Church in the guise of holy fools. “The Life of Procopius” was compiled in the 16th century, that is, long after the repose of the saint, by the son of the abbot of the Solvychegodsk monastery, Dionysius. According to the remark of V. O. Klyuchevsky, the life, unfortunately, is “poorly written, composed of individual episodic stories that have very little literary connection.” Based on the text of the Life of Procopius, one can determine the sources from which it was compiled.
Procopius the righteous removes the stone cloud from Ustyug the Great. N.K. Roerich 1914.
The painting depicts the famous miracle of the holy fool Procopius of Ustyug, which happened, according to his life, in 1290, when Procopius with his prayers warded off a “stone cloud” from the city that threatened to destroy the city.
Procopius of Ustyug is a holy fool who lived at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century, at the porch of the Assumption Cathedral in the city of Veliky Ustyug.
Initially, apparently nothing was known about this homeless man, except that he was not local, “strayed” from a “foreign side.” Centuries later, after the canonization of Procopius, which took place in 1547, a legend appeared that this side was completely distant, perhaps “Latin”, that Procopius was a merchant (otherwise how could he get to Rus') and of course arrived there through Novgorod ( like many foreigners). And then, having distributed his property to the poor, he entered a monastery (to some famous elder, for example Varlaam Khutynsky, who lived 100 years earlier than that time. And then, wanting an even more strictly Christian feat, he began to wander around the Russian north, reaching his beloved Veliky Ustyug. Later historians added to the biography further, identifying Procopius's hometown (Lübeck) and even the possible Latin name of the holy fool. But this can hardly be taken for granted.
N.K. Roerich "Procopius the Righteous Prays for the Unknown Floating", 1914
Procopius lived at the Church of the Virgin Mary at the expense of alms, suffering from the cold in winter, and in the summer he used to sit on the banks of the Sukhona River and bless ships sailing by. This bright feature of his madness was the reason for the creation of N.K. Roerich of another painting dedicated to Procopius. Or maybe it became one of the reasons for the beginning of his local veneration. Shipmen sailing along the Sukhona River are apparently accustomed to the figure of a lonely prayer man. They remembered her even after her death, and after some time they began to ask Procopius for help in returning home safely. So in 1478, during the campaign of the Ustyug people to Kazan (as part of the Moscow troops), the Ustyug people were struck by illness, people suffered from fever, abdominal pain, and died. Then the people of Ustyug remembered their Procopius, who once prayed for travelers, and promised to build him a church if they returned. Helped some...
For some reason, Procopius carried with him three pokers, which certainly accompany his image on icons. Maybe it was some kind of chain, or maybe these pokers are connected with the other, dark side of Prokopyev’s madness. Sitting near the church, he foreshadowed the city and the people of Ustyug's imminent death in fiery hell. For which, according to life, he was repeatedly beaten, apparently in the brightest moments of the lives of ordinary people (holidays and weddings), when such prophecies were inappropriate. The pokers may have served Procopius to demonstrate how the devils would fry sinners in hell. The memory of them stuck to the image of Procopius for another reason that by using his pokers (by their rotation up or down), the locals began to jokingly determine the weather. If Procopius walks with the pickers lifting them up, there will be a bucket (sunny day), if it goes down, it will rain.
Such meteorological abilities began to be attributed to Procopius’ pokers, apparently after another series of his prophecies coincided with an unusual natural phenomenon. On July 8, 1290, black clouds gathered over the city, a thunderstorm and whirlwinds broke out, and then, to the side of the city, stones fell from the cloud to the ground. The townspeople, who prayed in the church for salvation in front of the icon of the Mother of God, attributed the miracle of saving the city to the icon. But they remembered that Procopius, the local holy fool, foreshadowed the city in advance about the danger and prayed to the Mother of God about it.
The place where, according to legend, stones fell from a cloud, is located 20 versts from the city in the Kotovalovo tract (about it, see). In the 19th century, a chapel was built there and religious processions were held there. In later times, local historians looked for meteorites in this area, but did not find them. Yes, in fact, they couldn’t exist. From the description of Procopius’ miracle, it is clear that a storm and thunderstorm of unusual force broke out over the city (according to the Life, it was preceded by the presence of a dark cloud and the stuffiness usual in these cases). Where does the legend about the stones come from? But the fact is that since pagan times the people have maintained the belief that lightning is the stone arrows of the God of Thunder, “Perun’s arrows.” When lightning strikes the ground, a stone falls from the sky. Russian peasants considered such “thunder stones” (arrows) to be ancient flint tools that were sometimes found, as well as belemnites (petrified remains of fossil mollusks). It was this idea that undoubtedly formed the basis of the legend of the “stone cloud”.
After a while, stories about the Miracles of St. Procopius began to acquire fantastic details, and local residents developed a strong conviction that it was Procopius who, with his prayers, encouraged the Mother of God to save the city. And the city owes its salvation to him. At the end of the 15th century, a church was built on the site of his grave. And in 1547 Procopius was canonized in Moscow. Procopius of Ustyug became historically the first saint glorified by the Church in the guise of holy fools. In 1638, a large stone church was built for Procopius in Veliky Ustyug.
Procopius died on July 8, 1303 at night in a field. According to the Life, the Lord made sure that his body was not left without cover - despite summer time, snow fell. Procopius was found and buried near a stone on the bank of the river. Sukhona, on which he loved to sit and next to whom he bequeathed to be buried. In 1914, N. Roerich painted the famous painting “Procopius the Righteous Prays for the Unknown Floating” (see above), where he depicted St. Procopius, sitting on this stone by the river and blessing the ships and boats hurrying along it.