Cathedral of Vyatka Saints
Life
The celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Vyatka diocese on the day of the memorial of the Pre-po-do-no-go Tri-fo-on Vyat-skogo, October 21, 2007, in the Uspensky ca-fedral with -bo-re Tri-fo-no-va man's mo-na-sta-rya mit-ro-po-li-tom Vyat-sky Hri-san-f. The celebration of the so-bo-ra was established on the same day. Among the praises of the saints of God in it:
- St. Trifon Vyatsky († 1612, commemoration of October 8)
- Blzh. Pro-ko-piy of Vyat-sky († 1627, commemoration of December 21)
- St. Leonid Ust-ne-Dum-sky († 1654, commemorated July 17)
- St. Stefan Fileysky († 1890)
- Shch-mch. Ni-ko-lay (Po-dya-kov), prot. († 1918)
- Shch-mch. Pro-ko-piy (Po-pov), prot. († 1918)
- Shch-mch. Ana-to-liy (Iva-novsky), priest. († 1918)
- Shch-mch. Viktor (Usov), priest. († 1918)
- Shch-mch. Mi-ha-il (Ti-ho-nits-kiy), priest. († 1918)
- St. Mat-fey Yaran-sky († 1927)
- Spanish Viktor (Ost-ro-vidov), bishop. Gla-zovsky († 1934)
- Mts. Ni-na (Kuz-ne-tso-va) († 1938)
- Pri-sp. Alexander (Oru-dov), ar-chemist. († 1961, commemorated August 14, September 5)
Prayers
Troparion to the Cathedral of Vyatka Saints
As images of virtues / and prayers, God-given fruit / the land of Vyatka brings to Thee, our Lord God, / all the saints who lived and shone in that one, / those who through the prayers and intercession of the Mother of God / / keep them unhallowed our quality.
Translation: As examples of virtues and the fruit of prayer, the God-given land of Vyatka brings to You, Lord God, all the saints who lived and shone in it, through the prayers of them and the Mother of God, keep our fatherland safe from the tricks of the enemy.
Kontakion to the Cathedral of Vyatka Saints
Today the land of Vyatka rejoices, / everyone here glorifying those who pleased God, / who now stand in the Church / and with all the saints they pray to the Most High for us, / to grant us great mercy.
Translation: Today the land of Vyatka rejoices, glorifying all those who have pleased God here, who now stand in the Church and, together with all the saints, pray to the Almighty for us to grant us great mercies.
Prayer to the Cathedral of Vyatka Saints
Oh, all-blessed and godly saints of God, who sanctified the land of Vyatka with their deeds and left their bodies in it, standing with their souls before the Throne of God and incessantly praying for it! Behold, now, on the day of common celebration, we, sinners, your least brethren, dare to bring you this song of praise. We magnify your exploits, we honor your holy life, we glorify wondrous miracles and we praise God-imitating love. Oh, our relatives, from the days of the Venerable Tryphon, Archimandrite of Vyatsk, to the last times, who labored and shone! Remember our weakness and ask Christ our God for mercy, so that we, having swum through the abyss of life and having preserved the treasure of faith unharmed, may reach the haven of eternal salvation and in the blessed realms Telech of the Mountainous Fatherland, together with you and with all the saints, we will be established by the grace and love of mankind of our Savior Lord Jesus Christ , To Him, together with the Eternal Father and the Most Holy Spirit, is due unceasing praise and worship from everyone forever and ever. Amen.
Cathedral of Vyatka Saints
Venerable Tryphon of Vyatka
Venerable Matthew of Yaransky
Venerable Leonid of Ustnedumsky
Holy Blessed Procopius of Vyatka
Venerable Stephen of Fileia
Confessor Victor (Ostrovidov), Bishop of Glazov
Hieromartyr Michael Tikhonitsky
Hieromartyr Nikolai Podyakov
Hieromartyr Procopius Popov
Hieromartyr Viktor Usov
Archimandrite Alexander (Urodov), confessor
Martyr Nina Kuznetsova
Hieromartyr Anatoly Ivanovsky
Venerable Leonid (Ustnedumsky)
memory 30 (July 17)
Born in 1551 in the Novgorod region, in the Annunciation parish of Poshekhonsky district in the family of the peasant Philip and his wife Catherine. In 1603, when Leonid was already at a respectable age, the Mother of God appeared to him in a dream, commanding the elder to go to the Dvina River in the Morzhevskaya Nikolaev Hermitage, take Her icon from there, called Hodegetria, and transfer the holy image to the Luza River to Turin Mountain.
Taking the revealed image of the Lady, Rev. Leonid headed to the place that She indicated to him. On the way, he met with a local peasant Nikita Nazarov, who helped the elder build a cell and sent him food. Fulfilling the command of the Mother of God, Rev. Leonid went to Rostov to the Metropolitan to receive a blessing for the construction of the temple. The saint blessed the foundation of the temple and elevated the elder builder to the rank of priest. In 1608, a temple in the name of the Presentation of the Mother of God was built and the revealed image was transferred to it. The place where the temple stood was low and damp. Then the elder began to dig canals, connecting the lakes with each other and diverting water from the newly built temple. One day while doing this work he was bitten by a snake. Having prayed to God and the Most Holy Theotokos, Rev. Leonid made it his heart not to think about this misfortune and, not paying attention to the wound, continued his work. The Lord preserved the blessed old man and strengthened his strength. The result was a whole man-made river, which, remembering the recent misfortune and God’s help, he named “Neduma”. Over time, the Ust-Nedumskaya desert formed here.
The Luza River often drowned the monastery during floods, so the elder and the brethren had to once again move the temple to a higher place. The consecration of the temple in the new location took place on May 23, 1652. The icon of the Mother of God was transferred to it. The Lord granted Rev. Leonidas had a long life, most of which he spent in work, silence and prayer. On July 17, 1654, when the blessed elder was already more than 100 years old, he departed to the Lord. The relics of St. Leonid is buried under a bushel in the former monastery, and now parish church of the village. Ust-Neduma (Ozerskaya) Luzsky district, Kirov region.In the world - Stefan Kurteev. Born on July 17, 1830 in the family of a peasant in the village of Molchanovskaya, Vyatka province. He spent his childhood in his parents' house. In 1850, the book “Letters of the Holy Mountainer about the Holy Mount Athos” was published, after reading which the young man had a great desire to devote his life to serving God. He left his studies in St. Petersburg, came to Vyatka and settled near the village of Fileyskoye. Here he began an ascetic feat for the glory of God - he labored in fasting and prayer, taught peasant children to read and write and the Law of God, and grew in the knowledge of God.
In 1864, the Lord vouchsafed Stephen to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem and visit Mount Athos twice. During these trips, he learned smart heart prayer. In 1877, his long-time wish came true. On February 23, with the blessing of Bishop Apollos of Vyatka and Slobodsky, he was tonsured a monk with the name Stefan and was identified as one of the brethren of the Holy Cross Monastery in the city of Slobodsky. However, seeking solitude, he soon returned to his hermitage near the village of Fileyki. The news about the gracious old man, about the miracles and healings that took place through his prayers, quickly spread throughout the area. Many came to him for blessings, advice and consolation. The sermons and instructions of Elder Stefan, which were published in the city of Vyatka by his zealous admirers in the form of brochures that were affordable and understandable to ordinary people, gained great fame. One of his students was Rev. Matthew of Yaransky, who, following in the footsteps of Father Stephen, became a monk and dedicated his life to God and his neighbors.
The fame of Father Stefan was also facilitated by the fact that the settlement of Fileika was located on the path of pilgrims - participants in the Velikoretsk religious procession, many of whom, returning from the Velikaya River, visited the holy ascetic. Finally, on March 10, 1890, permission was received to build the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in the place where Father Stefan labored. By this time, his strength had noticeably weakened, but the foundation of the monastery was carried out under his leadership. The blessed death of the elder was approaching. On August 6, Father Stefan was tonsured into the schema, and on August 15/28 he peacefully departed to the Lord. Like the Monk Tryphon, Hieroschemamonk Stefan was buried in the monastery he founded.
During the years of persecution, the brethren of the Phileia Monastery stood firmly in the holy Orthodox faith and therefore fully drank the thicket of suffering to which the God-fighters doomed the Orthodox people. The monastery was closed. Its main temple was destroyed. Wanting to preserve the holy relics of Father Stefan, his admirers moved them first to the Khlynovskoye cemetery, and then to the Phileiskoye cemetery. In July 2002, Father Stephen was canonized among the locally revered saints of the Vyatka diocese. A life was compiled and an icon of the saint was painted. At the same time, at the Fileyskoe cemetery, near the resting place of the elder, an Orthodox chapel was built and consecrated in his honor, to which a religious procession is held on the day of his memory.
Hieromartyr Michael Tikhonitsky
Memory 20 (7) September
Born in 1846 in the family of a psalm-reader. Having completed the full course at the Vyatka Theological Seminary, in 1868 he was ordained to the priesthood. He began his pastoral ministry in the Ilyinsky Edinoverie Church of the Izhevsk plant, then in the villages of Podrelie and Bystritsa, and in 1880 in the city of Orlov. Father Mikhail was an honest and sympathetic man, he loved his parishioners, and they repaid him with impartial love. In Orlov, Father Mikhail taught the Law of God at the local gymnasium. He instilled in his students a sincere sense of reverence for God, love for the Church and respect for people.
In 1917, when Russia was swept by a wave of revolution and red terror, Grieving over the grief that befell the Russian people, Patriarch Tikhon issued a message in which he cursed the persecutors of the Church and called on all people to peace and harmony. On February 15, 1918, Father Mikhail read a message from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon during the Divine Liturgy in the Kazan Cathedral in the city of Orlov. He was soon arrested and put on trial. The parishioners stood up for their beloved priest and were able to persuade the persecutors to postpone the arrest. But, six months later, when the country was swept by a new wave of Red Terror, Father Mikhail was captured again. The Extraordinary Commission at the Tribunal, having carried out an investigation, decided: “for disseminating counter-revolutionary appeals, priest Mikhail Tikhonitsky should be shot.” The sentence was carried out on September 20, 1918.
Three sons of Father Michael linked their fate with the Russian Orthodox Church: Vladimir took monasticism early and then, already in exile, became a metropolitan, Exarch of Western Europe; Veniamin served as a priest in the city of Vyatka for many years, and in 1942 he became a monk and, in the rank of Archbishop of Kirov and Slobodsky, worked hard on the revival of the Vyatka diocese; Elpidifor, a talented teacher and deeply religious Christian, died in Stalin’s camps. The daughters of Father Mikhail worked for a long time in the teaching field in Orlov and humbly looked after their father’s grave.
By the determination of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Michael is now canonized as the new martyrs and confessors of Russia. His glorification took place in 2003. On September 8, 2008, his holy relics were found at the Orlov cemetery, which now rest in the parish church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Hieromartyr Procopius Popov
Memory October 13 (September 30)
The God-fighters who came to power in 1917 tried to take all measures to break and humiliate such honored shepherds. Present them as enemies of the working people. On April 27, 1918, at the third peasant congress, an indemnity was imposed on Archpriest Prokopiy Popov as a representative of the exploiting class in the amount of 7 thousand rubles, which was demanded to be recovered immediately. And when, in the autumn of the same year, the Red government switched to open terror, the hour of suffering struck for Father Procopius. According to eyewitnesses, the archpriest of the Trinity Church Prokopiy Popov was shot on October 13, 1918 by a punitive detachment on suspicion of counter-revolution. The supposed burial place of Father Procopius is the bank of the river. South on the outskirts with Sholga. Podosinovsky district, Kirov region.
Hieromartyr Anatoly Ivanovsky
Anatoly Dmitrievich Ivanovsky was born on February 16, 1863 in the village of Pektubaevo, Yaransky district, Vyatka province, in the family of the priest of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in the same village, Dimitry Ivanovich Ivanovsky. After graduating in June 1883 with the 2nd category from the Vyatka Theological Seminary, in September 1884 he was appointed a psalm-reader in the Trinity Church of the village of Salobelak, Yaransky district, Vyatka province, and then, from April 14 to July 15, 1887, he served as a psalm-reader in the cemetery church of the city of Yaransk. that same year, having decided to continue his education, Anatoly Ivanovsky entered Kazan University, where he studied for 3 years and was dismissed due to illness according to a personal petition on April 30, 1890. In 1890-1892, he lived alternately in Kazan, and then in Elabuga and Chistopol, where he sang in the church choir. Soon after this, A.D. Ivanovsky moved to the village of Shulka, Yaransky district, Vyatka province, where the parents of his wife Yulia Mikhailovna lived, whose father was also a priest. On February 24, 1895, Anatoly Ivanovsky again entered the diocesan service and was appointed psalm-reader in the Church of the Baptist in the village of Suvod, Oryol district, Vyatka province, where he served until May of the same year. On November 11, 1895, he was ordained as a psalm-reader in the church of the village of Znamenskoye, Yaransky district, Vyatka province, and carried out this obedience until February 17, 1901, when he was ordained a deacon, and then a priest, with an appointment to the Kazan-Virgin Church in the village of Saltak-Yal, Urzhum district. Vyatka province, where he served for 17 years. In addition to priestly duties, Father Anatoly carried out educational work and served as a teacher of the law at the Shagaranur literacy school from February 23, 1901 to 1903, the Argaranur parish school from February 23, 1901 to August 1914, the Shagaranur parochial school (from September 1 1914), Saltak-Yal Zemstvo School from October 22, 1901, Mokrushinsk Zemstvo School from October 1, 1914. In the first three of the educational institutions mentioned above, Father Anatoly was also the head, and in addition, from November 18, 1902 to November 15, 1906, he also headed the Saltak-Yal girls’ school. The works of priest Anatoly Ivanovsky received recognition, the priest had several awards: a legguard (1905), a skufia (1913), an anniversary breastplate in memory of the 300th anniversary of the reign of the Romanov dynasty, a medal in memory of the 25th anniversary of parochial schools. The surviving clergy records of the above-mentioned churches say that Father Anatoly behaved modestly and was of very good behavior. The priest's family consisted of 9 people: wife Yulia Mikhailovna, son Vsevolod, daughters Vera, Nina, Feofaniya, Olga, Lyudmila, Natalia, Alexandra. After the revolution of 1917 and the Bolsheviks coming to power, persecution of the Church began. The Soviet government also took advantage of the tense situation that developed in the country during the civil war. In September 1918, the district towns of the Volga region received a telegram from the Extraordinary Commission of the Eastern Front with the following content: “On the Czechoslovak front, along the entire front line, the broadest unbridled agitation of the clergy against the Soviet regime is observed. In view of this obvious counter-revolutionary work of the clergy, I order all front-line Cherekhovoykom to pay special attention to "the clergy, establishing careful supervision over them, and to shoot each of them, regardless of his rank, who dares to speak out in word or deed against the Soviet government. This order should be sent to the district propaganda and volost councils." On September 13, 1918, the Urzhum Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution responded to this instruction as follows: “The Urzhum Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution orders all priests who delivered counter-revolutionary sermons and agitations to be immediately arrested and forwarded to the commission with protocols of accusation.” On October 4, 1918, a similar instruction became even more stringent: “The commission proposes that priests noticed in anti-Soviet agitation be immediately arrested and brought to the commission, and if they resist, be shot on the spot.” This directive, unfortunately, found a response locally. The zealous service of Father Anatoly, his firm faith in God, the respect he enjoyed among the parishioners caused displeasure. Representatives of the new government, intoxicated by revolutionary “freedoms,” a number of peasants in the village of Saltak-Yal began to seek the removal of the priest. Based on a “signal” from the ground on September 17, 1918, priest Anatoly Ivanovsky was arrested by the Urzhum district emergency investigative committee for the fight against counter-revolution “as a White Guard who is campaigning against the Soviets even with sermons.” During interrogation on October 16, 1918, Father Anatoly did not admit his guilt, saying: “I did not say anything politically to the population of my parish and never conducted any campaigning.” And when asked how he views the law on the separation of Church and state, he directly answered that this means depriving state power of the blessing of God. Father also said that he recognizes Soviet power in civil matters, but not in church matters. Loyalty to God and His Church, to his pastoral duty, was above all for Father Anatoly. “I don’t plead guilty to anything, and I’ll sign my name to that. Anatoly Dmitriev Ivanovsky,” the protocol of the first interrogation ends with this phrase. The priest spoke about this same thing during the re-interrogation on October 18, showing: “I personally did not agitate against the authorities, but only read the appeals of Patriarch Tikhon and the Church Council. I assumed that I should carry out the instructions of the highest church authorities and that the Soviet authorities should not interfere in church affairs in accordance with the decree on the separation of the Church from the state. I fulfilled my duties, and if this is not fulfilled, then I must leave office. I recognize Soviet power as a fact and carry out its orders. It makes no difference to me what kind of power there is, only "If only it had been based on Christian principles. The tsarist government is better for me in that the Church was not separated from the state. In general, I did not set out to judge which government was better or worse, as long as there were fraternal relations between people." Of course, the priest did not conduct any counter-revolutionary activities, but suffered for his faith, for the fact that he conscientiously fulfilled his duties and did not hide his convictions. Father Anatoly enjoyed great respect in the parish. The clergyman of the Saltak-Yala Church spoke out in defense of his pastor. On September 23, 1918, Deacon Ioann Ivanov and psalm-reader Fedot Efremov sent the following petition to the Soviet authorities: “On September 17, 1918, the priest of the village of Saltak-Yal, Anatoly Ivanovsky, was taken by military force and taken to Urzhum to be imprisoned, for which reason, we are absolutely “We cannot explain, since we did not notice any illegal actions in the behavior of Father Anatoly Ivanovsky: he did not deliver sermons on political topics, but only delivered teachings on religious topics.” By a resolution of the Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution, Profiteering, Sabotage and Ex-officio Crimes under the Council of People's Commissars on the Czechoslovak Front dated October 18, 1918, priest Anatoly Ivanovsky was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out on October 30, 1918, near the city of Urzhum. HELL. Ivanovsky was rehabilitated on July 1, 1992 by the Prosecutor's Office of the Kirov Region in accordance with Articles 3 and 5 of the RSFSR Law "On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression" dated October 18, 1991. On June 23, 2008, by determination of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, priest Anatoly Ivanovsky was canonized as New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. With the Blessing of Metropolitan of Vyatka and Slobodsky, Chrysanthus was included in the Cathedral of Vyatka Saints.Venerable Matthew of Yaransky
Born on May 23 (June 4), 1855 in the city of Vyatka in the family of a craftsman. Even in his youth, seeking spiritual nourishment, he met Hieromonk Stefan (Kurteev), who labored 6 versts from Vyatka near the village of Fileyki. Father Stefan taught the young man heartfelt mental prayer, prudence and submission to the will of God. At this time, on the site of Elder Stefan’s feat, it was decided to build a men’s monastery in the name of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky. On September 16, 1890, the opening of the new monastery took place. And a month before, on the day of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Father Matthew’s spiritual father and beloved mentor, Hieromonk Stefan, died. Following in the footsteps of his teacher, Father Matthew in 1891 entered the new Phileian Monastery as a novice. On April 5, 1897, he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk. They often began to turn to the priest for advice and consolation, since they saw in him a spirit-bearing old man, despite his far from advanced age. After ten years of obedience at the Philei Alexander Nevsky Monastery, Father Matthew was sent to the newly created Prophetinsky Monastery near the city of Yaransk to help its builder, Hieromonk Nil. In the new monastery, Father Matthew had to work hard. In addition to performing daily divine services, he performed the duties of the cell attendant of the abbot of the monastery: he stoked the stoves and monitored cleanliness, and he also served as the steward and treasurer of the monastery. His humility was amazing. He always walked with his head down, not paying attention to anything, immersed in prayer. He never allowed empty talk, and always wore the simplest monastic clothes. He loved quiet prayerful singing and was abstinent in food.The coup of 1917 marked the beginning of the great persecution of the Holy Church. In 1921, the monastery was closed, and Father Matthew moved to the village of Ershovo. But the fame of a perspicacious elder brought many people to him seeking advice, consolation and spiritual help. The elder died peacefully on May 16 (29), 1927. Soon his grave became a place of pious pilgrimage for thousands of people. Already at that time, a handwritten akathist to St. Matthew was written. On November 27, 1997, Father Matthew was canonized among the locally revered saints of the Vyatka diocese. An icon was painted, a life and an akathist were compiled.
Blessed Procopius, Fool for Christ's sake,
Vyatka miracle worker
Born in the village of Koryakinskaya near the village of Bobino not far from the city of Khlynov in 1578 in a family of peasants Maxim and Irina Plushkov. Parents often took their son with them to the field, where one day trouble happened to him. At the age of 12, he rode a horse. Suddenly a storm came and a strong clap of thunder was heard. The young man fell from his horse to the ground and lay as if dead. His parents brought him home and asked for help from St. Nicholas, a quick helper in troubles. Soon the boy came to his senses, but behaved like a madman - “he began to tear his vestments on himself and throw them to the ground and walk naked.” Then the parents took their son to the Assumption Monastery to Rev. Tryphon, who sprinkled him with holy water and healed him with the power of prayer.
Soon after this, Procopius, with the blessing of his parents, moved to the city of Slobodskaya, where for three years he carried out various obediences at the Catherine Church. When he turned 2 years old and his parents decided to marry their son, Procopius, seeking another life, left his home and went to the city of Khlynov, where, according to church tradition, he asked the reverend. Tryphon's blessing on the feat of foolishness. Having taken the yoke of foolishness, he carried it for 30 years until his death - he endured the sorrows of pride, wounded by the ridicule, abuse, and coldness of people; He made his flesh suffer to the point of death both from lack of food and from changes in weather. At the same time, the saint hid his asceticism from people in every possible way. Only his confessor, Priest John from the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, knew him better than others - it was to him that the ascetic confessed and here he received the Holy Mysteries of Christ weekly. With his meekness, humility, and non-covetousness, he spiritually healed the proud and wayward residents of Khlynov.
Saint Procopius reposed blissfully on December 21, 1627 and was buried in the Trifonov Monastery, not far from St. Tryfon Vyatsky. His relics rest under the salt in the southern part of the Assumption Cathedral. The veneration of the holy blessed Procopius began soon after his death, but it gained particular fame after, on March 3, 1666, through his prayers and the prayers of St. Tryphon, the Lord gave healing to Martha, a resident of Slobodsky district, who had been suffering from a serious illness for a long time - the day before the saints appeared to the woman in a vision and promised her recovery. At the end of the 17th century, the life of the saint was compiled.
Hieromartyr Nikolai Podyakov
Memory 24 (11) September
But in 1917 everything changed. People who hate the Church of Christ and its ministers came to power. Soon Podosinovets turned out to be a front-line village. Having no other forces to stop the advance of the White Army, the Reds unleashed a policy of outright terror, trying to intimidate the local population with unprecedented cruelty. On September 10, 1918, at eleven o’clock at night, security officers burst into Nikolai’s father’s house. They presented an arrest warrant for Fr. Nikolai, who at that time was rising from the basement into the house. To prevent the future prisoner from escaping, one of the soldiers shot Father Nicholas in the leg. The soldiers put the wounded man on a cloth stretcher and carried him out of the house. At the same time, they had to dismantle part of the window, since the stretcher with the wounded did not fit through the door. Father Nikolai was brought to a pre-dug hole and forced to kneel. He was accused of counter-revolutionary actions by refusing to help the Red Army with food. In his response, the priest called everyone to Christian love and asked all parishioners for forgiveness. The sentence was carried out. Together with Fr. Nicholas also shot his fellow priest Viktor Usov. The body of the murdered Father Nicholas was transferred to the house, where he was dressed in priestly vestments. The funeral service was performed by priest Zosima Trubachev. He was buried at the altar of the Mother of God Church in the village. Podosinovets. A memorial cross is now installed at the burial site, and Archpriest Nikolai Podyakov himself is now canonized.
Martyr Nina Kuznetsova
Martyr Nina was born on December 28, 1887 in the village of Lalsk, Vologda province, into the pious family of constable Alexei Kuznetsov and his wife Anna. Since childhood, Nina loved only prayer, monasteries and spiritual books.
After the closure of the Koryazhemsky Monastery at the beginning of the revolution, its brethren moved to Lalsk. The abbot of the monastery was Abbot Pavel (Khotemov). Father Pavel was a great ascetic. Nina, looking at the feat of Father Pavel, tried to imitate him. The blessed one strictly observed the monastic rules. She slept four hours a day and at two o’clock in the morning she invariably stood with the monks to pray.
After this monastery in Lalsk was closed by the authorities in 1928, part of the brethren and among them abbots Pavel and Nifont, who was the treasurer of the monastery, found shelter in the house of Blessed Nina.
Through the prayers and intercession of Blessed Nina, the cathedral in Lalsk was not closed for a long time, although the authorities more than once took steps to stop worship there. In the early thirties, they nevertheless ordered the closure of the cathedral, but the blessed one then began to write decisive letters to Moscow, collected and sent walkers and acted so firmly and relentlessly that the authorities had to give in and return the cathedral to the Orthodox.
At the beginning of 1937, NKVD officers arrested Father Leonid Istomin, novice Andrei Melentyev, the head of the church, singers, many parishioners and the last priests still remaining at large. All of them were transported to Veliky Ustyug and imprisoned in the Church of the Archangel Michael, which was turned into a prison.
On October 31, 1937, NKVD officers arrested Blessed Nina, but found no charges against her. They kept the blessed one in the Lal prison for half a month, without asking anything, without bringing charges. The authorities forced many people to bear false witness against the blessed one, but only one agreed to this - the deputy chairman of the Lalsky village council. He testified that Blessed Nina is an active churchwoman who not only opposes the closure of churches, but tirelessly works to open new ones.
In mid-November, Blessed Nina was charged. The blessed one did not admit guilt before the Soviet authorities and was sent to the prison of the city of Kotlas. On November 23, 1937, the NKVD Troika sentenced Blessed Nina to eight years in a forced labor camp. Blessed Nina was sent to one of the camps in the Arkhangelsk region, but the confessor did not stay here long. She died in a concentration camp on May 14, 1938.
The Monk Tryphon, the most revered saint of the Vyatka land, was born and spent his youth in Pinega, in the village of Malaya Nemnyushka (according to other sources, he was born near the city of Mezen (52, 388). His parents, Dimitri and Pelagia, were wealthy peasants. They had several sons, Trofim (that was the name of the Monk Tryphon in the world) was the youngest. The childhood of the future saint of God passed in an atmosphere of deep faith and piety. Demetrius and Pelagia often visited God's temple (at present there is no temple in Malaya Nemnyushka) and helped poor people. Little Tryphon became the "pious branch" of his righteous parents. From childhood, he loved to pray to God and observe fasts, was polite and meek with everyone. He especially revered his parents and older brothers, whom he obeyed in everything.
When Trofim grew up, his older brothers decided to marry him. However, it was here that their humble younger brother showed disobedience for the first and only time: he wanted to become a monk or remain in the world, remaining celibate for the sake of the Lord. The brothers tried to seduce him by sending him a beautiful maid. However, the young man remained adamant, and the brothers stopped their attempts to arrange Trofim’s life according to their own, and not according to God’s, will.
One day, having come to the temple, Trofim heard a sermon from the local priest. It contained the following words: “Keep bodily and spiritual purity from childhood. For whoever maintains purity and takes on the angelic, monastic image, the Lord God will number him among His chosen ones” (8, 202).
These words sank deeply into the heart of the God-fearing young man, and he decided to devote himself to serving God in the monastic rite. Trofim secretly left his parents' house and went on a journey through northern cities and villages, looking for a holy monastery in which he could stay.
His wanderings brought him to the Vologda land. For about a year, Trofim, disguised as a beggar wanderer, lived in the town of Orlov, enduring hunger, cold and insults from people for the sake of Christ. His voluntary suffering was rewarded by the Lord, who glorified His saint with the gift of miracles.
Boyar Yakov Stroganov's only son Maxim became seriously ill. When, at the request of his desperate father, Trofim prayed to God for his recovery, the boy recovered. Avoiding fame from people, Trofim retired from Orlov to the village of Nikolskoye on the Viled River. There, through his prayers, the Lord granted healing to another terminally ill child - two-year-old Timofey, the son of a clerk, Maxim Fedorov. However, when the baby’s parents began to thank Trofim, he humbly answered them: “It was not for my sinner’s sake that this child received healing, but for the sake of your faith the Lord saved him.”
After this, Trofim left the village of Nikolskoye. His wanderings led him to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Pyskorsky Monastery on the banks of the Kama River. Here, with the blessing of the abbot, Hieromonk Varlaam, Trofim remained as a novice. Later he was tonsured a monk with the name Tryphon. Despite Tryphon’s young age (at the time of taking monastic vows, the Monk Tryphon was only 22 years old), his life became an example for the brethren to follow. He performed difficult monastic obediences willingly, without grumbling; He was the first to appear in church for services, fasted strictly, and avoided idle pastimes and conversations. The young monk slept lying on the ground, and on summer nights, naked to the waist, he gave his body to be eaten by mosquitoes.
One day the Monk Tryphon fell seriously ill. For forty days he was between life and death. During his illness, the Lord granted him a vision: a guardian angel appeared to him to take his soul, at the command of God. The Monk Tryphon followed the angel and at the same time felt such lightness in his body, as if he had wings. Suddenly he heard a voice that said to the angel: “You hastened to take him here, bring him back again to where he was.” The monk again saw himself lying on his sick bed. Next to him stood a certain handsome old man, in whom the monk recognized Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. He ordered Tryphon to get up and go. When Tryphon replied that he could not do this because of extreme weakness, Saint Nicholas took him by the hands, raised him and blessed him with the words “get up and walk.” After this, Saint Tryphon recovered. In memory of his healing, from then on he especially venerated St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
For his exploits, the Monk Tryphon was respected by the brethren. It grew even more mature when, through his prayers, a demon-possessed girl and a sick baby were healed. People began to come to him for healing, for soul-helping words. However, the monk also had envious people. Among them were clerk Vasily and some other careless monks who insulted Tryphon and spread all sorts of slanderous rumors about him. However, Saint Tryphon was indifferent to both glory and reproach. He left the Pyskor monastery and went down the river on a small boat he found on the banks of the Kama, praying to God to show him a place where he could settle. His prayer was heard. Having sailed more than a hundred miles from the Pyskorsky Monastery and reaching the mouth of the Nizhnyaya Mulyanka River, he heard a voice: “This is where you should stay.” This call was repeated three times (52, 389). The Monk Tryphon understood that the Lord Himself was ordering him to settle in this place. Here he built himself a small cell. He ate herbs, as well as vegetables that he grew in a small garden. The monk brightened up his deserted solitude with prayer, work, and reading Divine books. The Lord gave the ability to read and understand church books to Saint Tryphon after his fervent prayers: before this Saint Tryphon was illiterate.
The deserted place where the Monk Tryphon settled enjoyed an evil reputation. Pagan Ostyak tribes lived in the neighborhood, and next to the saint’s cell there was a pagan temple and a huge spruce tree, which was worshiped by the local pagans. They hung their gifts on the branches of the fir tree - furs, towels, silk, jewelry. The pagans believed that trouble would certainly happen to a person who dared to disrespect their treasured tree. The demons who lived on the site of the temple really frightened and even killed those who allowed themselves to laugh at the revered tree or steal something from the offerings hanging on its branches. Therefore, the Ostyaks were very surprised that some fearless stranger settled next to the temple. Together with their elder Zevenduk, they came to the Monk Tryphon to look at him and ask how he dared to set up his home in this place. To the questions of the astonished pagans, Saint Tryphon answered that he was a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, and told them about the Orthodox faith. Listening to Saint Tryphon, the Ostyaks were indescribably amazed at his words. Their amazement reached its limit when the Monk Tryphon destroyed the demonic temple. He prepared for this feat for four weeks with intense prayer and fasting. Then, taking the holy icon with him and hanging it on his chest, he, like a courageous warrior of Christ, cut down the fir tree dedicated to demons and burned it to the ground along with all the offerings hanging on its branches. Having learned about this, the local pagan tribes confessed the greatness and power of the Christian God and began to convert to Orthodoxy. The first to be baptized were the daughters of the Ostyak prince Ambala and the Vogul prince Bezyak (52, 389).
The deserted solitude of the Monk Tryphon was interrupted: the brethren of the Pyskorsky monastery, repenting of the insults caused to him, began to ask him to return to the monastery. The Monk Tryphon, not remembering the insults, returned to the monastery. Here, through his prayers, the problems at the monastery salt pans stopped. The monk healed his enemy, clerk Vasily, who became seriously ill and tearfully asked Saint Tryphon to forgive him.
Soon, weighed down by fame and fame, the monk left the Pyskorsky monastery and settled on a mountain not far from the Chusovaya River. He built a chapel there, on the site of which a monastery later arose in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Tryphon lived there for nine years. The following incident forced him to leave these places: when he was burning a plot of forest in order to build a vegetable garden on it, the fire spread to the firewood prepared by the local residents. The angry peasants decided to kill the monk. They threw him down from a high mountain, and when they discovered that he was alive, they gave chase to deal with him. The merchant and industrialist Grigory Stroganov, who enjoyed enormous influence and power in those parts, stood up for the Monk Tryphon. However, he also advised the monk to leave Chusova. After this, the Monk Tryphon again set out to wander. This time the Lord led him to the Vyatka land, where he was destined to found a monastery. There was not a single monastery in the Vyatka region at that time.
On January 18, 1580, the Monk Tryphon, in the guise of a wretched, unknown wanderer, came to the city of Khlynov (two centuries later it was renamed Vyatka). In Khlynov there was a church of St. Nicholas of Myra. Remembering how Saint Nicholas once healed him of a serious illness, Saint Tryphon often came there to pray. The deacon of the St. Nicholas Church, Father Maxim Maltsov, drew attention to the wandering monk and gave him shelter in his home. Gradually, other residents of Khlynov recognized and fell in love with the Monk Tryphon. When they heard from him why and why he had arrived in their region, they were delighted and wrote a letter of petition to Moscow, asking permission from the Tsar and the Metropolitan to open a monastery in the city of Khlynov. This letter was taken to Moscow by the Monk Tryphon himself. His trip was a success - permission to build a monastery was received. The Metropolitan appointed Reverend Tryphon himself as the builder of the monastery, ordaining him to the priesthood, and Tsar Ivan the Terrible donated land, money, liturgical books and bells for the construction of the monastery.
Meanwhile, the residents of Khlynov, who at first were eager to build a monastery in their city, cooled down to this charitable deed. Construction of the monastery proceeded very slowly. However, the Lord did not allow the construction of the monastery to stop. As punishment for the residents of Khlynov for their negligence, from the Feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Feast of Her Nativity, it rained incessantly every day. On the very feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, local peasant Nikita Kuchkov, in a sleepy vision, saw the Most Holy Theotokos with heavenly powers and Saint John the Baptist. The Mother of God Herself indicated the place for the construction of the monastery, and also said that for violating the vow to build a monastery in Khlynov, the city would suffer fire, famine and pestilence. Nikita, frightened by the vision, told the townspeople about it. On the same day, a church was founded in honor of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As soon as the laying of the temple was completed, the rain immediately stopped. This was the beginning of the monastery in Vyatka. Since its main temple was consecrated in honor of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the monastery was also named Assumption.
Over time, the monastery founded by the Monk Tryphon grew. However, some of its inhabitants began to express dissatisfaction with the severity of the rules that the Monk Tryphon introduced in his monastery. These false monks, having forgotten about the monastic vows of obedience and non-covetousness, organized merry feasts in their cells and went on visits. When Saint Tryphon called them to repentance, they did not listen to his words. Among these self-willed people there were even those who set conditions for their abbot - either he renounces the strict rules, or leaves the monastery wherever he wants. In the end they decided to betray. When the Monk Tryphon went to collect donations for the monastery, they secretly elected another abbot. He became the monk Jonah Mamin, a former Moscow nobleman who did not part with his noble pride and love of luxury even within the monastery walls. Jonah was one of the closest students of the Monk Tryphon and enjoyed his trust. However, the desire for power and the desire for a carefree life turned out to be stronger for him than love and devotion to his elder. Jonah went to Moscow, where, at the request of influential relatives, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and appointed abbot of the monastery in Khlynov. The new abbot began to mock the Monk Tryphon and oppress him in every possible way, and his cell attendant Theodore allowed himself an even more impudent attitude towards the reverend - he not only scolded him, but also beat him and imprisoned him. In the end, Saint Tryphon was expelled from the monastery, which he himself had once founded and equipped.
The monk did not fall into despair from this injustice. In the words of the modern ascetic Elder Paisius of Athos, “where God is, there is paradise.” The life of Saint Tryphon was truly “life in Christ.” He went wandering again. In Solvychegodsk, Nikita Stroganov offered him shelter. By order of this influential man, the Monk Tryphon was settled in the Solvychegodsk Vvedensky Monastery, provided with a good cell, and generously provided with everything he needed. However, Saint Tryphon did not seek a sorrowless life. He decided to go on a pilgrimage to Solovki. Stroganov gave him a ship, supplies and servants for this purpose. However, halfway to Solovki, the Monk Tryphon released the people, sold the ship and everything that was on it, and gave the proceeds to the Vyatka Assumption Monastery. He arrived in Solovki in his usual guise of a beggar wanderer.
During his wanderings, Saint Tryphon founded a monastery in the town of Slobodskoye. He also lived for some time in Koryazhma, in a monastery in honor of St. Nicholas.
The Monk Tryphon visited the Solovetsky monastery twice, the last time in 1612. Then, while staying on Solovki, he felt that the end of his earthly life was approaching, and decided to return to Vyatka, to his native Assumption Monastery, to die there. The Solovetsky monks persuaded him to stay, citing the longness and difficulty of the journey, but the Monk Tryphon was adamant in his desire to return to Vyatka, to the monastery from which he was unjustly expelled and which, nevertheless, he did not cease to love.
On July 15, Saint Tryphon came to Khlynov. He sent a cell attendant to Archimandrite Jonah with a request to give him shelter, but Jonah refused to give shelter to the dying elder. This was done by another person - a longtime acquaintance of the Monk Tryphon, Deacon Maxim Maltsov, who sheltered him and looked after him as his father. The monk lived in his house for about a week. On September 23, sensing the approach of death, he again sent to Archimandrite Jonah with a request for shelter. Jonah’s conscience began to speak: he not only allowed the Monk Tryphon to return to the Assumption monastery, but also, together with other brethren, falling at his feet, begged him to forgive him. “My spiritual child, Jonah! “May the Lord forgive you,” St. Tryphon answered the repentant disciple, “for this is the work of our old enemy the devil” (8, 224).
On October 8, 1612, the Monk Tryphon rested in the Lord. Before his death, he left a will for the edification of the brethren: “to live in love, to attend church services inadmissibly, to keep monastery property, not to have private property and not to keep intoxicating drinks in the monastery” (8, 224) and, most importantly, to have fraternal love: “I pray to you for God and His Most Pure Mother, have spiritual love among yourself. Without it, no virtue is complete before God” (51, 390).
The monastery, founded in Vyatka (in the post-revolutionary years, the city was renamed Kirov) by the Monk Tryphon, has survived to this day. Monastic life was resumed in him. The main monastery church, the Assumption, is now the Vyatka Cathedral. The holy relics of St. Tryphon, the Vyatka wonderworker, rest in it.
Despite the fact that the Monk Tryphon rests with his relics in Vyatka, much in his earthly life was connected with the Arkhangelsk land. Here he was born and spent his youth. Here, in the cities of Solvychegodsk and Koryazhma, as well as in the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Solovetsky Monastery, he received a warm welcome from his fellow countrymen and brothers. Therefore, we can consider that he is one of the patrons of not only Vyatka, but also Arkhangelsk land.
On January 3, 2003, the Orthodox Christians of the Vyatka country celebrated the 375th anniversary of the death of Blessed Procopius. We celebrated with a solemn service and a local history conference. But I want to understand the main thing: who was Blessed Procopius over the past centuries for the Vyatka land, for the Vyatchans?
After the February coup, unrest increasingly overwhelmed Russia, uprooting the foundations of national existence. 1917 was the last year when the memory of the blessed one was celebrated according to the old style. Saint Procopius died at the end of December, and the new style “dragged” it in 1918 to the following January, 1919. Even these metamorphoses of dates revealed a kind of foolishness! Life of the Blessed Procopius, his heavenly patronage of the land of Vyatka is a true miracle, a quiet miracle of Russian Orthodoxy. Even the name “Procopius” is translated from Greek as “advanced”, “successful”. Indeed, Saint Procopius was ahead of his time.
"The Odr is the earth, the cover is the sky..."
The blessed one revealed himself to the world at the end of the 16th century, when the feat of foolishness manifested itself in Rus' with unusual force. As the cleric of St. Basil’s Cathedral, Fr. John Kovalevsky, wrote at the beginning of the 20th century, “...in no other country has the feat of foolishness flourished as much as in Ancient Rus': in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.” During this time, at least 10 holy fools (only glorified ones!) can be found in the Russian calendar. But in all countries during the highest flowering of Christianity in the 5th-10th centuries, you can count half as many canonized holy fools.
Procopius was born in 1578 in the village of Koryakinskaya, not far from the main Vyatka city of Khlynov, into a peasant family (or, as one of the ancient lives respectfully clarifies, “by the artistry of farmers”). The Lord preserved the names of the saint's parents - Maxim and Irina. They didn't have children for a long time. Therefore, Procopius became a desired, begged-for son.
The baby grew up for mom and dad's comfort. But at the age of 12, an accident happened to the boy. While working in the field, he was caught in a terrible thunderstorm. Frightened by the hurricane, Procopius fell from his horse and lost consciousness. With tears, Maxim and Irina prayed to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for their son, and he woke up. But the illness did not go away at all. The boy, like a madman, tore his shirt and walked around naked. As the Vyatka priest Sergius Gomayunov subtly noted, “this madness was not feigned. Procopius, by God’s permission, for the sake of the glory of his future exploits, was subjected to a demonic attack. He saw the enemy face to face. It can be assumed that this event largely determined his future life path ".
The unfortunate parents took the sick boy to the city of Khlynov to the Assumption Monastery, whose rector, Rev. Tryphon, served a prayer service, sprinkling the seriously ill man with holy water. Through the prayers of the monk, the boy received healing.
This meeting became truly fateful not only for the two saints, but also for the entire Vyatka land. True, at first after it, external life returned to its usual course. At the age of 17, that is, around 1595, Procopius went to the city of Slobodskoy, where for three years he served the priest of the Catherine Church, Father Hilarion. And when the young man turned 20 years old, his parents decided to marry him (the same story happened with St. Tryphon!).
But Procopius saw his destiny in something completely different. He went to Khlynov, where he began to act like a fool. According to church tradition, Tryphon of Vyatka blessed Procopius both for refusing to marry and for the cross of foolishness. The tradition was reflected in akathists dedicated to both saints. So, in the 1st ikos of the akathist of the blessed one. Procopius is told: “Rejoice, you who were guided and blessed by Saint Tryphon on the path of salvation.”
Blessed Procopius labored in Khlynov for three decades, becoming a living legend of the city. Time passed, Procopius grew old, but still did not have a roof over his head, slept wherever he could, walked the streets almost naked, gave donated clothes to others or tore them. The blessed one hardly spoke, so many considered him dumb (only the holy fool’s confessor, priest John Kalashnikov, knew that Procopius could express himself normally, but the holy fool asked to hide this until his death). At first, many considered him crazy, mocked the holy fool, beat him and mocked him.
However, they gradually began to notice that many of the actions of the “madman” were prescient. The blessed one predicted illness or death, and healed from illness (for example, the wife of his confessor). If he knew about an impending fire, he would climb the bell tower and ring all the bells.
Arriving at the exiled boyar Mikhail Tatishchev in Khlynov, Procopius served the prisoner bread and water, showing through the window that he would pull him out to freedom. And, indeed, the disgraced official was soon released. One day the blessed one went into the official hut and took off the cap of the governor Zhemchuzhnikov. The voivode gave up his place to him. Then Procopius took Zhemchuzhnikov by the hand and took him to the prisoner’s room. And what? Soon the royal order came to imprison the governor for misconduct.
During the service in the Sloboda Baptist Church, the holy fool pushed Korniliy Korsakov into the altar, who later became a priest and later abbot Cyprian.
The wife of the Vyatka governor Alexander Danilovich Priemnikov-Rostovsky, Natalya, greatly revered the blessed one. She invited him to her house, looked after the saint, treated him, and dressed him in clean clothes. But the blessed one, leaving the guests, tore the donated clothes and lay around until he got dirty again.
To the outside eye, he died unexpectedly, but he himself foresaw his last hour. On December 21, 1627, the blessed one stood for the last time at matins in the Presentation Church, then went to service in the church of the Transfiguration Monastery of Women, where he stayed until his release. Then the saint went to the Razderikhinsky ravine, where, after praying for the Vyatka people, for the well-being of the holy churches, for the sovereign, he went to the Lord. The blessed one was buried near the northern side of the Assumption Cathedral. 15 years earlier, St. Tryphon also rested here.
Two brothers...
Starting from the 17th century, the lives of St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius invariably appeared side by side in handwritten collections in Vyatka. The saints seemed to show: “We are two brothers. How can we be separated?”
This is also the only widely known posthumous miracle of Blessed Procopius. On March 3, 1666, after fervent prayer in the Vyatka Assumption Monastery (let me remind you: this is where St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius rest), two luminous men appeared to the girl Martha Timofeeva, possessed by an unclean spirit. They called each other Tryphon and Procopius and promised the sick a speedy healing. And she really soon recovered.
But after this miracle - silence. It was generally unclear who Procopius was for the Vyatchans, whether they revered him. But somehow I accidentally found a manuscript - not a venerable scientist, not a church historian - the thesis of a Vyatka university student S. Yufereva. And by God’s providence this dreary ignorance began to disappear for me. Svetlana writes: the famous historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, back in the 19th century, kept a handwritten Life of Blessed Procopius, which Klyuchevsky dated to the end of the 17th century. And here is the unexpected version of S. Yufereva - the blessed one was glorified by the pious Vyatka Archbishop Jonah (Baranov). Vladyka Jonah headed the Vyatka See in 1675-1699, he went down in the history of Vyatka by starting to build stone churches, was the founder of a number of monasteries, a zealous prayer book and admirer of shrines, and a collector of Vyatka church tradition. One of the main acts of the archbishop. Jonah became the glorification of St. Tryphon of Vyatka. Vladyka Jonah even rested on the day of remembrance of the saint - October 8/21, and Vyatcha residents constantly served memorial services at his tomb (you can read about all this in the essay “The Bishop’s Path”, published in No. 344 of “Faith”, 1999).
Whether the hypothesis that Bishop Jonah also glorified Blessed Procopius will be confirmed, time and new information will tell. But still, Yufereva’s opinion did not arise out of nowhere and should make us perk up once again and look at our history with joy...
After all, the same Venerable Tryphon of Vyatka was revered very modestly in Vyatka until the middle of the 19th century (even the day of memory of the saint on October 8/21 passed almost unnoticed). Only in the 1860-1870s. Temple altars began to be consecrated in honor of the saint and religious processions were held everywhere. This many years of intense missionary work eventually bore fruit: the veneration of Saint Tryphon increased, he truly became Vyatka! The matter was completed in 1912, when, without exaggeration, the entire Vyatka country celebrated the 300th anniversary of the death of St. Tryphon.
St. Tryphon seemed to lead his younger brother by the hand, blessed. Procopius, to our souls, as if asking: “For you, I am Vyatsky? So, Procopius is also Vyatsky!” Saints began to be depicted together on icons. Such a proximity was brighter than many words; it became evidence of the gospel truth: “Blessed are your eyes that they see” (Matthew 13:16). These icons were distributed during religious processions dedicated to Tryphon of Vyatka.
In the 1880s, in the Assumption Trifonov Monastery, during holidays they began to constantly pronounce the names of St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius. Such an innovation was so unusual for older priests that they had great difficulty getting used to it (although in fairness it must be said that even in the Synod of the Suburban Epiphany Cathedral, dating back to the 17th century, “Procopius the Holy Fool” was commemorated).
The first Vyatka bishop who began to constantly pronounce the names of St. Tryphon and Procopius on vacations was Bishop Nikon (Sofia). He headed the Vyatka department in 1901-1904. He is known for the fact that on May 28, 1908, as Exarch of Georgia, he suffered martyrdom at the hands of terrorists, who inflicted eight wounds on him.
But still, the veneration of blessed Procopius lagged behind the veneration of Tryphon by twenty to thirty years and was more modest, quieter...
It seems to me that it spread largely thanks to Rev. Stefan (Kurteev). At the end of the 1880s, the priest was exiled to the Assumption Trifonov Monastery due to the fact that he founded the Alexander Nevsky Phileisky Monastery without written permission (Vladyka Apollos (Belyaev), who verbally blessed the creation of the monastery, had died by that time).
But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. While in exile in the Assumption Monastery, Father Stefan could inspire people there with his example to pray to St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius. Father drew strength from his predecessors, who also suffered malice from those around him. During his forced seclusion (the priest lived in a specially built cell), St. Stephen wrote many spiritual works. Perhaps it was then that he compiled and published the lives of both saints.
The works of Father Stefan (Kurteev) were very popular and, of course, sowed many good seeds in the hearts of Vyatchka residents. Moreover, Fr. Stefan not only translated the Life of Procopius, but also spoke about blessed Uar, who lived in Vyatka in the first half of the 19th century and was buried in the Dormition Tryphon Monastery. His grave at the Church of the Three Saints was located next to the grave of another holy fool, Antipas. Both graves were highly revered by Vyatchan believers; memorial services were constantly held here (unfortunately, the graves have not survived).
So, blessed Uar also walked in summer and winter in one shirt and endured 30-degree frosts. This story, writes Father Stephen, is needed “so that we do not doubt such a supernatural feat of blessed Procopius.” On a bitterly frosty evening, the priest continues, Uar knocked on the door of one of the houses, but they did not let him in. In the morning they saw how the blessed one crawled out of the snowdrift, where he had lain all night...
New fans
The second missionary for the glory of the name of Blessed Procopius was the priest of the village of Bobino, Alexander Florov. He not only continued the work of Rev. Stefan (Kurteev) and wrote about the blessed one, but decided to do another good deed - to build a temple in the homeland of blessed Procopius, in the village of Mitino.
But most importantly, the idea of construction was warmly supported by Archbishop of Vyatka and Slobodskaya Alexy (Opotsky). It must be said that the people of Vyatcha have the kindest memory of Vladyka Alexy, who headed the department in 1896-1901. Coming a few years later to Vyatka, St. Righteous John of Kronstadt, seeing the portrait of the bishop, spoke very warmly about him: “My friend, a kind, handsome bishop.”
Later, already serving at the Tambov See, Vladyka became one of the restorers of the veneration of St. righteous princess Anna Kashinskaya, which solemnly took place in 1909. It is worth recalling here that, although the veneration of St. Anna was established at the Council of the Russian Church in 1649, her temple was consecrated in Kashin, and numerous healings took place from the relics of the saint, in 1677 her name was crossed out from the calendar. The official explanation is that the princess's fingers are folded into two fingers. Only under the martyr Emperor Nicholas II was the veneration of Anna Kashinskaya restored. Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna came to the glorification. And the direct organizer of these large-scale celebrations was Vladyka Alexy (Opotsky) of Tambov.
It was a huge work for the glory of God.
The Vyatka works of Bishop Alexy, associated with the glorification of Blessed Procopius, also became a kind of prologue to it. On May 21 (June 3), 1897, after the liturgy in the village of Bobino, a religious procession was held to the village of Mitino, the homeland of Blessed Procopius. This is a special day - the beginning of the Velikoretsk religious procession! And it is remarkable that it was then that the chapel was consecrated in Mitino with a large crowd of people. And on September 17/30 of the next year, 1898, bishop. Alexy (Opotsky) personally consecrated the first temple in the Vyatka land dedicated to the blessed one (a second-grade school was also opened at the temple, built through the zeal of Father A. Florov).
It is truly providential that the archbishop passed away. Alexy in 1914 on December 20, that is, on the eve of the day of memory of Blessed Procopius. We believe that through the prayers of the holy ruler he was honored to acquire the Kingdom of Heaven...
And another righteous death is associated with the name of the blessed one. However, “the saying is true: if we died with Him, then we will live with Him” (2 Tim. 2:11). Three weeks after the consecration of the Church of Procopius of Vyatka, on October 6/19, 1898, the abbess of the Slobodsky Nativity of Christ convent, Abbess Maria (Popova), unexpectedly fell ill with acute pneumonia. The sisters of the monastery prayed for mother’s healing, but she already foresaw the outcome of the illness, often repeating: “Don’t hold me! I’ll go home!”
Three days later, on the morning of October 9/22, the day after the celebration of the memory of St. Tryphon of Vyatka, Abbess Maria quietly passed away into eternity. “It’s rare in the world and monasteries to die such a quiet and peaceful death,” contemporaries wrote about her death.
Before the death of Abbess Maria, she blessed her successor, Mother Olympias, with the image of St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius (and this most likely happened on October 8/21, the day of memory of the saint). Now this icon with its own inscription of St. Mary is in the Trinity Church in the city of Slobodsky.
A few years later, in 1903, Abbess Olympias visited Sarov to glorify Father Seraphim. There, Mother was introduced to the Royal Family, and during Great Lent the following year, 1904, Abbess Olympias was summoned to St. Petersburg, where she was received by Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Mother brought the Empress an image of St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius, written by the sisters of the monastery.
And on August 18/31, 1913, in the same city of Slobodsky, but already in the men's Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross, a chapel was consecrated in the name of St. Tryphon and Blessed Procopius.
Thirst for a holiday
And yet, the above-mentioned Bishop Nikon (Sofia) missed a truly historical chance to make the names of St. Tryphon and Procopius the common property of Vyatka Orthodox life. In 1901, the Holy Synod began, dare I say, a great work. All dioceses were ordered to submit the names of locally revered saints who were not included in the synodal calendar. We started doing this in Vyatka as well. Information was collected in all deaneries. It was then that it became clear that Blessed Procopius, together with St. Tryphon, was revered in a number of villages in Vyatka, Glazov and Urzhum districts.
In 1903, the Synod released the “Faithful monthbook of all Russian saints honored with prayer services throughout the church and locally.” It also contained the names of St. Tryphon and Blessed. Procopy. But Vladyka Nikon did not complete what he started, did not send instructions to the parishes to be sure to serve on the days of remembrance of the Vyatka saints.
So, unfortunately, the veneration of the blessed one did not take root firmly. There were probably few such active, sincere priests as Father Alexander Florov. And the believers themselves did not kindle the veneration of Procopius in their hearts. In 1915, Archpriest John Osokin wrote: “The solemn service on the day of remembrance of Blessed Procopius is performed, as we know, only in the Vyatka Tryphon Monastery; in all other churches, a simple daily service is performed.”
That's it... But the 300th anniversary of the death of St. Procopius, which occurred in 1928, was celebrated. It was celebrated, as expected, with a religious procession around the Assumption Cathedral with the participation of the clergy of the Trinity and Spassky Cathedrals. Everything is fine, splendid, but all these churches were by that time captured... by renovationists. The false metropolitan Alexander Vvedensky himself was going to come to the celebrations.
And if you look from the other side, the blessed one was acting like a fool here too, as if addressing the Orthodox: “Maybe at least now remember me.”
But then there was no time for the holidays. In 1940, one of the main shrines associated with the blessed one was closed. Procopius, - church in Mitino. To do this, they used a standard scenario: they put pressure on the members of the parish twenty, forcing them to write refusal statements. The results of this work are summarized in a lively report: “In total, the twenty at the Mitino church consisted of... 18 people, of which 15 people filed applications for refusal,... one is mentally ill, two are older, more than 70 years old, are in the hospital.” .
True, in November 1943, believers in the village of Bobino turned to the authorities with a request to open the Mitino temple. The Orthodox insisted: the Bobin church was destroyed in the 1930s, and the Mitin church, located only 3.5 kilometers from the village, was at one time built with the money of Bobin parishioners. The Prokopyevskaya Church was not demolished during the war years; it housed a school. In February 1944, the Kirov Regional Executive Committee, without further explanation, refused to open the temple.
But just as a sprout breaks through the dead thickness of asphalt, so the name of Blessed Procopius did not fade into oblivion. Once again, as at the beginning of the 20th century, a thread stretched between Rev. Seraphim of Sarov and Vyatka saints. Then, in 1903, Vyatka merchants of the same religion, having arrived from the Sarov celebrations in honor of the glorification of St. Seraphim, decided to build a temple to the saint. And they built it in such a way that it’s a pleasure to look at. But he did not escape the fate of closure during the years of persecution. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there was not a single functioning church left in Vyatka. No one!
But it was St. Seraphim Cathedral that, from 1942, was destined to become the center of local spiritual life for several decades. Then, on the day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, after several years, the first service was served in the church - and this day is honored on a par with patronal feasts.
Years later, a lower cave temple was built in the Seraphim Cathedral. And one of the chapels was dedicated to St. Tryphon and Blessed. Procopied. There had not yet been a large-scale opening and construction of churches in the 1990s, and such consecration was important - the Vyatka saints blessed the Vyatka people.
Unfortunately, it is useless to look for evidence of the saint’s help in Orthodox periodicals. Church tradition is also silent. Although, of course, it is possible that some stories are still hidden. However, maybe the main reason is in ourselves?
If you had arrived on January 2, 2002, for the all-night vigil at the Vyatka Assumption Cathedral, where the relics of the blessed one rest, you would have been greeted by semi-darkness. Two serving priests, with two dozen parishioners. Not a holiday, but melancholy. But if a year later you found yourself in the same Assumption Cathedral, you would be surprised at the change. On January 3, 2003, on the day of remembrance of the blessed one, the liturgy was led by Archbishop of Vyatka and Slobodskaya Chrysanthus with a host of clergy. Many believers gathered. Many years to the Bishop of Vyatka for understanding the thirst for the holiday and, with his archpastoral decision, turning the service to the blessed one into a true celebration.
And further. At the end of the 19th century, a school was opened at the Church of Procopius of Vyatka. So the first Orthodox kindergarten and diocesan Sunday school in present-day Vyatka were named in the name of Blessed Procopius. This is probably providential. “The children of the flesh are not children, but they are the children of God” (Rom. 9:8).
Only a child can greet everyone with a smile. I will never forget how in the Pochaev Lavra we, Vyatka pilgrims, rose after the liturgy from the cave church in the name of St. Job Pochaevsky. A gallery leads upstairs from this temple, on the walls of which all the holy lands of Russia are depicted in chronological order, starting from the ninth century. And it was so joyful to find the faces of St. Tryphon of Vyatka and Leonid of Ustnedum. And blessed Procopius with a cheerful, cheerful smile... This is how he will meet us, if we are worthy, in the Kingdom of Heaven.
A.Markelov
The author will be grateful for any evidence of modern veneration of Blessed Procopius of Vyatka - for stories about cases of his prayerful help; for information about churches and icons dedicated to him, or about people named in honor of the saint.
You can write to the address: 610000, Kirov (Vyatka), main post office, post restante. A.V. Markelov. Email: