Life of Saint Matrona of Moscow. Icon, prayers for help

Blessed Matrona (Matrona Dimitrievna Nikonova) was born in 1885 in the village of Sebino, Epifansky district (now Kimovsky district) of the Tula province. This village is located about twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikovo Field. Her parents, Dimitri and Natalia, peasants, were pious people, worked honestly, and lived poorly. The family had four children: two brothers - Ivan and Mikhail, and two sisters - Maria and Matrona. Matrona was the youngest. When she was born, her parents were no longer young. Given the need in which the Nikonovs lived, the fourth child could, first of all, become an extra mouth. Therefore, due to poverty, even before the birth of the last child, the mother decided to get rid of him. There could be no question of killing a baby in the womb of a patriarchal peasant family. But there were many orphanages where illegitimate and needy children were raised at public expense or at the expense of benefactors. Matrona’s mother decided to give her unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she saw a prophetic dream. The unborn daughter appeared to Natalia in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes and sat on her right hand.

Having accepted the dream as a sign, the God-fearing woman abandoned the idea of giving the child to an orphanage. The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her “wretched child.” The Holy Scripture testifies that the Omniscient God sometimes chooses servants for Himself even before their birth. Thus, the Lord speaks to the holy prophet Jeremiah : “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you” (Jer. 1:5). The Lord, having chosen Matrona for a special service, from the very beginning laid a heavy cross on her , which she bore with humility and patience all her life. At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22). The fact that the girl was chosen by God was evidenced by the fact that at baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke above the baby. This was reported by a relative of the blessed Pavel Ivanovich Prokhorov, who was present at the baptism. The priest, Father Vasily, whom the parishioners revered as righteous and blessed, was incredibly surprised: “I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy.” Father Vasily also told Natalia: “If a girl asks for something, you will definitely contact me directly, go and say directly what is needed.” He added that Matrona would take his place and even predict his death. This is what happened later. One night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The surprised and frightened parents ran to the priest's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he had indeed just died. They also talk about the external, physical sign of the baby’s chosenness by God - on the girl’s chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, not made by hands pectoral cross. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother once began to scold her: “Why are you taking off your cross?” “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. “Dear daughter,” Natalia came to her senses, “forgive me! But I keep scolding you...” Natalia’s friend later said that when Matrona was still a baby, her mother complained: “What should I do? The girl doesn’t breastfeed on Wednesday.” and Friday, she sleeps for days these days, it’s impossible to wake her up.” Matrona was not just blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like those of the white bird her mother had seen in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in infancy, at night, when her parents were sleeping, she would sneak into the holy corner, in some incomprehensible way take icons off the shelf, put them on the table and play with them in the silence of the night. Matronushka was often teased by children, even mocked at her: the girls lashed her with nettles, knowing that she would not see who exactly was offending her. They put her in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped her way out of there and wandered home. Therefore, she stopped playing with children early and almost always stayed at home. From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing the sick. The Nikonovs' house was located near the Church of the Assumption Mother of God. The temple is beautiful, one in seven or eight surrounding villages.

Matrona’s parents were distinguished by deep piety and loved to attend divine services together. Matronushka literally grew up in church, going to services first with her mother, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where her daughter was, her mother usually found her in church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, near the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the singers. Apparently, even in childhood, Matrona acquired the gift of unceasing prayer. When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: “You are my unfortunate child!” - she was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have Vanya and Misha, unhappy.” She understood that she was given much more from God than others. Matrona was marked by God from an early age with the gift of spiritual reasoning, insight, miracles and healing. Those close to her began to notice that she knew not only human sins and crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger and foresaw natural and social disasters. Through her prayer, people received healing from illnesses and consolation in sorrows. Visitors began to come and visit her. People were coming to the Nikonovs’ hut, carts and carts with the sick from the surrounding villages and hamlets, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought in bedridden patients, whom the girl raised to their feet. Wanting to thank Matrona, they left food and gifts for her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden to the family, became its main breadwinner. Matrona's parents loved to go to church together. One day on a holiday, Matrona’s mother gets dressed and calls her husband with her. But he refused and did not go. At home he read prayers, sang, Matrona was also at home. The mother, while in the temple, kept thinking about her husband: “Well, he didn’t go.” And I was still worried. The liturgy ended, Natalia came home, and Matrona said to her: “You, mother, were not in church.” “How could I not be? I just came and now I’m undressing!” And the girl remarks: “My father was in the temple, but you were not there.” With spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only physically.

One autumn Matronushka was sitting on a rubble. Her mother says to her: “Why are you sitting there, it’s cold, go to the hut.” Matrona replies: “I can’t sit at home, they put fire on me and stab me with pitchforks.” The mother is perplexed: “There is no one there.” And Matrona explains to her: “You, mom, don’t understand, Satan is tempting me!” One day Matrona says to her mother: “Mom, get ready, I’ll have a wedding soon.” The mother told the priest, he came and gave the girl communion (he always gave her communion at home at her request). And suddenly, after a few days, carts go and go to the Nikonovs’ house, people come with their troubles and sorrows, they carry the sick, and for some reason everyone asks Matronushka. She read prayers over them and healed many. Her mother asks: “Matryushenka, what is this?” And she replies: “I told you there will be a wedding.” Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona’s brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: “I’ll leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you won’t burn.” And indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind spread the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother’s house remained intact. In her adolescence she had the opportunity to travel. The daughter of a local landowner, a pious and kind girl Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages: to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to St. Petersburg, and other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has reached us about Matronushka’s meeting with the saint. righteous John Kronstadtsky, who, at the end of the service in St. Andrew's Cathedral in Kronstadt, asked the people to make way for the 14-year-old Matrona approaching the salt and said publicly: “Matronushka, come, come to me. Here comes my shift - the eighth pillar of Russia.” Mother did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives guessed that Father John foresaw a special service for Matronushka to Russia and the Russian people during the times of persecution of the Church. A little time passed, and in her seventeenth year Matrona lost the ability to walk: her legs suddenly became paralyzed. Mother herself pointed to the spiritual cause of the disease. She walked through the temple after communion and knew that she a woman will do, which will take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. "I didn't avoid it - it was God's will." Until the end of her days she was “sedentary”. And her stay in various houses and apartments where she found shelter continued for another fifty years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God. Even at an early age, Matrona predicted the revolution, how “they would rob, destroy churches and drive everyone away.” She figuratively showed how they would divide the land, grab plots of land greedily, just to grab the extra for themselves, and then everyone would abandon the land and run in all directions. Nobody will need the land. Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov before the revolution to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plunder of his estate and would have avoided an early, untimely death, and his daughter would have avoided wanderings. Matrona’s fellow villager, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution, one lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: “I want to build a bell tower.” “What you are planning to do will not come true,” Matrona answers. The lady was surprised: “How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?”

And the construction of the bell tower did not work out. For the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, at the insistence of Matrona (who had already gained fame in the area and whose request was perceived as a blessing), the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was painted.

One day Matrona asked her mother to tell the priest that in his library, in such and such a row, there was a book with the image of the icon “Recovery of the Lost.” Father was very surprised. They found an icon, and Matrona said: “Mom, I will write out such an icon.” The mother was saddened - how to pay for her? Matrona says to her mother: “Mom, I keep dreaming about the icon “Recovery of the Lost.” The Mother of God asks to come to our church.” Matronushka blessed the women to collect money for the icon in all villages. Among other donors, one man gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck out of laughter. When the money was brought to Matrona, she sorted through it, found this ruble and a kopeck and said to her mother: “Mom, give it to them, they are ruining all my money.” When we collected the required amount, we ordered an icon from an artist from Epifani. His name remains unknown. Matrona asked him if he could paint such an icon. He replied that this was a common thing for him. Matrona ordered him to repent of his sins, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: “Do you know for sure that you will paint this icon?” The artist answered in the affirmative and began to paint. A lot of time passed, finally he came to Matrona and said that nothing was working out for him. And she answers him: “Go, repent of your sins” (with spiritual vision she saw that there was still a sin that he did not confess). He was shocked how she knew this. Then he went to the priest again, repented, took communion again, and asked Matrona for forgiveness. She told him: “Go, now you will paint the icon of the Queen of Heaven” (The icon was painted around 1915. Matrona did not part with it all her life. Now this icon of the Mother of God is in Moscow, in the Intercession Convent). With the money collected in the villages, with the blessing of Matrona, another icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was commissioned in Bogoroditsk (It is located in the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Tula Diocese, in the city of Novomoskovsk). When she was ready, she was carried in a procession with banners from Bogoroditsk to the church in Sebino. Matrona went to meet the icon four kilometers away, they led her arm in arm. Suddenly she said: “Don’t go any further, it’s coming soon, they’re already coming, they’re close.” The woman who was blind from birth spoke as if she were sighted: “In half an hour they will come and bring the icon.” Indeed, half an hour later a religious procession appeared. A prayer service was served, and the procession headed to Sebino. Matrona either held onto the icon, or was led by the arms next to it. This image of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” became the main local shrine and became famous for many miracles. When there was a drought, they took him out to a meadow in the middle of the village and served a prayer service. After it, people did not have time to reach their homes before it began to rain. Throughout her life, Blessed Matrona was surrounded by icons. In the room where she subsequently lived for a particularly long time, there were three red corners, and in them there were icons from top to bottom, with lamps burning in front of them. One woman who worked at the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Moscow often went to Matrona and later recalled how she told her: “I know all the icons in your church, which one is where.” People were also surprised by the fact that Matrona had the usual, like sighted people, idea of the world around her. To the sympathetic appeal of a person close to her, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova: “It’s a pity, mother, that you don’t see the beauty of the world!” - she answered: “God once opened my eyes and showed me the world and His creation. And I saw the sun, and the stars in the sky, and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, green grass, flowers, birds...” But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed one’s foresight. 3. V. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my diploma project “Ministry naval Navy" (I was studying at the architectural institute in Moscow at the time). My supervisor, for some unknown reason, persecuted me all the time. For five months he never consulted me, deciding to "fail" my diploma. Two weeks before my defense, he announced to me : “Tomorrow a commission will come and confirm the inconsistency of your work!” I came home all in tears: my father was in prison, there was no one to help, my mother was dependent on me, my only hope was to defend myself and work. Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing. protect yourself! We’ll drink tea in the evening and talk!” I could barely wait until evening, and then my mother said: “You and I will go to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, and see the works of the great masters...” And she began to list the streets and buildings! She stopped: “Here is Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - the three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two entrance arches. I was shocked by her work. In the morning I ran to the institute, put tracing paper on the project and drew it in brown.” I made all the corrections with ink. At ten o'clock the commission arrived. They looked at my project and said: “Well, the project turned out great - defend yourself!” Many people came to Matrona for help. Four kilometers from Sebino there lived a man who had no problems. the legs walked. Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock he will crawl, he will crawl." He crawled these four kilometers, and walked away from her on his own feet, healed.

One day, women from the village of Orlovka came to Matrona during Easter week. The matron received while sitting by the window. She gave prosphora to one, water to another, a red egg to the third, and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they left the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They all got scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona said: “What, is there a nasty mouse?” “Matronushka, how can you eat it?” “But how did you sell milk to people, especially to orphans, widows, the poor who don’t have a cow? The mouse was in the milk, you pulled it out, and gave the milk to the people.” The woman says: “Matronushka, they didn’t see the mouse and didn’t know, I threw it out of there.” - “God knows that you were selling mouse milk!” Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many. A.F. Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of one of these healings. “My mother comes from the village of Ustye, and she had a brother there. One day he gets up - neither his arms nor his legs move, they become like whips. And he did not believe in Matrona’s healing abilities. My brother’s daughter went to the village of Sebino to fetch my mother: “ Godmother, let's go quickly, my father is feeling bad, he's become like a fool: he's dropped his hands, his eyes aren't looking, his tongue is barely moving." Then my mother harnessed a horse and she and my father went to Ustye. We arrived to my brother, and he looked at my mother and barely spoke. “sister.” She gathered her brother and brought him to our village. She left him at home, and she went to Matryusha to ask if she could bring him, and Matryusha said to her: “Well, your brother said that I can’t do anything. , and he became like a fence. “But she hadn’t seen him yet! Then she said: “Bring him to me, I’ll help.” She read over him, gave him water, and sleep fell on him. He fell asleep like a log and woke up completely healthy in the morning “Thank your sister, her faith healed you,” was all Matrona said to her brother.” The help that Matrona gave to the sick not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, sorcery, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, but the commission of which the “healer” enters into contact with the dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely during the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only clergy or ascetic monks, but also righteous people who lived in the world healed those in need of help through prayer. Matrona read a prayer over the water and gave it to those who came to her. Those who drank the water and sprinkled it with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the blessing of water according to the rite established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life of holy people near them, the appearance miraculous icons. In 1925, Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days. In this huge capital city there were many unfortunate, lost, those who had fallen from the faith, spiritually sick people with a poisoned consciousness. Living for about three decades in Moscow, she performed that spiritual and prayer service that turned many away from death and led to salvation. The blessed one loved Moscow very much, she said that “this is a holy city, the heart of Russia”

Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their home of the blessed one, who received people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Feeling sorry for them, as well as for her elderly parents (Matrona’s mother died in 1945), Mother moved to Moscow. I began wandering around relatives and friends, in houses, apartments, and basements. Matrona lived almost everywhere without registration, and miraculously escaped arrest several times. Novices - hozhalki - lived with her and looked after her. This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult; there was no choice. 3.B. Zhdanova told what hardships the blessed one sometimes had to endure: “I arrived in Sokolniki, where mother often lived in a small plywood house, given to her for a while. It was deep autumn. I entered the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and dank steam, The iron stove is heating up. I went up to my mother, and she was lying on the bed, facing the wall, she couldn’t turn to me, her hair was frozen to the wall, and she could barely pull it off. I said in horror: “Mother, how can this happen? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and what happened to him is unknown, but we have two rooms in a warm house, forty-eight square meters, a separate entrance; Why didn’t you ask to come to us?” Mother sighed heavily and said: “God didn’t order you to regret it later.” Before the war, Matrona lived on Ulyanovskaya Street with the priest Vasily, the husband of her novice Pelageya, while he was free. on Pyatnitskaya Street, in Sokolniki (in a summer plywood building), in Vishnyakovsky Lane (in the basement of a niece), also lived at the Nikitsky Gate, in Petrovsko-Razumovsky, stayed with her nephew in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), in Tsaritsyno for the longest time (. from 1942 to 1949) she lived on Arbat, in Starokonyushenny Lane. Here, in an old wooden mansion, in a 48-meter room, Matrona’s fellow villager, E.M. Zhdanova, lived with her daughter Zinaida. It was in this room that three corners were occupied by icons. There were ancient lamps hanging in front of the icons, and heavy expensive curtains on the windows (before the revolution, the house belonged to Zhdanova’s husband, who came from a rich and noble family. They say that Matrona left some places in a hurry, foreseeing impending troubles in spirit, always on the eve of the arrival of the police). , because she lived without registration. Times were hard, and people were afraid to register it. In this way she saved not only herself, but also the hosts who sheltered her, from repression. Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her loved ones were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of a church-monarchist group. Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova said that Matrona’s nephew Ivan lived in Zagorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her. He came to his boss and said: “I want to take time off from you, I just can’t, I need to go to my aunt.” He arrived without knowing what was going on. And Matrona says to him: “Come on, come on, take me quickly to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law.” As soon as they left, the police came. It happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the day before. Anna Filippovna Vybornova recalls such an incident. One day a policeman came to take Matrona away, and she said to him: “Go, go quickly, you have misfortune in the house! But the blind woman won’t get away from you, I’m sitting on the bed, I’m not going anywhere.” He obeyed. I went home, and his wife was burned from the kerosene gas. But he managed to get her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: “Well, did you take the blind woman?” And he replies: “I will never take the blind woman away. If the blind woman had not told me, I would have lost my wife, but I still managed to take her to the hospital.” Living in Moscow, Matrona visited her village - either she would be called on some business, or she would miss home, her mother. Outwardly, her life flowed monotonously: during the day - receiving people, at night - prayer. Like the ancient ascetics, she never really went to bed, but dozed off, lying on her side, on her fist. Years passed like this. Once in 1939 or 1940, Matrona said: “Now you are all quarreling, dividing, but the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win.” At the beginning of 1941, Z. V. Zhdanova’s cousin Olga Noskova asked her mother for advice on whether she should go on vacation (they gave her a ticket, but she didn’t want to go on vacation in the winter). Mother said: “We need to go on vacation now, then there will be no vacations for a long, long time. There will be a war. Victory will be ours, the enemy will not touch Moscow, it will only burn a little. There is no need to leave Moscow.” When the war began, mother asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of equal length, peeled them from the bark and prayed. Her neighbors recalled that her fingers were covered in wounds. Matrona could be spiritually present in various places; for her spiritual gaze, space did not exist. She often said that she was invisible at the fronts, helping our soldiers. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tula. Her prophecy came true. Matrona received up to forty people a day. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She refused to help anyone, except those who came with crafty intentions. Others saw in mother a folk healer who had the power to remove damage or the evil eye, but after communicating with her they realized that this was a man of God, and they turned to the Church and its saving sacraments. Helping her people was selfless; she did not take anything from anyone. Mother always read her prayers loudly. Those who knew her closely say that these prayers were well-known, read in church and at home: “Our Father,” “May God rise again,” the ninetieth psalm, “Lord Almighty, God of hosts and all flesh” (from morning prayers). She emphasized that it was not herself who helped, but God through her prayers: “What, Matronushka is God, or what? God helps!” - she answers Ksenia Gavrilovna Potapova when asked to help her. Healing the sick, mother demanded that they believe in God and correct their sinful lives. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another, who fell ill with epilepsy, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, to confess at each and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. She blesses those living in a civil marriage to be sure to get married in the Church. Everyone is required to wear a cross. What did people come to mother with? With the usual troubles: incurable illness, disappearance, husband leaving the family, unhappy love, loss of job, persecution from superiors... With everyday needs and questions. Should I get married? Should I change my place of residence or service? There were no less sick people, obsessed with various ailments: someone suddenly fell ill, someone for no apparent reason began to bark, someone’s arms and legs were cramped, someone was haunted by hallucinations. Popularly, such people are called “corrupted” sorcerers, healers, and sorcerers. These are people who, as people say, have been “done”, who have been subjected to special demonic influence. One day, four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When her mother scolded her, she weakened and was healed. Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, my husband and his wife were traveling with us to discharge their daughter from the hospital. We were driving back together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) started barking. I say to her mother: “I feel sorry for you, we are driving past Tsaritsyno, let’s take our daughter to Matronushka...” This girl’s father, a general, at first didn’t want to hear anything, he said that it was all fiction. But his wife insisted, and we went to Matronushka... And so they began to bring the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, her hands like sticks, then she began to spit on Matronushka and struggled. Matrona says: “Leave her, now she won’t do anything.” The girl was released. She fell, began to thrash and spin around on the floor, and began vomiting blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. They looked after her. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked: “Mom, where are we?” She answers her: “We, daughter, are with a perspicacious man...” And she told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on, the girl was completely healed." Z.V. Zhdanova says that in 1946, a woman who occupied a high position was brought to their apartment, where Matrona lived then. She went crazy only son, her husband died at the front, she herself, of course, was an atheist. She traveled with her sick son to Europe, but famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Matrona asked: “If the Lord cures your son, will you believe in God?” The woman said, “I don’t know what it’s like to believe.” Then Matrona asked for water and, in the presence of the unfortunate mother, began to read a prayer loudly over the water. Then handing her this water, the blessed one said: “Go now to Kashchenko (a psychiatric hospital in Moscow - Ed.), agree with the orderlies so that they hold him tightly when they take him out. He will fight, and you try to splash this water in his eyes and be sure to get into his mouth." Zinaida Vladimirovna recalls: “After some time, my brother and I witnessed how this woman came to Matrona again. She thanked her mother on her knees, saying that her son was now healthy. And it was like this. She came to the hospital and did everything like mother ordered. There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she approached from the other side.

The bottle of water was in her pocket. The son struggled and shouted: “Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, don’t torture me!” She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water into his eyes, got it into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: “How good!” Soon he was discharged." Often Matrona would put her hands on her head and say: "Oh, oh, now I'll clip your wings, fight, fight for now!" "Who are you?" he will ask, and suddenly a buzz will begin in the person. Mother will say again: “Who are you?” and she will buzz even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito has fought, now that’s enough!” And the man leaves healed. Matrona also helped those whose family life was not going well. One day a woman came to her. and said that she was not married for love, and she lives poorly with her husband. Matrona answers her: “Who is to blame? It's your fault. Because the Lord is our head, and the Lord is in male form, and we women must obey a man, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. It’s your fault that you live poorly with him...” This woman listened to the blessed one, and her family life improved. “Mother Matrona fought all her life for every soul that came to her,” recalls Zinaida Zhdanova, “and won. She never lamented or complained about the difficulties of her feat. I can’t forgive myself for never feeling sorry for Mother, even though I saw how difficult it was for her, how she was rooting for each of us. The light of those days still warms us. In the house, lamps glowed in front of the images; mother’s love and her silence enveloped the soul. There was holiness, joy, peace, and gracious warmth in the house. There was a war going on, and we lived as if in heaven." How did close people remember Matrona? With miniature, child-like, short arms and legs. Sitting cross-legged on a bed or chest. Fluffy hair parted in the middle. Tightly closed eyelids. Kind, bright A gentle voice. She consoled, calmed the sick, stroked them on the head, sometimes joked, sometimes sternly rebuked and instructed. She was tolerant of human weaknesses, compassionate, warm, sympathetic, always joyful, never. Mother did not complain about her illnesses and sufferings. She did not preach or teach. She gave specific advice on what to do in a given situation, she prayed and blessed. She was generally taciturn and briefly answered questions from those who came. Some of her general instructions remain. Mother taught us not to judge our neighbors. She said: “Why judge other people? Think about yourself more often. Each sheep will be hung by its tail. What do you care about other ponytails?" Matrona taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often impose on oneself and surrounding objects sign of the cross, thereby protecting yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. “Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion... Let the lamps burn in front of the icons.” She also taught to love and forgive the old and infirm. “If old people, sick people, or people who are crazy say something unpleasant or offensive to you, then don’t listen, just help them. You need to help the sick with all your diligence and you need to forgive them, no matter what they say or do.” Matronushka did not allow us to attach significance to dreams: “Don’t pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, to confuse him with thoughts.” Matrona warned not to run around among confessors in search of “elders” or “seers.” By running around among different fathers, she said, you can lose spiritual strength and the right direction in life. Here are her words: “The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion - the deception of souls - will be obvious, beware.” "If you go to an elder or priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make you wise to give it good advice".Taught not to be interested in priests and their lives. Those who wish Christian perfection advised not to stand out externally among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught patience in sorrows.

3.B. She told Zhdanova: “Go to church and don’t look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, icon.” There is also a similar instruction St. Seraphim Sarovsky and other holy fathers. In general, there was nothing in Matrona’s instructions that would run counter to the patristic teaching. Mother said that to paint, that is, to use decorative cosmetics- a great sin: a person spoils and distorts the image of human nature, complements what the Lord did not give, creates counterfeit beauty, this leads to corruption. About the girls who believed in God, Matrona said: “God will forgive you everything, girls, if you are devoted to God. Those who condemn themselves not to get married must hold on to the end. The Lord will give a crown for this.” Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - we must definitely pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on the right - an angel, and each has his own book: our sins are written in one, our good ones are written in the other things to do. Cross yourself often! The cross is the same lock as on the door.” She instructed not to forget to baptize food. “By the power of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, save yourself and defend yourself!” About sorcerers, mother said: “For someone who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, took up sorcery, there is no way out. You cannot turn to grandmothers, they will cure one thing, but harm the soul.” Mother often told her loved ones that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil forces, and invisibly fighting them. One day a handsome old man came to her, with a beard, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her, all in tears and said: “My only son is dying.” And his mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: “What did you do to him? To his death or not?” He answered: "To death." And mother says: “Go, go away from me, there is no need for you to come to me.” After he left, she said: “The sorcerers know God! If only you prayed like they do when they beg God’s forgiveness for their evil!”

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Given the need in which the Nikonovs lived, the fourth child could, first of all, become an extra mouth. Therefore, due to poverty, even before the birth of the last child, the mother decided to get rid of him. There could be no question of killing a baby in the womb of a patriarchal peasant family. But there were many orphanages where illegitimate and disadvantaged children were raised at public expense or at the expense of benefactors.

Matrona’s mother decided to send her unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she saw a prophetic dream. The unborn daughter appeared to Natalia in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes and sat on her right hand. Taking the dream as a sign, the God-fearing woman gave up the idea of sending the child to an orphanage. The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her “unfortunate child.”

Holy Scripture testifies that the Omniscient God sometimes chooses servants for Himself even before their birth. Thus, the Lord says to the holy prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you” (Jer. 1:5). The Lord, having chosen Matrona for a special service, from the very beginning laid a heavy cross on her, which she bore with humility and patience all her life.

At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22).

The fact that the girl was chosen by God was evidenced by the fact that at baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke above the baby. This was reported by a relative of the blessed Pavel Ivanovich Prokhorov, who was present at the baptism. The priest, Father Vasily, whom the parishioners revered as righteous and blessed, was incredibly surprised: “I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy.” Father Vasily also told Natalia: “If a girl asks for something, you will definitely contact me directly, go and say directly what is needed.”

He added that Matrona would take his place and even predict his death. This is what happened later. One night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The surprised and frightened parents ran to the priest's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he had indeed just died.

They also talk about the external, physical sign of the baby’s chosenness by God - on the girl’s chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, a miraculous pectoral cross. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother once began to scold her: “Why are you taking off your cross?” “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. “Dear daughter,” Natalia came to her senses, “forgive me!” And I keep scolding you..."

Natalia’s friend later said that when Matrona was still a baby, her mother complained: “What should I do? The girl doesn’t breastfeed on Wednesday and Friday, she sleeps for days on these days, it’s impossible to wake her up.”

Matrona was not just blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like those of the white bird her mother had seen in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in infancy, at night, when her parents were sleeping, she would sneak into the holy corner, in some incomprehensible way take icons off the shelf, put them on the table and play with them in the silence of the night.

Matronushka was often teased by children, even mocked at her: the girls lashed her with nettles, knowing that she would not see who exactly was offending her. They put her in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped her way out of there and wandered home.

From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing the sick.

The Nikonovs' house was located near the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The temple is beautiful, one for seven or eight surrounding villages. Matrona’s parents were distinguished by deep piety and loved to attend divine services together. Matronushka literally grew up in church, going to services first with her mother, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where her daughter was, her mother usually found her in church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, near the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the singers. Apparently, even in childhood, Matrona acquired the gift of unceasing prayer.

When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: “You are my unfortunate child!” - she was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have Vanya, the unfortunate one, and Misha.” She understood that she was given much more from God than others.

Matrona was marked by God from an early age with the gift of spiritual reasoning, insight, miracles and healing. Those close to her began to notice that she knew not only human sins and crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger and foresaw natural and social disasters. Through her prayer, people received healing from illnesses and consolation in sorrows. Visitors began to come and visit her. People were coming to the Nikonovs’ hut, carts and carts with the sick from the surrounding villages and hamlets, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought in bedridden patients, whom the girl raised to their feet. Wanting to thank Matrona, they left food and gifts for her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden to the family, became its main breadwinner.

Matrona's parents loved to go to church together. One day on a holiday, Matrona’s mother gets dressed and calls her husband with her. But he refused and did not go. At home he read prayers and sang. Matrona was also at home. The mother, while in the temple, kept thinking about her husband: “Well, he didn’t go.” And I was still worried. The liturgy ended, Natalia came home, and Matrona said to her: “You, mother, were not in church.” “How was it not? I just arrived and I’m undressing!” And the girl remarks: “My father was in the temple, but you weren’t there.” With spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only physically.

One day Matrona says to her mother: “Mom, get ready, I’ll have a wedding soon.” The mother told the priest, he came and gave the girl communion (he always gave her communion at home at her request). And suddenly, after a few days, carts go and go to the Nikonovs’ house, people come with their troubles and sorrows, they carry the sick and for some reason everyone asks Matronushka. She read prayers over them and healed many. Mother asks: “Matryushenka, what is this?” And she replies: “I told you there will be a wedding.”

Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona’s brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: “I’ll leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you won’t burn.” And indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind spread the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother’s house remained intact.

A little time passed, and in her seventeenth year Matrona lost the ability to walk: her legs suddenly became paralyzed. Mother herself pointed to the spiritual cause of the disease. She walked through the temple after communion and knew that a woman would approach her and take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. “I didn’t avoid it - it was God’s will.”

Until the end of her days she was “sedentary.” And her stay - in different houses and apartments where she found shelter - continued for another fifty years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God.

Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov before the revolution to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plunder of his estate and would have avoided an early, untimely death, and his daughter would have avoided wanderings.

Matrona’s fellow villager, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution, one lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: “I want to build a bell tower.” “What you are planning to do will not come true,” Matrona answers. The lady was surprised: “How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?” So nothing came of the construction of the bell tower.

For the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, at the insistence of Matrona (who had already gained fame in the area and whose request was perceived as a blessing), the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was painted. Here's how it happened.

“Mom, I keep dreaming about the icon “Recovery of the Dead.” The Mother of God asks to come to our church.” Matronushka blessed the women to collect money for the icon in all villages. Among other donors, one man gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck out of laughter. When the money was brought to Matronushka, she sorted through it, found this ruble and a kopeck and said to her mother: “Mom, give it to them, they are ruining all my money.”

When we collected the required amount, we ordered an icon from an artist from Epifani. His name remains unknown. Matrona asked him if he could paint such an icon. He replied that this was a common thing for him. Matrona ordered him to repent of his sins, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: “Do you know for sure that you will paint this icon?” The artist answered in the affirmative and began to paint. A lot of time passed, finally he came to Matrona and said that nothing was working out for him. And she answers him: “Go, repent of your sins” (with spiritual vision she saw that there was still a sin that he did not confess). He was shocked how she knew this. Then he went to the priest again, repented, took communion again, and asked Matrona for forgiveness. She told him: “Go, now you will paint an icon of the Queen of Heaven.”

With the money collected in the villages, with the blessing of Matrona, another icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was commissioned in Bogoroditsk.

St. Blessed Matrona rips off the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Seeking the Lost.” Icon of the Holy Righteous Blessed Matrona of Moscow with Life

When she was ready, she was carried in a procession with banners from Bogoroditsk to the church in Sebino. Matrona went to meet the icon four kilometers away, they led her arm in arm. Suddenly she said: “Don’t go any further, it’s coming soon, they’re already coming, they’re close.” The woman who was blind from birth spoke as if she were sighted: “In half an hour they will come and bring the icon.” Indeed, half an hour later a religious procession appeared. A prayer service was served, and the procession headed to Sebino. Matrona either held onto the icon, or was led by the arms next to it. This image of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” became the main local shrine and became famous for its many miracles. When there was a drought, they took him out to a meadow in the middle of the village and served a prayer service. After it, people did not have time to reach their homes before it began to rain.

Throughout her life, Blessed Matrona was surrounded by icons. In the room where she subsequently lived for a particularly long time, there were three red corners, and in them there were icons from top to bottom, with lamps burning in front of them. One woman who worked at the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Moscow often went to Matrona and later recalled how she told her: “I know all the icons in your church, which one is where.”

But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed one’s foresight. 3. V. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my diploma project “Ministry of the Navy” (I was then studying at the Architectural Institute in Moscow). My boss, for some unknown reason, was following me all the time. For five months, he never consulted me, deciding to “fail” my diploma. Two weeks before the defense, he announced to me: “Tomorrow a commission will come and confirm the inconsistency of your work!” I came home in tears: my father was in prison, there was no one to help, my mother was dependent on me, my only hope was to protect myself and work.

Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing, you’ll defend yourself! We’ll have tea in the evening and talk!” I could barely wait for the evening, and then my mother said: “You and I will go to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, and see the works of the great masters...” And she began to list the streets and buildings! She stopped: “Here is Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - the three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two entrance arches.” I was shocked by her behavior. In the morning I ran to the institute, put tracing paper on the project and made all the corrections with brown ink. At ten o'clock the commission arrived. They looked at my project and said: “Well, the project turned out great, it looks great - defend yourself!”

Many people came to Matrona for help. Four kilometers from Sebino lived a man whose legs could not walk. Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock he will crawl, crawl." He crawled these four kilometers, and walked away from her on his own feet, healed.

Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many.

A.F. Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of one of these healings. “My mother comes from the village of Ustye, and she had a brother there. One day he gets up - neither his arms nor his legs move, they become like whips. But he did not believe in Matrona’s healing abilities. My brother’s daughter went to the village of Sebino to pick up my mother: “Godmother, let’s go quickly, things are bad with my father, he’s become like a fool: he’s dropped his hands, his eyes aren’t looking, his tongue can barely move.” Then my mother harnessed a horse and she and my father rode to Ustye. We arrived at my brother’s, and he looked at my mother and barely said “sister.” She gathered her brother and brought him to our village. She left him at home and went to Matryusha to ask if she could bring him. She comes, and Matryusha says to her: “Well, your brother said that I can’t do anything, but he himself has become like a fence.” And she hasn’t seen him yet! Then she said: “Bring him to me, I’ll help.” She read over him, gave him water, and sleep fell on him. He slept like a log and woke up completely healthy in the morning. “Thank your sister, her faith healed you,” was all Matrona said to her brother.”

The help that Matrona gave to the sick not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during which the “healer” comes into contact with a dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely during the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only clergy or ascetic monks, but also righteous people who lived in the world healed those in need of help through prayer.

Matrona read a prayer over the water and gave it to those who came to her. Those who drank the water and sprinkled it with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the blessing of water according to the rite established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life of holy people near them, and the appearance of miraculous icons.

In 1925, Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days. In this huge capital city there were many unfortunate, lost, fallen from the faith, spiritually sick people with a poisoned consciousness. Living for about three decades in Moscow, she performed that spiritual and prayerful service that turned many away from death and led to salvation.

The blessed one loved Moscow very much, she said that “this is a holy city, the heart of Russia.” Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their home of the blessed one, who received people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Feeling sorry for them, as well as for her elderly parents (Matrona’s mother died in 1945), Mother moved to Moscow. They began wandering around relatives and friends, in houses, apartments, basements. Matrona lived almost everywhere without registration, and miraculously escaped arrest several times. Novices - hozhalki - lived with her and looked after her.

This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult; there was no choice.

Z.V. Zhdanova told what hardships the blessed one sometimes had to endure: “I came to Sokolniki, where mother often lived in a small plywood house, given to her for a while. It was deep autumn. I entered the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and dank steam, an iron stove-stove was burning. I went up to my mother, and she was lying on the bed, facing the wall, she couldn’t turn to me, her hair was frozen to the wall, she could barely pull it off. I said in horror: “Mother, how can this happen? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and what happened to him is unknown, but we have two rooms in a warm house, forty-eight square meters, a separate entrance; why didn’t you ask to come to us?” Mother sighed heavily and said: “God did not order so that you would not regret it later.”

Before the war, Matrona lived on Ulyanovskaya Street with priest Vasily, the husband of her novice Pelageya, while he was free. She lived on Pyatnitskaya Street, in Sokolniki (in a summer plywood building), in Vishnyakovsky Lane (in her niece’s basement), she also lived at the Nikitsky Gate, in Petrovsko-Razumovsky, and visited her nephew in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), in Tsaritsyno. She lived the longest (from 1942 to 1949) on Arbat, in Starokonyushenny Lane. Here, in an old wooden mansion, in a 48-meter room, Matrona’s fellow villager, E.M. Zhdanova, lived with her daughter Zinaida. It was in this room that three corners were occupied by icons, from top to bottom. Antique lamps hung in front of the icons, and heavy expensive curtains hung on the windows (before the revolution, the house belonged to Zhdanova’s husband, who came from a rich and noble family).

They say that Matrona left some places in a hurry, foreseeing impending troubles in spirit, always on the eve of the police coming to her, since she lived without registration. Times were hard, and people were afraid to register it. In this way she saved not only herself, but also the hosts who sheltered her, from repression.

Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her loved ones were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of a church-monarchist group.

Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova said that Matrona’s nephew Ivan lived in Zagorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her. He came to his boss and said: “I want to take time off from you, I just can’t, I need to go to my aunt.” He arrived without knowing what was going on. And Matrona says to him: “Come on, come on, take me quickly to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law.” As soon as they left, the police came. It happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the day before.

Anna Filippovna Vybornova recalls such an incident. One day a policeman came to take Matrona away, and she said to him: “Go, go quickly, there is misfortune in your house! But the blind woman won’t get away from you, I sit on the bed, I don’t go anywhere.” He obeyed. I went home, and his wife was burned from the kerosene gas. But he managed to get her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: “Well, did you take the blind woman?” And he replies: “I will never take the blind woman. If the blind woman had not told me, I would have lost my wife, but I still managed to take her to the hospital.”

Living in Moscow, Matrona visited her village - either they would call her on some business, or she would miss home, her mother.

Outwardly, her life flowed monotonously: during the day - receiving people, at night - prayer. Like the ancient ascetics, she never really went to bed, but dozed, lying on her side, on her fist. Years passed like this.

Once in 1939 or 1940, Matrona said: “Now you are all quarreling, dividing, but the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win.”

At the beginning of 1941, Z. V. Zhdanova’s cousin Olga Noskova asked her mother for advice on whether she should go on vacation (they gave her a ticket, but she didn’t want to go on vacation in the winter). Mother said: “You need to go on vacation now, then there will be no vacations for a long, long time. There will be a war. Victory will be ours. The enemy will not touch Moscow, it will only burn a little. There is no need to leave Moscow.”

When the war began, mother asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of equal length, peeled them from the bark and prayed. Her neighbors recalled that her fingers were covered in wounds. Matrona could be spiritually present in various places; for her spiritual gaze, space did not exist. She often said that she was invisible at the fronts, helping our soldiers. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tula. Her prophecy came true.

Matronushka received up to forty people a day. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She refused to help anyone, except those who came with crafty intentions. Others saw in mother a folk healer who had the power to remove damage or the evil eye, but after communicating with her they realized that this was a man of God, and they turned to the Church and its saving sacraments. Helping her people was selfless; she did not take anything from anyone.

Mother always read her prayers loudly. Those who knew her closely say that these prayers were well-known, read in church and at home: “Our Father,” “May God rise again,” the ninetieth psalm, “Lord Almighty, God of hosts and all flesh” (from morning prayers). She emphasized that it was not herself who helped, but God through her prayers: “What, Matronushka is God, or what? God helps! - she answers Ksenia Gavrilovna Potapova when asked to help her.

Healing the sick, mother demanded that they believe in God and correct their sinful lives. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another, who fell ill with epilepsy, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, to confess at each and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. She blesses those living in a civil marriage to be sure to get married in the Church. Everyone is required to wear a cross.

What did people come to mother with? With the usual troubles: incurable illness, disappearance, husband leaving the family, unhappy love, loss of job, persecution from superiors... With everyday needs and questions. Should I get married? Should I change my place of residence or service? There were no less sick people, obsessed with various ailments: someone suddenly fell ill, someone for no apparent reason began to bark, someone’s arms and legs were cramped, someone was haunted by hallucinations. Popularly, such people are called “corrupted” sorcerers, healers, and sorcerers. These are people who, as people say, have been “done”, who have been subjected to special demonic influence.

One day, four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When her mother scolded her, she weakened and was healed.

Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, a man and his wife were traveling with us to discharge their daughter from the hospital. We rode back together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) started barking. I say to her mother: “I feel sorry for you, we are driving past Tsaritsyno, let’s take our daughter to Matronushka...” This girl’s father, a general, at first didn’t want to hear anything, he said that it was all fiction. But his wife insisted, and we went to Matronushka... And so they began to bring the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, her hands were like sticks, then she began to spit on Matronushka and struggled. Matrona says: “Leave her, now she won’t do anything.” The girl was released. She fell, began to thrash and spin around on the floor, and began vomiting blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. They looked after her. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked: “Mom, where are we?” She answers her: “We, daughter, are with a perspicacious man...” And she told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on, the girl was completely healed.”

3. V. Zhdanova says that in 1946, a woman who occupied a high position was brought to their apartment, where Matrona then lived. Her only son went crazy, her husband died at the front, and she herself, of course, was an atheist. She traveled with her sick son to Europe, but famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Matrona asked: “If the Lord cures your son, will you believe in God?” The woman said, “I don’t know what it’s like to believe.” Then Matrona asked for water and, in the presence of the unfortunate mother, began to read a prayer loudly over the water. Then handing her this water, the blessed one said: “Go now to Kashchenko (a psychiatric hospital in Moscow), arrange with the orderlies so that they hold him tightly when they take him out. He will fight, and you try to splash this water in his eyes and be sure to get it in his mouth.”

Zinaida Vladimirovna recalls: “After some time, my brother and I witnessed how this woman came to Matrona again. She thanked her mother on her knees, saying that her son was now healthy. And it was like this. She arrived at the hospital and did everything as mother ordered. There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she approached from the other side. The bottle of water was in her pocket. The son struggled and shouted: “Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, don’t torture me!” She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water into his eyes, got it into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: “How good!” He was soon discharged."

Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said: “He, he, now I’ll clip your wings, fight, fight bye!” “Who are you?” - he will ask, and suddenly the person will buzz. Mother will say again: “Who are you?” - and it will buzz even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito has fought, now that’s enough!” And the person leaves healed.

Matrona also helped those whose family life was not going well. One day a woman came to her and told her that she was not married for love, and she was not living well with her husband. Matrona answers her: “Who is to blame? It's your fault. Because the Lord is our head, and the Lord is in male form, and we women must obey a man, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. It’s your fault that you don’t live well with him...” This woman listened to the blessed one, and her family life improved.

How do people close to you remember Matrona? With miniature, child-like, short arms and legs. Sitting cross-legged on a bed or chest. Fluffy hair parted in the middle. Eyelids tightly closed. Kind bright face. Affectionate voice.

She consoled, calmed the sick, stroked their heads, made the sign of the cross, sometimes joked, sometimes sternly rebuked and instructed. She was not strict, she was tolerant of human weaknesses, compassionate, warm, sympathetic, always joyful, and never complained about her illnesses and suffering. Mother did not preach, did not teach. She gave specific advice on what to do in a given situation, prayed and blessed.

She was generally taciturn and briefly answered questions from those who came. Some of her general instructions remain.

Mother taught us not to judge our neighbors. She said: “Why judge other people? Think about yourself more often. Each sheep will be hung by its tail. What do you care about other ponytails?” Matrona taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often apply the sign of the cross to yourself and surrounding objects, thereby protecting yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. “Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion... Let the lamps burn in front of the icons.”

She also taught to love and forgive the old and infirm. “If old people, sick people, or people who have lost their minds say something unpleasant or offensive to you, then don’t listen, just help them. You need to help the sick with all diligence and you need to forgive them, no matter what they say or do.”

Matronushka did not allow us to attach significance to dreams: “Don’t pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, to confuse him with thoughts.”

Matrona warned not to run around among confessors in search of “elders” or “seers.” Running around different fathers, she said, you can lose spiritual strength and the right direction in life.

Here are her words: “The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion - the deception of souls - will be obvious, beware.” “If you go to an elder or priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make him wise to give the right advice.” She taught me not to be interested in priests and their lives. She advised those who wished for Christian perfection not to stand out externally among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught patience in sorrows. 3. She said to V. Zhdanova: “Go to church and don’t look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, icon.” St. Seraphim of Sarov and other holy fathers also have similar instructions. In general, there was nothing in Matrona’s instructions that would run counter to the patristic teaching.

Mother said that putting on makeup, that is, using decorative cosmetics, is a great sin: a person spoils and distorts the image of human nature, complements what the Lord did not give, creates fake beauty, this leads to corruption.

About the girls who believed in God, Matrona said: “God will forgive everything to you girls if you are devoted to God. Anyone who condemns herself not to get married must hold on until the end. The Lord will give a crown for this.”

Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - we must definitely pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on the right is an angel, and each has his own book: our sins are written in one, and good deeds in the other. Get baptized often! The cross is the same lock as on the door.” She instructed not to forget to baptize food. “By the power of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, save yourself and defend yourself!”

Mother said about sorcerers: “For someone who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, took up sorcery, there is no way out. You can’t turn to grandmothers, they will cure one thing, but harm your soul.”

Mother often told her loved ones that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil forces, and invisibly fighting them. One day a handsome old man came to her, with a beard, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her, all in tears and said: “My only son is dying.” And mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: “What did you do to him? To death or not? He answered: “To death.” And mother says: “Go, go away from me, there is no need for you to come to me.” After he left, she said: “The sorcerers know God! If only you would pray like they do when they beg God’s forgiveness for their evil!”

Mother revered the late priest Valentin Amfitheatrov. She said that he was great before God and that at his grave he helped the suffering; she sent some of her visitors to fetch sand from his grave.

During the days of the demonstration, mother asked everyone not to go out into the street, to close windows, vents, doors - hordes of demons occupy all the space, all the air and embrace all people. (Perhaps Blessed Matrona, who often spoke allegorically, wanted to remind us of the need to keep the “windows of the soul” closed from the spirits of evil - as the Holy Fathers call human feelings.)

3. V. Zhdanova asked mother: “How did the Lord allow so many churches to be closed and destroyed?” (She meant the years after the revolution.) And mother answered: “This is the will of God, the number of churches has been reduced because there will be few believers and there will be no one to serve.” “Why isn’t anyone fighting?” She: “The people are under hypnosis, not themselves, a terrible force has come into action... This force exists in the air, penetrates everywhere. Previously, swamps and dense forests were the habitat of this power, because people went to churches, wore crosses, and houses were protected by images, lamps and consecration. Demons flew past such houses, and now people are also inhabited by demons due to their unbelief and rejection of God.”

Wanting to lift the veil over her spiritual life, some curious visitors tried to spy on what Matrona did at night. One girl saw that she was praying and bowing all night...

Living with the Zhdanovs in Starokonyushenny Lane, Matronushka confessed and received communion from the priest Dimitri from the church on Krasnaya Presnya. Continuous prayer helped Blessed Matrona to carry the cross of serving people, which was a real feat and martyrdom, the highest manifestation of love. Scolding the possessed, praying for everyone, sharing people’s sorrows, mother was so tired that by the end of the day she could not even talk to her loved ones and only moaned quietly, lying on her fist. The inner, spiritual life of the blessed one still remained a mystery even for people close to her, and will remain a mystery for others.

Not knowing the spiritual life of mother, nevertheless, people did not doubt her holiness, that she was a real ascetic. Matrona's feat consisted of great patience, coming from purity of heart and ardent love for God. It is precisely this kind of patience that will save Christians in the last times that the holy fathers of the Church prophesied. Like a true ascetic, the blessed one taught not with words, but with her whole life. Blind physically, she taught and continues to teach the true spiritual vision. Unable to walk, she taught and teaches to walk the difficult path of salvation.

In her memoirs, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova writes: “Who was Matronushka? Mother was an incarnate warrior angel, as if she had a fiery sword in her hands to fight evil forces. She treated with prayer, water... She was small, like a child, all the time reclining on her side, on her fist. I slept like that, never really went to bed. When she received people, she sat down with her legs crossed, two arms extended directly above the head of the person who came in the air, put her fingers on the head of the person kneeling in front of her, made the sign of the cross, said the main thing that his soul needed, and prayed.

She lived without her own corner, property, or supplies. Whoever invited her, she lived with him. She lived on offerings that she could not manage herself. She was in obedience to the evil Pelageya, who was in charge of everything and distributed everything that they brought to her mother to her relatives. Without her knowledge, mother could neither drink nor eat...

Mother seemed to know all the events in advance. Every day of her life is a stream of sorrows and sorrows of people who come. Helping the sick, comforting and healing them. There were many healings through her prayers. He will take the head of the crying person with both hands, take pity, warm him with his holiness, and the person leaves inspired. And she, exhausted, just sighs and prays all night long. She had a dimple on her forehead from her fingers, from frequent sign of the cross. She crossed herself slowly, diligently, her fingers searching for the hole...”

During the war there were many cases when she answered those who came to their questions - whether he was alive or not. He will tell someone - he’s alive, wait. For someone, a funeral service and a memorial service.

It can be assumed that those who sought spiritual advice and guidance also came to Matrona. Many Moscow priests and monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra knew about Mother. Due to the unknown fates of God, there was no attentive observer and student near mother who could lift the veil over her spiritual work and write about it for the edification of posterity.

Countrymen from her native places often visited her, then from all the surrounding villages they wrote notes to her, and she answered them. They came to her from two hundred and three hundred kilometers away, and she knew the person’s name. There were both Muscovites and visitors from other cities who heard about the perspicacious mother. People of different ages: both young and old and middle-aged people. She accepted some, but not others. With some she spoke in parables, with others - in simple language.

Zinaida once complained to her mother: “Mother, my nerves...” And she: “What nerves, after all, in war and in prison there are no nerves... You have to control yourself, be patient.”

Mother instructed that it was necessary to undergo treatment. The body is a house. Given by God, it needs to be repaired. God created the world, medicinal herbs, and this cannot be neglected.

Mother sympathized with her loved ones: “How sorry I am for you, you will live to see the last times. Life will get worse and worse. Heavy. The time will come when they will put a cross and bread in front of you, and they will say - choose!” “We will choose the cross,” they answered, “but then how can we live?” “And we will pray, take land, roll balls, pray to God, eat and be full!”

Another time she said, encouraging in a difficult situation, that there was no need to be afraid of anything, no matter how scary it was. “They carry the child in a sleigh, and there is no care! The Lord himself will manage everything!”

Matronushka often repeated: “If a people loses faith in God, then disasters befall them, and if they do not repent, they perish and disappear from the face of the earth. How many peoples have disappeared, but Russia existed and will exist. Pray, ask, repent! The Lord will not leave you and will preserve our land!”

Matronushka found her last earthly refuge at the Skhodnya station near Moscow (23 Kurgannaya Street), where she settled with a distant relative, leaving her room in Starokonyushenny Lane. And here, too, a stream of visitors came and carried their sorrows. Only just before her death did my mother, already quite weak, limit her intake. But people still came, and she could not refuse help to some. They say that the time of her death was revealed to her by the Lord three days in advance, and she made all the necessary orders. Mother asked to be buried in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. (At this time, priest Nikolai Golubtsov, beloved by the parishioners, served there. He knew and revered Blessed Matrona.) She did not order wreaths and plastic flowers to be brought to the funeral.

Until the last days of her life, she confessed and received communion from the priests who came to her. In her humility, she, like ordinary sinful people, was afraid of death and did not hide her fear from her loved ones. Before her death, a priest, Father Dimitri, came to confess her; she was very worried whether she had folded her hands correctly. Father asks: “Are you really afraid of death?” "Afraid".

On May 2, 1952, she died. On May 3 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a note about the repose of the newly deceased blessed Matrona was submitted for a memorial service. Among many others, she attracted the attention of the serving hieromonk. “Who submitted the note? - he asked excitedly. “What, she died?” (Many inhabitants of the Lavra knew and revered Matrona well.) The old woman and her daughter, who came from Moscow, confirmed: the day before Mother died, and this evening the coffin with her body will be placed in the Moscow Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street. This is how the Lavra monks learned about the death of Matrona and were able to come to her burial. After the funeral service, which was performed by Father Nikolai Golubtsov, everyone present came up and touched her hands.

On May 4, the Week of Myrrh-Bearing Women, the burial of Blessed Matrona took place in front of a large crowd of people. At her request, she was buried in the Danilovsky cemetery in order to “hear the service” (one of the few functioning Moscow churches was located there). The funeral service and burial of the blessed one were the beginning of her glorification among the people as a servant of God.

The blessed one predicted: “After my death, few people will go to my grave, only close ones, and when they die, my grave will be deserted, except occasionally someone will come... But after many years, people will know about me and will go in droves for help in their sorrows and with requests to pray for them to the Lord God, and I will help everyone and hear everyone.”

Even before her death, she said: “Everyone, everyone, come to me and tell me, as if alive, about your sorrows, I will see you, and hear you, and help you.” And mother also said that everyone who entrusts themselves and their lives to her intercession with the Lord will be saved. “I will meet everyone who turns to me for help at their death, everyone.”

Blessed Matrona was Orthodox person in the deep, traditional meaning of the word. Compassion for people, coming from the fullness of a loving heart, prayer, the sign of the cross, fidelity to the holy statutes of the Orthodox Church - this was the focus of her intense spiritual life. The nature of her feat is rooted in the centuries-old traditions of popular piety. Therefore, the help that people receive by prayerfully turning to the righteous woman brings spiritual fruits: people are confirmed in the Orthodox faith, become churchgoers externally and internally, and become involved in everyday prayer life.

Matrona is known to tens of thousands of Orthodox people. Matronushka - this is how many affectionately call her. She, just like during her earthly life, helps people. This is felt by all those who with faith and love ask her for intercession and intercession before the Lord, towards whom the blessed old woman has great boldness. .

Evidence of miracles>>

The birth of the blessed Mat-ro-na (Mat-ro-na Di-mit-ri-ev-na Niko-no-va) in 1881 in the village of Se-bi -but Epi-fan district (now Kimov district) of Tula province. The village is ras-po-lo-same-but-ki-lo-meter-rah, twenty-five from the know-me-no-go Ku-li-ko-va in the area. Her birth - Di-mit-riy and Na-ta-lia, peasants - were you good people, honestly working they lived in poverty. There were four children in the family: two brothers - Ivan and Mi-kha-il, and two sisters - Maria and Mat-ro-na. Mat-ro-na of the younger ones. When she was born, she was no longer young.

Mat-ro-ny’s mother decided to give the future re-ben-ka to the shelter of Prince Go-li-tsin in the neighboring village of Bu -chal-ki, but saw a prophetic dream. Before Na-ta-lia’s daughter was born, she appeared in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human-like face and wings. you looked behind me and sat on her right hand. Having taken the dream for a sign, the godly woman was reluctant to think about giving the child to a shelter . The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her “unfortunate child.”

The sacred Scripture testifies that the All-knowing God sometimes appears to serve Himself. lei even before they were born. Thus, the Lord speaks to the holy prophecy of Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the morning, I sanctified you” (). The Lord, having chosen Mat-ro-nu for a special service, from the very beginning laid a heavy cross on her, -which she bore with humility and patience all her life.

At the baptism of the girl, the name was named Mat-ro-na in honor of the most honorable Mat-ro-na of Kon-stan-ti-no-Polish, the Greek movement of the 5th century, in memory of which the celebration is celebrated on November 9 (22).

About God-from-bran-no-sti de-voch-ki evidence is that at baptism, when the priest lowered the di -you into the font, those present saw a column of blissful smoke above the baby. This was reported by a relative of the blessed Pavel Ivanovich Pro-khorov, who was present at the baptism. The priest, Father Va-si-liy, who was considered by the people as righteous and blessed, was I am unspeakably surprised: “I have baptized a lot, but I see this for the first time, and this baby will be holy.” Father Va-si-liy also told Na-ta-liy: “If a child asks for something, you must turn straight ahead.” “Come to me, come and tell me directly what you need.”

He thought that Mat-ro-na would stand in his place and predict his end. This is how it subsequently turned out. One day, Mat-ro-nush-ka suddenly told ma-te-ri that Vasiliy’s father had died. Surprising and frightened ro-di-te-li-es into the saint's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he really had just died.

They also talk about the external, te-forest sign of God-from-bra-no-sti of the baby - on the chest of the girls -a bulge in the shape of a cross, a non-trivial cross on the body. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother somehow began to scold her: “Why are you taking your cross off?” “Ma-moch-ka, I have my own cross-stick on my chest,” - from-ve-cha-la de-voch-ka. “Dear daughter,” Na-ta-lia came to her senses, “forgive me!” And I keep scolding you..."

Another Na-ta-lia later said that when Mat-ro-na was still a baby, her mother stung. asked: “What should I do? The girl doesn’t latch on Wednesday or Friday, she sleeps for days these days, it’s impossible to wake her up.”

Mat-ro-na was not just blind, she had absolutely no eyes. The eye sockets closed tightly, but they closed with their eyelids, like that of that white bird that saw her mother in dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in her infancy, at night, when the people were sleeping, she made her way to the holy corner, somehow un-sti-zhi -In my own way, I took the icons off the floor, put them on the table and played with them in the silence of the night.

Mat-ro-nush-ku often teased the children, and even hovered over her: the girls ste-ga-li kra-pi-howl, knowing that she won’t see who exactly is offending her. They planted her in the hole and watched with amusement as she felt her way out of there and wandered home. That's why she stopped playing with children early and almost always stayed at home.

With seven-eight-years-old age, Mat-ro-nush-ki discovered the gift of foretelling and curing pain. nykh.

The House of No-New People was located close to the Church of the Assumption of God Ma-te-ri. The temple is beautiful, one in seven surrounding villages.

Ro-di-te-li Mat-ro-ny were deeply blessed and loved to be together at God servant-ni-yah. Mat-ro-nush-ka buk-val-but you grew up in the temple, went to services, sleep-cha-la with ma-teryu, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where her daughter was, the mother usually took her to church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the entrance door, at the western wall, where she stood motionless service time. She knew church songs well and often sang along with them. Vi-di-mo, even in childhood Mat-ro-na acquired the gift of incessant prayer.

When the mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Mat-ro-nush-ke: “You are my unfortunate child!” - She was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have Va-nya, the unfortunate one, and Mi-sha.” She doesn’t know what’s given to her, but it’s from God much more than the other.

Yes-rum of the spirit-of-judgment, insight, miracle-of-creation and healing of Mat-ro-na was from-me-on God from an early time. Those close to her began to notice that she knew not only human sins, crimes, but also thoughts. She sensed the approach of danger, the prospect of natural and social disasters. According to her prayer, people receive relief from illnesses and consolation in sorrows. People began to go to her and go to her. People were coming from the No-no-news, drawn under the water, trucks with sick people from the surrounding villages and villages, from all over the county, from other counties and even provinces. When-there-are-the-lying-sick, some-of-the-girls-are-not-ma-la-on-their-legs. Wanting to give away Mat-ro-nu, they left her with food and gifts. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden for the family, became its main feeder.

Ro-di-te-li Mat-ro-ny love to go to the temple together. One day on a holiday, Mat-ro-na’s mother gets dressed and calls her husband with her. But he left the room and didn’t go. At home he read prayers, sang, Mat-ro-na was the same at home. The mother, while in the temple, kept thinking about her husband: “Here, he didn’t go.” And everyone was worried. Li-tur-gia ended, Na-ta-lia came home, and Mat-ro-na told her: “You, ma-ma, are not in the temple.” was". “How could you not? I just arrived and now I’m getting ready!” And the girl notices: “My father was in the temple, but you weren’t there.” With spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only in those forests.

Somehow in the autumn Mat-ro-nush-ka si-de-la on the za-va-lin-ke. Her mother says to her: “Why are you sitting there, it’s cold, go to the house.” Mat-ro-na says: “I can’t sit at home, they put fire on me, they vi-la-mi.” The mother is perplexed: “There’s no one there.” And Mat-ro-na explains to her: “You, ma-ma, don’t eat anything, you’re trying to get me!”

One day Mat-ro-na says ma-te-ri: “Ma-ma, get ready, I’m having a wedding soon.” The mother told the priest, he came and gave the girl a greeting (he always gave her greetings at home according to her la-nyu). And suddenly, after a few days, they go and go in carts to the house of No-new people, people go with their troubles and sorrows , the sick are being transported, and everyone is asking Mat-ro-nush-ku for something. She prayed over them and examined a lot of them. Her mother asks: “Mat-ryu-shen-ka, what is this?” And she replies: “I told you that there will be a wedding.”

Ksenia Iva-nov-na Si-fa-ro-va, relative-n-tsa brother-ta bliss-wives Mat-ro-ny ras-ska-zy-va-la, as one -wait Mat-ro-na said-za-la ma-te-ri: “I’ll leave now, and tomorrow it’ll be hot, but you won’t burn.” And indeed, in the morning the heat began, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind transferred the fire to another -I’m a hundred-year-old village, and the ma-te-ri’s house remained intact.

When she was born, she was given the opportunity to travel. Daughter of the place-no-go-by-me-schi-ka, b-go-che-sti-vay and kind girl Li-diya Yan-ko-va, bra-la Mat-ro-nu with with-fight in the fall-no-thing: in the Ki-e-vo-Pe-cher-skaya Lav-ru, Tro-i-tse-Ser-gi-e-vu Lav-ru, in the Pe- Ter-burg, other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has reached us about the meeting of Mat-ro-nush-ki with the holy and righteous John of Kronstadt, who service in the An-dre-evsky so-bo-re of Kron-stadt, the people asked the people to dis-step in front of the people approaching the co-lea 14-year-old Mat-ro-noy said out loud: “Ma-ro-nush-ka, come-come to me. Here comes my shift—my eighth pillar of Russia.”

Ma-tush did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives thought that Father John had seen a special -fighting service to the Mat-ro-nush-ki of Russia and the Russian people during the persecution of the Church.

A little time passed, and in the seventh year Mat-ro-na was no longer able to walk: she had a sudden -but my legs were gone. Sa-ma-ma-tush-ka point-zy-va-la to the spiritual pri-chi-well bo-lez-ni. She walked through the temple after communion and knew that a woman would come to her, of whom she had the ability walk. And so it happened. “I didn’t do this because it was God’s will.”

Until the end of her days, she was “si-dya-whose.” And her stay - in different houses and apartments, where she found shelter - lasted another five or ten years . She never complained because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God.

Even at an early age, Mat-ro-na predicted the re-vo-lu-tion, as “they will rob, destroy temples and drive everyone away” . Once upon a time, she showed how they would de-little the land, grab it with greed, just to grab it -it’s too much, and then everyone throws the ground and runs somewhere. No one will need the land.

By-me-schi-ku from their village Se-bi-no Yan-ko-wu Mat-ro-na so-ve-to-va-la before re-vo-lu-tsi-it’s all about -give and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed woman, he would not have seen the plunder of his property and fled early, before -men-no death, and his daughter - ski-ta-niy.

One-but-village-chan-ka Mat-ro-ny, Ev-ge-niya Iva-nov-na Ka-lach-ko-va, ras-tell-zy-va-la that in front of myself re-vo-lu-tsi-ey one-na ba-ry-nya ku-pi-la house in Se-bi-no, came to Ma-rona and said: “I want to build -it ko-lo-kol-nu.”

“What are you thinking of doing, it won’t come true,” says Mat-ro-na. The lady was surprised: “How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?” So nothing came of it with the construction.

For the Church of the Dormition of God Ma-te-ri according to Mat-ro-na (who-have-been already known in surroundings and the request that was received as a blessing) was for the sake of God Ma-te-ri “Recovery for the dead.” Here's how it happened.

One day Mat-ro-na po-si-la mother re-give the priest that he has in the library, in that-something-rya -duh, there’s a book with a picture of the icon “Recovery for the Lost.” Ba-tyush-ka was very surprised. They came to the icon, and Mat-ro-nush-ka said: “Mo-ma, I’m writing that icon.” The mother was sad - how to pay for her? Then Mat-ro-na says ma-te-ri: “Ma-ma, I keep dreaming about the icon “Recovery for the Dead.” The Mother of God is asking to come to our church.” Mat-ro-nush-ka blah-slo-vi-la women so-bi-rat money for icons in all the villages. Among other victims, one man gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck for a laugh. When the money was brought to Mat-ro-nush-ka, she re-took it, found this ruble and kopek and said-za-la ma-te -ri: “Mom, give it to them, they’re ruining all my money.”

Whenever it is necessary to buy a sum, for-a-for-a hu-dozh-ni-ku from Epi-fa-ni. His name remained unknown. Mat-ro-na asked him if he could write such an icon. He replied that this was a common thing for him. Mat-ro-na told him to repent of his sins, to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: “Do you know for sure that you are writing this icon?” The artist answered in the affirmative and began to write.

A lot of time passed, finally he came to Matrona and said that he wasn’t getting anything. And she replies to him: “Go, repent of your sins” (with spiritual vision she saw that there is still sin, which he did not use). He was shaken, how does she know that. Then he went to the priest again, showed up, came again, asked Mat-ro-na about sche-nii. She told him: “Go, now you will paint the icon of the Queen of Heaven.”

With the money collected from the villages for the benefit of Mat-ro-ny, there was a za-ka-za-na in Bo-go-ro-dits-ka and another icon of God Ma-te-ri “Calling for the dead.”

When she was on her way, she was carried in a procession of the cross with ho-rugs from Bo-go-ro-dits-ka to the church itself in Se-bi-no. Mat-ro-na ho-di-la to meet Iko-well for che-you-re ki-lo-meter-ra, she was led by the hand. Suddenly she said: “Don’t go any further, now it’s already soon, they’re already coming, they’re close.” Blind from birth, she said as if in vain: “In half an hour they will come, when they don’t come.” Indeed, half an hour later the religious procession appeared. From-served mo-le-ben, and the procession of the cross went to Se-bi-no. Mat-ro-na was holding on to the icon, then she was being led under the arms next to her. This image of God Ma-te-ri “Calling for the Lost” became the main local shrine and became famous for many mi chu-do-tvo-re-ni-i-mi. When-wa-la for-su-ha, you sat down in the meadow in the middle of the village and served mo-le-ben. After him, people didn’t have time to reach their houses when it began to rain.

Throughout my entire life, the blessed Mat-ro-nu was surrounded by icons. In the room where she subsequently lived for a particularly long time, there were three red corners, and in them were icons of drills -hu to the bottom, with the mountains in front of the lam-pa-da-mi. One woman, who worked in the Ri-zo-po-lo-zhe-niya temple in Moscow, often went to Ma-rona and remembered -na-la then, as she said to her: “I know all the icons in your church, which one is where it is.”

People were also surprised that Mat-ro-na had the usual, like sighted people, idea about the surroundings mi-re. For a s-sensible relationship with a person close to her, Zi-na-i-dy Vla-di-mir-vny Wait-but- howl: “It’s a pity, ma-tush-ka, that you don’t see the beauty of the world!” - she once said: “God once opened my eyes and showed me the world and His creation. And you saw the sun, and the stars in the sky, and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, grass le-nuyu, flowers, bird-check...”

But there is an even more amazing evidence of the vision of the blessedness of a woman. Z.V. Wait-and-do recall-mi-on-on-on-to: “Ma-tush-ka-la-la-wer-no-no-west, and all know. In 1946, I should be I was defending my diploma project “Mi-ni-Sector of the Military-Navy Fleet” (I was studying in art at the time) hi-tech-tur-nom in-sti-tu-te in Moscow). Val. For five months, he never pro-sul-ti-ro-val me, having decided to “get” my diploma in two weeks. Before the defense, he announced to me: “Tomorrow a commission will come and confirm the inconsistency of your work!” I came home all in tears: my father is in prison, there is no one to help, my mother is dependent on me, there is only one hope - protect and work.

Ma-tush-you-listened to me and said: “No-nothing, no-nothing, protect yourself! We’ll be drinking tea tonight, let’s go!” I could barely wait for the evening, and now ma-tush says: “You and I will go to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, let's look at the creation of the great masters...” And start counting the streets and buildings! She stayed: “Here is the palace of Pit-ty, here is another palace with ar-ka-mi, do the same as there - the three lower floors the building has a large warehouse and two entrance arches.” I would have shaken her. In the morning, I came to the institute here, on-lo-zhi-la cal-ku for the project and with brown ink, I made everything right. le-nia. At ten o'clock the commission arrived. They looked at my project and said: “Well, the project has been successful, but you look so special - protect it.” - here you go!”

Many people came to Matron for help. Four thousand kilometers from Se-bi-no lived a husband who had trouble with his legs.

Mat-ro-na said: “Let him come to me in the morning, half-zet.” Cha-sam to three to half-zet.” He crawled these four-ki-lo-meters, and walked away from her on his own legs, healed.

One day, women from the village of Or-lovki came to Matrona on Easter Sunday. Mat-ro-na pri-ni-ma-la, sitting by the window. She gave prosphora to one, water to the other, a red egg to the third and told her to eat the egg when -children for ogo-ro-dy, on the gum-but. This woman gave the egg for pa-zu-hu, and they went. When you went out behind the threshing floor, the woman, as Ma-ro-na told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They were all frightened and decided to turn back. They went to the window, and Mat-ro-na said: “What, the bastard we have?” - “Ma-ro-nush-ka, how can I eat it?” - “But what about you pro-da-va-la mo-lo-ko, especially for si-ro-there, widows, poor people, who don’t have something -You? There was a mouse in the milk, you got it, and the milk gave it to people.” The woman says: “Ma-ro-nush-ka, but they didn’t see the mouse and didn’t know it, I’ll give it to you.” from-there-yes.” - “And God knows that you’ve been pro-da-va-la from us!”

Many people came to Matrona with their pains and sorrows. Having a presence before God, she helped a lot.

A.F. You-bor-no-va, whose father was baptized together with Mat-ro-na, speaks in fractions of one thing -th of these studies. “My mother came from the village of Ustye, and she had a brother there. One day he gets up - neither his arms nor his legs move, they become like whips. But he didn’t believe in Mat-ro-ny’s healing abilities. My brother’s daughter followed my mother to the village of Se-bi-no: “Godmother, let’s go quickly, things are bad with my father, he’s gone crazy.” -py: his hands are lowered, his eyes are not looking, his tongue is barely moving.” Then my mother harnessed the horse and she and her father rode to Ustye. When I came to my brother, he looked at my mother and barely said “sister.” She gathered her brother and brought her to our village. She left him at home, and she herself went to Mat-ryu-sha to ask if it was possible to see him. She comes, and Mat-ryu-sha tells her: “Well, your brother said that I can’t do anything, but I did it myself.” like a whip.” And she hasn’t seen him yet! Then she said: “Bring him to me, if I can.” She prayed over him, gave him water, and - the dream fell. He slept like the dead and got up in the morning completely healthy. “Bla-go-da-ri sister, her faith is-tse-li-la for you,” - that’s all Mat-ro-na said to her brother.”

The help, which I da-va-la Mat-ro-na bo-lya-shim, not only had nothing to do with-for-go- in-ra-mi, in-rozh-boy, so-called-native-tse-li-tel-stvom, ex-tra-sen-so-ri-koy, ma-gi -it and pro-chi-mi sorcery-ski-mi-actions, with the completion of which the “target” enters into connection with that -no-power, but had a prin-ci-pi-al-but from a personal, Christian nature. It is precisely for this reason that the righteous Mat-ro-nu so hates the col-duns and various oc-cults, as evidenced There are people who knew her closely during the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Mat-ro-na prayed for people. Bu-duchi-pleas-no-tsey God-zhi-she, God-ha-na-de-len-she-spirit-khov-ny-mi-da-ra-mi, she is-great-shi-va -The Lord has miraculous help for those who are ill. The history of the Right-glorious Church knows many examples, when not only priests or priests na-hi-as-ke-you, but also those who live in the world of the great-ved-ni-ki mo-lit-howl doctor need power

Mat-ro-na chi-ta-la pray-you over the water and let-wa-la come to her.

Drinking water and sprinkling it with it got rid of various illnesses. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no talk about the sanctification of water according to the regulations -but-mu Church-view chi-well, to which they have some-no-thing-right, only sacred-serve. But it is also known that the blessing of the celestial properties of the world is not only the holy one. yes, but also in some waters, springs, wells, well-known former -I eat and pray for the life of holy people near them, who manifest miraculous icons.

Moscow period of life of old Ma-ro-ny

In 1925, Mat-ro-na moved to Moscow, where he lived until the end of his days. In this huge hundred-person city there were many unfortunate, lost, fallen from the faith, spiritual sick people with poisoned co-knowledge. Having lived for about three decades in Moscow, she did a spiritual service, something -a swarm of many from-the-way from the gi-be-li and led-to the spa.

The blessed woman loved Moscow very much, she said that “this is a holy city, the heart of Russia.” Both Mat-ro-ny brothers, Mi-kha-il and Ivan, joined the party, Mi-kha-il became a rural ak-ti-vi-st. It is clear that the presence in their house of a blessed woman, who has been with the people for whole days, de-lom and for example, she taught to preserve the right-glorious faith, which became unforeseen for the brothers. They were afraid of re-press. Feeling sorry for them, as well as the elders of the ro-di-te-ley (Mat-ro-na’s mother died in 1945), ma-tush-ka and per-re- I was on my way to Moscow. The wanderings began around relatives and friends, around houses, apartments, under-va-lams. Almost brought Mat-ro-na to life without registration, several times miraculously out of arrest. They lived with her and listened to her and listened to her - ho-sorry.

This was a new period in her moving life. She has become a homeless country. Sometimes she wanted to live with people who were hostile to her. It was difficult to find housing in Moscow; there was no choice.

Z.V. Wait-but-say-va-la, what kind of li-she-nies sometimes came to be tolerated by the blessed woman: “I have come- e-ha-la in So-kol-ni-ki, where ma-tush-ka lived for a hundred times in the little fa-ner-nom do-mi-ke, given to her on time. It was deep autumn. I went into the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and brain-washing steam, and the iron stove was chewing. ka. I went to my mother, and she was lying on the bed with her face to the wall, she couldn’t come back to me, her hair was -I was frozen to the wall, I could barely get it off. I said in horror: “Ma-tush-ka, how can this be? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and what’s wrong with him is unknown, but we have two rooms -here you are in a warm house, forty-seven square meters, separate entrance; Why didn’t you come to us?” Ma-tush sighed heavily and said: “God didn’t order you not to regret it.”

Mat-ro-na lived before the war on Ulyanovskaya Street near the priest Va-sily, her husband listened to Pe-la- gays, while he was free.

She lived on Pyat-nitskaya street, in So-kol-nikah (in a summer fa-nery construction site), in Vish-nya-kovsky lane-re- street (in the basement of Ple-myan-ni-tsy), she also lived at the Nikit-skih gate, in Pet-rov-sko-Ra-z-umovsky , go-sti-la at the ple-myan-ni-ka in Ser-gi-e-vom Po-sa-de (Za-gor-ske), in Tsa-ri-tsy-no. For the longest time (from 1942 to 1949) she lived on Ar-ba-ta, in Star-ro-ko-nu-she-nom-per-re-ul-ke. Here in st- rin-nom de-re-vyan-nom person-nya-ke, in the 48-meter-ro-voy room-on-that, lived one-village-chan-ka Mat-ro-ny, E. M. Wait-but-wa with do-che-ryu Zi-na-i-doy. It is in this room that there are three corners of icons, from top to bottom. In front of the iko-on-mi there are old lamp-pa-dys, on the windows there are heavy, expensive-weighted in-lu-tion, the house was near-to-her-husband Wait-new-howl, pro-is-ho-div-she-mu from a god and a noble family).

They say that some places are Mat-ro-na in a hurry, with the spirit of warning -it’s unpleasant, mi-li-tions always come to her as soon as possible, because she lived without a letter. Times were hard, and people were afraid to write about her. In this way, she saved herself from re-pressures, not only herself, but also her hosts.

Many times Ma-ro wants to get arrested. Many of her neighbors were arrested and sent to prison (or sent to prison). Zi-na-i-da Wait-but-wa was convicted as a member of the church-but-mo-nar-hi-che-che-pa group.

Ksenia Iva-nov-na Si-fa-ro-va ras-said-zy-va-la that Mat-ro-na’s nephew Ivan lived in Za-gorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her.

He came to his boss and said: “I want to ask you for help, I just can’t, it’s up to me.” to go to my place.” He arrived, not knowing what the matter was. And Mat-ro-na says to him: “Come on, come on, quickly take me to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law.” They had just left when the militia arrived. This has happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the next day.

An-na Philip-pov-na Vy-bor-no-va remembers such a case. One day mi-li-tsi-o-ner came to fetch Mat-ro-nu, and she said to him: “Go, go quickly, you have misfortune in the house! And blind from you, I’m not going anywhere, I’m sitting on the wall, I’m not going anywhere.” He obeyed. I went home, and he had a ke-ro-ga-za about-go-re-la. But he managed to take her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: “Well, did you take the blind one?” And he replies: “I will never fight blindly. If the blind woman hadn’t told me, I would have lost her, but I still managed to take her to the pain.”

Living in Moscow, Mat-ro-na would be in her village - sometimes they call her for some business, sometimes she gets bored. sya on do-mu, on ma-te-ri.

Outwardly, her life flowed the same way: during the day - receiving people, at night - praying. Like the ancients, she never went to bed as usual, but dre-ma-la, le- lady on the side, on the side. So how are the years going?

Somehow in 1939 or 1940, Mat-ro-na said: “Right now you’re all quarreling, de-li-te, but there’s a war here.” -here it begins. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win.”

In early 1941, Z.V.’s second sister. Waiting for Ol-ga Nos-ko-va to ask ma-tush-ki so-ve-ta if she should go on vacation (yes-va-li put-tev -ku, but she didn’t want to go on vacation in the winter). Ma-tush-ka said: “You need to go on vacation now, otherwise there won’t be any vacation for a long time.” There will be a war. He'll be behind us. The enemy will not touch Moscow, it will only burn a little. There’s no time to leave Moscow.”

When the war began, ma-tush asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She cut them into sticks of the same length, peeled them off the bark and prayed. Her neighbors remembered that her fingers were covered in wounds. Mat-ro-na could-have-a-spirit-be-present in different places, for her-spirit-view space is not su- s-stvo-va-lo. She often said that she would be invisible on the fronts, that she would help us in our lives. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tu-lu. Her pro-ch-ness was justified.

On the day of Mat-ro-nush-ka there was no-ma-la until so-ro-ka person. People come with their own pain, spiritual and physical pain. She didn't give any help to anyone, except for those who came with a lu-ka on-me-re-none. Others have the power to remove damage or the evil eye, but after the general - understanding with her that there is a man of God in front of them, and turning to the Church, to her saviors Ta-in-stvam. Her help to people was unselfish, she did not take anything from anyone.

Mo-lit-you ma-tush-ka chi-ta-la is always loud. Those who knew her closely say that these were the famous ones who read in the temple and at home: “From- ours,” “May God rise again,” the venerable psalm, “The Lord of all, the God of strength and all flesh "(from morning prayers). She emphasized that it is not herself who helps, but God, as she prays to you: “What, Mat-ro-nush-ka is God, or what? God can help!” - she replies to Ksenia Gav-ri-lovna Po-ta-po-howl in response to her request to help her.

Healing the sick, ma-tush-ka sought from them faith in God and the correction of sinful life. So, one day she asks if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another person, who is sick, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, for every use. conduct and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Those living in a civil marriage, she blissfully obliges to get married in a church. Everyone is obligated to wear a cross.

What do people bring to ma-tush-ka? With the usual troubles: an unforeseen illness, a miss, a husband leaving the family, unhappy love, death ra-bo-you, gon-ne-niya from the management. With life's needs and questions. Are you going to marry? Should I change my place of residence or place of work? There were no less painful, over-ridden illnesses: some suddenly couldn’t, some for no reason... oh, out of the blue he started la-yat, someone's hands are light, someone is being followed gal-lu-qi-na -tions. In the na-ro-de of such people they call “por-che-ny-mi” kol-du-na-mi, know-ha-rya-mi, cha-ro-de- I-mi. These are people who, as they say in the na-ro-de, “did-la-li”, who were subjected to a special de-mo -no impact.

One day, four men brought a hundred-rush-ku to Ma-rona. She is ma-ha-la ru-ka-mi, like a windmill. When ma-tush got away from her, she weakened and died.

Great brother, remembers: “Once upon a time, when we were going to see him, a husband and his wife were traveling with us—a daughter from a sick no way you pee. Back, but we rode together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) went crazy. I say to her mother: “I feel sorry for you, we’re going past Tsar-ri-tsy, let’s take our daughter to Mat-ro-nush- ke...” The father of this girl, ge-ne-ral, sleep-cha-la and didn’t want to hear anything, said that it was all you-think -ki. But at his place, and we went to Mat-ro-nush-ke... And so the de-vush-ku started to go to Mat-ro -nush-ke, and she became like a stake, her hands were like sticks, then she started not giving a damn about Mat-ro-nush-ku, and vy-sniffed. Ma-ro-na says: “Leave her, now she won’t do anything.” De-vush-ku from-pu-sti-li. She fell, began to thrash and spin around on the floor, and began to vomit blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. There's a lot of noise behind her. When she came to her senses and saw her mother, she asked: “Mom, where are we going?” She replies to her: “We, daughter, are visiting a visionary man...” And everyone told her she said what happened to her. And from that time on, de-vush-ka was completely cured.”

Z.V. Wait-but-she tells that in 1946, a woman was brought into their apartment, where Mat-ro-na lived then. -Well, you've got something for your sake. Her only son went crazy, her husband died at the front, and she herself, of course, was without God. She went with her sick son to Europe, but the famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of nowhere,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Mat-ro-na asked: “If the Lord reads your son, do you believe in God?” The woman said: “I don’t know what it’s like to believe.” Then Mat-ro-na, in the midst of the water, and in the presence of the unfortunate ma-te-ri, began to read loudly over the water. woo. After giving her this water, the blessed woman said: “Go now to Ka-schen-ko (psi-hi-at-ri-che -skaya pain in Moscow. - Note, ed.), get-to-me with sa-ni-ta-ra-mi, so that they hold him tightly, when you will-dit. He will fight, and you will splash this water in his eyes and be sure to put it in his mouth.”

Zi-na-i-da Vla-di-mi-rov-na remembers: “After some time, my brother and I became svi-de-te-la- mi, how this woman came again to Ma-rona. She is on her knees blah-da-ri-la ma-tush-ku, saying that her son is now healthy. But it would have been like this. She came to the hospital and did everything like ma-tush-ka ve-le-la. There was a hall where you took her son from one side of the bar, and she came from the other side. She had a bottle of water in her pocket. The son fought and shouted: “Mom, give up what you have in your pocket, don’t torment me!” She wondered: how did he find out? She quickly splashed water in his eyes, put it in his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: “How good!” You'll see him soon."

Often Mat-ro-na na-kla-dy-va-la ru-ki on go-lo-woo and go-vo-ri-la: “Oh, oh, now I’m your wing -ki, let's go, let's go, let's go!" “Who are you?” - he will ask, and suddenly there will be a buzzing sound in the man. Ma-tush will say again: “Who are you?” - and it buzzes even more strongly, and then she prays and says: “Well, ko-mar, now pra- tit! And the man leaves whole.

Helpful for Mat-re-na and for those whose family life was not going well. One day a woman came to her and told her that you didn’t marry her for love and she had a bad life with her husband. vet. Mat-ro-na answers her: “And who is vi-no-wat? Vi-no-va-ta you. Because we have the Lord as the head, and the Lord is in a male form, and we, women, must subordinate ourselves to men. Yes, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. Vi-no-va-ta you, that you live badly with him...” This woman listened to a blessed woman, and her family life -la-di-las.

“Ma-tush-ka Ma-ro-fought all her life for every soul that came to her,” recalls Zi-na-i-da Wait-but-and win-win. She never complained about the difficulty of her movement. I can’t forgive myself for never feeling sorry for my mother, even though I saw how difficult it was for her, how she cheered for each of us. The light of those days is still warm. In the house, in front of us, there were warm lamps, mother’s love and her ti-shi-na-oku-va-li-duh-shu . There was holiness, peace, blissful warmth in the house. There was a war going on, but we lived like in heaven.”

What kind of memories did Mat-ro have for people close to him? With mi-ni-a-tyur-ny-mi, words-but-child-ski-mi, with a mouth-ki-mi hand-ka-mi and a knife-ka-mi. Sit with your legs crossed on the bed or sun-du-ke. Fluffy hair in my straight hair. Tightly closed eyelids. A kind, bright face. Sweet voice.

She comforted, calmed the ailing people, stroked their heads, made the sign of the cross, and -where shu-ti-la, swarm sternly about-li-cha-la and on-sta-la-la. She wouldn't be strict, she would be tolerant of people's infirmities, she would be compassionate, warm, and involved , always happy, never complaining about my pains and sufferings. Ma-tush-ka is not a pro-po-ve-do-va-la, not a teacher-va-la. Yes-va-la specific advice on how to drink in this or that si-tu-a-tion, prayed and blah-glo-la-la.

She actually said a few words, briefly answering questions from people. There remain some of her instructions for the general har-rak-te-ra.

Ma-tush taught me not to judge my neighbors. She said: “Why judge other people? Think about yourself more often. Each sheep will be under the ve-she-na for its tail. What do you care about other tails?” Mat-ro-na taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often make the sign of the cross on yourself and the objects around you, thereby protecting yourself from evil power. So-ve-va-la to partake of the Holy Ta-in of Christ more often. “Protect yourself with the cross, with prayer, with holy water, with frequent... Before the icons, let him - ryat lam-pa-dy.”

She taught us to love and forgive the old and infirm in the same way. “If old people, sick people, or people who are out of their minds say anything unpleasant or offensive to you, then don’t listen, but they just care. You need to help the sick with all your diligence and forgive them, no matter what they say or do.”

Ma-ro-nush-ka didn’t po-s-o-la-la attribute meaning to dreams: “Don’t pay attention to them, dreams come from lu -how-to - to upset a person, to confuse one’s thoughts.”

Mat-ro-na pre-ste-re-ga-la not to run after the spirits in search of the “elders” or “pro-zor-liv-tsev”. By running to different fathers, she said, you can lose spiritual strength and the right direction of life. -no.

Here are her words: “The world lies in evil and deceit, and deceit—the deception of souls—will be obvious, beware.” “If you go to an elder or a priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make him wise to give the right advice.” . Taught not to know about the sacred things and their lives. Desire for the Christian-perfection of the co-ve-to-va-la not to stand out externally among people (cher- new clothes, etc.). She taught patience and grief. Z.V. Waiting, she said: “Go to the temple and don’t look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or looking ri on some kind of occasion, ok-well.” The Holy Father of Sarov and other holy fathers also have a similar instruction . In general, in Mat-ro-na’s instructions, there was nothing that would go against the holy father’s teachings. I eat.

Ma-tush-ka go-vo-ri-la that to paint, that is, to use de-co-ra-tive brass-me-ti-ku is a great sin: what -mankind spoils and searches for the image of man's nature, completes what the Lord did not give , creates false beauty, this leads to corruption.

About the girls who believed in God, Mat-ro-na go-vo-ri-la: “For you, girls, God has pro- stit, if we are pre-given to God. Whoever is determined not to get married must hold on until the end. The Lord will give you a crown for this.”

Mat-ro-nush-ka go-vo-ri-la: “The enemy is approaching - you must pray. Sudden death would happen if you lived without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on our right is An-gel, and each has his own book: in one for-pi-sy-va-yut- Some are our sins, the other are good deeds. Be baptized more often! The cross is the same lock as on the door.” She told me not to forget to baptize my food. “With the strength of Honest and Life-of-the-Cre-sta, save yourself and protect yourself!”

About the stakes of ma-tush-ka go-vo-ri-la: “For the one who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, took- Xia-ro-action, you-ho-no. You can’t talk to women, they only heal you, but they harm your soul.”

Ma-tush-ka often speaks to those close to her, that she is fighting with the count, with the evil force, the invisible one -is with them. One day, a gentle old man came to her, with a beard, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her, covered in a trail -Zakh and says: “My only son is dying.” And ma-tush leaned over to him and quietly asked: “What did you do to him? To death or not? He answered: “To death.” And ma-tush says: “Go, go away from me, there’s no reason for you to come to me.” After he left, she said: “The people know God! If only you prayed like they did, when you ask God for forgiveness for your evil!”

Ma-tush-ka po-chi-ta-la is sacred to Va-len-ti-na Am-fi-te-at-ro-va. They say that he is great before God and that at his grave he helps the guards, some of his-the-se-ti-te-ley for-sy-la-la for the sand from his mo-gi-ly.

The mass of people from the Church, the in-in-government of the bo-go-bor-che-stvo, the dis-in-distance from-alien- de-tion and evil between people, from-the-belief of mil-li-o-na-mi tra-di-tsi-on-noy faith and sinful life without how-I-led-many to heavy-spiritual consequences. Mat-ro-this is good-no-ma-la and feeling-va-la.

On the days of de-mon-strations, ma-tush-ka asked everyone not to go out into the street, to close the windows, the front doors, the doors - half of the de-mo-news take over all the space, all the air and embrace all the people. (Perhaps, blessed Mat-ro-na, who speaks a foreign language often, would like to remind you of the necessary ho-di-mo-sti-keep-close-you-from-the-spirits evilly “ok-on-spirit” - that’s what the holy fathers call people -ve-che-feelings.)

Z.V. Waiting and asking ma-tush-ku: “How did the Lord close and destroy so many temples?” (She meant the years after the revolution.) And ma-tush-ka from-ve-cha-la: “This is the will of God, co- There are so many temples because there will be few believers and there will be no one to serve.” - “Why isn’t anyone fighting?” She: “The people under hyp-no-z, not themselves, a terrible power came into action... This power exists in the air -heh, no luck. Previously, many and ancient forests would have been the habitat of this power, because people lived in the we, but the cross and the house were protected by the lam-pa-da-mi and the sanctifying-neither. The demons pro-le-ta-mi-mo such houses, and now the demons are behind-the-settlements and people, due to their disbelief and faith from God."

Wanting to open the curtain on her spiritual life, some curious people look at what Mat-ro-na is doing at night. One de-vush-ka saw that she prayed all night and laid clothes on her.

Lives with Zhda-no-vykh in Star-ro-ko-nu-she-ny lane-re-street, Mat-ro-nush-ka was-po-ve-do-wa-la and frequented the priest Dimitri from the temple on Krasnaya Presnya. Continuous prayer for the blissful Ma-rona to bear the cross of serving people, what was the real move -gom and masculinity, the highest manifestation of love. From the demons, praying for everyone, sorting out people’s sorrows, ma-tush-ka was so tired that by the end of the day I couldn’t even talk to those close to me and could only quietly stand there, lying on my fist. The inner, spiritual life of the blessed woman still remained a secret even for those close to her, and it remained a secret for the rest. nykh.

Not knowing the spiritual life of mother, nevertheless, people did not agree with me in her holiness, in the fact that she was on I'm standing still and moving. Mat-ro-ny’s move was based on great patience, coming from a pure heart and ardent love for Bo -gu. It is about this kind of patience, which will be saved by Christianity in the last time, about-ro-che-stvo-va Are the holy fathers of the Church. As a real mover, the blessed woman taught not with words, but with her whole life. Blind in the forest, she taught and continues to teach the true spirit of vision. Not having the opportunity to walk, she taught and teaches to walk along the difficult path of the spa.

In his memoirs Zi-na-i-da Vla-di-mi-rov-na Zhda-no-va writes: “Who was the Mat- ro-nush-ka? Ma-tush-ka was an incarnate Angel-in-i-tel, as if a fiery sword was in her hands to fight the evil force. She le-chi-la mo-lit-howl, vo-doy. She was as lazy as a child, all the time on her side, on her fist. I slept like that, I never went to bed before. When there were no people, you sat down, crossed your legs, two arms came right above your head -she-he-in-the-air, lays his finger-chi-ki on the head-of-a-hundred-in-front of her on his knees- when he re-baptizes, he will say the main thing that his soul needs to pray.

She lived without her own corner, property, or money. Whoever invites, she lived with him. She lived on a pr-no-she-niya, where she couldn’t settle down on her own. I was in the obedience of the evil Pe-la-gaia, who was angry with everyone and raz-da-va-la everything that came with her -li ma-tush-ke, my relatives. Without her ve-do-ma, ma-tush-ka could neither drink nor eat.

Ma-tush-ka, ka-za-elk, knew everything that was going on before. Every day of her life - the flow of grieving and sorrowful people. Helping the sick, comforting and healing them. According to her prayers, there was a lot of research for you. He takes two hands and cries, regrets, warms with his holiness, and - the century is passing away, inspired. And she, exhausted, just sighs and prays at night for years to come. There were holes on her forehead from her fingers, from the frequent sign of the cross. She was baptized slowly, diligently, finger-chi-ki and yam-ku...” During the war, many things happened ev, when she ot-ve-cha-la came to their questions - is he alive or not. He will tell someone - he’s alive, wait. Someone needs to understand and understand.

We can assume that those who were looking for the spirit of co-ve-ta and leadership also came to Ma-rona . Many Moscow priests, mo-na-hi of the Holy Trinity Ser-gi-e-voy Lavra, knew about ma-tush-ka. Due to unknown fates, God didn't happen to be next to my mother, pay attention to the blue-da-ta and study. no way, how-to-open-the-ve-su-over-her-spiritual-de-la-ni-and write about it in na-zi-da- tion in that way.

Country people from her native places often went to her a hundred times, then from all the surrounding villages they gave her a piss, and she stared at them. We came to her both two and three hundred kilometers away, and she knew the man’s name. There were both Muscovites and visitors from other cities who heard about mother's vision. People are of different ages: young, old, and middle-aged. She was there for some people, but not for others. With some go-vo-ri-la parables, with others - in simple language.

Zi-na-i-yes somehow felt sorry for ma-tush-ka: “Ma-tush-ka, you’re nervous...” And she: “How nervous you are, After all, in war and in prison there are no nerves... You have to control yourself, endure it.”

Ma-tush-ka insisted that treatment is necessary. The body is a do-mik, given by God, it needs to be re-mon-ti-ro-t. God created the world, herbs are medicinal, and this cannot be neglected.

To my loved ones, ma-tush-ka with-feeling: “How sorry I am for you, until the last times. Life will be worse and worse. Heavy. The time will come when a cross and bread will be placed in front of you, and they will say - you are a paradise! “We are taking up the cross,” they said, “but how can we live then?” - “And we pray, take some grains, say sha-ri-ki, pray to God, eat and be full we'll come!" Another time she said, under-bad-ri-vaya in the heavy si-tu-a-tion, that she didn’t have to worry about anything , no matter how scary. “The di-tya is in the sa-noch-kah, and there is no-one for-you! The Lord Himself will manage everything!” Mat-ro-nush-ka often repeats: “If a people loses faith in God, then they will suffer misfortunes.” , and if it doesn’t show up, then it dies and disappears from the face of the earth. How many nations have disappeared, but Russia exists and will continue to exist. Pray, pray, repent! The Lord will not abandon you and will preserve the land!”

The last earthly shelter Mat-ro-nush-ka was found at the Skhod-nya station near Moscow (Kur-gan-naya street, house 23), where sat down with a distant relative, having settled into a room in Staro-ko-nu-she-ny lane. And this is the same place where they walked and carried their sorrows. Only before my very end, ma-tush, already very weak, limited her reception. But people kept coming anyway, and she couldn’t offer help to some.

Rebirth of the blessed elder Ma-ro-na

They say that it was time for her to open the State House in three days, and she did all the necessary things. rass-rya-same. Ma-tush-ka asked for it to be sent to the Ri-zo-po-lo-zhe-niya church on Donskaya Street. (At that time, my beloved priest, Niko-lay Golub-tsov, served there. He knew and read the blas- wife Mat-ro-nu.) She didn’t know how to wear wreaths and plastic flowers.

Until the last days of her life, she was visited and received communion with the priests who came to her. In her humility, she, like ordinary sinful people, was afraid of death and did not hide it from her loved ones. e-fear. Before her death, a priest, Father Dimitri, came to examine her, she was very worried, was her word right? lived the hands. Ba-tyush-ka asks: “Are you really afraid of death too?” - "Afraid".

On May 2, 1952, she chi-la. On May 3, in Tro-i-tse-Ser-gi-e-voy lav-re on pa-ni-hi-du there was a za-da-on-a-record about the inscription of the no- once again the blessed Mat-ro-na. Among many others, she attracted the attention of the servant of the hiero-mo-na-ha. “Who gave the pi-pi-ku? — he asked excitedly, “What, did she die?” (Many people in the villages knew well and knew Mat-ro-nu). Sta-rush-ka with do-che-ryu, who arrived from Moscow, confirmed: the other day, ma-tush-died, and now -then the coffin with the body will be placed in the Moscow Church of Ri-zo-po-lo-zhe-niya on Donskaya. So the Lavra monks learned about Mat-ro-na’s death and were able to come to her funeral. After the execution, which Father Niko-lay Go-lub-tsov accomplished, everyone present under-ho-di-li and placed them in her hands.

On May 4, in the Week of Women, with a great crowd of people, the blessed Mother ro-ny. According to her wishes, she went to the Da-nilovsky cemetery to “hear the service” (there one of the few functioning Moscow churches). The birth and burial of the blessed woman would be the beginning of her glorification in the nation as a pleaser of Bo- live.

The blessed woman said: “After my death, a few people will go to my grave, only close no, and when they die, my mother will be afraid, unless someone comes... But after many years, people will find out they talk about me and come in crowds for help in their grievances and with requests to pray for them to the State. "Thank God, and I will help everyone and hear everyone."

Even before her death, she said: “Everyone, everyone, come to me and tell me, like a living person, about your sorrows.” , I will see you, and hear you, and help you.” And ma-tush-ka go-vo-ri-la that everyone who trusts himself and his life to its progress towards the State, s-su-sya . “I will meet everyone who turns to me for help at their death, every time.”

More than thirty years after the death of ma-tush-ka, her grave at the Da-nilovsky cemetery became one from the holy places of right-glorious Moscow, where people came from all over Russia and from abroad with their -mi be-da-mi and bo-lez-nya-mi.

The blessed Mat-ro-na was a right-glorious person in the deep, traditional meaning of this- th words. Compassion for people, coming from a full-loving heart, prayer, sign of the cross, fidelity the holy mouth of the Right-glorious Church - that’s what was in the midst of her intense spiritual life. When it moves, its roots go into many traditions for the benefit of the honor. For this reason, for help, people are praying for help, but turning to the righteous, with -but there are spiritual fruits: people are confirmed in the right-glorious faith, in the church, externally and internally. Renna, get-together with the everyday prayer life.

Mat-ro-well, tens of thousands of great-glorious people know. Mat-ro-nush-ka - that’s how many people call her affectionately. She, just as during her earthly life, helps people. This is felt by all those who with faith and love ask her to intercede and act before the State , to whom the blessed old woman has great audacity.

Finding the power of the blessed Mat-ro-na

On the evening of March 8, 1998, on the Sunday of the Triumph of the Righteousness by the blessing of the Holy Patriarch ar-ha of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II at the Da-nilovsky cemetery in Moscow were there honest remains? according to the movement of the good-honor of the 20th century, the blessed old man of Mat-ro-na.

The commission for the autopsy of the case was headed by the arch-bishop of East Rin Ar-seniy. In the transfer of the honorable remains of Elder Mat-ro-ny, participation: the deputy of the No-vospass-go mo-na- sta-rya bishop of Ore-ho-vo-Zu-ev-sky Alexy, vicar of St.-Da-ni-lo-va mo-na-sta-rya ar-hi-mand- Rit Alexy with his brotherhood, the name of the temple in the name of Mar-ti-na Is-po-ved-ni-ka in Moscow is priest Alexander Ab-ra -mov. In the temple in honor of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, which is in the Da-nilovsky cemetery, in the place of the Holy-Yes-nor- lo-va mo-na-sta-rya ar-hi-mand-ri-tom Alek-si-em in co-service with the co-bo-ra kli-ri-kov was so-top-she -for the repose of the li-tia. The coffin with the honest remains of Elder Mat-ro-na was brought to Da-nilov mo-na-styr and placed in the gate Nom of the temple in the name of the pre-excellent Si-meo-on the Pillar-ni-ka.

Everyone present at this memorable event had a particularly solemn state of mind happy and happy.

In the work of the Commission for the Pre-sta-vi-te-ley of the Russian Orthodox Church, an expert in military -pro-su-deb-no-me-di-tsin-skoy ex-per-ti-zy, an-tro-po-log, doctor of medical sciences, pro-fes -sor Zvya-gin Vik-tor Ni-ko-la-e-vich and ar-heo-logist, doctor of is-to-ri-che-skih sciences Ta-nu-k-vich And-drey Ki -ril-lo-vich.

March 13th Commission for-con-chi-la ra-bo-tu. It happened that during the examination of the remains of the elder Ma-ro-ny about-on-the-same-far- Loss in the form of a cross on the chest, which is mentioned in her life-description.

In the Krov-sky Church of the Holy-Da-ni-lo-va mo-na-sta-rya on the anal-loe there was a-la-on-the-part-of-the-gro-ba-bla -wives Mat-ro-ny. Here, in the days of the Great One, they served pa-ni-hi-dy about the hope of the servant of God Mat-ro-na.

Translation of the relics of the blessed elder Mat-ro-na

April 30, 1998, according to the blessing of the Holy Patriarch Alexy II with ceremonial singing tro-pa-paskha “Christ has risen from the dead...” was so-top-she-but the re-not-seen of the honorable remains Blessed Mat-ro-na to the Church of the Holy Fathers of the Seven Universal Councils. In the evening, the brethren can serve an all-night vigil for the repose.

May 1, 1998, on Friday of the 2nd week of Pa-skhe, on the eve of the 46th anniversary of the reign of Bla- the wife of Mat-ro-ny, the Divine li-tur-giya and pa-ni-hi-du in the same temple, the ar-hi-bishop of East-rin -sky Ar-se-niy. There were many prayers for God's service, although the official did not announce this event. elk.

On the same day, the coffin with the honest remains of the blessed Mat-ro-na was taken to the Moscow Pokrovsky Women's Monument. Fuck that Abel-ma-novskoy has behind you. There he solemnly met Abbot Fe-o-fa-niya and sisters obi-te-li at the ringing of bells.

Now the honest remains of the blessed woman, who we believe in as holy relics, are in this mo-na-sta-re, where for help to this movement, as in its earthly life, they go endlessly in com people.

Ka-no-ni-za-tion of the holy, righteous, blessed Mat-ro-na of Moscow

May 2, 1999, under the service of the Holy Pat-ri-arch Alexy II, a ceremonial ceremony took place -nation of the old Ma-ro-na to the ranks of the places of revered saints. At midnight, in the lower church of the Church of the Blood, there was an early Li-tur-gy, and then at the top on the last pa-ni-hi-da according to Mat-ro-nush-ke. Most of the worshipers remained in the monastery until the morning to participate in the celebration of her glorification. The people came all night to venerate her holy relics, and by morning an enormous line formed.

In the morning, pat-ri-arch Alexy II with the am-vo-na ogla-sil act of ka-no-ni-za-tion in the ranks of places-but-honored saints of the blessed Mat. -ro-ny of Moscow (Ni-ko-no-voy Mat-ro-ny Di-mit-ri-ev-ny, 1881 - 1952):

Act on ka-no-ni-za-tion of the old-ri-tsy Mat-ro-ny

Here's how we define it:
1. To count the righteous for the local churches in the city of Moscow and the Moscow diocese -hii sta-ri-tsu Mat-ro-nu Mos-kov-skaya.
2. Honest remains of the blessed Ma-ro-na of Moscow, located in the Holy Po-krov-sky st-ro-pi-gi -al-no-mo-na-sty-re cities of Moscow, from now on have sacred powers and give them one hundred dues -no-clination.
3. The memory of the blessed Matron of Moscow will be commemorated on the day of her repose - April 19 (May 2).
4. I will serve the newly-pro-glorified blessed Ma-rona of Moscow as a special one, and until the time -niya ta-ko-voy to send the general according to righteous order.
5. Write a new-in-pro-glory-of-the-linen blessed Mat-rone of the Moscow icon-well for veneration in agreement with the definition-de-le -niyu of the Seventh All-len-so-bo-ra.
6. To create the life of the blessed Mother of Moscow for the good of the children of the churches.
7. The present definition of our up-to-the-knowledge of the cliques and right-of-glorious believers parishes and abode of the city of Moscow and the Moscow diocese.

The choir sang for the first time to the holy righteous and blessed Matrona. Then the Per-saint made the first mo-le-ben at the silver-ray-ka with the relics, which would have been- La Usta-nov-le-na in the lower church of the Church of the Blood. After this commemorative day in the mo-na-sta-re every day after the end of the tour -le-ben with aka-fi-st in front of cancer with honest-min-powers but-in-pro-glorious blessed old-woman Mat- ro-ny.

Prayers

Troparion to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Vegetation of the land of Tula,/ the city of Moscow, angel-like warrior/ blessed old woman Matrono./ From birth in bodily blindness to the end of her days, she remained./ But she received generous spiritual vision from God,/ a seer and a woman of prayer./ Most of all, she has acquired the gift of healing diseases./ Help everyone with faith, those who come to you and ask in illnesses of soul and body, // our joy.

Translation: The land of Tula grows, the city of Moscow is like angels, the old woman Matrona. From birth she was in bodily blindness until the end of her days, but generously received spiritual sight from God, a seer and a prayer book. Most of all, she received the gift of healing diseases. Help with mental and physical illnesses to everyone who comes to you and asks with faith, our joy.

Troparion to the Blessed Matrona of Moscow

God-wise, blessed old lady Matrona,/ the prosperity of the land of Tula/ and the glorious adornment of the city of Moscow,/ let us praise today, faithful ones./ For this, having not known the light of day,/ with the light of Christ I was enlightened by you / and enriched with the gift of insight and healing. / The solitary and wanderer on having formerly been earth,/ now stands before the Throne of God in the heavenly realms// and prays for our souls.

Translation: Let us glorify the blessed old woman Matrona, wise by God, who flourished on the Tula land and gloriously adorned the city of Moscow, today, believers. For she, not having known the light of day, was enlightened by the light of Christ and was enriched with the gift of healing. Having been a migrant and a wanderer on earth, now I stand in the palaces of Heaven and pray for our souls.

Kontakion to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

To the service of Christ/ from the womb the mother was chosen,/ righteous Matrono,/ walking the path of sorrows and sorrows,/ having demonstrated firm faith and piety,/ You pleased God./ Honoring your memory, we pray to you:/ help us to abide in God’s love , // blessed old lady.

Translation: Matrona, originally chosen to serve Christ from her mother’s womb, walked through paths and sorrows, showed strong faith and you pleased God. Therefore, honoring your memory, we pray to you: help us to be in God’s love, blessed old woman.

Prayer to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Oh, blessed mother Matrono, with your soul standing in Heaven before the Throne of God, with your body resting on earth, and with the grace given to you from above, various miracles flow. Look now with your merciful eye on us, sinners, in our sorrows, illnesses and sinful temptations, waiting for our days, comfort us, desperate ones, heal our fierce ailments, from God to us Confused by our sins, deliver us from many troubles and circumstances, beg our Lord Jesus Christ forgive us all our sins, iniquities and sins, for whom we have sinned from our youth even to this day and hour, so that through your prayers we have received grace and great mercy, We see in the Trinity the One God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and ever. Amen.

Second prayer to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Oh, blessed mother Matrono, hear and accept us now, sinners, praying to you, having become accustomed throughout your life to receive and listen to all those who suffer and mourn, with faith and hope for your intercession knowledge and help of those who come running, giving quick help and miraculous healing to everyone; May your mercy not fail now for us, unworthy, restless in this busy world and nowhere finding consolation and compassion in spiritual sorrows and help in bodily illnesses: heal the illnesses ours, deliver from the temptations and torment of the devil, who passionately fights, help him convey his everyday the cross, to bear all the hardships of life and not to lose the image of God in it, to preserve the Orthodox faith until the end of our days, to have strong trust and hope in God and unfeigned love for others; help us, after leaving this life, to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven with all those who please God, glorifying the mercy and goodness of the Heavenly Father, glorified in the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Haha, forever and ever. Amen.

Canons and Akathists

Akathist to the holy righteous Matrona of Moscow

The text was approved by the Holy Synod
Russian Orthodox Church
April 20, 2000 (magazine w/n)

Kontakion 1

Chosen by the Spirit of God from the swaddling clothes of babies, the blessed old woman Matrono, who received blindness and bodily weakness for spiritual cleansing from God, was enriched with the gift of sight and miracles an incorruptible crown from the State Yes, you are adorned. Behold, for our sake, and we are a blessing and a laudable one when we drink:

Ikos 1

An-gel appeared in the flesh on earth, blessed Matron, fulfilling the will of God. Even if your Christmas was faster in your blindness, but the Lord, who makes the blind wise and loves the righteous, may your spiritual eyes be bright, may you serve people and the works of God will appear through you. We love you in the same way:

Rejoice, chosen by God from infancy; Rejoice, the blessing of the Holy Spirit from the shrouds of the fallen.

Rejoice, you have been enriched for nothing by a miracle from childhood; Rejoice, filled with wisdom from God from above.

Rejoice, you who see the will of God with your mental eyes; Rejoice at the mind-blind sages of this age, which is disgraceful.

Rejoice, leading erring souls to God; Rejoice, quenching sorrow and sadness.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 2

Seeing the people and the priest who baptized you, blessed one, a wonderful pillar of cloud over your head and smelling the goodness of the thing, I marveled that this was from -there will be a vi-tsa, singing to God: Alle-luia.

Ikos 2

Having a enlightened mind, the priest of God Vasily knows that she who is baptized from the un-god-by-court of the goodness of God is, and you, the righteous Matrono, from- ro-ko-vi-tsu holy name. This praise comes from our zeal:

Rejoice, in the holy font of the blessing of the Holy Spirit, fragrant; Rejoice, you who had the cross sealed on your chest.

Rejoice, prayer book, given to people by God; Rejoice, unquenchable, shining before the Lord.

Rejoice, glorified on earth by the gift of miracles from God; Rejoice, crowned with an unfading crown from the Lord on Heaven.

Rejoice, proclaiming the mercy of God to sinners; Rejoice, from the source of the living water the thirsty one has drunk.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 3

Feeling the power of God's blessings, even in infancy, blessed Matrona, to whom you strove to be holy, and with a pure heart and baby lips, praise Bo ́- You cried: Alleluia.

Ikos 3

Having from God the gift of vision from childhood, blessed mother, the hidden heart of those who come to you leading, and the future of them, as we are told, many people on You guided the path of goodness. At the same time, I glorify God, who makes the blind wise;

Rejoice, wonderful seer; Rejoice, accuser of hidden sins.

Rejoice, darkened souls of the most holy bark of us; Rejoice, merciful guide for the lost.

Rejoice, star, showing the right path; Rejoice, luminary, in the darkness of this world there is light.

Rejoice, you who served God alone; Rejoice, thou who trampled the devil's blessing upon the Holy Spirit.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 4

The storm of bewilderment and confusion about your miracles dissipated among the people, blessed mother, and the Lord made them understand, wondrous in His holiness, glorifying and praising you, Bo ́ - and sang with thanksgiving: Alleluia.

Ikos 4

Hear the people, ma-ti Matrono, for you have given help in the unsettled souls and forests, and come to you with hope , and, the advice is favorable and the result is better, the blessing of God, I sing to you:

Rejoice, for you have received those who are sick and suffering in spirit; Rejoice, for you have given peace to the sorrowful.

Rejoice, the one who enlightens those who are in error; Rejoice, blessings to the teacher.

Rejoice, relieve our sorrows; Rejoice, you will soon be comforted.

Rejoice, blessed unmercenary; Rejoice, unpaid healer of all kinds.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 5

God's current star shone, O blessed Matrono, in the days of hard times in our Fatherland, like a new confessor, the yoke of Christ boldly and fearlessly through all his life You carried this message, and you are strengthened by the blessings of God, you gave admonition to those who are perplexed, to those who are suffering and waiting for weakness, painful healing, blessings calling to God: Alleluia.

Ikos 5

You have seen a lot of people in Russia, miracles and cures, God’s goodness given from you: lame - walking, relaxed and lying on the bed - healing, raging - driving away the spirits of malice, rushing to you, mother, as if to an inexhaustible source, from whom you have drunk plenty -but, with a tender heart, the cart-pi-sha you-be-ta-ko-vaya:

Rejoice, you who were called from infancy to the right path; Rejoice, O righteous woman, given to us by God.

Rejoice, healer, who is not our healer; Rejoice, you who quickly help us in our needs.

Rejoice, thou who admonishes us with soulful advice; Rejoice, you who will soon resolve our perplexities.

Rejoice, unclean spirits from mankind; Rejoice, who protects you from all evil with your prayers.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 6

Herald of the holiness and righteousness of your life, blessed mother, the holy and righteous father John of Kronstadt appears, when I see you in the temple and your name the successor and the pillar of Russia. All, having heard this, glorified the Lord, shouting to Him the song: Alleluia.

Ikos 6

This mo-lit-va-mi is yours, Ma-ti Matrono, the light of God’s goodness in hearts that do not know God and our many sins. me of those who anger Him. And when I see the miracle being done, I turn to the Lord, blaspheming you here:

Rejoice, I glorify God under you; Rejoice, the glory of God manifesting itself to us.

Rejoice, you who do not believe in the right path follow us; Rejoice, sin-defiled prayers cleansing yours.

Rejoice, calling us to repentance; Rejoice, thank the Lord for everything, for admonishing us.

Rejoice, the temple of God, teaching us to love; Rejoice, you who gather the scattered sheep into the church fence.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 7

It is worthy to please our Most Holy Lady Theotokos, Ma-ti Matrono, you commanded people to write the all-honorable image of Her, “Recovery of the Lost,” called, and in the temple May God restore yours, yes Everyone will look at the bright face of the Most Pure One, will praise Yu with tenderness, and will cry out to the Lord: Alleluia.

Ikos 7

A new one for you, a prayer book and an intercessor to God, may the Lord grant you in this difficult time to the people of Russia, many have fallen away from the Holy Church, you, May You, who were of little faith and who were deluded, taught you in word and deed, demonstrating the wondrous wonder of God. At the same time, we sing this si-tse:

Rejoice, our country of Russia, everlastingly sad; Rejoice, spa-se-niya on-ho-da-tai-tse.

Hail, O God, Judge of the righteous, propitiator; Rejoice, patroness of the sick and offended.

Rejoice, you who are weak and hopeless in power; Rejoice, for the unceasing warrior spirit of malice.

Rejoice, for the princes of the godless tremble; Rejoice, for the angels and men rejoice in you.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 8

It is strange for those with little faith and understanding that the one born blind can see and know not only the present, but also the future, not knowing the power of God in the infirmities of mankind. But we, blessed mother, the wisdom of God, revealed in you visually, cry to God: Alleluia.

Ikos 8

You, blessed mother, endured all kinds of annoyances and insults, expulsions and reproaches, not complaining about it, but thanking God for everything. By this you teach us to patiently bear our cross;

Rejoice, you who constantly remained in prayer; Rejoice, you who drove away the spirit of malice with your prayers.

Rejoice, you who have acquired the blessed world; Rejoice, your love has saved you so much.

Rejoice, you have served a great deal of people in your life: rejoice, and after your death you are constantly helping people.

Rejoice, even now, warmly attentive to our petition; Rejoice, you who do not abandon those who trust in your help.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 9

You have endured all kinds of sorrow and pain, Ma-ti Matrono, constantly waging war against the forces of darkness, exposing goats and their treachery, and driving out demons from the possessed, both ́-what Until the end of your days, you helped those who are waiting, those who are not waiting, and those who are grieving, always singing to God: Alleluia.

Ikos 9

Many people are not able to adequately glorify your holy life and the wonderful things that God has created through the power of God, wonderful to the old woman. But we, wanting to psalmically praise God in His holy things and strive with heartfelt love, dare to sing to you:

Rejoice, thou who has chosen the narrow path and the strait gate; Rejoice, you who shone with many virtues.

Rejoice, having rejected all that is corruptible in your life; Rejoice, in humility, like a ven-tsem dra-gim, adorned.

Rejoice, in the Gospel, like a bird of heaven that has lived on earth; Rejoice, Son of God, who had no place to lay his head, who followed.

Rejoice, now you are not in the abode of heaven, having fun; Rejoice, and do not forsake us, sinners, who pray to you for your mercy.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 10

Although you saved many people from the suffering of the body and soul, you stayed all night, the righteous woman of God, in prayer, asking them for -powers and strengthenings from our Lord Jesus Christ, singing to Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 10

You were a wall and shelter in the days of your life, blessed mother, to all who come to you, and after death you do not cease to intercede before God for everyone -dekh, who will come with faith to your tomb. By the same token, listen now to us, sinners, who are overcome by sorrows, illnesses and many sorrows, and strive for the help of your prayers, to everyone, to those -be-drinking:

Rejoice, offend me quickly to the representative; Rejoice, comfort to those who suffer deprivation.

Rejoice, guardian of an honest marriage; Rejoice, peace of all who are in enmity.

Rejoice, the defender has no right to trial; Rejoice, and for the guilty before the earthly judgment, have mercy on God.

Rejoice, those who lost their shelter; Rejoice, for all those who cry to you, for your step.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 11

You have heard the singing of the Angels, you, honest mother Matrono, who are still living on earth. Teach us too, who are not up to the level, because of the glory of God, who is revered in the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy -Of the Spirit, to Him the hosts of heaven incessantly sing loudly: Alleluia.

Ikos 11

Your life shines with a luminous light, blessed Matrono, illuminating the darkness of this busy world, and draws our souls to you, as we too are rayed by the blessings of God. Let us be illuminated and the sorrowful path of our timely life will pass through in a godly manner and we will achieve the Kingdom of God, where you, mother, have not now dwelled, hearing our voice, those who are :

Rejoice, light of God, ever-burning; Rejoice, be-honest one, Thy holy One who illuminates us.

Rejoice, you blissful blossom, who scents us with the Holy Spirit; Rejoice, O ka-me-nu of faith, who affirms the faint-hearted in goodness.

Rejoice, star before the Most Light, showing us the right path; Rejoice, good warrior Hri-sta-va, who prayed for the demonic regiments.

Rejoice, for all your life is holy and immaculate; Rejoice, for your death is also honest before the Lord.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 12

You have received the blessing of God abundantly from the shrouds, O blessed mother, and you will remain with you all the days of your life. We believe without a doubt that even after your dormition, this blessing remains richly with you. For this reason, I give our prayers: do not deprive us, who are still wandering on the earth, of your help and intercession, asking the Lord for - May you have mercy on all who sing to Him: Alleluia.

Ikos 12

Sing your many and wondrous chu-de-sa, ma-ti Matrono, we praise God, yes-ro-vav-sha-go to the city of Moscow and to the Fatherland on- Here, in the days of godlessness and persecution, you, the incomparable pillar of goodness and faith. Now, blessed mother, with a grateful heart we sing to you:

Rejoice, you have gained the peace of Christ in your soul; Rejoice, behold, many people have brought you to God.

Rejoice, being in a weak body, who showed the power of God’s goodness; Rejoice, in the acquisition of your honorable powers, God’s mercy has shown us.

Rejoice, great prosperity to the host of Moscow saints; Rejoice, city of Moscow, most glorious decoration.

Rejoice, dearest sorrower of our Fatherland before God; Rejoice, calling everyone to repentance and prayer for the lands of Russia.

Rejoice, righteous mother Matrono, warm about us to God in the prayer book.

Kontakion 13

Oh, blessed ma-ti, hear the now unsung hymn of praise and the prayer of the Lord Jesus for us, Christ has left us with sins -le-nie, Christian-an-peaceful ending and a good answer at His Last Judgment, and we will be able to achieve it in the villages of heavenly glory Holy Trinity, drinking: Alleluia.

This kontakion is read three times, then the 1st ikos “An-gel in the flesh...” and the 1st kontakion “Chosen by the Spirit of God...”.

Prayer

Oh, blessed mother Matrono, with a soul in Heaven before the Most Holy Table of God, who rest in body on the earth, and the blessing given to you from above this year, various chu-de-sa are exuding, look now with your merciful eye on us, sinners, in a hurry, in pain and in sin. Our days of waiting for our temptations, consoling us, desperate ones, having cured our fierce spirits, from God we are forgiven for our sins, saving us from many troubles and troubles. Standing, did the Lord of our Jesus Christ ask us to forgive all our sins, without sin and the fall, for which we have been born since our youth even to this day and hour we have sinned, and we pray for your blessing and great mercy, we glorify in the Trinity of One God, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.

Canon of the Holy Righteous Matrona of Moscow

Song 1.

Irmos:Having passed through the water like dry land, and having escaped the Egyptian evil, the Israelite cried out: Let us sing to the Savior and our God.

All-Merciful God, grant us, unworthy, praise to Your saint Matrona, our fair intercessor and prayer worker before You.

You were wounded by love for Christ from the swaddling clothes of your baby, and You served Him unslothfully in your life, blessed mother.

The chosen vessel of the Holy Spirit appeared to you, for the grace of God from the holy font until the end of your days diligently warmed you, blessed mother.

Theotokos: We sing the Arkhangelsk hymn to You, O Pure One: Rejoice, O Joyful Mary, Mother of Christ God, who always prays for our race.

Song 3.

Irmos:The Supreme Creator of the heavenly circle, O Lord, and the Creator of the Church, You confirm me in Your love, the desires of the land, the true affirmation, the only one who loves mankind.

By your life pleasing to God and righteously, you have been sanctified, O blessed mother, and so we, who come running to you with faith, may help us to be filled with the grace of God.

Christ, the Lover of mankind, whom you have loved from your youth, holy mother, pray that we may be established on the rock of His commandments.

The Lord, the Creator of the Church, has made you, the righteous mother, a light-like child of the church, and strengthened you in His love, as the Lover of Mankind.

Theotokos: Heavens and earths to the Queen, Mother of God the Virgin, and the Church of the Intercession, Omnipotent, establish this monastery unshakably in piety.

Sedalen, voice 4.

By your name, blessed Matrona, your life was quick, your wanderings, reproaches and sorrows were imputed to nothing, the lady appeared to you not only in name, but also in spirit. In the same way, you acquired all the needs of the Kingdom for the sake of God and you were enriched by God.

Song 4.

Irmos:I have heard, Lord, the sight of Your sacrament, I have understood Your works and glorified Your Divinity.

The look of God on you was especially evident, blessed mother, as you were blind and weak in body, you were enriched with the gift of sight and miracles and adorned with an imperishable crown from the Lord ́.

Thou hast despised the wisdom of the flesh, O blessed one, but in the wisdom by which the Lord makes the blind wise, thou art greatly enriched.

Like the alabaster of the world, sweet-smelling the borders of Russia, we, Matrono the righteous, flock to you from all over the people of our land, asking for intercession.

Theotokos: We bless you of all, O Most Holy Virgin, who seeks the perishing, heals the weak and intercedes the orphans.

Song 5.

Irmos:Enlighten us with Your commandments, O Lord, and with Your lofty arm grant us Your peace, O Lover of Mankind.

Christ, the True Light, has enlightened your mind, holy mother, to the understanding of His commandments, and you have diligently endeavored to serve Him in your life.

Illuminated by the Light of Christ, in this godless and sin-loving world you appeared like a pillar of fire, shining in the darkness, righteous Matrono.

Like a multi-bright star, you have shone in your life, righteous Matrono, showing the true path to erring people. Sitsa and now settled in the Heavenly abodes, pray to enlighten and save our souls.

Theotokos: You who gave birth to the Divine and Eternal Light, Bride of God, resolve the darkness of our sins.

Song 6.

Irmos:I will pour out a prayer to the Lord and to Him I will proclaim my sorrows, for my soul is filled with evil and my life is drawing near to hell, and I pray like Jonah: from aphids, O God, lift me up.

Offering prayers to God, all the needs and sorrows were proclaimed by you, the righteous mother, and, like Jonah in the belly of the whale, you cried out in great sorrow: God, from the depths angry, raise me up.

With the help of God, having humbly endured all your needs, righteous Matrono, you defeated the enemy’s power through your prayer. Moreover, now we have received the abundant grace of Christ and prayed that we may be delivered from the villainy of the devil.

By your many deeds, righteous Matrono, you stood against the wiles of the devil, waging war with the ruler of the darkness of this age. Also, pray for us now, that we may receive all the weapons of God and be able to resist in the days of fierce spiritual wickedness in high places.

Theotokos: Who gave birth to hell and death, the Victorious, Most Pure Virgin, pray to the Lord and Your Son to deliver us from their crimes.

Kontakion, tone 7.

Pre-chosen to the service of Christ from the womb, the righteous Matrono, walking the path of sorrows and sorrows, having demonstrated firm faith and piety, you pleased God. Moreover, honoring your memory, we pray to you: help us to abide in God’s love, blessed old lady.

Song 7.

Irmos:From Judea the children came, in Babylon, sometimes, by the faith of the Trinity, they quenched the fire of the furnace, singing: O God of the fathers, blessed art thou.

Wickedness kindled in our land, like the fire of old in the caves of Babylon, trying to burn the fatherly faith in people, but you, blessed one, taught those who come to you to sing by faith: Thank God, blessed are you.

Torment against God, apostasy from the law of God, the fire of persecution in our country kindled, but you, righteous Matrono, gave spiritual dew to those who came to you by the power of Christ, They will not be completely destroyed, but they will always sing: Father God, blessed are you.

To the angel of God, in the cave of Babylon, the lad of old who quenched the fiery flame, you became likened to the Russian people in the days of wickedness by your prayers from the evil tongues You made it possible for those who were damaged to be harmed, teaching you to cry: Father God, blessed are you.

Theotokos: We resort to Your protection, Virgin, Burning Bush, our sins, like harmful thorns, have fallen through Your prayers, and with a pure heart we cry: Father God, blessed are you.

Song 8.

Irmos:Praise and extol the King of Heaven, Whom all the angels sing, praise and extol forever.

You loved the King of Heaven from your youth, and You, blessed one, served Him with diligence until the end of your days. Now eat with the faces of the angels: Sing to the Lord and exalt Him to all ages.

Diligently observing the commandments of the Lord, you have appeared as a pillar of piety for Russia, O blessed mother, just as the righteous man of Kronstadt predicted about you. With him exalt Christ forever.

Many people of Russia, captivated by godlessness, through your prayers, righteous Matrono, returned to the path of salvation and, strengthened in the faith of the righteous, sang to the Triune God: Sing to the Lord and exalt Eat Him forever.

Theotokos: Who gave birth to the King of Heaven, who came into the world to seek us who are perishing, We magnify You, Mother of God.

Song 9.

Irmos:Truly we confess Theotokos, saved by You, Pure Virgin, with disembodied faces magnifying Thee.

Oh, great miracle, dry bones exude healing and our spirit raises our corruptible nature to the Imperishable God. For this reason, we magnify blessed Matrona.

The city of Moscow and the monastery of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, where your honorable relics rest, righteous Matrono, save from all misfortunes and evils and establish in the right faith and piety of all who revere you ́.

The incredible prayer, the sailor is blessed, and, as well, was promised, they will come to give a lie, and we will be stolen in the villages of the Slavic glory to the Holy of Three.

Theotokos: Thy true chosen one, Mother of God, vema, blessed Matrona: this is because on the day of veneration of Thy icon, the Quick to Hear was born, in the temple of Thy Dormition was baptized, the image of Thy Quest of God Whoever was written with her care, also with her body in the monastery of Your honorable Protection rests and prays for our souls.

Luminous.

The angels of the Lord lifted up your holy soul, blessed Matrono, to the Throne of the King of Glory, where you triumph with all the saints and pray for our souls.

Books, articles, poems

Why is Blessed Matrona depicted with open eyes on some icons, and with closed eyes on others?

The basis of icon painting is the canon, that is, the rule. On the other hand, during work we constantly have questions for ourselves. Including when we paint icons of recently glorified saints - martyrs, righteous people, blessed ones of the 20th century. There is no clearly established iconography here, but there are lifetime photographs...

The Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow today is perhaps one of the most famous and revered saints. She became famous for her righteousness and miracles through prayers to God during her lifetime. On this disc you will find many authentic testimonies about the help of the blessed Matrona to everyone who flows with faith to her intercession before God...

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We take the Lenten book (the liturgical book, which is especially prayed during the days of Great Lent) and see: the first three weeks of Great Lent are devoted primarily to dogma, theology, edification in the correct understanding of faith and salvation, and only the last two - to the practical side of repentance, with examples of almost unattainable for modern man. The “watershed” of these weeks will be the remembrance of the Cross of the Lord, balancing the theory and practice of the Church, affirming their inseparability.

God's Chosen Matrona, baptism

At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22).

Infancy and childhood

From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing the sick.

When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: “You are my unfortunate child!” - She was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have Vanya, the unfortunate one, and Misha.” She understood that she was given much more from God than others.

The first miracles of Matronushka's foresight

Adolescence, legend about the meeting with Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Some of Matrona's prophetic predictions

Writing the Icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”

With the money collected in the villages, with the blessing of Matrona, another icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost” was commissioned in Bogoroditsk.

Icons of the Blessed Matrona, miracles of clairvoyance

Miraculous healings of people, through the prayers of Mother Matrona

Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many.

Last move to Moscow, in 1925

The blessed one loved Moscow very much, she said that “this is a holy city, the heart of Russia.” Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their home of the blessed one, who received people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Feeling sorry for them, as well as for her elderly parents (Matrona’s mother died in 1945), Mother moved to Moscow. They began wandering around relatives and friends, in houses, apartments, basements. Matrona lived almost everywhere without registration, and miraculously escaped arrest several times. The novices—hozhalki—lived with her and looked after her.

This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult; there was no choice.

Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her loved ones were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of a church-monarchist group.

Living in Moscow, Matrona visited her village - either they would call her on some business, or she would miss home, her mother.

Helping people, miraculous healings. How Matrona healed and prayed

Once in 1939 or 1940, Matrona said: “Now you are all quarreling, dividing, but the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win.”

One day, four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When her mother scolded her, she weakened and was healed.

Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, a man and his wife were traveling with us to discharge their daughter from the hospital. We rode back together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) started barking. I say to her mother: “I feel sorry for you, we are driving past Tsaritsyno, let’s take our daughter to Matronushka...” This girl’s father, the general, at first didn’t want to hear anything, he said that it was all fiction. But his wife insisted, and we went to Matronushka... And so they began to bring the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, her hands like sticks, then she began to spit on Matronushka and struggled. Matrona says: “Leave her, now she won’t do anything.” The girl was released. She fell, began to thrash and spin around on the floor, and began vomiting blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. They looked after her. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked: “Mom, where are we?” She answers her: “We, daughter, are with a perspicacious man...” And she told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on, the girl was completely healed.”

Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said: “He, he, now I’ll clip your wings, fight, fight bye!” “Who are you?” - he will ask, and the person will suddenly begin to buzz. Mother will say again: “Who are you?” - and it will buzz even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito has fought, now that’s enough!” And the person leaves healed.

She was generally taciturn and briefly answered questions from those who came. Some of her general instructions remain.

Matronushka did not allow us to attach significance to dreams: “Don’t pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, to confuse him with thoughts.”

Here are her words: “The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion—the deception of souls—will be obvious, beware.” “If you go to an elder or priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make him wise to give the right advice.” She taught me not to be interested in priests and their lives. She advised those who wished for Christian perfection not to stand out externally among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught patience in sorrows. 3. She said to V. Zhdanova: “Go to church and don’t look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, icon.” St. Seraphim of Sarov and other holy fathers also have similar instructions. In general, there was nothing in Matrona’s instructions that would run counter to the patristic teaching.

Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - you must definitely pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on the right is an angel, and each has his own book: our sins are written in one, and good deeds in the other. Get baptized often! The cross is the same lock as on the door.” She instructed not to forget to baptize food. “By the power of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, save yourself and defend yourself!”

About sorcerers, militant theomachism of people, the destruction of temples and mass apostasy from the church

Mother revered the late priest Valentin Amfitheatrov. She said that he was great before God and that at his grave he helped the suffering; she sent some of her visitors to fetch sand from his grave.

On the days of the demonstration, mother asked everyone not to go out into the street, to close windows, vents, doors - hordes of demons occupy all the space, all the air and embrace all people. (Perhaps Blessed Matrona, who often spoke allegorically, wanted to remind us of the need to keep the “windows of the soul” closed from the spirits of evil - as the Holy Fathers call human feelings.)

Spiritual life and prayer rule of Mother Matrona

Wanting to lift the veil over her spiritual life, some curious visitors tried to spy on what Matrona did at night. One girl saw that she was praying and bowing all night...

Not knowing the spiritual life of mother, nevertheless, people did not doubt her holiness, that she was a real ascetic. Matrona's feat consisted of great patience, coming from purity of heart and ardent love for God. It is precisely this kind of patience that will save Christians in the last times that the holy fathers of the Church prophesied. Like a true ascetic, the blessed one taught not with words, but with her whole life. Although physically blind, she taught and continues to teach true spiritual vision. Unable to walk, she taught and teaches to walk the difficult path of salvation.

The end of earthly life (death) of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow

During the war there were many cases when she answered those who came to their questions - whether he was alive or not. He will tell someone - he’s alive, wait. For some, a funeral service and commemoration.

Countrymen from her native places often visited her, then from all the surrounding villages they wrote notes to her, and she answered them. They came to her from two hundred and three hundred kilometers away, and she knew the person’s name. There were both Muscovites and visitors from other cities who heard about the perspicacious mother. People of different ages: young, old, and middle-aged. She accepted some, but not others. She spoke to some in parables, to others in simple language.

Zinaida once complained to her mother: “Mother, my nerves...” And she: “What nerves, after all, in war and in prison there are no nerves... You have to control yourself, be patient.”

Mother instructed that it was necessary to undergo treatment. The body is a house. Given by God, it needs to be repaired. God created the world, medicinal herbs, and this cannot be neglected.

Posthumous instructions to people from Matrona

The blessed one predicted: “After my death, few people will go to my grave, only close ones, and when they die, my grave will be deserted, except occasionally someone will come... But after many years, people will learn about me and will go in droves for help in their sorrows and with requests to pray for them to the Lord God, and I will help everyone and hear everyone.”

Final word

Blessed Matrona was an Orthodox person in the deep, traditional meaning of the word. Compassion for people, coming from the fullness of a loving heart, prayer, the sign of the cross, fidelity to the holy statutes of the Orthodox Church - this was the focus of her intense spiritual life. The nature of her feat is rooted in the centuries-old traditions of popular piety. Therefore, the help that people receive by prayerfully turning to the righteous woman brings spiritual fruits: people are confirmed in the Orthodox faith, become churchgoers externally and internally, and become involved in everyday prayer life.

Blessed Matrona (Matrona Dimitrievna Nikonova) was born in 1881 in the village of Sebino, Epifansky district (now Kimovsky district) of the Tula province. This village is located about twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikovo Field. Her parents - Dimitri and Natalia, peasants - were pious people, worked honestly, and lived poorly. The family had four children: two brothers - Ivan and Mikhail, and two sisters - Maria and Matrona. Matrona was the youngest. When she was born, her parents were no longer young.
Given the need in which the Nikonovs lived, the fourth child could, first of all, become an extra mouth. Therefore, due to poverty, even before the birth of the last child, the mother decided to get rid of him. There could be no question of killing a baby in the womb of a patriarchal peasant family. But there were many orphanages where illegitimate and disadvantaged children were raised at public expense or at the expense of benefactors.
Matrona’s mother decided to send her unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she saw a prophetic dream. The unborn daughter appeared to Natalia in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes and sat on her right hand. Taking the dream as a sign, the God-fearing woman gave up the idea of sending the child to an orphanage. The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her “unfortunate child.”
Holy Scripture testifies that the Omniscient God sometimes chooses servants for Himself even before their birth. Thus, the Lord says to the holy prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you” (Jer. 1:5). The Lord, having chosen Matrona for a special service, from the very beginning laid a heavy cross on her, which she bore with humility and patience all her life.

Infancy

At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22).
The fact that the girl was chosen by God was evidenced by the fact that at baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke above the baby. This was reported by a relative of the blessed Pavel Ivanovich Prokhorov, who was present at the baptism. The priest, Father Vasily, whom the parishioners revered as righteous and blessed, was incredibly surprised: “I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy.” Father Vasily also told Natalia: “If a girl asks for something, you will definitely contact me directly, go and say directly what is needed.”
He added that Matrona would take his place and even predict his death. This is what happened later. One night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The surprised and frightened parents ran to the priest's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he had indeed just died. They also talk about the external, physical sign of the baby’s chosenness by God - on the girl’s chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, a miraculous pectoral cross. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother once began to scold her: “Why are you taking off your cross?” “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. “Dear daughter,” Natalia came to her senses, “forgive me!” And I keep scolding you..."
Natalia’s friend later said that when Matrona was still a baby, her mother complained: “What should I do? The girl doesn’t breastfeed on Wednesday and Friday, she sleeps for days on these days, it’s impossible to wake her up.”
Matrona was not just blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like those of the white bird her mother had seen in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in infancy, at night, when her parents were sleeping, she would sneak into the holy corner, in some incomprehensible way she would take icons off the shelf, put them on the table and play with them in the silence of the night.
Matronushka was often teased by children, even mocked at her: the girls lashed her with nettles, knowing that she would not see who exactly was offending her. They put her in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped her way out of there and wandered home. Therefore, she stopped playing with children early and almost always stayed at home.

Opening a Gift

From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing the sick. The Nikonovs' house was located near the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The temple is beautiful, one for seven or eight surrounding villages.
Matrona’s parents were distinguished by deep piety and loved to attend divine services together. Matronushka literally grew up in church, going to services first with her mother, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where her daughter was, her mother usually found her in church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, near the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the singers. Apparently, even in childhood, Matrona acquired the gift of unceasing prayer.
When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: “You are my unfortunate child!” - she was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have Vanya, the unfortunate one, and Misha.” She understood that she was given much more from God than others.
Matrona was marked by God from an early age with the gift of spiritual reasoning, insight, miracles and healing. Those close to her began to notice that she knew not only human sins and crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger and foresaw natural and social disasters. Through her prayer, people received healing from illnesses and consolation in sorrows. Visitors began to come and visit her. People were coming to the Nikonovs’ hut, carts and carts with the sick from the surrounding villages and hamlets, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought in bedridden patients, whom the girl raised to their feet. Wanting to thank Matrona, they left food and gifts for her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden to the family, became its main breadwinner.
Matrona's parents loved to go to church together. One day on a holiday, Matrona’s mother gets dressed and calls her husband with her. But he refused and did not go. At home he read prayers, sang, Matrona was also at home. The mother, while in the temple, kept thinking about her husband: “Well, he didn’t go.” And I was still worried. The liturgy ended, Natalia came home, and Matrona said to her: “You, mother, were not in church.” “How was it not? I just arrived and I’m undressing!” And the girl remarks: “My father was in the temple, but you were not there.” With spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only physically.
One autumn Matronushka was sitting on a rubble. Her mother says to her: “Why are you sitting there, it’s cold, go to the hut.” Matrona replies: “I can’t sit at home, they put fire on me and stab me with pitchforks.” The mother is perplexed: “There is no one there.” And Matrona explains to her: “You, mom, don’t understand, Satan is tempting me!”
One day Matrona says to her mother: “Mom, get ready, I’ll have a wedding soon.” The mother told the priest, he came and gave the girl communion (he always gave her communion at home at her request). And suddenly, after a few days, carts go and go to the Nikonovs’ house, people come with their troubles and sorrows, they carry the sick, and for some reason everyone asks Matronushka. She read prayers over them and healed many. Her mother asks: “Matryushenka, what is this?” And she replies: “I told you there will be a wedding.”
Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona’s brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: “I’ll leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you won’t burn.” And indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind spread the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother’s house remained intact.

Boyhood

In her adolescence she had the opportunity to travel. The daughter of a local landowner, a pious and kind girl Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages: to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to St. Petersburg, and other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has reached us about Matronushka’s meeting with the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who, at the end of the service in St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Kronstadt, asked the people to make way for the 14-year-old Matrona, who was approaching the salt, and said publicly: “Matronushka, come, come to me. Here comes my shift - the eighth pillar of Russia.”
Mother did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives guessed that Father John foresaw a special service for Matronushka to Russia and the Russian people during the times of persecution of the Church.
A little time passed, and in her seventeenth year Matrona lost the ability to walk: her legs suddenly became paralyzed. Mother herself pointed to the spiritual cause of the disease. She walked through the temple after communion and knew that a woman would approach her and take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. “I didn’t avoid it - it was God’s will.”
Until the end of her days she was “sedentary.” And her stay - in different houses and apartments where she found shelter - continued for another fifty years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God.

Revolutionary time

Even at an early age, Matrona predicted the revolution, how “they will rob, destroy churches and drive everyone away.” She figuratively showed how they would divide the land, grab plots of land greedily, just to grab the extra for themselves, and then everyone would abandon the land and run in all directions. Nobody will need the land.
Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov before the revolution to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plunder of his estate and would have avoided an early, untimely death, and his daughter would have avoided wanderings.
Matrona’s fellow villager, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution, one lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: “I want to build a bell tower.”
“What you are planning to do will not come true,” Matrona answers. The lady was surprised: “How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?” So nothing came of the construction of the bell tower.

Creation of the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”

About Matrona's insight

People were also surprised by the fact that Matrona had the usual, like sighted people, idea of the world around her. To the sympathetic appeal of a person close to her, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova: “It’s a pity, mother, that you don’t see the beauty of the world!” - she once answered: “God once opened my eyes and showed me the world and His creation. And I saw the sun, and the stars in the sky, and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, green grass, flowers, birds..."
But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed one’s foresight. Z.V. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my diploma project “Ministry of the Navy” (I was then studying at the Architectural Institute in Moscow). My boss, for some unknown reason, was following me all the time. For five months, he never consulted me, deciding to “fail” my diploma. Two weeks before the defense, he announced to me: “Tomorrow a commission will come and confirm the inconsistency of your work!” I came home in tears: my father was in prison, there was no one to help, my mother was dependent on me, my only hope was to protect myself and work.
Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing, you’ll defend yourself! We’ll have tea in the evening and talk!” I could barely wait for the evening, and then my mother said: “You and I will go to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, and see the works of the great masters...” And she began to list the streets and buildings! She stopped: “Here is Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - the three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two entrance arches.” I was shocked by her behavior. In the morning I ran to the institute, put tracing paper on the project and made all the corrections with brown ink. At ten o'clock the commission arrived. They looked at my project and said: “Well, the project turned out great, it looks great - defend yourself!”

Miracles of Matrona

Many people came to Matrona for help. Four kilometers from Sebino lived a man whose legs could not walk. Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. He’ll crawl by three o’clock.” He crawled these four kilometers, and walked away from her on his own feet, healed.
One day, women from the village of Orlovka came to Matrona during Easter week. The matron received while sitting by the window. She gave prosphora to one, water to another, a red egg to the third, and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they left the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They all got scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona said: “What, is there a nasty mouse?” - “Matronushka, how can you eat it?” - “How did you sell milk to people, especially to orphans, widows, and the poor who don’t have a cow? The mouse was in the milk, you pulled it out, and gave the milk to people.” The woman says: “Matronushka, they didn’t see the mouse and didn’t know, I threw it out of there.” - “God knows that you were selling mouse milk!”
Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many.
A.F. Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of one of these healings. “My mother comes from the village of Ustye, and she had a brother there. One day he gets up - neither his arms nor his legs move, they become like whips. But he did not believe in Matrona’s healing abilities. My brother’s daughter went to the village of Sebino to pick up my mother: “Godmother, let’s go quickly, things are bad with my father, he’s become like a fool: he’s dropped his hands, his eyes aren’t looking, his tongue can barely move.” Then my mother harnessed a horse and she and my father rode to Ustye. We arrived at my brother’s, and he looked at my mother and barely said “sister.” She gathered her brother and brought him to our village. She left him at home and went to Matryusha to ask if she could bring him. She comes, and Matryusha says to her: “Well, your brother said that I couldn’t do anything, but he himself became like a whip.” And she hasn’t seen him yet! Then she said: “Bring him to me, I will help.” She read prayers over him, gave him water, and sleep fell on him. He slept like a log and woke up completely healthy in the morning. “Thank your sister, her faith healed you,” was all Matrona said to her brother.”
The help that Matrona gave to the sick not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during which the “healer” comes into contact with a dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely during the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only clergy or ascetic monks, but also righteous people who lived in the world healed those in need of help through prayer.
Matrona read prayers over the water and gave it to those who came to her.
Those who drank the water and sprinkled it with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the blessing of water according to the rite established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life of holy people near them, and the appearance of miraculous icons.

Moving to Moscow, wanderings

In 1925, Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days. In this huge capital city there were many unfortunate, lost, those who had fallen from the faith, spiritually sick people with a poisoned consciousness. Living for about three decades in Moscow, she performed that spiritual and prayer service that turned many away from death and led to salvation. The blessed one loved Moscow very much, she said that “this is a holy city, the heart of Russia”
Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their home of the blessed one, who received people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Feeling sorry for them, as well as for her elderly parents (Matrona’s mother died in 1945), Mother moved to Moscow. The wanderings began around family friends, houses, apartments, basements. Matrona lived almost everywhere without registration, and miraculously escaped arrest several times. The novices—hozhalki—lived with her and looked after her. This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult; there was no choice. 3.B. Zhdanova told what hardships the blessed one sometimes had to endure: “I arrived in Sokolniki, where mother often lived in a small plywood house, given to her for a while. It was deep autumn. I entered the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and dank steam, an iron stove-potbelly stove was burning. I went up to my mother, and she was lying on the bed, facing the wall, she couldn’t turn to me, her hair was frozen to the wall, she could barely pull it off. I said in horror: “Mother, how can this happen? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and what happened to him is unknown, but we have two rooms in a warm house, forty-eight square meters, a separate entrance; why didn’t you ask to come to us?” Mother sighed heavily and said: “God did not order so that you would not regret it later.” Before the war, Matrona lived on Ulyanovskaya Street with priest Vasily, the husband of her novice Pelageya, while he was free. She lived on Pyatnitskaya Street, in Sokolniki (in a summer plywood building), in Vishnyakovsky Lane (in her niece’s basement), she also lived at the Nikitsky Gate, in Petrovsko-Razumovsky, she visited her nephew in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), in Tsaritsyno. She lived the longest (from 1942 to 1949) on Arbat, in Starokonyushenny Lane. Here, in an old wooden mansion, in a 48-meter room, lived Matrona’s fellow villager, E.M. Zhdanova with her daughter Zinaida. It was in this room that three corners were occupied by icons, from top to bottom. Antique lamps hung in front of the icons, and heavy expensive curtains hung on the windows (before the revolution, the house belonged to Zhdanova’s husband, who came from a rich and noble family). They say that Matrona left some places in a hurry, foreseeing impending troubles in spirit, always on the eve of the police coming to her, since she lived without registration. Times were hard, and people were afraid to register it. In this way she saved not only herself, but also the hosts who sheltered her, from repression. Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her loved ones were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of a church-monarchist group. Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova said that Matrona’s nephew Ivan lived in Zagorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her. He came to his boss and said: “I want to take time off from you, I just can’t, I need to go to my aunt.” He arrived without knowing what was going on. And Matrona says to him: “Come on, come on, take me quickly to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law.” As soon as they left, the police came. It happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the day before. Anna Filippovna Vybornova recalls such an incident. One day a policeman came to take Matrona away, and she said to him: “Go, go quickly, there is misfortune in your house! But the blind woman won’t get away from you, I sit on the bed, I don’t go anywhere.” He obeyed. I went home, and his wife was burned from the kerosene gas. But he managed to get her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: “Well, did you take the blind woman?” And he replies: “I will never take a blind one. If the blind woman hadn’t told me, I would have lost my wife, but I still managed to take her to the hospital.” Living in Moscow, Matrona visited her village - either they would call her on some business, or she would miss home, her mother. Outwardly, her life flowed monotonously: during the day - receiving people, at night - prayer. Like the ancient ascetics, she never really went to bed, but dozed off, lying on her side, on her fist.

War years

Years passed like this. Once in 1939 or 1940, Matrona said: “Now you are all quarreling, dividing, but the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win.” At the beginning of 1941, Z. V. Zhdanova’s cousin Olga Noskova asked her mother for advice on whether she should go on vacation (they gave her a ticket, but she didn’t want to go on vacation in the winter). Mother said: “You need to go on vacation now, then there will be no vacations for a long, long time. There will be a war. Victory will be ours, the enemy will not touch Moscow, it will only burn a little. There is no need to leave Moscow.” When the war began, mother asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of equal length, peeled them from the bark and prayed. Her neighbors recalled that her fingers were covered in wounds. Matrona could be spiritually present in various places; for her spiritual gaze, space did not exist. She often said that she was invisible at the fronts, helping our soldiers. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tula. Her prophecy came true.

Helping people during this period

Matrona received up to forty people a day. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She refused to help anyone, except those who came with crafty intentions. Others saw in mother a folk healer who had the power to remove damage or the evil eye, but after communicating with her they realized that this was a man of God, and they turned to the Church and its saving sacraments. Helping her people was selfless; she did not take anything from anyone. Mother always read her prayers loudly. Those who knew her closely say that these prayers were well-known, read in church and at home: “Our Father,” “May God rise again,” the ninetieth psalm, “Lord Almighty, God of hosts and all flesh” (from morning prayers). She emphasized that it was not herself who helped, but God through her prayers: “What, Matronushka is God, or what? God helps! - she answers Ksenia Gavrilovna Potapova when asked to help her. Healing the sick, mother demanded that they believe in God and correct their sinful lives. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another, who fell ill with epilepsy, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, to confess at each and receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ. She blesses those living in a civil marriage to be sure to get married in the Church. Everyone is required to wear a cross. What did people come to mother with? With the usual troubles: incurable illness, disappearance, husband leaving the family, unhappy love, loss of job, persecution from superiors... With everyday needs and questions. Should I get married? Should I change my place of residence or service? There were no less sick people, obsessed with various ailments: someone suddenly fell ill, someone for no apparent reason began to bark, someone’s arms and legs were cramped, someone was haunted by hallucinations. Popularly, such people are called “corrupted” sorcerers, healers, and sorcerers. These are people who, as people say, have been “done”, who have been subjected to special demonic influence. One day, four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When her mother scolded her, she weakened and was healed. Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, my husband and his wife were traveling with us to discharge their daughter from the hospital. We rode back together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) started barking. I say to her mother: “I feel sorry for you, we are driving past Tsaritsyno, let’s take our daughter to Matronushka...” This girl’s father, a general, at first didn’t want to hear anything, he said that it was all fiction. But his wife insisted, and we went to Matronushka... And so they began to bring the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, her hands were like sticks, then she began to spit on Matronushka and struggled. Matrona says: “Leave her, now she won’t do anything.” The girl was released. She fell, began to thrash and spin around on the floor, and began vomiting blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. They looked after her. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked: “Mom, where are we?” She answers her: “We, daughter, are with a perspicacious man...” And she told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on, the girl was completely healed.” Z.V. Zhdanova says that in 1946, a woman who occupied a high position was brought to their apartment, where Matrona then lived. Her only son went crazy, her husband died at the front, and she herself, of course, was an atheist. She traveled with her sick son to Europe, but famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Matrona asked: “If the Lord cures your son, will you believe in God?” The woman said, “I don’t know what it’s like to believe.” Then Matrona asked for water and, in the presence of the unfortunate mother, began to read a prayer loudly over the water. Then handing her this water, the blessed one said: “Go now to Kashchenko (a psychiatric hospital in Moscow - editor's note), agree with the orderlies so that they hold him tightly when they take him out. He will fight, and you try to splash this water in his eyes and be sure to get it in his mouth.” Zinaida Vladimirovna recalls: “After some time, my brother and I witnessed how this woman came to Matrona again. She thanked her mother on her knees, saying that her son was now healthy. And it was like this. She arrived at the hospital and did everything as mother ordered. There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she came from the other side.
The bottle of water was in her pocket. The son struggled and shouted: “Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, don’t torture me!” She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water into his eyes, got it into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: “How good!” He was soon discharged." Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said: “Oh, oh, now I’ll cut your wings, fight, fight, bye!” “Who are you?” - he will ask, and the person will suddenly begin to buzz. Mother will say again: “Who are you?” - and it will buzz even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito has fought, now that’s enough!” And the person leaves healed. Matrona also helped those whose family life was not going well. One day a woman came to her and told her that she was not married for love, and she was not living well with her husband. Matrona answers her: “Who is to blame? It's your fault. Because the Lord is our head, and the Lord is in male form, and we women must obey a man, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. It’s your fault that you don’t live well with him...” This woman listened to the blessed one, and her family life improved.

Matronushka's instructions

“Mother Matrona fought all her life for every soul that came to her,” recalls Zinaida Zhdanova, “and won. She never lamented or complained about the difficulties of her feat. I can’t forgive myself for never feeling sorry for Mother, even though I saw how difficult it was for her, how she was rooting for each of us. The light of those days still warms us. In the house, lamps glowed in front of the images; mother’s love and her silence enveloped the soul. There was holiness, joy, peace, and gracious warmth in the house. There was a war going on, and we lived like in heaven.” How do people close to you remember Matrona? With miniature, child-like, short arms and legs. Sitting cross-legged on a bed or chest. Fluffy hair parted in the middle. Eyelids tightly closed. Kind bright face. Affectionate voice. She consoled, calmed the sick, stroked their heads, made the sign of the cross, sometimes joked, sometimes sternly rebuked and instructed. She was not strict, she was tolerant of human weaknesses, compassionate, warm, sympathetic, always joyful, and never complained about her illnesses and suffering. Mother did not preach, did not teach. She gave specific advice on what to do in a given situation, prayed and blessed. She was generally taciturn and briefly answered questions from those who came. Some of her general instructions remain. Mother taught us not to judge our neighbors. She said: “Why judge other people? Think about yourself more often. Each sheep will be hung by its tail. What do you care about other ponytails?” Matrona taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often apply the sign of the cross to yourself and surrounding objects, thereby protecting yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. “Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion... Let the lamps burn in front of the icons.” She also taught to love and forgive the old and infirm. “If old people, sick people, or people who have lost their minds say something unpleasant or offensive to you, then don’t listen, just help them. You need to help the sick with all diligence and you need to forgive them, no matter what they say or do.” Matronushka did not allow us to attach significance to dreams: “Don’t pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, to confuse him with thoughts.” Matrona warned not to run around among confessors in search of “elders” or “seers.” Running around different fathers, she said, you can lose spiritual strength and the right direction in life. Here are her words: “The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion—the deception of souls—will be obvious, beware.” “If you go to an elder or priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make him wise to give the right advice.” She taught not to be interested in priests and their lives. She advised those who wished for Christian perfection not to stand out externally among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught patience in sorrows.
3.B. She told Zhdanova: “Go to church and don’t look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, icon.” St. Seraphim of Sarov and other holy fathers also have similar instructions. In general, there was nothing in Matrona’s instructions that would run counter to the patristic teaching. Mother said that putting on makeup, that is, using decorative cosmetics, is a great sin: a person spoils and distorts the image of human nature, complements what the Lord did not give, creates fake beauty, this leads to corruption. About the girls who believed in God, Matrona said: “God will forgive everything to you girls if you are devoted to God. Anyone who condemns herself not to get married must hold on until the end. The Lord will give a crown for this.” Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - you must definitely pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on the right is an angel, and each has his own book: our sins are written in one, and good deeds in the other. Get baptized often! The cross is the same lock as on the door.” She instructed not to forget to baptize food. “By the power of the Honest and Life-Giving Cross, save yourself and defend yourself!” Mother said about sorcerers: “For someone who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, took up sorcery, there is no way out. You can’t turn to grandmothers, they will cure one thing, but harm your soul.” Mother often told her loved ones that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil forces, and invisibly fighting them. One day a handsome old man came to her, with a beard, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her, all in tears and said: “My only son is dying.” And mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: “What did you do to him? To death or not? He answered: “To death.” And mother says: “Go, go away from me, there is no need for you to come to me.” After he left, she said: “The sorcerers know God! If only you would pray like they do when they beg God’s forgiveness for their evil!” Mother revered the late priest Valentin Amfitheatrov. She said that he was great before God and that at his grave he helped the suffering; she sent some of her visitors to fetch sand from his grave.

Memories of Matronushka

The massive falling away of people from the Church, militant atheism, growing alienation and anger between people, the rejection of traditional faith by millions and sinful life without repentance have led many to grave spiritual consequences. Matrona understood and felt this well. On the days of demonstrations, mother asked everyone not to go out into the street, to close windows, vents, doors - hordes of demons occupy all the space, all the air and embrace all people. (Perhaps Blessed Matrona, who often spoke allegorically, wanted to remind us of the need to keep the “windows of the soul” closed from the spirits of evil - this is what the holy fathers call human feelings.) 3.B. Zhdanova asked mother: “How did the Lord allow so many churches to be closed and destroyed?” (She meant the years after the revolution.) And mother answered: “This is the will of God, the number of churches has been reduced because there will be few believers and there will be no one to serve.” “Why isn’t anyone fighting?” She: “The people are under hypnosis, not themselves, a terrible force has come into action... This force exists in the air, penetrates everywhere. Previously, swamps and dense forests were the habitat of this power, because people went to churches, wore crosses, and houses were protected by images, lamps and consecration. Demons flew past such houses, and now people are also inhabited by demons due to their unbelief and rejection of God.” Wanting to lift the veil over her spiritual life, some curious visitors tried to spy on what Matrona did at night. One girl saw that she had been praying and bowing all night... Living with the Zhdanovs in Starokonyushenny Lane, Matronushka confessed and received communion from the priest Dimitri from the church on Krasnaya Presnya. Continuous prayer helped Blessed Matrona to carry the cross of serving people, which was a real feat and martyrdom, the highest manifestation of love. Scolding the possessed, praying for everyone, sharing people’s sorrows, mother was so tired that by the end of the day she could not even talk to her loved ones and only moaned quietly, lying on her fist. The inner, spiritual life of the blessed one still remained a mystery even for people close to her, and will remain a mystery for others. Not knowing the spiritual life of mother, nevertheless, people did not doubt her holiness, that she was a real ascetic. Matrona's feat consisted of great patience, coming from purity of heart and ardent love for God. It is precisely this kind of patience that will save Christians in the last times that the holy fathers of the Church prophesied. Like a true ascetic, the blessed one taught not with words, but with her whole life. While physically blind, she taught and continues to teach true spiritual vision. Unable to walk, she taught and teaches to walk the difficult path of salvation. In her memoirs, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova writes: “Who was Matronushka? Mother was an incarnate warrior angel, as if she had a fiery sword in her hands to fight evil forces. She treated with prayer, water... She was small, like a child, all the time reclining on her side, on her fist. I slept like that, never really went to bed. When she received people, she sat down with her legs crossed, two arms extended directly above the head of the person who came in the air, put her fingers on the head of the person kneeling in front of her, made the sign of the cross, said the main thing that his soul needed, and prayed. She lived without her own corner, property, or supplies. Whoever invited her, she lived with him. She lived on offerings that she could not manage herself. She was in obedience to the evil Pelageya, who was in charge of everything and distributed everything that they brought to her mother to her relatives. Without her knowledge, mother could neither drink nor eat... Mother seemed to know all the events in advance. Every day of her life is a stream of sorrows and sorrows of people who come. Helping the sick, comforting and healing them. There were many healings through her prayers. He will take the head of the crying person with both hands, take pity, warm him with his holiness, and the person leaves inspired. And she, exhausted, just sighs and prays all night long. She had a dimple on her forehead from her fingers, from frequent sign of the cross. She crossed herself slowly, diligently, her fingers searching for the hole...” During the war there were many cases when she answered those who came to their questions - whether she was alive or not. He will tell someone - he’s alive, wait. For some, a funeral service and commemoration. It can be assumed that those who sought spiritual advice and guidance also came to Matrona. Many Moscow priests and monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra knew about Mother. Due to the unknown fates of God, there was no attentive observer and student near mother who could lift the veil over her spiritual work and write about it for the edification of posterity. Countrymen from her native places often visited her, then from all the surrounding villages they wrote notes to her, and she answered them. They came to her from two hundred and three hundred kilometers away, and she knew the person’s name. There were both Muscovites and visitors from other cities who heard about the perspicacious mother. People of different ages: young, old, and middle-aged. She accepted some, but not others. She spoke to some in parables, to others in simple language. Zinaida once complained to her mother: “Mother, my nerves...” And she: “What nerves, after all, in war and in prison there are no nerves... You have to control yourself, be patient.” Mother instructed that it was necessary to undergo treatment. The body is a house given by God, it needs to be repaired. God created the world, medicinal herbs, and this cannot be neglected. Mother sympathized with her loved ones: “How sorry I am for you, you will live to see the last times. Life will get worse and worse. Heavy. The time will come when they will put a cross and bread in front of you, and they will say - choose!” “We will choose the cross,” they answered, “but then how can we live?” “And we will pray, take land, roll balls, pray to God, eat and be full!” Another time she said, encouraging in a difficult situation, that there was no need to be afraid of anything, no matter how scary it was. “They carry the child in a sleigh, and there is no care! The Lord himself will manage everything!” Matronushka often repeated: “If a people loses faith in God, then disasters befall them, and if they do not repent, they perish and disappear from the face of the earth. How many peoples have disappeared, but Russia existed and will exist. Pray, ask, repent! The Lord will not leave you and will preserve our land!”

Last years of life

Matronushka found her last earthly refuge at the Skhodnya station near Moscow (23 Kurgannaya Street), where she settled with a distant relative, leaving her room in Starokonyushenny Lane. And here, too, a stream of visitors came and carried their sorrows. Only just before her death did my mother, already quite weak, limit her intake. But people still came, and she could not refuse help to some. They say that the time of her death was celebrated in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. (At this time, priest Nikolai Golubtsov, beloved by the parishioners, served there. He knew and revered Blessed Matrona.) She did not order wreaths and plastic flowers to be brought to the funeral. Until the last days of her life, she confessed and received communion from the priests who came to her. In her humility, she, like ordinary sinful people, was afraid of death and did not hide her fear from her loved ones. Before her death, a priest, Father Dimitri, came to confess her; she was very worried whether she had folded her hands correctly. Father asks: “Are you really afraid of death?” "Afraid". On May 2, 1952, she died.

Burial of Matronushka

On May 3 at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a note about the repose of the newly deceased blessed Matrona was submitted for a memorial service. Among many others, she attracted the attention of the serving hieromonk. “Who submitted the note? — he asked excitedly. “What, she died?” (Many inhabitants of the Lavra knew and revered Matrona well.) The old woman and her daughter, who came from Moscow, confirmed: the day before Mother died, and this evening the coffin with her body will be placed in the Moscow Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street. This is how the Lavra monks learned about the death of Matrona and were able to come to her burial. After the funeral service, which was performed by Father Nikolai Golubtsov, everyone present came up and touched her hands. On May 4, the Week of Myrrh-Bearing Women, the burial of Blessed Matrona took place in front of a large crowd of people. At her request, she was buried in the Danilovsky cemetery in order to “hear the service” (one of the few functioning Moscow churches was located there). The funeral service and burial of the blessed one were the beginning of her glorification among the people as a servant of God. The blessed one predicted: “After my death, few people will go to my grave, only close ones, and when they die, my grave will be deserted, except occasionally someone will come... But after many years, people will know about me and will go in droves for help in their sorrows and with requests to pray for them to the Lord God, and I will help everyone and hear everyone.” Even before her death, she said: “Everyone, everyone, come to me and tell me, as if alive, about your sorrows, I will see you, and hear you, and help you.” And mother also said that everyone who entrusts themselves and their lives to her intercession with the Lord will be saved. “I will meet everyone who turns to me for help at their death, everyone.”

Life after death

More than thirty years after the death of mother, her grave at the Danilovsky cemetery became one of the holy places of Orthodox Moscow, where people from all over Russia and from abroad came with their troubles and illnesses. Blessed Matrona was an Orthodox person in the deep, traditional meaning of the word. Compassion for people, coming from the fullness of a loving heart, prayer, the sign of the cross, fidelity to the holy statutes of the Orthodox Church - this was the focus of her intense spiritual life. The nature of her feat is rooted in the centuries-old traditions of popular piety. Therefore, the help that people receive by prayerfully turning to the righteous woman brings spiritual fruits: people are confirmed in the Orthodox faith, become churchgoers externally and internally, and become involved in everyday prayer life. Matrona is known to tens of thousands of Orthodox people. Matronushka - this is how many affectionately call her. She, just like during her earthly life, helps people. This is felt by all those who with faith and love ask her for intercession and intercession before the Lord, towards whom the blessed old woman has great boldness.

Prayers

Troparion to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Troparion to the Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Kontakion to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Prayer to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Second prayer to Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Canons and Akathists

Akathist to the holy righteous Matrona of Moscow

Kontakion 1

Ikos 1

Kontakion 2

Ikos 2

Kontakion 3

Ikos 3

Kontakion 4

Ikos 4

Kontakion 5

Ikos 5

Kontakion 6

Ikos 6

Kontakion 7

Ikos 7

Kontakion 8

Ikos 8

Kontakion 9

Ikos 9

Kontakion 10

Ikos 10

Kontakion 11

Ikos 11

Kontakion 12

Ikos 12

Kontakion 13

Prayer

Canon of the Holy Righteous Matrona of Moscow

Song 1.

Song 3.

Sedalen, voice 4.

Song 4.

Song 5.

Song 6.

Kontakion, tone 7.

Song 7.

Song 8.

Song 9.

Luminous.

Books, articles, poems

Random test

Quote of the day

God's Chosen Matrona, baptism

Infancy and childhood

The first miracles of Matronushka's foresight

Adolescence, legend about the meeting with Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

Some of Matrona's prophetic predictions

Writing the Icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”

Icons of the Blessed Matrona, miracles of clairvoyance

Miraculous healings of people, through the prayers of Mother Matrona

Last move to Moscow, in 1925

Helping people, miraculous healings. How Matrona healed and prayed

About sorcerers, militant theomachism of people, the destruction of temples and mass apostasy from the church

Spiritual life and prayer rule of Mother Matrona

The end of earthly life (death) of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Posthumous instructions to people from Matrona

Final word

Infancy

Opening a Gift

Boyhood

Revolutionary time

Creation of the icon of the Mother of God “Seeking the Lost”

About Matrona's insight

Miracles of Matrona

Moving to Moscow, wanderings

War years

Helping people during this period

Matronushka's instructions

Memories of Matronushka

Last years of life

Burial of Matronushka

Life after death

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