Personalized icons. Lives of the Saints
The Monk Daniel of Pereyaslavl, in the world Demetrius, was born around 1460 in the city of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky from the pious Constantine and Theodosius (monastically Thekla).
From childhood, Daniel had a love for pious life and Christian deeds. He took monastic vows at the monastery of the Monk Paphnutius of Borovsky; He grew in spiritual life under the leadership of Saint Leucius of Volokolamsk (August 17). Then, in his homeland, he devoted himself to the feat of love for his neighbors: he buried the homeless, the beggars, and the homeless. The monk founded a monastery on the site of the cemetery.
Complete life of St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl
The parents of the Monk Daniel, in the world Demetrius, were residents of Mtsensk, the current district city of the Oryol province: their names were Konstantin and Thekla. But the birth of the future ascetic took place in the city of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, the current Vladimir province, during the reign of Grand Duke Vasily the Dark around 1460. Konstantin and Thekla arrived in Pereyaslavl together with the boyar Grigory Protasyev, who was summoned by the Grand Duke to serve from Mtsensk to Moscow. In addition to Dimitri, in the family they had sons Gerasim and Flor and daughter Ksenia.
Dimitri was by nature a quiet, meek and self-absorbed child, and therefore played little with his peers and stayed away from them. When he was sent to learn to read and write, he showed rare diligence. He was most interested in reading spiritual books and going to the temple of God. Diligently attending church, Demetrius surrendered with all his soul to the beauty of the liturgical chants; From his adolescence, he was irresistibly attracted to the image of Christian perfection. He read in spiritual and moral books that people of perfect life - hermits - take little care of their bodies and therefore do not wash in the bathhouse. This was enough for a sensitive child to abandon the original Russian custom, and no one could persuade him to wash his body in the bathhouse. One nobleman, in the presence of Demetrius, read the life of Simeon the Stylite, where it is said that the saint cut a hair rope from a well bucket and wrapped himself in it, and put on a hair robe on top to torment his sinful flesh. The life story deeply shook the soul of the sympathetic youth, and the future ascetic decided, to the best of his ability, to imitate the suffering and patience of Saint Simeon. Seeing a large boat tied up near the bank of the Trubezha River with the goods of Tver merchants, Dimitri cut off the hair rope from it and, unnoticed by others, wrapped himself in it. The rope little by little began to eat into his body and produce pain; Dimitri began to grow weaker, ate and drank little, slept poorly, his face became dull and pale, he had difficulty reaching the teacher and struggled to learn to read and write. But as the ascetic’s body weakened, his spirit became inspired - he clung his thoughts more and more to God and devoted himself even more fervently to secret prayer. One day his sister, the girl Ksenia, passing by the sleeping Dimitri, felt the stench and lightly touched her brother. A painful groan was heard... Ksenia looked at Dimitri with deep sorrow, saw his suffering and quickly ran to her mother to inform her about her brother’s illness. The mother immediately came to her son, opened his clothes and saw that the rope was stuck in his body; the body began to rot and emit a stench, and worms were noticeably swarming in the wounds. At the sight of her son’s suffering, Thekla sobbed bitterly and immediately called her husband so that he too could witness the incident. The amazed parents began to ask Dimitri: why was he exposing himself to such severe suffering? The youth, wanting to hide his feat, replied: “I did this out of my foolishness, forgive me!”
The father and mother, with tears in their eyes and reproaches on their lips, began to tear the rope from their son’s body, but Dimitri humbly begged them not to do this and said: “Leave me, dear parents, let me suffer for my sins.” “But what are your sins, so young?” - asked the father and mother and continued their work. In a few days, with all sorts of sorrows and illnesses, with a profuse outpouring of blood, the rope was separated from the body, and Demetrius began to gradually recover from his wounds.
When the boy learned to read and write, he was sent - to supplement his education and learn good customs - to a relative of Constantine and Thekla, Jonah, abbot of the Nikitsky monastery near Pereyaslavl. This Jonah, just like Dimitri’s parents, moved from Mtsensk together with the above-mentioned boyar Grigory Protasyev. He was known to be a very virtuous and God-fearing man, so that Grand Duke John III himself often called the abbot to himself and talked with him about spiritual benefits. The example of Jonah, of course, had a very strong effect on the impressionable soul of Demetrius and more and more encouraged him to take the path of monastic life. He eagerly listened to the stories about the then ascetics of piety and was most amazed by the life of the equal angels and the great works of the Monk Paphnutius, abbot of the Borovsky monastery. The glory of Paphnutius irresistibly attracted the youth: he always thought about how to completely retire from the world, enter under the leadership of the Borovsky abbot, follow in his footsteps and be tonsured into a monastic image from him. But Demetrius’s aspirations were not destined to be fulfilled during the life of Paphnutius.
After the death of the Borovsky abbot on May 1, 1477, Dimitri dedicated his brother Gerasim to his thoughts: they left their home, relatives and secretly retired from Pereyaslavl-Zalessky to Borovsk, to the monastery of the glorious ascetic. Here both brothers were tonsured into monasticism: Demetrius received the name Daniel and was given over to the elder Leukius, known for his godly life. Under the leadership of Leucius, Daniel spent ten years and learned the rigors of monastic life: observance of monastic rules, humility and complete obedience, so that he did not begin any work without the permission of the elder. But the elder wished for a solitary and silent life: he left the Pafnutiev Monastery and founded a hermitage, which received the name Levkieva. After the departure of his elder, Daniel stayed in the Pafnutev Monastery for two years: he devoted himself to monastic deeds with all the fervor of a young soul: he spent time in fasting and prayer, appeared before everyone else for church singing, submitted to the will of the abbot, pleased all the brethren, and maintained mental and physical purity. Everyone in the monastery loved Daniel and were surprised how he, younger than others in age, could so quickly rise above his companions in virtues and purity of life. The admiration for the exploits of Daniel was so great that they even wanted to see him as the successor of the Monk Paphnutius as abbot at the Borovsk monastery.
Perhaps, escaping from the temptations of the authorities or imitating the example of his boss Leukius and other glorious monks, Daniel left the Paphnutian monastery and visited many monasteries to study their good customs and enjoy the conversations of famous elders and ascetics. Finally, he stays in his native Pereyaslavl, when his father has already died, and his mother took monastic vows with the name Feodosia. He settles in the Nikitsky Pereyaslavl Monastery, carries out the obedience of the sexton, then moves to the Goritsky Monastery of the Most Pure Mother of God, where his relative Anthony was the abbot, and diligently carries out the obedience of the prosphora. Brothers Gerasim and Flor came to him here; the first died in the Goritsky Monastery as a deacon in 1507, and the second moved to the monastery, which Daniel later founded, and here he ended his days. Hegumen Anthony convinced Daniel to accept the rank of hieromonk. Ordained a holy monk, the ascetic devoted himself entirely to his new service: he often spent whole nights without sleep, and for one year he performed Divine Liturgies every day. With his strict, godly life and tireless labors, Daniel attracted general attention: not only monks, but also lay people, from boyars to commoners, came to him and confessed their sins. Like a skilled physician, the monk pours the healing balm of repentance on spiritual ulcers, binds them with Divine commandments and directs sinners on the path of a healthy, God-pleasing life.
When wanderers accidentally entered the monastery, Daniel invariably, according to the commandment of the Lord, received and gave them rest; sometimes he asked: was there anyone abandoned on the way, frozen or killed by robbers? Having learned that there were such homeless people, the monk secretly left the monastery at night, picked them up and brought them on his shoulders to the poor house, which was not far from the monastery and was called God’s house. Here, at the Divine service, he performed funeral services for unknown guests and remembered them in prayers during the service of liturgies. But the example of the ascetic did not have the same effect on everyone: a certain Grigory Izedinov, the owner of the place where the house of God was located, assigned his servant to him in order to take a fee from everyone buried in the poorhouse, and without it it was impossible to bury anyone.
Once a wanderer came to the Goritsky monastery: no one knew where he came from or what his name was; the stranger did not say anything except one word: “uncle.” The Monk Daniel became very attached to the unknown and often gave him shelter in his cell when the traveler was in the monastery. One day in the first winter, an ascetic was walking to church for matins and, since the night was dark, halfway there he tripped over something and fell. Thinking that there was a tree under his feet, the monk wanted to move it away and, to his horror, noticed that it was a dead wanderer, the same one who uttered one word: “uncle”; the body was still warm, but the soul had left him. Daniel dressed the deceased, sang funeral hymns, took him to the church and laid him down with the other dead. Having begun to perform the magpie for the wanderer, the ascetic greatly grieved that he did not know his name, and reproached himself for not burying the deceased in the monastery, near the holy church. And often, even during prayer, Daniel remembered the unknown wanderer: he still wanted to transfer the body from the poor woman to the monastery, but this could not be done, since it was littered with the bodies of other dead people. After prayer, the ascetic often left the cell on the back porch, from where a row of poor women with human bodies could be seen on the mountain, which arose from the fact that wanderers had been buried here for many years. And more than once the monk saw how light emanated from the poor women, as if from many flaming candles. Daniel marveled at this phenomenon and said to himself: “How many saints of God are among those buried here? The whole world and we, sinners, are unworthy of them; they are not only despised, but also humiliated; after their departure from the world, they are not buried in holy churches, no funeral services are held for them, but God does not abandon them, but glorifies them even more. What could we arrange for them?”
And God inspired the monk with the idea of building a church in the place where the light was visible, and placing a priest next to it, so that he would serve the Divine Liturgy and remember the souls of the departed, who rest in the poor, and the unknown stranger before others. The monk often thought about this, and for many years, but he did not announce his intentions to anyone, saying: “If it pleases God, He will do it according to His will.”
Once Nikifor, the former abbot of the St. Nicholas Monastery in the Swamp, in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky, came to the ascetic of the holy nuns, and said that he had heard ringing many times in the place where the poor women were. Sometimes Nikifor saw that he was transported to a mountain with poor women, and it was all full of cauldrons and other vessels, such as are found in monastery dormitories. “I,” added Nikifor, “did not pay attention to this vision, I considered it as if it were a dream or a dream; but it was persistent in my mind, the ringing was constantly rushing from the meager mountain, and so I decided to tell this to your reverence.”
Daniel answered the guest: “What you saw with your spiritual eyes, God can bring to fulfillment in that place, do not doubt it.”
Once three monks were going to Moscow from the Trans-Volga monasteries on business and stopped with the Monk Daniel as a man more pious than others and known for his hospitality. The ascetic received the travelers as heavenly messengers, treated them to what God had sent, and entered into conversation with them. The wanderers turned out to be experienced people in spiritual matters, and Daniel thought to himself: “I did not tell anyone about the light that I saw in the poor women, and about the intention to build a church with them, but these three men, apparently, were sent to me from God; such reasonable people should open their minds and, as they resolve my perplexities, so be it.” And the ascetic began to tell the guests in order about the unknown wanderer, about his death, about his repentance for not burying him near the church, about the light over the poor women and about the desire to build a temple with them to commemorate those buried at the Divine Remembrance and, above all, the unforgettable wanderer. With tears in his eyes, Daniel finished his speech to the elders: “My Lords! I see that by Divine will you have come here to enlighten my thinness and resolve my perplexities. I ask you for good advice: my soul is burning with the desire to build a church for poor women, but I don’t know whether this thought is from God. Give me a helping hand and pray about my unworthiness, so that this thought leaves me if it is not pleasing to God, or goes into action if it is pleasing to God. I myself do not believe my desire and am afraid that it will bring temptation instead of benefit. Advise me on what to do: whatever you indicate, I will do with the help of God.” The three elders, as if with their own lips, answered Daniel: “We do not dare speak about such a great work of God on our own, but will only convey what we heard from the spiritual fathers, who are skilled in the prudent discussion of thoughts that trouble the souls of monks. If any thought is from God, you should not trust your mind and quickly begin to fulfill it, protecting yourself from the temptations of the evil one. Although you are not new to exploits, have long been committed to monastic labors and are honored by the rank of the priesthood, you should also ask for help from God and entrust your work to Him. The fathers command: if a thought attracts us to some undertaking, even if it seems very useful, we should not carry it out before three years: so that it is not our desire that acts and so that we do not entrust ourselves to our will and understanding. So you, Father Daniel, wait three years. If the thought is not from God, your mood will imperceptibly change, and the thought that worries you will little by little disappear. And if your desire is inspired by the Lord and in accordance with His will, within three years your thought will grow and flare up stronger than fire and will never disappear or be forgotten; day and night it will agitate your spirit - and you will know that the thought is from the Lord, and the Almighty will bring it into action according to His will. Then it will be possible to build up the holy church little by little, and your undertaking will not be put to shame.”
The ascetic put the wise words of the elders in his heart, marveled at why they indicated to wait exactly three years, and parted with his dear guests, who set off on their further journey.
Daniel waited for three years and did not tell anyone about the vision of the poor women, or about his intention to build a church, or about the advice of the three desert dwellers. The previous thought did not leave his spirit, but burned like a flame that is fanned by the wind and, like a sharp sting, did not give him rest either day or night. The ascetic always looked at the place where he decided to build a temple, with tearful prayer he called upon God’s help and remembered the elders who gave him good advice. And the Lord heeded the prayer of His faithful servant.
Grand Duke Vasily Ioannovich had the boyar brothers John and Vasily Andreevich Chelyadnin close to him and enjoying honor. But earthly greatness often scatters like smoke, and the Chelyadnins fell out of favor. It was impossible for them to appear at the court of the Grand Duke, and they went to live with their mother, wives and children in their estate - the village of Pervyatino in the current Rostov district of the Yaroslavl province, 34 versts from Pereyaslavl-Zalessky. The disgraced boyars tried in every possible way to regain the favor of the Grand Duke, but their efforts were in vain. Then the Chelyadnins remembered the Monk Daniel and decided to ask for his prayers in order to satisfy the anger of the sovereign ruler. They sent a servant to the Goritsky monastery with a letter in which they asked the ascetic to serve a prayer service in sorrow to the Intercessor - the Mother of God and the great wonderworker Nicholas, to bless the water and perform the liturgy for the royal health. In addition, the boyars asked Daniel to secretly from everyone, even from the archimandrite of the monastery, visit them in Pervyatina and bring them prosphora with holy water. The ascetic served everything that was asked of him, and, according to his custom, went on foot to the Chelyadnins. When Daniel approached Pervyatin, they rang for mass; The boyars John and Vasily with their mother walked and the church to the Divine Liturgy. Seeing a monk traveler in the distance, the boyars immediately decided that these were Daniel, quickly went to meet him, accepted his blessing and rejoiced at him as the good messenger of another world. The Chelyadnins and their guest went to church. When the liturgy began, an ambassador from Moscow arrived from Grand Duke Vasily: the disgrace with the boyars was lifted, and they were ordered to quickly go to service in Moscow. The happiness that befell them, the Chelyadnins explained to themselves by the power of Daniel’s prayers, fell at the feet of the ascetic and said: “How will we repay you, father, for the fact that with your prayers the Lord lovingly softened the royal heart and showed mercy on us, His servants?”
After mass, the boyars invited Daniil to eat with them and surrounded him with all honor. But the ascetic considered all glory and honor on earth to be vain and therefore said to the boyars: “I am the worst and most sinful of all people, and why do you honor me? Above all, honor God, keep His commandments and do what is right in His sight; Cleanse your souls with repentance, do no harm to anyone, have love with everyone, do alms and serve the Grand Duke faithfully. So you will find happiness in this temporary life, and in the next century endless peace.”
After this, the monk told the Chelyadnins: “There is a house of God near the Goritsky Monastery, where the bodies of Christians who died in vain have long been buried, there are never memorial services for them, they do not take out particles of their repose, they do not bring incense and candles for them. You should take care that, in the presence of poor women, a church of God is erected to commemorate the accidentally deceased Christians.”
Boyar Vasily replied: “Father Daniel! Truly, Your Reverence should take care of this wonderful matter. If through your prayers God deigns that we may see the royal eyes, I will ask His Holiness the Metropolitan, and he will give you a letter to free that church from all tributes and duties.”
Daniel said to this: “The blessing and letter of His Holiness the Metropolitan is a great thing. But if that church is not protected by the royal name, poverty will come after us; and if she receives the care and letter of the Tsar and the Grand Duke, I believe that this matter will not fail forever.”
The Chelyadnins answered the ascetic: “It is worthy and righteous not to know the impoverishment of a place that has been taken into the care of the king himself. Since you want this, try to be in Moscow, and we, if the Lord allows him to be in his previous ranks (Vasily was a butler, and Ivan was a stable boy), we will introduce you to the autocrat, and he will fulfill your desire.”
After this conversation, the Monk Daniel returned to the monastery, and the Chelyadnins went to Moscow and received their former titles. With the blessing of Goritsky, Archimandrite Isaiah did not hesitate to go to Moscow and Daniel. The Chelyadnins introduced him to Grand Duke Vasily and told him about the ascetic’s intention to build a church at the Divine Home. The Grand Duke praised Daniel's zeal, decided that he should be with the poor women of the church, and ordered that the ascetic be given a certificate. According to this royal charter, no one was supposed to step into the place of poor women, and the ministers of the church that would be built should not depend on anyone except Daniel. The Grand Duke gave alms for the construction of the temple and sent Daniel for a blessing to Metropolitan Simon of Moscow. Together with the monk, the Chelyadnins went to the metropolitan at the royal command, told the saint about the matter and conveyed to him the royal will to build a church in Pereyaslavl over the poor. The Metropolitan talked with the monk, blessed him to build a church and ordered him to write a church charter for him.
The Chelyadnin boyars invited Daniil to their house, and he had a conversation with them about spiritual benefits. Their mother Varvara listened carefully to the speeches of the ascetic and asked him to show her the surest way to get rid of sins. The monk told her: “If you care about your soul, wash away your sins with tears and alms, destroy them with true repentance, and then you will receive not only remission of sins, but also eternal blissful life, you will become a partaker of the Kingdom of Heaven; and you will save not only your soul, but you will also serve the benefit of many, and you will help your family with prayers.”
Varvara asked with tears in her eyes: “What will you tell me to do?” Daniel replied: “Christ said in the Holy Gospel: unless someone renounces all his possessions, he cannot be My disciple; whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me (Matthew 10:38); If anyone leaves father and mother, or wife, or children, or village and property for My name's sake, he will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29). So you, lady, listen to the words of the Lord, take His yoke upon yourself, bear His cross: it is not hard for His sake to leave home and children, and all the delights of the world. If you want to live a carefree life, put on monastic robes, put to death by fasting all wisdom of the flesh, live in spirit for God and you will reign with Him forever.”
The convinced speech of the ascetic shocked the soul of the noblewoman, and Varvara soon took monastic vows with the name Barsanuphia. In her later life, the newly christened nun tried to sacredly observe the covenants of the Monk Daniel: she prayed unceasingly, was abstinent in food and drink, diligently attended the temple of God, had unfeigned love for everyone and did works of mercy. Although her clothes were not bad, they were often covered with dust, and she did not change them for years: only at Easter she put on new ones, and gave the old ones to the poor. After the saint left for Pereyaslavl, Barsanuphia grieved that she had lost a leader, a mentor in spiritual life. And when he visited Moscow on business, Barsanuphia invariably called him to her and saturated her soul with the wise words of the elder. Together with her, her daughters and daughter-in-law listened to Daniel’s conversations and then said to the old woman: “Never and nowhere have we felt such a fragrance as in your cell during Daniel’s visits.”
Upon his arrival in Pereyaslavl, the monk from the Goritsky monastery went every day to the poor women in the morning, at noon and after Vespers to choose a more convenient place to build a temple. Bozhedomye was not far from the villages, it was convenient for plowing, but no one had ever plowed or sowed on it. The place became wild, overgrown with junipers and buttocks: God's Providence, apparently, kept it from worldly hands for the establishment of monks and for the glorification of the name of God, which the Monk Daniel tried so hard to achieve.
Once, when the hermit went away to visit the house of God, he saw a woman wandering through the juniper and crying bitterly. Wanting to give the grieving word of consolation, the ascetic approached her. The woman asked what his name was. “Sinful Daniel,” he answered with his usual humility.
“I see,” the stranger told him, “that you are a servant of God; do not complain if I reveal to you one amazing phenomenon. My house is on the outskirts of this city (that is, Pereyaslavl) not far from the poor. At night we do handicrafts to earn food and clothing. More than once, looking out of the window at this place, I saw an extraordinary glow on it at night and, as it were, a row of burning candles. Deep thought came over me, and I cannot get rid of the thought that with this vision my deceased relatives instill fear in me and demand commemoration for themselves. My father and mother, children and relatives are buried in my poor houses, and I don’t know what to do. I would gladly begin to perform a funeral service for them, but there is no church at the Divine House and there is nowhere to order an eve for the departed. In you, father, I see the messenger of God: for the Lord’s sake, arrange the commemoration of my relatives in this place according to your understanding.”
The woman took out from her bosom a handkerchief in which one hundred silver coins were wrapped, and gave the money to the elder so that he could put a cross or an icon in the poor house or arrange something else according to his wishes. The ascetic realized that God’s Providence was beginning the work about which he had thought for so long and so much, and he gave praise to the Lord.
Another time, the elder met a sad and preoccupied man at the Divine House, who said that he was a fisherman. “By your appearance,” he turned to Daniel, “I see that you are a true servant of God, and I want to explain to you why I wander in these places. Getting up before dawn, we have the custom of going fishing: and more than once I saw from the lake how an incomprehensible light shone on the Bozhedomye. I think that it is my parents and relatives, buried in poor people, who demand a heart-to-heart commemoration. But I have never had to remember them until now, partly because of poverty, partly because no church was built on God’s home. I ask you, father, remember my parents and pray for them in this place, so that my soul will calm down and this vision will no longer disturb me.” Having finished his speech, the fisherman handed Daniel one hundred silver coins, which the ascetic accepted as a gift from God for the holy cause of building a church.
The third time, the elder, walking through God’s house, met a villager near a juniper tree, who approached Daniel and said: “Bless me, father, say your name and open it, why are you walking here?” The elder announced his name and noticed that he was walking here, driving away despondency. The villager continued: “From your appearance and words, I guess that you are a pious person and, if you order, I will tell you about one matter.”
“Speak, servant of God,” answered Daniel, “so that we too may benefit from your words.”
“Father,” said the villager, “we always have to go to Pereyaslavl to trade with various fruits and livestock near this place, and we are in a hurry to get to the city early, long before dawn. More than once I saw an extraordinary light at the Divine House, heard a noise as if from some kind of singing, and horror attacked me as I passed through these places. Remembering that many of our relatives were buried in poor houses, I thought: probably they are the ones who require commemoration. But I don’t know what to do: in this deserted place there is neither a church nor living people. Father, pray for me, that the Lord will deliver me from the terrible vision, and remember our parents in this place, as God will make you wise.”
With these words, the villager also handed over one hundred silver coins to the old man. Daniel, with tears in his eyes, praised the Lord God that He had sent him three hundred pieces of silver through three people, and began to build a church over the poor women.
First of all, it was necessary to decide in whose name the temple should be built. Many gave their advice on this matter, but Daniel liked the idea of the Goritsky priest Tryphon (later tonsured a monk with the name Tikhon) more than others; he said to the ascetic: “You should build a church at the Divine House in the name of All the saints who have pleased God from the ages, since you want to create memory of the souls of very many people who are laid to rest in the poor; If among the departed there are saints of God, then they too will be numbered among the host of all saints and will be intercessors and patrons of the temple of God.”
The ascetic, who did not like to trust his own understanding alone, willingly followed Tryphon’s good advice and added on his own: “And that unknown wanderer who said to me: “uncle,” if he is truly a saint of God, will be called upon in prayers with all the saints. But he is the main reason why I began to think about building a church: from the time I laid him in the poorhouse, the desire to create a temple at the Divine House flared up in me unusually.” The monk decided to build just one church over the poor women and call a white priest with a sexton to it.
Having gone to the Trubezh River (where there were many rafts) to purchase logs for the church, Daniel met the elderly merchant Theodore, who had been resettled from Novgorod to Pereyaslavl under Grand Duke John III in 1488. Having accepted the blessing from the ascetic, the merchant asked: “For what purpose, father, are you buying these logs?” “I mean, if the Lord pleases, to erect a church on the divine site.” - “Will there be a monastery there?” - “No, there will be one church and with it a white priest with a sexton.” – “There should be a monastery in that place; and, father, bless me to buy a log so that I can build a cell in the Divine House, take monastic vows there and spend the rest of my days.”
Theodore was indeed tonsured with the name Theodosius and diligently bore all the hardships of monastic life. And many other townspeople and villagers, merchants, artisans and farmers built cells for themselves following the example of Theodore and, with the blessing of Daniel, took monastic vows. So, with the help of God, a whole monastery arose over the poor in the summer of Christ 1508. When the church in the name of All Saints was completed, for its consecration (July 15) many priests and all lay people came from the city of Pereyaslavl and surrounding villages with candles, incense and alms, and there was great joy that a holy monastery was being built in an empty place. Together with the temple in the name of All Saints, a meal was served with the church in the name of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos. Daniel elected an abbot, called two priests, a deacon, a sexton and a prosphora server, and the daily celebration of the Divine Liturgy began. Through the cares of the ascetic, the churches were decorated with holy icons of wonderful writing; icons of good work were also placed on the monastery gates; books and other liturgical utensils were purchased. Daniel placed high crosses for each poor woman, and at their feet funeral services were often celebrated by all the serving brethren of the monastery. When the crate above the poor, where the dead were laid before they were interred and where homeless people found shelter, had become worn out from many years, it turned out that there was no money to build a new one. The monk turned to the mentioned priest Tryphon: “You have a cell for living, give it to me.” Tryphon, thinking that the ascetic wanted to pour out the bread, gave the crate to Daniel, and the elder placed it over the poor woman instead of the old one. Tryphon marveled a lot at the saint’s unselfishness and his boundless concern for the repose of wanderers and the burial of the dead.
The monk, living in the Goritsky monastery, went every day to the monastery he had built: he visited the abbot and the brethren and taught them to sacredly preserve the monastic rite and adorn themselves with virtues. Setting a good example for the newly called monks, Daniel built cells and plows for the brethren with his own hands 
Troparion to St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl
From your youth, blessed one, having laid everything on the Lord for yourself, you began to obey God, and resisted the devil, and you conquered the passions of sin. Thus, having become the temple of God, and having erected a red monastery for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, and having God-preserved the flock of Christ gathered in it by you, you reposed in the eternal monastery, Father Daniel. Pray to the Trinitarian God in the one being for our souls to be saved.
Kontakion to St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl
From self-knowledge we have come to the knowledge of God and through piety towards Him we have received the beginning of our inner feelings, and have captivated our minds into the obedience of faith; Thus, having fought a good fight, you have achieved the perfect fulfillment of Christ to the measure of age, as God’s effort, God’s building, you did in a good way, not perishing, but in a good way, abiding in eternal life. May all the plantings of the Lord be unanimous in glory, pray, blessed, of the One Lover of Mankind, God.
Kontakion to St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl
The bright luminary of the non-evening Light, enlightening everyone with the purity of life, you appeared, Father Daniel, for you were the image and ruler of a monk, a father to orphans, and a nourisher to widows. For this reason, we, your children, cry out to you: Rejoice, our joy and crown; Rejoice, you who have much boldness towards God; Rejoice, great affirmation of our city.
Prayer to St. Daniel of Pereyaslavl
O reverend and God-bearing Father Daniel, we humbly fall before you and pray to you: do not depart from us in your spirit, but always remember us in your holy and auspicious prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ; pray to Him, so that the abyss of sin will not drown us, and may we not be an enemy who hates us, to joy; may Christ our God forgive all our sins through your intercession for us, and by His grace establish unanimity and love among us, and may He deliver us from the snares and slander of the devil, from hunger, destruction, fire, all sorrow and need, from mental and physical illnesses and from sudden death; May He grant us, flowing to the race of your relics, to live in true faith and repentance, achieve a Christian, shameless and peaceful end to our life, and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, and glorify His most holy name with the Beginning Father and the Most Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
St. Nicholas Convent.
6. The power of God is made perfect in weakness.
Venerable Daniel, abbot of Pereslavl.
Reverend Daniel, Abbot of Pereslavl, miracle worker, was born in Pereslavl-Zalessky around 1460. Since childhood, he prepared himself for monastic feat. At the age of 18, he took monastic vows at the Pafnutev Borovsky Monastery. Returning to Pereslavl as a monk experienced in spiritual life, he settled first in Nikitsky and later in Goritsky Monastery, where he was ordained hieromonk. Here he carried out the feat of burying unknown wanderers: at night he collected the bodies of the dead and transferred them to the city “skudelnitsa” (“Bozhedomye”), where he held a funeral service and then commemorated them during the service of the Liturgy. With the assistance of Prince Vasily Ioannovich III, in 1508 the monk built the Church of All Saints at the Bozhedomye, and in 1530-1532 - a stone church in the name of the Life-Giving Trinity, around which a monastery gradually developed. After 30 years of service in the Goritsky monastery, the Monk Daniel was transferred as abbot to this new Holy Trinity Monastery.
Venerable Daniel of Pereslavl. Icon of a letter from the sisters of the Nikolskaya monastery. 1997
The spiritual father of Grand Duke Vasily III, in 1530 he became the godfather of his son, John. The monk was distinguished by his extraordinary love of poverty and mercy towards the sick and suffering; until his last days he himself performed the dirtiest and most difficult monastic work. During his lifetime, he was awarded the gifts of clairvoyance, working miracles, and had the power to cast out demons. He reposed in the Lord on April 7/20, 1540 at the age of more than 80 years and was buried in the Danilovsky chapel of the Trinity Cathedral of his monastery. In 1653, the discovery of the relics of the saint and his canonization followed. After the closure of the monastery in 1923, the holy relics of St. Daniel were kept in the historical museum of Pereslavl. On April 20, 1994, the relics were transferred to the Annunciation Church of the St. Nicholas Convent.
The holy relics of St. Daniel consecrated the monastery with their presence for two years, until on April 20, 1996 they were transferred to the place of their permanent residence in the newly opened Pereslavl Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Daniel.
Through the prayers of St. Daniel and all the Pereslavl saints, through the intercession of their patron saint, Saint and Wonderworker Nicholas, the St. Nicholas monastery was quickly revived.
By the beginning of 1995, there were already ten nuns. During the Dormition Fast, on August 14, 1995, the reading of the incessant Psalter was introduced. In 1995, bells were donated from the Yaroslavl Icon Society and a temporary belfry was built.
When the walls and vaults in the Annunciation Church were washed away, perfectly preserved paintings were discovered under a layer of lime and dirt. They were cleared, strengthened and restored by restoration artists from St. Petersburg Galina Yakovtseva, Alexey Lebedko and Nikolai Golubtsov.
At the expense of the monastery benefactor Viktor Ivanovich Tyryshkin - our chronicle tells about the meeting with this wonderful man and its significance below - a gilded four-row iconostasis decorated with carvings was built in the Annunciation Church. The icons for the iconostasis were painted by graduates of the Icon Painting School at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra under the guidance of Abbot Luke (Golovkov) and other teachers. All icons comply with canonical icon painting traditions. At the same time, the five domes of the Annunciation Church were restored and gilded crosses were raised.
For her diligent work for the good of the Church, the abbess of the monastery, nun Evstolia, was awarded the rank of abbess, to which she was elevated on August 1, 1997, on the day of memory of the reverend
Days of remembrance: April 7, December 30 (finding of relics) In the world - Demetrius, born around 1460 in the city of Pereyaslavl Zalessky from pious parents. From a young age he discovered his love for asceticism and imitated the exploits of St. Simeon the Stylite (September 1/14). The youth was sent to be raised in the Nikitsky Monastery by his relative Abbot Jonah, where he fell in love with the monastic life and decided to become a monk himself. Fearing that his parents would interfere with the fulfillment of his intentions, he, together with his brother Gerasim, secretly went to the monastery of St. Paphnutius of Borovsky (May 1/14). Here, having taken monastic tonsure, the Monk Daniel, under the guidance of the experienced elder St. Leukia lived 10 years. Having gained experience in spiritual life, the monk returned to Pereyaslavl to the Goritsky Monastery, where he received the priesthood. Through the strict, godly life and tireless labors of St. Daniel attracted everyone's attention; Many began to come to him for confession and for spiritual advice. No one left the Monk Daniel unconsoled. A special ascetic manifestation of love for neighbors was the saint’s care for the dead beggars, homeless and rootless people. If he heard about a person who died from robbers, about a drowned person, or about someone who froze to death on the road and had no one to bury, then he tried in every possible way to find the dead body, carried it in his arms to the skudelnitsa (a burial place for the homeless), buried it, and then commemorated it. at the Divine Liturgy. On the site of the poor woman, the saint built a temple in honor of All Saints, so that prayers could be offered in it for the repose of unknown dead Christians. Around him, several monks built their cells, forming a small monastery, where in 1525 the Monk Daniel became abbot. One of the main commandments taught by the new abbot called for accepting all strangers, the poor and the poor. He admonished the brethren and guided them on the path of truth not by force, but by meekness and love, setting everyone an example of pure life and deep humility. Many miracles happened through the prayers of the Monk Daniel: he turned water into healing kvass, healed the brethren from illnesses; freed from danger. During a famine, when there was little bread left in the monastery granary, he gave it to a poor widow with children. And from then on, as a reward for the saint’s mercy, the flour in the granary did not become scarce throughout the famine. Even during the life of the saint, his authority was so high that, at his request, Grand Duke Vasily III freed those sentenced to death and twice asked him to be the recipient of the baptism of his children. Anticipating the approach of his death, the Monk Daniel accepted the great schema. The blessed elder reposed in the 81st year of his life, on April 7, 1540. His incorrupt relics were found in 1625. The Lord glorified His saint with numerous miracles.
Troparion to Daniel of Pereyaslavl From your youth, blessedly, you laid everything on the Lord for yourself, / obeying God, / resisting the devil, / you reigned over the sinful passions, / thereby becoming the very temple of God, / and erecting a red monastery for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, / and what you collected in it the flock of Christ has been preserved in a God-pleasing manner, / you have reposed to the eternal abode, / Father Daniel, / pray to the Trinitarian One in the one Being of God for the salvation of our souls.
LIVES OF THE SAINTS
ARCHBISHOP LUKA, in the world Valentin Feliksovich Voino-Yasenetsky, was born in Kerch on April 27, 1877 in the family of a pharmacist. His father was a Catholic, his mother an Orthodox. According to the laws of the Russian Empire, children in such families had to be raised in the Orthodox faith. He was the third of five children.
In Kyiv, where the family subsequently moved, Valentin graduated from high school and drawing school. He was going to enter the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but after thinking about choosing a path in life, he decided that he was obliged to do only what was “useful for suffering people,” and chose medicine instead of painting. However, at the Faculty of Medicine of the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir, all the vacancies were filled, and Valentin enters the law faculty. For some time, the attraction to painting takes over again, he goes to Munich and enters the private school of Professor Knirr, but three weeks later, feeling homesick, he returns to Kiev, where he continues his studies in drawing and painting. Nkoned Valentin fulfills his ardent desire “to be useful for peasants who are so poorly provided with medical care,” and enters the medical faculty of the Kyiv University of St. Vladimir. He studies brilliantly. “In the third year,” he writes in “Memoirs,” “an interesting evolution of my abilities took place: the ability to draw very subtly and the love of form turned into a love of anatomy...”
In 1903, Valentin Feliksovich graduated from the university. Despite the entreaties of his friends to take up science, he announced his desire to be a “peasant”, zemstvo doctor all his life, to help poor people. The Russo-Japanese War began. Valentin Feliksovich was offered service in the Red Cross detachment in the Far East. There he headed the department of surgery at the Kyiv Red Cross Hospital of Chita, where he met sister of mercy Anna Lanskaya and married her. The young couple did not live long in Chita.
From 1905 to 1917, V.F. Voino-Yasenedky worked in urban and rural hospitals in the Simbirsk, Kursk and Saratov provinces, as well as in Ukraine and Pereslavl-Zalessky. In 1908, he came to Moscow and became an external student at the surgical clinic of Professor P. I. Dyakonov.
In 1916, V.F. Voino-Yasenedky defended his doctoral dissertation “Regional Anesthesia,” about which his opponent, the famous surgeon Martynov, said: “We are accustomed to the fact that doctoral dissertations are usually written on a given topic, with the aim of obtaining higher appointments in the service.” , and their scientific value is low. But when I read your book, I got the impression of the singing of a bird that cannot help but sing, and I highly appreciated it.” The University of Warsaw awarded Valentin Feliksowicz the Chojnacki Prize for the best essay paving new paths in medicine.
From 1917 to 1923, he worked as a surgeon at the Novo-Gorod hospital in Tashkent, teaching at a medical school, which was later transformed into a medical faculty.
In 1919, Valentin Feliksovich's wife died of tuberculosis, leaving four children: Mikhail, Elena, Alexei and Valentin.
In the fall of 1920, V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky was invited to head the department of operative surgery and topographic anatomy at the State Turkestan University, which opened in Tashkent. At this time, he actively participates in church life, attending meetings of the Tashkent church brotherhood. In 1920, at one of the church congresses, he was instructed to make a report on the current situation in the Tashkent diocese. The report was highly appreciated by Bishop Innocent of Tashkent. “Doctor, you need to be a priest,” he told Voino-Yasenetsky. “I had no thoughts about the priesthood,” recalled Vladyka Luke, “but I accepted the words of His Grace Innocent as God’s call through the bishop’s lips, and without thinking for a minute: “Okay, Vladyka! I will be a priest if it pleases God!” In 1921, Valentin Feliksovich was ordained a deacon, and a week later, on the day of the Presentation of the Lord, His Grace Innocent performed his ordination as a priest. Father Valentin was assigned to the Tashkent cathedral, with the responsibility of preaching assigned to him. In the priesthood, Voino-Yasenegrsiy does not stop operating and reading legations. In October 1922, he actively participated in the first scientific congress of doctors of Turkestan.
The wave of renovationism of 1923 reached Tashkent. Bishop Innocent left the city without transferring the see to anyone. Then Father Valentin, together with Archpriest Mikhail Andreev, took over the management of the diocese, united all the remaining faithful priests and church elders and organized a congress with the permission of the GPU.
In 1923, Father Valentin took monastic vows. His Grace Andrey, Bishop of Ukhtomsky, intended to give Father Valentine the name of the divider Panteleimon when he was tonsured, but after attending the liturgy performed by the tonsured man and listening to his sermon, he settled on the name of the apostle. Evangelist, doctor and artist St. Luke. On May 30 of the same year, Hieromonk Luke was secretly consecrated bishop in the Church of St. Nicholas Peace of the Lycian city of Penjikent by Bishop Daniel of Volkhov and Bishop Vasily of Suzdal. The exiled priest Valentin Svendidky was present at the consecration. His Eminence Luke was appointed Bishop of Turkestan.
On June 10, 1923, Bishop Luka was arrested as a supporter of Patriarch Tikhon. He was charged with an absurd charge: relations with the Orenburg counter-revolutionary Cossacks and connections with the British. In the prison of the Tashkent GPU, Vladyka Luka completed his, which later became famous, work “Essays on Purulent Surgery.” In August he was sent to the Moscow GPU.
In Moscow, Vladyka received permission to live in a private apartment. He served the liturgy with Patriarch Tikhon in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Kadashi. His Holiness confirmed the right of Bishop Luke of Turkestan to continue practicing surgery. In Moscow, Vladyka was again arrested and placed in Butyrskaya and then in Taganskaya prison, where Vladyka suffered from a severe flu. By December, the East Siberian stage was formed, and Bishop Luka, together with Archpriest Mikhail Andreev, were sent into exile to the Yenisei. The path lay through Tyumen, Omsk, Novonikolaevsk (present-day Novosibirsk), Krasnoyarsk. The prisoners were transported in Stolypin carriages, and they had to travel the last part of the journey to Yeniseisk - 400 kilometers - in the bitter cold of January on a sleigh. In Yeniseisk, all the churches that remained open belonged to the “Living Church,” and the bishop served in the apartment. He was allowed to operate. At the beginning of 1924, according to the testimony of a resident of Yeniseisk, Vladyka Luka transplanted the kidneys of a calf into a dying man, after which the patient felt better. But officially the first such operation is considered to be the transplant of a pig kidney performed by Dr. I. I. Voron in 1934 to a woman suffering from uremia.
In March 1924, Bishop Luka was arrested and sent under escort to the Yenisei region, to the village of Khaya on the Chuna River. In June he returns to Yeniseisk again, but is soon followed by deportation to Turukhansk, where Vladyka serves, preaches and operates. In January 1925, he was sent to Plakhino, a remote place on the Yenisei beyond the Arctic Circle, and in April he was transferred again to Turukhansk.
On May 6, 1930, Vladyka was arrested in connection with the death of Ivan Petrovich Mikhailovsky, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Physiology, who shot himself while insane. On May 15, 1931, after a year of imprisonment, a sentence was passed (without trial): exile to three years in Arkhangelsk.
In 1931-1933, Vladyka Luka lived in Arkhangelsk, treating patients on an outpatient basis. Vera Mikhailovna Valneva, with whom he lived, treated patients with homemade ointments from the soil - cataplasms. Vladyka became interested in the new method of treatment, and he applied it in the hospital, where he got Vera Mikhailovna to work. And in subsequent years he conducted numerous studies in this area.
In November 1933, Metropolitan Sergius invited His Eminence Luke to occupy the vacant episcopal see. However, the Vladyka did not accept the offer.
After spending a short time in Crimea, Vladyka returned to Arkhangelsk, where he received patients, but did not operate.
In the spring of 1934, Vladika Luka visited Tashkent, then moved to Andijan, operated and lectured. Here he falls ill with papatachi fever, which threatens loss of vision; after an unsuccessful operation, he becomes blind in one eye. In the same year, it was finally possible to publish “Essays on Purulent Surgery.” He performs church services and heads the department of the Tashkent Institute of Emergency Care.
December 13, 1937 - new arrest. In prison, Vladyka is interrogated by conveyor belt (13 days without sleep), with the requirement to sign protocols. He goes on a hunger strike (18 days) and does not sign protocols. A new deportation to Siberia follows. From 1937 to 1941, Vladyka lived in the village of Bolshaya Murta, Krasnoyarsk region.
The Great Patriotic War began. In September 1941, Vladyka was taken to Krasnoyarsk to work at the local evacuation point - a health care facility among dozens of hospitals designed to treat the wounded.
In 1943, His Eminence Luke became Archbishop of Krasnoyarsk. A year later he was transferred to Tambov as Archbishop of Tambov and Michurinsky. There he continues his medical work: he has 150 hospitals under his care.
In 1945, the pastoral and medical activities of the Bishop were noted: he was awarded the right to wear a diamond cross on his hood and was awarded the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
In February 1946, Archbishop Luka of Tambov and Michurin became the laureate of the Stalin Prize, 1st degree, for the scientific development of new surgical methods for the treatment of purulent diseases and wounds, set out in the scientific works “Essays on Purulent Surgery” and “Late Resections for Infected Gunshot Wounds of the Joints.”
In 1945-1947, he completed work on the essay “Spirit, Soul and Body,” which he began in the early 20s.
On May 26, 1946, His Grace Luke, despite the protests of the Tambov flock, was transferred to Simferopol and appointed Archbishop of Crimea and Simferopol.
The years 1946-1961 were entirely devoted to archpastoral service. The eye disease progressed, and in 1958 complete blindness occurred.
However, as Archpriest Evgeniy Vorshevsky recalls, even such an illness did not prevent Vladyka from performing Divine services. Archbishop Luke entered the church without outside help, venerated the icons, read liturgical prayers and the Gospel by heart, anointed them with oil, and delivered heartfelt sermons. The blind archpastor also continued to rule the Simferopol diocese for three years and sometimes receive patients, astonishing local doctors with unmistakable diagnoses.
The Most Reverend Luke died on June 11, 1961, on the Day of All Saints who shone in the Russian land. Vladyka was buried in the city cemetery of Simferopol.
In 1996, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate decided to canonize His Eminence Archbishop Luke as a locally revered saint, as a Saint and confessor of the faith. On March 18, 1996, the discovery of the holy remains of Archbishop Luke took place, which on March 20 were transferred to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Simferopol. Here on May 25, the solemn act of canonizing His Eminence Luke as a locally revered saint took place.
By the decision of the Council of Bishops in 2000, Saint Luke was canonized. His relics are installed for veneration in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Simferopol.
REPRESENTED NESTOR THE CHILNICIER.
The Monk Nestor the Chronicler was born in the 50s of the 11th century in Kyiv. As a young man he came to the Monk Theodosius († 1074, commemorated May 3) and became a novice. The Monk Nestor was tonsured by the successor of the Monk Theodosius, Abbot Stefan. Under him, he was ordained a hierodeacon. His high spiritual life is evidenced by the fact that he, along with other reverend fathers, participated in the exorcism of the demon from Nikita the recluse (later the Novgorod saint, commemorated on January 31), who was seduced into Jewish wisdom. The Monk Nestor deeply valued true knowledge, combined with humility and repentance. “There is great benefit from bookish teaching,” he said, “books punish and teach us the path to repentance, for from bookish words we gain wisdom and self-control. These are the rivers that water the universe, from which wisdom emanates. Books have innumerable depth, we console ourselves with them in sorrow, they are the bridle of abstinence. If you diligently search for wisdom in the books, you will gain great benefit for your soul. For he who reads books converses with God or holy men.” In the monastery, the Monk Nestor bore the obedience of a chronicler. In the 80s he wrote “Reading about the life and destruction of the blessed passion-bearers Boris and Gleb” in connection with the transfer of their holy relics to Vyshgorod in 1072 (May 2). In the 80s, the Monk Nestor compiled the life of the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk, and in 1091, on the eve of the patronal feast of the Pechersk monastery, Abbot John instructed him to dig up the holy relics of the Monk Theodosius from the ground for transfer to the temple (the discovery was commemorated on August 14).
The main feat of the life of the Monk Nestor was the compilation of the “Tale of Bygone Years” by 1112–1113. “This is the story of bygone years, where the Russian land came from, who began the reign in Kyiv, and where the Russian land came from” - this is how the Monk Nestor defined the purpose of his work from the first lines. An unusually wide range of sources (previous Russian chronicles and legends, monastic records, Byzantine chronicles of John Malala and George Amartol, various historical collections, stories of the elder boyar Jan Vyshatich, traders, warriors, travelers), interpreted from a single, strictly ecclesiastical point of view, allowed the Monk Nestor to write the history of Rus' as an integral part of world history, the history of the salvation of the human race.
The patriotic monk sets out the history of the Russian Church in the main moments of its historical formation. He talks about the first mention of the Russian people in church sources - in 866, under the holy Patriarch Photius of Constantinople; tells about the creation of the Slavic charter by Saints Cyril and Methodius, Equal-to-the-Apostles, and the Baptism of Saint Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles in Constantinople. The chronicle of St. Nestor has preserved for us the story of the first Orthodox church in Kiev (under the year 945), about the confessional feat of the holy Varangian martyrs (under the year 983), about the “test of faith” by Saint Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles (986) and the Baptism of Rus' (988) . We owe information about the first metropolitans of the Russian Church, about the emergence of the Pechersk monastery, about its founders and devotees to the first Russian church historian. The time of St. Nestor was not easy for the Russian land and the Russian Church. Rus' was tormented by princely civil strife, the steppe nomadic Cumans ravaged cities and villages with predatory raids, drove Russian people into slavery, burned temples and monasteries. The Monk Nestor was an eyewitness to the destruction of the Pechersk monastery in 1096. The chronicle provides a theological understanding of Russian history. The spiritual depth, historical fidelity and patriotism of The Tale of Bygone Years place it among the highest creations of world literature.
The Monk Nestor died around 1114, bequeathing to the Pechersk monks-chroniclers the continuation of his great work. His successors in the chronicles were Abbot Sylvester, who gave a modern look to the “Tale of Bygone Years”, Abbot Moisei Vydubitsky, who extended it until 1200, and finally, Abbot Lavrenty, who in 1377 wrote the oldest copy that has come down to us, preserving the “Tale” of St. Nestor ( "Laurentian Chronicle"). The heir to the hagiographic tradition of the Pechersk ascetic was Saint Simon, Bishop of Vladimir († 1226, commemorated May 10), the rescuer of the “Kievo-Pechersk Patericon.” When talking about events related to the life of the holy saints of God, Saint Simon often refers, among other sources, to the Chronicles of St. Nestor.
The Monk Nestor was buried in the Near Caves of the Monk Anthony of Pechersk. The Church also honors his memory together with the Council of Fathers, who rest in the Near Caves, on September 28 and on the 2nd Week of Great Lent, when the Council of all Kiev-Pechersk Fathers is celebrated.
His works have been published many times. Latest scientific publications: “The Tale of Bygone Years”, M.–L., 1950: “The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk” - in “Izbornik” (M., 1969; parallel to the Old Russian text and modern translation).
Martyr Photinia (Svetlana) Samaritan.
The holy martyr Photinia (Svetlana) was the same Samaritan woman with whom the Savior talked at Jacob’s well. During the time of Emperor Nero in Rome, in 65, who showed extreme cruelty in the fight against Christianity, Saint Photinia lived with her children in Carthage and fearlessly preached the Gospel there. Rumors about the Christian woman and her children reached Nero, and he ordered the Christians to be brought to Rome for trial. Saint Photinia, informed by the Savior of the impending suffering, accompanied by several Christians, set off from Carthage to Rome and joined the confessors. In Rome, the emperor asked them if they really believed in Christ?
All confessors resolutely refused to renounce the Savior. Then Nero subjected them to the most sophisticated tortures, but none of the martyrs renounced Christ. In helpless rage, Nero ordered that Saint Photinia be skinned and the martyr thrown into a well. The emperor ordered the rest to be beheaded. Saint Photinia was pulled out of the well and imprisoned for twenty days. After which Nero called her to him and asked if she would now submit and make sacrifices to idols? Saint Photinia spat in the emperor’s face and, laughing, refused. Nero again ordered the martyr to be thrown into the well, where she gave up her spirit to the Lord. Together with her, both of her sons, sisters and the martyr Domnina suffered for Christ. The saint heals various diseases and helps those suffering from fever.
The Monk Moses Ugrin, of Pechersk, a Hungarian by origin, was the brother of the Monk Ephraim of Novotorzh († 1053; commemorated January 28) and George. Together with them, he entered the service of the holy noble prince Boris († 1015; commemorated July 24). After the murder of Saint Boris on the Alta River in 1015, along with whom George died, Saint Moses fled and hid in Kyiv with Predslava, the sister of Prince Yaroslav. In 1018, when the Polish king Boleslav captured Kyiv, Saint Moses, along with others, ended up in Poland as a prisoner.
A tall and slender handsome man, Saint Moses attracted the attention of a rich Polish widow, who became passionate about him and wanted to make him her husband by ransoming him from captivity. Saint Moses resolutely refused to exchange captivity for slavery to a woman. His long-standing dream was to take on the angelic form. However, despite the refusal, the Polish woman bought the prisoner.
She tried in every possible way to seduce the young man, but he preferred the pangs of hunger to lush feasts. Then the Polish woman began to take Saint Moses around her lands, thinking that he would be seduced by power and wealth. Saint Moses told her that he would not exchange spiritual riches for the corruptible things of this world and would become a monk.
Venerable Moses Ugrin, Pechersk
An Athonite hieromonk passing through those places tonsured Saint Moses into monasticism. The Polish woman ordered Saint Moses to be stretched out on the ground and beaten with sticks so that the ground was saturated with blood. She obtained permission from Boleslav to do whatever she wanted with the prisoner. A shameless woman once ordered Saint Moses to be forcibly placed on the bed with her, kissed and hugged him, but this did not achieve anything. Saint Moses said: “For fear of God, I abhor you as unclean.” Hearing this, the Polish woman ordered to give the saint a hundred blows every day, and then castrate him. Soon Boleslav launched a persecution against all monks in the country. But he suffered a sudden death. A rebellion broke out in Poland, during which the widow was also killed. Having recovered from his wounds, the Monk Moses came to the Pechersk Monastery, bearing the wounds of martyrdom and the crown of confession as a victor and brave warrior of Christ. The Lord gave him strength against passions. One brother, possessed by an unclean passion, came to the Monk Moses and begged him to help him, saying: “I vow to preserve until death everything that you command me.” The Monk Moses said: “Never say a word to any woman in your life.” The brother promised to carry out the saint’s advice. Saint Moses had a stick in his hand, without which he could not walk from the wounds he received. With this stick he hit the brother who came to him in the chest, and he was immediately delivered from temptation. The Monk Moses labored in the Pechersk Monastery for 10 years, died around 1043 and was buried in the Near Caves. By touching the holy relics of the Venerable Moses and fervent prayer to him, the Pechersk monks were healed from carnal temptations. Life of our Venerable Father
Moisei Ugrin
(8/26 July/August)
He accepted suffering for virginity
in the Lyash land from a widow.
The unclean enemy especially wages war on man through unclean fornication, so that man, darkened by this filth, does not look to God in all his affairs, because only those who are pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). Having labored in that battle more than others, having suffered a lot, as a good warrior of Christ, until he completely defeated the power of the unclean enemy, our blessed father Moses left us with his life an example of high spiritual life. They write about him like this.
It is known about this blessed Moses that he was from Hungary, was close to the holy noble Russian prince and passion-bearer Boris, and served him with his brother George, who was killed with Saint Boris. Then, near the Alta River, George wanted to shield his master from the murderers, but the soldiers of the godless Svyatopolk cut off George’s head in order to take the golden hryvnia that Saint Boris had placed on him. Blessed Moses, having survived death alone, came to Kiev to Predislava, Yaroslav’s sister, where he hid from Svyatopolk, diligently praying to God, until the pious prince Yaroslav came, attracted by pity for the murder of his brother, and defeated the godless Svyatopolk. When Svyatopolk, who fled to the land of Lyash, came again with Boleslav and expelled Yaroslav, and sat down in Kyiv, then Boleslav, returning to his land, took with him into captivity two of Yaroslav’s sisters and many of his boyars; Among them they led the blessed Moses, bound hand and foot with heavy iron; He was strictly guarded because he was strong in body and handsome in face.
This blessed one was seen in the Lyash land by a noble woman, beautiful and young, possessing great wealth and importance; her husband, having gone on a campaign with Boleslav, did not return, but was killed in battle. She, struck by the beauty of Moses, felt the lust of carnal lust for the monk. And she began to convince him with words of flattery: “Why do you endure such torment when you have a mind with which you can free yourself from these shackles and suffering.” Moses answered her: “This was the will of God!” She said: “If you submit to me, I will free you and make you a great man in the entire Lyash land, and you will possess me and my entire region.” Understanding her bad lust, the blessed one said to her: “Which husband, having obeyed his wife, did a good deed? The primordial Adam, having obeyed his wife, was expelled from paradise (Gen. 3:23); Samson (Judges 16:21), having surpassed everyone in strength and defeated the soldiers, was betrayed by his wife to foreigners. Solomon (1 Kings 11:33), having comprehended the depth of wisdom, submitted to his wife and worshiped idols. Herod (Matthew 14:10), who had won many victories and was enslaved by his wife, executed John the Baptist. How will I be free when I become a slave to my wife? I have not known women since my birth.” She said: “I will ransom you and make you famous, I will make you the master of my entire house, and I want to have you as my husband; only you fulfill my will, for I am sorry to see how madly your beauty perishes.” Blessed Moses said to her: “Know that I will not fulfill your will; I don’t want your power or wealth; for me, spiritual and physical purity is more valuable than all this. I don’t want to ruin the work of five years, during which the Lord granted me to endure in these bonds, being innocent, such torment, for which I hope to be delivered from eternal torment.” Then the woman, seeing that she was deprived of such beauty, took another devilish decision, reasoning like this: “If I ransom him, he will submit to me unwillingly.” And she sent to the one who brought him into captivity to take from her as much as he wanted, if only he would give her Moses. He, taking advantage of the opportunity to acquire wealth, took from her up to a thousand gold coins and handed Moses over to her. The woman, having gained power over him, shamelessly lured him into a vile deed. Having freed him from his bonds, she dressed him in expensive clothes and fed him sweet dishes and, hugging him with unclean embraces, forced him to carnal lust. Blessed Moses, seeing her fury, was even more diligent in prayer and fasting, preferring for God to eat dry bread and water in purity than in filth - expensive dishes and wine. And he took off his beautiful clothes, like Joseph once did, and escaped sin, despising the blessings of this life. The woman, disgraced, was filled with such rage that she decided to starve the blessed man to death, throwing him into prison. God, who gives food to every creature, who once nourished Elijah in the desert, also Paul of Thebes and many of His other servants who trusted in Him, did not abandon this blessed one. He bent one of the woman's slaves to mercy, and he secretly gave him food. Others admonished him: “Brother Moses, what is stopping you from getting married? You are still young, and this widow lived with her husband only one year and is more beautiful than other women; she has countless wealth and great power in this Lyash land; if she had wanted, the prince would not have neglected her; You are a captive and a slave, and you don’t want to be her master. If you say: “I cannot transgress the commandments of Christ,” does not Christ say in the Gospel: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh (Matthew 19:5). Likewise the Apostle: It is better to marry than to become inflamed (1 Cor. 7:9). He also speaks about widows: I want young widows to marry (1 Tim. 5:14). But you, who are not bound by the monastic order, but are free from it, why do you subject yourself to evil and bitter torments and suffer like this? If you happen to die in this trouble, what praise will you have? Who abhorred the women of the first righteous men, like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Nobody, only the current monks. Joseph at first fled from the woman, but then he took a wife, and you, if you come out alive from this woman, then - so we think - you will look for a wife yourself, and who will not laugh at your madness? It is better for you to submit to this woman and be free and master of her entire house.” Blessed Moses answered them: “O my brothers and good friends, you advise me well; I understand that you are telling me words worse than the serpent’s whispering spoke to Eve in Paradise. You force me to submit to this woman, but I do not ask for your advice, even if I have to die in these bonds and in bitter torments; I believe that I will certainly receive God's mercy. And if many righteous people were saved with their wives, I am the only sinner and cannot be saved with my wife. But, if Joseph had listened to Pentephry’s wife before, he would not have reigned later when he took a wife for himself in Egypt (Gen. 39 and 41). God, seeing his previous patience, gave him the kingdom of Egypt, which is why he is glorified in his generation for his chastity, although he had children. I do not want the kingdom of Egypt, and not to dominate the authorities and to be great in this land of Lyash and to become famous far across the Russian land, but I despised all this for the sake of the kingdom above. Therefore, if I leave the hands of this woman alive, I will never look for another wife, but, with God’s help, I will become a monk. For what did Christ say in the Gospel? Everyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29). Should I listen more to you or to Christ? The Apostle says: An unmarried man cares about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord, but a married man worries about worldly things, how to please his wife (1 Cor. 7:32-33). I will ask you, for whom is it appropriate to work - for the Lord or for the wife? I also know what he writes: Slaves, listen to your masters, but in good, not in evil; So understand, you who hold me, that female beauty will never seduce me and will not tear me away from Christ’s love.”
Remembrance Day was established by the Orthodox Church on February 16/March 1. There were five of them. Christian brothers who called themselves after the biblical prophets: Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Samuel and Daniel, were returning from Asia Minor to Egypt. Their path ran through the city of Caesarea. At that time, terrible things were happening there. Christians were severely persecuted. Pamphilus, who created a library of Christian books, the elderly deacon Valens and Paul had been languishing in prison for two years. Before the five Egyptians had time to enter the city, they were immediately captured. During interrogation they admitted that they profess Christianity. When asked about their origin, they answered that they were from Jerusalem. In the third century there was no Jerusalem; it was destroyed in the first century, and the new city had a different name. Daniel and his brothers spoke of the heavenly Jerusalem. Not understanding anything, Governor Firmilian wanted to find out from them by torture where this city was located. But everything was useless, then he ordered the execution of Daniel, his companions and the prisoners who were in prison. Following them, four more people were killed. The bodies of the 12 martyrs lay untouched for 4 days, and on the fifth day the pagans allowed Christians to bury them. holy prophet Daniel. Daniel (in the schema of Stefan) Nivertsky, Egyptian, venerable, confessor
Daniel of Nikopol (Armenian), martyr
Remembrance Day was established by the Orthodox Church on July 10/23. Saint Daniel was one of the 45 martyrs who suffered for the faith in the city of Nicopolis. Personalized icons, as a rule, depict the holy prophet Daniel. Daniil Pereyaslavsky, archimandrite Under the leadership of Elder Leukius, Daniel of Pereyaslav quickly learned the rigors of monastic life, humility and obedience. The monks respected him for his virtues, firm faith, tireless work and wished to see Daniel as their abbot. But fearing the temptation of power, the ascetic left the Borovsk monastery and, after wandering through many monasteries, returned to his native Pereyaslavl, settling in the Goritsky monastery. At first, Daniel served as a prosphora maker, but soon, for his strict, godly life and diligence in service, he was appointed confessor to the brethren. Not only monks, but also many lay people turned to him for wise instructions. Following with all his heart the covenant of love for one's neighbor, the Monk Daniel always received strangers and took upon himself the care of the burial of the poor, rootless and homeless. He buried them on the mountain in a mass grave - a poor one and remembered them in prayers. Daniel often heard stories about people seeing light emanating from this place and hearing bells ringing. And he decided to build the Church of All Saints near the poor woman. In confirmation of the goodness of this plan, the necessary funds were quickly found to build the temple, and Grand Duke Vasily gave the Monk Daniel a charter to build a church in the right place. However, many townspeople and peasants expressed the wish that not just one church, but a holy monastery be created under the poor woman. This is how the Trinity Monastery arose. Daniil Pereyaslavsky became its rector with the rank of archimandrite. It is known that the Monk Daniel became famous as a seer and wonderworker. The brothers saw him walking on water. More than once he miraculously saved those suffering from hunger and disease. Even the mention of his name in prayer gave believers protection from robbers. The monastery preserves a well dug by Daniil of Pereyaslavl. From the water from this well, pilgrims repeatedly received healing of their ailments. Before his death, the holy ascetic accepted the schema and died on April 7, 1540 at the age of 81. Many miracles were also performed from his relics. Daniel II of Serbia, Archbishop Until the age of 42, Daniel labored in a monastery. For him, Simeon the Stylite became an example to follow in spiritual life, and he also decided to accept the feat of stylite life. The Monk Daniel left the monastery for the Thracian desert and settled there on a pillar that had been built. One night the ascetic almost died from cold. The emperor, who learned about this, ordered the ascetic to build a pillar of two columns connected by iron fasteners, on top of which a small house was erected. With the blessing of Patriarch Gennady of Constantinople, the Monk Simeon was ordained a priest. The sick and disabled were often brought to him with the hope of healing. Simeon the Stylite's prayers were earnest, his advice was simple, and his sermons were understandable to everyone. He helped many unfortunate people find their path in life. During the 33 years of his pillarhood, Saint Daniel descended to earth only once, when the Emperor Basilisk, who overthrew Zeno’s predecessor, began to patronize heretics. The crowd carried Daniel, who descended with difficulty, on a high chair as the spiritual leader of the popular uprising, and the emperor hastened to admit his mistakes. The Monk Daniel the Stylite lived to the age of 80 and died peacefully in 490. Daniil Shuzhgorsky, Rev.
Remembrance Day was established by the Orthodox Church on September 21/October 4. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
From a young age he discovered his love for asceticism and imitated the exploits of St. Simeon the Stylite (September 1/14). The youth was sent to be raised in the Nikitsky Monastery by his relative Abbot Jonah, where he fell in love with the monastic life and decided to become a monk himself. Fearing that his parents would interfere with the fulfillment of his intentions, he, together with his brother Gerasim, secretly went to the monastery of St. Paphnutius of Borovsky (May 1/14). Here, having taken monastic tonsure, the Monk Daniel, under the guidance of the experienced elder St. Leukia lived 10 years.
Having gained experience in spiritual life, the monk returned to Pereyaslavl to the Goritsky Monastery, where he received the priesthood. Through the strict, godly life and tireless labors of St. Daniel attracted everyone's attention; Many began to come to him for confession and for spiritual advice. No one left the Monk Daniel unconsoled.
A special ascetic manifestation of love for neighbors was the saint’s care for the dead beggars, homeless and rootless people. If he heard about a person who died from robbers, about a drowned person, or about someone who froze to death on the road and had no one to bury, then he tried in every possible way to find the dead body, carried it in his arms to the skudelnitsa (a burial place for the homeless), buried it, and then commemorated it. at the Divine Liturgy.
On the site of the poor woman, the saint built a temple in honor of All Saints, so that prayers could be offered in it for the repose of unknown dead Christians. Around him, several monks built their cells, forming a small monastery, where in 1525 the Monk Daniel became abbot. One of the main commandments taught by the new abbot called for accepting all strangers, the poor and the poor. He admonished the brethren and guided them on the path of truth not by force, but by meekness and love, setting everyone an example of pure life and deep humility.
Many miracles happened through the prayers of the Monk Daniel: he turned water into healing kvass, healed the brethren from illnesses; freed from danger. During a famine, when there was little bread left in the monastery granary, he gave it to a poor widow with children. And from then on, as a reward for the saint’s mercy, the flour in the granary did not become scarce throughout the famine.
Anticipating the approach of his death, the Monk Daniel accepted the great schema. The blessed elder reposed in the 81st year of his life, on April 7, 1540. His incorrupt relics were found in 1625. The Lord glorified His saint with numerous miracles.
