"Laborer at the Harvest" In memory of the Pechersk Elder Adrian

Adrian (Kirsanov)
(1922 - 2018), archimandrite, resident of the Pskov-Pechersky Assumption Monastery In the world, Alexey Andreevich Kirsanov, was born on March 17, 1922 in the village of Tureika, Oryol region, into a peasant family. He was left without a father early and grew up sick and weak. One day, my mother, who had three children in her arms after the death of her husband, sent him to the city of Oryol to see a doctor. There was only one functioning church in the city at that time; Alexei entered it at the beginning of the liturgy and could not leave, feeling that it was his home. Then he had a revelation: the Most Pure Virgin came down from the icon in front of which Alexei stopped, and the icon in Alexei’s vision was transformed into a battlefield.

Until 1941 he worked as a mechanic at a factory. When the Great Patriotic War began, he was evacuated to Taganrog to an airfield in a military town. Before the Germans occupied the city, he took part in the explosion of workshops. He made his way home, where he hid at home and in the forests with the partisans. When his homeland was liberated by Soviet troops, he joined the army. Soon he ended up in Kolomna, where he guarded howitzer guns. Then the commission found he had a heart disease and Alexey was called to work at the Likhachev plant in Moscow. He worked there until 1953.

In 1953, he went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra with the intention of joining the brethren. At first, the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite John (Razumov), wanted to send the “simple” petitioner home, but then he relented and accepted him as a novice - to wash dishes.

He firmly held his place in the monastery. When his sick mother, reporting about the fire in which their house burned down, asked him to leave the monastery and earn money for a new house, he did not leave the laurels. Instead, he began to earnestly pray to St. Nicholas of Myra to help his sick mother. Then they unexpectedly brought him a bag with money and an anonymous note - to give this money to the monk’s mother, whose house had burned down.

He served as a refectory attendant, then in charge of the production of candles.

During the Dormition Fast of 1957, he was tonsured a monk by the Lavra's abbot, Archimandrite Pimen (Izvekov), with the name Adrian. He was ordained a hierodeacon.

In 1970 he was ordained to the priesthood.

Soon after his ordination, he felt the ability to help those possessed by demons.
He received the blessing of Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow and All Rus' for this. In the morning, crowds of insane, violent people, often abandoned by everyone, gathered under his cell. At 5 o'clock in the morning, Father Adrian confessed them, then read prayers expelling the evil spirit. Through the care of Father Adrian, many were healed and transformed - they worked successfully and confessed Christ. However, his activities were not to the liking of many - both on the part of the atheistic authorities and on the part of envious people and guardians of the external appearance of the monastery. After the incident, when, at the sight of Adrian’s father, a prominent American tourist suddenly became possessed, the leadership of the CPSU Central Committee issued an order “Remove Adrian from the Lavra within 24 hours.” On August 26, 1975, he was transferred to the Pskov-Pechersky Assumption Monastery. Father had a hard time parting with his beloved monastery, he suffered a lot, and a peptic ulcer developed. But as soon as he began to recover, he again began to confess to the mentally ill. He continued this ministry until 1990, then began to receive people who came for healing and advice, with worldly requests and troubles. There are known cases of his clairvoyance and miraculous healings through his prayers. He continued his senile service even after reaching the age of 90.

From 1975 to 1978 - fraternal confessor of the Pskov-Pechersky Assumption Monastery.

In recent years, I spent a lot of time in prayer vigil and was silent.

He died on April 28, 2021, at the age of 97. The burial was scheduled for April 30 [1].

Alexey Kirsanov, before becoming a monk, was a mechanic, artilleryman and blacksmith

The miraculous revelations of higher powers in the church did not change the life of Alexei Andreevich. He did not become a priest or monk, but led a secular life - he got a job as a mechanic at a factory. And in 1941, the war turned everything upside down.

I had to go to Taganrog. There, at the airfield, the future father Adrian Psokovo-Pechersky first serviced the planes, and then resisted the German invaders - he mined the workshops before the enemies approached the military camp.

Archimandrite Adrian Kirsanov

Although Alexey Andreevich had health problems, he found the strength to return to his native land. There he hid in the forests side by side with Soviet partisans.

Soon the invaders were driven out of Alexei Kirsanov’s small homeland, and he joined the army as an artilleryman. Death was always nearby, shelling thundered, but the young man himself did not kill a single person.

His main military task was to guard the howitzer guns in Kolomna. But this activity did not last long: Alexey Andreevich was diagnosed with heart disease.

The Likhachev plant, where Alexey Kirsanov worked as a blacksmith and mechanic

Thus ended the service of Alexei Kirsanov. He came in handy elsewhere - at the Moscow Likhachev plant, where he worked as a blacksmith until 1953.

Alexei prayed at the Epiphany gathering in Elokhov. I tried to lead a pious life, without bad habits. Denied attention to girls. One day a miracle happened to him.

A prayer to Nikolai Ugodnik saved Alexei Kirsanov from death in icy water.

Alexei went to the river in winter to get holy water, but the ice fell through. The prayer to Nicholas the Ugodnik saved me. It was as if someone had taken Alexei by the hair and pulled him to the surface. It happened at Epiphany.

"Laborer at the Harvest" In memory of the Pechersk Elder Adrian

Whom have we lost in this world and gained as a prayer book in the other world - in the person of Archimandrite Adrian (Kirsanov) who died in April? This resident of the Holy Dormition Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery, the spiritual mentor of the monks of the monastery and thousands of Orthodox people in Russia and around the world, was sometimes called “Adrian Besogon,” sometimes “comforting elder,” and even more simply and often “dear father.”

Many of us were his contemporaries (as well as the previously deceased Pechersk Elder John (Krestyankin)), but due to spiritual laziness we never came to the monastery for communication and advice. Otherwise we didn’t even suspect what lamps of faith were burning next to us. But even now each of us can warm up and be enlightened by these fires. After all, they shine and warm from those shores to those who demand it with their hearts.

Archimandrite Adrian (Kirsanov)

The long-familiar, stone-paved descent of the “bloody path” - from the monastery gates to the Assumption Church and the “God-created caves”, in the cold darkness of which a host of deceased monks and worldly benefactors of the monastery rest until the Second Coming. In the cave niche, framed with flowers, there is an open window (so you can touch the coffin with your hand). This is the grave of Elder John, to which his many spiritual children come and fall. And in the next corridor, to the right of the underground Church of the Resurrection of the Word, in the brick lining there is another window and a completely new house. On the forties, a memorial plaque made of white stone with a gilded inscription appeared here: “Archimandrite Adrian. 1922–2018." I touch the coffin, asking the newly deceased elder for help...

man of God

In the book of his life, the stages of personal spiritual growth are imprinted in the harsh chronicle of Russian life of the last century. Alexey Andreevich Kirsanov comes from Oryol peasants, and since childhood he has experienced full hardships and sorrows. After the death of the father, the family's poverty turned into poverty. It happened that they asked for alms so as not to die of hunger. Once, in his adolescence and youth, he found himself in the only church in Orel, he - then still an unbeliever - during the service he was honored with a prophetic vision. An abyss opened up before his feet. Archangel Michael showed him where the atheists and unrepentant sinners would go; the boy saw a whole spiritual battle, which was later embodied in reality in his life. After this, young Alexey began to call the people around him to repentance. As a result, he was placed in a psychiatric clinic for some time.

However, this did not stop him from soon getting a job as a mechanic at a power plant. With the beginning of the war, he ended up in Taganrog, where he served aircraft at a military airfield. Before the city was captured by the Germans, he took part in mining and explosion of workshops.

Then - escape from encirclement to his native Oryol region, where Alyosha was hiding at home and in the forests with the partisans. When the Soviet troops advanced, an artilleryman with a military profession joined their ranks. I survived shelling and saw death and suffering up close more than once. He was transferred to Kolomna to guard howitzers, but was soon discharged due to heart disease.

The Lord, as he himself said, saved him from killing at least one person in the war, destining him for high service. Kirsanov became a blacksmith-fitter in the forge shop at the Likhachev plant, where he worked until 1953. He went to pray at the Epiphany Cathedral in Elokhov, and often went to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra. Alexei led a lonely life, did not drink or smoke, and the dream of a monastic life grew stronger in his soul. The girls looked at the handsome, strong guy and tried to seduce him; his workmates also tried to marry him off so that he could “be like everyone else,” and they were very angry when they failed. One day the girls, angry at his inattention, climbed into his room and spat in a jar of holy water. After which... they fell ill with a temperature of about forty. Having confessed their actions to Alyosha, they soon recovered through his prayers.

And somehow, at Epiphany, a real miraculous salvation happened in his life. On the river, where he went to get holy water and take a dip, the ice broke under his feet, and Alexei, as he was, in his clothes, went straight to the bottom. He was saved by Nikolai Ugodnik, to whom he prayed with all his might, “as if he had pulled him up by the hair.” After this incident, the worker Kirsanov firmly decided to go to the monastery.

But he was able to do this only in 1953, going to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. At the same time, he delighted the factory workers he knew, saying that he was going to get married in another city and would live there. He quit the factory and, confirming his legend, left his salary “for a while” in the cash register.

A young, poorly educated worker was accepted into the monastery “with difficulty” to serve as a dishwasher, which Alexey was incredibly happy about. He was accepted into the ranks of the brethren by the then governor, Archimandrite John (Razumov), later Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov. After some time, the humble novice was transferred to the refectory. He did not leave the monastery, even when his sick mother, reporting that the house had burned down, asked him to earn money for a new home by leaving the monastery at least for a while. Instead, he began to pray intensely to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and the miracle did not slow down: after a short time, he was unexpectedly given a bag with money and an anonymous note - to give it to “the mother of a monk whose house burned down.” He was tonsured a monk in 1957 with the name Adrian by the next governor of the Lavra, the future Patriarch, Archimandrite Pimen (Izvekov). In 1961, he was ordained as a priest.

Father Adrian confessed in the Assumption Church, observing every day the spiritually sick - the possessed: despised, useless people who came to the monastery in large numbers, expecting at least some kind of help. Since he himself had suffered a lot in life, he took the suffering of others to heart. Sincerely feeling sorry for the unfortunate ones and having received a blessing from his confessor, Elder Kirill (Pavlov), he began to reprimand them for the special rite of expelling evil spirits. There is evidence (first of all, the personal one of Father Adrian himself) about the verbal blessing for this service from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I (Simansky).

From the very morning, crowds of strange, sometimes insane people, who were rioting from the proximity of the shrine, gathered at his cell. During the exorcism procedure, it was scary for an unprepared person to enter the temple: the possessed grunted, screamed in voices that were not their own, and fell to the floor. And in those years the Lavra was one of the main places visited by foreign delegations. For some time, “Adrian’s disorder” began to irritate the church, and especially the party authorities. Either an American tourist suddenly, with the approach of the priest, will begin to cover ten floors with Russian obscenities, or something else out of the ordinary will happen.

The patience of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs of the Moscow Region, Alexei Trushin, was put to the limit by one egregious incident. A guide accompanying a group of official tourists (with KGB shoulder straps) “brought the clergy out into the open,” accompanying this with various ridicule. Father Adrian was passing by at that time. Seeing him, the merry fellow suddenly folded his hands like a dog and barked naturally. The tourists, thinking that this was a continuation of comic escapades, applauded, and he, trying to stop, began to grab himself by the throat, turn purple, and suffocate. Father Adrian approached and covered the joker with his stole, after which he fell silent for a while. And then he gave the frightened atheist a full-fledged “reprimand.” Delivered from the demon and becoming a frequent guest of his deliverer, the KGB officer turned into a very inconvenient witness for the authorities to the reality of the spiritual world.

Summoning the Lavra exorcist to his place, Trushin asked: “Can you reprimand me too?” The priest replied: “If it is necessary, I will reprimand you too.” Then the all-powerful boss ordered within 24 hours to “move Adrian’s priest” to hell.

In 1975, the future elder was actually exiled to the distant Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. He suffered greatly, parting with his native abode, and a peptic ulcer developed. At the same time, whether he would be accepted into the new place as a resident depended on the local commissioner for religious affairs. The issue was resolved immediately when Father Adrian opened his robe and showed the official on his cassock an impressive row of medals that he received as a war veteran and labor shock worker. Many of the Pechersk brothers were at that time front-line soldiers and order bearers.

Earlier, when he was still a resident of the Lavra, Father Adrian faced a spiritual fork in the road: whether to stay in the cenobitic monastery or go into the desert. He visited the Glinsky elders, traveled to the mountains of Abkhazia to visit the hermits. Then, through human slander and the machinations of the evil one, a real miracle worker, Archimandrite Tikhon (Agrikov), was expelled from the Sergius Monastery, settling in a remote cell in the Abkhazian mountains. Father Adrian reached him along with another monk who wanted a desert life. Instead of a verbal answer to their question, the hermit Tikhon poured a mug of compote for Adrian’s companion, and placed a whole pan in front of him. The direction of further monastic destiny immediately became clear to both.

Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Summer 1970

The settlement of the exiled “troublemaker” in his new monastery did not go smoothly. The imperious Archimandrite Gabriel, who was then the governor, humbled the Lavra for quite a long time, placing him in a common cell and oppressing him in every possible way. One day the Commissioner for Religious Affairs arrived and began to ask him specifically about his relationship with the abbot: “they even say there are complaints from you.” And he responded with fear: “What are you talking about, what complaints! No complaints, I'm happy with everything." After this incident, the governor called him and ordered him to move to an individual cell - it seems like he passed the test. Father Adrian endured all these circumstances meekly and soon resumed the practice of scolding the possessed, continuing it until 1994.

He left exorcism because it was already beyond his physical strength. Three years earlier, Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), a student of St. Silouan of Athos, advised him to stop “reprimanding” him in a letter three years earlier. “It’s like shedding blood,” he wrote. In addition, Father Adrian increasingly began to encounter cases where people whom he had delivered from demons, without repenting or changing their lives, fell into even worse temptations.

One day he received a letter screaming: “Give me back my daughter!” This was written by the mother of a girl who, several years earlier, seemed to have successfully survived the exorcism of a demon. Having freed herself from the formidable “monk”, the girl, overjoyed, stopped praying, going to church, and began to lead a riotous life. It turned out that the demons seemed to simply laugh at the old man. Then he called seven spirits more evil than himself, and together they entered into man. And his last state was worse than his first

(cf. Matthew 12:43–45). Such cases were isolated, but they greatly upset Father Adrian.

For the last quarter of a century, Archimandrite Adrian has received pilgrims who came to him in ever-increasing numbers with their questions and troubles. The rumor about the elder’s foresight and miraculous healings through his prayers spread, going far beyond the borders of the country. The Mother of God herself, to strengthen him, at the request of Father Adrian, sent him a cross, which he one morning discovered on his pillow. With it he blessed oil, which healed many.

The elder's modesty was amazing. "And who am I? - he sometimes wondered at those who addressed him with reverence. - All sorts of people come to me. From Canada, from Europe... The governor presented me with a certificate. What about me? I’m sitting in my cell, doing nothing.”

For the last fifteen years he has never left his cell, receiving people every day. They gave him communion there. And the whole cell was 15 square meters...

Conversations about the Elder

Why do people become monks? Why do people come to the monastery as pilgrims, stay as laborers, and become novices? – There is peace in the monastery. Not the one you are looking for in the village after the bustle of the city, but some other one - real, perhaps, like the threshold of those abodes, “where there is neither sadness nor sighing.” But it is also found in a difficult struggle with one’s passions and weaknesses, in a real war with the spirits of evil in heaven, who do not want the salvation of human souls. It is not for nothing that patristic literature defines monks as spiritual warriors with their own “shield” and “sword.”

The duty of a monk is to pray not only for himself, but also for the whole world. But only a select few have the gift of direct spiritual help to other people, including those far from the faith. These are called elders.

In the Petrovskaya gazebo at the top of the monastery’s Holy Mountain, Hierodeacon Nikon, Hieromonk Joasaph, and Abbot Chrysanthus, the cell attendant of Elder Adrian, who later joined, share their memories of the deceased elder.

The domes and crosses below glow brightly in the sun, the wind moves the leaves in the crowns, and the birds punctuate our conversation with a silent, multi-voiced chorus.

“I’ve been in Pechery for 30 years and I’ve known Father all these years,” says Father Nikon. “Many of the brothers came to him. Just like Father John. But to the second - for solving a confusing everyday or complex spiritual issue, and to the first - with everyday monastic needs. Father Adrian healed gently and with love - truly in a fatherly way... You come, you think - the grief is insoluble: the governor shouted, the dean made a remark - now they will kick you out. You confess to the priest, he will pray - and look, after a couple of hours everything has resolved...

The effectiveness of his prayer was clear. He often solved complex questions of the laity, which ordinary monks would be afraid to approach, with two or three simple words. And he gave examples all the time in the third person, only then did you understand that the story applied specifically to you - he didn’t have any random words. People left him inspired, as if resurrected. It was such an everyday miracle.

Adrian's father's communication style often seemed paradoxical. Sometimes he will calmly listen to the words of his interlocutor about some serious things, but he will get attached to seemingly real little things - he will begin to develop, emphasize. And then it turns out that these are not trifles at all.

The gift of insight - of course. I once went outside the walls of the monastery to collect grass, and the governor caught me AWOL. I told him: “Here, I only went out for five minutes,” and he told me: “Write an explanatory note.” I came to Father Adrian to complain - and received the answer: “You would have said: Father is the governor, I went out for five minutes and walked through the forest for two hours.” And that’s exactly what happened! That is, I lied, and the elder “corrected” me, as if he were next to me.

I’m asking about a definition that has been popular for some time: why was Father John called the “Easter Father”, and Father Adrian the “Lenten Father”?

“Father John didn’t walk, but flew straight from the church to his cell,” Father Nikon answers, smiling at the memories.

“His every word shone with joy, with his smile he warmed everyone. Father Adrian was restrained and outwardly seemingly stern, although he could warm the heart no worse. I would call him not a “Lenten” man, but a “comforting old man.” Father John loved Father Adrian very much. I remember he runs towards him with a hug - he hugs him to himself, and in response he babbles something tongue-tied. It was touching to see them together! They kiss and go their separate ways. Sometimes the elders sent parishioners to each other. Father Adrian said in such cases: “Go to Ivan with this.” That's what he called him...

“I remember well the meeting of two great elders, when Father Adrian was still walking,” Abbot Chrysanthos enters the conversation.

“She is captured in the now famous photograph.” Father Adrian once went out into the street - well, just like some kind of tramp. A woolen jacket rolled up into balls, hands in pockets, gloomy, elbow sticking out, back bent... And then Father John flew at him - all round, fast, glowing - and let's hug him, whisper something in his ear. It was truly impossible to look at this without tears of tenderness... The two of them had different forms of achievement, but the same content, the same closeness to God. What we can call “Easter”, Father Adrian skillfully hid.

Archimandrite John (Peasant)

“Father John (Krestyankin) was such a bright star that in his backlight many did not notice the other great elders who labored in our monastery,” adds Father Nikon. – And Father Adrian was also, as it were, in his shadow. But only until the person himself has communicated with him, especially with a serious problem. You go out to the construction site, and there Fathers Dionysius and Plato are working. Completely inconspicuous to outsiders. And these are spiritual giants! And there were about a dozen such lights in Pechery. And there are even more concentrated, spiritually experienced monks with persecutions and prisons behind them. We lived in this every day and thought that it would always be like this. And they all started leaving from the beginning of this century...

“I was already a churchgoer when I was advised to meet Elder Adrian in Moscow,” recalls Father Joasaph. “He didn’t make any impression on me then: he started showing pictures that a person has a soul... But I knew that myself... All beginners want some kind of visible miracles, esoteric revelations... But still, I later came to him in Pechory several times, and on one of them he blessed me to go to the army, where I, like my friends, had no intention of going. But for some reason I believed him. And it so happened that this was exactly what turned my life around. You know, it was as if Father Adrian switched the switch - and the train went along a different path, eventually arriving here at the monastery. After the army, I was no longer interested in my previous hobbies and friends, and after a while, with his blessing, I found myself here...

Probably, for the rest of his life, any monk is haunted by the temptation to leave the monastery for another place, where the abbot will be kinder and his spiritual growth will be stronger,” Father Joasaph continues to reflect. - Well, like any family man - get a divorce, throw off the cross given by the Lord, look for something better. The prayers of Father Adrian stopped such temptations and pacified the souls of many monks.

And sometimes it happened that a person came to the elder with a question, began to communicate with him - and there seemed to be no question. And he leaves - and the question is right there again. This is because next to the elder one felt deep peace of mind. The elders are different in that they know a lot, but say little... Only what is needed.

When unmarried people asked about family life, he didn’t even want to talk to them: “Get married - then come.” There were cases when I didn’t want to accept anyone, “but you, boy, come in.” Moreover, he sometimes called, without seeing him in person, through the wall, who exactly to invite. I felt who really needed it.

He often answered instantly and as if without thinking. Including “stupid” questions like: “Father, which cow should I get – a spotted one or a red one?” He immediately: “Red one, take the red one!” - “My buttons flew off...” - “Well, sew them on!” And all this with patience, love, without the slightest mockery... But, I remember, and complained in recent years: “Everyone asks how to get married, how to sell a house, buy cattle - and almost no one wants to find out how their passion is... then overcome...”

I asked my interlocutors about the elder’s “predictions,” which were widely distributed on the Internet at one time.

“Father Adrian did not make any detailed political predictions that began to be attributed to him in the networks,” answers Father Joasaph. – From short remarks, pilgrim-dreamers sometimes developed entire apocalyptic pictures. So, in the 1990s, for several years in a row, indeed, almost every year, he prophesied war. And then suddenly he stopped, and to the questions: “Will there be a war?” began to answer clearly: “No, it won’t.” This means not only that the elders can make mistakes, but also that in the High Council, terrible events can be - by the grace of God, through the prayers of the righteous - delayed or even canceled. It is obvious that God's people are feeling these changes.

“Fr. Adrian suddenly said to one monk: “Misha, you will die after Easter,” Father Nikon recalls by the way. – Misha almost fainted and began to cry. Easter passed one, two, three, we forgot about it all. This monk went to Moscow to the Sretensky Monastery. And there, one day after Easter, he actually died tragically.

What is a miracle

Hegumen Chrysanthus (Lipilin)

A cell attendant in a monastery is practically a close relative. Therefore, with special feeling, trying to be tactful, I ask about the elder abbot Chrysanthos, who carried out this obedience for 12 years.

“From the second or third day of my life at the monastery, in 1991, I found myself connected with Father Adrian,” answers Father Chrysanthos. “Our communication smoothly flowed from my spiritual questioning into closer, more intimate forms and ended with a cell service with him. When, due to weakness, he finished serving the liturgy on his own, the two of us, together with one already deceased priest, gave the elder communion and helped him in his everyday life and serving people.

I’m wondering: “What was he like for you?”

The abbot, thoughtful, admits that in the rich Russian language there are no words for an answer. After a pause, Father Chrysanthos continues:

“I treated him as my father and my child at the same time.” Of course, at the same time, it was difficult to fully get used to the fact that I seemed to be made of glass: my every step, every movement of my soul was visible to the elder. But it was simply impossible to be annoyed with him for certain inconveniences. I, like others, was attracted to it by its deep content, which could be learned endlessly.

“I’ll say a strange thing,” he continues, “for me, almost nothing has changed with his departure.” Although I don’t see him now, as I used to, every day, and now I can’t hear anyone behind the wall of the cell... But I don’t agree to consider this death - in the sense that we mean by this word!

People often treat such lamps selfishly, without thinking about the source of their powers, thinks Abbot Chrysanthos. “Even when the old man was once taken away by ambulance, the people who came to see him managed to ask their questions at the car door. And he answered as best he could! It’s as if you were already hanging on a cross, and they were tugging at your fingers with requests... Sometimes the crush was such that you had to somehow shield him - with strength, but without rudeness. But I never influenced his decisions to accept or not accept someone, and I could not have done so. Who am I to “edit” his ministry? I had obedience, I was his “crutch”.

For years, some locals asked him how to store potatoes, when to pick berries... This, of course, was sometimes unbearable. But the elder endured all this, understanding the degree of spiritual ill-health of the people, covering it all with love.

– Have I seen miracles from the elder? - the abbot asks me again. - Certainly. But I wouldn't want you to reduce your description to the level that journalists love: look, he predicted, he foresaw, he exorcised the demon. A miracle is a powerful and overt action of God's power in our world. And in this sense, every conversation of the priest was a miracle, transforming the soul of his interlocutors.

I remember well one conversation with Father Adrian, when, being still very young and worldly, I was just taking a closer look at monastic life, and sang with a blessing in the choir. I went to see him one evening and asked something, and he answered me with something completely different: “Don’t go to two services, otherwise your legs will hurt.” But I had a choice in this sense, and indeed, troubles began with my legs. And then I naively ask him: “How do you know this?” He smiled and suddenly we both started laughing at the same time. I am because it’s all so great: it’s as if a new endless world has opened up before me. And he - apparently because of my naivety and, perhaps, sharing the joy of my discovery. I was 20, and he was 69 – we stood there and laughed. This was the very first miracle in our communication...

Well, and another episode, one might say, is simply stupid: at one time I was too carried away by listening to the radio, and I was amused by the speech of the presenter, which penetrated into my consciousness: “And if something doesn’t work out, then the khan will rule.” I walk and spin this expression in my head, smiling to myself. I went to Father Adrian for some business, and he, answering my question, unexpectedly finished: “And if it’s not so, then, as the criminals say, it’s a khan.” I then looked at my watch: 20 minutes had passed - this is the “flight time”.

Once I witnessed the priest expel an evil spirit with just three words. I went to his reception room - and there - a rare case! - few people. A woman stands there and doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear from a distance that she’s possessed. Father called her closer and said sternly: “Come out, demon!” And he answers from her in a rough guttural voice: “I won’t leave.” Father Adrian repeated the order - again a refusal. He said the same thing (without raising his voice) for the third time - the woman swayed and fell, healed. And right before my eyes, such a vibration flew by, a flickering of the air - towards the exit. And at that same second, all the birds sitting on the monastery roofs and church crosses flew into the air screaming...

It is clear that the fallen spirits tried to take revenge on the priest for his work. And at night the door of the cell was pounded, and other insurances and dirty tricks happened. But Father Adrian took this quite calmly.

In his external manner of communication, he often resorted to the image of an unreasonable simpleton, recalls Father Chrysanthos. “If I felt a spiritual pull in my interlocutor, I would reveal my depth to him.

At the end of his life, the priest was left with practically no teeth, but rejected the dentures offered to him. This is how he humbled himself and sometimes made himself “bad.” This caused certain difficulties in communicating with people: he lisped and mumbled. Not everyone understood this manner. But this was a kind of filter from superficial people. If necessary, he clearly pronounced words that were important to the person.

For several decades he lived in full view of people,” says the elder’s cell attendant. – While I was able, I could receive visitors every day for many hours in a row, without food or rest. For a monk, who by definition seeks prayer and solitude, this is a difficult test...

In recent years and especially months, Father Adrian seemed to be “praying for time” - forcing himself to do something else in spiritual work, to help someone, but the main thing had already been determined in his personal relationship with God, with the Most Holy Theotokos. And they clearly had a direct connection. We, monks, tried not to occupy his prayer time with any of our own problems.

His mind and memory remained clear until the last hour, but his soul seemed to become younger, recalls Father Chrysanthos. “On the night before his death, the priest, with a high fever and experiencing physical suffering, found the strength for a diligent confession. And in the morning, shortly before repose, he took communion, having listened to all the rites and prayers of thanks with attention and even some kind of decisive prayer.

After another pause, Abbot Chrysanthos seemed to sum up what had been said:

– Elder Adrian, thanks to his righteous life, received grace and a gift from above - to clearly hear the voice of God. This is what he clearly presented to those who came, without introducing anything of his own. The appearance of such personalities among us suggests that God never turns away from people. But people often turn away from God, even in view of his lamps.

I ask my interlocutors a question that has been on the tip of the tongue for a long time, fully understanding its naivety combined with banality: “What do you think about the fact that Father Adrian has already been called “the last Pechersk elder” in many media?

“These definitions—“the last elder,” “the penultimate elder”—are very vain and superficial,” answers Abbot Chrysanthos. – For the appearance of ascetics in the world, human components are important. At the very beginning of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, there lived 30 monks who could cast out a demon with one word. And now even one or two such spiritual warriors are a miracle. All those ascetics who recently lived in the Pskov-Pechersk Lavra went through the persecution of the Soviet era, through the war. Now the time is different: there is no external totalitarianism, no oppression of the Church by the authorities. On the other hand, now they are no longer taking cities, but are hunting for the hearts of people, and there is a total defeat of human souls. Therefore, the life of God’s chosen ones also became different - more hidden, less bright outwardly. And the miracles that never stop happening have also acquired a more subtle form. But I think that the proportions of the presence of such chosen ones in the world are unchanged.

“There really are no recognized and publicly known elders in the monastery now,” clarifies Hieromonk Joasaph. – But there are righteous people, of course: without them, even a village, according to the proverb, is not worthwhile, much less a monastery. Maybe one of them is a hidden elder whom the Lord has not yet revealed. This is a two-way road... For example, as a priest, I say something to a person at Confession and I feel: he does not hear me, he mumbles his own.

For the new elders to shine, it is necessary that people want to hear spiritual admonition, so that there is, so to speak, a “demand from below.” And now he is clearly weakened...

As the Gospel says: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord will send laborers into the harvest

(Matt. 9:36–38). The elders are these “workers”, the heirs of the apostles.

***

On June 6, Father Adrian’s fortieth birthday, the sun was shining brightly in the monastery, and a bird choir sounded from both sides as a festive antiphon. In addition to the brethren, about 300 people came from the city, from different parts of the country, and even from abroad (there were about 1,500 at the funeral) for the memorial liturgy and subsequent memorial service. The Divine Liturgy and memorial service in the Sretensky Church of the monastery was led by the new holy archimandrite of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov Tikhon (Shevkunov), as well as the vicar of the Pskov Metropolis, Bishop Thomas (Demchuk) of Gdov.

Father Adrian, now standing at the Throne of God in snow-white robes, of course, heard these prayers, rejoicing at all the “children” who came to remember him. It seems that in the future, to all those who come to Pechory to bow to his grave with love, gratitude, and heartfelt need, the deceased elder will not refuse his blessing, and perhaps even spiritual advice and healing. The main thing is to believe!

Andrey Samokhin

Source

Great Saints of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery

The monastery gave the world a succession of holy fathers, whose lives and exploits took place in different years of the monastery’s existence. The series of Pskov-Pechersk ascetics glorified by the church includes nine names:

• Simeon (Zhelnin), hieroschemamonk, venerable, introduced himself in 1960;
• Alexander (Petrovsky), Archbishop of Kharkov, martyr. He was abbot of the monastery in 1917-19, died in a prison hospital in 1940;
• Lazarus the Perspicacious, hieroschemamonk, reverend. He prayed earnestly for the salvation of Russia during Napoleon's invasion. Twice he received Tsar Alexander the First in his modest cell. Died 1824;
• Dorotheos of Yuga, schema-monk, reverend. Founder of the Yuga monastery in the Yaroslavl diocese. Introduced in 1622, Memorial Day - Cathedral of Rostov-Yaroslavl Saints (5.06);

  
  Cathedral of Pskov-Pechersk Saints

• Venerable Martyr Cornelius, abbot, creator of the monastery and churches, according to legend, died at the hand of Ivan the Terrible along with his disciple Vassian in 1570;
• Vassian (Muromtsev), venerable martyr, disciple of the martyr. Cornelia. Scientist-monk, collector of handwritten and printed patristic libraries. He died a martyr's death at the same time as his mentor;
• Vassa, reverend, in the world - the wife of the Venerable. Jonah, one of the founders of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery. Both were builders of the Assumption Cathedral. Died 1473;
• Jonah, hieromonk, reverend, took monasticism after the death of his wife, Venerable. Vassy. He was the first builder of the monastery, in which he labored until his death (1480);
• Mark, the monk, is revered as the first monk of the monastery. He labored in this place long before the appearance of the monastery. Lived and died in the 15th century.

Important!
Patriarch Pimen, shortly before his death, established a single day of veneration of all Pskov-Pechersk saints. This holiday takes place in the church on the 4th week after Pentecost. The monks of Pskov-Pechersk and their companions revealed the will of God to the coming people of all classes of Russia. They taught us to live according to the advice of the elders.