In Rylsk, a cross streamed myrrh on the grave of Elder Hippolytus

Archive number No. 52 (1315) dated December 24, 2021 - News

MIRACLE

This happened on December 17, when the day of repose and memory of the famous elder Hippolytus was celebrated in the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery. Hundreds of believers who came to the monastery saw drops of an oily liquid appear on the cross installed on the priest’s grave...

There is practically no information preserved about the life of Father Hippolytus on Athos. They say they had to leave due to health problems. And the old man also missed his homeland. “Treasure that you live in Russia. Kiss your native land,” he wrote in his letters. When Ippolit was asked directly why he left Athos, he joked: “I’m tired of Athos oranges, even though they are sweet - I want to be closer to my native potatoes. It’s really delicious here in the Kursk region!” In August 1983, the elder again found himself in Russia. In 1991, he was appointed rector of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery, which had just been returned to the church, which lay in ruins. Over the course of 11 years, under the leadership of Father Ippolit, the monastery became a center of spiritual life on a Russian scale. Not only residents of nearby cities, but also from Ukraine, Belarus, and European countries began to come to the monastery. Ippolit did not refuse to meet anyone. It is no coincidence that he was called the kindest priest on earth. According to local residents, huge queues lined up to see him. They say he had the gift of clairvoyance and predicted the future for people. “I remember, shortly before my death, I distributed icons,” recalled a resident of Rylsk. – My friend went to Hippolytus, he looked at her carefully and handed her the “Inexhaustible Chalice” icon. She laughed - why do I need her? My husband doesn't drink at all! Father looked at her carefully and said: “It will come in handy.” Three years later, her husband, for no apparent reason, went on a drinking binge. It was then that my friend remembered Ippolit’s words and the icon he had given her.”

“He also treated the sick,” they said in the monastery. “It happened that he would approach a person and, without asking what brought him here, would draw a cross with his finger and say: “Your stomach hurts.” And the patient felt better, the pain went away. Many were cured of serious illnesses. Father Hippolyte was modest. I never wore a cross with decorations. Many, seeing him for the first time, took him for a simple novice. Shortly before his death, Father Hippolyte told the monastery resident about himself: “For 40 years I bowed low to every person.” He put himself below everyone else. Father Hippolytus did not preach; he did not have the gift of eloquence. “I can’t say anything at all,” he said. - I do not know how". Usually he said a few words, like “Be patient,” “God help you,” or “Good health to you.” Addressing the pilgrims, he remarked: “Don’t speak with your tongue, worms will eat it, speak with your heart.” At the same time, Ippolit loved to joke; he could answer those who asked with a fairy tale, a poem, or even a song. “For example, a monk approaches him to repent of his passionate thoughts, and the priest suddenly begins to tell him a beautiful philosophical and at the same time edifying poem about love,” Vladimir Savochkin writes in his book “The Kindest Father on Earth...”. - When he hinted to some mother that she needed to repent, but she had no repentance, he sang: “Am I to blame...”, and sometimes - “It’s not me who is to blame!” He quoted Pushkin, Lermontov, Omar Khayyam... And it was precisely the kind of verse that either revealed the essence of a given person’s problem or hinted at future temptations.”

The name of Father Hippolytus is associated with the strengthening of Orthodoxy in the Caucasus. With his blessing, Orthodox monasteries were founded in North Ossetia, one of which is located in Beslan, not far from the school seized by terrorists in 2004. “The Caucasus will be saved only by monasteries,” Hippolytus said more than once.

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Alexandra BEREGOVAYA, photo rylsk-obitel.ru, vk.comorthokursk

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“No one leaves Father Hippolytus without spiritual fruit”

Archimandrite Ippolit (Khalin; 1928–2002) is one of the great elders of our time, a successor to the traditions of the Glinsk Hermitage and the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, who went through the theological school of Athos.
In 1966, he was among the first monks from Russia to revive the life of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on the Holy Mountain. From 1991 until the day of his death, Archimandrite Ippolit was the rector of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery, which he restored from the ruins, and founded monasteries and monasteries on the Kursk land and in Ossetia. Hieromonk Ignatius (Matyukhin), a former monk of the Rylsk monastery, now the confessor of the Kazan Women's Monastery (Kursk Metropolis) founded by Father Hippolyte, founded by Father Hippolyte, shared his memories of his spiritual father. Please tell us how your first meeting with Father Hippolytus happened?

Memories of Father Hippolyte, our dear and beloved, are the most vivid and profound. He unforgettably entered our lives, into the hearts of many people. We still feel his closeness to us, and not dreamy, but very real - existential. Father still mysteriously communicates with us. The elders have the gift of teaching, protect them from dangers, guide them on the saving path of life, and after death they do not abandon their children.

I will try to reveal the appearance of the priest, what I saw and understood while living next to him. Before meeting Father Hippolytus, I had experience communicating with famous confessors. In 1994, I, a novice of the Glinsk hermitage, went to various elders to receive a blessing for monasticism, to find out whether it was God’s will. I was told that a former Glinsky monk, Father Ippolit, lives in Rylsk, and I should definitely take a blessing from him. I went and heard from the priest: “Father, go, go and become a monk, yes, yes, you must.”

Father Ignatius, describe the asceticism of Archimandrite Hippolytus.

Father took upon himself three feats. The first of them is: “The greatest of you will be your servant” (cf. Matt. 23:11). Father served everyone: he did not alienate anyone from himself, he tried to help everyone. The elder fulfilled the commandment: whoever comes to me I will not cast out (John 6:37). This is his second feat. The sick came, distorted by sin and suffering, with the most miserable destinies. Father received everyone and gave them the opportunity to catch their breath from their own life. There were also those who, if Father Hippolytus had not sheltered them at the monastery, would have committed suicide and died. The priest was condemned for leaving such people at the monastery. But this is not his shortcoming, but our misunderstanding of the essence of Christianity, and he initially acted righteously. It was a manifestation of Divine love that worked through him. Having acquired Christ in his heart, he could not help but respond to the pain of others. Of all the elders with whom I knew, the priest was most like Christ, precisely in his mercy towards fallen people.

And the third feat: “Give to those who ask you” (cf. Matt. 5:42). The priest had extraordinary mercy. In this he is similar to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. If the elder knew that there was a need, then he gave even more than was asked, everyone left him joyful. Then the monastery had enough funds, it was possible to carry out restoration no worse than in the capital’s monasteries, but the money was spent on the poor people, the priest helped them survive.

Pilgrims of the Rila St. Nicholas Monastery, 1990s

What do you think is the most important feature of the spiritual appearance of Father Hippolytus?

Speaking about Father Hippolytus, they usually dwell on the external side of his life, on miracles and impressions, but little is described about his spiritual work and monastic feat. Now we are trying to comprehend and recreate the appearance of our elder, as if we were putting together a mosaic. What was he like? The main feature of the priest is humility. The Holy Fathers teach that humility is the robe of the Divine. Father Hippolytus achieved the endowment of this divine robe. It is absolutely clear to me that thanks to humility he became an ascetic who acquired Christ, the Heavenly Bishop, in his heart, served Him, and accepted obedience from Him. In what mysterious way God revealed himself to him, we will never know - he took this with him.

Father humbly chose and accepted the path of deep suffering destined for him by Christ. And on this especially narrow path, he experienced peace and spiritual joy. Because it is on this path, when a person endures a lot, that grace comes, giving the joy of communication with God. A humble person receives joy and peace from oppression and sorrow. This was the usual state of the old man.

We, pilgrims, saw that the life of the Rila Monastery was different from other monasteries. Please tell us how monastic life was.

Under the elder, life in the monastery proceeded in a special regime. We lived simply, at ease, without recording events, without comprehending them. How a child lives with his mother: she feeds him, takes care of him, and everything goes on in its natural course. And when he grows up and his mother moves away, he begins to understand how much she loved him. This is the period after the elder’s departure that began for all of us who knew him. During the life of the priest, our childhood passed, and it seemed that it would be like this forever. And only now we understand that it will not return.

It was not easy in the monastery... I had to live like a monk, not in solitude, but in a stream of sick people. I have never seen so many suffering faces, tortured people, especially during lectures. Father took on the most unfortunate, the most abandoned. He accepted a feat that rarely anyone dares to undertake. Readings are a gigantic task, and not many monks can undertake it without being damaged. We did what the elder said - we read prayers, and he fought and cast out evil spirits from people - by the power of Christ. The temple is filled to capacity; Once you go in there, you won't come back out. You read prayers, and behind you are the wild screams of the underworld. You hear heart-rending screams: “I’ll kill you!..” and you understand that these are not empty words. Father immersed us in the world of human suffering and never tired of reminding us of the need for patience. Because only by mastering this virtue can you gain humility. The elder laid patience in us as the foundation of humility, so that we could later rise and grow to it.

What most attracted your attention in the life of the elder?

I was interested precisely in the hidden side of the spiritual feat of Father Hippolytus. Striving for monasticism, I was looking for a mentor who would teach spiritual science. I began to “study” the elder, peering through the eyes of my heart into his life. Not a single gesture of his escaped me. There is such a parable: disciples came to Abba and began to ask questions. And only one of them was silent. Then Abba turned to him: why doesn’t he ask anything? And he replied: “It’s enough for me to just be next to you, father.” So I wanted to “be close” and through the visible to see the hidden and instructive. I was in my last year of seminary and naively believed that I had sufficient knowledge about eldership. But around Father Hippolytus it turned out that I didn’t know anything. Book learning is one thing, and experimental comprehension of spiritual truths is another.

How was your personal relationship with Father Ippolit?

I was a monk with pretensions. I wanted to live in a well-equipped monastery, so that there would be conditions for monastic work. That’s why I didn’t like the Rila Monastery. It was crowded there, but I liked to pray in solitude. I asked the priest for his blessing to leave, but he wouldn’t let me go, and then finally said: “Go, you’ll come here later anyway.”

I liked book wisdom, and after seminary I wanted to study at the academy. But the bishop did not bless me, but, contrary to my expectations, sent me to the Rila Monastery. And then I remembered the priest’s words about my return. In fact, the elder then predicted: this is my place. The predictions of the spirit-bearing fathers have this property: at first you hear them, but do not fully perceive them, and only after years do you begin to understand their meaning. I spent seven years in the Rylsky monastery, then was transferred to a convent in the village of Bolshegneushevo. Since 2000, I have been going through the “Ippolitov Academies” - first with the priest, then with Abbess Ippolita (Ilyina), the abbess of our monastery.

Living next to my father, I knew that he was perspicacious, wise, the will of God was revealed to him - all this was obvious. But I also wanted to receive internal evidence of his perfection and senility. I wrote him a whole work asking questions about asceticism - I wanted to know his opinion. I waited a long time, but did not receive any response. Now I understand that I still had to live to understand the answers to my spiritual questions.

Everything began to open up after the death of my father. What began to happen was what was described by the holy fathers. The elder left... But there was no sorrow, the soul was flying... - indescribable, deep Easter joy. And the answers to my questions began to become clear. Father was in no hurry to respond. He educated the monks with his special “prayer pedagogy.” Through his prayer, in due time, when I was ready to perceive, what I had been looking for for so long came: complete clarity of answers to my questions and inner heart confirmation. This is all evidence of his senility and perfection.

Father Hippolyte died at night. I woke up and felt that my father had died. Two or three minutes later I heard the sound of a bell... The elder visited his child. When the soul leaves, it visits loved ones. Immediately after the death of the priest, our heartfelt closeness was born, which I had not felt before. A clear understanding has come that now I am with him forever: neither he will let me go, nor will I leave him.

How did Father Hippolytus teach and educate monks?

We, who knew Father Hippolytus, are now learning more and more deeply the secret of his soul, as if it is being revealed throughout our lives. Father, with his silence and short words, seemed to be telling us during his lifetime: “Look what and how I do, without asking unnecessary questions, and over time everything will open and become clear.” As the Gospel we read, and it is revealed throughout life. So it is, father: we saw him, we heard him, but then it was only the beginning.

15 years have passed since his departure, and he still nourishes me, educates me, shames me, humbles me, reminds me... I see where to go, I have an example before my eyes. He is the embodiment of meekness and humility. We talk about virtues, about meekness, but we don’t meet meek people. And we had experience communicating with such a person, we saw his reaction, actions, peered into his eyes. For us, novice monks, this was very important.

It takes time for us to truly understand his teachings. For example, the priest said many times: “Be patient, father.” Only years later did I understand the meaning of patience and what it should be. We often suffer incorrectly: we accumulate anger at our neighbor, our heartlessness, and then we pour out all our irritability, most often on a weak person. And patience is the ability to be kind in the face of any suffering.

What is eldership? The elder initially sees your path and knows where to lead. Now we deeply honor Father, we try to fulfill his instructions according to the Russian proverb: don’t go ahead of Father into hell. Why reinvent the wheel and waste time making detours and zigzags? We must follow the straight path, and this is the path of Father Hippolytus: “Live simply. Live and be happy". According to worldly concepts, the priest had little reason for joy, a sorrowful, martyr’s monastic life, but in his heart there was peace and joy.

What specific teachings did he give you personally?

I remember one confession from the priest. He was in his wooden “kaliva”, I knelt down. And suddenly I felt that something was covering me, like a cap, that something was happening to me. A special spiritual closeness arose with the elder. I look at him and feel that he loves me and sees everything. Usually we confess, and nothing happens in our souls. And here, in this grace of love, a piercing pain for sins, shame and an understanding of the inadmissibility of these sins arose. It was very acute, in a way that does not happen in ordinary life. The elder showed how to confess: sin should not just be named, but rejected through the experience of pain and shame. This is a vivid example of the power of Father Hippolytus’ prayer. Father’s grace is of a heavenly nature, it was transmitted to us, consoled, and sometimes, in this way, enlightened and taught.

I remember this incident. As a novice, I suffered from my broken shoes, I had no money to buy new ones, and my feet got wet. I arrived at the Rila Monastery wearing crocodile boots. I was told that Father Hippolyte makes sure that everyone is dressed and wearing shoes. I decided to check: if he is perceptive, he should notice what I’m wearing. Once I even overtook him, showing that my shoes were clearly falling apart. After that I looked at the priest’s reaction - he just smiled. I left the monastery to study at a seminary in Kursk. Six months after this incident, they brought me a box of new shoes: “These are for you from Father Hippolytus.” This is the lesson my father taught me: he sees everything, but there is a time for everything. It is interesting to note that in the future I always have enough shoes, I give them away myself.

Hieromonk Ignatius (Matyukhin)

Father repeatedly told me: “Father Ignatius, I don’t know how, but you will preach, you will tell people.” I then avoided worldly communication and therefore was embarrassed by such a prediction. After the death of the priest, we really had to talk about him, teach, and conduct excursions. But to do this, you first had to go through the school of the Rila Monastery.

What Father Hippolyte said and clearly showed is for life. Recently such an incident happened. On Mount Athos I had a meeting with Archimandrite Ephraim, abbot of the Vatopedi monastery. He spoke to me kindly, talked some sense into me, but then I came up again to ask something. And he already harshly pointed out to me: “I told you everything, go do it.” Father Ippolit was softer, but the principle was the same, similar “pedagogy”: I told you and showed you everything you need for this time, now do it if you want... Without Father Ippolit, the lives of many people would be different.

Athos, late 1960s Father Ippolit went through several monastic schools during his life: Glinskaya, Pskov-Pechersk, Athos. Which of them do you think was the main one that especially influenced him?

Father Hippolytus is a special experience of the arrival of the Athonite elders in Russia. Afonites are all similar to each other. And our ascetics of the same school are also similar, the canon can be written from them: Glinsk, Pskov-Pechersk elders. Father went through Russian schools of eldership, but still the main thing in his appearance and service is that he is a Holy Mountain priest who has mastered the hesychast Athonite tradition of prayer. He showed the Athonite spirit and carried Athonite obedience to Russia. And this priceless wealth became the property of the Rila Monastery. After a month spent on Mount Athos, I understood the priest more than in all the previous time. His path to such perfection became clearer.

In the Kazan Monastery in the village of Bolshegneushevo, the Athonite influence is felt. Do you connect this with the patronage of Father Hippolytus?

We established a spiritual connection with Vatopedi, with Elder Ephraim. He came to our monastery. We felt the breeze from Athos when the construction of the monastery was underway. A crisis began in the country, and in 2009 we got sponsors. New people came to the remote village. After all, someone brought them? Father Hippolyte, of course. He is involved in all our events and achievements. Through the Athosites, from Athos, which was close to his heart, the priest sent help to us.

View of the convent in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Bolshegneushevo

Tell us how the priest now reveals himself from blissful eternity?

Now a new round of the elder’s entry into our lives begins. The first took place during the priest’s lifetime, the second began immediately after his departure and is associated with his posthumous miracles. And in recent years, after television broadcasts on central television, a stream of people poured into the monastery, learning about the new miracle worker. People most often go not with spiritual problems, but simply for medical treatment. This is how it was in the Rila Monastery and under the priest: they were treated and received healing. The same thing is happening now, but this is where spiritual awakening begins. The prayer of the elder will follow for each person. No one leaves Father Hippolytus without spiritual fruit. Such mass veneration of the elder is a manifestation of the posthumous life of Father Hippolytus in Christ. These are his quiet, modest, and sometimes bright miracles - for people who did not know him, but already fell in love and were drawn to him.

When speaking about the numerous miracles of Father Hippolytus, they usually mean a change in circumstances when, through the prayers of the elder, God’s help suddenly comes. This is what helps our outer life, but a greater miracle happens in the heart of a person when it turns to Christ. We know many such examples of miracles that the elder performed in the souls of people. Sometimes one day, sometimes gradually, he made a person an Orthodox Christian. Moreover, he did not convince, but simply communicated, lived with us, prayed, and the people around him gained faith and became church members. There were many among us to whom he knocked on the heart, whom his love found, whom he rescued from the bustle of life or fruitless searches.

It is interesting to note that the priest mysteriously imprinted his spirit on the people with whom he came into close contact; they acquired a certain anointing. The habits of Father Hippolytus are also passed on. I always have a special joy in meeting people when it turns out that someone knew the priest.

Annual days of remembrance of Archimandrite Hippolytus in the St. Nicholas Monastery: December 17 is the day of repose and February 12 is the day of the Angel. Requiem service at the elder's grave

Holiness is canonical when the Church confirms the popular veneration of an ascetic and solemnly proclaims him a saint. And there is recognition and veneration of the people of God, who feel the holiness of the righteous and have testimonies. Thus, on Mount Athos, many ascetics are revered and addressed in prayer as saints. For me and many children and admirers of Father Hippolytus, his holiness is obvious and undoubted. Father Hippolytus reached the state of deification and perfection accessible to man. Holiness originates in heaven, when the grace of God descends on the ascetic and transforms him. Father Hippolytus showed how holiness is possible in our time. He brought into our lives the most important and valuable thing: a word of grace; revealed the ideal of a monk and embodied the spirit of Christ.

View of the Rila St. Nicholas Monastery

Today they write a lot about the elders John (Krestyankin), Kirill (Pavlov) and very little about Father Hippolytus. Father is in no hurry to open up even now. But I think that the time will come when we will realize the significance of Father Hippolytus’ special feat for modern monasticism and understand his holiness.

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Love one another, for the Lord is in all, and have the Father's faith in you. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and appear to him Myself. I still have a lot to tell you; but now you cannot contain it. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not speak from Himself, but He will speak whatever He hears, and He will tell you the future. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and proclaim it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take from Mine and tell it to you. True; everything you do in secret is obvious to the Lord.

So what if the cross has lost myrrh? What does this have to do with Jesus Christ? All this is nonsense - crosses, peace, churches, fasts... You need to believe and live as Christ lived. That's all.