Chapel of Xenia of Petersburg photo Chapel of Xenia of Petersburg was erected in 1902 . In this chapel rest the relics of Blessed Saint Xenia of Petersburg, who died at the beginning of the 19th century. Initially, a grave mound was simply poured at the burial site of the deceased, but people who came to Blessed Xenia asked for her help, intercession, prayed, and often took some earth from the grave, and therefore the hill began to disappear. After this, a stone slab was placed on the grave, but it was gradually dismantled into pieces and taken away by believers. Then they decided to build a chapel over the grave of Blessed Xenia.
In 1940, the chapel, as well as the church located at the Smolensk cemetery, were closed. During the war years, it was a warehouse for containers for fuel and lubricants. Marble tiles from the tomb of Xenia were dismantled, liturgical utensils and fragments of non-ferrous metals were melted down, and icons from the chapel were burned.
In 1946, permission was given to open the chapel and renovate it. In 1960 it was closed again. In the premises of the chapel, by order of the city authorities, they wanted to make a sculpture workshop, but it was impossible to work in it, since the workers who came to the workshop in the morning found shards instead of their sculptures. In 1984, the chapel was transferred to the community of the church in the name of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. She was consecrated again in 1987, and in 1988, Xenia the Blessed was canonized and canonized as a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church.
How to get to the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed
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The fastest way to the chapel is, perhaps, from the metro to Vasileostrovskaya station, from there by direct minibus. K-249A minibus stop is located on Sredny Prospekt directly opposite the exit from Vasileostrovskaya (there is only one exit from the metro station). You only need to cross Middle Avenue. The final stop of the minibus is opposite the entrance to the cemetery.
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You can also get there from the Primorskaya metro station by ground transport - buses No. 47, 100 and trolleybus No. 9. However, in this case you will have to go through the entire Smolensk cemetery (however, it is very historical in itself).
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You need to get to the business (Maly Prospekt Vasilievsky Island, 54, building 4). Directly opposite it will be the entrance to the Smolensk cemetery.
- Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery
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Entrance to the Smolensk Cemetery from Maly Prospekt
How to get to the Smolensk cemetery on foot from the Vasileostrovskaya metro station
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First, you move from the 8th line of Vasilyevsky Island to the 16th line straight along Sredny Avenue. On lines 16-17, turn left onto Kamskaya Street and follow it until the entrance to the Smolensk Cemetery.
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Head towards the domes of the Church of the Holy Resurrection of Christ (pictured below).
Church of the Holy Resurrection of Christ
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Arch of the entrance to the Smolensk cemetery. Please note that the entrance to the cemetery closes one hour before the closing of the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed.
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Entrance to Smolensk Cemetery
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Temple of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God
You will pass the Temple of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God - the chapel of Xenia is assigned to this church - and along the Trinity or Speranskaya paths you will go straight to the chapel of Xenia.
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Speranskaya path
You will see the Holy Trinity Chapel at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery. It was built on the site of the Church of the Most Holy Life-Giving Trinity, which was demolished in 1932. The chapel is located near the path leading from the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God to the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed.
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Chapel of the Holy Trinity
- Troekurovskoe cemetery in Moscow
Ksenia is waiting for you at any time of the year. Most people, as a rule, come on the Day of Remembrance of Xenia of St. Petersburg, February 6.
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Architecture[edit]
The walls of the chapel are made of brick and painted light green. Each side of the facade is decorated with a group of three arched gabled windows with columnar struts. The windows are decorated with stained glass icons. On the front and back sides of the facade, the cornice is decorated with a semicircular kokoshnik with mosaic images of Christ (on the back side) and Xenia of Petersburg (on the front side). The building is completed by a scaly tent topped with a gilded onion dome with a cross. Inside, the main decoration of the chapel is a marble iconostasis with a mosaic image of the crucified Christ.
What do they ask Ksenia of Petersburg to do?
At the blessed chapel, obedience was carried out by a nun for ten years, who was engaged in cleaning there. When asked if she saw miracles, she replies: “It depends on what you take as a miracle. For a legless person to leave the chapel on two legs - I have never seen anything like this. But I have seen how, bursting into tears of gratitude, ladies take huge diamonds out of their ears and donate them to the needs of the Church. But you won’t ask what miracles these donations are for!”
The most frequent visitors to the Xenia Chapel are women and girls. It is believed that the saint mostly patronizes the female half of humanity .
According to legend, Ksenia once even acted as a matchmaker. And it’s not clear who she felt more sorry for, either the widower or the girl. But one day the blessed one came to the girl and asked for tea. Having drunk, he tells her: “Go to the Smolensk cemetery, there your husband is burying his wife in the ground.”
The girl did not understand anything that was said, but obeyed the holy fool and went to the cemetery, where a funeral ceremony was taking place. The girl joined the procession and met a recently widowed man who was burying his wife.
Subsequently, this man married the girl and lived happily with her until the end of his days. Therefore, if you are a man and are looking for a good wife, you should try asking Ksenia for help in the chapel .
History of the Holy Blessed
Among the Orthodox people, Xenia of Petersburg is considered the most revered saint. It is not known for certain where and when the Blessed One was born, but approximately at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
According to existing data, she was married to a court singer. From this it follows that Ksenia comes from a respectable family. At the age of 26 she was widowed, her husband died suddenly. She decided to give all her property to people in need. The relatives were at a loss and turned to the management of her ex-husband, because they believed that the woman was out of her mind and had lost her mind. Government officials interviewed her and found no signs of insanity.
After this, Ksenia distributed all her property to the poor and began to wear the uniform of her late husband. The woman began to say that she was Andrei Fedorovich Petrov.
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Those around her had mixed feelings about her. Some felt sorry for her, gave her shoes and things, but she gave everything to people in need, and she herself went barefoot. Others considered her insane, but soon realized that Ksenia had chosen this path of life on earth. She spent a life deprived of benefits for 45 years. Blessed Ksenia decided for herself that everything in life only turns to dust and what remains is faith in the Lord.
Every day she went to an open field and prayed fervently. When the construction of the church at the Smolensk burial ground began, the woman brought bricks every night. For a long time the workers could not understand where the bricks were coming from. Then they followed and found out that it was the Blessed One. She died at the seventy-first year of her life and was buried in the Smolensk cemetery.
After many years of veneration of Xenia of Petersburg, she was canonized. The Blessed One is depicted in a red skirt and a green jacket with a white scarf on her head.
The temple had a good fate, because Ksenia of Petersburg herself patronized the construction. Before the war, the temple and chapel were closed, and in the sixties there was a shoe workshop here. But the work of the craftsmen did not go well, and they left this building.
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How to ask Blessed Xenia
They say that it is best to contact the saint in writing , which is why white corners of notes and letters used to stick out from every crevice of Ksenia’s chapel. Now a special mailbox has been installed for these purposes.
They write messages asking for help to Ksenyushka and to the address of the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God (the chapel is assigned to it). This is a way out for those who cannot come to St. Petersburg and come to the chapel.
Usually, in response, these people receive an envelope with rose petals soaked in lamp oil from the blessed one’s grave. Often the church postman receives letters of gratitude: “I asked Blessed Ksenyushka to help resolve our family problems, I asked her to intercede in prayer for us. And everything worked out! My mother managed to receive a pension benefit ahead of schedule, my son-in-law was unable to take away the apartment from his sister during the divorce, now it will go to my nephew.”
Of course, neither benefits nor housing can be compared with a rich spiritual life. Not everyone is destined to live on the street without property and money, as was destined for Blessed Xenia. But St. Petersburg people go to her grave,
- who is asking for a new car,
- who is waiting for a good husband,
- who receive salary increases and career growth.
They go to the one who suddenly lost a loved one, carriages, and a cozy home. This is the mystery, because the blessed one refuses neither help nor support to anyone .
Architecture
Many Orthodox pilgrims come to visit the Chapel of Blessed Xenia and the Smolensk Church, which a woman helped to build with every brick she brought.
The church has harmonious proportions of early Russian classicism. The rectangular building is decorated with one round drum in the Byzantine style, and a two-story bell tower adjoins it. The building is a modest architectural image with a simple appearance and sparing of details.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the artist Vasiliev painted the dome part of the temple. Near the church, on the grave of the Blessed One, a building in the neo-Russian style was erected, which is crowned with a low tent.
Brief biography
Ksenia Grigorievna was born presumably in the 19-30s of the 18th century. At the age of 18, the girl became engaged to Andrei Fedorovich Petrov. He was a military man, held the rank of colonel, and sang in the church choir. Ksenia and Andrey were not married for long: her husband died suddenly.
The young widow was very worried about the death of her husband, and the fact that he did not have time to repent to the Lord before his sudden death. She decides to beg God's forgiveness for her husband's earthly sins, choosing for herself a very difficult path - foolishness for the sake of Christ.
At the funeral of her beloved, grief-stricken Ksenia appeared in front of people, dressed in his men's clothes, introduced herself as Andrei Fedorovich, saying that her husband had not died at all, but was standing in front of them, while Ksenia Grigorievna herself was resting in the coffin.
Useful materials
Since then, she began the ascetic path of her life with a new name. She donated her house and all her property to the poor, most of the time she walked the streets and convinced passers-by: “My Ksenyushka has died and is resting peacefully in the cemetery, but I’m all a sinner here.”
At night, the woman often spent time at her husband’s grave, secretly bringing bricks for the construction of a new church, which was being built on the territory of the Smolensk cemetery.
Ksenia’s acquaintances and her late husband’s superiors took her for a madwoman and tried to send her, for her own benefit and safety, to some charitable institution, but after talking more closely with her, they became convinced that everything was fine with the homeless woman’s mind and memory.
Later, people began to notice that a woman, in her simple words and advice, saves them from trouble, warns them from danger, and brings happiness to their homes:
“Take a nickel,” Ksenia offered to take the coin to her friend. - here the king is on horseback. It will go out."
“So she informed her about the fire that happened in her house, and helped put it out in an extraordinary way.
One day Ksenia told her friend who could not have children:
“You’re sitting here, darning your stockings, and there, at the Smolensk cemetery, God sent you a child! Run quickly!”
The woman ran and found her happiness, adopted a newborn child, whose mother died in an emergency in that very place, having had an accident.
“Bake pancakes, tomorrow all of Russia will bake pancakes”
- with these words, the perspicacious Ksenia predicted the death of the empress, the day before the death of Elizabeth Petrovna.
"Blood, Blood, Blood"
- the holy fool said and cried a few days before the murder of the young emperor, John VI.
To an unmarried girl of marriageable age, the strange Ksenia showed the way to the cemetery with the words:
“Her husband is burying his wife there.”
So a young acquaintance became the wife of a widower.
After such numerous incidents, people began to consider Xenia Blessed. Outside the city, in the fields, she constantly prayed for everyone.
The wanderer died at the age of seventy-two, having lived on the streets of St. Petersburg for more than half of her life.
Read the detailed life of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg on our website.
Where to stay
Every year there are more and more pilgrims to the chapel of Xenia of St. Petersburg. The parish, unfortunately, does not have the ability to accept guests. Pilgrims can look for a hotel in the city monasteries. The closest, for example, is the Ioannovsky Stavropegic Convent, which is located on Petrogradka.
Another option is to rent a room in a nearby area (from 850 rubles per day) or stay in a small hotel or hostel (out of season and on weekdays, a double economy class room can be found for a price from 600 rubles per day). Those who have nowhere to sleep at all find shelter in the temple for all possible help.
Cases of miraculous help
There are countless cases of miracles occurring and intercessory help when turning to Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg.
Miracle of healing a woman from an incurable disease:
“What happened to me can also be explained only by the power of faith and miracle. I was diagnosed with cancer, and uterine bleeding did not stop for a long time. In desperation, she came to St. Petersburg for one day to bow to Blessed Xenia and ask her for help. The bleeding stopped completely that same day in the evening. In further treatment I rely on Blessed Ksenia. God bless you all!”
About the incredible healing of a little girl:
“Our story is as wonderful as it is simple. The one-year-old daughter, as soon as she stood on her feet, suddenly stopped walking and fell ill with a high fever. A week later, she ended up in the Filatov Hospital in Moscow with a terrible diagnosis - osteomyelitis of the left femoral neck... Disability with this diagnosis is almost one hundred percent, but a week later osteomyelitis began to seem like a blessing to us, since Nastenka was diagnosed with tuberculosis... Children with bone tuberculosis are operated on in the only clinic in St. Petersburg , where we went. During the initial examination, the diagnosis was confirmed, and we went to the Smolensk cemetery to visit Blessed Ksenia. It was evening and the chapel was already closed. We prayed at her walls and wrote a holy note asking for the baby’s healing. They began to prepare Nastya for surgery, did tests... and found that there was no tuberculosis, and the inflammatory process in the bones had stopped! The operation still had to be done. It was successful, and if it weren’t for the scar on the leg (Nastenka calls it a “string”), we ourselves would not have believed that all this happened to us two years ago!”
Ksenia often appears to people in dreams and in conscious life to warn against danger:
“At first, 28-year-old nurse Oksana Popova had a terrible dream: her 22-year-old brother Dmitry was being beaten and kicked by some drunken thugs. When the girl told her grandmother about her terrible dream, she gasped: it turns out that she had exactly the same dream: bloody Dmitry in the dust under the feet of the scum. In the evening it turned out that the mother also had an identical dream. A terrible silence reigned in the apartment.
And then Dmitry returned from the institute and announced that until Monday he was leaving to visit a friend in the suburban village of Kavgolovo. There was no way to restrain the hefty guy, and Dmitry only laughed at the story about the triple dream and left the house for the night.
The women remaining in the apartment were gripped by horror. Unable to do anything, they went to their rooms and, without saying a word, began to pray. As it turned out later, all three prayed (also without saying a word!) to one and only saint - Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, who was revered most of all in this family. At one o'clock in the morning there was a sudden knock on the door.
A brother stood on the threshold, flushed from the frost. When asked why he returned home halfway through the journey, the guy reluctantly muttered: “I changed my mind!” After drinking a glass of vodka, Dimka fell fast asleep, and the next morning he told his grandmother, mother and sister the following. At one of the stops, a strange, lightly dressed woman in a headscarf entered the train carriage and sat down directly opposite him. From the gaze of her blue eyes, Dmitry simply became numb.
At the next stop, a group of drunk, big guys piled into the carriage. Having sat down nearby, they drank beer and swore loudly. Suddenly the fellow traveler stood up and, taking the guy by the sleeve of his down jacket, pulled him with her into the vestibule. He tried to object, but he heard a confident and soft female voice inside him: “Let's go!” They got off the train at the next stop. The door closed, the train slowly picked up speed, and Dmitry managed to see a drunken fight begin inside the abandoned carriage.
Looking around, he discovered that he was standing on a snow-covered platform all alone. Instantly sweating with fear, the guy ran across the tracks and was soon returning home on an oncoming train. The next morning, Oksana took her brother to the Smolensk cemetery to the small chapel of Xenia of Petersburg. The student who did not believe in God looked at the image of the saint and whispered with white lips: “Lord, it’s her!”
