Which is correct: Ksenia Petersburgskaya or Petersburgskaya
Dahl’s dictionary explains that the alternation of the letters “g” and “zh” occurred because of the word “Peterbuzhenka”. People say by analogy Ksenia Petersburgskaya, but it is necessary to say correctly - Ksenia Petersburgskaya.
After the sudden loss of her beloved husband (26 years old), Ksenia’s soul “turned over,” as they say. She realized the futility of material values on earth. She united with her whole being with her husband in the kingdom of heaven, put on his jacket, asked to call him Andrei, and gave away all her property. Her husband’s superiors, talking with her, were convinced of her “full mind and health” and completely conscious actions.
Holy feat
Foolishness is the most difficult feat of Christians, because a person sacrifices the most precious and valuable thing - reason. To save the soul of her beloved husband, who did not have time to confess and receive communion, Ksenia of Petersburg gave away the most important thing that she had. Having adopted the name of her husband, she set off to wander the streets of the city.
Icon of Xenia of St. Petersburg
The holy fool's clothes soon became dilapidated and her shoes were worn out. At first, a homeless woman in rags, with swollen and frostbitten feet, was not welcomed. The children mocked the beggar woman in men's clothing, threw stones and laughed. In response, Ksenia of Petersburg smiled meekly and made the sign of the cross over her tormentors.
During the day she wandered the streets, in her words with which she addressed people, they saw no meaning and mocked the holy fool. And she prayed incessantly, leaving the city limits at night. In the field, she says, it is easier to communicate with God and his presence is felt.
At this time, the construction of an Orthodox church made of stone began at the city Smolensk cemetery. The builders had a hard time when the walls of the church grew. Bricks were carried up the scaffolding and then masonry was made. Soon the builders discovered that someone was helping them: in the morning, bricks that someone had lifted up the mountain were stacked on the scaffolding. The unknown helper turned out to be a holy fool: the builders found out about this by setting up an ambush at night.
Temple of Xenia of Petersburg
Residents of the city noticed that the holy fool does not ask for alms, and she does not take from all those who give, choosing the kind and sincere. Something good happens to those from whom “mad Ksenia” takes a penny (she didn’t take any other money). Sick children whom the woman stroked on the head recovered within a day or two. And if Ksenia agreed to enter someone’s house, then peace and prosperity settled in it, trade or other business went on briskly.
In exchange for the decayed clothes and shoes, Ksenia of Petersburg was offered warm and new clothes, but she did not accept. She wore a green jacket and a red skirt, or vice versa. According to legend, the colors symbolized the military uniform left by the spouse. This is how the saint was later painted: in red and green, with a scarf on her head and shoulders.
The townspeople noticed that if Ksenia asks a passerby for something, misfortune awaits him, and if she gives it herself, it brings unexpected joy. If “Andrei Feodorovich” appeared on the market, then the merchants considered it lucky to treat the holy fool: if Ksenia accepted the gift, trade went briskly.
Icon of Xenia of St. Petersburg
People approached the seer with troubling questions, and she gave advice. Often it turned out to be allegorical, and if it was possible to “decipher” what Ksenia of Petersburg said, happiness awaited the one who deciphered it.
One day “Andrei Feodorovich” came to Paraskeva Antonova, to whom the widow had given a house. The holy fool turned to the childless woman with strange advice, recommending that she run to the Smolensk cemetery, where a child was waiting for her.
In confusion, Paraskeva went to the cemetery and saw a crowd gathered around a pregnant woman who had been hit by a cab driver. The unfortunate woman gave birth to a boy and died. The child was taken and raised by Paraskeva, for which she thanked Ksenia of Petersburg until the end of her days.
Life without possessions
Left homeless, the Reverend walks around St. Petersburg, visiting friends. At night he prays in a clearing in the countryside. His shoes are worn out, he walks barefoot, and doesn’t take shoes from people. They were nicknamed the sandal, Xenia the blessed of St. Petersburg, Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg, the holy fool. But she was a holy fool in the name of Christ.
Soon people noticed whoever she gave what was given to her, or who she sympathized with, who she visited, everything would immediately turn out for the better. Saint Xenia of Petersburg, Blessed Petersburg, Ksenyushka, Mother of Petersburg began to speak. They lovingly called Ksenia the sandal of St. Petersburg.
Ksenia of Petersburg in St. Petersburg took upon herself the feat of foolishness, under which she hid her holiness. People with a pure soul understood this, saying Ksenia of St. Petersburg is a holy fool.
She wore a green skirt (like a military uniform, since Andrei was a colonel). In the summer, in the cold, snowstorm, everyone wore the same clothes. Any person would get pneumonia, and, in general, it’s like physically enduring frost and cold. I endured it and didn’t get sick.
One day, a friend found her sleeping in winter at someone’s summer dacha. Her hair was frozen to the wall. This is only possible with the support of the Higher Powers. So she deserved it. Having received the gift of foresight, she hid it. After her husband, she lived without a home for 45 years, wandering around the city.
Blessed Ksenia helps with any physical and mental illness
How to pray to a saint? You can pray to the saint in front of the icon. The main thing is to treat with a pure soul and heart. How does Blessed Ksenia help? Saint Xenia helps:
- in any physical or mental illness;
- in material needs;
- if you want to have children;
- about safety;
- about well-being;
- about marriage;
- about maintaining peace and harmony in the family.
Prayers are read in front of the icon of Saint Xenia. Those girls who want to get married safely also read prayers.
Prayer for Marriage:
Oh, All-Good Lord, I know that my great happiness depends on the fact that I love You with all my soul and with all my heart and that I fulfill Your holy will in everything. Rule Yourself, O my God, over my soul and fill my heart: I want to please You alone, for You are the Creator and my God. Save me from pride and self-love: let reason, modesty and chastity adorn me.
Idleness is disgusting to You and gives rise to vices, give me the desire to work hard and bless my labors.
Since Your law commands people to live in an honest marriage, then lead me, Holy Father, to this title sanctified by You, not to please my lust, but to fulfill Your destiny, for You Yourself said:
It is not good for a man to be alone, and having created a wife for him to help him, he blessed them to grow, multiply and populate the earth.
Hear my humble prayer sent to You from the depths of a girl’s heart; give me an honest spouse
and pious, so that in love and harmony with him we glorify You, the Merciful God: Father and Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Prayers for well-being can be read every day in front of the icon of Blessed Xenia
First prayer for well-being:
O holy all-blessed mother Ksenia! Having lived under the protection of the Most High, led and strengthened by the Mother of God, having endured hunger and thirst, cold and heat, reproach and persecution, you have received the gift of clairvoyance and miracles from God and are resting in the shadow of the Almighty. Now the Holy Church, like a fragrant flower, glorifies you. Standing at the place of your burial, before your holy image, as if you were alive and living with us, we pray to you:
accept our petitions and bring them to the throne of the merciful Heavenly Father, as if you have boldness towards Him, ask for eternal salvation for those who flow to you, for our good deeds and undertakings, a generous blessing, for deliverance from all troubles and sorrows.
Stand before our All-Merciful Savior with your holy prayers for us, unworthy and sinners.
Help, holy blessed mother Ksenia, illuminate the infants with the light of holy baptism and seal the gift of the Holy Spirit, youths
and educate the young women in faith, honesty, fear of God and grant them success in learning; heal the sick and ailing, family love
and consent was sent down, worthy of monastics to fight a good fight and protect them from reproach, establish shepherds in the strength of the Holy Spirit, strengthen our people and country in peace
and preserve serenity, pray for those deprived of communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ in the dying hour.
You are our hope and hope, quick hearing and deliverance, we send thanks to you and with you we glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen".
Akathist to Ksenia of Petersburg on the website Akafistnik.Ru
Second prayer for well-being:
Oh, our glorious holy blessed mother Ksenia, warm prayer book for us before God! As before we fell to your tombstone, now, after your glorification, we resort to your relics, we ask: pray to the Lord to sanctify our souls
and body, may it enlighten the mind, cleanse the conscience from all filth, unclean thoughts, evil and blasphemous intentions and from all exaltation, pride and arrogance, and arrogance
and insolence, from all Pharisaic hypocrisy, and from all cold
and our crafty customs; May He grant us sincere repentance, contrition of our hearts, humility, meekness and quietness, reverence, and spiritual intelligence with all prudence and thanksgiving.
Hidden from the wise of this age, but known to God, ask our country for deliverance from severe troubles, for the renewal of our entire life.
and correction, keep us in every pious Orthodox confession of the Christian faith, so that, pleasing you, we may be worthy to sing and give thanks all the days
and glorify the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity of One Essence, Life-Giving and Inseparable forever and ever. Amen.
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How they are revered
Petersburgers have long understood that Blessed Xenia of Petersburg is a Saint. When the chapel was built (1902), the relics of the Saint were placed.
There is never a lack of queues of pilgrims wanting to get inside the chapel. The room is small. The line stretches to the shop to buy candles, continuing on its way to the icon of the blessed Saint, smoothly flowing to the Father for anointing.
Blessed Xenia even helps when the worshipers touch the outer walls of the chapel, whispering: “Mother Xenia, help.” Mother Ksenia is trying to help.
People come to her from all over Russia. Blessed Ksenia also “receives” foreigners, who also pronounce in Russian: “Mother Ksenia, Mother Blessed, Mother, Holy, Blessed.”
There are churches of St. Xenia of Petersburg all over Russia (about 90) and all over the world.
From St. Petersburg “to the very outskirts” of the country, monasteries, temples, and chapels were built.
Mother Ksenia is abroad: several cities in the USA, Ukraine, Belarus and other countries are her fans and they go to churches and cathedrals with their requests.
Chapel
The chapel is the tomb of Blessed Xenia.
Image from the site nelli-art.ucoz.ru People walk at the Smolensk cemetery as if in a park. Mothers with children, young lovers, old men arm in arm. Barefoot Ksenia, a familiar city character, as they would say now, once wandered along these same paths.
Someone laughed at her, and someone with a mysterious look said: “She is not simple. Yesterday my guests were driving late, and they saw her outside the city. And do you know what she did there? I prayed. Can you imagine? At night". From Lakhtinskaya Street on the Petrogradskaya Side, where Ksenia first lived and then wandered, to the Smolensk Cemetery on Vasilyevsky Island is not a long way. But there, in the Smolensk cemetery, lay a precious man, an unforgettable husband, for whom Ksenia’s love was so great that it is still enough for many. Now the grave of Andrei Fedorovich, unfortunately, is lost. During the years of persecution, entire dynastic crypts were leveled to the ground. But until 1902, Ksenin’s grave was regularly leveled to the ground by believers who came to it in an endless stream and little by little took the “dug” for healing. So there was no way her grave could be destroyed unnoticed.
A chapel was erected over the grave back in 1830. In 1902, the stone chapel over the grave of Blessed Xenia was consecrated. An iconostasis was placed at the head of the marble tomb. There were many icons on the walls.
After the revolution and the beginning of the persecution of the church, the “twenty” of the Smolensk church and the priests signed a lease agreement for the chapel with the Vasileostrovsky Council of Workers’ Deputies. Among the names of those who signed this document we see the name of the rector - Archpriest Alexei Zapadlov. Subsequently, the priest accepted martyrdom in Svirlag.
In 1940, the chapel was closed, but people did not stop going to Xenia. During the war, a warehouse for fuel and lubricants was set up in the chapel, the tombstone was dismantled, and the icons were burned. After the war in 1946, the same year when the Trinity-Sergius Lavra was opened, permission was received to open the chapel.
The damp, desecrated building was restored, and memorial services began. From nine in the morning to nine in the evening the flow of people did not dry up in those years. In 1960, the chapel was closed again and a sculpture workshop was set up in it.
And in 1988, on June 6, the Russian Church glorified its saint.
