Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko: pages of life, instructions

Birth of God's servant Vitaly

Some argue that this, the second child in the family of peasant Nikolai Sidorenko and his wife Alexandra, was born on May 5, when the Church celebrated the day of St. Vitaly, and it was in his honor that the baby was named. However, some of the admirers prove that this event took place on the day of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity, celebrated that year on June 3.

The reason for this disagreement will be discussed below, but, be that as it may, it is generally accepted that Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko, whose photo adorns this article, from the day of his birth became the abode of the Holy Spirit, who descended on him in the womb. There is countless evidence of this.

They tell, for example, how shortly before giving birth his mother had a dream in which she saw two suns shining in the sky and heard a wondrous voice proclaiming that one of them was now in her womb. Fellow villagers also recalled how dumbfounded the village priest was, performing the sacrament of baptism, when in the holy font an eight-day-old baby suddenly smiled and stood up on his feet. There were many other signs of the child’s holiness and God’s chosenness, which his admirers still remember and recount with reverence.

"Ecumenical Elder" Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko)

True Christianity is paradoxical, and the life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko) is convincing evidence of this blessed paradox. The elder remained faithful to the Glinsky tradition and at the same time did not fit into its saving framework. He was distinguished by an indiscriminate, maternal love for everything that existed, but this love was organically combined with severity and exactingness. The man of angelic life sincerely considered himself inferior to everyone. The unusual obedience of Father Vitaly did not contradict his spiritual boldness.

According to Abba Evagrius, “blessed is the monk who considers every person to be a god after God.” These words echo the beloved thought constantly repeated in Father Vitaly’s teachings and letters: “Consider yourself a bastard, and everyone around you as angels.”

In the understanding of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, a person is an angel. Father Gabriel (Starodub) recalled how someone said: “I stink so much later...”, and Father Vitaly corrected: “It doesn’t stink, it smells.”

The elder’s love, like God’s love, was indiscriminate. The elder accepted each one as the closest and greeted them with a bow to the ground. Father Vitaly even called the unfamiliar laboratory assistant who came to take the old man’s blood for tests “mother,” knelt down in front of her and kissed her feet.

Hieromonk A. visited Tbilisi while still in preschool age. But even he, the child, was called “father” by Father Vitaly. The elder repeated: “You are all fathers and mothers to me.”

As for the attitude towards the surrounding world, here too we cannot help but be surprised by the love for every creature that distinguished the man of paradise - Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly. For example, cats were called “father”, “brother”, “mother”, “sister”. Once I persuaded a cat to let go of a caught mouse. He told the flies: “Don’t fly in: they’ll kill you.”

The old man ate very carefully. But one day the cell attendant noticed that he was dropping pieces of fish on the floor. It turned out that there was a cat sitting under the table. When mother was indignant, Father Vitaly said: “Well, mother, they don’t have money. They don't get paid."

After the operation in Moscow, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly lived for some time near the town of Snezhnoye, Donetsk region. One day he asked to cut a watermelon into circles and spread honey on top. The mothers caring for the weakened old man were delighted. They thought that Father Vitaly was asking for all this for himself. But how surprised they were when they saw the following picture: a watermelon was lying on a table in the gazebo, and a huge number of wasps had gathered around, for which the old man asked for a treat.

“We must distribute!”

Father Vitaly (Sidorenko)

Father Vitaly was characterized by a harsh asceticism of patericons, unusual for the twentieth century, sometimes perceived as foolishness. Archimandrite T. recalls: “For his sins (what sins did he have?!) He severely beat himself on the purulent wound in the thigh.” During prayer he could prick himself with a pin so that he would not want to sleep.

One day, Georgy Starodub salted food in the presence of Father Vitaly. The elder was surprised: “The angels of God cooked, but the food was not like that for him!”

The elder was distinguished by his royal freedom in relation to the world of things. A bold and at the same time humble desire to fulfill in everything the covenants of the Gospel and the Holy Fathers led him along the path of absolute non-covetousness and shocking non-existence.

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly constantly repeated that everything unnecessary should be given away. One day his cell attendant, Sister Maria, told Father Vitaly that he could only give what he found on his bed. Soon after, she ironed and, out of habit, placed some of the clothes on the old man's bed. Less than half an hour had passed before the cell attendant remembered the agreement and hurried into the room to pick up her things. But they were no longer there. During this time, Father Vitaly managed to find those in need.

They noticed that the elder diligently covered his legs with a cassock. It turned out that he gave his shoes to someone

Another time, the elder got into the car, carefully covering his legs with a cassock. It turned out that he gave his shoes to someone.

– Where are your new shoes, Father Vitaly? - they asked the old man.

- They left for Moscow.

Father Gabriel (Starodub) saw how Father Vitaly, leaving the church, gave an expensive sheepskin coat that he had just donated to a stranger. And the old man threw off a new suit for one woman right from the balcony.

In order for at least some of the many gifts to remain with Father Vitaly, the students resorted to cunning. Apples, for example, were cut into small pieces.

The elder never lost anything; he demanded a similar attitude towards things from others. He called the passion for acquisition, an uneconomical attitude towards everything that has been given to us by the Lord, a sin of conscience, a sin before objects. Father Vitaly taught this: if you even have scraps left, do not throw them away, give them to the driver, and he will find a use for them.

“That’s how it happened to me!”

One of the first characteristics of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly’s eldership that we heard sounded something like this: “Even in his practice as an elder, Father Vitaly was special. Usually a student is obedient to an elder, and Father Vitaly, as an elder, was himself an obedient spiritual child.”

At the same time, the ascetic led his children along the narrow path of an unentertaining Christian life. Love organically combined in him with severity.

Father Vitaly was alarmed: “How did you leave without a blessing?!”

Having himself experienced the school of healing the will from the spirit-bearing Glinsky elders, Father Vitaly first of all taught obedience and the great power of blessing. Archimandrite T. told us about how once in Tbilisi he went to church. Halfway there, he is suddenly called back. Father Vitaly is alarmed: “How did you leave without a blessing? What could have happened to you along the way!”

As a spiritual father, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was distinguished by his particular delicacy. Schema-Archimandrite Gabriel (Starodub) recalls: “He healed spiritually: he did not shout, did not denounce directly, but denounced in parables or spoke about all the sins of the person who came as if they were his own. To whom the reproof was addressed, he knew. You'll come. There is a conversation going on, but I just want to sleep. And suddenly Father Vitaly stops: “Brother Georgy, can you imagine, my eyes are sticking together – even if you put out matches, I have to listen.” - “So this is mine, Father!”

Vitaly's father's spiritual son struggled with a passion for smoking. Once, to hide the smell of tobacco, before going to the elder, he sprayed himself with cologne. His father Vitaly meets him: “Here, father, there was a temptation with me. I got so high, I got so high, and so that they wouldn’t hear, I sprayed myself with cologne.”

One spiritual son argued with the elder and “taught” him. To which Father Vitaly only humbly replied: “Brother N., I haven’t eaten much porridge.”

The elder suffered for people literally physically. Somehow, he suddenly began to beat himself with a stick: “You don’t know that now the family is being cut off in Taganrog.” As it turned out later, this was the case, but through the elder’s prayer, peace was restored in the family.

The elder did not like idle talk and idle talk. He taught his children not only to pray and think correctly, but also to speak. Mother N. cleaned for a high-ranking person twice a week. One day I came to Father Vitaly: “I’m tired. Today I took out a carload of dirt.” Father Vitaly was sincerely surprised: “Where did you get the cars?” - “What cars?” – now mother was surprised. “You took out a carload of dirt.” - “Father, I just said so.” - “How is this so easy?!”

Even what seems like a fleeting meeting to us had spiritual significance for him. Sometimes the elder sent the sisters on small pilgrimages and upon their return he always asked about every, even the most insignificant, detail of the spiritual journey. Where did you buy your ticket? Who bought it? And so on. So he taught every second to follow the word, the internal movement of the heart and the external world.

“But she knows»

Metropolitan Zinovy ​​(Mazhuga) and Hieromonk Vitaly (Sidorenko)

Another time, Sister N. witnessed an interesting incident: the elder described the situation in a people’s apartment, which he had never been to. It was amazing that the most insignificant details in the arrangement of furniture were revealed to him.

Sister A. came with an errand to Metropolitan Zinovy. Since the bishop was busy and could not receive her right away, the metropolitan’s children suggested that she turn to another elder, Father Vitaly. "Where can I find him?" - asked mother. “He is in church, serving the Liturgy.” Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly did not make any special impression on her. “What an old man! I didn’t even preach a sermon,” my sister thought to herself. After the service, she was introduced to Father Vitaly. “You will be ours,” he said, and indeed, Sister A. subsequently became his spiritual child. As he was leaving, Father Vitaly suddenly turned around and said: “What an old man! I didn’t even preach a sermon!” Mother recalled that at that moment not only her ears, even her nose turned red.

One day, the elder’s spiritual children drank cognac on the train on the way to Tbilisi. I must say that everything was in moderation and they behaved decently. But the elder met them sternly and did not accept them on the first day of their arrival. And only when they realized the reason for this attitude and brought sincere repentance, peace was restored. Later, Mother Maria told them that at the very moment when they were traveling to Tbilisi, the excited Father Vitaly walked around the yard, repeating: “Here are the servants of God who give! They go to the old man and drink cognac.”

Sister N.’s mother was ill, but did not accept Vitaly’s father’s advice regarding treatment. “What does Father Vitaly know,” she repeated to her daughter. The daughter herself did not tell the elder about this expression. One can imagine her surprise when, during one of the conversations, Father Vitaly looked carefully into her eyes and said: “What does Father Vitaly know? But she knows.”

One day Father Vitaly warned: “Today we meet the future Odessa driver.” Three years later, the guest was actually assigned to the driver's obedience.

Another interesting incident testifying to the gracious gifts of Father Vitaly occurred in the city of Snezhnoye. Somehow Father Vitaly fell behind the sisters with whom he was making a pilgrimage. Returning, the sisters saw that the elder was bowing to the ground in a deserted wasteland. The sisters were surprised. It seemed that he was bowing to someone or something. And today on this site stands a temple dedicated to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.

Schema-nun I. recalls: “I knew everything about the person, I saw right through him. One servant of God came to Father Vitaly, was about to die, but did not say anything to him. He saw her: “Mother, what else was missing! Pray." In the morning, my sister got up and went to work.”

One day, the elder’s children received a telegram: “We served the Liturgy for the baby and lit candles.” The boy was two years old. A little later, the boy became very ill, and the doctors barely saved him. Thus, Father Vitaly prayed for the baby’s recovery in advance.

Both the thoughts and the most fleeting thoughts of the children were open to the elder. Sister N. recalled: “When someone was absent-mindedly praying or listening to Father Vitaly’s conversations, the elder could say: “Get down already, you’ve gone far.”

The meaning of some of the elder’s actions was revealed over time. Sister V. wanted to go to the monastery, but she needed to look after her mother. Father Vitaly did not bless. Time passed - my mother died, but Father Vitaly again did not give his blessing. V. - in tears. The sisters are waiting for the reception, and all the attention is on her. Father walks around her: “Our V. is little, we will rock her, we will calm her down,” but he does not cancel his blessing. Later, when V. stopped thinking about monasticism and settled well in worldly life, Father Vitaly brought her down from above and blessed her on the monastic path. Today V. is the abbess of the ancient monastery.

Through the prayer of the elder, healings were performed. There is a known case when a pregnant woman, wanting to get rid of the fetus, swallowed some pills. Doctors believed that it was useless to fight for the child: “Who should we save? A cripple? At this time, someone was going to Father Vitaly, he was asked to pray. Father Vitaly did not bless the abortion: “Do nothing! The Lord will manage everything.” And a miracle happened. The high temperature has disappeared. Before giving birth, the woman received communion. The doctors were surprised: “Now, when a woman gives birth, you don’t know who to save – the mother or the child. And here the birth was easy.” A boy was born. Now he has no special health problems. When Father Vitaly learned about the amazing birth of the baby, he said, smiling: “And it was Mother Maria who prayed.”

Father Gabriel suddenly developed a wound on his hand. He approached Elder Vitaly: “Father, look, the Chernobyl plague!” The elder made the sign of the cross, kissed the area, and the next day only a red spot remained from the ulcer.

“I won’t eat or drink for a month!”

The following fragments of memoirs are devoted not only to the ascetic teachings of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, but also to his appearance in everyday life.

He was always in a state of spiritual ecstasy. He was surprised: “How can you be angry? How can you judge?

Archimandrite T.: “Father Vitaly is undoubtedly God’s chosen one. Some elders follow the example of their elders, and even the Glinsky elders themselves considered Father Vitaly a holy fool. There was no humanity in him. I didn’t see the elder smiling, but Father Vitaly was always in a state of spiritual delight. Not exaltation, but spiritual delight. I was surprised when a person sinned: “How can you be angry? How can you judge?”

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko). Photo from the archive of Schema Abbess Elisaveta (Orlova)

You can be harsh towards others because you are strict with yourself, which was not the case with Father Vitaly. He came to the church at night, long before the Liturgy, in order to have time to remember all those in need at the proskomedia. He was so tired that after the service he was sometimes carried out of the church. If he didn’t serve himself, then, while at the altar, he still tried to serve everyone: he would give a phelonion to someone, he would help someone read the memorial.”

The old man's voice was weak and quiet. When I celebrated the Liturgy, it was very quiet in the church.

Somehow the police took him away once again. Later, the elder lamented: “I had three rubles in my pocket, they gave me a ride, but I didn’t pay them.”

He always felt good everywhere. He taught his spiritual children this way: do as much as you can yourself, so as not to burden anyone.

I threw change over the fence for the local kids. The children knew about this and came to collect it every day.

Always told the truth. When, with the blessing of Bishop Zinovy, Father Vitaly’s passport was restored, the police asked what happened to the previous one. Father Vitaly answered honestly: “I burned it.” Then the policeman took Mother Maria aside and asked: “Please come tomorrow, but only without him.”

A scene from the life of Father Vitaly and Mother Maria. The wind blew so strong that fruits fell to the ground. Father Vitaly was silent. And suddenly the wind suddenly stopped. Mother Mary says: “Mother of God, don’t listen to him, I’m suffocating.” The wind blew again.

Sister D. broke her vow and tried the meat. Then Father Vitaly punished himself instead: “I won’t eat or drink for a month.”

At the grave of an old man in Tbilisi

It is interesting that when remembering Father Vitaly, the faces of his children brightened, and one stern monk (in four years I never saw him smile), learning that I was collecting materials about his mentor, instantly turned into a child: he laughed, grabbed me by the sleeve... I couldn’t even imagine him being so spontaneous.

Father Gabriel (Starodub) called his spiritual mentor “the universal elder,” and there is no exaggeration in this. Universal responsiveness and indiscriminate love for all creatures allow us to speak of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko) as an elder of cosmic proportions.

First life adversities

But this is how the world works - as soon as holiness shines, the human enemy immediately reveals his machinations. He embittered and clouded the hearts of his close people, his paternal relatives - his grandmother and two aunts. From birth they hated the child and with all the powers that the crafty demon endowed them with, they tried to destroy him. But the Lord, with His great mercy, preserved him, and in the future Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko, filled with the spirit of Christian forgiveness, prayed to God not to impute past deeds to them as sin, for “they did not know what they were doing.”

During the war, Vitaly, like many of his peers, lost his father, who died at the front, and caring for the children fell entirely on the shoulders of his mother. Having cried out her widow's grief, she plunged headlong into the hard, hopeless work that became the lot of millions of women in those war and post-war years. Life has coarsened her character, dulling even the feeling of maternal tenderness. While raising her sons, she often resorted to the help of a belt left in the house from her late husband. But Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko later recalled these floggings, which often happened, as a necessary conditioning for life.

Excerpts from the teachings of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko)

It is better to suffer pain and be cleansed of sin than to be healthy and be doomed to the torment of fire.

If there is no grace, then a person cannot endure on his own.

About the Jesus Prayer

We must not accept thoughts, but perform prayer.

Say prayer at any time and situation - here you will have prayer, vigil, reading and thanksgiving.

Say a prayer - it will make up for everything.

You should always read: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners.” You sit, eat, talk, walk, wash, cook, wash, dig, wear - you should always read the Jesus Prayer. Then there will be no sadness. By saying this, we please the Lord, both the living and the dead, and we enrich our souls, and we enter into paradise in Christ the God.

Just as you breathe without asking how it’s done, read and read your prayer and you will receive salvation.

Read the Jesus Prayer in every need and sorrow, then what you are looking for will come in due time.

When you continually pray, it will be good, and if you are not joyful, it is because we do not pray.

During times of melancholy and other changes, one must constantly say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Mother of God, have mercy on us sinners.” Father Andronik said: “Whoever does not read prayer falls ill with melancholy, and with it despondency comes—and thus burdens himself.”

Even if you are in a state of confusion when your mind is carried away by something, then do not abandon the Jesus Prayer.

This prayer will deliver you from the seal of the Antichrist, forgive your sins, adorn you with virtues and unite you with God.

Love the Jesus Prayer, and it will clothe you like a robe with virtues, lead you along the path of salvation, encourage you, make you happy, and grant you a lot of salvation with the elect.

With people, when they contradict or reproach, one must remain silent and say the Jesus Prayer. This is a wonderful remedy.

Father Vitaly said that prayer must be approached with great consideration, so as not to fall into delusion. In a letter to one archimandrite, he answered his question this way: “Why don’t the Fathers tell us to practice the Jesus Prayer? This is in the area of ​​the heart. Whoever takes on this feat ahead of time, and has not acquired silence, patience, cutting off self-will, and takes on a great feat, this is why delusion occurs. Therefore, the Fathers, warning against this matter, strictly say not to enter into this work ahead of time”* (here Father Vitaly speaks of the third degree of the Jesus Prayer - the mind-heart prayer, which the Holy Fathers did not recommend embarking on without experienced spiritual guidance).

We are proud, that’s why we don’t have the Jesus Prayer. Prayer is not given for pride. Prayer is not accepted with pride by God.

About the prayer rule

Father taught not to grieve and not to be discouraged if you do not have time to read the morning rule, but to tirelessly read the Jesus Prayer throughout the day, 150 times “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” and the Fifth Prayer. He said that the Jesus Prayer can replace the entire rule, and whoever reads “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary 150 times” every day will be saved by the Mother of God.

If after prayer you drink tea or eat, you need to read the prayer for bedtime again for those coming.

Always read “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” 150 times with bows - and the Mother of God will accomplish salvation.

Father advised in the morning, when leaving the house, to read Psalms 26, 50 and 90, and between them, at the beginning and at the end, one prayer, “Rejoice, Virgin Mary.” After that, he said, if a shell or bullet explodes nearby, or a fire happens, no trouble will touch you.

Read Psalms 26, 50, 90, and the Lord and Mother of God will bestow Their mercies.

Since there is vanity in fulfilling the rule, do not take much, but pull out the rosary with the Jesus Prayer, without counting, but only humbly and with attention.

Try to pray carefully in the morning, in the evening and with every task, at least like this: “Bless, Lord. Glory to Thee, Lord." And instead of other thoughts, say: “Lord, help me. Lord protect me. Lord, be a doctor of soul and body. Lord, teach me to do Your will.” By doing this, you will talk with God, which is prayer. Don’t accept other thoughts - they are not God’s.

If it was extremely difficult to read the rules for Communion, he allowed him to read 5 rosaries of Jesus prayers.

He demanded to pray for everyone, but when he was extremely busy, he even allowed this: “O Lord, bless everyone with health and remember all those who have fallen asleep in Your Kingdom. “So you prayed, then you won’t lose heart.”

About church prayer

Answering his spiritual children about the importance of frequent visits to Church, Father Vitaly said: “Praying at home for several days will not replace one “Lord have mercy” and a bow made in Church.”

Pay attention to how you cross yourself: you wave like you are chasing flies,” he warned his children, drawing attention to the fact that when moving your hand from shoulder to shoulder, you need to make a straight line, not a bent arc.

Father considered it important to make the sign of the cross and bows not arbitrarily, but in accordance with the church charter, which every Orthodox Christian should know.

About Christian virtues

Patience, thanksgiving, prayerful work - all perplexities, obstacles and sorrows will be erased, and they will lead to a quiet haven...

If you love, there will be no melancholy or despondency.

The Lord teaches us to be like children, not to judge, not to be offended, to love everyone, to endure, to give thanks, to rely on God’s providence.

One should never lose heart, but always trust in God’s help and His mercy.

Know that for obedience the Lord will give patience, great mercy and salvation.

Humble yourself, endure, love. There will be love and the walls will come apart.

Love is the only thing that needs to be acquired.

He taught us to live in peace with everyone, saying: “It’s better to let the business go bankrupt than to disturb the peace.”

About non-judgment

In his letters, Father constantly repeated that no one should be condemned, for from this sin “grace leaves, and then melancholy, despondency, laziness, obesity, lust, greed, greed, jokes, verbosity find themselves, as well as impatience, not doing anything good.”

To learn to love, you need to pray like this: “Lord, bless everyone whom I have condemned (names), and with their holy prayers, have mercy on me, the accursed.” - With this prayer there are 12 bows from the waist. This is what Father Seraphim* taught us (the spiritual father of the Glinsk Hermitage, Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim Romantsov), and we all do this every day.

When you cannot stop condemning, then you need to say “Hail to the Virgin Mary” 150 times, and the Mother of God will help you not to condemn anyone.

One spiritual daughter of Father Vitaly recalls: “Once Father, while walking, as if casually, said: “It would be better if you overeat than condemn a person.”

One of his spiritual children went to Sochi. In the temple, she was tempted by the fact that the candles were not burning on the altar and the service was being shortened, and did not take communion. To this, Father replied: “You need to receive communion, and you yourself need to burn the candle. Because they are accustomed to condemning, people cannot find peace anywhere.

Condemn yourself, every person... All our sins overcome us because we are proud.”

When you have a grudge, when evil nests inside, then tell yourself: “God is Love, but I don’t love, that means God will reject me!” - And with this thought you will drive out rancor.

Don’t judge, love, blame yourself, consider everyone as Angels - and there will be tears.

Father taught me to constantly think when communicating with people: “Everyone is like an Angel, but I am the worst of all.”

About attitude towards offenders

If someone is offended or dissatisfied with you, you should give him fans for him, or even go to a hotel.

About non-covetousness and almsgiving

Always help the poor. Give me at least a penny, if you don’t have any more, and she will ascend to Heaven.

Try to give everything away, leave only the essentials - then there will be joy in your soul.

I say: everything should be distributed, but they don’t listen. I have just a warehouse - this is hell for me.

About the home

Definitely consecrate the house. Where a person lives, there is a holy monastery.

Sprinkle your apartment with holy water every day.

You can't say that the house is dirty. God created everything purely and holy.

Take the icon of the Mother of God in the morning and evening, and cross all four sides, reading “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice.” And help will come from the Lord.

Internet site “UNIVERSAL ORTHODOXY”

Young Preacher

Gifted from birth with a sharp mind and good memory, the boy studied well, quickly grasping all the teachers’ explanations. Even in elementary school, having barely mastered literacy, he became addicted to reading the Gospel, which was kept in the house, but was very rare in those atheistic times. Unable to retain the impression of the holy book, he read it to his classmates at school, to old ladies who were having gatherings, and to everyone who was willing to listen to him.

In the country of “victorious socialism,” such actions were regarded by the authorities as religious propaganda and could have the most disastrous consequences, since they were among the illegal acts provided for by the Criminal Code. The mother, aware of the danger to which Vitaly exposed himself, hid the Gospel from him, but the boy found it and stubbornly stood his ground.

For some time he got away with it with impunity, but this could not continue for long. It ended with Vitaly being expelled from school, as he endangered the teachers with his gospel readings and religious conversations. Even those of them who sympathized with the young confessor in their souls did not want to become his involuntary accomplices.

The beginning of a pilgrimage

Work on the collective farm, where he had worked since he was nine years old, also did not work out. The boy tried not to miss a single patronal holiday in neighboring villages, and when visiting them, he was forced to voluntarily miss work, which in those days was considered as sabotage and was strictly punished.

Rejected by school and society and not finding support in his religious aspirations even from his own mother, Vitaly decided to take upon himself the feat of wandering, about the beneficial hardships of which he had heard and read a lot. Having bowed to the walls of his home and mentally asking for the blessing of the Most Holy Theotokos, while still a very young boy, he set off into a world created by God, but which rejected His holy name.

Wanting to fully feel like a warrior of the King of Heaven, he consciously renounced everything that connected a person with the ungodly power that reigned in the country. In particular, Vitaly tore and threw away his passport, thereby putting himself in an illegal position. It is this step that explains the difficulties in establishing the exact date of birth. From now on, in his wanderings, he was doomed to avoid meetings with government officials, who demanded to present documents at every step.

Elder Vitaly. Test certificate

About the life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly

Having finally appeared as a shepherd of many of Christ's sheep, as a true Christian, he himself fulfilled the Gospel with his whole life. Reading these pages, we will see a man who never indulged himself in anything, who voluntarily chose the hardest cross in life: suffering, humiliation, persecution, backbreaking labor - and all this in order to humble his heart, to make it worthy of accepting the Divine grace and love.

Before us is the narrow path of the ascetic, which seems almost incredible in our time. He proves that Christianity remains the same twenty centuries ago and today, for “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). And no matter what times people live, true piety does not fade in the darkness of general lawlessness. And we see this in the example of those lamps of the Russian land that the Lord still sends to the world for our salvation.

Excerpt from a book about Father Vitaly

Elder Vitaly’s love for people was truly sacrificial. He always said: “We must help others without sparing ourselves.” And he did not spare himself, he was the most demanding and strict with himself. How many different people came to Father Vitaly, and not a single person caused him any displeasure or irritation. No one felt crowded in his heart—everyone equally felt his attention, sympathy, warmth, and love. He rejoiced with those who rejoiced, wept with those who wept, and served everyone as Christ Himself. For Father Vitaly, there was no greater pain than seeing a person die spiritually.

And he was ready to endure any dishonor, reproach and temptation, just to support the falling one and bring him spiritual benefit. And in this service for the salvation of souls lies the highest manifestation of Christian love, for “no one can love Christ more than the one who seeks the salvation of his neighbor” (St. Tikhon of Voronezh)

One great elder prayed like this: “Master! Come with me and bring my children into Your Kingdom, or blot me out from Your book.” Elder Vitaly’s love extended to the point that he was ready to go to hell himself if it was necessary to save those whom the Lord entrusted to him. He could not imagine his pastoral ministry without bearing the cross. And the cross, in the words of Saint Isaac the Syrian, “is the will, ready for any sorrow.” Uncomplaining patience with all sorrows and difficulties, which flowed from boundless trust in the Lord as his Father, transformed him so much that he became an earthly angel and a heavenly man. It is difficult, and even impossible, for us to penetrate into this mystery of the relationship between God and the human person.

We can judge the spiritual appearance of this ascetic only by the external manifestations of his life hidden in God. Those who knew Father Vitaly had an inner feeling that this man was not of this world. This was expressed both in behavior and in thinking - everything was not like everyone else. And when Father Vitaly wanted to find a friend in earthly life, his spiritual father told him: “Don’t look, you won’t find a friend. Not one person in the world will understand you, so you will be alone.” At first and superficial glance, this may seem paradoxical, because around the elder there were always many hearts that loved him.

But here is the humble confession of one of his spiritual daughters: “I knew Father for more than forty years, and one day he told me: “You know me well.” And I thought, how can one know him, since the Lord himself reveals secrets to him.” Father Vitaly encouraged his spiritual children in the same way: “There is only one Lord God, our Father, our Friend, and our Brother.” Consoling his spiritual daughter in a letter, he wrote: “Wherever I am, I am not alone. And you are not alone - the Lord, the Mother of God, the Guardian Angel, the Saints are with you...” By some special inner tuning fork, he felt a spiritual connection with the world of the Saints.

The closest in spirit to Father Vitaly was the great luminary of the Russian land - St. Seraphim of Sarov, whose instructions he followed from the time he entered the monastery. More than once in letters he reported that he “visits with his mind” St. Seraphim, “in his mind he visits Diveevo.” And how rejoiced Father was when in 1991 the holy relics of the Sarov Wonderworker were found and in the middle of the summer they sang Easter, and among those clergy who accompanied the shrine from Moscow to Diveyevo were his spiritual children. To those who argued that in our time there can no longer be such great ascetics as in past centuries, Father answered: “The power of grace is the same as in the times of the apostles, it’s all about ourselves.”

One day, monks from Alaska visited him and asked him a question: “Are there such ascetics in the 20th century as we read about in the ancient patericons?” Father Vitaly answered in the affirmative: “We see them, we hear them, we are with them, but we do not have the faith and obedience that the ancient fathers had, so we do not know them.” Simple, pure hearts saw the God-bearing power of the elder and in awe worshiped the One who lived in him. One woman, having visited Father with her family, shared her impression: “A person can no longer achieve higher love than he has. If a person has such love, and God gave it to him, then what kind of God is that?” With the power of Love, a person can create great miracles.

“There will be love and the walls will come apart,” said Father Vitaly. Isn’t this an explanation of some of the miraculous cases of his help to the suffering? Father had an extraordinary face. Love made him angelically beautiful, it was difficult to take your eyes off him. But Father did not allow himself to be photographed, he said: “The reward will decrease.” Only a few random photographs have survived, of which Father either did not know that he was being photographed, or taken for obedience (for example, next to Bishop Zinovy ​​or a passport photograph). There are no records of his conversations left.

He left like an angel, leaving behind almost nothing of the material world. But he bequeathed to his children something incomparably greater - his Love, which now lives in the hearts of people, and there is nothing more precious than this gift in the world. In an Easter letter to his children, shortly before his death, he sent one wonderful teaching, which can be called the spiritual testament of Father Vitaly himself: “Love your neighbor! And you will love Christ. Love the offender and the enemy! And the doors of joy will open for you, and the Risen Christ will meet your soul risen in love. That's all! The Lord expects so little from us! This is our paradise! This is our Resurrection! Love Love and you will live as the Savior Risen in the suffering of Love!”

Yesterday, in front of a large crowd of people, a memorial service was celebrated for the ever-remembered Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly in the main cathedral of our monastery. It was celebrated by Archbishop Nikon, the spiritual child of Father Vitaly, who was cared for by the elder for almost 30 years. Remember, all of you reading these lines, the saint of God. In blissful dormition...

In 1928, in the village of Ekaterinovka, Krasnodar Territory, in a small, clean house with a smeared clay floor, a baby was born, who was named Vitaly. According to some sources, this happened on May 5, the day of remembrance of St. Vitaly, a monk of Alexandria. According to others - on the day of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity...

When the mother carried him under her heart, she prayed: “Lord, give me such a child that it will be pleasing to You and people.” And in a dream I saw two bright suns. She was surprised: “Where do two suns come from?” A voice answered her: “One sun is in your womb.” When the eight-day-old baby was baptized, he smiled all the time, and stood up on his feet in the font. As usual, on the fortieth day, according to pious custom, the mother brought her son to church, so that, as stated (Hereinafter, all dates falling during the period after the calendar reform of 1918 are given according to the new style.) In the Gospel for the Presentation, “ present before the Lord” (Luke 2:22).

The priest brought the baby to the altar and, feeling the special grace emanating from him, laid him at the Throne of God in a high place. He took the baby out of the altar and returned it to his mother with the words: “This child will be a great man.” At home, the mother repeatedly heard wonderful angelic singing over the boy’s cradle. By many signs it was clear that this extraordinary child was born in holiness and chosen by God from his mother’s womb. For this, the enemy of the human race rose up against him from early childhood, acting through the people closest to him.

The father's relatives - sisters and grandmother - hated the child and wanted him dead. They did not let the mother leave the field to feed the baby; during the whole day the boy could lie hungry and wet. At the same time, he never cried, causing great anger from his mother-in-law and daughters-in-law - they stuffed straw into his mouth and threw him on the ground with the words: “You scoundrel, you are still silent.” In the absence of her husband, they offended Alexandra, so that she even had to go to her parents. When the husband returned, he took his wife and was very sorry for her.

Elder Vitaly always remembered his parents with great love and tenderness. His father died at the front during the Great Patriotic War. “If he had not died,” said Father Vitaly, “he would have been a great man. He was very kind, smart, hardworking, and helped the poor and orphans a lot.” Father Vitaly always pitied his mother for her difficult life, and although she often beat him in childhood, he never took offense at her, considering this a necessary conditioning for life. The word “great” here should be understood in a spiritual sense. Vitaly’s mother later said that if his father had been alive, he would have labored with his son in the Caucasus mountains.

Many years later, in a letter, he will say: “My mother flogged me until I bled, so she helped.” At the age of five, Vitaly began to fast: he did not eat meat at all, and on Wednesday and Friday he refused dairy foods. And in the future he showed great jealousy regarding fasting. There were cases when, in those lean and hungry years, at such a young age he refused to eat lean potato soup only because he was stirred with a “fast spoon,” that is, a spoon that was used to touch fast food. At the same time, Vitaly grew up as a healthy and playful child.

When he was eight years old, he went to school like all his peers. Studying was easy for him. And although he almost never taught lessons at home, his academic performance was very good, and the teachers were surprised at this. As soon as he mastered literacy and began to read well, the Gospel became his favorite reading. The divine word had such a strong impact on his pure soul that he simply could not help but share this knowledge with others. He constantly carried the Gospel with him and read it to everyone - the children at school, the old women of the village, coming to their gatherings. He returned home late, and his mother punished him for these “sermons” - after all, at that godless time, any “propaganda of religion” was far from safe and was persecuted.

His mother tried to hide the Gospel from him, but no matter where she hid it, Vitaly still found it. In general, in household chores and labors he was an obedient child, but in terms of stopping “sermons” - not at all. Later, Vitaly began to ask people to give him the “Lives of the Saints” to read, as well as other spiritual books. There was no time to read during the day - he read at night, and his mother began to scold him for burning a lot of wicks and kerosene. Then he began to read furtively in the attic. (When, in old age, her mother became mortally ill, Father Vitaly tonsured her into monasticism, and then into the schema with the name Andronikos.)

He worked on a collective farm and transported grain from the combine to the current, but as soon as he heard the church bells, he unharnessed his horses and ran to the temple. One day, someone turned the furman over and the grain scattered, but when he returned after service, the grain miraculously turned out to be collected in place, as if no one had touched it. Vitaly began working on the collective farm at the age of nine. And although he loved to work and everything worked out in his hands, he never became the breadwinner of the family, to the great chagrin of his mother. Not only was he not paid for his workdays, but he also did not accept all the earnings.

In order to somehow feed her family, my grandmother began growing tobacco for sale. Considering smoking a sin, Vitaly, instead of drying the tobacco, poured water on it - the tobacco rotted. For this, his mother whipped him until he bled, and once almost killed him, but the Lord did not allow it: someone’s hand in the belt grabbed her hand and threatened. The villagers loved Vitaly. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his prudence, special responsiveness and always tried to help everyone in any way he could, and took on the most difficult things himself. They began to notice some unusual properties behind it.

One day, on Good Friday, collective farmers gathered to sow a field. Vitaly began to stop them: “You can’t work today - everything will break.” And indeed, we had only driven around the field once before the seeder and harrows broke down. “What kind of guy is this?” - people were surprised. When Vitaly was 9 years old, he was sent to graze the collective farm herd. He drove the cattle out to pasture, and he himself began to read the Gospel and did not notice that the cows had wandered into the wheat, ate too much of the life and fell ill. Then the foreman appeared and raised a cry: “The cattle are dying, they can’t get back on their feet!” Then Vitaly began to approach each cow - he would walk around, cross himself, and the cow would rise. So he raised the whole herd and drove it to the village.

For Vitaly Sidorenko, childhood is over

Once upon a time, in the village of Ekaterinovka, an incident occurred that many people talked about. The tractor driver decided to drive straight through an abandoned estate and, not noticing a well in the tall grass, fell straight into it. The car is firmly stuck - it can neither move forward nor backward. The man walks around, swears. They were about to send for a tap, but the believing women advised calling Vitalka. Everyone was wondering how the fragile little boy would help here. Vitaly, waving his whip, walked around the tractor three times, crossed himself and, smiling, said to the tractor driver: “Pull, he’ll come out now!” And he said to him: “Leave me alone, it’s no time for you!” Finally, reluctantly, with a grumble, he gave in to the persuasion and went to the car. I started it, started it a little, and the tractor came out of the hole easily, like clockwork...

Once talking with a Baptist woman who did not recognize icons and called them ordinary boards, Vitaly assured that the Lord could show His love to her, who was erring, if she had faith. Then she said that she would believe only if she saw a miracle. Vitaly began to pray with her before the image of the Mother of God - and the icon suddenly shone with an extraordinary light. So, through his childhood prayers, the Baptist woman believed in the truth of Orthodoxy. Among the students and teachers of his school, Vitaly continued to testify about God without fear, sincerely wanting everyone to be enlightened by the light of Christ's faith. He could not remain silent, much less dissemble, hiding his convictions.

In the 7th grade, when he was called to read Nekrasov’s poem “The Railway,” he read it like this: “There is a king in the world, this king is merciless - Stalin.” The teachers' patience ran out. Knowing that no punishment would have any effect on him, they were afraid to keep such a student in school. In addition to the contemptuous label - “believer”, he was given another label - “political”, and was expelled from school. This is how childhood ended for Vitaly Sidorenko. A new stage of his life began, full of difficulties and hardships.

Feat of prayer

In those young years, Vitaly had already begun his feat of prayer. He had his own secluded places where he loved to pray. In the summer it was a cornfield or a thicket of reeds on the river, where mosquitoes would eat, otherwise he would hide in the boat and forget that he had to go home, and his mother had to look for him. When he was 8-10 years old, he dug a hole in the garden and prayed there for a long time. By the sun, he knew the time when his father should return from the field, and by this hour he would fill the hole with hay so that he would not scold him. Already in childhood, the boy grasped the most important thing - he learned to live with his heart, and by the effect on his heart he determined the correctness of his actions!

Having experienced the effect and power of prayer, Vitaly tried to avoid everything that prevented her from constantly being in his heart. Once Vitaly entered the club - the prayer stopped - which means there is no need to go to the club. His mother bought him a new cap, he put it on recklessly, like his peers wore, and the prayer stopped. I pulled my cap over my ears, not thinking about how it looked from the outside - the prayer was off. This means you shouldn’t show off your clothes. So, from childhood, he sought only what brought him closer to God. Vitaly always reached out with his soul to believers, to places where one could hear about God. He especially loved church services and did not miss a single service in the village church.

Subsequently, Father Vitaly recalled this time in a letter to his spiritual daughter: “In my youth, I worked on a collective farm, but they did not give me a salary. Mother will flog her until she bleeds, I will cry, the wounds will heal - and thank God. But they didn’t give it because if there was a holiday in the middle of the week, then I quit work and went to God’s temple. So they didn’t give it.” The foreman, not without gloating, told him: “The jackdaws ate your salary,” because instead of workdays, empty “ticks” were often put on his report card.

Save my child!

At this time, Father Andronik had a revelation. He saw the Mother of God, who said: “Save my child!” They began to look for brother Vitaly, ran to the river and saw that he could not get up. I had to cut out the ice. Even then, in the monastery, Vitaly chose the path of humility, often bordering on foolishness. For example, humiliating himself in every possible way, he often abstained from the common monastic meal and ate garbage. Before they went to the bulls, he sorted them out and ate them. The elders scolded Vitaly for this, telling him that he should eat with everyone, even if it was limited. His actions were not always understandable, and sometimes caused censure, but his sincere humility and complete gentleness did not allow him to be angry with him for long.

Once, during the absence of Father Seraphim, Vitaly, to whom he left his cell, began to distribute things, dishes, and money for the journey from it to the pilgrims; He gave blankets to the nuns from Zolotonosha, whom the monastery was helping at that time. Having returned and learned about what had happened, Father Seraphim was threatening. Things had to be returned.

Obedience comes first

Hierodeacon Ephraim, who labored in the Glinsk Hermitage, carried out the feat of foolishness. During his lifetime, many revered him as an ascetic of a holy life, who received from God the gracious gifts of insight and tearful prayer. At the same time as his brother Vitaly, he served as a night watchman. After the closure of the monastery, he was forcibly imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital located on the territory of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage near Ryazan. There he continued to play the fool and receive people who came to him in large numbers for spiritual needs. Apparently, he ended his life’s journey in the Vyshinskaya Hermitage and was buried by his children somewhere in the Ryazan region. Father Vitaly and Father Ephraim were connected by spiritual closeness and the similarity of their exploits. Father always spoke with great love about him as an old man of high spiritual life.

Vitaly performed any obedience entrusted to him zealously, remembering the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov that “obedience is above all, above fasting and prayer, and not only should one not refuse, but one must run to it!” At the same time, he learned to do every task with prayer, with the memory of God. Later, in a letter to his spiritual children, he will write: “In the monastery, some are cooks, others are mowers, others are shepherds, others are gardeners, others are watchmen, others are singers, others are clerks - and everyone receives salvation. Do it and say the Jesus Prayer; and there will be a double task: both prayer and work - and so you will always be with the Lord.”

This desire to be with the Lord always, hourly, prompted him to special feats. Striving for solitary prayer, one winter he went to the river, knelt down and began to pray. In the severe frost, his feet froze to the ice. One episode that happened with brother Vitaly speaks about how difficult it can be to obey the elders.

Father Seraphim told him to shift the woodpile. Vitaly shifted. Father Andronik followed and ordered to put it back. The novice shifted it a second time. Father Seraphim returns: “Why didn’t you do it?” Vitaly ran after Father Andronik, and he got it from both. The whole secret of salvation is humility. To tell the truth, Father Vitaly often took the blame on himself in order to smooth out conflict situations and maintain peace between people. The experience of monastic life gradually led to an understanding of what Hierodeacon Ephraim said: “the whole secret of salvation is humility.” But this understanding was not given without internal struggle. “What is spiritual prosperity? - Father Andronik taught. - In humility. The extent to which one has humbled oneself is the extent to which one has succeeded.”

In the desert there was no division between important and unimportant work, honorable and low. So, for example, both the new novice and the schema-abbot went to sort out the potatoes. Brother Vitaly underwent a variety of obediences in the monastery. He was a watchman and worked in the refectory. Together with the novice Peter, he ground small potatoes for the bakery. There they added crushed millet and a little flour and baked bread. It turned out brittle, like clay, and if it dried out, you could even chop it with an axe. But then this bread also seemed very tasty. During this work, Brother Vitaly especially loved to sing the 33rd Psalm, which he knew by heart and performed in Lavra chant. He avoided idle talk. At one time, Brother Vitaly was responsible for the candle box. After the service, he counted the proceeds and returned late. In order not to wake up the brethren, he went to bed at the door of the fraternal building right on the street.

I'm a puppy against Vitaly's father

At the age of 16, he labored in Taganrog, where at that time lived the blind old man Father Alexy, who suffered from the Germans during the war. Not seeing with his physical eyes, he received from God the gift of spiritual vision, and much was revealed to him. He told Vitaly: “Choose - either serve in the army, but then you won’t be like that anymore, or wander.” Vitaly has already made his choice. Foreseeing the future of the young man, Father Alexy hid Vitaly from his mother when she came to Taganrog to look for her son. He blessed Vitaly for the monastic feat and subsequently said: “I am a puppy against Father Vitaly.”

In 1948, Vitaly, wanting to serve the Lord in the monastery, went to the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which had just opened after the war. There he worked on the restoration of the Lavra walls. But his desire to remain in the monastery of St. Sergius was not fulfilled. According to existing laws, he could not be accepted as a monk without documents, and then, at the instigation of the enemy, one of the brethren slandered him for theft. Experienced Lavra monks advised him to go to the Glinsk hermitage, famous for its elders.

He wanted to be a warrior of the King of Heaven

Already in his youth, Vitaly sometimes disappeared from home. When he hears that someone is going to go to the patronal feast - and he is with them. Women will ask him: “Does mom know?” He's just about. The first time he went to the surrounding village for the patronal feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. His mother beat him severely for this, but the punishment did not diminish his zeal for the House of God. From the age of 14 he took upon himself the feat of wandering. Often he found lodgings for the night: a haystack in a field, an abandoned barn, a carriage vestibule. Even then, in those Stalinist years, he experienced for himself what it meant to meet the guardians of order.

His position as a wanderer was greatly complicated by the fact that Vitaly deliberately refused to have any documents, tearing up his passport at the age of 16. He wanted to be a warrior of the King of Heaven, he wanted to become a citizen of Heaven, therefore he did not want to worry about earthly citizenship. This action - the destruction of the passport - meant a conscious acceptance of sorrows, for in return he received a “passport of testing.”

This is what the holy fools did for the sake of Christ, irritating people with their appearance and behavior. They constantly bore sorrows, but thereby retained the most precious gift of humility, in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit operated - love, prayer, the gift of insight. Vitaly’s father chose a similar path in life for himself from his youth.

Blessing on a hard and thorny path

Shortly before the end of the war, sixteen-year-old Vitaly’s travels led him to Taganrog, where he had the opportunity to meet the elder Father Alexy, who had become involved there. Having lost his sight at the front, this truly Godly man invariably amazed those around him with his gift of spiritual vision, accurately predicting the future and revealing to those who came to him the fates of people close to them who fought the enemy.

Already in our days, numerous books about Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko have been written and published. In them, this episode is invariably cited as one of the main moments of his life. The significance of the meeting lies in the fact that the blind elder Alexy, seeing in Vitaly a vessel of God's Grace, was the first to bless the young wanderer on the path of monasticism, difficult at all times, and especially thorny during the years of religious persecution.

Read online “On the life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly”

About the life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly. Memoirs of spiritual children. Letters. Teachings

Preface

In 2002, the Moscow Stavropegic Novospassky Monastery prepared for publication the book “On the Life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly.” In the same year, following the results of the “New Russian Book” competition, she was awarded the Prize of the Union of Writers of Russia and the Eduard Volodin Literary Foundation of Russia in the “Biography” category.

It did not go unnoticed among Orthodox readers. For a number of years, the publishing department of the monastery continues to receive reader responses from all over Russia, as well as from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Bulgaria, Australia, and the USA. Laymen, monastics, and abbots of monasteries write to us.

The very personality of Elder Vitaly (Sidorenko), his life’s feat does not leave anyone indifferent. Here are some brief reviews.

Mikhailova Valentina Petrovna (Rostov region): “I fell in love with Father, he became like family to me. I really miss a spiritual mentor. And every line of this book is an instruction for me.”

Sheverdyaeva Galina (Taganrog): “I open the book with prayer and read, as if it was written specifically for me. Spiritual help, consolation. My friend said: “a reference book.”

Tsvetanka Petrova (Bulgaria): “You can learn a lot about humility, kindness and love for your neighbor.”

Nun Tabitha (Sydney, Australia): “This book is always with me. You look into it for 5-10 minutes and Father Vitaly sends you peace of mind and hope for salvation.”

Elena Nikiforovna Permyakova (Tobolsk): “This is some kind of wonderful old man. He is surprising, especially in our time, when everyone is “big”, everyone is a commander.”

R. B. Igor (S.

. -Petersburg. Valaam Metochion): “The life of such people inspires repentance and new works for the glory of God.”

Vlasova I.G. (Moscow region): “If there were more such descriptions of the life of ascetics, more people would save their souls!”

Tatyankina Galina (Usman): “I’m reading and can’t get enough of it or put it down. I want to cry, pray, repent.”

Danilova L.A. (Orenburg region): “What a wonderful book! So useful and necessary for us lay people. I have learned so much wisdom from it, how much it strengthens me in faith.”

Rudakova S.N. (Novokuznetsk): “Father Vitaly’s love is transmitted even through a book. The warmth and light that he gave to people during his lifetime are transmitted to us now. When things get hard for me, I take Father’s life, open the book at random and always find what I need.”

The success of this book can be explained by the fact that it meets the urgent need of the soul - to have before us examples of holy life, an ideal. After all, it is not for nothing that the table reading in Rus' has always been “The Lives of the Saints,” which were read daily and which wonderfully educated both the mind and the heart. But it is especially important when this example is our contemporary. This means that the times of the saints have not passed away and “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13, …

Stay in holy monasteries

Having wandered for another four years, spending the night wherever necessary and feeding on God’s name (alms for Christ’s sake), in 1948 Vitaly came to the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, which had recently opened and lay in ruins. With his young strong hands, he worked hard to restore the war-scarred walls, which earned him universal love and gratitude, but the brothers could not keep the lively young man - by accepting a person without documents, they were breaking the law and putting the entire monastery at risk.

On the advice of the abbot of the Lavra, Vitaly went to the deep forests of the Kursk diocese, where the Glinsk Monastery hid, far from the gaze of the Soviet authorities. It was this place that the future Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko chose as his refuge. A book about his life, published in 2004 by the printing house of the Novospassky Monastery, describes in detail the difficult and full of hardships the life into which the young wanderer plunged.

Sometimes he, like all the other inhabitants, for several days had to be content with only a piece of stale bread or boiled beets, and sometimes even starve. But for him it was a great happiness simply that the Lord vouchsafed him to live in the holy monastery.

Here, under the tutelage of wise elders, he learned the difficult science of monastic service. Humbling his pride, he meekly carried out the obediences associated with the most difficult and dirty work, but, most importantly, he learned unceasing prayer, which allowed him to feel inextricable unity with God. This continued until 1961, when, in the wake of another anti-religious campaign, the Glinsk Hermitage was closed.

The strangest Glinsky saint of the twentieth century

In 2009, the last Glinsky elders were canonized: Metropolitan Zinovy ​​(Mazhuga), Schema-Archimandrites Seraphim (Romantsov) and Andronik (Lukash). But for some reason their closest friend and associate Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko) was not among them. This strange and sad fact only shows that the slander and satanic intrigues that the enemy of the human race was building against Father Vitaly still continue to operate.

The devil made many efforts to denigrate the memory of this great ascetic. But the lamp cannot be hidden when standing on the top of the mountain. Father Vitaly is revered by thousands of people in different parts of the world, and the miracles and healings that are performed through prayers to this elder speak of his undoubted holiness.

Childhood and youth

In 1928, a wonderful child was born into a poor peasant family. When his mother, being pregnant, prayed to God for him, she saw two bright suns in a dream. “Where does the second one come from?” - she thought. “One of them is in your womb,” she heard someone’s mysterious voice.

The priest, who brought the child into the altar on the fortieth day after birth, came out to the mother and said to her:

“This child will be a great man.”

There were other signs that Father Vitaly was chosen by God from his mother’s womb. His whole life became clear evidence of this. Some special grace rested on the boy from childhood. Having learned to read, he first mastered the Gospel and prayer book. Prayer fascinated him so much that at the age of eight he made himself a dugout and spent whole hours in it, practicing the Jesus Prayer. Then this prayer itself entered his heart and became the boy’s invisible mentor.

Vitaly went into the club - the prayer stopped, which means there is no need to go there. I put my cap on backwards to look dashing, again prayer doesn’t work, which means you can’t indulge in narcissism, etc. Because Vitaly believed in God and preached Him among his peers, he was expelled from school when he graduated from seventh grade. From the age of fourteen, Vitaly began to “wander” to holy places. And when he was given a passport at the age of sixteen, he tore it up. So the future elder made the choice of his life path.

The grace of God led him along the path of the feat of foolishness. He either began to eat slop instead of a meal, or, in the absence of the abbot of the monastery, distributed all the things from his cell to the pilgrims.

In 1948, Vitaly became a novice at the Glinsk Hermitage Monastery. One day, having forgotten himself, he prayed, kneeling right on the ice of the river. At this time, the confessor of the monastery, Father Andronik (Lukash), had a vision. The Mother of God told him: “Go to the river. Save my child." It turns out that Vitaly’s legs were frozen to the ice so much that they had to be cut out of the river. The grace of God led him along the path of the feat of foolishness. At first, slightly, and then more and more, various kinds of oddities began to be noticed about Vitaly. He either began to eat slop instead of a meal, or, in the absence of the abbot of the monastery, distributed all the things from his cell to the pilgrims.

Every year the Soviet government tightened its control over the inhabitants of the monastery. Since Vitaly had neither a passport nor registration, he was in the most dangerous position. Therefore, at the end of the fifties, shortly before the closure of the monastery, he moved to live in Taganrog for some time.

Wandering

In this city, Vitaly lived in the houses of believers, but mostly wandered to holy places. Sometimes he was accompanied by spiritual children, who became more and more numerous over time.

His foolishness more than once helped him avoid all sorts of troubles. One day in late autumn, when he was stopped by a police patrol, Vitaly jumped into a cold puddle and began splashing around in it. The police told those who were walking with the righteous man to take him to a psychiatric hospital as soon as possible. Another time, law enforcement officers, seeing a group of traveling people and among them a man in a cassock, demanded their documents. Then Vitaly literally attacked the policemen, began kissing them, calling them his guardian angels. They were taken aback and decided that it was better to leave these people alone.

It also happened that Vitaly himself approached a policeman who met on the way, bowed at his feet, knelt down and began to loudly pray to God for him. Here the policeman himself tried to get away from Vitaly. But this was not always the case.

The next day, the morgue worker almost turned gray when he heard one of the “corpses” singing the Easter canon to the entire morgue and shouting “Christ is Risen.”

Often the wanderer was arrested and taken to the police. Returning from there, Vitaly said that the angels took him in and taught him for a long, long time, then stroked him on the head, stomach, and back so that he would be an obedient and exemplary Christian. “Stroked” means they beat him hard. Once such “caresses” ended with Vitaly being beaten to death. When he was brought from the police to the hospital, the doctor pronounced him dead and sent the body to the morgue. The next day, the morgue worker almost turned gray when he heard one of the “corpses” singing the Easter canon to the entire morgue and shouting “Christ is Risen.” Then Vitaly was dressed and sent to the hospital for treatment. There he was diagnosed with the last stage of tuberculosis and the beginning of the collapse of his lungs.

Doctors told him to prepare for death. But in some mysterious way, death passed by, although his tuberculosis finally healed only in the mountains of Abkhazia. Vitaly explained to the doctors: “It was the Mother of God who helped me.” The beatings that the ascetic had to endure did not pass without leaving a mark on his health. His hip bone was damaged, and the pain he experienced from this all his life brought him great suffering.

On the Caucasus mountains

After the closure of the Glinsk Hermitage, the elders of the monastery left for the Caucasus to continue their monastic feat. Vitaly, who by this time had already been tonsured a monk, also directed his steps there. You can learn more about the ascetics in the Caucasus mountains from the book of the monk Mercury (Popov) “Notes of a Desert Dweller.” The monk Vitaly Sidorenko is designated in it under the name “sick brother.”

The monks' cell rule began at four o'clock in the morning and lasted until eleven. Then they went about their household chores while reciting the Jesus Prayer. They were not allowed to utter more than twenty-four words per day, not counting prayer. We often communicated with gestures. From sixteen o'clock they again began to follow the prayer rule.

When Father Vitaly cooked, he prepared food in his own way. He considered the porridge cooked as soon as he poured boiling water over it. Pears that were dried on the stove and then lay in the ashes were never washed before preparing the compote. If the brethren complained that the cooked mushrooms were full of worms, Vitaly said that they should be afraid of internal worms. Instead of cucumber salad, he himself ate cucumber peelings, and instead of watermelon, only its rind.

Monk Vitaly endured all the humiliation and ridicule without the slightest murmur. In general, he took every opportunity to humble himself in front of others. One winter, one of the monks asked Vitaly to bake him some bread and bring it to his cell. Since he did not get boots that day, other devotees put them on in order to go to the city, Vitaly rubbed his feet with kerosene and walked several kilometers barefoot in the snow to carry the baked bread. But my brother didn’t like the bread, and he gave it back to Vitaly.

Monk Vitaly endured all the humiliation and ridicule without the slightest murmur. In general, he used every opportunity to humble himself in front of others

No one has ever seen the monk Vitaly angry or dissatisfied. He loved everyone, pitied everyone and treated everyone equally well, even those who sought his death. Repeatedly, the ascetics of the Caucasus were attacked by robbers and bandits, who could kill monks with impunity, knowing that nothing would happen to them for this. The authorities did not pay any attention to this. The enemy of the human race turned hunters against the monks, who thought that some treasures were kept in their cells.

One day the monk Vitaly was walking through the forest and heard a click. This someone's gun misfired, then a second one of the same kind. A minute later, a forester appeared from the bushes and wanted to kill Vitaly. He pointed the weapon upward and it fired. The forester looked in bewilderment, first at the gun, then at the monk, and walked away. Later, Vitaly found this man in order to give him two kilograms of chocolates, one kilogram for each shot.

At this time, Vitaly takes monastic vows with the name Benedict. After some time, he secretly took monastic vows with the name Vitaly. Therefore, we will continue to call the elder by this name.

After some time, the KGB began to conduct a real hunt for the monks. Their hidden homes were discovered by helicopters, after which task forces landed there and threw innocent people into prison. The brotherhood with whom Vitaly lived was all arrested. Monk Vitaly himself miraculously managed to avoid arrest, since he was at that time in one of the villages, caring for a sick ascetic. After these events, with the blessing of his confessor, in 1969, monk Vitaly moved to live in Tbilisi.

Tbilisi

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko).
Photo: rafaellka.ru At this time, Metropolitan Zinovy ​​(Mazhuga), Schema-Archimandrite Andronik (Lukash) and other Glinsky elders were asceticizing in the capital of Georgia. Vladyka Zinovy ​​becomes the closest friend of the monk Vitaly. After some time, Metropolitan Zinovy ​​ordained him as a hieromonk. The spiritual children of Elder Vitaly recalled how he appeared in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in monastic rags and torn shoes.

Vladyka Zinovy ​​treated Father Vitaly with great love, dressed him, put shoes on him and settled him in the apartment of one of the nuns. At this time, the police began to follow Father Vitaly literally on his heels. The task forces conducted searches, interrogated witnesses, and they wanted to put the ascetic in prison at all costs. Therefore, with the blessing of his confessor, Schema-Hrimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov), Father Vitaly had to get a passport in order to protect himself from secret service workers. From then on, he could more freely receive his spiritual children and give them advice.

The harsh ascetic life in the mountains greatly undermined the health of Father Vitaly. He began to feel sharp stomach pains. Sometimes he would run skipping around the yard, acting like a fool and pretending that he was having a lot of fun so as not to scream in pain. Only by the color of his face could one understand how bad he was. In the end, Metropolitan Zinovy ​​blessed Father Vitaly to go to Russia and have the operation. As it turned out, he had a very advanced stomach ulcer, diseased kidneys and tuberculosis of the femur of his left leg. Every day, the nurse pumped four liters of fluid from the old man’s stomach.

And the elder himself saw how the great martyr Theodore Stratilates and the holy martyr Irina helped the doctors during the operation.

In 1979, Father Vitaly underwent a complex operation. No one expected him to survive. He had to have two thirds of his stomach removed. The gastric tissue itself was so thin that under the punctures of the threads it simply tore. Doctors gave little hope that their patient would survive. And the elder himself saw how the great martyr Theodore Stratilates and the holy martyr Irina helped the doctors during the operation.

Father Vitaly told his confessor that he was raptured into heaven and saw the Mother of God. The Mother of God ordered him to be returned back to earth, “because everyone was wet with tears.” At this time, thousands of the elder’s spiritual children prayed for their beloved priest and asked God and His Most Pure Mother to give him more time on earthly life. And so it happened. Despite the gloomiest forecasts, the elder survived and returned back to Tbilisi.

Even during his life in Taganrog, God gave Father Vitaly the gift of clairvoyance, miracles and healings. Over the ten years of living in the Caucasus mountains, these gifts increased in him. Many people reached out to the elder for spiritual help. His prayers and instructions saved more than one human soul from eternal death and healed many people from physical death. Most of all, Father Vitaly loved divine services and especially the liturgy. Reading the synodics and taking out particles about health and peace took him several hours.

One day, the watchman of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral saw through the window that a lot of people were standing in the locked temple. At night, only Father Vitaly was in the cathedral, taking out particles from the prosphora. These were the souls of those people whom he commemorated at the proskomedia. The funeral synodics of the elder included Russian and Georgian princes, kings, rulers, metropolitans and other prominent persons, almost from the beginning of the birth of Christianity in these countries.

He was accused of witchcraft, fornication, of baptizing the dead and praying for the unbaptized. Elder Vitaly was even accused of burying his illegitimate children in the ground.

Once the devil appeared to Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly and said: “I will take revenge on you for your synodics.” And so it happened. After some time, such a mountain of slander and speculation was erected against the elder that it would be enough to discredit dozens of people. What terrible abominations and nonsense were leveled at him! He was accused of witchcraft, fornication, of baptizing the dead and praying for the unbaptized. Elder Vitaly was even accused of burying his illegitimate children in the ground. The absurdity of slander knew no bounds. Many people willingly believed this, retold it to others and added something of their own. Father Vitaly knew all this and forgave everyone everything.

Georgians remember with special gratitude the help of the gracious elder that they received from him during the war in the early nineties. Father Vitaly then saved the lives of many with his invaluable advice, seeing the future of each family. Georgians still remember how, during a terrible bombing in 1991, Father Vitaly went out to an open, elevated place, raised his hands with the icon of the Mother of God, pointing it towards the rockets flying from the sky, and began to pray. Dozens of people saw how the shells changed their trajectories, and many of them exploded in the air before reaching the ground.

* * *

People from all over the USSR and even from abroad turned to Father Vitaly for spiritual advice. Seeing through every human soul, he helped people find the right solution in difficult life situations. Knowing the future, he saved them from harm, and healed many people from terrible incurable diseases. Ten years ago, with the blessing of the Moscow and Georgian Patriarchs, a book was published dedicated to the life of this wonderful man, which is called “On the Life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly” (M. Novospassky Monastery, 2010). It describes and provides documentary evidence of miracles and prophecies , healings, as well as the wise spiritual reasoning of this great old man.

In this article we do not have the opportunity to describe even a small part of them. I have no doubt that the time will come and Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly will be glorified among the saints of the Glinsk Hermitage. The above-mentioned book also provides evidence that at a time when the whole world was on the brink of nuclear war, the prayers of Elder Vitaly saved the earth from this terrible tragedy.

Father Vitaly knew in advance the day and hour of his death. Shortly before his dormition, the elder became paralyzed in one part of his body and lost his speech. He remained in this state for nine days. All this time, those who were nearby saw how his face seemed to be filled with inner light and joy. The elder constantly prayed and was baptized. When he himself no longer had the strength to raise his hand, he asked with his gaze that they continue to baptize him. Every day Father Vitaly received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Before his death, he made it clear that he had three days to live. The day before his death, he suddenly made a sign with his hand to open the curtain on the window.

-Who do you see? – his cell attendant asked Father Vitaly. He pointed with his gaze at the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.

The cell attendant asked:

– Did the Mother of God come?

The elder nodded his head and began to cry. Father also made it clear that by that time the deceased elders Metropolitan Zinovy, Schema-Archimandites Andronik (Lukash) and Seraphim (Romantsov) were with him. Before his death, his connection with the spiritual invisible world was constant. But there was something else. One got the impression that the elder was going through some kind of final battle.

He has had several severe attacks in recent days. The sisters of the monastery who cared for the elder even felt the floor shaking under their feet. It felt like all hell was tormenting the old man in such a way as to make him complain. It was very difficult for Father Vitaly, but he did not complain of pain, he was calm and even joyful. On the evening of December 1, 1992, the elder’s heart stopped.

During the funeral service, a miracle happened. When Patriarch Elijah read the prayer of permission and handed the text to Father Pavel Kosach so that he would place it in the hands of Father Vitaly, the elder himself opened his palm and took the sheet with the prayer into his hands. Other priests who were nearby also witnessed the incident.

Someone then remembered how the elder, several years before his death, said: “For the tears of the sisters, I myself will extend my hand from the grave.” Then no one gave any meaning to these words. Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was buried opposite the altar of the Alexander Nevsky Church, inside the church fence.

During his lifetime, he said: “When I die, come to my grave, as if I were alive, and tell me about your troubles, I will help you.” Cases of miraculous help through prayers to Father Vitaly began to occur immediately after his death. Rest, O Lord, the soul of your deceased servant Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, and with his holy prayers have mercy on us sinners.

In the Caucasus mountains

In those years when most of the monasteries were abolished, and solitary desert living often remained the only opportunity to preserve the monastic way of life. In this regard, Vitaly’s spiritual mentor, Hieromonk Father Seraphim, sent him to the Caucasus, where far away in the mountains there were monks who chose this path of religious service. The future Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko also wished to join them.

The book, which became a detailed description of the circumstances of his life (it was mentioned above), tells how the night before his departure, two elders from the Glinsk monastery, ruined by the authorities, secretly tonsured him as a monk, and how the pious women who met him in Sukhumi led him to the mountains . Voluntary hermits warmly welcomed the arrival and provided first aid in settling into a new place.

Among everything that Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko filled his new life with, prayer occupied the main place. It began at four o'clock in the morning with the reading of the cell rule and ended late at night, leaving time only for the most urgent household matters. The strict asceticism in which the newly arrived monk clothed his existence amazed the rest of the members of their small brethren. In food and clothing, he was content with only the bare necessities, willingly distributing to others even what he himself needed.

Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious

December 1, 2014 marked twenty-two years since the death of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly.

Just as the holy blessed Elder Pavel of Taganrog was a loving father and an experienced spiritual mentor for the Taganrog flock in the 19th century, so in the difficult godless years of the 20th century the Lord sent Taganrog a worthy successor to this righteous elder. Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was born in Russia in the 20th century, during a tragic time of persecution of the Orthodox faith, similar to the first centuries of Christianity. But he never retreated from anything, never betrayed the Divine gift of faith and love that had been instilled in him since childhood.

Vitaly Nikolaevich Sidorenko was born in 1928, in the village of Ekaterinovka, Krasnodar Territory, into a poor peasant family of Nikolai and Alexandra Sidorenko. When the mother carried him under her heart, she prayed: “Lord, give me such a child that it will be pleasing to You and people.” And in a dream I saw two bright suns. She was surprised: “Where do two suns come from?” A voice answered her: “There is only one sun in your womb.”

The baby was baptized when he was eight days old. During the sacrament, he smiled all the time, and stood on his feet in the font.

On the fortieth day, according to pious custom, Alexandra took her son to church. The priest brought the baby into the altar and, feeling the special grace emanating from him, laid the newly baptized one at the Throne of God in a high place. He brought the baby out of the altar with the words: “This child will be a great man!”

At home, the mother repeatedly heard wonderful angelic singing over the boy’s cradle. By many signs it was clear that this extraordinary child was born in holiness and chosen by God from his mother’s womb. For this, the enemy of the human race rose up against him from early childhood, acting through the people closest to him. The father's relatives - sisters and grandmother - hated the child and wanted him dead. They did not let the mother leave the field to feed the baby - the boy could lie hungry and wet for the whole day. At the same time, he never cried, causing even greater anger from his mother-in-law and daughters-in-law.

At the age of five, Vitaly began to fast: he did not eat meat at all, and on Wednesday and Friday he refused dairy foods. At the same time, he grew up as a healthy and playful child. Subsequently, he also showed great jealousy regarding fasting.

At the age of eight, Vitaly went to school. Studying was easy. As soon as he mastered literacy and began to read well, the Gospel became his favorite reading. The divine word had such a strong impact on his pure soul that he simply could not help but share this knowledge with others. He constantly carried the Gospel with him and read it to everyone - the children at school, the old women of the village. He returned home late, and his mother punished him for these “sermons,” because at that godless time any “propaganda of religion” was far from safe and was persecuted. His mother tried to hide the Gospel from him, but no matter where she hid it, Vitaly still found it.

Later he began to ask people to give him the lives of saints and other spiritual books to read. There was no time to read during the day - he read at night, and his mother began to scold him for burning a lot of wicks and kerosene. Then he began to read furtively in the attic.

In those young years, Vitaly had already begun his feat of prayer. He had his own secluded places where he loved to pray. In the summer - a corn field or thickets of reeds on the river, where mosquitoes would eat, and sometimes he would hide in a boat and forget that he had to go home, and his mother would have to look for him.

Vitaly always reached out with his soul to believers, to places where one could hear about God. He especially loved church services and did not miss a single service in the village church. Subsequently, Father told his spiritual daughter how he worked on a collective farm and transported grain from the combine to the current, but as soon as he heard the church bells, he unharnessed the horses and ran to the temple. One day, someone turned the furman over and the grain scattered, but when he returned after service, the grain miraculously turned out to be collected in place, as if no one had touched it.

The villagers loved Vitaly. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his prudence, special responsiveness and always tried to help everyone in any way he could. They began to notice some unusual properties behind it. One day, on Good Friday, collective farmers gathered to sow a field. Vitaly began to stop them: “You can’t work today, everything will break.” And indeed, we had only driven around the field once before the seeder and harrows broke down. “What kind of guy is this?” - people were surprised.

Once in the village of Ekaterinovka, an incident occurred that many people talked about. The tractor driver decided to drive straight through an abandoned estate and, not noticing a well in the tall grass, fell straight into it. The car was stuck tightly. They were about to send for a tap, but the believing women advised calling Vitalka. Everyone was wondering how the fragile little boy could help. Vitaly walked around the tractor three times, crossed himself and, smiling, said to the tractor driver: “Pull, he’ll come out now!” The tractor driver walked to the car with disbelief and reluctantly. I started it, started it a little, and the tractor came out of the hole easily, like clockwork.

Once talking with one woman, a Baptist, who did not recognize icons and called them ordinary boards, Vitaly assured that the Lord could show His love for her, who was erring, if she had faith. Then she said that she would believe if she only saw a miracle. Vitaly began to pray with her in front of the image of the Mother of God - and the icon suddenly shone with an extraordinary light. So, through his childhood prayers, the Baptist woman believed in the truth of Orthodoxy.

Among the students and teachers of his school, Vitaly continued to testify about God without fear, sincerely wanting everyone to be enlightened by the light of Christ's faith. He could not remain silent, much less dissemble, hiding his convictions. The teachers' patience ran out, and in the 7th grade he was kicked out of school. This is how childhood ended for Vitaly Sidorenko.

From the age of 14 he took upon himself the feat of wandering. And even then I experienced for myself what it means to meet law enforcement officers. His position as a wanderer was greatly complicated by the fact that Vitaly deliberately refused to have any documents, tearing up his passport at the age of 16, which meant a conscious acceptance of sorrows.

At the age of 16, he labored in Taganrog, where at that time lived the blind old man Father Alexy, who suffered from the Germans during the war. Not seeing with his physical eyes, he received from God the gift of spiritual vision, and much was revealed to him. The elder said to Vitaly: “Choose - either serve in the army, but then you won’t be like that anymore, or wander.” He blessed Vitaly for the monastic feat and subsequently said: “I am a puppy against Father Vitaly.”

In 1948, Vitaly Sidorenko became a novice of the Glinsk Hermitage, located in the deep forests of the Kursk diocese, famous for its elders. Father Seraphim Romantsov became his spiritual father. (1885-1976)

The young novice’s desire to be with the Lord always, every hour, prompted him to perform special feats. Striving for solitary prayer, one winter he went to the river, knelt down and began to pray. In the severe frost, his feet froze to the ice. At this time, schema-hegumen Andronik, the mentor of Father Vitaly, had a revelation. He saw the Mother of God, who said: “Save my child!” They began to look for brother Vitaly, ran to the river and saw that he could not get up. I had to cut out the ice.

There, in the monastery, Father Vitaly chose the path of humility, often bordering on foolishness. And in these same years, for the diligent service of the brethren, the Lord rewarded him by giving Father Vitaly the grace of heartfelt, unceasing Jesus prayer, which many seek through years of deeds.

Already in those years, people began to reach out to the young monk, coming to him with their questions, doubts, and sharing their troubles. The authorities who pursued anti-church policies especially monitored those priests and monks to whom the people gravitated for words of consolation and spiritual support. Brother Vitaly, who did not even have a residence permit and lived in the monastery illegally, was an object of special interest on the part of the local authorities, and they were hunting for him. At the end of the 50s, control by the authorities tightened. Inspectors began to visit the Glinsk Hermitage more and more often. The brethren were forbidden to feed the pilgrims and leave them overnight. It became dangerous for Brother Vitaly to be in the monastery, and he left for Taganrog.

Taganrog was known to Father Vitaly from his youth. At the age of 16, he first arrived here and since then he has come to this city several times and stayed here for a long time.

Here he especially loved to visit the city cemetery, where Elder Paul, who at that time had not yet been canonized as a saint, rested. Vitaly spent many days and nights in prayer at the grave of Elder Paul. He prayed at the graves of other righteous people unknown to the world. But a special spiritual kinship united Vitaly with this blessed elder. Young Vitaly could repeat the words of the Taganrog saint: “My whole desire from my youth was to pray to God, and my intention was to go to holy places.”

In Taganrog, the parishioners of the church where Father Vitaly loved to go immediately drew attention to him. As one of these parishioners said about him: “I was in Kyiv, Pochaev, I saw monks, ascetics, and elders, but I didn’t see anything like the one who has now appeared in our church. He is somehow special, stands in a secluded place in the temple so that he is less seen, and reverently prays with prostrations.”

Over time, many Taganrozh residents, hungry for spiritual food, flocked to Vitaly, a humble and wretched-looking monastic novice. He did not have permanent housing in the city; he stayed in a variety of houses - wherever he was invited. And people gathered everywhere. Usually the night was spent in prayer: they went to bed at three o'clock. And in the morning, those who worked went to work, while those remaining at home performed various obediences. No one sat idle; even during rest, the sisters were busy weaving rosaries. When everyone gathered for a meal, the lives of the saints were read aloud, as is customary in monasteries. So his future spiritual children began to gather around brother Vitaly.

Pilgrimages to holy places especially brought the flock together. Like Elder Pavel of Taganrog once did, brother Vitaly walked many miles of Russian roads to work for the glory of God to decorate Orthodox churches. On these pilgrimages he was accompanied for the most part by simple believing women, sisters in Christ, about whom Father Vitaly said that the Mother of God Herself gave them to him.

In those years, Father Vitaly and his sisters began to travel to the village of Petrovka, near Rostov. We are well aware of this life-giving source of the Most Holy Theotokos. Many people come here and receive healing by washing in the waters of this wonderful spring. And at the end of the 50s this place was abandoned and littered.

We asked permission from the local authorities to clear the little spring, served a prayer service and got to work. We had to shovel out large stones, branches, and boards. Father Vitaly himself descended on a rope into the depths of the well and cleaned it.

And then the water began to sparkle. It turned out that the holy spring began along an underground channel under the altar of a nearby temple. After cleaning, the source was fenced off with a log house and flowers were planted. But the next morning the spring dried up. Everyone decided that this happened because many became vain and proud of the labor they had endured. And only after brother Vitaly’s deep prayer did the water start flowing again.

And from that time on, people again began to come to the life-giving source of the Mother of God and receive help and healing from this wonderful source.

Through the prayers of Brother Vitaly, the spiritually sick and possessed by an unclean spirit felt the special beneficial power of these places. This is what one spiritual daughter of Father Vitaly, who also went with Father Vitaly to the holy spring, said: “The spiritually ill Anna was with us. During the war, the altar of the temple, which stands next to the source, was hit by a shell and the marble throne was broken. The fragments of the throne were taken out into the temple courtyard. And this Anna accidentally touched them, and how she screamed: “Oh, fire!” - and became as if dead. Later, through the prayers of Father Vitaly, she received healing.”

During their travels, Father Vitaly and his companions often had to meet with the police. In those days, a group of several wanderers was looked upon as a gang of criminals. But the priest protected his companions as best he could from the guardians of “order.”

One day, a motorcycle with armed policemen stopped right in front of Father Vitaly while he was walking with people. They began to demand documents. But he addressed them so kindly that the police were extremely amazed. Father Vitaly bowed, kissed them on the shoulders and said: “You are our guardian angels, our protectors.” All their anger melted away, and they asked him to pray and left. Only after some time did he say: “But they were specifically coming for me.”

Once in Taganrog, at the police station, Father Vitaly was beaten so much that he was taken to the morgue. The doctor examined the man brought in - no pulse could be heard. The nanny, a believing woman, recognized him and began to cry. At 12 o'clock at night she suddenly heard Brother Vitaly singing: “Christ is risen from the dead.” She ran to the doctor: “He’s alive!” The doctor said this couldn't be true. We came to the morgue. And Vitaly sits among the dead and sings the Easter canon. Then he was left in the hospital for a week to receive treatment.

But these beatings did not leave their mark on the health of Father Vitaly. His thigh bone was crushed at the top, and its fragments then came out for many years; a terrible wound formed in this place, which caused him excruciating pain for the rest of his life. But he never showed it and fulfilled any obedience.

In Taganrog in 1954 he was placed in a hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis in the last stage. The collapse of the lungs began. In the hospital, Brother Vitaly served everyone he could. He gave his food to lonely patients, and in front of the seriously ill at night he knelt and prayed. I gave money to several people who were hospitalized after attempting suicide due to their poor financial situation, and they came out comforted. Father Vitaly set an example of evangelical service to others. And the Lord worked a miracle - brother Vitaly survived.

Wherever Father Vitaly wandered, he always returned to the Glinsk hermitage to Father Seraphim, whose leadership he strictly adhered to. When rumors about the closure of the Glinsk Hermitage intensified, Father Seraphim went to the Caucasus. But the monasteries were destroyed here too. However, some of the monks secretly lived in remote places in the Caucasus Mountains, although this was far from safe.

But during the period of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church, when most of the monasteries were closed, the path of solitary desert living became the only way to preserve the monastic system of life. Returning to the Glinsk Hermitage, Father Seraphim decides to send his brother Vitaly to the Caucasus. At night, two elders - Father Seraphim and Father Andronik - tonsured him as a monk, and Vitaly went to Sukhumi, and from there to the mountainous region of Bargany. This was in 1958.

As Metropolitan Nikon (Vasin) recalls: “Father talked a lot about the period when he labored in the Caucasus Mountains. He was very sick with his lungs, so his fathers always carried him across mountain streams. He slept on a bench, and it was so narrow that, he says, you move a little at night and you immediately fall to the floor. Instead of a pillow under his head, he put a log.”

One day one of the hermits, Father Isaac, fell ill. “But no one dared to offer their help to the paralyzed old man, realizing that this cross exceeded the strength of any desert inhabitant. And only one father, Vitaly, decided to take this cross upon himself. He patiently and lovingly looked after the old man for many months. It is surprising that Father Isaac did not feel any special gratitude to his benefactor. He didn’t even know his name, and behind his back he called him in his own way: “blessed one.”

And Father Vitaly, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was subsequently healed from his long-term illness without any treatment in almost unbearable desert conditions: both cavities in the lungs healed. The saying of the Holy Fathers came true over him: “He who does not feel sorry for himself, God feels sorry for him...”.

The Taganrog flock traveled to Father Vitaly and to the Caucasus. They could meet him on Lake Amtkel, in the desert closest to the villages, where the “lakeside” nuns lived. They came specifically to talk with Father Vitaly.

To meet those who arrived, Father Vitaly had to descend steep mountains crossed by fast flows of water, which was not easy. The Lord strengthened his bodily strength so much that he could walk without outside help along the river and mountains through the wilds, and with a heavy burden, to the great surprise of everyone who knew him before.

While living in the desert, Father Vitaly was tonsured into a mantle and given the name Venedikt. It was only at the moment of tonsure that it was revealed to the brethren that he was a monk of robes. Everyone thought he was still a novice. And in the mid-60s, he secretly accepted the schema with the name Vitaly.

In 1969, brother Vitaly arrived in Tbilisi. He came as he was, in old rags, straight to the Russian Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, under whom Vladyka Zinovy ​​then lived. Vladika Zinovy ​​gave his blessing to burn all the rags and put them in clean clothes. When they removed his patched cassock, they discovered chains that had grown into his body. Father Vitaly did not agree to remove them for a long time and did this only under pain of excommunication from Holy Communion. Later, in exchange for iron chains, he bore the heavy cross of pastoral service, with love and compassion helping people endure life’s sorrows and trials.

On January 2, 1976, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and a few days later a hieromonk.

In Tbilisi, Father Vitaly, who did not have any documents or even temporary registration, had a hard time. For five years he lived secretly in Georgian families, “closed” from people and authorities, appearing only occasionally at the Alexander Nevsky Church for services. In the 70s in Russia and Georgia, the number of operating monasteries was only a few, and in the house where Father Vitaly lived, secret tonsures were performed and the number of monastics was replenished. It must be said that during the period of Soviet persecution of the church there was a practice of secret tonsure. Moreover, outwardly these people were no different from the rest, and no one knew about their feat except their confessor and those closest to them.

Many secret nuns were from Taganrog, some of them still live in our city. Taganrog spiritual children often came to their shepherd in Georgia. This is what one of them, God’s servant Taisiya, said:

“I worked a lot and was tired at night. And so I begin to pray to God, and sleep comes over me, and I fall asleep for a second while praying. I shudder, grab hold of the prayer and think about how I’ll go to Father Vitaly and tell him what kind of prayer this is. I came to my father. And he always has a lot of people and everyone wants to ask their own things, they interrupt. I decided to wait for others to talk, but it was already late at night, and it was time for Father Vitaly to leave. “Well, I guess I didn’t ask.” And he turns to me and says: “You know, Mother Taisiya, I’ll get so tired (he took everything upon himself when he denounced you), and I’ll begin to pray to God, and it’s already 12 at night, I’m praying, praying, and sleep will overcome me.” , I’ll miss the prayer for a moment, and then I’ll grab it, but there’s no prayer, and I’ll burn out. We need to pray again. And I begin to watch and pray again. And then only the Lord will hear my prayer.” And I say: “Father Vitaly, it’s me, it’s you who denounced me like that!”

This is what another of his spiritual daughters from Taganrog told us about Father Vitalia:

— My mother and I came to visit my father in Georgia. When we went to see him, we were bringing gifts. And he gave away everything, fed people lunches. He was my spiritual father and always helped me with his prayers. I entered the medical institute only through his prayers, and when I was studying at the institute, I wrote letters to him before each session, he prayed, and I passed the exams successfully, studied without C grades on an increased scholarship.

In 1978, when I was 25 years old, I had to undergo surgery. I went to Father Vitaly, and he said: “Go and take a blessing from Bishop Zinovy.” I went to Father Zinovy, and he gave me a gold cross, prosphora and a belt “alive in the help of the Most High.” Again she returned to Father Vitaly. He gave his blessing to go home. When I arrived home in Taganrog, I no longer needed any surgery.

I also found a husband through the priest’s prayers. For a long time we did not have children, and again we went to Father Vitaly. Help, Father Vitaly. And our son was born.

We came to see him once when the priest lived in Tbilisi in a communal apartment. Everyone had dinner, the dishes had to be washed. I brought all the dishes into the kitchen, put them in the sink, and the neighbor said that the water supply in the house was being repaired, and there was no water because the pipes were cut off. Father Vitaly came into the kitchen. I say: “Well, Father Vitaly, we probably need to heat the water on the stove.” And he answers: “Turn the faucet.” I opened the tap and water flowed out. I washed all the dishes and the water stopped flowing. No one believed me that I washed the dishes from the tap, because there could be no water, the pipes were cut off.

One Taganrog priest recalled Father Vitaly:

— When I had to enter the Stavropol seminary, I wrote a letter to Father Vitaly asking for a blessing. Father Vitaly indicated in his letter what needed to be taught, although the program was much more extensive. And during the exam they asked me exactly what Father Vitaly indicated. And as an additional question, they asked me exactly the prayer that I knew very well. They didn’t even listen to me and gave me an “A.” Although it was difficult to enroll this year, it was the first year when paid departments were introduced at the seminary, and I had nowhere to get money, I successfully entered through the prayers of the priest.”

Another spiritual daughter of Father Vitaly said that when she was with Father Vitaly, he turned to her: “Valya, tomorrow you will wake me up as always, at five in the morning.”

To which she replied: “How can I wake you up, father, when you are sleeping in another house, and I have never woken you up before.”

“And when you get up to pray in the morning, you turn to me: “Bless, Father Vitaly.”

Nun V. from Taganrog shared the following memories:

— Before his death, Father Vitaly sent icons and letters to all his spiritual children. And before that, I saw one of his spiritual daughters have an icon that her father once gave her, and I dreamed that Father Vitaly would one day give me the same one. And in his farewell letter, the priest sent me the icon I dreamed of.

Father Vitaly died at the age of 65 on December 1, 1992. As one of the elder’s spiritual daughters said, “Father Vitaly went through a lot for all of us and that’s why he died so early.”

The coffin with the body of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was placed in the Tbilisi Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, in which the priest served for twenty years. The people went to say goodbye to their shepherd for several days. Despite the difficult military-political situation in Georgia at that time, his spiritual children came from Russia and Ukraine. We came from Taganrog to say goodbye to our spiritual father.

On the day of the burial of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, which took place on December 5, another miracle occurred. The funeral service in front of a large crowd of people was performed by His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos - Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II, co-served by the clergy of the Alexander Nevsky Church, the Tbilisi clergy and clergy who came from Russia and Ukraine.

Nun A. from Taganrog recalls:

— When Father Vitaly was buried, we stood not far from the coffin. His Holiness Elijah read the prayer of permission and said: “Father Paul, go, hand over the pass. Father Pavel approached, and at this time the thumb on Father Vitaly’s hand bent, and Father Pavel placed a sheet of prayer into his palm. Father Pavel shouted loudly: “He took it himself!” Everyone who stood nearby saw this. And even a video recording of this miracle has been preserved.

Several years before his death, Father Vitaly once said to his spiritual daughter, schema-nun Larisa (Voronova): “For the tears of my sisters, I will extend my hand from the grave.” Mother Larisa remembered these words and passed them on to her sisters, but then no one gave them any meaning. This miraculous event became the consolation that the Lord sent down to all those mourning the elder. It is no coincidence that this happened in the church of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, on the eve of the celebration of the repose of this Russian saint, whom Father Vitaly especially revered. After all, the death of the Grand Duke was marked by a similar miraculous phenomenon.

During his life, Father often said: “When I die, come to my grave and tell me everything about how you live, and I will help.” And after his death, the miracles of his gracious help to those in need did not dry out.

Thus, one priest found himself in a very difficult situation. “In such a state, he once came to the temple, where a photograph of the priest hung on the wall in a sacristan. Looking at her, the priest cried out in despair: “Father Vitaly, help!” To his greatest surprise and joy, the sufferer suddenly saw that the face in the paper photograph had come to life. Father nodded his head and said: “I’ll help!” This promise was fulfilled: the priest’s affairs began to improve sharply.”

Another Taganrog priest said that when he was still studying at the seminary, there was a piece of fabric in the altar on which Father Vitaly died. And those who were spiritually sick felt it. They were afraid to approach the altar and shouted that Vitaly was there.

There are many spiritual children of Father Vitaly left in Taganrog. Once, while traveling by train through Taganrog, Father Vitaly showed nun Maria many burning candles over the city: “Sister, look, the city is burning and the pillars to the sky!” Thus, invisible to carnal eyes, Taganrog “burned” with the prayers of the spiritual children of Father Vitaly. The light of these prayers does not go out even now.

The first steps of spiritual guidance

Soon, fearing possible reprisals from local authorities, the brethren, leaving the barely inhabited place, went even further into the intermountain region of the Azanta River. Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko also retired with them to a wild, deserted region. Prayer and constant contemplation of God, combined with hard work associated with obtaining food, here, as in the previous place, became his constant destiny.

Despite the remoteness of the place and the absence of not only roads leading to their refuge, but even barely noticeable paths, over time people flocked to the hermits, looking for spiritual support and support in them. Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko was especially revered among those who came. The book published by the Novospassky Monastery paints a picture of how reverently those who came listened to his spiritual instructions, and with what warmth and cordiality they were addressed to all who arrived.

Service in the Tbilisi temple

In July 1969, Father Vitaly accepted the schema, thereby rising to the highest level of monastic service. Soon after this, leaving his cell lost in the mountains, he came to Tbilisi, where he was warmly received by the then primate of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Zinovy. From then on, he devoted himself entirely to pastoral service. Many spiritual children of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko, living to this day, remember with what dedication he helped them endure life’s trials and sorrows.

However, universal love could not make his daily life easier. Still without a passport and thus being outside the law, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko could not even obtain temporary registration and constantly changed his place of residence, taking advantage of the hospitality of pious parishioners.

Metropolitan Seraphim saved the situation. With great difficulty, he managed to straighten out the documents for the “passportless monk,” as the police called him. But it took even more work to convince Father Vitaly himself to accept the signs of the ungodly power that he so hated. He was not frightened by the prospect of being behind bars, but he was truly afraid of losing the opportunity to communicate with his spiritual children. The bishop used this argument.

The last period of the life of Elder Vitaly

Having received the legality so necessary for any person, the priest settled in the village of Didube on the outskirts of Tbilisi. His fame as a wise and perspicacious old man, capable of foreseeing the future with his spiritual gaze, crossed far beyond the borders of Georgia. From all over the country people came to him, thirsting for instruction, consolation, relief of conscience in the sacrament of confession, or wise advice in a difficult life situation. In addition, it was clearly noticed that the prayer of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko miraculously brought healing even to hopelessly sick people.

In the seventies, the priest came to Russia several times. The purpose of one of these trips was to restore the temple in the village of Burdino, Lipetsk region. Returned to believers in 1945, due to lack of funds for restoration, it stood in ruins for thirty years. His many children also followed their spiritual father. Having gathered from all over the country, they restored the destroyed shrine with their own hands and with their own donations.

In addition, in the last period of his life, the priest had the opportunity to live for two years in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, where he stayed when he came to Moscow for treatment of a stomach disease. The walls of the ancient monastery were memorable to him from the days of his youth, when he found himself there as a twenty-year-old wanderer. Unfortunately, the years of hardship had such a detrimental effect on his health that the doctors in the capital’s clinics were powerless.

For the soul...(What helps you live)

December 1, 2014 marked twenty-two years since the death of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly

Just as the holy blessed Elder Pavel of Taganrog was a loving father and an experienced spiritual mentor for the Taganrog flock in the 19th century, so in the difficult godless years of the 20th century the Lord sent Taganrog a worthy successor to this righteous elder. Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was born in Russia in the 20th century, during a tragic time of persecution of the Orthodox faith, similar to the first centuries of Christianity. But he never retreated from anything, never betrayed the Divine gift of faith and love that had been instilled in him since childhood.

Vitaly Nikolaevich Sidorenko was born in 1928, in the village of Ekaterinovka, Krasnodar Territory, into a poor peasant family of Nikolai and Alexandra Sidorenko. When the mother carried him under her heart, she prayed: “Lord, give me such a child that it will be pleasing to You and people.” And in a dream I saw two bright suns. She was surprised: “Where do two suns come from?” A voice answered her: “There is only one sun in your womb.” The baby was baptized when he was eight days old. During the sacrament, he smiled all the time, and stood on his feet in the font.

On the fortieth day, according to pious custom, Alexandra took her son to church. The priest brought the baby into the altar and, feeling the special grace emanating from him, laid the newly baptized one at the Throne of God in a high place. He brought the baby out of the altar with the words: “This child will be a great man!”

At home, the mother repeatedly heard wonderful angelic singing over the boy’s cradle. By many signs it was clear that this extraordinary child was born in holiness and chosen by God from his mother’s womb. For this, the enemy of the human race rose up against him from early childhood, acting through the people closest to him. The father's relatives - sisters and grandmother - hated the child and wanted him dead. They did not let the mother leave the field to feed the baby - the boy could lie hungry and wet for the whole day. At the same time, he never cried, causing even greater anger from his mother-in-law and daughters-in-law. At the age of five, Vitaly began to fast: he did not eat meat at all, and on Wednesday and Friday he refused dairy foods. At the same time, he grew up as a healthy and playful child. Subsequently, he also showed great jealousy regarding fasting.

At the age of eight, Vitaly went to school. Studying was easy. As soon as he mastered literacy and began to read well, the Gospel became his favorite reading. The divine word had such a strong impact on his pure soul that he simply could not help but share this knowledge with others. He constantly carried the Gospel with him and read it to everyone - the children at school, the old women of the village. He returned home late, and his mother punished him for these “sermons,” because at that godless time any “propaganda of religion” was far from safe and was persecuted. His mother tried to hide the Gospel from him, but no matter where she hid it, Vitaly still found it.

Later he began to ask people to give him the lives of saints and other spiritual books to read. There was no time to read during the day - he read at night, and his mother began to scold him for burning a lot of wicks and kerosene. Then he began to read furtively in the attic.

In those young years, Vitaly had already begun his feat of prayer. He had his own secluded places where he loved to pray. In the summer - a corn field or thickets of reeds on the river, where mosquitoes would eat, and sometimes he would hide in a boat and forget that he had to go home, and his mother would have to look for him. Vitaly always reached out with his soul to believers, to places where one could hear about God. He especially loved church services and did not miss a single service in the village church. Subsequently, Father told his spiritual daughter how he worked on a collective farm and transported grain from the combine to the current, but as soon as he heard the church bells, he unharnessed the horses and ran to the temple. One day, someone turned the furman over and the grain scattered, but when he returned after service, the grain miraculously turned out to be collected in place, as if no one had touched it.

The villagers loved Vitaly. Since childhood, he was distinguished by his prudence, special responsiveness and always tried to help everyone in any way he could. They began to notice some unusual properties behind it. One day, on Good Friday, collective farmers gathered to sow a field. Vitaly began to stop them: “You can’t work today, everything will break.” And indeed, we had only driven around the field once before the seeder and harrows broke down. “What kind of guy is this?” - people were surprised.

Once in the village of Ekaterinovka, an incident occurred that many people talked about. The tractor driver decided to drive straight through an abandoned estate and, not noticing a well in the tall grass, fell straight into it. The car was stuck tightly. They were about to send for a tap, but the believing women advised calling Vitalka. Everyone was wondering how the fragile little boy could help. Vitaly walked around the tractor three times, crossed himself and, smiling, said to the tractor driver: “Pull, he’ll come out now!” The tractor driver walked to the car with disbelief and reluctantly. I started it, started it a little, and the tractor came out of the hole easily, like clockwork.

Once talking with one woman, a Baptist, who did not recognize icons and called them ordinary boards, Vitaly assured that the Lord could show His love for her, who was erring, if she had faith. Then she said that she would believe if she only saw a miracle. Vitaly began to pray with her in front of the image of the Mother of God - and the icon suddenly shone with an extraordinary light. So, through his childhood prayers, the Baptist woman believed in the truth of Orthodoxy. Among the students and teachers of his school, Vitaly continued to testify about God without fear, sincerely wanting everyone to be enlightened by the light of Christ's faith. He could not remain silent, much less dissemble, hiding his convictions. The teachers' patience ran out, and in the 7th grade he was kicked out of school. This is how childhood ended for Vitaly Sidorenko.

From the age of 14 he took upon himself the feat of wandering. And even then I experienced for myself what it means to meet law enforcement officers. His position as a wanderer was greatly complicated by the fact that Vitaly deliberately refused to have any documents, tearing up his passport at the age of 16, which meant a conscious acceptance of sorrows.

At the age of 16, he labored in Taganrog, where at that time lived the blind old man Father Alexy, who suffered from the Germans during the war. Not seeing with his physical eyes, he received from God the gift of spiritual vision, and much was revealed to him. The elder said to Vitaly: “Choose - either serve in the army, but then you won’t be like that anymore, or wander.” He blessed Vitaly for the monastic feat and subsequently said: “I am a puppy against Father Vitaly.”

In 1948, Vitaly Sidorenko became a novice of the Glinsk Hermitage, located in the deep forests of the Kursk diocese, famous for its elders. Father Seraphim Romantsov became his spiritual father. (1885-1976)

The young novice’s desire to be with the Lord always, every hour, prompted him to perform special feats. Striving for solitary prayer, one winter he went to the river, knelt down and began to pray. In the severe frost, his feet froze to the ice. At this time, schema-hegumen Andronik, the mentor of Father Vitaly, had a revelation. He saw the Mother of God, who said: “Save my child!” They began to look for brother Vitaly, ran to the river and saw that he could not get up. I had to cut out the ice.

There, in the monastery, Father Vitaly chose the path of humility, often bordering on foolishness. And in these same years, for the diligent service of the brethren, the Lord rewarded him by giving Father Vitaly the grace of heartfelt, unceasing Jesus prayer, which many seek through years of deeds.

Already in those years, people began to reach out to the young monk, coming to him with their questions, doubts, and sharing their troubles. The authorities who pursued anti-church policies especially monitored those priests and monks to whom the people gravitated for words of consolation and spiritual support. Brother Vitaly, who did not even have a residence permit and lived in the monastery illegally, was an object of special interest on the part of the local authorities, and they were hunting for him. At the end of the 50s, control by the authorities tightened. Inspectors began to visit the Glinsk Hermitage more and more often. The brethren were forbidden to feed the pilgrims and leave them overnight. It became dangerous for Brother Vitaly to be in the monastery, and he left for Taganrog.

Taganrog was known to Father Vitaly from his youth. At the age of 16, he first arrived here and since then he has come to this city several times and stayed here for a long time.

Here he especially loved to visit the city cemetery, where Elder Paul, who at that time had not yet been canonized as a saint, rested. Vitaly spent many days and nights in prayer at the grave of Elder Paul. He prayed at the graves of other righteous people unknown to the world. But a special spiritual kinship united Vitaly with this blessed elder. Young Vitaly could repeat the words of the Taganrog saint: “My whole desire from my youth was to pray to God, and my intention was to go to holy places.” In Taganrog, the parishioners of the church where Father Vitaly loved to go immediately drew attention to him. As one of these parishioners said about him: “I was in Kyiv, Pochaev, I saw monks, ascetics, and elders, but I didn’t see anything like the one who has now appeared in our church. He is somehow special, stands in a secluded place in the temple so that he is less seen, and reverently prays with prostrations.”

Over time, many Taganrozh residents, hungry for spiritual food, flocked to Vitaly, a humble and wretched-looking monastic novice. He did not have permanent housing in the city; he stayed in a variety of houses - wherever he was invited. And people gathered everywhere. Usually the night was spent in prayer: they went to bed at three o'clock. And in the morning, those who worked went to work, while those remaining at home performed various obediences. No one sat idle; even during rest, the sisters were busy weaving rosaries. When everyone gathered for a meal, the lives of the saints were read aloud, as is customary in monasteries. So his future spiritual children began to gather around brother Vitaly.

Pilgrimages to holy places especially brought the flock together. Like Elder Pavel of Taganrog once did, brother Vitaly walked many miles of Russian roads to work for the glory of God to decorate Orthodox churches. On these pilgrimages he was accompanied for the most part by simple believing women, sisters in Christ, about whom Father Vitaly said that the Mother of God Herself gave them to him.

In those years, Father Vitaly and his sisters began to travel to the village of Petrovka, near Rostov. We are well aware of this life-giving source of the Most Holy Theotokos. Many people come here and receive healing by washing in the waters of this wonderful spring. And at the end of the 50s this place was abandoned and littered.

We asked permission from the local authorities to clear the little spring, served a prayer service and got to work. We had to shovel out large stones, branches, and boards. Father Vitaly himself descended on a rope into the depths of the well and cleaned it.

And then the water began to sparkle. It turned out that the holy spring began along an underground channel under the altar of a nearby temple. After cleaning, the source was fenced off with a log house and flowers were planted. But the next morning the spring dried up. Everyone decided that this happened because many became vain and proud of the labor they had endured. And only after brother Vitaly’s deep prayer did the water start flowing again. And from that time on, people again began to come to the life-giving source of the Mother of God and receive help and healing from this wonderful source.

Through the prayers of Brother Vitaly, the spiritually sick and possessed by an unclean spirit felt the special beneficial power of these places. This is what one spiritual daughter of Father Vitaly, who also went with Father Vitaly to the holy spring, said: “The spiritually ill Anna was with us. During the war, the altar of the temple, which stands next to the source, was hit by a shell and the marble throne was broken. The fragments of the throne were taken out into the temple courtyard. And this Anna accidentally touched them, and how she screamed: “Oh, fire!” - and became as if dead. Later, through the prayers of Father Vitaly, she received healing.” During their travels, Father Vitaly and his companions often had to meet with the police. In those days, a group of several wanderers was looked upon as a gang of criminals. But the priest protected his companions as best he could from the guardians of “order.”

One day, a motorcycle with armed policemen stopped right in front of Father Vitaly while he was walking with people. They began to demand documents. But he addressed them so kindly that the police were extremely amazed. Father Vitaly bowed, kissed them on the shoulders and said: “You are our guardian angels, our protectors.” All their anger melted away, and they asked him to pray and left. Only after some time did he say: “But they were specifically coming for me.”

Once in Taganrog, at the police station, Father Vitaly was beaten so much that he was taken to the morgue. The doctor examined the man brought in - no pulse could be heard. The nanny, a believing woman, recognized him and began to cry. At 12 o'clock at night she suddenly heard Brother Vitaly singing: “Christ is risen from the dead.” She ran to the doctor: “He’s alive!” The doctor said this couldn't be true. We came to the morgue. And Vitaly sits among the dead and sings the Easter canon. Then he was left in the hospital for a week to receive treatment. But these beatings did not leave their mark on the health of Father Vitaly. His thigh bone was crushed at the top, and its fragments then came out for many years; a terrible wound formed in this place, which caused him excruciating pain for the rest of his life. But he never showed it and fulfilled any obedience.

In Taganrog in 1954 he was placed in a hospital. Doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis in the last stage. The collapse of the lungs began. In the hospital, Brother Vitaly served everyone he could. He gave his food to lonely patients, and in front of the seriously ill at night he knelt and prayed. I gave money to several people who were hospitalized after attempting suicide due to their poor financial situation, and they came out comforted. Father Vitaly set an example of evangelical service to others. And the Lord worked a miracle - brother Vitaly survived.

Wherever Father Vitaly wandered, he always returned to the Glinsk hermitage to Father Seraphim, whose leadership he strictly adhered to. When rumors about the closure of the Glinsk Hermitage intensified, Father Seraphim went to the Caucasus. But the monasteries were destroyed here too. However, some of the monks secretly lived in remote places in the Caucasus Mountains, although this was far from safe. But during the period of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church, when most of the monasteries were closed, the path of solitary desert living became the only way to preserve the monastic system of life. Returning to the Glinsk Hermitage, Father Seraphim decides to send his brother Vitaly to the Caucasus. At night, two elders - Father Seraphim and Father Andronik - tonsured him as a monk, and Vitaly went to Sukhumi, and from there to the mountainous region of Bargany. This was in 1958.

As Metropolitan Nikon (Vasin) recalls: “Father talked a lot about the period when he labored in the Caucasus Mountains. He was very sick with his lungs, so his fathers always carried him across mountain streams. He slept on a bench, and it was so narrow that, he says, you move a little at night and you immediately fall to the floor. Instead of a pillow under his head, he put a log.” One day one of the hermits, Father Isaac, fell ill. “But no one dared to offer their help to the paralyzed old man, realizing that this cross exceeded the strength of any desert inhabitant. And only one father, Vitaly, decided to take this cross upon himself. He patiently and lovingly looked after the old man for many months. It is surprising that Father Isaac did not feel any special gratitude to his benefactor. He didn’t even know his name, and behind his back he called him in his own way: “blessed one.” And Father Vitaly, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was subsequently healed from his long-term illness without any treatment in almost unbearable desert conditions: both cavities in the lungs healed. The saying of the Holy Fathers came true over him: “He who does not pity himself, God pities him...”.

The Taganrog flock traveled to Father Vitaly and to the Caucasus. They could meet him on Lake Amtkel, in the desert closest to the villages, where the “lakeside” nuns lived. They came specifically to talk with Father Vitaly.

To meet those who arrived, Father Vitaly had to descend steep mountains crossed by fast flows of water, which was not easy. The Lord strengthened his bodily strength so much that he could walk without outside help along the river and mountains through the wilds, and with a heavy burden, to the great surprise of everyone who knew him before.

While living in the desert, Father Vitaly was tonsured into a mantle and given the name Venedikt. It was only at the moment of tonsure that it was revealed to the brethren that he was a monk of robes. Everyone thought he was still a novice. And in the mid-60s, he secretly accepted the schema with the name Vitaly. In 1969, brother Vitaly arrived in Tbilisi. He came as he was, in old rags, straight to the Russian Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, under whom Vladyka Zinovy ​​then lived. Vladyka Zinovy ​​gave his blessing to burn all the rags and put them in clean clothes. When they removed his patched cassock, they discovered chains that had grown into his body. Father Vitaly did not agree to remove them for a long time and did this only under pain of excommunication from Holy Communion. Later, in exchange for iron chains, he bore the heavy cross of pastoral service, with love and compassion helping people endure life’s sorrows and trials.

On January 2, 1976, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and a few days later a hieromonk. In Tbilisi, Father Vitaly, who did not have any documents or even temporary registration, had a hard time. For five years he lived secretly in Georgian families, “closed” from people and authorities, appearing only occasionally at the Alexander Nevsky Church for services. In the 70s in Russia and Georgia, the number of operating monasteries was only a few, and in the house where Father Vitaly lived, secret tonsures were performed and the number of monastics was replenished. It must be said that during the period of Soviet persecution of the church there was a practice of secret tonsure. Moreover, outwardly these people were no different from the others, and no one knew about their feat except their confessor and those closest to them. Many secret nuns were from Taganrog, some of them still live in our city. Taganrog spiritual children often came to their shepherd in Georgia. This is what one of them, God’s servant Taisiya, said:

“I worked a lot and was tired at night. And so I begin to pray to God, and sleep comes over me, and I fall asleep for a second while praying. I shudder, grab hold of the prayer and think about how I’ll go to Father Vitaly and tell him what kind of prayer this is. I came to my father. And he always has a lot of people and everyone wants to ask their own things, they interrupt. I decided to wait for others to talk, but it was already late at night, and it was time for Father Vitaly to leave. “Well, I guess I didn’t ask.” And he turns to me and says: “You know, Mother Taisiya, I’ll get so tired (he took everything upon himself when he denounced you), and I’ll begin to pray to God, and it’s already 12 at night, I’m praying, praying, and sleep will overcome me.” , I’ll miss the prayer for a moment, and then I’ll grab it, but there’s no prayer, and I’ll burn out. We need to pray again. And I begin to watch and pray again. And then only the Lord will hear my prayer.” And I say: “Father Vitaly, it’s me, it’s you who denounced me like that!”

This is what another of his spiritual daughters from Taganrog told us about Father Vitalia: “My mother and I came to visit Father in Georgia. When we went to see him, we were bringing gifts. And he gave away everything, fed people lunches. He was my spiritual father and always helped me with his prayers. I entered the medical institute only through his prayers, and when I was studying at the institute, I wrote letters to him before each session, he prayed, and I passed the exams successfully, studied without C grades on an increased scholarship.

In 1978, when I was 25 years old, I had to undergo surgery. I went to Father Vitaly, and he said: “Go and take a blessing from Bishop Zinovy.” I went to Father Zinovy, and he gave me a gold cross, prosphora and a belt “alive in the help of the Most High.” Again she returned to Father Vitaly. He gave his blessing to go home. When I arrived home in Taganrog, I no longer needed any surgery. I also found a husband through the priest’s prayers. For a long time we did not have children, and again we went to Father Vitaly. Help, Father Vitaly. And our son was born.

We came to see him once when the priest lived in Tbilisi in a communal apartment. Everyone had dinner, the dishes had to be washed. I brought all the dishes into the kitchen, put them in the sink, and the neighbor said that the water supply in the house was being repaired, and there was no water because the pipes were cut off. Father Vitaly came into the kitchen. I say: “Well, Father Vitaly, we probably need to heat the water on the stove.” And he answers: “Turn the faucet.” I opened the tap and water flowed out. I washed all the dishes and the water stopped flowing. No one believed me that I washed the dishes from the tap, because there could be no water, the pipes were cut off. One Taganrog priest recalled Father Vitaly: “When I had to enter the Stavropol seminary, I wrote a letter to Father Vitaly asking for a blessing. Father Vitaly indicated in his letter what needed to be taught, although the program was much more extensive. And during the exam they asked me exactly what Father Vitaly indicated. And as an additional question, they asked me exactly the prayer that I knew very well. They didn’t even listen to me and gave me an “A.” Although it was difficult to enroll this year, it was the first year when paid departments were introduced at the seminary, and I had nowhere to get money, I successfully entered through the prayers of the priest.”

Another spiritual daughter of Father Vitaly said that when she was with Father Vitaly, he turned to her: “Valya, tomorrow you will wake me up as always, at five in the morning.” To which she replied: “How can I wake you up, father, when you are sleeping in another house, and I have never woken you up before.” “And when you get up to pray in the morning, you turn to me: “Bless, Father Vitaly.” Nun V. from Taganrog shared the following memories: “Before his death, Father Vitaly sent icons and letters to all his spiritual children. And before that, I saw one of his spiritual daughters have an icon that her father once gave her, and I dreamed that Father Vitaly would one day give me the same one. And in his farewell letter, the priest sent me the icon I dreamed of.

Father Vitaly died at the age of 65 on December 1, 1992. As one of the elder’s spiritual daughters said, “Father Vitaly went through a lot for all of us and that’s why he died so early.” The coffin with the body of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was placed in the Tbilisi Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, in which the priest served for twenty years. The people went to say goodbye to their shepherd for several days. Despite the difficult military-political situation in Georgia at that time, his spiritual children came from Russia and Ukraine. We came from Taganrog to say goodbye to our spiritual father.

On the day of the burial of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, which took place on December 5, another miracle occurred. The funeral service in front of a large crowd of people was performed by His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos - Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II, co-served by the clergy of the Alexander Nevsky Church, the Tbilisi clergy and clergy who came from Russia and Ukraine. Nun A. from Taganrog recalls:

— When Father Vitaly was buried, we stood not far from the coffin. His Holiness Elijah read the prayer of permission and said: “Father Paul, go, hand over the pass. Father Pavel approached, and at this time the thumb on Father Vitaly’s hand bent, and Father Pavel placed a sheet of prayer into his palm. Father Pavel shouted loudly: “He took it himself!” Everyone who stood nearby saw this. And even a video recording of this miracle has been preserved. Several years before his death, Father Vitaly once said to his spiritual daughter, schema-nun Larisa (Voronova): “For the tears of my sisters, I will extend my hand from the grave.” Mother Larisa remembered these words and passed them on to her sisters, but then no one gave them any meaning. This miraculous event became the consolation that the Lord sent down to all those mourning the elder. It is no coincidence that this happened in the church of the blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, on the eve of the celebration of the repose of this Russian saint, whom Father Vitaly especially revered. After all, the death of the Grand Duke was marked by a similar miraculous phenomenon.

During his life, Father often said: “When I die, come to my grave and tell me everything about how you live, and I will help.” And after his death, the miracles of his gracious help to those in need did not dry out.

Thus, one priest found himself in a very difficult situation. “In such a state, he once came to the temple, where a photograph of the priest hung on the wall in a sacristan. Looking at her, the priest cried out in despair: “Father Vitaly, help!” To his greatest surprise and joy, the sufferer suddenly saw that the face in the paper photograph had come to life. Father nodded his head and said: “I’ll help!” This promise was fulfilled: the priest’s affairs began to improve sharply.” Another Taganrog priest said that when he was still studying at the seminary, there was a piece of fabric in the altar on which Father Vitaly died. And those who were spiritually sick felt it. They were afraid to approach the altar and shouted that Vitaly was there.

There are many spiritual children of Father Vitaly left in Taganrog. Once, while traveling by train through Taganrog, Father Vitaly showed nun Maria many burning candles over the city: “Sister, look, the city is burning and the pillars to the sky!” Thus, invisible to carnal eyes, Taganrog “burned” with the prayers of the spiritual children of Father Vitaly. The light of these prayers does not go out even now.

pravcerkov.ru/redbox/o-shiarhimandrite-vitalii-sidorenko/

Teachings and prayers that embody the truths of the Gospel

The Cross of Eldership, accepted from the first days when people flocked to his hidden cell, was carried with honor by Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko until the end of his life. The teachings and instructions addressed to his spiritual children were subsequently compiled into more than one collection, which became a reference book for his admirers.

Many people know his words that every day should be lived as if it were the last, and at the end of it should appear before the Heavenly Judge. Or do you remember the wise teachings not to argue with reproachful and contradictory people, not to be like them, but only to mentally repeat the Jesus Prayer. At first glance, they do not seem original, but this is solely because the teachings are based on eternal gospel truths.

The prayer and blessing of the house of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko is also memorable to many. In the Orthodox tradition, it is customary to consecrate every new home, and periodically cleanse previously built ones in the name of the Lord from the presence of the forces of darkness. There are a number of sacred texts recited during the performance of this rite. Their number was replenished by Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko. The prayer for the blessing of the house, compiled by him, according to the testimony of many, brings peace, tranquility and prosperity to the home of believers and people who keep God’s commandments.

Life after life: Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko)

The grave of Father Vitaly (Sidorenko) in the fence of the Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Tbilisi is never deserted: there is always a crowd of people here. Many kneel directly on the ground and press their foreheads to the cold marble, pray, and anoint themselves with consecrated oil. Not only requests are heard at this place, but also words of gratitude - pronounced in Georgian and Russian.

One of the women said that Father Vitaly helped her husband cope with the disease of drunkenness, and, out of insight, said that the husband, who thought that he was baptized, was unbaptized. The man accepted Holy Baptism and stopped drinking.

Another married couple came to the grave with their eight-year-old daughter, who two years earlier here, at Father Vitaly’s, got out of a wheelchair and has been walking ever since.

For one young man, through the prayers of his loved ones, Father Vitaly is from another world! – helped raise funds for an expensive operation.

Another case: a man had pain in his legs - polyarthritis and dermatitis, he came to the grave barefoot, covered his feet with earth and was healed.

There are a lot of such cases, and they occur not only after the death of the Elder, but also during his lifetime, and from early childhood.

Father Vitaly was born in the Kranodar region in 1928, grew up without a father, who first served time in the camps, and then went to war and died. Vitaly Sidorenko's childhood was difficult - hungry and laborious, he was supported only by a living faith in God, prayer and visiting church. From an early age, through his fervent prayer and faith, miracles happened: sick cows would get up, or a tractor that had fallen into a well would come out without outside help. Fellow villagers noticed this gift in the frail boy Vitalka and called him for help when some trouble happened.

At the age of 20, Vitaly Sidorenko became a novice in the famous Glinsk hermitage, and together with the Glinsky elders he came to the Caucasus. He lived most of his life in the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, where he gained fame as a spirit-bearing elder. Patriarch-Catholicos of All Georgia Ilia II had close spiritual relations with Father Vitaly. His Holiness also performed the funeral service for his spiritual friend after his death in 1992. During the funeral service, a great miracle happened: the late Father Vitaly, lying in the coffin, himself took the prayer of permission from the hands of the priest. Many people saw this and testify to this, as well as to other miracles of Father Vitaly, performed both during his life and after completing his earthly journey. And the word “death,” as we understand it, does not fit here at all!

Church of St. Alexander Nevsky in Tbilisi, in the fence of which Father Vitaly is buried

Waiting for the crown of holiness

Father completed his earthly journey on December 1, 1992, at the age of sixty-four. For several days, people walked to the Tbilisi Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky, where the coffin with his body was displayed.

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko, whose canonization by the Georgian Orthodox Church is only a matter of time, even during his lifetime was an example of true holiness. Proof of this can be the miracles witnessed by many that occurred through his prayers. And the day is not far off when an akathist to Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly Sidorenko, who acquired eternal life through selfless service to God, will sound in Orthodox churches.

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko) (1928–1992)

“If you want to overcome your enemies without fighting,

to win without weapons, to tame without difficulty and to subjugate,

be meek, patient, quiet, gentle, like a lamb, and you will overcome,

you will win, tame and conquer.”

Saint Demetrius of Rostov

Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (in the world Vitaly Nikolaevich Sidorenko) was born in 1928, in the village of Ekaterinovka, Krasnodar Territory. (According to some sources, this happened on May 5, according to others, on June 3.)

His father was a kind, smart, hardworking man who helped the poor and orphans a lot. He died during the Great Patriotic War.

At the age of five, Vitaly began to fast: he did not eat meat at all, and on Wednesday and Friday he refused dairy foods. When he was eight years old, he went to school. As soon as he learned to read, the Gospel became his reference book.

Vitaly often ran off to pray in the cornfield or hid in the reeds by the river. When he was eight years old, he dug a hole in the garden and prayed there for a long time.

Subsequently, Father Vitaly recalled this time in a letter to his spiritual daughter: “In my youth, I worked on a collective farm, but they didn’t give me a salary... But they didn’t give me because if there was a holiday in the middle of the week, then I quit work and went to God’s temple. So they didn’t give it.”

One day Vitaly was sent to graze the collective farm herd. He drove the cows out to pasture, and he himself began to read the Gospel and did not notice that the cows had wandered into the wheat, ate too much life and fell ill. The young ascetic was not at a loss and began to prayerfully baptize every cow on all sides. With God's help, he raised the entire herd and drove it to the village.

From the age of 14 he took upon himself the feat of wandering. He often spent the night in haystacks in a field or an abandoned barn. At the age of 16 he went to Taganrog, where he received a blessing for a monastic feat from the blind, perspicacious elder Alexy. In 1948, Vitaly went to the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which had just opened after the war, and helped restore the monastery for some time. Since the young ascetic did not have documents, they could not accept him among the inhabitants of the monastery, but advised him to go to the Glinsk hermitage.

During these years, the continuers of the traditions of the Glinsk elders were the rector of the monastery, schema-archimandrite Seraphim (Amelin) (1874–1958), schema-abbot Andronik (Lukash) (1889–1974) and hieroschemamonk Seraphim (Romantsov) (1885–1976). He was a fraternal confessor, strict and demanding. Elder Seraphim (Romantsov) became Vitaly’s spiritual father.

Schema-Archimandrite John (Maslov) in the history of the Glinsk Hermitage wrote the following about Elder Seraphim: “He was a most experienced confessor, an expert in all the innermost movements of the human heart, the owner of spiritual treasures, which he acquired through a long, arduous feat... His conversations, filled with true humility, warmed the cold hearts of people , opened their spiritual eyes, enlightened their minds, led to repentance, spiritual peace and spiritual rebirth.”

Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov) said: “The only feat for young people is obedience. Asceticism without obedience is walking on stilts.”

“A person must certainly experience the bitterness of sin and the sweetness of grace. For this it is very good and even necessary to have a leader on this difficult path.”

Elder Seraphim (Romantsov) became the spiritual leader of novice Vitaly. At first the novice was a watchman, later he worked in the refectory. When he was obedient to the candle box, he had to linger after the service (he counted the proceeds). In order not to wake up the brethren, he went to bed at the door of the fraternal building right on the street.

In those years, the perspicacious blessed hierodeacon Ephraim labored in the monastery and carried out the obedience of a night watchman. After the monastery was closed, he was forcibly sent for treatment to a psychiatric hospital located on the territory of the Vyshenskaya Hermitage near Ryazan. There he continued to play the fool and receive people who came to him for spiritual needs. Father Vitaly and Father Ephraim were connected by spiritual closeness; he talked about him as an old man of high spiritual life. Hierodeacon Ephraim often repeated: “The whole secret of salvation is humility.”

From the memoirs of Hieromonk Mardarius (Danilov): “The Glinsk hermitage at that time was a hotbed of spirituality. What kind of elders there were... And Vitaly - although he was just a novice with Father Seraphim (Romantsov), he received all wanderers - he was like a father of mercy, and led a very spiritual life...

Father Vitaly was an amazing person! When they lived in Glinskaya, letters were sent to Father Seraphim (Romantsov) from Moscow, from St. Petersburg, from Kyiv: Father simply does not have time to answer - they lie and lie. And then he will call Vitaly:

– Vitaly, do you see the letters?

- I see, father.

– Here I give my blessing: print them out and give the answers as if they were from me. And don’t contact me: - well, the priest knew that he was smart: and, of course, he prayed for him. - Write. Don’t come to me and ask me what to write...

Well, Vitaly will begin to answer: He will give the answer, and at the bottom he will sign: “Sche-abbot Seraphim.” And he sends it.

They get: “Well, that’s it! We are now alive, we are resurrected! Now we won’t despair!” They write gratitude to the priest: “Oh, father, thank you!” “You saved us! We were in despair”... Father Seraphim - he saw Vitaly’s grace, that Vitaly could do it. And indeed it is".

Since novice Vitaly did not have documents, he often had to hide when government officials came to the monastery. At the end of the 1950s, the authorities tightened control, and inspectors began to come to Glinskaya Pustyn more and more often. It became dangerous for the novice Vitaly to be in the monastery, and he left for Taganrog. In Taganrog, he loved to visit the city cemetery, where he prayed at the grave of the blessed elder Pavel (Stozhkov) (1792–1879). He often repeated the words of Elder Paul: “My whole desire from my youth was to pray to God, and my intention was to go to holy places.” Seeing the ascetic life of Brother Vitaly, believers began to gather around him. He stayed in those houses where he was invited. As the Taganrog elder Pavel once did, the ascetic walked to holy places, he was accompanied by believing women, sisters in Christ, and future spiritual children.

“Go! I send you out like lambs among wolves.

Do not take bag, scrip, or sandals...” (Luke 10:3-4)

From the memoirs of Father Vitaly’s cell attendant, Schema-Abbess Seraphima (Dyachenko): “While traveling with him, we had neither money nor two clothes. Sometimes we would spend the night in a field, pray in the morning, bow down and move on...”

One day, a motorcycle with armed policemen stopped right in front of a devotee while he was walking with people. "Who are they? Where? Documentation!" But he addressed them so kindly that they were extremely amazed. He bowed and kissed them on the shoulders with the words: “You are our guardian angels, our protectors.” He defeated them with his humility and love - they asked him to pray and left. Only after some time did he say: “But they were specifically coming for me.”

Spiritual children said that when traveling around Russia, Brother Vitaly always walked around in a cassock and with a traveling staff - it was impossible not to notice him. And in almost every village the police were waiting for him. He told his children about this time: “I’m walking - there’s a river on the way, I crossed it - there’s a guard standing. I bowed to his feet, he turned his back, as if he hadn’t noticed, and I walked past. And in another place I was greeted like a gentleman in a car. They took me to a very beautiful house. They stroked me there." (They beat me). He said: “And there are good people in the police. Once, when I was traveling, the police grabbed me and beat me, and the boss stood up for me and said: “Don’t hit him too hard, otherwise he will die, and then you won’t have any trouble.” Then they stopped kicking me, and only pulled me by my hair and beard.”

At the same time, he did not experience any hostile feelings towards his offenders, remembering the words of the Lord “bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you” (Luke 6:28) - thus he acquired great humility.

Let us quote the story of one of Father Vitaly’s spiritual daughters: “Once we were walking with our father... like sheep following a shepherd. And a drunk man comes to the meeting and loudly shouts all sorts of curses. When he approached us, we all ran away in fright, but the priest did not shy away and went straight to meet him, came up, hugged and began to kiss him. How this man immediately changed! Where did his menacing appearance go? And when the priest blessed him, the man’s joy knew no bounds. He began to thank the priest and said that no one had ever treated him like that before...”

Having not condemned anyone in his life, Father Vitaly immediately suppressed dissatisfaction with others if it arose in anyone. “We must blaspheme, blame, flog, punish ourselves, but love everyone, consider them Angels,” Elder Vitaly wrote in one letter.

The righteous man had to endure a lot, hiding from his pursuers, he spent the night buried in a snowdrift so that the black cassock would not be noticed. In 1954, in Taganrog, a seriously ill ascetic was admitted to the hospital. Doctors stated that tuberculosis was in the last stage, only a few days remained. But the ascetic survived. The Lord protected his chosen one for the sake of the suffering, who, through his prayers, were to take the true Path.

Wherever Brother Vitaly wandered, he always returned to the Glinsk Hermitage to his spiritual father, Elder Seraphim. In 1958, his confessor decided to send him to the Caucasus. At night, Elder Seraphim and Elder Andronik tonsured him into a robed monk. Monk Vitaly went to Sukhumi, and from there to the mountainous area - Bargany.

In the book “The Mystery of Salvation. Conversations about spiritual life,” Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin) writes: “The monks went to the mountains not only to hide in their wilds from the world, just as ships escape from the deserted shores during a storm. The mountains seem to open before a person a canopy stretched over eternity, here he feels how fleeting and insignificant all the ant-like earthly vanity is; stones scorched by the sun remind him of death, the very silence of the mountains seems to be a song about eternity, which echoes without words and without sounds in his heart. The silence of the mountains seems like an echo of eternity...

They asked Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly what he found best for salvation. He answered: “Prayer with repentance”... Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly said: “Demons tempt people living in the world through thoughts, and they appear to hermits in sensual images. At night we heard the roar of animals, the cries of people who wanted to attack our huts, the sound of footsteps in the attic, as if someone was walking there; sometimes we saw that people we knew came to visit us, but it turned out to be a ghost. I experienced a severe temptation from demons... This lasted a long time. Finally, having gathered my strength, I make a mental cross, then I begin to say: “May God rise again” - and I feel that a stone slab is falling from my chest. I wrote to my spiritual father about this with a request that the entire monastery pray for me...

One winter, I left my cell at night and saw a big dog. I began to call her, but she howled in response. I realized that it was a wolf who was preparing to rush at me, and shouted: “Lord, through the prayers of my spiritual father, schema-abbot Seraphim, have mercy on me!” - and the wolf, as if driven by an invisible force, ran into the forest. It was no longer a ghost: the next morning we saw wolf tracks in the snow."

One day, the monk Vitaly, crossing a mountain river, fell into icy water and caught a cold. Due to the exacerbation of tuberculosis, blood came from the throat. Monk Vitaly, feeling the seriousness of his situation, began to beg the hermit Hieromonk Mardarius (Danilov) to secretly tonsure him as a monk, citing the fact that he wanted to die as a monk, and it was not possible to ask for the blessing of Elder Seraphim at that time - there were rivers in the mountains spilled, blocking the road to the city. The hieromonk agreed. When he was tonsured, Father Vitaly was given the name Venedikt.

When his confessor found out about the secret tonsure, he was angry for a long time, but then forgave him. From the memoirs of Hieromonk Mardariy: “Well, Father Seraphim humbled him quite harshly, so as not to give rise to arrogance and conceit. Although the tonsure itself was a reason for Father Vitaly’s greatest humility - that he supposedly accepted it willfully. This was a strong humbling circumstance for him for many years, until he accepted the great schema - the memory of the fact that he was, after all, “self-willed.” The Lord arranged everything this way: on the one hand, he frightened him with death, and on the other, with the elder.” (Glinskaya Hermitage was closed in 1961.)

In the mid-sixties, monk Benedict secretly accepted the schema with the name Vitaly.

In 1969, with the blessing of Elder Seraphim, Father Vitaly went to Tbilisi to visit Bishop Zinovy ​​(Mazhuga)**.

In Tbilisi in 1976, Bishop Zinovy ​​ordained him a hierodeacon, and a few months later a hieromonk. The day before this significant event, on January 1, 1976, his spiritual father, Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Romantsov), reposed in the Lord.

According to the testimony of Father Vitaly’s spiritual children, the elder was distinguished by extreme non-covetousness: he never wore good clothes, he always wore an old cassock. He never had money - he quickly distributed everything that was sent to him to those in need, following the words of one hermit: “Do not let the money you received spend the night in your cell.” (Testimonies of Father Vitaly’s spiritual children are published in the book “On the Life of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly.”)

The ascetic had a special ability to see the souls of other people; often, in order not to embarrass a person who had an unrepentant sin, Elder Vitaly acted like the blessed Elder Pavel of Taganrog: he denounced in secret, attributing other people’s sins to himself, or scolded the cell attendant nearby for them.

The Glinsky elders taught to repent as soon as one sinned. If you have someone to tell, good, but if not, ask God for forgiveness: “Lord, have mercy on me, the fallen one.” And Father Vitaly advised his spiritual children: “If you have sinned or thought something unkind, immediately confess to your sisters. The main thing is to restore peace." Also Father Vitaly Fr.

The elder’s spiritual children believed that the elder’s prayer would tear him out of hell; he begged the Almighty to grant forgiveness or ease the fate of the unfortunate man.

From the story of Abbot N.: “His prayer kept me safe. If it weren’t for Father Vitaly, I don’t know what would have happened to me. The KGB “loved” me from the very first steps - first in the seminary, then in the parish. They threatened to imprison me at any time. But you come to Father, you only tell him, and you leave with the hope that God will not allow you to be offended by his holy prayers. And indeed, you look - and you are left behind me for a while. Another sorrow will come - you go again. He saved me from all troubles. And only now I realized who he was to us. I am ready to kiss the ground where he walked..."

No matter how much Elder Vitaly tried in his humility to hide the gift of insight from people, it was impossible to hide it. He himself did not like it when they talked about his perspicacity, and if he heard it, he answered like this: “Here is the servant of God Vitaly: is he perspicacious? He is gluttonous." And then he began to scold and denounce himself. He once admitted: “Do you think it’s easy to be perspicacious when you see that a person is dying? And you know how to help him, and you know that he will reject this help... Then the heart is filled with such sorrow.”

Father Vitaly predicted the tragic events in Sukhumi 30 years in advance. One day, walking through the city, he said: “I want this house to survive, and this one too. I hear people shooting and killing in the streets, blood flowing in streams.”

And Father Vitaly did what was in his power to save people from spiritual and physical death. The elder had the ability to heal bodily illnesses; he extended the lives of many people with his prayers.

From the memoirs of Abbot Nikita (Tretyakov): “Everyone left Father Vitaly comforted and healed. You tell him: Father, it hurts here. When you leave, it doesn’t hurt...”

One woman, having visited the elder with her family, said: “A person can no longer achieve higher love than he has. If a person has such love, and God gave it to him, then what kind of God is that?” Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly himself said the following about love: “There will be love and the walls will come apart.”

From the memoirs of schema-abbess Seraphima: “Knowing the hour of his departure, Father Vitaly... finished his business, and then said: “We are going to Moskovsky, I will take a bath and then serve the Liturgy” (with the blessing of the Bishop, he could serve privately at home). He said goodbye to everyone, but the sisters felt that he would not return home. They brought Father Vitaly to the temple, he walked around the whole place, but, as usual, he could no longer bow before the icons. I said goodbye to everyone and cried a lot. In the car he said: “Now I will always be with the fathers in the temple.” No one understood these words then...

The doctors tried to help him as best they could, but God’s will was different. The day before his death, he suddenly signaled with his hand for me to open the curtain on the window. I asked: “Who do you see?” He looked silently, then kissed his hand and pointed to the icon of the Mother of God. I presented the image and he blessed everyone with it.

I asked: “Did the Mother of God come?” He nodded his head and began to cry."

Schema-nun Elizabeth recalls: “Father did not let anyone go without his blessing. By evening, I felt very tired and asked for a blessing to go to the kitchen and eat. He blessed with his eyes alone. I felt that there were only a few hours left of his life, and so I asked: “Father Vitaly, wait for me.” Having had a quick snack, Mother Evgenia and I quickly returned. I again took his blessing, as we usually did after the meal. She kissed his hand, then wiped it with holy water. After that, he sighed quietly and died, having fulfilled his last “obedience” - he waited for me.” This happened on December 1, 1992.

In the evening, His Holiness Patriarch Elijah came to say goodbye to the ascetic, he said: “You don’t know who we have lost.” He thanked everyone who cared for the ascetic and, pointing to the room where Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly lived, prayed and died, this great elder said: “Go there, bow to the place.”

The coffin with the body of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly was placed in the Church of the Holy Blessed Prince Alexander Nevsky.

The people went to say goodbye to their shepherd for several days. Despite the difficult military-political situation in Georgia at that time, his spiritual children came from Russia, Ukraine...

The burial of Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly took place on December 5. The funeral service in front of a large crowd of believing people was performed by the Patriarch of All Georgia, co-served by the clergy of the Alexander Nevsky Church, the Tbilisi clergy and clergy who came from Russia and Ukraine.

Father Pavel Kosach recalls: “The Patriarch read a prayer of permission and handed it to me to place in the hand of Father Vitaly. At this time, the thumb on his hand bends, I put a sheet of prayer into my palm - and the hand closes. Herself. I was so shocked that I cried out in surprise: “I took it myself!” - and only later did he realize it as a given - after all, this man was not of this world.”

“I took it myself!” – Archpriest Mikhail Didenko, who was standing nearby, confirmed. His Holiness the Patriarch silently nodded his head in affirmative and continued the service. It should be noted that several years before his death, Father Vitaly once said to his spiritual daughter, schema-nun Larisa (Voronova): “For the tears of my sisters, I will extend my hand from the grave.”

To this day, the ascetic helps everyone who believes in the power of his prayerful intercession before God.

Living in Tbilisi, Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly, I answered letters from my spiritual children every day. Here are just a few excerpts from the elder’s letters:

"What to do? What to do? There is one refuge and consolation for everyone: the Lord and Mother of God... Pray, my soul, especially the Jesus Prayer, which will put everything in proper order. Ask the Lord and the Mother of God to make you wise for salvation and teach everything sacred... We will repent of our sins, confess, lament, remain in prayer, and everyone must reproach themselves in everything, that they themselves are guilty, and not anyone else, then the Lord will soon hear us. Abba Macarius said: if we remember the evil that people have done to us, our remembrance of God will weaken, but if we remember the evil inflicted by demons, we will be safe from their arrows. Abba Or said: no matter what temptation you are in, do not complain about anyone but yourself, and say: this happened to me because of my sins. Abba Pimen said: if you are silent, you will find peace wherever you live. Let us entrust all our requests to the will of God, and whatever the Lord does not fulfill according to our desire and request, we will be satisfied. He knows best what is useful for our salvation...

Let us therefore rejoice and be glad in the works of God, which surpasses all human understanding. Everything is with God and from God, to Him be glory with the Son and the Holy Spirit forever, amen.

The elder writes to his disciple: “Pray for the offenders, they are your friends, through them the Lord gives you crowns, and if you grumble, and even offend yourself, then you will lose your crowns.” Therefore, avoid curiosity, gossip and everything unnecessary that does not relate to you. Every day, prepare yourself for temptations, sorrows and all kinds of insults, slander and the like, know that it is God’s mercy coming to you. For enduring everything, you will join the ranks of martyrs and, without other exploits, you will be honored with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember the main thing:

1

. Consider every day the last of your life and spend it in the fear of God and contrition of heart. Reduce fuss, avoid idle talk. Remember God and cry out to Him in repentance.

2

. Do not judge or condemn anyone, otherwise you will condemn yourself. Do not analyze other people’s thoughts, deeds, slander and gossip, pass by: it is the enemy who is trying to scatter you and distract you from prayer.

3

. Know God, keep His Commandments, listen to your spiritual father; Accept into your soul only good things from your neighbors that are in accordance with the Commandments of God. Try to listen to yourself and not judge anyone, and not notice the shortcomings of others - we have many of our own...”

“If you want to pray about many things... Pray like this: “Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, guide me according to Your will!” If it’s about passions, then say: “Heal me according to Your will.” And when about temptations, say: “You know what is useful to me, help my weakness and grant me, according to Your will, deliverance from temptations.” Or: “Lord! I am in Your hands, You know what is useful to me, guide me according to Your will, do not let me fall into error and abuse Your gift. Arrange, O Master, that this should be accomplished in Thy fear, for Thy is the glory forever, amen...”

“Our God in heaven and on earth, do whatever He pleases; to Him be glory. Amen. You must consider yourself an unpaid culprit and bring repentance. You see, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, the miracle worker, standing on a stone, prayed for 1000 days and nights with the prayer: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” Saint Ephraim the Syrian called himself an abomination, and in prayer he said: “Grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother.” The Holy King and Prophet said: “I am the worm of Israel.” The Apostle Paul called himself a monster. And each of the saints blasphemed himself and cried about his sins. There is an icon of St. Nicholas, which depicts the stripes-potholes on his face that were formed when tears streamed down his cheeks.

Saint Great Anthony prayed to God to show who he was like. And the Lord said that he had not yet come to the measure of the shoemaker living in the city. The saint came to this man and found out that he thought like this: “All people will be saved, but I alone will perish,” and he always cried. Try to always read: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Consider everyone saints, do not condemn anyone, endure the trials that come your way, thank God for sorrows and joys, force yourself to do good, do not be discouraged, confess your sins to God, humble yourself, remember the Passion of Christ, have mortal memory, work in obedience, and so on You will be Lord. May He bless you, to Him be glory. Amen…"

“It is written: Many are the sorrows of the righteous, and the Lord will deliver them from all of them (Ps. 33:20). The Lord said: take up the cross and follow Me, and don’t walk without the cross, to Him be the glory. Amen".

“Do not be embarrassed by the trials that may occur. The Lord said: “Through your patience save your souls” (Luke 21:19) and “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22). Try to pray carefully in the morning, in the evening and with every task, at least like this: “Bless, Lord.” And instead of other thoughts, say: “Lord, help me. Lord protect me. Lord, teach me to do Your will.” – By doing this, you will talk with God, which is prayer. Don’t accept other thoughts, they are not God’s...”