There is an order in the Saints of the Orthodox faith, whose representatives remain a mystery to this day. These are holy fools, often called blessed. It is difficult to trace the logical sequence of actions they perform. Sometimes, with outward madness, passionate accusatory pearls fall from their lips against universal sin.
Tormenting themselves with hunger and cold, these eccentrics manage to lend a helping hand to those in need. Revealing the future in intricate prophecies, they skillfully veil holiness and power with a frankly stupid facial expression, rags of clothing or a dirty naked body.
What does holy fool mean?
This word evokes various associations. Some represent a disabled person from childhood who has limited mental or physical capabilities. Others remember the object of constant ridicule and insults. And many immediately turn their thoughts to famous historical figures or original show business stars. The general meaning we put into this concept is “different from all normal ones.”
Meaning of the concept
To be fair, it should be noted that in modern Russian the word has several meanings:
Mad, god-willed, fool, crazy from birth; the people consider them God's people, often finding deep meaning, even premonition or foresight, in unconscious actions.
Explanatory online dictionary of Dahl V.I.
A Christian ascetic madman or who has assumed the appearance of a madman, possessing, according to believers, the gift of divination.
Efremova's Dictionary
The context and topic of the conversation will help you understand which meaning is embedded in the vocabulary unit.
Church interpretation
Among believers, the meaning of the word “holy fool” is permanent. In Orthodoxy, the vital feat of voluntary bliss is highly revered. It is considered the most difficult. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul brings to us the following message:
If any of you thinks to be wise in this age, then be foolish in order to be wise.
The first letter to the Corinthians of the Holy Apostle Paul. Chapter 3.
What boundless determination must a person have who is ready to respond to this call and devote his life to eternal humility. Having followed Christ, the ascetics left everything they had in the world and doomed themselves to ridicule and mockery.
Although the appearance of the blessed in Rus' dates back to the distant 11th century, and the flowering of the movement was observed in the 15th-17th centuries, this concept has successfully survived to our time.
Increasingly, its meaning is interpreted according to the church version. This is facilitated by the Orthodox literacy of the population: people go to church and study with interest the lives of saints, including those who, of their own free will, accepted bliss for the sake of Christ.
Many children attend Sunday schools, get acquainted with the history of the formation of Christianity in Rus', and study the most important commandments of Orthodoxy. In general education schools, the curriculum includes courses in the content of which the feat of foolishness occupies a special place.
Origin of the word
The consonance of the roots yurod- and urod- determines the basic meaning of the word. Although the root rod- was used in the formation of the Old Slavic language, the prefix yu- was added to it, which had the meaning of negation. Therefore, the meaning came out as follows: does not fit into the genus, into the breed.
Having migrated from Old Church Slavonic, the word did not lose the initial sound [th], as well as one of its meanings - opposing society.
In the dictionary Complete accentuated paradigm according to A. A. Zaliznya
1 . holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fools, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool 2 . holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool, holy fool
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Who is called the holy fool
Let's try to find out who this foolish man is. What caused and what do his actions mean?
Maybe these are ordinary citizens, but, in modern terms, they want to look shocking, to create an aura of riddles and secrets around themselves. Or maybe these are marginalized individuals? Well, they don’t want to march in step with everyone else.
If you wish, you can find many explanations for the behavior of the blessed. The simplest of them is a mental disorder. Then why is this term most often used not to refer to the owners of clinical pathology, but to simpletons and good-natured people who are ready to part with their last shirt in favor of their neighbor.
Remember the film directed by Vladimir Menshov “The Prank” (1973), where the heroine of actress Natalya Vavilova, high school student Taya, is disgustedly called wretched by her narcissistic classmate. The reason for this was the girl’s selfless kindness towards others, her amazing ability to see only the good in people.
It turns out that foolish people are distinguished by inexhaustible spirituality and a conscious manifestation of insanity. But is it possible for the weak-minded to carry out meaningful actions? Definitely not.
Therefore, only a person with an absolutely healthy psyche and the unique properties of a humble soul can consciously rush into the maelstrom of madness. The strength of their spirit is much higher than their emotions. Their actions are dispassionate; they are guided through life by spiritual reason.
Basic rules of communication in the modern world
First of all, you need to remember that demonstrating your superiority and making barbs at someone is normally perceived in adolescence, at the stage of personality formation. At a more mature age, this looks stupid and sets others against such an interlocutor. Moreover, for every “wit” there is someone even more resourceful, and soon the one who allows himself to make jokes towards others may himself become a victim of someone’s barbs.
Every person has the right to integrity. This also applies to inappropriate jokes. Someone can normally take a barb addressed to them, calmly responding in the same coin, but someone categorically does not accept this style of communication. Not every person can afford to be bullied. The meaning of the word is quite negative, so such “jokes” can end badly.
Since man is a social being, it is necessary to be able to properly build his relationships with society.
Bullying usually does not lead to anything good, so you should refrain from such behavior in society.
Foolishness for Christ's sake
The Church interprets the blessedness of Christ for the sake of as a feat of spirituality and asceticism.
Devotees renounce:
- worldly existence;
- good;
- generally accepted norms of behavior.
Having become outcasts of their own free will, they humbly endure bodily deprivations, endure contempt and abuse. At any time of the year, their feet are bare, and their nakedness challenges generally accepted norms.
About the feat of foolishness
What did the sufferers achieve with conscious, but seemingly “inadequate” actions from the outside?
Here are their goals:
- hide true holiness under the image of a person devoid of reason;
- humble your own pride and vanity;
- present to the people the secret meaning of their actions, which lies in exposing the evil and stupidity of society;
- emphasize the opposition between the truth in Christ and accepted standards of behavior;
- serve God with preaching, not in speech, but in the power of the spirit.
Often those who felt their own gift of foresight began to act like fools. They felt the need for humility so that others would not recognize the spark of God in them. The people listened to their verbal gobbledygook, from which they picked up a forecast or a warning, and believed that God was communicating with them through a crazy intermediary.
Interpretation of the phrase
Foolishness for the sake of Christ is a voluntary renunciation of worldly life and a mask of madness that humbles pride. The realities of the inner world of truly God's people were in complete disharmony with their external appearance. The madness only confirmed their unique intelligence. The suffering of ascetics due to the moral decline of their neighbors is difficult to overestimate.
Fools for Christ's sake are the brightest personalities who can be counted among the saints.
But the church was very scrupulous about the canonization of fools. The reason for this is the invasion in the 15th-17th centuries of pseudo-fools, whose actions were controlled by self-interest and vanity.
Only seven were recognized as Orthodox.
We don’t make a diagnosis
- You said that the holy fool voluntarily puts on the mask of madness. But many rationalistic people believe that all holy fools were in fact mentally ill or suffered from mental retardation. Yes, maybe God spoke through these holy fools, they believe, but still there are obvious psychiatric diagnoses. How can you comment on this approach?
“He seems very superficial to me.” Firstly, such people have a rather poor knowledge of church history and are not able to see this or that case of foolishness either in the spiritual, cultural, or historical aspects. This is always the view of a modern person, who looks down on the life of past centuries, who considers himself a priori smarter than his ancestors. Yes, if you look at everything from a materialistic position, if you completely reject the existence of God, and especially the influence of the Holy Spirit on man, then any deviation from the standard must be explained by mental illness. But from the point of view of a believing Christian, a holy fool can be completely mentally healthy, and his behavior is due not to medical, but to spiritual reasons.
Secondly, this approach is also incorrect from a medical point of view. As far as I know, qualified psychiatrists avoid making absentee diagnoses - in order to talk about the presence of a particular disease, they need to personally examine the patient. As you understand, no psychiatrists examined the holy fools glorified by the Church. Therefore, the opinion that all holy fools were mentally ill is a philistine opinion, and it stems not from special knowledge of psychiatry, but simply from a materialistic picture of the world stuck in the head.
But indeed, the word “holy fool” in modern consciousness is synonymous with “mentally ill.” We have already said that the meaning of words changes over time, and there are various reasons for this - both the laws of language development and, what is more important in this case, sociocultural changes in society. Here, of course, the process of secularization greatly influenced. After all, secularization is not just the displacement of the Church from political and public life. It is equally important that the Christian value system - at least within the framework of European culture - began to be trampled upon by other values. But the words remained - but in the new coordinate system they acquired new semantic shades. That is why modern people consider foolishness to be synonymous with mental deviations. They did not personally bring this meaning - they absorbed it from childhood.
Attitude towards holy fools
As the classic said, Mother Russia is difficult to understand with the mind. If the West of the Middle Ages did not recognize voluntary insanity, then the mysterious Russian soul accepted the poor with every fiber.
But mercy and cruelty very often go together. Many showed tolerance and sympathy for voluntary madmen, but there were always others ready to throw stones at the poor fellows. It was mostly children who were being naughty.
In general, ordinary people expressed compassion to the tramps with demonstrative otherness, flavored with a certain admiration. There were also rich people who did not disdain the unwashed, shaggy righteous people and showed compassion. It was believed that giving alms to a weak-minded screamer could bring good fortune, because his extraordinary actions would ward off the devil’s machinations.
Even kings and princes did not dare to openly offend the eccentric jokers; they asked them for prayers for their forgiveness. Visiting foreigners were amazed at such facts and described them in detail in their travel notes.
Consequences of incorrect human behavior in society
The basic rules governing communication among a wide range of people have existed for hundreds of years. During all this time, some changes, of course, have occurred, but the basic principles remain unshakable. Mutual respect, good manners, education, tact, politeness, friendliness, punctuality, etc. – there is no place for mockery on this list. Those people who allow themselves to say barbs and mock someone have a rather negative attitude. If a person regularly bullies himself, sooner or later he becomes a victim of his behavior, because the people around him find a way to punish the offender.
Famous holy fools in Rus'
The history of the Russian land knows many striking examples of the feat of holiness hidden from people. The blessed ones dedicated their lives to serving God and fighting base human vices. Saving society from degradation, they, by their own example, depicted greed, envy, and resentment in absurd and exaggerated forms. At the same time, they avoided earthly glory by playing the insane. But after many centuries, we learn from them the basic truths of Christianity.
St. Basil the Blessed
The famous miracle worker of the Russian Middle Ages was born in amazing circumstances. His mother gave birth to Vasily in 1469 during prayer in the Moscow Epiphany Cathedral.
While learning shoemaking in his early youth, he predicted the death of the merchant who ordered the shoes. The prediction came true. From the age of 16, Vasily’s life passed through the thorns of voluntary bliss. He always wandered naked and barefoot through Moscow streets and alleys. One day he managed to see a demon hidden in a beggar and drive away the evil one.
Recognized by the people as a man of God, he “raised” the fallen, feeling in his heart the grain of goodness in them, and gave them a chance to take the true path. Vasily was not afraid to call royal persons to account. During one service, he questioned the “righteous” deed of Ivan the Terrible - the construction of a choir on the Sparrow Hills.
The zenith of the prophet's predictions sounded in 1547 with the news of the Moscow fire. His fervent prayer had an effect when Novgorod was burning.
The ascetic who went down in history lived for 88 years, 72 of which were devoted to serving the Lord. The beautiful Moscow St. Basil's Cathedral is a vivid reminder of the good deeds of the holy elder.
Ksenia Petersburgskaya
A native of the city on the Neva, who belonged to a noble class, got married early. The marriage turned out to be happy. Everything was changed by the sudden, without Communion, death of my beloved husband. Having dressed in his clothes and taking his name - Andrei Fedorovich, the woman abandoned her property and began to wander.
Those around her were unable to correctly assess Ksenia’s behavior and considered the widow crazy from grief. And she, in a bright mind, decided to serve God and her neighbors. Day and night, with prayer and words, she brought good into destinies: she healed children and adults, provided material benefits, and gave harmony to family relationships. She tirelessly helped the construction of the Smolensk Church, carrying bricks to the construction site at night. Holiness was hidden under the mask of madness.
Some acts of a scantily clad tramp are called miracles:
- A family friend of mine advised the owner's daughter to go to the cemetery. Following the inspiration of the blessed one, the girl met her future husband in the churchyard. A widower buried his dead wife there.
- The wife of Alexander the First, with a handful of sand taken from the grave of a St. Petersburg madwoman, healed her husband of typhus. The empress's prophetic dream with the participation of Xenia also came true. Maria Feodorovna gave birth to a daughter, whom she named after the saint.
- Once, with the help of prayer, she brought a drowned child back to life.
Thanks to true people's love, Ksenia was canonized in 1988. The chapel at the Smolensk cemetery, where the virtuous St. Petersburg woman rested, is a favorite place for parishioners.
Procopius of Ustyug
The first saint in the cohort of foolish people arrived on Russian soil from the German city of Lübeck as a young merchant. Impressed by the beauty of the churches and the piety of the people, he distributed his father's inheritance and converted to the Orthodox faith with the name Procopius. Having gained fame in Novgorod, he moved to Veliky Ustyug, where he began the lifestyle of a blessed ascetic.
The gift of foresight helped Procopius in 1290 predict a severe storm that resulted in forest fires and a tornado. A few days before a meteorite fell near Ustyug, the elder called on the townspeople to repentance in order to save the city. But careless laymen ignored the calls. At the height of the disaster, residents rushed to the temple, where they saw the prophet praying for the salvation of the city.
Procopius of Vyatka
In childhood, a misfortune happened to the son of Khlynovo peasants. The lightning strike put the boy into a trance: he tore off his clothes, preferring to remain naked. A servant of the Assumption Monastery helped him. With the help of holy water and a prayer service, the Monk Tryphon healed the youth.
At the age of 20, the young man received a blessing from his savior for bliss of his own free will. For 30 long years he endured abuse, ridicule, hunger and bad weather. No one except the confessor had any idea about asceticism.
The Vyatka righteous man strove with the strength of his spirit to heal his fellow countrymen from pride and waywardness. Soon after his death, veneration of the saint began. It is known that the seriously ill woman Martha was healed after Saint Procopius and Saint Tryphon appeared to her in a dream.
Pasha Sarovskaya
Before finding a calling in serving God, the woman went through the crucible of the most difficult trials. The life of a serf peasant woman followed a well-known scenario: hard work, marriage, deprivation and suffering.
But disobedience and boundless love for the Almighty changed the course of events. Having received the blessing of her confessors, the brave Christian woman took secret monastic vows, receiving the name Paraskeva. For a long time she wandered around the villages looking like she was crazy, and lived in a cave. Having endured bullying, she achieved universal favor with her insight.
In the Diveyevo monastery, the long nights of Pasha Sarov were spent in tireless prayers, and the days were spent in backbreaking labor. Until her last breath she served her chosen cause. Paraskeva lived 120 years.
There are countless events announced at different times by the soothsayer. In 1903, having received a visit from the family of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II, she assured the imperial couple of the imminent birth of an heir. But the good news was accompanied by a prediction of the death of the royal dynasty.
Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha
The rumor about the Moscow prophet of the mid-19th century spread to all corners of Russia. Lines of popular works by famous classics were dedicated to an unusual patient in a mental hospital.
They wrote about him:
- Tolstoy;
- Dostoevsky;
- Ostrovsky;
- Leskov.
Ivan Koreysha was born in Smolensk into the family of a clergyman. He studied at the Theological Academy, but did not follow in his father’s footsteps; he worked as a teacher. He began to play the fool consciously, but at the same time did not lose the properties of his romantic nature.
A zigzag of fate brought the oracle to a Moscow psychiatrist on Preobrazhenka. He spent 47 long years within the walls of the institution. All sorts of sufferers visited Ivan Yakovlevich’s hospital: girls, respectable ladies, ignoramuses with absurd desires and questions, and simply curious people. Some received punishment from the doctor for stupidity and importunity. But the intelligent and serious visitor received attention and a long conversation.
Koreishi's funeral became a show of its time. Many newspapers wrote about the extravagant antics of grieving fans. The grave of the soothsayer at the Elias Church in the capital is still visited by numerous pilgrims.
Annushka
Another blessed St. Petersburg woman enjoyed special favor during the reign of Nicholas the First. There was talk about the noble origin and elite education of the unusual elderly woman. Rumors attributed her to unhappy love, which led her to the thorny road of crazy wanderings.
Annushka was very respected on Sennaya, where an eccentric old woman rented a room from a virtuous priest. Every day the townspeople saw their favorite woman walking along the promenade with an old-fashioned reticule in her hands. Along the way, she collected alms and immediately shared them with those in need.
Under the patronage of caring city residents, Anna Ivanovna ended up in a shelter. But her life there did not work out. Only in her native Sennaya did the blessed one feel that she was needed and useful to people. Annushka's predictions came true in the most miraculous way.
All admirers of the rare gift of a woman with a difficult but amazing fate came to the funeral of the famous city dweller, arranged by her.
Our days
— Is the feat of foolishness possible these days?
- I don't know. I can only say that God’s participation in our lives is undeniable, and it can manifest itself in very different ways. By the way, the feat of foolishness was quite widespread in Soviet times, in the 30-50s. No matter what diocese you come to today, you will definitely be told about the local holy fools who labored in the 1930s, during and after the Great Patriotic War, and even in Khrushchev’s times. Yes, there were people who told society the truth, but they put it in a very unexpected form, sometimes even completely unacceptable from the point of view of decency.
- Let's move on to our days. Now, it seems to me, a new fashion has appeared: to declare all kinds of artistic or socio-political shocking as foolishness. What do you think about it?
“I think that here we are faced not only with the religious illiteracy of the majority of our compatriots, who do not understand the meaning of the feat of foolishness, but also with someone’s conscious attempts to manipulate the masses, exploiting their illiteracy.
Indeed, if people live outside the Christian value system, if they are not familiar with either the teachings of the Church or its history, then their idea of foolishness will be the most primitive. Namely, they associate foolishness either with mental disorders, or with defiant, shocking behavior in order to achieve completely earthly, this-worldly goals: to attract public attention to a particular problem, to induce the authorities to make certain political concessions, and so on.
But why call these things exactly foolishness, drawing parallels between current “performances” and the actions of ancient holy fools described in hagiographic literature? But precisely in order to support the performance with the authority of Christianity, in order to give it some high spiritual meaning and thereby morally justify it in the eyes of the “target audience”, to whom Christianity, although not too familiar, is not completely alien. The substitution lies in the fact that manipulators rely on mass extra-church ideas about foolishness, but attribute to such “foolishness” a certain religious content. Simply put, the scheme is this: since foolishness is shocking, it means that shocking is foolishness... and here we remember in time that foolishness is somehow connected with Christianity... and we draw the final conclusion: our shockingness is essentially deeply religious, and This means that you are all obliged to perceive it with attention and respect.
— How can a modern person, who is not too savvy in church history, distinguish true foolishness from simple shocking?
— I think we can still highlight some points that should be paid attention to.
Firstly, this is external goal setting. If we have a real holy fool in front of us, he will proclaim God’s truth, not human truth. That is, if his, as they say now, “message” comes down to the protection of human rights, to demands for political and economic reforms, to denunciation of certain government institutions or personalities - you can be sure that this is not foolishness in the church sense of the word. Don't get me wrong - I am not at all arguing that all of the listed goals are a priori bad and cannot be fought for. Just let's call a spade a spade - this is an ordinary political struggle, and not a feat of foolishness.
Secondly, it is internal motivation. Of course, it’s more difficult to talk about it, because we can’t know what’s going on in a person’s soul if he doesn’t say it himself. But from church tradition, from hagiographic literature, we know that people most often went to the feat of foolishness, moved by the Holy Spirit, and not from purely rational, pragmatic considerations. Therefore, if we know that someone began to behave like holy fools, based on a sober calculation, for the sake of “public benefit,” we have the right to doubt the authenticity of his foolishness.
Thirdly, this is an undoubted deep faith, characteristic of real holy fools. The faith that was characteristic of them even before taking on the feat of foolishness. If someone is declared a holy fool who has not previously demonstrated his faith in any way, whose lifestyle did not in any way indicate following Christ, then we have every reason to consider this a fake.
Fourthly, a real holy fool is ready to humbly endure ridicule, indignation, and reproach. Such a person decides to undertake the feat of foolishness because his main goal is to preserve himself from pride, humbly accepting insults, mockery, and persecution. In this, the holy fool sees similarity to Christ, who voluntarily accepted the crown of thorns, beatings, spitting, ridicule and, most importantly, death on the cross - I note, according to the ideas of that time, a shameful death. Therefore, if a person claiming to be a holy fool is surprised by public condemnation, is indignant at this condemnation, rushes into a counterattack, defends his rights... in a word, behaves like a fighter - this is a sure sign that there was no real foolishness. Without humility there is no foolishness.
Fifthly, the real holy fools, glorified by the Church, not only proclaimed the truth of Christ to those who shied away from it, but also possessed a prophetic gift and predicted certain events to society, which happened soon. Therefore, you should never rush to classify someone as a holy fool - you need to wait and see what comes out of all this.
What happens? What are the consequences? Here, perhaps, is the most obvious criterion: if the activities of a “holy fool” cause a split in society, if as a result of his shocking antics mutual bitterness grows, if people do not draw closer to God, but, on the contrary, move away from Him, then it was not originally from God.
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Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha
This man was born in Smolensk, where he played the fool for the first part of his life. He became famous for his perspicacity - he was able to predict not only illness and death, but also other, less important events in a person’s life. After 1812 his interests changed. Koreysha began to denounce dishonest officials. The authorities were offended by the holy fool and sent him to a Moscow psychiatric hospital. In the capital, Koreyshi began a new life, in which, however, there were also some very unpleasant stories.
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Procopius of Vyatka
This man's journey of bliss began after he was struck by lightning. Unlike St. Basil and other holy fools, Procopius did not make strange speeches, because he took a vow of silence on himself. He conveyed his predictions to people with signs. So, when Procopius saw a sick person who, as it seemed to him, would not live long, he immediately began to cry and symbolically fold his hands on himself.
Ksenia Petersburgskaya
She was 26 years old when her husband died unexpectedly. The young widow did not shed a single tear. After the funeral, she changed into her husband’s clothes and began giving away her property left and right. She was certainly considered crazy. Ksenia's relatives reported her to the police, where, however, after a long interrogation, the woman was considered sane.
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Since then, a woman dressed in a colonel’s uniform has been wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. Boys threw stones at her, adults shouted curses after her. But over time, the attitude of the townspeople towards the blessed one changed - Ksenia demonstrated amazing insight and the ability to heal.
One day the holy fool approached a childless woman and said: “Run to the cemetery, God sent you a child. She went in the indicated direction, and a few minutes later witnessed a terrible event: a young mother died before her eyes. The woman took in the child of the deceased and raised him as her own. This is one of the stories about Xenia of Petersburg, which has come down to us in different variations.
