The history of the burials of the remains of the locally revered saint - Blessed Theoktista of Voronezh

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In our area there have always been people who possessed miraculous and prophecy abilities. Such representatives of Christianity include Mother Theoktista of Voronezh. She helped many people during her lifetime, and some say that even certain of her statements became prophetic.

Life of Saint Theoktista

She was born into a large Cossack family not far from Novocherkassk. Since childhood, she showed a special interest in Christianity. Immediately after coming of age, she immediately began traveling to shrines. Her husband was a naval officer who died during the Russo-Japanese War. Since that time, her life has changed dramatically.

She took upon herself the feat of foolishness in Christ. According to her, she was not literate, but those who met her noticed her deep knowledge. Most of them were based on the study of the Holy Scriptures. In the 20-30s of the twentieth century she lived in the cell of the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery. In 1931 the monastery was closed and she had to look for another place.

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For her devotion to the Lord, she was awarded the ability to heal through prayer and predict the future. She often fed the people. Until the very end, she prayed and asked for health to be granted to everyone who needed it. Even in our time, this is what Blessed Theoktista of Voronezh is asked for most often. She left for another world on March 6th.

She is commemorated on February 21. In 1961, her remains were reburied in the new cemetery “on the tanks”. And in September 2009 they decided to move them to the necropolis of the Voronezh monastery, where she spent part of her life.

Blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna Shulgina

February 21 / March 6

Those years when one could meet this little old lady with the kindest eyes on the streets of Voronezh are receding further into the past. She walked with frequent small steps, wearing huge boots, the right one on the left and the left one on the right foot, unlaced and invariably cut at the back, so that they fell off as she walked and at the same time rubbed her feet. I deliberately walked through puddles, always with my coat open - in any weather. In her hand was the usual stick with a tip, just a branch, with which she closed the windows as she passed. Believers knew that she was a holy fool, but to the world she was just a fool.

In Voronezh she was known as Feoktista Mikhailovna, and in Novocherkassk, where the blessed one often visited, wandering through cities and villages, everyone called her Anfisa.

In many pious families she was joyfully received, her spiritual wisdom was valued by bishops and priests, her advice was listened to, learned people asked for her prayers, and street boys teased her and threw stones at her. The blessed one endured everything with humility and prayed for her offenders.

Both the name and origin of the blessed one were a mystery. Mother said that her father was a simple Cossack, but from some signs one could understand that she had a noble upbringing and received an excellent education. She knew the entire Gospel and the entire church service, and one old nun said that mother knew such church prayers and chants that are rarely read and sung once a year, and not even all the priests know them.

After the death of the blessed one, they found documents from which it became known that she was the daughter of Colonel Mikhail Shulgin, and was named Anfisa at baptism. Anfisa married a naval officer.

After the death of her husband in the Russo-Japanese War, she spent several years wandering around holy places, and then took monastic vows at the Pokrovsky nunnery in Voronezh. In her tonsure, Anfisa received a new name “Theoktista”, which means “created by God” (instead of her previous name, which meant “blooming”), which, as it turned out, was more appropriate to the difficult path she had chosen, full of suffering, sorrow and joy in the Lord.

Already in the Intercession Monastery her spiritual gifts were manifested. Her former cell attendant Anna Petrovna Kozlova, a famous Voronezh righteous woman who died in 1980, left memories of Elder Feoktista as a great prayer book, seer, and spiritual mentor.

The old woman lived in the monastery until its closure in 1929, but in the last years of her stay in the monastery, the image of her service to God changed: she took upon herself the difficult feat of foolishness. According to eyewitnesses, this happened shortly after the events of 1917, during the period of the civil war and the beginning of the persecution of the Church. Before going on this feat, mother left the monastery for a short time in order to ask the Lord for blessings from the holy places for a new service...

You could often see Feoktista Mikhailovna together with another Voronezh blessed one - Maxim Pavlovich. He was younger than her, walked with an invariable stick and many handbags, changing, as they said, not by chance: he sometimes carried keys, sometimes he carried locks. One cheek is tied with a scarf with the ends sticking up, as if the teeth hurt. In a city immersed in the darkness of renovationism (by the 1930s there was only one functioning Orthodox church left in Voronezh), these two people, who carried out the feat of foolishness, were unquenchable lamps supporting the spirit of piety.

- Froska, you have to save your life! You have to hold on to life! - Maxim Pavlovich said menacingly, tapping his wand.

And these two holy fools maintained the spiritual life of the crowded city, supporting piety, strengthening in faith, admonishing, reproaching or consoling...

The righteous old woman was revealed about the trials that awaited the Russian Church. So one day the blessed one comes to the chambers of Archbishop Tikhon (Nikanorov) and lies down on his bed in clothes and shoes. The cell attendant asks what all this means. And the blessed one answers: “But here it will still be dirtier than dirtier!” He gets up and leaves. Subsequently, a policeman lived in this cell. Archbishop Tikhon himself was hanged on the Royal Doors of the Annunciation Cathedral of the Mitrofanovsky Monastery on January 9, 1920 (n/st).

In the church, the blessed one sometimes began to riot, throwing down candlesticks to the ground - as it turned out, this was before the dominance of the “living churchmen,” which led to the retreat of some of the clergy from the purity of Orthodoxy (the fall of the “lampstands”), which was probably revealed to the saint of God.

You could often see Mother Theoktista with her hands full of buns and loaves, which she bought at the market and then distributed right there, and sometimes she carried or carried in a cab to one of her friends, to the houses that she visited. The bakers invited my mother to buy buns from them; they said that whoever she bought from would sell all their goods with special luck. The cab drivers also knew the blessed one well and asked to sit in their carriage, also believing that this would bring them happiness. Mother said: “I feed the people, we must feed them,” and she really fed them spiritually and physically, always responding to people’s grief and need. And there was especially a lot of grief in those years.

She was a great prayer worker. They even saw that mother rose into the air during prayers. The memoirs of eyewitnesses describe numerous cases of healing through the prayers of the blessed one. She was especially sensitive to the suffering of children and prayed for them with special love.

In other cases, asking in secret prayer for healing for a sick person, the blessed one hid her gift of grace under external rudeness. So, she had a friend Anisya. She fell ill one day and was about to die because no one could help her. Feoktista Mikhailovna comes to her, and Anisya tells her that she is dying. “Pretending,” the blessed one answers, approaches her, takes the hand of the really dying woman and says: “Aniska, get up!” She immediately got up and started preparing dinner for them, and that was the end of her entire illness.

Even in her young years, Feoktista Mikhailovna began to wander - “to walk the roads,” as she herself said. In her conversations, she recalled Moscow, Kyiv, Pochaev, the Svyatogorsk Monastery in Ukraine, Sarov, and often visited Novocherkassk. On the way, Blessed Theoktista prayed incessantly. It was revealed to her which house needed her help, and that’s where she went first.

They also remember that in the village they brought babies to her. She kissed some, and ordered others to be carried away. As it turned out later, death awaited the first, while others recovered, and the blessed one saw this with spiritual eyes.

The Lord destined Blessed Theoktiste, during the years of hard times, to become a companion of our new martyrs, their helper, a prayer worker who supported them on the way of confession on the cross.

Blessed Theoktista was revered by the smch for the height of his spiritual life. Peter (Zverev). The blessed one constantly visited him in a house near the Alexievsky Monastery, and went straight to his cell and sat on the bed, where she waited while Vladyka received people who came to him in large numbers. Vladyka always called her respectfully, by her first name and patronymic.

In letters from the Solovetsky camp, Hieromartyr Peter recalled the Voronezh ascetic and asked for her holy prayers: “I pray for everyone unceasingly, I sincerely wish to see everyone. Let us not weaken in spirit in sorrow, let us live in hope of God’s mercy. Ask for Feoktista Mikhailovna’s prayers.”

After the revolution, a strong spiritual community emerged in Voronezh, similar to the Moscow community of the Righteous Alexy and the Hieromartyr Sergius Mechevyh. This community was founded by the famous Voronezh ascetic, later a new martyr, Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev. Father Mitrofan was in awe and considered himself her novice. About Mother Theoktista he said: “This servant of God is in the measure of Anthony the Great, I would be glad to remain at her feet day and night.”

Schema nun Ioanna (Anisimova) has preserved the memory of the events associated with the trial of Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev in October 1929: “He was tried in Voronezh in the early thirties. They say that the old woman Theoktista tried to go to trial... She acted like a fool... She shouted: “Let me look at this bad man! Get him out of here, get him out of here!” All the priests from that group were sentenced to death, and Father Mitrofan was given exile - Theoktista pleaded.”

According to A.V. Anisiforova: “When the priest was getting ready to go into exile, we asked him who he was leaving us with. He said: “To Feoktista Mikhailovna and Maxim Pavlovich.”

The blessed old woman was given the opportunity to see with spiritual eyes the confessional path of the young hieromonk Seraphim (Myakinin), the future elder schema-abbot Mitrofan. Father Mitrofan was ordained to the priesthood in the Assumption Admiralty Church of Voronezh by Archbishop Zacharias (Lobov), later a holy martyr. When he was in the city, he attended services in the city churches, and one day during the service, Blessed Theoktista approached him and, hitting him hard on the shoulder, asked: “More?” Then she herself, after a little hesitation, answered: “That’s enough!” - and gave him three crackers. This was in 1934. Soon after this, a three-year exile to the Karaganda camp followed - to the Kazakh steppes.

The meeting with Blessed Theoktista largely determined the future life path of the young doctor Nikolai Ovchinnikov, who lived next door to her. He often visited the blessed one, and in conversations with him she said: “What kind of doctor are you - you priest.” Many years later, Nikolai Ovchinnikov actually accepted holy orders, and at the end of his life, the great schema with the name Nektariy.

In recent years, my mother began to noticeably weaken. She was tormented by bouts of severe coughing, and her thin figure was shrinking before her eyes. She walked as before in all kinds of weather, in rain and frost. She visited many, helped many, consoled many - and did not have a permanent refuge. Winter 1940 Mother ordered to take her to her friends in Chizhovka. Obviously, it was revealed to her about her imminent death. The old woman died on the night of March 5-6, 1940. In the coffin she lay bright, wonderful, asleep in the eternal sleep of blessed and righteous people.

She was buried on Saturday, March 9, 1940 at Pridacha, on a clear, sunny day, and in 1961. the remains of the blessed old woman were transferred to the new Left Bank cemetery (“Baki”). The reburial service was performed by Fr. Nikolai Ovchinnikov, to whom the blessed one once predicted the priesthood.

September 16, 2009 In anticipation of the glorification of the Voronezh ascetic as a saint, her honorable remains were transferred to the cemetery of the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery.

And now blessed Theoktista comes to us in visible and invisible ways, giving help in mental and physical needs.

What do they ask the saint for?

All her life she humbly endured all the hardships that befell her. Moreover, there was not a drop of malice in her. On the contrary, she always tried to help those around her, no matter how they treated her. There is a lot of information about who and how Blessed Theoktista of Voronezh helps. She considers all petitions that come from the heart.

Try to distract yourself from everything as much as possible and focus on the problem. She pays special attention to those who sincerely repent or have illnesses. Basically they ask her:

• healing from illnesses of body and soul;
• assistance in solving difficult life situations;
• finding a job;
• material well-being and so on.

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What miracles of Voronezh Vanga did the priests tell about?

For Christ's sake, the holy fool came from a noble family and had a good education, but she still pretended to be a fool.

For many Voronezh residents it is already extremely important to know what events will mark the coming year 2021 for them. The uncertainty of the future has always attracted people, so from the beginning of the world they have gone to astrologers, fortune tellers, and clairvoyants. However, in our city in the last century there lived its own Voronezh Vanga (the legendary Bulgarian soothsayer), who during the harsh Stalinist times helped spiritually a large number of our ancestors. Her name was Blessed Theoktista (Shulgina).

This woman was born in 1855 in Novocherkassk into a noble family. When the girl was born, her father, Colonel Mikhail Shulgin, gave her the name Anfisa. She received a good education, which she then tried to carefully hide. When Anfisa grew up, she married a naval officer. However, he died during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

Here, in fact, is all that is known about the childhood and youth of Voronezh Blessed Theoktista. However, her further fate became an example of true service and asceticism, which religious people still talk about. Feoktista is often called the Voronezh Vanga, since all her predictions came true with amazing accuracy.

Blessed Theoktista (Shulgina)

Orthodox priests say that the tragedy of her husband’s death in the Russo-Japanese War prompted Anfisa Shulgina’s decision to take on the feat of foolishness in Christ. This is how Orthodox believers call the properties of individual wandering monks and ascetics who look like real madmen. Their main goal is to expose the outside world, deliberately hiding their own virtues from prying eyes. Fools deliberately incur insults, beatings and humiliation upon themselves. They need all this in order to find their home in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In general, foolishness, as Orthodox priests point out, is a heavy cross that almost no person can bear. However, Blessed Theoktista (this is the name Anfisa Shulgina received when she was tonsured as a nun) was able to carry this vow until the end of her life. She fooled around, deliberately hid her noble origins, but selflessly helped people and worked miracles.

This is what the elder’s spiritual stepdaughter Agniya Yakovlevna Lomonosova recalled:

“Mother said that she was illiterate, but she herself once named the Latin letters on silver spoons. Mother knew the entire Gospel, and the entire church service, and one old nun... said that mother knew such church prayers and chants that are rarely, sometimes only once a year, read and sung, and not even all the priests know them, said Agniya Lomonosova .

Blessed Theoktista ended up in Voronezh in 1920. She lived in our city until her death. At first, the holy fool settled down in one of the cells of the Aleksivo-Akatov Monastery on Liberation of Labor Street (formerly Vvedenskaya Street). However, after the closure of this religious place, Theoktista began to wander the streets. Often she had to sleep in the open air. She endured beatings, ridicule and humiliation. For all the humility with which the holy fool endured suffering, as the clergy say, the Holy Spirit descended on her. And from that moment the miracles of blessed Theoktista began.

Aleksivo-Akatov Monastery in the 30s of the XX century

So, they say that in the 30s the nun became a frequent guest in one of the Voronezh families, where the head was one of the Voronezh party bosses. Fearing for their position, our fellow countrymen were afraid of these visits. However, Theoktista tirelessly went to these people and sometimes made sure that others saw her visiting the eminent family.

One day the holy fool came to the Voronezh residents and found only one mistress. The nun made a sad face and said:

- Mother, are you still alone?...

- How are you, mother, alone? Dmitry will come home from work now.

- No, mother, alone, he is not with you.

The owner did not know that her husband had already been repressed and sent to concentration camps. How the holy fool could know this still remains a mystery. Nevertheless, Blessed Theoktista did not abandon the family, but began to constantly help him with money, food, and advice.

Fresco of Blessed Theoktista (Shulgina)

Another time, Feoktista walked with a woman to a village near Voronezh. However, suddenly the holy fool stopped and walked in the other direction. She approached an unfamiliar house and went inside. The hostess immediately threw herself on the blessed woman’s neck with tears and began asking about her husband. He, they say, left a long time ago and does not give any news about himself. “Is he alive?!” — the mistress of the house asked with sobs. To this, the holy fool calmed the woman and said that her husband was unharmed. He will return by Easter. Amazingly, it later turned out that Theoktista told the stranger the absolute truth. My husband returned home just in time for Easter.

And once, as the priests said, the holy fool was even able to drive away an angry bull. Theoktista walked with the woman accompanying her past a herd of cows. Suddenly the blessed woman’s companion noticed a huge bull and said that she was afraid to continue the road.

“Mother, let’s go around the herd, I’m afraid of the bull,” the woman said to Theoktista.

“By,” answered the blessed one, “don’t be afraid.”

Theoktista went straight at the bull. The animal began to let off steam and rushed straight at the blessed companion. She closed her eyes and prepared for death. However, then she heard Theoktista’s voice:

- Girl, what are you doing there? – the holy fool called her.

The woman saw that the bull moved to the side.

“Forgive me, mother, I won’t be afraid anymore,” she said.

Many Voronezh residents hated the blessed one because she called a spade a spade. However, for Theoktista none of this mattered. She continued to bring the truth to this world. The holy fool died in 1940. First she was buried at the left bank cemetery "Baki". However, in 2009 she was reburied in the necropolis of the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery. They say that then Bishop Sergius delivered a secret speech in front of the holy fool’s grave.

Ilya Ershov
News on Notepad-Voronezh

Holy face

It is advisable to address all your requests to the saint in front of her icon. In this case, you will clearly understand who you are addressing. But don’t think that this image will help solve all your troubles. Remember, in this case your faith is important. You can address her either in your own words or with the help of a special prayer.

“Oh, Blessed Mother, Venerable Theoktista, Defender of the Voronezh lands and tireless prayer book for us sinners. During the years of unbelief, You accepted the feat of prayer and, like Your Blessed sister Xenia from the city of Peter, was called by another name for the world when she died. Accept spiritual guidance over us unworthy and in earthly needs help us acquire patience and humility, forgiveness of opponents, overcome the ridicule of misunderstanding and human rejection. Make us Your spiritual children, not seeking easy paths and earthly glory, but desiring with our souls to enter the Abode of the Heavenly Father with Christ our Lord, where You abide now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. And may the Grace of Christ our God descend into our souls under the shadow of Your wings, the Heavenly Angel in the flesh, we confess You and ask for Your pure prayers. Amen."

Remember that every word must come from a pure heart. Only in this case will you be heard by the Lord and his saints.

God bless you!

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You will also be interested in watching the video story about Blessed Theoktista:

oxbow lakes

Blessed Alipia (Agapia Tikhonovna Avdeeva) was born presumably in 1910 in the Penza region into the pious family of Tikhon and Vassa Avdeev. The blessed old woman said that her father was strict, and her mother was very kind, a great hard worker and very neat. Sometimes she would put all sorts of treats in her apron and order her to take them to the poor in their village; my mother gave out especially many treats on holidays. When it was time to study, Agapia was sent to school. The smart girl gave advice to everyone, she was transferred to another class, and among the children a year older than her, Agapia was distinguished by her intelligence and intelligence. In 1918, Agapia’s parents were shot. All night the eight-year-old girl herself read the Psalter for the dead. For some time Agapia lived with her uncle, after studying at school for only two years, she went to “wander” to holy places...

During the years of unbelief - she spent 10 years in prison, despite the difficult conditions of detention, she tried to observe fasting and prayed incessantly.

From Maria's memoirs:

– Mother went through a lot during the period of persecution of the Orthodox: she was arrested and put in a common cell... There were many priests in the prison where she was kept. Every night 5-6 people were taken away forever. Finally, only three remained in the cell: one priest, his son and Mother. The priest said to his son: “Let’s serve a memorial service for ourselves, today they will take us away by dawn”... And he said to Matushka: “And today you will leave here alive.” They served a memorial service, father and son buried themselves, and at night they were taken away forever. Mother was left alone: ​​the door in the cell silently opened, the Apostle Peter entered and through the back door led Mother out to the sea. She walked without food or water for 11 days. She climbed steep rocks, broke off, fell, rose, crawled again, tearing her elbows to the bone. But the Lord preserved her. She had deep scars on her arms, which she showed me. Perhaps then Mother visited the Great Elder of Jerusalem, Hieroschemamonk Theodosius 71, who lived near Novorossiysk in the village of Gorny (formerly the village of Krymskaya). Mother herself said about this: “I visited Theodosius, I saw Theodosius, I know Theodosius.” It is possible that the elder blessed Mother for the great feat of foolishness...

The old woman often recalled her miraculous deliverance, honored the day of remembrance of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and often prayed at the icon of the Apostles...

During the war, Agapia ended up doing forced labor in Germany...

From Martha's memoirs:

“Mother told me that when she was at work in Germany, at night she read the Psalter for women who had children or sick old people at home and led them beyond the barbed wire and they went home safely. Mother herself left even before the end of the war, crossed the front line and went on foot to Kyiv... One day several men caught up with her on the road... She began to earnestly pray to the Mother of God to protect her. Not far away I saw a stack of straw and ran to it to hide from the bandits... She ran to the stack, pressed her back to it, and the Mother of God with tears asked not to leave her.

The bandits ran around the stack, cursing: “Where did she go, she has nowhere to hide!” They stood and left, and Mother looked at herself and saw that she was all light, all her clothes were white, her hands were white... The Mother of God protected, hid from the bandits, dressed her in heavenly light, that’s why they didn’t see her.

Mother was literate, read and wrote well, and knew the entire Psalter by heart.

She once asked me: “What year were you born?”

“1916,” I answered.

- And I’m 6 years older than you.

By the providence of God, for the sake of Christ, the holy fool Agapia was accepted into the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where she lived until its closure. Archimandrite Kronid, when tonsured into monasticism, gave Agapia a new name - Alypia, and blessed her for the feat of stylite monasticism. The ascetic spent three years in the hollow of an old tree.

“When it was very cold, I went into the corridor to the monks to warm up. Some will pass by, give bread, and others will drive them away... But I was not offended by them,” the blessed old woman later recalled.

Voluntarily bearing the cross of foolishness for Christ's sake, humbly accepting humiliation and insults, courageously enduring hardships, the ascetic acquired humility and meekness, and for this she was awarded great gifts from the Lord: insight and the gift of healing through prayer.

From the memoirs of Inna Alexandrovna:

– My mother and I returned from evacuation to Kyiv. This was in 1947, and they began to go to Father Damian at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra for advice and instructions... Then my mother pointed out to me a thin, slender woman, neatly combed... Mom said that her name was Lipa, she lived in the ravine behind the Lavra fence right under the open sky, spends his nights without sleep in unceasing prayer... Lipa had an unusually deep, pure, warm, affectionate, loving look from his light gray eyes... Lipa's spiritual father was the governor of the Lavra, Archimandrite Kronid. According to the recollections of Mother Alipia herself: when the service in the church ended, he approached her, gave her crackers and said: “Well, it’s warmed up, eat and go save yourself.” She, obedient to her spiritual father, obediently retreated to a large tree and climbed into the hollow, in which it was only possible to stand half-bent over. When in winter the snow was so thick that it was impossible to get out of the hollow and she did not go to church, Father Kronid himself made his way to her, brought crackers in his robes, and called out: “Aren’t you cold?” He left the offering and his invariable word “save yourself” and went to the Lavra, leaving the ascetic in the care of a long, winter night. It was eerie in the deep ravine, hungry, stray dogs came and howled right under the hollow, the frost shackled the half-bent, motionless body. And only the unceasing Jesus Prayer consoled, strengthened and warmed.

This continued until 1954, when Lipa’s spiritual father and mentor, Archimandrite Kronid, died...

She loved everyone, pitied her, and was not offended by anyone, although many offended her with their lack of understanding of the heavy cross that she took on her fragile shoulders.

In simple, modest clothes, she was always neat and clean... It still remains a mystery to me: how Lipa managed to maintain her external cleanliness, beauty and attractiveness, without having a roof over her head... For three years, spending nights in the hollow of a large tree, without having food, she never complained, did not ask for alms, eating what people themselves gave her...

Father Damian also saw her: “Well, why are you sitting here under the steps, you’re cold, go sleep under Father Andrei’s door”... Both elders lived in the same corridor and the doors of their cells were never closed from visitors... Father Andrei received everyone: he reprimanded the possessed , healed the sick, helped the poor, fed everyone from the Lavra meal... It was to this threshold that Father Damian sent the orphaned child of Father Kronid...

Many years later, I understood the meaning of this blessing: Lipa should have already approached the threshold of the miraculous old man. Everything was still ahead: the revival of a child who had died from intoxication, healing from fatal diseases, the expulsion of demons, extraordinary insight, the action of the grace of the Holy Spirit such that the forces of nature obeyed it, boundless, all-encompassing love for people, both good and evil, selfless generosity...

What else I noticed is that Father Damian treated Lipa very warmly and caringly, talked to her as an equal, as his employee, apparently, he saw in her a servant of God and his follower.

Time passed, human sins multiplied, black clouds gathered over the Lavra: rumors spread about its closure. Lipa’s behavior became strange - she raised her hands to the sky, screamed loudly in her Mordovian language, fell to her knees and cried... (Mother grieved, foreseeing the imminent closure of the shrine)

A thunderstorm broke out in March 1961: the brightly shining star of the great shrine set immediately. The bells fell silent. The wonderful choir of monks fell silent, prayers were no longer heard in the churches, the doors of the cells were closed, the corridors were empty, the lamps went out. The elders dispersed - some to eternity, others persecuted by the authorities...

After the closure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Blessed Alypia settled in a small house near the Goloseevskaya Hermitage. Local residents, who knew about the miracles of healing through the prayers of the righteous woman, came to her in an endless stream for prayerful help, advice, and healing.

From Martha's memoirs:

– Mother Alypia observed the fasts very strictly – she did not eat anything during the First and Holy Week of Great Lent, Wednesday and Friday of each week. I didn’t go to bed, I prayed all night. She wore a large bunch of keys on a cord around her neck - a kind of chains.

Their story is interesting: they said that during the war, while in a German camp, she worked at some kind. And for every person she saved, a small and a large, white and yellow key was added to his neck. Mother wore this heavy bundle around her neck until her death. A thin, strong cord dug into the body, leaving a deep blue scar.

From all sides of our great Motherland, people traveled to this fragile, blessed lamp: archimandrites and abbots of monasteries, monks and laymen, high officials and simple workers, elderly and young, young and children, the sick, the sorrowful and the persecuted. Every day, 50–60 people would come to see my mother. And Mother Alipia received everyone with love, although she saw everyone perfectly well what he brought in himself: faith, love, curiosity or evil. But everyone fit into her heart, she knew what to say and how to tell everyone, who to heal with compote or porridge, and who with ointment or wine. She did not bless her spiritual children to undergo operations, especially abdominal ones.

Mother began to tell me a parable: “Two people are going to church, and towards them a poor man is carrying firewood on a cart. After the rain, the road was washed out, the holes were filled with mud, the donkey stumbled and fell, and the cart with firewood overturned and fell into the mud. The poor man works hard, but cannot do anything himself. One says: “Let’s help him,” and the other replies: “We’ll get our clothes and shoes dirty, and we’ll come to church in dirty clothes, and we’ll be late for the service,” and walked past. And the first one went into the mud, helped the donkey get up, lifted the cart with firewood, helped pull it out of the mud, got all dirty himself, and when he had finished, he followed his friend. He arrives at the church just in time for the service to begin. A friend saw him and asked: “Did you help?”

- Yes, I helped.

- Why are your clothes clean?

The helper looked at his clothes and shoes, and they were clean.

My mother says to me: “Come tomorrow morning, we’ll prepare firewood for the winter.” It rained heavily at night, it was cold, I began to get ready to visit my mother, put on clean clothes and new suede boots. I thought that I would find something to change clothes and shoes from her for work. I came early, but my mother was not at home, the hut and shed were locked... And in the forest it was wet, dirty, I, in my new boots and clean clothes, was carrying branches, stacking them near the hut... And only at 5 o’clock in the evening she walked, tired, carrying on her shoulders basket and bag over your shoulders. Mother asks me: “And did you go to the forest?”

- Yes.

– Why are your boots and clothes clean?

I looked at my feet; my boots and clothes were completely clean. As if I hadn’t walked through mud all day and carried big wet tree branches on my shoulders...

From the memoirs of Anna K.:

“It was an inexhaustible source of miracles and healings that neither life, nor years, nor death could destroy. In the bent, glorious, wonderful creation of God, inexhaustible miraculous power was manifested, poured out on all who came to her with their sorrows and illnesses. No one was inconsolable, did not leave her, and also received spiritual healing. For the first time, a terrible illness brought me to my mother’s house. I couldn’t eat anything... I was completely dry and black, and there were two other small children in my arms at the time. Having no strength, I still, with great difficulty, got to my mother’s house, knocked, she immediately opened the door for me, saying with a smile: “Oh, come in, come in, now you’ll eat”... I remember how shrewdly she looked inside me... She put a frying pan in front of Maria and me, crossed the food and made us eat... I ate with Maria. And this was the first miracle my mother performed on me. I ate everything and didn’t feel like I was full. Since then, the blackness from my face began to disappear, I began to eat and gained weight... Mommy invited me to come to her more often and, thank God, I had somewhere to come. You go to the great old lady sick, broken, barely alive, and you run back like a newborn person. Both sorrows and troubles - everything passed by. Truly, God is marvelous in His saints! Many times, with her prayers, Mother prevented the misfortune that was looming over me and my family... Everyone knows that Mommy treated me with an ointment that she herself prepared. Before cooking, she fasted and prayed a lot. I cooked the ointment all night and prayed the rosary. Leaning towards me, she once said in my ear: “You know, the ointment eats up all the cancer cells.” This was said in a whisper and seriously. I thought: “So this has already been tested, you won’t be lost with the ointment.”

How great was the power of the action not of the ointment itself, but of mother’s prayer acting through the ointment. Out of her modesty, she did not want people to elevate her actions in miraculous healings, and transferred all her power to the action of the ointment, and with a blessing from above, of course, the ointment was healing. When people complained of any pain, she said: “Apply ointment and it will go away.” And it passed... Those who often visited mother said that she predicted Chernobyl 5 years ago. I visited her 2 weeks before the accident, she looked at the icons and said: “Look how they shine, what a fire!” But what could I see? Two weeks later there was an accident. On this day, mother was dressed all in black and repeated several times: “We live by the pain of others!”

One day I brought Mommy two icons of the Most Holy Trinity and St. Nicholas of Japan and she said: “I know him, help me, honey, don’t, help the ELEVENTH, no, don’t.” Tears flooded mommy's face. My premonition predicted something bad was awaiting me on the 11th. She prayed for a long time, asked him and added: “This is a great saint.” And then she added the number 8... The 11th - winter was coming to an end, a thaw had set in, and huge blocks of heavy ice lay on the roofs. My husband was going to work, suddenly, a huge block breaks off from the roof of a huge house and falls in front of my husband at a distance of one step. Just one moment separated him from terrible death.

I visited my sick father in the hospital, and it was already late when I returned home. Right next to my house, someone from the top floor dropped an empty bottle, and it shattered to pieces in front of my very nose, a few centimeters away - in just a moment, it’s hard to imagine what would have happened - it happened on the 8th.

From the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of the blessed old woman Alipia Nina:

“A tumor the size of a chicken egg has formed on my chest. I went to the doctor, they did all the necessary tests, which showed that the tumor needed to be urgently removed... Maria and I are going to see my mother. We just went to see her, and my mother shouts: “Don’t give her up to death!” And she didn’t bless me to go to the hospital... Mother prepared an ointment for me. I applied this ointment to my tumor 2 or 3 times and the tumor completely disappeared. More than 10 years have passed since then. I still have certificates and tests confirming that the tumor was malignant.

When I happened to be alone with my mother, especially in the morning, my soul melted from the warmth, caring, affection, love with which she warmed us. How much tenderness and kindness there was in her is difficult to convey in words; only those who felt it themselves can understand it. Mother said: “The Lord will not abandon my people; somewhere there will be a piece of bread for them.”

One day my mother was sitting next to me. An old wise cat, Okhrim, came out into the garden and walked around the edge of the garden, stopping and sniffing the ground. Mother turned to me: “Do you understand what the cat is saying?”

- No, I don’t understand, it’s not given to me.

- And I understand the cat, and the chicken, and all kinds of birds and animals, so Okhrim came and said that the garden was planted well.

This year my mother had a good potato harvest.

Valentina S.E. - the spiritual daughter of Blessed Alipia, more than once witnessed miracles revealed by the Lord through the prayers of the old woman:

“Mother understood the language of birds, chickens, and cats. Several of us were sitting in the garden, and many birds gathered in the trees and on the roof. They chirped, whistled and chirped. Mother spoke to them in a Mordovian language I did not understand. It was clear from the behavior of the birds that they understood their mother’s words. Sitting nearby was the cat Okhrim. Mother addressed the birds in Russian: “Here he sits, but I don’t answer, if you fall into his clutches, fly away.” The birds rose and flew away... Mother did not eat meat for 47 years...

Mother cooked borscht. People came, I sat on the edge. Mother tells me: “Pour some borscht.” I filled 11 plates. 4 more people came, Mother again said to me: “Pour borscht,” and I thought to myself: “Is there enough borscht?” I looked into the cast iron pot, and there was half a pot of borscht. I thought that I hadn’t noticed how Mother got up and topped up the borscht. I poured 4 plates and I think that if more people come, there won’t be enough borscht. Three people came again, and again my mother addressed me: “Pour some borscht.” This time I definitely saw that mother did not get up from her seat and did not top up the borscht. I go over to pour it, open the cauldron, and there is exactly half of the borscht, as if I hadn’t poured from it - it’s all half. Then I realized that by the grace of God, my mother’s food increased.

I once asked her: “How can I be saved?” She replied: “Lord, have mercy!”

From the memoirs of nun F.:

– I met Matushka in 1981. I came to enter the Florovsky Monastery.

For 21 weeks, throughout the fall and winter, my mother was seriously ill. She did not take food, but only drank a little water. After Easter I ate some milk porridge. Before her illness, mother fed people with what the people themselves brought. And after her illness, until her death, she began to cook and feed people herself. While preparing food, she was not allowed to talk, so as not to defile the food. I cooked borscht and porridge every day. She always prepared food with prayer.

On my next visit, mother looked at the icons and asked: “A finger on a hand or a toe? Is it whole or not? Then he says: “Intact.” And when my brother arrived, it turned out that he was sawing wood and touched his finger, but did not touch the bone.

Mother could hear who was calling her from a distance. I became very ill and began to call Mother for help. Mother said to those gathered: “The doctor in Podil is dying,” and she began to pray for me and prayed all night. In the morning I felt better.

She understood the language of animals and birds. A calf came to her and she fed it. One day he came and stood there, and his mother said: “Your head hurts, come on, eat some bread and the pain will stop.” The elk calf ate the bread and went into the forest.

According to eyewitnesses, in the dry summer of 1986, the righteous woman fasted and prayed for eleven days, and then told her spiritual children that she “begged for rain.” After this conversation, on the same day it began to rain heavily.

For her kindness, many loved the blessed old woman, but there were also ill-wishers whom she and her many visitors irritated. A man who lived next door more than once threatened to destroy the home of Elder Alipia. One day he persuaded a tractor driver to come and use a bucket to pick up the logs supporting the wall of a dilapidated house. The old woman prayed with her hands raised to heaven, asking for intercession from St. Nicholas and help. Here is what the spiritual daughter of Blessed Alipia told about this event:

“The tractor driver hooked the cable to a log under the roof and began to drag the tractor to destroy the roof. Mother began to pray, everyone present began to shout at the tractor driver, exhorting him not to harm mother. At this time it started to rain, so hard that it became dark (the surprising thing is that there was not a cloud in the sky that day). The tractor driver was sitting in the tractor cab, waiting out the rain. But the rain did not stop. So, without destroying anything, the tractor driver drove away. But the house remained standing unharmed. Then people, together, repaired what had collapsed due to disrepair, and mother continued to live in her cell. “As long as I’m alive, the house will not be destroyed, the monks of Pechersk will not allow it, but after death they will demolish it, and nothing will remain,” mother said (and this is what happened).

She amazed everyone who knew Mother with her gift of healing, the effective power of prayer and obvious insight... I suffered from severe headaches. Mother gave me compote to drink and said: “It will pass after the Ascension.” And so it was. After the Ascension, I stopped suffering from headaches... My father suffered from kidney stone disease, was in the hospital, they wanted to have an operation on him, but he did not agree and left the hospital. When my father and I came to my mother, she saw him and said: “Well done for leaving, otherwise they would have killed him.” I gave him compote to drink, and his pain stopped...

Archpriest Vitaly Medved recalls:

– Before the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Rus' in the Demievskaya Church, my mother comes up to me and says loudly: “Christ is Risen! Now they won’t torture you.”

Then they didn’t register me in Kyiv, I went to her. She looked at me and said: “Don’t be afraid, go, they’ll register you.” And indeed, I was soon registered.

Mother helped a lot in court cases: through her prayers, the terms of imprisonment were reduced; those wrongly convicted were released. Mother helped a lot with various of the most confusing and incorrectly executed financial accounts. Through her prayers, everything was arranged, settled and resolved successfully.

She treated people with food she herself prepared and strawberries, from which she prepared an ointment. Before the explosion in Chernobyl, she predicted: “People will be gassed.”

From the memoirs of Archpriest Anatoly Gorodinsky:

– We first met Mother Alipia in 1974 in the Church of the Ascension on Demievka. It was impossible not to notice her. On the way to church, she always stopped at the store and bought a lot of bread and rolls. She put all this on the funeral table. And she taught us: “Always have a piece of bread with you.” She lived in a small house, which had one room and a small corridor where her chickens and cats, which she always kept, were placed... People came to mother for prayer, advice, and blessings. We needed all this too. She often blessed us and gave us a lot of sweets. We objected why we needed so many candies, but she insisted: “This is for the kids.” But we didn’t have children for 10 long years. We believed mother’s words, now we are a large family. The Lord sent us joy through mother’s prayers and our requests. Before Chernobyl, Mother was very restless; when she sent everyone home, she said: “Close the doors and windows tightly, there will be a lot of gas.” Many asked what to do: leave or stay in Kyiv. Mother did not bless anyone to leave, and those who did not listen later regretted it, it was even worse there. When asked what to do with food, she said: “Wash it, read the Our Father and the Virgin Mary, cross yourself and eat and be healthy.”

From Maria's memoirs:

– The last Sunday before Easter – The Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem for His suffering. Early in the morning, Chernobyl, which my mother had seen back in the winter, broke out. From that day on, she began to give Cahors to everyone who came, but warned: “So that after my death they do not take wine into their mouth.”

Two months before her death, she no longer blessed anyone to stay overnight...

On Saturday (October 29) she sent for me. She told me: “Go to our church, light the candles, but don’t light them, let them be there in the morning. Take the memorial service and run to the Lavra, don’t come to me again.”

On Sunday, October 30, after mass, I came. Mother was very weak. She blessed everyone to go together to Kitaevo: “Pray to the saints and pray for me,” predicting the canonization of 5 saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

Before her death, the old woman asked everyone who came to her for forgiveness, asked them to come to her grave and talk about their troubles and illnesses.

From the memoirs of the elder’s spiritual daughter:

“Shortly before her death, mother had a lot of people. Suddenly she ordered everyone to kneel down and be silent. The doors opened silently and, turning to those who entered, mother asked: “Why did you come to see me?” Everyone knelt in reverent silence while mother had a quiet conversation with those who came. Who they were and what news they brought her remained a mystery. She did not open it, but after this visit she began to talk more often about death: “I will die when the first frost comes and the first snow falls. They will take me in a car and bury me in the forest.” On October 29, I was at my mother’s and cried a lot: “Don’t stand and cry, but go and give to all the churches.” And letters flew to all the monasteries asking them to pray for our mother. The spiritual children even went to Elder N. far away in Russia: “... The apple is ripe, it can no longer remain on the tree and must fall,” answered the perspicacious old man, who knew his mother only in spirit.

On October 30 there was the first severe frost, and in the evening large fluffy snow began to fall. When they handed out mother’s things, they gave me a pillow. And now, when I get a headache, I lie down on this pillow, and the pain stops.

The kingdom of heaven and eternal memory, our dear mother Alipia, for all your labors that you endured in your earthly life for all of us sinners.

From the memoirs of Ermolenko Ekaterina Ivanovna:

“During the funeral service, a strong fragrance emanated from mother’s body, the hands were warm, and when they were touched, a pleasant fragrance remained on the lips for a long time.

Quite a few testimonies have already been collected about the healing of believers through the prayers of the old woman.

Lyudmila testifies:

“I was baking a biscuit to take to the grave and burned my hand. A large blister formed and my hand hurt badly. At the grave we prayed, had a snack, and when I arrived home, there was nothing on my hand: not a blister, not a trace of burns, and I didn’t feel any pain. I didn’t notice when the healing happened, but only saw the result.

A year later, already in the 2000s, a dense growth the size of a bean formed on the first phalanx of the index finger. This growth made it very difficult to bend my finger. Having already experienced healing from a burn, while kissing the cross on the grave, I asked: “Mother, my finger hurts!” and with this growth she touched the cross.

We prayed... Half an hour later I saw that the growth was no longer there. All that was left was a reddened mark – as a keepsake!”

From the story of R. B. Nina: “A lump the size of a hazelnut has formed on the bridge of my nose. It constantly grew and hardened, making it difficult to wear glasses. When Mother Dionisia left, she gave me a flower from the grave of Mother Alipia. I began to pray to her and apply this flower. Soon the lump quietly disappeared. God bless."

Blessed Elder Alipia, pray to God for us!

»

The blessed fool for Christ, Feoktista Mikhailovna Shulgina, performed her feat in Voronezh in the 20-30s of the twentieth century.

During this atheistic period of Russian history, when all the churches in the city were gradually captured by renovationists, three ascetics of piety - Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev and the holy fools for Christ's sake Maxim Pavlovich and Feoktista Mikhailovna strengthened the Orthodox faith in people who had been knocked out of their usual rut in life. Maxim Pavlovich and Mother Theoktista continually walked around the city, maintaining the spirit of piety in it.

Everyone in the city knew Feoktista Mikhailovna, but if the believers revered her and looked to her for guidance, consolation and help, then to others she was just a fool.

Until 1931, that is, until the closure of the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery, the blessed one lived in one of the monastery’s cells. Then I lived with different people. She had her own circle, which she constantly visited. Mother Theoktista did not sleep at night and spent them in prayer and vigil.

About people who carry out the feat of Christ for the sake of foolishness, little is usually known from pre-ascetic life. They knew about Feoktista Mikhailovna that she was from Novocherkassk. Judging by some of her statements and turns of phrase, observant people concluded that she received a good education, although she said that she was not literate. Later it became known that Mother Theoktista was born into a noble family, her father was an officer.

One of the blessed woman’s feats was to “walk the roads.” She set out to travel as soon as she received her passport, by which time her father had died. From a young age, Mother Theoktista visited many holy places - from the Solovetsky Islands to Kyiv. I also visited Pochaev, although this monastery was located abroad. For the first seven years of her wanderings, for the sake of Christ, the holy fool walked barefoot. When she began to wear shoes, her feat did not diminish because she wore large shoes, put on the wrong foot and certainly with cut heels. They constantly fell off, rubbing their legs. In winter, the blessed one wore her coat open, despite her cough and other illnesses. Feoktista Mikhailovna constantly visited Novocherkassk, villages in the Voronezh region, and certainly Zadonsk. During these years, mother traveled to Novocherkassk by train, but she still walked to Zadonsk, barely moving her legs, sometimes choosing the most violent weather. On the way, she prayed incessantly. Both around the city and on long journeys, she was usually accompanied by some girl.

During the period described, Mother Theoktista was already very old. Everyone who knew her notes that she was small, although, according to the ascetic, in her youth she was of average height. Voronezh old women recalled that in the old days, when they were younger, Feoktista Mikhailovna was already old. She loved to buy armfuls of different buns from shops and took them to prisons and hospitals in a cab, and even distributed them at churches. Bakers and cab drivers invited the holy fool, knowing from experience that whose services she used would have good income that day. Feeding people was part of the blessed one’s feat. And after the revolution, in the 20-30s, visiting the families under her care, she often came with rolls and gingerbread, and when these families were in need, under the guise of foolishness, she helped them with food and money.

In Voronezh, Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev was then known for his spiritual authority and righteous life. Left without a parish, he continued to regularly serve prayer services, during which healing was poured out to many. With the blessing of the Optina elders, Father Mitrofan cared for the community of girls who gathered around him, in the absence of monasteries. By the end of the 20s, the girls were distributed among farms and pious city families, but the connection remained. Going into exile, from which he never returned, Father Mitrofan left his community under the protection of Mother Theoktista. When asked why he revered the holy fool, the priest replied that “this servant of God is in the measure of Anthony the Great.”

Voronezh Archbishop Peter (Zverev) also highly appreciated Blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna for her spiritual feat and asked for her prayers.

Through the holiness of her life, Mother Theoktista acquired from the Lord the gift of insight and the gift of healing, with which she more than once helped her charges. Sometimes she denounced one of the passers-by on the street. Many hated her because she awakened their conscience. They mocked her and even attacked her, but the blessed one humbly endured the reproaches.

Doctors diagnosed Feoktista Mikhailovna with consumption and wondered how one could live with rotten lungs. In 1939, the blessed one became very ill. She rested for two or three days in the houses she usually visited. The time of death was revealed to her. One night, despite great weakness, she left the house of Agnia Yakovlevna Likhonosova, with whom she was staying due to illness. To the hostess’s protests, she replied: “I can’t die with you, they will drag you down for me.”

Mother remained until her death in one of the houses on Chizhovka. On the evening before her death, the blessed one asked the hostess: “Where will you put me to sleep today?” She was shown an ordinary bed. “No, this is not where you will put me today.” Her words came true.

Blessed Theoktista died on March 6, 1940, Wednesday, at 10 pm. Everyone who cared about Mother was notified that same night. She was buried on Saturday, March 9, at the Pridachenskoe cemetery.

In 1961, the remains of the blessed one were transferred to the new cemetery “on the tanks”. The reburial was carried out by Archpriest Nikolai Ovchinnikov (in the schema Nektary), to whom, when he was still a doctor, his mother predicted the priesthood.

Memory of Mother Theoktista on February 21 according to the church calendar.

Holy blessed mother Theoktista, pray to God for us.

Mother Feoktista of Voronezh what they pray for

Shulgina Feoktista Mikhailovna (1855 - 1940), ascetic, holy fool for Christ's sake.
She was born in 1855 to a noble family in Novocherkassk, her father was an officer. Subsequently, from some of her statements and turns of phrase, one could conclude that she received a good education, although she said that she was not literate.

When her father passed away, as soon as she received her passport, she set off to travel. From a young age, Mother Theoktista visited many holy places - from the Solovetsky Islands to Kyiv. I also visited the Pochaev Lavra. For the first seven years of her travels, she walked barefoot. When she began to wear shoes, her feat did not diminish because she wore large shoes, put on the wrong foot and certainly with cut heels.

She carried out the feat of foolishness for Christ in Voronezh since the 1920s. She constantly walked around the city, maintaining the spirit of piety and thus opposing renovationism.

Before the closure of the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery in 1931, the blessed one lived in one of the monastery’s cells. Then I lived with different people. She had her own circle, which she constantly visited.

By this time, Mother Theoktista was already very old. Those who knew her during these years noted that she was small, although, according to the ascetic, in her youth she was of average height. She did not sleep at night, spending them in prayer and vigil. In winter, the blessed one wore her coat open, despite her cough and other illnesses. Feoktista Mikhailovna constantly visited Novocherkassk, villages in the Voronezh region, and certainly Zadonsk. During these years, mother traveled to Novocherkassk by train, but she still walked to Zadonsk, barely moving her legs, sometimes choosing the most violent weather. On the way, she prayed incessantly. Both around the city and on long journeys, she was usually accompanied by some girl.

Part of the blessed one’s feat was to feed people. She loved to buy armfuls of different buns from shops and took them to prisons and hospitals in a cab, and even distributed them at churches. Bakers and cab drivers invited the holy fool, knowing from experience that whose services she used would have good income that day. When visiting the families she cared for after the revolution, she often came with rolls and gingerbread, and when these families were in need, under the guise of foolishness she helped them with food and money.

Through the holiness of her life, Mother Theoktista acquired from the Lord the gift of insight and the gift of healing, with which she more than once helped her charges. Sometimes she denounced one of the passers-by on the street. Many hated her because she awakened their conscience. They mocked her and even beat her, but the blessed one humbly endured the abuse.

Everyone knew Feoktista Mikhailovna in Voronezh; for non-believers she was just a “fool”; believers revered her and looked to her for guidance, consolation and help. Known for his spiritual authority and righteous life, Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev [1], going into exile, entrusted the blessed community of girls he cared for. When asked why he revered the holy fool, the priest replied that “ this servant of God is in the measure of Anthony the Great

". Voronezh Archbishop Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev) also highly valued Blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna for her spiritual feat and asked for her prayers.

Towards the end of her earthly life, doctors diagnosed Feoktista Mikhailovna with consumption and wondered how she could live with rotten lungs. In 1939, the blessed one became very ill. She rested for two or three days in the houses she usually visited. The time of death was revealed to her in advance. One night, despite great weakness, she left the house of Agnia Yakovlevna Likhonosova, with whom she was staying due to illness. To the hostess’s protests, she replied: “ I can’t die with you, they’ll drag you down for me.”

."
Mother remained until her death in one of the houses on Chizhovka. On the evening before her death, the blessed one asked the hostess: “ Where will you put me to sleep today
?”
She was shown an ordinary bed. " No, this is not where you put me today
." And so it happened. At 10 pm that day, Wednesday March 6, 1940, she died. Everyone who cared about Mother was notified that same night. She was buried on Saturday, March 9, at the Pridachenskoe cemetery.

In 1961, the remains of the blessed one were transferred to the new cemetery “on the tanks.” The reburial was carried out by Archpriest Nikolai Ovchinnikov, in the schema of Nektary, to whom, when he was still a doctor, his mother predicted the priesthood.

As of 2012, the official website of the Voronezh diocese listed her as a revered ascetic of piety [2], although there was no conciliar glorification of her as a saint.

Film from Alexander Nikonov studio, 2012

Our dear neighbor, old man Pavel Pavlovich, was dying. Once he told me about my mother (although he did not favor holy fools at all): “She is the smartest, kindest and best I have ever known.” Pavel Pavlovich was dying from purulent pleurisy, and the illness progressed so quickly that they did not have time to call a priest, who was not easy to find then. Mother spent the night with us. At night Pavel Pavlovich felt very bad and was probably in severe pain. He was fully conscious and moaned loudly, so that we could hear it too. We began to ask mother to go to him. She ordered to put the jam in a saucer and went. Her visit was special, somehow solemn and blessed. She walked up to his bed and sat down on a chair, handed him a saucer of jam and told him to eat it all. Pavel Pavlovich ate without resistance and only said: “What sweetness, what sweetness,” and did not seem to feel any pain. Mother sat silently and left, we followed her out. Pavel Pavlovich became quiet and no longer moaned. He died the next day without much pain.

Mother was a great servant of God, and she was honored and known by bishops, priests, and many in the city from the most diverse walks of life. Mother did not have a place where she would constantly live, and in the last years of her life she also came and went in all kinds of weather, sometimes all wet and icy. She coughed and was sick, but only occasionally will she stay with close friends for two days and then go again. Blessed Theoktista was a great woman of prayer. They even saw that mother rose into the air during prayers.

In the last years of her life, my mother began to weaken; bouts of severe coughing with phlegm did not allow her to sleep. The thin and withered figure was shrinking before our eyes. And she walked and walked on her own in all sorts of bad weather and frosts. As before, the coat is wide open, sometimes you can tie the coat with a belt. In December 1939, she became completely ill. He will come to us for a few days and lie down. One day, mother told Polya to take her to Anna Alexandrovna on Chizhovka. When I asked why she was leaving, she said: “I can’t die with you, they will drag you down for me.” Mother remained in Anna Alexandrovna’s house until her last day. We went to her there again with sorrows, with worries and did not think that mother would completely leave us.

On the day of her death, in the evening, she asked: “Where will you put me to sleep?” They pointed her to the bed where she slept those days. Mother replied: “No, this is not where you put me.” The blessed woman's words came true. That night she died, and she was laid on a small bed, and then on a table.

On the night of February 21-22, according to the church calendar (March 6, New Style), 1940, we were awakened: they came from Anna Alexandrovna to report that mother had died. We all jumped up and ran. It was probably around one o'clock in the morning. Mother was lying on a small narrow bed. She had already been washed and dressed. I won’t talk about my impressions, for me mother was alive and is, but Maria Alekseevna, a doctor who saw many dead people, said: “I have never seen such dead people - these are relics.” Mother lay bright, wonderful, asleep in the eternal sleep of blessed and righteous people. During her life, she said: “I’ll go home,” although she did not have her own shelter anywhere, but now she has gone to her home.

On September 16, 2009, the honorable remains of Blessed Feoktista Mikhailovna were transferred from the city Left Bank cemetery of Voronezh to the necropolis of the Alexievo-Akatov convent. The Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Voronezh Metropolis is preparing materials for glorifying the old woman among the locally revered Voronezh saints.

Over the years, you begin to notice those subtle connections that exist in the world and which make us feel that there is no insurmountable line between here and there, that truly everyone is alive with God.

Based on my husband’s stories, I imagine a cramped room in an old house in the coastal part of Voronezh. His mother, exhausted by a difficult life and hard work, and next to him was his nanny, an elderly woman who had joined this family in some unknown way, as if by a higher command. The daughter of a priest and the sister of a bell-ringer, unmarried Anna Andreevna Safonova, passionately fell in love with the youngest son of the woman who sheltered her, and began to care for him and spiritually nourish him. Deeply religious, she spent a lot of time with the boy in church. Fortunately, two Voronezh churches operating in the fifties, Pokrovsky and Nikolsky, were located not far from their home.

Several times she told the boy’s mother about an amazing old woman whom she knew in the 1920s and 1930s. Aunt Nyura, then still very young, without her own corner, lived, like some other poor girls, with the cares of church people. Now it is difficult to say what role that old woman played in her young life. But she remained in her memory for a reason.

A little old woman with big blue eyes, wearing a headscarf, an unbuttoned coat—even in the winter cold—and shoes with cut heels, deliberately put on the wrong foot—this is how she remained in the memory of eyewitnesses, residents of Voronezh in the 1920s and 1930s. She made a strange impression. It seemed to outsiders that she was either a holy fool or crazy, angry at something, scolding someone. It is no wonder that it caused aggression among some newly minted atheists. Those who knew her better, whom she herself elected into her inner circle, remember her as an amazingly kind woman, even refined in her manner and turns of phrase, with her own secret, intimate life.

She was born near Novocherkassk in 1855 in the family of Colonel Mikhail Shulgin. She was baptized as Anfisa. Why did Anfisa become Theoktista? There is an opinion that mother was a secret nun and that she received a new name when she was tonsured. From her youth, she was distinguished by her devotion to God and her love of pilgrimages to holy places. It is known that she was married to an officer who died in the Russo-Japanese War. Having been widowed, she took upon herself the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake - this is her relationship with Xenia of Petersburg. In the early 1920s, it appeared in Voronezh. She found shelter in the Alexievo-Akatov Monastery. In 1931, the monastery was closed, and Mother Feoktista Mikhailovna began her wanderings among good people.

Going into exile, from which he never returned, Father Mitrofan entrusted the community of girls he cared for to Mother Theoktista. Wasn’t Aunt Nyura once close to this community?

A constant cough, diseased lungs, and possibly consumption brought death closer. Mother foresaw it. On the eve of her death, she left a home close to her, fearing to bring persecution on her family. On the night of February 22 (old style), 1940, she died where she believed there would be less burden on those around her. But no religious persecution prevented those close to her from uniting to bury her mother with true Christian ritual and love.

Newspaper "Vestnik" No. 3

A few weeks after the transfer of the honorable remains of the Voronezh blessed Feoktista from the Left Bank cemetery (September 16, 2009) to the cemetery of her native Alexievo-Akatov Monastery, where the ascetic lived and prayed until its closure in 1931, I, having arrived in Ukraine to visit my relatives, unexpectedly discovered in one church shop a book about Russian mothers. Of course, I was very happy, since in this very respectable publication, among such outstanding ascetics of piety as Ksenia of Petersburg, Matrona of Moscow, Lyubushka of Ryazan, Diveyevo elders, there was also Feoktista Mikhailovna, deeply revered and sincerely loved by the people of Voronezh.

After the death of the blessed one, they found documents from which it became known that she was the daughter of Colonel Mikhail Shulgin, and was named Anfisa in holy baptism. She married a naval officer, and after the death of her husband during the Russo-Japanese War, she took upon herself the feat of foolishness. The name Anfisa (blooming) was changed to Theoktista (created by God), which was more consistent with the difficult path she had chosen. Those who knew her said that she had a special appearance: short, thin, tired, with sharp features and the kindest eyes. No one remembered her when she was young or knew how old she was. She walked in huge boots, put on the right one on the left foot and the left one on the right foot, unlaced and invariably cut at the back, so that they fell off when walking and rubbed her feet. She deliberately walked through the puddles, with her coat open, in her hand - a stick with a tip, just a branch, with which she closed the windows as she passed. Nun Ksenia (Novikova) recalls: one day a local priest, Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev, himself a great ascetic of piety, bought her new shoes. The old woman put them on as usual, ordering them to be cut at the back, which Father Mitrofan meekly did. He revered Feoktista Mikhailovna as a true blessed one in Christ, appreciated her spiritual wisdom and was her devoted novice.

Mother loved to “walk the roads” - to wander. In conversations she recalled Moscow, Kyiv, Pochaev, Sarov... Until she was very old, she walked to Zadonsk, always choosing the worst weather.

Blessed Theoktista was in spiritual friendship with Archbishop of Voronezh Peter Zverev (+1929), now glorified as a saint. He sincerely respected the ascetic for the height of her spiritual life. The old woman constantly visited Vladyka, went into his cell and sat on the bed. So I waited until the Vladyka released everyone who came to him. Subsequently, in letters from the Solovetsky camp, Hieromartyr Peter remembered the Voronezh ascetic and asked for her holy prayers.

YOU ARE ABOUT THE LORD

DON'T YOU FORGET?

I remembered how in the early 2000s I helped Mother Alla (Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands) publish the newspapers “Orthodox Pilgrim” and “Spassky Leaf”. At that time, the rector of the parish, Priest Victor Prazdnichny, who greatly revered Blessed Theoktista, tried not to leave the grave of the old woman unattended. Parishioners also often visited this holy place. And I gradually began to realize that I was witnessing an unusual phenomenon for the city. In the parish library, as if by chance, I found old publications about the blessed one.

And suddenly it became clear: Feoktista Mikhailovna had long been glorified by the ROCOR. From somewhere a photocopied icon of Mother appeared, painted abroad. And it was no longer possible to forget those kind eyes with a sly squint; affectionate and at the same time stern look; thinly outlined lips are slightly touched by an ironic smile; a white handkerchief is tied in the old fashioned way - pulled over the forehead to the very eyebrows and tucked into the folds at the temples. It seemed that his gaze absorbed you all: he knew everything about you, knew everything, did not let go, penetrating into your very soul, as if asking: “Are you not forgetting about the Lord?”

People who were interested in her life began to come to me and reconstructed it literally bit by bit.

One day I had a meeting with Lydia Dmitrievna Klimenko. As a child, she knew a woman who hosted Blessed Theoktista, Elder Theodore, Maxim Pavlovich and other Voronezh blessed ones in her house. I quote her words from my notes.

SECRETS ARE REVEALED TO YOU AND US

— There were quite a few blessed ones in Voronezh at the beginning of the twentieth century. In godless times they were not only persecuted, tortured, killed, but they even tried to erase their memory. Yes, only Christians, who treated the “people of God” with true love and tried to convey to future generations the incomprehensible greatness of their feat, carefully collected any information about their lives, looked for their relatives and friends, and reverently tidied up the graves overgrown with weeds.

When my sister and I were children, my mother and I came to the dressmaker Anna Alexandrovna (from the merchants) - a very religious and very wealthy woman. She had many buildings in her yard. Students usually lived in them. Often in the evenings services were held right at home. Blessed Theoktista was also there. Elder Fyodor was in great friendship with her. He was from Davydovka. When he turned 16, he left for New Athos. He worked as a monk. They say he became an archimandrite. But the elder hid it. According to the memoirs of his contemporaries, he suffered a lot and was imprisoned. After everyone was dispersed from New Athos, he showed up in Voronezh and lived with Anna Alexandrovna, but a very large flow of people came to him, which aroused suspicion. And Anna Alexandrovna moved him to her sister Varvara.

Once he asked a student to make a portrait of his mother. The drawing then hung on the owner’s wall. The resemblance was striking. Although the student did not know how to draw at all and told Father Fyodor that nothing would work out. Only the elder was adamant: “Draw. Everything will work out." And, indeed, everything worked out! Theoktista had great respect for Father Fyodor. She said: “Mysteries are revealed to you and me.” Mother was a great prayer book.

One day one of the girls who lived with her and accompanied the blessed one on her travels fell ill. Mother sent the sick woman home to the “white wing.” That’s what she called the house on the outskirts of the city where she usually stayed. The doctor said: “Probably typhoid fever.” Mother came, looked and grumbled: “Here’s another thing...” and lay down on the bed. And sick Polya lay on the floor near the window, all burning and exhausted. Then mother asked: “Who will cook noodles for me?” Anna Vasilievna (another novice) replied: “I’ll cook, mother.” - To which came: “Well, you’ll also make noodles with your hooves. Polechka, make me some noodles, get up.” Polya got up and began to cook - the healed one stood up... Under the external rudeness, the blessed one hid her gift of grace.

She was very sensitive to the suffering of children. I prayed for them with special love. According to the memoirs of A.Ya. Likhonosova, her daughter Nina became seriously ill. Mother came and stayed overnight, promising to pray. At night she got up every now and then and, saying: “I will serve” (that’s what she always called her prayers), began to walk around the room. A day later the doctor came and was very surprised to find no signs of illness.

Both she and Father Fedor knew very rare prayers. We saw the souls of the departed. The Lord opened their spiritual vision. The blessed one wore pants and claimed that all women would wear pants. This is what happens.

LEAVE WITH A DESIRE TO RETURN

Subsequently, I met more than once with Lydia Dmitrievna and other people who knew the old woman in life. By God's providence, I met schema-nun Evgenia (05/30/2010), old, thin, with huge childish eyes. She remembered Theoktista well.

“She was of noble birth, but led a wandering life. Sometimes she got angry and swore. But it was like a warning of events of some extreme importance.

Indeed, the blessed one was “rowdy” not without reason. Once, in the church of the Alexievsky Monastery, Feoktista Mikhailovna climbed onto the dais in front of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of the Three Hands and began to strongly scold someone, which greatly embarrassed the worshipers. After some time, thieves entered the sacristy and stole valuables. Afterwards everyone realized that the blessed one was addressing the attackers. When she and the Voronezh holy fool Maxim Pavlovich were summoned for questioning in connection with the arrest of the famous and revered Archpriest Mitrofan Buchnev, who later died in exile, the blessed one behaved in such a strange way and so indecently that it embarrassed everyone present. She was released, declared insane.

Maxim Pavlovich was younger than Feoktista Mikhailovna. He walked with an invariable stick and many handbags, which he changed for a reason: he either carried keys or carried locks. One cheek is tied with a scarf with the ends sticking up, as if the teeth hurt. In the thirties, there was only one functioning church left in Voronezh; the city was plunged into the darkness of renovationism. And such people were unquenchable lamps supporting the spirit of piety.

When the newspapers were full of reports about Hitler’s preparations, Maxim Pavlovich, as if reading a newspaper, said: “England, France, fifteen thousand!”, then: “Ha, ha, ha!” Ours took it!

And now a great many people turn to Blessed Theoktista for help with hope and faith. As Vladyka Sergius, Metropolitan of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk, said, the more diligently we remember Blessed Theoktista (from which we should remember everything about her), the sooner she will be glorified in Russia. So the host of Voronezh saints will be replenished with one more zealous intercessor for us sinners.

And that not-at-all-autumn-like warm, sunny, good day of the transfer of the honorable remains acquires a new status - an Orthodox calendar date. The blessed remains of the blessed one rested in the monastery dear to her heart, and not only Voronezh residents, but also pilgrims from other places in Russia and abroad, flowing to this holy place, will learn about the new ascetic, ask for her prayers and leave the monastery with the desire to return.

And we, in a solemn, not at all sad moment at the funeral service, laid flowers at the coffin and quietly echoed Abbess Varvara with her sisters and priests (as if not yet believing such happiness), walked with the icon in the Procession of the Cross, listened with bated breath to the words of Bishop Sergius: “It will be, God willing, we have our own saint, in our favorite monastery. You just need to pray and be patient. How she endured for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of us sinners.”

The meeting with Blessed Theoktista largely determined the future life path of the young doctor Nikolai Ovchinnikov. He often visited the old woman. In conversations with him, she said: “What a doctor you are! You are a pop." A few years later, Nikolai Ovchinnikov accepted the priesthood, and at the end of his life, the great schema with the name Nektariy. Feoktista Mikhailovna reposed in the Lord on the night of March 5-6, 1940. The ascetic foresaw the day of her death. I strengthened my exploits and prepared for this day. During her life, mother said: “I’ll go home,” but she didn’t have her own corner anywhere. And now she has gone to her home. She was buried on March 9, 1940 in the cemetery of the Pridacha station on a clear, sunny day. And in 1961, the honorable remains of the Blessed One were transferred to the new Left Bank cemetery (“Baki”). The reburial service was performed by Fr. Nikolai Ovchinnikov.

VERY IMPORTANT

REQUEST

Recently, having arrived at the evening service at the Alexievo-Aktov Monastery, as always, I headed towards my favorite grave and saw there an acquaintance with his little son. He seriously and thoroughly explained how to behave at the grave of the holy ascetic.

- What should I ask? - the child puzzled his dad.

- Health, success in your studies...

“Health, success...” the boy repeated with excitement. - And what else?

- Well, maybe you have a very important and very personal request?

My soul felt light and blissful. I thought: “How good it is when there is a place where a child’s request, a very important one, will be immediately handed over to the Lord!

And I know that our children have such requests: very, very important and very personal...

Olga Lukyanova