Biography
Among the women canonized as saints, there are many wives and mothers, but among the faithful there are only a few who have earned holiness in Heaven by having ten children.
The purpose of a woman on earth is to give life; in her labors and worries, true Christian women remain faithful to the worship of the Lord. In fasting and prayers, mothers stand in the gap for the family and children, becoming the foundation of the Orthodox faith of the entire family. The Lord gave the mothers of the earth a unique example of righteousness in the person of Juliana Lazarevskaya.
Righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya, Muromskaya
The Christian feat of the righteous woman lies in piety and mercy, such accessible and simple things that can change the world, but so closed to the hard-hearted hearts of this world.
Details about the life of Juliania Lazarevskaya were told to the world by her son Kallistrat Osorin (Druzhina), describing them in the classic work of Old Russian literature “The Tale of Juliania Lazarevskaya”.
Child years
In 1530, a girl, Ulyana, was born into the family of the royal housekeeper Ustin Nedyurev. The pious noblemen Ustin and Stefanida lived in the village of Plosna. At the age of 6, after the death of her mother, she was given to her grandmother to be raised and moved to Murom. Her grandmother, Anastasia Lukina, nee Dubenskaya, was a resident of this city.
Another 6 years pass, the grandmother passes into another world, the girl moves in with her aunt, whose family is raising 9 children. The 12-year-old girl tried to help her aunt at every opportunity. Children's fun and pranks were alien to her; persecuted by the ridicule of children and servants, the girl prayed for hours and often fasted.
Important! At night she prayed and sewed for both relatives and the poor. During the day she found the sick and needy, trying to help everyone with food, clothing and the word of God.
Relatives were dissatisfied with her strict abstinence and many hours of prayer, fearing that the girl could harm her beauty by doing so. The rumor about the pious beauty spread far beyond the borders of Murom.
Marriage
Upon reaching the age of 16, the beautiful Ulyana was matched and married. Her husband Yuri Osorin was a wealthy Murom resident, who owned the village of Lazarevo. The Osoryins were famous at the royal court and were reputed to be quite rich people.
The meek and friendly daughter-in-law found love and acceptance among her husband’s parents and his relatives. The tireless young housewife soon took over the running of the household, and she had a kind word and a kind smile for everyone. Remembering God’s covenant to honor parents, Ulyana treated her husband’s parents with special love. They replaced her real father and mother, while the girl found an approach and a kind word for her sisters-in-law, with whom she never quarreled.
Leading an exemplary household, Ulyana did not interrupt her spiritual feat; every night the young woman read prayers with repeated bows, and in the morning she was again active and cheerful. In the house of wealthy Murom residents, it was customary for servants to dress and undress the owners, to supply water for washing and bathing, but this did not apply to the young mistress. Ulyana served herself, while constantly protecting the servants, often taking upon herself their misdeeds.
Realizing that the property belonged to the entire family, the woman sewed and embroidered at night, donated many icons to the church, sold some things and gave alms. In order not to irritate her relatives, Juliana secretly sent the proceeds from the sale to widows and orphans through a faithful maid. The labors of her hands supported life in many families.
Works of Righteousness
Demons came to the beautiful Juliana at night, threatening to destroy her and her entire family. They demanded that the charity be stopped, but the demonic threats did not frighten the faithful daughter of God; she knew that He who was in her was stronger than those in the world (1 John 4:4). Helping the poor and orphans became the need of the heart of the pious righteous woman.
When famine hit the region, many people simply died from exhaustion, Ulyana fed the hungry, taking food from family bins.
Icon of Saint Juliana of Lazarus
An epidemic came to the depleted population, causing a real pestilence. People were afraid to go out into the streets, receive guests and simply communicate, but the holy woman, secretly from her loved ones, washed the sick in the bathhouse, fed and treated them, read prayers and preached the word of God, being illiterate. Saint Juliana washed the dead and handed them over to their families according to Orthodox custom.
Seeing the works of righteousness of his faithful wife, Yuri also knew the sweetness of warm prayer. George's parents lived to a ripe old age, took monastic vows and quietly went to the Lord.
Over the many years of marriage, the Lord gave the loving couple 13 children, 10 sons and 3 daughters, girls and 4 sons died in infancy. The loving mother grieved, but did not blame God, for she believed that He had the power to give and take away.
After the death of two sons in the service of Tsar Juliana Lazarevskaya, the righteous Muromskaya began to think about entering a monastery, but was obedient to her husband, who asked to raise the younger children until adulthood.
In the last years of her life, the couple lived like brother and sister, Ulyana slept for 2-3 hours, the rest of the night she prayed and did handicrafts, and devoted whole days to managing the house and family. Her life can be described point by point:
- prayer and service to family and people;
- sleeping on the floor with a log under your head;
- daily attendance at religious services;
- fasting and strict abstinence from worldly temptations.
Upon reaching 60 years of age, the saint felt severe physical fatigue; being ill, she stopped attending divine services and intensified her prayer at home.
During the service to the priest of the Church of St. Lazarus, of which Juliana was a parishioner, the Mother of God was revealed. She ordered the pious mother to be told that her home prayers were accepted, but they did not have the power of church prayers. The Mother of God ordered that the entire population be informed that the Holy Spirit dwells on the pious woman.
Family life
Juliana lived with her husband for many years in love, and gave him 13 children: three girls and ten boys. True, six of them died in early childhood, and two died later, already in adulthood.
After their death, Juliania decided to go to a monastery, which she told her husband and relatives about, asking their permission. However, her husband refused her this, saying that she had more children who needed to be raised and educated. But after this conversation, he allowed her not to perform marital duties.
Since Juliana was accustomed to living in meekness and obedience to her husband, she agreed, once again showing respect for her husband and demonstrating Christian humility. She worked all day long around the house, and prayed all night, leaving only two to three hours for sleep.
The power of faith in times of famine
Left alone, having raised her children and buried her husband, Saint Juliana distributes all her funds to the poor, in poverty and deprivation, fasting and prayer, and with the constant Jesus Prayer continues her earthly path.
Demons, driven by the Holy Scriptures, which were constantly proclaimed in the house, threatened the pious housewife on a physical level. Feeling her weakness, the righteous woman, attacked by Satan, cried out to God and asked to send Nicholas the Pleasant to her aid. At the appearance of Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, all the wicked spirits took to their heels, the eldest of them managed to predict to the ascetic that she herself, who was helping to save people from hunger, would die by starvation.
Holy Righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya
At the beginning of the 17th century, during the reign of Tsar Boris Godunov, severe famine covered the region; some people could not stand it, killed their neighbors and ate human meat, losing their minds.
The fields did not produce crops, the livestock died from lack of food. When there was no food in the house, the mistress released the slaves who wanted to leave, leaving her most faithful servants with her. Having no food in her native village, blessed Ulyana moves with her remaining servants and children to Vochnevo. When there was nothing to eat there, she sent servants to collect quinoa and tree bark, from which bread was baked.
Many landowners could not understand where a poor housewife got bread that could give satiety. In thanksgiving to the Lord, Juliana and her slaves baked cakes filled with love and mercy. Neighbors, who had the opportunity to bake clean bread, were surprised by the unusual taste of her flatbreads, which gave them special satiety.
The devout worshiper of Christ realized that hunger has the power to kill spiritually. For a piece of bread they could kill, steal, crimes and unbridledness covered the earth, but they bypassed the house in which the life of prayer did not stop. For three years, in a joyful state of mind, without grumbling or anger at fate, Saint Juliana of Lazarevskaya prayed for every person given by God under her care.
Interesting! The Lord granted the pious righteous woman knowledge of the time of her death. Before departing into eternal life, Juliana admitted that being in the angelic form was her dream. After she asked everyone for forgiveness, she herself forgave everyone who had offended the saint, gave her final parting words, kissed her neighbors and quietly closed her eyes forever with the words: “Into your hands, my God, I surrender my spirit.”
As soon as the soul left the body, a golden halo appeared around the head of the deceased, like an angelic radiance, which those present could previously only see on icons. Near the washed body lying in a separate room in the middle of the night, candles suddenly flared up on their own, and the fragrance filled the house.
Buy an icon of Juliana Lazarevskaya (Murom)
In the Radonezh icon painting workshop you can buy or order a handwritten icon of the holy martyr Juliana of Lazarevskaya (Murom). Call us and we will help you choose a plot, a compositional solution for the icon, its optimal size and design, or we will write an icon according to your sample.
Free delivery throughout Russia. If desired, the icon can be consecrated in the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra.
The image of Juliana Lazarevskaya (Murom) made by the icon painters of the Radonezh workshop, like any handmade icon, carries within itself the living warmth of human hands and a loving heart. Each icon painted with love is unique and inimitable.
Peace and goodness to you, dear brothers and sisters, and may the holy saint of God, Juliana, accompany you throughout your entire life’s journey.
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Finding the relics
On January 2, 1604, Saint Juliana of Murom, the Righteous, was received into the Kingdom of Heaven; her holiness was confirmed by the discovery of her relics. The pious servant fulfilled the command of her mistress, who appeared to her in a dream, to bury the saint in the temple of righteous Lazarus near her husband George.
The relics of St. Juliana reside in the Nikolo-Embankment Church in Murom
Ten years later, son George died, whom they decided to bury next to his mother. While digging the grave, they accidentally discovered a coffin, and when they lifted it, incorrupt body parts and a lot of the world were found in the middle.
Posthumous miracles
Children, and then adults, began to smear the sore spots with myrrh and instantly received healing.
On the night of the discovery of the holy relics, the bell of the Lazarus Church rang on its own. Awakened by the alarm, people ran to the church, but did not find any fire, but were able to feel the incense and be healed by the miraculous world.
After some time, people from around the area began to flock here; those who did not have enough peace were wiped with sand from the blessed one’s grave, and healing occurred.
The children of Murom citizen Jeremiah Chervev suffered from bleeding from their limbs for more than two years. After performing a prayer service and a memorial service at the relics of Juliana, they wiped the sick children with sand and went home. For the first time in a long time, the children slept through the night, got up to pray in the morning, and recovered within a week.
In the age of the absence of dentists, dental problems caused peasants a lot of pain and suffering. A toothache unsettled a peasant in the village of Makarovo; he went to the tomb of the blessed one who gave healing, prayed for a long time and rubbed his teeth with sand, and upon returning home he thanked the Lord for the absence of pain.
One night, a strong fire engulfed the thatched huts, quickly approaching the temple, driven by a strong wind. The people and the priest who were in the church began to grab the earth near the coffin of the pious countrywoman and throw it into the fire. The fire slowly began to die out, the wind died down, and not a single hut was damaged.
Righteous Juliana Lazarevskaya, Muromskaya
Clement from the village of Koledino suffered from a trophic ulcer, from which many died. After performing a prayer service at the shrine and rubbing with sand, the peasant was able to get to his feet, and soon the ulcer disappeared.
Boyar Matvey Cherkasov brought his blind slave Maria to the tomb of the blessed one, after the funeral service she began to see, and upon returning to Murom she went to pick berries.
A 10-year-old boy fell and went blind after visiting St. Mikhail was able to see a burning candle right in the temple, and over time his vision was completely restored.
Agafya, the wife of a church cleric, suffered from pain in her arm, so much so that she could not move it. One night, Juliana came to her in a dream and told her not only to go and pray at the icon, but also to donate coins to the temple, indicating their location in the cleric’s house. Having fulfilled everything said by the merciful Ulyana, after drinking holy water and rubbing with sand, healing came.
The folk healer also helped Moscow nobleman Joseph Kovkov get back on his feet. Being near death, in a fit of despair, the boyar asked his servant to go from Moscow to Lazarevo for sand and holy water. Upon the return of the slave, who served a requiem mass at the blessed one’s tomb, sprinkling himself with holy water and sand from under the tomb, Joseph instantly recovered. The grateful boyar walked on foot from his estate in Moscow to the Church of the Archangel Michael to donate vestments to the priests of the church.
On May 8, 1649, the miracle of the liberation from blindness of Elena Vasilievna, a resident of the Vyaznikovsky region, who became blind as a child, passed through many miraculous places, and received liberation in Lazarevo.
Archpriest Nikolai Stroikov in 1997 blessed people to record all cases of healings and answers to prayers in the Book of Miracles, which is still being written:
- in it, a young mother thanks for the given happiness of motherhood;
- another mother is grateful for a successful pregnancy;
- the pilgrim reports that on the way to the place of worship the bus suffered an accident, but all the pilgrims and icons remained unharmed;
- A resident of Belarus testifies to the healing of a terminally ill grandson, according to doctors.
Icon of Juliania Lazarevskaya (Murom), meaning
The meaning of the icon of Juliana Lazarevskaya lies in the indestructible strength of spirit represented in the image of the saint. She personifies the power of faith, martyrdom, and a firm determination to defend Christian ideals, even at the cost of her own life. The image of Juliania Lazarevskaya, the story of her life’s path, inspire us, encourage us to fervent prayer and pious deeds. Truly wonderful is God in His saints! Dear believers, brothers and sisters! Do not doubt the help of Saint Juliana! Open your heart to her in sincere prayer and she will hear us, heal spiritual and physical infirmities, and help in the successful arrangement of earthly affairs.
Do not forget that in order for a miracle to happen, we ourselves must take care: regularly, with attention, read the prayer, do deeds of faith and love. And don’t forget to give thanks: to thank all the people sent to us by the grace of God to solve our life’s troubles, who shared our joy and sorrow. To thank the Saint, whose prayerful support our heart yearned for, because how many people pray to him for help, but he heard and helped us too. And most importantly, thank the Lord for His boundless love for mankind. He gave the world His saints and every second helps us, people who hope for His great mercies.
Everything in the world happens according to the wise providence of God. Difficulties and sorrows, success and joys. Through earthly trials the Lord strengthens us. By helping each other, praying to the heavenly saints, we are more firmly united in the One Church of Christ. And we believe that the holy martyr Juliana of Lazarevskaya will hear all our prayers and show us the boundless mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for everything!
Memory and veneration
Miracles of mass healings indicate that the merciful Juliana lived on earth, canonized in 1614.
In the 17th century, a church service was compiled, the text of which is attributed to Kallistratos Druzhina Osoryin.
The Orthodox Church perpetuated the memory of the pious Juliana in the icons “Cathedral of Murom Saints,” a holy image of the saint next to her husband and daughter, who took monastic vows with the name Theodosius.
The monastery of St. Sergius keeps an icon depicting the pious mistress Lazarevo.
The Lazarevsky Church, in which the shrine with relics was kept, was closed in 1930, and the shrine was transferred to the Murom Museum of Local History and preserved along with the relics of St. Peter and Fevronia.
In August 2014, the relics of the pious St. Juliania was returned to her homeland, to St. Michael's Church. Lazarevo.
Story
She was born into the family of Yuri (George) Olshansky (Golshansky) from Dubrovitsa, one of the generous benefactors of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, a famous military leader who fought the Tatars more than once.
Juliania lived a short life and died at the age of 16. The princess's body was buried near the Great Lavra Church.
Orthodox tradition ascribes to Saint Juliana virtues corresponding to her age, gender and rank: chastity, obedience to parents, favorable attitude towards inferiors, and especially Christian charity. Indeed, during her earthly life, the young girl discovered high Christian qualities, keeping God’s commandments, and reached the pinnacle of spiritual perfection.
At the beginning of the 17th century (under Archimandrite Elisha Pletenetsky) in Kyiv, near the large cathedral Pechersk Church, they were digging a grave for a deceased girl and came across a coffin. Attached to it was a silver tablet with the inscription: “Iuliania, Princess Olshanskaya, daughter of Prince George of Olshansky, who died a virgin, in the 16th year of her birth.” When they opened the coffin, they saw the princess - incorrupt. The coffin with the princess’s body was then transferred to the church.
During the time of Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and All Rus' Peter Mogila, a new shrine was made for the relics of the saint because she appeared to the archimandrite in a dream and reproached him for his lack of faith and neglect of her relics. It was then that the inscription was made on her tomb: “By the will of the Creator of heaven and earth, Juliana, the helper and great intercessor in Heaven, lives throughout the years. Here bones are a medicine against all suffering... You decorate the heavenly villages with yourself, Juliania, like a beautiful flower...”
A story has been preserved about an unusual incident that occurred with the relics of the holy virgin. One day, an attacker, an Arian named Vasily, came to the Pechersk Church under the guise of a true believer. He pretended that he was going to visit holy places and venerate the relics of the holy saints of Pechersk. In the church, he asked permission to venerate the relics of Saint Juliana, that is, to open the shrine with her relics, his request was granted, and he fell to her hand. But when he left the temple, he suddenly screamed in a terrible wild voice and fell dead. When the villain's body was examined, it turned out that he had taken the ring from the princess's finger, for which he was punished. Since then, the Orthodox Church began to glorify Juliana.
At the reliquary of the relics of Saint Juliana, many miracles and grace-filled healings were performed.
One day the holy virgin Juliana appeared to the abbot of the Kyiv St. Michael’s Monastery and told him: “I am Juliania, whose relics lie in the Pechersk Church. You consider my relics to be nothing. For this reason, the Lord is sending you a sign so that you understand that the Lord God has counted me among the holy virgins who pleased Him.” Since then, the veneration of Saint Juliana has increased even more.
The relics of Juliania were partially burned in 1718 during a fire in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Their remains were placed in a shrine and placed in the Near Caves of the Lavra.
The Orthodox Church glorifies the holy virgin in this way: “...I bring to You, All-Bounteous, Juliana, a candle, constantly bright, containing an abundance of oil; Through her prayers preserve us from all evil.”
The holy righteous virgin Juliana became the second of the holy wives of Rus' who were honored to be buried in the Lavra caves. On the icons, Saint Juliana is depicted in the Cathedral of the Holy Fathers of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. She is the intercessor of women, together with other saints, before the Most Pure Mother of the Lord and, together with Her, before the Throne of the Holy Trinity. She is also the intercessor of innocent virgins.
