"Save me, God!".
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Kuksha is a revered and respected sage in Christianity; he lived a long life filled with all sorts of trials.
Brief description of the life of St. Kuksha of Odessa
The sage was born in the 19th century, or more precisely in 1874, in a village called Garbuzinka into a simple family. The mother wanted to serve the Lord, but her parents chose a different life for her and got her married. After the birth of her children, the woman constantly prayed to God so that one of them would become a priest.
From his youth, the guy adored silence, loneliness and had deep sympathy for people. His relative was possessed by demons; in order to save him, he brought his relative to the elder, who died to cast out demons. The wise man healed the guy, and Kukshe answered like this:
“Just because you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted all your life.”
At the age of twenty, the young man visited Jerusalem for the first time, with him there were also many people from his native village, and on the way home he would also visit Mount Athos. During this trip, the guy realized that he wanted to serve God and hurried home for the blessing of his parents.
Upon arrival at home, the man visited the Kyiv sage and wonderworker Ion, who had special insight. The elder blessed him, then touched his head with the cross and said:
“I bless you to the monastery! You will live on Athos!”
The father did not immediately give his consent to his son’s monasticism, but his mother immediately blessed him with the image of the Kazan Mother of God, and he did not part with her throughout his entire life’s journey. In 1896 he came to the Holy Mountain and became a novice.
A year later, the man visited the Holy Land again. Here two miracles happened to him, which served as a special sign of his future.
“...In Jerusalem there is the Pool of Siloam. There is a custom for all pilgrims, especially barren women, to immerse themselves in this source, and according to legend, the first one to be immersed in the water will have a child. Kosmas and his mother also went to immerse themselves in the Pool of Siloam.
It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him down the steps, and he unexpectedly fell first into the water, right in his clothes. The women cried out with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water.
But this was a sign from above that Father Kuksha would have many spiritual children. He always said: “I have a thousand spiritual children...”.
The second sign happened in Bethlehem.
“...Having venerated the birthplace of Christ the Infant of God, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly one lamp miraculously overturned on Kosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and collected holy oil from him with their hands. So the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha many people will receive Divine grace...”
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Greek authorities, for political reasons, asked Russian priests to leave Athos, and Kosmas too, “...So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” this is what the man’s spiritual mentor said. Thus, the priest from Athos became a minister of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
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The saint dreamed of accepting the great schema, but since he was still young, he could not do this. One day, while near the relics of Saint Silouan, the monk expressed his desire, and he seemed to hear his request.
At fifty-six years old, the man became seriously ill, everyone thought that he would not recover, and the monks tonsured their brother into the great schema, after this event he began to recover and recovered.
Life
Saint Kuksha (Kosma at birth) was of the peasant class. His family lived in the south of Russia, in the Kherson province. Year of birth: 1874.
At the age of 20, he visited Jerusalem and then Saint Athos. Kosma was impressed by the trip and decided to become a monk in order to devote himself to serving the Lord. Having asked for parental permission, Kosma returned to the center of Orthodox monasticism and became a novice of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery.
In 1897, at his request, he was sent to serve in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ (Jerusalem), where he remained until 1902. Upon returning to the monastery, he accepted partial monasticism under the name Constantine, and 3 years later he became a full monk, becoming Xenophon.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a split occurred among Russian monks on Mount Athos related to the dogma of faith. Taking advantage of disagreements in the Russian Orthodox Church, the Greek authorities achieved the departure of most of the Russian inhabitants, who had previously dominated the Holy Mountain.
Since 1913, Xenophon continued to serve in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. At the age of 50 he was ordained a hieromonk. In 1930, Hieromonk Xenophon accepted the great schema under the name of Kuksha of Pechersk due to a serious illness and near death. But the transformation gave the patient strength to overcome the illness.
In 1938, Rev. Kuksha was repressed as a religious figure and sent to a camp in the village of Vilva (in the north of the Perm region). Here he spent 5 years working in a logging camp.
From 1943 to 1948, he lived in a settlement in the town of Kungur (Perm region) without the right to conduct religious services. After 10 years, the monk returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where he began to conduct mentoring activities. State security agencies, fearing his influence on the minds of believers, demanded that the elder be transferred from Kyiv to a remote place.
Since 1953, Father Kuksha served at the miraculous Pochaev image of the Most Holy Mother of God, and also confessed to believers. One day, during a morning service, blood vessels in his leg were damaged and severe bleeding began, which could have been fatal.
The monks and believers prayed all night, turning to the Mother of God with a request for the healing of Father Kuksha. Fervent prayers helped create a miracle. After 7 days, the wounds on the leg healed on their own. In the last years of his life, the Monk Kuksha had to change several monasteries: in 1957 he was transferred to a monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk, Chernivtsi diocese, in 1960 - to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa. In 1964, the reverend father died of pneumonia.
The Elder's Prophecies
During his lifetime, the sage not only instructed people with his wise words, but also predicted the future, so Kuksha of Odessa made prophecies about Ukraine, and they all came true.
“...My dear brothers and sisters in Christ of our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be with you from our Lord Jesus Christ with Grace. I thank you for the letter that I received not so long ago. God bless you for not forgetting me, a sinner. My dear sisters, I believe in your grief and from the bottom of my heart I thank the Lord for everything, but it’s a pity that I cannot save you from it. But be patient, my dear brothers and sisters, for this is what our Heavenly Father God ordained. Know, my dear sisters, that everything is sent from God, good and bad, and sorrowful. Accept everything with joy, as from the hand of the Most High God, the Lord, do not be afraid. God will not leave you, He will never send you sorrow and grief beyond your strength, and will never place a heavy burden on you, but according to your strength, He will give you as much as you have. you have enough strength.
Know, my sisters, if your grief is great, then know that you have a lot of strength to endure it, and if it is little, then there is little sorrow to endure. God will never put grief on you, so that you do not find yourself without strength, but endure one or another grief of a person, for time is moving towards destruction,
Now the last chapter of the third book of the prophet Ezra is beginning to be fulfilled, destruction is rapidly rolling towards us, oh, oh my sisters, what a time is coming that you will not want to live in this world.
But, behold, terrible disasters are coming to the earth, fire, famine, death, destruction and destruction. And who can avert them. If it is appointed by the Lord for the sins of people and this time is already close, behold. And do not listen to anyone who says that there will be peace, there is no peace and there will not be peace.
War and then immediately a strong, extreme famine, look where everything will immediately disappear, there will be nothing to eat, and then death, death and death, everyone will be driven to the east, men and women, but not a single soul will return from there, everyone will die there. There will be a terrible and great death from hunger. And whoever remains from hunger will die from pestilence, from pestilence, and this contagious disease will be impossible to treat. It was not in vain that the holy prophet said and wrote: “Woe, woe, woe to you, our land.” One grief will pass, a second will come, a second will pass, a third will come, and so on. Oh, our God..."
Life in the camp
The priest endured many trials during his life, since during the times of repression there was constant persecution of priests. In 1938, the monk was sentenced to five years of hard labor, so the 63-year-old monk ended up doing hard work in logging. In penal servitude they worked 14 hours a day, they worked hard and received meager food for it.
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During his imprisonment, one interesting incident happened to the priest, which can be equated to a miracle: “On Easter, Father Kuksha, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew above them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of pie too!” And suddenly I heard overhead “car-rr!” - and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was the raven who stole it from the cook's baking sheet. Father picked up the pie from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied his hunger.”
Orthodox Life
During his visit to Odessa in 2010, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' visited the Holy Dormition Monastery, where he said the following words: “In this monastery, in the last years of his earthly existence, the Venerable Elder Kuksha, an Odessa miracle worker, canonized saints
Venerable Kuksha of Odessa
I remember how every time we visited this holy place, we went to the monastery cemetery and prayed at the modest grave of Father Kuksha. Even then everyone understood that this man lived a special life, that he was holy before God. And it is wonderful that the time has come when we can turn to him as a saint of God, asking for his intercession and prayers for this monastery, and for the city of Odessa, and for our entire Church.”
Elder Kuksha the New, Kuksha of Odessa, in whose name the name of a large Black Sea Russian city is now forever enshrined, just recently, on February 2–3. g., by the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the galaxy of 33 locally revered Russian ascetics of different times, was blessed for church-wide veneration.
This is one of those “cordial elders” who, on the one hand, are cordial by nature, by self-denial for the sake of others, and on the other, our hearts, reaching out to meet them, continue to be warmed by the light of these ascetics even many years after their death.
Reverend Kuksha (in the world Kosma Velichko) was born on January 12 (25 AD), 1875 in a village with a characteristic “Kherson” name - Arbuzinka, Kherson district, Nikolaev province, in the family of Kirill and Kharitina; the family had two more sons - Fyodor and John, and a daughter Maria.
Since her youth, Kharitina dreamed of being a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God that at least one of her children would go to a monastery, since in Rus' there was a pious custom: if one of the children devoted himself to monastic life, the parents considered it a special honor, it was a sign of God’s special mercy. From an early age, Kosma loved prayer and solitude, avoided games and amusements, and in his free time read St. Gospel. All his life he kept the icon of the Kazan Mother of God in a small old wooden icon case, with which his mother blessed him as parting words for the journey. This icon was placed in the saint’s tomb after his death...
And Kosma received a blessing for the Athos feat from the famous Kyiv elder Jonah, to whom the Mother of God appeared twice on the Kiev cave shore.
Venerable Kuksha of Odessa
In 1897, during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land from St. Athos, when the monk Cosmas was joined on the journey by his mother, two miraculous events happened to him in Jerusalem, which foreshadowed the future life of the saint.
There was a custom for all pilgrims, especially barren women, to immerse themselves in the water of the Pool of Siloam. The Lord granted childbearing to the one who managed to plunge into the water first. While at the Pool of Siloam, Kosmas stood close to the source. Someone accidentally touched him, and he unexpectedly fell first into the water of the font. People started laughing, saying that he would now have many children. But these words turned out to be prophetic, for the saint later actually had many spiritual children. When the pilgrims were in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, they really wanted to be anointed with oil from the lamps that burned at the Holy Sepulcher. One lamp overturned, pouring out all the oil on Kosma. People quickly surrounded Kosma and, collecting the oil flowing down his clothes with their hands, reverently anointed themselves with it. Also a significant case...
A year after his arrival from Jerusalem to Athos, Cosmas once again visited the Holy City - for a year and a half, serving as obedient at the Holy Sepulcher.
Having finally returned to Athos, Cosmas was assigned to serve as a hotel attendant at a hospice hotel for pilgrims, where he labored for 11 years. Athos icon with the image of Panteleimon the Healer. Kuksha put it in an icon case and kept it until his death.
The novice Kosma was tonsured into the ryassophore with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1904 - into monasticism, and named Xenophon.
Grave of St. Kuksha of Odessa
Xenophon's spiritual father was the elder Fr. Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit in the mountains. Subsequently, the monk recalled his life at that time: “Until 12 at night in obedience, and at 1 o’clock in the morning he ran into the desert to the elder Melchizedek to learn to pray.” Despite the fact that Xenophon barely knew how to read and write, he knew the Gospel and Psalter by heart and performed church services from memory, never making a mistake.
In 1913, after the Greek authorities expelled Russian monks from Mount Athos, Xenophon became a resident of the Kiev Pechersk Holy Dormition Lavra. During the First World War, he, along with other monks, was sent for 10 months to serve as a “brother of mercy” on a hospital train on the Kyiv-Lviv line.
Upon returning to the Lavra, Fr. Xenophon in the Far Caves refueled and lit lamps in front of the holy relics, dressed the holy relics, and ensured cleanliness and order.
“I really wanted to accept the schema,” he said, “but due to my youth (in my early 40s), I was denied my desire.” At the age of 56, he unexpectedly fell seriously ill, as they thought, hopelessly. It was decided to immediately tonsure the dying man into the schema. On April 8, 1931, when he was tonsured into the schema, he was given the name of the Hieromartyr Kuksha, whose relics are in the Near Caves of the Lavra. After tonsure Fr. Kuksha began to recover and soon recovered completely.
One day, its former inhabitant, the elderly Metropolitan Seraphim, arrived from Poltava to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra to visit his beloved monastery and say goodbye to it before his death. After staying in the monastery for several days, he got ready to leave. All the brethren, saying goodbye, began to approach the bishop for his blessing. The saint, exhausted from old age, blessed everyone while sitting in the temple. Following the others, Fr. Kuksha. When they kissed, the perspicacious Metropolitan Seraphim exclaimed: “Oh, elder, a place has been prepared for you in these caves long ago!”
On April 3, 1934, Father Kuksha was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and on May 3 of the same year - to the rank of hieromonk. After the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was closed, the priest served until 1938 in Kyiv, in the church on Voskresenskaya Slobodka.
At the shrine with the relics of St. Kuksha
In 1938, as a “clergyman,” he was sentenced to 5 years in the camps in the city of Vilma, Molotov (Perm) region, and after serving this term, to 3 years of exile.
So, at the age of 63, Kuksha’s father found himself doing grueling logging work. A 14-hour working day, with poor nutrition, was very difficult, especially in severe frosts. Together with Fr. Kuksha kept many priests and monks in the camp.
One day Fr. Kuksha received a parcel from the Bishop of Kyiv, His Grace Anthony, into which the bishop, along with crackers, managed to put one hundred particles of dried spare Holy Gifts, which the inspectors considered to be crackers.
“But could I alone consume the Holy Gifts, when many priests, monks and nuns, imprisoned for many years, were deprived of this consolation? - the father later said. -...We made stoles from towels, drawing crosses on them with a pencil. After reading the prayers, they blessed it and put it on themselves, hiding it under their outer clothing. The priests took refuge in the bushes. The monks and nuns ran up to us one by one, we quickly covered them with stole-towels, forgiving and absolving their sins. So one morning, on the way to work, a hundred people took communion at once. How they rejoiced and thanked God for His great mercy!”
One day the priest went to the hospital and was close to death. He recalled later: “It was on Easter. I was so weak and hungry, the wind was shaking. And the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the snow has already begun to melt. I walk through the zone along the barbed wire, I’m unbearably hungry, and behind the wire the cooks carry trays of pies on their heads from the kitchen to the dining room for the guards. Crows fly above them. I prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of pie too.” Suddenly I heard overhead: “Karrr!” and a pie fell at my feet; it was the raven who stole it from the cook’s baking sheet. I picked up the pie from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied my hunger.”
In the spring of 1943, at the end of his prison term, on the feast of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, Fr. Kuksha was released, and he went into exile in the Solikamsk region, to a village near the city of Kungur, often performed divine services, people flocked to him.
In 1947, the time of exile ended, the eight-year feat of confession ended, Fr. Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where he served as a candle maker in the Near Caves.
He was constantly persecuted and persecuted. In 1951, Father Kuksha was transferred from Kyiv to the Pochaev Holy Dormition Lavra, where the elder began to carry out obedience to the icon of the Miraculous Mother of God of Pochaev, when monks and pilgrims kissed it.
In addition, Fr. Kuksha confessed to the parishioners. Pilgrims tried to be sure to get to confession with the priest; hundreds stood in line. He received many in his cell, spending whole days almost without rest, despite his advanced age and senile illnesses.
And, according to Athonite custom, all his life he wore only boots. From long and many exploits he had deep venous ulcers on his legs. One day, when Fr. Kuksha stood at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst in his leg, and his boot filled with blood. They took him away and put him to bed. Abbot Joseph, famous for his healings, came (in the schema Amphilochius, later canonized as a monk), examined the leg and said: “Get ready, father, to go home” (that is, to die), and left. All the monks and laity fervently prayed with tears to the Mother of God for the granting of health to the dear and beloved elder. A week later, Abbot Joseph again came to Fr. Kukshe, examined the almost healed wound on his leg and exclaimed in amazement: “The spiritual children begged!”
Venerable schema-abbot Amphilochius of Pochaev
One woman said that she once saw a splendid husband serving with him in the altar of the Cave Church during the Divine Liturgy by Father Kuksha. And when she reported this to Fr. Kuksha, he said that it was the Monk Job of Pochaev, who always served with him. Father strictly ordered not to reveal this secret to anyone until his death.
In the period from March to April 1957, the church authorities appointed Fr. Kuksha remained in seclusion “to improve the ascetic life and carry out the highest feat of schemata,” and at the end of April 1957, the elder was transferred to the small Khreshchatytsky Monastery of St. John the Theologian of the Chernivtsi diocese during Holy Week of Great Lent. Despite his senile weakness, he often repeated: “Here I am at home, here I am on Mount Athos! Down below the gardens are blooming like olive trees on Mount Athos. Athos is here!
In the early 1960s, theomachists again began to close churches, monasteries, and theological schools. Father Kuksha was assigned to the Odessa Holy Dormition Monastery, where he arrived on July 19, 1960, and where he spent the last 4 years of his ascetic life.
The elder tried to take communion every day; he especially loved the early liturgy, saying that the early liturgy was for ascetics, and the late liturgy for fasters.
The elder did not allow anyone to approach the Holy Chalice with money, so as not to “become like Judas.” He also forbade priests to stand at the altar with money in their pockets and perform the Divine Liturgy. Going to the temple every day, the elder wore his Athonite hair shirt made of prickly white horsehair under his clothes.
The elder's cell in the monastery building adjoined directly to St. Nicholas Church. A novice cell attendant was also placed with him, but the elder, despite the infirmities of his advanced age, did not use outside help and said: “We are our own novices until our death.”
Despite the authorities’ ban on visiting the holy elder, people here were not deprived of his spiritual guidance. Father Kuksha was very loved by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow and All Rus'. While still in the St. John the Theological Monastery, the elder used to sit down to drink tea, take a portrait of His Holiness Alexy I, kiss it and say: “We are drinking tea with His Holiness.” His words were fulfilled when he began to live in the Odessa monastery, where Patriarch Alexy I came every year in the summer, who always invited the gracious elder “for a cup of tea”, loved to talk with him, asked how it was in Jerusalem and Athos in the good old days ...
In the last year of Father’s life, Patriarch Alexy I blessed him to come to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra for the feast of the discovery of the holy relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh. At the end of the festive liturgy, when the priest left the Holy Trinity Church, he was surrounded on all sides, asking for blessings. He blessed people on all sides for a long time and humbly asked to let him go. But the people did not let the old man go. Only after a long time, with the help of other monks, he with difficulty reached the cell.
In October 1964, the elder fell and broke his hip. After lying on the cold damp ground, he caught a cold and contracted pneumonia. He never took medicine, calling the Holy Church his doctor. Even suffering from a dying illness, he also refused all medical help, communing the Holy Mysteries of Christ every day.
The blessed ascetic foresaw his death and reposed in the Lord on December 11 (24), 1964. The elder’s spiritual daughter, schema-nun A., recalled: “Father sometimes said: “90 years - Kuksha is gone. They’ll bury them as quickly as possible, they’ll take spatulas and bury them.” And indeed, his words came true exactly. He rested at two o'clock in the morning, and at two o'clock in the afternoon of the same day a cross was already towering over the grave mound. He died when he was about 90 years old.”
The authorities, fearing a large crowd of people, prevented the priest from being buried in the monastery, but demanded that the burial take place in his homeland. But the abbot of the monastery wisely replied: “The monk’s homeland is a monastery.” The authorities gave only two hours for the burial.
* * *
For the entire Orthodox world, Elder Kuksha of Odessa belongs to those Russian righteous men who, in recent centuries, like Seraphim of Sarov, the Optina, Ploshchansky and Glinsky elders, by serving God, shone the world with the light of love, patience and compassion.
The elder never condemned those who sinned or shunned them, but on the contrary, he always accepted them with compassion. He said: “I myself am a sinner and I love sinners. There is no person on earth who has not sinned. There is only one Lord without sin, and we are all sinners.”
Elder Kuksha had from God the gift of spiritual reasoning and discernment of thoughts.
He was a great seer. Even the most intimate feelings were revealed to him, which people could hardly understand themselves, but he understood and explained who they were from and where they came from. It also happened that they would stand at the door, and he would already call everyone by name, although he was seeing them for the first time in his life.
The monk advised to bless all new things and products with holy water, and to sprinkle the cell (room) before going to bed. In the morning, leaving his cells, he always sprinkled himself with holy water.
He said to his spiritual daughter, nun V.: “When they take you somewhere, don’t grieve, but always stand in spirit at the Holy Sepulcher, like Kuksha: I was in prison and in exile, but in spirit I always stand at the Holy Sepulcher!”
“I went to see him on some business,” recalled Mother A., “and he said that in front of the St. Nicholas Church there was a plump man sitting in a hat, so hungry, and that I should give him some food. I went out with food, and indeed, in front of St. Nicholas Church there was an obese man in a hat. I approached and said that Father Kuksha had given him food. He was surprised by this, cried and said that he really hadn’t eaten anything for three days and was so exhausted that he couldn’t get up from the bench. It turns out that this man’s things and money were stolen at the station. He was ashamed to ask, and he was in great despondency.
I remember the elder saying to me: “God bless you for untying me.” For a long time I could not understand these words. And only much later did I understand their meaning. When they laid the priest in the coffin, I tied a bandage around his head so that his mouth would be closed, but they buried him so quickly that only before leaving the church did I remember that I needed to take off the bandage. I turned to the abbot of the monastery, he blessed me, and I untied her. This is how the words of the saint came true.
Father said: “They won’t let you in, but you go through the fence and at Kuksha.” And indeed, after the funeral the cemetery was closed, the gate was locked. I remembered the elder’s prediction and blessing, and came to his grave, climbing over the fence.”
The monk always remained in prayerful communion with the saints. One day they asked him: “Aren’t you bored alone, father?” He answered cheerfully: “And I’m not alone, there are four of us: Cosmas, Konstantin, Xenophon and Kuksha.” He named all his heavenly patrons.
God's gift of healing and healing of mental and physical ailments acted in the monk both during his life and after his death. He healed many with his prayer, including from cancer and mental illness.
Over time, the living memory of Elder Kuksha does not disappear, and love for the spiritual father and shepherd does not decrease. One can always feel his spiritual closeness to everyone remaining in this mortal world, his inexhaustible prayerful help.
Schema-Archimandrite Kuksha Novy was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - a resolution of October 4, 1994. The saint's memory is celebrated on September 16, the day of the discovery of his relics, and December 11, on the day of his death, in the Cathedral of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia.
The canonization celebrations took place in the Holy Dormition Odessa Monastery on October 22, 1994. Since that time, the holy relics of St. Kuksha of Odessa have been kept in the Holy Dormition Church of the monastery. Orthodox people who come with faith to the holy relics of the saint receive healing and spiritual consolation.
Reverend Father Kuksha, pray to God for us!
Petr Maslyuzhenko
Century
Pochaev period
The elder returned from hard labor in 1948 after the end of his prison term. Here he begins to carry out the feat of suffering, helping many people, for this he was exiled by the authorities to Pochaev. In the monastery, he continued to serve God and help people, but even here there were ill-wishers, through whose fault the persecution of the priest was renewed.
In order to protect the elder from persecution, the bishop in 1957 sent him to the village of Khreshchatyk to the St. John the Theologian Monastery.
In 1960, the elder moved to the Odessa Holy Dormition Patriarchal Monastery, which became his last home. To those who came to the priest for a blessing, he said: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! Otherwise, it’s 90 years and Kuksha is gone, they’ll take the spatulas and bury them.”
In 1964, the old man fell ill, in a fit of anger, his cell attendant Nikolai kicked the weak old man out into the street at one in the morning; it was cold outside, since it was autumn. In the dark, the man fell into a hole, could not get out of it because he injured his leg, and lay in it until the morning. In the morning his brothers found him and pulled him out of the hole, but from the cold he developed double pneumonia. No matter how hard they tried to cure him, nothing worked, and the man died.
The authorities feared that a large crowd would gather at the priest's funeral and banned telegrams from Odessa announcing the monk's death. But to this the abbot of the monastery gave a wise answer: “The monk’s homeland is a monastery.”
Miracles of the Reverend
There are 10 known miracles associated with the name of Saint Kuksha. Through his prayer and appeal to him after death, 4 children were saved, the saint’s spiritual disciple was cured of a non-healing wound, and convinced atheists found faith. Turning to the monk for leg diseases is especially helpful.
One of the stories tells about a seminarian at the Odessa Theological Seminary who fell ill with pneumonia. The unconscious patient whispered the name of Kuksha’s father. He suddenly fell silent, and then came to his senses and rose to his feet. The doctors who arrived stated that he had a normal temperature and no inflammation in his lungs. The young man explained the change in his state of health by the appearance of the monk, who put his hand on his forehead, which caused a surge of strength.
Icon Kuksha of Odessa, what helps and meaning
As a rule, icon painters depict Kuksha as an old man with a long gray beard. He is dressed in traditional monastic robes, and a halo is often depicted above his head as a symbol of holiness. In the shrine, the monk holds a scroll with the Holy Scriptures. Some icons depict scenes from his life next to the elder.
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Mostly, in front of the icon, people read a prayer to Kuksha of Odessa for healing from serious physical and psychological illnesses, gaining faith and providing assistance in various life situations.
Prayer to Kuksha Odessa
O venerable and God-bearing Father Kuksho, praise to the monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, unfading color of the God-saved city of Odessa, meek shepherd of Christ and great prayer book for us. We zealously resort to you and with a contrite heart we ask: do not take away your protection from our monastery, in which you fought a good deed. Be a good helper to all who live piously and work well in it. O our good shepherd and godly mentor, Rev. Father Kuksho, look mercifully at the people ahead, tenderly praying and asking you for help and intercession. Remember all those who have faith and love for you, who prayerfully call on your name and who come to venerate the relics of your saints, and mercifully fulfill all their good requests, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every slander of the enemy our holy Church, this city, monastery and land, and do not leave us weak, burdened with sins and sorrows through your intercession. Illuminate, O most blessed one, our mind with the light of God’s face, strengthen our life with the grace of the Lord, so that, having been established in the law of Christ, we will flow without laziness along the path of the holy commandments. Bless us with your blessing, and all those who are in sorrow, possessed by mental and physical illnesses, granting healing, consolation and deliverance. For all of these, ask us from above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, for those who have departed from the Orthodox faith and are blinded by destructive heresies and schisms, for enlightenment in the darkness of unbelief with the wandering light of the true knowledge of God, for discord and discord. Pray to the Lord God and the Most Holy Theotokos to grant us a quiet and sinless life. Remember us unworthy at the throne of the Almighty, and ask for a peaceful Christian death, and grant us, with your help, eternal salvation and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, and let us glorify the great generosity and ineffable mercies of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity of the worshiped God, and your paternal intercession in forever and ever. Amen.
If a person suffers from frequent psychosis and nervous disorders, then he should come to the temple and read a prayer to Kuksha of Odessa against psychosis in front of the icon of the saint, he will definitely help you, because during his lifetime the elder bequeathed people to come with their troubles to his grave.
