Donetsk elder Zosima Sokur: “Be afraid to ruin each other’s mood”

Zosima (Sokur)
(1944 - 2002), schema-archimandrite In the world Sokur Ivan Alekseevich, was born on September 3, 1944 in the village of Kosolmanka, Verkhoturye district, Sverdlovsk region, where the mother of the future ascetic Maria Ivanovna (later schema-nun Mariamna, + 1981), a simple and deeply religious peasant woman , was exiled after being arrested at a secret monastic service. The father, from the Don Cossacks, died on the front of the Great Patriotic War in the year his son was born. At baptism, the boy was given a name in honor of the holy prophet John the Baptist.

He grew up in the city of Avdeevka, Donetsk region. The mother raised her son in piety. Of great importance to him were the secret conciliar prayers of the nuns, who were the spiritual children of Righteous John of Kronstadt and, after many years of prison and exile, settled in Avdeevka. Nun Antonina, sister of Ivan’s mother, also belonged to them. They taught the boy not only prayer, but also selfless work for the benefit of his neighbor. Later Fr. Zosima recalled:

«
We dig potatoes, and aunt and mother pray out loud... We dig up the first bucket - take it, Vanyusha, to the priest in church from our work... We dig up the second - our mothers are sick there... We dig up the third - Kharitinochka lies twisted, she has been sick for twenty years... And I, little one, I can barely carry this bucket - my eyes are popping out of my head
» [1].

From early childhood he served at the altar. At the Avdeevka school, the boy suffered persecution for his faith from teachers and peers, but he endured everything with love, and studied well. During my school years, I visited with my mother the Monk Kuksha of Odessa in the Pochaev Lavra. In 1961 he graduated from high school in Avdeevka. He worked at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where schema-hegumen Valentin became his confessor, who warned the young man: “They will offer you the bishopric 13 times... Refuse... Your path is to be an ordinary rural priest.”

After the closure of the Pechersk Lavra, he lived in the Holy Spiritual Skete of the Pochaev Lavra, but the inhabitants were soon expelled from there. In 1964 he graduated from the Donetsk Agricultural Technical School. Worked briefly as a veterinarian.

Attempts to enter the Moscow Theological Seminary were unsuccessful: Sokur’s documents, under pressure from the bodies of the atheistic government, were not accepted. After spending a year in obedience with Archbishop Pavel (Golyshev) of Novosibirsk, I got the opportunity to enter the seminary not from the “conscious” Donetsk region, but from “deaf” Siberia. Thus, in 1968, he was admitted to the Leningrad Theological Seminary and immediately assigned to the second class. After graduating from the seminary, he continued his studies at the Leningrad Theological Academy. He spent all his free time in the library, surrounded by books. He became intimately familiar with his fate in the Leningrad theological schools and for some time served as subdeacon of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad, whom he later spoke of as a man of holy life. After finishing his studies, on Holy Wednesday, April 17, 1975, he took monastic vows at the academy with a name in honor of Savvaty Solovetsky. While tonsuring a student on the day of remembrance of St. Zosima of Solovetsky, Bishop Nikodim prophetically said: “And you will die as Zosima.” He was ordained a deacon and hieromonk by Bishop Nicodemus. He graduated from the Academy with a candidate’s degree in theology, having written a work on the history of the Russian Church “ Valaam Monastery and its Church-historical significance”

«.

After studying, he was sent to the Assumption Monastery in Odessa. A few months later that year, due to his mother’s illness, he asked to be transferred to the Donetsk region and in December 1975 was accepted into the clergy of the Voroshilovgrad diocese.

He was assigned to the temple of the blessed prince Alexander Nevsky in the village of Aleksandrovka, Maryinsky district, Donetsk region. Here his zeal for the construction and decoration of churches was manifested, which he subsequently showed at all places of his ministry. In the conditions of almost universal closure and destruction of churches under pressure from the godless regime, he managed to establish a new altar in the poor church. The consecration of the throne took place on the feast of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God in 1980.

In the same 1980 he was elevated to the rank of abbot. An ardent prayer book and a caring shepherd, Father Savvaty was awarded by God the gifts of insight and healing. Wisdom, the power of faith and knowledge of the path to save the human soul made him an old man at the age of 40. More and more people were drawn to Father Savvaty, which is why the godless authorities began to inflict more misadventures on him. 1982 and 1985 were the peak years of persecution of Father Savvaty by the authorities. He was threatened and beaten, forced to stand barefoot on a concrete floor for days, but his spirit became even stronger, although his health had deteriorated sharply. Under pressure from the KGB he was transferred from one parish to another.

On November 22, 1986, he was transferred to the Vasilyevsky Church in the village of Nikolsky, Volnovakha district. Regular passenger transport did not go here, the church was dilapidated and without an iconostasis, there was a dump at the entrance to the temple, and the burned-out priest's house went down to the ground up to the window and turned into a barn. In the first year of his ministry in Nikolskoye, Father Savvaty, together with volunteer assistants, replaced the iconostasis, demolished the barn, built a priest's house with a baptismal area, and a refectory for pilgrims. Admirers followed the shepherd to Nikolskoye, helping him restore the temple.

In 1990 he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite. By decree of November 4 of that year he became confessor of the Makeevka district, and from March 20, 1991 - confessor of the Volnovakha district.

In 1992, Father Savvaty’s chronic illnesses worsened, and on August 21 of that year, Bishop Alypiy of Donetsk tonsured him into the great schema with the name Zosima. In the new conditions, after the collapse of the USSR, Father Zosima showed himself as a zealot for the spiritual unity of the children of the Russian Church, always calling on the Orthodox of Ukraine to remain faithful to the Moscow Patriarch, not succumbing to attempts to arrange Ukrainian autocephaly.

In honor of the two holy founders of the Solovetsky Monastery, whose names he happened to bear as a monk, he built a well near the temple. Through his prayers, the water of the well, at first bitter and salty, became sweet and healing. In 1997, he rented a house from the village council that stood near the Vasilyevsky Church and set up an almshouse there for 50 people.

Time passed, and more and more people came to the shepherd seeking healing from mental and physical ailments. For every soul torn from the shackles of demonic forces hostile to God, Father Zosima took upon himself illness. In 1998, he experienced clinical death, during which he saw heavenly abodes and heard the singing of angels. After this, he began to build a monastery, something he had never thought of before. Those of his spiritual children who desired monasticism and had the necessary qualities formed two communities in Nikolskoye: brotherly and sisterly. In 1998 and 1999, the fraternal and sister buildings were built, respectively. According to journalist S. Golokha, gratefully accepting help and donations from patrons of the arts, the elder, however, first blessed the restoration of the Svyatogorsk Assumption Monastery, to help restore the Russian Athos Panteleimon and Jerusalem Gornensky monasteries, and only then launched widespread construction at his place in Nikolskoye. On May 19, 1998, the women's community acquired the status of the St. Nicholas Monastery [2], and on December 21, 2001, the status of the Vasilyevsky Monastery was assigned to the men's community [3]. Adjacent monasteries also received the name of the Assumption Monastery.

On February 1, 1998, Schema-Archimandrite Zosima was appointed confessor of the Donetsk diocese. Until his death, he remained the spiritual father of the entire clergy of the diocese, the brothers and sisters of the two monasteries he founded, as well as the beloved priest of many laity. In the last years of his earthly life he was called the “Donbass saint,” and his fame spread beyond the Russian Orthodox Church. Many people came to him for a saving word, advice, help, blessing, receiving healing and learning about their future. At the same time, towards the end of his earthly life, the elder’s illnesses made his days a constant painful struggle. The reception of numerous visitors was sometimes interrupted by fainting; since 1998, Father Zosima has experienced four clinical deaths. He spent the whole of 2001 in intensive care. Only on great holidays was he brought to the monastery for a day or two. On Easter that year, the schema-monk was brought from the hospital in very serious condition; the doctors who were with him insisted that he return to the hospital immediately. But 15 minutes before midnight, Father Zosima put on his clothes and went to lead the Easter service.

Father Zosima was especially reverent about divine services, greatly revered the Mother of God and named the monastery he founded in honor of his favorite holiday - Her Most Honorable Dormition. The Lord judged his servant to repose on this very holiday. The time of death was revealed to the elder in advance. In his last days, he gave out many instructions (as it later became clear, posthumous) to the brothers and sisters of the monasteries, to everyone he met on the way to service and whom he saw in his cell. Just before his death, the schema-monk was granted a certain revelation: “When I die, you will know,” the elder told the brethren, “the clock on my prayer table in the altar will stop.” At 11:45 p.m. on August 29, 2002, on the day of the celebration of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Elder Zosima’s heart stopped, and the clock on his table stopped at the same time.

The childhood of the future schemamandrite

Schema-Archimandrite Zosima Sokur, whose biography began on September 3, 1944 in the village of Kosolmanka, Sverdlovsk Region, who knew God from infancy, managed to plunge into the depths of God’s grace and receive from the Creator special gifts of healing and insight.

Schema-Archimandrite Zosima Sokur

The time and place of the appearance of the future elder is unusual. In the world he was called Ivan, John, in honor of John the Baptist. The boy was given this name with the blessing of Schema-Abbess Kuksha, who prayed for the pregnant Maria, who was under arrest.

For communicating with nuns when the church was under persecution by the authorities, Maria Ivanovna, who lived in the Vinnitsa region, went to prison for “religious propaganda,” where Vanechka was born. The year his son was born, his father died at the front.

After leaving prison, Maria and her son move to Avdeevka, Donetsk region, where she finds shelter with her sister, nun Antonina, the spiritual daughter of St. John of Kronstadt.

Read about Saint John of Kronstadt:

• Relics of the Saint
• Saint icon
• Prayer to John of Kronstadt for drunkenness

From an early age, the Lord surrounded the boy with His messengers, among them was the kindergarten nanny Nyura, who, under pain of arrest, taught the kids to pray the Lord’s Prayer and be baptized. Among the orphans who were in that kindergarten, many famous people grew up in the future, but all the graduates of the kindergarten remembered not the head or the teachers, but the little old lady Nyura, who with her faith and love sowed the seeds of the Orthodox faith in the children's souls.

By the age of seven, the bright boy could already read fluently in the Slavic language, studied the church charter and the Lives of the saints. Father Zosim always emphasized that the knowledge embedded in a child’s, bright soul will definitely sprout in the future and remain in memory for the rest of his life.

Vanechka really loved going to St. Nicholas Church, which was not far from the kindergarten. The boy's favorite toy was a tin can, which the baby turned into a censer.

Diseases and overcoming them for the benefit of others

Elder Zosima.
Image from fotopaterik.org After his stay in the “Music Box”, the health of Fr. Zosima was completely upset. There were wounds on the legs from which blood oozed. At first, no one treated the disease, and erysipelas progressed so much that by 1995 the wounds on the legs reached the bones, and the temperature was almost constantly high: 39°, 40°, 41° - often reaching 42°.

And in this state he served and received people.

Vladimir, who often visited the elder, recalls: “It was already the beginning of twelve at night when I got to the priest - he asked, answered, when suddenly he suddenly passed out, closing his eyes. I froze, afraid to disturb the tired priest. After two or three minutes, Father Zosima came to his senses and said: “Sorry, I have a high temperature - about 42 degrees, I can’t stand it: I’m losing consciousness.”

Having received the instruction, at about twelve I left the elder.” Blessing me for the coming sleep, he said: “Well, go away. And I still have to read my schema rule.”

Study period

At school they laughed at the believing boy, shamed him, but they could not do anything. If for most people the school years are a time of joy, then for Vanya it was a period of trials and confessions, but the most terrible thing for Ivan was the ban on going to the temple of God, because the authorities promised to close the church if a child attended services.

The restless boy came 2 hours before the service, making his way to the temple, like an underground worker, through the vegetable gardens to light the censer. I would like to emphasize that this did not happen in the distant revolutionary years, but quite recently, about 50 years ago.

Vanyushka’s favorite thing was to ring bells; the communists prohibited bell polyphony, but the ban did not apply to the little boy, which constantly frightened the priest, who was afraid that the church would be closed.

A real spiritual treasure for Vanya were the memories of Aunt Nun Antonina, who talked about her stay in the monastery of John of Kronstadt and conversations with the saint. Mother and aunt firmly believed that the time would come when the glorification of Christ would become worldwide and it would be possible to openly worship the mentor of Kronstadt, glorifying him as a man of prayer and a saint.

Elder Zosima Sokur sprinkles the brethren of the monastery

Father Zosima Sokur lived to see the bright times, when there was no persecution for glorifying God, the church was allowed and open to everyone. Despite the prohibitions of the authorities, the young man often went on pilgrimage trips, visited the Pochaev Lavra and the Kiev Pechersk Monastery, venerating the incorruptible relics.

"If you make it hard"

“He who endures to the end will be saved...” Autograph of the elder.
Image from fotopaterik.org As a confessor, Zosima was always distinguished by simplicity and sobriety. “Don’t fall into mysticism—it’s harmful to the soul,” he warned. Our main miracle is liturgy, repentance and prayer.”

“Pray, but don’t beg. It is better not to pray enough than to pray too much. Do not go to extremes - extremes are not from God.

Do not be discouraged, do not give in to despair - there is no sin that cannot be cured by repentance: God is merciful, long-suffering and abundantly merciful.”

“So that the Lord does not become angry with us, always help those in need.”

“There are no dead ends in life, it’s all about our obsession with ourselves and our problems.”

“Be afraid to ruin each other’s mood. When, due to your dishonor, you become a burden to the people around you, when people around you begin to suffer from you, from your thoughts, from your sinful infirmities, from your whining, then take a closer look at yourself, because you are wrong.”

Beginning of ministry

One of the schema-monks of the Lavra, schema-abbot Valentin (Seminal), became Vanya’s spiritual mentor, with whose blessing the monk John took the path of monasticism. In 1960, the new rector of the temple, Father Dimitry Peskov, became the young man’s spiritual nurturer, to whom a real pilgrimage of people from all over the world began for support and guidance.

The pious Sokur family was under the special patronage of Father Dimitri, with whose blessing the sisters baked prosphora, and Ivan served as sexton. After graduating from school in 1961, Ivan Sokur studied at an agricultural college to become a veterinarian, but the authorities did not allow the young specialist to become a seminarian at the Theological Academy in Moscow.

Surprisingly, among the Soviet youth and the population that had departed from God, little was known about God’s ascetics of our time, but God himself guided the life of the future elder Zosima, granting on his way a meeting with Father John (Krestyankin).

Later, having entered the theological academy, Vanya often traveled to the Pechersk Lavra to meet with mentor John (Krestyankin), who became a real spiritual father, with whom the young clergy felt spiritual like-mindedness. Before entering the seminary, Ivan Sokur served in Novosibirsk, as a subdeacon helping Archbishop Pavel (Golyshev) who discovered the beauty of worship to the young man.

Father Zosima at the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 1996

In 1969, Archbishop Pavel (Golyshev) ordained a faithful and thirsty young man, who entered the Theological Academy in Leningrad in 1968, as a reader. Under the leadership of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad, the spiritual atmosphere of the academy was filled with warmth and a special sense of family; seminarians and teachers lived under one roof.

“The House of Mercy will stand until the end of time”

The first thing the elder built, reviving the parishes where he happened to serve, was a pilgrimage refectory. He considered it his duty to feed and drink a person, and mothers always prepared a “brakes” for the journey for pilgrims from far away, even in the most difficult times.

The House of Mercy, the almshouse of the Holy Dormition Monastery, where there were about sixty elderly people, enjoyed his special care. O. Zosima gathered under his wing sickly grandparents who were doomed by the state to a miserable existence.

Father attached special importance to the House of Mercy in the spiritual life of the monastery: “The House of Mercy will stand until the end of time, the Lord himself walks here,” he once said.

Beginning of monastic life

Metropolitan Nikodim was an example of service to the Almighty, his sermons and bright life made many people want to devote their lives to God by taking monastic vows.

In 1975, the Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod tonsured the student Sokur as a monk with the name Savvaty.

After defending his theological candidate's dissertation “The Valaam Monastery and its Church-Historical Significance,” academy graduate Father Savvaty was awarded the title of Candidate of Theology.

On a note! Russian monasticism was of particular interest to Fr. Savvaty, in the Valaam Monastery the seer found examples to follow in both prayerful and economic monastic life. In the future, it is these perceptions that will become the basis for the creation of the St. Nicholas Monastery.

A graduate of the Leningrad Theological Academy, after his defense, goes to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa with the rank of hieromonk, but due to his mother’s illness, he asks for a transfer to his native land.

Naked

As soon as parish life began to recover, Fr. Another temptation awaited Savvaty: the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan passed away, and in search of a worthy candidate for the position of a new primate, His Holiness Patriarch Pimen himself set his sights on Fr. Savvatiya.

He was urgently summoned to Moscow. Father Savvaty categorically refused, in free expressions, the prestigious promotion, remembering the behest of his confessor.

But His Holiness was adamant, and all documents had already been issued to Father Savvaty as the new primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan. Then God intervened - the next day Fr. Savvaty came down with severe pneumonia. Another priest went to Japan.

Pastoral service

On December 25, 1975, Father Savvaty was appointed rector of the Alexander Nevsky Church in the village of Aleksandrovka, Maryinsky district. In a short time, a simple rural priest found funds to update the iconostasis, church crosses and acquire new holy images.

The once brilliant graduate of the Theological Academy became a real shepherd, bringing spiritual care to the people of God. Father Savvaty plunged into his calling, his lively sermons, willingness to listen and give advice, to provide support began to attract residents of surrounding areas to Aleksandrovka, residents of Donetsk began to come to him.

Father Zosima at the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, 2000

The active work of the priest was not to the liking of the Soviet authorities, who repeatedly stopped construction and held conversations with the obstinate priest. The opening of a new altar in the church in 1980 became a sensation in the region; from the notes of Metropolitan Hilarion (Shukalo) of Donetsk and Mariupol, we learn that Father Savvaty had the gift of church building.

Parishioners noted that the rector was very fond of polyeleos services, accompanying them with inspiration and majesty:

• solemn censing;
• we magnify loudly;
• obligatory sermon.

This fertile source of God's light and love attracted more and more parishioners who were thirsty for changes in life. The priest’s reverent attitude toward his old mother, who had her own favorite place of prayer in the church, was also a striking example of the fulfillment of the fifth commandment for many.

The grateful admirer was filled with special pride when she received tonsure into the great schema from the blessing of her son. Parishioners remember Mother Mariamne as a real angel, bringing love, warmth and peace to the world.

Only Mother Mariamne could tell the priest, who often raised his voice, about the need to be meek. The priest of the Alexander Church was sometimes ardent, intolerant of sin, but at the same time he would scold and immediately console the sinner.

In 1977, Father Savvaty received an award - a pectoral cross, and in 1980 he was ordained to the rank of abbot.

In 1981, on the night before the Feast of Peter and Paul, the priest served an all-night vigil, his mother did not feel well and stayed at home to read the psalter, during prayers and died. She was buried at the Alexander Cemetery.

In 1983, a simple rural priest received the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which further irritated the KGB, on whose orders Father Savvaty was beaten more than once, constantly threatened, and transferred from parish to parish:

• 1985 - Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the village of Andreevka;
• 1986 - Church of the Holy Trinity in the city of Makeevka;
• in the same year he was transferred to the Holy Intercession Church in the village. Nikolskoye.

In the torture chamber

Photo: wikimedia.com
The Soviet authorities did not like the fact that many people gathered at Father Savvaty’s place. They took the priest to the village council, where they beat him and forced him to stand for a long time with his bare feet on the cold cement floor. And after some time they were sent to prison.

Once, after beatings, Savvaty’s barely alive father was thrown into a torture chamber.

In one of the versions, the Soviet torture chamber looked like this: there were no windows, the walls were covered with a rubber coating and quiet monotonous exhausting music was constantly playing - it was called a “music box”.

Usually the next day, prisoners in such a cell began to lose their minds: they threw themselves at the walls and screamed. Father Savvaty survived for three days, but later said that if it weren’t for prayer, he would have gone crazy.

After his imprisonment, Father Savvaty’s lungs were broken off, his hump grew, and he began to get sick often and a lot.

And when the conversation began that all the priests during the years of Soviet power “worked for the KGB,” Fr. Savvaty only pointed to his hump - as a “trace of cooperation.”

Priest of the village of Nikolskoye

Vasilyevsky Church first heard the sermons of the new rector on December 4, 1986, on the feast of the Entry of the Most Pure Mother of God.

Although it is quite difficult to call a dilapidated church, in which ice could be knocked off the walls during the cold winter, and bowls froze to the hands, with a toilet and a dump at the entrance, a temple, but God knew who to entrust the restoration of the spiritual shrine.

The temple was a terrible sight from the inside. The once majestic room became a refuge for mice and rats; instead of the famous majolica iconostasis, a plywood board was displayed. The real test for the new rector was the winter with multi-degree frosts and snowstorms, when there was no heating in the priest’s house, the broken window was covered with a mattress, but the priest did not give up.

Interesting! Possessing the gift of temple construction, Savvaty made every effort to restore the Orthodox shrine, by 1988 he built a baptismal room, which housed not only the abbot’s chambers, but also a refectory with a pilgrimage area.

In 1989, the St. Nicholas Church, which was in a state of extreme destruction and desolation, was also added to the Vasilyevsky Church.

In 1990, Father Savvaty was ordained to the rank of archimandrite, and two years later, Bishop of Donetsk and Slavic Alypiy tonsured him into the schema under the name Zosim.

Elder Zosima (Sokur)

Elder Zosima (Sokur)

(1944-2002)

“Everyone who had the joy of communicating with this wonderful ascetic notes that he seemed to radiate a certain Light, the Light of kindness, spiritual peace and joy in the Lord. This Light still hovers over his abode, and especially at his grave.” V. Karagodin

Schema-Archimandrite Zosima, in the world Ivan Alekseevich Sokur, was born on September 3, 1944. With the blessing of schema-abbot Kuksha, the baby was named John - in honor of John the Baptist. Ivan's father, Alexy, was from the Don Cossacks. Mary, the mother of the future ascetic, was a deeply religious and pious woman. Alexei was not destined to see his child; he died at the front in the year of his birth. Maria gave birth to her son in a prison hospital - in

in the distant Siberian village of Kosolmanka, Verkhoturye district, Sverdlovsk region, where she served time for “religious propaganda.”

Since childhood, Ivan dreamed of being a priest. Having barely learned to speak, he somehow made a semblance of a censer out of a tin can and laces and, waving it, like a priest in a temple, babbled: “This is how I will be, this is how.” At the age of seven, the boy could already read Church Slavonic fluently.

Ivan spent his childhood in Avdeevka, a small mining town in Donbass. By the inscrutable fate of God, it was Avdeevka that in the post-war years became a fertile oasis among the spiritual desert of the proletarian region. Here, after long wanderings, prisons, exiles and camps, the sisters of the St. John's Monastery found refuge, as well as many of the children of the great Kronstadt Shepherd: schema nuns, great prayer books and confessors. Among them was Ivan’s aunt, his mother’s sister, nun Antonina. They all gathered for secret night prayers in the house of the pious Sokur sisters.

From the elder’s memoirs: “We cover all the windows and doors with pillows and blankets, and sing Vespers, Matins, Akathists, Rules - and

like this all night long... Especially on the days of memory of dear Father Fr. John of Kronstadt - the mothers always gathered to pray... Everyone honored Fr. John as a great saint and lived in faith that the time of worldwide glorification of the Kronstadt Shepherd would inevitably come. And to me, little one, the mothers said: we will not live to see this bright day, but you must live to sing the greatness of Fr. John..."

From the spiritual children of the great Wonderworker, Fr. Zosima inherited many of the saint’s personal belongings as a spiritual inheritance.

Nun Antonina had a great influence on the spiritual formation of the boy. She had the joy of being personally nourished by the All-Russian Wonderworker: confessing, receiving communion from his hands, using his advice and instructions.

The elder recalled: “We were digging potatoes, and my aunt and mother were praying out loud: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us,” or singing psalms...

All my life I have had one party - this is Mother Tserko

Well, I had one party charter - this is the Gospel and the Law of God... They bullied me a lot at school because I went to Church. They re-educated teachers, attracted schoolchildren: beat this priest there so that he doesn’t run to church!”

Ivan was beaten, but at the end of “this educational process” he meekly smiled and said: “Okay, that’s enough. Let me bless you." So, from childhood, he learned to defeat all his enemies with meekness and love... Even then, the Church of Christ became the main meaning of his life.

The believing boy was accused of whatever sins he was accused of, but one circumstance always saved him - he was an excellent student.

In all academic disciplines, he showed deep knowledge... The family closely followed Ivan’s spiritual education: he read the lives of saints, and then had to carefully retell what he had read. A reference book for childhood and youth about. Zosima was the spiritual diary of St. John of Kronstadt “My life in Christ.”

The elder subsequently advised many: “Don’t know what to do? Pray - and open the book “My Life in Christ”, and Fr. John of Kronstadt will enlighten you, you will find answers to all your questions from him...”

From his school years, the Lord vouchsafed the future elder to use a living, personal example of zealous holy pastoral service to God and people - Father Dimitri (Peskov) came to serve in the Avdeevsky Church. He was known as a preacher and man of prayer, possessing the gift of grace-filled reasoning, by whom the spiritual children of John of Kronstadt began to be nourished.

Father Dimitri immediately fell in love with the pious Sokur family: he blessed the sisters to bake prosphora, and Ivan sacristaned him in the altar - the experienced shepherd paid special attention to him, seeing in him the rising luminary of the church.

In 1961, Vanya Sokur graduated from the first Avdeevka school with a gold medal. With the blessing of Fr. Dimitry Ivan entered the Donetsk Agricultural College to become a veterinarian. It seemed that it would be difficult to find a specialty that would no longer correspond to his spiritual qualities. He had a compassionate heart, which responded with physical pain to the suffering of every creature.

The young technical school graduate worked in his specialty as a veterinarian for just a year.

“And now it’s time to serve God - go to the Lavra!” - Fr. blessed Ivan. Dmitriy.

In the Lavra, Ivan was lucky enough to become the spiritual son of schema-abbot Valentin. The seer warned him against the temptations and temptations that awaited him on the path of life. In particular, the young novice was told the following: “You will be offered a bishopric 13 times, and once - to be the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan. Refuse - this is not your path. Your path is to be an ordinary rural priest.” These words of the elder were exactly fulfilled during the last, 13th time of Fr. Zosima was offered in 1997 - and always, being already a highly experienced mentor, the priest set an example of obedience to his spiritual father.

The young man stayed in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra until it was closed by the Bogobochersky authorities and witnessed these tragic events:

“How the elders and schema-monks cried when the Lavra was closed. They buried their holy icons to save them from desecration. But everyone lived in the faith that the Lavra would open again... that the Lavra would be reborn and serve again... The elders, dying, handed over all the riches of the Lavra, they knew that all this would still be useful.”

After the closure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the young man was accepted as a novice at the Holy Spiritual Skete of the Pochaev Lavra. After the skete closed, Ivan tried to enter the seminary. The priest who dared to give him a recommendation was removed from the staff.

Ivan went to enroll in Zagorsk. Despite the fact that all the exams were passed “excellently”, an order came from the KGB to return the documents...

At this difficult moment, he met Vladyka Pavel, Bishop of Novosibirsk, who was imbued with sympathy for his ordeals and invited him to go to distant Novosibirsk in order to enter the Leningrad Theological Seminary from the “dead taiga” of Siberia.

A year later, with God's help, Ivan's cherished dream came true - he entered the Leningrad Theological Seminary. Bishop Nikodim himself took the exams. Subsequently, Ivan was for some time a cell attendant of Metropolitan Nikodim and always revered the memory of his mentor: “He was a great man, a great Abba of holy life... Walking along Nevsky, he loved to read akathists to the Savior, or the Mother of God, or St. Nicholas, which he knew by heart... Vladyka at that terrible time of persecution, when churches and monasteries were closed, I bore a responsible obedience: to testify to the world about the suffering of the Russian Orthodox Church, and thereby somehow weaken the wave of repression. I personally know, I saw how he was burdened, exhausted under the weight of this cross, but he bore his cross to the end...”

Ivan's favorite place in the seminary and academy was the library. Even lying on his deathbed, the elder taught: “Don’t be insensitive, strive for knowledge and you will always be useful and interesting. I always strive for knowledge; self-education is a constant goal of my life. When my eyes still saw well, I read constantly. When I began to see poorly, I grieved, but God worked a miracle, and I can already see better. I’m already reading out the rule myself: at 4 o’clock in the morning, when this crazy world is sleeping, how good it is to pray...”

While still studying at the academy, the young man begins to write his candidate’s thesis in the department of history of the Russian church: “The Valaam Monastery and its church-historical significance.”

In 1975, he graduated from the academy with a candidate's degree in theological sciences. On June 3, 1975, he was tonsured a monk with the name Savvaty by Metropolitan Nikodim. When naming the name, after the words “our brother Savvatiy tonsures the hair of his head,” addressing the young novice, Metropolitan Nikodim uttered the following words: “And you will die Zosima,” seeing in him a special gift of prayer. Six days after this event, the bishop ordained the newly tonsured man to the rank of hieromonk. When performing the sacrament of the priesthood, the Metropolitan bestowed a golden cross on the young hieromonk.

After graduating from the academy, Hieromonk Savvaty was assigned to the Odessa diocese, where his Eminence Sergius sent him to the Holy Dormition Monastery.

Here he was assigned to a cell, where Schema-Abbot Kuksha lived until his righteous death. As a sign of the continuity of the grace of eldership, the young hieromonk inherited the schematic robe of the righteous, to which Hieromonk Savvaty always, long before the glorification of Fr. Kuksha was considered a saint and was treated as a great shrine.

The monastic obedience of Hieromonk Savvaty was an apiary and gardening. It can be assumed that the beginning of his monastic path was marked by the cross of sorrows - the seal of God's special chosenness. Later, when he was tonsured a monk, the elder usually warned: “Now wait: there will be sorrows, illnesses, slander. Defeat all the machinations of the enemy with patience and humility.”

At this time, his mother’s serious illness, asthma, worsened. In connection with these circumstances, he writes a request for transfer to the Voroshilovgrad-Donetsk diocese. On December 25, 1975, Hieromonk Savvaty was enrolled in the clergy of the Donetsk diocese and appointed to the position of rector at the Church of St. Alexandra Nevsky village of Alexandrovka, Maryinsky district.

He served in Aleksandrovka for 10 years. The dilapidated rural church became the first object of his concern: first he built a pilgrimage refectory, then he made external and internal repairs to the temple, updated the iconostasis, equipped the church courtyard... And after several years of his work, the church of St. Alexander Nevsky sparkled in its former splendor.

From the memoirs of the elder’s spiritual children: “His services were always long, monastic, but he prayed fervently.”

Those who once visited his service yearned again and again to fall to this life-giving source. During the break between services, Fr. Savvaty performed various requirements: baptism, wedding, funeral service, consecration. It is noteworthy that he did not take money for the demands, but said this: “Even if a hundred people do not pay, the Lord will send one who will cover everything.”

Even then, the Lord gave his chosen one, for the purity of his life, the gift of knowledge of human hearts; he saw their thoughts.

From the memoirs of Ivan (Trubitsyn), the future schema-abbot Lazar: “I arrived in Aleksandrovka - it was already getting dark... And then Fr. Savvaty comes out onto the porch, looks at me and says:

- Grandfather (and Ivan Gavrilovich was already over 60) wandered around the market, rode on buses, and what kind of litiya was there today... Well, what brought you?

— I have a son in Afghanistan...

“They’re like on Golgotha,” he says.

- Maybe he’s no longer alive - there’s been no news for three months?

- Alive, alive... When you arrive home, you will receive news...

When I arrived home, we received a letter from my son that he had been transferred to another unit...”

The elder, with his spiritual gaze, saw not only the thoughts of human hearts, but also the circumstances of the lives of those who turned to him for prayerful help and spiritual support.

The power of his prayer is most eloquently evidenced by the fact that he often healed those possessed by unclean spirits with just his word.

“During the service, a woman came into the temple,” recalls schema-hegumen Lazar, “and suddenly began to scream and bark. I look: Savvaty comes out of the altar and says:

- Demon, why are you stopping me from serving? I serve God, shut up now!..

The woman calmed down and quietly stood near the wall throughout the service.

After some time I meet this woman, I know her:

- Well, is the demon tormenting you?

No, she says, he left. Father Savvaty kicked him out..."

Similar cases, when a serious spiritual illness was cured by one word of an ascetic, can only be found in the lives of saints.

A faded sheepskin coat and a faded cassock - the constant attributes of his senile service - are witnesses of his extreme poverty... In them he met the most important guests in Nikolskoye.

“I am a monk, I don’t need anything,” the elder emphasized. And at the same time, what exquisite taste he had when it came to landscaping and decorating the temple. He was ready to give his last penny for church splendor.

Works about. Savvaty’s efforts in improving the parish were adequately appreciated by the diocesan authorities: in 1977, Father was awarded the pectoral cross, in 1980 he was elevated to the rank of abbot, in 1983 he was awarded the Order of Venerable. Sergius of Radonezh, in 1984 - with a club.

For the last two years of service in Alexandrovka, Fr. Savvaty was often taken to the village council, they carried out explanatory work with their fists, took off his shoes and forced him to stand barefoot on the cement floor...

Later he ended up in prison, where, after beating the martyr for his faith, he was subjected to sophisticated torture: he was placed in a “music box” for three days. The “Music Box” is a dark, windowless cell, lined with rubber. The quiet music of a depressing nature had such an effect on the psyche that within a day the victims could not stand it and threw themselves onto the rubber-lined walls.

From the elder’s memoirs: “If it weren’t for the Jesus Prayer, I would have gone crazy.”

All sophisticated methods of ideological work turned out to be powerless, but for the rest of his life he had traces of these tortures for his faith: erysipelas of the legs worsened, and deep wounds opened; His crushed lungs hurt, and his hump rose above his back.

According to St. John Chrysostom, just as soldiers who suffered any hardships in the war for the king have great boldness before him, so those who suffered for Christ, pointing to their wounds, can beg the Heavenly Lord for everything.

The torture only intensified “the flame of his prayer and the boldness of his faith.”

Those in power chose a different tactic to combat Fr. Savvatiy. They began to transfer him from parish to parish: in 1985 - rector of the church in the village. Andreevka near the town of Kurakhovo, then after Easter, he was transferred to Makeevka, in 1986 - to the village. Andreevka near the town of Snezhnoye, the abbots of the Intercession Church...

November 22, 1989 Fr. Savvaty was appointed rector of St. Basil's Church in the village of Nikolskoye, Volnovakha district.

“They decided to drive him into a place,” recalls Schema-nun Famaida, “where there is no transport... The temple is abandoned, dilapidated, there is no iconostasis, a plywood board instead - it was scary to go in...

Near the temple there is a burnt wooden shed, a priest’s house, the windows have grown into the ground, there are mice and rats inside...”

But among this terrifying desolation there was something that gave hope. After the revolution, nuns lived in Nikolskoye - exiles from the Crimean shepherds; they sacredly preserved the Nikolsky traditions, giving them to their successors as a testament: here before the revolution there was an appearance of the Mother of God. At the site of the phenomenon, the waters of a celibate spring began to flow. Local residents and peasants of the surrounding villages for many years, even after the revolution, performed prayer services and religious processions here: especially on the day of the celebration of the Mother of God Kursk-Root Icon, when the Ever-Virgin consecrated this place. And no matter how the atheists tried to fill up the holy spring and erase the memory of it, the blessed waters broke through the cement again and again...

As soon as parish life began to recover, Fr. Savvaty was urgently summoned to Moscow by Patriarch Pimen, who decided to appoint Nikolsky abbot as primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan. The elder refused the offer, remembering the behest of his spiritual father, but the saint was adamant, and all documents were drawn up in Fr. Savvaty, as the new primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in Japan. The next day, the elder became seriously ill, and the patriarch was forced to send another hierarch to Japan.

In 1990, Fr. Savvaty was elevated to the rank of archimandrite, and in 1992 he accepted the great schema... Here, in Nikolskoye, his senile service shone throughout Holy Rus', throughout the entire Orthodox world - from Athos to Jerusalem, from St. Petersburg to Siberia, the name of Schema-Archimandrite Zosima was known.

Joyful and enlightened people left the schema-monk. “Father is healing,” said the grateful visitors. Before his prayer, fatal and incurable diseases receded.

The elder's spiritual daughter Valentina was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery, but her condition worsened: she could barely move.

Through the prayers of the elder, the woman received complete healing.

Nun Syncliticia was being prepared for surgery for kidney cancer. There was little chance of success. The elder gave his blessing to refuse the operation and come to the monastery. The nun began to work in the monastery, performing various obediences - the illness subsided.

Congenital pathologies in infants, which even theoretically cannot be treated, also receded before the power of the righteous man’s prayer.

Elder Zosima helped many people financially, but a special place in his Gospel work was occupied by the Almshouse or House of Mercy, where elderly people found shelter.

With his blessing, with his participation and help, about a dozen churches were built in the Donbass; the most famous: John the Warrior, Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, Alexander Nevsky, St. Luke of Crimea, Agapit of Pechersk, the Prudent Robber, etc.

In 1998, Schema-Archimandrite Zosima was admitted to intensive care with acute renal failure; the elder was dying. In this serious condition, he experienced what is commonly called “clinical death.” But the Lord wanted him to erect a heavenly abode on earth... At this time, his numerous spiritual children cried out with tears to the Lord and the Mother of God, begging for their spiritual Father.

“After returning from the other world,” he began building a monastery. He himself vigilantly supervised the entire front of construction work, traveling around the monastery property in prayer in his wheelchair and giving the necessary instructions.

Shortly before his blessed death, the elder became the founder of two monasteries - male and female in the village of Nikolskoye... He managed to light the candle of monastic life, raise monks not in name, but in spirit... Those monks whom he tonsured were not just his students, he conveyed that bright light with which his heart burned. This light manifests itself, first of all, in all monastic services, wonderful in their beauty, in the entire structure of monastic life.

The founder of the Assumption St. Basil and Assumption St. Nicholas monasteries in the Donetsk diocese reposed in the Lord on August 29, 2002. The Lord revealed the date of his death to him in advance. In recent days, the elder gave many instructions to the brothers and sisters of the monasteries, and left a written will.

Let us quote just a few lines from the spiritual will of Elder Zosima:

“I, sinful Schema-Archimandrite Zosima, leave my last will: and after my death, sacredly and eternally, until my last breath, keep all the wills, those sacred traditions, that peculiarity of the services recorded by the brothers and sisters in the Monastic Rules, preserving them to the smallest detail and without allowing any deviations.

Strictly adhere to the Russian Orthodox Church and His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'.

In the event of Ukraine’s departure from Moscow, whatever the autocephaly, lawless or “legal,” the connection with the Metropolitan of Kyiv is automatically severed...

As I depart into eternal life, I say my last word to you, dear brothers, sisters and all those praying in our monastery: stick to the Russian Orthodox Church: in it is salvation...

Whatever temptation happens, repent and correct yourself...

From the grave I send God’s blessing and give kisses to everyone, I ask for your holy prayers, and God’s grace will not depart from you...

Save yourself in the Lord!

The founder of the Assumption St. Basil's and Assumption St. Nicholas monasteries is the wretched Schema-Archimandrite Zosima.

I give from the grave, lifeless and speechless, Peace, Love and God's Blessing.

Lord, rest the soul of Elder Zosima, rest with the saints, and through his prayers save us!

source: https://svet77-77.narod.ru/zosima.html

Video about the elder: A lifelong road

Elder Schema-Archimandrite Zosima (Sokur)

Elder Schema-Archimandrite Zosima (Sokur) part 2

Love is above all. Film about Schema-Archimandrite Zosima

Founding of monasteries

The women's monastery in Nikolskoye was not created in one day. Faithful to God, the mothers and myrrh-bearing women accompanied the priest for many years, living near the parishes where he served.

In 1997, an almshouse was established, in which, in addition to mothers, the infirm and elderly people found shelter and help. On February 1, 1998, Schema-Archimandrite Zosima Sokur, whose sermons become a real holiday for parishioners, was appointed confessor to the Donetsk diocese, a year later he received an award - the Order of Nestor the Chronicler, and on April 20, 2000 he received the right to wear a second cross.

Father Zosima is the founder of the Nikolo-Vasilievsky Monastery

Everyone who wanted to live in a spiritual community was united by officially opened monasteries. 2000 was the time of the founding of the St. Nicholas women’s monastery; in 2001, the opening of the St. Basil’s monastery for men was consecrated.

About other temples and monasteries:

• Znamensky Cathedral in Kursk
• St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Liski
• Vysotsky Monastery in Serpukhov

On arrival

On arrival.
Father Savvaty. Image from the site novom.ru After prison, Fr. Savvaty returned to his temple, to which people had already begun to come from everywhere. Schema-nun Thomaida recalls: “They hardly persuaded me to go to Alexandrovka; one old mother begged me to accompany her: “A monk serves there: what kind of prayer is there!” We left for Pokrov. It rained all the way, and I, a sinner, grumbled all the time on the bus: does it matter what church you pray in, the service is the same everywhere.

Wet and chilled, we entered the temple. She stood near the doors, everything was dark, only the altar was glowing. I heard only two words from Father: “Peace to all.” I had never heard such a thing and did not know that such a prayer existed. I burst into tears and cried throughout the entire service. The service passed in an instant...”

Even then it was known about the prayerful help of Fr. Savvatiya, gifts of healing.

“During the service, a woman came into the temple,” recalls schema-hegumen Lazar, “and suddenly began to scream and bark. I look: Savvaty comes out of the altar and says:

- Demon, why are you stopping me from serving? I serve God, shut up now!..

The woman calmed down and quietly stood near the wall throughout the service.

One couple's son was taken away to serve in Afghanistan. There have been no letters for a long time. The father went to the elder:

“I have a son in Afghanistan...” “They are there like on Golgotha,” says Fr. Savvaty. - Maybe he’s no longer alive - there’s been no news for 3 months? “Alive, alive... When you get home, you will receive news... When the father arrived home, he saw a letter from his son that he had been transferred to another unit...”

Prayerful, healing and prophetic gift

Father Zosima Sokur’s sermons can hardly be called services; rather, they are fervent prayers that ignite the hearts of parishioners. Often his sermons turned into a dialogue with the people; sometimes he interrupted the service and began to read instructions to a specific parishioner.

Possessing the gift of a seer, the abbot instantly determined what a person could do in the monastery in order to reveal his talents before the Creator. Schema-Archimandrite Zosima left behind many prophecies about Ukraine.

The sick came to the priest with the gift of healing:

• oncology;
• with hernias;
• with congenital pathologies;
• with hematomas;
• with immunodeficiency;
• spiritual addictions.

Before the great faith of the healer, illnesses and problems receded.

Memory March 1, May 21 / June 3 (Cathedral of Ufa Saints)

Holy Venerable Zosima of Ennatskaya Saint Venerable Zosima of Ennatskaya, Ufa
(in the world
Evdokia Yakovlevna Sukhanova
; March 1, 1820 - March 1, 1935, village of Sentsovka, Sharlyk district, Orenburg region) - Russian Orthodox saint, reverend.

The name Zosima means “living” in Greek.

Reviews of the gracious help of the holy relics of Venerable Mother Zosima

Evdokia Yakovlevna Sukhanova was born

in a peasant family in the village of Sentsovka, Orenburg province. She was raised by her parents in the fear of God and the Orthodox faith. Meek and silent, prayerfully disposed, she differed from her peers in her childlike gentleness, detachment from worldly vanity, and hard work.

“I will stay with you forever, I will never leave you!”

The holy elder advised people to come to her when they felt bad. And people immediately flocked to her grave. They bore their grief, asked for blessings, and hurried here with their spiritual and physical ailments. The huge cypress cross brought by my mother from Jerusalem was dismantled into pieces. Pilgrims constantly took soil from the grave with them, so they constantly had to add it. Through her heavenly prayers, people received and are receiving healing and help. Now on her grave there is a cross with an inscription of thanksgiving from the Holy Mountain Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim Tomin for healing him in infancy and predicting his future monasticism.

Blessed relics

The holy relics of the venerable old woman were found on December 14, 2003 and transported to the Kazan-Bogorodsky Church in the city of Meleuz, Ufa Diocese, then to the St. John the Baptist Church in the city of Kumertau.

Discovery of the relics of Saint Zosima of Ennat

Only part of her relics was found - a skull and a number of bones. This is due to the fact that the opening took place in winter, and to the fact that five more people were buried at her grave (three babies, her brother-in-law, an unknown person were buried at her grave; right above the mother’s coffin there was also the coffin of her spiritual daughter, a nun Margarita), and, apparently, most importantly, with her own prophecy. So the local residents said that during her lifetime she promised them: “I will stay with you forever, I will never leave you!” Hieromonk Luka Vyshtykalyuk, a doctor by training, who was present at the discovery, helped identify the relics belonging to the 115-year-old old woman.

Nowadays the holy relics are located in the Intercession-Ennatsky monastery near the village of Dedovo, Fedorovsky district of Bashkiria, where her monastic journey began.