home Medicines from A to Z Rev. Amphilochius of Pochaev - “Do you know what kind of person this is? He saves the whole world.

Rev. Amphilochius of Pochaev - “Do you know what kind of person this is? He saves the whole world.

The Monk Amfilohiy of Pochaev was born on November 27, 1894 in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa in the Ternopil region. He took monastic vows at the Pochaev Lavra and became famous as a great Orthodox ascetic and healer. He passed away 1st of January 1971 and was canonized by the Holy Synod of the UOC in 2002.

Rev. Schema-Abbot Amphilochius of Pochaevsky with his favorites

In a quiet valley, among the picturesque low mountains and hills surrounding it, in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, in the Shumshchyna, in the large peasant family of Varnava Golovatyuk, on November 27 / December 10, 1894, a son was born, the future great ascetic elder Amphilochy Pochaevsky. In holy baptism he was named Jacob - in honor of the martyr Jacob the Persian.

Yakov spent his childhood in rural silence, among the marvelous nature of Ukraine, far from the noise and bustle of cities. The peace and harmony that reigned in the family of Varnava Golovatyuk were involuntarily passed on to little Yakov. Sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, children, and grandchildren lived under one roof in the fear of God. The younger ones here treated the elders with respect, helping them in the fields and with housework.

Barnabas, the father of ten children, had to take on various crafts: he made wheels, blocks, knitting needles, sleds, and was also a good chiropractor. Often he was taken to sick people tens of kilometers away. For a long time, sometimes for twenty days, it was necessary to nurse them, remaining at the bedside of the sufferers until they recovered. Yakov usually helped his father hold the sick when he adjusted broken bones, which was accompanied by unbearable pain.

Jacob's mother Anna, a God-fearing, humble woman who loved God's temple and prayer, without which she did not remain even in the field, she revered the priests, whom she considered saints. Already being a schema abbot, Father Joseph said: “I believe that my mother is in the Kingdom of Heaven!”. It’s a pity she didn’t wait, she died, she would have been happy to see her son as a priest. From early childhood, Yakov, immersed in household chores, seeing the piety of his parents, who never left the house without prayer, absorbed all that was good and holy.

In 1912, Yakov Golovatyuk, matured and stronger, was drafted into Tsarist Army. During the First World War he served in the 165th rifle regiment in the city of Lutsk, then together with the regiment he was sent to the city of Tomsk. A medical unit in Siberia, where a young soldier served as a paramedic, then the front, the front line, where he came face to face with life and death, where best friends died in battle, and then captured.

The Germans sent him to the Alps, where Yakov worked for a farmer for three years. Performing all work with great diligence and Christian obedience, Jacob earned the trust and love of his master, so that he even intended to marry him to his daughter. But the young man, yearning for native land, in 1919 carries out cherished wish his heart and escapes. With the help of kind people, he crosses the border and returns to his native village.

The prayerful warmth of his father’s house warmed the wanderer’s soul. The days flowed by in the usual peasant work. He also helped the sick who sought help.
Following the customs of the old days, Yakov, who had a pleasant appearance and a beautiful voice, began to think about marriage. He married a girl blooming with youth and kindness... but God judged otherwise. A conversation with the rector of the parish church directed life path thoughtful guy in a different direction.

Having seen the world, having suffered grief at the front and in captivity, Yakov deeply learned that life is a constant battle in which the devil fights with God, and the field of this battle, according to Dostoevsky, human heart. And one cannot resist this battle if the seeds of piety, watered with tears of repentance, are not sown in the soil of heartfelt humility.

In 1925, Yakov Golovatyuk, having chosen the narrow path of salvation in monasticism, came to the Pochaev Lavra. The new monk fulfilled the obediences assigned to him with diligence and humility. Just like at home, he made sleighs and wheels, sang in the choir, while considering himself the most sinful and unworthy.

In February 1931, standing at the tomb of the deceased abbot, Yakov suddenly felt all the vanity and transience of life. “A man is like grass, his days are like a field flower, so he will bloom”. Death is inevitable! Whether you are wise or rich, strong in body or poor - death for everyone. We will all lie in the ground, everything will be dust. What's behind the coffin? Eternity, torment? Jacob seemed to have awakened; he wanted to immediately cleanse his soul, throw off the shackles of sin and begin a new life pleasing to God.

In moments of mournful farewell, when they barely had time to pour a tombstone over the grave of the deceased archimandrite, novice Yakov stepped forward and publicly began to confess his sins, asking for forgiveness for his entire life. The young man’s ardent confession touched and excited many, remaining in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

Having passed the monastic test, on July 8, 1932, with the blessing of the ruling bishop, novice Yakov Golovatyuk was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph. Father Joseph graduated full course Monastic and Theological School at the Pochaev Lavra.

Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev. Achievement list:

On September 21, 1933, he was ordained hierodeacon by Bishop Anthony;
On September 27, 1936, he was ordained hieromonk by Bishop Dionysius;
On July 1, 1941, he was awarded the gaiter;
October 3, 1941 appointed assistant economist;
On October 26, 1941 he was awarded the pectoral cross;
May 10, 1951 appointed assistant guardian of the Foot Mother of God;
On July 18, 1952, he was appointed gardener of the Lavra garden with release from his previous obedience;
On February 24, 1953 he was elevated to the rank of abbot;
On May 4, 1954 he was assigned to obedience at the candle box;
On November 24, 1955, he was released from his previous obedience and appointed to the choir;
On April 6, 1957, he was released from choir obedience and appointed confessor of pilgrims and awarded the club;
On January 25, 1959, he was appointed as a candle seller in the churches of the Lavra;
from 1959 to 1962 he served as confessor and others.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick, and became especially famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people from all over the area were brought to him, the flow of patients did not stop day or night. With the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, he settled in a house at the gate of the monastic cemetery, where he lived with Hieromonk Irinarch for about twenty years. Many trees, including fruit trees, which can still be seen in the holy fence, were planted by the priest.

A lot of sick people were brought to Father Joseph. At times, the entire Lipovaya Street was filled with carts (up to 100 carts). During the time of Polish rule, treatment by Polish doctors was very expensive, so ordinary people with the sick and disabled hurried to Father Joseph. He healed everyone without charging a fee. In gratitude, they sometimes left him food.

Spending days and nights in work and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, ascending from strength to strength. His secret exploits and struggles remained hidden from the world. By fasting, vigil, subduing his flesh, the ascetic mortified carnal desires and passions, bringing the slightest movement of the mind and heart into "guidance by spirit". Having devoted his life to serving God and his neighbors, Father Joseph acquired firm faith and active love, receiving from God the gift of clairvoyance and miracles.

Thanks be to God, who gave the world Father Joseph, a healer of human souls and bodies, filled with all his heart with love and compassion for the suffering. He healed, cast out demons, restored hearing to the deaf, restored sight to the blind, and gave joy and consolation to the sorrowful. How many tears the elder dried up with his prayers, how much grief he took into his heart, crying with those who were crying, at the same time giving peace to everyone, instilling joy and hope in their hearts.

Father Joseph recalled how at the beginning of the Second World War, while resting, lying in the meadow in the afternoon, he clearly heard German speech, the patter of feet and the clang of weapons. He woke up and looked around - there was no one around. Together with Hieromonk Irinarch they were surprised, what could it be? We understood only in the evening, when the Germans entered Pochaev. So, for the first time, the Lord revealed the future to him as the present, and from then on Father Joseph knew, in his own words: “who is farther from me, who is walking, what is hurting and how hard is it for me to live”.

At the end of the war, GPU officers and Banderaites began to visit Father Joseph at the cemetery. Some saw him as an employee of the GPU, others suspected him of harboring bandits and tried in every possible way to get rid of him. One evening they came strangers with a stretcher, tied him up and carried him, intending to throw him off the gallery. The pilgrims who saw them protested, and Father Joseph calmly said: “You won’t carry it far”. And, lo and behold! The Lord did not allow the rapists to abuse His saint. On the way to the Lavra, one went blind, another lost an arm, and a third lost a leg. They shouted and asked Father Joseph for forgiveness, untying him. He blessed them and sent them away in peace.

Without repenting and not heeding the miracle, they came again, but for a “conversation.” At the same time, a possessed woman was brought to the priest, tied to the stairs. Untying it, they were afraid it would be violent. Having gained freedom, the woman attacked Father Joseph with her fists, covering him with strong blows until she fell to the ground, exhausted. The monk did not defend himself, and did not even try to dodge the blows - he stood silently and prayed.

His heart, alien to anger and malice, was filled with pity and compassion at the sight of God’s creation tormented by the devil. The woman jumped up and attacked the old man with new superhuman strength. She fell, jumped up again, striking, but unable to shake the ascetic’s long-suffering, she became weak and completely exhausted.

This is how the demons hated Father Joseph, often showing him their malice through the demon-possessed. The evil one is disgusted by virtue. The demon, defeated by the elder’s humility, left the possessed woman. Rising as if from a dream, she began to ask where she was and how she got here. Being eyewitnesses to what happened, the authorities left the elder alone this time.

Where the enemy of the human race does not succeed himself through thoughts, say the holy fathers, there he sends evil people.
At the end of the Great Patriotic War After the Germans retreated, many gangs and criminal groups appeared in the forests. Night robberies, murders. Friends, strangers, everything was mixed up, everyone lived in fear.

The monastic cemetery stood to the side. The twilight was alarming. Anything could happen. The darkness of the night fell like a black shroud on the tired earth. Cool spring night sent people to their huts. But, as you can see, not everyone. An hour before midnight, the cemetery was filled with the ominous clatter of boots.

Fourteen armed men unceremoniously burst into the squalid home of Father Joseph and demanded dinner. Having eaten, long after midnight, the forest "guests" asked to accompany them. Having reached the gate, the commander announced to Father Joseph about the execution. Having calmly listened to the news of imminent death, the elder asked for ten minutes to pray. Having received what he wanted, the priest stood under an old linden tree and read to himself “Our Father”, “Virgin Mary”, “I Believe”, “Otkhodnaya”... Father Irinarch, worried about the absence of the elder, went out into the courtyard. At this time, the elder was already standing in front of the barrel of a weapon aimed at him, complacently praying for "creating misfortune". The commander loudly counted down the last seconds of Father Joseph’s life... “One.., two...”.

Father Irinarh, realizing what was happening, rushed to the machine gun and, bending it to the ground, desperately exclaimed: “Who do you want to kill?! Do you know what kind of man he is? He saves the whole world. If you need to kill him, kill me, but don’t kill him!” - “Okay, go”“, - said the elder, freeing the machine gun from the hands of the unexpected intercessor. Expecting a shot in the back, Father Joseph went to the gate, entered, and stopped. Death has passed. You could hear the partisans clicking the shutter and walking in the darkness... Father Irinarh, wishing “lay down your life for your friend”, saved the priest from the vain death prepared for him by the devil through unkind people.

Soon after this, Father Joseph was transferred back to the Lavra. People still hurried to him, receiving healing for bodily illnesses and secret ailments of the soul. Even those whose diseases were advanced and, according to doctors, incurable, were healed.
However, it was the doctors who were the first to rebel against the elder, demanding that the local authorities and the governor of the Lavra put an end to the medical practice of an uncertified doctor, by whose grace they were left without income.
At this time, after the war, Western Ukraine, which had been under Poland for many years, became part of the Soviet Union. It was not safe to attract attention, but Father Joseph continued to help people.

Father had a special gift - cast out demons. Possessed people were brought to him from the most distant republics of the Soviet Union. The elder saw demons in reality, and often, walking through the temple, he strictly commanded them to leave the church and the people.

Father Joseph experienced the grief that overwhelmed people’s hearts as his own, compassionate with the suffering and condescending to the weak.
Almost all residents of Pochaev at different periods of their lives - in childhood, youth or old age - turned to Father Joseph.

Spending the whole day doing obediences and with people, the ascetic prayed at night. “In the 1950s,” recalls Archimandrite Sylvester, “Father Joseph and I carried out obedience in the monastery garden. Once while reading the rule, I paused, to which he remarked: “A day for obedience, a night for prayer”. And indeed, he himself did just that. Later, when I was a housekeeper,” says Father Sylvester, “occasionally returning late to the monastery, I saw Father Hegumen praying under a tree in the garden.”

Father Joseph loved humility and, avoiding vain human glory, tried in every possible way to hide his virtues.
“Once, in 1956, in the fall, as I remember now, on a Friday,” recalls K., “the pilgrims helped pick apples in the monastery garden. After lunch, having a free minute, my friend and I walked among the trees, humbly bowing their branches under the burden of ripe fruits. Our attention was attracted by a certain man in an old raincoat and tarpaulin boots. He was lying on the ground, covering his head with a worn hat. We walked away, joking that someone else managed to sleep at work. After the break, we saw this man, it was Father Joseph: he never ate food on Wednesdays and Fridays, and, hiding his feat from people, he quietly retired to prayer, and when he heard our voices, he lay down on the ground and pretended to be asleep.”

Late 50s... New round persecution of the Church. Across the country there are massive closures of churches and monasteries, which have survived mainly only in Western Ukraine. The Soviet government, implementing atheist programs, planned to turn Pochaev into a “communist village” with a museum of atheism in the Lavra. The inhabitants of the monastery were asked to leave the territory. Special control was established over all believers, monks and pilgrims. In 1959, the local authorities selected: a land plot of ten hectares, an orchard with a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, a drying facility, and a gardener’s house with an apiary of one hundred beehives. They took away a water pumping station with machines and equipment. Everyone retail outlets in Pochaev it was forbidden to release goods to the monastery, so the monks were deprived of food and essentials.

Pilgrims and parishioners were monitored to ensure that no one brought food into the Lavra. They decided to take a pestilence and expel the monks without a fight, so that later, in the face of the world community and the Soviet public, they could declare that the monks had voluntarily left the monastery due to their renunciation of religion... But none of the monks even thought of leaving the monastery.

Then, under various pretexts, they were expelled individually, discharged, those who persisted were put in prison “for violations of the passport regime,” sent to mental hospitals, and taken home without the right to return. Those who disobeyed were judged. People returned, not looking like themselves, like skeletons covered in dark skin. Hieromonks: Ambrose, Sergius, Valerian, Appelius, Hierodeacon Andrei, monk Nestor and others went through imprisonments, sometimes multiple times.

The repressions did not break the fortitude of the monks, who endured everything courageously and calmly, willing themselves, if necessary, even to die for the Lavra Shrines. The authorities repeatedly threatened the monks, promising to drown them in the holy well, to which Father Joseph calmly answered them: “What’s wrong with me!”, — because was ready to accept martyrdom.
The pilgrims were denied overnight accommodation.

There was no reception at the city hotel, and local residents were raided every night. For harboring pilgrims, the owners faced severe punishment. In view of this situation, the Lavra’s hierarchy decided to open one of the temples for the night for round-the-clock prayer in order to give pilgrims the opportunity to rest. Father Joseph came to the temple, served akathists until the morning, and at dawn he ordered everyone to sing: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light”, “Blessed Virgin” and other chants and prayers. One day in the fall of 1962, the elder was called to the city of Brody, forty kilometers from Pochaev, to see a girl with a broken arm. He returned to the monastery through the gate on the economy side and did not see what was going on at the Trinity Cathedral.

The monk had not yet had time to open the door of his cell when a novice came running to him and hurriedly told him that the cathedral was being taken away and the chief of police had already taken the keys from the governor. Father Joseph hurried to the temple. It was crowded there, and at the door of the church there were about a dozen policemen with their commander. The elder approached the boss and suddenly snatched a bunch of keys from his hands.

Giving them to the young governor Augustine, who was standing right there, he said: “Here, try and don’t give it to anyone”. To the perplexed policemen he said: « The bishop is the owner of the Church! Why did you come here? Get started! People, drive them away!« , he addressed the local residents present. Inspired by the call of their beloved priest, people rushed towards the police, who in fear began to run to the Holy Gates.

With his courage and bravery, Father Joseph defended the Trinity Cathedral. The elder knew what he was doing and expected cruel retribution from the vindictive and vindictive God-fighters. However “I trust in God; I will not fear; what will man do to me?”/Ps.55/. The monk not only waited, he knew when and how they would come for him, but did nothing.

No more than a week passed... The former (now deceased) gatekeeper at the gates of the economy, Abbot Seraphim said: “At the end of September, when I was on duty at the gates of the economy, Father Joseph came up to me and said: “Curve the gate. Now the “black raven” has come for Josip!” and went into the building through the economy. I opened the gate to the building and began to wait for the “black raven,” but no one came, and closed the gate, thinking that the elder was joking. Two hours passed. Suddenly a police car drove up - a “black raven”. The police demanded that the car be allowed into the yard.”.

Father Joseph was in his cell when the dean abbot Vladislav knocked on the door and said a prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us!” . The elder knew about his arrest, knew that the police would come for him and would not have let him in, but through the prayer of his spiritual brother he opened the doors... Six people attacked him, threw him to the floor, tied his hands and feet, covered his mouth with a towel and dragged him from the third floor into the yard to the car. There was nothing to breathe (as he himself later said): there was a gag in his mouth, the collar of his cassock squeezed his throat so much that in another two minutes he would have suffocated. In the car, they took the towel out of his mouth and took him, tied up outside Ternopil, to the city of Budanov (more than a hundred kilometers from Pochaev) to a regional psychiatric hospital.

Here Father Joseph was tonsured and shaved, and then ordered to remove the cross, but he refused. Then the orderlies themselves tore him off and took him, undressed, to the ward of violent mentally ill people at night. The room was lit by a weak electric light bulb. Forty people (all naked) were sleeping when the elder entered. The demons spoke from the sleepy: “Why did you come here? This is not a monastery!” He answered them: “You brought me here yourself”. They also injected Father Joseph with a medicine that caused his entire body to swell and his skin to crack. Remembering all this, the elder covered his face with his hands.

People, having learned where Father Joseph was, began to write letters to the chief doctor of the Budanovskaya hospital asking him to release the old man, who was illegally being kept with the mentally ill, while he himself could treat them. Three months passed by his stay in the hospital. One day an orderly entered the ward, brought a robe and slippers, ordered the old man to get dressed and follow him to the chief doctor’s office. There were other doctors in the office. They asked him to sit down.

—Can you treat those patients who are in our hospital?
- I can.
- Then cure them!
- Good.

Father Joseph suggested that they let him go to the monastery or send someone to bring the Holy Gospel, the cross and vestments (chasuble, epitrachelion, armbands) so that he could serve holy prayers and the demons would go away on their own. And he also added that in two weeks not a single patient would remain here (there were more than 500 people).

- No! You treat us without prayers.
- It’s so impossible to fork.
- And why?

The elder replied that when a soldier goes into battle, he is given weapons: a rifle, cartridges, grenades. Our weapon against the invisible enemy is holy cross, holy gospel and holy water! Father Joseph was taken back to the ward, where he continued to carry his martyr's cross, “I hope for God to save me from cowardice and from storms”/Ps.54/.

The All-merciful Lord does not allow a person to bear the cross beyond his strength, but through many sorrows he tests his faith, patience and trust in God. Everyone who knew Father Joseph did not stop working for his release. They wrote everywhere, even to Moscow, and... they hoped.

One day an orderly came into the ward and again brought Father Joseph a robe and slippers. He went with him to the head doctor’s office, where besides himself there were two more men and a woman. As it turned out later, they were members of the Moscow commission. The elder was politely asked to sit down and asked how long ago he had become a monk.

The answer was that he was born a monk. When asked why he ended up in this hospital, he talked about how as a boy he often went to an old neighbor who read the Bible and said that the time would come when the dragon would fight with the Church. He was interested to know this. And now he sees how the dragon is at war with the Church. The woman grinned at this answer, and the men looked at each other meaningfully. And Father Joseph was taken back to the ward...

But people didn't give up. Everyone wrote and wrote statements asking to release him from the hospital. Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva found out about Joseph's father's imprisonment. She managed to free the elder in gratitude for the fact that he had previously healed her of mental illness. After this, Father Joseph settled with his nephew in his native Ilovitsa.

Having learned where the elder was, people began to come to him, obsessed with various ailments. Father served holy water prayers every day and healed people. But the enemy rose again in the person of godless local authorities. Concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, the authorities turned evil people against him. One tractor driver lured the old man onto his tractor and took him out of the village to the swamps. There he pushed me off the tractor to the ground and, after beating him until he lost consciousness, threw him into the water and drove off. Father Joseph lay in cold water for eight hours. It was December 1965.

Concerned about the long absence of Father Joseph, they began to look for him. And they found him barely alive; it was a miracle he didn’t drown. The elder was urgently taken to the Pochaev Lavra and that same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of Saint Hippo, whose memory was remembered by the Church on that day. No one then hoped that the elder would live until the morning. But the power of God brought my father back to his feet, and he recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration. Relatives came for the priest and took him to Ilovitsa.

People still went and went to the elder for healing and received it, of which there are many testimonies. Father Joseph served prayers daily, and after the service, having sprinkled everyone with holy water, he invited dinner table. After the prayer service, people felt an inexplicable lightness in their hearts. “According to God’s permission,- said the old man, - For sins, the gate comes to the people, take your heart in your hand and squeeze it. Ale, for your heart to be pure, you need to quickly read the prayer "King of Heaven" .

The dinners were also something extraordinary. After them, many sick people were healed. And sometimes Father Joseph took a club and sat on a bench near the chapel. All the worshipers came up to him and asked him to touch the sore spot with a club. And those whom he touched were healed. This is how those suffering from headaches, diseases of the kidneys, liver, heart, arms and legs, as well as the mentally ill, were healed.

The fame of healing miracles spread everywhere. People came to Father Joseph from the north and south, from the east and west, from Moldova and Sakhalin. Avoiding human glory, he tried to hide from people God’s gift of healing from mental and physical illnesses. He often took upon himself superficially their vices, played the fool and thereby indicated the cause of certain illnesses of the people who came to him.

Many who did not understand spiritual life considered Father Joseph a sinner. And he himself often said: “Do you think I’m a saint? I'm a sinner! And you find healing through your prayers and through your faith.”. Not only the visitors, but also his family were deceived by the elder’s actions. And he loved to repeat: “I’m not amazed at the face, but at the soul! And think about what you want". The words of the Apostle Paul are appropriate here: “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and those who live according to the Spirit think about the spiritual things; the pure have all things pure, but the unclean and unfaithful have their mind and conscience defiled.”.

Those who came to the Pochaev Lavra from all over the country always tried to visit the elder in his village. In the summer, he had up to 500 people every day, and sometimes more. He always treated everyone to a blessed meal.

Even in the autumn of 1965, Father Joseph settled with his niece Anna, the daughter of the late brother Panteleimon, who lived in the same village in a new small house. In Anna's courtyard, the saint of God built a high dovecote, and under it a small chapel, in front of which he served prayer services and blessed water. A long dining table was placed behind the chapel for pilgrims, and a chapel was also built.

On the northern side of the courtyard they built a long building and in it they built a refectory and a kitchen, a reception room for the sick, a bedroom for novices and a house church - a long hall with two side rooms: in one the church vestments were kept, in the other - Father Joseph prayed and rested. A closed gazebo-veranda was attached to the church from the garden side.

Apple, pear, and plum trees grew in the garden planted by the old man. The ground was covered with flowers like a carpet: gladioli, dahlias, roses. There were palm trees in the boxes. A peacock and a peahen walked among the kingdom of flowers. There were canaries and parrots, and up to 200 pigeons lived in the dovecote. To serve people and do housework, novices lived with Father Joseph. They read the morning prayers in the chapel and evening prayers, Psalms at night, Akathists during the day, preparing dinners, working in the garden...

The souls of all people, their hearts and intentions were open to Father Joseph, but for the sake of love he tolerated the insidious, the crafty, and the possessed in his house. Often, sitting down at the table, Father Joseph sang: “I will not be afraid of fear, I will not be embarrassed!” and “I will not sit with the wicked!”

Opposite the house of Anna Panteleimonovna’s niece there was a plot of land allocated to Father Joseph by the village council for a vegetable garden - they planted potatoes there. People bought building materials and donated them to him to build a house, but the village authorities did not allow him to build the house. The elder was upset; he intended to set up a church in the new house. He often said: “There will be no me, but there will be a church, and then a monastery.”. Fifteen years after the death of the ascetic, a church was actually built in the village, since the parish wooden church in the village of Antonovtsy, four kilometers from Malaya Ilovitsa, burned down from lightning in the 70s. There is also an old cemetery where the parents and all the relatives of Joseph’s father are buried. He often visited their graves and served funeral services.

In his yard, my father served water blessing prayers every day and healed people. As is known, "this kind"(demons) are driven out only by prayer and fasting, therefore Father Joseph to many did not bless eating food on Wednesday and Friday. “Yakbi you knew what a licorice pastry is”“- said the elder, meaning the spiritual sweetness with which the soul of the fasting person delights. On days of strict fasting, he ordered early in the morning, after getting out of bed, before the morning prayers began, to immediately put three prostrations with prayer "Virgin Mother of God, rejoice" so that you can easily fast on this day.

Father Joseph healed various ailments and claimed that half of the sick are healed, and half leave him unhealed - God does not like this, for their bodily healing will not benefit them, but will lead to the destruction of their souls.

Very often the elder had to endure troubles from his restless visitors, possessed by demons. His family even tried to persuade him not to accept the possessed, for the demons were taking revenge on everyone who lived in the yard, and on himself, to which Father Joseph replied: “It’s hard to endure, but there’s no need to be afraid of demons!” In the words of the ascetic, the ground in his yard was soaked with the tears of praying people, seriously ill people, thirsting with all their souls for healing. He often repeated that children in our times are born rebellious, proud and daring, and then become possessed. Humbling such children, the elder forced them to ask for forgiveness from their parents.

Had to have great love in the heart, so as never to refuse anyone or anything. The Physician of God had one. He found time for everyone.
The elderly novice John visited Father Joseph in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa more than once. And there I saw miracles of healing. “Without acquiring the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, I think- said the novice John, - it is impossible to perform such miracles of healing as this great saint of our Volyn land performed.”. This will be confirmed by any old-timer in Pochaev, and by those dozens, if not thousands of people of our Fatherland whom Father Joseph healed.

Once, after morning prayers, the priest did not leave his cells to see the people for a long time. Suddenly he came out and greeted everyone with the words of the prophet Isaiah: "God is with us! Understand, O pagans, and submit, for God is with us!” . And then he began to talk about the reasons that led so many people to him. main reason, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the instillation of which begins at school. Students are persecuted, not allowed into the temple, they are subjected to ideological training, humiliating human dignity.

A person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not receive communion is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This leads to the fact that the majority of the population are mentally ill. The elder advised to heal the illness of the present age with prayer. In his house it took place around the clock. In the chapel, on the floor covered with straw and rows (bedspreads), the infirm patients, possessed evil spirits. Sleepy, they muttered in the middle of the night: “The shaggy apostle woke up(they are talking about Father Joseph, he had lush wavy hair) , is tormenting us again! Let's leave! Let's leave!...".

At night, the ascetic tightly covered the windows with black curtains: at night, in full schema, with incense in his hands, he walked around his long cell and said a prayer, which the demons felt and did not tolerate in the possessed people sleeping in the prayer room. Often in the morning the prayer book told how demons did not give him rest all night: they rode on carts, came in legions to his yard with threats to kill, shoot, stab or poison.

At the beginning of the winter of 1970, a young man of about thirty-five, tall and physically healthy, burst into Father Joseph’s room. “Where is Joseph? He choked me with smoke in Moscow! I'll kill him!. WITH God's help They managed to throw the demoniac into the snow and tie his hands and feet. Three large kitchen knives were taken from the jacket pocket. The man was dragged into the chapel. He turned out to be a Muscovite, a pilot named Georgy, who spent three days traveling to Ilovitsa without eating or drinking along the way, which made him weak. At the request of this man’s mother, Father Joseph prayed for him, and he in Moscow felt the elder’s prayers and could not tolerate them, as he was possessed by an unclean spirit, which led George to take revenge on the prayer book. Father Joseph did not leave his cells that day. The Muscovite's hands were untied and he was given something to eat. And by evening they untied their legs. He ran away from the yard; no one saw him again.

Modern young men also came to their father and complained of mental anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder placed them in the middle of the courtyard and ordered them to make four hundred and fifty prostrations; He ordered that they do the same at home every evening, wear crosses, don’t drink, don’t smoke, go to church, keep fasts, and take communion. Then, according to him, all the “nerves” will go away and they will be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not the nerves that are upset, but demons that are tormenting and one must fight them with fasting and prayer.

The ascetic loved nature very much, he felt it, tried to decorate the earth with flowers and various trees. Everywhere where he lived: in the Pochaev Lavra, at the monastic cemetery, in Ilovitsa, he left behind a living monument of fruit and ornamental trees. Spring was a heavenly time for him, and the spring forest was paradise. The elder said that only before haymaking is all the vegetation: grass, flowers, leaves on trees, and bushes - young, tender, fresh and shining, and after haymaking summer comes and the leaves fade, become coarse, lose their youth and former charm. Just like the man himself...

Having kind heart, Father Joseph grieved for evil people, for evil is not inherent in human nature. It is aroused in him not without the mediation of demons, and that is why evil people become like them. “Any sin entangles the heart like a cobweb, and anger is like a wire - try to break it. Evil people killed the Tsar, evil people mock the Orthodox. It is great happiness that the Lord has vouchsafed us to be born in Orthodox faith and be Orthodox, but many peoples, unfortunately, do not know Orthodoxy.”, - the ascetic repeated repeatedly.

Even decades before his glorification - the great defender of the Orthodox faith in Russia - Father Joseph had already revered him as a saint and pasted his photograph as an icon next to the face of the saint in his funeral synod.

The saint of God also disapproved of television programs that devastate and rob the soul. After watching such programs, a person does not want to pray at all, and even if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, only leads to condemnation. IN Lately sorcerers (so-called psychics) are working hard to improve the system of coding people through televisions, radios and even electronic devices, because they know that coded people will obediently carry out the will of others. "Save yourself,- said Elder Joseph, - not easy. I won’t put your salvation on your head - work and pray yourself! If you want to be saved, be deaf, dumb and blind« .

The doctor showed his love for people through action, and therefore they went to him with faith, inflamed by his holy grace. The healer of human souls and bodies had enough spiritual love for everyone: he loved the sick and suffering, wished them healing and tried to help. To the questions of one servant of God about how to achieve such love, the ascetic answered that God gives the grace of love for humility. And he often repeated: “As you care about people, so people care about you”.

“At prayer services with the priest,” says K., “people were healed, and I was completely overcome by such a feeling that I was ready to hug everyone. I couldn’t recover from the unspeakable love for every person.” Monastics often came to see the elder. In conversations with them, he repeatedly emphasized that it was important not only to take monastic orders, but that it was the soul that became a nun.

Father Joseph can be supplemented with the words of the Apostle Paul: “Take heed that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise, cherishing time, because the days are evil, do not be foolish, but know what is the will of God.”/Eph. Ch. 5/.

It's 1970. The feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching. Feeling that this was the last Christmas of his life, Father Joseph wanted to organize a celebration for everyone whom God would send to him. On the day of the holiday, a divine service was performed in the chapel, and then Christ the Child was glorified with Christmas carols. Village children carrying the Star of Bethlehem came into the yard in groups and sang carols. Father Joseph himself met them and invited them to festive table by giving them gifts. And so all day long until late at night in the yard and in the old man’s house, both adults and children continuously praised. The celebration continued throughout the holidays and was remembered by every soul, who, with the psalmist, sang thanks to God for His great mercy to be honored to visit the holy elder ascetic during these Christmas days.

At the beginning of the summer of 1970, Father Joseph invited Pochaevite Vasily Malkush to his home in Ilovitsa. The two of them went into the forest to listen to Zozulya (cuckoo). The priest listened to her with some special attention, and then said to his friend: “From the last time I hear you Zozulya”. And so it happened - in the last days of that year he departed to the Lord.

Priest Peter from the Vinnitsa region became very attached to Father Joseph. He believed every word of the elder. He loved him for his meekness, for his humility and obedience, and blessed him to serve holy water prayers. He himself locked himself in a cell "prefer", pray for the healing of the sick who were present at the water-blessing prayer services. They were healed through his secret prayers. Father Peter understood the elder’s goal and treated him with humble reverence. The priest walked and rode everywhere in a cassock, with a pectoral cross on his chest, as Father Joseph blessed, for he considered that the priest was his appearance must preach, affirm and hold high the banner of Holy Orthodoxy, so that everyone can see and know that Orthodoxy exists, the Church of Christ lives and acts. Everyone looks at such a priest with respect and reverence, and if he hides his rank under secular clothes, then for everyone he is just a layman who does not heed the words of the Lord: “Whoever is ashamed of Me, of him I will be ashamed”.

The Mother of God for Father Joseph was the Heavenly Goalkeeper; he constantly turned to Her in his prayers. Sometimes during a communal lunch, the priest asked everyone to interrupt lunch, stand up and sing the prayer of the Most Pure One. "Under Your Grace". The elder believed that despondency and emptiness in the soul were due to excessive talking, gluttony and covetousness. He then ordered to sing every hour and day “Elitsa, be baptized into Christ” and “God is with us”. He himself had a beautiful baritone voice, understood well and loved church singing.

It used to be that fellow villagers would gather on Sunday for a prayer service at Father Joseph’s place, everyone would stand and pray—complete silence. Suddenly the elder turns around and says: “Don't talk! Don't respect me". He heard people's thoughts about their earthly vanity, which prevented him from praying. « Prayer is freedom and aspiration of the mind from everything earthly“,” write the holy fathers.

One day in the winter at the beginning of 1970, he went into the refectory and sternly asked who brought him flowers and asked him not to wear any more, because it was not flowers that were needed, but prayer. Everyone was surprised: they didn’t see flowers anywhere. Almost a year later, this parable became clear: the ascetic foresaw that flowers would be brought to his grave, but he was more pleased with the prayers of people rather than decorating the coffin. How did Father Joseph feel in the last days of his life, what thoughts worried him? Family members often saw how the elder’s face transformed: his mind went deeply into himself in prayerful contemplation. He knew the thoughts of those around him: good and evil. He thanked for good, forgave evil. Not only evil spirits, but also people took up arms against him.

One day the priest sat down to dinner, but did not touch the food for half an hour. He sat and listened carefully to something. With his spiritual, insightful eye, he saw the atheists gathered in the Shumsky district executive committee, deciding his fate. They discussed what to build in the old man’s yard after his death: a kindergarten, a hospital or a power plant. He probably also knew that they had thought of his villainous murder there.

Several days passed. Late in the evening, when everyone was already asleep, a light appeared in the veranda. The novices thought it was Father Joseph - he slept there until the frost. But when they looked out the window, they saw two people in caps. They raised the people in the prayer room and ran to the veranda. The light went out... It became dark. The window is open, the door is locked, there is silence outside the door. Not knowing what happened to the priest or where he was, they began knocking on his cell. A few minutes later, the elder came out alarmed: foreseeing the intention of the villains, he went to sleep in his cell that night.

Father Joseph approached the veranda and began to open the door. Someone pushed him aside and entered first. There was a Finnish woman lying on the cot. From under the cot they pulled out a young man dressed in Father Joseph's cassock. He was tied up and taken to the chapel. He said that he was with his fellow villager - the owner of a Finnish car, who had recently completed his service in the Marine Fleet. The villainous tractor driver was treated to lunch and sent home. And in the evening, the police arrived from Shumsk and played out the investigation scenario: they interrogated witnesses, drew up an act of attempted murder, and took with them the material evidence - the Finnish woman. This is where the investigation ended.

Soon after this assassination attempt, during lunch, Father Joseph again did not touch food for a long time, sat and listened to something. The expression on his face changed: it became surprised, then stern, and then he said: “My faith will save me!” And he explained to his family that in Shumsk they were again deciding how to take his life as quickly as possible. “For I have heard the evil spirits of many who live around: when they come together against me, they take my soul together.”.

The elder foresaw the plans of the enemy and knew his accomplices-executors in the person of evil people, and foresaw his own death. Several times Father Joseph gathered his household in the refectory and asked them to sing some prayers from the service for the Dormition of the Mother of God, and “The apostles from the end copulated here” - asked to sing three times. He himself, listening to the touching singing, covered his face with his hands and cried. After singing, he said sadly: “And how scary it will be if you start throwing frozen soil onto a mushroom”... Four months later, the funeral service for Father Joseph was held in the Lavra.

One of the monks, three days before the death of the ascetic, as he later said, had a hard time in his soul, tears rolled down his cheeks for no reason. On the fourth day, he dreamed of Father Joseph and asked him to remember him for his repose. And in the evening he learned of his death. An ascetic has died January 1st 1971. It was snowing heavily. Fellow villagers said goodbye to their dear old man. Hieromonk Bogdan served a funeral litany for the newly departed. And only at nine o’clock in the evening, having placed the coffin on a truck, we left for Pochaev. The snow didn't stop. Nature also said goodbye to the old man...

At three o'clock in the morning the car with the coffin approached the Lavra, but could not pass through the Holy Gates, it rolled down the mountain three times - the saint of God did not want to drive the car through the Holy Gates. Then they lifted the ascetic’s coffin onto their shoulders, and with singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us” They carried him into the Holy Gate and through the gateway into the building. They carried along the corridor to the Church of Praise Holy Mother of God. The novices brought many wax candles from Father Joseph’s cells; they were lit on great candlesticks placed in front of the coffin and distributed to people. They brought photographs of the elder; Father Bogdan distributed them to pilgrims.

The late liturgy in the Church of Praise was served by Archimandrite Samuel. After the liturgy, the funeral service for Father Joseph began. The priest-monks came out of the altar to the coffin. The snow stopped, the sun came out and played like on Easter. And when the last kiss was given, the woman’s broken arm was healed at the coffin. A lot of people gathered in the church for the funeral service.

Usually deceased monks are taken to the cemetery, but people did not let go of Father Joseph’s coffin: everyone wanted to carry the dear old man at least a little, seeing him off on his last journey. Horses harnessed to a sleigh rode sideways, and the coffin with the body of everyone’s beloved elder Joseph was carried high above the heads of those mourning - “as before people, so are people...”. None of the monks were buried like this, although among them there were deeply respected and respectable fathers, but people wanted to give a worthy honor to such a miracle worker and healer as Father Joseph and thereby express their love for him, who loved them and devoted his entire life to service God and neighbors.

The Pochaev Lavra celebrated the day of memory of St. Amphilochia Pochaevsky

Archimandrite Hermogenes proclaimed the funeral eulogy. The coffin was lowered into the grave, covered with frozen earth. His grave was dug next to the grave of Father Svyatopolk. Both of them lie under the crowns of an apple tree once planted by Father Joseph. As the elder said - he would no longer have problems with registration, that they would register him in Pochaev - so they registered him until the Second Coming of the Lord... Nobody asked for documents, and V.’s dream became clear - Father Kuksha begged the Queen of Heaven and She helped register in Pochaev, Father Amphilochius, which is what the elder asked, while still alive, to the servant of God V.: “Will you take me to Pochaiv? And she was thinking! then (shortly before the death of Father Amphilochia) that the priest asks her to take him to Pochaev and register him in her house.

They built a grave mound. Again the clouds covered the sky, snow began to fall, a gusty wind blew in, and a blizzard arose. The wind knocked people down - this is how nature cried, expressing its grief for the saint of God. And only by the end of the next day the snowstorm subsided, it became quiet and clear...

Father Joseph was buried on January 4, 1971. And three days later - the holiday of the Nativity of Christ. But for many there was no complete joy on Christmas days - so deep was the grief and grief for the newly deceased elder. Last year's Christmas celebration in his village, to whose residents he provided so much spiritual joy, unforgettable for a lifetime, was still fresh in his memory.

The saints will be praised in glory and will rejoice on their beds. This glory will be to all His saints

The forties were celebrated in Ilovice on Wednesday. Mother Manefa then had a dream: a boat was rushing along the river against the current like an arrow, and Father Joseph was standing in it. Many demons, black and evil, grabbed onto the sides of the boat and shouted triumphantly: "Our! Our!". But the ascetic did not pay attention to them. Here the boat landed on the shore opposite a magnificent large temple, from which two bright young men came out, took the elder by the arms, led him into the temple and placed him in the altar in front of the throne. The demons screamed in frustration and... disappeared.

Mother’s dream can be interpreted as follows: the boat rushed like an arrow against the current - it was Father Joseph who performed miracles, with which the demons were deceived and considered him a sinner until the very last moment - God’s determination about his soul, which was introduced with honors by the Angels into the Triumphant Church.

After the death of the elder, his monastic clothes - a mantle, a kamilavka, a rosary - were placed on the lectern in the church by the novices, where they prayed for forty days. At night a strong fragrance emanated from them. The years fly by, time continues its unstoppable run. Every year, the day of the Angel and the day of death are celebrated at the grave of the dear old man. People remember him alive, his step, his voice, loving heart and kind, kind, intelligent eyes..., from mouth to mouth they pass on to each other stories about miracles of healing.

All these years, day after day, people go to the grave of the ascetic, and now to the Cave Church of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, where his incorruptible relics rest, light a candle or light a lamp, conduct a quiet conversation, trusting the elder with their troubles and illnesses. Those possessed by evil spirits also come here... And many miracles of healing have already been witnessed, both at the grave in the monastery cemetery and at the shrine with the relics of St. Joseph (in the schema of Amphilochius).

The people's path to it, laid by the suffering in the hope of receiving healing from God through the prayerful intercession of the ever-memorable Father Joseph, the great saint of God of the Volyn land, will never be overgrown.

Relics of Saint Amphilochius

The entire life of the Reverend was a self-sacrificing service in the name of love for God and neighbor, for love is the main fruit of a Christian’s spiritual achievement and the goal monastic life. It is the law of life in heaven and on earth and is born from a pure heart and immaculate conscience. Love is immortal, it goes with a person behind his coffin eternal life and mutually connects the souls of living and dead people. It was with such love that the Reverend acquired deep respect for himself.

Through faith, love and mercy for the suffering, he showed a good example of life, gained love and left an indelible memory in the hearts of believers, for whom he was and is a quick healer, a merciful helper and a successful intercessor. Even after death, He heals, consoles, edifies; people still feel his love.

The Lord numbered him among His saints and installed him in His Heavenly Kingdom, and we were honored to have in his person a great man of prayer and intercessor before the throne of God for the healing of ailments, for deliverance from sorrows and temptations. May His memory be for generations and generations.

Troparion, voice 4

The land of Volyn is glorious ascetic /
and the Pochaevsky monastery is worthy of a monk/
Orthodox people are quite a healer /
Reveal thee to His Church, Christ our God, /
Reverend Father Amphilochie, /
Pray to him fervently /
free yourself from the slander of the enemy /
and save our souls.

Kontakion, voice 3

As a zealot of the Orthodox faith and a teacher of pious living,
in illness and sorrow a great helper and protector,
Reverend Amphilochie stands before the Lord, for this reason we cry out to you:
preserve the monastery, in which you labored,
and save us with your prayers, blessed father.

Troparion, tone 4

For suffering people, ardent prayer book, fasting,
struggles with passions, prayer vigils,
By deeds of mercy I have gained the love of the Queen of Heaven.
You were an unshakable pillar of true faith,
and Orthodoxy is a bright lamp,
a quick helper to the ill and a free healer,
undaunted chaser of demonic hordes,
in your great labors you imitated Christ the Hero himself and all the saints,
in honor of the Holy Trinity three names are given to the bearer:
Jacob, Joseph and Father Amphilochie,
pray to the All-Merciful God to cleanse the hearts infected with sin
and through Your intercession our souls will be saved.

Greatness

We bless you, Reverend Father Amphilochie,
and we honor your holy memory, teacher of monks and interlocutor of angels.

In contact with

The year was 1962. A bound patient was led through the premises of the Budzanovsky Castle - a former monastery, and now a psychiatric hospital. He could barely drag his feet, and there were signs of cuts and abrasions on his head and face. The patient was taken from the ward for the “especially violent”, where he was kept, to the chief physician’s office. The patient's name was Father Joseph. A month ago, as a monk of the Pochaev Lavra, he, seeing how a crowd of policemen surrounded the Trinity Cathedral, snatched the keys from the hands of one of them, returned them to the bishop and drove the police out of the Lavra. Two days later, a funnel came for him.
The orderlies left, leaving the tied, shaved, shorn, trembling patient alone with the head physician. In front of Father Joseph sat a tall, thin man of about fifty with an elongated, pale face and a piercing gaze.

Doctor:
Good afternoon... Yakov Golovatyuk, isn’t it? Or Father Joseph?
How do you feel in your new place?
O. Joseph:
Not complaining. It’s just that your injections... my thoughts are confused and my body hurts, so it’s difficult for me to answer you.
Doctor:
This is necessary for your mental health!
O. Joseph:
My mental health is fine.
Doctor:
We know better, my father. Tell me, weren’t you the one who set the parishioners on like dogs against a whole detachment of police, who, so to speak, came in peace to the Lavra, with instructions from statesmen (!)?
O. Joseph:
These are not dogs, but faithful sons and daughters of Lavra. But your police did not come in peace, but with a sword, to take away the Trinity Church from us and dishonor the holy Altar!
Doctor:
They listened to you, my dear, Father Joseph. It was you who called them to revolt.
O. Joseph:
I did not call for rebellion, but defending the Holy Abode is the duty of every Christian.
Doctor:
For mercy, my father, why should they remember their sacred duty! You told them, they listened. They consider you a saint!
O. Joseph:
Am I a saint? What a saint I am! I'm a sinner!
Doctor:
Is it true, father, that you heal the sick?
O. Joseph:
It is not I who heal, but the Lord God. And people receive healing from illnesses through their prayers and faith. And that's not all. It can damage someone’s physical health and lead to the death of their soul.
Doctor:
You heal, that is. Tell me, father, could you cure all our sick?
O. Joseph:
God will heal through our prayers! Order to bring the Holy Gospel and vestments so that the water-blessing prayer service can be served. You will see, after prayer the demons themselves will leave people!
Doctor:
No, father, you are treating us without prayers!
O. Joseph:
This is impossible to cure. After all, when a soldier goes into battle, he takes a rifle, ammunition, and grenades. Our weapons are the Holy Cross, the Holy Gospel, the Holy Water.
Doctor:
You can’t, that means, Yakov Varnavvovich!...Why are you silent? Well, show me a miracle, father, so that I too can believe and let you go! What? So you can't? Evgeny Stepanych! [an orderly enters] Put our little darling in the isolation ward for three days. Let's see, maybe his hands will be free... for good deeds...

The orderlies showed up to take him to where he didn't want to go. Father Joseph looked into the corner of the room. He remembered the Gospel of Luke: “When Herod saw Jesus, he was very happy, for he had long wanted to see Him, because he had heard a lot about Him, and hoped to see some miracle from Him, and asked Him many questions, but He did not answer him. … Herod and his soldiers, having humiliated Him and mocked Him, dressed Him in light clothes and sent Him back to Pilate.”
Father Joseph was saved from Soviet punitive psychiatry by Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, who unexpectedly appeared in the hospital. At one time, the elder cured her of mental illness, and Alliluyeva decided to come to the priest’s aid at a time when he needed it so much.
Soon Father Joseph adopted the schema with the name Amphilochius.
The Monk Amphilochius of Pochaev lived an amazing and hard life, full of love and suffering for Christ. In Ukraine, his name is remembered with no less awe than the names of the great ancient Orthodox ascetics. Venerable Amphilochius, in the world Yakov Golovatyuk, was born in 1894, in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa in big family chiropractor Barnabas. Helping his father during operations on the fronts of the First World War, he felt the pain of the wounded as if it were his own, and tried with all his might to somehow alleviate their suffering. On the advice of his Spiritual Father, Yakov entered the Pochaev Lavra as a novice and took monastic vows with the name Joseph. He lived in the Pochaev Lavra for about twenty years, devoting his life to serving God. For his strong faith and love for his neighbors, Father Joseph received from God the gift of insight and healing. Since then, he not only restored sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, but also helped people get rid of secret mental illnesses. The flow of visitors to Father Joseph did not stop; the queues stretched for kilometers. Sometimes the number of pilgrims reached five hundred people a day, despite strict prohibitions Soviet power. Father Joseph, later Elder Amphilochius, had to suffer more than once for Christ. KGB agents tried to shoot him, psychiatrists tried to damage his mind, break his will, his own nephew attempted his life, but God miraculously saved His ascetic. Amfilochy Pochaevsky died in 1971. He was buried in the cemetery in his native Pochaev Lavra. In 2002, at the request of believers and in accordance with the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, schema-abbot Amphilochius Golovatyuk was canonized. During the exhumation, it turned out that the body, which had lain in the ground for more than 30 years, remained incorrupt. The relics of St. Amphilochius were transferred to the Pochaev Lavra, where they rest to this day.

Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev

Venerable Amphilochius (in the world – Yakov Varnavovich Golovatyuk), was born on November 27, 1894 in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa in the Volyn province (now Shumsky district of the Ternopil region) in a large peasant family. At baptism he was named Jacob, in honor of the martyr Jacob the Persian. WITH early years Yakov, immersed in household chores, seeing the piety of his parents, who never left the house without prayer, absorbed into himself all that was good and holy. In his youth, Yakov more than once helped his father, who was often addressed as a good chiropractor “to hold the sick while he was directing broken bones.” The natural strength and skills acquired in his youth were useful to Yakov in the future.

In 1912, Yakov was drafted into the army. During the First World War, he served in the 165th Infantry Regiment in the city of Lutsk, then, together with the regiment, he was sent to the city of Tomsk, acting as a paramedic. At the end of the war he was captured. He was sent by the Germans to the Alps, where he worked for a local farmer for three years. Jacob earned the trust and love of his master, so that he even intended to marry him to his daughter. But in 1919, Yakov escaped and returned to his native village, where he began to do his usual peasant work and helped the sick who sought help.

In 1925 he was accepted as a novice into the Pochaev Lavra. Fulfilling the obediences assigned to him, he made sleighs and wheels, and sang in the choir. On July 8, 1932, he was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph. On September 21, 1933, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Bishop Anthony (Martsenko), and on September 27, 1936, he was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Dionysius. He graduated from the full course of the monastic and theological school at the Pochaev Lavra. On October 3, 1941, he was appointed assistant economist.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick - he especially became famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people from all over the area were brought to him, the flow of patients did not stop day or night. In order not to create inconvenience for the brethren, Father Joseph, with the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, moves to a small house in the monastery cemetery, here he and Hieromonk Irinarch will live for about 20 years. Every day sick people came to the small house. There were days when Hieromonk Joseph received up to 500 people, many longed for healing - some physical, some spiritual. Archimandrite Sylvester was then a housekeeper. Often leaving on business and returning to the monastery late, he saw the monk praying all night in the garden. The elder instructed: “The day is not yours, but the night is yours, that is, you obey during the day, and pray at night.”

Venerable Amphilochius

Almost every native resident of Pochaev has had a similar story of the saint’s help in their life. Father Amphilochius experienced the grief that overwhelmed people’s hearts as his own. One of the Lavra workers later recalled this about the Monk Amphilochia: “If it weren’t for him, I would no longer exist. I caught a cold in my lungs after the war, the doctors told my mother: Your son is not a good person. She took him and took him to the monk. “My mother tells him about everything that happened to me, and he looks, looks, looks at me, then asked me to turn my back to him and suddenly hits me on the back with his fist! And he said: come back in a week. And a week later I had strength. He came again, he said: “Now go and take a picture.” I took a picture, and my lungs are clean!”

Another woman said that as a child she had skin rashes similar to manifestations of diathesis or allergies. The whole body was covered in crusts. Nothing helped. Her mother took her to the Monk Amphilochius, and he gave them some kind of ointment. I applied it for a week and it got better. They came to him again, he gave another ointment. As a result, everything went away. The monk himself made various ointments, according to his own recipes. Unfortunately, the composition of these drugs remains unknown.

During the Great Patriotic War, Father Joseph fearlessly preached about imminent deliverance from the fascist invaders, called for loyalty to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' and accused the schismatic autocephalists of treason.

At the end of the war, the ascetic miraculously escaped reprisals. One night, fourteen armed men burst into his cell and demanded food; after they were fed, they asked the elder to see them out. At the gate, the commander of the partisan detachment announced the execution. The elder accepted the news of his imminent death with humility and asked only for ten minutes to pray. I managed to read “Our Father”, “Theotokos”, “I Believe”, began to read “Otkhodnaya”... Father Irinarch came running, worried about the long absence of the elder, when he saw the barrel aimed at the righteous man, without hesitation, he rushed to the machine gun, bending him to the ground , began to ask for mercy on the elder... Death was over. Soon after this, Father Joseph was transferred back to the Lavra.

On July 18, 1952, he was appointed gardener of the Lavra garden with release from his previous obedience.

From 1959 to 1962 he served as confessor and others.

At the end of the 1950s, Khrushchev's persecution of the church began. Monasteries and churches were closed en masse in the country, and the monks themselves were expelled, evicted, and sent home without the right to return on false charges. In the fall of 1962, thanks to the elder’s fearlessness, the monks managed to defend the Trinity Cathedral: “A dozen policemen and their chief were standing at the door of the church, the elder unexpectedly snatched the keys from the chief, handed them to the young governor Augustine, and said: “Here, stop and don’t give it to anyone.” He said to the perplexed policemen: “The bishop is the owner of the Church! And get out of the stars! People, he’s driving them out!” he addressed the local residents present. Inspired by the call of their beloved priest, people rushed to take the poles and rushed towards the police, who, in fear, rushed to run to the Holy Gates. Father Joseph knew that the authorities would not forgive him for this act, he knew when and how they would come for him, but did nothing.

A few days later, a “black raven” came for him, and he was taken to a psychiatric hospital in Budaniv, outside Ternopil. He was placed in a ward for the most “violent” mentally ill. He was injected with drugs that caused his entire body to swell and his skin to crack. The torment ended only with the arrival of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, at the hospital, whom he had once healed from mental illness. She managed to achieve the release of the elder.

In the fall of 1965, Father Joseph returned to his native village and settled with his niece Anna, the daughter of his late brother Panteleimon, who lived in the same village in a new small house. In the courtyard he built a high dovecote, and under it a small chapel. A long dining table was placed behind the chapel for pilgrims, and a chapel was also built. Having learned where the elder was, the sufferers began to arrive. Father Joseph served holy water prayers every day and healed people.

Local authorities, concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, began to turn relatives against the elder. In December 1965, one of them, succumbing to persuasion, deceiving the elder, took him on his tractor outside the village to the swamps, severely beat him, threw him into the water and drove away. Father lay in bed for eight hours ice water, the spiritual children found the dying elder, took him to the Pochaev Lavra, where that same night he was tonsured into the schema with a name in honor of St. Amphilochius of Iconium, they were afraid that he would not live until the morning. By the grace of God, schemamonk Amphilochius recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration; he returned to his native village again. People still went and went to the elder for healing.

On the northern side of the courtyard they built a long building and in it they built a refectory and a kitchen, a reception room for the sick, a bedroom for novices and a house church - a long hall with two side rooms: in one the church vestments were kept, in the other - Father Joseph prayed and rested. The elder, who loved nature since childhood, planted flowers and fruit trees himself, and the novices helped with work on the site.

Father Amphilochius foresaw his imminent death, he knew that one of his novices had added poison to his food, and also added poison to the water with which he washed himself (there is an opinion that the novice from Kyiv was a KGB agent). More than once the elder said with bitterness that among his novices there was “Judas.” Father lost consciousness several times for several hours. During the attacks, the poisoner, under various pretexts, did not allow anyone near the priest. The humble elder steadfastly endured the suffering and called on the culprit to repent.

On April 3, 2002, he was canonized by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The rite of glorification was performed on May 12 of the same year by Metropolitan Vladimir of Kyiv in the Assumption Church of the Pochaev Lavra. It is surprising that after the repose of the saint, even the coffin itself with his remains lay in the ground for more than 30 years, not succumbing to destructive factors, as if it were not made of wood. The relics of the monk were found incorrupt and amazed eyewitnesses with the degree of their preservation. On May 13, they were solemnly transferred from the Assumption Cathedral to the church-crypt of St. Job of Pochaev located underneath it, where they now rest next to the relics of the latter.

December 8, 2005 name of Rev. Amphilochia was included in the calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, his memory is celebrated on April 29 according to the old style.

By the determination of the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 2-3, 2016, his name was included in the month book of the Russian Orthodox Church for church-wide veneration.

Icon of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev
in the center of monastic medicine

In the Center for Monastic Medicine at the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra there is an icon of this ascetic of Orthodoxy, painted by a Lavra icon painter. The image managed to convey not only the portrait resemblance, but also the character of the old man, his genuine love and simplicity in communicating with people. A kind, clear look, as if alive, he looks at us from the icon, ready to give help in weaknesses and illnesses, just as he did during his life. A lamp is always burning in front of the icon. There is also a bottle of oil collected from the lamps above the saint’s shrine. The Center employees anoint all those who suffer with it. Such a shrine was brought from Pochaev by the Lavra monk Meliton (Volosenko), a specialist at the Center for Monastic Medicine, who had previously worked in the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra for several years.

“At the time of the discovery of the relics of St. Amphilochius, I was a resident of the Pochaev Lavra,” says Father Meliton. “By the providence of God, I was given a particle of the relics of this saint as a gift and blessing. And when I became a resident of the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the idea arose to paint his icon and place in it that very particle of holy relics. The work was completed quite recently, the image was painted by a local icon painter, the icon turned out wonderful, everyone especially likes the portrait resemblance to the priest. Surprisingly, even before the canonization of St. Amphilochius, an image was painted in Ukraine that also bore a portrait resemblance to the saint. His Beatitude Metropolitan of Kiev and All Ukraine Vladimir (Sabodan) approved this iconography as a model. Reflection in an icon of the individual traits of this or that saint of God, especially if he lived relatively recently, resurrects in memory not only the external appearance, but also the very spiritual essence of the righteous person, bringing him closer together.”

From the teachings of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev

Father Amphilochius blessed some people not to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. “You already knew how sweet this pastry is,” said the elder, meaning the spiritual sweetness with which the soul of the fasting person delights. On days of strict fasting, he advised early in the morning, getting out of bed, before starting morning prayer Immediately make three prostrations to the ground with the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice...” in order to easily maintain fasting on this day. The saint, by revelation from above, testified that half of the people leave unhealed because physical health will not benefit them, but will lead to the destruction of the soul.

The main cause of illness, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the instillation of which begins in school. Students are not allowed into the temple, they are subjected to ideological “indoctrination”, humiliating human dignity. And a person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not receive communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This leads to the fact that the majority of the population are mentally ill.

The elder advised treating “the illness of this age” with prayer. In his house, prayer was performed around the clock. In the chapel, on the floor covered with straw and blankets, the sick, possessed by evil spirits, slept. Sleepy, they muttered in the middle of the night: “The shaggy apostle has woken up, tormenting us again! Let's leave! Let's leave!..."

Father Amphilochius also disapproved of entertainment television programs that “waste and rob the soul.” After watching television programs, a person does not feel like praying at all, and even if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, only leads to condemnation.

The memory of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev is celebrated on April 29 / May 12, December 19 / January 1 (Ukr.) and in the Cathedrals of Volyn and Galician Saints.

ABOUT, our all-blessed father Amphilochie, earthly angel and heavenly man! We fall to you with faith and love and pray diligently: show us your holy intercession to the humble and sinful; for it is a sin for our sakes, the imams do not have the boldness to ask our Lord and Master for our needs, but to you, the favorable prayer book, we offer to Him and we ask you with zeal for many: ask us from His goodness for useful gifts for our souls and bodies, faith in justice, love for I am unfeigned to all, patience in suffering, those obsessed with serious illnesses - healing from ailments, under the burden of sorrows and misfortunes, those who fall intolerable and despairing of their lives, through your prayers will receive speedy relief and deliverance.

Do not forget, blessed father, this holy monastery, in which you labored, always honoring you, but keep all those who live and labor in it and come to worship there unharmed from the temptations of the devil and all evil. When our departure from this temporary life arrives, and our migration to eternity, do not deprive us of your heavenly help, but with your prayers bring us all into the haven of salvation and reveal us to be the heirs of the all-bright Kingdom of Christ, so that we sing and glorify the ineffable generosity of the Humanity-loving God the Father and The Son and the Holy Spirit and yours, together with the Venerable Job, are your fatherly intercession forever and ever. Amen.

May 12, 2018

Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev

There is no blind chance. God rules the world and everything that happens in heaven and under heaven is done according to the judgment of the all-wise and omnipotent God, incomprehensible in His wisdom and omnipotence, incomprehensible in His control.

God controls the world, every person, every blade of grass - "Throughout all the earth His destiny"(Ps. 104, 7). He gives a lot to some, little to others. And all according to a person’s faith. The Monk Amphilochius was given just that much: the gift of a healer and healer of human souls. Through fasting, prayer, deep humility and great love for the Almighty and his neighbor, he developed this gift, as evidenced by those who knew him during his lifetime or who came into contact with this gift after his death. People express their gratitude for the healing of a physical or mental illness, for admonition, parting words, or simply for a kind word in prayerful memory of God’s healer.

And they write their memories, share their feelings and experiences that they experienced during communication with the elder in person, either at his grave in the monastery cemetery, or at the relics of the Reverend in the Cave Church.

Many people, even unbelievers, profoundly changed their views after meeting the Reverend.

This is what happened to Tatyana from St. Petersburg. After getting married, she moved to Pochaev. She didn’t go to church and knew nothing about God, although she had been baptized since childhood. Illness brought her to the Lavra. As a result of blockage of the veins, gangrene began. The doctor prescribed surgery. It was difficult for the young woman to come to terms with the loss of her leg; she was ready to cling to any saving thread, even go to a “session” with a monk who, they say, also heals. Having borrowed money, she went and, not knowing how to behave, stood behind everyone, doubtfully wondering whether he would accept her as an unbeliever.

We didn’t have to wait long, Father Joseph came out of the cell, carefully examined those who had come and said: “ Axis you, come! Not expecting attention to herself, Tatyana was silent. Father Joseph clarified: “ Os, that kapelus (hat) come to me!" Tatyana entered, leaving behind the murmur of the crowd. Offering her to sit down, the priest listened to the patient and reassured her: there was no need for surgery, he gave her ointment and holy water, and said that everything would pass. In gratitude, Tatyana shyly handed over twenty-five rubles. The elder did not take it: “ You yourself don’t have a lot of pennies, but you counted“, - and, taking fifty rubles from the locker, he gave it to Tatyana, who was amazed at what had happened. Arriving home, she began to rub her leg with ointment and drink holy water, as the priest said. The leg soon turned white, the swelling went away, and the gangrene disappeared. Having healed not only in body, but also in soul, Tatyana began to constantly go to church, often turning to her benefactor for advice.

A nineteen-year-old boy, the son of the first secretary of the Ternopil regional party committee, had a sarcoma on his leg and best doctors were helpless. The regional committee secretary was in despair, but still decided to resort to his last hope - he brought his son to Father Joseph. After examining the leg, the elder suggested that the parents leave their son for two weeks somewhere in the neighborhood in an apartment. He also said that the only treatment would be prayer. He ordered him to put on a cross and come every morning to the water-blessing prayer service, drink holy water and eat a blessed meal. The young man performed everything reverently.

Two weeks later, his sarcoma disappeared without a trace and the happy parents took their son home completely healthy. In gratitude to Father Joseph, the first secretary of the regional committee ordered the allocation of a route bus from Kremenets to Malaya Ilovitsa; do not prevent taxi drivers from taking people to the elder and do not harass him in any way.

Two friends arrived from Dnepropetrovsk - garment factory workers. One of them was deaf and dumb. Her father asked her: “ What's your name?"The friend replied: " Father, she is deaf and dumb.” “And you move!”“, - said the father and again asked the deaf-mute woman’s name. She mumbled something. But the elder kept asking what her name was. And suddenly:

- Galya, - The deaf-mute answered clearly. And she began to hear and speak. The deaf-mute friend, shocked by such a miracle, began to cry with joy. Gala was then twenty-five years old. As a three-year-old child, she was severely beaten by her stepmother, and from fear and pain the girl became deaf and dumb. Father Joseph restored her hearing and speech.

The parents brought their two deaf-mute sons and tearfully asked for help in their grief. But the elder advised sending his sons to a school for the deaf and dumb. The parents still begged. And then Elder Joseph sternly asked his father whether he had blasphemed God. The father of the deaf-mute sons lowered his head and wept bitterly. " From now on your children will live their entire lives - then you will be punished by God" Such an instructive case for all of us. After all " God cannot be mocked.”

You had to have great love in your heart to never refuse anything to anyone. The Physician of God had one. He found time for everyone. He once healed the weakened four-year-old son of a military man. Distraught with happiness, he threw himself into the arms of either his son or the elder, shedding tears of gratitude. He offered Father Joseph his car and money, but he refused everything.

And further. Two elderly people came to the priest - a husband and wife. Entering the courtyard, they suddenly lost consciousness. And when they woke up, they told the following: their only daughter was paralyzed for fourteen years. They contacted many doctors, but they just shrugged helplessly. And so they were advised to turn to Father Joseph. A month and a half ago they brought their daughter here. The doctor looked at her and told them to come in a month and leave the girl with him. Now they saw their daughter running towards them.

One day, Father Joseph went to some village to visit a sick man for the whole day. He never refused anyone, did not take into account the troubles and labors. And at this time a very sick boy of about thirteen was brought to him. A few hours later he died. They laid him on a bench in the yard. Father arrived late in the evening. He approached the deceased, prayed over him, and crossed him. The boy opened his eyes and came to life. Father Joseph ordered food to be brought to him.

At the end of 1970, a young woman brought a beautiful five-year-old girl. She was apparently ill with something, and the mother began to tell the old man about her daughter’s illness. He suddenly ordered the novice to bring a large knife from the kitchen. Taking the knife he brought, he handed it to the woman with the words: “ On, fire up!” She looked at the old man in fear and hugged the girl to her. Father Joseph again said commandingly: “Zarizh, I’m telling you!” The woman hugged her daughter even tighter and screamed in horror. " What, Skoda? And don’t you feel sorry for the ones you put into your womb? And the stench is even more beautiful! Now your child will suffer for your sin!”

Father Joseph experienced the grief that overwhelmed people’s hearts as his own, compassionate with the suffering and condescending to the weak.

In the fall of 1956, a parishioner of the Lavra recalls, when at an early liturgy in the Cave Church they sang “ Our Father", a terrible piercing sound was heard from the direction of the corridor. The frantic cry of many voices, ominously growing, poured into the Church. Everyone looked around involuntarily. It seemed as if a whole gang of the mindless had approached the doors. Imagine the surprise when a frail young woman appeared at the door, barely led by four. With incredible efforts, she was brought into the cave and stopped. The sight of the shrine with the relics of St. Job and the cave where he labored led her into indescribable horror. Screaming even louder, she suddenly freed her hands, and fearfully shied away from the shrines, bending her legs, and jumped about five meters to the entrance. The watchman, with an effort, took possession of the fragile creature, possessed superhuman force, they took her to the Assumption Church, where Father Joseph served an akathist before the Crucifixion. The demoniacs, positioned behind him, wriggled across the floor in various positions, filling the air with frantic screams. The brought woman, feeling the will, pounced on one of the demoniacs similar to herself, and, sitting astride, kicking her sides, shouted: “ But-oh-oh! Go!". To the side, shedding bitter tears, stood the husband, a tall young man, of an intelligent appearance, and, looking pitifully around, asked the people: “ Pray for her, her name is Zoya.” The women taught him to fold his fingers for the sign of the cross, and Zoya, from time to time, coming to her senses, rushed to the Crucifix with a cry: “ Lord, forgive me!”, “Mother of God, forgive me!!!” Then she would fall unconscious on the stone slabs, then again begin to rage, grabbing Father Joseph’s vestments. Barely able to stand on his feet, he continued to read the akathist, only occasionally wiping drops of cold sweat from his pale face. The akathist ended, the priest turned to Zoya and asked: “ Are you a Christian? Shaking herself indignantly, with an alienated emptiness in her eyes, Zoya spoke in a voice that was not her own:

- Zoya is a Christian, and I am a Baptist!

- Come out, - the old man said to the demon.

-Where will I go? – asked the demon through Zoe's mouth.

- Into the abyss!

- I don’t want to go into the abyss! – the demon screamed.

- Bachita, Christians, how terrible the abyss is to tell a demon! – Father said to the gathered people. Meanwhile, Zoya, sitting exhausted on the floor, asked her husband to give money to Father Joseph. He refused the money, promising to pray.

In the evening, together with her husband, Zoya meekly stood at the service, bitterly recalling the difficult years of her mental illness. Now, taught by bitter experience, Zoya no longer doubted her choice of faith. And it all started funny - romantically.

Eleven years before, very young and cheerful, Zoya met a young man who had just graduated from college and was sent to the Donbass as a mine manager. Alexander’s mother, that was the young man’s name, was a Baptist. Zoya was also drawn there, so that the latter even sang in the sect’s meetings. Zoya and Alexander decided to get married.

In order not to sadden the bride’s parents, and Zoya’s mother was Orthodox, they decided to get married. But God cannot be mocked. To the horror of the mother, husband and guests, the hypocrisy was revealed: Zoya went crazy under the aisle. Nevertheless, the marriage took place. Two daughters were born. The quiet homely atmosphere was at times upset by Zoya’s fits of madness, and the young husband spared no expense to heal his wife. Everything was in vain until, finally, good people suggested going to Pochaev, where Father Joseph healed a sick woman who had broken the windows of a hotel on the very first night. Zoya's healing, so obvious and miraculous, led the couple to a feeling of deep repentance and knowledge of true faith.

Returning home, Zoya’s husband wrote a statement to the mine’s party committee with a request to expel him from the ranks of the Communist Party in view of the fact that he had become a believer and Orthodox. The request was granted, they did not remove him from work, and Alexander managed the mine until retirement, after which he accepted the priesthood and even came with Zoya and his daughters to Pochaev, where he served a memorial service at the grave of his dear priest.

In the summer of 1965, everyone who came to Father Joseph could notice a hardworking, helpful girl in his yard. During the water-blessing prayers, Nadezhda, that was her name, diligently tried to help the priest: she brought water, lit candles, and served a censer. Once after a prayer service she told her life story. Nadezhda came to Ilovitsa from Magadan, where she worked as a midwife. From the age of twenty she began to have bouts of demonic possession. Some young man asked her to marry him, but she refused. And his mother, apparently, bewitched Nadezhda so that she could not marry anyone at all. At work they endured her illness, which recurred periodically. Someone told it brother- to a graduate of the medical institute - about Father Joseph and gave his address. The brother brought her to the elder. “And I saw him himself. He stood on the high porch. I became so angry that I was ready to tear him into pieces. But he raised his hand for blessing and an inexplicable inner force bent my head to the ground. I fell and don’t remember anything else. When I woke up, I felt that I had been healed: I felt light and joyful. My brother left because he had to attend the hospital where he was appointed chief physician, but I stayed and have been living with Father Joseph for two weeks now. I'll go home soon."

He was not at all afraid of the atheists. For this they came, dragged me out of my cell, and took me outside Ternopil to a mental hospital. The cell was sealed with sealing wax. After some time, Father Joseph arrived in a jacket, shaven, without a beard, like an old man. Immediately I went to the Foot of the Mother of God, to Miraculous icon and to the relics of St. Job. The people, hearing that Father Joseph had returned, ran after him; he was known everywhere and by everyone. The next morning served early liturgy in the Cave Church. People looked at him and cried. The one (Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter) who freed him from the mental hospital was also at the service. Then she took him to Lvov; I wanted to take her to the Caucasus. We spent the night in Lvov, and at night Father Joseph was quietly transported to another apartment. In the morning Svetlana made some noise (she also spent the night there), but what can you say to anyone: he left, but who knows where. He stayed in Lvov for about two months, until everything calmed down, and then moved to his family in Ilovitsa.

Archimandrite Georgy.

When I was called to the police for questioning, I always took Father Joseph’s blessing. He said: “Go and don’t fight anything.” The elder was not afraid of them either, for when the KGB officers and the police walked along the corridors of the Lavra, he drove them away, shouting at them: “Get out. What do you need here? Monks live here."

Hierodeacon Agathon.

Servant of God M. lived near the monastic cemetery. Several years ago her liver became painful and swollen. No medications helped. In a dream she saw procession in the Pochaev Lavra and among the monks of Father Joseph. She came up for the blessing, and the elder reproached her for never coming to his grave. He advised to fast and pray, then where the disease came from will go there. Believing the dream, M. went to the grave every day, prayed and tearfully asked for help. Two weeks later, when she woke up, she was convinced that the disease “ the stars came, there and went».

One resident of Pochaev’s legs were swollen to the knees so much that she could no longer walk. The disease was dangerous and could lead to leg amputation. Grieving, with great difficulty, she came to Father Joseph’s grave. Pressing her knees to the cross, she tearfully asked the elder for healing: “ You always healed me during my life, heal me now..." And I immediately felt relief, and soon recovery without any treatment.

Nun M. with incredible effort reached the grave of Father Joseph - her lower back and legs were very painful. She stood with both feet on the gravestone, leaning on the fence. She mentally asked the elder to heal her. Suddenly she felt as if a current from the grave passed through her body and dissolved, the pain disappeared, her legs regained their former strength.

And how many of these it would seem simple cases, but they all talk about the holiness of God’s chosen one.

Father Joseph, whom she had never seen or even heard of, appeared to one woman from Georgia in a dream, and advised her to bring her sick granddaughter to his grave. And indeed, the granddaughter was healed. That woman ordered a thanksgiving prayer service at the Lavra, and asked to serve a memorial service at the grave of the healer Joseph, after which she arranged a dinner there for all those present.

Letters... Letters to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. A lot of them. And in each there is another page of the feat of Saint Amphilochius, contact with a miracle. And every letter can give an amazing feeling of closeness to a person's needs. He knew how to kindly, tenderly, and fatherly touch every sick, restless human soul that does not understand itself or others, calm it down, clear the path for spiritual life before it and show it where and how to go. And in each letter, between the lines one can read the mystery and incomprehensibility of the saint’s feat, behind the external accessibility and openness of which his enormous spiritual work, firm faith, the state testified to by the Apostle Paul were hidden: “Now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”...

I, Secretaryuk Galina Khrisanfovna, am from Odessa. I visited the Holy Lavra of Pochaev for the first time in 1958 and saw miraculous healings that were performed through the prayers of Father Joseph. I consider it my duty not to remain silent about such miracles. During the service, demons left an elderly man with me. And one woman of about fifty, possessed by an evil spirit, rolled towards the exit of the temple, curled up like a ball. Through the prayers of the Reverend, she was healed. After the expulsion of demons, both former possessed people stood calmly at the service and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

How many times have I seen many unusual things at Father Joseph’s place in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa! I saw the struggle of a preacher and ascetic with Satan. Here is a case: A reverend approaches a screaming woman, puts his hand on her, and she shouts:

- Joseph, Joseph, there are many of us, if you don’t take us, we won’t leave, there are six of us.

And the elder answers:

- Viydesh!

The demon shouts:

“We won’t go out, she’s been ours since she was nine.”

Father Joseph, looking at heaven, prays with some kind of tenderness, and the woman shouts:

- Joseph, Joseph, don’t pray!

And... he is healed.

...Isn't this a miracle?

Kremenets,

Alexandrov O. A.

She was very sick with her heart and could barely walk. white light, everything was shaking. When I was going to the Lavra, my relatives didn’t let me in, they were afraid that I wouldn’t make it and would die on the road. We arrived in Pochaev, and there they advised us to go to Ilovitsa to see Father Joseph. The second half of the journey was done on foot due to quarantine due to the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic. Already upon entering the old man’s native village, I felt so much better that I even helped carry the bags of my companions. Father met us in the yard. We were fed and sent to rest. In the morning they began to pray. After the service, Father Joseph came up to me and told me not to worry, everything would be fine.

Everything was as he said.

Volyn region,

Art. Manevichi,

Shulyak E. S.

My wife broke her arm at the elbow in 1967. They put a plaster cast on. And when they removed it, the arm did not bend - ankylosis of the joint. She went for a long time for different procedures, but the result was the same - her arm did not bend. They advised me to go to Father Joseph and gave me the address. I immediately went to Ilovitsa. When I came to the elder, I asked if he was treating such a disease.

I told my wife in detail how she broke her arm, how long she was in a cast, where the fracture was and what the consequences were. The elder listened to me carefully and told me to go home, saying that my hand would be healthy. And so it happened...

Granddaughter Anya had a disease - an ingrown toenail. And further. Father Joseph blessed me with icons of the Pechersk Mother of God and Seraphim of Sarov, asking me to enlarge them. I accepted the blessing, took the icons and fulfilled the elder’s request. When I returned with the icons, it was cold and the autumn rain was pouring. There were no buses going to Ilovica that day. I urgently needed to return home after handing over the icons. I hired a taxi. We drove while the road was stone. And then with one fellow traveler we walked. It was already night. When we came out of the forest into the field, we saw a light moving towards us. As they approached, they saw Father Joseph:

“And I’m catching up with you,” he said joyfully. The elder was perspicacious and knew in spirit that they were coming to him in such bad weather, and he came out to meet us so that we would not go astray.

Kirovograd,

Gerasimyuk P. D.

In May 2000, I and my two granddaughters Anya and Tanya were in the Pochaev Lavra, where we worshiped the Shrines and visited the grave of Schema-Hegumen Amphilochius.

After this trip, our whole family experienced miracles of healing through the prayers of God's saint.

Granddaughter Anya had a disease - an ingrown toenail. She has already been operated on twice. The operations were painful and took place under general anesthesia. When we arrived from Pochaev, my finger began to break out again. The doctor insisted on a third operation. Then Anya herself offered to add sand from the grave of the Reverend, which we took with us in a small bag. They smeared the finger with holy oil overnight and tied a bag to it. After two nights, the nail was completely healed.

We did the same thing with my eighty-six-year-old mother. She had wounds on her elbows, whole growths. We lubricated them with different creams all the time, which didn’t help much. With prayer to the Monk Amphilochius, miraculous sand was applied to the wounds and the healing was repeated - the elbows completely healed and the scabs fell off.

Grandson Yaroslav had microbial eczema on his hand. According to doctors' prescriptions, they lubricated the hand with various ointments, but the eczema continued to spread. In the same way, they first anointed him with holy oil and tied a bag of sand to the child for three nights. There was no trace of eczema left on my hand.

My son, a doctor himself, saw all this and can confirm it.

These are the healings that took place in our family by the grace of our Lord and through the prayers of the Holy Schema-Abbot Amphilochius to Him.

Vinnitsa,

Ryabokon G. F.

This was in 1966. My mother-in-law had a daughter who suffered from epilepsy. Her mother-in-law went with her to Father Amfilochius in Ilovitsa. The priest met them, listened, prayed and told the mother to fast for her daughter on Wednesday and Friday. The mother fulfilled the blessing and the disease subsided.

Volyn region

Sometime in the sixties, my father, now deceased, fell ill. He worked for railway, was examined at the Sarny junction hospital. The medical commission diagnosed stomach cancer.

I heard a lot about the gift of healing people through the prayers of Father Joseph. This was our last hope. And off we went. Father lived in a small house. the chapel stood like poison. There were a lot of people in the yard near the house. Everyone was waiting for him. Some said they had been waiting for a long time.

Soon the elder came out and pointed straight at me. He began to ask his father about the illness, but he began to hiccup and I answered further. She said that her father was discharged from the hospital because they could not cure him. Father Joseph gave herbs and said that he would recover. The father lived after that for another sixteen years.

From Ilovitsa we went to the Pochaev Lavra, confessed and received communion.

Rivne region,

With. Ostki,

Agafia Lyashchuk

In 1967, at the age of eight months, my daughter fell ill: she was very afraid and was foaming at the mouth. The husband immediately called the doctors. We were taken to the hospital. There were children with the same disease lying there, they were given some kind of injections. Many died. And I decided to take my girl home. My eldest daughter (she was eleven years old at the time) also began to feel afraid, foam began to come out of her mouth, and her head hurt badly. Kind people suggested turning to Father Joseph, which I did. When we arrived at the priest’s, he himself came out to meet us at the gate. I began to explain the reason for coming, he advised me to go to prayer with the children. There were a lot of people near the chapel. They were just carrying water from the well to the chapel, preparing for the blessing of water. When the priest served the prayer service, he immediately called me. He asked to unwrap the youngest of the diapers, filled a liter mug cold water and poured it on the child. Then another one. After that, he poured two mugs of holy water on the eldest. This all happened before the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord - it was cool. The thought flashed through my mind that the children might catch a cold, but since the Lord sent me here, it means this is God’s will.

The disease never recurred.

Kremenets,

Andrusik V.

I testify that during my stay at the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Father Joseph healed my son twice.

The first time this happened was when my son, at the age of two months, fell ill with an upset stomach. Almost a year of treatment under the supervision of doctors did not bring any results. The child “melted” before our eyes. When we turned to Father Joseph and told about our misfortune, he, having prayed, gave a bunch of dry grass and ordered the child to drink a decoction. That's what we did. The result cannot be called anything other than a miracle: two days later the son completely recovered and the disease, thank God, did not recur.

The next time, in the summer of 1961, for unknown reasons, my son’s hand became swollen. It almost doubled in size and was very painful. We took the child to different doctors, but they could not help: they did not understand why this happened and, therefore, did not know how to treat. Then we turned to Father Joseph again. They showed him the child and asked for help. He prayed, took his son’s hand in his, lightly patted it and said that everything would pass.

With this we left in a sad mood, because the priest did not give any medicine. But the next morning we couldn’t believe our eyes! A miracle happened! The hand was the same as before the illness. There was not even a hint that there was a tumor!

It must be said that Father Joseph did all his good deeds without demanding any payment other than gratitude to the Creator for His boundless love for mankind and intercession.

We are grateful to the Lord God for giving us the honor of meeting such a person in our lives. The bright memory of Father Joseph will live with us as long as our family lives.

Pochaev,

Shukalovich K.

My child is sick. Doctors did not make a diagnosis. The child could barely breathe, was very swollen, there were blue spots all over his body, almost black... When I asked why they weren’t treating me, they answered that the child was doomed.

My husband and I decided to turn to Father Joseph. When we arrived in Ilovitsa, we thought that we would not get to the elder - there were a lot of people. But as soon as we approached the house, a woman opened the door for us, took the child by the hand and led her along. We barely squeezed through the crowd. We went into the room, and Father Joseph was already waiting for us there. He examined the child and said that he had blood poisoning, but the child would live. He prescribed injections and compresses and applied some ointment. Three days later, our child recovered, the swelling subsided, and his body turned white.

This is how the Reverend saved the life of our son, whom official medicine declared hopeless.

Resident of Pochaev.

This is how we are used to: as soon as something hurts, we go straight to medicine, forgetting about sacred things. Doctors sometimes treat and treat, but the outcome is disastrous. And I went to doctors with my trouble from spring to autumn, but my sore fingers did not heal. Chance led to the cave to the Reverends. She asked one monk to anoint him with oil from the lamp at the shrine of St. Amphilochius, and inspiration prompted him to put his fingers on the relics...

I somehow forgot about my illness, calmed down, and only two months later I remembered and paid attention to my fingers. There is no trace of illness: the Reverend’s wonderful admonition to the self-confident.

Pochaev,

Lesyk A.

Years will pass, and then centuries. History will write into the book new miracles of healing through the prayers of the ever-memorable Venerable Amphilochius, miracle healer of the holy mountain of Pochaev. And, as now, the suffering, the weak and the unfortunate will come to him in the hope of healing. And... they will receive what they ask for.

According to the book: “Reverend Amphilochius of Pochaev. Life and teachings."

Publication of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, 2003.

In Ukraine, the name of this saint means as much as in Russia the names of our great ascetics. In the Pochaev Lavra he is revered on a par with Ven. Job, and this has special significance, since Elder Amphilochius is our contemporary. Here on earth he passed away in 1971.

And, meanwhile, both the life and the known evidence about it prayer help comparable to the lives of the greatest saints, and seem worthy of the pen of Symeon Metaphrastus (1). The fruits of his monastic feat are one of the most vivid and convincing evidence that grace in the Orthodox Church does not become scarce, that “the Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

With my flock

Twelve years have passed since the relics of Elder Amphilochius from the Dormition Pochaev Lavra in Ukraine were found incorrupt. Their integrity and condition are approximately the same as those of the saints resting in the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The elder seemed to have fallen asleep, and this happened not in 1971, but quite recently. In the Church he is glorified as “Reverend”, i.e. he became like the Lord in the highest virtues, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that his life from the moment he entered the monastery until the very end was an ongoing feat of confession.

Only people who have reached spiritual maturity have the right to utter the words that once simply and spontaneously came out from the Optina hieromonk Father Vasily (Roslyakov) - “it would be good to suffer for Christ.” Let us remember that even such a great saint, in his prayer to the Lord, says with humility: “...I do not dare to ask for either a cross or consolation! Only I stand before You..."

Willingness to suffer for Christ is the lot of the perfect. And, behold, Elder Amphilochius was one of those who, with full consciousness, had to bear the martyr’s cross more than once.

The question of who the monk “didn’t please” is, in general, not a priority for believers. Some led him to be shot, tortured him in a psychiatric hospital, beat him half to death, others gave orders about this... Another thing is more important: truly, the most unfortunate people- those who become executors of the will of the spirits of evil, regardless of external - political, ideological or any other motives. The real reason such hatred is revealed to the end, experimentally, and not purely speculatively, in Pochaev, near his relics.

On the occasion of the patronal feast day in honor of the Lavra, a religious procession of many thousands comes from Kamenets-Podolsk every year, and among this multitude, accompanied by relatives, are very unusual patients. This disease does not fit into the picture of epilepsy. As a rule, it worsens when approaching shrines. This cannot be attributed to “ acting": everyone is able to distinguish a voluntary, even the most professionally executed cry, from an involuntary cry of unbearable pain.

“Special” patients growl, emit streams of abuse towards the saints, and at the same time especially offensive epithets go to the Monk Amphilochius.

The impression is not easy, especially when such a “set” comes from the lips of a fragile girl who is trying to be held by several men. The strength of the patients is such that metal handcuffs do not help in all cases.

The most difficult thing for the accompanying people is to lead them to the relics. In those cases where it succeeds, these sufferers usually calm down. Several minutes pass, and those who regain consciousness do not remember their recent state.

Worship of honest relics is the beginning of spiritual healing. Ahead - confession, communion, a special church rite - reprimands. In the monastery they say about such cases: “Father drove out the unclean during his lifetime, and he still does now. They can't stand his presence."

Elder Amphilochius was given special grace. He possessed undoubted foresight, the gift of prayerful healing, liberation of the possessed, and his battle with the invisible world, where spirits operate, was “to the point of life and death.” He was revenged and relentlessly persecuted by those whom he scorched with his prayer.

“Kill me, but don’t kill me!”

The year was 1947. Left behind terrible war, and its survivors hoped that the post-war world would become wiser and better. It seemed that a favorable time had come for the Church. After long persecutions, prayers began to sound in churches, spiritual doors were opened educational establishments, little by little the released priests began to return from places of imprisonment. However, the political “thaw” due to military conditions turned out to be temporary, and the change in strategy regarding the Church was relative.

Show trials of the clergy were a thing of the past; now there was no need for them: the bulk of the clergy was physically destroyed in the period of the 20s - 30s. But at the same time, the “worthy successor” to Solovkov was created in the late 40s - early. In the 50s, the Siblag system, like the previous one, swallowed up millions of lives (2), and the cases of “causing fears” of priests were already resolved on an “individual” and often “extrajudicial” basis.

So it was this time, when unknown armed people burst into the hieromonk’s cell from the Pochaev Lavra. They behaved defiantly, impudently, they put me at gunpoint and led me away. What was the “guilt” of a man who lived alone in a small house near a monastery cemetery and was content with only the bare necessities? For the “escorts” it was enough that he was one of those priests to whom people travel from afar.

Father Joseph - that was the monastic name of the Venerable. Amphilochia before accepting the schema - they knew thanks to his ability to heal in cases where there was no hope of getting help from doctors. The priest’s healing practice began even before he arrived at the monastery. Once upon a time, he learned the art of chiropractor from a village doctor.

And in the early 30s, when he was already tonsured, chance revealed in him a skillful doctor and a daring man of prayer. The Lavra hieromonk literally “collected” and put the broken young couple on their feet: during a rural wedding, the horses bolted and the carriage in which the newlyweds were sitting overturned, causing them serious injuries. Diligence o. Joseph, supported by prayer, produced miracles, and from then on a string of visitors flocked to him. In order not to cause concern to the monastery brethren, the priest, with the blessing of the father governor, moved to a separate house. Treating the sick, combined with providing spiritual help, became his constant “obedience.” On some days he received up to 500 people.

Since the beginning, the flow of visitors has increased. It was noticed that Hieromonk Joseph accurately predicted to whom husbands and sons would return, and who would be expected to lose. This was preceded by twenty years spent in obedience and prayerful feat. The inner side of monastic life - fasting, vigils, prayer rule, – was hidden from prying eyes, but the spiritual fruits turned out to be obvious.

Father Joseph received another gift - to see with his own eyes and cast out unclean spirits. And the invasion of uninvited guests in 1947 did not come as a surprise to him. The priest did not resist, even when at the gate they announced to him that they were going to shoot him. He asked to be allowed to pray. I read “Our Father,” “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary,” “I Believe,” and began to read the prayer itself, when suddenly another Lavra monk, Father Irinarch, threw himself at gunpoint: “Who do you want to kill?! Do you know what kind of wine guy? Vin saves the whole retinue. Kill me, but don’t kill him!” (3) It’s hard to say what happened to the brigade commander at that moment, only his mood changed, and, releasing his weapon, he let both of them go.

"Living Wall"

The next time death came very close was in 1962. The exposure of the “cult” thundered across the country, a “thaw” began and, at the same time, a renewed violent atheist campaign began. A new “wave” reached Pochaev, and one day the threat of destruction loomed over the Trinity Cathedral.

When the police detachment stood fully armed at the doors of the temple, and the paralyzing effect of fear shackled those present, Father Joseph took upon himself full responsibility for the subsequent events. Snatching the keys to the temple from the hands of the chief and hastily handing them over to the governor, he called on the brethren and parishioners to resist the rioters. The stakes were used, in a matter of minutes around Fr. Joseph, a “living wall” was formed, and the cathedral was recaptured. But reprisals awaited the priest.

They arrested him at night in his own cell, and took him to a psychiatric hospital in a “funnel”, taking care of “ special conditions» content. A place was assigned for him in the ward of violent patients. This time it was difficult: the drugs that were forcibly administered to him caused his whole body to swell and his skin to burst, and the fact that Father Joseph withstood everything was in itself an exceptional case. Only prayer supported him: the doctors did not allow him to transfer either the Gospel or the crucifix to the hospital.

And yet, by special providence the elder was freed (4). However, the plan to take the elder abroad did not come true. Father Joseph quietly left the apartment in Lvov, where he was hidden from possible persecution.

“Without article and tribunal”

It was too dangerous to return to Pochaev, and he settled with his niece in the village of Ilovitsa. He, of course, did not manage to hide for long: the people instantly mastered the new direction of the route, and the priest could not refuse those asking. Blessing of the Water prayers were served daily. The cases of healing were extraordinary. Through the prayers of Fr. Joseph's hearing returned to a girl who had once been severely beaten by her stepmother as a child. One resident of Pochaev avoided amputation, which threatened her due to the onset of gangrene. There is also a known case where a blind girl regained her sight. There is evidence of how the elder brought back to life a 13-year-old teenager who was in a state of clinical death.

It has happened that staunch atheists have had their eyes “opened” when it comes to their own children.

In desperation, he once turned to Fr. Joseph, secretary of the regional committee. The diagnosis made by doctors for his 18-year-old son sounded like a death sentence: sarcoma. The elder warned that the treatment would only be spiritual: prayers, holy water, consecrated food. A few weeks later, not a trace remained of the illness, and my father, in gratitude, ordered a shuttle bus from Kremenets to Malaya Ilovitsa for the convenience of the pilgrims.

Local authorities, concerned about the influx of people into the village, began to turn relatives against the elder.

In December 1965, Fr. A new test awaited Joseph. One of his relatives took him to the outskirts of the village to the swamps, severely beat him, and left him to die in the icy water. The elder lay there without help for eight hours until his spiritual children discovered him. Fearing that he would not live to see the morning, he was taken that same night to the Pochaev Lavra, where he was tonsured with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Amphilochius of Ipponia. Schima is “edge”, the definition is for life or for the outcome. The elder began to recover, and for several more years he served people in the great angelic form.

In Pochaev they say that the death of Fr. Amphilochia was violent and caused by poisoning. More than once the elder said that among his novices there was “Judas,” but when people who suffered from the behavior of one of his “helpers” asked him to remove her from him, the priest only humbly urged them to endure, since he himself endures.

The holy fathers in different options one comes across the idea that it is impossible to overcome the devil with intelligence and cunning. Evil is insidious and powerful, and it can only be defeated in the world by ascending to the cross, through conscious likeness to Christ. But the “loser” by the evil, demonic score, rises incorruptible with God and is crowned great glory and has the boldness to pray for many.

1 Symeon Metaphrastes (2nd half of the 10th century), Byzantine writer. Compiler of the minology, a consolidated corpus of Greek lives of saints (148 texts), adapted to the church calendar.

2 The most valuable historical evidence about the conditions of detention in one of its parts - Ozerlag belongs to Archpriest Alexy Kibardin, who was in spiritual relations with Rev. Seraphim Vyritsky. (See: Saint Venerable Seraphim Vyritsky and Russian Golgotha. S.-Pb., 2008. pp. 306-317).

3 S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Light Orthodox educational magazine (Perm). 2004. No. 2. P. 62

4 There is information that he was then released from the hospital by Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, in gratitude for the fact that the priest healed her of mental illness. (Biography of the Holy Saint of God in recent times. // Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Light Orthodox educational magazine (Perm). 2004. No. 2. P. 63)

1. Biography of the Holy Saint of God of the last times. // Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. /
2. Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev //
3. S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Light Orthodox educational magazine (Perm). 2004. No. 2.

Diagnostics and diseases. Medicines from A to Z