home For men What is the difference between the blessed and the holy fool? Holy Fools: Holy Fools

What is the difference between the blessed and the holy fool? Holy Fools: Holy Fools

In my posts, a picturesque image of St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square flashed more than once. It is under this name that the temple is well known, but the fact that it was originally called the Church of the Intercession on the Moat is almost no longer remembered. But not everyone knows who St. Basil the Blessed was, whose name turned out to be forever associated with the famous building.

Saints Basil the Blessed and Tsarevich Dmitry of Uglich

The holy fool Vasily, the “man of God,” nicknamed the Blessed, was a person well known and beloved in the capital city of Moscow during the reign of Vasily III and the reign of his son Ivan the Terrible. Fools in Rus' were generally always revered, although they themselves were not afraid of insults or ridicule. The essence of foolishness is a complete rejection of all worldly values and a deliberate attempt to appear insane in order to incur reproach. It was believed that defiant actions help to convey the will of God to people, and holy fools, no matter what deprivations they are subjected to, are constantly under the protection of higher powers. The basis of foolishness were the words of the Apostle Paul: “ We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; We are weak, but you are strong; you are in glory, and we are in dishonor. Even to this day we endure hunger and thirst and nakedness and beatings, and we wander and toil, working with our own hands. They slander us, we bless; they persecute us, we endure...»
At all times there were very few true holy ascetics who embarked on the path of foolishness. The Orthodox Church venerates only thirty-seven holy fools, who throughout its history have become famous for their exploits and “God’s deeds for Christ’s sake.” And one of the most famous holy fools and seers was St. Basil the Blessed.

Vasily was born in the suburban village of Elokhov. Now this place, famous for its cathedral, is part of the “old Moscow”. In the fifteenth century, the Elokhovskaya Church, not so majestic, but modest, wooden, was also well known to believers. Vasily was born on her porch - his mother, being pregnant, came to pray that the birth would be safe and quick. And so it happened. The woman, without even having time to leave the church, gave birth to a boy. Exact date The birth of a Christian ascetic has been erased from human memory over the years (researchers roughly estimate the year 1468 or 1469). The gift of prophecy manifested itself in Vasily from childhood, but the boy’s predictions sometimes took such a mysterious form that their meaning was unraveled only after they came true. At that time, nothing foreshadowed the ascetic path of this man - his parents, religious but poor people, outlined the most ordinary future for their son. Vasily, while still a boy, was assigned as an apprentice to a shoemaker's shop. Many such boys lived in the workshops of artisans as cheap servants - just for a bowl of porridge and a piece of bread - in the hope of learning the basics of the craft from the owner.
One day, a rich merchant came into the shoe shop where Vasily served. He wanted to order new boots for himself. It would seem that the situation is completely ordinary. But the behavior of the apprentice boy who met a profitable customer surprised everyone. Vasily laughed at first, but soon his laughter turned into tears, and the boy began to sob bitterly, afraid to even look into the face of the newcomer.
-What are you crying about, Vasya? - both the owner and the customer asked the boy.
“He came to order funeral boots for himself,” Vasily whispered, pointing to the merchant.
He just spat out of frustration - the nasty boy was caught, foolishly croaking God knows what. Imagine the general surprise when the merchant actually died suddenly a few days later...
Having matured, Vasily realized that shoemaking was not for him. This matter did not interest him. At the age of sixteen he left his master's shop and became a beggar vagabond. Not every person, having torn himself away from his roots, can find himself in a new life. But Vasily, having rejected all vanity, devoted his life to God, found joy in this and became one of those to whom the lines of Scripture are dedicated: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Without shelter and permanent shelter, naked in winter and summer, wearing only chains, he accomplished what Christians call the feat of foolishness. The gift of prophecy, already inherent in Vasily, literally blossomed in foolishness - his allegorical phrases turned out to be full of deep meaning, everything that he promised or predicted came true. People in Moscow began to listen to his mysterious words and take a closer look at his strange actions.

It happened that Vasily, approaching the house of a man known for his piety, suddenly threw a stone at his window, and at the house of a notorious sinner, about whose life there was gossip and gossip, Vasily knelt down, as if before a shrine, and kissed the stones of the walls. And it was as if people’s eyes were opening again - a bigot and a saint, like a biblical Pharisee, performs pious deeds for show, hiding a dark soul behind them, and a city dweller, despised by everyone, is punished only because rumor has labeled him; in fact, he suffers insults from people without any guilt.
The ability to see the inner essence of objects helped St. Basil to save Moscow from terrible blasphemy. On Varvarka, on the city gate, there was a gate icon, which was considered miraculous by the people - the image of the Mother of God. Every day crowds of believers flocked to Varvarka to worship the holy image and ask the Virgin Mary for help and intercession. Imagine the horror and indignation of these people when the holy fool picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the icon with a flourish, breaking the glass that covered the icon from the weather. The believers attacked Vasily and began to beat him "by mortal combat". The holy fool took the beatings stoically and only asked: “You will scratch the paint,” pointing to the icon.
Among the crowd of indignant pilgrims there were those who believed him. It turned out that on the icon, under a thin layer of paint with the image of the Mother of God, there was a “devilish mug” hidden. An unknown enemy forced the pilgrims to worship a disguised image of the devil, and only the holy fool Vasily managed to stop the blasphemous prayers...

Gate on Varvarka at the end of the 19th century

In the summer of 1521, something happened that was considered a real miracle in Moscow. This event was connected with the name of the holy fool Vasily.
He began to fervently and tirelessly pray day and night in churches and crowded places for the deliverance of Moscow from Tatar invasion. But at that time, peace had just been established with the Tatar khans - both Crimean, Astrakhan, and Kazan... True, the Crimean Khan Mukhamed-Girey, known for his hatred of the Russian state and his desire to reassemble the fragments of the disintegrated Golden Horde, hatched a conspiracy in Kazan to the overthrow of Khan Shah Ali (supported by Moscow), and the enthronement of his brother Sahib-Girey. But this political drama unfolded far from the Moscow walls. Nobody expected trouble.
Imagine the general surprise when it turned out that Mukhamed-Girey, at the head of the Crimean and Kazan hordes, set out on a campaign with the goal of capturing Moscow and unexpectedly, along with his army, showed up sixty miles from the capital of Rus'! Moscow Grand Duke Vasily began hastily gathering an army. It was not so easy, because in the spring sixty-five thousand warriors had already been collected and sent to guard the borders of the state at distant outposts. Human resources in the Moscow lands were not unlimited. There was practically no time left to organize defense - what is sixty miles for the fast Tatar cavalry? Residents of the city expected with horror that forward detachments Muhamed-Girey is about to appear under the walls of the Kremlin. But for some reason, the Crimean Khan suddenly abandoned his own plan. Without entering into battle, and without making any attempts to take Moscow, he turned his army and left, taking with him, however, “the rich man,” that is, prisoners captured in Russian villages along the route. But the capital city was thus saved from invasion. The general opinion gave the “authorship” of this miracle to St. Basil the Blessed, who began to seek heavenly intercession long before the threat of an enemy attack on Moscow became obvious.

The Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Ostrov near Moscow is a monument to the deliverance of Moscow from the invasion of Mohammed-Girey

Ivan the Terrible, who as a child succeeded his father, Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich, on the Russian throne in 1533, sincerely believed that St. Basil was capable of performing a miracle, and treated the holy fool with deep respect. However, Ivan Vasilyevich, in 1547 the first of the Russian sovereigns to be crowned king and declare himself the Tsar of All Rus', was a controversial person. The sublime and the base easily coexisted in his soul. One of his contemporaries, a boyar who knew Ivan the Terrible well, spoke of him like this: “A man of wonderful reasoning, in the science of book teaching, contented and very talkative, impudent to the militia (i.e. i.e., brave in military affairs) and stands up for his fatherland. For his servants, given to him by God, he is cruel-hearted, and for shedding blood, for killing, he is impudent and implacable; Destroy many people from small to great in your kingdom, and captivate many of your own cities, and imprison many holy ranks and destroy them with unmerciful death, and desecrate many other things against your servants, wives and maidens through fornication. The same Tsar Ivan did many good things, loving the army of the great ones and demanding them from their treasures generously. Such is Tsar Ivan.”
Ivan, indeed, did not immediately become famous for his extreme cruelty and harsh temper, for which he received the nickname Terrible. The beginning of the reign of the young sovereign instilled hope in the hearts of his subjects that the period of turmoil in Rus' was over, and from now on a worthy man would sit on the throne, rooting for his state and his people. Ivan carried out a military reform, creating a regular Streltsy and Cossack army, conquered Kazan, and then Astrakhan, having saved Rus' from regular raids of the Horde, raised the new heights the meaning of the Orthodox Church. He himself was a deeply religious man... until an internal breakdown forced him to indulge in sins.

Ivan IV, nicknamed the Terrible

It is in the traditions of Orthodoxy to treat holy fools, strangers and other people of God with mercy and great respect. They were invited to homes, both poor and rich, asked to have a meal, rest and pray for the owners and their children - it was believed that God's grace would come to the family with them, and their prayers would more likely reach heaven. Ivan Vasilyevich was no exception - St. Basil the Blessed, a holy fool (who had reached a very respectable age by the time the young sovereign reached manhood), was invited to the royal mansions, where Ivan willingly talked with him and seated him at the table at feasts among eminent people.
At one of these feasts, an incident occurred that convinced the sovereign of the prophetic gift of the holy fool. Ivan Vasilyevich himself brought Vasily, as a dear guest, a cup of wine. Respectfully accepting the cup, he, instead of drinking, suddenly splashed the wine onto the floor. The Emperor, showing rare patience, again handed the cup to the holy fool, and again the wine ended up on the floor; the same thing happened a third time. Ivan, no matter how hard he tried to be patient, became boiling and demanded an explanation from Vasily.
- What are you doing? - he asked sternly. -Why are you pouring out the cup that was brought to you?
- I’m putting out the fire in Novgorod! - answered the Blessed One.
The sovereign, confident that the actions of the holy fool contained some hidden truth, immediately sent a messenger to Novgorod. It turned out that there really was a terrible fire there, which destroyed half of the city, and just at the time when Vasily was spilling wine at the royal feast, the fire began to subside...
St. Basil managed to predict a fire in Moscow that was no less terrible in its consequences. But unfortunately, Muscovites did not immediately understand his prophecy.

In Moscow, on Vozdvizhenka Street there once stood the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. It didn't appear by chance. In 1540, two miraculous icons were delivered to Moscow from Rzhev - the Mother of God and the Exaltation of the Cross. Ivan, who was then only 10 years old, together with the Metropolitan and other clergy, leaving the Kremlin, greeted the icons with honor across the Neglinnaya River. Two years before this event, Ivan’s mother Elena Glinskaya, who ruled the state on behalf of her son after the death of her husband, died; Rumor has it that she was poisoned. A young orphan, a grand duke and future ruler, turned out to be a toy in the hands of greedy boyars. As time passed, Ivan IV himself assessed the events of those years as follows: “ When my brother and I were left without parents, we had no one to rely on. I was then finishing my eighth year; The people under our control rejoiced at the chance that they had found a kingdom without a ruler, and we, their sovereigns, were not rewarded with any care from them: they themselves sought only wealth and glory and squabbled with each other. (...) They fed me and my brother like wretched servants. What have we not suffered in terms of clothing and food! We had no will for anything; “Everything was done not according to our will and not according to our years.”.
Probably, the grievances suffered by Ivan the Terrible in childhood left a terrible imprint on his character, which would fully manifest itself later. But as a child, the young sovereign was distinguished by rare religiosity, and the meeting miraculous icons was big and very important event. One must think that the boy, who felt so unhappy, lonely and defenseless, expected changes in his fate from the intercession of Mother of God... At the meeting place of the icons, a memorial temple was erected, at which the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Honest Life-Giving Cross of the Lord was founded behind Neglinnaya, commonly called the Exaltation of the Cross. All the years of Ivan's reign, the Holy Cross Monastery was especially revered, and quickly turned from a new building into a beautifully equipped place for the needs of monastics and pilgrims.

Rebuilt Church of the Exaltation of the Cross at the end of the 19th century (not preserved)

This monastery is mentioned in the Life of St. Basil in connection with amazing fact. On June 20, 1547, on the eve of the terrible Moscow fire, Vasily came to the church of the Holy Cross Monastery and began to cry bitterly. The people who were in the temple and witnessed these tears could not understand their reason, but felt that they promised something unkind, some kind of grief. All evening the townspeople gossiped about what awaited them, but they never figured out the reason for the holy fool’s sobs. The next day, a wooden church in the monastery caught fire, the same one in which Vasily was overcome by incomprehensible despair. Strong wind The fire quickly spread throughout the city. The buildings of Moscow were predominantly wooden, and the city was ablaze, engulfed in terrible flames.
According to the chroniclers, “... the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross caught fire behind Neglinnaya on Arbatskaya Street... And there was a great storm, and fire flowed like lightning, and a strong fire carried the fire overnight through all of Zaneglimenye, to Vspolye ; and Chertolye it burned down to the Semchinsky village near the Moscow River, and to Fyodor the Saint on Arbatskaya Street. And the storm turned into large hail, and the top of the Kremlin caught fire near the Cathedral Church of the Most Pure, and in the royal courtyard of the Grand Duke there were roofs on the chambers, and wooden huts, and chambers decorated with gold, and the Treasury courtyard with the royal treasury, and the golden-domed Church of the Annunciation on the royal courtyard. in the courtyard of the royal treasury - with a Deesis letter from Andrei Rublev, in a gold frame, and with valuable images of Greek writing<...>, collected over many years by the ancestors of the Grand Duke; and the treasury of the Grand Duke burned down, and the Armory Chamber was all burned with military weapons, and the Bed Chamber<...>, and the royal stable".
In addition to the Kremlin and the sovereign chambers, almost all Moscow churches were damaged by fire (“ God saved only two churches"), besides, in Kitai-gorod, on Arbat, on Sretenka, on Yauza, almost all residential courtyards and merchant shops burned down. The flame of the fire was so strong that it melted and spread iron, cracked stone walls, and even wooden buildings perished in an instant... It was then that the reason for the bitter sobs of St. Basil, not understood by his fellow countrymen, became obvious.
After the fire, the wooden churches and other buildings of the Holy Cross Monastery were replaced with “plinthian” (brick) ones, more resistant to fire. And they began to look at what the holy fool Vasily did with even greater trepidation.
Ivan Vasilyevich, together with his young wife Anastasia, asked Vasily for the blessing of the Blessed and was sure that it was the help of the holy fool that brought him success in affairs, both family, military, and state. For example, the capture of Kazan in 1552 occurred after the holy fool Vasily, shortly before his own death, blessed the young Tsar and the entire Russian army for the feat. Astrakhan was taken without a fight in 1556, and, as Tsar Ivan believed, also thanks to the heavenly intercession of St. Basil, who had left this world by that time.

Capture of Kazan

At the age of thirty, Tsar Ivan was widowed - his beloved wife Anastasia died after 13 years happy marriage. Presumably, she, like Ivan’s mother, was poisoned by the Tsar’s enemies from the highest boyar circles. Her death had a terrible impact on the Tsar... Everyone around him noticed that the appearance, character, views and very style of reign of Ivan IV began to change quickly. From the beautiful young man he turned into a bilious, old-looking creature with eyes burning with anger. Ivan became more and more cruel and suspicious, he saw only lies and treason around him, he was ready to punish the right and the wrong... He dispersed the “Chosen Rada” (his devoted advisers, who had state mentality, whom he himself selected from among his close friends) and subjected him to disgrace and disgrace. punishing everyone who disagrees with his policies.
Anastasia died in 1560, and in 1565, Tsar Ivan, unable to cope with his inner pain, decided to do something unprecedented. The tsar created a special detachment of guardsmen (i.e. people located on the side, away from the rest of the people) in the amount of one thousand people, and quickly increased it to six thousand. It was a kind of guard, secret police and punitive service of Ivan Vasilyevich, guarding the tsar and implementing all his state decisions, and also responsible for whims, vengeful nagging, extrajudicial punishments and executions. By tsar's order, the Russian land, including the one on which the capital of the state, Moscow, stood, was divided into the “sovereign oprichnina” and the “zemshchina.” All those who were not lucky enough to have houses, estates, land plots and other possessions in the oprichnina were mercilessly expelled and moved to the zemshchina. In the sovereign oprichnina, the absolute master was the tsar, and only faithful and unconditionally devoted people were supposed to live there. The guardsmen became the organizers of unheard of terror, many of them (Malyuta Skuratov, Basmanovs) remained symbols of embodied cruelty in historical legends.

HE. Vishnyakov. Ivan the Terrible interrogates the disgraced boyar

The lands taken by the tsar from noble boyars and found themselves part of the oprichnina were transferred to the disposal of his new favorites. The Arbat right up to Dorogomilov, located across the Moscow River, adjacent to the Arbat, Chertolye (the future Prechistenka) and Semchenskoye (Ostozhenka) found themselves in the oprichnina during the division of Moscow. The chroniclers reported the royal decision as follows: “He also ordered that in Posad the streets from the Moscow River should be taken into oprichnina: Chertolskaya street with the Semchinsky village and to Vspolye, and Arbatskaya street on both sides, and with Sivtsev Vrazhk, and to Dorogomilovsky Vspolye; yes half of Nikitskaya street - left side, if you go from the city...” In these places, the construction of oprichnina courtyards began - stone chambers for the king's entourage. Ivan IV himself also began building a new palace to his liking, neglecting the Kremlin towers. According to the chronicler, “... the Tsar and Grand Duke of All Rus' Ivan Vasilyevich ordered to build a courtyard outside the city ( i.e., behind the Kremlin fortress - E.Kh .), behind Neglinnaya, between Arbatskaya street and Nikitskaya, from the hollow place..."
Some of the royal chambers were hastily erected, and Ivan, traveling to the capital from his residence in Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, stopped at “favorite Arbat tower”(as A.K. Tolstoy called this palace in “Prince Serebryany”).
In addition to the Russian guardsmen, foreign mercenaries were also subordinate to the tsar. Adventurers from Prussia, Saxony, Livonia and others European countries flocked to Moscow to offer their services to the Russian Tsar. One of these mercenaries was the German Heinrich Staden, who served among the guardsmen from 1565 to 1576. left detailed description Sovereign's Oprichnina Court, located in the area of modern Arbat Square: “When the oprichnina was established, all those who lived along the western bank of the Neglinnaya River, without any leniency, had to leave their yards and flee to the surrounding settlements... Grand Duke ordered to break up the courtyards of many princes, boyars and merchants to the west of the Kremlin, on the highest place, within the distance of a rifle shot; clear the quadrangular area and surround this area with a wall; lay it out one fathom from the ground from hewn stone, and another two fathoms up - from burnt bricks. At the top the walls were pointed, without a roof or loopholes,<...>with three gates: some went to the east, others to the south, and others to the north. The northern gate... was covered with tin. There were two carved, painted lions on them - instead of eyes they had mirrors attached; and also - a black double-headed eagle carved from wood with outstretched wings".
From this evidence it is clear that the oprichnina buildings were not erected “from scratch,” as the unknown chronicler emphasized (probably for opportunistic reasons). That is, if the construction site was turned into a hollow place, it was only after the population was expelled and all previously erected buildings were demolished. Well, representatives of the media, which includes the ancient chroniclers, have always depended on the mercy of those in power and, by order or at the behest of their hearts, allowed themselves to “varnish reality”...
The gloomy buildings of the Oprichnina court caused wild horror among the townspeople - everyone knew what was happening behind these walls... The Oprichnina court did not last long - during the invasion of Khan Devlet-Girey to Moscow in 1571, it was destroyed and burned.

Oprichnina courtyard, set for P. Lungin's film "Tsar"

Oprichnina left a terrible mark on the history of Russia and Moscow. People were executed in hundreds and thousands, for the slightest guilt, based on slander, because the tsar seemed dangerous or simply did not like them, or even without any reason. The tsar took great pleasure in personally participating in executions and torture, believing that in this way he was strengthening autocratic power... The dead were not allowed to be buried, and the corpses of those executed filled the Moscow streets.
But the king was known for his changeable temper. In 1572, Ivan the Terrible suddenly abolished the oprichnina, its leaders fell into disgrace with the tsar and, in turn, were subjected to brutal executions. The tsar himself attributed his decision to the mystical influence of the holy fool St. Basil the Blessed, who by that time was no longer alive.
St. Basil died in 1552, many years before the organization of the oprichnina and the terrible terror unleashed by Tsar Ivan. However, the king had the opportunity to verify the complete disapproval of his actions on the part of the late miracle worker. According to the story of Ivan the Terrible himself, the late holy fool appeared before him during the days of another brutal massacre, when the guardsmen, brutalized by the shed blood, dealt with the next “enemies” of the tsar. At the moment of the appearance of the spirit of the holy fool, Ivan the Terrible was alone in his chambers. He generally loved solitude. The ghost of St. Basil approached the sovereign, who was sitting at a meal, and began to persistently offer him to eat watermelon and drink wine. But the king saw with horror that on the platter lay a huge piece of roughly chopped meat, oozing blood. It was neither beef nor pork; whose mortified flesh appeared before Ivan was scary to even think about. The jug standing on the table also turned out to be filled with fresh blood instead of wine... Ivan Vasilyevich, feeling like a bloodsucker and a cannibal, began to push away the terrible treat, and St. Basil, hugging him, pointed his hand to heaven. After this, the ghost disappeared, and on the table in front of him the king again saw a dish with watermelon and a jug of wine.
It is unknown whether this was a fantasy nervous man, or did Ivan the Terrible really see the holy fool Vasily, who thus appealed to his conscience and Christian feeling? And how can this be explained? Whether the soul of St. Basil was able to convey to the bloody king a call for goodness and peace, or the soul of Ivan the Terrible himself was looking for a way out of the impasse into which he had driven himself and his state - God knows... In any case, the oprichnina was soon dispersed, and its leaders were executed. Perhaps this decision had been latently brewing in Ivan the Terrible for a long time, but the common people were sure that the oprichnina suddenly appeared, shedding a lot of blood, and just as suddenly disappeared when St. Basil opened the eyes of the Tsar...

The interior decoration of St. Basil's Cathedral with images of saints and paintings on the theme of his life

Getting rid of the oprichnina became such a blessing for the Russian people that in all churches they read thanksgiving prayers, and in them the name of St. Basil the Blessed, the heavenly intercessor of Rus', was remembered.
The grave of the deceased holy fool was not far from the Kremlin, in the cemetery of the Trinity Church in the Moat, on the descent from Red Square to the river. Pilgrims immediately flocked to the Trinity Cemetery, and rumors spread throughout Moscow about the miracles that happened here. "at the tomb of the holy fool Vasily". When Tsar Ivan ordered the construction of a new majestic cathedral on the site of the old church to commemorate the capture of Kazan, the holy fool’s grave was carefully preserved.
Basil the Blessed was canonized. Patriarch Job in 1588 determined the celebration of the memory of the wonderworker on the day of his death, August 2. In the same year, the son of Ivan the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, ordered the construction of an extension to the church over the burial place of the saint - the chapel of St. Basil the Blessed. The relics of the miracle worker were placed in a silver shrine, and they became one of the main Moscow shrines for centuries.
The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin Mary on Red Square in Moscow is rarely called that way - it went down in history under the name of St. Basil's Cathedral. The descent from the cathedral to the river is also called Vasilievsky. And yet the memory of generations of people weakens over the centuries. Everyone knows this unique architectural structure in the center of Moscow, but, alas, not every modern Muscovite can tell about the personality of the holy fool Vasily and why this man went down in history.

Foolishness- a spiritual and ascetic feat, which consists of renouncing worldly goods and generally accepted standards of life, taking on the image of a person without reason, and humbly enduring abuse, contempt and bodily deprivation.
The key to understanding this feat is a phrase from Holy Scripture: “[i]…the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God…” (1 Cor. 3:19).

A holy fool (glorified stupid, crazy) is a person who has taken upon himself the feat of depicting the external, i.e. visible madness in order to achieve inner humility. For Christ's sake the holy fools set themselves the task overcome the root of all sins - pride. To achieve this, they led an unusual way of life, sometimes appearing as if they were devoid of reason, thereby causing people to ridicule them. At the same time, they denounced evil in the world in an allegorical, symbolic form, both in words and in actions. Such a feat was undertaken by the holy fools in order to humble themselves and at the same time to have a stronger influence on people, since people are indifferent to ordinary simple preaching. The feat of foolishness for the sake of Christ was especially widespread among us on Russian soil.

THE FOOL AS PROPHET AND APOSTLE

He is no one's son, no one's brother, no one's father, he has no home (...). In fact, the holy fool does not pursue a single selfish goal. He achieves nothing.
Julia De Beausobre, “Creative Suffering”
Foolishness is a symbol of people lost to this world, whose destiny is to inherit eternal life. Foolishness is not a philosophy, but a certain perception of life, endless respect for the human person (...), not a product of intellectual achievements, but a creation of a culture of the heart.
Cecil Collins, “The Penetration of Foolishness” The holy fool has nothing to lose. He dies every day.
Mother Maria of Normanbay, "Foolishness"

Gospel of Luke

"foolishness for Christ's sake."

Anyone who exalts himself will be humiliated, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.
Gospel of Luke

It is not typical for a true Christian to be hypocritical and pretend, he must be honest and open with everyone, however, there is a special kind of Christian feat, which can be outwardly described as pretense and feigned eccentricity. The name of this feat "foolishness for Christ's sake."

This and many other cases show how holy fools tried to reason with people by their example, bringing to the point of absurdity the vices that are characteristic of many of us. They, being obviously holy people, granted the gift of miracles by God, caricatured petty resentment, envy, and grumpiness, giving people the opportunity to look at themselves from the outside. Look and be ashamed.

You should not see caustic satire in the behavior of holy fools. Unlike carnival jesters, holy fools were motivated by compassion and love for erring people. So blessed Procopius of Ustyug, who is considered the first holy fool in Rus', one Sunday began to call the residents of Ustyug to repentance, warning that if they do not repent of their sins, the city will suffer God's wrath. People laughed at the blessed one, saying “he is out of his mind.” A few days after this, blessed Procopius, with tears in his eyes, begged the Ustyug people to repent, but no one listened to him. And only when the saint’s formidable prophecy soon came true, and a terrible hurricane hit the city, people ran in trepidation to the cathedral church, where the holy saint of God tearfully prayed before the icon of the Mother of God, the warm Intercessor of our family. Following his example, the residents of Ustyug also began to pray fervently. The city was saved, but most importantly, many souls were saved, having received admonition thanks to the prayers of Saint Procopius.

Being great prayer books, fasters and seers, the holy fools avoided earthly glory, pretending to be insane. Blessed Procopius, spending every night, despite the severe frosts, in prayer on the porch of the cathedral church, in the morning he could fall asleep on a heap of manure, and Saint Simeon, who lived in Antioch, could be seen dragging him around the city tied by his leg dead dog. This often resulted in the saints being ridiculed, cursed, kicked, and sometimes beaten. Their feat can be called voluntary martyrdom, and, unlike the martyrs who suffered once, the holy fools for the sake of Christ endured sorrow and humiliation all their lives.

Leading such a lifestyle, the holy fools fought not only against the sins of other people, but first of all they waged an invisible battle against sin, which could destroy their own soul - with pride. The feat of foolishness, like no other, contributes to the development in the soul of the ascetic of the virtue of humility, otherwise how could the holy fools be able to endure the sorrows that befall them.

But humility does not mean weakness of will and connivance in sin. Sometimes holy fools fearlessly raised their voices where others were afraid to open their mouths. Thus, the Pskov saint Nicholas Sallos suggested that Tsar Ivan the Terrible try raw meat during Lent. “I am a Christian and I don’t eat meat during Lent,” the king was indignant. “You drink Christian blood,” came the saint’s answer. The king was humiliated and left the city, in which he was going to inflict severe reprisals.

For Christ's sake, the holy fools fulfilled the words of the Apostle Paul: “If a person falls into any sin, you who are spiritual correct him in the spirit of meekness, watching each one of you so as not to be tempted.”

The blessed ascetics avoided vain earthly glory, but with their difficult deeds they earned incorruptible heavenly glory and were glorified by the Lord on earth with numerous miracles performed through their prayers.

We are mad for Christ's sake... we endure hunger and thirst, and nakedness, and beatings, and we wander... We are like rubbish to the world, like dust trampled underfoot by everyone.
Epistle of Saint Apostle Paul

JURODIQUES- ascetics Orthodox Church who took upon themselves the feat of foolishness, that is, external, apparent madness. The basis for the feat of foolishness was the words of the Apostle Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians: “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18) “For when the world through its wisdom does not knew God in the wisdom of God, then it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:21), "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks" (1 Cor. 1:23), " If any of you thinks to be wise in this age, then be foolish in order to be wise” (1 Cor. 3:18).

The holy fools refused for Christ's sake not only from all the benefits and conveniences of earthly life, but also often from generally accepted norms of behavior in society. In winter and summer they walked barefoot, and many without clothes at all. Fools often violated the requirements of morality, if you look at it as the fulfillment of certain ethical standards. Many of the holy fools, possessing the gift of clairvoyance, accepted the feat of foolishness out of a sense of deeply developed humility, so that people would attribute their clairvoyance not to them, but to God. Therefore, they often spoke using seemingly incoherent forms, hints, and allegories. Others acted like fools in order to suffer humiliation and disgrace for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. There were also such holy fools, popularly called blessed, who did not take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, but actually gave the impression of being weak-minded due to their childishness that remained throughout their lives.

If we combine the motives that prompted the ascetics to take upon themselves the feat of foolishness, we can distinguish three main points. The trampling of vanity, which is very possible when performing a monastic ascetic feat. Emphasizing the contradiction between the truth in Christ and so-called common sense and norms of behavior. Serving Christ in a kind of preaching, not in word or deed, but in the power of the spirit, clothed in an outwardly poor form.

The feat of foolishness is specifically Orthodox. The Catholic and Protestant West does not know such a form of asceticism.

The holy fools were mostly laymen, but we can also name a few holy fools - monks. Among them is Saint Isidora, the first holy fool († 365), nun of the Tavensky monastery; Saint Simeon, Saint Thomas.

The most famous of the holy fools was Saint Andrew. The holiday of the Intercession is associated with his name Holy Mother of God. This holiday was established in memory of an event that took place in Constantinople in the middle of the 10th century. The city was in danger from the Saracens, but one day the holy fool Andrei and his disciple Epiphanius, praying during the all-night vigil in the Blachernae temple, saw in the air Holy Virgin Mary with a host of saints, spreading her omophorion (veil) over the Christians. Encouraged by this vision, the Byzantines repelled the Saracens.

Foolishness for Christ's sake was especially widespread and revered by the people in Rus'. Its heyday falls in the 16th century: in the 14th century there were four revered Russian Yuri, in the 15th - eleven, in the 16th - fourteen, in the 17th - seven.

The feat of foolishness is one of the hardest feats that individuals took upon themselves in the name of Christ for the sake of saving their souls and serving their neighbors with the goal of their moral awakening.

IN Kievan Rus There has not yet been a feat of Christ’s foolishness for the sake of it as such. Although individual saints, in a certain sense, practiced foolishness for a certain time, it was rather asceticism, which at times took forms very similar to foolishness.

The first holy fool in the full sense of the word in Rus' was Procopius of Ustyug († 1302). Procopius, according to his life, was a rich merchant from his youth “from Western countries, from the Latin language, from the German land." In Novgorod he was captivated by the beauty Orthodox worship. Having accepted Orthodoxy, he distributes his property to the poor, “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life and turns into violence.” When they began to please him in Novgorod, he left Novgorod, headed “to the eastern countries,” walked through cities and villages, impenetrable forests and swamps, accepted beatings and insults thanks to his foolishness, but prayed for his offenders. Righteous Procopius, for Christ's sake, chose the city of Ustyug, “great and glorious,” for his residence. He led a life so harsh that his extremely ascetic monastic deeds could not be compared with it. The holy fool slept naked in the open air “on the rot”, later on the porch of the cathedral church, and prayed at night for the benefit of “the city and the people.” He ate, receiving an incredibly limited amount of food from people, but never took anything from the rich.

The fact that the first Russian holy fool arrived in Ustyug from Novgorod is deeply symptomatic. Novgorod was truly the birthplace of Russian foolishness. All famous Russian holy fools of the 14th century are connected in one way or another with Novgorod.

Here the holy fool Nikolai (Kochanov) and Fyodor “raged” in the 14th century. They staged ostentatious fights among themselves, and none of the spectators had any doubt that they were parodying the bloody clashes of the Novgorod parties. Nikola lived on the Sofia side, and Fyodor lived on the Torgovaya side. They quarreled and threw themselves at each other across the Volkhov. When one of them tried to cross the river on the bridge, the other drove him back, shouting: “Don’t go to my side, live on yours.” Tradition adds that often after such clashes the blessed ones often returned not over the bridge, but over the water, as if on dry land.

In the Klopsky Trinity Monastery, the Monk Michael labored, revered by the people as a holy fool, although in his lives (three editions) we do not find typical features of foolishness. The Monk Michael was a seer; his life contains numerous prophecies, apparently recorded by the monks of the Klop Monastery.

Saint Michael's foresight was expressed, in particular, in indicating the place to dig a well, in predicting an imminent famine, and the elder asked to feed the hungry with monastic rye, in predicting illness for the mayor who infringed on the monks, and death for Prince Shemyaka. Predicting the death of Shemyaka, reverend elder strokes his head, and, promising Bishop Euthymius consecration in Lithuania, takes the “fly” from his hands and places it on his head.

St. Michael, like many other saints, had a special connection with our " little brothers" He walks behind the abbot’s coffin, accompanied by a deer, feeding it moss from his hands. At the same time, possessing the high gift of Christ's love for neighbors and even for creatures, the elder sternly denounced the powers that be.

A contemporary of St. Michael of Rostov, the holy fool Isidore († 1474) lives in a swamp, plays the holy fool during the day, and prays at night. They will choke him and laugh at him, despite the miracles and predictions that earned him the nickname “Tverdislov”. And this holy fool, like the righteous Procopius of Ustyug, “is from Western countries, of the Roman race, of the German language.” In the same way, another Rostov holy fool, John the Vlasaty († 1581), was an alien from the West. The foreign-language origin of the three Russian holy fools testifies that they were so deeply captivated by Orthodoxy that they chose a specifically Orthodox form of asceticism.

The first Moscow holy fool was Blessed Maxim († 14ЗЗ), canonized at the Council of 1547. Unfortunately, the life of Blessed Maxim has not survived,

In the 16th century, St. Basil the Blessed and John the Great Cap enjoyed universal fame in Moscow. In addition to the life of Saint Basil, the people's memory has also preserved the legend about him.

According to legend, St. Basil the Blessed was apprenticed to a shoemaker as a child and then already showed insight, laughing and shedding tears at the merchant who ordered boots for himself. It was revealed to Vasily that the merchant was facing imminent death. After leaving the shoemaker, Vasily led a wandering life in Moscow, walking without clothes and spending the night with a boyar widow. Vasily's foolishness is characterized by denunciation of social injustice and the sins of various classes. One day he destroyed goods in the market, punishing unscrupulous traders. All of him that seemed to the eye ordinary person incomprehensible and even absurd, actions had a secret wise meaning of seeing the world with spiritual eyes. Vasily throws stones at the houses of virtuous people and kisses the walls of houses where “blasphemy” took place, since in the former there are exorcised demons hanging outside, while in the latter, Angels are crying. He gives the gold donated by the tsar not to the beggars, but to the merchant, because Vasily’s perspicacious gaze knows that the merchant has lost all his fortune, and is ashamed to ask for alms. Yu pours the drink served by the tsar out the window to put out a fire in distant Novgorod.

St. Basil was distinguished by a special gift for revealing the demon in any guise and pursuing him everywhere. So, he recognized a demon in a beggar who collected a lot of money and, as a reward for alms, gave people “temporary happiness.”

At the height of the oprichnina, he was not afraid to expose the formidable Tsar Ivan IV, for which he enjoyed enormous moral authority among the people. The description of Basil the Blessed’s denunciation of the Tsar during a mass execution in Moscow is interesting. The saint denounces the king in the presence of a huge crowd of people. The people, who were silent during the execution of the boyars, at the same time when the angry tsar was preparing to pierce the holy fool with a spear, murmured: “Don’t touch him!.. don’t touch the blessed one! In our heads you are free, but don’t touch the blessed one!” Ivan the Terrible was forced to restrain himself and retreat. Vasily was buried in the Intercession Cathedral on Red Square, which in the minds of the people was forever associated with his name.

John the Big Cap labored in Moscow under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. In Moscow he was an alien. Originally from the Vologda region, he worked as a water carrier at the northern saltworks. Having abandoned everything and moved to Rostov the Great, John built himself a cell near the church, covered his body with chains and heavy rings, and when going out into the street, he always put on a cap, which is why he received his nickname. John could look at the sun for hours - it was his favorite hobby- thinking about the “righteous sun”. The children laughed at him, but he was not angry with them. The holy fool always smiled, and with a smile he prophesied the future. Shortly before his death, John moved to Moscow. It is known that he died in a movnitsa (bathhouse); he was buried in the same Intercession Cathedral in which Vasily was buried. During the burial of the blessed one, a terrible thunderstorm arose, from which many suffered.

In the 16th century, denunciation of kings and boyars became an integral part of foolishness. Vivid evidence of such exposure is provided by the chronicle of the conversation between the Pskov holy fool Nikola and Ivan the Terrible. In 1570, Pskov was threatened with the fate of Novgorod, when the holy fool, together with the governor Yuri Tokmakov, suggested that the Pskovites set up tables with bread and salt on the streets and greet the Moscow Tsar with bows. When, after the prayer service, the tsar approached Saint Nicholas for a blessing, he taught him “terrible words to stop the great bloodshed.” When John, despite the admonition, ordered the bell to be removed from the Holy Trinity, then at the same hour his best horse fell, according to the prophecy of the saint. The surviving legend tells that Nikola placed raw meat in front of the king and offered to eat it, when the king refused, saying “I am a Christian, and I don’t eat meat during Lent,” Nikola answered him: “Do you drink Christian blood?”

The holy fools of foreign travelers who were in Moscow at that time were very amazed. Fletcher writes in 1588:

“In addition to monks, the Russian people especially honor the blessed (fools), and here’s why: the blessed... point out the shortcomings of the nobles, which no one else dares to talk about. But sometimes it happens that for such daring freedom that they allow themselves, they also get rid of them, as was the case with one or two in the previous reign, because they had already too boldly denounced the rule of the tsar.” Fletcher reports about St. Basil that “he decided to reproach the late king for cruelty.” Herberstein also writes about the enormous respect the Russian people have for holy fools: “They were revered as prophets: those who were clearly convicted by them said: this is because of my sins. If they took anything from the shop, the merchants also thanked them.”

According to the testimony of foreigners, holy fools. there were a lot of them in Moscow; they essentially constituted a kind of separate order. A very small part of them were canonized. There are still deeply revered, although uncanonized, local holy fools.

Thus, foolishness in Rus' for the most part is not a feat of humility, but a form of prophetic service combined with extreme asceticism. The holy fools exposed sins and injustice, and thus it was not the world that laughed at the Russian holy fools, but the holy fools who laughed at the world. In the XIV-XVI centuries, Russian holy fools were the embodiment of the conscience of the people.

The veneration of holy fools by the people led, starting from the 17th century, to the appearance of many false holy fools who pursued their own selfish goals. It also happened that simply mentally ill people were mistaken for holy fools. Therefore, the Church has always approached the canonization of holy fools very carefully.

Theological-liturgical dictionary

One of the most famous university professors, giving his lectures on theology, noted, not without irony, that such concepts as “sin” or “demon” cause confusion among the educated public - so use them directly, without cultural reservations, in a serious conversation with intelligent people it is almost impossible. And he told the following anecdote: a certain missionary, giving a sermon at a technical university, was forced to answer the question of how a person first thinks about a crime. Trying to speak to the audience in their language, he formulated the following phrase: “The thought of a crime telepathically broadcasts to a person a transcendental-noumenal totalitarian-personalized cosmic evil.” Then the head of an astonished demon pokes out from under the pulpit: “What did you call me?”

The point is that truth is not afraid of controversy. Truth cannot be destroyed. That's why the world came up effective method it should be disposed of as some kind of dangerous radioactive material, which is sealed in an impenetrable lead container and buried in a remote wasteland. At first, the truths obtained by great minds in a painful struggle become familiar and commonplace. What was a long-awaited trophy for fathers becomes a toy for children, like grandfather’s medals and order bars. People get used to treating truths as something taken for granted. Then the familiar becomes banal and they try to get rid of it through cynicism, irony and quotation marks. “No, brother, this is all licentiousness, emptiness! - says Turgenev's Bazarov. – And what is this mysterious relationship between a man and a woman? We physiologists know what this relationship is. Study the anatomy of the eye: where does that mysterious look come from, as you say? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art.” Ultimately, the ridiculed and caricatured truth under the guise of folklore is generally removed from the discursive field. Good and evil begin to be associated exclusively with the “hut on chicken legs”, and such things as heroism and betrayal without quotes are preserved only in children’s everyday life - along with “woman” and “good fairy”.

“Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth, who supposedly healed the sick with one word and supposedly raised the dead, supposedly also resurrected Himself on the third day after death.” Only in this way, in a straitjacket of quotation marks, surrounded by word-orderlies, can the Gospel Truth enter the “enlightened” assembly of secular people.

The proud mind is unable to make Truth even the subject of criticism. "What is truth?" - the Jewish procurator asks ironically and, without waiting for an answer, passes by the One Who Himself is Truth and Life.

This process is sensitively reflected in the literature. In the preface to the collection “Russian Flowers of Evil,” Viktor Erofeev traces the paths of the Russian literary tradition, noting that in the new and recent period “the wall, well guarded in classical literature, collapsed... between positive and negative heroes... Any feeling not touched by evil is called into question . There is a flirtation with evil, many leading writers either look at evil, fascinated by its power and artistry, or become its hostages... Beauty is replaced by expressive pictures of ugliness. The aesthetics of outrageousness and shock are developing, and interest in the “dirty” word and swearing as a detonator of the text is increasing. New literature fluctuates between “black” despair and completely cynical indifference. Today we are observing a completely logical result: the ontological market of evil is overstocked, the glass is filled to the brim with black liquid. What's next?"

“I will not raise my hand against my brother,” said the great Russian saints Boris and Gleb. In the culture of feudal fragmentation, “brother” is a synonym for the word “competitor”. This is the one who makes you have less land and power. Killing a brother is the same as defeating a competitor - a deed worthy of a real prince, evidence of his superhuman nature and the usual image of courage. The holy words of Boris, when first heard in Russian culture, undoubtedly seemed like the mysterious delirium of a holy fool.

Foolishness is considered to be a specific form of Christian holiness. However, ancient Greek philosophers often resorted to this means of returning truths from the “cultural archive.” Antisthenes advised the Athenians to adopt a decree: “Consider donkeys as horses.” When this was considered absurd, he remarked: “After all, by simple voting you make commanders out of ignorant people. When he was once praised by bad people, he said: “I’m afraid I’ve done something bad?”

When one depraved official wrote on his door: “Let nothing evil enter here,” Diogenes asked: “But how can the owner himself enter the house?” Some time later, he noticed a sign on the same house: “For sale.” “I knew,” said the philosopher, “that after so many drinking sessions it would not be difficult for him to vomit his owner.”

Shem, treasurer of the tyrant Dionysius, was a disgusting man. One day he proudly showed Aristippus his new house. Looking around the magnificent rooms with mosaic floors, Aristippus cleared his throat and spat in the owner’s face, and in response to his rage said: “There was no more suitable place anywhere.”

Foolishness, among other things, makes a person marginal and therefore can be a very effective cure against vanity. False honor encourages us to appear better to people than we are. That is why it turns out to be more difficult to talk about your sin in confession than to commit it. In this case, we can be helped by the example of the sages and saints who fulfilled the words of Christ: “When you are invited by someone to a marriage, do not sit in the first place, lest one of those invited by him be more honorable than you, and the one who invited you and him, coming up, does not say I wish you: give him a place; and then with shame you will have to take the last place. But when you are called, when you arrive, sit in the last place, so that the one who called you will come up and say: friend! sit higher; Then you will be honored before those who sit with you, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Sergey Mazaev

Crazy Love

The lives of the saints are literary genre. And, like every genre, it has its own characteristic features. Since this is a very ancient type of literature, and the Church is a very conservative environment (which is wonderful in itself), hagiography retains many of the properties it acquired many hundreds of years ago. Modern man is a minimizer. Becoming more and more flat, he does not understand and rejects all the magnificent complexity of previous eras, and therefore of his past. Many things seem funny to him, many things seem naive. He refuses to believe in many things. The saints for him today are actors and athletes, and the lives of these saints fit into the format of gossip columns or scandals. The logical end of this process is in hell. So what should I do? We need to meet each other halfway, that is, to bring the lives closer to modern understanding, and for people who are interested, to rush towards the saints.

Getting to know any of the saints is a personal meeting two human souls. Meeting “through the years, across distances.” It is precisely the piercing depth of personal feeling that distinguishes these acquaintances. The rest of the historical surroundings - such as the era of the saint's life, clothing, morals, way of life, changes in royal dynasties - recede into the background and become secondary. We would very much like people living today to have as many friends as possible from among those already living in Heavenly Jerusalem. We would really like people to communicate with the saints, learn from them and take their example, fulfilling Paul’s words: “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” To this end, we will try to talk about the saints with a sense of personal warmth, as great, but still friends, overcoming stereotypes and schematism that interfere with personal communication.

It's like removing a robe from an ancient image. The chasuble is precious and good, but ancient colors are better. Thus, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Rublev’s “Trinity” was revealed to the world, piously hidden by previous generations behind kilograms of silver. The Trinity was so good that the vestments themselves were perceived as hidden iconoclasm. The leafy-sublime style in talking about holiness can also be harmful for a broken person of the 21st century. The path is not easy, but the one who walks will master the road.

The life and feat of Blessed Xenia of Petersburg

Of all the cities in Russia, St. Petersburg is the most non-Russian city. On the political map of the world, only in Africa many countries have borders cut into a ruler. This is the legacy of colonialism.

Petersburg was also built for the line. Moscow grew overgrown with suburbs the way a merchant's wife grows skirts, like an onion grows flesh. Cities have been growing organically for centuries. But not St. Petersburg.

Planned according to the line, it arose in a matter of years, while other cities made meat on the bones, overgrown with settlements and suburbs over the course of centuries. Built at right angles, drowning thousands of souls under marble, giving a head start to Rome, Amsterdam and Venice combined, it grew out of the rotten swamps for no apparent reason - and immediately bristled with cannons against enemies and crosses against demons.

Half a century later, the young city confirmed its Russianness with its holiness. One of his first and unofficial saints was a woman who was not glorified by anything on the outside. The city was imperial, service, bureaucratic. Hundreds of Akakiev Akakievichs scurried back and forth with government papers. Poverty shivered in the cold and stretched out its hands for alms. There were many churches, but little feat for Christ's sake and little mercy.

Suddenly a woman appears, having given everything to everyone and praying for everyone as if they were her own children. Childless women tend to be cruel. The prisoners, seeing off their friends to freedom, congratulate them, but bury the bitterness of resentment in their souls. After all, they are already leaving, but they still remain. Selflessly begging for others what you yourself are deprived of is the highest degree of love.

Ksenia Grigorievna loved her husband very much. They did not live long in marriage and did not have children. Sudden death turned the young widow's whole life upside down. In marriage, husband and wife are united into one flesh. And if one half crosses the line of life and death before the other, then the second half is also drawn over the line, although the time has not yet come for it. Then the person dies before death.

Some die for social life and become drunkards. Others die to a sinful life and begin the feat for the sake of God.

Ksenia wanted her husband to be saved for eternity. Having been deprived of temporary family happiness, she wanted her and him to be together in eternity. It was worth the effort. And so the young widow begins to go crazy, in Slavic - to act like a fool. She answers only to her husband's name, dresses only in his clothes and behaves in everything like she has gone crazy. From now on, and for half a century, behind the guise of madness, she will maintain unceasing prayer for her husband.

A person who prays always moves from praying for one person to praying for many. The heart flares up, expands in love and embraces those traveling, the sick, the suffering, the captives, the dying and many other states in which restless human souls find themselves. Big things start from small things. As soon as you love one person and invisibly shed blood in prayer for this one thing, abysses will immediately open, and before your mind’s eye you will see thousands of mourners, tremblers, despondents, and those in need of prayer.

Ksenia found it, although she wasn’t looking for it. She wanted to beg for the soul of her beloved husband, Andrei Fedorovich, for blissful eternity. But this fervent prayer for one person made her a prayer book for the whole world. This is how big things grow from small things. This is how people find something they didn’t expect.

Ksenia Grigorievna did not give birth to children from Andrei Fedorovich, whom she loved. I didn’t enjoy family happiness, I didn’t see my grandchildren. However, she begs people for a solution to various everyday problems: reconciliation with mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law, finding a job, changing living space, getting rid of infertility...

Usually, someone who hasn’t had something won’t beg for it. Those who have not fought do not understand those who have gone to war. A woman who has not given birth will not understand a woman with many children. And so on... But Ksenia, who wanted but did not have worldly happiness, without any envy begs for this same happiness to all those who turn to her.

St. Petersburg is the most non-Russian city. Planned to fit a ruler, like Africa, sliced like a pie, it was entirely born from the mind, and not from life. However, Russian people settled it, and after half a century Russian saints were born in it.

They overcame both their own sinfulness and the unnatural environment in which they lived, and showed us the triumph of Ecumenical Orthodoxy in the windswept northern latitudes of a hitherto unknown area called St. Petersburg...

How much Great feat of Love to the spouse (who died without repentance)
she dedicated her whole life Pleasing God, of all the paths, choosing the most thorny one - the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake... (about the holy blessed Xenia of Petersburg)

There is probably not a single history textbook that talks about Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, whose memory we celebrate today. But every history textbook will definitely have a story about Napoleon and his deeds. These two people lived at approximately the same time - at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Are their contributions to history completely disproportionate?

The deeds of Napoleon are known: hundreds of thousands of dead (some of them were buried here in the Sretensky Monastery); ruined, robbed churches, not only in Russia, but also, for example, in Venice, and throughout Europe; ruined destinies of many people. The spiritual influence of Napoleon was also enormous in his time, as evidenced in particular by the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Raskolnikov, tormented by doubts as to whether “I am a trembling creature or whether I have the right,” chopped up an old money-lender with an ax, one might say, with the name of Napoleon on her lips...

The life of Blessed Xenia is also well known to us: at the age of 26, a very young woman, she suddenly became a widow and took upon herself the feat of foolishness, abandoning her home, wandering around in her constant red jacket and green skirt or green jacket and red skirt, being subjected to constant ridicule and insults, being in unceasing prayer. For her long-term feat, incomprehensible to the world, Blessed Ksenia received from God the grace of quick and effective help to people - her participation in thousands of destinies was manifested brightly and triumphantly.

Her special gift was the device family life many people. So, one day, having come to the Golubev family, blessed Ksenia announced to a 17-year-old girl: “You are making coffee here, and your husband is burying his wife on Okhta. Run there quickly!” The embarrassed girl did not know how to respond to such strange words, but blessed Ksenia literally forced her with a stick to go to the Okhtinskoe cemetery in St. Petersburg. There, a doctor buried his young wife, who died in childbirth, sobbing inconsolably and finally losing consciousness. The Golubevs tried to console him as best they could. This is how they met. After some time it continued, and a year later the doctor proposed to Golubeva’s daughter, and their marriage turned out to be extremely happy. There are countless such cases of Blessed Xenia’s help in building a family - she truly became the creator of human destinies.

Napoleon is buried in the center of Paris, in the cathedral of the Invalides, and tourists eagerly come to gaze at his red porphyry sarcophagus, mounted on a green granite pedestal. No one comes to pray or ask him for anything; For modern people, Napoleon is just a museum exhibit, a past preserved in alcohol. Its influence today is negligible - at best, hackneyed material for cinema or the pseudo-historical exercises of a beginning graphomaniac.

For more than 200 years, the grave of Blessed Xenia has been a source of healing, effective help in difficult circumstances, and a solution to insoluble problems. Thus, Blessed Ksenia appeared to one person who was suffering from wine drinking and said threateningly: “Stop drinking! The tears of your mother and wife flooded my grave.” Need I say that this man never touched the bottle again?

Every day thousands of people gathered (and continue to gather) at the grave of Blessed Xenia and asked her for help, left notes shouting for help, and with these notes, like garlands, the saint’s chapel was constantly hung. Hundreds, thousands, millions of notes called her name - was there even one such note at Napoleon’s tomb made of red porphyry on a green pedestal?

In modern historical science everything greater distribution gets the term " social history" This is a very promising direction, which speaks of the importance of simple human destinies, the importance of “small deeds” in the life of society, and the determining role of ordinary people in the historical process.

Don't think history is being made strongmen of the world this, on the political Olympus; history is not at all what we are shown on television. True story occurs in the human heart, and if a person purifies himself through prayer, repentance, humility, and patience with sorrows, then his participation in his own destiny, and therefore in the destiny of those around him, and therefore in all of human history, increases immeasurably.

Blessed Xenia did not lead the state, did not gather armies of thousands, did not lead them on campaigns of conquest; she simply prayed, fasted, humbled her soul and endured all insults - but her influence on human history turned out to be immeasurably greater than the influence of any Napoleon. Although the history books don’t talk about this...

However, Christ tells us about this in the Gospel: “What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?” Using the example of Napoleon and Blessed Xenia, these words become even more convincing.

History is made not in the Kremlin and not in the White House, not in Brussels and not in Strasbourg, but here and now - in our heart, if it opens to God and people. Amen.

Hieromonk Simeon (Tomachinsky) 02/6/2006

One of the episodes from the life of St. Basil... Performing various strange things, Vasily, among other things, threw dirt and stones at some houses, and at some houses, kneeling down, kissed the walls. People took a closer look at these houses and were surprised. Dirt flew to where they lived modestly and righteously. And the walls of the houses where drunkards, villains, and debauchees lived were watered with tears and kissed. Blessed Basil saw the angelic world. He saw how demons were prowling around the houses where righteous people lived, but they could not enter inside. There, inside are bright Angels. Vasily threw stones at the demons outside. On the contrary, where sin nestled in homes, demons found shelter next to people. And the bright spirits with tears are outside. Next to them and with them, the holy fool prayed for Christ’s sake.

Archpriest ANDREY TKACHEV

The point is that truth is not afraid of controversy. Truth cannot be destroyed. Therefore, the world has come up with an effective way to recycle- like some dangerous radioactive material that is sealed in an impenetrable lead container and buried in a remote wasteland. At first, the truths obtained by great minds in a painful struggle become familiar and commonplace. What was a long-awaited trophy for fathers becomes a toy for children, like grandfather’s medals and order bars. People get used to treating truths as something taken for granted. Then the familiar becomes banal and they try to get rid of it through cynicism, irony and quotation marks. “No, brother, this is all licentiousness, emptiness! - says Turgenev's Bazarov. - And what is this mysterious relationship between a man and a woman? We physiologists know what this relationship is. Study the anatomy of the eye: where does that mysterious look come from, as you say? This is all romanticism, nonsense, rot, art.” Ultimately, the ridiculed and caricatured truth under the guise of folklore is generally removed from the discursive field. Good and evil begin to be associated exclusively with the “hut on chicken legs”, and such things as heroism and betrayal without quotes are preserved only in children’s everyday life - along with “woman” and “good fairy”.

"Christians believe that Jesus is from Nazareth, supposedly in one word he healed the sick and supposedly raised the dead supposedly and He Himself rose again on the third day after death.” Only in this way, in a straitjacket of quotation marks, surrounded by word-orderlies, can the Gospel Truth enter the “enlightened” assembly of secular people.

This process is sensitively reflected in the literature. In the preface to the collection “Russian Flowers of Evil,” Viktor Erofeev traces the paths of the Russian literary tradition, noting that in the new and recent period “the wall, well guarded in classical literature, collapsed... between positive and negative heroes... Any feeling untouched by evil , is questioned. There is a flirtation with evil, many leading writers either look at evil, bewitched by its power and artistry, or become his hostages... Beauty is replaced by expressive pictures of ugliness. The aesthetics of outrageousness and shock are developing, and interest in the “dirty” word and swearing as a detonator of the text is intensifying. New literature oscillates between “black” despair and completely cynical indifference. Today we are observing a completely logical result: the ontological market of evil is overstocked, the glass is filled to the brim with black liquid. What's next?"

Shem, treasurer of the tyrant Dionysius, was a disgusting man. One day he proudly showed Aristippus his new home. Looking around the magnificent rooms with mosaic floors, Aristippus cleared his throat and spat in the owner’s face, and in response to his rage said: “There was no more suitable place anywhere.”

In its history, no country has presented the world with so many holy fools and respect for them as Russia.

St. Basil the Blessed

Vasily was sent as an apprentice to a shoemaker as a child. It was then, according to rumor, that he showed his foresight, laughing and shedding tears at the merchant who ordered boots for himself: a quick death awaited the merchant. Having abandoned the shoemaker, Vasily began to lead a wandering life, walking naked around Moscow. Vasily behaves more shockingly than his predecessor. He destroys goods at the market, bread and kvass, punishing unscrupulous traders, he throws stones at the houses of virtuous people and kisses the walls of houses where “blasphemies” were committed (the former have exorcised demons hanging outside, the latter have angels crying).

He gives the gold given by the king not to the beggars, but to the merchant in clean clothes, because the merchant has lost all his wealth and, being hungry, does not dare to ask for alms. He pours the drink served by the king out the window to put out a distant fire in Novgorod.

The worst thing is that he breaks with a stone the miraculous image of the Mother of God at the Barbarian Gate, on the board of which a devil’s face was drawn under the holy image. Basil the Blessed died on August 2, 1552. His coffin was carried by the boyars and Ivan the Terrible himself, who revered and feared the holy fool. Metropolitan Macarius performed the burial in the cemetery of the Trinity Church in the Moat, where Tsar Ivan the Terrible soon ordered the construction of the Intercession Cathedral. Today we most often call it St. Basil's Cathedral.

Procopius of Ustyug

It is customary to call him the first in Rus', since it was he who became the first saint whom the Church glorified as holy fools at the Moscow Council in 1547. Little is known from the life, which was compiled only in the 16th century, although Procopius died in 1302. The Life brings Procopius to Ustyug from Veliky Novgorod. From a young age he was a rich merchant from the Prussian lands. In Novgorod, having learned the true faith “in church decoration,” icons, ringing and singing, he accepts Orthodoxy, distributes his wealth to the townspeople and “accepts the foolishness of Christ for the sake of life.” Later he left Novgorod for Veliky Ustyug, which he also chose for “church decoration.”

He leads an ascetic life: he has no roof over his head, he sleeps naked “on a dunghill”, and then on the porch of the cathedral church. He prays secretly at night, asking for the city and the people. He accepts food from God-fearing townspeople, but never takes anything from the rich. The first holy fool did not enjoy much authority until something terrible happened.

One day, Procopius, entering the church, began to call for repentance, predicting that otherwise the townspeople would perish “by fire and water.” No one listened to him and all day long he cries alone on the porch, grieving for the upcoming victims. Only when a terrible cloud came over the city and the earth shook did everyone run to the church. Prayers before the icon of the Mother of God averted God's wrath, and a hail of stones broke out 20 miles from Ustyug.

Procopius of Vyatka

The holy righteous fool was born in 1578 in the village of Koryakinskaya near Khlynov and bore the name Prokopiy Maksimovich Plushkov in the world. Once, while in the field, I was struck by lightning. After that, as they said then, he “became mentally damaged”: he tore his clothes, trampled on them and walked around naked. Then the grieving parents took their only son to the Vyatka monastery of the Assumption Holy Mother of God, where they prayed for him day and night, eventually begging for healing for the boy. At the age of 20, secretly from his parents, who were going to marry him, he retired to Khlynov and took upon himself the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake.

The blessed one imposed upon himself the feat of silence, and almost no one heard a word from him, even during the beatings that he suffered a lot from the townspeople. Again, the saint silently predicted recovery or death for the sick: he lifted the sick person from his bed - he would survive, he began to cry and fold his hands - he would die. Long before the fire started, Procopius climbed the bell tower and rang the bells. This is how the blessed one labored for 30 years. And in 1627 he foresaw his death: he prayed fervently, wiped his body with snow and in peace gave up his soul to the Lord.

Ksenia Petersburgskaya

During the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the holy fool “Ksenia Grigorievna” was known, the wife of the court singer Andrei Fedorovich Petrov, “who held the rank of colonel.” Left a widow at the age of 26, Ksenia distributed all her property to the poor, put on her husband’s clothes and, under his name, wandered for 45 years, without having a permanent home anywhere. The main place of her stay was the St. Petersburg side, the parish of St. Apostle Matthew. Where did she spend the night? for a long time remained unknown to many, but the police were extremely interested in finding out.

It turned out that Ksenia, despite the time of year and weather, went to the field for the night and stood here in kneeling prayer until dawn, alternately doing prostrations on all four sides. One day, workers who were building a new stone church at the Smolensk cemetery began to notice that at night, during their absence from the building, someone was dragging whole mountains of bricks onto the top of the church under construction.

Blessed Xenia was an invisible helper. The townspeople considered it lucky if this woman suddenly came into their house. During her life, she was especially revered by cab drivers - they had this sign: whoever manages to let Ksenia down will have good luck. Ksenia's earthly life ended at the age of 71. Her body was buried in the Smolensk cemetery. The chapel at her grave still serves as one of the shrines of St. Petersburg. As before, after a memorial service was held at the burial site of Ksenia, the suffering received healing, and peace was restored in families.

Read more about the first saint of St. Petersburg.

Ivan Yakovlevich Koreysha

Although Ivan Yakovlevich was the holy fool of Moscow, people came to him for advice and prayer from all over Russia. The clairvoyant, soothsayer and blessed one was not canonized, but people still go to his grave near the St. Elias Church in Moscow with their needs. He was born into the family of a priest in the city of Smolensk, but after graduating from the Theological Academy, he did not become a priest. He was appointed as a teacher at the Theological School; already there, instructing the youths, he pretended to be crazy. Meanwhile, the residents of the city of Smolensk both feared and adored him.

He predicted this or that event to the finest detail: death, birth, matchmaking, war. Having deliberately chosen foolishness, Ivan Yakovlevich stood out among the blessed with an aura of romance: he signed himself, for example, “a student of cold waters.” They glorified him most famous people 19th century: Saint Philaret (Drozdov), writers Leskov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Ostrovsky. And yet, the result of all this was the placement of Ivan Yakovlevich in an insane asylum in Moscow on Preobrazhenka.

For the remaining 47 years of his life, he never left the walls of hospitals for the mentally ill. He occupied a small corner in a large room near the stove, the rest of the space was completely occupied by visitors. One could say that all of Moscow came to see Ivan Yakovlevich, many out of curiosity. And there was something to see! He treated in an extreme way: either he would put a girl on his knees, or he would smear a venerable matron with sewage, or he would fight with someone who was thirsty for healing. They say he hated real fools and ridiculous questions. But with such important and intelligent gentlemen as, for example, the philologist Buslaev, the historian Pogodin, according to one of the legends - Gogol, he spoke a lot and behind closed doors.

Under Nicholas I, the old holy fool “Annushka” was very popular in St. Petersburg. A small woman, about sixty years old, with delicate, beautiful features, poorly dressed and always carrying a reticule in her hands. The old lady came from a noble family and spoke fluent French and German. They said that in her youth she was in love with an officer who married someone else. The unfortunate woman left St. Petersburg and returned to the city a few years later as a holy fool. Annushka walked around the city, collected alms and immediately distributed it to others.

For the most part, she lived with this or that kind-hearted person on Sennaya Square. She wandered around the city, predicting events that did not fail to come true. Good people sent her to an almshouse, but there the sweet old lady with the reticule showed herself to be an unusually quarrelsome and disgusting person. She got into frequent quarrels with almshouses, and instead of paying for transportation, she could beat the cab driver with a stick. But in her native Sennaya Square she enjoyed incredible popularity and respect. At her funeral, which she arranged for herself, all the inhabitants of this famous square came to the Smolensk cemetery: merchants, artisans, laborers, clergy.

Pasha Sarovskaya

One of the last holy fools in the history of Russia, Pasha of Sarov, was born in 1795 in the Tambov province and lived in the world for more than 100 years. In her youth, she escaped from her serf masters, took monastic vows in Kyiv, lived as a hermit in caves in the Sarov Forest for 30 years, and then settled in the Diveyevo Monastery. Those who knew her recall that she constantly carried several dolls with her, which replaced her relatives and friends. The blessed one spent all nights in prayer, and during the day after church services she reaped grass with a sickle, knitted stockings and did other work, constantly saying the Jesus Prayer. Every year the number of sufferers who turned to her for advice and requests to pray for them increased.

According to the testimony of monastics, Pasha knew the monastic order poorly. She called the Mother of God “mama behind the glass,” and during prayer she could rise above the ground. In 1903, Paraskovya was visited by Nicholas II and his wife. Pasha predicted royal family the death of a dynasty and a river of innocent blood. After the meeting, she constantly prayed and bowed before the portrait of the king. Before her own death in 1915, she kissed the portrait of the emperor with the words: “darling is already at the end.” Blessed Praskovya Ivanovna was glorified as a saint on October 6, 2004.

In modern Christianity there are practically no true holy fools left who, for the sake of Christ, of their own free will and in full health of mind, abandoned the comforts of this world and the rules of behavior in it.

And in the history of Orthodoxy there were not so many of them, only 16 were canonized.

Who are the fools for Christ's sake

It is difficult to trace when the first holy fools appeared. The first Christians who voluntarily changed their lifestyle were treated by many as crazy. They endured reproaches from people and went to their deaths in the name of Jesus.

For a church person, foolishness is one of the forms of holiness

Unlike ordinary Christians, holy fools, by their behavior, provoke others to display their vices.

Important! Blessed at Christian churches outwardly they seem crazy, but it’s absolutely healthy people who, of their own free will, took upon themselves this feat of foolishness.

People often confuse holy fools with insane people. According to ignorant people, these are mentally retarded fools. An explanation of these strange people is given in the sermons of St. Demetrius of Rostov, who calls them ascetics of voluntary martyrdom hidden behind a mask.

The Russian people have always treated these with respect, condescension, and graciousness. strange people, honoring them as saints, hiding holiness under the guise of madness, perhaps this is why foolishness is revered only in Orthodoxy. Actions and words that are strange at first glance, different from the society of people, sometimes have a deep meaning, often denouncing the actions of certain Christians and the entire government.

The Apostle Paul often spoke in his epistles about foolishness for Christ's sake. Really, who is mad in this world? The one who, for the sake of profit and wealth, commits murder, renunciation of human values, meanness, bribery, and at the same time he has a direct road to hell? Or those who have abandoned all the blessings of earthly life for the sake of knowing the other side of life, the will of God in it and seeking the Kingdom of Heaven on earth?

Why are the insane for Christ's sake filled with holiness and enlightened faces, what do they, stupid according to the concepts of people, see, something that the bulk of Christians are not given to see? In his letter, Paul writes that he who thinks himself wise, become foolish in order to be wise (1 Cor. 3:18).

The true wisdom of this world lies in the knowledge of the wisdom of God and the discovery of the laws of eternal life. Isn't it stupid to worry about the hour while neglecting eternity?

What motivates ascetics to the feat of foolishness

It is difficult to describe the motives that moved the blessed to become fools for Christ's sake, which can be compared to monasticism.

Saint Lawrence, Fool for Christ's sake

Voluntary renunciation of normal standards of life may be dictated by:

the desire to cleanse oneself of pride, hatred, discontent and unforgiveness;
debasement of self for the sake of exalting the name of Jesus;
trampling on vanity;
accepting humility through humiliation and insults;
deliverance from the sin of sins - pride.

Important! Conscious acceptance of foolishness is possible only upon achieving a high degree of spirituality, which cannot be achieved without a sound mind and bright memory.

The desire to serve God in secret is hidden behind foolishness, the mask of a mentally ill person, and through accepting insults one is filled with humility. For Christ's sake, the fool always soberly evaluates his actions, being in a state of grace, filled with the power of the Lord. This distinguishes the blessed from the mentally ill, who have no control over their words or emotions.

Holy Fools of Russia

Ivan the Terrible was denounced more than once by Basil the Blessed, who was considered perspicacious at court. No one could understand why the blessed one broke the icon of the Mother of God until they discovered the face of the devil under a layer of paint. Vasily foresaw the death of people and expressed this through actions. He scattered the goods of dishonest merchants and gave gold to the poor.
The first holy fool Peter of Ustyug, a once rich German merchant, having learned the true veneration of the Creator in Veliky Novgorod, gave away all his wealth and retired to Ustyug. He slept on bare ground and constantly prayed in the temple. Peter was not taken seriously until one occasion when the blessed one shouted in the temple and called on everyone to repent. Nobody listened to him, they just laughed. However, seeing the approach of a terrible cloud and feeling the earthquake, people ran to the church and began to cry out to the icon of the Mother of God, thereby averting trouble from the city.
Ksenia of St. Petersburg, a once rich noblewoman, after the death of her husband, dressed in his clothes, distributed wealth, began to live where she was accepted, eat what was served, constantly staying in the field at night, in prayer. Residents of St. Petersburg knew that good luck awaited the house where the blessed one was staying.

The Orthodox do not forget about Annushka and Ivan Koreysh, Pasha of Sarov and Matrona of Moscow, constantly bringing flowers to the place of their burial and asking in prayers for their needs.

Important! Foolishness appeared in Christian circles as a means of reproof, instruction and reconciliation.

Among modern Christianity, there are not many church-going believers who truly fear and love God, observe fasts and prayer rules not out of fear of the Creator, but out of love for the Almighty.

True believers differ from the world in their behavior and attitude towards earthly values; sometimes they are called blessed. Perhaps the time has come for modern holy fools to emerge who can denounce modern society in sins before the Almighty.

Who are the holy fools?

Diagnostics and diseases. Medicines from A to Z

What is the difference between the blessed and the holy fool? Holy Fools: Holy Fools

Who are the fools for Christ's sake

What motivates ascetics to the feat of foolishness

Holy Fools of Russia