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Blessed Matrona was born in 1881 in the village of Sebino, Epifan district, Tula province. Full name saint - Matrona Dimitrievna Nikonova. The village of Sebino is located 20 km from the famous Kulikov field. The saint's parents are the peasants Dimitri and Natalia. They were simple peasants, lived in poverty, had four children. Blessed Matrona was the youngest. The parents were no longer young and given the need they were in, even before the birth of their last child, the parents decided to send her to an orphanage, where disadvantaged children were brought up at public expense.
Matrona's mother decided to send the unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she saw prophetic dream... Matrona appeared to Natalia in the form of a white bird, which had a human face, but her eyes were closed. The woman took the dream for a sign and gave up the idea of ​​sending the child to an orphanage. Matrona was born blessed, she had no eyes. However, as eyewitnesses recall, the mother loved her unfortunate child from this no less.

Blessed Matrona was named after Reverend Matrona Constantinople, Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9. During the baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the baptismal font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke above the baby, which was taken as a sign of God's chosen child. This is what the priest himself, Father Vasily, says: "I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy." Father Vasily also said to Natalia: "If the girl asks for something, you must contact me directly, go and say directly what you need." He also added that the righteous Matrona would then take his place and even predict his death. Subsequently, it happened: one night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The frightened parents ran to the priest's house. It turned out that he had really just died.

They also talk about the external, bodily sign of the Matrona's chosenness - on the girl's chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, not made by hands pectoral cross... A friend of the mother of Saint Matrona later said that when the girl was still a baby, Natalia complained that the girl did not breastfeed on Wednesday and Friday, slept for days on these days, and it was impossible to wake her up.

Matrona was not only blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like that of the white bird that her mother saw in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. As a little girl, Matrona, in some incomprehensible way, at night, while her parents were asleep, found icons, took them off the shelf and played with them in silence.

The life of the blessed Matronushka was not easy. Children often scoffed at her: they lashed her with nettles, realizing that she would not see them and would not know who offended her. Repeatedly they put her in a hole, watching how she would get out of there. Therefore, Matrona stopped communicating with children and more and more often she could be found in the temple. She had a favorite place - to the left behind front door where she stood motionless during the service. She knew all the chants by heart and sang along with the choristers.
At the age of 7-8, the righteous Matronushka discovered the gift of predictions and healing the sick. Matrona's life began to change. Relatives began to notice that she knew not only human sins, crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger, foresaw natural and social disasters. With her prayer, Matronushka could heal from illnesses and console those in sorrow. Visitors began to visit Blessed Matronushka's house. Patients were brought here from neighboring villages and even provinces. As a token of gratitude, people left food and gifts to righteous Matronushka. So, instead of becoming a burden to the family, Matrona became the main breadwinner.

There was a case in Matrona's life when her mother saw her daughter sitting on the blockade, despite the cold. Her mother called her into the hut so that you would not freeze. To which Matrona replied: "I can't sit at home, they set me up with fire, they prick me with a pitchfork." Mother was perplexed: "There is no one there." And Matrona explains to her: "You, mother, do not understand, Satan is tempting me!"
Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona's brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: "I will leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you will not burn out." Indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind threw the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother's house remained intact.

Matrona's life was also filled with travel. The daughter of a local landowner, a pious and kind maiden Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages: to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to Petersburg, other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has come down to us about the meeting of St. Matronushka with the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who at the end of the service in St.Andrew's Cathedral of Kronstadt asked the people to make way for the 14-year-old Matrona who was approaching Solo and publicly said: “Matronushka, come and come to me. Here comes my change - the eighth pillar of Russia. " Matushka did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives guessed that Father John foresaw a special ministry of the righteous Matronushka Russia and the Russian people during the times of persecution of the Church.

At the age of 17, Matrona's life became more complicated, her legs were suddenly taken away. Mother herself pointed out the spiritual cause of her illness. She walked through the temple after the sacrament and knew that a woman would approach her and take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. “I didn’t avoid it - that was the will of God,” said Matrona.
From then until the end of her life, mother was "sedentary." And her sitting is in different houses and the apartments where she found shelter - continued for another 50 years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly carried through her life this heavy cross given to her by God.
At an early age, Saint Matrona predicted the revolution, how "they will rob, destroy churches and drive everyone in a row." Figuratively, she showed how they would divide the land, greedily grab allotments, just to grab the excess, and then everyone would abandon the land and run in all directions. Nobody will need the land.

Before the revolution, Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plundering of his estate and would have escaped an early, premature death, and his daughter - wandering.
A fellow villager of Matrona, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution a lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: "I want to build a bell tower."
“What you are planning to do will not come true,” Mother replies. The lady was surprised: "How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?" So nothing happened with the construction of the bell tower.

People were also surprised that the saint had the usual, like sighted people, notion of the world around her. To the sympathetic appeal of a person close to her, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova: "It's a pity, mother, that you do not see the beauty of the world!" - She once answered: “God once opened my eyes and showed the world and His creation. And I saw the sun, and the stars in the sky, and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, green grass, flowers, birds ... "

But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed sagacity. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my graduation project "Ministry of the Navy" (I was then studying at an architectural institute in Moscow). For some unknown reason, my leader was following me all the time. For five months, he never once consulted me, deciding to “flunk” my diploma. Two weeks before the defense, he announced to me: "Tomorrow the commission will come and approve the insolvency of your work!" I came home in tears: my father was in prison, there was no one to help, my mother was my dependents, my only hope was to protect myself and work. Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing, you will defend yourself! We'll have tea in the evening, we'll talk! " I barely waited for the evening, and now my mother says: “We will go with you to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, we will see the works of great masters ...” And she began to list the streets, buildings! She stopped: “Here is Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two arches of the entrance.” I was shocked by her conduct. In the morning I ran to the institute, put tracing paper on the project and made all the corrections with brown ink. The commission arrived at ten o'clock. They looked at my project and said: "Why, the project turned out, looks great - defend yourself!" "

There were truly amazing cases in the life of Matrona. The righteous was told that a man who lived 4 km from Sebino needed her help. Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock it will crawl. " He crawled these 4 km, and from her he went on his feet, healed.
Once on Easter week, women from the village of Orlovka came to see my mother. The matron was receiving, sitting by the window. She gave one prosphora, the other water, the third a red egg and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens, to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they went outside the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They were all scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona says: "What, is there a disgusting mouse?" - "Matronushka, how can you eat him?" - “But how did you sell milk to people, especially to orphans, widows, poor people who do not have a cow? The mouse was in milk, you pulled it out, and gave milk to people. " The woman says: "Matronushka, they didn't see the mouse, they didn't know, I threw it out of there." - "And God knows that you were selling milk from a mouse!"

The help that Saint Matrona gave to the sick, not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during the performance of which the "healer" is in touch with dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely in the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick.

Matrona read prayers over the water and gave them to those who came to her. Those who drank water and sprinkled with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the consecration of water according to the order established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that the blessed healing properties possesses not only holy water, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the stay and prayer life near them holy people, the appearance of miraculous icons.

Matronushka often repeated: “If the people lose faith in God, then disasters overtake them, and if they do not repent, they perish and disappear from the face of the earth. How many peoples have disappeared, but Russia has existed and will continue to exist. Pray, ask, repent! The Lord will not leave you and will preserve our land! "
Righteous Matronushka found the last earthly one in her earthly life at the Skhodnya station (23 Kurgannaya Street) near Moscow, where she settled with a distant relative, leaving her room in Starokonyushenny lane. And here, too, a stream of visitors came and bore their sorrows. Only just before her death did my mother, already very weak, limit the reception. But people still walked, and she could not refuse to help some of them. They say that the Lord revealed to her about the time of her death three days in advance, and she made all the necessary orders. Mother asked to be buried in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. (At this time, the priest Nikolai Golubtsov, beloved by the parishioners, was serving there. He knew and honored Blessed Matrona.) She did not order to bring wreaths and plastic flowers to the funeral.
Before last days In her life she confessed and received communion with the priests who came to her. In her humility, she, like ordinary sinful people, was afraid of death and did not hide her fear from loved ones. Before her death, a priest, Father Dimitri, came to confess her, she was very worried if she had folded her hands correctly. Father asks: "Are you really afraid of death too?" "I'm afraid".

She died on May 2, 1952. On May 3, at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a note about the repose of the newly departed Blessed Matrona was submitted for the requiem. Among many others, she attracted the attention of a serving hieromonk. “Who submitted the note? - he asked excitedly. - What, she died? " (Many inhabitants of the Lavra knew and respected Matrona well.) The old woman and her daughter, who had arrived from Moscow, confirmed that mother died the day before, and this evening the coffin with the body will be placed in the Moscow Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street. So the Lavra monks learned about the death of Matrona and were able to come to her burial. After the funeral service, which was performed by Father Nikolai Golubtsov, all those present came and kissed her hands.

Before her death, Blessed Matrona said: "Everyone, everyone, come to me, tell me how alive you are, about your sorrows, I will see you, and hear you, and help you."
People do this today, turning to Blessed Matrona with requests for healing from illnesses, meeting with a betrothed, motherhood, getting rid of alcohol and drug addiction, help in solving material problems, in school or work, getting rid of suffering.

When invoking Saint Matrona as your helpers, remember that first of all you need to turn in prayers to the Savior and the Most Holy Theotokos. Ask Matronushka to pray for you before the Lord and help you.

You can turn to Saint Matrona in the church where you usually go, or at home, or in any other place: it is not the environment that is important, but firm faith in God and prayer performed with an open heart. Usually, the Orthodox ask the saints for help, making the sign of the cross and kissing the icon with their lips. But if in front of you there is no image of Matrona of Moscow, mentally imagine it to yourself, closing your eyes, and feel the connection with her.

In Orthodox prayer books you will find an akathist and a prayer to Saint Matrona, with which she is asked for help or gratitude. It can be learned by heart or read from a book. If you do not know or do not remember the prayers, you can speak on your own behalf with those words that come from the depths of your soul and heart.
Moreover, if you need the help of Saint Matrona and her intercession before the Lord, you can turn to her through a letter. Send it to the postal address of the monastery: 109147, Moscow, st. Taganskaya, 58, Pokrovsky stauropegic convent at the Pokrovskaya outpost in Moscow, abbess Theophania (Miskina). You can also contact Matrona by e-mail to the address: [email protected] The servants of the monastery will entrust your requests to the relics of the holy blessed eldress.

Believe, ask Saint Matrona with all your heart, but be sure to add: "If it is God's will," because only he knows what each of us needs for happiness.

Elitsy

Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow (1881-1952) - an outstanding ascetic who shone in the Russian Orthodox Church in the twentieth century. This publication contains short life and testimonies about the glorification and acquisition of the saint's relics, memoirs of contemporaries, tales of miracles and healings through her holy prayers, akathist, as well as the history of the Pokrovsky nunnery, which contains the holy relics of Blessed Matrona.

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The given introductory fragment of the book Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow (A.A. Markova, 2013) provided by our book partner - Liters company.

Birth

Blessed Eldress Matrona is a native of the Tula land - the village of Sebina in the Epifan district (now the Kimovsky district) of the Tula province, as it is sung in the tropar dedicated to her - “the land of Tula prosperity”. The full name of the blessed one is Matrona Dmitrievna Nikonova.

She was the fourth child in a family of poor peasants Natalia and Dmitry Nikonov. By that time, they were no longer young, therefore, upon learning about her pregnancy, Natalya Nikonova fell into despair. She and her husband already had three children - two sons: Ivan and Mikhail, and a daughter, Maria. Another child seemed like an extra mouth to her. Therefore, Natalya decided to send the newborn to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki.

But shortly before giving birth, Natalya had a dream. The unborn daughter appeared to her in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes... This bird sat on Natalya's right hand. Amazed at what she saw, the woman thought that it was not God's will to give the unborn child to an orphanage.

Soon, the dream seen by Natalya Nico came true - the newborn girl turned out to be blind - she had no eyes at all. This finally convinced the poor woman to keep the child with her. And, despite the fact that the blessed Matrona was unwanted child, later she became the favorite of the mother, who felt sorry for her "unfortunate child."

Born in 1881, the girl in baptism was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22).

During the baptism, an event occurred that amazed everyone present. One villagers-eyewitnesses later told that when the priest lowered the girl into the baptismal font, a column of light fog rose, from which a fragrance emanated. Father Vasily, the priest who baptized the girl, is known in the district for his righteous life, he remarked then: “I have baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this. This baby will be holy. " Father Vasily also said to Natalya: "If the girl asks for something, you must contact me directly, go and say directly what you need."

In the future, the strangeness around the blind girl, which amazed her parents and fellow villagers, continued. Her mother repeatedly complained to her friends: “What should I do?

The girl doesn’t take her breasts on Wednesday and Friday, she sleeps for days on these days, it’s impossible to wake her up ”. Nevertheless, the parents tried to regularly carry the girl to the temple for the sacrament.

As soon as the baby Matrona grew up a little, she began to sleep with her parents in the stove. The Nikonovs, like other poor people, could not heat their dwelling enough in winter. Therefore, the whole family kept around the stove. Waking up at night and not seeing their youngest next to them, the parents of the blessed one began to call her. In response, the voice of the little Matrona was heard from the holy corner: "I am here." It turns out that the girl took icons from the shelf, put them on the table and played.

Unfortunately, Matrona did not develop relationships with her peers at all. Neighborhood children teased her and even mocked the little blind man, knowing that she would not see who exactly offends her. Sometimes the girl was put in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped out of there and wandered home.

Not finding friends among her peers, little Matrona tried to spend as much time as possible in church. Moreover, the Nikonovs' house was located next to the Church of the Assumption Mother of God... Therefore, not finding her daughter either in the yard or at home, Natalya Nikonova usually went to church. There the girl had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, against the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the choristers.

But, despite the sheer churchliness, in childhood, when she was about six years old, Matrona suddenly began to take off her pectoral cross. This greatly angered her devout mother. Relatives remembered this case: her mother somehow began to scold her: "Why are you taking off your cross?" “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. “Dear daughter,” Natalya came to her senses, “forgive me! And I scold you all. " In other cases, the mother usually felt very sorry for her youngest, calling her "unfortunate child" and worrying about her fate. In response, Matrona told her mother that she was in vain to pity her - healthy and strong brothers Vanya and Misha are much more miserable. Indeed, later the Matrona brothers departed from the faith and, joining the party, became collective farm activists.

At the age of 7–8, the blessed woman discovered the gift of clairvoyance and healing of the sick. Once Matrona told her mother: "Mom, get ready, I will have a wedding soon." Natalia was very frightened, wondering what this meant. She went to the temple and asked the priest to come and commune with Matrona. He came and gave Holy Communion to Matrona - in such cases, he usually gave Holy Communion to the girl at home. And suddenly, a few days later, carts go and go to the house of the Nikonovs, people go with their troubles and sorrows, they take the sick and for some reason all ask Matrona. She read prayers over them and healed very many. The mother asks: "Matryushenka, but what is this?" And she replies: "I told you there will be a wedding."

Since then, visitors have begun to visit and visit her. People walked to the Nikonovs' hut, carts, carts with patients from neighboring villages and villages, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought bedridden patients, and through her prayer people received healing from illnesses and consolation in sorrows. Also, everyone around him began to notice that Matrona felt the approach of danger, foresaw natural and social disasters.

Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona's brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: "I will leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you will not burn out." Indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind threw the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother's house remained intact.

Wanting to thank Matrona, the visitors who came to her for advice and help left food and gifts for her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden for the family, became its main breadwinner.

Prayer feat in Sebin

A devout teenage girl, endowed with unusual gifts and providing prayer help to her neighbors, herself experienced certain temptations. Subsequently, the blessed mother told her fellow villagers about this incident. Once in the fall, when it was already rather cold, Matronushka was sitting on the heap. Mother says to her: "Why are you sitting, it's cold, go to the hut." Matrona replies: "I can't sit at home, they set me up on fire, they prick me with a pitchfork." The mother is perplexed: "There is no one there." And Matrona explains to her: "You, mother, do not understand, Satan is tempting me!"

At this age, Matrona had the opportunity to travel a little. The daughter of a local landowner, Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages to holy places.

And in her native Sebina, the blessed one also took care of the shrine. So for the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, at the insistence of Matrona, who had already gained fame in the area, the icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" was written. Once Matrona asked her mother to tell the priest that in his library, in such and such a row, was a book with the image of the icon "Seeking the Dead". Father was very surprised. The book was found, and the image in the book was also found. Matrona said: "Mom, I will write such an icon." Her mother was very sad, saying: "How can the poor people pay for such a painted icon?"

But the blessed one continued to persuade her mother: “Mom, I keep dreaming about the icon“ Seeking the Lost ”. The Mother of God asks to come to our church ”. In the end, Matrona persuaded her mother and other women to collect donations for the creation of the icon in all the surrounding villages. Gradually, the required amount was collected. Among other donors, one peasant gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck to laugh. When the money was brought to Matrona, she went through it, found this ruble and a penny, and said to her mother: "Mom, give them back, they spoil all the money for me."

The painting of the image of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" was commissioned by an artist from Epiphany. Matrona asked him if he could paint such an icon. He replied that for him this is a familiar thing. Matrona told him to repent of his sins, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: "Do you know for sure that you will paint this icon?" The artist replied in the affirmative and began to write. But some time passed, and he realized that he could not paint this icon. Finally, he came to Matrona and said that he was failing. In response, she told him again: "Go, repent of your sins, you killed a man!" He wondered how the blind girl could know his secrets. However, having obeyed the blessed one, he again went to confession and as a result the image of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" for the Assumption Church of the village of Sebino was written.

When the icon was ready, it was carried in a procession with gonfalons from the Mother of God to the church in Sebin. Saint Matrona went to meet the icon four kilometers away, she was led under the arms. Suddenly she said: “Do not go further, now it’s already soon, they are already coming, they are close. In half an hour they will come and bring the icon. " Indeed, half an hour later appeared procession... A prayer service was served, and the procession headed to Sebino. The matron walked either holding the icon, or leading her under the arms next to the icon. This icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" has become the main local shrine and became famous for many miracles. When there was a drought, they took him out to the meadow in the middle of the village and served a prayer service. After him, people did not have time to reach their homes when it began to rain.

And soon Blessed Matrona was deprived of the opportunity to walk - her legs were suddenly taken away, she was then about seventeen years old. It is not known if the family tried to treat her in any way. But she herself always perceived her illness as a cross given to her by the Lord. Despite her ailments, she still provided prayer help to those around her. A number of cases are known when the blessed one helped practically hopeless patients.

Four kilometers from Sebin, there was a man who could not walk. Saint Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock it will crawl, crawl. " He crawled these four kilometers, and from her he went on his feet, healed.

AF Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of another healing. “My mother was from the village of Ustye, and there she had a brother. Once he gets up - neither his arms nor legs move, they have become like whips. And he did not believe in Matrona's prayer help. My brother's daughter followed her to the village of Sebino: “Godmother, let's go sooner, my father is bad, I have become like a stupid person: he lowered his hands, his eyes do not look, his tongue barely moves.” Then my mother harnessed the horse and she and my father drove to Ustye. We came to my brother, and he looked at my mother and barely pronounced “sister”. She collected her brother and brought him to our village. I left him at home, and she went to Matryusha to ask if he could be brought. She comes, and Matryusha says to her: "Well, your brother said that I can do nothing, but I myself have become like a wattle fence." And she hadn’t seen him yet! Then she said: "Take him to me, I will help." I read over him, gave him water, and a dream attacked him. He fell asleep as if he had been killed, and in the morning he got up completely healthy. "Thank your sister, her faith has healed you," was all Matrona told him. "

But the blessed one not only healed the sick and the afflicted, on occasion she could also convict. Subsequently, fellow villagers passed on such a case from mouth to mouth. Once on Easter week, women from the village of Orlovka came to Saint Matrona. The matron was receiving, sitting by the window. She gave one prosphora, the other water, the third a red egg and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens, to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they went outside the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They got scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona says: "What, is there a disgusting mouse?" "Matronushka, how is it there?" “But how did you sell milk to people, especially to orphans, widows, poor people who do not have a cow? The mouse was in milk, you pulled it out, and gave milk to people. " The woman says: "Matronushka, they didn't see the mouse, they didn't know, I threw it out of there." "But God knows that you sold milk from a mouse!"

Knowing about the prayerful feat of the blessed one, they turned to Matrona for advice on how to act in this or that everyday situation. Sometimes her answers were amazed by their absurdity, but later it turned out that this was not absurdity, but clairvoyance. This was the case with one of her relatives, who asked for advice: how to live with a bunch of children and what to do when the breadwinner of the family was put on trial by an unfair stipulation. In response, the blessed one said that she was worried in vain - soon her husband Ilya would return. The desperate woman just waved her hand - this cannot be. But on the same day, the husband of that relative returned home - his innocence was proved in court.

And shortly before the revolution, a wealthy woman who bought a house in Sebin decided to build a bell tower there. For advice, she turned to Blessed Matrona: "I want to build a bell tower." “What you are planning to do will not come true,” Matrona replies. That woman was surprised: "How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?" But, as predicted by the blessed one, nothing happened with the construction - the revolution began and everyone was not up to it.

And without any demand, at about the same time, the blessed one made another prediction, which amazed and frightened her relatives. The blessed mother later told her fellow villagers how her blind daughter asked for a chicken feather. Natalya brought her daughter a lot of feathers, and she chose the largest and most beautiful by touch. She immediately peeled off this feather to the base. Then she called her mother again and asked: "Mom, do you see this feather?" - "But why watch him, you ripped him off." In response, Matrona said: "They will also strip off our king-father." The mother was frightened: "Be quiet, be silent, what are you, you can't talk like that!" But Matrona continued: "Do not be afraid, mother, he has already been stripped." Indeed, some time later, the news of the coup reached Sebin.

Unfortunately, not everyone understood prayer feat blessed Matrona. Many saw in her only a good sorceress, capable of resisting the power of evil sorcerers with her strength. To her, according to the thoughts of many fellow villagers, you can go to tell fortunes on suitors and on theft, and for good luck. The advice and reproofs of the blessed one, who called others to prayer and repentance, was also perceived by many as just some means to achieve the desired result. For example, a number of cases are known when Blessed Matrona was asked for water for witchcraft purposes, despite the fact that she resisted such an outrage in every possible way.

Many unkind and inaccurate rumors and gossip were circulating about the blessed Matrona throughout the district. Someone spread these rumors out of naivety and ignorance, others - on the contrary - out of envy and malicious intent. Blessed Matrona herself did not contribute to such gossip, but she could not do anything with her admirers or ill-wishers. She only prayed for both.

Subsequently, false opinions, rumors and gossip, which originated in Sebina, accompanied Blessed Matrona throughout her life. Over time, village tales, passed from mouth to mouth, were overgrown with new extraordinary details. All this became another lifelong cross of the ascetic.

Moving to Moscow

Meanwhile, the dramatic changes that hit the whole of Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 did not bypass the village of Sebino. Gradually, a new government was established in the village, taking over everything and everyone. The patron saint of Blessed Matrona, the landowner Yankov, lost his entire fortune, and, unable to withstand the plundering of the estate, he suddenly died, and his daughter Lydia left her native place forever.

The rural poor, to which the family of Blessed Matrona belonged, the new government promised hope for a better - more sufficient and worthy life. Blessed Matrona herself was skeptical of such promises, predicting that at first they would greedily divide the land, which later would be useless to anyone. The blessed one did not approve of the oppression of the Church, which began from the first years Soviet power, and soon turned into a cruel persecution, which had no equal in history.

The brothers of Blessed Matrona - Mikhail and Ivan - could not stand the temptation. They wholeheartedly sympathized with the changes brought about by the new government. Both of them, having joined the party, became rural activists campaigning for collectivization. The brothers of Blessed Matrona did not disdain the dispossession of kulaks, and not only the rural rich, but also the strong middle peasants fell under the skating rink of collectivization.

Naturally, the prayer and preaching of the blind sister, who did not approve of collectivization, did not contribute to the success of her brothers. Moreover, the dispossessed and offended by the Soviet regime were looking for advice and consolation from her.

Over time, the activities of Blessed Matrona - healing the sick, consoling the mourners and appeals to preserve the faith and traditions - everything that at that time was regarded as "malicious religious propaganda" became simply unbearable for the brothers of blessed Mikhail and Ivan. They openly stated that their ascetic sister was interfering with their lives - because of her, they could not only lose their careers, but also fall under repression. The sister of the blessed one, Mary, burdened with a large family, also could not help the blessed Matrona.

So the blessed one was faced with a difficult choice - on the one hand, she could not reject the gifts given to her by God and refuse to pray for the sick and suffering. On the other hand, she did not want to upset her elderly parents by quarrels and strife with her fellow activists. They, especially their mother, Natalya Nikonova, were very worried about the difficult and hostile relations between the children. In the end, Blessed Matrona, realizing that she was not able to push the brothers to repentance, decides to leave her native village and move to the capital. Her choice contributed to the reconciliation with the brothers, and subsequently they did not mind when her sister occasionally came to Sebino to see her parents.

In 1925 Blessed Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days - about thirty years. When the blessed one moved to the capital, she did not have here, as they say, neither a stake, nor a courtyard, and no one was waiting for her - all her hope was only in the Lord.

But, despite her own homelessness and disorder - she had to wander around her relatives and friends - Blessed Matrona immediately fell in love with Moscow, about which she said that "this is a holy city - the heart of Russia."

Devotion in the capital

Being blind and unable to walk, Blessed Matrona, naturally, could not serve herself. And if in Sebin her parents took care of her, then in the capital she was in the arms of the wanderers - as the people called pious girls who took Christ upon themselves for the sake of caring for the poor. The first of these wanderers was Pelageya - they wandered with the blessed one in different apartments. Almost everywhere Matrona lived without a registration - often even relatives were afraid to somehow register their stay with them. It was a difficult time - several times, having received another statement about "religious propaganda", the militia tried to take the blessed one. Usually, having foreseen about the visit of the law enforcement officers, Blessed Matrona managed to move to another place. So one day she summoned her nephew Ivan, who lived in Zagorsk (Sergiev Posad). He arrived not knowing what the matter was. And Blessed Matrona says to him: "Come on, come on, take me as soon as possible to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law." As soon as they left, the police arrived.

And then the blessed little Pelageya married the pious young man Vasily, who later took the priestly dignity. So for some time the blessed one found peace in their house on Ulyanovskaya Street. However, this peace was short-lived - after a few years Fr. Vasily Zhavoronkov was arrested, and the blessed one had to leave their house, so as not to expose Pelageya to additional danger.

And again Blessed Matrona wandered around the apartments - together with the strangers Tatyana and Daria she lived on Pyatnitskaya Street, and in Vishnyakovsky Lane, on Tatarskaya Street and in Tsaritsyno. Fearing arrest, she continued to move from house to house, and although she usually tried to leave another dwelling before the police got to it, there were other cases. Once a policeman came, nevertheless, found the blessed one at the place indicated in the denunciation. But all this was providential. Right from the doorway, Blessed Matrona said to him: “Go, go quickly, you have misfortune in your house! And the blind woman won't go anywhere from you, I sit on the bed, I don't go anywhere. " Amazed at this reception, the policeman hurried home. And indeed, at that very time, a fire started in his apartment, and he barely had time to save his burned wife. After that, he even stood up for the blessed one before his superiors. So for some time the blessed one was left alone.

But, despite the constant fear of arrest, outwardly the life of the blessed Matrona flowed monotonously: during the day she received people who came to her, and at night she prayed for the whole world. Like the ancient ascetics, she never really went to sleep, but dozed, lying on her side, on her fist. On the day, Blessed Matrona received up to forty people. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She did not refuse help to anyone, except for those who came with a crafty intention, wanting to get help in some obscene or even witchcraft. For, just like in Sebin, many who come to the blessed one saw in her a folk healer, who was able to remove damage or the evil eye, or even induce them.

As before, the blessed one herself in every possible way resisted such rumors. She instructed everyone who came to her to preserve the Orthodox faith and observe God's commandments. Blessed Matrona always grieved for those who forgot God. There are cases when, instructing those who turn to her for help, she said, characterizing their spiritual state: "They have thrown all the crosses, they are only looking for health, so that God will give them."

In addition to prayer help and spiritual advice, the blessed one sometimes made completely unexpected predictions. Shortly before the Great Patriotic War, as well as before the revolution of 1917, she unexpectedly said to those around her: “Now you are all swearing, divide, and the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win. " And when the war began, Blessed Matrona asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of the same length, peeled them from the bark, and prayed. Those who were blessed later remembered that her fingers were in wounds.

At about the same time, Blessed Matrona found herself practically on the street. She was forced to settle in Sokolniki in a summer plywood building. In wartime, living in Moscow without a residence permit even for those who were not accused of "religious propaganda" was quite dangerous. Already with the onset of cold weather, the daughter of her fellow villager Evdokia Zhdanova Zinaida visited the blessed one. Having learned about the plight of the blessed Matrona, she not only invited her along with the little ones to her place, but also registered them in her apartment in Starokonyushenny lane. They lived there for several years. Blessed Matrona provided great prayer support to this family. But after the end of the war, local authorities turned their attention to the hotbed of "religious propaganda." As a result, the daughter of the landlady, Zinaida, was arrested for a "religious-monarchist conspiracy." Blessed Matrona had to move again.

Having moved to another place, Blessed Matrona continued her prayerful deed. Those who came to her later recalled how, accepting them, the blessed one read prayers. Usually these were well-known prayers read in church and at home: "Our Father", "May God rise again", the ninth psalm, "Lord Almighty, God of strength and all flesh" (from morning prayers). She always emphasized that it is not herself who helps, but God through her prayers. Therefore, healing the sick and the afflicted, Blessed Matrona always called them to faith.

In this regard, the following case is indicative. Once, on the advice of acquaintances, a woman turned to the blessed one - an ardent communist atheist and, moreover, a political worker. This woman befell greater sorrow- her husband died at the front, and their only son went crazy. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Blessed Matrona asked her: "If the Lord heals your son, will you believe in God?" The woman said, "I don't know how it is to believe." Then Blessed Matrona asked for water, and in the presence of the unfortunate mother began to loudly recite a prayer over the water. Then giving her this water, the blessed one said: “Go now to Kashchenko ( mental hospital in which the woman's son was lying), arrange with the orderlies so that they hold him tightly when they take him out. He will beat, and you try to splash this water in his eyes, and be sure to get into his mouth. " She arrived at the hospital and did everything as Blessed Matrona ordered. There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she came from the other side. The vial of water was in her pocket. The son fought and shouted: "Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, do not torture me!" She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water in his eyes, got into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: "How good!" Soon he was discharged, and his mother came to thank Blessed Matrona.

Another similar case, when unbelievers - a military man with his wife - also turned to Blessed Matrona for help. Their daughter became obsessed - of course, no treatment could help - because from the point of view of psychiatry, the girl was completely normal. Then, on the advice of a casual acquaintance, the parents took the girl to Blessed Matrona. After the blessed one read prayers over the girl, she was completely healed.

Blessed Matrona advised everyone who turned to her for prayer help to lead a moral Christian life and not condemn anyone. Thus, she led many to faith and repentance. Others, on the contrary, having received help, remained indifferent to the instructions of the blessed one. But Blessed Matrona continued to pray for both the righteous and sinners; and for admirers and ill-wishers.

End of life

Last years Blessed Matrona spent her life in the house of distant relatives at the Skhodnya station near Moscow. Despite her old age and weakness, the blessed one still tried to accept everyone who came to her. At the same time, the blessed inner spiritual life remained secret not only for visitors, but also for those closest to it. It is only known that Blessed Matrona, unable to attend church, often asked her relatives to invite a priest to confess and commune her.

During these years, when the country's reconstruction after the war led to an improvement in welfare, the blessed one complained about the general secularization of life, about indifference to faith and superstition. Unfortunately, in the minds of many, the blessed herself became part of the general superstition - rumors and gossip, which had arisen in previous years, fell on fertile soil. People, both young and old, who did not have strong faith, wanted to get help, but did not want to change their lives in any way. The blessed one denounced their vices and tried to guide them on the right path. But often Blessed Matrona herself understood that it is difficult to turn people who are inclined only for worldly well-being to God. Then she addressed them in a different way, she persuaded them to keep God's commandments, saying that for this God will send them prosperity and prosperity.

And, despite the general secularization of those around them and their indifference to faith, Blessed Matrona repeatedly predicted the rebirth church life in Russia, than indescribably amazed others. So her fellow countrymen and relatives who came to her for advice, she said that the church in Sebin would be open: "The church will open, where she will go, it will open."

Death and burial

Foreseeing the end of her life in advance, the blessed one repeatedly spoke about this to her close people. Some understood her, while others considered her words to be ordinary old age chatter.

Blessed Matrona herself often thought about the place of her burial. She really wanted to lie in the Danilovskoye cemetery, next to which there is a church, as she herself said: "to hear the service." Having learned about this, one of the admirers of the blessed, the churchwoman Paraskeva, who worked in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street, offered her a place on her site, next to the grave of her mother. The blessed one was very happy and agreed. They also agreed with Paraskeva that the funeral service for Blessed Matrona would be in the Church of the Robe.

With the onset of 1952, the blessed one openly spoke to everyone about her imminent death and asked not to go far - otherwise they would not be in time for the funeral. But many did not listen to her words. Then, wishing to comfort them, she said: "Everyone, everyone, come to me and tell me how alive you are about your sorrows, I will see you and hear you and help you."

A few days before her death, she asked her relatives to invite a priest to her. Before her death, a priest, Father Dmitry, came to confess her, she was very worried, confessing to him that she was afraid of death. This surprised the priest very much, he asked: "Are you really afraid of death too?" “I'm afraid,” Blessed Matrona answered.

On May 2, the blessed one peacefully departed to the Lord. And on May 4, the Week of Myrrh-Bearing Women, with a large crowd of people, the burial of Blessed Matrona took place.

Posthumous veneration

At first, the grave of the blessed one was actively visited by admirers. All of them brought her fresh flowers, which Blessed Matrona asked about during her lifetime - so that there would be no fashionable artificial flowers and wreaths on her grave, but only living ones. Over time, someone died, someone forgot about the blessed one, and her grave was almost desolate. But even at this time, sometimes random person Having learned that an old woman was buried here, who helps in everyday affairs, he came to her and brought fresh flowers.

With the beginning of perestroika and freedom of the press, several admirers of the blessed woman managed to publish their memoirs. Sometimes they contained both old gossip and newly composed apocrypha. The publication of these memoirs coincided with a resurgent public interest in faith and shrines. The first visitors appeared at the grave of Blessed Matrona - sometimes they did not know how to pray, but they asked for help from the blessed one and received it. And so, word of mouth passed - if there is any trouble, you need to go to Danilovskoye to look for the grave of Blessed Matrona, ask her for help - and she will definitely help.

Such popular veneration could not fail to attract the attention of the hierarchy. First of all, the texts of memoirs were examined, in which the theological commission found not only a number of inaccuracies, but also outright inventions. As before, some spread such conjectures and inventions out of ignorance, wishing to glorify Blessed Matrona more, while others openly pursued a commercial interest and wanted to benefit from the most "wonderful" publications. All this made the work of the commission for canonization very difficult. Only after several years of painstaking work, when all reliable information was investigated, the exhumation of the body was carried out and a reliable biography of the blessed was written, her local glorification took place.

In 1885, during the reign of the Romanov dynasty in Russia, many significant events took place in the world. French microbiologist L. Pasteur, at his own peril and risk, tested the rabies vaccine on a painfully dying boy. The Germans patented the prototype of a motorcycle - a bicycle with a kerosene engine. Russia also did not remain without significant incidents. The country broke off relations with Bulgaria, and the first free reading room appeared in Moscow. But most an important event happened in the Tula province, in the village of Sebino. There, in a simple peasant family, a girl was born who glorified holy Orthodox Russia for many decades.

Blessed Matrona of Moscow. Biography

Today it is difficult to find a person in Russia who does not know who Matrona of Moscow is. Biography, birthday, dates of veneration are known to most Orthodox Christians. It is difficult even to imagine the number of people who turn to the saint for help every minute. Long before the canonization of the eldress, the common people understood who they should go to in the most hopeless cases.

People still remember the words of the saint spoken many years ago: “Come to me. Share your grief as if you were alive. I will help. Everyone who turns to me, I will meet at death. " And Orthodox people go when everyday problems, incurable disease, paralysis of the limbs, infertility, drunkenness, financial difficulties... All requests are countless. The people treat her as a beloved grandmother who will love everyone, regret it and always help.

Birth

The future holy eldress was born poor peasants. The biography of Matrona Moskovskaya began with the sad decision of her mother, Natalia Nikonova, to send the baby to an orphanage. The family was unable to feed another child. However, shortly before the birth of the child, Natalya saw a dream that made her forget about her decision. The woman dreamed of an amazing Feathered beauty had her eyes closed. Natalia interpreted the vision as a sign that there is no will of God to abandon the child. The newborn was born in 1881 on November 10 (22). After her birth, it was confirmed. The baby was blind.

Amazing childhood

From the beginning of the birth, the child was accompanied by unusual events. The first such incident occurred during the baptism of a girl.

The priest, lowering the child into the baptismal font, was amazed at the column of fragrant mist that appeared near the baby. “The child will be holy,” said the church minister. The strangeness in the child's life did not end there. Natalya told her friends that the newborn "fasts" on her own. The girl refused to breastfeed on Wednesday and Friday. The little girl spent nights with icons in Matronushka played not with her peers who laughed at her, but with images of holy people. While her peers were having fun as usual in the yard, the little girl sang along with the church choir at the service.

Blissful youth

Even in early childhood, the future Holy Matrona of Moscow became famous among the people. The biography of the blessed as a healer and seer began at the age of seven to eight years. From an early age, she received many people whom she helped with prayer. To the poor peasant hut the people stretched endlessly. Grateful people left food and gifts for the child. So the child from a burden turned into the main breadwinner of the family. The God-given child was haunted by the attacks of the devil. Once Natalya invited the girl to go home, it was too cold outside. Matronushka refused, explaining that she was tempted by Satan. According to the child's stories, the evil angel did not allow her to be in the hut, pricked with a pitchfork and burned it with fire.

Traveling to holy places brought much joy to Matrona in her youth. The pious friend took the girl with her in pilgrimage trips... She managed to visit the Trinity-Sergievskaya Lavra and Kiev-Pecherskaya, other places that store Orthodox relics. One such trip was marked by an amazing event. In St. Andrew's Cathedral, Mother met with John of Kronstadt. He, noticing a 14-year-old girl in the crowd of parishioners, asked the people to part so that the saint could greet his shift. “The eighth pillar of Russia,” John called her.

Adulthood

At the age of 17, a tragedy struck that forever changed the fate of mother. Her Woman knew in advance that one day a parishioner would approach her in church, because of which she would no longer be able to walk. “I didn’t run away from the will of God,” Matronushka later explained to those around her. However, her trials did not end there. Soon she had nowhere to live. The predicted holy revolution began, and with it many years of persecution of believers. The biography of Matrona of Moscow during the time of persecution of Christians was distinguished by her faithfulness to the statutes of the Church and exceptional spiritual endurance. The stressful life was filled with prayers and compassion for people. Blind, paralyzed, homeless, without a family, she found the strength to comfort the petitioners, to save them from suffering with her prayerful boldness to the Lord.

Not an easy choice

In 1917, a difficult time of wandering and repression began. The authorities did not approve of religious devotees and persecuted them. The elder brothers of Matrona, ardent activists of collectivization, were hindered by the anti-Soviet activities of the younger sister. At that time, a lot could be lost for religious propaganda, including life. The biography of Matrona of Moscow marks this tense moment as a period of difficult choices between family and destiny from God. And she chose the latter. In 1925, my mother moved to Moscow. Here, in the capital, she lived all the remaining 30 years of her life, homeless and unsettled.

Moscow period

Even in our time, it seems incredible that a person lives alone in the capital, being blind, unable to walk. What can we say about the post-revolutionary period. But besides physical ailments, the saint had problems with the police. At this moment in her life, the biography of Matrona of Moscow begins to resemble a detective: problems with registration, prosecution of law enforcement officers, total disorder, constant moving. Each time she managed to hide from the chase, which she miraculously learned about in advance.

Saint Matrona could not take care of herself. The Moscow biography of the eldress is rich in the names of believing women who took care of her for Christ's sake.

They, together with the blessed one, wandered around the apartments, being in danger. From house to house, from one street to another. Once she was caught by a law enforcement officer. But this meeting was not easy, but providential. Blessed from the doorway sent the policeman home. Struck by the eldress's unusual reception, the man listened to her and therefore managed to save his dying wife. The saint spent the last years of her life in the suburbs with relatives. She knew about her death in advance. Before her death, she asked to invite the priest to the house. The priest who came was surprised when he learned that the blessed one was afraid to die. The old woman passed away to the Lord in 1952 on May 2.

Predictions and Miracles of Matrona of Moscow

From early childhood, Matronushka foresaw the disasters and dangers awaiting the Russian people.

• Before the start of the revolution, a well-to-do village woman turned to the blessed one for advice on the construction of a bell tower. She answered her that the plans of the patron were not destined to come true. The woman was perplexed. Well, what can get in the way? The materials have already been purchased, and there is enough money. However, the revolution soon began, and the construction of the temples stopped for many decades.
• One day the girl asked her mother to bring her a chicken feather. Natalia fulfilled the child's request. The daughter plucked him. And then she said to her mother: “You see him. They will do the same with our king. " Natalia was frightened by such speeches of the child. After a while, news of the October coup reached the village.

• Mother advised people who came to her to always rely on God's will. Pray, be sure to repent, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, impose on yourself more often to help those in need. “If the people do not live according to the commandments, they lose faith, great calamities befall them. When he does not repent even in times of suffering, then he completely disappears from the earth, ”said the ascetic.

In 2012, information appeared in the media about the prophecy of the eldress about the end of the world. Allegedly, humanity will die without war, said Matrona of Moscow. The prediction makes 2017 the most tragic year in the earthly life of people. They will fall asleep alive and rise disembodied souls... What these words mean is unknown. They say that the information was received from a friend of Matrona, who did not want to give her name. The ministers of the church categorically spoke about the prediction. No Christian can accurately name the date of the end of the world, it is clearly and specifically indicated in the Scriptures, the clergy explained.

Healing saint

Despite her infirmities, which mother perceived as a cross given from above, she healed people in the most hopeless cases. There is a story about a paralyzed man who lives 4 km from Sebino. The matron advised him to come. The paralyzed man covered a huge distance for such a patient, and returned home on his feet. Eyewitnesses said that she met visitors with traditional prayers from morning rule, without any additions. So she healed the possessed and the sick. Mother always said that it was not she who healed people herself, but that God did it through her prayers.

Life after death

The believing soul cannot be deceived. Those who come to her with love and pure hearts leave notes to Matrona of Moscow, turn to her in prayer, feel that the blessed eldress does not leave them in trouble.

The petitioners are healed of diseases, arrange a personal life, give birth to long-awaited children, find work. The list of the saint's blessings can be continued indefinitely. It is noteworthy that admirers receive not only help from mother, but also spiritual support. People feel like a saint prays for them in difficult situations.

Finding relics

In the first years, the road to the saint's grave, as they say, "did not grow with grass." Time passed, the fans died, moved, forgot about the old woman. Then came the time of perestroika, and with it began the revival of the religious life of the Russian people, deprived of faith and spiritual consolation for many years. Fans of the blessed one managed to publish their memoirs about her. The news of the eldress quickly spread throughout the country. “If trouble happens, go to Matrona, she will help,” said the believers. From that time on, the canonization of the saint began. For several years, a special commission has been working to verify information about the life of the old woman, along the way, her biography was compiled by chroniclers. In 1998, the remains were finally exhumed. The relics of Matrona of Moscow were solemnly transferred to the shrine. The address where the shrine is located: st. Taganskaya, house 58. The old woman was canonized on May 2, 1999.

Revered images

A prayer appeal to the great ascetic in front of her image, according to the testimony of many people, does not go unanswered. The icon of the blessed Matrona of Moscow is unusual in that the icon painters, painting it, face the difficult task of depicting the face of the blind eldress. Whereas the main detail in the classic image of a saint is the eyes.

There is an unusual plot among the written images. This is an icon where mother blesses JV Stalin for the defense of the capital.

The appearance of the relic sparked a heated debate in society. Representatives of the hierarchy consider this image not canonical, since the conversation of the saint with the ruler of the state, who allegedly came to her for advice, is not proven historical event... Reliable information about the life of the blessed can be provided by the official website of the Matrona of Moscow Pokrovsky Stavropegic Monastery, where the relics of the saint are kept: pokrov-monastir.ru.

Blessed Matrona (Matrona Dimitrievna Nikonova) was born in 1885 in the village of Sebino of the Epifan district (now the Kimovsky district) of the Tula province. This village is located twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikov field. Her parents, Dimitri and Natalia, peasants, were pious people, worked honestly, and lived in poverty. The family had four children: two brothers - Ivan and Mikhail, and two sisters - Maria and Matrona. Matrona was the youngest. When she was born, her parents were no longer young. With the need in which the Nikonovs lived, the fourth child could become, above all, an extra mouth. Therefore, due to poverty, even before the birth of the last child, the mother decided to get rid of him. The murder of a baby in the womb of a patriarchal peasant family was out of the question. But there were many orphanages where illegitimate and needy children were brought up at public expense or at the expense of benefactors. Matrona's mother decided to send her unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she had a prophetic dream. The unborn daughter appeared to Natalia in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes and sat on her right hand.

Taking the dream for a sign, the God-fearing woman gave up the idea of ​​giving the child to an orphanage. The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her "unfortunate child" Scripture testifies that the Omniscient God sometimes selects servants for Himself even before their birth. Thus, the Lord speaks to the holy prophet Jeremiah : "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you left the womb, I sanctified you" (Jer. 1: 5). The Lord, having chosen Matrona for a special service, from the very beginning placed a heavy cross on her , which she carried with humility and patience all her life. At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22). The girl's chosenness of God was evidenced by the fact that at baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke over the baby. A relative of the blessed one, Pavel Ivanovich Prokhorov, who was present at the baptism, told about this. The priest, Father Basil, whom the parishioners revered as a righteous and blessed one, was unspeakably surprised: "I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy." Father Vasily also said to Natalia: "If the girl asks for something, you must contact me directly, go and say directly what you need." He added that Matrona would take his place and predict even his death. And so it happened later. One night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The surprised and frightened parents ran to the priest's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he had really just passed away. They also talk about the external, bodily sign of God's chosenness of the baby - on the girl's chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, a miraculous pectoral cross. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother somehow began to scold her: "Why are you taking off your cross?" “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. "Dear daughter," Natalia recalled, "forgive me! And I scold you all ..." Natalia's friend later said that when Matrona was still a baby, her mother complained: "What should I do? and Friday, sleeps for days on these days, it is impossible to wake her up. " Matrona was not only blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like that of the white bird that her mother saw in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in infancy, at night, when her parents were asleep, she made her way to the holy corner, in some incomprehensible way removed icons from the shelf, put them on the table and played with them in the silence of the night. Matronushka was often teased by children, even mocked at her: the girls lashed with nettles, knowing that she would not see who exactly offends her. They put her in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped out of there and wandered home. Therefore, she stopped playing with children early and almost always stayed at home. From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing of the sick. The Nikonovs' house was located near the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The temple is beautiful, one in seven or eight surrounding villages.

Matrona's parents were distinguished by deep piety and loved to be together at divine services. Matronushka literally grew up in the church, went to services first with her mother, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where the daughter was, the mother usually found her in the church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, against the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the choristers. Apparently, even as a child, Matrona acquired the gift of unceasing prayer. When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: "You are my unfortunate child!" - she was surprised: "Am I unhappy? Your Vanya is unhappy and Misha." She understood that God had given her much more than others. With the gift of spiritual reasoning, insight, miracles and healing, Matrona was marked by God from an early age. Relatives began to notice that she knew not only human sins, crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger, foresaw natural and social disasters. Through her prayer, people received healing from diseases and consolation in sorrows. Visitors began to visit and visit her. People walked to the Nikonovs' hut, carts, carts with patients from neighboring villages and villages, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought bed patients, whom the girl raised to their feet. Wanting to thank Matrona, they left food and gifts to her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden for the family, became its main breadwinner. Matrona's parents loved to go to church together. Once on a holiday, Matrona's mother dresses and calls her husband with her. But he refused and did not go. At home he read prayers, sang, Matrona was also at home. But the mother, being in the church, kept thinking about her husband: "Look, I didn't go." And everyone was worried. The Liturgy ended, Natalia came home, and Matrona says to her: "You, mother, were not in church." "How was it not? I just came and now I am undressing!" And the girl remarks: "Here the father was in the church, and you were not there." With her spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only bodily.

One autumn Matronushka was sitting on the heap. Mother says to her: "Why are you sitting, it's cold, go to the hut." Matrona replies: "I can't sit at home, they set me up on fire, they prick me with a pitchfork." The mother is perplexed: "There is no one there." And Matrona explains to her: "You, mother, do not understand, Satan is tempting me!" One day Matrona says to her mother: "Mom, get ready, I will soon have a wedding." The mother told the priest that he came and gave the girl communion (he always gave her communion at home at her request). And suddenly, a few days later, carts are driving and driving to the Nikonovs' house, people are walking with their troubles and sorrows, they are taking the sick, and for some reason everyone is asking Matronushka. She read prayers over them and healed very many. Her mother asks: "Matryushenka, but what is this?" And she replies: "I told you that there will be a wedding." Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona's brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: "I will leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you will not burn out." Indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind threw the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother's house remained intact. In adolescence, she had the opportunity to travel. The daughter of a local landowner, a pious and kind maiden Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages: in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Petersburg, other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has come down to us about the meeting of Matronushka with the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who at the end of the service in St.Andrew's Cathedral of Kronstadt asked the people to make way for the 14-year-old Matrona who was approaching Solo and publicly said: "Matronushka, come, come to me. Here comes my change. - the eighth pillar of Russia ". Matushka did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives guessed that Father John foresaw a special ministry of Matronushka to Russia and the Russian people during the times of persecution of the Church. A little time passed, and in the seventeenth year Matrona lost the ability to walk: her legs were suddenly taken away. Mother herself pointed out the spiritual cause of the illness. She walked through the temple after the sacrament and knew that a woman would approach her and take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. "I did not avoid it - this was the will of God." Until the end of her days, she was "sedentary". And her sitting — in different houses and apartments where she found shelter — continued for another fifty years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God. At an early age, Matrona predicted the revolution, how "they will rob, destroy churches and drive everyone in a row." Figuratively, she showed how they would divide the land, greedily grab allotments, just to grab the excess, and then everyone would abandon the land and run in all directions. Nobody will need the land. Before the revolution, Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plundering of his estate and would have escaped an early, premature death, and his daughter would have wandered. A fellow villager of Matrona, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution, a lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: "I want to build a bell tower." "How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?"

And it didn't work out with the construction of the bell tower. For the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, at the insistence of Matrona (who had already gained fame in the area and whose request was perceived as a blessing), the icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" was painted.

Once Matrona asked her mother to tell the priest that in his library, in such and such a row, was a book with the image of the icon "Seeking the Dead". Father was very surprised. They found an icon, and Matrona says: "Mom, I will write such an icon." The mother was saddened - with what to pay for her? Matrona says to her mother: "Mom, I am still dreaming of the icon" Seeking the Lost. "The Mother of God asks to come to our church. Matronushka blessed the women to collect money for the icon in all villages. Among other donors, one man gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck to laugh. When the money was brought to Matrona, she sorted it out, found this ruble and a penny and said to her mother: "Mom, give them back, they spoil all the money for me." When they collected the required amount, they ordered the icon from an artist from Epiphany. His name remained unknown. Matrona asked him if he could paint such an icon. He replied that for him this is a familiar thing. Matrona told him to repent of his sins, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: "Do you know for sure that you will paint this icon?" The artist replied in the affirmative and began to write. It took a long time, finally he came to Matrona and said that he was failing. And she answers him: "Go, repent of your sins" (with her spiritual sight she saw that there was still a sin that he did not confess). He was shocked how she knew that. Then he went to the priest again, repented, took communion again, asked Matrona for forgiveness. She said to him: "Go, now you will paint an icon of the Queen of Heaven" (The icon was painted around 1915. All her life Matrona never parted with her. Now this icon of the Mother of God is in Moscow, in the Intercession Convent). With the money collected in the villages, with the blessing of Matrona, another icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Perished" was ordered in Bogoroditsk (It is located in the Holy Dormition Monastery of the Tula Diocese, in the city of Novomoskovsk). When she was ready, she was carried in a procession with gonfalons from the Mother of God to the church in Sebino. Matrona went to meet the icon four kilometers away, she was led under the arms. Suddenly she said: "Do not go further, now it is already soon, they are already coming, they are close." Blind from birth spoke as if she had seen: "In half an hour they will come and bring an icon." Indeed, half an hour later the procession of the cross appeared. A prayer service was served, and the procession headed to Sebino. The matrona now held on to the icon, then they led her under the arms next to her. This icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" became the main local shrine and became famous for many miracles. When there was a drought, they took him out to the meadow in the middle of the village and served a prayer service. After him, people did not have time to reach their homes when it began to rain. Throughout her life, Blessed Matrona was surrounded by icons. In the room where she later lived for a particularly long time, there were as many as three red corners, and in them - icons from top to bottom, with lamps burning in front of them. One woman who worked in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Moscow often went to Matrona and later recalled how she said to her: "I know all the icons in your church, which ones stand where." People were also surprised that Matrona had the usual, like sighted people, notion of the world around her. To the sympathetic appeal of a person close to her, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova: "It's a pity, mother, that you do not see the beauty of the world!" - she answered: "God once opened my eyes and showed the world and His creation. And I saw the sun, and the stars in the sky, and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, green grass, flowers, birds ..." But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed sagacity. 3. V. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my diploma project“ Ministry of the Navy ”(I was then studying at an architectural institute in Moscow). , he pursued me all the time. For five months he never consulted me, deciding to "flunk" my diploma. Two weeks before the defense, he announced to me: "Tomorrow the commission will come and approve the failure of your work!" I came home all in tears: my father is in prison, there is no one to help, my mother is dependent on me, my only hope was to defend myself and work. Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing, you will be protected! In the evening we'll have tea, we'll talk! "I barely waited for the evening, and now my mother says:" We'll go with you to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, we'll see the creations of the great masters ... "And I began to list the streets, buildings! She stopped: “Here is the Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two arches of the entrance.” I was shocked by her conduct. I made all the corrections with ink. The commission arrived at ten o'clock. They looked at my project and said: “Why, the project turned out, looks great - defend yourself!” Many people came to Matrona for help. Four kilometers from Sebino there lived a man who did not legs walked. Matrona said: "Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock he will crawl, crawl. "He crawled these four kilometers, and from her he went on his feet, healed.

Once on Easter week, women from the village of Orlovka came to Matrona. The matron was receiving, sitting by the window. She gave one prosphora, the other water, the third a red egg and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens, to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they went outside the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They were all scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona says: "What, is there a disgusting mouse?" "Matronushka, how can you eat him?" "But how did you sell milk to people, all the more to orphans, widows, poor people who do not have a cow? The mouse was in milk, you pulled it out, and gave milk to people." The woman says: "Matronushka, but they didn’t see the mouse, and they didn’t know, I was throwing it out of there." - "But God knows that you sold milk from a mouse!" Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many. AF Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of one of these healings. "My mother came from the village of Ustye, and she had a brother there. One day he gets up - neither his arms nor legs move, they became like whips. But he did not believe in Matrona's healing abilities. My brother's daughter followed her to the village of Sebino:" Godmother, let's go soon, with my father badly, I became like a stupid: I lowered my hands, my eyes did not look, my tongue barely moved. ”Then my mother harnessed the horse and she and my father went to Ustya. We arrived at my brother, and he looked at his mother and barely spoke “sister.” She gathered her brother and brought him to our village. She left him at home, and she went to Matryusha to ask if he could be brought. , and he himself became like a wattle fence "And she has not seen him yet! Then she said:" Lead him to me, I will help. "I read over him, gave him water, and a dream fell on him. . "Thank your sister, her faith healed you," - only Matrona said to her brother "The help that Matrona gave to the sick, not only had nothing it is common with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during the performance of which the "healer" enters into a connection with the dark force, but had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely in the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only priests or ascetic monks, but also the righteous living in the world with prayer healed those in need of help. Matrona read a prayer over the water and gave it to those who came to her. Those who drank water and sprinkled with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the consecration of water according to the order established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life of holy people near them, the appearance of miraculous icons. In 1925, Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days. In this huge capital city there were many unfortunate, lost, fallen from the faith, spiritually sick people with a poisoned mind. Having lived for about three decades in Moscow, she performed that spiritual and prayer ministry that turned many away from death and led to salvation. Blessed Moscow was very fond of, she said that "this is a holy city, the heart of Russia"

Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their house of the blessed one, who received the people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Taking pity on them, as well as the elderly parents (Matrona's mother died in 1945), mother moved to Moscow. They began wandering around their relatives, acquaintances, houses, apartments, basements. Almost everywhere Matrona lived without a registration; several times she miraculously escaped arrest. Together with her, novices lived and looked after her - the wretched ones. This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult, there was no choice. 3.V. Zhdanova told what hardships the blessed one sometimes had to endure: “I arrived in Sokolniki, where my mother often lived in a small plywood house given to her for a while. It was late autumn. I entered the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and chilly steam, an iron stove is heated, a stove. I went up to my mother, and she was lying on the bed facing the wall, she could not turn to me, her hair was frozen to the wall, barely ripped off. I said in horror: “Mother, how is that? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and that what happened to him is unknown, but we have two rooms in a warm house, forty-eight square meters, a separate entrance; why didn’t you ask us? ”Matushka sighed heavily and said:“ God didn’t tell you not to regret it later. ”Before the war, Matrona lived on Ulyanovskaya Street with priest Vasily, the husband of her novice Pelageya, while he was at large. on Pyatnitskaya Street, in Sokolniki (in a summer plywood building), in Vishnyakovsky Lane (in her niece's basement), she also lived at Nikitsky Gate, in Petrovsko-Razumovsky, stayed with her nephew in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), in Tsaritsyno. From 1942 to 1949) she lived on Arbat, in Starokonyushenny lane.Here, in an old wooden mansion, in a 48-meter room, lived Matrona's fellow villager, E.M. Zhdanova with her daughter Zinaida.It was in this room that three corners were occupied by icons, from above Before the icons hung old icon lamps, on the windows - heavy expensive curtains (before the revolution the house belonged to Zhdanova's husband, who came from a wealthy and noble family). troubles, always on the eve of the arrival of the police, as she lived without a registration. Times were tough and people were afraid to prescribe it. Thus, she saved from repression not only herself, but also the owners who sheltered her. Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her neighbors were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of the church-monarchist group. Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova said that Matrona's nephew Ivan lived in Zagorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her. He came to his boss and said: "I want to take time off from you, I just can't, I have to go to my aunt." He arrived not knowing what the matter was. And Matrona says to him: "Come on, come on, take me as soon as possible to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law." As soon as they left, the police arrived. It happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the day before. Anna Filippovna Vybornova recalls such a case. Once a policeman came to pick up Matrona, and she said to him: "Go, go quickly, you have misfortune in your house! And the blind woman will not go anywhere from you, I sit on the bed, I do not go anywhere." He obeyed. I went home, and his wife was burned by kerosene gas. But he managed to bring her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: "Well, did you take the blind one?" And he replies: "I will never take the blind. If the blind woman had not told me, I would have lost my wife, and so I still managed to take her to the hospital." Living in Moscow, Matrona was in her village - they would call her on some business, then she would miss her home, her mother. Outwardly, her life flowed monotonously: during the day - receiving people, at night - prayer. Like the ancient ascetics, she never went to bed for real, and dozed, lying on her side, on her cam. So the years passed. Somehow in 1939 or 1940, Matrona said: "Now you all swear, divide, and the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win." At the beginning of 1941, Z. V. Zhdanova's cousin Olga Noskova asked my mother for advice whether to go on vacation (they gave her a ticket, but she did not want to go on vacation in the winter). Mother said: "We need to go on vacation now, then there will be no vacations for a long time. There will be a war. Victory will be ours, Moscow will not be touched by the enemy, it will only burn a little. There is no need to leave Moscow." When the war began, mother asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of the same length, peeled them off and prayed. Her neighbors recalled that her fingers were in wounds. Matrona could spiritually be present in various places, for her spiritual gaze there was no space. She often said that she is invisible at the front, she helps our soldiers. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tula. Her prophecy came true. On the day Matrona received up to forty people. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She did not refuse help to anyone, except those who came with a crafty intent. Some saw in the mother a folk healer who was able to remove damage or the evil eye, but after communicating with her they understood that in front of them God's man, and turned to the Church, to her saving sacraments. Helping her people was disinterested, she did not take anything from anyone. Mother always read her prayers aloud. Those who knew her closely say that these prayers were well-known, read in church and at home: "Our Father", "May God rise again," the ninth psalm, "Lord Almighty, God of strength and all flesh" (from morning prayers). She emphasized that it is not herself who helps, but God through her prayers: "What, Matronushka is God, or what? God helps!" - she replies to Ksenia Gavrilovna Potapova when asked to help her. Healing the sick, mother demanded that they believe in God and correct their sinful life. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another, who fell ill with an epileptic illness, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, at each to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. She blesses those living in a civil marriage to get married in the Church. Everyone must wear a pectoral cross. What did people come to mother with? With the usual troubles: an incurable disease, loss, husband's departure from the family, unhappy love, job loss, persecution by the authorities ... everyday needs and questions. Should I get married? Should I change my place of residence or service? There were no less sick people, obsessed with various ailments: someone suddenly fell ill, someone for no reason, for no reason began to bark, someone's arms and legs cramped, someone was haunted by hallucinations. Among the people, such people are called "corrupted" sorcerers, healers, sorcerers. These are people who, as the people say, were "made", who were subjected to a special demonic influence. Once four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When mother scolded her, she became weak and healed. Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, my husband and wife were traveling with us - we drove our daughter out of the hospital. I started barking. I told her mother: "I'm sorry for you, we're going past Tsaritsyno, let's bring our daughter to Matronushka ..." he insisted, and we went to Matronushka ... And then they began to bring the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, hands like sticks, then began to spit on Matronushka, pulled away. Matrona says: "Leave her, now she will not do anything "The girl was released. She fell, began to beat and spin on the floor, she began to vomit blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. They looked after her. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked:" Mom, where are we ? "She answers her:" We, daughter, are with a sagacious person. .. "And I told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on the girl was completely healed. "ZV Zhdanova says that in 1946 a woman who held a high position was brought to their apartment where Matrona lived. She herself, of course, was an atheist. She went with her sick son to Europe, but famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Matrona asked: “If the Lord will heal yours. son, will you believe in God? ”The woman said:“ I don’t know how it is to believe. ”Then Matrona asked for water and in the presence of the unfortunate mother began to loudly read a prayer over the water. now in Kashchenko (a psychiatric hospital in Moscow. - Editor's note), arrange with the orderlies so that they hold him tightly when they take him out. He will beat, and you try to splash this water in his eyes and be sure to get into his mouth. " Zinaida Vladimirovna recalls: “After a while, my brother and I witnessed how this woman came to Matrona again. She thanked mother on her knees, saying that now her son was healthy. But it was like this. She arrived at the hospital and did everything like mother There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she came from the other side.

The vial of water was in her pocket. The son fought and shouted: "Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, do not torture me!" She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water in his eyes, got into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: "How good!" Soon he was discharged. "Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said:" Oh, oh, now I'll cut your wings, fight, fight for now! "" Who are you? " “Who are you?” - and will hum even more, and then she will pray and say: “Well, the mosquito has fought, now that's enough!” And the man leaves healed. Matrona also helped those who did not get along family life... One day a woman came to her and told her that she was not married out of love, and she did not live well with her husband. Matrona answers her: "And who is to blame? You are to blame. Because we have the Lord as the head, and the Lord is in the male form, and we women must obey the man, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. It is your fault that it is bad with him. you live ... "This woman listened to the blessed one, and her family life improved. “Mother Matrona fought all her life for every soul that came to her,” recalls Zinaida Zhdanova, “and won a victory. She never complained, did not complain about the difficulties of her feat. I cannot forgive myself that I never regretted Mother, although she saw how difficult it was for her, how she was rooting for each of us. The light of those days warms up to this day. In the house, lamps glowed in front of the icons, the love of mother and her silence enveloped the soul. There was holiness, joy, peace, gracious warmth in the house. war, and we lived like in heaven. " What is the memory of Matrona to close people? With miniature, like a child's, short arms and legs. Sitting cross-legged on a bed or chest. Fluffy hair parted in the middle. Eyelids tightly closed. Kind bright face... Affectionate voice. She consoled, calmed the sick, stroked them on the head, made the sign of the cross, sometimes joked, sometimes severely denounced and instructed. She was not strict, was tolerant of human infirmities, compassionate, warm, sympathetic, always joyful, never complained about her illness and suffering. Mother did not preach, she did not teach. She gave specific advice on how to "step in a particular situation, prayed and blessed. She was generally laconic, briefly answered those who came to questions. Some of her instructions remained. general... Mother taught not to condemn others. She said: "Why condemn other people? Think about yourself more often. Each lamb will be hung by its own tail. What do you care about other tails?" Matrona taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often impose the sign of the cross on yourself and surrounding objects, thereby shielding yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. "Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion ... Let the lamps burn in front of the icons." She also taught to love and forgive the old and the weak. "If the old, the sick, or someone out of their minds say something unpleasant or offensive to you, then do not listen, but just help them. You need to help the sick with all diligence and forgive them, no matter what they say and do." Matronushka did not allow to attach importance to dreams: "Do not pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, entangle him with thoughts." Matrona warned not to run around the confessors in search of "elders" or "seers." Here are her words: "The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion - the seduction of souls - will be obvious, beware." "If you go to an elder or priest for advice, pray that the Lord will contrive to give it correct advice". She taught not to be interested in priests and their lives. She advised those who wanted Christian perfection not to stand out outwardly among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught the patience of sorrows.

3.V. Zhdanova, she said: "Go to church and don't look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, an icon." Similar instruction is also given by Venerable Seraphim Sarov and other holy fathers. In general, there was nothing in Matrona's instructions that would run counter to patristic teaching. Mother said that it is a great sin to paint, that is, to use decorative cosmetics: a person spoils and distorts the image of human nature, complements what the Lord did not give, creates fake beauty, this leads to corruption. About the girls who believed in God, Matrona said: "You, girls, God will forgive everything if you are devoted to God. Those who doom themselves not to marry must hold on to the end. The Lord will give a crown for this." Matronushka said: "The enemy is approaching - you must pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on our right shoulder there is an angel, and each has his own book: one writes our sins, the other - good Cross yourself more often! The cross is the same lock as on the door. " She instructed not to forget to baptize food. "By the power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, save and defend yourself!" Mother said about sorcerers: "For those who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, engaged in sorcery, there is no way out. You cannot turn to the grandmothers, they will heal one thing, but they will damage the soul." Mother often told her relatives that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil force, invisibly fights with them. One day a handsome old man with a beard came to her, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her in tears and said: "My only son is dying." And mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: "How did you do him? To die or not?" He replied: "To death." And mother says: "Go, go from me, there is no need for you to come to me." After he left, she said: "The sorcerers know God! If only you prayed like they do when you beg forgiveness from God for your evil!"

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Blessed Matrona (Matrona Dimitrievna Nikonova) was born in 1885 in the village of Sebino of the Epifan district (now the Kimovsky district) of the Tula province. This village is located twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikov field. Her parents - Dimitri and Natalia, peasants - were pious people, worked honestly, and lived in poverty. The family had four children: two brothers - Ivan and Mikhail, and two sisters - Maria and Matrona. Matrona was the youngest. When she was born, her parents were no longer young.

With the need in which the Nikonovs lived, the fourth child could become, above all, an extra mouth. Therefore, due to poverty, even before the birth of the last child, the mother decided to get rid of him. The murder of a baby in the womb of a patriarchal peasant family was out of the question. But there were many orphanages where illegitimate and needy children were brought up at public expense or at the expense of benefactors.

Matrona's mother decided to send the unborn child to the orphanage of Prince Golitsin in the neighboring village of Buchalki, but she had a prophetic dream. The unborn daughter appeared to Natalia in a dream in the form of a white bird with a human face and closed eyes and sat on her right hand. Taking the dream for a sign, the God-fearing woman gave up the idea of ​​sending her child to an orphanage. The daughter was born blind, but the mother loved her "unfortunate child."

Holy Scripture testifies that the Omniscient God sometimes pre-elects servants for Himself even before their birth. Thus, the Lord says to the holy prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you left the womb, I sanctified you” (Jer. 1: 5). The Lord, having chosen Matrona for a special service, from the very beginning placed a heavy cross on her, which she carried with humility and patience all her life.

God's chosen Matrona, baptism

At baptism, the girl was named Matrona in honor of the Venerable Matrona of Constantinople, a Greek ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 9 (22).

The girl's chosenness of God was evidenced by the fact that at baptism, when the priest lowered the child into the font, those present saw a column of fragrant light smoke over the baby. A relative of the blessed one, Pavel Ivanovich Prokhorov, who was present at the baptism, told about this. The priest, Father Vasily, whom the parishioners revered as a righteous and blessed one, was unspeakably surprised: "I baptized a lot, but this is the first time I see this, and this baby will be holy." Father Vasily also said to Natalia: "If the girl asks for something, you must contact me directly, go and say directly what you need."

He added that Matrona would take his place and predict even his death. And so it happened later. One night Matronushka suddenly told her mother that Father Vasily had died. The surprised and frightened parents ran to the priest's house. When they arrived, it turned out that he had really just passed away.

They also talk about the external, bodily sign of God's chosenness of the baby - on the girl's chest there was a bulge in the shape of a cross, a miraculous pectoral cross. Later, when she was already six years old, her mother somehow began to scold her: "Why are you taking off your cross?" “Mommy, I have my own cross on my chest,” the girl answered. “Dear daughter, - Natalia came to her senses, - forgive me! And I scold you all ... "

Natalia's friend later said that when Matrona was still a baby, her mother complained: “What should I do? The girl doesn’t take her breasts on Wednesday and Friday, she sleeps for days on these days, it’s impossible to wake her up ”.

Infancy and childhood

Matrona was not only blind, she had no eyes at all. The eye sockets were closed with tightly closed eyelids, like that of the white bird that her mother saw in her dream. But the Lord gave her spiritual sight. Even in infancy, at night, when her parents were asleep, she made her way to the holy corner, in some incomprehensible way removed icons from the shelf, put them on the table and played with them in the silence of the night.

Matronushka was often teased by children, even mocked at her: the girls lashed with nettles, knowing that she would not see who exactly offends her. They put her in a hole and watched with curiosity as she groped out of there and wandered home.

From the age of seven or eight, Matronushka discovered the gift of prediction and healing of the sick.

The Nikonovs' house was located near the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God. The temple is beautiful, one in seven to eight surrounding villages. Matrona's parents were distinguished by deep piety and loved to be together at divine services. Matronushka literally grew up in the church, went to services first with her mother, then alone, whenever possible. Not knowing where the daughter was, the mother usually found her in the church. She had her usual place - on the left, behind the front door, against the western wall, where she stood motionless during the service. She knew church hymns well and often sang along with the choristers. Apparently, even as a child, Matrona acquired the gift of unceasing prayer.

When her mother, feeling sorry for her, said to Matronushka: "You are my unfortunate child!" - she was surprised: “Am I unhappy? You have a poor Vanya and Misha. " She understood that God had given her much more than others.

With the gift of spiritual reasoning, insight, miracles and healing, Matrona was marked by God from an early age. Relatives began to notice that she knew not only human sins, crimes, but also thoughts. She felt the approach of danger, foresaw natural and social disasters. Through her prayer, people received healing from diseases and consolation in sorrows. Visitors began to visit and visit her. People walked to the Nikonovs' hut, carts, carts with patients from neighboring villages and villages, from all over the district, from other districts and even provinces. They brought bed patients, whom the girl raised to their feet. Wanting to thank Matrona, they left food and gifts to her parents. So the girl, instead of becoming a burden for the family, became its main breadwinner.

The first miracles of Matronushka's perspicacity

Matrona's parents loved to go to church together. Once on a holiday, Matrona's mother dresses and calls her husband with her. But he refused and did not go. At home he read prayers and sang. Matrona was also at home. The mother, being in the church, kept thinking about her husband: "Look, I didn't go." And everyone was worried. The Liturgy ended, Natalia came home, and Matrona says to her: "You, mother, were not in church." “How was it not? I just came and now I am undressing! " And the girl remarks: "Here the father was in the church, and you were not there." With her spiritual vision, she saw that her mother was in the temple only bodily.

One autumn Matronushka was sitting on the heap. Mother says to her: "Why are you sitting, it's cold, go to the hut." Matrona replies: "I can't sit at home, they set me up on fire, they prick me with a pitchfork." The mother is perplexed: "There is no one there." And Matrona explains to her: "You, mother, do not understand, Satan is tempting me!"

One day Matrona says to her mother: "Mom, get ready, I will have a wedding soon." The mother told the priest that he came and gave the girl communion (he always gave her communion at home at her request). And suddenly, a few days later, carts go and go to the house of the Nikonovs, people go with their troubles and sorrows, they take the sick and for some reason everyone is asking Matronushka. She read prayers over them and healed very many. Mother asks: "Matryushenka, but what is this?" And she replies: "I told you there will be a wedding."

Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova, a relative of Blessed Matrona's brother, told how Matrona once told her mother: "I will leave now, and tomorrow there will be a fire, but you will not burn out." Indeed, in the morning a fire started, almost the entire village burned down, then the wind threw the fire to the other side of the village, and the mother's house remained intact.

Adolescence, the legend about the meeting with the Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt

In adolescence, she had the opportunity to travel. The daughter of a local landowner, a pious and kind maiden Lydia Yankova, took Matrona with her on pilgrimages: to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to Petersburg, other cities and holy places of Russia. A legend has come down to us about the meeting of Matronushka with the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who at the end of the service in St.Andrew's Cathedral of Kronstadt asked the people to make way for the 14-year-old Matrona who was approaching Solo and publicly said: “Matronushka, come, come to me. Here comes my change - the eighth pillar of Russia. " Matushka did not explain the meaning of these words to anyone, but her relatives guessed that Father John foresaw a special ministry of Matronushka to Russia and the Russian people during the times of persecution of the Church.

A little time passed, and in the seventeenth year Matrona lost the ability to walk: her legs were suddenly taken away. Mother herself pointed out the spiritual cause of the illness. She walked through the temple after the sacrament and knew that a woman would approach her and take away her ability to walk. And so it happened. "I did not avoid it - this was the will of God."

Until the end of her days, she was "sedentary". And her sitting - in different houses and apartments where she found shelter - continued for another fifty years. She never grumbled because of her illness, but humbly bore this heavy cross given to her by God.

Some of the prophetic predictions of Matrona

At an early age, Matrona predicted the revolution, how "they will rob, destroy churches and drive everyone in a row." Figuratively, she showed how they would divide the land, greedily grab allotments, just to grab the excess, and then everyone would abandon the land and run in all directions. Nobody will need the land.

Before the revolution, Matrona advised the landowner from their village Sebino Yankov to sell everything and go abroad. If he had listened to the blessed one, he would not have seen the plundering of his estate and would have escaped an early, premature death, and his daughter - wandering.

A fellow villager of Matrona, Evgenia Ivanovna Kalachkova, said that just before the revolution a lady bought a house in Sebino, came to Matrona and said: "I want to build a bell tower." “What you are planning to do will not come true,” Matrona replies. The lady was surprised: "How can it not come true when I have everything - both money and materials?" So nothing happened with the construction of the bell tower.

Writing the Icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost"

For the Church of the Assumption of the Mother of God, at the insistence of Matrona (who had already gained fame in the area and whose request was perceived as a blessing), the icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" was painted. This is how it happened.

Once Matrona asked her mother to tell the priest that in his library, in such and such a row, was a book with the image of the icon "Seeking the Dead". Father was very surprised. They found an icon, and Matronushka says: "Mom, I will write such an icon." The mother was saddened - with what to pay for her? Then Matrona says to her mother:

“Mom, I keep dreaming about the icon“ The Seizure of the Dead ”. The Mother of God asks to come to our church ”. Matronushka blessed the women to collect money for the icon in all villages. Among other donors, one peasant gave a ruble reluctantly, and his brother gave one kopeck to laugh. When the money was brought to Matronushka, she went through it, found this ruble and a kopeck and said to her mother: "Mom, give them back, they spoil all the money for me."

When they collected the required amount, they ordered the icon from an artist from Epiphany. His name remained unknown. Matrona asked him if he could paint such an icon. He replied that for him this is a familiar thing. Matrona told him to repent of his sins, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Then she asked: "Do you know for sure that you will paint this icon?" The artist answered in the affirmative and began to write. It took a long time, finally he came to Matrona and said that he was failing. And she replies to him: “Go, repent of your sins” (with her spiritual vision, she saw that there was still a sin that he did not confess). He was shocked how she knew that. Then he went to the priest again, repented, took communion again, asked Matrona for forgiveness. She told him: "Go, now you will paint an icon of the Queen of Heaven."

With the money collected in the villages, with the blessing of Matrona, another icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" was ordered in Bogoroditsk.

When she was ready, she was carried in a procession with gonfalons from the Mother of God to the church in Sebino. Matrona went to meet the icon four kilometers away, she was led under the arms. Suddenly she said: "Do not go further, now it is already soon, they are already coming, they are close." Blind from birth spoke as if she had seen: "In half an hour they will come and bring an icon." Indeed, half an hour later the procession of the cross appeared. A prayer service was served, and the procession headed to Sebino. The matrona now held on to the icon, then they led her under the arms next to her. This icon of the Mother of God "Seeking the Lost" has become the main local shrine and became famous for many miracles. When there was a drought, they took him out to the meadow in the middle of the village and served a prayer service. After him, people did not have time to reach their homes when it began to rain.

Icons of the Blessed Matrona, miracles of perspicacity

Throughout her life, Blessed Matrona was surrounded by icons. In the room where she later lived for a particularly long time, there were as many as three red corners, and in them - icons from top to bottom, with lamps burning in front of them. One woman who worked in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe in Moscow often went to Matrona and later recalled how she said to her: “I know all the icons in your church, which ones are standing where.”

People were also surprised that Matrona had the usual, like sighted people, notion of the world around her. To the sympathetic appeal of a person close to her, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova: "It's a pity, mother, that you do not see the beauty of the world!" - She once answered: “God once opened my eyes and showed the world and His creation. And I saw the sun, and the stars in the sky and everything on earth, the beauty of the earth: mountains, rivers, green grass, flowers, birds ... "

But there is even more amazing evidence of the blessed sagacity. 3. V. Zhdanova recalls: “Mother was completely illiterate, but she knew everything. In 1946, I had to defend my diploma project "Ministry of the Navy" (I was then studying at an architectural institute in Moscow). For some unknown reason, my leader was following me all the time. For five months, he never once consulted me, deciding to "flunk" my diploma. Two weeks before the defense, he announced to me: "Tomorrow the commission will come and approve the insolvency of your work!" I came home in tears: my father was in prison, there was no one to help, my mother was my dependents, my only hope was to protect myself and work.

Mother listened to me and said: “Nothing, nothing, you will defend yourself! We'll have tea in the evening, we'll talk! " I barely waited for the evening, and now my mother says: "We will go with you to Italy, to Florence, to Rome, we will see the creations of the great masters ..." And she began to list the streets, buildings! She stopped: "Here is the Palazzo Pitti, here is another palace with arches, do the same as there - three lower floors of the building with large masonry and two arches of the entrance." I was shocked by her conduct. In the morning I ran to the institute, put tracing paper on the project and made all the corrections with brown ink. The commission arrived at ten o'clock. They looked at my project and said: "Why, the project turned out, looks great - defend yourself!"

Miraculous healings of people, through the prayers of Mother Matrona

Many people came to Matrona for help. Four kilometers from Sebino, there was a man who could not walk. Matrona said: “Let him come to me in the morning, crawl. By three o'clock it will crawl, crawl. " He crawled these four kilometers, and from her he went on his feet, healed.

Once on Easter week, women from the village of Orlovka came to Matrona. The matron was receiving, sitting by the window. She gave one prosphora, the other water, the third a red egg and told her to eat this egg when she went outside the gardens, to the threshing floor. This woman put the egg in her bosom, and they went. When they went outside the threshing floor, the woman, as Matrona told her, broke an egg, and there was a mouse. They got scared and decided to go back. We went to the window, and Matrona says: "What, is there a disgusting mouse?" "Matronushka, how is it there?" “But how did you sell milk to people, especially to orphans, widows, poor people who do not have a cow? The mouse was in milk, you pulled it out, and gave milk to people. " The woman says: "Matronushka, they didn't see the mouse, they didn't know, I threw it out of there." - "But God knows that you sold milk from a mouse!"

Many people came to Matrona with their illnesses and sorrows. Having intercession before God, she helped many.

A.F. Vybornova, whose father was baptized together with Matrona, tells the details of one of these healings. “My mother was from the village of Ustye, and there she had a brother. Once he gets up - neither arms nor legs move, they have become like whips. And he did not believe in the healing abilities of Matrona. My brother's daughter followed her to the village of Sebino: “Godmother, let's go sooner, my father is bad, I have become like a stupid person: he lowered his hands, his eyes do not look, his tongue barely moves.” Then my mother harnessed the horse and she and my father drove to Ustye. We came to my brother, and he looked at my mother and barely pronounced “sister”. She collected her brother and brought him to our village. I left him at home, and she went to Matryusha to ask if he could be brought. She comes, and Matryusha says to her: "Well, your brother said that I can do nothing, but I myself have become like a wattle fence." And she hadn’t seen him yet! Then she said: "Take him to me, I will help." I read over him, gave him water, and a dream attacked him. He fell asleep as if killed, and in the morning he got up completely healthy. "Thank your sister, her faith has healed you," was all Matrona said to her brother. "

The help that Matrona gave to the sick, not only had nothing to do with conspiracies, divination, so-called folk healing, extrasensory perception, magic and other witchcraft actions, during the performance of which the "healer" enters into a connection with a dark force, but it had a fundamentally different, Christian nature. That is why the righteous Matrona was so hated by sorcerers and various occultists, as evidenced by people who knew her closely in the Moscow period of her life. First of all, Matrona prayed for people. Being a saint of God, richly endowed with spiritual gifts from above, she asked the Lord for miraculous help for the sick. The history of the Orthodox Church knows many examples when not only clergymen or ascetic monks, but also the righteous living in the world with prayer healed those in need of help.

Matrona read a prayer over the water and gave it to those who came to her. Those who drank water and sprinkled with it got rid of various misfortunes. The content of these prayers is unknown, but, of course, there could be no question of the consecration of water according to the order established by the Church, to which only clergy have the canonical right. But it is also known that not only holy water has beneficial healing properties, but also the water of some reservoirs, springs, wells, marked by the presence and prayer life of holy people near them, the appearance of miraculous icons.

Last move to Moscow, in 1925

In 1925, Matrona moved to Moscow, where she would live until the end of her days. In this huge capital city there were many unfortunate, lost, fallen from faith, spiritually sick people with a poisoned mind. Living for about three decades in Moscow, she performed that spiritual and prayer ministry that turned many away from death and led to salvation.

Blessed Moscow was very fond of, said that "this is a holy city, the heart of Russia." Both Matrona's brothers, Mikhail and Ivan, joined the party, Mikhail became a rural activist. It is clear that the presence in their house of the blessed one, who received the people all day long, taught by deed and example to preserve the Orthodox faith, became unbearable for the brothers. They feared reprisals. Taking pity on them, as well as the elderly parents (Matrona's mother died in 1945), mother moved to Moscow. Wanderings began in relatives and friends, in houses, apartments, basements. Almost everywhere Matrona lived without a registration; several times she miraculously escaped arrest. Together with her, novices lived and looked after her - the wretched ones.

This was a new period of her ascetic life. She becomes a homeless wanderer. Sometimes she had to live with people who were hostile to her. Housing in Moscow was difficult, there was no choice.

ZV Zhdanova told about what hardships the blessed one had to endure at times: “I came to Sokolniki, where my mother often lived in a small plywood house, given to her for a while. It was deep autumn. I entered the house, and in the house there was thick, damp and dank steam, an iron stove was fired. I went to my mother, and she was lying on the bed facing the wall, she could not turn to me, her hair was frozen to the wall, barely torn off. I said in horror: “Mother, how is it? After all, you know that we live together with my mother, my brother is at the front, my father is in prison and that what happened to him is unknown, but we have two rooms in a warm house, forty-eight square meters, a separate entrance; why didn't you ask us? " Mother sighed heavily and said: "God did not tell you not to regret it later."

Before the war, Matrona lived on Ulyanovskaya Street with the priest Vasily, the husband of her novice Pelageya, while he was at large. She lived on Pyatnitskaya Street, in Sokolniki (in a summer plywood building), in Vishnyakovsky Lane (in her niece's basement), she also lived at the Nikitsky Gate, in Petrovsko-Razumovsky, stayed with her nephew in Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk), in Tsaritsyno. The longest time (from 1942 to 1949) she lived on the Arbat, in Starokonyushenny lane. Here, in an old wooden mansion, in a 48-meter room, lived Matrona's fellow villager, EM Zhdanova, with her daughter Zinaida. It was in this room that icons occupied three corners, from top to bottom. Old lamps hung in front of the icons, heavy expensive curtains on the windows (before the revolution, the house belonged to Zhdanova's husband, who came from a wealthy and noble family).

They say that Matrona left some places in a hurry, anticipating the upcoming troubles in her spirit, always on the eve of the arrival of the police, as she lived without a registration. Times were tough and people were afraid to prescribe it. Thus, she saved from repression not only herself, but also the owners who sheltered her.

Many times they wanted to arrest Matrona. Many of her neighbors were arrested and imprisoned (or exiled). Zinaida Zhdanova was convicted as a member of the church-monarchist group.

Ksenia Ivanovna Sifarova said that Matrona's nephew Ivan lived in Zagorsk. And suddenly she mentally calls him to her. He came to his boss and said: "I want to take time off from you, I just can't, I have to go to my aunt." He arrived not knowing what the matter was. And Matrona says to him: "Come on, come on, take me as soon as possible to Zagorsk, to your mother-in-law." As soon as they left, the police arrived. It happened many times: they just want to arrest her, but she leaves the day before.

Anna Filippovna Vybornova recalls such a case. Once a policeman came to pick up Matrona, and she said to him: “Go, go quickly, you have misfortune in your house! And the blind woman won't go anywhere from you, I sit on the bed, I don't go anywhere. " He obeyed. I went home, and his wife was burned by kerosene gas. But he managed to bring her to the hospital. He comes to work the next day, and they ask him: "Well, did you take the blind?" And he replies: "I will never take the blind. If the blind woman had not told me, I would have lost my wife, but I still managed to take her to the hospital."

Living in Moscow, Matrona visited her village - they would call her on some business, then she would miss her home, her mother.

Outwardly, her life flowed monotonously: during the day - receiving people, at night - prayer. Like the ancient ascetics, she never really went to sleep, but dozed, lying on her side, on her fist. So the years passed.

Helping people, miraculous healings. How Matrona Healed and Prayed

Somehow in 1939 or 1940 Matrona said: “Now you are all swearing, sharing, and the war is about to begin. Of course, many people will die, but our Russian people will win. "

At the beginning of 1941, Z. V. Zhdanova's cousin Olga Noskova asked my mother for advice whether to go on vacation (they gave her a ticket, but she did not want to go on vacation in the winter). Mother said: “We need to go on vacation now, then there will be no vacations for a long, long time. There will be a war. Victory will be ours. Moscow will not be touched by the enemy, it will only burn out a little. There is no need to leave Moscow. "

When the war began, mother asked everyone who came to her to bring willow branches. She broke them into sticks of the same length, peeled them off and prayed. Her neighbors recalled that her fingers were in wounds. Matrona could spiritually be present in various places, for her spiritual gaze there was no space. She often said that she is invisible at the front, she helps our soldiers. She told everyone that the Germans would not enter Tula. Her prophecy came true.

Matronushka received up to forty people a day. People came with their troubles, mental and physical pain. She did not refuse help to anyone, except those who came with a crafty intent. Some saw in the mother a folk healer, who was able to remove damage or the evil eye, but after communicating with her they understood that before them was a man of God, and turned to the Church, to her saving sacraments. Helping her people was disinterested, she did not take anything from anyone.

Mother always read her prayers aloud. Those who knew her closely say that these prayers were famous, read in church and at home: "Our Father", "May God rise again", the ninth psalm, "Lord Almighty, God of strength and all flesh" (from morning prayers). She emphasized that it is not herself who helps, but God through her prayers: “What, Matronushka is God, or what? God helps! " - she replies to Ksenia Gavrilovna Potapova when asked to help her.

Healing the sick, mother demanded that they believe in God and correct their sinful life. So, she asks one visitor if she believes that the Lord is able to heal her. Another, who fell ill with epilepsy, orders not to miss a single Sunday service, at each to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. She blesses those living in a civil marriage to get married in the Church. Everyone must wear a pectoral cross.

What did people come to mother with? With the usual troubles: an incurable illness, loss, husband's departure from the family, unhappy love, job loss, persecution by the authorities ... With everyday needs and questions. Should I get married? Should I change my place of residence or service? There were no less sick people, obsessed with various ailments: someone suddenly fell ill, someone for no reason, for no reason began to bark, someone's arms and legs cramped, someone was haunted by hallucinations. Among the people, such people are called "corrupted" sorcerers, healers, sorcerers. These are people who, as the people say, "made", who have undergone a special demonic influence.

Once four men brought an old woman to Matrona. She waved her arms like a windmill. When mother scolded her, she became weak and healed.

Praskovya Sergeevna Anosova, who often visited her brother in a psychiatric hospital, recalls: “Once, when we were going to see him, a man and his wife were traveling with us - his daughter was discharged from the hospital. We drove back together again. Suddenly this girl (she was 18 years old) started barking. I say to her mother: “I’m sorry for you, we are driving past Tsaritsyno, let's bring our daughter to Matronushka ...” The father of this girl, the general, at first did not want to hear anything, said that all this was fiction. But his wife insisted, and we went to Matronushka ... And then they began to lead the girl to Matronushka, and she became like a stake, hands like sticks, then began to spit on Matronushka, struggled. Matrona says: "Leave her, now she will not do anything." The girl was released. She fell, began to beat and spin on the floor, she began to vomit blood. And then this girl fell asleep and slept for three days. She was looked after. When she woke up and saw her mother, she asked: "Mom, where are we?" She answers her: "We, daughter, are with a sagacious person ..." And she told her everything that happened to her. And from that time on, the girl was completely healed. "

3. V. Zhdanova says that in 1946, a woman who held a high position was brought to their apartment where Matrona lived then. Her only son went crazy, her husband died at the front, she herself, of course, was an atheist. She went with her sick son to Europe, but famous doctors could not help him. “I came to you out of despair,” she said, “I have nowhere to go.” Matrona asked: "If the Lord heals your son, will you believe in God?" The woman said, "I don't know how it is to believe." Then Matrona asked for water and, in the presence of the unfortunate mother, began to loudly read a prayer over the water. Then giving her this water, the blessed one said: “Go now to Kashchenko (a psychiatric hospital in Moscow), arrange with the orderlies to hold him tightly when they take him out. He will beat, and you try to splash this water in his eyes and be sure to get into his mouth. "

Zinaida Vladimirovna recalls: “After a while my brother and I witnessed how this woman came to Matrona again. She thanked mother on her knees, saying that now her son was healthy. And it was like this. She arrived at the hospital and did everything as her mother ordered. There was a hall where her son was taken from one side of the barrier, and she came from the other side. The vial of water was in her pocket. The son fought and shouted: "Mom, throw away what you have in your pocket, do not torture me!" She was amazed: how did he know? She quickly splashed water in his eyes, got into his mouth, suddenly he calmed down, his eyes became clear, and he said: "How good!" Soon he was discharged. "

Often Matrona put her hands on her head and said: "He, he, now I will cut your wings, fight, fight bye!" "Who are you?" - he will ask, and suddenly it will buzz in a person. Mother will say again: "Who are you?" - and will hum even more, and then she will pray and say: "Well, the mosquito has fought, now that's enough!" And the person leaves healed.

Matrona also helped those who did not get along well in family life. One day a woman came to her and told her that she was not married out of love, and she did not live well with her husband. Matrona answers her: “Who is to blame? You are to blame. Because we have the Lord as the head, and the Lord is in male form, and we women must obey the man, you must keep the crown until the end of your life. It is your fault that you do not live well with him ... ”This woman listened to the blessed one, and her family life improved.

“Mother Matrona fought all her life for every soul that came to her,” recalls Zinaida Zhdanova, “and won the victory. She never complained, never complained about the difficulties of her feat. I cannot forgive myself that I have never regretted Mother, although I saw how difficult it was for her, how she was rooting for each of us. The light of those days is still warming. In the house, in front of the icons, lamps glowed, the love of mother and her silence enveloped the soul. There was holiness, joy, peace, gracious warmth in the house. There was a war going on, and we lived like in heaven. "

What is the memory of Matrona to close people? With miniature, like a child's, short arms and legs. Sitting cross-legged on a bed or chest. Fluffy hair parted in the middle. Eyelids tightly closed. A kind, bright face. Affectionate voice.

She consoled, calmed the sick, stroked them on the head, made the sign of the cross, sometimes joked, sometimes severely denounced and instructed. She was not strict, was tolerant of human infirmities, compassionate, warm, sympathetic, always joyful, never complained about her illness and suffering. Mother did not preach, she did not teach. She gave specific advice on how to act in a given situation, prayed and blessed.

She was generally laconic, briefly answered those who came to the questions. Some of her general instructions remained.

Mother taught not to condemn others. She said, “Why condemn other people? Think about yourself more often. Each lamb will be hung by its own tail. What do you care about other tails? " Matrona taught to surrender oneself to the will of God. Live with prayer. Often impose the sign of the cross on yourself and surrounding objects, thereby shielding yourself from evil forces. She advised me to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often. "Protect yourself with the cross, prayer, holy water, frequent communion ... Let the lamps burn in front of the icons."

She also taught to love and forgive the old and the weak. “If the old, the sick, or someone out of their minds say something unpleasant or offensive to you, then do not listen, but simply help them. You need to help the sick with all diligence and you need to forgive them, no matter what they say or do. "

Matronushka did not allow to attach importance to dreams: "Do not pay attention to them, dreams come from the evil one - to upset a person, entangle him with thoughts."

Matrona warned not to run to confessors in search of "elders" or "seers". Running after different fathers, she said, one can lose spiritual strength and the right direction of life.

Here are her words: "The world lies in evil and delusion, and delusion - the seduction of souls - will be obvious, beware." "If you go to an elder or a priest for advice, pray that the Lord will make him wise to give correct advice." She taught me not to be interested in priests and their lives. She advised those who wanted Christian perfection not to stand out outwardly among people (black clothes, etc.). She taught patience for sorrow. 3. To V. Zhdanova, she said: "Go to church and don't look at anyone, pray with your eyes closed or look at some image, an icon." The Monk Seraphim of Sarov and other holy fathers also have similar instruction. In general, there was nothing in Matrona's instructions that would run counter to patristic teaching.

Mother said that it is a great sin to paint, that is, to use decorative cosmetics: a person spoils and distorts the image of human nature, complements what the Lord did not give, creates fake beauty, this leads to corruption.

About the girls who believed in God, Matrona said: “You, girls, God will forgive everything if you are devoted to God. Whoever condemns himself not to marry, she must hold out to the end. The Lord will give a crown for this. "

Matronushka said: “The enemy is approaching - you must pray. Sudden death happens if you live without prayer. The enemy sits on our left shoulder, and on our right - an angel, and each has his own book: one writes our sins, the other - good deeds. Be baptized more often! The cross is the same lock as on the door. " She instructed not to forget to baptize food. "By the power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, save and defend yourself!"

About sorcerers, militant atheism of people, destruction of temples and mass falling away from the church

Mother said about sorcerers: “For those who voluntarily entered into an alliance with the power of evil, engaged in sorcery, there is no way out. You cannot turn to the grandmothers, they will heal one thing, but they will damage the soul. "

Mother often told her relatives that she was fighting with sorcerers, with evil power, invisibly fighting with them. One day a handsome old man with a beard came to her, sedate, fell on his knees in front of her in tears and said: "My only son is dying." And mother leaned over to him and quietly asked: “How did you do him? To die or not? " He replied: "To death." And mother says: "Go, go from me, there is no need for you to come to me." After he left, she said: “The sorcerers know God! If you only prayed as they do when they beg God for forgiveness for their evil! "

Mother honored the late priest Valentin Amfitheatrov. She said that he is great before God and that at his grave he helps the suffering, she sent some of her visitors for sand from his grave.

Mass falling away of people from the Church, militant fighting against God, growing alienation and anger between people, rejection by millions traditional faith and a sinful life without repentance led many to severe spiritual consequences. Matrona understood and felt this well.

During the days of the demonstration, mother asked everyone not to go outside, to close windows, vents, doors - hordes of demons occupy all space, all the air and cover all people. (Perhaps Blessed Matrona, who often spoke allegorically, wanted to remind of the need to keep the “windows of the soul” closed from the spirits of malice - this is how the holy fathers call human feelings.)

3. V. Zhdanova asked mother: "How did the Lord allow so many churches to be closed and destroyed?" (She meant the years after the revolution.) And mother answered: "It is the will of God, the number of churches has been reduced because there will be few believers and there will be no one to serve." "Why isn't anyone fighting?" She: “The people are under hypnosis, they are not themselves, a terrible force has entered into action ... This force exists in the air, penetrates everywhere. Previously, swamps and dense forests were the habitat of this power, because people went to temples, wore a cross and houses were protected by images, lamps and consecration. Demons flew past such houses, and now people are also inhabited by demons because of their unbelief and rejection of God. "

Spiritual life and the prayer rule of Mother Matrona

Wanting to lift the veil over her spiritual life, some curious visitors tried to spy on what Matrona was doing at night. One girl saw that she prayed and bowed all night ...

Living with the Zhdanovs in Starokonyushenny Lane, Matronushka confessed and received communion with the priest Dimitri from the church on Krasnaya Presnya. Unceasing prayer helped Blessed Matrona carry the cross of service to people, which was a real feat and martyrdom, the highest manifestation of love. Scolding the possessed, praying for everyone, sharing people's sorrows, mother was so tired that by the end of the day she could not even talk to her loved ones and only moaned softly, lying on her fist. The inner, spiritual life of the blissful still remained a mystery even for people close to it, it will remain a mystery for the rest.

Not knowing the spiritual life of mother, nevertheless, people did not doubt her holiness, that she was a real ascetic. The feat of Matrona consisted in great patience, coming from purity of heart and ardent love for God. It is about the kind of patience that will save Christians in last times, the holy fathers of the Church prophesied. As a true ascetic, the blessed one taught not with words, but with her whole life. Bodily blind, she taught and continues to teach true spiritual sight. Unable to walk, she taught and teaches to walk the difficult path of salvation.

In her memoirs, Zinaida Vladimirovna Zhdanova writes: “Who was Matronushka? Mother was an incarnate angel-warrior, as if a fiery sword was in her hands to fight against an evil force. She healed with prayer, water ... She was small, like a child, all the time she reclined on her side, on her fist. She slept like that, never really went to bed. When she received people, she sat down, crossing her legs, two arms extended directly above the head of the person who came in the air, put her fingers on the head of the person standing in front of her on her knees, cross her, say the main thing that his soul needs, and pray.

She lived without her own corner, property, supplies. Whoever invited, she lived with. She lived on offerings that she herself could not dispose of. She was in obedience to the evil Pelagia, who controlled everything and distributed everything that they brought to mother to her relatives. Without her knowledge, mother could neither drink nor eat ...

The end of earthly life (death) of Blessed Matrona of Moscow

Mother seemed to know all the events in advance. Every day of her life is a stream of sorrows and sorrows coming people... Helping the sick, consoling and healing them. There were many healings through her prayers. He will take the head of the weeping one with both hands, regret it, warm him with his holiness, and the person leaves elated. And she, exhausted, only sighs and prays all night long. She had a dimple on her forehead, from frequent sign of the cross... She crossed herself slowly, diligently, her fingers were looking for a hole ... "

During the war, there were many cases when she answered those who came to their questions - was she alive or not. He will say to someone - he is alive, wait. Someone - to funeral and commemorate.

It can be assumed that those who were looking for spiritual advice and guidance also came to Matrona. Many Moscow priests and monks of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra knew about Mother. According to the unknown destinies of God, there was no attentive observer and disciple with the mother who could lift the veil over her spiritual work and write about it for the edification of posterity.

Compatriots from her native places often went to her, then from all the surrounding villages they wrote notes to her, and she answered them. They came to her and two hundred, and three hundred kilometers, and she knew the name of the person. There were both Muscovites and visitors from other cities who heard about the discerning mother. People of different ages: young, old, and middle-aged people. Someone she accepted, but someone she did not. With some she spoke in parables, with others in simple language.

Zinaida once complained to mother: "Mother, nerves ..." And she: "What nerves, because in war and in prison there are no nerves ... You have to control yourself, endure."

Mother taught that it was imperative to be treated. The body is a house. God given, it needs to be repaired. God created the world, herbs are healing, and this cannot be neglected.

Mother sympathized with her loved ones: “How sorry I am for you, you will live to the last time. Life will get worse and worse. Heavy. The time will come when a cross and bread will be laid in front of you, and they will say - choose! " "We will choose the cross," they answered, "but then how can we live?" "And we will pray, take the land, roll up the balls, pray to God, eat and be full!"

On another occasion, she said, encouraging in a difficult situation that there was no need to be afraid of anything, no matter how scary it was. “They take the child in a sleigh, and there is no concern! The Lord himself will control everything! "

Matronushka often repeated: “If the people lose faith in God, then disasters overtake them, and if they do not repent, they perish and disappear from the face of the earth. How many peoples have disappeared, but Russia has existed and will continue to exist. Pray, ask, repent! The Lord will not leave you and will preserve our land! "

The last earthly refuge Matronushka found at the Skhodnya station near Moscow (Kurgannaya street, building 23), where she settled with a distant relative, leaving her room in Starokonyushenny lane. And here, too, a stream of visitors came and bore their sorrows. Only just before her death did my mother, already very weak, limit the reception. But people still walked, and she could not refuse to help some of them. They say that the Lord revealed to her about the time of her death three days in advance, and she made all the necessary orders. Mother asked to be buried in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe. (At this time, the priest Nikolai Golubtsov, beloved by the parishioners, was serving there. He knew and honored Blessed Matrona.) She did not order to bring wreaths and plastic flowers to the funeral.

Until the last days of her life, she confessed and received communion with the priests who came to her. In her humility, she, like ordinary sinful people, was afraid of death and did not hide her fear from loved ones. Before her death, a priest, Father Dimitri, came to confess her, she was very worried if she had folded her hands correctly. Father asks: "Are you really afraid of death too?" "I'm afraid".

She died on May 2, 1952. On May 3, at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, a note about the repose of the newly departed Blessed Matrona was submitted for the requiem. Among many others, she attracted the attention of a serving hieromonk. “Who submitted the note? He asked excitedly. "What, she died?" (Many inhabitants of the Lavra knew and respected Matrona well.) The old woman and her daughter, who had arrived from Moscow, confirmed that mother died the day before, and this evening the coffin with the body will be placed in the Moscow Church of the Deposition of the Robe on Donskaya Street. So the Lavra monks learned about the death of Matrona and were able to come to her burial. After the funeral service, which was performed by Father Nikolai Golubtsov, all those present came and kissed her hands.

On May 4, the Week of Myrrh-Bearing Wives, with a large crowd of people, the burial of Blessed Matrona took place. At her request, she was buried at the Danilovskoye cemetery in order to “hear the service” (one of the few functioning Moscow churches was located there). The funeral service and burial of the blessed one were the beginning of her glorification among the people as a saint of God.

Posthumous instructions to people from Matrona

The blessed one predicted: “After my death, few people will go to my grave, only close ones, and when they die, my grave will be empty, unless occasionally someone comes ... But after many years people will find out about me and will go in droves for help in their sorrows and with requests to pray for them to the Lord God, and I will help everyone and hear everyone. "

Even before her death, she said: "Everybody, everybody come to me and tell me how alive about your sorrows, I will see you, and hear, and help you." And also mother said that all who entrust themselves and their lives to her intercession to the Lord will be saved. "Everyone who turns to me for help, I will meet at their death, everyone."

Final word

More than thirty years after the death of mother, her grave at the Danilovskoye cemetery became one of the holy places of Orthodox Moscow, where people from all over Russia and from abroad came with their troubles and illnesses.

Blessed Matrona was an Orthodox person in the deep, traditional sense of the word. Compassion for people coming from completeness loving heart, prayer, the sign of the cross, fidelity to the holy statutes of the Orthodox Church - that was the focus of her intense spiritual life. The nature of her feat is rooted in the centuries-old traditions of popular piety. Therefore, the help that people receive by prayerfully addressing the righteous woman bears spiritual fruits: people are affirmed in Orthodox faith, become churched externally and internally, join the daily prayer life.

Matrona is known by tens of thousands Orthodox people... Matronushka - so many affectionately call her. She - just like during her earthly life, helps people. This is felt by all those who with faith and love ask her for intercession and intercession before the Lord, to whom the blessed old woman has great boldness.