Items: Church of the Intercession in Minvody
There are many holy miraculous places carefully preserved for many centuries in the blessed Caucasus. Pilgrimage trips bring people an amazing peace of mind, places of focus of God's grace give consolation to believers.
The Intercession Church in Minvody, built in record time in the 1990s, is one of the pilgrimage centers on the territory of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, a monument of Russian Orthodox culture at the turn of two millennia. The relics of St. Theodosius of the Caucasus, who is considered the patron saint of the entire Stavropol Territory, rest in the temple.
Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God, Mineralnye Vody
The Church of the Intercession in the city of Mineralnye Vody was erected to replace the cathedral under the same name, which was completely destroyed during the Soviet era. Built by the whole world, this temple is now one of the main attractions of the Mineralnye Vody. The majestic Intercession Cathedral with nine domes surprises at the same time with its simplicity, canonical regular forms. Beautiful from the outside, it also impresses from the inside with its magnificent decoration, a four-tiered iconostasis and beautiful frescoes on the walls. The belfry bells of the cathedral sound very clean and beautiful.
Relics of Theodosius of the Caucasus
In the new Temple of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, with a procession of many thousands of people, venerate the All-Caucasian shrine, which bestows grace and consolation. The relics of the holy venerable elder Theodosius of the Caucasus were transferred from the Mikhailo-Arkhangelsk Cathedral. Since then, believers have been coming here. The Wonderworker Theodosius of the Caucasus during his lifetime did a lot of good for the inhabitants of the region, he is revered by the soul and heart of the Caucasus. The Church of the Intercession in the city of Minvoda has already become famous for the miracles bestowed by the revered shrine - the relics of the holy venerable elder, who found their final resting place here.
Hieroschemamonk Theodosius (in the world Kashin Fedor Fedorovich) was born on May 3/16, 1841 in the Perm province, into a poor peasant family. His parents, Fedor and Ekaterina, were kind people, professed the Orthodox Christian faith and lived piously. They taught their children the same. At the birth of Fyodor, the midwife received him in a shirt. At the same time, she told her parents: "There will be a great priest, he was born in a monastic kamilavochka."
The Lord from the womb of his mother chose him as his servant and vouchsafed him special gifts of grace, so that at a very young age, barely learning to walk and talk, he loved his Creator with all his pure childish soul and, being an infant in years, his mind far surpassed his age.
The fertile land, adorned with forests and rivers, had a beneficial effect on the boy's soul. Having reached the age of two, Fedor burned with a fiery love for God and expressed his love in a childish prayer, which he absorbed with his mother's milk.
Already in infancy, he, as an adult, went to the forest to pray. If he happened to be alone at home, with the doors closed, he adapted to open the door by placing a chair on a bench that stood along the wall and rested at the end against the corner near which the door was: standing on the chair, he took out the latch and opened the door. In this way, even at night, when, tired of daytime worries, everyone fell asleep, the young prayer book opened the door and went out into the forest, on the edge of which stood the Kashin's hut, to pray to the beloved God. There was a large stone in the forest, on which little Fyodor prayed fervently for a long time like a child. Once, during a prayer, a voice came to him: "The stone on which you pray is Raev." So he called it: "Raev stone."
The family in which Fyodor grew up was large, and they all usually gathered together during dinner: then a small hut could hardly accommodate all the residents. Once, when everyone gathered for dinner and sat down at the table, a dove flew out from the Holy Corner, right from the icons. Having circled, he sat on Fyodor's hand, he stroked him lovingly, and his mother said: "Let go of the dove, stop playing with him, you need to eat." Fyodor lifted the dove on his arm as far as he could, the dove rose from the child's hand and disappeared behind the icons. Everyone was very surprised at such a wonderful guest and rejoiced, and many years later the mother realized what a wonderful visit it was.
The father with older children worked in the yard or in the field, and the mother, having managed the affairs in the kitchen, sat down at the spinning wheel. During this occupation, she always sang psalms and prayers in her melodious pleasant voice, and Fyodor, perched at the feet of his mother, loved to listen to them and, without leaving her, memorized the words. As a child, everyone called him Father, remembering the words of the midwife. So he grew up in his family as a quiet, calm prayer book, strengthening his spirit and body.
After the age of three, it happened to him to go to the bank of the river; there he saw a barge on which cargo was being brought in and passengers were entering. Fyodor also entered with them on deck; no one paid any attention to him. Like an adult, not bothering anyone, he sat silently, deepening in himself. Only two days later, when the barge was far from home, did they pay attention to him and began to ask where his parents were. He replied that he had no parents. Then he was asked: "Where are you going?" “To Athos, to the holy monastery,” he answered. Everyone was surprised by his answer: baby, but gives such a smart answer. It turned out that among the passengers were pilgrims bound for holy places, and since the boy was so quiet and humble, no one could push him away; so he, along with the pilgrims, came to Athos as an orphan.
On Athos, the pilgrims approached the gates of the "Position of the Belt of Our Lady". At the gate stood the gatekeeper. The boy fell at his feet, bowed and asked to call the hegumen. We do not understand the Providence of God, we do not understand who taught the child such behavior - everything is in the hands of God. The gatekeeper came to the abbot and said: "Some wonderful little child asks to call the abbot." The abbot was surprised and went up to the gate: several men were standing there and with them a boy who bowed to the abbot and said: "Take me to your place, I will pray to God and I will do everything for you." The abbot turned to the men with the question, whose boy is this; it turned out that no one, lonely; They told the abbot that he was on a steamboat to the monastery as an orphan. The abbot was even more surprised and, seeing with his spiritual eyes the Providence of God, he accepted him into the monastery and settled him. There the boy grew up, learned to read and write and was obedient. Life in the monastery was harsh, but the boy endured all hardships with love and humility.
When Fedor was 14 years old, Athos was visited by a Russian general. He brought his sick wife, possessed by an unclean spirit, to receive healing, since the sick woman was told in a dream that she would receive healing on Athos. A woman is not allowed to enter Athos, and she was on a ship, and the general went to the monastery to the abbot, told him everything and asked him for help, saying that in a dream his wife saw a young monk who should heal her.
The abbot ordered all the brethren, except for Fedor, to go to the steamer. But among them, the woman did not find the one who was shown to her in a vision: she explained that she had seen a very young monk. The hegumen ordered to call Fyodor, and when he approached, the woman saw him and shouted in a bullish voice: "This one will drive me out." Everyone was very surprised, because they considered him the last among the brethren. The abbot asked him: "To whom do you pray that your prayer is so strong?" - "Golden Mother of God." The abbot ordered Fyodor to take the icon of the Mother of God, pour some water on it and bring this water to him. “Father, let me fast for three days,” Fedor asked. The abbot blessed him for a three-day fast, and after it, Fyodor took the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, poured some water over it, prayed fervently, and with the abbot brought this water to the sick woman on the ship. As soon as the woman saw them going to the steamer with water, she began to shout loudly: "Where are you driving me?". They served a prayer service for the sick woman, sprinkled her with some water, gave her a drink, and she was healed. The general, in gratitude for the healing of his wife, gave Fedor a large amount of money, but he did not take it, but said: “Give this to the hegumen, to the holy monastery, and I am a great sinner, unworthy of such an award, for he is the Healer of our souls and bodies through his Most Pure Mother helped the patient get rid of her illness, and thank them. This was the first miracle performed by the novice Fyodor.
Fyodor was to be tonsured, and it was revealed to the abbot that Fyodor had parents and that he should take their blessing. The abbot called Fedor and told him everything that was revealed to him in the vision and, having blessed, let him go to his parents. And Fedor went to distant Perm in search of his parents.
Having found a place where, according to the vision of the abbot, his parents should live, and after asking the locals, he finally approached his home and with reverent awe and excitement in his chest, like a wanderer, asked for an overnight stay.
His mother met him and, at the request for an overnight stay, let him into the house; she herself sat down on a bench by the window, where she always invariably spun yarn, and began to ask where he was from and on what business. Having coped with his excitement, Fyodor briefly spoke about himself and, in turn, began to ask her about their lives, who was doing what, who was alive, who had gone to the Lord. The mother named everyone, told about everyone, and then with tears she began to tell how their young child had disappeared in the forest and that she was sad and did not know how to remember him. Many years have passed, but the mother’s heart does not want to calm down and there is no end to grief, if, they say, she knew that she had died, would have buried her as it should, then she would not indulge in such sadness.
Fyodor asked with participation about the boy, asked what signs he had. His mother, in tears at these memories, said that he had a large mole behind his right ear. Then Fyodor, unable to withstand the surging excitement, with his hand threw a lock of hair on the right side and showed a large mole behind his right ear. The mother, seeing the mole and peering into his face, with tears of joy and excitement, clung to the breast of her found son, and it seemed that her joy would never end. Who can convey maternal sorrow and joy!
Parents blessed Fedor with the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and he, joyful and happy, with the blessing of his parents, departed again for Athos to his monastery. The year 1859 came, and at the age of 18, Fyodor, upon arrival at the monastery, was tonsured a monk with the name Theodosius. The same name was borne by the Monk Theodosius of the Caves, whose memory is celebrated on his birthday. After a short time, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and then a hieromonk.
Later, Hieromonk Theodosius went to Jerusalem. Arriving in the Holy Land, he walked around the holy places, bowed to all the shrines. Having bypassed the Holy Land, Theodosius came to Jerusalem and remained to serve at the Holy Sepulcher. By that time the Lord had given him the gift of speaking 14 languages.
After serving at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Fr. Theodosius in 1879, Father Theodosius went to Athos - the place of the beginning of his spiritual life, his childhood and taking the tonsure. Returning after such a long absence to the monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God, he, by revelation from above, remained to serve in it in obedience to the rector Ioannikius until 1901, and since 1901, after the death of Father Ioannikius, he, by succession right, became the rector of the monastery . Father Theodosius was weary of his new duties, for it was necessary to take a lot of trouble in managing the monastery, and he was drawn to living prayer to God, and in 1907, at the strong request, he was relieved of his post as rector and went to Jerusalem, where he accepted the schema.
In 1908, by the providence of God, a retired general drove to Jerusalem from Russia, from the village of Platnirovskaya, and, having met with Father Theodosius, urged him to come to Russia. After some trouble, he received permission for Father Theodosius to leave for Russia. Hieroschemamonk Theodosius returns to Russia and settles in the village of Platnirovskaya, where he lived for more than a year. The rumor about the extraordinary old man instantly spread among the surrounding residents. Pilgrims began to flock to him. People saw in him a true servant of God and a prayer book to God about human needs. Possessing the gift of spiritual insight, he healed many from illnesses, and healed others with a word. He treated everyone sensitively and with participation, directing them to the path of salvation.
By the revelation of God, Father Theodosius from the village of Platnirovskaya moved to the desert, 27 km from the city of Krymsk, not far from the present village of Gorny. There, in the gorge on a large stone, he prayed, without leaving it, for 7 days and nights, so that the Lord would show him where the church should be built. The Mother of God appeared to him and indicated the place where the temple and prosphora should be. In this place periwinkle was green, and to this day those two places are covered with periwinkle, and it is nowhere else in the gorge.
On the slope of two mountain heights, on a small clearing, in the place indicated by the Mother of God, Father Theodosius, with the help of nearby peasants, built a small church and a prosphora, as well as cells in the form of huts made of poles and straw.
To the source of living water emanating from the lips of the pious elder Theodosius, thirsty and looking for a way to salvation, seeking guidance and consolation in the word of God, reached out. He received up to five hundred people a day. Here, through the prayers of Fr. Theodosius gushed a whole-bearing spring from under the ground.
In 1925, two weeks before Pascha, Father ordered mothers Talida and Elena to bake Easter and paint eggs. They were very surprised: such a fast and twelve more days before the holiday - and suddenly they baked Easter, but they fulfilled the obedience, and everything was saved until Good Friday, and on Good Friday, Father celebrated mass, blessed Easter and eggs, and said: “You will break your fast, and I won't be with you, then you go to the Mineralnye Vody and you will live there."
As soon as he did this and said, three military men came and said: "Father, get ready, we have come to take you on a visit." "And I'm already waiting for you," Father answered.
He asked mother Fiona for a basin of warm water, washed the mothers' feet, fed them, served them himself, then went to his cell, prayed, took a cross, crossed all four sides of the cell, blessed everyone who was there from those who came and lived in the desert. Everyone was crying, and he said: "Why are you crying, you need to pray, the Lord suffered these days, pray." Once again he blessed everyone and told the military: "I'm ready." He was taken to Novorossiysk, where he stayed for a month. A month later, he was sent by stage to exile in Solovki. The stage passed through Krasnodar, where he also stayed for a month, another month - in Rostov, and then sent, already without delay, to his destination.
Father Theodosius spent 6 years in exile. In 1931 he was released and he came to Minvody. Here the priest bought a hut for himself and took on the feat of foolishness: he walked the streets, dressed in a colored shirt (then it was considered ridiculous), played with children and the children called him "grandfather Kuzyuk". In Mineralnye Vody, he continued to spiritually instruct and save people - Father Theodosius belonged to the Catacomb Church - he secretly served, made rites, tonsured a monk.
A few yards from Batiushka, on Ozernaya Street, a woman lived. She served several years in prison, and her daughter was in an orphanage. Returning from prison, she took her daughter, but there was nothing to live on, and a few yards later there were military men in the apartment, and so she planned to take her daughter there so that she could earn a living by fornication.
Late in the evening, this woman was taking water from the well and sees that Father Theodosius threw something at her door, some kind of bundle. She came up, took a bundle, and there was a lot of money, only thirty. She thought that the old man had gone out of his mind (after all, he was a fool), confused his court with her court and mistakenly threw money away, as if he hid it - after all, he is a fool, and he looks like that, he does not know, due to his unreason, where to throw money. In the morning she went to him with this bundle and said: "Grandfather, yesterday you brought me a bundle of money by mistake, here you go." “When the devil puts bad thoughts into his mind, the Lord speaks to my uncle (as he always spoke of himself) and sends him to that house to avert evil and death of the soul,” Father answered her. She did not understand what he was saying about himself, and told him: "But I didn’t see any uncle, but I saw you, grandfather, how you threw this bundle into my senets." “Take this money, the Lord sent you help so that you would not plunge your daughter into evil,” Father told her. Then the woman realized that her thoughts were known to him, fell to her knees and thanked God and His mercy with tears, hugged Batushka's legs and washed them with tears. He raised her and said: "Thank the Lord and His Most Pure Mother for Their infinite mercy towards us sinners, pray to God and grow your daughter in piety." The daughter of this woman really grew up pious and humble, married a good man, they had three children, whom she raised as honest, respectable people. The Lord alone knows where Batiushka got such a large amount of money from, because he was a fool, he himself lived in poverty, had nothing, sometimes he didn’t have a piece of bread for the whole day, and then suddenly such wealth, and after all, he didn’t leave a single piece of paper for himself.
At night, Father somehow came to the railway worker Peter and said: "Let's go to the coal warehouse as soon as possible." Their daughter Lyuba got up and followed Batiushka, remembered the road and said: “I didn’t take the coal book” - “Today it’s not needed, go faster,” answered Batiushka. They approach the warehouse gate, and a young man is standing at the gate. The priest says to him: "What do you want to do with yourself, have you thought about where your soul will go! Raise your children and pray to God. After all, you have a wife and two children, and you were going to give your soul to the devil." Lyuba looked around and sees: above his head on the gate there is a rope loop. The man was about to hang himself, but Father saved his soul by not giving the devil his prey. The Lord did not allow perdition, but awaits repentance.
A year before the war, the servant of God Alexandra came to Father Theodosius, and he said to her: “There will be a war as terrible as the Last Judgment: people will die, they have departed from the Lord, they have forgotten God, and the wind of war will scatter them like ashes, and there will be no sign left, and whoever calls on God, the Lord will save him from disaster.
During the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Father Theodosius showed himself to be one of the most zealous prayer books for the victory of Russia, serving memorial services for the dead soldiers, especially since the Lord even revealed to him the names of some of them. Using his position as a holy fool, he boldly preached, edifying people, and, again, performed miracles of extraordinary power.
When the Germans approached the Minvody, there was such a case. Father Theodosius quickly runs up to the kindergarten and says to the children: "I'm walking, walking ... children, run after me, run." For fun, the children ran after their grandfather, and the teachers ran after the children. At that time, the shell hit the kindergarten building and destroyed it, but no one died, everyone went after their grandfather, and he saved them.
The city hospital was located next to the railroad tracks, and there were three wagons with shells on the tracks. The switchman looks on, and grandfather Kuzyuk runs quickly, quickly, holding a cross in one hand, and trying to push the cars off the spot with the other. The switchman thinks: "Well, grandfather is wonderful, can he move such a force." As soon as he thought so, looked, and did not believe his eyes: the cars slowly moved and rolled away from the place where they stood, and immediately a bomb fell into this place, without causing much harm either to the hospital or to people working nearby.
Many such cases are kept in the memory of the people. Some of the testimonies are written down, others are passed down by word of mouth.
In the last years of his life, Father Theodosius lived with the novices in a small hut. It was damp and the ceilings were low. Batiushka lay down almost all the time, but got up by a rope tied over the bed. He was silent most of the time. He taught his spiritual children: "If you say no more than seven words a day, you will be saved." He taught to be baptized not only with one cross, but with mental prayer. He said before his death: "Who will call me, I will always be with him ..."
He knew the gospel by heart. Sometimes, without any books, he read aloud without interruption, the lamp and candles in his room did not go out for days ... He advised his children to read the "Revelation of John the Theologian" more often: "Then you will have the fear of God."
Once Antonina came up to Father Theodosius, and he said to her: “I prayed to God: “Take me God, how long can I live?” And God said: “Live a little longer, you have a million spiritual children, you love them all and all of creation. you're sorry." So, I'll live a little longer."
Schemamonk Theodosius never recognized the Sergian Soviet Church and never went to it ... But one day those "priests" whom he did not recognize as such began to strongly invite him, at least to come to the temple to see that everything was "in the old way" . And the old man set off, carrying a sled behind him. It was winter. He had a hard time getting there. And already at the very temple he slipped, fell and badly crashed. He was brought home covered in blood. So the Lord showed on this righteous man that even entering the temple of those who recognize Soviet power as power "from God" is not even allowed to enter such a temple.
Father Theodosius died at the age of 148 on August 8, 1948. When he went to the Lord, then in the holy corner, as on Easter, the bells rang. The burial rite was performed by an unknown catacomb priest.
Before being taken to the cemetery, people asked to take a picture of the priest, but they could not do this, because such a radiance emanated from the coffin that it was impossible to take a picture. Then the photographer said: "Who was this man? Such a radiance around him!"
When the coffin was taken out and carried to the outskirts of the city, four young men approached the coffin, so beautiful, with long hair, in white shirts, black trousers and light boots, picked up the coffin and carried it to the very cemetery. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, they fell asleep, they were about to leave the cemetery and go to commemorate, they wanted to invite those young men, but they were not among those present and no one saw where they had gone. So no one knows who it was.
And after his death, Father Theodosius did not leave his spiritual children. Countless miracles have been performed on his grave to this day.
What other miracles will the Jerusalem elder show us? How many will he heal, how many will he lead to faith, how many will he help? Through his prayers, may the Lord save us!
The holy spring, brought out of the depths through the prayers of St. Theodosius, is lined with limestone. Nearby is a small chapel crowned with icons. Every week on Tuesdays and Fridays, Hieromonk Zosima serves a moleben to St. Theodosius in the chapel. From the village of Nizhnebakanskaya, the priest brings with him an icon of an old man painted in Krasnodar with a particle of his relics. In front of this icon, the whole world sings an akathist to Father Theodosius. On the day of remembrance of St. Theodosius on August 8, 1997, His Eminence Isidore, Archbishop of Krasnodar and Kuban, consecrated the place of the hermitage and blessed the establishment of a monastic skete here.
The local celebration of the memory of this saint was established by Metropolitan Gideon on the day of his assumption on August 8 (July 26, according to the old style).
Since 1998, the relics of Fr. Theodosius rest in the Intercession Cathedral in the city of Minvoda, and thousands of pilgrims flock here every year to venerate these holy relics.
Some saints of God had to go through a lot. Theodosius of the Caucasus was born and raised in Siberia, in the South he was already in adulthood, and here he met the end of his life. The monk is a locally venerated saint, but pilgrims come to his grave from all over the country.
Life of Theodosius
The exact date of birth of the saint and the circumstances of his life before he appeared in one of the monastic sketes on Athos, where the belt of the Most Holy Theotokos is kept, are unknown. The brethren accepted him, soon the young man was ordained to the priesthood, he also had the right to take confession (in Greece it is not given to everyone, usually the confessor must gain experience). It was in 1897. Theodosius of the Caucasus in the monastery, together with the brethren, cultivated the land.
The life of Theodosius of the Caucasus is compiled from various sources. It does not describe the exact reasons why he left the holy mountain. Often the priest traveled to Constantinople, where he closely communicated with his spiritual daughters. There, a small community formed around him, which was dissatisfied with the monastic authorities - it was customary for the monks to live only on Athos.
One of his admirers in men's clothes came with Theodosius to Athos. The exposure was followed by a scandal and expulsion, according to secular sources. The monk withdrew to Constantinople, where he lived for several years. Then he moved to the holy land, where he served near the Holy Sepulcher. There Saint Theodosius of the Caucasus met an influential official who persuaded him to return to Russia. Thus, the elder returned to Russia, settling in the Caucasus.
Life of Theodosius of the Caucasus in Russia
Theodosius of the Caucasus settled in an old house on the site of a destroyed monastery. Miracles accompanied him constantly - the people walked in an endless stream. He prayed for hours in the gorge, even vouchsafed the appearance of the Mother of God, as the legend says. During revolutionary times (in the 1920s), the elder was arrested. According to the testimony of his spiritual children, he ordered them to prepare for Easter, while he himself expected that they would come for him. And so it happened.
It is not known exactly where the elder lived, perhaps on Solovki. He was gone for six years. Then he was released from prison and lived for a long time. In Mineralnye Vody, he became known as a holy fool. He wore a bright shirt, ran with the kids. The people loved the good old man very much.
Wonders
People from all over the country went to the deserts of Theodosius of the Caucasus - he healed many, gave instructions. But he refused some - he ordered one woman to return home and part with her illegitimate husband. Only then did he promise to accept her. During the war years, he also performed many miracles, which were recorded by his spiritual daughters.
- Once Theodosius of the Caucasus was passing by wagons with ammunition. Eyewitnesses saw how he moved them aside by the power of prayer. Later there was a raid and an enemy shell hit this place.
- During the German offensive, the elder took the children out of the kindergarten. It was later shot at, but no one was killed.
The saint also taught local children to read and write; they brought food instead of payment. He bequeathed to his visitors to pray - always read the Jesus Prayer. After his departure to another world, people continued to come to the hermitage, asking for help. In the 90s, the church decided to study the life of the ascetic, since among the people he was revered as a saint.
relics
The relics of Theodosius of the Caucasus were raised in 1995. Today they are stored in Mineralnye Vody, in the Intercession Cathedral. Suffering people continue to come here, leaving testimonies of help.
- Healing a child from diseases of the nervous system through prayer and after anointing with oil from the relics.
- The woman got polyps, which she suffered for many years.
- Assistance in the sale of an apartment.
You can turn to the reverend in any need. A prayer and an akathist have been composed for Saint Theodosius of the Caucasus - you can read it in front of the image at any time.
Prayer to Theodosius of the Caucasus
You gave all your life to Christ God, Reverend Father Theodosius, the exploits of prayer, standing at the Holy Sepulcher, fasting, abstinence, foolishness, and prison imprisonment for His sake, you endured to the end. In the same way, Christ enrich you with longevity and miracles, as even to this day the people of our land flow to your relics with faith and receive what they ask for. Our Father Theodosius the Precious, pray to the Lord God and the Lord of all for the preservation of Orthodoxy in the country of Russia, the pacification of the world and the salvation of our souls.
Theodosius of the Caucasus - icon, relics, life, prayer was last modified: June 11th, 2017 by Bogolub
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This is a pilgrimage to the city of Mineralnye Vody, to the Church of the Intercession, where the relics of a truly holy man, Theodosius of the Caucasus, are located. This man led a righteous life and performed a great many miracles. After the death of Theodosius, his relics acquired divine power. Thousands of those suffering from healing, in anticipation of a miracle, come here from all over Mother Russia to this temple in order to ask for help from this Holy Righteous. And faith in God works wonders here. You will hear the life story of this man and visit the chapel where Theodosius of the Caucasus was originally buried.
A faithful servant of the Lord has always been called upon by people as they seek those paths of righteousness that will save our souls. Theodosius sometimes welcomed up to five hundred pilgrims a day. And for everyone he found the right words, he always knew the need that led a person to him. He reminded them of those sins that they had forgotten to think about, called for repentance and performed miracles of healing both the soul and the body.
Theodosius lived for more than 107 years and he devoted all these years to serving the Lord. And the Lord endowed him with great power. Through the prayer of Theodosius, demons were cast out, people got up from their deathbed, and all diseases receded once and for all. And after the death of the great righteous man, this power did not go away. Miracles also happen in the chapel where the ashes of Theodosius rested. And in the Church of the Archangel Michael, where the relics did not stay long. And in the Intercession Church, where the remains of the holy elder found their final resting place.
We will definitely visit all these places that are so closely associated with the name of Theodosius of the Caucasus. And according to our faith, Theodosius will grant healing to each of us, bestow grace and answer all our unspoken questions.
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The Monk Theodosius (in the world Kashin Fedor Fedorovich) was born in the Perm province, into a poor peasant family. Many sources give the time of his birth as 1800, and the day as May 3/16. His parents, Fedor and Ekaterina, were good people, professed the Orthodox Christian faith, and lived piously. Despite poverty and having many children, they taught their children the same. The whole family attended divine services in the temple, performed the morning and evening rule, never sat down at the table without prayer, did not leave the threshold without prayer, they began every business with prayer, relying in everything on the will of God.
At the birth of Fyodor, the midwife told her parents that he would be a great priest. The whole subsequent incredibly long life of Father Theodosius and his deeds showed how prophetic the words of that pious old woman turned out to be.
The child grew and developed unusually quickly. The Lord from the mother's womb made him His chosen one and vouchsafed special grace-filled gifts. At a very young age, having barely learned to walk and talk, he loved his Creator with all his pure childish soul and, being a baby in years, his mind far exceeded his age.
The fertile land, adorned with forests and rivers, had a beneficial effect on the boy's soul. Having reached the age of two, Fedor burned with a fiery love for God, and expressed his love in a childish prayer, which he absorbed with his mother's milk.
Already in infancy, he, as an adult, went to the forest to pray. If he happened to be alone at home, with the doors closed, he adapted to open the door by placing a chair on a bench that stood along the wall and rested at the end against the corner near which the door was: standing on the chair, he took out the latch and opened the door. Thus, at night, when, tired of daytime worries, all the household fell asleep, the young prayer book opened the door and went out into the forest, on the edge of which stood the Kashin's hut, to pray to the beloved God. There was a large stone in the forest, on which little Fyodor prayed fervently for a long time, like a child. Once, during a prayer, a voice came to him: "The stone on which you pray is Raev." So he called it: "Raev stone."
The family in which Fyodor grew up was large, and they all usually gathered together during dinner: then a small hut could hardly accommodate all the residents. Once, when everyone gathered for dinner and sat down at the table, from the Holy Corner, a dove flew right out of the icons. Having circled, he sat on Fyodor's hand, he stroked him lovingly, and his mother said: "Let go of the dove, stop playing with him, you need to eat." Fyodor lifted the dove on his arm as far as he could: the dove took off from the child's hand and disappeared behind the icons. Everyone was very surprised at such a wonderful guest, and rejoiced, and only many years later the mother realized what a wonderful visit it was.
The father with older children worked in the yard or in the field, and the mother, having finished her chores in the kitchen, sat down at the spinning wheel. During this occupation, she always sang psalms and prayers in her melodious pleasant voice, and Fyodor, perched at the feet of his mother, loved to listen to them and, without leaving her, memorized the words. As a child, everyone called him Father, remembering the words of the midwife. So he grew up in his family as a quiet, calm prayer book, strengthening his spirit and body.
After the age of three, it happened to him to go to the bank of the river; there he saw a barge on which cargo was being brought in and passengers were entering. Fyodor also entered with them on deck; no one paid any attention to him. Like an adult, not bothering anyone, he sat silently, deepening in himself. It never occurred to anyone that he was without parents. Only two days later, when the barge was far from home, they paid attention to him and began to ask where his parents were. He replied that he had no parents. Then they asked him: “Where are you going?” “To Athos, to the holy monastery,” he replied. Everyone was surprised: baby, but gives such a smart answer. It turned out that among the passengers were pilgrims bound for holy places, and since the boy was so quiet and humble, no one could push him away; so he, along with the pilgrims, came to Athos as an orphan.
On Athos, the pilgrims approached the gates of the "Position of the Belt of the Mother of God." At the gate stood the gatekeeper. The boy fell at his feet, bowed and asked to call the hegumen.
Amazing is the Providence of God that taught a child such behavior. The gatekeeper came to the abbot and said: "Some wonderful little child asks to call the abbot." The abbot was surprised and went to the gate: several men were standing there and with them a boy who bowed to the abbot and said: “Take me to your place, I will pray to God, and I will do everything for you.” The abbot turned to the men with the question, whose boy is this; it turned out that no one, lonely; They told the abbot that he was on a steamboat to the monastery as an orphan. The abbot was even more surprised and, seeing the Providence of God in this unusual story, he accepted him into the monastery and settled him. There the boy grew up, learned to read and write and was obedient. Life in the monastery was harsh, but the boy endured all hardships with love and humility.
When Fedor was 14 years old, a Russian general visited Athos. He brought his sick wife, who was possessed by an unclean spirit, to be healed. The sick woman was told in a dream that she would receive healing on Mount Athos. Women are not allowed to enter Athos, and she was on the ship, and the general went to the monastery to the abbot, told him everything and asked him for help, saying that in a dream his wife saw a young monk who should pray for her to the Lord, and then she would be healed .
The abbot ordered all the brethren, except for the novice Fyodor, to go to the steamer. But among them, the woman did not find the one who was shown to her in a vision: she explained that she had seen a very young monk. The abbot ordered to call Fyodor, and when he approached and the woman saw him, she shouted in a bullish voice: “This one will drive me out.” Everyone was very surprised, because they considered him the last among the brethren. The abbot asked him: “To whom are you praying that your prayer is so strong?” - "Golden Mother of God." The abbot ordered Fyodor to take the icon of the Mother of God, pour some water on it and bring this water to him. “Father, let me fast for three days,” Fedor asked. The abbot blessed him for a three-day fast, and after it, Fedor took the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, prayed fervently, poured some water on it, and with the abbot brought this water to the sick woman on the ship. As soon as the woman saw them, she began to shout loudly: “Where are you driving me?” They served a prayer service for the sick woman, sprinkled her with water, gave her a drink, and she was healed. The general, in gratitude for the healing of his wife, gave Fedor a large amount of money, but he did not take it, but said: “Give this to the abbot for the holy monastery, and I am a great sinner, unworthy of such an award. For the Healer of our souls and bodies through His Most Pure Mother Himself helped the patient to get rid of her illness, and thank Them. This was the first miracle performed through the prayers of the novice Theodore. At first, the brethren of the monastery greatly oppressed Theodore, and after such an obvious miracle, they simply rebelled against him. Archimandrite Sofroniy (Sakharov) wrote that the monks on Athos were subjected to one strong temptation: “All these people made a sacrifice, whose name was: “The world was crucified for me, and I am the world” (Gal, 6, 14), After this sacrifice, not reaching the desired , the monk is subjected to a special temptation - spiritual envy, just as Cain, seeing that the sacrifice of his brother was accepted by God, and his was rejected, from envy came to fratricide, and monks, if they do not kill their brother physically, then often create for him extremely difficult spiritually conditions".
It must have been difficult for the monks of the monastery to see how the young novice quickly succeeds in prayer and spiritual work, twice they wanted to discredit him and expel him, but both times the Queen of Heaven and the Archangel Michael helped their chosen one. Finally, when Fyodor was to take monastic vows, it was revealed to the abbot that Fyodor had parents and that he should take their blessing. The abbot called Fedor and told him everything that was revealed to him in the vision and, having blessed, let him go to his parents. And Fedor went to distant Perm in search of his parents.
Having found a place where, according to the vision of the abbot, his parents should live, and after asking the locals, he finally approached his native house and with reverent awe and excitement in his chest, like a wanderer, asked for an overnight stay.
Let us recall that Fyodor left home at the age of three, and of course, none of his relatives could recognize little Fedya in the young wanderer. And he himself could hardly recognize anyone.
His mother met him, and at the request for an overnight stay, she let him into the house; she herself sat down on a bench by the window, where she always invariably spun yarn, and began to ask where he was from and on what business. Having coped with his excitement, Fyodor briefly spoke about himself and, in turn, began to ask her about their lives, who was doing what, who was alive, who had gone to the Lord. Mother called everyone, told about everyone. And in the end, with tears, she began to tell how their young child disappeared in the forest, and that she was sad and did not know how to remember him. Many years have passed, but the mother’s heart does not want to calm down and there is no end to grief: if, they say, she knew that she had died, she would have buried her as it should, then she would not indulge in such sadness.
Fedor asked with participation about the boy, asked what signs he had, Mother, all in tears at these memories, said that he had a large mole behind his right ear. Then Fyodor, unable to withstand the surging excitement, with his hand threw a lock of hair on the right side, and showed a large mole behind his right ear. The mother, seeing the mole and peering into his face, with tears of joy and excitement, clung to the breast of her found son, and it seemed that her joy would never end. Who can convey maternal sorrow and maternal joy!
Parents blessed Fedor with the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and he, joyful and happy, with his parents' blessing, again departed for Athos to his monastery. Upon arrival at the monastery, he was tonsured a monk with the name Theodosius. After a short time, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and then a hieromonk.
Later, Hieromonk Theodosius went to Jerusalem. Arriving in the Holy Land, he walked around the holy places, bowed to all the shrines. Having bypassed the Holy Land, Theodosius came to Jerusalem and remained to serve at the Holy Sepulcher. By that time the Lord had given him the gift of speaking in many languages. They say that at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Fr. Theodosius served 60 years. A photograph of those years has been preserved, where a radiance emanates from the blessing hand of Father Theodosius.
In 1879, Father Theodosius went to Athos - the place where he began his spiritual life, his childhood and taking the tonsure. Returning after such a long absence to the monastery of the "Position of the Belt of the Mother of God", he, by revelation from Above, remained to serve in it, being in obedience to the rector of Father Ioannikius until 1901, and from 1901, after the death of Father Ioannikius, he, Fr. went to Jerusalem, where he received the schema. He was then already 107 years old.
In 1908, according to the providence of God, a retired general drove to Jerusalem from Russia, from the village of Platnirovskaya, and having met with Father Theodosius, urged him to come to Russia. After some trouble, he received permission for Father Theodosius to leave for Russia.
Here the elder brought shrines with him, which aroused the fierce fury of the demons. Later, when Fr. Theodosius will accept the feat of foolishness, he will speak of himself in the third person: "My uncle." Here is what he said to one of his spiritual daughters: “My uncle served for sixty years at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and then Mommy Bozhenkina ordered him to return home to Russia. He took away the holy things with him, and the demons were chasing after him, they wanted to take them away.”
After living for some time in Chelyabinsk, the priest moved to the North Caucasus. The Caucasus is a significant place, like Athos and Jerusalem. When, after the Ascension of the Lord, the disciples and the Most Pure Mother were in the Zion Room, the apostles cast lots: who should preach where. The Mother of God fell to the Iberian land. She immediately wanted to go there, but the Angel stopped Her: "Don't leave Jerusalem now." So the Caucasian borders became the lot of the Lady, who instead of Herself sent Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina to preach.
These places were announced by the apostolic sermon long before the Baptism of Russia. The Word of God was proclaimed here by Andrew the First-Called and Simon the Zealot. It was here that the Good Goalkeeper brought Schieromonk Theodosius, a partaker of the grace of Her first and second portions. This was Her third destiny, and in this we see the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which was embodied in the ministry of Fr. Theodosius in three Mother of God destinies. A new star has lit up in the firmament of the Russian Church.
For some time about Theodosius lived on the Romanovsky farm, in the village of Kavkazskaya, and later, by the revelation of God, he settled in the Dark Buki desert, which is 27 km from the city of Krymsk.
The monastery took refuge on the ridge of the Caucasus Mountains, between Anapa and Novorossiysk, in a dense beech forest, from where the name of the monastery came from. Its founder was Schemamonk Hilarion, who spent 25 years on Mount Athos in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery. It is known that he lived there at the same time as Fr. Theodosius served in the monastery "The Position of the Belt of the Mother of God." Perhaps they knew each other on the Holy Mountain. Schemon Hilarion reposed in 1916, buried under the chapel in Temnye Buki, where services were held.
After the relocation of the monk Theodosius to Dark Buki, the rumor about the extraordinary old man instantly spread among the surrounding residents. Pilgrims began to flock to him. People saw in him a true servant of God and a prayer book to God about human needs. Possessing the gift of spiritual insight, he healed many from illnesses, and healed others with a word. He treated everyone sensitively and with participation, directing them to the path of salvation.
In the desert, in a gorge on a large stone, the elder Theodosius prayed, without leaving it, for 7 days and nights, so that the Lord would show him where the church should be built. The Mother of God appeared to him and indicated the place where the temple and prosphora should be. In this place periwinkle was green, and to this day those two places are covered with periwinkle, and it is nowhere else in the gorge. It is possible that it was at the first appearance of the Theotokos that Fr. Theodosius in this gorge, the Most Pure left the imprint of Her pile on a stone that was not known before.
At the place indicated by the Mother of God, on the slope of two mountain heights, in a small clearing, Father Theodosius, with the help of peasants living nearby, built a small church and a prosphora, as well as cells in the form of huts made of poles and straw.
In his spare time, Fr. Theodosius taught local children to read and write.
To the source of living water emanating from the lips of the pious elder Theodosius, thirsty and looking for a way to salvation, seeking guidance and consolation in the word of God, reached out. He received up to five hundred people a day: from the Caucasus, Kuban, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, he talked to everyone in their native language. Several times he silently passed by standing pilgrims. Then he began to speak, answering each one in turn to the unspoken question: “You will, you will be in the monastery,” or: “I bless you to get married,” or: “Thinking about marriage? Forget. You live alone, you die alone."
He denounced some, healed others from illnesses, healed others with a word, comforted others in sorrows. He treated everyone with participation, directed them on the path of salvation. He knew in advance who would turn to him and with what request, foresaw the future life and death of his interlocutors. Here, through the prayers of Father Theodosius, a source of spring water, which has the property of healing the afflicted, was hammered out from under the ground.
Batiushka performed many miracles here, giving to each according to his need for salvation.
Somehow they brought a man on crutches to the desert. Batiushka spoke to him for a long time, denounced him for sins that the sick man had ceased to remember, and he wept bitterly with tears of repentance. The elder brought him a mug of muddy water and said: “Be baptized truly and drink to the dregs. All your sins are here." He signed him with a cross, and gave the cross to kiss. And a miracle happened - the man stood up and, throwing away his crutches, took a few steps. He was healthy. He threw himself on his knees before Father Theodosius, and thanked God and the elder with tears. The father said to him: "Go into the world and do not sin." The story about this instantly spread all over the neighborhood, and the rumor did its job: even more numerous pilgrims began to flock to the hermitage.
The rumor about the extraordinary old man spread, and both peasants and noble people began to come to him for blessing and advice.
They say that once pilgrims - adults and children - gathered to the elder Theodosius. They walked for a long time, and on the road leading to the hermitage, they came out only in the evening. Suddenly jumped out dogs guarding a flock of sheep. People stopped in fear. And suddenly they see: a man with a stick is quickly approaching them. It was Father Theodosius. "I came out to meet you so that you would not be afraid." "Father, how did you know that we were going?" “The Queen of Heaven said. Go, he says, meet, the servants of God are coming to you, they were afraid on the road.
Once about. Theodosius prayed on the stone until late at night. At that time, the spiritual daughter of the elder, Ekaterina from Rostov, carried the obedience of a watchman. She witnessed an extraordinary phenomenon. Suddenly, the mountains seemed to flare up, and the whole gorge shone with an unusual, iridescent light. A woman of unearthly beauty, in the rays of a wonderful radiance, approached the priest and talked with him. Catherine fell on her face and lost her sense of time. When the priest got up from the stone, a soft glow emanated from him, which slowly melted away. To Catherine's question, Fr. Theodosius said: "Mommy Bozhenkina came to visit us." And he asked me to remain silent about it for the time being.
The servant of God Barbara came to the hermitage to pray and work. At the same time, two wanderers visited the priest, who lived in the elder’s cell for three days and had secret conversations with him. Barbara was curious. Finally, the wanderers got ready to go, and Varvara volunteered to see them off. These people were dressed strangely, in rags and without shoes - barefoot, without bags, only staves in their hands. Varvara, a simple kind soul, thinking that they probably didn’t even have money for travel, began to offer a ruble for tickets, fervently persuading them. The wanderers looked at each other and smiled and said, "We are traveling without tickets." At the station, Varvara suddenly lost sight of them, as if her companions had fallen through the ground. Returning to the hermitage, she shared her embarrassment with the priest, to which he said: “The one to whom you gave the ruble is Elijah the prophet, and the other is Jacob, the brother of the Lord, but do not reveal this to anyone until my death.”
When the wanderer Maria was visiting the desert, the sky in the middle of the night sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow. "Fire!" - she was frightened, ran out of the cell and sees: Fr. Theodosius knelt on a stone, hands raised to the sky. Nearby, two beautiful men with lightning-like faces, so bright that it is impossible to look, are talking with the priest. She fell into oblivion, and does not remember what happened next. Waking up, Maria went to the church - the priest was already dressing for the service. "Who were these two?" she whispered. The elder forbade asking about it, but after persistent inquiries, he nevertheless revealed that the biblical prophets Elijah and Enoch had visited him.
Enoch - the antediluvian righteous man, the seventh man on earth from Adam, was caught up to heaven, bypassing death. The prophet Elijah, the accuser of lawless rulers and their peoples, was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Both prophets, taken alive into heaven, still live in the flesh in the paradise villages. So it will be with the saints taken by the Lord, until the beginning of the world's tribulation, until the onset of the apocalyptic judgment. But before that, the Lord will send His shepherds Elijah and Enoch to try for the last time to turn people to God in the face of triumphant evil.
What was the conversation with the elder about? We don't know. But one thing can be said that we live on the eve ...
The Antichrist has not yet revealed himself to the world, but is on the way.
At this time, all over Holy Russia, the theomachists-Bolsheviks, who villainously seized power and tortured the Holy Tsar-Martyr Nicholas and the entire August Family, launched the most severe persecution against the Church of Christ. Executions, torture, destruction of churches, confiscation of church valuables, desecration of holy relics. Not content with open persecution, the theomachists created their own pseudo-church - a renovationist church that came out against the Holy Patriarch Tikhon and True Orthodoxy preserved by him.
At first, under Soviet rule, the small monastery lived quietly. But in the mid-1920s, while blessing the water at Epiphany, Father Theodosius suddenly said sadly, looking into the water: “There are so many fish here, and only four will remain.” What this meant became clear when the elder was arrested, and his spiritual children dispersed in all directions, and only four women remained in the hermitage.
Grieving for the disasters that befell the Church of Christ and Holy Russia, Elder Theodosius acted as a zealous guardian of the purity of True Orthodoxy, remaining faithful to the precepts of the Holy Patriarch-Confessor Tikhon, rejecting conciliation with theomachism and renovationism.
Soon the Russian Church befell a new sorrow: Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), at the request of the persecutors, issued an apostate Declaration on the recognition by the Church of the Soviet anti-Christian authorities, previously anathematized by His Holiness Tikhon. The zealous heart of Elder Theodosius could not come to terms with such a departure from Christ. When the Declaration was sent to him, he burned it in front of all the people.
And soon, in March 1927, two weeks before Pascha, Father ordered mothers Talida and Elena to bake Easter cakes and paint eggs. They were very surprised: such a fast and twelve more days before the holiday - and suddenly they baked Easter, but they fulfilled the obedience, and everything was saved until Good Friday, and on Good Friday Father celebrated mass, blessed Easter and eggs, and said: “You will break the fast, but I won’t be with you, then you go to Minvody and live there.”
As soon as he said this, three Chekists in black leather jackets suddenly come in and say: “Father, get ready, we have come to take you on a visit.”
“I’m already waiting for you,” Father answered.
He asked mother Fiona for a basin of warm water, washed the mothers' feet, fed them, served them himself, then went to his cell, prayed, took a cross, crossed all four sides of the cell, blessed everyone who was there from those who came and lived in the desert. Everyone was crying, and he said: “Why are you crying, you need to pray, the Lord suffered these days, pray.” Once again he blessed everyone and told the Chekists: "I'm ready."
He was taken to Novorossiysk. The investigators, trying to discredit the elder, tried to attribute to him a crime under the everyday articles of the Criminal Code. This continued until January 1929, when the elder was nevertheless convicted under Article 58 (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda). By a resolution of a special meeting at the OGPU collegium, Father Theodosius was imprisoned in a concentration camp for a period of three years. The elder confessor practically never told anything about his stay in the camps and imprisonment. They say he was sent to a camp on Solovki. The stage passed through Krasnodar, where he stayed for a month, another month - in Rostov, and then sent, already without delay, to his destination. Later he was transferred to camps in Kazakhstan. But the old man was then already one hundred and twenty-nine years old.
The decrepit old man Theodosius spent 5 years in prison and exile. In 1932 he was released, and he came to Minvody. Here, mothers Tavida and Elena, who, with the blessing of the elder, moved from the hermitage to the city immediately after his arrest, with God's help acquired a hut and settled down, waiting for the return of the father.
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Having settled in an inconspicuous hut, the priest accepted the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake: he walked the streets dressed in a colored shirt (which was then considered ridiculous), played with children, ran and jumped with them, for which the children called him "grandfather Kuzyuk". Probably, it was the only true decision for that time and the situation in which Elder Theodosius found himself, and the only possible one to continue serving the Lord. Such a feat was undertaken in those years by Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev), now a famous spiritual writer, and indeed very many confessors of Orthodoxy.This allowed them not only to survive in the most difficult conditions of Soviet concentration camps, but also to openly preach Christ among the prisoners.The camp authorities did not touch them for this: well, what to take from fools?
In the old man's house, one room was a living room, and the other was a secret house church. In his church, grandfather Kuzyuk turned into a strict old man and a benevolent father. The elder did not impose strict penances on his spiritual children, he explained how sins differ in their severity. “There is sin by nature, and there is through nature,” he said. - By nature - it's as if by chance, if someone condemned, offended. In the evening, read "Our Father", "Theotokos", "I believe", and the Lord will forgive. And through nature - this is theft, murder, adultery and other serious sins, they must be confessed to the priest, corrected. "Secretly every day he served the Divine Liturgy , communed himself and communed his spiritual children.
A few yards from Batiushka, on Ozernaya Street, a woman lived. She served several years in prison, and her daughter was in an orphanage. Returning from prison, she took her daughter, but there was nothing to live on, and there were military men in the apartment next door, and so she planned to bring her daughter there so that she could fornicate them to get food.
Late in the evening, this woman was taking water from the well, and suddenly she sees that Kuzyuk's grandfather threw something at the door, some kind of bundle. She came up, took a bundle, and there was a lot of money, only thirty. She thought that the old man had lost his mind (after all, he was a fool), confused his court with her court, and threw the money by mistake, as if he hid it - after all, he is a fool, and he looks like that, he does not know, due to his unreason, where to throw money. In the morning she went to him with this bundle and said: “Grandfather, yesterday you brought me a bundle of money by mistake, take it.” “When the devil puts bad thoughts into his mind, the Lord speaks to my uncle (as he always spoke of himself) and sends him to that house to avert evil and death of the soul,” Father answered her. She did not understand what he was saying about himself, and told him: “But I didn’t see any uncle, but I saw you, grandfather, how you threw this bundle into my senets.” “Take this money, the Lord sent you help so that you would not plunge your daughter into evil,” Father told her. Then the woman realized that her thoughts were known to him, sobbed, fell on her knees, at the feet of the father and with tears thanked God and His mercy, hugged the feet of the Father and washed them with tears. He raised her and said: “Thank the Lord and His Most Pure Mother for Their infinite mercy towards us sinners, pray to God and grow your daughter in piety.” The daughter of this woman really grew up pious and humble, married a good man, they had three children, whom they raised as honest, respectable people. The Lord alone knows where Batiushka got such a large amount of money from, because he was a fool, he himself lived in poverty, had nothing, sometimes he didn’t have a piece of bread for the whole day, and then suddenly such wealth, and after all, he didn’t leave a single piece of paper for himself.
At night, Father somehow came to the railway worker Peter and said: “Let's go to the coal warehouse soon.” Their daughter Lyuba got up and followed Batyushka, remembered the road and said: “I didn’t take a coal book” - “Today it’s not needed, go faster,” answered Batyushka. They approach the warehouse gate, and a young man is standing at the gate. The father says to him: “What do you want to do with yourself, have you thought about where your soul will go?! Raise your children and pray to God. After all, you have a wife and two children, and you are going to give your soul to the devil.” Lyuba looked around and sees: above his head on the gate there is a rope loop. The man was about to hang himself, but Father saved his soul by not giving the devil his prey. The Lord did not allow perdition, but awaits repentance.
There are cases when the holy fool in an unusual way tried to warn people from tragedies ...
Once Batiushka threw a white sheet into the porch of a neighbor. “Crazy, what to take from him. Whatever comes into his head, he does, ”the woman thought, and did not pay attention to the warning, did not worry. And in the morning, her son was brought dead: he was killed by a wagon coupler.
Grandfather Kuzyuk came to another neighbor with a broom and began sweeping out of corners, from window sills and shelves. The owner became indignant, kicked out ... And in the morning a car drove up to this house. Property was confiscated, the family was expelled.
A year before the war, the servant of God Alexandra came to Father Theodosius, and he said to her: “There will be a war as terrible as the Last Judgment: people will die, they have departed from the Lord, they have forgotten God, and the wind of war will scatter them like ashes, and there will be no sign left, and whoever calls on God, the Lord will save him from disaster.
Being foolish, he boldly preached, edifying people, and, again, performed miracles.
During the war, a woman named Elena worked as a nurse in Minvody. The time has come when life became completely unbearable for her: there is nothing to eat, two children, a disabled sister and an elderly mother. The woman had already begun to think about how to save herself and her family from unnecessary torment ... And suddenly there was a knock on the window. Opens - there is a holy fool. He holds out sweets: “For now. And you will have bread. Elena did not sleep all night, and the next day she came to the elder's house. “What did you think, to kill four people? - Father Theodosius met the woman. “They would be in heaven, but where would your soul go?” He told her to work and pray. Then he said goodbye and said that now she would always have bread. Soon the old man's words began to come true. A job was found for Elena, she was given bread, and now her family was always full.
Carrying his feat of foolishness, he performed miracles of extraordinary power.
When the Germans approached the Minvody, there was such a case. Grandfather Kuzyuk quickly runs up to the kindergarten in his colored shirt and shouts: “Ghoul-ghul, children, run after me, run” - and ran to the side, lifting his legs high and funny. The children rushed after him, laughing; to return them, the educators ran out. A minute later there was an explosion: a shell hit the kindergarten building and destroyed it, but no one was hurt, everyone ran after the quaint old man, everyone was saved by the perspicacious old man.
And one more case. Near the railway tracks in Mineralnye Vody there was a city hospital. On the rails stood a huge tank of gasoline, and next to it were wagons with ammunition. Suddenly, the switchmen noticed grandfather Kuzyuka running fast. In one hand he has a cross, the other is trying to push the wagons from their place. “Well, grandfather is wonderful, can he move such a burden?” They looked, and they couldn't believe their eyes: the carriages slowly shifted and rolled along the tracks. And as soon as they managed to roll back - a powerful explosion shook the air. A bomb fell on the place where the cars stood, without harming either the hospital or the people working nearby.
Many such cases are kept in the memory of the people. Some of the testimonies are written down, others are passed from mouth to mouth, and only God and those people whom the elder came to help in a difficult time know about many.
The main value of these testimonies is in the descriptions of the experience of spiritual life, which can be called "the voice of caring warning."
Father Theodosius often said that if people knew what awaits them after death, they would pray to God day and night. He instructed to do the Jesus Prayer, and taught to be baptized not only with the cross, but with mental prayer on the lips. He himself knew the gospel by heart. Sometimes without books I read aloud without interruption. The lamp and candles in his room did not go out for days. He advised his children to read the revelation of John the Theologian more often: "Then you will have the fear of God."
One day, the spiritual daughter Antonina from Novorossiysk came to the priest, and in those years the Soviet authorities suddenly began to open churches. And she shared her joy: “Grandfather, the temple of God is nearby, bless me to visit, otherwise I used to travel far.” The elder shook his head: “There is a plump priest, he drinks vodka, smokes cigarettes. However, if you visit sometimes, you will not sin. Listen to how they sing, read. The icons are not defiled, the cross is not desecrated, you can venerate, but do not come under the blessing.
In the last years of his life, Elder Theodosius lived with his novices in a small hut with very low ceilings. It was damp. Batiushka lay down almost all the time, but got up by a rope tied over the bed. He was silent most of the time. He taught his spiritual children: "Say no more than seven words a day - you will be saved." He taught to be baptized not only with one cross, but with a clever prayer on his lips: on the forehead with the words “Lord”, on the chest “Jesus Christ”, to the right “Son of God”, to the left “have mercy on me a sinner”. “And always read the Jesus Prayer, whether you are walking, standing, or sitting. Climb into the “well” and pray there so as not to see or hear anything,” the elder taught.
The life of Father Theodosius is a continuous striving for God, a continuous feat, the most exalted service. All the deeds that he did in his earthly life are deeds done for the sake of Christ.
Once Father Theodosius says: “I prayed to God: “Take me, God, enough for me to live.” And God says: “Live a little longer, you have a million spiritual children, you love them all and feel sorry for every creature.” So I'll live a little longer."
Elder Theodosius reminded everyone that nothing has changed in Orthodoxy since the Savior's earthly life, and it is necessary to strictly adhere to the apostolic teaching and the rules of the Holy Fathers. He predicted that the Orthodox Church would not lose grace as long as the bloodless sacrifice was offered and the Eucharist was celebrated without deviation.
In the last year of his life, Elder Theodosius was invited to the legal Sergian Intercession Church to see how everything was beautifully arranged there. It was winter, the elder was very weak, but he went, for some reason taking a sled with him. Near the temple, in front of everyone, he slipped and badly crashed - on his own sled, Elder Theodosius was taken back home. It was not the will of God to visit the Sergian church... Then many people understood that: you can’t visit the red church, you can be spiritually severely broken. It was one of the last sermons-lessons of the holy fool Christ for the sake of us who are weak.
Soon Father said that the end of the world would come in three days. Everyone thought about the Last Judgment, and he spoke about his death. He said that after his death, the hens, and the cockerel, and the seals, and the birds would cry. Maria was on duty. The elder looked at her attentively, somehow in a special way, and asked: “How old do you think I am?” - "One God knows, but I do not know." “Truly I say to you and not falsely, the Lord is my witness, I am a thousand years old.” Then he says again: “How old do you think I am?” "God knows, I don't know." - "Truly I say and not falsely, the Lord is my witness, I am six hundred years old." Hesitating a little, he asks for the third time: “What do you think, Maria, how old am I?” - “God alone knows, I don’t know.” - “Truly, I say truthfully, the Lord is my witness, I am four hundred years old.” What is the secret behind these numbers?
“I was already dead, but I begged God to let him live a little longer,” Father confessed. “At least a year,” thought Maria. “No, not much, very little,” Father replied to her thoughts. On the sixth day he climbed up the rope, went outside, gathered the children, ran and played with them. On the seventh day he fell ill and did not get up again.
Before his death, the elder asked to wash his hands with baptismal water, then he blessed everyone. There were five people with him, and they talked among themselves how to bury him if he dies? They were shy to ask. The father himself said: “Children, read the Jesus Prayer and cross yourself correctly, and the Lord Himself will manage me, He Himself will send a person.”
Before the death of Fr. Theodosius said, "You don't know who I am, and when the Lord comes in glory at His Second Coming, you won't believe where I'll be." And he also said: “Whoever calls me, I will always be with him.”
Polina stood at the threshold. The father raised his hand in blessing. “Come quickly, Polya,” everyone whispers, and she stands, pale as a sheet, unable to move. Lyuba pulled her to the bed, and the priest managed to bless her. “I saw that the Savior Himself stood behind the priest and held his soul like a baby.” When the elder expired, many heard that in the holy corner, as on Easter, bells suddenly rang out, so long and harmonious. The elder has completed his earthly journey. It happened on July 26/August 8, 1948.
Before the funeral, an unknown wanderer appeared in sandals with cross-shaped straps, in his hands a staff with a cross at the end: “Bless me to sing,” the wanderer asked. Having performed the prescribed rite with an unusually beautiful voice, he venerated the deceased with the words: “The Savior has gone to prepare a place for His disciples, and you are going to prepare a place for your children.”
Juliana went to see off the unknown wanderer and wanted to buy him a ticket, but he said: "The Lord does not order me to buy tickets." And when, after all, Juliana went to the cash register, the wanderer disappeared.
Before being taken to the cemetery, people wanted to take a last photo with Batiushka, but there was such a glow from the coffin that it was difficult to take pictures. Even the photographer asked: “Who was this man that there is so much light around him?”
When the funeral procession approached the cemetery, a married couple returned from field work. "Does the sun shine from the coffin?" - amazed, the woman said to her husband.
And here is what a resident of Mineralnye Vody, S.G., said about the burial of the monk-confessor. Didik: “There was no way for the people to get through, no way through. They sang so that everything trembled. I carried the coffin - so light, because my grandfather was small. There were so many cripples at the funeral! We go, and they fall under the coffin. His cross was gold, on a string. When the coffin was hammered, I look, my grandfather's cross glows. He lay as if alive, dry like that.
They say that when the coffin was taken out and carried to the outskirts of the city, four handsome young men approached, with shoulder-length hair, white long-sleeved shirts, black trousers and boots, which in those post-war times was a luxury. They lifted the coffin in their arms and carried it all the way to the cemetery. When they lowered the coffin into the grave, threw a handful of earth, leveled the mound and got ready to go to commemorate, they wanted to invite these young men as well, but they were not among those present. They were very noticeable, but no one saw where they disappeared. Meanwhile, the place around is open, all sides are visible for several kilometers. Many thought then: the angels, perhaps, carried him in the form of young men, and the Forerunner himself performed the funeral?
And after his death, Father Theodosius did not leave his spiritual children. Innumerable miracles are performed on his grave to this day. Machine operators working in the field near the cemetery often saw Fr. Theodosius is a strong glow, as if a pillar of light rises to the sky.
When the servant of God Catherine was praying here together with the elder's novice nun Lydia, she saw three pillars of fire. They went up, and the higher they rose, the brighter they were visible. It was a bad gray day, and above the grave the sky opened up: an unbearably bright square, into which shining pillars flow like three fiery streams.
Sometimes, when the sun rose, people saw a rainbow radiance, the faces of the Savior and the Most Pure, doves. Wonderful birds flew to the grave and sat on the fence.
Servant of God Catherine, who lived nearby, saw how in the morning mist over the cemetery a cathedral appeared with domes that did not look like Russian ones, flatter and more convex. No wonder the grave of the Father was called the "second Jerusalem." When pilgrims came to Batiushka, he said: “We have come to Jerusalem.” According to prophecies, Orthodox Christians hiding in the deserts will converge in Jerusalem at the end of time. It is not for nothing that the Kingdom of God is called the New Jerusalem - a living tabernacle, a sanctuary of the right faith, where the Holy Trinity dwells...
Weird case. When people were returning from the cemetery, after Batiushka's funeral, they met a boy who fervently asked the people, who were overshadowed by something: “Where are you coming from?” - "Yes, they buried Father Theodosius." And the little boy asked again: “Grandfather Kuzyuk?” “Yes,” they answered him. And the boy smiled and said: “I just saw him. He crawled out of the grave, shook off the land from himself and went.
The Monk Theodosius, who took upon himself the exploits of monasticism, eldership and foolishness, was endowed by the Lord with the gift of miracles. People remember that once, through his prayer, during a hot drought, the long-awaited rain came.
And here is how Vladimir Lyashenok from Armavir testifies:
“Once upon a time I was very ill with tuberculosis, and myself, being a doctor, could not be cured of this disease. It progressed, I got worse and worse. Once I went to the grave of Elder Theodosius, read akathists, canons, and prayed. I took earth, water, oil from the grave. I started using them regularly. Went in for an x-ray soon after. And the doctor was surprised - the lungs were completely clean. Now I don't even remember the illness. Glory to the Lord and His saint, the Monk Theodosius!
Many feats and miracles performed by Father Theodosius during his long, long life are hidden from us. Some, by the grace of God, are now being revealed to our sinful gaze for our edification and strengthening.
Before his death, the elder said: “Whoever calls me, I will always be with him ...”
How many more will be healed, how many will be led to faith, how many will be helped by the reverend elder! “Whoever calls me, I will always be with him ...” - the great old man bequeathed.
