For thirty years he served in a huge empty church dedicated to his beloved St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the shores of Lake Peipsi, located in the village of Kamenny End. This is a very deserted place, and although Father Vasily did not accept monasticism, considering himself unworthy of the angelic title, his life was the life of a real hermit.
I had the opportunity to know him personally and to see him at the services he led. These were special services filled with reverence and prayer. He was a very extraordinary person, of great spirit, and his life could become, and most likely will become, the basis for a very deep and interesting book.
The liturgy of Father Vasily could last for hours, he always commemorated everyone who and for whom they asked to pray, only the Great Entrance could last forty-five to fifty minutes with him - the elder commemorated the living and the dead in front of the Chalice.
According to the memoirs of Hieromonk Alexander (Dzyuba), the elder used to pray in such a way that in the cold, unheated altar, in winter, steam came from his body.
To be honest, Father Vasily was a choleric, a man of fiery temperament, and it was not always easy with him, but he always remained a true ascetic equal to the ancient elders, not giving himself a moment's rest. Even a person far from the church, being nearby, could feel his love for people and God and faith - that faith that can work miracles.
Everyone, please pray for the newly-departed Archpriest Vasily.
Comments
Ask a question or express your humble opinion:
13.03.11 Sun 11:56 - `Gerasimov Artem`
Everlasting memory!
In the mid-nineties, by the grace of God, he repeatedly came to the priest in the "Stone End". Traveled with him around the country and abroad. I often had the opportunity to communicate with him. At that time I was young, stupid and hot. Communication with the priest in many ways helped me learn humility and shaped my views on earthly and spiritual life. I learned with bitterness about his death, another great prayer book for the entire Russian land and its people left us.
God rest his soul and grant him the Kingdom of Heaven.
Gerasimov Artem (PAPIruss)
13.03.11 Sun 17:42 - Anonymous
Kingdom of heaven!
Rest, Lord, the Soul of the departed newly-departed servant of Your Archpriest Vasily!
Forgive Him his sins, voluntary and involuntary, known and unknown, forgotten and unconfessed!
And grant Him the Kingdom of Heaven!
17.03.11 Thu 00:30 - `Mezernitsky Larisa and Alexander`
Rest, Lord, the newly-departed servant Basil
The priest was buried on Sunday in the caves of the Pechora Monastery. Batiushki were buried, whom He had blessed at various times for the priesthood.
The Lord gave my wife and I the opportunity to confess to Him, to visit the Holy Land under His care. He married us. A diligent prayer book, Batyushka would get up at night to pray if before going to bed he remembered that he had not mentioned someone in the evening prayers. As already mentioned, he served in a huge church in the village of Stone End. In general, there are very few parishioners, and in the bitter cold in winter there is no one at all .... and the priest serves, alone or together with an old psalmist. Eternal memory to him and we pray the Lord, may he grant the Kingdom of Heaven!
Mezernitsky Larisa and Alexander (These photos are from 1997)
03/21/11 Mon 21:54 - Pilgrimage
"Orthodox" myths about the Great Patriotic War
Nikolai Kaverin, "Holy Fire" No. 13, p.6-10
In connection with the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory of the Russian people in the Great Patriotic War, it is impossible not to note a number of myths related to this era published in church publications. This mythology, not supported by any reference to church or archival sources, roams from book to book. The author of most of these myths is Archpriest Vasily Shvets. His writings were most fully presented in the book "Russia before the Second Coming" (Moscow, 1993, 1994, etc.) - a kind of encyclopedia of Orthodox myth-making, compiled by Sergei Fomin. These myths were also included in the book of Hieromonk Philadelph (Moiseev) "The Zealous Intercessor" (M., 1992).
The narrations of Fr. Vasily Shvets (without reference to any sources!) may appear to be very pious, for they are connected with the Kazan image of the Mother of God, the Intercessor of the Zealous Christian kind, deeply revered by the believing Russian people. However, it is necessary to warn the gullible reader not to blindly trust everything that came out from the pen of Fr. Vasily Shvets and then entered into various collections about the war.
We will not analyze all the described about. Vasily of the event, we note only briefly what cannot correspond to historical truth.
So, for example, according to Prop. V. Shvets, on the advice of the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains Elijah (Karame) (Patriarchate of Antioch), who immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War fervently prayed for the salvation of Russia from enemy invasion, I.V. Stalin, during the siege of Leningrad, met with Metropolitans Alexy (Simansky) and Sergius (Stragorodsky) (p. 273). However, no historical information about such a meeting is found and, as we will see below, it could not have happened. And in general, it is very doubtful that Stalin could consult in 1941 with the bishop of the Church of Antioch, while Stalin received Russian bishops only in 1943. This is akin to another myth cited in the book “Russia before the Second Coming”: “The indisputable fact is the visit to the blessed Matrona in Tsaritsyno in October 1941 by I.V. Stalin” (p. 271). The first historical meeting of Stalin with the three metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church Sergius (Stragorodsky), Alexy (Simansky) and Nikolai (Yarushevich), which radically changed the attitude of the Soviet state towards the Church, took place, as is known, on September 4, 1943. Stalin then spoke highly of the patriotic activities of the Orthodox Church, noted the fact that many letters were received from the front, with the approval of such a position of the clergy and believers, agreed to convene the Council and elect the Patriarch, proposed opening theological academies and schools for the training of clergy, allowed publication of a monthly church magazine (Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate) and ordered to deal with the problem of the release of bishops and clergy in exile, camps and prisons. It was from September 1943 that thousands of churches began to open everywhere, closed earlier during the years of the godless five-year plans.
But back to the writings of Fr. Vasily Shvets. His reports about the procession with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God around besieged Leningrad do not seem plausible, again at the direction of the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains Elijah, which he handed over to the Soviet government (p. 273).
What was besieged Leningrad? Continuous bombing and shelling, hunger and lack of water, pitch darkness and severe frosts in winter - this is the real situation in the city on the Neva, connected only by the "road of life" through Lake Ladoga with the rest of the unoccupied territory of the country. During the blockade, which lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 18, 1943, Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) was constantly in besieged Leningrad, so there was no question of his meeting with Stalin, no matter how much Prot. Vasily Shvets and the compiler of the book "Russia before the Second Coming" was out of the question. Vladyka Alexy constantly celebrated divine services in the cathedral, sharing with the flock entrusted to his care the heroic standing in the besieged city. Vladyka served alone, without a deacon, he himself read the commemoration of “all those who died of hunger and ulcers,” and every evening he served a moleben to St. Nicholas, walking around the cathedral where he lived at that time with a miraculous icon.
Despite the famine and the bombing, the people, exhausted from hunger, went to the cathedral, where their beloved archpastor of the besieged city served. With his pastoral word, Vladyka Alexy supported and comforted his flock in the most difficult time with the hope of an early victory, hope in the Protection of the Mother of God and the heavenly intercession of the patron saint of Leningrad, St. Alexander Nevsky.
Under these circumstances, there were simply no conditions, no opportunity, no strength, no clergy to enclose the procession of the icon of the Mother of God around the city surrounded by the Nazis.
As the Leningrad Dean Archpriest Nikolai Lomakin, who throughout the entire blockade was in constant communication with Metropolitan Alexy, recalled: victory, Christian joy and prayerful consolation in sorrows. Vladyka himself, sometimes ill, at any time of the day received the laity and clergy who came to him. With everyone, he was even, friendly - for everyone he found affection, knew how to encourage the faint-hearted and strengthen the weak. No one left our Lord saddened, not inspired spiritually. Vladyka provided material assistance to many from his personal means; depriving himself, he shared food in a Christian way. Desiring to prayerfully console and spiritually encourage the flock during the difficult days of the siege of Leningrad, Vladyka Alexy often himself buried the laity who had died from starvation, regardless of their faces and setting these burials especially solemnly ”(Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate, 1945, # 4, pp. 26 - 27) .
Only the breaking of the blockade in January 1943 allowed Metropolitan Alexy to travel under the most difficult conditions to meet and consult with Patriarchal Locum Tenens Sergius (Stragorodsky). After the Council of Bishops in 1943, Metropolitan Alexy returned to his suffering city. On November 11, 1943, he was awarded the government medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".
After the publication of the book Russia Before the Second Coming, the pious legend about the flyby in December 1941 of Moscow with the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God is constantly repeated (p. 275). We recall once again that before Stalin's historic meeting with the three metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church in September 1943, there could be no question of any religious propaganda, and even more so among the troops. It is necessary to clearly understand the complexity and tragedy of the situation of the defense of Moscow in October-December 1941 in order to understand that for such a “flight with the icon”, when the Germans were already on the outskirts of the capital, a pilot who dared to do this would expect a merciless sentence from a military tribunal .
Prot. V. Shvets writes that during the defense of Stalingrad, the Kazan icon stood among our troops on the right bank of the Volga, and therefore the Germans failed to defeat our troops: “The famous Battle of Stalingrad began with a prayer service in front of this icon, and only after that was the signal to attack . The icon was brought to the most difficult sectors of the front, where there were critical situations, to places where offensives were being prepared. The priesthood served prayers, the soldiers were sprinkled with holy water...” (p. 275) Describing such an implausible idyll (a huge part of the Russian priesthood at that time was in prisons and camps), Fr. V. Shvets probably confused the Battle of Stalingrad with Borodino. Everything described by Archpriest Vasily simply did not take place, no matter how beautiful and pious it may be read.
According to the testimony of the participants in the Battle of Stalingrad (the father of the writer of these lines fought from the first to the last day as part of the active Red Army and participated in the Battle of Stalingrad as an officer), there was no prayer before the Kazan icon brought before the start of the battle, and indeed the icon itself, was not. The front-line soldiers only testified that in all the surviving Orthodox churches the clergy lifted up prayers for the victory of our army. Let us recall once again that the Battle of Stalingrad took place seven months before the fateful meeting for the Church between Stalin and the three highest hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Kremlin.
There are fewer and fewer direct participants in the battle for Stalingrad and witnesses of those events every year, and the irrepressible imagination of church myth-makers is ready to compose the most ridiculous fables, presenting them as "traditions" and true miracles. And such “traditions” and “miracles” roam from one book to another, distorting the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and belittling the feat of the Russian soldier on the fields of the Great Patriotic War.
Who among the Orthodox can doubt that, through the prayers of the Intercessor of the zealous Christian family, victories were won both near Moscow and near Stalingrad, and there was a breakthrough in the Leningrad blockade. The help of God and the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, to whom all of Russia prayed, helped to break the enemy and led to the glorious victory of our people on the day of St. George the Victorious at Easter 1945.
But when you read in the same book “Russia Before the Second Coming” about the battle for Koenigsberg, the following words: “Just before the Russian assault, “Madonna appeared in the sky” (as they (the Germans) call the Mother of God), which was visible to the entire German army, and absolutely all (the Germans) failed in their weapons - they could not fire a single shot ... During this phenomenon, the Germans fell to their knees, and very many understood what was the matter and who was helping the Russians ”(p. 276), then truly the heroic feat and courage of a Russian soldier turn into cheap and stupidly staged episodes from the movie "The Fall of Berlin" ...
And, finally, we note that the prominent hierarch of our Church, Metropolitan Anthony of Leningrad (Melnikov; +1986), had an extremely negative attitude towards the writings of Archpriest. Vasily Shvets.
The editors of the Holy Fire asked Abbot Sergius (Rybko), rector of the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at the Lazarevsky cemetery, to express his opinion on the events of the Great Patriotic War as presented by Archpriest Vasily Shvets.
“I believe that Father Vasily’s stories about the Great Patriotic War, published by him in the late 80s, are not entirely plausible. I would even say that Father Vasily writes or tells unhealthy things. Of course, maybe he is “a spectator of God revelations "and it was revealed to him alone, but the fact is that the facts that he speaks of are not historically confirmed. None of the contemporaries of Father Vasily confirms the information he cites about prayers and processions near Moscow and Stalingrad. There was a completely different era, and, in my opinion, it was simply impossible at that time. If what Father Vasily describes was possible, then the “perestroika” and the second “baptism of Russia” would have begun much earlier, even under Stalin! the fact of the matter is that we know that after the historic meeting of 1943 in the Kremlin, there were repressions of the clergy in 1949, priests and believers in general were imprisoned again. knew a priest who took his rank at the age of seventy and spent the entire war in Moscow. He was a pious man from his youth who attended the temple of God. And when the whole “story” with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was told to him in front of me, with a procession, thanks to which the Nazi offensive near Moscow was supposedly stopped, he listened, paused and said: “Very sweetly said ... you didn’t live then and do not know". So, in his opinion, this could not be, he directly expressed distrust and rejection in relation to the “facts” cited by Fr. Vasily".Now these stories about. Vasily about the defense of Moscow and Stalingrad are published in many books, but for some reason only he was the "witness" of them. There are no other witnesses! But this is not enough for church history. The fact must be confirmed by someone else who has seen the same thing. After all, these events “did not take place in a corner” (Acts 26:26).
Healthy skepticism in the Church is essential. Otherwise, any crook will simply deceive us, invent some kind of “pious” stories. The Orthodox faith is nevertheless distinguished by reasoning, and the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of wisdom; Spirit of Reason,” as the Church sings on the day of Pentecost. Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov says that any teaching, the word of any preacher, teacher, spiritual father must be verified by the Holy Fathers. If the writings of Basil Shvets believe St. Fathers, especially the teaching of St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov (remember his word “On miracles and signs”), then the stories of Fr. Basil are more likely to approach false miracles than to the miracles of God.
What he wrote and spoke about. Basil, are just pious tales that have no spiritual meaning. I believe that it is a sin to believe such things, no one and nothing confirmed.
Of course, the Mother of God participated in the fate of our Motherland, there were Her appearances during the Great Patriotic War, but what Fr. Basil, I have very big doubts.
=====================================
This is quite plausible: even the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” (1948, # 1) wrote about his prayers for the victory of the Russian people in the war against fascism, because many Christians at that time around the world offered up prayers for the victory of the Red Army.
The following miraculous phenomenon during the Battle of Stalingrad seems quite reliable. At the most critical moment of the battle, the fighters of one of the units of the army of General Chuikov saw a Sign in the night sky of Stalingrad, indicating the salvation of the city, the army and the imminent victory of the Soviet troops. This phenomenon is recorded in the archives. See: GARF. F. 6991. Op. 2. D.16. L. 105.
anchoret.front.ru/myth.htm
27.07.17 Thu 20:26 - Anonymous
Please tell me where Father Vasily Shvets lies in Pechory
Please, tell me where Father Vasily Shvets lies in Pechory - my confessor, who opened Life and my whole family (46) to me and my whole family (46), the person who provided for me, I was not next to him at the funeral, and only now, I hope to get to him - July 31 2017, but I don’t know where to look for it there ...
01/25/18 Thu 13:58 - Priest Sergius
The site "Tree" Open Orthodox Encyclopedia says
Page address: http://drevo-info.ru/articles/18234.html
"He died on the night of March 11, 2011 in the Pskov Pechory. 20 days before his death, there were severe pains for three days, then the pain subsided. For the last 17 days of his life, he did not eat anything, did not drink for 7 days, but until the last day he experienced Easter joy, he tried to sing "The Resurrection of Christ having seen..." Before his death, he prayed intensely, tried to be baptized.At the end he took a deep breath three times and breathed his last.
On March 13 of the same year, a funeral service was held in the Sretenskaya Church of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. He was buried in the Pskov-Caves Monastery in a separate crypt.
Arriving there, ask, they will show you.
21.09.18 Fri 09:58 - Anonymous
Ascetic? - Yes, saint? - No
My godson and I visited Father Vasily in 1986, in the summer. The service lasted 9 hours. In various parts, the priest inserted numerous akathists, kathismas and canons, which is why it took so long. I got the impression that the priest was an ascetic athlete and his small flock, admirers from Moscow and Leningrad, the same ascetic athletes. Yes, I was like that at the time. Ascetic athletes are people who have read about the exploits of the ancient elders \ for example, 1000 days of standing on the stone of Seraphim of Sorovsky, or Stylite Simeon \ tried to imitate them. The result: wrinkled eyebrows, drawn lips, closed mind, hostility towards non-ascetics, condemnation of "worldly people", dislike of one's neighbor, and a very strange love of God imbued with ego. They always quote "the kingdom of God is taken by force", while forgetting that "my burden is light". In short, there was no true Christian humility, surrender to the will of God and trust in God and the feeling that holiness is given by God, and not achieved by personal efforts. Fortunately, the Lord brought me out of this delusion.
Q&A for the month
- 17206 It's a matter of time
1 day 3 hours ago - 17234 You can safely put candles
1 day 6 hours ago - 17231 Confession heals the Orthodox,
1 day 6 hours ago - 17233 You think right! And still need
1 day 6 hours ago - 17232 Loving others in general
1 day 6 hours ago - 17234 How to behave in church?
1 day 22 hours ago - 17232 Relations with parents
1 day 22 hours ago - 17231 Hello. My girlfriend
2 days 6 hours ago - 17222 Masturbation
2 days 13 hours ago - 17222
2 days 22 hours ago - 17198 Change faith.
3 days 20 hours ago - 17224 Hello 6 days ago father-in-law was buried
4 days 5 hours ago - 17220 Who is not without sin, let
4 days 8 hours ago - 16750 This is demonism.
4 days 9 hours ago - 17198 Thank you very much
4 days 9 hours ago - 17221 Listen to your husband - he is good for you
4 days 9 hours ago - 17198 To love a husband.
4 days 13 hours ago - 17219 The bed of the deceased.
4 days 13 hours ago - 17222 Masturbation.
4 days 13 hours ago - 17223 Explain the question
4 days 14 hours ago - 17223 Can the godmother widow
4 days 16 hours ago - 17221 Crowned but not painted
4 days 20 hours ago - 17220 Can I be a godmother
5 days 3 hours ago - 17219 Stepfather's funeral
5 days 8 hours ago - 17218 Churching
5 days 9 hours ago - 17218 Orthodoxy
5 days 10 hours ago - 17210 You are extremely categorical.
5 days 11 hours ago - 17210 A torn phrase.
5 days 17 hours ago - 17210 About frequent communion
5 days 19 hours ago - 17210 Link to the book.
5 days 20 hours ago - 17165 Turn my words
5 days 20 hours ago - 17195 God will tell
5 days 21 hours ago - 17210 Fear of God, which not everyone has
5 days 21 hours ago - 17195 Right! Natalia!
5 days 23 hours ago - 17217 Hello. I wanted to
5 days 23 hours ago - 17210 Fear of God.
5 days 23 hours ago - 17206 "Pray to the slain monks"
6 days 3 hours ago - 17206 Drive to Optina
6 days 4 hours ago - 17195 Being with God
6 days 4 hours ago - 17215 First confession
6 days 4 hours ago - 17214 What is really needed,
6 days 5 hours ago - 17215 First confession
6 days 6 hours ago - 17214 Question with the priest about the funeral
6 days 7 hours ago - 17165 Holy Fathers vs cartoons on YouTube
6 days 7 hours ago - 17195 Mt 7:21 Not everyone who speaks
6 days 7 hours ago - 17210 Shmch. Cyprian turned
6 days 7 hours ago - 17165 This is the book you really need to read.
6 days 11 hours ago - 17195 Obey at a glance! BUT
6 days 12 hours ago - 17210 Communication with demons
6 days 12 hours ago - 16581 About the salvation of the ignorant
6 days 22 hours ago - 17213 The role of the priest is small, the main thing is God
1 week 2 hours ago - 17213 Hello, father. Me
1 week 3 hours ago - 17165 Youtube sermons
1 week 8 hours ago - 17212 Good day! wanted
1 week 8 hours ago - I have no personal data. Does not provide profile photos. I think that almost everyone went through our courtyard in Moscow
1 week 12 hours ago - 17194 Thank you very much!!! bless
1 week 14 hours ago - 17165 Thanks for the info,
1 week 20 hours ago - 16575 The husband is against taking his nephew from the orphanage
1 week 21 hours ago - Please clarify
1 week 22 hours ago - There were about 10 tonsures, maybe 12. Mostly in the mantle, few monastics
1 week 23 hours ago - 17165 Where did you get this statement from?
1 week 1 day ago - 17210 Strange churching
1 week 1 day ago - 17194 About the coming of demons to the dying
1 week 1 day ago - 16635 Prayer from the funeral service
1 week 1 day ago - 17194 Very valuable information for
1 week 1 day ago - 17202 What to do.
1 week 1 day ago - 17210 Young man.
1 week 1 day ago - 17165 Slavery to sin.
1 week 1 day ago - 17209 Theft and repentance
1 week 1 day ago - 15783 Pyramid
1 week 1 day ago - 17126 Reverence before the shrine
1 week 2 days ago - 17124 Sins before Baptism
1 week 2 days ago - 16138 Confession and repentance
1 week 2 days ago - 15727 Marks of the Antichrist
1 week 2 days ago - 17208 Well, give this to your aunt
1 week 2 days ago - 17165 It is clear that not immediately
1 week 2 days ago - 17207 Children often see what
1 week 2 days ago - 17209 I did not very good
1 week 2 days ago - 17208 Bless the father. My
1 week 3 days ago - God save you
1 week 3 days ago - 17207 Icon of Jesus Christ
1 week 3 days ago - 17206 It is better to rely on God, and not on medicine
1 week 3 days ago - 17117 Husband is a drug addict. Tyrant
1 week 3 days ago - National restrictions in Rusik are lifted, Thank God!
1 week 3 days ago - № 17165 Life to build.
1 week 3 days ago - Are they cutting now?
1 week 3 days ago - 17206 Question about infertility
1 week 3 days ago - 17205 slowly became an ITist - who are they?
1 week 4 days ago - 17205 Hello, advise
1 week 4 days ago - 15727 Would Christ take biometrics?
1 week 4 days ago - 17178 There are parents of other faiths or
1 week 4 days ago - 17165 Of course, the rules
1 week 4 days ago - 15727 Is it possible or not? Answer
1 week 4 days ago - ROC and OPC will make friends
1 week 5 days ago - 17117 Well, you know better, at the end
1 week 5 days ago - 17204 And you go last, and then
1 week 5 days ago - 17117 I will say a few words with my
1 week 5 days ago - Church economy
1 week 5 days ago - St. Panteleimon Monastery
1 week 5 days ago - 17193 Particle of the Olive (Oleonic)
1 week 5 days ago - 17202 Dealing with a mother's curse
1 week 5 days ago - 17203 Mirrors and floor
1 week 6 days ago - 17202 mother's curse
1 week 6 days ago - 17201 Do not believe! Do you pray? Do you go to the temple?
1 week 6 days ago - 17201 I was prophesied for death
1 week 6 days ago - 17197 Son gets mad from games
2 weeks 7 hours ago - 17194 I'm not a father, and so, my
2 weeks 7 hours ago - 17190 All kinds of reasons can be
2 weeks 7 hours ago - 17200 goddaughter (aka niece)
2 weeks 9 hours ago - 17124 For your repentance, this sin Gd forgave you in Baptism. But you can ask a priest for penance, although your repentance itself is also a kind of penance
2 weeks 9 hours ago - 17160
2 weeks 9 hours ago - 17180 Yes, now they are getting married again. Contact the temple, they will explain to you how to do it.
2 weeks 9 hours ago - You can ride, but you can take communion only in the Panteleimon Monastery
2 weeks 10 hours ago - 17194 Thank you, father, for the answer...
2 weeks 20 hours ago - 17199 The child constantly breaks something
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17196 A candle is a symbol of prayer.
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17199 The child has no protection
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17194 Now superstition
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17165 Communion drives away damage
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17188 Masturbation and others
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17198 Love for husband
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17197 Good evening in our family
2 weeks 1 day ago - 17196 Hello..I'm Margarita
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17185 Thank you very much! bless
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17195 What to do if 5 children and a husband
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17194 In the church shop of our
2 weeks 2 days ago
2 weeks 2 days ago- 17187 Head, incl. teacher
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17178 Would you advise
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17191 Any size cross can be
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17158 Divorce as a legal act
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17184 As far as I know,
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17185 Hello!
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17193 Good evening I will have two
2 weeks 2 days ago - 17192 Can a demon be baptized in a demon-possessed person?
2 weeks 3 days ago - 17191 Pectoral cross
2 weeks 3 days ago - 17189 Godparents cannot be changed. Yes
2 weeks 3 days ago - 17187 Children must be educated, otherwise
2 weeks 3 days ago - 17190 feeling of emptiness
2 weeks 4 days ago - 17189
On March 10, 2011, Fr. Vasily Shvets.
ARCHPRIEST VASILY FEDOSEEVICH SHVETS (1913 - 2011)
On March 10, 2011, Archpriest Vasily Fedoseevich Shvets, one of the oldest priests of our Church, an out-of-staff cleric of the Pskov diocese, completed the feat of earthly life. He lived for 98 years, his life began in pre-revolutionary Russia, his childhood fell on the time of the Civil War, in his youth he survived dispossession, fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. He was fond of secular life for a long time, late responded to God's calling, but the Lord gave him to serve for many years with ardent zeal. He took holy orders at the age of 50 and served at the throne for 48 years, enduring all the hardships of Khrushchev's persecution. After 1990, having left the state, for many years he was engaged in active missionary work as a confessor of pilgrimage groups on trips to the shrines of Orthodoxy around the world.
The Lord endowed him with the gift of apostolic preaching, so he directed a great many people on the path of spiritual life, helped them gain faith, hope, and love. Many of the spiritual children treated him as a blessed elder. And this is not a subjective opinion - there is a lot of evidence of grace-filled help to people in the most difficult spiritual, mental and bodily ailments through the prayers of Father Vasily.
Father Vasily loved to reminisce about his life, his stories have been preserved in many records, so the appearance of the biography of the priest is a matter of a short time. In the meantime, let's briefly outline the main milestones of his life path.
He was born on February 24 / March 9, 1913 in the village of Stavnitsy, Letichevsk district, Khmelnytsky region, into a family of pious peasants. That year, Forgiveness Sunday fell on February 24, so Father Vasily traditionally celebrated his birthday not on March 9, but on Forgiveness Sunday. Vasily's parents, Theodosius Kondratievich (1881–1929) and Agafya Nikitichna (1883–1963), were peasants. The first three children of Agafya Nikitichna died in infancy. She cried a lot and prayed. Every year I went on foot to Kyiv and twice to Pochaev. At home, she constantly read the lives of the saints and other spiritual literature. With the future o. Basil in the womb went to Pochaev, and on the way back she carried the icon of St. Nicholas. Vasily was born a hero, more than 6 kg. weight. In addition to him, the family had three more children: Irina (b. 1903), Pelagia (b. 1907) and Trofim (b. 1910).
Vasily's grandfather, Kondraty Shvets, was a reader in the church, very pious, had a large spiritual library. Maternal grandfather (Nikita Shumilo) served in the army for 25 years, in 1812 he took Paris. For 26 years he was the foreman of the volost, which included 22 villages, he knew all the widows, orphans, how much bread they had in the winter. He especially loved children - he gave them sweets, whistles, he was very kind and strong. He had big fishing grounds, bred fish in ponds. He was also a good craftsman - a blacksmith and a carpenter.
Father was the headman of the temple, distinguished by strength and health, but he died not old - during a fire he overstrained himself when he tore down the gates of a burning barn. The father worked more with his eldest son, and the younger Vasily was a favorite of his mother, constantly helping her in gardening and trading in the market. Once, during a fire, he was forgotten in a burning house. At the last moment, his father carried him in his arms through the fire. The family spoke Ukrainian.
Agafya Nikitichna was very zealous for prayer, for the church, she was a sister at the church, baked prosphora, rolled candles, cleaned the church, and did charity work with the blessing of the priest. During dispossession, Agafya Nikitichna ran away at night through a window, swam across the Bug, walked about 100 km, took a train and went to the White Sea, then lived in Leningrad.
Vasily had no friends in childhood, he worked a lot around the house, he was very tired, he did not go for a walk on the street. He himself was of an athletic build, possessed great strength, at the age of 12 he learned to be a blacksmith, quickly learned to forge scythes, sickles, knives, and shoe horses. He wanted to establish his own forge, but the family fell under dispossession and all plans were violated. He had an excellent memory, he easily counted in his mind, memorized various texts, but he was not interested in science. Vasily was more attracted to the theater and the circus. Once he was struck by wandering clown acrobats, after which he himself began to secretly engage in acrobatics from everyone.
From childhood he was very silent and abstemious. When he was sent to a tree to pick cherries, he did not eat a single one until he had picked up the norm (1 or 3 buckets), and then he climbed a tree and ate himself plenty.
In 1929, his father died, and Vasily went to the Donbass, worked at the Kondratieff mine and studied at an evening school for working youth. His mother, who came to visit, saw miners with black faces rise from the mine, and did not even recognize her son. She forbade Vasily to work in the mine, and he entered a technical school with a degree in hot metal working in a mining village near Luhansk. He was expelled from the technical school: it turned out that he came from a family of kulaks, in addition, it turned out that Vasily added two years to himself in the documents in order to be allowed to work in the mine. In January 1931, from the Donbass, he came to his mother and entered the Vygozero shipping company as an artel sailor. One season on the White Sea he went as a sailor on a geodetic expedition to the islands, where they determined the exact coordinates (he was then 18 years old). I went to the Black Sea Fleet, but could not get a job.
In 1932, Vasily Fedoseevich graduated from the evening school for working youth and, according to him, studied at the artillery school for a year and a half. During a medical examination, he was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. In addition, at the same time, the checking authorities found out his "kulak" origin. After that, cadet Vasily Shvets was formally expelled from the school for health reasons, but in reality - for non-proletarian origin.
Then he entered construction No. 202 LVO, where he worked until 1936 as a supply forwarder and head of a blacksmith and locksmith workshop.
From 1936 to January 1938, Vasily Fedoseevich served in the Red Army in the city of Slantsy, Leningrad Region. He served as a quartermaster, having discovered excellent abilities in this field: he could negotiate with any person, he could get everything necessary for a military unit. Here he continued his favorite pastime: he performed a lot on stage with clowning and acrobatics, he knew dozens of poems by Russian poets, many entertaining stories. In Slantsy, he met his future wife, Olga Konstantinovna Dmitrieva (b. 1916), who worked as an accountant in a military unit.
According to Father Vasily, in 1939-1940. he participated in the "Winter War" with Finland. However, this fact is not reflected in the work book (post-war), - it is written that from 1938 to 1941 he worked as the head of supply for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Construction No. 200 in Leningrad.
Between the Finnish and the Great Patriotic War, he participated in the construction of a fortified area on the Baltic Sea - "New Kronstadt" on the Soikinsky Peninsula, near the present Kingisepp. Supervised the work of hundreds of prisoners. It struck him that many condemned men were imprisoned without any fault, and he tried to help them in any way he could. He bought fish for the dining room from Estonians, for which he was accused of having connections with the Finns, and arrested. He managed to justify himself, and then he met the scammer and showed him the text of the denunciation. Batiushka recalled: “I thank God that He kept me from wanting to take revenge on this man for meanness.”
At the beginning of the war, the Germans began to bomb the fortified area. There was complete confusion, confusion, nervousness. Everyone ran and asked each other what to do? No one wanted to take responsibility for the evacuation, everyone was waiting for the order from their superiors, but no order was received.
Then Vasily Fedoseevich took upon himself the organization of the evacuation of people, weapons, equipment at his own peril and risk. He instructed to prepare wagons, load people, from strategic stocks he gave food to each wagon. Then the equipment and inventory were loaded. In addition, he took out a train of prisoners so that they would not be shot before the arrival of the Germans.
It was a difficult time - people lived in an atmosphere of fear, everyone was afraid of responsibility, because they knew that for any wrong action they could immediately be shot, accused of sabotage or treason. This happened with Vasily Fedoseevich: he was accused of plundering the strategic reserves of the base - these are the very products that were loaded into wagons with people so that they would not starve on the way. “If I hadn’t removed these stocks,” Father Vasily recalled, “the Germans would have got them.” Fortunately, this time he managed to justify himself.
Before the war, Vasily Fedoseevich did not show religious zeal, he hid his faith. At that time, Komsomol members were often on duty at the temples, and if they noticed a young man leaving the temple, they immediately checked the documents - all this could end up in one of the GULAG islands. He was fond of acrobatics, clowning, variety art, ballroom dancing. He did not join the Komsomol, he was not an atheist, but he left the temple, after leaving home he did not take communion for 10 years.
At the beginning of the war, all servicemen with non-Russian surnames were arrested, and Vasily Fedoseevich was also arrested, because. decided that he had a German surname (Shvets). I had to prove to the illiterate special officers that the surname was Ukrainian. He visited his arrested officer friends in prison, carried them packages, although it was very dangerous.
At the end of the summer of 1941, Vasily Fedoseevich was sent as deputy head of one of the four parties on an expedition to the North in order to outline the route of the future railway from the place where there were many prisoner camps, along the shortest path to the interior of the country. This was done in order to be able to take out the prisoners if the Germans came close. Stalin understood that among the many prisoners there were many who would take up arms in order to overthrow the hated regime. The expedition included geologists, surveyors, and railroad workers. They landed outside Vorkuta. During the summer and autumn they traveled about a thousand kilometers. Here Vasily Fedoseevich almost died - he got stuck in a swamp almost to the neck, and then he remembered the prayer, turning to the Lord: “Lord, if I stay alive, I promise You that I will serve You, ... I will serve You, just don’t let me drown here! ". At that moment, one foot stood on something solid, then the other foot found support.
After the completion of the expedition, the expedition members were sent to re-form in Western Siberia. On the way, Vasily Fedoseevich missed his train, and for this he was supposed to be shot. With God's help, he still managed to catch up with his squad.
During the war, Vasily Fedoseevich organized a troupe that constantly performed in front of the soldiers with acrobatic and power numbers, clowning, and sang funny ditties about Hitler. Once, during a performance, Vasily Fedoseevich juggled two-pound weights. The army commander, who was sitting in the hall, did not believe that the weights were real, went on stage to expose the “strong man”. However, he was barely able to lift these weights from the floor to the laughter of all those gathered. Then the army commander said loudly: “Since we have such heroes, no one can defeat us! I present our hero to the medal "For Courage" and order to give him double rations! After this incident, he was given double rations until the end of the war.
Vasily Fedoseevich was at the front from February 1942 to May 1945 - junior sergeant of the 1061st rifle regiment of the 272nd rifle division. He did not have a single wound, although he was at the forefront of the war, in a mortar division. At the end of the war, he was left in the occupying forces until further notice. He performed on stage in front of the Germans and the Allies.
He was demobilized in November 1945 from Germany after a heart attack on stage, when he spoke to the allied command with a power number: the Russian hero raised four German girls on his little finger.
Returning to Leningrad after demobilization, Vasily Fedoseevich could not get a job for a long time until he met with his brother-soldier, who offered him a prestigious and well-paid job as head of supply of the Lenshveypromsoyuz of the Leningrad trade cooperation. At this time, his gradual conversion to the path of spiritual service began. A milestone in the life of Vasily Fedoseevich was the story of the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains Elijah (Karam) during his stay in Leningrad (in 1947). He told how the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos saved Russia during the Great Patriotic War. In 1948 he received a gospel as a gift.
After that, he left commerce and, on the recommendation of his friend Semyon Lukich, in 1948 got a job as a preparator at the Central Radiological Radiological and Cancer Institute and at the same time studied at the courses of X-ray-photo-macro-micro ... In 1949 he moved to the Institute of Oncology of the Academy Medical Sciences, laboratory assistant of the X-ray department.
Having completed the courses of a photographer-radiologist, Vasily Fedoseevich from 02/27/1950 to 02/10/1955 served as head of the Photo-macro-microlaboratory at the 1st Medical Institute. Being an experienced supplier, Vasily Fedoseevich got hold of unique German equipment and created the best histological laboratory in the country (for photographing sections of body tissues, tumors, micro and macro). Scientists and doctors from all over the country came to him to prepare material for dissertations, paid for help in the work - this money was later spent on restoring the temple in Kamenny End. Here he met the students of Academician Pavlov. Their stories about a deeply religious academician made a huge impression on Vasily Fedoseevich.
A revolution in the consciousness of Vasily Fedoseevich was made by a visit to the elder Seraphim Vyritsky in 1949 - they talked all night. The elder prophesied about the fate of Russia and the Orthodox Church. Father Seraphim blessed Vasily Fedoseevich to settle in Vyritsa, after which he bought half of the house in the village.
01/27/1952 Vasily Fedoseevich married Olga Konstantinovna. She waited for him throughout the war. They were married in the Trinity Church on Spasskaya Street in Leningrad on February 6, 1952, Fr. Boris Nikolaevsky was married under the rector, Father Filofey Polyakov. Subsequently, with the blessing of the elder Simeon of Pskov-Pechersk, the couple began to live as brother and sister. And when the husband went to work in the church as a psalm reader in order to prepare for the adoption of the priesthood, the wife filed for divorce - she was persuaded to do so by the sisters.
Since that time, faith and the Church have become the main content of his life, Vasily Fedoseevich closely communicated with many elders: the Monk Seraphim of Vyritsky, Kuksha of Odessa, Simeon of Pskov-Pechersk, Amphilochius of Pochaevsky. He knew closely the Valaam elders who lived in the Pskov-Caves Monastery.
In 1954, Vasily Fedoseevich first came to Pechory, confessed to the elder Simeon, and from that moment began to come to him constantly. The elder accepted him among his spiritual children. Every summer, Vasily Fedoseevich came to Pechory and worked there. Father Simeon allowed him to live in his workshop - according to the father, this was one of the happiest periods in his life. The elder often talked with him until late, talking about the spiritual, about his life. Many of the photographs that adorn the lives of St. Simeon, made by Vasily Fedoseevich.
Once he came to Father Simeon in Pechory, in his briefcase there were x-rays and photographs for other people's dissertations. The elder looked at them and asked: “Is this from living people?” Vasily Fedoseevich answered: "No, from the dead." The elder said: “You take care of the dead, but the living perish! We need priests." “I’m already old,” objected Vasily Fedoseevich, to which the elder said that no one counted years with God. Elder Simeon blessed him for the priesthood, predicting a long life. Indeed, Father Vasily served in the holy order for 48 years, although he was ordained at the age of 50. Fulfilling the blessing of the elder, he decided to become a priest, but many more events had happened before that.
One of the signals that it was time to leave science and start serving God was a search that the police arranged in his laboratory. There were spiritual books, icons, shrines - everything was taken away in the absence of the owner. He was summoned for a conversation, during which Vasily Fedoseevich sternly demanded that everything that the authorities seized from the office be returned, saying that all spiritual books were bought in second-hand bookshops, as evidenced by stamps indicating the price. They wanted to convict him of religiosity and intimidate him, but nothing came of them - and the books were returned and apologized.
Once in Vyritsa, at the dacha, Vasily Fedoseevich prayed: “Lord, send me a person who needs help.” Just then, he hears a knock on the door. It turned out that these were gypsies, of whom there are many in Vyritsa, who came to beg. Vasily Fedoseevich was surprised, he prayed: “Lord, whom did you send me?” He asked the gypsies if they were baptized, if they had crosses, he spoke about faith and the church. And then he said: “Now I will give you whatever you ask.” The gypsies asked him only for crosses and took nothing else. From this case, Fr. Vasily concluded that the Lord calls him to help people not materially, but spiritually.
In 1955, Vasily Fedoseevich resigned from the institute and began preparations for accepting the priesthood. To do this, he served as a psalm reader in the churches of Leningrad: at Smolensk and Volkovo cemetery, in the Kazan church in the village of Vyritsa, where he became close to many spiritual children of St. Seraphim Vyritsky. In 1956, Vasily Fedoseevich entered the Leningrad Theological Seminary. After a brief full-time study, he moved to the correspondence department. But he was soon closed, and he took the exams for the seminary as an external student in 1958.
In 1963, already 50 years old, Vasily Fedoseevich was ordained a deacon by Archbishop John of Pskov on August 28 and a priest on September 24, celibate, because. wife filed for divorce. And from October 4, 1963, Fr. Vasily became the rector of the St. Nicholas Church with. Kamenny End of the Gdovsky district of the Pskov region. He deliberately chose the poorest and most remote parish in order to work hard and restore the destroyed temple. The temple is huge even for a city: a quarter is 25 by 25 meters, a bell tower is 70 meters, the dome of the temple is 45 meters. Here he proved to be a tireless worker. He repaired the temple with his own hands, he himself earned money for repairs. He built scaffolding, painted the dome, repaired and painted the roof. This feature was preserved in him until old age, and at the age of 70 he forged a staircase in the shape of a dome with a sledgehammer and installed it, at 75 he painted a cross on the dome at a height of 70 meters. At 79, he traveled three times to Pskhu, high in the mountains in Abkhazia in the Caucasus. He served there 10, and the second time - 11 liturgies, baptized and married all those living in the vicinity. He traveled to Georgia to the Georgian Patriarch for permission to build a temple on Pskhu in Abkhazia.
During the restoration of the temple (1963-1970), the parishioners were mostly local residents, there was a good choir, only a few of his old acquaintances came to Sunday services. Liturgy was served only on Sundays and holidays. On weekdays, the priest was engaged in the repair of the church, went to Leningrad for materials or for money, continued to take photos for dissertations in order to earn money for the restoration of the temple.
In the 1970s, the surrounding villages were empty, but the temple was filled with visiting pilgrims. From the very beginning of his service in the holy rank, Father Vasily began to travel throughout the country (Leningrad, Moscow, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Estonia, etc.), everywhere he gathered people, talked, held unction, served prayers - many were healed from the most difficult spiritual and bodily ailments and began to go on pilgrimages to the Stone End. Father Vasily treated the suffering with simple folk remedies, combined with fasting, prayer and participation in church sacraments.
Batiushka often baptized those who came right in Lake Peipus. It happened more than once that the spouses who arrived in Kamenny End received 5 sacraments on the same day: baptism, chrismation, confession, communion and wedding.
After 15 years of service in Kamenny End, Fr. Vasily was offered to become a priest in his beloved Pyukhtitsky monastery. He really wanted to serve in this monastery of the Most Pure One. There was already an agreement, they promised to send a priest to replace it. Before leaving Fr. Vasily rode a bicycle to the temple to say goodbye to the parishioners, but on the way he fell and broke his leg. The priest recalled this moment in his life: “The pain is terrible, I lie on the ground and say: I thank You, Lord, for enlightening me, a madman! I'm not going anywhere!" If Father Vasily had transferred, then the temple in Kamenny End would have been closed. I had to serve the Easter service on crutches, with a cast.
Since the 1980s, Fr. Vasily arranges a skete with a strict charter at the temple, several people constantly live here. Liturgy is often served, many pilgrims come - up to 50 people every Sunday. In the 1980s, the priest regularly went to confession to Father Kirill (Pavlov) at the Lavra.
Life about. Vasily at the parish was restless: constant conflicts with the commissioner, calls to the authorities, threats, fines for baptizing and serving prayers in neighboring villages at home, for building a gatehouse at the temple, for religious processions ... The authorities forced the ruling bishop to send Fr. Vasily to retire by age, about which the decree came. Batiushka hid this decree in his wallet and continued to serve. Vladyka was pleased with this outcome.
Many times, almost every year, there were attempts to rob the temple. The robbers fired a gun, and the guards threw stones at them from the bell tower. After the first robbery attempts, Fr. Vasily decided to spend the night in the temple, made a couch between the altars, but usually did not sleep, but prayed all night. When he left, helpers prayed all night in the temple. All the valuable icons in the surrounding churches were stolen, one watchman was burned along with the temple, the other was tied to a table and thrust into a closet, he was found only three days later. And in Stone End, thieves have never been able to get inside the temple.
For diligent service he received awards: 1972 - kamilavka, 1973 - the title of archpriest, 1975 - a pectoral cross, 1986 - club.
Leaving the state on November 1, 1990, Fr. Until 1995, Vasily often, almost as before, went to serve in Kamenny End. Then he lived for several years in Moscow, near Pererva, in the apartment of his spiritual children. The last years he lived in Pechory. The main content of his life during these years was missionary work throughout the country and in constant pilgrimages to holy places abroad. Batiushka was the confessor of many pilgrimage trips to Jerusalem and the holy places of Greece, Italy, and Poland.
SPIRITUAL APPEARANCE
Father Vasily stood out for his constant ardent prayerful mood, for many years he prayed at night with tears. Even in the cold altar, during prayer, he was drenched in sweat. Many times he was offered monastic vows, but he refused and said: “I’m already a monk in spirit, and if I’m tonsured, you won’t see me anymore (he understood monasticism as a retreat). Let me stay as I am."
The elders advised him to sit still in Kamenny End and serve the Liturgy every day, but Fr. Basil saw his main calling in the apostolic sermon, and everyone who had the good fortune to communicate with him can agree with this. He really had the gift of apostolic preaching, the gift of kindling the fire of the gospel faith in the hearts. How many people he brought to the temple, healed from bad habits (smoking, drunkenness), turned from lukewarm people into zealous Christians. Hundreds of priests and monks now say that Fr. Vasiliy.
Batiushka was a wonderful storyteller, often spending the whole night in conversations with pilgrims. His edifying spiritual stories resonated in the hearts of many, many, listening to them, hundreds of people turned to repentance, embarked on the path of a zealous spiritual life. Although in his stories he did not always follow exact facts, but these stories conveyed the spiritual essence of what was happening better than a consistent presentation of events.
Batiushka was distinguished by his extremely reverent and earnest performance of divine services. And from all those present he demanded strict silence, obligatory bows at the trisagion and at “come and worship ...”. The service lasted for 8-10 hours, and sometimes up to 16 hours.
Father Vasily served the Divine Liturgy almost daily, trying not to miss a single day even during his numerous trips around the country.
At Kamenny End in the evening, when all the work was done, they read the evening prayers first, then the 9th hour, Vespers, and 3 canons for communion. After Vespers, Father Vasily began confession and an endlessly long sermon-conversation almost until the morning. At night, the priest remained in the altar, praying there alone. He went to bed already in the morning, or even did not sleep at all, he loved the night prayer.
At 7 o'clock in the morning, morning prayers were read and 3 statutory kathismas were read. Usually, later on, akathists were still read, until the priest was ready to begin matins. Next came matins, hours, after hours they read something again, while Father Vasily commemorated the endless synodics (he performed the proskomidia at matins). Matins was always served only in the morning. After Matins, the Divine Liturgy was served. The service ended late - at 3-4 o'clock in the afternoon. On Saturday, after the Liturgy, a full memorial service was served. Evening prayers were read before dinner.
Great Lent during the first week and from Passion Thursday were served daily. The rest of the weeks of Great Lent, Fr. Vasily traveled around the country, gathered people, unctioned everyone, and served in the church only on Saturdays and Sundays.
During the first week of Great Lent, food was not eaten for the first three days. All Fridays and the first three days of Passion Week were also starving.
Father Vasily himself was a faster, and taught strict fasting to all who came to him. After the war, he stopped eating meat, and soon eggs. After becoming a priest, he stopped eating dairy products. I stopped eating eggs after the words of Blessed Ekaterina Pyukhtitskaya: “And a chicken also turns out from a testicle.” Even on Bright Week, before the Liturgy, he strictly fasted. I only eat fish at Easter. I never drank tea or coffee. He hardly ate salt so that he would not be thirsty. He did not eat food during the first and Passion Week of Great Lent, all Fridays and on the eve of all festive services. Slept as little as possible.
He was an implacable opponent of drunkenness and smoking - it happened that even when visiting the clergy he threw bottles off the table. He demanded from everyone to give up addictions, and with his prayer, many succeeded.
Until a very old age, the priest retained vigor and strength. He never gave himself injections, did not take pharmaceutical drugs, was treated only with folk remedies.
He tried to catch and release the fly, and if he killed, he made penitent bows.
The basis of his life was service - to God and people. Vasily served in such a way that fire was felt - spiritual fire, spiritual strength. The priest had human infirmities, but the strength of the spirit, the strength of prayer, service - all this is from God.
Father Vasily was a man of fiery temperament, and it was not always easy with him, but he always remained a true ascetic equal to the ancient elders, not giving himself a moment's rest. Even a person far from the church, being nearby, could feel his love for people and God and faith - that faith that can work miracles. More than once about Vasily, with his advice and participation, had a decisive influence on the life and fate of many people.
By character, liveliness and active attitude to life, he had to be constantly among the people. He was truly a people's elder, he constantly traveled to nearby cities - to Slantsy, Narva, and to distant places - to Leningrad, Moscow, Volgograd, to Moldova, to Ukraine - wherever he had been during the years of his long life!
He healed many from cancer, from other bodily and mental illnesses by confession, unction, communion, fervent prayer, bathing in holy springs and his special ointment. The ointment was boiled in the altar from the cinders of altar candles, lamp oil from the altar, Athos incense, and consecrated water was added. Before that, for three days he did not eat food, did not drink water, and during the preparation of the ointment he continuously read prayers. Now this ointment is made according to his recipe in some monasteries, and healings also occur. Batiushka traveled all over the country and convoked the Orthodox in their apartments; after the performance of the Sacrament, many were healed of the most serious illnesses. During the fasts, he was expected with hope and trepidation in many cities and villages of our homeland.
Father Vasily was many times offered to take upon himself the reprimand of the sick and possessed, but he did not approve of the reprimand and considered general confession, strict fasting, unction, and communion to be more effective means.
Father Vasily subtly felt the Will of God, which was manifested in advice and in the fact that he often unexpectedly appeared exactly where his help was very needed.
In dealing with people, Fr. Basil often played the fool, spoke in parables, which is why many did not understand him.
Until a very old age, he remained a mischievous child in his soul, he could play with children with excitement. Chisto began to beat himself with a rolled towel, first himself, then everyone around him, and everyone happily asked for “additives”.
He was very direct, denounced the clergy, for which he was out of favor.
He surprisingly combined extreme severity and the most tender love for his spiritual children. He said: “You need to be strict, first of all, with yourself ...”
ILLNESS AND DEATH
The last years of Vasily lived in the city of Pechory, Pskov region. Through senile infirmity and many illnesses, the Lord cleansed his soul for the Kingdom of Heaven. At first, he was taken to the Pskov-Caves Monastery to serve and receive communion. Then he was communed every day at home by the hieromonks of the monastery. For 20 days before his death, there were severe pains for three days, then the pain subsided. For the last 17 days of his life, he did not eat anything, did not drink for 7 days, but until the last day he experienced Easter joy, tried to sing “The Resurrection of Christ who saw ...” Before his death, he prayed intensely, tried to be baptized. At the end, he took a deep breath three times and breathed his last.
The funeral service was performed on the first Sunday of Great Lent - on the day of the triumph of Orthodoxy in the Sretenskaya Church of the Pskov-Caves Monastery, in which the relics of St. Simeon (Zhelnin) - his spiritual father. The funeral service was attended by 12 priests from different parts of Russia with a large gathering of spiritual children. People came from Volgograd, Surgut and other cities. The face and hands are wax, the face is open. The weather was bad in the morning, and after the funeral the sun came out, the blue sky opened up, real spring weather. Archpriest Vasily was buried in the God-given caves of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in a separate crypt.
November 21st, 2011
Prophecies and visions about the fate of Moscow and St. Petersburg. From the book of Simonov V.A. "Prophets of the whole world about Russia after 2012"
Some prophets predict the failure of certain areas of Moscow under the ground during a tectonic cataclysm. Considering that there is a huge sea of water under the city, these prophecies may come true.
Priest George Belodurov. Prediction of Archpriest Vasily Shvets:“One“ elder ”, namely Archpriest Vasily Shvets (oh, I don’t know if he is alive? He was painfully old!) used to say to his children:“ Run from Moscow! Moscow is Babylon! .
Soon the Lord will punish her, and all of her will fall into the ground! Of course, I laughed at these predictions, and sincerely felt sorry for those who, in obedience to Father Vasily, sold their apartments and left for unknown distances, where the elder would point. Mainly in the city of Pechery and the Pechersk region ... ".
The story of Archpriest Alexander Nikulin:“There were several of us in the prison cell, but all were priests. Some dozed off before lights out, others fell asleep. Suddenly, the sleeping young priest, Father Alexander, woke up in great excitement and began to talk quickly.
Wake up, please, and listen to what I am about to tell you. You know that I just slept. And I saw in a dream my own father, a priest, killed by the Bolsheviks. He appeared to me with a beautiful shining pectoral cross on his chest and said very important words to me:
“Today you will be with me!”
And no sooner had the young priest, Father Alexander, managed to utter these words than the feeder of our cell opens and the prison cadet himself says:
- So-and-so (his last name, first name and patronymic) with things to go out! As soon as the feeder closed, father Alexander said:
- Well, you see - this is what my father just told me about, who appeared to me in a dream. This is a shootout! This is a meeting with a beloved father! Glory to God, glory to God for His great mercy towards me, unworthy and sinful! And he bowed to all of us earthly and already went to the door. But on the threshold he turned and added:
- Yes, even my father said: "But Moscow will fail!" And it will certainly come true!
With these words, Priest Alexander disappeared through the door... We were simply stunned by everything that had happened. Soon we heard a single shot. This father Alexander "went away" to his father according to the flesh and to the Eternal Heavenly Father. "Eternal memory," we whispered and crossed ourselves, "rest with the saints." Everyone had tears in their eyes."
Memories of Blessed Pelagia of Ryazan (locally venerated saint of the Ryazan diocese): Pelagia said: “What will happen to Moscow? - In an instant underground! What about St. Petersburg? - That will be the name of the sea!
Predictions of Slavik (Vyacheslav Krasheninnikov), a native of the city of Chebarkul, Chelyabinsk Region:“In those days, in some places, children will die of hunger, and Moscow will live idly, but then it will begin to fall into the ground. It will move, as it were, along an inclined path, and when Jesus Christ sets foot on the square, then the remains of the Kremlin with a star will finally fail. By that time, the government will apparently have moved to Bonn (I don’t remember exactly) and will lead the people from there.”
Psychic Inna Vasiliadi:“Empty Moscow. Only in some places are rare figures of military men in camouflage uniforms seen on the streets. Tanks froze at the crossroads. An almost complete evacuation of people from the city has been carried out. I ask: “Where were the people evacuated to?” I see a new picture. Pioneer camp barracks on the outskirts of the forest. Oh, how many people around them and, probably, inside them. People now and then enter the doors of the barracks or leave the doors. Now they show what will happen in a month. It's the middle of August now. There is no destruction in Moscow. There are passers-by on the streets of Moscow, and many of them are in civilian clothes. But there are also soldiers. People walk around worried, gloomy. O! What a flash before my eyes! Now I see a city unknown to me. He is located in California. It's still August. All houses, even skyscrapers, in the city are destroyed. There are ruins everywhere. Human figures are swarming in them.
Many residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg have recently had unusual, perhaps prophetic dreams. The phenomenon of prophetic dreams really exists and this is confirmed by many reliable facts.
Elena. Moscow. Dream:“My friend and I wandered around the trading floor in Moscow, I was going to buy a suit, she was something else. It looks like winter, we are in outerwear. Suddenly, from a strong jolt, the floor went out from under our feet, I did not hear the roar. I don't remember how we got out of there and went straight to another store. It was something between a train station and a supermarket. A tremendous force pushed the stone floor out from under our feet again, as if the Earth decided to stop, and we continued to move. Having flown from a dozen meters (everything around literally merged in a frantic movement), I miraculously stayed on my feet, literally striking my nose on the floor. Stunned is the most accurate definition of my feelings. In reality, I got into an earthquake, with a magnitude of 5 points, but then it really shook, the vibrations were of a sufficiently high frequency, but here it is different. Yes, one more thing: I'm not at all sure that in the second case it was Moscow, something in between Moscow and St. Petersburg. The trading floor from the first case was more likely a clothing market.
Daria. Moscow.“I have nightmares that keep recurring. Here is one of them. Early spring. I leave my house early in the morning. The sun has just appeared in the sky. I approach the bus stop, and suddenly a terrible blow from the ground knocks me off my feet. Buildings fall around me like dominoes. Then, I distinctly hear the earth deafeningly hummed - Yao, Io. The sun quickly disappeared behind the horizon, it became dark, and the moon appeared in the sky. Screams, groans, surviving people run around the ruins in a panic. There are fires all around.
Next dream. Strong hurricane winds. The sky was covered with grey-black clouds. Ashes and black liquid mud are pouring out of them, which covered the entire surface of the earth. My girlfriend and I live in a garage, in a vegetable pit. Cold and constant feeling of hunger. We are afraid to go outside, as armed gangs of marauders and rapists rage around. Time seems to have stopped."
Yas. Moscow. Moscow region.“... I had dreams when suddenly the earth left from under my feet, and then hit my legs, something collapsed and fell, but it was nothing compared to what was understood - it happened. And that in an hour or two or three we will hear a distant rolling noise that will grow, turn into a roar, then gradually subside, but the Earth will become completely different. And it will be impossible to live on it ... ".
Natata. Tsunami in Moscow. I'm in Ikea, I'm shopping, I look out the window and I see a big wave, the height of a two-story house, which is quickly approaching. People turn to my scream, panic sets in, everyone runs to the door, I rush to the service exit, run out into the street and climb the stairs to some office space, just 2 floors high, I think: just a tsunami of such a height, not should be demolished. The tsunami beats against this room with all its might, splashes, water spills, floods my legs, I cling to the roof with all my might so that the wave does not carry me away. I think - what about the rest of the people? And what, in general, is now in Moscow? I take out my phone to call my husband, to find out how he is, like a daughter. And then I see another wave coming, then a third, there are many of them, one after another. When will this end. Then there is calm. Finally! I go down to the ground, I try to call, but my hands are shaking, I can not dial the correct number. I turn around and see a huge wave again! The height of a 9-storey building. I run as fast as I can to the nearest high-rise building, more people are running next to me, an elevator? No, suddenly get stuck - on the stairs, run, hurry, I have time. The wave beats against the house, it shudders, the water quickly pours into the house and, bubbling, slowly rises, washing away those who did not have time to rise. Fragments of furniture, people - living and dead, screams. On this I woke up, 6 in the morning, well, I think it’s a nightmare, I drank tea and went to bed with the hope that I would dream of something pleasant. Alas, the dream continued. This time I see myself at home, frantically packing a bag with things and telling my husband - get ready soon, the waves will come here soon. We are at the station, I see a long high-rise building, I hear - the noise is growing. Everything, I tell my husband, we did not have time. He - wait, now the train will come, we will leave. No, I answer - the water is already here - it is behind that house, listen - the wave is making noise. Now it will overflow through the house and that's it. And then people began to run out onto the balconies of this house, to pray. Some jump down and crash. I understand that they saw something so terrible on the other side that they prefer a quick death. I look at the roof of the house, expecting that water will appear there now. Despair. "God! Do something!” I shout. And then a priest appears next to me, all in white, a Catholic. Repent! - He says to me rather sternly - Repent while there is time! I fall to my knees, screaming to the sky: "Forgive me!". And I see water on the roof - dirty foam, like on the crest of a wave, it spills over the roof and pours down on people, panic begins, I grab my husband, daughter and drag them towards the 25-storey building, hoping that we will be saved there, like the last one once. Na sim woke up again. I didn't dare to go to bed again."
Prophecies about St. Petersburg.
There is such an ancient legend about the fate of St. Petersburg. In 1703, Peter I destroyed a pagan temple on the shores of the Baltic Sea next to a sacred pine tree, according to which the Chukhon priests predicted floods and could accurately predict the level of water rise in the sea. Peter personally cut down the tree with an ax, and ordered the three priests to be soothsayers to cut off their heads. Before his death, each of them prophesied about the fate of the city on the banks of the Neva.
The first said that the city, founded by Tsar Peter in 1703, would stand for only 300 years - the same as the dynasty of Peter. This prophecy has already come true. The first representative of the Romanov dynasty was Mikhail Fedorovich, who was elected tsar in February 1613 at the Zemsky Sobor. The reigning Romanov dynasty was interrupted in July 1918 with the death of Nicholas II in the basement of the Ipatiev mansion in Yekaterinburg. 305 years and 5 months have passed since the founding of the dynasty.
Further, the elder said: “And then the city on the Neva will be empty!” This terrible prophecy almost came true during the terrible days of the blockade, but there were still 60 years left before the 300th anniversary of the city. Peter I destroyed the pagan temple in 1703, and in 1712 St. Petersburg became the capital of the Russian Empire. If we add the period of the reign of the Romanov dynasty to the date of the foundation of the city, then the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy must be expected starting from mid-2008.
The second Chukhon elder predicted the unification of the Finno-Ugric peoples and the end of the dominion of the white kings. The third elder predicted that the city of Petra will disappear from the face of the earth when “three kings from the East” are buried in it. Peter I came from the East (Moscow), founded the city and died in 1725. Buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The second tsar, Nicholas II, whose remains were brought from the Urals, was reburied in St. Petersburg. It remains to wait for the burial of the third "king", possibly from the St. Petersburg "dynasty" of Russian presidents.
Grigory Rasputin repeatedly mentioned in his prophecies about the future fate of Russia and St. Petersburg: “Darkness will fall on St. Petersburg. When his name is changed, then the empire will end (the collapse of the Russian Empire, the revolution of 1917 and the renaming of the city in 1924 to Leningrad - approx. S.V.). And when his name is changed again (since 1991 - St. Petersburg), the wrath of God will break out over Europe. Petersburg will return when the sun stops crying, and the Kazan Mother of God is no more. Petersburg will be the capital of the new Russia, and a treasure will be extracted from its womb, which will spread throughout all the lands of the Most Holy Mother of God.
The prediction of schema-nun Nila (Novikova E.A.). From the memoirs of hegumen Innokenty, rector of the church of St. John Chrysostom in Voskresensk: “Mother said that by the end of time there would be a sea in the place of St. Petersburg. Moscow, on the other hand, will partially fail, there are many voids underground.”
Elena. Vision. Tsunami in St. Petersburg."Imagine. Crossroads of Fontanka and Nevsky? Above the water, only the upper floors, but the roofs of houses. I remember that from the side of the square. The uprising is a huge (50 meters high) wave is coming ... ".
Lily.“I had a dream last week - a tsunami. I live outside the city, near the Gulf of Finland. A dream is a dream that a tsunami - dirt, cars, people, boards are all floating. I collect things, money, I collect children, and they scatter. In short, a nightmare ... ".
Many more similar dreams can be cited. Perhaps these are prophetic dreams and people dream of them for a reason. Such dreams are a kind of warning about the coming cataclysm.
Archpriest Vasily Shvets revealed to us the unknown pages of the Great Patriotic War and throughout his long life he served the Church and the Motherland.
Archpriest Vasily Shvets died on March 11, 2011 at the age of 98. He was known to many Orthodox people in our country and abroad. He himself knew many, devoting himself entirely to the service of God and constantly being on the road. It was Father Vasily who happened to reveal for us the unknown pages of the Great Patriotic War. In the autumn of 1941, when Russia seemed to be about to surrender Moscow, after his fervent prayers, the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains, Elijah (Karam), the Mother of God appeared and revealed what needs to be done so that Russia does not perish. She ordered churches, monasteries, theological seminaries and academies to be opened in Russia; let the priests out of prisons, bring them back from the fronts, so that Divine services can begin. It was ordered to encircle the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God around Leningrad; serve a prayer service before her in Moscow, and then she should be in Stalingrad, which will stand before the Germans.
Father Vasily wrote in a samizdat book about these events: “Vladyka contacted representatives of the Russian Church and the Soviet government and conveyed to them everything that was determined ... Stalin summoned Metropolitan Sergius, Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad and promised to fulfill everything that Metropolitan Iliya conveyed, for he saw no other possibility of salvaging the situation. Everything happened as predicted."
When Metropolitan Elijah arrived in Russia in 1947, Father Vasily was a living witness to this event.
A book will still be written about Father Vasily, but so far we know very little about his life. I will share what I have.
I met the priest on December 11, 1998. Then he came to St. Michael's Monastery not far from Ulyanovsk, where mother Magdalene (Metropolskaya) was and still is abbess. They called me from the monastery and said that His Eminence Proclus, Archbishop of Simbirsk and Melekessky, Father Vasily Shvets had come to visit and that it would be nice for me to come and get to know him. This monastery was just beginning its life. There were few sisters, and it was one friendly family. I immediately arrived from Ulyanovsk to Komarovka, where St. Michael's Monastery is located.
I found Father Vasily with other guests at a meal with Vladyka Proclus, in the newly built bishop's house. When I was introduced to Father Vasily, he said: “Ah, Vladimir, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t drink.” Thus, he immediately showed his perspicacity, since I really do not drink and do not smoke. The elder told a lot after the meal about his life. The conversation continued well after midnight, as I was settled with him and Father Valery (rector of the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus near Domodedovo, publisher of the works of Hieroschemamonk Sampson) in the same cell in the bishop's house. Together we read the evening and morning rule. They read on their knees at the behest of Father Vasily. He prayed very attentively, with all the obeisances, and when one of us did not fulfill them, he said sternly: “Why don't you bow? In the prayer book it is written: bow. Father Vasily talked to me for two nights. On the second night, he said that he had known Vladyka Proclus since he was 10 years old. In the morning we went to the temple. Father Vasily served earnestly, and the services continued for a very long time.
It is known that he was born when his mother was on a pilgrimage to the Pochaev Monastery. This happened on February 24 (March 9), 1913 in the village of Stavnitsy, Letichevsky district, Khmelnytsky region. Father Vasily's parents, Theodosius Kondratievich and Agafya Nikitichna, were peasants. The father was the headman in the temple, and grandfather Kondraty was a reader in the church.
In his youth, Father Vasily worked as a miner, sailor, studied, served in the army. He worked in the laboratory of the famous academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. Father Vasily, in his words, even wrote a dissertation on oncology. After all, he was from 1950 to 1955. was the head of a unique laboratory at the First Medical Institute and got hold of unique German equipment that made it possible to take photographs of sections of body tissues and tumors. Scientists and doctors from all over the country came to him to prepare material for scientific papers and dissertations.
Father Vasily went through the Great Patriotic War. At the front, I saw in a dream St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, who saved him, carried him through all the trials unscathed until Victory Day.
Batiushka possessed remarkable physical strength. His post-war life was largely connected with Leningrad, where in 1949 he met and talked with St. Seraphim Vyritsky. After Elder Seraphim blessed him to settle in Vyritsa, Father Vasily bought half the house there.
Father Basil was intimately acquainted with the monks Kuksha of Odessa and Amphilochius of Pochaev. A story is connected with these elders, which he told about a woman named Matrona. Father Vasily often visited Pochaev, where he witnessed a miracle that happened to this woman. As a child, she went to church, took communion, but then became a convinced atheist. In the spring of 1941, in honor of the anniversary of her medical work, they decided to arrange a concert and a banquet. The concert was to take place on Good Friday during Holy Week. And so, two days before the concert, an elderly woman tried to dissuade her from this celebration, but to no avail. Then she said sadly:
You will bear great sorrow, remember my words.
That same night, she dreamed of Christ Himself and said:
I sent you an old woman, but you did not listen to me. If you do not come to your senses, then you will bear a great cross, great sorrows await you. And here is a sign for you to confirm the authenticity of what you were told - on June 22, the war will begin.
The concert on Good Friday took place. And after the concert, at a banquet, Yadviga (that was the name of this woman) told everyone her dream. A month later, on June 22, the war began. Jadwiga, as a military doctor, rose to the rank of major.
But when she returned home, she received a summons from the NKVD.
The Savior told me in a dream.
As a result, she received a long prison term in the camp.
When Yadviga was taken by the escorts and led with things to the car, some force bent her, and Yadviga knelt down. Since then, she has remained twisted. In the camp, she turned to God. After Stalin's death, the Savior appeared to her again in a dream:
Write a petition to the one who rewarded you - and you will be freed. And when you get out, go on your legs to Jerusalem - they will straighten out for you.
Yadviga wrote a letter to Voroshilov, and soon a decree came about her release, the return of all her previous awards and rehabilitation.
She began to wander around the monasteries and temples. This was her Jerusalem. Once in Kyiv, a thin little old man without arms (it was Bishop Nikolai) came up to her and said:
Matrona, great joy awaits you in Pochaev.
The perspicacious old man reminded her that she was baptized with the name Matrona, but none of even the closest people remembered this. On August 2, 1957, Matrona went to Pochaev. Before the celebration of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, she spent the whole night in the temple, and with fear and hope she waited for the words of the old bishop to come true. When they began to lower the Pochaev icon on ribbons, Matrona pleaded:
Mother of God, send people to take me up to the icon.
At this time, someone shouted:
Shine on the altar!
It was the harbinger of a miracle that everyone knew about.
Seeing the sick woman, the servants approached her, lifted her by the arms and carried her to the miraculous icon. The matron kissed her and prayed:
Mother of God, let me get on my feet.
And her legs straightened with a crunch.
Father Vasily said: “I myself witnessed this great miracle, and next to the icon at that moment stood hieromonk Kuksha, who had the obedience to stand by the icon when brethren and pilgrims kissed it.”
In 1954, Vasily Shvets became the spiritual child of Hieroschemamonk Simeon (Zhelnin) from the Pskov-Caves Monastery. The spiritual mentor blessed Vasily for the priesthood, despite his considerable age. In 1963, Archbishop John of Pskov ordained him to the priesthood. From 1963 to 1990, Father Vasily was rector of the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Kamenny End, Gdov District, Pskov Region. Until 1995, he, already out of state, still went to serve in his church in Kamenny End. Then he lived in Moscow for several years, and in recent years in Pechory. At the same time, despite his advanced years, he traveled a lot throughout the country, made many pilgrimage trips to Jerusalem, to the holy places of Greece, Italy, Poland. He had a living need to always be in the midst of people and serve God by serving people. He himself saw the purpose of his life in the apostolic ministry: he converted many to the faith, strengthened many in it, helped many people to get rid of the habitual sins of smoking and drunkenness. He had the undoubted gift of an ardent preacher. Those who were lucky enough to meet him and talk could not forget the deep impressions from the conversation with him, from his whole personality.
I remember his behavior in the service. At the morning service on December 12, he did not give communion to a man who smoked a day ago. He was generally strict. He did not like smokers and drunkards. And he also addressed those who stood with their hands behind their backs: “Where your hands are, there your heart is. Where do you have them? Father Vasily served earnestly, a lot of people came from Ulyanovsk and the surrounding area. I remember that a five-year-old boy, his pupil, came with Father Vasily, whom he diligently taught to serve and read the Apostle. This boy, indeed, beautifully and solemnly, with a gradual rise in intonation, read the Apostle at the Liturgy. Finished reading on a high-high note. I also remember that at the Saturday Liturgy, Father Vasily commemorated the well-known figure of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, and at the same time called his last name (!). Obviously, he showed his respect for this famous hierarch. In addition, from the stories of Father Vasily about his trips abroad, it became clear that he was one of the "connectors" of the Russian Orthodox and Russian Churches Abroad.
He was an extraordinary person in many ways. On the evening of December 12, after the service, Father Vasily invited all the nuns to the great hall of the Bishop's house. I began to learn how to be healthy. At the same time, he chose exclusively popular means, and someone could say that they were even “marginal”. But at the same time, we must remember that he was a professional doctor! He twisted a towel with a tourniquet and beat those nuns who were said to be sick on the back. Then he made me bend down a little. Hands clapping forcefully at the sides. He said to take a deep breath. Then he took a wooden rolling pin with carvings and passed it from the neck to the heels. And then - from the spine to the sides (across).
I especially remember one story of Father Vasily about his fate at the front. Over him all his life was the Hand of the Lord. Once at the front, he had to turn away - to make a phone call. This saved him. A shell hit - and all of his eight brother-soldiers that were next to him were killed on the spot. He didn't even have a scratch. He also told about how he was drowning in a swamp. Submerged in 4 hours to the chest. And he prayed to the Lord: "If I remain alive, I will not touch meat and wine all my life." And right foot immediately rested against a stone. And then he pulled up his left leg and stood on a stone, got out of the swamp. Since then, he has been fulfilling a vow given to God: he does not eat meat and does not drink wine.
Father Vasily had many connections and acquaintances not only in the church world. He knew many famous people, including actors. For example, Anatoly Papanov, the whole family of Mironov actors. Actor Andrei Mironov wanted to be baptized, but he took it lightly and put everything off. After the death of Mironov, Father Vasily began to take out a piece for the repose of the soul of the servant of God Andrei - and then “as if someone pushed me by the arm. Oh, yes, he never got baptized! He said: “The mother of Andrei Mironov had a dream: he seemed to be dirty, dirty, covered in manure. Gotta clean it up. They buried in absentia in Moscow. And he is unbaptized.”
Many church leaders have an ambiguous attitude towards Father Vasily Shvets. But remembering this already deceased father, I personally got the impression from my communication with him that his very fate, filled with wonderful meetings and incidents, testified to his pure heart and that he was protected by God. The grace of a pure conscience and indifference to the fate of Russia, the Russian people and Orthodoxy were felt in him. It was one of the pure underground keys of the religious soul of the Russian people, which are hidden for the time being, but will surely break through from under the earth's crust and water all living things around them.
Father Vasily was buried in the Pskov-Caves Monastery next to the grave of his spiritual father, the Monk Simeon (Zhelnin), who was glorified as a saint in 2003.
Despite the fact that the life of Father Vasily constantly passed before the eyes of so many people, we know very little about him. Therefore, I appeal to everyone who has evidence of the life of Father Vasily, to send them for the author of the article to the address: [email protected]
The article partially uses the story of Father Vasily, voiced by Alexander Trofimov.
In memory of the newly deceased Archpriest Vasily Shvets
On the night of March 10-11, 98-year-old Archpriest Vasily Shvets died. We owe him the most important breakthrough into the truth of our history of the twentieth century about the intercession of the Queen of Heaven of our people in the Great Patriotic War .
Approximately in 1986, pages retyped on a typewriter came to me in an unsigned envelope - the most familiar reading for us then, samizdat, 3rd or 4th copy. Above it was: "The Kazan Icon of the Mother of God - a blessing to Russia and St. Petersburg." The author was not identified. I read this inspired text, which breathed great love for the Queen of Heaven, for Russia, for St. Petersburg - and goosebumps went down my spine: our entire history, right up to the present time, before the Great Patriotic War, is a continuous miracle of the Mother of God! After these amazing pages, great reverence for the Kazan image of the Most Pure One remained forever, irrevocable hope to our Intercessor Zealous.
At the end of them, a completely new, and now widely known fact was cited for us that in the autumn of 1941, in the most critical days of the war, the Mother of God appeared to the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains Elijah (Karam) through his fervent prayers and revealed what needs to be done, so that Russia does not perish. Open churches, monasteries, theological seminaries and academies; release priests from prisons, from the fronts, and start serving them; Don't surrender Leningrad to the enemy, surround the city with the Kazan icon; in front of this icon to serve a prayer service in Moscow; then the Kazan icon should go with the troops to the borders of Russia; this icon should be in Stalingrad, which cannot be handed over to the enemy; when the war is over, Metropolitan Elijah should come to Russia and tell how she was saved.
The legend said:
“Vladyka contacted representatives of the Russian Church and the Soviet government and conveyed to them everything that had been determined ... Stalin summoned Metropolitan Alexy of Leningrad, Metropolitan Sergius and promised to fulfill everything that Metropolitan Elijah had conveyed, for he saw no other way to save the situation . Everything happened as predicted."
After the Victory, in 1947, Metropolitan Elijah came to us. He was awarded the Stalin Prize; in agreement with Stalin, he was presented with a cross and a panagia with precious stones from different places in Russia - in gratitude from all our land.
I must say, after reading the story about these events, I did not immediately discard it as a "myth" - they say, this is not true. Not true, because Stalin, as we knew him, could not act like a believer. But after all, there could be another conclusion, simple and joyful: it means that we did not know everything and not the main thing about Stalin. The whole spirit of these pages aroused great confidence in them, in their wonderful unknown author - why was it necessary to accept one and reject the other?
A joyful conclusion - because hope dawned: what if everything in our history was not the way we used to think, the way we were taught? but the appearance of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God, which was also remarkably mentioned in this narrative. After all, our attitude towards the Tsar-martyr Nicholas, towards the monarchy, has changed more and more ... After all, faith itself came to us like that ...
Now that volumes have already been published describing the miracles that took place during the Great Patriotic War, there is no doubt that “God was our general,” as A.V. Suvorov said. And how could it be otherwise? But then it was the first, most important breakthrough into the truth of our history of the twentieth century. The most important, first of all, because it gave us the opportunity to pay tribute to the gratitude of the Queen of Heaven for the salvation of our people in that fiery test.
In our history, as in all science, in all education, there was a total atheistic censorship, a complete ideological blockade - it continues in many ways to this day. But the words of the Savior are immutable: To carry it secretly, it will not be revealed, it will be hidden below, it will not be known, and it will come into manifestation(Luke 8:17). Just as Noah remained in the ark and life on earth continued, Father Basil brought this most important testimony to us.
Is this story a myth? No, rather a myth - that supposedly such a great Victory was granted to us without the intercession of the Queen of Heaven. All the victories in all of Russian history were bestowed by Her, she covered Her House in all ages - and then suddenly left? Yes, She herself testified that she did not leave us - by the appearance of Her Sovereign Icon in 1917.
When we learned about this, when numerous testimonies of miracles began to come at that time, then God entered our history of the twentieth century - whom we forgot about, as if He really did not exist then, the Mother of God entered. And history gained reality, acquired volume, connection with Heaven. It has ceased to be a flat picture, and it can no longer be squeezed into this two-dimensional space, no matter how hard some zealous fighters with “myths” try to do it.
In those years, it was impossible to think of printing these pages anywhere but on a home typewriter. Not a single Orthodox book was sold in any - even the functioning - church. But soon everything began to change. And, of course, there was a desire to try to print this legend, which gave a completely new look at our history. What if a miracle happens?
And yet, sending it to print, I wanted to be absolutely sure of the historical testimony about Metropolitan Elijah. I told this to Father Valerian Krechetov, rector of the Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in Akulovo near Moscow. And he:
And why was he given the Stalin Prize?
The first attempts to print the legend yielded nothing. Only in 1991, when the Russky Vestnik newspaper began to appear, an excerpt from it was published in it under the name "Intercessor" - the most famous now, about the Great Patriotic War. And in 1992, the full text of the legend was published by the Bulletin of the Moscow Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. At the top they put: "The author of the editorial board is unknown."
One day, as always on Sunday, I went to the Akulovsky temple, ordered a prayer service to the Mother of God of Kazan ... An amazing guest came to the service - a very lively gray-haired old man. After the liturgy, he said a fiery word in the temple, in which something seemed familiar to me.
Then there was a common meal, a conversation, and towards the end of it, Father Valerian, looking at me, said:
Then someone was interested in who wrote about the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God ...
And Father Vasily himself now told, as an eyewitness, about the arrival of Metropolitan Elijah in 1947 in Leningrad, about his meeting with the people in the Prince Vladimir Church near the Tuchkov Bridge, where the Kazan icon of the Queen of Heaven, decorated by Vladyka, flaunts to this day. Father Vasily even repeated the gesture with which Metropolitan Iliya returned the Stalin Prize, saying that he was a monk, he did not need money, they themselves brought 200 thousand dollars for the orphans of the dead officers of our army.
The word about the Kazan icon began to be widely published. But even today one can hear arguments that this legend is supposedly a “pious myth”. Moreover, the “grounds” for such statements are only: “this is impossible”, “there are no documents” ...
Tradition, by definition, cannot have documents. However, writing may not have them either. As is known, there were no seals, no signatures, no “storage units” in very many historical sources. The ancient chroniclers made no references when recounting events, but their chronicles formed the basis of our history. But forged "documents" can have all the stamps and signatures in abundance - but they, sometimes, are refuted precisely by the oral testimonies of eyewitnesses.
Contemporaries of that era, people of a holy life, prayer books, endowed with holy orders and monastics with high spiritual authority, accepted the testimony of Father Vasily without a doubt and even began to pass it on to people, orally and in writing.
The son of Archpriest Nikolai, who was shot in 1937, Archpriest Sergei Lavrov (1911-2001), went through the Finnish War, and when he left for the Patriotic War, his mother gave him a piece of black bread and said:
Take a bite. Come and eat.
And put behind the icons.
“Sergey served in the construction battalion of the railway troops,” Svetlana Ledneva tells about him in the book “Warrior of Christ, Warrior of the Fatherland”. - He was the commander of a diving-pontoon platoon. The Nazis bombed the bridges, and our soldiers restored them. Often they worked under heavy fire, under shelling.
In moments of calm, Sergei would go somewhere in the woods, there on a stump he would open an akathist in front of the icon of “Joy of All Who Sorrow” and, kneeling down, would fervently pray. The icons of the Kazan Mother of God and the great martyr Panteleimon went with him throughout the war to Koenigsberg.
And in the village of Peredelki, the long-suffering mother Elizabeth prayed fervently for her beloved son. And ... begged for a son!
He returned in 1946 - and finished that piece of bread.
“How many times it seemed that death was inevitable, but “the whole car was riddled with bullets, but not a scratch on me,” Father Sergius recalled many years later.”
After the war, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) blessed him for the priesthood. Father Sergius served as a priest for 52 years. In a sermon in his Church of the Intercession of the Mother of God in the village of Igumnovo near Moscow on the 50th anniversary of the Great Victory, Archpriest Sergiy Lavrov also spoke about the appearance of the Mother of God to Metropolitan Elijah.
Another participant in the Great Patriotic War, known throughout Russia, the now living Archimandrite Peter (Kucher), also cited this testimony in a sermon on the Intercession of the Mother of God.
Recently, the Lord granted me to visit the Kulikovo field and Sebeno, the homeland of the blessed Matrona of Moscow - surprisingly, both are very close ... In the place of our first Great Victory on the day of the Nativity of the Most Pure, there is a temple, and a priest from the Trinity-Sergius serves in it Laurel. We remembered with him the unforgettable Lavra elder Hieroschemamonk Moses (Bogolyubov; 1915-1992). The priest said about him simply - what we, who knew him, feel, feel:
He is a saint.
Father Moses was a great admirer of the Queen of Heaven. He included the story of Metropolitan Elijah in his book The Zealous Intercessor.
Orthodox publicist Alexei Yakovlev-Kozyrev, with whom we spent more than one happy hour in the hospitable cell of Elder Moses, where the book “Orthodoxy. Army. Power” (M., Russkiy Vestnik, 1993), which also included the testimony of Father Vasily Shvets, recently visited Lebanon, including in the underground church where the Queen of Heaven appeared to Metropolitan Elijah in 1941, and saw a growth image of the Pure.
“The Metropolitan prayed a lot to the Mother of God, and most often in the underground church of the Deir Sayidet el Nuriya monastery” (translated as the “Light of the Mother of God” monastery), recalled the personal secretary of the Metropolitan of the Lebanese Mountains, Ilia Mata (Matthew) Zaka Assaad.
The Metropolitan loved Russia and the Russian people. He traveled to Russia several times, and at the services he always remembered Russia and the Russian people in his prayers, wishing him happiness and success.
During the Great Patriotic War, the Mother of God revealed to Metropolitan Iliya what needs to be done for Russia to win, and ordered him to write a letter to Stalin. And Stalin fulfilled everything that Metropolitan Elijah gave him. Stalin was very grateful to this news, as successes began at the front. Metropolitan Elijah became a friend of Stalin.
I say all this because I was the secretary of Metropolitan Elijah and the chairman of the Church Court. The Metropolitan often spoke about these events, about Russia, about love for Russia, about the miracles of the Mother of God.
They say in the mountains that when Elijah was still a teenager, he lived here in Bhamdun, he was honored with a conversation with the Queen of Heaven...
During the Great Patriotic War, many Lebanese priests, including Metropolitan Elijah, prayed for the victory of the Soviet Army. And all the Orthodox in Lebanon prayed for the victory of Russia.”
Why, then, should one stubbornly hold on to the opinion that all such evidence is allegedly a myth? And above all, about Stalin's visit to the Blessed Matrona of Moscow in 1941 - an event that took place at about the same time that Metropolitan Iliya was praying in seclusion. The evidence of this was the second, just as important, breakthrough into the truth of our history of the 20th century, which came from a completely different direction, confirming the first one.
For one reason: if we accept them, then our Supreme Commander-in-Chief, who was at the head of the country and the victorious army, was a believer (remember how indifferent our military leaders were to the appearance of the Port Arthur Icon of the Queen of Heaven and how the Russo-Japanese War of the early 20th century ended century). “Not an atheist,” according to the most authoritative testimony of Patriarch Alexy I. Therefore, a creative, state-forming personality. And this means that then the main communist myth of Russian history of the twentieth century about the “cult of personality”, the main obstacle to understanding what happened in our country at that time, collapses. This real myth, without quotes, which in its fantasticness can only be compared with Darwin's theory of evolution, tries to present the most difficult struggle, primarily the invisible abuse that took place in our history in the twentieth century, as the simplest "explanation" of the bad character traits of one person who supposedly opposed the rest of the people, above all the kindest "faithful Leninists", and so on and so forth ...
At the same time, even believers do not notice that, accepting this myth and rejecting the truth, they question the Protection of the Mother of God over Russia in the Great Patriotic War. But for a believer, this mistake should be much more important than too good thoughts about the Supreme Commander.
Father Nikolai Guryanov said in such cases:
Are we saying bad things about him?
Who should we, Orthodox people, trust more in the assessment of the head of state and the army at this time, including the posthumous one: Patriarchs Sergius and Alexy I, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) or the atheist Khrushchev?
On the day of the memorial service for I.V. Stalin, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, who no longer had any reason to fear the “tyrant”, did not say the usual words, but repeated what I.S. Aksakov had said on the death of St. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow: “ A great, moral, social force has been abolished ... "
“We, having gathered to pray for him,” the Patriarch continued in the Cathedral of the Epiphany, “we cannot remain silent about his always benevolent, sympathetic attitude towards our church needs. Not a single question with which we addressed him was rejected by him; he granted all our requests...” (Journal of the Moscow Patriarchy, 1953, No. 4).
Can we doubt the sincerity of these words, knowing that after that - immediately after the start of the campaign to "expose the cult of personality", in which the deceased was blamed, among other things, for having a too good attitude towards the Church, fierce godless persecutions began in the country with the closure of thousands of temples and monasteries?
What Stalin really thought about, what he understood during the war, and what he understood well before that, what he wanted, what he did not want, is still a mystery of history in many respects. Maybe he did something that he didn't want to. Maybe he wanted something - but he was prevented. You can try to explore this, but the main question is not this. Not in Stalin's personality. The main thing - as in Russian history and in this godless, on the one hand, time, and on the other - a time of high feats of faith and self-sacrifice, the Lord acted, the Providence of God. How the Protection of the Sovereign Lady affected the events of our history of the twentieth century.
Our whole history, our faith says that only with the help of God, the intercession of the Mother of God, the prayers of all the Russian saints, who united with the prayers of both our military leaders and our people, “the judgment of our Fatherland was turned over to mercy” and in this time. And nothing else could be.
If all these facts, which are becoming more and more known today, - they come, one might say, from all sides - do not agree with the official historical legend, then this means that we must abandon the legend, and not the facts.
Stalin himself said that history is not about schemes, but about facts. And with his characteristic humor, he added that for schematics, history is divided into three periods: matriarchy, patriarchy, and the secretariat.
To what extent he was a sincere Bolshevik, including a God-fighter, and to what extent he said and did all this forcedly, tactically, patiently waiting for an opportune moment for decisive action, and when, at what periods of his life and our history, is a question that until We may never figure out the end. But it will remain mysterious for us also because it was to a certain extent mysterious for Iosif Vissarionovich himself - because first of all the Lord acted here, perhaps unexpectedly for him, and the Lord "does not tell anyone what he does." And if the Lord wants, then none of the people will be able to resist him, and maybe not want to, and the Lord will act through him in the way that is His holy will.
The struggle went on between God and the devil in the USSR as well; it was the main struggle at that time as well. The devil was not a winner in Russia in 1917. All the same, "Jesus Christ was ahead," as Father Vasily wrote, recalling Blok. The Lord has been active all these years. The Sovereign Mother of God did not let go of the scepter and orb from Her hands for a second, did not leave Her throne for a moment. It was not for nothing that She wished (and without Her will this would not have happened), and Her Sovereign Icon moved from Kolomenskoye in 1929 to Red Square, to the Historical Museum, where it remained until 1988, and all visible demonstrations had to flow around this place with Her presence invisible to anyone. But it was decisive in our life.
Once, in one of his sermons on the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, Father Valerian said that, apparently, there would also be a third day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon - in honor of the victory in the Great Patriotic War.
It will be perfectly fair. This will be the fulfillment of the command of the Queen of Heaven, made by Her in 1941.
Our pious ancestors always paid tribute to the Lord, the Mother of God, to the saints for their special favors to our people. In honor of the victory over Napoleon, the majestic Cathedral of Christ the Savior was erected. In gratitude to the Queen of Heaven for saving Moscow from the invasions of Tamerlane in 1395, Khan Akhmat in 1480 and the Crimean Khan Makhmet-Girey in 1521, we celebrate holidays three times a year in honor of Her Vladimir Icon, for getting rid of the Polish invasion in 1612 - in honor of the Kazan icon. Without the intercession of the Heavenly Lady, without Her Sovereign Protection (as it is sung in the troparion of the Kazan icon), there was not a single great victory of Russian weapons in our history.
The greatest Victory not only in our, but in all human history was granted by the Lord through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven in the Great Patriotic War.
A pious wish has already been expressed to include in the calendar of our Church the third day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God on May 9 in a new style, in gratitude to the Zealous Intercessor for the Great Victory granted to our people. And celebrate it according to the order of the celebration of the Protection of the Mother of God, as a great holiday (the day of the Kazan Icon is called the “Russian Protection”).
Then the nationwide, revered holiday of Victory Day will also become a church holiday, in churches on this day there will always be a festive service, a prayer of gratitude will be offered to Christ the Savior and His Most Pure Mother for giving our people and the army the Great Victory, and we will attract new graces of the Most Pure , so desired by us at this difficult time.
Eternal memory to Archpriest Vasily and the gratitude of descendants!
Payment instructions (opens in a new window) Yandex.Money donation form:
Other ways to help
Comments 16
Comments
16.
canonical :
2011-04-29 at 10:51
Ravens, when it seems necessary to be baptized, and not grind their liberal nonsense and throw links with the mentality of a hard rock hegemen. The spirit-bearing elder, Schieeromonk Moses, a doctor of technical sciences, a prominent electrical engineer, never dealt with myths. Metropolitan, front-line priests testify, but give some FF certificates from a notary.
God save you, Father Nikolai, for purely ecclesiastical material about true Christ's shepherds. Eternal memory to Archpriest Vasily and the gratitude of descendants!
15.
Anonymous : Eric
2011-04-28 at 19:13
Dear Eric!
You stand up for celebrations not in spirit, but in reality. In the spirit of the Russian army always triumphs. And this celebration will never end. So don't worry about the spirit. And don't worry about earthly things. Nothing depends on you.
Your characteristics, given to me, characterize you well.
14.
F.F. Ravens: Alexandru, at 13
2011-04-28 at 19:02
Christ is risen, dear Alexander!
I know that many people now, alas, think (and especially feel) as expressed in this article. But many, including myself, have no sympathy for the mustachioed bandit. Moreover, the myths that declare him Orthodox, such as the one described, seem to me downright blasphemous. The publication of such a text at Holy Week, even if the editors did not want it, was only "raising anger." At least it had to be understood. There is no mention of censorship. On the contrary, such views flooded, alas, now. What can only be regretted. I consider such mythology a clouding and perversion of consciousness and conscience, nothing else.
As for our ancestors who celebrated Easter in 1945, you are mistaken. Someone would try to celebrate Easter openly in the active (Soviet) army! Well, it’s less from ordinary demand, they would have given him a smack as “irresponsible”, but the officer would have at least lost his rank, or maybe he would have thundered where Makar didn’t drive calves. (A rank-and-file soldier would also be imprisoned if he persisted strongly in inconscience.) They would have been vividly explained to them that they should not flatter themselves about tactical vacillations in the party line and all sorts of "indulgences for the churchmen." Lenin-Stalin had even bigger maneuvers: do you remember NEP? And "dizziness from success"? Nothing, then they drove the cute ones to the collective farm! There were also rumors about the collective farms that after the war they would be disbanded, so that Ivan would be more willing to fight in the end.
Don't feed on dangerous mythology. Sobriety is needed.
The victory over the Nazis, yes, without the prayers of our army would not have gone. But not the prayers of the dubious eastern metropolitan (and even more so not the most mustachioed godfather, who, if he ever prayed, then only for his own skin, when in 1941 he smelled of fried meat), but our holy new martyrs, whom Stalin killed successfully. For the sake of their holy prayers and simply for the sake of the fact that the righteous Orthodox people were not transferred to Russia even then, the Lord spared our land at that time. (As Sodom promised to spare Abraham if it found at least a few righteous there; but it was not found.) And not at all because of the superiority of our villainy over Hitler's. Not because Comrade. Stalin was "a great, moral force." Tired of reading this. (How was Patriarch Alexy morally raped that supposedly voluntarily and sincerely could say such a thing?!)
It is better to think about whether next time we will have enough righteous people to take away from us the righteous wrath of God, which is driven by us.
13.
Alexander : Homage to Father Nicholas!
2011-04-28 at 16:30
A wonderful article! I thank Father Nikolai for the word of Truth about the Great Victory!
A F.F. Voronov would like to wish to rejoice in the Resurrection of Christ in the same way that our fathers and grandfathers rejoiced in May 1945 during Bright Week, thanking the Lord and the Mother of God for the Victory. There is no need to be embarrassed by the fact that many Russian people have a different point of view on our recent history and Stalin. It turns out that in order not to upset you, we do not have the right to express what we think and feel. You are proposing a kind of censorship. It could be accepted, for the sake of peace on the forum, if it were not for the huge flow of slander in all the media. And it gives us the opportunity to express our point of view. Believe me, dear F.F. Voronov, we are the same Orthodox Russian people, just like you. The Lord will eventually show which of us is right. But I hope that we all have no doubts - the Lord granted Victory in the Great Patriotic War through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos.
12.
Eric: Re: God sees the truth, but will not tell soon
2011-04-28 at 12:16
Dear anonymous.
The warriors who defended their homeland are ALWAYS ALIVE in the memory of the Orthodox people!
It turns out that only those who are physically alive are alive. Thus, your materialism is higher than spiritual, ideal! You - apparently - are an ordinary atheist, a Soviet person, and even burdened with the vile sin of hatred for entire peoples, in this case, the Jews.
11.
Anonymous : item 10 Eric
2011-04-28 at 11:00
Dear Eric!
When there are no more Russian veteran soldiers, they will stop celebrating this Victory. They will only weep widely and on a large scale about the Holocaust.
So do not rush things, your indignations expose your impatience.
10.
Eric: Re: God sees the truth, but will not tell soon
2011-04-27 at 16:49
It is known for whom this victory is the biggest ... . For the Soviet...
For the Russian people, it is not, because the Russian people have so many victories over the conquerors (the Khazar Khaganate, the Mongol-Tatars, the Poles in the 17th century, Napoleon in the 19th century), that it would be disrespectful to the memory of our ancestors to belittle those great victories , saying that the largest was only in the XX century ... . Also, in my opinion, it is wrong and irreverent in relation to our distant ancestors who defended the independence of our Motherland in past centuries, so unnaturally loudly and intrusively celebrating May 9 every year and not celebrating the victory over the Khazars, Poles, Mongol-Tatars and the French.
The 200th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon is coming, but something is not heard and not seen so familiar in preparation for the 65th anniversary of the victory over Hitler, the timpani of our favorite propaganda ... . Maybe for someone the history of Russia before 1917 does not exist???
9.
Irina Fr. : Voronov F. F.
2011-04-24 at 20:04
And you do not get excited, but speak out on the merits, if you have something to say. Your emotions are understandable, it is not necessary to clothe them in word forms. Mind beyond emotions.
I'm afraid o. Nikolay, as well as Dear Editors, know no less than you about Holy Week, so there is no need to teach them.
The reason for the article is rehabilitation, the restoration of the good name of a person of great magnitude. Freeing him from the false stigma dictated by momentary political considerations. It's a lot, I assure you. Maybe oh. Nicholas hoped for your share of humility acquired in the field of Lent? On the newly acquired ability to somehow perceive something different from what we were taught, memorized from childhood?
7.
F.F. Ravens: Dear editorial.
2011-04-18 at 20:01
Dear editors, you are acting extremely unreasonably, on the one hand, closing the forum during Holy Week, on the other hand, publishing articles like this one, which serve nothing but incite human passions just at the time when we need to think again about their sins and follow in remembrance the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to the free and saving Passion for us. Isn't it obvious that the content of the article is at least controversial? Why print this now? During Holy Week, impose self-restraint on yourself and print only purely church materials.
6.
Athanasius: Re: God sees the truth, but will not tell soon
2011-04-18 at 16:49
The greatest Victory given to humanity by the Lord is the Victory over death on the Cross. It would not hurt to remember exactly this in Holy Week, and not to justify the theomachists who destroyed Russia.
4.
abcbs : Thank you.
2011-04-18 at 13:47
Thank you, Father Nikolai, the conclusions that I came to after many reflections about the years of the Patriotic War were supported by the evidence you cited. I will add to what I heard in some TV show: the presenter, talking about the decoration of a small church in the Moscow Kremlin (to my shame, unknown to me), mentioned that Stalin prayed in it during the war, cited the testimonies of some specific people.
Once again, thank you. God bless you.
3.
Russian Stalinist
:
Word of Truth
2011-04-18 at 11:51
Here it is - the word of Truth!
And it must be repeated tirelessly until the Truth of our history finally triumphs over the vile lies and betrayal of the last 25 vile years.
And this will inevitably happen in the end.
For God is not in power, but in Truth!
As our Supreme Commander-in-Chief said, "Our cause is just, the enemy will be defeated, Victory will be ours!"
So it will be this time.
2.
Saltykov Kirill: Russian Pokrov
2011-04-18 at 09:30
Good day to all!
I absolutely agree about May 9 as the third day of the celebration of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God! It's great that our children can learn SUCH a history of Russia and not a one-sided "liberal" assessment of I.V. Stalin and our Soviet period. I remember what a strong impression the publication in Russkiy Vestnik about Metropolitan Elijah made on me. I had no doubt for a second that this was a "myth", as if I always knew that it was so.
1.
Alexandra 3: Re: God sees the truth, but will not tell soon
2011-04-18 at 08:51
Father Nicholas! Thank you for the article. Thank you for the TRUTH. No matter how they hush up the truth, it exists, you can’t hide it behind the distortion of history.
Indeed, God sees the truth.
God bless you.