Zhuravsky John, archpriest. On Inner Christianity. The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, or the Forgotten Path of Experienced Cognition of God. The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, or the Forgotten Path of True Knowledge of God (Hieromonk Sergius (Sitikov))

Current page: 11 (the book has a total of 14 pages) [available reading excerpt: 10 pages]

Chapter XXIII
Closing Song to the Most Blessed Culprit of the "Smart Way" - the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God

The unstoppable heart sings the last song
Daring Culprit
"smart way"
To the brightest fiery minds of the Virgin -
Inexpressible, revered Mother of Light
beloved;
To that pilgrim all-blessed
and bold,
What is a dark night
In the dark ages of the roadless
I dared to lay a "smart path" -
The shortest and most immutable -
To the original mystery of God -
To holy incorruption!
And in humble fear,
In the tears of the cross
In Your Mother's Arms
Nurtured, brought and gave
Life imperishable, blessed
Down to the ashes
A mortal creature for consolation.
And to all the weary, to all
exhausted
In long wanderings, in secret
sobs
Prisoners of decay and death
Immortal Name of the Immortal God
opened -
All for salvation and eternal joy.
And the divine path showed us
"clever", -
From decay and death
Leading to holy immortality.
And tears of our bitterness -
Flowing, burning, ancient -
In the sweetness of joy glorious to us
transformed before God,
She appeared as a guarantor of sinners.
We were caressed with sweet thirst,
gratifying
To God's affectionate welcome,
to the father's house.
Rejoice, rejoice
The quiet joy of a sad land!
Our cave - earth
lightless
By the joyful light of Heaven
illumined,
Our dark night
Our long grief
The singing of heavenly singers
sweetened.
In the manger of a soul that has lost
literature,
The word gave birth.
Down to the dust, earthly
creation
Blessing of God the Father
evangelist:
The Lord is with you!
Rejoice, rejoice, Unique One!
And for "smart eyes"
You are the unfathomable depth;
Unspeakable Face -
You are a great heart
pierced by the sorrow of the cross,
like swords,
And with your holy tears
At the foot of the Cross you sprinkled
and consecrated
The land of the cross and barren,
Where the incorruptible shone and
incomparable
Beauty!
Magnify, my soul,
Seraphim Serene
All-Blessed and Imperishable
most tender Mother of God,
Who loved us, our sorrow
illumined
Stepdad with a glow of glory
The Light of the Beloved Necessary!

Applications

Variant of Chapter I

You are given to know the secrets

Kingdom of God, and those

everything happens externally in parables.

(Mark 4:11)

So said the Lord Savior to His disciples. To whom is it given to know these hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God? Who are these “non-outsiders” whom God endows with these mysteries? - Gives to those who humbly ask, who cry out to Him: Increase our faith!129
OK. 17.5.

God bestows these mysteries on those who come to Him on the path of faith, on the inner path. The soul of simple Galilean fishermen found this path to God - the simple, shortest and saving path of faith. On this, although unusual, but God's path, the unknown, hidden secrets of the Kingdom of God were revealed to them. The path of faith brought them to this Kingdom. The path of faith is the hidden path, the path of God, the path of all those who have been saved, the path of the saints. And for sinful human nature it is a narrow, narrow path, an inner path, and few follow it. It is inaccessible to the external, who are in the fleshly life. External Christianity is given in external parables: in the material, in the visible. But even when they see, they do not see; when they hear, they do not hear and do not understand what they see.

And only on the path of faith does the soul come to know the inner, spiritual meaning of external parables. The human soul, blinded by sin, on the path of faith, begins to see clearly and sees the invisible. Faith is the inner organ of vision of the soul; by faith the soul perceives the inner world, invisible, but real. The visible world is only an image, only a shadow of another, invisible world, an unreal appearance of the real.

The visible world is perceived by sight. The invisible world - by faith. Faith is a gift of God, the most beautiful, richest, greatly enriching the poor hidden soul. This gift is acquired by the feat of "intelligent will." The soul that seeks faith cries out: I believe, Lord! help my unbelief.130
Mk. 9, 24.

This is the spiritual law of God's life: you must first die to the external in order to live in the internal. He deceives himself who lives in carnal desires and thinks that he lives in God and follows God. This is the way of self-deception, the way of the flesh; it is not inhabited by the Spirit of God. There is no feat of the soul on him, there is no faith on him. It is only on the path of faith that the human soul acquires spiritual existence and asserts its timeless significance on it. In a short moment of time, at the point of earthly existence, he determines the direction of his will for boundless activity and eternity. In the feat of faith, the soul affirms its being in the divine, enters the circle of this being, and by contributory grace accepts the obedience and becomes “the Light of the Holy Communion and the Deity without envy” (see the Canon for Holy Communion).

And whoever has found this path and by the feat of "intelligent will" overcame the external carnal life as a temptation, protected himself by faith from this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and freely rushed with his inner thought and feeling to the inner, secret, "intelligent standing" before God and, in laboriously listening to his life, he constantly asks, soberly seeks the barely perceptible path of God, and humbly knocks with a sick heart on the door of repentance - he will be answered, and he will find, and the doors of the innermost mysteries of the Kingdom of God will be opened to him.

And this sacred spiritual life of God is acquired by secret work. And only a few acquire the doing itself: only those who have renounced the possessions of the “mental, immaterial” - from dreams and desires, and demanded attention to their thoughts. These “castaways” belong to the more inward rank of Christians, according to the words of St. Macarius the Great (Homily 1, Ch. 9), they belong to a different kind of Christian. The Ancestor of this “other kind” the Blessed Virgin spoke about them, pointing to the Monk Seraphim: “This is our kind.” They are the bearers of this “other kind”. Bearers of the living faith of God - multi-functional, miraculous. They are “those who have seen through faith” and experienced by experience the hidden mysteries of the Kingdom of God.

About Elder John Zhuravsky, long-term custodian of the manuscript "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" and a great ascetic 132
The material was collected and written by the priest of the Riga Holy Trinity Church in Zadvinje, Father Andrey Golikov.

Biography of Elder John Zhuravsky

In eternal memory there will be a righteous man.

(Ps. 111:6)

Elder John - Ivan Petrovich Zhuravsky - was born on September 12/25, 1867 in the parish of Laudon, Madona district in Latgale (Latvia). In addition to Ivan, in a large family, Fr. Peter (1826-1892) and his mother Melania had four children: Simeon, who became a priest, and three sisters. Father John came from a family of servants of God: his father and grandfather were both priests and served in the Polotsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The grandfather, apparently, was an educator, he died while still young: during the performance of the service (possibly, baptism) at home, he was killed by schismatics.

Father, Peter, was assigned by his mother to the Polotsk Theological School for education. Then he entered the St. Petersburg Exemplary Theological Seminary, where he completed the course in 1847. In the following year, 1848, on March 7, he was ordained a priest at the Balovskaya house church of the Polotsk diocese (now the city of Balvi, the Republic of Latvia), and five years later he began serving in the Skrudala church of the Riga diocese, where he ministered until 1856. But even earlier, since 1841, a movement arose among the Latvians and Estonians of the Riga diocese for the transition from Lutheranism to Orthodoxy. From that time on, Orthodox churches began to be built in the Baltic region and priests were appointed there.

Fr. Peter Zhuravsky, wishing to benefit the cause of Orthodoxy among the Latvian people, asked to be appointed to one of the parishes where the main population would be Latvians, and the service was performed in the Latvian language. By order of the lord

Platon (Gorodetsky), Archbishop of Riga and Mitava, Fr. Peter was assigned as a priest to the Kaltsenava church of the Kerstenbem deanery.

From that time began the 44-year ministry of Fr. Peter among the Latvians and continued until his death. For three years he was a Kalcenava priest, for about eight years he was a Marciena priest, for nine years he was a Calvary priest, he was in charge of the Stomerzei and Butsk parishes, and for the last ten years he was the parish of the Liderna Church in Vidzeme.

A simple and clear person, he was devoted to God and Orthodoxy. Wherever o. Peter did not serve, he left a good memory everywhere. By the end of his life, the Lord vouchsafed him the gift of pure and strong prayer. Peasants from afar came to him to pray for their misfortunes, both Orthodox and Lutherans. Not only in full health, but also in illness, at any time and in any weather, Fr. Peter went at the first call to the homes of his parishioners to perform the treb.

In his life he experienced many sorrows, serving in a heterodox land. Fr died. Petr Zhuravsky June 10, 1892

He was buried by 8 clergy, among whom were his two sons - Priest Simeon and Deacon John Zhuravsky, and the dean led the service. The funeral liturgy was performed in the Latvian language, and the funeral service was performed in the Church Slavonic language.

The funeral was attended by about two hundred people, the day was clear and quiet, the singing was beautiful, and the exceptional significance of what was happening was felt in the spiritual atmosphere.

Much later, after becoming a father, Fr. John turned to the memory of his father for help and received it.

* * *

... As a child, Vanechka Zhuravsky saw angels, and this mysterious vision marked his soul with a special divine seal. It must be assumed that already from childhood he, with his brother Simeon and sisters, regularly went to services in the church where their father served, helped to sing on the kliros. Vanechka fell in love with church singing and prayer.

After graduating from school in 1884, he entered the Riga Theological Seminary, which, together with the seminary Intercession Church, was located at 9 Kronvalda Boulevard (now there is a faculty of the Riga Medical Institute). In his free time, Ivan Zhuravsky sang in the Riga Bishops' Choir at the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ under the direction of the choir director Kislov, a former student of the leader of the St. Petersburg Chapel and composer Alexander Lvov. Ivan received deep knowledge in the field of church singing, which allowed him in 1900 to publish the “Liturgical collection for church singing” in Latvian with notes (Riga, 1900), which was widely used by believers in Latvian parishes. Subsequently, Fr. John told his parishioners that prayer is the singing of the soul to God, “one must pray in a singsong voice,” “church singers are the lamps of the house of God.” He himself especially loved the Cherubim (No. 69), the Grace of the World (Nos. 11, 12, 13) from the "Church Use".

Concerned about public singing in churches, about common prayer, about the fact that the priest prayed "together with the people, and not instead of the people", he subsequently prepared for publication in the late 30s a pocket collection of a format convenient for parishioners - "Songbook" ( All-Night Vigil, Liturgy, Great Lent) for uniform singing in Orthodox churches, schools and families. Unfortunately, due to the military events of World War II, the collection was lost and never published. But the testament John about the publication of such a book for teaching believers to sing should have been fulfilled by us - his descendants. Perhaps this collection has been preserved by one of those reading these lines?

In 1890, after graduating from the Seminary, John served as a psalmist in Vindava (Ventspils), in the Castle Church of All Saints, where the rector was the famous priest Fr. Vasily Alyakritsky. A year later, John is a psalm reader in the Ascension Latvian parish in Riga (which is on Menee Street). On February 19, 1892, Archbishop Arseniy (Bryantsev) ordained him a deacon in the Jakobstadt (in Jakobpils) Holy Spirit Church, and on February 12, 1895, a priest in the Marciena Church in Vidzeme, where his father once served. Here, in Marcien, Fr. John Zhuravsky continues the holy work of his father: he restores the iconostasis in the St. Alekseevsky Church (1898), builds a chapel in the name of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky at the Orthodox cemetery (1897) and the Martsiensky parochial school (1899) . For his work, he repeatedly receives gratitude from the Archpastor of Riga Agafangel (Preobrazhensky).

On the years of service in Marcien, Fr. John, it is known that he was an excellent teacher of the law - kind, gentle, affable. His meek soul conveyed to the disciples the word of God in its true form, in the light of love and prayer.

In 1900, the Holy Righteous Father John (Sergiev) of Kronstadt visited Riga and Vindava (Ventspils). 133
First time o. John of Kronstadt was in Riga in 1894 and on September 21 served the Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in Riga with a huge gathering of people.

In Riga, he served the Divine Liturgy (or Moleben) in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", and then on May 12 in Vindava - a prayer service at the consecration of a children's sanatorium and a Liturgy in Vindava Church. In Vindava about. John of Kronstadt was co-served by the priests of the Riga diocese, Fr. Vasily Alyakritsky, Fr. Vladimir Pliss - Dean of the Cathedral, Fathers Winter, Jankovich, Tserin. Possibly o. John Zhuravsky met with Fr. John of Kronstadt during this period in the Sorrowful Church, and possibly, when he was still a seminarian, he visited him in Kronstadt. It is only known for certain that the holy shepherd of Kronstadt gave Fr. Ioann Zhuravsky cassock and passed on his spiritual precepts. The people said afterwards: "The gift passed from John to John."

Until the last years of his life, Fr. John Zhuravsky kept the cassock of Fr. John of Kronstadt, and on the altar in the altar there was always a photograph of the holy righteous man. And in his life, Fr. John Zhuravsky always tried to fulfill his precepts. What?

It was. John, a non-possessor, unmercenary, distributed his earnings to the poor, refused a favorable place in the Cathedral and took over the cross of service in the Riga prison church and the Svyato-Firsova Sadovnikov almshouse. He always served as a teacher of the law in schools (except during the Soviet period), never refused to give communion to the sick, and went with the Holy Gifts to those who longed for God's visitation. He meekly endured many sorrows from his neighbors, especially from his wife, with whom he lived like a brother and sister. He was also the best mentor and confessor of the Riga young priests. But, as it is fully revealed today, the main thing is that he was a great prayer book, he prayed constantly, especially at night. It happened that he appeared to his children in dreams, warning them of something or instructing them.

Father John Zhuravsky became an amazing performer of the Divine Liturgy. His spiritual children believe that this gift passed to him from Fr. John of Kronstadt. The Liturgy was performed by him earnestly and according to the full order. They sang harmoniously and prayerfully. Batiushka often knelt at the altar.

During the service of John was sometimes vouchsafed to see the invisible world, the souls of the departed. His ministry was terrifying. Having boldness about. John of Kronstadt, the priest allowed secret prayers to be read aloud, opening the Royal Doors at the Eucharistic Canon. The commemoration of the health of the living and the repose of the souls of the dead was read aloud twice - at the Proskomidia and at the Liturgy.

The temple of "Joy of All Who Sorrow", where he served, was always crowded, and other nearby churches were empty. Believers say that the service in the Sorrowful Church began at 8 o'clock in the morning and ended at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Then everyone went to him for advice, like an old man, and for a blessing. It was as if they were flying through the air from the temple home – such a power of grace descended on people!

Fr. John Zhuravsky received great grace from God: the gift of healing - and used to heal, anointing with consecrated oil; the gift of clairvoyance, which manifested itself in the insight of what was and what can be. He warned his children about the danger, spiritually saw, "grasped" the whole person. The prayer of the elder kept and protected.

From 1902 until the evacuation in 1915 (when Germany occupied Latvia), Fr. John Zhuravsky served in Vindava St. Nicholas Church. Where the priest was during the years of evacuation (1915–1918) is unknown. But there is evidence that he was in Kiev and held conversations on spiritual topics here.

From 1920 to 1940, Fr. John is the priest-lecturer of the Riga prisons. He serves in the Central Riga prison on the street. Matisa, where St. Nicholas Church has been since tsarist times, and in the Riga transit prison (at the Brasa station), in St. Sergius Church. He also visits St. Firsov's almshouse. Service here Fr. John seemed to show the image of St. Nicholas - the good shepherd. Many pockets of his specially tailored cassock were always full of gifts for the prisoners, and on great holidays he went around the cells already with whole bags of gifts.

In prison, Fr. John creates four choirs, two spiritual libraries, for he believed that through singing and prayer, lost souls come to God. Prisoners also made carved salaries for the Gospel for the church (almost like in the Houses of Diligence of Father John of Kronstadt) and some other things of church use. Many prisoners subsequently left their criminal trade, changed, many Fr. John returned to the Church and helped save the soul.

In the short pre-war Soviet period, the prison church was closed, books from the library were thrown away, and the church in the Svyato-Firsovoy almshouse was destroyed and plundered. Surprisingly and wonderfully, but God himself kept the priest from disasters.

The Germans are coming, 1941. Gestapo and SS troops carry out mass executions of Jews in Riga. Batiushka baptizes many Jews into Orthodoxy and thereby saves them from both spiritual and physical death. What threatens him? - Shot! But God keeps him.

1944 Soviet troops in Riga. What to do? Run? A group of 25 priests, headed by Bishop John of Riga (Garklavs), is leaving forever. The priest asks (that's right!) from his beloved icon of Our Lady of Kazan: should he go or not? The Mother of God shakes her head negatively: "Don't leave." And he stays.

From 1940 to 1962, Fr. John Zhuravsky is the rector of the church "Joy of All Who Sorrow", in which Fr. John of Kronstadt. This is the last place of his ministry, to which he came, being already 73 years old. But the father is still full of strength. Apparently, it was during that period that the manuscript of the book "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" came to him by God's providence.

Its author, Hieromonk Sergiy Sitikov (1889–1951), was a true confessor of the faith and a man of difficult fate. 134
See: Chinyakova G.P. Beads are precious. Righteous Wives of the Caucasus: Biographies, Instructions, Spiritual Poetry. – M.: Ark, Paraclete. 2000.

A nobleman, a secular man, he met Hieromonk Stefan (Ignatenko) in the Caucasus in his youth, who aroused in the young man an interest in spiritual life and prayer. After the 1917 revolution, Sergei, who had graduated from the Theological Academy by that time, together with his wife, Baroness Maria (Rosen), was sent to one of the northern camps. There, Maria, beloved by him, died of consumption, and Fr. Sergiy receives a second term for 10 years. After the Far Eastern camps, he settled in Altai, in the city of Biysk. But the Lord did not leave His servant - apparently, at that time already a zealous worker of "noetic prayer." Vera Alexandrovna, who moved from Leningrad to Biysk in 1940 with the elder's blessing, became his spiritual sister, although his wife by passport. After the war, the couple moved to Michurinsk. Here, in a wretched house, together with several close relatives of Vera, they formed a "small church" - their own "monastery", taking monastic vows. Probably there about. Sergius, based on his spiritual experience, completed the manuscript “The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, or the Forgotten Path of True Knowledge of God. (On Inner Christianity)" - an enthusiastic poem dedicated to the Jesus Prayer, "intelligent doing." Compiled from patristic instructions and her own deep reflections, she found herself by the Providence of God with Father John Zhuravsky and served the priest for many years. At a time when theological literature was literally worth its weight in gold, the manuscript, retyped more than once, became a precious reference book for several generations of laity and priests. She taught many hundreds, if not thousands of people prayer, repentance, but most importantly, she encouraged them to intensely desire the Kingdom of God.

Becoming rector of the Sorrowful Church, Fr. John devotes himself to pastoral work and prayer. I already have a lot of experience in ministry. But you have to endure to the end. It is dangerous to become like the gospel rich man who has accumulated wealth and calmed down. And the father serves without refusal. He especially loves to pray to the Mother of God, to serve Her akathists. He loves children very much, whom he "figures out" in the womb, when they have not yet been born - Fr. John "sees" them. He always caresses children, gives them sweets and blesses them. His sermons are bold, direct, accusatory, answering all the questions of those who come to him. He speaks aloud about the godless communists. He is being followed by sent spies-informers... But God protects him!

The main thing is that he teaches parishioners to pray, this main virtue of Christ. His faith was unshakable, for for the zeal of serving Fr. John received rare revelations. Batiushka repeatedly had visions of the souls of the saints to whom he prayed, the souls of the departed in cemeteries and in church, during the service, especially during the Divine Liturgy. Those for whom he prayed appeared to him. Such a strong prayer of the elder, as it were, “manifested” the image of the invisible world. He owns the beautiful words that the deceased should be prayed for "with tears in their eyes." He was always so close in soul to those for whom he prayed or to whom he prayed that this caused a mysterious effect. This also happened in relation to healthy spiritual children, who, being far away, physically felt the closeness of the elder, his presence.

This is a living teaching about the "world of the living" - God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living, 135
Mk. 12, 27.

- is very important for the modern rational and often cold consciousness, which does not know our living connections with the dead, real closeness to them.

* * *

In the last years of his ministry, already 90-year-old Elder John began to radiate a special light of grace. Let us remember St. Seraphim of Sarov, whom God prepared for 47 years to serve people, and then revealed to everyone. Likewise about. John. In the last period of his life, he is an old man, the “golden father,” as he is called by the people. He is a true, from God, spiritual leader. People come and go to him from all over Russia and from abroad. He writes dozens of letters every day and helps, helps, helps... He "gathers together with Christ" the flock of Christ. He is a close friend of the former Valaam elder, confessor of the Riga Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage, Fr. Schema-Archimandrite Cosmas (Smirnov). HE IS THE Confessor of MANY Confessors.

It was during this period that the Lord revealed in the elder the gift of insight into the future. He speaks about the holiness of the Latvian land and about its future liberation, and about future sorrows, and about God’s punishments, and about the fact that “your children will still learn the Law of God”, and about many other things - and all this came true before our eyes .

At the end of the life of John suffered persecution. At first it was a warning - from his own brethren, the clergy, followed by an official decree forbidding the use of "seductive and incomprehensible expressions, examples and facts" (probably about communists) in sermons, and "in the administration of Divine Services, be guided strictly by the instructions of the Missal... Royal Doors open at the right time. Then, two years before his death (the elder predicted this), on the basis of a denunciation, again by his brethren, he was removed from service in the Sorrowful Church and forced to write a letter of resignation for the state himself. He is 95 years old, but he can still serve, he has done so much for the Church of Christ... The parish of the Sorrowful Church wrote to the then ruling bishop in defense of the priest: “Each of us had one family, one house here. Almost every one of us has ten or twenty years of prayer, poured out together with kneeling before the throne with Father John. We ask you, Most Reverend Vladyka... to please us, even in our difficult worldly sorrows. And there will be no greater joy for us than to find and see Archpriest John again at the same throne of the temple "Joy of All Who Sorrow", from which he was so godlessly expelled!

Batiushka predicted that when he was removed and he died, the church would be demolished. Indeed, it was the only church in Riga that was demolished in Soviet times! You wonder why? If the Orthodox themselves had not betrayed their elder, how could external enemies have defeated us?

Yes, we are invulnerable as long as we have peace. It's worth thinking about. To all the destroyers of the Church: those who in 1925 demolished the chapel of the Kazan Mother of God on the railway station square in Riga, and those who closed the Riga Nativity Cathedral, and those who slandered him, the elder predicted God's punishment, and over all it was fulfilled strictly even during his lifetime.

The father died on Palm Sunday - the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem - March 31, 1964. And we believe that he entered the Kingdom of Heaven. He was buried in a white coffin in the Riga John the Baptist Church on April 4, on the eve of Good Friday. The funeral was attended by 20 priests of the Riga diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Bishop Nikon (Fomichev), of Riga and Latvia, with a large gathering of people.

The grave of the elder is located in the cemetery on the right side of the altar of John the Baptist Church and almost opposite the entrance to the former Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church.

* * *

I understand the insufficiency of my life story, because I dare to write about an old man whose spiritual measure is infinitely great. What can I add in conclusion? Reading the memoirs of the spiritual children of Father John, talking with many people who knew him and received spiritual help from him, you see that the portrait of the elder surprisingly resembles the hierarchal image of Nicholas the Wonderworker! - Teacher, calm, gentle, meek, not conceited, non-acquisitive, unmercenary, defender of the oppressed, liberator and savior of prisoners, feeder of the Holy Mysteries of the hungry; the naked is a clother, who has achieved purity of heart and prayer power, healed many, saved from troubles and sorrows, predicted the death of the wicked ...

Life about. John Zhuravsky does not end there, as he himself said: “When I die, come to my grave to pray. But only when the service has departed. During the service I am in the temple. Those who come to pray know that he helps. And they receive healings, blessings, admonitions according to their faith.

* * *

I ponder over an important question for me: what did Fr. John an old man? how did he, being a married parish “ordinary” priest, achieve such a high standard, which even in monasteries only the elect achieve?

They ask him - and he does not out of fear, but out of conscience. Father John fully assimilated the words of Christ about the Last Judgment, where it is clearly stated for which the Lord will reward the righteous and condemn the evil. We see the fulfillment of the elder throughout his life - a literal fulfillment! - God's command: he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, received strangers, saved prisoners, visited the sick and communed. "Not a single skinny man leaves him."

The elder kept fasts and was constantly moderate in food, but was not a strict ascetic; spiritual fasting prevailed in his life: observing the world of thoughts, purity of heart, and prayer. We ourselves know how we turn our post into nothing when we get irritated or do or say something else inappropriate.

Father John unceasingly filled all his affairs with prayer. He did everything for the glory of God. Constant, at first compelled, and then "self-moving" was the Jesus Prayer in his heart.

The sight of his own sins, which seem insignificant to us, but huge to him, was his constant skill. Frequent looking into oneself, always attentiveness, sobriety, crying about oneself, about the inaccessibility of God. Forgiveness of others, humility, meekness when he was persecuted and persecuted. He did not belong to any intra-church parties and did not have any personal claims against the ruling bishop, although, of course, there were reasons: during the troubled times of the transition of the Latvian Orthodox Church under Constantinople jurisdiction (1936), and under Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) ( 1940–1944), and under the rulers of the post-war period. The elder was afraid to damage the wheat by weeding out the tares...

Father John acquired eldership through all his life's feat, most of all through the fact that he fulfilled the commandment of St. Seraphim of Sarov the Wonderworker: "He who walks in peace draws from God, as if with a spoon, the Spiritual Gifts (of the Holy Spirit)."

FATHER JOHN,

The book "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" is an inspired song of a grateful heart about the great gift of God - the Jesus Prayer. Compiled from patristic sayings about “intelligent doing” and supported by extensive experience in ministry, the manuscript of this book was truly suffered by hieromonk Sergius Sitikov (1889–1951). By the providence of God, she ended up with the elder, Father John Zhuravsky (1867–1964). In those years when theological literature was almost worth its weight in gold, the precious lines of this book served people, instructing them in prayer, repentance and encouraging them to tirelessly seek the Kingdom of God still here on earth - in their hearts. The life example of the custodian of the manuscript itself and the great doer of “intelligent prayer” – Father John, who for many years provided care for the prison church and St. Firs’ almshouse in Riga, an ascetic, prayer mentor, confessor of many confessors – showed the true fruits of the Jesus Prayer. And there is no doubt that the manuscript of the book "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" was his faithful assistant in this. May it be so for us! With the blessing of Metropolitan Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia

In Christian humanity, Eastern monasticism was "clear by faith"; they kept the secrets of the Kingdom of God

Eastern monasticism was such an inner Christianity, “clear by faith” in the historical process, which by a feat of its “intelligent will” embarked on the path of grace-filled faith, experienced the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and lovingly told about it in their God-wise hidden Scriptures.

According to the inscrutable fate of God, Eastern monasticism in Christian humanity was the guardian of the secrets of the Kingdom of God, it was that vessel of God’s holiness, the ark of the New Testament, in which “the effective grace of sanctifying perfection” was kept, in the words of St. Macarius the Great (Conversation 40th). In monasticism, grace was kept, which sanctifies the entire external world. The Lord God had active contact with the outside world through monasticism. In this ark, as once in Israel, the secret of the New Testament of God with man was kept. What Israel was for the new humanity, so was monasticism for Christian humanity.

Ancient Israel, as in an ark, kept a secret in itself - the promise of a coming God-Savior.

Monasticism kept within itself the same mystery, but not in the promise, but in the accomplishment. The promise of monasticism has been fruitful. The promised, coming God was already in monasticism as the Savior of mankind. The mystery, hidden from centuries and generations, was revealed to His saints, who are on the path of monasticism; and this secret Christ in us according to the apostolic word. Monasticism experienced this secret and kept it in the bright faces of its saints.

The external Christian world did not contain these mysteries; it did not know them by experience. Outwardly, he was in awe of them, but from the inside, in an experienced experience, they were unknown to him. Christianity for him was a divine parable. For the outer Christian world was completely immersed by its mind and feeling in the material, in the earthly, in the vainly transient, in pagan, unenlightened being, and therefore the inner mysteries of the Kingdom of God were inaccessible to it.

The outer Christian world, in its inner aspiration, belonged to the children of this age, who marry and are given in marriage, laboring at the continuation of a corruptible mortal existence. He did not know another being - eternal, immortal, angelic. It was unknown "the resurrection that happens here before the general resurrection," in the words of St. Simeon the New Theologian.

The outer Christian world was not vouchsafed, did not bother to assimilate the inner mystery of Christianity, did not bother to reach another age and resurrection from the dead, where neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like angels in heaven. Not having worked properly, he did not know these secrets, he was in a perishable, mortal, carnal existence. For only laborers who force themselves to delight in these mysteries enter the Kingdom of these mysteries.

Eastern monasticism was such a worker who delighted in these secrets, which learned them by experience and kept them in itself.

Monasticism, renouncing the feat of "intelligent will" from the external and material, renouncing labor, the continuation of perishable, mortal infinity, renouncing "immaterial possessions", from dreams and lusts and striving their spiritual "intelligent nature" to resurrection and being in another age, and it was that "inner" Christianity, "sighted by faith", to which another being was revealed - the hidden, Divine, hidden from centuries and generations.

Monasticism was the bearer of living faith in the Living God. It was this faith that created the Christian life in the dark pagan peoples. It illuminated these nations with the light of the faith of Christ. The light of Christ was in monasticism, and Christ Himself really dwelt in it. That is why the simple believing folk soul was drawn to the pilgrimage to the monasteries and to the elders-monks. With a living feeling of her heart she felt the presence of the Living God there and was not mistaken: truly, God was in monasticism, and there she came into contact with Him and found Him in the faces of holy monks.

Through contact with monasticism, the outer Christian world was enlightened and acquired active grace, which sanctified its outer being and opened the way to inner, spiritual being. The sanctifying grace of Christ came to the outside world only through monasticism. There were no other ways of sanctification in the Church of Christ, and there never will be.

Every Christian soul, yearning for a grace-filled change in its life, has received it and will continue to receive it only through monasticism. The holy monks are the bearers of this active grace. This is the secret of the Church of Christ. And this mystery is holy blessed monasticism.

In the holy laborers of eastern monasticism, to whom these mysteries of the Kingdom of God were given, the secret “smart” path to sanctification, to the acquisition of a grace-filled life and faith, and to the experimental assimilation of these mysteries was also kept.

And the first blessed Laborer in the new humanity, who by her “intelligent” labor delighted in the innermost secret of the new being, was the Blessed Virgin and Mother, the Ancestor of a different kind, of new humanity, the Ancestor of the monastic family, the Heavenly Abbess of earthly monasticism. She was the first to pave this way to the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and to the necessary rapture of these mysteries. From Her came a new humanity: angelic, divine, heavenly, different - monastic, aspiring to a different age, to a different life, to the Resurrection of incorruption.

This is She - all the meek and the poor, and the mournful, these restless seekers of "smart being" of the inner, immortal, divine,

Loving, led away

To the bright universal morning

wonderful resurrection,

And since then, following Her feet,

That with a thrill of pain passed

among the thorns

In miraculous footsteps, in Her footsteps,

That glow with diamonds of tears

And drops of scarlet rubies, -

Strings flow along a narrow path ...

Their faces shine incorruptible

Her beauty.

They're coming... Everyone's going... They're hurrying...

To the glory of incorruption

Bright day of Resurrection.

Chapter XXIII

Closing Song to the Most Blessed Culprit of the "Smart Way" - the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God

The unstoppable heart sings the last song
Daring Culprit
"smart way"
To the brightest fiery minds of the Virgin -
Inexpressible, revered Mother of Light
beloved;
To that pilgrim all-blessed
and bold,
What is a dark night
In the dark ages of the roadless
I dared to lay a "smart path" -
The shortest and most immutable -
To the original mystery of God -
To holy incorruption!
And in humble fear,
In the tears of the cross
In Your Mother's Arms
Nurtured, brought and gave
Life imperishable, blessed
Down to the ashes
A mortal creature for consolation.
And to all the weary, to all
exhausted
In long wanderings, in secret
sobs
Prisoners of decay and death
Immortal Name of the Immortal God
opened -
All for salvation and eternal joy.
And the divine path showed us
"clever", -
From decay and death
Leading to holy immortality.
And tears of our bitterness -
Flowing, burning, ancient -
In the sweetness of joy glorious to us
transformed before God,
She appeared as a guarantor of sinners.
We were caressed with sweet thirst,
gratifying
To God's affectionate welcome,
to the father's house.

Rejoice, rejoice
The quiet joy of a sad land!
Our cave - earth
lightless
By the joyful light of Heaven
illumined,
Our dark night
Our long grief
The singing of heavenly singers
sweetened.
In the manger of a soul that has lost
literature,
The word gave birth.
Down to the dust, earthly
creation
Blessing of God the Father
evangelist:
The Lord is with you!
Rejoice, rejoice, Unique One!
And for "smart eyes"
You are the unfathomable depth;
Unspeakable Face -
You are a great heart
pierced by the sorrow of the cross,
like swords,
And with your holy tears
At the foot of the Cross you sprinkled
and consecrated
The land of the cross and barren,
Where the incorruptible shone and
incomparable
Beauty!

Magnify, my soul,
Seraphim Serene
All-Blessed and Imperishable
most tender Mother of God,
Who loved us, our sorrow
illumined
Stepdad with a glow of glory
The Light of the Beloved Necessary!

Variant of Chapter I

You are given to know the secrets

Kingdom of God, and those

Everything happens externally in parables.

Only the soul that has embarked on the path of faith is granted access to the Kingdom of God. Only on the path of faith are the mysteries of this Kingdom revealed. And this is the inner path, inaccessible to those who live in a carnal life. Faith is not available to carnivores. Only those who have left the outer and followed the inner path, the path of faith following God, acquire these mysteries of God. To follow God by faith means: If a grain of wheat, falling into the ground, does not die, it does not come to life. This is the spiritual law of God's life: you must first die to the external in order to live in the internal. He deceives himself who lives in carnal desires and thinks that he lives in God and follows God. This is the way of self-deception, the way of the flesh; it is not inhabited by the Spirit of God. There is no feat of the soul on him, there is no faith on him. It is only on the path of faith that the human soul acquires spiritual existence and asserts its timeless significance on it. In a short moment of time, at the point of earthly existence, he determines the direction of his will for boundless activity and eternity. In the feat of faith, the soul affirms its being in the divine, enters the circle of this being, and by contributory grace accepts the obedience and becomes “the Light of the Holy Communion and the Deity without envy” (see the Canon for Holy Communion).

Hieromonk Sergius (Sitikov)

About Elder John Zhuravsky, long-term custodian of the manuscript "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" and a great ascetic

Biography of Elder John Zhuravsky

In eternal memory there will be a righteous man.

(Ps. 111:6)

The grandfather, apparently, was an educator, he died while still young: during the performance of the service (possibly, baptism) at home, he was killed by schismatics.

Platon (Gorodetsky), Archbishop of Riga and Mitava, Fr. Peter was assigned as a priest to the Kaltsenava church of the Kerstenbem deanery.

In his life he experienced many sorrows, serving in a heterodox land. Fr died. Petr Zhuravsky June 10, 1892

Much later, after becoming a father, Fr. John turned to the memory of his father for help and received it.

In 1900, the Holy Righteous Father John (Sergiev) of Kronstadt visited Riga and Vindava (Ventspils). In Riga, he served the Divine Liturgy (or Moleben) in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", and then on May 12 in Vindava - a prayer service at the consecration of a children's sanatorium and a Liturgy in Vindava Church. In Vindava about. John of Kronstadt was co-served by the priests of the Riga diocese, Fr. Vasily Alyakritsky, Fr. Vladimir Pliss - Dean of the Cathedral, Fathers Winter, Jankovich, Tserin. Possibly o. John Zhuravsky met with Fr. John of Kronstadt during this period in the Sorrowful Church, and possibly, when he was still a seminarian, he visited him in Kronstadt. It is only known for certain that the holy shepherd of Kronstadt gave Fr. Ioann Zhuravsky cassock and passed on his spiritual precepts. The people said afterwards: "The gift passed from John to John."

Its author, Hieromonk Sergiy Sitikov (1889–1951), was a true confessor of the faith and a man of difficult fate. A nobleman, a secular man, he met Hieromonk Stefan (Ignatenko) in the Caucasus in his youth, who aroused in the young man an interest in spiritual life and prayer. After the 1917 revolution, Sergei, who had graduated from the Theological Academy by that time, together with his wife, Baroness Maria (Rosen), was sent to one of the northern camps. There, Maria, beloved by him, died of consumption, and Fr. Sergiy receives a second term for 10 years. After the Far Eastern camps, he settled in Altai, in the city of Biysk. But the Lord did not leave His servant - apparently, at that time already a zealous worker of "noetic prayer." Vera Alexandrovna, who moved from Leningrad to Biysk in 1940 with the elder's blessing, became his spiritual sister, although his wife by passport. After the war, the couple moved to Michurinsk. Here, in a wretched house, together with several close relatives of Vera, they formed a "small church" - their own "monastery", taking monastic vows. Probably there about. Sergius, based on his spiritual experience, completed the manuscript “The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, or the Forgotten Path of True Knowledge of God. (On Inner Christianity)" - an enthusiastic poem dedicated to the Jesus Prayer, "intelligent doing." Compiled from patristic instructions and her own deep reflections, she found herself by the Providence of God with Father John Zhuravsky and served the priest for many years. At a time when theological literature was literally worth its weight in gold, the manuscript, retyped more than once, became a precious reference book for several generations of laity and priests. She taught many hundreds, if not thousands of people prayer, repentance, but most importantly, she encouraged them to intensely desire the Kingdom of God.

This is a living teaching about the "world of the living" - God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living - is very important for the modern rational and often cold consciousness, which does not know our live connections with the dead, real closeness to them.

The grave of the elder is located in the cemetery on the right side of the altar of John the Baptist Church and almost opposite the entrance to the former Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Church.

Diligence, daily, unceasing selflessness in service, leaving no time for oneself - everything is only for God and for people. His coming and his spiritual children are his constant “sacrifice”. They say to him: "go" - and he goes, "come" - and he comes. They ask him - and he does not out of fear, but out of conscience. Father John fully assimilated the words of Christ about the Last Judgment, where it is clearly stated for which the Lord will reward the righteous and condemn the evil. We see the fulfillment of the elder throughout his life - a literal fulfillment! - God's command: he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, received strangers, saved prisoners, visited the sick and communed. "Not a single skinny man leaves him."

Father John unceasingly filled all his affairs with prayer. He did everything for the glory of God. Constant, at first compelled, and then "self-moving" was the Jesus Prayer in his heart.

FATHER JOHN,

PRAY TO GOD FOR US!

From the Memoirs of Spiritual Children, Followers and Colleagues of Elder John Zhuravsky

Father Ioann Zhuravsky was a “prison priest”, the carved oklad of the Gospel in the Ivanovo Church of 1923, made by Adolf Iosifovich Blum in the 2nd carpentry workshop of the prison (Central Riga Prison - CTR), has been preserved. I guess oh. John, in order to support the prisoners, made orders for them and paid for them, which supported them not only spiritually, but also financially.

They say that while the elder served, doves lived on the bell tower of his temple. They wanted to drive them away - they say, they dirty the roof and the porch. But the old man did not. Then they did not let him serve. When he died, the pigeons were expelled and the church was blown up.

He wept at the Proskomedia, at the altar, taking out particles for the dead. And he saw those whom he commemorated standing around the altar. As he walked through the cemetery, the dead, in human form familiar to him, stood near their graves and greeted him.

Once (the story of an old priest, a friend of Fr. I.), leaving the throne to the altar during the Cherubim, the elder saw a bishop at the altar, who had long died. As it is customary for a bishop at this moment of the service to approach the altar for the first time, he stood and took out particles from the prosphora. Father John humbly turned to him: “Vladyka, can I serve you?” “No,” answered the bishop, “today I will serve you.”

To his altar woman, Fr. John sternly said: "We must pray for the dead with tears."

Another Maria, a psalm-reader at the church of St. John the Baptist, also a spiritual child of the elder, recalled that when the elder was still alive, she came to his house to ask for a blessing to work in the Ivanovo Church. The elder's adopted daughter came out to her and gave him his answer: "Go, I'll be there in a month." A month later, he was buried near the temple, and then for more than 20 years Maria looked after his grave. I think that she, too, is a nun from that invisible “monastery” that the elder set up in the city. Widows who were not married, he blessed to wear simple rings - he betrothed them to a single Bridegroom and protected them from immodest eyes.

This Mary recalled that after the service he would sit on a chair in church, and his spiritual children would kneel and put their hands on his knees, and he would talk to them. Once he met a young man on a Riga street, whom he once buried. She asks him: “What are you doing here? You are dead!” - The deceased answers: “Father, my sister is very sick. But no one knows about her. She needs to be treated urgently. She lies in such-and-such a hospital, in such-and-such a ward.” The elder went to the indicated address, and indeed, he found a sick woman. She cried: “Father, how did you find me?! I really want to take communion."

When he delivered a sermon, he leaned with one hand on the head of a little boy, and with the other on the head of his brother. Both of them later became priests. One served as rector at All Saints, two blocks from the bombed All Who Sorrow Church, and the other, Hieromonk Seraphim, died at 27. It's been a very hard road. Didn't serve for a long time. Then he suddenly returned to the throne. It was a miracle - the resurrection from the dead: "Be dead and come to life ..." They appointed him just in time for us, in the Ivanovo Church. I remember he went into the altar, took the censer: “I will go,” he says, “to Zhuravsky, I will serve a memorial service.” A year later, on Bright Week, he died. Heart failure. Buried in Ivanovskoye. They carried his body around the temple in a procession. Past the grave of an old man.

Lived about. John Zhuravsky in very difficult conditions. Not far from the current Philharmonic. The windows of his apartment rested against the wall of a neighboring house, across a narrow street. The stairs to his apartment ran almost perpendicular. If you remember that the elder lived for a very long time, then you can imagine how he climbed this staircase, every day ascending to his “Golgotha”.

Everything that the elder received, he distributed. His spiritual children took envelopes with money to the addresses he indicated. He was also a "prison" father. He had many inside pockets in his cassock. The warder noticed that after the priest left, all the prisoners were chewing something. One day he calls the priest to him and asks sternly: “But you don’t give anything to the prisoners?” Then the elder reached into the farthest pocket of his cassock, took out another envelope, gave it to the overseer, blessed him, and said, “Be quiet, be quiet.”

I saw with my own eyes one large and one small altar Gospel from his church in unique handmade wooden frames: four Evangelists and a Savior. They were cut out by prisoners - the elder's wards. I heard from church people that in 1939, when the Soviet troops arrived, they opened the prison. And there were a lot of political ones. They began to seize the guards and throw them into the furnace. Here he came, as usual, and Fr. John. They grabbed him too. Then other prisoners said: “Don't touch this grandfather. He helped us all."

I saw an old liturgical journal from Fr. John. After the war, he joined many Old Believers to Orthodoxy. Whoever knows how exacting the Old Believers are and what kind of relationship they have with our Church, he will understand the greatness and attractiveness of the elder.

When the elder was buried, the bishop said: “The Lord gives long years of life to some people, lovingly waiting for their repentance, but Fr. The Lord gave John long years for the sake of his righteousness.

Until now, when we commemorate in the altar at the altar, we come across memorial books with a dedicatory inscription of Fr. John Zhuravsky: "The righteous will live by faith...".

Once a thief was running and the police were chasing him, at this time the priest was leaving the church. He let the thief into the church. The policemen came: “Have you seen the thief?” they ask Father John. “No, I didn’t see anyone.” When they left, the priest said to the thief: "Wash the floors in the church and don't touch anything." Then the priest closed the church and left. Came in the morning, at six o'clock, the church was washed, and he released the thief. It seems that the thief abandoned his craft ...

Separate expressions of the priest:

- I never serve in an empty church: even if there are fewer living, the more dead.

- When I say: "Peace to all," I always hear the answer: "And your spirit," - let it be quiet, like rustling, but I always hear it.

To Elena Kondratyevna Chuikova (a spiritual person, now deceased), he spoke about children: “Call this one Mikhail, but this one - it doesn’t matter what it is.” And in fact - they called Sergius, and he changed his name in monasticism to Seraphim.

At night, the priest did not sleep - he sat and prayed for the departed.

The father said: “Do not bring flowers to my grave - this is a luxury, but light a candle and pray.”

A very spiritually strong parish was united around the priest.

Valentina Mstislavovna Sirotina and Andrey Lyasov.

Father John Zhuravsky was a virgin. He had two adopted children, Maria and Mikhail. Mikhail died during the war, Maria had two children, but they died. Her husband was a pharmacist, they arrived in Riga on the eve of World War II, and before that they lived in Moscow.

The priest said: “My wife beats me, and I go out onto the stairs into the corridor with the Gospel.” The father's wife's name was Vera (nee Losskaya).

Service at Fr. John walked for a long time, on Sunday it began at 8, ended at 17 o'clock (and then Vespers was not far away). Then the priest sat on the pulpit and received all the people, everyone could approach him, they called the names of relatives, the priest wrote them down (for whom to pray). The church was always full of people, from morning to evening. The day passed like an hour.

When anointed, Fr. John anointed not only his forehead, but also his chest, and his ears, and his hands. In our time, priests are used to doing everything mechanically, while Father John did everything with a deep spiritual feeling; no one left him "skinny and inconsolable", everyone left with love.

I walked out of the church, like a meter from the ground. I flew as if through air - I received such grace and strength.

Batiushka gave everyone something: apples, bombonki [candy] - no one knew where he got it from. He gave everyone something.

When my husband died (at the age of 27 suddenly), I changed the ring to the other hand, I come to church, and the priest gives me 10 rubles. “No need,” I say, “I have money.” I come home, and my father has died (telegram). I have to go to the funeral, that's where the money came in handy.

When the father died at 9 pm, Alexy came and told me about it. I ran to my father's apartment. There were already about. Nikolai Trubetskoy (dean) and Fr. Nikolay Baranovich. Memorial services for the priest were performed until one in the morning. Then about. Nikolai asks: “Who will buy the coffin?” - Nobody answered. In the morning, I nevertheless decided to buy a coffin and run to my mother (M.I. - the daughter of Father John). She tells me: “Come to the priest and ask for his blessing.” Through the prayers of the priest, we managed to find a very beautiful white coffin, we brought it to the father's house. Again several requiems were served.

They brought about John to the Ivanovo Church (at that time the Sorrowful Church was already closed). And the next day I see a dream: Fr. John in full vestments in front of the open doors of the Sorrowful Church. There is a crowd of people in front of the church, I make my way through the crowd to the priest and become second after some other woman, and the holy father blesses us. And everything disappeared. So the father's providence came true. He told me: "You are my granddaughter." “Well, what kind of granddaughter am I to you?” I thought. And so, it came true, I became his granddaughter - I buried the priest, bought him a coffin. I also ordered land for the cemetery.

Once my father was in the hospital. I run to the priest to ask what will happen to him. And from behind the door, M.I. answers according to his words: “And he will undergo the operation, and he will live.” And so it happened!

“After Communion,” the priest said, “drink tea only on this day, and let LOVE abide in the house for everyone.

Nadezhda Ivanovna Nordqvist.

Batiushka was a seer, a prayer book, a clairvoyant. People came to him from all over Russia.

One day my mother came to visit me. And on the train she met those who were going to the priest. And he writes to me that you have the Church of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", try to go to the priest in this church. And I started going to him.

Before the death of his mother Vera, the father went to church on foot. And after her death (1955), he was taken by car.

In Latvian times, the father went to prison and an almshouse, and in Soviet times, to a boarding house.

Father Schema-Archimandrite Kosma was very fond of - he was his first guest. The priest always talked to the Kazan icon of the Mother of God in the altar. One day they brought a child to church - a beggar, ragged and dirty. The father gave money and ordered the parishioners to wash and dress him, then he baptized him, after which the homeless child was placed in safe hands.

The money that was given to the priest, he distributed everything. He never took anything. When they told him about this: “What are you handing out everything, father?” - he answered: “I don’t need anything, I need to eat cottage cheese and oatmeal.”

If the priest confessed, and it happened that the confessor did not have a cross, then the priest always has one, he will put it on once and put it on (the priest had many “secret” pockets in his cassock for distributing gifts).

I lost my sight. Batiushka says to me: "Let me rebuild you - and it will be fine." I did not obey, but obeyed the old women, and I am still blind.

On Sunday, the priest came to the temple at 9 o'clock in the morning, after the Liturgy - a prayer service; The service ended at 3-4 p.m. The health notes were read twice. After the service, the priest sat on the pulpit and everyone came to him with his grief.

One day my mother gave me a telegram that my father was admitted to the hospital. What to do? I went to my father. “There is no need to go,” he said, and indeed, I receive a telegram that he is already at home. The second time I suddenly receive a telegram from my mother that my father is seriously ill; I'm back to my father. And he says, "Now you have to go to save him." And I went, left my father, and he lived for another 10 years.

Once, FZU-shniks climbed into the church through the window and robbed the temple. “What is there to cry about,” said the priest, “they will bring everything.” Indeed, they brought everything. “The Kazan Mother of God protects us,” said the priest. Batiushka knew all the parishioners, who needed what. It used to happen that when a priest walks around the church, everyone tries to touch his cassock. He also prayed for suicides.

I came to the father's house at the hour of his death, when he had just died. “Mary,” I say to his daughter (and the father is in the next room), “something he sleeps for a long time.” He died quietly, lightly, on the day of the Lord's Entry into Jerusalem. And they buried him in a white coffin.

“After my death, during the service, do not go to my grave - I am in the service,” he said. And one day during the service the priest Fr. Vladimir Dubakin in the Sorrowful chapel (which after the demolition of the Church of Sorrow is located in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist) saw the priest as he “passed” by him.

“The temple will be demolished after my death,” the priest said, “as long as I am alive, the temple will not be demolished.” So it was, only after the death of the father, the Church of Sorrows was demolished.

Alexandra Pavlovna.

The father was a student of Fr. John of Kronstadt until the end of his life. John of Kronstadt gave him a cassock (black coat). The people spoke as if "the gift had passed from John to John." Once the priest served the Liturgy together with John of Kronstadt.

When I got married, I came to the father. "Go here. Are you waiting for Dimitri? Well, you will have Dmitry - Donskoy! After 10 years, she asks: “Well, did you want Tatyana?” “No, father,” I say, “I have suffered with one.” But really, she was born for brother Dmitry - sister Tatyana.

In the Ivanovo Church there is an icon of Our Lady of Kazan (from the altar of the Sorrowful Church, now it is in the altar of the Sorrowful Chapel). Father always talked to her. She looks from all sides. Now She looks sadly, then (“well, Mother of God, bless me,” the priest asks) looks joyfully. And as he looks, so it happens.

Often up to fifty envelopes of letters came to the priest by mail. He managed to read them, but did not have time to answer. “Lelechka,” he used to say to me, “write “yes,” or “no need,” or “no,” “he’ll get better.”

Once I came with sore legs to his grave and suddenly felt that they were healed.

People came to him from all over the country: from Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia, as well as from Germany and many other countries.

He knew all his parishioners by name and where they lived.

Near the station there was a small chapel. Prime Minister M. ordered it demolished. The father said: there will be God's punishment. A few days later, M. died, crashed in a car near Tukums; his dog survived, but he died.

When F[urtseva] ordered to remove the crosses from the Riga Cathedral and close it, the priest foreshadowed God's punishment, which was fulfilled on those who cut down the crosses (two were broken), on F. herself, on Bishop I., who gave his signature consent.

Father John Zhuravsky was very polite, very correct. He took with one hand and gave with the other.

Died in poverty. They buried him in an old cassock.

Leonila Maevskaya.

The father had supernatural vision. He could see what was happening elsewhere, even in another city, all over the world. His eyes were clear, clear, like a child's, like an angel's.

The priest said that when a person is baptized, the Angel writes him down in the “Book of Life” and gives him “the afterlife clothes”, and the Angel keeps him all his life. If a person begins to sin, the Angel leaves, and the clothes get dirty. About unbaptized children, he said that he wants a soul to come into the world, and Satan keeps it in darkness. The enemy does not let him be baptized.

During the mobilization for forced labor by the Bolsheviks in 1919, the priest was forced to dig behind the Dvina. As soon as the priest stuck a shovel into the ground, suddenly, out of nowhere, a young man took up his shovel: “I will dig.” And dug all day. The day ended, the priest wanted to thank him, but he didn’t. The next day the same thing happened again. As soon as the priest wanted to start digging the ground, again a young man - out of nowhere - replaced him. I wanted to thank him at the end of the day - again he is gone. One day after that, the priest came home, suddenly looks - the same young man is standing in front of him and smiling. The father just wanted to thank him, but he was not there, disappeared. “That was my Guardian Angel,” said the priest.

When they sang in church: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men,” the priest always knelt before the throne.

Before the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow" while singing, he knelt. He said that the Mother of God and the Lord Jesus Christ always stand in the altar.

Once a miracle happened like this: I forgot to take a commemoration to the Liturgy and was very upset that I would not give it to the priest so that he would pray. Suddenly I hear the father read before the throne the names from my little book. The little book “came” from home to the priest.

Batiushka taught before the holidays to sanctify the apartment with holy water on all four sides, to read “Our Father” loudly, then no enemy force will approach your apartment.

“Pray in a singsong voice,” the priest taught.

Subdeacon Alexander Lapkovsky.

Batiushka slowly served the Liturgy, we came to him on holidays and asked for blessings. The first time I came to him in the Church of Sorrows and stood at the threshold; if someone stood behind me, then I felt awkward. Batiushka preached that faith without works is dead, and in Riga we have many opportunities to do good deeds: there are prisons, orphanages, a mental hospital. If we cannot help financially, then with a kind word, we can. If we only pray, it won't save us. And I stand and think that I myself in the monastery receive only 3 rubles a month, but I can’t leave the monastery. And I think that I can't be saved.

When the priest finished his sermon, I went up to the cross, and he said to me: "Obedience and humility - these are your good deeds." And he told me this despite the fact that I was in secular clothes (at that time, the nuns strictly and strictly went out of the gates of the monastery without monastic attire). Then I realized that o. John the seer. And since then, with my sorrows, I went to him.

In the 1960s, the Riga Monastery was closed. Already in the newspaper the monastery was declared closed. The nuns were painted according to their relatives. They threatened: whoever does not leave, we will load him and take him to the virgin lands. Mother Abbess Tabitha sent me to the priest. I tell him: “Batiushka, the monastery is being closed.” - And he: “Does the castle hang?” - I say: "The nuns are being kicked out." - And he: “How are they expelled? Do you take a whip?" - I say: "They say they are closing." - And he told me: "And if they say, then the tongue is without bones." - I say: "It is written in the newspaper." - And he: "Newspaper - paper, hold it - but in the oven." - I ask him: "Here, Mother Abbess sends me to work to get a job." - And he: “Well, since mother said, then I'm not your master. And the monastery will be!”

I asked him at church. Then everyone sees him off in a taxi, they surround him. And I’m standing at a distance, and tears are rolling down from me, large tears. He got into the car, then got up and looked at me and smiled, almost laughing. I remember that I also thought: this is how the priest laughs at me ...

And I went to get a job for the Dvina, I already picked up a house where to live, and settled down so well ... But suddenly everything seems disgusting to me. I came home, I can’t eat, I can’t pray, I can’t sleep, I found a terrible darkness on my soul, and my soul is languishing like that - it seems that not a single soul could cope, the soul fell into such suffering! And I began to think: what am I doing wrong? I took a vow when I took the veil as a nun, but I obeyed my mother. And the priest said: “There is no turning back from this path.” (To some parishioners, he said: "Now there are no monasteries; be a nun in the world" - white monasticism!) And I think: "I have sinned, after all, the father said: there is no turning back from this path." And I went to the miraculous Tolga Icon of the Mother of God (in St. Sergius Church of the Riga Monastery).

“Mother of God, I feel that I have sinned. Forgive me, I won’t go anywhere else - even if they send me to the virgin lands. And as I got up from my knees, my soul was immediately resurrected, like a scab fell from my soul. And I no longer care what will happen to the monastery, to me and to the whole earth. And I only need one thing - to remain a nun! Then I began to tell other nuns: “Don’t go anywhere from here, otherwise your soul will go to hell.” They say to me: "Hush, mother upstairs, she hears everything." - And I answer: "I'm not afraid of anyone: neither mothers, nor fathers, nor the patriarch, nor the bishop." Mother Tabitha heard and said: “Well, I didn’t know that Olga had such a strong faith” [nun N. was a novice at that time].

One nun had just left the monastery, she was given a good job, a hostel, she became a Stakhanovite, they wrote about her in the newspaper that she “now benefits the state.” Then she began to faint at work, fell into a mental hospital. And she told everyone: do not leave the monastery under any condition - "my soul is in hell, grace has departed."

There was such a priest, Father Gregory. He got married, left the Church and also said: “I have no peace inside my soul.”

Father John was a holy life. He treated himself carelessly, but such mercy towards people! He devoted his whole life to people and God. None of the monks led such a life. He spent the whole day in church and prayed for people at night. Everything that the father said came true. I remember one woman came up to him, and he kept chasing her: “How long will you be engaged in sin ?!” And he understood very well mother M. (grieving): “Come to me, my good one.”

He went to hospitals, communed fetid and cancerous. And went to jail. He predicted that Archbishop Nikon would be a good bishop, but he would not be around for long. He predicted that there would be God's punishment for the closing of the Cathedral. Bishop I., who signed the paper on the closing of the cathedral, fell seriously ill after a short time. Vladyka Nikon was also brought a piece of paper to sign for the closure of the monastery. He answered: "If you have the right, then close the monastery, and my signature will not be."

Alexy N., through the prayers of the priest for him, one night he saw an Ethiopian grinning above him, and he would stick out his tongue, then pull it in. And he was so frightened that he said to his brother: “Now you take me to the priest.” When they arrived, Father John said to him: “Well. God showed you your "master" whom you served. If you don’t repent, you will go to eternal life with such people.” And from the same day, Alexy stopped drinking vodka. And then he became a monk.

Once he said about John to a family man who came to church without a grandson: “He came to church himself, and the grandson plays with the cat.”

Somehow I led to Fr. John the Latvian Lutheran, Emilia, with sore eyes. He received her and questioned her, and then he said to the deacon: “Bring the myrrh” (a vessel with the world). Then the priest anointed Emilia, read prayers, then confessed and absolved her sins, and communed the Holy Mysteries.

After that, Emilia comes up to me in bewilderment and asks: “Why didn’t he give me anything to heal my eyes?” I went up to the priest and said that Emilia was embarrassed, and he told me that Emilia would die soon and would see in her future life: “And since she came to ask for help, I did what she needed. Now you can take out particles from the prosphora for her and perform the funeral according to the Orthodox rite.

And, indeed, Emilia soon died, and I still (soon to be 30 years old) pray for her.

Batiushka said that if two are at enmity, then one common particle must be chosen from the prosphora for them, and then they will reconcile. He himself convinced himself of this. About the Cathedral (Nativity of Christ) Cathedral, he predicted that "you will still wait until the lamps are lit in the cathedral, but not for long."

The women complained to the priest that the children were atheists. He told them, "Your children will learn the Law of God."

Nun N.

I have a certificate of Baptism at home, written by the rector of the Riga Sorrowful Church, Archpriest John Zhuravsky. And from the stories of my now deceased mother, I know that on August 23, 1946, the Sacrament of Baptism was performed in my mother’s apartment, at which I was given the name of Vera - instead of Catherine. This is the name my father wanted to call me. So the bright image of this amazing old man entered my life. And still at home, his photograph is kept with a dedicatory inscription: “Golden Verochka for prayerful memory,” and his date of birth is July 17, 1946. Other things are kept at home - prayer books, books signed by Father John Zhuravsky.

He was a comforter and mentor to my mother, Nadezhda Alexandrovna Bartoshevskaya, and her sister, my aunt, Lydia Alexandrovna. As a child, I was often taken to church, and I remember him that way - already completely gray-haired, with kind blue eyes. My attention was drawn to the fact that the priest reads everything without glasses, although he wore glasses in his youth, and I saw photographs of him in his youth with glasses at my mother's acquaintances. Despite my young age, I clearly remember two stories of the priest. In one it was about a man who drank a lot and died from drinking, but his wife was very sad and asked the priest to pray for him. “Soon,” says Father John, “I dreamed of him naked, in a gloomy dark room. Ten years have passed. And now he is dreaming again, already dressed, but with bare feet. More years pass. And now all the light appeared again with gratitude for the liberation from the world of darkness. Maybe I'm wrong, but I remember that the priest prayed for him for 40 years. And this power of a priest's prayer, the opportunity to save a sinner after his death, left a colossal impression on my soul.

The second story happened already with the priest himself. One day something happened to his leg. The father's condition was so serious that he was admitted to the hospital, and he was threatened with amputation of his leg. On the eve of the operation, the priest prayed all night, grieving that he would not be able to minister with one leg. And his prayer was heard. When the next morning the doctor came for him, not only was the operation no longer necessary, but he could be immediately discharged from the hospital.

For the share of John Zhuravsky fell both sorrows and trials. At home, I was told that his family, that is, his mother and daughter, did not understand him, did not care for him, did not allow parishioners to visit him. My aunt told me that for some reason she really needed a priest, and she went to his house. And at home I found this picture: the priest with a towel thrown over washes the dishes and prepares his own food. He offered oatmeal to his aunt, which he himself ate and which he often mentioned in his sermons, bequeathing to parishioners for their own health to use oatmeal porridge more often in their diet.

And they also told at home that the priest helped prisoners in prisons and with what gratitude and love the prisoners paid him, sometimes they tried to do something with their own hands: either cut a cross, or a box, or something else. Unfortunately, time has probably erased some other memories, but for me he remained for the rest of my life as my godfather.

Vera Kurtovna Bartoshevskaya.

Once I met Fr. John one woman who was filled with tears (this was 4 years after his death). And she also told me that she was crying because (how not to cry?) That she could not walk, they brought her to him in her arms, and now she walks.

Somehow about. John tells his daughter Mary: "Go to them, three are standing at the door." Maria replies: "It can't be, I just looked - there's no one there." “No, go ahead and open it.” He opens it, looks - indeed, there are three people standing: Bishop Nikon, Ivan Alexandrovich and someone else.

Father John said: “While I serve here, the church (Sorrowful) will not be demolished.” And after his death, they took it down.

Once I said about. John that I don’t have a Gospel, but he tells me: “Pray, and you will have a Gospel, and more than one,” and indeed, after a while, four Gospels were presented to me.

One day he asked me what I do. I was a tailor: I sewed hats and jackets both in the army and in Siberia. “You will sew hats here too, you will sew spiritual hats. Give, Mary (his daughter), my miter. “This is what you will sew!” Indeed, the time has come, and I began to sew mitres.

One person bought a car and wanted to go to the desert, he came for a blessing to Fr. John. And about. John tells him: "Don't drive, you'll get an accident at the 9th kilometer from Riga." He did not obey and, indeed, had an accident, a dump truck drove into the car.

Father John told me that he could not say much, now there is no one to speak to, people not only do not want to understand, but there is no God's calling.

All those for whom the priest prayed are all at the church to this day.

The father had a friend Grisha, he was at the front, he had two sisters - Natalia and Vera. One day Natalia fell ill. Batiushka dreams that Natalia fell ill and asks him to take communion. The priest defended the service, took the spare Holy Gifts and went to Naberezhnaya Street, 28-20. Knocking. Vera comes out: “But we didn’t call you.” - "Whatever your name is, Natalia is sick with you." And gave Natasha communion.

Maria G., when she was sick, asked the priest to pray to God and gave him 500 rubles. He immediately gave them to Nadezhda, who was released from prison - the martyr of Christ. Maria still father 200 rubles. brought. But he did not take it, he said: "You yourself will need it." She, indeed, became a headman in the Transfiguration Church, and she began to need money. She made a vow that if she recovered, she would wash the whole church (the inside of the church was all black). And so it happened.

Subdeacon Vladimir Alekseevich Alekseev.

Father John, at the request of my brothers, mostly brother Valentin, begged me, an atheist, at the end of 1959. Until the age of 29-30, I lived as an atheist - a hooligan, I searched for the truth all my life, but I drank heavily.

Father John told us how, before the revolution, it happened in St. Petersburg and Moscow, wherever he approached the holy relics, shrines opened everywhere, saints came out of them and talked to him, and those around him did not see anything. And when he approached the shrine of St. Alexy, St. Alexy came down, took off his glasses and said: “Father John, you are a young father, and you wear glasses - how ugly,” and enters the shrine. And the priest began to see well, he saw well to death. And he told us: “Turn your eyesight to Alexy, Metropolitan of Moscow. He is a heavenly eye doctor."

Once in 1961, Fr. John preached a sermon and almost cried: “Ai-ay! Baba was made a bishop! Ay-ay! 80 years ago I was 14 years old, Emperor Alexander III came to Riga with a bishop for the opening of the cathedral, and I sang in the choir. We go behind, Emperor Alexander III cuts the ribbon, and the church was consecrated.” Indeed, a week after the sermon, Furtseva, the Minister of Culture of the USSR, arrived in Riga, summoned Bishop I. and offered to close the cathedral, he agreed out of cowardice, and the cathedral was transferred to kr. Baron [sic]. Then about. John says: "The time will come, they will give you the cathedral."

Also talked about. John: "The time will come, Latvia will move away from the USSR, the Latvians will drive you out of Latvia, but don't leave."

Father John taught: “When you go to church, don’t look around, read some kind of prayer. At night, pray briefly, several times a night. When you wake up, do not linger for a second - on your knees and pray.

A few expressions that I remember:

“Meet sorrows kindly, give them a holy kiss, and they will give you a Heavenly gift sent from the great and rich Love of God to our poverty.”

“Prayer is the highest virtue, and every virtue is the mother of sorrow; he who abides in prayer without sorrow abides in deceit.”

“In order for a Christian to receive salvation, pride must be replaced with humility; for this, a Christian must go through a miracle.”

“We are insensitive stones. The faces of the saints are Heavenly Flowers, grown on the soil of "smart work", on the soil of sobriety, on the soil of unceasing prayer, plowed up by sorrows and irrigated with secret tears of repentance; only such soil bears fruit 30, 60 and 100 times. These Heavenly Flowers are Saints Nicholas, Mary of Egypt, Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov, and there are no number of them, they have fragrant the whole universe and still fragrant. I was copying that book [on unceasing prayer], but it was stolen from me.

Monk Alexy N.

It is known that when mother Fr. She scolded John for something, then he left: “I’ll take water in my mouth and leave.”

When the priest was asked how he lived for almost 100 years, he answered like this: “We must eat in moderation.” He loved oatmeal and tea with milk, pies with cabbage.

The service was performed by the priest in its entirety, unhurriedly. On the altar he always had the image of Fr. John of Kronstadt, who performed a prayer service in the same Sorrowful Church during his journey through Riga. Under Father John Zhuravsky, a lot of people attended church.

One day Father John was preaching a sermon. Before that, one person complained to him that his son was in prison for embezzlement. "And who was he?" the father asked. - "The head of the base, a communist." “As a communist, so is a thief,” said the priest. And in a sermon he said: “An atheist is a creature more terrible than any senseless cattle!”

Subdeacon John Karpushin.

Once on Easter they made a procession in the Sorrowful Church. Nearby was a vocational school. Boys-students used to throw various objects at the believers. I asked the father - is it not dangerous to go? But Father John gave his blessing, and nothing hit anyone in the head.

Galina Karpushina.

When about. John served in an almshouse, I thought: why does he live? After all, there is no requirement. I decided that he received subsidies from the Synod, where I somehow met him: everyone treated him with great respect. We had a cathedral subdeacon, Fr. Ilya (Lifshits), who liked to ask tricky questions to everyone. Elijah once asked Fr. John: "Where is your cross?" At o. John hung on his chest from a simple torch made a cross, or rather, a crosshair. “Mother took it,” replied Fr. John, - I baptize Jews, but my mother does not order. This was in 1941.

He treated everyone with respect. Father John predicted the death of Fr. Yevgeny Svintsov, who is buried to the right of the porch of the Church of All Saints. They

They served together for a while. Once about. John served the service and throughout the service he felt the presence and co-serving of Father Eugene to him. The next day about. Eugene is dead. Father John Zhuravsky was somewhat similar to Fr. John of Kronstadt in his activities and even outwardly.

Father John of Kronstadt was bombarded with money: merchants put bags of money in the carriage, and in the cassock too. With these donations, Fr. John of Kronstadt built several houses of industriousness. The dead were arranged there - those who had lost the purpose of life, crazy sinners. Everyone who lived and worked there prayed for Fr. John of Kronstadt. Father John Zhuravsky also took care of people who got lost and were prisoners who “went crazy” like wards of Fr. John of Kronstadt. The difference is that o. John of Kronstadt could carry out this work in practice, and Father John Zhuravsky could help them only by prayer.

Archpriest Jacob Nachis.

Father Ioann Zhuravsky united people who doubted, thirsting for spiritual heights. He thought very modern, despite the ancient upbringing and training.

Archpriest Seraphim Shenrok.

In 1959, she once attended the Liturgy at the Joy of All Who Sorrow church. A few days before that, I went to the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, and five pilgrims from Siberia come out of there and ask me: “Where is the “golden father” serving here?” It was truly golden. In 1959, he was 92 years old, but there was no lethargy and flabbiness in him, he was all collected.

Sermons at Fr. John were direct, accusatory. Nobody talks like that now. Once, in a sermon, he directly mentioned the name and surname and address of a colonel who was oppressing a poor woman.

Valeria Vitalievna Smirnova (Ilukste).

Batiushka was a strict prayer book, very calm, with him everyone found this calmness.

Father served the prison, and we went there in the pre-war years, helped to sing. I remember everyone gathered in the prison church: prisoners in striped clothes, we. Many during the Liturgy partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

Once there was such a case. Because o. John served the prison, the criminal world knew him well. They say that once two criminals attacked him in the hope of profiting. Suddenly a third, who was standing at a distance, recognized the priest and shouted: “What are you doing? Don't touch him, he's our beloved father!"

I smoked. One day I come to Fr. John, and he very calmly says to me: “Although this is God’s weed, it’s better not to smoke.” After a while, I quit smoking.

Subdeacon Mikhail Vasilyevich.

A certain Maria had a son, he studied very poorly in the 10th grade, and she lamented that he would not go to college and would remain an ignoramus. Mary came to Father John. “And you, mother, send me the cheapest ring you can, I will bless it, and let your son put on this ring when he goes to the exam.” She did just that. And her son went to university.

Passed the entrance exam very easily.

The parishioners of the Church of All Who Sorrow came to the priest with sorrow and said: “What are we going to do when you are gone!”

Batiushka answered: “This is how you come to me alive, so come to the grave and talk to me as if I were alive.”

Parishioners of the Riga Church of St. Michael the Archangel.

Once to Fr. A woman came to John with her grief: they were going to send her husband from prison to Siberia. Father to her: "Rejoice!" And indeed, after a while, her husband was generally released and sent home.

One woman had a very bad toothache, and she went to Fr. John for help. And before she had time to approach the priest, he touched her cheek and asked: “Tell me, which tooth hurts you?” The woman could not remember, the pain immediately stopped.

After the advent of Soviet power in Latvia from prison, which Fr. John, political prisoners were released, many of them quickly became local Riga bosses. They always greeted Fr. John: "Hello, father!"

Zinaida Alekseevna Sokovenina.

I met the priest in Riga at the grave of the rector of the Ascension Latvian Church, Archpriest Blodon. I stand, suddenly comes about. John: Where are you from? - From Vindava. “I served there, it’s wonderful. Green sea and blue forest; You come to me, I will give you books. During the evacuation in 1915, the priest saved the books of the Vindava church, took them to him. In the 60s, one parishioner, Maria Vasilievna Pimenova, approached the priest to kiss the cross, crying and telling the priest that there would be a war (there were such heightened rumors then). And the father says to her: "There will be no war, don't cry."

Father John served in the church for 71 years, this is an unprecedented case in our diocese.

In 1961-62, he was already brought to the Sorrowful Church by taxi. When he left the church, he was surrounded by a crowd of pilgrims as he walked to the car. During those years, I remember, he had a voice like that of a young man, he read without glasses. Father John had a vision of the invisible world.

Archpriest Georgy Tailov.

Once a woman asked the priest to give her a blessing for the pilgrimage. She also had several children. Batiushka did not immediately give an answer and left the room. Out of curiosity, a woman looks through the keyhole, what the priest is doing, and he stands in front of the icons and prays ... He went out to her and blessed: "God bless." Another woman comes to him: "Father, bless me too, and I want to travel." He told her, "You can't do it." The first, it seems, to this day wanders with the children ... She serves God. When the priest was young, he went to Pechory to the monastery. On the way, I sat down with him, I don’t remember - in a compartment or a carriage, - a girl. They exchanged words: “Where are you going, to Pechory?” - "Yes". Then they were silent for a long time. At the entrance to the place, the priest looked around - there was no girl. She could not jump out and leave quietly without being noticed. Who was it? “That was my Guardian Angel,” said the priest. Interestingly, the Angel appeared to Fr. John both in early childhood (as was the case with Father John of Kronstadt), and during forced labor, I think, in 1919.

During Great Lent, he went to hospitals, prisons and almshouses and gave communion to all Orthodox Christians, the weak, the weak, the forgotten, the oppressed. And here in the Sadovnikov almshouse, on the street. Sadovnikov, there were three floors, and on each floor there were many rooms. And at every door the priest came in and used to take communion of all, all the old men and women. So he fulfilled the commandment of Christ. And for this, we believe that what the Lord said about him was fulfilled over him: “He set him over all his possessions” - in His Kingdom.

There is also a warning in the same gospel to the "evil slaves", but I don't even want to talk about it.

The father lived with mother Vera. Sometimes he got it from his mother. So, one day I come up to the priest ... And the father says to me: “Mother scolds me, scolds me.” - "What are you scolding for?" - It turns out, for silverware. The father, it used to be, once - and he would take it to the master, and he would pour crosses out of him, the father would give them. And his mother scolded him for it.

On the second day of the Nativity of Christ, it seems, in 1961, according to custom, it was supposed to sing to the priest in the church “Many Years”. Batiushka comes home and says: “I will no longer serve. They didn’t sing “Many Years” to me. And, indeed, from that time on, the priest began to get sick and stopped serving until his brightest death.

When the priest fell ill, we bitterly asked him: “What are we going to do without you?” - The father always says the same thing as Saint Seraphim: “Come to my grave to pray, you don’t need flowers, but a candle and only a prayer. Come when the service has departed - I am in the service in the church.

There was no case that the priest refused the petition. Father John was very fond of church singing. He called church singers lamps of the “house of God”, lamps. In 1900, he published "The Follow-up of Church Services" with notes in Latvian. During the war years, he prepared for publication three three-part "Songs" with notes, pocket size (1/4 format) - All-Night Vigil, Liturgy, Great Lent, but due to military events they were lost.

Valentina Bylinskaya, Tatyana Moskovets, Paraskeva Glushachenkova, Elena Bogdanova.

In 1944 my husband, Ivan Dmitrievich R., a folklorist, was arrested and sent to the Mordovian camps.

In 1945, the son, a high school student, was arrested in February. Sentenced to 15 years hard labor. They took me to the Kazakh SSR, and I stayed with my daughter, a high school student. In this position, I had only hope in the Lord God, in His mercy. Father John was a moral support for me and often consoled me in difficult times. There are no letters - I go to him, he says so confidently: do not worry, you will receive it. And your heart will feel lighter. His prayers and mine have kept my prisoners. After Stalin's death they returned. The husband published two books of folklore, the fruit of 50 years of labor. The son is married, he is a doctor-surgeon, has two children. They live separately. My son is my support in my old age. The husband died in 1975, in November.

Before the arrival of our people, everyone who could and wanted to leave Riga. Wife of Joanna insisted to leave, as her daughter was abroad, and even violently demanded and was afraid to stay in Riga. But the priest told me that the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, which is in the altar, shakes its head negatively, and they did not leave. It turned out very well, the daughter returned, they saved the apartment.

One acquaintance, very middle-aged, very religious, a doctor-surgeon, stood in the church. Batiushka was censing, passed by and said: “Why don’t you have a cross? Come, I will." She is a surgeon, she had to take off her clothes, therefore she did not wear a cross, but the priest foresaw this!

Father John told me that from the age of forty he began to live with his wife as brother and sister. He predicted his death three days in advance.

M. E. Friedrich.

At that time there were three of us here: Benjamin, Alexei and Valentin. I (Veniamin) and Valentine go to church to pray, and the middle brother (Aleksey) went only on Easter, and then, maybe, in a state of intoxication. Valentin and I turned to the priest with an insult to my brother that he did not go to church. Father John wrote down our names, and he patted me on the shoulder and said: “He will walk, he will walk!” After talking with the priest, he gradually began to go to church and even go to the Trinity-Sergius Convent. In the end, he decided to serve God and began to ask to be given a recommendation from the Riga monastery for his relocation to a monastery in the city of Pechory. Everyone at work was alarmed by this decision of his brother. He was persuaded to stay here. But he did not agree to any persuasion and advice. And so, he went to the monastery. All live for one, one for all. Thus brother Alexei surpassed us all. Through the prayers of Father John Zhuravsky.

Approximately 33 years ago, that is, in 1958-59, I turned to Archpriest John for help. My right ear hurt, it was leaking. For a whole year, living here in Riga, I was regularly treated at the 9th polyclinic by one doctor (the doctor was Latvian, and the sister was Russian). But the treatment didn't work for me. Then the doctor suggested that I have an operation. And so, I got into a conversation in the Trinity-Zadvinsky church with Anna Ivanovna Novikova. She advised me to contact Father John Zhuravsky at the Church of All Who Sorrow and gave me the address of this church. And I turned to him for advice. He wrote down my name and gave his blessing to do the operation. But after that, when I came to the next appointment with the doctor, they offered me a new method of treatment, they began to powder with white streptocide powder. When I came for the third time, the doctor said that there was nothing more to treat the ear. After that, I again went to the priest and said that I was cured without surgery. And he answered me: "I pray for you."

Subdeacon Veniamin Nordquist.

I was a parishioner in the Sorrowful Church, where Father John Zhuravsky served. Once I saw in a dream: some saint in a cell gives me a clear cross, and later Father John himself gave me a cross.

I often went to this church, did not miss his services. He always healed us sinners. You tell him: his head hurts, - he will put his hand on his head - and his head does not hurt. I had a toothache - he also healed me. One woman had a mute boy, still a baby - he healed him.

Batiushka said that when he served a memorial service for the soldiers, the dead soldiers bowed to him. One day he was walking somewhere and saw an angel walking with him.

Father John Zhuravsky was very affectionate, beneficent: he would distribute to everyone what he was given, gifts, especially to children. He gave money to buy food, clothes, married the poor for free, baptized the poor also for free and gave them money.

He said, when he leaves for the afterlife, the Sorrowful Church will be demolished. He also said: “Children, do not cry for me, the Lord told me: enough to live. Come to my grave, I will help you. He comes to me, a sinner, occasionally in a dream.

Yes, even his prophetic words. He said: there will be no war, everyone will be believers.

Glushachenkova Paraskeva.

The book The Mystery of the Kingdom of God, which has gone through several editions in recent years, most likely erroneously attributed to Archpriest John Zhuravsky (1867-1962), is dedicated to the "science of sciences" and the "mystery of the sacraments" of Orthodoxy - mental doing, the Jesus Prayer. “This book,” as the author admits in the preface, “is not written for everyone, but only ... for seekers of “smart beauty”, for those who, with a sick heart, have gone through their whole lives with an aspiring search for “smart loss” - their soul.
The chapter below is the author's view of the reasons for the widespread decline of Christianity, which is rapidly bringing the end of earthly history closer. We hope that none of those who read this text will be embarrassed and will not be tempted by the seeming harshness and categoricalness of some judgments.

Modern Eastern monasticism has lost the Secret of the New Being, which was hidden in "Smart Doing". This brought the end closer. The disappearance of monasticism and the reification of the spirit are signs of the end. There are no gracious instructors, and the remnant of Christians must be saved by the Scriptures of the Fathers and prayerful tears.

The "wreckage" of the Apostolic Ship for us is the Scriptures of the Fathers and their saving lamentation. On these "fragments" we will be saved and enter the New Being, spiritual, rational. For the old being - material, carnal - perishes, collapses. It is that "sand" about which the Savior said that "A house built on sand cannot stand"(Matthew 7:26-27). Any soul that builds itself "on the sand" of earthly lust and love of the flesh, on the sand of outward piety, will not stand, and will collapse. The Scriptures of the Fathers and repentant weeping before God are the only saving foundation on which the house of the soul can stand from destruction.

There is no living, grace-filled leadership for us, it has disappeared. Yes, and saving books disappear according to the plan, according to the system. Living leadership was in monasticism, in experienced workers of "smart work". But monasticism itself has become impoverished from within everywhere, impoverished by "intelligent doing", has lost the Secret of the New Being. That is why the leaders were also poor. The impoverishment happened a long time ago and happened imperceptibly.

Back in the 14th century, Rev. Gregory of Sinai complained that he went around the entire Mount Athos and among the thousands of monks found only three vessels of grace that had some idea of "intelligent doing" (St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) vol. II, p. 300). And our blessed hierarch Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote a hundred years ago that "nowadays they are so rare that one can unmistakably say: 'They don't exist.'

“And it is recognized as the most special mercy of God, if someone, exhausted in soul and body in monastic life, by the end of this life suddenly finds, somewhere in the wilderness, a vessel chosen by an impartial God, humiliated before the eyes of people, exalted and exalted by God. So, Zosima found in the uninhabited desert beyond Jordan, beyond all expectation, the great Mary. Due to such a final impoverishment in spirit-bearing mentors, the Fathers' books constitute the only source to which the soul, tormented by hunger and thirst, can turn to acquire the essentially "necessary knowledge in spiritual achievement" (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov vol. II., p. 300).

The monasteries - these guardians of the "smart light" - collapsed, because monasticism itself destroyed the basis of the monasteries: it abandoned the "smart work". The abandonment of "smart work" and the increase in monasteries in recent times by the acquisition of external contentment and glory, the increase in external deanery and splendor - was a grave sin and a daring violation of the vows given by monastics. The long-suffering of God did not tolerate the tramplers of vows and handed them over to a terrible Judgment: the monasteries were destroyed and monasticism was abolished.

The vocation of monasticism was not only to wear the black robe of renunciation, but to live in a worldly way, separated from the outside world in monasteries. Many have followed this outward, distorted monasticism without understanding the intelligent, hidden meaning of God's true monasticism.

Those who loved worldly life under monastic clothes were outward monasticism. Such outward monasticism was not blessed by the Lord God.

The New Adam, the God-Man, the Lord-Savior, was the Ancestor of the New, different humanity, and monasticism was called to be the living bearer of this different, New God-manhood. And for this, he was shown a graciously effective "smart path" - the renunciation of the intelligent soul from the mental clothes of this world: from the thoughts, dreams and desires of the flesh and removal to a monastic monastery - to a different dwelling, removal to a different life - immaterial, spiritual, Angelic , to life Smart.

With the loss of this “smart life,” monasticism lost its right to exist before God. Smart living was the roots of the spiritual life of monasticism, it was his soul. When the roots were cut - and the tree of monasticism withered, died. With the loss of the inner, the outer did not last long either - it scattered like dust blown by the wind.

This catastrophe, which befell monasticism, was visible for a long time, but not to everyone, only a few monks, spiritually enlightened, saw it. It was clearly seen by the blessed Saint Ignatius, who wrote in his time about this in the following words:

"Monasticism is living out in Russia - and even everywhere, the term given to it. In modern monasticism, the correct concept of smart doing is lost. And without smart doing, monasticism is a body without a soul. Therefore, I do not expect the restoration of monasticism" (D. Sokolov: St. Ignatius Brianchaninov , part 1, p. 312).

Now we too have seen the fulfillment of these God-inspired formidable prophetic lines. Monasteries, as the basis of Orthodox Russia, ended; and with them, monasticism, as the basis and soul of Orthodox Christianity, also ended: it lived out its life and disappeared. There was no “intelligent doing” in monasticism, there was no monasticism itself, which was called by God for this sacred doing. And with the disappearance of monasticism, as a living bearer of the spiritual existence of mankind, menacing signs of the end of the world appeared in the Christian world, signs of its inevitable catastrophe, its final disintegration and decay. For monasticism was the "salt" that held him back from final decay. When the "salt" itself lost its power, the world came to an end. "Save me, Lord) like an impoverished reverend"(Ps. II, 2).

The human world has become spiritually impoverished, grown old, and can no longer provide those who would contain and nurture its secret. And the mystery of the world is the mystery of Christianity, the mystery of Christ. The world existed for the sake of this Mystery. With the disappearance of the bearers of this Mystery, the world itself will also disappear. The bearers of this Mystery were St. monks. The monasticism also kept the world.

When the human world became spiritually impoverished, materialized, the human spirit finally turned into flesh, into matter, and can no longer provide spiritual material suitable for being intelligent, immaterial, Divine - the further existence of the material, carnal world does not make sense, it must end.

For the material - the human and material environment - humanity - exist only for the development of the human spirit, they exist until the moment of its final self-determination in the direction of good or evil, in the direction of bright spirituality or dark, carnal materialization.

If the spirit itself has chosen for itself a dark, carnal, material objectification and finally turned in its direction, then by this it has determined itself. By this he killed in himself the possibility of a bright spiritual being, he killed in himself the possibility of the grace-filled development of bright immortality within the bounds of immense Eternity.

The spirit, turned into flesh, into matter, fell under the power of the indisputable law of matter: the law of decay, decay, death.

The disappearance of monasticism as the spiritual being of mankind, and the universal hatred of it and Christianity are the characteristic and most essential, irrefutable signs of the end of the material world and the materialized spirit. Hatred of Christianity is an expressive sign of the spiritual emptiness of the haters, the final descent of the spirit into the flesh, into material, lust-carnal existence. And hatred of monasticism is a characteristic sign of the inner disintegration of a spiritual personality, its complete worldliness, its final end. This is an essential evidence of a godless soul, turned into "flesh and blood", alien to Christianity.

Whoever does not understand monasticism does not understand Christianity either. Whoever hates monasticism hates Christianity, he hates the Lord Christ, even though he believed in Him. Such a faith is unsalvable: it is not the faith of the Fathers, it is not Orthodox. This faith is heretical, sectarian, anti-Christian.

And in the last times the whole world, both the godless and the so-called "spiritual" is seized by this faith, filled with the spirit of hatred for monasticism. Irreconcilable, mortal hatred of monasticism united, made these two diametrically opposed worlds akin: peacefulness, anti-Christianity, calling itself Christianity, united with atheism, with theomachism.

Peace lovers are hidden, internal enemies of Christianity; by their proud, carnal life they deny the existence of God. Therefore, in one spirit with godlessness, they united in hatred for the very soul of Christianity - for monasticism, and by this they revealed their final and irreconcilable hatred of Christ, revealed their belonging to the spirit of Antichrist. And the spirit of Antichrist is an evil spirit: it is carnal, earthly, material, finite, and therefore fatal, trampling on St. the commandments of the Lord Christ and who hates the living bearers of these life-giving commandments of the Living God. In this spirit, the mystery of the end is hidden, or, in the language of the Gospel, the mystery of the harvest, foreshadowed in the parable by the Savior.

Hatred of monasticism is the most formidable sign of finally formed apostasy, of the "mystery of iniquity", covered with a robe of piety, of all the signs that have come to light. This is a sign of the end of Christianity, the end of the earth.

Oddly enough, but in the historical movement the bearer of this hatred for monasticism, and therefore for Christianity, was the clergy, the primates of the Throne. The modern clergy and the world still look at monasticism as their worst enemy, and treat it with mortal hostility.

The hatred of the dark, unenlightened, pagan world and the hatred of the apostate clergy for monasticism is not accidental. It has its history since the ancient times of the Church of Christ. Arianism, Nestorianism, iconoclasm, and other heresies that shook the church experienced the spiritual power of monasticism very sensitively. That's why they hate it, and that's why they crave its destruction.

The revealed hatred of monasticism in our times (not yet noticed by everyone) serves as a mysterious law of the finally completed apostasy and irrefutably testifies that the night of Gethsemane has come for Christianity and for monasticism, as the bearer of the Mystery of Christ - the night of Gethsemane has come: Judas leads the dark and evil mass, the disciple of Christ is instigator of deicide. This Gospel image serves as a strange sign, a formidable prophecy about our days. And this should not be forgotten.

This formidable image of the sign was manifested in the expressive and vivid "unification" of godlessness with apostasy; in it is hidden the mystery of the end, or, in the language of the Gospel, the mystery of the harvest, foretold in the parable by the Savior, where the Lord said: "At harvest time I will say to the reapers: Gather first the tares. And bind them in sheaves to burn"(Matthew 13:30).

This general unification of both the secular and the "spiritual" in hatred of monasticism - as the essence of Christianity - their common thirst for destruction and those innocent remnants of monasticism that survived from the destroyed monasteries - is the mysterious "tying the tares into bundles" before the end, before the fire . The invisible hand of the Angels prepares them for the fire. What is alien to Christianity has united. "Flesh and blood" united, alien to spiritual existence, alien to the Kingdom of God - and this must be burned by God's Judgment. And if you look closely at their carnal and fearless life, covered with a cassock, then they are now burned in their conscience. Before the eternal fire, they already burned in the hellish fire of unquenchable passions of greed, carnivory and mutual hatred.

Seeing this prophetic sacrament, the remnant of Christians must raise their heads, raise them up, direct their minds to the Heavenly, intensify "intelligent doing", grasp the inner - for attention to thoughts, for this immaterial doing of St. Fathers, which alone can lead us away from a material, carnal, perishing life, and on this path be guided by their God-inspired Scriptures. This is the only way to save the "intelligent Christian personality" from final and inevitable death. For there is no living leadership; spirit-bearing mentors and grace-filled elders, who would infallibly show us the path of salvation, are gone now. Therefore, we need to grab hold of the Scriptures of the Fathers as a saving "piece" from the Apostolic Ship and be saved by this "piece" and repentant prayerful weeping.

Chapter XXIII Closing Song to the Most Blessed Culprit of the "Smart Way" - the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God

Applications

Variant of Chapter I

About Elder John Zhuravsky, long-term custodian of the manuscript "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" and a great ascetic 132 The material was collected and written by the priest of the Riga Holy Trinity Church in Zadvinje, Father Andrey Golikov.

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Chapter XXIII
Closing Song to the Most Blessed Culprit of the "Smart Way" - the Blessed Virgin and Mother of God

About Elder John Zhuravsky, long-term custodian of the manuscript "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God" and a great ascetic 132
The material was collected and written by the priest of the Riga Holy Trinity Church in Zadvinje, Father Andrey Golikov.