Miraculous healings through the prayers of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Diveevo: reviews and recorded testimonies. Holy Canal - fence to heaven
The topic of miracles is probably the most exciting. Many people love to hear and read about testimonies of healings or God’s obvious help. There is even a certain percentage of the population that looks out for these miraculous cases everywhere, and even gives ordinary things a “special” power - their thirst for miracles is so strong.
But it was not for nothing that the saints strictly warned people against seeking miracles, even equating this with distrust of God. First of all, we must put faith and prayer at the forefront, but whether God wants to send a miracle to strengthen the soul or not is not for us to judge.
Prayer on the groove of the Virgin Mary
But miracles happen in our lives, and Diveevo can be called one big miracle. God is so close here, and sincere and fiery prayer is heard so quickly.
On the Mother of God Kanavka, many people experience a feeling of grace and a special peaceful atmosphere. Although “Virgin Mother of God, Rejoice” is work. Thoughts strive to carry away consciousness into the usual bustling stream, and it is worth making an effort so that the mind does not wander. And we must also try to ensure that the heart also takes part in prayer.
Unusual work for ordinary people worldly people, not even every believer immediately gets used to this activity. But people come to Diveevo with the hope of receiving God’s help and, and begin to pray.
Girls beg for betrothed grooms, women suffering from infertility - for a child. Some pray for successful passing of exams and resolution of housing issues.
But perhaps the most clear evidence of the help of God and the Mother of God is the miracle of healing.
Evidence of Healing
“My mother somehow had an inflammation of her salivary gland. At first she didn’t even notice it, but then pain, discomfort, and swelling appeared. Mom walked through the Kanavka with the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice,” but with the completion of the Kanavka she did not finish the prayer. I continued reading it on the way home. She baptized sign of the cross sore cheek and prayed to the Mother of God for healing. And her request was heard; the next evening a salt stone came out of the salivary duct into the oral cavity.
Mom immediately felt relief and thanked God and the Mother of God.
Tatyana N »
Housing issue
“Anyone who has been to Diveevo and thought about buying a home knows what real estate prices are here - inadequately inflated. But the market situation is such that nothing can be done about it. An acquaintance who moved to Diveevo several years ago told about a small miracle. Having sold an apartment in his homeland, he came to buy a house in Diveevo and found himself in a difficult situation. The proceeds were not even enough to buy a shack, and he no longer had his own home. And behind my back is family, children...
The Christian became depressed, but still went to pray on Kanavka and, apparently, expressed all his pain in fervent prayer. And literally with the last steps on the holy groove, his bell rang mobile phone. A real estate seller called, without intermediaries, who somehow found out the phone number of a potential buyer.
And offered it for sale good house with heating, but with an unfinished second floor. The documents have been prepared. And when the seller announced the price, the hero of the story did not have even a shadow of doubt about the miracle - the amount was named the same as he had. Now this man lives in Diveevo, and by the grace of God he completed the second floor.”
Miracle of Conception
The author of the article has several friends who begged for a child on the Holy Kanavka. But they are not the only ones that count statistics. People talk about the miracle of conception with particular warmth, conveying hope to desperate women via “wireless telephone”.
Not only young women who have recently gotten married come here. Those who have lived in a childless marriage for 7, 15 and even 20 years also come to Kanavka! They have behind them expensive and many years of examinations and treatments, and unsuccessful visits to doctors. And every year spent in a childless marriage reduces hope...
And these almost desperate women go to Kanavka and with all their souls pray to the Mother of God for a miracle.
Two of my friends, who had been married for 5 and 7 years, were able to get pregnant after visiting Diveevo and praying on Kanavka. And one of my friend’s aunts lived in a childless marriage for 20 years! She no longer believed in the possibility of pregnancy itself, and did not even consider herself a believer. I went on an excursion to Diveevo, and when I found myself on Kanavka... she burst into tears... as if her soul had opened. The woman left with a calm heart, and after a while she became pregnant. At the age of 40, she and her husband became happy parents, which they returned to Diveevo to report about a year later.
We live in a holy place, in a wonderful place. But we must remember that miracles are given to us to help and console us, and not just like that. Gratitude, reverence and respect are the feelings you should fill your heart with when you...
Tatyana Strakhova
[Print page]All local residents share their stories very willingly, but our new acquaintances turned out to be unique storytellers. The conversation turned out to be not just interesting, it can be called a summary, with answers to many questions.
Why do miracles happen to some people and not to others? How does this phrase work - “it will be given to you by faith”? What is this “the assurance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen”?
Participants in the conversation: Anatoly - a hospitable host, foreman; Elena is his wife; Peter - icon painter; Vasily - security guard; Alexander - Chernigov captain and others.
Who can you meet in Diveevo?
— Why do you come to work here?
Peter: I’ve been to many places, but coming here is like coming to an oasis of Orthodoxy. Here, no matter where you look, it’s simply pleasing to the eye: beautiful women in long skirts, serious men walking and crossing themselves. Yesterday I saw a little boy walking along the Kanavka with a rosary. One goes and prays so intently, fingering his rosary...
Information. The beginning of the Diveyevo community was marked by the miraculous participation of the Mother of God. One widow, Agafia Semyonovna, left the world and devoted herself to monastic life in the Kiev Florovsky Monastery. Once, after midnight prayer, a woman was honored in a subtle dream to see the Most Holy Theotokos and hear from Her the following: “This is I, your Lady and Lady, to whom you always pray. I have come to tell you My will. This is not where I want you to end your life. But just as I brought My servant Anthony out of My Athos Lot, My Holy Mountain, so that here, in Kyiv, he would found My new Lot, the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, so now I say to you: get out of here and go to the land that I will show you.” .
After consulting with the Kyiv elders, Agafia Semyonovna left the Florovsky Monastery and went north. Walking around many places and monasteries, she headed to Sarov. This was around 1760. Twelve miles from the monastery, in the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod province, she sat down to rest near a small wooden church and, while dozing, was granted a second vision of the Mother of God. “This is the very place that I commanded you to look for in the north of Russia...” she said Holy Mother of God Mother Alexandra. “And here is the limit that Divine Providence has set for you: live and please the Lord God here until the end of your days.” And I will always be with you, and I will always visit this place, and within the limits of your residence I will establish here such an abode of My, which has never been, is not, and will never be equal in the whole world. This is My Fourth Lot in the universe.”
—What are the locals like here?
Anatoly: But they are different. Some people do not react in any way to the religious side of the place and try not to notice this life. There are also, let’s say, “inverted” ones, because the more holy the place, the more “evil spirits” there are. But the majority are believers.
And about five years ago the gypsies appeared here. When they entered the temple for the first time, everyone became wary and began to watch them, as if something might be stolen...
And they came to pray and then began to come for ever larger church holidays. Their leader, the baron, lines everyone up for confession and communion, but he himself is always the last to go... And they all fasted and prayed, but somehow - immeasurably, unbridled. And this baron fasted so strictly. One day on Easter he broke his fast on such a scale that he died...
His two daughters are now undergoing obedience in the monastery. Relatives still come to them now; last year they set up an entire gypsy camp on a lake near the village. So this time we arrived at the monastery. Everyone is so smart and goes to services. But, it’s true, they squeeze through everywhere without a queue. :)
“The Treasured Room,” or how wishes come true in Diveevo?
- Why do people come here? Probably mainly for miracles?
Anatoly: No!
Who, of course, goes for miracles. Someone needs to give a miracle. Yes, I know people who left here disappointed because they didn't get what they wanted...
Diveevo is similar to the “room” from Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”, where people came with their deepest desires.
If a person came to see holiness, he will see holiness. If he wanted to notice some dirt, he would find it. If people want a miracle, they get a miracle, as long as they want a miracle not for the sake of a miracle, but because they need it. Therefore, there are many healings from various diseases: through prayers at the relics of the monk, and on the Kanavka, and at the springs...
And someone's soul is healed!
With whatever expectation a person goes, that is what he most often receives: “according to faith it is given to everyone.” Some people are annoyed by the hustle and bustle that happens during the holiday, while others are happy that so many people have come!
Let's take today's divine service, which was held in the open air: some complained that they were caught in the rain, while others noticed that the rain began only when the holy relics of the Venerable Father Seraphim were taken away. Miracle? Miracle! While they were serving the Liturgy, not a drop fell, only the relics of the monk were taken away, such a downpour began...
Information. This year is significant for the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery with the 110th anniversary of the glorification of St. Seraphim of Sarov as a saint.
August 1 in Troitsky Seraphimo-Diveevsky convent Five liturgies took place. At night, services were held in all cathedrals. The main divine service was performed in the morning on the square in front of the Transfiguration Cathedral, where an altar was built and an ark containing the relics of St. Seraphim was installed. Divine Liturgy headed by Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan. The Bishop greeted all participants in the celebration with the words: “ Reverend Elder He received everyone who came to him with affection and joy. And in memory of him, on behalf of all the archpastors gathered here, I want to proclaim today the hymn of life, the hymn of victory over death: “Christ is Risen!”
Much depends on your mood. ...Though people change here. And even completely unbelievers come to faith. Since they came here, it means there is some kind of grain...
About one ruler who was not at the holiday
Alexander: Tell us about Bishop Proclus.
Anatoly: This is the man who helped the Diveyevo monastery in everything hard times. Every week they sent flour, pasta, clothes to the monastery from the Simbirsk diocese... It was a poor diocese, but it helped more than anyone else.
And now, when Bishop Proclus arrives—usually on Sunday evening—the Mother Superior receives him without pomp and ceremony—as a relative. And he lives in the priestly hotel, in a small cell. He always serves the Liturgy quietly in the Trinity Cathedral - he serves for Father Seraphim...
One conversation and two meetings on the Holy Kanavka
Information. Father Seraphim ordered a ditch to be dug so that the path along which the Mother of God walks daily, circumventing Her lot, would be unforgettable. He said that the Queen of Heaven Herself measured the Holy Canal with Her belt; This groove is high to Heaven. About the significance of the Holy Canal, the Monk Seraphim said: “Whoever passes this Canal with prayer and reads one and a half hundred Mother of God, everything is here: Athos, Jerusalem, and Kyiv!” To walk along the path where the Heavenly, Most Pure Blessed Virgin walked, to follow in Her footsteps means to enter the sphere of heavenly glory, to feel under the direct protection of the Heavenly Lady. Walk along this path, read the Archangel’s greeting “Rejoice, Full of Grace,” and imagine that She, the Most Honest Cherub, here, before you, hears your greeting and responds to you with merciful attention to you and Her love - isn’t this enough to satisfy you here? would every sorrow and heart be filled with every joy? www.4udel
Elena: One day late in the evening one man arrived in Diveevo and came to Kanavka on crutches. The entrance was already closed, but for some reason the security let him in.
They estimated that it would take him two to three hours to walk along it, because to a normal person it takes 30-40 minutes. He went into a ditch and he could be heard sobbing there and shouting: “Heavenly Father, help me! Heavenly Father help me!”... And then there was silence for a couple of minutes. They look, he is walking, and at the same time he moves normally, only when he walks, he leans on crutches. The guards come to him to take these crutches, but he doesn’t give them back. He says: “Why are you guys out of your mind!” And they said to him: “Go in peace, go and pray, take communion, thank God, and leave the crutches...” He entered the canal as a disabled person, but came out... And one can endlessly talk about such cases.
Anatoly: It is believed that the Mother of God herself walks along the ditch. When sisters procession Every day in the evening and in the morning they pass, then it definitely goes with them. During one such move, a mother walked with a little girl whose arm was atrophied. At some point, the girl says to her mother: “Look, here she comes! Here she is!". “Who’s coming?” - Mom didn’t see anyone... The turn ended, they left the Kanavka, looked, and the girl’s hand was healthy. Everyone is surprised, but the child calmly says that a woman came up to her, hugged her and stroked her hand.
Elena: On the day when we finished painting the Transfiguration Cathedral, a miracle happened to us. It was very late, around one in the morning, the dean’s mother took over our work, and we began to dismantle the scaffolding. We were placed in a huge space: some were upstairs, some were downstairs. I saw that everyone, one by one, like chickens on a roost, began to shudder. There is some uneasiness in the air, and yet complete silence. And so, a fragrant cloud floated past me, and it gave off an extraordinary fragrance...
When we all gathered together downstairs, we began to wonder what it was. It turned out that this fragrant cloud bypassed almost everyone. We realized that this was some kind of miracle, but we did not dare to explain it to ourselves. They came to Mother Dean Catherine with a story, and she said: “Well, it was the Mother of God who came to accept your work.”
Who is healed at the relics of Father Seraphim and in healing springs?
Elena: My friend’s daughter had purulent wounds all over her body. As soon as they arrived, the mother ran to the Trinity Cathedral to the relics of the Venerable Father Seraphim. It was necessary to see with what fear and trembling she approached the shrine with the relics... and how fervently she then prayed for her child. Nothing happened right away, they went home, and a week later they called: “My daughter has fully recovered!”
at the relics of St. Seraphim
My cousin two Chechen wars passed, there was no living place left on it. He was warned when he was getting ready to get married, so that he could honestly tell his girlfriend that he would not have children. He told his girlfriend, they got married, but she turned out to be stubborn. At first I took him to different doctors - they didn’t help. Finally, they came to us, in Diveevo. We lived here for three days, attended services, prayed on Kanavka... And when we left, we stopped at the spring to visit Father Seraphim. We took a dip ourselves and immediately started rinsing our laundry in this little lake around the cabins - two bags! I ask them: “Why do you need so much?” “Well,” they say, “we have a regiment at home!” And women should bring it as a gift.” After a while, my brother calls: “Do you know where I am now? They’re just waving their arms and legs at me from the screen.”...
A girl was born to them, they set up a playpen for her, and hung icons in it. After this playpen, the child's lips are always black. At first they couldn’t find the reason, but then they noticed that the daughter was constantly bringing the icon of Father Seraphim to her lips. She kissed her so that she was completely wiped off. So, we are waiting for a visit soon, they are going to visit their beloved Father Seraphim.
And a little more about the miracles of Diveyevo
Vasily: In Diveevo everything happens with miracles. How the abbot's corps was given away heavily...
The court was located upstairs, and the sisters lived downstairs. The nuns prayed for a long time for the situation to be resolved. One night the building caught fire. It's over a hundred years old, it's made of wood - it should have caught fire and burned in a minute, and it took the firefighters a long time to get there.
And it only burned top part buildings, directly above the court, the lower one was almost undamaged. The firefighters were surprised afterwards and couldn’t believe their eyes. By the way, in the attic where the fire was, the coffin of one of the sisters was kept, so even its edges were not scorched. And during the fire, I saw how some sisters stood calmly inside the house and prayed - such strength of spirit!
Diveyevo nuns
...The court moved out. Then some book appeared that described that fire, they came up with something like this... The fire wall caught fire, and in this book they wrote that my mother went there to burn some icons, and the spark set the house on fire. It’s not true, but this book was even distributed in Diveevo - in a place where there were living witnesses...
The other side of holiness - about sects and false Orthodoxy
Naturally, the absolutely opposite phenomenon of holiness also occurs. There is a whole palette of sects here. Right next to the source of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, recently some “preachers” tried to settle down: they built a house and put up a fence. But so far only the potatoes that they managed to plant have sprouted; they themselves have disappeared somewhere.
And there is also this phenomenon: “a woman with the evil face of a professional pilgrim.” People like that come to us too. They believe that only they are right, and everyone else is great sinners. And if something is wrong, then it is demonic and will collapse. Even the priest may not please, and the monastery may turn out to be without grace, and the relics may not be the same for them. These are people who live without love, and therefore are extremely critical of other people’s weaknesses, but do not notice their own sins. But such people, thank God, don’t stay here long.
Elena: Last year our Varka got caught. Near Mother Alexandra’s spring, some people in robes began distributing books, as if they were Orthodox, so she bought one book.
Something even bothers me appearance they were alarmed, I asked: “Var, why did you buy this book? Are the Holy Fathers not enough for you?” She says: “I wanted to help their monastery.” When I looked through this book - such nonsense! Lord have mercy! The author is some unknown priest, the book was published without a blessing, and the message is the same: “Only the one who reads the book will be saved!”
I told her: “Buy everything on the territory of the monastery! If you go outside the monastery, no matter what robe or beard the person is in, pass by.” Our father Alypiy constantly asks: “What are you looking for there? Are you missing famous saints?”
People come here with a certain attitude: “a holy place, you have to believe everything here,” so various deceivers take advantage of this...
Instead of an afterword: about intentions and changes
Coming here is not only a way to escape from the hustle and bustle - it is an opportunity to fill the free time with work, prayer and reflection. Here a complete “reboot” occurs. Here the direction of intentions changes. Although, probably not for everyone and not always...
Photos courtesy of Alexander Chelyshev
Irina from Samara talks about how she recovered from a spinal hernia: “In the fall of 2009, she began to go numb left leg and as a result, the left half of the body became numb. On an MRI, doctors discovered three intervertebral hernias and one in the thoracic region, which was pinched. The doctor who took the picture immediately warned that they would offer to cut it, but I shouldn’t agree, because if a nerve was hit, I would remain bedridden at 30 years old. On Sunday I ordered a prayer service to St. Seraphim of Sarov and the “Quick to Hear” Mother of God. And this is what happened next. Earlier, in the summer of 2009, I signed up for a pilgrimage trip to Diveevo, but it did not take place, and the organizers still had my phone number. And then a call came from the pilgrimage service (immediately after the prayer service ordered on Sunday), and they offered me to go to Diveevo. On the way, my back hurt a lot, at one stop I got off the bus to stretch my spine, the pain was severe. One pilgrim tells me that after I venerate Father Seraphim and bathe in the spring, everything will go away for me. I answered her that I know, believe and expect help from him. In the morning at the spring, St. Seraphim of Sarov, we swam, got water and went to the monastery. The line to the relics was small, while I was standing there praying to Father Seraphim, coming closer, I felt some kind of atmosphere that I wanted to cry and not leave Father Seraphim. At the evening service, I stood near one candlestick, which no one was looking after. I raised my head and saw the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Quick to Hear”, immediately remembered the prayer service I had ordered and marveled at God’s mercy towards me for bringing me to wondrous Diveyevo! After the evening service at the relics of Father Seraphim, one priest used the priest’s hoe to knock on the sore spots of the parishioners. With tears, I also approached the priest and asked him to knock on the spine. I don’t want to go to the operation, he tapped me crosswise on my back, and I walked away, sobbing, to venerate Father Seraphim again, for some reason I don’t want to leave him... The way back home was easy, and I even forgot about my the problems I came with. At home and at work, everyone was amazed that everything went well for me. And how amazed the doctor was! He asked how I managed to become numb over the weekend... I told him that I went to Diveevo and Father Seraphim healed me, it was God’s will.”
June 13, 2002 servant of God M.K. she was walking along the road, and a pebble flying out from under the wheels of the car hit her hard in the lacrimal sac of her left eye, so much so that the bridge of her nose hurt and swelling formed. It made it difficult to look at, filled with blood, and M. was afraid of deteriorating vision. On the way there was the source of Mother Alexandra. M. washed herself from it, asked the saint for help, and venerated the cross with faith. A few minutes later there was no bruise at all, only a trace of the bruise was visible.
Pilgrim from Moscow Tatyana Z. writes: “In 2001, on May 1, I was on a pilgrimage to Diveevo. The Lord has vouchsafed me to take land from the graves Venerable Alexandra, Helen and Martha. In April 2002, a tumor the size of a child's fist appeared on the left side of my ribs. I suffered from severe pain for two weeks, but did not see a doctor. On the eve of the healing, when I went to bed, I prayed and read the lives of saints Alexandra, Martha and Helen. In the morning, when I got up, my first glance fell on the place where the earth from the graves lay. I took the land and read the troparion. She asked her grandson to anoint the sore spot with oil from the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov and apply a piece of land to the tumor. Ten minutes later, the grandson asked: “Grandma, are you feeling better?” He identified this by his face: before it was blue with pain... During this conversation, the grandson stroked the sore spot with his hand and suddenly said: “Grandma, where is your lump?” In ten minutes the lump disappeared and the pain stopped. Now, on May 3, I came here again to thank Saint Alexandra for my healing...”
“We give thanks to St. Seraphim, the Wonderworker of Sarov, St. Alexandra, Martha, Elena Diveevsky for their prayers at the throne Holy Trinity about help, forgiveness and healing of my father, God's servant Valentin, from serious illnesses. He suffered from a broken hip as well as heart failure. My father could not walk for more than two years, the wounds on his legs did not heal, he did not sleep from pain and suffered. Doctors said that the patient would never use his legs, and he would not live long. But he did not despair and asked the Lord and the Diveyevo saints for strength in sorrow and healing. In June 2000, I, the servant of God Tatiana from the city of Nizhyn, Chernigov region, visited the Diveyevo Monastery and prayed for help to my father. A week later, returning from the trip, I saw that my father was walking on his own, and so joyful! Our prayers were answered, and the wounds healed, the redness and swelling disappeared. Now, in July 2002, I came to this holy monastery with thanksgiving for the miracle that had been performed - the healing of my father. Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee!”
“My first trip to Diveevo radically changed my life, turning me from an atheist to a believer. Thanks to the holy prayers of St. Seraphim, I found faith in God, began to join the church, and to be healed in my soul. The Lord quietly knocked on my heart and touched me with his grace. But it is not only the soul that God heals and turns to Himself through the prayers of the saints. For several years, since 1998, since my military service, I suffered from skin infectious disease toe - fungus. In spring and summer, the itching was sometimes unbearable, scratching my legs until they bled. I tried all the known ointments. I have already come to terms with this illness. And unexpectedly he received healing. More than a year has passed since I took a bath on the feast of Epiphany on January 19, 2002 in the spring of Father Seraphim, and there are no signs of illness. This is just one of the particularly noteworthy cases of the gracious help of St. Seraphim in my life. And how many everyday problems were resolved through his prayers! Just think: “Father Seraphim, help, pray!” - and all good endeavors come with his blessing. From the very beginning of my religious journey, I considered Father my intercessor before God, because my Angel Day is August 1, the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Reverend Our Father Seraphim, pray to God for us! Servant of God Roman.
BELT OF THE VIRGIN
The wall from earth to heaven, the Belt of the Virgin Mary - this is what the Orthodox call the Holy Canal in Diveyevo. There are many wonderful monasteries in Rus', but Kanavka is only in Diveyevo. You will walk along it, read one hundred and fifty prayers to the “Virgin Mother of God,” and you will be here, according to the words of St. Seraphim, “Jerusalem, Athos, and Kyiv...”. It was about Kanavka that Father Seraphim commanded: “When the century ends, the Antichrist will first begin to remove crosses from churches and destroy monasteries, and he will destroy all the monasteries! But he will come up to yours, and Kanavka will stand from earth to sky, he cannot come to you, Kanavka will not allow him anywhere, so he will go away.”
The groove has already risen from earth to sky! The prayers of pilgrims and nuns of the monastery, like an invisible wall up to the sky, protect not only Diveevo, but the whole of Russia! The monastery has calculated that up to a thousand pilgrims pass along Kanavka (not counting our own, Diveyevo pilgrims) - that’s how many people are fed in the monastery’s pilgrimage refectory. In summer, more in winter, less, but on average it comes out that much. Is it a lot or a little? Both a lot and a little. A lot - because just recently this figure was three times less. And it’s not enough - because all of Russia needs to be routed through the Kanavka, and Russia is big! A thousand a day - and in a hundred years you won’t get all our people through these eight hundred meters... But those who walked along the Kanavka have already dispersed to all the cities and towns. And they brought Diveyevo grace there. Or even a countrywoman from the Holy Kanavka! It will be difficult for the Antichrist to cope with us. The groove won't work!
In Diveevo, the Mother of God is with us every day. The Queen of Heaven herself spoke about this through Father Seraphim. That is why the great Elder of Sarov commanded that pilgrims must stay exactly one day in the monastery, then they will not miss the Mother of God... Many pilgrims on the Holy Kanavka feel the invisible, gracious presence of the Lady - Her aroma! You go and walk, as if nothing special is happening, you pray and suddenly it’s as if you are entering the fragrant Garden of Eden. Apparently, the Queen of Heaven passed by you... So I, a sinner, was lucky enough on the eve of the feast of Her Assumption to enter this wave of a subtle fragrant aroma. It happened opposite the former Diveyevo school, where a monastery hospital is now being created. It was a short-lived miracle, just a few steps, but infinitely dear to me. There are many secrets in Diveyevo. But the secret of the Kanavka may be the greatest of them all. Why did the Mother of God choose this particular land as Her Fourth inheritance? A small village in the center of Russia, once given by the Terrible Tsar to the Astrakhan Khan Divey for help in the war with the Kazan people. But this particular land was chosen. Once upon a time, the Kanavka surrounded the entire monastery and included the Mill community and other buildings. Now the Diveyevo Monastery has grown. But his heart is still inside the Groove, under its protection. That is why the Kanavka is called the Belt of the Virgin Mary. But not just one monastery - all Great and Little and White Rus' are surrounded by it! You go and ask and when you arrive home you are surprised: your prayer request begins to come true.
Recently, the Diveyevo nuns were amazed - one man came to Kanavka wearing homemade gaiters with knee pads, like a football player's, so that it would be more convenient to crawl the entire Kanavka on all fours. This is what Nikolai Aleksandrovich Motovilov, the “servant of the Mother of God and the Seraphim,” did in the old days, but only, of course, without “knee pads.” And one young woman crawled along the Kanavka on her knees in the summer and her legs were bleeding to the bones. But she walked the whole way without standing up even once - from meter to meter. She cried and crawled! Apparently, something happened in the family, and she needed the urgent help of the Queen of Heaven. I myself saw several people walking along the ditch barefoot. There are many of them here. And someone is walking - and at the same time calmly chatting on a cell phone about their completely vain worldly affairs. Without even understanding what kind of land he is walking on! But the Holy Kanavka accepts these too.
And on the last day of my pilgrimage to Diveevo, on the very Feast of the Assumption, I saw a possessed young woman desperately struggling with a demon on Kanavka. She walked, stubbornly reading the prayer. She stopped, hiccuped unnaturally loudly, shaking her whole body, and walked again, reading a prayer. She stopped again, opening her mouth too wide, yawned, and walked again. It was hard to watch, but the woman’s tenacity was amazing. Not running, but slowly, with the desire to be healed, she walked along the holy pavement. I hope she makes it to the end.
It’s not enough to just walk along Kanavka. We still need to have time to read one hundred and fifty prayers to the Mother of God. And this is not at all as simple as it seems. Someone will pass quickly, and lo and behold, it’s already the end of the road, and he hasn’t even read a hundred prayers. This means that you’re not ready yet, you haven’t settled down in life, and you need to come here again. To go through this whole path differently. Some walk slowly, slowly, in no hurry. These will make it in time. Others are in a hurry; they never have time to pray. The groove is like life: some set off earlier and arrive later than others. And others, on the contrary, were early, ran faster than everyone else and did not finish the journey on time. Someone walks slowly, with gentle steps, as if floating along the Kanavka. Someone walks at a businesslike pace, looking forward. Lo and behold, there’s nothing ahead. All! We've arrived. And only nuns walk along the groove with special, measured steps. No rush, but no waddle either. These people will always be on time, no matter how they go. After all, their prayer is quick and fiery! And the experienced residents of this amazing village try to start all their journeys from Kanavka. In the morning they will walk along it, read as many prayers as they can, and then all day, wherever they go, they will finish the prescribed remainder of the prayers. And all their paths are in conflict, because the path began with prayer! And the Queen of Heaven accepts such a sacrifice from them. And some walk along Kanavka with stops. They pray for the living, and then move on. Then they will stand again and remember the dead. And everyone - those in a hurry and those who are leisurely - will reach the end in their own time, measured only by them.
The stiletto heels of young tourists from the capital are loudly knocking on this holy pavement. The heavy boots of the leathery, bearded pilgrims echo with a dull thud. Light children's sandals are hurrying along the Kanavka with “cheerful feet.” Strict black monastic shoes walk silently on this holy ground. Some people splash around with their bare feet, others crawl on their knees. And everyone who came here is right. How many pairs of feet have walked on this earth since, back in 1829, the Mother of God ordered Elder Seraphim to dig the first arshin of the Kanavka. But the most important thing is that here “the feet of the Mother of God have passed.” And that’s why the sky is closer to us here.
This holy land had difficult times. After St. Seraphim, the artist Ivan Tikhonovich Tolstosheev ruled here for a long time, causing a lot of harm to the Diveyevo community. He didn't like the ditch. He built houses with the end facing it, which Father Seraphim categorically did not bless. He built bridges and ceilings on Kanavka - and this, too, was not blessed by the elder. But Kanavka withstood and survived this Diveyevo troublemaker. And in Soviet times When the monastery was closed, the NKVD set up several secret observation posts in the village and monitored those who walked along the Kanavka. And at the end of the path, “funnels” awaited the pilgrims. In those days, this path was confession. But even then people did not forget about Kanavka. There was no monastery - but there was a Kanavka! I remember the first time I came to Diveevo - August 1, 1991, when the newly found relics of St. Seraphim returned here. At that time the Kanavka had not yet been marked in any way. But the believers still showed me the path that I should follow with prayer. And I walked a few steps. But this time, fifteen years later, I couldn’t spend enough time on the Kanavka. I’ll go through it once, and soon I’ll turn around for the next circle.
Pilgrims are overcome with special feelings when, late in the evening, they walk along the Kanavka with the whole world, or rather, the whole monastery. In front is a large icon of the Mother of God, then there are Abbess Sergius, the dean of the monastery, nun Ekaterina, behind them are the sisters - first nuns, then novices, then workers and pilgrims. This entire prayer procession stretches for several hundred meters. When the first rows finish their journey along the Kanavka, the “tail” of the Procession is still somewhere in the middle of the path. Some people go fast, others, on the contrary, lag behind. But this common prayer will not be forgotten by anyone who took part in it. The power of Orthodoxy is clearly felt at such moments!
There was a place for me in this grand procession. And on the second evening I decided to cheat. I walked the whole way a little earlier and at the end of the Kanavka “lurked in ambush” - with a camera, so as to capture, “stop the moment.” The young guard made it clear to me that “it is not blessed to remove sisters.” But I had my own argument about this: a written blessing from Nizhny Novgorod, from the local diocese. But you can't argue with paper. The guard stepped aside, apparently resigned. But it was not there! The procession of the Cross came within a flash of light. I press the camera button, but there is no frame. The light flashes, and the frame is frozen in place. I press desperately, but the result is the same. I move the lens a little to the side - here you have both the flash and the frame. I point the camera at the approaching nuns - again it doesn’t work. I never took a single photo. Not blessed!
There are many miracles happening on Kanavka that are invisible to the world. And from this marvelous sea I caught only two pearls, perhaps not the brightest, but they are also an adornment of the marvelous Diveyevo necklace. A description of these unusual cases was given to me by the nuns of the Holy Trinity-Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. “On the night of July 10-11, a lame servant of God on crutches approached the Canal of the Queen of Heaven. He could hardly support himself on one leg, and the other was bent. He moved with such difficulty that I thought: will he be able to walk the entire Kanavka? He passed the groove much faster than his condition would have predicted. He descended from the Kanavka, stepping on his sore leg and limping. At the Poklonnaya Cross at the end of the Kanavka he prayed, crossed himself and wiped away his tears.
We started talking. This servant of God's name is Sergei. In 2000, he and his parents had an accident. His parents fell to their death, and the doctors told him that he would not walk. He read a book about Diveevo and came here from Krasnoyarsk with the hope of healing. I also came to Diveevo from this city and began asking Sergei what district he was from and what street. It turned out that in Krasnoyarsk we lived in the same area called Green Grove. So, while talking, we walked together. I took the crutches from him and led him by one hand. Soon he removed his hand, and without help, limping, he walked all the way through the monastery from Kanavka to the gate at the Moskovskaya Hotel. Sergei kept repeating that everything that happened to him was a dream. Then he suddenly stopped, raised his hands up and began shouting: “Alleluia.” He praised the Heavenly Father, glorified Jesus Christ and said that now all of Krasnoyarsk would know about what happened to him here and all the people would come here to be healed. I asked how he prayed on Kanavka. Sergei replied that he did not know how to pray, and on Kanavka he asked: “Heavenly Father, heal, Jesus Christ, heal.”
This is how I saw off the happy, healed lame man, but for a long time there was joy in my soul, as if I, too, had been healed along with Sergei.
On June 26 at 21.35, while on duty at the eastern gate, I heard a wolf howl from the direction of Kanavka. A woman of about 55-60 years old was howling, being led along the Kanavka by two men. The woman broke away from them and shouted: “Let me go, tormentors. Most Holy Theotokos, save me.” Her appearance was terrible. About fifteen minutes later she went limp and lay down on Kanavka. After a while she got up and was already calm; she seemed to have woken up. The men accompanying her, two young girls and the woman herself, knelt down and prayed intensely. Thirty to fifty people witnessed this event. The healed woman was from the Belgorod group. The day before, I saw her grunting as she venerated the relics of St. Seraphim.”
Wonderful are you, holy land of Diveyevo! And although you are far from the land on which the God-man Christ walked, it is as if He said about you: “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor are preached to the good news” (Matthew 11:5). And that’s why the flow of people here never stops. And soon, probably, we will see how another prophecy of St. Seraphim about this land will be fulfilled: the monastery will become a Lavra, Diveevo will become a city, and Arzamas will become a province. And the Kanavka will remain the Belt of the Virgin Mary. For all time - until the end of the world!
Anton Zhogolev
Miracles in the village of Diveevo...
Thousands of pilgrims from all over the country and from abroad travel to the village of Diveevo, Nizhny Novgorod region, to touch the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov, which are located in the local monastery. Hieromonk Tryphon has been collecting numerous stories about healings, visions and other miracles in Diveevo for eight years.
Miracles began in 1991, when the relics of St. Seraphim were transported to us from Moscow, the chronicler recalls. - These incidents took place near the relics of Seraphim of Sarov, at holy springs, in the monastery and churches. I recorded the pilgrims' stories on a tape recorder, trying to avoid unverified facts. And when I “transformed” it into a handwritten version, I tried to preserve the style of presentation.
Father Tryphon had a chance to experience the miraculous power of the Diveyevo land. In the summer of 1996, I felt severe pain in my lower back. The pain was such that the monk could barely move for several days. In the end, with difficulty, I reached the holy spring and took a dip. After two days of such procedures, Trifon forgot about his pain...
For whom the Bell Tolls?
It is known that bells in churches and monasteries ring at strictly defined times. And suddenly the bell of the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery rang for no reason. They began to find out who was ringing the alarm and why. Take a closer look - the bell tower is empty! And no one approached the belfry. The bell rang on its own! While everyone was trying to solve this riddle, a telegram arrived at the monastery that Metropolitan John of St. Petersburg and Ladoga had died.
It was the angels who called on it, the believers decided.
The people at Kanavka were glowing!
The groove is a path that runs past the Holy Trinity-Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. According to legend, the Mother of God herself walked on it, and when the day of the Last Judgment comes, the people who find themselves on it will be saved. Many pilgrims deliberately take grains of earth from the Kanavka with them. Miracles are also associated with it.
The icon painter Victor saw soft, pleasant light flowing from people walking along the holy path. This is especially noticeable in the dark, from three to four in the morning. Believers believe that it is at this time that the Mother of God visits the monastery. She was seen in the silver light by the sexton Andrei, who himself walked along the Kanavka at night.
Wonderful reflection
There are many holy springs around the village. Each of them has its own name. People come to them to heal their ailments. And some tourists are just out of idle curiosity. But they also encounter the inexplicable. So, one pilgrim was simply filming the surrounding landscape. And when I developed the film and printed the photo, I saw that in the reflection of the chapel on the water, instead of a cross, a silhouette of the praying Seraphim of Sarov appeared!
Even the photograph of the icon streamed myrrh
In addition to the icons themselves, photographs of images hang in the houses of Diveyevo residents. So in the cell of Sister Fatima there hung a photograph of the icon of the Mother of God, which is located in Jerusalem. And suddenly the photograph became silent. Moreover, the myrrh tasted bitter.
Miracles through the prayers of the venerable women of Diveyevo....
In 2000, a parishioner and employee of the church in the name of St. wrote to the Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery. Seraphim of Sarov in Novosibirsk Alevtina Yakovlevna Belikova. “I found out that schema-nun Mother Alexandra will be canonized, so I want to tell you an incident that happened to me when I was in the Seraphim-Diveevo Monastery in 1994.
I arrived there sick with a female inflammatory process. She was ill since childhood, was treated by doctors, professors, and received injections every month. I was always afraid of colds, drafts, I always dressed warmly, protected my feet from the cold, cold water, V summer time I never even got my feet wet.
I lived in Diveevo for three days. In those days there were severe February frosts; I was there in early February. With a group of women I went only once to the source of schemanun Mother Alexandra. There was ice and snow everywhere around the spring, I drank holy water from the spring and plunged three times and poured three buckets of water from the spring on myself. My hair was long and thick then, and by the time we got to the house where we were staying (a 15-20 minute walk), it had dried.
After returning home, I didn’t see doctors again until this day. At the age of 58, I forgot about my illness, forgot that I had a thick card in two volumes at the clinic. So, through the prayers of schema-nun Mother Alexandra, I was completely healed of my illness.”
Tatyana B. came as a pilgrim to Diveevo in 1998 with her parents. This is what she wrote about the miracle that happened to her during this trip: “Since childhood, the calf muscle on my right leg hurt - it was sprained. I could not walk long distances and could not wear shoes even with low heels.
Having been on the holy land, just before leaving home we walked to the bus station through the spring of Mother Alexandra, and my father offered to drink some water. I started to refuse, citing the fact that they were late for the bus. We finally stopped, my father went to get water and gave everyone something to drink. After I took a few sips, I felt as if the pain and heaviness that was constantly in my leg were going into the ground. I already walked to the bus station with a healthy leg and to this day my leg doesn’t hurt.” After that she ordered thanksgiving prayer Lord.
Servant of God L.A. from Noginsk, Moscow region, due to constant sedentary work and worries, when she wrote her graduation project at the institute, she suffered from intestinal obstruction. None medicines didn't help. As soon as she defended her diploma, she immediately, on the same day, went on a pilgrimage trip to Diveevo. The disease became so complicated that her stomach became swollen and painful, and her temperature rose. She could not eat anything, she drank only water from holy springs. She prayed to the Lord and the Mother of God and Father Seraphim, but especially asked Mother Alexandra for help and promised her that if Mother healed her, she would tell about the miracle through her prayers. The patient was surprised to notice that when she attended services in the churches of the Diveyevo Monastery, the temperature disappeared, and when she decided to lie down in the hotel and did not go to the temple, the temperature rose again. IN last days During her stay in Diveevo, she went to the source of Mother Alexandra. “The water seemed icy to me, and I had a hard time enduring the douche. But, probably, with this severity of dousing, my illness left me,” she wrote. On the way home she ate her first meal. At home, her intestines stopped bothering her. “Thanks to the holy prayers of the Mother of God and the saints of God, including Schema nun Alexandra, the Lord saved me from an operation that was difficult for me due to a bad heart. Thank God for everything!" - she ends her letter sent in 2000.
In 1999, on the eve of the feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Yuri Bukhanovsky from the Ukrainian city of Khust and a group of pilgrims visited the healing springs of Diveevo. I plunged with prayer into the Iveron spring, and then 5 minutes later into the spring of Mother Alexandra. Coming out of the water, Yuri felt healed from long-term illness. In the cold season, even at above-zero temperatures, his toes became swollen and red, and the pain caused a lot of inconvenience. Yuri writes: “In the spring I froze to the point of numbness, but upon leaving, I immediately felt as if my entire skin had been pierced with hundreds of fiery needles (without pain) and healthy from this disease. It is noteworthy that while plunging, I did not ask for or even remember about this disease, since it was still summer, and the manifestation of the disease always began in the fall. The healing took place 10 minutes before the evening service for the Dormition of the Mother of God.” Yuri wrote a testimony about this miracle almost 2 years later, on July 7, 2001. “I did not previously report the healing out of false modesty,” he explains. “This healing, which I did not ask for, was a great benefit to me in that it allowed me to through the winter (very harsh that year) to continue trading at the market, which was how he supported his family for several years after laying off his job. On the day of commemoration at. Seraphim in the winter of 2000, after the Liturgy, I allowed myself to engage in busy worldly affairs, after which on the same day part of my illness returned. Only the next year I was healthy again.”
Rimma Bogdanas from Obninsk, Kaluga Region, testifies to the miraculous healing of her eight-year-old son Roman. He had a large tumor on his index finger. After the boy venerated the relics of the saints and their holy icon, purchased here, the swelling went away within an hour and no painful sensations remained. “Glory to the Lord our God, who through the prayers of the saints gave us healing!” - this is how Rimma ends her letter.
In the summer of 2000, sister I. of the Diveyevo Monastery caught a cold. All my joints hurt so much that it was impossible to sleep. After several days of illness, Sister I. began to feel very depressed, but suddenly the idea came to her to take oil from the lamps from the graves of mothers Alexandra, Martha and Elena. Overcoming the pain, she went to the graves, and the sisters helped her pour oil. Returning to her cell, she dipped a cotton swab in oil and began to smear each joint as Blessed Maria Ivanovna of Diveyevo taught: to smear a cross on the sore spot and surround it. At the same time, Sister I. read “Theotokos.” I started with the elbow of my left hand. As soon as I anointed him, he immediately stopped hurting. In amazement, I. anointed her wrist joint; it, too, immediately stopped hurting, but the unanointed joints continued to hurt. Surprised by the miracle happening to her, she anointed other joints. The pain immediately went away, her soul felt light and joyful from God’s mercy shown to her, and at night she finally managed to fall asleep. After this, there was a turning point in Sister I.’s illness, and she soon recovered.
“Last fall, in September, I went to Diveevo for the first time. In Arzamas, getting off the train, I carelessly stepped onto the platform. My foot hurt a lot. During the day in Diveyevo I bathed in the spring of Mother Alexandra, and in the evening with great difficulty I reached the monastery hotel. The pain intensified, it was impossible to walk. Even lying on the bed, I couldn’t move my leg. In the morning I woke up - the swelling had subsided, and there was absolutely no pain.” The servant of God Anna, who received this quick healing, testifies that she really hoped for intercession before the Lord and the prayers of Mother Alexandra.
In January 2001, Tatyana Gordeeva from the city of Yoshkar-Ola learned about the raising of the holy relics of the newly glorified wives of Diveyevo and began to prayerfully ask them so that she could visit Diveyevo. She hasn't been able to get here for several years now. After this petition, Tatyana came to Diveevo three times over the summer. On her second visit, venerating the relics, she prayed to the monks Alexandra, Martha and Elena to help her find out where she was and visit the place where the holy martyrs Evdokia, Darius, Darius and Maria rested. For some time Tatyana did not receive an answer, but suddenly she was presented with an icon of the martyrs and was reminded of the day of their execution - August 18. In two words, Tatyana explains the spiritual reason why she did not immediately receive what she asked for: “for murmuring.” But on the day of remembrance of the holy martyrs she revered, Tatyana was lucky, by the grace of God, to make another trip and attend a festive celebration in the village of Suvorovo.
The 38-year-old servant of God Lyudmila had severe pain in her leg, and she had to be operated on. There was little water left from Mother Alexandra's spring. Lyudmila began to read prayers and, diligently asking the holy women of Diveyevo for help, moistened the sore spot with water. She received help immediately and so clearly that she soon forgot about her sore leg. Lyudmila concludes her testimony of this miracle with the words of prayer: “Mother Alexandra, Mother Martha, Mother Elena, pray to God for us.”
An ardent feeling of gratitude lies in the nameless letter, which could be signed by many of those who visited the marvelous Diveyevo places: “Glory to the Lord and Reverend Mother Alexandra. During the pilgrimage you have to walk a lot, and by the evening your legs hurt incredibly. As soon as you ask Mother Alexandra to heal your legs, the next morning it’s as if nothing had happened. Or you stand in the spring with the Venerable One, all the pain and fatigue disappears, as if you were born again. Thank you, holy reverend mother Alexandra!”
“On August 14, 2000, at Honey Spas, my mother and I were here in Diveyevo. The relics of the Venerable Mothers Alexandra, Martha and Elena had not yet been discovered at that time. There was a religious procession at the spring of Mother Alexandra and we took part in it. Honey was blessed at the source, and, of course, there were a lot of wasps circling, they managed to bite us, because of which I was forced to screech twice,” writes the servant of God Photinia. When her mother doused her with water from the spring at the bathhouse, she repeated in her mind: “Mother Alexandra, help us!” On the third day, when they left, there were no bite marks or discomfort. With grateful feelings, Photinia left a written testimony about this small miracle performed on the Feast of the Lord. “Please pray for me and my mother Lyudmila,” the young pilgrim from Yekaterinburg ends her letter.
Irina Frolova from Moscow suffered from a severe headache. Arriving in Diveevo, she received the blessing to swim in miraculous springs. At the spring of Father Seraphim, Irina immersed herself three times up to her neck, but couldn’t get up to her head. “Go to Mother Alexandra,” she felt an inaudible voice. She had a pebble with the image of Father Seraphim and Mother Alexandra, who was drawn without a halo. “Soon there will be a glorification of the original - Mother Alexandra,” Irina heard from her sister selling candles. Headache She had unbearable pain, she had never had such pain before. Irina found the source of Mother Alexandra. She was afraid to enter it, but a woman from Satis helped her. When I took the plunge for the first time, something invisible left my head. The second time the plunge was easier, but the third time it was completely joyful. The headache disappeared without a trace. While getting dressed, Irina heard: “Sisters! Go to the graves, they are digging them up.” It was at 10.20-10.30 in the morning. Irina hurried to the graves of the saints for the last requiem service before the excavations, which was served by the priests, and took the sand. “After Mother Alexandra healed me, I felt an indescribable joy and lightness in my soul. She's like family, that's all. In the evening they sang “Christ is Risen” and the excavations continued. On the soul - Easter, the holiday of the Resurrection of the Word. There was so much grace on that day, as if everything else on earth had darkened. My head never hurts anymore,” writes a woman, a mother of four children, who received grace-filled healing from the holy relics on the memorable day of their discovery.
Tatyana Maksimovna Smirnova from Volgograd, on the days of the discovery of the holy relics of the venerable wives of Diveyevo, received healing through the prayers of St. Martha. Digging potatoes, she lifted a heavy bag, after which she felt how all the insides sank. She had to lie down in bed, and she began to earnestly ask St. Martha for help and read the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice...” Her stomach had been torn since childhood. In the morning she woke up healthy, and her stomach no longer hurt.
“On the feast of Epiphany 2001, my son and I came to the night service,” writes Lyubov Zateeva from Nizhny Novgorod. “We prayed and cried very hard so that our husband and father, slave Michael of God get Good work. I promised, if he gets a job, then to bring his first salary to the construction of a temple for the holy women of Diveyevo. A week later, my husband was offered a well-paid job. He studied for 4 months, and now, with his first salary, the whole family - me, my son, my husband and my mother - came here again: to thank these saints. Because my husband is the only breadwinner in the family (I am disabled, my son is small), and for six years he could not find a good job.”
On May 24, 2001, the servant of God N., a lawyer by profession, anointed her hand with oil from the relics of Saints Alexandra, Martha and Elena and was healed of osteoma.
Lyudmila Levina from Sterlitamak (Bashkiria) testifies to the miraculous relief of the suffering of her dying mother. The patient was paralyzed and was in a coma from high pressure with a severe headache, everything was burning inside. When she was given some water from the healing Diveyevo spring of Mother Alexandra and applied a compress from this water, the pain decreased, the pressure became normal, and the patient calmed down. It was May 31, 2001.
The servant of God Catherine wrote about the imminent relief from the cough: “I went up to Mother Martha, kissed myself, and it went away.”
After suffering from the flu, the servant of God M. from the village of Satis closed one eye. She anointed herself with oil from the relics of the Mothers and came to venerate their holy relics. After this, the eye opened and began to see again.
Tatyana I., now living in Diveevo, wrote that from the first months of his life, her son had an infection in his intestines - Staphylococcus aureus. Biological products had to be abandoned due to their high cost. They tried to give the child communion as often as possible - this improved his condition. When he started receiving vaccinations, he immediately became worse and lost a lot of weight. On the day the excavations began, Tatyana asked mothers Alexandra, Elena and especially Martha for help. Soon after this, it became clear that vaccinations were harmful to the baby, and they were abandoned. After the glorification of St. She often went to the Diveyevo wives to venerate their relics and asked for her son’s recovery. Over time, they simply forgot about the problem that bothered them.
She herself suffered from sinusitis. Since she began to often venerate the relics of the holy women of Diveyevo, the cold at the very beginning went away by itself and quite quickly. She and her husband also felt their help in resolving everyday and spiritual problems.
"At. Martha herself suffered, had a stomach ache, and our baby was granted health through her holy prayers.”
No less than physical illnesses, mental illnesses are painful for us. “Today I felt completely despondent, physically tired, and had thoughts inappropriate for a Christian. When, according to God's providence, I went to the relics and venerated them, I felt a surge of strength, clarity of mind, faith, hope, love. Glory to God for His holy saints. Reverends Alexandra, Martha and Elena, pray to God for us,” wrote Oleg Smelov from Kanash (Chuvashia) on July 31, 2001.
A miraculous incident in Diveevo happened to a little girl Evgenia from the city of Volsk, Saratov region, in the summer of 2001. She had strabismus, loss of light and color sensitivity, farsightedness +10 and +5. On her first visit, the girl’s vision improved. On the second trip, it happened that while bathing at Mother Alexandra’s spring, Evgenia hit her head, after which the squint disappeared and her vision became even better.
In the Diveyevo Monastery, several cases of healing and relief of headaches and toothaches were recorded from the application of earth from the graves and particles of bricks from the crypts of Saints Alexandra, Martha and Helen.
Servant of God I., who worked at the Diveyevo Monastery, once had an attack of acute cholecystitis. In the right hypochondrium there was strong pain, such that she was shaking. As soon as earth from Mother Alexandra’s crypt was applied to the sore spot, the trembling immediately disappeared, I. felt a slight cold, the pain began to ease and went away within 40 minutes.
The young woman A. seriously bruised her toe, so that the nail turned red and blood came out from under it. She screamed and cried in pain and did not allow the sore spot to be touched. She was persuaded to apply earth from Mother Alexandra’s crypt to her leg, at least far from the bruise. The girl immediately calmed down a little and asked to move the bag of earth closer to the place of the bruise, and then asked to put it on the sore spot and tie it. She said: “I feel so good now that I just can’t do anything wrong.” She fell asleep peacefully. In the morning, only slight redness without pain remained from the bruise.
The mother of one of the novices of the Diveyevo monastery suffered from a boil on her face. No medications helped. One day she applied earth from Mother Alexandra’s grave to it and rubbed it in. Unexpectedly, everything soon went away, and the boil did not appear again.
According to the testimony of a pilgrim from the Ukrainian city of Solntsevsk, a brick from the crypt of St. Martha flowed with myrrh and began to smell fragrant at the priest of the local church. There are known cases of healing from it and its beneficial effect on those possessed by unclean spirits.
“The Lord, through the prayers of our venerable mothers Alexandra, Martha and Elena, healed me, a sinner, from a malignant tumor,” says Diveyevo sister O.
“After the first operation to remove the tumor, tests showed that the tumor was “very bad,” as the doctor said, and ordered another operation to remove organs that are susceptible to rapid infection, after which I had to undergo very painful treatment - chemotherapy - 5 or 6 once a year. I have already seen enough of its consequences in the hospital. After it, everyone vomited violently for several days and many lost their hair.
When they took tests again in another city, the new doctor confirmed the need for a new operation and chemotherapy after it. When I was already in the hospital, they told me that they were going to glorify our mothers. And then I began to ask them to allow me to attend the worship service, and then return to the hospital for treatment. I don’t remember how much I asked them, but not for long, although sincerely and with love, especially St. Marfa. Then, after the operation, the doctor came serious, quiet and said that the tests were calm, that he had consulted with one scientist and was canceling chemotherapy treatment and sending me home. All the women in the ward were surprised that I was released without radiation and chemotherapy, since everyone in this department had undergone this treatment. Through the prayers of our venerable mothers Alexandra, Martha and Elena, the Lord still gives me physical health. For this and for all, glory to him forever and ever. Amen".
The saint said about the Kazan Cathedral of the monastery that at the end of the world “this church will be taken entirely to heaven.” About another cathedral - Trinity - he predicted that “the poor Seraphim will rest here in body.” “The elder’s contemporaries were very surprised by these words of his: “Are the Sarov people going to give you up?” After all, the elder labored in a monastery in Sarov, which is 20 km from Diveevo, and the sisters went there for advice,” says AiF. Abbess Sergia (Konkova), abbess of the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveevsky Monastery.
It happened as the great elder predicted, although immediately after his glorification as a saint in 1903, his relics were first located in Sarov. After the revolution and the closure of the monastery, they were thought to have disappeared, but were miraculously found in 1990 in Leningrad in the storerooms of the Museum of Religion and Atheism. Sarov by that time had turned into the nuclear center of the country, a closed city, which could only be reached through a military checkpoint. Therefore, the relics of the saint, having crossed half the country in procession, rested in Diveyevo, in the Trinity Cathedral.
Cancer with the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov. Photo: From the monastery archive
Elder's Candle
Among the sea of people who greeted the relics of Seraphim of Sarov in 1991 in the newly opened monastery, there was a 91-year-old schema-nun Margarita (Lakhtionova). Before the revolution, she came to the Diveyevo monastery at the age of 15, becoming a novice. In 1927, after the monastery was dispersed by the Bolsheviks, the nuns, and there were more than a thousand of them, went into the world.
Most of the nuns went through prisons and camps, but did not renounce their faith and monastic vows. Thus, Mother Margarita spent almost 10 years in the camps. Having returned, she settled in Diveevo not far from the ruined monastery. It was she who kept the candle of Elder Seraphim, which he gave to the sisters shortly before his death in 1833 with the words: “You will meet me with it in Diveyevo.” For more than 150 years, the candle was passed from one generation of nuns to another. And so in 1991, Mother Margarita, being a very old woman, came to meet the relics of St. Seraphim with that same candle - she handed it over to the Diveyevo protodeacon, who inserted it into a candlestick and lit it.
One of the shrines of the monastery is the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness”. Photo: From the monastery archive
After 1991, another prediction of the great elder began to come true: that as soon as his relics rested in Diveyevo, the monastery would begin to flourish with new strength and over time it will turn into a monastery, that is, into the largest monastery both in terms of territory and number of inhabitants. “Father Seraphim predicted that the territory of the monastery would stretch to the river,” says Mother Sergia. - Maybe this will not happen in our lifetime. But we are already thinking about where we could move the organizations that are located on this territory - the prosecutor’s office, the police department building, two administration buildings and others.” However, over the previous 25 years, it was necessary to relocate a much larger number of organizations that at one time occupied the premises and churches of the monastery, as well as remove sewer pipes from the moat of the Holy Kanavka.
“In those years, this required 5 thousand dollars,” recalls Mother Abbess. - There was no money. And suddenly it comes stranger and donates exactly this amount.”
Kazan Temple, which will be ascended to heaven. Photo: From the monastery archive
Miracles on the Groove
The construction of the Holy Canal began during the life of St. Seraphim, who was ordered to do this by the Queen of Heaven Herself. The Mother of God appeared to the elder 12 times. “I did not place a single stone in the monastery of my own free will, only at the direction of the Queen of Heaven,” the priest said and ordered that the width of the Kanavka should be 3 arshins (1 arshin - 71 cm), the depth of the ditch should also be 3 arshins, and the earth, which is dug up must be thrown inside the monastery, so that the height of the ditch also becomes 3 arshins. “This land will be valued like gold,” the elder predicted, explaining this by the fact that the Mother of God passes along the Kanavka every day, who took Diveevo to Her fourth Destiny (after Athos, Iberia and Kyiv. - Ed.).
He said to his sisters: “If you knew what kind of Kanavka this is, it’s a fence to the skies! When the century ends, the Antichrist will first begin to remove crosses from churches and destroy monasteries and destroy all monasteries! But he will come up to yours, and Kanavka will stand from earth to sky, he cannot come to you, Kanavka will not allow him anywhere, so he will go away.”Pilgrims take the earth from Kanavka with them and apply it to sore spots, receiving healing. “Whoever walks through the Kanavka and says to himself the prayer “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary” 150 times, Athos, Jerusalem, and Kyiv will be here,” said St. Seraphim.
In the revived Kanavka monastery they arranged it exactly as Elder Seraphim had ordered. Photo: From the monastery archive
"We didn't ask for anything"
Many pilgrims also visit the monastery’s hermitages, of which more than twenty have been built since 1991. “We didn't ask for anything. “The Lord Himself gave everything into our hands,” says Mother Superior and gives just one example. — In the early 90s. the head of one of the rural administrations said that they have two grandmothers who are asking me to come. Two sisters, two old maids, Catherine And Anastasia. When we meet, they say to me: “Mother, how we waited for you, how we prayed to St. Seraphim!” And they show off their wealth - a large portrait of an old man on canvas, pre-revolutionary. They also had other treasures - 10 pairs of felt boots “farewell to youth”, 10 pairs of stockings and 5 thousand rubles saved from retirement. “We will give it all up, just take our church for restoration!” And there is a stone temple without windows, without a roof, as if after a bombing, birds fly inside. And the grandmothers keep asking: “Our village Avtodeevo is consonant with Diveevo.”
The Patriarch came to us Alexy II, they took him to look at this temple for its broken bricks and bird droppings... And a year later, His Holiness was already standing here on the pulpit. There was cleanliness and order all around. One of the grandmothers, Catherine, had a funeral service in this church, and the second, Anastasia, became a monk and lived out her life with us.” A special history is connected with the monastery cemetery. “Even 10 years ago it was an open field, but now a wooden church has been built there, a park has been laid out, and a pond with goldfish has been built. All this was done through the efforts of our benefactor. Vyacheslav. He himself is a very religious person. And his main concern was to bring his father to faith. Through Vyacheslav’s prayers, the father repented and took communion before his death, and died reconciled with God. His grave was one of the first in the monastery cemetery. On his father’s memorable days (birth, death and angel day), Vyacheslav always comes to his grave, attends the service, reads the Psalter for the deceased - and this is 6 hours of continuous reading. He has such a charge of firmness of faith that I sometimes cite him as an example to my sisters.”
Work on the restoration and arrangement of the Holy Canal. Photo: From the monastery archive
Holy springs
Most pilgrims always visit holy springs, of which there are more than ten in Diveevo and the surrounding area. They dip with a prayer for healing. Many are recovering. “For some people, recovering quickly is beneficial, but for others it is not. The Lord Himself sees what a person needs,” says Mother Abbess. By the way, she herself worked as a doctor for more than 10 years before her tonsure, although from her youth she knew that her path was different - monastic. Mother was raised by believing parents, the family lived in Sergiev Posad, and went to services at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The family of the future abbess turned to the local elders for advice more than once.
“When I turned 20, my mother took me to Archimandrite Seraphim (Shinkarev) and said that she now wants to know how I will be arranged,” says Mother Sergia. “The elder said: “She will be a nun.” At this time I was a medical student. My mother objected: “Father, this is boring.” And the elder: “I’m not bored, and she won’t be bored!” In her youth, my mother regretted that their family consisted of only four people (mother has a sister): “And now my family is hundreds of times larger, we have more than five hundred sisters in the monastery. The abbess of our monastery is the Queen of Heaven Herself, and our main trustee is St. Seraphim. And this is not an exaggeration. The presence of the Mother of God is felt by everyone who crosses the threshold of the monastery, everyone who walks along the Kanavka. And those who venerate the shrine containing the relics of the saint never leave inconsolable. The elder’s words come true: “Come to me as if I were alive, and I will help you.”
Procession on the Holy Kanavka. Photo: From the monastery archive
The Holy Kanavka is one of the main shrines of the monastery. In 1825, the Mother of God appeared to St. Seraphim and ordered the founding of the Mill Community, indicating how this place should be surrounded by a ditch and a rampart.
Pilgrimages
03 August 10 Olga Izhenyakova
In Diveevo in stiletto heels
Diveevo has long been a part of my life. Holy springs, the Canal of the Queen of Heaven and the most sacred thing - the relics of Father Seraphim, all this is dear, mine. Needless to say, I try to visit those blessed places several times a year. It all started quite simply. Our confessor, Father Ambrose, hieromonk of the Holy Trinity Monastery in Tyumen (apparently completely exhausted with me) somehow said in his hearts:
You should be in Diveevo for a couple of weeks...
What happened before this? In my opinion at the time, nothing special, well, I approached the cross with painted lips, so what, it would seem, I explained to the priest the day before that lipstick is not cheap and does not leave marks. And about the skirt too, and the stiletto heels, and even the neckline - he had to listen to everything. Looking ahead, I’ll say that I haven’t stopped taking care of myself, even despite seemingly becoming a church member. But a lot has changed in me during this time. Why am I telling this in such detail? To make it clear what it was like for me in a harsh convent, where the grannies - parishioners constantly reminded me of the sin of money-gathering and my specific place in hell.
Unfortunately, as a rule, people go to Diveevo when the situation is irreparable, for example, when they are struck by illness. They are going so that God, through the prayers of Seraphim of Sarov, will show a miracle of healing. This expectation of a miracle is literally in the air, but this, in my opinion, is wrong, it’s better to go to Diveevo just like that, to rest your soul, to breathe fresh air, bathe in holy springs, pray, especially since living conditions Every year it gets better.
However, I would like to focus special attention on waiting for a miracle. It is akin to believing in a fairy tale about a good wizard who will certainly grant wishes and punish those who are undesirable. In your cell, on Kanavka, in the refectory you hear every now and then, so, they say, after visiting Diveevo everything fell into place - she was healed (healed), her business went uphill, she got married... You look, they seem to be adults, often educated , but sometimes they behave like elementary school students. So is my son. When he first visited Diveevo, he was nine or ten years old, and he, succumbing to the omnipresent sense of miracle, in all seriousness then “begged” from Father Seraphim for a “C” in English...
Sometimes, looking at the numerous pilgrims, you can’t help but wonder why people are so passionate about external things? There must be one hundred and fifty prayers on Kanavka, a handkerchief with a “frown”, and not like that of the Komsomol women - tied at the back of the head, modest bathing shirts, without any frills, otherwise “the demons will cling to them,” and it is absolutely necessary order so many magpies, prayers, custom dinners... Every now and then I was tempted to shout: “People! But is this what you came here for?
But... you gradually stop noticing these things and just think about salvation, about the fact that life continues beyond the grave and you will definitely need to go through ordeals, where every word, every thought will be weighed, it’s not for nothing that it is said: “And the Lord accepts the intentions of hearts.” , and therefore I’m starting to explore a completely new space of thought, for the first time I’m writing this text message: “Dear mommy! Beloved son! I love you very, very much! Take care of yourself!".