Holy Kazan Convent in Kolyupanovo Diocesan Convent. Holy Kazan Monastery in Kolyupanovo

Almost nothing is known about the years of childhood, adolescence and early youth of the blessed old woman Euphrosyne, with the exception of those very few circumstances from her life, which the blessed one herself one way or another made references to in conversations with people who enjoyed her special trust and favor.

So, it is not even known where and when the old woman was born and who her parents were. However, without knowing exactly the year of her birth, we have full opportunity to determine it at least approximately, using for this the instructions of the old woman herself, which she made, while already in Kolyupanov, in a conversation with the landowner of the village of Korostina, Aleksinsky district, Tula province, Maria Sergeevna Pushkina.

“Mother, how old are you?” - the old woman once asked Pushkin in a conversation. “Well, consider it, daughter,” she said, apparently not wanting to give a direct answer, “I lived at Smolny, and then there was the 1st graduation.”

Based on these words of the blessed one, we can conclude that she was born approximately in 1758 or 1759, since the decree on the opening of the “Educational Society of Noble Maidens” (Smolny Institute) at the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent was signed by Catherine II on May 5, 1764, and was accepted girls of six years of age were supposed to go there. As for the old lady’s parents, the blessed one herself did not hide from some that she was of “noble origin,” and among people who knew her closely they persistently talked about her origins from the family of the Vyazemsky princes.

Then it is known that at holy baptism she received the name not Euphrosyne, but Evdokia, but this circumstance was carefully hidden by the old woman and was discovered only by chance. Once, when the blessed elder Euphrosyne was already living in Kolyupanov, the merchant’s daughter Fekla Timofeevna Kuznetsova came to her from St. Petersburg and on March 1 congratulated her on Angel’s Day. The old woman kissed her affectionately, but impressively, and at the same time sternly remarked: “When you know, then be silent!”

The blessed one received her education in St. Petersburg at the Smolny Institute and belonged to its first graduating class, as follows from her conversation with the landowner M.S. Pushkina, given above.

After graduating from the institute, the blessed one was a maid of honor at the court of Empress Catherine II, who often, as the old lady said, in moments of sadness spent time with her in the presence of Alexander Lvovich Naryshkin. Obviously, Elder Euphrosyne was an interesting interlocutor for the empress.

From the then high society of the capital, the blessed one was well acquainted with the family of the famous Suvorov, with the family of the once famous Prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, with whose daughter Varvara Yuryevna she was friends; she was familiar with Princess Vyazemskaya, the wife of the Kaluga provincial leader of the nobility, and with Ekaterina Grigorievna Boltina, who subsequently secretly visited her in Serpukhov.

Unfortunately, it is not known how long she revolved in this noisy brilliant circle. It is only known that at the most flourishing time of her life she, together with two other ladies-in-waiting: Martha Yakovlevna Sonina (died on August 10, 1805, was buried in the Deposition of the Robe Suzdal Monastery) and the maiden Solomiya (died on May 10, 1809, buried in the Moscow Simonov Monastery ), under the influence of some special hidden circumstances, decided to secretly leave the palace and take on the heavy cross of asceticism. The decision was made firmly, irrevocably. All that remained was to choose a convenient moment for its implementation.

And so, taking advantage of the court’s stay in Tsarskoe Selo, on one of summer days These three ladies-in-waiting, having left their dresses on the shore of one of the large Tsarskoe Selo ponds, in order to give reason to think that they drowned while swimming, and thus hide their traces, dress up in the costumes of peasant women and set off to wander.

During this wandering, the blessed elder Euphrosyne visited several monasteries, where she carried out various kinds of obedience. By the way, she was in the monastery of St. Theodosius of Totemsky in the Vologda province, where she lived in a barnyard and milked cows.

This is how the blessed one spent a number of years. Constant work, all kinds of hardships, tireless struggle with weaknesses human nature, crucifying her flesh, she raised her immortal spirit, flaming with love for the Heavenly Bridegroom - Christ, from strength to strength, from perfection to perfection, until he, having reached the height of dispassion, felt himself to be the perfect master of the flesh. Then the old woman, finding herself already sufficiently prepared for the high feat of prayer, goes to Moscow to Metropolitan Plato, reveals to him the innermost recesses of her pure soul and asks for help to hide from the persecution of the world under the cover of the ever-present unknown. The wise archpastor, having previously been convinced of the sincerity of her desire, purity of intentions and unshakable firmness of decision, sends her with a handwritten letter, parting blessings and instructions under the fictitious name of “fool Euphrosyne” to the Serpukhov Master Monastery, which he converted in 1806 from male to female Abbess Dionysia (1806-1815).

Here, received by the abbess according to the metropolitan's letter, the blessed one very graciously handed her her appearance, in which she was listed as the daughter of a senator. Thus Elder Euphrosyne settled in the Serpukhov Vladychny Monastery, where she began her great feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake, which she continued until her very blessed death.

Having first settled in the monastery itself in a special secluded cell, the blessed elder, after a number of difficult temptations that befell her and endured with deep, truly Christian humility and patience, was forced to leave the monastery and settle outside it - at a distance of 100 fathoms from the monastery fence in a cramped hut . In this wretched cell, blessed Euphrosyne began to indulge in her chosen form of asceticism with even greater zeal. Here, every item of her daily use was part of one heavy cross, voluntarily lifted by the blessed old woman.

In her hut the old woman kept two cats, three dogs - Milka, Barboska and Rozka; Chickens and turkeys were also placed here, and at night a raven flew here, which mother fed. This raven, as Mother Euphrosyne herself later told many who loved her (to whose love she responded in kind, calling them either son or daughter), in a time of temptation he himself served her.

One day there was a fire in her cell: one of the mischievous open window, through which the old woman let the raven in, threw a bunch of straw with fire, and the cell caught fire. The old woman, putting out the fire, was so burned that for six weeks after that she lay motionless and without any care; only the raven did not leave her: he brought her food and drink and put it in her mouth.

The holy fool never cleaned her wretched cell. The floor was littered with the remains of food from animals, which were here in the cells and fed in a special trough standing on the floor. When the time came to feed the animals, the blessed one approached the trough and knocked on it with a stick. Then her beloved cats and dogs, hearing the familiar sound and understanding it perfectly, in one minute gathered around the trough, and the old woman fed them, affectionately saying: “Eat, eat, my dears!”

The air in the cells was terribly heavy. It was difficult for an ordinary person to breathe in this room, which, by the way, was heated in the heat, but almost not in the winter.

Once, Abbess Evgenia Ozerova, who often visited the old lady from Moscow, told her: “Mother, why do you keep animals? Such terrible air! To this the blessed one answered with a smile: “This replaces the perfume that I used so much at court.”

The blessed one loved animals very much, for which she herself took advantage of them. It happened that as soon as she appeared from her hut, pigeons were already sitting on her head and shoulders; a flock of crows and jackdaws constantly hovered over her, whether she was walking or riding in a wagon drawn by a horse, given to her by Princess Khovanskaya. The old woman rode only at a walk, and always in the company of her four-legged and feathered friends: a cat, a dog and a rooster were her constant companions, taking places near her in the wagon.

Usually, both in summer and winter, the ascetic dressed in a shirt of thick unfelt gray cloth (hair shirt). Only occasionally in winter, in severe frosts, and then only to travel to the city, did she put on the men's sheepskin coat she had. The blessed one always walked barefoot. Her head was cropped, sometimes she wrapped it in a rag or put a cap with a trim on it. Around her neck, the holy fool wore copper under her only clothing; the great ascetic also wore heavy iron chains, but this was her deep secret, which, as the case of the landowner Dubrovina shows, she carefully hid even from people who loved her deeply and in other respects used her trust.

The landowner Elena Andreevna Dubrovina, who deeply loved the old woman and sincerely respected her, often came to the Vladychny Monastery and stayed at the monastery hotel. On these visits, she always considered it a duty to visit Elder Euphrosyne, who, in turn, visited her at the hotel more than once. They talked with each other for a long time and with pleasure. They were often seen together, walking in and around the monastery. On one of these walks, when both interlocutors, tired, sat down to rest on a bench behind the monastery fence, Mrs. Dubrovina, placing her hand on the old woman’s back, clearly felt the chains on her body. But the old woman hurriedly stood up that very minute and said sternly: “Don’t touch me! This is my secret, and it doesn’t concern you!” Dubrovina apologized to her and from that time began to respect her even more.

The blessed one slept on the bare floor with the dogs. And if any of the visitors asked why she allowed dogs to sleep with her, the old woman humbly answered: “I am worse than dogs.”

How did she sleep?! No one had ever seen her lie down with her whole body; She usually reclined, resting her head on her hand on her elbow. You can imagine what her dream was like!

One random visitor to Elder Euphrosyne, the wife of the priest Fr. Pavel Prosperova, while still a girl, heading “with her friends” to the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, on the way she went to the Serpukhov Vladychny Monastery to see an ascetic with a letter from the landowner P-voy. Here the traveler spent the night and then told the following about her stay with the old woman.

“When I and my friends approached the monastery, mother was sitting on a bench near the fence. Young guys stood not far from her and threw whatever they could at her. Suddenly she stood up and approached them, saying: “Knock, hit, spit at me!” They turned away and began to walk away, and she walked away.

Having learned that it was Mother Euphrosinia Grigorievna, we approached her and handed her a letter. After reading it, mother, among other things, told us: “What a kind lady, she fell ill and died.” And this actually later came true: Mrs. P-va soon fell ill with cancer and died.

Then the old woman called us to her place for the night (there were 15 of us), we happily followed her. Having received us, mother brought us bread and kvass and, having fed us, put us to bed: the peasant women in the shed, and me and the servants in her room, where we looked at everything.

Mother had only one piece of clothing - a sundress, also a shirt, like a surplice, made of thick gray felted cloth; her head was shorn, on her neck was a copper necklace, the thickness of a finger; in addition, the same chain still hung around his neck, and on it was a copper cross about a quarter in size; There was nothing on my feet except impenetrable dirt.

At the entrance to the room, there were perches to the side, on which more than 12 chickens and turkeys were sitting, and a little further there was a bed with a curtain and a blanket. Both the first and the last were dirty; the latter covered something like bricks or stones. Under the bed there was a purse that could hold two huge cats and kittens; behind the bed - to the other side, there was a table and on it an image with a lit lamp; not far from this there was another table, covered with a napkin, and under it various food supplies lay haphazardly, to which cats and kittens approached in turn. We looked at all this while mother was putting the peasant women to bed.

In her yard there was a horse, a cow, and a huge dog tied at the door.

Having put the peasant women to bed, mother showed us the place. But we couldn’t sleep all night because of the extremely suffocating and heavy air, and Mother Euphrosyne sat next to us and all the time read prayers in a whisper to herself. Suddenly someone knocked on the glass frame. Mother got up, went to the window, opened the door and said: “What? Have you had your fill? At this time, a huge raven, the likes of which we had never seen, flew into the room and croaked. Mother brought a pot of porridge, sprinkled it on her lap and began to feed the raven. And when he stopped pecking, mother put some porridge in her mouth, and he began to snatch from her mouth, then he fluttered up and flew out, and mother again began to read prayers. At midnight the rooster crowed, mother, having crossed herself, with the words: “in the Name of the Father” and so on, got up, went to the table, straightened the lamp and prayed standing, according to the book, until dawn. At dawn she raised us up, gave us a wash and sent us all away with peace and blessing.”

The blessed one did not prepare food for herself, she did not go to the monastery meal, but took only bread and kvass from the monastery kitchen and occasionally drank tea - this is what she ate.

Coming out of her cell, usually with a stick in her hands, she made noise, screamed and sang. The holy fool sometimes hit the monastery sisters with her stick, but no one took offense at her for this. At night she used to walk around the monastery and sing, sometimes she would forget herself and scream. During the day, the old woman went to the monastery forest, where she picked mushrooms, flowers and various herbs. She then distributed these herbs to the sick who turned to her for help, saying: “Drink, you will be healthy.” And the sick, by their faith, received relief or complete healing from their ailments.

The blessed one especially loved to visit the chapel located near the monastery, under which, according to legend, 7 adolescent heads were buried. She often went here, decorated the icons with flowers and prayed here in solitude.

She did not always go to church: at early mass the old woman used to pray in her cell and at that time she did not let anyone in to her. And when I was in church, I hardly stood in one place; she walked around the temple more.

On the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, the blessed one used to walk with a procession of the cross from the Serpukhov Cathedral to the Nara River (at the old bazaar) and plunge into the Jordan.

Immediately after the end of the prayer service, in her gray cloth robe, not paying attention to any frost, she plunged into the consecrated water and, emerging from it, said to those around her: “Go guys, hot bath, go, wash!” The robe she was wearing, of course, immediately froze, and she, in this frozen hood, barefoot, would walk leisurely to her wretched cell.

The blessed one always fasted during Great Lent during Holy Week, confessed to the monastery confessor, and received communion on Maundy Thursday.

Strict with herself, always limiting herself in everything, deliberately exposing herself to various kinds of constraints, inconveniences, and deprivations, the blessed one could not calmly look at human grief, at human suffering and sorrow. At the sight of severe adversity befalling a person, she always hurried to the unfortunate person with her prayerful help.

One day, Serpukhov and its environs were visited by great misfortune: not a drop of rain fell during the summer, there was a terrible drought, all the grass was burned out, the earth was cracked, people were exhausted from the heat, cattle were dying of hunger.

In the midst of one of these unbearably hot days, a blessed old woman enters the abbesses of the Vladychny Monastery and says with a reproach in her voice: “Why are you sitting?! - and then he adds imperiously: - Call the priest now! Let’s go to the field to pray!”

The abbess obeyed, invited the priest, and everyone went to the field to pray for rain. The old lady, of course, was right there. The prayer service ended, the priest was reading a prayer for the sending of rain, when suddenly heavy rain poured down, quickly watering the earth.

Everyone who saw this was then firmly convinced that the Lord had mercy on his people for the prayers of the old woman, since everyone not only in the city, but also in the surrounding area knew well the holy severity of her ascetic life.

The strictly ascetic life of the blessed old woman Euphrosyne was well known to Moscow Metropolitan Philaret, who, during the old woman’s stay in the Serpukhov Vladychny Monastery, visited it several times and always treated the holy fool with great attention and respect.

The old woman usually met the archpastor outside the monastery fence and, when she received his blessing, reverently kissed his hand. The venerable saint, in turn, kissed the hand of the old woman. Then, while in the monastery, he spent a lot of time talking with the ascetic, either walking with her around the monastery, or visiting her in her poor cell. When the saint left the monastery, the old woman accompanied him through the holy gates and here she received his farewell blessing from him.

The fame of her exploits attracted many visitors to her. Many from afar came and came to visit the great ascetic, and she did not let anyone go without a word of edification, often revealing an amazing gift of insight.

So, one day, the landowner of the village of Korostina, Aleksinsky district, Tula province, M.S. Pushkina and the treasurer of a monastery went to Moscow. The road lay through Serpukhov. In their conversation before Serpukhov, they touched upon, among other things, the question of how best to treat subordinates. But neither one nor the other of the interlocutors could find a satisfactory answer to it, since both agreed on the fact that you cannot treat either meekly or strictly: to act strictly - they will grumble, to treat meekly - you will spoil. This is where their conversation ended. We drove into Serpukhov and remembered that mother was here, and decided to visit her.

We've arrived. Mother received them very kindly, talked with them for a long time about various things, and when they began to say goodbye, she suddenly, turning to Pushkina, without any connection with the previous conversation, instructively remarked: “Be gentler, daughter, it’s better.”

The inhabitants of Serpukhov itself knew the blessed old lady especially closely, where she was always a welcome guest in many houses. It is not surprising, therefore, that the memory of the blessed one is still alive among the Serpukhov population. Memories of the old woman are especially sacredly preserved and passed on with special reverence in the circle of those families who, such as the Plotnikov family, enjoyed her special favor and therefore were visited especially often by her.

In the family of the Serpukhov merchant Georgiy Vasilyevich Plotnikov, the blessed elder Euphrosyne especially loved to celebrate the day of her Angel - September 25. When she came to the Plotnikovs that day, the old lady always brought with her homemade Butter pie with chickens.

Georgy Vasilyevich himself often had to travel to Moscow on business, and the blessed one more than once came to visit his wife Agrippina Feodorovna in his absence. During one of these trips of Georgy Vasilyevich, the old woman, coming to his wife, began to insistently repeat: “Cry, cry...”

Those around were perplexed as to what this could mean, but their bewilderment was soon resolved: news was received that Georgy Vasilyevich, on the way back from Moscow, died suddenly in the city of Podolsk. Agrippina Feodorovna was left a widow with young children, and she really had to shed a lot of tears. But the blessed old woman did not leave her with her consolation and in 1838 she blessed the whole family with the holy icon of the Vladimir Mother of God (10 by 12 vershoks) with images below of the three Moscow saints: Alexy, Peter and Jonah, as well as Saints Michael, Theodore, Tsarevich Demetrius, Blessed Basil , Blessed Maxim.

This icon is still in the Plotnikov family, now the grandchildren of Georgy Vasilyevich and Agrippina Feodorovna - Nikolai and Dimitri Nikolaevich, and is kept as the greatest shrine: for the Plotnikov family it is miraculous. The grandchildren of Georgy Vasilyevich and Agrippina Feodorovna, reverently preserving the memory of Mother Euphrosyne, still sacredly honor the day of her Angel - September 25, annually performing a memorial service on this day for the servant of God, blessed old woman Euphrosyne.

The old woman very often visited the house of the then monastery deacon, Father Nikolai Mikhailovich, who in his free time was diligently engaged in teaching children literacy and the law of God.

One day, Mother Euphrosyne, having come to Father Nikolai and finding him working with the children, said with deep regret: “You are trying to teach them to read and write, but they will all be fools and drunkards.”

At that time, Father Nikolai had about 15 of his students, and all of them, as one of these unfortunate peasants from the Vladychnaya Sloboda, Mikhail Pavlov Seleznev, attested to this in June 1908, were bitter drunkards to their death.

Blessed Elder Euphrosyne also heartily loved and repeatedly visited the house of the Serpukhov merchant Ivan Ivanovich and his wife Lyubov Ivanovna Kostyakov. She once gave them her gilded spoon as a souvenir. After the death of Ivan Ivanovich and Lyubov Ivanovna, this spoon was inherited by their daughter, Sofya Ivanovna, who gave it to the church of the village of Kolyupanova, Aleksinsky district, Tula province. In the sacristy of this temple, along with other things left after the death of the ascetic, this spoon is kept to this day.

But the blessed elder Euphrosyne was not destined to end the path of her ascetic life in Serpukhov. According to the slander of the primordial enemy of the human race, human envy and malice instigated persecution against the humble ascetic, and she, submitting to the persecutors, in the early 40s of the 19th century was forced to leave Serpukhov, where about thirty years of her ascetic life had passed.

Having left Serpukhov, the blessed elder Euphrosyne settled with one of her admirers, the landowner Chirikov, whose estate was located 10 miles from the Serpukhov Master Monastery. But always prayerfully disposed, looking for solitude for her feats of self-denial, the blessed one probably did not find a suitable environment for herself here: she did not stay with Chirikov for long. Soon we see her with another of our admirers - the landowner Zhikharev.

From here, after the strenuous requests of the landowner Natalia Alekseevna Protopopova, Elder Euphrosyne moved to live with her in Kolyupanovo, where she remained until her most blessed death, only occasionally and briefly leaving it to visit one or another of her admirers or to visit old places of their exploits.

In 1850, during one of her short absences from Kolyupanov, the blessed one visited, among other things, the Serpukhov Vladychny Monastery, but stayed in it for only two months, living as before, first in the monastery itself, and then again outside it, behind fence.

The Kolyupanov period in the life of the blessed elder Euphrosyne is known to us in much greater detail than the entire previous life of the ascetic. We owe this mainly to the care and diligence with which Fr. Pavel Prosperov (assigned to a priestly place in the village of Kolyupanovo according to the prediction of an old woman, for a long time then, who was her confessor and until his death had truly filial respect for her and deep faith in the gracious power of her prayers, justified, as he himself at one time testified, by a thousandfold experience) collected and wrote down everything that was in any way related to the great life ascetics.

Having moved to Kolyupanovo with one holy icon, the blessed elder Euphrosyne did not change her former way of life at all.

Deeply reverent Elder N.A. Protopopova built, for her “treasure,” as she often called the blessed one, a separate wing, plastered it inside, furnished it with all amenities, planted trees on the outside, surrounded it with a fence, but the blessed one placed her cow in this house, and she herself settled in Protopopova’s house in a small square three-arshin room next to the yard girls. In this tiny closet, she was huddled with hens and chicks, turkeys, cats with kittens, and two dogs. The stuffiness was terrible: a fresh person could hardly spend a few minutes here, but the blessed one breathed this air for whole days. And all these four-legged and feathered inhabitants of the small room occupied by the blessed old woman were in complete peace and harmony with each other and in perfect submission to their mistress.

Animals were also guardians of the secret of her prayerful feat. As soon as anyone approached the blessed woman’s room, the dogs began to bark, and she, always stretched out in prayer on the ground or raising her hands to the sky, stopped her exploits, pretending to be asleep. And if someone took upon himself the courage to enter the very room of the ascetic, the dogs flew into a terrible rage and, if the old lady did not stop them, they kicked out the careless visitor, but as soon as the old lady said: “be silent” or “this is ours (ours)” as they fell silent.

Allowing visitors to enter, from the very first words mother began to complain that “her locks were broken and everything was stolen,” wanting to say, perhaps, that the idle conversations of idle people were robbing her of the time she needed for spiritual deeds, or that her innermost, secret, and therefore especially valuable in the eyes of the Lord, exploits, as if stolen from her by people spying on her - there have been such.

And her exploits were truly great. And only the dumb ones witnessed them.

However, on special days, such as the days of receiving the Holy Mysteries, the blessed one sent the animals out of the cells and remained alone in it. Having accepted Christ himself into herself, she considered it necessary to remain in perfect purity.

The ascetic always consumed very little food, maybe a few spools a day. And she gave all the dishes brought to her to her four-legged and feathered friends, and she herself was content with what was left of them.

For household services, the blessed one took one or another of the women with her.

At one time, everyone was very surprised that mother, taking a deaf-mute woman to serve as her servant, with whom she could only communicate by signs, told her: “Mute, do this.” And she carried out the order exactly. For example, the old woman said: “Mute, milk the cow.” She took the milk pan and went to milk. “Mute, light the stove,” she carried wood and lit the stove. “Call me such and such a person,” she went and brought the one needed. It even happened that the blessed one from her room gave orders to the dumb woman who was in another room, and she carried them out exactly.

Sometimes the ascetic left her cell for a while to “lie down in the open air.”

But where did she go to bed? Under the shade of a spreading tree? In the cool of a green garden? On soft silky green grass among fragrant flowers? No! On manure near stables and cattle huts. This was her usual resting place. Here the holy fool often lay, not only in summer, but also in winter, always barefoot, wearing only a cotton cap.

She loved to walk around the outskirts of the village of Kolyupanova, but only where it was quieter and more secluded. With particular pleasure and especially often, the old lady visited a ravine located approximately one mile from the village, the rather steep slopes of which in her time were covered with dense forest, and along the bottom a small stream flowed and now flows, known here as the Proshenka River. This is where the blessed one loved to escape from human noise and worldly bustle, so that here, in complete solitude, her mind and heart could ascend into the blue, transcendental distance, into the kingdom of inaccessible light, where dwells the Invisible and Incomprehensible One, whose almighty right hand created everything and controls everything.

In the forties of the 19th century, on one of the slopes of this ravine, at the site of her solitary exploits, the blessed with my own hands dug a small well, and when the sick turned to her for help, she often told them: “Take water from my well and you will be healthy.” The sick with faith drew water from the “mother’s well,” as the surrounding residents called it then and now call it, and actually received healing or relief from their ailments.

Sometimes the blessed old woman came to the bank of the Oka River. The builder of the Nikolaev Convent of the Kaluga Diocese, Elder Hieroschemamonk Gerasim (Bragin) of blessed memory, once told the confessor of the Kaluga Tikhon Hermitage - Hieromonk Pimen, how in his youth, he and his father went fishing along the Oka River to the city of Aleksin and often landed on the shore against village Kolyupanova, met an old woman coming out of the forest - blessed Euphrosyne; how she and him threw small fish out of the net back into the river, making it clear that God’s gift should be used wisely, and how the fishermen scolded them both for these tricks and drove them away.

It is possible that it was here, among these random but frequent meetings with the blessed one, that the saving inclinations of a pious life awakened for the first time in the soul of Yegorushka (as Mother Euphrosyne called the young man who later became the hieroschemamonk Gerasim). Perhaps it was here that his very inclination to the feat of foolishness for Christ’s sake arose, in which he showed himself, especially in last years own life.

Without abandoning her feat of foolishness for Christ's sake, blessed Elder Euphrosyne in Kolyupanov, as before in Serpukhov, did not forget deeds of love and mercy. Every sorrow of the human spirit and body, every human grief always found a sympathetic response in her motherly tender heart; and she constantly hurried to where her prayerful help or her comforting and pacifying word was needed. Here, too, she was a grace-filled prayer book according to the Apostle, she was “all things to all, that all may be saved,” and she acquired the wealth of spiritual gifts not only for herself, but for all...

But the old woman also had her own companions in spirit. It was among these associates that the ascetic’s rich spiritual gifts primarily manifested themselves - the gift of clairvoyance and healing.

Alexey Ivanovich Tsemsh, who at that time served as manager at the Myshega iron foundry of Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna Bibarsova, located about 5 versts from Kolyupanov, enjoyed the old lady’s special love. The blessed one did not call him anything other than son or Alyosha. Such love for the ascetic was a response to the boundless devotion and truly filial respect for her on the part of Alexei Ivanovich, who spared nothing for her. Wanting to see his deeply revered “Mother Euphrosyne” as often as possible, and at the same time not having a suitable room for her in his house, he built a secluded, quite beautiful cell in his garden exclusively for her, furnishing it with all the amenities. Here, to A.I. Tsemshu, the blessed old woman most often left Kolyupanov. On these trips, as, indeed, on all trips of the old lady, she was always accompanied by her four-legged and feathered pets.

At A.I. Blessed Tsemsha spent a long time, sometimes for several months, quenching, having as her place of residence a cell built for her by the hospitable owner. From this secluded corner she visited both Tsemsh’s house and the houses of other inhabitants of the Myshega plant.

On Myshega, as well as in Kolyupanov, there is almost no house where they can tell you about one or another incident from the life of “Mother Euphrosyne”, testifying either to her insight or to the gracious power of her prayers. Here, as well as in other places, the confessor of the blessed elder Euphrosyne, Fr. Pavel Prosperov, and partly the priest Fr. Pavel Sokolov at one time collected and recorded a sufficient number of cases from the life of the ascetic, dating back to the time of her stay in the village of Kolyupanov and reflecting as clearly as possible the fullness of her spiritual gifts.

Here are several such cases that clearly testify to the insight of the blessed old woman.

The wife of priest Pavel Prosperov, Matryona Alekseevna, while still a girl, once asked her father to send for the old woman, to which her father angrily replied: “What kind of coachmen do you have to send for her?

And what do you need it for?” She fell silent. After this it happened that my father was at Protopopova’s house.

Unexpectedly meeting Mother Euphrosyne there, he kindly said to her: “Why, Mother, will you never come to us?” “What kind of coachmen do you have? And what do you need me for?” - the old woman said sharply.

One day the blessed one told N.A. Protopopova: “I saw in a dream that a bishop as black as Demetrius of Rostov was coming to you from the church.” Everyone who heard marveled at this, and then suggested that perhaps some stranger named Demetrius would come.

At that time, the Right Reverend Damascene was at the Tula See, and there were no rumors about his removal or replacement. But two years after this, the Tula See was occupied by His Eminence Demetrius (later Archbishop of Kherson).

On his first trip around the diocese, he visited the city of Aleksin and the village of Kolyupanovo, examined the temple, and from the temple went to visit the sick N.A. Protopopov.

By the way, in appearance, His Eminence Demetrius, as it turned out, fully corresponded to the old woman’s idea of ​​him.

Another time the old woman asked N.A. in the morning. Protopopov: “Do we have anything to eat? - added: “Guests will arrive for dinner.”

Indeed, when they began to set the table for dinner, they saw that someone was coming, and the blessed one, looking out the window, said: “The Mother Superior is coming.” It turned out that a novice of the Sezenevsky Monastery had arrived from the city of Lebedyan, Tambov province, Euphemia. The old woman greeted her, hugged her tightly, kissed her and bowed to the ground. Some time later, Euphemia, with the name Seraphim, was indeed installed as abbess of the Sezenevsky nunnery. Once, several years before the Sevastopol War (1855-1856), the blessed one, while in the house of A.I. Tsemsha went to the window and, looking at the church, began to pray with tears. Alexei Ivanovich’s family, approaching her, sympathetically asked: “Why are you crying so bitterly, mother?” To this the old woman answered sadly: “How not to cry? You too pray with tears, may the Lord God have mercy on Russia, because the Turk, the Englishman, and the Emperor of the French are coming against Russia.”

The family, having talked among themselves about what the old woman said, decided that she had lost her mind: talking about the French emperor when the king occupies the throne in France. Then one of them, approaching the blessed one, said: “In France, mother, it is not the emperor who rules, but King Louis Philippe.” "You know! - she answered him irritably and, pointing her finger at his nose, added: “He still has a big nose.”

Obviously, the blessed one foresaw the February 1848 coup in France, which put an end to the reign of King Louis-Philippe, and the restoration (1852) of the empire by Napoleon III, during whose reign (1852-1870), indeed, France was in the union. with England came to the aid of Turkey against Russia, first sending their united fleet to the entrance to the Black Sea, and then ground force, which landed in Crimea and took part in the siege of Sevastopol. And the old lady’s idea of ​​Napoleon III’s nose was quite consistent with reality.

Another case dates back to approximately the same time. Son of A.I. Tsemsha, Feodor Alekseevich, while serving in St. Petersburg during the reign of Nicholas I, met some dignitaries there who, seeing his intelligence and representative appearance, diligently persuaded him to join the guard. The convictions worked: Feodor Alekseevich had already decided to join the guard, but before carrying out his decision, he went to the village to his father to ask for his consent and parental blessing.

The father, it turned out, had nothing against his son joining the guard, however, under the condition - if Mother Euphrosyne blessed him. The ascetic was in Kolyupanov at that time, so he and his son went there.

Arriving at the old woman and informing her about the purpose of his visit, Alexey Ivanovich began to ask her for her blessing to enlist his son in military service. To this the blessed one, turning to her son, said: “Now I do not bless you, but under the new emperor you will act.”

And so it happened. During the Sevastopol War, after the death of Emperor Nicholas I (1855), Feodor Alekseevich, while in the crown service, quite unexpectedly for himself, was taken into the militia and sent to Sevastopol.

In May 1855, Stefan Onisimov, a peasant from the Myshega plant in Tarusa district, Kaluga province, and several of his comrades worked in the garden of A.I. Tsemsha. It happened at this time that the blessed old woman Euphrosyne was passing through the garden. The workers, seeing her, began to laugh at her. Then the old woman, turning in their direction, spat and said: “Fools, you will all be soldiers.”

This further intensified the ridicule of the workers: “What kind of soldiers are we, when we are each already about 47-53 years old? - they shouted after her. “People who are not our age are joining the soldiers!”

But soon they had to repent of their ridicule and recognize in the old woman a man of high spiritual talents.

In June of the following year, by order of the government, a recruitment of militias was carried out, which included both Stefan Onisimov himself and all his comrades, who had so recklessly laughed at the old woman the year before.

Son-in-law A.I. Tsemsha, Ivan Alekseevich Kayander, having received a place in Tiflis, was getting ready to travel. Mother Euphrosyne, who happened to be at Tsemsh’s at that time, said to Alexei Ivanovich: “Why is he going there? He will die there." But Alexey Ivanovich remained silent, and his son-in-law left.

After his departure, Tsemsh thought for a long time about how to send his wife to him - his pregnant daughter, and even with young children. And my mother kept saying: “He will die there from cholera.”

The trip somehow did not happen by itself. Meanwhile, Mother left the Tsemshes and did not visit them for quite a long time. Finally, she arrived and, stepping over the threshold, said: “So I came to the widow!” On the same day, in her presence, the Tsemsh family received notification of the death of Kayander in Tiflis from cholera.

Agrafena Iosifovna Zudina, who lived at the Myshega plant and personally knew the old woman, once said: “My father, who served as a paramedic at the Myshega plant, suffered from heavy drinking. Mother Euphrosyne, who knew both him and his passion for wine well, once ordered him to follow her to her cell, adding: “I’ll give you some drink with my tea, and you’ll stop drinking vodka!” The father willingly followed her. When they arrived at the cell, mother’s samovar was already ready, but there was no sugar, and she went to A.I.’s house to get it. Tsemsha, placing a package of tea near the samovar.

A terrible curiosity took possession of the father; he wanted to know what tea his mother wanted to use to quench his passion for vodka. Noticing how the package was wrapped and how it was placed, he took it, carefully unfolded it, looked at it, then carefully wrapped it as before and put it in its old place.

A few minutes after this, mother entered the cell. Stopping near the threshold, she looked sternly at her father and said: “Ah! You wanted to know what kind of seagull this is! So go away! No my tea for you!”

Thus, thanks to his inappropriate curiosity, my father remained a bitter drunkard until his death.”

Peasant Karp Kondratievich Kondratiev from the age of twelve to seventeen, by appointment of Alexei Ivanovich Tsemsh, was a coachman for Mother Euphrosyne when she was visiting the Myshega plant. More than once he had to travel with her to Aleksin, and to Kolyupanovo, and to other surrounding places.

Once in the summer, one of the holidays, he was about to go to the meadow for a round dance, as he was ordered by Alexei Ivanovich to give his mother a horse. He had to give up the round dance, and this annoyed him terribly. Reluctantly, he went to the horse yard, cursing the old woman to himself, as he himself later admitted, with the most choice abuse. However, he harnessed the horse and, bringing it to the porch of the cells, asked him to report to his mother that the horse was ready.

But the old woman, running out of her cells, shouted menacingly: “Get out of here!!! Go away!.. I won’t go with you today!.. Go! Go!”

So he had to return to the stable yard and unharness the horse.

Once, says Daria Ivanovna Guslistova, a peasant woman from the Myshega factory, in the 1850s, in the month of January, Mother Euphrosyne, who was visiting Princess Ekaterina Alekseevna Bibarsova at that time, came to my mother Marfa Alekseevna, climbed onto the stove and sang: “On the stove a star has risen high, and it can be seen far away, and illuminated the whole white light.”

At this time, the foundry worker Evdokim, about 25 years old, a man of good Christian life, whom the old lady loved very much, entered the hut. The old woman looked at the newcomer, got down from the stove, took a small icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and, turning to Evdokim, said: “Here, servant of God Evdokim, bless me.”

He said embarrassedly: “Mother, I cannot bless you, you bless me.” But the old woman still insisted on her own, and made three prostrations, and he blessed her with this icon. She kissed it and then, taking the image from his hands, in turn blessed him with the words: “The Lord will bless you for your exploits in life.”

And Evdokim really soon embarked on the path of asceticism, leaving with the blessing of the old woman to Optina Pustyn and accepting monasticism with the name Mikhail.

Evdokia Ivanovna Smirnova, who lived at the Myshega plant, said: “My mother, left a widow with young children after the death of her husband, lived very poorly and greatly lamented the fact that she could not buy herself a cow. One evening I told her: “After all, Mother Euphrosyne helps everyone, ask her for a cow.” To this my mother did not answer me.

The next day, in the morning, Mother Euphrosyne comes into our hut and says: “Oooh, Alyosha (Tsemsh) was already scolding me for the cow. You, he says, are still planning to give her to someone, but look, she’s sick and won’t give milk.”

One day, while at the estate of Mrs. M.S. Pushkina in the village. Korostin, Aleksinsky district, Tula province, the blessed old lady, together with the young ladies, went to their parish widow deaconess. This widow had a son, who at that time was finishing his course at theological seminary. He studied well, giving his mother flattering hopes. The mother was looking forward to the moment when her son would finish the course and enter the priesthood, thereby giving her the opportunity to quietly, without unnecessary worries and exhausting hassle, end her days under his welcoming roof. It was this deaconess that Mother Euphrosyne now came to visit.

After sitting with her for some time, the old woman expressed a desire to see her household; The young ladies also followed them. Walking around the house and around it, the blessed one, turning to the deaconess, said: “Oh, how good everything is with you everywhere! Live, live here!

Then the young ladies remarked: “Mother, she has a son who is an excellent student and will soon finish his course, and she can’t wait for him to finish and enroll, then she will move in with him.”

The old woman, as if not hearing their words, said again: “Everything is fine with you! Live here, live!” Thinking that the blessed one either did not understand or did not hear their words, the young ladies repeated their sentences louder, but the old woman kept repeating one thing: “Everything is fine with you!” Live here, live!”

No one at that time understood why Mother Euphrosyne spoke so persistently about the same thing. Only later, when the son of the widow of the deaconess, having completed his course, became related to the Right Reverend Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev and took a good priestly position, became dangerously ill and died. It then became clear to everyone that the words of the blessed old woman, repeated so insistently to her several years ago, were prophetic.

The poor widow deaconess, in the first time after her son’s arrival at the place, had sold some of her buildings and things and had already moved to live with him, having buried him, she had to return to her old ashes and live out the rest of her days here.

Another time M.S. Pushkina, talking with the old woman, thought: “After all, under Empress Catherine II, three ladies-in-waiting left the palace at the same time: one, Solomiya, was buried in the Moscow Simonov Monastery, the other, Mother Euphrosyne. Where is the third one? Then mother, seeing her thoughts, said: “Mother in Suzdal, she was such a drunkard, and now she works miracles.”

The landowner Natalya Adrianovna Korelova, despite the reproaches and ridicule of her husband, always cordially received Mother Euphrosyne, treating her with sincere love and deep respect. One day the old woman came to visit Korelova. Everyone came out to meet the honored guest and help her get out of the cart. Korelova’s husband, Nikolai Afanasyevich, also came out and, looking at the diligent services offered to her, thought, not without ridicule: “What kind of nun is she? Belted with a rope, covered with a rag." In response to these innermost thoughts of Korelov, the blessed old woman, entering the house, bowed to the floor and said: “Forgive me that I am girded with a rope and covered with a rag, because I am not a nun.”

Another time, Korelova, being pregnant, turned to the old woman with the question: “Mother, who will be born to me - a boy or a girl?” “A piece of meat,” answered the blessed one. Indeed, a premature baby was born dead.

The widow of the provincial secretary, Sofia Semyonovna Nearonova, who personally knew Elder Euphrosyne, says: “Mother Euphrosyne repeatedly visited the house of my parents, Semyon Nikitich and Olga Andreevna, who lived at that time in the city of Aleksin. One day she comes to us and asks my mother to give her a cap. She gives it to her, but mother, refusing to take it, says: “Not this one, the other one that you stuck out yesterday.”

And in fact, the mother had just finished hoopping a new cap the day before. Surprised by the old woman’s foresight, the mother hastened to fulfill her wish.

Mother Euphrosyne immediately put on her cap and went out into the yard where our horse was waiting. Getting into the carriage, she hit the coachman’s shoulder with her hand, saying: “Well! Take me, soldier." To which he replied: “Mother, I don’t need to serve.” And the blessed one objected to him: “What, do you think you made a mistake?”

And indeed, she was not mistaken. In the fall of the same year, the gentlemen were angry with him for something and gave him up as a soldier.

“Another time,” says the same Sofya Semyonovna, “my mother went to visit her good friends, the city judge Nikolai Afanasyevich Korelov and his wife Natalya Adrianovna. When their mother arrived to them, Mother Euphrosyne was already there and met her in the hallway, saying: “Oh, I brought pies, and even with peas; give them here,” with these words she took the pie with peas from her mother, leaving another one with porridge in her hands.”

Archpriest of the Nicholas Church in Aleksin, Fr. Sergius Ioannovich Arkhangelsky, according to the words of his late father-in-law, priest of the same Nicholas Church, Fr. Feodor Matveyevich Glagolev, at one time said: “The hereditary honorary citizen Ivan Feodorovich Maslov died in Aleksin, leaving a million-dollar inheritance to his daughter, the maiden Elizaveta Ivanovna, who, after her father’s funeral, invited Elder Euphrosyne to her place and, asking her to pray for the repose of his soul, asked from her mother, how could she thank her for this, to which Mother Euphrosyne replied that she wanted to have the deceased’s colorful striped dressing gown.

Elizaveta Ivanovna was at a loss: she did not remember that her father had such a dressing gown, and when she asked the old nanny who had lived with them for a long time about this, she received an answer that convinced her even more that the late Ivan Feodorovich did not have such clothes . Elizaveta Ivanovna informed Mother Euphrosyne about this, to which she only answered, either reproachfully or with dissatisfaction: “Well, there you go!”

Then Elizaveta Ivanovna sent for her distant relative, who almost constantly stayed with them and helped them run their vast household. It turned out that she remembered that, indeed, only a very long time ago, the late Ivan Feodorovich had such a dressing gown, but whether it was intact and where, she found it difficult to answer.

The young housewife put all the servants in the house on their feet, but they could not find the required dressing gown anywhere. Again Elizaveta Ivanovna informed her mother about this and again received from her the same answer in the same tone.

Not wanting to upset the old woman and let her go with nothing, Elizaveta Ivanovna began to offer her other similar motley with stripes, but more valuable clothes of the deceased. Then the blessed one said: “Go, look for him on the mezzanine!”

And indeed, the dressing gown, the search for which had caused so much trouble, ended up on the mezzanine in the farthest corner in a pile of various used and unusable things.”

She lived in the city of Aleksin on Rybnaya Street in own home Maria Semyonovna Khvisenko, from the words of a certain Elizaveta Ivanovna, who at one time looked after Mother Euphrosyne, reported: “Elder Euphrosyne several times during her life said to Elizaveta Ivanovna: “Oh, Lisa, Lisa, you will sit in prison after my death!”

These prophetic words of the blessed one, then incomprehensible to anyone, truly came true. Long after the death of Mother Euphrosyne, Elizaveta Ivanovna, five years before her death, became blind in both eyes.

In the village of Svinka, a parish of the village of Kolyupanova, a manager and his family lived with Mr. Maslov. His wife was a woman experienced in everything and also had a kind heart: she tried to do only one good thing for everyone. For this, everyone loved and respected her, and the blessed old woman loved her and therefore visited her often.

One day Mother Euphrosyne came to spend the night with her while the manager himself was away on business. The old woman was given a separate room.

At 12 o’clock at night the blessed one suddenly shouted: “Fathers! Twelve wolves have attacked!” The manager's wife, thinking that mother was delusional, began to wake her up, but she did not answer her, as if she had not heard.

At one o'clock in the morning the manager arrived. His wife opened the door for him and gasped: “What’s wrong with you? - she said with difficulty. “You don’t have a face!” The husband was as pale as a sheet. “You will be pale,” said the old woman, looking out of her room, “twelve wolves attacked him!”

Indeed, as the manager later said, he was attacked by wolves on the road. How many there were, he couldn’t make out in fear. He only remembers that there were many of them and that some of them even jumped into his sleigh. He attributed his salvation from the terrible death that threatened him exclusively to the gracious effect of the prayers of the ascetic elder, Mother Euphrosyne.

Not only in words, but also in the actions and actions of the blessed old woman, funny and strange at first glance, sometimes revealed the great gift of insight sent to her from above.

So, one day, going to the village of Svinka to visit the same manager’s wife, Mother Euphrosyne took a pot of porridge with her, hid it under the floor and went.

When she drove up to the manager's house, the hostess, seeing her, came out with her children to meet her and help her get out of the cart. As soon as the old woman lowered her foot from the cart, the pot of porridge slipped out from under her floor and, hitting the ground, broke into pieces, and the shards scattered in different directions.

Everyone who saw this laughed, wondering where mother’s pot of porridge came from. But it soon became clear to everyone that they should not have laughed at this, but cried: the broken pot and scattered shards foreshadowed a family misfortune. Soon after this, the manager fell under the wrath of his masters and lost his place and shelter; everything that was stored up for a rainy day was soon spent, and he had to send all three of his sons in different directions to serve. Thus, all his wealth created by more than thirty years of hard work was destroyed.

Even during her lifetime, the elder woman’s insight was a recognized phenomenon for the vast majority.

The gracious power of God, which acted in the blessed old woman Euphrosyne, was also manifested in the granting of healings. The priest's wife Fr. Pavel Prosperova once said: “When I was still a girl, a relative stayed in our house as my companion. One day she became so ill that she was forced to go to bed. At this time we learned that Mother Euphrosyne, who had previously been visiting somewhere, returned to us in Kolyupanovo, and I persuaded the sick woman to go to the old woman. With great difficulty I managed to bring the patient to the house of landowner N.A. Protopopova, where the blessed one lived.

When we came to mother, she met us and, turning to the sick woman, said: “Are you still here?” To this the patient, pointing at me, replied: “Who should I leave her with?” Then the old woman, putting her hand on her head, said: “God bless you for not leaving her!” And from that moment the patient became healthy and cheerful, as always. “Sister, now I’m completely healthy,” she said, turning to me, “after all, mother really took off my fur coat!”

After this, Mrs. Protopopova invited us to her place. Sitting here, the former patient saw that mother was caressing the dog, and thought: “Were the saints saved with dogs?” At that very moment, the old woman, without saying a word, grabbed the dog and threw it out the open window.

As for the landowner N.A. herself. Protopopova, we can say that Elder Euphrosyne was her family physician and prayer leader. She was almost constantly sick: her whole body suffered. She had a terrible wound on one leg, from which small bones would sometimes fall out; the slightest shock caused her terrible suffering, and the old woman sometimes hit her sore leg with a stick, and the pain subsided. The patient also suffered a lot from prolonged seizures with which the demon tormented her.

This is what their eyewitness, priest Fr., tells about these painful seizures. Pavel Prosperov, in his notes: “The patient was tormented and frantic when the shrine appeared. It was very difficult for her on solemn holidays, such as, for example, on the days of Epiphany, the descent of the Holy Spirit, etc., as well as on days specially marked Orthodox Church, such as, for example, the first, fourth and Holy Weeks of Great Lent. But she was especially tormented by seizures on the eve and on the day of remembrance of St. Mitrophanius the Wonderworker of Voronezh (November 23). On the eve of this day in the house of N.A. Protopopova held an all-night vigil every year.

In the very first year of my admission to Kolyupanovo, I had to witness a terrible seizure that happened to Protopopova on the day of St. Mitrophania while reading the Gospel at the all-night vigil.

The next year, when I was asked to serve the all-night vigil on the eve of the day of remembrance of St. Mitrophanius, I went, having previously taken with me the missal, with the intention of reading incantatory prayer while singing and reading the chanters and left him in the hallway. When Protopopova had a seizure this time, I went to get the missal during “God is the Lord.”

The patient suddenly screamed: “How?!” Fight with me?!. No! No! You won’t defeat me, you won’t drive me out, but I, I will bring this and that on you,” at the same time she promised me various sorrows and troubles, which I later actually had to experience.

If, it happened, a patient in a fit said: “I’ll go to so-and-so or there (naming people known to us) and do something there that they themselves won’t figure out,” __ indeed, at that moment these persons suffered the same or other trouble.

Sometimes you check it out later and find out: one person had a significant theft at that time, there was a fight in another place, there was irreconcilable hostility, etc. Sometimes a patient in a fit will say: “I’ll go to the priest!” - and then, gnashing his teeth, he groans. - Ah! The old woman won’t let me see him: she’s blocked me everywhere!”

And Mother Euphrosyne, indeed, when she was in my house, often did sign of the cross on all doors and windows.

During such and such attacks, the old woman would come to the sick woman, throw her stick into her bed, and the sick woman would say: “How many of us were here! The old woman scattered us all!” - then he will fall silent and calm down.

Once at N.A. Protopopova had been bleeding from her throat for several days in a row, and she was so weak that she could barely catch her breath. Everyone around her had already given up hope of seeing her alive.

It was during a stormy autumn time. The old woman ordered the bathhouse to be heated (she always ordered it), and ordered a cauldron with horse droppings to be placed in the stove. When everything was ready, the blessed one came to the bathhouse, stirred the cauldron with her hands, lay down on the bench and ordered the sick woman to be brought to her. They did not want to carry out her order, fearing for her health, especially in view of the inclement weather and suffocating air in the bathhouse, but the blessed one insisted on her demand. When the patient was informed about this, she, having learned the old woman’s demand, ordered herself to be carried to her, declaring that she was even ready to die with her. As soon as they brought the sick woman to the bathhouse, the blessed one began to sing: “Heavenly King...” The sick woman began to echo her even louder. When they began to wash the sick woman, the holy fool began to tease her with the voice of a goat: “By-ah...” And the sick woman screamed in exhaustion: “Oh, it’s hot! I'll leave! I'll leave! It’s stuffy!” But the old woman did not pay attention to this until she washed the sick woman. At the same time, the blessed one forbade the girls to wet the affected leg, but she wet it all.

Having finished washing, the blessed one ordered the sick woman to be taken to her bedroom, and she herself went to her room. But less than ten minutes had passed since they put the sick woman to bed, the old woman appeared to her again, demanded tea and ordered her to get up. She easily and willingly carried out the order of the blessed one: she got up, got dressed, sat down to tea, drank it herself and treated the old woman.

From that moment on, the patient's health improved.

Landowner Alexander Petrovich Poloskov, the nephew of N.A. Protopopova, having become engaged to the girl Maria Sergeevna Gorchakova, fell ill with some incomprehensible disease, which was getting worse every day. The patient began to fall into a frenzy, scratching his face and hands, climbing the wall, screaming that some merchant's wife in Kaluga had spoiled him. In the end, he had to be sent to the city for treatment.

There he treated everything he had, but did not receive any relief, and the doctors who used him finally refused to treat him, finding nothing better than to advise him to return to where he came from - to the village.

The patient obeyed and moved to Kolyupanovo to live with his aunt.

His situation became more and more serious every day. Protopopova informed Poloskov's parents about this, and they came to say goodbye to their only son, mourning him alive. It was clear to them that there was no longer any hope for a successful outcome of his illness. Only Natalya Alekseevna did not lose hope for his recovery: she firmly believed that the gracious power of the prayers of her deeply revered Mother Euphrosyne could bring a dangerously ill person back to life. She now tried, as best she could, to convey this ardent faith to her sister Ekaterina Alekseevna and her husband - the parents of Alexander Petrovich, convincing them to turn to the old woman with a request to help their grief.

Protopopova spent a lot of time and fiery words on this. The fact is that the Poloskovs did not believe in the power of the prayers of the old woman, for whom they had nothing but ridicule. As soon as Protopopova started talking about Mother Euphrosyne in their presence, Ekaterina Alekseevna would remark ironically: “You have all the saints there!”

However, now Protopopova’s words, and even more, perhaps, the very bitterness of the consciousness of the imminent inevitable heavy loss, finally kindled, albeit not for long, the flame of faith in the whitened hearts of Poloskov’s parents, and they, with tears in their eyes, fell at the feet of the great ascetic blessed Elder Euphrosyne, asking her to heal their son, promising to give her any cow in gratitude.

The old woman ordered a bath to be prepared and, putting various herbs and birch leaves there, put the sick man in it, who for a long time did not want to obey her, reproaching her for his extravagance. She kept him in the bath for two hours or more and, when he was completely exhausted, she put him to bed. He soon fell soundly asleep. And the old woman herself went to N.A. Protopopova and ordered to prepare for the wedding, to cook mash.

The next day, in the morning, the blessed one, waking up Protopopova, ordered to send for the bride, she herself went, brought the sick man into the house, ordered him to be strengthened with tea and food, and he became healthy and cheerful.

So, on Tuesday, Poloskov’s parents mourned their only son, and on Friday of the same week they celebrated his marriage. Only the Poloskovs turned out to be ungrateful towards their benefactress. They promised to give her a cow and did not fulfill this promise, for which they were punished by God: in the same year, 16 Tyrolean cattle died.

About eight years passed after this, Alexander Petrovich Poloskov served in Tula as an official on special assignments, Ekaterina Alekseevna, as before, often came to Kolyupanovo to visit her sister Mrs. Protopopova. On one of her visits, she met Blessed Euphrosyne, who, handing her two small clay pots with lids, said: “Take these pots and cook porridge for your two grandchildren.”

Poloskova did not immediately understand the full prophetic meaning of these words. Only when a little time later her daughter-in-law, the wife of Alexander Petrovich Poloskov, died, leaving in her care two young children, Anatoly, 7 years old, and Emilia, 4 years old, that everything became clear to her.

In 1848, cholera raged everywhere, claiming many victims every day, and in the parish of the village. Kolyupanov, through the prayers of the blessed elder Euphrosyne, even the overall mortality rate was, as evidenced by the metric books stored in the church archives, less than the previous and subsequent years.

Priest Fr. Pavel Prosperov says: “One winter, Mother Euphrosyne came to me and lay down on the sofa, ordered me to take off her shoes, which I willingly did.

After lying on the sofa for some time, she got ready to go, I offered her my services to put her shoes on, to which my mother replied: “Take my shoes for yourself, and take care of them.” And she went barefoot.

Some time after this, my wife fell ill with dropsy, she smelled terrible, her legs especially smelled; we can't figure out what to put her in. Suddenly the idea comes to my mind to put her in her mother’s shoes for the night!

And what?!

By the morning of the next day, the tumor had significantly decreased, and a day later it completely disappeared - the wife became completely healthy, and this disease never recurred for her.”

The landowner Natalya Adrianovna Korelova, already mentioned, once suffered for three days in childbirth. The invited doctor and midwife tried all means, were perplexed as to how and how to help the suffering woman, and decided to perform an operation.

Agreeing to the operation, Korelova expressed a desire to first confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries. A priest was invited.

Meanwhile, the patient sent for Mother Euphrosyne several times, but she could not be found anywhere. Suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, the old woman herself arrives and, entering the sick woman, says: “What kind of people do you have?!” Or what kind of wedding?”

Then, having sent everyone out of the bedroom, the blessed one began to rub the sick woman’s sides and back. wood oil. Having finished this, the old woman said: “Well, Christ is with you! Congratulations on your daughter! They will ring the bell and you will give birth.”

Mother was at the end of the early mass, and as soon as the gospel for the later one began, Korelova was relieved of her burden with the birth of her daughter Anna.

At another time, at the Korelovs, a hitherto frisky, completely healthy boy Nikolai fell ill with some incomprehensible disease - he could not move a single member and was unconscious most of the time. When the mother and father, greatly upset by this, did not know what to do with their sick son, the blessed elder Euphrosyne visited them. She came to them unexpectedly and uninvited.

She had barely had time to see the owners when Natalya Adrianovna turned to her with an earnest request to treat the patient. The old woman gave him some herb and ordered him to brew it, and when the patient came to his senses, to give him this infusion to drink.

The former nanny thought: “What is she? God knows what kind of grass he gives and orders him to drink.” “What is it to you,” the old woman said sternly, turning in her direction, “what kind of grass do I give?!” Maybe I’ll give you some rubbish from the stove - you should take it!”

The old lady left. The child’s father did not want to carry out the blessed woman’s order, but invited a doctor, according to whose prescription he gave the patient medicine. The child began to grow cold, breathing stopped, and only his heart was still beating weakly.

The parents were horrified. The sick man’s mother, reproaching her husband for not wanting to carry out the elder’s orders, sent him to ask the blessed one for forgiveness and help.

The old woman did not accept him at first, but when he fell to his knees and with tears in his eyes began to beg for forgiveness and help, the blessed one, having previously reprimanded him for his neglect of her herb and for inviting the doctor, ordered the patient to drink the infusion of the herb she had previously given .

Returning home, Korelov this time, without any hesitation, ordered his mother’s herb to be brewed and given to the patient.

As soon as they poured this infusion into the patient’s mouth, he came to life, and then, after drinking a teacup of it, he felt completely healthy, only he could not walk. Mother helped the patient with this too.

Having once arrived at the Korelovs and seeing that he was being carried in their arms, she urgently ordered him to be put on his feet, made the sign of the cross over him and, touching his head with her hand, seemed to push him away from her, saying at the same time: “Well, go! » And he went.

One day, the wife of a psalm-reader in the village of Arkhangelsk (versts from the village of Kolyupanova) came to the blessed old woman to ask for help for her sick mother. The old woman told her: “I will give you dead nettles. Give the sick woman some of her infusion and she will be healthy.”

The newcomer thought: “We have a lot of nettles of our own.” Then the blessed one, seeing her thoughts, said: “Not only nettles, if I gave you brushwood or straw, you should accept it without thinking! So your husband (she has never seen him) also doubted, but God bless him, he is a good man.”

One day, the sister came to visit the girl who was looking after Mother Euphrosyne. The horse was unharnessed and allowed into the garden to feed, and in the garden there were hives with bees. A horse, walking through the garden, knocked over one of the hives. The angry bees attacked her and pitied her so much that her owners no longer hoped to see her alive. At this time, an old woman appeared in the garden. Approaching the lying hive, she threw a broom at it - the bees immediately entered the hive, and the horse stood up and, as before, calmly began to eat the food.

One summer in the city of Aleksin there was a loss of livestock. The residents were in despair. It never occurred to anyone to turn to Mother Euphrosyne for help, but the blessed old woman, seeing people’s grief, did not bring herself to ask. Early in the morning, when the cattle were being driven out to pasture, she went out into the middle of the herd, escorted them to the place of pasture - and the death stopped.

Fevronia Nikolaevna Dykhanova, who previously lived in the city of Aleksin, suffered from a leg disease that did not allow her to move. A devout woman who deeply revered Elder Euphrosyne as a great ascetic, Fevronia Nikolaevna often thought: “I must be a very sinful person if Mother Euphrosyne, who helps everyone and visits everyone without distinction of rank or condition, does not come to see me.”

One summer in 1851, she was sitting with such thoughts at the open window and saw: Elder Euphrosyne was walking towards their bathhouse, half dug into a hillock, approached her, lay down on her roof and began to roll from side to side, saying: “ She will be punished! She will be punished! After lying around on the roof in this way for some time, the blessed one then went to the window where the sick Fevronia Nikolaevna was sitting and sat down under it. She took off the stockings from her feet and, handing them to Fevronia Nikolaevna, said: “Here, Fevronia, you have my stockings, put them on,” and she got up and went. After the old woman left, Fevronia Nikolaevna put her stockings on her sore legs and immediately felt healthy.

And the bathhouse burned down in the evening of the same day. As it turned out later, flax was crushed in this bathhouse, without observing either holidays or Sundays.

Improving in the feats of self-denial, selflessly serving God and others, the holy fool Euphrosyne finally reached the limits of blissful eternity.

The physical strength of the ascetic noticeably weakened; It was already clear to everyone that the candle of her life, which had burned so brightly until now, was burning out, that the time of the blessed one’s departure from this vale of tears and sorrows to the palace of the Heavenly Bridegroom - Christ was not far off.

The bitter consciousness of an imminent bereavement, mixing with a strong irresistible desire once again, for the last time, until cold hand death did not close forever the dear eyes burning with faith and love, to see the deeply revered “Mother Euphrosyne”, to hear her word full of love and consolation, to receive a blessing from her and, finally, to say to her the last “forgive” in this life, forced everyone who knew the blessed old woman , rise from your seats, leave your endless everyday worries and troubles and go to where the lamp of the life of the great ascetic still glowed - in Kolyupanovo.

And the blessed old lady, despite her weakness, accepted everyone, found words of approval and consolation for everyone, and not only words - no one left her without one or another tangible reminder of the last meeting with dear “Mother Euphrosyne”, saying goodbye to this or that To other of her visitors, the old woman blessed them with whatever she had to: one she gave a cross, another an icon, another a sliver of wood, a bunch of grass, nettles, a scarf, stockings, in a word - whatever came to hand.

Shortly before the death of the blessed one, her confessor, Fr. Pavel Prosperov. The old woman talked with him for a long time. In the midst of this conversation, Fr. Paul asked to reveal to him the secret of his origin, but the blessed one answered this evasively: “Ask Metropolitan Philaret,” she said, “he knows everything.”

When Fr. Pavel was getting ready to leave, the old woman, saying goodbye to him, handed him the key, saying: “Here is the key for you. You are my native: I placed you here as a priest. Take this key, stay here, feed yourself and others with it, then pass it on to your successor, repeating these words of mine.”

“I was perplexed for a long time,” Fr. later said. Pavel, where did mother get this key and what does it mean, since I have never seen it on her before. Only after the death of the blessed one, the girls who followed her told me that they sometimes secretly saw chains on the old lady, which she locked with this key.”

Three weeks before her blessed death, on Sunday, during mass, the old woman, going out onto the porch, suddenly loudly, with an expression of amazement in her voice, began to call the nanny caring for her: “Nanny! - she said in excitement. - Don't you see anything? Look, two Angels in white robes came out of the church and called me to them: “Euphrosyne! It’s time, it’s time for you to come to us!”

The old lady had such a vision three Sundays in a row at the same time, and on the fourth - July 3, 1855, after the liturgy, guided by the Holy Mysteries, she died quietly and serenely, being about 100 years old.

The blessed one met her hour of death in the reclining position that she usually assumed while sleeping. Thus, even in the face of death, she did not want to weaken the holy severity of her ascetic life.

According to the will of the deceased, her laborious body was dressed in monastic clothes and placed in a simple coffin; a cypress cross and a rosary were placed in the hands of the blessed one. The news of the death of the revered Mother Euphrosyne spread throughout the surrounding area with the speed of lightning, and lines of pilgrims again reached Kolyupanovo. People who relatively recently came and came here to receive the last blessing of their beloved mother, now again set off on the road to bow to her ashes; and at the grave of the deceased, an almost continuous service of memorial services began.

A few days before the death of the holy fool, June 29, N.A. Protopopova, in whose house Elder Euphrosyne lived, seeing how quickly the blessed one’s bodily strength was drying up, and wishing in the event of the death of the ascetic to bury her body in a place that would correspond to the holiness of her life, sent the following letter to the Right Reverend Demetrius, Bishop of Tula:

Your Eminence,

All-merciful Archpastor!

The holy fool Euphrosyne has lived in our house for twelve years. Her health is in such a state that her life will hardly last for a few days.

This godly old woman walked her path for a hundred years, and if, by God’s decree, she ends her days in our house, then we wish to bury her body in the chapel of our church, under the floor of the refectory, in the village of Kolyupanovo, Aleksinsky district. But our priest cannot decide without the blessing of Your Eminence. That is why I dare to resort to Your Eminence with my most humble request - to allow, in the event of the death of this old woman, to bury her body in our church.

Her lifestyle and hundred-year Christian feat brought her out of the ordinary worldly people, and I dare not leave it on my conscience to bury her body in a common cemetery, considering this matter not pleasing to God.

Asking for the holy prayers and blessings of Your Eminence, I have the honor to be with true respect

Your most humble servant

Natalya Protopopova.

The village of Kolyupanovka, Aleksinsky district.

On this letter N.A. Protopopova, on the second day after the death of the old woman, was followed by the following resolution from Eminence Demetrius:

"4th July 1855. In the name of the Lord I bless the burial of the said old woman under the table of the church in the village of Kolyupanovka.”

According to the above resolution of the Right Reverend Demetrius, the grave for the blessed one was prepared under the refectory of the Kazan Church in the village of Kolyupanova near the northern wall.

Her burial took place on July 7. In Kolyupanov on that day there was a huge crowd of people: everyone was in a hurry to pay their last respects to the deceased and escort her to her place of eternal rest. With great difficulty, the small temple of the village could accommodate only a small proportion of those who wanted to be present at the burial of the revered old woman. Most of the people were forced to stand outside the church in the open air and here offer their fervent prayers to the throne of the Almighty for the repose of the newly departed soul.

The service was solemn. The liturgy was performed by three priests, and the burial by six. Despite the hot weather, the deceased lay in the coffin, as if alive: there were no visible signs of decay, a fragrance emanated from the coffin; unearthly bliss was reflected on the reverently calm face of the ascetic.

The sick landowner N.A. wished to be present at the funeral liturgy and burial. Protopopova. She was brought to the church in a chair and placed in the chapel, below the right choir; Her sister Ekaterina Alekseevna Poloskova stood next to her.

During the Cherubic Song, suddenly, to general amazement and horror, the sick woman cried out: “Don’t you see anything, how Mother Euphrosyne rose from the coffin and comes to heal me?” At these words, the hitherto helpless patient stretches out her legs, and the cracking of the popliteal veins is heard; then, turning to her sister, she says: “Well, didn’t you believe it, didn’t you believe it?! Here I come, here I go!” And indeed, she stood up without any outside help and walked up to the old woman’s coffin, tore off her hat and the green visor that she wore because of her eye illness, threw them over the coffin and, taking the hand of the deceased, kissed her very, very deeply, saying: “Thank you, Holy mother, you healed me.” Then she returned to her place again.

“Horror gripped everyone who saw it,” Ekaterina Alekseevna later said. “Since then, I have been in awe of the deceased and honor her memory.”

The burial is over; the coffin lid closed; the gloomy grave had already received into its cold depths the honorable remains of the blessed one, forever hiding them from human gaze, and the thousand-strong crowd of reverent admirers of the deceased still hesitated to disperse - everyone wanted to once again bow to the ground on the dear grave, and the service of memorial services in the church did not stop. The next year, on the day of the annual commemoration of the deceased blessed elder Euphrosyne, N.A. Protopopova again experienced the effect of the blessed power of the old woman-ascetic: the seizures that usually tormented her that day were repeated with particular force, but since then they have never resumed.

At first after the death of the blessed one, the place of her burial in the temple was not marked by any external sign, and therefore those praying, coming to the temple for divine services, often stood in the place where the grave of the ascetic was located under the floor. On this occasion, the old woman once appeared in a dream to her former confessor, Fr. Pavel Prosperov, said: “Why do you allow people who are not pure in soul and body to trample my ashes under their feet?!”

Waking up, oh. Paul decided to build a plank tomb over the grave of the blessed one, and when the just quoted words of the old woman and the decision of Fr. Pavel became known to A.I. Tsemsh, manager of the Myshega iron foundry of Princess E.A. Bibarsova, he offered to cast a cast-iron slab at his factory for the grave of the blessed one. But what should I write on this plate?! This is where Fr. Pavel remembered the old woman’s words to him during his last meeting with her: “Ask Metropolitan Philaret, he knows everything,” and went to Moscow.

Received by Metropolitan Philaret, he told him everything about his last meeting with the blessed elder Euphrosyne and asked him to lift the veil of uncertainty hiding the secret of the origin of the great ascetic, in order to know what to write about her on her tombstone.

The wise archpastor, apparently not considering himself to have the right to reveal what the ascetic herself did not want to reveal before her death, answered this request like this: “Write - Unknown Euphrosyne. God has chosen the turmoil of the world, let him put to shame the wise.”

These words with the addition “died on July 3, 1855” and were inscribed on a cast iron slab, built with the diligence of A.I. Tsemsha and an oxbow embedded in the top board of the tomb.

In 1914, through the diligence of one of the admirers of the memory of the blessed Elder Euphrosyne, who wished to remain anonymous, with the permission of the diocesan authorities, a wooden canopy with gilding was built over the tomb of the ascetic.

Her source was not overlooked by the concerns of admirers of the memory of the ascetic elder. About 30 years after the death of the blessed one, a wooden chapel-canopy on pillars was erected over its source through the diligence and labors of admirers. It so happened that the construction of this chapel was completed on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit. On this day it was decided to perform its solemn consecration.

After the liturgy, with the solemn ringing of bells, he left the Kazan Church in the village of Kolyupanova, accompanied by many people. procession, heading to the celibate spring of the blessed Elder Euphrosyne, where, after the blessing of water, the consecration of the newly created canopy chapel was also carried out. Then, to the same jubilant sounds of bells, the procession returned to the temple.

Since that time, in Kolyupanov, annually on Spiritual Day, a solemn procession “to Mother’s Well” is made.

The wooden chapel-canopy erected over the spring of the old woman-ascetic became dilapidated over time and therefore was demolished in 1909, and in its place, at the expense of benefactors, a wooden chapel covered with iron was built and with it a wooden bathhouse, which were solemnly consecrated on July 4 of that year. same year.

At the same time, admirers of the memory of the blessed Elder Euphrosyne expressed the desire that henceforth, in memory of this joyful event, a divine liturgy would be celebrated annually in Kolyupanov on July 4, and after it a procession to the source of “Mother Euphrosyne.”

This is the origin of the second annual religious procession to the well of the blessed one.

In addition to Spiritual Day and July 4, the Kolyupanovskaya Church sacredly honors the day of repose on July 3 and the day of the Angel of the blessed Elder Euphrosyne - September 25 (memory of St. Euphrosyne of Suzdal), distinguishing them from the series of ordinary days by performing a funeral liturgy and a great requiem for the Elder.

However, every requiem service at the grave of the blessed one since August 1884 is usually performed before each divine liturgy. The origin of this custom is as follows.

On the night of July 2, 1884, the priest of the village. Kolyupanova O. Peter Sokolov, son-in-law and successor of the confessor of the blessed elder Euphrosyne, Fr. Pavel Prosperova, has a dream. Long dark corridor; only in the distance, at the very end of the corridor, light is visible. From there, a man in a black, as if monastic dress, walks down the corridor and approaches Fr. Petru and says: “Let’s go tear it off. Let’s go a yard deep, there will be a fragrance.”

“To these words,” says Fr. in his note. Peter, “I couldn’t even utter one word: I was covered in frost from head to toe, I was scared beyond belief.” Meanwhile, the stranger repeated his offer. This time Fr. Peter dared to ask: “Who?”

He answered: “Euphrosyne,” and at that time, from the same bright end of the corridor, a woman all in black approached them and, turning to Fr. Petru, said: “Open me. If you go a yard deep, there will be a fragrance.”

Father Peter, trembling all over, asked: “What needs to be done?” They answer him: “Pray.” “Shall we serve prayers or memorial services?” - he asks. The woman answers: “Requiem services.”

The faces of neither man nor woman o. Peter couldn’t see it because the light fell on his interlocutors from behind.

“This is a vision,” says Fr. Peter, - I was so shocked that I couldn’t sleep well for two weeks: as soon as I fell asleep, it was as if someone was pushing me, and I woke up, began to remember again what I saw, and figure out what to do. Finally, having prayed to God and asking for the prayers of Mother Euphrosyne to strengthen my strength, in August I began to serve a requiem mass before each divine liturgy.”

And since then this custom has been sacredly observed in Kolyupanov.

According to legend, water from the spring relieves all ailments, can restore vision and heal tumors, and prayer near the cross at the entrance to the bathhouse can give children to infertile couples.

Our information

Runaway maid of honor

In the world Elder Euphrosyne was called princess Evdokia Vyazemskaya. In 1776, the girl graduated from the Institute of Noble Maidens at the Smolny Monastery in St. Petersburg and became a maid of honor at the court of the Empress Catherine II. The young princess quickly became bored with social life, and she decided to leave the court to devote herself to God. But Evdokia was afraid that the empress would not want to let her beloved maid of honor go, and decided to flee from the palace, faking her own death. Evdokia left her clothes on the shore of a pond in Tsarskoe Selo so that the courtiers would think that the girl had gone swimming and drowned, and she changed into a peasant dress and left the courtyard.

However, the empress did not believe in the death of her favorite and ordered a search to be organized. The runaway girl was returned to the court, but was soon released. Catherine realized that the girl’s intentions were serious, and did not dare to interfere with her. Thus began Evdokia’s wanderings through monasteries and temples, which lasted for more than 10 years.

In 1806, Evdokia reached Moscow, where she met with Metropolitan Platon, who listened to her story and blessed the runaway maid of honor for the feat of foolishness. Under the fictitious name “fool Efrosinya,” the princess went to the Serpukhov Vladichny Vvedensky Convent, where she began to live as a novice.

By that time, the young lady had completely given up her secular polish: Euphrosyne wore a shirt made of coarse fabric, in winter she dressed up in a man’s sheepskin coat, and occasionally covered her short-cropped hair with a rag or a light hat. The blessed one did not wear shoes - even in the snow Euphrosyne walked barefoot. Under her shirt she always wore chains - a heavy metal chain and a copper cross around her neck.

In her cell, the holy fool kept two cats, three dogs, chickens and turkeys. She slept on the floor along with dogs and other animals. Euphrosyne lit the stove only in the summer, and in the winter there was terrible cold in her home. They say that there was a constant stench from the animals in the cell, and the novice herself said that the smell replaced her perfume, which she “used so much at court.”

The inhabitants of the surrounding villages and the nuns revered the blessed one - they say she could foresee the future and knew how to prepare healing herbal decoctions to heal the suffering.

The hut of Blessed Euphrosyne, built for her by Alexei Tsemsh. Circa 1911. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Take water from my well...

Efrosinya moved to the village of Kolyupanovo at the invitation of her admirer, the landowner. Natalia Andreevna Protopopova. There the blessed one lived the last ten years of her life.
For solitary prayers, Elder Euphrosyne chose a ravine on the banks of the Oka River. There she dug a well and said to the sick who came to her: “Take water from my well and you will be healthy!”

Today, this inscription on a wooden tablet adorns the entrance to the bathhouse located at the Efrosinya Kolyupanovskaya spring.

The news about the blessed one and her holy spring quickly spread throughout the surrounding area of ​​the village. Elder Efrosinya healed not only the landowner Protopopova, who suffered from hemoptysis and leg diseases, but also other residents of Kolyupanov. There is a known case when Protopopova’s nephew became seriously ill on the eve of his wedding, and the blessed old woman prepared a bath of medicinal herbs for him, after which the completely healthy groom went to the altar. Euphrosyne also helped women in labor - after her prayers, even the most difficult births ended successfully.

Three days before her death, the blessed old woman had a vision - two angels appeared to her and called her with them. So Euphrosyne realized that her earthly journey would soon end. In memory of herself, she distributed various items to believers - icons, crosses, and then on July 16, 1855, she died after receiving communion.

The body of the old woman was buried in the Kazan Church in Kolyupanov. Believers flocked there to venerate the blessed one’s grave, pray for healing and draw water from the spring. News of the miracles that took place in Kolyupanov spread throughout the country. Soon a canopy was installed over the source and a bathhouse was built, and the church ministers kept a special book for recording testimonies miraculous healings. By 1911 there were 55 such stories.

New monastery

In 1933, the church where Euphrosyne was buried burned down, and the source fell into disrepair.
But in 1988, the canonization of Blessed Euphrosyne took place, and in 1993 the construction of a stone church began, and two years later the Holy Kazan Convent was established in Kolyupanov.

The holy spring of Euphrosyne Kolyupanovskaya was also restored. Now there are two baths - men's and women's, where believers can take a dip and get water.

From the monastery to the source there is a rather long descent. There is a cross in the middle of the road, to which people who want to create a strong family and have children go to worship. Those who want to repent of their grave sin infanticide - mainly women who had an abortion.

More than a hundred kilometers from Moscow, towards Tula, near the ancient city of Aleksin, there is the village of Kolyupanovo. In this place, by God’s will, the holy blessed elder Euphrosyne, the wonderworker of Alexin, labored for a certain time. The source, blessed by her, still gurgles joyfully in the ravine, on the side of the forest. It not only quenches thirst in the summer heat and easily pierces layers of ice, ringing cheerfully in the fierce winter, but is also known for its healing miraculous power. The most hopeless patients have come here in the past and today and received healing. Turn to God, pray to Mother Euphrosyne, and she will beg the Lord for your health.

Mother Euphrosyne, a holy fool who led a secret life in Christ, according to contemporaries, was of noble origin, raised at the Smolny Institute, and was a maid of honor to Empress Catherine II. But, wanting to disgrace herself with the heavenly Bridegroom, she suddenly disappeared from the court along with two ladies-in-waiting, came to Moscow, revealed a secret about herself to Metropolitan Plato and asked to be hidden from the persecution of the world under the cover of complete obscurity. The wise archpastor, convinced of the firmness of Euphrosyne’s will, sent her with a parting blessing and a handwritten note to the Serpukhov Vvedensky Vladychny Monastery, which he had transformed, to Abbess Dionysia. Here she began the feat of foolishness for Christ's sake, which she continued until her death. Her secluded cell was located on the site of the monastery cellars. After many temptations that Blessed Euphrosyne endured in the monastery with Christian selflessness, she left the monastery and settled outside it, near the fence, in a special cramped hut, where cats, dogs and crows lived with her, and in the vestibule of her cell lived a cow and a calf. and roosters. An old woman walked around in a cloth shirt gray, barefoot even in winter. Her head was shorn, and there was an iron chain around her neck. She did not cook food - she ate only bread with kvass and tea. She was in constant prayer, which was interrupted only by a short sleep on bare boards, without a mattress or linen, with only her head resting on her elbow. The blessed one did not always go to church: at early mass she used to pray in her cell and at that time did not let anyone in to her. At night she usually walked around the monastery and sang. On the day of Epiphany, she used to bathe in the Jordan.

Even during the old woman’s life, crowds of people in need of moral support for their souls gathered to see her from different neighborhoods. People resorted to her in various troubles and illnesses and received help and relief from her. After the death of Mother Euphrosyne, people asked the blessed one to pray to the Lord God for their sins. In the middle of the last decade of the 20th century, near the village of Kolyupanova, next to the miraculous spring of Blessed Euphrosyne, it was decided to found a female cenobitic monastery. After the old woman was canonized as a locally revered saint, her coffin was placed in a shrine, closer to the altar. When they opened it, first lifting the bulky tombstone, they found the saint’s relics incorrupt. The holy remains were photographed and the coffin was again covered with a slab. And so, at a difficult moment in the formation of the monastery, the image of Blessed Euphrosyne was imprinted on the tombstone, like a negative photograph, exactly in the form in which she was captured before the imposition of the seal, which lay over her for a century and a half. In its divine nature, this miracle can probably be compared with the imprinting of the image of the Lord on the Shroud of Turin. The image of Mother could be seen by everyone who resorted to the help and prayer of the blessed saint. Her image, printed on the slab, lasted exactly six months - just as long as it took to complete the paperwork with the design of the new monastery. And then this phenomenon of God disappeared. As Abbess Euphrosyne said: “Our Mother left, supported the monastery in decisive moments and went to pray for the brides of Christ in heaven.” But she did not leave her sisters without her obvious presence: the icon of the blessed old woman-wonderworker, standing on her shrine, continuously exudes myrrh. The surface of the icon is constantly oily and wet, no matter how much it is wiped.

And just recently there was a miracle of healing of a blind man. The boy was blind from birth. The parents, having lost all hope of help from doctors, turned to God's help. They learned about miraculous spring Mother Euphrosyne and brought the unfortunate child to the newly created monastery. In the monastery they served a prayer service for health and an akathist to Blessed Euphrosyne, venerated her holy relics, were blessed by the abbess and went to the life-giving spring. Three times the boy washed his face with healing water and plunged into the font. The third time, his eyes fully opened and he began to see clearly. The holy water of Blessed Mother Euphrosyne especially helps people who have lost holy hope for a medical cure, especially cancer patients. After washing, they take holy water with them, putting it in empty bottles or canisters. And all the time they drink at home, praying for the miracle worker Aleksinskaya to come to the rescue. Blessed spring water can be diluted plain water, like Epiphany, but not from the tap, but certainly from pure spring water, fervently praying and calling on the blessed old woman Euphrosyne.

This is just a small fraction of the miraculous healings that I learned by chance, and how many were cured by the blessed one during her patronage on earth and in heaven! Only God knows!

“Everyone who drinks water from my well will be healthy,” - this is how Elder Euphrosyne once bequeathed, blessing this healing spring.

E.Yu.Sokolova
Russian House, No. 5.
http://www.rd.rusk.ru/00/rd5/rd5_30.htm

The monastery was founded in 1995. The Kazan Church and cell building were built. In the monastery she is revered as a locally revered St. Euphrosyne Kolyupanovskaya.

Blessed Euphrosyne, in the world Princess Evdokia Vyazemskaya, was born in 1758 or 1759. She was a graduate of the 1st graduating class of the Smolny Institute, and then a maid of honor to Catherine II. But court life was not to her liking, and with two friends they faked their death, leaving their clothes on the shore of a pond, as if they had drowned, and they themselves changed into peasant dresses and went wandering. All of them became nuns of different monasteries - one in Moscow, the other in Suzdal, and Euphrosyne, after long travels, having received a blessing from Metropolitan Plato for the feat of foolishness, ended up in the Serpukhov Vladychny Monastery. In the 40s of the 19th century, she moved to Kolyupanovo to live with a local landowner, where she lived until her death (1855).

The akathist to St. is read in the monastery. Euphrosyne. Not far from the monastery there is a source of St. Euphrosyne, where healings take place.

Euphrosyne loved to walk in the nearby forest, where she dug a small well near a spring on the edge of a ravine. When the sick turned to her for help, she told them: “Take water from my well and you will be healthy.” Until now, people come to the source for healing water.

There are two baths at the holy spring - women's and men's.

Every year the number of pilgrims coming to the monastery to venerate the relics of the blessed old woman and receive healing at the spring increases. Through the prayers of the saint and through their faith, many receive healing of soul and body. It is believed that the water from this source relieves all diseases and ailments.

DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM:

Diseases of the upper respiratory tract: adenoids, sore throat, inflammation of the paranasal sinuses, laryngitis, colds, rhinitis or runny nose, chronic tonsillitis, pharyngitis. Diseases of the bronchi and lungs: bronchial asthma, bronchitis, cough, pleurisy, pneumonia, pulmonary tuberculosis, emphysema.

Especially from cancer and blindness.

THEY SAY...
...that Kolyupanov water can remove demons. To do this, a person needs to plunge his head into the water three times. People say that in this case the possessed person experiences hellish torment.
...if you swim in the spring wearing a shirt and then simply dry it, it will cure colds. To get rid of the disease, you need to put on a shirt and sleep in it the night. Water flows from three pipes. Above the source there is a large cross, under it there is an inscription: “Take water from my well and you will be healthy.”

It’s better to come on weekdays, as there is always a queue, but yes, if you have to wait for a long time, you will be so mesmerized by your surroundings natural beauty(this must be seen!!!) that time flies by. (I warn you that the spring and the swimming pool are located in the lowlands, so you have to go down the steps for a very long time,

They have railings, well-groomed, but for people with diseases of the musculoskeletal system, it will be very difficult, and back with vessels filled with water, it will be very difficult, although they say that this water works wonders).

Evidence of miraculous healings in our time:

“July 16, 1995. Budanov Dimitry, 3 years old, resident of Tula (Marata St., 33). I came with my mother Budanova Rimma Mikhailovna, who works as a nurse at the Semashko Hospital in Tula. Dima had congenital blindness and fused eyelids. After the funeral service at the grave of Blessed Euphrosyne, the boy’s eyelids opened, and after bathing in the spring, his pupils began to move, and he began to see.”

“Sorvin Alexander, born on March 24, 1998, blind. Father Sorvin Igor Viktorovich and mother Sorvin Rimma Nikolaevna, residents of Tula (Demidovskaya, 56, building 2, apt. 44). Doctors confirmed at birth that the child was born blind and it is unknown whether he will see after surgery; at 6 months of age he was brought to the grave of Blessed Euphrosyne in Kolyupanovo and after prayer and washing at the spring he received his sight and began to respond to light. After examination, doctors were surprised to confirm the fact of insight. The baby's father and mother are happy and thank God and everyone who helped them in trouble. The way of life in the Sorvin family has completely changed. Now people here keep fasts, go to church, and read prayers. They know that at the moment when there seems to be no hope left, God helps. You just need to sincerely believe and live according to his Holy Commandments.”

The abbess of the monastery Euphrosyne can talk endlessly about the miracles of healing... “A woman came to us with a five-year-old boy. The boy is blind. He kissed the grave of Blessed Euphrosyne, the boy’s mother kissed him, they asked, they really asked for healing. Then I took them to the source. And the boy received his sight! Euphrosyne did not refuse. The holy old lady does not forget anyone. Miracles happen here, at the tomb, all the time.”

“A woman is kneeling at the tombstone of the blessed one and crying. The child calls out to her: “Mom, mom,” and she sobs even louder. They began to calm her down, saying that the child is calling you, calm down. And through her tears she barely said: “But he was mute from birth...”

The Holy Kazan Convent, located in the village of Kolyupanovo, Aleksinsky district, Tula region, was established on July 16, 1995 by Decree His Holiness Patriarch Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II and is one of the young Orthodox monasteries under construction.

The village of Kolyupanovo was formed at the beginning of the 16th century and, according to local legend, the temple existed here even before the destruction of the city of Aleksin by the Poles and Lithuanians, which happened during the Time of Troubles (1598-1613). There is almost no mention of the temple. Tradition adds that there was a monastery here. As for the parish church, before the one that currently exists in the village of Kolyupanovo there were two more, and both were in the name of the Kazan Mother of God. The first one was built in Time of Troubles. In 1695 in the village. A new wooden church was built in Kolyupanovo. This is evidenced by the inscription on the preserved temple cross. The temple existed until 1779, as it burned down from a lightning strike.

The landowner Agrafena Andreevna Bobrishcheva-Pushkina submitted a petition to Bishop Feodosius of Kolomna and Kashira for the construction of a new church, but was refused due to the small number and poverty of the parish. The church was completely abolished, and all the utensils were transferred to the St. Nicholas Church in the neighboring village of Fomishchevo. But the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, saved from the fire, showed its miracle: it disappeared from the church in the village. Fomishchevo and appeared on a birch tree opposite the burnt temple. Local landowners Bobrishchev-Pushkin placed this icon in their house and began to vigorously petition for permission to build a new temple in the name of this same icon in Kolyupanov on the site of the one that burned down. Permission was received, but construction began only in 1782 due to lack of funds.

The new wooden church was built very quickly, and in 1783. it was consecrated by Presbyter John the Baptist. The icon of the Kazan Mother of God was moved from the Bobrishchev-Pushkin house to the new church and placed in the iconostasis. Other shrines that survived the fire were also moved here. Over the years, the decoration was replenished, but the walls deteriorated, and in 1854 the church was rebuilt with the special efforts of the parish priest, Fr. Pavel Prosperov. A literacy school was opened at the church in 1891, located in the church gatehouse, until a special wooden, iron-roofed building was built for it in 1899. At the same time, the school was renamed into a parish school.

Blessed Euphrosyne, in the world Princess Evdokia Vyazemskaya, was born in 1758 or 1759. She was brought up at the Smolny Institute, which was opened by Catherine II at the Resurrection Novodevichy Convent. After graduating from the institute, the blessed one was a maid of honor at the court of the Empress. But court life was not to her liking, and she decided to leave the palace, for which purpose she faked her death with two other ladies-in-waiting, disguised herself as a peasant woman, and went wandering. This is how the ascetic Euphrosyne appeared. The blessed one spent several years in obedience and visited many monasteries. When she felt sufficiently prepared for the future path of asceticism and foolishness, she went on foot to the Moscow Metropolitan Plato. She told him about her secret desires to hide from the world and become a holy fool for Christ’s sake, received a blessing and, under the name of “fool Euphrosyne,” was sent to the Serpukhov Master Monastery to Abbess Dionysia.

In the 40s of the 19th century due to persecution and oppression evil people Euphrosyne had to leave Serpukhov. Therefore, she came to live in the village. Kolyupanovo to the landowner Natalia Alekseevna Protopopova. There she remained until her blissful death. Euphrosyne fell in love with walking there along the slopes of the ravine, where the small river Proshenka flowed like a stream. In one secluded place of this ravine, the blessed one dug a small well with her own hands, and when the sick turned to her for help, she often told them: “Take water from my well and you will be healthy.” Until now, people draw water from “mother’s well” and receive healing from their ailments. Blessed Euphrosyne died on July 3, 1855. after the liturgy, admonished by the Sublated Mysteries. She was buried with the blessing of Archbishop Dimitri of Tula and Belevsky under the refectory of the Kazan Church in the village of Kolyupanova near the northern wall. A wooden tomb was built over the blessed one’s grave, and then laid cast iron stove. In 1885, a wooden chapel-canopy on pillars was erected over its source, and in 1914, a wooden canopy with gilding was built over the grave of the old woman. The solemn consecration of the wooden chapel took place on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Since then, in Kolyupanovo, Spirits Day has been celebrated by making a ceremonial procession to the “Mother’s Well.” In 1909, the dilapidated chapel was demolished, and in its place a new one was built over a well with healing water. In memory of this event, a liturgy and religious procession to the “Mother’s Well” are held annually on July 4th.

The temple in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God existed until 1929. The elements of the October Revolution wiped out the church in the name of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, having previously robbed it. During the years of persecution, they set up a barnyard, a blacksmith shop, and a shoe workshop in it, and in 1931 they burned it down. Only the grave of Elder Euphrosyne has survived.

The memory of Blessed Euphrosyne lived among the people. People came to its source, prayed and received healing. Euphrosyne’s memories and predictions have been preserved that after her death, a women’s monastery would stand at the site of her burial. Schema-Archimandrite Christopher was the keeper of the holy tradition about Blessed Euphrosyne. Through his efforts, the veneration of Saint Blessed Euphrosyne was resumed and the destroyed church in the village of Kolyupanovo was restored, where the holy relics of this great ascetic are venerated. In 1993, through the prayers of Elder Christopher and with the blessing of Metropolitan Serapion of Tula and Belevsky, construction of the temple in Kolyupanovo began. Funds were collected all over the world. This was the beginning of the birth of the monastery.

On July 16, 1995, on the day of remembrance of the blessed death of Elder Euphrosyne, with the blessing of Metropolitan Serapion of Tula and Belevsky and by the Decree of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II, the Holy Kazan Convent was established. The first nun of the monastery was Maria Vasilievna Kushnir. On August 6, 1995, a prayer service was held for the Kazan Mother of God, Blessed Euphrosyne. On August 5th there was the first baptism. And on August 27, the first Liturgy was celebrated. The monastery began its great Orthodox service. In October, the masonry was completed and the altar and refectory were covered with iron. In January 1996, work began on the bell tower. On January 20 and 21, the frame was installed on the bell tower and the laying began on January 23. On January 24, the laying of the bell tower was completed.

The temple in the name of the Icon of the Mother of Kazan became the first construction site of the Holy Kazan Convent. The shrines of the monastery are the relics of Blessed Euphrosyne of Christ for the Holy Fool under a bushel, which are located at the site of her burial in 1855 in the Church of the Kazan Mother of God and the holy spring of Blessed Euphrosyne. The source has the status of a monument of regional significance. Now the territory of the monastery is a complex of buildings: the Holy Kazan Church, to the right of it the bishop's house and prosphora, a living room (for the priest), a second temple in the name of the Life-Giving Holy Trinity was erected under the dome. Two indoor baths were built at the source of Blessed Euphrosyne.