Store Petersburg his patron saint.This holy apostle Peter, after whom the city is named, and St. Alexander Nevsky and St. John of Kronstadt.But there is also another saint who loved all of St. Petersburg, and to which very special relationship.This blissful Xenia.Prayer keeps her city on the Neva River for more than two centuries.
beggar with a male name
In ancient times, even when the Empress Elizabeth, appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg side strange beggar.She was dressed in a shabby old officer's uniform, calling herself male name - Andrei Fedorovich.Beggars were always a lot of vagrants in Russia, and the attitude towards them was different.You could feed and give alms, or might throw a stone.But it was soon noticed that it brings good luck to those who somehow hello to her.
were treated to a merchant pie - well terminated on the day, ride it the driver - to finish the day with a profit.It soon became clear that the poor - the colonel's widow, after the death of her husband and the Forsaken on their own behalf, and on the property, and even your gender.This is her name was Xenia.That became her calling - Blessed Xenia.Prayer on the steps of the Church of St. Matthew, but the endless wandering in the streets of St. Petersburg - that's her whole life in those years.
However, this is not entirely true.Were evidence of her startling prophecies.Usually in allegorical form, so typical for all the soothsayers, she was able to accurately tell about what still only going to happen.Sometimes people could not immediately understand the meaning of her words, and honored their delusions mad woman.However, every time when faced with a fait accompli, they recalled a speech, and convinced of her extraordinary gift.
Prayers winter nights
And another unusual detail was noted by contemporaries, and even recorded in the police report - nightly prayer blessed Xenia.The fact that such a prominent figure on the streets of the city could not attract the attention of the police.That was assigned to it for a couple of days to see an employee in any case, what, talking to whom and where to spend the night.It was winter, and in St. Petersburg winter night on the street do not spend it.
Further information appears from the report that most police agent.He says that the whole night watched as going beyond the outskirts of the city, a beggar, dressed only in a pitiful rags and torn shoes, in extreme cold, dropped his knees on the snow, and stood there in prayer until dawn.Then she got up and went back into the city.
This is not an episode from the life of a saint, a fact noted in the police report.Then, as now, a fiction in these documents is not allowed.Think about it.After the body of the average person is able to withstand the cold in only a very limited period of time.The explanation can be only one - the prayer of the blessed Xenia was absolutely extraordinary strength, even from outside the enclosing element.
Death of Andrei Fedorovich
dwell on the very important question: what is so dear to St Petersburg it is that it even became dignify Xenia of Petersburg?It is always on the streets, especially near churches enough fools.What it comes out of the total circle?The answer probably lies in the reason of its appearance on the streets in uniform deceased husband.
After three years of happy married life, her husband, Andrew F. Petrov, suddenly died.The cause of his death is silent in the literature, but there are clear hints that do not befit such a way to leave the life of an Orthodox person.Maybe the reason is related to the wine, according to church canons death from alcoholism is equivalent to suicide, or maybe he had worse on yourself perpetrate.We only know that his soul departed in another world without repentance and remission of sins.
supreme sacrifice of God's servants
Xenia The Xenia could help him blessed?Prayers for the dead - important and effective means, but we do not know all the circumstances of the death.Perhaps prayer is powerless to save his darling, and it was impossible.Save - no, but instead give her hell on their own, freeing thus from eternal punishment mozhno.Skazano lover was in fact in Scripture that there is no higher sacrifice than to give his life for his neighbor.We often understand it, how to give life, but in fact it is a question of the soul.This whole thing - life is short, the soul is eternal.That gave the servant of God Xenia for her beloved husband that more of life itself.It is this sense it puts into words what a servant of God Xenia died and is alive and will live for a long time yet Andrei Fedorovich.
Changed souls, to say nothing about clothes.So she appeared on the streets of mad, to work off the sins of her husband.Now open the lives of the saints and try to find anything like that.Victims in them very much, but for the salvation of his own soul.But for someone to voluntarily give for their favorite pure and sinless soul, eternal torment in return - such you will not find.
In such capable only that, which "mounts a horse," and "a burning house," and her husband to Siberia.That's why so everybody needs prayer Xenia of Petersburg, that it has suffered the sanctity of love, and it is known to the entire world rests.And the commandment of God of love, she observed one more than anyone else.
Adoration of the holy relics of St. Petersburg
In 1806 completed her earthly journey Blessed Xenia.The prayer for the soul of her beloved was heard by God, otherwise he would not have given her the relics miracle-working power.They rest in the Smolensk Cemetery in her native city of Saint Petersburg.Not surprisingly, that after death it is not only forgotten, but its popularity has increased many times.If previously it applied only St. Petersburg, now on her grave the pilgrims gathered from all over Russia.This suggests that prayer Xenia of Petersburg did not remain unanswered.What
asking Blessed Xenia
almost two centuries.The city has changed, and people have changed.But it is not constant stream of those who are in a hurry to Smolensk cemetery to the chapel, the walls of which the rest of her relics.Everyone has something of their own, their own prayer blessed Xenia.Help in trouble, about getting rid of ailments and, of course, asked about the marital happiness of her people.It is known that after the death of Lord gives special grace holy work wonders in what they do well in the days of the earthly life.Therefore, it is believed that the prayer of the blessed Xenia of marriage is especially soon heard, as if she was living model of marriage.By the way, in his travels around the city it is already a mother Xenia miracles of this kind.
fulfillment of the prayer for the health of
no doubt that the prayers of the saints Xenia of Petersburg helps the healing of their ailments.Widely known case when the future Emperor Alexander III, still, being heir to the throne, fell ill with typhus, and was on the verge of death.His wife, being in despair, on the advice of some of the servants, put a pillow under the patient a handful of earth from the grave of Xenia and offered her prayers.
in the night visions she was herself the mother Xenia, and predicted a speedy recovery Alexander ordered to name their future daughter Xenia.In a short time the disease has receded, and when the daughter was born heir to the throne, then it is called Xenia, in memory of this miraculous recovery.Thus the prayer of Saint Xenia and the earth with its grave, save for Russia, its future ruler.This event went down in history because in it we are talking about the heir to the throne.Healing is committed against the common people, it was a lot, but they are for the most part, were not written by his contemporaries.However, they remained on the national memory.
note asking for holy
Xenia of Petersburg is the only holy, which can communicate not only in prayer but also in correspondence.Yes, she decided to write a letter, that is a note asking.In previous years, they thrust into the cracks of the walls of the chapel, but since the wall could not accommodate all correspondence in a different world, a special box set.
Thus, the prayer of Blessed Xenia's help and fed orally at the very chapel at her gravestone, and writing in a note.For the love of the residents of St. Petersburg and the miracles by their prayers, the Holy Blessed Xenia of Petersburg ranked among the heavenly patron of the city.
