S.A. Nilus "On the bank of God's river", revelations about the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II. Autocratic Russia

16.11.2020

Sergei Alexandrovich Nilus

On the banks of the river of God. Notes of the Orthodox

Instead of a preface

The purpose and goal of a Christian writer is to be a minister of the Word, to contribute to the disclosure of the one truth contained in Him in its infinitely diverse manifestations in the earthly life of a Christian, and thereby to lead the Christian soul along the path of Orthodoxy from temporary life to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Upon the publication of this book, I sent it as a gift to Bishop Feofan of Poltava. In response to this, Vladyka wrote to me on November 24, 1915:

“Venerable Sergei Alexandrovich! I sincerely thank you for your attention to me, expressed in sending me your book “On the Bank of God's River”. I read all your books with great interest and fully share your views on recent events. The people of this age live by faith in progress and lull themselves into unfulfilled dreams. Persistently and with some bitterness they drive away from themselves the very thought of the end of the world and the coming of the Antichrist. Their eyes are spiritually blinded. Seeing they do not see and hearing they do not understand. But from the truly believing children of God, the meaning of these events is not hidden, even more: on whom God's favor rests, both the time of the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world will be revealed to them. When the Lord pronounces His terrible Judgment on the sinful world: My Spirit will not forever be neglected by people, because they are flesh (Gen. 6, 3); then He will say to His faithful servants: Get out of their midst and separate yourself ... and do not touch the unclean; and I will receive you (2 Cor. 6:17; cf. Isaiah 52:11). And hide them from the eyes of the world, sighing in fear of future disasters. Therefore, great is the merit of those who remind the people of this age of the great times and events to come. May the Lord help you to speak about this in the hearing of the world of everything in good time and without time, with all long-suffering and edification (2 Tim. 4:2).

Your sincere admirer and pilgrim, Bishop Feofan.

* * *

From the Intercession of 1907 to the day of the Holy Spirit in 1912, God was pleased to settle me with my whole family on the blessed land of the holy Optina Hermitage. The elders gave me an estate near the monastery fence, with a house, with all the land, and said:

- Live with God, until the time. If we are going to publish Optina leaflets and books, you will help us in this; in the meantime, live with God near us: it’s good, it’s quiet with us! ..

And we lived, with the blessing of the elders, quietly, a desert life, hoping to lay down our bones near the saints of Optina.

The Lord judged otherwise. Glory to God for everything! .. Great and incomparably beautiful is the river of God - the holy Optina! This river flows from the sources of temporary life into the sea of eternally joyful endless life in the realm of the unstoppable Light, and it carries boats and its hermits, and many other mournful, tormented, suffering souls who found the truth of life at the feet of the great Optina elders. What miracles, what signs of God's mercy, as well as His righteous wrath, do not hide in themselves the transparent, deep, life-giving waters of this majestically beautiful, mysteriously wonderful river! How many times from its picturesque shore, covered with a tent of lush green pines and firs, blown with the coolness of curly oaks, lace birches, aspens and maples of the reserved monastery forest, my net descended into its bottomless depths, pure as rock crystal, and - not in vain ...

O blessed Optina!

Until the New Year of 1909, I was busy sorting through old skete manuscripts, getting to know the spirit and structure of life of my God-given neighbors, the inhabitants of the holy monastery. The fruit of this time was my book Shrine under a bushel and several smaller essays that found shelter in the editions of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. From January 1, 1909, I made it a rule to keep daily, if possible, notes of my stay in Optina, entering in them everything that in my life together with her seemed to me outstanding and worthy of attention.

What have I not seen, what have I not changed my mind, what have I not listened to for all those unforgettable years for me, what I have not re-felt! You can’t retell everything, and much can’t be told before the time, for various reasons of a too intimate nature. But a lot of things itself begs to be written, to be told for the glory of God and for the benefit of the Christian soul, brotherly to me by blood and by the Orthodox faith.

Let us open, dear reader, the notebooks of my diaries and trace together with you what my reverently attentive recollection has brought to their pages.

Meeting of the new year. - Babaevsky Blessed Vasily Alexandrovich. - Rev. Eleazar Anzersky

Already a year has passed, and even with an increase of three months, since we live under the protection of the Queen of Heaven in Her Optina monastery. We didn't see how the time flew by.

The newborn baby of the family of eternity - 1909 - was greeted with an all-night vigil in the Kazan Church of the blessed Optina. We went with the whole family, which had grown, thank God, up to eleven souls. They defended the vigil until the great Saint Basil was magnified, after the Gospel they venerated his image, and after the fourth ode of the canon, at about 10 pm, they went home. The service began at half past seven, and the end of the first hour and the dismissal before half past ten cannot be expected: not all of mine are able to stand up to the end of such vigils, and it’s a sin for me myself to boast of endurance to monastic standing, except for those, alas, rare cases when, unexpected, unexpected, the insensible petrified heart will be visited by a heavenly guest - the prayerful grace of the Holy Spirit, "a weak healer, an impoverished replenisher." Well, then stay at least forever! ..

By eleven o'clock in the evening, hieromonk Fr. Samuel with two klirosny, had a bite to eat with us, drank some tea and started New Year's prayer service in the prayer room. It was midnight, and in the prayer room we and the singers sang “God the Lord and appear to us ...”.

Perfect New Year's Eve! How to thank the Lord for it?

- Cruciform! - once about three years ago in the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery, to a similar question, one semi-blessed, and maybe even blessed, a certain Vasily Alexandrovich, who lived in cold tattered clothes both summer and winter in a bag of straw near the monastery threshing barn.

- How? I asked.

- Yes, it's very simple, - Vasily Alexandrovich answered and signed himself with the sign of the cross. - So thank you! he added with a sweet, childlike smile.

About five versts from the monastery, Vasily Alexandrovich had something like an estate - a house, allotment and hereditary, land acquired by his parents, but he, as I was told, had not touched this before, leaving everything in the possession of his family brother; he himself was a bean and was content with a monastery omet as a dwelling. He retired to this omet, and spent the night there, not paying attention to any weather. Occasionally, when Kostroma frosts exceeded 30 degrees, Vasily Aleksandrovich ran into the monastery hotel to warm himself at the hotel and drink tea with him ... Once he was a novice in the Nikolo-Babaevsky monastery, and then, it seems, the second regent in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. About twenty years ago, they told me, he had a wonderful voice - a tenor, which used to be heard by lovers of singing. At the time of my acquaintance with him, he almost lost his voice, but his hearing was extremely true, and sometimes my wife and I sang sacred hymns with him, late in the evening, on the porch of the monastery hotel. He was a strange man! He used to come to the vigil in the majestic Babaevsky Cathedral, stand anywhere and anyhow, sometimes even half-turn to the altar, raise his head up, gaze into the cathedral’s painted dome, and just stand there as amazed all the vigil, not leaving his place and not moving a single muscle. There was no noticeable outward prayerful disposition in him. Was it internal? - God knows; but in his life, humble and modest, full of all kinds of poverty and utter lack of possessions, he was still a man not from the locals.

In that world, apparently, only we will find out who Babaevsky Vasily Alexandrovich was in the eyes of God.

Our spiritual friend, Fr. Nectarius, and told from the life of the Anzer hermit, the Monk Eleazar, a precious legend about how to give thanks to the Lord.

“The reverend was a native of our region,” Fr. Nectarius, - from the townspeople he came from Kozelsky. By his charitable deeds, he achieved unceasing grace-filled tenderness and the gift of tears. So he once went out - either on a summer or winter night - to the porch of his cell, looked at the beauty and silence of the nature surrounding the Anzersky Skete, was touched to tears, and a prayerful sigh escaped from his heart dissolved by divine love:

“O Lord, what a beauty of Your creation! And with what and how, a despicable worm, should I thank You for all Your great and rich favors to me?

And from the strength of the prayerful sigh of the monk, the heavens opened up, and hosts of luminous angels appeared to his spiritual gaze, and they sang the wondrous angelic doxology:

- “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men! ..”

– With these words you too, Eleazar, give thanks to your Creator and Redeemer!

Let us overshadow ourselves with the sign of the cross and give thanks to God with an angelic doxology: “Glory to God in the highest!..”

But it does not remain, apparently, on earth peace; everything shows that good will is taken away from people who have forgotten God.

Something will be, something will be? It's good in Optina, it's quiet!.. For how long?

A friend from Yelabuga. - A gift "for memory" from the hands of the deceased Fr. John of Kronstadt. - "Memory" from the Monk John the Long-suffering. – Value about. John. - Messina and S.-Pierre. - The prophecies are being fulfilled. - Threats of the future.

We have a friend in Elabuga, a person close to us in spirit and faith, a modest teacher of the parish school Glafira Nikolaevna Lyubovikova. She was close in her love and faith to the great prayer book of the Russian land, Fr. John of Kronstadt. It was not because she was close to him that she lived under the same roof with him - she saw the priest in her whole life two or three times, no more ...

CLICK!!!

S.A. Nilus

On the banks of God's river

(Notes of the Orthodox)

Vision of Schemamonk Skete of Optina Hermitage

Father Nicholas.

Whoever has read my book Great in the Small knows the Optina ascetic, schemamonk Fr. Nicholas, nicknamed the Turk. In the article “Heavenly Mansions” I told from the words of one of my spiritual friends about the vision that this ascetic had. Now, in the skete manuscripts, I found a brief biography of Father Nicholas and a more detailed story, recorded from his own words, about what he saw, by the grace of God, in the life of the next century, in those heavenly abodes where the Lord calls all those who love Him and where schemamonk Nikolai the Turk, the ascetic of Optinsky, has already been called.
Schemamonk Nikolay, - so his biography informs, - in the world Nikolay Abrulakh, a Kazan tradesman. From the testimony of the Kherson spiritual consistory presented by him, it is clear that he is a former Mohammedan, his name was Yuzuf-Abdul-Ogly; former Turkish subject, originally from Asia Minor. He served in the Turkish Guards as an officer. When he felt the desire to be baptized into the Orthodox faith and began to openly declare this to his relatives, the Turks, they hated him so much for this that he could not find food for two days, like a “guitar”. They tortured him by cutting pieces out of his body. He managed to escape to Russia. In Odessa, in the Quarantine Church, he was baptized in October 1874 and named Nicholas.
His recipients were: the Odessa mayor, Privy Councilor Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin and the 1st guild merchant Natalia Ivanovna Glazkova. Then he was assigned to the bourgeois society in Kazan. On July 18, 1892, at the age of 63, he entered the Skit of Optina Pustyn. The Lord vouchsafed him spiritual consolations: he was taken to paradise, where he enjoyed the contemplation of the indescribable beauties of paradise. He was distinguished by meekness, humility and brotherly love. His cell was next to the cell of the monk Martyrius (he died a hierodeacon). He heated stoves for him, and when he, surprised, asked: “Why are you doing this for me?” simply replied, "I love you."

“On Thursday, May 13, 1893,” this saint of God said (Written down from the words of Father Nicholas by the novice Pavel Ivanovich Plikhankov, later the head of the Skete of Optina Hermitage, Schema-Archimandrite Father Varsonophy), in the morning at three o’clock, I began to read an akathist to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. The Lord gave me such grace at the same time that tears flowed uncontrollably and profusely from my eyes, so that the whole book was drenched in tears. At the end of the reading of Matins, I began to read Psalm 50, “Have mercy on me, O God,” and after it the Creed, and when I finished it and pronounced the last word, “and the life of the age to come. Amen, ”at that very moment an invisible hand took my hands and folded them crosswise on my chest, and my head was enveloped on all sides by fire, similar to the color of the rainbow (In the original - “yellow, similar to the color of the rainbow”). This fire, without scorching me, filled my whole being with an inexpressible joy, until that time completely unknown and unexperienced to me. This joy cannot be likened to any earthly joy.
And then, I don't remember how or when, I saw myself transported to some wonderfully beautiful place, full of light. I did not see any earthly objects there, I saw only one endless and boundless sea of light. At the same time, I saw two people standing beside me on the left side, one of whom looked like a young man, and the other an old man. And it was given to me by heartfelt notice that one of them, St. Andrew, Christ's holy fool, and his other disciple, St. Epiphany. Both of them stood silent. And then I saw in front of me, as it were, a curtain of a dark crimson color. And, looking up, I saw the Lord Jesus Christ above the curtain, sitting on the Throne and dressed in precious clothes, like those of a bishop. On His head was put on a miter, also similar to a bishop's. On the right side of the Lord stood the Mother of God, and on the left, John the Baptist. Their clothes were similar to those that are usually written on their icons. St. John the Baptist held in one hand the sign of the Cross of the Lord. On the sides of the Lord stood two luminous youths of wondrous beauty; in their hands they held fiery weapons. My heart was filled with unspeakable joy. I looked at the Savior and unspeakably enjoyed the sight of His Divine face. The Lord looked about 30 years old. And then the consciousness appeared in me that, behold, I, the greatest sinner, worse than any dog, and suddenly received such great mercy from the Lord that I stand before the Throne of His indescribable glory. The Lord meekly looked at me and seemed to encourage me. The Mother of God and St. John the Baptist. But neither from the Lord, nor from His Most Pure Mother, nor from the Baptist of the Lord have I been able to hear a single word. At this time, I saw before the Lord the schemamonk of our Skete, Fr. Nicholas (Lopatin), who died at noon on May 10 and was not yet buried, as his brother was expected to arrive from Moscow. 0. Nicholas performed earthly worship before the Lord, but only there was no schema on him, and he was dressed like a novice - in his hands was a rosary and his head was uncovered. And after this I looked: and, behold, on the right hand, a great multitude of people were approaching me. As they approached, I began to hear singing, but I couldn't make out the words.
And I saw among their faces and in bishop's vestments, and in monastic mantles; others had branches in their hands. And among them I saw women in rich and beautiful clothes. In the host of these saints, I recognized many by the images on the holy icons: the prophet Moses, holding in his right hand the tablets of the Covenant, the prophet and king David, who had in his hands a kind of harp that made the most beautiful sounds; I also saw the Angel of my Saint Nicholas. Among these great saints of God, I saw our elders who died in Bose: Leo, Macarius and Ambrose, as well as some of the fathers of our Skete, who are still alive. And all this great assembly looked at me with love ... And suddenly I saw before me between me and the curtain an immeasurably great abyss filled with darkness, and in this darkness, at a terrible depth - the prince of darkness himself, in the form in which depicted in sacred paintings. On the hands of Satan sat Judas, holding a semblance of a sack in his hands. Near the prince of darkness stood the false prophet Mohammed in long green clothes and a turban of the same color. Around Satan, who was, as it were, the center of the abyss, in all its boundless space, I already saw a multitude of people of every condition, sex and age, but I did not notice anyone familiar between them. From the abyss I heard screams of despair and unspeakable horror, beyond words.

This is where the vision ended.

After that I was put suddenly in a different place. This place was filled with the same great radiant light, homogeneous, it seemed to me, with what I had seen in the first place. Saints Andrew and Epiphanius were no longer with me... What I saw there is hard to put into words. And how to depict the human language of earthly heavenly beauties, inexpressible, amazing, truly inexpressible? Everything there is infinitely more beautiful than ours. I saw there, as it were, great and beautiful trees, burdened with fruits, these trees were arranged, as it were, in alleys, to which the end was not visible, the tops of the trees were intertwined with each other, forming, as it were, a vault, these alleys were covered, as it were, with the purest gold of extraordinary brilliance. In the trees perched a great multitude of birds, somewhat reminiscent in their appearance of the birds of our tropical countries, but only infinitely surpassing them in their beauty. No earthly music can convey the beauty and harmony of their singing - it was so sweet.
A river flowed in this garden, the transparency of its waters surpasses any description. And between the trees of the garden, I saw marvelous cloisters, like palaces, in the likeness of those I saw in Constantinople, but without any comparison more excellent and more beautiful. The color of their walls was, as it were, crimson, similar in color and luster to a ruby. And I knew that this place was a paradise, with its location somewhat reminiscent of our Optina Skete, where monastic cells also stand separately from each other, separated by groups of fruit trees.
Paradise was surrounded by a wall, which I could only see from the south side. On this wall I read the names of the 12 apostles.
And I saw in paradise a certain man, clothed in shining clothes and sitting on a throne, as it were, of snow-white. In appearance, this husband was about sixty years old, but his face, despite the gray hair, was like that of a young man. There were many beggars around him, to whom he distributed something. And an inner voice said to me: “This is Filaret the Merciful!”
Besides him, I have not been able to see any of the righteous inhabitants of paradise.
In the middle of the Garden of Eden, I saw the Life-Giving Cross with the Lord crucified on it. An invisible hand told me to bow to him, which I did. And when I bowed before him, at the same moment an inexpressible and great sweetness, like a flame, filled my heart and penetrated my whole being.
And I saw after that a great abode, similar in appearance to the others that are in paradise, but immeasurably surpassing them in its beauty. Its top, like a gigantic church dome, ascended to an infinite height and, as it were, was lost in it. In this monastery, I noticed, as it were, a kind of terrace, and on it, on a richly decorated throne, I saw the Queen of Heaven. Around Her stood a great number of beautiful young men in shining white clothes, holding in their hands the semblance of some kind of weapon, but what I did not see. The clothes on the Mother of God were the same as they are depicted on the holy icons, but only multi-colored. On her head was a crown, like a royal one. The Queen of Heaven looked graciously at me, but I was not able to hear words from Her.
After this, as if in the air, I was honored to see the Most Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the likeness depicted on Her holy icons; God the Father in the form of a holy Elder; God the Son in the form of a Man holding in His right hand the Honorable Life-Giving Cross, and God the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove.
And it seemed to me that I walked for a long time in the midst of paradise, contemplating wondrous beauties that surpassed any human conception of it.
When I woke up from this vision, I could not recover for a long time from the great and inexpressible consolation of this, and all that day I was, as it were, beside myself with joy that filled my heart. I have never experienced anything like this joy before.”
This is the end of the description of the vision of the skete ascetic, schemamonk Nikolai the Turk, in the skete manuscript.
“Well, what else do you want to know, what are you trying to find out? - he said to the elder Schema-Archimandrite Barsanuphius, at that time still a novice. “When the time comes, you will see for yourself. What else can I tell you, and how can I tell you?.. After all, there are no words in human language that could convey what is happening there; because on earth there are no colors that I saw there. How can you convey all this? .. Well, listen to what I’ll tell you: you know what good music is? .. Well, I heard it, I just heard it: it sounds in my ears, it sings in my heart - I still continue to hear it. And you didn't hear her. How, then, in what words can I tell you about it, so that you, according to my words, could hear it and enjoy it together with me? So what I saw there is impossible to retell to a person ... ”(“ The Great in the Small ”, Part 1, 333 pages, ed. 3rd (Serg. Posad, 1911)). This vision was granted to Schemamonk Nikolai On May 13, 1893, and on August 18 of the same year, 3 months and 5 days after this vision, even the holy schemnik himself was no longer alive on earth. O sweet faith! Oh, the sweetness of the fulfillment of her heavenly promises.

Sergei Alexandrovich Nilus (09/09/1862 - 01/14/1929) - Russian spiritual writer. According to the memoirs of a contemporary, “she was a strong personality, a brilliant person, a talented musician, artist and writer. He spoke unusually interestingly, his views were deep and original. His purely Russian soul - wide open, with an enthusiastic, sincerely open heart, was ready to love anyone. He idealized anyone he could, while he got caught, he was disappointed, but he was incorrigible. With almost constant lack of money, he managed to show the widest generosity. His faith was unshakable."

Sergei Aleksandrovich Nilus was born into a poor landowner's family in Moscow. The childhood, adolescence, youth of the future writer passed in the growing alienation of society from the Church. The kindness of the mother, the nanny, who continuously did good to her neighbor with the modesty characteristic only of Christians, the way of the family estate of Zolotarevo (Mtsensk district, Oryol province.) did not allow the obscurely recognized love for God to go out in the soul.

After graduating from the gymnasium and the university, S.A. Nilus serves as an official in various places of the empire, after his retirement he manages the village. Somehow, after a confession in a rural church, he had a desire to test himself in spiritual creativity, which became stronger in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, at the relics of his heavenly patron, St. Sergius of Radonezh.

The final conversion of the Orthodox to Orthodoxy took place when, tormented by illness, he arrived in Kronstadt to see St. Father John. Nilus told him about his sorrows, revealed to him all his sinful soul and brought repentance for everything that lay like a heavy stone on his heart. “This was the first true repentance in my entire life: for the first time, with all my being, I comprehended the significance of a confessor as a witness to this great Sacrament, a witness who, by the grace of God, crushes the evil of sin and the pride of human self-love at the root. It is not so difficult for human pride to reveal the sores of the soul before the one All-Seeing and Invisible God: a proud consciousness does not humiliate in a secret confession before the Almighty what human nothingness calls its "dignity". It is difficult to find oneself before God in the presence of a witness and overcome this difficulty, to give up one's pride - this is the whole essence, the whole mysterious healing power of confession with the help of Divine grace ... I did not understand what happened with my mind, but accepted it with all my being, with all my mysterious spiritual renewal. That faith, which so stubbornly was not given to my soul, despite my apparent conversion at the relics of St. Sergius, only after my heartfelt confession with Fr. Joanna ignited a bright flame within me. I recognized myself as both a believer and an Orthodox.”

So, in adulthood, he chose the path of spiritual writing. In 1903, Nilus's first book, The Great in the Small, was published and went through five editions. Nilus devoted four of the six volumes of his works to the Optina Pustyn - "Kaluga Sarov" of the six volumes of his works. Here, on the banks of the quiet, muddy Zhizdra, together with his wife Elena Alexandrovna Ozerova (1855-1932), a close-minded person, he spent five years... Analyzing the richest archive of the Optina, the writer carefully extracts from it the evidence of seers, pilgrims and teaching elders of Optina. These materials made up the two-volume book “On the Bank of God’s River” and the books “The Power of God and Human Weakness” and “Sacrifice under a bushel” ... In 1905, in the second edition of his book “Great in the Small”, Nilus publishes the “Protocols of Zion”. The publication of this document caused a wide resonance in Russia and the world. *. At this time, he joined the Union of the Russian people.

After leaving Optina in May 1912, the Niluses live in Valdai, where the Iversky Mother of God Monastery was erected by the diligence of Patriarch Nikon. Here S.A. Nilus continues to develop the main theme of his work - the apocalyptic events of the coming time. “About what they don’t want to believe and what is so close,” with such an epigraph he preceded his most visionary book “Near the coming Antichrist and the kingdom of the devil on earth” (“Near is, at the door”), which was published in 1911 and went through four editions. The last one, published in January 1917, was almost completely destroyed by order of the Provisional Government.

The revolution found Nilus in Little Russia, subjecting him to the most severe trials. There was everything: persecution, persecution, searches, and every year, it was stricter. For reading his books, they were shot, but Nilus, strengthened by prayer, did not fall into despondency, but, guarded by the Lord Himself, continued to write about the manifestation of the Will of God - miracles, the saving power of repentance, the Church as the leader of conscience. These materials formed the basis of the second part of the book "On the Bank of God's River".

The death of the writer followed on the eve of blzh. memory of the venerable Seraphim of Sarov, whom Sergei Alexandrovich so honored and for whose nationwide veneration he did so much. Buried by S.A. Nilus was near the temple in the village of Krutets (in the family of the rector of this temple, Father Vasily Smirnov, who was later shot, in 1937, he lived the last years of his earthly life) Alexandrova Sloboda. Now faithful admirers of the memory of S.A. Nilus, an eight-pointed cross was installed on the grave of this outstanding Russian spiritual writer.

Alexander Nikolaevich Strizhev

S.A. Nilus "On the bank of God's river", revelations about the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II

IV. The heart of the king is in the hand of God

Predestination

Sergei Alexandrovich Nilus

It was during the days of the severe test of the heart of Russia by the fire of the Japanese war. In this unfortunate time, the Lord consoled her faithful sons with the gift of the royal throne, the prayers of the Monk Seraphim, the heir, and the royal couple - the son-tsarevich, Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich.

The sovereign had just entered the 35th year, the empress-wife - the 32nd. Both were in the full bloom of their strength, beauty and youth. The disasters of the war, the beginning of disorganization in state building, shocked by secret, and where already obvious, fermentation of internal turmoil - all this, with a heavy burden of mournful worries, fell on the royal heart.

It was a difficult time, and Tsushima was still ahead.

In those days, both at the top of the government, and in the press, and in society, they started talking about the need to head the widowed Church by a head common to all of Russia - the patriarch. Anyone who followed the internal life of Russia at that time will probably still remember the agitation that was then waged in favor of the restoration of the patriarchate in all strata of the intelligentsia.

I had a young friend in the spiritual world, many years younger than I, but by the dispensation of his sweet Christian soul, a person close and dear to my heart. At the time indicated above, he completed his studies as a hierodeacon at one of the ancient academies, where he entered from among a wealthy South Russian noble family at the insistence of a then very popular bishop of one of the dioceses of southern Russia. This is the story I heard from his mouth.

In the days of the high spiritual disposition of Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich, - he told me so, - when, under the still fresh impression of the great Sarov celebrations and the joyful fulfillment of the promise associated with them about the birth of an heir to him, he traveled around the places of internal camps of our troops, blessing their parts for a feat of arms, - these days the winter session of the Holy Synod ended, among the members of which was our bishop.

The session ended, the lord returned to his city blacker than clouds. Knowing his character and impressionability, as well as his great intemperance, we, his close associates, were afraid at first to ask him about the reasons for his gloomy mood, in full confidence that a day or two would pass, and he would not endure - he would tell us everything. And so it happened.

We were sitting with him shortly after his return from St. Petersburg, talking, and he suddenly started talking about what interested us most of all. Here is what he said then:

When our winter session was over, we, the synodals, headed by Metropolitan Anthony (Vadkovsky), who took precedence in St. In a conversation with him that it would not be bad in church administration to put the question of restoring the patriarchate in Russia on the agenda. What was our surprise when, having met us extremely cordially and affectionately, the sovereign from his place himself raised this question to us in this form.

I," he said, "became aware that now both between you in the Synod and in society there is a lot of talk about the restoration of the patriarchate in Russia. This question found a response in my heart and interested me extremely. I thought a lot about him, got acquainted with the current literature on this issue, with the history of the patriarchate in Russia and its significance in the days of the great turmoil of the interregnum, and came to the conclusion that the time has come and that for Russia, which is experiencing new troubled days, the patriarch and for the Church, and necessary for the state. It seems to me that you in the Synod were no less interested than I was in this question. If so, what is your opinion on this?

Of course, we hastened to answer the sovereign that our opinion completely coincides with everything that he had just expressed to us.

And if so, - continued the sovereign, - then you, probably, have already outlined a candidate for your patriarch among yourselves?

We hesitated and answered the sovereign's question with silence. After waiting for an answer and seeing our confusion, he said:

And what if, as I see it, you have not yet managed to identify a candidate for yourself or find it difficult to choose, what if I myself propose it to you - what will you say to that?

Who is he? we asked the sovereign.

This candidate, - he answered, - I am! By agreement with the empress, I leave the throne to my son and establish a regency under him from the empress and my brother Michael, and I myself accept monasticism and holy orders, together with him offering myself to you as patriarch. Am I pleasing to you and what do you say to that?

It was so unexpected, so far from all our assumptions, that we could not find what to answer, and ... remained silent. Then, after waiting a few moments for our answer, the emperor gave us an intent and indignant look, stood up silently, bowed to us and left, and we remained, as if bruised, ready, it seems, to tear our hair out for what we did not find in ourselves and were unable to give a decent answer. We should have bowed at his feet, bowing before the greatness of the feat he is taking to save Russia, but we ... remained silent!

And when Vladyka told us this, - as my young friend told me, - it was clear that he was really ready to tear his hair out, but it was too late and irreparable: the great moment was not understood and forever lost - "Jerusalem did not know time visitation" (Luke 19:44)...

Since then, none of the members of the then highest church administration had access to the tsar's heart. He, according to the duties of their service, continued to receive them at his place as needed, gave them awards, distinctions, but an impenetrable wall was established between them and his heart, and faith in them was no longer in his heart, because the heart of the king is true in the hand God's and thanks to what happened in reality, it was revealed that the hierarchs were looking for their si in the patriarchate, and not those of God, and their house was left empty to them.

This was shown by God during the days of testing them and Russia by the fire of the revolution. Let him understand (Luke 13:35).

Saint Macarius of Moscow (Nevsky)

Shortly after the revolution of 1917, Metropolitan Macarius of Moscow, illegally removed from the throne by the "provisional government", the husband was truly "as if one of the ancients," had a dream.

I see, - so he conveyed to one of my friends, - a field. The Savior walks along the path. I am behind Him and I say everything:

Lord, I follow You!

And he, turning to me, answers everything:

Come after me!

Finally we came to a huge arch, decorated with flowers. At the threshold of the arch, the Savior turned to me and said again:

Come after me!

And he entered the wonderful garden, and I remained on the threshold and woke up.

Falling asleep soon, I see myself standing in the same archway, and behind it with the Savior stands Tsar Nikolai Alexandrovich. The Savior says to the sovereign:

You see two cups in My hands: this bitter one is for your people, and the other, sweet one, is for you.

The sovereign falls on his knees and for a long time prays to the Lord to give him a bitter cup to drink instead of his people. The Lord did not agree for a long time, and the sovereign kept pleading. Then the Savior took out a large red-hot coal from the bitter bowl and placed it on the sovereign's palm. The sovereign began to shift the coal from palm to palm, and at the same time, his body began to become enlightened, until he became completely bright, like a bright spirit.

With that, I woke up again. Falling asleep again, I see a huge field covered with flowers. The sovereign stands in the middle of the field, surrounded by a multitude of people, and distributes manna to him with his own hands. An invisible voice at this time says:

The sovereign took the guilt of the Russian people upon himself, and the Russian people are forgiven.

This dream was communicated to me in 1921, and in 1923 Maurice Palaeologus, who was French ambassador to the Russian Court during the European war, published a book entitled Tsarist Russia during the World War. In this book he wrote, among other things:

Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin

“That was in 1909. One day Stolypin proposes to the sovereign an important measure of domestic policy. After listening thoughtfully to him, Nicholas II makes a skeptical, carefree movement - a movement that seems to say: “Is this or something else - does it matter?!” Finally he says in a tone of deep sadness:

I, Pyotr Arkadyevich, do not succeed in anything that I undertake.

Stolypin protests. Then the king asks him:

Have you read the lives of the saints?

Yes, at least in part, because, if I am not mistaken, this work contains about twenty volumes.

Do you also know when my birthday is?

What is the holy day on this day?

I'm sorry, sir, I don't remember!

Job the Long-suffering.

Thank God! Your Majesty's reign will end in glory, since Job, having humbly endured the most terrible trials, was rewarded with God's blessing and prosperity.

No, believe me, Pyotr Arkadyevich, I have more than a presentiment, I have deep confidence in this: I am doomed to terrible trials, but I will not receive my reward here on earth. How many times have I applied the words of Job to myself: "For the terrible thing that I was terrified of, that also overtook me, and that which I feared, that also came to me" (Job 3:25).

In another place, before an important decision, having prayed much, He said:

Perhaps a redemptive sacrifice is needed to save Russia: I will be this sacrifice - may the will of God be done!

In the simplest, most calm and even voice, he makes me, - says Stolypin, - this solemn statement. There is some strange mixture in his voice, and especially in his gaze, resoluteness and meekness, something both unshakable and passive, vague and definite, as if he does not express his personal will, but rather obeys some external force - the greatness of Providence .. .

This is what it means to have a king's heart in the hand of God! And who is writing this? A Frenchman, a representative of the most godless people, the most godless government!...

Verily, the stones cry out.

Under the person of Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Oberkamerfrau Maria Feodorovna Geringer, nee Adelung, granddaughter of General Adelung, educator of Emperor Alexander II during his childhood and adolescence, was in the position of oberkamerfrau. By her position, as there were once “sleeping boyars” under the queens, she was closely aware of the very intimate side of the royal family life, and therefore it seems extremely valuable what I know from the lips of this worthy woman.

In the Gatchina Palace, the permanent residence of Emperor Paul I, when he was heir, there was one small hall in the enfilade of the hall, and in it in the middle on a pedestal stood a rather large patterned casket with intricate decorations. The casket was locked and sealed. Around the casket on four columns, on rings, a thick red silk cord was stretched, blocking the viewer's access to it. It was known that this casket contained something that was laid by the widow of Paul I, Empress Maria Feodorovna, and that she bequeathed to open the casket and take out what was stored in it only when one hundred years had passed since the death of Emperor Paul I, and, moreover, only to the one who in that year will occupy the royal throne of Russia.

Pavel Petrovich died on the night of March 11-12, 1801. Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich thus fell to the lot to open the mysterious casket and find out what was so carefully and mysteriously guarded in it from all, not excluding royal, gazes.

“On the morning of March 12, 1901,” said Maria Feodorovna Geringer, “both the sovereign and the empress were very lively and cheerful, planning to go from the Tsarskoye Selo Alexander Palace to Gatchina - to reveal the age-old secret. They were preparing for this trip, as for an interesting festive walk which promised them uncommon entertainment. They went merry, but returned pensive and sad, and about what they found in that casket, they did not say anything to anyone, even to me, with whom they had the habit of sharing their impressions. After this trip, I noticed that, on occasion, the sovereign began to remember 1918 as a fatal year both for him personally and for the dynasty.

On January 6, 1903, in the Jordan at the Winter Palace, with a salute from guns from the Peter and Paul Fortress, one of the guns turned out to be loaded with buckshot, and the buckshot hit only the windows of the palace, partly near the gazebo in Jordan, where the clergy, the sovereign's retinue and the sovereign himself were. The calmness with which the sovereign reacted to the incident, which threatened his own death, was so amazing that it attracted the attention of those closest to him in the surrounding retinue. He, as they say, did not raise an eyebrow and only asked:

Who commanded the battery?

And when his name was called, he sympathetically and regretfully said, knowing what punishment the commanding officer would have to be subject to:

Ah, poor, poor (name of rivers)! How I pity him!

The sovereign was asked how the incident had affected him. He replied:

Until the age of 18, I am not afraid of anything.

The emperor forgave the commander of the battery and the officer (Kartsev) who was in charge of firing, since, by the special grace of God, there were no wounded, with the exception of one policeman who received the most light wound.

The surname of that policeman was Romanov.

The charge, which was aimed and intended with malicious intent for the royal Romanov, touched Romanov, but not the one he was aimed at: the times and deadlines had not passed - it was still far from 1918.

S.A. Nilus "On the bank of God's river", part 3, pages 20, 21

On the banks of God's river
Notes of the Orthodox

Part I

Instead of a preface

Upon the publication of this book, I sent it as a gift to Bishop Feofan of Poltava. In response to this, Vladyka wrote to me on November 24, 1915:

“Venerable Sergei Alexandrovich! I sincerely thank you for your attention to me, expressed in sending me your book “On the Bank of God's River”. I read all your books with great interest and fully share your views on recent events. The people of this age live by faith in progress and lull themselves into unfulfilled dreams. Persistently and with some bitterness they drive away from themselves the very thought of the end of the world and the coming of the Antichrist. Their eyes are spiritually blinded. Seeing they do not see and hearing they do not understand. But from the truly believing children of God, the meaning of these events is not hidden, even more: on whom God's favor rests, the time of the coming of the Antichrist and the end of the world will be revealed to them for sure. When the Lord pronounces His terrible Judgment on the sinful world: not to have My Spirit to abide in these people, which are flesh; then He will say to His faithful servants: come out from their midst and go away, and touch no uncleanness. I will accept you(; cf.:). And hide them from the eyes of the world, sighing in fear of future disasters. Therefore, great is the merit of those who remind the people of this age of the great times and events to come. May the Lord help you to speak about this in the hearing of the world of everything in a timely and untimely manner with all longsuffering and edification! ().

Your sincere admirer and pilgrim, Bishop Feofan.

“May the Lord help you to speak about this in the ears of the whole world” - these words of the bishop came true in all accuracy during the years of the revolution. Such is the meaning of an episcopal blessing, and, moreover, of such a bishop as Theophanes. H The Purpose and Purpose of the Christian Writer - to be a servant of the Word, to contribute to the revelation of the single truth contained in Him in its infinitely diverse manifestations in the earthly life of a Christian, and thereby to lead the Christian soul along the path of Orthodoxy from temporary life to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Live with God, until the time. If we are going to publish Optina leaflets and books, you will help us in this; in the meantime, live with God near us: it’s good, quiet with us! ...

And we lived, with the blessing of the elders, a quiet, desert life, hoping to lay down our bones near the saints of Optina.

The Lord judged otherwise. Thank God for everything!…

Great and incomparably beautiful is the river of God - the holy Optina! This river flows from the sources of temporal life into the sea of eternally joyful endless life in the realm of the unstoppable Light, and it carries boats and its hermits, and many other mournful, tormented, suffering souls who found the truth of life at the feet of the great Optina elders. What miracles, what signs of God's mercy, as well as His righteous wrath, do not hide in themselves the transparent, deep, life-giving waters of this majestically beautiful, mysteriously wonderful river! How many times from its picturesque shore, covered with a tent of lush green pines and firs, blown with the coolness of curly oaks, lace birches, aspens and maples of the reserved monastery forest, my net descended into its bottomless depths, pure as rock crystal, and - not in vain ...

O blessed Optina!…

Until the New Year of 1909, I was busy sorting out old skete manuscripts, getting to know the spirit and structure of life of my God-given neighbors, the inhabitants of the holy monastery. The fruit of this time was my book Shrine under a bushel and several smaller essays that found shelter in the editions of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. From January 1, 1909, I made it a rule to keep daily, if possible, notes of my stay in Optina, entering in them everything that in my life together with her seemed to me outstanding and worthy of attention.

Let us open, dear reader, the notebooks of my diaries and trace together with you what my reverently attentive recollection has brought to their pages.

From the Intercession of 1917, our life began in Linowice under the cover of the church in honor of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos. The temple, however, was consecrated not on Intercession, but earlier on August 10, July 7-27, but it is dedicated to this particular feast of the Mother of God. It was built by the Intercession Abbess Sophia.