St. Paul of Taganrog in what helps?

At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, among the innumerable congregation of Orthodox saints, there was one more - the righteous Paul of Taganrog. Taganrog - a small seaside town, whose fame was born to politicians, actors and writers born in it, finally got its Heavenly patron, who creates a vigilant prayer for him at the Throne of the Most High. About this saint of God our story.

The pious boy

From the documents that have come down to us it is known that the pious elder Pavel Taganrogsky, who gained an unfading glory for his post-natal and prayer life, was born in 1792 in a noble family who lived not far from Chernigov. He received his name in holy baptism in honor of the great ascetic of the Christian church of St. Paul the Confessor, the Archbishop of Constantinople, who in 350 died in martyrdom in the struggle against the heresy that prevailed then in Byzantium.

Paul's parents were very well off. They owned vast tracts of land on which they lived and worked hundreds of serfs that belonged to them. They wanted to see their son in the future the way a true nobleman of the Catherine's epoch should have been - a well-to-do, educated and dignified society.

However, the Lord placed quite another on the heart of a young man. From an early age, the future blessed Pavel Taganrogsky preferred solitary and prayer to the noisy and discordant society of his peers, and secular literature - reading of the Holy Scriptures and the lives of saints. But his real passion was to listen to the stories of pilgrims who left their homes and with a staff in the hands of those who traveled to holy places, where the Russian land was so rich.

God's Wanderers

It should be noted that in Orthodox Russia this form of extreme religiosity was prevalent at all times. From time immemorial, thousands of pilgrims, having in their knapsack behind their back only a crust of bread and removable bast shoes, measured the boundless Russian roads, heading from one holy monastery to another.

In the cold and the heat, in rains and blizzards, they threw forward their irrepressible thirst for searching for God and His Truth. And not only in holy Russia lay their way - they reached their wanderings to the deserts of Egypt and the walls of the holy city of Jerusalem, where they knelt before the Holy Sepulcher. And then they went back to their native land, and not by El-Al planes, but by their little ones, bypassing the two seas, feeding on the way by Christ's name.

The Executor of God's Commandment

Their stories also determined the further life of Paul. When he was twenty-five years old, which, according to the laws of that time, was considered of legal age and gave the right to dispose of property independently, the father allocated him the part of the inheritance due to him.

It included, in addition to significant land and waiting for him in the bank account, a sum of money, three hundred serfs, or, as they say, "shower". Such a solid capital allowed the young man to lead a wide life, appropriate to his noble birth, not only in Russia, but in any of the European capitals.

However, Paul did not think about the welfare of the earth. He remembered the words of the Lord about how difficult it is for the rich to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, and that only by selling his possessions and giving away everything to the poor can one enter the Mountain World. Pavel Taganrogsky did not search in those words for allegory, but fulfilled the covenant of God in the literal sense - the serfs released him to freedom, he gave the proceeds for the sold land and bank savings to the poor, and himself, blessing his father and mother, went on a journey to holy places.

Ten years he devoted to strangeness. For the prescription of time there is no way to know exactly where Paul Taganrog visited those years. The life of the saint, written many years after his blessed death, leaves this question unanswered. But it is known that on the completion of the journey he settled in the seaside town of Taganrog, where, despising his noble origin, he led a simple and charitable life, earning a piece of daily bread with hard work .

At the port quays

In those years, the main means of subsistence for the inhabitants of this seaside city was given by the port, which accepted many merchant ships from all over the world. Here on his berths and spent all the days the holy righteous, with hard work and incessant prayer, cleansing the soul of all that is passionate and sinful. He was a loader, but is it clear to a modern person what it meant in those days?

The main commodity transported through the Taganrog port was bread. Before appearing on the tables with ruddy loafs, the grain had to go a long way in standard sacks, the weight of which was strictly fixed-six poods, that is, ninety-six kilograms. So it was accepted. Even at the conclusion of transactions, merchants indicated in the papers not the total weight of the bread being bought or sold, but the number of bags.

So, there was no loading equipment in those years. Just put the guy on his shoulders 96-kilogram bag and carried it on flimsy gangplank to the shore or from shore in the ship's hold. And then run after the next, but not baggy, or the artel will see and charge for negligence. And so all day. Well, the current bodybuilding, think about: for how long would your muscles last?

That's how the future St. Paul of Taganrog for many years worked. Together with all he appeared on the docks in the early hours, when in the morning fog the outlines of the ships could hardly be guessed, and left them already under the cover of night. If it became absolutely unbearable and darkened in the eyes of the deadly fatigue, he mentally prayed to Jesus, and the Lord sent strength to his humble servant.

The Taganrog Life of the Servant of God's Paul

His house was not with Paul, because he rented a house in different parts of Taganrog, but mostly among good and pious people. First he happened to settle in the north-eastern outskirts, in the so-called Kasperovka - a vast area that once belonged to the commandant of the local fortress, Lieutenant-General IP Kasperov. Then moved to live in the fortress itself, and then for twenty years settled with a large widow E. N. Baeva, whose house was located on the Bannoy Descent.

Avoiding the city noise and fuss, Pavel Taganrog chose the outlying areas, and there, in the patriarchal quiet of wooden houses, he devoted himself entirely to the service of God. According to the recollections of people who met him in those years, the rooms of the righteous were always full of icons, before which the unquenchable lamps burned.

Since the work at the port did not allow him to attend the church on weekdays, he filled it with long hours of night vigils, in which, by candlelight, he read endless akathists and canons to the saints. During the holidays and weekends, Pavel did not miss a single church service, regularly standing and praying.

Voluntary counselor and comforter

It is known that the light of God is not hidden, and soon the inhabitants of the neighboring houses drew attention to the humble righteous, and in his lonely dwelling people began to gather, their souls drawn to the words of Christ's truth. And Paul had something to tell them. He learned a lot during the years of travels to holy places, and learned a lot from the Holy Scriptures, which he read daily.

Seeing his righteous life and overflowing with the impression of the speeches he heard, people started involuntarily to think about the meaning of their own lives and about what their true purpose is. Before them, the pictures of the Celestial Fatherland, the road to which their earthly life is, began to appear more clearly. Over time, the authority of Paul has grown so much that people have reached out to him for advice in matters of life and consolations in afflictions.

The layman

How can we characterize the life that Paul Taganrog led in those years? Without taking monastic vows in any of the monasteries that he visited during the years of his travels, he nevertheless was a true example of a pious monk, in the prime of his physical strength, and he was not in those years and forty years old who protected himself from Worldly temptations and passions.

There is such a form of service to God - voluntary monasticism in the world. This is a very difficult test for a person, especially if he has not reached an advanced age, and the desires of the flesh have not faded in him. The monks, who spend their lives outside the walls of holy monasteries, although subject to the same temptations, but at least are shielded from daily communication with the world and those temptations that he holds in himself. Paul, however, was not afraid of the burden of his chosen path and bore the cross, God sent down to him, stubbornly.

Heroic deeds

Thus, in years of never-ending labors, prayers, and close fellowship with all who went to him for spiritual instruction. Having reached his advanced age, Pavel left his job in the port and settled in Dehaldovsky Lane, in a small wooden house belonging to a local inhabitant Yefim Smirnov. This house has survived to this day. It created a kind of memorial to the saint, and everyone can go there, bow to the place where the last of his life spent the blessed Paul of Taganrog, the miracles of which earned him undying glory.

But before the Lord called His servant into the Upper World, the righteous Paul of Taganrog was yet to become famous as one of the most respected elders. Here, some explanation is required, since in the religious sense the term "elder" has nothing to do with age, and there are cases when this honorary title was awarded to people who were by no means old by age.

The Elder is first and foremost a mentor, a man to whom God has sent down the gift of wisdom and foresight. His spiritual eyes are allowed to see that which is hidden from the eyes of ordinary people. Often it is to him that the Lord reveals His will. Often the true elders, endowed with the gift of miracles, are able to heal ailments and protect from imminent danger.

That's why people have come to them from ancient times, each with their own troubles and needs. Someone asked the seer to look into the future, to suggest how to act in this or that life situation, someone was looking for deliverance from bodily weakness, and someone craved the prayers of the elder before the Lord for the forgiveness of his sins.

Many Russian monasteries were famous for their elders. It is enough to remember Optina's deserts with her pleiad of holy fathers and the famous Diveevo - the creation of St. Seraphim of Sarov. A remarkable image of the elder of Zasim was created by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky in his novel The Brothers Karamazov.

Life at rest

But let us return to the pious Paul of Taganrog. To leave work in the port he was forced by an advanced age and his constant companion - corporal infirmity. Such an opportunity he received thanks to voluntary donations of those who addressed him for spiritual help, since by then the glory of the wise and perspicacious elder had spread all over the world.

From the memoirs of people close to him, we know that the righteous Paul of Taganrog, freed, finally, from cares for daily bread, rose still dark and, with the first blows of the bell, went to the temple of God, where he did not miss a single service for a day. It was a great pleasure for him to adjust the lamps, for which he invariably had a small bench, and wipe the icons specially brought from home by a towel.

In the intervals between the services, Blessed Pavel Taganrog often went to the bazaar, which was located not far from the church. Appearing with a canvas bag on his shoulders and walking along the rows, he found words of instruction and comfort for all. Often approached a stranger and, after reading a short prayer over him, suddenly made him an accurate and accurate remark on the case, which certainly could not be known in advance.

Many thought it an honor to bestow on him something from their product, but it was noticed that it was not accepted by everyone at all. At times, not only did he not take it to him, but he also waved his stick at the donor. As a rule, it soon became clear that those who provoked the anger of the old man were followed by some dark and dirty deeds.

The nights of his elder Pavel Taganrog, as before, spent in vigil and kneeling prayers. All those who came to him with a heartfelt conviction convinced him of the necessity of steadfast observance of the fasts prescribed by the Orthodox Church, and of the goodwill of the liturgical service established by her. He did his incessant "Jesus Prayer" continuously and taught it to others.

Gift of miraculous perspicacity

In the last years of his life, the wonders of foresight, which the elder Paul of Taganrog showed, became widely known. The saint, according to the statements of his contemporaries, was able to see with an inner gaze both the past life of man and the future. And, without waiting for the repentant story of another pilgrim about his sins, he knew how to with true gentry tactics - he also received the proper education at the proper time - to reproach the one without offending his self-esteem.

It is told, for example, how once, when his cell was full of people, the elder did not address anyone specifically, suddenly began to speak angrily about someone's grave sins, while drawing the specific circumstances of what happened. Everyone took it only as a figurative illustration of his instructions, but when everyone left, one of the present was delayed and, left alone with the old man, fell in repentant tears at his feet. Everything told down to the smallest detail corresponded to what was a heavy burden on the heart of this man.

The following fact from his life testifies to the ability of Pavel Taganrogsky to look into the future. He himself received spiritual nourishment from the hieromonk of the nearby monastery of Father Damian (Kasoti). He was a very devout and humble man, unwilling to pursue worldly glory and honor, for which he was inextinguishably loved by Pavel Taganrog.

The saint often confessed to him and asked for blessings in all his affairs. And one day, to the great astonishment of his spiritual father, he suddenly predicted to him that the Lord would exalt him to a height beyond which nothing could happen in the world. Then the servant of God doubted, but ... It may seem incredible, but the modest Taganrog monk Damian in 1879, after the death of his spiritual child, became the patriarch of the holy city of Jerusalem and acquired the right to receive the Blessed Heavenly Fire, ... What could be higher than this?

The demise of the righteous and the subsequent glorification

The Lord granted His faithful servant to live to a very old age. This mortal world he left on March 10, 1879 at the age of eighty-six. Despite the fact that his veneration did not stop even after his death, the glorification of Paul Taganrog in the saints' face was prolonged for a hundred and twenty years. It is known that the issue of his canonization was submitted to the Holy Synod for consideration in the pre-revolutionary years, but further fatal events that hit Russia prevented it from completing.

During the years of total atheism, the pilgrimage of the mantis residents of the city to a one-story wooden house in Turgenevskoye - the former Depaldovskiy - lane, where he spent the last years of earthly life and where the saint of God died, did not stop. People walked to the modest chapel in the Old Town Cemetery, the site of the repose of his relics. The official canonization of the old man Pavel Taganrog became possible only after perestroika radically changed the state policy towards the church.

The issue, once solved by the revolution, was again brought to the consideration of the Synodal Commission. As a result of her decision, the glorification of Paul Taganrog in the face of the saints of the Russian Orthodox Church took place in June 1999. With solemn procession of his miraculous relics were transferred from the cemetery chapel to the main church of the city - St. Nicholas Cathedral.

The Sign of God in the Taganrog sky

During this ceremony, many remembered the prophecy, which shortly before his death the righteous elder left, and which was recorded by the owner of the house, Yefim Smirnov, who was present at the same time. Through the thickness of years, foreseeing the transfer of his relics, the saint said: "They carried Paul to the grave, and from the grave to the cathedral."

Telling about this solemn day, it is impossible not to mention the events witnessed by the whole Taganrog. Pavel Taganrogsky, whose relics finally found their worthy resting place, showed an unforgettable miracle to the world, described in detail in those days by the majority of Taganrog newspapers and cast into perplexity by atheists.

The fact is that at a time when the rector of the cathedral was reading the life of the newly glorified Paul written to the day of canonization, in a clear and cloudless sky around the sun, standing at this hour above the cathedral domes, a bright rainbow circle suddenly appeared. This unique phenomenon was observed for an hour and was perceived by those present as a certain sign from above.

What was the general astonishment when, melting in the sky, the rainbow circle gave way to the clouds formed in the form of a cross. Skeptics can verify the reliability of all of the above, revealing the numbers of "Taganrogskaya Pravda", "Molot", "Veteran Don" and a number of other newspapers published in Taganrog in the last days of June 1999. The description of this event indicates that the elder Paul of Taganrog, whose miracles during his lifetime have won him national glory, does not leave his city to this day.

Pilgrimage to the holy saint

The canonization of Paul Taganrog contributed even more to his popularity among Orthodox Russians. Today, thousands of pilgrims from all over the country come to the city to worship shrines associated with his name. They can be seen in the St. Nicholas Cathedral, where the miraculous relics rest, and at the chapel in the Old Cemetery - the place of its former burial, and in Turgenevsky Lane, where the room is now restored, or, as the elder called it, the "cell" in which Spent the last years of life the blessed Pavel of Taganrog. Photo of this house is given at the end of the article.

By the grace of God and the care of the Christ-loving Taganrog people, it was possible to preserve the authentic things that the holy righteous used once. They are few, for he lived in a very modest way, contented only with the most necessary, but they all store in himself the Grace of God, generously sent down by the Lord through the greatest of his saints, who was Saint Paul of Taganrog.

What helps people to visit his "cell" and the prayer that was created in it - this is evidenced by numerous reviews of pilgrims and records in a special book designed to record all cases of manifestation of the miraculous power of a saint. As in the past, people turn to him for a variety of reasons. Do not consider the documented facts of the healings of patients and the cases when prayer to the elder helped to avoid serious and seemingly inevitable troubles.

The Orthodox Church teaches us that the holy saints of God are not given the power to work miracles themselves, but when they are at the Throne of the Most High, they have the Grace to intercede with Him for those who faithfully and sincerely pray to them in their prayers. People often have a variety of circumstances in which they can not do without Heavenly intercession, so the nature of their requests is very different. It is important only that the requested does not go beyond the framework of Christian ethics, and the worshiper had a deep faith in the heart of the omnipotence of God. Let us also say with a trembling heart: "Holy Father Paul, pray to God for us!"