Blessed, perspicacious elder schema-nun Theodosia from the city of Skopin, Ryazan region

February 18, on the day of remembrance of Theodosius of Chernigov, is the day of the angel of Schema-nun Theodosia - an old woman to whom people from all over the country come for advice and consolation. I also went to see her - this meeting truly “turned me over”.

REFERENCE: Schema nun Feodosia (in the world - Natalya Kosorotikhina) lives in the village of Oktyabrsky, Ryazan region. Now she is 88 years old, of which mother has been bedridden for 68 years. Schema-Archimandrite Abel (Makedonov) tonsured her as a nun, but for health reasons she never lived in a monastery. People from all over Russia come to visit an old nun who lives motionlessly in a rural house. In particular, she is visited by the inhabitants of the Moscow courtyard of the monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos.

Mikhail Nesterov. Winter in the monastery, 1904.

My soul is disgusting and empty. The painful feeling of melancholy does not leave me for a minute. I went to church. Heart like stone. Silent faces of saints... And how you want them to console...

She went out into the street, sat down on a bench and accidentally overheard two girls talking about a certain schema-nun Feodosia. Apparently, many go to her just for consolation. And also - for advice on how to survive difficult times, cope with life circumstances, which fan to choose in order to live life with him in love, peace and joy; what profession to master... I asked to tell you more about this nun - and this is what I found out.

At the age of 18, a girl named Natalya was in a terrible car accident, fell into a lethargic sleep, woke up sick and paralyzed, but did not show a drop of grumbling or anger at fate. She simply accepted her lot in life - with courage and patience. Even such difficult trials did not shake her faith in God. Bedridden, she prayed incessantly - for relatives, close people and all her acquaintances. Life went on as usual.

Natalya lived with her sisters. One day a friend came to visit them. They settled in the next room so as not to disturb the sick woman. The guest was about to leave when Natalya suddenly called out to her: “What grief did you experience six months ago!” The woman froze in surprise: six months ago she lost loved one, but never told anyone about it. And Natalya continued: “But everything will get better for you soon!” These words came true.

This is how the foresight of the future nun first manifested itself. For her greatest patience and humility, God sent her this gift. And she selflessly gives to people.

Natalya never lived in a monastery - she couldn’t do it, but the confessors who knew her decided that patience and true faith in God gave her the right to take monastic vows. She was tonsured a nun, so to speak, “in fact.”

The story about my mother made my heart jump, and there was no doubt left - we had to go!

Five hours by bus through the autumn fog to the Ryazan region. Mother always receives at night from nine in the evening to five in the morning. I was traveling on the night from Sunday to Monday, and by some miracle I had to be back in Moscow by Monday and not be late for work by ten. But there was some inner feeling that there was no need to worry - everything would work out as it should.

I found myself in front of a small rural house, opposite the entrance to which there was a line. At the beginning of ten in the evening, an elderly woman came out onto the porch, who, as I understood, was caring for my mother. Then we entered a small corridor, about twenty people were already crowded in it - everyone wanted to get to their mother as quickly as possible. She received in the room where her assistant invited visitors. The wait was tedious...

By one o'clock in the morning, inner calm gave way to nervousness. Will I have time to talk? I really need it! I also have to be on time for work... All this time I was praying internally: “Lord, help me... Well, just a minute... Well, I can at least hear a word, it’s so hard on my soul. I can’t figure it out on my own!”

Meanwhile, people left mother’s room joyful, smiling and calm. Some spent half an hour with her, others five to ten minutes. Time was running out, I had to return to Moscow soon, I still hadn’t bought a ticket and didn’t even know what time the next train was.

When the assistant once again came out to invite the next one, I gathered my strength and asked if I could come in without waiting in line... She frowned very much and snapped: “Everyone wants to get here, wait!” A wave of indignation swept through the line: “What a business, I haven’t been able to get in for three days now, but she’s getting in!” Despair pierced my heart.

All that remained was to mentally turn to my mother.

I imagined there were no walls, as if I was already in her room. The day before I read the life of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Moscow. Both the setting and the image of Mother Theodosia involuntarily associated me with this saint. I decided that the people to whom God reveals the future might well hear my thoughts. I began to ask her: “Mother, accept me for a minute, comfort me with a word, it’s very difficult for me - help!” Usually at such moments, as it is written in Orthodox books, miracles happened, and the one asking received what he asked for. But I believed it and I didn’t. And I thought: “Well, this is unlikely to happen to me!” But she asked anyway. Not even five minutes had passed when the assistant came out and called me.

My legs didn’t obey me, I was trembling all over with excitement. She entered the room. All the walls in the room are hung with icons - this is the first thing I noticed. In the corner there was a narrow bed, on which lay a small, thin old woman in a white scarf and a white cotton shirt. She could only move her right hand, with which she blessed the one entering.

It’s amazing how just standing next to such a person heals... All my problems and sorrows immediately became somehow small, unimportant or something... I sat down on a chair opposite the bed, asked her prayers for myself and my family, and yet I decided - I asked the question: “Mother, I want to have a family - a husband and children, to get married, but men don’t want commitment at all. I’m very lonely, what should I do?” She prayed, looked in my direction with poor vision and said quietly: “You will have everything, including the wedding, but not right away. You get along with men - and everything will be. Where do you work?” I was surprised why she suddenly asked about her place of work. I answered, to which she said: “Work where you work. Don’t go anywhere from there!” I felt lost in time and space. There were so many things I wanted to ask at once! As a person who doesn’t have a drop of patience, I seemed to be on fire: when and where will I meet “my soul mate”?! But the strict assistant - the guardian of mother’s peace and the queue controller - gave me a sign that it was time to go out. I said goodbye and left.

...I felt joy. Why? Maybe because the prayer of such a person actually changes life...

I got to the station exactly on time. At the ticket office they said: “Get your ticket quickly, the train is waiting for you on the platform!” 4 hours later I was home, I wasn’t late for work, and I even managed to get some sleep. I knew for sure - I just felt it! - that such an easy road turned out to be thanks to mother’s prayer. “If there is help in such small things, then there will be help in big things,” I thought then.

And then I should write: “Upon returning to Moscow, my life instantly turned upside down, the next day I found my husband, etc.” But no. For some reason, my “charming prince” was still hesitating. I took my mother’s question about my place of work as some kind of hint that it was there that I would meet my chosen one, but looking around, I couldn’t find anyone “suitable” for my requirements: older than me, smart, serious, but with a cheerful disposition, loving, caring... Quite standard women's dreams, but seemingly unrealistic. Yes, and every day I went to work as if it were hard labor, relations with the boss worsened, and I still expected that I would someday fall in love, quit and go to the sea. In a word, the gray, familiar days flowed as usual.

And yet, there was one fundamental difference. My attitude has changed. After meeting with my mother, all these days I worried... with hope. And this is perhaps the most important thing that saves a person. And even though these days were still gray, now they were definitely not meaningless. I believed that my mother was not mistaken. It was no coincidence that she said: “Everything will be but not right away».

Everything happened 4 months later on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. It is no coincidence that the word “meeting” in modern Russian is translated as “meeting”. In a cafe where people from all neighboring offices came to have lunch, I met my future husband. It is noteworthy that this was my last working day in this company. And my last lunch. And my new life.

Schema-nun Feodosia (in the world Anna Leontievna Yakovleva) was born in April 1917 into a pious large family in the village of Bunino, Fatezhsky district, Kursk region. The entire Kursk region knew and now remembers the ascetic. They came to her from Moscow, from St. Petersburg, from many places in Russia. She was called the Kursk Elder. Mother secretly prayed and helped many people.

The ascetic was honored to visit the great elders, now glorified: St. Amphilochius of Pochaev (1897–1971), St. Kuksha of Odessa (1875–1964), St. Lawrence of Chernigov (1868–1950), St. Seraphim (Amelina) (1874–1958). Mother was familiar with Schema-Archimandrite Ippolit (Khalin) (1928–2002), with Schema-Archimandrite Ioann (Maslov) (1932–1991) and other Glinsky elders, with the Belgorod elder Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin) (1894–1982)). (*Elder Schema-Archimandrite Hippolytus (Khalin) (1928–2002) began in the Glinskaya Hermitage, in 1991 he was appointed rector of the Rylsky St. Nicholas Monastery. The rector of the Glinskaya Hermitage, Schema-Archimandrite Seraphim (Amelin) (1874–1958) was glorified in 2008. )

The rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary, Bishop Ambrose of Gatchina, listened to the spiritual advice of Schema-nun Theodosia (in his youth he sang in the choir with his mother). The monks of the Kursk-Root monastery often visited mother, and she loved this monastery. The governor of the Kursk-Root Hermitage, Abbot Veniamin (Korolev), revered Mother very much, he more than once invited her to move to the monastery. The rector of the Kazan Mother of God Ploshchanskaya men's hermitage, Archimandrite Sergius (Bulatnikov), also came to the old woman. The ascetic sisters from the monastery of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (village of Bolshegneushevo, Rylsky district, Kursk region) remember with great warmth the ascetic. Mother often visited them. Schema-nun Theodosia was visited by clergy from different monasteries, priests and laity of different ages and ranks.

Leonty and Akulina Yakovlev, who lived in the village of Bunino, had ten children, the youngest daughter, born on the feast of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women, was named Anna. The family was friendly and hardworking. The Yakovlevs had a large farm, the house was hospitable. From childhood, parents instilled in their children a love of work. Older children helped their parents with housework and babysat younger children.

Annushka's mother died when she was only 18 months old, and when she was five years old, her father died. Rarely does anyone remember their early childhood as vividly as the future ascetic remembered it. (The gray-haired old woman told her cell attendant that she remembered well the sky, flowers, and river that she had seen many years ago.)

In 1923, five-year-old Annushka fell ill with measles and went blind. From the story of Schema-nun Feodosia: “At the age of five I fell ill with measles, my eyes were dripping out, it was very painful... When we came under dispossession, everything was taken away from us, and everyone was kicked out onto the street. All the children are going where: to their aunts, uncles...”

Schema-nun Theodosia recalled with bitterness how on a cold winter day she and other children were driven for a long time through the forest on a cart. How one of the children decided to “pity” the blind sister and offered to throw her off the cart, assuring the others that she would quickly suffer, freeze and die. The hungry, exhausted children were ready to accept such “strong arguments,” but sister Tatian stood up for her little sister and did not allow her to be pushed off the cart.

The orphans had to endure a lot in those terrible years. Annushka and her sisters walked around the courtyards with outstretched hands, feeding on what merciful people served. The Lord did not leave the orphans, everyone survived.

Annushka loved to retire to pray in silence, to ask the Lord to ease the suffering that befell them. One day, when she was seven years old, she was praying fervently in the barn. Suddenly, lightning struck nearby, the girl began to cry out of fear, after this event, the first signs of spiritual illness appeared.

Anna lived for some time in a boarding house for the blind, where she was taught to read books specially published for the blind. Nimble fingers quickly learned to grope and recognize letters, words and whole sentences were born in the mind. In a home for the disabled, Anna worked in a hosiery factory. One day, for lunch, they prepared borscht from cabbage, which was fermented in a kerosene barrel. After this “lunch”, the sufferer suffered from high acidity in her stomach for 50 years - severe heartburn appeared every time after eating.

In 1945, residents of the village of Bunino were evacuated to the village of Deryugino, Dmitrievsky district, Kursk region. The ascetic lived in this village for more than 60 years. According to the Providence of God, she was destined to live for half a century in almost all the houses located around the temple, as if consecrating this circle with holy prayer. When the churches were closed, the entire village was sanctified with the prayer of the ascetic. (The rural church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious was closed and reopened several times.)

Soon after the war, on August 28, on the feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Anna accepted monasticism (with her former name in honor of the holy blessed princess Anna Kashinskaya), and her mother was tonsured by Archimandrite Sergius (Bulatnikov), rector of the Kazan Mother of God Ploshchanskaya men's hermitage. A year later, on the same day, nun Anna was tonsured into monasticism with her former name Anna. The prayer never left the lips of nun Anna; the ascetic bore the cross of illness with great humility. According to contemporaries, she never lost heart. She spoke little about herself; people could only guess about the suffering that her illness caused her.

The singers from the choir said that for many years mother suffered from spiritual illness, when the enemy of the human race annoyed her - she screamed. The ascetic fasted strictly, spending a month only on holy water and prosphora. When the spiritual illness subsided at the age of 87, other trials began for begging people. (The enemy of the human race took revenge for begging people.)

Nun Maria from the monastery of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (village of Bolshegneushevo) said that from 1949 to 1951 Archimandrite Martyriy served in the village of Deryugino; he was the spiritual father of mother. (*Confessor Archimandrite Martyriy (Grishin) (1875–1958)). On patronal feast In the city of Dmitrov, at a meal, the perspicacious elder Martyrius, serving his mother a piece of bun with butter and honey, prophetically noted: “Now you are sick, but the time will come, the whole world will come to you...” The prophecy came true.

In the nineties, nun Anna was invited to her house by nun Susanna. Nine happy years Mother lived with a nun close to her in spirit and her daughter Zinaida. Here they lived and served services in their home church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God, when the church was periodically closed. Over time, we bought a neighboring house, where we all moved together.

Finally, the time came when monasteries began to be restored and closed churches were opened. To the great joy of Mother Anna, the opportunity arose to visit holy places; she, together with her spiritual sisters Paraskeva from Dimitrov and Varvara, made pilgrimages to holy places.

In 2001, the Lord called the nun Susanna to Himself, and the next year her daughter Zinaida went to the Lord, and mother was left alone. The rector of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, which had opened by that time, Archpriest Father Vasily Bovsunovsky, blessed to bury the mother and daughter in the same grave, ten steps from the temple, facing the altar, fulfilling their dying wish.

Soon after the death of her spiritual sisters, Mother Theodosia lost the ability to move independently. When she was being transported in a sleigh, the horse skidded and the cart overturned. After this accident, Mother Theodosia practically could not walk and needed constant care. Archpriest Vasily addressed the parishioners of the church with a request that the believers from the church take turns caring for the sick person. At first, the schema-nun was looked after by the parishioners of the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious; later the priest found Elena from Zheleznogorsk, who agreed to live with mother permanently and look after her. Elena looked after her mother until the last days of her earthly life.

Mother’s children took the old woman to holy places, since it was difficult for mother to move, it happened that Elena had to carry her. Later, the spiritual daughter of the ascetic Alevtina bought a wheelchair, and it became more convenient to travel. According to the cell attendant, mother was always in prayer and loved to go to church. She said that my mother did not have a pension due to lack of documents, so she lived on alms.

On August 27, 2003, nun Anna, with the blessing of Schema-Metropolitan Iuvenaliy (Tarasov), took monastic vows into the great schema with the name Theodosius (in honor of St. Theodosius of Kiev-Pechersk). Hegumen Moses* (Matyukhin) was tonsured into the great schema in the monastery of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Bolshe-Gneushevo, Rylsky district (Kursk region). (Hegumen Moses* (Matyukhin) – abbot of the St. Nicholas Monastery in the city of Rylsk 2003–2005)

According to the cell attendant, immediately after the service, Archimandrite Arseny (from Znamensky cathedral in Kursk) blessed schema-nun Theodosia for eldership, he said, turning to his mother: “I bless you to pray for everyone, to help everyone...”

The Lord gave mother good memory– until she was very old, she remembered everyone by name: she remembered the health of more than six hundred people, prayed for the repose of the souls of three hundred deceased Orthodox people. The spiritual children of Elder Feodosia said that the ascetic relied only on the will of God in everything, never lost heart, and thanked the Lord for everything. Schema-nun Theodosia loved and forgave everyone, endured everything without a murmur, humbled herself, always maintained peace of mind, and was only worried about one thing, how not to be late for the service (at 4 in the morning she was already dressed). Divine services in the temple were spiritual consolation for her; she loved spiritual chants, sang and read psalms herself.

From the memories of Elena’s cell attendant: “I once said to my mother: “If only your eyes would open and you saw us, the house...” And in response I heard: “Why should I see this, I would like to see the Mother of God on an icon and Christ the Savior! She often repeated: “Live like children, but not like babies in mind.”

The schema-nun was moderately sociable, often calmed down during conversations, and was completely immersed in prayer. She did everything very carefully. Mother Theodosia hid many good deeds.

Mother Theodosia greatly revered the holy blessed Matronushka of Moscow - she visited her 3 times. She was in Optina Hermitage, in Diveevo, in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, at the Anniversary celebrations in honor of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Kursk, and visited Schema-Metropolitan Iuvenaliy (Tarasov) in Kursk several times. Elder Feodosia loved to visit the monastery in the village of Bolshegneushevo and came to stay with the sisters for several days.

According to the testimony of mother’s close spiritual sisters, Schema-nun Theodosia was honored with miraculous visions. She talked about the miraculous apparitions of the Queen of Heaven and St. Nicholas. Archpriest Vasily said that Mother Theodosia felt the warmth from the sun and pointed out where the sun was, especially after Easter.

From the memoirs of V.N. Mamontov: “Lord Bless! We met Mother Feodosia in July 2005. At that time we lived abroad, in Estonia. Every summer we went on vacation to our parents in Deryugino. Even earlier, while attending services in the Church of St. George the Victorious in Deryugino, we saw a schema nun praying, sitting in a wheelchair, in front of the choir. But at that time the Lord did not allow us to see her, apparently because my wife and I were then living in an unmarried relationship. That year, after the end of Peter’s Lent, we finally got married, and on the following Sunday we met my mother. There was no one to bring Mother to the service and Elena, who was caring for Mother, asked me to bring her to church.

After the service, we took mother back home, and were invited to dinner with my wife and children. Mother asked us who we were and where we were from, where our relatives lived and their names, and promised to pray for everyone.

Once my mother asked: “Are there Orthodox Christians in Estonia?”

Yes, but very little,” I answered.

“We have to leave Estonia,” my mother said then.

A few days later we were leaving for Estonia. On the eve of departure, when I took a blessing from Mother Theodosia. I asked her if it was time for us to leave Estonia?

Mother was lost in thought, apparently praying.

You’ll live for a year, and then we’ll see,” she said.

About a year later my father died. After the funeral, I went to see my mother with my sisters. The sisters were the first to come up for the blessing. Having blessed the sisters, mother asked: “Where is Vladimir?”

“I’m here,” I answered and, going up to Mother, took the blessing.

Now it's time to move, you should live here!

This was said in such a way that there was no doubt left - this is the will of God.

Anyone who has changed their place of residence probably knows how difficult it is to decide to take this step, especially when life is outwardly going well. We kept putting off moving.

On February 8, 2007, wife Natalya, while working in the kitchen, suddenly clearly heard the voice of Mother Feodosia - “Natasha, it’s time.” This was the day of mother’s departure from this world, which we learned about only a few days later. From this time on, events begin to develop rapidly. We take blessings for the move from Fr. Alexandra Ruchkina, he introduces us to a real estate broker who is a parishioner of the Alexander Nevsky Church in Tallinn. And although at that time there was already a crisis in the real estate market in Estonia, housing was practically not being sold, our apartment was sold in 10 days. With this money we were able to buy good housing in our homeland and move safely.

This is how Mother Theodosia helped us after her departure. Truly God reveals his power in weak people who trust in him!”

From the memoirs of the cell attendant of Schema nun Elena Theodosia: “Not long before her death, mother was often given communion, monks came from the Kursk-Root Monastery to say goodbye to her. Before her death, Father Vasily gave communion to Mother. Her last words were like an instruction: “Now look into your sleigh yourself, what is in it and where you are going... Worldly life on earth has ended - spiritual life has come. Time passes quickly, only the strong will stand.” Mother herself blessed me to read the prayer of departure, as I read the “Canon for the Exodus of the Soul,” she sighed three times and went to the Lord.”

From the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of Schema nun Theodosia Tatian: “It is difficult to write about the last days of mother’s earthly life, I visited her from January 23 to 25, 2007, on my angel day. As mother said, “The Queen of Heaven sent it.” I was very seriously spiritually ill. At night, when I was sleeping, mother and Lena begged me, and during the day they slept, and I was busy with housework. I spent three unforgettable days with the old woman. They prayed together, remembered spiritual stories together, ate together. Mother was always in prayer, but as soon as you turned to her, she happily talked, explained, answered questions, reassured, and gave instructions. I remember I sat down at the feet of the old woman and began to talk about my pilgrimage to Cyprus, about the Kik monastery, about finding Miracle-working icon Mother of God. Warmth spread in my soul, as in a carefree childhood from the presence of my mother. The old woman smiled with the unusually pure smile of a baby, she smiled with her soul, and I saw how warm her soul was from this story. Mother placed her blessed hand on my head - light as fluff and pure as a shining snowball. And again I felt great love and as if it was my deceased mother. She felt sorry for me. And cell attendant Elena later said that I was very heavy, and, thank God, I got to them.

On my angel day, mother and Elena allowed me to prepare a meal. Mother sat down in her place at the table near the buffet, which surprised me, because I had seen the old lady all three days in the same place on the sofa. At the festive meal, the old woman sang a troparion to the holy martyr Tatiana, ate a little and moved to her sofa. Later she blessed her for the journey and asked to pray for her, saying that she was very sick. When leaving, I still did not realize where I was and what I had acquired... The eternal memory of my spiritual mother, who saved me from death. I magnify and honor your holy memory...

Upon arriving home, I immediately ordered health messages for my mother. On the same day Lena called and said that my mother was very ill. I wanted to return, but Lena didn’t allow me... Mother died on February 8, 2007.

At the funeral there were everyone who learned about the death, and who loved and revered mother. The memorial service was served by the monks of the Kursk-Root Monastery with Hegumen Veniamin and Father Vasily. There were a lot of people, tables were set in the church... they remembered, prayed, silently mourned the great loss...

They buried mother together with the nun Susanna - her last wish was fulfilled.

It’s been 3 years since Elder Schema-Nun Feodosia has been gone, but people remember her, go to her grave, ask for help and mother helps... I noticed that when I start my pilgrimage to the Kursk region by visiting my mother’s grave, the pilgrimage is always a success.

Those who ask for mother’s prayerful intercession testify that they feel spiritual support and help in solving material and family problems.

Anyone who wants to pray at the grave of Elder Feodosia, buried in the village of Deryugino near the Church of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, and visit the holy spring, can travel from Moscow from the Kursk railway station to the Mikhailov Rudnik station in one night. From the station to the village of Deryugino it takes 20 minutes by taxi. Or go to the city of Kursk, then take two buses for 2–3 hours.”

Today, the omnipresent pilgrims rushing to us from everywhere know Skopa’s schema-nun Theodosia by this name. Thanks to popular rumor and her unique gift, for more than ten years, the modest Orthodox elder has been prayerfully caring for suffering and needy compatriots in need of resolution of vital issues from all over the Russian Federation, regardless of their ranks and social status in society. It cannot be said that the well-known expression “there is no prophet in one’s own country” is directly somehow correlated with mother, but it turns out that despite the respect from the authorities, the veneration of fellow countrymen, the reverence of church ministers, not a single truthful film has yet been made , not a single book or even a tourist booklet has been published describing all the rules of reception and details of visiting a popular house in the village of Oktyabrsky. We agree that in our time of information abundance this is nonsense, a reason for the capital’s mass media to generate journalistic sensations and insinuations out of the blue.

First, we would like to tell you about her, as is customary among close people who are far from mercantile and mystical interests, to help you know everything you need and be prepared for the specifics of the visit.

Natalya Nikiforovna Kosorotikhina was born in the village of Velemya, not far from the working-class village of Oktyabrsky and the village of New Kieltsy, where she had to live after a work injury for about 15 years. This village in the pre-war years consisted of more than five hundred households. Parents Nikifor and Euphrosyne worked in nearby mines. Children Natalya and Olga first worked on the collective farm, and after graduating from school and vocational education courses, they ended up in the construction team of the Oktyabrsky MSO. It was there that a memorable work injury occurred, as a result of which Natalya found herself immobile and bedridden. The unpromising village of Velemya, where soon there were no parents, had to be exchanged for the village of New Kieltsy and settled with relatives on the maternal side. The village had its own medical center, a road that connected it with the regional center, and most importantly, it was an advanced collective farm, where life was in full swing. Natalya was looked after not only by relatives, but also by neighbors, local school teachers, and a paramedic. It was also known then that Natalya had a prophetic gift, which, according to rumor, was passed on from the priest of the Church of St. George the Victorious, Fr. Rodion, then Blessed Korolev, also residents of this village. However, the time of atheism and church oblivion did not leave traces of vivid memories of certain events in the memory of the villagers. Moreover, the victim was between life and death, as if in a lethargic dream, and they tried not to disturb her unnecessarily. But over time, her condition improved. Natalya took juices and light food. Speech began to return. Then the first messages of the prophetic gift began. Sister Olga, when she received her own housing, soon moved the patient to the village of Oktyabrsky, where she continued to work. At first, she looked after Natalya herself, then her friend began to do this on a voluntary basis. Thanks to her, rumors spread about the amazing abilities of the recovering Natalya Kosorotikhina. At this time, Perestroika had already begun and the Russian Orthodox Church began to regain its lost positions and open churches. More and more often, Natalya Nikiforovna attracted the attention of believers and the priests themselves. After some time, after several church unctions and urgent requests to become a nun, the rite of “tonsure as a schema-nun” was performed under the new name Schema-nun Theodosia. Now no one could doubt that Natalya, having become Feodosia, continues to conduct an interview with God. And her gift is God’s gift to the people around her.

The phenomenon of revelations and prophecies for a long time remained within the framework of church silence, since the official verdict of the metropolitan and patriarch was not issued. It still does not exist to this day, despite the fact that a separate commission has been created under the Metropolitan, which is preparing its expert decision. But at the same time, as happens in the Russian Orthodox Church, priests and mothers rushed from everywhere to the newly-minted gift-bearing nun. Often, if meetings fell on church holidays, service and glorification of God began to take place on the doorstep of the house. Ordinary parishioners also spontaneously reached out. At first, Mother Theodosia received visitors during the day, but over time, at her personal suggestion, the procedure was moved to the evening. It is clear that it was not always possible to receive all the guests in an evening. And my mother even then made it a rule, despite her health and symptoms of deterioration, to accept until the last visitor.

This is now an established ritual. This is what he looks like. Arrivals take their place on a first-come, first-served basis from 20-00 pm. Prepare your questions. Sometimes the details of communication are agreed upon with service personnel. As a rule, two women attend the visit. Sometimes the local priest helps them. The visit time does not exceed five to ten minutes, depending on the solution to the pressing issue. But it happens that some problems require a longer course. The visitor is led to the very bed where mother is located without outerwear and without shoes and sit on a bench. Since mother is hard of hearing, the question is duplicated by the bed lady. The answer comes from the lips of Mother Theodosia. She speaks simply, kindly, encouragingly. The voice is clear and transparent. A feeling of grace and solemn awe. It is not uncommon for visitors to burst into tears or become overly emotional. They will carefully take you to the first terrace and give you holy water. When the visit ends, the visitor goes out to the second terrace, where new visitors are already located. Everyone who comes, as a rule, brings something with them as a gift to mother and her assistants. It could be confectionery, medicinal herbs, honey, gifts from gardens and forests, firewood, crafts.

When visitors line up and patiently wait for the coveted sign to enter the first terrace, an exchange of opinions and memories often occurs. It turns out that most of the pilgrims are already visiting Mother for the fifth or tenth time. This is, according to the people themselves, former patients who were dismissed by doctors as hopeless, suffering from chronic debilitating diseases, teenagers broken down by paralysis and cerebral palsy syndromes, but many of them are already healed and in better health. It turns out that after meeting with mother and receiving some kind of impulse towards recovery, the wards were individually offered additional use of simple homeopathic remedies, as a decoction of meadow meadowsweet, birch chaga or field chamomile. Apparently, if all this information is collected, then readers can be presented with a plump book of miraculous healings that occurred “besides medical prescriptions and opinions.” But, most likely, this will not be some kind of experience to be repeated, but only evidence of an individual and targeted healing from the schema-nun Mother Theodosia. The rumor of the people and the strong opinion of the overwhelming majority of visitors defines the quality result as a kind of co-creation, cooperation, the beginning of which lies in the impulse from the mother, but the subsequent steps towards health and success must be persistently and methodically taken by the person himself, who is in the same living conditions as earlier. This optimizing factor is the main meaning of “receiving” help from above and using it in further life correction. Probably, all of us living on these difficult eves of global trials are lucky in that nearby on Skopino land for more than twenty years, like a spring or a lonely flute, the living sound of a mountain conversation has been flowing. Two people communicate. It is clear: who and with whom. And, each of us, somewhere nearby. And everyone who hears what is destined for him will be comforted forever.

About those who cry and grieve
“Don't cry! Everything will be fine"

About labor
“We have to work. How can you not work? This desolation is due to our negligence. The land that feeds us is abandoned, and that’s why our souls are in the weeds.”
“The Lord loves work. He says: “You work hard, slaves, and I will help you.”

About joy
“We used to live happily! Cold, hungry, but they went to work singing. Who's wearing what? We didn't have any shoes. Galoshes appeared later, but your feet froze in them at a construction site: where you stand, shifting from foot to foot, it’s cold. And now everything is there, everyone is full. Dressed up and shod. Why are you so sad?! Darling should be joyful!”

About drinkers
“The Mother of God turned away from them; she doesn’t want to look at them.”

About those who are discouraged
“The arms and legs are intact, what else do you need? You can run on green grass! As a child, we went to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries. And most importantly, go to church for Communion.”
“Why be discouraged? We must live!”

About Thanksgiving
“The Lord gives everything through prayer”
“Why don’t people strive for God now? Temples are open, buses run, almost everyone has a car...”
“Pray to God - the Lord will give you strength to endure everything. When you have something, thank God. When it doesn’t happen, thank God too! Now everything is on the table in abundance, we need to be happy. If it doesn’t happen, then praise the Lord.”

About the future
“Please, don’t destroy the stoves in old houses to celebrate the gas. They will come in handy.
My beloved children, I look at you, how young you are, and what you have to go through...
Keep a small supply of food. Anything can happen in one minute. If you don't expect it, it will come. But the Lord will help, He is stronger.”
“At least someone would ask how to save a soul, how to please God. No, they ask: “How to get married? For whom? Who will be born to me? But I’m not a fortune teller.”

About greed
“You feel that there is enough for future use, and now there is plenty of everything, take your surplus and donate it to a monastery or a large family. For such mercy, the Lord will extend good and generous days.”

About God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
“The Savior is with us, the Mother of God is with us”
“You need to pray to the Lord and love Mommy” (so she Holy Mother of God called).

About the mountain world
“Why did you feed me, the Mother of God Herself fed me”
“They taught me everything there.”
"I have a house there"

Mother's love for people
A psychic came to her, and she told her:
“Sorceress! How I love you...” She burst into tears and immediately tore up her “diploma” in psychic sciences.
“Peace be with you and I will be with you.”
“And I pray for everyone!”

About quarrels and anger
“Satan rejoices when you quarrel”
“Live in peace. Where there is peace, there is the grace of God. Stay with the Lord God!”

By the will of God
“Do everything God’s way. If you are guilty, make restitution fourfold (see: Luke 19:8).”
“True is with the Lord God. The truth can't be found anywhere else. Pray. Tell the truth. Live with God!”

Whom does God help?
“To everyone who loves God and goes to church!”
“Here I am praying, praying, feeling - my strength is fading away and soon I will appear before God, but I, a sinner, am not ready... And everyone understands that it’s hard for me. And then you look, and again the strength flows in, the Lord gives... And again you can accept people.”

About dead children and abortions
“It's Angels! They beg for the family. Just don’t kill.”
When I found out that someone had an abortion, I cried a lot.

Everyday questions
“Do you have your own mind? Trust in God, and don’t make a mistake yourself.”

Stubborn
“I’ll tell you how to treat yourself. But you still won’t listen to me. You won't do as I say. Do as you please"
“Well, what can I tell you? You know everything yourself.”

About simplicity
“This is how we lived. I loved potatoes and cucumbers so much... I’ll water them with sunflower oil. Yes, how delicious... Or you can eat a piece of fish and thank God! Why don't you take some bread? Always need some bread. Now they say something, you can’t eat too much bread. Yes, what a sin. How can one not eat bread? From time immemorial they have been eating. Yes, you're stuffed"

About hope
“Trust in God, pray to God, and He will manage everything”

About goodness
“Do good and speak the truth. Speak correctly. Live like that. Everything will be fine with you!”

About patience
“Be patient a little, my child! The Lord loves the patient!”

About commemoration
“I remember everyone in my prayers. I begin to remember from my village, and then I remember everyone who comes and comes.”

Lonely
“If someone’s fate doesn’t work out, they won’t find their loved one - let them remember that if they want, they will meet them!”

About families
“What do you call your husband’s parents? By name and patronymic? What does your husband call your parents? By name and patronymic? Call them dad and mom."
“Do you go to God’s temple, do you confess? Are you taking communion? Are you married yet?”
“Live in peace so that your marriage will be crowned. Take the children to church, confess, take communion.”

About love
"Have peace and love among each other"
“Where there is peace, there is the grace of God. Live in peace"
"Live according to God's commandments"

About the gift of children
“According to your faith, may it be done to you,” said the mother, and turning to her, the Lord gave children to families.

About the place of man
“The Mother of God did not bless me to leave for the monastery and I will not leave here anywhere, no matter how hard it is. Otherwise, we lose our crowns if we lose the place to which the Lord and Mother of God has assigned us!”

To the Russian people
“Russian people do not need to be afraid of anything - neither earthquakes, nor wars - God protects Russia. Everything will be fine for the one who does not forget about his soul - who prays to God, repents, and takes communion. Soon the time for prosperity will come for Russia - there will be enough food for everyone, there will be work, and life will get better.”

Exodus of the soul
Before Communion, I heard my mother’s quiet voice: “Father, I’m done, I’m out.” - "Where?" - I ask. "From the body." - “Who’s next to you?” - “Angels and Saints.” - “Are there demons?” - “No, they are not here.”
I looked at the wall clock: 9 o’clock in the morning. After the service, they reported that Mother Theodosia went to the Lord today at 9.10. He gave her communion the day before, May 14th.

Last Instruction
“You will celebrate Easter with joy, but you will see off Easter with tears. My joy! Don't cry! I feel so good! Nothing hurts me! If you only knew how my soul yearns to unite with the Lord!
Come to my grave. I prayed for you here and will be there! The Lord hears me! I’ll meet you there!”
_______________

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In the May days, we remembered Mother Theodosia - the old lady died three years ago, on May 15, 2014. A prayer worker, a seer, a quick helper and a comforter in sorrows, Mother Theodosia gained many spiritual gifts, being physically not just weak, but immobile. She lay paralyzed for 60 years, 20 of which were in a coma. But mother’s spirit remained cheerful, she was always with God. And she always remained a worker - only now in the spiritual field: comforting, encouraging, helping with advice and prayer to many, many people.

“The child will grow up!”

1923 Country on Golgotha. A girl was born in the small village of Velemya in the Ryazan region. They called her Natalya. The family of Nikifor and Euphrosyne Kosorotikhin already had three children: older sisters Fekla and Anya (all called her Onya) and brother Tikhon. And then a younger sister was born - Olenka. Other children were born, but died in infancy. Mother Theodosia (that’s how Natasha will be named when she was tonsured into the schema) later said about such people: “Angels!” They beg for the family. Just don't kill. Mother cried a lot when she found out that someone had an abortion.

“Why did you cause such trouble?” - one of her fellow villagers recalls how her mother met her.

The abortion resulted in severe complications, there was blood poisoning, they quartzed so much that the skin then peeled off my legs like stockings. Mother prayed, and she made a vow to God: if she survives, she will never have an abortion again. “You won’t give birth again,” the gynecologist said.

And two months later, the woman recalls, I became pregnant again. The husband drank (my mother said about “drunks,” as she herself put it: “The Mother of God turned away from them, she doesn’t want to look at them”). The eldest boy is about to go to school, and I give him a bath and, on purpose - I know that he can get out of the bath himself - I take him in my arms... My mother and I arrived at my mother’s, and she looked at me so sadly... She is usually very affectionate She greeted me with names, but then he pronounced the full name and said: “What you have in mind, you won’t succeed.” And next to me sits my mother, who asked my mother for prayers for me when I was dying just now; but he doesn’t know that I’m pregnant again. We leave mother’s place, I remain silent. And my mother starts crying: “Lord! Well, why don’t you say anything to your own mother?! What are you up to?" I told my mom. And she: “Oh my God! During the war, they raised eight children each. The child will grow up!”

We were in the house of the already deceased Mother Theodosia, and the woman called her son:

Kolenka, come here!

A tall, handsome guy came up and smiled.

It turns out that he brought old women here by car, first one, then another, and helped here, soon returning to them.

“I, as my mother blessed me,” his mother says, “I didn’t go to the hospital or take tests, I was only here, and she told me: “Don’t cry! - (I worked in a hazardous industry). - Everything will be fine". And when I was about to give birth, she suddenly said: “Everyone will be amazed by the boy.”

Those post-revolutionary and war generations saw so many deaths in their lifetime that they knew how to value life. The country, washed by the sobering blood of the new martyrs and heroic defenders of the Fatherland from the dominance of the red gum, even in those terrible years, in the memories of those faithful to Christ, is Easter bright.

“The Lord loves work”

By 1937, which was called the bloodiest year in the history of our country of the 20th century, the Kosorotikhins lost their mother. She was not repressed, her family was not dispossessed, she was not exiled. Here, on the fertile land of Ryazan, she suffered from backbreaking labor. She died right in Natasha's arms.

Back then we worked a lot physically: collective farms, construction sites, socially useful work - about which Mother Theodosia herself always spoke, even without a hint of grumbling or discontent: “We have to work. How can you not work?”

This desolation is due to our negligence. The nursing land is abandoned, that’s why souls are in the weeds

“The Lord loves work,” mother never tired of repeating, “He says: “You work hard, slaves, and I will give you a boost.” You need to go into the field as soon as the soil dries out and sow. This desolation is due to our negligence. The land that feeds us is abandoned, and that is why our souls are in the weeds - we will have to answer to God.

Parents who would later flock to her with questions about their children would grieve out loud:

Yes, we have no fear of God. What do we ask the children?

And before, children in large families were raised through work and caring for each other. As soon as it was light, we went up to the gardens in spring and summer. And also feed some kind of stotinka, poultry. All this was still subject to exorbitant taxes.

Men, as indeed now, went from the outback to Moscow to work - also dad Nikifor Kosorotikhin. So the whole house, the whole household was on my mother’s shoulders. The children, of course, helped, they grew up compassionate and not selfish.

In the past, there was no central heating system, and after a grueling day at work you had to go to the forest for brushwood. And also bring water in buckets home. Not to mention what to cook, wash the dishes, clean up, do the laundry. Sew clothes, mend, patch...

Knowing how difficult all this is, the children grew up thrifty, not spenders, but not greedy either. The hungry will always understand the hungry. Bread was highly valued. Mother always called him “a gift from God.” She told me to take care of each piece and “not throw it away” (do not throw it away). Remember how the Lord blessed the apostles to collect everything to the last detail (see: John 6:12).

The children grew up in gratitude, and this gave them joyful cheerfulness in their souls.

We used to have fun! Cold, hungry, but they went to work singing, mother recalled. - Who is wearing what? We didn't have any shoes. Galoshes appeared later, but your feet froze in them at a construction site: where you stand, shifting from foot to foot, it’s cold. And now everything is there, everyone is full. Dressed up and shod. Why are you so sad?! Darling should be joyful!

“The arms and legs are intact, what else do you need? - I was then surprised at my contemporaries who were prone to depression. “You can run on green grass!” I myself recalled how, as a child, we went to the forest to pick mushrooms and berries. And most importantly - to the temple for Communion.

"Thank God!"

In the area around the church, everyone was already in disgrace, so they got to the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Skopin on foot. They left around two or three in the morning and were in time for the service. They will take communion, and then go back. And along the way there are so many holy “wells”, everyone will pray. Even today, Mother gave her blessing to clear and consecrate the holy springs that were familiar to her from her childhood and youth. “The Lord gives everything through prayer,” said the old woman.

Why don’t people strive for God now? - I was surprised. - Temples are open, buses run, almost everyone has a car...

This state is quite similar to what it was exactly 100 years ago before the revolution of 1917, which today researchers call the “revolution of the well-fed.”

By the way, mother did not give her blessing to destroy the stoves in old houses to celebrate the gas.

My beloved children, I look at you, how young you are, and what you have to go through... - she sometimes sighs.

But she did not intimidate in any way; on the contrary, she encouraged:

When you have something, thank God. When it doesn’t happen, thank God too!

Pray to God - the Lord will give you strength to endure everything. When you have something, thank God. When it doesn’t happen, thank God too! There's plenty of everything on the table now, I'm glad from I need it. If it doesn’t, then praise the Lord.

She blessed at least the minimum, but keep a supply of food at home.

“Anything can happen in one minute,” she said. If you don't expect it, it will come.

True, I exhorted you not to be greedy, but you feel that there is enough for the future, and now there is plenty of everything, take your surplus and donate it to a monastery or a large family. For such mercy, the Lord will extend good and generous days.

“Her face is somehow very alive...”

Natasha was 18 when the war began. They, the youth, were sent to the front to dig trenches.

Where will they take it? Where will they take you? Where do we live? What do we eat? They didn’t know anything, they only saw one job.

And after the war again: work and work. She worked with prisoners of war in a mine, then in a construction crew...

Back then, people were injured a lot at work. They were transported throughout the year in open dump truck bodies. So Natasha and her younger sister Olya had their first accident in the early 1950s: the truck overturned. The injuries were severe, they even wanted to give the sisters disability, but they refused: “How can you do nothing? Young people need to work.”

Wasn’t it this zealous dispensation that revealed to the world such an unceasing prayer book, just as she had no other opportunity for selfless care for others?..

They lived hungry, the sisters wanted to marry Natasha. Few men returned from the war then. Yes, Natasha was a prominent bride. “Lord, do not allow my matchmaking,” she prayed to the Groom whom she hoped for, returning after Communion to the Assumption in 1953. “This was the last service that I went to with my own legs,” mother later recalled.

It was on the day when the matchmakers were supposed to arrive in the evening that the second accident happened.

The side of the dump truck, when they were unloading bricks, overturned on the workers. The man is immediately killed. He left four orphans, and they later came to see their mother in our days. And Natasha herself was taken to the morgue, lifeless. And there was one nurse nurse: “Her face is somehow very alive...” - just put the mirror to your lips, but it fogged up.

For a long time they did not want to give Natasha to her relatives.

Yes, you don’t even have the necessary funds to care for such a seriously ill patient. We send such people to Moscow for experiments, that’s what they said directly.

Then the husband of Olya’s younger sister, with whom he had just gotten married, wrote a receipt that he would take his relative in a coma under his responsibility. But he himself was sent on a long business trip - he was a military man. So Olya devoted herself to caring for her unconscious sister. They never saw their husband again.

God and the Mother of God know what happened to Natasha’s soul all these years. “The Savior is with us, the Mother of God is with us,” mother often repeated later. She also instructed: “Pray to the Lord and love Mommy (that’s what she called the Most Holy Theotokos).”

"Me there taught"

On Easter 1973, mother came to her senses. Although before, in fact, the soul mysteriously manifested its presence in the sleeping body. When they were burying their older sister Fyokla, Natasha suddenly said: “Momma” (the older sister really remained their mother to all of them). And brother Tikhon came to say goodbye to Natasha - and died right there. When the coffin with the body was carried out, her tears flowed.

Then, out of the blue, as it seemed to many, she could say to a relative: “Petya, say hello to my parents,” and he suddenly died suddenly...

These terms allotted to each of us were open to Mother. But she didn’t tell everyone about it. If you tell a person, it’s unknown how he will react to it,” explains Archpriest Oleg Vorobyov, dean of the Danilovsky deanery of Moscow. - Oh, I remember, I was once in Jerusalem, my mother called: “Tell so-and-so: let him serve and receive communion every day.” Literally in the next few days I meet this priest, who was only once with my mother. “Mother asked me to tell you...” - “Why?” - “Well, why?!”... And it was on this day, when mother called, that a year later this priest passed away. She opened it to him because he built the temple of the Archangel Gabriel - the messenger of both life and death. Or, I remember, the dean of Alushta, Archpriest Mikhail Khalyuta, died († 03/20/2014). He never went to Mother Feodosia himself, and then I just happened to be with her and told her that he had passed away. And mother - once, she went into oblivion, as she used to do - then she returns and says: “You know, the Great Martyr Varvara met him there!” Wow, I think. I called his son - now the dean of Sevastopol, Sergius Khalyuta. So and so, I say, mother said... And he answered: “Yes, he had a large 17th-century icon of the Great Martyr Barbara, all his life he took it to the parishes where he was transferred, and served akathists before it. And two years before his death, he took her to his last church in Alushta of all the Crimean saints and Theodore Stratelates to the altar and read the akathist there every week almost until his death.”

Mother also saw the spiritual world, and saw the realities of the physical world, even when her eyes were still closed for some time after emerging from a coma; and then, bedridden, I saw something happening far in time and distant in space.

“Natasha, when will your eyes open?” - asked the assembled relatives when Natasha woke up. “For the Ascension,” she answered. And indeed, not in the same year, but precisely on this holiday this happened.

One of Natasha’s first words was: “Why did you feed me, the Mother of God Herself fed me.” And then, it happened that sister Olya would bring lunch, but she didn’t seem to need food. “Well, before, when you were unconscious, did you eat?..” - and then suddenly he remembers the words of his sister, who seemed to have some kind of heavenly relationship.

Otherwise, she will hear Natasha praying and understand that these are prayers that they could not read in childhood... “How do you know them?” - "Me there taught."

Who studied for what, as they used to say. Ahead are 40 years of colossal prayer work. Cross of senile care for the people.

"Live with God"

Mother received everyone.

Mother, there’s a camp of gypsies there! Well, maybe the gypsies,” the child will try to take care of the peace of the old lady, “shouldn’t be allowed in?”

How is it that gypsies are not needed?! - Mother will be indignant.

And they, it turns out, brought the newlyweds to bless her for marriage. Their families agree among themselves - the older generation - which of the young people will marry whom, and then they go to their mother for a blessing: what will she say? how will he bless? And they had virtually no divorces.

And once one psychic tried to sneak into her mother’s cell, and people pushed her away with their elbows: “You have nothing to do here!” She finally made her way under their feet, crawling to the crib, and mother looked at her so tenderly and felt sorry for her:

Little sorceress! How I love you...

She burst into tears and right there, in mother’s cell, tore up her “diploma” in psychic sciences.

Mother didn’t even reject bandits,” marvels the head of the city of Skopin (in 2000-2011), Ivan Mikhailovich Eganov. “He’ll find some kind of concern for them too—someone to stand up for.” And then you look: his heart will soften, and grace will touch him. He will come out of her - red all over from tears, bursting into tears.

It happened that they wouldn’t divide the inheritance and they would quarrel so much that they couldn’t see each other. One such elder brother tearfully asked for forgiveness on his knees from his relatives in his mother’s cell, and then the whole family was shot by racketeers before his eyes. It was the 1990s. What would happen if, in such irreconcilability, the souls of blood relatives were separated? He even made a vow to God: I will go to a monastery if I stay alive. And the Lord preserved him for repentance.

"Satan is glad from"When you quarrel," mother said. They will come to their senses - and she is glad: “Peace be with you - and I will come to you.” In general, I always tried to somehow gather everyone around the table, give them something to drink and feed, so that no one would leave "lean and inconsolable" Yes, I let go of all the grievances against everyone.

She talked about the beauty of paradise, about how everything here is really insignificant and passes quickly. Someone saw what a dilapidated house my mother lived in and offered to build her a normal house. "I have there home,” she refused.

Do everything God’s way, she instructed. - If you are guilty, make amends fourfold (see: Luke 19:8).

The truth is with the Lord God. The truth can't be found anywhere else. Pray. Tell the truth. Live with God - her instructions were simple.

Here in this small house on the outskirts of the Skopino village of Oktyabr, and there were regular speakers of the State Duma, and governors, and ordinary people, and the mighty of the world this.

Spiritual mother

Mother rejoiced when the priests came to her. Not knowing exactly the date of her birth, she celebrated November 4, the Kazan Icon, all her life. In general, on Mother of God holidays I might not accept it. Then the priests came to her - up to 20 priests could gather: prayers were served, akathists were read.

Mother very much loved now Metropolitan Kirill (Nakonechny) of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye, then Archbishop of Yaroslavl and Rostov. She called him “Son”. And the clergy, it is known, had a formula that could even be heard during the funeral service of the righteous woman: our mother, schema-nun Theodosia. For all the reverence with which she treated those in office, she truly was a spiritual mother to many monastic and married priests.

The tonsure immediately into the schema became church recognition of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the ascetic was vouchsafed with: prayer, consolation, healing, insight, prophecy. With the blessing of Metropolitan Simon of Ryazan and Kasimov, Simon (Novikov; † 09/1/2006) was tonsured in 1997 by an ascetic of high spiritual life, an Athosite, abbot of the St. John the Theologian Monastery, in Poshupovo in the Ryazan region, Archimandrite Abel (Makedonov; † 12/6/2006).

A few years earlier, Archimandrite Naum (Bayborodin) from the Holy Trinity Lavra of Sergius came to my mother and predicted tonsure for her (as well as for Agathia, who was still following her at that time, in the monasticism of Pelageya). In total, Father Naum visited Mother Theodosia twice, although they communicated prayerfully in some mysterious way in the spirit. The mother could have sent her children to him, if they definitely needed to get to him (to get advice about the seminary), send them and reassure them: “It’s okay, he won’t accept you now, but he will accept you.” And indeed, the son, according to his mother’s stories, managed to “accidentally” meet the elder somewhere on the stairs and talk to him.

Like on wings!

Mother herself took it at night. From 9-10 pm until the last visitor. And they could be in recent years both 100 and 150 people per night. Previously, the police and KGB officers tracked down believers, so they tried to visit the old woman after dark. And then it happened like that. He receives at night and prays during the day. When mother was sleeping, people close to her sometimes found it difficult to answer.

Olga Solovyova, the wife of Mother’s great-nephew Sergei, who has been looking after Mother for the last ten years, recalls that for someone Mother, with tears, for a long time and persistently could God and Mother of God pray until he receives notice.

The monks say: there is no harder work than prayer. But for this, the soul, in principle, must have a predisposition to work. So the lively and hard-working Natasha found herself paralyzed for more than 60 years and unconscious for 20 years, and the need to work is, it turns out, a property not of the body, but of the spirit.

Likewise, when the soul is separated from the body, isn’t the Lord’s call to such all and always necessary workers: “Well done, good and faithful servant!.. Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:21)?

Schema-nun Theodosia (Kosorotikhina) rested at the age of 90 on May 15, 2014, on the day of remembrance of the holy passion-bearers and martyrs, noble princes Boris and Gleb - the church closest to her house was dedicated to these saints, and they buried her there. A few hours before her death, early in the morning, mother received the Holy Mysteries of Christ in full memory. Then she asked the priest who communed her - the rector of the Boris and Gleb Church, Archpriest Konstantin Gusarov - to look at her “death bundle,” that is, the things set aside for burial in preparation for death.

When Vladyka Kirill came to say goodbye and saw how many people had gathered, the clergy in Easter red vestments, how many flowers they brought, so that not only did they not fit at the coffin, but they didn’t even fit in the church and vases began to be placed on the street along the church walls, then involuntarily said: “This is more like a glorification rather than a funeral.”

The 40 days of Mother’s blessed death were celebrated at the Council of Ryazan Saints.

Everyone around this hard worker felt light and joyful.

We’ll come tired, sad,” share the sisters of the Princess Monastery that was previously next door to my mother’s house, “and we’ll fly away from her as if on wings!”

There wasn’t a puddle in the village (despite the fact that they were quite impressive on the broken roads of October) that I couldn’t jump over when I left my mother’s! - admits some businessman-neighbor, clearly dejected by a lot of troubles and litigation.

Mother gave not only the spiritual strength to cover the infirmities and stupidity of loved ones with love, to humble oneself, to endure, but also physically tangible, grace-filled energy to overcome difficulties and illnesses. Next to the old woman - in the co-presence of God close to her - it was easy even in sorrow.

Thus she denounced the imaginary dominion of sin and the transitory image of this age over the immortal soul of each of us and the spirit liberated by the Sacrifice of Christ. Christ has truly risen in her heart.

Mother Theodosia did not hide any secrets of this blessed life, did not take it with her. The main thing, she commanded, is for people to return to the Church, repent, and receive communion. Moreover: “Live in peace,” she said. “Where there is peace, there is the grace of God.” “Stay with the Lord God!”

"The Christian spirit breathed in her"

Archpriest Oleg Korytko, assistant to His Holiness the Patriarch, rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring” in Tsaritsyno:

When I had problems, I went to Mother Theodosia and asked: “Mother, pray.” Humanly, we had a warm, trusting relationship. Mother had spiritual wisdom. And in everyday life she was very reasonable. I tried to take her blessing for every major step in my life. For example, you enter a seminary: “Mother, bless!” - “Yes, yes, it’s a good thing. We need priests!” - “Pray.” - “Well, with God!” These could be fairly general phrases. If you listen to her from the outside, she's okay such- striking the imagination - did not say. Smiling, friendly. Lying in her white handkerchief, outwardly seemingly helpless, is caring itself.

It seems to me that this is a very correct approach: do not cut from the shoulder. Act with reasoning and - most importantly - with attention to the position of the person himself: “What do you want?” He will listen, and if this does not contradict the commandments, he will say: “Come on, come on! Well, God help! " Such that: “so! I'm an old lady! listen to me - I bless you to do so!” - it wasn’t. I’ll send you somewhere now, and then you’ll execute me for it - that’s not mother’s way. Rather, some kind of aura was created around her, an atmosphere of exalted enthusiasm was created by some wild admirers. It's confusing. She herself had never been like this. She treated this with a condescending smile: “Well, they say, it happens...” As if she herself was embarrassed for this. She had modesty. This has always fascinated me too.

The Christian spirit breathed in her. Therefore, I never expected or looked for any miracles from her. And that’s not the main thing! Much more important is rootedness in church tradition and the mutual prayer of people for each other. We still pray for her, and she prays for us. I honor her as a prayer book before God.

“The Mother of God does not command!”, or How to live like a God

Archpriest Igor Goryachev, rector of the Trinity Church in the village of Luzhniki (Stupino deanery):

Since the 1990s, I went to see my mother, she wasn’t even tonsured yet, she was just Natasha. He gave her communion when she asked. She read prayers, canons, and akathists to her very much. How ecclesiastical she was! Because now we seem to have a lot of people who believe in God, but these people are so far from the Church... But in my mother there was genuine reverence. We listened to her advice. They loved her.

More than 25 years ago, where I serve was in ruins. There was no heating, there was nothing to live on. I am a newly married young priest. They offer me to serve in the very center of Moscow - in the Church of Florus and Laurus near the Paveletsky station. And my wife and I even had housing there - literally two stops on the tram. And they promise the following schedule: you serve for a week, a week off. This is where I have been serving alone for 26 years without a change. For me then, of course, it was a very tempting offer.

And Mother Theodosia immediately said: “The Mother of God does not command!” Nowadays everyone strives according to the proverb: fish look for where it is deeper, and man looks for where it is better - and this is not in the Divine way. I understood that God’s will: no matter how destroyed the temple or how unsettled the parish, since the Lord has brought it, serve!

When I refused the offer, the rector of the church, Archpriest Alexy Zotov († 02/12/2012), even respected me and admitted that he himself, it turns out, in his youth began in the church of the holy martyrs Florus and Laurus, in the city of Kashira near Moscow, but not survived and ran away from there a year later. And then, in his old age, as he said, in order to atone for his sin, he began to restore the temple of these saints at the Paveletsky station, on Zatsepa.

We survived here thanks to the prayers of our mother. A village priest has many hardships. You have to do everything yourself. To restore the temple, to serve, to be an elder, to be a watchman in the temple... If you break out to Mother Theodosia, you will receive a breath of strength. Spiritual communication and prayer support are the most important thing.

I had the opportunity to communicate with Fathers Ioann (Krestyankin) and Adrian (Kirsanov) from the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, and with Pavel (Gruzdev) and Kirill (Pavlov). Whenever you meet them, you will always draw from their humility, love, gentleness, and meekness. Something so good emanates from them that it is difficult to express in words, but in which the soul can no longer go wrong. After communicating with holy people, you can clearly determine for yourself whether a person lives by the Holy Spirit or by the evil spirit of this age. It's immediately obvious.

When we were young, we needed everything, we looked for everything ourselves, we climbed everywhere. They tried to get to the elders. This is some kind of youth now, they don’t need anything. So the Lord will take away all the elders.

You could feel from my mother that she was a holy person. Very prayerful. She loved everyone. This is the distinctive quality of a Christian. “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). And she loved us all! I prayed for everyone. And she remembered everyone by name. So many people came to visit her, and she also started asking about her family: “How is Natasha? How’s Olezhek?” He will ask everything about everyone. Even if a person came to her once, she remembered it all her life and prayed.

Does mother help everyone?

r.B. Natalia Zh., mother of six children:

I remember in the early 1990s I came to my mother almost for the first time and said: “I’m Natasha.” - “I don’t know anything!” - she answers. The children always left their cells dumbfounded: “Mom! She called you by name!” Although we sometimes arrived after some considerable time. Mother didn’t need to introduce herself; by the Holy Spirit she already knew everything about you both the first time and the next time. You’re still somewhere there at the entrance, or you’re about to get to the back of the line, and, I remember, cell attendant Pelageya comes out into the street (she was very strict) and says: “Who’s here with Anechka?! Come here! And it’s me and one of my daughters who are just approaching the crowd of people at the gate, and mother, it turns out, is already calling. I came to my mother to ask for prayers, asked for the children. I can still hear my mother’s words: “Let’s pray, Natalya!” No one ever called me that again.

My son was very sick. We were restoring the temple, the builders lived in our home. The temple was completely destroyed. 37 Kamaz trucks hauled away debris, soil, and sand from crumbled bricks. The five-year-old son was constantly hanging around the workers. I decided to take the rolls to them. He placed the board against the window, climbed, could not resist and fell. He developed a cyst in his brain. Epi-syndrome began. This is not epilepsy, but he fainted with convulsions, and with such convulsions that he had to constantly check in the hospital whether his brain had moved. It was with this misfortune that I came to my mother. “Everything will pass,” she answers and adds: “You beat the egg with honey.” And then such post-perestroika times came: sometimes you couldn’t find eggs, sometimes you couldn’t find honey. I already had three children, all the same, and sometimes the house was like a ball. But I periodically stirred something up there... I now understand that she was hiding her prayerful feat behind such recommendations. Mother immediately said about her son: “He is my grandson!” At the draft board, doctors look at a recent photograph, but there is no cyst. In the pictures for many previous years there is, but they don’t find it! They tell us: “Take another shot!” And again: nothing. The doctor from the military registration and enlistment office insisted: “This doesn’t happen!” Before this, we examined leading professors everywhere: in Burdenko and others scientific centers. “What if there’s a miracle?!” - I tell him. From the very beginning I believed that since mother said “everything will pass,” so it will be.

I remember one day I came to my mother and said: “Can I have a daughter?” She answers with her light flying intonation: “Let it be!” And indeed, my daughter Mashenka was born later. We did not immediately bring her to her mother, because the baby was undergoing surgery. And before the operation, they prayed fervently in Khotkovo at the relics of St. Cyril and Mary. And so we come to my mother, Mashenka is one year old, she is like a little bear, walking around her cell in overalls. And her mother says to her: “Mashenka, bring Maryushka, bring Maryushka!” The child approaches the icons, which then stood on such low benches throughout the room, and out of all the outwardly similar images in the technique of execution, he takes the icon of the Venerables Cyril and Mary and brings it to his mother! And it was at this moment that the canaries, of which mother had many then, all began to chirp. “You see how happy they are!” - said mother. We adults even shed tears then.

Masha grew up and came to her mother after school to take her blessing. “And what do you want?” - asks her mother. “I want,” he answers, “to go to university.” “Look! - says the old woman, concentrates and adds: - Okay. If you want, then you will do it.” Then some terrible temptations began with submitting documents. But the daughter was calm: “Since mother said that I would do it, then I will do it!” I didn’t even apply anywhere else, namely to the university where I wanted to study. The competition was huge, but she actually qualified for a budget place based on points.

My friend’s eyes hurt a lot, it was like sand was poured in, she barely made it to Skopin. I only had time to ask my mother about the children. “And my eyes,” he later says, “didn’t hurt anymore!” Although she didn’t even ask anything to herself, she just spent a minute next to her mother.

The children had to be raised somehow; money was needed. We planned to open a small hotel. But mother didn’t bless everything, she asked some leading questions: “Where will you live?..” She already understood then that the children would grow up, go to school and they would have to go to school. We haven’t even had such a thought in our heads yet. This is the second time my husband and I have left my mother’s house, having never received a blessing for this project, we approach the car, he opens the door on one side, I open the door on the other - we meet our eyes and then we both understand: that we have to live there. We didn't want this. But, as it turned out later, this was the only optimal solution. The daughters did not have to return from school to the distant Moscow region after dark or live in hostels.

I once took my daughter-in-law to my mother, and she was going back and suddenly asked: “Does mother help everyone?” Next time I convey these words, and mother replies: “To everyone who loves God and goes to church!”

Mother Theodosia is simply light. Source of strength. When you came to her, there was always a feeling that all the power that the Lord Himself acted in her weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9), she gave to people without reserve. This was the main miracle: the mighty of this world, strong and healthy, knelt down at the crib of this seemingly helpless little man and sought her help and support. Mother is paralyzed, and you feel as if you were hugged and encouraged. We're all so worthless. There are no children - we cry. There are children - we groan again: Lord, it’s difficult. And you came to your mother, and nothing hurt anywhere. You drive with a bunch of questions, and they all fall away along the way, because they are far-fetched! We were all consoled by our mother.

“God sent you to me through my mother’s prayers”

Archpriest Sergiy Rybakov, Chairman of the Department religious education and catechesis of the Ryazan Metropolis, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences:

I returned to Russia from Kazakhstan, but there is nowhere to live here. The apartment is still there, the children are there too, there is nowhere to move them here. I came to Mother Feodosia: so and so, I say, such disorder... There was Lent, mother answers: “Pray.” What else is left to do? I pray. But immediately it became easier to pray. And it’s not to say that these difficulties were very difficult to experience at that time: everyone was practically in such disarray then, they lived on old supplies.

And then we came to mother for the second time, it was already closer to Easter, and mother suddenly said: “Why aren’t you going, why aren’t you selling the apartment?!” The Bishop himself did not let me go then: I had to serve, but my mother went. And in two days there, in Kazakhstan, I sold the apartment. And successfully, for a reasonable price. And the next day they had some kind of economic collapse there - she might not have received anything at all for this apartment, and we, if we were even one day late, would have been left without anything at all.

But housing prices are different everywhere! And my son was already studying in Moscow at that time, I had to live on rented apartments, I'm tired. We come to mother to take a blessing somewhere in the Moscow region to look for an apartment - even if we go by train to school, we’ll all have our own corner. And my mother says: “No, no, you need an apartment in Moscow!” “Well, mother, how can it be in Moscow... - I’m trying to realistically assess the situation - when prices have such a huge difference!” “Nothing,” he says, “look!” They started looking. You know, an amazing thing happened: we actually found an apartment that suited our price, and it was also a three-room apartment, although small, but... brick house on the sixth floor and in a good area in the east of Moscow.

The former owner told the following story. He just bought himself the day before nice apartment, but this one urgently needed to be sold. Yes, then also the mayor of Moscow Yu.M. Luzhkov ordered that double tax be paid for the second apartment. And so he began to sell his apartment, but there were no buyers, and that’s all. He reduced the price several times, so that in the end he put it up for auction at almost three times cheaper than the original price. And here we show up with exactly that amount in hand. Although the price was almost symbolic, no one took this apartment from him without us and for that price. The realtor couldn't understand anything. After listening to our story, the former owner later said: “God sent you to me through my mother’s prayers.”

What made mother happy?

Archpriest Vyacheslav Agureev, rector of the Assumption Church in the village of Lipitino (Stupino deanery):

We didn’t have children for several years, and my wife was very worried. We came with her to mother Feodosia, and she told us a “parable”: “Here my mother came to see me, she has three children...” But my mother did not yet understand that this was a conversation about her, and she began to cry. Then, through tears: “Will they?” “They will! - Mother answers. “And maybe more.” Through the prayers of the old lady, we soon had three boys in a row, and then three more girls. We didn’t even go to any doctors.

Mother Theodosia once told how one mother was going to give birth to a baby, but the doctors were categorically against it. “No,” they convince, “you won’t give birth, your health is poor.” “And we,” Mother Theodosia explains, “we prayed to God...” Doctors send a woman in labor for an abortion: “Your baby will be defective!” “And we,” Mother Theodosia flatly disagrees with these oracles, “we prayed to God.” - “But he’s not moving!” And mother kept saying: “And we prayed to God!” - “You won’t give birth on your own...” - “And we prayed to God! “And Nikolushka himself was born,” said Mother Theodosia, “just in time for the winter Saint Nicholas, healthy and handsome.” Mother’s prayers always brought very clear help.

Some grumble about the disease, how to get rid of it as quickly as possible. And the saints say: “Health is a gift of God, and illness is a priceless gift of God.” If you accept it, like Mother Theodosia, with thanksgiving, then this cross will turn into such spiritual gifts! The Lord Himself knows what to give us and when. And if they don’t send something, it means they’re not ready. There is no need to ask for some gift.

At the funeral service for Elder Kirill (Pavlov), His Holiness said in his sermon: “What is clergy? This is a waste of not only spiritual, but also physical strength on this or that person.” Pelageya, a former cell attendant, would sometimes swear: “After you, mother’s shirt is completely wet - at least you can wring it out! All of you: give it to me, give it to me, but no one will ask how it feels for her...”

Mother was always happy when we ourselves worked, did something in such a way that her instructions and spiritual advice were not in vain. We were restoring the temple, I came and told her, she always saw everything for herself and said: “Yes, yes.”

In general, mother clearly saw the light: you come, for example, to her, and she “reports”: “I prayed for you all the way, there was an accident along the way.” And indeed, someone crashed, and we also had dangerous moments. “Oh-oh-oh, what kind of car did you come in...” - she could lament, knowing that it was this particular car that was faulty. She always accompanied me back in prayer.

We were driving away from her one day, and my car tire burst. I stopped: there was only five minutes to do. I had everything with me: a jack and a spare tire. Changed it. I set off, drove about ten meters, I felt: there are no documents - they fell out of my pocket! I returned and found a hole on the side of the road from a jack. While I was hanging around there, looking, all the cars I overtook on the way passed by. I was actually in a hurry. And then it’s as if something is holding me back. I get into the car, annoyed, and it turns out that my wallet has fallen between the seats! Let's go, and there is a collision.

When we served prayer services at Mother’s, it was something unearthly. It was as if a heavenly presence was already opening up to us. After that, I didn’t want to talk or fuss - just to maintain this state as long as possible. To be imbued with this spirit of grace - this was the main thing for which we sought to mother. Although she, of course, gave tips on life. She prayed for us. This spiritual connection is not interrupted. She said: “Come to my grave.”