From nun Seraphima, faithful people left refreshed, forgetting their experiences and illnesses. Through her prayers unsolved daily problems were solved as if by themselves. The prayer of the wise old woman led people to the true path.
Mother was born not far from Moscow in the village of Kashino in a pious family. Her wealthy parents, Elijah and Mary, dreamed of giving their daughter a brilliant education and a profitable marriage, but by God's providence, the girl was destined to become the bride of Christ.
When the question of marriage arose, the girl asked her parents to wait one night - to pray that the Lord would decide whether she would marry or become a monastic. Her parents agreed and God revealed to her that He was pleased with her monasticism.
Shortly before the wedding, she secretly left her father's house and went to the monastery of Prince Vladimir Filimonovsky. Here she was received with love, she was given obedience - to bring water from a well located in a plain to the cells.
For five years, the mother carried heavy buckets of water uphill, later she was ordered to pick and collect mushrooms for the winter, and there were other obediences.
One winter, she was seriously ill and her sisters took her in a sleigh to the doctor. A snowstorm broke out. On the way, the patient fell from the sled. After a long search, they found her heavily frozen, covered in snow. God's chosen one miraculously survived.
Since then, the sufferer's legs and arms have been twisted and her body has been covered in sores. After this incident, the mother took the shape, in honor of our reverend father Seraphim of Sarov.
In November 1928 the monastery was closed, the nuns and novices were expelled. Some of them went home, some found refuge in nearby villages.
On a cold November day, the nun Seraphima, lying on an iron bed, was taken by the authorities outside the monastery fence to a birch grove. Matuska lay under the open sky for a long time, until a sympathetic girl Maria found her.
Shortly after the closure of the monastery, the doctors proposed to amputate her painful finger, this girl Maria, who was in her cell until the end of her life, was threatened with gangrene and, as a result, could be left without a hand and she might die.
Mother Seraphim herself made an ointment from candles, fir cones and oil from the twelve feasts. Matuska anointed Mary's sore finger while she prayed. With her prayers, the tumor went away, no surgery was needed.
Maria was an orphan and lived with her aunt, they lived in poverty. When her finger hurt, she ran to the Filimonovsky monastery, where she met the mother. After her recovery, she started coming to the mother
When the persecution began, the Red Army came, all the nuns were dispersed. But Mother Seraphim was motionless. She was the regent of this temple. They took her out on a bed not far from the monastery in a birch grove. This is in the month of November.
And when Maria ran to look for her, she was told, and your mother is there...they took her there. She ran to her aunt and began to beg her ... Somehow she managed to settle somewhere. First, with my aunt. And she took care of her mother. Her mother said: "Don't worry Maria, everything will be fine..."
Maria attached herself with all her heart to Mother Seraphima, decided on her own that she would never leave the sufferer. Not only did she take care of the sick, but she nursed other people's children to somehow earn a living. A few years later, the nun Seraphima said it was time to think about marriage.
From the memoirs of Maria's cell attendant: "The time has come, the mother says:
- I have to get married ...
- I don't want to!
"You have to, girl."
Through the prayers of the shrewd old woman, Kuzma Kuznetsov soon charmed the girl. Maria replied to the groom that she agreed, but on the condition that Mother Seraphima would also stay with them. The young man agreed. After the wedding, Maria began to live in Kuzma's house in the village of Kommunarka State Farm. A place for the nun Seraphima was also found in Kuzma's house.
In 1940 a son was born to Maria and Kuzma and in 1947 a daughter. The boy was named Yura and the girl, in honor of the nun, Seraphima.
For twenty-two years, until her mother's death, Maria was her cell attendant. Maria all these years has not heard a single complaint from the half-paralyzed old woman.
Caring for the sick woman, wiping her twisted hands and feet and tending to the bruised wounds on the ascetic's body, Maria admired every time the courage and infinite patience of the old woman, from her lips, not a single groan escaped. but thanks to the Lord for everything.
For her steadfast faith, unquenchable love for the Lord and great humility, the sufferer was rewarded with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit: insight and healing. The Seraphima nun, who for so many years suffered from incurable ulcers, was given from Above to heal physical illnesses and spiritual wounds.
According to contemporaries, the beloved old woman was always friendly with everyone. The sufferer knew how to comfort, to warm the soul: "Her humble spirit, her peace of mind were amazing! She herself is always friendly, in her hands is a cross, in her other hand a prayer rope ... heals mental and physical ailments.
The Lord gave the mother mysterious revelations, by which she knew the names of the people who still came to her, their intentions, their secret desires and their true needs. Much was known to her about the fate of people.
The local authorities could not help but notice the endless stream of people towards the house where the old woman lived. Frightened by the ever-increasing cult of the nun of the scheme, the Kuznetsovs were warned many times not to let the old woman's visitors in, and then came to threats.
From the memoirs of the daughter of Maria's cell, Seraphima: “... We were kicked out of the house, I remember holding on to my mother's skirt ... We came home, and ... the house turned out to be locked. Mom says we didn't close the door, nothing. They came to us, saw a lock on the doors, knocked, knocked ..., no one opens the door. The house remained intact. The door closed by itself - miracle! They came to evict me, but they couldn't get into the house, the door was "locked". Sometimes my mother was threatened, they said: "Get out of here, wherever you want, live ..."
The shrewd old woman often visited believers from the Biryulevsky Nikolsky Church. Before her death, Mother Seraphima revealed to the rector of the temple, Father Nikolai, that after her death, praying at her grave would help the sick.
On February 17, 1950 (Past Sunday), the Seraphima nun slept peacefully in the Lord. According to eyewitnesses: “After death, the hands and feet of the mother were treated. And she lay still, stern and radiant. When the casket came out of the house, everyone saw a huge fiery cross in the sky."
Father Nikolai and Father Vasily read the Psalter all night over the coffin of the recently deceased. In the morning, monks, clergy, the old woman's spiritual children arrived, all who respected the great ascetic. She was buried according to monastic custom. The coffin with the body of the nun Seraphima was carried around the temple and buried behind the altar. A cell cross was placed on her grave.
In 1977, according to the development plan of the Biryulyovo-Zapadnoye microdistrict, the Biryulyovo cemetery was to be destroyed. Father Vasily received permission to rebury the remains of the old woman Seraphima and many other people in the church grounds. The reburial of the old woman was entrusted to Father Alexy Baikov.
In July 1979, after nearly thirty years in the ground, the nun's body was lifted from the grave and transferred to a new coffin. According to eyewitnesses: “The clothes of the nun Seraphima were intact, the relics were indestructible. Only the cypress cross fell from her hands. Fr. Alexios gave this cross into the hands of the saint of God.
From the memoirs of Father Alexy Baikov about the reburial of Mother Seraphima: “She was incorruptible, I saw with my own eyes. Everything is indestructible, not what usually happens...
I was young, confused, of course. Such a Shrine. Well, nothing, the Lord helped. I did everything right. We prayed, and then we buried it in the ground, everything was as it should be."
From the memoirs of the daughter of the servant of Mary's cell , Seraphima: went to the excavation. They began to dig a grave, the ground was frozen, they began to hit with a crowbar, then slowly began to dig. They took out the coffin, opened it and it looked like she was alive. It's like they put it down now. But so many years have passed. How alive she was, Father Alexei was there. He approached and asked his mother for blessings.
More than half a century has passed since the death of Eldress Seraphima, and to this day miracles are performed by the prayers of the nun Seraphima for all who come to her.
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