Contributed by Father Artemy (Vladimirov) of the Moscow Theological Academy
The great Russian saint, Reverend Sergius, baptised Varfolomei
or Bartholomew, was born of noble parents
in the city of Rostov, South Russia,
in 1320. His mother, Maria, was a very religious woman. Definitely,
that had a deep effect on the boy. One day, when Maria stood
in front of the altar during the divine
liturgy, the baby in her womb cried
out thrice - the first time, before
the Gospel began to be read, the
second - when the Cherubic hymn was being
sung, and the third time - at the end
of the  service.
That was something unheard of. Maria for
a long time kept in her heart that
sign indicating her son was a chosen one.
When Maria was safely delivered of the child, it was
not the mother who taught her son piety,
but the boy who taught his mother. Other
members of the family noticed, that one
of those days when the mother ate meat,
the baby rejected the breast. In a little
while Maria - she would become a nun
later - started living a monastic life, long before
taking the vows. On Wednesdays and Fridays
- the days of fast - the newly-born
baby refused to take the mother's milk.
Naturally, his parents took note of all that
and kept praying to God asking Him
to protect Varfolomei from vice and temptation
in the future.
When he was still a little boy, Varfolomei
became fond of the prayer to Jesus
Christ: "Oh, Lord, Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, have mercy on me!" He used that
prayer, which he liked more than any other,
to get anything he asked for.
His faith in God Almighty kept growing
during private prayers... At first, the boy had great difficulty
in learning to read and write. Other pupils read Holy books far better
than he did. The boy was very upset, however, he never got desperate and
relied on God's help.
One day, in search of lost horses the boy strayed far away from home to
have a miraculous vision under a big green oak. God granted him a meeting
with a very old, kind-looking man. The old man was deep in thought, his
fingers busy with the rosary. Varfolomei at that minute was very sad, because
his teachers became even more angry about his failures
in class. The very thought of it made him cry. The old man raised his
prophetic eyes, handed the boy the wafer
(or the altar bread) and said: "Hence forth
God gives you the gift of learning, little
boy. The altar bread is small, but
may its size not confuse you; it will
taste so sweet as soon as you try it."
As soon as the boy tasted the altar bread,
he saw divine light and joy filled his
entire being.
The boy's father and mother - Kirill and Maria
- were greatly surprised, when their son
opened the Psalm-Book as soon as he got
home and started reading it calmly
and fluently. God himself opened the mind
of the future monk and his soul tasted
the sweet of divine reading.
Varfolomei's body matured. So did his soul. His pure young heart
experienced no temptations. Childish whims and games were alien
to him. When Varfolomei turned fifteen, his parents moved
from Rostov to the Moscow princedom, to a small
town of Radonezh. At the age of twenty Varfolomei came
to his parents to ask for their blessing
to retire to a monastery. However, God kept putting
the chosen one to test more than once
and it was not before he closed the
eyes of his parents and buried them,
that his wish came true. After that he and
his elder brother, Stephan retired to a hermitage in
the center of an impenetrable forest - a hill not far from Moscow.
At the age of twenty-three Varfolomei
took the habit on the day of St.
Martyr Sergius. The Hegumen who performed the ritual, presented the
young monk with a rosary and told him to recall the
name of God day and night.
Sergius displayed great patience and courage, for he
lived in a dreadful place, surrounded by wild beasts
and having not enough bread or water. He
dedicated himself entirely to the labor of
praying and to perfecting his soul. He was
never in a hurry nor was he negligent when he recited
the prayer to Jesus Christ. He sought to understand
each word of it. Very soon the holy monk
learned how sweet the words of the prayer to Jesus
Christ were.
In his spiritual labor Sergius often encountered various
temptations. More than once his log cabin was surrounded by strange
creatures during the night. The creatures looked like
wild beasts or villains wearing tall caps. They were the demons. They
yelled at him: "Go away! Why have you
come to live here in the woods? Aren't
you afraid of death by famine or
at the hands of villains?"
The cabin seemed to collapse, break in
two and the floor seemed to go from
under his feet. However, Sergius kept standing
in front of an icon of Jesus
Christ upright, as a candle, made signs of the cross
and kept repeating with his whole might: "Oh,
Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
have mercy on me!"
If only today's Christians knew what kind of infallible
weapon there is in the name of
Jesus which they can use against evil, filthy
designs.
The demons would disappear as suddenly as they had appeared. Sergius would
then give thanks to Almighty God.
Even the speechless creatures, the animals
of the woods felt the blessing coming
from Sergius. Wild and violent by nature,
they became quiet and humble, when
they came to the log cabin where the monk lived. The
bear was the most frequent visitor. Sergius invariably
treated him to a loaf of bread.
A town standing at the top of a mountain
can't escape people's attention. And the fame
of Sergius's hermitage travelled far and wide.
Many pilgrims came to him in search of secluded,
pious life. However, Sergius was never quick to accept new-comers.
He told future monks:
"Make your hearts ready not for calm
careless life, but for great patience to
cope with any temptation and any labour.
Make yourself ready for fasts, hard
spiritual labour and many sorrows."
A total of twelve monks gathered at
the hermitage of Radonezh. They founded
a monastery that would later be named the
Monastery of the Holy Trinity.
The old wisdom in Latin says: "Ore et labore",
that is - pray and work! The Prayer to Jesus Christ
cannot be conducted by the one who is idle. If our soul can be likened
to a boat sailing to the harbour of
impassionedness, prayers and earthly labours can
be likened to the oars that keep
it going. St. Sergius never stayed idle. He could
do any kind of job - build a home, bake bread, make clothes, carry
water and make all preparations the divine liturgy. Whatever he did, he
did with prayer: "Oh, Lord, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, have mercy on me!" And the
life of Reverend Sergius was a miraculous evidence
of the power of that prayer.
One day the monastery had a misfortune - it ran out of wheat and famine
ensued. In view of the risk of death
from hunger there began the murmur of
discontent among the monks. Sergius tried to reason them, but
his brethren turned a deaf ear on the voice of reason or faith. Sergius
prayed for them in private: "Oh, Lord, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, have mercy on us, your sinful
children, feed us somehow!"
And it so happened that soon the gates of the monastery opened and the
inhabitants saw a cartful of freshly-baked breads...
With the same prayer to Jesus Christ
Reverend Sergius brought into being a water
spring on Makovets hill. Before that the monks had to go a
long way to quench their thirst.
At first monks contemplated calling the spring of water after Sergius,
but the humble Hegumen forbade...
The Saviour says that only the ones pure in heart can see Him. The wise
teachers of spiritual life testify that no one
can make one's heart pure without the
prayer of Jesus. That prayer is the
water that washes away filth from our
souls - vanity, self-esteem, pride, impatience
and others. Reverend Sergius, who since childhood observed
the oath of virginity acquired the purity
of his heart by walking up the ladder of
the prayer of Jesus step by step. One day, when he left
his cell, he chanced to have a miraculous, divine
vision showing how close he was to
God. He heard the voice: "Sergius, you pray
for your flock. Your prayer has been
heard. Look - there are the monks
gathering under your leadership in the
name of the Holy Trinity."
Sergius looked up and saw the sky open and white birds come down to the
meadow in front of his cell. Then he heard the voice again:
"So shall multiply the number of your
disciples. When you pass away their number will
not grow smaller, if they follow in your
footsteps."
The Gospel by Mark says: "Demons will be excercized and
sick people cured in my name." Reverend Sergius
learned the true meaning of these words. One day a desperate
peasant brought his sick boy to him. The boy died
in front of the gates of the hermitage. Sergius then
ordered to bring the boy's body to his cell
and remained there all alone. He prayed:
"Oh, Lord, Jesus Christ, resurrect this
boy, if you will!"
In a little while the desperate father was
beside himself with joy to see his son restored
to life.
Reverend Sergius was reluctant to disclose the gift of working miracles
he had from God. So he told the man: "The boy just felt dizzy. Now he has
come round."
Who of us, proud and self-loving children of the 21st century
have achieved Christian humbleness and through it the
wonderful calm of our soul?.. Isn't it the
reason why we know no peace of mind
or body that we have neglected the
heavenly piety? However, through the prayer of
Jesus it makes its way to the human heart, slowly but surely.
One night Reverend Sergius was praying in
his cell. With the name of God, he
sat down to pause for a while, and then
said suddenly to his disciple Mikhail:
"Stay awake, child! We are going to have a visitor!" The boy froze with
fear.
Suddenly there was a voice in the night: "There comes
the Virgin!"
There was a light in the cell, brighter than the Sun. Reverend
Sergius saw the Mother of God radiating wonderful
light. She was followed by Apostle Peter and Apostle John, the Theologian.
Sergius fell to his knees in front of the Queen
of Heaven. St.Mary touched Reverend Sergius with her hand and
said mercifully: "Fear not, the chosen one. I have come because your
prayers for your disciples have reached me.
Don't worry anymore about the hermitage. From now on
there will be an abundance of every-thing
during your lifetime and when you ascend
to heavens I will never neglect this place."
With the help of the prayer of Jesus
Reverend Sergius became a powerful defender
of the Russian land. He chanced to protect
Holy Russia from the Hordes of Khan
Mamai in 1380. He did not take part
in the famous battle on Kulikovo field.
However, with the name of God he blessed
the weapons of St. Dmitri of the Don,
a faithful prince. With the name of God
at his lips Sergius kept praying in his
cell throughout the battle. The prayer of Jesus helped
Sergius see everything what was going on
on the Kulikovo field. The Lord himself gave
him the power to see everything and
know everything. St.Prince Dmitri of the
Don, in a move of gratitude to Sergius
of Radonezh for his prayers, instituted
a special memorial service in honour of
those who died in that battle. The
Russian Orthodox Church has conducted the
service ever since.
The death of Reverend Sergius was quick and calm. When he passed away on
September 25, 1392, his face shone like the face of an angel. The church
regards death as an act of parting with the misfortunes and hardships of
earthly life to the kingdom of eternal blessing.
Thirty years after his death, Sergius of Radonezh was seen in a dream
by some pious layman. He told the man: "Go and ask
the Hegumen and the brothers, why do they
keep me for so long in the coffin and underground, where water surrounds
my body?"
In 1422 the coffin was recovered and
opened - and the body of Reverend Sergius
was found intact. The garments were not spoiled either... Sergius
manifested his close bonds with the monastery, where he had spent so many
years in the troubled days of Russian history.
In the year of 1608, when the
army of Poles led by Dmitri the Imposter,
besieged the Monastery of the Holy Trinity,
the monks more than once saw Sergius
walking along the walls and asperse the
land around. Reverend Sergius came to the
Hegumen of the monastery and urged
him and the brothers to defend the
monastery with courage.
The Russian people remember particularly well that
Reverend Sergius helped gather the army
that would liberate Russia from the Polish
invaders. On three occasions he was seen
in a dream by Kuzma Minin, a
citizen of Nizhni Novgorod. On the third
night he addressed Minin with a threat
in his voice: "Didn't I tell you to
gather armed people? Merciful God wishes to relieve the
Orthodox Christians of disorder and trouble and
to give them peace and calm.
So I told you to go and fight for the liberation of the
Russian land from the enemy. Don't hesitate if
your superiors fail to follow you. Your own subordinates
will do that eagerly and a good cause will have a good outcome!?
On October 22, 1612, when the Moscow Kremlin was stormed
and the Poles driven out of the
city, Reverend Sergius came to one of
the bishops the Poles had kept prisoner
in the Kremlin. He told the bishop that the Russian land would
be saved that day.
Today, as in the past, the Holy Trinity Monastery, founded by Sergius
of Radonezh, is the heart of Russian
soil. These days, there is great confusion
in people's minds. Troubled times are experienced
by our country and the reason for
that are our sins. The country is being
torn apart by selfish and greedy people.
And when we come to the Holy Trinity Monastery and when we light
a candle in front of the icons of Sergius of Radonezh and
near his relics, our hearts are filled with
blessing... "Oh, Lord, Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, have mercy on us!"
|