Elders John the Peasant. Archimandrite John (Peasant): guardian of the faith. "Fast train with all stops"

John Krestyankin, also known as Archimandrite John, is a famous minister of the Russian Orthodox Church. For 40 years he was a minister in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. Considered one of the most revered elders in modern Russia. He passed away quite recently, in 2006.

Childhood

John Krestyankin was born on April 11, 1910, back in Russian Empire, in the city of Orel. His parents - Mikhail Dmitrievich and Elisaveta Ilarionovna - were bourgeois. There were 8 children in their family, Ivan was the youngest.

As a small boy, he began to serve under the local Archbishop Seraphim (in the world Mikhail Mitrofanovich Ostroumov).

Already 6-year-old John Krestyankin was Seraphim's sexton, and a little later a subdeacon - a junior church employee. At the age of 12, he first expressed his intention to become a monk in the future. Krestyankin himself talks about this episode as follows.

Bishop Nicholas from the Vladimir diocese arrived to visit the pilgrims. When he was already saying goodbye, John, like the others, wished to receive parting words for life. And he lightly touched his hand to draw attention to himself. The Bishop noticed him and asked what he wanted. Young Ivan replied that he would like to become a monk. The priest put his hand on his head and seemed to be deep in thought. Only then did he admonish me, recommending that I finish school, get a job, and only then be ordained and begin serving. So he will come to monasticism.

Later, this episode from the life of the elder was confirmed by Bishop Seraphim.

First mentor

John Krestyankin received his first ideas about life and Orthodoxy from Seraphim. The future bishop was born in Moscow, graduated from theological seminary and in 1904, at the age of 24, became a monk. At first he served in the St. Onufrievsky Yablochinsky Monastery, today located in Poland.

In the year the First World War began, he became the rector of the Kholm Theological Seminary. He was a famous priest in Russia. During the years of Soviet rule, he was arrested for participation in counter-revolutionary activities. Sent into exile in Kazakhstan, Karaganda. Then his case was returned for further investigation to Smolensk. Sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in December 1937.

In 2001, Archbishop Seraphim was canonized.

Civil life

Following the instructions and blessings, Krestyankin began to study. He graduated from high school already under Soviet rule, in 1929. I went to school to become an accountant. Then he got a job in his specialty in Orel.

The work took a lot of time, and I often had to stay late or go to work on weekends to submit reports. All this was very distracting and interfered with going to church. And as soon as he tried to disagree with such orders, he was immediately fired.

In 1932 he moved from Orel to Moscow. He gets a job in the same position, as an accountant, in a small enterprise. Here the work was much calmer, with nothing distracting from regular church attendance. In addition to services, he constantly participated in meetings where they discussed current issues church life.

At the service of the church

During the Great Patriotic War the church was given relief, life became much easier for priests, the state no longer persecuted them and even supported them in some ways.

Therefore, in 1944, Krestyankin became a psalm-reader in the capital’s Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo, which has survived to this day. Six months later, Metropolitan Nicholas ordained him as a deacon. John accepts celibacy, that is, he renounces marriage.

After the end of the war, in October 1945, he took exams at the theological seminary as an external student. That same month, with the blessing of Patriarch Alexy I, he became a priest. At the same time, he remains to serve in the Izmailovo parish.

The prayers of John Krestyankin evoked a response from parishioners, he often preached sermons, and people turned to him for help or advice. At the same time, he, like most priests after the end of the Great Patriotic War, was in bad standing with the Soviet regime. Largely due to the fact that he refused to cooperate with them.

In the Trinity-Sergius Lavra

When the pressure from the Soviet authorities became especially strong, the young priest turned to the patriarch for help. Alexy I morally supported him and advised him to turn to the Service Book and do everything that is written there, and endure the difficulties of the world around him. As John himself later admitted, these parting words helped him greatly.

In 1946, it moved to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, located in the Moscow region, in the center of Sergiev Posad. At the same time, he begins to study at the Moscow Theological Seminary at the correspondence faculty. He is writing a PhD thesis on the fate of Seraphim of Sarov and his significance for the religious and moral life of that time. However, he soon returns to the Izmailovo diocese.

Krestyankin did not have time to defend his candidate’s thesis: in 1950 he was arrested.

Prison term

Krestyankin spent four months in Lubyanka and Lefortovo. In August he was transferred to Butyrka prison. He was kept in the same cell with criminals.

On October 8, 1950, he was sentenced. Krestyankin was sentenced to 7 years in a maximum security camp for anti-Soviet agitation under Article 58, popular at that time. He served his sentence in the Arkhangelsk region, in Kargopollag.

His fellow prisoners recalled that prison did not break him; he always walked with a light and relaxed gait. All prisoners had their heads cut, but the administration allowed him to keep his long black hair and beard. His gaze was always directed forward and upward.

In the camp he worked in logging; in 1953, his health deteriorated. As a result, he was transferred to a light regime in a camp in Gavrilova Polyana, near Kuibyshev, where he worked as an accountant.

After release

After serving in the camps, Krestyankin returned to church service. At the same time, he was forbidden to live in Moscow, so he found a place for himself at the Pskov diocese, in the Trinity Cathedral.

This activity provoked new discontent among the authorities. They again threatened him with persecution. Therefore, Father John had to leave the regional center for a small rural parish in Ryazan region. First to the village of Trinity-Pelenitsa, then to Letovo, then to Borets, and then to the St. Nicholas Church in Nekrasovka. In 1966 he moved to the town of Kasimov. There in 1966 he became a monk under the name John. Elder Seraphim performed tonsure.

Such a frequent change of places was explained by the fact that Father John in a new place constantly began to actively preach and solve economic issues, which the Soviet authorities did not like very much.

In 1967, he was transferred to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery at the insistence of Patriarch Alexy I. Returning from a meeting with the bishop, Krestyankin learned about another transfer - the sixth in 10 years. However, it was canceled due to his departure to the monastery.

At the monastery service

From then until his death, that is, for more than 30 years, Father John lived almost continuously in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. In 1970 he received ordination abbot, and three years later archimandrite.

Soon after his move to the Pskov region, Orthodox believers from all over the country began to come to him. Many dreamed of going to confession with him. Archimandrite John Krestyankin always gave useful advice and blessing. For his high spirituality, they began to consider him an old man. His typical day went like this.

Liturgy in the morning. Immediately after it are spiritual and worldly matters. In the altar, issues were resolved with priests from other churches and monasteries; local parishioners and believers who had come from afar awaited a meeting in the church. Even on his way to lunch, he was constantly surrounded by many people who were trying to ask a secret question or receive a blessing.

After lunch, the reception of visitors continued, the day ended with communication in the cell with pilgrims who were to leave on the same day.

Letters of the Archimandrite

Having grown old, Archimandrite John Krestyankin could no longer receive so many people, but he constantly answered their letters. Later some of them were published. These books immediately became popular among believers. One of the most famous publications was published in 2002.

“Letters of John Krestyankin” is a collection of the elder’s answers to several Orthodox Christians, whom he could no longer accept personally. They were published by the publishing house of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. They talk about everything that can be encountered in this world. About God, the world, man, the church, the need to follow the commandments.

John Krestyankin's sermons contain useful tips. In his speeches, the archimandrite discusses how to choose the right life path. There are also instructions for parishioners.

"The experience of constructing a sermon"

During his life, Ioann Krestyankin left many works that are extremely valued by believers today. “The experience of constructing a confession” is one of the most significant.

The basis for this book was the conversations of John, which he conducted in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery in the 70s during Lent, immediately after reading the canon of Andrew of Crete. Many people remember the structure of the confession during these evenings. John Krestyankin literally healed with words.

Someone managed to record these conversations, and these recordings began to be passed from hand to hand. Each chapter is devoted to a separate commandment, which is described and interpreted in detail. In addition to the ten classical Christian commandments, the Beatitudes are given. Among them are “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, Blessed are those who mourn” and others.

Campaign against Taxpayer Identification Number

Ioann Krestyankin, whose books began to be actively published in the 2000s, had significant social weight.

In 2001, he opposed the campaign to abandon the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN). Many clergy then claimed that they were trying to assign people a faceless number instead of a Christian name. In this way, spirituality is destroyed in them.

Krestyankin argued that in the eyes of God a person cannot lose his Christian name. As an example, he cites dozens and hundreds of priests and ordinary believers who died in Stalin’s camps. Everyone forgot about their name, in reports and documents they were listed only under a faceless number, but God certainly accepted them. After all, worldly affairs and worries concern Him little. Moreover, many of them became martyrs, and some were even canonized.

God is only interested in the human soul, said John Krestyankin. Confession, communion, prayer - if a person observes these simple rituals, then God will in no way forget about him.

Archimandrite Awards

In 2005, Father John turned 95 years old. On the occasion of his anniversary, he was awarded the church order of St. Seraphim of Sarov, about whom he once wrote his doctoral dissertation at the theological seminary.

By that time, the archimandrite had already been awarded several significant awards from the Orthodox Church. In 1978 he received the Order of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir of the third degree, and in 1980 - the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, also of the third degree.

Already after the breakup Soviet Union, in 2000, was awarded the Order Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow.

Then, in 2000, Vladimir Putin, who had become head of the country several months earlier, went to meet with the archimandrite. This speaks of the respect and importance that even the top officials of the state attached to the elder. There are photographs left in memory of that meeting.

Memory of Father John

At the very end of his life, John Krestyankin was seriously ill. Confession and others church sacraments practically does not carry out independently. And in general he rarely got out of bed.

On February 5, 2006, he died at the age of 95. Elder John Krestyankin was buried according to Orthodox custom in the caves of the Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. The remains of other Pechersk monks also rest there.

By the way, Father John himself did not welcome being called an elder. He believed that these were God's blessed people, which no longer exist today.

At the same time, even in our time, Archimandrite John Krestyankin is revered by Orthodox believers both as an All-Russian elder and as a preacher. Now on the sidelines of the Russian Orthodox Church there is talk about his possible imminent canonization.

In 2011, the publishing house Sretensky Monastery A collection of stories was published by Archimandrite (at that time, now - bishop) of the Russian Orthodox Church Tikhon, in the world Georgy Shevkunov. Called "Unholy Saints". A large number of The works in the collection are dedicated to the life of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, as well as personally to John Krestyankin. In particular, his insight and prudence.

“Only the Providence of God rules the world”

Sayings of the Pskov-Pechersk elders John (Krestyankin), Nathanael (Pospelov) and Alypiy (Voronov)

Elders talk about abortion

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Great Lent about St. John Climacus and his “Ladder” and the transfer of the relics of St. Tikhon, His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'

Word on the day of remembrance of St. Seraphim, Sarov Wonderworker

Homily on the Feast of the Archangel Michael

Word on the day of enthronement of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II

Word on the first anniversary of the death of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen

Paschal Homily by Archimandrite John Krestiankin, 1993

Archimandrite John (Krestiankin)

The experience of constructing a confession

Sermon on the Feast of the Entry into the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary

A Word on the Parable of the Good Samaritan

Word for Christmas

Homily for the Sunday before the Nativity of Christ, Father of the Saints

Man is society. Spiritual reading

Church

Patience

The sacrament of communion. Sacrament of Unction

Sacrament of Baptism

Sacraments of the Church

Passion. God's Judgment

On February 5, 2006, the ever-remembered All-Russian elder Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) reposed in the Lord. His earthly life is a continuous chain of spiritual and human exploits in the name of strengthening Orthodox faith in our long-suffering country and among our tormented, sinful people...

The time is not far when we will single out into a special cohort those clergy who did not die under the bullets of firing squads, did not die from disease and deprivation in the camps and prisons of the atheistic hard times (we commemorate them as new martyrs), but survived in spite of everything and in spite of everything, did not bend or break, remaining unquenchable lights in the long, dull atheistic night that fell on our Russia. This is a special category of people who throughout their lives resisted the violence and repression brought upon them by the state Moloch, and survived thanks to the Faith and for the glory of the Faith. Thank God that many of them, including Father John (Krestyankin), had a chance to see other times, which they brought closer with all their spiritual asceticism.

Archimandrite John (Peasant)

Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) died quite recently, and back in the mid-1990s, when he was already in very old age, willingly received visitors who came to him from all over Russia at the Pskov-Pechersky Holy Dormition Monastery. Such proximity in time makes it especially close, understandable, and modern for us. IN last years During his life, he willingly shared his memories, so much more is known about the priest than about thousands of holy martyrs and confessors who ended their days in the places from which Father John was destined to return. In addition, there are hundreds of heartfelt memories left about him. People who had the opportunity to see Father John remember how inspired he served in the church. How he walked from the temple, surrounded by people, old and young, who often came just to see him - he walked quickly, almost flew, managing to answer questions and give away gifts intended for him. How he seated his spiritual children on an old sofa in his cell and in a matter of minutes resolved doubts, consoled, exhorted, presented them with icons, brochures of spiritual content (in the 1980s there was a great shortage of them), generously poured holy water on them and anointed them with “oil.” With what spiritual uplift people then returned home. Father John answered letters, the bag with which invariably stood in the corner of his cell, until his death (in recent months he dictated answers to cell attendant Tatyana Sergeevna Smirnova), and even the last Christmas in his life, many of his spiritual children celebrated, receiving the usual postcard from the priest with personal congratulations. How many of these cards did he send out every year—hundreds? thousands?

Father John (Krestyankin) was called the “All-Russian Elder” - and in fact, the will of God for people was revealed to him, for which there are many dozens of testimonies. He was also a confessor who endured prison, torture, a camp under Soviet rule, and was near death several times. And also the author of inspired sermons, which have now sold millions of copies. He also left several wonderful books, including “The Experience of Constructing a Confession,” with which many people of the generation of the 1970s. began the journey to faith.

Finally, Father John was a unique man of prayer; in his prayer he remembered all the people he met at least once in his life.

Palm of Saint Tikhon

“Until I was 14 years old, I did not meet a single unbeliever,” admitted Father John. He was born on March 29 (April 11, new style) 1910 in the family of Oryol townspeople Mikhail Dmitrievich and Elizaveta Ilarionovna Krestyankin and was the eighth child. The boy was named in honor of St. John The hermit, on whose memorial day he was born. On the same day, the Church celebrates the memory of the Reverend Fathers of the Pskov-Pechersk Mark and Jonah, so it is difficult to consider it an accident that Father John lived the last 38 years of his life in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and it was at this time that he gained all-Russian fame.

Vanya's father died when the boy was two years old, and he was raised mainly by his mother, who was helped in any way possible by relatives, including Vanya's uncle, merchant Ivan Aleksandrovich Moskvitin. Until 1917, Vanya lived in Orel without a break and retained many touching memories of his childhood. For example, about how mother Elizaveta Ilarionovna divided between her younger children - Tanya and Vanya - the last testicle that was intended for herself, citing the fact that she “had a headache.” One of the important people for little Vanya was the local priest Father Nikolai (Azbukin), who baptized him as an infant. Once, while visiting, little Vanya was embarrassed by the lack of lean food on the table - it was a Friday. He did not eat, which made him feel unwell, but very soon the reason for his “ill health” was revealed. He happened to go home with his father Nikolai, who, unlike the boy, did not refuse the food offered to the guests and on the way gently explained to Vanya that the owners’ mistake was involuntary, so it “should have been covered with love” and not paid attention to it.

Already at the age of six, Vanya began to serve in the church - soon after the local undertaker and part-time assistant to the church warden sewed a surplice for the boy from gold brocade, which was used to decorate coffins. Vanya was appointed sexton, and his mother helped him clean the lamps and church utensils.

At the age of 12, in 1922, Vanya first expressed his desire to become a monk. This happened during the departure of the Yeletsk bishop, the future confessor of Nicholas (Nikolsky), to a new place of service: saying goodbye to the Oryol flock, he asked, among others, subdeacon John Krestyankin, what to bless him for. He asked for a blessing to become a monk, which he received 44 years later.

And the next year, having arrived in Moscow and being in the Donskoy Monastery, Vanya received another blessing, which he subsequently remembered all his life - from His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, who spent the last years of his life under arrest. In 1990, when Father John lived in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, Patriarch Tikhon appeared to him and warned about the impending division of the Russian Church (which soon happened in Ukraine). At the end of his life, after the glorification of Saint Tikhon in 1998, Father John said that he still felt his palm on his head.

Orel – Moscow – Chernaya Rechka

In 1929, Ivan Krestyankin graduated from school and entered accounting courses. He worked as an accountant until 1944, but his heart always belonged to the Church. It was for this reason that in 1932 he had to leave Orel for Moscow: from his first job in Orel he was fired for his reluctance to participate in regular Sunday “rush jobs,” and in those days it was difficult to find a place for someone fired. During the first weeks, not wanting to upset his mother, Ivan regularly got up in the morning and “went to work”, and at the end of the month he even brought home a “salary” - money received from the sale of the violin. But new job was not found, and now, with the blessing of the famous Oryol elder, Mother Vera (Loginova), the young man leaves for the capital.

Ivan Mikhailovich was not drafted to the front in 1941 due to low vision– He had severe myopia. But the difficulties of wartime did not escape him. The future father John had to hide his cousin Vadim at home for several days, who had fallen behind the evacuation column - according to the laws of war, he could well have been recognized as a deserter and shot. During the day, Vadim hid in a chest where holes were drilled to allow air to enter, and at night, together with his cousin, he prayed to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. In the end, Ivan went to the commandant’s office with a statement about Vadim’s shell shock. The matter was resolved favorably: Vadim was sent to the hospital, and both were given coupons for military rations - this temporarily saved Ivan from the hungry existence that he led in the first years of the war.

In July 1944, Ivan Mikhailovich became a psalm-reader at the Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo. He had recently seen this very temple in a dream: he was led inside by the Monk Ambrose of Optina and asked the monk accompanying them to bring two vestments to serve. Just six months later, Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) ordained John Krestyankin as a deacon, and nine months later he became a priest - one of the first to be ordained by the new Patriarch Alexy I.

The first post-war years were a time of short revival of the Russian Orthodox Church: persecution eased for a while, and people flocked to churches. This time made special demands on priests: it was necessary to show special sensitivity and compassion, to help people in everyday circumstances, and Father John, who remained to serve in the Izmailovsky Church, gave himself to people without reserve. Until late in the evening he went to church services, confessed, baptized, married, and improved the temple. There were days when the only free time The time he could find for rest was half an hour before the evening service, which he spent at the altar.

The rector of the temple did not encourage the impulses of the young priest - they could attract unnecessary attention from the authorized representatives, who continued to vigilantly monitor the Church. The temple could be closed at any moment, and the overzealous ministers could be exiled to the construction sites of socialism. Much later, Father John told how one day, having doubted the appropriateness of his zeal at that time, he shared his thoughts with Patriarch Alexy (Simansky).

- Dear father! What did I give you when I ordained you? – the Patriarch asked him in response. - Missal. - So here it is. Do everything that is written there, and endure everything that comes next.

Already at the beginning of his ministry, in the late 1940s, Father John established the custom of composing sermons in advance. He did not part with this rule until the end of his ministry and during the liturgy, as a rule, he read sermons from notebooks. But these texts were never something abstractly theoretical. Already in his mature years, the priest recalled how once in his youth, carried away by writing a sermon about love, he locked himself in a room and, not wanting to be distracted, several times ignored the knock on the door. Then going out into the corridor, he saw a neighbor who apologized and explained that she wanted to borrow money for bread. The remorse of conscience was such that the priest did not even preach that sermon from the pulpit.

In 1950, Father John graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and wrote his doctoral dissertation on St. Seraphim of Sarov. There was no need to protect her. On the night of April 29-30, investigators raided his apartment, and Father John himself was taken to Lubyanka.

Priest John Krestyankin, photo from the 1950 case.

Father John spent the next five years in prisons and camps, and returned with broken fingers on his left hand and in a pre-heart attack state. “The Lord transferred me to another obedience,” he said about his imprisonment. But it was precisely this time spent first in solitary confinement on Lubyanka, then in Lefortovo prison (both there and there he was interrogated and tortured a lot), then in the cold barracks of a maximum security camp at the Chernaya Rechka crossing (Arkhangelsk Territory) and, finally, in a disabled camp settlement near Samara, he called almost the happiest in my life. “God is close there,” Father John explained. And one more thing - “there was a real prayer there, now I don’t have such a prayer.”

“The main thing is to pray”

Father John was arrested following a denunciation written by the rector, regent and protodeacon of the church where he served. Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), who for many years had the opportunity to communicate with Father John in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, says in his book “Unholy Saints” that the priest even agreed with part of the accusations brought against him. For example, he did not deny that young people were gathering around him, whom he, as a shepherd, did not consider himself to have the right to drive away, and that he did not bless them to join the Komsomol, because this is an atheistic organization. He only denied his alleged participation in anti-Soviet agitation: “activities of this kind” did not interest him at all as a priest.

Five years later, when Father John is released (he was sentenced to seven years, but was released two years earlier under an amnesty), the head of the camp will ask him: “Father, do you understand why you were imprisoned?” - No, I still don’t understand. “We must, father, follow the people.” And not to lead the people.

But even in the camp, where there were many criminals, people themselves were drawn to Father John. One day he was instructed to distribute to the prisoners their earnings - a few coins each, but on the eve of their distribution, someone stole a suitcase with money. Father John prepared for the worst and only mentally cried out to God: “carry this cup past me, but not what I want, but what You want.” The next day, the suitcase with its contents was found: it was seized from the criminals and returned to the priest by their main “authority,” whose word was law for the rest.

Another prisoner, Archpriest Veniamin Sirotinsky, told how one day the director of the camp’s daughter became mortally ill. “In desperation, the boss sent for us, we asked everyone to leave, baptized the child with a shortened rite, gave us blessed water to drink, prayed, and - a miracle! “The next day the child was healthy.”

Several times, Father John himself was on the verge of death: he was almost killed by backbreaking work at the logging site, which was later replaced by “frying” the clothes of convicts from insects in a hotly heated barracks. However, he did not condemn anyone, not even those who reported him. Even during interrogations in Moscow, the investigator summoned the rector of the church where Father John served for a confrontation with the defendant. Seeing the informer, the priest was so happy that he rushed to hug him, but he collapsed on the floor, losing consciousness from excitement. Later, already in the camp, Father John learned that the parishioners were boycotting the informer priest, and one day he sent a note for them with the next man released. The note contained God's blessing and a request to “forgive the informant priest, as Father John forgave him, and to attend the services he performed.”

All his life the priest remembered the investigator, whose name, like himself, was Ivan Mikhailovich. “He was a good man, good, but is he alive?” – his cell attendant later retold the priest’s words. He thought about it and answered himself: “He’s alive, he’s alive, but he’s very old.”

Father John was released on the Presentation of the Lord, February 15, 1955, but he never took his eyes off him, so the risk of returning to prison never really disappeared. One day it almost happened. In the spring of 1956, when the priest had already been serving at Trinity for almost a year cathedral Pskov, the local authorities and the commissioner disliked him for his long sermons and for the fact that he improved the cathedral, says Archpriest Oleg Teor. One day Father John was warned: “Get ready and leave one night, otherwise you will end up where you’ve already been.” The priest obeyed, and, as it soon became clear, not in vain: they were already preparing to arrest him, attributing the theft of state property.

Many decades later, a nephew came to the resident of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, Hieromonk Raphael, hiding from the police, who were looking for him on false suspicion. The teenager was brought to Father John, and he confirmed: he was innocent of the crime attributed to the boy, but he would still have to go to prison. After a half-hour confession, the boy himself came to terms with this thought, but still asked the priest: “how to behave in prison?” And I heard: “It’s simple - don’t believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask. And most importantly, pray” (see “Unholy Saints” by Archimandrite Tikhon).

This special prayer that Father John performed in conditions mortal danger, did not go unanswered. Having already been released and returned to ministry (he now served in rural parishes, mainly in the Ryazan region), Father John began to involuntarily attract the attention of parishioners with obvious spiritual gifts - an amazing gift of reasoning and insight. There is evidence of Simeon (Zhelnin), now glorified among the saints, who labored in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery even before Father John became a monk of the same monastery. One day, when the cell attendant venerable elder Simeon began to ask for time off to go to the “holy places” and at the same time visit Father John, who perked up and replied: “Go and see him. He is an earthly angel and a heavenly man."

Six parishes

Under Khrushchev, persecution of the Church resumed with new strength. The new leader of the country promised to show the “last priest” on TV, churches began to be closed everywhere, either putting locks on the doors, or turning them into warehouses (the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery was almost the only one in Russia that escaped closure during the Soviet period). Mass arrests of clergy have resumed. For Father John Krestyankin it was a time of wandering around parishes. Everywhere he appeared, sermons were preached and churches were restored - often contrary to official prohibitions. Together with the parishioners, the priest himself plastered the walls, replaced the roof, and painted the floors.

The hierarchy was forced to “take measures”: in 11 years the priest changed six parishes.

In those years, his spiritual kinship with one of the saints he especially revered, Seraphim of Sarov, became evident. The Lord allowed Father John almost the same test that St. Seraphim suffered 150 years earlier. On the night of January 1, 1961 (Father John was then serving in the Church of Cosmas and Damian in the village of Letovo, Ryazan region), hooligans broke into the priest’s house, beat the priest, tied him up, gagged him and threw him on the floor. So he lay there until the morning, when his neighbors found him half-dead, and a few hours later Father John was already serving the Liturgy, praying among others for “those who do not know what they are doing.” Also, the Monk Seraphim, who suffered beatings from robbers who were looking for money in his cell, asked not to punish them when they were exposed.

Despite the adversities and everyday difficulties, it was rare in those years to meet such an open and benevolent priest as Father John Krestyankin was. Restorer Savely Yamshchikov, who in his youth participated in an expedition to the Ryazan region, visited churches and registered unique icons. “We often met either indifferent priests or very suspicious priests,” he recalled. The priest of the church in the village of Nekrasovka turned out to be completely different: he came out to meet strangers “with an amazing light gait - as if he were not walking, but floating in the air - with a friendly smile,” and “his eyes sparkled with love, as if it were not strangers who came to him.” strangers, but his close relatives."

In exactly the same way, dozens of people who would go to him at the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery would later describe Father John, now 70 and 80 years old. One of them, Alexander Bogatyrev, says that the priest received him, who arrived for the first time, as an old friend, “held his hand and looked affectionately through thick glasses.” “I couldn’t take my eyes off his gaze,” he writes. “These were not glasses, but a fantastic microscope through which he saw my stained soul.” Another example is given by Tatyana Goricheva, talking about an acquaintance who came to Pechory for the first time: “Nicholas stood hesitantly at the very end of the long line, but the elder immediately noticed him, came up, hugged him (he saw him for the first time), kissed him on the forehead, on the cheeks, in the back of the head - only a mother can caress her suffering child like that. The elder asked where Nikolai came from and when he could come to him for confession.”

“There are no elders now”

Father John's childhood dream came true in 1966 - he was tonsured a monk. A year later, Patriarch Alexy I blessed Hieromonk John (Krestyankin) to serve in the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery.

This period of the priest’s life is especially well known. At this time, he wrote “The Experience of Constructing a Confession,” analyzing each commandment in detail and showing how to learn to see “your sins as the sand of the sea.” It turns out that even the commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” which people usually do not consider themselves to be violators of, is often violated by us: “Everyone has experienced how an evil, cruel, caustic word kills. How then can we ourselves inflict cruel wounds on people with this verbal weapon?! Lord, forgive us sinners! We have all killed our neighbors with our words.”

It was during this period, spanning almost 40 years, that Father John (raised to the rank of archimandrite in 1973) became an “all-Russian elder”, to whom people and letters flocked from all over the country and even from abroad. The priest himself, however, resolutely opposed such a name: “There are no elders now. Everybody died.<…>There is no need to confuse the elder and the old man.<…>We need to learn that we are all essentially unnecessary and are not needed by anyone except God.” Perhaps the priest himself did not always realize that behind many of his words and answers there was something more than just experience and human wisdom. Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) calls Father John “one of the very few people on earth for whom the boundaries of space and time are expanded, and the Lord allows them to see the past and future as the present”: “We were convinced with surprise and not without fear from our own experience , that before this old man, whom ill-wishers mockingly called “Doctor Aibolit,” human souls are open with all their innermost secrets, with their most cherished aspirations, with carefully hidden, secret affairs and thoughts. In ancient times, such people were called prophets.”

One of the striking examples that Father Tikhon gives is the history of the creation of the Pskov-Pechersk metochion in the Sretensky Monastery, which began with the fact that Father John, without listening to any objections, sent him - the future Archimandrite Tikhon - to Patriarch Alexy II to ask for a blessing to create a metochion in Moscow. Not long before, the Patriarch had strictly forbidden anyone to approach him with such requests, but when Father Tikhon followed “the will of God” (this is how Father John himself explained his order), no obstacles arose.

Usually Father John did not insist on the unconditional implementation of his advice and did not so much advise as gently and carefully direct the person himself to the right course of reasoning. But if he nevertheless insisted on something, and the spiritual child did it his own way, he was very sad - self-will more than once led to tragedies. For example, Valentina Pavlovna Konovalova, the director of a large grocery store in Moscow, suddenly passed away, having decided, contrary to her father’s categorical prohibition, to remove a cataract from her eye: during the operation she suffered a stroke and complete paralysis.

Father John prayed in front of these icons

In people's memories, Father John most often appears as a meek, affectionate and very loving person. “Children of God” - that’s what he called many of his visitors. “I thought: if a person can love a person like that and rejoice over every sinner like that, then how the Lord loves us!” - Abbot Nikolai (Paramonov) writes about the priest. But in his sermons and letters, Father John very often displays qualities that complement his kindness and caring - rigor (sometimes even severity), loyalty to the canons and intransigence to sin. In the sermon for the week about Last Judgment he demands “special attention” from parishioners and talks in detail about the torments of Gehenna from which Nikolai Motovilov, a disciple of St. Seraphim of Sarov, suffered for many years, who decided to fight the demons alone. And here is a typical excerpt from one letter written by the priest: “It’s simply wild for me to hear and read what you write about. At least you first became acquainted with the Orthodox Catechism, but you would have examined and known yourself better, and I am sure that you would have come to the only correct conclusion - you yourself must learn to live like a Christian.” The letters reveal the very essence of Father John, who calls to “stand for the faith until death.”

During his monastic years, Father John, who always had great respect for the clergy, had more than once the opportunity to humble himself: it happened that the monastery governors forbade him to receive visitors, they could even say a sarcastic word. And at the end of his days, Father John had to endure misunderstanding on the part of many former admirers, even to the point of being accused of treason - after he distributed the famous message about the Taxpayer Identification Number, which many were afraid to take, mistaking it for the seal of the Antichrist. Father John urged not to be afraid of numbers or cards, but to trust God completely: “Doesn’t the Lord know how to save His children from times of cruelty, as long as our hearts are faithful to Him.” He developed the same idea in private letters: “The seal will follow only a person’s personal renunciation of God, and not deception. There is no point in deception. The Lord needs our heart that loves Him.”

“To accept or not to accept an individual number - at one time it seemed that more important than the problem not in the Orthodox community,” recalls Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood), who visited Father John several times from the United States and considered him “an indisputable spiritual authority.” “But on this issue too, the elder said his weighty word. Of course, it is grace from the Lord to know everything that concerns life ordinary people living behind the fence of the temples.” The fact that Archimandrite John has been since the early 1990s. practically never leaving the walls of the monastery, he was aware of everything that was happening outside, truly amazing, writes Father Zacchaeus. However, this may seem more understandable if we remember the flow of people and letters that passed through Father John’s cell every year.

The cell where Father John lived

The mystery of death

Father John reposed in the Lord on February 5, 2006, on the day of remembrance of the Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia - he himself considered this holiday one of the most significant for modern Russia. “The incessant persecutions in which the Universal Church was born seemed to have bypassed Russia,” the priest said in a famous sermon dedicated to this holiday shortly after its establishment, in 1994. “Rus' accepted Christianity ready-made, suffered by others, from the hands of its Great Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince- ruler Vladimir and grew into him with very small sacrifices. But could the Russian Church have avoided the path common to all Christians, outlined by Christ? They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, deliver you into prison, and lead leaders for My name's sake.(Luke 21:12). This God's definition of the Church has been clearly revealed since apostolic times. And for Russia, the hour of testing her faith, the hour of feat for Christ came in the 20th century, for it was not without Russia that the Universal Church had to achieve the fullness of spiritual age and perfection.”

Father John himself was such a confessor who went through these trials, was purified by them, and during his lifetime showed evidence of holiness.

Father John's departure from the world was gradual and similar topics which we find in the lives of the saints. Here are a few excerpts from the diary of his cell attendant.

“On December 2, 2004, Father John called me in the middle of the night and asked me to watch with him in prayer: “It will be difficult for you to survive if you find me in the morning already gone.” To my question: “What, have you already received a notification about this?” - He answered evasively: “I have already swam the river of my life and today I saw this.”

“On November 29, at two o’clock in the afternoon, the priest suddenly sang in delight: “Isaiah rejoice, the Virgin is with child...” and repeated this troparion several times.<…>Father John's face shone with an unearthly light. Quietly and detachedly, he said: “She came.” - Who? “The Queen of Heaven has come.”

“From December 18, Father John received communion daily.<…>Ten days later, on December 28, it became obvious that life was leaving. It was on that day that an order came from the printing house - audio discs of the priest’s sermons, united under the title “Blessed are the Dead, Dying in the Lord.” And someone’s hand, obeying a thought that looked into the future, wrote a decisive sentence on the boxes: “Funeral set.”<…>From December 30 to December 31, at 3:30 a.m., Father John became completely exhausted and, gathering his strength, loudly but calmly said three times: “I am dying.” They began to read the waste report. We lived until the morning.<…>While singing the Easter canon, the priest’s face changed.<…>So in the last minutes of earthly life, when the soul was ready to leave the decaying body, the Spirit of God stopped the separation.<…>At the end of the singing of Easter stichera in response to the exclamation: “Christ is Risen!” - everyone heard the quiet and confused whisper of the dying man: “Indeed, Vosk-rese!” At the second cry: “Christ is Risen!” - Father John raised his hand with effort, crossed himself and said more clearly: “Truly He is Risen!” And the supernatural powerful action of the Spirit of God in Father John became especially obvious to all those gathered in the cell when, at the third exclamation, he quietly but joyfully confirmed with his usual intonations the testimony of the Risen Christ: “Truly Christ is Risen!” - and firmly crossed himself.”

“On the morning of February 5, I was preparing for Communion. Early in the morning he was dressed: a white cassock, a festive stole. Exhaustion of strength was covered with sleepy languor. I measured my blood pressure, and it, without revealing my father’s secret preparations, was normal.<…>When asked whether we will take communion, there is a silent nod of the head. He took communion and drank<…>He closed his eyes and turned slightly to the right.<…>And at that moment I realized, I saw that the priest would not open more eyes. He left. The mystery of death has been accomplished.”

“Usually the Lord takes a person at the best moment of his life<…>“so that he does not lower his level,” said Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, who knew Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) personally, “but here it’s the other way around: Father John long ago achieved Christian perfection and lived only for all of us. Such people used to be called the pillars of the Church.”

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it,” the Lord promised Peter (Matthew 16:18). And He preserves His Church, but not without human participation. Thanks to such rare and amazing people, as Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) was, we, returning to the Church today, after several previous generations were raised in atheism and the continuity of faith was almost lost forever, we still have a place to return. This continuity has nevertheless been preserved.

The grave of Archimandrite John (Peasant)

Biography

Childhood

Was eighth and last child in the family of Oryol townspeople Mikhail Dmitrievich and Elisaveta Ilarionovna Krestyankin. Since childhood, he served in the church, was a novice under the famous Oryol Archbishop Seraphim (Ostroumov) (future martyr, canonized in 2001). Already at the age of six he was a sexton, then served as a subdeacon. At the age of twelve he first expressed his desire to be a monk. In the elder’s biography this story is described as follows:

At a civilian job

I remember how he walked with his light, swift gait - he didn’t walk, but flew - along the wooden walkways to our barracks, in his neat black jacket, buttoned up with all the buttons. He had long black hair - prisoners were cut bald, but the administration allowed him to leave it - he had a beard, and in some places his hair was beginning to grey. His pale, thin face was directed somewhere forward and upward. I was especially struck by his sparkling eyes - the eyes of a prophet. But when he spoke to you, his eyes, his whole face radiated love and kindness. And in what he said there was attention and participation; there could also be a fatherly instruction, brightened with gentle humor. He loved a joke, and there was something of an old Russian intellectual in his manner.

Initially he worked at a logging site. In the spring of 1953, for health reasons and without his request, he was transferred to a separate disabled camp unit near Kuibyshev - Gavrilov Polyana, where he worked as an accountant. On February 15, 1955, he was released early.

Ministry in the Pskov and Ryazan dioceses

After his release, he served in the Pskov diocese (he, having previously been convicted, was forbidden to live in Moscow), and was a clergyman at the Pskov Trinity Cathedral. The activity of the recently released priest displeased the authorities, and he was again threatened with criminal prosecution. Then, in 1957, he would have been forced to leave Pskov and continue serving in the rural parish of the Ryazan diocese. Initially, he was the second priest in the Trinity Church in the village of Trinity-Pelenitsa, from December 1959 - the Church of Cosmas and Damian in the village of Letovo, from June 1962 - the rector of the Resurrection Church in the village of Borets, then - the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Nekrasovka. Since the spring of 1966, he was rector of St. Nicholas Church in the city of Kasimov. On June 10, 1966, he became a monk with the name John.

At that time in the late 50s, when the Soviet government forcibly closed numerous churches, Father John Krestyankin wrote: “Let us not deprive ourselves of the temple when we can, but let us also learn to carry it with us: practice kindness in your heart, purity in your body, then and another will make you a temple of God.”

Numerous translations of Fr. John from one parish to another were associated with the influence of the authorities, who did not like the active priest, who not only preached beautifully, but was also involved in the economic arrangement of the churches in which he served. In 1967, Patriarch Alexy I signed a decree transferring him to serve in the Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Returning to the diocese, he learned that while he was in Moscow at a reception with the Patriarch, a decision was made to transfer him from Kasimov to another parish (already the sixth in ten years), but it was canceled due to his departure to the monastery.

Elder

From 1967 until his death he lived in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery. Since 1970 - hegumen, since 1973 - archimandrite. Already a year after Fr. John settled in the monastery, believers from all over the country began to come to him for advice and blessings. Orthodox people from abroad also visited the archimandrite. Believers considered him an old man and revered him for his high spirituality. His biography describes a typical day for Fr. Joanna:

Immediately after the end of the Liturgy, the reception began. In the altar, issues with the visiting clergy were resolved, in the choir the attendants who had arrived with the priests were waiting for their turn, local parishioners and visiting pilgrims were waiting in the church. The priest was leaving the church surrounded by many people when it was time for lunch. But belated questioners and curious people also ran up on the street, whose attention was attracted by the gathered crowd. And the curious, having become curious, found in the center of the crowd, first an attentive listener, and in the future a spiritual father... Having reached his cell only with the ringing of the bell for dinner, he literally threw off his hood and robe and ran away. After lunch, the journey from the refectory to the cell lasted at least an hour, and again there was a crowd. And in his cell visitors were already waiting for him, and a reception for those departing that day was scheduled for the evening. And so on every day. Not a day, not a month, but from year to year, as long as the Lord gave strength. In his phenomenal memory, the priest kept for a long, long time the names of those who turned to him, and prayed for everyone.

Already a very old man, Archimandrite John could not receive all the believers who wanted to receive spiritual help from the elder, but until very recently he answered letters from many people from all over the world. Some of them were published - several editions of “Letters of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin)” were published. Among Orthodox believers, the publication of his sermons and other books, including “The Experience of Constructing a Confession,” became widely known. The basis for this work was the conversations of Archimandrite John, which were held in the seventies of the 20th century in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery during the first week of Lent, after reading the penitential canon of Andrew of Crete.

Archimandrite John himself did not like being called an elder. Once he told the believers:

There is no need to confuse the elder and the old man. And there are different old people, some are 80 years old, some are 70, like me, who are 60, there are old people and young people. But the elders are God's blessing to people. And we no longer have elders. An old man runs around the monastery, and we follow him. And now the time is like this: “There are millions of two-legged creatures, we all look at Napoleons.” But we need to learn that we are all essentially unnecessary and are not needed by anyone except God. He came and suffered for us, for me, for you. And we are looking for the guilty: the Jews are to blame, the government is to blame, the governor is to blame. “Take, eat, this is My Body” - because of me He was crucified. “Drink, this is My Blood” - He shed it because of me. And I am a participant in everything. The Lord calls, calls us to repentance, to feel the extent of our guilt in the disorder of life.

Father John Krestyankin is widely revered by believers as a preacher and an all-Russian elder; they talk about the prospect of his future canonization. In his book “Unholy Saints” and Other Stories” Archim. Tikhon (Shevkunov) cites many cases of archimandrite’s foresight. John. .

Notes

Links

• Having seen the evening light. Meeting with the Elder. Holy Dormition Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery. 2004
• Would you pray to Saint Spyridon of Trimifuntsky. Memoirs of N. A. Pavlova about Archimandrite John (Peasant). Newspaper "Vera", May 6, 2008.
• Life, morality, faith. About Archimandrite John (Peasant)

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
• Born on April 11
• Born in 1910
• Deaths on February 5
• Died in 2006
• Knights of the Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov, 1st degree
• Graduates of the Moscow Theological Academy
• Archimandrites of the Russian Orthodox Church
• Oryol and Liven diocese
• Repressed in the USSR
• Prisoners of Lefortovo prison
• Died in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery

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Archimandrite John (in the world Ivan Mikhailovich Krestyankin) was born on April 11, 1910 in the city of Orel in large family, was the eighth and last child. Since childhood, Vanya served in the church, already at the age of six he was a sexton, then served as a subdeacon. At the age of twelve he first expressed his desire to be a monk. In the elder’s biography, this story is stated as follows.

Yeletsk Bishop Nikolai said goodbye to pilgrims, leaving for a new place of service. The farewell was drawing to a close, and Subdeacon John Krestyankin also wanted to receive parting words for life from the bishop. He touched his arm to get his attention. The Bishop leaned towards the boy with the question: “What should I bless you for?” And Vanya said in excitement: “I want to be a monk.” Putting his hand on the boy's head, the bishop paused, peering into his future. And he said seriously: “First you will finish school, work, then you will be ordained and serve, and in due time you will certainly become a monk.” Everything in life turned out that way.

In 1929, Ivan Krestyankin graduated high school and then got professional education in accounting courses. He worked in his specialty in Orel, but often overtime work prevented him from going to church, and when he opposed such orders, he was immediately fired. For some time he could not find a job and in 1932 he moved to Moscow, where he became the chief accountant in a small enterprise. Work did not prevent him from attending services. Soon Ivan entered the circle of Orthodox young people, discussed issues of spiritual life with them, and this friendship strengthened him even more in his intention to follow the spiritual path.

In 1944, he became a psalm-reader at the Moscow Church of the Nativity in Izmailovo, and in 1945 he was ordained a deacon at the same parish, and soon a priest.

Father John served with enthusiasm, preached with inspiration, treated parishioners with love and extraordinary attention - and for this reason aroused suspicion and persecution by the authorities. The “excessive activity” of a priest in those days was a reason for fabricating a criminal case.

Simultaneously with serving in the church, Father John studied in absentia at the Moscow Theological Academy, wrote a candidate's thesis on the topic “Reverend Seraphim of Sarov, the Wonderworker and his significance for Russian religious and moral life of that time.” However, shortly before his defense, in April 1950, he was arrested and was in pre-trial detention in Lubyanka and Lefortovo prison.

The priest immediately confused the assertive and tough investigator with his goodwill. Without reacting in any way to anger and rudeness, he behaved simply and openly and, moreover, rejected slander and did not take on unnecessary blame. When a priest, recruited by the authorities, was brought to him for a confrontation, Father John was so sincerely delighted and rushed to greet him so heartily that he could not withstand the reproach of his conscience and, losing consciousness, fell...

Since August 1950, Father John was kept in Butyrka prison, in a cell with criminals. Here he became especially immersed in prayer, thanks to which he always maintained a good mood and a cordial attitude towards others. His inner concentration was noticed, but not understood by the guards, so that during walks in the prison yard, one could sometimes hear from the tower: “Prisoner number such and such! Walk without hesitation!”

In October, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for “anti-Soviet agitation” to be served in a maximum security camp. He was sent to the Arkhangelsk region, to Kargopollag. At first, Father John worked in a logging camp. The living and working conditions there were extremely difficult, but this is how I recalled my time internal state Father John himself:

“Prayer is best taught harsh life. In conclusion, I had a true prayer, and this is because every day I was on the verge of death. Prayer was that insurmountable barrier through which abominations did not penetrate external life. It is impossible to repeat such a prayer now, in days of prosperity. Although the experience of prayer and living faith acquired there remains for life.”

In the camp, Father John was remembered by many for the inner strength emanating from him and the constancy of his goodness. One of the prisoners recalled:

“I remember how he walked with his light, swift gait - not walking, but flying - along the wooden walkways to our barracks. His pale, thin face was directed somewhere forward and upward. I was especially struck by his sparkling eyes - the eyes of a prophet. But when he spoke to you, his eyes, his whole face radiated love and kindness. And in what he said there was attention and participation; there could also be a fatherly instruction, brightened with gentle humor. He loved a joke..."

His kindness of heart impressed everyone, and even criminals treated him warmly and called him “our dad.” Father John himself saw in them not criminals, but people crippled by their own sin. He felt pity for the unfortunate people, prayed for them, and most of them were friendly towards the young priest, feeling in him the depth of his Christian love for people, unknown to them. Remembering that time many years later, already as an old man, Father John wrote: “I would like to pray and ask you for the gift of love. So that love is the compass that will show the right direction in any situation and turn any person into a friend. This was also verified by me, even in exile.”

When asked if he was offended by rudeness and unfair treatment, which was enough in prison, the priest responded wonderfully: “When can you be offended? I don’t have enough time for love to waste it on grudges.”

Hard work in logging undermined his health, and in the spring of 1953, Father John, without his request, was transferred to a disabled camp unit. In 1955 he was released early.

And then there were years of work in various parishes of the Pskov and Ryazan dioceses, and everywhere the priest carried the light of Christ’s love, which warmed everyone around him. He did not stay anywhere for long: frequent transfers from one parish to another (6 parishes in 10 years) were associated with the attitude of the authorities, who, as before, did not want an active priest.

In 1966, he became a monk with the name John and was soon transferred to the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he lived the last forty years of his life. In 1970 he was ordained hegumen, and since 1973 he has been an archimandrite.

Almost immediately after Father John settled in Pechory, people began to come to him for advice and spiritual guidance from all over the country and from abroad. And, of course, his numerous former parishioners strove for him.

Every day, immediately after the Liturgy, he began the reception and continued it, with short breaks for meals, until late in the evening, and sometimes even after midnight. He did not walk around the monastery, but almost ran - however, lingering near everyone who sought his attention, and for this they called him with good humor “a fast train with all the stops.” When the priest was in a hurry, not having time to ask questions and talk for a long time, he sometimes immediately began to answer a question that had been prepared but had not yet been asked to him, and thereby involuntarily revealed his amazing insight.

Archimandrite John was revered by all Orthodox Russia like an elder confessor. The time of his ascetic life, when he received and consoled dozens of people every day, lasted more than thirty years, almost until he was 90 years old.

There are mentors who are reserved and some who are stern. And Father, as those who saw him at least once remember, was all love and joy...

Since childhood, he was in poor health, often sick, always malnourished, he never felt sorry for himself and even simply did not take care of himself. And he lived for 95 years, and until the age of 90 he was strong and still served. God (2 Cor. 12:9) and that says it all. Father John himself, shortly before his death, said this: “Divine love, settled in a small, weak human heart, will make it great, and strong, and fearless before all the evil of a world maddened by apostasy from God. And the power of God will overcome everything in us.”

In recent years, due to illness, Father John almost did not receive visitors, but he received many letters from all over the world and answered many of them - either himself or with the help of his cell attendants.

The elder died on February 5, 2006, and was buried in the caves of the Assumption Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

They call him “the elder of all Rus',” remembering the amazing kindness and love that came from him.