Prince Pechersk biography

The life of St. Nicholas Svyatoy's memory on October 14 “passes the image of this world of this rule passes from people to the people the Lord overtakes the thrones of the rulers and puts meek in their place” 1 Cor. From the earliest youth in his early youth, the noble Prince of Nicholas has complicated this fragmentation of the Previous rule on Earth. He clearly saw that only in the sky there is a kingdom of an enduring, forever abiding, fulfilled by those indescribable eternal benefits, which the Lord prepared for those who love Him.

Therefore, he - just as the Indian Tsarevich Joasaph, left the glory and wealth, honestly and the power of his temporary, earthly reign for the sake of the eternal, heavenly kingdom and, having come to the Pechersk monastery, clothed the Blessed of the Holy Monastic Chin in the monastica by Blessed Nicholas shone the holyness of his life that, seeing his good deeds, zealously glorified for him.

And, above all, he succeeded in obedience. First, St. Nicholas worked for the fraternity in the cook; Here, he chopped firewood with his own hands and humbly wore them from the shore on his shoulders, implicitly performing and everything else that was needed for cooking. He already worked hard when he learned about his exploits by his brothers Izyaslav and Vladimir; They began to keep him from such work.

But this true novice asked them with tears so that they allow him to work for another year in a cook for the brethren. And here he was with complete diligence and zeal lasted the brethren for three whole years. After this, he, as a tested person and capable of everything, was assigned to guard the monastery gates, and in this obedience, without leaving, he also stayed for three years except for the church.

From there he was assigned to serve at the fraternal meal; And he passed this obedience with zeal and such diligence that he enjoyed the location of the whole brethren. Having thus, all these degrees of obedience, he, by the permission of the abbot and the whole brethren, took on the feat of silence, in order to take care of his salvation. Fulfilling this obedience, he arranged a garden with his own hands with his own hands, and during all the years of monastic life he was never seen idle; He always had some kind of work in his hands, and on his lips continuously this prayer Jesus: “Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, have mercy on me!

If he, against his desire, like the prince, had to receive anything from his loved ones, then he immediately distributed all this to the needs of the wanderers, the poor and the church building, so many books were acquired at his expense. This blessed prince, even during the possession of his principality, had with him a very skilled doctor named - Peter, the Syrians, who came to the monastery with him.

This doctor, seeing the voluntary poverty of his master, left him and lived in Kyiv, healing many there. However, he repeatedly came to the blissful and, seeing him in great deprivations and immense posts, serving in the kitchen and guard at the monastery gates, so exhorted to leave this lifestyle: “Prince, you should take care of your health, so that you do not weaken your flesh with exorbitant work and abstinence, because if you are exhausted, you will become an unusual for you.” He wished to take on.

After all, God does not seek a post or feat above forces, but only a pure and humble heart. You work for monks like a bought slave; After all, you are not used to such a need, and this is unworthy of you, since you are a prince. For your noble brothers, Vladimir and Izyaslav, your poverty is sorrow and great humiliation, since from such great glory and honors you came to such deprivation that you are killed by your body and because of insufficient food you fall into ailments.

You previously ate delicious fruits, and now have exposed to severe deprivations, tasting raw greens and dry bread. But beware, as if you can’t get sick at all, and then you, having no more strength, will lose your life, and I will not be able to help you; So, you are preparing an unlucky cry of your brothers. So the boyars who once served you and thanks to you previously noble - and those, having lost their hopes, regret you and abide in great despondency.

But they arranged large houses for themselves and now live in them, and you do not have where to knead the heads, and you sit with the garbage heaps, then in a cook, then with gates. Which of the Russian princes did this? Is your father David, or is your grandfather Svyatoslav anymore anymore? And from the boyars no one would have wished such an inglorious life, except for one Varlaam, who was here the abbot.

So, if you do not listen to my advice, then you will die prematurely. Like words, the doctor Peter, taught by the brothers of St. Nicholas, often told him when he sat with him in a cook or at the gate. Blessed always answered him: - Brother Peter! Often thinking about the salvation of my soul, I decided that it should not spare the flesh, so that it would not enter the fight against the spirit and not excite in the soul of my battle.

Tired by the feat of abstinence, it humbles, but does not exhaust; And if she had exhausted, then the apostle said: “My strength is committed in weakness” 2 Cor.And one more thing: “The current temporary suffering is nothing in comparison with the glory that will open in us” Rome. God wants a humble and pure heart, but it cannot be without fasting and feat, because the post is a mother of chastity and purity.

And it is also said: “He humbled the heart with their works” PS. I thank God for the fact that he freed me from worldly worries and made me a slave for his slaves - these blessed blacksmen; After all, I, being a prince, under the guise of work for them, work for the king of kings. Let my brothers take care of themselves: “Everyone will bear their burden” Gal. Enough from them my heritage, which I left for that along with the earthly reign in order to receive a legacy in the kingdom of heaven: “For him, I refused everything, and I read everything for the sides to acquire Christ,” Philip.

Why do you threaten me with death, reproach in my poverty and abstinence from excessive dishes? After all, when you treat bodily illness, do you command the patient to be reference, and to avoid some dishes? And in the same way I need to heal the ailments of mental. If I die bodily, then after all, the “death” of Christ for the sake of the “acquisition” by Philip.

If I sit with garbage heaps, then why do you consider me worse than the boyars? If not one of the Russian princes did this before, then, following the king of heaven, I will put a beginning; Perhaps, from this time, someone will imitate me, following my example. Finally, together with the teaching you, I advise you to take care of yourself! The following was also many times.

When this blessed prince, tired of obedience in the feat of obedience, fell into a disease, then the doctor Peter, learning about this, immediately prepared him medications necessary for one or another illness. But the prince always before the doctor’s arrival with medicine, God's help was made healthy and never allowed to treat himself. Once I had to get the doctor himself.

Blessed was sent to him to say: - If you do not drink medicine, you will recover soon, and if you do not listen to me, you will suffer for a long time. But the doctor did not obey and drank his medicine and, wanting to recover from the illness, almost lost his life, although he was then healed by the prayer of the saint. When the same doctor soon fell ill again, Blessed ordered to give him the same thing: “If you will not be treated,” you will recover on the third day.

Being punished for the first disobedience, this time the doctor obeyed the blessed and, according to him, recovered on the third day. Blessed Nikola at the same time ended his obedience to the monastery gatekeeper; Having called the recovered doctor, he told him: - Peter! The doctor Peter, hearing this, fell at his feet and cried out, dousing his tears: - Alas, my lord, my benefactor, my precious life!

Who will accept me when I come here? Who will feed the blue and wretched, who will intercede for the offended, who will provide mercy to many who require help? Didn't I tell you, prince, that you will soon deliver an ineffable cry for your brothers? Didn’t you tell you: the prince, take care of your life, for you can be useful for many, and in your life is the life of many people.

Didn't you heal me by the power of God and your prayer? Where are you, good shepherd, are you leaving? If you yourself, my healing, froze, then tell me, your slave, about your illness, and if I do not cure you, then let my life and my soul be for your life. Do not leave me in silence, my lord, but tell me, where did this news come from? If from people, then I will give my life for you, and if the Lord announces this to you, then pray to him to die instead of you.

If you leave me, then where can I sit down and cry about my loss, or this garbage heap, where you were sitting so often - but they will not let me go here. And will I be able to get anything in the inheritance from your estate when you yourself are nagging? Are these paid racies that are on you? But in those you, moving away from the world, will be laid.

Give me, at least to me - just as the ancient Elijah Elisha Grace - your prayer, so that I will share it with the depths of the heart and the waters of my life and go to the place of distant shelter, into the house of God, where you want to go now. And the beast after the sunset of the Sun understands that he needs to go and lie down in his lair, but I do not know where I will go after your departure.

And the bird “and the bird finds a house for itself, and the swallow is a nest for itself, where to put the chicks of its” ps. Raising the crying doctor, Blessed told him: - Peter! Do not complain: “It is better to rely on the Lord than to hope for the princes” PS. The Lord knows how to preserve his creature, which he himself created. He will take care of feeding the strokes, intercede for the poor and save those who are in miscarriage, and will be a refuge for you.

My brothers, by the flesh, are not about me, but about themselves and about their affairs, in the deplorable newly of this world, they cry, in order to get comfort and bliss in the future. I do not need, for the sake of temporary life, in healing, because I have long died for everything temporary: “the dead will not come to life” IP.Having said this, blessed Nikola Svyatosh, along with the doctor, went to the cave and prepared a place for the grave there.

At the same time, he told the doctor: - Which of us loves this more place? Peter answered with crying: “I know that if you wish, then you will beg the Lord to still live for you, and put me here.” Blessed said to him: - Let it be the way you wish, if you want the Lord. So, we will pray to him both, but only in a monastic rank. Then, on the advice of the Blessed, the doctor was tonsured into a monastic rank and stayed for three months in prayer, constantly, day and night, shed tears.

Once Blessed Nikola told him: “Brother Peter, do you want me to take you with me?” He, as before, answered him with crying: “I wish you to let me die for you, and you stay here and pray for me.” Blessed said to him: “Brother, dare and be ready, because, at your request, on the third day you will leave this life.” When the pre -assigned time came, Peter, communion with the holy and life -giving of Christ the mysties, lay on the Odr and betrayed his spirit in the hands of the Lord.

Upon the death of the doctor, the blessed Prince of Nicholas Holy began to leave the monastery for more than thirty years and, having reached, according to the nickname, perfection in the Holy Life, he naughty into eternal life to the Holy of Saints to the king of humility - Jesus on the day of the death of this holy prince almost the whole city of Kyiv gathered, giving him the last kiss and asking him with abundant tears of prayers.

The Blessed brothers, Izyaslav and Vladimir were especially cried. Izyaslav turned to the hegumen of the monastery with a request to give him the blessing and comfort of the cross of the deceased, a pillow and a bench on which he made a kneeling. Izyaslav, having accepted these items with great reverence sent a lot of gold to the monastery in order to get these things of his brother.

This very Izyaslav once brutally shed a ceremony and did not even hope to get up from the bed. At this time, he was a wife, children and all the boyars. So some time passed; Then the patient, having recovered somewhat, got up and asked to drink water from the Pechersk well. But soon he again lost his tongue and after this could not say anything.