Holy blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevskaya (Ryazan). Postcard (playcast) “Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevskaya, confessor Holy Matrona of Ryazan
Date of birth: 11.1864
Citizenship: Russia
In the twentieth century, hundreds of new names appeared in the firmament of saints who shone in the Russian land. These great prayer books were our contemporaries. Our fathers and grandfathers could know them and even knew them.
Churches were destroyed then, icons were burned, but these humble ascetics prayed for us day and night and begged for Victory in a terrible war and the return of the Orthodox Faith to our souls. God willing, Russia will rise from the ruins, just as sparkling domes with the Cross conquering darkness rise from the burnt ruins into the high blue sky.
And today our story is about the holy land of Ryazan - about MATRONUSHKA ANEMNYASEVSKAYA. Day of glorification - April 9/22. Memory with the Cathedral of Ryazan Saints - June 10/23.
This happened in the thirties. The doctor Sergei Alekseevich Nikitin, who was sitting in the camp and waiting for his release, was threatened with a large increase in his sentence for his attempts to help weak people, freeing them from work and sending them to the hospital. Frustrated, he did not know what to do, and no longer hoped to leave the camp. It was then that he heard amazing advice from his nurse: “Seek help from Matronushka. The Lord gave her special power to pray: for whomever she begins to pray, she will definitely pray.”
How can I contact her? “My letter will be late,” the doctor asked sadly.
But you don’t need to write to her, just call her! Shout loudly three times: “Matronushka, help me, I’m in trouble!” She will hear and rescue you.
The doctor did just that that evening - he whispered his petition, turning towards the Ryazan region. Although he doubted that a woman living hundreds of kilometers away without a walkie-talkie and wires would hear him.
Days and months passed - no one touched him, but for some reason the management around him changed a lot. The doctor was released on time, and he, as he promised himself then, immediately went to bow to the unknown woman who saved him. I found the village of Anemnyasevo and the house. I entered the hut, and in the room there was a table in the middle, and on it a large box.
Can I come in? - the doctor asked loudly.
Come in, Serezhenka,” came from the box.
Looking into it, he saw a small blind woman lying motionless on her back. The face is bright and affectionate.
After greeting, he asked:
How do you know my name?
“How could I not know,” her weak, clear voice sounded. “You called me, and I prayed to God for you, that’s why I know.”
And in a long conversation, Matrona predicted to the doctor that he would be a priest and even a bishop. And it all came true.
Matrona was born into a poor peasant family of the Belyakovs in November 1864. At the age of seven she fell ill with smallpox and her whole body was covered with abscesses. “Mother did not treat me,” recalls Matresha, “and did not pray to God for me. I was lying on the stove, where there was a lot of rubbish, so my mother washed me all over, after which my whole body became swollen, I became blind and was sick for a long time... "
A blind girl was assigned to nurse her younger sisters and brothers. It was hard to deal with this. Once she accidentally stumbled and dropped her sister from the porch, she was terribly scared and began to cry.
“At that moment my mother just came up, she grabbed me and started beating me. She beat me so, so much,” recalls Matresha, “that it became very hard and difficult for me, and at that moment I saw the Queen of Heaven. I said about it. mother, and she again began to beat me. The vision repeated three times, and I kept telling my mother about it, and after each time my mother beat me more and more. During the last vision, the Queen of Heaven gave me a comforting note,” said Matresha. I somehow climbed onto the stove and lay there until the morning. In the morning they called me to eat pancakes, but I couldn’t get up, my legs couldn’t walk, my arms felt broken, my whole body hurt. And since then I couldn’t walk or sit, but just lay there..."
The mother's beatings forever deprived the girl of the ability to walk and do anything. She could only lie there - unloved and reproached for everything.
It was the life of a martyr nailed to her bed.
Have you shed many tears in your life?
Oh, a lot. Yes, the Lord comforted me. In the eleventh year, the Queen of Heaven Herself appeared to me and gave me a comforting note. And another time I saw in a dream, as I remember now, on Saturday in St. Thomas Week, the Savior Himself came down from the cross and, together with His Mother, the Queen of Heaven, came up to me. The Savior, Father, has nail wounds on his hands and feet, and blood is flowing. I, a sinner, kissed His hand, and when I woke up and wiped my lips, there was blood on my lips...
Matryosha spoke with tears about this vision and at the end of the story she began to cry, the tears just flowed...
Fellow villagers knew about the girl’s suffering life and treated her with a sense of reverent respect. The first to come to Matresha for help was a peasant from her own village, a sawyer by profession. She was already seventeen then.
Matryosha,” he said, “you’ve been lying there for several years, I suppose you’re pleasing to God.” My back hurts and I can’t saw. Touch your back, maybe it will go away for you. I was treated, but the doctors are not helping.
Matryosha fulfilled his request, and the back pain really stopped. Since then, more and more people began to come to her with their needs, sorrows and illnesses. Over time, these visits took on the character of a real pilgrimage! Residents came to Matresha not only from surrounding places, but also from distant places. They came from all over the Fatherland. Moreover, they came in a continuous stream for more than fifty years in the amount of several tens and sometimes hundreds every day.
Matryosha usually lay in a small separate room of a peasant hut, in a small crib, which was always covered with a curtain. In the summer, when it became stuffy in the hut, they usually took it out into the hallway, and there it lay until winter. She herself never asked to be moved to the hut, and patiently endured the autumn cold and cold.
“Once,” recalls Matresha, “in October, I was lying in the hallway; it was raining heavily at night. Water poured through the roof onto me and I was soaked to the skin. By morning there was a frost, I was terribly cold, and my clothes were all frozen. In the morning, my sister saw this, took pity and took me to the hut, for which I am grateful to her.
In appearance, Matryosha was so small that she seemed like a ten-year-old child. Her dress, given to her by one of her admirers, covered her entire legs, and was only 91 centimeters in length. Apparently, from the age of ten, when she lost the ability to walk, her body had not grown. Matryona spoke easily and freely and sang sacred chants in a surprisingly clear and sonorous childish voice. “Her voice is like a bell,” said those who heard her sing.
The whole of God's world was concentrated for Matryona here - within the walls of her small, miserable room. But even in these extremely difficult and constraining conditions, God granted Matryosha to see another world - an extremely rich world, full of inner content, interest and meaning.
And God gave her the strength to achieve not only high personal spiritual perfection, but also to become the center and source of religious and moral life for many, many believers who came to her with their doubts, needs, sorrows and illnesses and received from her what they needed for their spiritual growth, for their spiritual guidance on the difficult and difficult path of human life.
Nobody knows how she prayed to God. All that is known is that she knew by heart a lot of prayers, many akathists and church chants.
In a conversation with one of her deep admirers, Matresha said that “you need to pray incessantly”, that “incessant prayer can do everything.” Matresha considered prayer for the dead especially important.
Matryosha often received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, every month without fail. She invited her confessor, the parish priest, to her place, and the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries was the most joyful day for her. Five times during her life she received unction.
Matresha observed the fasts especially strictly. Since she was seventeen, she has not eaten meat. In addition to Wednesday and Friday, I observed the same fast on Mondays. During church fasts I ate almost nothing or ate very little.
Of the holy places, Matryosha treated Old Jerusalem and the Diveyevo and Sarov monasteries with the greatest reverence. She spoke about them with special tenderness and love. She constantly advised her pious visitors to go to Diveevo and Sarov, considering them places of the special presence of God’s grace. And she rejoiced when her advice was carried out.
When you go to Matryosha, - the people say, - then all steps are blessed, every path gives something.
One woman complained to Matresha that she could very rarely go to church.
“I have a hut full of kids,” says the woman, “the kids are studying, I have to cook for them and do all the housework.” I would be glad to go, but I can’t leave the house.
Matryosha gave this woman the icon of the Mother of God, known as the “Zapechnaya” icon, and did not say anything. This icon depicts the Mother of God in the form in which She appeared to one woman who, being tied to the household, was praying behind the stove. By this, Matryosha made it clear to the woman that the Queen of Heaven hears fervent prayer everywhere.
Admirers of Matryosha believe that if she gave this or that icon, then this icon, the sacred event or saint depicted on it, is associated with a special meaning, a special meaning that this image has for the person who received this icon. If Matryosha gives someone a cross, it means that she blesses such a person for the feat, for the suffering that awaits him.
With her blessing, the people took oil from her lamp, which burned unquenchably in front of the icons in her room, and sometimes provided oil brought to her by someone from the holy places. Matresha advised to anoint the sick and those suffering in general with oil.
Matryosha loved incense very much and said that it drives out unclean spirits. She advised fumigating a house with incense on holidays, putting incense into a burning samovar, etc. She often advised patients to boil water with incense.
The patients were also helped by the things that Matryona had.
This is how the little holy sufferer lived and helped people with her prayers. How many people did she save from serious illnesses? "the priests of the Pravdolyubovs and the sick degenerate Matryona Belyakova." 10 people were arrested, they were sent to Ryazan and Moscow, and they were afraid to touch Blessed Matrona.
Finally, a collective farm meeting was held, at which it was decided to “remove” Matrona Grigorievna Belyakova as a “harmful element.” Out of 300 village residents, only 24 activists signed up. The village council gave a description of “Belyakova M.G.”, in which she was directly and openly called a saint without any quotation marks or irony. “This group is a harmful element in the village; with its holiness it strongly influences the dark masses... In view of this, the progress of collectivization is delayed by the s/s.”
It is clear from the case how sacredly the witnesses and relatives, everyone who was close to Matrona, cherished her name and her bright image, no one slandered her, no one turned out to be a traitor.
Her confessor, priest Alexander Vasilyevich Orlov (in this case, spent 5 years in Solovki and Medvezhyegorsklag and died in his homeland, after liberation, in 1941), showed particular courage and daring in defending Matrona.
Finally, a car was sent for the Blessed Matrona. We drove up to her house during the day without hiding. We entered. Then they were seized with fear, they were afraid to approach. On duty, the chairman of the village council approached and, overcoming fear, lifted Matryonushka from her plank bed. Matrona screamed in a thin voice. The people were numb. The chairman began to make a decision. At the door he said:
Oh, how easy it is!
Matrona said:
And your children will be so easy.
And everything turned out according to her words. Several years ago, the archpriest of the Trinity Church in the village of Gus-Zhelezny, Fr. Seraphim was burying one of the sons of the then chairman. The son was very short. All the chairman’s children stopped growing after the arrest of the Blessed Matrona.
The chairman who “removed” Blessed Matrona died very hard. It was summer. The house stood with the windows open due to the heat. He screamed so loudly in pain that half the village could hear. People said:
This is not for you to raise Matryoshka!..
Finally, he called the priest and sincerely and fervently repented of his sins, and died in peace with the Church.
A resident of Belkov said about Matresha’s arrest:
They didn’t protect such a shrine, it flew away like a bird...
Matrona then lived in Moscow for almost a year. Presumably, she was imprisoned in Butyrka prison. But she did not stay there long, because almost all the prisoners began to reverence her, and they began to sing akathists and pray in their cells.
According to other sources, the hopelessly ill mother of the investigator in charge of the case of Blessed Matrona received healing from Matrona, and the investigator managed to release her as sick and dying. He placed her in what was then a home for the elderly and disabled - the chronically ill.
It is documented that Blessed Matrona died of heart failure on July 16/29, 1936 in the House of Chronicles named after Radishchev in Moscow, not far from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vladykino.
Her grave remains unknown for now.
The prayerful help of Matrona was felt and felt not only 60 years ago - and now, these days, including the writer of these lines, many times noted the help of Matrona, coming in response to prayer. It seems that everyone who turns to her for help will receive what they ask for. We believe that new ascetics and saints are praying for us, and we must honor them with gratitude and create their memory here on earth.
The Life of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo was compiled by priest Nikolai PRAVDOLYUBOV and Vladimir PRAVDOLYUBOV. Proteor Sergiy PRAVDOLYUBOV completed the work.
You need to pray to the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo like this:
Troparion, voice 8:
Like the lightning of heavenly fire, the blessed old woman Saint Matrona rose in the Ryazan country, and today we create her memory, let us sing to Christ God, begging Him to grant us patience through illnesses, troubles and sorrows, and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion, the same voice:
In weakness you found strength, in blindness you found imperishable eyes,
being on your sick bed, you flew everywhere like a bird in spirit, while in infancy in body, you were the mother of the grieving and overwhelmed. In the same way, do not leave those who honor your memory in prayers, and help us get rid of sins through repentance, and gain the Kingdom of Heaven with you.
Matrona Grigorievna Belyakova, known among her many admirers as Matryoshas, was born on November 6, 1864 in the village of Anemnyasevo, Kasimovsky district, Ryazan province, into a poor large peasant family. Until the age of seven, she was an ordinary child, she walked a lot, frolicked and played with her peers. And at the age of seven, Matryonushka suffered from smallpox, after which she became blind and became a burden to her parents. Her life in her own family was unhappy: she constantly had to endure insults, abuse, and beatings.
“Once, when I was already ten years old, I was babysitting my sister as usual, and my mother went to the river. Somehow, I accidentally dropped my sister from the porch onto the ground, I got terribly scared, cried, and out of fear I jumped after her there. At that moment my mother came up, she grabbed me and started beating me. So she beat me, she beat me so much that it became very hard and difficult for me, and at that moment I dreamed: I saw the Queen of Heaven. I told my mother about this, and she began to beat me again...
After that, I somehow climbed onto the stove and lay there until the morning. In the morning they call me to eat pancakes, but I can’t get up, my legs can’t walk, my arms feel broken, my whole body hurts. And from then on I could neither walk nor sit, but only lay...”
The blind, mutilated girl was forever deprived of the ability to do anything on her own. She became completely helpless, could only lie down and never got out of bed. Her entire subsequent life became the life of a martyr, nailed to her bed.
Matryosha lay in her parents' house until she was 17 years old, all this time patiently enduring sorrows and insults, finding consolation and joy in prayer. Gradually, her fellow villagers began to visit her: people knew about the girl’s suffering, about her patience and meekness, and treated her with respect and pity. They believed that this sufferer was pleasing to God, which means He always hears her prayers. Therefore, they came to her with their needs, sorrows and illnesses, asking for help.
It all started with one peasant who once turned to Matrona for help: “Matrosha, you’ve been lying there like this for several years, you’re probably pleasing to God. My back hurts and I can’t saw. Touch your back, maybe it will go away for you. What should I do, I was treated - the doctors are not helping.” Matryosha fulfilled his request - and the back pain really stopped.
After this miraculous healing, when the news about God’s chosen one spread throughout the area, not only fellow villagers, but also residents of other villages came to the blessed Matrona for prayerful help. Over time, these visits took on the character of a real pilgrimage.
Matryosha, as if seeing right through a person, usually pointed out his most sore spot that required healing, and thereby made him realize his illness, the existence of which he may still not have suspected, and take the path of correction. At the same time, Matryosha pointed out exactly only one vice, one disease, thereby forcing a person to focus on one shortcoming, and not spread out in many directions, which makes it difficult to fight with oneself and does not always lead to the desired results.
She advised giving holy water to a sick person, sprinkling it on her, pouring it into the food of a sick person, an angry husband, and in other similar cases.
With her blessing, the people took oil from her lamp, which burned unquenchably in front of the icons in her room, and sometimes gave oil brought to her by someone from the holy places. Matresha advised to anoint the sick and those suffering in general with oil.
Matresha used to have a lot of prosphoras from different holy places; these prosphoras were brought to her by her admirers.
She knew a woman from the neighboring village of Zabelino, who lived in Nizhny Novgorod. This woman had a secret tonsure, led a righteous life and almost constantly went on pilgrimages to holy places. During her wanderings, she collected prosphora, dried them and gave them to Matryosha in large quantities. Matresha especially valued these prosphora and gave them only to her chosen visitors.
- Here, I’ll give you some prosphora, a good one, - she said, giving such a prosphora.
The visitor handed her a prosphora, taken out for her health, and she gave him hers and said:
- And I gave it to him even better.
Matryosha, with her inner spiritual gaze, seemed to see through each of her visitors and gave each of them what was necessary, useful, necessary, depending on his mood, his spiritual infirmities and needs, depending on the conditions and circumstances among which he had to live .
She taught and instructed some, she exposed others and revealed their sins and vices, she encouraged and consoled others in difficult life circumstances, she warned others, pointing out the consequences of their erroneous path, aspirations and intentions, she healed others from illnesses, and together she tried to guide everyone on the path true godly Christian life.
This explains the diversity of her attitude towards visitors. She received some extremely kindly, with joy and sympathy, as dear close people:
- And I was waiting for you , - she told some - I thought you would come.
And on these occasions she talked a lot and willingly.
She drove others away from her, which was still very rare.
- Leave,- she said, - I'm not God, I'm not a prophet, go away, go away. And why did you walk, and why did you trample your feet?..
Sometimes she did not answer the proposed question:
- We are sinners, - she said in such cases. - and we will know everything? I can't know everything.
Matryosha taught her visitors how to live in order to remember the future life, in order to prepare for it, and not to become attached to earthly things. Taught me how to live "God's way": fulfill the law of God, pray to God, love God and only rely on Him. Firmly and uncomplainingly carry your life’s cross, sent down by God, is the main idea of her conversations and instructions.
In her conversations with visitors, Matresha very often cited texts from the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, and especially a lot from the Gospel. She often referred to facts and events from Sacred history, placing them as the basis for her instructions and teachings.
No less often, Matryosha gave examples from the lives of saints, placing them as the highest example of religious and moral life, taught to pray to them and try to imitate them in life.
She advised prayer differently, depending on each person’s situation. For example, she advised one "celebrate the midnight office" that is, pray at 9, 10 and 11 o'clock at night. She told others - people busy at work, people with many children - that you can pray everywhere and always, you can pray in public, you can read prayers in secret. You can pray even while lying in bed, and such a prayer “reaches God” and may even be more intelligible than others.
But Matresha placed prayer in church especially highly and insisted that everyone go to church without fail and at every opportunity.
- In church there is a prayer with three bows, - she said, - more than three hundred houses. Anyone who is lazy to go to church and pray, citing lack of time and various things to do, is such a person - she said, - stop later, but it will be too late. After all, it is unknown when the Last Judgment will be, but we, careless slaves, will not be awakened, the terrible trumpet will only wake us up.
One woman complained to Matresha that she could very rarely go to church.
- I have a hut full of guys, - the woman said, - The kids are studying, I have to cook for them and do all the housework. I would be glad to go, but I can’t leave the house.
Maresha gave this woman an icon of the Mother of God, known as "Zapechnoy" and yet she said nothing. This icon depicts the Mother of God in the form in which She appeared to one woman who, being tied to the household, was praying behind the stove. With this, Matryosha told the woman that the Queen of Heaven hears fervent prayer everywhere.
Matresha especially did not like breaking fasts; she grieved that non-observance of fasts in our days is becoming a common occurrence and is not considered a sin.
"The lawless ones, - she said, - they realize that they are committing lawlessness: and whoever does not observe fasts does not even realize that he is sinning.”
Matryosha loved church singing very much and knew all the church tunes very well. She herself, especially when she was younger, often sang various chants, and asked some of her visitors to sing as well. She also loved to sing various kinds of religious cants, and if she sang cants in the presence of a visitor, then usually each cant had some meaning for the latter. "Zion Sleeps" she sang as a blessing for a good life; "The Last Supper" - blessing for a difficult, sorrowful life; "Blessed Angel" - as a blessing not to be embarrassed and not to be afraid of suffering and death.
Previously, in pre-revolutionary times, large groups of village girls often gathered with Matryosha and sang cants with her for entire evenings. These evenings at Matryosha’s were a substitute for gatherings and other entertainment for religious girls and were very willingly attended by them.
After the death of her parents, Matrona had to endure a lot of grief from her brother and sister. When Blessed Matrona’s nephew, Matvey, offered to live in his house, the blessed one happily agreed. In her nephew’s house, Blessed Matrona lay in a small separate room, in a small crib, and in the summer, when it became stuffy in the hut, she was usually taken out into the hallway, and there she lay until winter.
In appearance, Matryosha was so small that she seemed like a ten-year-old child. Apparently, since she lost the ability to walk, her body has stopped growing. She was able to roll over from side to side and grasp small objects with her small hands. She spoke easily and freely and sang sacred chants in a clear and sonorous childish voice. Eyewitnesses said that the blessed old woman knew by heart many prayers, akathists, and church chants. To the question of one of the surprised visitors, who asked how she, being blind, even knows entire akathists by heart, Matrona replied that “a good person will come and read something, and I will remember it with God’s help.”
In a conversation with one of her deep admirers, Matresha said that “You need to pray continuously” What “Continuous prayer can do everything.” At the same time, she said about herself that she herself tries to pray incessantly, and that she prays with a rosary, which is always in her hand: that she also prays while she is talking with visitors; that during these conversations she touches her rosary, but prays secretly, silently, unnoticed by visitors. Visitors also do not see her rosary, which is always hidden from their eyes.
Matresha considered prayer for the dead especially important.
Matryosha often received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, every month without fail. For this purpose, she invited her confessor, the parish priest, to her place, and the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries was the most joyful day for her. She received unction five times during her life.
It is known that from the age of seventeen, Blessed Matrona did not eat meat on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and generally ate very little during church fasts.
Blessed Matrona treated Jerusalem and the Diveyevo and Sarov monasteries with reverence, considering them places of the special presence of God’s grace. No one knows how she prayed, but she knew a lot of church prayers and hymns. Staying hopelessly in her little room, Matryosha knew many saints and was in inner, blessed communion with them, although she had never even seen their icons.
All the spiritual infirmities of the people who came to her were open to the old woman; she instructed, denounced, revealing sins and vices, but at the same time she consoled them in the difficult circumstances of life. Through the prayers of Blessed Matrona, those suffering received healing from serious illnesses. Many, not having the opportunity to visit the old woman in person, sent her letters asking her to pray for them, and such requests also never went unanswered.
The last months of the blessed one's life were filled with new sorrows and suffering.
In the summer of 1935, a case was opened in Belkovo "the priests of the Pravdolyubovs and the sick degenerate Matryona Belyakova", which began with the denunciation of one resident of the city of Kasimov against the priest Nikolai Pravdolyubov in connection with a handwritten book (about Blessed Matrona), collected and written by him and his brother and prepared for publication. 10 people were arrested (although 12 should have been arrested). One woman died after receiving a summons demanding to appear at the NKVD department in Kasimov. According to the list, Blessed Matrona should also have been arrested. All those arrested had already been sent to Ryazan and Moscow, but they were afraid to touch Matrona.
Finally, a collective farm meeting was held, at which it was decided "to remove Matrona Grigorievna Belyakova as a harmful element." Out of 300 village residents, only 24 activists signed the appeal. Everyone who was close to the old woman sacredly cherished her name and image, no one slandered her, no one turned out to be a traitor. The village council gave the following characterization of Matryosha: “Citizen Belyakova M.G. is a harmful element; with her holiness she greatly influences the dark masses... Because of this, collectivization is delayed.”
A car was sent for blessed Matrona, and we drove up to her house in the afternoon. The chairman of the village council, overcoming fear, lifted Matryonushka from her plank bed. She screamed in pain in a thin voice. The people were numb. The chairman began to take her out of the room and said at the door: « Oh, how easy it is!» Matrona replied: “And your children will be so light.”
And so it happened. Several years ago, the archpriest of the Trinity Church in the village of Gus-Iron, Father Seraphim, buried one of the sons of the then chairman. He was very short. All the children of the chairman stopped growing after the arrest of Blessed Matrona.
The car broke down twice on the road to Kasimov, near Anikov and near Loshchinin. Someone was holding Blessed Matrona in their arms while the car was being repaired. From Kasimov she was quickly taken to Ryazan and then to Moscow.
Chairman, "seized" Blessed Matrona, several years later he died very hard. It was summer. The house stood with the windows open due to the heat. He screamed in pain so loudly that half the village could hear him. People said: “It’s not for you to raise Matryoshka!” But he called the priest and sincerely and fervently repented of his sins and died in peace with the Church.
Blessed Matrona lived in Moscow for almost a year.
Presumably, she was imprisoned in Butyrka prison. But she did not stay there long, because she became an object of veneration by almost all the prisoners without exception, who began to sing akathists and pray. She urgently needed to go somewhere. They were afraid to kill, and the example of prison prayers of prisoners did not allow them to be sent to a camp.
According to other sources, the hopelessly ill mother of the investigator who was in charge of the case of Blessed Matrona received healing from the saint, and the investigator managed to release her as sick and dying. He placed her in what was then a home for the elderly and chronically ill - the so-called House of Chronicles.
It is documented that Blessed Matrona died of heart failure on July 16/29, 1936. in the House of Chronicles named after Radishchev in Moscow, not far from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vladykino. Her grave, unfortunately, still remains unknown.
Chapel of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevskaya in Belkovo, Kasimovsky district, Ryazan region.
The glorification of the holy blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo was performed in the city of Kasimov, Ryazan diocese, on April 9/22, 1999.
Troparion, tone 8:
Like the lightning of heavenly fire rising in the Ryazan country, the blessed eldress Saint Matrona, who is creating memory today, let us sing to Christ God, begging Him to grant us patience through intercession in illnesses, troubles and sorrows, and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion, same voice:
In weakness you found strength, in blindness you found incorruptible eyes, you were on your sick bed, you flew everywhere like a bird in spirit, you were the mother of the grieving and betrothed in your infancy in body. Also, do not leave those who honor your memory in prayers, and help us get rid of sins through repentance, and gain the Kingdom of Heaven with you.
Memorial Days: January 31st Art. (February 13 N.S.), July 16, old style (July 29 N.S.).
In the twentieth century, hundreds of new names appeared in the firmament of saints who shone in the Russian land. These great prayer books were our contemporaries. Our fathers and grandfathers could know them and even knew them.
Churches were destroyed then, icons were burned, but these humble ascetics prayed for us day and night and begged for Victory in a terrible war and the return of the Orthodox Faith to our souls. God willing, Russia will rise from the ruins, just as sparkling domes with the Cross conquering darkness rise from the burnt ruins into the high blue sky.
And today our story is about the holy land of Ryazan - about MATRONUSHKA ANEMNYASEVSKAYA. Day of glorification - April 9/22. Memory with the Cathedral of Ryazan Saints - June 10/23.
This happened in the thirties. The doctor Sergei Alekseevich Nikitin, who was sitting in the camp and waiting for his release, was threatened with a large increase in his sentence for his attempts to help weak people, freeing them from work and sending them to the hospital. Frustrated, he did not know what to do, and no longer hoped to leave the camp. It was then that he heard amazing advice from his nurse: “Seek help from Matronushka. The Lord gave her special power to pray: for whomever she begins to pray, she will definitely pray.”
How can I contact her? “My letter will be late,” the doctor asked sadly.
But you don’t need to write to her, just call her! Shout loudly three times: “Matronushka, help me, I’m in trouble!” She will hear and rescue you.
The doctor did just that that evening - he whispered his petition, turning towards the Ryazan region. Although he doubted that a woman living hundreds of kilometers away without a walkie-talkie and wires would hear him.
Days and months passed - no one touched him, but for some reason the management around him changed a lot. The doctor was released on time, and he, as he promised himself then, immediately went to bow to the unknown woman who saved him. I found the village of Anemnyasevo and the house. I entered the hut, and in the room there was a table in the middle, and on it a large box.
Best of the day
Can I come in? - the doctor asked loudly.
Come in, Serezhenka,” came from the box.
Looking into it, he saw a small blind woman lying motionless on her back. The face is bright and affectionate.
After greeting, he asked:
How do you know my name?
“How could I not know,” her weak, clear voice sounded. “You called me, and I prayed to God for you, that’s why I know.”
And in a long conversation, Matrona predicted to the doctor that he would be a priest and even a bishop. And it all came true.
Matrona was born into a poor peasant family of the Belyakovs in November 1864. At the age of seven she fell ill with smallpox and her whole body was covered with abscesses. “Mother did not treat me,” recalls Matresha, “and did not pray to God for me. I was lying on the stove, where there was a lot of rubbish, so my mother washed me all over, after which my whole body became swollen, I became blind and was sick for a long time... "
A blind girl was assigned to nurse her younger sisters and brothers. It was hard to deal with this. Once she accidentally stumbled and dropped her sister from the porch, she was terribly scared and began to cry.
“At that moment my mother just came up, she grabbed me and started beating me. She beat me so, so much,” recalls Matresha, “that it became very hard and difficult for me, and at that moment I saw the Queen of Heaven. I said about it. mother, and she again began to beat me. The vision repeated three times, and I kept telling my mother about it, and after each time my mother beat me more and more. During the last vision, the Queen of Heaven gave me a comforting note,” said Matresha. I somehow climbed onto the stove and lay there until the morning. In the morning they called me to eat pancakes, but I couldn’t get up, my legs couldn’t walk, my arms felt broken, my whole body hurt. And since then I couldn’t walk or sit, but just lay there..."
The mother's beatings forever deprived the girl of the ability to walk and do anything. She could only lie there - unloved and reproached for everything.
It was the life of a martyr nailed to her bed.
Have you shed many tears in your life?
Oh, a lot. Yes, the Lord comforted me. In the eleventh year, the Queen of Heaven Herself appeared to me and gave me a comforting note. And another time I saw in a dream, as I remember now, on Saturday in St. Thomas Week, the Savior Himself came down from the cross and, together with His Mother, the Queen of Heaven, came up to me. The Savior, Father, has nail wounds on his hands and feet, and blood is flowing. I, a sinner, kissed His hand, and when I woke up and wiped my lips, there was blood on my lips...
Matryosha spoke with tears about this vision and at the end of the story she began to cry, the tears just flowed...
Fellow villagers knew about the girl’s suffering life and treated her with a sense of reverent respect. The first to come to Matresha for help was a peasant from her own village, a sawyer by profession. She was already seventeen then.
Matryosha,” he said, “you’ve been lying there for several years, I suppose you’re pleasing to God.” My back hurts and I can’t saw. Touch your back, maybe it will go away for you. I was treated, but the doctors are not helping.
Matryosha fulfilled his request, and the back pain really stopped. Since then, more and more people began to come to her with their needs, sorrows and illnesses. Over time, these visits took on the character of a real pilgrimage! Residents came to Matresha not only from surrounding places, but also from distant places. They came from all over the Fatherland. Moreover, they came in a continuous stream for more than fifty years in the amount of several tens and sometimes hundreds every day.
Matryosha usually lay in a small separate room of a peasant hut, in a small crib, which was always covered with a curtain. In the summer, when it became stuffy in the hut, they usually took it out into the hallway, and there it lay until winter. She herself never asked to be moved to the hut, and patiently endured the autumn cold and cold.
“Once,” recalls Matresha, “in October, I was lying in the hallway; it was raining heavily at night. Water poured through the roof onto me and I was soaked to the skin. By morning there was a frost, I was terribly cold, and my clothes were all frozen. In the morning, my sister saw this, took pity and took me to the hut, for which I am grateful to her.
In appearance, Matryosha was so small that she seemed like a ten-year-old child. Her dress, given to her by one of her admirers, covered her entire legs, and was only 91 centimeters in length. Apparently, from the age of ten, when she lost the ability to walk, her body had not grown. Matryona spoke easily and freely and sang sacred chants in a surprisingly clear and sonorous childish voice. “Her voice is like a bell,” said those who heard her sing.
The whole of God's world was concentrated for Matryona here - within the walls of her small, miserable room. But even in these extremely difficult and constraining conditions, God granted Matryosha to see another world - an extremely rich world, full of inner content, interest and meaning.
And God gave her the strength to achieve not only high personal spiritual perfection, but also to become the center and source of religious and moral life for many, many believers who came to her with their doubts, needs, sorrows and illnesses and received from her what they needed for their spiritual growth, for their spiritual guidance on the difficult and difficult path of human life.
Nobody knows how she prayed to God. All that is known is that she knew by heart a lot of prayers, many akathists and church chants.
In a conversation with one of her deep admirers, Matresha said that “you need to pray incessantly”, that “incessant prayer can do everything.” Matresha considered prayer for the dead especially important.
Matryosha often received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, every month without fail. She invited her confessor, the parish priest, to her place, and the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries was the most joyful day for her. Five times during her life she received unction.
Matresha observed the fasts especially strictly. Since she was seventeen, she has not eaten meat. In addition to Wednesday and Friday, I observed the same fast on Mondays. During church fasts I ate almost nothing or ate very little.
Of the holy places, Matryosha treated Old Jerusalem and the Diveyevo and Sarov monasteries with the greatest reverence. She spoke about them with special tenderness and love. She constantly advised her pious visitors to go to Diveevo and Sarov, considering them places of the special presence of God’s grace. And she rejoiced when her advice was carried out.
When you go to Matryosha, - the people say, - then all steps are blessed, every path gives something.
One woman complained to Matresha that she could very rarely go to church.
“I have a hut full of kids,” says the woman, “the kids are studying, I have to cook for them and do all the housework.” I would be glad to go, but I can’t leave the house.
Matryosha gave this woman the icon of the Mother of God, known as the “Zapechnaya” icon, and did not say anything. This icon depicts the Mother of God in the form in which She appeared to one woman who, being tied to the household, was praying behind the stove. By this, Matryosha made it clear to the woman that the Queen of Heaven hears fervent prayer everywhere.
Admirers of Matryosha believe that if she gave this or that icon, then this icon, the sacred event or saint depicted on it, is associated with a special meaning, a special meaning that this image has for the person who received this icon. If Matryosha gives someone a cross, it means that she blesses such a person for the feat, for the suffering that awaits him.
With her blessing, the people took oil from her lamp, which burned unquenchably in front of the icons in her room, and sometimes provided oil brought to her by someone from the holy places. Matresha advised to anoint the sick and those suffering in general with oil.
Matryosha loved incense very much and said that it drives out unclean spirits. She advised fumigating a house with incense on holidays, putting incense into a burning samovar, etc. She often advised patients to boil water with incense.
The patients were also helped by the things that Matryona had.
This is how the little holy sufferer lived and helped people with her prayers. How many people did she save from serious illnesses? "the priests of the Pravdolyubovs and the sick degenerate Matryona Belyakova." 10 people were arrested, they were sent to Ryazan and Moscow, and they were afraid to touch Blessed Matrona.
Finally, a collective farm meeting was held, at which it was decided to “remove” Matrona Grigorievna Belyakova as a “harmful element.” Out of 300 village residents, only 24 activists signed up. The village council gave a description of “Belyakova M.G.”, in which she was directly and openly called a saint without any quotation marks or irony. “This group is a harmful element in the village; with its holiness it strongly influences the dark masses... In view of this, the progress of collectivization is delayed by the s/s.”
It is clear from the case how sacredly the witnesses and relatives, everyone who was close to Matrona, cherished her name and her bright image, no one slandered her, no one turned out to be a traitor.
Her confessor, priest Alexander Vasilyevich Orlov (in this case, spent 5 years in Solovki and Medvezhyegorsklag and died in his homeland, after liberation, in 1941), showed particular courage and daring in defending Matrona.
Finally, a car was sent for the Blessed Matrona. We drove up to her house during the day without hiding. We entered. Then they were seized with fear, they were afraid to approach. On duty, the chairman of the village council approached and, overcoming fear, lifted Matryonushka from her plank bed. Matrona screamed in a thin voice. The people were numb. The chairman began to make a decision. At the door he said:
Oh, how easy it is!
Matrona said:
And your children will be so easy.
And everything turned out according to her words. Several years ago, the archpriest of the Trinity Church in the village of Gus-Zhelezny, Fr. Seraphim was burying one of the sons of the then chairman. The son was very short. All the chairman’s children stopped growing after the arrest of the Blessed Matrona.
The chairman who “removed” Blessed Matrona died very hard. It was summer. The house stood with the windows open due to the heat. He screamed so loudly in pain that half the village could hear. People said:
This is not for you to raise Matryoshka!..
Finally, he called the priest and sincerely and fervently repented of his sins, and died in peace with the Church.
A resident of Belkov said about Matresha’s arrest:
They didn’t protect such a shrine, it flew away like a bird...
Matrona then lived in Moscow for almost a year. Presumably, she was imprisoned in Butyrka prison. But she did not stay there long, because almost all the prisoners began to reverence her, and they began to sing akathists and pray in their cells.
According to other sources, the hopelessly ill mother of the investigator in charge of the case of Blessed Matrona received healing from Matrona, and the investigator managed to release her as sick and dying. He placed her in what was then a home for the elderly and disabled - the chronically ill.
It is documented that Blessed Matrona died of heart failure on July 16/29, 1936 in the House of Chronicles named after Radishchev in Moscow, not far from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vladykino.
Her grave remains unknown for now.
The prayerful help of Matrona was felt and felt not only 60 years ago - and now, these days, including the writer of these lines, many times noted the help of Matrona, coming in response to prayer. It seems that everyone who turns to her for help will receive what they ask for. We believe that new ascetics and saints are praying for us, and we must honor them with gratitude and create their memory here on earth.
The Life of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo was compiled by priest Nikolai PRAVDOLYUBOV and Vladimir PRAVDOLYUBOV. Proteor Sergiy PRAVDOLYUBOV completed the work.
You need to pray to the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo like this:
Troparion, voice 8:
Like the lightning of heavenly fire, the blessed old woman Saint Matrona rose in the Ryazan country, and today we create her memory, let us sing to Christ God, begging Him to grant us patience through illnesses, troubles and sorrows, and great mercy to our souls.
Kontakion, the same voice:
In weakness you found strength, in blindness you found imperishable eyes,
being on your sick bed, you flew everywhere like a bird in spirit, while in infancy in body, you were the mother of the grieving and overwhelmed. In the same way, do not leave those who honor your memory in prayers, and help us get rid of sins through repentance, and gain the Kingdom of Heaven with you.
holy
Elena 05.05.2006 07:47:56
Poor Matronushka endured how much she endured, the appeal of her own mother
how painful it is for her, may God rest in peace.
The biography of the ascetic was compiled during her lifetime by priest Nikolai Anatolyevich Pravdolyubov and his brother Vladimir Anatolyevich Pravdolyubov. For this handwritten book, its authors were arrested and sentenced to many years in the camps. The author's manuscript was discovered these days in the FSB Archive by Archpriest Sergiy Pravdolyubov, rector of the Moscow Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Troitsky-Golenischev.
Matrona Belyakova was born on November 6, 1864 in the village of Anemnyasevo, Kasimovsky district, Ryazan province, into a poor large peasant family. At the age of seven, Matrona suffered from smallpox, after which the girl became blind. Parents often beat their blind daughter; after severe beatings, the girl lost the ability to move.
From the memoirs of Blessed Matrona:
“Once, when I was already ten years old, I was babysitting my sister as usual, and my mother went to the river. Somehow, I accidentally dropped my sister from the porch onto the ground, I got terribly scared, cried, and out of fear I jumped after her there. At that moment my mother came up, she grabbed me and started beating me. So she beat me, she beat me so much that it became very hard and difficult for me, and at that moment I dreamed: I saw the Queen of Heaven. I told my mother about this, and she began to beat me again...
After that, I somehow climbed onto the stove and lay there until the morning. In the morning they call me to eat pancakes, but I can’t get up, my legs can’t walk, my arms feel broken, my whole body hurts. And since then I could neither walk nor sit, but only lay...
The martyr lived in her parents' home until she was 17 years old, all this time patiently enduring sorrows and insults, finding consolation and joy in prayer. Residents of the village of Anemnyasevo treated her with great respect.
One day a peasant turned to Matrona for help:
– Matryosha, the way you’ve been lying for several years, you’re probably pleasing to God. My back hurts and I can’t saw. Touch your back, maybe it will go away for you. What should I do, I was treated - the doctors are not helping.
Matrona fulfilled his request - the back pain really stopped.
After this miraculous healing, when the news about God’s chosen one spread throughout the area, not only fellow villagers, but also residents of other villages came to the blessed Matrona for prayerful help.
After the death of her parents, Matrona had to endure a lot of grief from her brother and sister. When Blessed Matrona’s nephew, Matvey, offered to live in his house, the blessed one happily agreed. In her nephew’s house, Blessed Matrona lay in a small separate room, in a small crib, and in the summer, when it became stuffy in the hut, she was usually taken out into the hallway, and there she lay until winter.
Blessed Matrona recalled:
“One day in October, I was lying in the hallway; it was raining heavily at night. Water poured through the roof onto me and I was soaked to the skin. By morning there was a frost, I was terribly cold, and my clothes were all frozen.
In appearance, Matryosha was so small that she seemed like a ten-year-old child.
Eyewitnesses said that the blessed old woman knew by heart many prayers, akathists, and church chants. The old woman's voice was surprisingly clear and sonorous.
To the question of one of the surprised visitors, who asked how she, being blind, knew even entire akathists by heart, Matrona replied that “a good person will come and read something, and I will remember with God’s help.”
Every month Blessed Matrona invited the parish priest to her place; the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries of Christ was the most joyful day for her.
It is known that from the age of seventeen, Blessed Matrona did not eat meat on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, always observed strict fasting, and ate very little during church fasts.
Blessed Matrona treated Jerusalem and the Diveyevo and Sarov monasteries with reverence, considering them places of the special presence of God’s grace.
All the spiritual infirmities of the people who came to her were open to the old woman; she instructed, denounced, revealing sins and vices, but at the same time she consoled them in difficult circumstances of life. Through the prayers of Blessed Matrona, those suffering received healing from serious illnesses.
Anna's healing:
Nineteen-year-old Anna, who joined the party against the will of her parents, suddenly lost her arm and leg. The girl lay motionless at home for six weeks, the doctors could not help her. Mother took Anna to the old woman. After the blessed Matrona anointed the girl with oil from her lamp, Anna began to gradually recover and began to walk, but complete recovery followed only after visiting the Diveyevo Monastery, where, with the blessing of the elder, the mother and daughter went. After this incident, Anna became a deeply religious person.
From the memoirs of Bishop Stefan of Kaluga and Borovsk:
“In the thirties I was imprisoned in a concentration camp. I was a doctor then, and I was assigned to manage the first aid post at the camp. Most of the prisoners were in such a serious condition that my heart could not stand it, and I released many from work in order to somehow help them, and sent the weakest to the hospital.
And then one day during an appointment, the nurse working with me (also a camp inmate) told me:
– Doctor, I heard that a denunciation has been made against you, they accuse you of being too soft towards the camp inmates, and you are threatened with an extension of your term in the camp to fifteen years.
The nurse was a serious person, knowledgeable about camp affairs, and therefore I was horrified by her words. I was sentenced to three years, which were already coming to an end, and I was counting the months and weeks that separated me from the long-awaited freedom, and suddenly - fifteen years! I didn’t sleep all night, and when I went to work in the morning, the nurse shook her head sadly when she saw my haggard face.
After seeing the patients, she hesitantly told me:
“I want to give you some advice, doctor, but I’m afraid that you’ll make me laugh.”
“Speak,” I asked.
– In the city where I come from, there lives one woman, her name is Matronushka. The Lord gave her the special power of prayer, and if she begins to pray for someone, she will definitely pray for him. A lot of people turn to her, and she doesn’t refuse anyone, so you ask her.
I smiled sadly:
“By the time my letter reaches her, they will sentence me to fifteen years.”
“There’s no need to write to her, just call her...” the sister said, embarrassed.
- Call?! From here? She lives hundreds of kilometers away from us!
“I knew that you would make me laugh, but only she hears from everywhere and will hear you.” Do this: when you go for a walk in the evening, leave a little behind everyone and shout loudly three times: “Matronushka, help me, I’m in trouble!” She will hear and rescue you.
It all seemed very strange to me, but still, going out for an evening walk, I did as my assistant taught me.
A day, a week, a month passed. Nobody called me. Meanwhile, changes occurred among the camp administration: one was removed, another was appointed.
Another six months passed, and the day of my release arrived. Receiving documents from the commandant’s office, I asked for directions to the city where Matronushka lived, because even before calling her, I made a promise that if she helped me, I would remember her every day in prayer, and upon leaving the camp I would be the first I will go and thank her.
While hiding the documents in my pocket, I heard that two guys, who were also being released, were going to that city. I joined them and we set off together.
On the way, I started asking the guys if they knew Matronushka.
“We know her very well, and everyone knows her both in the city and throughout the district.” We would take you to her if you need it, but we live not in the city, but in the village, we really want to go home. And you do this: when you arrive, ask the first person you meet where Matronushka lives, and they will show you.
Upon arrival, I did just that: I asked the first boy I met.
“Go along this street,” he said, “and then turn near the post office into an alley, there, in the third house on the left, Matronushka lives.”
I approached her house with excitement and wanted to knock on the door, but it was not locked and opened easily. Standing on the threshold, I looked around the almost empty room, in the middle of which there was a table, and on it - a rather large box.
-Can I come in? – I asked loudly.
“Come in, Serezhenka,” a voice came from the box.
I shuddered in surprise and hesitantly followed the voice. Looking into the box, I saw in it a small blind woman lying motionless on her back. Her face was surprisingly bright and affectionate. After saying hello, I asked:
- How do you know my name?
- How could I not know! – her weak but clear voice sounded. “You called me, and I prayed to God for you, that’s why I know.” Sit down, you will be a guest!
I sat with Matronushka for a long time. She told me that she fell ill with some serious illness in childhood, after which she stopped growing and moving. There was poverty in the family; when the mother left for work, she would put her in a box and take her to church until the evening. Lying in the box, the girl listened to all church services and sermons. The parishioners felt sorry for the child and brought either a tasty piece or clothes. And who will just caress and make you feel more comfortable? The priest also felt sorry for the girl and worked with her. So she grew up in an atmosphere of great spirituality and prayer.
Then we started talking to Matronushka about the purpose of life, about faith, about God. Listening, I was amazed at the wisdom of her judgments, her knowledge of the holy fathers, her deep penetration, and I realized that before me lay not just a sick woman, but a great man before the Lord.
Matronushka said about herself that she would soon be taken to Moscow, and asked:
– When the time comes that you will stand before the Throne of God, remember me.
I didn’t want to leave Matronushka, and I promised myself to visit her as soon as possible, but I didn’t have to. Soon she was taken to Moscow and placed in Butyrki, where she died. At her death she was over seventy years old.
From the life of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo:
“In the summer of 1935, a case was opened in Belkovo of the “Pravdolyubov priests...”, which began with a denunciation of one resident of the city of Kasimov against the priest Nikolai Pravdolyubov in connection with a handwritten book (about Blessed Matrona), collected and written by him and his brother and prepared for printing . 10 people were arrested (although 12 should have been arrested). One woman died after receiving a summons demanding to appear at the NKVD department in Kasimov. According to the list, Blessed Matrona should also have been arrested. All those arrested had already been sent to Ryazan and Moscow, but they were afraid to touch Matrona.
Finally, a collective farm meeting was held, at which it was decided to “remove” Matrona Grigorievna Belyakova as a “harmful element.”
A car was sent for Blessed Matrona, and we drove up to her house in the afternoon. The chairman of the village council, overcoming fear, lifted Matryonushka from her plank bed. Matrona screamed in a thin voice. The people were numb. The chairman began to make a decision. At the door he said:
- Oh, how easy it is.
Matrona said:
- And your children will be so easy.
Several years ago, the archpriest of the Trinity Church in the village of Gus-Iron, Father Seraphim, buried one of the sons of the then chairman. He was very short. All the children of the chairman stopped growing after the arrest of Blessed Matrona.
The car broke down twice on the road to Kasimov, near Anikov and near Loshchinin. Someone was holding Blessed Matrona in their arms while the car was being repaired. From Kasimov she was quickly taken to Ryazan and then to Moscow.
The chairman who “removed” the blessed Matrona died very hard a few years later. It was summer. The house stood with the windows open due to the heat. He screamed so loudly in pain that half the village could hear. People said:
– It’s not for you to raise Matryoshka!..
But he called the priest and sincerely and fervently repented of his sins and died in peace with the Church.
A resident of Belkov recalled:
“They didn’t protect such a shrine, it flew away like a bird...
Blessed Matrona lived in Moscow for almost a year.
Presumably, she was imprisoned in Butyrka prison. But she did not stay there long, because she became an object of veneration by almost all the prisoners without exception, who began to sing akathists and pray. She had to go somewhere. They were afraid to kill, and the example of prison prayers of the prisoners did not allow them to be sent to a camp.
According to other sources, the hopelessly ill mother of the investigator who was in charge of the case of Blessed Matrona received healing from Matrona, and the investigator managed to release her as sick and dying. He placed her in what was then a home for the elderly and crippled - the chronically ill.
It is documented that Blessed Matrona died of heart failure on July 16/29, 1936 in the House of Chronicles named after Radishchev in Moscow, not far from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vladykino.
The glorification of the holy blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo was performed in the city of Kasimov, Ryazan diocese, on April 9/22, 1999.
Blessed Matrona Anemnyasevo, pray to God for us!
Belyakova Matryona Grigorievna
Year of Birth = 1864
Birthday = 6
Birth Month = 11
Place of Birth = Ryazan province, Kasimovsky district, Anemnyasevo village
Known among her many admirers under the name of Matryosha or Matrona Anemnyasevskaya. There is a rumor that Matryosha was tonsured a monk by the elders of Sarov with the name Mardaria, but she herself did not say anything about it
PERIODS OF LIFE
Places of Accommodation
Year of Start of Residence = 1864
Day of Start of Stay = 6
Month of Start of Residence = 11
Year of End of Residence = 1935
Matresha’s parents were perhaps the poorest people in the village and somehow managed their peasant farm. In appearance, they were frail people and seemed somehow underdeveloped. My father was known in the village as a drunkard. They had a large family - six daughters and two sons. Three sisters died in childhood, Matresha was the fourth. Until the age of seven, Matryosha was an ordinary normal child. From early childhood, for some reason, her parents disliked her. The life of a child in his own family was unhappy. At the age of seven, Matryosha fell ill with smallpox. After this illness, the girl recovered, but remained blind forever. Now her responsibility was to nurse her younger sisters and brothers. For three years the blind girl could barely cope with this task. One day, when she was already ten years old, she was babysitting her sister as usual, and her mother went to the river. Matryosha accidentally dropped the girl from the porch onto the ground, got terribly scared, began to cry, and out of fear she jumped after her there. At that moment, the mother just approached, she grabbed Matryosha and began to beat her. The girl felt so bad from the beatings that at that moment she dreamed of the Queen of Heaven, which she told her mother about, but she began to beat her even harder. So the vision was repeated three times, and she kept telling her mother about it, and after each time the mother beat the child more and more. From that moment on, a more difficult life began for Matryosha. The blind, mutilated girl was forever deprived of the ability to walk or do anything. She became completely helpless, could only lie down, and never got out of bed for the rest of her life. It was the life of a martyr nailed to her bed. At first, Matryosha lay in her native home, then she moved to her own house, where she lived with her sister, and recently she lay with her nephew. It’s difficult to say how many insults and grief Matresha endured throughout her life, but she patiently bore her heavy cross, given to her by God. It would seem that her relatives should have eased her suffering, but in reality this was not the case. On the contrary, with their non-family relationships they further intensified the already unbearable severe suffering. “In a dream I saw three crosses on myself,” said Matryosha, “one from sorrows and illnesses all my life, another cross from my relatives, a third from the whole universe, from the people who came to me everywhere...” So Matryosha lay in her parents’ home until the age of 17, patiently enduring all sorts of sorrows and insults, and only in prayer finding consolation and consolation. Fellow villagers knew about the girl’s suffering life and treated her with a sense of reverent respect. One day a sick peasant came to her: “Matrosha,” he said, “you’ve been lying like this for several years, I suppose God pleases you. My back hurts... Touch my back, maybe it will go away for you. ..” Matryosha fulfilled his request - and he recovered. Since then, more and more people began to come with their needs and illnesses. Over time, these visits took on the character of a real pilgrimage: residents of not only surrounding places came to Matryosha, but residents of distant and sometimes even the most remote places of our Fatherland. Moreover, they came in a continuous stream for more than fifty years in the amount of several tens and sometimes hundreds every day. In appearance, Matryosha was so small that she seemed like a ten-year-old child. But in extremely difficult and cramped conditions, the Lord granted Matryosha to see another world - an extremely rich world, full of inner content, interest and meaning. From our ordinary everyday point of view, this phenomenon seems surprising and almost inexplicable. Matryosha is a special and original ascetic. Obviously, the uninterrupted chain of trials and grief, experienced by Matresha with extraordinary patience from early childhood, was a school for her, that great feat in the crucible of which her soul was cleansed, her thought and heart renounced everything earthly, a constant desire for another world was established and strengthened , the highest, which was constantly presented to her spiritual gaze. Her soul was filled with living faith and hope in God, her heart was kindled with active love for everyone. responded with complete compassion and sympathy to every misfortune, grief, misfortune, to every human weakness. And God gave her the strength to achieve not only high personal spiritual perfection, but also to become the center and source of religious and moral life for many, many believers who came to her with their doubts, needs, sorrows and illnesses, and received from her what necessary for their spiritual growth, for their spiritual guidance on the difficult and difficult path of human life. Matryosha was distinguished by her extraordinary responsiveness. She spoke to everyone who came to her, gave advice, gave this or that instruction. Men and women, old and young, people of different positions, professions, conditions came to her in the same way, and everyone met with equally deep sympathy from her. Nobody knows how she prayed to God. It is only known that she knew by heart a lot of prayers, many akathists and chants, which she instantly memorized after the first reading out loud to her. In a conversation with one of her deep admirers, Matresha said that “you need to pray incessantly”, that “incessant prayer can do everything.” Moreover, she said about herself that she herself tries to pray incessantly. Matryosha often received the Holy Mysteries of Christ, every month without fail. For this purpose, she invited her confessor, the parish priest, to her, and the day of receiving the Holy Mysteries was the most joyful day for her. Five times during her life she received unction. She observed the fasts especially strictly. During church fasts I ate almost nothing or ate very little. Matryosha taught her visitors how to live in order to remember the future life, in order to prepare for it, and not to become attached to earthly things. She taught me to live “in God’s way”: to fulfill God’s law, to pray to God, to love God and only rely on Him. To firmly and resignedly bear your cross, sent down by God, is the main idea of her conversations and instructions. In her conversations with visitors, Matresha very often cited texts of the Holy Scriptures, and especially a lot from the Gospel. She often referred to facts and events from Sacred history, placing them as the basis for her instructions and teachings. No less often, Matryosha gave examples from the lives of saints, setting them up as the highest model and example of religious and moral life, teaching them to pray to them and try to imitate them in their lives. She advised prayer differently, depending on each person’s situation. Matryosha's conversations and instructions with visitors were extremely varied depending on the variety of circumstances in which she had to conduct these conversations and give her instructions. Matryosha, as if seeing right through a person, usually pointed to his most painful place that required healing, and thereby made him realize his illness, the existence of which he may still not have suspected, and take the path of correction. At the same time, Matryosha pointed out only one vice, one disease, thereby forcing a person to focus his attention on one shortcoming, and not to be scattered in many directions, which makes it difficult to fight with oneself and does not always lead to the desired results. Matryosha gradually led the person along the path of correction. And it must be said that this leadership went far beyond the personal life of one or another of its visitors. Instructions, advice, and instructions from Matryosha, made to one person by her, became the property of many, many. Here with Matresha, as her admirers said, one learned from another. Many of Matryosha’s admirers experienced this systematic, gracious guidance from her and therefore tried to use her advice and instructions as often as possible, resorting to her in moments of doubt, misfortune and spiritual sorrow, in those difficult moments when the ground shakes under one’s feet and a person, feeling its powerlessness, is in greater need of solid support, firm spiritual guidance. In the vicinity of Anemnyasev, many people not only visited Matresha in difficult circumstances of their lives, but lived entirely “with the blessing of Matresha” - they did not start a single business without her blessing, so that spiritual guidance extended throughout their lives
Arrests
Ryazan province, Kasimovsky district, Anemnyasevo village
Year of Arrest = 1935
Summer 1935 In Belkovo, a case was opened against “the priests Pravdolyubov and the sick degenerate Matryona Belyakova.” it began with a denunciation of priest Nikolai Pravdolyubov in connection with a handwritten book collected and written by him and his brother, and prepared for printing (the book was a biography of Matrona, and its manuscript was preserved in the investigative file). 10 people were arrested (although 12 should have been arrested). According to the list, Blessed Matrona should also have been arrested. All those arrested had already been sent to Moscow and Ryazan, but they were afraid to touch Matrona. Finally, a collective farm meeting was convened, at which it was decided to “remove” Matrona Belyakova as a “harmful element.” Out of 300 village residents, only 24 activists signed up. The village council gave a description of “Belyakova M.G.”, in which she was directly and openly called a saint without any quotation marks or irony. “This group is a harmful element in the village; with its holiness it strongly influences the dark masses... In view of this, the progress of collectivization is delayed by the s/s.” In the investigative file there are no details of the arrest of Blessed Matrona and a description of her further fate. It only shows how sacredly the witnesses and relatives, everyone who was close to Matrona, cherished her name and bright image, no one slandered her, no one turned out to be a traitor. Her confessor showed particular courage and daring in defending Matrona -
priest Alexander Vasilyevich Orlov (who spent 5 years in Solovki in connection with this case). After the prisoners were sent to Ryazan, a car was sent for Blessed Matrona. We drove up to her house during the day without hiding. We entered. Then they were seized with fear, they were afraid to approach. On duty, the chairman of the village council came up and, overcoming fear, lifted Matryonushka out of bed. Matrona screamed in a thin voice. The people were numb. (The chairman was punished for his sins: his children, according to Matrona’s prediction, stopped growing after her arrest; the chairman himself died very hard a few years later. He screamed so loudly in pain that half the village could hear. The people said: “This is not Matreshenka for you raise!.." But he called the priest and sincerely and fervently repented of his sins, died in peace with the Church.") A resident of Belkovo said about Matryosha’s arrest: “They didn’t save such a shrine, it flew away like a bird...” About the Moscow period of her life. There is scant information about Blessed Matrona. She lived in Moscow for almost a year.
Convictions
Year of Conviction = 1935
GroupCase = "Case of Belyakova Matrona Anemnyasevskaya. Ryazan Island, 1935."
It is unknown whether she was convicted or not, but several people were convicted in her case
PlacesConclusions
Moscow, Butyrskaya prison (?)
Year of Beginning and Conclusion = 1935
Year of Completion = 1935
Presumably she was imprisoned in the Butyrka prison, where all her “accomplices” were imprisoned. But she did not stay there long, because she became an object of veneration by almost all, without exception, the prisoners, who began to sing akathists and pray. She had to go somewhere. They were afraid to kill them, but they were not allowed to be sent to a camp by the example of the prisoners’ prayerful rise
Moscow, House of Chronicles named after Radishchev
Year of Beginning and Conclusion = 1935
Year of Completion = 1936
End Day = 29
End Month = 7
According to other sources, the hopelessly ill mother of the investigator who was in charge of the case of Blessed Matrona received healing from Matrona and the investigator managed to release her as sick and dying. He placed her in what was then a home for the elderly and disabled - the chronically ill
Demise
1936
Day of Death = 29
Month of Death = 7
Cause of Death = died in custody
Place of Death = Moscow, House of Chronicles named after Radishchev
Burial place = Moscow
It is documented that Blessed Matrona died of heart failure on July 16/29, 1936 in the House of Chronicles named after Radishchev in Moscow, not far from the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Vladykino. Probably, Matrona was buried in the cemetery next to the House of Chronicles - Vladykinsky. Currently, due to the reconstruction of the cemetery, her grave remains unknown. The prayerful help of Blessed Matrona was felt and felt not only 60 years ago, but also now
Canonization
1
Date of Canonization = 04/22/1999
Canonized by = His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II
Locally venerated Ryazan diocese
Days of memory
1
Memory DateSt = 16/07
MemoryDateNewSt = 29/07
ExplanationMemoryDates = death day, summer memory
2
Memory DateSt = 10/06
MemoryDateNewSt = 23/06
ExplanationDatesMemory = memory with the Cathedral of Ryazan Saints
2
Blessed Matrona Anemnyasevskaya (Belyakova)
Date of Canonization = 08/20/2000
Canonized by = Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, August 13-16, 2000.
WhoPresented = Ryazan Diocese
Days of memory
ExplanationMemoryDates = Council of New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia
First Sunday, starting from 01/25/07/02 Troparion, tone 8: Like the lightning of heavenly fire rising in the Ryazan country, the blessed old woman Saint Matrona, who creates memory today, let us sing to Christ God, begging Him to grant us patience through intercession in illnesses, troubles and sorrows Great mercy to our souls. Kontakion, the same voice: In weakness you found strength, in blindness you found imperishable eyes, you were on your sick bed, you were everywhere like a bird in spirit, infancy in body, you were the mother of the grieving and overwhelmed, and do not leave those who honor your memory in prayers, and help us get rid of sins by repentance, and gain the Kingdom of Heaven with you
Publications
1 Life of the Holy Blessed Matrona of Anemnyasevo / Comp. Priest Nikolai Pravdolyubov, Vladimir Pravdolyubov. Edition prot. Sergius Pravdolyubov. M.: Saint Cyprian, 1999. - 72 p.
2 Act of the Anniversary Consecrated Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church on the conciliar glorification of the new martyrs and confessors of the Russian 20th century. Moscow, August 12-16, 2000
(c) Orthodox St. Tikhon's Humanitarian University.