5/10/2022
Hieromonk Pafnuty (Fokin)
Adjusting the medication, the doctors explained their actions to him, ‘Father, we hope that our efforts will help you live till at least 100.’ Fr. Mikhail immediately replied cheerfully, ‘This does not suit me! I want eternal life!’”
"Then I told myself inwardly that if I survived, I would join a monastery."
Eldress Maria’s community became one of the strongholds of post-war secret monasticism.
“Simply going to see batiushka, just seeing him somewhere, glancing at him—it was impossible to leave unconsoled after that."
One day, in the ruins of a house, I picked up a book in the trash. I began to read it and felt something so dear and sweet to my heart. It was the Gospel.
Olsufiev’s presence at St. Sergius’s shrine played an exceptional role in preserving the Lavra's shrines and relics during that difficult time.
The story of the return of his honorable relics to Vysha is closely connected with the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra.
Love for prayer and services was characteristic of Fr. Damaskin. The brethren were surprised at how he was always at church, even though he was so weak that he was about to fall apart.
“You’re useless, Sophrony!” brethren used to say to him angrily. “The Russian Orthodox Church has been preserved by Sophronies, just as Holy Rus’ was by Ivans,” the monk would reply with a frowning glance. And it was not until after the blessed repose of this “impolite” and straightforward man that the true meaning of these words became clear.
Simple and modest in his personal needs, he was on equal footing with everyone in everything—in chanting, vigils and fasting. He was always at the head in work and labor.
In operational development the case was called “Ippolit”. Fr. Ippolit as the brethren’s father-confessor probably aroused special hatred among the NKVD representatives.
"It was nighttime. We had to get it done before dawn. I carried the head in a closed shopping bag so there’d be no suspicion, and I covered it with a newspaper on top, as if there were just a cabbage in the bag."
It was a cold, dark night, and suddenly he saw St. Sergius of Radonezh coming to him, saying: “I’m taking care of those of you who are in exile, outside the monastery, even more,” and he held out a prosphora.
The exploration of the stunning and incomprehensible Universe cannot but testify to the existence of the Creator Who wisely arranged this world.
