Blessed Elder Schematic Nun Makaria (Artemyeva). given by God

Feodosia

worldly name of schema-nun Macarius

Matushka Macarius - Schema-Nun of Russia Orthodox Church. During her lifetime, mother predicted a lot of terrible troubles that await the whole world in the future.

Theodosia, in one of her miraculous visions, received a blessing from the Mother of God herself for the healing of people. The Queen of Heaven herself appeared to sick people and directed everyone to Theodosia.

The old woman Makaria was born on June 11, 1926 in the small village of Karpovo, Smolensk region, in the family of Mikhail and Theodosia Artemyev. The couple had twins: a boy and a girl.

date of birth of mother Macarius

They decided to baptize the children the very next day, because the boy was born very weak.

As soon as the boy was christened, he almost immediately died. The girl was named Theodosius - "given by God."

When Theodosia was taken out of the font, the hieromonk who baptized the girl said that she would be good, that she would live, but she would not walk.

The girl became a burden for her family, sometimes they forgot to feed her

From the age of one and a half, the girl's legs began to hurt, and from the age of 3 she could only crawl.

Feodosia was last child in family. The older sons and daughters had their own families and even children for a long time.

The sick girl became a burden for the whole family, because 20 people lived in the house.

Feodosia was often forgotten to feed. Sometimes she will crawl under the table, collect bread crumbs there, and at least a little forget about hunger. She slept on the floor under the bed.

The girl found her consolation only in prayer. One daughter-in-law was childless, but she dreamed of a child very much. She loved the little girl Feodosia the most.

One day she took her three-year-old to church. But there happened strange case. After the end of the service, the daughter-in-law could not find the girl for a long time. Turning to the priest, he also helped in the search. It turned out that the girl fell asleep in the altar under the holy throne.

During a lethargic sleep, Theodosius visited heavenly places

at this age, Feodosia fell into a lethargic sleep for 14 days

At the age of 8, Theodosia fell into a lethargic sleep, only 14 days later she woke up.

When she woke up, she said that all this time, her soul was accompanied by the Guardian Angel, with whom she traveled to heavenly places.

She also told how she cried and asked the Queen of Heaven to heal her sore legs, or leave her there, in paradise. But the Mother of God told her that she had a place on earth, where she would still be useful.

After that, later, Theodosius in one of the miraculous visions received a blessing from the Mother of God for the healing of people.

The Queen of Heaven herself appeared to sick people and directed everyone to Theodosia.

Soon the Great Patriotic War, all the brothers and father were taken to the front to fight. All the daughters-in-law left with their children, and Feodosia's mother went to her brother in Kaluga.

The sick girl was left alone at home to die. Soon she was completely kicked out of the house.

After that, the old woman recalled these events:

schema nun

“I was little then, I’ll crawl under the shed or dig into the hay. She suffered, crawled alone in the cold, there was no one around. Sat in the water and in the cold. I’ll dig a hole in the snow, lie down in a lump, put my hand under my face, and I slept like that. Everything was sore on me, my body was hardened. dirty water drank, ate a snowball: a clean snowball claw in the hand and in the mouth. And whoever gives bread, he will freeze, you will not bite. And in the summer she ate grass, flowers ... ".

Soon the girl begins a new life, there is someone to take care of her

In 1943, in the village of Larinki, an elderly woman took the sick girl to her. One day, the nun Natalia was visiting this woman, when she saw Feodosia, she decided to take her to her.

Nun Natalia was a resident of the Vyazemsky convent. After it was closed, the nuns put everyone in jail.

In the cell, nun Natalia had a vision that all the nuns would be tortured, and she would have to take care of the sick.

When the nun saw Feodosia, she immediately realized that this was the very patient she needed to look after.

Nun Natalia took her to a small house in the village of Temkino. Soon the sick began to come, whom Theodosia healed.

Feodosia helped with the housework as much as she could: she washed the floor on her knees, looked after the cattle, fed the chickens.

the name given to Theodosius when she was tonsured a novice

When the girl turned 20, the hieromonk who baptized her confessed and communed the girl. After that, he tonsured her as a novice with the name Tikhon, in honor of the Monk Tikhon of Medyn.

Soon, nun Natalia dies at the age of 97. Tikhona has to buy an unfinished house, where she lived with two women who agreed to live with her and help with the household.

On February 1, 1978, hegumen Donat tonsured the nun Tikhon into the schema, giving her the name Macarius, in honor of Macarius the Great.

Miraculous healings and help to all who come from schema nun Makaria

The spiritual son of the nun recalls:

Spiritual son of a nun

“...Some went to her by car, others traveled by trains and buses. Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Tatars, Jews and Gypsies, Orthodox and those who did not profess any religion came. All of them traveled with only one goal - to get healed from a physical or spiritual illness ... The village of Tyomkino ... At the end of the village you can see a small house, like a toy, immersed in flowers ... The door opens at a knock, and the visitor is escorted into the house.

In the front corner there is a table with icons and lamps glowing in front of them. In the corner closest to the door, also hung with icons, there is an old bed ...

Sitting on the bed, slightly leaning back on the pillow, is a small, stooped old woman, in a worn black cassock and apostle, covering not only her head, but also her shoulders. Thin, quiet Matushka silently prays, turning over her rosary, and the arrival of another visitor does not immediately break her childishly pure prayer. The rounded pale face with large sky-blue eyes and scarlet lips is very expressive and noble. And in her face, and in the whole figure - an expression of inner peace ...

Mother will ask: “Who came, on what business?”

The young man says that for three years doctors have not been able to cure an ulcer on his leg.

Do not look that for three years the leg hurts. Mother will pray, and you will get better ... When the water runs out, come right away ...

The guy leaves, and Mother says: “He’s young, let him run around on legs. The Lord will help."

A woman, barely stepping her feet, is brought into the room and seated on a chair...

What is your name?

Anastasia.

For a moment, Mother seems to withdraw into herself.

Why don't you pray to God? We must pray to God, we must take communion. Drink some water in the morning at seven, in the evening at nine, rub yourself with oil on Saturday and Monday.

She is poured into three-liter jar holy water, and in a vial - consecrated oil ... ".

A lot of visitors came to my mother.

Blessed old woman Macarius helped everyone, did not refuse anyone.

Sometimes she didn't even have time to eat. And the visitors kept coming and going...

Also, the spiritual son of the mother recalls many wonderful cases. In one of which, mother saves a person from death. One day a man came to her and said he wanted to go south with his family. And he came to receive a blessing from his mother.

Then mother told the man that if he left, no one would see mother again. This greatly frightened the man, and he decided to listen to the instructions of Mother Macarius.

Later, he said that he owed his life to his mother, because if he had not obeyed her, he would have long been lying in the grave. After they learned that there was a severe flood in that area, from which many visitors died.

One day, Priest Nikolai testified to an amazing incident when he woke up in the middle of the night and saw a bright light where the nun was praying:

“At first the light was dim, but then everything in the house was flooded with a bright, bright golden-fiery light, blinding the eyes, it was even impossible to look at the bright, bright light.

On June 18, 1993, at half past 12 at night, schema-nun Makaria died. The last thing the schema nun said before her death was: "Fast, pray, this is salvation ...".

date of Macarius' death

They buried the old woman Macarius in the rural cemetery of the village of Temkino, Smolensk region.

Very interesting video, which tells about the life of the old woman, how she healed people, about where she lived last years of her life, as well as what her grave looks like now.

Miraculous healings from the prayers of schema nun Macarius continue even after her death

Even after the death of Macarius, Temkinskaya helps everyone who comes to her grave and asks for help.

A lot of miraculous healings happened after the death of a nun.

Testimony of A.T. Zainiev (Kholm-Zhirkovsky district, Smolensk region):

A.T. Zainiev

“I consider it my Christian duty to testify to the fact of my healing during a trip to the grave of schema-nun Macaria, which took place on the day of her memory on June 18, 1999. After serving a memorial service at the grave of Matushka Makaria, after drinking holy water from her grave, while turning to the Lord with a prayer: “Lord, Jesus Christ, through the prayers of Schema-nun Macaria, heal my body, have mercy on me a sinner.”

Upon returning from Temkino, I felt something unusual in my body ... I realized that my arm did not hurt, which I could not raise to my chest for a week. My hand was in pain due to fractures of the cervical vertebrae of 4-5 departments, a fracture of the collarbone, and a hand. I also felt a sharp decrease in pain in the spur on the foot and softening of dry calluses on the legs. I testify before God and the Church the truth of my healing, in my deep conviction, and faith in the power of Matushka Makaria's prayer before God, and the communion of holy water from her grave."

Testimony of Priest Vladimir (Smolensk):

Vladimir

“My mother-in-law Maria Fyodorovna Grubitsyna, who during the life of Mother Makaria was healed of liver cancer by her, visited Matushka's grave in the summer of 2000. Prior to that, she had frequent attacks of bronchial asthma, and she serious condition got to the hospital. Now, by the grace of God, through the prayers of Mother Macarius, as she believes, not a single attack occurs.

A museum was opened in honor of schema-nun Makaria. Here you can learn about the life of a nun. To visit this place, you need to agree in advance on the date and time.

Residents of the village of Temkino will help get to the tomb of the schema nun

How to get to the mother's grave? First you need to come to the village of Temkino, Smolensk region.

You can ask the locals where their rural cemetery is located. Everyone who lives there already knows who you are going to.

Her grave is the very first from the entrance to the rural churchyard. On the grave is a black granite slab and a large cross. You can also immediately see a lot of flowers on this grave. Finding a grave is not difficult.

Many who come ask mother for help, and also read a special prayer.

PRAYERS TO RIGHTEOUS MACARIA

Oh, Righteous Mother Macarius!

You yourself, from childhood, endured poverty, and hunger, and cold, and homeless wanderings, forever sickness chained you to bed. You yourself all your life patiently, meekly and humbly carried the cross of your love for God and neighbors, and therefore you were for many a light, radiating an example of patience, humility and love. You yourself, in your mournful helplessness, found relief, consolation and joy only in Divine grace, bestowed for a humble unceasing prayer to Christ God and His Most Pure Mother, Ever-Virgin Mary. And we know how you comforted many of the mourners, instructed the faint-hearted and directed them to Christ and the Orthodox Church. We also know that your prayer for the sick and those in need has always been both healing and beneficial.

We believe that even now you are for your humility, for your righteousness. Mother, honored by the Lord with a blissful stay with the saints in the abodes of heaven. We believe that even now you do not leave inconsolable all those who ask for your help and your holy prayers. Oh, Righteous Mother Macarius! Now lift up to the Lord your bold prayer for us, many sinners, may He have mercy on us, according to His great mercy, and may He forgive our sins. May the Lord strengthen our will to live according to His commandments and remain faithful children in the Orthodox Church. Help us. Mother, with her holy prayers, to steadily walk along the saving path indicated by Christ, and to do everything in life for the glory of God. Amen.

O our beloved and most blessed mother Makaria! Accept this touching prayer from our faithful hearts: Keep peace and piety in our family, increase our faith in God, hope in Him and love for Him, from our Heavenly, ask the Lord for a hot and heartfelt prayer, heal us who are sick in soul and body, anoint our wounds with the oil of your mercy, and make us thirsty drink of the wisdom of your words. Deliver our house and all our neighbors from enemies visible and invisible, protect us from every situation that lies upon us, and beg our Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and save us sinners. Amen.

During her lifetime, mother left 9 terrible prophecies - what awaits the earth in the future

Mother's Prophecies:

• Church disorganization is coming. The Bible that is printed is wrong. They will throw out everything that concerns them, they do not want reproach;
• A change of faith is being prepared. When this happens, the saints will retreat and will not pray for Russia. And those who are, the Lord will take to Himself. And the bishops who allow this will not see the Lord here or there.
• Soon the service will be half, will be reduced. They will keep the service only in large monasteries, and in other places they will make a change.
• Soon the sorcerers will spoil all the prosphora, and there will be nothing to serve on.. And you can take communion once a year. The Mother of God will tell her people where and when to take communion. You just have to listen!
• The time for persecution is near. Such confusion will be made, and you will not save the soul. Whoever enters the churches will be recorded. For the fact that you pray to God, they will persecute you for that.
• Money will not get better, only twice as cheap, and then even cheaper. Such a time comes, the power is taken away by sorcerers. It will get worse, God forbid. Soon a man will go bad, will go wheel. Well, it would be the end of the world, but here - the destruction of buildings and people, everything is mixed with mud, you will walk knee-deep in blood.

18.06.2017 General church news

On June 18, 1993, the blessed old woman schema-nun Makaria reposed in the Lord. The ascetic, although not yet canonized, is very revered among common people. In the village of Temkino, Smolensk Region, Blessed Mother Makaria lived for half a century. The watchmen remember their contemporary and neighbor well.

Blessed schema nun Makaria (in the world Artemyeva Feodosia Mikhailovna) was born on June 11, 1926. On the day of the celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "Guest of sinners". At the age of one and a half, the girl's legs hurt, and she could only crawl. At the age of eight, the girl fell into a lethargic sleep. The parents thought their daughter was dead. But the child woke up. And, as it is written in the life, from that time the future mother received from the Most Holy Theotokos the gift of healing people. But this was not the main thing in her life, noted Abbot Alexander, who specially came to Temkino for worship.

As a child, the future mother was abandoned by her relatives. She eked out a miserable existence, lived under open sky, fed on snow, grass and the remains of found food. The child was picked up by an elderly nun. The girl lived with her for twenty years. After the death of the nun, the girl was again on the street. She was not taken to the nursing home. Somehow she raised money and bought an unfinished house at the other end of the village. She lived the rest of her life there. She accepted monasticism and schema.

17 years ago, mother was buried in the village cemetery. Since then, people have been coming to the grave of schema-nun Makaria from different parts of Russia, near and far abroad. However, as they say locals, and before mother's house there were always people's queues. Neighbors took pilgrims to their place for the night. Schema-nun accepted everyone, refused no one.

Now, not far from the remains of the mother’s house, they built folk museum. The most valuable exhibits in it are photographs and portraits depicting the ascetic. There is also a large worship cross in memory of the appearances of the Most Holy Theotokos to the schema-nun. Another valuable monument of the village is also associated with the ascetic. This is a stone sign at the foot of the cross. He recalls that the world's first pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin visited the schema nun more than once.

Another attraction of Temkino is the temple-chapel in the name of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The place of construction in 1990 was indicated by mother Macarius. Now a temple is being built here. Elena Petukhova, a resident of Smolensk, learned about the ascetic only from books.

Day and night the schema nun prayed for the whole country. She patiently endured her own misfortunes. The experience of her life is not an example to follow - everyone has their own way, hegumen Alexander says. But the faith of the ascetic is worthy of admiration - she helped her in all her hardships. After all, people often complain about imaginary problems.

The source of St. Elijah the Prophet in Temkino began to be equipped and cleaned during the life of Mother Macarius. But after her death, everything fell into disrepair. Then they decided to build a chapel over the source and build a bath. Here you can collect holy water at any time. And take a piece of grace with you.

The villagers are sure that their ancient village is being revived by the prayers of schema-nun Makaria. Here they are going to build a hotel for pilgrims and a cultural and spiritual complex. Benefactors and builders are invited to participate.

Residents also compile a memorial album about the ascetic and ask them to bring all the testimonies, memories and reviews about Mother Macarius to the folk museum. Copies of her photographs and pictures of ancient views of the village of Tyomkino.

The feat of the schema nun Makaria was tireless, day or night, prayer that did not stop. For readers of the site, we publish an excerpt from the book "GIVEN BY GOD. The biography of the blessed old woman schema-nun Makaria" (Gennady Durasov):

I first came to Schema-nun Makaria on Forgiveness Sunday, 1985. Since that memorable meeting for me over the following years, I have been deeply impressed by her amazing insight and extraordinary power of prayer. From the Lord and the Mother of God, she could, as I believed, beg for everything, no matter what she asked. Then it was hard for me to believe that I not only saw, but also spoke with a holy man who had lived a surprisingly difficult life according to the trials that had befallen her. I saw such a great ascetic, whom I could only read about in the lives of the saints.

In our rational time, the lives of the ancient saints are perceived by many as semi-legendary. Meanwhile, living stories about the recently deceased or now living righteous, on the one hand, are a sign of the Orthodox faith, and on the other, they spiritually strengthen believers. They serve vivid examples for imitation and remind us all that the work of saving the soul, although difficult, is real even today. Spiritual feat schema-nun Macarius in this sense can be a valuable role model, since she is an amazing bright personality in our spiritual sky...

I tried many times to ask about life path Mothers of people who for many years not only knew, but also enjoyed her hospitality, spiritual and material support. But none of them, unfortunately, could tell anything significant about the ascetic. It was often thought: this great example of imitation of Christ must not be allowed to remain in oblivion; how to make it public not only in Russia, but also outside our Fatherland? Or maybe try to compose a biography of this God's chosen one of our Fatherland?

In prayers, I began to ask the Queen of Heaven to bless Mother to tell about her life, as I knew that the ascetic does everything only with the blessing of the Lady. Apparently, this prayer was heard by Her, and Matushka herself suddenly began to tell individual episodes of her life, and I, at first from memory, and soon verbatim, began to write down everything she said. For a reason inexplicable to me, I was fortunate for many months to be not only an interlocutor, but also a person spiritually close to her, with whom she could talk about the most intimate for her. So for eight years a lot of records have accumulated, from which this biography was compiled.

But before proceeding with his exposition, I considered it necessary to obtain a blessing for this from a person who was spiritually close to schema-nun Macarius—Archpriest Michael. Spiritually supported me and blessed me to publish a book about the schema nun Macarius and Archimandrite Hermogenes, who deeply revered the old woman.

This work does not claim to be exhaustive, but is an attempt to fulfill a Christian duty and tell people about their outstanding contemporary. The main task of this book was to bring together all the most valuable that I managed to hear from Matushka, and to convey to the reader not only her lively speech, but also her image. The image of a man who lived among us and imitated the One Who “gave his soul a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45.)

The stone, its careless builder, was at the forefront of it.
Ps. 117.22

PART ONE

Schema-nun Makaria was born on June 11, 1926, on the day of the Giving of Pascha, when the Church celebrates the icon of the Mother of God “The guarantor of sinners” and remembers the virgin martyr Theodosia. Her parents, fifty-year-old Mikhail Artemovich and Feodosia Nikiforovna Artemyev, lived in the village of Karpov, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk province.

On the second day after her birth, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, it was decided to baptize her together with her twin brother. On the very birthday of the girl, her future godmother, the nun Evdokia, who lived in the village of Bulgakovo, where a certain Sorrowful community used to be, had a vision from which it followed that a newborn girl should only be baptized in the Church of the Great Martyr George, in the village of Kulishi. You had to go there on foot, carrying the baby in your arms.

Yegorievsk temple, as the locals called it, was large and beautiful. A chapel stood next to it, and a never-freezing river flowed nearby.

Hieromonk Vasily, a deeply spiritual man, who had the gift of clairvoyance, was then the rector of the temple and was famous among the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and villages for the healing of mental and bodily ailments. He knew the Artemiev family well and had visited their house more than once.
“When they brought us to be baptized,” Matushka said, “the brother was very weak. The priest said, "We'll christen the boy first, then the girl."

Father Vasily hurried the sexton: "Come on, come on quickly, the boy may die." And indeed, as soon as the baby Ivan was christened, he died. Then Father Vasily baptized the girl and gave her the name Theodosius, which means “given by God”. Taking the child out of the font and giving it to the godmother on a diaper, he said: “The girl is good, she will live, but she won’t walk.”

The Artemiev family was the largest in the district: parents, four sons with wives and children, six daughters, one of whom was married - twenty people in all. They lived at that time all together in a small house, which was not allowed to be expanded or rebuilt. The house was very crowded: there was nowhere to sit and nowhere to lie down. “Babies cry, bigger kids mutter something. The little ones don't let the big ones sleep, those who are bigger cry like little ones. Twenty people, but they lived like two, nothing superfluous, only prayer, ”recalled Matushka Makaria.

The head of a large family, Mikhail Artemovich, was then a senior worker at railway. And in his youth, as soon as he got married, he worked in a bagel, baking bagels. His father Artem received a contract in the 1890s to build a church in the nearby village of Tyomkino. Mikhail also worked at this construction site in his spare time: he brought bricks, crushed clay. Feodosia Nikiforovna worked with her husband on the railroad. In addition, she was engaged in tailoring, sewing blankets, weaving canvases, and many people came to her house with orders.

IN old days in Russian families, small children slept in a wooden cradle, similar to a trough, which was hung on ropes at four corners to the end of a flexible stick - a beam. This cradle was covered with a canopy on top. When little Theodosia was still lying in the cradle, from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon a candle lit up on the beam. No one saw or knew where she came from, “Girls, girls, look, the candle is burning again,” the daughters-in-law were surprised, “to know, the girl is not simple.” “You will have something with this child,” they said to Feodosia Nikiforovna, “and we have children, why don’t their lamps burn, after all, children are all the same.”

Meanwhile, the girl grew rapidly, keeping up with her peers. “I went early, I was lively, I kept shouting, as it was not for me. I was fluent, I mumble something, ”Mother said, remembering. Mother's name was Theodosia and youngest daughter also Feodosia, and in order to distinguish them, the girl began to lovingly call Feyonushka.

Once, an old customer came to her mother for a sewn blanket. Looking at Feodosia, she said in surprise: “How small, but she already walks,” and then stroked her back. Immediately, the girl's knees buckled, and she fell. “Why don’t you get up, why don’t you walk?” her mother asked, going up to Theodosia, who was lying on the floor. “How am I going to walk, I can’t straighten my knees,” the girl answered. From that time on, her legs ached: she walked for a day, and the next day she was overcome by illness, there were seizures that lasted up to four hours in a row. She fell to the floor and could not get up. Unhappy parents took the child to the doctors, but the treatment did not give results, and the sick child became a burden for a large family.

All housework in the Artemiev family was the responsibility of the daughters-in-law: they kept cleanliness, cooked food. Those who cook always lack sleep. I had to get up at half past four in the morning in order to have time to cook food and feed everyone: some before work, some before school. Food was prepared three times a day. In the morning - two large cauldrons: one with soup, the other with cabbage soup. At breakfast, lunch and dinner, they sat down at the table in turn: first the father, four sons and daughter-in-law ate, then the mother and all the daughters sat down, and after all they fed the little ones. It was hearty in the house, on the table they put one big cup with soup or cabbage soup for everyone, and everyone scooped from it with their spoons.

There was no place for Theodosia at the table, and they remembered her at the last minute. The sick and hungry girl crawled under the table and was glad to find a crust of bread dropped by someone. “They didn’t feel sorry for me and didn’t want to feed me so that I would die. Before that, they overcame me that I could hardly crawl, I don’t know how I remained alive, ”recalled Matushka. She was not yet two years old when, hungry, she reached into the pot to find something to eat, but knocked it over herself, and there was boiling water. Another time, she wanted to get potatoes out of the cast-iron, put her hands in hot water and scalded them.

The family said to the girl more than once: “If only the Lord would clean you up.” “Well, why are you sitting in the corner?” her mother would ask. “Mommy, now my legs do not straighten,” the girl answered her. Until the age of three, although she was not very good, she still walked, and when she felt that she could not stand, then she held on to the wall. And from the age of three, according to Matushka, she did not go “not a drop.”

And subsequent appeals to doctors did not give any results. Last hope remained metropolitan physicians. “I asked the doctors: “You can treat my legs so that I can go. What are you not treating? They carried me in their arms and said with pity: “Feyonushka, what a good girl you are, only your legs don’t go.”

Having tried, it seemed, all the possibilities to cure Feodosia, the parents took the girl to her father Vasily, who at one time baptized her and uttered a prophecy about her that she would not walk. “We arrived late,” he said mournfully. “If they brought the girl to me right away, then it would be possible to cure her.” He talked about spiritual healing, but in what happened he saw a special providence of God for Theodosius. By that time, her legs had ceased to extend completely, and she never stood on them again in her life.

When the Artemiev family went to bed in their cramped little house, almost all the beds were made on the floor, and the sick girl's place was under the bed. There she now not only slept, but also spent most of the day. “I just sat under the bed,” Matushka said, “they didn’t let me go out anywhere. Either the kids will offend me, then the big ones, the mother will sometimes give me a kick: “Crawl out of the way.” And I’m offended, because you can’t sit under the bed all the time. ”

When the father came home from work, he pulled his daughter out from under the bed and took her out into the garden, where strawberries, apples and plums grew, and treated her to fruit. “I often cried bitter tears, asked him for sweets,” Matushka recalled. - Father will say: "I have no money."
Do the girls get it? And the girls will buy diapers for the kids, or something else.

- Well, daddy, dear, - the girl agreed, - I will wipe away the tears, I will not cry. And you take the kids out of the cradle, put me there to lie down a little, I'm sick.
Being in the cradle was a great consolation for the girl, who in her still short but joyless life saw so little affection and warmth.

Mikhail Artemovich played the harmonica well, and often on Sundays and public holidays he was asked to play at the festivities in Dubrovki. His wife, Feodosia Nikiforovna, never went anywhere except the church; in her free time, she busied herself around the house, took care of her children and grandchildren.

It happened that Theodosia's father used to say to the household: "Today I will not go to the evening to play the accordion." And he turned to his daughters and daughters-in-law: “Girls, today you are sitting at home, I will read the Bible.” Neighbors also came to listen to the Holy Scriptures. Mikhail Artemovich sat Feodosia on his knees and began to read the Bible aloud. “Although she was little,” Matushka recalled with a smile, “but my father reads the Gospel, I prick up my ears and listen.”

The inspired words of the Holy Book sank deep into the pure childish heart. Without understanding much of read by father, little Theodosia realized that God always helps people, and therefore prayed for his help. “God, God, sew me boots,” she turned to the Almighty with a naive childish request, since she did not have shoes and her legs were freezing. Sitting under the bed, the girl, who was not yet two years old, tenderly sang: “Intercessor for us, for us,” that is, “for everyone, for everyone.” Mother used to come up to her and say: “Well, what are you, my kosmatochka, you have to sing:“ Zealous intercessor. “Mommy, I pray again: “Lord, Lord, be with me,” answered Theodosius. In less than three years, she knew the prayers “Our Father” and “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice ..”.

Soon the Artemiev family moved to another, large, but cold house, which they called the “barracks”.

This house had rooms for four families and a dining room for workers. Not far from the “barracks” there was a quarry where the “labor education” of the nuns dispersed from the monasteries took place. The Artemyevs fed them, and they, in turn, helped them with the housework.

Mikhail Artemovich asked one of the nuns to take care of her sick daughter. “A nun used to start reading prayers, the 17th kathisma of the Psalter, the Gospel, and put me on my knees,” Matushka recalled.

When Theodosia was two years and three months old, an event occurred that left a noticeable mark on her life. The girl sat on the floor, on a spread blanket, and her mother sat on a bench. Suddenly, an unknown man of fifty or fifty-five years old looked into the room. He just opened the door and immediately asked little Theodosia: “Do you have icons in your house?” “But what about it,” she answers in surprise, “both here and in the other room. Here is the icon of the Holy Trinity, here is the Savior, here is the holy martyr Barbara. And we have a beautiful lamp.”
The visitor was in some kind of dressing gown with an apron, his head was not covered, with a beard.
“I am a stove-maker,” he said to the girl.

“No, you are not a stove-maker,” she objected, “but father. You save me, my legs do not go!
“Be patient, so please the Lord,” the visitor explained. Then he went up to Theodosia, covered her with a stole, read a prayer and began to say something in her ear. Then the mother came up, took the girl in her arms and carried her to the kitchen.

"Pechnik" followed them. He sat down on a bench by the stove and began to tell his mother that the girl should no longer be taken to the doctors and not given to an orphanage, as some acquaintances advised. When the “stove-maker” was sitting on a bench, the hems of his outer clothing parted, and from under it Theodosius saw a luminous robe, from which an unearthly aroma spread. Leaving, he said: "Learn the prayer to St. Tikhon of Kaluga." (The Tikhonov Hermitage founded by him was about a hundred kilometers from their village.)

When the father returned, Feodosia Nikiforovna told him how they had a "stove-maker" and what he said. “I was not far from home, and no one passed by me,” he said in response. So for the first time the Monk Tikhon of Kaluga, Medynsky appeared to Theodosia, who became her heavenly patron. She will take the name of this saint later, being a novice and a nun.

“I haven’t seen any consolation since childhood. The sisters will dress up in blouses, and I will be in the mud. I felt sorry for my sisters. All embroidered, smoothed, I'm the only mess. I was a scumbag: thin, shaggy, dirty, you can’t wash me in the river, - Mother repeatedly recalled with bitterness about her joyless childhood. - I began to grow up a little and was sick, and the kids offended me a lot. I was afraid of everyone."

Seeing this, the father somehow says: "Let's fence her off." He brought the boards home, and Theodosia decided that he wanted to make a coffin for her: “He will knock it down, take it to the ravine and bury it.” “I was scared, I was lying like a wooden one,” Matushka recalled, “and he asks:“ Who scared you? - "You scared." And she told him what she thought.

So the first cell for the future ascetic was arranged. Even then she did not know any fun, never played with girls or boys.
Once, when the village girls were going to dance, the mother calls her:
- Well, shaggy, let's go and see.

“My legs don’t walk,” the girl answered her.
- I'll take you in my arms.
Mother sat down on a bench, put Feodosia on her knees. The girls started a round dance, sang the song “Green Fog in the Valley”. Hearing the singing, the girl slid off her mother's knees and quickly crawled into the house, crawled under the bed and covered herself with a veil.

Of all the daughters-in-law, the wife of the middle brother, the childless Sophia, pitied Theodosius. The girl could not pronounce this name at that time and called her simply “Sofka” or “nanny Sofka”.
Once, when the girl was three years old, Sophia brought her to church. After the end of the liturgy, it was discovered that Theodosia had disappeared. Sophia searched all corners of the temple, but did not find the girl. And she had no choice but to turn to the priest: "As you wish, father, look for our girl in the altar." “There he found me sleeping under the throne, he found me by a protruding leg. It was hung there, I climbed in and fell asleep, I really wanted to sleep, ”said Matushka Makaria. “The Lord did not block my way, but blinded their eyes.” As you know, according to church rules, only clergy can touch the throne, on which the Lord is invisibly present. And girls and women are not supposed to be brought in or brought into the altar itself.

When Theodosius was not yet a full four years old, she decided to wash her legs in the river and crawled to the very edge of the wooden walkways, from which they usually rinse clothes. The boards were rotten, gave way, and she fell into the water. People gathered on the shore: some pray, some lament and are killed. Feodosia's mother also came running. Rather, out of fear that she might be brought to justice, she began to cry. In the village, they knew that the girl was treated badly at home.
Theodosia's maternal cousin climbed into the water and pulled the drowned woman out by her hair. The lifeless body of the unfortunate girl was placed here, on a sheet brought by someone, and they began to pump it out. At last she gave the first signs of life. Anton Stepanovich, the neighbor of the Artemyevs, who came running to the scream, wrapped the child in a sheet and, holding her to himself, carried her to his house, saying to his mother: “You have no care for her, and she must live a long time.”

Anton Semenovich was a cook in the Kremlin Miracle Monastery. But when the monastery was closed, the monks and employees were dispersed, he came to his native village, where he lived through the house from the Artemyevs with his wife and two sons.

In the barn (and it was one of the cleanest places in the peasant economy where grain was stored in the bins), Anton Semenovich hung a lot of good icons and elegant lamps, there was a large, from floor to ceiling, Crucifixion. And on the stool lay a huge, weighing one and a half pounds, an old Bible in leather binding with copper clasps, which he had brought from the Chudov Monastery. “Uncle Anton,” or “Anthony the Great,” as Theodosia called him after the name of the saint, which he bore, prayed at night in his barn. Sometimes he said to her: “Well, the bride of Christ, who is sad, stand with me in prayer.” “I, little one, am on my knees, I will get tired, I will freeze all over,” said Matushka. The local priest often came to Anton, served secretly in the barn and communed Theodosius.

In the house of Anton Semenovich, the girl lived calmly and satisfyingly. They bought her a dress, half boots. The mistress of the house, Aksinya, took care of Feodosia and often laid her to rest on her bed. When everyone left the house, the girl was locked in the barn, where she prayed, and upon her return they took her to the house.

Already in early childhood Theodosius had the first signs of clairvoyance. Once Anton Semenovich sat down on a bench, fell asleep and did not wake up. They thought that he had died, and the girl said to the hostess: “Aunt Aksyuta, don’t touch him, but put him on the bed, he will sleep for three days and wake up on his own.” And so it happened: three days later, “Uncle Anton” woke up and after that, as if he received a revelation, he became even more zealous for everything spiritual. He told his household members that “a bad time has come (the “godless five-year plan” began, during which it was planned to end religion), that we should be more silent and pray a lot. And Mikhail Artemovich directly said: “You can make a divine person out of your daughter.”

Although Feodosia lived well with her neighbors, she still missed her mother, so they carried her home. So she will live for several years in two houses until her sister comes to her neighbor from Moscow for permanent residence. From then on, the quiet life in this house would be disturbed, and Theodosia would be forced to leave the hospitable house of her neighbors.
More often big family The Artemievs went to take communion in the church of the village of Kikino, which was much closer to them. They took Feodosia with them. “I’ll be on my knees for the whole service,” Matushka recalled, “and Father Ivan will come up and say:“ It’s joyful to look at you, how well you pray. ” The mother often said to the sick girl: “Here you are in trouble, the Mother of God took your legs from you.” And in the Kikinskaya church there was a large icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow”.

One day Sophia brought the girl to the temple and put her on a bench. Theodosius slid down to the floor, got to this icon, grabbed its edges with her hands and wept so bitterly that tears involuntarily welled up in the eyes of all the people in the church. The abbot came out of the altar, took the girl in his arms and began to comfort her, saying that the Queen of Heaven does not take away anyone's legs. “They are just sick with you, and you don’t say that anymore, otherwise She might be offended.” After the celebration of the Liturgy, the priest, having come to the Artemyevs, admonished the father and mother so that no one from the family would ever tell the girl about her illness. And she also asked him to convince his parents not to call her Feyonushka anymore. After that, all the households called her only by her full name.

Sophia often carried the girl to church: she would dress herself, Feodosia would dress unsightly and carry her to the temple. “I loved the church very much, and as soon as I see the priest, whether he wants it or not, I will cling to his neck and kiss him firmly and loosely. Father Ivan almost greeted me with a cross, stuffing prosphora into all his pockets. He will take me in his arms and carry me to the altar. People says:

“What kind of girl is she that they carry her to the altar?” He really liked to talk to me. And then he’ll drag me home, put him on a wide bench, so that it would be more convenient for me. I was afraid: he burned like a fire - there was such a light from his face. I would have eaten at his table, but I was scared to death. I was even afraid to look at him once again.” Judging by everything, Father John guessed about the special heavenly gifts of Theodosius and her chosen one. He himself died on the day of the Holy Resurrection of Christ in his temple, in full priestly vestments.

“I didn’t know how I prayed to the Mother of God and asked: “Heal me from the disease, forgive me if I am a sinner.” She cried, asked the Queen of Heaven, and She appeared in a dream and said: “Why are you crying, why are you killing yourself? Well, what to do now, since the legs do not go? Mother said. - I could not remember the prayer to the Guardian Angel and cried a lot. “Okay, I will teach you,” said the Mother of God. I remembered so: I will see Her in a dream, She will say: “Let's read. I will read, and you memorize. She will read it twice, and I will remember. She put everything in my memory, and I began to read, as if on a ladder. “Now you will never forget,” the Queen of Heaven said to the girl, who was five years old at that time.

At the same time, the doctors wanted to perform an operation on her and “build up the veins” on her legs so that they could unbend. In the hospital, Feodosia was prepared for the operation, they made anesthesia, the surgeon picked up a scalpel, but after a moment he recoiled in horror with the words: “Oh, Lord, forgive me.” The doctor, who came to his senses, began to be asked what happened, why he did not do the operation. "The heavenly guard stands and does not retreat." He was sternly told that this child must not be touched! Theodosia lay in the hospital from the Nativity fast until the summer, and then she was discharged.

She was about seven years old when her legs were covered with ulcers up to her knees. The girl appealed to the Mother of God and Simeon the God-bearer for help. “And now I’m lying under the Exaltation, I ask the Mother of God: “Send some saint to take off at least half of the wounds.” Was light Moonlight night, twelve o'clock struck. I saw that someone in bright clothes pushed back the glass in the window and shouted to me: “Mother Feodosia, tell your mother to go to the garden, break the cabbage leaves and put them on your legs.” And we had such a big cabbage,” she said, “that you could wrap a leg with a leaf twice. They did as they said, I slept for three days, and my legs healed. That's how small, and already called Mother, ”she added.

“When it was time to go to school, how I cried, to the point of pain in my heart,” Matushka Makaria recalled. - All my peers are at school, and I'm sick. When I see a teacher, I bow at her feet: “Honey, take me to study.” And then she turned to the Mother of God: “Lady, why did you leave me, I will be illiterate. Mother of God, teach me everything heavenly, You do not want me to remain dark.

At the age of eight, an event occurred in the life of Theodosia that changed her whole life. further fate. Once she fell asleep as usual, but the next morning, when they began to wake her up, they did not wake her up. They decided that finally the Lord heard their requests and called her to Himself. The father took the girl to the hospital, where they examined her and said: “If she does not wake up in fourteen days, then she really did not fall asleep, but died.” Thus, by the special care of God, Theodosius was not immediately buried and did not perform an autopsy, but was placed in a mortuary.

The girl did not die, but plunged into Sopor. In those days when her body, cold and lifeless, lay next to the dead, her soul was in the afterlife. The guardian angel showed her heavenly abodes.

“In Paradise it is always warm, always sunny,” Matushka said of what she saw in such a miraculous way almost sixty years ago, and her memories of the Mountain World were surprisingly fresh and vivid. - There the sun is not the same as here, it is big, big. And all sorts of flowers bloom, there are heavenly ones, there are also such as on earth. The grass there is green, beautiful and all the paths are smooth and clean. The orchards are very nice and the apples are sweet. They are very, very red and like poured with honey. The birds on the trees are both small and large, you would think that people sing, but these are birds.

When the Angel was going to show her something new in the paradise villages, he put her on his back and explained where they would fly. He showed Theodosia the chamber where Christ Himself resides and where the strongest light in paradise is. Around the hall is a high fence; when its gates opened, it was as if bells rang. With Christ behind this fence are only those closest to Him: the Mother of God, John the Baptist, St. Nicholas ...

The guardian angel showed Theodosius and a huge, all like a golden and transparent temple. “There is such a large chamber set up that it is impossible to determine how much space is in it,” she said, “for all the righteous to enter this chamber to serve. And in the altar of that temple there is a throne, on it is the Gospel and the Cross. Water flows from the throne, such silvery water. According to our earthly time, from eleven at night all the priests gather in the chamber with Christ at the head, and a great sacrament is performed in heaven. Priests serve there in the same vestments as on earth. There are many angels in that church, and all the servants have censers. And they sing so beautifully and loudly that it is impossible to convey. The girl asked:
“Why aren’t there icons in the church here?”

“Why do we need icons,” she heard in response, “because we are all alive here.”

“When are we going to church service?” She turned to the Guardian Angel.
- It's too early for you. If you're here for the second time, then we'll go.

Around her she saw many Angels in white, pink, yellow clothes. When they flew up, they folded their wings, hid them under their clothes, and no longer differed from people. “And Archangel Michael is the most important of all. He has a formidable job, but is not formidable in appearance, and walks mostly in red robes, ”Mother Macarius continued her story. - He is so handsome, handsome, I would look at him and not look enough. There are always three of them: Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. The growth of the Archangels is not particularly large. Their clothes are long, like silk, swaying in the wind. All of them are curly-haired, I don’t know what, there is a ribbon on the head, tied at the back, and the ends hang down. They walk in the main courtyard.” She also told about those who were honored to stay in paradise for their righteous life. “There are all young, joyful, beautiful, there are no old people. The Mother of God will tell you once, to whom and what clothes to sew. And on their clothes they have inscriptions in large letters: on the left is the heavenly rank, and on the right is the name. We are impatient here, but there, in heaven, only joys flow. That beauty cannot be compared with our life. In the Kingdom of Heaven there are monasteries, like our monasteries, there are so many of them in a row and set up that you can never count them. And the ringing never stops.

They live in small houses with like glass windows, but without frames. People do not know how many, how many buildings, how you pass - you will be surprised. And how bright it is, how beautiful!
The most beautiful among all is the Mother of God. She is in blue, then in pink, then in dark red clothes. She came, and with Her were John the Baptist, Elijah the Prophet, Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Catherine. And several times Tikhon of Kaluga was near her. He knew then, - explained Matushka, - that I would be called Tikhon, and he adjusted me. But in the Kingdom of Heaven the Mother of God was the least, and most of all She was on earth, where she helped those who prayed for Her help.

The soul of a dead person is taken by three angels: one confesses, the other communes, the third carries to heaven. All who enter there from the earth are under supervision, and the guardian angels protect them. They follow the newly deceased until the fortieth day, so that they do not wander anywhere. And now the fortieth day is coming, when it is determined, where will he go soul. It’s interesting to watch,” Mother said with a smile, “how the judgment is going on, how other Angels gather around the one who has a soul over which judgment is being carried out, how the Angels together intercede for that soul ... ”

I saw Theodosius and some ordeals. “Those who will not be saved go where the “blacks” live,” she explained. “I'm afraid,” the girl said to the Guardian Angel. But he reassured her: “You have nothing to be afraid of, I am always with you.” She remembered one of the places of torment for sinners. It is like a long and gloomy corridor without end and edge, where the unfortunate languished and sobbed in niche rooms. She saw both the “death field” with tormented sinners, and the “ice-cream northern field” - a valley that you cannot see with your eyes, and told how thrushmaids sit there on the ice, pouring water into milk.

Prayer to Elder Makaria for Intercession in Need and Sickness

Oh, Righteous Mother Macarius!

You yourself, from childhood, endured poverty, and hunger, and cold, and homeless wanderings, forever sickness chained you to bed.

You yourself all your life patiently, meekly and humbly carried the cross of your love for God and neighbors, and therefore you were for many a light, radiating an example of patience, humility and love.

You yourself, in your mournful helplessness, found relief, consolation and joy only in Divine grace, bestowed for humble unceasing prayer to Christ God and His Most Pure Mother, Ever-Virgin Mary.

And we know how you comforted many of the mourners, instructed the faint-hearted and directed them to Christ and the Orthodox Church. We also know that your prayer for the sick and those in need has always been both healing and beneficial.

We believe that even now, for your humility, for your righteousness, you, Mother, have been honored by the Lord with a blessed stay with the saints in the abodes of heaven. We believe that even now you do not leave inconsolable all those who ask for your help and your holy prayers.

Oh, Righteous Mother Macarius!

Now lift up to the Lord your bold prayer for us, many sinners, may He have mercy on us, according to His great mercy, and may He forgive our sins. May the Lord strengthen our will to live according to His commandments and remain faithful children in the Orthodox Church.

Help us, Mother, with your holy prayers, so that we march steadily along the saving path indicated by Christ, and do everything in life for the glory of God. Amen.

O our beloved and most blessed mother Makaria!

Accept this touching prayer from our faithful hearts:

Keep peace and piety in our family, increase our faith in God, hope in Him and love for Him, our Heavenly Father, ask the Lord for a fervent and heartfelt prayer, heal us who are sick in soul and body, anoint our wounds with the oil of your mercy and give us thirsty to drink the wisdom of your words. Deliver our house and all our neighbors from enemies visible and invisible, protect us from every situation that lies upon us, and beg our Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and save us sinners. Amen.

Troparion, tone 4

Beloved by the Theotokos, the great sufferer of Mother Macarius!

You helped the suffering in your life with your prayers, and now pray to Christ God to save our souls.

Kontakion, tone 8

For your humility and patience, Mother Macarius, the Lord gave you His holy grace, so that with your daily prayers you would ask him for healing for the sick and comfort for those who mourn and call those who come to you to repentance and to life according to the Christian faith. Hear now, righteous mother, us sinners, and pray to Christ God for the salvation of our souls.

Blessed old woman Macaria lived in the village of Tyomkino in the Smolensk region, not far from the town of Gzhatsk, now Gagarin, the birthplace of the first cosmonaut of the Earth. Anna Timofeevna Gagarina, a deeply religious person, often came to the blessed old woman and asked her son to visit her. Yuri Alekseevich visited more than once. Mother Macarius asked him: “Don’t fly anymore, you can’t fly! ..”

In the world, the old woman Makaria was called Theodosia Mikhailovna Artemyeva. She and her twin brother Ivan were born on June 11, 1926, the day of memory of the martyr Theodosius. The priest who baptized the children had the gift of clairvoyance and hurried to baptize the boy, foreseeing his quick death. And about Theodosius he said: "He will live, but he will not walk." By the age of one and a half, the girl went, but suddenly fell ill and until the end of her life she could not stand on her feet. The biography of Elder Makaria first appeared in 1995 in the Satis publishing house, St. Petersburg. The book "Given by God" was compiled by Gennady Petrovich Durasov, who personally knew it. The book was criticized by many for a formal interpretation of the words of the old woman, but there was no more detailed evidence after the death of Matushka Makaria. There were, however, words of gratitude from the monks of the Russian foreign church who received a book as a gift and the opportunity to translate it into other languages.

One day I went into the house a strange man. Claimed to be a baker. “No, you are not a stove-maker, you are a father,” said Feyonushka, as her family called her. “Save me, my legs can’t walk.” “Be patient, so please the Lord,” he replied. Then he read a prayer over her, and advised her mother not to take her to doctors anymore and not to give her to a shelter. Leaving, he ordered the girl to learn the prayer to St. Tikhon of Kaluga. So the monk himself first appeared to Theodosius.

"given by God"

At the age of eight, Theodosia plunged into a two-week lethargic sleep. When she came to herself, she told how the Mother of God took care of her. The family did not pay due attention to the health of the girl, and even more so did not listen to her words. At least 20 people huddled in a tiny house, the unfortunate child was often forgotten to feed. And when the war began, she was completely abandoned in an empty house.

Memoirs of Elder Makaria:

I was little then, I would crawl under the shed or dig into the hay. She suffered, crawled alone in the cold, there was no one around. Sat in the water and in the cold. I’ll dig a hole in the snow, lie down in a lump, put my hand under my face, and I slept like that. Everything was sore on me, my body was hardened. I drank dirty water, ate a snowball: I would grab a clean snowball in my hand - and in my mouth. And whoever gives bread, he will freeze, you will not bite. And in the summer I ate grass, flowers ...

This went on for almost 2 years! In 1943, the unfortunate girl was found and taken in by a kind-hearted woman. Subsequently, the woman gave Theodosius to the care of the nun Natalia, who saw her destiny in caring for a sick child. Theodosia helped the nun in every way she could with household chores, and together they lived in Tyomkino for 17 years. At this time, Theodosius discovered the gift of healing, her fellow villagers began to come to her for help.

In 1976, Theodosia took monastic vows with the name Tikhon, in honor of the Monk Tikhon of Medyn. And two years later, the nun Tikhon took the schema with the name Macarius. By this time, the rumor about the far-sighted healer had spread beyond the Smolensk region, people went to her for help from afar.

Some went to her by car, others traveled by trains and buses... All of them went with only one purpose - to get healed from a physical or spiritual illness... physical strength. I noticed more than once, going up to her after the reception, and touching her forehead with my cheek, how her head burned with heat. But desperate people, who often did not find help from professional doctors, who had been weighed down by ailments for many years, went and went to Schema-nun Makaria. And she helped them, setting an indispensable condition for healing - faith in God. The patient had to add his humble prayer to mother's fervent prayer for his healing. The patient was only required to read the prayers "Our Father" and "Theotokos".

"given by God"

And today, according to the word of Matushka Makaria, pilgrims who come to her with requests for intercession and healing read these prayers at her grave.

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About Macarius, who committed an involuntary murder One young man, named Macarius, about eighteen years old, pastured cattle near the lake called Maria, and, playing here with his peers, unintentionally killed one of them. Without saying a word to anyone, he went into the desert and lived here for three years.

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The power of God is perfected in weakness.

A village without a righteous person is not worth it. Behind this truth lies the centuries-old experience of the Orthodox people. It seems to us, mere mortals, that the holy righteous are something of a legend. But they lived and live now among us. Quietly they do their uninterrupted prayer - for us, for all of Russia. According to the confession of the righteous Mother Macarius, there are still many, many, "... they are in the mountains, in small huts, so small - just go up: a table and an icon hangs. They are pillars from earth to heaven!". The schema nun Makaria herself is one of them. Righteous, great spiritual worker, chosen one of God.

The village of Tyomkino, Vyazemsky district. Outback of the Smolensk region. Elder Macarius lived here for more than half a century, serving God and people. People from all over Russia came to her for healing from mental and physical ailments. Here her earthly journey ended. But people are still coming.

Her grave is the very first from the entrance to the rural churchyard. On the grave - a black granite slab, a large cross. Flowers - so many flowers! - and lit candles. I knelt down, put down my candle and leaned my head against the damp and warm earth. I whispered to her passionate words, either prayers, or complaints, or excuses. I addressed her as a living being to a living one, confident that Mother hears me and lifts my chaotic outpourings to where they can be received.

The summer sky shone above us. The grass was green, the birds chirped happily and freely. A car stopped at the fence. A middle-aged woman came out, well dressed in a city fashion. Obviously waiting to go to the grave herself. She comes here from Obninsk every summer, as she came to Mother during her lifetime. With prayers, consecrated water and oil, and wise instructions and a laconic spiritual conversation, Matushka Macarius treated her from a fatal illness. And cured. How she cured many others who turned to her.

I hold in my hands a small colored icon. I try to discern in the features of the old woman, written by time and life, a blue-eyed girl, lively and well-spoken.

She was born on June 11, 1926 in the village of Karpovo in the same Vyazemsky district of the Smolensk region. She was born on the day when the Orthodox celebrate the icon of the Mother of God "The guarantor of sinners" and remember the virgin - the martyr Theodosia. It's true: nothing in the world happens by chance! At baptism, the girl was named Theodosia (her mother was also called), which means "given by God." The rector of the church where she was baptized, Hieromonk Vasily, was endowed with the gift of clairvoyance. Handing over the child to his parents, he said: "The girl is good, she will live, but she won't walk"

And so it happened. A nimble girl and started walking early, and babble. But one day, an outsider, having come into their house on business and seeing a lively girl, stroked her head and back and said: “What a little one, but she’s already walking.” Immediately, the girl’s knees buckled, she fell and never got up on her feet again ...

Many and often met with her G.P. Durasov compiled a biography of the blessed old woman schema-nun Makaria on the basis of personal meetings, testimonies of people who knew her, and her own stories. And if you read his book "Given by God" (publishing house "Satis", St. Petersburg, 1994 and Voronezh, 2000), your own life become deeper and richer.

Very early manifested her chosenness. When the baby was placed in a cradle suspended from the ceiling, from noon to three in the afternoon, a candle taken from nowhere was lit on a beam. Those who saw this said: "Aren't our children the same? And it doesn't light up over them."

One day a strange man came into the house. Claimed to be a baker. “No, you are not a stove-maker, you are a father,” Feyonushka said, as her family called her. “Save me, my legs can’t walk.” "Be patient, so please the Lord," he replied. Then he read a prayer over her, and advised her mother not to take her to doctors anymore and not to give her to a shelter. Leaving, he ordered the girl to learn the prayer to St. Tikhon of Kaluga. So the monk himself first appeared to Theodosius.

When she was 8 years old, she, for no outwardly visible reasons, plunged into a lethargic sleep, during which her soul was in paradise - the Guardian Angel showed her the heavenly world. In the Kingdom of Heaven I met the Mother of God for the first time. "She's the prettiest of them all!" - told later.

With the blessing of the Queen of Heaven, she receives a gift

healing people.

Until the age of eleven and a half, celestials appeared to her in a dream and taught her how to bless water and oil for healing, what prayers to read. She remembered everything. And only then the Queen of Heaven allowed her to receive people, heal their physical and mental ailments.

People began to come from nearby and distant villages. First they asked to cure a sick cattle. Then they began to ask to treat them themselves. And she helped them, prayed for them, instructed them how to pray themselves. It was a difficult time, the "godless five-year plan" began, collectivization was underway, churches were being destroyed, faith was uprooted from people's consciousness. And in the outback of the Smolensk region, the preservation of believers and the conversion of new people to the faith was carried out through such grace-filled people as the chosen one of God, young Theodosia ...

The path of the chosen one is very difficult. He is constantly being tested. They affirm his spirit.

The hardest test fell to the girl during the war years. In August 1941, the Germans entered the village. The family dispersed in all directions. Theodosius was left in an empty and cold house, without a piece of bread. The villagers brought their children to her, and they themselves went into the forest. A 15-year-old girl, almost helpless, found herself alone with 36 children in her arms. "I lit 7 lamps and 12 candles and began to pray"... No one touched them, and the German officer gave her a "protection letter".

When the enemy left the village and the residents returned home, the collective farm foreman and his family settled with the Artemyevs, and Feodosii said: "Crawl to Heading, the village council is there, they will help you." In winter, through the snow, she crawled to another village. But no one wanted to shelter her - they themselves had more than enough difficulties. She stayed on the street and lived there for 700 (!) days, hiding in haystacks, and even in the snow. It's impossible to imagine! By chance, she was met by 72-year-old nun Natalya, who lived in the village of Tyomkino. She sheltered, warmed the unfortunate.

At the age of fifty, the maiden Theodosia was tonsured a nun under the name of Tikhon, and a year and a half later, in February 1978, she received the great angelic rank - schema - with the name Macarius. And soon after that, the Queen of Heaven again appeared to her and said that she was electing her for the Feat. From now on, she had to take upon herself the suffering and illness of all the people who turned to her with a request for healing, containing in her heart all the pain and sorrow of Russia, and humbly carry this incomparable burden on her shoulders.

Mother of God, why did you choose such a hook? - asked the schema girl, referring to her illness.

I went around everything and didn’t find you better, ”the Queen of Heaven answered her. - You are perfect!

And after already, before last day life, to her loved ones, who asked Mother about her health, she said: "I will never be well, I am not allowed to be well"

From the cemetery to the house where Mother lived her last 20 years, about half a kilometer. At the end of the village, in the shade of a linden tree, there is a small village house with a front garden. We enter the darkish senets, from them - into the hallway, from there - into the room where the righteous woman lived, prayed, received people.

A small metal crib with a nickel-plated knobbed back, the kind that used to be in many homes. There are icons on the walls, icons - many icons. The author of the already mentioned book “Given by God” recalls: “Sitting on the bed, slightly leaning on the pillow, is a small, stooped old woman in a worn black cassock and an apostle that covers not only her head, but also her shoulders. and the arrival of another visitor does not immediately break her childishly pure prayer. A rounded pale face with large sky-blue eyes and scarlet lips is very expressive and noble. And in her face, and in her whole figure - an expression of inner peace. "

Do not count, do not tell how many people and with what needs stayed with her. It is not even 7 am yet, and in the yard the first visitors are waiting for their turn to talk to Matushka, to ask. What are they asking for! Pray for her husband - he died; for a son with a daughter-in-law; "the cow is sick, she milks poorly"; for his brother - "he is twenty-eight years old, he has six children, he does not walk" ... A person will sit on a chair near the bed or kneel, and Mother will ask: who came, on what business? He listens, consoles, provides holy water and consecrated oil, explains how to use, how to pray, and what hours to drink water and rub the sick with oil, let him go with the words: “Do not look that your leg has been hurting for three years. Mother will pray, and you will get better.”

She was asked many questions. She gave an answer to each according to his spiritual maturity. “If you want to receive grace,” she said, “you need to prepare yourself so that you have a spark of God. Every person can receive grace, just pray to God, ask Christ:“ Lord, forgive and have mercy on me. ”He, when necessary, grace and will send". She urged everyone to prayerfully turn to the Savior and the Queen of Heaven. She herself prayed fervently for all people, for Moscow, for Russia. About Moscow, she said: "Moscow is a holy city, the Orthodox cannot leave here." "I'm afraid to sleep," she admitted, "they don't sleep at such an alarming time. It's not known what's going on in our Russia." And, as if having received an answer to her prayers from the heavenly heights, she said: "Russia will never perish! The Lord will enlighten her, and she will again be Russia as Russia."

Mother, isn't it hard for you to carry such a great cross? they ask her.

Even it seems easy, - she will answer.

A special, amazing side of Mother's life is her relationship with the Queen of Heaven. The schema nun not only saw Her, but also talked with Her.

When you go from the house of Mother Macarius through the courtyard to the gate to the street, on the right you will see a blue door facing the sunrise. Through this door the Queen of Heaven entered the house of the schema-nun. "Wherever She passes, there flowers bloom, and where She stays, there flowers bloom. And here she passes through the terrace, all the doors obey Her, She walks and visits."

The Mother of God talks with Mother, instructs her, answers questions, tells what is happening in the world. But the main thing is that She supports, pities the prayer book and reminds her of her duty: “Mother of God, get me out of bed,” the schema nun asked. And I heard in response: “The time has not come. I would have taken you long ago, but I won’t find anyone to take your place.” She asked: "Will there be Russia? Will there be Russia?" And she received the answer: "Russia is multi-Orthodox. Russia will not perish!"

The last years of Matushka Makaria's life were difficult. Diseases piled up, strength receded, a heavy and incomprehensible fuss grew around. At the junction of two great weeks - the Week of All Saints and the Week of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, on June 18, 1993, at 23.30 minutes, the earthly path of schema-nun Makaria ended. started new life her soul. Her last words: "Fast, pray, this is salvation!"

Even during her lifetime, Matushka Macarius once, looking out the window, said: "And here a temple will stand." And in July 2000, on the day of the 7th anniversary of the death of Matushka, a wooden church in the name of the icon of the Smolensk Mother of God was laid exactly at this place. "A village cannot stand without a righteous man," says a Russian proverb. And without a temple, the village is not worth it.

The schema nun Macaria did not have her own children, but she was given such power maternal love to all living things, that next to her a person felt like her "baby" and clung to her with childish trust. With this feeling of childish security, we also left the quiet holy dwelling of the righteous.

At home, I put the cassette I bought there. The lively voice of Mother Macarius, slightly cracked, but resonant and deep, seemed to sing directly to me: for your sake and..."

The body of schema-nun Macaria was weak, but her spirit was high and strong, her prayer was strong and healing, her Feat was great. Truly, "The power of God is made perfect in weakness."

Spring consecrated in honor of the Prophet God's Elijah located on the banks of the river Pchelka, in the center of the village of Temkino, Temkinsky district, Smolensk region. The holy spring is beautifully arranged.

Schematic nun Makaria, Theodosia Mikhailovna Artemyeva, was born in this village. All her life she helped people, healed from physical and spiritual illnesses and suffering. She pointed out the place of the healing spring.

Matushka Makaria used to say: “When I am gone, come to the spring and take some water, and it will help you. I strongly pray about this to Elijah the Prophet. Until her death, Matushka Makaria made sure that the source was in proper order, hired fellow villagers and they cleaned and equipped the source.

After her death, everything at the source fell into disrepair and it was decided to equip it again. In 2008, a chapel above the well was built and consecrated in honor of the prophet Elijah, a bathhouse was built nearby, where you can douse yourself with spring water, a metal staircase was built to approach the source, and the river was cleared.

People from all over the country came to Mother Macarius. There were also clergy here - from a deacon to a metropolitan, and a church clergy, and ordinary laity - believers and non-believers, old and young, and Matushka knew who of them needed what, and how to help each of them. She knew more about them than they knew about themselves.

Yu.A. also visited her. Gagarin. Mother used to say about him that he was a simple and good man. He helped her get her pension. Shortly before his death, she warned him not to fly. After Macarius prayed for the repose of his soul. A memorial plaque on a stone depicting Yu.A. Gagarina was unveiled next to the memorial cross to Mother Macarius.

In Temkino, in recent years, many pilgrims began to come. Matushka is no longer alive, but believers still come to her grave and to the spring. Pilgrims, according to tradition, put water from a holy spring on the grave of Mother Macarius and ask for the prayers of the Ascetic and intercession before the Lord and the Mother of God for help in their needs and troubles.

The village of Temkino is located one kilometer north of the regional center - the village of Temkino.

How to get there:

by public transport- from Moscow by train from the Belorussky railway station to Gagarin, then by minibus Gagarin - Temkino to the village of Temkino, or by bus, from the Tyoply Stan bus station, to Temkino, departure at 19.00 on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays;
- from Smolensk to Temkin without transfers can be reached only on Friday, by bus Smolensk - Temkino. On the rest of the days, you will first have to get to Vyazma, by train from Smolensk or by bus, which leaves from the bus station almost every hour. From Vyazma to Temkin, either by diesel train Vyazma-Kaluga, or by bus, which runs several times a day;

by private transport along the Minsk highway, after passing the Gagarin traffic police station (172 km), after 1.2 km turn left, then straight ahead 48 km to the village of Temkino.

Coordinates: 55°06"40.6"N 35°00"40.9"E