Wonderworker Amphilochius from Pochaev. Rev. Amphilochius of Pochaev - “Do you know what kind of person this is? He saves the whole world

Life of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev

In a quiet valley, among the picturesque low mountains and hills surrounding it, in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, in the Shumshchina, in a large peasant family of Varnava Golovatyuk, on November 27 (old style), 1897, a son was born, who was named Yakov in holy baptism in honor of the martyr Jacob the Persian.

In rural silence, among the marvelous nature of Ukraine, away from the noise of cities and fuss, Yakov's childhood passed. Peace and harmony that reigned in the family of Barnabas Golovatyuk were involuntarily transferred to little Yakov. Under one roof, in the fear of God, lived sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, children, grandchildren. The younger ones here treated the elders with respect, helping them in the field and with the housework.

Varnava, the father of ten children, had to take on various crafts: he made wheels, blocks, knitting needles, sledges, in addition, he was a good chiropractor. Often he was taken away to the sick for tens of kilometers. For a long time, sometimes for twenty days, I had to nurse them, staying at the bedside of the sufferers until they recovered. Yakov usually helped his father hold the sick when he guided the broken bones, which was accompanied by unbearable pain.

Jacob's mother Anna, a God-fearing humble woman who loved God's temple and prayer, without which she did not even remain in the field, was in awe of the priests, whom she considered saints. Already, being a shiigumen, Father Joseph said: "I believe that my mother is in the Kingdom of Heaven!" It’s a pity she didn’t wait, she died, if only she were happy to see her son as a priest.

From early childhood, Yakov, immersed in household chores, seeing the piety of his parents, who did not even leave the house without prayer, absorbed all the most kind and holy.

In 1912, Yakov Golovatyuk, matured and strengthened, was drafted into the Tsarist Army. During the First World War, he served in the 165th rifle regiment in the city of Lutsk, then, together with the regiment, he was sent to the city of Tomsk. The medical unit in Siberia, where a young soldier acted as a paramedic, then the front, the front line, where he met face to face with life and death, where his best friends died in battle, and, finally, he was captured.

The Germans sent him to the Alps, where Yakov worked for a farmer for three years. Performing all work with great zeal and Christian humility, Jacob earned the trust and love of his master, so that he even intended to marry him to his daughter. But the young man, yearning for his native land, in 1919 fulfills the cherished desire of his heart and escapes. With the help of kind people, he crosses the border and returns to his native village.

The prayerful warmth of the father's house warmed the wanderer's soul. Days flowed in the usual peasant work. He also helped the sick who asked for help.

Following the customs of antiquity, Yakov, who had a pleasant appearance and a beautiful voice, began to think about marriage. He married a girl who blossomed with youth and kindness .., but God judged differently. A conversation with the rector of the parish church directed the life path of a thoughtful guy in a different direction.

Having seen the light, having sipped grief at the front and in captivity, Yakov deeply learned that life is an unceasing battle in which the devil fights God, and the field of this battle, according to Dostoevsky, is the human heart. And this battle cannot be resisted if the seeds of piety, watered with tears of repentance, are not sown in the soil of heartfelt humility.

In 1925, Yakov Golovatyuk, having chosen the narrow path of salvation in monasticism, came to the Pochaev Lavra. In diligence and humility, the novice monk fulfilled the obediences assigned to him. As at home, he made sledges, wheels, sang on the kliros, while considering himself the most sinful and unworthy.

In February 1931, standing at the coffin of the deceased rector, Yakov suddenly felt all the vanity and transience of life. "A man, like grass, his days, like a flower, tacos will bloom." Death is inevitable! Whether you are wise or rich, strong in body or wretched, death for all. We will lie down in the ground, everything will be dust. And what about the coffin? Eternity, torment? Jacob seemed to wake up, he wanted to immediately cleanse his soul, cast off the shackles of sin and begin a new godly life. In moments of mournful farewell, when they barely had time to pour a tombstone over the grave of the deceased archimandrite, the novice Yakov stepped forward and publicly began to confess sins, asking for forgiveness for his entire life. The ardent confession of the young man touched and excited many, remaining in the heart for life.

Having passed the monastic test, on July 8, 1932, with the blessing of His Beatitude Dionysius, Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland, novice Yakov Golovatyuk was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph.

His track record includes:

* On July 18, 1952, he was appointed gardener of the Lavra Garden with release from his former obedience;

* On April 6, 1957, he was released from the obedience of the kliros and was appointed confessor of the pilgrims and was awarded the club;

* from 1959 to 1962 he performed the obedience of a confessor, etc.

Father Joseph graduated from the full course of the Monastic Theological School at the Pochaev Lavra.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick - he became especially famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people were brought to him from all around, the flow of patients did not stop day or night.

With the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, he settled in a house at the gate at the monastic cemetery, where he lived with Hieromonk Irinarkh for about twenty years. Many trees, including fruit trees, which can still be seen in the holy fence, were planted by the priest.

A lot of sick people were brought to Father Joseph. Sometimes the entire Lipovaya Street was crowded with carts (up to 100 carts). During the Polish rule, treatment by Polish doctors was very expensive, so ordinary people with the sick and crippled hurried to Father Joseph. He healed everyone without charge. In gratitude, food was sometimes left for him.

Spending days and nights in work and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, excelling from strength to strength. Hidden to the world were his secret deeds and struggles. By fasting, by vigil, he humbled his flesh, the ascetic mortified carnal desires and passions, bringing the slightest movement of the mind and heart into "guidance of the spirit." Having dedicated his life to serving God and his neighbors, Father Joseph acquired firm faith and active love, having received from God the gift of clairvoyance and miracle-working.

Thanks be to God, who gave the world father Joseph, a healer of human souls and bodies, filled with love and compassion from the bottom of his heart, helping those in need. He healed, cast out demons, restored hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, gave joy and consolation to the mournful. How many tears the elder dried up with his prayers, how much grief he took into his heart, weeping with those who weep, giving peace to everyone, instilling joy and hope in the hearts.

Father Joseph recalled how, at the beginning of the Second World War, he, resting, lay on the mowing in the afternoon, clearly heard German speech, the clatter of feet and the clang of weapons. Startled, he looked around - there was no one around. Together with Hieromonk Irinarch, they were surprised, what could it be? They understood only in the evening, when the Germans entered Pochaev. So, for the first time, the Lord revealed the future to him as the present, and since then Father Joseph knew, in his own words:

At the end of the war, GPU officers and Bandera people began to visit Father Joseph at the cemetery. Some saw him as an employee of the GPU, others suspected him of harboring bandits and tried their best to get rid of him. One day, in the evening, strangers came with a stretcher, tied him up and carried him, intending to throw him off the gallery. The pilgrims who saw it protested, and Father Joseph calmly said: "You won't carry it far." And, oh miracle! The Lord did not allow the rapists to abuse His saint. On the way to the Lavra, one went blind, another lost his arm, and the third lost his leg. They shouted, asked Father Joseph for forgiveness, untying him. He blessed them and released them in peace.

Without repentance and without heeding the miracle, they came again. but already on the "conversation". At the same time, a possessed woman was brought to the priest, tied to a ladder. Unleashing, feared - violent. Having gained freedom, the woman with her fists fell on Father Joseph, covering him with strong blows, until, exhausted, she fell to the ground. The monk did not defend himself, and did not even try to dodge the blows - he silently stood and prayed. His heart, free from anger and malice, was filled with pity and compassion at the sight of God's creature tormented by the devil. The woman jumped up and attacked the old man with new inhuman strength. She fell, jumped up again, striking, until, finally, exhausted to shake the ascetic's long-suffering, she was completely exhausted.

The demons hated Father Joseph, often showing their malice to him through the possessed. Virtue is against the evil one. The demon, defeated by the humility of the elder, left the possessed woman. Rising, as if from a dream, she began to ask where she was and how she got here. Being eyewitnesses of what happened, the representatives of the authorities left the elder and almost did not disturb him anymore.
Where the enemy of the human race does not succeed by himself through thoughts, the holy fathers say, there he sends evil people.

At the end of the Great Patriotic War after the retreat of the Germans, many gangs and criminal formations appeared in the forests. Night robberies, murders. Friends, strangers, everything was mixed up, everyone lived in fear.

The monastic cemetery stood to the side. The dusk was unsettling. Anything could happen.

The darkness of the night fell like a black shroud on the tired earth. The coolness of the spring night parted the people in their huts. But, apparently, not all. An hour before midnight, the cemetery resounded with the ominous clatter of boots. Fourteen armed men unceremoniously burst into Father Joseph's wretched dwelling and demanded supper. After eating, far after midnight, the forest "guests" asked them to see them off. Having reached the gate, the commander announced to Father Joseph about the execution. After calmly listening to the announcement of his imminent death, the elder asked for ten minutes to pray. Having received what he wanted, the priest stood under the old linden planted by the Monk Job, read to himself "Our Father", "Theotokos", "I Believe", "Waste" ... Father Irinarkh, worried about the absence of the elder, went out into the courtyard. At this time, the elder was already standing in front of the muzzle of a weapon pointed at him, benevolently praying for "those who create misfortune." The commander counted out the last seconds of Father Joseph's life ... "One .., two ...". Father Irinarkh, realizing what was happening, rushed to the machine gun and, bending it to the ground, desperately exclaimed: “Whom do you want to kill her?! zachіpay!". - "Okay, old man, go," said the brigade commander, releasing the machine gun from the hands of an unintentional intercessor. Expecting a shot in the back, Father Joseph went to the gate, entered, stopped. Death has passed. It was heard how, clicking the shutter, the partisans marched in the dark ... Father Irinarkh, wanting to "lay down his life for his friends", saved the priest from a vain death prepared for him by the devil through unkind people.

Shortly thereafter, Father Joseph was transferred back to the Lavra. People still hurried to him, receiving healing of bodily diseases and secret ailments of the soul. Even those whose diseases were neglected, and, according to doctors, were incurable, were healed.

However, it was the doctors who were the first to rebel against the elder, demanding from the local authorities and the governor of the Lavra to put an end to the medical practice of an ungraduated doctor, by whose grace they were left without income.

At this time, after the war, Western Ukraine, which had been under Poland for many years, became part of Soviet Union. Attracting attention was not safe, but Father Joseph continued to help people.

The priest had a special gift - to cast out demons. Possessed people from the most distant republics of the Soviet Union were brought to him. The elder saw demons in reality, and often, passing through the temple, he strictly ordered them to leave the church and people.

The grief that overwhelmed people's hearts, Father Joseph experienced as his own, compassionate to the suffering and condescending to the weak.

Almost all residents of Pochaev in different periods of their lives - in childhood, youth or old age - they turned to Father Joseph.

Spending the whole day in obedience and with people, the ascetic prayed at night. “In the 1950s,” recalls Archimandrite Sylvester, Father Joseph and I carried out obedience in the monastery garden. Once, while reading a rule, I lingered, to which he remarked: “A day for obedience, nothing for prayers.” And indeed, he himself Later, when I was a steward, says Father Sylvester, occasionally returning late to the monastery, he saw Father Abbot praying under a tree in the garden.

Father Joseph loved humility and, avoiding the vain human glory, tried in every possible way to hide his virtues.

“Once, in 1956, in the autumn, as I remember now, on Friday,” recalls K., “the pilgrims helped pick apples in the monastery garden. "Our attention was attracted by a certain man in an old raincoat and tarpaulin boots. He was lying on the ground, covering his head with a worn hat. We walked away, joking that someone else manages to sleep at work. After a break, we saw this man, it was the father Joseph: he never ate food on Wednesdays and Fridays, and, hiding his feat from people, imperceptibly secluded himself for prayer, and when he heard our voices, he lay down on the ground and pretended to be asleep.

The end of the 50s... A new round of persecution of the Church. Throughout the country - mass closing of churches and monasteries, preserved mainly only in Western Ukraine. Soviet authority, carrying out atheistic programs, planned to turn Pochaev into a "communist village" with a museum of atheism in the Lavra. The inhabitants of the monastery were asked to leave the territory. All believers, monks and pilgrims were placed under special control. In 1959, the local authorities took away: a land plot of ten hectares, an orchard with a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, a dryer, a gardener's house with an apiary of one hundred beehives. They took away a pumping station with machines and equipment. All outlets in Pochaev were forbidden to release goods for the monastery, so the inhabitants lost their food and the most necessary things.

Pilgrims and parishioners were monitored so that no one brought food to the Lavra. They decided to take the monks by sea and drive them out without a fight, so that later, in the face of the world community and the Soviet layman, they would declare that the monks voluntarily left the monastery in connection with the rejection of religion ... But none of the inhabitants even thought of leaving the monastery. Then, under various pretexts, they were expelled one by one,

they were discharged, stubborn people were imprisoned for violations of the passport regime, they were sent to mental hospitals, they were taken home without the right to return. The disobedient were judged. People returned, not like themselves, like skeletons covered with dark skin. Hieromonks: Ambrose, Sergius, Valerian, Appelius, Hierodeacon Andrei, monk Nestor and others went through imprisonment, sometimes repeated.
The repressions did not break the stamina of the monks, who endured everything courageously and calmly, wishing themselves, if necessary, even to die for the Lavra Shrines. The authorities threatened the monks more than once, promising to drown them in the holy well, to which Fr. ready to accept martyrdom.

The pilgrims were denied lodging for the night. They were not accepted in the city hotel, and round-ups were organized every night on local residents. For sheltering pilgrims, the owners were threatened with severe punishment. In view of this situation, the hierarchy of the Lavra decided to open one of the temples for the night for prayer around the clock in order to give the pilgrims the opportunity to rest. Father Joseph came to the temple, served akathists until morning, and at dawn he ordered everyone to sing: "Glory to Thee, who showed us the light", "Blessed Virgin" and other hymns and prayers.

One day in the autumn of 1962, the old man was summoned to the city of Brody, forty kilometers from Pochaev, to a girl with a broken arm. He returned to the monastery through the gate from the side of the economy and did not see what was happening at the Trinity Cathedral. The monk had not yet had time to open the door of the cells, when a novice ran up to him and hurriedly told that the cathedral was being taken away and the police chief had already taken away the keys from the governor. Father Joseph hurried to the temple. It was crowded there, and at the door of the Church there were a dozen policemen with their boss.

The elder approached the chief and unexpectedly snatched a bunch of keys from his hands. Giving them back to the young viceroy Augustine, who was standing right there, he said: To the perplexed militiamen he threw: “The archpriest is the owner of the Church! Inspired by the call of their beloved father, people rushed to take the poles and rushed to the policemen, who, in fright, rushed to the Holy Gates.

Father Joseph defended the Trinity Cathedral with his courage and courage. The elder knew what he was getting into and expected cruel pay from the vengeful and vindictive theomachists. However, "I trust in God, I will not be afraid, what will a man do to me?" /Ps.55/. The monk not only waited, he knew when and how they would come for him, but did nothing.

No more than a week passed... The former (now deceased) gatekeeper at the gates of the economy, hegumen Seraphim said: “At the end of September, when I was on duty at the gates of the economy, Father Joseph came up to me and said: “Open the door. At once, the "black raven" will come for Josip!", - and went to the building through the economy. I opened the gates to the building and began to wait for the "black raven", but no one came, and closed the gate, thinking that the elder was joking. Two hours passed Suddenly, a police car drove up - "black crow". The policemen demanded to let the car into the yard."

Father Joseph was in his cell when the Dean Abbot Vladislav knocked on the door and prayed "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of our God, have mercy on us!" The elder knew about his arrest, he knew that police officers would come for him and would not let him in, but through the prayer of his spiritual brother he opened the doors ... Six people attacked him, threw him to the floor, tied his hands and feet, covered his mouth with a towel and dragged him from third floor to the courtyard to the car. There was nothing to breathe (as he himself later said): a gag in his mouth, the collar of the cassock squeezed his throat so much that for two minutes he would have suffocated.

In the car, a towel was taken out of his mouth and the bound man was taken outside Ternopil to the city of Budanov (more than a hundred kilometers from Pochaev) to the regional psychiatric hospital. Here Father Joseph was tonsured and shaved, and then ordered to remove the cross, but he refused. Then the orderlies themselves tore it off and at night, undressed, they took it to the ward of the violent mentally ill. The chamber was lit by a weak electric bulb. Forty people (all naked) were sleeping when the elder entered. Sleepy demons spoke in them: "Why did you come here? This is not a monastery!" He answered them: "You yourself brought me here." They also injected him with a medicine, from which the whole body swelled and the skin on the body cracked. Remembering all this, the old man covered his face with his hands.

People, having learned where Father Joseph was, began to write letters to the chief doctor of the Budanovskaya hospital with a request to release the elder, who is illegally kept with the mentally ill, while he himself can treat them.

Three months have passed since he was in the hospital. One day an orderly came into the ward, brought a dressing gown and slippers, ordered the old man to get dressed and follow him to the head doctor's office. There were other doctors in the office. He was asked to sit down.

Can you treat those patients who are in our hospital?

Then cure them!

Father Joseph suggested that they let him go to the monastery or send someone to bring the holy Gospel, the cross and vestments (chasuble, epitrachelion, handrails) so that he could serve prayers for the blessing of water and the demons themselves would leave through the windows and doors. And he added that in two weeks not a single patient would be left here (there were more than 500 people).

Not! You treat us without prayers.

So it is impossible to vilіkuvati.

And why?

The elder replied that when a soldier goes into battle, he is given weapons: a rifle, cartridges, grenades. Our weapons against the invisible enemy are the holy cross, the holy gospel and holy water!

Father Joseph was taken back to the ward, where he continued to carry his martyr's cross, "the tea of ​​God who saves from cowardice and from smoke" / Ps.54 /.

The merciful Lord does not allow a person to bear the cross above his strength, but with many sorrows he tests his faith, patience and hope in God. Everyone who knew Father Joseph did not stop petitioning for his release. They wrote everywhere, even to Moscow, and ... hoped.

Once a nurse came into the ward and again brought Father Joseph a dressing gown and slippers. He went with him to the office of the head physician, where, besides himself, there were two more men and a woman. As it turned out later, they were members of the Moscow commission. The elder was politely invited to sit down and asked how long he had become a monk. In response, they heard that he was born a monk. When asked why he ended up in this hospital, he told how, as a youth, he often went to an old neighbor who read the Bible and said that the time would come when the dragon would fight the Church. He was interested in knowing this. And now he sees how the dragon is at war with the Church. The woman smiled at this answer, and the men looked at each other meaningfully. And Joseph's father was again taken to the ward...

But the people did not back down. Everyone wrote and wrote applications with a request to release him from the hospital. Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva learned about the conclusion of Father Joseph. She managed to free the elder in gratitude for the fact that he had previously healed her of mental illness. After that, he settled with his nephew in his native Ilovice.

Having learned where the elder was, people began to come to him, obsessed with various ailments. Father daily served prayers for the blessing of water and healed people. But the enemy in the person of the godless local authorities did not doze, he rebelled. Concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, the authorities turned the relatives against it.
Father Joseph had nineteen nephews and nieces. Once, a nephew who worked as a tractor driver lured him onto his tractor and took him out of the village to the swamps. And there he pushed him off the tractor to the ground and, having beaten him until he lost consciousness, threw him into the water and left. Father Joseph lay in bed for eight hours. cold water. It was December 1965. Worried about the long absence of Father Joseph, they began to look for him. And found barely alive. Miraculously, he didn't drown. He was urgently taken to the Pochaev Lavra and on the same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Hippo, whose memory was remembered by the Church that day. No one then hoped that he would live until morning. But the power of God put the father on his feet, he recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without a residence permit. Relatives came for the priest and took him to Ilovitsa.

People still went and went to the elder for healing and received it, about which there are many testimonies. Father Joseph served prayers daily, and after the service, having sprinkled everyone with holy water, he invited them to the dinner table. After the prayer service, people felt an inexplicable lightness in their hearts. “By God’s permission,” the elder said, “for sins, the enemy approaches a person, takes his heart in his hand and presses it. But in order for the heart to be pure, one must constantly read the prayer “King of Heaven.”

The dinners were also extraordinary. After them, many sick people were healed. And sometimes Father Joseph would take his club and sit on a bench by the chapel. All the worshipers approached him and asked him to touch the sore spot with a club. And whoever he touched was healed. Thus, those suffering from headaches, diseases of the kidneys, liver, heart, arms and legs, as well as the mentally ill, were healed.

The fame of miracles of healing spread everywhere. People from the north and south, from the east and west, from Moldova and Sakhalin went to Father Joseph. Avoiding human glory, he tried to hide from people God's gift of healing from mental and bodily diseases. He often assumed superficially their vices, played the fool and thereby indicated the cause of certain diseases of people who came to him. Many, who did not understand the spiritual life, considered Father Joseph a sinner. And he himself often spoke out: "Do you think I'm a saint? I'm a sinner! And you take healing according to your prayers and according to your faith."

The deeds of the elder deceived not only visitors, but also his family. And at the same time, he liked to repeat: "I'm not surprised on the face, but on the soul! And you think what you want!" Here the words of the Apostle Paul are appropriate: "Those who live according to the flesh think about carnal things, and those who live according to the Spirit think about spiritual things, everything is clean with the clean, but the mind and conscience are defiled with the unclean and unfaithful."

Those who came to the Pochaev Lavra from all over the country definitely tried to visit the elder in his village. In the summer, up to 500 people visited him daily, and sometimes more. He treated everyone to a blessed meal.

In the fall of 1965, Father Joseph settled with his niece Anna, the daughter of the late brother Panteleimon, who lived in the same village in a new small house. In the courtyard of Anna, the saint of God built a high dovecote, and under it a small chapel. before which he served prayers and blessed the water. Behind the chapel, a long dining table was placed for worshipers, and a chapel was also built.

A long building was built on the north side of the courtyard and a refectory and a kitchen were arranged in it, a reception room for the sick, a bedroom for novices and a house church - a long hall with two side rooms: church vestments were kept in one, and Father Joseph prayed and rested in the other. From the side of the garden, a closed gazebo-veranda was attached to the church. Apple, pear, and plum trees grew in the garden planted by the elder. Flowers covered the earth like a carpet: gladioli, dahlias, roses. There were palm trees in the boxes. A peacock and a peahen walked among the realm of flowers. There were canaries and parrots, up to 200 pigeons lived in the dovecote. To serve people and perform housework, novices lived with Father Joseph. They read morning and evening prayers in the chapel, but at night the Psalter, during the day akathists, they cooked dinners, worked in the garden ...

The souls of all people, their hearts and intentions were open to Father Joseph, but for the sake of patience, he kept in his house the treacherous, the crafty, and the obsessed. Often, sitting down at the table, Father Joseph sang: “I will not be afraid of them, I will be embarrassed below!” And “I will not sit with the wicked!”. Opposite the house of Anna Panteleimonovna's niece, there was a plot of land allocated to father Joseph by the village council for a garden - they planted potatoes there. People bought building materials and donated to him to build a house, but the village authorities did not allow him to build a house. The elder was upset; he intended to arrange a church in the new house. He often said: "I will not be, but the church will be, and then the monastery."

Fifteen years after the death of the ascetic, a church was actually built in the village, since the parish wooden church in the village of Antonovtsy, four kilometers from Malaya Ilovitsa, burned down from lightning in the 70s. There is also an old cemetery where the parents and all relatives of Father Joseph are buried. He often visited their graves and served funeral services.

In his yard, my father served prayers for the blessing of water every day and healed people. As you know, "this kind" (demons) are driven out only by prayer and fasting, so Father Joseph did not bless many people to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. “Yakbi ve knew what a licorice fist is,” said the elder, referring to the spiritual sweetness that delights the soul of a fasting person. In the days strict fast he ordered early in the morning, getting out of bed before the start of the morning prayer, immediately put three bows to the earth with the prayer "Virgin Mary, rejoice" in order to easily maintain fasting on this day.
Father Joseph healed various ailments and claimed that half of the sick are healed, and half leave him unhealed - God does not like this, because their bodily healing will not benefit them, but to the death of the soul.

Very often, the elder had to endure trouble from his restless visitors, possessed by demons. His family even persuaded him not to accept the possessed, for the demons took revenge on everyone who lived in the yard and on himself, to which Father Joseph answered: “It’s hard to endure, but you don’t need to be afraid of demons!”

In the words of the ascetic, the earth in his yard was saturated with tears of praying people, seriously ill, thirsting for healing with all their souls. He often repeated that children in our times are born rebellious, proud and daring, and then become possessed. Humiliating such children, forced them to ask for forgiveness from their parents.

It was necessary to have great love in the heart, so as never to anyone, and never refuse anything. The doctor of God had one. He found time for everyone.

The elderly novice John visited Father Joseph in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa more than once. And there he saw miracles of healing. “Without acquiring the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, I think,” the novice John continued, “it is difficult to perform such miracles of healing as this great saint of our Volyn land did.” This will be confirmed by any resident of Pochaev and by those tens, if not thousands of people of our fatherland who were healed by Father Joseph.

Sometime after morning prayer the father did not leave the cells to the people for a long time. Suddenly he came out and greeted everyone with the words of the prophet Isaiah: "God is with us! Understand, Gentiles, and submit, as God is with us!" And then he began to talk about the reasons that led so many people to him. The main reason, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the planting of which begins at school. Students are persecuted, they are not allowed into the temple, they are conducting ideological study, humiliating human dignity. And a person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not take communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. - This leads to the fact that the majority of the population is mentally ill. The elder advised prayer to heal the ailment of the present age. In his house, it was performed around the clock. In the chapel on the floor, covered with straw and rows (bedspreads), the infirm patients, possessed by evil spirits, slept. Sleepy, they muttered in the middle of the night: "the shaggy apostle woke up (this is not about Father Joseph, he had magnificent wavy hair), he is tormenting us again! Let's go! Let's go!...".

The ascetic at night tightly hung the windows with black curtains: at night, in full schema, with a lit incense in his hands, he walked around his long cell and made a prayer, which the demons felt and did not endure in demon-possessed people sleeping in the chapel.

Often in the morning the prayer book would tell how the demons haunted him all night long: they rode in carts, marched in legions to his yard, threatening to kill, shoot, stab or poison him.

At the beginning of the winter of 1970, a young man of about thirty-five, tall and physically healthy, burst into Father Joseph's house. "Where is Joseph? He choked me with smoke in Moscow! I'll kill him!" With God's help, the possessed man was thrown into the snow and his hands and feet were tied. Three large kitchen knives were taken out of a jacket pocket. The man was dragged into the chapel. It turned out to be a Muscovite, a pilot named George, who traveled to Ilovitsa for three days, did not eat or drink on the way, weakened. At the request of this man’s mother, Father Joseph prayed for him, and in Moscow he felt the elder’s prayers and could not endure them, as he was possessed by an unclean spirit, which led George to take revenge on the prayer book. Father Joseph did not leave his cells that day. They untied the Muscovite's hands and gave him something to eat. And in the evening they untied their legs. He ran away from the yard; no one else saw him.

Modern young boys also came to their father, complaining of spiritual anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder placed them in the middle of the courtyard and ordered them to make four hundred and fifty prostrations; ordered that they do this at home every evening, but wear crosses, do not drink, do not smoke, go to church, observe fasts, take communion. Then, according to him, all the nerves will come out - they will be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not the nerves that are upset, but the demons torment and you need to fight them with fasting and prayer.

The ascetic loved nature very much, he felt it, tried to decorate the earth with flowers and different trees. Wherever he lived: in the Pochaev Lavra, near the monastic cemetery, in Ilovitsa, he left behind a living monument of fruit and ornamental trees. Spring was heavenly time for him, and spring forest- paradise. The elder said that only before the hay-spit, all the vegetation: grass, and flowers, and leaves on trees, and shrubs - young, tender, fresh and shining, and after haymaking summer comes and the leaves grow dull, coarsen, lose their youth and former charm. Like the man himself...

In the early summer of 1970, Father Joseph invited Vasily Malkush, a Pochayevite, to live in Ilovitsa. Together they went to the forest to listen to the zozulya (cuckoo). The father listened to her with some special attention, and then he said to his friend: "From, the last time I hear you zozulyu." And so it happened - last days that year he died.

Having a good heart, Father Joseph did not like evil people, for evil is not inherent in human nature. It is aroused in him not without the mediation of demons, and that is why evil people become like them. The elder said that "any sin entangles the heart like a cobweb, and malice, like a wire - try to break it. Evil people killed the Tsar, evil people mock the Orthodox. Great happiness that the Lord has granted us to be born in the Orthodox faith and be Orthodox, and many the nations, unfortunately, do not know Orthodoxy," the ascetic repeatedly repeated. Even decades before the glorification of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon - the great defender of the Orthodox faith in Russia - Father Joseph had already revered him as a saint and pasted his photograph as an icon next to the face of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called in his funeral synodic.

The saint of God also disapproved of television programs that devastate and rob the soul. After watching such programs, a person does not want to pray at all, and if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, is only a condemnation. Recently, sorcerers (the so-called psychics) have been hard at work on improving the system of coding people through televisions, radios and even electrical appliances, because they know that coded people will dutifully fulfill someone else's will. "To be saved," said Elder Joseph, "is not easy. I will not put salvation on your head - work and pray for yourself! If you want to be saved, be deaf, dumb and blind."

The healer bestowed his love for people with deeds, and therefore they went to him with faith, ignited from him with holy grace. The healer of human souls and bodies had enough spiritual love for everyone: he loved the sick and suffering, wished them healing and tried to help. To the questions of one servant of God, how to achieve such love, the ascetic answered that for humility God gives the grace of love. And he often repeated: "As you are up to people, so people are up to you." “At prayer services at the priest,” says K., “people were healed, and I was completely seized by the feeling that I was ready to hug everyone. I could not recover from inexpressible love for every person.” Monks often visited the elder. In conversations with them, he repeatedly emphasized that it was important not only to take the monastic order, but that the soul should be a nun.

Father Joseph can be supplemented with the words of the Apostle Paul: "Look, act carefully, not as foolish, but as wise, cherishing the time, because the days are evil, do not be foolish, but know what is the will of God." / Eph. ch. 5/.
The year 1970 has come. The feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching. Feeling that this was the last Christmas in his life, Father Joseph wanted to arrange a celebration for everyone God would send to him. On the day of the holiday, a divine service was performed in the chapel, and then the Christ Child was glorified with a Christmas hymn. Groups of village children came into the yard with the Star of Bethlehem, sang carols. Father Joseph himself met them and invited them to the festive table, giving them gifts. And so the whole day until late at night in the yard and in the house of the elder, both adults and children continuously glorified the Nativity of God the Savior.

The celebration continued all Christmas time and was remembered by every soul, with the psalmist singing thanksgiving to God for His great mercy to be able to visit the holy elder ascetic on these Christmas days.

Priest Peter from the Vinnitsa region became very attached to Father Joseph. He believed every word of the elder. He fell in love with him for meekness, for humility and obedience, blessed him to serve prayers for the blessing of water. He himself closed himself in the cell of "Vdpochiti", to pray for the healing of the sick, who were present at the water-blessing prayers. They were healed by his secret prayers. Father Peter understood the purpose of the elder and treated him with humble reverence. The priest walked and rode everywhere and everywhere in a cassock and with a pectoral cross on his chest, as father Joseph blessed, for he considered that the priest was also his appearance must preach, affirm and hold high the banner of Holy Orthodoxy, so that everyone can see and know that Orthodoxy exists, that the Church of Christ lives and acts. Everyone looks at such a priest with respect and reverence, and if he hides his dignity under secular clothes, then for everyone he is just a layman who does not heed the words of the Lord: "Whoever is ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of him."

Mother of God for father Joseph was Heaven; he constantly turned to her in his prayers. Sometimes, during a common dinner, the priest asked everyone to stop the dinner, stand up and sing the prayer of the Most Pure One "Under Your Grace."

Despondency and emptiness in the soul, the elder believed, due to verbosity, gluttony and covetousness. He ordered then every hour and day to sing "Elitsy, baptized into Christ" and "God is with us." He himself had a beautiful baritone, well understood and loved church singing.

It used to happen that fellow villagers would gather on Sunday for a water-blessed prayer service at Father Joseph, everyone was standing, praying - complete silence. Suddenly the elder turns around and says: "Don't talk! Don't disrespect me." He heard the thoughts of people about their earthly vanity, which prevented him from praying. "Prayer is the freedom and aspiration of the mind from everything earthly," write the holy fathers.

One winter at the beginning of 1970, he went into the refectory and sternly asked who brought him flowers and asked him not to wear more, because he needed not flowers, but prayer. Everyone was surprised: they did not see flowers anywhere.

Almost a year later, this parable became clear: the ascetic foresaw that flowers would be brought to his grave, but he was more pleased with the prayer of people, and not with the decoration of the coffin.

What did Father Joseph feel in the last days of his life, what thoughts disturbed him? The family often saw how the face of the elder was transformed: his mind went deep into himself in prayerful contemplation. He knew the thoughts of those around him: good and evil. Thanks for the good, forgave the evil. Not only evil spirits, but also people took up arms against him.

In the summer of 1970, Batiushka had strange seizures. He was lying on a bench in the garden, as if in an unconscious state. One of the novices did not allow anyone to approach him. After lying like this for some time, the ascetic got up completely healthy. The attack was repeated in October. Anxious people gathered around the old man. There was also the same novice. Someone tried to unbutton the collar of his cassock, which seemed to be choking him, but she wouldn't let anyone in. Suddenly my father stopped snoring. The novice approached and bent over him. Suddenly he opened his eyes, grabbed her hair with his hand and kissed her head. Nobody guessed at the time. Later it became known that Father Joseph was once again given poison.

Once the priest sat down to have dinner, but did not touch the food for half an hour. He sat and listened attentively to something. With his spiritual penetrating eye, he saw atheists gathered in the Shumsky regional executive committee, deciding his fate. They thought about what to arrange in the old man's yard after his death: a kindergarten, a hospital or a power plant. He knew, for sure, that they had also thought up about his villainous murder.

Several days have passed. Late in the evening, when everyone was already asleep, a light appeared in the veranda. The novices thought it was Father Joseph - he slept there until the frost. But when they looked out the window, they saw two people in caps. They raised the people in the chapel and ran to the veranda. The light went out... It became dark. The window above the door is open, the door is locked, there is silence behind the door. Not knowing what was happening with the priest and where he was, they began to knock on his cell. “A few minutes later, the elder came out pale and alarmed: seeing the intention of the villains, he went to sleep in his cell that night. Father Joseph went to the veranda and began to open the door. Someone, pushing him aside, entered first. a young man, dressed in Father Joseph's cassock, was dragged out under the folding beds. He was tied up and taken to the chapel. He told that he was with his fellow villager - the owner of the Finn, who had recently completed his service in the Morflot. They treated the villain tractor driver to dinner and let him go home. In the evening, the police arrived from Shumsk and played out the scenario of the investigation: they interrogated witnesses, drew up an act of attempted murder, took with them material evidence - a Finn.

Shortly after this assassination attempt, during dinner, Father Joseph again did not touch food for a long time, sat and listened to something. The expression on his face changed: it became either surprised, or stern, and then he said: "My faith and save me!" And he explained to his family that in Shumsk they were again deciding how to take his life as soon as possible. "It is as if I hear the curse of many who live around: when they gather together for me, come and confer with my soul."

The elder foresaw the plans of the enemy and knew his accomplices-performers both in the person of his fellow villagers and in the person of his novices. But who could imagine that someone would raise a hand against such a great old man...

Several times, Father Joseph gathered his family in the refectory and asked to sing some prayers from the service for the Assumption of the Mother of God, and "The Apostles from the end, having copulated here" asked to be sung three times. And he, listening to the touching singing, covered his face with his hands and wept. After singing, he said with sadness: “And how scary it will be, if the earth becomes frozen on a mushroom to throw” ... Four months later, Father Joseph was buried in the Lavra.

One of the monks, three days before the death of the ascetic, as he later told, was hard on his soul, for no reason tears rolled down his cheeks. On the fourth day, he dreamed of Father Joseph and asked him to remember him for the repose. And in the evening he learned about his death.

The ascetic died on January 1, 1971. It was snowing heavily. The villagers said goodbye to their dear elder. Hieromonk Bogdan served a memorial service for the newly deceased. And only at nine o'clock in the evening, having put the coffin on a truck, we left for Pochaev. The snow didn't stop. Goodbye to the old man and nature ...

At three o'clock in the morning, the car with the coffin approached the Lavra, but it could not get through the Holy Gates, it rolled down the mountain three times - the saint of God did not want to drive through the Holy Gates by car. Then they lifted the coffin of the ascetic on their shoulders and, singing "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us," they carried it into the Holy Gates and through the gate into the building. They carried them along the corridor to the Church of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos. The novices brought many wax candles from Father Joseph's cells; they were burned on great candlesticks placed in front of the coffin and distributed to people. They brought photographs of the old man; the clerk father Bogdan distributed them to the pilgrims.

Archimandrite Samuel served late liturgy in the Laudatory Church. After the liturgy, the funeral service for Father Joseph began. The priest-monks came out of the altar to the tomb. The snow stopped, the sun came out and played like on Easter. And when they gave the last kiss, the woman's broken hand was healed at the coffin. A lot of people gathered for the funeral service in the temple.

Usually the deceased monks are taken to the cemetery, but people did not let go of the coffin of Father Joseph: everyone wanted to carry the dear old man at least a little, seeing him off on his last journey. Horses harnessed to sledges rode sideways, and the coffin with the body of the beloved Elder Joseph was carried high above the heads of the mourners - "like people, so people ...". None of the monks was buried like that, although there were deeply respected and respected fathers among them, but such a miracle worker and healer as Father Joseph was, people wanted to give a worthy honor and thereby express their love for him, who loved them and dedicated his whole life to serving God and neighbor. Archimandrite Hermogenes proclaimed the funeral service. The coffin was lowered into the grave, falling asleep with frozen earth (as the elder had predicted). A grave was dug for him next to the grave of Svyatopolk's father. Both of them lie under the crowns of an apple tree once planted by Father Joseph.
As the elder said - he would no longer have problems with registration, that they would register him in Pochaev - they prescribed it until the Second Coming of the Lord ... No one asked for documents and V.'s dream became clear - Father Kuksha begged the Queen of Heaven and She helped to register Father Joseph in Pochaev, which Father Joseph V. asked for while still alive: "You will take me to Pochaiv!" And she thought then (shortly before his death) that the priest asked her to take her to Pochaev and register her in his house.

They poured a grave mound. Again the clouds covered the sky, it began to snow, a gusty wind came up, a snowstorm arose. The wind knocked people down - so nature cried, expressing its sorrow for the saint of God. And only by the end of the next day the blizzard subsided, it became quiet and clear ...

Father Joseph was buried on January 4, 1971. And three days later - the feast of the Nativity of Christ. For many, Christmas days were not days of joy and merriment - so deep was grief and heavy grief for the newly deceased elder. Last year's celebration of Christmas in his village was still fresh in his memory, the inhabitants of which he provided so much spiritual joy that will not be forgotten for a lifetime.

Shortly after the funeral, Father Joseph appeared in a dream to novice V. and showed her what he had been poisoned with. On a long shelf under the bed of a novice from Kyiv, there were many bottles. In one bottle, which the elder pointed to, there was a bright crimson liquid - the strongest poison. He said that this poison was poured into his food and even into the washbasin, and that he washed himself with poisoned water and rinsed it in his mouth during the last days of his earthly life.

This is how enemies, visible and invisible, rose up against the elder, but God gave him the sign of the cross to overcome the deadly poison for the time being.

Forties were celebrated in Ilovice on Wednesday. Matushka Manefa then had a dream: a boat was rushing along the river against the current, and Father Joseph was standing in it. Many demons - black, vicious - seized on the sides of the boat - they triumphantly shouted: "Ours! Ours!" But the ascetic paid no attention to them. Then the boat landed on the shore in front of a magnificent large temple, from which two bright young men came out, took the old man by the arms, led him into the temple and placed him in the altar in front of the throne. The demons screamed in annoyance and ... disappeared. Mother’s dream can be supplemented with the words: “The saints will be praised in glory and rejoice on their beds. This glory will be to all the saints of God” and interpret it like this: the boat was rushing against the current like an arrow - this is Father Joseph who worked miracles that deceived the demons and considered him a sinner until the very the last moment - God's determination about his soul, with honors introduced by the Angels into the Triumphant Church. And Mary the shepherdess had a dream, allegedly she says to Father Joseph: - "Father, they say you were poisoned," - but in response she heard that he voluntarily went to torment, and added at the same time, pointing to the novice from Kyiv, that she was expecting heavy punishment from the Lord.

After the death of the elder, his monastic clothes - a mantle, a kamilavka, a rosary - were laid by the novices on a lectern in the church, where they prayed for forty days. At night, a strong fragrance emanated from them.

On January 1, 1981, a memorial service was served at the monastic cemetery in memory of the tenth anniversary of the death of Saint Amphilochius. It drizzled with light rain. About thirty people gathered at the grave. There was also a former novice from Kyiv with her mother. One of the priests served a memorial service for the dead. Everyone venerated the grave cross, and a woman from Kiev came up. Suddenly she began to wail:

Father, orphaned us... The novice of Father Joseph, pulling her up, said:

Not orphaned, but orphaned! Don't be afraid, no one is going to beat and kill you. Repent!

Apparently, she (the novice from Kyiv) already had some command from above to reveal her grave sin to people. Kneeling down, taking a handful of liquid mud, she smeared her whole face, and then, rising to her full height, she shouted:

Poisoned, cursed, poisoned! I used to be afraid to say it, I thought that people would tear me apart! Poisoned... Malice blinded my eyes! Malice. Forgive me and you, V., how much you had to endure because of my anger.

And everything was, according to Alexandra, who lived for some time in the house of an ascetic doctor, so. A few weeks before Christmas 1971, at the dinner table with his family (all those who helped him), the elder, as if by chance, said: "All my guests are dear, but Judas is among you." Everyone was saddened, wondering who the father was talking about. And another time: "All you will rise up in me like an Apostle!" - The words of the shiigumen made the novices think. The quarrels that often arose between them were also incomprehensible to them, from which they left the slop hour by hour. And all this in front of the old man. He saw their thoughts. He also knew the reason for the misunderstandings: the strange behavior of the novice from Kiev. Nor did he like her arrogance; he told her several times to go home. And Father Joseph ordered the novices to be patient in saving their souls and often reminded the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "No temptation has overtaken you but a human one; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but when tempted will give you relief so that you can endure."

But the novice V. from Pochaev could not bear it: without the blessing of the elder, she went home and, despite persuasion to return, did not dare to come before the Nativity of Christ.

And... late. The perspicacious Schema-Archimandrite John later, grieving for Father Joseph, reproached her very severely: “Why did you leave the elder? If he hadn’t left, he would have lived for another twenty years: he had a strong heart!”

But what about a Kyivan? Ignoring the elder’s orders to go home, in the morning she went to the prayer house to “speak”, and then to the kitchen to cook dinners, carrying her evil plan in her soul. Who knows what brought her, a forty-three-year-old librarian at the Kiev Atheistic Museum (she hid her last name) to Ilovitsa in 1966, and why she so persistently sought obedience in the kitchen. What guided her, what directed her - only God knows ... Her mother also often came to the village. Once at dinner they opened up: "Father, my mother is engaged in sorcery; I want to help people, they ask." "Repent, great sin!" - only the shiigumen said.
December 1970 turned out to be snowy, with frosts, blizzards, drifts on the roads. Getting to Ilovitsa is simply impossible. For a whole week, bread was not delivered from the regional center. There were only a few wanderers in Father Joseph, but his own, domestic ones. On that ill-fated day, on New Year's Eve, the elder was with his artisans. In the evening, having thanked them for the work done, the schemnik went to the chapel through the room behind the refectory. It was already dark, but still he recognized the Kyiv novice standing by the stove. "Go see me," he said and left to pray. (She told all those details later.) At the evening refectory table, lighting candles, he asked his assistants (the cook Alexandra, Mary the shepherd and the girl L.) to sing the funeral litia. Blessing the meal, he once said with sadness: "It's already been served! Ale Khrest is strength." But, to the surprise of the novices, he did not ask them to share a meal with him that evening, but ate dinner himself ...

Feeling that the Lord was calling him to Himself in the place of eternal rest and allowing the deadly effect of the poison, he quietly said to Alexandra: "Give me your hand ... Your hands are warm, but mine are already cold." Leaning on her arm, he entered the next room, lay down on the couch, silently looking at Alexandra: apparently, he could no longer say anything. She became frightened and, without waiting for an answer to her question: "turn off the light?" - ran away.

Late in the evening, around eleven, all the novices came from the chapel to the elder. There was also a woman from Kiev (her name was not ordered - God is her judge) with her friend, the pilgrim R. Batiushka snored monotonously. Everyone was seized with a kind of numbness. "Our elder, it seems, is departing" ... - the novice from Kyiv said with a grin. A little later, the saint fell silent. The aforementioned novice came up, took his hand, raised it and lowered it. The hand fell...

So human malice was poured out.

Years fly by, time continues its unstoppable run. Every year, the day of the Angel and the day of death are celebrated on his grave. People remember him alive, his gait, his voice, his loving heart and kind-kind. smart eyes .., from mouth to mouth pass on stories of miracles of healing to each other. All these years, day by day, people go to the grave of the ascetic, and now to the Cave Church of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, where his incorrupt relics rest, light a candle or light a lamp, conduct a quiet conversation, trusting the elder with their troubles and illnesses. Those possessed by evil spirits also come here... And many miracles of healing have already been witnessed both at the grave in the monastery cemetery and at the shrine with the relics of St. Joseph (in the schema of Amphilochius).

The folk path will never grow to him, laid by the suffering in the hope of receiving healing from God through the prayerful intercession of the ever-memorable father Joseph, the great saint of God in the Volyn land.

The whole life of the Reverend was a self-sacrificing service in the name of love for God and neighbor, for love is the main fruit of a Christian's spiritual achievement and the goal of monastic life. It is the law of life in heaven and on earth, and is born from a pure heart and an immaculate conscience. Love is immortal, it goes with a man behind his coffin in eternal life and mutually binds the souls of the living and the dead. It was with such love that the Reverend acquired deep respect for himself.

By faith, love and mercy for the suffering, he set a good example of life, won love and left an indelible memory in the hearts of believers, for whom he was and is a quick healer, gracious helper and prosperous intercessor

He heals, comforts, edifies even after death; people still feel his unfeigned love. Some even hear his voice calling to pray, repent, correct and live according to the commandments of God.

The Lord numbered him among His saints and instilled in His Kingdom of Heaven, and we were honored to have in his person a great prayer book and intercessor before the throne of God for the healing of ailments, for deliverance from sorrows and temptations.

the imperishable relics of St. Amphilochius

In the Ukrainian village of Malaya Ilovitsa on November 27 / December 10, 1894, a son was born to Barnabas and Anna Golovatyuk, at holy baptism the boy was named Jacob.

Varnava, the father of ten children, had to take on any job, he made wheels, blocks, sledges, sick peasants also turned to him for help, as to a good chiropractor. As a young man, Jacob helped his father more than once "to hold back the sick as he guided the broken bones." Natural strength and the skills acquired in youth were useful to Jacob.

In 1912, Jacob was drafted into the Tsarist Army, where he acted as a paramedic. During the hostilities, he helped carry wounded comrades from the battlefield, was captured, was sent by the Germans to the Alps, where he worked for a farmer for three years. In 1919, Jacob managed to escape, returning to his native village, he began to do his usual peasant work, and helped the sick who asked for help.

In 1925 Jacob was accepted as a novice at the Pochaev Lavra. In diligence and humility, the novice monk fulfilled the obediences assigned to him, made sledges, wheels, sang on the kliros...

On July 8, 1932, with the blessing of Metropolitan Dionysius of Warsaw and all Poland, Jacob was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph.

On September 21, 1933, he was ordained a hierodeacon by Bishop Anthony, and on September 27, 1936, a hieromonk.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick, and became especially famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people were brought to him from all around, the flow of patients did not stop day or night. In order not to create inconvenience for the brethren, Father Joseph, with the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, moves to a small house in the monastery cemetery, where he, along with Hieromonk Irinarch, will live for about 20 years. Sick people came to the little house every day. There were days when Hieromonk Joseph received up to 500 people, many longed for healing - some bodily, some spiritual.

The ascetic devoted himself entirely to serving God, having received from God the gift of insight and healing, he helped his neighbors all his life. Many of his secret deeds and struggles remained hidden from the world.

At the end of the war, the ascetic miraculously escaped reprisal. One night, fourteen armed men burst into his cell and demanded food; after they were fed, they asked the elder to accompany them. At the gate, the commander of the partisan detachment announced the execution. With humility, the elder accepted the news of his imminent death, asking only ten minutes for prayer. I managed to read “Our Father”, “Theotokos”, “I Believe”, began to read “Waste” ... Father Irinarkh came running, worried about the long absence of the elder, when he saw the muzzle aimed at the righteous man, without hesitation, he rushed to the machine gun, bending it to the ground , began to ask for pardon from the elder ... Death was over.

In the late 1950s, Khrushchev's persecution of the church began. Monasteries and churches were massively closed in the country, and the monks themselves were expelled on false charges, evicted, sent home without the right to return. In the autumn of 1962, thanks to the fearlessness of the elder, the monks managed to defend the Trinity Cathedral: “At the door of the church, about a dozen policemen with their boss were standing, the elder unexpectedly snatched the keys from the chief, handed them over to the young viceroy Augustine, and urged the local residents to defend the temple. The peasants, armed with poles, rushed to the policemen. The Trinity Cathedral was defended, but a few days later the elder was taken away at night on a “black crow” to a psychiatric hospital. He was placed in a ward for the most "violent" mentally ill. He was injected with drugs, from which the whole body swelled and the skin cracked.

The spiritual children of the father wrote letters, asking for the release of the elder. Three months later, he was brought to the head physician's office. They asked if he could cure those patients who were with him in the ward.

The elder said that in two weeks he would cure all the sick, and asked them to bring him the Holy Gospel, a cross, and vestments so that he could serve the Water Blessed Moleben.

In response, I heard: “No, you heal without prayers.”

It's impossible, - answered the meek old man. When a soldier goes into battle, he is given weapons... Our weapons against the invisible enemy are the holy cross, the holy gospel and holy water.

Joseph's father was taken to the ward.

The torment ended only with the arrival at the hospital of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter, whom he once healed from mental illness. She managed to achieve the release of the elder.

Elder Joseph returned to his native village and settled with his nephew. Having learned where the elder was, the afflicted began to gather. Father Joseph served daily prayers for the blessing of the Water and healed people. The local authorities, concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, began to turn the relatives against the elder, one of them, succumbing to persuasion, deceiving the elder, took him on his tractor out of the village to the swamps, severely beat him, threw him into the water and left. On a cold December day, the martyr lay in icy water for eight hours, the spiritual children found the dying elder, took him to the Pochaev Lavra, where he was tonsured that very night into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Amphilochius of Hippo, they were afraid that he would not live to see the morning . By the grace of God, schemamonk Amphilochius recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without a residence permit; he again returned to his native village. People still went and went to the elder for healing.

In the yard, Fr. Joseph served daily prayer services for the blessing of water, and many believers were healed. Father Joseph blessed some patients not to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. On the days of strict fasting, he ordered early in the morning, getting out of bed, before the start of the morning prayer, immediately put down three prostrations to the earth with the prayer “Virgin Mary, rejoice ...” in order to easily maintain fasting on this day.

It was necessary to have great love in the heart in order to never refuse anyone or anything. The elder of God had one. He found time for everyone.

From the memoirs of the spiritual children of the elder:

Modern young boys also came to their father, complaining of spiritual anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder put them in the middle of the courtyard and asked them to make 450 earthly prostrations; ordered that they do this at home every evening, but wear crosses, don’t drink, don’t smoke, go to church, observe fasts, take communion and all the “nerves” will come out and be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not “the nerves are upset, but the demons torment, and we must fight them with fasting and prayer. ...". Despondency and emptiness in the soul, the elder believed, due to verbosity, gluttony, and covetousness. He then ordered to sing “Elitsy, be baptized into Christ” and “God is with us” every hour and every day.

The ascetic spent the whole day with people and prayed at night.

The young woman Tatyana, a resident of Pochaev, was an unbeliever, she did not go to church. As a result of blockage of the veins, gangrene began. Doctors insisted on amputation. The woman pulled as hard as she could. And then, having learned about Father Amphilochie, she borrowed money and left. Batiushka left the cells and looked around the queue. And called her from the crowd. After listening to Tatyana, he said that there was no need to do the operation. He gave ointment, holy water and said what prayers to read, then, taking 50 rubles from the locker, he gave it to the woman, foreseeing with spiritual vision about her financial difficulties. Soon Tatyana was healed not only in her body - gangrene passed, but also in her soul - she began to constantly go to church.

Two friends came from Dnepropetrovsk to the priest. One of them was deaf. As a child, she was severely beaten by her stepmother. Father Amphilochius asked the deaf-mute girl:

What is your name?

She's deaf and dumb, - the surprised friend intervened.

And you keep quiet, - the elder answered and again turned to the patient with a question

The girl began to make sounds, from which her name was formed - Galya. She began to speak and began to hear.

According to eyewitnesses: once, when the elder left for the whole day to the patient, a dying boy of 13 years old was brought to him. Late at night, the elder returned and learned that the sick boy had died without waiting for help. The elder approached the bench on which the deceased was lying, bent over him and prayed for a long time, then crossed him, the boy opened his eyes and came to life.

From the memoirs of Shumalovich K.:

“In the summer of 1961, my son’s hand swelled up. It almost doubled in size and was in severe pain. We took the child to the doctor, but they could not help. Then we turned to Father Joseph. He prayed, took his son's hand in his palms, patted it lightly, and said that everything would pass. The next morning we couldn't believe our eyes. A miracle happened! The hand was the same as before the illness.

In the autumn of 1965, the elder settled with his niece, on the site with the help of spiritual children a small chapel was built, above it a high dovecote, a long dining table in the yard for pilgrims.

The elder said that, by the grace of God, he knew in advance about the seriously ill who were supposed to come to him, there were cases when he went out to meet the sick at night in bad weather.

There are many testimonies of the foresight of the elder. Nadezhda Simora heard from her mother a story about the foresight of the elder: “A young woman turned to the priest for help to restore the sight of her son blind from birth, father Joseph answered the mother’s request that this was her sin. That, as a child, she climbed trees, took chicks and gouged out their eyes with a needle ... The woman began to cry, and the old man cried with her.

From the memoirs of Agafia Lyashchuk (Rivne region):

Somewhere in the sixties, my father fell ill ... The medical commission diagnosed stomach cancer ... We went to the priest. There were many people in the yard. Everyone was waiting for him. Soon an old man came out and pointed his finger at me. I said that my father was discharged from the hospital because they could not cure him. Father Joseph prayed, gave her herbs and said that he would recover. The father lived after that for another 16 years.

The authorities forbade people to visit the elder. Buses were canceled, but people walked. Once, the first secretary of the Ternopil Regional Party Committee came to the elder and brought his only son. A nineteen-year-old boy had a sarcoma on his leg, the doctors were powerless.

Elder Joseph, having examined the patient, asked to leave the young man for two weeks, warned that he would heal only by prayer. The secretary of the regional committee agreed and arranged for his son's lodging for the night in the nearest village. With the blessing of the elder, the young man came every day to the Water Blessing Prayer, drank holy water, and ate consecrated food. Two weeks later, the sarcoma disappeared without a trace. The grateful father ordered to allocate a shuttle bus Kremenets - Malaya Ilovitsa. The elder, who loved nature from childhood, planted flowers himself and fruit trees, novices helped in the work on the site. The elder foresaw his imminent death, he knew that one of his novices put poison in food, poured poison into the water with which he washed himself (it is believed that the novice from Kyiv was a KGB agent). More than once, with bitterness, the elder said that among his novices there was "Judas." Batiushka lost consciousness several times for several hours. During the attacks, the poisoner, under various pretexts, would not let anyone near the priest.

The humble old man steadfastly endured suffering, and called on the culprit to repent.

The ascetic died on January 1, 1971. Shortly before his death, the elder said that everyone should come to his grave with their needs and illnesses, and promised not to leave those in need of his prayerful help even after death. Already after the funeral of the elder, a believing woman was healed at the tomb of the righteous. For three decades, miracles of healing were performed at the grave of the elder.

Muscovite Vinokurov N. I. suffered from back pain for several years, massage and other medical procedures did not bring relief, during a trip to the Pochaev Lavra, he visited the fraternal cemetery: I could stand in the service and the pain receded. The next day my friend and I came back. The result was amazing. It's a real miracle."

April 3, 2002 by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church a decision was made to canonize the Pochaev elder-schiegumen Amphilochius as a saint. The rite of glorification of the Monk Amphilochius among the saints was performed on Sunday, May 12, in the patronal Assumption Church of the Pochaev Lavra. On May 12, 2002, in the Pochaev Lavra, during the glorification of the saint, two crosses made of clouds appeared in the sky above the Lavra. For an hour, believers could observe this miracle - one large cross and next to it - a little smaller. The pilgrims said: "Well, now there will be two of them - Father Job and Father Amphilochius."

Rejoice, life-bearing branch of the vineyard of Christ's Pochaev Lavra, fragrant with your vegetation!

Recently, when I was writing about the blessed old woman Natalia from Vyritsa, I remembered another old man - Amphilochius of Pochaevsky. He was glorified as a saint 10 years ago. Then I went with my friend and colleague photographer Sasha Lomakin to the Pochaev Lavra and met people who knew St. Amphilochius. He and Natalia lived far from each other, both seemed foolish to people, and both healed people from serious illnesses. By the way, both of them gave the sick vodka to drink, and they did not feel intoxicated. They treated, of course, with prayers and the word of God. And alcohol is for humility, I guess. I was told that Father Amphilochius joked: "Jesus turned water into wine, well, and vice versa, wine into water, even easier!"
I am posting my old note about Amphilochius with his archival photo and a poster in memory of the 10th anniversary of his canonization.

"The Seer from Pochaev

Schiegumen Amphilochius from the Carpathian village of Malaya Ilovitsa saved people from incurable ailments, resurrected the dead and saw the future.
The life of a great old man is woven from miracles. He created them every day in front of hundreds of people who came to him for help.
“One girl had her arm torn off right up to her shoulder,” says Mikhail Yariy, caretaker of the monastery cemetery. - She was brought to the old man with a stump pinched with a belt. The monk asked: “Where is the hand?” Relatives were confused: “I stayed at home ...” “Urgently take it!”. The severed hand was brought. Amphilochius put it to the stump - and it grew together!
The authorities accused the elder of charlatanism. The Reverend did not argue. He came to the surgical department of the local hospital, took an indelible pencil and drew lines of fractures directly on the plaster of the most severe patients.
Doctors compared the drawings with x-rays. And they were amazed: the location of the bone chips, indicated by the monk, coincided with the X-ray examination data exactly!
- How do you do it? the surgeon asked him.
- I'm not only looking at the body. Per capita!
On other days, up to five hundred people came to the elder for help. He cured all diseases, even cancer.
“Batiushka saw not only the ailment, but also its cause,” says nun Varvara, an assistant to Shegegumen Amphilochia. - He laid his hands on the head of the sick. And then he named the sins for which the disease was sent. The man repented and was healed.

Prophecies
The first evidence of the foresight of the Monk Amphilochius dates back to 1941. At the hayfield, he suddenly heard German speech, the roar of engines, the clanging of caterpillars. He told about this to the monks who were nearby. They did not believe it - only the birds were singing around. When they returned to the Lavra, they learned that the war had begun.
And at the end of his life, Schemagumen Amphilochius said that a year after his glorification, a big war would begin. He was canonized as a saint in 2002. A year later, the war in Iraq began.
“Batiushka said that the earth would catch fire like a haystack,” Matushka Varvara recalls. - When the oilfields were set on fire, I was struck by an electric shock. Everything, as he said then. The reverend predicted that this war would change the world. I asked him how he knows all this. Batiushka then said that he sees the Lord and the Mother of God just as he sees me, that he converses with them mentally. And get answers...

resurrection
The elder led the reception of the sick in the gatehouse at the monastery cemetery. The length of Lipovaya Street, which leads from the monastery to the graveyard, is a kilometer.
- All of it was filled with sick and possessed, - says Mikhail Yary. - They came not only from all the republics of the USSR - from Poland, Romania, Hungary, Canada, the USA, and other countries.
When Khrushchev's persecution of religion began, the authorities decided to get rid of the miracle worker. The elder was "cut down" from among the monks of the Pochaev Lavra. He moved to his native village of Small Ilovitsy, a remote place in the Carpathian mountains. But pilgrims also reached there - on foot, through the forest.
“They were driven by the police,” recalls Yevgeny Yavorsky, a fellow villager of the old man. - Drivers who undertook to give a lift to the pilgrims were fined. The policemen went around the huts at night, making sure that no strangers were left at night. But people kept coming and going...
The reverend built a chapel in the courtyard of his niece. And above it, instead of a dome, there is a dovecote. He served prayers, received the sick. One day, a black Volga stopped at a yard filled with sick people. From it came the first secretary of the Ternopil Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. Approached the old man
- Father, my son has a leg sarcoma ...
- Bring it!
He cured the boy. The secretary of the regional committee asked how to thank for the healing.
- You don't owe me anything. Thank the Lord.
- What I should do?
- The heart tells.
Party boss ordered to open bus route to the village and not disturb the pilgrims.
More people began to arrive. One day, as Matushka Varvara testifies, a great miracle happened:
- Parents brought a boy of thirteen years. They cry, they say that the son is dying, the last hope for the father. And the Reverend is away. The child died right in the yard in the middle of the day. They put the deceased on the bench, the parents are crying. In the evening, it was already quite dark, the priest arrived. He approached the child, and he was already cold. He knelt beside him and began to pray. And the boy opened his eyes!

Alliluyeva
The authorities decided to close the Trinity Cathedral of the Pochaev Lavra and make a bathhouse in it. We arrived with armed guards and took the keys from the viceroy. And then the Monk Amphilochius appeared. He went up to the chief of police and snatched the keys of the cathedral from him!
The believers who came running to help pushed the policemen out of the monastery.
The elder was reminded of this courage. They were sent not to prison, not to a camp - to a psychiatric hospital. But pilgrims began to travel there as well.
- Let me go to the father!
- He's sick! doctors answered.
- No, he's healthy. We are sick...
Soon a woman arrived, whom the doctors did not dare to refuse. She flew into the head physician's office like a storm:
- Hello! I am Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter!
Mother Barbara knows this story from the stories of the Monk Amphilochius himself:
- Father remembered that Svetlana Alliluyeva came to him several times. She asked him to cure her of the disease that tormented her. Batiushka did not say what exactly Stalin's daughter was ill with. He simply said that she suffered greatly, that the Moscow doctors could not help her. And he cured her.
Svetlana Alliluyeva decided to rescue the old man from the mental hospital. But she was told that only close relatives could take him away. She went to the elder's native village, found his nephew Tikhon. The Reverend was released from the hospital. Together with the elder, Svetlana Alliluyeva arrived at the Pochaev Lavra. Archimandrite Georgy saw how he fell down to the monastery shrine - the foot of the Mother of God imprinted on the rock. The monk scooped up the accumulated water from the miraculous imprint and washed his face with it. The next day, the elder served the liturgy in the cave church of the Lavra. Svetlana Alliluyeva was there, she did not want to let the reverend away from her. She began to persuade the old man to fly to Moscow. She said that in the USSR they would not let him live, that the KGB was ordered to secretly liquidate him. She promised to save, through her husband, an Indian diplomat, to smuggle to America ...
- The monk went with Stalin's daughter to Lvov, - says mother Varvara. The plane tickets have already been bought. The elder said that he wanted to visit Anna on his spiritual night in Lvov. Svetlana Alliluyeva left him there to spend the night. And when she returned, the old man was no longer there. He told me to tell her that he was returning to his native village ...

Poison
The elder continued to receive pilgrims. But the clouds were thickening - one day in his bedroom, under the bed, they caught a hidden young man in a monastic cassock. The clothes turned out to be camouflage, under which the killer hid a dagger. He was handed over to the police. The matter was put on the brakes, they explained that this man climbed into the house, because with drunken eyes he made a mistake with the door. Then another local resident tricked the old man into a swamp and beat him severely. In the morning, the monk was found barely alive ...
“At about the same time, a strange woman from Kyiv appeared in the elder’s house,” says Matushka Varvara. - She is from Kyiv, she worked there in the museum of atheism. She came and told the elder that she believed in God. The father accepted it. This woman stayed with us, asked for it as a cook. Soon the elder began to show signs of a strange illness. I was washing his linen and noticed that the priest's underwear was eaten away with acid. Asked him what happened. And he said that it was poison that came out of him. And he asked to make a fuss: "what is destined to happen will happen." She left on business, but anxiety remained in her heart. A month later, news came of the father's death. Urgently returned to Ilovitsy. I was told that on his last night, the priest refused a common meal. He told his relatives that this time he would have dinner alone. He knew the food was poisoned...
The night after the death of the elder, nun Varvara had a dream about the elder Amphilochius in white robes. He pointed to a faceted vial of crimson liquid. Said it had hydrocyanic acid in it. And he named the name of the one who poured poison into food.
Mother Varvara saw that villain ten years after the elder's death. The poisoner came to his grave - and publicly repented.
“She smeared her face with mud,” says Matushka Varvara. - She crawled on her knees, asking people for forgiveness. She screamed that she was alive, and her soul was already on fire ...

glorification
The grave of St. Amphilochius at the monastery cemetery was opened in 2002. To examine the relics, medical monks were invited from Russia - from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. They concluded that the body, more than thirty years after death, was preserved in "wonderful incorruption."
When they dug up the grave, the rotten board of the coffin lid broke. She struck the saint's arms folded across his chest. And the wound turned out like a living one. It seemed to the monks opening the coffin that droplets of blood appeared on the abrasions. But it was peaceful. The body of the saint was fragrant!
The relics of St. Amphilochius were transferred to the cave church and placed next to the ancient shrine - the relics of St. Job. Another prophecy of Shegumen Amphilochius came true: when the police expelled him from the monastery, he said that the hour would come when he would be “registered in the Lavra forever.”
On the day of the glorification of St. Amphilochius, two crosses appeared in the sky above the domes of the Lavra. Sixteen bishops who performed the rite of canonization noted this miracle as a sign of God.
Grigory Telnov, first published in the newspaper "Life"

In Ukraine, the name of this saint means as much as in Russia the names of our great ascetics. In the Pochaev Lavra, he is revered on a par with St. Job, and this is of particular importance, since Elder Amphilochius is our contemporary. Here, on earth, he died in 1971.

Meanwhile, both the life and the known evidence of his prayerful help are comparable with the lives of the greatest saints, and seem worthy of the pen of Simeon Metaphrastus (1). The fruits of his monastic feat are one of the most striking and convincing evidence that grace in the Orthodox Church does not fail, that "the Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever."

With your flock

Twelve years have passed since the relics of Elder Amphilochius from the Assumption Pochaev Lavra in Ukraine were found incorrupt. Their integrity and condition are approximately the same as those of the saints resting in the caves of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The elder seemed to fall asleep, and this happened not in 1971, but quite recently. In the Church, he is glorified as a "reverend", i.e. likened to the Lord in the highest virtues, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that his life from the moment he entered the monastery to the very end was an ongoing confessional feat.

Only people who have reached spiritual maturity have the right to pronounce the words that once simply and spontaneously came from the Optina hieromonk Fr. Vasily (Roslyakov), “it would be good to suffer for Christ.” Let us remember that even such a great saint, as in prayer to the Lord, says with humility: “... I do not dare to ask for a cross or consolation! I stand before You…”

The willingness to suffer for Christ is the lot of the perfect. And, behold, Elder Amphilochius was one of those who, with full consciousness, had to bear the martyr's cross more than once.

The question of who the monk “did not please” for believers, in general, is not paramount. Some led him to be shot, tortured him in a psychiatric hospital, beat him half to death, others gave orders about it ... Another thing is more important: truly, the most unfortunate people are those who become executors of the will of evil spirits, regardless of external - political, ideological or any other motives. The true reason for such hatred is revealed to the end, experimentally, and not purely speculatively, in Pochaev, near his relics.

By the patronal feast in honor of the Lavra, many thousands of procession from Kamenetz-Podolsky, and among this multitude, accompanied by relatives, there are very unusual patients. This disease does not fit into the picture of epilepsy. As a rule, it worsens when approaching shrines. This cannot be attributed to acting skills”: everyone is able to distinguish an arbitrary, even the most professionally performed cry, from a cry of unbearable pain, involuntary.

"Special" patients roar, emit streams of swearing in the arena in relation to the saints, and at the same time especially insulting epithets go to the Monk Amphilochius.

The impression is not easy, especially when such a "set" rushes from the lips of a fragile girl who is trying to keep several men. The strength of the patients is such that metal handcuffs do not help in all cases.

The most difficult thing for the escorts is to lead them to the relics. When successful, these sufferers usually calm down. Several minutes pass, and those who have regained consciousness do not remember their recent state.

Worship honest relics- the beginning of spiritual healing. Ahead - confession, communion, a special church rank - reprimands. In the monastery, they say about such cases: “The priest drove the unclean during his lifetime, and now he drives them. They can't stand his presence."

Elder Amphilochius was given special grace. He possessed undoubted insight, the gift of prayerful healing, the release of the possessed, and his scolding with the invisible world, where spirits act, was - "not for life, but for death." He was avenged and relentlessly persecuted by those whom he scorched with his prayer.

“Kill me, but don’t chip yoga!”

It was 1947. A terrible war was left behind, and those who survived it hoped that the post-war world would become wiser and better. It seemed that a favorable time had come for the Church. After long persecutions, prayer sounded in the temples, spiritual doors were opened educational establishments, little by little, released priests began to return from places of detention. However, the political "thaw", due to military conditions, turned out to be temporary, and the change in strategy towards the Church was relative.

Gone are the show trials of the clergy, now there was no need for them: the main part of the clergy was physically destroyed in the period of the 1920s and 1930s. But at the same time, the “worthy successor” of Solovkov was created in the late 40s - early. In the 1950s, the Siblag system, like the previous one, swallowed up millions of lives (2), and the cases of “arousing fears” priests were already resolved in an “individual” and often “out of court” order.

So it was this time too, when unknown armed men broke into the cell of the hieromonk from the Pochaev Lavra. They behaved defiantly, impudently, put them at gunpoint and led them away. What was the “fault” of a man who lived alone in a small house at the monastery cemetery and was content with only the bare necessities? For the "escorts" it was enough that he was one of those priests to whom people go from afar.

Father Joseph, - such was the monastic name of St. Amphilochius before the adoption of the schema, - they knew, thanks to his ability to heal in cases where there was no hope of getting help from doctors. The healing practice of the priest began even before he came to the monastery. Once with a village doctor, he learned the art of chiropractor.

And in the early 1930s, when he was already tonsured, chance revealed in him a skilled doctor and a daring prayer book. The Lavra hieromonk literally “collected” and put the broken young couple on their feet: during a rural wedding, the horses were carried, and the carriage, where the newlyweds were sitting, overturned, causing them severe injuries. The diligence of Joseph, supported by prayer, performed miracles, and since then visitors have been drawn to him in a string. In order not to disturb the monastic brethren, the priest, with the blessing of the viceroy's father, moved to a separate house. The treatment of the sick, combined with the provision of spiritual assistance, became his constant "obedience." On other days, he received up to 500 people.

Since the beginning, the flow of visitors has increased. It was noticed that hieromonk Joseph accurately predicted to whom the husbands and sons would return, and who would face losses. This was preceded by twenty years spent in obedience and prayer. The inner side of monastic life is fasting, vigils, prayer rule, - was hidden from prying eyes, spiritual fruits turned out to be obvious.

Father Joseph also received another gift - to see with his own eyes and cast out unclean spirits. And the invasion of uninvited guests in 1947 did not come as a surprise to him. Batiushka did not resist, even when they announced to him at the gate that they were going to shoot him. He asked to be allowed to pray. I read “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice”, “I believe”, and began to read on his own waste, when suddenly another monk from the Lavra, Father Irinarkh, rushed under the muzzle of a machine gun: “Who do you want to kill ?! Do you know what kind of wine guy? Win the whole retinue save. Kill me, but don’t chip the yogo! ”(3) It’s hard to say what happened to the brigade commander at that moment, only his mood changed, and, releasing his weapon, he let them both go.

"Living Wall"

The next time death came very close in 1962. The exposure of the “cult” thundered in the country, the “thaw” began, and at the same time, a renewed furious atheistic campaign. A new "wave" reached Pochaev, and one day the threat of destruction hung over the Trinity Cathedral.

When the police detachment, fully armed, stood at the door of the temple, and the paralyzing effect of fear fettered those present, Father Joseph assumed full responsibility for the subsequent events. Having snatched the keys to the temple from the hands of the chief, and hastily handing them over to the governor, he called on the brethren and parishioners to resist the pogromists. Stakes were used, in a matter of minutes around Fr. Joseph, a “living wall” was formed, and the cathedral was recaptured. And the father was expected to be punished.

He was arrested at night in his own cell, and taken to a psychiatric hospital on a "funnel", taking care of the "special conditions" of detention. A place for him was determined in the ward of violent patients. This time it was hard: from the drugs that were forcibly administered to him, his whole body swelled and his skin burst, and the fact that Father Joseph withstood everything was, in itself, an exceptional case. Only prayer supported him: the doctors did not allow him to transfer the Gospel or the crucifix to the hospital.

And yet, by special providence, the elder was released (4). However, the plan to take the elder abroad did not materialize. Father Joseph quietly left the apartment in Lvov, where he was hidden from possible persecution.

"Without an article and a tribunal"

It was too dangerous to return to Pochaev, and he settled with his niece in the village of Ilovitsa. Of course, he did not succeed in hiding for a long time: the people immediately mastered the new direction of the route, and the priest could not refuse those who asked. Served daily prayers for the blessing of the waters. The healings were extraordinary. Through the prayers of Joseph's hearing returned to a girl who had once been severely beaten by her stepmother in childhood. One resident of Pochaev escaped amputation, which threatened her because of the onset of gangrene. There is also a case when a blind girl received her sight. There is evidence of how the elder brought back to life a 13-year-old teenager who was in a state of clinical death.

It happened that "eyes were opened" among staunch atheists when it came to their own children.

In desperation, he somehow turned to Fr. Joseph the secretary of the regional committee. The diagnosis made by doctors to his 18-year-old son sounded like a sentence: sarcoma. The elder warned that the treatment would be only spiritual: prayers, holy water, consecrated food. A few weeks later, there was no trace of the disease, and in gratitude, the father ordered to allocate a shuttle bus Kremenets - Malaya Ilovitsa for the convenience of the pilgrims.

The local authorities, concerned about the influx of people into the village, began to turn the relatives against the elder.

In December 1965, Fr. Joseph faced a new test. One of his relatives took him to the outskirts of the village to the swamps, and severely beat him, left him to die in icy water. For eight hours the elder lay without help until his spiritual children found him. Fearing that he would not live to see the morning, he was taken that same night to the Pochaev Lavra, where he was tonsured with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Amphilochius of Hippo. The schema is the “edge”, the definition is for life or for the outcome. The elder went on the mend, and for several more years he served people in a great angelic image.

In Pochaev they say that the death of Fr. Amphilochia was violent and caused by poisoning. More than once, the elder said that there was “Judas” among his novices, but when people who suffered from the behavior of one of his “helpers” asked him to remove her from themselves, the priest only humbly urged them to endure, since he himself endures.

The holy fathers in different versions come across the idea that it is impossible to overcome the devil with intelligence and cunning. Evil is insidious and powerful, and it is possible to defeat it in the world only by ascending the cross, through conscious assimilation to Christ. But the “loser” according to the evil, demonic account, rises with God in incorruption, is crowned with great glory and has the boldness to pray for many.

1 Symeon Metaphrastes (2nd half of the 10th century), Byzantine writer. Compiler of the minology, a consolidated corpus of the Greek lives of the saints (148 texts), adapted to the church calendar.

2 The most valuable historical evidence about the conditions of detention in one of its parts - Ozerlag belongs to Archpriest Alexy Kibardin, who was in spiritual relations with St. Seraphim Vyritsky. (See: Saint Reverend Seraphim Vyritsky and Russian Golgotha. S.-Pb., 2008. S. 306-317).

3 S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Svetoch. Orthodox educational journal (Perm). 2004. No. 2. C. 62

4 There is information that he was then released from the hospital by Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, in gratitude for the fact that the priest healed her of a mental illness. (Biography of the Holy Saint of God of the last times. // Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Svetoch. Orthodox educational magazine (Perm). 2004. No. 2. P. 63)

1. Biography of the Holy Saint of God of the last times. // Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. /
2. Rev. Amphilochius of Pochaev //
3. S. Vyatkina. Blessed Pochaev. Svetoch. Orthodox educational journal (Perm). 2004. No. 2.

May 12 is the day of glorification in the saints of the Monk Amphilochius, Pochaev miracle worker and our contemporary. Thousands of pilgrims gather every year for this holiday in the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. As, however, on January 1, on the day of the death of the ascetic, and on the Assumption of the Mother of God - the patronal feast of the monastery.

There is a lot of people's love, hope and faith in the veneration of the Reverend Elder, Schemagumen Amphilochius, who was glorified as a saint only 14 years ago. It is amazing how in such a short time the rebellious, holy fool and persecuted Father Joseph (that was the name of the monk before the adoption of the great schema) became a beloved saint in Ukraine and abroad.

Even during his lifetime, Elder Amphilochius was given a special grace of clairvoyance, the gift of prayerful healing and the release of the possessed. Miracles through the prayers of the saint continue to this day, stories about them are becoming increasingly famous. And the weak, the suffering, and the unfortunate go to the Monk Amphilochius - they go for help and support, for strengthening in faith and strength to carry their cross. Happy people also go to venerable old man- with gratitude and joy, and to express my love for this holy ascetic.

Rev. Amphilochius of Pochaev (in the world Yakov Varnavovich Golovatyuk; 27.11. 1894 - 01.01. 1971). In 1932, a novice of the Pochaev Lavra, Yakov Golovatyuk, was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph. In 1933 he was ordained a hierodeacon, in 1936 a hieromonk; in 1953 he was elevated to the rank of hegumen. He graduated from the full course of the Monastic-Theological School at the Pochaev Lavra.

Having dedicated his life to serving God and his neighbors, Father Joseph acquired firm faith and active love, having received from God the gift of insight and healing. Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, he settled in a small house at the gate at the monastery cemetery, where he lived for about twenty years. Father Joseph treated the sick and became especially famous as a chiropractor, healer of bodily and mental ailments. According to numerous testimonies, he had a special gift - to cast out demons. Possessed people from all over the Soviet Union were brought to him.

During the persecution of the Church in the 60s, he showed courage, steadfastness in faith and courage. He was placed by the authorities in a psychiatric hospital, subjected to all kinds of persecution. After Father Joseph miraculously escaped death, he was tonsured a schema in the Pochaev Lavra with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Iconium, whose memory was celebrated by the Church on that day.

The elder, who did not have a residence permit in the Pochaev Lavra, had to live in the world, enduring humiliation from unbelievers and pressure from the KGB. All this time, Father Amphilochius continued to provide prayer assistance to the suffering, receiving up to 500 people a day. Schemagumen Amphilochius reposed in the Lord on January 1, 1971.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of the UOC, on May 12, 2002 (on the Week of St. Fomin), Shegigumen Amfilohiy was solemnly canonized as St. Amfilohiy of Pochaev. The relics of St. Amphilochius are open for veneration in the church of St. Job of Pochaev. By the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church of February 3, 2016, a general church veneration of St. Amphilochius was established.

“Thank you, father! I agree to get sick, since it’s good for me”

Natalya Yemets, icon painter, regent

I was in Pochaev three times, and the first time, about ten years ago, I specially went to Amfilohiy Pochaevsky. Because they told me: “You have problems with your back, you should definitely go to Father Amphilochius – ask, pray.” And I purposefully went for healing. And, of course, she fulfilled everything that was supposed to be there - she stood everywhere, visited, kissed, and prayed and asked. And the back hurt like before, and continued to hurt.

We are going back, and then a film is turned on on the bus, where one of the heroes recalls the words of Father Amphilochius, who said: “Many people come to me for healing, but the healing of their body will be to the detriment of their soul.” And those words were for me.

I said: “Thank you, father! I agree to get sick, since it is useful for me. ” And the chiropractor announced to me that I need to either spend my whole life on massages, or work physically on the ground, or do special physical education - in general, you need to take care of yourself.

After that, a year passes and I buy a private house with earth. And I understand that Father Amphilochius helped me get what is best for me. I believe that this house appeared to me thanks to the intercession of this saint. Because I asked him to do something with my back, and he did. He gave me a place where I can work physically - here I did repairs, planted a garden, hilled the beds. Here is my recollection of the Reverend.

Saint Amphilochius of Pochaev is my father. Or grandfather - a person who will always help, intercede, pray. You feel warmth from him. Now I mainly turn to the Lord - the saints have receded somewhat into the background, only Christ and the Mother of God remain. I don’t know, maybe this is a degradation of spiritual life, or maybe, on the contrary, when a person stops grabbing the hands of others. But there are still saints, you feel them, remember them. And the Monk Amphilochius of Pochaev is like a grandfather who can live in the village - you remember him and sometimes come. I hope this is not an insult to the saint, because for me this attitude is very good.

In Pochaev, you are always eager for some kind of spiritual answer. You either want to hear it from people, or from the saints - this is the place. And on Bright Week we went there to rejoice and celebrate with our beloved saints.

“At the cemetery, I felt peace and quiet joy - as in childhood”

Denis Starodubets, music teacher, visited the Pochaev Lavra for the first time during Bright Week

The Pochaev Lavra is a fertile place, no doubt. One feels a special spirit, and not the same, for example, as in the Optina Hermitage or the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. This is the spirit of Pochaev. But the vanity still imposes its own rules - and this is natural, normal. Because it - Holy place, big hospital. People come from different places and want to partake of this holy grace. Sanctify it all.

And, of course, I expected a meeting with the saints of Pochaev, and that this meeting would be gracious - at least. And I met with St. Amphilochius of Pochaev, oddly enough, not near his relics, which are in the temple, but in the cemetery. I liked it there even more than in the most central Pochaev Lavra - there is no fuss, you feel a different atmosphere, where only you and the saint.

Cemetery of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra

In this cemetery, I felt peace and quiet joy - as in childhood. When I touched the portrait of the monk, anointed himself from his grave, we both greeted him. I didn’t know him, but I saw his kind eyes and smile in portraits and icons - he was a very kind person, with the soul of a child. It was big, wise, wisest man with a pure soul. As the Lord said: "Be like children." And it seems to me that St. Amphilochius of Pochaev was exactly like that.

I also saw his friends in the cemetery, who are buried next to his grave - the same wonderful, holy people. They are like a silent guard, like a silent service. They say that the demoniacs are still screaming near these hermits.

“This is love - you can’t explain it”

Valentina Kolesnik, a pedicure master, who went to the celebration of the Day of Remembrance of St. Amphilochius of Pochaevsky

How many I asked the Lord on this very day to visit the Pochaev Lavra. I visited St. Job twice, but somehow it didn’t work out for St. Amphilochius. Today I'm afraid to even think about it all day - so as not to frighten me away.

A wonderful father - you look at his icon, and your soul is filled with joy. And when you come to Pochaev and approach the cancer, you feel it in your gut, somewhere in the depths. I have love and affection for him. I am going to Pochaev for the fifth time and always - to the priest Amfilokhiy. I even sometimes feel ashamed in front of myself: after all, the Monk Job is the first rector of the Lavra, and you go to him. But for some reason Father Amphilochius is somehow warmer.

Cancer with the relics of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev

Even when I went to Odessa and venerated the relics of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, it was still in me through Father Amphilochius - they were friends. He is always with me. And I can't even explain it to myself. Of course, such love in me is not just out of the blue - I read the lives of many saints, but for some reason, the Monk Amphilochius of Pochaev is the closest to me. I can't explain it - it's somewhere inside. It's like love - you can't explain it: either it exists or it doesn't. You love everything.

And I would very much like every church to have an icon of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev. Because it seems to me that temples without this icon of our modern saint simply lack something. On the feast of Amphilochius of Pochaev, I always take a day off and go to church. Last year in our cathedral I was very surprised why there is no icon of the saint. I asked the candle-maker, and then, towards the end of the service, they brought the icon from the shop, probably because even it was a little dusty. And a lot of people applied.