Alexander Sergeevich Kanyshev, 51, a Russian wanderer, walked on his knees from Diveevo Monastery to Trinity-Sergius Lavra 400 km long in 9.5 months in 1995-1996.

Alexander Sergeevich Kanyshev, 51, a Russian wanderer, walked on his knees from Diveevo Monastery to Trinity-Sergius Lavra 400 km long in 9.5 months in 1995-1996. 

On the way he prayed to the Lord of Holy Russia to enlighten and return to the power of the Autocratic King, restore the host of the Orthodox and beg for human sins .... Followed the call of the Virgin. Honored Artist of Russia, Academician of the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts "Nika", winner of many prestigious film festivals, director of documentary films Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Orekhov filmed the documentary "Enchanted Wanderer" about this event. His shots are associated with individual episodes of Andrei Rublev by Tarkovsky: blackened, wet from the wet snow, village houses and fences, a snow-covered road along which trucks are rushing. And on the edge of the roadway, pushing in front of him a trolley, filled to the brim with supplies, slowly and stubbornly, leaning with his second hand on the staff, an elderly man moves on his knees. In front of the cart - Crucifix and the icon of the Lord Almighty. 



It sounds majestic, solemn music, reminiscent of Eternity. Ahead is the temple. People on the sides of the road stop and look at the crouching person crawling with a prayer. Someone gives him food, asks to pray for loved ones. Someone looks at him with curiosity, someone - with compassion. An old woman is trying to help push a slow crawling cart. Some frankly laugh at the eccentric. Women sympathize more than men. Many people do not understand: who is this person - crazy, holy fool or holy? He crawls, and rumors are running in front of him: he killed his wife and children, stabbed him with a knife, stabbed him with an ax (what else would a distraught Russian peasant do?).  To the people who gathered around him, the wanderer says: “I am from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, from the Kezhemsky District.  I never sat, did not kill anyone. My sins are the same as all other people. I am following the obedience of the Most Holy Theotokos. I was an unbeliever, but I saw how the Mother of God came to God and said that in such difficult times as now, we need a person who would go with prayer on their knees for Russia, for the whole world. God showed her to me, my face, and said that I was unbaptized, sinful, blasphemer, but there was no one else to go. ...



 I was baptized in Diveevo, knelt and walked. If people come to church and repent of their sins, then I did not go in vain. I have a love for people. ” He was asked: “Are you afraid of dying on the road?” He replied: “It’s scary when he did nothing ... ”For nine and a half months he walked on his knees from the convent in Diveevo to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, in Sergiev Posad. With a prayer for Russia, for the world, mired in sins ... Soul was rooting for the whole world. When the director Orekhov was told that there was such a person, he went to look for him on the track. Cinema, like the rest of our country, was in the deepest crisis in the mid-90s. Orekhov and his operator were given one film box at the film studio for ten minutes of shooting. A friend gave a video camera and several tapes. “The frost is over 25 degrees, and he spends the night in the forest. 


He clears a shoveling place, sets up a tent, makes a fire and somehow, with agony and inconvenience, spends the night. In the morning - again on my knees and on, on, on, on ... Vyacheslav Orekhov named his film in honor of the hero of the story Nikolai Leskov. The enchanted wanderer of the XIX century, according to Lyudmila Belkina,
The enchanted wanderer of the late twentieth century is more tragic and even apocalyptic. The world is heading for the abyss, but it is going so that people repent and stay alive, for the Chalice of the Lord’s anger is full. He knows and sees that it depends on him. He speaks simply and wearily: “150 million Russian people stand behind me. If I give up, they will perish. ” He has no pride, he says of himself: “I am a little creature, a sinful man, a blasphemer. But we all need to think about saving the world, about saving our souls. ” One of the onlookers on the road said to him: "For no millions of dollars, I would not be able to go this way." Yes, for the sake of money and fame, such a religious procession cannot be completed ...


 When he came to Sergiev Posad, he bowed to the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh and went to the Gethsemane skete, spent another month in a tent at the fork in the road, preaching to people to repent.  For several years he went to the procession from Lipetsk to the Zadonsky monastery, to St. Tikhon of Zadonsky. Very little is known about the past of Alexander Kanyshev: he was a lonely man, he did not create a family. He worked as a builder, traveled around the countryi, built houses, schools, boilers. When his brigade built a church in the Stavropol Territory, for the first time the Most Holy Theotokos appeared to it, and ordered it to be baptized. He was baptized. In Her next appearance, She sent him to travel around Russia. 


And he followed Her call. Why did I go to the procession on my knees? According to him, people walking on the side of the road will not pay attention. Does anybody walk like that? But crawling on your knees in prayer, wiith a cross and an icon of the Mother of God on his chest they will turn to him. It will make people remember God and think about their lives. He attached knee pads from several layers of tarpaulin to his knees , attached tiny wheels to his boots to make it easier to move sore feet. I spent the night in the forest plantations near the road in any weather. He physically suffered incredibly, and as if someone from above gave him warm shelter and hot homemade food.



“If I went into the house and lay down on a soft warm bed, I probably would not have been able to get up and crawl further,” he confessed to friends. “A man is weak and weak-minded.” 
In August 2012, Alexander Sergeevich Kanyshev went to the Zadonsk monastery with a procession for the last time. Inflamed with sympathy and respect for the prayerful deed of Alexander, one of the pilgrims washed his aching legs. Embarrassed by unaccustomed care, he fell asleep with a happy childish smile on his lips. Six months later, from the second to the third of January, 23-55, 2012, the servant of God, Alexander Kanyshev died.
God rest his soul!