THE WOMAN-ELDER MISAILA FROM KURSK
Prepared by Tatyana Shvetsova
We offer you a narrative about an Orthodox woman from
the ancient Russian town of Kursk, in Central Russia. This is a woman-Elder by
the name of Misaila. With her prayers she helped thousands of people in
difficult moments of their lives, particularly during the Great Patriotic war
that our people waged against the fascist occupation in 1941 to 1945. This
narrative is taken from a book of recollections of her granddaughter Ludmilla
Sokolova, published in Moscow in 2005.
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This was soon after the war. In the evenings, tired of
lessons in my beloved trigonometry I would take a break and go to visit my
grandmother.
How nice it was in her little house! The icon-lamps
glow solemnly. Only grandma's, clock ticks away in the stealthy silence. I
rest... From grandma's brief and sparse stories I learned about certain
episodes from her life. In all of her life not once did she judge anyone, and
everything she told me had reference only to herself. I discovered the family
name of her parents was Grankiny. They originated from an old but impoverished
family line. They died very early, and 6-year-old Matrona (this was grandma's
name before she took the veil) and her 3-year-old sister were orphaned. By
decision of the village council, where they lived, every family was to take
turns in giving shelter to the youngsters for a day. Grandma's sister soon
died, while grandma continued to drift from homestead to homestead until the
age of 17, when she was given away in marriage to young, handsome and wealthy
Vasily Zorin. Prior to that he had loved a different girl, a real beauty, and
planned to marry her. However, right on the eve of the wedding he miscalculated
his strength and lifted some very heavy load, badly injuring his back - so much
so that he lost the use of his legs. He became a cripple. The lovely bride
immediately rejected him and the wedding was called off. That is when he was
married off to an orphan - my grandmother
She had a hard life. However, never did she complain
about her husband. She was not allowed to enter the house unless she was
summoned. In summer she slept in the shed, and in winter - in the kitchen.
Grandmother couldn't even pray in the house. She would pray and make her bows to
the Lord when descending into the cellar. She bore on her shoulders the burden
of all the dirty and heavy work in the house. Only fervid prayers helped her
survive these hardships.
Only at the age of 23 did she give birth to a girl,
who soon died. And six years later she gave birth to a son, who was named
Mathew. He was my father. Soon after this Grandmother's husband died. And she,
after entrusting her son to her mother-in-law, decided to set off for
Jerusalem, to take the veil there. Grandma told me how together with a friend
of hers they made their way on foot to Kiev, from there - to Odessa, and after
that - by boat to Turkey, and only after that to Jerusalem. "Grandmother,
was it not dangerous for two young women to walk alone - someone could have
harmed you both?" I asked.
"Oh, no!" replied grandma. "Who would
ever lift a hand against a pilgrim? Quite the opposite: people helped us, many
asked us to pray for them in Jerusalem. "I would also have stayed on in
Jerusalem, if it hadn't been for one and the same dream that I saw three times.
I would dream that I was being flooded with water while a voice was saying:
"Go back to your Motherland: you are needed there!" I narrated this
dream of mine to a priest. Afterwards, we prayed long together: you know, there
are different kinds of dreams, not only sent by the Lord, but those coming from
the devil. Eventually, the clergyman blessed my return home."
Grandmother came back home when she was already over
34. She set up house with her son, in a house that was given to her by her
mother-in-law as a gift. Once, she fell into a lethargic sleep, and came out of
it only when she was in a coffin, and they were getting ready to bury her.
During this slumber she had a vision of the Holy Virgin. After this grandmother
got the gift of foresight. And then a steady stream of people began to make
their way to grandmother, hoping (and not in vain) to find a solution to their
problems in her prayers. From grandma's stories I learned that quite a lot of
Russian soldiers and officers came to visit her during the war against Nazi
Germany. She invariably tried her best to console and comfort everyone, giving
them a cross, her blessings, and praying fervently for everyone. Upon seeing
these people out, on occasion she would mourn for them right there and then,
since her Vision foretold her they would die soon.
When Hitler's troops were approaching Stalingrad, many
began to doubt that our forces would gain victory. However, grandmother knew
they would pull through, and used to say: "The Germans will flee from
Stalingrad!" Thus, she lit hope in the heart of the leader of the local
partisan movement, who came to visit her. She gave him her blessing and, thus
calmed and his resolve strengthened, he went back to his detachment.
Once, a German officer, commandant of the railway
station, came to grandma. Through a translator he said to her: "Have no
fear, old woman - just speak the truth." And she answered: "I have
fear of nobody but the Lord."
The German was concerned about the fate of his family
in Berlin. However, grandmother calmed him: "Your family is alive and
well, and they will all survive. However, as to the house you are building here
in Russia - its all for naught. Very soon you will be fleeing and as you pack
your belongings, your house will be taken apart log by log."
The officer didn't believe grandmother's prophesy that
the Germans would flee Russia. Yet it all happened just as she had predicted:
and as his soldiers and he were packing their belongings, in speedy evacuation,
our people were already taking his house apart, log by log. He shouted to them:
"Russians, what are you doing? You can use this house as a club, a station
or something suchlike!" But, alas, nobody listened and very soon there was
nothing left of his house.
After the war the stream of people flocking to see my
grandmother never waned. People came from afar, walking from their villages and
towns, young and old, strangers and our own folk. They came and came. There
were so many among them who had been hard hit by the war, which had
psychologically traumatized them, and left them struggling under a heavy burden
of sins of conscience!
All who came to grandma were guaranteed an equally
hearty welcome: she made no distinctions of rank or title, and was the same with
everyone. She prayed for each and every one of them.
Grandmother would get up at 5 in the morning, to have
time to say her prayers before the people arrived. After prayers she always
only drank tea. The people would already be waiting in the room. The stream of
folks would continue unabated until 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
Grandmother always asked a person's name, and replied
to all questions briefly, distinctly and to the point.
Sometimes she managed to have time to pray alone and
rest before lunch. After lunch she answered numerous letters that came in from
various destinations. In the evening grandmother went to her room. It was
always somewhat darkly lit, with icon lamps burning, and profoundly quiet.
Alone she sat on a bench in front of the icons and prayed, her prayer beads in
hand.
Grandmother's meals were very modest. She had stopped
eating meat long before she became a nun, the moment her husband died. She
chiefly partook of potato, vegetables, onions, rice and millet, kvass, apples
and pears.
My grandmother's whole life was prayer. She prayed
extensively and it seemed every moment of prayer irradiated her with joy. Her
eyes shone and she stretched her hands to the icon of the Holy Virgin with the
words: "What joy, what incredible joy!"
Oh, how many bows she would make! I never saw such
blisters as there were on grandmother's knees! She prayed when she was alone,
standing, sitting down, while doing something; she prayed to herself, while
receiving people: prior to offering somebody advice or counsel, picking up her
prayer beads and lifting her eyes to the icon of the Mother of God, during
prayer she would receive an answer from the Virgin. Only then would she reply
to the question asked of her.
In the morning, after prayer, grandmother always
kissed all her icons, and then - the cross, and after partaking of the holy
water and prosphora, came out to us and made the sign of the cross over all the
corners in the house and all of us, too. Often in the evening I would find her
all alone, praying fervently, silently. She would fall asleep with prayer beads
in hand.
In summer, when grandmother had a particularly large
number of visitors, she would occasionally go out into the garden, where she
would zealously thank the Lord and make her bows, after which she returned to
the people.
At times she would come into the room to pray for one
of those visiting her, and say: "Lord, what a light spirit emanates from
this person!" However, on other occasions she would say: "This one is
a heavy spirit indeed." She would pray, as if shaking off a heavy load,
and go back out to her callers.
In those terrifying Godless times under Soviet rule my
grandmother was a source of spiritual light: she was the bearer of Faith, a
profound belief in God, and the force of prayer.
Grandmother herself was always a shining example of love
for the Lord.
She never grew despondent, never complained that in
winter water left in a bucket standing near the stove would freeze, and that at
times when those visitors who missed their train and stayed to spend the night
at her place, she had no bed linen to offer them. For example, when Father
Mikhail from the village of Bunino stayed the night at Grandma's he placed a
birch stump under his head as a pillow.
Grandma always looked on the bright side in life. Her
patience and humility were amazing! It seemed as though the dark forces had
absolutely no power over her. This explains the love, joy and tranquility that
emanated from her and were passed on to other folk. She loved people and helped
them. People who arrived from town she invariably welcomed with the words:
"Well, my birds have flown in".
So many tears were shed in front of her, so many
hearts were consoled by her, and so many people received hope from grandma!
People came to her with all sorts of illnesses. These were not only physical
ailments, but various problems they faced in life. Some people came complaining
of illnesses of the internal organs, the heart, others were possessed by the
devil. She cured them all, first and foremost by power of prayer to God, and
the Mother of God. Besides, she gave people holy water and used herbs.
She placed a cap that she'd brought from Jerusalem,
onto the heads of both the physically ill and the possessed. On top of the cap
- a stone likewise from there. Then she placed her hand over the both and read
prayers. Moreover, she resorted to the following prayer more often than the
rest:
"Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered!
Let those who hate Him flee from before His face! As smoke vanishes, so let
them vanish. As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the
face of those who love God and sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and
say joyfully: rejoice, most precious and life-creating Cross of the Lord, which
chases demons away through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ Who was nailed to
you, descended into hell and, having trampled down the power of the devil, gave
to us His precious Cross for the routing of all enemies. Help me forever, most
precious and life-creating Cross of the Lord, with the Holy Lady Virgin
Theotokos and all the Saints. Amen."
I once personally witnessed how my grandmother treated
a possessed woman. Entering the corridor I heard the barking of a dog coming
from grandmother's room. I was terrified and rushed in. So what did I see?
Sitting on a stool before my grandma was a woman, pale, with sweat running down
her face, and barking! I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen and
heard it myself! Later, the woman calmed down, and grandma laid her down to
rest. To me she said: "Granddaughter, when I am treating people, never
enter the room, for although it matters not to me, it might affect you
negatively."
The past, the present, and the future were revealed to
grandmother to the minute details. Once I came into her room - there was nobody
there, and grandma was sweeping the floor with the words: "Oh! Do I feel
sorry for her!"
"Whom, grandma?" I asked.
"Oh, she is carrying such a big and heavy
watermelon for me!"
Some time later there came a knock at the door and,
indeed, on the threshold stood a woman with a huge watermelon.
People, who visited grandmother, were a source of
worry and concern for the local authorities and the regional attorney. So they
made attempts to disperse the people, scaring away the latter and trying to
make my grandmother afraid. But she always replied: "I never summon
anyone. It's their grief that spurs them on to come to me - I cannot turn them
away."
Grandmother never asked for anything from others. If
she did receive something from others, she immediately gave it away to those
who needed it.
She daily received a lot of letters, each of which was
permeated with grief and sorrow, and contained the question "What can I
do?" Grandmother answered these in the evenings, after she had seen the
last of the visitors out. My mother was grandmother's secretary. The letters
could not be stored, since this could harm those people who sent them, so after
replying to them grandmother burned them.
When they asked grandmother's advice, she invariably
answered briefly, never repeating her answer twice. If she deemed something
that she was being asked about a worthy deed, she blessed people to do it. If
she felt it wasn't something that ought to be done, she said: "I do not
give counsel, yet take away not your will." Grandmother saw the present of
a person who addressed her and their future, and on the basis of this gave an
exhaustive answer.
To us all, members of her family, grandma said:
"Be lower - but closer to God", or "Humility and patience are
higher than fasting and prayer," "Where you can - better keep
silent," "The word is silver, but silence is gold."
Our family always lived by grandma's advice. We, her
grandchildren, never embarked on anything without her blessing. It's hard to
describe in words how much we loved her. Whenever we returned home from
somewhere, we first and foremost thought of our grandma, not of our parents,
even though we loved them dearly. We were always anxious to please her and make
her happy.
Not long before I got my job, mother, grandma and I
were sitting drinking tea in the morning. There were already people waiting for
grandma. Suddenly she dropped her teacup and fell off the chair.
I rushed to her, lifted her up and seated her. It took
a while for her to realize what had happened. This was at the end of November
1953. That day mother and I begged her to take it easy, and spend the day resting.
However, she refused and went out to the people. From that day on she began to
weaken, losing her appetite, but unwilling to disappoint her visitors by
refusing to receive them. I recall how one Sunday evening grandmother called me
to her: "Come, let me bless you, you will be going off to a new job while
I will still be asleep."
sensed Grandma's weak and ill state as she made the
sign of the cross over me. At 5 in the morning I set off for the station. My
first day at my new job went off well, but the following evening I was gripped
by anxiety, so much so that I dashed about my friend's room feeling restless.
Finally I took a decision to go home in the morning.
In vain they tried to soothe me and persuade me not to
go. I was deaf to all their arguments. I spent a sleepless night and in the
morning went home. The moment I stepped off the train I met a neighbor.
"Go quickly," she said, "your grandmother is dying".
It was 4 kilometers to my home. I ran the distance,
weeping and praying to God that grandmother wouldn't die. As I opened the door
to the corridor, I saw my weeping mother, and shouted: "Has Grandma
died?" Mother calmed me: "No she is waiting for you, but she is
slipping away."
Grandmother opened her eyes, and even asked: "How
is your new job?" I replied: "Good, I like it, but it's
temporary."
"Never mind," said grandmother, "you
will never be without a job."
To the very last all her thoughts were of her dear
ones.
On the eve Father Fyodor had visited us. He gave
grandma communion and administered the last sacraments. In all her life
grandmother had never sought the help of secular doctors - ever turning to our
Good Lord for help. She never took a single pill. She was never any trouble for
others, fearful lest she be a burden to others.
From the moment of my arrival and to her last breath I
never left grandma's side. I moistened her lips, for they were parched. Her arm
lay motionless and only her hand continued to make the sign of the cross. For
an instant she opened her eyes and looked at me. She said: "Granddaughter,
do good deeds for people, and never do others any harm."
The next instant she shut her eyes and slipped into
her own thoughts.
A girl from the Baltics was weeping, begging to be
allowed to see grandma. I really didn't want to trouble a dying person, but
grandma said: "Let her enter!" This was the last person to get advice
from my grandma and her blessing right before her death.
By evening it became evident that grandmother's time
was running out. Mother asked her: "Where does it hurt?"
"Everywhere," quietly replied grandmother. There were tears running
from her eyes, while cold sweat beaded her forehead. I wiped it with a towel.
"Why do you cry?" I asked her. Grandmother sighed - and was gone. Her
face was tranquil and serene. It was 6 in the evening, December 16th 1953.
Just as Grandmother lived modestly and quietly all her
life, never annoying anyone, full of love for people, helping them, - so she
died peacefully, humbly and beautifully, without burdening anyone.
Five years later my father died, and mother took the
veil in 1991...
Grandmother died, but didn't leave our life: she is
always with those, who are in need of her, who turn to her with Faith and
prayer.
I know that grandmother is always near, and at the
right moment sends me her help, and solace and spiritual peace to my heart...
Illustration: L.Sokolova, "Grandmother's
Prayers", "Otchiy Dom" Publishing House, ************Moscow,
2005
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