Xenia Blessed: a prayer for help

St. Petersburg protects its heavenly patrons. This is the holy apostle Peter, in whose honor the city is named, and the holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, and the Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt. But there is also one more saint, which all Petersburgers love, and to which a very special attitude. This Xenia is blessed. Her prayer has been keeping the city on the Neva for more than two centuries.

A beggar with a man's name

In ancient times, even under the empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a strange beggar appeared on the streets of the Petersburg side. She was dressed in an old, worn officer's uniform, called herself a man's name - Andrei Fedorovich. Poor beggars have always been many in Russia, and the attitude towards them was different. Could feed and give alms, but could throw a stone. But only noticed soon that she brings luck to those who somehow greet her.

The merchant will treat the pirozhka - it will be well terminated that day, the cab driver will roll it out - the profit will finish the day. Soon it turned out that the unfortunate was a colonel widow who, after her husband's death, renounced herself on her own behalf, and on property, and even on her own sex. Her real name was Xenia. So they began to call her - Xenia blessed. Prayer on the steps of the church of the apostle Matthew, and the endless journey through Petersburg streets - that's all her life of those years.

However, this is not entirely true. There is evidence of her astonishing prophecies. Usually in the allegorical form, so characteristic of all soothsayers, she was able to accurately tell about what else is destined to happen. Sometimes, people could not immediately understand the meaning of her words, and revered them with the delirium of a mad woman. However, each time, faced with a fait accompli, they remembered what they had heard, and were convinced of her unusual gift.

Prayers in the winter nights

And one more unusual detail was noted by contemporaries, and even fixed in the police records - the night prayer of Xenia Blessed. The fact is that such a noticeable figure in the city streets could not help attracting the attention of the police. So they assigned her to a couple of days for an employee to look at just in case, what she does, with whom she communicates and where she sleeps. It was in the winter, and in St. Petersburg the winter night in the street you will not spend.

Further information is clear from the report of the same police agent. He reports that he watched the whole night as he stepped out of the city outskirts, a beggar, dressed only in miserable rags and ragged shoes, in a very severe frost, knelt down directly on the snow, and stood so in prayer until dawn. After that, she got up and went back to the city.

This is not an episode from the life of a saint, it is a fact noted in the police protocol. Then, as now, fiction in such documents was not allowed. Think about it. After all, the body of an ordinary person can withstand the cold only in a very limited period of time. The explanation can only be one thing - the prayer of Xenia Blessed had an absolutely extraordinary power, protecting even from the outer elements.

The death of Andrei Fedorovich

Let us dwell on a very important question: how is it so dear to Petersburgers, that they even began to call Xenia Petersburg? After all, always in the streets of the city, especially near churches, there was enough fools. What does it come out of the general circle? The answer, apparently, lies in the very reason for her appearance on the streets in the uniform of her deceased husband.

After three years of a happy family life, her husband, Andrei Fedorovich Petrov, suddenly died unexpectedly. The reason for his death is not mentioned in the literary sources, but there are obvious hints that it was not appropriate for an Orthodox person to leave this life. Maybe the reason is connected with wine, and according to church canons, the death from drunkenness is equated with suicide, and maybe he made worse than himself. It is known only that his soul has departed into another world without repentance and absolution of sins.

The ultimate sacrifice of the servant of God Xenia

How could Xenia Blessed help him? Praying for the deceased is an important and effective means, but we do not know all the circumstances of our death. Perhaps, the prayer was powerless, and it was impossible to save his soul. To save - no, but to give her her hell instead of her, thus delivering from the eternal punishment of a loved one was possible. It is said in Scripture that there is no higher sacrifice than giving up one's soul for one's neighbor. We often understand this, how to give a life, but after all it is about the soul. In this whole thing - life is short, the soul is eternal. So the slave of God Xenia for her beloved husband gave her what is dearer than life itself. This is the meaning she put in the words that the slave of God Xenia died, and Andrey Fedorovich will live and live for a long time.

Swapped souls, what can we say about clothes. And so it appeared on the streets that mad, practicing the sins of her husband. Now open the lives of the saints and try to find something like that. Victims in them very much, but they are in the salvation of their own souls. But that someone voluntarily gave for his beloved his pure and sinless soul, having received in return eternal torment - this you will not find.

Only one can do this, which is both a "horse hurled", and "into a burning hut", and a husband in Siberia. That's why everyone needs the prayer of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, that her holiness was suffered by love, and on her, as is known, the whole world holds fast. And the commandment of God about love, she respected more than anyone else.

The worship of the relics of St. Petersburg saint

In 1806, Xenia Blessed finished her earthly journey. Her prayer for the soul of her beloved was heard by God, otherwise he would not give her the relics of the power of miracles. They are at the Smolensk cemetery in its native city of St. Petersburg. It is not surprising that after death , not only was it not forgotten, but its popularity increased manyfold. If before it was addressed only to Petersburgers, now now pilgrims from all over Russia came to her grave. This indicates that the prayer of the blessed Xenia of Petersburg did not remain unanswered.

What are blessed Xenia asking for?

Almost two centuries have passed. The city has changed, people have changed too. But the flow of those who hasten to the Smolensk cemetery, to the chapel, under the walls of which its holy relics rest, does not cease. Everyone has something of his own, his own prayer is blessed Xenia. About help in trouble, about getting rid of ailments and, of course, about family happiness people ask her. It is known that after death, the Lord bestows on the saints special grace to work miracles in what they have succeeded in the days of earthly life. Therefore, it is believed that Xenia's prayer of the blessed about marriage is especially soon heard, since during her lifetime she herself was an example of marriage. By the way, in her travels around the city mother Xenia already showed miracles of this kind.

Performing prayers for health

Undoubtedly, the prayer of Saint Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg greatly helps healing from infirmities. Widely known is the case when the future sovereign Emperor Alexander III, still, being heir to the throne, fell ill with typhus, and was on the verge of death. His wife, being in despair, on the advice of someone from the servants, put under the pillow of the sick handful of earth from the grave of blessed Xenia and offered her a prayer.

In the night vision she herself was mother Xenia and, predicting the speedy recovery of Alexander, ordered to name their future daughter Ksenia. Soon the disease receded, and when the heir to the throne had a daughter, she was named Xenia, in memory of this miraculous recovery. So the prayer of the holy blessed Xenia and the earth from her grave, saved for Russia her future ruler. This case went down in history, because it is about heir to the throne. Healing, however, committed against ordinary people, was very much, but they, in the majority, were not written down by contemporaries. However, people's memory remained about them.

Notes with requests to the saint

Xenia Petersburg is the only saint with whom you can communicate not only prayerfully, but also in correspondence. Yes, it is customary for her to write letters, that is, notes with requests. In previous years they were thrust into the cracks of the walls of the chapel, but since the walls could not accommodate all correspondence to another world, they put a special box.

Thus, the prayer of Xenia Blessed for help is given orally, in the chapel itself at her tombstone, and in writing in the form of a note. For the love of the residents of St. Petersburg and for the miracles done through their prayers, Saint Blessed Xenia of Petersburg is ranked among the heavenly patrons of the city.