Who are the saints? Orthodox Saints. Are saints always virtuous?

The Saints- the face of husbands and wives, similar in one way or another of life and achievement. Some of them are known to us; they are canonized, i.e. . These include the righteous, saints, saints, patriarchs, martyrs, prophets, apostles, faithful, blessed, unmercenary, confessors and saints.

Their names are indicated in the Saints, also called. It should be distinguished from ascetics who were not glorified by the Church as saints. The saints are revered by the Church not as gods, but as faithful servants, saints and friends of God, who have accomplished exploits and good deeds with the help of God and for His glory, so that all the honor given to the saints ascends to the greatness of God glorified in them.

Saints are accomplished Christians. Canonization is not a pass to Heaven, but an example for us.

The veneration of saints is:
- in studying their experience of spiritual struggle (healing from certain passions), it is necessary to read daily the lives of the saints whose memory is celebrated on this day;
— in imitation of their virtues (i.e., not only feat, spiritual struggle as a means, but also its fruits);
- in prayerful communication with them (the heavenly Church).

Biblical Understanding of Holiness

In the New Testament, all Christians are called saints. First applied to members of the early Christian community of Jerusalem, especially the small group gathered at Pentecost (; ), the name came to be applied to the brethren in Judea (), and then to all believers (; ). Indeed, through the Holy Spirit a Christian partakes of the very holiness of God. Forming a true “holy people” and a “royal priesthood”, creating a “holy temple” (;), Christians must render genuine service to God, betraying themselves, in the image, “as a holy sacrifice” (;).

The holiness of Christians, which comes from their calling (; ), requires them to renounce sin and pagan customs (): they must act not according to carnal wisdom, but according to the grace of God (; ; ; ; ). This requirement for the sanctity of life lies at the heart of the Christian ascetic tradition. It is based not on the ideal of some external law, but on the fact that a Christian, “reached by Christ,” must participate in His suffering, conforming to His death, in order to achieve the resurrection of the dead ().

In the monuments of the first centuries of Christianity, up to the first half of the 5th century, this name was not adopted by both Eastern and Western Christians by either the apostles, martyrs, or confessors, i.e. persons who subsequently became especially revered by the Church. In the West at that time they expressed themselves simply: “Paul”, “Peter” (without adding: “apostle” or “saint”). The Roman calendar, published by Bucher and then by Ruinard, brings the list of persons especially honored in the Church up to the 4th century. inclusive (up to Pope Liberius), while the name “saint” is never used. Only in the calendar calendars of the Carthaginian Church, in the 3rd-4th centuries, when commemorating the dead, especially revered by the Church, the word “saint” is found often. The first calendar in which “saint” appears in the name of a particularly revered person is the Polemius Calendar. On ancient images the inscription “saint” is found no earlier than the end of the 6th century. The reason why Christians of the first centuries avoided this epithet is, according to some scholars, that the word “saint” (sanctus) was often used in pagan titles, which Christians did not want to imitate. Instead (or along with it) the title “lord, lady” (dominus, domina) was often used in the name of a person revered by the Church; perhaps they meant martyr, martyr.

Love and reverence for brothers in faith, who testified with their blood to the truth of Christianity, by the 5th century. acquires a church-wide character. The remains of martyrs and confessors are venerated, and churches and chapels are erected at the places of their death and resting place. Celebrations in memory of some are widely spread. This custom, although deeply rooted, is kept within established boundaries. Christians are clearly aware that there is a fundamental difference between the veneration of saints and the worship of God.

The old saints are soon joined by new ones. Previously, they limited themselves to the veneration of martyrs, but now, with the cessation of persecution, they began to recognize as saints those who, without being awarded the crown of martyrdom, became famous for their labors and piety. These are, first of all, hermits, saints and monks. Special veneration began to be given to those who stood closest to the Lord during his earthly life: the Most Holy,. The burial places of the apostles and great saints are especially revered.

Why pray to saints if there is Christ?

1. Because it pleases God. Evidence of numerous cases of help from saints runs throughout the history of the Church. If it was not pleasing to God, then He would not have given them such service. Similarly, Angels were created by God, each of whom was entrusted by God with a specific ministry; it would be naive to think that the Lord could not do without them.
2. Christ not only accepted, but also set as an example the centurion, who did not personally ask Him to heal the servant, but sent intermediaries with prayer - Jewish elders and friends ().
3. If the living can ask each other for prayers, then what prevents us from calling the righteous, whose holiness is attested by the Church, to be prayer partners to God? Do people automatically lose love and compassion when they lose their body?
4. is a family. If we communicate with the head of a family - the father, this does not mean that it is necessary to ignore cousins.
5. We can say that prayer to saints is a form of prayer to God. According to the Rev.

Reference:
The Saints (saints, lat. sanctus - holy) - persons especially honored by the church for their righteous life. In the early Christian church, all its members were called saints; later the term came to designate those who were considered worthy of heaven for piety, steadfast profession of faith, the gift of miracles, or because of martyrdom. The martyrs were at the very top of the hierarchy of saints; People have long believed that the relics of saints are capable of working miracles. Canonization and canonization is a rather lengthy process: to be considered a saint, a person must serve as an example of piety during his lifetime, as well as perform genuine miracles before and after death. According to the teachings of the Church, saints in heaven pray before God for all people now living on earth.

The Orthodox Church reveres the righteous not as gods, but as faithful servants, saints and friends of God; praises their exploits and deeds accomplished by them with the help of the grace of God and for the glory of God, so that all the honor given to the saints relates to the majesty of God, whom they pleased on earth with their lives.

Who are the saints? You will probably be surprised to hear that the saints were people just like each of us. They experienced the same feelings as us, their souls were visited by both joy and disappointment, not only hope, but also despair, both inspiration and extinction. Moreover, the saints experienced exactly the same temptations as each of us, and flattering temptations, like sweet-sounding sirens, beckoned each of them with their captivating, hypnotic power. What prompted them to that amazing thing that fills the soul with indescribable light, and what we call holiness?

At the beginning of the 4th century, a certain young man Ephraim lived in Syria. His parents were poor, but they sincerely believed in God. But Ephraim suffered from irritability, could get into quarrels over trifles, indulge in evil plans, and most importantly, doubted that God cared about people. One day Ephraim was late home and stayed overnight near a flock of sheep with a shepherd. At night, wolves attacked the herd. And in the morning Ephraim was accused of leading thieves to the herd. He was put in prison, where two more were imprisoned: one was accused of adultery, and the other of murder, also innocently. Ephraim thought about this a lot. On the eighth day he heard a voice in a dream: “Be pious, and you will understand the Providence of God. Go over in your thoughts what you were thinking about and what you were doing, and you will realize for yourself that these people are not suffering unfairly" Ephraim remembered how once, with evil intent, he drove someone else’s cow out of the pen, and it died. The prisoners shared with him that one participated in accusing a woman slandered of adultery, and the other saw a man drowning in the river and did not help. An epiphany came to Ephraim's soul: it turns out that nothing happens in our lives for nothing, for every action a person is responsible before God - and from that time Ephraim decided to change his life. All three were soon released. And Ephraim again heard a voice in a dream: “Return to your place and repent of unrighteousness, making sure that there is an Eye that oversees everything" From now on, Ephraim was extremely attentive to his own life, he prayed a lot to God and achieved holiness (in our calendar he is referred to as St. Ephraim the Syrian, commemorated on January 28 according to the Julian calendar).

So, the saints became holy because, firstly, they saw their unrighteousness, their distance from God (one should not think that every saint of God was initially a saint). And secondly, they deeply felt that no good could be accomplished without God. They turned to Him with all their souls. They had to fight a lot with evil, and above all in themselves. This is their difference from ordinary heroic personalities. Earth's heroes are trying to change the world through an external struggle for justice. And saints influence the world through its internal transformation, and begin this transformation with themselves. If Peter I, although he was a strong-willed man, lamented: “ I pacified the archers, overpowered Sophia, defeated Karl, but I can’t overcome myself", then the saints managed to defeat themselves. Because they relied on God. And who can be stronger than God? His grace uprooted everything dark in their souls, and then enlightened their minds and hearts to the vision of amazing mysteries.

We call saints ascetics because holiness is the path of unceasing spiritual ascent, and this is associated with difficult inner feat, with overcoming everything vicious and base in oneself. There is an ancient legend about how once the philosopher Socrates, walking with his students through the streets of Athens, met a hetaera who arrogantly said: “ Socrates, you are considered a sage and are respected by your students, but do you want me to say one word and they will all immediately run after me?" Socrates replied: " There is nothing surprising. You call them down, and this requires no effort. I call them to the sublime, and this requires a lot of work" Holiness is a continuous ascent, which naturally requires effort. Holiness is painstaking work, the creation of the image of God in oneself, just as a sculptor carves an amazing masterpiece from a soulless stone that can awaken the souls of those around him.

On icons of saints we see a halo. This is a symbolic image of the grace of God, enlightening the face of a holy man. Grace is the saving power of God, which creates spiritual life in people, internally strengthens and cleanses them from everything sinful and nasty. The word itself " grace" means " good, good gift", because God gives only good things. And if sins devastate the soul and bring with them the coldness of death, then God’s grace warms a person’s soul with spiritual warmth, so its acquisition satisfies and delights the heart. It is the acquisition of God's grace that elevates a Christian to eternity; grace brings with it the happiness sought by the heart of every person and true joy and light of the soul. The face of the prophet Moses shone with such an indescribable light when he descended from Mount Sinai, having received the Ten Commandments from God. Thus the Savior Himself, transfigured on Tabor before the three apostles, revealed His Divine glory: “ And His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light"(Matt. 17:2). Every saint also joined this heavenly, Divine light, so that communication with saints brought spiritual warmth to the people who came to them, and resolved their sorrows, doubts and life difficulties.

Saints are those who saw God's plan for themselves and embodied this plan in their own lives. And we can say that saints are people who responded with love to love. They responded to the boundless love of God addressed to every person and showed love for Him in their faithfulness. They showed loyalty to God in everything and, above all, in the recesses of their own hearts. Their souls became close to God, for the saints eradicated everything sinful in themselves, even at the level of thoughts and feelings. Therefore, holiness is not a reward for good deeds, but an introduction of the individual to the grace of God. In order to receive the gift of grace from God, it is necessary to fulfill His commandments, and to do this, overcome what inside each of us resists God, that is, sin.

St. Anthony the Great once said: “ God is good and only creates good things, being always the same, and when we are good, we enter into communication with God - out of similarity with Him, and when we become evil, we separate from Him out of dissimilarity with Him. By living virtuously, we become God’s, and by becoming evil, we become rejected from Him." The saints achieved closeness to God and thanks to this they became like God. So the questions of life, which often lead us to a dead end, become clear for the saints thanks to the gracious Light to which they have partaken. That is why the famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s reference book was “The Ladder” of St. John of Sinai - Gogol often turned to this book for clarification of the questions of his own soul. Many famous people of the 19th century, trying to find answers to spiritual questions, turned to the venerable elders of Optina Hermitage. The most educated people went for advice to Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, Saint Theophan the Recluse and Righteous John of Kronstadt. And the American psychologist William James, after reading “Words of Asceticism” by St. Isaac the Syrian, exclaimed: “ Yes, this is the greatest psychologist in the world" Thus, representatives of secular culture were surprised at the depth of reasoning of holy people. Of course, among those who have not achieved holiness, there is also wisdom and experience, but all this remains entirely an earthly skill, while the wisdom and experience of the saints not only resolve the deep-seated problems of earthly life, but also open up for us the path from the earthly to the heavenly.

Just as an eagle soars high above the earth, but at the same time sees the smallest objects on earth, so the saints, having risen above everything earthly, having reached the Kingdom of Heaven, see everything that happens on earth and hear the prayer of a person sincerely praying to them. History knows many cases when saints came to the aid of people still living on earth who found themselves in trouble. When our contemporary, famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov set off on his first, difficult voyage, Bishop Pavel, Bishop of Australia and New Zealand, came to see him off. The bishop bequeathed, if it becomes difficult, to ask for help from the Lord Jesus Christ, Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker and Panteleimon the Healer: “ They will help you" During the journey, Fedor felt that someone was really helping him. One day, when there was no autopilot on the yacht, Fedor went out to adjust the sails and turned to St. Nicholas with this simple phrase: “ Nikolay, hold the yacht" While he was adjusting the sails, the yacht began to capsize, and Fedor shouted: “ Nikolai, hold it!“, and I thought: everything will turn over. And suddenly the yacht became as it should, it went as smoothly as ever, even when Fedor himself was at the helm. This was near Antarctica, where the metal steering wheel usually became so cold that gloves had to be worn. And at that moment, after the prayerful appeal to St. Nicholas and the unexpected alignment of the yacht, when Fyodor Konyukhov approached the helm, he turned out to be unusually warm.

So, holiness is not a declaration of one’s high morality, but the radiance of a pure heart that has acquired God’s grace. And saints are people who have partaken of heavenly grace, which enlightens the soul. From God they accepted the gift of helping those still living on earth. And prayer to the saints can help even in the most, by earthly standards, hopeless situation.

Valery Dukhanin,candidate of theology

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Reference:

The Saints (saints, Latin sanctus - holy)- persons especially honored by the church for their righteous life. In the early Christian church, all its members were called saints; later the term came to designate those who were considered worthy of heaven for piety, steadfast profession of faith, the gift of miracles, or because of martyrdom. The martyrs were at the very top of the hierarchy of saints; People have long believed that the relics of saints are capable of working miracles. Canonization and canonization is a rather lengthy process: to be considered a saint, a person must serve as an example of piety during his lifetime, as well as perform genuine miracles before and after death. According to the teachings of the Church, saints in heaven pray before God for all people now living on earth.
The Orthodox Church reveres the righteous not as gods, but as faithful servants, saints and friends of God; praises their exploits and deeds accomplished by them with the help of the grace of God and for the glory of God, so that all the honor given to the saints relates to the majesty of God, whom they pleased on earth with their lives.

Who are the saints? You will probably be surprised to hear that the saints were people just like each of us. They experienced the same feelings as us, their souls were visited by both joy and disappointment, not only hope, but also despair, both inspiration and extinction. Moreover, the saints experienced exactly the same temptations as each of us, and flattering temptations, like sweet-sounding sirens, beckoned each of them with their captivating, hypnotic power. What prompted them to that amazing thing that fills the soul with indescribable light, and what we call holiness?

At the beginning of the 4th century, a certain young man Ephraim lived in Syria. His parents were poor, but they sincerely believed in God. But Ephraim suffered from irritability, could get into quarrels over trifles, indulge in evil plans, and most importantly, doubted that God cared about people. One day Ephraim was late home and stayed overnight near a flock of sheep with a shepherd. At night, wolves attacked the herd. And in the morning Ephraim was accused of leading thieves to the herd. He was put in prison, where two more were imprisoned: one was accused of adultery, and the other of murder, also innocently. Ephraim thought about this a lot. On the eighth day he heard a voice in a dream: “Be pious, and you will understand the Providence of God. Go over in your thoughts what you were thinking about and what you were doing, and you will realize for yourself that these people are not suffering unjustly.” Ephraim remembered how once, with evil intent, he drove someone else’s cow out of the pen, and it died. The prisoners shared with him that one participated in accusing a woman slandered of adultery, and the other saw a man drowning in the river and did not help. An epiphany came to Ephraim's soul: it turns out that nothing happens in our lives for nothing, for every action a person is responsible before God - and from that time Ephraim decided to change his life. All three were soon released. And Ephraim again heard a voice in a dream: “Return to your place and repent of unrighteousness, making sure that there is an Eye that oversees everything.” From now on, Ephraim was extremely attentive to his own life, he prayed a lot to God and achieved holiness (in our calendar he is referred to as St. Ephraim the Syrian, commemorated on January 28 according to the Julian calendar).

So, the saints became holy because, firstly, they saw their unrighteousness, their distance from God (one should not think that every saint of God was initially a saint). And secondly, they deeply felt that no good could be accomplished without God. They turned to Him with all their souls. They had to fight a lot with evil, and above all in themselves. This is their difference from ordinary heroic personalities. Earth's heroes are trying to change the world through an external struggle for justice. And saints influence the world through its internal transformation, and begin this transformation with themselves. If Peter I, although he was a strong-willed man, lamented: “I pacified the archers, overpowered Sophia, defeated Karl, but I can’t overcome myself,” then the saints managed to defeat themselves. Because they relied on God. And who can be stronger than God? His grace uprooted everything dark in their souls, and then enlightened their minds and hearts to the vision of amazing mysteries.

We call saints ascetics because holiness is the path of unceasing spiritual ascent, and this is associated with difficult inner feat, with overcoming everything vicious and base in oneself. There is an ancient legend about how once the philosopher Socrates, walking with his students through the streets of Athens, met a hetera, who arrogantly said: “Socrates, you are considered a sage and are respected by your students, but do you want me to say one word and they will all immediately run after me?” Socrates replied: "There is nothing surprising. You call them down, and this requires no effort. I call them to the sublime, and this requires a lot of work.” Holiness is a continuous ascent, which naturally requires effort. Holiness is painstaking work, the creation of the image of God in oneself, just as a sculptor carves an amazing masterpiece from a soulless stone that can awaken the souls of those around him.

On icons of saints we see a halo. This is a symbolic image of the grace of God, enlightening the face of a holy man. Grace is the saving power of God, which creates spiritual life in people, internally strengthens and cleanses them from everything sinful and nasty. The word itself "grace" means " good, good gift", because God gives only good things. And if sins devastate the soul and bring with them the coldness of death, then God’s grace warms a person’s soul with spiritual warmth, so its acquisition satisfies and delights the heart. It is the acquisition of God's grace that elevates a Christian to eternity; grace brings with it the happiness sought by the heart of every person and true joy and light of the soul. The face of the prophet Moses shone with such indescribable light when he descended from Mount Sinai, having received the Ten Commandments from God. Thus the Savior Himself, transfigured on Tabor before the three apostles, revealed His Divine glory: “And His face shone like the sun, and His raiment became white as light.”(Matt. 17:2). Every saint also joined this heavenly, Divine light, so that communication with saints brought spiritual warmth to the people who came to them, and resolved their sorrows, doubts and life difficulties.

Saints are those who saw God's plan for themselves and embodied this plan in their own lives. And we can say that saints are people who responded with love to love. They responded to the boundless love of God addressed to every person and showed love for Him in their faithfulness. They showed loyalty to God in everything and, above all, in the recesses of their own hearts. Their souls became close to God, for the saints eradicated everything sinful in themselves, even at the level of thoughts and feelings. Therefore, holiness is not a reward for good deeds, but an introduction of the individual to the grace of God. In order to receive the gift of grace from God, it is necessary to fulfill His commandments, and to do this, overcome what inside each of us resists God, that is, sin.

St. Anthony the Great once said: “God is good and only creates good things, being always the same, and when we are good, we enter into communication with God because of our similarity with Him, and when we become evil, we separate from Him because of our dissimilarity with Him. By living virtuously, we become God’s, and by becoming evil, we become rejected from Him.” The saints achieved closeness to God and thanks to this they became like God. So the questions of life, which often lead us to a dead end, become clear for the saints thanks to the gracious Light to which they have partaken. That is why the famous writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s reference book was “The Ladder” of St. John of Sinai - Gogol often turned to this book for clarification of the questions of his own soul. Many famous people of the 19th century, trying to find answers to spiritual questions, turned to the venerable elders of Optina Hermitage. The most educated people went for advice to Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, Saint Theophan the Recluse and Righteous John of Kronstadt. And the American psychologist William James, after reading “Words of Asceticism” by St. Isaac the Syrian, exclaimed: “Yes, this is the greatest psychologist in the world.” Thus, representatives of secular culture were surprised at the depth of reasoning of holy people. Of course, among those who have not achieved holiness, there is also wisdom and experience, but all this remains entirely an earthly skill, while the wisdom and experience of the saints not only resolve the deep-seated problems of earthly life, but also open up for us the path from the earthly to the heavenly.

Just as an eagle soars high above the earth, but at the same time sees the smallest objects on earth, so the saints, having risen above everything earthly, having reached the Kingdom of Heaven, see everything that happens on earth and hear the prayer of a person sincerely praying to them. History knows many cases when saints came to the aid of people still living on earth who found themselves in trouble. When our contemporary, famous traveler Fyodor Konyukhov set off on his first, difficult voyage, Bishop Pavel, Bishop of Australia and New Zealand, came to see him off. The bishop bequeathed, if it becomes difficult, to ask for help from the Lord Jesus Christ, Saints Nicholas the Wonderworker and Panteleimon the Healer: "They will help you." During the journey, Fedor felt that someone was really helping him. One day, when there was no autopilot on the yacht, Fedor went out to adjust the sails and turned to St. Nicholas with this simple phrase: “Nikolai, hold the yacht.” While he was adjusting the sails, the yacht began to capsize, and Fedor shouted: “Nikolai, hold it!”, and I thought: everything will turn over. And suddenly the yacht became as it should, it went as smoothly as ever, even when Fedor himself was at the helm. This was near Antarctica, where the metal steering wheel usually became so cold that gloves had to be worn. And at that moment, after the prayerful appeal to St. Nicholas and the unexpected alignment of the yacht, when Fyodor Konyukhov approached the helm, he turned out to be unusually warm.

So, holiness is not a declaration of one’s high morality, but the radiance of a pure heart that has acquired God’s grace. And saints are people who have partaken of heavenly grace, which enlightens the soul. From God they accepted the gift of helping those still living on earth. And prayer to the saints can help even in the most, by earthly standards, hopeless situation.

Valery Dukhanin,
candidate of theology

Oh where do saints come from? How do they help people? Is this really possible, and why do we need such God’s “guides”? - I ask about all this priest Konstantin PARKHOMENKO, clergyman of the St. Petersburg diocese, author of several books now published by the Olma-Press publishing house and the Neva Publishing House "

Father Konstantin, let's talk about who the Orthodox Church generally calls saints. For example, Protestants consider as saints all who became disciples of Christ. In confirmation of this, words from the Gospel are cited, for example: “... and now you are holy,” etc.

In Russian, the word “saint” (in Slavic “holy”) can be deciphered as “from above”, that is, taken from above, from heaven. The Greek "agios" is translated as "unearthly", the Hebrew "kodesh" can be translated as "separated, cut off, different."

Actually, only God has always been called a Saint. An ancient prophet, raptured to heaven, sees the Throne of God in heaven, Angels fly around and cry: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of hosts...” A person or some religious object can be holy only if God imparts holiness to them, if God adds to His Holiness.

So, holy means God. It is the one in whom God acts and does His work. In the highest sense, this is the one in whom, as Holy Scripture and Tradition say, God was “represented.”

It is in the latter sense that Orthodox Christians understand this word today. You will hardly find an Orthodox person who will say that he is a saint. This is at least immodest. On the contrary, the more righteous a person is, the more obvious it is to him that a huge distance separates him from God, from God’s purity, righteousness, and holiness.

But in ancient times, for example in the Old Testament, the people of Israel were called holy. Not because the Jews were righteous and pure, but because they were the people of God. As God told the people when the Jews came out of captivity in Egypt and approached Mount Sinai: “Therefore, if you obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be My inheritance among all nations, for the whole earth is Mine, and you will be My kingdom. priests and holy people." And a little later the command: “...sanctify yourself and be holy, for I (the Lord your God) am holy.”

The fact that Israel was the people of God, as if separated, cut off from the number of other nations, allowed it to be called a Holy people.

Later, Christians adopted this name. They, as the successors of Old Israel, moreover, as true worshipers of God, who recognized His Son, called themselves a holy people, saints. He also calls his disciples saints. Paul in his epistles.

And when in the Creed we call the Church Holy, this does not mean that the Church consists of holy people, but that it is the Church of God. The holiness of the Church and its members is given by God.

Father Constantine, what significance can it have in heaven to be canonized on earth? Is it really possible here on earth to decide something for sure and not make a mistake?

Of course not. It is precisely in order “not to make mistakes” that the Church is in no hurry to canonize, that is, to officially glorify some ascetics as saints.

Church canonization is only a confirmation of what happened long ago in heaven. To canonize a person, it is necessary that he... has already died. Only by following his life, his feat until his death and seeing how he died, can one understand whether this man was really a righteous man.

And after death, it is necessary that the holiness of this ascetic be confirmed... by God.

How is this possible? These are miracles that emanate from the grave or remains of a saint, or occur in response to prayer to him.

Little popular veneration. It is necessary that a number of miracles confirm the fact - the saint is next to the Lord, he is praying for us!

After the death of St. Seraphim there were a lot of such messages. The same can be said about the life of St. Righteous John of Kronstadt, and other saints.

I know many people who told about amazing miracles in their lives that happened through prayers to St. John of Kronstadt, Blessed Xenia, St. Seraphim of Vyritsky, Blessed Elder Matrona and other saints long before their official canonization.

At the Seminary, our teacher Tatyana Markovna Kovaleva told such an incident from her childhood. During the blockade, her mother greatly revered Blessed Xenia.

There was a terrible famine, my mother was assigned to collect cards for the whole house, and one day she lost all these cards. Imagine! Losing the cards of the entire house - yes, this was sabotage in those days, execution! What to do? She left her daughter and ran to the Smolensk cemetery to pray to Blessed Ksenia. Tatyana Markovna was then 10 years old. She's sitting at home and suddenly there's a knock. Who's there? - Open up, baby. On the threshold is a woman in a knitted sweater and green skirt, without outerwear, even though it is frosty outside. “Aren’t you the one who lost it?” and gives Tanya the cards... And how many other such cases happened during the war years! And Blessed Ksenia was canonized only in 1988.

The question arises: why, in this case, is church canonization needed? It is not the saint who needs it, but us! This is like confirmation that the path of life of a saint is the path of a true son of the Orthodox Church, this is the right path!

Saints are not canonized in order to add something to their heavenly status; this is not some kind of church reward; they have already received everything from God. Saints are canonized as an example for other Christians.

You can often hear: why pray to God through intermediaries, through saints? Will the merciful Lord really not hear me anyway? And indeed, it is difficult to imagine how a “strict” God is persuaded and begged by some saint especially close to Him, and the Lord changes His decision based on these prayers.

The best answer to this question will be the opinion of the Lord Himself, which we find in the Holy Scriptures.

Here is the Old Testament. The story of the sufferer Job. Everything that happened to him was a test of his spiritual strength and trust in God. But friends come to Job and accuse him of immorality, which brought sorrow upon him. And then the Lord becomes angry with his friends. Their words are false and feigned. These people are trying to measure God’s plans with their minds, trying to calculate God’s actions. The Lord, well aware of the purity of Job’s life, angrily says to one of his comrades, Eliphaz: “My anger burns against you and your two friends because you did not speak about Me as truly as My servant Job.” And then the Lord commands his friends to repent, make a sacrifice and... ask for Job’s prayers: “And my servant Job will pray for you, for only his face will I accept, so as not to reject you.” (Job 42:8).

Here the Lord Himself commands to ask for the prayers of the righteous.

In Genesis 20, the Lord exhorts Abimelech, king of Gerar, to ask for Abraham's prayers: “...for he is a prophet and will pray for you and you will live...” (Life 20:7).

The psalmist David also speaks unequivocally about the prayer of the righteous: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are on their cry.” (Ps. 33:16). And in the book of the prophet Jeremiah we read the following bitter testimony: “And the Lord said to me: even though Moses and Samuel appear before me, my soul will not bow to this people; drive them (the wicked Jews) away from before Me." (Jer. 15:1).

And is there any doubt that God listens to His righteous if He Himself affirms: "I will glorify those who glorify Me" (1 Sam. 2:30)?..

The New Testament also contains many indications of the power of the prayers of the righteous. Apostle Peter: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are upon their prayer.” (1 Peter 3:12). Apostle James: “The fervent prayer of the righteous can accomplish much”(5:16 ). And further - examples: “Elijah was a man like us (that is, an ordinary person like us), and he prayed with prayer that there would be no rain: and there was no rain on the earth for three years and six months. And he prayed again: and the sky gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit" ( Jacob 5:17–18). For up. James, it is absolutely obvious, undoubtedly, that the righteousness of life, let's say - the holiness of life, allows a person to perform miracles.

Can God cancel the sentence over people, the people through the prayers of the saints? Many facts of Holy Scripture and Tradition testify to this. Remember, Abraham begged the Lord, who appeared in the form of three strangers, to spare Sodom and Gomorrah.

Why is that? In the Holy Fathers we find the following thought: Christ promises that His followers will be imparted divine grace: “Father, the glory that You have given Me I will give to them» ( In. 17:22). If a person works together with God to transform the world, cleanse it from sin, and bring it to God, we can say that the person becomes a friend of God, a co-worker. Is it possible to assume that the Lord is deaf to a person who has given his whole life to Him, dedicated himself to the Lord?.. Such a person has the right to ask for others, and to ask persistently, not as a slave or an unfaithful servant, constantly betraying his master, but as a son.

We believe that there is no death as the disappearance of the soul; that after physical death a person’s soul continues to live an even more spiritually active life. This means that what prevents us from helping the deceased righteous man after his departure from this world, after his relocation to heaven?

In the book of Revelation of John the Theologian, we read about the remarkable vision of the seer: “Twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb [that is, Christ], each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints” ( Apoc. 5:8), and, a little later: “And the smoke of incense ascended with the prayers of the saints from the hand of an angel before God.” (Apoc. 8:3–4).

At first glance, the custom of the Orthodox Church to pray to special saints on some special occasions seems strange and somewhat pagan. It is clear, for example, why in family troubles you resort to the help of St. Xenia the Blessed. But why, for example, if you have a headache, go to John the Baptist?

There are undoubtedly excesses in this. We can say that some saints, even during their earthly lives, helped people in certain situations. These are holy healers, for example, the Great Martyr Panteleimon, the unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, the martyrs Zinaida and Philonilla, and others. After resigning from earthly life to heavenly life, these ascetics will help sick people. They were given a gift from God; it is not taken away even after death. The Church believes so, and in the ancient rite of the Sacrament of Unction (otherwise the Blessing of Anointing, the Sacrament of Church Healing) the names of these holy doctors appear.

There are other saints who help with certain needs. Warrior - to warrior, missionary-navigator - to sailor, traveler, etc.

But there are far-fetched examples that do not correspond to any sound logic. John the Baptist, who had his head cut off, is believed to help with headaches. Another saint helps against caterpillars, mice, Colorado beetles and other reptiles of fields and vegetable gardens... Some pious brochures provide long lists of such highly specialized heavenly helpers. But this does not correspond to either the Orthodox faith or the experience of the Church; this is pious amateur activity.

Although, you know, about ten years ago such an interesting incident happened to me. Then I was a novice seminarian, in some ways zealous, in others naive. I was traveling on a train with a man whose teeth hurt terribly. He had some kind of suppuration in his gums, everything was swollen, he did not sleep for several nights. And he was on his way to surgery. Here he sits with a bandaged cheek, swaying and humming something. I felt so sorry for him! I say: “Maybe I should bring you some water?” He nods. I went to Titan to get some water, and then I remembered that when you have a toothache you pray to St. Antipas. And I prayed to him. To my shame, I will say that I didn’t even really believe in this idea, I just felt very sorry for the man, and I prayed with all the strength of this pity. He crossed the water, gave him a drink... And then - well, just a miracle happened. After about five minutes he says: “Strange. I don't feel any pain at all." And then he lay down and fell asleep peacefully. The next day the swelling subsided. I don’t know what happened to him next, he left in the morning... That’s it.

Every person has several favorite saints. You turn to them more often in prayer, you light candles for them. But there are many other icons in the temple, and even more different saints. Are we not “offending” others with our inattention? There is an opinion that all the saints, together with the Mother of God, form in heaven, as it were, a single body that glorifies God and prays to Him. What is the point of approaching “your” icons specifically? What is the meaning, in general, other than one’s own habit, of the custom of kissing icons and lighting a candle in front of them? You can often hear: “Well, I went to church before the exam, lit a candle, and passed well.”

I'll start with the last one. There should be no magic in relation to God. If you didn’t light a candle for this saint, didn’t bow to him, didn’t kiss the icon - he will punish you and stop helping you. Such an attitude is unworthy of a Christian.

We must understand that first of all, God needs our burning desire to be genuine Christians. The Lord knows our life circumstances, who has what kind of workload, who has what opportunity to pray, and so on. Therefore, we must sincerely not be lazy to attend divine services, try to pray, learn this... But if we couldn’t, we were late for a reason beyond our control, the Lord will never be angry.

However, we still have a very tenacious magical attitude towards the Church. If a student was once helped by a candle, he will think that if he doesn’t light the candle, he will immediately fail the exam.

I'll tell you one case. In our church at the Theological Seminary on the eve of each exam, for those who wish, a prayer service is served in front of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God. So we ask the Mother of God to help us take the exam successfully. A seminarian I know, a classmate of mine, somehow realized that he had become internally dependent on these prayers. He was afraid that if he missed such a prayer service, he would do poorly. And then he stopped going to prayer services for some time. He prayed in his room, asked for help, but did not go to the prayer service. After some time, when he realized that he had internally freed himself from fears, he again began going to prayer services.

But we digress. The question is, why do we single out some saints?.. There is nothing bad or strange in this. Many saints are close to us in their spiritual make-up, character, temperament, church service, and ascetic deeds. Of course, we feel a special attraction to such saints. We want to know about them, read their lives, and prayerfully communicate with them.

In my life there were many such discoveries that were precious to me. This is, of course, St. Righteous Father John of Kronstadt, Blessed Xenia, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, Rev. Sergius of Radonezh. When I entered the Seminary, I experienced great help from the spiritual patron of our Seminary and Academy, Apostle John the Theologian. In my second year at Theological Seminary, I picked up a book about St. Simeon the New Theologian and simply “fell in love” with this man. I can say the same about the king and psalmist David, the martyr Justin the Philosopher, St. John Chrysostom, Gregory the Theologian, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, Blessed Matrona, and many others.

By our “attention” to some saints, we, of course, do not offend other saints. Where saints abide, there are no petty insults, wounded pride, etc. But, of course, if we somehow especially single out some saints, we should not forget that each saint of the Church is a unique and beautiful person, ripe for God. One should strive to learn about other saints, study their lives, and peer into the features of their feats.

What does a “strong” saint mean? That is, it is assumed that there are “not very strong”? At my house I have butter from the relics of St. Alexander of Svir. This oil really has a strong, pronounced medicinal property. But you don’t notice such an effect with any oil. Why is this happening?

There is no such thing as a “strong” saint in the Orthodox Church. Every saint, if we sincerely turn to him for help, helps. The same can be said about holy oil (oil) from the relics or lamp of a saint, about some holy objects.

Here, too, I can give an example from my seminary youth. Suddenly I developed eczema. I didn't know what to do. It spread further and further, already taking away entire areas of the skin. And my friend had oil from Athos, from some miraculous icon of the Mother of God. He simply kept it in a glass jar. I tell him: “Listen, give me some oil.” I went to the akathist to the Mother of God, prayed, then had a special, “spiritual” dinner at home, anointed the affected areas with this oil and went to bed. And from the next day I began to clearly improve. It really shocked me then...

But, of course, now I try to rarely use holy objects, only in extreme cases.

Any crumb, drop of shrine can bring great grace. And on the contrary, you can have dozens of particles of relics, oil, holy water at home, but this will not bring any spiritual benefit if we do not strive with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our strength towards God.

After the revolution, a special department was created in the GPU to combat religion. It was headed by E. Tuchkov. This man caused enormous evil to the Church; he condemned to death hundreds of now glorified new martyrs. Please note that meetings with people, at least one of which would have been a great honor for us, a spiritual revelation, did not have any influence on Tuchkov. His heart burned with hatred of God and the Church and was closed to grace.

In general, any shrine can bring us spiritual benefit if we accept it with reverence. And no shrine, even the greatest, can melt the ice if a person does not want it, because God respects our freedom...