So that the Russian land would not be impoverished by the servants of God, the holy blessed Matron of Moscow would be sent down to her. Blind from birth, she received from above the great gift of spiritual vision, divination, and inexhaustible prayer power. The chosen one of God did not lock them in her soul. The help of St. Matrona of Moscow generously poured out on all who went to her for healing and help in everyday troubles. For this, she became one of the most revered and beloved by the people of the saints.
Prophetic dream of Natalia Nikonova
Before you start a conversation about how to pray to the Matrona of Moscow and how to worship the holy relics, you should at least briefly recall her life. She was born in 1881 in the village of Sebino, which was twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikov field. She was born in a family of pious parents - Dimitri and Natalia Nikonov, who spent all days in labor, but could not get out of poverty. The family was large, and each extra mouth created an additional burden. Therefore, even before the birth of her daughter, Natalya decided to send her to an orphanage, which was opened in the neighboring village by the works of Prince Golitsyn.
And to become Matron an orphan with her parents alive, but her future mother had a wonderful vision. In her dream, an unborn daughter appeared in the image of a white bird with closed eyes and sat on her right hand. That was a dream, because every Orthodox person knows that the right place from us is an angelic place, while the crafty one creeps up on the other side. Natalya realized the Will of God and did not part with her daughter.
A good omen
The girl was born blind, like that bird from night vision, but the mother’s heart stuck to it even more - the sick and the weak are sometimes loved. In holy baptism they called her the Matron in honor of the Matron of Constantinople, a Christian ascetic of the fifth century, whose memory is celebrated on November 22.
One of the next of kin, who was present at the church that day, later recalled that when the priest, Father Basil lowered her font, everyone was struck by the sight of a fragrant cloud waving over the baby. The priest, who was considered blissful for righteousness and asceticism, then shrewdly interpreted this miracle as visible evidence of God's chosen children. “This baby will be holy” - these are his words, which became a prophecy.
Unusual properties manifested in childhood
The life of St. Matrona of Moscow tells that at an early age unusual properties appeared in her. For example, she did not take breasts on fasting days - Wednesdays and Fridays. It is also known that once a girl brought her relatives in awe and bewilderment, informing them of the death of her baptized father Basil. When everyone ran to his house, they found there a lifeless body. She also had special bodily signs that set her apart from other children. Shortly after birth, the mother noticed a bulge in the shape of a cross formed on the baby’s chest. When the girl grew up, she took this quite meaningfully, seeing that as a Christian symbol.
By the way, Marona was not just blind from birth. As evidenced by all who happened to communicate with her, she completely lacked eyeballs, and her eyelids were tightly closed. However, there is no doubt that the Lord granted her spiritual sight. Many were witnesses of how Matrona removed the icons from the walls, laid them on the table and, as it were, examined them with blind eyes. With her peers, her childhood friendship did not work out. They sometimes teased her and humiliated her in every possible way. As a result, from an early age she began to spend at home all the time.
In addition to the native hut, the only place where Matron felt safe and calm was the church. Not far from them was a large and beautiful temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the girl spent most of the day in it. She was present at all services. Here, good people taught her how to bow down and how to pray. Matrona of Moscow was not even six years old, and she had already echoed as a singer. It has long been noticed that blind people often have well-developed hearing. This natural feature was also manifested in Matrona - her childish voice without the slightest falsehood echoed the choir performing prayer chants.
The beginning of prophecy and healing
The story of the Matrona of Moscow, as a healer and fortune teller, began when she was barely seven years old. Her relatives began to notice behind her the ability to accurately read the thoughts of those around her. In addition, it marked the gift to feel and predict impending dangers and natural disasters. But the main thing - her prayers brought people healing and deliverance from everyday troubles. And this wonderful gift of the Matrona over time intensified and became brighter.
Since then, endless streams of people eager to heal ailments and support in grief have been drawn to the Nikonovs' house from all surrounding villages. Among them were bedridden patients, who were brought in carts. The matron, with prayer and laying on of hands, restored their health to them, and they left her, spreading the glory of a healer to distant provinces. Many, in gratitude, left her parents gifts and products. So a blind girl did not become a burden for the family, but the main nurse.
Later, one of the sisters recalled how once her gift of spiritual vision manifested itself in an extraordinary way. It was a Sunday morning. Her mother, dressed up, gathered to go to church and called her father with her. He refused and, staying at home, read prayers tirelessly all morning. Upon returning, his wife reproached him, but Matrona unexpectedly stood up for him, objecting that today it was he who, having devoted the morning to prayer, was invisibly in the church, while she was present at the liturgy only bodily, filling her thoughts with the conviction of her husband.
Pilgrimages and meeting with John of Kronstadt
Already in adulthood, the holy blessed Matron of Moscow often remembered the daughter of a local landowner - the kind and pious girl Lidia Yankova, who provided her with patronage. Feeling an emotional inclination toward pilgrimage, she took Matron with her on trips to holy places. Thanks to her, a blind girl was able to bow to the shrines of the Kiev Pechersk and Trinity Sergius Lavra, to visit St. Petersburg and many other Orthodox centers of the country.
On one of these trips, she met with one of the prominent figures of the Russian Orthodox Church - John of Kronstadt. The life of St. Matrona of Moscow, describing this scene, tells how, having completed the liturgy in St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Father John ordered everyone to step aside and give way to a fourteen-year-old blind girl there. Welcoming, he called her his successor and the pillar of Russia. Needless to say, in his prophecies the holy righteous John of Kronstadt was never mistaken.
Some time passed, and when Matrone was in her seventeenth year, the Lord laid on her another heavy cross, which she was destined to bear until the end of her days: the girl's legs were taken away . Since then, she became “sedentary” and could only move with the help of others. Such a "seat" lasted a long fifty years, but no one ever heard complaints from her. On the contrary, the Matron bowed before the Will of God with true Christian humility.
Long-predicted disaster
When the revolution broke out, the blind healer was thirty-six years old. For her, the whole nightmare of the fratricidal war that followed was not a surprise, since in her childhood she predicted these events. Then she was skeptical of her words, attributing cripples to their sick fantasy. Now they remembered how amazingly she described the rampant dark human passions that plunged the country into the abyss of the Apocalypse.
Long before the Bolshevik coup, Matron was persuaded by the landowner Yankov, the father of her benefactress, to sell all property and go abroad. Unfortunately, he neglected the advice, and during the years of red terror he paid for it with his life. His daughter Lydia, having lost everything, became a homeless wanderer in his native country. And this is not the only such example. Her prophecies cried out to people, but that was "a voice crying in the wilderness."
Creation of the holy icon
Thanks to the blessed Matron, the Orthodox world acquired the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is well known to everyone under the name "Recovery of the Dead." The life of St. Matrona of Moscow tells how she once asked her mother to go to the priest and in one of the books find the image of the Blessed Virgin. In addition, she accurately indicated the place where that book stands. Mother fulfilled the request of her daughter and, together with the priest, found the necessary drawing.
Next, Matrona organized the collection of funds necessary for the hiring of a skilled master icon painter. When everything was ready, and the artist appeared, the blessed one commanded him to confess and take communion before starting work. An important condition was deep repentance for the sins committed - manifest and secret. The master did everything according to her words, but either by accident or deliberately withheld a certain sin. As a result, no matter how much he struggled, the image of the Most Holy Virgin did not come out of him. Only when, on the instructions of Matrona, he confessed a second time, revealing his soul to the end, he created a marvelous icon.
Moving to Moscow
In the early twenties, both Matron’s brothers — Ivan and Mikhail — became members of the party and actively pursued its policies. Of course, the presence in the house of the blessed one, which daily hosted dozens of people who came to visit her and prayed over them, was extremely inappropriate and caused irritation among atheistic relatives. In addition, it threatened them with repression. Matron had to look for new housing, and in 1925 she moved to Moscow, where she spent the rest of her life.
The true story of the Matrona of Moscow of this period is made up of the recollections of numerous people who happened to communicate with her in the capital. In this city there was a huge number of unfortunate people who during the years of the revolution lost faith not only in God, but in general in the existence of some kind of good beginning in the world. There were such that, out of desperation, they were on the verge of suicide. Living among them for almost three decades, the Matron with her prayer ministry saved their souls, turning them away from death and eternal death. In what temple did Matrona of Moscow love to visit most of all? It is difficult to answer this question unequivocally, since she called the entire capital a holy city and hardly made a distinction between its shrines.
The entire period of her Moscow life is an endless strip of wanderings in the homes of those pious people who, despite their own poverty, were ready to give her shelter. These were Muscovites' apartments (mostly communal), and plywood country houses, and even just basements, somehow equipped for housing. But I did not have to choose. Moreover, wherever Matron lived, she always put herself at risk and those who sheltered her, since she did not have a residence permit, and in those years it was considered almost a crime.
Conflicts with the authorities
The life of St. Matrona of Moscow, composed many years after her death, does not pass by this aspect of her stay in the capital. It tells how, thanks to her phenomenal gift of insight, the blessed woman always knew how to anticipate the visit of unexpected guests in advance. Often, the overzealous advocates of socialist legitimacy informed the authorities about living at such an address as an unwritten citizen, but each time a policeman arrived, Matron managed to leave a dangerous home.
One of the women who provided her with shelter recalled an amazing incident that occurred shortly before the war. Once, a policeman suddenly rushed into the apartment where Matron was. Contrary to her custom, the blessed woman did not leave the house the day before, but calmly met a representative of authority. When he was ready to escort her to the station, she suddenly turned to him with the words: "Leave me, hurry home - there was a misfortune, but you will be able to help."
Struck by what he heard, the policeman rushed home, and it turned out that an accident had occurred there - his wife received severe burns from a malfunctioning primus. Thanks to Matron, he managed to deliver her to the hospital on time and thereby saved his wife's life. Needless to say, a grateful servant of the law did not dare to harm his benefactress.
Life in Starokonyushenny Lane
And a striking incident is completely described by Z. V. Zhdanova, who shared her home with the blessed Matron for seven years. She studied at an architectural institute and in 1946 was to defend a graduation project. But unforeseen difficulties arose, and, despite all efforts, it was on the verge of failure. And here Matron came to the rescue.
Being illiterate, and never seeing anything with her eyes, which she was deprived of, she described with detailed accuracy the architectural features of one of the palaces of Florence, suitable for use in the thesis. Contemplating the spiritual masterpiece of Italian architecture, she managed to convey it in a way that only a specialist could do. Thanks to the information received from Matrona, the student successfully defended herself, and her project was praised by the commission.
Z. V. Zhdanova also recalls that in their room in Starokonyushenny Lane, where they lived the blessed Matron, there were a lot of icons. They occupied three corners from top to bottom. Lamps constantly glowed in front of them. Their guest often prayed or told something from the book “Life of the Saints” heard in childhood. Matrona Moscow had a wonderful memory.
Once the whole apartment belonged to father Zhdanova, a wealthy entrepreneur convicted under article 58 and serving a sentence at that time. A few years later, Zinaida herself was convicted on false charges of creating a church-monarchist group. She was released after the death of Stalin, during the period of mass rehabilitation of the repressed.
Years of war
As early as 1939, Matron, with her characteristic sagacity, predicted the outbreak of war. She spoke of the innumerable sufferings that she would bring to people, but with full conviction declared victory over the enemy and even reported some details of future events. For example, she predicted heavy fighting near Moscow, but she spoke about the impregnability of the capital.
During the Second World War, the blessed devoted herself to helping people. From the memoirs of contemporaries, we know that Matrona of Moscow was busy with the reception of dozens of people who came to her for help and support. Sometimes there were at least forty people. Most of the questions addressed to her were about the fate of loved ones who went to the front. She encouraged some, saying that he was alive, about whom their soul hurts, she tried to console others if she had to give a tragic message.
The end of earthly ministry
The last place of the earthly haven of St. Matrona was Skhodnya station near Moscow, where she settled with one of her relatives. Here, as before, numerous visitors came to her with an inescapable burden of troubles and misfortunes. And no one was denied help, healing, or just a kind word. Only shortly before her death Matron was forced to limit their number by weakness. Until the very last days, she did not stop praying and taking communion.
Saint Matrona of Moscow died on May 2, 1952. She was buried in the Church of the Deposition of the Robe, where one of her admirers, Priest Nikolai Golubtsov, served. A few days before her death, feeling her approach, the blessed one asked not to bring any wreaths or artificial flowers to the grave. She also spoke about her fear of death, the same as that of all ordinary people.
Canonization and popular veneration
Thirty years after the death of the saint, her grave became a place of mass religious pilgrimage. People from all over the country came to her. On the night of March 8, 1998, the relics of the saint were transferred to the Danilov Monastery of the capital, and later to the Intercession Monastery. The relics of the Matrona of Moscow are in silver cancer and are open to universal worship. The days of her memory are: March 8, April 19, August 20 and September 22 (in Tula).
In 1999, the Holy Synod adopted a decree on its canonization as a venerable Moscow saint. But, despite the fact that such a formulation implies veneration of the saint of God in a certain place (in this case in Moscow), she has become one of the most beloved holy millions of Russians in all parts of the country. The icons of the blessed Matron were painted. Orthodox publishers widely consecrate her life. The book “The Life of St. Matrona of Moscow” was published in large circulation. A large group of historians and theologians worked on its creation. Also about her earthly ministry is the publication of The Life of the Saints: Matrona of Moscow.
The capital sacredly preserves the memory of this saint of God and the glorious successor of her predecessor, the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who called her the pillar of Russia. To her, and in our days, the flow of believers does not dry up. Today the Pokrovskaya cloister of Moscow is a truly female monastery of the Matrona of Moscow. To such an extent everything in him is connected with her name. It has already been mentioned that it is here that the relics of the Matrona of Moscow rest. How to get there? Very simple: you need Art. metro station "Marxist" (exit to Taganskaya street), and then by any means of transport - to Bolshaya Andronievskaya.
Prayers for the Blessed Matron
Everyone who wants to resort to her help, asks himself the question: "How to pray to the Matrona of Moscow, so that the prayer is heard, and help was immediately sent out?" The priest of the Intercession Convent, where her relics rest, Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, responding to this question, said that in this case one should pray in the same way as when addressing any other saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. There is no difference. You can ask for help where the icon of the Matrona of Moscow is in front of your eyes. And where it is not. It is important that the prayer of Matrona of Moscow - from illness or for another reason - be filled with faith and come from the heart. Requests can be anything - about health, about family happiness, about success in work and financial well-being.
Another question that worries many: “How to write a note to the Matron of Moscow?”, Because you can express your requests in this form. It turns out that next to the cancer in which the holy relics rest, there is a special basket. All letters are put in it. Answering the question of how to pray to the Matrona of Moscow, the holy fathers always emphasize the need for faith in the fulfillment of the desired. Notes without power are powerless.
And it is not so important to know how to write a note to the Matron of Moscow, how much to remember the words of the Savior that everyone is rewarded according to his faith.