Petersburg is kept by its heavenly patrons. This is the holy apostle Peter, in whose honor the city is named, and the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky, and the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. But there is another saint whom all Petersburgers love, and to which there is a very special relationship. This is Ksenia the Blessed. Her prayer has been kept by the city on the Neva for more than two centuries.
Beggar with a male name
In ancient times, even under Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, a strange beggar appeared on the streets of the Petersburg side. She was dressed in an old well-worn officer uniform, called herself a man's name - Andrei Fedorovich. There have always been many beggars in Russia, and their attitude to them was different. They could feed and give alms, but they could also throw stones. But they soon noticed that she brings good luck to those who somehow greet her.
The merchant will treat them with a pie - it will be well dissolved on that day, the cab driver will give it a ride - it will end the day with a profit. It soon became clear that the unfortunate was a colonel widow who, after the death of her husband, renounced both on her own behalf, on her property, and even on her gender. Her real name was Ksenia. So they began to call her - Xenia the Blessed. Prayer on the steps of the church of St. Matthew, and endless wanderings along St. Petersburg streets - this is her whole life of those years.
However, this is not entirely true. There is evidence of her astounding prophecies. Usually in an allegorical form, so characteristic of all soothsayers, she knew how to accurately tell about what was still destined to happen. Sometimes, people could not immediately understand the meaning of her words, and revered them as delirium of a mad woman. However, each time, faced with a fait accompli, they recalled what they heard and became convinced of her extraordinary gift.
Prayers on winter nights
And another unusual detail was noted by contemporaries, and even recorded in police reports - Xenia's blessed nightly prayer. The fact is that such a prominent figure on city streets could not fail to attract the attention of the police. So they put an employee to her for a couple of days to look, just in case, what she does, with whom she talks and where she sleeps. It was winter, but in St. Petersburg you won’t spend a winter night on the street.
Further information appears from the report of that same police agent. He reports that all night he watched as a beggar, dressed only in miserable rags and ragged boots, in severe frost, knelt right in the snow, and stood like that in prayer until dawn. After that, she got up and returned to the city.
This is not an episode from the life of a saint, this is a fact noted in the police report. Then, as now, fiction in such documents was not allowed. Think about it. After all, the body of an ordinary person is able to withstand cold only in a very limited period of time. There can be only one explanation - the blessed prayer of Xenia had an absolutely extraordinary power, protecting even from the external elements.
The death of Andrei Fedorovich
Let us dwell on a very important question: why is it so dear to Petersburgers that they even began to call it Ksenia of Petersburg? Indeed, there were always holy fools on the streets of the city, especially near churches. What does she get out of the general circle? The answer, apparently, lies in the very reason for her appearance on the streets in the uniform of her dead husband.
After three years of a happy family life, her husband, Andrei Fedorovich Petrov, suddenly died. The reason for his death is silenced in literary sources, but there are obvious hints that it was not appropriate for an Orthodox person to leave this way. Maybe the reason is connected with wine, but according to church canons, death from drunkenness is equated with suicide, or maybe he made worse than himself. It is only known that his soul departed into another world without repentance and absolution.
The highest sacrifice of the slave of God Xenia
How could the blessed Ksenia help him? Prayer for the deceased is an important and effective means, but we do not know all the circumstances of the death. Perhaps the prayer was powerless, and it was impossible to save his darling. There was no way to save, but instead of giving her the hell of torment instead of her, thus saving him from the eternal punishment of a loved one, it was said in the Scripture that there is no higher sacrifice than to give your soul for your neighbor. We often understand this, how to give our lives, but we are talking about the soul. This is the whole point - life is short, the soul is eternal. So the servant of God Xenia gave for her beloved husband that which is dearer than life itself. It was this meaning that she put in the words that the servant of God, Ksenia, had died, and Andrei Fedorovich would be alive and long.
They exchanged souls, let alone clothes. So that crazy man working out the sins of her husband appeared on the streets. Now open the lives of the saints and try to find at least something like that. There are a lot of victims in them, but they are for the salvation of their own souls. But for someone to voluntarily give his pure and sinless soul for a beloved, receiving in return eternal torment - you will not find this.
Only that which is capable of such a thing as “a horse in a hurry”, and “into a burning hut”, and after her husband to Siberia is capable of this. That's why everyone needs the prayer of blessed Xenia of Petersburg, because her holiness was plagued by love, and, as you know, the whole world rests on it. And she kept God's commandment of love more than anyone else.
Adoration of the relics of St. Petersburg
In 1806, Xenia the Blessed ended her earthly journey. Her prayer for the soul of her beloved was heard by God, otherwise He would not have given her relics the powers of wonderworking. They rest in the Smolensk cemetery in her native city of St. Petersburg. It is not surprising that after death she was not only not forgotten, but her fame increased many times over. If earlier only Petersburgers turned to her, now pilgrims from all over Russia gathered at her grave. This suggests that the prayer of blessed Xenia of Petersburg did not remain unanswered.
What blessed Ksenia is asking for
Almost two centuries have passed. The city has changed, and people have changed. But the stream of those in a hurry to the Smolensk cemetery, to the chapel, under the walls of which her holy relics rest, does not dry up. Each has something of his own, his own prayer of Xenia blessed. For help in trouble, for getting rid of ailments and, of course, for family happiness, her people ask. It is known that after death, the Lord grants the saints a special grace to work miracles in that in which they excelled in the days of earthly life. Therefore, it is believed that the blessed prayer of Xenia for marriage is especially soon heard, since during her life she herself was a model of marriage. By the way, in her wanderings around the city, mother Ksenia has already shown miracles of this kind.
Prayer for Health
Undoubtedly, the prayer of St. Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg greatly helps healing from ailments. It is widely known that the future sovereign Emperor Alexander III, still being the heir to the throne, fell ill with typhus, and was on the verge of death. His wife, in complete despair, on the advice of someone from the servant, put a handful of earth from the grave of Blessed Xenia under the patient’s pillow and offered her a prayer.
In a night vision, mother Xenia herself appeared to her and, predicting the speedy recovery of Alexander, ordered to name their future daughter Xenia. Soon the disease receded, and when a daughter was born to the heir to the throne, she was called Xenia, in memory of this wonderful recovery. So the prayer of St. Blessed Xenia and the earth from her grave, saved her future ruler for Russia. This incident has gone down in history since it refers to the heir to the throne. There were a lot of healings committed in relation to ordinary people, but they, for the most part, were not recorded by contemporaries. However, a popular memory remained about them.
Notes asking the saint
Ksenia of Petersburg is the only saint with whom one can communicate not only in prayer, but also in correspondence. Yes, she decided to write letters, that is, notes with requests. In previous years, they were shoved into the crevices of the walls of the chapel, but since the walls could not accommodate all the correspondence in another world, they put a special box.
Thus, the prayer of Xenia the Blessed for help is served both orally, in the chapel itself at her tombstone, and in writing in the form of a note. For the love of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg and for the miracles performed by their prayers, Saint Blessed Ksenia of St. Petersburg is ranked among the heavenly patrons of the city.