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Brief life of the Odessa kuksha. Relics of saints

Exactly 20 years ago, on September 29, 1994, Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail uncovered the relics of the well-known Orthodox world Elder Kuksha of Odessa.

Schiigumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson province (now Mykolaiv region) into a pious peasant family of Kirill and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Kosma (the future father of Kuksha), John and Maria.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God that one of her children would be vouchsafed to labor in the monastic rank.

Kosma from a young age loved silence and solitude, had great compassion for people. He had a cousin who was possessed by an unclean spirit. Kosma went with him to an old man who cast out demons. The elder healed the young man, and Cosmas said: “Just because you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted all your life.”

At the age of 20, Cosmas first went on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited Mount Athos. Here is the soul young man was inflamed with a desire to serve God in the form of an angel. But first he returned home for his parents' blessing.

Arriving in Russia, Kosma visited the Kyiv miracle worker Jonah, known for his perspicacity. Blessing the young man, the elder touched his head with a cross and suddenly said: “I bless you to the monastery! You will live on Athos!”

Kirill Velichko did not immediately agree to let his son go to the monastery. And the father’s mother, having received her husband’s permission, blessed her child with the Kazan icon with great joy. Mother of God, with which the saint did not part all his life, and which was placed in his coffin after his death.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Athos and entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery as a novice.

A year later, the hegumen blessed him and his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, two miraculous events happened to Cosmas, which served as signs of his future.

There is a Siloam font in Jerusalem. There is a custom for all pilgrims, especially barren women, to plunge into this spring, and according to legend, the one who first has time to plunge into the water will have a child.

Kosma and his mother also went to plunge into the Siloam font. It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him down the steps, and he suddenly fell first into the water right in his clothes. The women screamed with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water. But this was a sign from above that Father Kuksha would have many spiritual children. He always said: "I have a thousand spiritual children."

The second sign happened in Bethlehem. Having bowed to the place of the birth of Christ the Divine Infant, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly, one lamp miraculously overturned on Kosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and collected holy oil from him with their hands. So the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha, many people would receive Divine grace.

A year after his arrival from Jerusalem to Athos, he received a blessing to once again visit the Holy City and carry out obedience at the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon his return to Athos on March 28, 1902, the novice Kosmas was tonsured a cassock with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1905, he became a monk and was named Xenophon. His spiritual father was the ascetic elder Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit and was a monk of a high spiritual life.

In 1912-1913, because of the disturbances on Mount Athos, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including the future saint. “So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” said his spiritual father.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Here, on May 3, 1934, he was ordained a hieromonk.

Batiushka really wanted to accept the great schema, but due to his youth he was denied his desire. Once, while reclothing the relics in the Far Caves, the monk prayed to the holy schema-monk Silouan to accept the schema. And at the age of 56, Father Xenophon suddenly fell seriously ill - as they thought, hopelessly. The dying man was tonsured into the great schema and named after Hieromartyr Kuksha of the Caves. Soon after the tonsure, Father Kuksha began to recover, and then completely recovered.

These were years of severe persecution Orthodox Church. When the wave of self-consecrated schisms touched the Lavra, Father Kuksha was an example for others in filial fidelity to the canons of the Mother Church.

Once from Poltava Kiev Pechersk Lavra her former resident Metropolitan Seraphim arrived, wishing to visit his beloved monastery before his death and say goodbye to her. When Father Kuksha approached him for a blessing, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Oh, old man, a place has been prepared for you in these caves for a long time!”

In 1938, the difficult ten-year feat of confession began for the priest. He, as a "clergyman," is sentenced to five years in camps in the city of Vilva, Molotov Region, and after serving this term, to five years of exile. So at the age of 63, Kuksha's father was sent to grueling logging work. They worked 14 hours a day, receiving very meager and bad food.

At that time, Bishop Anthony lived in Kyiv, who knew Father Kuksha well and appreciated him for his virtues. Once, Vladyka, under the guise of crackers, was able to transfer 100 particles of dry Gifts to the camp to the monk so that Father Communion would take them. But how could he alone consume the Holy Gifts, when many priests, monks and nuns, who had been imprisoned for many years, were deprived of this consolation?

Under great secrecy, all of them were notified, and on the appointed day, prisoner-priests in stole made of towels, on their way to work, unnoticed from the convoy, quickly cleared the sins of the monks and nuns and indicated where the particles of the Holy Gifts were hidden. So in one morning 100 people took communion in the camp. For many, this was the last Communion in their long-suffering lives...

Another miraculous event happened in the camp with the priest. On Easter, father Kuksha, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew over them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of the pie too!” And suddenly I heard over my head “kar-rr!” - and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was the raven who stole it from the cook's pan. Batiushka lifted the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and quenched his hunger.

In 1948, after the end of his imprisonment and exile, Father Kuksha returned to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and was received with great joy by the brethren. Hardened in the crucible of suffering, the priest began to bear the feat of eldership here, nourishing many believers. For this, the KGBists ordered the spiritual authorities to transfer the elder from Kyiv somewhere far away, to a remote place.

In 1953, Father Kuksha was transferred to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon-case at the miraculous Pochaev icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and also for three years served an early liturgy in the Cave Church and confessed people.

One day when he was standing miraculous icon Mother of God, a vein burst in his leg. A full boot of blood poured out. To inspect a sore leg came famous for his miraculous healings hegumen Joseph (in the schema Amphilochius, now canonized). The diagnosis was disappointing: “Get ready, father, go home,” that is, die.

All the monks and laity prayed fervently with tears to the Mother of God for the granting of health to the dear and beloved elder. A week later, Abbot Joseph again came to Father Kuksha and, seeing the almost healed wound, exclaimed in amazement: “The spiritual children have begged!”

The spiritual daughter of the father told me that once, during the Divine Liturgy father Kuksha, she saw in the altar cave temple a noble husband, his comrade-in-arms. When she informed Father Kuksha about this, he said that it was the Monk Job of Pochaev, who always serves with him, and strictly ordered not to reveal this secret to anyone until his death.

This is how the life of the elder proceeded in the Pochaev monastery, but the enemy of the human race persecuted him here too, and in order to protect the priest from attacks from haters, Bishop Evmeny of Chernivtsi in 1957 transferred him to the St. John the Theological Monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk Chernivtsi diocese. The years of life here were quiet and calm for Father Kuksha. But in 1960, nuns from the disbanded Chernivtsi were moved here. convent.

After these events, Father Kuksha moved to the Odessa Holy Assumption Patriarchal Monastery, which became the last pier in his wanderings. Here, confession became the main obedience of the elder. He took communion every day, he was very fond of the early liturgy. He said: "The early liturgy is for ascetics, the late one is for fasters."

Many people remember how, during dinner, Father Kuksha picked up a small framed portrait standing on the table. His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, kissed him and said: "We drink tea with His Holiness." His words turned out to be prophetic.

Coming to Odessa to his dacha, Patriarch Alexy I always invited Father Kuksha to his place for a cup of tea, he liked to talk with him, was interested in how it was on Mount Athos and in Jerusalem in the old days.

Saint Kuksha became the monastic tonsure recipient of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

The father said to spiritual children: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! And then 90 years old - and Kuksha is gone, they will take spatulas and bury them.

In the autumn of 1964, he fell ill: in a fit of rage, his cell-attendant Nikolai drove Father Kuksha out of his cell undressed in October at 1:00 am. In the dark, the elder fell into the pit, injuring his leg, and lay there until the morning, until the brethren found him. The elder fell ill with bilateral pneumonia. Despite the efforts of his loved ones, he never recovered from his illness.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “The time has passed” and very calmly withdrew to the Lord.

The authorities, fearing a large gathering of people, ordered not to receive telegrams from Odessa announcing the death of Father Kuksha, and demanded that a burial be made in his homeland. But the abbot of the monastery, enlightened by God, wisely answered: "A monk's homeland is a monastery."

After the elder’s blessed death, the evidence of his holiness was the miracles that took place at the grave of the saint, and on September 29, 1994, the ruling bishop, Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Agafangel, made the discovery of the elder’s relics, and on October 22 of the same year he was glorified in the face of the saints.

Even during his lifetime, Saint Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to his grave with their sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the saint's testament, exuding grace-filled help to all who turn to him with faith.

Miracles of St. Kuksha

We bring to your attention a selection of ten short stories confirming the grace-filled help through prayers to the Monk Kuksha. The elder performed the first 5 miracles during his earthly life, others - through prayers to him after his blessed departure to the Lord.

Story 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy”

One of the first miracles performed by the Monk Kuksha happened while still in prison. The Lord revealed to the elder that one of the guards at home had a sick daughter. “Child, take a vacation, go home, they will let you go. Your daughter fell ill at home,” the saint admonished him. He did not believe that they could let him go: “They won’t let him go in the summer,” he said. The guard left, and the elder prayed for him and his sick daughter. Less than an hour later, he returned, saying that an urgent telegram had arrived, in which it was reported that his daughter was very ill, and the authorities were letting him go home. “Pray, father, for her,” he asked, “after all, she is the only one with me, her name is Anna.” The elder replied: “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to church, then your daughter will be healthy.” He wept like a child and made a vow. Through the prayers of the reverend, the girl received healing.

Story 2. 102-year-old student of the Monk Kuksha

In the John the Baptist Monastery in the city of Kungur, in March 2014, the 102-year-old monk Nikon was tonsured into the great schema with the name of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa. During the Great Patriotic War, he served as a mortar man, was seriously wounded in the arm by a shrapnel, which could not be removed. Over time, the fragment began to cause unbearable pain, and then Nikon went to his spiritual father. The Monk Kuksha suddenly sent him to cut down a dry linden tree for firewood. Exhausted from pain, Nikon went to cut a tree for obedience. And after the first blows with an ax, the fragment suddenly jumped out of his hand, and the monk received healing.

Story 3

One young novice, not understanding why the priest sprinkles his cell with holy water every evening, once asked him: “Father, why do you need to sprinkle it? What does it give? It's been three days. Father Kuksha went to the novice's cell and, in front of his eyes, began to sprinkle it with holy water. Subsequently, the monk said: “And suddenly I saw this, I saw this! The cell is full of demons, and everyone is running in a crowd at the door, but they don’t have time, they fall out one after the other ... ”Sprinkling the cell, the elder asked:“ Well, did you see what it gives?

Story 4. The power of charity

The elder gave great importance alms. His spiritual daughter asked someone for a book with an akathist, she wanted to copy it for herself. In the temple she placed the little book beside candle box, where her friend monk Thaddeus sold candles, and she herself went to be anointed with oil. When she returned, she found that the book was missing. The woman began to grieve, because the book was someone else's, and with her misfortune she turned to Father Kuksha. “Do not grieve, ask the Lord to accept this as alms. But the enemy does not like alms, he will return everything, he will return,” was the answer of the priest. The next day, in the evening, the book lay in the same place where it had been placed. Father Thaddeus said: “Here, people brought it, they said that they found this book in the tram. They didn’t know what to do with, thought and thought and decided to hand over to the monastery. They came to the monastery and put it in the very place where it was.”

Story 5. A hint for a scientist

Once a well-known scientist came to the reverend, who had some unsolvable problem in his scientific work. In a conversation with him, Father Kuksha with his in simple words made him think about right decision question. The scientist, leaving the cell, in joyful amazement told how the unlearned elder helped him discover the secret of his scientific research.

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often visited the elder. She was a research chemist, and her husband was a mining engineer, a major specialist in rocks. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to part with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the elder's death, she went to Pskov-Pechersk monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there. In the Pechersk Monastery there are caves created by God, where the deceased monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried here, but are placed one on top of the other in caves in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena's husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was amazed that the free-flowing sandstone did not crumble for centuries, held like a stone, and collapses did not occur. This apparent miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7. “Suddenly I saw the Monk Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on my forehead…

A pupil of the Odessa Theological Seminary, Alexander fell ill with pneumonia in a severe form. The temperature rose to 39.9 degrees. Both the seminary assistant and those living with him in the room were worried about him. On the night of December 12, 1994, when Alexander fell into oblivion, they called an ambulance. The patient, being in unconsciousness, aloud called the name of the Monk Kuksha. Suddenly he fell silent and seemed lifeless for a while. Frightened by this, his friends began to shake him, calling him by name. Suddenly Alexander came to his senses and got out of bed. To everyone's surprise, he looked perfectly healthy. We measured the temperature - the thermometer showed 36.6 °. Then he was asked about such a sudden change of state. Alexander said that when it was extremely difficult for him and there was a feeling that his life was leaving him, he saw the Monk Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on his forehead. Suddenly, he felt a strong surge of grace-filled power, which passed three times from head to toe. Then he felt that someone was shaking him and calling his name. When he woke up, he felt healed. The doctors who arrived soon found him healthy.

Story 8. The woman did not know that during his lifetime Saint Kuksha also suffered from leg disease

One woman, who was seriously suffering from a leg disease - thrombophlebitis, came from Moscow to the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa to pray to the Monk Kuksha. Her legs ached severely, her veins swelled up, and she, completely exhausted, fell to the shrine with holy relics and whispered: “Reverend Father Kuksha, help me!” And only in Moscow, getting off the train to the platform and running towards her son, she realized that she was healed: the tumor disappeared, the veins became normal, the pain went away. Then this woman did not yet know the life of the Monk Kuksha, who during his lifetime also suffered from leg disease.

In the spring of 1996, a singer of the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned a story about this healing. A few days after what she heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband had gangrene of his legs, amputation was inevitable. The chanter told her about the Monk Kuksha and his special mercy to those suffering from leg disease. Immediately a moleben was served in the temple to the reverend. In the meantime, the patient was transferred to an operation in Moscow. Everything was already ready for amputation, but the doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “A miracle saved you,” the doctors said to the patient, who, of course, knew nothing about the served prayer service, or about ambulance and the miracle worker the Monk Kuksha.

Story 9

A few days after the glorification of the Monk Kuksha, one servant of God shared her joy. Her child was sick, he had a very high temperature for several days, and the parents no longer knew how to help him. This woman was at the glorification of the reverend and received particles of vestments and a coffin. At home, she was greeted with reproaches that the child was sick, but the mother was not. She immediately went to her son and, after praying, placed the pieces of the vestment and the coffin on his head. The child fell asleep and woke up the next day completely healthy.

Story 10

Through the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord resurrected a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in one Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to thrash about in the heat. Xenia's grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely serious condition, asked her daughter - the girl's mother - to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly became silent. The grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - life left the girl. “I don’t need an ambulance, it’s already late…,” she said to her daughter. In desperation, the child's mother knelt before the icons and began to tearfully pray: "Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!" After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994, in the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa, she was given particles of the vestments and coffin of St. Kuksha. Invoking the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and applied them to the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Xenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to her senses, pointing to the icon of the monk, she asked her mother: "Give me Kuksha ...". The arrived doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any grounds for calling an ambulance. In the family, this day is called Xenia's second birthday.

Prayer and troparion

Prayer

O reverend and God-bearing Father, our Kuksho, the monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God, praise, the God-saving city of Odessa, the unfading flower, the meek shepherd of Christ and the great prayer book for us, we diligently resort to you and with a contrite heart we ask: do not take away your cover from our monastery, in it a feat thou hast labored well. Be a good helper to all who piously live and work well in it. O our good shepherd and God-wise mentor, Reverend Father Kuksho, look graciously at the coming people, tenderly praying and asking you for help and intercession.

Remember all those who have faith and love for you, who prayerfully call on your name and come to worship with the power of your saints, and graciously fulfill all their good petitions, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every slander of the enemy our holy Church, this city, our monastery and our land, and do not leave us with your intercession, weak, burdened with many sins and sorrows.

Illuminate, most blessed, our mind with the light of the face of God, strengthen our life with the grace of the Lord, so that, being established in the Law of Christ, we will flow lazily along the path of the commandments of the saints. Autumn with your blessing on us and all those who are in sorrow, those who are obsessed with mental and physical illnesses, grant healing, consolation and deliverance. Above all of these, ask us from above the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, who have departed from the Orthodox faith and are blinded by disastrous heresies and schisms, blinded by enlightenment, in the darkness of unbelief by the wandering light of true knowledge of God, enlightenment, strife and discord, satisfaction, implore the Lord God and Holy Mother of God Grant us a quiet and sinless life.

Remember us, the unworthy, at the throne of the Almighty, ask for a peaceful Christian end and make us worthy of your help to improve eternal salvation and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, may we glorify the great generosity and inexpressible mercy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the Trinity we worship God, and your fatherly intercession in ages of ages. Amen.

Troparion, tone 4:

From youth, you left the world of the superstitious and crafty, enlightened by divine grace from above, reverend, with many patience in temporary life you performed a feat, the same exude miracles of grace to all who come with faith to the race of your relics, Kuksho, our most blessed father.

Kontakion, tone 8:

We will faithfully appease the ascetic of piety, the new confessor of the faith of the fathers, the Monk Kuksha, like a true shepherd, a good old man, mentor monks, a comforter of the faint-hearted, a healer of the sick, and at his death, showing the lightness of his life. And today, in his memory, we have flown, we joyfully cry out: as if having boldness towards God, deliver us from diverse situations, let us call to you: Rejoice, affirmation by Orthodox people.

The material was prepared by the labors of the brethren of the Odessa Holy Dormition Monastery, the spiritual children of the priest, Odessa historian Alexander Yatsy, Perm journalist Vyacheslav Degtyarnikov and Anna Shepida

From hiigumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson province (now Mykolaiv region) into a pious peasant family of Kirill and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Kosma (the future father of Kuksha), John and Maria.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God that one of her children would be vouchsafed to labor in the monastic rank.

At the age of 20, Cosmas first went on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited Mount Athos. Here the soul of the young man was kindled with the desire to serve God in the form of an angel. But first he returned home for his parents' blessing.

Kirill Velichko did not immediately agree to let his son go to the monastery. And the father’s mother, having received her husband’s permission, with great joy blessed her child with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, with which the saint did not part all his life, and which was placed in his coffin after his death.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Athos and entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery as a novice.

A year later, the hegumen blessed him and his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, two miraculous events happened to Cosmas, which served as signs of his future.

A year after his arrival from Jerusalem to Athos, he received a blessing to once again visit the Holy City and carry out obedience at the Holy Sepulcher.

In 1912-1913, due to disturbances on Mount Athos, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including the future saint. “So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” said his spiritual father.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Here, on May 3, 1934, he was ordained a hieromonk.

These were the years of cruel persecution of the Orthodox Church. When the wave of self-consecrated schisms touched the Lavra, Father Kuksha was an example for others in filial fidelity to the canons of the Mother Church.

Once, from Poltava, its former resident, Metropolitan Seraphim, arrived at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, wishing to visit his beloved monastery before his death and say goodbye to her. When Father Kuksha approached him for a blessing, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Oh, old man, a place has been prepared for you in these caves for a long time!”

In 1953, Father Kuksha was transferred to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon case at the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and for three years also served the early liturgy in the Cave Church and confessed people.

Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst in his leg. A full boot of blood poured out. Hegumen Joseph (in the schema Amphilochius, now canonized), famous for his miraculous healings, came to examine his sore leg. The diagnosis was disappointing: “Get ready, father, go home,” that is, die.

The spiritual daughter of the priest said that once, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy by Father Kuksha, she saw in the altar of the cave church a magnificent husband who served with him. When she informed Father Kuksha about this, he said that it was the Monk Job of Pochaev, who always serves with him, and strictly ordered not to reveal this secret to anyone until his death.

This is how the life of the elder in the Pochaev monastery proceeded, but the enemy of the human race raised persecution against him here too, and in order to protect the priest from attacks from haters, Bishop Evmeny of Chernivtsi in 1957 transferred him to the St. John the Theological Monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk, Chernivtsi diocese. The years of life here were quiet and calm for Father Kuksha. But in 1960, nuns from the disbanded Chernivtsi convent were moved here.

Many people remember how, during dinner, Father Kuksha picked up a small framed portrait of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I standing on the table, kissed him and said: “We drink tea with His Holiness.” His words turned out to be prophetic.

Saint Kuksha became the monastic tonsure recipient of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “The time has passed” and very calmly withdrew to the Lord.

Cancer with the relics of the venerable
Confessor Kuksha of Odessa

Even during his lifetime, Saint Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to his grave with their sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the saint's testament, exuding grace-filled help to all who turn to him with faith.

Miracles of St. Kuksha

We bring to your attention a selection of ten brief stories confirming the grace-filled help through prayers to the Monk Kuksha. The elder performed the first 5 miracles during his earthly life, others - through prayers to him after his blessed departure to the Lord.

Story 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy”

Story 2. 102-year-old student of the Monk Kuksha

Story 3

Story 4. The power of charity

The elder attached great importance to almsgiving. His spiritual daughter asked someone for a book with an akathist, she wanted to copy it for herself. In the temple, she put a little book near the candle box, where her friend monk Thaddeus sold candles, and she herself went to the anointing with oil. When she returned, she found that the book was missing. The woman began to grieve, because the book was someone else's, and with her misfortune she turned to Father Kuksha. “Do not grieve, ask the Lord to accept this as alms. But the enemy does not like alms, he will return everything, he will return,” was the answer of the priest. The next day, in the evening, the book lay in the same place where it had been placed. Father Thaddeus said: “Here, people brought it, they said that they found this book in the tram. They didn’t know what to do with, thought and thought and decided to hand over to the monastery. They came to the monastery and put it in the very place where it was.”

Story 5. A hint for a scientist

Once a well-known scientist came to the monk, who had some unsolvable problem in his scientific work. In a conversation with him, Father Kuksha, with his simple words, led him to think about the correct solution of the issue. The scientist, leaving the cell, in joyful amazement told how the unlearned elder helped him discover the secret of his scientific research.

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often visited the elder. She was a research chemist, and her husband was a mining engineer, a major specialist in rocks. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to part with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the death of the elder, she went to the Pskov-Caves monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there. In the Pechersk Monastery there are caves created by God, where the deceased monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried here, but are placed one on top of the other in caves in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena's husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was amazed that the free-flowing sandstone did not crumble for centuries, held like a stone, and collapses did not occur. This apparent miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7

Story 8. The woman did not know that during his lifetime Saint Kuksha also suffered from leg disease

In the spring of 1996, a singer of the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned a story about this healing. A few days after what she heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband had gangrene of his legs, amputation was inevitable. The chanter told her about the Monk Kuksha and his special mercy to those suffering from leg disease. Immediately a moleben was served in the temple to the reverend. In the meantime, the patient was transferred to an operation in Moscow. Everything was already ready for amputation, but the doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “You were saved by a miracle,” the doctors said to the sick man, who, of course, knew nothing about the prayer service served, or about the quick helper and miracle worker, the Monk Kuksha.

Story 9

Story 10

Through the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord resurrected a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in one Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to thrash about in the heat. Xenia's grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely serious condition, asked her daughter - the girl's mother - to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly became silent. The grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - life left the girl. "There's no need for an ambulance, it's already too late..." she told her daughter. In desperation, the child's mother knelt before the icons and began to tearfully pray: "Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!" After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994, in the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa, she was given particles of the vestments and coffin of St. Kuksha. Invoking the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and applied them to the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Xenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to her senses, then, pointing to the icon of the monk, she asked her mother: "Give me Kuksha ...". The arrived doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any grounds for calling an ambulance. In the family, this day is called Xenia's second birthday.

Exactly 20 years ago, on September 29, 1994, Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail uncovered the relics of Elder Kuksha of Odessa, known throughout the Orthodox world. We bring to the attention of the readers of the Pravoslavie.Ru portal a brief life of the Monk Kuksha, 10 stories of miracles performed by him, as well as prayers and troparia dedicated to him.

The Monk Confessor Kuksha of Odessa Schiegumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson province (now Mykolaiv region) into a pious peasant family of Kirill and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Kosma (the future father of Kuksha), John and Maria.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God that one of her children would be vouchsafed to labor in the monastic rank.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Athos and entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery as a novice.

A year later, the hegumen blessed him and his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, two miraculous events happened to Cosmas, which served as signs of his future.

A year after his arrival from Jerusalem to Athos, he received a blessing to once again visit the Holy City and carry out obedience at the Holy Sepulcher.

September 29, 2014, 10:27 am

Reverend Kuksha of Odessa
(1875-1964)

Holiness is not just righteousness, for which the righteous are rewarded with the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but such a height of righteousness that people are so filled with the grace of God that it flows from them to those who communicate with them. Great is their bliss, which comes from beholding the glory of God. Being filled with love for people, which comes from love for God, they are responsive to people's needs and their prayers, and are also intercessors for them before God.

Blessed John (Maximovich)

The Monk Kuksha (Kosma Velichko) was born on January 12/25, 1875, in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson District, Mykolaiv Governorate, into a large family of pious parents Kirill and Kharitina. His mother in her youth dreamed of becoming a nun, but at the insistence of her parents she got married. Kharitina fervently prayed to God, asking that one of her children would be honored to ascetic in the monastic rank. By the grace of God, the youngest son, Kosma, from childhood aspired to God with all his soul, from an early age he fell in love with prayer and solitude, in free time read St. Gospel.

In 1896, Kosmas, having received a parental blessing, retired to the holy Mount Athos, where he was received as a novice in the Russian monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.

In 1897, Kosma, having received the blessing of the abbot of the monastery, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, when the pilgrims were at the Siloam font, Kosma, standing close to the source, was accidentally touched by someone. The boy fell into the water first. Many barren women sought to enter the font among the first, because according to legend: the Lord granted childbearing to the one who first had time to plunge into the water. After this event, the pilgrims began to make fun of Cosmas, saying that he would have many children. These words turned out to be prophetic - the elder Kuksha subsequently really had many spiritual children.

Another significant event took place in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ: by the providence of God, the middle lamp was overturned on Kosma. All the believers wanted to be anointed with oil from the lamps burning at the Holy Sepulcher, people surrounded the youth and, collecting the oil flowing over his clothes with their hands, reverently anointed themselves with it.

A year after returning from Jerusalem to Athos, Kosma was fortunate enough to visit the Holy Land once again, he was honored to serve for a year and a half at the Holy Sepulcher. Soon the novice Kosmas was tonsured a cassock with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1904, a monk, and was named Xenophon. According to the providence of God, the youth had to comprehend the basics of monastic life for 16 years in the monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, under the guidance of the spiritual mentor of the elder Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit in the mountains. Subsequently, the ascetic recalled: “Until 12 at night, in obedience, and at 1 o’clock in the morning he fled to the desert to the elder Melchizedek to learn to pray.”

One day, standing at prayer, the elder and his spiritual son heard in the silence of the night the approach of the wedding cortege: the clatter of horse hooves, playing the harmonica, cheerful singing, laughter, whistling...

“Father, where does the wedding come from?”

“These guests are coming, we need to meet them.”

The elder took the cross, holy water, and a rosary, and, leaving the cell, sprinkled holy water around it. Reading the Epiphany troparion, he signed the cross on all sides - it immediately became quiet, as if there had been no noise at all.

Under his wise guidance, the monk Xenophon was able to acquire all the monastic virtues and succeeded in spiritual work. Despite the fact that Xenophon was an outwardly illiterate person, he could hardly read and write, he knew the Holy Gospel and the Psalter by heart, he performed the church service by memory, never making a mistake.

In 1913, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including Fr. Xenophon. On the eve of departure, Fr. Xenophon ran to his spiritual father:

"Father, I'm not going anywhere!" Here I will lie down under a boat or under a stone and die here, on Athos!

“No, child,” the elder objected, “so it is pleasing to God that you live in Russia, where people need to be saved.” Then he took him out of the cell and asked: “Do you want to see how the elements submit to man?”

- I want it, father.

“Then look. - The elder crossed the dark night sky, and it became light, crossed again - it curled up like birch bark, and Fr. Xenophon saw the Lord in all glory and surrounded by a host of angels and all the saints, he covered his face with his hands, fell to the ground and shouted: “Father, I am afraid!”

After a moment, the old man said:

- Get up, don't be afraid.

Father Kuksha got up from the ground - the sky was ordinary, the stars were still twinkling in it. The Divine consolation received before leaving Athos supported Fr. Xenophon.

In 1913, the Athonite monk Xenophon became a resident of the Kiev-Pechersk Holy Dormition Lavra. In 1914, during the First World War, Fr. Xenophon was a “brother of mercy” for 10 months in the sanitary train “Kyiv-Lviv”, and after returning to the Lavra, he carried out obedience in the Far Caves; refilled and lit the lamps in front of the holy relics, redressed the holy relics...

From the memoirs of Elder Kuksha: “I really wanted to accept the schema, but due to my youth (40+) I was denied my desire. And then one night I was reclothing the relics in the Far Caves. Having reached the holy relics of the schema-monk Silouan, I changed them, took them on my hands and, kneeling before his shrine, began to earnestly pray to him that the saint of God would help me to be tonsured into the schema. And so, kneeling and holding the holy relics in his hands, he fell asleep in the morning.

Dream about. Xenophon came true a few years later: on April 8, 1931, the terminally ill ascetic was tonsured into the schema. During his tonsure he received the name Kuksha, in honor of the Hieromartyr Kuksha, whose relics are in the Near Caves. After the tonsure of Fr. Kuksha began to recover quickly and soon recovered.

On April 3, 1934, Father Kuksha was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and a month later, to the rank of hieromonk. After the closing of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Hieromonk Kuksha served until 1938 in Kyiv, in the church on Voskresenskaya Slobodka. It took great courage to serve as a priest at that time. In 1938, the ascetic was convicted, served a five-year term in the camps of Vilma, Molotov region, then spent three years in exile. In the camps, the convicts were forced to work 14 hours a day, receiving very meager food to “fulfill the norm” in exhausting logging work. The sixty-year-old hieromonk patiently and complacently endured camp life, tried to spiritually support the people around him.

The elder recalled: “It was at Easter. I was so weak and hungry, the wind shook. And the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the snow has already begun to melt. I walk along the zone along the barbed wire, I am unbearably hungry, and behind the wire the cooks carry baking sheets with pies on their heads from the kitchen to the dining room for the guards. Crows fly above them. I prayed, "Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness, bring me a piece of the pie too." Suddenly I hear over my head: “Kar-r-r!”, - and a pie fell at my feet - it was a raven that pulled it from the pan at the cook. I lifted the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied my hunger.”

In the spring of 1943, at the end of his term of imprisonment, on the feast of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, Hieromonk Kuksha was released, and he went into exile in the Solikamsk region. Taking a blessing from the bishop in the city of Solikamsk, he often performed divine services in the neighboring village.

In 1947, the time of exile ended, the eight-year confessional feat ended. Hieromonk Kuksha returned to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, here began the feat of serving the suffering - eldership. Elder Kuksha strengthens the unbelieving, encourages those who grumble, softens the hardened, through his prayer, believers receive spiritual and physical healing. Just as half a century before, in Jerusalem, pilgrims surrounded Kosma and tried to take from his head and clothes the oil miraculously poured out of the lamp to anoint him, so now an endless string of people were walking to the monastery to the elder Kuksha, waiting God's help and grace.

Numerous testimonies of miracles of healing through the prayer of Elder Kuksha have been preserved, here are just a few of these testimonies:

Severely ill A., who was to be removed from a malignant tumor that had appeared on her forehead, came to the elder before the operation. Father Kuksha confessed the sick woman for a long time, then gave communion, gave her a metal cross, which he ordered to press all the time to the tumor. The patient stayed in the monastery for 4 days, with the blessing of the elder she took communion every day, pressed the cross with reverence to her forehead. Returning home, she discovered that half of the tumor had disappeared, white empty skin remained in its place, and two weeks later the second half of the tumor disappeared, the forehead turned white, cleared, and there were no traces of cancer left.

The elder healed one of his spiritual children from a mental illness that had tormented her for a month - in absentia, by reading her letter with a request to pray for her. After the elder received her letter, she became completely healthy.

Elder Kuksha had from God the gift of spiritual reasoning and discrimination of thoughts. He was a great seer. Even the most intimate feelings were revealed to him, which people could hardly understand on their own, but he understood and explained who they were from and where they came from. Many went to him to talk about their sorrows and ask for advice, and he, without waiting for an explanation, already met them with the necessary answer and spiritual advice. The Elder never condemned the sinners and did not shun them, but on the contrary, he always accepted them with compassion. He said: “I myself am a sinner and I love sinners. There is no person on earth who has not sinned. There is only one Lord without sin, and we are all sinners.”

In 1951, Father Kuksha was transferred from Kyiv to the Pochaev Holy Dormition Lavra. In Pochaev, the elder carried the obedience of the icon-maker at the miraculous icon, when monks and pilgrims kissed it. In addition, o. Kuksha had to confess people. He performed his duties with paternal care for all those who came, lovingly exposing their vices, warning against spiritual falls and impending troubles.

One day, a general, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived at the Pochaev Lavra and watched with curiosity as Art. Kuksha confesses. The elder called him to him and talked with him for some time. The general walked away from the elder, very pale, extremely agitated and shocked, asking: “What kind of person is this? How does he know everything? He has rebuked my whole life!”

According to the testimony of spiritual children, Elder Kuksha once called a man who had a wife and two children a hieromonk. Subsequently, after the death of his wife, the man devoted his life to the service of the Lord, a few years later he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then to the rank of hieromonk.

One woman asked the elder Kuksha to bless her daughter M. to marry, the seer answered: “M. will never marry!” The woman tried to explain that the young people had everything ready for the wedding, all that was left was to sew a dress, and after Easter they would be married, but the elder confidently repeated: “M. will never marry." A week before the wedding, M. suddenly began to have epileptic seizures (which had not been observed with her before), and the frightened groom immediately left home. A few years later, M. became a monk with the name Galina, and her mother - with the name Vasilisa.

Another pious girl asked the priest to bless her for monasticism, but the elder blessed her for marriage. He ordered her to go home, saying that a seminarian was waiting for her there. The elder's prediction came true, the girl soon married a seminarian. The spiritual daughter of the elder raised seven children and brought them up in love for God.

One spiritual daughter of the elder said that she really wanted to know how Elder Kuksha felt during the Divine Liturgy:

“Once upon entering the Cave Temple, when Fr. Kuksha served the Divine Liturgy in it, I immediately felt a strong closeness of the soul to God, as if there was no one around, but only God and me. Every exclamation of Kukshi lifted up my soul “woe”, and filled it with such grace, as if I were standing in heaven in the face of God Himself. My heart was childishly pure, unusually light, light and joyful. Not a single extraneous thought bothered me or distracted me from God. I was in this state until the end of the liturgy. After the liturgy, everyone waited for Fr. Kuksha will come out of the altar to take his blessing. I also went to my spiritual father. He blessed me and, firmly taking both my hands, he led me, carefully peering into my eyes with a smile, or rather, through my eyes into my soul, as if trying to see what state it was in after such a pure prayer. I realized that the priest gave me the opportunity to experience the same holy bliss in which he himself always dwelt during the Divine Liturgy.”

From the memoirs of the spiritual daughter of Elder Kuksha:

Sometimes he blessed, placing both palms of his hands crosswise on my head, reading a prayer to himself, and I was filled with extraordinary joy and boundless love for God ... I stayed in this state for three days.

The elder advised everyone not to approach the holy Chalice with money, so as not to “become like Judas,” and he forbade the priests to stand at the throne with money in their pockets and celebrate the Divine Liturgy.

Hundreds of people in the temple were queuing for him. He received many in his cell, not sparing himself and spending whole days almost without rest, despite his advanced age and senile illnesses. He, according to the Athos custom, put on shoes all his life only in boots. From long and many exploits, he had deep venous wounds on his legs. Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein on his leg burst, and his boot filled with blood. He was taken to a cell, put to bed. Abbot Joseph, famous for his healings, came (in the schema Amphilochius), examined the leg and said: “Get ready, father, go home” (that is, die), and left. All monks and laity fervently with tears prayed to the Mother of God for the bestowal of health on the dear and beloved elder. A week later, hegumen Joseph again visited the sick man, examined the almost healed wound on his leg and exclaimed in amazement: “They have begged the spiritual children!”

At the end of April 1957, the elder on Passion Week Lent is transferred to the Khreshchatitsky St. John the Theological Monastery of the Chernivtsi diocese. With the arrival of Elder Kuksha, the spiritual life of the brethren of the monastery came to life. Spiritual children rushed to the quiet abode of the apostle of love, with funds transferred by Fr. Kuksha, buildings in the monastery increased.

In 1960, Elder Kuksha was transferred to the Odessa Holy Dormition monastery. Here he was to spend the last four years of his ascetic life. In the Holy Dormition Monastery, Elder Kuksha was greeted with love by the inhabitants of the monastery. He was assigned the obedience to confess people and help to remove particles from the prosphora during the performance of the proskomedia.

The elder got up early in the morning, read his prayer rule, tried to take communion every day, he especially loved the early liturgy. Every day, going to the temple, the elder put on his Athos sackcloth made of white horsehair, which painfully pricked his whole body, under his clothes.

The cell of the elder in the monastery building adjoined directly to St. Nicholas Church. A novice cell-attendant was also settled with him, but the elder, despite the infirmities of his advanced age, did not use outside help and said: “We are our own novice until death.”

One day, with a joyful face, he said to his spiritual daughter: “The Mother of God wants to take me to Her.” In October 1964, the old man fell and broke his hip. Lying in such a state on the cold damp earth, he caught a cold and fell ill with pneumonia. He never took medicine, calling the Holy Church a "physician". Even while suffering from a near-death illness, he also refused any medical assistance, only asking to receive communion every day of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

The blessed ascetic foresaw his death. Schematic nun A., the spiritual daughter of the elder, recalls:

Batiushka sometimes said: “90 years old - Kuksha is gone. They will bury them as they will, quickly, quickly, they will take spatulas and bury them ”... He died when he was about 90 years old.

Fearing a gathering of people at the funeral, the authorities demanded that the body of the deceased be taken home. The abbot of the monastery replied that the monk's birthplace is the monastery. Then the brethren took two hours to bury the elder.

Elder Kuksha said that after his death, believers should come to the grave and talk about sorrows and needs. Anyone who comes with faith to the place of his earthly rest has always received consolation, admonition, relief and healing from illness through his charitable prayers and intercession.

The story of Ksenia Kibalchik: “It was the 50s, when Rev. Kuksha lived in the Pochaev Lavra. The wanderer Nymphodora came to me, asked me to give her a feasible job and feed her for this. Here is what she said about herself:

She went to confession to Father Kuksha, told about herself that she had been in a monastery, in a commune, and married, and had not received communion for 40 years...”. After confession, she began to mourn her life with sincere repentance and bitter tears. Later, seeing a crowd of people surrounding Fr. Kuksha and those wishing to receive a blessing, conscious of being unworthy to approach him, walked behind everyone. Suddenly he turns around, looks at her and says to her: “The Lord has forgiven, He has forgiven everything.”

While about. Kuksha was in Pochaev, Nymphodora each time confessed only to him and, with his blessing, often took communion. But in April 1957 he was suddenly transferred to a distant monastery of St. Apostle John the Theologian, and then it became difficult to get to him for confession. Nymphodora began to turn to the hieromonk, who was usually on duty at the Assumption Cathedral, but he did not allow Nymphodora to go to confession, each time she came without money. And this is what happened to her one day: having prepared for Holy Communion, she went to confess to the same hieromonk, and was again refused... Here the Liturgy was coming to an end. They sang "Our Father...". The participants approached Royal Doors, and Nymphodora stands and cries inconsolably about her unworthiness, in full confidence that the Lord Himself does not allow her to the Holy Chalice. Her gaze rushed to the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, which was in front of her ... Suddenly she sees through her tears that the Chalice is, as it were, separated from the icon and slowly floats through the air straight to her. Approaching her lips, this full Cup stops for a second, and Nymphodora takes a sip from the Cup, and immediately the Cup begins to rise through the air to the same icon, but before reaching it, it blurs in the air and becomes invisible. Realizing her unworthiness, Nymphodora is afraid even for a moment to believe what a wonderful miracle of God's mercy was sent to her.

Shortly after this event, some kind people invited Nymphodora to go with them to Father Kuksha, promising to take care of all travel expenses. Here they come to him. We entered his cell... He, trying to be kind to everyone, to pay attention to everyone, keeps looking at Nymphodora from time to time and says to her with a smile: “You, Communion!”. She tries to object ... To her objection, he strictly answers:

Shut up, I saw!

Here she already believed the truth of the miracle.

When the elder was in the St. John the Theologian Monastery, he sent his spiritual daughter V. to see a place where a large building could be built for many monks. She went and, through the prayers of the elder, found a good place on the mountain, right above the monastery. When V. returned, the elder said that there would be a large monastic building there, and that he should prepare the place. His prediction began to come true 30 years later: after the opening and return of the monastery, a new generation of monks, who did not know the elder and his prediction, began the construction of the temple and the monastic building on the very place that was discussed.

In the autumn of 1993, one spiritual daughter of the elder recalls, I went to the grave of Father Kuksha and saw there many people who had come from Moldova. They said that one woman was seriously ill with her stomach. Taking the earth from the old man's grave, she put it to her stomach and fell asleep. When she woke up, she felt healed. A cancer patient, seventy-two-year-old M., a resident of Odessa, was also healed.

In 1995, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Elder Kuksha was canonized as a saint in the rank of reverend.

Prophecy of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit Amen. +

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be with you from our Lord Jesus Christ with Grace. For the letter I thank you, which I received not so long ago. Save you, Lord, that you have not forgotten me a sinner. My dear sisters, I believe in your grief and from the bottom of my heart I thank the Lord in everything, but it is a pity that I cannot save you from it. But be patient, my dear brothers and sisters, for this is what our Heavenly Father has ordained.

Know, my dear sisters, that everything is sent from God, good and bad and sorrowful. Accept everything with joy, as from the hand of the Most High God, the Lord, do not be afraid God will not leave you, He will never send you sorrow and grief beyond your strength, and will never put a heavy burden on you, but according to your strength and will give as much as you have enough power.

Know my sisters, if your grief is great, then know that you have a lot of strength to endure it, and if it is not enough, then there is little sorrow to endure. God will never put grief on you so that you do not find yourself without strength, but endure this or that grief of a person, for time is coming to destruction, now the last chapter of the third book of the prophet Ezra is beginning to be fulfilled, death is rolling towards us quickly, oh, oh my sisters, what a time comes that you don’t want to live in this world.

And here, terrible disasters are coming to the earth, fire, famine, death, destruction and destruction. And who can avert them. If it is appointed by the Lord for the sins of people, and this time is already close, lo, lo. And do not listen to anyone who says that there will be peace, there is no peace and there will be no peace.

War and immediately strong, overwhelming hunger, look where everything will immediately disappear, there will be nothing to eat, and then death, death and death, they will drive everyone to the east, men and women, but not a single soul will return from there, everyone will die there. Terrible and great will be death from hunger. And whoever remains from hunger will die from pestilence, from pestilence, and this contagious disease will be impossible to treat. It was not in vain that the holy prophet said and wrote: "Woe, woe and woe to you, our land." One grief will pass, the second will come, the second will pass, the third will come, and so on. Oh our God.

Know, dear sisters, that now God has put an end to all earthly blessings. Truly, truly, I tell you that now it is no longer possible to get married and get married, because these are the days of the Lord. These days God gave us only for repentance, for carnal repentance, and not for feasting and weddings, not for drinking and drunkenness, and parties. This is all we have to leave. We should beg day and night and beg in tears and sobs True God about their sins and ask Him for mercy and mercy on the Last Judgment His. For after all these calamities, a Great and Glorious "Day" will come. And the Terrible Day, the Terrible Judgment of God.

The Scripture says that the elect of God will know, that is, God can reveal to them the year and month of the end of the world, but no one knows the day and hour, but only God knows. Oh, what a terrible time is approaching us. Oh God forbid to see him, from the creation of the world there has not yet been such a thing as it will be now and there will never be such a time again. God! Who will not fear You, Lord?

Listen, my brothers and sisters, and know what I will say to you.

That God has prepared such a "pit" for the world that there is no bottom in it. And all those rejected of God, He will put there in this "pit". O! God forbid, Lord have mercy! I will tell you directly, without hiding from you, that this was revealed to me personally by God. Truly, truly, I tell you, I do not deceive you, that it is a terrible sin to tell lies. God save me now to think about marriage and marriage, now you can’t only talk, but you can’t even think, it’s a sin. This is a terrible sin, not only young people and girls cannot marry and get married, but even all spouses living before this time, legally living together, cannot touch one another, in short, live according to the flesh. God save you, and God forbid. Save and have mercy. There was a time they lived and God blessed, but now all this has come to an end.

But the people of this world will do it and do it to the very end. They will do iniquity. And for this they will fly into a bottomless pit, into hell and eternal fire, because they do not know that it is impossible to do this. The Lord has not revealed everything that I write. My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord, for the people of this world this is all a secret, I feel sorry for everyone that they do not know anything about this, and do not want to know. It is a pity that people walk like blind men and do not see a bottomless pit before them, that they will soon fly into it.

With all my heart and soul I thank the True God for the fact that He, merciful, announced this to me and showed me everything, everything that should be soon. But the Lord does not give everyone such joy as He vouchsafed to see me as a great sinner. Give thanks and praise to Him forever and ever! Amen.

People say goodbye to earthly goods, for no one will ever live. Amen, amen.

Save yourself, O Lord, cherish the precious time given to us for acquiring eternal life, adorn yourself with deeds of mercy and love for your neighbors, fulfill the Gospel commandments, the last time has come, there will soon be a “Great Council”, called “Holy”, but it will be the "Eighth Great Council" itself, the council of the wicked. It will unite all faiths into one faith. Holy fasts will be abolished, bishops will be married, monasticism will be completely destroyed, there will be a new style everywhere. throughout the Universal Church.

Be careful and try to visit the Temple of God now, while it is still ours. And soon, soon we will not be able to go to the Temple. There, when everything changes and they will even drive you to the Temples, but then you can’t go. We ask you all to stand in the Orthodox faith, until the end of your days and your life, and be saved. Peace be with you and salvation be over us with willows forever. Amen. Blessing of the Lord from Mount St. Pochaevskaya, Grace and peace of God be with you. Amen.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Children of Christ our God! Why is there no fear of God and faith in God in the souls of people! Because people left prayer and love left people's hearts. And the devil entered with his fury and darkened all spiritual love, they changed it to evil, and they changed the joy of God to craftiness, crafty joy, and the peace of God left us and departed. Thank God we trampled. And there is no peace and rest in our hearts, and a large ice floe closed our souls. Instead of simplicity, greed appeared, instead of the wisdom of God, envy appeared, instead of the kindness of Christ, hatred. Instead of the Grace of God, lies and deceit reign in people. There is no fear and there is no God. In all, the enemy's fire lives and the hissing of the serpent. The Lord will not endure for a long time these wiles of the enemy.

Children, do not be poor, and naked, and blind, and beggars, and hypocrites before the Lord God. Better put on the clothes of good deeds and be enlightened by the enlightenment of the mind and mind of Christ. Be humble and don't get angry God's wisdom. Children, do not destroy your souls and do not give them over to the power of spirits of evil in high places. The end is coming for everyone and you stand on the Divine guard as the soldiers of Christ, looking to the head of the world, to the Lord, be victorious on guard of your souls, so that the victory is God's, and not the enemy's.

Voluntarily go to the feat of suffering, there is nothing to wait, it's all over. Protect yourself from the charms of the devil, if bodily hunger befalls you, then renounce everything, the evil world. But if it gets human soul Spiritual hunger is terrible, it is the eternal death of hell and tartar. Look, don’t renounce the Lord God and it’s very scary to deny the Lord and fall into the clutches of the devil forever, to eternal reproach, oh scary, oh scary and very scary. Children, enjoy my words, for soon my mouth will close and there will be no verb, the Lord comforts you in every possible way, and exhorts and reproves. But soon, it's all over. Wait for a new service and a new charter, wait, and for now, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often.

And often repent of your sins, cleanse yourself of leprosy, of all passions, bodily, and endure everything that happens with joy, for we will soon be freed from this earthly life and pass into eternity, into endless joy, if we endure and endure everything, do not resist nowhere. This is the foundation of our Orthodox faith When a person has firmness and hope in the Lord, then he is not afraid of anything and he waits every day and hour, as if he would soon be separated from the sinful body and the world, in order to achieve eternal Bliss. And whoever has left prayer and love for his neighbor, he tries only here and for him it seems like a long time.

And Christ said through the Apostle Paul: "Lift up your heads, for the day of your salvation has come." Everything will disappear like rubbish in this vain world, only what we deserve, then we will receive, good or evil, unclean and filthy, then it will be ours. A righteous judge draws a person to himself every minute so that a person understands and sees the Light, but a person loves darkness more than Light, and does not want to understand about the Light, does not even want to understand about God and remains an endless captive of the devil, and he attracts people to himself with their evil power.

There is no prayer and fasting, and everyone has lost the Light of God and trampled and go without looking back into the pitch darkness. All do not want to invoke the Merciful God, they do not even want to think about Him. And for this, the Lord has prepared for the sinful world “The Bottomless Pit.” People have no humility and sincere repentance, conscience is closed, and conscience sleeps in a sinful sleep and a person like senseless cattle considers dirt to be virtue, and considers nothing to be virtue.

Children do not look for much, and do not go into the depths, if you need something, then ask God and you will have it. May God's justice be with you. Jesus Christ teaches us and He will guide us and will lead us into all truth, and teach us everything, and remind us of everything and what we need ahead of us will proclaim and give us strength and strength, the Grace and fear of God and the help and spirit of Holy Wisdom, joy, strength and blessed consolation. Just do not repay Him in your hearts holy name. Always remember Jesus Christ. It will be easy for you about His crucifixion when the spirit of malice comes in all its fury, and then nothing will frighten you. The Lord will live in you, and you will live in Him and will always be with the Lord.

Do the Jesus Prayer endlessly. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.

Troparion to the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, voice 4

From your youth, you left the world of the superstitious and crafty, / Enlightened by divine grace from above, reverend, / You performed a feat with many patience in temporary life, / the same exude miracles of grace to all who come with faith to the race of your relics, / Kuksho, our most blessed father.

Exactly 20 years ago, on September 29, 1994, Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Izmail uncovered the relics of Elder Kuksha of Odessa, known throughout the Orthodox world. We bring to the attention of the readers of the portal short life Rev. Kuksha, 10 stories of miracles performed by him, as well as prayers and troparia dedicated to him.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God that one of her children would be vouchsafed to labor in the monastic rank.

At the age of 20, Cosmas first went on a pilgrimage with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited Mount Athos. Here the soul of the young man was kindled with the desire to serve God in the form of an angel. But first he returned home for his parents' blessing.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Athos and entered the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery as a novice.

A year later, the hegumen blessed him and his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, two miraculous events happened to Cosmas, which served as signs of his future.

A year after his arrival from Jerusalem to Athos, he received a blessing to once again visit the Holy City and carry out obedience at the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon his return on March 28, 1902, the novice Kosmas was tonsured a cassock with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1905, he became a monk and was named Xenophon. His spiritual father was the ascetic elder Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit and was a monk of a high spiritual life.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Here, on May 3, 1934, he was ordained a hieromonk.

At that time, who knew Father Kuksha well and appreciated him for his virtues. Once, Vladyka, under the guise of crackers, was able to transfer 100 particles of dry Gifts to the camp to the monk so that Father Communion would take them. But how could he alone consume the Holy Gifts, when many priests, monks and nuns, who had been imprisoned for many years, were deprived of this consolation?

In 1953, Father Kuksha was transferred to. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon case at the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and for three years also served the early liturgy in the Cave Church and confessed people.

Saint Kuksha became the monastic tonsure recipient of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kyiv and All Ukraine.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “The time has passed” and very calmly withdrew to the Lord.

Even during his lifetime, Saint Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to his grave with their sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the saint's testament, exuding grace-filled help to all who turn to him with faith.

THE MIRACLES OF THE Reverend Kuksha

Story 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy”

Story 2. 102-year-old student of the Monk Kuksha

Story 3

Story 4. The power of charity

Story 5. A hint for a scientist

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often visited the elder. She was a research chemist, and her husband was a mining engineer, a major specialist in rocks. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to part with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the death of the elder, she went to the Pskov-Caves monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there. In the Pechersk Monastery there are caves created by God, where the deceased monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried here, but are placed one on top of the other in caves in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena's husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was amazed that the free-flowing sandstone did not crumble for centuries, held like a stone, and collapses did not occur. This apparent miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7. “Suddenly I saw the Monk Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on my forehead…

Story 8. The woman did not know that during his lifetime Saint Kuksha also suffered from leg disease

In the spring of 1996, a singer of the St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned a story about this healing. A few days after what she heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband had gangrene of his legs, amputation was inevitable. The chanter told her about the Monk Kuksha and his special mercy to those suffering from leg disease. Immediately a moleben was served in the temple to the reverend. In the meantime, the patient was transferred to an operation in Moscow. Everything was already ready for amputation, but the doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “You were saved by a miracle,” the doctors said to the sick man, who, of course, knew nothing about the prayer service served, or about the quick helper and miracle worker, the Monk Kuksha.

Story 9

Story 10

Through the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord resurrected a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in one Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to thrash about in the heat. Xenia's grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely serious condition, asked her daughter - the girl's mother - to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly became silent. The grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - life left the girl. "There's no need for an ambulance, it's already too late..." she told her daughter. In desperation, the child's mother knelt before the icons and began to tearfully pray: "Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!" After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994, in the Holy Dormition Monastery in Odessa, she was given particles of the vestments and coffin of St. Kuksha. Invoking the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and applied them to the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Xenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to her senses, then, pointing to the icon of the monk, she asked her mother: "Give me Kuksha ...". The arrived doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any grounds for calling an ambulance. In the family, this day is called Xenia's second birthday.

PRAYER AND TROPARI

Prayer

Illuminate, most blessed, our mind with the light of the face of God, strengthen our life with the grace of the Lord, so that, being established in the Law of Christ, we will flow lazily along the path of the commandments of the saints. Autumn with your blessing on us and all those who are in sorrow, those who are obsessed with mental and physical illnesses, grant healing, consolation and deliverance. Above all of these, ask us from above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, who apostatized from the Orthodox faith and pernicious heresies and schisms blinded by admonition, in the darkness of unbelief with the wandering light of true knowledge of God, enlightenment, strife and discord, quenching, implore the Lord God and the Most Holy Theotokos Grant us a quiet and sinless life.

Troparion, tone 4:

Kontakion, tone 8: