Saint Dmitry of Rostov biography. Saint Demetrius of Rostov and his writings

Dimitry was born (in the world - Daniil Savvich Tuptalo) in the town of Makarov near Kyiv in 1651. He studied at the Kiev-Bratsk Collegium, after which he was tonsured at the St. Cyril Monastery.

Dimitri lived there for about six years, during which time he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then to the rank of hieromonk. After that, he received the appointment of a preacher and left for Chernigov. Dimitry of Rostovsky devoted the next two years to the preaching service, during which time he managed to become famous for his sermons far beyond the borders of Chernigov. After serving in Chernigov for several years, he traveled to Ukrainian monasteries, creating his first notes - "Diary". They set out the main events of those years related to Ukraine.

Dmitry Rostovsky. Portrait
(Image from radiovera.ru)

From 1679 to 1684 the saint lived and served in various monasteries in Nikolaev, Chernigov, Baturin, c. It was in the Lavra that Demetrius was given the obedience to compose the biographies of the saints. He worked on this book for many years. The compilation of the lives of the saints (several collections were obtained, among which the Cheti-Minei remain the most famous) subsequently glorified Father Demetrius as an outstanding and thoughtful church author. However, Dimitri Rostovsky is also known as the author of numerous sermons, articles, plays and poems.

For some time, Dimitri served as rector of the monasteries of Yelets and Novgorod Seversky, and soon after the transition of the Kyiv Metropolis to the submission of the Moscow Patriarchate (this happened in 1698), he went to Moscow. In the spring of 1701 he became bishop and metropolitan of Tobolsk and all Siberia. But a year later, by decree of the Tsar, Father Demetrius was transferred to the Rostov Metropolis - the reason for this decision was the developing debilitating disease. As Metropolitan of Rostov, from the very first days of his ministry, Dimitri was known for his tireless concern for educational work among the population and planting the main moral principles. He founded a Slavic-Greek school for youth, to the best of his ability eradicated rampant drunkenness and general ignorance, as well as the Old Believers. Saint Demetrius sacrificed his fortune for the poor, the sick, the defenseless, the orphans.

Father Demetrius died in his cell while praying at night, this happened on October 28, 1709. He was buried in the Church of the Conception of the Yakovlevsky Monastery - so he bequeathed himself, immediately upon arrival in the diocese.

Miracles of Healing

42 years after the death of Demetrius of Rostov, a seemingly strong cast-iron floor sank over the grave of the Metropolitan. The floor had to be repaired, and at the same time the workers opened the log cabin of Dimitri's grave. So they were discovered and acquired by the church in untouched vestments and decay. After a thorough examination of the relics and numerous healings at the tomb of Demetrius, the church canonized him as a saint - this happened already in 1757.

Orphans and widows, as well as poor people for help in need, always prayed to Dimitry of Rostov for the intercession. His relics became famous for healing many diseases, especially pulmonary and heart diseases: the metropolitan himself suffered from "chest disease", which caused his death. The days of the memory of the saint were the day of the death of the metropolitan and the day of finding his relics - September 21.

After the discovery of the incorruptible relics of the saint, their fame spread widely, and pilgrims began to flock to the tomb of the Metropolitan. It soon became clear that healings began to flow from the relics: the sick, the blind, the dumb, the demon-possessed, went to the tomb of the saint. Everyone was healed according to the holy relics of the saint.

Dmitry Rostovsky. Icon
(Image from tobolsk.tumentoday.ru)

Only in 1867 the following cases of healings were officially registered:
In 1753, Maria Varfolomeyeva, a resident of the village of Lazortseva, Rostov district, was healed by prayers at the relics of St. Demetrius from blindness and constant headaches.
The landowner Vyazemskaya of the Yaroslavl district, praying at the tomb of Dimitry of Rostov, received healing from fever and "animal disease" (abdominal disease).
In 1753, the widow Praskovya Artemyeva from the village of Zalessky, Pereslavl district, suffering from a fever, heard a voice ordering her to go and pray at the tomb of St. Demetrius. After praying at the tomb, she was healed of her illness, and in 1754, while in Moscow, she had a dream in which Dimitri Rostovsky, in full dress, was going to put out a Moscow fire. In the morning there really was a fire, but only the roofs of the houses burned down, while the houses themselves remained untouched.

Good healings from all kinds of illnesses are performed at the relics of St. Demetrius to this day. Especially often there are healings from diseases of the cardiovascular system. Through the sincere prayer of the sick and their loved ones, the relics of the saint grant healing from ailments: we believe that the incorruptible body of the saint is with us, and the soul is at the throne of the Lord, where the saint can pray for us and ask for God's intercession for the sick and the needy.

Since 1991, the relics of St. Demetrius of Rostov have been transferred to the Yakovlevsky Church on the territory of the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery. Anyone can go to bow to the relics of the saint at the address: Yaroslavl region, Rostov the Great, Engels street 44. If you walk from the Kremlin towards Lake Nero, the path to the monastery will take about 15 minutes.

The saints of God came to the salvation of their souls in different ways. Someone accepted the crown of martyrdom, someone headed the monasteries. And there are people who left a significant mark in the Tradition of the Church with their creations. One of these is St. Dmitry, Metropolitan of Rostov.

Childhood, education and first steps to God

The future archpastor was born in 1651 near Kyiv in a Cossack family. Both the father and mother of the child led a pious and God-fearing life, so little Daniel (as the saint was called in the world) grew up in an atmosphere of love and faith in God. It is noteworthy that in his diary entries, the son describes with great reverence the quiet and calm death of his mother. According to this record, it is clear that the son loved his mother very much and considered her life an example of faith.

Saint Dmitry of Rostov

Daniil received his first education at home, his parents taught him to read. When he grew up and it was time to study further, he entered the school, where he quickly became one of the best students. He was especially good at rhetoric and public speaking. The skills acquired during his studies helped the future great preacher to develop a unique style of speech, which betrayed his words and sermons with special persuasiveness, ardor and sincerity.

hallmark young man already in the years of his apprenticeship there was a deep spiritual contemplative life. He was a stranger to the amusements familiar to young people, in his free time he prayed, read the Bible, the holy fathers. He loved the temple of God very much, he tried not to miss divine services.

Unfortunately, the political situation in the country did not allow the gifted young man to complete his studies. Ukraine at that time constantly passed under the authority of different states, and military conflicts were constant. The school where the future ascetic studied was destroyed, and the students had to interrupt their studies. But even those three years spent in the school were enough for the young ascetic to learn a lot and finally establish himself in his choice to embark on the path of monasticism.

tonsure and abbess

As a very young man, Daniel decides to enter a monastery. The parents did not put obstacles in this choice of their son and gave their blessing, because they saw that this was the path prepared by the Lord for their child. And the young man Daniel leaves home for the St. Cyril Monastery. The rector of the monastery is the former rector of the school where Daniel studied, so the young man is warmly welcomed in the monastery.

Saint Demetrius of Rostov

And in 1668, the most long-awaited event in Daniel's life comes - tonsure. The father hegumen himself performed it, and he named the new monk Demetrius. The newly-made monk immediately began to zealously fulfill the monastic rule, choosing as an example for himself the saints Anthony and Theodosius, as well as the rest of the ascetics of the Caves.

Important! Even as a monk, Father Demetrius did not leave education and scientific research in his cell.

7 years after the first tonsure, Father Dmitry met with the then Metropolitan of Chernigov. Seeing that before him was a talented and zealous servant of the Lord, the bishop invited the monk to preach in the Chernihiv diocese. There he quickly earned the love of ordinary people and church ministers. Many monasteries and large parishes began to invite Father Dmitry to listen to his instructive sermons. The power of his word was such that many people believed in the Lord.

Having traveled to a large number of monasteries and got acquainted with many church hierarchs, Father Demetrius receives an invitation from the brethren of the Kirillovsky Monastery to become their abbot. The archbishop approves the inspired monk without hesitation, and Father Demetrius becomes rector.

Subsequently, by the Providence of God, he will lead more than one monastery, and in every place St. Dmitry will be an example for all the brethren. A strict ascetic life, asceticism, and at the same time a lively participation in the life of every person made him a favorite abbot in every monastery.

About Orthodox monasteries:

• Zadonsky Tikhonovsky Transfiguration Monastery in the Lipetsk region

Cheti-Minei - the main work of St. Demetrius

Archimandrite Varlaam of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for a long time was looking for a monk who could do a great and difficult job - to put together all the known lives of the saints. During the Polish raids and military conflicts, many liturgical and church books were lost, including the lives available at that time. The choice of the archpastor to carry out this, without exaggeration, historical task fell on Father Demetrius, who at that time had resigned from his duties as hegumen and lived as a simple monk in one of the monasteries.

Dimitri Rostovsky

Interesting! Out of his great humility, the ascetic at first refused such responsible obedience for a long time, but later agreed, realizing the necessity of such work for the Church of Christ.

For more than two years, the saint of God worked in the Lavra, compiling the biographies of the saints. But the brethren of the Baturinsky Monastery again turned to him, persuading him to take control. The monk refused for a long time, citing his obedience, but eventually gave in. So he again became abbot, but did not leave his work. Already on new position Dimitry finished and handed over to Archimandrite Varlaam his work, compiled for the months from September to November. The archimandrite highly appreciated the work of the abbot, and the first quarter of the Chetya Menaion was immediately put into print.

The first published book was highly approved by the church leadership, and Father Demetrius was awarded a commendable patriarchal diploma for his work. After that, he decides to fully devote his time to writing the second book, and again relieves himself of the duties of abbot.

However, no matter how the monk aspired to a reclusive life, too many hearts needed his pastoral experience and the Christian word. And the future saint becomes hegumen of the Peter and Paul Monastery. There, skillfully managing the monastery, he writes the second part of the collection of the lives of the saints. This is followed by several more new appointments to other monasteries, and everywhere the ascetic does not leave his labors. The ascetic finishes the third part of his work with an increase in the hierarchy in the rank of Archimandrite of Chernigov.

Consecration to the rank of Metropolitan of Rostov

During the works on the Cheti-Minei, Emperor Peter the Great himself was worried about the search for a primate to lead large territories of Siberia. At the direction of the Kyiv Metropolitan, the choice fell on Dmitry. However, he was so burdened by the prospect of moving to such remote villages, where he would not have access to the data he needed on the lives of the saints, that the ascetic fell ill. Upon learning of this, Emperor Peter allowed to wait for the appointment to a not so distant land. And after a short time, the ascetic was ordained Metropolitan of Rostov.

Consecration to the Metropolitans

Taking upon himself the task of leading the new metropolis, the ascetic discovered many problems and discords. Being a zealous servant of the Lord and his Church, he immediately set about eradicating all the evil customs that had taken root in every parish. The primate was especially saddened by the attitude of the local clergy towards divine services and church shrines.

Important! In order to guide negligent pastors on the true path, the new metropolitan issued two epistles to the local clergy.

The first epistle was in the spirit of paternal love and care, in which Saint Demetrius tearfully asked the shepherds to remember their status and their holy duties towards the flock. The second epistle was written on the basis of the hierarchical authority, which the metropolitan commanded to give due respect and reverence to all church shrines, especially the Body and Blood of Christ.

Whatever power the metropolitan was endowed with, he perfectly understood that the only way to eradicate the spiritual vices of the local negligent clergy was by a worthy example, exhortation and enlightenment. Therefore, at his home, he organized a parish school, where there were three classes with individual teachers.

The Law of God was studied at the school, the Gospel was studied, and prayers were read regularly. Metropolitan Demetrius personally monitored the level of training of students, and upon graduation from the college assigned them to serve at churches, showing sincere concern for each of them.

Surprisingly, even with such a rich service, the ascetic had enough time and strength to continue working on the collection of the lives of the saints. So, already in the rank of Metropolitan of Rostov, he finishes and submits to print the last fourth book of the Chet'i-Minei.

Important! Thus, without interrupting his devotional service, Metropolitan Dimitry of Rostov is completing the most complete collection of the lives of the saints, the most complete collection of the lives of the saints, the Cheti-Minei, historical for the Church. This work took him more than 20 years of his ascetic life.

The fight against schismatics

Having completed one great and soul-saving work for the entire Christian people, the Providence of God placed new concerns on the metropolitan. The future saint had to save the flock entrusted to him from the misfortune of schismatics.

Dimitri Rostovsky

Entire schismatic clans and sects were hiding in the Bryn forests adjacent to his metropolis, who sent their preachers everywhere in order to spread their false teachings. Many people, especially simple people and not learned in the subtleties of theology, fell into their nets and began to waver in the true faith.

One conversation that took place between the Lord and ordinary people is described. Once, after the service, two people approached him and asked if they could shave their beards, as the then decree commanded. There was an opinion among the people that along with a beard, the image of God is also taken away from a person. For a long time the metropolitan explained to them that the image of God cannot be in a beard, that it is in the human soul.

Of course, with such a level of knowledge about Christ, the people easily fell into schismatic heresy. Then the metropolitan writes several essays on faith, in which he firmly and confidently explains what the false teaching of the schismatics is and why it leads away from God.

In addition, Vladyka regularly travels around the diocese entrusted to him and everywhere personally denounces schismatics and calls on Orthodox Christians to avoid this teaching in every possible way. Being a zealous preacher and a true Christian, he cannot watch without pain as simple people are deceived from the true path by cunning false preachers.

What should beware of the Orthodox Christian:

Other works of the holy ascetic and his spiritual gifts

Having experience in writing a large church work, Metropolitan Demetrius decided to write another book that tells about the events of the Bible. The fact is that at that time the Bible in the Slavic language was very rare, and was very expensive. Therefore, the majority of the ordinary population could not afford such a luxury and were deprived of the blessed reading of the Holy Scriptures. Moreover, even many of the priesthood were poorly versed in biblical events and confused the chronology.

Icon of Demetrius

Saint Demetrius begins a new work. In it, he uses the main biblical events and plots, and ascribes teachings and interpretations to them. By reading this work, even a person who was completely unfamiliar with the Bible could form a clear idea of ​​​​the Holy Scripture. Unfortunately, the saint was never able to complete this great work because of his very poor health.

In addition to writing books, all his life the ascetic was engaged in preaching the faith of Christ. Possessing a unique gift of speech, he knew how to build his speech in such a way that no one who heard them remained indifferent. Since most often his listeners turned out to be ordinary people, he built his sermons simply, like a conversation between a father and his beloved children. And no matter what labors and worries fell to the lot of the ascetic, he never left the feat of preaching until the very last days of his life.

One of his ascetic exploits was prayer, which he never abandoned. Trying to go to church every day, every Sunday and religious holiday served the liturgy. He taught everyone who was in his immediate circle to pray constantly and zealously, remembering the Lord every minute.

Interesting! The post of the ascetic was also very strict. Yes, on Holy Week he ate only once, on Maundy Thursday.

Of course, such a deep spiritual life affected his earthly life, his communication with people. With everyone whom Dmitry Rostovsky met, he was attentive and courteous. All his life he helped the poor and the suffering - some with a word of consolation, and some with money. Saint Demetrius was distinguished by extreme non-acquisitiveness, he was always content with only the necessary minimum of goods for himself, and distributed the rest to those in need.

The result of such an attentive attitude to one's own soul was the acquisition of the greatest humility. The ascetic always remembered the words of the Lord that whoever wants to be the first in the Kingdom of Heaven must be the last in earthly life. In the life of Metropolitan Demetrius, this commandment was embodied in deep reverence for any superiors, in mercy for subordinates, in compassion for the mourners.

Bright death and memory of the saint

Even at the very beginning of his ministry as metropolitan, Saint Demetrius commanded that he should be buried in the Spaso-Yakovlevsky monastery. With a close friend, Metropolitan Stefan, the ascetic had an agreement that if he went to the Lord first, then Stefan would come to bury him. The saint died only at the age of 59, before reaching a ripe old age. But during his life he managed to put in so much work for the benefit of the Church that it becomes amazing how he could do it all.

A few days before his death, the saint still served the Liturgy, but he could no longer deliver the sermon, and the text was read for him by the reader according to the Metropolitan's note. After the service, he had several more meetings with the clergy. He even managed to personally visit one of the nuns he had tonsured, who very stubbornly asked for it.

Returning to his cell with great difficulty, Father Demetrius left with him the servants of his temple, who sang spiritual songs to him.

Interesting! During his life, along with many labors and deeds, Saint Demetrius wrote the texts of some spiritual songs, which were sung to him during the last hours of his earthly life.

At the end of the hymns, everyone began to disperse, and the metropolitan detained one of the readers, who helped to copy the works of Vladyka. Sincerely thanking the reader for the work done, the Metropolitan bowed directly at his feet, once again showing everyone an example of amazing humility. The reader was surprised and discouraged by such a farewell, and left the Lord in tears.

Left alone, the metropolitan set about his most beloved occupation - prayer. In the morning, the brethren found the beloved Metropolitan dead peacefully on his knees, in the same position in which he always prayed.

The news of the death of the beloved archpastor quickly spread throughout Rostov and beyond. People began to flock from everywhere to say goodbye to the deceased. Metropolitan Stefan also arrived, who was supposed to bury his friend according to a long-standing agreement. All those who arrived deeply mourned the invaluable loss of such a revered pastor, who by his word set many on the path of the faith of Christ.

After all the necessary preparations and lengthy funeral services, the body of the saint was interred in the place where he himself had bequeathed. A huge number of people attended the funeral, many cried. Saint Demetrius was indeed to many a loving father and an example of a true servant of God.

For more than 40 years the body of the saint was buried. Later, when repair work was being carried out and the floor was being changed in the cathedral of the monastery, a large wooden frame was found under the rotten boards. When they took out all the broken boards and earth from there, they saw the tomb of the saint. Its top was damaged by fallen logs, but the body of the saint was not subjected to decay. Even the funeral robes of the ascetic remained imperishable.

Very quickly, the news of the discovery of the holy relics spread throughout the district, and people again flocked to the monastery, seeking healing and consolation from the saint. And miracles were not long in coming: by applying to the holy relics, many received recovery from a wide variety of ailments. Those possessed by demons were also brought to the relics, and the demons immediately left the body of the sufferer.

Having officially examined the relics and studied all the facts of miracles, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to canonize Metropolitan Dimitry as a saint, which was done in 1757. After the glorification, a service was compiled for him, and his follower and new Metropolitan of Rostov, Arseniy, compiled the life of the new saint.

And to this day, the help of St. Dmitry of Rostov has not weakened to anyone who comes to him with sincere faith or turns in prayer. And the main written work of the saint, Chet'i-Minei, entered the history of the Church forever as the most complete work, where the lives of the saints are collected.

Video about the life of St. Dmitry of Rostov

The first exploits of Saint Demetrius

In the aisles of Kyiv, in the small town of Makarov, the future Saint Demetrius (in the world Daniel) was born in December 1651 from not famous, but pious parents: centurion Savva Grigorievich Tuntala and his wife Maria. He himself depicted in his notes, which he kept for almost his entire life, the blessed death of his mother, and the praise of such a son is the best evidence of her virtue. His father, from ordinary Cossacks, having risen to the rank of centurion of Hetman Doroshenko, under the vague circumstances of that time, in his later years cheerfully bore the burden of military service and died over a hundred years in Kyiv, where he moved with his family. He devoted his last days to serving the Church in the position of a clerk of the St. Cyril monastery, where his son later took the tonsure and where he himself lay down in eternal rest beside his wife. Nothing more is known about them; but this glory is enough for this pious couple, that in the midst of their poverty they could raise such a lamp for the Church, accustoming him, even in home life, to the exploits of virtue.

Taught to read and write in his parental home, the lad Daniel entered for higher education at the Fraternal School at the Church of the Epiphany in Kyiv, which is now turned into an Academic monastery, it was the only hotbed of spiritual education for youth, planted or, better to say, expanded by the zealous Metropolitan Peter Mohyla to counteract Latin intrigues: the excellent abilities of the youth drew the attention of mentors to him, and he showed quick successes above all his peers, but he was even more distinguished by his piety and modest disposition, which removed him from all the amusements characteristic of his age. No further, however, than the age of eighteen he could use the beneficent teachings of the Brethren's monastery; in the midst of the disastrous circumstances of that time, during the bloody war between Russia and the Zadneprovsky Cossacks, Kyiv passed from hand to hand, and the school itself was closed when the Polish state temporarily prevailed as the cradle of our faith; for eight years it remained in such desolation. Then the young man Daniel followed the early inclination of his heart and, three years after leaving the school, imbued with the reading of his father's books, took monastic vows in the related monastery of Cyril; he took the name Demetrius, which he glorified in the Russian land. It is understandable that he chose this monastery, for here his elder father was a ktitor, and the rector was the former rector of the Fraternal School, the enlightened Melety Dzik.

From here, although still in his youth, begins a series of feats of the Dimitrievs in the field of church and theology, in which he shone as one of the ancient teachers of the Ecumenical Church, reminding us of the bright face of Vasilyev, Grigoriev and Chrysostom. Despite his youth, for the sake of high virtue and a hard-working life, Abbot Meletius asked the betrothed Metropolitan of Kyiv, Joseph Tukalsky (who, not being admitted to his diocese, had a stay in Kanev), to consecrate the new monk to the hierodeacon. Six years later, Demetrius became known to the true guardian of the Metropolis of Kyiv, Lazar Baranovich, Archbishop of Chernigov, a man of high virtue and learning, who himself was a graduate and rector of the Kyiv Academy and was revered as a great pillar of the Church and a zealot of Orthodoxy in Little Russia. The archbishop summoned Demetrius, who had reached the age of only twenty-five, to the Gustynsky Trinity Monastery, where he himself was on the occasion of the consecration of the temple, and there he ordained him a hieromonk; this was in 1675. Having learned more closely the inner dignity of the newly appointed, he took him with him to the diocese, where he needed preachers of the word of God and contestants with the Latins, who were intensifying to suppress Orthodoxy in southern Russia.

The zealous pastor tried to arouse enlightened people to oppose the machinations of the Romans, for this he summoned from Lithuania the former rector of the Kyiv Academy, Ioanniky Golyatovsky, and patronized the learned foreigner Adam Zernikav, who, being a Protestant, converted to Orthodoxy solely by the power of truth; this Zernikav wrote an extensive book about the procession of the Holy Spirit from the one Father, in which, contrary to the opinions of the Latins, all possible evidence of the ancient teachers of the Church was collected. With such learned people, Demetrius ascended into the community, supplementing their knowledge with his own lack of knowledge, since the circumstances of the time did not allow him to complete the full course of theological sciences at the Bratsk School. For two years he held the position of a preacher at the Chernigov cathedra and tried to edify as much with an eloquent word as with his good example. A significant dream that he had about this time and recorded in his diary shows to what extent the church preacher was strict with himself: “Once in great post, in 1676, on the week of the Adoration of the Cross, having left the matins and preparing to serve in the cathedral (for the Right Reverend himself wanted to serve), I dozed off with a somewhat thin sleep. In a dream, it seemed to me as if I was standing in the altar in front of the altar: the Most Reverend Bishop is sitting in armchairs, and we are all near the altar, preparing for the service, reading something. Suddenly Vladyka became angry with me and began to reprimand me strongly; his words (I remember them well) were as follows: “Didn't I choose you, didn't I give you a name? left brother Paul the deacon and others who came, and chose you?” In his anger he uttered other words, useful to me, which, however, I do not remember; neither of these are well remembered to me. I bowed low to the Right Reverend and, promising to improve (which, however, I still do not do), I asked for forgiveness - and I was rewarded with it. Forgiving me, he allowed me to kiss his hand and began to talk affectionately with a lot, commanding me to prepare for the service. Then I again stood in my place, unfolded the service book, but even in it I immediately found the same words with which the Right Reverend reprimanded me, written in large letters: “Didn’t I choose you?” and so on, as before said. It was with great horror and surprise that I read those words at that time, and to this day I remember them firmly. Waking up from sleep, I was much surprised at what I saw, and hitherto, when I remember, I am surprised and think that in this vision, through the person of the Most Reverend Archbishop, my Creator himself admonished me. At the same time, I also asked about Paul: was there ever such a deacon? I couldn’t find him anywhere, neither in Chernigov, nor in Kyiv, nor in other monasteries, and to this day I don’t know if Paul was a deacon or is there now somewhere in my country? Does God know what Paul the deacon means? Oh my God! arrange a thing for me according to Your good and most merciful will for the salvation of my sinful soul.

Rumors about a new ecclesiastical orgy spread throughout Little Russia and Lithuania; various monasteries, one after another, tried to take advantage of his spiritual edification, which attracted crowds of people to them and affirmed Orthodoxy, which wavered in those parts. Moved by pious zeal, Demetrius first of all went from Chernigov to the Novodvorsky Monastery, subordinate to the Vilna Holy Spirit, within Lithuania, to worship the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, painted by St. Peter the Metropolitan. He was cordially received there by the Metropolitan Viceroy, Bishop Theodosius of Belarus, and the rector of the Holy Spirit Monastery, Kliment Troitsky. The latter invited him to short time to his monastery in Vilna, and Bishop Theodosius to Slutsk, where he appointed his seat Transfiguration Monastery; there, taking advantage of the special disposition of the brotherhood and monastic warden, the beneficent citizen Skochkevich, Dimitri preached the word of God for more than a year, until the death of his benefactors, the bishop and ktitor; but during this time he also wandered around the surrounding monasteries to worship the shrine; we are left with his description of the miracles of the Ilyinsky icon of the Mother of God, which is in Chernigov, under the name “Irrigated Rune”.

Meanwhile, Kyiv and Chernigov demanded back the preacher who was being held in Slutsk, because the common love for him was so great. The abbot of the Kirillovsky monastery, Meletius, who was transferred to Mikhailovsky-Golden-domed, invited his student and tonsured to his place; Hetman of Little Russia Samoylovich offered him a position as a preacher in Baturin.

The vow of monastic obedience prompted Demetrius to go to the call of the elder hegumen, but the Slutsk brethren would not let him go, promising to take full responsibility, and Miletius agreed for a while, even sending a particle of the relics of the holy Great Martyr Barbara as a blessing to the preacher. When, however, after the death of his benefactors, insistent demands were made from Kyiv and Baturin, Dimitry had to obey and preferred the city of the hetman, because Kyiv was then under fear of the Tatar invasion: the former hetman Yuri Khmelnitsky called the Turks to his homeland, and the whole of Zadneprovskaya Ukraine trembled at his devastation; even the rector of the Lavra of the Caves asked for a while to move with the brethren to another, safer place. Dimitry was graciously received by Hetman Samoylovich, who himself, coming from a spiritual rank, was distinguished by piety; he pointed out to him the Nikolaevsky Monastery near Baturin, where at that time the scientist Theodosius Gugurevich, who later took the post of rector at the Kyiv Academy, was rector.

Demetrius was invited from Slutsk to various monasteries to preach the Word of God; from Baturin, for their one-time management. The brethren of the St. Cyril's monastery sent a messenger to ask their former tonsure to be their abbot, but to no avail: whether he himself refused out of humility or the hetman did not let him go. More successful was the invitation of the Maksakovskaya monastery, which is near the city of Borzna; Demetrius went with the hetman's letter to Chernigov for a blessing from Archbishop Lazar and was received very graciously, as he himself describes in his diary. Still not reading the letter, the bishop said: “May the Lord God bless you for the abbess; but by the name of Demetrius I wish us a miter, let Demetrius receive a miter. On the same day after the consecration, being invited to the table, I heard even more significant speeches from my Vladyka: “Today the Lord God vouchsafed you the abbess in the monastery, where is the temple of the Transfiguration of the Lord, like Moses on Tabor. He who said His ways to Moses, may He also tell you on this Tabor His ways to the eternal Tabor. “These words,” Dimitri adds, “I, a sinner, took for a good omen and noticed for myself; God forbid that the archpastoral prophecy come true! He let me go like a father to his own son: give him, Lord, all that is good in your heart.

For a short time, however, Saint Demetrius was abbot at the Maksakovskaya monastery; the following year, at the request of the hetman, he was transferred to the Baturinsky Monastery in place of Theodosius, who was taken to Kyiv, but soon abandoned this position because of his love for scientists. Recalling on the occasion of the death of one of his fellow Kirillovskys, who died in Chernigov, Dimitri remarked in his diary about his own wanderings from monastery to monastery: “God knows where I am destined to lay my head!” Could he ever expect that from his native Little Russia he would be called to the hierarchal cathedra of the North alien to him? On the day of his angel, the humble Demetrius laid down the hegumen's burden, remaining, however, in the monastery, for he was not afraid to submit to someone else's will out of his love for obedience. Meanwhile, the archimandrite of the Pechersk Lavra, Innokenty Gizel, died, and the no less enlightened Varlaam Yasinsky was put in his place; he invited the former abbot to move to the Lavra for scientific studies, and this resettlement constituted an epoch in his life, for the providence of God was pleased to call Demetrius to the work of twenty years of labor, with which he rendered an unforgettable service to the entire Russian Church.

The learned studies of Saint Demetrius

We have long felt the need to gather for the edification of believers the lives of the saints who glorified the Lord with their deeds; Metropolitan Makarin of All Russia undertook this soul-beneficial work, uniting in his great Chetiah-Minei all the lives that he could only find in our prologues and patericons, and supplementing them with his own biographies. The enlightened Metropolitan of Kyiv Peter Mogila, prompted by such a good example, had the intention of publishing the lives in a more accessible Slavic Russian language and ordered for a new translation from Mount Athos the Greek books of Simeon Metaphrastus, who worked most on the lives of the saints in the tenth century; but an early death prevented the zealous shepherd of Kyiv from carrying out his good intention, and the difficult time that followed for Kyiv delayed it for a long time. However, his successor, Archimandrite of the Pechersk Lavra Innokenty Gizel, asked the Patriarch Joachim of Moscow for the same purpose the great Menaion of Metropolitan Macarius and also died without touching the matter. Varlaam Yasinsky decided to continue what he had begun, he looked for a solitary person and capable of performing diverse work. He could not have chosen anyone better than hegumen Baturinsky, from the general council of the brethren of the Caves, and a few weeks after his relocation to the Lavra, in the month of June 1684, Dimitri began to describe the lives of the saints; from then on, this became a constant affair of his whole life, which he diligently continued both in the monastic cell, and in the dignity of the rector, and at the pulpit of the saint, for his soul ardently loved the saints of God, whom the memory wanted to glorify. They themselves revealed themselves to him in mysterious dreams, testifying there to his own closeness to the spiritual world, since his thought was filled with the images of the saints he describes; this encouraged him even more to continue the work he had begun. This is how he himself describes in his diary two comforting dreams, which he was honored with for three months. “On August 10, 1685, on Monday I heard the Annunciation for Matins, but, due to my usual laziness, having overslept, I didn’t make it in time for the beginning, but overslept even before reading the psalter. At that time I saw the following vision: it seemed as if I had been entrusted with watching a certain cave, in which the holy relics spent the night. Examining the tombs of the saints with a candle, he saw there, as it were, the Holy Great Martyr Barbara sleeping there. Having approached her coffin, he saw her lying sideways and her coffin, showing some rottenness. Wishing to purify it, he took out her relics from the shrine and put them in another place. Having cleaned the shrine, he proceeded to the relics and took them with his hands to put them into the shrine, but suddenly he saw Saint Barbara alive. Broadcasting to me to her: “Holy virgin Barbara, my benefactor! Pray to God for my sins!” The saint answered, if she had some doubt: “I don’t know,” she said, “whether I will beg, for you pray in Roman.” (I think that this was told to me because I am very lazy in prayer, and in this case I have become like the Romans, who have a very short prayer, since my prayer is short and rare). Having heard these words from the saint, I began to grieve and allegedly despair, but after a short time she looked at me with a cheerful and grinning face and said: “Do not be afraid,” and she uttered some other comforting words, which I don’t even remember. Then, putting it into the reliquary, he kissed her hands and feet; it seemed that the body was alive and very white, but the hand was miserable and dilapidated. Regretting that with unclean and filthy hands and lips I dare to touch the holy relics and that I do not see a good reliquary, I thought about how to decorate this coffin? And he began to look for a new, richest shrine in which to transfer the holy relics: but by that very moment he woke up. Regretting my awakening, my heart felt some joy. Concluding this story, Saint Demetrius humbly remarks: “God knows what this dream signifies and what other event will follow! Oh, that through the prayers of Saint Barbara God would give me the correction of my evil and accursed life! And a few years later, Saint Demetrius had the consolation to actually render honor to the relics of the Holy Great Martyr. Being Abbot of Baturinsky at that time, he learned that some of these relics were kept in the hetman's treasury, among other treasures, as if under a bushel and little known to anyone. She was here for the following reasons: back in 1651, the Lithuanian hetman Janusz Radzivil, after the capture of Kyiv, asked for two parts of the relics of the Great Martyr, resting in the St. Michael's Monastery. One of these parts, from the ribs of St. Barbara, he sent as a gift to the Bishop of Vilna Georgy Tishkevich, the other, from Perseus, he presented to his wife Maria, after whose death she went to the Metropolitan of Kyiv Joseph Tukalsky and laid by him in the city of Kanev, his usual residence. From here, after the death of Tukalsky, she was taken to the Baturin Treasury Chamber. By his earnest requests, Saint Demetrius received permission from the hetman to transfer this shrine to his Baturin Monastery and with a solemn procession transferred it to January 15, 1691, Tuesday, and as a memorial for the transfer, he established in his monastery every Tuesday to perform prayer singing to the Great Martyr.

Another dream was even more striking. “In the year 1685,” writes Demetrius, “on the Philippian fast, one night, having ended with a letter the suffering of the holy martyr Orestes, whose memory is venerated on November 10, an hour or less before matins, I lay down to rest without undressing and in a sleepy vision I saw the holy martyr Orestes, with a merry face hanging to me with these words: "I suffered more torment for Christ than you wrote." This river, he opened his breasts to me and showed me a great wound in the left side, passing through and through the inside, saying: “This is burned to me with iron.” Then he opened his right arm to the elbow, showing the wound in the very opposite place to the elbow, and rivers: “This is cut for me”; and cut veins were visible. Also left hand opening, in the same place, pointing out the same wound, saying: “And that was cut to me.” Then, bending down, he opened his leg and pointed to the bend of the knee, the wound also of the other leg, opening up to the knee, he showed the same wound in the same place and said: “And the siv was cut to me with an oblique.” And standing up straight, looking at my face, “You see? I have endured more for Christ than you have written.” I daring to say nothing against this, was silent and thought in myself: “Who is this Orestes, is it not from among the five (December 13)?” To this my thought, the holy martyr answered: “I am not that Orestes, from among the five, but that one, you have now written his life.” I also saw some other important person standing behind him, and it also seemed to me that there was some kind of martyr, but he said nothing. At that very time, the evangelism given for matins awakened me, and I regretted that this very pleasant vision would soon end. And that this vision, - adds St. Demetrius, - having written it down more than three years later, I, unworthy and sinful, truly saw and that I saw exactly as I wrote, and not otherwise, I confess this under my priestly oath: for everything is different, As I completely remembered then, so I remember now.

From this one can see how successfully his work progressed, for after a year and a half it was already brought up to November 10th. He was favored by complete freedom from outside activities, but he could not enjoy it for long because of the special love of the secular and spiritual authorities for him; again laid on him the burden of government, which he had so recently abandoned. Dimitri, together with Archimandrite Varlaam, went to Baturin to greet the new Metropolitan of Kyiv Gideon from the family of princes Svyatopolkov-Chetvertinsky, who was returning from Moscow, where he was consecrated by Patriarch Joachim: this was the first subordination of the Metropolis of Kyiv to the Patriarchal Throne of Moscow. The hetman and the metropolitan persuaded the holy hegumen to take over again the abbotship of the Nikolaev monastery, and the lover of obedience obeyed them. The subordination of the Kyiv Metropolitanate also had an impact on his future fate, because, as an active member and an experienced theologian of the Little Russian Church, he took an active part in the spiritual issues of that time and, by coincidence, he himself was gradually drawn from his native south to the north. The first important question presented itself: about the time of the transubstantiation of the holy gifts at the liturgy, for some Westerners tried to explain this according to the Latin custom, that is, as if the transubstantiation is performed by the words of the Lord Jesus: “Take, eat and drink everything from her,” and not by invoking the Holy Spirit on the present gifts and their blessing, after these significant words. Patriarch Joachim, embarrassed by the new rumors and knowing that the annexed Little Russia had long been under the influence of the Polish, considered it necessary to ask Metropolitan Gideon: “How does the Little Russian Church understand the Council of Florence?” He received a satisfactory answer from all the clergy of that country, among whom the pious abbot Baturinsky had a hand in it. Subsequently, the patriarch wrote a lengthy epistle about the time of transubstantiation and successfully refuted the Latin sophistication, which partly penetrated into Little Russia.

This was the beginning of direct relations between Saint Demetrius and the Patriarch of Moscow. Being forced to return, at his request, the great Menaion of the three winter months, which were in his hands for comparison with new ones, he wrote a letter to His Holiness Joachim, filled with the deepest feeling of humility. “Before your hierarchship, our father and archpastor, and I’ll make your sheep, even the last, and well known, with this bad writing of mine (because I couldn’t by myself) I come and fall at the feet of your holy feet and be honored, at the most holy mi Archpastor, known and proclaimed to be by name ... Your holiness, to their Tsarist and most radiant Majesty the pilgrimage, and to your Holy Spirit in the Spirit, His Grace Cyrus Gideon Svyatopolk, Prince of Chetvertinsky, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Galicia and Lesser Russia, and before Reverend Varlaam Archimandrite of the Caves, deigned to write about those books (the Fourth Menaion for December, Genvar and February). Either way, those books are neither with him, the Right Reverend Metropolitan, nor with the Reverend Archimandrite, but in the Baturinsky Monastery, in my unworthy hands, they are still kept byakh and with attention. Having received much benefit from them and agreeing with the Holy Lives written in them, I give these holy things of yours with thanksgiving and inform you: as in obedience to the saint, from the Little Russian Church handed to me, having worked with God's help, according to my strength, in weakness, transcribing from the great blessed Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, books and from these Christian historians, he wrote the lives of the Saints for six months, starting from Sentemvri on the first day until February of the last number, consistent with the saints of those great books in all stories and stories and deeds, committed by the Saints in their labors and sufferings. And the lives of the Saints that have already been written are for the most part written and reasoned by some noble people, and most of all in the holy monastery of the Caves. Now, for the goodwill and desire of many, I would like, for the spiritual benefit of Christians, to publish, to what we most excite, frequent writings from the most reverend Archimandrite of the Caves. For such a cause, the Church of God (as I think) is not indecent, I seek your supreme Archpastoral blessing. Yes, guided by your Archpastoral blessing, guided, instructed and assisted, I will be able to do a good deed before me, giving church reasoning and publishing six written months; even if, by God’s help and your Archpastoral blessing, they are completed and published, then (if the Lord will rise and we will live) we will also reach out to others, and we will beat your most holy brow on other holy books.

Since there was no direct demand from Moscow for consideration of these newly compiled menaias, nor a prohibition to print them, in 1689 the Pechersk Lavra began to publish them, starting from the September quarter. Archimandrite Varlaam left to himself, together with the cathedral brethren, the final examination of these books, and thereby incurred the displeasure of the patriarch, who took this as a clear sign of disobedience. He immediately sent a letter of accusation against him, in which he passionately stood up for his hierarchical rights and proved the need for obedience. A strict guardian of Orthodoxy, he noticed to the Lavra publishers some oversights that had crept into the book because they had not previously sent it to the archpastoral for consideration, and ordered the error sheets to be reprinted and the sale of unsold copies to be stopped in order to continue demanding the patriarch’s permission for a continuing publication. However, the pious compiler of the Menaion himself was not subjected to sanctified wrath, and even at that time he had the opportunity to personally receive a blessing from Patriarch Joachim and hear from his lips approval for the continuation of such useful work.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian troops, Prince Golitsin, sent Hetman Mazepa to Moscow with a report on the successful completion of his campaign against the Turks; along with him were sent from the Little Russian clergy, probably to clarify the confusion that had arisen, two abbots: St. Demetrius and St. Innocent of the Monastery of St. Cyril. This happened in the troubled era of the Streltsy rebellion and the fall of Princess Sophia that followed it. Saint Demetrius, together with the hetman, was introduced first to Tsar John and his sister in the capital, and then to young Peter in the Trinity Lavra, where he retired from the intrigues of the rebels and where he finally overcame them. Little Russian messengers were witnesses there and the intercession of the patriarch for the pacified princess. Releasing the abbot, Saint Joachim blessed Demetrius to continue the lives of the saints and, as a token of his good will, gave him the image of the Blessed Virgin in a rich framework. Did Saint Demetrius think that this was not only a parting word for his homeland, but also, as it were, a portentous call to settle in Russia?

Upon his return to Baturin, he continued with even greater zeal to engage in his sacred work, becoming more careful in such a matter, which was already of importance to the entire Russian Church. For greater solitude, he even left his rector's chambers and arranged for himself a small house near the church of St. Nicholas, which he called his skete. In his cell diary about this time, along with the death of the former hegumen Theodosius Gugurevich, the return from foreign countries of the tonsure of the Buturinsky monastery - Feofan, who went to study philosophy and theology in different lands, is recorded. This was the future famous preacher and theologian Feofan Prokopovich, Archbishop of Novgorod. Soon Patriarch Joachim and Metropolitan Gideon of Kyiv died one after another; the new First Hierarch of Moscow, Adrian, installed the former archimandrite of the Lavra, Varlaam Yasinsky, to the metropolis of Kyiv, who brought the patriarchal blessed letter to the holy hegumen: books of eternal life, for your charitable labors in writing, correcting and publishing in a type, soul-beneficial books of the lives of the Saints for the first three months, Sentemvriy, Octovriy and Noemvriy. May the same one continue to bless, strengthen and hasten to work for you even for a whole year, and completely correct other such lives of the Holy books and depict them in the same stavropegic style of our Patriarchal Lavra of Kiev Pechersk. Following this, the patriarch adds that he asks both the new metropolitan and the future archimandrite of the Lavra for assistance in everything to “a skillful, and prudent, and merciful worker” (October 3, 1690).

Deeply touched by such hierarchal mercy, the humble Demetrius answered the patriarch with an eloquent message in which he poured out all the feelings of gratitude of the soul: “May God be praised and glorified in the saints and glorified from the saints, as now the saint has given His Church such a shepherd, good and skillful, your Archpastorship , even at the beginning of your pastoral care, first of all, and provide for the multiplication of God and the Saints of His glory, wishing the lives of these to be published in the world as a type for the benefit of the entire Christian Orthodox Russian family. This glory is to all the saints. Now, I am already unworthy of the Lord more zealously hurrying to my mortal and sinful hand, which is your hierarchship, assisting me in this matter, strengthening and instructing the blessing, which excites me a lot, and shakes off the dream of laziness, which I command me to do carefully. Even if I am not skillful, I do not have much knowledge and opportunity, in order to bring all good things to perfection the work I have conceived: both about Jesus strengthening me, I must wear a yoke of holy obedience, my feeble mind fulfilling Tom, from his fulfillment we all receive and we are still acceptable, if only in the future, the God-pleasing prayer of your archpastoral will continue to help us, with blessings, but I strongly hope for it. Attaching to this his request for the return of the taken Menaion, Demetrius concludes: “If only your Archpastorate would deign, for the sake of the Holy Lives we write, the same holy books of three spoken months for a time to my unworthiness to order to send, I would have conceded, with the help of God, squatting to them nocturnally, draw many benefits and publish them into the world like a type. (November 10, 1690)

Excited by the letter of the patriarch, he decided to leave everything else and exclusively devote himself to the work he had begun in order to complete it more successfully, and for the second time he refused the rectorship of the Baturin monastery, settling in his secluded skete. One of his last actions in the monastery, which he ruled for more than six years, was to give shelter to a learned worker, Adam Zernikav. He met him back in Chernigov under the auspices of the famous Lazar Baranovich, and under the roof of Demetrius himself, he ended his hardworking life as a Western theologian, who, having left his homeland, was looking for another homeland within the limits of Little Russia, on the way to heaven. In the Dimitriev monastery he finished his wonderful book on the procession of the Holy Spirit from the one Father, contrary to the Latin opinions, which he himself had previously shared as a Protestant, borrowing in this subject the dogmas of the Roman Church. Meanwhile, Saint Demetrius prepared the second part of his Menaia for publication and took them to the Pechersk printing house himself, but the publication was slowed down by the strict revision of the book by Archimandrite Meletios, who became more cautious after the mistakes of his predecessor Varlaam. The writer himself, having received from Danzig an extensive description of the lives of the saints of the edition of the Bolandites, carefully set about comparing them with his own creation and preparing the third part, because he was again awarded a new encouraging letter from Patriarch Adrian.

No matter how much Saint Demetrius wished to go into seclusion for his spiritual achievement, he was not left alone by those who knew his high dignity in the matter of church administration. The new Archbishop of Chernigov, Theodosius of Uglich, who briefly took the place of Lazar Baranovich during his lifetime, persuaded the lover of silence to take over the leadership of the monastery of the Holy Primate Apostles Peter and Paul, near Glukhov; but as soon as Archbishop Theodosius died, Metropolitan Varlaam of Kyiv, with an authoritative hand, transferred the saint to the place of his tonsure, to the monastery of Cyril, where his hundred-year-old father was still a ktitor. He entered there for half a year, as if only in order to pay the last filial duty to his mother, about whose death his loving heart spoke in such a way in his daily notes: exactly at that hour when our Savior, suffering on the cross for our salvation, gave His spirit to God the Father in His hand. She had more than seventy years from her birth ... may the Lord remember me in His kingdom of heaven! She died with good disposition, memory and speech. Oh, so that the Lord honored me with such a blessed end with prayers! And truly, her Christian death was, for with all the Christian rites and with the ordinary sacraments, it was fearless, shameless, peaceful. Still, yes, Lord, I will make you a good answer at His Terrible Judgment, as I do not doubt God's mercy and her salvation, knowing her constant, virtuous and pious life. And even then, for the good salvation of her, I have a sign that on the same day and the same hour, when Christ the Lord opened paradise to the robber, during his free passion, then he commanded her soul to part from the body. In these words is the best praise and pure love of the sons of a strict ascetic, and the piety of the mother; she was buried by her son himself in the Kiev Kirillovsky Monastery in 1689.

Touching are such speeches that burst forth from a heart full of love, and all the more precious for us that they poured out what was deeply hidden in the chest of the saint from the eyes of the world. It was not in vain that Demetrius cried several years earlier on the occasion of his frequent transition from monastery to monastery: “Somewhere I will have to lay my head!” - because again there was a change in the abbotship for him; every bishop wanted to have him in his diocese, and Kyiv and Chernigov were constantly arguing about him. The successor of Archbishop Theodosius, John Maksimovich, who later became famous in the Siberian cathedra for the conversion of many thousands of pagans, offered Demetrius the Yeletsky-Uspensky monastery in Chernigov, with the addition of Glukhovsky, and consecrated him to the rank of archimandrite. Thus, the word of Archbishop Lazarus was fulfilled: "Demetrius will receive a miter," but soon the hierarch's miter was also waiting for him. Dimitri did not exalt himself with his new rank, on the contrary, his humility deepened as he ascended in the spiritual degree, and his beloved concern for the lives of the saints did not leave him, as can be seen from his letter to his friend Theologian, a monk of the Chudov Monastery, who later was a referee in a Moscow printing house.

“I thank you very much for your brotherly love for me, unworthy, I thank you very much, in advance your honesty, from your love, in your messages to write to me, unworthy, praises beyond my measure, calling me well-behaved, prudent and spreading rays of light into the world, and another it is similar to that, even if it comes from your love, both of them fulfill my studies; for I am not such as your love does not want me to be. Nesm is well-behaved, but evil-minded, he has fulfilled the bad customs and in his mind I am far from the reasonable; I am ignorant and ignorant, and my light is one darkness and dust ... I pray your brotherly love to pray for me to the Lord, my light, that it will enlighten my darkness and honesty come out of the unworthy, and about this yours will be revealed to me, a sinner, perfect love for God, when you will help me with your holy prayers to the Lord for me, in my hopeless salvation and in the book business that is set before me. And this is from your love, as if you give thanks to God for my archimandry of Yelets erection about the Bose. I am accursed, as if your love, so I will not get the archimandria. For everyone, as sometimes the Lord God allows the unworthy, from them the first thing is to accept honest church dignity. This is to do according to their unknown destinies; for which reason I am in no small fear, bearing an honor higher than my unworthy Dignity. I hope for your holy prayers, trusting in the mercy of God, do not perish with my iniquities. The third book of the three-month lives of the Saints, March, April, May, if the Lord vouchsafes me, then he will do it and see the type depicted, I will not forget your honesty, as if I will send it to the highest persons, or I will bring it myself, if the Lord will rise and we will live. About this, your honesty, be known and pray to the Lord Christ for my wretchedness, may we soon complete the book we are writing, with the help of that all-powerful one, and we, healthy and saved, the deceit of the enemy unaccused, may he observe. Amen".

Two years later, Saint Demetrius was transferred to the Spassky Monastery of Novgorod-Seversk; this was already the last one that he ruled, being alternately the rector of five monasteries and twice one of Baturin. At the beginning of 1700, the third spring quarter of his Menaia for March, April and May was completed by printing in the Lavra printing house, and Archimandrite Joasaph Krokovsky, as a pledge of his special gratitude for the feat of the worker, sent him a blessing: the icon of the Mother of God, presented by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to Metropolitan Peter Mogila. The royal icon, brought to Demetrius by the former archimandrite Nikon of the Moscow Donskoy Monastery, was, as it were, a secondary harbinger of the call of the future saint to the Mother See of Moscow, Little Russia was already losing its lamp, which should shine on the candlestick of the episcopal sees of Siberia and Rostov, in order to shine from their height throughout the Russian Church. It was desirable for Emperor Peter the Great to spread the light of Christianity among the foreigners of recently conquered Siberia, so that its beneficial effect could reach the far reaches of China. After a consultation with His Holiness Patriarch Adrian, he decided to look for a worthy person in then more educated Little Russia, who could combine the duties of a preacher of the Gentiles with the rank of hierarch in the pulpit of Tobolsk, orphaned after the death of the reverent Metropolitan Pavel. Varlaam of Kyiv was instructed to send to the capital one of the archimandrites or abbots, a man of learning and an undefiled life, for the Siberian cathedra, who, with the help of God, could convert those who were hardened in the blindness of idolatry to the knowledge of the true God. The new shepherd had to bring with him two or three monks who would have learned the Chinese and Mongolian languages ​​in order to serve at the newly established church in Beijing. The eagle gaze of the great reformer reached so far and beneficently, and Metropolitan Varlaam did not judge anyone more worthy of this high degree than Archimandrite Seversky, known to him for his virtue and learning.

Holiness Demetrius

Demetrius, arriving in Moscow in February 1701, did not find his benefactor, Patriarch Adrian, alive, and greeted the sovereign with an eloquent word, in which he depicted the dignity of the earthly king, as bearing the image of Christ. A month later, in the 50th year of his birth, he was ordained Metropolitan of Siberia by His Grace Stefan Yavorsky, Metropolitan of Ryazan, who himself had recently been elevated to the rank of this abbot of the Kyiv Nikolaev Monastery with an appointment as locum tenens of the patriarchal throne. He was entrusted by the tsar with the management of all the affairs of the abolished patriarchate. However, the health of the new Metropolitan of Siberia, shaken by incessant studies, would not be able to fight the harsh climate of his distant diocese, and, moreover, his favorite subject of occupation throughout his life would remain unfinished. This lover of saints was so disturbed by the thought that he even fell into a serious illness because of it, and the benevolent sovereign, having learned about the cause of the illness during his visit, reassured him with a royal word and allowed him to stay in Moscow for a while in anticipation of the nearest diocese. It was not without the providence of God that his stay in the capital lasted more than a year; The newcomer from Little Russia had time to get acquainted with state and church figures of the region where he was called to minister in a difficult time of transformation. In Moscow, he also began a friendly relationship with Metropolitan Stefan, whom he knew little in Kyiv; they understood each other, and their affection was based on mutual respect, although Saint Demetrius always tried to give the deepest respect to the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, as if to the Patriarch himself. During his long illness in the cells of the Chudov Monastery, he became close to some of the monastic scholars, Cyril and Theodore, who were directors of the printing house; he immediately found his old friend, the monk Theologian, and all three subsequently rendered him many services for his scientific studies, on the subject of which he kept constant correspondence with them. Books about the lives of the saints and the frequent preaching of the word of God won him the love and respect of noble people in Moscow. The widow of Tsar John Alekseevich, Tsarina Paraskeva Feodorovna, who enjoyed the special attention of the emperor, was filled with deep respect for the saint and often endowed him with clothes and food from her meal.

Meanwhile, Metropolitan Joasaph of Rostov died, and the sovereign, who even more appreciated the merits of St. Demetrius, ordered him to be transferred to the newly opened cathedra, while for the Siberian one a worthy successor was found in the person of Philotheus Leshchinsky, who baptized many thousands of Ostyaks, wandering after them on deer along their tundra. Even after his retirement, being a schemer, he was called again to new apostolic exploits, when John Maksimovich, the former Archbishop of Chernigov, who had taken his place, died. They are both in the west of Siberia, while Bishop Innokenty in the east in Irkutsk, later canonized, at one time shone the light of Christianity on the whole of vast Siberia. With what marvelous men of the Church, who all arose from the borders of Little Russia, the Lord consoled great Russia in the glorious days of Petrov's reign! These three ascetics in Siberia, St. Demetrius in Rostov, Locum Tenens Stefan in the capital, a zealous defender of Orthodoxy and the dignity of the Hierarchy, Lazar and Theodosius in Chernigov, Varlaam in Kyiv, in addition to other famous Russian saints, St. Mitrofan of Voronezh, Job of Novgorod, who spread spiritual enlightenment , and others! Such a comforting phenomenon is not often repeated in the annals of the Church.

From here begins for Saint Demetrius a new period of life; all devoted to pastoral cares, although he did not leave his favorite occupations of scientists, here he revealed himself, according to the apostolic word, as a bishop should be for his flock: , like all the high priests, he still had to offer sacrifices for his own mistakes, offering a bloodless sacrifice for human sins, until he himself shone in the faces of saints (Heb. 7, 26, 27). Entering his diocese with all the readiness to devote the rest of his life to it, at the first step he already foresaw that its course should end here, and therefore chose for himself a place of eternal rest on the edge of the city, in the monastery in which he stopped, in order to go from there solemnly move, take the pulpit in the Rostov Cathedral. The new saint performed his usual prayer in the Church of the Conception of the Mother of God of the Yakovlevsky Monastery, founded by one of his saint predecessors, Bishop Jacob (whose relics rest there), and plunged into deep thought about his future; there, pointing to a place in the corner of the cathedral, he said to those around him the word of the psalm of the prophet King David, which turned into a prophecy for himself: “Behold my rest, here I will dwell forever and ever.” And here the faithful now really flow to the incorruptible relics of the newly glorified saint of God. Then he made divine liturgy in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God and greeted his flock with an eloquent word, reminding her of the ancient union of the Church of Rostov with the Lavra of the Caves, from where he brought to his flock the blessing of God of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Monks of the Caves; The good shepherd spoke like a father to his children, briefly outlining the mutual duties of shepherd and flock. The words were especially touching: “Let your heart not be troubled about my coming to you, through the doors you entered, and not climbing in another place: I am not seeking, but I am searched, and I do not know you, below you know me; the fate of the Lord is many abyss; you sent me to you, but I came, do not serve me, but let me serve you, according to the word of the Lord: if you want to be the first in you, let him be a servant to all. I came to you with love: I would say that I had come, like a father to a child, but more than a river: I came like a brother to brothers, like a friend to a dear friend: for even Christ the Lord is not ashamed to call us brothers. You are my friends, he says, not to that I call you a slave (John 15), but friends, but more honestly and more surprisingly, as if he calls his beloved fathers to himself, saying: this is both a father and a mother, who does the will of the father my heavenly, because your love is mine, and fathers, and brothers, and friends. But if you call on me as a father, then I will answer you apostolicly: My children, who are sick with them, until Christ is imagined in you” (Gal. 4:19).

In the cell notes of St. Demetrius it is written: “1702. March 1st, on the second week of Great Lent, I sighed on my throne in Rostov by the will of God, ”and after that:“ 1703, Jannuaria on the 6th, at the third hour of the day of the Epiphany of the Lord, my father Savva Grigoryevich reposed and was buried in monastery of Kirillovsky-Kiev, in the church of the Holy Trinity: remember him eternally. These words conclude the diary of St. Demetrius, who, as it were, does not want to continue his notes after the blissful death of the 13-year-old elder parent. Isn’t such a filial feeling in the great hierarch touching, and at the same time, isn’t the circumstance worthy of attention that the simple centurion Tuntalo, the pious ktitor of the St. his Demetrius achieved a high degree of hierarchship and the metropolis itself. All relations of kindred and family ended for the saint, and even the very bonds that connected him with his native Little Russia; a new extended Rostov family surrounded his pulpit, and he devoted all his pastoral cares to her for seven years, constantly caring about her spiritual improvement.

His flock did not have schools, which were only in Moscow, and were even deprived of the living preaching of the word of God, and therefore the people were easily carried away by the flattering teachings of lies and schism. With deep sorrow, the saint spoke in one of his teachings to the residents of Rostov: “Ole to our accursed time, as if that sowing was by no means neglected, leaving the word of God very much, and we don’t know what black to cover the need for: sowers or land, whether priests, or human hearts, Or is the wallpaper good? Together, the indecency of the past, do not do goodness, carry to one. The sower does not sow, and the earth does not receive; priests do not shy away, but people err: priests do not teach, and people are ignorant; priests do not preach the word of God, but people do not listen, they want to listen; it is bad on both sides: the priests are stupid, and the people are foolish. Insufficient preparation for holy orders necessarily entailed various abuses and disturbances, against which the caring hierarch was not slow to take pastoral measures. Two of his encircling epistles to the diocesan clergy have come down to us: from them it is clear, on the one hand, to what extent the inattention of the priests then extended to the importance of the title conferred on them, and on the other hand, how great was the pastoral zeal of St. Demetrius, crushing evil by all means. beliefs and power.

In the first, he denounces some of the priests of his flock in that they reveal the sins of their spiritual children, revealed to them in confession, either out of vanity, or at the desire to harm them; the saint convincingly proves that to discover the mysteries revealed at confession means not understanding the spirit of the sacrament, offending the Holy Spirit, which granted forgiveness to the sinner, contradicting the example of Jesus Christ, who condescended to sinners. An immodest confessor is Judas a traitor and, like him, is subject to eternal death. The discovery of the mysteries of conscience is harmful not only for the one who reveals it, but also for those who are convicted, who cannot sincerely repent after this and bring upon themselves general disgrace. many died without a holy parting word; he threatens such shepherds with the wrath of God because they close the kingdom of heaven before people, they themselves do not enter and forbid those who enter, and suggests that in crowded parishes to correct the needs of the church, invite "altar" priests. In another, Saint Demetrius inspires special reverence for the sacrament of the life-giving body and blood of Christ. He convicts the priests who keep the Holy Gifts, prepared for the communion of the sick for a whole year, in an inappropriate place, and orders to keep these secrets in clean vessels on the holy throne and render them reverent veneration; then he admonishes the priests that they should not proceed to the sacrament of the Eucharist otherwise than with preliminary preparation, and at the end of the sacrament they should remain in abstinence and sobriety; also briefly reminds them of their other duties in relation to the flock.

Feeling that this evil cannot be corrected by prescriptions alone,

Saint Demetrius decided to start a school at the bishop's house from his own income, and this was the first great Russia after Moscow; it was divided into three grammatical classes, numbering up to two hundred people. It was desirable for the saint that those who came out of him were able to preach the word of God; he himself observed their progress, asked questions, listened to the answers, and, in the absence of a teacher, sometimes assumed this duty, and in his free time he interpreted certain passages of the Holy Scriptures to the chosen students and called them to his country house in the summer. He was no less concerned about their moral education, gathering them on holidays for the vigil and liturgy in the cathedral church, and at the end of the first kathisma, everyone had to approach his blessing, so that he could see if there were any absent? On Fortecost and other fasts, he obliged everyone to fast, himself communion of the holy mysteries of all the disciples, and when he was sick, he sent them an order that everyone read the Lord's Prayer for him five times in remembrance of the five plagues of Christ, and this spiritual medicine eased his illness. His treatment of his young pupils was completely paternal, and he often repeated to them as a consolation for the impending separation: “If I am able to receive mercy from God, then I will pray for you, so that you also receive mercy from him: I am, and you will be” (XIV. 4). To those who completed the course, he gave places at churches at his own discretion and tried to instill in the clergy more respect for their position, dedicating them to surplice, which had not happened before in Rostov.

Such constant studies did not curtail the activity of the saint in his favorite work of describing the lives of the saints, for which he collected information through his Moscow acquaintances. Two years after his establishment in Rostov, the last summer quarter of Chetya-Mineya was also completed, and also sent to Kyiv for printing. He joyfully informed his friend Theologian about this in Moscow: “Rejoice in me spiritually, as by the haste of your prayers the Lord has vouchsafed me to the month of Augustus to write an amen and complete the fourth life of the Saints book; known to your friendliness, knowing your brotherly love to my unworthiness and the desire for our book to come to completion. Glory to God, having been accomplished, I ask you to pray not to be in vain before the Lord for our bad work. And in the annals of the bishops of Rostov, kept at the cathedral, the hand of the saint noted: “In the summer from the incarnation of God the Word, the month of Fevruary, on the 9th day in memory of the Holy Martyr Nicephorus, the predicate victorious, in celebration of the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, I will utter St. Simeon Your prayer to the God-receiver: now let your servant go, O Master, on the day of the Lord's sufferings on Friday, in which Christ spoke on the cross: having taken place before Saturday, the remembrance of the dead and before the week doomsday, with the help of God, and the Most Pure Mother of God, and all the Saints with prayers, the month of August was written. Amen".

Opportunities against schism

In all his occupations, the saint, if possible, surveyed his flock, and during his second visit to the city of Yaroslavl in 1704, he solemnly transferred the relics of the holy princes, Theodore of Smolensk and his children David and Constantine, into a new shrine, arranged by the zeal of citizens, partly his own; but with his love for all the saints of God, he also gave himself a small part of their relics for blessing. Visiting Yaroslavl again the next year, he was preoccupied with admonishing some of the smaller brethren of his vast flock - they were alarmed by the royal command about barbering, because they, due to their blindness, considered the loss of a beard as a distortion of the image of God. The saint himself tells how once, when leaving the cathedral after the liturgy, two middle-aged people stopped him with a question: what would he command them to do, because they would rather put their heads on a chopping block for cutting off than beards. Unprepared for an answer, Saint Demetrius asked only them: “What will grow back? Is it a severed head or a beard? - to their answer: “Beard,” he said to them in turn: “And so it’s better for us not to spare the beard, which will grow back as many times as it will be shaved; but the cut off head is only for the resurrection of the dead.” After such admonishment, he exhorted the citizens accompanying him to submit in everything to the prevailing authority, according to the word of the apostle, and not in a visible, external image, to understand the likeness of God. Subsequently, he wrote a whole argument on this subject, which was repeatedly printed at the will of the sovereign; this was his first experience of competing with schismatics, unknown to him before coming from Little Russia.

“I am humble, not born and raised in these countries,” he wrote, “I heard below when about the schisms that are found in this country, or about the difference in faiths and mores of schismatics; but already here, by the will of God and by the decree of the sovereign, having begun to live, having taken away by hearing from many reports. Then, for the edification of his flock, in addition to the oral preaching of the word of God, he wrote catechetical instructions, in a more accessible form of questions and answers about faith, as well as a mirror of the Orthodox confession and twelve more articles on the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He also had other concerns about the well-being of the clergy entrusted to him, on the occasion of the census for the distribution of children of the clergy and clergy to military service, since then there was a great need for people of all ranks for the Swedish war that weighed on Russia. The impoverishment of the bishop's house was also disappointing, because all the estates were under the order of the monastery, but even the little that the saint could use, he used for the schools of the poor. To what extent his own wretchedness reached, is evident from his letter to the Theologian; he apologizes that he does not have horses to bring him to him, for he himself wanders almost on foot: “Neither horse nor rider, the sheep are impoverished, and there are no horses.” However, as he later expressed in his will: “Since I took on the monastic image and promised God arbitrary poverty, even before approaching the tomb, I did not collect property, except for the books of the saints; no gold, no silver, no superfluous clothes, except for the most necessary, but I tried to keep the monastic poverty and poverty in spirit and in deed, relying in everything on the providence of God, which never left me. But his health, exhausted by many labors, was impoverished from time to time, and this prompted him to write his spiritual, before Easter 1707.

The year before, he had once again visited Moscow, where he was summoned to the line for a conference, as was the case under the patriarchs, and there he spoke a lot of church teachings. His experience was very useful for his friend, the locum tenens Stephen, and distant bishops turned to him, attracted by his fame as a spiritual writer and orgy. Metropolitan Tikhon of Kazan, who transferred his relics of St. Gurias to the cathedral, asked that a service and a eulogy be composed for him, which St. Demetrius performed with the same love with which he wrote the very lives of the saints. He composed two more services for Kazan, in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and the holy martyrs of Cyzic, who are still being committed there. His soul, imbued with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, often poured out in short spiritual creations filled with compunction, which, flowing from such a blessed source, had a salutary effect on readers.

Such are his “Spiritual Medicine for the Confusion of Thought, Briefly Collected from Various Fathers’ Books” and “Apology for the Assuagement of the Sorrow of a Man Who Is in Trouble and Embarrassment”, and also: “The inner man is in the cell of his heart, learning in solitude in mystery”; their very name already expresses their inner dignity. Touching is his prayer of daily confession to God, from a person who believes salvation is the beginning, and a general confession of sins, spoken before a priest, which he puts into the mouth of every person who does not have enough courage to express them voluntarily. Sublime is the saint's reflection on the communion of the Holy Mysteries, in the contemplation of which he often liked to immerse himself; he also left them a brief recollection of them, on every heel, along with touching kissing of the ulcers of our Lord Jesus Christ, with God-thinking worship to them and weeping at the burial of Christ. Here the voice of the soul is clearly heard, in contemplation of the saving sufferings of his Savior, accompanying him from Gethsemane to Golgotha, the soul, which, out of its love for the Crucified, can exclaim with the apostle: “Let me not boast, only on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. VI, 14).

Sometimes this love was shed in tears of sorrow; seeing the breathless source of life, he cries out: “Where are you coming, O sweetest Jesus? Where are you coming from us, our hope and refuge? in our light, come in from our eyes? never-setting sun, how do you know your west?

Become the bearer of the hand that bears the whole world! stand bearing the burden of sin of the whole human race! stand, for the sake of a hundred, the sun and the moon are in their rank, on the cross of that they see.

“Do not scold us as children, come to your father, if I am already dead; do not scold your child to cry about the common parent of all, who gave birth to us with his blood. Give nonea small drops of tears from the eyes to pour out over those who from the whole body for us are abundant sources of blood from their streams, from the ribs with blood water.

Another spiritual edifying creation is attributed to St. Rostov, with a deep sense of faith and reverence with which it is filled: this is the spiritual Alphabet, or the ladder of spiritual ascent, divided into 33 steps, according to the number of the years of the Lord, in imitation of the high creation of the Ladder of Sinai. But Demetrius himself attributed it to the great ascetic Isaiah of Konystensky, who, like the ancient Hilarion of the Caves, ascended from the Antoniev caves to the cathedra of Kyiv. However, until now, the general opinion adorns him with the name of St. Demetrius.

But since a zealous worker, with all his pastoral cares, could not remain long without constant labor, then, at the end of his many years of feat of the lives of the saints, he felt the need for a book that could acquaint the reader with the destinies of the Church in her ancient times. He decided to compose a chronicle, or Sacred History, in such a form that it would serve as a guide for preachers. He humbly communicated a new idea to his friend the locum tenens:

“Under the name and image of the chronicler, I would like to write some useful legal teachings in order not only to amuse the reader with stories, but also to teach moralizing. This is my intention, if not for others (for who am I to teach learned men), then at least for myself. He zealously began to collect ecclesiastical, Slavic, Greek, and Latin annals for this subject, and applied to Moscow with a request to Theologian, in order to replenish his lack of Rostov chronographs. As the chronicle progressed, he sent his work to Metropolitan Stefan for consideration, humbly asking him to judge whether it would be for the benefit of the Holy Church or not, and sincerely thanking for all his remarks. But at the same time, he himself spiritually strengthened the Patriarchal Locum Tenens in his difficult field: “I pray, as much as I can. May the strong and strong Lord strengthen your Hierarchy in carrying only a heavy cross. Do not faint, Holy Hierarch of God, under such burdens! a branch under weight always bears fruit. Do not imagine your labors to be in vain before God, who says: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened (Mat. XI, 28). Great is the recompense for those who have borne the burden and the day! Not the essence of vanity, they prudently manage the ship of the Church of Christ during so many turbulences. Pleasing, your Eminence, solitude, I bless and az; but St. Macarius of Egypt’s reasoning is not bad either, who writes about hermits and those who work in cities and for the benefit of people: Ovyi (desert dwellers), having grace, only bake about themselves;

others (teachers and preachers of the word of God) strive to use other souls: these exceed many of them. Strive for Jesus who strengthens you, the ascetic of Christ! This burden is not imposed on your hierarchship by any occasion, but by the care of God; then the crown of righteous recompense awaits you; bear the yoke of Christ well: wake up and his burden is light for you.

However, despite all the efforts of Saint Demetrius, his chronicle work was not completed, partly because of his illness, and partly because of the urgent needs of the diocese, although he really wanted to finish the sacred history, as can be seen from his letter to the Theologian: me, powerless, to hope? Fear of death attacked me ... but how will book writing remain? Will any hunter take over and do it? and you still need to work a lot in that matter: you won’t accomplish it in a year, and in another year you’ll be forced to keep up with the accomplishment, and the end is at the door, the ax at the root, the death scythe over the head. Alas for me! I don’t regret anything, I don’t regret anything below the imam, I didn’t collect wealth, I didn’t accumulate money, I only regret that, as if the book writing started is far from being completed; and also about the Psalter there is a thought. Dumka is across the sea, and death is behind. The chronicler stopped at the sixth century of the fourth thousand years.

For others, a more necessary work lay ahead of him before the end of his life: to direct the perverted minds of some of his flock to the truth. Shortly after Pascha 1708, the saint learned that false teachers were hiding in his cathedral city and other towns and villages. The priest of Rostov informed him that one of his parishioners did not want to render due honor to either the holy icons or the relics, and the saint, from a personal conversation, was convinced of his rigidity when he wanted to enlighten him pastorally. Schismatic sketes from the forests of Bryansk, within the boundaries of Kaluga, clung to his diocese, which was threatened from the other side with their false teaching by the Kostroma and Nizhny Novgorod sketes; the schismatics lured the gullible, especially among the women. Not seeing in his clergy people capable of acting against the threatening schism, he himself decided to set a good example and a strong weapon against absurd rumors. In a simple, intelligible word, he explained to the people the harmful influence of the Bryansk false teachers on them and the groundlessness of their opinions, and how true shepherd was not shy about any secular relations when he had to stand for the truth. The priest of his diocese was the defender of the opinions of the schismatics; the saint, after a strict examination, dismissed him from his post and ordered him, as a widow, to look for a place for himself somewhere in the monastery; but the guilty one secretly found access to the empress, and she interceded for him before Saint Demetrius. Then the guardian of Orthodoxy presented to the queen the whole course of the illegal case and humbly asked her not to be angry that she could not change her decision. “I had a lot of annoyance from him,” he wrote, “before many people, blaspheming my humble name, he called me a heretic and a Roman and an infidel: either way, I forgive him Christ for my sake, even though we reproach against not reproachful and suffer suffering; looking at the gentleness of my Savior, I did not forbid that priest a simple priesthood, and gave him the will to choose a place for himself, in a monastery to take a vow. But I am afraid of the wrath of God on myself, if I am a wolf, in the clothes of a sheep, I will let into the flock of Christ to destroy human souls with schismatic teachings. I pray, then, Your Royal Nobility, do not lay anger on me, your pilgrimage, that I cannot make things impossible.

Having learned that the schismatic teachers had intensified especially in Yaroslavl, he himself went there in November 1708 and preached with persuasive words about the wrongness of the schismatic faith and the truth of Orthodoxy in defense of the sign of the honest cross. Not satisfied with the living word, he began to compose written denunciations of the opinions of the schismatics, for which he put aside the chronicle work, which occupied him so much, thinking in himself, as he wrote to the Theologian, that: ... God will not wear him out about the annals, about the same, if he keeps silent against the schismatics, he will wear him out.” The saint, as if foreseeing that there was not even a year of his life left, hastened his work so that by the time of Great Lent it was almost over. This was his famous "search for the Bryn faith" or a complete denunciation against the schismatics; the last work with which he presented the domestic Church, as a solid shield against false teaching, with which he wanted to protect the flock even after his death. It is amazing how quickly he wrote his polysyllabic book, collecting from everywhere oral, true information about sects and schismatic rumors from people who lived in their sketes and turned to the truth. The good example of the saint raised up a new ascetic against the schismatics in the person of Pitirim, the former builder of Pereyaslavsky, who was sent to act against them on Kirzhach and subsequently converted many to the rank of bishop of Nizhny Novgorod. Saint Demetrius also sought information against the schism in Moscow, from his learned friends, asking them to carefully consider the sacred utensils of the cathedrals, which could serve as a denunciation of untruth.

Even in his last letters, he constantly informed the Theologian about his new work, which occupied all his activities, although he missed this kind of debate and hoped to complete it by the Bright Holiday, complaining only about the lack of scribes. This book ended the written work of the saint during his forty-two-year monastic career and seven-year hierarchship in Rostov. Repeating with David: “I will sing to my God as long as I am,” he said that we must do something for the glory of God, so that the hour of death will not find us in idleness, and he thought of returning to his Chronicler if God would help his weakness; but she overcame him in the fifty-eighth year of his birth, for his strength, exhausted by many years of labor, weakened more and more, and already a year before his death he wrote to his friends in Moscow: “God knows, can I finish what I started? more often than not, even my ailments, the pen that writes by hand is taken away and the scribe is thrown onto a bed, the coffin is presented to the eyes, and besides, the eyes see little and the glasses do not help much, and the writing hand trembles, and the whole temple of my body is near ruin.

Such were the feats of Saint Demetrius, but who counted his cell feats? For he was a cheerful man of prayer and fasting, and as with his writings he inspired others with the commandments of fasting and prayer, so he himself set an example for their fulfillment. On all days he remained in abstinence, eating little food, except for holidays, and in the first week of Fortecost he only allowed himself food once, on Holy Week only on Maundy Thursday, and taught his relatives the same. He advised them to remember the hour of death at every strike of the hour bell, protecting themselves with the sign of the cross with prayers: "Our Father and the Mother of God." He would not let those who came to his cell without edification and blessing with small icons, and he used all his small cell income for good deeds, looking after widows and orphans; when distributing alms, there was nothing left for himself for the needs of life. Often he gathered the poor, the blind and the lame into his cross chamber, giving them clothes along with bread, for he, like Job, was the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame and the comforter of his flock. Constantly awaiting his outcome, as the disease multiplied, and fearing that they would not seek imaginary riches after his death, the saint, two years before his death, wrote his spiritual, in which all his lofty Christian soul poured out before the Lord and people, filled with love for neighbors and deepest humility.

“In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Behold, I am the humble Bishop Dmitry, Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl, listening to the voice of my Lord in the Holy Gospel saying: wake up, cook, as if at this hour do not wrinkle. The Son of Man will come (Matt. XXIV, 44); don’t know, for when the Lord comes to the house, evening, or midnight, or in silence, or morning, but not coming suddenly, you will find sleeping (Mark XIII, 35), then listening to the voice of the Lord and fearing, you still feel sickness being possessed, and from day to day, exhausted by the body, and tea for all the time of the unexpected hour of death spoken by the Lord, and according to my strength, preparing for the outcome from this life, I judge with this spiritual letter of mine to know to do to everyone; who, after my death, desires to seek my estate in his cell, in a hedgehog he would not work in vain, nor torture those who served me for God's sake, but my treasure and wealth, hedgehog from my youth in gatherings (this is not conceited by the river, but yes, my seeker after me I will certainly create estates); after that, I received a holy monastic image and took the vows in the Kiev Cyril Monastery on the eighteenth year of my age and promised God to have voluntary poverty: from that time, even until my approach to the tomb, without acquiring property and msheloimstvo, except for the books of the saints, I did not collect gold and silver, do not deign to have superfluous clothes, or any things other than the very needs: but the lack of possession and poverty of a monastic spirit and deed itself, as far as possible, I strive, not being certain about myself, but entrusting myself to the providence of God, and never leave me. But the one who enters into my hands from my benefactors is alms and even on the authorities is a cell parish, you are istoshev for my and for the monastic needs, even if he was in the abbess and archimandrite, also in the bishopric, he does not gather cell (already not many byakh) parishes, but ovo for my dependent needs, ovo for the needs of the needy, where God will lead. No one, after my death, labors, testing or seeking any of my cell meetings; for what I leave below for burial, not for remembrance, but monastic poverty, especially at the end, will appear to God: I believe more, it will be more pleasant for Him, if not even a single cat will be left for me, if food would be given away to a large gathering? And if there is such food for me, no one will rise to the usual burial place, I pray those who remember their death, may they divert my sinful body to a wretched house, and there between the corpses let it be thrown down. custom, then I pray to the Christ-loving graves that they will bury me in the monastery of St. Jacob, Bishop of Rostov, in the corner of the church, where the place is named, about this forehead. Deign to commemorate my sinful soul without money in your prayers for God's sake, such that he himself does not commemorate me poor, leaving nothing for commemoration: may God be merciful to everyone and to me a sinner forever. Amen".

“Sitsa covenant: this is my spiritual letter: sitsevo news about my estate. But if someone, not having faith, starts looking for gold and silver for me with a test, then if he works hard, he will find nothing, and God will judge him.

Saint Demetrius announced his will in advance to his friend, the locum tenens, Patriarchal Stephen, and they made a mutual vow among themselves: that one of them who outlive the other should perform the funeral service for the deceased brother. Stefan, younger in years and vigorous in strength, got to repay this last debt to his friend. A few days before his death, Saint Demetrius, hearing that the pious Empress Paraskeva Feodorovna was going to Rostov to venerate the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, which was to be brought from the Tolga monastery, said to his treasurer, Hieromonk Philaret, foreshadowing his death: “Behold, two are coming to Rostov guests, the Queen of heaven and the Queen of the earth, only I will not be able to see them here, but I am ready to be your treasurer to receive them.

Three days before his repose, he began to faint, but on the day of his angel, the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica, he served the liturgy in the cathedral church as usual, but he was no longer able to preach. One of the singers read what he had prepared from a notebook, while the saint sat at the royal doors, his face changed from a serious illness. Despite the fact that he forced himself to be present at the usual meal in the godmother's chamber, although he did not eat anything. The next day, Archimandrite Varlaam, who was devoted to him, arrived from Pereyaslavl and was received by him with love. During their spiritual conversation, the former nurse of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, nun Euphrosyne, from the Kazinsky family, who lived near the bishop's house, sent to ask the saint to visit her, who was ill. Exhausted himself from illness, he refused to go, although he greatly respected her virtuous life; but she sent a second convincing request to visit her, even if only for a short time; Moved on by the advice of the archimandrite, who believed that a small movement would be useful to him, the saint decided to fulfill the desire of the pious nun after evening singing, but with difficulty he could walk back to his cell. He instructed his treasurer to treat the archimandrite, and himself, supported by the attendants, walked around the cell for a considerable time. Thinking to relieve a choking cough; then he ordered that singers be called to his cell in order to delight his ears once more with the spiritual singing of hymns, which he himself once composed, such as: “My most beloved Jesus! I put my hope in Bose! You are my God, Jesus, You are my joy!” Throughout the singing, Saint Demetrius listened attentively, leaning against the stove and warming himself spiritually more than his body. With a blessing, he released each of the singers and kept only one beloved with him, who was his zealous collaborator in the correspondence of his creations. Ingenuously, the sickly hierarch began to tell him about his life, already feeling its exodus: how he spent it in his youth and at adulthood, how he prayed to the Lord, His Most Pure Mother and all the saints of God, and added: “And you, children, pray in the same way” .

Finally he said: “It is time for you too, child, to go to your house”; when the singer, having accepted the blessing, wanted to leave, the saint accompanied him to the very door and bowed to him almost to the ground, thanking him for laboring hard, copying his compositions. The chanter shuddered, seeing such an unusual escort of his shepherd, and said with reverence: “Do you bow down to me, the last slave, O holy lord?” And with meekness again the humble lord said to him: “Thank you, child,” and he returned to the cell; the chanter, weeping, went into his house. Then the saint ordered all his servants to disperse, while he himself, confining himself in a special cell, as if in order to rest a little, remained in prayer until his repose. At dawn, the ascending ministers found him on his knees, as if praying, but with what sadness their hearts were filled when they saw him already dead at prayer. They struck the big bell three times; the chorister, who had been talking with him the day before, upon hearing this mournful voice of the hierarch's repose, immediately ran to the bishops' chambers and still found his shepherd and father kneeling in the position in which he had surrendered his righteous soul to God.

The deceased was dressed in a hierarchical robe, which he had prepared for himself, and instead of the epistle, according to his timely order, various of his writings, written in black by his hand, were placed for him;

the body of the deceased pastor was taken out to his cross church of the All-Merciful Savior, which is in the hallway, near the cell where he died. When the repose of the good and child-loving shepherd was announced in Rostov, almost the entire city flocked to his honest body, and the bitter cry of the people arose for the good shepherd, teacher and intercessor, who left his flock orphans. On the same day, the pious Empress Paraskeva, with her three daughters, princesses: Ekaterina, Paraskeva, and Anna Ioannovna, arrived in Rostov after Mass and was very lamented that she was not worthy to receive the blessing of the saint before his exodus. She ordered to serve a cathedral memorial service for the deceased and went to meet the miraculous icon in Epiphany Monastery, from where it was brought with triumph to the Rostov Cathedral Church, so that the main shrine of the orphaned diocese would overshadow the deceased pastor. There, in the presence of the tsarina, the body of the hierarch was transferred with due honor and a second memorial service was performed in her presence: such an honor was judged by the Lord to give to his blessed saint! His will was immediately sent to Moscow to the monastery order, and, in fulfillment of his dying wish, it was ordered in the Yakovlevsky Monastery to prepare a grave in the cathedral church of the Conception of the Mother of God, in the corner on the right side, and line it with stone; but due to the carelessness of the gravediggers, not without a special providence of God, however, the grave was not lined with stone, but only a wooden stump was made, which soon rotted from dampness, and this later served to gain the relics of the saint.

For about a month, the body of St. Demetrius remained incorruptible in his cathedral church, and during all this time panikhidas of all people were performed over him. Already in the last days of November, the locum tenens of the patriarchal throne, Metropolitan Stefan, arrived in Rostov to fulfill his vow to a friend, and when he entered the cathedral, he wept a lot over the coffin of the deceased. Then the abbots of the Rostov monasteries, the cathedral priests and many of the honorary citizens approached the metropolitan, begging him to bury the body of the saint they loved in the cathedral church, near his lieutenant Joasaph, where the metropolitans of Rostov were always buried: but the patriarchal locum tenens did not dare to change the will of his friend. He said to those who asked: “Since, upon his entry into the diocese of Rostov, His Grace Dimitri had previously chosen his own resting place in the Yakovlevsky Monastery, do I have the right to change it?”

On the day appointed for burial, November 25, the patriarchal locum tenens served a solemn liturgy in the cathedral and funeral singing with all the clergy of the city of Rostov, and said a decent word in memory of the deceased. Then, accompanied by all the clergy and people, with much weeping and extraordinary triumph, the holy body was transferred to the Yakovlevsky Monastery, where it was supposed, according to the will, in the right corner of the cathedral church, and the grave verses were written by the locum tenens Stephen himself. Remarkably, due to the saint’s love for the remembrance of the Passion of the Lord, the confluence of days is significant for him: he died on Friday, shortly after his namesake, and was buried a month later, also on Friday, dedicated to the memory of the crucifixion of the Lord, and the uncovering of his holy relics also happened on Friday, for this great ascetic, who throughout his life collected for the benefit of the entire Orthodox Christian race the lives of the saints written in heaven in the eternal book, and himself, shortly after his departure from this short life, was honored to be inscribed with them in that the eternal book with the finger of God, and be crowned with the crown of incorruption.

After 42 years that had elapsed from his burial, on September 21, 1752, while dismantling the descended platform in the Church of the Conception of the Mother of God, his holy relics were found incorruptible in a rotten coffin, as well as his hierarchal clothes, and from them, as from a blessed source, began Healings of those possessed by various diseases flowed: the blind received their sight, the dumb spoke, the paralytic moved, and demons were cast out by prayers performed at the holy relics. Heeding these clear indications of Divine Providence, the Holy Synod, on the basis of the testimony of holy relics and former miracles, ranked Saint Demetrius among the newly-appeared miracle workers of Russia on April 22, 1757. His successor in the see of Rostov, Metropolitan Arseny, was entrusted with compiling a biography of the saint, and the service was written for him by Ambrose, Bishop of Pereyaslavl, later Archbishop of the capital, where he ended his days as a martyr. The following year, the pious Empress Elizabeth, out of zeal for the saint, arranged a silver reliquary for his relics, and in 1763, after her royal wedding, Empress Catherine made a journey on foot from Moscow to Rostov to venerate the relics of St. Demetrius and transfer them to a prepared reliquary, which she herself carried together with the bishops during the solemn circumambulation of the temple: such a royal honor was again given to the Pleasant of God.

Grace-filled healings are still being performed at the relics of the saint, over which, already in our time, another ascetic, the grave elder Hieromonk Amphilochius, has been vigilantly awake for 40 years, who left a good memory behind him and reclined, as it were, on guard at the threshold of the church temple where the relics of the saint (his pious nephew, Archimandrite Innokenty, who had long been rector of the Yakovlevsky monastery, also rests there on the threshold). Let us glorify the Lord by His inexpressible mercy, Who has shown so much piety already in our days, in the humble city of Rostov, and glorified there with many miracles the new great lamp of the Russian land, which is ambulance for those who call on his holy name. Through the prayers of this great Orthodoxy, a zealot and eradicator of schisms, a Russian healer and a spiritual healer who chastely wises all with her writings, may we also be vouchsafed to be written in the book of life of the Lamb of God, together with all those who have pleased him from time immemorial, to whose rank St. Demetrius of Rostov is numbered.

Since November 10, 1991, the relics of Saint Demetrius have been in the Yakovlevsky Church, to the right of the royal doors. At the tomb of the saint, a warm and humble prayer is again lifted up to him: “O all-blessed Saint Demetrius ...”.

Days of Remembrance : May, 23rd ( Rostov), July 19, September 21 / October 4 ( Finding relics), October 28 / November 10

Dimitri Rostovsky, saint, metropolitan (12.1651 - 28.10.1709), author of the Chetiah Menaion - a 12-volume collection of the lives of the saints, covering the entire annual cycle. He devoted more than twenty years to this cause, starting it in the cradle of Russian holiness - Kyiv and continuing until the end of his days. The saint was born in the Kiev region in the family of a Cossack centurion. Having received a classical education, he became a monk in 1668 and soon became famous, preaching the word of God in various places in Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus. Then he was the abbot in turn in several monasteries, at the same time working on the Menaion. In 1701, by decree of Peter I, he was summoned to Moscow for episcopal consecration and appointed to the Rostov cathedra. There he had to take care of the organization of the church deanery, the education of youth and the healing of the Old Believer schism. The life of the saint was a model of fasting, prayer and mercy. Administrative cares and monastic work were combined in an amazing way with his intense literary work. St. Dimitry left several volumes of his writings: a chronicle of biblical history, a legend about the miracles of the Chernigov-Ilyinsky icon of the Mother of God, a catalog of Russian metropolitans, accusatory and instructive instructions, pastoral messages, spiritual hymns, sermons, diary entries, plays from which generations of Russian theologians and clergy draw spiritual forces for creativity and prayer. In 1752 the incorruptible body of St. Demetrius, and in 1757 the great compiler of the lives was canonized as a saint.

(S. Perevezentsev)

(information from XPOHOC website)

Saint Demetrius of Rostov , )

Dimitry of Rostov (before becoming a monk, Daniil Savich Tuptalo; 1651-1709) was a church writer and preacher. Born near Kyiv in the family of a Cossack centurion, in 1668 he became a monk; in 1702, Peter I appointed D.R. Metropolitan in Rostov; here he founded the first theological seminary in Russia with the teaching of Greek and Latin. The main work of D.R. - "Minei-Cheti" (1689-1705) - the lives of the saints, arranged according to the days of their memory. This multi-volume work is based on Metropolitan Makarii's "Cheti-Minei" with the addition of material from the Russian "Prologues", "Pateriki", Western Latin and Polish sources. D.R. He also wrote Irrigated Fleece (1680), Search for the schismatic Bryn faith (1709) - an essay directed against schism, and a number of sermons. His attacks on the ignorance of priests, greed, "pride" and "unmercy" of rich nobles, defense of the poor were of an abstract nature. The ornate, rhetorical style of D.R. became a classic example of church oratory. D.R. also belong to the dramatic works "Comedy on the Day of the Nativity of Christ", "Comedy on the Assumption of the Virgin", etc.

Brief literary encyclopedia in 9 volumes. State scientific publishing house "Soviet Encyclopedia", v.2, M., 1964.

Lives of the Saints. 18th century edition

Dimitri Rostovsky (in the world Daniil Savvich Tuptalo), Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl (12.1651-28.10.1709), preacher and writer, Orthodox saint. Born in with. Makarovo on the river. Loviche. His father, Savva Grigoryevich, a Cossack centurion, then took the monastic vows, lived to be 103 years old. Mother - Marya Mikhailovna. Daniel in 1662 entered the Kiev-Mohyla Academy. On July 9, 1668, as a young man, he took monastic vows at the Kiev Cyril Monastery under the name of Demetrius and connected his whole life with the service of the Church. From 1675 to 1700 Demetrius was abbot and preacher in various monasteries in Ukraine, in Vilna, in the Minsk province. Feb. 1701 arrived in Moscow and was appointed to the Siberian Metropolis in Tobolsk. But due to illness, he could not travel to Siberia. Peter I, who personally knew Demetrius, taking care of his health, canceled the decree. In 1702 Demetrius was appointed Metropolitan of Rostov and Yaroslavl.

Dimitry Rostovsky attached great importance to enlightenment in his work. Many contemporaries noted his talent as a preacher. As a metropolitan, he opened a comprehensive school in Rostov, or, as he himself called it, a "grammar" school, in which 200 people studied. The saint himself was a very educated person, knew foreign languages, had big library- 288 books, of which 173 are in Latin and Greek, 96 - in Church Slavonic, 12 - in Polish, 7 - multilingual.

In 1684, while in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Dimitry of Rostov took upon himself the obedience of compiling the Readings of the Menaia, i.e. collection of lives, painted on the days of worship.

Chet'i Menaion of St. Dimitri Rostovsky. Edition of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. 1695. GMZRK.

It was this work, to which Dimitry of Rostov gave almost 20 years of his life, that glorified his name. When compiling the Reading Menaion, Dimitry of Rostov used both Russian and Latin, Greek, and Polish sources. He did not just rewrite the lives known to him, but often, on the basis of various options, he wrote his own version. Therefore, many lives included in his Reading of the Menaia can be considered original. The first part of the Menaia was published in 1689. Then, after the death of the saint, in 1711–16, the second edition of the Menaia appeared in 3 parts. Further, the work of Dimitri Rostovsky was published several more times. The Readings of the Menaia of Demetrius of Rostov still remain one of the most widely read Russian hagiographic works.

Dimitry of Rostov's Peru owns many sermons, dramatic works, and poems. Special place occupies the anti-Old Believer essay "Search on the schismatic Bryn faith" (written in 1709, published in full in 1745, separate chapters were published in 1714 and 1717). This treatise consists of 3 parts, in which the author seeks to explain in detail and intelligibly the origin of the schism, and also sharply opposes the supporters of the Old Believers.

In 1752, the opening of his tomb showed that the relics of the saint remained incorrupt. In 1757 Demetrius of Rostov was canonized. Now the shrine with the relics of the saint is kept in the Dormition Cathedral of the Rostov Kremlin. Memorial Day: 21 Sept. (4 Oct.) and 28 Oct. (Nov 10).

S. Perevezentsev

From the history of Zachateysky-Yakovlevsky monastery

The 18th century was marked in the history of the Zachateysky-Yakovlevsky Monastery by significant events, the consequences of which drastically changed the fate of the monastery. They are associated with the name of Metropolitan Dimitry of Rostov. In 1709, according to his own will, he was buried in the Church of the Conception of the Yakovlevsky Monastery, after 43 years, the acquisition of the incorrupt relics of the lord followed, and soon Dimitri of Rostov was canonized to all-Russian veneration.

Yakovlevsky Monastery, as the resting place of St. Demetrius, became the custodian of the great shrine - the relics of the newly-appeared Russian miracle worker, thanks to which the monastery achieved fame and prosperity. St. Demetrius - an enlightened and active church hierarch, corresponding to the ideal of a man of the Enlightenment, glorified his name as a pastor and preacher, the author of many spiritual works. He was one of those "men of mercy, whose righteous deeds are not forgotten" (Sir. 44:9).

The worldly name of Demetrius is Daniil Tuptalo. He was born in December 1651 in the town of Makarov in the Kyiv province. At the age of seventeen, he took monastic vows at the Kiev Cyril Monastery. Dimitri had a perfect command of the gift of words, and it was no coincidence that the church subsequently called him the "Russian Chrysostom". At the age of 25, he read sermons in the Cathedral of Chernigov. For many years he was a preacher and rector of various monasteries in Little Russia. He was known for piety and learning.

In 1684, on behalf of the elders of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Dimitri began to write the Chetiah Menaia - a collection of the lives of the saints, arranged in accordance with the annual cycle of worship and intended for reading throughout the year. When compiling this hagiographic encyclopedia, Demetrius collected, supplemented, corrected, wrote lives and teachings using Slavic, Greek and Latin sources. Dimitry devoted 20 years of his life to this work, completed the Chet'i Menaion in 1705 in Rostov the Great. On January 4, 1702, by decree of Peter the Great, Saint Demetrius was appointed Metropolia of Rostov. On March 1, Vladyka arrived in Rostov. Stopping at the Yakovlevsky Monastery and having prayed in the Church of the Conception, Dimitri indicated in the southwestern corner of this temple a place for his burial, saying "behold my rest, here I will dwell forever and ever."

It should be noted that the traditional burial place of diocesan lords is cathedral church. So, the Rostov Cathedral of the Assumption is a necropolis of bishops who headed the Rostov cathedra, among them are miracle workers - saints; Leonty, Isaiah, Ignatius, Theodore. Contrary to tradition, St. Demetrius chose the place of his repose, ascribed to the Bishop's house, a monastery remote from the center of the city, in a temple in which the relics of St.

For seven years, Dimitri headed the Rostov diocese. As Metropolitan of Rostov, he cared about the education and morality of his flock, fought against ignorance and drunkenness, schism and heresies. In the city he founded a Slavic-Greek school with the teaching of Greek. For the content of this educational institution arranged at the Bishop's House, Metropolitan Demetrius donated his meager savings.

In 1709, on the night of October 28, a day after his namesake, Metropolitan Demetrius died. Three strokes of the 2000-pood bell of the cathedral belfry announced the death of the lord to the residents of Rostov. After the funeral service in the Assumption Cathedral, the body of Dimitri was in the Church of the Savior until November 25, the funeral was delayed due to the expectation of the passage of Stefan Yavorsky, Metropolitan of Ryazan, exarch and guardian of the patriarchal throne. Being a friend of the Metropolitan of Rostov, He, even during the life of Dimitri, promised to sing and bury him.

The abbots of the Rostov monasteries, cathedral priests and many of the townspeople were inclined to believe that the Assumption Cathedral should become the burial place of Metropolitan Dimitri. However, Stefan Yavorsky insisted on the fulfillment of Demetrius' wish to be buried in the Yakovlevsky Monastery, as evidenced by the Metropolitan's own will. From the monastery order, it was ordered to arrange a stone crypt in the southwestern corner of the Conception Church of the Yakovlevsky Monastery, to make a stone coffin, but instead, only a wooden frame was built in the grave. Demetrius' wooden coffin was covered with drafts of his unfinished works. On the day of the burial, November 25, Stefan Yavorsky performed the funeral service in the cathedral, after which the body of Dimitri was transferred to the Yakovlevsky monastery and interred in the cathedral church of the monastery. A wooden tomb was placed over the burial place.

Meanwhile, life in the Yakovlevsky Monastery went on as usual. By the beginning of the 18th century, the monastery had its own patrimony - 36 people who lived in the monastery suburb and corrected various monastic works. In 1723, the economy of the monastery was strengthened - the estates of the abolished Rostov monasteries - Andreevsky Posad and Nikolsky on the Battle were assigned to the monastery. The first included the village of Seltso and the village of Borisovskoye and had 169 souls, the second consisted of the village of Nikolskoye and the village of Kostenchugova and consisted of 236 souls.

Having strengthened material well-being, the Yakovlevsky Monastery began stone construction in 1725. To the only church of the monastery - the Trinity Cathedral, a chapel was attached on the north side, consecrated in memory of the church originally created by St. Jacob, in honor of the Conception of St. Anna. Two decades later, in 1754, by decree of Metropolitan Arseny Matsievich of Rostov, the Trinity Church was renamed Zachatievsky, and the newly built chapel was named after St. Jacob Rostovsky. Thus, the main monastery church was returned to its original name, and the chapel was dedicated to the founder of the monastery. Apparently, this was the first altar consecrated in honor of St. Jacob Rostovsky.

In 1746, on June 6, a decree was sent from the Rostov Theological Consistory to the Yakovlevsky Monastery on the establishment of a common meal in the monastery, from which it follows that until then a non-communal charter was in force in the monastery. The report, which Archimandrite Pavel submitted to the Synod in 1765, contains short description monastery. Using this document, one can reproduce the appearance of the Yakovlev monastery in the middle of the 18th century. The monastery was surrounded by wooden, boarded walls. 4 large and 3 small gates were arranged in the fence. The holy gates, located in the eastern part of the fence, were decorated with paintings, the rest of the gates, located on the northern, western and south sides, had small gates nearby. In 1757, the construction of a stone fence on the eastern side began, but this construction, carried out with great difficulty, was soon stopped by an imperial decree. The semantic and architectural dominant of the monastery ensemble was the stone five-domed Church of the Conception of St. Anna with the chapel of St. James crowned with a single head. The church and the chapel were covered with boards, the heads were wooden. At the Church of the Conception on the western side there was a stone porch. To the northern wall of the temple, near the western corner, a three-tiered stone hipped bell tower was attached, on which there were 6 bells. The floor of the Church of the Conception was lined with cast-iron slabs, the walls of the temple were painted with frescoes. By the middle of the 18th century, the unique painting of the altar barrier had already been covered with a carved wooden iconostasis, in which in 1757 there were 50 icons. In the period between 1752-1757, outside the monastery fence, on the western side for the arrival of pilgrims, a wooden guest yard was built.

In 1752, in the southwestern corner of the Trinity Church, over the grave of Metropolitan Demetrius, a cast-iron floor settled. Repairs were required, for which Metropolitan Arseniy gave permission on September 21. After removing the slabs and removing the earth and rubble, the damaged log cabin and the wooden coffin of Metropolitan Dimitry were opened, in which the relics of the saint were found. Metropolitan Arseniy, having received a report about this, arrived at the monastery and examined the relics, vestments and coffin. For temporary storage of the found relics, a stone tomb was built in the same place. Metropolitan Arseniy reported everything that had happened to the Synod.

Rumor about the newly acquired relics of Demetrius of Rostov spread throughout Russia. In Rostov, with the relics of Demetrius, miracles were performed. Besides, in many places in Russia, healings took place in the name of Demetrius; in prayer to him. The glory of the newly appeared Wonderworker grew, faith in him grew stronger. Despite this, official canonization took place only 4 and a half years after the acquisition of relics. The incorruptibility of the relics and the truth of the healings that took place when turning to Demetrius were checked and rechecked. So, by imperial order, the synodal ensign F.I. was sent to Rostov the Great. Baranov to collect information about the healings performed at the relics. By the decree of the Synod, Metropolitan Sylvester of Suzdal and Archimandrite Gabriel of the Moscow Simonov Monastery arrived at the Yakovlevsky Monastery for a second examination of the relics of Demetrius. Finally, On April 1, 1757, on the first day of Pascha, the relics of Saint Demetrius were proclaimed completely holy., and the day of their acquisition - September 21, as well as the day of the death of the lord - October 28, were appointed as the days of celebration of St. Demetrius of Rostov. Service dedicated to St. Demetrius, the Synod instructed to compose Ambrose, Bishop of Pereyaslavl. The life of the saint was written by Metropolitan Arseny of Rostov.

According to E.E. Golubinsky, Metropolitan Dimitry was the first saint canonized for all-Russian veneration during the synodal period. Moreover, the glorification of Demetrius of Rostov turned out to be the only all-Russian canonization throughout the entire 18th century. Empress Elizabeth Petrovna granted St. Demetrius a silver shrine and a vestment of gold brocade. In the celebrations that took place in Rostov in 1763 on the occasion of the transposition of the relics of St. Demetrius in a new shrine was attended by Catherine II. May, 23rd Empress with retinue on foot came to Rostov. The most prominent Russian hierarchs of that time took part in the ceremony of transposing the relics: Demetrius, Metropolitan of Novgorod; Gabriel, Archbishop of St. Petersburg; Ambrose, Bishop of Krutitsy; Archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra Lavrenty; confessor of the Empress, Protopresbyter Jacob; as well as four archimandrites: the Spaso-Yakovlevsky monastery - Tikhon, the Epiphany-Rostovsky - Joseph, Borisoglebsky-Rostovsky - Ambrose, the Spaso-Pesotsky-Rostovsky - Joseph. On May 24, Catherine II visited the Yakovlevsky Monastery. The empress attended the liturgy and the all-night vigil.

On the morning of the next day, a religious procession was scheduled from the Assumption Cathedral to the Yakovlevsky Monastery. The procession was accompanied by a large gathering of people. In the monastery, before the liturgy, the relics of St. Demetrius were surrounded around the Church of the Conception and placed in a silver shrine set at the burial place of the saint - in the southwestern corner of the temple. Empress Catherine II donated 3,000 rubles to the monastery, of which 1,000 was intended for the abbot and brethren. On May 31, on her way from Yaroslavl to Moscow, Catherine II once again visited the Yakovlevsky Monastery to venerate Saints Jacob and Demetrius.

So, in the middle of the 18th century, the shrines of the Yakovlev monastery multiplied. Now, in addition to the relics of the founder of the monastery, Bishop Jacob, hidden under a bushel, the monastery was consecrated by the relics of his co-throne - Metropolitan Demetrius. Canonization and glorification of St. Demetrius of Rostov caused the flourishing of the Yakovlev monastery, opened a new, brightest period in the history of this monastery.

The material was prepared using the article by A. Videneyeva

Dmitry Rostovsky (in the world Tuptalo Daniil Savvich) (Dec. 1651–October 28, 1709), hierarch, Metropolitan of Rostov, spiritual writer, religious thinker, canonized in 1757. Born in the town of Makarov in Little Russia, in the family of a Cossack. Dmitry Rostovsky was educated at the Kyiv fraternal school, and in 1668, following his inclination towards a contemplative, quiet life, he became a monk in the St. Cyril Monastery; in 1669 he was consecrated a hierodeacon, and in 1675, summoned to Chernigov, he was consecrated a hieromonk and appointed preacher at the Assumption Cathedral. His fame as a preacher quickly spread, and he was invited for this purpose by worldly and spiritual authorities. That. he traveled all over Little Russia, Great Russia and got acquainted with its customs and customs, visited Lithuania, got acquainted with Polish life, with Roman Catholicism. In the struggle between Moscow and Little Russia, Dmitry Rostovsky took the side of the first, which attracted the attention of the spiritual authorities. In 1681 he was abbot of the Maksanovsky monastery, and a year later he was transferred in the same rank to the Baturinsky monastery, but in 1683 he moved to Kiev Pechersk Lavra who attracted him with her beautiful scientific library, and began in 1684 his many years of work - the compilation of Chet-Menaias. In 1692, his work was interrupted: he was again appointed to the abbot of the Baturinsky monastery, later transferred to Glukhovsky, Kirillovsky, and finally, in the rank of archimandrite, to the Yelets monastery in Chernigov. In 1700, he was appointed Metropolitan of Tobolsk, but Dmitry Rostovsky refused, citing poor health and a desire to finish his work, then he was appointed Metropolitan of Rostov, and administrative work joined his literary activity, which he performed with great care and tact. His main business was the joy of enlightening not only the clergy, but also their children, for which purpose he forced them to attend theological schools, attracting them in every possible way both by the excellent organization of teaching, and by reasonable, cultural methods of education, such as delivering sermons, speeches, playing theatrical plays and dialogues. From the works of Mr. Dmitry Rostovsky are remarkable, firstly, Chet'i-Minei, on which he worked in 1685-1705, having sources not only Russian, but many Latin and Greek. The second major work is the Cell Chronicle, which is a coherent account of the events of biblical history, with a moral and instructive purpose. When he was Metropolitan in Rostov, Dmitry Rostovsky often traveled around his diocese and met here with schismatics whom he wanted to convert to Orthodox faith; for this purpose, he wrote the third great work: "Search on the schismatic Bryn faith."

From his other works: “The Irrigated Fleece, or the Legend of the Miracles of the Chernigov Ilyinsky Icon of the Mother of God”; “Discourse on the image of God and the likeness in man”, “Diaria”, i.e. daily notes; "Catalogue of Russian metropolitans"; "A Brief Martyrology Stopped at One September"; brief instructions, prayers, pastoral letters, spiritual hymns, reflections on the sufferings of Christ, etc. Dmitry Rostovsky's sermons were of particular importance, in which one theme comes through: "Love is above everything" and one desire: to make people better, kinder. Particularly remarkable is St. Dmitry as a fighter against a split. His "Search on the schismatic Bryn faith", published for the first time after his death in 1745, consists of three parts: in the first it is proved that "the faith of the schismatics is wrong", in the second that "their teaching is soul-damaging", and in the third - that "the deeds they are not pleasing to God." As a result of such a division, it becomes clear: the reasons for the appearance of a schism, its various ramifications, the main points of the teaching, with an analysis of the foundations of the latter, as well as the moral and everyday life of the schismatics, and some chapters of this work could be directed specifically against sectarians of a mystical and rationalistic nature - against the whips. and later Molokans, but not against the schismatic Old Believers. But Mr. Dmitry did not limit himself in the fight against schismatics to one "Search", his sermons on this issue are known, since he understood the meaning of the word of God as a weapon of struggle. From these sermons are known: “A word about faith and a four-pointed cross”, “A word for the erection of an honest and life-giving cross”, “A word for the simple people”; all of them are distinguished by a simple language that is easy to understand for the people and are aimed at schismatic teachers who, with their teachings, corrupt the simple-hearted and gullible people and blaspheme the Church, her sacraments and rituals. As a contemporary of Peter I, Dmitry Rostovsky was his true companion and assistant, also taking part in his decrees on mustaches and beards, writing for this purpose a treatise entitled: "Discourse on the image of God and likeness in man."

St. Dmitry was a well-educated man. His teaching calls for virtue, instilling love for God and neighbor, self-denial, humility, complacency. This is the traditional Russian religious teaching by which the Russian people lived. “A Christian person,” teaches St. Dmitry, - he must take care, according to his strength, so that with God help day by day and hour by hour to come to perfection in good deeds ”(Teaching on Thursday of the 20th week in the Holy Spirit). Perfection is achieved, ch. arr., love. Through this virtue we can connect with God. “How? And here's how: you need to love what God loves, and never love what God does not love; do what is pleasing to God, and diligently avoid what is not pleasing to God ”(Teaching on the 6th week of Easter).

St. Dmitry admits different levels of virtuous perfection. Depending on the motives, he distinguishes between interested, servile and filial virtue. “The one who works for God for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is, as it were, in the rank of a hired hand, works as if for pay, in order to receive the kingdom of heaven as a reward; working for God out of fear of torment - is in the rank of a slave who does good, fearing that he will be punished; He who works for God for the sake of God's love itself is in the rank of a son who neither seeks retribution nor fears torment, for perfect love casts fear out, but loves the Father for the sake of love for the Father itself and in no way transgresses His will. “That is love that is true from the bottom of the heart, which loves someone not for itself, that is, not for its own benefit or profit, but for the sake of love itself; for the sake of the one she loves, she “does not seek her own” (1 Cor. 13:5). Sometimes they love someone only because they receive benefits from him, and if they did not receive, they would not love. Sometimes someone pretends that he loves his master and does his will, but this is only because he is afraid that he, being angry, will not punish him with something. True love, however, does not go “of its own,” and is not afraid of anything: it has only one thing, that it loves the beloved ”(Teaching on the 15th week in the Holy Spirit). St. Dmitry, however, does not reject love, loving God for the expected reward of eternal blessings, but cannot recognize it as perfect. So, not all love is perfect and there are different levels of perfection, but everyone can and should strive for perfection.

Calling the apostles to serve, Christ in their person called the whole world. Christian life there is no advantage of the elect or monks: "Every Christian person, born of water and the spirit, must be spiritual," even a layman living in the world (Instruction on the day of St. Michael the Archangel).

"What is perfection?" St. Dmitry never dealt with this issue from a scientific or philosophical point of view, but, rereading his teachings and the Chronicle, we find some answers to this question in connection with the interpretation of texts from the Book of Genesis. “What is perfection? Perfection is that which cannot be said to lack anything. A house cannot be called perfect if it lacks a cover or if something else is unfinished in it ... A person cannot be called perfect if he lacks an arm or a leg, or any other member of the body. So it is exactly in the spiritual life, he says in “The Irrigated Fleece”: one who follows only one commandment of God and neglects others is not perfect. The commandments of God are like the strings of a lyre: if one string in the lyre is not well tuned, the melody is not in harmony. So are the commandments of the Lord: if one is not fulfilled, all the others are wasted.

Perfection is not in outward manifestations of piety or self-flagellation, but in true love for God and neighbor. Righteous forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “so pleased God that they even became friends with Him, the sinless one”… although “they did not keep their virginity, they did not reject the world, they did not endure torment for Christ”, they “had no other law , except for the natural: “As you wish, let men do it to you, and you do it to them likewise” (Luke 6, 31), otherwise: what is unpleasant for you, do not do to others. The righteous forefathers pleased God by "that with their faith in God, which they had, they did not do, nor said, nor thought a lie."

In his sermon on the day of remembrance of St. rights. Simeon the God-bearer of St. Dmitry says that "Simeon was righteous and pious."

So, “it is not enough for a righteous person to be just a righteous person, but it is fitting for him to have piety, for truth is manifested in relation to neighbors, and piety is revealed in relation to God. Truth commands not to offend anyone, but piety teaches us to work diligently for God. However, both are as necessary for a person as two eyes, two arms, two legs, or two wings for a bird. In another place, the saint teaches that the mere observance of all the commandments is not enough and that to this must be added "preservation of the gospel decrees and advice." Citing the words of the bride from the Song of Songs: “All new fruits are quiet to the old ones” (7, 13), St. Dmitry adds that “we can understand the old and new fruits in another way: the old fruits are those good deeds that are commanded to us by the law of God and which we must do in every possible way; new fruits are those good deeds that we do according to our will in excess of what is commanded, as for example: the law commands not to covet any thing of our neighbor, not to take away or steal, but a true Christian does not spare for his neighbor and his own, shows generosity and gives everything; the law commands to lead a pure life, but a true Christian will not allow even an unclean thought to be in his mind.

This last reasoning can be misinterpreted, that supposedly St. Dmitry only advises against sinning in thought. But this is not true. In one of his teachings (4th week according to the Holy Spirit), he clearly explains: “Those will be expelled from the Kingdom of Heaven who ... with their bodily purity did not acquire spiritual purity, because although they kept the body clean, but their soul defiled with dirty thoughts, in which they gladly delighted and which they did not even consider to be a sin, ”and then adds that“ a demon enters the soul of the one who defiled it with unclean thoughts. Since Christ gave His all for us and richly atoned for our sins, we, in turn, must not only keep His commandments, but do more. This is a must for everyone striving for excellence. After all, keeping the commandments alone is not a perfection worthy of praise from God, but only a slavish duty, as Christ says: ). Such are free from debt, but not glorious in merit: they escaped torment, but did not receive crowns ”(Teaching on Thursday after the 20th week).

St. Dmitry considers Christian perfection from different angles. It always appears to him in observing the virtues and doing good deeds.

If Divine perfection is an example and reason for human perfection, then we can say that this last is the likeness of God. With the Old Believers in mind, the saint insists, saying that the image and likeness of God exist not in the body, but in the soul. The soul, being one, has a triple property, in the image of the Holy Trinity - the Divine Essence in Three Persons: memory - God the Father; mind is God the Son; the manifestation of the will is God the Holy Spirit. St. Dmitry distinguishes between likeness and image. The first is in imitation of Divine perfection, similarity to “strength, goodness, gentleness, etc.” "The likeness of God in her (soul) is created in Baptism." The image of God “is also in the soul of an unfaithful person, but the likeness exists only in a virtuous Christian. And when a Christian commits a mortal sin, he loses only the likeness of God, and not the image ... ”(“ Chronicle ”). The saint especially insists on imitating God in deeds of mercy, love and compassion. This likeness has degrees, like human perfection itself. So, a pious layman is “like” God, a “God-pleasing” monk is “called reverend” (Instruction for memory of St. Guri, Archbishop of Kazan), and the Mother of God is the Most Reverend of all people.

In his Chronicle, speaking of Leah and Rachel, the two wives of Jacob, St. Demetrius speaks of the rule of "industrious life" and "the rule of intelligent vision or divine thinking." Saint Dmitry is very clear in his reasoning. “The charter of an industrious life is to work for the sake of your neighbors, provide for the needs of the poor and the needy in their poverty, feed the hungry from the sweat of your face, clothe the naked, give rest to strangers, visit the prisoners and the sick, bury the dead and do all other works of mercy. and also for the sake of God to wear diligently and labors of imposed obedience. The statute of intelligent vision or theological thinking is to withdraw from all rumors, from all worldly cares and cling to the one God, to work in Him in the spirit, deepening all your mind and all your thoughts in Him.

“For the one who seeks salvation, both of these rules are just as useful as every person needs two eyes and two hands. One can see with one eye, but with two eyes everything is seen better; you can do something with one hand, if there is no other, but with two hands everything is done better. In a similar way, one must also understand with regard to both rules, which are discussed, that is, about industrious and God-thinking speculation. Of course, someone can seek salvation by basing it on one of the rules, but it is better to stick to both. For St. Dmitry, the industrious life is not subordinated to the contemplative life, but one complements the other, as one eye complements another.

If we compare the industrious life and the contemplative life, evaluating each according to its merits, the second will be preferable to the first. Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. St. Dmitry explains this using a classic example taken from the Gospel of Martha and Mary (Chronicle). “Martha works, and Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listens to His words. She observed the charter of action, and this (Mary) carried out the charter of intelligent contemplation; she was industrious, and this one was devout. Therefore, the Lord said to that one: “Marfo, Marfo, worry and speak about many things” (Luke 10:41), and praised this one, saying: “Mary has chosen a good part, but she will not be taken away from her.” The Lord did not humiliate and did not reject Martha either; her labors were not unpleasant for Him, since she labored not for anyone else, but for Him, in order to treat her Lord with a noble meal; yet He exalted Mary more than Martha. Why? Because Mary, rejecting all concern for externals, deepened her whole mind into God, listening to the words of God; Martha, neglecting the word of God, served only by her own labor. Therefore, she was denounced by the Lord in excessive care for worldly things, for the work, although in a good deed, is superfluous, for the sake of which the word of God, prayer and contemplation are left. Considered separately, the contemplative life surpasses the industrious life. However, the perfect way of life is one that combines both, otherwise expressed: "one virtuous living."

What are the virtues that the saint is trying to instill in people first of all and which, in his opinion, are the best decoration the soul of a man seeking his salvation? This is sincerity and the merging of words with deeds. He strictly condemns insincerity and pretense. In the name of his love for sincerity, he often in his sermons calls for attention during prayer and church services. “Prayer without attention is like a censer without fire and incense, a lamp without oil, a body without a soul… He who wants his prayer to be pleasing to God must first of all learn in himself how to start prayer. Sirach advises: “Prepare prayers for yourself first” (Sirach 18:23). To prepare oneself means, first of all, to put aside all worldly cares and cut off all vain thoughts, and then turn one’s whole mind to God, fix oneself on Him, stand before Him with fear, reverently and honestly, like one who stands before God. earthly king… For what is the use of that prayer which is done without attention and understanding? Prayer is in the mouth, but unpleasing thoughts are in the mind; the tongue prays, but the heart angers the One to whom it prays” (“Chronicle”).

St. Dmitry especially insists on reverence and attention to the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This reverence and worship is based on an unshakable faith in the presence and participation of the Holy Spirit. The saint demands from us an outward manifestation of this faith by our behavior, instructing us to behave as if we were standing before the Heavenly King with our own eyes.

Although the saint calls us to observe all the virtues, at every opportunity he reminds us of those that can be called “the virtues of the Lamb,” namely: gentleness, humility, and patience. They are characteristic of Russian piety. They are erroneously called "passive virtues", without realizing how much inner work they require on themselves.

It is difficult for a person to accept insults with meekness, to patiently endure insults, slander and humiliation. “This cup of patience is truly bitter, but it is healing ... The cup of disasters and sorrows, which our enemies fill us with God's permission and order us to drink it, is bitter; but if we drink it for the love of God, patiently and loving our enemies, then it will turn into eternal sweetness for us and bring eternal health to our souls ”(Teaching 2 in week 19). We can defeat our enemies with kindness and patience, if only because kindness triumphs over malice, and Ch. arr. because God helps the humble and meek. The meek man is the lamb in the vision of St. John (Rev. 5:1-10): "This is a lamb with the strength of a lion."

St. Dmitry put the observance of virtues, self-denial and humility at the head of a perfect life. In this he only followed such great teachers of the Church as Basil the Great, John Chrysostom, Theodore the Studite and the saints, whose life he himself described.

The attitude of St. Dmitry to the Passion of Christ had a special character. Passions were not for him, among other things, the subject of ordinary worship. His whole spiritual life flowed, grew and strengthened under the shadow of the Cross. He said that it is necessary to avoid sins, for they renew the sufferings of Christ, nailing Him anew to the cross, but that it is necessary to exercise the virtues, an example of which the crucified Christ gives us. St. Dmitry loved, especially on Fridays, to reflect on the suffering and death of the Savior. And if anything happened on a Friday, he considered it in relation to the Passion. So he wrote in his diary on March 29, 1689: “March 29, on the holy and great heel of the saving Passion, my mother Maria Mikhailovna reposed at the ninth hour of the day, at the very hour when our Savior, suffering on the cross, for our salvation, I betrayed my spirit to God the Father “in the hand” ... And even then, for a good sign of her salvation, I believe that on the same day and hour when Christ opened paradise to the robber during His free death, then commanded her soul to be separated from the body ”Also and in the Friday sermons the saint always spoke of the Cross. As we already know from his life, he loved to lie crosswise on the ground for three hours, remembering the hours spent by the Savior on the cross.

In his first essay, "The Irrigated Fleece," he tells how the Mother of God, standing at the cross, received ap. John as a son, and adds that only he is worthy to be called a son Mother of God who is pure, who is a disciple of Christ and who himself stands at the Cross. What does it mean to stand at the Cross, he asks, and answers that it means to always have before the spiritual eyes the image of the crucified Lord, to crucify Him with compassion and “everyday mortification of one’s sinful passions.” “Every pious Christian person,” he says in his beautiful sermon on the myrrh-bearing women, “is the church of Christ our God. This church also has a Cross. It is the everlasting remembrance of the sufferings of Christ.”

Saint Demetrius of Rostov (name in Baptism - Daniel) is glorified by the Church as an outstanding preacher, Christian writer, eradicator of schisms, missionary, educator.

He was born in the town of Makaryevo (located near the city of Kyiv), in the family of the military centurion Tuptala Savva Grigorievich, in December 1651.

Daniel's parents were distinguished by firmness of faith and piety. From an early age, they instilled in their son respect for God's law, devotion to the Church and Fatherland.

In view of the frequent absences of the father associated with the performance of military duty, leading role in the upbringing of Daniel, the mother played. Subsequently, he repeatedly remembered her as a virtuous daughter of the Church.

Wanting to give their son a decent education, his parents assigned him to the Kiev Fraternal School (founded through the efforts of Metropolitan Peter Mohyla, this school was famous throughout the district; subsequently, the Theological Academy was formed on its basis).

In the process of training, Daniel showed extraordinary abilities. Thanks to his innate abilities, diligence, determination, he more than once became the object of admiration from teachers and administration. In the process of completing the educational course, he mastered several languages ​​(Greek, Latin, Polish, Jewish), learned the rules of rhetoric and poetics, and imbued with the teachings of the God-bearing fathers.

Along with the theoretical disciplines, Daniel sought to absorb and assimilate the practical skills of living in Christ. He preferred a quiet and silent stay in the temple, reading edifying literature, and mental prayer to noisy companies and pleasure walks in the circle of peers.

When in 1665 the Polish conquerors, having captured Kyiv, set fire to the Fraternal monastery and school, Daniil was forced to return to his parents' house. When he returned, he did not abandon his studies, but with even greater spiritual impulse he indulged in self-education.

During this period, he regularly participated in church services, studied the Books of Scripture, heeded the instructions of the pastors. Gradually, with the help of God, he disposed his heart to monasticism.

monastic life

In the eighteenth year of his life, having finally established his determination to devote himself to God, Daniel asked for his parents' blessing and went to the Kyiv Cyril Convent. Having entered the monastery and having passed the test of obedience, in 1668 he was tonsured and received a new name: Demetrius.

Fiery zeal, combined with humility and appropriate modesty, did not go unnoticed: the following year, Demetrius was elevated to the rank of hierodeacon.

priestly ministry

Assimilated to angelic service both as a monk and as a deacon, Demetrius acquired even greater love among the brethren.

In 1675, Archbishop Lazar (Baranovich) elevated him to the rank of hieromonk. Understanding the personal merits and spiritual gifts of Father Demetrius, the archbishop called him to him and appointed him to preach at his cathedra.

The fiery sermons of the young priest, the clarity and accessibility of exhortations revealed in him a very zealous and educated pastor, sensitive, close to people. Soon they started talking about him both in Ukraine and Lithuania.

Instructing his neighbors in matters of moral perfection, Father Demetrius was no less attentive to himself.

In 1667, he was honored with an unusual dream, through which God reminded him of the need for a stricter fulfillment of monastic and priestly duty. He remembered this dream for the rest of his life.

When Father Demetrius, wishing to venerate the miraculous image of the Mother of God, visited, with the blessing of the authorities, the Novodvorskaya monastery (located within the Lithuanian borders), the Belarusian Bishop Theodosius suggested that he go to Slutsk and asked him to preach at the Fraternal Transfiguration Monastery.

Father Demetrius agreed. He spent more than a year in the Brotherhood Monastery. After the death of Bishop Theodosius, he was forced to return to Ukraine.

With the intervention of Hetman Samoylovich, he settled in the Krutitsy Nikolaev monastery. Some neighboring monasteries offered him the position of hegumen, but he kept away from this post in every possible way: firstly, out of humility, and secondly, he was kept by the hetman.

Abbot ministry

In 1681, Hieromonk Demetrius went with a message from the hetman to Archbishop Lazar Baranovich. The latter, having met the messenger, gave him a warm welcome. Taking into account the personal petition of the hetman and taking into account the desire of the brethren of the Maksakov monastery (Chernigov province), the archbishop elevated hieromonk Dimiriy to the rank of abbot of this monastery.

The following year, at the insistence of the hetman, with the blessing of Bishop Lazar, Father Dimitry left the Maksakov Monastery and headed the Baturin Krutitsy Monastery. He ruled this monastery for one year and eight months, but then, seeking prayer solitude, he refused leadership and retired.

Some time later, Archimandrite Varlaam, rector of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery, invited Father Demetrius to the Lavra, so that he could carry out the important work he had long conceived: he compiled the Lives of the Saints.

In 1684, Father Demetrius, having accepted the invitation, took up this work.

In 1685, he was honored with two Revelations, within the framework of which it was indicated to him that the saints favored his work. This strengthened and inspired him to continue his work.

In 1686, with the blessing of Metropolitan Gideon, Father Demetrius headed the Baturinsky Nikolaevsky Monastery. Managing the affairs of the monastery, he continued to write Lives. Soon the first part of the work was published.

After some time, in order not to be distracted from writing, he moved from the rector's quarters to a modest cell, and then, refusing to lead the brethren, he moved to Kyiv.

Here he was found by Archbishop Theodosius of Chernigov and, due to personal considerations, elevated him to the rank of archimandrite, put him in charge of the Peter and Paul Monastery (located near the city of Glukhov).

Soon, by order of Metropolitan Varlaam, Father Demetrius was transferred to the Kyiv Trinity-Kirillov monastery, but he did not stay here for long either.

After five months, he was consecrated to the archimandrite and appointed rector of the Yelets Chernigov Monastery. In addition, the Glukhovsky Monastery came under his leadership.

More than two years later, a new appointment followed: to Novgorod, to the Seversk monastery of the All-Merciful Savior.

clergy ministry

In 1700, Tsar Peter I turned to Metropolitan of Kyiv with a wish to find a person of righteous life for the Siberian cathedra, capable of becoming an educator of the pagans. After the choice fell on Archimandrite Demetrius, he was summoned to Moscow, where he met with the sovereign.

In 1701, a month and a half after his arrival, Saint Demetrius was consecrated Metropolitan of Tobolsk and Irkutsk.

The saint could not immediately go to his pulpit. As a result of endless wanderings, his health was undermined. In addition, realizing that in distant Siberia he would hardly be able to complete the compilation of the Lives, he fell into deep sorrow, and then fell ill. Upon learning of what had happened, the autocrat honored Saint Demetrius with a visit and ordered not to leave Moscow, but to wait for a place in one of the closer dioceses.

Stay in Moscow lasted about a year. During this time, the saint gained the respect of a number of influential people, got acquainted with the essence of state reforms.

By this time, Metropolitan Joasaph of Rostov had reposed, and Vladyka Dimitry was appointed to the orphaned cathedra. The Siberian department was headed by Vladyka Philotheus Leshchinsky.

In March 1702 Saint Demetrius arrived in Rostov and settled down in the Yakovlev monastery. In the monastery church, he designated a place for his future burial.

Getting acquainted with the state of affairs, he soon discovered that among the local clergy there were many irresponsible, ignorant clergymen. The saint devoted much time and effort to normalizing this situation.

In order to improve the training of future priests, he organized a school at his own expense. This school was located at his chambers. It included three educational classes. Vladyka vigilantly followed how the educational process was carried out. At the same time, he monitored the moral education of his disciples: he demanded that they regularly attend church services, he himself performed solemn services, and he himself instructed them by word and example.

Along with this, Saint Demetrius worked to overcome schisms, fought obscurantism and popular superstitions.

Despite being busy managing the department, during this period he finished writing the Lives of the Saints.

In 1705, Dimitry of Rostov departed on a call to Moscow. During this period, the main type of his activity was enlightenment, preaching, and the fight against sectarian movements.

In 1707 he returned to the diocese. By this time, his health had deteriorated significantly, but he did not step aside from pastoral duties and continued to engage in the field of literary creativity.

Three days before his repose, Demetrius of Rostov served a service dedicated to the memory of Saint Demetrius of Thessalonica, but he no longer had the strength to preach. The following time he was in a state of severe physical exhaustion.

Before his death, singers visited him and performed the spiritual chants composed by him. Then he let them go and closed. The next morning, October 28, 1709, he was found kneeling in a prayer position, but already lifeless.

Troparion to Saint Demetrius of Rostov, tone 8

Orthodoxy to the zealot and schism to the eradicator, / Russian healer and new prayer book to God, / with your writings buikh chaste, / spiritual barn, Blessed Demetrius, / pray to Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion to St. Demetrius of Rostov, Tone 4

The Russian Star, which shone from Kyiv, / and reached Rostov through Novgrad Seversky, / illuminating this whole country with teachings and miracles, / let us appease the golden-spoken teacher Demetrius: / he wrote everything to everyone, even for instruction, / yes he will gain everyone, like Paul , to Christ // and will save our souls with orthodoxy.

Troparion to the Saints of Rostov, tone 4

Hierarchs of Wisdom, / your flock a teacher of divine enlightenment, / having multiplied the faith of the gospel in people, / imitating the love of Heaven on earth, / the people of the country of Rostov and Yaroslavl who shared salvation, / truly God’s service / and the companions of the apostles worthy appeared to you, / Leonty Hieromartyr, Isaiah , Ignatius, James, Theodore / and the Russian goldsmith Demetrius, / pray to Christ God / for the bishops, your successors on the throne, / for people who piously revere you, / for our Orthodox country // and for the whole Church of Christ.

Kontakion to the Saints of Rostov, Tone 4

Keepers of the New Testament of God with people, / performer of the gospel commandments, / perfected in good deeds, / hierarch of wisdom, reverend and righteous God-bearing, / the land of Rostov and Yaroslavl / fragrant with prayers, / naming everything and unnaming, / manifestation and concealment, / forthcoming Life-Giving Trinity, / do not depart from us in spirit / and incline Divine mercy to us, / yes, with boldness, we bring glory to God in the Highest, / may peace be indestructible on earth, / love and goodwill // among all people.