Gerontissa Nantieznta (Hope) of Sevastopol: a Spiritual Daughter of St. Luke of Simferopol

Below is an account by Father Nektarios Antonopoulos, the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of Christ - Sagmata, about his meetings with the Gerontissa (Eldress) Nantieznta on his trips to Simferopol. Fr. Nektarios has written a lot about St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol, has helped the Monastery of Sagmata become a pilgrimage of St. Luke in Greece, and also has visited the Ukraine many times leading pilgrimages. These are some comments of his about a very spiritual nun who was and remains under the spiritual direction of St. Luke. The text is translated from: http://www.agiosloukas.org/nantienznta.html and http://www.agiosloukas.org/nantienznta1a.html.

"It was June 10th 2000, the eve of the celebration of St Luke the [Surgeon], Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea. I was in the church of the Holy Trinity in Simferopol for the festival Vespers and Matins. Among the thousands of pilgrims I saw an elderly Great-schema nun.

From the first moment I was impressed with her presence and kindness. Her relatives related to me that Gerontissa was a spiritual child of St Luke. I saw her again the following year in Sevastopol. We talked a little more and I began to understand that this was a spiritual treasure, but unfortunately I was unable to stay longer. I bid her farewell, saying that if God wills, next year we will meet at her home.
It was Gerontissa Nantieznta (Hope) from Sevastopol. F

Indeed in June of 2002, I visited her residence on the ground floor of an old building. The small apartment consisted of a room connected by a narrow corridor to a small kitchen, small and unadorned [áíÞëéï êáé áðåñéðïßçôï?], in a terrible state, as well the rest of apartment. Gerontissa lives with her daughter and granddaughter. The wall above her bed was covered with icons, and in the center was a table with an ever-burning lapada [olive-oil votive lamp].

She welcomed us full of joy: «Welcome! What a great blessing this is, that you came to me the sinner...». She took a single orange from the table and gave it to me.


«I saved it for you.» She continued.

«You know a month ago I was very in very bad shape. I felt my forces starting to leave, my blood pressure fell, and I understood that I would soon be leaving for that Great Journey. The priest came and communed me, but at some point I remembered your words and what you told me when you left.

Then I entreated St. Luke and I told him: «My St. Luke, Fr. Nektarios said that in one month he would come to see me. If you want, let me live until then I can go. Indeed the Saint heard me, my strength returned, my blood pressure rose, and now I am well». I was surprised and somewhat uneasy to hear this, and I said: «But I also wanted to see you alive». Very charismatically she replied. «And I tried to live».

Icon of St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol the Surgeon (taken from: http://www.agiosloukas.org/eikona-1.html)


I asked her about her life.
«I was born in 1906. I lived through a lot in my life. Poverty, hunger, misery, revolutions, wars...». It's noteworthy that Sevastopol belongs to those cities which have especially suffered. Shortly after the October Revolution, civil war erupted between «Whites» and «Reds», which took nearly four years. Millions were the dead and many more the other victims and the injured.


The most bloody phase of this war took place in the Crimea. Following the withdrawal of «Whites», the massacres reached their peak. Within one and a half months around 50,000 people were executed. Sevastopol lived through horrific days, and that is why we called the «City of the Hung». The central avenue was full of corpses. They gathered those that they had hung in the streets to terrorize the population, while the town was dominated by posters with the slogan «Death to traitors».

In the Second World War, Sevastopol once again sawthe horrors of war. The location is of strategic importance and the two rivals fought rabidly and had countless deaths. Sevastopol was kept for 249 days and all the while mercilessly bombed. When the fighting stopped, only seven buildings were left standing, the rest of the city had been steamrollered.

The Gerontissa continued: «Since early on we have experienced the horrors of civil war. I was a little girl and then our town lived through many misfortunes. There was a lot of blood spilled then. In the decade of the 1930s I got married and had two girls. Soon the Second World War erupted and my husband left for the front. The Germans arrested him as a prisoner and he was kept for some time in German camps.

After the war the prisoners returned, but not to their homes; they were sent to Siberia. It was an absurd policy of Stalin. Those miserable Russian prisoners who survived the suffering of the German camps, were considered by Stalin to be poisoned by the «miasma of capitalism» and therefore should be subjected to the «detoxification» anti-Capitalist treatment.
So in this way all the soldiers were driven to the gulag camps! I never saw my husband again. With great difficulty I raised my two children. My only consolation and hope was in faith in God. Since I was small I was in the church, and this supported me. Let His name be glorified».

Acquaintance with Saint Luke

I met Saint Luke in 1951 and this acquaintance was the greatest blessing of my life. For ten years I made him the prosphoro [holy bread] for the Divine Liturgy, and I never missed his sermons. Many times I visited his office, and we would talk frequently and often we ate together.

He helped us a lot, as long as the whole world. He often stayed hungry so that others could eat. But while St. Luke seemed austere, he actually wasn't. When you approaching him you saw a sweet man, full of love.

All of us loved him and we thought of him as our father. Although the situation was difficult - the Church was under persecution and we were at risk of losing our jobs - we ran to be close to him and to listen to the sermons. And when the Divine Liturgy was finished, we did not leave, but we waited for him and then followed him up to his house.
When we would reach his home, he turned around full of love and blessed us.

When my daughter was small, she had a problem with appendicitis and the doctors had recommended surgery. I went to St. Luke, he examined her and told us: «No, do not do surgery, there is nothing». Indeed, since then it did not bother her again.

I remember that I saw him a few days before his dormition. He was in his bed, very weak, and he couldn't speak well. He only whispered something to me and I received his blessing. I was present at his funeral. The two evenings when his body remained in the church I was there and I read the psalter. The second evening, as I read the psalter, I saw him in front of me, very much alive. He sat down not too far away at a table. I was speechless.


Photograph from the Funeral of St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol (taken from: http://www.rel.gr/photo/thumbnails.php?album=59)

On the day of the funeral there was a great battle with the police, and we were not allowed either to bring the Relic along the main road or to sing. We will not forget the following amazing fact: When we were having the argument with the police over his coffin, there appeared in the sky thousands of doves which circled and chirped. Everyone followed St. Luke on the main road to the cemetery.

This took approximately three and a half hours. All this time we were chanting «Holy God...» and the doves followed us. When we arrived at the cemetery, the doves sat on the roof of the church. After we finished and started to leave, the doves flew away chirping, and no one ever saw them again. There were thousands of doves and this made a great impression. This was even striking to the «atheists».


All of his spiritual children were convinced that they were near a Saint. We had no doubt, and anything that we asked of in prayer us, he gave to us. Since then he has sometimes visited us. The last time he did I noticed that his robe had few sludges on it. I cleaned it and said said to him: «My Master, [Despota or Vladyka, the proper way to address to a hierarch] how did you get dirty? Next time, be more careful...»



The exhortation of Christ came to my mind, how we must become like children and admire their simplicity and directness.

The Tonsure
«I was tonsured in 1997. For a long time I wanted to become a nun, but was not provided with the opportunity. Eventually, my desire was made known to the Metropolitan, Lazarus, who gave me the blessing to be tonsured. I didn't go to a monastery, because there is none nearby. Furthermore I am very advanced in age, and so I decided to stay here. I split the room in the middle with my daughter (and showing me her bed and icons, she continued) from here is the monastery, and (showing the bed of her daughter across) there is the world.

My day passes with my prayer. What else should I do? I am a nun. Before, all day I would read many Paraklesis [Supplications services] and Xairetismoi [Salutations services] to the Panagia. Now I see almost nothing, nor do I hear well. My daughter reads to me, and the rest of the time I do the komposchoini [prayer rope]. I did the same at night, because I cannot sleep much. I pray: «Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me the sinner».


I pray to our Master for priests, for our monks and for the whole world. I also pray for you that God keeps you well.

She stopped for a moment and then continued: «You know, today I am very happy but also very sad. Tomorrow is the Ascension and our Christ will leave us. I am glad that he will ascend into the heavens, but again I am sorry that he leaves ... I wanted Him to stay!.


But whatever happens I will leave myself, I am now useless. I shouldn't weary them and pester them».


Some time past.

In October 2003 we visited again with a group of children from the Diocese of Thebes and Levadeia. The small room was packed, and most could not even fit in the room, but remained in the corridor. The Gerontissa's joy was very great «What a great joy you've given me. So many people came to me! Thank you for remembering me. You came to me like little birds from heaven, like angels».

Among the other incidents mentioned, the following two stories show what a great heart Gerontissa has. «A few years ago went with my daughter to church. On the road we found a small, destitute [ñáêÝíäõôï?] child. We asked him where he was from and where he was staying. The child was abandoned, and he had neither parents nor home. I told him: «Do you want to come to stay with us?»

He accepted, and so we took the boy home and kept him for three to four years. Later, some relatives of his from Vynitsa were found from very far from here, and they took the child with them.


Unfortunately now we have no contact with the child. They didn't take our phone number and haven't sent us a letter. Never mind, may things go well with the child, as God keeps him well. We could do this and we did».


We admired her nobility. The soul which knows how to love, to offer and to sacrifice does not complain for any ingratitude, or require any permanent dependency from others [ïýôå áðáéôåß ôçí ìüíéìç åîÜñôçóç ôïõ Üëëïõ?].

The second incident is similar.

«One relative of ours was pregnant. Because stumbled financially, she decided to have an abortion.

We entreated her not to do so. She was adamant. She said that she would not be able to raise it. I fell to her feet, and I begged her with tears, saying that she would be committing a crime, she would be killing a human being. She did not change her mind, and then I said that since she could not raise it, she should give it to me, I will adopt it and will raise it. This convinced her. The child was born and we brought her home. Today she is 14 years old».


She appears to be a very good and willing girl, who lives as a gift of the love of her holy grandmother. The remarkable thing is that Gerontissa Nantieznta is not only not rich, but gets a pension of hunger [ðáßñíåé óýíôáîç ðåßíáò, government subsidy for food?]. Only six euro per month and a similar amount from her daughter.
Thus little Anna grew up in Gerontissa's house.

The money is not enough to live, but the Gerontissa is totally devoted [áðüëõôá ðáñáäïìÝíç?] to the will of God.
We sat close to her for over an hour. Her smile was constant on her lips and her words were an outpouring of joy. We did not hear any complaints, only glorification of God. Her countenance was filled with love and kindness.


Her eyes could see little, but the eyes of her soul were wide open. In her hands continuously spun the komposchoini and every so often she would whisper the Jesus Prayer [«Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me the sinner»].

As we were leaving she filled us with prayers: «Go in prayer of God and the Panagia. May your guardian angel be with you. May St. Luke be near you. Write me your names and your city, that I may pray for all of you and your families. Now that you are leaving, I will do the Paraklesis to the Panagia Odigitria ["The Directress"] that she might guide you, and go on the road before you».



Icon of Panagia and Christ "Odigitria" ("The Directress") (Icon courtesy of www.eikonografos.com used with permission)

...She asked her daughter to help her outside to bid us farewell. She sat at the door and with tears in her eyes she crossed us and continued prayers. «May your guardian angel be with you. May Panagia the Odigitria be your guide».

One hour near her was a taste of Paradise."

(taken from: http://www.agiosloukas.org/nantienznta.html, and http://www.agiosloukas.org/nantienznta1a.html; for more info on St. Luke the Surgeon, Archbishop of Simferopol, see: http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com/2008/10/st-luke-archbishop-of-simferopol.html)

St. Luke Archbishop of Simferopol, intercede for us all and help us!
Most-Holy Theotokos, save us!

The Story of Saint Vladimir the Great’s Search for the True Religion

St. Vladimir the Great

In the year 987, Vladimir summoned together his boyars and the city elders and said to them, “The Bulgars [Muslims] came before me urging me to accept their religion. Then came the Germans [Latin Christians] and praised their own faith; and after them came the Jews. Finally the Greeks [Orthodox Christians] appeared, criticizing all other faiths but commending their own. What is your opinion on this subject, and what do you answer?” The boyars and elders replied, “You have your men at your disposal. Send them to enquire about the ritual of each and how they worship God.”

Their counsel pleased the prince and all the people, so that they chose good and wise men to the number of ten. Then they went their way.

When they returned, Vladimir called together his boyars and elders and commanded the envoys to speak out, and so they did, saying: “Among the Bulgars [Muslims], we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgar bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no joy among them, but only sorrow. Their religion is not good.  Then we went among the Germans [Latin Christians], and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no beauty there.

Then we went to Byzantium, and the Greeks [Orthodox Christians] led us to the places where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty.

* This excerpt is from “The Russian Chronicles: A Thousand Years that Changed the World”

Source: http://solzemli.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/the-story-of-saint-vladimir-the-greats-search-for-the-true-religion/

The Optina Martyrs

In the year 1993 the whole Orthodox world was shocked by a tragic event, which had happened in Optina Hermitage: three inhabitants of the monastery were brutely murdered on Easter night. They were hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov), monk Ferapont (Pushkarev) and monk Trophim (Tatarinov).

The Easter service in Optina began as usual. According to the existing tradition, the religious procession to the skete of St. John the Baptist,which is situated to the east of the Monastery, and back was coming to an end. The festive Easter peal was heard coming from monastery and skete belfries. The number of people was enormous—up to 10 thousand people (as the militia later reported, which were guarding the Monastery during the festive service,). After the Liturgy the monks went to the refectory to break the fast. After completing the meal, two of the bell-ringers, monk Ferapont and monk Trophim, returned to the belfry to continue the Easter peal. By then it was ten past six. Suddenly the bell ringing became uneven and then stopped completely. A terrible crime was committed on the belfry—the monks were villainously killed with stabs from a knife.

Monk Ferapont expired at once. After the stabbing Monk Trophim uttered a loud shriek: “God, have mercy upon us!” and “Help!; having risen a bit, he rang the bell—and fell down.

The murderer ran away to the   skete, where hieromonk Vasily was also going in order to hear confessions. The criminal stabbed him in the back with the same knife.

Then the murderer climbed over the monastery wall and threw away a blood-stained self-made knife. It was double-edged, five centimeters wide, and resembled a sword. It was engraved on its blade with “ 666” and “satan”. The same inscription was found later on a knife in the pocket of a greatcoat that was abandoned by the murderer.

The murderer Nikolay Averin inflicted knife wounds to the back. According to the investigator, the injuries were inflicted with unusual professionalism “and deliberately—they were not too deep—to make the victim bleed to death over a long time”. In fact, hieromonk Vasily suffered for several hours, though monks Trophim and Ferapont died immediately.

Averin killed monks Ferapont and Trophim while they were announcing to the world on the belfry the Resurrection of Christ. And hieromonk Vasily was killed when he was going to the skete to hear confessions. Having committed the murder, Averin slipped the edge of the monks’ robes to their heads and pulled their klobuks over their faces.

It seemed that there was still life in monk Trophim. He was brought to Vvedensky Cathedral, but a few minutes later he passed away.

In spite of a terrible wound, Hieromonk Vasily lived longer than the others. He looked at the people surrounding him and even tried to rise. He was also brought to the Cathedral and was put next to the relics of St. Elder Ambrose, and then he was taken by ambulance to the local hospital in Kozelsk. There he soon passed away.

It was also surprising that the monks began to give away their possessions before their murder, including their personal tools, saying they would not need them any more (which was all the more unusual at the time when there was such a lack of tools in the monastery that one had to bring them from home or get them somehow through friends, otherwise one could not do his work). Everyone in Optina monastery was surprised by this occurance, but after the murder it became clear: the monks had foreseen the glory of martyrdom prepared for them.

To understand why the monks were ready to die, it is necessary to know what kind of life they lived.

For more than ten years people in Optina monastery have been collecting information about monks Trofim, Ferapont and Vasily.

A Joyful Ascetic

Monk Trophim

Leonid Tatarnikov, the future monk Trofim, was born in the village of Dagon , Irkutsk region, on the 4th of February, 1957. When he was a baby he cried day and night incessantly for almost two years, so that some people thought he was unlikely to survive. But he became quiet as soon as he was baptised, and since then became a smiling healthy boy.

Leonid grew into a tall beautiful young man, and girls liked him. Besides being handsome, he was erudite (he would read all night long, and was even nicknamed Bookworm), hard-working and never touched alcohol. Girls tried hard to marry him, some even turned to magic. One of them actually told him, "either you will be mine, or no one's!" But Leonid stayed calm and had but one word to address a girl: "sister". He was a born monk, but he understood it much later.

Having finished secondary school, Leonid studied in a railway services college. After completing his service in the army he worked as a sailor on a trawler.

When Leonid was getting a foreign passport, for some reason he changed his name and became Alexey. Alexey tried quite a number of occupations: photography, horse-breeding for a local horse farm, and shoe-making (the shoes he made were such that everyone in the town queued to get a pair). He was a member of various hobby groups, such as a yacht-club, wrestling and karate societies, as well as classical and folk dance schools. He was very flexible. At thirty years of age he could still do the splits without straining. Together with his sister Natasha, Alexei studied in a classical dance school and won prizes in competitions. Once he was even offered to enter into a contract and become a professional dancer, but he refused.

Monks Ferapont and Trophim

The future monk was looking for the meaning of life and still could not understand what was lacking. He took up "well-being" and even gave up eating meat. In his room there hung a time-table according to which Alexei went without food for ten days twice a month in the vain hope to give up smoking (he took to smoking at a very early age). Then he began to go to church, and the priest told him he had to choose between God and nicotine.   Alexei finally rid himself of his long-term habit.

How on earth could this cruel man of an unknown build overpower three monks?! And what monks! Monk Trophim could tie a poker into a knot (there was an episode when some drivers tried to straighten out a dent in a truck wing with a sledge-hummer, and all their attempts fell flat untill Trophim did it with bare hands). Two-meter-high hieromonk Vasily in his previous life was known to be one of the best water-polo players in the country. He used to be a member of a combined team of the USSR . His reaction time was stunning and he was famous for an amazing mighty throw. Even while dying he was able to deliver a shattering blow. Monk Ferapont was very good at martial art (aikido, karate).

The committee of inquiry affirms that the whole point is the stabs were delivered to the back. But the belfry where monks Trophim and Ferapont were killed is rather small, and a stranger can’t get there unnoticed. However, it’s clear to an orthodox person even without any investigation that the monks could not requite violence using the same violence. It was their last temptation. A real monk mustn’t bloody his hands.

Evidently, by then monks Trophim, Vasily and Ferapont were ready for death. According to the witness’ recollections, the martyrs had foreseen their death. Monk Trophim had often spoken that he had little time left – half a year, a year. While Ferapont, once a silent monk, began asking everybody to pray for him.

On Pentecost day, 1990, Alexei had a vision. He immediately decided to become a monk and bought a ticket to Optina monastery. But when he was ready to leave, his passport, money and ticket were stolen, and he made it to Optina in only a month and a half. His spiritual search lasted a long time untill at the age of thirty-six he stayed in Optina monastery and took monastic vows, becoming monk Trofim.

Having settled in the monastery, he found this holy place rather neglected. The locals, who after World War II built a village on the monastery territories, cursed this land which bore nothing, although it had been very fertile before. Tomatoes use to grow there in such quantities that they were given for free to anyone who asked for them. Now the land bears fruit again. The monks have managed to cultivate this poor soil, and the hard-working monk Trofim took part in that, too.

The local farmers say that wherever monk Trofim planted potatoes for old people, there were no Colorado beetles, while there were plenty of them in the neighbouring gardens. Some people even came to the monastery to ask what kind of prayer the monk was saying. By now some farmers take a pinch of earth from his tomb and, having dissolved it in water, use it to sprinkle their gardens.

Trofim valued time, and he had time for everything. His main duties were those of senior bell-ringer, sexton and tractor operator. Besides that, he worked as a receptionist, candle-seller, house-painter, baker; he worked in the bookmaker's shop, in the warehouse, in the forge. People surrounging him had a feeling that he could do everything. Only after the murder did they learn that monk Trofim had never before been a forger, a tractor operator, a baker, a bookmaker, and had never learnt how to ring the bells. God made him able to do all that for his prayers.

When they decided to bake their own bread in the Optina monastery (in the beginning of the nineties bread supplies in Russia were limited), the task was appointed to monk Trofim. Nobody knew how to bake bread in the monastery. The monk had to run around to find a receipt. But as a result his loafs were spongy, light and tasty. His bread was called "healing" in the neighborhood. When leaving the monastery, one businessman even asked to have the special receipt of monastery bread. The man explained that his sick stomach did not digest bread at all, excluding the monastery "healing" bread. They gave him the receipt but he did not know the most important thing: how thoroughly monk Trofim prayed on each baking and how many bows he made in front of Icon of the Mother of God "The Grower of Crops" ["Sporitelnitsa hlebov"].

Trofim was a real monk—secret, focused inward, and there was no external, ostentatious devotion in him. There were no bad people in the world in his opinion, and anyone at any time of day and night could ask him for help and would receive it. It was to monk Trofim that everybody went asking for repairs for a watch, photo camera or even boots.

He prayed a lot but slept little, and he ate very modestly, limiting himself even in water. But in spite of those restrictions he was never sick and never seemed to be tired. And everybody in Optina got used to his perseverance. It was difficult to imagine this strong monk, always happy and lively, to be an ascetic one and to have a custom to eat nothing during the first and the last week of the Great Fast.

However during the last (for Trofim) Fast one could notice signs of fatigue in him. It was getting clear for Optina's inhabitants that the monk was on the verge of exhaustion. As a rule, at five in the morning, when all the monks were going to the midnight service, it was hard to recognize faces in the darkness. But one could always recognize monk Trofim even from a long distance because of his flying long gait. He was hurrying to church overtaking many others on his way. But during his final days it became hard to recognize him. Sasha the Prosphora-maker remembered an incident, when he was slowly going to midnight service and had overtaken somebody in the darkness. Turning around to see who it was, he could not believe his eyes that it was Trofim. Sasha noticed that Trofim was going so slowly and with such effort as if he was carrying an unbearable burden.

The mother of monk Trofim did not manage to be in time for her son's burial. When the news of his death had come, she was being treated in a hospital after a stroke. The doctors prohibited her from flying by airplane, so she had to travel by train from Siberia . She came to the monastery and spent some time there. She even wanted to stay there for good but they blessed her to go back home and to turn to God her other children. Thus through the death of a beloved brother and because of a mother's efforts, her children had come to God. Once Lena , a younger sister of the monk, saw Trofim in a dream. He looked so worn out in that dream and had such a sorrow in his eyes that the girl shivered hearing his voice as for real: "I'm so tired. I have worked my tail off praying for you all but you are still not going to church." And at one time 14 of Trofim's relatives had been baptized together.

He lived without touching the earth.

Monk Ferapont

The future monk Ferapont was born into the world Vladimir Pushkarev on the feast of the icon of the Mother of God “The Unburned Bush”, 1955. He was born in a remote desolate town of the Taiga, where lumber cutting paid only pennies, and many suffered poverty or drank. All of the workers were unbaptised since the nearest church could only be reached by plane, and no one had the money for that.

Everything in Vladimir ’s life was normal. He attended school, then the army (compulsory, and then additional voluntary service), where he learned the Eastern art of warfare, which he later discovered was mixed with occultism. Having finished the army, he studied agriculture. After that he worked as a technical-forester in a lumber range in Baikal. He never drank, never smoked, and everyone respected him. But his life in the world was made difficult because certain people considered him a sorcerer.

It is well known that Vladimir ’s conversion occurred during his time working as a lumber jack. They say that once and old man appeared to Vladimir in the Taiga, who gave him a book about magic and arranged another meeting on the same spot in a year. Vladimir did not like the sorcerers and they did not appear for their second meeting. But he performed magical tricks for fun for the local girls. He would send them into some local brush and told them to write a note, which he would then read from a distance. He was mystically gifted by nature. His games almost ended in tragedy. According to the words of his own friend, Vladimir lived through his own death. His soul separated from his body and he traveled to a kingdom of terror. He died. But an angel appeared to him and said that he would send Vladimir back earth only if he agreed after that to go to church.

After all that Vladimir soon left the forest farm, where a church wasn’t even hundreds of kilometers distant, and moved to the Rostov–on Don. There, he started working as a yard–keeper in the Cathedral of the Nativity of Virgin. It was soon noticed that he was an exceptional faster: during Lent he would take several prosphora, crackers and a bottle of holy water. After the service he would only eat this in the Church behind a column.

The future monk lived in Rostov–on–Don for three years, and on holidays he would travel around the monasteries in search of one to stay in. At that time his decision to become a monk had already been made and he had received the blessing of the elder Kirill (Pavlov) of the Trinity–Sergius Lavra. Vladimir later went to Vladika Vladimir, the present-day metropolitan of Kiev and all Ukraine , and told him, “Vladyko, I can even clean the toilets, if only you give me a recommendation to the monastery!”. And it turned out exactly that the cathedral needed a person to clean the toilets. The future monk did that for around a year, when he received a recommendation and left the city.

He came to the Optina Hermitage from Kaluga (quite a long distance) on foot and took the veil with the name Ferapont.

Once he had the duty to keep watch at the Holy Gate of the monastery so that no inappropriately dressed woman would enter it. He had to give them scarfs and work gowns. It turned out that he did not notice the women and even didn’t realize how they were dressed. The warden was constantly criticizing and blaming him, “can’t you see that! You must carefully watch how they all are dressed!” But the monk was only repeating with repentance, “forgive me, father, I haven’t reached that perfection as to be able to look at the women! I am guilty!” Soon this duty was taken from him. 

As far as the other kinds of work are concerned, many have admired his talent: a talent to study something new. He was doing everything very carefully. In the monastery he became an excellent woodcarver. Half of the Optina bretheren are wearing his paraman crosses.

Artist Sergey Lavrov called Ferapont “Titian” for his shaped cheekbones, bright-blue eyes and "golden curls on the shoulders ". Lavrov recollected the day when Ferapont showed him his first work, a carved paraman cross. The impression it produced was very strong. Today there are, of course, elegant crosses decorated with many details. Each curl is trimmed so gracefully, that it is possible to admire it, as an independent picture. But the details hide the main subject, and the skill of the artist and his pride come to the fore. In Ferapont’s work there was modesty, severity and laconicalness—the eye at once seized the figure of the Savior.

In Optina Ferapont is described as a person who lived without touching the earth. Imperceptible, silent, he was praying day and night. He had a very strong prayer indeed!

Once a person came up to church’s warden saying that he had come to the monastery by accident, doubting the existence of the God, and at last he believed. " I saw here how one monk was praying,” he said, “I saw the face of an angel talking with Lord. Do you know that there are angels among you? " " What angels? " said the warden in surprise. The visitor then pointed to Ferapont, who was coming out of the Church at that moment.

The monks also tell that, when monk Ferapont completed the monastic prayers with a “five hundred” (500 repetitions of the Jesus prayer), not an obligatory one for an inok, he then would still pray for a long time at night. One of his fellow brothers had decided to count how many bows he made during one night. The cell was divided by a curtain, and monk Ferapont was praying in the corner, having thrown a sheepskin coat on a floor in front of the analoy. His cellmate was counting and counting the bows, and while counting has fallen asleep.

The hierodeacon who lived with Ferapont in the cell related that before the death of Ferapont, he did not sleep at all, praying all the night and found rest while bending over a chair. Moreover during all of Passion Week he did not eat a bite.

After he was murdered a letter was found in his pocket. It said that "if help is needed, I shall be glad to give a hand". It is not known yet to whom this letter was addressed.

But many believers are sure—the addressee are all those who pray for the martyr Ferapont of Optina.

Translation:  A.Ljubimova, A.Martchuk, N.Volkova, L.Zholudeva, edited by fr. Savvatij (Lewis)

Source: 

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