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Complete collection and description: archimandrite pavel gruzdev prayer for the spiritual life of a believer.
« God! With the prayers of the righteous, have mercy on sinners"
On the eve of the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, on October 13, 2012, a group of ourtheir arrivaljean, in hAnd after which there were the most active visitors to the Sunday School for adults, in the city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev). Here lived the last years of his earthly life and here the saint of God, the people's elder, archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, father Pavel (Gruzdev) departed to heavenly abodes.
Not only residents of the Yaroslavl land came here to see him, but people from different places went: the name of Father Pavel is revered throughout Russia. During his lifetime, he was glorified by God with many gifts, his intercession before the Lord was strong and effective. And now people go to his grave: to bow and ask for help in sorrows and needs, as if they were alive, for the prayer of the righteous does not stop with his departure to another world, and, perhaps, becomes even stronger. Here we go, many for the first time.
The city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev) is located 38 km northwest of Yaroslavl, located on both banks of the Volga River, until 1822 these were two different settlements. On the left bank of the Volga is Romanov, founded in the 13th century by Prince Roman of Uglich, on the right bank is Borisoglebsk, known since the 15th century and named after the first Russian saints, the martyr princes Boris and Gleb. The decree of Emperor Alexander the First united these settlements into one city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk, in 1918 the city was renamed Tutaev (by the name of the Bolshevik I. Tutaev).
Father Pavel is buried at the Leontievsky cemetery, which is on the left side of the Romanovskaya side, where we immediately went. A path leads to the grave of Father Pavel, strewn with a thin, one-pebble, layer of gravel, and not far from the cemetery entrance there is a home-made simple pointer-arrow: Archimandrite Pavel. The elder is buried next to the graves of his parents, in one fence. Black granite crosses, flowers. Batyushkin's cross is more massive and taller, next to it is a candlestick with burning candles and a lit lamp, inextinguishable.
We went into the fence, bowed to Father Pavel, venerated the cross on his grave with a prayer, whoever guessed to take candles, put them on a candlestick protected from the weather. Our rector, Archpriest Michael, with three choristers served a panikhida for the repose of the servant of God, Archimandrite Paul, and we prayed. Who asked Father Pavel about what is a mystery. Our trip was accompanied by a fine autumn rain: here we are standing under umbrellas and praying.People come to Father Pavel in any weather, at any time of the year. While our memorial service was going on, more people approached, also with a priest, which means that memorial services for Father Pavel do not end. Prayer does not end, the communication of believers with the elder does not stop, the help of the chosen one of God continues to us, the weak and sinful, asking for the help of the strong and righteous. At the end of the memorial service, Father Michael anointed us with oil from the lamp from the grave of the Archimandrite - his answer. He loved people. Simple, sincere and very strong. For real, for God. Loved and loves! Due to ill health, I could not receive everyone personally. Now everyone can.
From the cemetery we went to the Leontief Church, where Pavel Gruzdev prayed, read and sang on the kliros when he lived with his parents here, on the left, Romanovskaya side. He was born in Mologa, a district Russian city, which stood "on two rivers, on the Mologa and on the Volga, on steep banks," as the old man used to say. From the age of 5 he lived in the Mologa Afanasiev Monastery, where three of his own aunts were nuns and was blessed by Patriarch Tikhon of All Russia, who came to the monastery. The Bolsheviks who seized power closed the monastery, a collective farm was formed in it, in which Pavel worked. During the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir, a huge area went under water, including the city of Mologa, the Gruzdev family, like other families of Mologzhans, became immigrants: they made a raft from their own house and rafted down the Volga, settled in Tutaev on the left bank.
The Leontief Church (as the people call the Church of the Ascension of the Lord) is two-story: at the bottom is warm (i.e. heated) - the main altar in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" and a chapel in the name of the Great Martyr Paraskeva. The upper summer (not heated) temple has the main throne of the Ascension of the Lord and a chapel in the name of St. Leonty of Rostov. The stone temple was erected in 1795 (in earlier times there was a wooden church of St. Leontius here), built, decorated and maintained by the efforts and means of Romanov merchants. Surviving in the godless 30s, the church was closed in the Khrushchev campaign of 1960. There were many ancient icons from wooden temples here. The population greatly revered the miraculous icon of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, through whose prayers they were healed of eye diseases (in 1609, during the Polish invasion, daring destroyers were stricken with blindness from this icon).
In May 1941, the community of the Leontief Church experienced dramatic events: the rector of the church, Hieromonk Nikolai (Vorontsov), revered by believers as an elder, his cell-attendant, and several parishioners, among whom was Pavel Gruzdev, were arrested in a trumped-up case. According to the verdict of the OGPU troika, the abbot was shot, the rest spent many years in prison and camps. Pavel Gruzdev gave his whole life to the Lord, went through the difficult 11-year path of a prisoner, a confessor for the faith, returned home, read and sang again in the Leontief Church, became a monk and priesthood, served for more than 30 years in the church of the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoye, became a revered elder, to whom the Almighty vouchsafed the gift of foresight and the ability to heal human souls and bodies.
In 1989, the Leontief Church was returned to believers, with the blessing of Father Paul and with the help of God,
tired. We visited the lower church. A small, a little cramped in the eyes of a modern person, a stove is heated, which is also surprising for a city dweller, unpainted wooden floors creak, a brave and kind girl runs around, a modest mother takes notes from us - everything is extremely simple, but truly and spiritually significant (like Father Pavel) . The spirit is characteristic of ancient, not closed temples - prayer (and the church was closed!). There are many ancient icons, there are generally rare ones, for example: “Do not cry for me, Mati” in a silver frame. The full-length icon of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, the image of Nicholas of Mozhaisky with a sword, in the iconostasis is a large icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Assuage my sorrows”, painted by nun Olga, aunt of Father Paul. We pass, we apply, we put candles. Father Michael, the rector, comes out, takes out the skufia of Batyushka himself, which his relative gave to the temple. We approach in turn, put it on everyone’s head ...To be on the left bank in Tutaev and not venerate the rare icon of the Mother of God “Increase of Mind” is in no way possible! And we continue our way along the Romanov side. Rural views, streets and houses more like a village than a city. The right side is all so urban, modern, but here time seems to flow more slowly, maybe that's good. And here again - Father Pavel with his simplicity, I think about him. And “Addition of the mind” – after all, this is not the mind that people boast about, it is the true mind, divine, spiritual, it is often hidden from view, remains hidden, as it was with Father Paul. Here is the Church of the Intercession, where the shrine is located.
The combination of a slender hipped bell tower with a squat modest temple, thick walls. It stands on the territory of the former Novo-Pokrovsky Monastery, mentioned in documents of the 17th-18th centuries. Church of the Intercession is one of the oldest on the Romanov side. It did not close even during the years of persecution, and for 30 years (1961 - 1989) it remained the only one operating on the left side of the city. Under the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, a large number of shrines from the abolished churches of Romanov-Borisoglebsk are kept. From the Church of the Resurrection, dismantled in the 1930s, comes a reliquary, in which there are 110 particles of the relics of the holy saints of God.But a particularly revered image of the Intercession Church is the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Addition of the Mind”, a rare iconography in front of which they pray for the enlightenment of the soul. The celebration is on the first Sunday after the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
“Oh, glorious Mother of Christ our God, the good Giver, save the whole universe with Your mercy, grant us, Your servants, wisdom and reason, enlighten our souls with the Light of Your Son, One All-Singing, glorious from Cherubim and Seraphim” (troparion).
Our visit to the Church of the Intercession coincided with the eve of the Feast of the Intercession, with a special feeling we venerated the magnificent icon of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, located in the iconostasis, the image of the “Addition of the Mind”, other ancient icons of the temple, submitted memorial notes and, saturated with grace, went home to Yaroslavl .
And on the way, one of our parishioners read aloud to us parables from a book he bought in the Church of the Intercession. The book is called: "Parables of the Orthodox Elders", published in Voronezh in 2012. This book also contains parables told by Archimandrite Paul (Gruzdev). Among all the gifts of Father Paul, the wonderful gift of the storyteller stood out: he seemed to heal his interlocutors with the life-giving power of his word. Everyone who talked with the priest, listened to his simple everyday stories, remember that they returned from him, “as if on wings” - their inner world was so joyfully transformed.
The text was prepared by Grigoryeva E.N.
“Losing your conscience is the worst thing”
Elder Pavel (Gruzdev) and his sayings
On January 13, we remember the great elder of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev).
I thought: “Why, after communicating with Father Paul, at the table or in church, heartbroken people and desperate sinners became cheerful and cheerful and returned home as if on wings?”
At that moment, the priest turned to me and said aloud: “And I heal them,” and again continued to work.
Father Pavel (in the world Pavel Gruzdev; 1910-1996) was born in the Mologa district of the Yaroslavl province into a poor peasant family, from childhood he lived in a monastery, served God and the Church. He spent 18 years in exile and camps as a confessor of the Orthodox faith. He acquired many gifts of the Holy Spirit: insight, spiritual reasoning, fiery faith, fervent prayer and love of Christ.
After rehabilitation, he was ordained and served for 40 years in the Yaroslavl region, receiving many people who reached out to him for spiritual advice, consolation, and prayer. After prison torture, he was almost blind, but continued to serve, and he never had a deacon or a knowledgeable assistant. The spiritual vision of the elder only sharpened over the years.
He was distinguished by extreme non-acquisitiveness, dressed very simply and often walked barefoot. He had not accumulated anything in his entire life, he handed out everything that he brought. He also took care of our smaller brothers: he cooked two buckets of potatoes for the rooks.
After graduating from two classes of a parochial school, he could keep up a conversation on any topic with the most learned person. Being foolish, he hid his spiritual height.
Father Pavel did not leave behind thick volumes of books and verbose teachings - his life itself is instructive.
The elder reposed on Sunday, on the Day of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, in the intensive care unit of the city hospital. Before his death, he was communed twice - before and after midnight. Spiritual children recalled how everything in the hospital ward was fragrant with the aroma of a fresh pine forest.
“Father Pavel's funeral clearly showed his true place in the Church. They were so solemn, so many clergy gathered, headed by Vladyka Yaroslavl and Rostov Archbishop Mikhei, such a huge number of believers from all over Russia were praying, that it was clear: we are not burying an ordinary clergyman, but a rare, amazing, beloved and revered elder! » (Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov).
Many cases of miraculous help and healings take place at the grave of the elder.
Father Pavel (Gruzdev) often instructed people who came to him with his brief, figurative and well-aimed aphorisms or reminded them of little-known Russian folk sayings, of which he knew many.
ADVICE AND SAINTS OF THE OLD MAN
"Be righteous in your undertakings and you will have God as your helper."
"The anchor is the hope of the ship, and faith is the anchor of man on land and on the sea."
"He who is without crosses is not Christ's!"
Conscience has no teeth, but it will bite to death
“My relatives… Conscience has no teeth, and it will bite you to death… Do not lose your conscience! Losing your conscience is the worst thing.”
“If someone cries from you - wow!”
"Do not be afraid of a strong thunderstorm, but be afraid of a weak tear"
“It is better to forgive than to avenge.”
"God! Bring me to die with a clear conscience, and it is better for me to suffer than anyone to suffer from me.
"Better to be betrayed than a traitor, better to be slandered than a slanderer."
"A beggar will never exact from a beggar."
"Though the purse is empty, but the soul is pure."
"Better your own sheaf than someone else's sheaf."
"Don't save for a rainy day, it won't happen."
"Blessed is he who has nothing, he does not worry where to hide something."
"Do not rely on piles of money, but on God."
“Better to be poor and righteous than rich and unrighteous.”
““There is money, happiness is in them, clearly. There is no money - do not wait for joys. “They think so in vain, peace of mind is the best treasure!”
“It is a sin to be discouraged, but one must mourn.”
Holidays and songs are the soul of the people.
"Don't ask God to grieve, but send - be patient."
He who has worked little has gained little
“What is easily gained is easily lost. This is the natural order: whoever works a little, gains a little.”
“Use labor, have a measure - you will be rich! Do not overeat, do not get drunk - you will be healthy! Do good, avoid evil - you will be saved!
"It's good to be polite, but it's better to be kind."
"A good person and someone else's disease to the heart."
“Do good, be it a believer or an unbeliever. It's not for us to judge! Is it a drunkard, a robber ... You are not doing a drunkard, after all, a man. Remember: the first thief entered the Kingdom of Heaven: “Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom!” And the Lord said, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise!” And you - do like a prudent robber, and the Lord will have mercy on you.
“What you don’t love yourself, don’t do it to others.”
"Do good all your life, and evil will not befall you."
The elder often helped family people in resolving conflicts and problems, consoling: “And the pots in the oven knock on their foreheads.”
"Do not look for beauty, but look for kindness."
“Do not show yourself righteous before people! And it will be - do not do it openly, but do it secretly. And the Lord will reward you! That's it, my folks!"
About vanity and useless pastime
“You can’t stock up on rubbish in a garbage pit!”
"No light, no censer - all the fuss gutted."
"Do not go into any fuss, beware of troublesome affairs."
Those who keep their tongue avoid many troubles
“It is better to be silent than to speak inappropriately.”
"Those who keep their tongues avoid many troubles."
"A literate person convinces not with a roar, but with a kind word."
"The best response to an insult is restraint and patience."
"Work day and pray night."
When Father Pavel was asked how to pray, he answered: "Pray as you know how."
“Prayer works everywhere, although it does not always work miraculously.”
“One must get up to prayer hastily, as if on fire, and especially for monks.”
"Do not anger God with a grumble, but pray to Him in a whisper."
“My relatives! Pray! Like a bird without wings, a person cannot live without prayer.”
“Yes, Lord, I got up in the morning: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!” Once at least to cross yourself correctly than to wave your arms a hundred times. Dinner has arrived. To pray and read “Our Father” - and they forgot. Duck again: “God bless!” Evening has come. Some kind of sciatica, but who has pressure, and who does not. Duck at least come to the bed and think with your thoughts: “Glory to Thee, Lord! The day has passed - thank You, Lord. These are three small prayers, and it is advisable to repeat them every day. This is highly desirable, and anyone else is commendable.”
About Monks and Priests
"No matter how black a monk is, he still will not be blacker than a mantle."
"Fasting and Prayer - Doctors of the Monks".
"If the believers did not come to the church, the angels must serve."
“The priest who serves for the sake of bribe is bad.”
“Fast with the spirit, not just with the belly!”
“Fasting and praying when people don’t see…”
“You drink milk, but don’t drink the blood of people.”
“It is not sinful to eat, but it is sinful to eat a person!”
The elder advised one woman who was too talkative: “Give fasting to your lips!”
Fasting - purity of the body, beauty of the soul! Fasting - angels rejoicing, demons grief. But we must remember: in our time it is better not to fast at all than to fast without a mind.
When happiness turns away, then teeth break from jelly
"Happiness swells, trouble hooks."
“When happiness turns away, then teeth break from jelly.”
“Having lived for a lifetime, you will turn on your back and on your side.”
“No matter how you live, you must die. Bring, Lord, to die a Christian death and to be remembered with a kind word. Yes, I have never wished anything bad to anyone, and since childhood I have loved the Church like my own mother. And to whom the Church is not a mother, God is not a Father.”
"Love never ceases to be."
"I'll see you all there even better."
“Where I was born, I came in handy there, but if I die, I won’t leave you.”
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Vladimir Belov
“Father Pavel knew how to live, loved to live and taught this to the people around him”Memoirs of a policeman about Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)
In 1975 I went to work in the police. For two years, as a private, I worked on pickpockets, and then, given my military merits, they sent me to a group for solving crimes related to antiquities and religious worship.
Prot. Anatoly Denisov
20 years under Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)Archpriest Anatoly Denisov
Father Pavel comes out of his cell: short trousers, bare feet, hair loose. He says: - Oh, Tolyanko, he is walking in a paralyzed hat. I say: - Father, duck is new. - I can see it myself. He took off my hat and hung it on a stake. So she drove away the crows for three years. I came home - and no nuclear war.
Memories of the Elder Archim. Pavle (Gruzdev)Prot. Sergiy Tsvetkov
Memories of the Elder Archimandrite Paul (Gruzdev)Archpriest Sergiy Tsvetkov
10 years ago (January 13, 1996) an amazing old man, Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev), passed away to the Lord. He suffered a lot, spent more than 10 years in Stalin's camps, went blind at the end of his life, but retained his love for people and amazing simplicity. To all who visited him, he gave warmth, paternal affection and consolation, instructed in word and deed. He worked miracles with his prayer.
(January 10 (23), 1910, Mologa district - January 13, 1996, Tutaev) - an amazing elder of the Russian Orthodox Church. From an early age he lived at the monastery, during the years of revolutionary turmoil he served and worked for the good of the Church, from 1938 wandered through prisons and exile. Having preserved his childish soul, meekness and love for his neighbors, at the end of his earthly path he became especially revered by believers: people came to him for spiritual advice, for a warm word of encouragement.
To the saints who are on earth, and to Your wondrous ones - all my desire is for them.
(Ps. 15:3)
Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev) - who was he?
Once I learned that a very respectable old man was staying in the house of a priest we knew. I went to the Shatovs with a strong desire to see once again in my life the chosen vessel of God's grace. Sometimes we even meet somewhere, in the midst of worldly vanity, with holy people, but their spiritual height is not revealed to our eyes. As through dirty, dull glasses we look at a person. He seems to us insignificant, vicious, like all the others around us. To see God's fire warming the soul of one's neighbor is a gift from the Lord. Having received this gift, having seen the fire of the Holy Spirit in the heart of another person, I want to show people this Light, to say: “Look, in our age this person was born and grew up, in the age of general apostasy from God, from faith. Being for many years among fallen people, among thieves, bandits, in a concentration camp, without a church, in hard work, this man managed to keep in his pure heart Love for God, Love for people - that is, the holiness of his soul.
Only twice for an hour I sat at the bedside of the already weak and sick father Pavel, but what I heard from him figuratively remained in my memory. I will try to describe it colorfully, may the Name of the Lord be hallowed in our souls.
God led me to meet Father Pavel Gruzdev, their family confessor, at Father Arkady's.
When the First World War began, Pavlik was only four years old. His father was taken to the soldiers. The mother was unable to feed a large family, so she sent two children to beg.
Hand in hand with his six-year-old sister, Pavlik went from house to house, asking for alms for the sake of Christ. So barefoot, ragged children trudged from village to village, rejoicing at the crusts of bread, carrots and cucumbers that the poor peasants served them. Tired and exhausted, the children made their way to the monastery, where their older sister lived as a novice (junior rank). The miserable appearance of the children touched the sister's heart, and she kept the children to herself. So from early childhood Pavlik got to know the life of people who dedicated themselves to God.
The boy diligently performed the work entrusted to him. In winter, he brought logs of firewood to the stoves, in summer he weeded a garden, drove cattle into the field - in general, he did everything that was within his power. He grew up, got stronger, and by the age of eighteen was doing all the hard physical work in the monastery, since he was the only man there.
Here came the revolution. Like thunder and a storm it swept across Russia, breaking the old way of life, destroying everything around. Monasteries were dispersed, churches were closed, the clergy were arrested. Paul also had to leave the monastery, which sheltered him from childhood. He came to the monastery of Varlaam Khutynsky, located near Novgorod. Here he was dressed in a cassock (monastic rank) with the blessing of Bishop Alexy (Simansky), the future Patriarch. But four years later, that is, in the 22nd year, the Soviet authorities also dispersed this monastery. Pavel started working in shipbuilding, which was called "Khutyn". Paul remained a deep believer, attended the temple, was there as a psalmist. Such people were objectionable to the Soviet authorities, so in 1938 Pavel was arrested. But since no guilt was found for him, he was released, and in May 1941 he was arrested again. If not for the prison, then Pavel would have gone to the front, since the Great Patriotic War had already begun in June. But the All-seeing Lord saved the life of His servant, for He kept him for those years when faith in Russia awakens again, when the people need shepherds who call to repentance.
In the transit prison, Pavel endured both hunger and dirt, and then he endured a long journey to the Kirov region, near the city of Perm. There was a camp for prisoners - "VUTLAG". Here, near Vyatka, Pavel was destined to work on the railroad for six whole years, that is, the entire war.
Gruzdev Pavel's accusatory article was the 58th, but three more letters were attributed to it - SOE, which denoted a "socially dangerous element." So, under the Soviet regime, believers were called who could support the persecuted Church by the example of their honest, religious life. These people were not to blame, but they were kept in concentration camps, isolating society from them. Pavel also got into the number of ESR.
The camp authorities knew that Gruzdev did not commit any crime, he was submissive to fate, meek and hardworking. Therefore, Paul was not "under guard", but enjoyed relative freedom. He could leave the camp without guards and do whatever he wanted. But it was his duty to monitor the health of the railway track for six kilometers. If deep snow fell, then other prisoners were assigned to help Pavel. He had to distribute shovels, crowbars, brooms to them and oversee the cleaning of the section of the road entrusted to him. To do this, Pavel had to come to the "track" an hour earlier than others, get tools, take everything to the road.
In autumn, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 28), it suddenly got colder and deep snow fell overnight. Pavel spent the night alone in a wretched closet under the stairs. Raising his head from a pillow stuffed with hay, Pavel saw snow and hurried to the track, not having time to eat the bread he received for a day. Returning to his closet, Paul did not find the piece of bread he had hidden. It was stolen. Liquid soup-balanda did not satisfy hunger. Pavel felt a strong weakness. However, he took a bag of tools on his shoulder and went to check the railway. He tapped the rails, tightened the nuts, and he himself sang prayers for the holiday: “Save, Lord, Thy people And bless Thy inheritance ...”
His loud voice, which at first resounded through the endless forest, soon weakened, and his legs began to give way from hunger. Paul called to the Lord, begging Him not to let him fall and freeze. If it were not for the deep snow, then in September he could have hoped to find lingonberries and blueberries in the forest ... “Lord, send me at least something to eat,” Paul asked. He stepped off the embankment and plunged into the woods. Pavel went up to the huge fir trees, the branches of which bent to the ground under the weight of snowdrifts. But closer to the trunk, the snow had not yet settled. Parting the boughs, Pavel bent down and climbed into the damp twilight. Then he saw before him a huge family of excellent white mushrooms, strong, juicy. Paul rejoiced, thanked God and collected these wonderful gifts of nature in a bag. He immediately returned to his closet and, having flooded the stove, boiled the mushrooms sent to him by God with salt. “So I became convinced that God’s mercy was upon me,” Father Paul told us. - On another occasion, I walked my section of the path to the end, carefully checked everything and reported to the chief about the serviceability of the path. The day was autumn, cold, then rain, then snow, it got dark quickly. The chief suggested that I ride back to the camp with him on a steam locomotive, to which I readily agreed. Our locomotive rushes through the darkness of the night, and suddenly - a push! But nothing, we rushed on, only my boss got angry:
- Is the path in order, if we ride like that? I'll give you bread! And suddenly - a second push! The chief was furious:
- I'll put you in a punishment cell !!!
“I can’t know anything,” I answer, “everything was in good order during the day.
And as soon as we arrived, I ran back along the tracks: I need to find out what kind of shocks there were, because the train will go, God forbid, what will happen. I look - on the tracks a horse lies without a head. God gave me strength, I barely pulled the corpse off the rails to the side, then I went on. I noticed places where there were shocks. And what: another horse with cut off legs lies on the rails. That's it! So, the shepherd gaped. I pulled this carcass aside as well and went to the barn where the shepherd was supposed to be. All around - darkness of the night, wind, rain. And I hear some wheezing. I go into the barn, and there is a shepherd hanging. I rather climbed up, cut the rope with my tool. The body crashed to the ground. I let him shake, toss, hit on the heels. No pulse! But I do not let up, I pray: "Help, Lord, if You sent me here at his last moment." And blood gushed out of his nose and ears. I realized: the dead will not bleed. He started feeling his pulse again. I hear the shepherd's heart beat. Well, I think now you are alive and breathing, lie down, rest, and I will go. I ran to the medical unit and reported. Immediately, a handcar with a paramedic drove to the place where I indicated. Saved a man. Three weeks later I was called to court as a witness. The shepherd was a freelancer.
They demanded from Father Pavel that he confirm the opinion of the judge: the shepherd is an enemy of the people, "contra", purposely killed the horses.
“No,” Father Pavel answered, “the shepherd was tired and fell asleep from exhaustion, he must be excused. He himself was not happy with what had happened, he was not even happy with his own life, that's why he climbed into the noose, to which I am a witness.
- Yes, you, father, are at the same time with him, you both need to be sued! they shouted at Father Pavel. But he stood firm in his opinion.
The shepherd was given five years "probation", that is, he remained at large on the condition that this would not happen again. From that day on Father Pavel occasionally found an extra piece of bread under his pillow.
“It was the shepherd who thanked me, even though I told him that I had enough, I don’t need it,” Father Pavel ended his story.
It was bitter for Father Paul to see how people, under the weight of suffering, lost their sense of mercy and did not believe in it.
“But I wanted to get at least some news about my own people,” Father Pavel said. - And now, when a new group of prisoners comes to the camp, I run and ask if there are any Yaroslavl among them. One day I saw among the new arrivals a young girl who was crying bitterly. I approached her and asked with sympathy what she was so upset about. But she just really wanted to eat, she became weak from hunger, and she was very offended that some hooligan snatched a loaf of bread from under her arm and disappeared into the crowd. And no one took pity on her, no one dared to betray the thief, no one shared bread with her. And these people were taken from Belarus for long days and for the last three days on the road they were not given bread. That's all and emaciated, angry, petrified hearts. I ran to my closet, where I had hidden a piece of half-eaten rations, brought and served bread to the girl. But she does not take it: “I,” she says, “do not sell my honor for bread.” “Yes, I don’t demand anything from you,” I say. But she - in any! I felt sorry for her to tears. I gave the bread to a woman I knew, from whom the girl accepted it. And I myself fell on my bunk and sobbed for a long, long time. I’m a monk, I didn’t know feelings for a woman, but who believed in it!
And the unfortunate girl was among the prisoners, nicknamed "spikelets". In the early 1930s, the collective farm fields were harvested with machinery. Needy hungry peasants after harvesting again came to empty fields. They picked up in bunches of ears of grain that had accidentally fallen on the sides of the car, carried them home. In the village, these peasants were arrested as "encroaching on collective farm property." If the ears of corn had rotted in the field, then no one from the authorities would have regretted it. But the hearts of the authorities were so hardened that for a bundle of ears the mother was torn from the children, the children were taken away from their parents, the poor old women were imprisoned, and then all the “guilty in the field” were taken to distant lands, into exile for many years. The fault of these people was that they were ready to gather ripe grains from the ears of hunger and, grinding them, bake themselves bread cakes.
While serving his sentence in the camp, Pavel helped the prisoners in any way he could.
Later he told us:
— The paths that I bypassed went through the forest. In the summer of berries there was apparently invisible. I'll put on a mosquito net, take a bucket and bring strawberries to the camp hospital. And he brought blueberries and two buckets each. They gave me a double ration of bread for this - plus six hundred grams! I stocked mushrooms for the winter, fed everyone with salt.
I asked my father:
— And where did you get salt for mushrooms? He replied:
“Whole trains laden with salt passed by us. Salt was lying in huge clods along the railway track, there was no need for salt. I dug a deep hole in the forest, smeared it with clay, filled it with brushwood, firewood and burned the walls so that they rang like an earthen pot! I’ll put a layer of mushrooms on the bottom of the pit, put it down with salt, then I’ll cut off a layer of poles from young trees, put perches, and again mushrooms on top, so by autumn I’ll fill the pit to the top. From above I crush the mushrooms with stones, they will give their juice and are stored in brine, covered with burdocks and tree branches. Food for the long winter! I also stored mountain ash - these are vitamins. A layer of rowan branches with berries, a layer of spruce branches - so I’ll make a whole stack. Rodents - hares, ground squirrels - are afraid of spruce needles and do not touch my stocks. But it was difficult to store rose hips: rose hips rotted in haystacks, and in the wild birds ate it, rodents destroyed it. But I also collected a lot of rose hips for the camp, and blueberries, and lingonberries, only there were no raspberries in that forest.
In the wagon for prisoners, called the “gas chamber”, Father Pavel traveled for two months to the city of Pavlovsk. Among the bandits and thieves, embittered, sick, hungry, enduring either cold or heat, dirt and stench, time for Father Pavel dragged on painfully long. The only consolation was heartfelt prayer and the company of two priests who were traveling in the same carriage with Father Pavel.
Finally the train stopped. The prisoners were released, lined up, they began to check according to the lists. They were built in columns and taken away under escort. No one knew where, the naked endless steppes stretched all around. By evening, the station was empty, three people remained on the platform, who were not listed as criminals. They were two priests and Father Pavel. They turned to the authorities with a question:
- Where should we go? We don’t have any documents, there are other people’s places around.
“Go to the city yourself, ask the police there,” was the answer.
Father Pavel said this: “Night has come. Around the darkness is impenetrable, the road is not visible. Tired of two months of shaking in the carriage, intoxicated with fresh air after the stuffiness and stench on the train, we walked slowly and soon exhausted ourselves. We descended into some kind of hollow, fell on the fragrant grass and immediately fell into a deep sleep. I woke up before dawn and saw the starry sky above me. I haven't seen him for a long time, I haven't breathed fresh air for a long time. Bright streaks of dawn appeared in the east. "God! How good! How beautiful it is for the soul in the midst of nature,” I thanked God. He looked around: in the distance, the night fog was still covering everything, and a strip of the river glittered nearby. On a hillock Father Xenophon kneels and prays to God. And my other companion went down to the water, washing his linen. And how dirty and ragged we were - much worse than beggars! We gladly washed ourselves in the river water, washed everything from ourselves, and laid it out to dry on the grass. The sun has risen and caresses us with its hot rays. “The day will come, then we will go to the city to look for the police there,” we think, “and while everyone is still sleeping, let’s pray to God.” And suddenly we hear: "Boom, boom!" - the sounds of the bell are floating along the river.
— Somewhere near the temple! Let's go there, because we have been without Holy Communion for so long!
It's dawn. We saw the village, and among it a small temple. Our joy was indescribable! One of us turned out to have three rubles. We gave them for candles and for confession, we didn’t have a penny more. But we rejoiced: “We are with God, we are in the church!”. We defended mass, took communion, approached the cross. They paid attention to us. As everyone began to leave, they surrounded us, asking questions. There were a lot of people, because it was a big holiday. We were invited to the table, they began to treat us, they gave us pies, fruits with us ... We ate melons and cried with joy and tenderness: everyone around us was so affectionate, friendly. They encouraged us, they found out that we were exiles, and they took pity on us, everything was so touching...
Then we were taken to the authorities - to the local police. Upon learning that the priests were with me, everyone in the offices asked for blessings, folding their hands and kissing us. Instead of passports, we were given certificates, according to which we had to live in the vicinity of Pavlovsk and go to the office to check in. One of us was so weak and frail that he was told: “Well, you are not capable of any work, you can barely stand on your feet. Go to church, to the priests ... ". This priest returned to the temple to help there, but he soon died, he was already martyred. And Father Xenophon went with me to the city, where we began to look for work.
I was hired as a worker at a quarry to crush stone for construction with a machine. The work is hard, but I used to fulfill two norms. The salary was more than a hundred rubles, so it became possible to live. I dressed decently, paid twenty rubles per corner to the old men with whom I lodged. I lived with them like a son, I helped them with everything about the household: I covered the roof, and dug a well, and planted the house around with lilacs. It was impossible to drink water from the well - there was only one salt, they drank the Ishim river water. And in the city, water was released on coupons. An order came for everyone to receive plots of land and have their own household plots, moreover, not less than three hectares (three thousand square meters). Huge field! I cultivated it, sowed wheat, watermelons, melons. My old grandchildren appeared in the city, so my owners thought to get a cow. I didn't mind. We went to the market. The Kirghiz sold the cow cheaply, muttered in his own way, cursed her: he eats, they say, a lot, but almost completely stopped giving milk. I looked - the sides of the cow are large, not skinny, well, they bought it. They brought him, put him in a barn, but did not sleep at night - our cattle made noise. The hostess could hardly wait for dawn (well, where in the dark to go to the barn!). He opens the barn in the morning, and there two calves jump around the cow. So God blessed our family, they immediately began to eat milk and meat. That is why the cow did not give milk to the Kirghiz - she did not have long before calving. We thanked God, began to live and live and help others.
In 1956, Father Pavel Gruzdev was rehabilitated, that is, found not guilty of anything. Thus passed eighteen years of his life in prisons and exile. He did not forget the Lord, prayed and did not lose heart, but helped people as much as he could. The old hosts with whom he lived in Kazakhstan loved Pavel like a son. When Father Pavel wanted to return to his homeland in the Yaroslavl region, the old people did not let him go, they did not even want to hear about his departure. Father Pavel spoke about his escape as follows: “I asked the old masters to visit relatives whom I had not seen for many years. I did not take any things with me, I went light, so the old people believed me. So they kept all my belongings, because I never returned to Kazakhstan. The proverb is true: where one was born, there one came in handy. Native lands, the sweet nature of forests - all this was close to my heart, and I settled in the vicinity of the Tolga Monastery.
In the 1960s it was difficult to find a person who knew the church service well. And since Father Pavel was a monk - he could read, sing, and perform sex in church - he did not remain without work in his homeland. The local bishop soon ordained Fr. Pavel to the priesthood and gave a parish. And Father Pavel served in the Yaroslavl region for about forty years! A simple, sympathetic, reverent priest - he was loved and respected by his flock. The rumor about him went far, the people began to revere Father Paul as an elder of a holy life. People from many cities reached out to him, seeking advice, consolation and guidance in the faith.
In the 1980s, Batiushka had an eyeache and came to Moscow for treatment. He stayed with his spiritual children, at whose apartment I heard from Father Pavel the stories about his life given here. May they serve as a reinforcement of faith, as an example of the Lord's care for the Russian people. In those difficult years, when faith in God seemed to have faded, love among people grew cold, the Lord protected in remote lands, among hardships, labors and trials, the pure soul of His servant Paul. And the Lord helped (long before the “perestroika”) to shine in the soul of this simple priest as a clear guiding star for the Russian people, weary of unbelief and suffering.
Published according to the book by N.N. Sokolov. "Under the roof of the Almighty." M., 2007.
Have you read the article Father Pavel Gruzdev. The guiding star of the soul of a simple priest. Read also.
Trip to Father Pavel.
« God! With the prayers of the righteous, have mercy on sinners"
On the eve of the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, on October 13, 2012, a group of ourtheir arrivaljean, inhAnd after which there were the most active visitors to the Sunday School for adults, in the city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev). Here lived the last years of his earthly life and here the saint of God, the people's elder, archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, father Pavel (Gruzdev) departed to heavenly abodes.
Not only residents of the Yaroslavl land came here to see him, but people from different places went: the name of Father Pavel is revered throughout Russia. During his lifetime, he was glorified by God with many gifts, his intercession before the Lord was strong and effective. And now people go to his grave: to bow and ask for help in sorrows and needs, as if they were alive, for the prayer of the righteous does not stop with his departure to another world, and, perhaps, becomes even stronger. Here we go, many for the first time.
The city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev) is located 38 km northwest of Yaroslavl, located on both banks of the Volga River, until 1822 these were two different settlements. On the left bank of the Volga is Romanov, founded in the 13th century by Prince Roman of Uglich, on the right bank is Borisoglebsk, known since the 15th century and named after the first Russian saints, the martyr princes Boris and Gleb. The decree of Emperor Alexander the First united these settlements into one city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk, in 1918 the city was renamed Tutaev (by the name of the Bolshevik I. Tutaev).
Father Pavel is buried at the Leontievsky cemetery, which is on the left side of the Romanovskaya side, where we immediately went. A path leads to the grave of Father Pavel, strewn with a thin, one-pebble, layer of gravel, and not far from the cemetery entrance there is a home-made simple pointer-arrow: Archimandrite Pavel. The elder is buried next to the graves of his parents, in one fence. Black granite crosses, flowers. Batyushkin's cross is more massive and taller, next to it is a candlestick with burning candles and a lit lamp, inextinguishable.
We went into the fence, bowed to Father Pavel, venerated the cross on his grave with a prayer, whoever guessed to take candles, put them on a candlestick protected from the weather. Our rector, Archpriest Michael, with three choristers served a panikhida for the repose of the servant of God, Archimandrite Paul, and we prayed. Who asked Father Pavel about what is a mystery. Our trip was accompanied by a fine autumn rain: here we are standing under umbrellas and praying.
People come to Father Pavel in any weather, at any time of the year. While our memorial service was going on, more people approached, also with a priest, which means that memorial services for Father Pavel do not end. Prayer does not end, the communication of believers with the elder does not stop, the help of the chosen one of God continues to us, the weak and sinful, asking for the help of the strong and righteous. At the end of the memorial service, Father Michael anointed us with oil from the lamp from the grave of the Archimandrite - his answer. He loved people. Simple, sincere and very strong. For real, for God. Loved and loves! Due to ill health, I could not receive everyone personally. Now everyone can.
From the cemetery we went to the Leontief Church, where Pavel Gruzdev prayed, read and sang on the kliros when he lived with his parents here, on the left, Romanovskaya side. He was born in Mologa, a district Russian city, which stood "on two rivers, on the Mologa and on the Volga, on steep banks," as the old man used to say. From the age of 5 he lived in the Mologa Afanasiev Monastery, where three of his own aunts were nuns and was blessed by Patriarch Tikhon of All Russia, who came to the monastery. The Bolsheviks who seized power closed the monastery, a collective farm was formed in it, in which Pavel worked. During the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir, a huge area went under water, including the city of Mologa, the Gruzdev family, like other families of Mologzhans, became immigrants: they made a raft from their own house and rafted down the Volga, settled in Tutaev on the left bank.
The Leontief Church (as the people call the Church of the Ascension of the Lord) is two-story: at the bottom is warm (i.e. heated) - the main altar in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "The Sign" and a chapel in the name of the Great Martyr Paraskeva. The upper summer (not heated) temple has the main throne of the Ascension of the Lord and a chapel in the name of St. Leonty of Rostov. The stone temple was erected in 1795 (in earlier times there was a wooden church of St. Leontius here), built, decorated and maintained by the efforts and means of Romanov merchants. Surviving in the godless 30s, the church was closed in the Khrushchev campaign of 1960. There were many ancient icons from wooden temples here. The population greatly revered the miraculous icon of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, through whose prayers they were healed of eye diseases (in 1609, during the Polish invasion, daring destroyers were stricken with blindness from this icon).
In May 1941, the community of the Leontief Church experienced dramatic events: the rector of the church, Hieromonk Nikolai (Vorontsov), revered by believers as an elder, his cell-attendant, and several parishioners, among whom was Pavel Gruzdev, were arrested in a trumped-up case. According to the verdict of the OGPU troika, the abbot was shot, the rest spent many years in prison and camps. Pavel Gruzdev gave his whole life to the Lord, went through the difficult 11-year path of a prisoner, a confessor for the faith, returned home, read and sang again in the Leontief Church, became a monk and priesthood, served for more than 30 years in the church of the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoye, became a revered elder, to whom the Almighty vouchsafed the gift of foresight and the ability to heal human souls and bodies.
In 1989, the Leontief Church was returned to believers, with the blessing of Father Paul and with the help of God, 
tired. We visited the lower church. A small, a little cramped in the eyes of a modern person, a stove is heated, which is also surprising for a city dweller, unpainted wooden floors creak, a brave and kind girl runs around, a modest mother takes notes from us - everything is extremely simple, but truly and spiritually significant (like Father Pavel) . The spirit is characteristic of ancient, not closed temples - prayer (and the church was closed!). There are many ancient icons, there are generally rare ones, for example: “Do not cry for me, Mati” in a silver frame. The full-length icon of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, the image of Nicholas of Mozhaisky with a sword, in the iconostasis is a large icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Assuage my sorrows”, painted by nun Olga, aunt of Father Paul. We pass, we apply, we put candles. Father Michael, the rector, comes out, takes out the skufia of Batyushka himself, which his relative gave to the temple. We approach in turn, put it on everyone’s head ...
To be on the left bank in Tutaev and not venerate the rare icon of the Mother of God “Increase of Mind” is in no way possible! And we continue our way along the Romanov side. Rural views, streets and houses more like a village than a city. The right side is all so urban, modern, but here time seems to flow more slowly, maybe that's good. And here again - Father Pavel with his simplicity, I think about him. And “Addition of the mind” – after all, this is not the mind that people boast about, it is the true mind, divine, spiritual, it is often hidden from view, remains hidden, as it was with Father Paul. Here is the Church of the Intercession, where the shrine is located.
The combination of a slender hipped bell tower with a squat modest temple, thick walls. It stands on the territory of the former Novo-Pokrovsky Monastery, mentioned in documents of the 17th-18th centuries. Church of the Intercession is one of the oldest on the Romanov side. It did not close even during the years of persecution, and for 30 years (1961 - 1989) it remained the only one operating on the left side of the city. Under the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, a large number of shrines from the abolished churches of Romanov-Borisoglebsk are kept. From the Church of the Resurrection, dismantled in the 1930s, comes a reliquary, in which there are 110 particles of the relics of the holy saints of God.
But a particularly revered image of the Intercession Church is the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Addition of the Mind”, a rare iconography in front of which they pray for the enlightenment of the soul. The celebration is on the first Sunday after the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
“Oh, glorious Mother of Christ our God, the good Giver, save the whole universe with Your mercy, grant us, Your servants, wisdom and reason, enlighten our souls with the Light of Your Son, One All-Singing, glorious from Cherubim and Seraphim” (troparion).
Our visit to the Church of the Intercession coincided with the eve of the Feast of the Intercession, with a special feeling we venerated the magnificent icon of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, located in the iconostasis, the image of the “Addition of the Mind”, other ancient icons of the temple, submitted memorial notes and, saturated with grace, went home to Yaroslavl .
And on the way, one of our parishioners read aloud to us parables from a book he bought in the Church of the Intercession. The book is called: "Parables of the Orthodox Elders", published in Voronezh in 2012. This book also contains parables told by Archimandrite Paul (Gruzdev). Among all the gifts of Father Paul, the wonderful gift of the storyteller stood out: he seemed to heal his interlocutors with the life-giving power of his word. Everyone who talked with the priest, listened to his simple everyday stories, remember that they returned from him, “as if on wings” - their inner world was so joyfully transformed.
The text was prepared by Grigoryeva E.N.
Photo by Katkov M.V.
Archimandrite Pavel - Archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, elder. Father Pavel is the last elder in Russia. We know about his life from books written from his words and stories of friends.
Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow blessed Paul to wear a cassock when he was eight years old
Father Paul's birthday
Father Pavel was born on January 10, 1910 in the village of Bolshoi Borok, Mologa district, into an ordinary peasant family. Father Pavel was taken to the war, because of which the family began to live in poverty. In 1916, the elder went to the Mologa Afanasyevsky convent to his aunts.
In the monastery Father Pavel grazed chickens and cows and sang in the kliros. Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, who at that time lived in the Afanasiev Monastery, blessed Paul to wear the cassock.
Father Pavel was blessed to wear a cassock at the age of eight.
In 1928, Pavel was declared unfit for military service due to "poor mental development." For some time the elder served as a court assessor. On January 3, 1930, the Afanasevsky Monastery was closed and Pavel moved to the Khutynsky Monastery near Veliky Novgorod.
In the Khutyn Monastery, Paul was dressed in a cassock with the blessing of Bishop Alexy, who later became Patriarch. Father Pavel worked at a shipyard, sang and read in the kliros in the monastery, rang the bell tower, kept order at the shrine with the relics of St. Varlaam.
The closure of the Khutynsky monastery, after which Pavel returned to his native places
In 1932, the authorities also closed the Khutynsky Monastery, after which monk Pavel returned to his native places and worked in the cattle yard of the State Breeding Station. In 1938, together Pavel and his father dismantled the hut due to the fact that their village fell into the flood zone of the Rybinsk reservoir.
Pavel lived in a new place until 1941, when he was exiled. During his life with his family, he worked at the Zagotskot base, sang on the kliros in the Leontief Church and served as a sexton under Hieromonk Nikolai.
The elder was arrested twice and exiled in the same case. Of all those arrested, Pavel is the only survivor.
Arrest of Pavel Gruzdev in the case of Archbishop Varlaam of Yaroslavl
May 13, 1941 Pavel Gruzdev, Hieromonk Nikolai and 11 other people were arrested in the case of Archbishop Varlaam of Yaroslavl. For the first time in prison, Pavel was kept in solitary confinement under conditions of complete isolation. Later, due to lack of space, another 15 people were placed with him. The prisoners lacked space and air.
During interrogations, monk Paul was tortured. Almost all of his teeth were knocked out, several bones were broken and his eyes were blinded, because of which the arrested man began to lose his sight.
From the memoirs of Father Pavel about interrogations:
Follow shouted:
“You, Gruzdev, if you don’t die here in prison, then later you will remember my name with fear! You will remember her well - Spassky is my last name, investigator Spassky!
Father Pavel recalled that he did not feel fear of the investigator, but he never forgot his last name.
The investigator knocked out all his teeth, leaving one “for divorce”.
Pavel Gruzdev was in Vyatlag
On September 3, 1941, Hieromonk Nikolai was shot. After that, the rest of those arrested were also shot. Only Pavel was left alive, he was sentenced to six years in prison in labor camps. From 1941 to 1947 the monk was in Vyatlag.
Father Pavel told a story about how one day in December criminals took away his felt boots, tied him to a tree and left him barefoot in the cold all night. Miraculously, the monk survived. Paul told another similar story:
“On the very eve of Christmas, I turn to the boss and say: “Citizen boss, bless me not to work on the very day of the Nativity of Christ, for that I will give three norms the next day. After all, I am a believer, a Christian.” “Okay,” he replies, “I’ll bless you.” He called another guard, like himself, and maybe even bigger than himself. Already they beat me, my relatives, so, I don’t know how long, and lay on the ground behind the barracks. I came to my senses, somehow, somehow crawled to the door, and there they already helped me and laid me on the bunk. After that, I lay in the barracks for a week or two and coughed up blood. The chief comes the next day to the barracks: “Not dead yet?” With difficulty, he opened his mouth: "No, still alive, citizen chief." “Wait,” he replies. "You'll choke." It was just on the day of the Nativity of Christ.”
Pavel was appointed as a lineman of a narrow-gauge railway, along which timber was taken out from the logging site. Monok received the status of an unescorted person and relative freedom of movement - he could leave the zone, go into the taiga and visit a village near the zone.
Since during the war the camps were poorly supplied with food, famine began in Vyatlag. Pavel saved his comrades from starvation by gathering mushrooms and berries for them in the taiga. He gave part to the guards, changed the other part in the medical unit for bread and fed them to the weakened prisoners.
Pavel's father was re-arrested in the same case
Together with the end of the war, Paul was released. Monk returned to Tutaev, continued to do what he did before his arrest. But in 1949, the monk was re-arrested in the same case and exiled to the Kazakh SSR. In conclusion, Pavel worked as a laborer, performed the duties of a usher and reader in the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. On August 20, 1954, he was released as an innocent victim.
Father Pavel was arrested and exiled for the same case twice - in 1941 and 1949.
Father Pavel was found innocently convicted
Pavel returned to Tutaev again, lived with his parents. He worked, sang in the kliros and served as a sexton in the Resurrection Cathedral. Twice he applied for ordination to the dignity, but he was refused due to a criminal record. On January 21, 1958, Pavel was rehabilitated.
Father Pavel, being blind and seriously ill, conducted services and hosted pilgrims
On March 9, 1958, Bishop Isaiah of Uglich consecrated Paul to the deacon, and on March 16, to the presbyter. In August 1961, Archbishop Nikodim of Yaroslavl and Rostov tonsured Pavel Gruzdev as a monk.
1958 is the year when the elder became a clergyman.
For some time, Pavel served as rector of the church in the village of Borzovo, Rybinsk region. Since 1960 - rector of the Trinity Church in the village of Verkhne-Nikulsky, Nekouzsky district. People from the surrounding regions went to Father Pavel for consolation and the solution of various issues.
Father Pavel was ordained to the rank of archimandrite
Paul taught Christian love through parables, life stories. I didn’t accumulate material values, I just dressed and ate. In 1961, the bishop awarded Fr. Pavel with a purple skufia, in 1963 the patriarch awarded him with a pectoral cross, in 1971 with a mace, and in 1976 with a cross with decorations. In 1962, Paul was ordained a hieromonk, and in 1966, hegumen. In 1983 Father Pavel was ordained to the rank of archimandrite.
In June 1992, Pavel Gruzdev moved to Tutaev for health reasons, began to live in a gatehouse at the Resurrection Cathedral. Blind and seriously ill, Paul continued to serve, preach and receive people.
The archimandrite died on January 13, 1996. He was buried at the Leontief cemetery of Tutaev. Father Pavel was buried by Archbishop Mikhei of Yaroslavl and Rostov, concelebrated by 38 priests and 7 deacons with a large gathering of people.
Archimandrite Paul died
Nowadays, pilgrims from all over the country come to the place of Paul's burial. Memorial services are constantly served at the grave of the elder.
Books by Pavel Gruzdev - sincere and touching stories about his life
The stories of Pavel Gruzdev are autobiographical, they are recorded from his words or from the words of his friends. Those who found the elder during his lifetime said that Father Paul had the talent of a storyteller.
His speech was full of dialects and archaisms, which made it more lively and real.
He called bread "paposhnik", vermicelli - "marmicelli", soiled the floor with dirty shoes - "slandered".
Pavel Gruzdev's book "My relatives"
Pavel Gruzdev's book "My Relatives" is named for a reason. It was with these words that Father Paul liked to address the parishioners. With the same words, the elder began his stories and sermons.
The stories of the elder tell about his life. They are not devoid of good humor, replete with details and colorful details. Paul's stories originate from his childhood and describe the entire path that he went from a monk to an archimandrite.
There is a small film in which some of the elder's conversations are collected. In this film, Pavel Gruzdev appears before us in the last years of his life. Because of his old age, the priest could not walk well, he was almost blind because of the beatings of the investigator back in the 40s. Despite this, Father Paul remained the same Christian-kind and simple man.
The name of the Yaroslavl elder Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev) is revered on Valaam and Mount Athos, in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Ukraine and Siberia. During his lifetime Father Pavel was glorified by many gifts. The Lord heard his prayers and answered them. This righteous man lived a mighty life with God and with the people, sharing all the trials that befell Russia in the 20th century.
The small homeland of Pavel Gruzdev - the county town of Mologa - was flooded by the waters of the Rybinsk man-made sea, and the Mologa exile became a settler, and then a camp resident, having served a sentence of eleven years for his faith. And again he returned to the Mologa land - more precisely, what was left of it after the flood - and served here as a priest in the village of Verkhne-Nikulsky for almost thirty years and three years ...
Among all the gifts of Archimandrite Paul, his gift of storytelling is remarkable: he seemed to heal the interlocutor with the life-giving power of his word. Everyone who talked with the priest, who listened to his stories, recalls with one voice that they left Father Pavel “as if on wings”, their inner world was so joyfully transformed. We hope that readers of Batiushka's stories will also feel that joyful spiritual strength in communion with the Yaroslavl elder. As Father Paul said: "I will die - I will not leave you."
MONASTERY HONEY
Here they came to bow to the abbess. “Bang at your feet!” the priest said. “Abbess says: “So what to do, Pavelko! There are a lot of chickens, hens, let him watch so that the crows do not steal it.
This is how it began for Fr. Paul's monastic obedience.
“Grazed chickens, then grazed cows, horses,” he recalled. “Five hundred acres of land! Oh, how they lived ...
Then - there is nothing for him, that is, for me, Pavelka, - you have to accustom yourself to the altar! He began to walk to the altar, serve the censer, fan the censer ... "
“They worked very hard in the monastery,” the priest recalled. In the field, in the garden, in the barnyard, they sowed, harvested, mowed, dug - constantly in the fresh air. And the people are mostly young, they always wanted to eat. So Pavelka figured out how to feed the novice sisters with honey:
“At that time I was five or seven years old, no more. We had just begun pumping honey in the monastery apiary, and right there I was gathering honey on the monastery horse. Only the abbess disposed of honey in the monastery, she kept records of honey. Okay!
But the honey wants something, and the sisters want something, but there is no blessing.
We are not ordered to eat honey.
Mother abbess, bless the honey!
Not allowed, Pavlusha, she replies.
Okay, - I agree, - as you wish, your will.
And I myself run to the barnyard, a plan is ripening in my head, how to get some honey. I grab a rat from a trap, which is bigger, and carry it to the glacier, where honey is stored. Wait, infection, and instantly with her there.
I smeared the rat with honey with a rag, I carry:
Mother! Mother! - and honey flows from the rat, I hold it by the tail:
Here she drowned in a barrel!
And cry, what are you! A rat has never seen honey even a barrel of that. And for everyone, honey is defiled, everyone is horrified - the rat drowned!
Bring that barrel, Pavelka, and get it out! - the abbess orders. - Only just so that he was not close to the monastery!
Good! That's what I need. Come on, take it! He took it away, hid it somewhere ...
Sunday came, go to confession... And the archpriest Fr. Nikolai (Rozin), he died a long time ago and is buried in Mologa.
Father Nikolai, father! I start with tears in my eyes. - Ashamed! So, they say, and so, I stole a barrel of honey. But he didn’t think about himself, he felt sorry for his sisters, he wanted to treat him ...
Yes, Pavlusha, your sin is great, but the fact that you had care not only about yourself, but also about your sisters, softens your guilt ... - And then he quietly whispers in my very ear: "But if I, son , one can, you pour another ... The Lord, seeing your kindness and repentance, will forgive your sin! Only, look, not a word about it to anyone, but I will pray for you, my child.
Yes Lord, yes Merciful, Glory to Thee! How easy! I run, I bring a can of honey to the archpriest. He took it to his house, gave it to the priest. Glory to Thee, Lord! A great weight off one's mind".
This story with monastery honey has already become a folk legend, and therefore it is told in different ways. Some say that it was not a rat, but a mouse. Others add that this mouse was caught by the monastery cat Zephyr, and colloquially, by Zifa. Still others claim that Pavelka promised the abbess to pray "for the foul-eaters" when he becomes a priest... But we are telling this story the way the priest himself told it, and not a word more!
"...TO THE STAR OF THE CHILD AND THE KING OF KINGS"
Pavelka was very fond of going to carols at Christmas and Christmas time. They went around the monastery like this - first to the abbess, then to the treasurer, then to the deanery and to everyone in order. And he also comes to the abbess: "Can I carol?"
Mother abbess! - shouts the attendant. - Then Pavelko came, he will praise.
“It’s me Pavelko, at that time about six years old,” said the priest. “They don’t let her into her cell, so I’m standing in the hallway. I hear the voice of the abbess from the cell: “Okay, let her praise!” Then I begin:
Praise, praise
you yourself know about it.
I'm little Pavelko,
I can't praise
but I dare not ask.
mother abbess,
give me a pin!
If you don't give me a nickel, I'll leave anyway.
Wow! And tsolkovy, you know what? Do not you know! Silver and two heads on it - the sovereign Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich and Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, there were then such jubilee silver rubles. Thank God! And then I go to the treasurer - the whole procedure is like this ... Poplia's mother was the treasurer. He will give me a fifty dollars, and some sweets to boot.
Oh, and you were cunning, father Pavel, - his cell-attendant Marya Petrovna interrupts the father. - No, go to a simple nun! And all to the abbess, treasurer!
The simple themselves have that .., you yourself know, Marusya, what! You can’t beg for the Tsolkovy, even though you scream all day long, - Father Pavel laughs off and continues his story:
"From the treasurer to the dean. He sits at the table in a white apostle, drinks tea.
Mother Sebastian! - the cell attendant screams at her. - Pavelko came, he wants to glorify Christ.
She, without turning her head, says: "There is a piglet on the table, give it to him, and let him go."
Go away, - the cell attendant was alarmed. - The mother dean is dissatisfied.
And already more for the dean than for me, he is indignant: "Look, how much dirt he inflicted, slandered! How clean and washed rugs! Go away!"
He turned around, did not even take a patch from her. Okay, I think ... If you die, I won’t grieve for you! And I won’t go to ring the bell, know that, mother Sebastiana! And the tears are running down my cheeks like a river ... Offended.
To ring the bell was also the obedience of little Pavelka. As the priest said: "My labor income is in the monastery." “For example, a mantle nun dies,” says Father Pavel. thunderstorm: "Pavelko, let's go." We climb the bell tower, at night the stars and the moon are close, and during the day the earth is far, far away, Mologa lies like on the palm of your hand, all, like necklaces, entwined with rivers around. In the summer - barge haulers along the Mologa from the Volga drag barges , in winter - everything is white and white, in the spring in the flood you can’t see the river beds, only the boundless sea ... The grave Faina ties the tongue of the bell with a manteika, the one that is 390 pounds. and I'm with her - boo-m-m! According to the monastic custom, no matter what obedience anyone is, everyone should bow three times for the newly deceased. You milk a cow or ride a horse, you are a prince or a priest - lay three earthly bows! All Russia So she lived - in fear of God ...
And this manteika hangs on the tongue of the bell until the fortieth day, there already from rain, snow or wind, only shreds will remain. On the fortieth day, these shreds will be collected - and at the grave. A memorial service will be served and that manteika will be buried in the ground. This concerned only the mantle nuns, and everyone else was buried as usual. And for that - Pavelko sits on the bell tower all night and day - they will pay me a ruble. Thank God they didn't die often."
"I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU FEED ME"
On May 13, 1941, Pavel Alexandrovich Gruzdev was arrested in the case of Archbishop Varlaam Ryashentsev.
The camp where Father Pavel served his term for six years was located at the following address: Kirov region, Kaisky district, p / o Volosnitsa. Vyatka corrective labor camps were engaged in the preparation of firewood for the Perm railway, and prisoner No. 513 called himself Fr. Pavel - it was instructed to serve the railway line, along which timber was taken out of the taiga from the logging site. As a narrow-gauge lineman, he was allowed to move around the taiga on his own, without a guard behind his back, he could at any time go into the zone and leave it, turn on the way to a free village. Convoylessness is an advantage that was greatly valued in the zone. And the time was military, the very one about which they say that of the seven camp eras, the most terrible is the war: "Whoever did not sit in the war did not even taste the camp." From the beginning of the war, the already impossibly meager camp rations were cut, and the products themselves worsened every year: bread - raw black clay, "chernyashka"; vegetables were replaced by fodder turnips, beet tops, and all sorts of rubbish; instead of cereals - vetch, bran.
Many people were saved by Fr. Pavel in the camp from starvation. While the brigade of prisoners was led to the place of work by two shooters, in the morning and in the evening - the names of the shooters were Zhemchugov and Pukhtyaev, Fr. Pavel remembered that convict No. 513 had a pass for free exit and entrance to the zone: “I want to go to the forest, but I want to go along the forest ... But more often I take a pestle woven from twigs into my hands and - for berries. First I took strawberries , then cloudberries and lingonberries, and mushrooms! Okay. Guys, the forest is nearby! Merciful Lord, glory to Thee!"
What could be carried through the entrance to the camp, Fr. Pavel changed in the medical unit for bread, fed his comrades in the barracks who were weakened from hunger. And they had a barrack - entirely Article 58: monks, Germans from the Volga region were sitting, the intelligentsia. Met about. Pavel in the camps as a headman from the Tutaev Cathedral, he died in his arms.
Stocked up for the winter. Chopped mountain ash and stacked in haystacks. Then they will be covered with snow and take all winter. He salted mushrooms in makeshift pits: he would dig them out, cover them with clay from the inside, throw brushwood in there, light a fire. The pit becomes like an earthenware jug or a large bowl. He will pile a full pit of mushrooms, get salt somewhere on the tracks, sprinkle the mushrooms with salt, then crush them with boughs. "And so," he says, "I'm carrying a bucket to the guards through the checkpoint, two buckets to the camp."
Once in the taiga I met Fr. Pavel bear: "I'm eating raspberries, and someone is pushing. I looked - a bear. I don't remember how I ran to the camp." Another time, they almost shot him while he was sleeping, mistaking him for a runaway convict. “Somehow I picked up a whole bunch of berries,” the father said. “Then there were a lot of strawberries, so I picked them up with a mountain. And at the same time, I was tired - either I walked from the night, or something else - I don’t remember now. I walked and walked to the camp, and lay down on the grass. My documents, as it should be, are with me, and what documents? with this strawberry is in my head. Suddenly I hear someone throwing cones at me - right in my face. I crossed myself, opened my eyes, I looked - the shooter!
Ah! Escaped?..
Citizen chief, no, he didn’t run away, - I answer.
Do you have a document? - asks.
I have, citizen chief, - I tell him and take out the document. He always lay in my shirt in a sewn pocket, right here - on my chest near the heart. He looked, he looked at the document this way and that way.
Okay, - says - free!
Citizen chief, eat some strawberries, - I suggest to him.
Okay, let's go, - agreed the shooter.
He put the rifle on the grass... My dear ones, it was with difficulty that strawberries were recruited for the sick in the camp, and he ate half of me. Well, God bless him!"
"I WAS SICK, AND YOU VISITED ME"
In the medical unit, where Pavel Gruzdev exchanged berries for bread, two doctors worked, both from the Baltic States - Dr. Berne, a Latvian, and Dr. Chamans. They will give them instructions, orders to the medical unit: "Tomorrow is a shock working day in the camp" - Christmas, for example, or Easter. On these bright Christian holidays, prisoners were forced to work even harder - they were "re-educated" by hard work. And they warn the doctors, the same prisoners: "To not release more than fifteen people throughout the camp!" And if the doctor does not fulfill the order, he will be punished - they can add a term. And Dr. Berne will release thirty people from work and he carries the list on watch ...
"You can hear:" Who?
They call him, our doctor, bent for what it should be:
"Tomorrow you will go to give three norms for your arbitrariness!"
Okay! Good!
So I tell you, my dear guys. I don’t understand in the beauty of the human body, in the spiritual I understand, but then I understood! He went out to watch with the workers, went out with everyone ... Oh, handsome, crazy handsome and without a hat! He is standing without a headdress and with a saw ... I think to myself: "Mother of God, yes to the Lady, Quick to Hearing! Send him everything for his simplicity and patience!" Of course, we took care of him and took him away from work that day. They built a fire for him, they planted him next to him. The arrow was bribed: "Here you are! Be silent, you infection!"
So the doctor sat by the fire, warmed himself and did not work. If he is alive, give him, Lord, good health, and if he died - Lord! Send him the Kingdom of Heaven, according to your covenant: "I was sick, and you visited Me!"
FOREST LITURGY
Different streams of people poured into the camps in different years - either dispossessed, then cosmopolitans, then the party elite cut down by another blow of an ax, then the scientific and creative intelligentsia, ideologically not pleasing the Master - but always and in any years there was a single common stream of believers - "some kind of then a silent religious procession with invisible candles. Like a machine gun, they fall among them - and the next step in, and go again. Hardness, not seen in the 20th century!" These are lines from The Gulag Archipelago.
As if in the first Christian centuries, when worship was often performed in the open air, the Orthodox now pray in the forest, in the mountains, in the desert and by the sea.
In the Ural taiga, the Liturgy was also served by the prisoners of the Vyatka corrective labor camps.
There were two bishops, several archimandrites, abbots, hieromonks and just monks. And how many believing women were in the camp, who were all dubbed "nuns", mixing in one heap both illiterate peasant women and abbesses of various monasteries. According to Father Pavel, "there was a whole diocese there!" When it was possible to come to an agreement with the head of the second part, which was in charge of passes, the "camp diocese" went out into the forest and began worship in a forest clearing. For the sacrament cup, juice was prepared from various berries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, lingonberries - that God would send, a stump was a throne, a towel served as a sakos, a censer was made from a tin can. And the bishop, dressed in prison rags, - "dividing My robes for himself and for My clothing, metasha lots ..." - stood before the forest throne as the Lord's, he was helped by all those praying.
“Take the body of Christ, taste the source of the immortal,” sang the choir of prisoners in the forest clearing... How everyone prayed, how they cried - not from grief, but from the joy of prayer...
At the last divine service (something happened in the camp, someone was being transferred somewhere), lightning struck the stump that served as the throne - so that they would not desecrate it later. He disappeared, and in his place appeared a funnel full of clean, clear water. The guard, who saw everything with his own eyes, turned white with fear, said: "Well, you are all saints here!"
There were cases when, together with the prisoners, some of the guards-shooters took communion in the forest.
The Great Patriotic War was going on, which began on Sunday, June 22, 1941 - on the Day of All Saints, who shone in the Russian land, and prevented the implementation of the state plan of the "godless five-year plan", according to which not a single church should have remained in Russia. What helped Russia to survive and preserve the Orthodox faith - weren't it the prayers and the righteous blood of millions of prisoners - the best Christians in Russia?
Tall pines, grass in the clearing, the throne of the Cherubim, the sky ... The communion cup with juice from wild berries:
"... I believe, Lord, that this is Your most pure Body and this is Your precious blood... which is shed for us and for many for the remission of sins..."
THE HAPPIEST DAY
Much has been written in the 20th century about the horrors and sufferings of the camps. Not long before his death, in the 90s of our (already past) century, Archimandrite Pavel confessed:
“My relatives, I had the happiest day in my life. Listen.
Somehow they brought girls to our camps. All of them are young, young, probably, and they were not twenty. They called them "benders". Among them is one beauty - she has a braid up to her toes and she is sixteen years old at the most. And now she is roaring so much, crying so much ... "How bitter it is for her, - I think, - this girl, that she is so killed, she cries so much."
I came closer, I asked ... And there were about two hundred prisoners gathered here, both our campers and those who were with the escort. "Why is the girl crying like that?" Someone answers me, from their own, newly arrived: “We drove for three days, they didn’t give us expensive bread, they had some kind of overspending. ate - a day, or something, what a fast she had. And this ration, which for three days - was stolen, somehow snatched from her. For three days she did not eat, now they would share it with her, but also We don't have any bread, we've already eaten everything."
And I had a stash in the barracks - not a stash, but a ration for today - a loaf of bread! I ran to the barracks ... And I received eight hundred grams of bread as a worker. What kind of bread, you know, but still bread. I take this bread and run back. I bring this bread to the girl and give it to me, and she says to me: "Hi, don't need it! I don't sell my honor for bread!" And I didn’t take bread, fathers! My dear relatives! Yes Lord! I don’t know what kind of honor is such that a person is ready to die for it? Before that, I didn’t know, but on that day I found out that this is called a girl’s honor!
I put this piece under her arm and ran out of the zone, into the forest! I climbed into the bushes, knelt down ... and such were my tears of joy, no, not bitter. And I think the Lord will say:
I was hungry, and you, Pavlukha, fed me.
When, Lord?
Yes, that girl is a Benderovka. You fed me! That was and is the happiest day of my life, and I have lived a lot."
DIED "EVERLIVE"
So day after day, month after month, the 53rd year came. “I come home from work,” Father Pavel recalled, “Grandpa says to me:
Son, Stalin is dead!
Grandpa, be quiet. He is forever alive. Both you and me will be jailed. Tomorrow morning I have to go to work again, and they say on the radio that when Stalin's funeral is over, "the horns will hum like everyone! Stop work - stand and freeze where the horn found you, for a minute or two ..." Ivan from Vetluga was in exile, his surname was Lebedev. Oh, what a good man, a master of all trades! Well, whatever he takes in his hands, he will do everything with these hands. Ivan and I worked on camels then. He has a camel, I have a camel. And on these camels, we are going through the steppe with him. Suddenly the horns went off! The camel must be stopped, but Ivan beats him harder and scolds him. And the camel runs across the steppe, and does not know that Stalin is dead!
This is how the cassock Pavel Gruzdev from the flooded Mologa and the jack-of-all-trades from the ancient town of Vetluga Ivan Lebedev saw off Stalin on his last journey. "And after Stalin's funeral we are silent - we didn't see anyone, we didn't hear anything."
And here again the night, about one o'clock in the morning. Knocking on the gate:
Is Gruzdev here?
Well, night visitors are a common thing. Father Pavel always has a bag of crackers ready. It turns out:
Get it together, buddy! Come with us!
“Grandfather is roaring, grandmother is roaring ... - Son! They have already got used to me for so many years,” Father Pavel said. “Well, I think I waited! They will take me to Solovki! "I took crackers, took a rosary - in a word, I took everything. Lord! Let's go. I look, no, they're not being taken to the station, but to the commandant's office. I go in. We are not allowed to greet, they greet only real people, and we are prisoners," a fascist muzzle ". What can you do? Okay. I went in, hands like this, behind my back, as expected - for eleven years I got used to it, I gained experience. You stand in front of them, not to speak - breathe, blink your eyes and then you are afraid.
Comrade Gruzdev!
Well, I guess it's the end of the world. Everything is a "fascist muzzle", and here is a comrade.
Sit down, freely, - it means that they invite me.
Okay, thanks, but I'll stand it, Citizen Chief.
No, sit down!
My pants are dirty, I'll get dirty.
Sit down!
Still, I sat down, as they said.
Comrade Gruzdev, why are you serving your sentence?
So he's a fascist, isn't he? - I answer.
No, you don't shirk, you're being serious.
I do not know. Here you have documents lying on me, you know better.
By mistake, he says.
Glory to Thee Lord! Now they will probably be taken to Solovki, when by mistake ... I really wanted to go to Solovki, to bow to the holy places. But I keep listening.
- Comrade Gruzdev, here's a certificate for you, you suffered innocently. Cult of personality. Go to the police tomorrow with a certificate. Based on this paper, you will be issued a passport. And we secretly warn you... If someone calls you a fascist or something like that, report to us, comrade Gruzdev! We will attract that citizen for this. Here is our address.
Oh oh oh! - waved his hands. - I won't, I won't, citizen chief, God forbid, I won't. I can't, dear...
God! And as I began to speak, the light bulb above me was white-white, then green, blue, and finally turned pink ... I woke up after a while, with cotton wool on my nose. I feel that they hold my hand and someone says: "I came to my senses!"
They did something to me, some kind of injection, something else ... Thank God, he got up and began to apologize. "Oh, I'm sorry, oh, I'm sorry." Just let me think. After all, a prisoner, it’s embarrassing for me ...
All right, all right, - the chief reassured. - Now go!
What about eleven years old?
No, Comrade Gruzdev, no!
They just stuck an injection below my waist as a keepsake... I stomped." It took two days to get a passport - "it still lies with me alive," as Father Pavel said. On the third day, Gruzdev went to work. they had such a comrade Mironets - he did not take the Orthodox into the spirit and in itself had a very vicious disposition. The girls from the brigade sang about him: "Don't go to the other end, Mironets will beat you up!"
Aha! shouts Comrade Mironets, just seeing Gruzdev. - Wandered, prayed with the nuns!
Yes, a mat on what the light covers.
Popovskaya your muzzle! You go again! There, in the Yaroslavl region, you harmed, you bastard, arranged sabotage, and here you harm, damned fascist! You're ruining our plan, you saboteur!
No, citizen chief, he didn’t wander around, ”Gruzdev answers calmly. - Here is a document of justification, but I need to go to the director of the Regional Construction Office, sorry.
What for to you, the fool, the director? - Comrade Mironets was surprised.
It's all there on the paper.
The brigadier read the paper:
Pavlusha!..
So much for Pavlusha, thinks Gruzdev.
The conversation in the director's office turned out to be completely discouraging.
BUT! Comrade Gruzdev, dear! Sit down, don't stand, here's a chair for you, - as the best guest was met by the director of "comrade Gruzdev", who was already aware of his affairs. - I know, Pavel Aleksandrovich, I know everything. We got an error.
While the director crumbles into small beads, Gruzdev is silent, says nothing. What do you say?
We are handing over a residential building in a day or two, - continues the director of the Regional Construction Office, - there is also a contribution of your Stakhanovite work. The house is new, multi-apartment. In it and for you, dear Pavel Aleksandrovich, there is an apartment. We have looked closely at you over the years, we see that you are an honest and decent citizen. The only trouble is that he is a believer, but you can close your eyes to this.
What am I going to do in your house? - Gruzdev is surprised at the strange words of the director, and he himself thinks: "What is all this leading to?"
You need to get married, comrade Gruzdev, get a family, children, and work! - Satisfied with his proposal, the director happily concludes.
How to get married? Pavel snapped. - I'm a monk!
So what! Start a family, children, and remain a monk... Who is against that? Just live and work!
No, citizen chief, thank you for your father's participation, but I can't, - Pavel Gruzdev thanked the director and, frustrated, returned to his place on Krupskaya Street. Do not let him out of production! No matter how you say it, you want to go home... Tya and mom, sisters - Olka with punks, Tanya, Lyoshka, Sanka Fokan... Pavlusha writes a letter home: "Tatya! Mom! I am no longer a prisoner. It was by mistake. I not a fascist, but a Russian man."
"Son! - Alexander Ivanovich Gruzdev answers him. - We never had a thief in our family, there was no robber either. And you are neither a thief nor a robber. Come, son, bury our bones."
Again Pavel Gruzdev goes to the director of the Regional Construction Office:
Citizen boss, I would like to go to my aunt with my mother, because the old ones can already die without waiting!
Pavlusha, to go, you need a challenge! - the boss answers. - And without a call, I have no right to let you go.
Pavel Gruzdev writes to Tutaev relatives - so, they say, and so, without a call they are not allowed. And his sister Tatyana, in the marriage of Yudina, worked all her life as an obstetrician. She was on duty one night in the hospital. The Lord inspired her: she mechanically opened the drawer of the desk, and there was a seal and hospital forms. Sends a telegram: "Northern Kazakhstan, city of Petropavlovsk, Oblpromstroykontor, to the head. Please urgently send Pavel Gruzdev, his mother, who died after a difficult birth, gave birth to twins."
And the mother is already seventy years old! Pavlusha, as he found out, thinks: "I've gone crazy! Or Tanya is being smart about something!" But they call him to the authorities:
Comrade Gruzdev, get ready to hit the road! We all know about you. On the one hand, we are glad, and on the other hand, we grieve. Maybe something to help you? Maybe you need a babysitter?
No, the citizen is the boss, - Pavel answers. - Thank you very much, but I will go without a nanny.
As you wish, the director agreed.
“Now you can even joke,” the priest recalled this incident. “But then I was not laughing.
"LET YOUR DASHKA RECOVERY!"
“Great was his prayer,” they say about Father Paul. “Great is his blessing. True miracles.”
“At the service itself, he stood like some kind of spiritual pillar,” they recall about the priest. “He prayed with all his heart, like a giant, this small man, and everyone was present as if on wings at his prayer. It was like that - from the very heart. Voice loud, strong. Sometimes, when he performed the sacrament of communion, he asked the Lord in a simple way, like his father: "Lord, help Serezha there, something with the family ..." Right at the throne - help this, and this .. During prayer, he listed everyone as a keepsake, and his memory, of course, was excellent.”
“Dashenka, my granddaughter, was born with us,” says one woman. “And my daughter, when she was pregnant, celebrated her birthday on the Assumption Fast - with booze, with partying. I tell her: “Fear God, because you are pregnant.” And when the child was born, they determined that he had a heart murmur, very seriously - there was a hole on the breathing valve. And the girl was choking. Even during the day, back and forth, she cries, and at night she suffocates altogether. The doctors said that if she lives to two and a half years , we will do the operation in Moscow at the Institute.
And so I kept running to Father Pavel: "Father, pray!" And he didn't say anything. I'll come, I'll say - and says nothing. Dasha lived for 2.5 years. Send us a call for surgery. I run to my father. “Father, what to do? The call for the operation came, to go or not to go? And he says: “Communion and go.” So they went. And then he says to me so angrily: “May your Dasha get well!” And thank God, here - Dasha recovered with his prayers.
“The Lord heard Father Paul’s prayer faster than others,” recalls one priest. “Whoever comes to him, who has something that hurts, the priest will knock so easily on the back or pat his ear: “Well, that’s all, you will be healthy, don’t worry “But he himself will go to the altar and pray for a person. The Lord will hear his prayer and help this person. Of course, I obviously can’t say - he was limping, went up to Fr. Pavel and immediately jumped.
It's not always obvious. The man mourned, mourned, but prayed for Paul, confessed, took communion, talked, asked for his prayers, so everything gradually and eased. A week will pass, and he is already healthy." "Prayer works everywhere, although it does not always work miraculously," is written in Father Paul's notebooks. Through the prayers of the righteous, have mercy on sinners."
IS IT EASY TO BE A LIKE
A lot of clergy took care of Fr. Pavel, and over the years more and more, so that Verkhne-Nikulsky formed its own "forge of personnel", or "Academy of Fools", as Fr. Paul. And it was a real spiritual academy, in comparison with which the metropolitan academies paled. The spiritual lessons of Archimandrite Paul were simple and remembered for a lifetime.
“Once I thought, could I be such a novice that I could unquestioningly fulfill all obediences,” says the father’s pupil, the priest. “Well, what, I probably could! What the father says, I would do. to him - and he, as you know, often responded to thoughts with an action or some kind of story.He, as usual, puts me at the table, immediately Marya begins to warm something up.
He brings cabbage soup, pours. The cabbage soup was surprisingly tasteless. From some concentrate - and I just took communion - and lard floats on top. And a huge plate. I ate it with great difficulty. "Come on, come on, come on!" And he rushes with the rest in the pan - he poured everything out for me - eat, eat up! I thought I was going to be sick now. And I confessed with my own lips: "Such an obedience, father, I cannot fulfill!" So he rebuked me.
Father Pavel knew how to make a person feel a spiritual state - joy, humility... this riza is the most beautiful, put it on, and you will give it to others. "And, probably, I still had some kind of vanity:" Look, what a beautiful riza!" And literally a few minutes later - Father Pavel was at home, and I church, he somehow felt my condition - he was flying - "Come on, take off the robe!" And father Arkady came from Moscow, "Give it to father Arkady!"
It struck me like lightning from head to toe - I was so resigned. And in this state I felt like in heaven - in some kind of reverence, in the joyful presence of something important, i.e. he made me understand what humility is. I put on the oldest riza, but I was the happiest in this service."
