by Evgeny Balakin
[REGNUM] Pelageya Serebrennikova, a townswoman from Arzamas, was prophesied to become a "great luminary of Orthodoxy." This was revealed to her by the great miracle worker and clairvoyant, St. Seraphim of Sarov. Apart from Father Seraphim's words, nothing indicated that Pelageya would become one of the most revered elders of the Diveyevo Monastery and would be glorified as a saint.
When the townswoman Serebrennikova was just beginning her path to holiness, her husband beat her to death
| …surely nearly to death… |
If the expression "the feat of foolishness" was present in the lexicon of the Arzamas residents, it was applied to the ancient ascetics so beautifully described in the lives of the saints. But in a provincial town in the Nizhny Novgorod province during the reign of Nicholas I, such behavior was a violation of good manners—nothing more.
When you become acquainted with the biographies of the elders of the Diveyevo Monastery, a unique phenomenon in Russian history of the late 18th and early 20th centuries, you get the feeling that you are exploring a sociological cross-section of all classes of the Russian Empire.
The founder of the monastery, Mother Alexandra, was a noblewoman whose family had given the empire dignitaries, military men, and socialites. The prophetess and fool for Christ, Paraskeva, was a serf who was not even allowed to have a family name and who did not dare leave the master's estate.
Blessed Maria of Diveyevo was one of the peasants who were freed by Alexander II's reforms and flocked to the cities to earn a living. But at some point, each of them broke the life pattern prescribed by their class, wealth, and era.
More important were the words of Christ, as conveyed by the Evangelist Matthew: “Whoever wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrennikova, née Surina, was a city dweller before taking up the cross, and not one of the poor.
STERN STEPFATHER
She was born in 1809, the year of Napoleon's victory at Wagram, the publication of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's work on evolutionary theory, Ivan Krylov's first book of fables, and the beginning of Mikhail Speransky's failed constitutional reform.
Arzamas merchant Ivan Ivanovich Surin owned a tannery, ran his business honestly and successfully, and his family lived in prosperity.
And overall, the industrialists and merchants of the district town grew rich. The fair at the Makaryev Monastery was not far away (in 1817, the Makaryev Fair would move to Nizhny Novgorod). And the imperial manifesto of 1807, "On New Benefits Granted to the Merchants," spurred the development of commerce.
But tragedy struck the Surin family: Ivan Ivanovich died suddenly, leaving his wife, Praskovia, a widow with three young children. To preserve her family and her fortune, she remarried (or rather, her relatives, the Bebishevs, arranged for her to do so) to Alexei Nikitich Korolev-Ikonnikov. The Korolevs and Ikonnikovs were two distinguished families, a kind of merchant "aristocracy" known throughout the Volga region, the Urals, and Siberia.
Her stepfather, Alexei Nikitich, was stern in disposition, unlike her biological father. Pelageya spent her childhood in a large house in Arzamas, doing housework.
From an early age, she showed signs of strangeness: she pretended to be a “fool” in order to avoid the vanity of the world (in which the word “merchant” often concealed the desire to deceive one’s neighbor) and to preserve her heart for God.
"AND YOU WILL BE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD..."
Seeing this, her mother rushed to marry her daughter off, considering her behavior a hindrance to the family's well-being. When Pelageya was 19, they found a husband, albeit one of lower social status—the bourgeois Sergei Serebrennikov.
The lives of holy ascetics repeat the story of "she was burdened by marriage." But judging by the life of Pelagia of Diveyevo, marriage was difficult for both her and Sergei.
Having children could have saved the marriage. But two sons died before they were even eighteen months old, and the daughter "was taken by the Lord" when she was just a few weeks old.
Infant mortality in the Russian Empire (as in European countries) was high. Doctor of Medicine Heinrich Attenhofer cited data for the capital city of St. Petersburg from 1800 to 1812: 311 deaths per 1,000 births.
The "problem" was easily resolved—by having more children. But it seems the Serebrennikovs were alarmed by the way Pelageya spoke of the deaths of her sons and daughter: the Lord took her children to Himself so that they would not know this difficult worldly life. Her relatives and husband were surprised by such words from the "blessed one."
The family decided to send Sergei and Pelageya with their mother Praskovia to the Sarov Monastery to seek guidance and prayerful help from Father Seraphim, who was already considered a saint during his lifetime.
The saint received the merchant and bourgeois delegation from Arzamas in his cell. He blessed Sergei and Praskovya Ivanovna and sent them away in peace. He told Pelageya to stay and spoke with her for at least two hours.
Eldress Pelagia recounted how Father had entrusted her with the feat of foolishness for Christ, predicting a long life in the Diveyevo Monastery and that she would take upon herself the care of the nuns. And when Seraphim escorted Pelagia to the gate—all the pilgrims had already witnessed this—he bowed to the young woman and said:
“Go, go, mother, go to Diveyevo, take care of my orphans and you will be the light of the world.”
THE ORDEALS OF THE FOOLISH PELAGIA
Upon returning from the Sarov monastery, Pelagia, with the blessing of Father Seraphim, began to learn the Jesus Prayer—the way the Athonite elders pray.
But most importantly, she began to act like a fool. Or, to use the language of the 1845 Code of Criminal and Correctional Punishments, she allowed herself to "cause noise, shouting, or other disorderly conduct in a public place or at a public gathering." She dressed absurdly, ran through the streets "shouting outrageously," and at night knelt on the church porch, atoning for her sins and those of the world.
The husband, who by the standards of the time wasn't considered a domestic tyrant, "treated" this madness by chaining her to the wall and beating her. When measures against the "fool" and "family disgrace" failed, he returned his insane wife to the family of her stepfather, the merchant Korolev-Ikonnikov. Beatings and chaining followed in her "home" as well.
In "barbarian" Muscovite Rus', men of God who denounced the evils of this world were treated with a wary respect. In the Russian Empire of the 19th century (despite its official commitment to Orthodoxy—the third pillar in the triad of "Orthodoxy, autocracy, and nationality"), social deviations were corrected using the method of "supervise and punish."
In despair, her biological mother handed her daughter over to the city authorities for re-education.
The saint's life contains an episode: by order of the Arzamas mayor, the townswoman Pelageya Serebrennikova was beaten half to death. The life contains the words of her mother, horrified by how the authorities fulfilled her parents' wishes: "Her body hung in tatters, blood soaked the entire room, and yet she even gasped."
According to the hagiography, that same night the mayor had a dream: for such abuse of the defenseless fool for Christ's sake, he would burn in hell. Be that as it may, the city authorities were ordered not to touch the "fool."
And soon the family also abandoned their unfaithful relative, fulfilling a simple request - to let her go to the Diveyevo monastery.
A PIT WITH BRICKS
But even within the monastery walls, the holy fool seemed to be encroaching on an important element of the imperial triad: Orthodoxy.
She threw stones, broke windows in cells, and exposed the sisters for the sins they were hiding.
The most harmless of these was the "daily work" that Nun Pelagia performed until her death: every day she threw bricks into a pit filled with dirty water, then climbed in, pulled the bricks out, and threw them back into the pit. It was hard and, at first glance, pointless work—the same as the daily struggle with sin.
In return, she received beatings and insults. Her first cell attendant tortured Pelagia so cruelly that "it was impossible to watch without pity."
But little by little, it became clear to the sisters: the mad Pelagia was behaving as the blessed ones of previous centuries had. She was merciless not only to the sins of others, but also to herself: she exhausted them with a strict fast—on bread and water, sleeping on broken bricks, and wearing rags. But most importantly, she reminded them of what Father Seraphim had said: Diveyevo is the fourth lot of the Most Holy Theotokos, and the service here is special.
Pelagia tirelessly repeated that she came “to protect the orphans of Seraphim,” who were called to pray for the Church and the world.
"SHE HIT THE BISHOP WHILE DENOUNCING HIM."
Pelagia lived in the Diveyevo Monastery for almost 47 years. Each day began with prayer, followed by a difficult service, visible only to God: foolishness for the sake of saving the monastery.
In 1861, the year of the peasant reform, the monastery experienced its own "upheaval," known in history as the Diveyevo Troubles. A year earlier, by order of Bishop Nektary of Nizhny Novgorod, the Diveyevo community had received the status of monastery. The power-hungry Hieromonk Ioasaph had achieved the status of trustee and spiritual father of the monastery. He claimed to be a disciple of St. Seraphim of Sarov, but it was known that Father Seraphim had not blessed him to "lead" Diveyevo.
With his strict supervision and his desire to rationalize community life (no spiritual gifts allowed unless they were in accordance with the charter), Joasaph alienated most of the sisters. But he had a support group. The discord "in the spirit of the Antichrist" that Seraphim had predicted began.
And then the holy fool Pelagia reminded the sisters that they should not retreat from the truth, and she fought for this truth in her own way: “she beat and thrashed and, denouncing the bishop, struck him on the cheek.”
The sisters' indignation reached the church authorities, and they backed down (a complaint that layman Nikolai Motovilov, a disciple of St. Seraphim, brought to the emperor also helped).
Joasaph was transferred to another diocese, and the monastery was given the opportunity to live without bureaucratic supervision.
FLOWERS FOR THE MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD
But the stern Pelagia seemed to have changed—the one who slept on the rocks and continued throwing stones into the pit now began planting flower beds around the cells, saying that flowers brought joy to the Most Holy Theotokos. Praying on the porch of her cell, the blessed one sorted through the bouquets.
It was then that the sisters remembered how her rebukes were always accompanied by unexpected affection and consolation. On the other hand, she could tell the Mother Superior about their lack of evangelical love: "You are not the abbess here—the Queen of Heaven Herself is! And I have come to protect the Seraphim orphans!"
The elder accurately knew people's thoughts and secret intentions, predicted events, and sternly admonished those who strayed from the true path. Now, not only the young sisters (whom Pelagia called "little children" and "daughters") but the abbess herself turned to her, asking for prayers and guidance.
“Look how many children I have,” Pelagia said to another blessed Paraskeva of Sarov.
The popular veneration of Eldress Pelagia came during the final years of Alexander II's reign, when, following the reforms, the rural world began to gradually crumble. For peasants who found themselves in new circumstances—often "halfway" between a hut and a factory dormitory—her words of consolation took on a special power. Streams of pilgrims flocked to the Sarov and Diveyevo monasteries. Pelagia welcomed everyone into her cell, claiming that she did so with a blessing from above and the behest of Father Seraphim.
The final years of Blessed Pelagia's life occurred during the reign of Alexander III the Peacemaker. The authorities had frozen the empire, but the Diveyevo elder warned the sisters of the trials to come.
She continued to "rush" around the monastery in tattered rags, rebuking and comforting, tending the flower beds, and praying for the "orphans of Seraphim," but the years were taking their toll. After nearly half a century of uninterrupted service, she fell gravely ill and rarely left her narrow bed in her cramped cell.
Pelagia of Diveyevo died at the age of 75, in 1884. In her final days, the blessed one lay, barely opening her eyes. The sisters took turns keeping vigil at her bedside. She received Holy Communion. Just before her death, Matushka called the closest sisters and quietly but firmly repeated, "I have protected the Seraphim orphans. Now everything is in the Queen of Heaven's hands."
Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna was buried in the monastery cemetery, near the altar of Trinity Cathedral. Her grave soon became a place of pilgrimage.
Beginning in late 1918, Lenin ordered the mass closure of monasteries. Diveyevo Monastery's turn came on the tenth anniversary of the Revolution. After the monastery's destruction, the remains of Blessed Pelagia miraculously remained untouched.
The revival of the Church in the 1990s and 2000s allowed many holy names to be brought back from oblivion: in 2004, Blessed Pelagia (Serebrennikova) was glorified as a saint along with other Diveyevo blessed ones.