The Life of St. Matrona of Moscow. Icon, prayers for help. How to pray to the Matron of Moscow

In order that the Russian land should not be depleted by the saints of God, the holy blessed Matrona Moscow was sent to her. Blind from birth, she received a greater gift of spiritual vision, prophecy, and inexhaustible prayerful power. The elect of God did not shut them in her soul. The help of Saint Matrona of Moscow was generously poured out on everyone who went to her for healing and help in everyday troubles. For this reason she entered the number of the most revered and loved by the people of the saints.

The prophetic dream of Natalia Nikonova

Before you start talking about how to pray to the Matron of Moscow and how to worship holy relics, you should at least briefly recall her life. It was born in 1881 in the village of Sebino, which was twenty kilometers from the famous Kulikovo field. Born in the family of pious parents - Dimitri and Natalia Nikonov, who spent all their days in labor, but could not get out of poverty. The family was large, and every extra mouth created an additional burden. Therefore, before the birth of her daughter Natalia decided to give her to a children's shelter, which was opened in the neighboring village by the works of Prince Golitsyn.

And to become a Matron orphan with living parents, but her future mother had a wonderful vision. She appeared in her dream, yet not born daughter in the form of a white bird with closed eyes and sat on her right hand. The prophetic was a dream, because every Orthodox person knows that at the right hand of us is an angelic place, the cunning one is creeping on the other side. Natalya understood the Will of God and did not part with her daughter.

A good omen

The girl was born blind, like that bird from a night vision, but the mother's heart from this grew even more - sick and weak sometimes are the most beloved. In holy baptism, she was named Matrona in honor of the Matrona of Constantinople, a Christian ascetic of the 5th century, whose memory is celebrated on November 22.

One of the next of kin, who was present in the church that day, recalled later that when Father Basil's priest lowered her font, everyone was amazed at the sight of the fragrant cloud weaving over the baby. The priest, who was considered blessed for righteousness and asceticism, then interpreted this miracle as a visible testimony of God's chosenness of the child. "This baby will be holy" - that's his words, which became a prophecy.

Unusual properties, manifested in childhood

The life of St. Matrona of Moscow tells us that even at an early age extraordinary qualities appeared in it. For example, she did not take breasts on fasting days - Wednesdays and Fridays. It is also known that one day the girl brought relatives into awe and bewilderment, telling them about the death of the baptized her father Vasily. When everyone ran into his house, they found there already a lifeless body. She also had special bodily signs that distinguished her among other children. Shortly after birth, the mother noticed a bulge in the form of a cross formed on the child's chest. When the girl grew up, she treated it quite sensibly, seeing in this the Christian symbol.

By the way, Marona was not just blind from birth. As evidenced by all who had occasion to communicate with her, she completely lacked eyeballs, and her eyelids were tightly closed. However, there is no doubt that the Lord granted her spiritual sight. Many witnessed how Matron removed the icons from the walls, laid them on the table and, as it were, looked at them with blind eyes. With her peers, she did not develop a childhood friendship. They sometimes teased her and humiliated him in every way. As a result, from an early age she began to spend all her time at home.

In addition to his native hut, the only place where the Matron felt secure and at rest was the church. Not far from them was a large and beautiful temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the girl spent most of the day in it. She attended all the divine services. Here, good people taught her how to lay down prostrations and how to pray. Matron of Moscow was not yet six years old, and she already echoed the chorister. It has long been noted that the hearing is often well developed in the blind. This natural feature also manifested itself in Matrona - her childish voice without the slightest falsehood echoed the choir, who performed prayer songs.

The Beginning of Prophecy and Healing

The history of Matrona of Moscow, as healer and prophetess, began when she was barely seven years old. The family began to notice for her the ability to read the thoughts of the surrounding people unerringly. In addition, the gift of feeling and predicting impending dangers and natural disasters was revealed in it. But most importantly - her prayers brought people healing and getting rid of everyday troubles. And this wonderful gift of Matrona grew stronger in the course of time and grew brighter.

Since then, the Nikonovs have been drawn to the endless streams of people from all the surrounding villages, eager for the healing of ills and support in afflictions. There were also lying patients among them, who were brought on carts. Matrona with prayer and the laying on of hands restored their health, and they left her, spreading the glory of the healer in the distant provinces. Many in gratitude left her parents with presents and products. So the blind girl became not a burden for the family, but the main nurse.

Later, one of the sisters recalled how once her gift of spiritual vision was manifested in an extraordinary way. It was Sunday morning. Her mother, dressed up, was going to go to church and called her father with her. He refused and, at home, prayed all the time. On his return, his wife rebuked him, but suddenly Matrona stood up for him, protesting that today it was he who, having dedicated the morning of prayer, was invisibly in the church, while she attended the liturgy only bodily, filling her thoughts with the condemnation of her husband.

Pilgrimage and meeting with John of Kronstadt

Already in adulthood, the holy blessed Matrona Moscow often recalled the daughter of a local landowner - a kind and devout maiden Lydia Yankova, who supported her. Feeling a spiritual inclination for pilgrimage, she took Matrona with her on trips to holy places. Thanks to her, the blind girl was able to bow to the shrines of the Kiev-Pecherskaya and Trinity-Sergius Lavra, to visit St. Petersburg and many other Orthodox centers of the country.

In one of these trips she met with one of the most prominent figures of the Russian Orthodox Church - John of Kronstadt. The life of St. Matrona of Moscow, describing this scene, tells how, having finished the liturgy in St. Andrew's Cathedral, Father John ordered everyone to give way and give way to the fourteen-year-old blind girl who was there. Greeting, he called her his successor and the pillar of Russia. Needless to say, in his prophecies the holy righteous John of Kronstadt was never wrong.

Some time passed, and when Matron was in his seventeenth year, the Lord placed another heavy cross on her, which she was destined to end her days: the girl's legs were cut off. From that time she became "sedentary" and could move only with the help of others. This "seat" lasted for long fifty years, but no one had ever heard complaints from her. On the contrary, the Matrona with true Christian humility bowed before the Will of God.

The long-predicted catastrophe

When the revolution broke out, the blind healer was thirty-six years old. For her, the whole ensuing nightmare of the fratricidal war was not a surprise, since even in her childhood she predicted these events. Then to her words they were skeptical, attributing them to the sickly fantasy of a cripple. Now they remembered with amazing accuracy how she described the revelry of the dark human passions that plunged the country into the abyss of the Apocalypse.

Long before the Bolshevik coup, Matron urged the landlord Yankov, her benefactor's father, to sell all the property and go abroad. Unfortunately, he disregarded the advice, and in the years of the Red Terror paid for it with his life. His daughter Lydia, having lost everything, became a homeless wanderer in her native country. And this is not the only such example. They called her prophecies to people, but that was "a voice crying in the desert."

Creating a holy icon

Thanks to the Blessed Matron, I have found the Orthodox world with the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, which is well known to everyone under the name of "The Execution of the Dead." The life of St. Matrona of Moscow tells how she once asked her mother to go to the priest and in one of the books to find the image of the Blessed Virgin. In addition, she accurately indicated the place where the book stands. Mother fulfilled her daughter's request and together with her father found the necessary drawing.

Then Matron organized the collection of funds needed to hire a skilled master icon painter. When everything was ready, and the artist appeared, the blessed one commanded him before committing himself to confession and communion. An important condition was a deep repentance in the committed sins - explicit and secret. The master did everything according to her word, but either accidentally, or purposely concealed some sin. As a result, however much he struggled, he did not get the image of the Blessed Virgin. Only when, on the instructions of Matrona, he confessed again, opening his soul to the end, he created a marvelous icon.

Moving to Moscow

In the early twenties, both brothers Matrona - Ivan and Michael - became party members and actively pursued its policy. Of course, the presence in the blessed house, which daily received dozens of people coming to her and prayed over them, was extremely inappropriate and irritated atheistically adjusted relatives. In addition, this threatened them with repression. Matrona had to look for a new home, and in 1925 she moved to Moscow, where she spent the rest of her life.

The real story of the Matrona of Moscow of this period consists of the memories of numerous people who happened to communicate with her in the capital. In this city there was a huge number of unhappy people who lost faith during the years of the revolution not only in God, but in general in the existence of any good beginning in the world. There were those who were on desperation on the verge of suicide. Living among them for almost three decades, the Matrona by her prayer service saved their souls, warding off death and eternal death. In which temple of Matron the Moscow most loved to visit? This question is difficult to answer unambiguously, since the whole capital it called a holy city and hardly made a distinction between its shrines.

The whole period of her Moscow life is an endless band of wanderings to the homes of those pious people who, despite their own poverty, were ready to give her shelter. These were the apartments of Muscovites (mostly communal), and plywood summer cottages, and even simple cellars, somehow equipped for housing. But it was not necessary to choose. Moreover, no matter where Matrona lived, she always put herself at risk and those who sheltered her, since she did not have a residence permit, and in those years it was considered almost a crime.

Conflicts with the authorities

The life of St. Matrona of Moscow, compiled many years after her death, does not bypass this aspect of her stay in the capital. It tells how, thanks to her phenomenal gift of foresight, the blessed one always knew how to anticipate the visit of unexpected guests in advance. Often, inappropriately zealous advocates of socialist legality informed the authorities about the residence of an unregistered citizen at such and such an address, but every time a policeman appeared, Matrona managed to leave the dangerous dwelling.

One of the women who gave her shelter, then remembered an amazing incident, which occurred shortly before the war. One day a policeman unexpectedly came to the apartment where the Matron was. Contrary to its habit, the blessed one did not leave the house the day before, but calmly met a representative of the authorities. When he was ready to escort her to the station, she suddenly turned to him with the words: "Leave me, hurry home - there was a misfortune, but you will have time to help."

Struck by what he heard, the policeman rushed home, and it turned out that there was an accident - his wife received severe burns from a faulty Primus stove. Thanks to Matron, he managed to deliver her to the hospital in time and thereby saved his wife's life. Needless to say, that a grateful minister of law did not dare to harm his benefactress.

Life in Starokonyushenniy Lane

And the astonishing case is described by ZV Zhdanova, who divided her dwelling with the blessed Matrona for seven years. She studied at the Institute of Architecture and in 1946 was supposed to defend the diploma project. But there were unforeseen difficulties, and, despite all the efforts, it was on the verge of failure. And then Matrona came to her aid.

Being illiterate and never seeing anything that she was deprived of, she described with detailed accuracy the architectural features of one of the palaces of Florence, suitable for use in the thesis. Contemplating the spiritual masterpiece of the masterpiece of Italian architecture, she managed to convey it as a specialist could. Thanks to the information received from Matrona, the student successfully defended herself, and her project was highly commended by the commission.

Z.Zhdanova also recalls that in their room in Starokonyushenny Lane, where they had a blessed Matrona, there were a lot of icons. They occupied three corners from top to bottom. The lamps were constantly burning before them. Their lodger often prayed or told something from the book "The Life of the Saints", heard in childhood. Matrona Moscow had a beautiful memory.

Once the whole apartment belonged to Zhdanova's father - a wealthy entrepreneur, convicted under Article 58 and serving a sentence at the time. A few years later Zinaida herself was convicted on false charges of creating a church-monarchist group. She was released after Stalin's death, during the mass rehabilitation of the repressed.

Years of War

Back in 1939, Matrona, with her usual foresight, predicted the outbreak of war. She talked about the innumerable suffering that she will bring to people, but with complete conviction declared victory over the enemy and even reported some details of future events. For example, predicted heavy fighting near Moscow, but spoke at the same time about the inaccessibility of the capital.

During the Second World War, Blessed devoted herself to helping people. From the memoirs of contemporaries we know that the day of Matrona Moskovskaya was busy receiving dozens of people who came to her for help and support. At times there were at least forty of them. Most of the questions addressed to her were about the fate of loved ones who went to the front. She encouraged one of them, saying that she was alive, of whom their soul was hurting, others tried to console others if they had to inform the tragic news.

End of earthly ministry

The last place of the earthly haven of St. Matrona was the Moscow subway station Skhodnya, where she settled with one of her relatives. Here, as before, many visitors came to her with an inescapable burden of misery and misfortune. And no one received a refusal of help, healing, or simply in a kind word. Only shortly before his death, Matron was forced to limit their number by weakness. Until very late days, she did not cease to pray and receive communion.

St. Matrona Moscow died on May 2, 1952. They sang it in the church of the Deposition of Deposition, where one of her admirers - the priest Nikolai Golubtsov served. A few days before her death, feeling her approach, Blessed asked not to bring to the grave no wreaths, no artificial flowers. She also talked about her fear of death, the same as with all ordinary people.

Canonicalization and national veneration

Thirty years after the death of the saint, her grave became a place of mass religious pilgrimage. People from all over the country came to her. On the night of March 8, 1998, the saint's relics were transferred to the Danilov Monastery of the capital, and later to the Pokrovsky monastery. The relics of the Matrona of Moscow are in silver cancers and are open to general worship. The days of her memory are: March 8, April 19, August 20 and September 22 (in Tula).

In 1999, the Holy Synod adopted a resolution on its canonization as a revered Moscow saint. But, despite the fact that such a formulation presupposes the veneration of God's servant in a certain place (in this case in Moscow), she became one of the most beloved saints of millions of Russians in all parts of the country. The icons of the blessed Matrona were painted. Orthodox publishers widely sanctified its life path. The book "The Life of Saint Matrona of Moscow" was published in large print. A large group of historians and theologians worked on its creation. Also about her earthly ministry is the publication "The Life of the Saints: Matrona Moskovskaya".

The capital city holds sacredly the memory of this servant of God and the glorious successor of his predecessor, the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who called it the pillar of Russia. To her, and in our day, the flow of believers does not stop. Today the Intercession Monastery of Moscow is the truly female monastery of Matrona Moskovskaya. To this extent, everything in it is connected with her name. It has already been mentioned that it is here that the relics of Matrona Moskovskaya rest. How to get there? Very simple: you need art. Metro "Marxist" (exit to Taganskaya street), and then by any transport - to the Big Andronievskaya.

Prayers to the Blessed Matron

Anyone who wants to resort to her help, asks himself the question: "How to pray to the Matrona of Moscow to hear the prayer, and immediately was sent help?" Priest of the Intercession Women's Monastery, where her relics rest, - Archpriest Maxim Kozlov, - answering this question, said that in this case it is necessary to pray in the same way as when addressing any other saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. There is no difference. You can ask for help where the Matrona of Moscow before your eyes. And where it does not exist. It is important that the prayer of the Matrona of Moscow - from illnesses or for another matter - be filled with faith and proceed from the heart. Requests can be any - about health, about family happiness, about successes in work and financial well-being.

Another question that excites many: "How to write a note to Matrona Moskovskaya?", Because their requests can also be stated in this form. It turns out that next to the cancer, in which the holy relics rest, there is a special basket. All the letters are put in it. Answering the question of how to pray to the Matron of Moscow, the holy fathers always emphasize the need for faith in the fulfillment of the desired. Without faith, scraps are useless.

And it is not so important to know how to write a note to Matrona of Moscow, how much to remember the words of the Savior that everyone is rewarded according to his faith.