Where are the relics of Theodosius of the Caucasus. Venerable Theodosius of Jerusalem (Caucasian). Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mineralnye Vody

There are hundreds of Christian places in Kuban. One of them is located 60 km from Anapa, 19 km from the borders of the city of Krymsk and 16 km from the nearest quarter of Novorossiysk (the territory in question is part of the district of the same name). The holy landmark is located in a settlement called the village of Gorny. The Hermitage of Theodosius of the Caucasus is the name most often given to the object of religious worship of thousands of Russian pilgrims. They left their reviews online.

Where is the shrine of Kuban located?

The temple, spring and hermitage of Theodosius of the Caucasus lie on the very border of the urban district of Novorossiysk and the Crimean region of the Krasnodar Territory, before leaving the village. Mountain.

On the map the deserts are located as follows:

Open map

History of appearance

The church - like everything that is located on the designated patch of the spring's bed - is dedicated to an interesting personality who played an important role in the complex biography of Orthodoxy.

Theodosius, who received the “Caucasian” prenomen from the people, was born in the Perm province. In the world his name was Fedor Kashin. One of the places where this hieromonk served, starting from the First World War, was the Caucasus - in the local forests, in the vicinity of the village of Verkhnebakanskaya, located in the foothills. Much in the life of Theodosius is shrouded in darkness - some claim that he was denied canonization, others say that he lived to be 148 years old, others recall in their memoirs that he realized himself as an individual at the age of three (!) and (led by God) went to Athos.

Only two facts from the life of the popular ascetic in the Caucasus have been reliably confirmed. He really was in the temples of Greek Athos, as well as in Istanbul, Jerusalem and other parts of the Western and Central Caucasus. And Fyodor Fedorovich turned a 14-year-old girl from Verkhnebakanskaya into a nun and founded a temple (this is what we are talking about in this article), “decorating it with gold items taken from Jerusalem.” The locals considered him a Teacher. By the way, the old desert has been destroyed.

Legends

Thanks to local myths, some people believe in the healing that the tract can provide. The source of Theodosius of the Caucasus appeared as a miracle - at the moment when the saint was praying.

Visit to the Hermitage of Theodosius of the Caucasus

The Holy Spring of Theodosius of the Caucasus is something like the closest “Wonder of the World” for the deeply religious residents of Gorny and the village of Verkhnebakanskaya. The path did not “overgrow” here even in the days of the Bolshevik persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The temple of the above-mentioned martyr is built in the middle of a dense beech forest that once grew on the slopes of a low ridge. The long Kudako (Holy) river already flows behind it. From the beginning of the tunnel to the beginning of the Orthodox complex, the walk is only 100 m. After the passage, you move along a forest path. Next you will see:

• Orthodox chapel;
• Church of Theodosius of the Caucasus (remodel made of red brick in the spirit of St. Basil's Cathedral);
• equipped spring well;
• entrances to the dugouts of ascetic hermits;
• a metal cross, in the place of which Theodosius said (before his death in the late 40s of the last century): “I will always be with those who call me...”;
• benches;
• gazebo for 10 people;
• honey trading shop;
• church store;
• candlestick for placing candles: for joy, for help and for peace (on the stone where the hieromonk prayed for 7 days).

Services are held in the premises of the religious building; a rather rich iconostasis is displayed here. The new temple, which occupied the area destroyed by the Bolsheviks, was built only in 2011 and is named after the local icon - “Picturesque Spring”. As a result, many are upset, wanting to see the original. A grand staircase with a balustrade leads to the porch (the building stands on an inclined plane). Most pilgrims come on August 8 - the day of St. Theodosius. People come in search of consolation and recovery, receive a boost of vigor and confidence in their abilities.

How to get there (get there)?

It is more convenient to move to the “holy” stream along the entrance that begins in front of the north-eastern entrance to the village of Gorny, namely where Zheleznodorozhnaya Street ends. You need to go through the tunnel under the railway (there is an icon at the entrance to it).

By car, you can independently get to the Orthodox attraction from here in the following way:

Open map

Contact Information

• Address: Gorny village, Novorossiysk, Krasnodar region, Russia.
• GPS coordinates: 44.873966, 37.748420.

We hope you enjoy participating in an organized excursion (with an experienced guide from the “camp” of local history fans) or an independent trip to a picturesque corner, which is considered by the local population to be a “point of strength and grace.” You just need to take a minibus to the village of Gorny (from the last residential area of ​​Novorossiysk, the path to the tunnel will be 16 minutes), and then walk several kilometers through a dense deciduous forest. They say that water collected from the Feodosiya spring gives everyone strength and health. Photos of the beauties described here are available on our website - make sure of their magnificence. However, travelers complain about crowds of beggars who regularly come to the temple. In conclusion, we offer a video about this Krasnodar shrine.

In 1932, a strange old man appeared in the city of Mineralnye Vody in southern Russia. He was already over ninety years old, and he walked barefoot, dressed in a colored shirt with bright flowers, and under the mocking glances of passers-by, he played with children, responding to Kuzyuk’s nickname. Many knew that this old man had returned from prison; almost everyone thought he was crazy. But few people knew that under the guise of the holy fool was hiding the famous elder Hieroschemamonk Theodosius Kashin, one of the leaders of the Union of the Russian People, the rector of the monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God on Athos, a learned monk who spoke fourteen languages ​​fluently.

With the alms that were given to him, the holy fool bought sweets and distributed them to the children. He fed the birds bread, strictly saying: “Sing, only know God.” He could also pour crumbs for the cats: “Eat, only with prayer.” Looking at this, people just shook their heads: “The old man has lost his mind.”

The year 1941 came, the war began. The Germans approached Minvody. One day Kuzyuka, in his colored shirt, ran up to the kindergarten and shouted: “Gulyu-gulyu, children, run after me, run,” and ran to the side, lifting his legs high. The children ran after him laughing; The teachers ran out to bring them back. A minute later there was an explosion: a German shell hit the kindergarten building. But no one was hurt, the holy fool saved everyone.

Hieroschemamonk Theodosius of the Caucasus, the holy fool for Christ's sake, who died in the city of Mineralnye Vody in 1948, lived one hundred and seven years! He was born on May 3 (16), 1841 on Perm land, in a poor peasant family of the Kashins. The boy was named Fedor. From a young age he was interested in worship, loved to pray and listened with delight to the lives of the saints. Little Fedya went into the forest, where there was a large stone, climbed onto it and prayed, imitating the great saints.

Very early, Fyodor felt a calling to the monastic life. As a boy, he left home and somehow ended up in Greece. There he appeared at the Athonite Monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God and asked to be accepted. The young novice surprised everyone with his seriousness and deep concentration on prayer.

At first, the brethren of the monastery oppressed him greatly. Father Sophrony Sakharov wrote that on Mount Athos the monks are exposed to one strong temptation. “All these people made a sacrifice, the name of which is: “The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). After this sacrifice, not achieving what he was looking for, the monk is subjected to a special temptation - spiritual envy, just like Cain, seeing that the brother’s sacrifice was accepted by God, but his was rejected, out of envy he reached the point of fratricide, and the monks, if they do not kill their brother physically, then often create extremely difficult spiritual conditions for him.”

It must have also been difficult for the monks of the monastery to see how the young novice quickly succeeded in prayer and other spiritual activities. At the age of fourteen, he performed his first miracle - he healed the wife of an important Russian official from the disease of demonic possession. With the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, the young man went to the ship where the sick woman was. Through his prayers, the demon came out of her. Fedor refused the reward.

In 1859, at eighteen years of age, Fedor was tonsured as a monk with the name Theodosius. After some time, the young monk ended up in Constantinople. Five years later he arrived in Jerusalem to help thousands of Russian pilgrims there.

In 1879 he returned to Athos. In 1901, Theodosius assumed the duties of abbot of the monastery. However, he was burdened by the duties of the abbot and six years later returned to Jerusalem, where he accepted the schema, and then returned to Russia.

Father Theodosius settled in the south of Russia in the Krasnodar region. Here he founded a hermitage (small monastery) and built a small church. In the desert there was a farm, goats, an apiary. Many people came to him - he talked to everyone in their native language. Several times he silently walked past standing pilgrims. Then he began to speak, answering each one in turn to the unspoken question: “If you will, you will be in a monastery,” or: “I bless you to get married,” or: “Are you thinking about getting married? Forget it. You live alone, you will die alone.”

At first, under Soviet rule, the small monastery lived quietly. But in 1925, while blessing the water at Epiphany, Father Theodosius suddenly said sadly, looking into the water: “There are so many fish here, but only four will remain.” What this meant became clear a few months later: the elder was arrested, his spiritual children dispersed in all directions, and only four women remained in the hermitage. The details of the elder’s life in prison are unknown.

After prison he returned to Mineralnye Vody. During the war, a woman named Elena worked as a nurse in Minvody. The time came when life became completely unbearable for her: there was nothing to eat, two children, a disabled sister and an elderly mother. The woman had already begun to think about how to save herself and her family from needless torment... And suddenly there was a knock on the window. He opens it and there is a holy fool there. He holds out the candy: “That’s it for now. But you will have bread.” Elena did not sleep all night, and the next day she came to the old man’s house. “What are you thinking, to destroy four people?” Theodosia’s father met the woman. “They would be in heaven, but where would your soul go?” He told her to work and pray. Then he said goodbye and said that now she would always have bread. Soon the elder’s words began to come true. Work was found for Elena, she was given bread, and her family was now always well-fed.

One day, Feodosia’s father ran to the station shouting: “Let’s go to the coal warehouse, quickly, quickly!” It turned out that at that very moment in the warehouse the suicide had already prepared a noose for himself. A few more minutes and it would have been too late.

In the elder’s house, one room was a living room, and the other housed the home church. In his church, Kuzyuk’s grandfather turned into a strict old man. The elder did not impose penance on his spiritual children; he explained how sins differ in severity. “There is sin by nature, and there is sin through nature,” he said. “By nature, it is as if by accident, if you have judged or offended someone. In the evening, read the “Our Father,” “Theotokos,” “I Believe,” and the Lord will forgive. And through nature - this is theft, murder, adultery and other serious sins, they must be confessed to a priest."

In 1948, the priest invited Elder Theodosius to inspect the newly restored Church of the Intercession. It was winter. The old man, who was already one hundred and seven years old, walked, carrying a sleigh behind him. Near the temple he slipped and fell - they took him home on the same sled.

On August 8, 1948, the elder asked to wash his hands with Epiphany water, blessed everyone and quietly went to the Lord. Hundreds of people came to see off Hieroschemamonk Theodosius. The priest was buried on the outskirts of the city of Mineralnye Vody, in the cemetery of the village of Krasny Uzel. Many of those present at the funeral clearly saw the light emanating from the coffin...

The Monk Theodosius, who took upon himself three feats at once - monasticism, eldership and foolishness, was endowed with the great gift of miracles. People remember that one day, through his prayer, during a hot drought, the long-awaited rain came.

Many feats and miracles performed by Father Theodosius are hidden from us. But people still remember one of them well. This happened in the first years of the war. In Mineralnye Vody the hospital was located next to the railway. Once, during a German air raid, they saw Father Theodosius running along the sleepers with a cross in his hand. He ran up to a tank with gasoline standing on the rails, made the sign of the cross on it and leaned down, trying to move the cars from their place. And then the workers were amazed to see that the cars started moving and rolled along the tracks! Feodosia's father rolled them further and further. There was an explosion. A large shell crater appeared on the tracks where the tank stood. It’s hard to even imagine what would have happened if a shell had hit the tank...

After the death of Father Theodosius, people often witnessed such unusual phenomena as the light from the elder’s grave and the subtle fragrance emanating from it. The sick recovered by venerating the elder’s grave, anointing the sore spot with oil from a lamp burning near the relics, and reading an akathist to the saint. People were also healed in the spring of St. Theodosius.

On April 11, 1995, a lithium was served at the grave of Elder Theodosius, after which they began to open the grave. A few hours later the relics of the saint were found - in the bones. On the saint’s head a headdress has been preserved - a monastic kamilavka.

Reliquary with the relics of St. Theodosius of the Caucasus in the Holy Protection Church in the city of Mineralnye Vody

Now the relics of St. Theodosius of the Caucasus are in the Holy Protection Church in the city of Mineralnye Vody. Every day many pilgrims come to the elder. Miracles through prayers to St. Theodosius happen constantly.

***

Prayer to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus:

• Prayer to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus. At the age of eighteen he became a monk on Mount Athos, and after the revolution he took upon himself the cross of foolishness. The “mad” old man Kuzyuk repeatedly demonstrated his foresight, saved many people from imminent death, guided even more people to truth and faith, and healed the sick. People turn to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus for prayer help in illnesses, desperate situations, imprisonment, for admonishing those who want to commit suicide, for the gift of faith and patience, and deliverance from cowardice.

Akathist to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus:

Canon to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus:

• Canon to St. Theodosius of the Caucasus

Hagiographic and scientific-historical literature about St. Theodosius of the Caucasus:

• - Orthodox forum "Brothers and Sisters"

Elder Theodosius was born in Perm on May 16, 1841 into a poor peasant family.
The midwife who delivered Ekaterina Kashina’s child told the child’s father, Fyodor: “He will be a priest—he was born in a monastic kamilavka!” At baptism the boy was given the name Theodore.
Theodore left his father's house early and arrived with pilgrims to the holy Mount Athos. Arriving at the monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Virgin Mary, the boy called himself an orphan and asked:
-Take me to you, I will pray to God and will do everything for you.
The abbot took pity on the “orphan”. Elder Theodosius served in the Holy Land at the Holy Sepulcher for more than a dozen years, and had the opportunity to perform divine services in the language of the people of the nationality who were most numerous in the church (he knew 14 languages ​​perfectly). In 1906, when unrest broke out everywhere in Russia, it was necessary to strengthen the influence of the Holy Church on the masses, and Elder Theodosius returned home.
Hundreds of people, through the prayers of the elder, came along a thorny path to Orthodoxy. Through the prayer offered by Hieroschemamonk Theodosius to the Lord, in the sorrowful pre-war and war years, miracles of healing were performed. For a long time, government officials did not bother the elder. In the hermitage built by the old man, homeless children and lonely old people lived. Extra mouths were not a burden - pilgrims always came with food. In 1925, two weeks before Easter, the elder blessed his spiritual children to bake Easter cakes and paint eggs. On Good Friday the elder consecrated everything and said:
- You will break your fast, but I will not be with you.
At that moment there was a knock. Three military men stood outside the threshold:
- Father, get ready to visit.
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time,” the elder bowed.
According to some reports, the elder ended up in Solovki.
The blessed elder spent six years in exile, and upon returning to Mineralnye Vody he accepted the feat of foolishness. Now he walked around the city dressed in a colorful shirt with bright flowers and frolicked with the guys who called him “Grandfather Kuzyuk.” The children loved the kind old man, who always had lollipops hidden for them.
From the memories of the elder’s spiritual children:
“Once the priest came to the railway worker Peter and said: “Let’s go quickly.” They approach the gate of the warehouse, and there is a young man at the gate. Father says: “What do you want to do with yourself? After all, you have a family, raise your children and pray to God!”
People looked closely, and there was a loop of rope on the gate above their heads. The man was going to the gallows, but the priest felt in his spirit and saved his soul.
Eyewitnesses said that when the Germans approached the city, Elder Theodosius ran up to the kindergarten and shouted: “Guli-guli, children, run after me, run!”
Children and teachers, for fun, ran after the old man. At this time, a shell fell on the kindergarten building. By the grace of God, no one died.
From the memoirs of a railway worker:
“The city hospital was then located next to the railroad tracks. There were three carriages with shells on the rails. Kuzyuk’s grandfather is walking, clutching a cross with one hand, and pushing the cars with the other. I thought: “Well, wonderful grandfather, should he move such a colossus?!”
And suddenly I couldn’t believe my eyes: the carriages moved like toys. A little later, a bomb fell on the place where they had previously stood, causing no harm to the hospital.
From the memoirs of A.P. Donchenko:
– One day, seven women came to Father Theodosius from Rostov. He received six of them, confessed, gave communion, and the seventh said: “Go home, give your husband to your wife, and your father to your children. If you repent before God, if you come, I will accept you.”
Father Theodosius always said: “Read the Jesus Prayer, whether you are walking or sitting, you must withdraw your mind and attention from everything worldly, not have any thought except the prayer words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”
From the memoirs of Nikolai Dmitrievich Zhuchenko:
- Recently, after exile, Father Theodosius lived with his novices in a small hut, it was damp there, the ceilings were low. Father taught to be baptized not only with the cross, but with a mental prayer on the lips. He knew the Gospel by heart. Before his death, the elder often said: “Whoever remembers me, I will always be with him.”
In December 1994, in the Stavropol diocesan administration at the diocesan council, the question of studying the life of Hieroschemamonk Theodosius and the people's veneration of him as a saint of God was raised.
It is significant that the glorification of the Caucasian Wonderworker took place on the day of the celebration of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God. Under the protection of the Heavenly Goalkeeper, Elder Theodosius labored for many years on Athos.

Prayer to St. Theodosius

Oh, reverend and God-bearing Father Theodosius! Look upon us sinners who bring this prayer to you, and beg for us the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother, the Mother of God and the Ever-Virgin Mary, so that we may be freed by healing from various ailments of the flesh and spiritual, and illnesses, and damage, and that we may receive from Lord God, forgiveness of our sins, and acquisition of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Life-Giving, to help us fight against the enemy and guarantee the Kingdom of our Heavenly Father...
Let us bow to the Creator and Lord our God, for Thou art Good and Lover of Mankind, and give glory, and extol His Most Honorable and Magnificent Name, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Source: The ABC of Faith. Orthodox library. Lives of the saints. Orthodox elders of the 20th century

PRAYER TO THE HOLY REVEREND THEODOSIUS OF THE CAUCASUS

Oh, holy servant of God, Rev. Father Theodosius! You, who from your youth loved Christ and followed Him alone, withdrew to the Holy Mount Athos, to the inheritance of the Mother of God, and from there you flowed to the Holy Sepulcher. Remaining there in holy orders for many years, he made fervent prayers for the Russian Land, for the Orthodox Church and for the Russian people. When the hard years of atheism befell Holy Rus', you left Athos and Jerusalem and returned to your Fatherland, sharing the grief and suffering of your people and our holy Church, as a monk and clergyman, even before imprisonment. Your faith, meekness, humility and patience touched the hardened hearts of those who were imprisoned with you.
During the years of war, Father, you helped the Orthodox people overcome the enemy and adversary, and you saved many from despondency, grief and despair who wanted to end their lives. With your help, the faithful were strengthened in their hope that the Lord will not abandon our Fatherland, the Mother of God will preserve Her inheritance, and God’s wrath will be transformed into mercy by Her prayers. Your difficult feat of Christ for the sake of foolishness surprised, father, not only us on earth, but also the inhabitants of heaven who appeared to you. This is what the prayer of a righteous person, aided by strong faith, can do.
You know our needs and sorrows, Reverend Father Theodosius, and you also know our desire to be with Christ. Having walked the narrow and thorny path of earthly existence, you carried a heavy yoke from your brothers, from infidels and fellow tribesmen. Remember us, Elder of God, at the Throne of the Lord, for you promised to help everyone who turns to you. The memory of you in the Caucasian land, father, does not fade to this day: with faith and hope, Orthodox people flock to your resting place, asking for your intercession and help.
We ask you, Reverend Father Theodosius: help us in difficult times of life, in moments of sorrow and suffering, beg the Chief of the World of the Lord, may he soften the evil and hardened hearts of men, and pacify the peoples of the Caucasus. May the wicked councils of schismatics and heretics, rising up against the Russian Holy Church, be destroyed.
Through your prayers, Holy Saint of God, may the Lord forgive us all our sins, may the arrows of the enemy and the machinations of the devil pass us by. Ask the Creator and Provider of our Lord for time for repentance, deliverance from harm, health for the sick, restoration for the fallen, consolation for the sorrowing, education for children in the fear of God, good preparation for those departing for eternity, rest and inheritance for those who have departed.
Be, Father Theodosius, the patron and helper of all the faithful of the Caucasian land. May Holy Orthodoxy be strengthened and multiplied there and throughout Great Rus'. We, strengthened by your holy prayers, will glorify the Life-Giving Trinity and your name, sanctified by God, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

***
Stay of St. Theodosius of the Caucasus in the Romanovsky farm

On July 6, 1912, a copy of the Athonite document on the priesthood and clergy was certified by the notary I. I. Prostoserdov, who lived in the Romanovsky farmstead of the Kuban region. He testified that Father Theodosius from the Iveron Athos Monastery temporarily resides at the Kavkazskaya station.
The Romanovsky farm is also a significant place. In 1778, the southern border of the Russian Empire passed here. To protect it, redoubts were built in the Kuban, the Romanovsky farm is one of them. The “Stavropol Way” ran through it, connecting Ekaterinodar with the capital of the Caucasian governorship, Stavropol. The importance of the point prompted the construction of a railway station here.
In 1921, the Romanovsky farm was renamed the town of Kropotkin.
The Kavkazskaya station (between Rostov and Armavir) was put into operation in 1874. The new railway junction attracted newcomers, and a station village of workers, employees, and traders arose. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the station was the center of local postal traffic. As we see, Fr. Theodosius again stopped at the junction station, through which large streams of people passed.
Three versts from the Kavkazskaya station in the area of ​​Obvaly was located the Caucasian Nicholas Missionary Monastery. About a hundred inhabitants lived here, who carried out active educational work in the Kuban region. The Ekaterino-Lebyazhskaya hermitage, founded in 1794 by the personal order of Catherine I, and two farmsteads were assigned to the monastery: Armavir and on the Romanovsky farm. Father Theodosius could live here.
The Alexander-Athos Zelenchuk hermitage, where they served according to the charter of Mount Athos, also had the Pokrovsky monastery assigned to it near the Gulkevichi station (not far from the Kavkazskaya station). Fr. could also have been here. Feodosius.

Hieroschemamonk Theodosius (in the world Kashin Fedor Fedorovich) was born on May 3/16, 1841 in the Perm province, into a poor peasant family. His parents, Fyodor and Ekaterina, were kind people, professed the Orthodox Christian faith and lived piously. They taught their children the same thing. At Fyodor's birth, the midwife received him in his shirt. At the same time, she told her parents: “There will be a great priest, he was born in a monastic kamilavochka.”

The Lord from his mother’s womb chose him as his servant and granted him special grace-filled gifts, so that at a very young age, barely learning to walk and talk, he loved his Creator with all his pure childish soul and, being an infant in years, his mind far exceeded his age.

The fertile region, adorned with forests and rivers, had a beneficial effect on the boy’s soul. Having reached the age of two, Fyodor was inflamed with a fiery love for God and expressed his love in a child’s prayer, which he absorbed with his mother’s milk.

Already in infancy, as an adult, he went into the forest to pray. If he happened to be alone at home, with the doors closed, he adapted to opening the door by placing a stool on a bench standing along the wall and the end resting on the corner near which the door was: standing on the stool, he took out the latch and opened the door. Thus, at night, when everyone fell asleep, tired from the day's worries, the young man of prayer opened the door and went out into the forest, on the edge of which stood the Kashins' hut, to say a prayer to his beloved God. In the forest there was a large stone on which little Fyodor prayed fervently for a long time, like a child. One day during prayer a voice came to him: “The stone on which you are praying is Raev.” That’s what he called it: “Heaven’s Stone.”

The family in which Fyodor grew up was large, and everyone usually gathered together during lunch: then the small hut could barely accommodate all the residents. One day, when everyone had gathered for dinner and sat down at the table, a dove flew from the Holy Corner, straight from the icons. After circling, he sat on Fyodor’s hand, he stroked him lovingly, and his mother said: “Let go of the pigeon, stop playing with it, you need to eat.” Fyodor lifted the dove in his hand as far as he could, the dove rose from the child’s hand and disappeared behind the icons. Everyone was very surprised and delighted at such a wonderful guest, and many years later the mother realized what a wonderful visit it was.

The father and the older children worked in the yard or in the field, and the mother, having managed things in the kitchen, sat down at the spinning wheel. During this activity, she always sang psalms and prayers in her melodious, pleasant voice, and Fyodor, perched at his mother’s feet, loved to listen to them and, without leaving her, memorized the words. As a child, everyone called him Father, remembering the words of the midwife. So he grew up in his family as a quiet, calm man of prayer, strengthening himself in spirit and body.

After the age of three he happened to go to the river bank; there he saw a barge onto which cargo was being carried and passengers were boarding. Fyodor also entered the deck with them; no one paid attention to him. Like an adult, not bothering anyone, he sat silently, absorbed in himself. Only two days later, when the barge was far from home, they paid attention to him and began to ask where his parents were. He replied that he had no parents. Then they asked him: “Where are you going?” “To Athos, to the holy monastery,” he answered. Everyone was surprised by his answer: baby, he gives such a smart answer. It turned out that among the passengers were pilgrims heading to holy places, and since the boy was so quiet and humble, no one could push him away; So he, along with the pilgrims, came to Athos as an orphan.

On Mount Athos, pilgrims approached the gate of the “Position of the Belt of Our Lady.” There was a gatekeeper at the gate. The boy fell at his feet, bowed and asked to call the abbot. We cannot understand the Providence of God, we cannot understand who taught the child such behavior - everything is in the hands of God. The gatekeeper came to the abbot and said: “Some little wonderful child asks to call the abbot.” The abbot was surprised and approached the gate: there were several men standing there and with them a boy, who bowed to the abbot and said: “Take me to you, I will pray to God and do everything for you.” The abbot turned to the men asking whose boy this was; it turned out that no one, alone; They told the abbot that he was traveling by boat to the monastery as an orphan. The abbot was even more surprised and, seeing the Providence of God with his spiritual eyes, accepted him into the monastery and gave him a place to live. There the boy grew up, learned to read and write and was obedient. Life in the monastery was harsh, but the boy endured all hardships with love and humility.

When Fedor was 14 years old, Athos was visited by a Russian general. He brought his sick wife, possessed by an unclean spirit, to receive healing, since the sick woman was told in a dream that she would receive healing on Athos. A woman is prohibited from entering Athos, and she was on the ship, and the general went to the monastery to the abbot, told him everything and asked him for help, saying that in a dream the wife saw a young monk who should heal her.

The abbot ordered all the brethren, except Fedor, to go on the ship. But among them the woman did not find the one who was shown to her in the vision: she explained that she saw a very young monk. The abbot ordered to call Fyodor, and when he approached, the woman saw him and shouted in a bull’s voice: “This one will drive me out.” Everyone was very surprised, since they considered him the last among the brethren. The abbot asked him: “Who do you pray to, that your prayer is so strong?” - "To God's Little Golden Mother." The abbot ordered Fyodor to take the icon of the Mother of God, pour some water on it and bring him this water. “Father, let me fast for three days,” Fyodor asked. The abbot blessed him for a three-day fast, and after it, Fyodor took the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, poured some water on it, prayed fervently, and with the abbot brought this water to the ship to the sick woman. As soon as the woman saw them going to the steamer with water, she began to shout loudly: “Where are you driving me?” They served a prayer service over the sick woman, sprinkled her with some water, gave her something to drink, and she was healed. The general, in gratitude for healing his wife, gave Fedor a large sum of money, but he did not take it, but said: “Give this to the abbot, to the holy monastery, and I am a great sinner, unworthy of such a reward, for he himself is the Healer of our souls and bodies through his Most Pure Mother helped the patient get rid of her illness, thank them.” This was the first miracle created by the novice Fedor.

Fyodor had to take monastic vows, and it was revealed to the abbot that Fyodor had parents and he must take their blessing. The abbot called Fedor and told him everything that was revealed to him in the vision and, blessing him, sent him to his parents. And Fedor went to distant Perm in search of his parents.

Having found the place where, according to the abbot’s vision, his parents should live, and having asked the local residents, he finally approached his home and, with awe and excitement in his chest, like a wanderer, asked to spend the night.

His mother met him and, in response to his request for an overnight stay, let him into the house; she herself sat down on a bench by the window, where she always invariably spun yarn, and began to ask where he was from and what business he was on. Having mastered his excitement, Fyodor briefly spoke about himself and, in turn, began to ask her about their lives, who was doing what, who was alive, who had gone to the Lord. The mother called everyone, talked about everyone, and then with tears began to tell how their young child had disappeared in the forest and that she was sad and did not know how to remember him. Many years have passed, but the mother’s heart does not want to calm down and there is no end to the grief, if, they say, she knew that he died, she would have buried her as it should, then she would not have indulged in such sadness.

Fyodor asked with sympathy about the boy and asked what signs he had. His mother, in tears at these memories, said that he had a large mole behind his right ear. Then Fyodor, unable to withstand the surge of excitement, brushed aside a lock of hair on the right side with his hand and showed a large mole behind his right ear. The mother, seeing the mole and peering into his face, fell to the chest of her found son with tears of joy and excitement, and it seemed that there would be no end to her joy. Who can convey maternal sadness and joy!

The parents blessed Fedor with the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, and he, joyful and happy, with the blessing of his parents, left again for Athos to his monastery. The year 1859 came, and at the age of 18, Fedor, upon arrival at the monastery, was tonsured a monk with the name Theodosius. The same name was borne by the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk, whose memory is celebrated on his birthday. After a short time, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and then a hieromonk.

Later, Hieromonk Theodosius went to Jerusalem. Arriving in the Holy Land, he walked around the holy places and bowed to all the shrines. Having walked around the Holy Land, Theodosius came to Jerusalem and remained to serve at the Holy Sepulcher. By that time, the Lord had given him the gift of speaking 14 languages.

After the service at the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Fr. Theodosius in 1879, Father Theodosius went to Athos - the place where his spiritual life began, his childhood and taking monastic vows. Returning after such a long absence to the monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God, he, by revelation from above, remained to serve there in obedience to the abbot of Ioannikiy until 1901, and from 1901, after the death of Father Ioannikiy, he, by succession, became the abbot of the monastery . Father Theodosius was burdened by his new responsibilities, for he had to work hard to manage the monastery, and he was drawn to living prayer to God, and in 1907, at the strong request, he was relieved of his position as abbot and went to Jerusalem, where he accepted the schema.

In 1908, by the Providence of God, a retired general came to Jerusalem from Russia, from the village of Platnirovskaya, and, meeting with Father Theodosius, urgently asked him to come to Russia. After some trouble, he received permission for Father Theodosius to leave for Russia. Hieroschemamonk Theodosius returns to Russia and settles in the village of Platnirovskaya, where he lived for more than a year. The rumor about the extraordinary old man instantly spread among the surrounding residents. Pilgrims began to flock to him. People saw in him a true servant of God and a prayer book to God about human needs. Possessing the gift of spiritual insight, he healed many from illnesses, and healed others with words. He treated everyone sensitively and with participation, guiding them on the path of salvation.

By the revelation of God, Father Theodosius moved from the village of Platnirovskaya to the desert 27 km from the city of Krymsk, not far from the present village of Gorny. There, in a gorge on a large stone, he prayed, without leaving it, for 7 days and nights, so that the Lord would show him where to build a church. The Mother of God appeared to him and indicated the place where there should be a temple and a prosphora. In this place there was green periwinkle, and to this day those two places are covered with periwinkle, and it is nowhere else in the gorge.

On the slope of two mountain hills, in a small clearing, in the place indicated by the Mother of God, Father Theodosius, with the help of nearby peasants, built a small church and a prosphora, as well as cells in the form of kurens made of poles and straw.

Those who were thirsty and seeking a way to salvation, seeking instruction and consolation in the word of God, flocked to the source of living water emanating from the mouth of the pious elder Theodosius. He received up to five hundred people a day. Here, through the prayers of Fr. Theodosius gushed out a celibate spring from under the ground.

In 1925, two weeks before Easter, Father ordered mothers Talida and Elena to bake Easter and paint eggs. They were very surprised: such a fast and another twelve days before the holiday - and suddenly the Easter oven, but they fulfilled their obedience, and everything was saved until Good Friday, and on Good Friday Father served mass, blessed Easter and eggs and said: “You will break your fast, and I won’t be with you, then you go to Minvody and live there.”

As soon as he did this and said this, three military men came and said: “Father, get ready, we have come to take you for a visit.” “And I’m already waiting for you,” answered Father.

He asked Mother Fiona for a basin of warm water, washed the mothers’ feet, fed them, served them himself, then went to his cell, prayed, took a cross, crossed all four sides of the cell, blessed everyone who was there from those who came and lived in the desert. Everyone was crying, and he said: “Why are you crying, you need to pray, the Lord has suffered these days, pray.” He blessed everyone again and told the military: “I’m ready.” He was taken to Novorossiysk, where he stayed for a month. A month later, he was sent into exile in Solovki. The stage passed through Krasnodar, where he also stayed for a month, another month in Rostov, and then he was sent, without delay, to his destination.

Father Theodosius spent 6 years in exile. In 1931 he was released and he came to Minvody. Here the priest bought himself a hut and accepted the feat of foolishness: he walked the streets dressed in a colored shirt (at that time it was considered funny), played with the children and the children called him “Grandfather Kuzyuk.” In Mineralnye Vody, he continued to spiritually instruct and save people - Father Theodosius belonged to the Catacomb Church - he served secretly, performed religious services, and tonsured him into monasticism.

A few yards away from Father, on Ozernaya Street, there lived a woman. She served a prison sentence for several years, and her daughter was in an orphanage. Returning from prison, she took her daughter, but she had nothing to live with, and a few yards away there were military men in the apartment, and so she planned to take her daughter there so that she could earn her living through fornication.

Late in the evening, this woman was taking water from the well and saw that Father Theodosius threw something at her door, some kind of bundle. She came up, took the bundle, and there was a lot of money, some thirty. She thought that the old man had lost his mind (he was a fool), confused his yard with hers and mistakenly threw the money away, as if he hid it - he’s a holy fool, and he looks like that, he doesn’t know, due to his lack of understanding, where to throw it money. In the morning she went to him with this bundle and said: “Grandfather, yesterday you brought me a bundle of money by mistake, here you go.” “When the devil puts bad thoughts into the mind, the Lord speaks to my uncle (as he always spoke about himself) and sends him to that house to ward off evil and the destruction of the soul,” Father answered her. She did not understand that he was talking about himself, and said to him: “I didn’t see any uncle, but you, grandfather, I saw how you threw this bundle into my entryway.” “Take this money, the Lord has sent you help so that you don’t plunge your daughter into evil,” Father told her. Then the woman realized that he knew her thoughts, fell to her knees and with tears thanked God and His mercy, hugged Father’s feet and washed them with tears. He raised her and said: “Thank the Lord and His Most Pure Mother for Their endless mercy towards us sinners, pray to God and raise your daughter in piety.” This woman’s daughter really grew up pious and humble, married a good man, and they had three children, whom she raised to be honest, respectable people. Only the Lord knows where Father got such a large sum of money, because he was a fool, he lived poorly, had nothing, sometimes he didn’t have a piece of bread for a whole day, and then suddenly such wealth, and he didn’t leave a single piece of paper for himself.

One night Father came to the railway worker Peter and said: “Let’s quickly go to the coal warehouse.” Their daughter Lyuba got up and followed Father, remembered on the way and said: “I didn’t take the coal book.” “Today it’s not needed, go faster,” Father answered. They approach the gate of the warehouse, and a young man stands at the gate. The priest says to him: “What do you want to do with yourself, have you thought about where your soul will go! Raise your children and pray to God. After all, you have a wife and two children, and you are about to give your soul to the devil.” Lyuba looked around and saw: above his head on the gate there was a rope loop. The man was going to hang himself, and Father saved his soul by not giving the devil his prey. The Lord did not allow destruction, but awaits repentance.

A year before the war, God’s servant Alexandra came to Father Theodosius, and he said to her: “There will be a war as terrible as the Last Judgment: people will die, they have departed from the Lord, they have forgotten God, and the wind of war will blow them away like ashes, and no sign will remain, but whoever calls on God, the Lord will save him from disaster.”

During the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Father Theodosius showed himself to be one of the most zealous prayer books for the victory of Russia, serving a memorial service for the fallen soldiers, especially since the Lord even revealed to him the names of some of them. Using his position as a holy fool, he boldly preached, edifying people, and, again, performed miracles of extraordinary power.

When the Germans approached Minvody, there was such a case. Father Theodosius quickly runs up to the kindergarten and says to the children: “I’m walking, I’m walking... kids, run after me, run.” For fun, the children ran after their grandfather, and the teachers ran after the children. At this time, a shell hit the kindergarten building and destroyed it, but no one died, everyone went after grandfather, and he saved them.

The city hospital was located next to the railroad tracks, and three wagons with shells stood on the tracks. The switchman looks on, and Kuzyuk’s grandfather runs quickly, holding a cross in one hand, and with the other he is trying to push the cars out of place. The switchman thinks: “Well, my grandfather is wonderful, can he move such a force?” As soon as he thought so, he looked, and he couldn’t believe his eyes: the carriages slowly moved and rolled away from the place where they stood, and immediately a bomb fell into this place, without causing much harm to either the hospital or the people working nearby.

Many such cases are preserved in people's memory. Some of the testimonies are written down, others are passed down orally.

In the last years of his life, Father Theodosius lived with his novices in a small hut. It was damp there, the ceilings were low. Father lay almost all the time, and got up using a rope tied above the bed. He was silent almost all the time. He taught his spiritual children: “If you say no more than seven words a day, you will be saved.” He taught to be baptized not only with one cross, but with mental prayer. He said before his death: “Whoever calls me, I will always be with him...”

He knew the Gospel by heart. Sometimes, without any books, he read aloud without interruption, the lamp and candles in his room did not go out for days... He advised his children to read “The Revelation of John the Theologian” more often: “Then you will have the fear of God.”

One day Antonina approached Father Theodosius, and he said to her: “I prayed to God: “Take me, God, how long should I live?” And God said: “Live a little more, you have a million spiritual children, you love them all and all creation.” You’re sorry.” So, I’ll live a little longer.”

Schemamonk Theodosius never recognized the Soviet Sergian Church and never went to it... But one day those “priests” whom he did not recognize as such began to vigorously invite him to at least come to the temple to see that everything was “as before” with them. . And the elder set off, carrying the sleigh behind him. It was winter. He had a hard time getting there. And already at the temple itself he slipped, fell and was badly broken. He was taken home bloodied. So the Lord showed with this righteous man that it is not even possible to enter the temple of those who recognize Soviet power as the authority “from God.”

Father Feodosius died at the age of 148 on August 8, 1948. When he departed to the Lord, bells rang in the holy corner, as on Easter. The burial ceremony was performed by an unknown catacomb priest.

Before being taken to the cemetery, people asked to take a photograph of the priest, but they could not do this, because such a radiance emanated from the coffin that it was impossible to take a photograph. Then the photographer said: “Who was this man? Such a glow around him!”

When they took out the coffin and carried it to the outskirts of the city, four young men, so handsome, with long hair, in white shirts, black trousers and light boots, approached the coffin, picked up the coffin in their arms and carried it all the way to the cemetery. When the coffin was lowered into the grave, they fell asleep, they got ready to leave the cemetery and go to the memorial, they wanted to invite those young men, but they were not among those present and no one saw where they had gone. So no one knows who it was.

And after his death, Father Theodosius did not leave his spiritual children. Countless miracles have been performed at his grave to this day.

What other miracles will the elder of Jerusalem show us? How many will he heal, how many will he lead to faith, how many will he help? May the Lord save us through His prayers!

Drawn from the depths through the prayers of St. Theodosius, the holy spring is lined with limestone. Nearby there is a small chapel crowned with icons. Every week on Tuesdays and Fridays, Hieromonk Zosima serves a prayer service to St. Theodosius in the chapel. From the village of Nizhnebakanskaya, the priest brings with him an icon of the elder painted in Krasnodar with a particle of his relics. In front of this icon, the whole world sings an akathist to Father Theodosius. On the day of remembrance of St. Theodosius, August 8, 1997, His Eminence Isidore, Archbishop of Krasnodar and Kuban, consecrated the site of the hermitage and blessed the establishment of a monastic monastery here.

The local celebration of the memory of this saint was established by Metropolitan Gideon on the day of his Dormition on August 8 (July 26, old style).

Since 1998, the relics of Fr. Theodosius rests in the Intercession Cathedral in the city of Minvody, and thousands of pilgrims flock here every year to venerate these holy relics.

The Life and Miracles of St. Theodosius of the Caucasus

The future monk was born into a poor peasant family in the Perm province. The year of his birth is controversial - either 1800 or 1841 (May 16, New Art.). The saint's parents, Fyodor and Ekaterina Kashin, named the boy Theodore. According to legend, the midwife predicted the fate of the great priest for the newborn when she saw him in the “monastic kamilavka.” And indeed, from childhood, Fedya fell in love with prayer. While still a little boy, he retired to the forest, where he spent time alone with God, praying on a large stone. There was even a voice to him: “The stone on which you pray is called Raev.” There was another incident indicating that the boy was marked by God. One day a dove flew out of the red corner, sat on his hand, and then, taking flight and circling, disappeared behind the icons.

Tradition says that while still very young, Fedya left home and reached Athos with pilgrims. There, at the gates of the monastery of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God, he asked to enter: “Take me to you, I will pray to God and will do everything for you.” The boy was allowed in, and the abbot even took him into his cell attendants. His path was thorny. At the age of fourteen, the boy healed the general’s wife, who was possessed by a demon. When asked who he prayed to, Fyodor answered: “To God’s Golden Mother.” To fulfill his military duty, the abbot sent him to his homeland. But Fyodor was declared unfit for military service and he returned to the monastery. And in 1859, the young novice was tonsured a monk with the name Theodosius.

He served for five years in Constantinople (Constantinople) in the Athos courtyard, called the “Russian Hospice House of the Position of the Belt of the Mother of God.” Then, according to legend, the saint served in Jerusalem. In 1879 - return to Athos. In 1901, after the death of Abbot Ioannikis, Theodosius became the head of the monastery. However, soon relinquishing his duties as abbot, he returned to Jerusalem, where he accepted the schema with the same name. From there, together with his spiritual daughter, nun Tatiana, the elder returned to Russia, bringing with him precious relics.

Father Theodosius settled down 27 kilometers from the village of Krymskaya, where the village of Gorny is now located, built a small church, surrounded by cells, started a farm - goats, an apiary. From the depths of the earth, in a previously dry place, a spring began to flow. The novices flocked to the hermitage, among whom were many children, in particular Lyuba and two Annas. One Anna’s parents refused to let her go to the elder. O. Theodosius gave her mother an egg: “Petka is on you, he will sing how Peter denied the Lord.” A pugnacious cockerel hatched from the egg. And indeed, Anna married Peter, a fighter and a drunkard, and gave birth to two cripples from him.

The perspicacious old man foresaw his arrest. “You will break your fast, but I will not be with you. Go to Minvody, live there,” he said. In 1927, at Epiphany, many wonderful fish appeared in the water, of which Father Theodosius said that only four would remain. (After his arrest, only four novices remained in the hermitage). The elder washed the feet of those who came to arrest him and fed them. He was sent into exile, where Lyuba followed him. Other novices, M. Tabitha and M. Natalia, moved to Minvody, where they bought a small house. Fr. also returned there after exile. Feodosius. There he lived until his death, and there he also received people who came to him. He gave communion, healed, gave advice, tonsured some as monks. Visitors brought gifts, but the monk did not take from everyone. "Have you come to God?" - the elder asked those who came to him.

Once he saved a man from suicide whose wife had left him. The wife has returned. Vassya, the wife of the Rostov commandant, healed a severed finger. And Donchenko (in schema - Angelina) and his daughter Larisa fed his admirer Antonina Porfiryevna an extraordinary pilaf. “But what a wonderful miracle, we take and take with spoons, but the food does not decrease,” she recalled. During one of her visits, Antonina could not concentrate on the words of the elder. Then he took the cross and began to walk around the room, crossing every corner. He drove out the demon, then she immediately understood what the monk was talking about: what gardens in the sky, rivers of milk, rivers of honey, what large fruits, what fragrant flowers shake their heads without wind, and angels fly and cling to flowers with their legs.

O. Theodosius cured Antonina’s sister, Yulia, from tuberculosis, predicting her a bitter life in marriage. He even wanted to give Paraskeva, their mother, tonsure, but she did not have time to arrive and froze in the forest.

The elder tonsured many of them secretly. He tonsured Gregory, the military commissar of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, together with his family, having previously married his wife and baptized their daughter Zoya. They lived quietly, adhering to the monastic rule of the family community. Monk Mikhail - this name he received when he was tonsured as a military commissar - was an example of Christian virtue in the world. Sixteen-year-old Fedya, the future Bishop Lazar, was tonsured into the monastic rank by the saint, saying: “Perhaps I’ll give you wings, Fedya.” Nun Mariamne (in the world - Maria) was also tonsured by Father Theodosius. The Lord gave her the understanding of Slavic literacy. The monk gave the ailing Vera Afanasyevna Moza a name in honor of the Great Martyr Barbara and often said that when she died, he would leave his flock to her. She departed to the Lord in 1961 and was buried not far from the elder’s grave.

It is known as Fr. Theodosius saved children during the war. Running into the school, Grandfather Kuzyuk (as the reverend was also called) joked and led the children away with him, and then a bomb fell on the site of the school. Or else - the carriage is standing on the rails, and the old man is pushing it, saying: “Lord, bless.” A patrol approached: “What are you doing, grandfather?” - “So God commanded.” Father Theodosius left, and after some time a bomb hit the place where the carriage stood, and there were shells in the carriage. If a bomb had hit the carriage, there would have been nothing left of the city. The elder predicted the coming famine to Antonina Porfiryevna, and told those who lost their relatives during the war whether they were alive.

He allegorically called himself “my uncle” (for the last seventeen years of his life he carried out the feat of foolishness): “When my children stand, my uncle rests. And when my children fall, my uncle prays for them day and night.”

“We, the children, were told: don’t call him father, he is Grandfather,” recalled Alexandra, a novice of Father Theodosius. The monk once asked Mary, one of his admirers: “How old do you think I am?” - “Only God knows, I don’t know.” - “I tell you truly and truthfully, the Lord is my witness, I am a thousand years old.” Then he says again: “How old do you think I am?” - “God knows, I don’t know.” - “I speak truly and truthfully, the Lord is my witness, I am six hundred years old.” After hesitating a little, he asks for the third time: “What do you think, Maria, how old am I?” - “Only God knows, I don’t know.” - “Truly, I speak truthfully, the Lord is my witness, I am four hundred years old.” He received the Holy Mysteries of Christ from Father Eugene, also an Athonite monk, at the Kavkazskaya station.

One winter, in the last year of his life, Elder Theodosius fell and was seriously hurt. They took him home on a sled.

The saint also foresaw his own death. Three days before his death, he said: “In three days the end of the world.” And again: “When the owner leaves, all the animals will cry: both the cow and the chicken.” And so it came true - the cow roared, the chickens clucked, the cat meowed pitifully. One woman, shortly before his death, saw a cloud, and in it the Lord was holding the soul of the saint. “I was already dead, but I begged God to let me live a little longer,” the elder admitted.

In the summer of 1948 he died. They were buried without music, knowing that Grandfather did not like it. There was such a glow coming from the coffin that it was difficult for the photographer to take pictures. When the coffin was carried to the outskirts of the city, four handsome young men approached, with shoulder-length hair, wearing long white shirts, black trousers and light boots. They picked up the coffin and carried it without interruption all the way to the cemetery. When they began to call for the funeral meal, it turned out that the young men had disappeared.

Elder Theodosius often said to his spiritual children: “Whoever calls me, I will always be by his side.”