Fundamentals of the art of holiness. Volume I. Ministry of Bishop Barnabas in the Caves Monastery

Date of Birth: February 11, 1965 A country: Russia Biography:

Born February 11, 1965 in Kaluga in a family of teachers. In 1968 the family moved to Zhizdra, Kaluga region.

In 1982 he graduated from secondary school No. 1 in Zhizdra, and in 1983 he graduated from vocational school in Zhizdra. In 1983-1985. served in the Armed Forces.

In 1985-1991 studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of the Gorky State Pedagogical Institute. In 1991-1992 taught at the Nizhny Novgorod Technical Gymnasium.

In 1985-1995 was married. He was baptized in 1990 in the Holy Intercession Church in Zhizdra.

In 1992 he was invited to work in the Orthodox Brotherhood. St. blgv. book. Alexander Nevsky. He worked as a driver, a garage manager, sang and read in the kliros.

On April 24, 1999, on the day of the consecration of the Mariinsky chapel of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod, Metropolitan Nikolai of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas was ordained a deacon.

On June 1, 1999, in the Resurrection Church in Arzamas, His Grace Hierotheos, vicar, was ordained a presbyter.

From July 20, 1999 to November 28, 2004 he served in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod.

In 2004 he graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary.

November 28, 2004 sent to obedience in. On July 15, 2005, he was tonsured a monk with the name Barnabas.

On September 1, 2005, he was appointed acting. Viceroy of the Dormition Monastery Florishchev Hermitage pos. Florishchi, Volodarsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region.

By the Decree of the Holy Synod of December 27, 2005 () he was appointed governor of the Assumption Florishcheva Hermitage.

From August 17, 2006 to December 26, 2006 - Abbot of the Dormition Monastery of the Sarov Hermitage. From February 15, 2007 - Viceroy of the Uspenskaya Florishcheva Hermitage.

Bishop March 29, 2012 April 22 at the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The services were led by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus'.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of October 4, 2012 () he was approved as rector (priestly archimandrite) of the Assumption Florishcheva Hermitage.

Education:

1991 - Gorky State Pedagogical Institute.

2004 - Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary.

Diocese: Diocese of Vyksa (Ruling Bishop) Scientific works, publications: Archimandrite Varnava (Baranov) when he was named Bishop of Vyksa and Pavlovsk. Nizhny Novgorod diocese

In the world Belyaev Nikolai Nikanorovich, was born on May 12 in the village. Ramenskoye Bronnitsky st. Moscow province. in the family of a weaving factory locksmith. Religious education is obliged to the mother - the daughter of the deacon of the churchyard Dorka Zagornovskaya vol. Bronnitsky U., in childhood and adolescence he loved to read books of spiritual content, especially the lives of the saints.

In early August of the same year he was appointed Bishop of Pechersk, Vicar of the same diocese.

“Not having sufficient spiritual experience at that time, Bishop Barnabas was poorly oriented in reality, judged it in many respects speculatively, guided by a momentary mood, not verified by worldly experience. This spiritual immaturity was, on the one hand, the cause of Bishop Barnabas’s confusion before Renovationists, caused by the inability to distinguish obedience from unscrupulousness, on the other hand, left a seal on the bishop's work. Subsequently, Bishop Barnabas intended to correct the text of the book, but this plan remained unfulfilled ".

Compositions

St. Barsanuphius the Great. His life and teachings. Candidate essay, 1915;
From seen and heard // Choice. M., 1990. No. 8;
Life of St. Gregory of Acragast. Simferopol, 1992;
Along the Volga... to the Kingdom of Heaven // The gift of apprenticeship. M., 1993. S. 25-137;
One night // Ibid. pp. 235-385;
Orthodoxy / Holy Trinity Novo-Golutvin Monastery. [Kolomna], 1995;
Fundamentals of the art of holiness: the experience of presenting the Orthodox. ascetics. N. Novg., 1995-1998. 4 tons;
The experience of Orthodox asceticism / Foreword. K. E. Skurata, priest. S. Yavitsa // BT. 1996. Sat. 32. S. 24-119;
On a thorny path to heaven: About... the life of an old man... schiarchim. O. Gabriel. M., 1996;
Rev. Synclitikia of Alexandria, or Lesser Asceticism. N. Novg., 1997.
"Uncle Kolya is against ..." Notebooks of Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev) 1950-1960 / Comp. enter. essay, commentary P.G. Protsenko. - Nizhny Novgorod: Publishing House "Christian Library", 2010. 864 p., ill. pp. 739-740.

Literature

CA FSB RF. D. R-2718; Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Novosibirsk region F. 34. D. 15142.
Damascus. Book. 1. S. 47-85;
Protsenko P. G. Biography of Bishop. Barnabas (Belyaeva): To Heavenly Jerusalem: The Story of an Escape. N. Novg., 1999;
Kirlezhev A. The second truth // RM. P., 2000. No. 4342, November 23.

Used materials

Igum. Damascus (Orlovsky). "Barnabas (Belyaev)" // Orthodox Encyclopedia, vol. 6, p. 649-650

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Immersion in pastoral work. "Feeding"

March 1921-1922 Nizhny Novgorod

Ep. Barnabas in the Caves Monastery.

Church Youth Club.

Acquaintance of Vera Lovzanska with Bishop Barnabas.

Young people who came to Vladyka for spiritual help.

Diveevskaya Blessed Maria Ivanovna.

The beginning of the records of the "chronicle" of Russian life.

The state of mind of "little" people.

Fire in Pechersk Sloboda. Divorce proceedings

In March 1921, Bishop Varnava, inspired by the blessing he had received, returned to the cathedra, to the Caves Monastery, to his flock. However, at the same time under the command of Archbishop Evdokim.

Outwardly, everything went on as before, Vladyka lived in the Caves Monastery, at the gatehouse church of St. Euphemia of Suzdal, on the second floor; his cell-attendants, nuns Matryosha and Sasha, who were placed downstairs, helped him with the housework. The monastery, which stood on the banks of the Volga, not far from the picturesque Pechersk Sloboda, in which "small proprietors" lived, a pious and stable people, was in ruins, there were a handful of monks. The bishop, tall and thin, prayed a lot and ate little, the cell attendants told the "girls" (spiritual children),

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that his food was cooked in microscopic pots (slightly larger than a child's saucepan). He served a lot and earnestly.

“When he entered the temple and put on a mantle and went to venerate the icons, the monks sang “Worthy”. He walked slowly, dragging his feet somewhat from weakness. On Sunday evenings, the Paraklisis of the Mother of God always served in the Assumption Cathedral (in Pechery). (Opposite the icon of the Mother of God of the Caves, there was a small pulpit, on which he climbed. A large pulpit stood in the middle of the temple.) At this service, which was sung by all the worshipers, their spiritual children gathered; only here he delivered great sermons. (At the liturgy, for the whole people, he spoke briefly.) At every divine service, morning and evening, and during the preparatory weeks of Great Lent, he gave a sermon, usually not long, in which he spoke about one or another spiritual rule that helps to live.

He explained, for example, what a correct confession is: “This is the second day you hear the canon of Andrew of Crete, in which sins are called by their proper names, as they are in life, not masked by anything. The whole work consists in that, that it is not enough to name a sin in confession by name, but it is necessary ... to describe its whole essence. There are enough good examples for us in the Bible, where sins are directly called by their proper names... So I appeal to you with an admonition, whoever wants to be saved and is looking for salvation, listen carefully to what confession is. What do we usually think of as confession? He came to the priest for three to five minutes, named a few sins and was clean. Sometimes some God-loving soul wants to say everything that bothers her, but the confessor does not want to listen, he has no time ... Choose a confessor according to your heart, arrange a time with him, prepare yourself, remember your whole life from childhood and when you come .. Tell me in detail... This should be done at least once in your life... I remember such a case: a young lady came to me for confession, uttered trifles and came out completely almost sinless, a righteous woman - just angelic purity. And I see that there is something, I began to look for if there is something else hidden in my soul, then she tells me, thinking: “That’s only it,” and an answer follows like “I live with my brother” or something else. something like that. This means that we have fallen to such an extent that we call sin “unless” .

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An experienced homilet, Vladyka once and for all decided for himself the following question: “Do you want to speak “stylish” sermons, but without the spiritual content that is necessary at the moment, or, having discarded any care for any beauty of external form and logic, speak only what grace puts into heart?" And chose the latter - direct inspiration. In principle, I never prepared for sermons, but “I wanted to speak by inspiration, so that, by mysterious suggestion, they would say what is needed at the moment for some listener, for the soul that came to receive something in its sorrow and spiritual need.. Therefore, “the most brilliant thoughts,” Vladyka wrote about a certain charismatic preacher, in whom it is easy to recognize him himself, “he considered the devil’s obsession, the desire to seduce him and catch him in beauty, if they did not come after he, having gone to the pulpit and crossing himself, he will say: "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!" He carefully took care that the field of his consciousness was clear of all thoughts, even if they were pious... Only prayer to the great preachers, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, he allowed himself before going on a sermon.

And then, crossing himself, he began a conversation, reading it as if from a book placed before his eyes, until he saw the mysterious letters ended and then again white pages. Then his thoughts immediately dried up, and he could no longer find a single word. Put: "Amen", wherever it was necessary, and went to his place.

And during the appearance of a huge influx of thoughts that came to him as if from somewhere outside, he tried only ... not to miss a single one and to give them some tolerable form that most accurately conveys them. From the desire to convey to the people as many of these thoughts as possible, he often choked on words, ran from one line of the mysterious book to another (for he could not say everything, he clearly saw, and therefore chose the best), not caring whether it came out logically. or not. He reasoned like this: God gave me handfuls of diamonds, which should be distributed to people in 5-10 minutes... And he distributed them, scattered them... And then do whatever you want out of them. Yes, and how else? Impossibly living thought, life-giving spirit

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nail into the coffin of logical circuits, damned patterns and literary stencils.

“When at the liturgy I spoke several sermons (once up to five!), - Vladyka recalled, - then these two: the apologetic, after the Gospel at the liturgy of the catechumens, and the mystical, before (or after) communion, for the "faithful", I considered them to be the main . Usually he went out to the pulpit with a small Gospel in Russian, used at prayer services, and using its text he explained the daytime conception.

Once, we read in the notes of his spiritual daughter, “during a sermon I saw the Light, and this sermon was of such power that I don’t know if anyone present will ever forget it; he spoke on the subject of "repentance"; this topic is his favorite, and often, having started a sermon about something else, he switched to his favorite topic about repentance, the suffering of Christ, weeping over his sins and contrition of the heart.

He attached great, even central, significance to inner weeping in the heart dispensation, of himself and his flock. “He always told me,” Dolganova V. I. testified, “Cry incessantly, be in society, laugh, and cry and cry with your soul.” And he literally put his words into practice: he speaks, and sometimes smiles, and his eyes are sad, kind, with his soul, which means he always cried.

For the third year, the Soviet government "successfully ruled unhappy Russia." Many intellectuals, people with a sharpened conscience, foresaw the end of the old world in advance and even wished for it, hoping that in this way the contradictions of modern civilization with its social injustice and spiritual narrowness would be resolved. Subtle and sensitive to the slightest vulgarity of nature hoped for the birth of a new - with an expanded cosmic consciousness - a person who would create a new science and culture, and on the new earth, life freed from vulgarity would turn into continuous creativity. Such aspirations were shared not only by the intelligentsia, but to one degree or another by many representatives of the clergy, and even of the most conservative trend, as we saw in the example of Bishop Macarius (Gnevushev). In the opinion of the majority of those who wish, historical changes should have begun as a result of the victory of Russia and its allies in the First World War. (Only liberal circles, for example, adherents of the People's Freedom Party, saw the glorious future of the fatherland

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in the light of the achievements of Western political thought: pluralism, protection of the social interests of the population, and so on, while the right hoped for the restoration of national principles in all spheres of life. But both believed that Russia would have to play the role of a world leader in the 20th century.) The hour of historical change has struck. The great empire not only lost the war, but also collapsed itself. However, the appearance of the builders of the new world caused a shock in society. The new world became the embodiment of the ancient hell, familiar from the images in the church vestibules.

Very soon it became clear to everyone that in order to survive, it is necessary to adapt to reality turned inside out. And the citizens were actively engaged in their own turnaround. If for some it was given easily and simply, then for others it meant almost complete self-destruction. It was especially hard for the younger generation from "good" families, the children of the educated classes. What was in store for these youth? Restrictions in the choice of professions and in obtaining an education, persecution for unreliability on the basis of an alien class origin, mockery of their old-time fragility, spoiled breed. What could conscientious young men and women brought up in Christian traditions oppose to the demands of revolutionary reality? It was possible, of course, to give up on the past, throw yourself into the whirlpool of emancipation and free love, turn into social activists and dance in the evenings in workers' clubs with energetic representatives of the new hegemon, but this was not acceptable to everyone. Soul grieved.

In those years, Christian youth circles, which arose for a brief historical moment in many large cities, were a saving outlet for some half-educated gymnasium and schoolgirls. These were the last shoots of the great circle tradition of the Russian intelligentsia.

After the dissolution in 1918 of the Brotherhood of the Transfiguration of the Savior and the execution of a number of its members, church and public life in Nizhny came to a standstill. Arriving in the city, Archbishop Evdokim tried to show himself from the best side, launched an active work, began to read a series of lectures in the Ascension Church under the general title "The Russian Church in America", arranged open pastoral

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Russian courses at the Diveevo metochion (as opposed to the theological courses organized by Bulgakov and Bishop Lavrentiy). When famine began in the Volga region, he organized a fundraiser in the courtyard, in the Serafim Church, to help the victims, food (cereals, sugar) was brought here. In 1920, he organized a Christian circle, "closed", where for some reason they were accepted under his personal patronage. There were only girls and two of his subdeacons. This murky undertaking had unexpected and fruitful consequences.

Here is a description of the path that led one young girl through participation in the work of such a circle to a serious spiritual life.

The February revolution found the engineer's daughter Vera Lovzanskaya in Astrakhan, where she studied at the gymnasium. The headmistress called her and told the girl to urgently go home (she lived across the river, at the Outpost, and the headmistress was afraid of unrest in the city). Vera safely got home, not noticing any "revolution", the Cossacks stood in their side, and everything was calm. But when she later came to the gymnasium, her friends surprised her with a speech hitherto unheard of. “Now freedom, and you are brought up in the old way. Now everything is possible and you don’t have to obey your parents.” “But I listened to them and did not understand anything. What freedom? Shvoboda!

Returning home with her parents to Nizhny Novgorod, she continued her studies at the Institute of Noble Maidens. After the October Revolution, when secondary educational institutions turned into secondary schools, children were immediately forced to sing the Internationale before the start of classes (instead of praying and “God Save the Tsar”), which unpleasantly offended them. Her father, Vasily Nikolaevich, attended church once a year, her stepmother, burdened with a large family, somewhat more often. The daughter was not specifically involved in religious education, but she herself, out of an incomprehensible attraction of her heart, regularly ran to the “home” parish church of the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos at the Pokhvalinsky Congress or to the convent of the Exaltation of the Cross.

She was sixteen years old when she learned that Evdokim organized pastoral courses for the people. “I also began to go to them,” she recalls, “to Serafimo-Di-

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Veevskoye metochion, and then began to visit here the church of St. Seraphim. Once we went there with Marusya Meteleva (a thin, pale, fashionably dressed, intelligent girl), we look - to the right of the entrance some girls are standing in rows, twenty years old. We learn; it turns out that this is a Christian circle organized by Evdokim and, moreover, “closed”. Only his two subdeacons and these refined, intelligent young ladies entered there. They keep close, gather somewhere at Evdokim's. Of course, we are envious that, they say, closed.

And then we learn that they were allowed to open a second circle of Christian youth. There were probably 200 people in it. They gave us a capacious church, Three Saints (on Kanatnaya Street), with a library; we established order in the church there: we looked after the children during the service, gathered there, read, organized a choir and sang the entire episcopal service. I was a performer, I sang in a second voice ... They arranged reports. I remember giving a report on the Sixth Ecumenical Council... The chairman of the circle was Kostya Nelidov, the future subdeacon of Bishop Barnabas. He was young, still in college uniform (with such red shoulder straps), and his deputy was a former officer. They were of a different spirit; Kostya is of a purely monastic and spiritual direction, but this one has this: do not miss here, and receive it there. Of course, the circle did not last long. Could such a circle be tolerated in such years? The ban soon followed. Shortly before its closing, Kostya suddenly comes to the meeting and says: “Dear brothers and sisters, Vladyka has arrived, whoever has any spiritual needs, please, the doors are always open, he lives in Pechery, Bishop Barnabas.”

When the circle ceased to exist, some of its members, who gravitated towards a more rigorous spiritual life, began to visit the Caves Monastery. Once Vera also made up her mind, went to the side door in the wall of the house church of St. Euphemia of Suzdalsky, called, having time to think: “It would be better if they didn’t open it.” They opened the matushkas and took them upstairs to the bishop's waiting room. She didn't remember much from her excitement. She talked about herself and her favorite books. Then I read Ep. Theophan the Recluse ("What is spiritual life"). Vladyka ordered that the book be left behind and that the Ladder and Abba Dorotheus be taken out. Set a date for confession.

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She came to her first confession (in the spring of 1921) “sinless.” For two days I didn’t eat anything without permission, I went to work, and at home, before Easter, I had to clean up. It turned out that she “forgot” all her sins and did not know what to confess. Noticing her condition, Vladyka said: “Go and write down all your sins on paper from the age of seven.” The next time she brought a sheet where not only sinful deeds were already recorded, but also thoughts (“it was supposed to be so on the conscience”). After what I wrote, I felt ashamed. Vladyka went out through his door, in a white cassock, read a prayer of permission and drew a cross on her forehead with his finger ... Thus appeared in his entourage the one who later helped the mentor survive in this world.

Confession took place infrequently (“Vladyka said that it was necessary to confess in such a way that the enemy would not leave anything anywhere in the corner, otherwise everything would start all over again”), at intervals letters were sent through the nuns with questions that arose in life and required resolution. (As in the speculative realm, so, for the most part, in the concrete everyday, practical one: “We personally went to Vladyka very rarely, in exceptional cases, when we found it necessary to call, and we wrote to him about our spiritual needs and temptations... ”) Then, in the church, the nuns returned them with his resolution. The responses were accepted.

Lidia Serebrovskaya, the daughter of a well-known Nizhny Novgorod barrister and member of the Savior-Preobrazhensky Brotherhood, also came to the bishop from the circle. Her father, an orphan and a graduate of the Nizhny Novgorod diocesan orphanage, was active in church and social activities, engaged in extensive charity work, was known as a man of strong convictions and a truth lover. In 1918, the communists shot him, and then mockingly apologized to his wife that they had shot him by mistake.

Elena Rozhina, a teacher, came (later she helped Bishop Bartholomew (Remov), got to Solovki), Valeria Umanova, Olga Patrusheva, the daughter of a forester, and others. Nelidov's friend from the noble institute Pyotr Skipsky nailed to Pechery, he was from a doctor's family and he managed to get into the university, to the physics and mathematics department. Back in May 2020, Vladyka suggested

Vladyka recalled that special state, “burning of the spirit,” with which the “girls” ran to Pechory. It seemed that a new life was beginning, a revival of the atmosphere of the ancient Christian community, serving the Creator with one heart, one mouth and one deed. The closest and indispensable assistant to the bishop (except for Nelidov) was Valentina Ivanovna Dolganova. Like her older sister Faina (also the spiritual daughter of Vladyka), she got a job as a clerk, and then as a statistician in the provincial Statistical Bureau. Having received the status of a Soviet employee, she could provide significant services to her confessor. He often needed to travel to Moscow on spiritual matters,

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but one could only get on the train with a reservation, and Valentina always got a ticket. He said: "My prayer, and your labors." A few years later, interrogating him at the OGPU, the Chekists were surprised: “We know that you have been to Moscow. But how did you get there, on horseback?” “Why on horseback,” Vladyka replied. - By train".

“Valentina was the closest spiritual daughter of Vladyka. She worked in a Soviet institution, lived with her parents and went to services in Pechery. She somehow immediately began to stand out from all of us. Dressed in an almost monastic dress (she sat like that at work), smart, energetic, strong-willed, with an interesting appearance - her superiority over all of us was felt. She was an indispensable novice for the lord. She never considered either her personal needs, or her family, or her work, and was always at his complete disposal.

Somehow the girls noticed that Valentina was the closest to Vladyka. Lydia Serebrovskaya confessed (he forced her to open her thoughts) that she was jealous of Valentina. "All right," Vladyka said. "You will be me instead of Valentina. Are you ready?" - "Yes". - "Well, well, I have to send someone to Sarov tomorrow. Or to Marya Ivanovna in Diveevo, I have questions for her. Will you go?" “But I have to ask how my mother will react to this.” - “Ah, mom! But Valentina doesn’t ask mom. What do I need, I entrust her, and how Valentina wants it, but she arranges it. And you have a mother.”

On the advice of the bishop, Valentina Dolganova wrote down stories heard from acquaintances at work, which revealed either the Providence of God, or the state of modern minds and hearts. She wrote down the history of Nizhny Novgorod monasteries and ascetics. She went with the questions of the bishop to Blessed Maria Ivanovna of Diveyevo and left notes of her conversations, the most valuable materials for understanding the phenomenon of Russian foolishness.

“The blessed holy fool Diveevskaya Maria Ivanovna was considered by Vladyka to be a great clairvoyant old woman. He always sent his spiritual children to her and he himself constantly addressed questions, sending faithful people to Diveevo especially for this. When I came to Vladyka, - recalls the nun Seraphim (V.V. Lovzanskaya), - he soon told me: "You should go to Sarov and go

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in Diveevo to Maria Ivanovna: what will she say?" In his humility, without taking the decision on himself, he concluded from her words which way it was necessary to lead the person. The blessed one loved the bishop very much. She always greeted those who came from him with joy and said: "They came from Barnabas from the servants." She called him her son, and also repeated: "Christ loves him very much, because he has a lot of humility" ... I personally went to Sarov very often and always stopped by the blessed one. Of course, clairvoyance she was exceptional, terrified me. She saw through all your sins, she constantly knew what was happening to a person for many miles and for a long time, and all her predictions always came true.

Vladyka blessed his novice for another important task. The All-Russian Local Council in 1918 called on the hierarchy to "collect information and notify the Orthodox population through printed publications and a living word about all cases of persecution of the Church and violence against confessors of the Orthodox faith." We know of only one case when, in the whirlwind of revolution in the territory occupied by the Bolsheviks, an interview was conducted with witnesses and their testimony was recorded shortly after the execution of the martyrs. With the blessing of Bishop Varnava, this was done by Valentina Dolganova, collecting evidence of the execution in the village of Puzo in August 1918 of the ascetic Evdokia Shikova with three cell attendants.

On October 4, 1921, during the Vespers, on the eve of the memory of the Saints of Moscow, Vladyka spoke about how the ancient Christians venerated their martyrs, collecting their blood “and every bit of their relics”, keeping what was collected in their homes as the greatest shrine. The memory of the new martyrs and ascetics was such a sacred thing for him.

Sometimes the rapists broke into the Pechersky Monastery. Once, at twelve o'clock in the morning, the commissar with the Red Army came with wine and demanded to drink with them, but a quarter burst in their hands - under the sign of the cross of the bishop.

Coming into contact with the religious life of the people, Vladyka saw a terrible moral decline and at the same time remarkable piety, the experience of living communion with God. Usually, speaking of a zealous shepherd and his labors, drawing

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They praise him as a heavenly messenger, speaking only truths and doing good deeds to the flock, but Vladyka looked at his ministry differently and tried to learn that otherworldly thing that was revealed in communion with the believing people: the innermost life of the Church. It is no coincidence that he wanted to give his notes a characteristic title - “The Ways of Divine Providence”, and prefaced the diary of 1921 with the following explanation: “With my acceptance of the episcopal rank, I fell into the sphere of such wonderful actions of Divine Revelation in relation to people and, in general, manifestations of the mysterious (even negative) aspects of the otherworldly spiritual world or the life of the human soul within our rough, stout, material, earthly reality, that leaving them unattended, giving time to crush the memory of them and erase traces of memories, would be extremely unreasonable, if not sinful" .

He felt like a chronicler, who was shown the state of the soul of a modern Russian person, given to hear the call of the Creator to specific people and see the response of their free will to this call. The picture opened instructive. “Unbelief is all around,” the bishop wrote, “people are mad, they don’t recognize the spiritual world, which is supposedly an “invention of the priests,” they say that there is no God, no angels, no demons, and at the same time these accursed, that is, demons , suggesting to some that they - demons - do not exist, others are tortured, come to them, host in their homes and souls with all insolence and cruelty ... "

In Gogol's artistic fantasies, the insignificant employee Akaki Akakievich was absorbed in the dream of an overcoat as the highest goal in this world, but in reality, the "little people" lived on the petty joys of a wretched economy, family worries, and the element of folk household superstitions. In the cycle of emotions, too many did not discern the Divine presence, and the Church was noticed only on holidays, by the names of temples, by the names of priests serving in a particular locality. Man was completely enslaved by carnal, psychic, class instincts. And often in the crowd that filled the churches, terrible cries of demoniacs were heard - these animated lumps of matter, lost in the endless expanses of being. The inner world of people made itself known to the

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pami constant melancholy and darkness, inescapably abiding in feelings and thoughts. The falling away from spiritual life occurred as a result of the oppression of the God-bearing people in the past - and even more so in the merciless present - by the burden of the historical mission, placed on the shoulders of these little ones by their leaders (purple-bearing and red-starred), as a result of the ruthless bureaucratic bridle thrown over the fate of man.

Here is Natalya, a peasant woman from the remote village of Lopatishchi, Vasilsur district, married, but from childhood given over to a common vice, who has not been at communion for more than twenty years. Marukh's neighbor ("spoiled") accused her of causing damage to Natalya. The village crowd leads the suspect to communion in order to test the accuracy of the accusation through the holy sacrament. In the church, Natalya screamed, so everyone recognized her as guilty and began to spit on the communicant (what the priest did during the wild scene remained unknown, as if he were not in this thick of people's life). From spiritual petrification, Natalya took upon herself slander and confessed to a sin that never happened. After such an incident, and even "from the constant attacks of ignorant village women and peasants," it is difficult to keep the mind intact. Natalya began to talk and live in hallucinations.

The intelligent Maria Fedorovna from Nizhny Novgorod was left by her husband during the “liberation” time, and decided, under the slogans of the Fifth Year, to throw off the fetters of the family. The only son, having graduated from a real school, and then from the Petrograd Institute, became an engineer and was already carefully registered by the Bolsheviks and soon sent to Saratov. In the year 1920, a telegram came from there announcing his death in one of the city infirmaries. Hatred of God flared up in the mother.

The son of “social security pensioner” M.F. drowned, and N. died at the front. Now both single women are being pursued, as it seems to them, by enemies, cold, ruthless neighbors in a communal apartment. And having found themselves beyond the bounds of despair, all these women remembered the Church, wandered to the temple.

From the Nizhny Novgorod hospital, "zealously protected from any "priestly spirit"", a letter came to the rector of the Caves Monastery from a dying twenty-two-year-old

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him Jacob. This young guy, apparently a Red Army soldier (similar to those who sometimes broke into the monastery, arranging shooting and ambush there), did not hope to be forgiven in a future life, but nevertheless asked the holy father to pray for his soul ruined by countless bloody crimes.

The “little” Russian people plunged into darkness, and only the most humble and miserable, holy fools and quiet souls kept human warmth and hope in their hearts. In one pious (but childless) family, the bishop met the blessed Ivan, thirty-five years old, who had an almost perfect spiritual mind. As a child, at Christmas time, he saw mummers in terrible costumes and was speechless. Living in truly Christian poverty, he acquired purity of heart and insight. “He has nothing,” Vladyka wrote down the impression of meeting him, “only what he is wearing: a shirt, trousers, a coat, in bast shoes. Gets up at dawn. Eats scant, simple, coarse food. He does not condemn anyone for how much, he has no passion for the world in anything. He constantly prays and goes after the icon of the Mother of God of Orange... He sees the thoughts, actions of people - present, past and future... For his purity and simplicity, God, by the grace of the Queen of Heaven, whom he so serves, gave him a strong gift of knowledge. For example, he spoke and revealed the true essence of such events in church life, which only I knew about (the rest took him at his word). He told us what we had before his arrival (by the way, he denounced me for having eaten butter - and it was a fast day; coffee, emphasizing that it is fasting now)... I will only say that everything is wonderful, worthy of surprise and gratitude to God, marvelous in His saints.

In Pechersk Sloboda, Vladyka acquired faithful parishioners; he kept manuscripts from one of them, his spiritual daughter (since the Chekists often conducted searches among the clergy). This pious and still young woman lived with her children and mother in her own house. Her father gave her in marriage against the will of her daughter (from childhood her heart yearned for a monastery); the husband soon, apparently, took to drink and left. She raised children, worked in a Soviet institution, and led a strict, monastic lifestyle. In a dream, the angels are

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they filled her with the Caves Monastery, a small procession with which Bishop Barnabas walked. And this woman from that hour constantly attended all the monastic services, often confessed and took communion.

The manager of the institution in which she worked began to look after a lonely attractive employee, accompany her home in the evenings, engage in conversations, offer money, help. His courtship turned into a real persecution. She prayed a lot (especially since her old mother became very ill), asking for help in her situation. And then one day, in heavy oblivion, I saw a summer monastery church. There was a liturgy, which Vladyka Barnabas served (he stood on the pulpit and seemed to be sleeping twice as high as usual). His spiritual daughter plunged into prayer and contemplation, "knowing that no one here will touch me under the protection of God." “My soul,” she described her dream in a letter to the bishop, “at that time experienced something extraordinary ... And so I raised my eyes up and see the Mother of God, as if standing on the clouds, but not the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, as it is written in the temple, but our Pechersk Queen of Heaven ... Only in Her hands is your omophorion, which She held over you. And on both sides of Her, the Monks Anthony and Theodosius were kneeling, their heads bowed and their arms folded on their chests. I looked with tenderness at this picture and thought to myself that there are people in the world whom the Mother of God Herself protects from everything with Her Protection.

This vision was not accidental and, as it were, two-pronged: it foreshadowed the miraculous help of God in the events that soon followed and, at the same time, pointed to the place where the last part of the life of the lord would pass. I reproduce what follows from the bishop's note on the pages of a letter from my spiritual daughter. “When she finished writing this and went to bed, after a while she feels that someone approached her, but she can’t wake up. Then they begin to drag the blanket off her. She begins to pull it with all her might. The same tear and drag. Then, as it were, they wanted to throw themselves at her (she had a holy cross given to her, with the relics of St. Seraphim of Sarov) and said: “Look, if you go to Barnabas and tell him everything (i.e. confess thoughts. - Note. P. I.), we will ask you ... "

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When she opened her eyes, she saw that the new blanket with which she was covered, in the upper part, by which he was dragged, was torn, as if from claws, to shreds. Now she does not know how to hide the whole thing from her family. For all that, such a great fear attacked her that her legs were paralyzed for two days and she could not even go to church.

“1922, April 18. Not even three days have passed, no, exactly three days have passed, as it was with me (16. IV, and now it is eleven o'clock in the night of the eighteenth), and the demons have already fulfilled their threat. Across from me, her house is on fire. She has some of my manuscripts... May His will be done. They took revenge and take revenge not only on her, but also on me.

Now they came and said the characteristic cause of the fire. Out of revenge, it seems, they climbed in (and everyone was already asleep), the corridor and the porch were doused not only with kerosene, but also with gasoline, set on fire and left themselves. Everyone jumped out in the same underwear, one old woman burned to death. She left the house, but regretted things, returned, went to the bed, poked around and suffocated ... An old woman lies near the monastery wall, burned, without arms, without legs, half of the skull. This woman saved almost everything, they did not steal the manuscripts, but the whole house burned down. And here is the mercy of God.

Valentina Dolganova recorded an important detail about the same event: during the prayer, the bishop learned in advance about the impending arson and sent nuns to help the victims. (“There was a fire in Pechery, two houses burned down just opposite the monastery gates. Vladyka was the first to know about the fire, a demon came to him and told him about it. He knocked on the sisters, they ran and saw the fire that had begun. sleeping. The fire was on arson.")

The reality was so painful and hopeless that the feeling of joy disappeared from ordinary people, waves of obsessive desires constantly rolled over to discard outdated morality, to exist vegetatively: the easier and simpler, the better. The bishop opposed this spiritual illness with ascetic rules. Confession, necessarily with the revelation of thoughts (“He always said: you can not do any feats, just tell me everything, confess your thoughts and sinful desires cleanly and don’t worry about anything else. And really, it was impossible to hide anything from him: now conscience begins to convict, and

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such is the result of suffering that it is better to endure shame, but to say everything, and besides, it’s scary: you won’t tell him, which means you want to hide from God; all the same, everything will be revealed at the Last Judgment, and what reward will you receive then for unconfessed sins?"), prayer ("Wherever you are, - he demanded from his novice, - and whatever you do, repeat, know, prayer"), fasting , removal from all looseness and renunciation of free behavior (Dolganova said: “What can everyone else do - you should only allow a tenth, everyone around you laugh at something - you smile so as not to introduce great dissonance and thus not seduce the soul of your neighbor ”), all-round maintenance of the desire to act in everything out of love for God. Only in following the ascetic rules did he see an opportunity to fulfill the gospel commandments at the present time, which freezes every living heart. “There is no need to cool down,” the bishop liked to repeat. - How to become hot, and continue. “Abandon a bad acquaintance, stay away from an evil one, hold on to a good one, maintain a good mood in yourself until it becomes the main foundation of your life,” the bishop commanded his novice Valentina. Olga Patrusheva recalled the main principle of his then pedagogy: "The result of a strict ascetic life is love."

Self-will as one of the properties of the soul that interfere with life, Vladyka tried in every possible way to eradicate from the character of his spiritual children. Young Vera Lovzanskaya (she began her "work activity" at the age of fifteen) decided to go to work in a black headscarf, imitating the Dolganov sisters. This decision was also facilitated by the desire to move away from young colleagues in the service, who, at the “meeting, held her hand with an“ impure touch ”. "What was it like for me to take off my headscarf? - she recalls. - All young people understand this in such a way that I have changed and, therefore, it is permissible to take liberties." But I unquestioningly obeyed the mentor's decision. does not read romance novels. Finally, she herself was embarrassed by her ignorance in these matters and wrote a note to Vladyka: “Vladyka, I don’t understand anything

From the height of his life, looking back, he assessed his distant past (1921-1922): “What are Pechory? Youthful age. Boys... are not shown serious things.” It was a period of monastic romance, groping for a firm path among the abysses of modernity, strict asceticism and gaining experience in pastoral leadership. In striving for ascetic feats, he sometimes went too far. Upon his return to Nizhny from his “vacation,” he “soon began to sleep on the floor, right on the carpet, with his head to the bed, touching ... it. And immediately he began to feel fear and the presence of demons, just as they showed up for the first time in Makariev. Such a special feeling ... I hinted about this to the sisters. One of them began to sleep upstairs in the hallway (it is interesting that they themselves noticed that it was not entirely comfortable for me to be alone upstairs). At first I refused on the grounds that if there was a search at night (all the bishops already had it), they might invent some kind of dirty gossip ... But fear of demonic influences and unwillingness to be subjected to a proud feeling (that, they say, I can handle it alone, what about the ascetics, but God, etc.) forced me to agree to the proposal that one of the sisters should sleep in a few rooms. When the days of Easter and Pentecost began, and because of this I stopped sleeping on the floor, the demonic invasion also passed. Interesting,

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that even such trifles as sleeping on a carpet, which did not satisfy me in the least (I wanted to sleep right after on the floor - “dolling” is called by the ancient ascetic fathers), and then the demons do not like it ... "

Blessed Maria Ivanovna used to say: "Don't climb under the bed." And menacingly tapped her finger on the arm of the chair (but at the same time smiling cheerfully). After that, he always does not fail to ask: “Well, is he crawling under the bed? How does he sleep, on a soft bed or on the floor? No matter what... Still young hurts. It’s too early for him yet ... Tell him not to do this again. She was worried about Vladyka and once, singing the Paschal troparion, she said: “He should also read “Christ is Risen” more often, the demons are very afraid; Then you won't get under the bed. She added something completely incomprehensible: “Fr. Anatoly... your Barnabas will also die. Soon there will be another year.”

It so happened that his personal time for some brief historical moment flowed in a different plane than the general time. The calendar showed the fourth year from the day of the revolution. The bishop completely immersed himself in spiritual work, in prayerful work, in work on manuscripts, which also required special living conditions. He was in a paradoxical position: as a young monk, he had to evade the world and work in cell silence, as a bishop, he had to go towards people and events. (“It is a sin to refuse the bishopric,” said Maria Ivanovna, “it is necessary to accept people, but not all of them, I accepted half, a little, and it will be.”)

Of course, he did not fence himself off from social reality either. The city authorities made it clear that they would open the ancient cathedral in the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, which they had taken away from the Church, but they did not fulfill the promises. The people got excited, and somehow a large crowd gathered on Annunciation Square, demanding the keys to the temple. We decided to go to the diocese. The archbishop was afraid to go out to the people and, knowing that the faithful were disposed towards Vladyka, he sent him to them. Bishop Varnava, together with those who came, went to the provincial executive committee for negotiations, which, of course, turned out to be fruitless, but he calmed the excitement, and everyone dispersed peacefully.

Evdokim also assigned him to another difficult obedience - to be in charge of divorce proceedings in the consistory.

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themselves. Having come to power, the communists took this matter into their own hands and put it on stream: it is enough for one of the parties to pay three rubles, "and the matter is over - a spilled sea of debauchery." The commissars ensured that the clergy did not interfere with those wishing to get a divorce and, at the first request of one of the spouses, formalized a church divorce. Society, accustomed to exist in conditions of endless war, external and internal, decaying habitual foundations of life, accepted this innovation not without satisfaction. “The possibility of multiple civil marriages,” recalled Vladyka, “which appeared at first, was a cover for prostitution and fornication, which was regarded as such not even from a church point of view ... And the bishops who dealt with divorces found themselves in a hopeless situation. After all, after all, a bishop cannot breed according to civil documents. The flow of divorced people was significant, but the bishop, as a servant of Christ, could not be guided in his decision by the canons of the Church without getting into an unpleasant story, because few of those who came wanted to act according to the Gospel, but tried to calm their conscience to get the necessary piece of paper. A few years later, Vladyka wrote about this:

“The question of divorce, if it has always painfully touched the heart of a carnal person, is now perhaps the most painful one. Out of voluptuousness, people are trying in every possible way to expand their rights in this regard, even if only through stretching the gospel text. And one can already foresee that the further time passes, the further away from the specific and narrow commandment of Christ and the matter of divorces will go. How close, on duty, I stood at one time to the intimate side of the latter, and as far as I know the true causes of them - almost always an inconvenient property to convey in words - and not invented reasons, more or less "proper", like "dissimilarity of characters" , simple "unwillingness to live together", "leaving children and family" and so on, I conclude that in most cases the "guilty" side is not to blame, or not only it is to blame. And it is not often divorce that should serve as a healing for husband and wife, but patient in Christ, humble living, chaste, with the suppression of carnal lusts. A wife is not a street woman and not even a lover, but

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the family bedroom is not a "separate office". It is impossible to look for in them what a man is accustomed to and on what a man has often already wasted his youth ... Chaste abstinence in moderation is not canceled by marriage. If the laity are not monks, this does not mean that they can live unbridled. If all this were observed, that is, if sound and strict Christian views on the family and on marriage were put into practice in our society, then divorces would be halved. Let's also not forget how many people lived in more than one hundred of the past years who endured impotence, illness, and madness, and so on.! They endured, thanked God, accepting it from Him as a cross sent down for the healing of passions, and did not think of getting divorced! Was it possible then, but not now? And they also say that humanity is progressing and doing better. Isn't it the other way around? Doesn't he also lose those virtues, even if only one patience, that our ancestors had before?

Later, Vladyka said: “It is difficult not to violate the canons if the state breeds. What then is the Church to do? Don't breed? After all, the state has its own reasons for divorce, and the Church has its own view. The problem for the bishop was painfully acute: not to comply with the demands of the authorities means to be subjected to direct persecution, but to apply church criteria - not for this reason he was put here by the legitimate clergyman.

Behind Yevdokim's back it was possible to temporarily hide from the revolutionary blizzard, but it was impossible to learn how to lead the flock on the waters of history.


Bishop Barnabas
Bishop Barnabas
February 16, 1920 - June 1922
Church:	Russian Orthodox Church

Academic degree:	Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value).
Name at birth:	Nikolai Nikanorovich Belyaev
Birth:	May 12 (25)(1887-05-25 ) Ramenskoe
Death:	the 6th of May(1963-05-06 ) (75 years old) Kyiv
Buried:	Baikovo Cemetery, Kyiv
Dynasty:	((#property:p53))
Father:	Belyaev Nikanor Matveevich
Mother:	Smirnova Claudia Petrovna
Spouse:	No
Children:	No
Acceptance of monasticism:	June 11 (24), 1911
Episcopal consecration:	February 16, 1920

Autograph:	Lua error in Module:Wikidata on line 170: attempt to index field "wikibase" (a nil value).

Bishop Barnabas(in the world Nikolai Nikanorovich Belyaev; May 12 (25) ( 18870525 ) , the village of Ramenskoye, Bronnitsky district, Moscow province - May 6, Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR) - bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, ascetic writer, holy fool.

Biography

Born in the family of a weaving factory locksmith and the daughter of a deacon. Parents, with religious reverence for knowledge, did everything so that their son could receive a serious secular education. Nikolai Belyaev, the grandson of a serf, entered the gymnasium after the village school and graduated with a gold medal. Studied at school with. Ramenskoye, then at the Third Moscow Gymnasium, graduated in 1908 with a gold medal. Graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy (1911-1915).

By a decree of the Holy Synod of February 13, 1920, Archimandrite Varnava was determined to be Bishop Vicar of Vasilsur of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese. On February 29, 1920, his episcopal consecration took place. In early August 1920, he was appointed senior vicar of the diocese and transferred to the Caves Ascension Monastery.

In the summer of 1922, together with the ruling bishop of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, Archbishop Evdokim (Meshchersky), he signed a resolution recognizing the renovationist Higher Church Administration. However, he soon repented and, explaining his act with cowardice, went to repent to Archbishop Theodore (Pozdeevsky), who lived in the Moscow Danilov Monastery, but was not received by him. In September 1922 he visited the elders of the Zosima Hermitage. Hieroschemamonk Alexy (Soloviev) imposed a penance on him for the transition to renovationism and blessed Barnabas for the feat of foolishness. In 1928 he moved to Kzyl-Orda, created a secret monastery there, and began to write ascetic compositions. There, in 1928, he finished his main work - “ Fundamentals of the art of holiness (Experience in the presentation of Orthodox asceticism)". In it, Bishop Barnabas tried to comprehend the knowledge gained at the Theological Academy and from independent reading of ascetic literature. In his work, he quotes from patristic writings, while Barnabas' own reasoning and comments concern mainly the phenomena of secular culture.

Died May 6, 1963. He was buried at the Baikove cemetery in Kyiv, the funeral was performed by the priest Alexei Glagolev.

Compositions

Saint Barsanuphius the Great. His Life and Teachings (1915). Graduate work.
Fundamentals of the Art of Holiness: An Experience in the Presentation of Orthodox Asceticism (four volumes, 1928,)
Venerable Synclitikia of Alexandria. Her Life and Teachings, or Lesser Asceticism
The thorny path to heaven: Biography of Elder Gabriel of the Sedmiezerskaya Hermitage
blue ship
Collection of articles "Emerald"
About the providence of God
Holy Life Day
From seen and heard
Sermons (ex.: )
"Uncle Kolya" against ... (1950-1960. Notebooks of Bishop Barnabas (Belyaev)), 2010 edition
The Secret of the Whore (novel)
The Bride (unfinished novel)

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Notes

Literature

Varlamov A.// Tatyana's Day . - 06/21/2010. ()
Igum. Damaskin (Orlovsky)// Orthodox Encyclopedia. Volume XIXVI. - M .: Church-Scientific Center "Orthodox Encyclopedia", 2003. - S. 649-650. - 752 p. - 39,000 copies. - ISBN 5-89572-010-2
Protsenko P. G.. - Nizhny Novgorod: Brotherhood in the name of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky, 1999.
Damaskin (Orlovsky). Martyrs, confessors and ascetics of piety of the Russian Orthodox Church of the XX century. Biographies and materials for them. - Tver, 1992. - T. 1. - S. 47-85.

An excerpt characterizing Barnabas (Belyaev)

With shining, moistened eyes, Isidora looked at her amazing father, and it was clear how much and selflessly she loved him. She was a proud daughter, who with dignity carried her pure, bright feeling through the centuries, and even there, far away, in her new worlds, she did not hide and was not embarrassed by it. And then I realized how much I wanted to become like her! .. And in her power of love, and in her power of the Witch, and in everything else that this extraordinary bright woman carried in herself ...
And she calmly continued to tell, as if not noticing either our “overflowing” emotions, or the “puppy” delight of our souls that accompanied her wonderful story.
– It was then that my mother heard about Venice... Father spent hours telling her about the freedom and beauty of this city, about its palaces and canals, about secret gardens and huge libraries, about bridges and gondolas, and much, much more. And my impressionable mother, even before she saw this wonderful city, fell in love with it with all her heart ... She could not wait to see this city with her own eyes! And very soon her dream came true... Her father brought her to a magnificent palace, full of faithful and silent servants, from whom there was no need to hide. And, starting from that day, my mother could spend hours doing her favorite thing, without fear of being misunderstood or, even worse, offended. Her life became pleasant and secure. They were a truly happy married couple who had a baby girl exactly one year later. They called her Isidora... It was me.
I was a very happy child. And, as far as I can remember, the world has always seemed beautiful to me... I grew up surrounded by warmth and affection, among kind and attentive people who loved me very much. Mom soon noticed that I was manifesting a powerful Gift, much stronger than her own. She began to teach me everything that she knew how to do and what her grandmother had taught me. And later, my father also joined my “witchy” upbringing.
I am telling all this, dear ones, not because I want to tell you the story of my happy life, but so that you can better understand what will follow a little later ... Otherwise, you will not feel all the horror and pain that I and my family had to endure. .
When I turned seventeen, the rumor about me went far beyond the borders of my native city, and there was no end to those who wanted to hear their fate. I was very tired. No matter how gifted I was, but the daily workload was exhausting, and in the evenings I literally fell off my feet ... My father always objected to such “violence”, but my mother (who herself once could not use her gift to the fullest) believed that I am in perfect order, and that I must honestly work out my talent.
So many years have passed. I have long had my own personal life and my wonderful, beloved family. My husband was a learned man, his name was Girolamo. I think we were destined for each other, since from the very first meeting that took place in our house, we almost never parted anymore ... He came to us for some book recommended by my father. That morning I was sitting in the library and, as usual, I studied someone else's work. Girolamo came in suddenly, and when he saw me there, he was completely taken aback ... His embarrassment was so sincere and sweet that it made me laugh. He was a tall and strong brown-eyed brunette, who at that moment blushed like a girl who first met her fiancé ... And I immediately realized that this was my destiny. We soon got married and never parted again. He was a wonderful husband, affectionate and gentle, and very kind. And when our little daughter was born, he became the same loving and caring father. So passed, very happy and cloudless ten years. Our dear daughter Anna grew up cheerful, lively, and very smart. And already in her early ten years, she, too, like me, began to slowly manifest the Gift ...
Life was bright and wonderful. And it seemed that there was nothing that could overshadow our peaceful existence with misfortune. But I was afraid... For almost a year now, every night I had nightmares - terrible images of tortured people and burning fires. It kept repeating, repeating, repeating... driving me crazy. But most of all I was frightened by the image of a strange man who constantly came into my dreams, and, without saying a word, only devoured me with the burning gaze of his deep black eyes ... He was frightening and very dangerous.
And then one day it came... Black clouds began to gather in the clear firmament of my beloved Venice... Disturbing rumors, growing, roamed the city. People whispered about the horrors of the Inquisition and, chilling the soul, living human bonfires ... Spain had been blazing for a long time, burning pure human souls with “fire and sword”, with the name of Christ ... And beyond Spain, all of Europe was already on fire ... I was not believer, and never considered Christ God. But he was a wonderful Vedun, the strongest of all living. And he had an amazingly pure and high soul. And what the church did, killing “for the glory of Christ,” was a terrible and unforgivable crime.
Isidora's eyes became dark and deep, like a golden night. Apparently, everything pleasant that earthly life gave her ended and another, terrible and dark, about which we were soon to find out, ended ... I suddenly “sucked in the stomach” sharply and it became hard to breathe. Stella also stood quiet - she did not ask her usual questions, but simply listened very carefully to what Isidora was telling us about.
“My beloved Venice has risen. People murmured indignantly in the streets, gathered in the squares, no one wanted to put up with it. Always a free and proud city did not want to take priests under its wing. And then Rome, seeing that Venice was not going to bow before him, decided to take a serious step - he sent his best inquisitor to Venice, the crazy cardinal, who was the most ardent fanatic, the real "father of the Inquisition", and who could not be ignored. .. He was the "right hand" of the Pope, and his name was Giovanni Pietro Caraffa... I was then thirty-six years old...
(When I began to look through the story of Isidora in my own way, which seemed interesting enough to me to write about it, I was very pleased with one detail - the name of Pietro Caraffa seemed familiar, and I decided to look for him among the "historically important" personalities. And what is was my joy when I found him right there!.. Caraffa turned out to be a genuine historical figure, he was the real "father of the Inquisition", who later, having already become the Pope (Paul IV), set fire to the better half of Europe. About the life of Isidora, I, unfortunately, I found only one line ... In Caraffa's biography there is a one-line mention of the case of the "Venetian Witch", who was considered the most beautiful woman in Europe at that time ... But, unfortunately, that was all that could correspond to today's story).