St. Xenia of St.
Petersburg - Holy Fool for Christ
"Whoever has known me, may he remember' my soul for the salvation of his own
soul."
Xenia was born in St. Petersburg around 1730.
However, we know almost nothing about the early years of Blessed Xenia's
life. When she was old enough, she married Andrew Petrov, a colonel in the
Russian army who was a court singer in St. Petersburg. They were very happy
together and were quite well off, with a nice house and many luxuries.
At the age of 26 Xenia became a widow. It all came
like a bolt from the blue - one night at a party her husband suddenly fell
over dead. Within a moment her life had changed. Andrew's death completely
changed her way of looking at life. Knowing that her husband had not
prepared himself for death and that he had died without the prayers of the
Church, she began to be very concerned about the eternal state of his soul.
She realized that all of this world is transitory, and she started
concentrating on the salvation of her soul.
It was as though she were given new eyes; she
thought no more about parties, about having fun with friends; she gave away
her possessions to the poor. In fact, she broke all ties with the world - to
such an extent that even her relatives thought she must be crazy. She sold
her house and belongings, and gave the money to the poor. She gave away
everything else she had including her beautiful clothes.
Xenia became a pilgrim in St. Petersburg, wandering
all over the city. Instead of her own things, she put on her husband’s old
jacket and told everyone to call her by his name. She went all over
the city, doing good for people in the name of her husband so that if his
soul was suffering from sins he hadn’t repented of, her deeds and prayers
would help him. She slept little and prayed unceasingly. And indeed,
she died to the world in order to be closer to God. And she did so for 45
years.
At night she would go into a field outside the city
and stand for hours in prayer, even in the snow. Or she would secretly help
in the building of the Smolensk cemetery church carrying to the top bricks
which would be waiting for the workmen in the morning. Often. as she walked
the streets in the city's poorer neighborhoods, people made fun of her,
children would throw dirt at her and laugh. The blessed one only prayed for
their souls, bearing patiently their taunts for the sake of Christ.
Gradually, however, people began to see that behind
her seemingly odd behavior was someone who was very special in the eyes of
God. They noticed that when she would hold a crying baby in her arms, the
baby would at once quiet down and remain calm and content for the rest of
the day. Those stores which she entered would have good business that day.
People began to realize that her often strange
words held a deeper meaning, sometimes warning them of approaching
disasters, or of what was to happen in their life. Once, for example, she
went to visit her friends the Golubevs as they were preparing to sit down
for a cup of coffee. "Oh my beauty," she said to the daughter, "here you are
making coffee, while your husband is burying his wife at Ochta. Run
quickly!"
The young girl and her mother were most puzzled by
these words, but knowing Xenia' s gift of being able to see the future, they
obeyed at once. There they came upon the funeral procession of the wife of a
young doctor who was so overcome by grief that he fainted. The Golubevs
brought him back to his senses, became acquainted, and a year later the
daughter became his wife, just as the blessed one had foretold.
Another time some merchants were selling some
particularly delicious honey out of a barrel. People had already begun to
buy it at a high price when suddenly Blessed Xenia appeared. "Don't take it,
don't take it," she cried. "This honey can't be eaten; it stinks of a
corpse." She leaned with all her strength against the barrel which
overturned on the sidewalk, spilling the honey to the merchants' great
dismay. To everyone's horror, there at the bottom of the barrel was a huge
dead rat. Even those who had already bought some of the honey had to throw
it out.
St. Xenia lived in this way for for years after the
death of her husband. Exactly when she died is not known, but it was
probably in the last years of the 18th century. She was buried in the
Smolensk cemetery, not far from the church which she had helped to build.
She is buried in the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg, where a chapel was
built over her grave. To this very day many people come there to pray to St.
Xenia who, even after death continues to work many miracles, helping people
out of all kinds of misfortunes. Through her prayers, people have been
healed of serious illnesses; she is especially quick in helping to find jobs
or places to live. Just this year a woman in England was looking for a place
to live near the church where she had recently been received into the
Orthodox Faith, so as to be able to attend the daily services. She and her
priest prayed to St. Xenia and within a few days she had an apartment in the
house next door to the Parish House! Wondrous is God in His saints.
May we learn from the example of Blessed Xenia how
important it is for us not to be attached to the things of the world, but to
keep our minds and hearts turned towards heaven, our true home, that we too,
like St. Xenia, may, after our earthly wandering, “come to dwell in the
Father's house.”
ST. XENIA THE BLESSED
Every person regardless of his faith has a guardian angel protecting him or
her from evil. And every city is said to have its three heavenly patrons.
One of the guardian angels of the city of St.Petersburg is Saint Blessed
Mother Xenia known as a Fool-for-Christ’s sake, a wonderworker and a
prophetess. In old Russia the word “blessed” normally referred to those who,
of their own accord, rejected the comforts and pleasures of life and high
social status, to become what people call “Fools-for-Christ”. Often they
weren’t insane but just pretended to be so that they could hide their
spiritual gifts. Leading an ascetic life and defying the accepted
proprieties, they could feel, as no one else, the vanity and transience of
earthly happiness.
At first many thought she was insane but
little by little they got used to her oddities like walking barefoot in the
snow and wearing strange clothes. Seeing that she was more than a beggar,
that she was special, they began calling her Xenia the Blessed.
The Lord gave Xenia many spiritual gifts. She sometimes knew what was going
to happen before it happened, and she could also heal the sick. Those Xenia
prayed for did a lot better. If people had a problem and didn’t know what
God wanted them to do, she could tell them. If she appeared in a
marketplace, the sellers knew trade would be good that day. Each seller
tried to lure her in by offering her something to eat or some knickknack. If
she refused, they might as well close their shops and go home because there
would be no trade at all. Just by looking at people, Xenia could tell if
they were kind or malicious. She kept away from dishonest and greedy
sellers, and seeing their profits plummeting, they did their best to
improve. Word about Xenia’s self-sacrifice, her kindness and modesty, her
pure Christian life, spread far across St. Petersburg. People began looking
upon her as a holy woman. They invited her to their homes – and blessed was
the house she set her foot in.
In the 1780s people of St. Petersburg were building
a church named after the Icon of Our Lady of Vladimir. When the workmen came
every morning, they were surprised to see the hardest part of their work
already done, and they wondered who was that kind helper that came at night
and carried heavy bricks they needed for the next day’s work to the top of
the church. Soon they found out it was Xenia the Blessed.
Before reposing she asked everyone to pray for her.
“And I will pray for those who won’t pray for
me,”
she added.
Being grateful for other people’s kindness is far more difficult than asking
for help. But the fond memories of Xenia the Blessed have never faded. Until
this day she is noted for her divine intercessions in helping those in need
of help.
In 1875, when the then Russian czar Alexander III
was seriously ill, St. Xenia came to his wife in a dream and foretold his
speedy recovery and the birth of their daughter. Alexander recovered and
soon their daughter was born whom they named Xenia. In the summer of 1894
she got married and moved to live with her husband. A month later Alexander
died.
Pilgrims from all over Russia still come to a tiny
chapel built near St. Xenia’s grave. In the 80s of the last century she was
officially canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church. St. Blessed Mother
Xenia of Petersburg is commemorated on February 6th.
