Kuksha Odessa life. Rev. Kuksha of Odessa: Life, Miracles, Prayers

Rev. Kuksha was born on January 12 (25 NST) in 1875 in the village of Arbuzinka, Kherson district, Nikolaev province, with the pious parents of Cyril and Kharitina, and was named in holy baptism Kosmoy. Cosmas was born and grew up in those distant times when the Orthodox people walked on pilgrimage to the Kiev Pechersk saints, and to the Lavra of St. Sergius of Radonezh, and to the far north - to the Valaam and Solovetsky monastery, and to worship the Holy Sepulcher in the Holy Land .
   In those days, there was also a pious custom: if one of the children devoted himself to a monastic life, his parents considered it a special honor, this was a sign of God's special mercy. Cosma Haritin's mother in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. Kharitina prayed to God that at least one of her children was able to strive in monastic rank.
   Cosma from a young age loved prayer and solitude. Ever since his youth, the saint had compassion for people, especially for the sick and suffering. For this, the enemy of the salvation of man has fought against him all his life. The following event of his adolescent years is known. Cosma had a cousin possessed by an unclean spirit. Cosma went with him to an old man who cast out demons. The old man healed the young man, and Kosme said: “For the fact that you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted for life.” The monk's whole life was the fulfillment of this prophecy.
   In 1895, Cosma went with pilgrims to the Holy Land. Having lived in Jerusalem for six months, having examined all the holy places in Palestine, Cosma visits the holy Mount Athos on the return journey. Here he was especially inflamed with the desire to work as a monk. The Queen of Heaven called him to Her earthly destiny - Saint Athos - to serve God. However, before that it was necessary to return home and receive the blessing of the parents.
   Mother with joy and thanksgiving to God accepted the decision of her son. He had to persuade his father for a long time to tearfully beg, after which he released his son with the words: “Let him go, God bless him!”
   Parting on the road, Kharitina blessed Cosmas with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in a small old wooden icon case, with which the monk did not leave his whole life, and which was laid to him in the grave after his death.
In 1896, Cosmas arrived in Athos and entered as a novice in the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery. He zealously performed the obedience of the prosphorist assigned to him by the abbot of the monastery.
   In 1897, the mother of Cosma Kharitin went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. When the ship with the travelers made a stop off the coast of Athos Kharitin, she asked in writing the abbot of the monastery to bless visiting the Holy Land and Cosmas. The blessing was received - so the blessed parent offering thanks to God once again saw her son.
   Two miraculous events took place in Jerusalem with Komsommo, which foreshadowed the future life of the saint.
   When the travelers were at the Shiloam font, the following happened. Cosma very close stood at the source, and someone accidentally touched it, and he suddenly fell into the water in his clothes. There was a custom to plunge into the water of the Siloam font for all pilgrims, especially barren women. The one who was the first to plunge into the water, the Lord granted childbirth. People began to laugh, saying that Cosma will now have many children. But these words turned out to be prophetic, since the saint subsequently really had many spiritual children.
   When the pilgrims were in the church of the Resurrection, they really wanted to anoint themselves with oil from the lamps that burned at the Holy Sepulcher. Then the Angel of the Lord, invisibly overturning the middle lamp, poured out all the oil on Cosma. People quickly surrounded Kosma and, gathering their hands with oil flowing down his clothes from the oil, reverentially anointed them. This event foreshadowed the fact that subsequently the grace of God, abundantly resting on the reverend, would be transmitted through it to people.
   A year after these events, Cosmas was sent for one and a half years to carry, in order of priority, obedience at the Holy Sepulcher. Returning to Mount Athos, Cosmas was appointed to obedience of the guesthouse to a strange reception for pilgrims, where he worked for 11 years. By diligently fulfilling this obedience for such a long time, Cosma acquired a benevolent patience and true humility.
Soon, the novice of Cosmas was tonsured to the Riasophore with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1904, became a monk, and was named Xenophon. Bringing His chosen one to spiritual perfection. The Lord prepares Xenophon lots for serving the suffering world. In the years 1912-1913. on Mount Athos, for the shortest time, the so-called "name-worshiping" or "im-Slavic" heresy - unrest. Of course, about. Xenophon had nothing to do with this heresy but the Greek authorities, fearing the spread of unrest, demanded the departure of many innocent Russian monks from Athos, including about. Xenophon.
   In 1913, the Athos monk Xenophon became the inhabitant of the Kiev-Pechersk Assumption Monastery. During the First World War, along with other monks, he was sent to the difficult obedience of his brother of mercy on the ambulance train that ran along the Kiev-Lviv line. At that time, rare spiritual qualities and virtues manifested in him: patience, compassion and love in the service of the seriously ill and wounded.
   Upon returning to Lavra, Fr. Xenophon carried obedience in the Far Caves: he reigned and lit the lamps over the holy relics, re-exposed the holy relics, and monitored cleanliness and order. I really wanted to accept the scheme, but he was refused because of age.
   Years passed. At 56, he suddenly became seriously ill, as they thought, was hopeless. It was decided to immediately tonsure the dying man in the schema. On April 8, 1931, when he was tonsured, they named him the holy martyr Kuksha, whose relics are in the Near Caves. After the tonsure, Father Kuksha began to recover and soon recovered completely - the Lord extended the days of his earthly life to serve people to save them.
   April 3, 1934 Kuksha was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and on May 3 of the same year - to the rank of hieromonk. After the closing of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the priest served until 1938 in Kiev in the church on the Resurrection Slobodka. And since 1938, a difficult eight-year confession has begun for Father Kuksha - he, as a “minister of worship,” is sentenced to 5 years in camps in the city of Vilma, Molotov Region, and after serving this term, to 5 years of exile.
   So at the age of 63 about. Kuksha found himself in grueling logging operations. In the spring of 1943, at the end of his sentence, Father Kuksha was released on the feast of St. George the Victorious, and he went to exile in the Solikamsk region, in a village near Kungur. Taking blessings from the bishop in Solikamsk, he often performed divine services in a neighboring village.
In 1947, after completing his eight-year confessional feat, Fr. Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where he carried obedience to a candle in the Near Caves.
   On about. Kuksha, skilled and experienced in spiritual life, who has imprinted fidelity to Christ through various trials, purged by bearing sorrows, deprivations and persecutions, the Lord lays the feat of service to suffering humanity by spiritual nourishment of people - old age.
   The elder never condemned the sinners and did not shun them, but on the contrary, always accepted them with compassion. He said: “I myself am a sinner and I love sinners. There is no man on earth who does not sin. The Lord is one without sin, and we are all sinners. ” Confession was his main obedience all his life, and everyone sought to confess with him and receive soul-giving advice and edification.
   The atheistic power irritated and frightened the life of the saint of God. He was constantly pursued and driven by her. In 1951 Kuksha’s father is transferred from Kiev to the Pochaev Holy Assumption Lavra. The Blessed Virgin Mary, whom the Monk has loved so much all his life, receives His chosen one in the place where She miraculously appeared in antiquity.
   And here, in Pochaev, hundreds of people stood in line for confession. The popular love of the old man can be judged by the following event. Kuksha, according to the Athos custom, has only been wearing boots all his life. From many long feats, he had deep venous wounds on his legs. Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst on his leg, and his boot was filled with blood. He was taken to his cell, put to bed. The hegumen Joseph, famous for his healings, came (in the schema Amphilochius), examined his leg and said: “Get ready, father, home,” i.e. to die - and left. A week later, the abbot again came to about. Kukshe, examined the almost wound on his leg and exclaimed in amazement: “They prayed for spiritual children!”
   At the end of April 1957, after a two-month stay in the gate, which the hierarchy defines for him “to improve the ascetic life and to carry out the highest schematic feat”, the old man at Holy Passion Week of Great Lent is transferred to the Epiphany Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian.
In a small St. John the Theologian monastery it was very quiet and simple. The arrival of the elder Kuksha in this monastery was beneficial for her - the spiritual life of the brethren came to life. Just as the sheep hurry after the shepherd, wherever he goes, so the good shepherd, the elder Kuksha, spiritual children flocked here to the quiet abode of the apostle of love, and the people of God followed them. All day long, pilgrims dragged along the mountain trail - some uphill, others towards. Mostly funds transferred about. Kuksha, which he immediately gave to the monastery, increased the construction of the monastery. In spite of his senile weakness, he himself felt good here. He often repeated: “Here I am at home, here I am on Athos! Down below, the gardens are blooming, like olives on Mount Athos. Athos is here! ”
   But by the end of his life, the old man again suffered a lot of evil, sorrows and persecutions from the atheistic power. The enemy of the human race does not tolerate the well-being and prosperity of the Holy Church. In the early 60s. a new wave of persecution of the Church begins: churches, monasteries, and spiritual schools are closing. The Holy Apostle Paul says that “all who want to live a pious life about Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim. 3:12). Godless authority was fiercely hatred of spiritual authority, universal veneration and popular love, which possessed the old man Kuksha.
   In 1960 closed the Chernivtsi nunnery. The nuns were transferred to the St. John the Theological Monastery in Khreshchatyk, the monks were sent to the Pochaev Lavra, and the father Kuksha to the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, where he spent the last 4 years of his suffering ascetic life. But “all who love God will go in for good” (Rom. 8:28). Thus, thanks to the movement of the priest through various monasteries, the sheep of the flock of Christ of the entire south of the country were fed by the blessed elder.
   In the Holy Assumption Monastery about. Kuksha was defined as obedience to profess people and to help remove particles from prosphora during a proskomedia.
   Despite the prohibition of the authorities to visit the holy elder, people here did not lose his spiritual nourishment. Father Kuksha was very fond of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow and All Russia. Alexy I came to Odessa Monastery every year in the summer. The patriarch always invited the blessed old man “for a cup of tea”, liked to talk with him, asked how things were in Jerusalem and on Mount Athos in the good old days.
Having gone through the earthly field, having undergone all temptations, breathing out from the depths of his soul: “Turn, my soul, to your peace, as the Lord blessed thee” (Psalm 114: 6), Monk Kuksha on December 11 (24), 1964, passed away to the Lord, in the villages “even all righteous ones rest”, offering prayers there for all those who resort to his prayerful intercession.
   The image of Father Kuksha is close to the image of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov. Father Seraphim said to one of the monks: "Take hold of the spirit of peace, and then thousands will be saved near you." Around the elder Kuksha, who acquired this “spirit is peaceful," thousands of people were truly saved, for peace of mind with God is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul testifies of this, saying: “The spiritual fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, mercy, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal.5: 22,23).

The material was prepared by Vera Sautkina

Binder thread

Many people in their lives encountered phenomena that convinced them that there was an invisible connection in the world that instantly connected people not only living in different ends of the earth, but also already dead, who were in another world. For believers, this connection is obvious, and they truly know that all their distant and close ones are bound by Orthodoxy. If one of them needs help, he knows that by turning with faith and hope to the Lord, he will receive help through good people, pastors of the Church and its saints who work hard, making this our invisible connection with God.
   From time to time, a new bright star rises in the church horizon, another candle is delivered to the priestess of Orthodoxy. We feel the special mercy of the Lord to us when our relationship with the saints is so close that people who personally knew them, communicated with them and received help from hand to hand, still live and live.
So in the St. Nicholas Church in Pushkino, Moscow Region, Father Alexy serves, who visited Elder Kuksha several times in Odessa. Father Kuksha had terrible wounds on his legs, and Father Alexy brought him from Siberia healing and at that time very scarce sea buckthorn oil. Wife Fr. Alexia looked after the old man, changing his bandages on his legs and lubricating the wounds with oil. On their second date, Kuksha asked Fr. Alexia pray for him after his death. Father Alexy served then in Siberia, and knowing all the difficulties in connection with Odessa from him at that time, he was very surprised and asked how he knew about his death. Kuksha replied that he would be informed. And indeed, despite the obstacles, Fr. Alexy immediately knew everything. Fulfilling the will of the father, Fr. Alexy earnestly prayed for Kuksha who had reposed to Lord.
   For more than thirty years, Rev. Kuksha of Odessa (+1964) has been working hard at the Throne of God, realizing such a spiritual connection that we all need. Thanks to those spiritual children who still live here on earth, our communication is more visible and tangible.
   The Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church at its meeting of October 4, 1994, having carefully studied the materials and testimonies of the ascetic activity of Sheikhumen Kuksha (Velichko), about the sanctity of life and the long-standing veneration of the old man by the people of God, represented by the Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Agafangel, decided to rank the locals of the saints of the Orthodox Church, sheikhumen Kukshu (Velichko), who in the last years of his life labored in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery.
   Father Kuksha is considered a locally revered saint, but for him, the boundaries defined and disputed here on earth no longer exist. He hurries to help where he is asked about it.
   Far from Odessa, near Moscow, father Alexy funerals his only daughter with his mother dying of grief. No one is familiar with each other and does not specifically ask for anything. As if by chance, forty days after the death of her daughter, a mother from Pushkino falls into the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery on the grave of the then not-glorified priest Kuksha. And a miracle happened - the mother, earnestly asking for her daughter, herself left the grave with the world that first settled in her soul. From this day on, her desire and strength to live on ...
Arriving home, she began to talk about Kuksha. These stories left a mark in the soul of the woman who buried her husband in Odessa. The next visit to his grave, she decided to visit the father of Kuksha. It so happened that she visited there after his glorification. Her legs hurt severely, her veins were swollen from thrombophlebitis, and she, completely exhausted, fell to the cancer with holy relics and whispered: “Kuksha, help!” Only in Moscow, having descended to the platform and running towards her son, she realized that she was healed: the tumor disappeared , the veins became normal, the pain is gone! Then the woman did not yet know the life of the father Kuksha, who suffered severely from thrombophlebitis ... Having learned more about his life, she was able to tell others about the miracle that struck her consciousness.
   The grain fell on the plowed land. In the spring of 1996, her story again, as if by chance, was heard by Alla Alexandrovna Shukshentseva, the singer of the St. Nicholas Church in Pushkino. A few days after what she heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief - her husband has gangrene of legs, amputation is inevitable. Alla Alexandrovna told her about Kuksha and his special mercy to those suffering from foot disease. We went to about. Alexy, who advised them to order a Kuksha moleben. Meanwhile, the patient has already been transferred to surgery in Moscow. Everything was ready for amputation, but doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “A miracle saved you,” the doctors said to the patient, who, of course, did not know anything about Kuksha or the prayer service ordered. So Vladimir Ivanovich Makarov, through his believing wife, got the opportunity to walk again and enjoy life! Thus, the locally revered Ukrainian saint Kuksha, despising the borders, helps both Ukrainians and Russians!
   In the last year of his father’s life, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I blessed him to come to the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra on the feast of finding the relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh. At the end of the festive Liturgy, when the priest left the Holy Trinity Church, he was surrounded on all sides, asking for blessings. He blessed people for a long time on all sides and humbly asked to let him go. But the people did not let the old man go. Only after a long time, he finally, with the help of other monks, hardly reached the cells.

Archive of the newspaper Pyatnitskoe Compound

Rev. Kuksha of Odessa
(1875-1964)

“Grace is not just the righteousness for which the righteous are honored with the enjoyment of bliss in the Kingdom of God, but such a height of righteousness that people are so filled with the grace of God that it flows from them to those who associate with them. Great is their bliss that comes from seeing the glory of God. Being filled with love for people, arising from love for God, they are responsive to human needs and their prayers, and are also representatives for them before God. ”

Blessed John (Maksimovich)

Rev. Kuksha (Kosma Velichko) was born on January 12/25, 1875 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson district, Nikolaev province, in a large family of pious parents Kirill and Kharitina. His mother dreamed of becoming a nun in her youth, but she got married at the insistence of her parents. Haritina fervently prayed to God, asking that one of her children be able to strive to work in a monastic rank. By the grace of God, the youngest son, Cosma, rushed to God with all his soul from childhood, from a young age he fell in love with prayer and solitude, in his free time he read St. Gospel.

In 1896, Cosma, receiving a parental blessing, retired to the holy Mount Athos, where he was accepted as a novice to the Russian monastery of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon.

In 1897, Cosma, receiving the blessing of the abbot of the monastery, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem, when the pilgrims were at the Shiloam font, someone accidentally touched Kosma, who was close to the source,. The lad fell into the water first. Many infertile women sought to enter the font among the first, because according to legend: the Lord granted childbirth to the one who was the first to plunge into the water. After this event, the pilgrims began to poke fun at Cosma, saying that he would have many children. These words were prophetic - the elder Kuksha subsequently really had many spiritual children.

In the church of the Resurrection of Christ, another significant event took place: in Kosma, according to the providence of God, the middle lamp was overturned. All believers wanted to anoint themselves with oil from the lamps that burned at the Holy Sepulcher, people surrounded the lad and gathered hands with the oil flowing down his clothes, reverentially anointed him.

A year after returning from Jerusalem to Athos Cosmas, he was fortunate enough to once again visit the Holy Land, he was honored one and a half years to bear obedience at the Holy Sepulcher. Soon, the novice of Cosmas was tonsured to the Riasophore with the name Konstantin, and on March 23, 1904, became a monk, and was named Xenophon. According to the providence of God, the lad had to comprehend the basics of monastic life for 16 years in the monastery of St. Great Martyr Panteleimon, under the guidance of the spiritual mentor Elder Melchizedek, who worked as a hermit in the mountains. Subsequently, the ascetic recalled: “Until 12 at night in obedience, and at 1 o’clock in the morning he fled to the desert to the old man Melchizedek to learn to pray.”

Once, while standing in prayer, the elder and his spiritual son heard in the night silence the approaching of the wedding procession: the clatter of horse hooves, playing the harmonica, cheerful singing, laughter, whistling ...

  - Father, where is the wedding from?

  - It’s the guests who are going, we must meet them.

The elder took a cross, holy water, a rosary and, leaving the cell, sprinkled holy water around it. Reading the baptismal troparion, he dawned on the cross on all sides - it immediately became quiet, as if there was no noise.

Under his wise nourishment, the monk Xenophon was able to acquire all monastic virtues and excelled in spiritual work. Despite the fact that Xenophon was an outwardly illiterate person, he barely knew how to read and write, he knew the holy Gospel and Psalter, performed the church service as a keepsake, never making a mistake.

In 1913, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including about. Xenophon. On the eve of departure about. Xenophon ran to his spiritual father:

  - Father, I won’t go anywhere! I’ll lie down under a boat or under a stone and die here on Athos!

  “No, child,” the elder objected, “so God wants you to live in Russia, you have to save people there.” - Then he brought him out of his cell and asked: - Do you want to see how the elements submit to man?

  - I want, father.

  - Then look. - The elder crossed the dark night sky, and it became light, crossed again - it curled like bark, and Fr. Xenophon saw the Lord in all glory and surrounded by a host of angels and all the saints, he covered his face with his hands, fell to the ground and shouted: “Father, I am scared!”

After a moment, the elder said:

  - Get up, do not be afraid.

Kuksha's father rose from the earth - the sky was ordinary, stars still flickered on it. The Divine consolation received before leaving Athos during the difficult years supported Fr. Xenophon.

In 1913, the Athos monk Xenophon became the inhabitant of the Kiev-Pechersk Assumption Monastery. In 1914, during the First World War, Fr. Xenophon for 10 months was a “brother of mercy” in the medical train “Kiev-Lviv”, and, returning to the Lavra, he carried obedience in the Far Caves; tucked and lit lamps in front of the holy relics, re-exposed the holy relics ...

From the recollections of the elder Kuksha: “I really wanted to accept the schema, but as a young man (40 years old), they refused my desire. And then one night I re-exposed the relics in the Far Caves. When I reached the holy relics of the schema Silvanus, I changed clothes, took them on my hands and, kneeling in front of his cancer, began to pray earnestly to him that the saint of God would help me to receive tonsure for the schema. ” And so, kneeling and holding the holy relics in his hands, he fell asleep in the morning.

Dream about. Xenophon came true a few years later: on April 8, 1931, a terminally ill ascetic was tonsured a schema. When tonsured received the name Kuksha, in honor of the holy martyr Kuksha, whose relics are in the Near Caves. After tonsuring Fr. Kuksha began to recover quickly and soon recovered.

On April 3, 1934, Kuksha's father was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and a month later, to the rank of hieromonk. After the closure of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Hieromonk Kuksha served until 1938 in Kiev, in the church on Voskresenskaya Slobodka. One had to have great courage to serve as a priest at that time. In 1938, the ascetic was convicted, was serving a five-year term in the camps of the city of Vilma, Molotov Region, then spent three years in exile. In the camps, convicts were forced to work 14 hours a day, receiving very scarce food “to comply with the norm” in grueling logging operations. The sixty-year-old hieromonk patiently and graciously endured the camp life, tried to spiritually support the people around him.

The elder recalled: “It was on Easter. I was so weak and hungry, - the wind shook. And the sun is shining, the birds are singing, the snow has already begun to melt. I walk along the zone along the barbed wire, I feel unbearably hungry, and behind the wire the cooks are carried from the kitchen to the dining room for security guards on the heads of baking sheets with pies. Crows fly over them. I prayed: "Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the wilderness, bring me a piece of cake too." Suddenly I hear over my head: “Karrrr!” - and a pie fell at his feet - it was a raven who pulled it from the baking sheet by the cook. I lifted the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied my hunger. ”

In the spring of 1943, at the end of his sentence, hieromonk Kuksha was released on the feast of St. George the Victorious, and he went to exile in the Solikamsk region. Taking the blessing from the bishop in the city of Solikamsk, he often performed divine services in a neighboring village.

In 1947, the time of exile ended, the eight-year confessional feat ended. Hieromonk Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, here the feat of service to the afflicted began - old age. Elder Kuksha strengthens the unbelievers, encourages the grumbling, softens the fierce, through his prayers, believers receive spiritual and physical healing. Just as half a century earlier, in Jerusalem, pilgrims surrounded Kosma and tried to take the miraculously spilled oil from his lampstick to anoint them, so now an old string of people was waiting for Elder Kuksha in the monastery, waiting for God's help and grace.

Numerous testimonies of miracles of healing have been preserved through the prayer of the elder Kuksha, we will give only some of these testimonies:

A seriously ill A., who had to be removed, a malignant tumor that appeared on her forehead, came to the old man before the operation. Kuksha's father confessed the patient for a long time, then communed, gave her a metal cross, which he ordered to be pressed all the time to the tumor. The patient stayed in the monastery for 4 days, with the blessing of the elder, he communed daily, the cross with reverence pressed to his forehead. Upon returning home, I found that half of the tumor disappeared, white empty skin remained in its place, and two weeks later the second half of the tumor disappeared, the forehead turned white, cleansed, and there were no signs of cancer.

The elder healed one of his spiritual children from a mental illness that tormented her for a month — in absentia, after reading her letter asking him to pray for her. After the elder received her letter, she became completely healthy.

Elder Kuksha had from God the gift of spiritual reasoning and discernment of thoughts. He was a great visionary. Even the most secret feelings that people could hardly understand for themselves were revealed to him, but he understood and explained who they came from and where they came from. Many went to him to talk about their sorrows and ask for advice, and he, without waiting for an explanation, already met them with the right answer and spiritual advice. The elder never condemned the sinners and did not shun them, but on the contrary, always accepted them with compassion. He said: “I myself am a sinner and I love sinners. There is no man on earth who does not sin. The Lord is one without sin, and we are all sinners. ”

In 1951, Kuksha's father was transferred from Kiev to the Pochaev Holy Assumption Lavra. In Pochaev, the elder carried the obedience of the iconic one at the miraculous icon, when monks and pilgrims applied to it. In addition, about. Kuksha was supposed to profess people. He performed his duties with paternal care for all who came, lovingly exposing their vices, he warned against spiritual falls and impending troubles.

Once, a general, dressed in civilian clothes, arrived at the Pochaev Lavra and looked with curiosity, like Art. Kuksha professes. The elder called him to him and talked with him for a while. The general walked away from the old man, very pale, extremely excited and shocked, asking: “What kind of person is this? How does he know everything? He convicted my whole life! ”

According to the testimony of spiritual children, the elder Kuksha once named one man who had a wife and two children as a hieromonk. Subsequently, after the death of his wife, the man devoted his life to serving the Lord, a few years later he was ordained to the rank of hierodeacon, and then - to the rank of hieromonk.

One woman asked the elder Kuksha to bless her daughter M. to get married, the seer replied: “M. will never get married!” The woman tried to explain that the young people are already ready for the wedding, they only have to sew a dress, and after Easter they will get married, but the elder confidently repeated: “M. never get married. " A week before the wedding, M. suddenly had epileptic seizures (something that had not been observed with her before), and the frightened groom immediately left home. A few years later, M. adopted monasticism with the name of Galina, and her mother with the name of Vasilisa.

Another pious girl asked the priest to bless her for monasticism, but the elder blessed her for marriage. He told her to go home, saying that a seminarist was waiting for her there. The elder’s prediction came true, the girl soon married a seminarian. The spiritual daughter of the elder raised seven children, and raised them in love for God.

One spiritual daughter of the elder told that she really wanted to know how old Kuksha feels during the Divine Liturgy:

“Once, entering the cave temple, when about. Kuksha served the Divine Liturgy in him, I immediately felt a strong closeness of the soul to God, as if there were no one around, but only God and me. Each exclamation about. Kukshi exalted my soul “sorrow”, and filled it with such grace, as if I stood in heaven in the face of God Himself. My heart was childishly clean, unusually light, light and joyful. No extraneous thought bothered me or distracted me from God. I was in this state until the end of the liturgy. After the liturgy, everyone waited for Fr. Kuksha will leave the altar to take his blessing. I went up to my spiritual father. He blessed me and, holding both my hands tightly, led me behind, carefully looking into my eyes with a smile, or rather, through the eyes of the soul, as if trying to consider the state in which it was after such a pure prayer. I realized that the priest gave me the opportunity to experience the same holy bliss in which he himself always stayed during the Divine Liturgy. "

From the recollections of the spiritual daughter of the elder Kuksha:

Sometimes he blessed, putting both palms of his hands crosswise on my head, reading a prayer to himself, and I was filled with extraordinary joy and boundless love for God ... In this state, I stayed for three days.

The elder advised everyone not to approach the Holy Chalice with money so as not to “become like Judas,” and forbade priests to stand at the throne with money in their pockets and perform the Divine Liturgy.

Hundreds of people in the temple stood in line to him. He received many in his cell, not sparing himself and spending almost whole days without rest, despite his advanced age and senile diseases. He, according to the Athos custom, all his life he wore shoes only. From many long feats, he had deep venous wounds on his legs. Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst on his leg, and his boot was filled with blood. He was taken to his cell, put to bed. The abbot Joseph, famous for his healings, came (in the schema Amphilochius), examined his leg and said: “Get ready, father, home” (that is, die), and left. All the monks and laity prayed fervently with tears to the Mother of God for the gift of health to the dear and beloved old man. A week later, Abbot Joseph again visited the patient, examined an almost healed wound on his leg and exclaimed in amazement: “They prayed for spiritual children!”

At the end of April 1957, the old man in the Holy Week of Great Lent was transferred to the Khreshchatytsky St. John the Theologian Monastery of the Chernivtsi Diocese. With the advent of the elder Kuksha, the spiritual life of the brethren of the monastery came to life. Spiritual children flocked to the quiet abode of the apostle of love, with funds transferred to Fr. Kuksha, increased buildings in the monastery.

In 1960, the elder Kuksha was transferred to the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery. Here he was to spend the last four years of his ascetic life. In the Holy Assumption Monastery, the elder Kuksha was greeted with love by the inhabitants of the monastery. He was determined to obey the profession of people and to help remove particles from the prosphora during the proskomedia.

The old man got up early in the morning, read his prayer rule, tried to receive communion every day, he especially loved the early liturgy. Every day, going to the temple, the elder put on his Athos hair-coat of white horsehair under the clothes, which painfully pricked his whole body.

Kelia the old man in the monastery building adjoined directly to St. Nicholas Church. The novice of the cell-man was also settled with him, but the old man, despite the weaknesses of his old age, did not use outside help and said: “We are novices to ourselves until death.”

Once, with a joyful face, he said to his spiritual daughter: “The Mother of God wants to take me to herself.” In October 1964, the old man fell and broke his hip. Lying in such a condition on cold, damp earth, he caught a cold and fell ill with pneumonia. He never took medicine, calling the "church" the holy Church. Even suffering in a near-death illness, he also refused all medical help, only asked to receive Holy Communion of Christ Secrets every day.

The blessed ascetic foresaw his demise. The spiritual daughter of the elder, Scheme nun A., recalls:

The father sometimes said: “90 years - Kuksha is gone. They will bury them as they will, quickly, quickly, take spatulas and bury them ”... He died when he was about 90 years old.

Fearing the gathering of people at the funeral, the authorities demanded that the body of the deceased be taken home. The governor of the monastery replied that the monastery was the birthplace of the monk. Then the brethren took two hours to bury the old man.

The old man Kuksha said that after his death, believers should come to the grave, tell about sorrows and needs. Everyone who comes in faith to the place of his earthly repose, always received comfort, admonition, relief and healing from the disease through his pious prayers and intercession.

Ksenia Kibalchik's story: “These were the 50s, when Kuksha lived in the Pochaev Lavra. A nymphodore wanderer came to me, asked me to give her a feasible job and feed her for this. Here is what she told about herself:

She fell for confession to Kuksha’s father, told about herself that she had been in a monastery, in a commune, and married, and had not communed for 40 years ... ” After confession, she began to mourn her life with sincere repentance and bitter tears. Later, after seeing a crowd of people around Fr. Kuksha and those wishing to receive a blessing, realizing themselves unworthy to approach him, walked behind everyone. Suddenly he turns around, looks at her and tells her: “The Lord has forgiven, forgiven everything.”

So far about. Kuksha was in Pochaev, Nymphodora confessed only to him each time and, with his blessing, often communed. But in April 1957 he was suddenly transferred to the distant monastery of St. Apostle John the Theologian, and then it became difficult to get to him for confession. Nymphodora began to turn to the hieromonk, who was usually on duty at the Assumption Cathedral, but he didn’t allow Nymphodora to confess to her, she came without money every time. And so what happened to her once: having prepared for Holy Communion, she went to confess to the same hieromonk, and again was refused ... Then the Liturgy was coming to an end. Sang "Our Father ...". Participants approached the royal Gates, and Nymphodora stands and inconsolably cries about her unworthiness, in full confidence that the Lord Himself does not admit her to the Holy Cup. Her gaze turned to the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God in front of her ... Suddenly she sees through tears that the Chalice separates from the icon and slowly floats through the air directly to her. Approaching her lips, this full Chalice stops for a second, and Nymphodora takes a sip from the Chalice, and then the Chalice begins to rise through the air to the same icon, but, not reaching it, it blurs in the air and becomes invisible. Conscious of his unworthiness, Nymphodora is afraid for a moment to believe what a wonderful miracle of God's mercy was sent to her.

Soon after this event, some kind people invited Nymphodora to go with them to Father Kuksha, promising to cover all travel expenses. So they came to him. We entered his cell ... He, trying to caress everyone, pay attention to everyone, glances at Nymphodora from time to time and says to her with a smile: “You, Communion!”. She tries to object ... To her objection, he strictly answers:

Be quiet, I saw !!!

Here she already believed the truth of the miracle. "

When the elder was in the St. John the Theologian monastery, he sent his spiritual daughter V. to see the place where you can build a large building for many monks. She went and, through the old man’s prayers, found a good place on the mountain, directly above the monastery. Returning V. the elder said that there will be a large monastic corps, and that he should prepare a place. His prediction began to come true 30 years later: after the monastery was opened and returned, a new generation of monks, who did not know the elder and his prediction, began construction of the temple and the monastic corps at the very place in question.

In the fall of 1993, ”recalls one spiritual daughter of the elder,“ I went to the grave of Father Kuksha and saw many people who came from Moldova there. They said that one woman was seriously ill with a stomach. Taking the earth from the grave of the old man, she put it to her stomach, fell asleep. Waking up, she felt healed. A cancer patient, seventy-two-year-old M., a resident of Odessa, was also healed.

In 1995, by the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Elder Kuksha was canonized as a saint.

Prophecy of Rev. Kuksha of Odessa

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. +

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be upon you from our Lord Jesus Christ with Grace. For the letter I thank you, which I received not so long ago. God save you for not forgetting me a sinner. My dear sisters, I believe both in your grief and from the bottom of my heart I thank the Lord in everything, but it’s a pity that I can not save you from it. But endure my dear brothers and sisters, for thus our Heavenly God our Father appointed.

Know my dear sisters, that everything is sent from God, good and bad, and woeful. Take everything with joy, as at the hand of the Most High God, the Lord, do not be afraid God will not leave, He will never send you sorrow and grief beyond your strength, and will never put a heavy burden on you, but according to your strength and will give as much as you have enough strength.

Know my sisters, if your sorrow is great, then know that you have a lot of strength to bear it, and if it is small, then there is little grief for the transference. God will never put grief on you so that you are not without strength, but you bear one or another grief of a person, for time is approaching death, now the last chapter of the third book of the prophet Ezra is beginning to be fulfilled, death is rolling towards us quickly, oh, oh my sisters, what time is coming that you do not want to live in this world.

And here, terrible disasters, fire, hunger, death, destruction and destruction are coming to earth. And who can avert them. If it is appointed by the Lord for the sins of people and this time is already near now, here. And do not listen to anyone who says that there will be peace, there is no peace and there will not be one.

The war and immediately thereafter is a strong, refreshing hunger, look where everything will disappear at once, there will be nothing to eat, and here doom, doom and doom, everyone will be driven to the east, men and women, but not one soul will come back from there, everyone will die there. Terrible and great will be the death of hunger. And those who remain from hunger will die from pestilence, from a pestilence, and this contagious disease will be impossible to cure. The holy prophet said and wrote in vain: "Woe, woe, and woe to you is our land." One grief will pass, the second will come, the second will pass, the third will come, and so on. Oh, our goodness.

Know dear sisters, that now God has put an end to all earthly blessings. Verily, verily, I tell you that now it is no longer possible to marry and get married, because these are the days of the Lord. These days God gave us only for repentance, for carnal repentance, and not for feasting and weddings, not for obedience and drunkenness, and festivities. This is all we must leave. We should pray day and night in the tears and sobs of the True God for our sins and ask Him for mercy and forgiveness at His Last Judgment. For all these calamities will come the Great and Glorious “Day”. And the Last Day, the Last Judgment of God.

The scripture says that the elect of God will know, that is, God can reveal to them the year and month of the end of the world, but no one knows only the day and time, but only God knows. Oh, what a terrible time is coming to us. Oh God forbid to see him, from the creation of the world there has not yet been such what it will be right now and there will never be such a time again. Lord Yes, who does not fear you Lord.

Listen to my brothers and sisters, and know what I will tell you.

That God has prepared such a "hole" for the world that there is no bottom in it. And all those outcasts of God, He will put there in this "pit." ABOUT! God forbid, Lord have mercy! I’ll tell you directly, not hiding from you, that God personally revealed this to me personally. Verily, verily, I tell you, I am not deceiving that there is a terrible sin to tell a lie. God save me now to think about marriage and marriage, now not only to speak, but also to think it is impossible, sinful. This is a terrible sin, not only young and girls cannot be married and married, but even all spouses living before this time, legally living together, cannot touch each other, in short, to live according to the flesh. God save you, and God forbid. Save and have mercy. There was a time we lived and God blessed, but now all of this has come to an end.

But the people of this world will do and do this until the very end. They will do lawlessness. And for this they will fly into a bottomless pit, into hell and eternal fire, because they do not know that this cannot be done. The Lord has not revealed everything that I write. My dear brothers and sisters, for the people of this world this is all a secret, I feel sorry for everyone that they know nothing of this, and they don’t want to know. It is very unfortunate that people walk like blind people and do not see a bottomless pit in front of them, that, behold, they will soon fly into it.

With all my heart and soul, I thank the True God for the fact that He mercifully announced this to me and showed everything, everything that should be soon. But the Lord does not give everyone the joy that He gave me to see the great sinner. Give Him thanks and praise forever and ever! Amen.

People say goodbye to earthly goods, for no one will ever live. Amen, amen.

Save yourself, O Lord, cherish the precious time given to us for the acquisition of eternal life, adorning ourselves with the works of mercy and love for our neighbors, obey the Gospel commandments, the time has come, the Great Cathedral will soon be called “Holy”, but it will be the “Eighth Great Council,” the cathedral of the wicked. It will unite all faiths into one faith. Holy posts will be abolished, bishops will be married, monasticism will be completely destroyed, there will be a new style everywhere. In the whole Ecumenical Church.

Be careful and try to visit the Temple of God now, while it is still ours. And soon, soon we will not be allowed to go to the Temple. There, when everything will change and they will even drive to the Temples, but then you can’t walk. We ask you all to stand in the Orthodox faith, to the end of your days and your life, and be saved. Peace and salvation be upon us willows forever. Amen. The blessing of the Lord from the mountain of St. Pochaev, Grace and peace of God, may it be with you. Amen.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Children of Christ our God! Why are there no fears of God and faith in God in the souls of men! Because people left prayer and love left human hearts. But the devil came in and with his fury and darkened all spiritual love, was replaced by evil, and the joy of God was replaced by cunning, crafty merriment, and the peace of God left us and departed. The grace of God we have trampled. And there is no peace and quiet in our hearts, and a large ice floe has closed our souls. Instead of simplicity, greed appeared, instead of the wisdom of God, envy appeared, instead of Christ's kindness, hatred. Instead of the Grace of God, lies and deception reigns in people. There is no fear and no God. In all, the fire of the enemy lives and the hiss is serpentine. The Lord will not tolerate these machinations of enemies for a long time.

Children do not be poor and naked and blind, and beggars, and hypocrites before the Lord God. Dress better in the clothes of good deeds and enlighten yourself by enlightening the mind and mind of Christ. Be humble and do not anger God's wisdom. Children do not destroy your souls and do not give them power to the spirits of wickedness under heaven. The end comes to all and you stand on the Divine guard as the soldiers of Christ, looking at the leader of the world, at the Lord, be victorious on guard of your souls, so that the victory is God's, and not enmity.

Voluntarily go to the suffering feat, there is nothing to wait, it's all over. Protect yourself from the delights of the devil, if bodily hunger befalls you, then renounce everything, from the evil world. But if spiritual hunger befalls the human soul, this is terrible, it is the eternal destruction of hell and tartar. See do not renounce the Lord God and very scary to renounce the Lord and get forever in the clutches of the devil, for eternal reproach, oh scary, oh scary and very scary. Children enjoy my words, for my lips will soon be closed and there will be no verb, the Lord in every way comforts you, and exhorts and convicts. But soon, all over. Wait for a new service and a new charter, wait, and while you partake more often of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

And often bring repentance for your sins, cleanse yourself of leprosy, of all passions, bodily, and all endure adventures with joy, for we will soon be free from this earthly life and go into eternity, into endless joy, if we endure and endure, do not resist nowhere. In this lies the foundation of our Orthodox faith, when a person has firmness and hope in the Lord, then he is not afraid of anything and he waits every day and hour, how soon he will be separated from the sinful body and the world in order to achieve eternal Bliss. And whoever left the prayer and love for his neighbor, he tries only here and for him it seems a long time.

But Christ said through the Apostle Paul: “Lift up your chapters, for the day of your salvation has come.” Everything, like rubbish will disappear in this world of vanity, only what we deserve, we will receive, good or evil, unclean and bad, will be ours . The judge of a righteous person attracts himself every minute so that the person understands and sees the Light, but the person loves darkness more than the Light, and does not want to understand about the Light, does not even want to understand about God and remains an endless captive of the devil, and he attracts people by his evil power.

There is no prayer and fasting, and all have lost the Light of God and have trampled and go without looking back into pitch darkness. All the merciful God do not want to call, and even do not want to think about Him. And for this, the Lord prepared for the sinful world "The bottomless pit" People have no humility and closed-hearted repentance, conscience, and conscience sleeps as a sinful dream and a person like dirty cattle makes sense for virtue, and considers nothing for virtue.

Children do not seek much, and do not go deep into the depths. If you need anything, ask God and you will be. May the justice of God be with you. Jesus Christ teaches us and He will guide us and set us on all the truth, and teach us everything, and remind us of everything and what we need to come forward and will give us strength and strength, Grace and fear of God and the help and spirit of Holy Wisdom, joy, strength and blessed comfort. Just do not repay His Holy Name in your hearts. Always remember Jesus Christ. It will be easy for Him to crucify you when the spirit of malice comes in all its fury, and then nothing will frighten you. The Lord will live in you, and you in Him will always be with the Lord.

Say Jesus Prayer Endlessly.   Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.

Troparia to the Monk Kuksha of Odessa,  voice 4

From youth, the worlds cunning and crafty left you, / Divine from above enlightened with grace, most reverent, / with many patience in temporary life, you made a feat, / even exude miracles of grace to all with faith coming to your race of your relics, / Kuksho, our blessed father.

Shiigumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson Province (now Nikolaev Region), into a pious peasant family of Cyril and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Cosmas (future father of Kuksha), John and Mary.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God so that one of her children would be honored to strive in a monastic rank.

Cosmas from a young age loved silence and solitude, had great compassion for people. He had a cousin, possessed by an unclean spirit. Cosma went with him to an old man who cast out demons. The old man healed the young man, and Kosme said: “For the fact that you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted for life.”

At the age of 20, Cosma first went on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited the Holy Mount Athos. Here the soul of a young man was kindled by the desire to serve God in an angelic image. But before he returned home for parental blessing.

Arriving in Russia, Cosma visited the Kiev miracle worker Jonah, known for his insight. Blessing the youth, the old man touched his head with a cross and suddenly said: “I bless you in the monastery! You will live on Athos! ”

Cyril Velichko did not immediately agree to let his son go to the monastery. And the mother of the father, having received her husband’s permission, blessed her child with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with great joy, with whom the saint did not leave her whole life, and which was laid to him in the grave after death.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Mount Athos and entered as a novice in the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery.

A year later, the abbot blessed him with his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, with Kosma, two wonderful events took place that served as signs of his future.

There is a Shiloam font in Jerusalem. There is a custom to plunge into this source to all pilgrims, especially infertile women, and according to legend, who will have time to plunge into the water first, will have a child.

Cosma and her mother also went to plunge into the Siloam font. It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him from the steps, and he suddenly fell first in the water right in his clothes. Women shouted with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water. But this was a sign from above that Kuksha's father would have many spiritual children. He always said: "I have a thousand spiritual children."

The second sign happened in Bethlehem. Having worshiped the birthplace of Christ the Divine Infant, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly, one lamp fell miraculously overturned on Cosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and with their hands collected holy oil from him. Thus, the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha many people will receive divine grace.

A year after arriving from Jerusalem on Mount Athos, he was blessed to once again be in the Holy City and to obey the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon returning to Mount Athos on March 28, 1902, the novice of Cosmas was tonsured to the Riasophore with the name Constantine, and on March 23, 1905, became a monk and was named Xenophon. His spiritual father was the elder ascetic Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit and was a monk of high spiritual life.

In 1912–1913, due to irregularities on Mount Athos, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including the future saint. “So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” said his spiritual father.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Here on May 3, 1934 he was ordained a hieromonk.

The father really wanted to accept the great schema, but in his youth, he was refused his desire. Somehow, while revealing the relics in the Far Caves, the reverend prayed to the holy schemoman Siluan to accept the schema. And at the age of 56, Father Xenophon suddenly became seriously ill - they thought they were hopeless. The dying man was tonsured into a great schema and named after him the holy martyr Kuksha Pechersky. Soon after the tonsure, Kuksha's father began to recover, and then completely recovered.

These were years of severe persecution of the Orthodox Church. When the wave of self-sacred schisms touched the Lavra, Kuksha's father was an example to others in filial fidelity to the canons of the Mother Church.

Once, her former inhabitant Metropolitan Seraphim arrived from Poltava to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, who before his death wished to visit his beloved monastery and say goodbye to her. When Father Kuksha approached him for a blessing, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Oh, old man, you have been prepared a place in these caves for a long time!”

In 1938, a ten-year confessional feat of arms began for the priest. He, as a “minister of worship,” is sentenced to five years in camps in the city of Vilva, Molotov Region, and after serving this term, to five years of exile. So at the age of 63 years, Kuksha's father was sent to grueling logging. They worked 14 hours a day, receiving very scarce and poor food.

At that time, Bishop Anthony lived in Kiev, who knew Father Kuksha well and appreciated his virtues. Once, Vladyka, under the guise of crackers, was able to transfer 100 particles of dry Gifts to the monk's camp so that Father I could receive Communion. But how could he alone consume the Holy Gifts when many priests, monks and nuns who had been imprisoned for many years were deprived of this comfort?

All of them were notified in great secret, and on the appointed day, the prisoner priests in epitrachils made of towels, quickly and quietly from the convoy, on the way to work, resolved the sins of the monks and nuns and indicated where the particles of the Holy Gifts were hidden. So one morning in the camp communed 100 people. For many, this was the last Communion in their long-suffering life ...

Another wonderful event happened in the camp with the priest. At Easter, Kuksha's father, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew over them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of cake too!” And suddenly I heard “Karrrr!” Above his head, and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was a raven who pulled him from the baking sheet by the cook. Father raised the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied his hunger.

In 1948, after the conclusion and exile, the father of Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and was received with great joy by the brethren. Hardened in the crucible of suffering, the priest began to carry here the feat of old age, feeding many believers. For this, the KGBists ordered the ecclesiastical authorities to transfer the elder from Kiev to somewhere far away, in a remote place.

In 1953, Kuksha's father was transferred to the Holy Assumption Pochaev Lavra. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon case of the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and for three years he served the early liturgy in the Cave Church and professed people.

Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst on his leg. A full boot of blood was poured. Abbot Joseph, famous for his miraculous healings, came to examine his sore leg (in the schema Amphilochius, now canonized). The diagnosis was disappointing: "Get ready, father, home," that is, die.

All the monks and laity prayed fervently with tears to the Mother of God for the gift of health to the dear and beloved old man. A week later, Abbot Joseph again came to Kuksha’s father and, seeing an almost-healed wound, exclaimed in amazement: “They prayed for spiritual children!”

The spiritual daughter of the father told me that once, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy by the father of Kuksha, she saw in the altar of the cave temple a magnificent husband, his fellow man. When she informed Father Kuksha about this, he said that it was Rev. Job Pochaevsky, who always served with him, and strictly ordered no one to reveal this secret until his death.

So the elder’s life went on in the Pochaev monastery, but here the enemy of the human race raised persecution against him, and in order to protect the priest from attacks by haters, Bishop Evmeniy of Chernivtsi transferred him to the St. John the Theological Monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk of the Chernivtsi diocese in 1957. The years of life here were quiet and calm for Kuksha's father. But in 1960, nuns from the disbanded Chernivtsi Nunnery were moved here.

After these events, Kuksha’s father moved to the Odessa Holy Assumption Patriarchal Monastery, which became the last marina in his wanderings. Here the confession became the main obedience of the elder. He took communion every day, very fond of the early liturgy. He said: "The early liturgy is for the ascetics, the late is for the fasts."

Many remembered how during lunch Father Kuksha picked up a small portrait of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, who was standing on a table in a frame, kissed him and said: “We are drinking tea with His Holiness”. His words were prophetic.

Arriving in Odessa to his country house, Patriarch Alexy I always invited Father Kuksha to his cup of tea, liked to talk with him, and was interested in what happened on Mount Athos and in Jerusalem in the old days.

Saint Kuksha became a recipient under monastic tonsure of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine.

To the spiritual children, the father said: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! And then 90 years - and Kukshi is gone, they will take spatulas and bury them. ”

In the fall of 1964, he fell ill: in a fit of anger, the cell-man Nikolay in October at 1 o'clock in the morning drove his father Kuksha naked from his cell. In the dark, the old man fell into the pit, injuring his leg, and so lay until the morning until he was discovered by the brethren. The old man fell ill with bilateral pneumonia. Despite the efforts of his relatives, he never recovered from the disease.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and the time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “Time has passed” and very calmly departed to the Lord.

The authorities, fearing a large gathering of people, ordered not to receive telegrams from Odessa with a warning about the death of Kuksha's father, and demanded a burial in his homeland. But the governor of the monastery, instructed by God, wisely answered: "The monk has a homeland - a monastery."

After the blessed death of the elder, miracles performed on the grave of the saint were evidence of his holiness, and on September 29, 1994 the ruling bishop, Metropolitan of Odessa and Ishmael Agafangel, gained the relics of the old man, and on October 22 of that year, he was glorified in the person of the saints.

During his lifetime, St. Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to him at the grave with his sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the covenant of the saint, exuding gracious help to all who appeal to him with faith.

READING KUKSHA MIRACLES

We bring to your attention a selection of ten short stories confirming the gracious help in prayers to the Monk Kuksha. The elder revealed the first 5 miracles during his earthly life, others - through prayers to him after his blissful departure to the Lord.

History 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, your daughter will be healthy”

One of the first miracles revealed by the Monk Kuksha occurred in custody. The Lord revealed to the old man that one of the guards at the house had a sick daughter. “Child, take a vacation, go home, they will let you go. Your daughter fell ill at home, ”the saint admonished him. He did not believe that they could let him go: “They will not let him go in summer,” he said. The guard left, and the elder prayed for him and his sick daughter. Not even an hour had passed before he returned, saying that an urgent telegram had arrived, in which it was reported that his daughter was very ill, and his superiors let him go home. “Pray, father, about her,” he asked, “because I have one, she’s called Anna.” The elder replied: “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy.” He cried like a child, and made a vow. Through the prayers of the reverend, the girl received healing.

History 2. 102-year-old student of Rev. Kuksha

In the John the Baptist monastery of the city of Kungur in March 2014, he was tonsured into the great schema with the name of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, 102-year-old monk Nikon. During the Great Patriotic War, he served as a mortar man, was badly wounded in the arm with a fragment that he could not be removed. Over time, the splinter began to cause unbearable pain, and then Nikon went to his spiritual father. Rev. Kuksha suddenly sent him to chop dry linden for firewood. Exhausted from pain, Nikon went to cut a tree for obedience. And after the first blows with an ax, a shard suddenly jumped out of his hand, and the monk received healing.

Story 3. “A full cell of demons, and everyone is running in a crowd in the door !!!”

One young novice, not understanding why the priest sprinkles his cell with holy water every night, once asked him: “Father, why do you need to sprinkle it? What does it give? ”Three days have passed. Kuksha's father went to the novice in the cell and, in front of his eyes, began to sprinkle it with holy water. Subsequently, the monk said: “And suddenly I saw this, I saw this! A full cell of demons, and everyone runs in a crowd at the door, but they don’t have time, they fall out one through the other ... "Having sprinkled the cell, the elder asked:" Well, have you seen what it gives? "

History 4. The Power of Alms

The elder attached great importance to alms. His spiritual daughter asked someone for a book with an akathist, she wanted to rewrite herself. In the temple, she laid a little book near the candle box, where her friend the monk Thaddeus sold candles, and herself went to the anointing with oil. When she returned, she discovered that there was no book. The woman began to grieve, because the book was a stranger, and with her misfortune turned to her father Kuksha. “Do not grieve, ask the Lord to accept this as alms. But the enemy does not like alms; he will return everything, return it, ”was the father’s reply. The next day, in the evening, the book lay in the same place where it was placed. Father Thaddeus said: “Here, people brought it, they said they found this book in the tram. They didn’t know where to go, they thought and thought and decided to hand over to the monastery. They came to the monastery and laid it on the very spot where it was. ”

History 5. Hint for the scientist

Once a well-known scientist came to the reverend, who had some insoluble task in his scientific work. In a conversation with him, Father Kuksha, in his simple words, led him to the idea of \u200b\u200ba proper solution to the issue. The scientist, coming out of the cell, in joyful amazement told how an unlearned old man helped him discover the secret of his scientific research.

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often came to the old man. She was a chemical scientist, and her husband a mining engineer, a major rock specialist. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to break up with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the old man’s death, she went to the Pskov-Pechersk monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there . In the Pechersk monastery there are caves built by God, where the dead monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried, but put one on top of the other in caves, in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena’s husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was struck by the fact that the loose sandstone has not crumbled for centuries, keeps like a stone, and there are no collapses. Such a clear miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7. "Suddenly I saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on my forehead ..."

A pupil of the Odessa Theological Seminary, Alexander fell ill with severe pneumonia. The temperature rose to 39.9 degrees. Both the seminary assistant and those living with him in the room were alarmed for him. On the night of December 12, 1994, when Alexander fell into oblivion, they called an ambulance. The patient, being unconscious, aloud called the name of the Monk Kuksha. Suddenly he fell silent and seemed lifeless for a while. Frightened by this, friends began to shake him, calling by name. Suddenly, Alexander came to his senses and got out of bed. To everyone's surprise, he looked perfectly healthy. We measured the temperature - the thermometer showed 36.6 °. Then he was asked about such a sudden change of state. Alexander said that when it was extremely difficult for him and there was a feeling that his life was leaving, he saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on his forehead. Suddenly, he felt a powerful surge of grace that passed three times from head to toe. Then he felt that someone was shaking him and calling by name. Waking up, he felt healed. Arriving soon, doctors found him healthy.

History 8. The woman did not know that during the life of St. Kuksha, he also suffered from foot disease

One woman, severely suffering from a foot disease - thrombophlebitis, came from Moscow to the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery to pray to Rev. Kuksha. Her legs hurt severely, her veins were swollen, and, completely exhausted, she fell to the cancer with holy relics and whispered: “Reverend Kuksho, help!” And only in Moscow, getting off the train to the platform and running towards her son, she realized that she was healed : the tumor disappeared, the veins became normal, the pain was gone. Then this woman did not yet know the life of Rev. Kuksha, who during his life also suffered from foot disease.

In the spring of 1996, one singer of St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned about this healing. A few days after being heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband has gangrene of legs, amputation is inevitable. The singer told her about Rev. Kuksha and his special mercy for those suffering from foot disease. A moleben to the saint was immediately served in the temple. Meanwhile, the patient was transferred to Moscow for an operation. Everything was ready for amputation, but doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “A miracle saved you,” the doctors said to the patient, who, of course, did not know anything about the served prayer, nor about the ambulance and miracle worker Rev. Kuksha.

History 9. The miracle of healing a sick child

A few days after the glorification of the Monk Kuksha, one servant of God shared her joy. Her child was sick, for several days he had a very high fever, and his parents no longer knew how to help him. This woman was praised by the reverend and received particles of vestments and the tomb. At home she was greeted with reproaches that the child was sick and her mother was not. She immediately went to her son and, having prayed, put particles of vestments and a coffin to his head. The child fell asleep and the next day woke up completely healthy.

Story 10. Resurrection of a dead girl

By the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord raised a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in an Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to rush about in the heat. Ksenia’s grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely grave condition, asked her daughter, the girl’s mother, to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly fell silent. Grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - her life left a girl. “The ambulance is not necessary, it’s too late ...”, she said to her daughter. In desperation, the child’s mother knelt in front of the icons and began tearfully praying: “Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!” After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994 at the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery she was given particles of vestments and the sepulcher of the Monk Kukshi. Calling the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and put them on the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Ksenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to, then, pointing at the icon of the reverend, she asked her mother: “Give me Kuksha ...”. The arriving doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any reason to call an ambulance. In the family, this day is called the second birthday of Xenia.

PRAYER AND TROPARI

Prayer

Our Father Kuksho, the abode of the Assumption of the Mother of God praised the blessed and blessed city of Odessa, the unfailing city of Odessa, unfading color, the meek shepherd of Christ and the great prayer for us, we are eager to resort to you, and we ask you with a broken heart: we do not leave your cover from our monastery good hey struggled. Be a good helper to all godly living and good working in her. O our good shepherd and God-wise mentor, reverend Father Kuksho, graciously look at the coming people, praying with emotion and asking for your help and intercession.

Remember all those who have faith and love for you, your name prayerfully calling and coming to worship with the power of your saints, and mercifully fulfill them in good petition, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every libel of hostility the Holy Church, this city, our abode and our land, and do not leave behind your intercession us weak, sins and sorrows burdened by many.

Ozari, blessed, our mind with the light of the face of God, strengthen the grace of the Lord our life, but in the law of Christ established, irrelevant along the path of the commandments of the saints flow. Thou shalt bless with blessings upon us and all those who are in sorrow, sicknesses of the soul and body of the possessed, grant healing, comfort and deliverance. Ask all of us above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, departing from the Orthodox faith and perishing heresies and schisms blinded by the admonition, in the darkness of unbelief by the wandering light of the true knowledge of God, enlightenment, contention and unsettles, quenching, imploring the Lord God and the Virgin grant us a quiet and sinless life.

Remember us, unworthy, by the throne of the Almighty, ask for a peaceful Christian demise and make us help your eternal salvation to improve and inherit the kingdom of heaven, may we bless the dignity of the bounty and indescribable mercy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in Trinity worship from God and forever and ever. Amen.

Troparia, voice 4:

From youth, the worlds cunning and crafty left thou art, divine from above enlightened by grace, most reverently, with many patience in temporary life, thou performed thou art, even exudes miracles of grace to all who faithfully come to your race of relics, Kuksho is blessed to our father.

Condac, voice 8:

The ascetic of piety is skillful, the new confessor of the faith of the fatherland, Rev. Kuksha, we will surely please all, like a true shepherd, a good old man, monks of a mentor, a comforter of the faint-hearted, and at the end of his life showing his lordship. And now, in remembrance of him, there is a joyful cry of joy: as if having boldness towards God, save the diverse ones from us, let us call it: rejoice, affirmation by Orthodox people.

The material was prepared by the works of the brotherhood of the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, spiritual children of the father, Odessa historian Alexander Yatsiy, Perm journalist Vyacheslav Degtyarnikov and Anna Shepida

Exactly 20 years ago, on September 29, 1994, the Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Agafangel made the relics of the elder Kuksha of Odessa, known throughout the Orthodox world.

Shiigumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson Province (now Nikolaev Region), into a pious peasant family of Cyril and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Cosmas (future father of Kuksha), John and Mary.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God so that one of her children would be honored to strive in a monastic rank.

Cosmas from a young age loved silence and solitude, had great compassion for people. He had a cousin, possessed by an unclean spirit. Cosma went with him to an old man who cast out demons. The old man healed the young man, and Kosme said: “For the fact that you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted for life.”

At the age of 20, Cosma first went on a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited the Holy Mount Athos. Here the soul of a young man was kindled by the desire to serve God in an angelic image. But before he returned home for parental blessing.

Arriving in Russia, Cosma visited the Kiev miracle worker Jonah, known for his insight. Blessing the youth, the old man touched his head with a cross and suddenly said: “I bless you in the monastery! You will live on Athos! ”

Cyril Velichko did not immediately agree to let his son go to the monastery. And the mother of the father, having received her husband’s permission, blessed her child with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with great joy, with whom the saint did not leave her whole life, and which was laid to him in the grave after death.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Mount Athos and entered as a novice in the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery.

A year later, the abbot blessed him with his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, with Kosma, two wonderful events took place that served as signs of his future.

There is a Shiloam font in Jerusalem. There is a custom to plunge into this source to all pilgrims, especially infertile women, and according to legend, who will have time to plunge into the water first, will have a child.

Cosma and her mother also went to plunge into the Siloam font. It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him from the steps, and he suddenly fell first in the water right in his clothes. Women shouted with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water. But this was a sign from above that Kuksha's father would have many spiritual children. He always said: "I have a thousand spiritual children."

The second sign happened in Bethlehem. Having worshiped the birthplace of Christ the Divine Infant, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly, one lamp fell miraculously overturned on Cosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and with their hands collected holy oil from him. Thus, the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha many people will receive divine grace.

A year after arriving from Jerusalem on Mount Athos, he was blessed to once again be in the Holy City and to obey the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon returning to Mount Athos on March 28, 1902, the novice of Cosmas was tonsured to the Riasophore with the name Constantine, and on March 23, 1905, became a monk and was named Xenophon. His spiritual father was the elder ascetic Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit and was a monk of high spiritual life.

In 1912–1913, due to irregularities on Mount Athos, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including the future saint. “So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” said his spiritual father.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Here on May 3, 1934 he was ordained a hieromonk.

The father really wanted to accept the great schema, but in his youth, he was refused his desire. Somehow, while revealing the relics in the Far Caves, the reverend prayed to the holy schemoman Siluan to accept the schema. And at the age of 56, Father Xenophon suddenly became seriously ill - they thought they were hopeless. The dying man was tonsured into a great schema and named after him the holy martyr Kuksha Pechersky. Soon after the tonsure, Kuksha's father began to recover, and then completely recovered.

These were years of severe persecution of the Orthodox Church. When the wave of self-sacred schisms touched the Lavra, Kuksha's father was an example to others in filial fidelity to the canons of the Mother Church.

Once, her former inhabitant Metropolitan Seraphim arrived from Poltava to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, who before his death wished to visit his beloved monastery and say goodbye to her. When Father Kuksha approached him for a blessing, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Oh, old man, you have been prepared a place in these caves for a long time!”

In 1938, a ten-year confessional feat of arms began for the priest. He, as a “minister of worship,” is sentenced to five years in camps in the city of Vilva, Molotov Region, and after serving this term, to five years of exile. So at the age of 63 years, Kuksha's father was sent to grueling logging. They worked 14 hours a day, receiving very scarce and poor food.

At that time, Bishop Anthony lived in Kiev, who knew Father Kuksha well and appreciated his virtues. Once, Vladyka, under the guise of crackers, was able to transfer 100 particles of dry Gifts to the monk's camp so that Father I could receive Communion. But how could he alone consume the Holy Gifts when many priests, monks and nuns who had been imprisoned for many years were deprived of this comfort?

All of them were notified in great secret, and on the appointed day, the prisoner priests in epitrachils made of towels, quickly and quietly from the convoy, on the way to work, resolved the sins of the monks and nuns and indicated where the particles of the Holy Gifts were hidden. So one morning in the camp communed 100 people. For many, this was the last Communion in their long-suffering life ...

Another wonderful event happened in the camp with the priest. At Easter, Kuksha's father, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew over them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of cake too!” And suddenly I heard “Karrrr!” Above his head, and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was a raven who pulled him from the baking sheet by the cook. Father raised the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied his hunger.

In 1948, after the conclusion and exile, the father of Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and was received with great joy by the brethren. Hardened in the crucible of suffering, the priest began to carry here the feat of old age, feeding many believers. For this, the KGBists ordered the ecclesiastical authorities to transfer the elder from Kiev to somewhere far away, in a remote place.

In 1953, Kuksha's father was transferred to the Holy Assumption Pochaev Lavra. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon case of the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and for three years he served the early liturgy in the Cave Church and professed people.

Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst on his leg. A full boot of blood was poured. Abbot Joseph, famous for his miraculous healings, came to examine his sore leg (in the schema Amphilochius, now canonized). The diagnosis was disappointing: "Get ready, father, home," that is, die.

All the monks and laity prayed fervently with tears to the Mother of God for the gift of health to the dear and beloved old man. A week later, Abbot Joseph again came to Kuksha’s father and, seeing an almost-healed wound, exclaimed in amazement: “They prayed for spiritual children!”

The spiritual daughter of the father told me that once, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy by the father of Kuksha, she saw in the altar of the cave temple a magnificent husband, his fellow man. When she informed Father Kuksha about this, he said that it was Rev. Job Pochaevsky, who always served with him, and strictly ordered no one to reveal this secret until his death.

So the elder’s life went on in the Pochaev monastery, but here the enemy of the human race raised persecution against him, and in order to protect the priest from attacks by haters, Bishop Evmeniy of Chernivtsi transferred him to the St. John the Theological Monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk of the Chernivtsi diocese in 1957. The years of life here were quiet and calm for Kuksha's father. But in 1960, nuns from the disbanded Chernivtsi Nunnery were moved here.

After these events, Kuksha’s father moved to the Odessa Holy Assumption Patriarchal Monastery, which became the last marina in his wanderings. Here the confession became the main obedience of the elder. He took communion every day, very fond of the early liturgy. He said: "The early liturgy is for the ascetics, the late is for the fasts."

Many remembered how during lunch Father Kuksha picked up a small portrait of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, who was standing on a table in a frame, kissed him and said: “We are drinking tea with His Holiness”. His words were prophetic.

Arriving in Odessa to his country house, Patriarch Alexy I always invited Father Kuksha to his cup of tea, liked to talk with him, and was interested in what happened on Mount Athos and in Jerusalem in the old days.

Saint Kuksha became a recipient under monastic tonsure of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine.

To the spiritual children, the father said: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! And then 90 years - and Kukshi is gone, they will take spatulas and bury them. ”

In the fall of 1964, he fell ill: in a fit of anger, the cell-man Nikolay in October at 1 o'clock in the morning drove his father Kuksha naked from his cell. In the dark, the old man fell into the pit, injuring his leg, and so lay until the morning until he was discovered by the brethren. The old man fell ill with bilateral pneumonia. Despite the efforts of his relatives, he never recovered from the disease.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and the time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “Time has passed” and very calmly departed to the Lord.

The authorities, fearing a large gathering of people, ordered not to receive telegrams from Odessa with a warning about the death of Kuksha's father, and demanded a burial in his homeland. But the governor of the monastery, instructed by God, wisely answered: "The monk has a homeland - a monastery."

After the blessed death of the elder, miracles performed on the grave of the saint were evidence of his holiness, and on September 29, 1994 the ruling bishop, Metropolitan of Odessa and Ishmael Agafangel, gained the relics of the old man, and on October 22 of that year, he was glorified in the person of the saints.

During his lifetime, St. Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to him at the grave with his sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the covenant of the saint, exuding gracious help to all who appeal to him with faith.

The Miracles of Rev. Kuksha

We bring to your attention a selection of ten short stories confirming the gracious help in prayers to the Monk Kuksha. The elder revealed the first 5 miracles during his earthly life, others - through prayers to him after his blissful departure to the Lord.

History 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, your daughter will be healthy”

One of the first miracles revealed by the Monk Kuksha occurred in custody. The Lord revealed to the old man that one of the guards at the house had a sick daughter. “Child, take a vacation, go home, they will let you go. Your daughter fell ill at home, ”the saint admonished him. He did not believe that they could let him go: “They will not let him go in summer,” he said. The guard left, and the elder prayed for him and his sick daughter. Not even an hour had passed before he returned, saying that an urgent telegram had arrived, in which it was reported that his daughter was very ill, and his superiors let him go home. “Pray, father, about her,” he asked, “because I have one, she’s called Anna.” The elder replied: “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy.” He cried like a child, and made a vow. Through the prayers of the reverend, the girl received healing.

History 2. 102-year-old student of Rev. Kuksha

In the John the Baptist monastery of the city of Kungur in March 2014, he was tonsured into the great schema with the name of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, 102-year-old monk Nikon. During the Great Patriotic War, he served as a mortar man, was badly wounded in the arm with a fragment that he could not be removed. Over time, the splinter began to cause unbearable pain, and then Nikon went to his spiritual father. Rev. Kuksha suddenly sent him to chop dry linden for firewood. Exhausted from pain, Nikon went to cut a tree for obedience. And after the first blows with an ax, a shard suddenly jumped out of his hand, and the monk received healing.

Story 3. “A full cell of demons, and everyone is running in a crowd in the door !!!”

One young novice, not understanding why the priest sprinkles his cell with holy water every night, once asked him: “Father, why do you need to sprinkle it? What does it give? ”Three days have passed. Kuksha's father went to the novice in the cell and, in front of his eyes, began to sprinkle it with holy water. Subsequently, the monk said: “And suddenly I saw this, I saw this! A full cell of demons, and everyone runs in a crowd at the door, but they don’t have time, they fall out one through the other ... ”Having sprinkled the cell, the elder asked:“ Well, have you seen what it gives? ”

History 4. The Power of Alms

The elder attached great importance to alms. His spiritual daughter asked someone for a book with an akathist, she wanted to rewrite herself. In the temple, she laid a little book near the candle box, where her friend the monk Thaddeus sold candles, and herself went to the anointing with oil. When she returned, she discovered that there was no book. The woman began to grieve, because the book was a stranger, and with her misfortune turned to her father Kuksha. “Do not grieve, ask the Lord to accept this as alms. But the enemy does not like alms; he will return everything, return it, ”was the father’s reply. The next day, in the evening, the book lay in the same place where it was placed. Father Thaddeus said: “Here, people brought it, they said they found this book in the tram. They didn’t know where to go, they thought and thought and decided to hand over to the monastery. They came to the monastery and laid it on the very spot where it was. ”

History 5. Hint for the scientist

Once a well-known scientist came to the reverend, who had some insoluble task in his scientific work. In a conversation with him, Father Kuksha, in his simple words, led him to the idea of \u200b\u200ba proper solution to the issue. The scientist, coming out of the cell, in joyful amazement told how an unlearned old man helped him discover the secret of his scientific research.

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often came to the old man. She was a chemical scientist, and her husband a mining engineer, a major rock specialist. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to break up with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the old man’s death, she went to the Pskov-Pechersk monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there . In the Pechersk monastery there are caves built by God, where the dead monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried, but put one on top of the other in caves, in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena’s husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was struck by the fact that the loose sandstone has not crumbled for centuries, keeps like a stone, and there are no collapses. Such a clear miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7. "Suddenly I saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on my forehead ..."

A pupil of the Odessa Theological Seminary, Alexander fell ill with severe pneumonia. The temperature rose to 39.9 degrees. Both the seminary assistant and those living with him in the room were alarmed for him. On the night of December 12, 1994, when Alexander fell into oblivion, they called an ambulance. The patient, being unconscious, aloud called the name of the Monk Kuksha. Suddenly he fell silent and seemed lifeless for a while. Frightened by this, friends began to shake him, calling by name. Suddenly, Alexander came to his senses and got out of bed. To everyone's surprise, he looked perfectly healthy. We measured the temperature - the thermometer showed 36.6 °. Then he was asked about such a sudden change of state. Alexander said that when it was extremely difficult for him and there was a feeling that his life was leaving, he saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on his forehead. Suddenly, he felt a powerful surge of grace that passed three times from head to toe. Then he felt that someone was shaking him and calling by name. Waking up, he felt healed. Arriving soon, doctors found him healthy.

History 8. The woman did not know that during the life of St. Kuksha, he also suffered from foot disease

One woman, severely suffering from a foot disease - thrombophlebitis, came from Moscow to the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery to pray to Rev. Kuksha. Her legs hurt severely, her veins were swollen, and, completely exhausted, she fell to the cancer with holy relics and whispered: “Reverend Kuksho, help!” And only in Moscow, getting off the train to the platform and running towards her son, she realized that she was healed : the tumor disappeared, the veins became normal, the pain was gone. Then this woman did not yet know the life of Rev. Kuksha, who during his life also suffered from foot disease.

In the spring of 1996, one singer of St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned about this healing. A few days after being heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband has gangrene of legs, amputation is inevitable. The singer told her about Rev. Kuksha and his special mercy for those suffering from foot disease. A moleben to the saint was immediately served in the temple. Meanwhile, the patient was transferred to Moscow for an operation. Everything was ready for amputation, but doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “A miracle saved you,” the doctors said to the patient, who, of course, did not know anything about the served prayer, nor about the ambulance and miracle worker Rev. Kuksha.

History 9. The miracle of healing a sick child

A few days after the glorification of the Monk Kuksha, one servant of God shared her joy. Her child was sick, for several days he had a very high fever, and his parents no longer knew how to help him. This woman was praised by the reverend and received particles of vestments and the tomb. At home she was greeted with reproaches that the child was sick and her mother was not. She immediately went to her son and, having prayed, put particles of vestments and a coffin to his head. The child fell asleep and the next day woke up completely healthy.

Story 10. Resurrection of a dead girl

By the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord raised a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in an Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to rush about in the heat. Ksenia’s grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely grave condition, asked her daughter, the girl’s mother, to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly fell silent. Grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - her life left a girl. “The ambulance is not necessary, it’s too late ...”, she said to her daughter. In desperation, the child’s mother knelt in front of the icons and began tearfully praying: “Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!” After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994 at the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery she was given particles of vestments and the sepulcher of the Monk Kukshi. Calling the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and put them on the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Ksenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to her senses, then, pointing with her hand to the icon of the reverend, she asked her mother: "Give me Kuksha ...". The arriving doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any reason to call an ambulance. In the family, this day is called the second birthday of Xenia.

Prayer and Troparia

Prayer

Our Father Kuksho, the abode of the Assumption of the Mother of God praised the blessed and blessed city of Odessa, the unfailing city of Odessa, unfading color, the meek shepherd of Christ and the great prayer for us, we are eager to resort to you, and we ask you with a broken heart: we do not leave your cover from our monastery good hey struggled. Be a good helper to all godly living and good working in her. O our good shepherd and God-wise mentor, reverend Father Kuksho, graciously look at the coming people, praying with emotion and asking for your help and intercession.

Remember all those who have faith and love for you, your name prayerfully calling and coming to worship with the power of your saints, and mercifully fulfill them in good petition, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every libel of hostility the Holy Church, this city, our abode and our land, and do not leave behind your intercession us weak, sins and sorrows burdened by many.

Ozari, blessed, our mind with the light of the face of God, strengthen the grace of the Lord our life, but in the law of Christ established, irrelevant along the path of the commandments of the saints flow. Thou shalt bless with blessings upon us and all those who are in sorrow, sicknesses of the soul and body of the possessed, grant healing, comfort and deliverance. Ask all of us above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, departing from the Orthodox faith and perishing heresies and schisms blinded by the admonition, in the darkness of unbelief by the wandering light of the true knowledge of God, enlightenment, contention and unsettles, quenching, imploring the Lord God and the Virgin grant us a quiet and sinless life.

Remember us, unworthy, by the throne of the Almighty, ask for a peaceful Christian demise and make us help your eternal salvation to improve and inherit the kingdom of heaven, may we bless the dignity of the bounty and indescribable mercy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in Trinity worship from God and forever and ever. Amen.

Troparia, voice 4:

From youth, the worlds cunning and crafty left thou art, divine from above enlightened by grace, most reverently, with many patience in temporary life, thou performed thou art, even exudes miracles of grace to all who faithfully come to your race of relics, Kuksho is blessed to our father.

Condac, voice 8:

The ascetic of piety is skillful, the new confessor of the faith of the fatherland, Rev. Kuksha, we will surely please all, like a true shepherd, a good old man, monks of a mentor, a comforter of the faint-hearted, and at the end of his life showing his lordship. And now, in remembrance of him, there is a joyful cry of joy: as if having boldness towards God, save the diverse ones from us, let us call it: rejoice, affirmation by Orthodox people.

The material was prepared by the works of the brotherhood of the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, spiritual children of the father, Odessa historian Alexander Yatsiy, Perm journalist Vyacheslav Degtyarnikov and Anna Shepida

Exactly 20 years ago, on September 29, 1994, the Metropolitan of Odessa and Izmail Agafangel made the relics of the elder Kuksha of Odessa, known throughout the Orthodox world. We offer the readers of the portal a short life of the Monk Kuksha, 10 stories of miracles performed by him, as well as prayers and troparia dedicated to him.

Shiigumen Kuksha was born in 1874 in the village of Garbuzinka, Kherson Province (now Nikolaev Region), into a pious peasant family of Cyril and Kharitina Velichko. They had four children: Theodore, Cosmas (future father of Kuksha), John and Mary.

The mother of the reverend in her youth wanted to be a nun, but her parents blessed her for marriage. She prayed to God so that one of her children would be honored to strive in a monastic rank.

Cosmas from a young age loved silence and solitude, had great compassion for people. He had a cousin, possessed by an unclean spirit. Cosma went with him to an old man who cast out demons. The old man healed the young man, and Kosme said: “For the fact that you brought him to me, the enemy will take revenge on you - you will be persecuted for life.”

At the age of 20, Cosma first went on a pilgrimage with his fellow villagers, and on the way back he visited Mount Athos. Here the soul of a young man was kindled by the desire to serve God in an angelic image. But before he returned home for parental blessing.

Arriving in Russia, Cosma visited the Kiev miracle worker Jonah, known for his insight. Blessing the youth, the old man touched his head with a cross and suddenly said: “I bless you in the monastery! You will live on Athos! ”

Cyril Velichko did not immediately agree to let his son go to the monastery. And the mother of the father, having received her husband’s permission, blessed her child with the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God with great joy, with whom the saint did not leave her whole life, and which was laid to him in the grave after death.

So in 1896 Cosmas arrived on Mount Athos and entered as a novice in the Russian Holy Panteleimon Monastery.

A year later, the abbot blessed him with his mother to visit Jerusalem again. Here, with Kosma, two wonderful events took place that served as signs of his future.

There is a Shiloam font in Jerusalem. There is a custom to plunge into this source to all pilgrims, especially infertile women, and according to legend, who will have time to plunge into the water first, will have a child.

Cosma and her mother also went to plunge into the Siloam font. It so happened that in the twilight of the vaults someone pushed him from the steps, and he suddenly fell first in the water right in his clothes. Women shouted with regret that the young man was the first to plunge into the water. But this was a sign from above that Kuksha's father would have many spiritual children. He always said: "I have a thousand spiritual children."

The second sign happened in Bethlehem. Having worshiped the birthplace of Christ the Divine Infant, the pilgrims began to ask the guard to allow them to take holy oil from the lamps, but he turned out to be cruel and intractable. Suddenly, one lamp fell miraculously overturned on Cosma, dousing his entire suit. People surrounded the young man and with their hands collected holy oil from him. Thus, the Lord showed that through Father Kuksha many people will receive divine grace.

A year after arriving from Jerusalem on Mount Athos, he was blessed to once again be in the Holy City and to obey the Holy Sepulcher.

Upon his return on March 28, 1902, the novice of Cosmas was tonsured a Riasophore with the name Constantine, and on March 23, 1905, he became a monk and was named Xenophon. His spiritual father was the elder ascetic Melchizedek, who labored as a hermit and was a monk of high spiritual life.

In 1912–1913, due to irregularities on Mount Athos, the Greek authorities demanded the departure of many Russian monks from Athos, including the future saint. “So God wants you to live in Russia, you also need to save people there,” said his spiritual father.

So the Athos monk Xenophon turned out to be a resident of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. Here on May 3, 1934 he was ordained a hieromonk.

The father really wanted to accept the great schema, but in his youth, he was refused his desire. Somehow, while revealing the relics in the Far Caves, the reverend prayed to the holy schemoman Siluan to accept the schema. And at the age of 56, Father Xenophon suddenly became seriously ill - they thought they were hopeless. The dying man was tonsured into a great schema and named after him the holy martyr Kuksha Pechersky. Soon after the tonsure, Kuksha's father began to recover, and then completely recovered.

These were years of severe persecution of the Orthodox Church. When the wave of self-sacred schisms touched the Lavra, Kuksha's father was an example to others in filial fidelity to the canons of the Mother Church.

Once, her former inhabitant Metropolitan Seraphim arrived from Poltava to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, who before his death wished to visit his beloved monastery and say goodbye to her. When Father Kuksha approached him for a blessing, the Metropolitan exclaimed: “Oh, old man, you have been prepared a place in these caves for a long time!”

In 1938, a ten-year confessional feat of arms began for the priest. He, as a “minister of worship,” is sentenced to five years in camps in the city of Vilva, Molotov Region, and after serving this term, to five years of exile. So at the age of 63 years, Kuksha's father was sent to grueling logging. They worked 14 hours a day, receiving very scarce and poor food.

At that time, who knew father Kuksha well and appreciated for his virtues. Once, Vladyka, under the guise of crackers, was able to transfer 100 particles of dry Gifts to the monk's camp so that Father I could receive Communion. But how could he alone consume the Holy Gifts when many priests, monks and nuns who had been imprisoned for many years were deprived of this comfort?

All of them were notified in great secret, and on the appointed day, the prisoner priests in epitrachils made of towels, quickly and quietly from the convoy, on the way to work, resolved the sins of the monks and nuns and indicated where the particles of the Holy Gifts were hidden. So one morning in the camp communed 100 people. For many, this was the last Communion in their long-suffering life ...

Another wonderful event happened in the camp with the priest. At Easter, Kuksha's father, weak and hungry, walked along the barbed wire, behind which the cooks carried baking sheets with pies for protection. Crows flew over them. The monk prayed: “Raven, raven, you fed the prophet Elijah in the desert, bring me a piece of cake too!” And suddenly I heard “Karrrr!” Above his head, and a meat pie fell at his feet. It was a raven who pulled him from the baking sheet by the cook. Father raised the cake from the snow, thanked God with tears and satisfied his hunger.

In 1948, after the conclusion and exile, the father of Kuksha returned to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and was received with great joy by the brethren. Hardened in the crucible of suffering, the priest began to carry here the feat of old age, feeding many believers. For this, the KGBists ordered the ecclesiastical authorities to transfer the elder from Kiev to somewhere far away, in a remote place.

In 1953, Kuksha's father was transferred to. Here he was appointed to the obedience of the icon case of the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, and for three years he served the early liturgy in the Cave Church and professed people.

Once, when he was standing at the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, a vein burst on his leg. A full boot of blood was poured. The abbot Joseph, famous for his miraculous healings, came to examine his sore leg (in the schema Amphilochius, now canonized). The diagnosis was disappointing: "Get ready, father, home," that is, die.

All the monks and laity prayed fervently with tears to the Mother of God for the gift of health to the dear and beloved old man. A week later, Abbot Joseph again came to Kuksha’s father and, seeing an almost-healed wound, exclaimed in amazement: “They prayed for spiritual children!”

The spiritual daughter of the father told me that once, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy by the father of Kuksha, she saw in the altar of the cave temple a magnificent husband, his fellow man. When she informed Father Kuksha about this, he said that it was Rev. Job Pochaevsky, who always served with him, and strictly ordered no one to reveal this secret until his death.

So the elder’s life went on in the Pochaev monastery, but here the enemy of the human race raised persecution against him, and in order to protect the priest from attacks by haters, Bishop Evmeniy of Chernivtsi transferred him to the St. John the Theological Monastery in the village of Khreshchatyk of the Chernivtsi diocese in 1957. The years of life here were quiet and calm for Kuksha's father. But in 1960, nuns from the disbanded Chernivtsi Nunnery were moved here.

After these events, Kuksha’s father moved to the Odessa Holy Assumption Patriarchal Monastery, which became the last marina in his wanderings. Here the confession became the main obedience of the elder. He took communion every day, very fond of the early liturgy. He said: "The early liturgy is for the ascetics, the late is for the fasts."

Many remembered how during lunch Father Kuksha picked up a small portrait of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy I, who was standing on a table in a frame, kissed him and said: “We are drinking tea with His Holiness”. His words were prophetic.

Arriving in Odessa to his country house, Patriarch Alexy I always invited Father Kuksha to his cup of tea, liked to talk with him, and was interested in what happened on Mount Athos and in Jerusalem in the old days.

Saint Kuksha became a recipient under monastic tonsure of His Beatitude Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan) of Kiev and All Ukraine.

To the spiritual children, the father said: “The Mother of God wants to take me to her, but pray - and Kuksha will live 111 years! And then 90 years - and Kukshi is gone, they will take spatulas and bury them. ”

In the fall of 1964, he fell ill: in a fit of anger, the cell-man Nikolay in October at 1 o'clock in the morning drove his father Kuksha naked from his cell. In the dark, the old man fell into the pit, injuring his leg, and so lay until the morning until he was discovered by the brethren. The old man fell ill with bilateral pneumonia. Despite the efforts of his relatives, he never recovered from the disease.

The blessed ascetic foresaw the circumstances and the time of his death. A few moments before his death, the elder said: “Time has passed” and very calmly departed to the Lord.

The authorities, fearing a large gathering of people, ordered not to receive telegrams from Odessa with a warning about the death of Kuksha's father, and demanded a burial in his homeland. But the governor of the monastery, instructed by God, wisely answered: "The monk has a homeland - a monastery."

After the blessed death of the elder, miracles performed on the grave of the saint were evidence of his holiness, and on September 29, 1994 the ruling bishop, Metropolitan of Odessa and Ishmael Agafangel, gained the relics of the old man, and on October 22 of that year, he was glorified in the person of the saints.

During his lifetime, St. Kuksha bequeathed to everyone to come to him at the grave with his sorrows, promising to intercede for everyone before God.

Today, the relics of the Monk Kuksha rest in the Odessa Holy Assumption Monastery, according to the covenant of the saint, exuding gracious help to all who appeal to him with faith.

READING KUKSHA MIRACLES

History 1. “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, your daughter will be healthy”

One of the first miracles revealed by the Monk Kuksha occurred in custody. The Lord revealed to the old man that one of the guards at the house had a sick daughter. “Child, take a vacation, go home, they will let you go. Your daughter fell ill at home, ”the saint admonished him. He did not believe that they could let him go: “They will not let him go in summer,” he said. The guard left, and the elder prayed for him and his sick daughter. Not even an hour had passed before he returned, saying that an urgent telegram had arrived, in which it was reported that his daughter was very ill, and his superiors let him go home. “Pray, father, about her,” he asked, “because I have one, she’s called Anna.” The elder replied: “If you make a vow to God to change your life and go to the temple, then your daughter will be healthy.” He cried like a child, and made a vow. Through the prayers of the reverend, the girl received healing.

History 2. 102-year-old student of Rev. Kuksha

In the John the Baptist monastery of the city of Kungur in March 2014, he was tonsured into the great schema with the name of the Monk Kuksha of Odessa, 102-year-old monk Nikon. During the Great Patriotic War, he served as a mortar man, was badly wounded in the arm with a fragment that he could not be removed. Over time, the splinter began to cause unbearable pain, and then Nikon went to his spiritual father. Rev. Kuksha suddenly sent him to chop dry linden for firewood. Exhausted from pain, Nikon went to cut a tree for obedience. And after the first blows with an ax, a shard suddenly jumped out of his hand, and the monk received healing.

Story 3. “A full cell of demons, and everyone is running in a crowd in the door !!!”

One young novice, not understanding why the priest sprinkles his cell with holy water every night, once asked him: “Father, why do you need to sprinkle it? What does it give? ”Three days have passed. Kuksha's father went to the novice in the cell and, in front of his eyes, began to sprinkle it with holy water. Subsequently, the monk said: “And suddenly I saw this, I saw this! A full cell of demons, and everyone runs in a crowd at the door, but they don’t have time, they fall out one through the other ... "Having sprinkled the cell, the elder asked:" Well, have you seen what it gives? "

History 4. The Power of Alms

The elder attached great importance to alms. His spiritual daughter asked someone for a book with an akathist, she wanted to rewrite herself. In the temple, she laid a little book near the candle box, where her friend the monk Thaddeus sold candles, and herself went to the anointing with oil. When she returned, she discovered that there was no book. The woman began to grieve, because the book was a stranger, and with her misfortune turned to her father Kuksha. “Do not grieve, ask the Lord to accept this as alms. But the enemy does not like alms; he will return everything, return it, ”was the father’s reply. The next day, in the evening, the book lay in the same place where it was placed. Father Thaddeus said: “Here, people brought it, they said they found this book in the tram. They didn’t know where to go, they thought and thought and decided to hand over to the monastery. They came to the monastery and laid it on the very spot where it was. ”

History 5. Hint for the scientist

Once a well-known scientist came to the reverend, who had some insoluble task in his scientific work. In a conversation with him, Father Kuksha, in his simple words, led him to the idea of \u200b\u200ba proper solution to the issue. The scientist, coming out of the cell, in joyful amazement told how an unlearned old man helped him discover the secret of his scientific research.

Story 6. “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!”

His spiritual daughter Elena often came to the old man. She was a chemical scientist, and her husband a mining engineer, a major rock specialist. She was very sad that her husband was not baptized and even wanted to break up with him, but the elder told her: “Be patient and pray, your husband will be a Christian!” After the old man’s death, she went to the Pskov-Pechersk monastery and persuaded her husband to take her there . In the Pechersk monastery there are caves built by God, where the dead monks are buried. Elena invited her husband to look at the coffins, which, according to custom, are not buried, but put one on top of the other in caves, in which the grace of God is clearly felt. When Elena’s husband saw the vaults of the caves, he, as a mining engineer, was struck by the fact that the loose sandstone has not crumbled for centuries, keeps like a stone, and there are no collapses. Such a clear miracle made a strong impression on him. The grace of God touched his heart. He wished to be baptized immediately, and then married his wife and was childishly devoted to God and his spiritual father.

Story 7. "Suddenly I saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on my forehead ..."

A pupil of the Odessa Theological Seminary, Alexander fell ill with severe pneumonia. The temperature rose to 39.9 degrees. Both the seminary assistant and those living with him in the room were alarmed for him. On the night of December 12, 1994, when Alexander fell into oblivion, they called an ambulance. The patient, being unconscious, aloud called the name of the Monk Kuksha. Suddenly he fell silent and seemed lifeless for a while. Frightened by this, friends began to shake him, calling by name. Suddenly, Alexander came to his senses and got out of bed. To everyone's surprise, he looked perfectly healthy. We measured the temperature - the thermometer showed 36.6 °. Then he was asked about such a sudden change of state. Alexander said that when it was extremely difficult for him and there was a feeling that his life was leaving, he saw Rev. Kuksha, who, approaching, put his hand on his forehead. Suddenly, he felt a powerful surge of grace that passed three times from head to toe. Then he felt that someone was shaking him and calling by name. Waking up, he felt healed. Arriving soon, doctors found him healthy.

One woman, severely suffering from a foot disease - thrombophlebitis, came from Moscow to the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery to pray to Rev. Kuksha. Her legs hurt severely, her veins were swollen, and, completely exhausted, she fell to the cancer with holy relics and whispered: “Reverend Kuksho, help!” And only in Moscow, getting off the train to the platform and running towards her son, she realized that she was healed : the tumor disappeared, the veins became normal, the pain was gone. Then this woman did not yet know the life of Rev. Kuksha, who during his life also suffered from foot disease.

In the spring of 1996, one singer of St. Nicholas Church in the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, learned about this healing. A few days after being heard, a neighbor came to her in terrible grief: her husband has gangrene of legs, amputation is inevitable. The singer told her about Rev. Kuksha and his special mercy for those suffering from foot disease. A moleben to the saint was immediately served in the temple. Meanwhile, the patient was transferred to Moscow for an operation. Everything was ready for amputation, but doctors noticed that blood circulation began to recover. “A miracle saved you,” the doctors said to the patient, who, of course, did not know anything about the served prayer, nor about the ambulance and miracle worker Rev. Kuksha.

History 9. The miracle of healing a sick child

A few days after the glorification of the Monk Kuksha, one servant of God shared her joy. Her child was sick, for several days he had a very high fever, and his parents no longer knew how to help him. This woman was praised by the reverend and received particles of vestments and the tomb. At home she was greeted with reproaches that the child was sick and her mother was not. She immediately went to her son and, having prayed, put particles of vestments and a coffin to his head. The child fell asleep and the next day woke up completely healthy.

Story 10. Resurrection of a dead girl

By the prayerful intercession of the Monk Kuksha, the Lord raised a baby from the dead. In Odessa, in an Orthodox family, on the night of January 7-8, 1996, two-year-old Ksenia suddenly fell ill. The temperature rose sharply above 39 degrees and continued to rise. The girl began to rush about in the heat. Ksenia’s grandmother, a doctor by profession, seeing her extremely grave condition, asked her daughter, the girl’s mother, to call an ambulance. While she was talking on the phone, Xenia suddenly fell silent. Grandmother began to examine her granddaughter: her heart did not beat - her life left a girl. “The ambulance is not necessary, it’s too late ...”, she said to her daughter. In desperation, the child’s mother knelt in front of the icons and began tearfully praying: “Lord, take my soul and leave her soul!” After a long prayer, she remembered that in the fall of 1994 at the Holy Assumption Odessa Monastery she was given particles of vestments and the sepulcher of the Monk Kukshi. Calling the name of the saint, the mother took these particles and put them on the forehead of the deceased girl. Suddenly Ksenia took a deep breath - life returned to her. When the girl finally came to, then, pointing at the icon of the reverend, she asked her mother: “Give me Kuksha ...”. The arriving doctor, having examined the girl, said that he did not find any reason to call an ambulance. In the family, this day is called the second birthday of Xenia.

PRAYER AND TROPARI

Our Father Kuksho, the abode of the Assumption of the Mother of God praised the blessed and blessed city of Odessa, the unfailing city of Odessa, unfading color, the meek shepherd of Christ and the great prayer for us, we are eager to resort to you, and we ask you with a broken heart: we do not leave your cover from our monastery good hey struggled. Be a good helper to all godly living and good working in her. O our good shepherd and God-wise mentor, reverend Father Kuksho, graciously look at the coming people, praying with emotion and asking for your help and intercession.

Remember all those who have faith and love for you, your name prayerfully calling and coming to worship with the power of your saints, and mercifully fulfill them in good petition, overshadowing them with your patristic blessing. Deliver, holy father, from every libel of hostility the Holy Church, this city, our abode and our land, and do not leave behind your intercession us weak, sins and sorrows burdened by many.

Ozari, blessed, our mind with the light of the face of God, strengthen the grace of the Lord our life, but in the law of Christ established, irrelevant along the path of the commandments of the saints flow. Thou shalt bless with blessings upon us and all those who are in sorrow, sicknesses of the soul and body of the possessed, grant healing, comfort and deliverance. Ask all of us above for the spirit of meekness and humility, the spirit of patience and repentance, departing from the Orthodox faith and perishing heresies and schisms blinded by the admonition, in the darkness of unbelief by the wandering light of the true knowledge of God, enlightenment, contention and unsettles, quenching, imploring the Lord God and the Virgin grant us a quiet and sinless life.

Remember us, unworthy, by the throne of the Almighty, ask for a peaceful Christian demise and make us help your eternal salvation to improve and inherit the kingdom of heaven, may we bless the dignity of the bounty and indescribable mercy of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in Trinity worship from God and forever and ever. Amen.

Troparia, voice 4:

From youth, the worlds cunning and crafty left thou art, divine from above enlightened by grace, most reverently, with many patience in temporary life, thou performed thou art, even exudes miracles of grace to all who faithfully come to your race of relics, Kuksho is blessed to our father.

Condac, voice 8:

The ascetic of piety is skillful, the new confessor of the faith of the fatherland, Rev. Kuksha, we will surely please all, like a true shepherd, a good old man, monks of a mentor, a comforter of the faint-hearted, and at the end of his life showing his lordship. And now, in remembrance of him, there is a joyful cry of joy: as if having boldness towards God, save the diverse ones from us, let us call it: rejoice, affirmation by Orthodox people.