“Losing your conscience is the worst thing. Elder Pavel (Gruzdev) Elder Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev
Archimandrite Pavel (in the world Pavel Aleksandrovich Gruzdev) was born on January 10, 1910 in the village of Barok, Mologsky district, Yaroslavl province.
When his father Alexander Alexandrovich Gruzdev was drafted into the army during the 1914 war, little six-year-old Pavelka was taken to the Afanasyevsky Mologsky Convent by his aunts - nun Evstolia and nuns Elena and Olga. Since then, his entire life has been connected with monasticism and monasteries. With short breaks, he lived in or with the monastery until its closure in 1929. He constantly returned to memories of life in the monastery, especially in recent years. His stories about monastic life, colored with indescribable humor, will remain in the memory of listeners forever.
Father Pavel also spoke about the arrival of Archbishop Tikhon, the future Patriarch of All Rus', to the monastery. His sublime, gentle, loving soul shone in these stories. In 1929, after the closure of the Afanasyevsky Monastery, he moved to Novgorod, to the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Varlaamo-Khutynsky Monastery. While living in a monastery, he worked at a shipyard. In 1932 he had to leave the monastery, and he lived in his home for several years. In 1938, he and his father dismantled their native hut, since their village was located on the site of the future Rybinsk Reservoir, and floated it along the Volga to Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev). Here, on the left bank of the Volga, stands the house that he and his father collected, furnished, and lived in together until 1941.
On May 13, 1941, Pavel Gruzdev was arrested in the case of Archbishop of Yaroslavl Varlaam Ryashentsev. During interrogations, he was beaten and his eyes were blinded, he lost his teeth and began to lose his sight. According to the verdict, for his loyalty to the Church he received six years in the camps and three years in exile. From 1941 to 1947 he was in Vyatlag. What saved him during these years was faith, prayer and love of work. In the terrible life of the camp, Father Pavel turned to God in prayer, and the Lord helped him, and through him the faint-hearted and despairing, whom Father Pavel consoled and supported.
For his conscientious attitude to work, he had the right to leave the zone. In the fall, at the logging site, Father Pavel collected mushrooms, berries, and rowan berries. He salted mushrooms in holes in the ground, berries, and rowan berries in holes in the ground, and in winter the prisoners ate these supplies. According to Father Pavel, many hundreds of people were thereby saved from starvation.
In 1947, he returned home from the camp to Tutaev, but soon, in December 1949, he was arrested again and exiled to Kazakhstan, to Petropavlovsk, for a free settlement. Until August 1954, he worked as a laborer in the regional construction office and in his free time served as a charterer and reader at the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Upon returning home to Tutaev, he lived with his parents, and on January 21, 1958, he was rehabilitated, which gave him the opportunity to apply for ordination to the priesthood.
On March 9, 1958, in the Feodorovsky Cathedral in Yaroslavl, he was ordained a deacon by Bishop Isaiah of Uglich, and on March 16, a presbyter.
First, Father Pavel was appointed rector of the church in the village of Borzova, Rybinsk region, then, in March 1960, he was transferred to rector of the Trinity Church in the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoye, Nekouz region.
In August 1961, priest Pavel Gruzdev was tonsured a monk by Archbishop Nicodemus of Yaroslavl and Rostov, something he had long strived for.
For many years of diligent service, Father Pavel was awarded the pectoral cross by Patriarch Alexy I in 1963, elevated to the rank of abbot in 1966, and to the rank of archimandrite in 1983.
Over many years of sacrificial service in a distant village in the Yaroslavl region, he gained not only respect and gratitude, but also veneration. He was known in the surrounding villages, in the nearby academic town, from where ordinary workers, professors, and academicians came to him. People came to him from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rybinsk, Yaroslavl and many other cities for gracious consolation and solutions to life’s issues. Especially many clergy, spiritual children and admirers gathered on his day of the Angel, on the feast of the revered icon of the Mother of God “It is Worthy to Eat” in the last years of his ministry in Verkhne-Nikulskoye.
At the end of the eighties, Father Pavel began to rapidly lose his sight and became almost blind. He could no longer serve alone, without assistants, and in 1992 he was forced to retire for health reasons. He settled in Tutaev, at the Resurrection Cathedral, continuing to serve and preach, and receive people, despite a serious illness and poor eyesight. Priests and laity found answers to life’s questions from him and received consolation.
The elder’s spiritual vision did not leave him. His simple, childlike pure faith, bold, constant prayer reached God and brought grace-filled consolation, a feeling of the close presence of God and healing to those for whom he asked. There are numerous testimonies to his foresight. Father Paul hid these gifts of grace under the veil of foolishness.
On January 13, 1996, the quiet Christian death of Father Paul occurred.
The funeral took place on January 15, the day of remembrance of St. Seraphim of Sarov, whom he especially revered, living according to his commandment: “Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands will be saved around you.”
The funeral and burial were performed by Archbishop Micah of Yaroslavl and Rostov, co-served by 38 priests and seven deacons, with a large crowd of people from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl and other places.
Archimandrite Pavel was buried, as he had bequeathed, at the Leontyevskoe cemetery in the left bank part of the city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk.
Complete collection and description: Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev prayer for the spiritual life of a believer.
« God! Through the prayers of the righteous, have mercy on sinners."
On the eve of the Feast of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, October 13, 2012, our group took a triptheir arrivalJean, in hAnd After which were the most active visitors to the Sunday School for adults in the city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev). Here he lived the last years of his earthly life and here the saint of God, the people's elder, archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Pavel (Gruzdev), retired to the Heavenly Abodes.
Not only residents of the Yaroslavl land came here to see him, people came from different places: the name of Father Paul is revered throughout Russia. During his life, he was glorified by God with many gifts, his intercession before the Lord was strong and effective. And now people go to his grave: to bow and ask for help in their sorrows and needs, as if they were alive, for the prayer of a righteous man does not stop with his departure to another world, and perhaps becomes even stronger. Here we go, many for the first time.
The city of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (Tutaev) is located 38 km northwest of Yaroslavl, located on both banks of the Volga River; until 1822 these were two different settlements. On the left bank of the Volga is Romanov, founded in the 13th century by Prince Roman of Uglich, on the right bank is Borisoglebsk, known since the 15th century and named after the first Russian saints, the passion-bearing princes Boris and Gleb. A decree of Emperor Alexander the First united these settlements into one city, Romanov-Borisoglebsk, in 1918 the city was renamed Tutaev (after the name of the Bolshevik I. Tutaev).
Father Pavel is buried at the Leontievsky cemetery, which is on the left Romanovskaya side, where we immediately headed. A path leads to the grave of Father Pavel, sprinkled with a thin, single-pebble layer of gravel, and not far from the cemetery entrance there is a homemade simple arrow sign: Archimandrite Pavel. The elder is buried next to the graves of his parents, in the same fence. Black granite crosses, flowers. Father's cross is more massive and taller, next to it is a candlestick with burning candles and a lit lamp, unquenchable.
We went into the fence, bowed to Father Paul, kissed the cross on his grave with prayer, whoever guessed to take the candles, put them on a candlestick protected from the weather. Our rector, Archpriest Michael, with three choristers served a memorial service for the repose of the servant of God, Archimandrite Paul, and we prayed. Who asked Father Pavel for what is a mystery. Our trip was accompanied by a light autumn rain: here we are standing under umbrellas and praying.People come to Father Pavel in any weather, at any time of the year. While our funeral service was going on, more people came up, also with the priest, which means that the funeral services for Father Paul do not end. The prayer does not end, the communication of believers with the elder is not interrupted, the help of God’s chosen one continues to help us, the weak and sinful, asking for the help of the strong and righteous. At the end of the funeral service, Father Michael anointed us with oil from the lamp from the grave of the Archimandrite - his answer. He loved people. Simple, sincere and very strong. Truly, God's way. Loved and loves! Due to ill health, I could not receive everyone in person. Now everyone can.
From the cemetery we went to the Leontief Church, where Pavel Gruzdev prayed, read and sang in the choir when he lived with his parents here, on the left, Romanovskaya side. He was born in Mologa, a district Russian city that stood “on two rivers, the Mologa and the Volga, on steep banks,” as the elder used to say. From the age of 5 he lived in the Mologa Afanasyevsky Monastery, where his three aunts were nuns and was blessed by Patriarch Tikhon of All Russia, who came to the monastery. The Bolsheviks who seized power closed the monastery, a collective farm was formed in it, where Pavel worked. During the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir, a huge area went under water, including the city of Mologa, the Gruzdev family, like other families of Mologans, became migrants: they made a raft from their own house and rafted down the Volga, settling in Tutaev on the left bank.
Leontyevskaya Church (as the Church of the Ascension of the Lord is popularly called) is two-story: below is warm (i.e. heated) - the main altar in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” and the chapel in the name of the Great Martyr Paraskeva. The upper summer (not heated) church has the main altar of the Ascension of the Lord and a chapel in the name of St. Leontius of Rostov. The stone temple was erected in 1795 (in earlier times there was a wooden church of St. Leontius here), it was built, decorated and maintained through the efforts and funds of Romanov merchants. Having survived the godless 30s, the church was closed during the Khrushchev campaign of 1960. Here were many ancient icons from wooden churches. The population greatly revered the miraculous icon of St. Paraskeva Friday, through whose prayers they were healed of eye diseases (in 1609, during the Polish invasion, the daring destroyers were struck by blindness from this icon).
In May 1941, the community of the Leontief Church experienced dramatic events: the rector of the church, Hieromonk Nikolai (Vorontsov), revered by believers as an elder, his cell attendant and several parishioners, among whom was Pavel Gruzdev, were arrested on a fabricated case. According to the verdict of the OGPU troika, the rector was shot, the rest spent many years in prison and camps. Pavel Gruzdev gave his entire life to the Lord, went through the difficult 11-year journey of a camp prisoner, a confessor for the faith, returning home, read and sang again in the Leontyev Church, took monasticism and the priesthood, served in the church of the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoye for more than 30 years, became a revered old man, to whom the Almighty granted the gift of foresight and the ability to heal human souls and bodies.
In 1989, the Leontief Church was returned to believers, with the blessing of Father Paul and with the help of God it was renovated
tified.We visited the lower church. It’s small, a little cramped in the eyes of a modern person, the stove is burning, which is also surprising for a city dweller, the unpainted wooden floors are creaking, a brave and kind girl is running around, a modest mother is accepting notes from us - everything is extremely simple, but truly and spiritually significant (like Father Paul) . The spirit is characteristic of ancient churches that were not closed - prayer (but the church was closed!). There are many ancient icons, some are generally rare, for example: “Don’t cry for me, Mother” in a silver frame. A life-size icon of the Great Martyr Paraskeva, an image of Nicholas of Mozhaisk with a sword, in the iconostasis a large icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Quench My Sorrows,” painted by nun Olga, Father Paul’s aunt. We pass, kiss each other, light candles. Father Mikhail, the abbot, comes out and carries out the skufia of Father himself, which was given to the temple by his relative. We approach one by one and put it on everyone’s head...It’s absolutely impossible to be on the left bank in Tutaev and not venerate the rare icon of the Mother of God “Addition of Mind”! And we continue along the Romanovskaya side. Rural views, streets and houses are more reminiscent of a village than a city. The right side is all so urban and modern, but here it’s as if time moves slower, maybe that’s a good thing. And again here is Father Pavel with his simplicity, thinking about him. And “Adding the mind” - after all, this is not the mind that people boast about, this is the true mind, divine, spiritual, it is often hidden from view, remains hidden, as it was with Father Paul. Here is the Intercession Church, where the shrine is located.
The combination of a slender hipped bell tower with a squat, modest temple, thick walls. It stands on the territory of the former Novo-Pokrovsky monastery, mentioned in documents of the 17th-18th centuries. The Intercession Church is one of the oldest on the Romanovskaya side. It did not close even during the years of persecution, and for 30 years (1961 – 1989) it remained the only one operating on the left side of the city. A large number of shrines from the abolished churches of Romanov-Borisoglebsk are kept under the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos. From the Church of the Resurrection, dismantled in the 1930s, comes a relic containing 110 particles of the relics of the holy saints of God.But a particularly revered image of the Church of the Intercession is the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Addition of the Mind,” a rare iconography in front of which one prays for the enlightenment of the soul. Celebration is on the first Sunday after the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Oh, glorious Mother of Christ our God, the good Giver, by Your mercy preserve the entire universe, grant us, Your servants, wisdom and understanding, Enlighten our souls with the Light of Your Son, One All-Sung, glorified by the Cherubim and Seraphim” (troparion).
Our visit to the Church of the Intercession coincided with the eve of the Feast of the Intercession, with a special feeling we venerated the magnificent icon of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos located in the iconostasis, the image of “Addition of Mind”, and other ancient icons of the temple, submitted memorial notes and, imbued with grace, went home to Yaroslavl .
And on the way, one of our parishioners read aloud to us parables from a book he bought at the Church of the Intercession. The book is called: “Parables of the Orthodox Elders”, published in Voronezh in 2012. This book also contains parables told by Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev). Among all the gifts of Father Paul, the remarkable gift of a storyteller stood out: he seemed to heal his interlocutors with the life-giving power of his words. Everyone who communicated with the priest, listened to his simple everyday stories, remembers that they returned from him “as if on wings” - their inner world was so joyfully transformed.
The text was prepared by E. N. Grigorieva.
“Losing your conscience is the worst thing”
Elder Pavel (Gruzdev) and his sayings
On January 13, we remember the great elder of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Paul (Gruzdev).
I thought: “Why, after communicating with Father Paul, at the table or in church, heartbroken people and despairing sinners became cheerful and cheerful and returned home as if on wings?”
At that moment, the priest turned to me and said out loud: “And I heal them,” and again continued his work.
Father Pavel (in the world Pavel Gruzdev; 1910–1996) was born in the Mologsky district of the Yaroslavl province into a poor peasant family, from childhood he lived in a monastery, served God and the Church. He spent 18 years in exile and camps as a confessor of the Orthodox faith. He acquired many gifts of the Holy Spirit: insight, spiritual discernment, ardent faith, fervent prayer and the love of Christ.
After rehabilitation, he was ordained and served for 40 years in the Yaroslavl region, receiving many people who reached out to him for spiritual advice, consolation, and prayer. After prison torture he was almost blind, but continued to serve, and he never had a deacon or a knowledgeable assistant. The elder’s spiritual vision only became sharper over the years.
He was distinguished by extreme non-covetousness, dressed very simply and often walked barefoot. I didn’t save anything in my entire life, I gave away everything that was brought. He also took care of our little brothers: he cooked two buckets of potatoes for the rooks.
Having graduated from two classes of parochial school, he could carry on a conversation on any topic with the most learned person. By acting like a fool, he hid his spiritual height.
Father Paul did not leave behind thick volumes of books and verbose teachings - his life itself is instructive.
The elder rested on Sunday, the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, in the intensive care unit of the city hospital. Before his death, he received Holy Communion twice - before and after midnight. Spiritual children recalled how everything in the hospital room was fragrant with the aroma of a fresh pine forest.
“The funeral of Father Paul clearly showed his true place in the Church. They were so solemn, so many priests gathered, led by Archbishop Micah of Yaroslavl and Rostov, such a huge number of believers from all over Russia prayed, that it was clear: we were not burying an ordinary clergyman, but a rare, amazing, beloved and revered elder! » (Archpriest Vladimir Vorobyov).
Many cases of miraculous help and healings occur at the elder’s grave.
Father Pavel (Gruzdev) often instructed people who came to him with his short, figurative and apt aphorisms or reminded them of little-known Russian folk sayings, of which he knew many.
ADVICE AND SAYINGS OF THE ELDER
“Be righteous in your undertakings and you will have God for your helper.”
“An anchor is hope for a ship, and faith is an anchor for a man on land and sea.”
“He who is without crosses is not Christ!”
Conscience has no teeth, but it will bite to death
“My dear ones... Conscience has no teeth, but it will bite to death... Don’t lose your conscience! Losing your conscience is the worst thing.”
“If someone makes you cry - wow!”
“Do not be afraid of a strong thunderstorm, but be afraid of a weak tear”
"It is better to forgive than to take revenge."
"God! Bring me to die with a clear conscience, and it is better for me to suffer than for anyone to suffer from me.”
“It is better to be betrayed than to be a traitor, it is better to be slandered than to be slandered.”
“A beggar will never exact from a beggar.”
“Even though your purse is empty, your soul is pure.”
“Better your own sheaf than someone else’s heap.”
“Don’t save for a rainy day, it won’t happen.”
“Blessed is he who has nothing and does not worry about where to hide anything.”
“Trust not in piles of money, but in God.”
“It is better to be poor and righteous than rich and unrighteous.”
““There is money, there is happiness in it, clearly. If you have no money, don’t expect joy.” “They think so in vain; peace of mind is the best treasure!”
“It is a sin to be despondent, but one must grieve.”
“Holidays and songs are the soul of the people.”
“Don’t ask God for sorrow, but if He sends it, be patient.”
He who has worked little has gained little
“What is easily acquired is easily lost. This is the natural order: he who has worked little has gained little.”
“Use labor, have regularity - you will be rich! Don't overeat, don't get drunk - you'll be healthy! Do good, avoid evil - you will be saved!”
“It’s good to be polite, but it’s better to be kind.”
“A good person takes someone else’s illness to his heart.”
“Do good, whether to a believer or an unbeliever. It's not for us to judge! Whether it's a drunkard or a robber... You're not doing something to a drunkard, to a man. Remember: the thief was the first to enter the Heavenly Kingdom: “Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom!” And the Lord said: “Today you will be with Me in paradise!” And you, act like a prudent thief, and the Lord will have mercy on you.”
“What you don’t love yourself, don’t do to others.”
“Do good throughout your life, and no evil will befall you.”
The elder often helped family people in resolving conflicts and problems, consoled them: “And the pots in the oven bump their foreheads.”
“Don’t look for beauty, but look for kindness.”
“Do not show yourself to be righteous before people! If it happens, don’t do it openly, but do it secretly. And the Lord will reward you! That’s it, my dears!”
About vanity and useless waste of time
“You can’t get enough trash for a garbage pit!”
“No luminary, no censer - vanity gutted everything.”
“Don’t get involved in any fuss, beware of troublesome matters.”
Those who keep their tongue avoid many troubles
“It is better to remain silent than to speak inappropriately.”
“Those who keep their tongue avoid many troubles.”
“A literate person convinces not with a roar, but with a kind word.”
“The best response to insult is restraint and patience.”
“Work day and pray night.”
When Father Paul was asked how to pray, he answered: “Pray as you know how.”
“Prayer works everywhere, although it does not always work miracles.”
“You must get up to pray hastily, as if there were a fire, and especially for monks.”
“Do not anger God by murmuring, but pray to Him in a whisper.”
“My dear ones! Pray! Like a bird without wings, a person cannot live without prayer.”
“Yes, Lord, I got up this morning: “In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!” Crossing yourself correctly once is better than waving your arms a hundred times. Lunch has arrived. They should have prayed and read the “Our Father” - but they forgot. Duck again: “Lord, bless!” Evening has come. Some kind of sciatica, but some people have pressure and some don’t. So, at least go to the bed and think with your thoughts: “Glory to You, Lord! The day has passed - thank you, Lord.” These are three little prayers, and it is advisable to repeat them every day. This is very desirable, and anyone else is commendable.”
About monastics and clergy
“No matter how black a monk is, he still won’t be blacker than his robe.”
"Fasting and prayer are the doctors of monks."
“If believers do not come to church, the angels must be served.”
“The priest who serves for the sake of a bribe is bad.”
“Fast with the spirit, and not just the belly!”
“Fast and pray when people don’t see...”
“You drink milk, but don’t drink people’s blood.”
“It’s not a sin to eat, but it’s a sin to eat a person!”
The elder advised one overly talkative woman: “Give fasting to your lips!”
“Fasting brings purity to the body and beauty to the soul! Fasting is the joy of angels, the grief of demons. But we must remember: in our time it is better not to fast at all than to fast madly.”
When happiness turns away, then the jelly breaks your teeth
“Happiness is swelling, trouble is hooking.”
“When happiness turns away, then the jelly breaks your teeth.”
“Having lived forever, you will turn on your back and on your side.”
“No matter how you live, you must die. Bring, Lord, to die a Christian death and to be remembered with a kind word. Yes, I have never wished bad things on anyone, and since childhood I have loved the Church like my own mother. And to whom the Church is not a mother, God is not a Father.”
"Love never ceases to be."
“I’ll see you all there even better.”
“Where I was born, I was useful there, but when I die, I will not leave you.”
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Vladimir Belov
“Father Pavel knew how to live, loved to live, and taught this to the people around him.”Memoirs of a policeman about Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)
In 1975 I joined the police. For two years, with the rank of private, I worked as a pickpocket, and then, taking into account my military merits, they sent me to a group for solving crimes related to antiquities and religious objects.
Prot. Anatoly Denisov
20 years under Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)Archpriest Anatoly Denisov
Father Pavel leaves his cell: short trousers, bare feet, hair down. He says: “Oh, Tolyanko, he’s wearing a paralyzed hat.” I say: “Father, it’s new.” - I see it myself. He took off my hat and hung it on a stake. So she drove away the crows for three years. I arrived home - and there was no nuclear war.
Memories of the Elder Archimandrite. Pavle (Gruzdeva)Prot. Sergiy Tsvetkov
Memories of Elder Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)Archpriest Sergius Tsvetkov
10 years ago (January 13, 1996) an amazing elder, Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev), reposed in the Lord. He suffered a lot, spent more than 10 years in Stalin’s camps, went blind at the end of his life, but retained his love for people and amazing simplicity. He gave warmth, fatherly affection and consolation to everyone who visited him, and instructed in word and deed. And with his prayer he worked miracles.
“The tradition of eldership in Rus' has not yet died out,” F.M. would say. Dostoevsky about Father Pavel Gruzdev. The great writer believed that the preservation of Orthodoxy in our country is the merit of the monks and elders. It is they who cherish faith in Christ and do not allow Orthodoxy to disappear from Russian soil. In 1996, the last elder, Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev, passed away. The life story of this remarkable man has been preserved in several books with stories written down from his words, as well as from the memories of his friends. The diary entries of Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev himself have been published. The book is called "The Lord's Grain of Wheat."
True stories
Father Pavel told many stories from his life to his friends.
Father had a wonderful gift of storytelling. His speech is full of funny old Russian words and expressions. He called bread “paposhnik”, vermicelli - “marmicelli”, soiled the floor with dirty shoes - “naslyandali”, etc. His favorite address to parishioners was “My dear ones.” With these words he preceded each of his stories and each sermon, so it is no coincidence that one of Pavel Gruzdev’s books was given this name. And everyone should study it. There is a lot of information about him in the collection “Archimandrite Pavel (Gruzdev)”, published in 2010.
Some of the priest's conversations were recorded on video and edited into a short film. Pavel Gruzdev is captured in the last years of his life. In his declining years, he could no longer walk well and was almost blind, but the kindness of this amazing old man and the simplicity of his character are very clearly visible in this film.
Pavel Gruzdev's stories about the past are imbued with great humor and colorful details, and his stories cover the entire long life of the archpastor, starting from childhood: he was born on January 23, 1910 in the village of Bolshoy Borok, which was located in the Mologa district of the Yaroslavl region, then there was life in Rybinsk , where the family was resettled after the flooding, monastery living with his aunt, work in the artel that replaced the monastery farmstead, then the Vyatka camps, where he was exiled as an enemy of the people, then a free settlement in Kazakhstan, on virgin lands, and, of course, the period priesthood in the Yaroslavl region.
Pilgrims
People came to Father Paul from all over the country. They asked him for advice, blessings, and healing from illnesses. He helped everyone.
So, one woman asked him whether to perform an operation on her newborn granddaughter, in whom doctors discovered a heart defect. The elder told her not to rush - to wait a little and boldly go to the operation. When six months later, on the eve of the planned treatment, the girl was examined again, not even traces of the disease were found in her.
Father was a great seer. There was a case when a certain woman approached him for a blessing. She hoped that the great elder Pavel Gruzdev could not see what kind of thoughts were in a person’s head, and what kind of feelings were in his heart. She needed a blessing to evict one of her relatives from the apartment. Father didn’t even cross her - he said: “Go away from where you came!”
Father Pavel not only spoke the beautiful Old Russian language, he spoke excellently in criminal, prison jargon. They say that in the early 90s, when the country was in complete disarray - no work, no food, constant gas and electricity cuts, monstrous inflation, when the rise in prices for the most necessary food products outpaced the rise in wages by several orders of magnitude, a group turned to him young men asking for help with advice on what to do, how to be and how to live? He very energetically, flavoring his speech with choice obscenities, advised them to return home, get married, have children and simply live, fearing nothing.
Elder Pavel Gruzdev could save a person from any ailment forever with just a friendly pat on the back. He did this without pretense, somehow even in a friendly way. He was a very simple man. I always considered it my duty to feed and shelter a pilgrim or an ordinary wanderer in need of help. He loved to repeat gospel parables and often accompanied them with stories from real life.
Advent story
Father Pavel Gruzdev believed that we should try to see the reflection of Christ in every person. He told this parable. There lived a woman in a certain village. She was a deeply religious person, observed all Orthodox traditions - she fasted regularly, constantly prayed and often went to church.
One day she had a dream in which she was told that the next day upon awakening, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would come to visit her.
From early morning she put the hut in order, prepared delicious food - she cooked marmichel, fried eggs, baked a pie and sat down by the window to wait for the Savior.
A neighbor boy came to her and said:
My mother got sick, fell and couldn’t get up. Let’s go, you can help,” and the woman answers him:
I can’t, Jesus Christ promised to come to me, - the boy left with nothing.
The woman is sitting by the window again. Waiting. A fellow villager comes to her and asks:
My cow is giving birth. You are the best at this matter. Let’s go, you can help,” and the woman said to him:
I can’t, Jesus Christ must come to me,” the man also left.
It’s getting late in the evening, but the Lord still doesn’t appear. A wanderer turned into her yard and asked for an overnight stay, but she refused him too:
I cleaned the house, prepared food not for you - Christ promised to visit me.
The day ended, but God still did not come to her. She went to bed and dreamed of an angel. She asks him why God fulfilled his promises to her, and the angel answered:
So He came to you three times, and you rejected Him.
When?
When the boy came to ask for his mother, when the man came whose cow was giving birth, and when the wanderer asked for an overnight stay.
Life before arrest
The parents of the future Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev were ordinary peasants - before the revolution they lived richly, had a strong house, a yard full of cattle, and a large plot of land. From childhood, Pavel learned all the rural wisdom - he knew how to cultivate the land, knew how to handle domestic animals - he could deliver a cow to a cow, he drove horses, he cared for poultry, he knew beekeeping, he was well versed in the properties of plants for which the floodplain meadows of Mologa were famous. and its tributaries.
So he would have lived as before, many generations of his ancestors lived before him, but the revolution came, changes began, and in the 20s they built a dam and flooded his native village of Bolshoi Borok, as well as many other surrounding settlements. All the residents moved, some where. The usual way of life was destroyed. Many went bankrupt and never restored their farms. Little Pavlush's father and mother sent him to his aunt in the monastery, where he began to work in the apiary, and at the same time look after the chickens and ducklings. Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev recalled those years with love and tenderness.
Honey
In his book “My Relatives,” the priest recalls one incident. He was then about 10 years old. He wanted to eat honey, but Mother Superior, the abbess of the monastery, did not allow it. The boy took the rat from the trap, found a piece of rags, dipped it in a tub of honey and coated the caught animal with it. Taking the rat by the tail, he brought it to the abbess, showed it and said that he had caught the animal in a jar of honey. Mother began to lament - the product, after all, is now considered defiled and is not suitable for food. She told the boy to take the tub and take it outside the monastery. And he’s glad - the rat didn’t spoil the honey. He ate himself and treated the sisters to the nuns.
It's time to go to confession. Little Pavlusha is afraid, crying, but cannot hide the truth - he repented to his father and promised that he would not do this again. The priest absolved him of his sin, but asked if they had eaten everything? If not, then let Pavlusha pour a can for him too, and he will pray to God for it. No sooner said than done. I brought him some honey too.
Arrest
A few years later, the monastery was closed, many monks were arrested, and the monastery itself was transformed into a labor artel. Pavel Gruzdev found something to do here too. He was still engaged in agricultural work, and also, until May 1941, when he was arrested, actively participated in the social life of the artel.
On the eve of the arrest, a young man asked to stay at the Gruzdevs’ house for the night. The hospitable hosts sheltered the guest, trusted him, and he turned out to be an NKVD employee. The guest found out the information he needed regarding Paul’s religious life and reported this to his colleagues. At night, a “black raven” drove up to the house and Pavel Gruzdev was taken to prison. The future archimandrite remembered the surname of the investigator for the rest of his life - Spassky. He knocked out all his teeth and tortured him cruelly. But our hero had nothing to admit, and he did not renounce his faith even under torture.
They sent Pavel Gruzdev to a labor camp near Vyatka, and for many years he became prisoner number 513. But you can live in prison - there are people there too. Political prisoners were kept separate from criminals. They were punished more severely, but for some reason they were trusted more.
How Pavel Gruzdev saved a German
Prisoner number 513, Pavel Gruzdev, was appointed as a trackman - he had to monitor the condition of the railway, or rather, the section of the route between the logging site and the camp. The “holy man,” as the guards called Gruzdev, always performed his work conscientiously and closely monitored the condition of the canvas. Thanks to this service, he could freely go into the forest outside the zone and pick mushrooms and berries there. As you know, prisoners were not given vitamins, but he brought strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries to his comrades under Article 58. I dried mushrooms and prepared medicinal herbs.
Then one day, and it was in the fall, he went with his boss, a prisoner like himself, Grigory Vasilyevich Kopol, to inspect the tracks. Throughout the entire journey of the locomotive, fog spreads along the track - nothing is visible, but Pavel is calm - he checked everything the day before. The road is fine. Suddenly the car jerked - apparently something got under the wheel. A few meters later the same thing happens again. The boss shouts: “You deceived me! The rails are not secured! You won't work here anymore! I’ll reduce the bread ration for two weeks!” And soldering is 800 grams. Penalties received 300.
As soon as we returned to the camp, Pavel Gruzdev ran back to see what was wrong with the rails? He checked - everything was normal. It’s terribly cold outside - it’s mid-autumn, it’s raining like buckets, and it’s already dark, and the railway track is almost 8 km away. Somewhere in the middle of the journey, in the ditch where the locomotive first jerked, he saw a horse. She walked onto the tracks in the fog, went to bed, and the locomotive hit her. Same thing elsewhere. Prisoner number 513 stole horses into a ditch. While I was fiddling around, I heard sounds coming from a sleeper cutter that stood nearby. He went in there and saw that the guy who was supposed to graze these horses had hanged himself. What to do? How to remove it? There is no knife even close - if they find it on a prisoner, they will shoot without trial. There is also no way to untie it with your teeth - investigator Spassky knocked everything out. Pavel Gruzdev began to pray - and called upon the Quick to Hear, and Mikhail Klopsky, and the saint of God Varlaam, and John Chrysostom, whomever he remembered. Finally, the rope gave in, he untied the poor fellow, but the guy was no longer breathing. He gave him artificial respiration, cardiac massage, and began offering prayers again. Finally, a heartbeat was heard.
Gruzdev ran back to the camp, to the medical unit. It's cold and raining outside, but Pavel's clothes are all dry - such heat was coming from his body. I came running. He called the trolley, found a doctor and returned to the guy. Thank God, everything worked out. Then a court was appointed to try that shepherd boy. There was a war, they say, and he, a fascist German, committed sabotage. Prisoner 513, Gruzdev Pavel, acted as a witness. He told the judges: “The guy didn’t do it out of malice - he just didn’t pay attention and fell asleep. He didn't want to cause harm on purpose. He has a wife and children. The reason he climbed into the noose was because he was ashamed of his offense and was afraid. This is not sabotage on his part.” They believed it.
Then the German repaid Pavel’s kindness with a kindness - for a long time, while they lived in the same barracks, he broke off a piece of his bread ration and put it on Pavel’s bunk.
Camp Liturgy
Priests served their sentences together with Pavel Gruzdev. As he said, a whole diocese had gathered - two bishops, monks, abbess of monasteries, priests and a huge number of ordinary believers. Their big dream was to participate in the Divine Liturgy, but this is impossible in the zone. And yet, Paul’s friends figured out how to do this. The wife of the head of the passes, Anatoly Komkov, Lyolya, was a deeply religious woman. It was she who begged her husband to allow the prisoners to go out into the forest and hold a service. Pavel Gruzdev was appointed responsible for returning everyone back to the zone.
From the very morning the women were hurrying Pavel. Everyone was afraid that the permit would be canceled and nothing would work out for them. However, in due time, a large group of prisoners entered the forest. Along the way, they collected berries, then squeezed the juice out of them, and made a communion cup from a tin can. The altar was the stump of a felled tree. Everyone remembered the prayers by heart. They served from the heart. “There were more tears than I had ever seen in my entire life,” Pavel later recalled.
Everyone returned to camp. No one ran away, although there was such a possibility. No one wanted to let Paul down.
After some time, when the prisoners began to be transferred stage by stage to another camp, it started to rain, and in front of everyone, lightning struck that stump. It burned so that the consecrated place would not be desecrated later.
Kazakhstan
Pavel was transferred to Northern Kazakhstan to serve the remaining term of his sentence, and at the same time, to develop virgin lands. The plots were large - three hectares each. Whether you want it or not, you have to take it. And process it. It’s a difficult task, but Pavel is accustomed to rural work. Watermelons, melons, various vegetables, grains grew well for him, and soon he even got a cow. She gave birth to two calves that same year. Prosperity, prosperity and satiety came into the life of Pavel Gruzdev - the surplus was taken to the market and sold. With the money raised, they bought renovations and built houses. Life went on as usual.
And in 1953 an amnesty came out. From home, Gruzdev was informed that his father and mother were waiting for him and were missing him. Since former prisoners cannot freely travel around the country without a special summons, Pavel’s sister, who lived with her parents in Tutaev, sent him a telegram saying that his mother, being seventy years old, had given birth to twins and was dying. This was not true, but it turned out to be a good reason to allow Pavel to leave.
New life
Gruzdev returned to his native place. After long ordeals with documents and rehabilitation, he remained in Tutaev. He became a priest, rector of a church in the village of Verkhne-Nikulskoye. Gradually, his fame as a seer and healer from God spread throughout the Yaroslavl region, and then throughout the country. A long line of people flocked to him to confess, attend the service and listen to the sermon.
Already during his lifetime there was a rumor about him as a holy righteous man. This incident was told by Leningraders who came to him for a blessing before each campaign. They noticed that without the guidance of the archimandrite, fishing cannot be successful. Somehow the fishermen took with them, for company, a comrade, a popular journalist. He looked at everything, listened, and when he returned home to Leningrad, he published a libelous article “The Life of Father Paul” in his newspaper. The fishermen took it and came to show it to the archimandrite. He read it and ordered to throw the newspaper into the hole.
That journalist didn’t come to him anymore - he fished in other places, but not for long... until winter. One day he went to the river for ice fishing. I made a hole, and the ice around it cracked. He fell into the resulting wormwood. And so he died.
Father Pavel loved to use phraseological units in his speech; he spoke loudly, in the old Russian manner. The advice of Archimandrite Pavel Gruzdev was very simple. He taught his parishioners not to be proud and not to rise above other people: “If there is no simplicity in a person, it means he is stupid and is afraid to show it, or maybe he is hiding some kind of sin.” The same applied to those who were touchy - smart people, according to him, never get offended.
It was no coincidence that Father Paul himself was compared to holy fools. He dressed poorly, lived meagerly, and with important and bureaucratic gentlemen he acted like a fool - this made it easier not to succumb to their provocations. They often came to him for inspections. And he will put on a torn shirt, roll up one trouser leg to the knee and let’s clean the cesspool in the toilet. They will stand and stand and leave with nothing: is it possible to talk with a person who is smeared with feces?
In the Leningrad canteen
In his stories, Father Pavel was not afraid to look funny and absurd. Thus, he loved to amuse his comrades with a story about how he had lunch in a Leningrad canteen. He visited this city often - he had many friends and acquaintances there.
He once came to Leningrad to visit Vladyka Nikodim. He was in a hurry on business, and suggested that Father Pavel, while he was away, go to some dining room and have lunch there. I gave the priest 25 rubles and left.
The old man went to look for a dining room. Some didn’t let him in because he was wearing felt boots, others because his tie didn’t meet the requirements. In the end, the priest found a canteen where they served set meals. He paid the money, took a tray of food, sat down at the table, put the suitcase under the chair and got ready to have dinner, but forgot to grab a spoon. There was nothing to do - I returned to the buffet, where cutlery was given out. He took a spoon and drank a glass at the same time. He went to his table and saw that some man was already sitting there and eating his soup. What to do? Father pulled the second one towards him, broke the cutlet in half, and divided the mashed potatoes. I poured a glass of compote into two and began to eat my half. And the man looked at him silently all this time. Having finished his meal, the stranger got up and left. Father Pavel also had lunch and got ready to leave. Grab it, but there’s no suitcase. Stolen?! He looked around to see who to turn to, and under the next table he saw his luggage. The old priest realized that he had eaten someone else's lunch. He got scared, felt ashamed - he grabbed his belongings and ran across the road, in felt boots, in a long cassock, with a suitcase in his hand and right at the red traffic light.
End of life and memory
Towards the end of his days, Pavel Gruzdev, the last elder of a holy life, became completely blind. He had never had any money, and here he didn’t even have enough for medicine. “Everything is God’s will,” he repeated without resentment or despondency. Didn't complain. Died in hospital on January 13, 1996.
The priest was buried in Tutaev, now Romanov-Borisoglebsk, Yaroslavl region. As Father Pavel predicted: “I was born useful, but when I die, I will not leave you,” - for more than 10 years the priest has been lying in the fence of the local cemetery, and the path to the grave of Pavel Gruzdev has not been overgrown with grass - pilgrims go to him all year round and carry flowers.
