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Pelagia Ivanovna Serebrennikova [†1884]

"This woman will be a great lamp!"... 

This is what Saint Seraphim said about her.

Pelagia, 'the sea', was born in 1809...

into a wealthy merchant family in the city of Arzamas. 

Shortly after her forced marriage, the young woman visited the monk Serafim in Sarov and had a long conversation with him, which determined her future life and set her on the path of spiritual work.

After that, she began to study the Jesus prayer, which began to act gracefully in her.

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As if she had lost her mind... 

Pelagia Ivanovna began to dress uncomfortably, and behave strangely in public places, causing gossip and insults, which her soul sincerely rejoiced, despising all the blessings of this world.

The blessed one, who lived on the street, ran through the city during the day and went mad... 

and spent her nights in prayer on the porch of the church.

Her husband, as well as her relatives not understanding the great path of his wife, subjected her to blows and torture, starved her to death and cold, put her on a chain... Only the grace of God gave her the strength to endure all those torments.

In 1837, Pelagia was taken to Diveyevo.

The sisters of the Diveevo community, seeing Pelageya Ivanovna...

had taken pity on her and took her to them. 

Her first cell attendant, however, hit her so hard, that it was impossible to look at her without pity. And Pelagia called on everyone to be beaten, because she was mad and hit the walls of the monastery buildings with her head and hands. She rarely went to her cell and spent most of the day in the courtyard of the monastery, either in a well full of manure, or in a gatehouse in the corner.

In summer or winter, she always walked barefoot, deliberately stood with her feet on nails, pierced them through, and tried in every way possible to torture her body. She only ate bread and water, and sometimes not even that. She hardly slept, unless, sitting, she dozed off a little, and at night she would leave and stand somewhere in the monastery regardless of rain or cold, turning east. 

Pelagia Ivanovna never cut her nails and never went to the bathhouse. However, never has she been sick. Three years before her death, she fell into a snowstorm and froze to the ground in the yard, and at nine in the morning stood out in the cold in just a sundress and a shirt!

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Sure enough, she was the Diveyevo Monastery mother.

And everyone called the nuns her daughters. As nothing was done without her. Whether one send someone in obedience, whether one send someone to the monastery, or send them out - everything was done on the advice of the blessed old woman.

In Diveyevo people began to flock to her from all sides, people of different ranks and circumstances; everyone hastened to see her and to hear from her a wise word of edification, comfort, spiritual advice, or reproof and reproach, each according to his own needs.

And she, who possessed the gift of clairvoyance, told everyone what was necessary for him and soul-saving: with some loving, and with others menacing, while still others completely drove away from themselves and she threw stones at them, or she cruelly denounced, and her voice was like once to the blessed Christ for the sake of the holy fool Andrew, like a bell it sounded strong and graceful, so that all who listened to it would never forget the astonishing effect of her words. 

And she spoke almost incessantly, now allegorically, now directly and clearly, depending on the spiritual needs of those who listened.

There was a wonderful relationship... 

between this ascetic and the great elder Seraphim... 

the beginning of which he initiated... 

by a special revelation from above... 

and with the blessing of the Most Holy Theotokos... 

after his long conversation with Pelagia Ivanovna.

He had blessed her for the great feat [prestatie] of folly, bowed to her on the ground and said: “Go, go, mother, go to Diveyevo, take care of my orphans." 

After her departure, Father Seraphim said to the witnesses of this event: "This woman will be a great lamp!"

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Pelagia Ivanovna spent forty-six years in the Diveyevo Monastery... 

year after year bearing the heavy burden of achievements... 

protecting the holy monastery with her prayer.

Pelageya Ivanovna under various circumstances of her life constantly repeated: "I am Serafimova", or "Serafim spoiled me", or "The old man is closer to us"... and to the end of her life she was vigilantly awake over the Diveyevo Monastery. "Look how many children I have!" - expressing all her love for the Diveyevo orphans. 

And the compassionate concern for the Mother Abbess Mary, about her work and problems in the management of the monastery, and her zeal for the truth, trampled and scolded, when she decided to reason with the saint - all this clearly showed in her the faithful and exact fulfillment of the great elder's request: “Go, go to Diveyevo, take care of my beings." 

And she kept and is still keeping them, for eternity. 

She loved flowers very much... 

and when she had them in her hands, she sorted them thoughtfully and whispered a prayer softly. 

Lately she almost always had fresh flowers in her hands, because they were brought by those who wanted to please her, and these flowers apparently comforted her. She looked over and admired them, and she herself became bright and cheerful, as if her mind was already floating in another world.

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On January 30th, 1884, she rested in the Lord. 

She was 75 years old. 

On the ninth day after the death of the blessed, that is on February 7th, 1884, her funeral took place with a huge crowd of people. They buried Pelagia Ivanovna in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, opposite the main altar. On the tomb of the blessed old woman, a monument was erected with inscriptions on four sides:

1) Pelageya Ivanovna Serebrennikova, née Surina, with the blessing of the eldest of God, Hieromonk Seraphim, for holy obedience left all the happiness of earthly life, her husband and children, and undertook the feat of folly and persecution, beatings and chains, accepting the Lord for Christ's sake. Born in 1809, she lived in the monastery for 47 years, and on January 30th, 1884, died at the age of 75 to the Lord.

2) Happy are you when they reproach you, wear you out, and speak every evil word against you, lying for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is many in heaven. Having endured all here and conquered all by the power of your love for God, His love for the suffering of our spiritual weakness and intercession for us with the cross of your achievement.

3) Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveev Monastery blessed Pelageya. Who took up her cross for the sake of God, lived on earth wholly in God, and in heaven lives with God forever.

4) Blessed are the exiles for righteousness' sake, for that is the Kingdom of Heaven. In the thorny path of your achievement, you left no one who came running to you, and there, in the bliss of God's eternal glory, you found the abode you loved. 

[bron]