The Glorification of Blessed Xenia

Epistle of the Chief Hierarch of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to the God-beloved flock in the Diaspora

NOW THE DAY has come near for which Russian Orthodox people of the Diaspora have long been preparing. For the course of sixty years they have had the spiritual joy of glorifying among the saints Father John of Kronstadt (1964), and after him St. Herman of Alaska (1970). And now has come near the third spiritual solemnity of this type: the glorification of Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg, who is so much revered by the Orthodox Russian people both in the Diaspora and in the Russian land.

St. Symeon Metaphrastes many years ago wrote the life of St. Xenia of Rome, and he began his words concerning the holy God-pleasers by saying that they "Illumine like stars all that is under the heavens; they are visible to the inhabitants of India, and they do not hide even from the Scythians." Now, when a thousand years have passed after these words were written, we see that they refer also to our Russian Xenia of Petersburg.

News of her coming glorification was already heard long ago. There was talk of this at the Third All-Diaspora Council in 1974, and the Sobors of Bishops in 1974 and 1976 examined this question in more detail and decided to perform the glorification of Blessed Xenia as a holy God-pleaser. The regular Sobor of Bishops will begin on August 28/September 10, and it will end on September 11/24 with her glorification.

On her gravestone is an inscription which ends with the words: "Whoever has known me, may he remember my soul for the salvation of his own soul. Amen."

And what do we know of the life and struggles of Blessed Xenia?

Xenia Grigorievna was married to a court singer, Andrew Feodorovich Petrov, who died quite unexpectedly and suddenly and, evidently, without the rites of the Church.

His death changed, as quickly as lightning, the whole outlook and way of life of Xenia. She understood everything that was great, and disdained everything small, unnecessary, temporal. The great thing which rose up before her spiritual gaze was the eternal blessedness of those who have endured much here on earth.

And therefore: there is the highest form of sanctity, when a man, in the words of the Apostle Paul, "counts all things to be loss, and counts them but refuse, that he may gain Christ . . . and know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming conformed unto His death so as to attain unto the resurrection from the dead" (Phil. 3-8-11).

From the history of the Russian Church we know of at least a few fools for Christ's sake, and they shock us by their struggle. In Moscow, for example, there was the renowned Basil, and likewise Maximus, the blessed ones; in Novgorod the blessed ones Nicholas Kachanov and Theodore; in Kiev Blessed Theophilus, who is yet uncanonized . . .

And behold, St. Petersburg also — as the new Russian capital was called in those days — became the witness of the struggle of Blessed Xenia. Not answering to her female name, she was called by the name of her reposed husband, Andrew Feodorovich, as if emphasizing by this foolishness her desire to be an entirely new man, or to obtain by prayer the salvation of the soul of her husband who had died suddenly. By this name we are reminded of the St. Andrew who is, as it were, at the head of the choir of the blessed ones, namely St. Andrew the Fool for Christ who beheld the vision of the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God.

From the life of this St. Andrew we know how much such strugglers endure sometimes from men, how many sufferings of evil they subject themselves to, and how much there is revealed to them the unutterable mysteries of God.

Blessed Xenia also walked about our Petrograd not only in rain and snow, but also in fierce frosts, almost without shoes, clothed in the oldest kind of garment. She walked about with feet swollen with cold.

In the Smolensk cemetery where later she was buried, Xenia, hiding her struggle, carried bricks, taking them up at night to the top of the church which was being built so as to furnish the builders with material and to wear out her flesh. At night she went out from the city into a field and stood there in prayer.

In the city she was a source of mockery, and there were incidents when people threw dirt and stones at her. But this was only sometimes . . . In general, people in Petersburg were touched by her and loved her — those, that is, to whom was revealed the meaning of her voluntary belittlement and sufferings.

This meaning is the acceptance of one's cross and bearing it, following the Lord. And the fruit of suffering is the power of God accomplished in the womanly weakness of Xenia: her clairvoyance, healings, help, which occur up to now by prayer to her.

People have been flocking to the Smolensk cemetery right up to now. There, over the grave of the Blessed One, a chapel was erected. Pannikhidas used to be celebrated from morning to night with hope in help by the prayers of the slave of God Xenia.

Now the chapel is closed up, and there, as we have been informed, there has been made, with the aim of mockery, a bust of Lenin so immense that it cannot be carried out the door . . . May the glorification of the Blessed One, which has now drawn near, be the answer of believing hearts to the persecution of our Faith in the city and land of Blessed Xenia. But even now notes are being written with entreaties to the saint, and these are placed as close as possible to the walls of the chapel . . . And even now people strive to take from there particles of earth sanctified by the nearness of Xenia.

The text of the inscription which at one time was made on the gravestone is the following:

"In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. On this place is placed the body of the slave of God Xenia Grigorievna, the wife of the court singer, colonel by rank, Andrew Feodorovich. She was left by her husband at the age of 26, wandered for 45 years, and lived in all 71 years. She was called by the name Andrew Feodorovich. Whoever has known me, may he remember my soul for the salvation of his own soul. Amen."

And thus for 45 years Blessed Xenia performed her struggle. In this time there was manifested in her both the gift of clairvoyance and the gift which is higher than any other, love. She foresaw the death both of Tsars and of simple people; she helped people to put their lives in order, to build families, to earn their bread, to provide for their children. She helped at times with a strict appearance, but with a loving heart.

Many incidents of miraculous help which occurred after the death of the Blessed One were sometimes written down; but often, by reason of persecutions or carelessness, this was not done. But they have accumulated in the memory of the preservers of our piety, the believing laymen, for even now the Orthodox Russian people in some part preserves faith and piety.

Believing laymen carry to the Blessed One their needs and sorrows, and our hierarchy abroad, fulfilling its service, now humbly testifies that Blessed Xenia, together with other God-pleasers from our people, is "a splendid fruit of the saving sowing" performed by the Divine Sower on Russian soil (Troparion to All Saints of Russia).

Metropolitan Philaret
July 14, 1978

 
The Chapel over the relics of Blessed Xenia in the Smolensk Cemetery in Petersburg

 
Icon of Blessed Xenia prepared in Greece years before her official glorification