Crucea.ro

THE CONSOLING CATACOMB ELDRESS
Commemorated January 26 (†1930)

Intense sorrows, like gold in the furnace,
purify the soul, give it life,
fortify and temper it.
Saint Joseph of Petrograd

Some thirty miles from Petrograd there is the small town of Gatchina,
well known to all residents of Petrograd for its gardens, parks and
palaces. In this town there lived before the Revolution a Nun, Maria,
who was known not only by the residents of Gatchina, but by many
residents of Petrograd as well. The Revolution of 1917 found Matushka
Maria on her sick bed. After suffering encephalitis (inflammation of
the brain), she entered the condition of the so-called Parkinson’s
Disease (named after the physician Parkinson who described this
condition): her whole body became as it were chained and immovable,
her face anemic and like a mask; she could speak, but she began to
talk with half-closed mouth, through her teeth, pronouncing slowly and
in a monotone. She was a total invalid and was in constant need of
help and careful looking after. Usually this disease proceeds with
sharp psychological changes (irritability, a tiresome stubbornness in
repeating stereotyped questions, an exaggerated egoism and
egocentrism, manifestations of senility, and the like), as a result of
which such patients often ended up in psychiatric hospitals. But
Mother Maria, being a total physical invalid, not only did not
degenerate physically, but revealed completely extraordinary features
of her personality and character, not characteristic of such patients:
she became extremely meek, humble, submissive, undemanding,
concentrated in herself; she became engrossed in constant prayer,
bearing her difficult condition without the least murmuring. As if as
a reward for this humility and patience, the Lord sent her a gift:
consolation of the sorrowing. Completely strange and unknown people,
finding themselves in sorrows, grief, depression, and despondency,
began to visit and converse with her. And everyone who came to her
left consoled, feeling an illumination of their grief, a pacifying of
sorrow, a calming of fears, a taking away of depression and
despondency. The news of this extraordinary nun gradually spread far
beyond the boundaries of the city of Gatchina.

Matushka Maria lived in a little wooden house at the outskirts of
the city, where I visited her in March, 1927. While waiting to be
received, I examined the numerous photographs in the reception room
and noticed two: Metropolitan Benjamin (of Petrograd, the New Martyr)
and Metropolitan Joseph (soon to become leader of the “Josephite”
movement). Metropolitan Joseph on his photograph had written a
touching dedication to Matushka Maria, quoting a large selection from
his work In the Father’s Embrace, while Metropolitan Benjamin had
written briefly: “To the deeply-respected sufferer Matushka Maria,
who, among many grieving ones, has consoled also me, a sinner…”
I had the great good fortune to be present at the manifestation of
miracles of healing of grieving souls. A young man, who had grown
despondent after the arrest and exile of his priest-father, left
Matushka with a joyful smile, having resolved to accept the rank of
deacon. A young woman, who was grieving, became radiantly joyful,
similarly resolving to become a nun. An elderly man who was suffering
deeply over the death of his son left Matushka upright and encouraged.
An elderly woman, who had come with tears, left calm and firm.
When I went in to her, I told Matushka Maria that a terrible
depression often attacked me, sometimes lasting for several weeks, and
that I could find no way to get rid of it.
“Depression is a spiritual cross,” she told me; “it is sent to
help the penitent who do not know how to repent, that is, who after
repentance fall again into their earlier sins… And therefore, only two
medicines can treat this sometimes extremely difficult suffering of
soul. One must either learn to repent and offer the fruits of
repentance; or else bear this spiritual cross, one’s depression, with
humility, meekness, patience, and great gratitude to the Lord,
remembering that the bearing of this cross is accounted by the Lord as
the fruit of repentance… And after all, what a great consolation it is
to realize that your discouragement is the unacknowledged fruit of
repentance, an unconscious self-chastisement for the absence of the
fruits that are demanded… From this thought one should come to
contrition, and then the depression gradually melts and the true
fruits of repentance will be conceived…”
From these words of Matushka Maria it was as if someone had
literally made an operation on my soul and removed a spiritual tumor…
And I left a different man.
About 1930 Matushka Maria was arrested. She was accused of
counter-revolutionary propaganda and of participating in a
counter-revolutionary organization, according to paragraphs 10 and 11
of Article 58 (of the Soviet criminal code). Her brother was also
arrested. The “organization” was composed of only two people. And the
“propaganda” against Communism was her gift of consolation in sorrows.
Those who were present during the arrest describe a frightful picture
of mockery and cruel violence upon the patient sufferer who was
paralyzed and incapable of any physical movement. The
“politico-religious crime” of Matushka Maria was deepened by her
refusal to recognize Metropolitan Sergius after his famous Declaration
of 1927, which led to a schism in the Russian Church.
The poor sufferer was dragged by her arms, which were twisted
behind her back, along the floor and ground from her bed to the truck
by two Chekists… Swinging her much-suffering, paralyzed body, the
Chekists threw it into the truck and took her away. Her brother was
taken away in another automobile, a so-called “black raven” (a black
limousine used especially for transporting the victims of arrests made
in the deep of night; described by Solzhenitsyn in volume one of The
Gulag Archipelago). The compassionate venerators of Matushka Maria
began to bring modest parcels to her in prison. These were accepted
for a month. And then, once they did not accept the parcels and said
briefly, “She died in the hospital.” (Such helpless patients were
usually killed.) The body was not given over.
Her brother, a weak, small, refined gentleman, who had looked
after her with self-sacrifice and received visitors, after nine months
of investigation received five years imprisonment in a Siberian
concentration camp.

From Russia’s Catacomb Saints