A Story of Agapit Pechersky by Anastasia Novykh (reading strategies book .txt) 📕

the monastery in the morning, they found a real stir there. However, the whole commotion was not caused by the loss of Agapit’ body, as they assumed. It appeared that one monk of the community found... Agapit’ body, and not lying at that, but sitting in his cell in an unusual pose. There was a sheet of parchment in front of the body, on which a strange inscription was accurately made with new ink in Agapit’ handwriting.
“Those, who had buried Agapit’ body not so long ago, were especially terrified. There were three of them. Two of which were the monks, who actually stole the body of Agapit on orders from the top ranks. They threw it down into the grave and earthed it, and masked the place. Now then, here’s what happened exactly to them at that moment. At the sight of sitting Agapit one of the monks went mad. The other one lost his sleep forever. He never slept a wink for the rest of his life, diligently atoning for his sin by prayers. That monk subsequently became the most ardent follower of Agapit and the most zealous keeper of his body. The third accomplice, who was of laymen, hurried to inform those who had engaged him for realization of that insidious plan. Together with the ‘customers’ he returned to the place where Agapit’ corpse was hidden. Opening the grave proved it to be empty indeed. There were no strange traces on the snow around it. The body simply disappeared from the grave and inconceivably reappeared in the cell. After that incident nobody dared to lay a finger on the body of Agapit.”
“And what was written there on that sheet of parchment?” Kostya asked with curiosity.
Sensei only smiled mysteriously and avoiding the answer he said: “By the way, this sheet of parchment had an extraordinary power, and before this relic was ‘requisitioned,’ it had been used in secret for a long time. When the parchment was put behind an icon, it started to shed holy ointment, and people miraculously healed from it. And when...”
“Why in secret?” Ruslan interrupted Sensei’s narration with his question.
“They wanted to conceal what had been written by Agapit on the parchment from people.”
“But who and why ‘requisitioned’ that sheet?” Stas asked in turn.
“That’s quite another story, and it is not related to this topic. I can only say that this temporary ‘requisition’ from human environment was connected with the threat of a complete loss of the parchment because of human envy and stupidity.”
“Still, what‘s there so special that was written on it I wonder?” Kostya obstinately continued making inquiries.
“The truth,” Sensei replied and continued telling about the unusual spiritual power of the parchment of Agapit.
At that moment I had an inspiration, a ‘stroke of genius’ as Kostya liked to say. How great it would be to paint a portrait of Agapit (all the more my uncle’s friend collaborated in restoration of the Saint’s actual appearance) and put the sheet of parchment behind the portrait. That is, of course, if we could find it. The portrait would acquire an extraordinary power then. Then give it to the Lavra. Let it be available for everybody in the world! How many people would then be able to get a healing, find hope, and strengthen their faith! Only recently have I passed this terrible period of an internal commotion myself. When your life hangs by a thread, and you can neither save yourself nor understand what you’ve been living for in this world. Don’t I understand those who suffer and search for true values for their spiritual salvation in this life. A disease makes people think about their death, and death – about God. And pursuits for God bring you together with unexpected people and circumstances, changing your life drastically and opening an entirely unknown side of reality for you.
Those thoughts inspired me so much that I began to think how great it would be to realize them. Though there were no problems with Agapit’ appearance (my uncle would help me), it was not the same with the sheet of parchment... Where to search for it if it were ‘requisitioned from human environment’? Suddenly Sensei, who continued telling the story during my exuberant reflection, fell silent and fixed his eyes at me. And then he uttered with a kindness in his voice: “...There is nothing impossible for a wishful soul.”
I didn’t understand what was that all about. Either Sensei answered to my thoughts, judging by his look; or he ended the story, which unfortunately I had missed because of my pondering. Anyway I didn’t dare to ask him about his words in public.
All the more, at the moment Nikolai Andreevich wondered: “They say the Pechersk Caves have a special microclimate, so the relics remain undecaying. Is it a peculiar feature of the surroundings?”
“Peculiar indeed,” Sensei emphasized with enigmatic intonation. “But the trick is that not all the relics of the Lavra caves were imperishable. There are a lot of remains that have decayed like ordinary corpses.”
“What does the ‘relics’ mean?” Ruslan suddenly gave his rather late question.
“Oh, you’ve woken up!” Eugene hemmed.
We laughed but Sensei answered seriously.
“The word ‘relics’ comes from the Old Russian language where it meant ‘bones’. But there were two concepts then: ‘body’ and ‘relics’. For example, people spoke of some Saints that they ‘lay in relics’ and some that they ‘lay in body’. Earlier in Old Rus by ‘imperishable relics’ they called simply undecayed bones. There were cases of natural mummification too. It is only in modern times that the Church has been calling both bones and mummified bodies of Saints as ‘relics’.”
“But why?” Ruslan couldn’t stop asking.
“Well, why... For instance, should an ecclesiastic, who held a high post in a religious structure, be proclaimed a Saint after his death. And suppose his body just rotted, though it had been buried, for example, in the Lavra Caves, which as you’ve said has a special microclimate,” Sensei drew Nikolai Andreevich’s attention. “But should they just take their words back, if the holiness was already proclaimed to the public? So, they extricated themselves from it as they could and smoothed over some moments in the history, lest a discord should appear among the flock. As it happened with Theodosius for example.”
“And who’s Theodosius?” Ruslan asked still more bravely.
“And what’d happened?” we also joined in.
“Theodosius? Oh, he’s the greatest joke in the history of glorification of the Russian Saints. Theodosius Pechersky is recognized as the Father of Russian monasticism,” uttered Sensei with a smile. “He is presented as an ideal example of monastic life, and all Russian monks are reckoned among his children. However, this false glorification is through no fault of nowadays pastors, because they are guided by unreliable in many respects ‘historical documents’ extant till their times. I mean not the fact of those documents existence, but the information they contain. The roots of such replacement go much deeper, precisely to the days of Agapit.
“The fame of Agapit’ wonders, deeds, healings spread rather quickly in those times. The hearsay always was: as Agapit taught, as Agapit said, as Agapit did. So, who among those high ranked ecclesiastics of the ‘flock’ would like an ordinary monk to be honored more than their highly spiritual selves? That’s why, some of the higher ecclesiastics harbored vile envy towards Agapit even during his lifetime. However, they feared to undertake anything against him, as I’ve already mentioned. For even their attempts of poisoning the Saint had failed. It harmed him in no way. So, his strong personality, wide renown, uncommon strength he possessed, and free-thinking inspired fear on the powers that be. Having failed to destroy Agapit neither physically nor morally, they began to act differently. They decided to put forward their own candidate for public worship and, if possible, perform his official canonization. The lot fell upon already deceased Father-Superior Theodosius, who, by the way, was not the first Father-Superior of the monastery and was far from being an ideal candidate to be canonized. However, his image was the most congenial one for those gold-lovers, whom Agapit hindered from earning money out of the name of God.
“In order to fulfil that design, there were urgently created ‘chronicle codes’ and ‘Hagiography’. Thus, already in 1077-1088 there appeared the texts of ‘Reverend Theodosius Pechersk’s Hagiography’, where, in fact, there was very little true information about the actual life of Theodosius, and a fat lot of fake additions. The same was with the appeared in 1077-1088 records of Nikon ‘the Great,’ as Illarion had been named in his monkhood, and who was deprived of a Metropolitan’s seat in the Saint Sophia Cathedral for his avarice. He also was irreconcilable with Agapit’ fame. Subsequently in 1093 those records were supplemented by Father-Superior John. And it was based on those records that the Paterikon and the ‘Primary Chronicle’ of 1113, were written. That is, 18 years after Agapit’ death. However, the ‘Chronicle’ itself was edited later on, and further alterations were made in it.
“Thus, in 1116 when Father-Superior Sylvester of the Vydubychi Monastery, so to say thoroughly ‘remade’ the text of the ‘Chronicle’. By the way, it was he who interpreted the record about Andrew the First-called. When remaking the material, where it was written how Andrew the First-called had come to lay the seed in those lands – the Christ’s burden; Sylvester interpreted the ‘burden’ as a cross and the ‘seed’ as faith. And since they were exactly the records of Sylvester that came to descendants, it turns out, according to them, that Andrew the First-called raised a cross on a hill in the Kiev lands, blessing those lands, and foretold that God’s grace would shine on it.”
“And those descendants got it like in a ‘Chinese whispers’ game,” Eugene sneered. “Instead of ‘seed’ they got ‘steed,’ instead of ‘burden’ – ‘bur man’.”
“You bet,” Sensei sighed. “Now then, in addition they decided to exhume Theodosius’ body in 1091 and expose it in the Uspensky Cathedral for worshipping. But when they opened Theodosius’ cell in the Far Caves, they discovered that his relics had already decayed. The date of ceremonial transference of Theodosius’ relics to the Cathedral had been already announced. In order to conceal the incident they hurriedly started to open other graves in the cave. And again, who participated in that shady enterprise? Mark, later named the Grave-digger for that, one assistant monk, and Nestor, further named the Chronicler, who as the matter of fact was appointed to head the ‘jolly crowd’. Luckily to them they had finally found a well preserved mummified body of a recluse, an early disciple of Agapit. As soon as the next day his remains were stately pretended for Theodosius’ ones. Those people didn’t know whose remains those were. And those remains were unusual indeed. The person they had once belonged to had left into Nirvana or, speaking the Christian language, he got to Heaven. For yet within his lifetime he had been able to defeat death and leave the cycle of reincarnations. The monk’s name was Dobroslav or, as Agapit and his disciples used to call him in a friendly manner, – Dobrynya.”
“Are those remains still being kept in the Cathedral?“
Sensei grinned.
“No, of course not. For all that, justice has triumphed. Dobrynya was delivered from scoffing in 1240. At the time of Batu Khan’s invasion his remains were withdrawn by Mezhane and carried to a more deserving place.”
“Mezhane? Who are they?” Kostya asked with curiosity.
“They are people who have access to Shambala and can communicate directly with Bodhisattvas of Shambala.”
“And what about ‘recluses’? What are they?” Andrei wondered in his turn.
“A recluse was a monk, who settled in a small cave-cell on his own free will and developed it in such a way that the cell communicated with the subterranean corridor