“There lived in Moscow a very interesting and unique woman, Valentina Pavlovna Konovalova. She was a kind of real Moscow kupchikha (of the merchant class), and looked as though she had walked out of a canvas by Kustodiev. At the beginning of the 1990s she was sixty years old. She was the director of a large grocery depot on Prospect Mira. Plump and stocky, she would sit regally at the desk in her office, where behind her, even in the most difficult Soviet times, large icons hung on the walls.
On the floor by her desk there lay a huge plastic sack of money. She herself, at her own discretion, would decide how to spend that money-whether to send her subordinates to buy a consignment of fresh vegetables, or to give it away to the poor and vagrants who flocked to her store in large numbers. Her employees feared her, but loved her. During Lent she would arrange for an Unction service right in her office, which even the Tartars who worked at the depot would reverently attend. During the years of deficiency, Moscow priests and sometimes even bishops would drop in on her. With some she would be respectful, while with others, whose "ecumenism" she did not approve of, she would be curt and even rather rude.
Many times, as part of my obedience, I would drive from [the Pskov-Caves Monastery in] Pechory to Moscow in a large truck to purchase provisions for the monastery for Pascha and Nativity. Valentina Pavlovna would receive us novices in a very warm and motherly way, and we became friends with her, especially since we had a favorite topic for our conversations: our common confessor, Fr. John. Batiushka was perhaps the only man in the world whom Valentina Pavlovna feared, infinitely respected, and loved. Twice a year, with her closest colleagues she would go to the monastery in Pechory, and would fast and confess there. It would be impossible to recognize her then. She would be so meek, quiet and shy-in no way reminiscent of the "Moscow queen."
At the end of 1993 several changes took place in my life. I was appointed as Superior of the metochion of the Pskov-Caves Monastery in Moscow, the present-day Sretensky Monastery, and I often made trips to Pechory. Valentina Pavlovna, who had a cataract in her eye, once requested that I ask Fr. John's blessing for her to have the cataract removed at the Feodorov Ophthalmic Institute. Fr. John's reply surprised me a little: 'No, no, by no means. Not now, let some time go by.' The next day I passed his exact words on to her, and Valentina Pavlovna was very distressed-everything had been already arranged at the Feodorov Institute. So she wrote Fr. John a detailed letter, explaining to him that it was a very simple operation, not worth any attention, and asking for his blessing again.
Fr. John, of course, knew as well as she did what kind of surgery it was, and that it didn't pose any serious threat. But, having read her letter, he became terribly anxious. We sat together for a long time, and he kept persuading me that it was essential to talk Valentina Pavlovna out of having the surgery at that time. He wrote to her again. He asked, begged, and even ordered her, as her spiritual father, to put off the surgery. I had two free weeks coming up. I hadn't had a vacation for over ten years, so Fr. John blessed me to go to a sanatorium in the Crimea for two weeks, and to take Valentina Pavlovna with me. He told her about that in the letter as well, adding that she was to have her surgery a month after the vacation. "If she has her surgery now, she'll die," he sadly told me when we were saying goodbye to each other.
However, in Moscow I realized that we had run into a brick wall. All of a sudden, Valentina Pavlovna, probably for the first time in her life, rose up against the will of her spiritual father. She at first firmly refused to go to the Crimea, but then it seemed as though she was humbling herself. But she was quite indignant that Fr. John was making so much fuss about such a trifle. I told her that no matter what, I was going to work on making our arrangements, and we would soon be going to the Crimea. A few days later I received the Patriarch's blessing for the trip, after which I ordered two reservations, which were not difficult to obtain at that time of year. Then I called the store to tell Valentina Pavlovna about our departure. "She's in the hospital, in surgery," her assistant told me. "What?!" I cried. "But Fr. John strictly forbade her!" It turned out that a couple of days earlier some nun, formerly a doctor, had called on her, and having found out about her cataract problem, didn't agree with Fr. John's decision, either.
So she took it upon herself to get a blessing from one of the spiritual fathers of the Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. A blessing was received, and Valentina Pavlovna went straight to the Feodorov Institute, hoping that after a short and simple operation she would go with me to the Crimea. However, during the surgery, right on the operating table, she had a serious stroke and was totally paralyzed. As soon as I learned about it I rushed to call Fr. Philaret, Fr. John's long-time cell-attendant. In exceptional cases Fr. John would go down to Fr. Philaret's cell and use his phone.
"How could you! Why didn't you listen to me?" cried Fr. John, almost in tears. "If I insist on something, that means I know what I'm doing!" What could I tell him? I asked Fr. John what I was to do. Valentina Pavlovna was still unconscious. Fr. John said I should take the Reserved Gifts from the church to my cell, and as soon as Valentina Pavlovna regained consciousness I was to immediately go and confess her and give her Holy Communion.
By Fr. John's prayers, Valentina Pavlovna became conscious the next day. Her relatives immediately informed me, and I was at the hospital in half an hour. She was wheeled out to me in one of the intensive care wards. She was lying, so tiny, under a white sheet. She could not speak, and upon seeing me started crying. Her confession, that she had given in to the enemy's temptation in her disobedience to and distrust of her spiritual father, was clear without any words. I read the prayer of absolution over her and gave her Communion. We bade farewell to each other. The next day Fr. Vladimir Chuvikin communed her again, and soon afterwards she died. According to an ancient Church tradition, the soul of a person who has been vouchsafed to receive Communion on the day of his death goes to the Lord's throne, escaping the tollhouses. This happens either to great ascetics, or people with exceptionally pure hearts. Or to those who have very powerful intercessors.” ~ Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov)
~ "Archimandrite John Krestiankin, (1910–2006) was archimandrite of the Pskov Caves Monastery of Russian Orthodox Church. His letters and theological works are well known and widely published in Russia and some other countries. Many cases of Fr. John's clairvoyance and wonderworking were recorded. In 1950 John was arrested by Soviet authorities for his pastoral service and sentenced for seven years of labour camps. He was freed in 1955. Father John was a spiritual father and confessor for many Orthodox parishioners, providing religious instructions and guidances on various aspects of faith and Christian life within Orthodox Church. John Krestiankin died in 2006 at the age of 95." ~ Wikipedia
Photos ~ Fr. John Krestiankin, Valentina Pavlovna Konovalova, with V. Putin, with monks of Pskov Pecherski (Cave) monastery
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