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Life of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev

"God is with us! Understand, O pagans, and submit, for God is with us!”

, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the instillation of which begins at school. Students are persecuted, not allowed into the temple, they are subjected to ideological training, humiliating human dignity. A a person who does not attend church, does not confess,does not receive communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This leads to the fact that the majority of the population are mentally ill..."

AND from the life of St. Amphilochius of Pochaev

In the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, in the Shumshchyna, in the large peasant family of Varnava Golovatyuk, on November 27 (old style), 1894, a son was born, named Yakov in holy baptism.

Barnabas, the father of ten children, had to take on various crafts: he made wheels, blocks, knitting needles, sleds, and was also a good chiropractor. Yakov usually helped his father hold the sick when he adjusted broken bones, which was accompanied by unbearable pain.

Jacob's mother, Anna, a God-fearing, humble woman who loved the temple and prayer, without which she could not remain even in the field, revered the priests, whom she considered saints. Already being a schema abbot, Father Joseph said: “ I'm inIryu,what is my momin the Kingdom of Heaven!

In 1912, Yakov Golovatyuk, matured and stronger, was drafted into the tsarist army. During the First World War, he served in a medical unit in Siberia, where he served as a paramedic, then at the front, on the front line, where he came face to face with life and death, where his best friends died in battle, and then as a prisoner.

The Germans sent him to the Alps, where Yakov worked for a farmer for three years. Performing all work in captivity with great zeal and Christian obedience, Yakov earned the trust and love of his master. But the young man, longing for his native land, in 1919 fulfills the cherished desire of his heart and escapes. With the help of kind people, he crosses the border and returns to his native village.

Having seen the world, having suffered grief at the front and in captivity, Yakov deeply learned that life is a constant battle in which the devil fights with God. And one cannot resist this battle if the seeds of piety, watered with tears of repentance, are not sown in the soil of heartfelt humility.

In 1925, Yakov Golovatyuk, having chosen the narrow path of salvation in monasticism, came to the Pochaev Lavra.

In February 1931, standing at the tomb of the deceased abbot, Yakov suddenly felt all the vanity and transience of life. “A man is like grass, his days are like a field flower, so he will blossom.” Death is inevitable! Whether you are wise or rich, strong in body or poor - death for everyone. We will all lie in the ground, everything will be dust. What's behind the coffin? Eternity, torment? Jacob seemed to have awakened; he wanted to immediately cleanse his soul, throw off the shackles of sin and begin a new life pleasing to God. In moments of mournful farewell, when they barely had time to pour a tombstone over the grave of the deceased archimandrite, novice Yakov stepped forward and publicly began to confess his sins, asking for forgiveness for his entire life. The young man’s ardent confession touched and excited many, remaining in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

Having passed the monastic test, on July 8, 1932, with the blessing of the ruling bishop, novice Yakov Golovatyuk was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph.

With the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, he settled in a house at the gate of the monastic cemetery, where he lived with Hieromonk Irinarch for about twenty years.

A lot of sick people were brought to Father Joseph. At times, the entire Lipovaya Street was filled with carts (up to 100 carts).

Spending days and nights in work and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, ascending from strength to strength. His secret exploits and struggles remained hidden from the world. By fasting, vigil, subduing his flesh, the ascetic mortified carnal desires and passions, bringing the slightest movement of the mind and heart into “ leadership of the spirit." Having devoted his life to serving God and his neighbors, Father Joseph acquired firm faith and active love, receiving from God the gift of clairvoyance and miracles.

He healed, cast out demons, restored hearing to the deaf, restored sight to the blind, and gave joy and consolation to the sorrowful. How many tears the elder dried up with his prayers, how much grief he took into his heart, crying with those who were crying, at the same time giving peace to everyone, instilling joy and hope in their hearts.

Father Joseph recalled how at the beginning of the Second World War, while resting in the meadow in the afternoon, he clearly heard German speech, the stamping of feet and the clang of weapons. He woke up and looked around - there was no one around. Together with Hieromonk Irinarch they were surprised, what could it be? We understood only in the evening, when the Germans entered Pochaev. So, for the first time, the Lord revealed the future to him as the present, and from then on Father Joseph knew in his own words: “ who is farther from me, who is going, what is hurting me and how long will I have to live.”

At the end of the war, GPU officers and Banderaites began to visit Father Joseph at the cemetery. Some saw him as an employee of the GPU, others suspected him of harboring bandits and tried in every possible way to get rid of him. One evening, strangers came with a stretcher, tied him up and carried him, intending to throw him off the gallery. The pilgrims who saw it protested, and Father Joseph calmly said: “ You won’t carry it far.” And, lo and behold! The Lord did not allow the rapists to abuse His saint. On the way to the Lavra, one went blind, another lost an arm, and a third lost a leg. They shouted and asked Father Joseph for forgiveness, untying him. He blessed them and sent them away in peace.

Without repenting and not heeding the miracle, they came again, but for a “conversation.” At the same time, a possessed woman was brought to the priest, tied to the stairs. Untying, they were afraid that she would be violent. Having gained freedom, the woman attacked Father Joseph with her fists, covering him with strong blows until she fell to the ground, exhausted. The monk did not defend himself, and did not even try to dodge the blows - he stood silently and prayed. His heart, alien to anger and malice, was filled with pity and compassion at the sight of God’s creation tormented by the devil. The woman jumped up and attacked the old man with new superhuman strength. She fell, jumped up again, striking, but unable to shake the ascetic’s long-suffering, she became weak and completely exhausted.

This is how the demons hated Father Joseph, often showing him their malice through the demon-possessed. The evil one is disgusted by virtue. The demon, defeated by the elder’s humility, left the possessed woman. Rising as if from a dream, she began to ask where she was and how she got here. Being eyewitnesses to what happened, the authorities left the elder alone this time.

At the end of the Great Patriotic War, after the retreat of the Germans, many gangs and criminal groups appeared in the forests. Night robberies, murders. Friends, strangers, everything was mixed up, everyone lived in fear.

The monastic cemetery stood to the side. Anything could happen.

Eleven armed men unceremoniously burst into the squalid home of Father Joseph and demanded dinner. Having eaten, long after midnight, the forest " guests" asked to accompany them. Having reached the gate, the commander announced to Father Joseph about the execution. Having calmly listened to the news of imminent death, the elder asked for ten minutes to pray. Having received what he wanted, the priest stood under an old linden tree and read to himself “Our Father”, “Virgin Mary”, “I Believe”, “Otkhodnaya”... Father Irinarch, worried about the absence of the elder, went out into the courtyard. At this time, the elder was already standing in front of the barrel of a weapon aimed at him, complacently praying for “those who create misfortune.” The commander loudly counted down the last seconds of Father Joseph’s life: “One.., two...”. Father Irinarh, realizing what was happening, rushed to the machine gun and, bending it to the ground, desperately exclaimed: “ Who do you want to kill?! Do you know what kind of man he is? He saves the whole world. If you need to kill him, kill me, but don’t kill him!” “Good,go"“, - said the elder, freeing the machine gun from the hands of the unexpected intercessor. Expecting a shot in the back, Father Joseph went to the gate, entered, and stopped. Death has passed. You could hear the partisans walking in the darkness, clicking the shutter... Father Irinarh, wishing " lay down your life for your friends" , saved the priest from the vain death prepared for him by the devil through unkind people.

Soon after this, Father Joseph was transferred back to the Lavra. People still hurried to him, receiving healing for bodily illnesses and secret ailments of the soul. Even those whose diseases were advanced and, according to doctors, incurable, were healed.

The priest had a special gift - to cast out demons. Possessed people were brought to him from the most distant republics of the Soviet Union. The elder saw demons in reality, and often, walking through the temple, he strictly commanded them to leave the church and the people.

The end of the 50s... There were massive closures of churches and monasteries across the country, surviving mainly only in Western Ukraine. The Soviet government, implementing atheist programs, planned to turn Pochaev into a “communist village” with a museum of atheism in the Lavra.

The authorities more than once threatened the monks, promising to drown them in a holy well, to which Father Joseph calmly answered them: “But we are sorry!”, since he was ready to accept a martyr’s death.

Autumn 1962... The former (now deceased) gatekeeper at the gate of the economy, Abbot Seraphim, said: “At the end of September, when he was on duty at the gate of the economy, Father Joseph came up to me and said: “Curve the gate. Now the “black raven” has come for Josip!” and went into the building through the economy. I opened the gate to the building and began to wait for the “black raven,” but no one came, and closed the gate, thinking that the elder was joking. Two hours passed. Suddenly a police car drove up - a “black raven”. The police demanded that the car be allowed into the yard.”

Six people attacked the elder in his cell, threw him to the floor, tied his hands and feet, stuffed a towel into his mouth and dragged him from the third floor into the courtyard to a car. In the car, they took the towel out of his mouth and took him, tied up outside Ternopil, to the city of Budanov (more than a hundred kilometers from Pochaev) to a regional psychiatric hospital. Here Father Joseph was tonsured and shaved, and then ordered to remove the cross, but he refused. Then the orderlies themselves tore him off and took him, undressed, to the ward of violent mentally ill people at night. The room was lit by a weak electric light bulb. Forty people (all naked) were sleeping when the elder entered. The demons spoke from the sleepy: “Why did you come here? This is not a monastery!” He answered them: “ You brought me here yourself" They also injected Father Joseph with a medicine that caused his whole body to swell and the skin on his body to crack. Remembering all this, the old man covered his face with his hands.

People, having learned where Father Joseph was, began to write letters to the chief doctor of the Budanovskaya hospital asking him to release the old man, who was illegally being kept with the mentally ill, while he himself could treat them.

Three months passed by his stay in the hospital. One day an orderly entered the ward, brought a robe and slippers, ordered the old man to get dressed and follow him to the chief doctor’s office. There were other doctors in the office. They asked him to sit down.

—Can you treat those patients who are in our hospital?

— I can.

- Then cure them!

— Good.

Father Joseph suggested that they let him go to the monastery or send someone to bring the Holy Gospel, the cross and vestments (chasuble, epitrachelion, brace), so that he could serve holy prayers for water, and the demons themselves would go away. And he added that in two weeks not a single patient would remain here (there were more than 500 people).

- No! You treat us without prayers.

- It’s so impossible to forcefully.

- And why?

The elder replied that when a soldier goes into battle, he is given weapons: a rifle, cartridges, grenades. Our weapon against the invisible enemy is the holy cross, the holy Gospel and holy water!

Father Joseph was taken back to the ward, where he continued to carry his martyr’s cross, “ the hopes of God, who saves me from cowardice and from the storm"(Ps. 54:9).

The All-merciful Lord does not allow a person to bear the cross beyond his strength, but through many sorrows he tests his faith, patience and trust in God. Everyone who knew Father Joseph did not stop working for his release. They wrote everywhere, even to Moscow, and... they hoped.

...Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Aliluyeva found out about the imprisonment of Father Joseph. She managed to free the elder in gratitude for the fact that he had previously healed her of mental illness. After this, Father Joseph settled with his nephew in his native Ilovitsa.

Having learned where the elder was, people began to come to him, obsessed with various ailments. Father served holy water prayers every day and healed people. But the enemy rose again in the person of godless local authorities. Concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, the authorities turned angry people against him.

One tractor driver lured the old man onto his tractor and took him out of the village to the swamps. There he pushed me off the tractor to the ground, beat him until he lost consciousness, threw him into the water, and drove off. Father Joseph lay in cold water for eight hours. It was December 1965. Concerned about the long absence of Father Joseph, they began to look for him. And they found him barely alive. It was a miracle he didn't drown. The elder was urgently taken to the Pochaev Lavra and that same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of the Saint of Hippo, whose memory was remembered by the Church that day. No one then hoped that the elder would live until the morning. But the power of God brought my father back to his feet, and he recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration. Relatives came for the priest and took him to Ilovitsa.

People still went and went to the elder for healing and received it, of which there are many testimonies. Father Joseph served prayers daily, and after the service, having sprinkled everyone with holy water, he invited them to the dinner table. After the prayer service, people felt an inexplicable lightness in their hearts. "Bylethargic to God,- said the old man, - For sins, go to the people, take your heart in your hand and squeeze it. Ale, for your heart to be pure, you need to read the prayer steadily “King of Heaven.”

The dinners were also something extraordinary. After them, many sick people were healed. And sometimes Father Joseph took a club and sat on a bench near the chapel. All the worshipers came up to him and asked him to touch the sore spot with a club. And whoever he touched was healed. This is how those suffering from headaches, diseases of the kidneys, liver, heart, arms and legs, as well as the mentally ill, were healed.

The fame of healing miracles spread everywhere. People came to Father Joseph from the north and south, from the east and west, from Moldova and Sakhalin. Avoiding human glory, he tried to hide from people God’s gift of healing from mental and physical illnesses. He often took upon himself superficially their vices, played the fool and thereby indicated the cause of certain illnesses of the people who came to him. Many who did not understand spiritual life considered Father Joseph a sinner. And he himself often said: “ Do you think I'm a saint? I am a sinner! And you find healing through your prayers and through your faith.”

Not only the visitors, but also his family were deceived by the elder’s actions. And at the same time he loved to repeat: “ I’m not amazed at the face, but at the soul! Just think what you want!" The words of the Apostle Paul are appropriate here: “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and those who live according to the Spirit think about the spiritual things. To the pure, everything is pure, but to the unclean and unfaithful, both mind and conscience are defiled.”

Those who came to the Pochaev Lavra from all over the country always tried to visit the elder in his village. In the summer, he had up to 500 people every day, and sometimes more.

The souls of all people, their hearts and intentions were open to Father Joseph, but for the sake of love he tolerated the insidious, the crafty, and the possessed in his house.

As you know, “this kind” (demons) are driven out only by prayer and fasting, which is why Father Joseph did not bless many to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. " Yakbi you knew what a licorice paste is“- said the elder, meaning the spiritual sweetness with which the soul of the fasting person delights. On days of strict fasting, he ordered early in the morning, getting out of bed before the morning prayers began, to immediately make three prostrations with prayer "Virgin Mother of God, rejoice" so that you can easily fast on this day.

Very often the elder had to endure troubles from his restless visitors, possessed by demons. His family even tried to persuade him not to accept those possessed by demons, for the demons were taking revenge on everyone who lived in the yard, and on himself, to which Father Joseph replied: “ It’s hard to endure, but there’s no need to be afraid of demons!”

In the words of the ascetic, the ground in his yard was soaked with the tears of praying people, seriously ill people, thirsting with all their souls for healing. He often repeated that children in our times are born rebellious, proud and daring, and then become possessed. Humbling such children, the elder forced them to ask for forgiveness from their parents.

It was necessary to have great love in the heart so as never to refuse anyone anything. The Physician of God had one. He found time for everyone.

The elderly novice John visited Father Joseph in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa more than once. And there I saw miracles of healing. “Without acquiring the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, I think, said novice John, it is impossible to perform such miracles of healing as this great saint of our Volyn land performed.” This will be confirmed by any old resident of Pochaev, and by those dozens, if not thousands of people of our Fatherland whom Father Joseph healed.”

Once, after morning prayers, the priest did not leave his cell to meet the people for a long time. Suddenly he came out and greeted everyone with the words of the prophet Isaiah: "God is with us! Understand, pagans, and submit, for God is with us!” And then he began to talk about the reasons that led so many people to him. main reason , according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the inculcation of which begins at school. Students are persecuted, not allowed into the temple, they are subjected to ideological training, humiliating human dignity. And a person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not receive communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. This leads to the fact that the majority of the population are mentally ill. The elder advised to heal the illness of the present age with prayer. In his house it took place around the clock. In the chapel, on the floor covered with straw and rows (bedspreads), weak patients, possessed by evil spirits, slept. Sleepy, they muttered in the middle of the night: “ the shaggy apostle woke up(they are talking about Father Joseph, he had lush wavy hair), It's tormenting us again! Let's leave! Let's leave!.."

At night, the ascetic tightly covered the windows with black curtains: at night, in full schema, with incense in his hands, he walked around his long cell and said a prayer, which the demons felt and did not tolerate in the possessed people sleeping in the prayer room.

Often in the morning the prayer book told how demons did not give him rest all night: they rode on carts, came in legions to his yard with threats to kill, shoot, stab or poison.

At the beginning of the winter of 1970, a young man of about thirty-five, tall and physically healthy, burst into Father Joseph’s room. “Where is Joseph? He choked me with smoke in Moscow! I'll kill him! With God's help, they managed to throw the demoniac into the snow and tie his hands and feet. Three large kitchen knives were taken from the jacket pocket. The man was dragged into the chapel. He turned out to be a Muscovite, a pilot named Georgy, who spent three days traveling to Ilovitsa; On the way, I didn’t eat or drink, which made me weak. At the request of this man’s mother, Father Joseph prayed for him, and he in Moscow felt the elder’s prayers and could not tolerate them, as he was possessed by an unclean spirit, which led George to take revenge on the prayer book. Father Joseph did not leave his cell that day. The Muscovite's hands were untied and he was given something to eat. And by evening they untied their legs. He ran away from the yard; no one saw him again.

Modern young men also came to their father and complained of mental anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder placed them in the middle of the courtyard and ordered them to make four hundred and fifty prostrations, ordered that they do the same at home every evening, wear crosses, do not drink, do not smoke, go to church, observe fasts, and receive communion. Then, according to him, all the “nerves” will go away and they will be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not the nerves that are upset, but demons that are tormenting, and one must fight them with fasting and prayer.

... Having a good heart, Father Joseph grieved for evil people, for evil is not inherent in human nature. It is aroused in him not without the help of demons, and that is why evil people become like them. “Any sin entangles the heart like a cobweb, and anger is like a wire - try to break it. Evil people killed the Tsar, evil people mock the Orthodox. It is a great happiness that the Lord has vouchsafed us to be born in the Orthodox faith and to be Orthodox, while many nations, unfortunately, do not know Orthodoxy,” the ascetic repeatedly repeated.

The saint of God also disapproved of television programs that devastate and rob the soul. After watching such programs, a person does not want to pray at all, and even if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, only leads to condemnation. Recently, sorcerers (so-called psychics) are working hard to improve the system of encoding people through televisions, radios and even electronic devices, because they know that encoded people will obediently carry out the will of others.

« Save yourself - Elder Joseph said, not easy. I won’t put your salvation on your head - work and pray on your own! If you want to be saved, be deaf, dumb and blind».

The doctor showed his love for people through action, and therefore they went to him with faith, inflamed by his holy grace. The healer of human souls and bodies had enough spiritual love for everyone: he loved the sick and suffering, wished them healing and tried to help. To the questions of one servant of God about how to achieve such love, the ascetic answered that God gives the grace of love for humility. And he often repeated: “ As you are before people, so are people before you».

“At prayer services with the priest,” says K., “people were healed, and I was completely overcome by such a feeling that I was ready to hug everyone. I couldn’t recover from the unspeakable love for every person.”

Monastics often came to see the elder. In conversations with them, he repeatedly emphasized that it was important not only to take monastic orders, but that it was the soul that became a nun.

Father Joseph can be supplemented with the words of the Apostle Paul: “... take heed, walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise, valuing time, because the days are evil, do not be foolish, but know what is the will of God.”(Eph.5, 15-17).

It's 1970. The feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching. Feeling that this was the last Christmas of his life, Father Joseph wanted to organize a celebration for everyone whom God would send to him. On the day of the holiday, a divine service was performed in the chapel, and then Christ the Child was glorified with Christmas carols. Village children carrying the Star of Bethlehem came into the yard in groups and sang carols. Father Joseph himself met them and invited them to the festive table, giving them gifts. And so all day long until late at night, in the yard and in the elder’s house, both adults and children continuously glorified the Nativity of God the Savior.

In the early summer of 1970, Father Joseph once said: “ From the last time I hear you Zozulya". And so it happened - in the last days of that year he died.

For Father Joseph, the Mother of God was the Heavenly Goalkeeper; he constantly turned to Her in his prayers. Sometimes during a communal lunch, the priest asked everyone to interrupt lunch, stand up and sing the prayer of the Most Pure One “ Under Your Grace."

The elder believed that despondency and emptiness in the soul were due to excessive talking, gluttony and covetousness. He then ordered to sing every hour and day “ Elitsy, be baptized into Christ.” And " God is with us". He himself had a beautiful baritone voice, understood well and loved church singing.

It used to be that fellow villagers would gather for a water prayer service at Father Joseph’s, everyone would stand and pray—complete silence. Suddenly the elder turns around and says: “ Don't talk! Don't respect me" He heard people's thoughts about their earthly vanity, which prevented him from praying. " Prayer is freedom and aspiration of the mind from everything earthly.”- write the holy fathers.

One day in the winter, at the beginning of 1970, he went into the refectory and sternly asked who brought him flowers and asked him not to wear any more, because it was not flowers that were needed, but prayer. Everyone was surprised: they didn’t see flowers anywhere.

Almost a year later, this parable became clear: the ascetic foresaw that flowers would be brought to his grave, but he was more pleased with the prayers of people rather than decorating the coffin.

How did Father Joseph feel in the last days of his life, what thoughts worried him? Family members often saw how the elder’s face transformed: his mind went deeply into himself in prayerful contemplation. He knew the thoughts of those around him - good and evil. He thanked for good, forgave evil. Not only evil spirits, but also people took up arms against him.

One day the priest sat down to dinner, but did not touch the food for half an hour. He sat and listened carefully to something. With his spiritual, insightful eye, he saw the atheists gathered in the Shumsky district executive committee, deciding his fate. They discussed what to build in the old man’s yard after his death: a kindergarten, a hospital or a power plant. He probably also knew that they had thought of his villainous murder there.

...The elder foresaw the plans of the enemy and knew his accomplices - the perpetrators in the person of evil people, and foresaw his own death.

Several times Father Joseph gathered his household in the refectory and asked them to sing some prayers from the service for the Dormition of the Mother of God, and « The apostles from the end copulated here" asked to sing three times. He himself, listening to the touching singing, covered his face with his hands and cried. After singing, he said sadly: “ And how scary it will be if you start throwing frozen soil onto a mushroom“... Four months later, the funeral service for Father Joseph was held in the Lavra.

One of the monks, three days before the death of the ascetic, as he later said, had a hard time in his soul, tears rolled down his cheeks for no reason. On the fourth day, he dreamed of Father Joseph and asked him to remember him for his repose. And in the evening he learned of his death.

The ascetic died on January 1, 1971. It was snowing heavily. Fellow villagers said goodbye to their dear old man. Hieromonk Bogdan served a funeral litany for the newly departed. And only at nine o’clock in the evening, having placed the coffin on a truck, we left for Pochaev. The snow didn't stop. Nature also said goodbye to the old man...

At three o'clock in the morning the car with the coffin approached the Lavra, but could not pass through the Holy Gates, it rolled down the mountain three times - the saint of God did not want to drive the car through the Holy Gates. Then they lifted the ascetic’s coffin onto their shoulders and chanted “ Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us." They carried him into the Holy Gate and through the gateway into the building. They carried us along the corridor to the Church of the Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The novices brought many wax candles from Father Joseph’s cell; they were lit on large candlesticks placed in front of the coffin and distributed to people. They brought photographs of the elder, Father Bogdan distributed them to the pilgrims.

...After the liturgy, the funeral service for Father Joseph began. The priest-monks came out of the altar to the coffin. The snow stopped, the sun came out and played like on Easter. And when the last kiss was given, the woman’s broken arm was healed at the coffin. A lot of people gathered in the church for the funeral service.

Usually deceased monks are taken to the cemetery, but people did not let go of Father Joseph’s coffin: everyone wanted to carry the dear old man at least a little, seeing him off on his last journey. Horses harnessed to a sleigh rode sideways, and the coffin with the body of everyone’s beloved elder Joseph was carried high above the heads of those mourning - « as for people, so for people..." None of the monks were buried like this, although among them there were deeply respected and respectable fathers, but people wanted to give a worthy honor to such a miracle worker and healer as Father Joseph and thereby express their love for him, who loved them and devoted his whole life to serving God and neighbors.

Father Joseph was buried on January 4, 1971. And three days later - the feast of the Nativity of Christ. But for many there was no complete joy on Christmas days - so deep was the grief and grief for the newly deceased elder. Last year's Christmas celebration in his village, to whose residents he provided so much spiritual joy, unforgettable for a lifetime, was still fresh in his memory.

After the death of the elder, his monastic clothes - a mantle, a kamilavka, a rosary - were placed on the lectern in the church by the novices, where they prayed for forty days. At night a strong fragrance emanated from them.

The years fly by, time continues its unstoppable run. Every year, the day of the Angel and the day of death are celebrated at the grave of the dear old man. People remember him alive, his step, his voice, loving heart and kind, kind, intelligent eyes, and from mouth to mouth they pass on to each other stories about miracles of healing. All these years, people go to the grave of the ascetic every day, and now to the Cave Church of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, where his incorruptible relics rest, they light a candle or light a lamp, have a quiet conversation, trusting the elder with their troubles and illnesses. Those possessed by evil spirits also come here...

And many miracles of healing have already been witnessed, both at the grave in the monastery cemetery and at the shrine with the relics of St. Joseph (in the schema of Amphilochius).

The entire life of the Saint was a self-sacrificing service in the name of love for God and neighbor, for love is the main fruit of a Christian’s spiritual achievement and the goal of monastic life. It is the law of life in heaven and on earth and is born from a pure heart and immaculate conscience. Love is immortal, it goes with a person beyond his grave into eternal life and mutually binds the souls of living and dead people. It was with such love that the Reverend acquired deep respect for himself.

The Lord numbered him among His saints and installed him in His Heavenly Kingdom, and we were honored to have in his person a great man of prayer and intercessor before the throne of God for the healing of ailments, for deliverance from sorrows and temptations.

May his memory last forever.

According to the book: “Reverend Amphilochius of Pochaev. Life and teachings."

Publication of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, 2003.

In the Ukrainian village of Malaya Ilovitsa, on November 27 / December 10, 1894, a son was born to Varnava and Anna Golovatyuk; at holy baptism the boy was named Jacob.

Barnabas, the father of ten children, had to take on any work, he made wheels, blocks, sleighs, sick peasants also turned to him for help, as a good chiropractor. As a young man, Jacob more than once helped his father “hold back the sick when he straightened broken bones.” Jacob's natural strength and skills acquired in his youth were useful.

In 1912, Jacob was drafted into the Tsarist Army, where he served as a paramedic. During the fighting, he helped carry wounded comrades from the battlefield, was captured, and was sent by the Germans to the Alps, where he worked for a farmer for three years. In 1919, Jacob managed to escape, returning to his native village, began to do his usual peasant work, and helped the sick who asked for help.

In 1925, Jacob was accepted as a novice into the Pochaev Lavra. In diligence and humility, the new monk fulfilled the obediences assigned to him, made sleighs, wheels, sang in the choir...

On July 8, 1932, with the blessing of Metropolitan Dionysius of Warsaw and all Poland, Jacob was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph.

On September 21, 1933, he was ordained hierodeacon by Bishop Anthony, and hieromonk on September 27, 1936.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick, and became especially famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people from all over the area were brought to him, the flow of patients did not stop day or night. In order not to create inconvenience for the brethren, Father Joseph, with the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, moves to a small house in the monastery cemetery, here he and Hieromonk Irinarch will live for about 20 years. Every day sick people came to the small house. There were days when Hieromonk Joseph received up to 500 people, many longed for healing - some physical, some spiritual.

The ascetic dedicated himself entirely to serving God, having received from God the gift of insight and healing, and helped his neighbors all his life. His many secret exploits and struggles remained hidden from the world.

At the end of the war, the ascetic miraculously escaped reprisals. One night, fourteen armed men burst into his cell and demanded food; after they were fed, they asked the elder to see them out. At the gate, the commander of the partisan detachment announced the execution. The elder accepted the news of his imminent death with humility and asked only for ten minutes to pray. I managed to read “Our Father”, “Theotokos”, “I Believe”, began to read “Otkhodnaya”... Father Irinarch came running, worried about the long absence of the elder, when he saw the barrel aimed at the righteous man, without hesitation, he rushed to the machine gun, bending him to the ground , began to ask for mercy on the elder... Death was over.

At the end of the 50s, Khrushchev's persecution of the church began. Monasteries and churches were closed en masse in the country, and the monks themselves were expelled, evicted, and sent home without the right to return on false charges. In the fall of 1962, thanks to the elder’s fearlessness, the monks managed to defend the Trinity Cathedral: “A dozen policemen and their chief were standing at the church door, the elder unexpectedly snatched the keys from the chief, handed them to the young governor Augustine, and called on local residents to defend the temple. The peasants, armed with poles, rushed towards the policemen.” The Trinity Cathedral was defended, but a few days later the elder was taken at night in a “black crow” to a psychiatric hospital. He was placed in a ward for the most “violent” mentally ill. He was injected with drugs that caused his entire body to swell and his skin to crack.

His father’s spiritual children wrote letters asking for the elder’s release. Three months later he was brought to the chief physician's office. They asked whether he could cure those patients who were in the ward with him.

The elder said that in two weeks he would cure all the sick, and asked to bring him the Holy Gospel, cross and vestments so that he could serve the Holy Moleben.

In response I heard: “No, you are treating without prayers.”

“This is impossible,” answered the meek old man. When a soldier goes into battle, he is given a weapon... Our weapon against the invisible enemy is the holy cross, the holy Gospel and holy water.

Father Joseph was taken to the ward.

The torment ended only with the arrival of Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter, at the hospital, whom he had once healed from mental illness. She managed to achieve the release of the elder.

Elder Joseph returned to his native village and settled with his nephew. Having learned where the elder was, the sufferers began to arrive. Father Joseph served Holy Molebens daily and healed people. Local authorities, concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, began to turn relatives against the elder; one of them, succumbing to persuasion, deceiving the elder, took him on his tractor out of the village to the swamps, severely beat him, threw him into the water and left. On a cold December day, the martyr lay in icy water for eight hours, the spiritual children found the dying old man, took him to the Pochaev Lavra, where that same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of St. Amphilochius of Hippo, they were afraid that he would not live until the morning . By the grace of God, schemamonk Amphilochius recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration; he returned to his native village again. People continued to go and go to the elder for healing.

In the courtyard, Father Joseph served daily prayers for the Blessing of Water, and many believers received healings. Father Joseph blessed some sick people not to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. On days of strict fasting, he ordered early in the morning, getting out of bed, before the start of morning prayer, to immediately make three prostrations with the prayer “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice...” in order to easily maintain the fast on that day.

You had to have great love in your heart so as never to refuse anyone anything. The Elder of God had one. He found time for everyone.

From the memories of the elder’s spiritual children:

Modern young men also came to their father and complained of mental anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder placed them in the middle of the courtyard and asked them to make 450 prostrations; He ordered that they do the same at home every evening, wear crosses, don’t drink, don’t smoke, go to church, keep fasts, take communion, and all the “nerves” will go away and be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not “the nerves are upset, but demons are tormenting, and we must fight them with fasting and prayer. ...". Dejection and emptiness in the soul, the elder believed, were due to excessive talking, gluttony, and covetousness. He then ordered to sing “Elitsa, be baptized into Christ” and “God is with us” every hour and day.

The ascetic spent the whole day with people and prayed at night.

The young woman Tatyana, a resident of Pochaev, was an unbeliever and did not go to church. As a result of blockage of the veins, gangrene began. Doctors insisted on amputation. The woman pulled as long as she could. And then, having learned about Father Amphilochie, she borrowed money and went. The priest came out of the cells and looked around the line. And he called her from the crowd. After listening to Tatyana, he said that there was no need to do the operation. He gave ointment, holy water and told what prayers to read, then, taking 50 rubles from the locker, he gave it to the woman, seeing with spiritual vision about her financial difficulties. Soon Tatyana was healed not only in body - the gangrene disappeared, but also in her soul - she began to constantly go to church.

Two friends came from Dnepropetrovsk to visit the priest. One of them was deaf and dumb. Even as a child, she was severely beaten by her stepmother. Father Amphilochius asked the deaf-mute girl:

What is your name?

“She’s deaf and dumb,” a surprised friend intervened.

“And you be silent,” the elder answered and again turned to the patient with a question.

The girl began to make sounds from which her name was formed - Galya. She began to speak and began to hear.

According to eyewitnesses: one day, when the elder went to see a sick person for the whole day, a dying boy of 13 was brought to him. Late at night, the elder returned and learned that the sick boy had died without waiting for help. The elder approached the bench on which the deceased lay, bent over him and prayed for a long time, then crossed him, the boy opened his eyes and came to life.

From the memoirs of Shumalovich K.:

“In the summer of 1961, my son’s hand became swollen. It almost doubled in size and was very painful. We took the child to the doctor, but they could not help. Then we turned to Father Joseph. He prayed, took his son’s hand in his, lightly patted it, and said that everything would pass. The next morning we couldn't believe our eyes. A miracle happened! The hand was the same as before the illness.”

In the fall of 1965, the elder settled with his niece; with the help of his spiritual children, a small chapel was built on the site, above it a high dovecote, and a long dining table in the courtyard for pilgrims.

The elder said that, by the grace of God, he knew in advance about seriously ill people who should come to him; there were cases that he went out to meet the sick at night in bad weather.

Many evidences of the elder’s foresight have been preserved. Nadezhda Simora heard from her mother a story about the elder’s insight: “A young woman turned to the priest for help to restore the sight of her son, who was blind from birth, Father Joseph answered the mother’s request that this was her sin. That, as a child, she climbed trees, took chicks and poked out their eyes with a needle... The woman began to cry, and the old man cried with her.”

From the memoirs of Agafia Lyashchuk (Rivne region):

Somewhere in the sixties, my father fell ill... A medical commission diagnosed stomach cancer... We went to see my father. There were a lot of people in the yard. Everyone was waiting for him. Soon the elder came out and pointed his finger at me. I told him that my father was discharged from the hospital because he could not be cured. Father Joseph prayed, gave herbs and said that he would recover. My father lived after that for another 16 years.

Authorities forbade people to visit the elder. Buses were canceled, but people walked. Once the first secretary of the Ternopil regional party committee came to the old man and brought his only son. A nineteen-year-old boy had a sarcoma on his leg; the doctors were powerless.

Elder Joseph, having examined the patient, asked to leave the young man for two weeks and warned that he would only be treated with prayer. The regional committee secretary agreed and arranged an overnight stay for his son in a nearby village. With the blessing of the elder, the young man came every day to the Holy Moleben, drank holy water, and ate consecrated food. Two weeks later, the sarcoma disappeared without a trace. The grateful father ordered a shuttle bus from Kremenets to Malaya Ilovitsa. The elder, who loved nature since childhood, planted flowers and fruit trees himself, and the novices helped with work on the site. The elder foresaw his imminent death, knew that one of his novices had added poison to his food, and added poison to the water with which he washed himself (there is an opinion that the novice from Kyiv was a KGB agent). More than once the elder said with bitterness that among his novices there was “Judas.” Father lost consciousness several times for several hours. During the attacks, the poisoner, under various pretexts, did not allow anyone near the priest.

The humble elder steadfastly endured the suffering and called on the culprit to repent.

The ascetic died on January 1, 1971. Shortly before his death, the elder said that everyone should come to his grave with their needs and illnesses, and promised even after death not to leave those in need of his prayerful help. After the funeral service for the elder, a believing woman was healed at the tomb of the righteous man. For three decades, miracles of healing were performed at the elder’s grave.

Muscovite Vinokurov N.I. suffered from back pain for several years; massage and other therapeutic procedures did not bring relief; during a trip to the Pochaev Lavra, he visited the brotherly cemetery: “At the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius, having prayed tearfully, he asked the priest to heal me so that I could stand at the service and the pain subsided. The next day my friend and I came again. The result was surprising. This is a real miracle."

On April 3, 2002, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decided to canonize the Pochaev elder-schema-abbot Amphilochius. The rite of glorification of the Monk Amphilochius as a saint was performed on Sunday, May 12, in the throne church of the Assumption of the Pochaev Lavra. On May 12, 2002, in the Pochaev Lavra, during the glorification of the saint, two crosses created from clouds appeared in the sky above the Lavra. For an hour, believers could watch this miracle - one large cross and next to it a slightly smaller one. The pilgrims said: “Well, now there will be two of them - Father Job and Father Amphilochius.”

Rejoice, life-giving branch of the grapes of Christ, the Pochaev Lavra, fragrant with its vegetation!

In the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, in the large peasant family of Varnava Golovatyuk, on November 27, 1894, a son was born, named Jacob in Holy Baptism in honor of the martyr Jacob the Persian. The peace and harmony that reigned in the family were involuntarily passed on to little Jacob. From early childhood, the future ascetic, immersed in household chores, saw the piety of his parents, who did not leave the house without prayer, and absorbed all that was good and holy.

In 1912, Jacob Golovatyuk was drafted into the tsarist army, where he came face to face with life and death. First there was a medical unit in Siberia, where Jacob served as a paramedic, and then the front, the front line, where his best friends died in battle, and finally - captivity. The Germans sent him to the Alps, where Jacob worked for a farmer for three years. Working hard, in a Christian manner, Jacob gained the trust and love of his master, but in 1919 he managed to escape and returned home.

The prayerful warmth of his father’s house warmed the wanderer’s soul. The days flowed by in the usual peasant work. He also helped the sick who sought help. During the war, Jacob clearly understood that all life is a struggle, and the battlefield is the human heart. And this battle cannot be won without humility and deep heartfelt repentance. In 1925, Jacob Golovatyuk, having chosen the thorny path of salvation, comes to the Pochaev Lavra and begins to fulfill the obediences assigned to him with zeal and humility.

In February 1931, standing at the tomb of the deceased abbot, Jacob suddenly felt all the vanity and transience of life: “A man is like grass, his days are like a field flower, so they will fade.”

Having passed the monastic test, on July 8, 1932, novice Jacob Golovatyuk was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph. While performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick and became especially famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people from all over the area were brought to him; The flow of patients did not stop either day or night. With the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, he settled in a small house at the gate of the monastery cemetery, where he lived with Hieromonk Irinarch for about twenty years.

Spending days and nights in work and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, ascending from strength to strength. Having strong faith and active love, Father Joseph received from God the gift of insight and healing.

He healed, cast out demons, restored hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind, and brought joy and consolation to the sorrowful. At the end of the Great Patriotic War, Father Joseph miraculously escaped death. Partisans burst into his cell and announced execution. Father Irinarchus, by the grace of God, then saved him from the vain death prepared for him by the devil. Soon after this, Father Joseph is transferred back to the Lavra.

People still hurried to him, receiving healing for bodily illnesses and secret ailments of the soul. Even those whose illnesses were advanced and, according to doctors, incurable, were healed. The priest had a special gift - to cast out demons. Possessed people were brought to him from the most distant republics of the Soviet Union.

At one time, Father Joseph defended the Trinity Cathedral with his courage and courage. He knew what he was getting into, but he was strong in faith. A week later he was arrested and placed in a psychiatric hospital. There he was tonsured and shaved, the cross was torn off, and at night he was taken naked to a ward for violent mental patients... Every day they injected him with a medicine that caused his whole body to swell and his skin to crack. Everyone who knew Father Joseph did not cease to work for his release; They hoped and did not give up, asked everywhere, even went to Moscow. Finally managed to free him. After that, he settled with his nephew in his native Ilovitsa. Having learned where the elder was, people again began to come to him, obsessed with various ailments. Father Joseph served holy water prayers every day and healed people. But the enemy in the person of the godless local authorities did not sleep. Concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, they turned his relatives against him.

One day, one nephew, who worked as a tractor driver, lured him onto his tractor and took him out of the village to the swamps. And there he pushed me off the tractor onto the ground, beat him until he lost consciousness, threw him into the water and drove away. Father Joseph lay in cold water for eight hours, and it was December. He was found barely alive; it was a miracle that he did not drown. They urgently took the ascetic to the Pochaev Lavra and that same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius - in honor of the saint of Iconium, whose memory was celebrated by the Church that day. No one then hoped that he would survive until the morning. But the Lord put Father Joseph on his feet - he recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration. Relatives arrived and took him to Ilovitsa.

People still went and went to the elder for healing and received it, of which there are many testimonies. Those who came to the Pochaev Lavra from all over the country always tried to visit Father Joseph in his village. In the summer, he had up to five hundred people every day, and sometimes more.

Father Joseph also had the gift of providence. Once, after morning prayer, the priest did not leave his cell to meet the people for a long time. Suddenly he came out and greeted everyone with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “God is with us!” Understand, O pagans, and submit, for God is with us!” And then he began to talk about the reasons that led so many people to him. The main reason, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the instillation of which begins in school. Students are not allowed into the temple; they conduct ideological training, humiliating human dignity. And a person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not receive communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Father Joseph also disapproved of television programs that “waste and rob the soul.” After watching television programs, a person does not feel like praying at all, and even if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, only leads to condemnation.

Father bestowed his love for people on everyone, so they came to him with faith and were inflamed by his holy grace. He had enough spiritual love for everyone: he loved the sick and suffering, wished them healing and tried to help. To the question of one servant of God about how to achieve such love, he answered that God gives the grace of love for humility.

One winter in early 1970, Father Joseph entered the refectory and sternly asked who brought him the flowers. He asked me not to wear it anymore, because it’s not flowers that are needed, but prayer. Everyone was surprised. Nobody saw the flowers. Then this parable became clear: the ascetic foresaw that they would bring flowers to his grave, but he was more pleased with the prayers of people, and not with the decoration of the coffin.

The elder foresaw his imminent death, he knew that one of his novices had added poison to his food, and also added poison to the water with which he washed himself. More than once the elder said with bitterness that among his novices there was “Judas.” Father lost consciousness several times for several hours. During the attacks, the poisoner, under various pretexts, did not allow anyone near the priest.

The humble elder steadfastly endured the suffering and called on the culprit to repent.

The entire life of Father Joseph, in the Amphilochius schema, was a self-sacrificing service in the name of love for God and neighbor, for love is the main fruit of the spiritual achievement of a Christian and the goal of monastic life. It is the law of life in heaven and on earth and is born from a pure heart and immaculate conscience. Love is immortal, it goes with a person beyond his grave into eternal life and mutually binds the souls of living and dead people. It was through such love that the elder acquired deep respect for himself.

By the decision of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on May 12, 2002. With. (on the Sunday of St. Thomas) schema-abbot Amphilochius was solemnly canonized as Venerable Amphilochius of Pochaev. The relics of St. Amphilochius are open for veneration in the Church of St. Job of Pochaev.

Based on materials from sites:

“Living life is not a field to cross,” says popular wisdom. For one, all paths, roads from childhood are wide and open, for another - the path is narrow and with thorns; some grow rich all their lives for themselves, and some for people. About those who gave their lives to God and people, the words of the wise Solomon: “The paths of the righteous shine like light, they come to us and illuminate the path to salvation” (Proverbs 4:18). These words, like no other, relate to the life path of the saint of God, the Venerable Schema-Abbot Amphilochius, for many people took the path of salvation thanks to communication with him. Wisdom, humility, love for people, true love for God, his feat as a healer of human bodies and souls always accompanied Elder Joseph (in the schema of Amphilochius) along his difficult path in Christ.

Living, and after death, prayerful communication with him makes the soul of any person experience new, hitherto unknown feelings of moral, spiritual and physical renewal, and living faith in God. In his humility, the Reverend partially took upon himself the vices of those living on earth, in order to thereby expose them and teach them, according to the words of Paisius of Athos, to live like bees: to rush to a fragrant flower, take honey from it and bring it to people. Having chosen the monastic path of salvation, having recognized in Christ “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” with the hand of the Lord he performed miracles, sometimes incomprehensible to those of little faith: he cast out demons, through prayer and love for the suffering he cured bodily illnesses, against which medicine was already helpless, and raised the dead. “The world cannot accommodate them, for which of the laity has ever performed miracles? Who has raised the dead? Who has cast out demons? No one. All these are the victorious crowns of the monks...” (Ladder, verse 2a). Saint Amphilochius hid the greatest part of his exploits in the name of the Lord from human eyes, either through his foolishness or his simplicity. However, what has been collected bit by bit clearly shows what a shepherd and miracle healer Elder Joseph was.

An attentive reader, to whom we offer a biography of the ascetic of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, St. Amphilochius, comparing his life with his own, will involuntarily feel to what extent he is not perfect in the development of his own spiritual life. May God grant that our land is filled with such ascetics, and that we, our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, hold tightly to the banner of Christ and look up to them, and keep the commandments of the Lord until the end of our earthly lives.

Archimandrite Vladimir

Vicar of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Bishop of Pochaev, Vicar of the Kyiv Metropolis

In a quiet valley, among the picturesque low mountains and hills surrounding it, in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa, in the Shumshchyna, in the large peasant family of Varnava Golovatyuk, on November 27 (old style), 1897, a son was born, named Yakov in holy baptism in honor of the martyr Jacob Persyanin.

In rural silence, among the marvelous nature of Ukraine, far from the noise of cities and bustle, Yakov spent his childhood. The peace and harmony that reigned in the family of Varnava Golovatyuk were involuntarily passed on to little Yakov. Sons, daughters, daughters-in-law, children, and grandchildren lived under one roof, in the fear of God. The younger ones here treated the elders with respect, helping them in the fields and with housework.

Barnabas, the father of ten children, had to take on various crafts: he made wheels, blocks, knitting needles, sleds, and was also a good chiropractor. Often he was taken to sick people tens of kilometers away. For a long time, sometimes for twenty days, it was necessary to nurse them, remaining at the bedside of the sufferers until they recovered. Yakov usually helped his father hold the sick when he adjusted broken bones, which was accompanied by unbearable pain.

Jacob's mother Anna, a God-fearing, humble woman who loved God's temple and prayer, without which she did not remain even in the field, revered the priests, whom she considered saints. Already, as a schema-abbot, Father Joseph said: “I believe that my mother is in the Kingdom of Heaven!” It’s a pity she didn’t wait, she died, she would have been happy to see her son as a priest.

From early childhood, Yakov, immersed in household chores, seeing the piety of his parents, who never left the house without prayer, absorbed all that was good and holy.

In 1912, Yakov Golovatyuk, matured and stronger, was drafted into the Tsarist Army. During the First World War, he served in the 165th Infantry Regiment in the city of Lutsk, then together with the regiment he was sent to the city of Tomsk. A medical unit in Siberia, where a young soldier served as a paramedic, then the front, the front line, where he came face to face with life and death, where his best friends died in battle, and, finally, captivity.

The Germans sent him to the Alps, where Yakov worked for a farmer for three years. Performing all work with great diligence and Christian obedience, Jacob earned the trust and love of his master, so that he even intended to marry him to his daughter. But the young man, longing for his native land, in 1919 fulfills the cherished desire of his heart and escapes. With the help of kind people, he crosses the border and returns to his native village.

The prayerful warmth of his father’s house warmed the wanderer’s soul. The days flowed by in the usual peasant work. He also helped the sick who sought help.

Following the customs of the old days, Yakov, who had a pleasant appearance and a beautiful voice, began to think about marriage. He married a girl blooming with youth and kindness... but God judged otherwise. A conversation with the rector of the parish church directed the life path of the thoughtful guy in a different direction.

Having seen the world, having suffered grief at the front and in captivity, Yakov deeply learned that life is a constant battle in which the devil fights with God, and the field of this battle, according to Dostoevsky, is the human heart. And one cannot resist this battle if the seeds of piety, watered with tears of repentance, are not sown in the soil of heartfelt humility.

In 1925, Yakov Golovatyuk, having chosen the narrow path of salvation in monasticism, came to the Pochaev Lavra. The new monk fulfilled the obediences assigned to him with diligence and humility. Just like at home, he made sleighs and wheels, sang in the choir, while considering himself the most sinful and unworthy.

In February 1931, standing at the tomb of the deceased abbot, Yakov suddenly felt all the vanity and transience of life. “A man is like grass, his days are like a field flower, so he will blossom.” Death is inevitable! Whether you are wise or rich, strong in body or poor - death for everyone. We will all lie in the ground, everything will be dust. What's behind the coffin? Eternity, torment? Jacob seemed to have awakened; he wanted to immediately cleanse his soul, throw off the shackles of sin and begin a new life pleasing to God. In moments of mournful farewell, when they barely had time to pour a tombstone over the grave of the deceased archimandrite, novice Yakov stepped forward and publicly began to confess his sins, asking for forgiveness for his entire life. The young man’s ardent confession touched and excited many, remaining in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

Having passed the monastic test, on July 8, 1932, with the blessing of His Beatitude Dionysius, Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland, novice Yakov Golovatyuk was tonsured a monk with the name Joseph.

His track record includes:

* On July 18, 1952, he was appointed gardener of the Lavra garden with release from his previous obedience;

* On April 6, 1957, he was released from choir obedience and appointed confessor of pilgrims and awarded the club;

* from 1959 to 1962 served as confessor and others.

Father Joseph graduated from the full course of the Monastic Theological School at the Pochaev Lavra.

Performing various works and obediences in the Lavra, Father Joseph treated the sick - he especially became famous as a chiropractor. Suffering people from all over the area were brought to him, the flow of patients did not stop day or night.

With the blessing of the governor of the Lavra, he settled in a house at the gate of the monastic cemetery, where he lived with Hieromonk Irinarch for about twenty years. Many trees, including fruit trees, which can now be seen in the holy fence, were planted by the priest.

A lot of sick people were brought to Father Joseph. At times, the entire Lipovaya Street was filled with carts (up to 100 carts). During the time of Polish rule, treatment by Polish doctors was very expensive, so ordinary people with the sick and disabled hurried to Father Joseph. He healed everyone without charging a fee. In gratitude, they sometimes left him food.

Spending days and nights in work and prayer, Father Joseph grew in spirit, surpassing in strength. His secret exploits and struggles remained hidden from the world. By fasting and vigil he humbled his flesh, the ascetic mortified carnal desires and passions, bringing the slightest movement of the mind and heart into “guidance by the spirit.” Having devoted his life to serving God and his neighbors, Father Joseph acquired firm faith and active love, receiving from God the gift of clairvoyance and miracles.

Thanks be to God, who gave the world Father Joseph, a healer of human souls and bodies, filled with love and compassion from the bottom of his heart, who helped those in need. He healed, cast out demons, restored hearing to the deaf, restored sight to the blind, and gave joy and consolation to the sorrowful. How many tears the elder dried up with his prayers, how much grief he took into his heart, crying with those who were crying, at the same time giving peace to everyone, instilling joy and hope in their hearts.

Father Joseph recalled how, at the beginning of the Second World War, he was lying in the meadow in the afternoon, resting, and clearly heard German speech, the stamping of feet and the clang of weapons. He woke up and looked around - there was no one around. Together with Hieromonk Irinarch they were surprised, what could it be? We understood only in the evening, when the Germans entered Pochaev. So, for the first time, the Lord revealed the future to him as the present, and from then on, Father Joseph knew, in his own words: “Who is going before me, who is going, what is hurting me, and how long will I have to live.”

Without repenting and not heeding the miracle, they came again. but already for a “conversation”. At the same time, a possessed woman was brought to the priest, tied to the stairs. Untying, they were afraid - violent. Having gained freedom, the woman attacked Father Joseph with her fists, covering him with strong blows until she fell to the ground, exhausted. The monk did not defend himself, and did not even try to dodge the blows - he stood silently and prayed. His heart, alien to anger and malice, was filled with pity and compassion at the sight of God’s creation tormented by the devil. The woman jumped up and attacked the old man with new superhuman strength. She fell, jumped up again, striking, until, finally, exhausted from shaking the forbearance of the ascetic, she was completely exhausted.

The demons hated Father Joseph, often showing him their malice through the possessed. The evil one is disgusted by virtue. The demon, defeated by the elder’s humility, left the possessed woman. Rising as if from a dream, she began to ask where she was and how she got here. Being eyewitnesses to what happened, the authorities left the elder and hardly disturbed him anymore.

Where the enemy of the human race does not succeed himself through thoughts, the holy fathers say, there he sends evil people.

The monastic cemetery stood to the side. The twilight was alarming. Anything could happen.

The darkness of the night fell like a black shroud on the tired earth. The coolness of the spring night sent people home. But, as you can see, not everyone. An hour before midnight, the cemetery was filled with the ominous clatter of boots. Fourteen armed men unceremoniously burst into the squalid home of Father Joseph and demanded dinner. Having eaten, well after midnight, the forest “guests” asked to see them off. Having reached the gate, the commander announced to Father Joseph about the execution. Having calmly listened to the news of imminent death, the elder asked for ten minutes to pray. Having received what he wanted, the priest stood under an old linden tree planted by the Monk Job, read to himself “Our Father”, “Virgin Mary”, “I Believe”, “Retreat”... Father Irinarch, worried about the elder’s absence, went out into the courtyard. At this time, the elder was already standing in front of the barrel of a weapon pointed at him, complacently praying for “those who create misfortune.” The commander loudly counted down the last seconds of Father Joseph's life... "One..., two...". Father Irinarch, realizing what was happening, rushed at the machine gun and, bending it to the ground, desperately exclaimed: “Who do you want to kill?! Do you know what kind of man he is? He saves the whole world. If you need to kill him, kill me, and not him.” Suck it up!" “Okay, old man, go,” said the brigade commander, freeing the machine gun from the hands of the unexpected intercessor. Expecting a shot in the back, Father Joseph went to the gate, entered, and stopped. Death has passed. You could hear the partisans clicking the shutter and walking in the darkness... Father Irinarch, wanting to “lay down his soul for his friends,” saved the priest from the vain death prepared for him by the devil through unkind people.

However, it was the doctors who were the first to rebel against the elder, demanding that the local authorities and the governor of the Lavra put an end to the medical practice of an uncertified doctor, by whose grace they were left without income.

At this time, after the war, Western Ukraine, which had been under Poland for many years, became part of the Soviet Union. It was not safe to attract attention, but Father Joseph continued to help people.

Father Joseph experienced the grief that overwhelmed people’s hearts as his own, compassionate with the suffering and condescending to the weak.

Almost all residents of Pochaev at different periods of their lives - in childhood, youth or old age - turned to Father Joseph.

Spending the whole day doing obediences and with people, the ascetic prayed at night. “In the 1950s, recalls Archimandrite Sylvester, Father Joseph and I carried out obedience in the monastery garden. Once, while reading the rule, I lingered, to which he remarked: “A day for listening, a day for prayers.” And indeed, he himself "That's what I did. Later, when I was a housekeeper, says Father Sylvester, occasionally returning late to the monastery, I saw Father Igumen at prayer under a tree in the garden."

Father Joseph loved humility and, avoiding vain human glory, tried in every possible way to hide his virtues.

“Once, in 1956, in the fall, as I remember now, on a Friday,” recalls K., “the pilgrims helped pick apples in the monastery garden. After lunch, having a free minute, my friend and I walked among the trees, humbly bowing their branches under the burden of ripe fruits. Our attention was attracted by a certain man in an old raincoat and tarpaulin boots. He was lying on the ground, covering his head with a worn hat. We walked away, joking that someone else managed to sleep at work. After a break, we saw this man, it was the father Joseph: he never ate food on Wednesdays and Fridays, and, hiding his feat from people, he quietly retired to prayer, and when he heard our voices, he lay down on the ground and pretended to be asleep."

The end of the 50s... A new round of persecution of the Church. Across the country there are massive closures of churches and monasteries, which have survived mainly only in Western Ukraine. The Soviet government, implementing atheist programs, planned to turn Pochaev into a “communist village” with a museum of atheism in the Lavra. The inhabitants of the monastery were asked to leave the territory. Special control was established over all believers, monks and pilgrims. In 1959, the local authorities selected: a land plot of ten hectares, an orchard with a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, a drying facility, and a gardener’s house with an apiary of one hundred beehives. They took away a water pumping station with machines and equipment. All retail outlets in Pochaev were prohibited from selling goods to the monastery, so the monks were deprived of food and essentials.

Pilgrims and parishioners were monitored to ensure that no one brought food into the Lavra. They decided to take a pestilence and expel the monks without a fight, so that later, in the face of the world community and the Soviet public, they could declare that the monks had voluntarily left the monastery due to their renunciation of religion... But none of the monks even thought of leaving the monastery. Then, under various pretexts, they kicked out one by one,

were discharged, those who persisted were put in prison for violating the passport regime, sent to mental hospitals, and taken home without the right to return. Those who disobeyed were judged. People returned, not looking like themselves, like skeletons covered in dark skin. Hieromonks: Ambrose, Sergius, Valerian, Appelius, Hierodeacon Andrei, monk Nestor and others went through imprisonments, sometimes multiple times.

The repressions did not break the fortitude of the monks, who endured everything courageously and calmly, willing themselves, if necessary, even to die for the Lavra Shrines. The authorities more than once threatened the monks, promising to drown them in the holy well, to which Father Joseph calmly answered them: “What a shame!”) - because was ready to accept martyrdom.

The pilgrims were denied overnight accommodation. There was no reception at the city hotel, and local residents were raided every night. For harboring pilgrims, the owners faced severe punishment. In view of this situation, the Lavra’s hierarchy decided to open one of the temples for the night for round-the-clock prayer in order to give pilgrims the opportunity to rest. Father Joseph came to the temple, served akathists until the morning, and at dawn he ordered everyone to sing: “Glory to Thee, who showed us the light,” “Holy Virgin,” and other chants and prayers.

One day in the fall of 1962, the elder was called to the city of Brody, forty kilometers from Pochaev, to see a girl with a broken arm. He returned to the monastery through the gate on the economy side and did not see what was going on at the Trinity Cathedral. The monk had not yet had time to open the door of his cell when a novice came running to him and hurriedly told him that the cathedral was being taken away and the chief of police had already taken the keys from the governor. Father Joseph hurried to the temple. It was crowded there, and at the door of the Church there were about a dozen policemen with their commander.

The elder approached the boss and suddenly snatched a bunch of keys from his hands. Giving them to the young governor Augustine, who was standing right there, he said: “Here, take it and don’t give it to anyone.” He said to the perplexed policemen: “The bishop is the owner of the Church! Get out the stars! People, drive them out!” he addressed the local residents present. Inspired by the call of their beloved priest, people rushed to take the poles and rushed towards the police, who, in fear, rushed to run to the Holy Gates.

With his courage and courage, Father Joseph defended the Trinity Cathedral. The elder knew what he was getting into and expected cruel payment from the vengeful and vindictive God-fighters. However, “I trust in God, I will not be afraid; what will man do to me?” /Ps.55/. The monk not only waited, he knew when and how they would come for him, but did nothing.

No more than a week passed... The former (now deceased) gatekeeper at the gate of the economy, Abbot Seraphim, said: “At the end of September, when he was on duty at the gate of the economy, Father Joseph came up to me and said: “Curve the gate. Now the “black raven” will come for Josip!” - and went into the building through economy. I opened the gate to the building and began to wait for the “black raven”, but no one came, and closed the gate, thinking that the elder was joking. Two hours passed. "Suddenly a police car drove up - a "black raven". The policemen demanded to let the car into the yard."

Father Joseph was in his cell when the dean abbot Vladislav knocked on the door and said the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of our God, have mercy on us!” The elder knew about his arrest, knew that the police would come for him and would not have let him in, but through the prayer of his spiritual brother he opened the doors... Six people attacked him, threw him to the floor, tied his hands and feet, covered his mouth with a towel and dragged him with third floor into the courtyard to the car. There was nothing to breathe (as he himself later said): there was a gag in his mouth, the collar of his cassock squeezed his throat so much that in two minutes he would have suffocated.

In the car, they took the towel out of his mouth and took him, tied up outside Ternopil, to the city of Budanov, (more than a hundred kilometers from Pochaev) to the regional psychiatric hospital. Here Father Joseph was tonsured and shaved, and then ordered to remove the cross, but he refused. Then the orderlies themselves tore him off and took him, undressed, to the ward of violent mentally ill people at night. The room was lit by a weak electric light bulb. Forty people (all naked) were sleeping when the elder entered. Sleepy demons spoke to them: “Why did you come here? This is not a monastery!” He answered them: “You brought me here yourself.” They also injected him with a medicine that made his whole body swell and the skin on his body cracked. Remembering all this, the old man covered his face with his hands.

Can you treat those patients who are in our hospital?

Then cure them!

Father Joseph suggested that they let him go to the monastery or send someone to bring the Holy Gospel, cross and vestments (chasuble, epitrachelion, armour) so that he could serve holy prayers and the demons themselves would leave through the windows and doors. And he added that in two weeks not a single patient would remain here (there were more than 500 people).

No! You treat us without prayers.

It’s so impossible to forcefully.

And why?

The elder replied that when a soldier goes into battle, he is given weapons: a rifle, cartridges, grenades. Our weapon against the invisible enemy is the holy cross, the holy Gospel and holy water!

Father Joseph was taken back to the ward, where he continued to carry his martyr’s cross, “waiting for God to save from cowardice and from smoking” /Ps.54/.

One day an orderly came into the ward and again brought Father Joseph a robe and slippers. He went with him to the head doctor’s office, where besides himself there were two more men and a woman. As it turned out later - members of the Moscow commission. The elder was politely asked to sit down and asked how long ago he had become a monk. The answer was that he was born a monk. When asked why he ended up in this hospital, he talked about how as a boy he often went to an old neighbor who read the Bible and said that the time would come when the dragon would fight the Church. He was interested to know this. And now he sees how the dragon is at war with the Church. The woman grinned at this answer, and the men looked at each other meaningfully. And Father Joseph was taken back to the ward...

But people did not give up. Everyone wrote and wrote statements asking to release him from the hospital. Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva found out about Joseph's father's imprisonment. She managed to free the elder in gratitude for the fact that he had previously healed her of mental illness. After that, he settled with his nephew in his native Ilovitsa.

Having learned where the elder was, people began to come to him, obsessed with various ailments. Father served holy water prayers every day and healed people. But the enemy in the person of the godless local authorities did not sleep, he rebelled. Concerned about the influx of sick people into the village, the authorities turned his relatives against him.

Father Joseph had nineteen nephews and nieces. One day, one nephew, who worked as a tractor driver, lured him onto his tractor and took him out of the village to the swamps. And there he pushed me off the tractor to the ground and, having beaten him until he lost consciousness, threw him into the water and drove away. Father Joseph lay in cold water for eight hours. It was December 1965. Concerned about the long absence of Father Joseph, they began to look for him. And they found him barely alive. It was a miracle he didn't drown. He was urgently taken to the Pochaev Lavra and that same night he was tonsured into the schema with the name Amphilochius, in honor of the Saint of Hippo, whose memory was remembered by the Church that day. No one then hoped that he would survive until the morning. But the power of God brought my father back to his feet, and he recovered. It was dangerous to stay in the Lavra without registration. Relatives came for the priest and took him to Ilovitsa.

People still went and went to the elder for healing and received it, of which there are many testimonies. Father Joseph served prayers daily, and after the service, having sprinkled everyone with holy water, he invited them to the dinner table. After the prayer service, people felt an inexplicable lightness in their hearts. “By God’s permission,” the elder said, “for sins, the enemy approaches a person, takes his heart in his hand and squeezes it. But in order for the heart to be pure, one must constantly read the prayer “To the King of Heaven.”

The dinners were also something extraordinary. After them, many sick people were healed. And sometimes Father Joseph took a club and sat on a bench near the chapel. All the worshipers came up to him and asked him to touch the sore spot with a club. And those whom he touched were healed. This is how those suffering from headaches, diseases of the kidneys, liver, heart, arms and legs, as well as the mentally ill, were healed.

The fame of healing miracles spread everywhere. People came to Father Joseph from the north and south, from the east and west, from Moldova and Sakhalin. Avoiding human glory, he tried to hide from people God’s gift of healing from mental and physical illnesses. He often took upon himself superficially their vices, played the fool and thereby indicated the cause of certain illnesses of the people who came to him. Many who did not understand spiritual life considered Father Joseph a sinner. And he himself often spoke out: “Do you think I am a saint? I am a sinner! And you receive healing through your prayers and through your faith.”

Not only the visitors, but also his family were deceived by the elder’s actions. And at the same time he loved to repeat: “I’m not amazed at the face, but at the soul! But think what you want!” The words of the Apostle Paul are appropriate here: “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on carnal things, and those who live according to the Spirit think about spiritual things; the pure have everything pure, but the unclean and unfaithful have their mind and conscience defiled.”

Those who came to the Pochaev Lavra from all over the country always tried to visit the elder in his village. In the summer, he had up to 500 people every day, and sometimes more. He always treated everyone to a blessed meal.

In the autumn of 1965, Father Joseph settled with his niece Anna, the daughter of the late brother Panteleimon, who lived in the same village in a new small house. In Anna's courtyard, the saint of God built a high dovecote, and under it a small chapel. before which he served prayers and blessed the water. A long dining table was placed behind the chapel for pilgrims, and a chapel was also built.

On the northern side of the courtyard they built a long building and in it they built a refectory and a kitchen, a reception room for the sick, a bedroom for novices and a house church - a long hall with two side rooms: in one the church vestments were kept, in the other - Father Joseph prayed and rested. A closed gazebo-veranda was attached to the church from the garden side. Apple, pear, and plum trees grew in the garden planted by the old man. The ground was covered with flowers like a carpet: gladioli, dahlias, roses. There were palm trees in the boxes. A peacock and a peahen walked among the kingdom of flowers. There were canaries and parrots, and up to 200 pigeons lived in the dovecote. To serve people and do housework, novices lived with Father Joseph. They read morning and evening prayers in the chapel, but read the Psalter at night, akathists during the day, prepared dinners, worked in the garden...

The souls of all people, their hearts and intentions were open to Father Joseph, but for the sake of patience, he kept in his house the insidious, the crafty, and the possessed. Often, sitting down at the table, Father Joseph sang: “I will not be afraid of them, I will not be embarrassed!” and “I will not sit with the wicked!” Opposite the house of Anna Panteleimonovna’s niece there was a plot of land allocated to Father Joseph by the village council for a vegetable garden - they planted potatoes there. People bought building materials and donated them to him to build a house, but the village authorities did not allow him to build the house. The elder was upset; he intended to set up a church in the new house. He often said: “There will be no me, but a church, and then a monastery.”

Fifteen years after the death of the ascetic, a church was actually built in the village, since the parish wooden church in the village of Antonovtsy, four kilometers from Malaya Ilovitsa, burned down from lightning in the 70s. There is also an old cemetery where the parents and all the relatives of Joseph’s father are buried. He often visited their graves and served funeral services.

In his yard, my father served water blessing prayers every day and healed people. As you know, “this kind” (demons) are driven out only by prayer and fasting, which is why Father Joseph did not bless many to eat food on Wednesday and Friday. “You already knew how sweet this pastry is,” said the elder, meaning the spiritual sweetness with which the soul of the fasting person delights. On days of strict fasting, he ordered early in the morning, getting out of bed before the start of morning prayer, to immediately make three prostrations with the prayer “Rejoice to the Virgin Mary,” in order to easily maintain the fast on that day.

Father Joseph healed various ailments and claimed that half of the sick are healed, and half leave him unhealed - God does not like this, for their bodily healing will not benefit them, but will lead to the destruction of their souls.

In the words of the ascetic, the ground in his yard was soaked with the tears of praying people, seriously ill people, thirsting with all their souls for healing. He often repeated that children in our times are born rebellious, proud and daring, and then become possessed. Humbling such children, he forced them to ask for forgiveness from their parents.

It was necessary to have great love in the heart so as never to refuse anyone anything. The Physician of God had one. He found time for everyone.

The elderly novice John visited Father Joseph in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa more than once. And there I saw miracles of healing. “Without acquiring the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit, I think,” continued novice John, “it is difficult to perform such miracles of healing as this great saint of our Volyn land performed.” This will be confirmed by any resident of Pochaev and by those dozens, if not thousands of people from our fatherland whom Father Joseph healed.

Once, after morning prayer, the priest did not leave his cells to meet the people for a long time. Suddenly he came out and greeted everyone with the words of the prophet Isaiah: “God is with us! Understand, O pagans, and submit, for God is with us!” And then he began to talk about the reasons that led so many people to him. The main reason, according to the elder, lies in the spirit of godlessness, the instillation of which begins in school. Students are persecuted, not allowed into the temple, they are subjected to ideological training, humiliating human dignity. And a person who does not attend church, does not confess, does not receive communion, is deprived of the grace of the Holy Spirit. - This leads to the fact that the majority of the population is mentally ill. The elder advised to heal the illness of the present age with prayer. In his house it took place around the clock. In the chapel, on the floor covered with straw and rows (bedspreads), weak patients, possessed by evil spirits, slept. Sleepy, they muttered in the middle of the night: “The shaggy apostle woke up (this is not about Father Joseph, he had lush wavy hair), he’s tormenting us again! Let’s leave! Let’s leave!...”.

At night, the ascetic tightly covered the windows with black curtains: at night, in full schema, with lit incense in his hands, he walked around his long cell and said a prayer, which the demons felt and did not tolerate in the possessed people sleeping in the prayer room.

Often in the morning the prayer book told how demons did not give him rest all night: they rode on carts, came in legions to his yard with threats to kill, shoot, stab or poison.

At the beginning of the winter of 1970, a young man of about thirty-five, tall and physically healthy, burst into Father Joseph’s room. “Where is Joseph? He choked me with smoke in Moscow! I’ll kill him!” With God's help, they managed to throw the demoniac into the snow and tie his hands and feet. Three large kitchen knives were taken from the jacket pocket. The man was dragged into the chapel. It turned out to be a Muscovite, a pilot named Georgy, who spent three days traveling to Ilovitsa, did not eat or drink on the way, and became weak. At the request of this man’s mother, Father Joseph prayed for him, and in Moscow he felt the elder’s prayers and could not tolerate them, as he was possessed by an unclean spirit, which led George to take revenge on the prayer book. Father Joseph did not leave his cells that day. The Muscovite's hands were untied and he was given something to eat. And by evening they untied their legs. He ran away from the yard; no one saw him again.

Modern young men also came to their father and complained of mental anguish, lack of sleep and appetite. The elder placed them in the middle of the courtyard and ordered them to make four hundred and fifty prostrations; He ordered that they do the same at home every evening, wear crosses, don’t drink, don’t smoke, go to church, keep fasts, and take communion. Then, according to him, all the nerves will go away and they will be healthy. At the same time, he added that the nerves feel pain, but when the soul hurts, it is not the nerves that are upset, but demons that are tormenting and one must fight them with fasting and prayer.

The ascetic loved nature very much, he felt it, tried to decorate the earth with flowers and various trees. Everywhere where he lived: in the Pochaev Lavra, at the monastic cemetery, in Ilovitsa, he left behind a living monument of fruit and ornamental trees. Spring was a heavenly time for him, and the spring forest was paradise. The elder said that only before haymaking is all the vegetation: grass, flowers, leaves on trees, and shrubs - young, tender, fresh and shining, and after haymaking summer comes and the leaves fade, become coarser, lose their youth and former lovely. Just like the man himself...

At the beginning of the summer of 1970, Father Joseph invited Pochaevite Vasily Malkush to his home in Ilovitsa. Together they went into the forest to listen to Zozulya (cuckoo). The priest listened to her with some special attention, and then said to his friend: “From the last time I hear you Zozulya.” And so it happened - in the last days of that year he died.

Having a kind heart, Father Joseph did not like evil people, for evil is not inherent in human nature. It is aroused in him not without the mediation of demons, and that is why evil people become like them. The elder said that “any sin entangles the heart like a web, and anger is like a wire - try to break it. Evil people killed the Tsar, the evil ones mock the Orthodox. It is great happiness that the Lord has vouchsafed us to be born in the Orthodox faith and to be Orthodox, and many "the nations, unfortunately, do not know Orthodoxy," the ascetic repeatedly repeated. Even decades before the glorification of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon, the great defender of the Orthodox faith in Russia, Father Joseph had already revered him as a saint and pasted his photograph as an icon next to the face of the holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called in your funeral synod.

The saint of God also disapproved of television programs that devastate and rob the soul. After watching such programs, a person does not want to pray at all, and even if he forces himself to pray, he prays only with his lips, and his heart is far from God. Such a prayer, according to the elder, only leads to condemnation. Recently, sorcerers (so-called psychics) have been working hard to improve the system of coding people through televisions, radios and even electrical appliances, because they know that coded people will obediently carry out the will of others. “It’s not easy to be saved,” said Elder Joseph. “I won’t put your salvation on your head - work and pray yourself! If you want to be saved, be deaf, dumb and blind.”

The doctor bestowed his love for people through deeds, and therefore they went to him with faith, inflamed by his holy grace. The healer of human souls and bodies had enough spiritual love for everyone: he loved the sick and suffering, wished them healing and tried to help. To the questions of one servant of God about how to achieve such love, the ascetic answered that God gives the grace of love for humility. And he often repeated: “As you care about people, so people care about you.” “At the priest’s prayer services,” says K., “people were healed, and I was completely overcome by the feeling that I was ready to hug everyone. I could not recover from the unspeakable love for every person.” Monastics often came to see the elder. In conversations with them, he repeatedly emphasized that it was important not only to take monastic orders, but that it was the soul that became a nun.

Father Joseph can be supplemented with the words of the Apostle Paul: “See that you act carefully, not as fools, but as wise, valuing time, because the days are evil, do not be foolish, but know what is the will of God.” /Eph. Ch. 5/.

It's 1970. The feast of the Nativity of Christ was approaching. Feeling that this was the last Christmas of his life, Father Joseph wanted to organize a celebration for everyone whom God would send to him. On the day of the holiday, a divine service was performed in the chapel, and then Christ the Child was glorified with Christmas hymns. Village children carrying the Star of Bethlehem came into the yard in groups and sang carols. Father Joseph himself met them and invited them to the festive table, giving them gifts. And so all day long until late at night, in the courtyard and in the elder’s house, both adults and children continuously glorified the Nativity of God the Savior.

The celebration continued throughout the holidays and was remembered by every soul, who, together with the psalmist, sang thanks to God for His great mercy to be privileged to visit the holy elder and ascetic during these Christmas days.

Priest Peter from the Vinnitsa region became very attached to Father Joseph. He believed every word of the elder. He loved him for his meekness, for his humility and obedience, and blessed him to serve holy water prayers. He himself closed himself in his cell to “receive”, to pray for the healing of the sick who were present at the water-blessing prayers. They were healed through his secret prayers. Father Peter understood the elder’s goal and treated him with humble reverence. The priest walked and rode everywhere in a cassock and with a pectoral cross on his chest, as Father Joseph blessed, for he believed that a priest, with his appearance, should preach, affirm and hold high the banner of Holy Orthodoxy, so that everyone would see and know that Orthodoxy exists. , The Church of Christ lives and operates. Everyone looks at such a priest with respect and reverence, and if he hides his rank under secular clothes, then for everyone he is simply a layman who does not heed the words of the Lord: “Whoever is ashamed of Me, of him I will be ashamed.”

The Mother of God for Father Joseph was Heaven; he constantly turned to Her in his prayers. Sometimes during a communal lunch, the priest asked everyone to interrupt lunch, stand up and sing the prayer to the Most Pure One “Under Your Grace.”

The elder believed that despondency and emptiness in the soul were due to excessive talking, gluttony and covetousness. He then ordered to sing “Elitsa, be baptized into Christ” and “God is with us” every hour and day. He himself had a beautiful baritone voice, understood well and loved church singing.

It used to be that fellow villagers would gather on Sunday for a water prayer service with Father Joseph, everyone would stand and pray - complete silence. Suddenly the elder turns around and says: “Don’t talk! Don’t respect me.” He heard people's thoughts about their earthly vanity, which prevented him from praying. “Prayer is freedom and aspiration of the mind from everything earthly,” write the holy fathers.

Almost a year later, this parable became clear: the ascetic foresaw that flowers would be brought to his grave, but he was more pleased with the prayers of people rather than decorating the coffin.

How did Father Joseph feel in the last days of his life, what thoughts worried him? Family members often saw how the elder’s face transformed: his mind went deeply into himself in prayerful contemplation. He knew the thoughts of those around him: good and evil. He thanked for good, forgave evil. Not only evil spirits, but also people took up arms against him.

In the summer of 1970, my father had strange attacks. He was lying on a bench in the garden, as if unconscious. One of the novices did not allow anyone to approach him. After lying there for some time, the ascetic got up completely healthy. The attack repeated in October. Worried people gathered around the elder. The same novice was here too. Someone tried to unbutton the collar of his cassock, which seemed to be strangling him, but she did not let anyone in. Suddenly the father stopped snoring. The novice came up and bent over him. Suddenly he opened his eyes, grabbed her hair with his hand and kissed her head. Nobody guessed anything then. Later it became known that Father Joseph was once again given poison.

One day the priest sat down to dinner, but did not touch the food for half an hour. He sat and listened carefully to something. With his spiritual, insightful eye, he saw the atheists gathered in the Shumsky district executive committee, deciding his fate. They were thinking about what to build in the old man’s yard after his death: a kindergarten, a hospital or a power plant. He probably also knew that they had thought of his villainous murder there.

Several days passed. Late in the evening, when everyone was already asleep, a light appeared in the veranda. The novices thought it was Father Joseph - he slept there until the frost. But when they looked out the window, they saw two people in caps. They raised the people in the prayer room and ran to the veranda. The light went out... It became dark. The window above the door is open, the door is locked, there is silence outside the door. Not knowing what happened to the priest or where he was, they began knocking on his cell. "a few minutes later the elder came out pale and alarmed: foreseeing the intention of the villains, that night he went to sleep in his cell. Father Joseph went up to the veranda and began to open the door. Someone, pushing him aside, entered first. A Finnish woman was lying on the cot. They pulled out a young man, dressed in Father Joseph's cassock, under the cots. They tied him up and took him to the chapel. He said that he was with his fellow villager - the owner of a Finnish horse, who had recently completed his service in the Navy. The villain tractor driver was treated to dinner and sent home. And to In the evening, the police arrived from Shumsk and played out the investigation scenario: they interrogated witnesses, drew up an act of attempted murder, took with them the material evidence - the Finnish woman. This is where the investigation ended.

Soon after this assassination attempt, during lunch, Father Joseph again did not touch food for a long time, sat and listened to something. The expression on his face changed: it became surprised, then stern, and then he said: “My faith saved me!” And he explained to his family that in Shumsk they were again deciding how to take his life as quickly as possible. “For I have heard the evil spirits of many who live around: when they come together against me, they will come to consult my soul.”

The elder foresaw the enemy's plans and knew his accomplices-executors both in the person of his fellow villagers and in the person of his novices. But who could imagine that someone would raise a hand against such a great old man...

Several times Father Joseph gathered his household in the refectory and asked them to sing some prayers from the service for the Dormition of the Mother of God, and “The Apostles from the end, having copulated here,” asked them to sing three times. And listening to the touching singing, he covered his face with his hands and cried. After singing, he said with sadness: “What a terrible thing it would be if the frozen earth began to fall on a mushroom.” Four months later, the funeral service for Father Joseph was held in the Lavra.

At three o'clock in the morning the car with the coffin approached the Lavra, but could not get through the Holy Gates, it rolled down the mountain three times - the saint of God did not want to drive the car through the Holy Gates. Then they lifted the ascetic’s coffin onto their shoulders and, singing “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,” carried it into the Holy Gate and through the gateway into the building. They carried us along the corridor to the Church of the Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The novices brought many wax candles from Father Joseph’s cells; they were lit on great candlesticks placed in front of the coffin and distributed to people. They brought photographs of the elder; the note taker, Father Bogdan, distributed them to pilgrims.

The late liturgy in the Church of Praise was served by Archimandrite Samuel. After the liturgy, the funeral service for Father Joseph began. The priest-monks came out of the altar to the coffin. The snow stopped, the sun came out and played like on Easter. And when the last kiss was given, the woman’s broken arm was healed at the coffin. A lot of people gathered in the church for the funeral service.

Usually deceased monks are taken to the cemetery, but people did not let go of Father Joseph’s coffin: everyone wanted to carry the dear old man at least a little, seeing him off on his last journey. Horses harnessed to a sleigh rode sideways, and the coffin with the body of everyone’s beloved elder Joseph was carried high above the heads of those who saw him off - “just as people are before people...”. None of the monks were buried like this, although among them there were deeply respected and respectable fathers, but people wanted to give a worthy honor to such a miracle worker and healer as Father Joseph and thereby express their love for him, who loved them and devoted his entire life to service God and neighbors. Archimandrite Hermogenes proclaimed the funeral eulogy. The coffin was lowered into the grave, covered with frozen earth (as the elder had predicted). His grave was dug next to the grave of Father Svyatopolk. Both of them lie under the crowns of an apple tree once planted by Father Joseph.

As the elder said - he would no longer have problems with registration, that they would register him in Pochaev - so they registered him until the Second Coming of the Lord... No one asked for documents and V.’s dream became clear - Father Kuksha begged the Queen of Heaven and She helped register Father Joseph in Pochaev, which is what Father Joseph V. asked for while still alive: “You will take me to Pochaev!” And she thought then (shortly before his death) that the priest was asking her to take her to Pochaev and register her in his house.

They built a grave mound. Again the clouds covered the sky, it began to snow, a gusty wind blew in, and a blizzard arose. The wind knocked people down - this is how nature cried, expressing its grief for the saint of God. And only by the end of the next day the snowstorm subsided, it became quiet and clear...

Father Joseph was buried on January 4, 1971. And in three days - the feast of the Nativity of Christ. For many, Christmas days were not days of joy and joy - so deep was the grief and grief for the newly deceased elder. Last year's Christmas celebration in his village, to whose residents he provided so much spiritual joy, unforgettable for a lifetime, was still fresh in his memory.

Soon after the funeral, Father Joseph appeared in a dream to novice V. and showed her what he was poisoned with. On a long shelf under the bed of a novice from Kyiv there were many bottles. In one bottle, which the elder pointed to, there was a bright crimson liquid - a strong poison. He said that this poison was poured into his food and even into his washbasin, and that he washed himself with poisoned water and rinsed his mouth with it in the last days of his earthly life.

This is how enemies, visible and invisible, rose up against the old man, but God gave him the sign of the cross for the time being to defeat the deadly poison.

The forties were celebrated in Ilovice on Wednesday. Mother Manefa then had a dream: a boat was rushing along the river against the current like an arrow, and Father Joseph was standing in it. Many demons grabbed the sides of the boat - black, evil - they triumphantly shouted: “Ours! Ours!” But the ascetic did not pay attention to them. Here the boat landed on the shore opposite a magnificent large temple, from which two bright young men came out, took the elder by the arms, led him into the temple and placed him in the altar in front of the throne. The demons screamed in frustration and... disappeared. Mother’s dream can be supplemented with the words: “The saints will be praised in glory and will rejoice on their beds. This glory will be to all the saints” and interpret it this way: the boat rushed like an arrow against the current - it was Father Joseph who performed miracles, with which the demons were deceived and considered him a sinner until the very beginning. the last moment - God's determination about his soul, introduced with honor by the Angels into the Triumphant Church. And Mary the shepherdess had a dream, allegedly she said to Father Joseph: “Father, they say you were poisoned,” but in response she heard that he voluntarily went to torture, and added at the same time, pointing to the novice from Kiev, what awaits her severe punishment from the Lord.

On January 1, 1981, a memorial service was held at the monastic cemetery in memory of the tenth anniversary of the death of St. Amphilochius. It was drizzling lightly. About thirty people gathered at the grave. A former novice from Kyiv was also here with her mother. One of the priests served a funeral litany. Everyone venerated the grave cross, and a woman from Kiev also came up. Suddenly she began to lament:

Father, you have orphaned us... The novice of Father Joseph, pulling her back, said:

Not orphaned, but orphaned! Don't be afraid, no one is going to beat you or kill you. Repent!

Apparently, she (the novice from Kyiv) had already received some command from above to reveal her grave sin to people. Kneeling down, taking a handful of liquid mud, she smeared it all over her face, and then, rising to her full height, shouted:

Poisoned, damned, poisoned! I used to be afraid to say it, I thought people would tear me apart! Poisoned... Anger blinded my eyes! Anger. Forgive me too, V., how much you also had to endure because of my anger.

And according to Alexandra, who lived for some time in the house of an ascetic physician, everything was so. A few weeks before Christmas 1971, at the dinner table with his family (all those who helped him), the elder said, as if by chance: “All my guests are dear, and there is no Judas in your midst.” Everyone was saddened, wondering who the priest was talking about. And another time: “You will all rise before me as Apostles!” - The words of the schema-abbot made the novices think. The quarrels that often arose between them were also incomprehensible to them, which is why they left home hour by hour. And all this in front of the elder. He saw their thoughts. He also knew the reason for the misunderstandings: the strange behavior of the Kiev novice. He didn’t like her arrogance either; he told her several times to go home. And Father Joseph ordered the novices to save their souls with patience and often reminded the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”

But novice V. from Pochaev could not bear it: she left home without the elder’s blessing and, despite persuasion to return, did not dare to come before the Nativity of Christ.

And... I was late. The perspicacious Schema-Archimandrite John later, grieving for Father Joseph, very sternly reproached her: “Why did you leave the elder? If she had not left, he would have lived another twenty years: he had a strong heart!”

What about the Kiev woman? Not paying attention to the elder’s commands to go home, in the morning she went to the chapel to “perform,” and then to the kitchen to prepare dinner, carrying her evil plan in her soul. Who knows what brought her, a forty-three-year-old library employee at the Kiev Atheist Museum (she hid her last name), to Ilovitsa in 1966 and why she so persistently sought obedience in the kitchen. What guided her, what guided her - only God knows... Her mother often came here to the village. One day at dinner they opened up: “Father, my mother does witchcraft; I want to help people, they ask.” "Repent, great sin!" - that’s all the schema-abbot said.

December 1970 turned out to be snowy, with frosts, blizzards, and drifts on the roads. Getting to Ilovitsa is simply impossible. For a whole week, no bread was delivered from the regional center. Father Joseph had only a few wanderers, and his own family. On that ill-fated day, New Year’s Eve, the elder was with his artisans. In the evening, having thanked them for the work done, the schema-monk walked into the chapel through the room behind the refectory. It was already dark, but still he recognized the Kyiv novice standing at the stove. “Go ahead,” he said and left to pray. (She later told all those details.) At the evening refectory table, having lit candles, he asked his assistants (the cook Alexandra, Maria the shepherdess and the girl L.) to sing a funeral litany. Having blessed the meal, he once said with sadness: “The cut has already been served! Ale Khrest is strength.” But, to the surprise of the novices, he did not ask them to share a meal with him that evening, but dined himself...

Feeling that the Lord was calling him to Himself to a place of eternal rest and allowing the deadly effect of the poison, he quietly said to Alexandra: “Give me your hand... Your hands are warm, but mine are already cold.” Leaning on her hand, he entered the next room, lay down on the couch, silently looking at Alexandra: apparently, he could no longer say anything. She became scared and, without waiting for an answer to her question: “Should I turn off the light?” - ran away.

Late in the evening, around eleven, all the novices came from the prayer house to the elder. There was also a woman from Kiev (her name was not ordered - God will be her judge) with her friend, the wanderer R. Father snored monotonously. Everyone was overcome by a kind of numbness. “It seems that our elder is leaving” ... - a novice from Kyiv said with a grin. A little later, the saint fell silent. The said novice came up, took his hand, raised it and lowered it. The hand fell...

Thus was human malice poured out.

The years fly by, time continues its unstoppable run. Every year, the day of the Angel and the day of death are celebrated at his grave. People remember him alive, his steps, his voice, his loving heart and his kindness. intelligent eyes..., from mouth to mouth they pass on to each other stories about miracles of healing. All these years, day after day, people go to the grave of the ascetic, and now to the Cave Church of the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, where his incorruptible relics rest, light a candle or light a lamp, conduct a quiet conversation, trusting the elder with their troubles and illnesses. Those possessed by evil spirits also come here... And many miracles of healing have already been witnessed, both at the grave in the monastery cemetery and at the shrine with the relics of St. Joseph (in the schema of Amphilochius).

The people's path to it, laid by the suffering in the hope of receiving healing from God through the prayerful intercession of the ever-memorable Father Joseph, the great saint of God of the Volyn land, will never be overgrown.

The entire life of the Reverend was a self-sacrificing service in the name of love for God and neighbor, for love is the main fruit of a Christian’s spiritual achievement and the goal of monastic life. It is the law of life in heaven and on earth and is born from a pure heart and immaculate conscience. Love is immortal, it goes with a person beyond his grave into eternal life and mutually binds the souls of living and dead people. It was with such love that the Reverend acquired deep respect for himself.

Through faith, love and mercy for the suffering, he showed a gracious example of life, gained love and left an indelible memory in the hearts of believers, for whom he was and is a quick healer, a merciful helper and a successful intercessor.

Even after death He heals, consoles, edifies; people still feel his unfeigned love. Some even hear his voice calling them to pray, repent, correct themselves and live according to the commandments of God.

Confrontation (Miracle Healings)

There is no blind chance. God rules the world, and everything that happens in heaven and under heaven is done according to the judgment of the all-wise and omnipotent God, incomprehensible in His wisdom and omnipotence, incomprehensible in His governance.

God rules the world, every person, every blade of grass - “throughout the whole earth His destiny” (Ps. 104: 7). He entrusts to some much, to others little. And all according to the faith of man. The Monk Amphilochius was given just that much: the gift of a healer and healer of human souls. Through fasting, prayer, deep humility and great love for the Almighty and his neighbor, he developed this gift, as evidenced by those who knew him during his lifetime or who came into contact with this gift after his death. His gratitude for the healing of either a physical or mental illness, for admonition, parting words, or simply a kind word are expressed by people in prayerful memory of God’s healer.

And they write their memories, share their feelings and experiences that they experienced during communication with the elder in person, either at his grave in the monastery cemetery, or at the relics of the Reverend in the Cave Church.

Here are some of them, told by the spiritual children of the schema-abbot, relatives, loved ones and inhabitants of the monastery - a drop in the human lake.

The Monk Amphilochius tried himself as a chiropractor while still a young man, helping his father guide broken bones, compassionate with human pain. And only then, being a monk, he draws fracture lines on the broken arm and sends them for an x-ray - the pencil lines exactly coincided with the x-ray. The doctors were surprised at such a gift from a simple monk. His insight was clearly at work here.

Anna Timofeevna’s niece, who lives in the old man’s village, recalls how one day, visiting her uncle at the monastic cemetery, a woman with a broken arm was miraculously healed before her eyes. The fracture caused suffering and forced me to protect my hand from unnecessary movements. Father Joseph told her to put both hands on her head. Having completed it, she felt completely healthy, feeling absolutely no pain.

Almost all residents of Pochaev at different periods of their lives: in childhood, youth or old age, were patients of the Reverend. Once they brought a local resident N. While going down the icy steps in winter, she fell and injured her arm. Diagnosis: fracture of the humerus. Father corrected his hand and ordered it to be warmed up. Two weeks later, returning to the elder, she still complained of severe pain in her arm, which would not rise.

Father Joseph took her hand and, raising it high above his head, asked:

Is this how it works?

Yes, father.

Cross yourself... is it not painful?

No, it doesn’t hurt, father! - the patient answered, completely forgetting about the illness.

Father Joseph had an invariable rule: if someone is brought in with a fracture, then call him at any time of the day or night. So it was with the forester. He was walking through the forest late in the evening, and a tractor came towards him. The forester stood aside as much as he could, but the caterpillar still caught his leg and crushed him. They brought him to the chiropractor. "Father, with a fracture*." And the father immediately came to the victim. For more than an hour he fussed with the forester’s leg, then tied the foot in cardboard. Having finished, he asked the tractor driver, the agronomist who was with him, and the forester for dinner. When, after the meal, they were about to leave, the agronomist and tractor driver wanted to carry the forester in their arms to the tractor, but Father Joseph ordered him to go himself. The forester fearfully put his sore leg on the floor, but walked towards the tractor with a firm step, without limping. The doctor healed his leg with his prayer.

Lawyer Stetsyuk I. was brought to the elder from Pochaev: he fell from a motorcycle and broke his leg in two places. I spent a whole month in the hospital with a cast on my leg, but did not get any relief. Then his wife took him from the hospital and brought him to a chiropractor. Having cut through the plaster, I saw that the leg had turned black; in a hospital such a leg would be amputated. He ordered the patient to be left at the neighbors' apartment and came to him every day and lubricated his leg with ointment, which he prepared himself from honey, oil and wax. The healer gave this ointment to people for all sorts of diseases: from leukemia, cancer, eczema and other diseases, and it helped - as one perspicacious old man said, it contained a strong prayer. A week later, Stetsyuk’s leg turned white, and when he was completely cured, he exclaimed: “The prayer has reached God!”

In the summer of 1965, a girl was brought from the village of Vilshanka, five kilometers from Pochaev. She fell off her bike and broke her collarbone. Father Joseph straightened the broken bones and the girl immediately ran, feeling no pain.

Many people, even unbelievers, profoundly changed their views after meeting the Reverend.

This is what happened to Tatyana from St. Petersburg. After getting married, she moved to Pochaev. She didn’t go to church and knew nothing about God, although she had been baptized since childhood. Illness brought her to the Lavra. As a result of blockage of the veins, gangrene began. The doctor prescribed surgery. It was difficult for the young woman to come to terms with the loss of her leg; she was ready to cling to any saving thread, even go to a session with a monk, who, as they say, also heals. Having borrowed money, she walked and, not knowing how to behave, stood behind everyone, doubtfully wondering whether he would accept her as an unbeliever. We didn’t have to wait long, Father Joseph came out of the cells, carefully examined those who had come, and said: “You should go!” Not expecting attention to herself, Tatyana was silent. Father Joseph clarified: “Os, the capelus (hat) come to me!” Tatyana entered, leaving behind the murmur of the crowd. Offering her to sit down, the priest listened to the patient and reassured her: there was no need for surgery, he gave her ointment and holy water, and said that everything would pass. In gratitude, Tatyana shyly handed over twenty-five rubles. The old man did not take it: “You yourself don’t have a lot of pennies, but you put it,” and, taking out fifty rubles from the locker, he gave it to Tatyana, who was amazed at what had happened. Arriving home, she began to rub her leg with ointment and drink holy water, as the priest said. The leg soon turned white, the swelling went away, and the gangrene disappeared. Having healed not only in body, but also in soul, Tatyana began to constantly go to church, often turning to her benefactor for advice.

Another case of healing of gangrene, preserved in memory, occurred in Skete. One of the monks, refusing to have his arm amputated, was preparing for death. Father Joseph, having learned about the illness, came to the Skete and ordered hot water, alcohol, cotton wool, bandages, a plate and a sharp knife to be brought. Having escorted those present from the cells, he began the operation: he cut the blackened hand, released blood into a plate, washed the wound with water and alcohol, bandaged it tightly and left. The monk soon recovered and lived another long, godly life.

A nineteen-year-old boy, the son of the first secretary of the Ternopil regional party committee, had a sarcoma on his leg and the best doctors were helpless. The regional committee secretary was in despair, but still decided to resort to his last hope - he brought his son to his father Osif. After examining the leg, the elder suggested that the parents leave their son for two weeks somewhere in the neighborhood in an apartment. He also said that the only treatment would be prayer. He ordered him to put on a cross and come every morning to the water-blessing prayer service, drink holy water and eat a blessed meal. The young man performed everything reverently.

Two weeks later, his sarcoma disappeared without a trace and the happy parents took their son home completely healthy. In gratitude to Father Joseph, the first secretary of the regional committee ordered the allocation of a route bus from Kremenets to Malaya Ilovitsa; do not prevent taxi drivers from taking people to the elder and do not harass him in any way.

Servant of God K. in the winter of 1965, slipped on the ice, fell on her left side and, as she thought, “broke her heart.” From that moment on, she began having heart attacks, accompanied by a fear of death. These attacks confined her to bed for ten to fifteen days. And so one old woman persuaded her to go to Father Joseph. We reached the village of Stizhok (the bus did not go to the village of Ilovitsa), and there we walked through the forest. They met a girl who told them that the priest was already waiting for them and conveyed his words: “There are two servants of God from Pochaev coming before me.” It was also surprising that K. walked ten kilometers without a break, whereas at home she barely covered the kilometer-long journey to work in an hour.

Having asked what brought her to Ilovitsa, Father Joseph said: “Tomorrow we will serve a prayer service for the blessing of water and heal your heart.” But K. was at a loss, believing that the heart should be treated with herbal tinctures. In the morning, after serving a prayer service and sprinkling everyone with holy water, the elder invited them to the dining table. He treated everyone to a blessed meal every day. After the prayer service, K. felt an inexplicable lightness in her heart.

Priest Anatoly from the Vinnitsa region recalls “In 1965, with the blessing of the rector of our parish church, I went to Ilovitsa. I had a stomach ulcer and I wanted to find out if I needed an operation. The elder did not bless me for the operation, but gave me a mixture of medicinal herbs, explaining, how to prepare and take the decoction, and also fast, pray, read the Psalter. I lived with him for four days and felt relief. And at home I followed the prayer rule that the elder gave me. My health improved..."

People turned to the ascetic physician with a variety of ailments.

Two friends arrived from Dnepropetrovsk - garment factory workers. One of them was deaf and dumb. Her father asked her: “What is your name?” The friend replied: “Father, she is deaf and dumb.” “And you movchi!” said the father and again asked the deaf-mute woman’s name. She mumbled something. But the elder kept asking what her name was. And suddenly:

Galya,” the deaf-mute answered clearly. And she began to hear and speak. The deaf-mute friend, shocked by such a miracle, began to cry with joy. Gala was then twenty-five years old. As a three-year-old child, she was severely beaten by her stepmother, and from fear and pain the girl became deaf and dumb. Father Joseph restored her hearing and speech.

The parents of a three-year-old deaf-mute boy asked Father Joseph to heal him. The elder ordered to give the child a soaked apple lying on a plate. The parents said that the boy did not like pickled apples. But to their great surprise, he happily ate the whole apple. Then Father Joseph asked the boy something and he answered him. He began to hear and speak.

The parents brought their two deaf-mute sons and tearfully asked for help in their grief. But the elder advised sending his sons to a school for the deaf and dumb.

The parents still begged. And then Elder Joseph sternly asked his father whether he had blasphemed God. The father of the deaf-mute sons lowered his head and wept bitterly. “From now on, your children will spend their entire lives - then you will be punished by God.” Such an instructive case for all of us. After all, “God cannot be mocked.”

There was such a thing. One mother was taking a blind twelve-year-old girl to the doctor. From the village of Stizhok they walked along a forest path. Halfway there, the girl tripped over a tree root, fell, and suddenly began to see. In her simplicity, she told her mother: “Let’s go back, I can already see it.” But the mother understood that her daughter received her sight through the prayers of the elder, who knew that they were coming to him with faith and hope for healing. According to their faith, he gave them what they wanted, but in order to hide his virtuous power, he arranged it so that the girl received her sight when she fell. After all, she had fallen before, but was healed on the way to the doctor. And in response to her daughter she said: “No, let’s go to Father Joseph and give thanks; it was through his prayers that you received your sight.”

It was necessary to have great love in your heart so as never to refuse anyone anything. The Physician of God had one. He found time for everyone. He once healed the weakened four-year-old son of a military man. Distraught with happiness, he threw himself into the arms of either his son or the elder, shedding tears of gratitude. He offered Father Joseph his car and money, but he refused everything.

And further. Two elderly people came to the priest - a husband and wife. Entering the courtyard, they suddenly lost consciousness. And when they woke up, they told the following: their only daughter was paralyzed for fourteen years. They contacted many doctors, but they just shrugged helplessly. And so they were advised to turn to Father Joseph. A month and a half ago they brought their daughter here. The doctor looked at her and told them to come in a month and leave the girl with him. Now they saw their daughter running towards them.

One day, Father Joseph went to some village to visit a sick man for the whole day. This also happened. He never refused anyone, did not take into account the troubles and labors. And then a very sick boy of about thirteen was brought to him. A few hours later he died. They laid him on a bench in the yard. Father arrived late in the evening. He approached the deceased, prayed over him, crossing him. The boy opened his eyes and came to life. Father Joseph ordered food to be brought to him.

The Reverend also possessed the gift of foresight. Mother Irina and not only her testify to this. He foresaw that Irina would no longer be with her spiritual mother. And so it happened. Mother Maria, shortly after talking with Father Joseph and Irina, left for the city of Verkhoturye, Sverdlovsk region, promising to call Irina as well. But she fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis and died the same year. Thus the prediction of Elder Joseph came true.

“One winter evening,” says Father Joseph’s novice, “I was reading the Psalter in the chapel, standing at the lectern opposite the window. I was reading mechanically, thinking about something vain. I accidentally looked out the window and saw Father Joseph, he looked at me very sternly. And when he entered the prayer room, he told me in reproof: “He reads a prayer with his lips, but his thoughts are far from God.”

The Pochaev resident often recalls her first visit to Father Joseph in the summer of 1965. It was Sunday. After the water-blessing prayer and blessed meal, she and another female companion were about to leave in order to catch the last bus, but Father Joseph said that at 6 o’clock there would be a car that would take them all the way home. But the fellow traveler learned from local residents that after the rain the car would not pass along the dirt road, and they decided to go. We were already approaching the bus stop, and an acquaintance from Pochaev came towards us in a green car. He asked if the elder was at home and offered to pick them up on the way back, but, angry with themselves for their lack of faith, the women went home by bus. After this incident, K. was afraid to break any word of Father Joseph, even what he said casually.

At the end of 1970, a young woman brought a beautiful five-year-old girl. She was apparently ill with something, and the mother began to tell the elder about her daughter’s illness. He suddenly ordered the novice to bring a large knife from the kitchen. Taking the knife he brought, he handed it to the woman with the words: “Here, charge!” She looked at the old man in fear and hugged the girl to her. Father Joseph again said commandingly: “Zarizh, I’m telling you!” The woman hugged her daughter even tighter and screamed in horror. And then the doctor asked: “What, Skoda? Don’t you feel sorry for the ones you killed? And the stench was even more beautiful! For that sin, now this child is tormented!”

Father Joseph experienced the grief that overwhelmed people’s hearts as his own, compassionate with the suffering and forbearing with the weak.

Once, walking through the temple, recalls Marfa, a resident of Pochaev, people began to prostrate themselves before the priest. “They throw them to the ground,” said Father Joseph. Approaching, according to the word of God's servant Alexandra, a twenty-seven-year-old girl who had been possessed by a demon for a long time, the elder took her head with his hands and sternly commanded: “Get out, why do you have it with her? I say, come out!” After some time, the girl, her face suddenly brightening, joyfully exclaimed: “You’re gone.”

In the fall of 1956, a parishioner of the Lavra recalls, when the “Our Father” was sung at an early liturgy in the Cave Church, a terrible piercing sound was heard from the direction of the corridor. The frantic cry of many voices, ominously growing, poured into the Church. Everyone looked around involuntarily. It seemed as if a whole gang of the mindless had approached the doors. Imagine the surprise when a frail young woman appeared at the door, barely led by four. With incredible efforts, she was brought into the cave and stopped. The sight of the shrine with the relics of St. Job and the cave where he labored led her into indescribable horror. Screaming even louder, she suddenly freed her hands, and fearfully shied away from the shrines, bending her legs, and jumped about five meters to the entrance. The guards, with effort, took possession of the fragile creature, possessed by superhuman strength, and led her to the Assumption Church, where Father Joseph served an akathist before the Crucifixion. The demoniacs, positioned behind him, wriggled across the floor in various positions, filling the air with frantic screams. The brought woman, feeling the will, pounced on one of the demoniacs similar to herself, and, sitting astride, kicking her sides, shouted: “But-o-o! Let's go!” To the side..., shedding bitter tears, stood the husband, a tall young man of an intelligent appearance, and, looking around pitifully, asked people: “Pray for her, her name is Zoya.” The women taught him to fold his fingers for the sign of the cross, and Zoya, hour by hour, coming to her senses, rushed to the Crucifix with a cry: “Lord, forgive me!”, “Mother of God, forgive me!!!” Then she would fall unconscious on the stone slabs, then again begin to rage, grabbing Father Joseph’s vestments. Barely able to stand on his feet, he continued to read the akathist, only occasionally wiping drops of cold sweat from his pale face. The Akathist ended, the priest turned to Zoya and asked: “Are you a Christian?” Shaking herself indignantly with an alienated emptiness in her eyes, Zoya spoke in a voice that was not her own:

Zoya is a Christian, and I am a Baptist!

“Come on,” the old man said to the demon.

Where will I go? - the demon asked through Zoya’s mouth.

For the 6th ride!

“I don’t want to go into the abyss,” the demon screamed!

Bachita, Christians, how the abyss is terrible for a demon! - the priest said to the gathered people. Meanwhile, Zoya, sitting exhausted on the floor, asked her husband to give money to Father Joseph. He refused the money, promising to pray.

In the evening, together with her husband, Zoya meekly stood at the service, bitterly recalling the difficult years of her mental illness. Now, taught by bitter experience, Zoya no longer doubted her choice of faith. And it all started out funny and romantic.

Eleven years before, very young and cheerful, Zoya met a young man who had just graduated from college and was sent to the Donbass as a mine manager. Alexander’s mother, that was the young man’s name, was a Baptist. Zoya was also drawn there, so that the latter even sang in the sect’s meetings. Zoya and Alexander decided to get married.

In order not to sadden the bride’s parents, and Zoya’s mother was Orthodox, they decided to get married. But God cannot be mocked. To the horror of the mother, husband and guests, the hypocrisy was revealed: Zoya went crazy under the aisle. Nevertheless, the family took place. Two daughters were born. The quiet homely atmosphere was at times upset by Zoya’s fits of madness, and the young husband spared no expense to heal his wife. Everything was in vain until, finally, good people suggested going to Pochaev, where Father Joseph healed a sick woman who had broken the windows of a hotel on the very first night. Zoya's healing, so obvious and miraculous, led the couple to a feeling of deep repentance and faith.

Returning home, Zoya’s husband wrote a statement to the mine’s party committee with a request to expel him from the ranks of the Communist Party in view of the fact that he had become a believer and Orthodox. The request was granted, they did not remove him from work, and Alexander managed the mine until retirement, after which he accepted the priesthood and even came with Zoya and his daughters to Pochaev, where he served a memorial service at the grave of his dear priest.

In the summer of 1965, everyone who came to Father Joseph could notice a hardworking, helpful girl in his yard. During the water-blessing prayers, Nadezhda, that was her name, diligently tried to help the priest: she brought water, lit candles, and served a censer. Once after a prayer service, she told her life story. Nadezhda came to Ilovitsa from Magadan, where she worked as a midwife. From the age of twenty she began to have bouts of demonic possession. Some young man asked her to marry him, but she refused. And his mother, apparently, bewitched Nadezhda so that she could not marry anyone at all. At work they endured her illness, which recurred periodically. Someone told her brother, a medical school graduate, about Father Joseph and gave him his address. The brother brought her to the elder. "And I saw him himself. He stood on a high porch. I felt so angry that I was ready to tear him into pieces. But he raised his hand for a blessing and an inexplicable inner force bent my head to the ground. I fell and did nothing more." I remember. When I woke up, I felt that I had been healed: I felt light and joyful. My brother left because he had to go to the hospital where he was appointed chief physician, but I stayed and have been living with Father Joseph for two weeks now. I will go soon home".

“It’s hard to endure, but there’s no need to be afraid of demons!” One such patient was brought by his wife. He stripped naked, ran into the house, grabbed a knife from the table and ripped open his stomach, fortunately without touching the peritoneum. He was urgently taken to the hospital. And another such crazy person was brought by his mother. He was huge and apparently physically strong. The patient approached Father Joseph, who was sitting on a bench in the courtyard, and suddenly hit him in the face with his fist with such force that he fell and lay unconscious for two hours.

A certain woman brought her demon-possessed daughter to the elder. During the prayer service, she hit her mother on the head with a bottle and cut her forehead, and she ran away from the yard. The mother, bleeding, cried and wailed, worrying where she would find her daughter now. Father Joseph applied cotton wool to that woman’s forehead, and the wound immediately began to heal. He reassured the woman and assured her that her daughter would return. After some time, a car drove up to the yard, and the runaway girl was sitting in it. The driver met her on the road and guessed where she was running from. He stopped, caught the fugitive, put her in the car and brought her to Father Joseph. It was Bright Week and the father gave the mother and daughter each a piece of paint and ordered the latter to share Christ with her mother. She obeyed. Having said Christ, the girl suddenly became completely calm.

In the fall of 1970, elderly parents arrived and brought their son Fedor. He served in the army and went crazy. When Father Joseph approached him and crossed him, the young man clenched his fists, clenched his teeth and began to stomp around in one place, spin around and growl angrily. “Do you want to be an astronaut?” the elder asked him and told his parents to pray for their son, and he left. Fyodor did not react in any way to his parents’ entreaties, did not want to pray, refused to have dinner, went off somewhere, reproaching them: “Where have you brought me!” The parents cried and prayed, asking the Lord to restore their son’s sanity. Exactly a week later, before lunch, Fyodor approached the refectory and asked the novices for a shoe brush. That day he went to lunch, behaved like a normal person, answered questions willingly and intelligently. The parents were shocked by this change in their son's behavior. They thanked Father Joseph on their knees for healing Fyodor. “Thank God, not me. Your prayers have made me happy,” the elder said to his parents and blessed them to go home in peace. And this happened... He cut off a tangle (clump of hair) from one woman’s head, the end of which she carried on her arm like a child. Father Joseph said that the tangles on the heads are tied by demons - there are whole legions of them, and these tangles cannot be cut off with anything: neither scissors nor a razor; That’s why people suffer for years, unable to free themselves from matted hair as dense as wood.

He was not at all afraid of the atheists. For this they came, dragged me out of my cells, and took me outside Ternopil to a mental hospital. The cell was sealed with sealing wax. After some time, Father Joseph arrived in a jacket, shaven, without a beard, like an old man. He immediately went to the Foot of the Mother of God, to the miraculous icon and to the relics of St. Job. The people, hearing that Father Joseph had returned, ran after him; he was known everywhere and by everyone. The next morning, an early liturgy was served in the Cave Church. People looked at him and cried. The one (Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s daughter) who freed him from the mental hospital was also at the service. Then she took him to Lvov; I wanted to take her to the Caucasus. We spent the night in Lvov, and at night Father Joseph was quietly transferred to another apartment. In the morning Svetlana made some noise (she also spent the night there), but what can you say to anyone: he left, but who knows where. He stayed in Lvov for about two months, until everything calmed down, and then moved to his family in Ilovitsa.

Archimandrite Georgy

When I was called to the police for questioning, I always took Father Joseph’s blessing. He said: “Go and don’t fight anything.” The elder was not afraid of them either, for when the KGB officers and the police walked along the corridors of the Lavra, he chased them away, shouting at them: “Here you go. What do you want here? Monks live here.”

Hierodeacon Agathon

I thank Father Joseph for curing my eczema on my legs, from which I suffered for a long time and suffered a lot. He prepared an ointment, applied it to his leg, and the eczema went away, but the doctors he contacted repeatedly could not cure it (eczema).

Schema-Archimandrite Dimitri

I had a very reverent attitude towards Father Joseph. At one time, KGB officers and police arrived from Lvov and demanded that the Trinity Cathedral of the Lavra be given to the state, to which the governor agreed. I saw everything myself and heard everything. By that hour, Father Amphilochius approached the Trinity Cathedral, and the gathered people approached him for a blessing. They were worried. And with the blessing of the priest they began to drive away those who had arrived. And in the evening of the same day, a terrible thunderstorm struck and the thunder broke all the glass in the governor’s cell and in the wing of the fraternal building where he lived. Water flooded the corridor.

Nature reminded us all of what happened during the day.

Archimandrite Vsevolod

I often had to go to Ilovitsa to visit Father Joseph with the blessing of Governor Augustine. He told me more than once that whoever comes to his grave will help everyone. He truly was a servant of God.

Archimandrite Sylvester

As a gatekeeper, I often saw how KGB officers came to the Lavra, sat on benches in the courtyard, and Father Joseph came out to them, began to denounce them, and drive them out of the courtyard all the way to the bell tower.

Hegumen Valery

Father Joseph cured my sister: one of her legs was shorter than the other. And he also said that she would be a nun. The prophecy came true.

Monk Adrian

This was at the end of November - beginning of December 2002. My aunt from Volyn was diagnosed with a breast tumor. She began to prepare for the operation, but before that she decided to apply sand from the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius to her chest. She herself is a believer; she has been singing in the church choir since childhood; She is now about forty years old. I went for the operation, and when I took the final picture, and - lo and behold! There was no tumor.

Novice Georgy

At the brotherly cemetery near the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius, prayer flowers bloomed. People brought them in summer and winter, watering them with tears of either joy or sadness. The elder gratefully accepted them, in return granting healing to some of the body and to others of the soul.

Servant of God M. lived near the monastic cemetery. Several years ago her liver became painful and swollen. No medications helped. In a dream, she saw a religious procession in the Pochaev Lavra and among the monks of Father Joseph. She came up for the blessing, and the elder reproached her for never coming to his grave. He advised me to fast and pray, then where the disease came from will go there. Believing the dream, M. went to the grave every day, prayed and tearfully asked for help. Two weeks later, when she woke up, she was convinced that the disease “sewed a star and went there.”

Maria Dmitruk had sinusitis and a severe headache. One day she, her mother and sister walked to a neighboring village, five kilometers from Pochaev, and visited Father Joseph’s grave. Taking a handful of earth, she applied it to her forehead. And so she walked halfway, but suddenly she felt that there was no earth in her hand, and her head did not hurt, which she immediately announced to her amazed mother and sister.

M. Yara suffered from severe pain in her arms. She came to the elder’s grave, prayed and, placing her sore hands on the grave, asked for healing. My hands stopped hurting.

Nun M. had a pain in her leg; no medicine helped. With difficulty she reached the monastic cemetery, took some soil from the cross on the grave of Father Joseph, rubbed her leg and went home. It does not hurt anymore.

The servant of God V., who had been suffering from a headache for a long time, also came to the elder’s grave. I venerated his cross with faith in healing, anointed myself with oil from the lamp, and... my head cleared up.

One resident of Pochaev’s legs were swollen to the knees so much that she could no longer walk. The disease was dangerous and could lead to leg amputation. Grieving, with great difficulty, she came to Father Joseph’s grave. Pressing her knees to the cross, she tearfully asked the elder for healing: “You always healed me during my life, heal me now...”. And I immediately felt relief, and soon recovery without any treatment.

Nun M. with incredible effort reached the grave of Father Joseph - her lower back and legs hurt greatly. She stood with both feet on the gravestone, leaning on the fence. She mentally asked the elder to heal her. Suddenly she felt as if a current from the grave passed through her body and dissolved, the pain disappeared, her legs regained their former strength.

And there are so many such seemingly simple cases, but they all speak about the holiness of God’s chosen one.

Father Joseph, whom she had never seen or even heard of, appeared to one woman from Georgia in a dream and advised her to bring her sick granddaughter to his grave. And indeed, the granddaughter was healed. That woman ordered a thanksgiving prayer service at the Lavra, and asked to serve a memorial service at the grave of the healer Joseph, after which she arranged a dinner there for all those present.

Many claim that at the grave of Father Joseph they receive peace of mind and are cured of various ailments. They are also healed from human vices. Judge for yourself. One woman's husband was a hopeless drunkard and, moreover, violent and pugnacious - he was no life at home. That woman came with her daughter to Pochaev, came to the monastic cemetery to Father Joseph to ask for help. By some inner inspiration, she placed a bottle of wine on the elder’s grave and with tears asked for healing for her husband. This wine turned out to be the last straw - he gave up alcohol altogether.

Very often at the grave you can see those possessed by unclean spirits, hear their inhuman cries: “it bakes with fire, beats with a stick, I will come out, I will come out...”. Everything is the same as during life... And just as both pilgrims and local residents come to him when he is alive. Apparently, the people's path to him will never be overgrown, trodden by the suffering in the hope of receiving healing and consolation from God through the prayerful intercession of the ever-memorable Father Joseph, the saint of God. The people confidently believe in his holiness, and the voice of the people is the voice of God. And this is an undeniable truth.

Letters... Letters to the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. A lot of them. And in each there is another page of the feat of Saint Amphilochius, contact with a miracle.

And every letter can give an amazing feeling of closeness to a person's needs. He knew how to kindly, tenderly, and fatherly touch every sick, restless human soul that does not understand itself or others, calm it down, clear the path for spiritual life before it and show it where and how to go. And in each letter one can read between the lines the mystery and incomprehensibility of the saint’s feat, behind the external accessibility and openness of which his enormous spiritual work, firm faith, the state about which the Apostle Paul testified: “Now it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” were hidden. ...

I, Galina Alekseevna, want to report what happened to me. The first time I came to the Pochaev Monastery was in June with my boy Gregory in a very anxious state. We visited the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius. I thank the Lord God for showing me the way to the elder.

I had a tumor under my armpit for many years, and inside this tumor I felt hard, like a small pebble. I applied sand from the saint’s grave to the tumor. From the first day I felt a pulsation, as if something was happening inside me. I rejoiced at this with a calm soul. About two weeks later, after morning prayer, I started massaging my breasts. Gray-green thick pus began to flow from my chest. It came out a little at first, and then in larger quantities. Incredible joy overwhelmed me, because for about ten years I had been tormented by this incomprehensible tumor formation.

I believed that schema-abbot Amphilochius could heal any disease!

Arriving at the Pochaev Lavra, she fell ill with a purulent sore throat. I wanted to go to the doctors, but something drew me to the cemetery to the grave of Father Amphilochius. I arrive, and there is a monk reading an akathist. After the akathist, he anointed my sore throat and I applied sand from the grave. A day later the abscesses all disappeared.

Sinful Ksenia

I, Secretaryuk Galina Khrisanfovna, am from Odessa. I visited the Holy Lavra of Pochaev for the first time in 1958 and saw miraculous healings that were performed through the prayers of Father Joseph. I consider it my duty not to remain silent about such miracles. During the service, demons left an elderly man with me. And one woman of about fifty, possessed by an evil spirit, rolled towards the exit of the temple, curled into a ball. Through the prayers of the Reverend, she was healed. After the expulsion of demons, both former possessed people stood calmly at the service and received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

How many times have I seen many unusual things at Father Joseph’s place in the village of Malaya Ilovitsa! I saw the struggle of an ascetic preacher with Satan. Here is a case: A reverend approaches a screaming woman, puts his hand on her, and she shouts:

Joseph, Joseph, there are many of us, if you don’t take us, we won’t leave, there are six of us.

And the elder answers:

Viydesh! The demon shouts:

We won’t go out, she’s been ours since she was nine years old. Father Joseph, looking to heaven, prays with some kind of tenderness, and the woman shouts:

Joseph, Joseph, don't pray! And...heals. ...Isn't this a miracle?

Kremenets, Alexandrov O. A.

As a four-year-old girl, I fell ill: my whole body was covered with purulent scabs. Mom contacted doctors, but to no avail. There was relief only when ointments were used twice a day. But the disease returned. Mom was advised to contact Father Joseph. The elder examined me and said that this was the first time he had encountered such a disease. He ordered me to come in two days for the medicine. With his blessing, we used his ointment for three days and the body was completely cleansed. The disease never returned.

Pochaev, Belinskaya L.A.

We ask you to witness the miracle of the spontaneous combustion of the lamp at the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius after performing the lithium and reading the prayer on December 2, 2000 at 15.30. While reading the prayer, I, Archpriest Sergius, felt warmth in the back of my head. During the anointing, the lamp went out, and after ten seconds it lit up again and did not go out until the end of the anointing, which we witnessed, although the weather was windy.

Witnesses-pilgrims from the city of Khmelnytsky:

Prot. Sergey (Bondarenko), Bondarenko L.P.,

Gotskalyuk K. O., Bondarenko V. S., Tkachuk N. F.,

Pozdnokova A.V., (and about 30 other people).

While repairing the roof of the house, I stepped on a rusty nail and punctured my foot. After some time, my legs became very swollen and turned blue. I couldn't walk. All this time I prayed to God. And one night, schema-abbot Amphilochius appeared to me in a dream. He entered the house, stood near the icons and prayed for a long time. I wake up in the morning and no longer feel pain in my leg. I examined her: the swelling had subsided. A lot of dark liquid leaked out. I stood on my bad leg and...went. A miracle happened! God granted healing through the prayers of schema-abbot Amphilochius.

Minsk, Nikulin L.

She was very sick with her heart, she could barely walk in the world, she was shaking all over. When I was going to the Lavra, my relatives didn’t let me in, they were afraid that I wouldn’t make it and would die on the road. We arrived in Pochaev, and there they advised us to go to Ilovitsa to see Father Joseph. The second half of the journey was done on foot due to quarantine due to the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic. Already upon entering the old man’s native village, I felt so much better that I even helped carry the bags of my companions. Father met us in the yard. We were fed and sent to rest. In the morning they began to pray. After the service, Father Joseph came up to me and told me not to worry, everything would be fine.

Everything was as he said.

Volyn region,

Art. Manevichi,

Shulyak E. S.

I am a pilgrim from Voronezh. At the grave of the schema-abbot, Amphilochia began to read a prayer to him. Suddenly, singing was heard from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also thought that it was pilgrims with a priest singing near the church, but there was no one, and the service continued. I heard the voices of the singers and the priest.

The weather was calm. When I approached the door, I saw a lock on it. Having crossed himself, he put his ear to the door: he clearly heard the priest’s voice inside, which soon began to somehow move away and gradually faded away. This miracle happened on November 3, 2000, at about ten or eleven o'clock.

Voronezh region,

Novo-Usmansky district,

village Otradny,

Tsymbal V. I.

In 1985, while working as a gas cutter, I was injured. The cut rail fell from a height of one and a half meters and hit me on the chin, then on the forehead, resulting in a broken jaw: two teeth were knocked out and my lower lip was torn. They brought me to the hospital unconscious to sew up my chin. Due to a traumatic brain injury, I almost lost my vision. Having attended a prayer in the Pochaev Lavra, I heard that in the brotherly cemetery there is the grave of Father Amphilochius, through whose prayers people are healed. I turned tearfully to the Reverend several times. And, lo and behold! The Lord restored my sight. Now I write and read without glasses.

Donetsk region, Enakievo-14, Kalinina R.P.

For the past three years, I have suffered from acute back pain that never ceases day or night, the consequences of hard work and long periods of exercise. Official diagnosis: osteochondrosis. Sessions of manual therapy, massage and other medical procedures brought barely noticeable relief for only one or two days.

On Christmas Day 2000, I was in the Pochaev Lavra. I learned from one of the Moscow pilgrims that after visiting the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius, he received complete healing from back pain. During the long holiday service, my back began to hurt badly and every step was difficult.

Having received a blessing from my confessor, I went to the brotherly cemetery with my friend Vladimir. At the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochia, having prayed tearfully, asked the priest to heal me so that I could stand at the service and the pain would go away.

The next day my friend and I came again. The result was surprising. My back didn't hurt at all. This is a real miracle! After so many years of illness! At the first opportunity, I will come again with reverence to the Pochaev Shrines.

Moscow, Vinokurov N.I.

My wife broke her arm at the elbow in 1967. They put a plaster cast on. And when they removed it, the arm did not bend - ankylosis of the joint. She went for a long time for different procedures, but the result was the same - her arm did not bend. They advised me to go to Father Joseph and gave me the address. I immediately went to Ilovitsa. When I came to the elder, I asked if he was treating such a disease.

I told in detail about my wife, how she broke her arm, how long she was in a cast, where the fracture was and what the consequences were. The elder listened to me carefully and told me to go home, saying that my hand would be healthy. And so it happened...

And further. Father Joseph blessed me with icons of the Pechersk Mother of God and Seraphim of Sarov, asking me to enlarge them. I accepted the blessing, took the icons and fulfilled the elder’s request. When I returned with the icons, it was cold and the autumn rain was pouring. There were no buses in Ilovice that day. I urgently needed to return home after handing over the icons. I hired a taxi. We drove while the road was stone. And then with one fellow traveler we walked. It was already night. When we came out of the forest into the field, we saw a light moving towards us. As they approached, they saw Father Joseph:

“And I’m catching up with you,” he said joyfully. The elder was perspicacious and knew in spirit that they were coming to him in such bad weather and came out to meet us so that we would not go astray.

Kirovograd, Gerasimyuk P. D.

In May 2000, I and my two granddaughters Anya and Tanya were in the Pochaev Lavra, where we venerated the Shrines and visited the grave of Schema-Hegumen Amphilochius.

After this trip, our whole family experienced miracles of healing through the prayers of God's saint.

Granddaughter Anya had a disease - an ingrown toenail. She has already been operated on twice. The operations were painful and took place under general anesthesia. When we arrived from Pochaev, my finger began to break out again. The doctor insisted on a third operation. Then Anya herself offered to add sand from the grave of the Reverend, which we took with us in a small bag. They smeared the finger with holy oil overnight and tied a bag to it. After two nights, the nail was completely healed.

We did the same thing with my eighty-six-year-old mother. She had wounds on her elbows, whole growths. We lubricated them with different creams all the time, which didn’t help much. With prayer to the Monk Amphilochius, miraculous sand was applied to the wounds and the healing was repeated - the elbows completely healed and the scabs fell off.

Grandson Yaroslav had microbial eczema on his hand. According to doctors' prescriptions, they lubricated the hand with various ointments, but the eczema continued to spread. In the same way, they first anointed him with holy oil and tied a bag of sand to the child for three nights. There was no trace of eczema left on my hand.

My son, a doctor himself, saw all this and can confirm it.

These are the healings that took place in our family by the grace of our Lord and through the prayers of the Holy Schema-Abbot Amphilochius to him.

Vinnitsa, Ryabokon G. F.

I knew Father Amphilochius and saw how people were healed through his prayers. In 2000, in September, I came to Pochaev to celebrate the day of memory of St. Job and, as usual, visited the grave of Father Amphilochius. I went to the monastic cemetery early to bow to everyone lying there and light a candle on the priest’s grave. And... a miracle! I heard amazingly beautiful singing coming from the church to the cemetery. It seemed that a service was going on and I stood in bewilderment in front of the church doors and listened to this beautiful singing. The church was closed. Angelic voices were heard either over the grave of Father Joseph, or over the dome of the church. Having bowed, I went to the Lavra, but I cannot forget this large choir...

Wonderful are Your works, O God! And you, a sinner, have made me worthy to hear the invisible. Thank You for everything.

Rivne, Vailunova T.

On the day of remembrance of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, in 2000, I was honored to visit the Lavra. After the Divine Liturgy, all pilgrims visited the Lavra Skete and the monastery cemetery, where they celebrated a requiem service at the grave of Schema-Hegumen Amphilochius.

When I looked at the photograph of Father Amfilokhiy on the tombstone, I immediately remembered September 1967 and I felt a pang of conscience. After all, I still haven’t informed the governor of the Lavra or the diocesan bishop that through the prayers of schema-abbot Amphilochius, the Lord has already extended my life for more than thirty years.

It all started on December 6, 1965. I was the rector of the St. Cosmo-Damian Church on the outskirts of the city of Korts, Rivne region. After the closure of St. Nicholas Church in the city, its parishioners asked to serve a service on the day of memory of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. At the end of the Divine Liturgy and procession, under the impression of someone else’s grief - the loss of the holy temple, I sang so emotionally for many years that I tore my vocal cords.

The next morning I could barely speak. Treatment began: inhalations, injections, tablets. But there was no improvement, although he was treated in both Kyiv and Moscow. Against the background of laryngitis and tonsillitis, growths began to form on the vocal cords. Despite treatment, I completely lost my voice. A year later I couldn’t even speak in a whisper. The deacon and priests helped me in the Divine service.

In the central clinic of Moscow, where I ended up thanks to my classmates at the academy, they made a final diagnosis: stage three throat cancer, which cannot be operated on. To verify the diagnosis, a teacher at the Moscow Theological Academy, Hegumen Sophrony (Dmitruk, now Bishop of Cherkassy and Kanevsky) took me to the professor who treated the inhabitants of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. After the examination, the professor said:

You are a priest, preparing people for eternal life. Now you yourself need to prepare for it, because treatment will no longer help, the process is irreversible.

I accepted it and returned home. I did not conduct divine services, but I was constantly in my church and in the Koretsky monastery. On the Nativity of the Mother of God after the All-Night Vigil, I left the monastery. Kremenets nuns approached me, who lived in Korts after the closure of their monastery. They recommended that I contact Father Joseph, a Pochaev monk who lives in the village of Ilovitsa, not far from Kremenets.

On their recommendation, I went to the elder. From Kremenets the bus was crowded with people. Halfway to Ilovica, some passengers began to have fits of rage. Arriving in the village, he went with the people. At this time I did not wear a beard and was dressed in secular clothes. Seeing me, the priest invited me to dinner and said that in every hut in the village they would be welcome to spend the night, and the next morning he invited me to serve a small blessing of water with an akathist to the Dormition of the Mother of God.

I showed with gestures that I could not speak, but he reproached me that if I had come to be healed, I should not doubt it and ordered me to also read an akathist to the Sweetest Jesus.

I went to dinner, spent the night, and in the morning at half past five I came to the same yard.

There were already about fifty people there. Everything was prepared for the blessing of water. Yesterday I noticed a dovecote in the middle of the yard. Today the lower part of the dovecote was open and a chapel furnished with icons was visible. There lay the Shroud of the Mother of God, a censer, books, and vestments. I put on a cassock, a cross, an epitrachelion, armbands and a phelonion. But how can I serve if I can’t even whisper?!

At this time, Father Joseph walked around the garden, examined the trees and prayed. Starting the blessing of water, I tried to at least whisper “Blessed is our God...”. But... instead of a whisper, a voice rang. I didn't know what happened to me! He served the blessing of water, read the akathists, performed the dismissal and was going to sprinkle the people. At this time, the elder approached and said that he did not sprinkle people, but watered them from a mug, which he did.

Then he invited me to breakfast in his cell. I undressed and changed into worldly clothes. I wanted to thank the priest for the healing, but again there was no voice. He cleared his throat and tried again - in vain, there was no voice.

We sat down to have breakfast in a cell in which there was a wooden table, a bench and a trestle bed, covered with homemade paths. They gave us fried chicken, a piece of fish, two glasses and a half-liter bottle of store-bought vodka. While Father Joseph opened the vodka and poured it, I thought: “That’s how a monk is! Drinking vodka and eating chicken - you can fight with the sick!” Father poured me almost a full glass, and less than half for himself. I showed with gestures that I don’t drink vodka - I have a sore throat. But he ordered to drink, anyway, they say, to die.

I drank. Father didn’t drink vodka. He cut off a piece of chicken for me, and he began to eat fish.

I drank it and thought with bitterness that I myself drank almost all the vodka, ate all the chicken, and condemned the old man. Then I only realized that priest’s wine or vodka was also blessed and healing. Thanking God, Father Joseph ordered to stay, promising to continue the herbal treatment.

The next day was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and I went home.

Being spiritually immature, I did not fully understand why I came, I did not ask for anything and left with nothing, although I experienced the miracle of healing at the blessing of water and there was no intoxication at all from drinking vodka. But at that moment I was not fully aware of all this.

Returning home after the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord to no avail, he began treatment in Kyiv with homeopath Popov. The disease progressed. Severe pain appeared. More than six months passed like this. Lent 1968 began. On Saturday I was at the Koretsky Monastery for the Akathist of Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos, and in the morning I served at the parish. There, an unprecedented thing happened to me: I did not hear the bell and only the church bell woke me up. During Matins, a picture of a dream stood before my eyes. In the dream, I suddenly found myself in the courtyard of Father Joseph. It was morning, the distant forest and fields were covered with fog. There were about forty of us in the yard. An old man was digging up trees in the garden. After a while, he left the shovel and beckoned me towards him with his finger. When I approached, he ordered me to open my mouth and stuck his index and middle fingers down my throat. They turned out to be so long that they reached the sore spot. Father Amphilochius felt the tumor on the left side with his fingers and, holding it tightly, pulled it out and threw it to the ground. Then he did the same with the tumor on the right side of the throat. Waving his hand in farewell, Father Amphilochius let me go.

At that moment, the bell in the temple rang and I woke up. The Akathist of Praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary began. I went into the sacristy and tried my voice. And it sounded! I thanked God, His Most Pure Mother and Elder Joseph, but I was very afraid to utter a word, lest what happened after the blessing of water would happen again. At the end of the liturgy, I tried my voice again in the sacristy. He was! The pain in my throat subsided, there was no end to the joy! On Sunday I took communion.

Still not believing in my recovery, on Tuesday I went to the clinic to see the doctor, who had been monitoring the development of the disease from the very beginning. After saying hello, I asked to look at my throat:

You see, Yaroslav Vasilyevich, I told you from the very beginning that you need to have an operation and everything would be fine. “And now they’ve done it - and everything is fine,” the doctor said after the examination. I objected:

I didn't have the operation.

She smeared some ointment on my throat:

How did you not do it? After the operation, the wounds have not yet healed.

I began to convince her that it was not the operation, but the herbs that helped me. And only after a long time did I tell her the truth.

After this miracle, the doctor became a Christian and began going to church.

Thirty-two years have passed. During this time, my throat did not hurt, my voice stabilized. When I visit the Lavra, I always visit the grave of schema-abbot Amphilochius. Through his prayers, the Lord healed me from a serious illness and extended my life. I am very grateful to the Reverend. This miracle, revealed in a dream, testifies to the height of the spiritual life of the Reverend, whose prayers always reached God. And now hundreds of people are being healed at his grave.

I, a priest who received healing, testify to the strength of the spirit of the Venerable Father Amphilochius, who conquers illnesses with his prayer.

Vladimir-Volynsky, mitrof. prot. Yaroslav Antonyuk

In 1946, I turned to Father Joseph for help: at the mill where I worked, I crushed my right hand. Father folded it, soon the hand healed and I can handle it as if it were healthy.

With. Old Tarazh, Kravchuk I. T.

I want to tell you how Father Amphilochius cured my son.

The child was six months old when small wounds appeared on the head. I went to doctors, but there was no improvement. Then she turned to Father Joseph (he was then being pursued and he could only look from afar). I held the child in my arms when the priest came from mass. I took my son’s cap off, the elder took a look and advised me to brew tea from currant shoots, give it to the child and bathe him in this decoction.

Arriving home, I did everything as my father ordered. In the morning my child got up with a clean head.

Trofimlyuk L.A.

When my son was three years old, his kidneys became very sick. Wherever I went, whatever I did, nothing helped. And through the prayers of Father Amphilochius, the child was healed.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And I was healed through the prayers of the priest.

My mother had a heart defect. Who didn't she turn to? Nobody could help. And Father Amphilochius cured him.

She had a rash in her mouth: she could neither eat nor drink. I went to the elder’s grave, prayed, anointed it with oil from the lamp - and everything was gone.

Pochaev, Lozovich V. A.

In November 2000, together with a group of believers from the city of Belaya Tserkov, I visited the Pochaev Lavra; after worshiping the Holy Relics, we stopped at the monastic cemetery. There I took home sand from the grave of Father Amphilochius.

Arriving home, I succumbed to temptation and doubted: there was cemetery land in the apartment too. He took a bag of sand, took it to an old bush and put it there. After that, I couldn’t sleep for three days, although I worked all day, I was tired, and I read prayers in the evening and in the morning. On the third night, closing my eyes, I clearly saw the grave and the portrait of Father Amphilochius on it. Around midnight, getting out of bed, I went to where I left the sand, although it was three kilometers from my house. The night was windy and cloudy, but when I approached the bush, the moon came out. I found a bag of sand right away.

Returning home, I poured the sand into a vase and placed it next to the images. After that, I lay down and immediately fell asleep - the insomnia was gone. So I was ashamed of my lack of faith.

Kyiv region, Rozumenko A.V.

When I was ten years old, I suffered from rheumatism. Father Joseph cured me. And to this day I don’t feel any pain.

When I was eighteen, I fell off my bike and seriously hurt my back. For a whole year, doctors could not make the correct diagnosis. And when I turned to the elder, he complained that he had not come earlier, now he would have to lie down.

I told him that I had been to the doctors, but they didn’t help me at all. At that time, Father was forbidden to treat people, but he still tried in every possible way to help them. On the advice of the elder, they put a plaster corsage on me and I lay in it for three years. All this time I was under his supervision. He came to me, examined me, consoled me and said that I would definitely be healthy; prayed for me. It wasn't so hard for me to lie down.

I am very grateful to the Reverend for the healing. Now I am healthy, I have a family and I feel good.

Pochaev, Lesyk A.P.

In 1955, I turned to Father Joseph with a broken arm. Father folded his hand, blessed and told him to come to him in two weeks. When I came to the elder on the indicated day, my hand was almost healthy. I thank God and Father Joseph, through whose prayers the hand grew together correctly.

In 1957, I turned to Father Joseph for the second time with my little child. The girl had a red eye. The father blessed the child and recommended applying a compress of sour milk. With the blessing of Father Joseph and the grace of God, the redness disappeared.

With. Art. Pochaev, Maria

When my daughter was five years old, she got shingles. There were wounds all over the head, and suppuration began. The hospital couldn't help. No matter what they did, no matter what ointments they used, nothing helped! One old monk advised me to contact Father Amphilochius. Father lived in the village then. When I brought my daughter, the elder examined the wounds that were already near the eyes. Kneeling down, he began to pray. Then he anointed her head with holy oil. On the second day, the wounds began to heal. Soon the hair grew too.

I also want to tell you about my sister. One day she fell from a stack and pierced her hand with a pitchfork. Gangrene began. The hospital decided to amputate the arm. Then they turned to Father Amphilochius. He examined the hand, prayed and advised how to treat the hand. My sister is now seventy-nine years old. And the hand is healthy.

With. Old Pochaev, Tivonyuk M. I.

This was in 1966. My mother-in-law had a daughter who suffered from epilepsy. Her mother-in-law went with her to Father Amfilochius in Ilovitsa. The priest met them, listened, prayed and told the mother to fast for her daughter on Wednesday and Friday. The mother fulfilled the blessing and the disease subsided.

Volyn region

Sometime in the sixties, my father, now deceased, fell ill. He worked on the railway and was examined at the hospital at the Sarny junction station. The medical commission diagnosed stomach cancer.

I heard a lot about the gift of healing people through the prayers of Father Joseph. This was our last hope. And off we went. Father lived in a small house. There was a chapel nearby. There were a lot of people in the yard near the house. Everyone knew him. Some said they had been waiting for a long time.

Soon the elder came out and pointed straight at me. He began to ask his father about the illness, but he began to hiccup and I answered further. She said that her father was discharged from the hospital because they could not cure him. Father Joseph gave herbs and said that he would recover. The father lived after that for another sixteen years.

From Ilovitsa we went to the Pochaev Lavra, confessed and received communion.

Rivne region,

Agafia Lyashchuk

In 1967, at the age of eight months, my daughter fell ill: she was very afraid and was foaming at the mouth. The husband immediately called the doctors. We were taken to the hospital. There were children with the same disease lying there, they were given some kind of injections. Many died. And I decided to take my girl home. My eldest daughter (she was eleven years old at the time) also began to feel afraid, foam began to come out of her mouth, and her head hurt badly. Kind people suggested turning to Father Joseph, which I did. When we arrived at the priest’s, he himself came out to meet us at the gate. I began to explain the reason for coming, he advised me to go to prayer with the children. There were a lot of people near the chapel. They were just carrying water from the well to the chapel, preparing for the blessing of water. When the priest served the prayer service, he immediately called me. He asked to unwrap the youngest of the diapers, filled a liter mug of cold water and poured it on the child. Then another one. After that, he poured two mugs of holy water on the eldest. This all happened before the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord - it was cool. The thought flashed through my mind that the children might catch a cold, but since the Lord sent me here, it means this is God’s will.

The disease never recurred.

Kremenets, Andrusik V.

I testify that during my stay at the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra, Father Joseph healed my son twice.

The first time this happened was when my son, at the age of two months, fell ill with an upset stomach. Almost a year of treatment under the supervision of doctors did not bring any results. The child “melted” before our eyes. When we turned to Father Joseph and told about our misfortune, he, having prayed, gave a bunch of dry grass and ordered the child to drink a decoction. That's what we did. The result cannot be called anything other than a miracle: two days later the son completely recovered and the disease, thank God, did not recur.

The next time, in the summer of 1961, for unknown reasons, my son’s hand became swollen. It almost doubled in size and was very painful. We took the child to different doctors, but they could not help: they did not understand why this happened and, therefore, did not know how to treat. Then we turned to Father Joseph again. They showed him the child and asked for help. He prayed, took his son’s hand in his, lightly patted it and said that everything would pass.

With this we left in a sad mood, because the priest did not give any medicine. But the next morning we couldn’t believe our eyes! A miracle happened! The hand was the same as before the illness. Not even a hint that there was a tumor!

It must be said that Father Joseph did all his good deeds without demanding any payment other than gratitude to the Creator for His boundless love for mankind and intercession.

We are grateful to the Lord God for giving us the honor of meeting such a person in our lives. The bright memory of Father Joseph will live with us as long as our family lives.

Pochaev, Shukalovich K.

My child is sick. Doctors did not make a diagnosis. The child could barely breathe, was very swollen, there were blue spots all over his body, almost black... When I asked why they weren’t treating me, they answered that the child was doomed.

My husband and I decided to turn to Father Joseph. When we arrived in Ilovitsa, we thought that we would not get to the elder - there were a lot of people. But as soon as we approached the house, a woman opened the door for us, took the child by the hand and led her along. We barely squeezed through the crowd. We went into the room, and Father Joseph was already waiting for us there. He examined the child and said that he had blood poisoning, but the child would live. He prescribed injections and compresses and applied some ointment. Three days later, our child recovered, the swelling subsided, and his body turned white.

This is how the Reverend saved the life of our son, whom official medicine declared hopeless.

Resident of Pochaev

On the twenty-seventh of June 2001, the abbess and I and the sisters of the Holy Vvedensky Convent in Chernivtsi visited the grave of Schema-abbot Amphilochius. It was my first time there. The watchman Michael, who takes care of the graves in the cemetery, knew the priest during his lifetime and told us about numerous cases of healing of the sick and demon-possessed, which took place through the prayers of the Reverend even after his death.

I was amazed by what I heard to the point of tears and thought that maybe the priest’s prayers would help me too. While doing obedience in the kitchen, I spilled boiling oil on my hand. There was a severe burn, the hand was swollen and very painful. A dark brown spot formed at the burn site. During the story about Father Amphilochie, I stood with my hand bandaged and suffered greatly from pain. An unquenchable lamp burned on the saint’s grave. When I lubricated the edges of the wound under the bandage with oil from it, I immediately felt a very soft and gentle warmth. It's impossible to put into words! After a while the pain went away, the swelling subsided and I believed that my hand would be healthy!

I thank the Lord God and His saint, schema-abbot Amphilochius, for their great mercy towards me, the unworthy nun Mary.

From my mother’s words, I remember one instance of Father Joseph’s insight. A young family turned to him for help: to restore sight to their second son, who was blind from birth. Father Joseph responded to his mother’s request that it was her sin. She began to justify herself that she did not notice any great sins. But the priest himself reminded her that as a child she climbed trees on which there were bird nests, took chicks and gouged out their eyes with a needle. “And the stinkers were crying...”

At the end of the war, Father Joseph’s wives asked whether their husbands and sons would return from the war alive. He blessed them with the words: “yours will return, and yours will return, and you will not cry, do not cry...”. The predictions came true.

Nadezhda Simora

This is how we are used to: as soon as something hurts, we go straight to medicine, forgetting about sacred things. Doctors sometimes treat and treat, but the outcome is disastrous. And I went to doctors with my trouble from spring to autumn, but my sore fingers did not heal. Chance led to the cave to the Reverends. She asked one monk to anoint him with oil from the lamp at the shrine of St. Amphilochius, and inspiration prompted him to put his fingers on the relics...

I somehow forgot about my illness, calmed down, and only two months later I remembered and paid attention to my fingers. There is no trace of illness: the Reverend’s wonderful admonition to the self-confident.

Pochaev Lesyk A.

Years will pass, and then centuries. History will write into the book new miracles of healing through the prayers of the ever-memorable Venerable Amphilochius, miracle healer of the Holy Mountain of Pochaev. And just as now, the suffering, the weak and the unfortunate will come to him in the hope of healing. And... they will receive what they ask for.