Стяжавшая любовь. Том III

It is known that several times, Agafiya would go wandering off after saying goodbye to her relatives in the village of Vyshelei. To this day, descendants of the Avdeyev family recall how Matushka would come talk with her relatives. They knew that their relative was especially devout, that she prayed a great deal, and that she was of a monastic cast of mind. Several times, she would say that she was going to visit holy places. The Eldress wandered from monastery to monastery, going to all of the holy places that had escaped utter destruction. She also lived in Penza, and would visit the Church of the Holy Myrrh-bearers. In Penza, a certain pious family would take her in. Matushka was no stranger to hard labor: she worked as a day laborer, helped build and whitewash houses, and did everything without complaint and with thanks to God. In those difficult years, the Lord protected her and spiritually strengthened her to undertake new and remarkable ascetic labors. It was in such difficult trials that Matushka spent her youth. However, those trials did not break her or embitter her; on the contrary, they made her even more sensitive and sympathetic. She was ready to share and talk with anyone, she knew the meaning of labor, she understood the power of prayer, the value of a kind word, a good deed, and even of a little bit of charity. She set forth on the path of spiritual action, where one had to defeat not a visible, but the invisible foe, where the battle was with one's own passions, where victory brought not earthly freedom, but freedom from sin. As a result, Matushka Alipiya was in the process of acquiring enormous grace from the Holy Spirit.

Outwardly Matushka was no different from other people in Russia. Like everyone else, she struggled to endure years of revolution and civil war, years in which the Church was under attack, years in which people battled with themselves and with their fellow citizens. Yet, unnoticed by those around her, Matushka was engaging in spiritual struggles. God alone knows the secrets of her heart, her prayers and tears, here pleas and cares. She revealed them to no one. However, what was observable could not remain hidden from others' eyes.

Seeing suffering, destruction, and human tragedy everywhere, Matushka Alypiya first and foremost strove to show great love towards others. That gift is a great one, a gift the Lord imparted to her along with other spiritual gifts. It was a gift that caused her to make sacrifices of herself for the sake of her neighbors' salvation.

The civil war years ended, and after a short and shaky peace, a spiritual war, an attack against the Church and against God, began. It was a war waged by «militant atheism.» Waves of persecution aimed at clergy and the faithful laity coursed throughout the land. Until her very death, Matushka Alipiya stood among the ranks of Christ's, warriors for the Faith in Christ. Where she was incarcerated is unknown. In those days, justice was swift; just being called a Christian meant that the sentence had already been decided: it was death. Of the trials — including ridicule and interrogations – attendant to incarceration, anticipation of death was the most difficult.

In prison, Agafiya struggled along with everyone else. It is known that Matushka Alipiya issued letter appeals from prison: she called for people to stand firm in the Orthodox Faith, and to love God. We do not know how long she was in prison. There are eyewitness accounts by people who visited her in prison. Even then, at such a young age, Matushka Alipiya already possessed the gift of clairvoyance and effectual prayer of the heart. However, she asked nothing for herself.

Matushka found herself in a holding cell from which every night people would be taken out to be shot. As she later related, with her in that cell was a priest and his son; the priest served a Panikhida [requiem] for the prisoners, but foretold that she would be released.

Thanks to the divine assistance of the Holy Apostle St. Peter, Matushka Alipya was unexpectedly released. She found herself on a craggy shore, and had to spend the next 12 days crossing the hills in search of some kind of settlement. On her body, she bore a multitude of scars as a permanent reminder of that ordeal.

The life of a fugitive was not easy. She had no papers, no means of support, and no place to live; receiving a housing permit was out of the question. However, the Lord arranged her life so that she would not be noticed by the persecutors. She was released in about 1939.