Стяжавшая любовь. Том III

By this time, the Eldress was known throughout Kiev and beyond. It was God's will that, from this point, Matushka Alipiya should serve Him through another great ascetic labor, that of eldership, one manifested in serving one's neighbor through advice, prayer, and care for his salvation and edification.

The Eldress continued to perform this difficult service to the end of her days, receiving visitors at her cell on Goloseyeva Street, and later at No. 7 Zatevakhin Street. This was one half of a house near the ruins of Goloseyev Hermitage, a men's monastery established in the 17th Century. At the time the Eldress settled down at this holy site, the monastery was in ruins. However, people would gather at the grave of Goloseyev Elder Alexey (Shepelyov) in the cemetery behind the demolished church of the «Life-giving Spring» Icon of the Mother of God. From that time on, matushka Alipiya became the extension of the prayerful ascetic struggle of the Goloseyev Elders, lighting there the spiritual candle of faith and piety.

Gradually, the houses in the area of the Goloseyev Hermitage were demolished. The residents moved away, and Matushka Alipiya remained alone in the house, which miraculously escaped demolition. The portion of the structure abutting the Eldress' little cottage was soon torn down, and later the Eldress' spiritual children installed brick facing on her dwelling. One side of the house faced a deep ravine in which the Eldress loved to pray. Below, beyond the cemetery, there were several lakes amid little wooded hills. It was as if nature, with its unearthly beauty and calm, filled in the gaps left by the inhuman evil that had come crashing down upon the holy place. More and more, Matushka Alipiya's solitude and prayer were accompanied by visits from people seeking spiritual support. And the Eldress would open her doors to everyone with love and unusual care and concern. She would await them as cherished guests, having already prepared a repast for them, one that was simple but very tasty, as it was imbued with her ceaseless prayer and blessing. She would always give people simple, modest gifts, such as bread; in saying goodbye to her visitors, she would sign them with the sign of the Cross, and would fervently pray. How many tortured souls would calm down in her cell! People would come to her from all over the former Soviet Union. They included highly placed public officials, military officers, and ordinary people, young and old, monastics and lay people. Who could recount all of the examples of clairvoyance and healing demonstrated by Matushka! Every day, from morning to night, her cell doors remained open. The Eldress had to exert so much effort to warm, to feed, to pray for all of her visitors, to so turn her heart and soul that she might console one who was suffering, might turn away from him all of the evil of the enemy of mankind, might heal him of his ills. It was here that, with labor upon labor, she pursued her ascetic tasks.

For one with compassion, the pain he feels at a neighbor's suffering is even greater than it is for the one who is suffering. For the Eldress, to whom the Lord had revealed thoughts and actions, the past and the future, it was painful to see God's creation perishing, and to know what machination of the enemy lay in wait for everyone. She was sick at heart for everyone. What God ordered her to reveal, she would reveal, at the same time, being careful to show concern for her hearers' salvation.

The Eldress strove to hide in every way possible the spiritual gifts which the Lord had so richly endowed the blessed one; sometimes she even resorted to apparent madness, speaking allegorically. To bring a person to repentance, she would attribute to herself sins which had been committed by those with whom she was speaking. In speaking Matushka would always replace words of the feminine gender with the masculine forms. She said a lot in the Mordovian language so that the people with whom she was speaking would not understand what she was saying in prayer.