Стяжавшая любовь. Том III

The food Matushka prepared had another quality: it would miraculously multiply in quantity: eyewitnesses attest to the fact that she put more foodstuffs into a single pot than it should have been able to contain, and that a far greater number of visitors were fed from that single pot than its volume should have permitted. There was enough food for everyone, and while Matushka herself did not eat much food, she would bless everyone to eat enormous bowls of borscht and kasha, and would also give each person an enormous piece of bread. This was of profound significance, but its meaning was known only to God and Matushka; after eating her food, people suffering from incurable illnesses would find themselves healed. Quite often, the healing was immediate, happening right there in her cell. On returning home, her visitors would forget about their illnesses, as if they had never been. Matushka did everything quietly and imperceptibly. She did not like to play the role of some exalted eldress who would openly «pontificate,» dispensing teachings and instructions, and openly performing healings. The healings would happen in inconspicuous, ordinary ways, through food, and through ointment that Matushka prepared from ordinary plants without any inherent healing properties, and that she would give to the sick. Matushka used the idea of «ointment» because people found greater assurance in using familiar, ordinary, materials. With the help of such ointment, she intentionally defined her activity as healing treatment; she hid her gift of miracle-working, and shunned the very title «miracle-worker.» By her blessing, simple tar, or water, or ordinary plants were endowed with grace, and imparted enlightenment and healing.

On every Wednesday and Friday throughout the year, matushka Alipiya would neither eat, nor drink water. Only once did the Eldress admit to her cell-attendant, «How I am burning up inside! How it burns! I want a drink of water so much!» When offered a drink of water, Matushka immediately refused. During the first week of Great Lent, and during Passion Week, she likewise did not eat or drink.

Sometimes, Matushka would maintain a strict fast during times of drought. During several episodes of severe drought, she would not eat or drink for two weeks at a time, and when the Lord answered her prayers and sent the rains, she would display for Him her childlike joy by playing in the rain.

Likewise, when there was a thunderstorm looming, she would delay it until her the spiritual children and visitors in her yard had eaten. «Well, let the people eat! We are praying and eating quickly; I am not pleading for a long [delay].» After the people had thanked God following their meal, the rain would pour down.

On Pascha, a certain visitor did not heed the Eldress, and at the meal in the Eldress' cell, gave out cognac to everyone. On account of that sin, Matushka Alipiya continued to fast for an entire year, finally breaking her fast on the next Pascha,

It was always quiet and prayerful in the Eldress' cell. She did not permit idle talk, empty rhetoric, or gossip. As soon as anyone started to engage in such idle conversation, she would cut it short in her typical way, saying «All right, no twisting verbiage!» Often, Matushka would spend several hours alone in prayer in the solitude of the forest or in a ravine. By day, she would also be in church. Once, nuns entering the church to pray saw that there were many lighted candles in the candlestands. At first surprised, they soon understood the reason for such festivity. Before the ambo, Matushka Alipiya was kneeling in fervent prayer. On another occasion, while one of Matushka's spiritual children was in mortal danger, the Eldress knelt for several hours with her arms upraised in prayer, and by her payers, the woman was spared from death. There were times when people would come to Matushka in sorrow, and she would immediately go with them or by herself to church for a Panikhida, so that these people's deceased relatives might pray for them, and so that the Lord might grant them consolation and mercy. In this way, Matushka Alipiya also set an example of fervent prayer for the reposed, something that was also a distinguishing feature of her piety. Throughout her life, the Eldress fervently prayed for her relatives, for her parents Tikhon and Vassa, for her grandparents Sergei, Domna, Pavel and Evfimia. In church, she always offered full Panikhidas for the repose of their souls, and asked all of her acquaintances and all those who held her in spiritual esteem to pray for them.

Matushka always knew who was coming to see her, and would call into her cell those who were still on their way to see her. For example, Raissa was coming to see her, and was bringing her a fish. In her cell, Matushka called out, «Raya, bring the fish.» Raissa came in, with the fish. Or she would call out, «Come over; I am waiting for you,» and soon, the person she was calling would arrive.