 |
| Yelets Monastery in Chernigov |
...continued from part fifteen.
14 . Mysterious Phenomena in Chernigov in the 1840's*
The following took place in 1843 or 44 (I don’t remember exactly), in Chernigov, in the house of my uncle (on my aunt’s side), the priest Father John Gerasimovich Menailov.
Father John was known and revered in Chernigov as a priest of the strictest life, always ready to be there and with those to whom he was needed; he was considered a saint.
At the same time, I was in the district theological school and was a singer in the Yelets singing choir (the rector’s choir of the seminary), which lived in the Yelets Monastery in Chernigov.
As a nephew of Mother Menailova, I went to them every Sunday and feast day and spent the whole day with them until evening. The Menailov family consisted of a husband, wife, two sons, two daughters, and a niece, my cousin, Anna Emelianovna Kornukh, who lived with them temporarily. There was one servant, a tall, healthy girl, not in her first youth, a local native.
When I came to them, I don’t remember what day, I noticed some kind of horror on everyone’s faces and a terrible fuss throughout the house and yard. Already two or three days earlier, something terrible, incomprehensible had begun in their house and yard! It began with the fact that everyone, waking up in the morning, having slept quietly and peacefully, saw that next to each member of the family, and even the maid, on the bed, lay a doll in the form of a woman next to the men, and next to the women one in the form of a man. All the dolls were made from things that belonged to them. Much was taken from chests and a chest of drawers that were locked – the keys were always with the aunt. All the floors were covered an inch or more thick with various rubbish – fuz, which is what happens when an old stove is broken. There was nothing like that in the yard, so where did all this come from?! Such pranks were repeated for several days in a row. The ahs, ohs, questions, searches, assumptions began, but everyone only crossed themselves and gasped. Everything was in order, everyone was in their places all night, the doors and windows were closed and locked.
That same day, both in the house and in the yard, all inanimate objects began to move; there was not a single thing that did not move or shift from place to place. Everything inanimate seemed to live an active life.
At first, everyone living in that house and those who came there felt terrified and scared, then they gradually got used to it, especially since where else could they go? And they lived there peacefully, because then both funny and amusing phenomena began to occur, like this: they would light a candle and hear - "poof!" and the candle goes out, they repeat it a second time - the same thing; then they say: "Oh, stop fooling around!" and everything calms down and the candle burns. Or they are sitting at tea, or with guests, the candle burns, but then the priest's cane breaks from its place (near the door), goes through the air and extinguishes the candle; again they ask not to fool around, and everything is calm!
Or you have to go to the market to buy what you need, they open the box (which is locked), and there is no money; but they say "What is this? We can’t stay hungry?" - and money falls from nowhere at the speaker’s feet. Or a guest is sitting, holding a cap in his hands; but he gets up to go, and the cap is gone - how is it not there! They search for a long time, ask for it to be returned - nothing; a thorough search begins, and they find the cap in the same room, in a chest of drawers, wrapped in linen, or something else. It also happened that a cap was found in a chest, and in the cap a herring prepared for a snack. There was an incident, and a very unpleasant one: a friend of my aunt’s came to see her, I remember her name, Boborykina. She groans, sighs and says: “Of course, all this is bad, but the worst thing is that all this happens in the priest’s house!”! At that very moment, a dirty, very dirty broom appeared from somewhere and began to lash this unfortunate, grieving woman in the face!
The whole city has been in this house, everyone has seen much of what I have told you and much more.
The police zealously watched everyone living in the house and everything that was happening there, but they could not discover anything! Of course, both the uncle and the whole family and many friends prayed fervently to the Lord God to deliver them from such horror.
However...
At that time the rector of the seminary was Archimandrite Adrian, a man of the strictest life, an ascetic, a most zealous pilgrim; he especially avoided women. They asked him to hold a prayer service; he arrived with his choir, among whom was I. There was the governor, a gendarme colonel, a police chief and many other nobles and acquaintances. The prayer service began; suddenly, instantly, all the furniture in the room turned upside down - everyone gasped, but the prayer service continued, and when everyone calmed down, a doll of the size of an adult woman flew off the stove, stood facing the archimandrite and began to bow to him. The prayer service ended, but something fabulous, unsolved, inexplicable continued.
One day, the aunt was walking with her daughters to pray at the Trinity Monastery, where the bishop lived, and a maid was following them. When they had gone quite far from the house, her own lipstick jar fell in front of the aunt. This gave reason to pay special attention to the maid – was it she who was doing this? They informed the police. The police tightened surveillance of the yard, the house and the maid, but everything continued as before.
Anna Emelianovna, who was visiting her aunt, went to the village to her brother, a priest. When she arrived there, they began to ask her what was going on in the Menailovs' house. It was already evening, a tallow candle was burning; Anna was telling her story, and her brother and his wife were listening attentively and were horrified. Suddenly they heard something rustling behind the partition, where there was no one; they went there and saw a pair of boots and a pair of shoes dancing opposite each other! Something terrible began there too: everything inanimate also began to stir and move. There were incidents there that threatened danger to people: a heavy copper candlestick flew off from somewhere and landed in a child's cradle, but did not hit the child; a knife fell off the table and flew straight at a peasant who had entered, and only because the peasant was wearing a thick cloth cape did he not receive a wound on his body; potatoes and beets were torn off the bench and flew around the kitchen, etc., etc., just like in Chernigov.
After Anna's departure, things became quieter in Chernigov, although they continued for a long time. Her brother, from the moment of her arrival, began to experience the same thing that had happened in Chernigov. They began to think and say that all this which is incomprehensible depended on Anna's will!
Anna Emelianovna was very, very beautiful, intelligent, well brought up by one of her benefactors (she was an orphan); she had a small but very pleasant voice and sang like a bird! Many people courted her, and among them was a certain Zenkov. Zenkov was a seminarian, a very intelligent young man with unparalleled energy in studying everything he had the opportunity to learn. He was an assistant to the seminary librarian; and the library of the Chernigov Seminary possesses, as they say, such book treasures as perhaps even the St. Petersburg Public Library does not have. That is why they made up the story that Zenkov dug up some Kabbalistic books there, borrowed from them something incomprehensible to us, and taught it to Anna, but she was unable to cope with the matter.
Zenkov went to St. Petersburg to the medical academy, and died there. They said a lot of other things, but no one proved anything.
Anna's brother's life also became quieter and quieter after her departure; and on the day of the Resurrection of Christ, when the bell rang for Matins, the priest was already in church, and the mother and other family members were still at home, when suddenly the window pane opened by itself, and something flew out of it, quite noisily!
Anna Emelianovna married Mr. Vinogradsky, who later became a priest. They lived a wonderful, loving life, and nothing miraculous ever happened to her again. (see "Rebus Magazine" and 1897, No. 4).
* This story was told by M. M. Petrovo-Solovovo, who had known Archpriest K. for a long time, and who, when he repeatedly asked him whether he himself had seen the movement of objects and the movement of a stick in the air, always answered in the affirmative.
PART SEVENTEEN
14 . Mysterious Phenomena in Chernigov in the 1840's*
The following took place in 1843 or 44 (I don’t remember exactly), in Chernigov, in the house of my uncle (on my aunt’s side), the priest Father John Gerasimovich Menailov.
Father John was known and revered in Chernigov as a priest of the strictest life, always ready to be there and with those to whom he was needed; he was considered a saint.
At the same time, I was in the district theological school and was a singer in the Yelets singing choir (the rector’s choir of the seminary), which lived in the Yelets Monastery in Chernigov.
As a nephew of Mother Menailova, I went to them every Sunday and feast day and spent the whole day with them until evening. The Menailov family consisted of a husband, wife, two sons, two daughters, and a niece, my cousin, Anna Emelianovna Kornukh, who lived with them temporarily. There was one servant, a tall, healthy girl, not in her first youth, a local native.
When I came to them, I don’t remember what day, I noticed some kind of horror on everyone’s faces and a terrible fuss throughout the house and yard. Already two or three days earlier, something terrible, incomprehensible had begun in their house and yard! It began with the fact that everyone, waking up in the morning, having slept quietly and peacefully, saw that next to each member of the family, and even the maid, on the bed, lay a doll in the form of a woman next to the men, and next to the women one in the form of a man. All the dolls were made from things that belonged to them. Much was taken from chests and a chest of drawers that were locked – the keys were always with the aunt. All the floors were covered an inch or more thick with various rubbish – fuz, which is what happens when an old stove is broken. There was nothing like that in the yard, so where did all this come from?! Such pranks were repeated for several days in a row. The ahs, ohs, questions, searches, assumptions began, but everyone only crossed themselves and gasped. Everything was in order, everyone was in their places all night, the doors and windows were closed and locked.
That same day, both in the house and in the yard, all inanimate objects began to move; there was not a single thing that did not move or shift from place to place. Everything inanimate seemed to live an active life.
At first, everyone living in that house and those who came there felt terrified and scared, then they gradually got used to it, especially since where else could they go? And they lived there peacefully, because then both funny and amusing phenomena began to occur, like this: they would light a candle and hear - "poof!" and the candle goes out, they repeat it a second time - the same thing; then they say: "Oh, stop fooling around!" and everything calms down and the candle burns. Or they are sitting at tea, or with guests, the candle burns, but then the priest's cane breaks from its place (near the door), goes through the air and extinguishes the candle; again they ask not to fool around, and everything is calm!
Or you have to go to the market to buy what you need, they open the box (which is locked), and there is no money; but they say "What is this? We can’t stay hungry?" - and money falls from nowhere at the speaker’s feet. Or a guest is sitting, holding a cap in his hands; but he gets up to go, and the cap is gone - how is it not there! They search for a long time, ask for it to be returned - nothing; a thorough search begins, and they find the cap in the same room, in a chest of drawers, wrapped in linen, or something else. It also happened that a cap was found in a chest, and in the cap a herring prepared for a snack. There was an incident, and a very unpleasant one: a friend of my aunt’s came to see her, I remember her name, Boborykina. She groans, sighs and says: “Of course, all this is bad, but the worst thing is that all this happens in the priest’s house!”! At that very moment, a dirty, very dirty broom appeared from somewhere and began to lash this unfortunate, grieving woman in the face!
The whole city has been in this house, everyone has seen much of what I have told you and much more.
The police zealously watched everyone living in the house and everything that was happening there, but they could not discover anything! Of course, both the uncle and the whole family and many friends prayed fervently to the Lord God to deliver them from such horror.
However...
At that time the rector of the seminary was Archimandrite Adrian, a man of the strictest life, an ascetic, a most zealous pilgrim; he especially avoided women. They asked him to hold a prayer service; he arrived with his choir, among whom was I. There was the governor, a gendarme colonel, a police chief and many other nobles and acquaintances. The prayer service began; suddenly, instantly, all the furniture in the room turned upside down - everyone gasped, but the prayer service continued, and when everyone calmed down, a doll of the size of an adult woman flew off the stove, stood facing the archimandrite and began to bow to him. The prayer service ended, but something fabulous, unsolved, inexplicable continued.
One day, the aunt was walking with her daughters to pray at the Trinity Monastery, where the bishop lived, and a maid was following them. When they had gone quite far from the house, her own lipstick jar fell in front of the aunt. This gave reason to pay special attention to the maid – was it she who was doing this? They informed the police. The police tightened surveillance of the yard, the house and the maid, but everything continued as before.
Anna Emelianovna, who was visiting her aunt, went to the village to her brother, a priest. When she arrived there, they began to ask her what was going on in the Menailovs' house. It was already evening, a tallow candle was burning; Anna was telling her story, and her brother and his wife were listening attentively and were horrified. Suddenly they heard something rustling behind the partition, where there was no one; they went there and saw a pair of boots and a pair of shoes dancing opposite each other! Something terrible began there too: everything inanimate also began to stir and move. There were incidents there that threatened danger to people: a heavy copper candlestick flew off from somewhere and landed in a child's cradle, but did not hit the child; a knife fell off the table and flew straight at a peasant who had entered, and only because the peasant was wearing a thick cloth cape did he not receive a wound on his body; potatoes and beets were torn off the bench and flew around the kitchen, etc., etc., just like in Chernigov.
After Anna's departure, things became quieter in Chernigov, although they continued for a long time. Her brother, from the moment of her arrival, began to experience the same thing that had happened in Chernigov. They began to think and say that all this which is incomprehensible depended on Anna's will!
Anna Emelianovna was very, very beautiful, intelligent, well brought up by one of her benefactors (she was an orphan); she had a small but very pleasant voice and sang like a bird! Many people courted her, and among them was a certain Zenkov. Zenkov was a seminarian, a very intelligent young man with unparalleled energy in studying everything he had the opportunity to learn. He was an assistant to the seminary librarian; and the library of the Chernigov Seminary possesses, as they say, such book treasures as perhaps even the St. Petersburg Public Library does not have. That is why they made up the story that Zenkov dug up some Kabbalistic books there, borrowed from them something incomprehensible to us, and taught it to Anna, but she was unable to cope with the matter.
Zenkov went to St. Petersburg to the medical academy, and died there. They said a lot of other things, but no one proved anything.
Anna's brother's life also became quieter and quieter after her departure; and on the day of the Resurrection of Christ, when the bell rang for Matins, the priest was already in church, and the mother and other family members were still at home, when suddenly the window pane opened by itself, and something flew out of it, quite noisily!
Anna Emelianovna married Mr. Vinogradsky, who later became a priest. They lived a wonderful, loving life, and nothing miraculous ever happened to her again. (see "Rebus Magazine" and 1897, No. 4).
* This story was told by M. M. Petrovo-Solovovo, who had known Archpriest K. for a long time, and who, when he repeatedly asked him whether he himself had seen the movement of objects and the movement of a stick in the air, always answered in the affirmative.
PART SEVENTEEN
