Venerable Job of Pochaev. Venerable Job, Abbot and Wonderworker of Pochaev

The Monk Job of Pochaev lived in difficult years for Orthodox Russia, when on its western outskirts the Orthodox people of Volyn and Galicia were subjected to ecclesiastical and political oppression by Polish-Lithuanian magnates. The Monk Job was a witness to the Union of Brest in 1596 and the unstoppable advance of Catholicism that followed, as well as the ever-increasing influence of Protestantism. Being the abbot of the monastery and enjoying enormous spiritual authority, the Monk Job used all his capabilities to combat heterodox and heretical influences on the people's consciousness to strengthen Orthodoxy.

Venerable Job (in the world Ivan Ivanovich Iron) born 1551 in the region called Pokuttya, lying in Galicia between the Carpathians and the Dniester. His family belonged to noble family who remained faithful to Orthodoxy. His parents' names were John and Agathia. From childhood, the future ascetic discovered a desire for monastic life. At the age of 10, the boy left his parents' home and asked the abbot of the nearby Ugornitsky monastery to allow him to serve the brethren. With his zeal, he soon won the love of the monastic brotherhood, and the perspicacious abbot foresaw great spiritual gifts in him. At the age of 12, John took monastic vows with the name Job; at the age of 13, after many monastic deeds, he was ordained to the priesthood, and at the age of 30 he was awarded the great schema, and the name John was returned to him. He especially loved this name and always signed himself with it, but he was canonized with the name Job.

The fame of his spiritual exploits spread widely throughout the region. Nobles began to come to the Monk Job, asking for spiritual guidance. He began to enjoy special trust and patronage of the famous defender of Orthodoxy in Volyn, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky.

Prince Konstantin Ostrogsky

Prince Konstantin turned to the abbot of the Ugornitsky Monastery with a request to release the Monk Job to his princely Dubensky Cross Monastery. The abbot agreed, and after some time the Monk Job was placed at the head of the Dubno brethren. He remained in the rank of abbot for more than 20 years. By this time belong conclusion of the Union of Brest (1596) and the subsequent oppression of the Orthodox. Prince Constantine, under whose protection the Monk Job was, had enormous influence in Volhynia and enjoyed the respect of the Polish king Sigismund III and Pope Clement VIII. Therefore, the Uniates and Jesuits did not dare to interfere with the actions of the monk. During his stay in Dubna, the saint began distributing Orthodox books, for books and sermons were at that time a serious support for the Orthodox against Latin-Polish claims. To this end, he encouraged some to engage in translation and copying of books; according to the testimony of his life, the Monk Job himself participated in this work.

With the blessing of the saint in 1581-1582. Prince Konstantin published the first printed Slavic Bible (Ostrog Bible). Himself an example of piety, the Monk Job raised the moral and spiritual level of the monastery entrusted to him. The worries and worries associated with publishing works, as well as the hostility of the Latins, distracted Saint Job from monastic work. Therefore, he decided to leave the Dubensky monastery and, around 1604, settled in a modest monastery nearby - on Mount Pochaevskaya, so that, protecting himself from worldly praise, he would become a simple monk here.

Before the Monk Job, desert-dwelling monks settled here from 1240 - people from the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. They left Kyiv, fleeing the invasion of Batu's hordes. In 1340 it happened in Pochaev miraculous phenomenon Mother of God in a pillar of fire. Until the end of the 16th century, the monastery was deserted: monks lived in separate caves and gathered for prayer in a small church in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God. In 1597, a great shrine appeared in the monastery - the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, given by the landowner Anna Goyskaya (the icon was given to Goyskaya by the Greek Metropolitan Neophytos, who was visiting her house).

And here’s what’s remarkable: neither written evidence nor oral traditions have preserved any information about the abbots who preceded the Monk Job. Before him, the Pochaev hermits, following the example of the hermit inhabitants of Athos, may not have had special abbots, subordinate only to some spiritual elders, whose names have not been preserved. Job was the first real organizer of the emerging Pochaev monastery, for, according to Dositheus, “the Blessed Virgin Mary and her heavenly monastery were very active and skillful in setting up the guard.” The monk introduced the ancient Studite Rule in his monastery, arranging life in it following the example of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

In those first “post-Uniate” years, it was necessary to have extraordinary prudence, strength of will, deep conviction and rootedness in Orthodoxy, not only in order to manage the monastery under construction, but even simply in order to preserve one’s faith. However, the Monk Job, after 20 years of managing the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery, already had sufficient skill for this. And so the great ascetic, a lover of silence and desert living, zealously takes up this work sent to him by God, not disdaining the hardships associated with the material structure of the monastery. And he bears all these burdens and worries meekly for the rest of his life, not even disdaining the courts and paperwork.

The miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God with the imprint of her celibate foot

He began to enjoy material support from local nobles who avoided falling into the union. Thus, in 1649, at the expense of the landowners Theodore and Eva Tamashevsky, a stone church in the name of the Holy Trinity was built in the monastery, to which it was transferred the imprint of the celibate foot of the Mother of God imprinted in stone and Her miraculous Pochaev Icon. The icon was installed above the Royal Doors, from where it was lowered for the believers, which continues to this day. This was the heyday of the monastery, the number of monks in it increased greatly. But disasters soon followed.

In 1607, the Tatars attacked the monastery and, having robbed and killed one of the monks. In 1620, the grandson of the deceased Anna Goyskaya, Lutheran Firley, decided to drive out the monks from Pochaevskaya Mountain, since even during Goiskaya’s life he could not calmly look at the Pochaevsky Monastery, to which she had donated part of her estates and income. To do this, Firlei first took away the fields, forests and hayfields of the monastery; then he appropriated the monastery peasants to himself, spoiled various materials, dug up boundary markers to destroy the deed of gift record, caught monks behind the monastery, beat them and tyrannized them. Finally, he forbade taking water from the wells of the town of Pochaev, and the monastery did not have its own well, so the further stay of the monks on Pochaevskaya Mountain became impossible. Then the Monk Job, having prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos, ordered to dig a well in the monastery itself, in the mountain, and at a depth of 64 cubits they found water. The monastery still uses this well.

Firlei, however, did not stop there. In 1623, he set a horde of his violent servants against the monastery, who, having plundered the monastery property, stole the Miraculous Icon. After this robbery, Job had to sue Firlei for a full quarter of a century. But mainly he hoped for God’s help and, together with his brethren, earnestly prayed to the Lord to enlighten the blasphemer. The Lord heard His servants. One day, Firlei, “not knowing what else to do,” dressed his wife in sacred clothes, gave her the holy cup, and she, along with those present, began to blaspheme the Most Holy Theotokos. Firleev’s wife was “attacked by a fierce demon, with whom she was depressed for a long time.” This “shaking by the demon” made an impression even on Firlei himself, and he, in the end, resignedly returned the icon of the monastery. Only then was his wife abandoned by the demon.

Particularly important for the strengthening of Orthodoxy in Volyn was the publishing and literary activity of the Monk Job. According to legend, in the Pochaev monastery Anna Goyskaya opened a printing house, which the Monk Job found in a flourishing state. IN early XVII centuries in this region it remained the only Slavic printing house. This is what the monk used to combat heterodoxy. Books of an accusatory and dogmatic nature, Orthodox prayers, and messages were published here. One of the most important works published with the blessing of St. Job is the work of Cyril Tranquilion, later Archimandrite of Chernigov, “Mirror of Theology”, directed against the Latins, published in 1618.

Long years(until 1932) the work of the reverend himself was kept in the Pochaev Monastery - “ The book of blessed Job of Pochaev, written by his powerful hand", containing up to 80 conversations, teachings, sermons, as well as extracts from patristic ascetic and polemical writings. In 1889 it was published under the title “Pochaev Bee”. Printing house Rev. Job, renewed at the beginning of the 20th century by Archimandrite Vitaly (Maksimenko), was taken abroad by him after the Russian Revolution and now continues to exist in America, in the Jordanville Trinity Monastery, serving the spiritual needs of the Russian emigration.

St. Job of Pochaevsky in prayer before the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God

Along with these labors, the invisible prayer life of the saint also passed. In the Pochaev Lavra there is still a cave where the Monk Job stood in prayer for several days. For a long time, the saint of God placed on a rock ledge jutting into a cave, best list from the miraculous Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God: he knelt on the hard stone floor and prayed to the Lady of the World “for the well-being of the light that lies in evil.” One night, during the saint’s prayer, witnesses saw an extraordinary light that illuminated the cave. From “such exhaustion of the flesh,” and most importantly, from prolonged standing in prayer, St. Job’s legs began to swell and his body fell off the bones in pieces, “as evidenced to this day by the honest incorruptible relics lying in the shrine.”

What power the holy elder achieved over the sinful human soul is shown by the following incident: one day, arriving at the monastery threshing floor at night, he saw a thief who wanted to put a sack of grain on his back. The monk helped him lift this sack, but reminded him of the answer at the terrible Judgment of Christ. Shocked by the saint’s brief word, the sinner fell at his feet begging for forgiveness.

In addition to prayer and contemplation of God, the monk was engaged in physical labor. Under his schematic clothes, he always wore a hair shirt and heavy chains. He devoted the day to work, and the night to prayer. During the day, the ascetic worked incessantly: he planted trees, made grafts, filled dams, setting an example of hard work to his brethren. At the same time, the Jesus Prayer did not leave his lips.

In his free time, the Monk Job loved to garden and planted a beautiful garden in Pochaev. With his participation, two ponds were dug near the monastery.

During the period of military actions of Bohdan Khmelnitsky against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Monk Job gave many people refuge in his monastery. It is also known that the monk was chosen as their confessor by many influential people of that time.

The authority of the Pochaev abbot was at that time very high in the Orthodox world of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He took part in the Kiev Council in 1628, which condemned the union and decided to stand firmly for Orthodoxy. Under this decree there is a signature: “Ioann Zhelezo, Abbot of Pochaevsky.”

Until 1649, the Monk Job served as abbot. On October 21, 1651, the saint received a revelation about his imminent death. On October 28, after performing the Divine Liturgy, he peacefully departed to the Lord. He was over 100 years old.

After burial, the body of the saint remained in the ground for 7 years. Then many began to notice the light emanating from his grave, and he himself appeared three times in a dream to the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv Dionysius Balaban and exhorted him to reveal the relics that lay hidden.

Finding the relics of St. Job Pochaevsky

His relics were discovered in 1659 and placed in the church Life-Giving Trinity. Soon after this, Eva Domashevskaya came to the monastery for a pilgrimage. At night, she saw a light shining in Trinity Church and heard singing. Her servant, the maiden Anna, went to find out what kind of service was being performed, and to her horror she saw that the church doors were open, and in the middle of the church, between two angels, the saint was praying in an unusually light robe. Job. Turning to the girl, he ordered her to call Abbot Dosifei (descriptor of the saint’s life), who was hopelessly ill at that time, and gave her a cloth for him, dipped in myrrh. The sick man, having received this cloth, anointed himself with it and received healing.

The appearance of St. Job of Pochaevsky with angels to the maiden Anna

In 1675, the Tatars besieged the Pochaev Monastery. On the third day of the siege, during the reading of the akathist, the Queen of Heaven Herself appeared over the monastery. The Tatars tried to shoot arrows at the heavenly phenomenon, but the arrows came back and hit them. Then the Tatars fled.

Pochaevsky Monastery

In 1721, the Pochaev Monastery was taken over by the Uniates. They honored the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, but they closed access to the relics of the saint to believers. However, after 20 years, the saint’s miracles forced them to admit believers to them. Those who came with faith received healing from the saint’s shrine. As a result of this, the Uniates themselves began to respect the memory of the Monk Job, recognized his holiness, the incorruptibility of his relics, began to light candles in front of his coffin and even perform prayer services in secret. In the second half of the 18th century, they even petitioned Pope Clement XIV (1769-1774) to recognize St. Job as a saint, but the pope did not dare to declare the zealous defender of Orthodoxy a saint.

In 1831, the Pochaev monastery to the highest command Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, after more than a century in the hands of the Uniates, was returned. The miraculous healings from the relics of St. Job prompted the Holy Synod to reopen them a second time, which was done on August 28, 1833, and the Pochaev Monastery was declared a Lavra. In the Pochaev Lavra, to this day they do not pray “for heretics: Catholics, Protestants,” a phrase from an announcement lying on the table where the monk of the monastery accepted notes for remembrance. This position was gained by the Pochaev Lavra during centuries of difficult trials for it.

Reliquary with the relics of St. Job of Pochaevsky in the cave church of Job of Pochaevsky

The incorrupt hand of St. Job

Near his holy relics, many healings of those suffering from the most serious illnesses still take place. Open hands St. Job, which believers kiss, are warm, soft and exude a fragrance.

Troparion, tone 4
Having acquired long-suffering forbearance from the long-suffering forefather, emulating the Baptist's abstinence, sharing both Divine zeal, you were honored to receive those names worthy of receiving, and you were a fearless preacher of the true faith, you brought many monks to Christ, and you established all people in Orthodoxy, Rev. Job Our Father, pray for our souls to be saved.

Kontakion, tone 4
You have appeared as a pillar of the true faith, a zealot of the Gospel commandments, a reproof of pride, a representative and teaching for the humble, and for those who please you, ask for remission of sins, and preserve your abode unharmed by Job, our Father, like the long-suffering one.

The Orthodox world is rich in many images of saints. People deeply revere them, pray to them in the hope of healing from diseases and getting rid of everyday troubles. If the heart and thoughts of the person praying are pure, then such a prayer will definitely help. One of these saints is St. Job of Pochaev. A lot of believers come to his incorruptible relics, which are located in the Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra.

THE LIFE OF JOB POCHAEVSKY

The future Orthodox saint was born in Galicia. The name given to him at baptism is John. His parents, being humble and highly moral people, instilled in him from childhood a craving for the study of spiritual life.

This teaching greatly influenced the guy’s worldview, and subsequently had a strong influence on his life. While still a young man, he left his parents' home and went to the Transfiguration Church, where he took monastic vows under the name Job. In the monastery he was known as a pious young man leading a strict ascetic life.

Subsequently, Job Pochaevsky ruled the Holy Cross Monastery for 20 years. His time in office came at a very turbulent time. The Orthodox Church was persecuted by the Uniates, which is why John had to leave the monastery. He increasingly sought solitude and began to live in a cave located on Mount Pochaevskaya.

The mountain was located next to the Assumption Monastery and the monk performed services there. He was kind-hearted with people and always helped them words of wisdom. One night, Job found a man in the temple who wanted to steal a bag of grain. He approached the thief and helped him put a sack of grain on his back, saying that he would have to answer for this sin before God. The appeal had such an impact on the thief that he forgot his evil thoughts and immediately began to beg on his knees for forgiveness.

Believers offering a prayer to Saint Job of Pochaev ask in it:

• about getting rid of attacks
• about strengthening your faith
• about healing from illnesses
• about various kinds of need

It is also worth mentioning that such a prayer has special power on certain days:

• saint's feast day (May 19)
• the day of finding it incorruptible relics(10 September)
• day of his death (November 10)

Prayer to St. Job of Pochaev

Oh, all-holy and glorious servant of God, reverend our father Job, a prayer book close to the Lord for us and a warm intercessor for our souls, we now flow to you with all compassion, and remembering your deeds and miracles that you have done and are doing on earth, we ask and pray your goodness: just as you have labored firmly and unchangeably in the faith of Christ our God, and have preserved this to the end in yourself and in all your relatives safe and sound from all attacks of the enemy and pernicious heresies, strengthen us in Orthodoxy and unanimity, driving away with your prayers all darkness of unbelief and unrighteousness from our hearts and thoughts; Having served the Lord and your God with good deeds and ineffable self-sacrifice in labor, vigils and fasting, guide us on the path of all virtues and goodness, delivering us from temptations and sins that remove us from God and plunge our entire life into the abyss of evil; sometimes appeared with the Most Pure Virgin Mother of God at the top of Mount Pochaev to save your monastery from the invasion and taxation of the Agarians, and now speed up to the aid of all our Orthodox and God-loving power against all our enemies external and internal, establishing peace and silence in our land, and with your prayers and through intercession we will live a quiet and silent life in all piety and purity;
and to all who flow to you, and who fall to the race of your honest and multi-healing relics and your help and intercession, who require endless mercy, give unenviably, do not leave us, the orphaned and helpless, who pray to you, delivering us from all sorrow, anger and need, from hunger , destruction, cowardice, flood, fire, sword, foreign invasion and internecine warfare.
To her, servant of God, look mercifully from the Throne of the King of Glory, to whom you now stand with the archangels and angels and with all the saints, at your monastery of Pochaev, which you wisely ruled in ancient times, making it all-praiseworthy and wondrous in your life, and preserving it with your prayers yours, and every city, and country, and everyone from everywhere, on the sea and on the land, in the deserts and in the many misfortunes calling you, from all evils, visible and invisible, yes, so with your help and intercession we are saved, in this time and after the end Let us be worthy to glorify and sing together with you the All-Honorable Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.

Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra. One of the main monasteries of the Russian Church, founded in the lands Western Rus' Kiev-Pechersk monks back in the 13th century. Today this is the territory of the Ukrainian Ternopil region. A region where anti-Russian sentiments are especially strong, and most churches belong to Uniates and schismatic nationalists. But, through the intercession of his Heavenly patrons, among whom he especially stands out Reverend Job, The Pochaev Lavra remains today a real oasis of the Russian world.

(Holy Dormition Pochaev Lavra)

"Reverend Job was born in Galicia in the middleXVIcentury. Already at the age of 12, he took monastic vows... For more than 20 years, Father Job was the rector of the Dubensky monastery, where he spent active educational activities. It was with his blessing that the first Slavic Bible, the Ostrog Bible, was printed by Deacon Ioann Fedorov..."

In those days, as today, Orthodoxy in Western Rus' was subjected to serious harassment. The Uniates sought to subjugate all Orthodox churches and monasteries. The Monk Job was forced to leave the Dubno monastery and settled in a cave near the Pochaev Monastery.

FROM THE LIFE OF THE REVEREND JOB OF POCHAEVSKY:

“The monks of the Pochaev monastery, seeing the piety of Father Job, elected him as their abbot. It was under him that active construction of churches began here. Continuing his educational activities, the monk created the famous Pochaev printing house, and also wrote many essays in defense of Orthodoxy...”

(Pochaev Lavra, 1800)

The Monk Job died a hundred years old shortly before reunification of the lands of Little Rus' with the Muscovite kingdom. But his monastery, which remained on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and then the Austrian Empire, was destined to continue to fight for the Orthodox faith. And today the Pochaev Lavra does not give up. Despite numerous threats and provocations, they firmly remain faithful to the Russian Church.

Life of St. Job, Abbot of Pochaev

The Monk Job, abbot of Pochaev, was born in Galicia, in the Pokuttsk region, from pious parents nicknamed Iron (about 1551) and was named John in holy baptism. Live in parental home, no matter how short-lived it was, had a strong influence on the formation of pious inclinations and the entire moral character of the monk. As soon as he learned to read, he, of course, not without the guidance of his parents, began to get acquainted with high examples moral life, which he found first of all in the life of his namesake Forerunner of the Lord John and then in the works of the Venerable John Climacus and in the lives of the Venerable Savva the Sanctified and John of Damascus.

Reading such examples of highly moral life could not help but leave a mark on John’s soul. It is safe to say that under the influence of such reading, even in his parents’ home, those spiritual aspirations to imitate arose in him high standards ancient asceticism, the implementation of which is the entire subsequent life of the monk. True, the monk was still a minor at that time; but, it should be noted that he was different from ordinary boys and, being “small in age,” was, in the words of the writer of his life, Dositheus, “perfect in mind.” In addition to reading soul-saving books, the reverend, during his stay in his parents’ house, was, of course, influenced by the entire moral situation in the family, a living example of the virtuous life of his parents. Thus, from an early age, the seeds of a strictly moral character were sown into the young soul of the monk, with which he was distinguished throughout his life. Word and deed, knowledge and actions were never separate from him, but there was always complete correspondence between them.

The spiritual aspirations that manifested themselves in the monk in his parental home could not be fully satisfied there. The monk was drawn to solitude, to a deserted ascetic life. This attraction was so strong in him that it prevailed over his strong love for his parents, and he decided to leave them to retire to a monastery. He was only ten years old at that time. The monk left home and arrived at the Ugornitsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, which was located there in Galicia, in the Carpathian Mountains. Falling at the feet of the abbot of this monastery, he begged him to be accepted as one of the brethren. The monk’s facial features showed him as a young chosen one of God, at least that’s how he seemed to the abbot, and therefore he joyfully accepted him into his monastery.

With entry into the monastery, a new life begins for young John. And in his parents’ house he became accustomed to a pious lifestyle, having before him a living example in the person of his parents, but they were people of worldly piety. Here, in the monastery, people appeared to him, in their lives trying to clearly depict the path of life that was drawn in John’s mind from reading soul-saving books, people of ascetic piety. John felt that he had found himself in the environment where his spiritual aspirations attracted him, and so he gave them full rein, enthusiastically beginning to go through the first stages of his ascetic life. Not content with the mere obedience to which the ecclesiarch placed him, young John tried to please each monk with different services. He rejoiced that the time had finally come to fully take advantage of the lessons of a godly life that he received from reading examples of it. He remembered that John Climacus, having come to the monastery in in my youth(15 l.), served the brethren and that the same thing was done before by the reverend. John of Damascus. An example is the Rev. Savva the Sanctified encouraged him to imitate other features of monastic life.

Having such an example before him, young John tried to carry out every task with meekness and humility and, in general, strive for a good life and succeed in virtue. And his efforts were not in vain. Seeing his good manners, exemplary meekness and deep humility, the abbot, with general consent, tonsured him to the monastic rank when he was twelve years old, and named him Job. From that time on, a new moral role model appeared to the enlightened mind of the young monk. This was a sample of the life of the Old Testament righteous man - the long-suffering Job. The young monk studied this example and implemented many moral traits from the life of the Old Testament Job in his own monastic life. “Not only in name,” says the writer of his life, Dositheus, about young Job, “but also in his very deed. old testament Our most blessed father Job not only became like Job, but rather, I would say, he far surpassed him in all the opposites of life. Because for him, sorrow from sorrow, illness from illness were born by God’s permission; this one voluntarily, of his own free will, languished, not sparing himself, while going through the degrees of the most severe ascetic life.”

Life of Rev. Job, upon accepting monasticism, was so pure and impeccable, despite all the severity of the monastic feat, that Dositheus, in the life of the monk he wrote, likens him to an Angel. “He was,” he says about the monk, “a very skilled monk, not so much adorned with years as with virtues, living among the brethren like an Angel... and every day becoming more and more perfect in virtue.” This is how the monk managed and, despite his young age, became an example and model for the brethren, by his behavior letting them see their merits and shortcomings, or, as Dosifei says, “being to everyone’s shame and benefit.”

Such a life of the reverend monk in the Ugornitsky Transfiguration Monastery glorified him throughout Galicia. Not only ordinary people, but also many noble nobles flocked to the Ugornitsky Monastery to look at the monk and receive advice from him for spiritual benefit and edification, or to ask for blessings and prayers from him. The monk did not refuse requests and edified everyone with an example of high piety.

Advancing one day in virtue and having reached the age of perfection, i.e. 30 years, the Rev. Job was elevated to the degree of priesthood, although out of deep humility he refused this rank for a long time; and from then on the light of his ascetic and pious life shone even more. He became famous not only in Western Rus', but also in the country of Poland.

Meanwhile, in Western Rus', by God's permission, a difficult trial followed for the Orthodox Church. In 1566, Jesuits appeared in Poland and Lithuania. These fanatical adherents of Catholicism, together with the unreasonable zealots of the faith - the Polish magnates, began to persecute Orthodoxy and the Orthodox, introduce a union among them, that is, try to convert them to Catholicism. Orthodox Christians and their churches were desecrated. Only holy monasteries were a refuge and stronghold for persecuted Orthodoxy against the zealots of Latinism. The champion of Orthodoxy, Konstantin Konstantinovich, Prince of Ostrog and Dubensky, in view of this last circumstance, turned his special attention to the internal and external improvement of Orthodox monasteries and mainly to maintaining the spirit of a truly Christian spirit in them Orthodox monasticism. He wanted to see in the monks located in these monasteries true monks, as they should be according to the instructions of the legislators of monasticism - people especially firm in the faith and putting their convictions into practice - i.e. people with full compliance of words, feelings and deeds, resistant to the temptations of other faiths and heresies. He wanted to do Orthodox monasteries, located in his vast possessions, breeding grounds for such true representatives of Orthodox monasticism, and contrast them, on the one hand, with the Protestant communities, on the other, with the Catholic monastic orders and especially the Jesuit.

Such goals of Prince Ostrozhsky were most consistent with the godly life of St. Job. Prince Ostrozhsky knew that the monk had loved reading books since childhood and tried to imitate in his life the high examples of ancient monasticism. Knowing this, he more than once turned to the abbot of the Ugornitsky Transfiguration Monastery, earnestly asking him to release the blessed one. Job to the Holy Cross Monastery, located in the city of Dubno, on the island, so that by his example he would show the monks of this monastery “the image of a hard-working and godly life,” so that he would edify the brethren and guide them in spiritual life. Abbot Ugornitsky listened to these requests of the prince with regret; but since they were repeated incessantly, he had to release the blessed ascetic in peace to the Dubno monastery.

In the Monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross, of course, they already knew about the holy ascetic life of the Monk Job from rumors, and therefore, soon after arriving there, at the urgent requests of all the brethren, he was elected abbot of this monastery. This title imposed new responsibilities on the monk, which were especially difficult due to the depressed state of Orthodoxy in the western region at that time, and the special position of the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery. The Holy Cross Monastery was located near the city itself, one of the prominent centers of the then public life, and of necessity had to be a lamp for the surrounding population.

However, despite all the hardships of the abbot's service in the Holy Cross Monastery at that time, the Monk Job agreed to devote himself to this service, for that is why he was called here by the Prince of Ostrog.

Having become abbot, the Monk Job first of all began to take care of restoring order in monastic life, which was in extreme decline at that time not only in Dubensky, but also in all the southwestern monasteries of that time. A contemporary of the Monk Job, the former abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Elder Artemy, wrote the following about the community of that time: “it was written about the community rite from the saints, as before many years such habitation had been destroyed.” In an effort to restore order in the monastery's dormitory, the monk turned to the Studite Charter, which the monastery's builders laid as the basis for the monastic dormitory they established. It is clear that given the state of the community at that time, he found many deviations from the basic rules of monastic life in the monastery entrusted to his care. In the studio abode St. Theodore Studite, on the model of which the monastery of the Exaltation of the Cross was originally built, with the onset of Great Lent the monastery gates were closed and opened for the laity only on Lazarus Saturday. In the Athonite charter of 971, compiled under the editorship of the Studio abbot Euthymius, which has similarities with the Studio charter, it was prescribed for both hermits and community dwellers that on Holy Pentecost everyone, both those who labor alone and those living in community, should remain silent and not go to each other to a friend without a blessed reason, or without extreme need, or without the need to heal evil and shameful thoughts. And the abbots themselves are not allowed to carry out work on these holy days, except Saturdays, or clearly do anything other than spiritual things. It is unlikely that all this was observed in the Holy Cross Monastery before the abbess of Job; Meanwhile, he restored this order of life in the monastery during the Holy Pentecost. There is a legend that Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky, having special respect and love for the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery, in the first week of Great Lent retired here for prayer and fasting, preparing himself for confession and holy communion, here he threw off his princely attire and put on a monastic robe.

Taking care of raising the general level of external monastic life in the Holy Cross Monastery and giving the monks our with my own life A good example to follow, the Monk Job also paid great attention to raising the inner, spiritual monastic life in the monastery entrusted to him.

Having raised monastic life to the proper height from its external side and making diligent efforts to elevate it from the internal, spiritual side, the tireless worker and St. the ascetic, abbot Job, did not stop there. The influx of infidels, heretics and sectarians who worried the modern reverend. Job Orthodox Russian society, pointed him to a new field for his activities, which he did not consider alien to himself. He was far from the idea that the title of abbot obliges him to take care of the monastic needs alone, although he considered taking care of them his first duty: he considered it his duty to strive to ensure that the monastery entrusted to him taught the environment not only through the virtuous life of the monks. worldly society, but also in a teaching word, in relation to the circumstances and position of this society. Therefore, he put a lot of effort into denouncing Jesuit preaching and Catholicism, sharply rebelling against the teaching of celebrating the Eucharist on unleavened bread and defending the use of leavened bread. The Monk Job directed even more efforts to denounce the Protestant sects, trying to protect Orthodox society from them.

Such activity of the Monk Job in the rank of abbot of the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery elevated this monastery above other Dubno monasteries and brought it great fame. Orthodox princes, Lords and people from different places flocked to the Dubno monastery, especially to its most blessed abbot, “being cold to him,” as the writer of the life says him, - honor and praise."

But the vain glory of this world began to confuse the humble worker and holy ascetic, who did not seek glory from man and wanted to have the only Seer of God as a witness to his labors and exploits. Moreover, the personal inclinations of Rev. Job was drawn to a solitary, desert life, where he could labor not in the rank of abbot, but as a simple monk. Added to this were displeasure and some unpleasant clashes with Prince Dubensky Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky, who, although he respected the monk, did not always act in accordance with his views. As a result of all this, the Monk Job, having served to the best of his ability and ability for the benefit of the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery and raising it above other Dubno monasteries, left this monastery after twenty years of managing it and retired to Pochaevskaya Mountain - to that monastery, which is now known under the name of Pochaevskaya Laurel.

The Monk Job arrived there at the very time when the monastery on Pochaevskaya Mountain was just beginning to be improved, after the miraculous icon of the Mother of God had been transferred there from the house of the pious owner of Pochaevskaya. There was not even an abbot in the monastery. The Pochaev monks were extremely happy at the arrival of the monk and began to beg him to accept the abbess over them. But this was not why Job went to Mount Pochaev. He was looking for a place for solitary exploits, and Pochaevskaya Mountain attracted him with its relatively remote location from noisy city life and the desolation of the area, which was then still in obscurity and had not yet become famous for the wonderful icon of the Mother of God. The teacher didn't think. Job was to be abbot at the Pochaev monastery; he wanted to labor here as a simple monk; but in his humility he could not refuse the offer. In addition, he hoped that here, in the Pochaev monastery, while managing it, he would have a lot of time for deserted solitary exploits, and that, therefore, while serving the monastery, he would find the opportunity to satisfy the cherished aspirations of his soul. And so, he agreed and was elected abbot.

The situation in which the newly created Pochaev monastery was at that time pointed the Monk Job to pursuits of a practical nature. At that time, here, on the site of the former desert dwelling, a hostel was just beginning to be established. The monk first of all took care of building a stone church instead of a wooden one, built by the ancient monks of Pochaev near the rock with the free donations of donors and now falling into disrepair. He also took care of the reliable provision of funds for the maintenance of the monastery, procuring the addition of various lands and lands to it. In addition, he made efforts to install wells, ponds, vegetable gardens, orchards, etc. in the monastery. He himself took an active part in all these works with love. With his own hands he planted fruit trees, grafted them, and dug them. The garden he built still exists at the foot of the Pochaev Lavra. He himself dug and surrounded the lake with dams. This lake also exists now outside the fence of the Pochaev Lavra monastery.

At the very beginning of such cares and concerns of the Monk Job, aimed at the creation and improvement of the Pochaev monastery, misfortune befell this monastery. After the death of the pious ruler of Pochaev Anna Goyskaya, who entrusted the monastery with the custody of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, all her possessions were inherited by the Belsky castellan, later the Sandomierz governor Andrei Ferley. He, being of the Lutheran faith, hated the Pochaev monastery and the monks who lived in it. Therefore, he tried by all means to oppress them: he took away from them the lands donated to them by Goyskaya, he even forbade giving the water that the monks took in Pochaev, since there was no well of their own in the monastery at that time; did not allow zealous pilgrims to venerate the icon of the Mother of God and clearly blasphemed the miraculous icon itself. Then, finally, wanting to completely destroy the Pochaev monastery, he decided to take away the icon from the monks, assuming that, having lost it, they would not remain in place and would disperse in different directions. In 1623, on June 19, he sent his servant Gregory Kozensky with Lutheran soldiers to the Pochaev monastery with weapons, ordering it to be plundered. Gregory, breaking into the monastery, rushed into the temple and stole the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and with it all the church valuables that he found in the temple: vessels, sacred clothes, gold, silver, pearls and all the silver images brought to the temple by those who prayers to the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, they were healed from various diseases. Having robbed all the treasures of the monastery, Gregory brought them, along with the icon of the Mother of God, to the town of Kozin to the estate of Andrei Ferley. Ferley was extremely happy at such a godless deed and, not knowing what else to do to desecrate the shrine, decided on the next blasphemous act. He called his wife, put sacred clothes on her, gave her a holy chalice (cup), and in this form, in front of a large gathering of guests, she began to blaspheme the Mother of God and Her wondrous icon.

Then the Lady Herself came to the aid of the Venerable Abbot of Pochaev Job and the brethren. For the blasphemous treatment of Her icon, She betrayed her wife Ferleev to a serious illness, which did not stop until the miraculous icon was returned to the Pochaev Monastery; The church utensils and treasures remained in the hands of the blasphemer.

Hoping for the help of the highest Patroness of the mountain, he tried with the same zeal as before, to the best of his ability, to recreate the monastery, and hope did not disgrace the saint. The miracles that the icon again began to exude to everyone who flowed to it with faith began to attract pilgrims to the monastery with the cessation of enemy attacks. The Pochaev monastery grew again. Many pious Christians were sympathetic to Job’s labors and concerns about the monastery and helped it with their material resources for its splendor and decoration.

The Monk Job’s concerns about the improvement of the monastery did not prevent him, as he had previously supposed, from indulging in ascetic deeds. If already at a young age, asceticizing in the Ugornitsky Spasopreobrazhensky Monastery, the monk surprised his companions and lived “like an Angel” among the monastic brethren, “being to everyone’s shame and benefit,” then what can we say about his exploits now, when he has already become wise in asceticism ? The Monk Job, having once chosen for himself ascetic role models, remained faithful to them even now.

“What can we say,” Dosifei says about him, “about the nightly feats of his prayers, which he performed with zealous kneeling? In the cave in which he labored, traces of his kneeling still remain. Often retiring to this cave, sometimes for three days, and sometimes for a whole week, he remained in prayer and fasting, feeding abundantly on tears of tenderness, poured out from a pure heart, and diligently praying for the well-being and salvation of the world.”

The Monk Job, following the example of the ancient silent ones, was so silent that at times it was difficult to hear anything from him other than the prayer that constantly came from his lips: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” In addition to fasting, unceasing prayer, kneeling, tears and silence, brotherly love, deep humility, obedience, meekness and mercy were the distinctive qualities of the blessed ascetic. From constant labors and exploits, the flesh of the Monk Job was exhausted, and his body, and especially his legs, were filled with ulcers, so that he and the apostle could say: “I bear the wounds of the Lord Jesus on my body” (Gal. 6:17).

Strict and exacting of himself, the Monk Job, out of love for his neighbors, was lenient towards the weaknesses of others and extremely gentle. Here is proof of his kindness: one day in the dead of night, passing by a threshing floor, he saw a man stealing monastery wheat, and so unexpectedly approached the thief that he could not even take a step away from the bag filled with wheat. Caught at the scene of the crime, the kidnapper was not so much afraid as he was ashamed of the monk and stood in a daze before him, motionless as a stone. Then he fell at his feet and begged him not to tell anyone about his act, fearing to be branded a thief, while previously everyone considered him an honest man and respected him. The gentle old man did not threaten the culprit with anything, but with his own hands he helped the kidnapper lift a bag of wheat onto his shoulder, while admonishing him about how reprehensible the theft of someone else’s property is and, bringing to his memory the commandments of God and doomsday The Lord, at which he would have to give an account of his actions, released him in peace.

Thus, in imitation of the holy ancient ascetics of Christ, the venerable abbot Job of Pochaev labored. His many exploits, as the writer of his life notes, “can only be likened to the countless number of stars in the firmament of heaven, and they are known to the only God who sees into the secret folds of human hearts.”

Among his concerns about the improvement of the Pochaev monastery and his ascetic labors, the Monk Job also found time for spiritual and educational activities. The Venerable Abbot of Pochaevsky in 1628 took part in the Kiev Council, which forced the famous apostate from Orthodoxy Meletius Smotrytsky to renounce his errors. Together with other persons present at the council, Job signed the council’s resolution, in which he stated that he “stands firmly in Orthodox faith, does not think about retreating into the union and under an oath promises not to retreat and, moreover, to admonish the entire Orthodox people.”

Venerable Job - in the great schema John. Despite tireless concerns about the improvement of the monastery, cruel ascetic labors and a life generally full of incessant activity, the monk lived to be 100 years old and, having predicted the day of his death a week in advance, quietly, without any suffering, died on October 28, 1651, leaving as in the Pochaev monastery, and throughout the entire Volyn country, a reverent memory of incessant prayers, inimitable diligence and high virtues. He rested in solitude, since at the end of his life, precisely in 1649, feeling the weakness of his strength, he handed over the abbot position to Father Samuil (Dobryansky), however, continuing after that to be called Abbot Pochaevsky.

After burial, the body of the saint remained in the ground for seven years. Then many began to notice the light emanating from his grave, and he himself appeared three times in a dream to the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kyiv Dionysius Balaban and exhorted him to reveal the relics that lay hidden. In 1659, on August 8, Metropolitan Dionysius with Archimandrite Theophan and the brethren of the monastery opened the tomb of the saint, and his holy relics were found incorrupt. With due honor, in the presence of a large gathering of people, they were transferred to the great Church of the Life-Giving Trinity and placed in the porch.

Since then, healings have flowed from the relics of St. Job, which can be read about in his life.

Since the time of the Monk Job, the Pochaev monastery established by him experienced many disasters. One thing is especially memorable for her and will never be erased from her chronicles: during the period of the establishment of the union in southwestern Russia, the Pochaev monastery could not resist the Uniates, and in 1720 it was taken away from the Orthodox by them - Uniate Basilian monks settled here. The Orthodox monastery was in the possession of the Uniates until 1831. In this year, the Pochaev Basilian monks, for their outrageous behavior during the Polish rebellion and for inciting the people to rebellion, were removed from the Pochaev monastery by order of the late Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich in Bose, and the monastery was returned to the Orthodox . The first rector of the Pochaev monastery, after its transition to the Orthodox, was the Right Reverend Bishop of Volyn Ambrose, who chose as his vicar the Kremenets Archpriest Gregory Rafalsky, later the Most Reverend Anthony, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg.

The memory of the Venerable Job is celebrated in the Pochaev Lavra three times a year: May 19 --- on the day of memory of Job the Long-Suffering; September 10 --- the day of the discovery of the holy relics of St. Job; November 10 --- the day of his death. (Dates are indicated according to the new style.)

And in our days, honest relics abundantly exude miracles for the glory of the Trinitarian God, to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

On September 10 (August 28, Old Style), the discovery of the relics of this saint, who stood like an iron wall for Russian Orthodoxy, is celebrated. Let's not forget that the territory where the current one is located Western Ukraine, in 1596 adopted the so-called Union of Brest, which meant “the accession to the Roman Catholic Church of a number of bishops and dioceses of the Orthodox Kyiv Metropolis (as part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople) led by Metropolitan of Kyiv Michael Ragoza, on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.”

But the Monk Job of Pochaev, the abbot of the Pochaev Monastery, stood indestructibly in the faith, and, justifying his name, with iron firmness he fought against the Uniates who had departed from Orthodoxy under the patronage of the Pope. The Monk Job was strong in spirit and faith; it is no coincidence that today many people from all over the Russian World flock to his holy relics, buried in a shrine near the cave where he prayed on Pochaevskaya Mountain.

And for the Uniates (Greek Catholics) - just like then, more than four hundred years ago, and now - don’t put your finger in their mouth. Not only that, starting from 1991, they seized churches and parishes of our canonical Church, which after the fateful Kharkov Bishops' Council in 1992 began to be called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, but also unprecedentedly, for the first time in history, during the reign of President Viktor Yushchenko, they built their cathedral church on the left bank of the Dnieper, in Darnitsa. Nowadays, they actively carried out their “prayer actions” on the “Euromaidan”, even to the point of calling on some Uniate “priests” to kill “Muscovites”, “commies” and others. It seems that Greek Catholics perceived the neo-Nazi, neo-Bandera coup in Ukraine as their own, native, allowing them to sharply intensify their expansion into the east of Ukraine, into the territory of canonical Orthodoxy, where they had previously been only during the period of Nazi occupation.

There are no pious princes, noble nobles are scarce, everyone has turned away from Eastern Orthodoxy to the West, barely anyone is found in the Orthodox faith from the bad and not glorious

God was pleased to reveal this saint of His in Western Rus' at the hour of great and terrible trials that befell the Orthodox in those parts. Here is what Metropolitan Isaiah Kopinsky wrote to the Moscow Patriarch in 1632: “There are no pious princes, noble nobles are scarce, everyone has turned away from Eastern Orthodoxy to the West, barely anyone is found in piety and the Orthodox faith from the bad and not glorious.” It was they - “thin and not glorious” - peasants, artisans, merchants, and clergy who had to fight the influence of the Jesuits, who were especially active at that time. The spiritual core and symbol of this struggle was the abbot of the Pochaev monastery, the Monk Job.

The monk lived in difficult years for Russia, when on its western outskirts the Orthodox people of Volyn and Galicia were subjected to cruel church and political oppression by Polish-Lithuanian magnates. The Monk Job witnessed the Union of Brest and the unstoppable advance of Catholicism that followed, as well as the ever-increasing influence of Protestantism. Being the abbot of the monastery and enjoying enormous spiritual authority, the monk used all his capabilities to strengthen Orthodoxy and to combat heterodox and heretical influences on the people's consciousness.

The prayerful feats and pious life of the ascetic did not hide from people. Fame about him spread widely throughout the region.

Nobles began to reach out to the monk, asking for spiritual guidance. He began to enjoy special trust and patronage of the famous defender of Orthodoxy, Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. Prince Konstantin turned to the abbot of the Ugornitsky Monastery with a request to release the Monk Job to his princely Dubensky Cross Monastery. The abbot agreed, and after some time Job was placed at the head of the Dubno brethren. He remained in the rank of abbot for more than twenty years; it was during that time that the conclusion of the Union of Brest and the subsequent oppression of the Orthodox began. Prince Constantine, under whose protection the Monk Job was, had enormous influence in Volhynia and enjoyed the respect of the Polish king Sigismund III and Pope Clement VIII. Therefore, the Uniates and Jesuits did not dare to interfere with the actions of the Dubno abbot.

With the blessing of the saint, in 1581-1582 the first printed Slavic Bible, known as the Ostrog Bible, was published in Ostrog

During his stay in Dubna, the saint began distributing Orthodox books. To this end, he encouraged some to engage in translation and copying of books. According to the testimony of his life, the monk himself took part in that work. With the blessing of the saint, in 1581-1582, Prince Konstantin published the first printed Slavic Bible in Ostrog, known to historians and literary scholars around the world as the Ostrog Bible.

The worries and worries associated with publishing works, as well as the hostility of the Latins, distracted Saint Job from monastic work. The monk was associated with the Dubensky monastery for almost 20 years as abbot; nevertheless, burdened by the abbess, he left this monastery and around 1604, striving for hermitic deeds, he found refuge in a modest monastery nearby - on Mount Pochaevskaya, where numerous stewards of silence had long settled.

The Monk Job sought in obscurity and freedom for prayer, but the monks, who soon sensed spiritual strength in the stranger, unanimously and with tears asked him to become their abbot. The saint was forced to yield, and soon, through his labors, the Pochaev Monastery strengthened its position and rose above other Western Russian monasteries. He began to enjoy material support from local nobles who avoided falling into the union. Thus, in 1649, at the expense of the landowners Theodore and Eva Domashevsky, a stone church in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity was built in the monastery, to which the imprint of the celibate Foot of the Mother of God and Her miraculous Pochaev Icon was transferred, imprinted in stone.

But disasters soon followed. In 1607, the Tatars attacked the monastery and, having robbed and killed one of the monks. In 1620, the grandson of Anna Goyskaya, Protestant Andrei Firley, decided to drive the monks away from Pochaevskaya Mountain, for which he took away their land and, breaking into the monastery with his servants, took away the miraculous icon. After this, the house of Firleya was beset by disasters and illnesses, which did not stop until the icon was returned to the monastery.

These events prompted the Monk Job to considerable vain labor. For several years he was forced to travel to courts and offices, until finally the litigation with Firlei was resolved in favor of the monastery.

As a result of enormous efforts, it was possible to dig a well on Pochaevskaya Mountain and thereby provide water to the monastery (the neighboring sources were selected by Firley).

The book publishing and literary activities of the saint became especially important for the strengthening of Orthodoxy in Volyn. At the beginning of the 17th century, only one Slavic printing house remained in this region - Pochaevskaya. This is what the monk used to combat heterodoxy. Books of an accusatory and dogmatic nature, Orthodox prayers, and messages that were especially important in the conditions of Catholic expansion in Western Rus' were published here.

For many years (until 1932!) the Pochaev Monastery kept the work of the venerable man himself, “The Book of Blessed Job of Pochaev, written by his authoritative hand,” containing up to 80 conversations, teachings, sermons, as well as extracts from patristic, ascetic and polemical works ( published in 1884 in Kyiv in Russian under the title “The Pochaevskaya Bee”).

The main thing for the holy elder was the fight against Catholics and Protestant sectarians. The monk was present at the Kiev Council of 1628, which took place in connection with the return to Orthodoxy of Archbishop Meletius Smotrytsky, who had fallen into the union. It was the Monk Job who wrote the conciliar definition, testifying to fidelity to Eastern Orthodoxy.

Along with his visible labors, the invisible prayer life of the saint also took place. The monk Job found the loneliness he so sought in a wild cave on Mount Pochaevskaya. This cave was very narrow and tiny, in it they shed many heartfelt tears “for a world lying in evil,” as the Monk Dosifei put it in the life of the saint.

Once, when the monk was praying in a cave, “an extraordinary light suddenly illuminated his cave and for two hours was reflected from its depths...”

The monk would sometimes retire into it for a whole week, where strict fasting prayed for peace. (“In a narrow cave of stones, for the sake of thought and prayer, you were often confined,” says the troparion of the 4th tone to the Monk Job). What happened in those hours in this cave is not given to any mortal to know, but one day, when the monk was praying in it, “an extraordinary light suddenly illuminated his cave and for two hours was reflected from its depths on the opposite church.”

Whoever was honored to visit the temple cave of the Pochaev monastery, where the relics of the two pillars of Pochaev - the Venerable Job and Amphilochius - rest in crayfish, remembers the reverence that covers you when you “lean” with your heart and soul to this place, to the honest relics of the spirit-bearing elders who stood with a difference at three o'clock more than a century on the spiritual boundaries of Orthodox Rus'. The famous Russian church writer and pilgrim A.N. Muravyov rightly noted (these days mark the 140th anniversary of his death), the original history of Mount Pochaevskaya should be sought “not at the height of the rock,” but in the depths of its caves.

The hands of the saint, incorruptible and deceased many centuries ago, are still warm and soft today, like those of a living person. And they exude a wonderful aroma

The relics of St. Job rest with great honor and great care. A wonderfully decorated shrine with the relics of the Monk Job is placed in a natural cave, next to the hole into the saint’s cave, where he spent so many hours and days in prayer vigil. Powerful stone vaults made of gray untreated stone in the cave, right there is a small rich iconostasis, lamps, candles and the relics of a saint. The relics are hidden in glass, but not completely. The hands of the incorruptible relics are open and applied to them as to the hand of a living righteous person. The hands of the saint, incorruptible and deceased many centuries ago, are still warm and soft today, like those of a living person. And they exude a wonderful aroma.

Those who wish can climb up and pray in the saint’s cave. Oral rumor ascribes to this hole the wonderful ability to freely let through people who are pure in heart, humble, and repentant, but it “grabs” the unrepentant and does not let go until they repent in front of everyone.

The feeling in the prayer cave of St. Job is as if you have fallen into the right hand of the Lord

Anyone who dived (that is, dived, head first and down!) into a very tiny “pecherka”, into a small hole in the rock, which seems to be almost the size of two fists, will never forget this. At first, you don’t even understand how an adult can slip through there. But you try, and squeeze through into complete darkness. My breathing is interrupted, my chest tightens as I crawl into the darkness, my heart is pounding from the unknown, as if it wants to jump out. There is an invisible servant supporting you within. You felt the icon, touched it with your lips, with difficulty collected yourself and read three prayers. The feeling in the prayer cave of St. Job is as if you fell into the right hand of the Lord, it squeezed you like a piece of cheese, squeezed out everything unnecessary, and again returns you to the real world. A direct, complete, clear feeling that you are before the Face of the Lord.

In addition to prayer and contemplation of God, the monk also engaged in physical labor. He worked in the monastery garden, with his participation two ponds were dug near the monastery and dams were made.

During the period of military actions of Bohdan Khmelnitsky against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Monk Job gave many people refuge in his monastery. It is also known that the monk was chosen as their confessor by many influential people of that time. Until 1649, the Monk Job served as abbot, and appointed himself a successor only at the age of 98, but even after that he participated in important matters monastery.

On October 21, 1651, the saint received a revelation about his imminent death. On October 28, after performing the Divine Liturgy, he peacefully departed to the Lord. The monk was buried near the cave where he asceticised. A wonderful light was often seen over his grave. Seven years after his death, Saint Job appeared three times in a dream to Metropolitan Dionysius (Balaban) of Kyiv and informed him that the time had come to reveal his relics.

His body lay in the ground for seven years and 9 months after burial. The discovery of the honorable relics took place as follows: on August 28, 1659, Metropolitan Dionysius led the solemn discovery of the incorruptible relics (“without any decay, as if buried at the same hour, and filled with a misunderstood fragrance”) of the monk, on which even ulcers on the legs remained noticeable after swelling from a long prayer standing. The life of St. Job says almost nothing about these plagues. But it is very likely that the saint’s adoption of the name Job in honor of the righteous Job the Long-Suffering, which he bore while in the minor schema, is directly related precisely to the reverend’s greatest patience with many illnesses, while he observed the deepest humility and stylite standing in prayer.

At the same time, the incorrupt remains of the Monk Job were transferred to the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity.

Many miracles happened from them, for example, the terminally ill Dositheos, the writer of the saint’s life, received healing. In 1675, through the prayer of the saint, the Mother of God saved the Pochaev monastery from the Tatars and Turks who besieged it. Holy Mother of God appeared over Pochaevskaya Mountain along with Saint Job; the arrows sent at Her by enemies returned and struck those who launched them. The Muslims fled from the horror of the miracle.

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Pochaev monastery went to the Uniates. But miracles and healings from the relics of St. Job did not stop. And even the Uniates believed in the holiness of the saint, composed a service for him with an akathist and began to ask the Pope to canonize Job. What they were denied because of the saint’s zeal for Orthodoxy.

In 1831, the Pochaev monastery again returned to the jurisdiction of the Russian Church. The miraculous healings from the relics of the saint prompted the Holy Synod to open them a second time, which was done on August 28, 1833. Let us pay attention to the coincidence of the dates of the first and second acquisitions-discoveries.

In 1858, on the site of the cave church, a new temple was built in the name of St. Job.

The Akathist to the Monk Job reads: “O all-blessed and God-bearing Father Job, God-wise mentor of the monastic life of the angel, an invincible protector and champion of the Eastern Catholic faith against the false wisdom of the West, a faithful guardian of the God-given statutes of the Church and a strict enforcer of holiness and purity in general, udria and non-covetousness, hard work and thought of God, fasting and vigil, a great zealot, long-suffering and suffering, a tireless and invincible warrior, an image of meekness, a mirror of humility, an example of gentleness, fertilizer for fasters, praise for virgins, joy for monks and schema-monks... Protect us with your prayers from all slander of the enemy and evil circumstances, preserving and keeping each and every one in peace and silence, in unhypocritical faith and godly living.”

To this day, the Pochaev monastery stands as a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy among lands constantly subject to Greek Catholic invasion, and does not surrender

The Pochaevsky Holy Dormition Monastery received the status of Lavra much later than the sacred struggle of the Monk Job. To this day, the Pochaev monastery stands as a stronghold of Russian Orthodoxy among lands constantly subject to Greek Catholic invasion, and does not surrender. We should all learn the steadfastness and indestructibility laid down in the basis of this standing by John Iron.

Reverend Job, pray to God for us!