Each saint has his own degree of Christian virtue, which each individual brought up in himself. Anna Kashinskaya is a holy noble princess who has become the embodiment of one of the most important Christian virtues in the life of any person - patience. Only through it can one come to humility and meekness, which give the keys to the doors of salvation, which implies the beginning of a spiritual achievement.
Patience for the salvation of the soul
The Apostle and Evangelist Luke wrote such wise words not in vain, which define the notion that human souls are saved through patience. There are also very important and prophetic texts in the Holy Scriptures, which say that from the multiplication of iniquity in many people, love will become impoverished, or the one who endures to the end will himself be saved. This suggests that it is in patience that one can find the maturity of the Christian character and his readiness to accept monasticism, preaching or martyrdom for his faith. Such was Saint Anna of Kashinskaya. How does the princess help? To answer this question you needplunge into the history of the time in which she lived.
Trials of holiness by life
The life of Anna Kashinskaya tells how many sorrows she had to endure, under the hardships of trials at the end of her life, she chose monastic service to God for herself.
Anna Kashinskaya was the daughter of the Rostov prince Dimitri Borisovich. She was the great-granddaughter of St. Basil of Rostov, who was tortured to death by his enemies because he did not betray his Orthodox faith. At that time, Holy Russia was under the yoke of the pagan Tatar-Mongol Horde, and therefore any believer in Jesus Christ could endure martyrdom for the confession of his faith.
Even in her youth, Anna Kashinskaya very quickly realized the transience and fragility of worldly goods and earthly happiness. Blows rained down on her from all sides. First, her father died (in 1294). Two years later, their grand ducal tower burned down completely, then her husband, Prince Mikhail of Tverskoy, fell seriously ill, and the newborn daughter Theodora died.
In 1318, Anna's wife, Prince Michael, was tortured to death by the Tatars for refusing to bow to the pagan idols of the Horde. First they cut off his head and then dismembered him.
In the history of the Orthodox Church there are examples of spouses who were martyred, they were Andrian and Natalia, who retained her widowhood after her husband's confession.
Widowhood
Then the time came when Anna Kashinskaya began to lose her beloved people one by one. In 1325 her eldest son DmitryTerrible Eyes saw in the Horde Yuri of Moscow, who was involved in the death of his own father, and killed him, and then Dimitri himself was executed by the khan. In 1339, the Mongol-Tatar warriors also brutally executed the second son of Anna Alexander and her grandson, Theodore. This is how the enemy Horde took revenge for the uprising in Tver.
As a result, all these tragic events lead Princess Anna to the fact that she decides to go the monastic path and takes tonsure with the name Euphrosyne.
At first she lived in the Tver Sophia Cathedral, but then her younger son built a special monastery for her. The main work of her life was the fervent prayer to the Lord Jesus for her untimely dead relatives and for a peaceful life in Russia.
Oblivion and miracles
In October 2, 1368, her soul rested. Before her death, Princess Anna took the schema. She was buried in the Assumption Church of the monastery in the city of Kashino (Tver region), where she lived. At first, her tomb was treated inappropriately, and her name was simply forgotten over time due to antiquity. But in 1611 miracles happened at her grave. During the siege of the city of Kashin with Lithuanian waxes, she appeared to a pious sexton, cured him and said that she was praying to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos to deliver the city from the invaders. And then the inhabitants of the city awakened a reverent attitude towards their heavenly protector, who later saved the city from ruin more than once.
Then, in honor of the holy blessed Anna, newborn children began to be named, her closed coffin becamedecorate.
Holy relics
The rumor about her miraculous relics reached both His Holiness Patriarch Nikon and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The Moscow Cathedral, held on this occasion, decided to open the coffin with her relics. This event took place on June 21, 1649.
The body of the servant of God Anna turned out to be practically incorruptible, during examination, small traces of decay were only on the soles of her feet and on her face. It was also noticed that her right hand is on her chest, as if she was blessing with the ancient two-fingered fingers.
Holy Blessed Anna of Kashinsky (monastic Euphrosyne) occupies a special place among Russian saints, and many events are connected with her that influenced the split of the Orthodox Church in Russia, this will be discussed now.
Split between Old Believers and New Believers
And here comes the most dramatic denouement. In 1677, the Blessed Princess Anna Kashinskaya becomes a symbol of the schismatic ferment of unreasonable zealots of the Orthodox faith.
Disputes between New Believers and Old Believers continued for a long time. At the Moscow Cathedral of 1656, the Old Believers, who were baptized with two fingers, were anathematized, called imitators of the Armenians and heretics.
The Old Believers, in turn, began to point out the fact of the open and general viewing of the relics of the Holy Princess Anna, whose fingers were folded with two fingers, and not with three fingers, as the New Believers forced to do this. And so the people went to the cathedral of the city of Kashin, where the relics stood, and saw herfingers. This served as a serious and convincing argument in favor of double-fingering.
King
In 1677, Tsar Feodor Alekseevich himself wanted to come to Kashin to bow to the holy relics of the holy schema-nun Anna, but at the last moment he refused this trip, following the example of his father Alexei Mikhailovich. Instead, a meeting was held dated February 12-21 of the same year, by order of Patriarch Joachim, a commission was created from Metropolitan Joseph, Archbishop Simeon, Abbot Barsanuphius, Archpriest John Lazarev, who, having examined the relics of the saint, revealed their "disagreements" and came to the conclusion that the right hand of Princess Anna is folded with two fingers.
And then her bright memory suffered again, the canonization of the saint's name was cancelled. This was the only such very unusual case in Russia in the Orthodox Church.
Icon: Anna Kashinskaya
However, the people remained faithful to their saint, although this “debunking” of St. Anna lasted for about 230 years. Orthodox people still went to her coffin to pray and seek consolation. She helped them in various troubles and temptations. She was asked for blessings for marriage, for a good deed, and even for becoming a monk.
In 1908, the veneration of the saint was restored. And in 1910, the first temple of Anna Kashinskaya was consecrated in St. Petersburg. And on June 12, her holy veneration was accepted in the Russian Orthodox Church.
During the years of wars and revolutions, the image of the holy princess became even closer to people. She endured on earth andtherefore she was rewarded by the Lord. She has the audacity to be a great prayer book for thousands of suffering and asking for the intercession of human souls.
Saint Anna of Kashinskaya remains a faithful helper of orphans and widows today. And every grieving Christian heart in their appeals should turn to her.
