It happened on April 28, 2005. • Russia today Posting in CHAT: RussiaOlga was brought to the Sredneuralsky Convent by her parent because the girl had brain cancer, and she was discharged from the Oncology Center in Yekaterinburg, saying that she was hopeless. Then she couldn’t even stand on her own feet, so her mother supported her from behind. And her grandmother was already sewing funeral clothes for her, but for some reason the work did not go well. The woman never ceased to wonder: why couldn’t such simple sewing work?! And only a year later it became clear to everyone that it was not sewn as unnecessary: the one for whom these funeral clothes were intended was destined to go into eternity in the Great Schema, for which this amazing year was given to her... When Olga arrived at the monastery, she was taken to Father Sergius, the confessor and builder of the monastery, and he told her: “If you want to live, then stay in our monastery.” And she believed him and stayed. The illness was accompanied by terrible headaches, and she practically could not eat. But literally from the first days of her life in the monastery, Olga gradually began not only to eat, but even to move independently. Later, she told her sisters that when she was studying at Magnitogorsk University and she was given a terrible diagnosis, the first thought that arose in the girl’s mind was: that means I’ll go to a monastery. Why this was so, she herself did not know, but was only very surprised by it. And therefore, when she was brought to Father Sergius, and he invited her to stay and live in the monastery, she remembered that thought and immediately agreed. Later, Olga had a different desire: if she was completely cured, she would remain in the monastery for the rest of her life. This is what she now asked the Mother of God in her fervent prayers, and made a vow to Her. After all, this monastery, which became a refuge for the girl in her sorrowful days, is the Mother of God.Having told Father Sergius about this, she heard in response: “Little girl, you must understand how serious things you said to the Mother of God. This is a vow and must be fulfilled.” And then what is called a miracle of healing happened. A girl with a terrible diagnosis, who was given a final verdict by doctors and therefore discharged home to die, was completely healed in the monastery (!). Just recently she crossed the threshold of this monastery with a brain tumor, which squeezed out her left eye so that it came out onto her forehead, and therefore the lump was very terrible. Now everything has leveled out, the forehead has become absolutely even, the eye has opened.She was all silence, femininity and peace, her sisters remember her. No one had ever heard her grumble or raise her voice at anyone. As often happens when a sick person breaks down from his pain, any awkwardness hurts other people so much. Olga never raised her voice at anyone, no matter how much it hurt her, and during the entire time she lived in the monastery, she never quarreled with anyone. When Olga was finally cured, her classmates and friends began to tell her that she was still young and pretty, she must first finish her studies, start a family, and only then, over time, she could return to the monastery again. And the girl began to lean towards these thoughts, and then she approached Father Sergius and confessed everything. And then she was reminded that she was making a vow, and this is very serious. “Let’s just pray,” the confessor suggested, “and ask the Mother of God: how She will arrange it, which path you should follow.” So they prayed together, and after a while the tumor began to grow at an incredible speed, literally before our eyes. But, surprisingly, it was at this time that there was a feeling that Olga began to grow spiritually very quickly. She accepted her cross, she had no grumbling. The girl realized that the disease was given to her by God for her own salvation. And if she returned to the world, then something would probably have happened that could have killed her soul. Having accepted her illness, she agreed to bear this cross of hers without complaining. With the name Evdokia, she was tonsured into a mantle. Then she could still move, and therefore the tonsure took place in the temple. She, as expected, crucified herself on the carpet with the Jesus Prayer, although it was difficult for her to walk on her own, and she was supported on both sides by Mother Varvara and the dean, also Varvara, the future abbess of the monastery. A little more time passed and she began to give thanks: for this cross, for the illness given to her by God. It was so amazing! “I am so grateful to God,” admitted nun Nina, “that I had the opportunity to see this with my own eyes. Once I went to her cell, and it was just before she was tonsured into the Great Schema. She was tonsured at Compline of the Annunciation, when it became clear that she had to go to God, so quickly did the illness develop. But it was precisely thanksgiving in illness that prompted Father Sergius to turn to Vladyka with a request to tonsure a twenty-year-old nun into the Great Schema. And so, before this event, I went to her cell. We had a lot of people come to see her, but in such a way as not to bother her and to spend some time with her. Often, these few minutes spent with her - and this is surprising - give strength to the person himself who has now come to this cell. Because there was a feeling of light that comes from within.” “And so I approached her and asked how she was feeling. At that moment she had very severe headaches, and therefore they put her on an IV. She was given communion every day, and she held on from communion to communion. But when the pain became unbearable, she still asked and was given an IV. I remember it was just before night. So, to my question about her well-being, she answered: “How happy I am!” It seemed to me that I had misheard, and therefore I leaned over to her and said: “What did you say?” And again I hear in response: “How happy I am!” And there was so much quiet joy in it! I remember we talked with her then about eternity, and quite calmly. She was not afraid of death. I am a witness: when Father Sergius came in, she folded her palms into a cross and turned to him with the words: “Father, bless me to die!” And he, smiling, answers her: “Well, schema-nun Anna, if everyone dies, who will pray? Come on, we’ll live a little longer!” After some time, she again humbly asks: “Father, bless me to die! I want to go there." And he points up. The bed in the cell is a bunk bed, so he’s trying to laugh it off now: “Where to go, there? Our choir member Irinka is there.” And she told him: “No, I’m not on the second tier, I want to go to the Mother of God, I want to go to God!” And it was all so quiet, so joyful! It’s as if a person is asking to see his family, those whom he loves so much, he misses them so much that he no longer has the strength to be without them, away from them... I looked at them and thought - is this really happening in my life? Not in some books, but here, in reality, next to you, now... and I also saw that this is possible: when there is a body - a tormented, sick one, which is dying before your eyes, and the soul is rejoicing! And this is possible when a person is only twenty years old! When there is thanksgiving to God for the cross that He gave, and through this thanksgiving grace flows and the heart rejoices. As it turned out later, she nevertheless received a blessing from Father Sergius, and they both prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos, and then - how the Most Pure One would determine... She peacefully departed to the Lord on April 21, 2006, during Holy Week, on Good Friday, at the very hour when the Lord was hanging on the Cross, but his soul had already left Him. They buried her on Easter, with words of Easter joy, and Father Sergius exclaimed: “Christ is Risen! Schema-nun Anna, Christ is Risen!” And everyone who was at her funeral had a feeling of such joy, such light!”Monk David came to the monastery some time before her peaceful death, and when he and Father Sergius went to her cell, he was shocked by the feeling of the strength that “is accomplished in the weakness” of this twenty-year-old girl. He looked at her for a long time and seriously, and then she (not yet being a schema monastic, but simply a nun) asked him a question: “Why…
